“I can truly say, that I bear you upon my heart and in my prayers. I have rejoiced to see the beginning of a good and gracious work in you. And I have confidence in the Lord Jesus, that He will carry it on and complete it and that you will be amongst the number of those who shall sing redeeming love to eternity. Therefore fear none of the things appointed for you to suffer by the way. But gird up the loins of your mind, and hope to the end. Be not impatient, but wait humbly upon the Lord. You have one hard lesson to learn, that is, the evil of your own heart. You know something of it, but it is needful that you should know more. For the more we know of ourselves, the more we shall prize and love Jesus and His salvation. I hope what you find in yourself by daily experience will humble you, but not discourage you: humble you it should, and I believe it does. Are not you amazed sometimes that you should have so much as a hope, that, poor and needy as you are, the Lord thinketh of you? But

Isaiah 12 is a short but fitting conclusion to the section pointing to Israel’s choice between trusting God or trusting Assyria. This chapter comes directly before the second section of the book’s first unit, where we see several judgments towards various nations. 1 Even before the judgements begin to come, we see a promise and anticipation of the song that the remnant will sing with joy over their salvation. (Isaiah 12:4) Even amid coming judgement, Isaiah gives a song of praise, pointing us to a God that will comfort and is worthy of trust. It is interesting to note that the references to ‘that day’ prior to this text are days that bring fear because of not trusting in God (cf. 2:20; 3:18; 4:1; 7:18, 20-21, 23) , but chapter 12 brings us a day of hope. A hope that is found only when the focus has been turned back to Him for help, and not looking for it in other places or other people. This hope is ultimately in the coming Messiah which brings us circling back to the beginning to

It is easy, especially in an election year, for us to feel the tension between religion and politics. It seems that each election cycles this tension gets more and more intense as the temptation to bring the political world into the church context becomes more and more appealing. In my area of the world, in 2016, it was not uncommon to see churches in the area that I am living to hold different political events and rallies, all taunting the need to save the US from sure destruction. However, much it may seem, this is something that is not new. Each generation of Baptists have had to struggle with how to relate to the political culture around them. 1 Baptist come to this with an especially interesting perspective for a few reasons, but their belief in individual soul liberty is the major the theological driver. Soul competency speaks to the ability for all humans, regardless of race, creed, or religion, ability to be individually accountable and responsible to God. B.H. Carrol s

No matter what way you slice it, our definition of success is different than God’s definition of success. The problem that we run into with success, as with many other areas, is that we seem to lay our definitions over God’s Word. As churches, we often turn to different gimmicks to get some type of visible results, while the scriptures are clear that God will and is building His church. (Matthew 16:18) As individuals, we are constantly seeking steps into a so called ‘victorious’ Christian life, and quickly forget how Christ measures success in this life. CS Lewis emphasized this when he said, “It is not [our] business to succeed.” 1 This increasingly true with those that would proclaim that we can live a “victorious Christian life” over sin and become what is deemed a Spirit-filled Christian. While the fact of the matter is that this concept is not only foreign to scripture but has disastrous effects on the lives of believers. This mindset will inevitably lead to one of two desti