Romans 10:3-13: Say it! Know it! Do it!

 Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 11 Sept. 2011; Corps 614 Regent Park, Toronto, 14 Feb. 2016; The Warehouse Mission, Cabbagetown, 11 Feb, 2018; and TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 11 May 2025 by Major (Captain) Michael Ramsay

 

Also included in Chapter 6 of SALVOGESIS Guidebook to Romans Road by Michael Ramsay (The Salvation Army: Vancouver Island, 2022)

 

THIS IS THE 11 MAY 2025 VERSION

 

Click to see the original version here:

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/09/romans-109-say-it-know-it-do-it.html

 

Click to see the abbreviated 2018 version here:

http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2018/02/romans-109-say-it-know-it-do-it.html

 

Romans 10:9: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:13, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” These are some of the basics of the whole Christian faith.

 

As it is Mothers’ Day. I have one sort of Mother’s Day story that relates to this. This story is a piece of wisdom that was presented to us at a gathering of Salvation Army Officers by Major David Ivany, who at the time, was in charge of Spiritual Care for all of Canada and Bermuda. He shared this story with us about a kind elderly mother and grandmother who upon a public confession of faith is experiencing the pure joys of Christian love.

 

This lady, Emma, she goes into a local Christian bookstore and sees a ‘Honk if you love Jesus’ bumper sticker. Feeling particularly good that day because she has just come from a great choir practice and prayer meeting, she buys the bumper sticker, and she puts it on her car – professing her faith publicly. She recalls, “Boy, I’m glad I did! What an uplifting experience “It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus,” she said, “because if he hadn’t honked, I’d never have noticed that the light had changed!” She then noted that indeed, lots of people actually love Jesus because while she sat unmoving, blocking the lane of traffic, the guy behind her also honked like crazy before leaning out of his window and screaming, “For the love of God! Go! Go! Jesus Christ, Go!” She remembers thinking, “What an exuberant cheerleader he was for the Lord!”

 

Suddenly, it seemed as though she had started an epidemic and everyone started honking. Impressed by such a response, she leaned out of her window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people – while she was still parked in front of the intersection. “I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!” she recited. Then she realized the mix of celebrants. “There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a “sunny beach… I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger in the air. I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant, and he suggested that it was probably an Hawaiian good luck sign or something…”

 

The woman admitted that she had never met anyone from Hawaii before and was unaware of their customs. “I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign right back,” she reminisced.

 

She also remembers that a few persons were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards her. “I’ll bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended but that was when I noticed that the light had changed. So, I waved to all my loving sisters and brothers in Christ, grinned joyously, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed that I was the only car that made it through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time before I sped away.”

Key to our salvation, like with the bumper sticker, Romans 10:9, “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:13, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 

I do have a bit of a teaching background and this pericope does lend itself to an older style of teaching from way back; so as well look at this, I will take us through a 3-point discourse complete with plenty of repetition – like we were taught to teach a million years ago. The three points we will address today are: Romans 10:9: One, “Confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’; two, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead”; and, three, Romans 10:13: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” In other words:

 

1) Confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth: Say it.

2) Believe in your heart in His resurrection: Know it.

3) Call on the name of the Lord: Do it.

 

We must remember that God has offered the whole world a free gift of Salvation (Romans 6:23, John 3:16-17) and to fully take advantage of it we should say it! Know it! Do it!

 

1) Say it! Romans 10:9: Confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord

This is important. Whenever I hear this verse, I immediately think of the Apostle Peter, the rock upon which Christ built His church (Matthew 16:13-16; cf. Mark 8:27-29, Luke 9:18-20). Jesus told Peter that He was going to use him to help build His church. This was at the time Jesus gave Simon the nickname ‘Peter’. Peter wasn’t his given name; Simon was his given name. Peter means ‘Rock’ or even ‘Rocky’. Simon ‘Rocky-Peter’ was one of Christ’s main ‘go to’ people after His resurrection and we remember the story about how Jesus told Rocky-Peter that he would deny Jesus three times before the cock crows twice, then shortly after Peter says ‘I don’t know what your talking about’; shortly after Peter’s third denial that he even knows Jesus; the rooster crows and Peter is devastated (Matthew 26:69-75; cf. Mark 14:66-72, Luke 22:55-62, John 18:15-27).

 

Point #1 about Salvation today: Say it! (Cf. also Luke 21:12– 15; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Philippians 2:11; 1 Peter 3:13–16, 21) Simon Peter had his chance to confess Jesus as Lord but he declined it. If the story ended there this would be very sad but John 21:15ff, records Simon Peter’s restoration, as Rocky, as Peter. The Resurrected Lord asked him three times to feed his sheep and Peter agreed to it. Near the conclusion of the book of John, Jesus then blows on Peter -and the other disciples- giving him the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). Luke picked up the story of Rocky-Peter in the book of Acts as Rocky-Peter was at Pentecost taking the lead as the Holy Spirit, like a starting pistol, sent the disciples and more out to proclaim salvation to the world. Acts 2, after they share the gospel in many different languages as the Spirit enabled them, the Lord added to their number daily those being saved. Point 1, Romans 10:9, say it!

 

Peter and the disciples said it and many were saved. And just to underscore the fact that Peter did fully recover from his earlier denial, church tradition states that Peter even earned his martyr’s crown. He was apparently crucified upside down as he left his life here for heaven to await the resurrection. Point 1: Say it! This brings us to Point 2.

 

2) Know it! Believe in your heart in His resurrection.

It is very important to proclaim the gospel but that is not the end of it. Speaking is one thing and believing is quite another. If you have any doubt about that, think about the general reputation (accurate or not) of our elected politicians – speaking is one thing, believing what you say is quite another. Paul in this section of scripture is really addressing the whole problem of Israel (Romans 9-11; cf. also Deuteronomy 30, Leviticus 18). He is addressing the problem of the Law and their relationship to the Law and their relationship to God. He is very concerned about people who are quite happy to say what needs to be said – the Pharisees, as a group, did believe in the resurrection and as a group were quite evangelistic (cf. Acts 23:7-8)! But believing in your heart in Jesus’ resurrection is quite a different matter (1 Corinthians 15:17; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:13-14). The Apostle Paul - who was a Pharisee - celebrated the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead but sadly many Israelites and even many Pharisees did not. It pained Paul that people who were zealous for God’s Law were indeed missing out on the benefits of the culmination of that Law: Jesus, the one to whom the Law points (cf. Romans 9:1-5; 10:1-4; Matthew 5:17,18; Luke 16:16; Acts 4:12; Galatians 3:19-24).

 

Salvation is about,

Point 1, Saying it, confessing that Jesus is Lord, and it is also about,

Point 2, Knowing it, really believing in your heart in the resurrection and in Jesus’ resurrection.

 

This, of course, is a central part of not only Paul’s message but of all of Christianity (Romans 6:9, 9:16; 1 Corinthians 15:17, 20; 2 Corinthians 4:13-14; Ephesians 1:20-23; Philippians 2:9-11; Colossians 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:9; Revelation 1:17-18; cf. Deuteronomy 30:14, Acts 4:12, Isaiah 28:16). N.T. Wright tells us, “Almost all early Christians known to us believed that their ultimate hope was the resurrection of the body. There is no spectrum such as in Judaism. Some in Corinth denied the future resurrection (1 Corinthians 15.12), but Paul put them straight; they were most likely reverting to pagan views, not opting for an over-realized Jewish eschatology” [1] Belief in the resurrection and the resurrection of Christ is central to Christianity. To review what we know so far about Romans 10’s three points of Salvation:

1) Say it! - Confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth.

2) Know it! - Believe in your heart in His resurrection.

3) Do it! - Call on the Name of the Lord.

 

3) Do it! Call on the Name of the Lord.

This is important. Saying it is good. Knowing it is better. Doing it is imperative. This fact is also implied in Verse 9. The scriptures speak about this quite a bit (cf. Leviticus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 30:11-16, cited in vv. 5-8; Luke in Acts 2:16-21 and Paul here are both quoting from Joel 2:32). I believe that Matthew actually paints this picture quite vividly. In Matthew 25:31ff is recorded the parable of the sheep and the goats. In this parable you have two groups of nations. Both groups – the sheep and the goats – 1) say it and 2) know it, that Jesus is Lord. But it is only the sheep that 3) do anything about it. As a result, only the sheep are saved. The goats who don’t do anything are sent to where there is a weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 7:21 is quite clear on this matter: it is recorded there that the Lord says “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven”: Say it! Know it! Do it!

 

We must actually call on the Name of the Lord. We have to call on Him. We have to trust Him. This is important. For example, it is one thing for me to confess that I know my wife; it is another thing to believe in my heart the many wonderful things that have been done by and through her: these are wonderful things but my relationship with Susan only grows when I actually call on her, when I actually spend time with her. I can say she is my wife all I want; I can believe she is my wife all I want; but we only actually have a marriage if I bother to see her, to call on her sometimes. This is important. Christianity isn’t some academic pursuit. Christianity isn’t some code. Christianity isn’t some rules and regulations. Christianity isn’t some club. Christianity isn’t some principles by which we should live our life. Christianity is a relationship with the risen Christ. Jesus Christ rose from the grave and we are promised that, Romans 10:13 “…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” He loves us and He wishes that none will perish. And Salvation in our text today is as easy as 1, 2, and 3. It is my prayer today that every one of us will:

 

1) Say it! - Confess Jesus as Lord with our mouths.

2) Know it! - Believe in our hearts in His resurrection.

3) Do it! – That we would call upon the Name of the Lord

 

Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” Matthew 11:30: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” And blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Psalm 118:26, Matthew 21:9, Matthew 23:39, Mark 11:9, Luke 13:35, Luke 19:38, John 12:13). Romans 10:9a, say it: confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Romans 10:9b, know it: believe in your heart in Jesus’ resurrection. And above all else, Romans 10:13, do it: Call upon the Name of the Lord and then even we shall be saved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 147:7-11: Does God Prohibit the Kilt?

Presented to Alberni Valley Salvation Army Men's Breakfast, 25 January 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;

make music to our God on the harp.

 

8 He covers the sky with clouds;

he supplies the earth with rain

and makes grass grow on the hills.

9 He provides food for the cattle

and for the young ravens when they call.

 

10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his delight in the legs of a man [or ‘the warrior’];

11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,

who put their hope in his unfailing love.

 

Psalm 147:10: “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” I thought this was an appropriate passage to look at on Robbie Burns Day. For Christmas one year Susan bought me some Bible Commentaries on Psalms. In one of these books the author, Peter C. Craigie, from Scotland, writes:

 

…. It was the custom in Scotland for boys to wear the kilt to church on Sunday; to this day I can recall singing the words of Psalm 147:10 ‘Neither delighteth he in any man’s legs’. I pondered at that time the question of whether scripture condemned the kilt.[1]

 

Now, of course, this poem/psalm isn’t speaking about the kilt. When it says God doesn’t delight in the legs of a man (many translations actually say ‘warrior)’ or the strength of horse, it is talking about infantry and calvary. That was something God has spoken about lots: we can’t put our faith in the military or in anything else but him – everything else will let us down.

 

Canada is really worked up right now. Canada, for decades, we mistakenly put our faith in free trade with the US. It didn’t ever work great but now that we are no longer economically self-sufficient the US looks like it is declaring a trade war on us, as was always inevitable from the time we signed the agreement. We can’t put our faith in foreign countries. We can’t put our faith in their militaries, their economies or ours.

 

Even more so in our own day to day life – not just countries and politicians, people let us down all the time. We believe someone when they tell us something. We trust someone when they say they are going to do something. We rely on someone when maybe we know better. The truth is we do need to work well with each other, support each other, trust and love one another but there is only one who will never let us down – and that one is God. And really if everyone and everything else in life does let us down, God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us.

FOR ALL HAVE SINNED: Romans 3:23

Presented to TSA AV Ministries, 10 November 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay. Based on a chapter in his book, Salvogesis’ Guidebook to Romans Road and sermons presented to Swift Current Corps, 12 July 2009 and Warehouse 614 in Toronto, 21 January 2018

 

To view the earlier sermons, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/07/romans-322b-23there-is-no-difference.html 

To read ‘Salvogesis’, click here: http://www.sheepspeak.com/ebooks.htm  

 

Romans 3:23:For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There is a Disney movie entitled The Emperor’s New Groove. In it, some people try to kill the emperor with a magic potion but they get it mixed up and accidentally turn him into a lama instead. As the movie progresses, the emperor attempts to regain his throne and turn back into a person.

There is one clip at the climax of the movie where the emperor finds many bottles of magic potions without labels, all of them mixed up. While the royal guards, who are trying to kill him, are in hot pursuit the lama-as-king hurriedly drinks one potion after another, trying to turn back into a person.  Some potions are betterl than others. One turns him into a turtle (not so good for eluding pursuers). Another turns him into a small bird. Frantically he downs potion after potion: turtle, small bird, giant whale, and then finally he drinks one potion and looks down as he changes and cheers, “Yay! I’m a lama again! . . . Oh wait!” That isn’t what he wanted at all: he still is not a person. In the end all those potions and adventures make no difference

The conclusion of the second chapter of Romans, which we looked at the other week, makes clear that there is no difference when it comes to our salvation: both the Jew and the Gentile stand on equal footing. The Law cannot be the means of Salvation. The Law merely points out sin (Romans 3:20, 2:17-24, 5:20, 7:7-25). For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So, what is sin?

The Greek word for “sinned” in this passage, hamartanō, carries with it the classic definition of sin that we have heard before: that of “missing the mark.” An archer aims and shoots and the arrow falls short, missing the target.

On the surface this seems innocuous enough but if we find out that that archer is William Tell – famous for shooting apples off people’s heads – and if we learn that the apple is about to be placed on our own heads, all of a sudden this becomes important! You do not want him to miss the mark!

William Tell was to shoot the apples off the heads of his own sons and the consequence of his missing the mark was devastating for both father and son. When we continually sin, the consequences can be fatal. Romans 3 tells us that we have all sinned, fallen short of this Glory of God, and the first 2 chapters of Romans tell us that because of this we may be at considerable risk.

In a story by John Phillips, he tells us:

Paul describes sin as a coming short of the divine standard. Two men went to the recruiting office in London to join the guards regiment. The standard height for a guardsman was a minimum of six feet. One man was taller than the other, but when they were measured officially both were disqualified. The shorter of the two measured only five feet seven inches and was far too short; his companion measured five feet eleven and a half inches and, stretch to his utmost, as he did, he could not make it any more. Nor did his pleas avail. It mattered nothing that his father was a guardsman, that he promised to be a good soldier, that he had already memorized the drills and knew the army regulations by heart. He was short of the standard.[1]

Yes, the taller of the two was taller than his friend (just as some people may seem nicer, better, holier than the rest of us) but in the end it didn’t matter. He still wasn’t tall enough and there was nothing he could do about that. He could not make himself grow any bigger. Thus he failed to obtain his goal. Likewise, it doesn’t matter if we are Jew or Gentile, male or female, employer or employee, a missionary, a relatively good person, or what-have you . . . for we have all sinned and so all fall short (Galatians 3:28).

We can approach this text in different ways. It could be speaking about each of us falling short and missing the mark on our own accord; that happens. Every one of us has transgressed the will of God. This passage might refer simply to the First Sin when Adam and Eve originally disobeyed YHWH in the garden and then tried to hide from Him (Genesis 3): this was St. Augustine’s idea of “Original Sin.”

Biblical scholar N.T. Wright tells us that here the verb “tense is aorist, indicating a single moment . . . [thus] Paul seems to be again thinking of Adam”[3] But F. F. Bruce, argues that Paul also could be referring to the fact that each of us on our own has sinned and therefore failed to make the grade.[2]

Speaking of making the grade: When I was in high school, a fellow student, John, was in my Algebra 11 class. On the last day of Algebra 11 the teacher decided to read out everyone’s mark in descending order from top to bottom. Now this made John very happy because even though he received only 11 percent, he looked over at a friend’s paper and saw just 4 percent marked on it. For once, John’s was not the lowest mark in the class. As the names were read down the list, and all the way down past the failing marks. . . John was getting more and more excited because this time he was not going to have the lowest mark. Silvia 22 percent, John 11 percent . . . and then the moment he was waiting for - and . . . The teacher stopped reading out the marks and dismissed the class. As everyone rushed out of the room, “What about Mike?” John yelled. “What about Mike? Read out Mike’s mark!” The teacher had shown me grace with my meagre 4 percent. He refused to read my mark out loud so poor John, who did manage to fail Algebra 11 again, wound up being at the bottom of the list again. 

Now there are a couple of things to be cleared up here: 

1) In the grand scheme of things it really didn’t matter for John what mark I, or anyone else, earned; John still earned a failing grade. He missed the mark; he had failed to obtain the prize. Just like us. It doesn’t matter if you are a better person than Charlie Manson, Adolf Hitler, Abraham Lincoln, or your next-door neighbour – that is not what is going to “get you into heaven” as they say for “all have sinned and fallen short.” It is not our actions that win us eternal life; it is God’s gift that saves us. Anyone who repents – preceding list included - and accepts Christ may actually be with the Lord.

2) I, who earned 4 percent in the course, passed Algebra 11 in Summer School with an ‘A’ and later went on to actually tutor Algebra 11. I did not actually fail Algebra 11. I did earn 4 percent on the course. But because I realized that I was doing so horribly in Algebra, I had dropped the course and audited it instead. So I had to do all the same homework as everyone else and I wrote all the same tests; and, yes, I fell short just as John did. However, by auditing the course I was spared the failing mark on my report card.

We can each be spared a failing mark even though all of us have sinned and thus failed to obtain a passing mark on our own. In the heavenly classroom, we all score less than a passing mark; we have all fallen short and deserve to fail. But Jesus does not read our marks aloud nor does He condemn us (John 3:17). Like a student auditing a course, He still wants us to carry on and complete it (1 Corinthians 9:24, Galatians 5:7, 2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 21:1)! In my case, there was no difference in how the class was passed, whether in the regular school year or summer school. What mattered was that I passed the class; so my 4-percent mark was erased forever from my transcripts and replaced with a mark in the ‘A’ range.

Such is the Biblical idea of justification.  In his work The Shape of Justification N. T. Wright writes, “Justification” is thus the declaration of God, the just judge, that someone is

(a) in the right, that their sins are forgiven, and

(b) a true member of the covenant family, the people belonging to Abraham.

 That is how the word works in Paul’s writings. It doesn't describe how people get in to God’s family; it declares that they are in. That may seem a small distinction, but in understanding what Paul is saying it is vital.[4]

We know that “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22b-23), and we also know that we “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). This is good news. Once you take into account that no one knows enough to actually pass the test and merit salvation, then we really do appreciate this grace. Grace is “a gift from God.” It is a present. It is not an award or trophy we can earn like the Grey Cup, the Stanley Cup, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl. Grace is far more precious than those.

It is a special present from Our Father. It is like the gifts I make for my children and family at Christmas time and birthdays. It is the special gifts my kids have made for me. Our salvation is a love present, a special gift from God that He gives us because He loves us.

Now God loves the world so much that He did send his only begotten son to die so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. He sent His son into the world to save the world, not to condemn the world (John 3:1617). and since He did all that at such a great personal expense, let us please accept that gift today and let us not be ashamed of this good news (Romans 1:1617). May we let all our friends and family know that the Lord our God loves us all.

He has purchased this special gift of salvation for every one of us; let us each accept that love present, that gift of eternal life today. As we accept this supreme gift, our lives will never be the same again. They will change forever, for yes, we have all sinned and fallen short of the grace of God but, Praise the Lord, because our Eternal Life, our Salvation, is a free gift of God.

Let us pray

2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:3b-4: Frankenstein's Creation Resurrected

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Men's Breakfast, 26 October 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

 

We went to see Frankenstein the Ballet last night. Does anyone knows that story? The beginning is like the book. Dr. Frankenstein makes a creation out of the parts of corpses who had had terrible things happen in their lives - and then he brings life to the new creation and it becomes whole - with a whole new lease on life. A new chance to live. No matter all the awful stuff that had happened before.

 

Now, the book actually ends poorly after that - but the ballet does not. The ballet includes a story of Giselle. This bride, who herself suffered a horrible fate, learned forgiveness and is resurrected. She meets Fromstein's creation, they fall in love - and start off again, this time living a transformed life.

 

Revelation 21:3b-4: God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

 

No matter what we have done in this life. No matter if we mess up after God has already helped us and transformed us once or a million times; no matter what we have gone through, God can still transform us so that we can get through everything - looking forward to that day when indeed there will finally be no more pain and no more suffering 

www.facebook.com/salvogesis 

Romans 1:16: Thankfully, I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries on Thanksgiving Sunday, 12 October 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay

Click here to view the original, presented to the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 05 July 2009, by Captain Michael Ramsay: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/07/romans-116-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html 

Click here to read a 11 May 2014 version presented to Swift Current TSA that was based on 1 Corinthians: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/05/1-corinthians-117-25-romans-1-and.html 

Click here to read an abridged version presented to Warehouse 614 at River St in Toronto, 14 January 2017: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2018/01/romans-112-17-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html

Click here to read (and/or order) a copy of "Salvogesis' Guidebook to Romans Road" by Major Michael Ramsay: https://www.facebook.com/RomansGuideBook or http://www.sheepspeak.com/ebooks.htm 

We are continuing our look at Romans this week. Has anyone had a chance to read any of Romans? Don’t worry if you haven’t. You have lots of time (I think): we are still on Chapter 1.

 

Romans 1:16 states, in part: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

 

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving Monday, we will have a community meal at the Bread of Life. I love the community celebrations across this country on special days.

 

I remember one community celebration, one Canada Day, when Rebecca was just 2 years old, we went to an event at Fort Rodd Hill in Victoria. They had a lot of things to see and do. We saw people dressed in historic costumes. There were mascots dressed like animals walking around: great for kids, right? There was even one person who was dressed as a tree, giving balloons to children while telling them about the environment. The tree came up to us to say hi and as he leaned over my daughter offering a balloon, he asked her, “Do you like trees?” to which she replied as sweet as can be, “Not trees that talk and walk.”

 

Young children are great for speaking their minds. They are not ashamed to say what they mean. Paul is referring to this in the passage we are looking at here, Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…”

 

The word gospel is a translation of the Greek word euangelion, which literally means “good news” or “good message.” The word ‘evangelism’ comes from this word ‘euangelion’. In its most basic form, gospel is good news. And what is this good news? This good news is that we can be saved from death. Body and Soul, we  can be raised from the dead to eternal life and even more than that: the gospel is the totality of the Christian message. By the power of God we can begin a new life today! This is good news and we should definitely not be ashamed of this good news! But sometimes, sadly, some of us are.

 

Friends of mine have gone down to Florida this week with The Salvation Army to help with the Hurricane Milton relief. I had the opportunity back in September 2008 to be deployed to Galveston Island in Texas as part of The Salvation Army team after Hurricane Ike stuck: assisting survivors and emergency personnel with emotional and spiritual care. Thankfully, more than 1 million people were saved from that hurricane and flood that followed as they obeyed the evacuation order. But some refused to evacuate. No one needed to die but some refused the chance of salvation. Sadly, around 100 people were found dead as a direct result of the hurricane. Bodies were still being found while I was there. I spoke with people whose family members had refused the offered salvation from the storm and suffered the consequences.

 

Homes were destroyed. Businesses were destroyed. The sewers, the water, and the phones were still not working when we arrived. People were housed in shelters both on and away from Galveston Island. Many still had no place to go. Power was still out in some areas. So even families who did not lose their stoves and refrigerators in the hurricane and the subsequent flood – and most did – were unable to keep or cook any food. On top of this, most didn’t have food and they didn’t have water. Many refrigerators were destroyed and lying on the side of the road to be picked up later as junk.

 

Food and water are a big part of the temporal salvation the Lord provided through The Salvation Army then and there. Here and now, today at the Bread of Life Centre we serve around 700 meals a day to people in need. There, then, we had about 30 food trucks from which we helped to serve approximately 75 000 hot meals every day and gave people water and ice. Ice is very important. The temperature was around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they would not have eaten at all. They would not have survived. We thank the Lord for the service He provided to the community through many people. We prayed for them. We prayed with them. Our work there was very much His work through us. We were able to be a part of people’s salvation from the storm and its effects and more.

 

And that was not the end of our efforts. We were also able to celebrate with people as they committed their lives to the Lord so that they could experience His Salvation forever as well as for now. We were not ashamed of the gospel: we shared the good news and some people grabbed hold of it.

 

In our own daily lives, do we point people to that eternal Salvation or are we ashamed of the gospel? Jesus tells us that if we deny Him before others, He will deny us before God (Matthew 10:33). That sounds fair. Are we bold for the gospel (Philippians 1)? As our friends or colleagues speak about life, do we tell them what we have heard from God and what we have read in the Bible? When someone shares their struggles with us, do we share with them the strength to persevere that Jesus Christ offers? If we feel that God is prompting us to “lead someone to Christ,” do we?

 

There is even more than this: Salvation is about the future and the future begins in the present. The Salvation Army here: we run the soup kitchen and the Shelter at the Bread of Life Centre. Salvation is this: imagine you have a friend living on the street. He is very poor and suffering from various illnesses, struggles, and the most painful of lives, thinking he is alone. Now imagine that you know his father. Imagine you know that his father wants your friend to come home and live with him because his father is very well off and in his father’s house there are many rooms (John 14:2). Imagine you also know his father’s first-born son. Imagine that, knowing his homeless brother is sick and dying, he told you to invite his brother home. Imagine you don’t share this information because you are ashamed. Imagine that every time you see your friend it becomes more and more difficult to share the good news of his father who loves him because you are too embarrassed to admit you have not told him sooner. Imagine he suffers and dies and you didn’t tell him at every opportunity that he could turn to his father and live out the rest of his days in peace and comfort.

 

If that happens, what kind of friend are you? What kind of a friend am I?

 

Please understand me. I am not saying that as you come to know your Heavenly Father you will never suffer loss, tragedy, sadness, or the consequences of your own or someone else’s actions. I am not saying that God offers you a magic potion that makes all the challenges of life disappear. He doesn’t. What He offers you is the opportunity to shelter with Him in the midst of life’s challenges. He will provide for you in your time of need. He offers to be with you in the midst of the reality of life. He offers you the opportunity to be a part of His love forever, to be a part of His future kingdom too where there will be no more tears, no more suffering. This is really something for us to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Sunday here.

 

This is reality: when Christ returns His coming will be like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42−44). The time and the hour are unknown (Matthew 25:1−13) but we know it is coming and He is coming to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42, 2 Timothy 4:1, 1 Peter 4:5). And we have the opportunity to flee the storm forever and go off to eternal peace instead (Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30; Luke 13:28). To know this is good news. As when the hurricane struck Galveston Island, even though 100 people chose to stay behind and perished; even though we met with, spoke with, and prayed with people whose family members chose to reject salvation from the hurricane: everyone had known the storm was coming; everyone could have been saved. And thousands were. That is the good news. We can all be saved.

 

Can you imagine news reporters being so ashamed of the fact the hurricane was coming that they didn’t share the information? Can you imagine meteorologists being so ashamed of the fact that they did not know the exact time and hour the hurricane was going to strike that they told nobody? Can you if imagine your neighbour knew the hurricane was coming and she evacuated but she never told you because she was ashamed that she couldn’t explain exactly why, where, how, and when it was coming? Can you imagine the horror as you look up to see your life being swept away – and no one had ever told you how to be saved because they were ashamed?

 

An eschatological hurricane is coming. Indeed, it has already started. People in this world today are sleeping in their beds, working, playing on their phones, watching a game, doing something else right now and have no idea that the end is coming. People are like the homeless man of our earlier analogy and living their lives away from their Heavenly Father when He wants nothing more than to have them safely at His side. People are out there needing and even wanting us to point them to salvation. So, let’s do that!

 

Today let us be the rescue workers pointing people to safety. None of us knows when our lives are going to end. We may be taken tomorrow. None of us knows when the Lord is returning and bringing with Him the end to our world. But, like the meteorologists watching the storm, we know that the things of this world are going to pass away (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33, Revelation 21:1) – and we can see that the eschatological rain has started -  so it is our job to share with everyone the good news of the way to Salvation so that others need not perish – and we can take shelter with the Lord from the storms of our very lives today. And it is our responsibility to share this gospel, for the gospel is the power of God for all to be saved both now and forever.

 

On this Thanksgiving Sunday, let us thank God for this, His most precious gift: the gift of His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have ever lasting life and let us look for opportunities to share that good news with others we meet.

 

Let us pray.

Genesis 37:14-36; 39:1-21: Joseph's Hope Beyond the Dark.

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, on the International Day of Prayer against Human Trafficking, 25 September 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Joseph in our text today was trafficked. His family – his brothers, ten of them, ganged up on him and through him into a pit and sold him to people passing by. The people who bought Joseph took him to a foreign country and sold him as a household servant. His family did not know what had happened to him; his dad never knew what happened to Joseph, his favourite son. Joseph was all alone.

 

Joseph was a domestic servant with no rights. When his employers was done with him he was sent off to jail.

 

Trafficking like this isn’t just a thing of the past. We have worked to try and help many different people who have been trafficked in a number of the places we have lived and worked with The Salvation Army.

 

Here in town there are a couple of businesses that are rumoured to be involved in trafficking people, domestic help, like Joseph – one is a hotel. This hotel apparently has a number of new ‘staff’ come regularly from India, stay and while and then be moved along.

 

I have just heard – not verified – as well that another business in town has a family from Vietnam living in their lunchroom. Of course, from this there are all kinds of stories of international human trafficking and hopefully when an investigation is complete that we be all they are just stories.

 

But human trafficking happens. Like I said, we have been involved in trying to help people out of this circumstance in various places we have lived across this country, and it can and may be happening right here, right now in our community.

 

It is our responsibility to be aware and if you know of anything that needs looking into let the police and/or let me know and lets follow up. That is my call to action for today.

 

Beyond my call to action, I would like to offer the hope that God offers us through the Joseph experience. Joseph was trafficked but -even in his darkest hours and days and years serving as a domestic save and as a prisoner in a foreign jail he had hope and God delivered him. I can’t imagine the horrors of what he – and many others have experienced – but God gave him hope and delivered him in and eventually from his circumstance.

 

Let us pray.

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Matthew 5:14; 28:18-20: Signs of Joy

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, Men's Breakfast, 24 September 2022 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

 The other day I was picking up the food truck from the mill. They were doing construction near the exit and so a lady was standing in a reflective vest, with a hard hat on, holding a sign for directing the traffic. I admit I was confused by her methods -at first- for she held the "stop" side of the sign facing me but with her other hand she was beckoning me to approach her in the large Salvation Army Community Response Vehicle I was driving.

 

I drove up to her. She motioned for me to roll down my window, which I did. She then said to me that she knows that The Salvation Army uses the truck around 5pm why am I taking it our around 9am. I explained to her that I had to fill it with gas and the volunteers and staff had to clean and stock it.

 

Then, while I was still stopped, she told me about her job. She mentioned how much she was paid - more than other companies that hold signs for road work. She spoke about the training she underwent and how good it is. She told me how one could get government assistance to pay for work boots and other things needed for the position. She spoke about the monetary benefits; she spoke about the beneficial work conditions. She, assuming I was a volunteer, told me how much she loved her job and how I could apply for a position with the company.

 

I thought it was cute that a new employee who had just gotten her job through an employment training program liked it this much. I said that it sounds like a great job (which it does) and I asked her how long she has been doing it. "Since 1980", she replied. That is 42 years ago at the time of my writing this!

 

Imagine loving your job so much that even after 42 years when you tell someone about it they just assume that you are excited because it is new to you!

 

As I reflected on this I thought of the job that we are all given, Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells his followers, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” and I think of the excitement that this should bring us - even more excitement that the lady holding the sign had that day! The excitement should be so much that it cannot be contained. It should be like, Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden."

 

It is my hope that this joy of the Lord will overflow in all of our lives.

 

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1 John 5:9-13: Dandilions

Presented to the Alberni Valley Men's Breakfast, 14 August 2019 by Captain Michael Ramsay
 
 We have recently moved back to Vancouver Island. We have just moved into a new place. I had forgotten how well dandelions grow on the Island. Those little yellow flowers are everywhere. I think we have more yellow flowers in the yard than green blades of grass. These flowers reproduce quite easily and effectively. Even if you pluck one out it goes to seed and effectively casts those seeds to the wind causing more and more of these little yellow flowers to grow.

This is really the same with our testimonies. Honestly truly if we are happy that we have Christ in our life and that we spend our life with Christ, as we share that information more and more people will realize how great it is to be with Christ in good times and tough times. As we experience and share our testimony about the comfort and joy of the Lord. we have the opportunity to see maybe even as many people come to share in that joy with us as dandelions that come from a single flower who shares its seed.

May we all be as effective at sharing as dandelions.

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Matthew 6:25-34: WHU's Blowing Bubbles

Presented to The Alberni Valley Men's Breakfast, 16 June 2019 
by Captain Michael Ramsay

A few years ago we were in London England to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Salvation Army. We enjoyed the Boundless conference and then stayed to tour England and Scotland a little bit afterwards. It was a good time. It didn't start out that way though.

When we arrived in the UK, our hotel reservations had evaporated: we had no place to stay. Our credit cards and bank cards didn't work: we couldn't access our money. We were calling my mom half way across the world to try to help us access our money and help us find a place to stay - but our phones didn't work properly either. We tracked down other Salvation Army Officers. It all worked out in the end but it was a stressful beginning.

One day, early in the Boundless conference, I had to leave early with my teenage daughter. She was old enough to stay alone but she wasn't confident enough to take the Metro on her own. She wasn't feeling well. I went to help her get to the hotel room. God knew how stressed I was as I was tempted to worry about everything that was happening.

It was at this time that God gave me a gift. I noticed that there were a lot of people on the metro wearing claret and blue. When I was still in elementary school, my cousin bought me a vlaret and blue West Ham United jersey. I had watched them win the FA Cup and, with my cousin;s encouragement, I became a fan. This was what the people were wearing - the uniform of my favourite EPL team.

I took my daughter to the apartment, got her settled and then I decided to follow all of the people in the West Ham kits. I got off the metro where they did and followed them to Upton Park. My credit card wasn't working but I had 10 pounds in my pocket and that is exactly what a ticket cost. That was exactly what the last ticket cost. I bought the last ticket left. It was a seat right on the centre line. It was the first day their new coach arrived at the stadium and West Ham won and kept a clean sheet as well.

That was when the trip turned around for me, God gave me this gift. He let me know that I could stop worrying about hotel rooms, credit cards, cell phones, where we would sleep, how wee would eat and other struggles. God was with us and He encouraged me with this gift.

Today, I encourage you not to worry about whatever your struggles are. God loves you and He knows what you need and He will provide.

Does a time come to mind when has the Lord offered you the comfort and encouragement that He offered me in London that day?

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1 John 2:1: Sinless and Sin Less

Presented to Alberni Valley Corps of The Salvation Army, 05 August 2018. By Captain Michael Ramsay

This week like last week, in the valley here, we are looking at 1 John. We are actually half way through a mini-series. There are these great little tracts called the 4 points. We have been using them as a rough outline. Last week Susan spoke about love. Next week, if all goes according to plan, we will speak about Jesus' death and then we will chat about following Jesus.

SIN

Today we are talking about one of everybody’s favourite topics: sin! Okay, maybe that isn’t anybody’s favourite topic but still it is what we looking at today. 1 John has a few things to say about sin and at first read it can sometimes seem a little confusing. For example:

• ·         1 John 1:8 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” AND
• ·         1 John 3:6 says, “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

If we claim to be without sin the truth in not in us. HOWEVER no one who lives in Christ sins; how can this be? John says that no one who knows Jesus keeps on sinning but I am guessing that most of us here have sinned; so how does this work? The word ‘saint’ in the Bible more-or-less just means ‘Christian’ in today’s vernacular.[i] We, in this room, are mostly saints and we saints aren’t supposed to sin. But those of us who claim to be without sin, John says are liars and that we don’t even have the truth in us while at the same time he says that those of us who do sin don’t know and have never known God. It can be a little confusing

Sin is one of the key things that John is writing about in his short letter so I thought that we might spend some time looking into what the Bible means when it speaks about sin.

EVIL

Sin, in the Bible, can be defined a few different ways: there is the word Awon, which refers to a deep moral evil that is mentioned in Amos and a few other places.[ii]

MISSING THE MARK

Hamartanō is probably the word most commonly translated as ‘sin’ in the Bible; hamartanō, carries with it the classic definition of sin that we have probably heard before: that of ‘missing the mark’. It brings to mind the idea of an archer shooting for a target and falling short, missing the target. On the surface this seems innocuous enough but… if we find out that that archer is William Tell – who is famous because he shoots apples off of people’s heads – and if we then find out that the apple is about to be placed on our head, missing the mark becomes important.

NOT MEASURING UP

John Phillips explains sin as coming short of the divine standard. He gives this illustration:

Two men went to the recruiting office in London to join the guards regiment. The standard height for a guardsman was a minimum of six feet. One man was taller than the other, but when they were measured officially both were disqualified. The shorter of the two measured only five feet seven inches and was far too short; his companion measured five feet eleven and a half inches and, stretch to his utmost, as he did, he could not make it any more. Nor did his pleas avail. It mattered nothing that his father was a guardsman, that he promised to be a good soldier, that he had already memorized the drills and knew the army regulations by heart. He was short of the standard.

            Yes, he is taller than his friend (just like some people may seem holier than the rest of us) but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that he is taller, he still isn’t tall enough and there is nothing he can do about that. There is nothing he can do to grow any bigger. Thus he failed to obtain his goal. Likewise, it doesn’t matter if we are Jew or Gentile, male or female, employer or employee, a missionary, a relatively good person, or what have you… for we have all sinned and thus fall short (Romans 3:23).

 This is important. The word John uses in 1 John here is that same hamartanō when he says that “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” No matter what we do, we have all fallen short[iii] but as Chapter 3 makes clear that does not give us a right to just keep sinning and doing whatever we want because “No one who lives in him [Christ] keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” We cannot do anything to measure up but, in Christ, we certainly do have the freedom to be delivered from our sins. Jesus wants us to be free from the power of sin. As Christ makes us sinless we can sin less.

ID PLEASE: SINNER OR SAINT

Another way that the Bible talks about sin is contrasting sinners to saints – ‘Hagios’ is the root for both the word ‘holy’ and the word ‘saint’. They mean the same thing.[iv] And like we said earlier here, a saint is what Christians were called in the New Testament.[v] So, in essence you have two choices in the NT epistles: you can either be a holy saint and a Christian or you can be a sinner. You can’t be both.

In this sense the words ‘sinner’ and ‘saint’ are identity words. No one thinks that a sinner will never do anything right and certainly sometimes we saints have sinned; however, NT Christians no longer identify themselves as sinners; we are now saints. I liken it to when I was a young man. I used to be a smoker. Like many people I tried more than once to quit but to no avail. One day I decided I was a non-smoker. This was a key for me: even if I slipped up and had a cigarette or a drag from a cigarette, I never threw in the towel and decided that I am a smoker again. I kept identifying as a non-smoker until I one day I realized that I hadn’t had a cigarette in 20 years or so. Philippians 3:16: let us to live up to what we have already obtained. Since we are now saints and no longer sinners we will naturally want to sin less and be sinless. This is major part of what 1 John is addressing about sin in this short letter.[vi]

EVIL PERSONIFIED

There is one more aspect of sin that is very important here as well. Sin is not only an identity statement, a choice we make or an action we perform and it is even more than merely missing the mark or not measuring up; sin can also be a powerful force, as powerful as any addiction or habit; The Apostle Paul says, Romans 7:15, ‘I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate [to do] I do’. I don’t know if any of us can relate to that. I don’t know if any of us have ever struggled with wanting to do one thing and winding up doing another.

I like the way the writer of Genesis speaks about sin in Genesis 4. He writes about sin as if it were a kitten, a cat or some other predator. Does anyone here have a cat? Have you ever seen them hunting? They watch their prey for a long time and then they slowly move closer and then they crouch, ready to pounce on their target, and then they strike, capturing the one they were hunting in their claws or in their mouth. Genesis 4:7b: ‘But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’

Genesis 4 contains the story of Cain and Abel. We all know the story of Cain and Abel, right? Cain is sad. Cain is angry that God accepted his brother’s gift but not his offering. Genesis 4:6-7, “‘Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’”

God loves Cain. God is warning Cain before he ever kills his brother; God gives Cain every opportunity to do what is right and He is warning him that there will be natural and logical consequences if he does not do what is right – sin is crouching at his door. God is warning Cain that sin desires to have him, it wants to devour him and, of course we know, in this story that Sin does pounce on Cain as he gives in and murders his brother.

Sin crouching at the door. This is true in our own life too; it desires to have us but we must master it and this is some of what John is speaking about in 1 John when he writes, 2:1-5a:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.

Be careful, Sin is crouching at your door. 1 John 2:1, again: “my dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God;” however, Galatians 3:24 and Romans 6:1-6, we can be free from the power of sin. Since Christ is sinless, we can sin less.

At a conference last year, we saw a video of Immaculée Ilibagiza speaking and I have recently read her book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.[vii] I will inevitably share with you more than one story from this book as it is one of the most powerful books I have ever read on power of forgiveness and the power of love.

She lived through the Rwandan genocide: her mother, father, 2 brothers and many of her friends and extended family were among the up to 1 million people murdered by machete in 1994. She speaks about when it was all over and she first returned to her home and saw what had happened to her family. It was almost overwhelming: the devil tempted her with hate and with the sins of plotting, or considering, or fantasizing revenge; Sin tempted her to hope for bad things to happen to the people who killed her family, or to think bad things about those who tortured or/and killed her family. Sin was crouching at her door wanting to devour her while she was in her grief but she was not mastered by it: she refused to hate those who killed her family and thus give Sin power over her life. At one point she asked and was granted a chance to see a person directly responsible for killing some of her family members. She walked into the jail where he was held. The guard brought him out and threw him into the room where she was. Standing by the man, the guard prepared the man to hear what she had to say about what he did to her parents. She said, ‘I forgive you’ and she meant it. She evaded the sin of un-forgiveness that was crouching at her door ready to devour her. Forgiveness is a big part of love and John says that the love and forgiveness of God can deliver us all from the power of sin.

All of us have at some time fallen prey to sin. We have been captured by hate, or harm, or actions, or thoughts that have embraced us like the clutches of a predator’s claws but the love and forgiveness of God can free us from that sin. He offers us all – no matter what has been done to us and no matter what we have done – he offers us all the opportunity to be free from the power of sin. 1 John 2:1: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” Any of us who are even now trapped by sin or tempted to be trapped by sin in some way, I invite us to either come forward here or pray in our seats that we experience that freedom from the power of sin today.

Let us pray. 

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[i] John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 555. Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘1 Peter 1:16 (Leviticus 19:2): God says, “…be holy because I am holy”  (Swift Current, SK: Sheepspeak.com). Available On-line: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/02/1-peter-116-lev-192-god-says-be-holy.html

[ii] Donald E. Gowan, Amos. (TNIB 7. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1996), 369

[iii] Cf. Thayer's Greek Lexicon, STRONGS NT 266: ἁμαρτία, cited from https://biblehub.com/greek/266.htm and Simon J. Kistemaker, ‘James, Epistles of John, Peter, and Jude’, New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 245,301.

[iv] John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. Cf. G.B. Stevens in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary. Cited W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 557.Cf. Paul Minear, Interpretation 37 no 1 Ja 1983, p. 22: In his death and resurrection, Jesus' holiness or sanctification became the measure and standard of all holiness, whether of places, times, things, or persons. (Key passages which reflect this are John 10:36; 17:17-19; I Cor. 1:2; 6:11; Heb. 2:11; 10:10; 12:14-24; 13:12-14.)"

[v] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, ‘40: Hagios’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.1.

[vi] This is especially true in 3:6; cf. NT Wright, The Early Christians Letters For Everyone: Peter, John, and Judah (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 151.

[vii] Immaculée Ilibagiza, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.(Raincoast, 2006)