Posts by Nick Batzig
Despite the enormous challenges the reader faces when working through the book of Job, it is full of divinely inspired spiritual instruction for believers. The book of Job teaches us, in an unparalleled way, about God's sovereignty over all things, the reality of spiritual warfare, the hope of the consummation, the rationale for the suffering of the godly, the mysterious wisdom of God in creation and providence, the need to be careful about how we counsel friends who are suffering and the important place of prayer and worship in the life of the believer.
It should sadden us to learn that the church of our day has neglected one of the greatest treasures God has given her to worship Him--namely, the Psalter. The living God has breathed out an entire book of truth for us to sing back to Him whenever we gather together in corporate worship. Perhaps such a neglect has occurred on account of antiquated translations, difficult accompanying tunes or simply because of a lack of familiarity with the Old Testament people, places, events and symbols. Regardless, the church is certainly no better for having passed over the numerous inspired songs in the Psalter.
As the men God has appointed to pastor local churches assess the context of their congregations, and allow the Scripture to scrutinize the unique challenges and shortcomings that they face, they will be better able to address the real needs of the local church in a manner suitable to that local congregation.
A number of years ago, I concluded that it is officially an American tradition to have stressful interactions with parents, in-laws, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins on Thanksgiving Day. I have experienced some extremely relationally tense times with family members on Thanksgiving Day. I have a suspicion that I am not alone. Recently, a member of our congregation was telling me how thankful they were that a particular family member would not be with their extended family over Thanksgiving. This sentiment is not foreign to many in our church fellowships--though it is one for which our hearts should grieve.
In the death of Jesus, the evil one has been bound and conquered. Our Savior has taken possession of his eternal inheritance by overcoming the evil one. We are now called to "go into all the world and make disciples..." (Matt: 28:18-20). We are to gather the spoils of the One who destroyed the works of the devil by his death on the cross. While we await the full manifestation of this victory (Matt. 25:41; Rom. 16:20 and Rev. 20:10) we are to be confident in the Satan-binding nature of the death of our Savior. We live in light of the freedom we have from his condemning accusations and the fear of death that, for far too long, held all of us in bondage.
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