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He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” — Luke 11:28 The Lord’s simple requests often serve as stepping stones to life’s most wonderful blessings. Simon Peter illustrates what can happen when we say yes to God. One day a large crowd pressed around Jesus while he preached (Luke 5:1–11). The Lord wanted to use Peter’s boat as a floating platform from which to address the multitude, so he asked the future apostle to push the vessel out a little way from shore (verse 3)—not in itself a particularly remarkable request. But Peter’s compliance to his request paved the way for a life-changing blessing. From his example, we also learn how essential it is to obey God in even the smallest matters. The noisy crowd received the first blessing of Peter’s obedience; the people could now clearly hear Jesus’ words. At the conclusion of the lesson, the Lord said to Peter, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (5:4)—a second opportunity to say yes or no. But this time, Peter may have felt tempted to decline. After all, he was a seasoned fisherman. He had worked the entire night for a catch but had returned empty- handed. Now this young teacher—a carpenter, by the way, not a fisherman—was asking him to go fishing again? Peter’s reply demonstrates the beginning of a lifetime of faith in God. He said, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets” (5:5, emphasis added). The soon-to-be disciple chose to obey the Lord and to leave the consequences of his decision to him. But notice what happened as a result of Peter’s obedience—Jesus demonstrated his power and sovereignty. Peter and his partners may have started the day off thinking their efforts had yielded nothing. But they ended it in complete amazement because they pulled in not one but two overflowing boatloads of fish (5:7). Saying yes to the Lord’s request resulted in a miracle that trans-formed not only one fisherman’s life, but the lives of the entire group. Consider three reasons why obedience is critical to the successful Christian life: 1. Obeying God in small matters is an essential step in receiving God’s greatest blessings. Suppose Peter had said, “Look, I’m busy cleaning my nets right now. I can’t help you because I’m going fishing again tonight.” Or he could have said, “Why don’t you ask to use that other boat, over there?” Or, “I’ve already been fishing today; it would be a waste of time to go again.” If Peter had said anything other than yes, he would have missed the greatest fishing experience of his life. But because of Peter’s obedience, the Lord arranged a miracle that he would never forget. Often, God’s greatest blessings come as a result of our willingness to do something that appears very insignificant. So ask yourself, “Has God been challenging me to do something seemingly unimportant that I have not yet made an effort to accomplish? Is there anything I have rationalized by saying, ‘It’s too difficult,’ ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘I have to pray about it first’”? 2. Our Obedience always benefits others. Think of how many people were blessed by Peter’s obedience. Not only could the crowd see the Lord and hear his lesson, but Jesus himself also benefited—preaching from the boat enabled him to sit down in comfort while he spoke (5:3). Then, of course, Peter’s friends had a very profitable day—they took in two vessels so full of fish that both began to sink. More importantly, they had the opportunity to witness the Lord’s supernatural provision. God often rewards others—in particular, those closest to us—as a result of our obedience. For example, when a parent obeys the Lord, the entire family reaps the reward of God’s blessings. Likewise, a child’s obedience will bless his or her parents. This does not mean that those who choose to disobey the Lord will escape his discipline because of someone else’s godly walk. His call to obedience always demands our response. However, when we live obedient lives, those who know and love us will sense the peace and joy he has given us. Instead of conflict, there will be contentment—and that is just one part of experiencing God’s goodness. 3. When we obey God, we will never be disappointed. Peter no doubt assumed that Jesus’ fishing instructions would amount to a waste of time. But when he complied with the Lord’s simple request, Christ brought about a miracle that gripped the disciple with amazement. Jesus turned an empty boat into a full one. We, like Peter, must recognize that obeying God is always the wisest course of action. He can also take our emptiness—whether related to finances, relationships or career—and change it into something splendid. Perhaps you have hesitated to obey God because you fear the consequences of your decision. But the Lord’s command is for you to fear him above all else. The same sovereign, omnipotent God who keeps your heart beating and the planets orbiting is more than able to handle the results of your obedience. When he tells you to do something and you know without a doubt it is his will, then you need to obey based solely on who is doing the talking. When you choose to obey the Lord, he will bless you. This is because obedience always leads to blessing. I have always told people who say they do not understand why God is asking them to do a certain thing that if they will obey him, he will reward them with a sense of peace and joy that compares to nothing this world has to offer. Therefore, set a goal to obey the Lord and watch him work in your life. Article drawn from The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible, NIV Edition.

Romans on Living Life in the Spirit Life in the Spirit is a journey, and while there are many great passages throughout Scripture that discuss the role and person of the Holy Spirit, Romans 8 is perhaps one of the most insightful. Here are 7 suggestions that will fuel a passion for the things of the Spirit and further educate how to live a life directed by him. 1. Walk in the Spirit (Rom. 8:4) There is no shortcut to learning how to walk with the Spirit. It's not just for ultra-spiritual people, nor is it reserved for charismatic Christians. Life according to the Spirit is not simply trying to do the right thing, nor is it trying to live according to God's Law. Walking in the Spirit is the central metaphor for describing what it means to live as a Christian. The person who walks according to the Spirit will in fact have the essence of the Law fulfilled in his life. 2. Set your minds on the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5) The question "how does one overcome the pull of the flesh?" sounds like an old riddle: How can someone extract all of the air out of a drinking glass? The most direct way to get all the air out of a glass is by filling it with something else. You cannot extract thoughts that displease God from your mind. Like [the solution to the riddle], you need to be filled up with thoughts—indeed with an entire mindset—that is oriented toward the things of the Spirit (e.g. Gal. 5:22–23). 3. Put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit (Rom. 8:13) The person who has been regenerated by the Spirit is not stuck in sin. By the Spirit, the pull of the flesh can be resisted. To "put to death the deeds of the body" is pretty much the same thing as "saying no to sin," but unlike the anti-drug campaign among youth many years ago, just say no by itself will never be successful. Just saying no will never allow you to consistently overcome sin. Then what must you do? You must say no by the Spirit. 4. Be led by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14) The Holy Spirit leads us broadly (always) and more specifically (sometimes). He always leads us through his written Word, which was revealed to the prophets by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20–21). We are to prayerfully, carefully, and humbly apply broad biblical wisdom to the situations we face in our lives. Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads us directly. The Holy Spirit can choose to act in any way and according to any timetable that he wishes; we do not dictate to him how or when he will move. Since the Bible gives many examples of him acting more specifically, we should anticipate that he will sometimes choose to lead us directly if we are open and available to his guidance. 5. Know the Fatherhood of God by the Spirit (Rom. 8:15–17) Without the Holy Spirit, we would never know our freedom and identity as God's adoptive children. Thankfully, God has freely given us his Holy Spirit, and these verses from Romans 8 display three amazing things the Spirit does: He acts as the go-between who takes us out of a place of slavery and fear and brings us into a place of adoption and acceptance. He helps us to cry out to God as Father. He testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. 6. Hope in the Spirit (Rom 8:22-25) The biblical concept represented by the English word hope is so strong that it is almost a synonym for "eager expectation." The focus of the expectation isn't that life will get better here; it is absorbed with the glorious life to come. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in all this? Rom 8:23 says: "We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Paul claims that it is because we have the Spirit, not despite it that we groan. In this passage, it is precisely the presence of the Spirit within you that causes you to feel this particular kind of suffering—the longing for final redemption in the midst of a fallen world. In this way, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives reminds us of the stark contrast between the wonderful things God has prepared for us who believe and this fallen world that is so full of sin, suffering, and futility. 7. Pray in the Spirit (Rom. 8:26–28) These two verses (Rom 8:26–27) are so rich and helpful in our lives in the Spirit. We learn that we are weak when we come to prayer. We often don't know what to pray for in any given situation. The concern is not about the manner of prayer (the "how"), but rather the content of our prayers—what do we actually pray about? We learn that the Spirit joins to help us when we are struggling to know how to pray by interceding for us with wordless groaning. It is not, as some propose, that we should just pray whatever we want since we don't have any idea how to pray, and that the Spirit fixes them up and prays on our behalf to the Father. Rather, the verb often translated as "helps" has a preposition attached to the front of it, which suggests that it really means "joins to help." The Spirit is searching our hearts and knows that we have a mind-set that is focused on him, even if we do not know exactly what we are supposed to pray. The result is that our prayers are prayed "according to the will of God" because the Holy Spirit is moving us thus to pray and is presenting the prayers that he is guiding us to pray to the Father. This article is adapted from Walking in the Spirit by Ken Berding.

Leadership is for everyone! How can I make such a bold claim? Because every person who accepts Christ is called to influence others. Everyone. Leadership is not just for a select few. God is the Ultimate Leader, and he calls every believer to lead others. God could have arranged his creation any number of ways. He chose to create human beings who possess spirits and the capacity to relate to him and follow him, yet who are not forced to do so. When mankind fell into sin, God could have easily executed a plan of redemption that did not include sinful people in the process. But he has called us to participate and to lead others as we follow him. He makes that clear from the beginning: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule” (Genesis 1:26). The call to leadership is a consistent pattern in the Bible. When God decided to raise up a nation of his own, he didn’t call upon the masses. He called out one leader—Abraham. When he wanted to deliver his people out of Egypt, he didn’t guide them as a group. He raised up a leader to do it—Moses. When it came time for the people to cross into the Promised Land, they followed one man—Joshua. Every time God desires to do something great, he calls a leader to step forward. Today he still calls leaders to step forward for every great work. Leadership Defined Years ago in his book Spiritual Leadership, J. Oswald Sanders gave the best definition of leadership I’ve ever read. He simply stated, “Leadership is influence.” I have embraced that definition and taught it to thousands and thousands over the years. If you are a follower of Christ, then you recognize that you are called to influence others. Jesus said it this way: “You are the salt of the earth. . . . You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13–16). It doesn’t matter what your role in life; if you call yourself a Christian, then you are called to influence others. The True Nature of Leadership Somewhere along the way, countless Christians became convinced that if they were going to follow Christ, they must become sheepish, quiet, and withdrawn. The problem is that they have confused meekness with weakness. As Christians we recognize our own weaknesses, but that is when God’s strength is perfected in us (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). What God desires is that we display a broken boldness. A follower of God should be a leader of people. That’s more than just being “boss” or having a leadership position. And it certainly doesn’t mean being pushy or in control. Jesus taught that it means serving others (see Matthew 20:25–28). While there is a gift of leadership (according to Romans 12:8), you need not possess that gift to exert your influence in a Christlike way. The problem is that, if you are like most people, you may not wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, “Now, there’s a godly, effective leader if I ever saw one.” Most people don’t believe they can make a positive impact on the world they live in. Even most pastors feel this way. The Barna Research Group reported that 95 percent of American pastors said they don’t believe they have the spiritual gift of leadership.1 Nor do they feel they have been adequately prepared for the task of leadership. The truth is that few people are naturals when it comes to leading others. But everyone has potential. I believe you can become a better leader, regardless of your age, gender, marital status, or profession. Sociologists say that even introverted people will influence an average of 10,000 people in their lifetime. Just think about that! Someone who’s not even trying to lead others will impact many. Just think about what one person can do if he or she is intentional about leading—as Jesus directed us to be. What kind of impact potential has God put inside of you? The Best Means for a Lasting Legacy Becoming a good leader may not guarantee that you will be able to leave a spiritual legacy for future generations, but it certainly provides you the greatest opportunity to do so. The Law of Legacy states, “True success is measured by succession.” A legacy that does not include people has no eternal value. Make it your aim to practice transformational leadership, where people’s lives are changed from the inside out. That kind of leadership is based on character, conviction, and Christlikeness. In other words, transformational leadership follows the pattern laid down in Scripture. My prayer is that you will be transformed by spending time with the men and women God has used as leaders to change the world for millennia—the men and women in the Bible. No matter how strong or weak your leadership is—whether you are a “4” or a “9” on the leadership scale—you can improve and reach your leadership potential for the glory of God. By Dr. John C. Maxwell Article drawn from content in The Maxwell Leadership Bible.

Paul was an intense man. Whatever he did, he did with all his heart. He accomplished astounding feats for Christ and the Church. Paul was also an apostle and helped lay the foundation for much of our theology and Christian practice today. Such a person could easily intimidate us were it not for the glimpses we have of his spiritual struggles. Like all of us, Paul was human and vulnerable to failure whenever he took his eyes off Jesus Christ. In order to guard against failure, Paul employed many of the spiritual disciplines. These practices strengthened him in his walk with God and reminded Paul of his dependence on God. Solitude Immediately following Paul’s conversion, he withdrew into the Arabian wilderness for a time (see Galatians 1:16 – 17). This extended retreat was marked by solitude in which Paul meditated intensely on God’s Word and spent much time in prayer. Evidently, this was when he received his gospel message “by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12). This time away equipped him for the lifetime of involvement and service that has changed the world even to this very day. (See Exodus 3 to learn more about solitude.) Prayer Paul mentioned that he was given “a thorn” in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7). We are never told anything specific about the thorn. Scholars have debated for centuries what exactly it was. But we are given the specifics of Paul’s response to the thorn: Paul prayed. In fact, he prayed deliberately three times concerning this thorn much as Jesus prayed three times in Gethsemane about his suffering (see Matthew 26:36 – 45; 2 Corinthians 12:8). Each time that Paul prayed, God answered him clearly, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Prayer didn’t bring Paul the answer for which he initially may have hoped, but prayer brought him the strength and reassurance he needed. (See Genesis 18 to learn more about prayer.) Service We see Paul’s practice of service as he committed himself “to preach the gospel where Christ was not known” (Romans 15:20). He made countless sacrifices for the sake of the gospel as well (see 2 Corinthians 11:23 – 33). We see by this that the practice of service set the agenda for Paul’s life. (See Mark 10 to learn more about service.) Stewardship Paul was careful not to waste any of the Lord’s money and even refused to receive payment for preaching to the Corinthian church (see 1 Corinthians 9:1 – 18). In turn, Paul encouraged all the churches he had planted to participate in an offering for the Jerusalem believers, who had been devastated by famine and poverty. He taught all believers the importance of regularly setting aside a certain amount to be given to the Lord’s work (see 2 Corinthians 8 – 9). (See Deuteronomy 8 to learn more about stewardship.) Bible Study Paul was a student of God’s Word. But Paul’s study was not simply a matter of academic curiosity — it was an act of worship. Paul’s theology bore the fruit of praise: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! . . . To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:33,36). (See Deuteronomy 17 to learn more about Bible study.) Spiritual Friendship Paul’s deep concern for people is reflected in his constant references to special friends whom he cherished in Christ. Friendship often lays the foundation for discipleship, as with Paul’s relationships both with Timothy and Titus (see 2 Timothy 1:2 – 4; Titus 1:4). (See Genesis 2 to learn more about spiritual friendship.) LESSONS FOR LIFE Even extraordinary people such as Paul are incapable of living the Christian life apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. Underlying all of Paul’s activities is the constant pulse of God’s power, working in and through him. As we undertake God’s high calling in our lives, we must heed Paul’s admonition, “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). We, like Paul, can employ the spiritual disciplines as a way to help us focus on God. Thoughtful practice of these spiritual exercises can remind us of our dependence on God and form channels through which his Spirit can work in us. Article is drawn from the NIV Spiritual Renewal Study Bible

Like a Sudden Trap for the Dissipated Soul If you go to sleep spiritually, you will not be awake to discern the signs of his nearness. [This] is confirmed by the way Jesus speaks of the wise manager and the foolish manager in the following picture of the second coming: Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming,” and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. (Luke 12:42–46) This is a picture of Jesus’s departure to heaven after his resurrection and his leaving his disciples on earth to carry out the ministry he has given them. He probably has ministers of the word in view since he says the master “will set [them] over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time.” But the principle here applies to all Christians. A blessing is pronounced on the faithful manager who does what he was appointed to do. He feeds the household. Nothing is said to him about an unexpected coming of the master while the manager is faithfully carrying out his duties. He has nothing to fear, whenever the master comes, because he is doing his appointed work. But then comes the warning. What if the manager’s heart goes bad and he begins to presume on the master’s delay? “My master is delayed in coming.” What if this presumption leads him to “eat and drink and get drunk”? Jesus says that this drunkenness will result in his being taken off guard by the master’s return. “If that servant . . . begins . . . to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him” (Luke 12:45–46). What are we to infer from this warning? The point is not that an unexpected, any-moment return of the master was overlooked by the drunken manager. The point is that the foolish manager is mentally and spiritually drunk. He has forsaken the master’s will and embraced the stupefying path of worldliness. He is now blind to what is spiritually real. He will be taken off guard by the master when the master comes, because there is no reason to think he will be “sobered up” in, say, five years, or fifty years, when the trumpet sounds. “The master of that [drunken] servant will come on a day when he does not expect” (Luke 12:46). The lesson is this: stay spiritually awake and busy at the master’s work, for if you give way to spiritual stupor (call it sleep or drunkenness), you will be blind to all the signs of danger, and will be taken in judgment suddenly and unexpectedly. Jesus makes the same statement in Luke 21:34: Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. The suddenness and unexpectedness is not owing to an any-moment view of the second coming. It is owing to the spiritual sluggishness of the human heart that is weighed down and dulled by the “cares of this life.” The appearing of Christ becomes a sudden trap not because it could happen any moment, but because the spiritually unseeing will be blind to Christ’s coming even if it happens five years from now, with serious warnings in between. To be spiritually asleep, drunk, or blind portends unexpected destruction even if it could be tomorrow or a decade from now. Paul’s Warning to the Sleeping and Drunk The apostle Paul combines both of the images Jesus uses to make the same point—the image of staying awake (Matt. 25:13) and staying sober (Luke 12:45; 21:34): You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep [μὴ καθεύδωμεν], as others do, but let us keep awake [γρηγορῶμεν] and be sober [νήφωμεν]. (1 Thess. 5:2–6) Paul says that for some, the day of Christ’s coming will be like the destructive surprise of a thief. But for others, it will not be like that. “You are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief” (1 Thess. 5:4). The difference is whether we are in darkness or are “children of the day,” whether we are spiritually asleep or awake, whether we are spiritually drunk or sober. He does not say that the suddenness and unexpectedness of the day is owing to an any-moment return of Christ. Rather, it is owing to an oblivious spiritual condition that says, “peace and security,” because that spiritual condition is one of “darkness” and “sleep” and “drunkenness. Presumption of Delay for the Sake of Sin Is Suicidal My conclusion, therefore, is that Jesus’s repeated command that we be awake, ready, on guard, watchful, and vigilant is not because the second coming will take obedient disciples off guard, but because spiritual stupor results in being oblivious to what is happening in the world, and thus being surprised and trapped and ruined. The uncertainty of the time of Christ’s return functions to warn all of us to be spiritually alive and awake and sober because the alternative is a spiritual condition that will be blind to signs and will not be able to recover from satanic stupor when “the lightning . . . lights up the sky from one side to the other” (Luke 17:24). Any presumption of Christ’s delay to justify worldliness puts a heart in a position of spiritual suicide. Even if we are persuaded that he is three years away, or five, or six (and we never have warrant to think he must be farther away than that), that measure of nearness and the uncertainty combine to make us all the more alert and vigilant over our souls and our lives. We realize that spiritual carelessness will make all our calculations pointless, since we will be spiritually unable to fight the final battle for alertness and endurance. On the other hand, we realize that if we are spiritually awake, in fellowship with Christ, and walking in the light, we will discern “the signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3) and experience his coming not as a surprising thief (1 Thess. 5:4) but as a merciful servant-master (Luke 12:37). Be Alert Means Love the Lord’s Appearing Another way to describe our zeal to be spiritually awake and sober and discerning is to say that we love the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8), or that we are “eagerly waiting for him” (Heb. 9:28; cf. 1 Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20), or that we have “set [our] hope fully on the grace that will be brought to [us] at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). Immediately following Paul’s summons to love the Lord’s appearing in 2 Timothy 4:8, Demas is mentioned as one who loved this world more than the Lord’s appearing. “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me” (2 Tim. 4:10). This is what Jesus is warning against. “Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” (Luke 21:34). Demas fell out of love with the appearing of the Lord Jesus and into love with this world. It made him drunk with the illusions of better things. So in all our discussion of Jesus’s commands to stay awake and sober, we have really been talking about love for the Lord’s appearing. To be spiritually awake and alert is to be in love with the Lord’s coming. The alternative is to fall into the stupor of love for the world and blindness to the beauties of the coming Christ. This is the great answer to how we should live. We should live in love with the appearing of Christ. Living in love with the appearing of Christ is a great anticipatory pleasure. It is a great power to walk in freedom from sin. It is a great protection from deception in the last days. To be spiritually awake and alert is to be in love with the Lord’s coming. This article is adapted from Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ by John Piper.

1. The fall refers to the rebellion of God’s image-bearers in the garden of Eden. Genesis 3 is a threshold in the Bible’s storyline. While dwelling in a sacred space and surrounded by the blessings of God, Adam and Eve did what God had forbidden. God had made them in his image, but they defied his word and sought a kind of knowledge in an unsanctioned way. Made for communion with God, they experienced alienation. Made for trust and hope and life abundant, they descended into sin and shame. They fell. 2. The fall is a nonnegotiable piece of the Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation paradigm. One of the most popular schemas for the Bible’s “big story” is the fourfold chain of words: creation, fall, redemption, consummation. Creation tells us what God made, the fall tells us what happened to it, redemption tells us what God has done to address what happened, and consummation tells us where everything is headed. If the notion of the fall were removed, the implications would be disastrous. Let’s engage in a thought experiment. If there is creation but no fall, then what explains all that has gone wrong in the world? If there is redemption but no fall, why would redemption be necessary? If there is consummation but no fall, why would the Christian’s hope be oriented toward a new heavens and new earth and resurrection life? 3. The serpent in Genesis 3 was Satan, the archnemesis of God and God’s people. The tempter in Genesis 3 does not have the best interests of Adam and Eve in mind. The serpent counters and twists God’s words. But throughout the account, the tempter is never called by name. If interpreters suspect that this is Satan himself tempting Eve, they would be correct, because he is certainly the archenemy of God’s people and the purposes of God. The New Testament confirms this identification. God told the serpent that it would be crushed (Gen. 3:15), and Paul told the Romans that “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20). John says in Revelation, “The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). 4. The fall is treated as a historical event by later Scripture. Because the Holy Spirit has inspired the writings of Genesis through Revelation, and because God does not err, we can trust the biblical accounts in what they reveal about God and God’s dealings with the world he’s made. Later Scripture does not contradict earlier Scripture, but we continually see how earlier Scripture is clarified and confirmed by the progressive revelation across the writings of the biblical authors. In Romans 5:12–21, the obedience of Christ contrasts the disobedience of Adam. In 1 Corinthians 15:21, Paul says that “by a man came death.” And in 2 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Timothy 2:14, he mentions the deception of Eve. The New Testament treats the Old Testament account of the fall as a historical rebellion of a real Adam and a real Eve. 5. Adam acted not just for himself but as the representative—or federal head—of humanity. God made Adam and placed him in a garden to work it and to keep it (Gen. 2:7, 15). Adam was the first image-bearer, he was the first to hear a command of God (Gen. 2:16–17), and he had dominion over the animals (Gen. 1:26–28; Gen. 2:19–20). He was the head, the representative, of mankind. Paul rightly recognizes the crucial role Adam occupied. He told the Romans that “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Rom. 5:12). Human beings come into this world spiritually dead “in Adam” (1 Cor. 15:22). 6. The fall has explanatory power for what we see around us. You and I know that things aren’t the way they should be. In Ecclesiastes, the author meditates on the reality of sorrow and death under the sun. In Romans 8, Paul says that creation is groaning for liberation because it has been subjected to futility (Rom. 8:20–22). Disease and destruction mark a Genesis 3 world. While God’s creation is good, the corruption of sin and death has wreaked havoc. We see the sorrowful things of the world around us and we know that injustice cries out for justice, that fractured lives long for wholeness, and that the moral guilt weighing upon the consciences of God’s image-bearers needs a remedy. Genesis 3 is a useful apologetic for Christians as we help others around us see why things are the way they are. 7. The account of the fall included actions of shame-covering and blame-shifting. A characteristic of this Genesis 3 world is people responding wrongly to shameful acts. When Adam and Eve had sinned against the Lord, they felt shame about their nakedness and sewed fig leaves for themselves. Their instinct was to cover their own shame. Then, when they discerned the approach of the Lord, they hid among the trees of the garden (Gen. 3:8). Their response was to withdraw, to conceal themselves. They were afraid. God questioned Adam, and Adam pointed to Eve. Then God questioned Eve, and she pointed to the serpent. The notion of blame-shifting is as old as the garden of Eden. The practice of trying to cover our shame with our own efforts is as old as Eden too. Neither fig leaves nor finger-pointing helped their situation, but that didn’t stop them from trying—and it doesn’t stop us from trying. 8. The divine pronouncements of judgment included a promise of victory. God pronounced consequences to the serpent, to the woman, and to the man (Gen. 3:14–19). These pronouncements included a promise: the serpent would be defeated by a future son from Eve. This good news meant that the vile creature who had twisted God’s words and tempted God’s people would be subdued himself. God told the serpent, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). This promise is the seedbed of messianic prophecy. Jesus would be the seed of the woman crushing the serpent. But this victory would come at a cost. The serpent would strike the heel of the promised son, which implies the son’s suffering. When we look at Genesis 3:15 in the fullness of canonical revelation, we can rightly see that messianic hope begins with a promise of victory through suffering. 9. Adam named Eve as an act of faith. Adam and Eve did not experience an immediate physical death in Genesis 3. They were exiled from Eden (Gen. 3:22–24). But before leaving the garden, “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” This naming was an act of faith. Adam and Eve had received pronouncements of judgment in Genesis 3:16–19, yet they heard about a future son who would come from Eve (Gen. 3:15). Because the woman would be the mother of the living—her descendants—she was named “Eve,” which sounds like the Hebrew word for “living.” Her name showed faith in God’s promise. God promised future offspring, and Adam believed him. 10. The failure in the garden anticipated faithfulness in a garden. The garden of Eden isn’t the only garden in Scripture where testing took place. In the New Testament Gospels, the Lord Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane when he is arrested and taken to a series of Jewish and Roman trials. He was moving ever closer toward the cross, and in Gethsemane, he had resolved to do the will of God—which would mean taking the cup of divine judgment in our stead (Matt. 26:36–42). Gethsemane was not a garden of failure for Christ. He was not like the first Adam who failed to trust the Lord and who defied God’s will. The Son of God, the seed of the woman, faced the agonies of Gethsemane with resolve and perseverance. He did not turn. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross (Heb. 12:2). In the first garden, the first Adam had failed. In a future garden, the last Adam was faithful. We see the sorrowful things of the world around us, and we know that injustice cries out for justice, that fractured lives long for wholeness . . . Mitchell L. Chase is the author of Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall.

Psalm 46 is a beloved passage in which the psalmist declared that no matter what was happening around him, God was his refuge and strength. Safe in the assurance that he is God, we can wait on him even amid chaos. He is still on his throne. You may not be in prison, but you may be infertile or inactive or in limbo or in between jobs or in search of health, help, a house, or a spouse. Are you in God’s waiting room? If so, here is what you need to know: while you wait, God works. “My Father is always at his work,” Jesus said (John 5:17). God never twiddles his thumbs. He never stops. He takes no vacations. He rested on the seventh day of creation but got back to work on the eighth and hasn’t stopped since. Joseph’s story appeared to stall out in Genesis 40. Our hero was in shackles. The train was off the tracks. History was in a holding pattern. But while Joseph was waiting, God was working. He assembled the characters. God placed the butler in Joseph’s care. He stirred the sleep of the king with odd dreams. He confused Pharaoh’s counselors. And at just the right time, God called Joseph to duty. He’s working for you as well. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10) reads the sign on God’s waiting room wall. You can be glad because God is good. You can be still because he is active. You can rest because he is busy. Remember God’s word through Moses to the Israelites? “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today . . . The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13–14). The Israelites saw the Red Sea ahead of them and heard the Egyptian soldiers thundering after them. Death on both sides. Stand still? Are you kidding? But what the former slaves couldn’t see was the hand of God at the bottom of the water, creating a path, and his breath from heaven, separating the waters. God was working for them. God worked for Mary, the mother of Jesus. The angel told her that she would become pregnant. The announcement stirred a torrent of questions in her heart. How would she become pregnant? What would people think? What would Joseph say? Yet God was working for her. He sent a message to Joseph, her fiancé. God prompted Caesar to declare a census. God led the family to Bethlehem. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28). You’ll get through this waiting room season. Pay careful note, and you will detect the most wonderful surprise. The doctor will step out of his office and take the seat next to yours. “Just thought I’d keep you company while you are waiting.” Not every physician will do that, but yours will. After all, he is the Great Physician. Application Are you in a season of waiting? Can’t see God working in your life? Get still before the Lord and journal a prayer telling him how you feel. Ask him to help you trust that he’s working on your behalf. By Max Lucado from the NIV Lucado Encouraging Word Bible.

Women as Image Bearers You can barely open your computer, watch Netflix, go to a movie, or follow popular music without encountering our culture’s objectification, negation, and sexual exploitation of women. Our society attaches a woman’s worth to her beauty or views them only as objects for sexual pleasure; the degrading of female image bearers is all around us. Why are female pop stars pressured to dress provocatively? Why are fashions designed not to cover the woman’s body but to expose it? Why do countless women find the workplace to be sexually threatening? Why are a woman’s breasts often more esteemed than her brain? Popular media oppresses women with norms of beauty that literally take surgery to obtain. How far away have we fallen from the dignity of women as image bearers of God himself? When it comes to the value, dignity, significance, and uniqueness of the imprint of the image of God, men and women are equals. Hear these words again: “So God created man in his own image, / in the image of God he created him, / male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). To reduce a woman down to the shape of her body, to dishonor, denigrate, or objectify her, or to negate the value of her gifts and her God-given contribution as one of his image-bearing resident managers, dishonors not only her but God himself. I wish I could say that the issue of devaluing the image-bearing giftedness of women is an issue only outside the church, but I cannot. Now, I do believe that God has designed different roles for men and women in his church. I think Scripture is quite clear that the role of pastor/ elder is, by God’s design, for men. But I also am convinced that we have undervalued and underutilized the God-given and essential gifts of women. The Bible does not teach that the primary role for women is in the home. The Bible does not teach that a woman’s spirituality comes through her husband. The Bible does not teach that a woman’s life will only be complete if she is married. The Bible does not forbid a woman from being highly educated and having a successful career. The Bible does not prohibit women from leading men in political, education, and business situations. Valuing Women’s Gifts Let me give you two examples of how these truths connect to the life and health of the body of Christ. One woman in the church where we are members is a professor of black history at a local college. She is not only a historian, but she is a theologian whom God has used to help our church think through and navigate issues of race. Because her gifts are valued, she has been an essential contributor to the health of our church in tumultuous times. Her combination of historical expertise and gospel literacy is a gift of God to our church, but it is important to note that giftedness had to be recognized by leadership and given a voice in order for our congregation to be helped and blessed by it. Years ago I was one of the pastor/elders of a church in the Philadelphia suburbs. Once a year we would go away for an elders’ retreat with our wives. We would eat together and do activities together. But when it came time to discuss the church, the men would go into one room for those talks while the women went to another room to share parenting stories and recipes. Luella, my dear wife, found it both strange and uncomfortable. She reminded me that each of these wise and godly ladies had a different experience of the church than the elders did, and it might be helpful to hear from them. She wasn’t asking for women elders but for the gifts and experiences of women to be valued and given expression. So one Saturday morning after breakfast the women joined the men in a discussion about church. It was one of the most important and eye-opening conversations the elders had ever had. We learned things about ourselves and the life, culture, and ministry of our church that we would have never known any other way. As the women lovingly shared with us, some of our weaknesses and failures were exposed. We began to see these women as not only wives and mothers but also as God’s gifted image bearers, built by him to be essential contributors to the life and health of his church. We scheduled a time for our wives to be part of the conversation at every retreat after that. A woman who comes to her pastor with a concern about issues in the church, questions about a sermon, or concerns about leadership attitudes or decisions should not be brushed off, wrongly criticized, dismissed, or silenced. A woman who has not gotten married or who has pursued a career should not be judged. Married women should not be viewed as attachments to their husbands but rather as God-called and God-gifted contributing members of the body of Christ who happen to be married. Women do not experience the body of Christ as men do. Women see things that men don’t see. Women communicate truth differently than men. A body of Christ is healthiest when women are esteemed and their gifts highly valued, not just in the home but also in the church. The church needs highly trained women theologians. The church needs to give voices to gifted gospel-communicating women. We need to encourage gospel-wise women to write. To do anything less fails to treat women with the honor that was stamped on them at creation. One of the ways to build a culture that values the essentiality of the gifts of women in the body of Christ is to highlight the robust role that women had in God’s unfolding plan of redemption in Scripture. As you walk your way through biblical history, it becomes clear that the work of God is not solely a man’s domain; it is the ambassadorial calling of men and women alike. Sarah, Rebekah, Miriam, Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Esther, Anna, Mary, Elizabeth, Mary Magdalene, and Phoebe are just a few of the women God used to move along his plan of redemption. Men and women are called to be Christ’s disciples, his instruments, his representatives, and his messengers. We should teach this history to our boys and girls. We want boys to grow into men who value the presence and gifts of women in the body of Christ, and we want girls to be clear about their calling and the need to hone the gifts God has given them. The theology of the image of God in all people should radically influence the way we view and respond to women, co-image bearers by God’s design. This theology calls us away from denigrating and objectifying women and calls us to honor them as those who bear the very likeness of God himself. It calls us to honor their gifts, to give their unique experience a voice, and to train them for work as God’s agents in the world and as essential members of his church. Hear Spurgeon: We cannot say to the women, “Go home, there is nothing for you to do in the service of the Lord.” Far from it, we entreat Martha and Mary, Lydia and Dorcas and all the elect sisterhood, young and old, rich and poor, to instruct others as God instructs them. Young men and maidens, old men and matrons, yes—and boys and girls who love the Lord—should speak well of Jesus and make known His salvation from day to day. The theology of the image of God in all people should radically influence the way we view and respond to women, co-image bearers by God’s design. This article is adapted from Do You Believe?: 12 Historic Doctrines to Change Your Everyday Life by Paul David Tripp.

Throughout John 15, we read about the way in which God deals with three different kinds of branches. First, we read about what God does with unproductive branches, and if truth be told, it sounds a little harsh: “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit” (John 15:2). Hmm … well, that doesn’t sound encouraging. That sounds like if we aren’t good enough, if we don’t produce enough, God cuts us off. He moves on without us. If what that sounds like is what actually happens, then none of us stand a chance at experiencing a life of connection with the Vine. But if the Gardener simply cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, then it seems contradictory to what Jesus will go on to teach about the vine and the branches. Jesus promises that if we remain in him and stay connected with him, we will bear fruit (John 15:5). So how can Jesus say that God “cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit”? He seems to suggest that it’s possible to be connected with the vine without bearing fruit and that if you’re not bearing fruit, God has no use for you. Is that how our relationship with God works? Does he cut off everyone who hasn’t earned a certain number of gold stars? Does he tolerate us as long as our production numbers are up and to the right, but if we begin to wither and don’t bear enough fruit, he “cuts us off”? Cut off or Picked Up In Greek, the word for “cut off” is airo. It is a relatively common word in the New Testament, and it generally means something along the lines of “remove” or “lift up.” So it’s reasonable to conclude, as the NIV does, that Jesus is talking about a gardener cutting off or “removing” the dying branches. If that’s an accurate translation, then perhaps it’s because God as Gardener is removing branches that have died but have yet to fall from the vine—like cutting down a tree that is dead but hasn’t yet fallen. At the same time, an equally valid translation is that God “picks up” or “lifts up” the dying branches. The word airo appears twenty-six times in the gospel of John. Check out how it’s used in John 5:8, where Jesus says to a paralyzed man, “Pick up your mat and walk.” We see it again in John 8:59 where the religious leaders, who are furious with Jesus, “picked up stones to stone him.” Yes, it can refer to taking something away, but it can also refer to picking something up. So Jesus might be saying that God the Gardener “cuts off” dead branches, but he might also be saying that God “picks up” dying branches. Those are vastly different interpretations with two very different implications. How we understand and define airo will determine how we connect with God when our way isn’t working. When we become too much trouble or are too high-maintenance, when we ignore what he has clearly said and disobey what he has told us, when we wither and struggle to produce good fruit, is God the kind of gardener who picks us up or cuts us off? Many of us have lived lives of disconnection and have been resistant to seek reconnection with Jesus because we have a “cut you off” theology. We know what we have done and what we haven’t done. We know a lot of gold stars are missing from our chart in heaven. If we were God, we know deep down what we would do with us. And so we assume rejection and keep our distance. I wonder how often we’ve disconnected with God. We wrongly think we’ve been cut off and that he’s done with us. We feel rejected and discarded, so we stop coming to church and we give up on praying. What’s the point if God isn’t going to respond to our messages? We assume we did something wrong or maybe we just didn’t earn enough gold stars, but we convince ourselves that we’ve been cut off. The Bible makes it clear. God is “slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 103:8) and will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5). But when we think about what we have done or have not done, we tend to assume that God is a vengeful gardener with a machete in hand, ready to lop off any branch that isn’t producing enough fruit. We try to be good enough to keep God from snapping, but we’re not sure what the standard for “good enough” is. Thus we spend our lives oscillating between self-righteousness (because we think we’ve met the standard) and shame (because we’re certain that we’ve fallen short). I truly believe that God loves me, forgives me, and has saved me from my sin. I know that those things are true, but if I’m honest, I sometimes feel that God is frustrated with me. I feel like he barely tolerates me and if I don’t start producing some serious fruit, he’s going to cut me off. You’ve felt that too? This subtle but malignant misunderstanding of God probably stems from a different place for every person. It could be your hometown preacher who shouted about God’s truth and whispered about God’s grace. It could be your ex who snuck out of the picture as soon as your personality became problematic, leaving you to feel as though loving you is a burden that no one is able to carry. It could be that when you ran out of gas on the side of the road, you knew you had better not call your dad because when he shows up, he’s going to be furious. It could be the series of tragedies that plagued your life, causing you to question whether God was punishing you for not being good enough. Ultimately, the real source of this is an enemy who wants to convince you that you have been ghosted by God and that he is going to cut you off. A Visit to a Local Vineyard Which is it? Cut off or picked up? One of my favorites passages of Scripture is Romans 8:38–39. Here the apostle Paul pushes back against the feeling that God has rejected us: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am not sure if Paul could state any more clearly that the love of God for us is unchangeable. Nothing can alter it. Not your wasted time, not your apathetic indifference, not your passive disobedience, not your divorce, not your addiction, not your affair, not your procrastination, not your bad habits, not your short temper, not your harsh words, not your biggest regret, not your blank gold-star-sticker chart—nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The definition of airo became even clearer to me when I spent some time one day walking with the owner of a local vineyard. I asked him questions about how he cared for the branches. Listening to him, and more importantly watching him, gave me a clearer picture of God as the gardener. He sees a branch that is connected with the vine but has no fruit on it. This branch is in the dirt, surrounded by weeds that are growing up around it. It’s withered and is struggling, but it’s still connected with the vine. As long as it’s connected with the vine, there is hope. So what does the gardener do? He gently picks it up and untangles it from the weeds. He cleans it off and tenderly intertwines it with some of the other branches so that it can be held up and restored. The gardener’s goal is to airo withering branches so that their connection can be strengthened and fruit can begin to grow. When it’s clear that your way hasn’t worked for you and you find yourself covered in dirt and surrounded by weeds, there is a gardener with a graceful heart and gentle hands who longs to pick you up. As a once-withered branch myself, I’m immensely grateful for the kind of gardener God is. He saw me in the dirt, gently picked me up with graceful hands, cleaned me off, and placed me where I could grow and experience life once again. A Branch in the Dirt I was speaking at an event where I had the opportunity to meet a man I’ll call Adam. Adam shared with me that a number of years ago, he had spent some time in prison. He didn’t say what he had been convicted of, and I didn’t ask. When he went into prison, he was illiterate, unable to read or write. But another inmate, who was a Christian, offered to teach Adam to read by using the Bible. This inmate spent hours and hours teaching Adam to read. Eventually, Adam not only learned to read about Jesus, but he became a follower of Jesus. Adam said that when he was released, he tried to get connected with a church in the small town where he lived. But people in the church found out about his background, and a number of them felt uncomfortable with him being there. They didn’t think he belonged with the “healthy branches.” One prominent family—longtime members of the church who to all appearances had produced all kinds of fruit—finally told the pastor he would need to ask Adam to go or they were going to leave. In their minds, it was time for Adam to officially be cut off. The pastor explained to this family that Jesus had come for people like Adam. The family ended up leaving, and others threatened to follow. Adam started thinking that maybe he had made too much of a mess of his life and that he ought to disconnect from God and the church. One Sunday night after the sermon, the pastor asked Adam to come up front. Adam immediately knew what was going to happen. He was sure the pastor had found out about his crimes and was going to tell everyone—and then cut him off. He made his way to the front with his head down. He was so ashamed over what was about to happen. Some of the church members present at the service wanted Adam to leave, but they wished the pastor would just remove him quietly. It’d be less awkward that way. When Adam reached the front, the pastor said he needed to talk to the church about a decision he had made. He explained that since being released, Adam had not been able to find work. The pastor said, “I brought Adam up here because I wanted to offer him a job. Adam, I’d like to hire you to help take care of the church facilities.” And then the pastor put his hand in his pocket and pulled out an extra set of church keys and told Adam the keys were for him so he could open and close the church on Sundays. As Adam is telling me his story, tears are running down his cheeks. He told me he had never had a key to anything his entire life. He felt loved and accepted. He felt picked up and connected. By the way, I should mention where I met Adam. I wasn’t speaking at a prison; I was speaking at a pastors conference. Adam had been handed the keys to the church six years earlier, and he’s now a pastor at that church. I don’t know what you would do with you or what others would do with you, but I know what God wants to do with you. No matter how spiritually dry or dead you might feel, no matter how unproductive your life has been, no matter how long you’ve been lying in the dirt and caught up in the weeds, God the gracious gardener wants to gently pick you up and clean you off. Adapted from When Your Way Isn’t Working: Finding Purpose and Contentment through Deep Connection with Jesus by Kyle Idleman.

Jesus's Countercultural View of Women The place of women in the first-century Roman world and in Judaism has been well-documented and set forth in several recent books. Most frequently, women were regarded as second-class citizens. Jesus’s regard for women was much different from that of his contemporaries. Evans terms Jesus’s approach to women as “revolutionary” for his era. But was his treatment of women out of character with Old Testament revelation, or with later New Testament practice? Other chapters in this volume will show that it was not. Disciples Come in Two Sexes, Male and Female For Christ, women have an intrinsic value equal to that of men. Jesus said, “. . . at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’” (Matt. 19:4; cf. Gen. 1:27). Women are created in the image of God just as men are. Like men, they have self-awareness, personal freedom, a measure of self-determination, and personal responsibility for their actions. Scanzoni and Hardesty point out that “Jesus came to earth not primarily as a male but as a person. He treated women not primarily as females but as human beings.” Jesus recognized women as fellow human beings. Disciples come in two sexes, male and female. Females are seen by Jesus as genuine persons, not simply as the objects of male desire. Hurley believes “the foundation-stone of Jesus’s attitude toward women was his vision of them as persons to whom and for whom he had come. He did not perceive them primarily in terms of their sex, age, or marital status; he seems to have considered them in terms of their relation (or lack of one) to God.” Three Clear Examples Examples of this even-handed treatment of women by Jesus are found in the four Gospels. First, Jesus regularly addressed women directly while in public. This was unusual for a man to do (John 4:27). The disciples were amazed to see Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar (John 4:7-26). He also spoke freely with the woman taken in adultery (John 8:10–11). Luke, who gives ample attention to women in his Gospel, notes that Jesus spoke publicly with the widow of Nain (Luke 7:12–13), the woman with the bleeding disorder (Luke 8:48; cf. Matt. 9:22; Mark 5:34), and a woman who called to him from a crowd (Luke 11:27–28). Similarly, Jesus addressed a woman bent over for eighteen years (Luke 13:12) and a group of women on the route to the cross (Luke 23:27-31). A second aspect of Jesus’s regard for the full intrinsic value of women is seen in how he spoke to the women he addressed. He spoke in a thoughtful, caring manner. Each synoptic writer records Jesus addressing the woman with the bleeding disorder tenderly as “daughter” (references above) and referring to the bent woman as a “daughter of Abraham” (Luke 13:16). Bloesch infers that “Jesus called the Jewish women ‘daughters of Abraham’ (Luke 13:16), thereby according them a spiritual status equal to that of men.” Third, Jesus did not gloss over sin in the lives of the women he met. He held women personally responsible for their own sin as seen in his dealings with the woman at the well (John 4:16–18), the woman taken in adultery (John 8:10–11), and the sinful woman who anointed his feet (Luke 7:44–50). Their sin was not condoned, but confronted. Each had the personal freedom and a measure of self-determination to deal with the issues of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. Jesus's Valuation of Women Today Even though clear role distinction is seen in Christ’s choice of the apostles and in the exclusive type of work they were given to perform, no barriers need exist between a believer and the Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of gender. Jesus demonstrated only the highest regard for women, in both his life and teaching. He recognized the intrinsic equality of men and women, and continually showed the worth and dignity of women as persons. Jesus valued their fellowship, prayers, service, financial support, testimony and witness. He honored women, taught women, and ministered to women in thoughtful ways. As a result, women responded warmly to Jesus’s ministry. Have things changed too drastically today for us to see this same Jesus? Not at all. Modern women can find the same rich fulfillment in serving Christ as did the Marys and Marthas of Judea, or the Joannas and Susannas of Galilee. For Christ, women have an intrinsic value equal to that of men. This article is adapted from Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism by James A. Borland, edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem.

A Belated Announcement I once heard a pastor say that we are the belated announcement of what we have been thinking about for the past thirty days. I have never forgotten it. I can see now that his words rang true because they were a paraphrase of the tenth word. In a list of clear prohibitions, the tenth word is unexpected. For all the other nine, our neighbor could hold us to account fairly simply by gathering witnesses to testify to our compliance or lack thereof. But here, at the end of the list, we find a sin of a different nature. Idol-making, Sabbath-breaking, dishonoring authority, murder, theft, adultery, and slander can all be identified by an onlooker, but not so covetousness. Covetousness hides in the heart. The Ten Words progress from “Don’t do it” to “Don’t say it” to “Don’t even think about it.” Jesus has drawn for us a connection to the underlying sin of contempt in his teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. And here, the tenth word acknowledges the truth of his teaching, for no one ever set out to sin against God or neighbor without first desiring something out of bounds. Covetousness and contempt hold hands, for no one ever sought to take from God or neighbor without first desiring to diminish them. Covetousness is a personal offense. We have seen it in the story of Adam and Eve, who covet what is God’s alone. We have seen it in the subsequent story of Cain, who covets what is his brother’s. In both of those stories, no human witnesses could be raised to testify to the sins of desire that preceded the sins of action. But there was one who bore witness. The God who sees bears witness to every sinful desire. The tenth word reminds us at the conclusion of what we understood at the outset: there are no gods before God. It is God who bears witness to our compliance to the tenth word. Long before our covetous desires take the visible shape of words or deeds, Yahweh bears witness against us. If we were to remember this, more readily confessing our sin at the point of desire, perhaps the words of James would not prove so prophetic in our lives: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14–15). Desire is a living thing, conceived in the secret place and seeking to grow to maturity. Our words and actions are the birth cry of our mature desires. They are the belated announcement of what we have been thinking about for the past week, month, decade—an unholy and gruesome birth, gestated in our hearts, a confession of a crooked course we committed to some time ago. The tenth word is warning us about promiscuity of thought, and of the heart as a fertile womb. The grammarian in me does not love a mixed metaphor, but when it emerges from the biblical text, I put to death the grammarian in me. The heart is a place where sin gestates. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. The tenth word is also unexpected because, like the Sabbath command and the stealing command, it anticipates wealth before Israel has it. The itemizing of house, spouse, servants, and animals paints a portrait of wealth. Only a wealthy neighbor would have such an inventory of covet-worthy status symbols. A nation of recently freed slaves has little to covet. In the earliest years of their freedom, there would have been little stratification of wealth or situation. Yet God prepares them in advance for the social and emotional complexities that would come their way as wealth increased among the children of God. Just as he decreed rest before any might be tempted to profit off the constant labor of another, God forbids coveting before any might have reason to do so. What a mercy that God sees the end from the beginning. He engraves good boundaries for us even before we know we need them. Be Content For certainly we need the tenth word, today as much as then. Stated in the positive, “Do not covet” becomes “Be content.” Covetousness hurts the community because it keeps close company with stinginess. The less content we are with our own possessions, relationships, or circumstances, the less inclined we will be toward the generosity that helps the community flourish. It is contentment we see thriving in the early church in Acts, where everything was shared as any had need (Acts 2:42–47). We do not share with a neighbor when we perceive our own needs to be paramount. Covetousness whispers that we deserve that which has been given to our neighbor. Contentment states plainly that God has given what is good. Once we connect contentment to covetousness, we can take steps to combat our ungodly desire for the good others have been given. It turns out that contentment is not something that drops from the heavens like manna. It turns out that the route to contentment is open to us if we look for it. Paul gives us the spectacles to see it, in one of the most familiar passages in the New Testament: I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned( in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned* the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:10–13) If contentment has been a losing battle for you, if coveting comfort or cash or companions has been your common state, let the good news sink in: contentment is learned. It is learned according to the typical pattern of sanctification: through experience, by the power of him who strengthens us. Paul assures us it can be done, and done beyond the bare minimum. He says we can learn contentment in all things. But where do we start? If we determine to learn contentment and unlearn coveting, we must start by becoming good students of what fuels our desires. Note how the progression from house to people to status symbols and “anything that belongs to your neighbor” instructs us in three key areas of coveting: stuff, relationships, circumstances. Coveting what someone else has is always a function of a wrong expectation. It is predicated on the idea that we deserve what others have. It feeds on comparison, that old thief of joy, which explains why the covetous person leads a joyless existence of dissatisfaction and contempt. We compare our own situation to that of someone else and allow our expectation to take shape accordingly. The gap between our expectation and our reality is where discontentment and covetousness thrive. As long as our expectations exceed our current reality, we will be particularly prone to break the tenth word. It is not wrong to have expectations for our stuff, our relationships, and our circumstances—it is just wrong to have unrealistic expectations. As the tenth word points out, we are deeply concerned with keeping up with the Joneses. We want to have a kitchen like their kitchen, a marriage like their marriage, vacations and cars like theirs, smart and athletic children like theirs, flexible work arrangements like theirs. Whatever they’ve got, we would like—only slightly better, as long as we’re making an adjustment to the balance sheets. Why do we want it? We illustrate the wisdom of the French proverb: “What makes us discontented with our condition is the absurdly exaggerated idea we have of the happiness of others.” When we look at our neighbor and covet his stuff, relationships, or circumstances, we commit the grave error of assuming that his stuff, relationships, or circumstances have made him happier than we are. We are actually ridiculous enough to think that if we had what he had, we would be happy. On Earth as in Heaven What is more exhausting than covetousness? What is more wearying than comparing to confirm a suspicion that someone else has it better than we do? What is more like Satan than to want what belongs to another? In the new heavens and earth, we will cease our coveting. We will not be tied to comparison, at last gazing unhindered on the one without compare. We will have obtained fully the pearl of great price. We will have unearthed completely the treasure hidden in a field. We will be free of the suspicion that someone else has it better than we do. We will know beyond a doubt that the greatest possession, the purest relationship, the highest circumstance is ours for eternity. We will enjoy in full the great gain of godliness with contentment. But godliness with contentment is great gain here and now. Why wait until then to live as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? When we reject covetousness and embrace the tenth word, we pray “Thy kingdom come.” We fix our eyes heavenward, and we open our hearts to seek the well-being of our neighbor, free from envy. What is more like Christ than to want the good of our neighbor? What better way to spend this life than in the laying down of pointless comparison and the taking up of comparison to Christ? This is the here-and-now abundant life offered to us through the words of the tenth commandment, the life that holy desire alone can bring forth. The gap between our expectation and our reality is where discontentment and covetousness thrive. This article is adapted from Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands by Jen Wilkin.

Dreaming has an essential role in developing your faith and helping you become the kind of person God has always intended you to be. There is an important connection between dreaming and believing, between your imagination and your growth. Without a dream, you get stuck. But with God-inspired dreams, you have almost limitless possibilities. Before you took your first breath, God had already placed the gift of imagination into your brain. God hardwired creativity into every cell of your body. The Bible says you were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). Part of what is included in being made in God’s image is the ability to dream and create something out of nothing. This ability to dream of something you have not yet experienced is a God-given capacity that sets humans apart from the rest of God’s creation. Fish can’t imagine flying or even living out of water. Birds can’t imagine living underwater. But humans have dreamed of both of these, and so much more, for ages. Dreaming is an important part of what makes you human. People dream great dreams. They imagine creating and doing things often years before those things become reality. Everything that humanity has accomplished in history started as a dream. Napoleon once said, “Imagination rules the world!” Your dreams profoundly shape your identity, your happiness, your achievements, and your fulfillment. But God-inspired dreaming is far more important than just these benefits. Dreaming has eternal implications too. Dreaming is always the first step God uses in his process to change your life for the better. Everything starts as a dream. God dreams. Just look around! Everything in the universe is something God dreamed up. You can’t get past the first phrase of the first verse of the first chapter of the Bible without coming face-to-face with God’s creativity. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created.” God imagined and spoke everything into existence. It all began in the mind of God. The Bible says, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:3-4). Just by looking at nature, we can learn a lot about God. We can see that God is powerful. We can see that God loves beauty. We can see that God cares about details. We can see that God is organized. He has created all kinds of coordinated systems that interrelate—in the galaxies, in our environment, in our bodies, and in many other ways. Science continues to uncover new relationships between systems that we were previously unaware of. Most of all, we see God’s creativity in nature. Our Creator is extravagantly creative. Just think of all the plants and animals that fill our planet. He dreamed up the millions of variations in creatures and vegetation—and then he created you. He gave you the ability to create too, by giving you the capacity to dream, imagine, and plan. Children are naturally creative dreamers. We learn by playing make-believe. You dreamed of doing things in your mind long before you actually did them. Yes, children are instinctively creative dreamers who imagine all kinds of things that adults know are “impossible.” What happens to all that joyful creativity and dreaming? It gets crushed, stuffed, suppressed, stifled, and destroyed by others over time. It’s tragic but true. Typically, the older we get, the less we imagine and create. What does all of this have to do with your spiritual development? Everything! Most people are unaware of the important connection between dreaming and faith. But men and women of deep faith have always been great dreamers. They didn’t stop dreaming after childhood. The Bible is filled with examples of adult dreamers: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Esther, and many more. Instead of settling for the way things are in the world, people with strong faith imagine the possibilities of what could happen if they just trusted God a little bit more. Great faith inspires great dreams. Great dreams require great faith. In many ways, a great dream is a statement of faith. Certainly, announcing your dream publicly requires faith because other people are likely to reject it. To courageously imagine or dream of a better future for yourself, for your family, or for others is an act of faith. You are saying, “I believe that things can change and can be different, and I believe that God will enable me to accomplish it!” Trusting God always makes God happy. The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). I believe God is pleased that you are reading this right now. You matter to God, and he is not finished with your life. This is the beginning of something wonderful. Adapted from Created to Dream: The 6 Phases God Uses to Grow Your Faith by Rick Warren.