A saving prayer

"Whatever not of faith is sin" (Romans 4:13).

"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."
(James 2:10).

Whether you have been attending a church all your life, or if you have never, or if you are somewhere in between, if you desire eternal life, pray this prayer. If you mean it, if you truly mean it, it will forever join you to Christ and eternal, joyful life.

Almighty God, I cannot escape from your pursuit. You have found me and inclined my heart to believe in you.

I confess my sins which are worthy of eternal punishment.

And I believe now in Jesus, that as your Son he died to bear my sin and punishment, so I could live forever and walk in newness of life. I take him as my only hope and acknowledge him as my Lord. Teach me to follow him always.

Thank you, Father, for your forgiveness and your promise to be with me. Guard me now from the evil one.

Amen.

And now you can join in a hymn of truth and life,

Nothing can for sin atone, Nothing but the blood of Jesus; Naught of good that I have done, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Five things I've learned in five days from a five-pound baby girl

In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back. -Charlie Brown

On January 14th, thanks be to God, my wife and I welcomed into this world a very small baby girl, Trinity Frances Faber. (pictures and videos to come). In this short-time she has been with us, she has already taught us so much. None the least, how powerfully we can love somebody.

God's word sometimes jumps off the pages for us. Often, God uses our lives and the things in them to reveal deeper meaning into his revelation to us; for brevity, I want to point out five things He has taught me through Trinity, our tiny five-pound, five-day old, baby girl.

5) Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers (Malachi 2:10).

Many Christians (and Jews) know about the Mosaic and the Levitical covenant, but how about the Noahic covenant? Here, God made it clear that we are all His creation, and brothers and sisters.

If I can love Trinity as much as I do, and if other parents feel the same way about their children, there is no barrier between people - time, religion, race - that is meaningful. We are truly all brothers, created Imago Dei (Genesis 1), from a God that is Spirit (John 4). Knowing this, we should treat every human with dignity, respect, servitude, and, above all, love. Interestingly, in America, we celebrated the memorial of Martin Luther King Jr. this week. It is this basic principle of equality that the heroic men and women whom led the civil rights movement based their ideals on. In essence, they argued you can either be a white supremacist or a Christian: you can either believe in the Christian God whom created all men and women equally, or you can be something else, something completely different. This is as true today as it ever was.

4) God is Love. (1 John 4:8).

There is perhaps no word in human history more abused, misunderstood and marginalized as "love". I can't put appropriate effort at this time to even touch upon the Love of God for His creation (and even if I could, it would still be futile). I will say that the closest I have ever come personally to understand this love is when I look into the eyes of this precious little girl. And still, the "love" I have for her is nonsense in comparison to the Love of God for His creation. There should be no more confounding and comforting thought in the world than this.

3) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

Oh my legalistic brothers and sisters,trapped in works-righteousness theology, if you only could understand this one truth, how you could see the truth that will set you free (John 8:32).

There is nothing - nothing - that could or ever will change God or Jesus Christ. He is absolutely immutable. All the powers and promises of God are as true yesterday, today and forever. The Spirit cries out, Abba, Father, now and always (Romans 8:15). God rejoices over one found sinner, now and always (Luke 15). God will never leave us or desert us, now and always (Hebrews 13:5).

Parents have been giving birth to Trinitys since the Creation. My feelings for her give me an understanding of the continuity of all our needs and hopes as His Creation - and the immense need we all have for the promises and comfort of Jesus Christ, no matter what period of human existence we live/lived in.

2) But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Luke 18:17) (italics mine).

Biblically speaking, all of us Christians whom practice infant Baptism must make this concession: our argument for infant Baptism is quite weak.

Nonetheless, we appeal to verses like Luke 18:17, though the scant support of Scripture is enough to make any serious Christian uncomfortable. Are Baptists and other Christians right about believer's baptism? Is this how we were intended to show the sign of the new Covenant?

When I look at Trinity, I feel reassured about our practice of infant Baptism. Trinity offers nothing to God; she comes to God with nothing. This is how any genuine repentant heart approaches God, and this is how one day she will approach God, God willing. It is the humility and self-horror of a sinner that is the first step back towards God. While children aren't aware of their sin-condition, their regenerate parent(s) is/are. While Baptism will never be sufficient for re-birth and reconciliation with God without personal faith in Jesus Christ, we maintain that we trust God to bring the baptized infant to repentance, regeneration, faith, and life.

1) "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' (Luke 15 21-24).

One of the very few novels I have ever had the good sense and patience to read was Dostoevsky's "The Idiot." There is one scene where Prince Myshkin is directly addressing the idea of faith. He is explaining to Rogojin of a recent encounter he has had with a woman:

"Well, I went homewards, and near the hotel I came across a poor woman, carrying a child--a baby of some six weeks old. The mother was quite a girl herself. The baby was smiling up at her, for the first time in its life, just at that moment; and while I watched the woman she suddenly crossed herself, oh, so devoutly! 'What is it, my good woman I asked her. (I was never but asking questions then!) Exactly as is a mother's joy when her baby smiles for the first time into her eyes, so is God's joy when one of His children turns and prays to Him for the first time, with all his heart!' This is what that poor woman said to me, almost word for word; and such a deep, refined, truly religious thought it was--a thought in which the whole essence of Christianity was expressed in one flash--that is, the recognition of God as our Father, and of God's joy in men as His own children, which is the chief idea of Christ. She was a simple country-woman--a mother, it's true-- and perhaps, who knows, she may have been the wife of the drunken soldier!


When one sinner repents and looks toward God, like this baby looking towards her Mom for the first time, like Trinity looking at us for the first time, everything makes sense again. The daily mass murder and rape of people all over this globe, diseases, the Haitian earthquake, the constant tragedy and pain of this fallen world - it becomes something radically different. And we can see why and how all this nonsense can exist and persevere, yet there can still be a majestic, holy, loving Father in complete control, whom beckons, begs and chases us down until we turn back towards Him, His love, and how everything that was once supposed to be, and thanks to the blood of Jesus Christ, will become once again.

How God will draw those to him whom lived without knowledge of the Gospel is beyond our scope. How God will draw those to Him whom live in denial of Him after Christ's ministry or the period between Adam and Christ's ministry is beyond our scope.

But, and here is the punchline, if we know how much we can love our sons and daughters we can have no doubt God loves every one He created more, no matter what kind of life they lived, and what kind of state they died in. And it cannot be made more clear how much joy there is in heaven when one sinner repents, when he goes from lost to found, from death to life (John 5:24). I thus think it is not unreasonable for us to hope for the eventual calling and reconciliation of all those whom died not knowing Christ.

Trinity is the reason we hope. She, for us, is a reason why we continue to look heavenward, knowing and trusting there is a much, much better place - a place that is so different from this world, that we still bring her into this despicable world, in hopes we will be together in the next.

And we can have confidence, in the God of trustworthy Covenants, in the God of Love, in the God of immutability, in the God that calls babies and little children to Him, and in the God whom celebrates when any of His lost children are found, that He will search and search and never tire, until He brings Trinity back into His Blessings and Love.

Trinity will continue to teach me about our Creator in the days to come. I have no idea what is next, but i do know this - I can hardly wait.