A Christian Response to the Epstein Files

 Unless you live in a duplex under a rock you've heard about, thought about and talked about the so-called Epstein Files.  In a rare act of near unanimity congress voted to direct the Department of Justice to release in thirty days the information it had on the case regarding the dead child sex offender and financier Jeffery Epstein and his accomplice.  Only one of the 535 members of congress voted against this bill and the president signed it into law.

There is, and has been for years, much talked about regarding this.  The alleged, heinous actions are gross and scandalous.  It is no joy of mine to think about rich and powerful people flying to a private island to engage in criminal sexual activity with minors who were scouted and trafficked there.

As a Christian how should we think and talk about this?  How should a biblical faith engage with this? 

I won't go so far as to say I will offer up the principles to guide us but I would like to propose a way to Christianly respond.  I would like to propose three principles that can guide a Christian.

1) This is not political. Don't make it.

I'm saddened to see how this Epstein garbage has been made political.  Politicians are likely involved in the darkness of Epstein's crimes, but that doesn't make it political.  It will undoubtedly have massive political implications, but that doesn't make it political.

If your heart reacts to this news with a hopefulness that more blues than reds are involved, I think your moral compass is out of whack.  If one of the politicians on the side you pull for is involved and you want to ignore it, I think your moral compass is broken.  If you are okay with more cover up and strategic delaying of the truth, i fear your moral compass needs repair.  Recall the story of the prophet Nathan.  Nathan had to call out King David's heinous sexual sin and the deadly coverup that followed it.  Nathan didn't reason that David was too good of a king to rock the boat.  Nathan didn't consider the military power and economic success of Israel as something worth more than calling his king to repentance for rape, murder and a gross political coverup.  Neither should you.  

We must think about right and wrong not right and left.

2) God hates this!

You cannot read your Bible and think that God doesn't hate when the rich and powerful abuse and plunder the weak and lowly.  You can't read your Bible honestly and think God doesn't burn with wrath over the crimes reported to have been done by this syndicate of sin.

According to Matthew 18:6 Jesus says it would be better for a large millstone to be tied around the neck of these creeps that would sexually violate these girls and then toss the creepos off the so-called "Pedophile Island" and into the sea.  It's undeniable that God hates this.

Hell is evidence of God's hatred of sin and Hell itself is a comfort in situations like this.  Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A Peterson say that, "... the biblical writers underscore the justice of hell in order to comfort persecuted believers.  Indeed, we could speak of the 'comfort of hell.'... hell reassured God's people that ultimately evil and evildoers would be defeated."

If God hates this, you should hate this.  Don't become calloused to the disgusting sinfulness of this Epstein crap.

3) Even pedophiles can be saved.

I think in the United States of America in 2025 sex crimes against children is considered more deeply unthinkable than even murder.  There's something righteous and burning hot about the rage that bubbles up when we hear about sexual abuse against children.  I think this is right and good.  

There is probably no class more ostracized and vilified than that of sex offenders.

Don't hear me wrongly.  I'm not saying it is Christian to ignore sexual abuse.  I'm not by any means saying that the Christian response to this is to preclude firm justice.  I'm not saying it's Christian to be foolish and let your children stay overnight at someone on the sex offender registry.  

What I am saying is that the Gospel is good news even for the pedophile if he will repent and believe.  Jesus' saving work is applicable, even to those that heinously violate children.

"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." 1 Timothy 1:15

Christians, this good news isn't a get out of jail free card.  This gospel certainly does not and should not pervert earthly justice.  Sex crimes deserve justice.  What this good news does is cause us to awe and wonder at how good Jesus is.  What this gospel does is provoke us to tell it to all, even those we have a hard time imagining it is for.  What the good news of Jesus' propitiatory death on the cross for sins does is demand that we pray for the salvation of sinners, even sinners that we also pray that fair justice lands on.

Don't engage with this Epstein stuff as the non-Christians do.  We must be Bible-informed and Gospel-shaped people.  So, don't make this excrement political, hate this sin like your Heavenly Father hates it and remember and proclaim that the Gospel extends even to those who sin monstrously today.

Will Your Lips Exploit or Lament?

 Do you ever pay attention to the news and politics in your nation or state and wonder if everyone is crazy? 

David wrote Psalm 12 as a community lament about 3,000 years ago and it feels like it could have been written today.  The psalm is a way for the community to complain to God about how it seems that liars dominate society and run things.  Read it and you'll see what I mean.

"Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, 'With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?'

'Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,' says the LORD;
'I will place him in the safety for which he longs.'
The words of the LORD are pure words,'like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.

You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man." Psalm 12

Do you feel like David felt while writing this psalm?  Does it feel like everyone is a liar?  Do you examine politics or the culture and conclude the place where you live is run by boastful, lying, God-ignoring men and women?

David taught the people singing this psalm to see this injustice and to ask God to do something about it.  He taught God-honoring complaining versus God-dishonoring complaining.  He instructs us on how to ask God to work, even violently, to make things right and good.  David goes even further and shows us how we can and should trust that God will rise up and make things right.  David implores us to sing with confidence that while all men may be liars, God will not lie.  In sharp contrast to the words of these men, God's words are pure and trustworthy.

Before we leave this eternally timely psalm, let's look at what the turning point of the psalm is.  What it is that arouses God to enact justice.

"'Because the poor are plunder, because the needy groan, I will now arise,' says the LORD. 'I will place him in the safety for which he longs." v. 5

I have been reading the psalms daily during this year.  You cannot soak in the psalms and not see that God is for the poor and needy and the outcasts.  God is for these people and the wicked prowl around and look to devour them just like the Devil does (Psalm 12:8; 1 Peter 5:8).

Do you see this in our culture and nation and world?  Do you see that "vileness is exalted among the children of man"?

We see things that exploit our young men, like the sports gambling industry, being labeled good, clean fun.  The murder of the unborn is called healthcare.  The lottery is said to be a fundraiser for schools and an opportunity for riches while it is actually a heavy tax on the poorest among us.  

Christians, are we involved in exploitative endeavors or industries?  Do we prop up the things that wickedly plunder the poor and cause the needy to groan?

Even the things that are mostly good must be done in a Christian fashion.  For example, we see from Psalm 10 and 12 that capitalism without a morality, and I'll argue at the very least a Judeo-Christian influenced morality, will end in gross injustice because of our own wicked bend.  That isn't an argument necessarily to get rid of it but to have all of our lives, even and perhaps especially our economic lives, dripping with Gospel morality.

Don't lie for ill-gotten gain or lie to yourself in order to ignore the vileness you end up promoting.

Will you be the one who laments and calls out to God for your nation/culture or will you be a participant and promoter of the vileness that God says arouses Him to righteous anger?  Read Psalm 12 and pray for God to make things right and good again today.

A Psalm for the Persecuted Church

 Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  It is this Sunday that we especially take time to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters around the world that are facing extreme persecution.

Our local church has a personal connection to the extreme, violent persecution of Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Below is a video that was shown in service highlighting what some believers there are experiencing now.

Because this is the day to pray I wanted to share some ways you can pray for the persecuted church using Psalm 3.

"O LORD, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
many are saying of my soul,
'There is no salvation for him in God.' Selah" v. 1-2

The psalmist, David, cries out to the LORD.  In this particular time he was fleeing from a rebellion led by his son Absalom.  

David cried out to God and laid out his situation before God.  Did God need to be informed?  Absolutely not, but we can and should pray like this.  Get informed about a particular situation impacting the persecuted church and pray about it today.  It's fine to for the persecuted church in general, but how much more fervent will your prayer be when you put your whole heart into crying out for a particular need!

"But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the LORD,
and He answered me from His holy hill. Selah" v. 3-4

Pray today that God would shield and protect those brothers and sisters in harms way.  Pray that they would experientially know that the God of the Universe is their shield.  Pray that God would lift their heads.  Pray that they might be encouraged... because they need courage.  Pray that God would hear and answer their cries.  Ask God to encourage them with the truth that He always hears them.

"I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around." v. 5-6

Oh, that God would give these poor people good sleep. Can you imagine how sleepless you would be if you worried that your children would be chopped to death by a machete?  Pray that God would given them peace in the crisis that passes all understanding.  Pray that God would wake them in the morning.  I never have to think about how vulnerable I am while unconsciously asleep.  These men and women do.  Even when out of harms way sleep is difficult.  Pray that they would have unnatural courage.  That they could be fearless even though the odds are seemingly stacked against them!

"Arise, O LORD!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked." v. 7

We are to be faithful in the midst of trial but we aren't asked to not desire physical salvation here and now.  Pray fervently that God would save them.  That He would use any variety of means to stop the violence and persecution.  Many Christians would say that the only way to pray in regards to the oppressors is that they would experience a radical conversion like the Apostle Paul did.  Please pray for that.  That is a wonderful prayer.  But we can also pray that God would beat the tar out of the violent, unjust people that are doing these terrible things.  It is a Christian prayer to pray for God to strike the wicked.  

For more context, Psalm 7:12-13 say this: "If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts."

Pray that the violent men be stopped and stopped suddenly by either radical conversion or holy violence.

"Salvation belongs to the LORD;
your blessing be on your people! Selah" v. 8

Earlier David said people taunted him by saying that there is no salvation for him in God.  Here David proclaims that salvation belongs to the LORD.  Pray that the persecuted people of God would know their soul's salvation and experience the temporary bodily salvation they desperately desire as well.  Pray that their lives be a testimony against the lies the wicked spew.  Pray that the people of God be blessed.  Pray for an end of violence and ask for God to do abundantly more for them.

Please take time to pray for the persecuted church today.

Saved Alone: The Story and Soul Behind a Beloved Hymn

 In 1871 Horatio G. Spafford lost almost all his wealth in the Great Chicago Fire.  About that same time Spafford lost his four year-old son to Scarlet Fever.  In 1873 while trying to solve a business issue in Chicago he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship back across the Atlantic.  

Spafford received a chilling telegraph that read simply: "Saved alone."

Just two years after losing his son he lost all four daughters in the sinking of a ship.  Spafford crossed the chilly ocean to join his grieving wife.  While on the voyage the captain of the ship informed Horatio when they reached the spot where his daughters had drowned to death.  In his grief and because of his intense faith and hope he penned the poem that became "It Is Well With My Soul".

"When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul."

You can well imagine tears rolling down his cheeks and splashing onto his paper as he jotted down these lines.  Sorrows like sea billows were certainly rolling and he was fighting to be able to say like Job, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21).

On that ship Horatio Spafford was expressing the beauty of God's sovereignty in the midst of tragedy like I can't imagine.  Where did he find the ability to write such lyrics at the location of his four daughters' death?  I believe the answer can be seen in the next verses.

"Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed His own blood for my soul."

Spafford finds a reason to hope in the goodness and good sovereignty of God in the midst of this massive tragedy by thinking about his own salvation.  Why does he do this?  Why when grasping for hope and meaning at this fatal locale did he think of his own salvation?  I believe he must have thought of Romans 8:32:

"He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"

Paul's argument was that if the Father would sacrifice His own Son then we can trust that there is nothing He won't do to give us all things.  And if that is true then Horatio could trust that his Heavenly Father somehow, someway, was doing him good even in this tragic moment.  What trust could be rooted in this sort of Gospel logic.

"My sin... oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!"

In the painfulness of life... a painfulness I hope to never hit... Spafford was able to experience the joy of his salvation.  Sin was defeated on the cross.  Not part of his sin, but the whole!  But how does this help poor Horatio Spafford in this exact moment floating over the sea graves of his four daughters?  For this we look at the next verse which is rarely, if ever, sung but was in the poem written by Spafford.

"For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan shall above me shall roll.
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul."

Horatio understood the Gospel and understood Philippians 1:21 which reads: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For Spafford to continue living without the five of his children was Christ and for them to die was gain.  

"But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
the sky, not the grave, is our goal;
oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!"

1 Thessalonians 4:13 tells the Christian that he or she will grieve but not as those who have no hope.  In the Bible we read and in the creeds we confess that we believe and hope in the resurrection of the dead.  The sky, not the grave, is our goal.  Spafford would not permanently lose his children.  Yes, there was certainly grief.  Yes, there was certainly hope.

"And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend.
Even so, it is well with my soul."

We who have this hope say, "Come back quickly, Jesus!"  In the second coming Jesus will make all things new and death will be no more.  In the most painful moments of life we who believe cry out for Jesus to hurry up and return.  Spafford clearly means this as the last verse of his poem echos the end of the entire Bible in the King James Version he would have been reading.

"Surely, I come quickly'.  Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20

How did Horatio Spafford respond to a nearly unthinkable tragedy?  With the Gospel applied.  And that is why this hymn that was put to music by Phillip Bliss still brings tears to eyes and strength to souls.

I got to hear an incredible arrangement and performance of this song today by the Wartburg Choir.  The recording below is older but take a few minutes to listen and understand what Spafford wrote and what brought tears of joy to my eyes today.

What Hurts God's Heart Most

 What do you do that grieves God the most?  Is there some sin that you're just sure drives Him nuts as He sits in Heaven?  Is there something you've not overcome that you imagine wets His eyes as He watches you struggle with it?  What frustrates God, if that's an emotion we can attribute to the Almighty?

Take time to look at Psalm 95.  It's a wonderful psalm and only eleven verses, but it's got so much going on and you'll find yourself flipping your Bible both forward and back.

Psalm 95 begins with a call to worship.  The psalmist tells us to worship because God is the creator and owner of all things.  The song, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" will likely pop into your mind as you read these first five verses:

"Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise!
For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In His hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are His also.
The seas is His, for He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land." Psalm 95:1-5

God is the creator, owner and sustainer of all things!  He is greater than all "gods" and He is worth singing about even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket.

The psalm then dials the microscope in from the hugeness of the universe and focuses in on us and our Heavenly Father's care for us.  He wants us to understand that this God who holds the whole earth in His hands cares for us.  He wants us to comprehend that the God who made the Rocky Mountains made us and loves us.

"Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker.
For He is our God,
and we are the people of His pasture,
and the sheep of His hand." Psalm 95:6-7a

Do you believe that?  Are you someone that believes... truly believes... that God cares for you like a good shepherd?  Do you read Psalm 23 and know that your God cares for you?  Do you believe that the God that wove you in your mother's womb loves you?  Do you know this is the Good Shepherd that will leave the ninety-nine to get the one?

It's hugely important that God's people know and believe this.  If we fail to believe this we besmirch the character of God and I can think of few things that could possibly grieve God and even anger God, the God who is jealous for His fame and glory, worse that sullying His character when He's done nothing but love and shepherd us.

Look at the next verses of the psalm:

"Today, if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work." Psalm 95:7b-9

These verses point back to the story of the Exodus.  The people of Israel had seen the plagues in Egypt.  They had walked across the Red Sea on dry ground.  They had eaten the bread of Heaven six days a week.  They had watched suicidal quail land at their feet for supper.  Yet when they were thirsty they doubted God's love, care and provision.  Moses then smote the rock and brought out water, yet the people still doubted.

These same Israelites who had seen miracle after miracle sent spies into the Promised Land.  The spies testified that the land was amazing but ten of the twelve, all but Joshua and Caleb, spread fear about the peoples living in the land.  The same Israelites who had watched God destroy the greatest superpower in the ancient world at the time, without them raising a sword, doubted that God could and would do it again with a lesser foe. They doubted God's love, care and provision for them.

"For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, 'They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.' 
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
'They shall not enter my rest.'" Psalm 95:10-11

The entire generation of Israelites, except for Joshua and Caleb, missed the Promised Land.  They disbelieved God's love and care for them.  They died in the desert and missed their rest.

In Hebrews 3 and 4 the author picks up on Psalm 95.  The writer says that Jesus is the Redeemer greater than Moses and Joshua and that the New Heaven and New Earth is far beyond the Holy Land.  The writer of Hebrews even warns that our eternal security is at stake: "Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it." Hebrews 4:1

Jesus has done greater things than Moses.  Jesus died on the cross for your sins and was raised on the third day.  Jesus defeated sin and death for you.  Jesus, in the great exchange as Augustine calls it, took our sin and failures and gave us His righteousness and all its benefits.  

How then can we besmirch God's character and doubt His love and care for us?  How then can we assault the very character of God by accusing Him of being an absent father?  What gives us the thought that we can look at any command of God for us and wonder if it's in our best interest or not?  For the believer isn't all sin rooted in our misunderstanding and misapplication of God's incalculable love for us or, even worse, a direct disbelief in His love and Good Shepherd care for us?

What grieves God most?  I think it has to be those who have tasted and seen His goodness and then rejected it like Judas.  It's those who look at the cross and then disbelieve the Triune God's deep love and affection for them.

The Puritan pastor and author John Owen said this in his book Communion with the Triune God:

"The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to Him, is not to believe that He loves you."

Let me leave you with this famous quote from pastor Brennan Manning:

"The Lord Jesus is going to ask each of us one question and only one question: 'Do you believe that I loved you? That I desired you? That I waited for you day after day? That I longed to hear the sound of your voice?'

The real believers there will answer, 'Yes, Jesus.  I believed in your love and I tried to shape my life as a response to it."

Whether you're comfortable with some of the sappy language Pastor Manning uses or not, the question remains.  Do you believe Jesus loves you and how does that affect how you'll live today?  Or will you see the difficulties of life, the tasty looking temptations along the roadside of life or listen to the voices that naysay and decide to believe that God is holding out on you and that He either doesn't love you at all or just not enough for your liking?  Will you believe and trust in the love of God for you or will you assault His character and grieve His heart today?

Are You Smarter Than an Ass or Box of Rocks?

 Today is Sunday but it's not Palm Sunday.  However, the children's church lesson for the day was on the Triumphal Entry of Jesus.

I had a plan on where I was going with the story and the video from The Biggest Story was good (I'd recommend it simply based on the colors and Michael Reeves' narration).  However, God changed my plans.  The adult helper, Darrell the Balloon Man Anderson, is superb with children and he made an interjection.  He told a brief story about how he used to get a unridden horse as a kid and how difficult it was to break in a new horse.  That story changed how I would end the Bible story and understand this story from Luke.

If you remember the story as told in Luke 19 you'll remember that Jesus rode a colt that had never been sat upon.  You'll also remember that the people shouted out, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  And finally, you'll remember that the Pharisees disliked the whole thing that was going on and asked Jesus to tell His followers to shut up, to which Jesus replied: 

"I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."

This story is many things and one of those things is a rebuke upon the Pharisees.  

The Pharisees were supposed to be learned.  They were supposed to be pious.  They were supposed to be ones who worshipped the Lord and followed Him to the max.  In this story they are the only ones not doing it.

Luke is telling us, in part, that the Pharisees were dumber than an ass.  The donkey understood Jesus' lordship and did what unbroken donkeys don't do.  This donkey, like Balaam's donkey, had a better understanding of who Jesus is than the experts of the Talmud.  This ass knew his Creator when he saw him, the Pharisees didn't.  Who was the real dumb ass?

This passages also tell us, in part, that the Pharisees were dumber than a box of rocks. The people praised Jesus as the coming King.  They shouted out royal praise to the King of kings.  The Pharisees missed Jesus' Kingship.  Jesus told them that if the crowd didn't shout the stones would cry out in praise.  The rocks knew their King when they saw Him, but the Pharisees who were steeped in Old Testament prophesy about the Davidic Messiah King didn't.  Who was dumber than a box of rocks?

Before your superiority complex comes raging in, we need to see what Luke is really saying.

Unless God opens our eyes to our Creator-King we are like the Pharisees.  We can have all the information and none of the understanding.  We can have all the words and not truly know the Word.  We, in our sinful nature, are all dumber than an ass and a box of rocks.

However, God can and will open the eyes of the blind to see.  God will let us see our King and Lord and Creator and shout: 

"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!"

You aren't the reason you believe.  You and I would be stuck as stubborn asses who have less sense than a box of rocks if left to our own devices.  We needed saving more than we realized.  No, if you believe, you are one that God has removed blinders from so that you see what the donkey and stones saw and love it today.

A Kingdom Built a Heart at a Time

 One of, if not, the greatest penitential psalm is Psalm 51. This is the famous song King David wrote after Nathan the prophet had confronted him about his sin regarding Bathsheba.  This sin involved at least adultery and murder and I'd argue rape and murder, and the murder of a trusted and close friend.

This psalm has many famous lines about begging for forgiveness, admitting sin against God, about original sin and the inability to live a righteous life without God, request for cleansing and restoration and God's love of a broken and contrite spirit over the desire for burnt offerings.

Read Psalm 51 if you haven't for awhile.  This psalm is dripping with applicable goodness.  This song is soaked with lines worth memorizing.  However its ending is one that surprises the modern reader.  At first glance, to me, it looks out of place with the rest of this intensely personal psalm.

"Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar." Psalm 51:18-19

Why is this the ending to this psalm?  Why does King David all the sudden intercede for the city of Zion?  Why this here?

I believe the reason King David does this is simply this: Our personal reconciliation and personal confession is always also about the fullness of the Church both local and universal.

We often pray for and seek large scale revival.  We hope for revivals in a college campus, a city, a country and the whole world.  But the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed.  It is like yeast in dough.  The Kingdom though large is also in individual hearts and souls.

When individuals collectively live Psalm 51-type repentance the Church is blessed and the Bride is beautified.

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." Ephesians 5:25-27

So, we in our own homes and in our own local churches and in our own personal reading of the Bible let it read us.  We read it so that we, on occasion and probably most occasions, have the same "YOU ARE THE MAN" experience that David got from the prophet Nathan when he was confronted with his sin.  We read our Bibles and let it read us so we can face our sin and become penitent and in so doing be washed thoroughly from iniquity and be made whiter than snow.  And when we individually do this the Church does this, too.

Jesus died and gave us His righteousness and completely justified us.  Yet He saved us and is saving us in our daily sanctification.  As Martin Luther famously wrote, "All of life is repentance."  So, read, repentant and watch the Kingdom of Heaven come in as the Church is built up and Her worship becomes even more delightful to God today.