Regeneration

A few days ago I became an uncle again.  Owen Morgan can into this world and I got to hold him for a few minutes.  In just a few weeks, our second grandchild will be born (Timothy Jude Lyda).  I am so excited about these new births.  Its just such a picture of God and His perfect creation.

Physical Birth and Spiritual Birth.

R.C Sproul has written a commentary on 1st and 2nd Peter.  In it he addresses the topic of Regeneration.  In this blog, I want to share just a small portion with you.

About 1 Peter 1:3-5 Sproul writes:

We find in the opening statements of this epistle not only a reference to election but also a specific reference to regeneration or rebirth. This is commonly distorted in our culture by the idea that we have to have faith in order to be reborn or elect, but the sovereign God, from all eternity, decrees those to whom He will give the gift of faith, which is the fruit of regeneration, not the cause of it.

The Reformation church declared that regeneration precedes faith, which is a distinguishing article of Reformed theology. We tend to get that backwards and think that our faith is what causes us to be reborn. Unless we are born of the Spirit, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, we cannot see the kingdom of God, let alone enter it. Regeneration is what provokes and plants faith in our souls. The very condition that God requires for justification is by His grace sovereignly supplied. If we try to place faith before regeneration, we expect the impossible: the natural to rise up to the supernatural.

We expect those who are dead in sin and trespasses to exercise spiritual life. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians that God “even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:5). Every pregnant woman knows the human experience called “quickening,” which happens when she first feels life in her womb. That is the metaphor Paul gives to the Ephesians of what the Holy Spirit does to people while they are dead. We are as passive in our rebirth as we were in our natural birth. We had nothing to do with causing the conception in our mother’s womb.

Sproul, R. C. (2011-03-02). 1&2 Peter: St Andrew's Expositional Commentary (p. 29). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.

I encourage you to find your JOY in the one who brought to life which was dead.

Heading North
Pastor Tim

The Five Ls

What speaks love to you?
Is what speaks love, to you the same thing that speaks love to your spouse? Gary Chapman teaches that we have one of 5 love languages and most often our spouses do not share the same language as we do.

I’m of the opinion that it takes most husbands 9 to 12 years to figure out what speaks love to their wives and vice versa. With a little help I don’t believe anyone needs to wait that many years to “figure out” their love language. Knowing ones love language as well as the language of our spouses’ leapfrogs us forward in terms how we love and serve each other in our marriages.

Gods word has something to say on the subject of love and what we are to be.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Lynn you are my Valentine, and I you have taught me much about unconditional love. Thank you for being mine even though I picked you up in a 74 Pinto on our first date.

I hope that you will be able to join us in the Dream Team Marriage Conference at LifeSong church on February 20th at 6 pm and the 21st at 9 am.

Topics are:
Conflict resolution / Forgiveness
Communication / Listening
Recommitment

Contact jane@lifesongchurchonline.com to register / $25 per couple

Gather, Grow, & Go
Pastor Tim

Daughter in Love

Today is our Daughter in Love’s Graduation from college. Brittany is a amazing young woman who has blessed us so much with her smile, love for the lost, love for family, but most importantly her desire to please God. Lynn and I are so proud of her, and we celebrate this mile marker in her life. We ask that all of our friends and family to join hearts together today and celebrate what God has done.

Britt, we LOVE YOU!!!

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Tim & Lynn

To Love / To be Loved

Questions:
If God makes no mistakes, what does it speak to the world when we treat a person as if they are not good enough? Does that say that this person that God created is a mistake?

If I can’t love the person that I can see, how can I love God that I can not see? Even as Christians, we sometimes try to convince ourselves and others that we are in a right relationship with God (our daddy) all the while we can’t or won’t be LOVE to someone. How is it that we can have the life changing experience of salvation and not love others, even the others that take a little more effort to love? I think that the next question must be, do we understand what it means to experience the redeeming power and love of God’s forgiveness and receive the free gift of salvation?

1 John 4:17-21 The Message

17-18. God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.

19. We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

20-21. If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.

Gather, Grow, & Go

Pastor Tim

Perfect Love

Today, Lynn and I are celebrating our 27th Valentines. Reflecting on that seems to humble me quite a bite. I think about Lynn many times a day and long to be near her all the time. Many times I feel completely lost, if I can’t see her face or hear her rumbling around the house, preparing for the Daycare. She is my perfect mate, she is my woman, and I would not want to be here on earth without her.

When we think of PERFECT LOVE, one must reflect on God’s word. Let’s take a look together:

1 John 4 (The Message)
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

13-16 This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

Gather, Grow, and Go

Pastor Tim