Of all the things October brings to mind, Yom Kippur probably isn’t one of them. But October is usually the month that this highest holy day in the Jewish calendar is celebrated. Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, is the day when modern Jews repent of their sins. In the Old Testament it was a day of fasting, a day of rest, a Sabbath, a day when a special sacrifice was made that atoned for the sins of the tabernacle, the priest, and all of the people, all of the nation. Once a year the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with the blood of the sacrifice, placing it on the Mercy Seat, the cover of the Ark of the Covenant.
The book of Hebrews, (9.11-12), tells us that Jesus entered the true Most Holy Place, not the copy made by hands, and placed His own blood there in the Presence of God. Hebrews goes on to tell us that while the blood of bulls and goats made people outwardly clean so that they were acceptable to God in worship, they could never really purify anyone’s conscience, but Christ’s blood does, so we can serve Him, (9.14.)
So what’s that got to do with us this October, especially since we neither celebrate Yom Kippur nor need to, because Jesus fulfilled it for us? Well, first, it ought to make us grateful: our sins are indeed atoned for. God’s wrath against us is gone, our sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus, and we have been set free from their penalty and power—someday from their presence—to serve the living God! Join me: Thank You, LORD!
Secondly, it should cause us pause: we need to reflect, and definitely more often than once a year, on our sins and sinfulness. We really need to live lives of repentance—constant repentance. As long as we live this side of being with Jesus eternally and free of these sinful bodies, we will need to repent of sin, and we will need to claim the blood of Jesus as sufficient and efficient to cover our sins. Yom Kippur for us should be daily!
But what really got me thinking was this: since this was such an important holy day in the calendar for God’s Old Testament people; since it carries such significance concerning our forgiveness, why was Jesus not crucified on Yom Kippur? Why on Passover? Why is He the “Paschal Lamb” as opposed to the “Day of Atonement sacrifice” or the “’Scape Goat?”
My attempt at an answer and application is this. The Day of Atonement was a national day of forgiveness, a day when the sins of the nation, the corporate people of God were atoned for. Passover was a day that called for faith, personal faith for personal forgiveness, something not quite so apparent on the Day of Atonement. No one is saved by a national faith in Jesus. Salvation means personal faith in Jesus, a personal trust in His sacrifice on one’s behalf. The Day of Atonement ought to remind us that while we need national and corporate repentance and forgiveness, we need individual salvation. Let me urge you to put your trust, personally, in Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb. Don’t just think about it, do it!

– Pastor Jim

September is the residence of a rather interesting and oxymoronic date: “Labor Day.”  Rather than being a day we labor, it’s a day we rest.  Supposedly a day created for celebrating labor, to honor the American worker, most of us have either forgotten that or never knew it.
According to the US Department of Labor, the day is a creation of the American labor unions.  In 1884, the Central Labor Union of New York selected the first Monday in September to celebrate a holiday to working men, and urged other unions in other cities to follow their example on that date.  The form of the holiday was to be a street parade to exhibit “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations,” followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families.  In 1909, the American Federation of Labor determined that the Sunday preceding Labor Day was to be dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.
For most of my life, Labor Day has simply meant the end of summer and the beginning of the school year, and celebrations of the day have gone from simple picnics with family to final summer flings and summer’s last weekend trips.  Apparently, several things have changed since the day’s inception, both in our understanding of the day and in our celebration of it.
And that brings a Biblical passage and application to mind.  It reminds me that God gives us a day every for celebrating His work.  It is indeed a day of rest for us, but it is a day to remember His labor.  Exodus 20.8-11 says this: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work… For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  And then, in the New Testament, the Sabbath became the Lord’s Day because on the first day of the week God raised Jesus from the dead to make us new creations in Christ,   (2 Corinthians 5.17.)
Our problem is that, over the years, we have lost focus.  We have forgotten that the day is for resting in order to remember God’s work, not just for our resting.  That loss of focus has changed the celebration of the day from a celebration of God into a celebration of man.  And just like we seem to have forgotten that there ever was any spiritual emphasis to Labor Day, we have forgotten the emphasis of the holy on what we call the “Lord’s Day.”  We have taken what Jesus said in Mark 2.27: “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,” and used it to make the day ours instead of his, and as a license for ignoring the intended purpose of the day.
Now that you know the reason behind Labor Day, hopefully the day will be more meaningful for you and you will take at least some time to remember and celebrate the American worker and his achievements, the things he accomplished that helped build the American economic and civic structure.  But more importantly, you will remember, and celebrate, each Sunday, the work of the Lord, first in creation, and then in His new creation—those who trust in Christ Jesus—by making each Sunday, truly, the Lord’s Day.  You think about that.

– Pastor Jim

We watched, transfixed and delighted, as they streamed, one right after the other it seemed, across the sky.  “Falling stars” is what we termed them, but they were part of what is known as the Perseid meteor shower, which happens every August.  The only thing that made us go inside was the number and ferocity of the South Carolina mosquitoes.
I confess that it takes something spectacular, something out of the ordinary, to arouse a sense of awe in me when I look at nature, even when I look at the stars.  I often look at the stars, and usually appreciate their beauty, and even desire to study them—my father taught me many of the constellations on hot summer night nearly 50 years ago.  I have never forgotten; I have never lost my interest or appreciation in their ability to orient me when lost.  But rarely do I find myself moved to awe when I look at them.
That was not the experience of the Psalmist.  In Psalm 19, moved by the Holy Spirit, he tells us that his regard of the stars moved him to recognize in them the revelation of the glory of God.  In fact, he says they speak of this glory so well and so loudly that the whole earth knows, in every language.  The Apostle Paul echoes that thought in Romans 1 when he tells us that men can understand that God exists and is powerful simply by looking at His creation.
But the Psalmist goes on to tell us that in the heavens God has placed a spectacular star that is singularly above all the rest: our own sun.  Nothing escapes the heat of this “strong man” of the heavens.  Then the Psalmist abruptly changes direction, turning our attention to the Law of God, the “sun” of God’s written revelation, which, in all its perfections, reveals everything about man.  As nothing is hidden from the heat of the sun, nothing is hidden from the Law of God—there are no secret sins.
But, like the sun, desired because of, or perhaps in spite of, its heat, the Law of God is to be desired, even more than gold.  The benefits of obedience to God’s Law are tremendous: warning of great danger in temptations to break that Law, and reward for adherence to God’s Law.  So the Psalmist throws himself open to the Law of God and prays that God will allow that Law to uncover his own hidden sins, that God will warn him of his proclivity to sins that would have dominion over him, sins that he would presume to commit.  The Psalmist would be innocent before God and knows the only way that is possible is for God to work in Him through His Law, His Word.
That brings the Psalmist to awe, but this time not in the face of God’s revelation of His glory in the creation, but of His glory in His Word.  He asks God to make his words and heart acceptable to God.  Our challenge is to do the same: to be brought to awe in the face of God’s Word, the “sun” that reveals our hearts and points us to righteousness and reward.
Do you need the spectacular to see God’s glory?  Or can you see it all around you?  What about in the Word of God?  Do you see God’s glory there and seek it in submission and obedience?  You think about that.

– Pastor Jim

Parades, dancing in the streets, lots of drinking, and fireworks—that’s how people celebrate the 14th of July.  No, that’s no misprint, I meant the 14th not the 4th.   The United States is not the only country in the world that celebrates its freedom in July.  The people of France also consider this the birth month of their “liberty, equality, (and) fraternity.”
France’s revolution began in 1789, and was bloodless until the people got frustrated with the king, and then on July 14, 1790, they stormed the Bastille to release the political prisoners there.  Though there were only seven prisoners in it at the time, the prison itself was a symbol of the power and despotism of the king and the ruling class.  Nearly 100 people died, but the Bastille was taken, the king realized he had lost power, and the people had their symbol, then and since, of the liberty they desired.
But there were many differences between the revolution in France and the American Revolution, too numerous to describe in any detail here, but one is very important.  Whereas the Declaration of Independence was by a people committed to the idea that God created all men equal and that God was at the heart of any and all of their endeavors, the people of France were dedicated at best to Enlightenment ideals.  The people of France had been divided into 3 classes: the First Estate: the King, some nobles, and the clergy; the Second Estate: the lower nobility; and the Third Estate: everybody else.  There was no movement between the Estates; the First and Second Estates paid no taxes and owned 50% of the land; and the Third Estate made up over 90% of the population.  The Third Estate resented the other two—and note: the Church, while attended and loved by many in the Third Estate, was a landholder ruled by many corrupt and greedy Bishops in the First Estate, and seen as the enemy of the people.  So when the people declared their freedom, they did so with no eye to the God Who created them, or in Whom they “lived and moved and had their being,” (Acts 17.28.)
In Psalm 144.15, David says, “Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD…”  He says it another way in Psalm 33.12: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…”  In the context of both Psalms, I believe David is talking about the covenant people, OT Israel, but I do not think it a stretch to apply it to any people group or nation that would choose even today to identify itself with God, the LORD Most High.
I believe that this nation has a great and Godly heritage, and that we have much for which to be thankful and to celebrate each 4th of July.  The Declaration of Independence is a tremendous document, attesting to the God-given rights of man.  And that’s the key: God-given rights.  When you celebrate this year, celebrate in prayer: pray that our country will become a people, a nation, whose God is the LORD.  And please… do a whole lot more than think about that.

– Pastor Jim.

I read an article this week in World magazine that said that 1000 WW2 veterans die each day in the United States. Sixty-four years ago this month, June 6, 1944, the United States and her allies launched the greatest offensive of that war on the coast of France: Operation Overlord, better known as D-Day. A simultaneous attack on five beaches, the object was to crush Hitler’s defenses and march to Paris, liberating France, and beginning the eventual defeat of Germany.
It was a very tough twenty-four hours, a very deadly twenty four hours. Widows were made that day. Heroes were made that day. And while the tide of war changed that day, the war in Europe was not won for another full year. The German army had another offensive of their own, eventually called the Battle of the Bulge, and only at the cost of thousands of lives was the war eventually won by the allies.
We owe a great deal of gratitude to the men and women of what Tom Brokaw has called the “greatest generation” of our country, those of our grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ generation who sacrificed so much, whether at home or abroad, whether in the fighting or supporting the boys over there, so we could continue to live in a free country and in a world free of m and the control of Nazi Germany.
And all of that reminds me of another war and another decisive battle in that war. I am speaking of the war for eternity, the war against sin, the war for our souls. There are some comparisons I see between that battle and war and D-Day and its aftermath. The difference is that when Christ fought the battle that corresponds to D-Day, the battle that occurred at the cross, He won the whole war. Colossians 2.15 says He triumphed over His enemies. But the similarities include the fact that God’s enemies continue to fight: they war against us. Ephesians 6.12 says that we struggle with those same powers over whom Christ triumphed.
But the most important similarity is what we owe the One Who sacrificed so much for us, Who gave His life for us—the gratitude and praise He is due. Like Paul, we should cry out, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9.15.)
So, while the rest of our country takes time this month to thank and celebrate those who gave so much during WW2, let’s take time to thank and celebrate the One Who gave so much during the Eternal War at the Cross. And while they remember the battle that began the end of the war, let’s remember the battle that won the war, and commit ourselves to fighting the battles that remain for us to fight for the glory of the One Who loved us and gave Himself for us, (Ephesians 5.2.)

Pastor Jim