He waits to fall upon our neck and kiss us!

James Smith, "The Pastor's Morning Visit"
"Only acknowledge your iniquity!" Jeremiah 3:13
Will the Lord receive us when we have backslidden from Him, and are desirous of returning to Him? Oh, yes, He invites, He exhorts, He beseeches us to return! Nor does He prescribe any hard conditions--but He says, "Only acknowledge your iniquity!"He is so ready to forgive, so infinitely gracious in His nature--that if we only confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Have we wandered? Have we left our first love? Let us go and return to our first husband, for then it was better with us than now. His affections yearn for us, His arms are open to receive us, and He waits to fall upon our neck and kiss us!Let us go to His throne of grace--and there . . . confess our sins, beg His pardon, sigh for the enjoyment of His love--and He will restore unto us the joys of His salvation. Let us daily confess our iniquities unto the Lord, and He will pardon our numerous sins. In His favor is life. In His frown is distress and woe.
He delights in mercy.
He will receive us, pardon us, and bless us--like a God!
His mercy endures forever!

The Wrath of Jesus

Matthew 23 gives us an amazing display of the wrath of Jesus against the hypocrisy of the pharisees. This seems to be clear evidence of his deity because he displays the holiness of God and his hatred for sin. I think passages like this one also show us what a fearsome God he is, and how amazing his grace is in forgiving sinners.
So how can we not be like the pharisees? I have to admit that I can see some of the same things in myself that Jesus condemns the pharisees for. They looked for loopholes to get around the law, and they thought they were keeping it by paying attention to a few things but ignoring the most important things. They were also professionals at putting up a good religious front when inside they were like graves full of dead men's bones.
All I can say is thank God for his amazing grace because I don't think I can claim to be any better than these pharisees.

Evil Exposed & God Glorified

Psalm 36: This is quite the contrast, why would God be glorified in that evil is shown for what it is? This week we asked how are we to live out a hatred for sin, and spacifically what we should do when we encounter it in the workplace or anywhere else.
Ryan also talked about how David speaks of the attributes of God in this Psalm. The contrast between the wickeness of men and the glory or God is worth considering. Why is God's glory so important to us, and how does considering it help us to deal with sin?
What are your thoughts or questions?

False Teachers

Why does Jesus give so much attention to the Pharisees who fail terribley in providing good leadership to Israel? It seems that this shows us the importance of good leadership. Christians are not to be lone rangers living out our faith independently of the church. We need eachother and we need elders to provide teaching, encouragement and reproof.
Also if the Pharisees are such bad examples of godly leaders how are we to be good leaders in the areas that we are called to be leaders, whether in the home or at work or in the church?
Plesase feel free to add any other comments or ask questions that you had about the sermon.

Herodians

Semon text Matt. 22:15ff, IN our discussion we restled with how we could be like the Herodians who were mainly concerned about their temporal position in the world rather than the Kingdom of God. We can get all worked up about social issues and the new legislation coming out of Washington and forget that our first priority as Christians is to preach the gospel.

Anither question that we did not discuss is can we also be like the Pharisees who were overly concerned about fine points of doctrine but did not do well on putting it all into practice. Its fine to consider what is the greatest commandment but actually living it out is so much more important.

Your comments are welcome as well as your questions.

Welcome to the Church of the Redeemer blog. Our purpose is to put into practice what God tells us through the preaching of the Word. We want to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. So as a Church we can start by discussing the Sunday sermon and how we should apply it in our lives. This is also a great way to stay in touch with eachother since many of us may not see eachother during the week.
Please feel free to make comments, comment on the comments of your breatheren, and ask questions that the sermon may have left in your mind.
Remember, by contributing you are being a member of the body of Christ, your comments or questions will be a blessing to the rest of us.