faithfulness

Haste Isn’t A Shortcut

by Ben Zornes · Mar 4, 2024

Millions of advertising dollars are spent every year on enticing you to embrace the vice of hastiness. What at first blush might look like a road to greater liberty, ease, and comfort, is instead a quicksand pathway which will quickly bog you down into the swamp of discontent, greed, and lust.

Porn is not a shortcut to sexual fulfillment, although that is what it disguises itself as. Sports betting is an alluring cheat code to generating fat stacks of cash, but the House always wins. Pinterest boards present a minimalist mirage of tidiness, but underpinning (pun intended) that minimalism is often an avoidance of diligence. Every other Silicon Valley start up is aimed at trying to part you from your money with the enticing promise of shortcutting hard work.

Proverbs, in particular, warns us of the sinister nature of haste. Hasty feet are described as sinful (Pr. 19:2). Hastiness in wealth building is unlikely to be paired with moral innocence (Pr. 28:20). Hasty speech is not just foolish, it makes you worse than a fool (Pr. 29:20). Starvation follows hastiness like ash follows fire (Pr. 21:5).

These warnings against a “get out over your skis” hastiness are not set in contrast to slothfulness. Rather, the virtue which stands opposite of this vice of hastiness is that of steady steps of diligence and faithfulness. According to biblical wisdom this is how you build a lasting foundation. Persistently ordering your steps to walk in the ways of God’s Covenant is how you enjoy the good life.

However, apart from Christ our feet our cinder blocks when it comes to obedience, and jet packs when it comes to gratifying our lusts. So, God freely offers to you, through Christ, a new heart which transforms your entire moral framework. By faith then, your feet can plod away at faithfulness.

Prayer of Confession

Father God,
Man, in His sin against you, has sought to harvest before sowing. Yet You have made this world in such a way that in order to reap we must sow good seed. Forgive us for the rebellion against Your created order. Give us hands and feet that are diligent, and free us from the hastiness and the sloth of our culture. Your word promises that in the new covenant the reapers will overtake the sowers, but this is only comes as we abide in Your covenant mercies. So, where we have broken Your Word, and sought out our own paths, have mercy upon us, oh Lord. You have called Your church to truth in the inward parts, so we now confess our individual sins to You. Selah. We do this in Jesus’ mighty name, and Amen.

Christians Really Ought to Be Born Again

by Ben Zornes · May 16, 2022

As we continue to busy ourselves with the work of reformation here in Moscow, both our local and national opponents like to say things like, “Kirkers, are trying to turn Moscow into a Christian town.” To which all the childless cat-ladies and keyboard warriors gasp and exclaim, “Oh no, not that. How dare they?!” This same thing is happening nationally as abortion access teeters on the lip of the drain to hell. Pundits & protesters say things like, “Pro-lifers are trying to make America into a Christian theocracy.”

Well, let’s scandalize them a bit more, shall we? We have the audacity to teach that the Church should be a Christian church. We’re training men for ministry to be Christian ministers. We labor to equip parents to raise their children as Christian children. On top of that, we’re discipling Christians to be, in fact Christians.

Don’t overlook one of the foundational precepts of our faith, you are baptized in the name of the Triune God: Father, Son, Spirit. His name is on your brow, as the golden mitre which bore Jehovah’s name once rested on the High Priest’s brow. Don’t adopt a sheepish disposition for being busy doing the work your Father has given you to do.

The Father bestows Christ’s name upon you, and by His Spirit enables you to walk as Jesus did. This means you must walk in the light, and put off the deeds of darkness. In other words, the primary challenge for Christians is to live like they are, in fact, Christians. You cannot do so on the strength, authority, or renown of your own name. Overcoming sin & walking in holiness, whether individually or nationally, can only be done in the name of Jesus. This can all be summed by saying we believe that Christians ought to be born again.

We bear Christ’s name, which He placed upon us freely. Where once we bore the name of Adam, our Father has now graced us with the Name of the Second Adam. But how great the shame when we deny the Name which He’s placed upon us, by acting according to the folly of the children of the devil. May the Holy Spirit purge out the sin that hides in the closet of our heart. May He shine the light of His countenance into the back of every drawer of our inward man. And may He sweep out the leaven of the Pharisees. We must not only bear Christ’s name, but we must also, by His grace alone, labor to bring glory to His name by walking in the light as Christ our Savior did.

As a groom gives his name to his bride, and thus bestows all he is and has to her, Christ has placed His name upon You. By confessing your sins, you once more recognize where you have not brought glory to His name, but His mercy is such that He delights to assure those who come to Him in true humility and faith that all their sin and shame is washed clean in the river of His blood.

A Weekly Habit

by Ben Zornes · Aug 3, 2021

Our practice of weekly observing of the Lordâ€™s Supper might jostle loose a few reactions. In talking with many new families, reactions have ranged from deep gratitude for this practice (as theyâ€™ve come from churches where the Supper was only taken whenever thereâ€™s a fifth Sunday of the month). Others might react, however, with asking whether this weekly observance turns the Supper into a mindless tradition of men. I hasten to add this is a concern we share.

This concern, however, can arise from a common misconception not only about â€œright partakingâ€ of the Supper, but also human wiring. First, weekly Supper observance is no more a â€œtradition of manâ€ than a husbandâ€™s daily goodbye kiss to his wife before heading to work. Frequency doesnâ€™t mean thoughtlessly or meaninglessly. Any man whoâ€™s had a long business trip knows the gnawing ache just to plant a kiss on his wife & bear hug his kids. The pain of his absence reveals the presence of his affections.

Another angle on this is that the broad Evangelical approach to the Supper is all about getting into the right frame of mind; perhaps this explains irregularity of the Supper in some circles. If you have to do evangelical Zen to get into the right pietistic headspace just to attain â€œright partaking,â€ you arenâ€™t rightly partaking.

Just because something becomes habitual, doesnâ€™t mean itâ€™s drained of all enjoyment. Muscle memory enables the musician to come to deeper enjoyment of the music. Regularity doesnâ€™t impede right partaking, it fosters it. Weâ€™re wired to form habits. The danger, then, in weekly observance of the Supper isnâ€™t in frequency, itâ€™s in the adverbs. Is the Supper taken faithfully, or unfaithfully?

A weekly Supper is intended to form the habit of faithfulness. Faithfulness isnâ€™t discovered in the rare air of mountaintop pietism. It comes from Christ, and So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christâ€¦