Marching Forth!

Recently I finished reading a short book titled  Enjoying Intimacy with God by J. Oswald Sanders.  There was one passage in particular which impacted me concerning our need to keep growing and embrace our sanctification.  By extension it also relates to my need to develop and grow as a member of the body of Christ and the role God has given me.  Sanders wrote: The important thing is that we must "press on to maturity" (Hebrews 6:1).  Keep on growing.  Too many Christians become stuck in their Christian lives--"stuck between Easter and Pentecost," as Dr. Graham Scroggie put it. I once knew a godly Christian woman who was dying of cancer.  She knew she had only a few days to live.  Her husband was attending to her needs, trying to make things as easy as possible for her.  She said to him,  "You must not make things too easy for me.  I must keep growing, you know."  Her life of intimacy with God had brought her to a state of spiri...

" Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them ."   Leviticus 15:31 Because God is holy and people are not, through the Law of Moses God instructed the people so they could distinguish between clean and unclean.  The tabernacle where the presence of the LORD dwelt was a holy place and those deemed unclean needed to wash or offer the required sacrifices before they could appear before Him.  God was gracious to warn His people of the dire consequences of bringing uncleanness into the tabernacle because it would cost them their lives.  This "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle" ( Colossians 2:21-23 ) mentality fostered by the Law had the appearance of wisdom, but could do nothing to render a man righteous before God or cull the insatiable desires of sinful flesh. The apostle Peter was a man raised observing the Law of God and had been taught the diffe...

I've been reading through Leviticus in the mornings and it struck me how leprosy is different from other uncleanness in that it cannot be washed away.  A person who contacted an unclean thing could wash in water and be unclean until evening, but lepers themselves were unclean.  There was no washing away the disease or the stigma of an incurable illness which required lepers to live alone outside the camp.  The Law of Moses required them to wear tattered clothing, cover their upper lip and cry out "Unclean!" to all who drew near them. One of the more involved rituals in the Law was for the ceremonial cleansing of leprosy.  It seems a strange thing, to have an established process for lepers to be declared clean when lepers remained lepers.  The tone of the scripture implies cleansing was possible, yet there was never a suggestion as to how a leper could be healed.  Apart from Moses who was enabled by God to use leprosy as a sign and Miriam whom God miraculou...

It has been 10 years to the day that I arrived in Sydney on a Religious Worker's Visa to serve at Calvary Chapel Sydney as pastor.  I came without my family to begin preparing for the adventure of immigrating to a foreign land without any knowledge of how things would turn out.  All I can say is God is faithful and provided for our family at every step.  For all we gave up there was also gain beyond our expectations.  The difficulties and uncertainties were tempered by the greatness of the God who called us and would never leave or forsake us.  Just the fact we are still here after all this time is an amazing testimony of His grace and goodness. It is fitting as I reminisce over the past 10 years in Australia I am struck by the contrast of how much God has done and how little I have accomplished.  It is true what the scriptures affirm, that in my flesh dwells no good thing.  Anything that resembles good from my efforts is all by the grace and powe...