All our welcome to celebrate this momentous step for Emmaus Road, which marks the final step in their process to become independent and organized.

Soli Deo Gloria.

_{“Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11}
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“For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). So the author of Hebrews ends his letter to his readers. And so we do well to contemplate this “city” ourselves.
Our fathers in the Faith, those listed in the Book of Hebrews in Chapter 11, were characterized as a people who longed for a better, that is, a heavenly country, a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10, 16).

From an earthly perspective we can understand in part why these Old Testament saints talked of themselves as pilgrims longing for a homeland. They were tent dwellers, moving from place to place. Semi-nomads you might call them. It is written of Abraham that he made his home in the promise land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did his sons Isaac and Jacob (Heb. 11:9). But this nomadic existence is not the whole story of their self-understanding as pilgrims.

The real explanation of pilgrimage lay in the nature of our forefathers’ faith. Hebrews 11:16 tells us they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. By faith they looked for that city—they desired it! Even possession of the promised land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, did not give them their final rest. They were looking for something beyond that. In Jesus Christ the promises Abraham trusted in have come closer to us, and are partly realized already, but we too still live by faith.

And faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). We are much closer to the final rest than were the Old Testament saints, but we are not there yet. There still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God (Heb. 4:9). Our hearts are still attached to something that is not here. We won’t find that home of rest here—a point all too painfully and pointedly driven home in the massacre at Sandy Hook recently. Neither the Church nor the government can build that longed for celestial city in this present world. We are still looking for that city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God (11:10).

The sweet psalmist of Israel said: “For I am a stranger with you, a sojourner, as all my fathers were” (Psalm 39:12b). The apostle Peter echo’s David’s theme when he spoke of God’s elect as “pilgrims” and exhorts them “as sojourners and pilgrims” to abstain from sinful desires (I Peter 1:1; 2:11). This theme of the believer’s story as pilgrims bound for a better land is woven throughout the tapestry of Redemptive History. And this is our story as well.

My fellow pilgrims, as we enter a new year, let us meditate on heaven in order that we might desire that better, that heavenly country. We don’t today often talk or think like that, do we? You will probably admit with me that this is true. As we enter a new year, it is important that we maintain a proper balance between this present life and that which is to come. Here and now, God has called us to our various offices and callings. We may not try to escape these tasks, however difficult they may be in this “valley of tears.”

When I was younger, it was common to hear someone complain that “some Christians are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good.” I personally never met such a person. Whatever the case, today I see a more present danger: we have become worldly, and world-weary. We are tempted to become conformed to this world; the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches threaten to choke the word until it becomes unfruitful (Luke 8:14).

In this world the Preacher exhorts us, “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Keep yourself faithfully focused on the tasks of this present realm. Your labors here are the service of your God and King. At the same time remember, though you are in the world, you are not of it. Your citizenship is in heaven, where Christ Jesus is (Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:1). Seek first his kingdom and its righteousness (Matt. 6:33). We must not lose sight of the goal of our life—the return of our Savior, the resurrection of our bodies, and the consummation of God’s eternal kingdom in the New Heaven and New Earth. Soon enough we will be up to our eyeballs in milk and honey. In our flesh we shall see God. To that end we must live and work and worship in the year of our Lord 2013. Think on Heaven.

“Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest,
beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, O I know not what joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare.”

“Surely I am coming quickly.”
“Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

Rev. Jim Sawtelle
December, 2012

*With acknowledgements to my father-in-law, Rev. Jelle Tuininga, whose thoughts on this subject I have shamelessly borrowed and built upon.

Reformation Festival

October 31, 2012 • 6-9pm

This year will be the 495^th birthday of the Protestant Reformation. On October 31, we welcome one and all to our evening, simple food, watch and listen as our roving reporter interviews Luther and his wife, try your skills at the craft, game and activity booths, earn candy/pennies! All ages are invited and fancy costumes are optional!

Click here for a full-size leaflet or here for a printable sheet with three separable leaflets for this event.

It is said that sometimes big things come in little packages. This brief scripture is loaded with profound spiritual insight and complexity. Every word is necessary in its relationship to the other words in order for it to pack a maximum punch.

Perhaps there is some gain in godliness. But that is not what Paul says here. The false teachers Paul warns Timothy about, and us, in the context of the verse we are considering told the people that godliness is a means of great gain—wealth. The “Prosperity Gospel” teachers of our day would do well to study this passage carefully.

Paul’s correction to that false line of thinking is: Godliness with contentment is great gain. Think about it: what would a life of godliness without contentment look like? Too often it looks a lot like, well, what many of our lives look like.

Is godliness with a covetous or greedy heart great gain? But let’s apply this a bit deeper. Is godliness with ingratitude great gain? How about godliness with a frustrated heart? Or godliness with a discontented spirit? Does that sound like great gain? Is godliness with a bitter heart great gain? Is godliness with a spirit that strives against your circumstances a gain to you?

As Gordon Fee aptly puts it in his commentary on our verse: For Paul, contentment comes from the empowering Christ gives to live above both plenty and poverty (Philippians 4:11-13). “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Believers are to strive for godliness with contentment through the ministry of Christ. This calls us to the honest and prayerful confession of our sins in which we seek to put to death and root out of our lives everything that robs God of his glory, and destroys our soul-contentment: covetousness and greed, as well as the other bad fruit listed above.

We put to death our sins by the power of Christ’s death and resurrection; and the Spirit of Christ will free us more and more from all covetousness and discontentment until we say with Paul: “I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.” And surely the joy and peace of such contentment is great gain, and to God’s glory. Is not this great gain truly a better pursuit than riches and the obsessive cares of this world?

Savor the beauty of the balance: godliness with contentment is great gain.

Rev. James Sawtelle