Believe in the Light

Mike Peek, a disciple of Jesus Christ and servant of God called according to His purpose: Grace to you and peace in the name of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

I took this photograph on the evening of May 20, 2018, from a friend's boat dock. I like the pick because it reminds me of the words of Christ, While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.1 

Three days a week I work 12 1/2 hour shifts in an intensive care unit but I have four days a week free from those duties. On my days off it is my routine to run a 10k early in the morning. This picture is of the evening, but it reminds me of those early morning runs because the scene and lighting are similar. I run an out and back course from my home. The turn around point is at the end of the levy-dam on Lake Tyler. As I run along the levy-dam I am headed east just as the sun begins to rise above the tree tops.

My thoughts are often reflecting on the word of God having spent time in the scriptures just before departing which is also part of my daily routine. How can one be a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ and serve God except by reading the scriptures and observing all that Christ commanded?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.2 

The light in context of this first day is not the sun or stars because these bodies of light were not created until the fourth day. But the light on the first day is the very Word of God. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.3  It is this Light who is the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.4

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1 John 12:36, NASB95.

2. Genesis 1:1, NASB95.

3 John, 1:9, NKJV.

3 John 1:14.

Faith, Love, and Hope

Yesterday I was given the privilege to teach a Sunday School class at Sylvania Church. The passage is 1 Thessalonians 1:3. The following is a summary of what the Lord gave me to teach. I hope that it benefits your walk with our Lord. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.




New Testament letters have four features:

1. They are intended to be authoritative.[1]
2. They are situational.[2]
3. They are carefully written and Delivered.[3]
4. They are intended for the Christian Community.[4]

New Testament letters have three main parts:

1. An introduction[5]
2. A body[6]
3. A conclusion[7]

The entire letter is meant to be read in its entirety to the congregation. The body of the letter is situational. The conclusion may include travel plans, commendation of coworkers, prayer and prayer request, greetings, final instructions and exhortations, autograph, benediction and doxology. The introduction usually includes the name of the author(s), the name(s) of the recipient(s), a greeting, and a prayer.[8] The Prayer is intended to secure the readers good will, but in the case of 1 Thessalonians Paul intends to encourage them as well.[9]

Take a look at 1 Thessalonians 1:1, the authors are Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. The recipients are “the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”[10] The greeting: “Grace to you and peace.”[11] The prayer begins at vs. 2 and extends to vs. 10, which is the end of the chapter.

Grasp the text in their town:

Imagine if you can, the year is 50 AD. You live in the city of Thessalonica, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the region of Macedonia. Your church is persecuted by Jews and gentiles alike; many of your brothers and sisters have been imprisoned and or killed. You’ve received an encouraging letter from the men who established your church and taught you the ways of the Lord. You are a Greek speaking person and this letter has come in your native tongue. The culture that your church is in is Greco-Roman and the major religion is pagan, that is except for a few Jews who hate the way. What would this letter mean to you given the situation? What would this prayer mean to you? And what would this statement about work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ mean to you?

Measure the width of the river to cross:

Between us and the Thessalonian church there is a wide river making it difficult to grasp the text as they would have seen it. Let’s call it the river come-between. In this river there are currents that will sweep you downstream if you read it without considering its historical-cultural context. The currents in the river are: date, location, situation language, and culture. For Sylvania, the date is 2018 AD, 1968 years separate us from the Thessalonians. Our location is Tyler, Texas, 6300 miles separate us from Thessalonica. Our situation is much different than theirs, we are free to preach the gospel without fear of imprisonment and or death. Our language is English; glory to God we have men who have the ability of linguistics and have studied first century Greek in order to give us good English translations, but keep in mind that they are translations and not the original. Our culture is American. So, how do we truly relate to the Thessalonians? We can study the time, location, situation, language and culture for years, but unless we’ve actually been in their shoes there is no way to truly understand what receiving this letter and its contents might mean to them.

Cross the principlizing bridge:

We need to cross the river, but how do we accomplish this given that it is so wide? There is one aspect in which Sylvania and the Thessalonians are alike. We share the same covenant. Both the Thessalonians and Sylvania Church are in the New Covenant in Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of this there are timeless theological principles taught in the text for all New Covenant believers. We will call these principles the Principlizing Bridge because they allow us to cross the river from their historical-cultural context into ours. This is the reason that this letter is considered scripture. There are principles taught in this text that the Holy Spirit intended for all Christian, throughout all time, in all locations, in all languages, in all situations, and in all cultures. Do you know what are they? There are three of them: Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, love for one another, and the hope of salvation. I believe that these three are the main theological principles for the entire letter; and therefore, very important to understanding this letter in our context. Let us look at a few texts from 1 Thessalonians that illustrates these principles further: (1 Thess. 2:9-13) illustrate the work of faith, (vss. 4:1-12) illustrate the labor of love, (vss. 5:1-10) illustrate the steadfastness of hope.

Consult the biblical map:

Our regular teacher Paul McClung points out that the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love are common themes in the apostle Paul’s writings (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13; Gal. 5:5-6; Col 1:4-5) I agree but add that these three are common themes throughout the New Testament.

One of the greatest passages in all of scripture that illustrates this is the Lord’s supper in the Gospel According to John. (cf. John13-17) After the meal Christ washes His disciple’s feet, He then informs them that He is going away. After which He gave them a new commandment to follow as New Covenant believers.

The disciples are troubled by the news that Christ is going away and probably didn’t hear this commandment the first time around; therefore, He will repeat it again twice after comforting them. (Cf. John 15:12-17)

In John 14:1-15 Jesus teaches His disciples where to put their faith. He then comforts His disciples with true hope. Then He says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”[12] This statement about loving Him and keeping His commandments is sandwiched between His commandment to love one another with Christ like love. (cf. John 13:34-35 and John 15:12-17)

In another letter the apostle Paul tells the Corinthian church whom was struggling with the labor of love, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[13]

Grasp the text in our town:

Our actions always follow our beliefs; therefore, if we have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and hope in His salvation which is yet to come, we will bear good fruit like our Lord did during His earthly ministry in labors of love.

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[1] J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, 3rded. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 253.
[2] Ibid, 253-254.
[3] Ibid, 255-256.
[4] Ibid, 256-257.
[5] Ibid, 257-259.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 1 Th 1:2.
[10] 1 Thes. 1:1a, NASB95.
[11] 1 Thes. 1:1b, NASB95.
[12] John 14:15, NASB95.
[13] 1 Cor. 1:4-7 & 13, NASB95.

What is the Gospel?

These were the words of Jesus when He began His ministry in Galilee. Jesus demonstrated Himself to be the Christ, the Son of God by many signs and wonders. (Jn. 20:30-31) The gospel is His teaching ministry and His sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of His disciples and His victorious bodily resurrection from the dead. All authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. He commissioned His disciples to go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that He commanded them. (Mt. 28:18-20) He promised the Holy Spirit to accompany them on the way. (Jn. 15:26-27) These men witnessed His ascension into heaven and were told by two angels that He would return in the same way in which they saw Him go into heaven. (Acts 1:1-11) Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father God (Heb. 1:3, 13) and will return with His angels on a day and hour of the Father’s choosing to judge the earth. On that day all the dead will rise to face Him. (Jn 5:25-29) It will be a great and glorious day; eternal life for those who received Him and eternal punishment for those who rejected Him. (My 25:31-46)

Personal Note

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

There are three things that I enjoy doing most in this world: running, reading, and talking about Jesus. I do not care about sports, politics or business which leaves me out of most conversations. I write, because it gives me a platform on which I might talk about Jesus and the Christian life.

In the spring of 2010 (eight years ago) the Lord God put it in my heart and mind to participant in the Great Commission:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.1

I had not grown up in a home where discipleship was taught and my exposure to the church body was nominal; therefore, when I came to faith in Christ my theological knowledge was infantile. The Lord granted me time to mature by reading His word before calling me to serve Him in the Great Commission.

Once I heard His voice, I followed His word in evangelism, but I was like a toddler learning how to walk. My desire for personal knowledge of the Lord and to obey His word kept growing. I yearned for formal•structured•discipleship, so that I may know how to make disciples and teach them. This eventually resulted in my enrollment at Mid-Western Baptist Theological Seminary. I started course work on March 21, 2016, and have now completed 11 of 15 courses towards a Master of Theological Studies.

Prior to beginning the (MTS) course work I thought that the Great Commission consisted merely of converting people to Christ by preaching the gospel to them. However, I have come to understand that the Great Commission consist of:

1. Making disciples of Jesus Christ
2. Initiating them into the fellowship of disciples (believer’s baptism is the initiatory right of the church)
3. Teaching them to observe the Law of Christ

I now understand that discipleship is as important to the Great Commission as is evangelism. You cannot separate evangelism and discipleship, they are (so to speak) two sides of the same coin.

I am taking the summer off from course work and will resume formal studies on August 13, 2018, with a plan to graduate (Lord willing) on May 3, 2019. I know that the Lord would have me participating in the Great Commission throughout my life but in what way?

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;2

Recently I reached an age milestone. I am now fifty years old. No matter how a person looks at it, fifty is a significant age.

Philosophically fifty is a significant age because the average American male lives to be 76 years old. Both my father and his father died in their seventies. I know that no man knows the day or hour of his physical death or the Lord’s return, it could be today, or it could be another fifty years, but the law of averages tells me that I have lived approximately 2/3 of my life.

Theologically fifty is a significant age as well. The Old Testament tells us the history of Israel, a people covenanted to serve the Lord our God. In the Old Testament book of Numbers, vss. 8:23-26 the Levites were to begin working in the tent of meeting at the age of twenty-five but at the age of fifty they were to retire from service; thereafter, only assisting their brothers in a supervisory role. Some theologians believe that the Levites represent redeemed Christians having been cleansed and set apart for service to the Lord without inheritance in this world.3

Lately, I have felt out of place and mournful at my job. I know that some of this has to do with a currently ignored situation at my place of employment, combined with the nature of the job itself, but I think that there is more to it than that. I have spent almost all of my adult life working in an Intensive Care Unit. Am I to move into a supervisory/teaching role as a nurse or am I to serve the Lord in ministry? I know what I am supposed to be doing in the present, completing my seminary training while working in the ICU, but what does the Lord have me doing after graduation? Darlene and I covet your prayers.

In Christ alone,
Mike Peek


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1 Mt. 28:18-20, NASB95.

2 Eph. 4:11, NASB95.

3 William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: A Complete Bible Commentary in One Volume, ed. Art Farstad, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1990) 177.

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National Nurses Week

National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th, Florence Nightingale's birthday. These permanent dates enhance planning and position National Nurses Week as an established recognition event. As of 1998, May 8 was designated as National Student Nurses Day, to be celebrated annually. And as of 2003, National School Nurse Day is celebrated on the Wednesday within National Nurses Week (May 6-12) each year.1  

Florence Nightingale is credited with modern nursing theory and the development of nursing schools;2 however, nursing did not begin with Florence Nightingale. The nurse historian Josephine Dolan said, “Even after nineteen hundred years it is difficult to fully comprehend the impact of the birth of Jesus Christ and His teaching on society and the care of the sick.”3

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved, you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn.13:34-35) Jesus Christ is Lord, as Christian nurses we are our patients bond-servants for Jesus sake. (cf. 2 Cor. 4:5)

Nursing did not begin as a Highly-Structured•Technical•Reimbursement-Driven system. Nor did it begin with Florence Nightingale's Care Model. Nursing came forth from the Law of Christ. Therefore, during this year’s nurse’s week, I encourage my fellow nurses to reflect on the profession of nursing as a follower of Jesus Christ and not these other things. 

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

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1 "National Nurses Week History," ANA, accessed May 09, 2018, https://www.nursingworld.org/education-events/national-nurses-week/nnw-history/.

2 Betty R. Ferrell and Nessa Coyle, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2008), 6.

3 Hutchison, Margaret Hutchison, Nursing Yesterday and Today, accessed May 9, 2018, http://www.ncfansw.org/nursing-yesterday-and-today/

Critical Evaluation: The Good of Marriage by Augustine of Hippo

Photo from Christianitytoday.com

The Fathers of the Church: Saint Augustine Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects, The Good of Marriage. Translated by Charles T. Wilcox. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1955.

Biographical Sketch of the Author

Augustine was born in 354 A. D. in North Africa. His mother was a Christian, but his father was not. Augustine grew up as a student of rhetoric, which taught him how to write and speak with eloquence. During his studies he read the philosopher Cicero which gave him a desire to seek truth. He came to the religion of the Manichaeans because he had difficulties with his mother’s religion of Christianity. He saw the Bible as a series of ineloquent writings.

The Manichaean religion was Persian in origin and dualistic in its beliefs. He later became a Neoplatonist. In contrast to the dualism of Manichaenism, Neoplatonism saw all of reality coming from one principle. This helped answer Augustine’s questions about the origin of evil. Then Ambrose helped to show Augustine that the Bible was the infallible Word of God with God being the source of all things. Ambrose interpreted several of the passages that Augustine had trouble excepting allegorically. This solved Augustine’s intellectual difficulties with the Scriptures. However, if he were to convert to Christianity he could not do so half-heartedly.

During Augustine’s time monasticism was seen as the highest level of Christianity. Augustine wrote that he prayed to God: “Give me chastity and continence; but not too soon.” He lived with a concubine by whom he had a son and with whom he enjoyed carnal pleasure. While in a garden he heard a child sing, “Take up and read. Take up and read.” He took up the Epistle to the Romans and read “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (Rom.13:14, NASB) After reading this, he left both his concubine and his profession of rhetoric. He requested baptism by Ambrose and set out to live in celibacy as a monk. He was later made Bishop of Hippo in 395 A.D.1

It was during his pastoral duties as Bishop of Hippo that Augustine did his writing. Having converted many of his friends to Manichaeism he dedicated much of his writings in refutation of the Manichaeans.2 The Manichaeans held a dualistic view of matter and spirit. To them, matter was intrinsically evil; therefore, they were severely ascetic, believing that marriage is intrinsically evil. Their aim was to become completely unworldly so that they may be set free from matter.3

Augustine wrote The Good of Marriage in 401 A.D. in refutation of the Manichaeans. He refuted the Manichaeans by calling marriage a good. However, the main reason that Augustine wrote this book was to refute Jovinian who considered marriage equal to that of celibacy. During the third century, Origen taught that celibacy was essential to the process of sanctification. Then, during the fourth century Athanasius wrote The Life of Antony which promoted an ascetic monastic life style. At the end of the fourth century a monk by the name of Jovinian challenged this growing thought. In contrast to the growing celibacy movement he said that marriage and celibacy were equal in God’s sight.4

It is in this context that Augustine writes The Good of Marriage. This Biblical sketch of the author has been lengthy, but I believe it to be necessary in order to properly understand the book. The book must be understood from the perspective of a man living at the beginning of the fifth century. After which the book should be evaluated in light of the timeless principles taught on marriage in the Scriptures.

Summary of the Contents

Augustine addresses three subjects in the contents of his book: 1) He calls marriage a good. 2) He calls celibacy a greater good. 3) He addresses the question of the polygamy of the patriarchs.

With regard to the good of marriage Augustine says that the good of marriage is three-fold: 1) Offspring. 2) Faithfulness. 3) Sacred Symbolism or Sacramentum. The first and primary reason for marriage is to have children to people the kingdom of God. This not only speaks of procreation, but in raising children up in fear of the Lord. However, Augustine believes that this is a result of the fall, because before the fall God could have peopled the earth the same way that he created Adam and Eve. Augustine believed that procreation through the marriage bed was necessary because of the fall. He believed that sex, even within a marriage for any other reason than procreation is sin. It was not a sin on the level of Adultery or fornication which he called mortal sin, but he called sex in marriage for the sake of pleasure a venial sin.

To this regard he speaks of the good of faithfulness. The marriage partners are to be faithful to one another. Violation of the marriage fidelity is called adultery. Here he addresses some of the things that Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, particularly regarding the husband and wife fulfilling duties to one another. Augustine believed to extract the conjugal right for any reason other than procreation is a venial sin. So, to demand intercourse for passion he believed to be a sin, but to render to a spouse to keep them from adultery and fornication is not sin. He thus says, “The crown of marriage, then, is the chastity of procreation and faithfulness in rendering the carnal debt.”

Marriage being a sacred symbol of Christ and the church which he calls Sacramentum cannot be broken except in the death of a spouse. Even if a man puts away a wife in divorce for reason of adultery, he is not to marry as long as the wife still lives, but after death he is then free to remarry a believing wife.

After calling marriage a good he calls celibacy a greater good. To this regard he says, “so we praise the good of Susanna in married chastity, yet we place above it the good of the widow Anna and much more so that if the Virgin Mary.” He says it is good for a woman to marry to beget children, but it is better not to marry because it is better for human society itself to not have need of marriage. He then answers a question that may arise saying, “Much more quickly would the City of God be filled and the end of time be hastened.”

Those who questioned the belief of the time that celibacy was a greater good than marriage said that those who believe this make themselves out to be greater than the patriarchs. Augustine says this is untrue because it is a different time or dispensation. The patriarchs possessed their wives solely for the work of procreation and not in passion like the gentiles. Augustine said, “I am indeed not better than Abraham, but the chastity of the unmarried is better than the chastity of marriage.”

In the end he says, “Marriage and virginity are, it is true, two goods, the second of them is the greater.” However, he goes on to say that virginity does not cancel out other debts. If a virgin is a drunkard and a married woman lives in sobriety the virgin is not greater than the married woman. He says that it is better to have everything good in a lessor since than to have a greater good coupled with an evil.

Critical Evaluation

Before saying anything, I realize that Augustine is regarded as a great theologian by many believers throughout history. He did much to speak against Pelagius. Catholics and Protestants alike revere much of his writings, but if I had read his book, The Good of Marriage, without knowledge of his life before conversion, the particulars of his conversion and the thoughts about celibacy and marriage that existed at the time I would have said that this man is out of his mind.

Therefore, it is imperative that we read historical books like these with historical knowledge. In contrast to Augustine’s book, the timeless principles that the Bible teaches regarding marriage are sevenfold: First, procreation; (Gn.1:28&9:1,7) second, companionship; (Gn.2:18) third, unity; (Gn.2:24-25) fourth, pleasure; (cf. Song of Solomon) fifth, education of children; (cf. Eph.6:4) sixth, chastity; (1Cor.7:1-24) and seventh, a symbol of Christ and the Church. (Ep.5:22-32)

It seems that Augustine and the other monastics of his time did not understand the value of having a believing wife as a companion and because of his previous experiences with sex being lust and fornication, he could not understand the unity of a husband and wife being naked and not ashamed, enjoying one another in the pleasure given to them by God. Is procreation, faithfulness, and Sacramentum goods in marriage? Yes, but marriage and the marriage bed are much more than these. Sex in marriage is a good, because it was created by God prior to the fall to populate the earth with His image bearers, to create a permanent bond between husband and wife in order to raise children, and to give them pleasure in their unity while keeping them from all forms of immorality that exist in the world.

There are two things that this book shows me: First, our past sin skews our understanding and ability to see truth. God can use whomever he wants, however He wants to honor his name and exalt Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. However, our previous sins do taint our ability to rightly interpret the Word of God. Second, the views of the people in our society, especially that of believers who have our ears can also taint our understanding of things. We must remember when listening to others; like us, their interpretation of Scripture is tainted by their presuppositions and past sins; therefore, listen with a discerning ear and a prayerful heart. May we all be kept from the temptation of the world, our flesh and Satan. May we all be transformed in mind and heart by the truth of the Word of God guided by the Holy Spirit of truth.

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1 Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity Volume I The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 241-247.

2 Ibid.

3 “Manichaeism and True Christianity,” accessed April 29, 2018, http://www.rtecmalta.org/tft323.htm.

4 “Marriage, Celibacy, and the Hierarchy of Merit in the Jovinian Controversy,” Family Ministry, May 01, 2013, accessed April 29, 2018, http://www.sbts.edu/family/2-13/05/01/marriage-celibacy-and-the-hiearchy-of-merit-in-the-jovinian-controversy/.