It is now a tradition at Calvin – each winter we head out to the Laurel Highlands trail for an overnight camping trip. This year we went out on December 30th and enjoyed unusually warm weather, good fellowship, and good food. I’ve been negligent in posting a few pics, so here they are. Better late than never.
The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God
Spring Quarter Adult Sunday School
Taught by Pastor Aaron
The doctrine of God’s love takes a special place of prominence throughout the Bible. God is love (1 Jn. 4:16); God abounds in steadfast love (Ex. 34:6); in love God predestined us for adoption (Eph. 1:4-5); and, God’s steadfast love is better than life (Ps. 63:3). Few doctrines hold such a place of priority in the Bible.
Although prominent, the doctrine of God’s love remains immeasurably complex and exceedingly difficult. How does God’s love relate to his sovereignty and wrath? If God is love, why is there evil in the world? What does God’s love require of us? How do we rightly love our enemies? How do we rightly love God?
Please join us as we explore these topics and more in this Sunday school.
Class Overview
One of the common themes in the book of Daniel is the calling for God’s people to resist every temptation to compromise our faith and practice. Like the Borg in Star Trek, the world tells us that “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.” But Daniel shows us again and again that resistance is not futile, assimilation is not inevitable, and although suffering and difficulty may come, those who continue to resist will “stand firm” (11:32); they will “be refined, purified, and made white” (11:35); and they will “shine… like the stars forever and ever” (12:3).
There are many ways to faithfully resist. We resist when we put to death sin in our own lives (Col. 3:5). We resist when we speak against the open promotion and practice of evil and wickedness. We resist when we speak the gospel, love our enemies, and endure wrongs against us. And, we resist when we refuse to bow to the world’s powers and authorities on matters of faith and practice.
A few weeks ago the PCA’s Pittsburgh Presbytery found itself on the front lines of this resistance movement. We recently learned that one of our military chaplains is sometimes asked or commanded to compromise his faith and practice. He is sometimes commanded to participate in inter-faith worship services. He is sometimes directed specifically to not pray in Jesus’ name. He refuses to obey the civil authorities on these matters, and our presbytery stood behind him with the following resolution:
Resolved to adopt the following statement about public prayer offered by ministers of this Presbytery, whether serving as Pastors or Chaplains, or in some other capacity:
Whereas Almighty God alone is Lord of the conscience, and has left the conscience free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are contrary to, or in matters of faith and worship, in addition to his Word (WCF 19:2), and whereas civil government ought not, in the least, to interfere in matters of faith (WCF 23:30), and whereas the Constitution of the United States of America states that “congress shall make no law… prohibiting the free exercise” of religion, We, Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America, affirm that every citizen, whether as private citizen or public servant, is free to pray as his conscience directs, and that no authority lawfully exists with any branch or agency of the Federal Government to limit or forbid such prayer.
And, further, whereas Jesus Christ alone is the mediator between God and men (WCF 8:1, 21:2), and that every minister of this Presbytery, by his own vow, has bound himself to pray only under the authority and mediation of Jesus, we affirm the duty of every minister to pray publicly in such a manner and with such wording as satisfies his conscience that he is praying under the sole mediation of Jesus Christ, and we deny that any governmental authority can of right constitutionally forbid prayer offered in the name of Jesus Christ, or restrain a minister or citizen from so praying for any reason whatsoever.
In issuing this statement we have said that we will not bow to the world’s powers and authorities on matters of faith and practice. It was an encouraging day to be a member of Christ’s church, the greatest resistance movement this world has ever known. Resistance is not futile.
Last Sunday I began preaching through Leviticus for our Sunday evening worship. For the most part I dealt with a single question, “Why study Leviticus today?” Frankly, Leviticus can seem like one of the most irrelevant, strange, gross, dull, difficult, and demanding books in all of Scripture. From its bloody sacrificial ritual to its extensive regulations about bodily discharges, Leviticus truly is a strange book for modern minds. But it is most certainly essential, especially for the Christian today.
Here are twenty reasons to study Leviticus (these were explored in a little more detail last Sunday night).
I’ll be out of the pulpit in the evenings through February, so we’ll pick up our study in Leviticus in March. Until then go ahead and give Leviticus a good read – maybe give Hebrews a good read too – and let’s continue to devote ourselves to prayer, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the life-giving power of the Word of God.