God's Sovereignty and our Comfort

Acts 8:1 "And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles."

Nowadays every good movie has a sequel to follow and the writers have high expectations from movie studios to produce. However no greater sequel was ever written than the sequel to Jesus' public ministry- the book of The Acts of the Apostles. The difference is this is not fiction. This is the real story, the story of the continuation of the ministry of Jesus Christ to the world through his body "the church" by the agency of his indwelling spirit. The book of Acts chronicles the birth of the early church with 120 members in Jerusalem to a great body of believers in the tens of  thousands all over the Roman Empire. IT all began with a simple command- they were given instruction by Christ to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth, beginning in Jerusalem, then to Samaria and finally to the gentile nations. (Acts 1:8)  The first 7 chapters tell us the incredible story of the church's triumph and success in ancient Jerusalem with testimonies of exponential growth, signs and wonders and even persecution. Yet the promise of Christ remained solid, "The gates of Hell shall not prevail."(Matt. 16:18) However once we get to chapter 7 the church finds itself at a crossroads with the Jewish authorities, leading to a pivotal moment where Stephen is the first Christian to be martyred for his faith at the hands of a young ambitious Pharisee named Saul. So enraged was Saul with the church, he launched a pogrom targeting Jewish Christians with the hope of eradicating the church. Saul didn't realize he was on the wrong side of history at this point (Acts 5:38-39). As a result of Saul's zealous pogrom the church was "scattered"- essentially they were forced to move out of  Jerusalem and out of their homes. However what seemed on the surface to be tragic was actually a sovereign working of God to mobilize his church out of their comfort zones to fulfill their mandate to "bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth"

In Acts 8 we read of Phillip bringing the Gospel to Samaria, and to an Ethiopian eunuch, indicating the Gospel is going much further than the city limits of Jerusalem. Eventually Peter is led by the Lord to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 11) and the zealous pharisee Saul who sought to destroy the church is converted by God's sovereign grace, and becomes God's ambassador to the gentiles as the foremost missionary in the early church. The point here? God' sovereignty works in our lives to bring us out of comfort zones to accomplish his will.  We recently were forced to move out of a building and city we served in for 8 years. At first there was a sense of sadness and grief, and discomfort, for being forced out of our comfort zones. However I see the sovereign hand of God in this. God is taking Grace and Truth out of their comfort zones and mobilizing us to be his witnesses in a new community and new context to reach people with the Gospel and advance his Kingdom in a marvelous way. It is comforting when you know God is sovereign and can claim Rom. 8:28 as a basis of our comfort, trusting and believing that God is always progressively moving his people in the right direction. I am excited and eagerly anticipate a great work of God as we venture to reach lost souls in the Greenburg / White Plains community.

What about you? Has there been trials and circumstance sin your life that have gotten you out of your comfort zone? Have your been left with no choice in certain areas of your life? Perhaps God is directing your path for his glory. Be sensitive to the spirit and follow his lead.

What's Next for Family Radio?

After Harold Camping's failed prophecy last week, many have been wondering, whats next? Clearly Mr. Camping has been through a tough year. He made two prophecies concerning the end of the world which both proved to be false, suffered a stroke, and is dealing with the embarrassment of being the preacher who cried wolf. I can't help to feel sorry for the man. I just think he doesn't get it. He's not a bad person, just self-deceived. Although he released a recorded audio file of a quasi-apology, Camping still let's on that perhaps there is more to come. In his apology he says,

“I am checking my own notes more carefully than ever. There is other language in the Bible, and we still have to look at very carefully. ... We should be very patient about this matter."  

What notes? What other language? What is he talking about? I don't think even he knows what he is talking about anymore. I believe that Mr. Camping has proven to the world he is a fraud. Anyone else who continues to follow him, simply does not have rational minds. But what about Family Radio? It appears they scrubbed their website of any trace of May 21, and OCt. 21. But what about the church age? What about annihilationism? What about the atonement? Where does the station stand on the crucial issues where Mr. Camping has deviated from historic Christianity? Well I decided to email Family Radio and to my surprise, I received a response from Mr. Camping's daughter Susan Espinoza. You can read both emails and see for yourself.

IF there is any doubt to whether or not Family Radio is penitent- the answer is clearly no. Its back to the drawing board until the next embarrassing moment for the bleeding station.


Email exchange between myself and Susan Espinoza

To Whom it May Concern:

While Mr. Camping has apologized for his false claims, there are still many unanswered questions.

1) Where does Family Radio stand on the end of the church age? Mr. Camping’s teaching on the end of the church age were all tied into the matrix of the second coming. If his calculations were wrong on the rapture and second coming, isn’t it reasonable to conclude he has been wrong on the end of the church age? Is it ok for people to go to church now, being that the prophecies failed? If Mr. Camping was wrong about saying those who did not believe in May 21 were not Christians, couldn't Mr. Camping be wrong in saying that those who attend church are not Christians?

2) Where does Family Radio stand on the atonement? Mr. Camping also deviated from historic Christianity and reformed theology in asserting that Christ atoned for sin "before the foundations of the world" and that his death on the cross was only "a parable". Does Family Radio believe that Christ died a real death and suffered in our place as our suffering substitute on the cross, or was his death on the cross a meaningless show to demonstrate what happened in heaven?

3) Where does Family Radio stand on the doctrine of Hell? Does Family Radio insist in the doctrine of annihilation? IF so, on what merit?

4) Who is currently the head of Family Radio? Is there an executive board? Will Family Radio seek to possibly reinstate former bible teachers? Who replaces Harold Camping? And will such a teacher be accountable to others or be autonomous like Mr. Camping?

I am sure the station does not have all the answers as you sort out the mess. But after so much confusion- it is only fair to Family Radio Listeners to get a straight answer and not be left in the dark guessing.

Thank you and God bless

Robert Gianserra

Dear Mr. Gianserra,

It is true that the recent prediction of the end of the world was totally incorrect.  That is obvious, as we are still here.  God has given us the calendar, but Mr. Camping and others misunderstood the significance of May 21 and October 21.  Perhaps with time God will give us that understanding.

It does not follow, however, that everything else we teach, or Mr. Camping has taught, is therefore wrong and should be discarded.  We believe that Family Radio is teaching the truth of the Bible, and we have no intention of changing our position on the subjects you mentioned, unless God corrects us.

Sincerely in Christ,

Susan Espinoza
Family Radio

What Jesus says to the Churches

After studying the seven churches of Revelation, we begin to see that there is not much different from the churches of Asia Minor of the First Century compared with all churches throughout history. We have faced the same trials and tribulations in different seasons and different waves. That is because we are the church militant. That is - the visible church here on on earth. But one day that will, all give way to the church victorious- the heavenly church, where we will all be in a perfect eternal state. Until then we are still in this "present evil age" Gal. 1:4. Therefore there is much we can apply from our study.

In the latest news; Youcef Nadarkhani (a Christian pastor) is facing the death penalty in Iran for the charges of apostasy. After the news media began to publish stories about this, and it soon became a human rights issue, Iran has now changed their story and said he is guilty of rape. Clearly the Iranian government is hostile to Christianity and those who dare convert to Christianity find themselves facing serious charges -even death. About 2000 years ago a small church Turkey, in the small city of Smyrna found themselves in a similar predicament. They were facing severe "tribulation" and were being "slandered" by their opponents. Then we turn here to the US and we find churches that are preaching the doctrines of Balaam and Jezebel much like Pergamum and Thyratira, and even worse some churches are dead or lukewarm. All this to say- not much has changed since the Lord spoke to John his message to the churches.  His message is just as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago.There are churches today that appear to be poor and are rich and appear to be rich and are poor. There are apostate churches, and churches where few remain faithful. There are churches experiencing great times of revival, and churches experiencing times of great collapses. Yet in all of this, the Lord's church has not ceased to exist. While Satan has worked overtime to destroy churches both from within (apostasy and false teaching) and without (persecution), the truth remains the same "I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it" Matt. 16:18.

The Jews tried to destroy the church, even Paul himself tried to destroy the church only to be converted and become second to Jesus in his influence in building the church. The Romans tried to destroy it- and soon Christianity became the official state religion. The Church of Rome tried to destroy it through tradition and legalism, only to be overturned by the Reformation. The church was then challenged by the thinkers of the Enlightenment, only to be humiliated by the great working of God in the great awakening movements! The liberals tried to destroy it and their churches today are nothing but rotting corpses. And today we are fighting against the wave of secularism, post-modernism, and militant Islam. So should we fret? No. The church will continue its mission as the body of Christ and be the light and salt of the earth until Christ himself returns. Will we face threats, and problems, and feel sometimes we are the underdog? Of course. But we also have hope that although we may be shaken for a moment, Christ has redeemed the future for his saints, and his church militant will one day become the church victorious!

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  (Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV)

Summary of Love

1 Peter 1:22 "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart"

It has been several weeks since my last post, and I must confess that with the addition of seminary work this year it is not as easy to maintain a blog. Nevertheless I hope and aim to post two articles this week to follow up on recent sermons preached at Grace and Truth. First of all let me say that camping out in 1 Corinthians 13 has been extremely helpful to me on a personal level and I trust it was beneficial to all those who sat under the preaching. For anyone interested in further reading on 1 Cor. 13, I would recommend Jonathan Edwards timeless work- (which I referred to quite a bit)  Charity and Its Fruits. I am sure in your expanded reading you will be truly edified.

As for my summary, I want to bring the last few sermons regarding loves character and remind everyone that love is the most excellent way for Christians to live. We are commanded to pursue love and make it our lifestyle. After examining all the traits of love in 1 Corinthians 13 we find out that it is all contrary to human nature and very much contrary to our social standards of the day. By nature we are selfish, rude, inconsiderate, and proud. Furthermore we are taught by our society that such characteristics are actually virtues. But this love is not a love of this world but a love of divine origin. It is the love of God. And we as Christians are called to "to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires" Eph. 4:22  and instead "put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." Eph. 4:24. Part of putting on the new self means living as Christ lived, namely manifesting the love of the Father to a lost and degenerate world. As imitators of Christ we glorify him most when we live a life that reflects Christ's love. Sadly in many reformed circles we have moved away from any notion of love as a knee jerk reaction to the over-emphasis of love in many non-reformed circles. However such an approach can lead us to be sadly labeled "the frozen chosen" and in the worst case actually put us in disobedience to God's word and poorly reflecting the image of Christ. This means we must put love into action. It is not merely enough to talk about how we can be more loving to others, nor are we to wait to feel it, because we learned already...love is an action. Therefore, what are some practical ways we can demonstrate our love for others that will both reflect the image of Christ, and prove our obedience to the word?

1 John 4:18 "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

I am interested to hear from others how the sermon series on Christian love has personally convicted you and what new ways you have applied this to your life.

Love Does Not Boast

After preaching this last sermon, I have been thinking about how many times I have boasted or bragged to others and how many times others have bragged to me. Bragging rights seems to be something we cherish in our human nature and comes very easily to us, however in God's estimation a braggart is nothing more than a "bag of wind". The Corinthians were nothing more than spiritual show offs and it proved they lacked love. The same can be said of many Christians today.  I have found that there are several areas where we can caught up in bragging in thinking we are being spiritual when in reality, we are indirectly demeaning others. For example:

As a pastor it is easy to brag about how many people came out to your service and how many people you were able to get to come out to a special event. But in the process of doing so especially in the company of other pastors, we may indirectly demean that person and make them feel inferior to us.
Such is not Christian love.

Or sometimes we may be attending a church that we really are blessed by and brag about our pastor or church to other Christins as if any other pastor or church was inferior and second rate compared to our church. Now while it may be true that you are blessed by the ministry in your church, wisdom would seek to be careful in how we couch our words lest we directly or indirectly make others feel like second rate Christins.

Then we can easily deceive ourselves by practicing our religion with ostentation to attract the praise and glory of men- just like the Pharisees did. Jesus made no qualms about condemning them for thier overt display of religion to elevate their egos above everyone else.


Matt. 7:5 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

We are good at covering up our failures and equally good at blowing the trumpet at our success. But God's word tells us that Love doe snot boast. And if we do not have love, than all our religion and spirituality is utterly worthless (1 Cor. 13:1-4) We can brag in just about anything. We can brag about our jobs, our children, our health etc. But bragging only reveals 2 things. First a denial of God's grace in providing all of our needs according to his riches an glory. Anything we have is a gift from his hand and so the only thing we should boast in is our knowledge of him (Jer. 9:23-24) Second- it reveals a heart that does not love others but is more concerned abut being loved by others.. IF we were more sensitive to the feelings of others we would be careful not to brag. We  should ask, "Would I make my brother or sister in Christ feel second rate if I boast in this success of mine?"" Is my intention to make my my brother or sister in Christ feel inferior to me?"" Is it necessary that people acknowledge my successes?" How will it glorify God? "

After asking several question like this- you will be far less quick to brag in the company of others. And if you really want people to like you you will excel by not bragging- no body likes a braggart. 

The Corinthians were a bunch of braggarts and show offs and as a result were guilty of offending their fellow Christians and God. Are we show offs? Do we boast to make ourselves look better than everyone else? If so then you need a lesson in love. 

John MacArthur made an excellent point in his commentary on this subject: "I don't know if you realize it, but boasting is geared to hurt other people. It is geared to wound somebody else--to make you stand out and them look inferior.

Love is Kind...

Paul's positive affirmation of love's character is that love is both long suffering and kind. Here are two sides of the same coin. While in  one sense love suffers long and patiently enduring personal injury and offenses, on the other side we repay those who are mean, unfair and mistreat us with kindness. Such ideas are really foreign and contrary to human nature. In our humanity it is natural to be self defensive, lose patience, get angry and give up on people. And when that is not enough we dream up of ways to get revenge ranging anywhere to outright violence, to a cold shoulder. No matter how you cut it- such behavior is unloving and not reflective of God. It is easy to be nice to people who are nice to us, but Jesus said, "Even sinners can do that!" The real test of your faith is to be kind and generous to those who are not nice to us,  just as our Heavenly Father is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. So what are some ways we can be kind to others?

We can show respect to others even when we think they do not deserve it, or they disrespected us. All people have a desire to be shown the most common decency. Why is it we are so quick to show respect and be polite to a civil official for instance, but will think nothing of dismissing a homeless man as a bum and treating him as less. True kindness, shows respect to all people regardless of their lot in life or regardless of their actions. Simple gestures like Good Morning or Good Evening, or simply acknowledging someone else human  dignity. Even the lowest of men reflect their creator to some degree, no matter how marred.

To show compassion and sympathy is another way we practice kindness. There are so many people who are hurting around us all day. Often we are so consumed with our own problems we feel little sympathy for others. Also we have become so desensitized to pain and suffering by being exposed to so much on broadcast media, that it is not even bothersome to us. It is common to hear of some tragic story on the 5 o'clock news, and we easily dismiss it. However, we need to cultivate genuine compassion and sympathy for others. When we see others in pain and suffering for whatever reason, it is easy to say, they had it coming, or poor souls, or think we have it worse. But the reality is we should see all human suffering to whatever degree it is, as painful to the person experiencing it, and show some type of kindness by "weeping with those who weep". But we should also seek to do something to alleviate the pain of others. James uses sarcasm to show how some people are kind only in their words,
"If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" Ja. 2:15-16. But rather we should love people not just in word but in deed. If we have it in our ability to alleviate the pain of others and withhold, what are we saying about God who has shown so much kindness towards us?

Love: A Necessary Virtue

What's love got to do with it? Everything. That was Paul's message to the Corinthians, it was Jesus' message in his public ministry, and it is God's message to us today. Sadly I believe many professing Christians have moved far away from this essential truth of the gospel. The basis of the cross, and God's act in salvation had everything to do with His love. We know that his love for even the reprobate is demonstrated in His common grace, and therefore as children of God, are we not to be imitators of our Lord? In Ephesians 5:1-2 , we see this admonition in plain language:

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

The point is this: We are the spiritual offspring of God. We have been born again, born from above and born of God. Our identity is that we are children of the Most High God. Therefore, we are to imitate (mimites)- mimic God. To mimic means to copy closely, or repeat another’s actions, speech and behavior.  To Mimic God we are called to repeat his actions, speech and behavior.  Essentially- Mimicking God calls us to reflect the character of God in our life. To be God like. It is nothing different that what Jesus said in Matt 5:48. “That we be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”, or in Luke 6:36 “To be merciful as your Father in Heaven is merciful”

But the only way it is going to happen is when we spend more time with the Lord. Just like our own children become facsimiles of us, by spending time around us, we become facsimiles of God by spending time with him. But how can we spend more time with the Lord? How can we know him better? Through bible reading, prayer and worship.  When we spend more time with the Lord, we will be able to repeat his actions, echo his speech and duplicate his behavior. Essentially- the more time we spend with God, the more we will be able to love like Him, see the world as He sees it, and be imitators of God.