Eternal Glory--The believer’s ultimate hope of glory awaits us beyond time and history, in a new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells.

To Advance the Kingdom--The Gospel that Jesus and the apostles proclaimed is the Gospel of the Kingdom (cf. Matt. 4.17, 23; Acts 20.25). It heralds the astonishing news that a new epoch has begun in human history, ...

Redeemed for Good Works--In the Gospel we insist that men are not saved by works. To try to use the Law of God – or any standard of human righteousness – as a means of redemption is to fall short of God’s glory.

The Way to God’s Promises--The Gospel, as every believer knows, holds out the promise of eternal life through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Free from Wrath--The Good News that guilty sinners need to hear is that God has made a way for them to dwell in His presence forever, without fear of judgment or wrath (Rom. 8.1). That way is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Fulfilled and Satisfied--Central to the Gospel is the work of Jesus Christ, what He has accomplished on our behalf so that we might know God and dwell in His presence without fear.

To Expose the Sins of Men--We have seen that the Law of God is to be used lawfully, and not unlawfully. We use the Law of God lawfully when we look to it to define sin and when we listen as it speaks to us of the character of God.

How big is our vision of Christ?

Congress yesterday passed another "continuing resolution" to keep the government from shutting down next week. Now we have until the first week of April.

I wonder why this is called a "continuing resolution"? It seems to me more irresolute than resolute, not to have passed a budget yet for this year, and not to be able to agree on a budget for next year.

The Democrats had the power to pass last year's budget, but they failed to do so. I suspect that putting on paper that much spending for so many entitlements and frivolous pork projects would have meant an even greater drubbing last November than what they actually experienced.

The same is true today. There is more irresolution than resolution in these stop-gap spending measures, simply because Democratic Senators and a Democratic President do not want to concur in proposed Republican cuts, and they're not willing to stand good for what they do want to keep in the budget for themselves and their constituents.

This is leadership?

Americans deserve better than this. This budget irresolution is irresponsible and indefensible. Are there any Christians in Congress? Do they ever caucus about what the Word of God might require of them in working together to make government a servant of God for good? And if not, perhaps it's time we urged them to do so. If they cannot unite in their common faith to bring more courageous, wise, and resolute leadership to Washington, then they need to admit that their faith is not worth the baptism certificate it's written on.

This situation will not heal itself. Someone needs to propose something new, something different, something that transcends the petty interests of morally-bankrupt political parties and leads in the way of truth. He Who is making all things new is doing so through His people. If any of them are in Congress, now's the time to make their ultimate convictions known.

Additional related texts: Romans 13.1-4; Psalm 72

A conversation starter: "Wouldn't it be interesting to see what might happen if the Christians in Congress from each political party came together and suggested some altogether new and selfless way to break the budeget logjam?"

T. M. Moore

Jesus has told us what we need to do.

It's easy to get sidetracked on the roadway of life.

How can we account for the irrepressible human impulse to care?