The Great Commission?

This morning Emily-Kate and I read a page on the preaching of the Gospel in Ron Hanko's "Doctrine According to Godliness". It discussed the Great Commission, and it was very sad to realise how the Great Commission is badly neglected today in the Church.

Most para-church mission groups, and most churches even, openly contradict the Great Commission, (of course para-church missionary organisations are the invention of man, nowhere to be found in Scriptures). They say, "we only teach people the basics of Christianity", "we don't teach any of the controversial stuff", etc. Mission work that is carried out by an alliance of churches with different beliefs also by definition does not carry out the Great Commission, because in order to ally they agree not to teach the things they disagree on.

Over against this, Christ in the Great Commission commands the churches (and not para-church missionary organisations):

"[Teach] them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you", Mat 28:20.

These "all things" include the Bible's teaching on the end-times (Mat 24), predestination (John 6:37, 10:29, Rom 9, Eph 1), the literacy of Gen 1-3 (1Ti 2:14), warning by name against false teachings and teachers (Mat 23:13; 2Ti 1:15, 2:17, 4:10,14), etc.

The words of the prophet Amos are true today:

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD," Amos 8:1

It makes me want to weep, when I think of how many of God's children are withheld from growing in the knowledge of God and are forced to drink watered-down milk all their lives, because most church leaders either are ignorant themselves of the Scripture, or would have their flock to be ignorant of them.

They ignore the plain testimony of God, for He says that "all Scripture... is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". In refusing to teach theology, they are keeping the children of God away from eternal life, for Christ declared that "to know God is eternal life" (Jn 17:3) and theology is the study of God, without which there can be no knowledge of God.

How many beloved children of God hear boring sermons every Sunday, teaching them the same basic truths over and over again, so that they never mature into the full stature of the knowledge of Christ (Eph 4:13)? Even worse, many of these "basics" are horrible lies, for example, that God would throw people He loves into hell, or that physical sickness and poverty is a sign of God's displeasure.

"I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Acts 20:26-27.

May the Lord be pleased to bring the Church back into obedience to the Great Commission, for the sake of His great Name and for the sake of the elect. May He be pleased to raise up preachers who, like Paul, will proclaim the whole counsel of God unashamedly, to as many as possible.

Though I am very saddened and concerned, I am not worried. For Christ promised:

"I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Mat 16:18.

No Scholarship (yet)

Several weeks ago, I had applied for a scholarship to do a Masters in Computational Quantum Chemistry here in Limerick. Yesterday, I found out that I didn't get it.

Thankfully, the Lord gave me sufficient faith to understand that this merely means that He has a different plan for me for the next year. I rejoice in His precious promise that He works all things for my good (Rom 8:28) and that His plans are best, and that they never fail!

Once my exams are finished (in 3 weeks' time), I will look into applying for the 2nd call, and I will also apply for jobs in the industry, and see what the Lord would have me do. It would of course be easiest if I could get a job in Limerick, but if it is somewhere else, I will just have to make weekly trips back to Limerick to attend the Limerick Reformed Fellowship, and biweekly trips to visit my lovely family in Ennis!

I finished my FYP!

Praise God I finally handed in my FYP, a week behind schedule.

FYP stands for Final Year Project, and is a mini-thesis ever UL student must write to graduate with a Bachelor. Mine turned out to 13,000 words and 115 A4 pages. Quite chunky!

It was estimating the feasibility of using the paper and cardboard waste stream in Ireland as a feedstock for biorefining. It was found that between 0.89 and 4.6% of Ireland's predicted 2020 transport energy needs could be met by biorefining this waste resource, which is pretty amazing.

I am very grateful to God that I finally completed it. Sadly last week there were 2 days in particular that I was very stressed and often angry with the LORD, which was not good at all. I got 3 hours sleep for 2 days while trying to finish it.

But the Lord is merciful, and He nonetheless enabled me to finish it. However, because the Lord prefers obedience to sacrifice (1Sa 15:22), it would have been better to be late and not be angry at God.

Well, I thought I would post the acknowledgements here:

I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof Michael H Hayes, for being very willing to help and giving time to contribute toward making this FYP what it is.

I would like to thank the other members of the Carbolea Research Group, Ainara, Corinna, Enrico and especially Daniel Hayes for their help and patience with me.

I would like to thank my best friend Sam for the godly example and great friend he was and is to me.

I would like to thank my beautiful fiancee Emily-Kate for her loving support during this time– I can't wait to marry you!

I would like to thank my amazing parents, Matthias & Regina Kuhs, for sacrificing so
much of their lives for me and bringing me up so well.

Above all, I would like to thank my heavenly Father, from whom I have received
everything. I thank Him for saving me by predestining such a wretched sinners as me to adoption through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. The life I now live I try to live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

The Incredible Privilege of Prayer

Imagine you were able to control even just all the atoms individually that you can hold in the palm of your hand. This would give you the power to destroy a whole city within seconds and to fly to the moon. You could rule the world.

Imagine you were the cousin of the President of the United States, and he had given you his personal phone number and told you that you could phone him any time of day if you needed anything.

"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." Isa 46:9-11

The LORD has created and continues to sustain and direct every single atom in the whole Universe. Not only this, but He even moves in the hearts of humans in order to bring all His purposes to pass:

"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." Proverbs 21:1

King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the world in his time, boasted one day of the great kingdom that he had built by his own might. Immediately, a voice came from heaven, and his mind became like that of an animal, and for 7 years he, the ruler of the world, was cast out of his own palace and ate grass like an ox. Finally, the Lord restored him to sanity.

"And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Daniel 4:34-35.

And how are we wretched sinners, who trust the Lord Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, taught to address this Almighty and terrible God, who is "a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate" him (Exodus 20:?

"Our Father."

And when can we pray to Him? Must we go to a temple, or earn our own righteousness?

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." John 4:23

And does this omnipotent King, who does everything He pleases, listen to our prayers?

"[Jesus said:] And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." John 14:13-14.

Of course to "ask in Christ's Name" is not referring to the letters C-H-R-I-S-T, as if it was a magic word, by which we can then (ab)use the LORD as a tool to get physical health, a nicer car or a bigger home. No, the NAME of Christ is His character, His being, that which accords with His nature.

This also assures us that God will not answer any of our prayers that spring out of our sinful nature, that go against His holy nature and that would do us damage. Rather, He answers all our prayers which come from faith and the Spirit dwelling in us.

When God's children pray to their heavenly Father, He hears their prayers for Christ's sake. Because Christ died for us, He rules the world for our good (Romans 8:32).

The Maker and Sustainer of the whole Universe, the One who rules over Satan and all his minions, along with every single ant, the One who knows about each sparrow that falls to the earth, the One who clothes the grass of the field and feeds the birds of the air - He it is that all the elect of God pray to, in full assurance that He will grant all their requests for His own name's sake.

What an amazing privilege.