Apologetics: “Enabling people to glimpse something of the glory and beauty of God.” – A. McGrath

Where does theology come into apologetics [the defense of our Christian faith and practice]?

…First, a proper understanding of Christian theology gives us a mental map which allows us to locate the resources and tasks of apologetics. Apologetics is often presented simply as a technique for winning arguments. …Yet a right understanding of apologetics, resting on a secure theological foundation, insists that God is involved in the apologetic enterprise. It is unthinkable to dissociate the grace of God from the understanding of commending God. To think of apologetics in terms solely of human techniques and arguments is to run the risk of lapsing into some form of Pelagianism, which neglects, perhaps even denies, God’s presence, power and persuasion in the past of apologetics.

Furthermore, the apologetic task cannot be limited to developing arguments. In some way we must realize that apologetics involves enabling people to glimpse something of the glory and beauty of God. It is these, not slick arguments, that will ultimately convert and hold people. True apologetics engages not only the mind but also the heart and the imagination, and we impoverish the gospel if we neglect the impact it has on all of our God-given faculties.

…Arguments do not convert. …[A]pologetics is not about developing manipulative human techniques but about recognizing and coming to rely on the grace and glory of God. [pp.87-89]

Taken from Chapter 6, “The Tapestry of Faith: Theology and Apologetics”, in Alister McGrath’s book The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind (IVP, 2010), a book I picked for review a few years ago and have picked up again to continue reading.

Living Life Backward – D. Gibson

A book I was given for review last Fall by Crossway is a brief commentary on Ecclesiastes. The title is Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End (176 pp., paperback) by David Gibson, minister of Trinity Church in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The publisher gives this description of the book:

What if it is death that teaches us how to truly live?

Keeping the end in mind shapes how we live our lives in the here and now. Living life backward means taking the one thing in our future that is certain—death—and letting that inform our journey before we get there.

Looking to the book of Ecclesiastes for wisdom, Living Life Backward was written to shake up our expectations and priorities for what it means to live “the good life.” Considering the reality of death helps us pay attention to our limitations as human beings and receive life as a wondrous gift from God—freeing us to live wisely, generously, and faithfully for God’s glory and the good of his world.

In his “Preface” the author acknowledges the difficulty that this “strangest of Old Testament books” presents to the reader of God’s Word. But he also gives us the key to understanding it:

Yet Ecclesiastes also makes a very simple point: life is complex and messy, sometimes brutally so, but there is a straightforward way to look at the mess. The end will put it all right. The end – when we stand before God as our Creator and Judge – will explain everything.

Which leads him to make this application based on that basic message (from which we get the title to the book):

Left to our own devices, we tend to live life forward. One day follows another, and weeks turn into months and months into years. We do not know the future, but we plan and hope and dream of where we will be, and what we would like to be doing, and whom we might be with. We live forward.

Ecclesiastes teaches us to live life backward. It encourages us to take the one thing in the future that is certain – our death – and work backward from that point into all the details and decisions and heartaches of our lives, and to think about them from the perspective of the end. It is the destination that makes sense of the journey. If we know for sure where we are heading, then we can know for sure what we need to do before we get there. Ecclesiastes invites us to let the end sculpt our priorities and goals, our greatest ambitions and our strongest desires.

I want to persuade you that only if you prepare to die can you really learn how to live (p.12).

That seems to me to be a good way to keep the message of this book of the Bible before us, and to let its powerful message shed light on our minds and guide our path in this world.

The book is available for review in the Standard Bearer if you are interested. Given the nature of the book, the review may be brief.

Thinking and Acting Covenantally, Not Contractually – M. Horton

In connection with a critique of the avarice (greed) and narcissism (self-centeredness) of our present culture, theologian Michael Horton has some powerful things to say about the importance of Christians having a covenantal and not contractual way of thinking and living.

After describing how the contractual view of life works, where everything revolves around contracts and a conditional system of giving goods and services to one another (which can work this way too: “If at some point your partner fails to keep his or her part of the bargain, you can get out of the contract.”), Horton writes next:

A covenantal way of thinking is different. In the biblical covenants, God is the sovereign Creator and Lord. We do not ‘own’ ourselves, but we are God’s image bearers, accountable to him not only for how we relate to him but also for how we relate to others. God speaks, and we hear. Therefore, we never start from a position of autonomy [that is, ruling ourselves], electing to cede some of our sovereignty to God in exchange for certain benefits and securities. He gives us life, provides for us, commands us, and makes promises that he always fulfills according to his faithfulness. As his image bearers, then, we relate to each other covenantally: as husband and wife, as parents and children, and as members of the household of faith. In marriage, I yield my whole self to the other person and vice versa, regardless of poverty, sickness, or shortcomings, ’till death us do part.”

In a covenantal paradigm, I am bound intrinsically to God and to others in ways that transcend any good or service I can calculate (pp129-30).

A little later Horton expands on this, applying it to our life in the church as well as more broadly:

Imagine the difference that a covenantal way of thinking could make in our view of church membership, in our marriage and family life, and in our relationships with others at work and in the neighborhood. When everything turns on my free will, relationships – even with God – are contracts that we make and break. When everything turns on God’s free grace, relationships – even with each other – become gifts and responsibilities that we accept as God’s choice and will for our good and his glory (p.134).

And this, then, is how he concludes this section:

So it is not simply by understanding doctrine that we uproot narcissism and materialism. It is by actually taking our place in a local expression of that concrete economy of grace instituted by God in Christ and sustained by his Word and Spirit. At least in its design, this economy is governed by a covenantal rather than contractual logic. In the covenant of grace, God says to us, ‘I’m with you to the end, come what may.’ Only from this position of security can we say the same to our spouse, children, and fellow believers. And from this deepest contentment we can fulfill our covenants in the world ‘as unto the Lord,’ even when others break their contracts (p.135).

I find this a wonderfully refreshing and encouraging way for us to see our life as Reformed Christians – and much in harmony with the PRC view of the covenant: never a contract or agreement, but a precious relationship of friendship and fellowship with our Friend-Sovereign, the living Triune God of perfect fellowship, built on His sovereign, free grace to us in Jesus Christ. What a way to think and act – in every sphere of life!

These thoughts are taken from chapter 7 of Michael Horton’s Or-di-nary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World (Zondervan, 2014), which I am currently making my way through. The chapter is simply titled “Contentment.”

How shall we respond to the sins of our land? – Prof. B. Gritters

We live in very wicked lands. Of course, we must not partake of their evils or we will perish with them. But how do we respond to these evils? Are we aware of the danger of a self-righteous anger very similar to the one we criticize in others? How should I, as a Christian respond?

I will begin by expressing to God sorrow for the sins of the nation of which I am a part. …I am a citizen of this land and thus guilty of her sins by corporate responsibility. We start there, humbling ourselves before God and confessing our nation’s sins. If righteous Daniel in Babylonian captivity could confess as his own the sins of Israel, of which he had no active and conscious part (Dan.9 is one of the most moving confessions in all of Scripture), citizens of a country do well to confess their guilt for the country’s sins.

Then, we will ask what active part we have played in the sins of the nation. In what do we participate? In its sexual sin? On television, in video games, on the Internet, in books? In what way do we approve of or find pleasure in its violence? What part of the lie do we willingly partake in by judging rashly, or believing every word we hear in the politically conservative news? Does our use of social media always comport with the call to speak the truth in love?

And what of our own sinful nature? Full of corruption of every sort, with the potential of sin of every kind, burning with lusts no different than those of any unbeliever, we confess that we are evil, born in sin. We are, in our nature, so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of performing any good and inclined to all wickedness. We confess this with sincerity, and deepest humility and shame.

We see the flood ready to overwhelm us.

By faith, though, we do not despair. Certainly, we do not look with self-righteous pride at everyone else, but with shame at our own sins and sinfulness. And then we flee from this destructive flood to Jesus Christ and to His church, the ‘ark’ where is safety.

Quoted from the closing portion of the editorial of Prof. B. Gritters in the January 15, 2018 issue of the Standard Bearer. The title of this article is “What has happened to the United States?” Look for more on this in the issues to come (Feb.1 and Feb.15).

And the Winners Are…. Announced! (*Update)

*UPDATE: Today (Saturday, Feb.3, 2018) we may finally announce the winners in the Seminary library guessing contest.

The first winner is Andrew Koerner (SE-GR PRC), who won the “how many books were added in 2017?” portion of the contest. Andrew guessed 1350, and 1,189 were added. Congratulations, Andrew, one free book of your choice is yours.

Our second winner is Dawn Howerzyl (Hope PRC, Redland, CA), who won the “how many total resources are now in the library?” portion of the contest. At the end of 2017 there were 20,578 items cataloged in the library; Dawn guessed 21,062. Congratulations, Dawn,a free book of your choice is due to you too.

Thanks to all who participated!

___________________________________________________

Last week Friday I announced a guessing contest concerning the PRC Seminary library’s resources. Here’s what I posted then:

It’s time we restored the annual PRC Seminary library guessing context! I believe I have been remiss for a least one year, maybe more.

So, on this Friday night, after giving my final 2017 library report to the Theological School Committee yesterday, we can throw the BIG QUESTION out to you: HOW MANY BOOKS were added to the Seminary library in 2017?

And, in the interests of having TWO contest winners this year, we add a bonus question: How many TOTAL RESOURCES do we now have in our library? That means books, pamphlets, and periodicals, cataloged in the library system.

Think long, think hard, and guess right! The closest to the actual numbers – calculated by our infallible library program, Resourcemate – wins the prize!

Yes, the prize is …. a book – of your choice, from our seminary bookstore or from other collections we have on hand! If the winner happens to be long-distance, we will work that out. So don’t be afraid to guess away. Only once please. Using your real name. 🙂

Let’s give this contest one week – have your answer in by NEXT WEEK FRIDAY, please.

You may submit your guess either to my email address or in the comment section of the blog.

Have fun! Be a good sport!

Do you remember? Did you forget? What happened? Are you afraid to guess? How can you not be excited about this?! 🙂

All is know is that at this point we have to continue the contest due to lack of participation! Notice, I didn’t say CANCEL! I said CONTINUE it, one more week. Don’t hesitate to make your guess in either or both categories. Young and old may take a stab at those numbers!

If you prefer to make your guess by email instead of comment, contact me at cjterpstra@sbcglobal dot net.

And because it’s Friday, we end this post with a little “Friday fun,” library style.

A search for library jokes revealed this one:

Two Chickens

One day the Library was lonely with no one in it for the librarian to help.

These two chickens came through the door screeching “bouk bouk.” The librarian quickly got up and gave them each 5 books. The two chickens left satisfied.

Just a few minutes later the same two chickens come through the door with no books screeching “bouk bouk.” The librarian once again jumps up and gives each chicken 15 books this time. The chickens leave satisfied once again.

Then again for the third time the chickens return screeching “bouk bouk” But this time being suspicious the librarian gives each chicken only one book because they have still have not returned the other books.

As the chickens leave, the librarian slowly follows behind to see where all the books are going.

The chickens come to a stop and start throwing the books into a pond where some frogs grab the books and throw them behind their back croaking “red-it red-it”

PRC Archives: 1943-2018 – Randolph PRC Turns 75 Years old

This year – August 17, 2018 to be exact – Randolph Protestant Reformed Church in Randolph, Wisconsin will celebrate her 75th anniversary.

Organized on August 17, 1943 with 8 families and 30 members, she now numbers 56 and 226 members according to the 2017 PRC Yearbook. Over the years she has had 12 pastors minister the Bread of life to her, beginning with Rev. George Lubbers and leading up to Rev. Erik Guichelaar at present.

Below are a few pages from Randolph PRC’s 50th anniversary booklet describing the final events leading up to her organization.

That picture on the above page reflects the first Consistory of this congregation after Rev. G. Lubbers became her pastor in January of 1944. A couple of years ago we received into the PRC archives an original of this photo, which we post here

The congregation is planning a special celebration this summer to mark her special anniversary. We rejoice with her in God’s preserving and prospering grace over these 75 years. And we pray that God may continue to bless and keep her in her Head, Jesus Christ, and in the truth of the gospel concerning Him.

We are assisting Randolph PRC in gathering historical items for this event and for the 75th anniversary booklet she will be putting together. Perhaps you too may be of help to her and us. If you have any items – documents, programs, pictures, etc., feel free to share those with them and us. We will both appreciate the promotion and preservation of her history!

Time for Some Children’s Books

Tonight let’s look at a few children’s books, starting with a new one by Simonetta Carr that I received at the end of last year for review from Reformation Heritage Books.

That title is Irenaeus of Lyon, a book on one of the early orthodox church fathers (c.130-c200) and the latest in the “Christian Biographies for Young Readers” series. We have featured the books in this series before (as, for example on John Calvin, Martin Luther, Augustine, and John Knox) and this one too looks to be a valuable contribution. The publisher gives this description:

Irenaeus is remembered for his work in helping the church to preserve the faith handed on by the apostles and to defend it when it was attacked. In this simply written and beautifully illustrated book, Simonetta Carr shows young readers the difficulties the early church faced and how Irenaeus taught Christians to discern truth from error by listening to the Bible. To Christians, the lessons Irenaeus taught are as important today as they were in his time.

Besides covering the life and work of this church father, Carr includes at the end a timeline of Irenaeus’ life, a “Did You Know” section, and a sampling of his writing. The book is beautifully illustrated by Matt Abraxas.

If you are willing to write a short review of this book for the Standard Bearer or for Perspectives in Covenant Education, this title is yours.

*UPDATE: This book has been spoken for.

The second thing I mention in connection with children’s books is that I have been collecting Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor Books. I look mainly in the area thrift stores, and I buy mainly to give to my grandchildren. Some of the older ones I remember and know that they are “good reads.” But there are others that I am not familiar with and instead of trying to read them myself or giving them to my grandchildren without review, I would like to enlist your help – and that of your own children or grandchildren.

I give you this picture collage of the books I recently picked up and ask if you can give me a thumbs up or thumbs down on any of these. I want to make sure not only that these are good stories worth reading but also that they pass the “Christian discernment” test. I want to be careful that I don’t give my grandchildren books that are not wholesome and not in harmony with Christian principles even if the story itself is not Christian.

What can you tell me (us!) about any of these? Yes, by all means ask your children!

Theology That Manifests God’s “Compassionate Presence” – K. Kapic

Faithful worship must embrace not only God’s highness but also his compassionate presence. It must celebrate not only God’s might but also his mercy in the midst of human sin and misery. …Simply put, a faithful theologian is someone who – like the psalmist – knows that God’s glory is gracious and that his grace is glorious.

…Since it speaks about God, faithful theology must reflect God’s compassion and care for us and our neighbors. If we are to pursue theology faithfully, we must contemplate the value God places on those who are the most vulnerable and in need. We must be, in a word, anthroposensitive. Knowing and loving God leads us to love those he loves and to think and write theology accordingly.

…Knowing God gives the knower a concern for the vulnerable. To know God is to love God, which results in the transference of his interests and concerns to us (1 Jn). When God’s people lose this concern, God declares their theological talk and religious services empty, even offensive. This observation should sober all theologians, professional or lay: God judges our theology faithful or false by our attitudes and responses to those in need. Theology that lacks compassion and action is no theology at all.

God’s love has a particular bent toward those most in need: by extending ourselves toward those who are vulnerable we reflect and replicate the love that met us standing empty-handed before God. We are the poor, the wounded, the needy. When others look more poor, wounded and needy than we, we may perceive them as an inconvenience of threat. But if we neglect them in our talk about God – well, what more emphatic way is there to condemn ourselves? We are prone to lose sight of this in our theologizing, even with how much we talk about ourselves as sinner.

Taken from chapter 8, “Suffering, Justice, and Knowing God” in Kelly Kapic’s A Little Book for New Theologians: Why and How to Study Theology (IVP Academic, 2012), pp.80-92.

Abortion: The Infamous Decision, the Prolonged Sin, and the Steadfast Christian

Today marks the 45th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Woe v. Wade, the infamous ruling legalizing abortion on demand in our country (Jan.22, 1973). It is a day that most Christians and most Christian churches (except the most liberal) rue. On that date our state sanctioned the murder of the unborn, contrary to the law of God and its testimony in the conscience of the human soul (cf. Romans 1:18ff.).

Since that day Christians have consistently protested that decision and in opposition proclaimed a pro-life message. While the specific grounds for that pro-life message may vary among Christians, they are united in their conviction that life is the gift of God alone and that death too is in His hands, so that the senseless taking of the life of the unborn is murder, plain and simple. Abortion is man taking to himself the prerogative of God, bringing on himself the judgment of the very One he pretends to usurp.

Today our pro-life president Donald Trump declared this to be National Sanctity of Human Life Day. While we can easily criticize such declarations, we ought at least recognize the attempt to set things right in terms of life and death with regard to the unborn and many others whom our society judges unfit or unworthy of life. Here is part of what President Trump said today:

Reverence for every human life, one of the values for which our Founding Fathers fought, defines the character of our Nation. Today, it moves us to promote the health of pregnant mothers and their unborn children. It animates our concern for single moms; the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled; and orphan and foster children. It compels us to address the opioid epidemic and to bring aid to those who struggle with mental illness. It gives us the courage to stand up for the weak and the powerless. And it dispels the notion that our worth depends on the extent to which we are planned for or wanted.

Science continues to support and build the case for life. Medical technologies allow us to see images of the unborn children moving their newly formed fingers and toes, yawning, and even smiling. Those images present us with irrefutable evidence that babies are growing within their mothers’ wombs — precious, unique lives, each deserving a future filled with promise and hope. We can also now operate on babies in utero to stave off life-threatening diseases. These important medical advances give us an even greater appreciation for the humanity of the unborn.

Today, citizens throughout our great country are working for the cause of life and fighting for the unborn, driven by love and supported by both science and philosophy. These compassionate Americans are volunteers who assist women through difficult pregnancies, facilitate adoptions, and offer hope to those considering or recovering from abortions. They are medical providers who, often at the risk of their livelihood, conscientiously refuse to participate in abortions. And they are legislators who support health and safety standards, informed consent, parental notification, and bans on late-term abortions, when babies can feel pain. These undeterred warriors, many of whom travel to Washington, D.C., every year for the March for Life, are changing hearts and saving lives through their passionate defense of and loving care for all human lives. Thankfully, the number of abortions, which has been in steady decline since 1980, is now at a historic low. Though the fight to protect life is not yet over, we commit to advocating each day for all who cannot speak for themselves.

But, of course, as Reformed Christians we go deeper and further in our evaluation of abortion. In a Standard Bearer article penned in August of 1994, 21 years after Woe v. Wade, Prof. David Engelsma wrote an editorial with the title “Some Other Thoughts on Abortion.” Here is part of what he had to say in his important message on this subject:

From this world, the Reformed believer is called to separate himself by the Word of God. Abortion is an urgent reminder. For there is divine wrath upon this wickedness. An impenitent Justice Harry Blackmun, main framer of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, lauded upon his recent retirement as a great jurist, will shortly stand in judgment before the Judge of all the earth. The sentence will be the everlasting death due a man who has done evil, not only in decreeing the death of scores of millions of boys and girls but also in betraying his office as minister of God, charged to punish evildoers and protect well-doers.

Wrath falls upon the nation. Every storm, earthquake, and natural disaster; all the social and economic trouble; and, particularly, the increasing violence are God’s punishments of the nation for the national sin of abortion, as for its other transgressions. In the end, the nation will perish, perhaps in a judgment of God in history, certainly in the Day of Christ.

Abortion makes loud to the Reformed ear the call of God in the gospel, Come out, my people, and be separate, “that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). This call the Reformed believer obeys, not by any physical removal to a remote place or to another country, certainly not by any revolutionary behavior, but by living antithetically in the power of the Holy Spirit. He refuses to amuse himself with the world’s pornography; he keeps himself from the television programs, movies, and books that entertain by means of violence; he will not allow the state’s schools to teach his children the goodness of adultery, the lawfulness of abortion, and the necessity of the deifying of man; he sees to it that his thinking on sex, marriage, children, state, justice, killing, and bearing (rather than escaping) responsibility is formed exclusively by Holy Scripture; and he most assuredly leaves, indeed, flees, the church that is unable unequivocally to condemn abortion, as well as the sexual unchastity for which abortion is the world’s panacea.

In this separation is nothing of pride. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures . . . .” (Titus 3:3). Resentment of our own children, when they come, is heart-abortion. Reformed Christians who now vehemently (and rightly) condemn abortion will soon be put to the test concerning the genuineness of their abhorrence of the destruction of the unborn. When the pill is marketed in North America that enables a woman to destroy the unborn child soon after conception in the privacy of her bathroom, without any trip to an abortion clinic, the Reformed young woman who has sinned and is sorry, but dreads being found out, and the Reformed couple who have convinced themselves that they cannot bear the responsibility of yet another child will be tested whether their hatred of abortion was rooted in the love of God.

Grace rescues us from this present, evil, aborting, heaven-storming, perishing world.

Only grace.

In its own way, abortion brings home to us Reformed Christians the reality of the grace of God to us and our children.

The world butchers its own offspring.

Reformed believers obediently have children in marriage; thankfully receive them; gladly rear them; and joyfully fellowship with them in the family.

The grace of God in the covenant with believers and their children makes the difference.

This is the difference. Either parents bury their children in the blood of Christ in baptism, or they choke them in their own and their mother’s blood in abortion.

We have it so good in the covenant. The covenant means life for us and for our sons and daughters.

We must be thankful.

Outside the covenant, it is horrible: grisly death for unbelievers and their children.

Well may we pray the petition of Psalm 74:20: “Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.”

In humility, may we all repent of our murderous sins and seek refuge in that sin-removing, guilt-covering, and wrath-sheltering grace of God.

What Are We Afraid Of? – M.Smethurst

Today before our worship services I did some more reading in the new issue of Tabletalk (January 2018), which is built around the theme of “Fearing God.”

The first main feature article is by Matt Smethurst and is titled “What Are We Afraid Of?” The author does an excellent job of analyzing our human fears and pointing us to the one whom we ought truly to fear.

Tonight we pull a few choice sections from this article to give us some good, spiritually healthy food for thought, both negative and positive.

First, the negative:

The achievements of modern life—medicinal, technological, and otherwise—have given us an ever-increasing sense of control. Actually, more than a sense. We really do enjoy more control over more aspects of life than ever before in history. We’re so accustomed to a convenient, custom-designed, there’s-an-app-for-that quality of life that we’re more shocked when things are hard than when they’re easy.

Without realizing it, this increasing sense of control can begin to feel natural, intuitive, right. Not a gift, mind you—a right. And we start to believe that if we can simply manage our fears, they will never master us.

We are wrong, and we are miserable.

But it’s even worse. Addicted to what we can control, we extend the borders of our kingdom into realms we can’t control. We try to control circumstances, but trials rudely show up uninvited. We try to control people, but they don’t stick to our wonderful plan for their lives. We try to control our future, but He who sits in the heavens always seems to laugh (Ps. 2:4).

And now consider this positive instruction:

So what is the answer to our dilemma? How can we disentangle ourselves from the fears that won’t leave us alone? One answer is the doctrine of inerrancy. Yes, inerrancy. Simply put, if your Bible is not wholly true, then you should be terrified. Why? Because if your Bible is not wholly true, then you have no reason to trust that the One in charge of your life is both great and good.

I’m so grateful that my college campus minister, Dan Flynn, loved to emphasize these twin truths from Scripture. “God can and God cares,” he would say. I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but in those simple words he was distinguishing biblical Christianity from every religion on the market. Protestant liberalism, for example, offers a God who is good but not great. He cares, but He can’t. He’s a nice buddy, an experienced life coach, even a world-class psychotherapist, but ultimately He’s just “the man upstairs.” Meanwhile, other religions such as Islam offer the opposite: a God who is great but not entirely good. A God who can, but perhaps doesn’t care.

But when we open our Bibles, something unprecedented happens. It’s stunning, really. We encounter a living Lord who is both great and good, sovereign and kind, who can and who cares.

If God were only good, I would go to bed frightened. How could I worship someone who, bless His heart, means well and is doing His best? But I would likewise go to bed frightened if He were only sovereign. What assurance is there in knowing He’s mighty if He’s not merciful? What comfort is there in a deity who doesn’t care about us?

Strikes home, doesn’t it? What are you and what am I afraid of? What we cannot control. And who has it all under control? Our sovereign, loving Lord. Isn’t it time to stop being afraid and to start fearing the Lord?