A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to preach at our church, New Life Presbyterian. It was a great blessing and the Lord used it greatly in my own heart. I looked at what the unashamed Gospel life looks like from Romans 1:16-17. It is the life that is lived in unshakeable confidence in the righteousness of Jesus for salvation. So, I looked at how the gospel reveals Christ's righteousness and saves us past, present and future. We are saved by Jesus' righteousness as we are credited with it, conformed to it, and confirmed in it.
I will attach the link to the sermon if you are interested in listening to it, but if you just want to get the point of it, here are my concluding points at what the unashamed Gospel life looks like.
The Unashamed Gospel Life...

1. refuses to establish a righteousness of its own, but leans on the credited righteousness of Jesus.


2. is honest about sin.


3. relentlessly pursues gospel holiness.


4. sets its hope in the life to come.


5. unashamedly proclaims Christ Jesus.


6. always remembers the cost of the righteousness of God that has been so freely given.

The Unashamed Gospel Life

-In Christ alone,

Josh

Happy Baby and Happy Mommy!




Finnigan Jason: 7 lbs. 1 oz. 19.5" born at 11:53 pm on Friday July 13th (don't worry, we are not superstitious, in fact we are anti-stitious).




Tyko got to meet his new baby brother!




Finnigan Jason with his middle namesake Jason (we love them both so much)!




Tyko sleeping with his new Woody doll that he got from Finn (such a good little brother)!




Super sweet and cute!


Today, one of our best friend's and Finnigan's middle namesake Jason preached from Col. 1, one of my favorite passages. We obviously were not able to make the message, but I got an advanced look at the manuscript and I pondered the text a little and the birth of our second son. The Lord says through the Apostle Paul, speaking about Jesus:
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

Finnigan was created by God (through us of course) but by Him and most importantly for Him! So many voices will tell him that he was made for us, or for someone else, or most likely for himself, meaning he gets to be and do whatever he wants. But God's word corrects that and shows us that he was created for Him and His glory! And this is our prayer for little Finn. That he would gaze for all eternity at the beauty and majesty of God the Father through Jesus the Son by the Holy Spirit! That he would know deeply the love of God in Christ Jesus, repent of his sins, and trust in the finished work of Christ on his behalf and spend the fullness of time in a constant joy of the glory and majesty of God and his character. That he would use all of his life to reflect the glory of God through his creativity, work, marriage God-willing, play, fun, and joy. And that the world would look at his life and not primarily say "aww, he's cute" or "he's so great" or "he's such a tall athlete" (probably not- dad's dreams) but that they would say those, but primarily people will look at the fullness of Finnigan's life and say "Jesus is wonderful!" Would you all pray with us that God would grant this by his sovereign grace and mercy?

-In Christ alone,
Josh

Here is a great article with 10 things that supporting Cru this year has accomplished in the world! Thanks so much for all you do in supporting God's work in the world.

10 Things Your Support of Cru has Accomplished This Year

Just to give you a little window into our lives:

The Fear of the Lord is a frequent concept in Scripture. It is hard to describe because we often think, "Wait, I thought we were supposed to trust God, or love God, or adore God, but where does Fear come into view.

Well, fear, I have heard really means respect. But, I am not sure I buy that. I mean was that the message that we are supposed to take from Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal. Fire comes down from heaven and utterly consumes Elijah's offering after he has mocked the prophets of Baal and suggested that maybe their "god" is on the toilet and thats why he can't show up for them. Then they slaughter the prophets. But what is the response of the people immediately- they fall on their faces- not in respect only- but in fear and worship because they had been following and worshiping that Baal that had just been thoroughly mocked and destroyed in front of them. Now, if you keep reading, this does not cause full-scale repentance throughout Israel, because they quickly forget this fear and run to other things and not to the Lord. I bring this up because I want to show that fear for sure includes the idea of respect but not that alone- it includes well... fear.

Now what do we do with this fear? Do we run from the Lord and hide somewhere? No. We run to the Lord and hide in him. We fear because he is Holy and we are not, we fear because he is greater and has the power to condemn us because of our sin. But, the fear of the Lord means we take that fear and run to the Lord himself and make Him, through Jesus' death on the cross our new hiding place.

But, back to my original question: how is this created?

Well, this morning I read Isaiah 29:13 which says:

13 And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

I was hit with this verse and particularly that the Lord is accusing Israel of where they are getting their "Fear of the Lord." They are being told and taught by men, "Fear the Lord." But they have no experience of that, they have never apprehended his holiness and measured themselves by it. They think all is good because they are listening to the words of these teachers but never really engaging with the Lord of Hosts. I think we do this often. We go to church, we read the bible, read books, we do all of this, fearing the Lord because men tell us to without really taking a look at the Lord himself and truly fearing him.

So what is God's response in Isaiah. Is it a repeat of the prophets of Baal incident? Is that what we are to look to and hope for?

14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden."

He promises to do wonder upon wonder in their midst and something that will confound the wise and destroy the powers. What could this be?

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1st Corinthians 1: 18-25

The foolishness of the cross is wiser than the wisest philosophy or professor, the smartest author, the craftiest preacher, or any commandment of men. The weakness of the cross is stronger than any world power, nuclear missile, technology, or brute strength. And the cross is wonder upon wonder that God has done, revealing himself, his justice and his mercy. Do you want to know who to fear when it comes to your sin- look at the cross for that is what sin deserves. And when you do you will also see the only place you can run for mercy and forgiveness.

It just so happened that today in my reading I also read Ephesians 2. Do you want to see wonder upon wonder and gain the fear of the Lord? Read it. Study it. Fear Him. Love Him. Trust Him. Adore Him.