This issue focusses on God’s design for our lives and living each day for his glory and honor. As Bob Tedesco writes in his article, God’s Design,
“The Scriptures provide us a blueprint for Christian living. There seem to be endless insights for Christian living and many of those insights seem to have even deeper levels of wisdom waiting to be discovered. For example, “God is love.” A new Christian will get that at some level. As a disciple matures in his relationship with the Lord, he will observe and discover the depths of this simple statement. As his prayer life grows, he will discover and experience the profound nature of ‘God is love.’”
Joani Nath reflects on what it means to be Devoted to God and his Design for Mission and Growth as a community of disciples who seek to follow the Lord together.
Steve Clark’s article on “Genesis and Truth,” an excerpt from eloquent book, Man and Woman in Christ, unpacks God’s intention and purpose from the beginning,
“When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.”
Genesis 5:1-2
Russel Moore’s article, Man, Woman & the Mystery of Christ: An Evangelical Protestant Perspective, exposes the myth of limitless power to reshape what is means to be human, and the false premise of a sexual revolution that tore down old patriarchal systems. He urges Christians to boldly articulate and embody God’s vision for marriage. He then exhorts Christians,
“We cannot capitulate on these issues. To dispense with marriage is to dispense with a mystery that points to the gospel itself. But we must also create cultures where manhood is defined, not by cultural stereotypes, but by an other-directed, self-sacrificial leadership on behalf of one’s family and one’s community. We must create cultures where women are valued not for their sexual availability and attractiveness to men but for the sort of fidelity and courage that the Apostle Peter wrote of as that of a “daughter of Sarah” (1 Peter 3:6). We must work for the common good, in contrast to the sexually libertarian carnivals around us, to speak of the meaning of men and women, of mothers and fathers, of sex and life. We must stand against the will-to-power that reduces children to commodities to be manufactured and as nuisances to be destroyed.”
Let us press on to be renewed and faithful to the Lord’s call to be a community of disciples on mission – and a bulwark that can stem the tide of evil and be a place of security and safety for our families and others – and that can serve the wider church and society by working to defend Christian truth and morality.
Sincerely in Christ,
Don Schwager
editor
Top photo credit: image of a shining cross in the wilderness © GraphicStock.com. Used with permission.
Don Schwager is the editor of Living Bulwark and author of the Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation website. He is a lay religious brother and life-time member of the Servants of the Word.
Thank you Don for your faithful service compiling these articles for our edification!