“When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son…” (Gl. 4:4-7)

In that passage (and also in Rom. 8), Christ’s apostle talks about us calling God our abba—our father. That word, used only three times in the whole Bible, is Aramaic (not Hebrew) for ‘father’ and is used exclusively to describe our relationship with our heavenly Father. It’s a rudimentary word—a set of syllables that children can learn very early in life (similar to ‘dada’ in English). And, as many preachers and teachers have said, it communicates closeness, dependency, and intimacy; like an infant’s total dependence on and closeness with his father. Many have likened its connotation to the close comfort of the English word ‘daddy.’

But there’s another important aspect to the word: the imperative of obedience. One author told about a simple exchange he overheard between a Jewish father and son in the Tel Aviv airport: the father said to the son, “When I ask you to do something, I want you to call me abba.” And that’s how it functions in God’s word, too. Every time that the word is used in the Bible, it’s in a context that emphasizes obeying the father. Jesus prayed with that word when he said, “Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mk. 14:36). Paul talked about our willful obedience as sons of God; not just him controlling us as slaves (Rm. 8:15, Gl. 4:6).

A son who looks up to his father as ‘abba’ recognizes their intimacy and also his own submission to the father. Like an adult son who has been placed in charge of his father’s estates because his father has learned that he can trust the son, God asks us to steward his grace on Earth — to live and lead his way; not our own. And like sons and daughters who are both close to our father and immensely respectful of his authority, we pray to “our Father who is in Heaven.” He is our God; our Maker; our Redeemer; our Savior… our abba. And we are his dutiful, close, trusting sons.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Captains Lewis and Clark led the expedition that mapped a route from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean in the time before any road system, no matter how primitive, could connect the two places. It is remarkable (to me) to think of the comparatively long times that all travel and communication took in their time. In their time, it took a stagecoach three full days to go from Boston to New York; a distance we travel today in 4 hours or less. So while a land trip like Lewis’ and Clark’s might take us two to four days, it took them well over a year.

That sort of slowness and difficulty is a very different foundation for understanding the world than I am used to. From my perspective, it takes an almost otherworldly level of diligence to not become discouraged in the face of such long and daunting commitments.

Diligence is a crucial component part of Christian perseverance. It’s an outlook that always keeps a clear objective at the forefront of our minds. It’s an outlook that receives difficulties, setbacks, and disasters as bad but also surmountable. It’s an outlook that dwells short on difficulties, choosing to focus unwaveringly on doing the next right thing. It’s an outlook that does what’s required, even when there’s no reward in sight for doing so. It’s an outlook that never, ever gives up or turns back. And it's an outlook that allows us to realize the full assurance of our hope (Hb. 6:11-12).

Since the Christian way is a lifelong pursuit, we will be continually adding diligent steadfastness to our faith. Peter doesn’t get far past his initial instructions about faith additions before he is again encouraging us to be diligent in our walk of faith: “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall” (2 Pt. 1:10). The concepts must go together, and together they keep us in forward motion at all times, regardless of the exacting or tiring nature of our journey. They keep us devoted over the long (or sometimes VERY long) haul. They keep us from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

- Dan Lankford, minister

It often takes more strength to be properly gentle. We’ve all seen a child struggling to open a bag of chips, knowing that when the bag finally gives way, chips will fly everywhere. But give that same bag of chips to an adult with stronger hands, and a gentle approach can be taken that doesn’t damage or waste anything.

The same is true with relationships. Young husbands and wives are often guilty of naively wanting to attack some tension in their relationship head-on. The intent is good, but when they lack the emotional strength to be properly gentle to their spouse, things tend to blow up. However, given time and experience to increase their maturity, they gain a new kind of strength to handle such things gently and effectively.

The same is true with leadership. Whether it’s at work, in the community, in the military, or in a church of God’s people, leaders who lack strength often over-extend the strength that they do have. They end up approaching delicate situations with harshness, brashness, and an effort to control rather than with gentle convictions and character-filled influence. This sort of behavior wounds followers and cripples the leader’s credibility.

Gentleness was Christ’s way in dealings with those who truly sought to know him and his heart (cf. 2 Cr. 10:1). It is part of the fruit that our lives bear when the Spirit of God abides in us (Gl. 5:23). And it ought to be part of the default settings for how Christians treat each other (Ep. 4:1-3). Both cowardice and harshness can stem from a place of weakness, and both of them can do their own kinds of damage (cf. Mt. 27:24, Ez. 34:4). But it takes some serious strength of character to hold together two of a Christian’s most important personal traits: conviction AND gentleness.

- Dan Lankford, minister

An important phrase is peppered throughout all the narratives in the Exodus arc: “Moses did as the Lord had commanded him.” He spoke to Pharaoh like God told them to. He built the Tabernacle like God told him to. He set the Levites apart for service as God had told them to. We are told over a dozen times in the Torah that Moses simply, trustingly did what God said.

This demonstrates a powerful principle that God’s faithful ones talk about regularly, but which is often overlooked by the broad spectrum of all that calls itself Christian: respecting God’s authority.

Authority means the right to command. A person with authority is the person in charge; the one who can make decisions that affect others; the one whose words have the weight to make others obey. And in all of reality, no one has more authority than YHWH—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, and of our lord and savior Jesus.

Our job, then, is to obey the ways of God, plain and simple. In church life and in our personal lives, we are called to obey God’s spoken word—the Bible. Has he said how he wants his church led? Then we obey that. Has he said that his people should be generous with our money? Then we do it. Has he said to flee from sexual immorality? Then we do it. Has he said to worship him in certain ways and not in others? Then we do as he’s asked.

Our hope is that, as simple as it is, when the Holy Spirit looks at the whole of our lives, he will be able to say something similar of us to what he so often said of Moses: “They did just as the Lord had commanded them.”

- Dan Lankford, minister

If I were to ask you if you had self-control, then you would probably give me an answer somewhere in the neighborhood of, “It depends on what we’re talking about.” Our ability, our willingness, to control ourselves fluctuates based on what trials and temptations we face. Maybe you have gluttony under control, but when it comes to gossip you struggle. Maybe you’ve got a handle on sexual immorality, but drinking tends to be a problem. Maybe you do a good job at keeping the rules and living out your faith, but you wrestle with forgiving those who sin against you and judging those who fall short or aren’t as far along. 

Do you have self-control? Well, it depends…

That’s why Peter tells us to add patience or perseverance to our self-control (II Peter 1:6). That word in II Peter 1:6 might read different based on your translation. NASB reads “perseverance,” CSB reads “endurance,” and ESV reads “steadfastness.” All of those words are translated from the Greek word, “Hypomone,” a word that means, “a patient enduring” or “a staying under.” I love that concept. What Peter is advising here is that we learn how to stay in our place. He wants us to be the kind of people who stay in our place regardless of what happens.  

It seems to me that in many cases the life of a Christian is characterized by wild fluctuation. This month we’re on fire for the Lord, but next month we drop off. When I’m tempted by sexual immorality, I do okay, but when I’m tempted by alcohol I tend to fail. When life is going well, I control myself, but if things are a little rocky, self-control goes out the window. That’s often the way it goes, isn’t it?

Peter encourages us to add patience, perseverance, steadfastness to our faith. We need to be people who stay in our places no matter what life throws at us. We need to level out those wild fluctuations. Our spiritual lives should be characterized not by flashes of spiritual brilliance followed by devastating failure, but by constant loyalty, devotion, and faithfulness.

For the next few weeks, we’ll talk about to add perseverance to our faith.

- Jonathan Banning

“And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves.” (Lev. 26:12-13)

The Exodus story is simple, yet it’s anything but simplistic. The complexity and beauty of the story is the kind of thing that a person could study for a lifetime and always be able to find fresh insights and teachings in it. Even the Ten Commandments, while they might seem like basic principles, have far-reaching wisdom as they reveal the very heart of God. They, along with the entire Exodus arc, are one of the main areas of the Bible where God has revealed a large picture of his nature and his plan to save and bless humanity.

I pray that our preaching theme for this year has been a blessing to you. I pray that it’s helping us all expand our view of God’s scheme to redeem mankind. I pray that it’s helping us see how we should rightfully respond to him—with humility, gratitude, awe, and obedience. I pray that it’s helping us to clearly see and sincerely embrace his eternal love. I pray that it’s helping us to be comforted by his divine, righteous judgment. I pray that it’s helping us to grow in our faith.

The core promise of all that we’re studying this year is the one quoted above: “I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” That’s the promise for us too, if we believe in him, obey him, and love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

- Dan Lankford, minister

What are you going to do with your phone today? Especially while you’re here at our assembly?

A year ago, we ran a series of essays about Christians and smart-phones. Here, I’d like to just offer a little wisdom about how those devices should and shouldn’t be present in our church assemblies.

Basically, it comes down to this: When you’re here for worship, be here to worship. Keep your focus on the things of God—his nature, his word, his blessings, and his people. Let’s leave life’s lesser things to get our lesser attention. 

Texting—whether for fun or for work—can almost certainly wait until the service is done. Gaming can wait. Emails, to-do lists, and social media can all wait. Why? Because the things of God are simply so much more important than those.

We should also bear in mind that young hearts are being continuously formed by what they see in the behaviors of older saints around them. So if they see us choosing to be inattentive to the things of God, they learn from that. They learn whether God and his ways matter most to us, or whether those things can simply be ignored.

Obviously, with this writing, I’m not making a ruling that no one should bring a phone to church—there’s a QR code right here that has to be scanned with a phone, and I think there are other things that they’re useful for in this setting. But I do think that we need to be wise with all the ways that we do and don’t use them when we’re in a worship setting. The word, the worship, and the people of God should always come first.

- Dan Lankford, minister

It’s tough tolerating mystery and ambiguity. We like to understand exactly how things work. But sometimes, God asks us to be comfortable with a little ambiguity in spiritual things. In Matthew 4, Jesus says that when a farmer plants a seed, he doesn’t know how the seed grows. But he plants it and goes to bed knowing that it will, even though he may not understand how that works (Matthew 4:26-29). Just because we don’t fully understand something doesn’t mean we cannot make use of it or benefit from it.

That’s the principle we ought to keep in mind when we think about self-control and the Holy Spirit.

The scriptures are clear that Christians are strengthened by the Holy Spirit for greater self-control. Paul tells us that self-control is the fruit that the Spirit produces in us (Galatians 5:22-23), that, in baptism, we are renewed by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-7), and he prays for the Ephesians to be strengthened with power in the inner man through the Spirit (Ephesians 3:16). Remember also that Paul tells the Romans that it is through the Holy Spirit that Christians put to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13). There’s no denying that the Spirit strengthens Christians.

Yet, there is ambiguity in that; we don’t fully understand how that works. That’s why we need to remember that principle: just because we don’t fully understand something doesn’t mean we cannot benefit from it. Of course, we must be careful not to abuse that ambiguity. Sometimes our attempts to clear up ambiguity lead us to false conclusions (e.g. being strengthened doesn’t mean that He takes over your body and overrides free will). Still, Christians ought to appreciate that we are strengthened by the Spirit and take advantage of that gift even if we don’t fully comprehend it.

Like the farmer who plants, waters, and trusts that God is doing his invisible work to bring about growth, we trust God’s invisible work in us, even if we don’t understand it completely. So let’s pray, “God, strengthen my soul in your Spirit.” And let’s be assured that as we add self-control, God will “keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful” (II Peter 1:8).

- Jonthan Banning

The questions have come up in my hearing a few times lately: “How can Christian women and young women dress modestly without being legalistic? And how can Christian men take ownership of their own thoughts about women and what they wear?” I’m thankful that some people are asking this question, because I think it reveals hearts that desires to serve God with purity and holiness.

As Christians, we live our lives under a certain set of guidelines. And sometimes, those guidelines must necessarily be set in ways the Bible doesn’t specifically address. The Bible doesn’t specifically address many of the situations and clothing styles that we might wonder about, so we have to make some good judgments based on what God has taught us. How can we apply his wisdom to those situations in order to serve him best? Remember, we’re not just called to the minimum moral behavior that is acceptable; we want to be fully pleasing to God.

So first, how can women and young women dress modestly without being legalistic?

Let’s understand that the word ‘legalism’ has a specific meaning; it’s not just “serious about following moral rules.” Since that’s the case, let’s note that a certain Christian moral sense must be applied to modesty. Each family, organization, church family, school, etc. must make some judgment calls about that. For instance, when Christian kids to go to camp, someone has to say ‘this way of dressing is acceptable and this one is not.’ That’s not legalism; it’s just an application of good moral sense. It’s an effort to set clear and wise boundaries for young men and women in effort to help them obey God’s will. And the same is true of other settings; some decisions have to be made, even where the Bible hasn’t made rules.

Now, the question still remains: How can women dress modestly? The answer is pretty simple: try to be modest. Don’t try to be ‘just modest enough.’ Try to be modest, entirely. Take ownership of your dress, and think of how you present your body. Does the way that you dress glorify God, or is it about flaunting yourself? Are you pushing the boundaries, or are you choosing the humble and conservative path that draws you close to God’s ways? Are you seeking to please Jesus, or are you seeking ways to ‘get away with’ a little more?

And now to the other question: How can men take ownership of their own thoughts about women and what they wear?

God is clear with his warnings about lust (see especially Jesus’ words in Mt. 5:27-30). Men and boys are commanded not to give ourselves to that. It’s the task of men and boys to follow Job’s example and make a covenant with the eyes so as not to look longingly at women other than our wives (Jb 31:1). To look at a woman with sexual desire is demeaning to her dignity as an image-bearer of God and is an act of unfaithfulness in the heart. Godly men, both young and old, must exercise self-control.

Every Christian has a responsibility to help other Christians. Christian women can help Christian men, and Christian men can take ownership of helping Christian women to live in the dignity and peacefulness that God has given them.

- Dan Lankford, minister

“What do you do for a living?” It’s a standard question when getting to know someone new because our jobs have an important place in our lives. Working a job is not unique to Christians, but believers are called to work in a unique way. God wants us to do everything with excellence.

Paul instructed the Thessalonian Christians “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” (1 Thess. 4:11-12)  He told them in a later letter: “you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day.” (2 Thess. 3:7-8)

Our work—and the quality of it—matters to God. Whether we are employed to teach children, to prepare and serve food, to provide medical care, to build, to administrate, or to mediate justice… Christians ought to be diligent to do all things well, giving God the glory for our best efforts.

And so while it might just seem like good advice, the reality is that if we live out the good news, we will be reliable employees. We will be there when we are expected. We will not leave jobs unfinished. We will look out for the interests of others in the workplace. We will think about contributions we can make to our organization’s goals. We will be honest with our employers’ accounts (cf. Lk. 16:1-13). We will not be idle. As Christians, we will always strive to do good work.

- Dan Lankford, minister