This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

---

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

---

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

---

To Live is Christ . . .

Philippians 1:21 says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Most people focus on the second part of the verse, “to die is gain,” and contemplate the joys of heaven. But we should not overlook what comes before. The importance of the phrase “to live is Christ” cannot be overstated. In all honesty, this phrase should be central to every Christian’s life.

In this statement, the apostle Paul is saying that everything he has tried to be, everything he is, and everything he looked forward to being pointed to Christ. From the time of Paul’s conversion until his martyrdom, every move he made was aimed at advancing the knowledge, gospel, and church of Christ. Paul’s singular aim was to bring glory to Jesus.

“To live is Christ” means that we proclaim the gospel of Christ. Paul preached in synagogues; he preached at riversides; he preached as a prisoner; he preached as an apostle; he preached as a tentmaker. His message was constant: “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). He brought the message of Christ’s sacrifice to kings, soldiers, statesmen, priests, and philosophers, Jews and Gentiles, men and women. He would preach to literally anyone who would listen.

“To live is Christ” means that we imitate the example of Christ. Everything that Jesus did and said, that’s what Paul wanted to do and say. The church benefitted from his godly example: “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). What would Jesus do? That’s what we want to do.

“To live is Christ” means that we pursue the knowledge of Christ. We want to know Christ better and better each day. Not just a set of facts about Christ, but Christ Himself. “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).

“To live is Christ” means that we are willing to give up anything that prevents us from having Christ. Paul’s testimony in this regard: “Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Philippians 3:7-9). We cling to the promise of our Lord in Mark 10:29-30 that our sacrifices for Jesus’ sake will be repaid a hundredfold.

“To live is Christ” means that Christ is our focus, our goal, and our chief desire. Christ is the center point of our mind, heart, body and soul. Everything that we do, we do for Christ’s glory. As we run the “race marked out for us,” we lay aside the entangling sin and worldly distractions, “fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2). He is our life.

https://www.gotquestions.org/to-live-is-Christ.html

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

---

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

---

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

---

Spiritual Warfare

Various people in the Gospels and the Book of Acts commanded demons to leave other people—the disciples as part of Christ’s instructions (Matthew 10); others using Christ’s name (Mark 9:38); the children of the Pharisees (Luke 11:18-19); Paul (Acts 16); and some others (Acts 19:11-16).

It appears that the purpose of Jesus’ disciples casting out demons was to show Christ’s dominion over the demons (Luke 10:17) and to verify that the disciples were acting in His name and by His authority. It also revealed their faith or lack of faith (Matthew 17:14-21). It was obvious that this act of casting out demons was important to the ministry of the disciples. However, it is unclear what part casting out demons actually played in the discipleship process.

Interestingly, there seems to be a shift in the latter part of the New Testament regarding demonic warfare. The teaching portions of the New Testament (Romans through Jude) refer to demonic activity, yet do not discuss the actions of casting them out, nor are believers exhorted to do so. We are told to put on the armor to stand against (not attack) them (Ephesians 6:10-18). We are told to resist the devil (James 4:7), be careful of him (1 Peter 5:8), and not give him room in our lives (Ephesians 4:27). However, we are not told how to cast him or his demons out of others, or that we should even consider doing so.

The book of Ephesians gives clear instructions on how we are to have victory in our lives in the battle against the forces of evil. The first step is placing our faith in Christ (2:8-9), which breaks the rule of “the prince of the power of the air” (2:2). We are then to choose, again by God’s grace, to put off ungodly habits and to put on godly habits (4:17-24). This does not involve casting out demons, but rather renewing our minds (4:23). After several practical instructions on how to obey God as His children, we are reminded that there is a spiritual battle. It is fought with certain armor that allows us to stand against—not cast out—the trickery of the demonic world (6:10). We stand with truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer (6:10-18).

It appears that as the Word of God was completed, the Christians had more weapons with which to battle the spirit world than the early Christians did. The role of casting out demons was replaced, for the most part, with evangelism and discipleship through the Word of God. Since the methods of spiritual warfare in the New Testament do not involve casting out demons, it is difficult to determine instructions on how to do such a thing. If necessary at all, it seems that it is through exposing the individual to the truth of the Word of God and the name of Jesus Christ.

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

---

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

---

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

---

Just a Reflection . . . Dim and Obscured

In 1 Corinthians 13:8–13, the apostle Paul compares the Christian virtue of love to other highly prized spiritual gifts and finds them all lacking. Love is uniquely superior (verse 8). As Christians, we share in giving and receiving the grace of God’s love (see 1 John 4:8, 16). This earthly experience of God’s divine love gives us a taste of His perfect grace and glory. Through the love of Christ poured into our hearts (see Ephesians 3:17; Romans 5:5), we participate to a limited degree in the full perfection we will know and enjoy when we stand in God’s presence in eternity: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV).

Paul explains that spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, and knowledge are temporary and partial. Eventually, they “will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless” (1 Corinthians 13:8–10, NLT). In our current state of existence, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are valuable to us and to the church, but their worth will run out when we are face to face with the Lord in heaven. These gifts only give us an obscured, unfinished picture of our spiritual reality, and they will ultimately pass away.

Paul uses two illustrations to explain this truth. First, he employs the example of a child maturing into adulthood: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11). Right now, we are like children playing with plastic toys that will wear out and become unusable. One day we will trade them in for the enduring, grown-up, perfection of eternity. Second, Paul contrasts looking at someone in a dull, dimly lit mirror with meeting that person face to face. In the Greco-Roman world, mirrors were fashioned out of polished metal discs that reflected a blurred, imperfect image, nothing like seeing someone up close, in vivid, eye-to-eye clarity.

Thus, now we see in a mirror dimly is Paul’s figure of speech for “now we have imperfect knowledge and understanding.” The New Living Translation renders the imagery like so: “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely” (1 Corinthians 13:12, NLT). Flawless understanding and unrestricted knowledge of matters pertaining to God and His kingdom will only be achieved when we meet Jesus Christ in person.

The apostle John affirms that our knowledge of Jesus is partial now but will become clear when we see Him face to face: “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2, NLT).

Within the Scriptures, we have the complete revelation of God, but our understanding of it remains limited (see 1 Corinthians 8:1–3). As we grow in the faith, we undergo a process of spiritual maturation as individual believers (2 Peter 3:18) and together as the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11–16). Paul calls this progressive development toward Christian maturity “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14, ESV). It is our heavenward journey of intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ.

Along the way, we must stay laser-focused on Jesus, who is the trailblazing forerunner of our quest (Hebrews 12:1–2). He demonstrates the way through His perfect obedience to the Father (John 4:34; 5:30; Luke 22:42). As the Author and Perfecter of our faith, He not only inspires us, but Christ also empowers us to grow toward our heavenly stature. He starts the good work in us and “will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

In the meantime, until the Lord returns or we reach heaven, we have limited understanding and knowledge—we see in a mirror dimly. But one day our onward and upward growth in ever-increasing degrees of Christian maturity will culminate in heavenly perfection as “we bear the image of the heavenly man” (1 Corinthians 15:49).

https://www.gotquestions.org/see-in-a-mirror-dimly.html

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

---

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

---

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

---

The Sabbath

Of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Israel, perhaps none has provoked more controversy and debate than the fourth: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). Does the Sabbath commandment still hold today?

None of those who answer in the negative suggests the Sabbath was a second-tier command in the Decalogue, a good idea but not mandatory. No, the Sabbath served as the covenant sign between Israel and her God, unfolding a weekly drama that testified to God as mighty Creator (Exodus 20:11) and merciful Redeemer (Deuteronomy 5:15). On the Sabbath, Israel declared total dependence on her covenant Lord, a Lord more than able to uphold his people even though, for one day in seven, they hung up their shovels, laid aside their plows, and rested from their labors.

The question, then, is not whether Israel should have kept the Sabbath under the old covenant, but whether Christians should under the new. Should Christians keep the Sabbath? The question may sound nonsensical to some. We keep commandments one to three and five to ten, don’t we? So why skip number four?

Yet strewn throughout the New Testament is telling evidence that, in Christ and the new covenant, the Sabbath has found its fulfillment.

Jesus: ‘I will give you rest.’

Readers of the Gospels soon discover just how crucial the Sabbath was to the Jews of Jesus’s day. The seventh day marks the setting of so many clashes between Jesus and the Pharisees that when we read something like, “Now it was a Sabbath day . . .” (John 9:14), we expect trouble.

Strictly speaking, the only commandments Jesus broke on the Sabbath belonged to Jewish tradition, not divine law. In their zeal to define exactly what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath, Jewish leaders laid on the people’s backs a spiritual burden heavier than any physical burden (Matthew 23:4). Jesus attacked such traditions with the vehemence of one who saw more clearly than any that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

“Christ’s first coming did not abolish rest; it ushered in a deeper kind of rest than the Sabbath could ever offer.”

Yet even though Jesus never broke the fourth commandment, he did hint that a change to the Sabbath may be coming. If we could remove the chapter break between Matthew 11 and 12, we might notice, in the context immediately preceding the Sabbath controversies in Matthew 12:1–14, these arresting words: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The rest offered on the Sabbath was now being offered in Christ.

A grand claim lies behind this grand promise: “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8). D.A. Carson writes,

That Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath is not only a messianic claim of grand proportions, but it raises the possibility of a future change or reinterpretation of the Sabbath, in precisely the same way that His professed superiority over the Temple raises certain possibilities about ritual law. (From Sabbath to Lord’s Day, 66)

In Jesus, something greater than the Sabbath is here.

Paul: ‘Let no one pass judgment.’

Two passages in particular from the apostle Paul spell out the implications of Jesus’s lordship over the Sabbath. The first is Colossians 2:16–17:

Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

“What Paul says here is remarkable,” Tom Schreiner writes, “for he lumps the Sabbath together with food laws, festivals like Passover, and new moons. All of these constitute shadows that anticipate the coming of Christ” (40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law, 212). And since Christ has now come, observing the Sabbath is no longer a matter of obedience or disobedience. Rather, Paul says, “Let no one pass judgment on you.”

Romans 14:5 holds a similarly striking claim. Consider Paul’s words here alongside a typical old-covenant statement about the Sabbath.

You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. (Exodus 31:14)

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. (Romans 14:5)

If an old-covenant Israelite esteemed “all days alike,” he might be stoned to death (Numbers 15:32–36). Yet Paul evidently felt no need to impose the Sabbath command on his Gentile converts. Some in Rome, it seems, wanted to keep the Sabbath (and so esteem “one day as better than another”) — perhaps Jewish Christians eager to maintain the traditions of their fathers. Paul had no issue with those Christians, so long as they refrained from pressuring others to imitate them or suggested that salvation hinged on obedience to the Sabbath (compare Galatians 4:8–11).

For the sake of Christian freedom and mutual love, Paul says simply and remarkably, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5).

Hebrews: ‘We who have believed enter that rest.’

The author of Hebrews brings us closer to the heart of why the new covenant does not require a literal seventh-day rest. Christ’s first coming did not abolish rest; rather, it ushered in a deeper kind of rest than the Sabbath could ever offer.

According to Hebrews 4, Israel’s Sabbath day always pointed forward to a far greater day: the still-future day when all creation will enter fully into the rest foreshadowed and promised in Genesis 2:2–3, the very first seventh day. “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). The ultimate Sabbath rest is coming, when God’s people will enjoy work without toil, hearts without sin, and an earth without thorns.

Yet even now, Hebrews implies, we feel the first waves of the coming rest. In Christ, we “have [already] tasted . . . the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5), rest included. For, the author writes, “We who have believed enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:3) — not “will enter,” but “enter”: fully later, truly now.

And how do we enter that rest? Not mainly by putting aside our weekly labors for one day in seven, but by believing: “We who have believed enter that rest.” Faith in Jesus Christ brings the rest of the seventh day into every day.

John: ‘I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.’

Of course, when Christians today speak of the Sabbath, they almost never mean the seventh day, but the first day: not Saturday but Sunday. But surprisingly, no New Testament writer ever refers to Sunday as the Sabbath. When Jewish (and perhaps some Gentile) Christians observed the Sabbath, they would have done so on Saturday, as Israel had done for centuries. But that doesn’t mean Sunday held no special place in the early church. Scripture suggests that it did, only under a different name: the Lord’s Day.

The phrase “the Lord’s Day” appears only in Revelation, where the apostle John writes, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). But other passages suggest that “Lord’s Day” simply put a name on the church’s common practice of gathering on Sunday. In Ephesus, Paul met with the church “on the first day of the week . . . to break bread” (Acts 20:7). Likewise, Paul instructed the Corinthians to set aside some money “on the first day of every week” (1 Corinthians 16:2).

None of these passages shows the early church resting, as if they considered Sunday their new Sabbath. Richard Bauckham goes so far as to write, “For the earliest Christians it was not a substitute for the Sabbath nor a day of rest nor related in any way to the fourth commandment” (From Sabbath to Lord’s Day, 240). The majority of these early Christians likely needed to work on the first day of the week. (Sunday was declared an official day of rest throughout the Roman Empire only under Constantine in AD 321.)

The passages do suggest, however, that Christians worshiped on the Lord’s Day. Perhaps in the morning before work, perhaps in the evening afterward, the first believers gathered to praise the one who rose “very early on the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2; Matthew 28:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:19). When the stone rolled away from Jesus’s tomb on Easter morning, true Sabbath rest arrived, and a new day dawned.

Lord of Our Days

So, should Christians keep the Sabbath?

“The world and the devil would have us work even while we rest. But Jesus would have us rest even while we work.”

In one sense, no: under the new covenant, no Christian is bound to the fourth commandment as such. We may still decide to rest one day in seven — and indeed, wisdom seems to support the practice of imitating God’s own 6-and-1 pattern (Genesis 1:1–2:3). Especially in a day when many can work anytime anywhere — answering emails after dinner, taking calls on the weekend — we may do well, even for one day in seven, to say, “I worked yesterday, I will work tomorrow, but today I rest and worship.”

In another sense, however, Christians should keep the Sabbath always. And here we do find a connection between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord’s Day. Andrew Lincoln writes,

In the Old Testament the literal physical rest of the Sabbath pointed to future rest; but since Christ has brought fulfillment in terms of salvation rest, it is the present enjoyment of this rest that acts as the foretaste of the consummation rest which is to come. In other words, it is the celebration on the Lord’s Day of the rest we already have through Christ’s resurrection that now anticipates and guarantees the rest that is yet to be. (From Sabbath to Lord’s Day, 399)

Every Lord’s Day, we come again to Jesus, weary and heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). We trace the shadow of the Sabbath to its substance (Colossians 2:17). We hear again in the distance the sounds of the future Sabbath festival; we glimpse again by faith the glow of “innumerable angels in festal gathering” (Hebrews 12:22). We look again into the empty tomb and hear Christ say, “Peace to you!” (Luke 24:36). In other words, we find rest — the kind of rest that remains long after Sunday has passed.

Without regularly experiencing this kind of rest — and with special power every Lord’s Day — it matters little how much rest we give our bodies. Our rest will be restless, and our work will become a desperate attempt to secure for ourselves the rest that we have not found in Christ. Neither the sluggard (who works for the weekend) nor the workaholic (who has no weekend) has yet learned to enjoy the rest of the true Sabbath.

Not so with those who have heard and heeded Jesus’s invitation to “Take my yoke upon you . . . and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29). The world and the devil would have us work even while we rest. But Jesus would have us rest even while we work. And here, in this Christ-saturated resting and working, we live out the Sabbath today.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/should-christians-keep-the-sabbath

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

---

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

---

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

---

Jesus and the Appointed Times

The way in which Jesus fulfilled the Jewish feasts is a fascinating study. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Jewish prophet Amos records that God declared He would do nothing without first revealing it to His servants, the prophets (Amos 3:7). From the Old Covenant to the New, Genesis to Revelation, God provides picture after picture of His entire plan for mankind and one of the most startling prophetic pictures is outlined for us in the Jewish feasts of Leviticus 23.

The Hebrew word for “feasts” (moadim) literally means “appointed times.” God has carefully planned and orchestrated the timing and sequence of each of these seven feasts to reveal to us a special story. The seven annual feasts of Israel were spread over seven months of the Jewish calendar, at set times appointed by God. They are still celebrated by observant Jews today. But for both Jews and non-Jews who have placed their faith in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, these special days demonstrate the work of redemption through God’s Son.

The first four of the seven feasts occur during the springtime (Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Weeks), and they all have already been fulfilled by Christ in the New Testament. The final three holidays (Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles) occur during the fall, all within a short fifteen-day period.

Many Bible scholars and commentators believe that these fall feasts have not yet been fulfilled by Jesus. However, the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) for all believers in Jesus Christ is that they most assuredly will be fulfilled. As the four spring feasts were fulfilled literally and right on the actual feast day in connection with Christ’s first coming, these three fall feasts, it is believed by many, will likewise be fulfilled literally in connection to the Lord’s second coming.

In a nutshell, here is the prophetic significance of each of the seven Levitical feasts of Israel:

1) Passover (Leviticus 23:5) – Pointed to the Messiah as our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) whose blood would be shed for our sins. Jesus was crucified during the time that the Passover was observed (Mark 14:12). Christ is a “lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19) because His life was completely free from sin (Hebrews 4:15). As the first Passover marked the Hebrews’ release from Egyptian slavery, so the death of Christ marks our release from the slavery of sin (Romans 8:2).

2) Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6) – Pointed to the Messiah’s sinless life (as leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible), making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus’ body was in the grave during the first days of this feast, like a kernel of wheat planted and waiting to burst forth as the bread of life.

3) First Fruits (Leviticus 23:10) – Pointed to the Messiah’s resurrection as the first fruits of the righteous. Jesus was resurrected on this very day, which is one of the reasons that Paul refers to him in 1 Corinthians 15:20 as the “first fruits from the dead.”

4) Weeks or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:16) – Occurred fifty days after the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and pointed to the great harvest of souls and the gift of the Holy Spirit for both Jew and Gentile, who would be brought into the kingdom of God during the Church Age (see Acts 2). The Church was actually established on this day when God poured out His Holy Spirit and 3,000 Jews responded to Peter’s great sermon and his first proclamation of the gospel.

5) Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24) – The first of the fall feasts. Many believe this day points to the Rapture of the Church when the Messiah Jesus will appear in the heavens as He comes for His bride, the Church. The Rapture is always associated in Scripture with the blowing of a loud trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:52).

6) Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27) – Many believe this prophetically points to the day of the Second Coming of Jesus when He will return to earth. That will be the Day of Atonement for the Jewish remnant when they “look upon Him whom they have pierced,” repent of their sins, and receive Him as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10 and Romans 11:1-6, 25-36).

7) Tabernacles or Booths (Leviticus 23:34) – Many scholars believe that this feast day points to the Lord’s promise that He will once again “tabernacle” with His people when He returns to reign over all the world (Micah 4:1-7).

Should Christians celebrate these Levitical feast days of Israel today? Whether or not a Christian celebrates the Jewish feast days would be a matter of conscience for the individual Christian. Colossians 2:16-17 tells us, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” Christians are not bound to observe the Jewish feasts the way an Old Testament Jew was, but we should not criticize another believer who does or does not observe these special days and feasts (Romans 14:5).

While it is not required for Christians to celebrate the Jewish feast days, it is beneficial to study them. Certainly, it could be beneficial to celebrate these days if it leads one to a greater understanding and appreciation for Christ’s death and resurrection and the future promise of His coming. As Christians, if we choose to celebrate these special days, we should put Christ in the center of the celebration, as the One who came to fulfill the prophetic significance of each of them.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jewish-feasts.html

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

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On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

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Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Dragged by God

The clearest verse on God’s drawing to salvation is John 6:44 where Jesus declares that “no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Greek word translated “draw” is helkuo, which means “to drag” (literally or figuratively). Clearly, this drawing is a one-sided affair. God does the drawing to salvation; we who are drawn have a passive role in the process. There is no doubt that we respond to His drawing us, but the drawing itself is all on His part.

Helkuo is used in John 21:6 to refer to a heavy net full of fish being dragged to the shore. In John 18:10 we see Peter drawing his sword, and in Acts 16:19 helkuo is used to describe Paul and Silas being dragged into the marketplace before the rulers. Clearly, the net had no part in its being drawn to the shore, Peter’s sword had no part in being drawn, and Paul and Silas did not drag themselves to the marketplace. The same can be said of God’s drawing of some to salvation. Some come willingly, and some are dragged unwillingly, but all eventually come, although we have no part in the drawing.

Why does God need to draw us to salvation? Simply put, if He didn’t, we would never come. Jesus explains that no man can come unless the Father draws him (John 6:65). The natural man has no ability to come to God, nor does he even have the desire to come. Because his heart is hard and his mind is darkened, the unregenerate person doesn’t desire God and is actually an enemy of God (Romans 5:10). When Jesus says that no man can come without God’s drawing him, He is making a statement about the total depravity of the sinner and the universality of that condition. So darkened is the unsaved person’s heart that he doesn’t even realize it: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, it is only by the merciful and gracious drawing of God that we are saved. In the conversion of the sinner, God enlightens the mind (Ephesians 1:18), inclines the will toward Himself, and influences the soul, without which influence the soul remains darkened and rebellious against God. All of this is involved in the drawing process.

There is a sense in which God draws all men. This is known as the “general call” and is distinguished from the “effectual call” of God’s elect. Passages such as Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 attest to the fact that God’s eternal power and divine nature are “clearly seen” and “understood” from what has been made, “so that people are without excuse.” But men still do deny God, and those who acknowledge His existence still do not come to a saving knowledge of Him outside of His drawing them. Only those who have been drawn through special revelation—by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God—will come to Christ.

There are tangible ways in which those who are being drawn to salvation experience that drawing. First, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinful state and our need for a Savior (John 16:8). Second, He awakens in us a previously unknown interest in spiritual things and creates a desire for them that was never there before. Suddenly our ears are open, our hearts are inclined toward Him, and His Word begins to hold a new and exciting fascination for us. Our spirits begin to discern spiritual truth that never made sense to us before: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Finally, we begin to have new desires. He places within us a new heart that inclines toward Him, a heart that desires to know Him, obey Him, and walk in the “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) that He has promised.

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

---

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

---

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

---

God is in Control

Before we can trust that God is in control of all of life’s circumstances, we have to answer four questions: Is God really in control? How much control does He have? If He is not in complete control, then who/what is? How can I learn to trust that He is in control and rest in that?

Is God really in control? The concept of the control of God over everything is called the “sovereignty” of God. Nothing gives us strength and confidence like an understanding of the sovereignty of God in our lives. God’s sovereignty is defined as His complete and total independent control over every creature, event, and circumstance at every moment in history. Subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent, God does what He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. God is in complete control of every molecule in the universe at every moment, and everything that happens is either caused or allowed by Him for His own perfect purposes.

“The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, ‘Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, so it shall stand’” (Isaiah 14:24). Nothing is random or comes by chance, especially not in the lives of believers. He “purposed” it. That means to deliberately resolve to do something. God has resolved to do what He will do, and nothing and no one stands in His way. “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isaiah 46:10). This is our powerful, purposeful God who is in control of everything. That should bring us great comfort and help to alleviate our fears.

But exactly how much control does God have? God’s total sovereignty over all creation directly contradicts the philosophy of open theism, which states that God doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the future any more than we do, so He has to constantly be changing His plans and reacting to what the sinful creatures do as they exercise their free will. God isn’t finding out what’s going to happen as events unfold. He is continuously, actively running things—ALL things—here and now. But to think He needs our cooperation, our help, or the exercise of our free will to bring His plans to pass puts us in control over Him, which makes us God. Where have we heard that lie before? It’s a rehash of Satan’s same old lie from the Garden—you shall be like God (Genesis 3:5). Our wills are only free to the extent that God allows us that freedom and no farther. “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35). No one’s free will trumps the sovereignty of God.

Some people find it appealing to think that Satan has control over a certain amount of life, that God is constantly revising His plans to accommodate Satan’s tricks. The book of Job is a clear illustration of just who has the sovereign power and who doesn’t. Satan came to God and, in effect, said, “Job only serves you because you protect him.” So God gave Satan permission to do certain things to Job but no more (Job 1:6–22). Could Satan do more than that? No. God is in control over Satan and his demons who try to thwart God’s plans at every step.

Satan knew from the Old Testament that God’s plan was for Jesus to come to the earth, be betrayed, crucified and resurrected, and provide salvation for millions, and if there was any way to keep that from happening, Satan would have done it. If just one of the hundreds of prophecies about the Messiah could have been caused by Satan to fail to come to pass, the whole thing would have collapsed. But the numbers of independent, “free will” decisions made by thousands of people were designed by God to bring His plan to pass in exactly the way He had planned it from the beginning, and Satan couldn’t do a thing about it.

Jesus was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). No action by the Romans, the Pharisees, Judas, or anyone else kept God’s plan from unfolding exactly the way He purposed it from before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1 says we were chosen in Him before the world was even created. We were in the mind of God to be saved by faith in Christ. That means God knit together Satan’s rebellion, Adam and Eve’s sin, the fall of the human race, and the death and crucifixion of Christ—all seemingly terrible events—to save us before He created us. Here is a perfect example of God working all things together for good (Romans 8:28).

Unlimited in power, unrivalled in majesty, and not thwarted by anything outside Himself, our God is in complete control of all circumstances, causing or allowing them for His own good purposes and plans to be fulfilled exactly as He has foreordained.

Finally, the only way to trust in God’s sovereign control and rest in it is to know God. Know His attributes, know what He has done in the past, and this builds confidence in Him. Daniel 11:32b says, “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” Imagine that kind of power in the hands of an evil, unjust god. Or a god that really doesn’t care about us. But we can rejoice in our God’s sovereignty, because it is overshadowed by His goodness, His love, His mercy, His compassion, His faithfulness, and His holiness.

But we can’t trust someone we don’t know, and there is only one way to know God—through His Word. There is no magic formula to make us spiritual giants overnight, no mystical prayer to pray three times a day to mature us, build our faith, and make us towers of strength and confidence. There is only the Bible, the single source of power that will change our lives from the inside out. But it takes effort, diligent, everyday effort, to know the God who controls everything. If we drink deeply of His Word and let it fill our minds and hearts, the sovereignty of God will become clear to us, and we will rejoice in it because we will know intimately and trust completely the God who controls all things for His perfect purpose.

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-is-in-control.html

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I also believe that God is in control . . . full, complete, 100% control.  Absolutely nothing happened, happens, or will happen that is outside of God’s will.  Never . . . ever.

When I hear or read “Relax. God’s in control,”or “Don’t worry. God’s got this,” I believe that a significant number of people that say, write, or read these phrases are thinking something along the line of “Yup. This is going to come out alright for us because God is behind all that happens, and He wouldn’t let the bad guys win and the good guys lose in this circumstance.”

However, God doesn’t guarantee in this world that, for example, all Christians will be happy or even satisfied with God’s ordered outcome. Certainly Adam and Eve weren’t pleased when they were banished from the Garden of Eden, or when Cain murdered Able. A huge number of the Children of Israel weren’t pleased to learn they would never see the Promised Land. Likewise with the Christian persecutions under Nero and Diocletian.

More recently, I’m sure many Christians were not pleased by the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, or by the Nazis during Hitler’s reign.  Researcher David B. Barrett, puts the number of Christians martyred since the time of Jesus at 70 million.

And I haven’t even mentioned the evils performed around the world that don’t involve the martyrdom of Christians.

God, in His infinite wisdom and everlasting love has chosen to give faith to His select people to believe in Him and His Son, to forgive their sin, and to guarantee us an eternity of Peace and Joy with Him.  God has also promised us certain things concerning our walk with Him. Any conclusions beyond that concerning God causing specific outcomes for specific events that are ongoing on this earth, I can’t fully accept. Mankind, at some time in the future, will be made to walk down the road that leads to the horrors of the Tribulation.

God is in full control, the wicked will be justly judged, and the Church, the Bride of Christ, will spend an eternity of peace and joy with Christ and God.

This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.

It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.

In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.

We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.

Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.

In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.

Please also consider the Guidelines for posting and discussion printed here: 
https://www.theqtree.com/2019/01/01/dear-maga-open-topic-20190101/

---

On this day and every day –

God is in Control
. . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . .
Keep Looking Up

---

Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.

“This day is holy to the Lord your God;
do not mourn nor weep.” . . .
“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet,
and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared;
for this day is holy to our Lord.
Do not sorrow,
for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

---

Set Your Mind On Things Above

Live Heavenly Minded for Earthly Good

Set aside, for a moment, the day’s pressing tasks. Hush, if you can, the hopes and desires that rushed upon you the moment you awoke. Step away from the morning’s burdens. Forget what the hours ahead may hold.

Now, Christian, remember: You are going to heaven. Very soon, even any moment, you will be hastened away from all you’ve known here to take an eternal holiday. You will wake up to find your lungs filled with the air of “a better country” (Hebrews 11:16). Your sorrows and sighs will be out of sight (Isaiah 51:11). You will see Jesus face-to-face (Philippians 1:23). And with Him you will be home (2 Corinthians 5:8).

“Our minds are most full of heaven when they are most full of Christ.”

And now imagine what life might be like if, as we step back into the day’s tasks, desires, and burdens, we kept one eye upward. How might today be different if we brought the hope of heaven into the stuff of earth — if thoughts of things above adorned our waking hours?

We might then discover how much of our happiness rests on heavenly mindedness. And we might strive to have it said of us, as it was said of a saint of old,

Of that good man let this high praise be given,
Heaven was in him before he was in heaven.

Set Your Mind on Things Above

The pursuit of heavenly mindedness can go wrong, of course. The popular criticism “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good” has teeth because some have, indeed, used heavenly mindedness as an excuse for earthly aloofness. They have hummed “I’ll Fly Away” while floating comfortably through this world, not remembering that the most heavenly minded man of all labored, sweated, healed, touched, and bled for this world of need.

We would do well, then, to listen again to the clearest charter of heavenly mindedness in Scripture:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:1–4)

What does it mean to be heavenly minded? Not merely to live then and there, but to live now in light of then, here in light of there.

Roots in Heavenly Soil

If you belong to Christ, then in the truest sense, you do not live here on earth, but there in heaven: “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Nor is your life in Christ on full display now, but only then: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

Your life is wonderfully, inextricably, eternally bound up with Jesus Himself, who reigns there and will appear then. And heavenly mindedness aligns us with that fact, teaching us to define our identity not by the person we see in the mirror but by the Savior we see in Scripture.

Yet such a mindset does not nullify the life we have on earth, but rather transforms it according to the culture and norms of heaven. If we are hidden with Christ there and will be revealed then, we cannot help but look more like Christ here and now. Paul develops this point through the rest of the chapter, where he pens a portrait of the heavenly minded:

They put to death all that dishonors God and demeans others (Colossians 3:5–9).

They dress themselves in the heavenly clothing of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience (Colossians 3:12).

In a society of accusations and recriminations, they speak the otherworldly language of forgiveness (Colossians 3:13).

They walk under the reign of divine peace, which has established its throne on their hearts (Colossians 3:15).

They speak and sing with the harmony of gratitude and grace (Colossians 3:15–17; 4:6).

In every relationship, in every word, in every deed, they seek to show the glory of Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:17–4:1).

They are like oaks whose roots sink deep into heavenly soil. Though they grow up in the same field as the rest of the world, and though the same winds and storms beat against their trunks, they daily draw nourishment from another world, and so bear the fruit of that better country.

Heavenly Habits

How then can we grow in heavenly mindedness? How can people like us — everyday saints with jobs and families and friends and neighbors and a host of earthly responsibilities — come to have it said of us, “Heaven was in him before he was in heaven”?

The first answer is familiar: give ourselves to Bible reading and prayer, to corporate worship and fellowship, each of which is a means of heavenly mindedness as much as it is a means of grace. But alongside the daily habits of Scripture and prayer, and the weekly habits of corporate worship and fellowship, we can also position ourselves more intentionally to set our minds on things that are above.

Begin your day in heaven.

Robert Murray McCheyne, a heavenly minded man if there ever were one, once described his morning devotions as a means of “giving the eye the habit of looking upward all the day” (Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne, 64). Knowing his thoughts would not drift toward heaven in the afternoon or evening unless he fixed his mind there first thing, he began his day in heaven.

We might learn the same lesson from the Lord’s Prayer. In teaching us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), did not Jesus assume we would normally begin the day on our knees? And significantly, before that prayer leads us to ask for daily bread, it sets our minds on things above:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9–10)

If we take the Lord’s Prayer as our model, then heaven will fill some of our first thoughts every morning. Here and now will fade, at least for a few moments, before the brilliance of there and then. And when we walk into our day, we may take something of heaven with us.

Set your mind through meditation.

The command to “set your minds on things that are above” means more than “read about things that are above.” Something beyond mere reading is needed — a practice the biblical writers call meditation (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1–2; 119:97).

If typical Bible reading focuses on paragraphs and chapters, meditation focuses on sentences and words; if in Bible reading we walk down the hallway of a passage, in meditation we open doors and explore rooms. The meditative Bible reader may, for example, read all of Colossians 3 in four or five minutes, but then come back to spend as much time (or more) pondering the wonder of what it means to be “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Meditation takes us above the foothills and puts us on the peaks of God’s revelation. And like Moses, we may come down still shining with the glory we’ve seen.

Maybe serious meditation feels like moving mountains to you. If so, start small, and don’t lose heart. Our minds, like a muscle, grow stronger through exercise. And by God’s grace, what feels impossible now may feel almost natural six months from now.

Retreat to things above throughout the day.

We saw above that Robert Murray McCheyne aimed to cultivate “the habit of looking upward all the day.” Many of us share a similar ambition — at least in theory. Reality might tell a different story.

“If we take the Lord’s Prayer as our model, then heaven will fill some of our first thoughts every morning.”

If you’re at all like me, you leave your morning devotions with a sincere desire to go on thinking of things above in the spare moments of your day. But then you regularly fill every spare moment with something else. In the car, you turn on the news. In line at the store, you check your email. Waiting for a friend, you play a game on your phone. Lying in bed, you scroll through social media. None of these activities is necessarily bad. But how often are they the reflex of a mind addicted to distraction? And what if we resolved to spend at least some of the day’s silences recalling what we read that morning, rehearsing a memorized passage, or praying to our Father in heaven?

Moses told Israel to turn to God’s word “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:7). If we too claimed more spare moments for the things that are above, we might be surprised at the unusual strength, peace, and joy that would be ours.

Treasure the heart of heaven.

Heaven is and always will be a world of glory (Colossians 3:4). When God makes all things new, the canyons and mountains, the galaxies and grasslands of this fallen world will groan no more (Romans 8:21). These broken bodies will be clothed with immortality (1 Corinthians 15:54). Human society will share in the very harmony of the Trinity (John 17:22–24).

Nevertheless, the hub of all that glory, whose name will rest upon our foreheads, and whose brightness will light up the world, will be God Himself in Christ. “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). Heaven without Christ is like the ocean without water, the sky without air, fire without flame. He is heaven’s beating heart.

What does this mean for our heavenly mindedness? It means that our minds are most full of heaven when they are most full of Christ. As John Owen writes, “The whole glory of the state above is expressed by being ‘ever with the Lord, where he is, to behold his glory.’ . . . Our hope is that ere long we shall be ever with Him; and if so, it is certainly our wisdom and duty to be here with Him as much as we can” (Works of John Owen, 7:344).

Heavenly mindedness is an invitation to be with Jesus as much as we can, in preparation for the day when we will be with Him always. So begin your day with Jesus, fix your meditations upon Jesus, and retreat throughout the day to Jesus. Because “set your minds on things that are above” means, at its core, “set your minds on Him.”

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/set-your-mind-on-things-above

Critics of the Bible have said there’s no evidence of a mass Hebrew exodus from Egypt. The typical claim is that Egyptian records mention neither this event nor large slave populations, and there is a lack of bones or graves in the wilderness. Such criticisms are factually incorrect: there is archaeological evidence that corresponds to the Bible’s description of the exodus.

A Daunting Task

It’s important to realize that “proof” of ancient events is extraordinarily rare. Mountains of obvious evidence don’t typically survive three thousand years, even when the event itself is significant. It’s only reasonable to look for remnants, circumstantial evidence, corroborating artifacts, and perhaps some random documents. Of course, insisting that evidence must be found outside the Bible is, itself, an unfair bias. Scripture is part of ancient written records, whether skeptics appreciate it or not. For those not committed to rejecting such things out of hand, archaeological evidence favors a real, historical exodus of Israel from Egypt.

Examining evidence fairly means avoiding myths and poor assumptions. Pop culture is not historical evidence. For example, movies such as The Prince of Egypt and The Ten Commandments use the name Rameses for the Pharaoh of the exodus. However, Scripture never identifies Pharaoh using that name. Looking for explicit evidence of the exodus in connection with the reign of Rameses II might help verify a movie, but not the Bible. Skeptics who assume the Bible speaks of Rameses are not only looking at the wrong sources but very possibly the wrong time period.

Cultures use different dating systems, not all of which are consistent. Even when there is ample evidence of an occurrence, it can be difficult for historians to know exactly what dates were involved. This is particularly true of Egyptian history, the record of which is erratic. Egyptians sometimes recorded rulers who reigned simultaneously as if they were consecutive, for example. Even experts in Egyptian archaeology would admit that dating anything using ancient Egyptian records requires an inflated level of tolerance.

Support from Archaeology

Attempting to narrowly date ancient events is difficult. However, biblical scholars typically place the exodus from Egypt somewhere between 1446 and 1225 BC. Within that period, there is ample archaeological evidence to reinforce the account of Scripture. For example:

• Pyramids built of mud-and-straw bricks (Exodus 5:7–8) and both written and physical evidence that Asiatic people were enslaved in Egypt (Exodus 1:13–14).

• Skeletons of infants of three months old and younger, usually several in one box, buried under homes in a slave town called Kahun (Exodus 1:16), corresponding to Pharaoh’s slaughter of Hebrew infants.

• Masses of houses and shops in Kahun, abandoned so quickly that tools, household implements, and other possessions were left behind. The findings suggest the abandonment was total, hasty, and done on short notice (Exodus 12:30–34, 39), consistent with the Israelites’ sudden exit from Egypt in the wake of Passover.

• Court advisors used rods that look like snakes (Exodus 7:10–12). This partly corroborates the magical opposition against Moses performed by Pharaoh’s advisors.

• The Ipuwer Papyrus, a work of poetry stating, in part, “Plague stalks through the land and blood is everywhere. . . . Nay, but the river is blood . . . gates, columns and walls are consumed with fire . . . the son of the high-born man is no longer to be recognized. . . . The stranger people from outside are come into Egypt. . . . Nay, but corn has perished everywhere.”

• The Amarna letters, ancient correspondence between Egyptian and Middle Eastern rulers, blame significant unrest on a people group labeled as Habiru or ‘Apiru (Exodus 9:1).

• Discoveries also include evidence of cities such as Jericho being conquered during that timeframe.

Possible Pharaohs

Several scenarios in the annals of Egyptian rulers dovetail with the biblical book of Exodus. The “early” 1446 BC date of the exodus would align the slaughter of infants (Exodus 1:16–21) with either Thutmose I or Amenhotep I, whose reputations would support such an act. It would place the life of Moses in the same general era as Hatshepsut, a woman who co-ruled Egypt (Exodus 2:5–6) and was at odds with her stepson Thutmose III. He would have had good reason to evict her adopted son, given the chance (Exodus 2:14–15). This would align the liberation of Israel with the rule of Amenhotep II. His army notably stopped military campaigns in 1446 BC (Exodus 14:28), and his eventual successor, Thutmose IV, was scoffed at for being less-than-legitimate (Exodus 11:4–5; 12:29).

That is not the only possible match. A minority of Egyptologists advocate for a significant revision of the historical timeline, shifting the “actual date” of some Egyptian dynasties by centuries. One such theory would align the book of Exodus with Amenemhat III, who had no surviving sons and a childless daughter, Sobekneferu (Exodus 2:5–10). Her death ended that Dynasty. Soon after came Neferhotep I, who left behind no mummy (Exodus 14:28), and, although he had a son (Exodus 11:4–5; 12:29), he was instead succeeded by his brother.

One Last Bone to Pick

This same approach to history applies to the supposed lack of Hebrew remains in the desert between Egypt and Israel. First and foremost, this complaint ignores traditional burial practices of Israel. This included disinterring bodies after a year, in order to rebury the bones in a common family location. Patriarchs such as Jacob and Joseph famously had their bones relocated after death (Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32). This practice was the origin of the phrase gathered to his fathers or to sleep with one’s fathers, in parallel to its implications for the afterlife.

Nature isn’t prone to preserving remains for long, either, let alone for three thousand years. Worse, one of the consequences for disobedience, about which God warned Israel, was improper burial (1 Corinthians 10:5). Hasty or slipshod burial would allow scavengers and the elements to eradicate a body relatively quickly. “Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away.” (Deuteronomy 28:26). This means there is no “lack” of Hebrew graves or bones in the wilderness—there’s no rational reason to expect such remains to be abundant.

There Is Evidence of the Exodus

In summary, non-biblical archaeological evidence shows that the main details of the book of Exodus are not merely plausible, but they are present in archaeology. That era of Egypt’s history includes elements corresponding to a sizable Hebrew workforce in Egypt, which rapidly evacuated in connection with a time of chaos, under Pharaohs whose histories fit with the details of Exodus, and preceding conquest in the land of Canaan.
https://www.gotquestions.org/evidence-of-the-Exodus.html

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“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.

“So then, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”

Jeremiah 23:5-8