“The LORD is with you, valiant warrior!” (Judges 6:12)

I just read these shocking words in my time with the Lord. This is what God said to the man, Gideon, at a time when all Israel was cowering in fear and defeat. Even Gideon himself was secretly beating out his meager portion of wheat in a winepress, desperate to conceal it from the powerful Midianites and Amalekites who would confiscate anything of value.

Gideon timidly asked, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about?” 

Dear brother in Christ, have you ever been there? Are you perhaps there now? Consumed by fears, weary of battle, feeling defeated, on the defensive, alone in your fight, just trying to survive? Like Gideon, are you struggling to reconcile your circumstances with what you once believed to be true, to no avail?

Listen dear saint! God says to you now, “The LORD is with you, valiant warrior!” 

Gideon saw himself as a man who was the least (youngest) of his family, whose family was the least among his tribe (Manasseh), and whose tribe was the least among all the tribes of Israel. This assessment was accurate. But… it completely failed to take into account the trump card which nullified it all: the earth-shaking promise of verse 16 where God declares, “Surely I will be with you.” 

Gideon’s fledgling spark of faith was fragile. He needed many signs of confirmation. But in verse 34, when the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, he blew a trumpet and rallied with other men. Together, they readily defeated a formidable foe who (if you do the math) outnumbered them 450 to 1!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Men! Brothers. Husbands. Fathers. Fellow soldiers! In just six weeks, we men of the tribe of Summitview, are going to blow a trumpet, rally together, and meet with the God who says to us, “Surely I am WITH YOU!” 

We have not had a men’s retreat for over five years! (And we probably won’t again, for at least three more years.) So this is a RARE event and opportunity, indeed. Is it worth 24 hours of your time, to go from despondently beating handfuls of grain in a winepress… to being envisioned and empowered by God, to live out your God-given masculinity as a leader and conqueror, and to lock arms with other men who want to do the same?

If so, then it will cost you more than a trifling of your time and money. It will require faith. Faith to forget what lies behind. Faith to reject the status quo. And faith to respond to God’s invitation, and reach out for what he wants to give you, make you, and do through you.

Take one simple step in that direction. And as a band of brothers, let’s become the mighty men that God has called each of us to be.

Register here today!

On behalf of the Summitview pastors, 
Perry

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On Sunday, we discussed how obedience is God’s preferred “love language.” I said that “The Old Testament law of Moses is obsolete for the Christian. We are no longer under its requirements, nor will we ever be judged by it.” 

Nevertheless, the Old Testament law is still useful in many ways. It is an eternal picture of God’s unchanging heart, character, and values. It defines sin and is instrumental in convicting the conscience, thus showing us our need for a Savior. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:9, “law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless.” 

But as a covenant (or legal code), it is obsolete. Hebrews 8:13 clearly says, “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” 

As a result, the Old Testament law has no legal claim on us. We have been “released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound” (Romans 7:6). This does not mean that we are lawless, though. Now, we are under “the law of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21), and “the law of liberty” (James 1:25, 2:12), which is a law of love (Romans 13:10, Matthew 22:36-40). Even so, we can still gravitate toward a law-based or performance-based righteousness. The book of Galatians was largely written to correct Christians who had succumbed to this.

Jesus never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The same is true of God the Father. But his covenants most certainly do change, and have changed. Jesus reiterated each of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament (excluding keeping the Sabbath). They are still morally relevant; however, we will never be judged according to them. Why? Because Jesus lived a perfect life, and as our representative, he perfectly fulfilled the Old Testament law in our place, thus satisfying the law’s demands. And for every point that we fall short, he died on the cross to pay our penalty. 

There are two common errors that Christians can make in how they view God’s laws: legalism and licentiousness. The legalist strives to live in strict adherence to the law in order to establish and maintain a right standing before God and men. Many honest legalists eventually despair when they face the fact that they cannot meet or maintain the law’s standard. So in order to find relief, they often convince themselves that because of Christ’s perfect life and death for them, they can reject the law entirely as having no value or relevance. And any positive spin on the law is quickly labeled “legalism.” This perception of the law as being irrelevant (or even bad) is to be antinomian, which literally means “against the law.” 

This complete lack of esteem for the law can easily result in licentiousness, which is the unbiblical notion that since we are no longer legally bound to the law, we now have a license to freely sin without worry or consequence. But in Romans 6, Paul flat out condemns this rationale in the strongest of terms. In summary, he says:

1. How can we who died to sin still live in it (v. 2)?

2. We are now slave to obedience to God (v. 16).

3. Sin has no benefit but death, but the benefit of obedience is eternal life (vv. 21-22).

The problem with antinomians and legalists is in their insistence that the law must die, when in reality, it is we who must die (to the law, through our identification with Christ’s death). No one I know explains this better than Sinclair Ferguson, so I’d like to share an excerpt from this article to let him speak with his unparallelled clarity, because this issue is simply too important to muddle. He writes,

There is only one genuine cure for legalism. It is the same medicine the gospel prescribes for antinomianism: understanding and tasting union with Jesus Christ Himself. This leads to a new love for and obedience to the law of God, which he now mediates to us in the gospel. This alone breaks the bonds of both 1) legalism, [in that] the law is no longer divorced from the person of Christ, and 2) antinomianism, [in that] we are not divorced from the law, which now comes to us from the hand of Christ and in the empowerment of the Spirit, who writes it in our hearts.

If antinomianism appears to us to be a way of deliverance from our natural legalistic spirit, we need to refresh our understanding of Romans 7. In contrast to Paul, both legalists and antinomians see the law as the problem. But Paul is at pains to point out that sin, not the law is the root issue. On the contrary, the law is “good” and “righteous” and “spiritual” and “holy.” The real enemy is indwelling sin. And the remedy for sin is neither the law nor its overthrow. It is grace.

If obedience truly is God’s love language, then why we obey is of great importance. Christians will never be judged by the law. Period. But the only way to escape involuntary slavery to the law, is to become voluntary slaves to another: to God and to his righteousness. Now our obedience is relational rather than dutiful. And its motives are love and gratitude, rather than pride and fear. Hallelujah! 

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Most of our time and energy as Christians goes into what our minds are to biblically think about these very real circumstances. But what about our hearts? The amplitude of emotions connected to all these issues is volatile and rising daily. Those emotions span the whole gamut. Youth are experiencing unprecedented hopelessness and despair. The elderly on fixed incomes are anxious. Young family breadwinners are exhausted – taking on 2nd and 3rd part-time jobs. Multitudes of parents are angrily pulling their kids out of the public schools in order to homeschool. Many people feel isolated and lonely after 2+ years of Covid. And many are just apathetic or numb.

The Bible is no stranger to emotion. It is brutally honest regarding the human condition, and its profound impact on our individual and collective feelings. In this fallen world, believers are neither exempt from, nor immune to trauma. In the last week alone, I’ve listened to dear, mature saints describe more heart-wrenching, personal burdens than I would care to relate or describe. 

Spock-like stoicism is not a sign of maturity; but on the other hand, neither is unbridled emotion that ignores biblical truth. God is a deeply emotional Being, and we are created in his image. And in my personal quiet times, I’ve been noticing the frequent intensity of emotion expressed by numerous Bible characters/authors. Here are just a few examples:

Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked, who abandon Your law.

Psalm 119:53

My eyes shed streams of water, because they do not keep your law.

Psalm 119:136

Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies.

Psalm 139:21-22

Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Jeremiah 9:1

And the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and make a mark on the foreheads of the people who groan and sigh over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.”

Ezekiel 9:4

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

Romans 9:1-2

Did you notice the polar opposites of emotions related to these sin-generated circumstances? These biblical authors express both indignation and sadness; anger and grief; hatred and groaning. I’ve experienced these unlikely mixtures of emotion, too, (as well as both hope and despair, faith and fear, vengefulness and compassion, etc.).

Our heavenly Father does not want these emotions to remain stuffed and pent-up inside us. Rather, he earnestly beckons us to pour out our hearts to him on a regular basis – the good, the bad, and the ugly. We see this in Psalm 62:7-8, where David writes, 

“In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” 

God is the only Person we can fully pour our hearts out to. He alone knows our innermost being, and so there is no reason to hide anything from him. God is the only Person who will not judge us if we open our hearts to him. Friends might judge us and slander us, but God will not. He will help us to balance these complex mixtures of emotion, so that we can “be angry, yet not sin” (Ephesians 4:26), and “grieve, yet not as those who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Secondary to God’s invitation, we are also instructed to both share and bear one another’s burdens:

Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 

Galatians 6:2-3

If we refrain from doing this, not only are we failing to fulfill the law of Christ, but this verse says that we’re deceiving ourselves. Our silence is evidence that we don’t truly believe that we need others’ support in this life. John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself…” The Bible agrees. So let us purpose to do these two things more and more, in these tumultuous times. First, to faithfully pour out our hearts to God, and then second, to other believers who will listen to us, empathize with us, support us, correct us, encourage us, and pray for us. And then to do the same for them.

Perhaps we should begin by asking each other more often, “How are you feeling these days?” (And then, don’t accept “fine” for an answer!)

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(You know, that daily duty of reading our Bibles that we often feel guilty about for neglecting?)

I have a confession to make: I don’t read my Bible every day. (Gasp!) And sometimes, I’ve gone a week, and probably more! 

No, leprosy did not break out on my body, nor did the earth open up and swallow me alive. In fact, God’s smiling countenance over me never wavered. At worst, my thought patterns became a little more fleshly, internal grumbling more frequent, and my vision more self-centered. I felt sluggish, like a computer that needs rebooting.

I have felt guilt in the past. I distinctly remember a sermon illustration where Jesus patiently sits at the same Starbucks table every morning, hoping that I’ll keep our appointment, only to be stood up… again. He leaves, dejected, with the indelible lines of disappointment and frustration on his face. Disappointment and frustration… toward me. My sense of guilt is further compounded by the conspicuous scars he bears, the infinite price which secured our table reservation. Yes, I had the unspeakable privilege of being “called into fellowship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:9), and yet my sleep, my to-do-list, my email, or Facebook was somehow more important than that. Ughhh.

I’ve since learned to tenaciously reject both the guilt from my negligence, as well as the self-satisfaction from my faithfulness. Both are wrong! God’s love, acceptance, and longing disposition toward me is a fixed compass needle, not a fickle weather vane.

Still, motivation is an issue. Not every quiet time impacts my life like a fresh, hot, Krispy Kreme donut. Sometimes, it’s just plain bread without butter. And sometimes, I doze off at the table with the King of kings. But I keep coming back. Because everything else is like the plastic fruit in a furniture showroom. It’s not only tasteless to my soul, but void of any nutrition.

Assuming that you no longer open your Bible out of dry duty, why do you open it? For years, I opened mine for knowledge. I needed to become well-acquainted with Bible characters, doctrine, history, and how everything ties together. But after a while, we all tend to master those things – at least, to a high degree. So why keep reading? Well, one might as well ask, “Why keep eating meals?”

Each of us consumes up to three physical meals per day (more, if you’re a Hobbit). And yet our familiarity with food does not dampen our appetite for the next meal. Why? Because whether the food is tasty or not, our body still needs it. Whether it’s familiar or not, the nourishment is what’s important. No 85-octane Christian book can take its place. My soul craves the black coffee, 100-proof, weapons-grade, jet fuel of Scripture.

And there’s something equally vital to me reading my Bible. As David Kirkpatrick puts it: “We don’t [just] read the Bible; the Bible reads us.” It’s the only mirror in the world that doesn’t flatter or distort. As Hebrews 4:12 states,

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

Don’t let the familiarity of your Bible breed contempt. Contrary to our estimation of that inanimate tome collecting dust on the shelf, it is not mere paper and ink. It’s alive! And not only alive, but active! And not only active, but interactive! It is not dull, but sharp; not blunt, but piercing; not blind, but discerning! And not just mildly discerning, but insightful to the depths of our being! These are spiritual words, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:13 (NASB),

We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

God does not relate to us legalistically… ever… period.  So if I could encourage you in just one thing this year, it would be this one word: “Feast!” Feast on the pure, God-breathed, living, fully-inspired, active, Spirit-illuminated, complete, and eternal Word of the Living God. And pray over what you ingest. You will be transformed, from one degree of glory to the next, with the unalterable, inescapable destination of Christ-like… perfection.

Christ, through his Spirit, at the interface of his word, beckons you today in love:

“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David.”

Isaiah 55:1-3 NASB

– Perry Paulding

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But is this a fanciful story just for kids, or an historically true and accurate account that has profound spiritual and practical applications for adults as well? Jesus himself argued for the latter (Matthew 12:38-41).

On the heels of our hugely successful Missions Campaign, we wanted to continue to be inspired and challenged in our own personal outreach to the lost. And a post-Covid summer is an ideal time for personal outreach — both in Fort Collins and in our new church plant in Severance! New people are visiting our church every week. Are we taking advantage of that opportunity, or just assuming others will? How Jonah-like are we, really?

The story of Jonah isn’t just about [spoiler alert] a reluctant missionary and the repentance of a notoriously wicked, ancient city. It’s about God’s discipleship of an individual, who, just like each of us, sometimes struggled to obey. But beyond mere obedience, it is about God’s desire for us to share his heart of compassion for people, no matter who they are, or what they’ve done. Without such compassion (i.e. love), we are just a brash irritation — a noisy gong or clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). 

Prophets in the Old Testament were not merely spokesmen for God. Their lives were often a graphic, visual display of the spiritual condition of national Israel as a whole. Jonah’s reluctance was a picture of Israel’s selfish hoarding mentality toward their their privileged knowledge of God and his great blessings. Rather than being God’s intended beacon of light to the nations, they viewed all non-Jews with a snobbish contempt. God’s lesson to Jonah was an indictment of all God’s people, and it can apply to the church today. 

Our world today needs Jesus Christ more than ever. And Jesus’ Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all the nations” in Matthew 29:18-20 is clearly intended for every believer. Yet sadly, only around 19 percent of Christians today say that they proactively try to share their faith with non-Christians. Have comfort or complacency dulled our compassion? Have our fears caused us to run away from God’s command? Or like Jonah, are we simply asleep below deck, oblivious to the storm raging outside?

We’ll be taking the next four weeks to explore these questions in this short, but very practical book. God is intent to get to the heart of things – our hearts – and to lovingly disturb our status quo. He wants to challenge our idols, deepen our trust, and astound us afresh with the power of his gospel. 

Jonah ends with a big question mark, so that future generations of believers would personalize the book and take inventory themselves regarding its “whale” of a message. Don’t “run away,” but join us for this series, beginning Sunday, June 27!

– Perry Paulding

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Praise God! 

As I peruse the long list of ways you all would like to serve this church body, I’m so thankful, because it’s an important gauge of our church’s spiritual maturity. Philippians 2:4 says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Whenever a Christian becomes others-oriented, (i.e. aware of, and interested in the needs of others around him/her), it is a HUGE milestone in that person’s spiritual journey and sanctification. Your service pledges are a powerful evidence of that!

Jesus instructed us to pray to the Lord of the harvest for laborers, and we’re thrilled that many of you have prayerfully risen to that call. The key question that many of you may be asking at this point, though, is, “Now what?” 

That’s a challenging question to answer, as it involves the utilization of a wide variety of gifts, ministries, and effects, from saints of all ages, backgrounds, and availabilities. Sometimes, spiritual maturity must be taken into account, as in appointing someone to lead a small group. Sometimes, there needs to be an opening for someone to serve, such as in a particular worship band. And sometimes, a new ministry needs to be created where multiple people are committed to seeing it thrive. We pastors take your faith-inspired commitments very seriously, and are eager and excited to steward them to the glory of God. But it will take grace and patience on all our parts, and a fair amount of individual consultation and counsel to see them all realized. 

That said, please don’t assume that your service pledge requires an official, formal ministry position within the church. Most of our gifts will best be utilized informally, on our own initiative, and within smaller contexts. For example, if you pledged to serve by visiting the sick in hospitals, you obviously don’t need any church endorsement to pursue that. But we can work to keep such a person informed and resourced for such opportunities. Or if hospitality interests you, you can alert the lead person of our church’s hospitality team, but you can also just start coming early on Sundays in order to meet and greet people apart from that official ministry. Small groups are another great context in which to informally exercise your gifting.

We intentionally have a very flat organizational structure in order to encourage personal initiative, experimentation, and creativity in all kinds of ministry. G.K. Chesterton once said, “The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.” Amen to that! We believe in and celebrate the priesthood of all believers, who are indwelt and led by the Holy Spirit. Much of our role as pastors is to support and resource you in all your good endeavors.

1 Corinthians 12:7 says, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” God himself orchestrates those opportunities and presents them to us—each of us. And we pastors are working to employ everyone’s gifts as well. Why? Because the latent, untapped power of the body of Christ is staggering! 

Pledges cost. They cost our time, talents, or treasures. But every single thing that we do for Christ in this life is of eternal consequence—even down to the giving of a cup of cold water. Revelation 19:7-8 gives us a glimpse into our future, where  Christ’s Bride (the Church) has “made herself ready” for marriage. How will we have made ourselves ready? Verse 8 gives the answer: “…it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” 

Brothers and sisters, we are saved solely by grace, but as we faithfully fulfill our service pledges in the coming days and years, we are actually clothing and beautifying our future selves for the day we will be wedded to Christ! Wow. 

– Perry, on behalf of the Summitview pastors

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,” 2 Thessalonians 1:11

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“The bottom line, the chief goal of the Christian life, is righteousness.”

Wow — that’s a pretty bold assertion, with which some may beg to differ! What about loving God, glorifying God, or making disciples of all nations? I’m sure the case can be made for those, nevertheless, there are plenty of verses to back this one up as well: (Romans 8:28-29; 2 Corinthians 5:21, 7:1; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 12:14; Titus 2:14; Matthew 5:48; Ephesians 5:25-27; etc.)

From the time I was a young believer, I have been overwhelmed by the number of books out there offering scores of strategies, secrets, and keys to sanctification (i.e. growth in practical righteousness, holiness, or Christ-likeness). Most of them are good and biblical, but why does it have to be so complicated? And after ingesting countless numbers of them myself, why do I still struggle with sin so much? Well, part of it is because the more mature we get, the more sensitive we become to subtler sins. In other words, we should be far more conscious of our sinfulness after a lifetime of sanctification, than we were the day we got saved.

Many people get saved by grace, only to become ensnared in a self-improvement trap. Whole churches, such as in Galatians 3, can find themselves on this treadmill. But for the humble believer who truly wants to grow by grace through reliance upon the Holy Spirit, it can still be discouraging and incredibly slow. 

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” There are a myriad of spiritual disciplines that are beneficial for renewing our minds, (such as Bible study, prayer, fasting, giving, etc.) but without a love for God and humble dependence on his Spirit, we still simply have no power. As Romans 8:13 says,

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

OK, so how does that work? Jesus instructed his sleepy disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” This is the antithesis of personal willpower. Rather, it is humble dependence, deliberately expressed through prayer. I believe this is the “way of escape” promised us in 1 Corinthians 10:30. Sadly, our fleshly inclination is to circumvent this dependence and rest on our laurels.

As Kevin DeYoung says in his book, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap Between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness: 

We must always remember that in seeking after holiness we are not so much seeking after a thing as we are seeking a person. The blessings of the gospel — election, justification, sanctification, glorification, and all the rest — have been deposited in no other treasury but Christ. 

We don’t just want holiness. We want the Holy One in whom we have been counted holy and are now being made holy. To run hard after holiness is another way of running hard after God. Just as a once-for-all, objective justification leads to a slow-growth, subjective sanctification, so our unchanging union with Christ leads to an ever-increasing communion with Christ.

For me, the clearer I apprehend God in all his moral perfection, majesty, wisdom, power, and self-sacrificing love, the more desirous I am to emulate him. My motive of duty is banished. It is replaced by a longing delight. Just as the stars in the sky disappear when the sun comes out, so my most cherished sins lose their appeal when they are eclipsed by the blazing brightness of his glory. Thomas Chalmers called this, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” John Piper called it “Christian Hedonism.” And C.S. Lewis put it this way:

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Though I still have far, far to go on this journey of sanctification, and will never arrive until I see the Lord, this principle has by far, been the most helpful I have found. Its simplicity is found in the greatest command: 

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:5

Do you approach this verse with a duty mentality or a privilege mentality? The new birth has enabled us to find our soul’s greatest possible joy and satisfaction in our newfound ability to actually do this. And as a by-product, our slavery to sin is broken. In other words, if we focus on not sinning, we will invariably sin. But if we focus on the excellencies of Jesus Christ, our regenerated hearts will naturally gravitate toward, and prefer him. It’s a beauty contest that Christ will always win.

Sanctification is a process of the Holy Spirit’s reorientation of our affections that takes a lifetime. But eventually, we will say with Puritan author, Thomas Merton,

There is only one happiness: to please Him. Only one sorrow, to be displeasing to Him.

So what is the secret to holiness? It is not discipline, effort, willpower, commitment, confession, accountability, or strength of desire. It is relationship. It is the fruit of the quality and intimacy of relationship that I have with a holy God, who is using everything in my life — including my failures — to conform me to his image, according to his promise that he will unfailingly complete the work that he began in me (Philippians 1:6). 

– Perry

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In Psalm 11:3 David asks, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Jesus answers that in Matthew 7:24-25.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

One cartoon I watched as a kid was The Flintstones, who lived in the town of “Bedrock.” Bedrock is the solid stone foundation beneath the unconsolidated soil. Engineers often pour footings down to the bedrock in unstable environments to build on. This is the picture that Jesus used when instructing us to consider what we are building our lives upon.

But what is this “rock” to which Jesus was referring? It is none other than God himself:

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. (Deut. 32:4)

This name of God (Tzur) occurs first in Exodus 17, where the Rock at Horeb was struck by Moses to provide water. So exclusive is the term in Hebrew, that no man is ever described by it in the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians 10:4 reveals that the Rock that Moses struck was actually symbolic of Christ being smitten on the cross. And instead of literal water gushing forth to satisfy the thirst of God’s people, rivers of living (spiritual) water resulted, thus satisfying the spiritual thirst of his people.

He is the rock upon which we can now stand, through all the storms of this life:

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. (Psalm 40:2)

As we face the uncertainty of a new year, we can rest in the knowledge that God is still on the throne. His eye is not just on global events, but on the sparrow. He sat as King at the Flood (Psalm 29:10), and sits in control today. He will have his way. And he will be exalted:

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:10) 

He is our immovable, impregnable Rock of refuge, defense, security, stability, strength and support. Because of his loving care, we can experience perfect peace in 2021 and beyond.

– Perry

The post Geology Theology appeared first on Summitview Church.

I often have a hard time discerning what God is doing globally, nationally, in my state, in my church — even in my own life. And perplexity can easily lead to despair, as Paul implies in 2 Corinthians 4:8, “…perplexed but not despairing.”

As I peer out my key hole at a world reeling from a killer pandemic, vicious politics, unnerving lawlessness, gross injustice, economic uncertainty, social isolation, and relentless (cough!) second-hand smoke from Wyoming and California… my fear and fatigue commingle, causing me to want to bury my head in the sand like an ostrich — (even though a quick Google inquiry tells me that ostriches don’t actually do that!).

Perplexity is not unspiritual, nor a sign of deficient faith. In fact, it’s quite natural. Most of the great heroes of the Bible experienced it. Ecclesiastes normalizes our great lack of understanding, and Paul affirms God’s design that we now see through a glass “dimly.”

Everyone’s understanding is limited and finite. Non-believers seek their answers from science, legislation, a promising candidate, or social reform. We seek answers from the all-powerful, all-loving, all-wise, infinite yet personal God of the universe. Sometimes he grants us great insight and enlightenment. Often, though, he simply says, “Trust me.”

Like many of us as believers today, the prophet Habakkuk was perplexed and distressed about the evil of his own people and nation. And God’s answer, though enlightening, was not what he expected (or wanted) to hear. Gaining understanding did not bring the peace the prophet had hoped for:

Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. (Hab. 1:5-6)

God explains that he is bringing another nation to invade Israel in order to discipline her for her sins. Most perplexing, however, is the fact that this invading nation is far more wicked than the Israelites! That’s a hard pill to swallow! It makes no sense, and Habakkuk protests God’s plan.

God then gives him a telescoping vision of the distant future — a future when all will be made just and right:

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:14

God would later punish the Chaldeans, as God hints in 1:11. But more importantly, in chapter 3, as the prophet is praying, God gives him what he truly needs more than anything else, to quell his perplexity and distress — a renewed vision of God himself:

God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.

Similarly, in 2 Chronicles 20:12, a Jewish king (Jehoshapat) is in a perplexing and life-threatening predicament. And his prayer reflects this same, Godward gaze:

O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

In all our perplexity, we crave answers, understanding, and solutions. Our eyes are often fixed horizontally on the temporal and circumstantial. But God redirects our gaze vertically to himself. When our minds are fixed on him, we can experience perfect peace in the midst of great upheaval and unrest (Isaiah 26:3).

God’s character is our bedrock, anchor, and stay. As Edward Mote’s famous hymn says:

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

On behalf of the Summitview Pastors,
Perry

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