Together, we have faith

 God's Word is our strength

Personal Bible Journal

 Bible Study Tools
DAILY DEVOTIONAL 
By Carl Shank March 22, 2025
"Only the facts. Ma'am!" I recall that phrase said over and over again on TV as a kid watching the old TV series, "Dragnet." Dragnet was an American crime drama television series starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan which ran for four seasons, from January 12, 1967, to April 16, 1970. This very famous and dour saying was Jack Webb's cryptic remark to interviewed witnesses of a crime. He did not want superfluous or extraneous or personal opinions to cloud the real "facts" of the crime or situation at hand. A current public radio program claims that they are following "only the facts," that they report only factual events as they really took place. They claim to be free of bias and not "progressively oriented" in their reporting. Consequently, a recent show on abortion offered the scientific "fact" of an unborn baby, or fetus, achieving "life status" at so many weeks of gestation. This was said in response to a conservative caller who phoned in citing other "evidence," including the Bible's take on conception, as the beginning of life. The public radio station claimed that the caller was wrong and cited "scientific facts" about the "real" beginning of life. This is an instance and example of what modern society, especially anti-Christian society, considers as "factual" and therefore worth reporting and worth our time. There are actually three problems with what are called "facts" today even when claiming to be fair and unbiased. The definition of what is "factual" has shifted, first of all, over time and history. Hillsdale College publishes speeches in a format called "Imprimis" ( https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/ ) This very conservative institution offers excellent and gifted speakers who go against the tide of "progressivism" in the country. While they and their invited speakers are often dismissed and ignored by most public and social media today, they offer another look at American culture that is Constitutionally based. One of those speakers noted that in the court system today, progressive constitutional thinking has replaced and overtaken original constitutional mandates. This can actually be traced in the history of the court system. "Facts" seen as such years ago are now replaced by "real" facts, modern facts, today's facts. This is part of the problem of a public radio station purporting to only report the "facts" of a situation today. In the second place, reporters and journalists today have been schooled and educated by liberal elite to discard "old" ways of thinking, especially conservatively based thinking, and report things as they "see" them. And this is the problem. How we process what we see is often, whether consciously or unconsciously, biased in favor of a liberal, anti-Christian way of thinking and seeing. Rather than admit such presuppositional flavoring to "factual" reporting, the modern way is seen as the "only" way to see and process everything. Scientific reasoning, crafted by liberal theologians and philosophers of the Enlightenment, has replaced and driven out any hint of truthful reporting that takes into account biblical truth. And, of course, "religious" truth has been replaced by "scientific" truth, as if humanity's way of reasoning trumps God's revelation. Third, American individualism, copying the French Revolution, has defined American "freedom" today. This requires some explanation. Os Guinness in his Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom has Become Its Greatest Threat (InterVarsity Press, 2018), has carefully cited historical "facts" that link the 1789 French Revolution and the American Left — "The former struggled for "liberté" and "egalité" the latter for "liberation" and "social justice." The former won through violent revolution, whereas the latter seeks to win through a cultural revolution, after which the elite imposes its will through administrative and bureaucratic procedures (regulative bodies and the law courts). And both are characterized by their reliance on the state, their open hostility toward religion, their radical separation of religion and public life, their attempt to control language in order to control reality (French and Soviet "Newspeak," "doublespeak," and American "political correctness"), their unashamed espousal of power, their egalitarian appeal to envy rather than liberty, and their naive utopianism that the removal of repression will mean fulfillment of freedom." (51) He says that American has rejected its covenantal/constitutional heritage of freedom as a republic surrendering to those supoposedly "democratic" forces that redefine our "facts" and our heritage. "Only the facts, Ma'am!" has taken on a new meaning, a new way of thinking and processing, and an anti-Christian, anti-biblical, anti-religious cast that we cannot even see or take into account in our reporting of the "facts."
Show More

Oct 14, 2025

Week #41 — Day 3

The Visible Word


Q. 92. What is a Sacrament?

A. A Sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

Gen. 17:7, 10; Ex. 12; 1 Cor. 11:23, 26.

“And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you

throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.. . . This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.”

“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,. . . For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”


“There have been several helpful definitions of the sacraments over the centuries. Augustine coined the phrase “visible word,” which reminds us that the sacraments present no different promises than those contained in the Word of God. The Word constitutes the sacraments, and without it they would be meaningless and vain. While there is nothing different or new communicated in the sacraments from God’s Word, we could say that the same truth is revealed in a deeper way since we can now taste, touch, and see the benefits that God extends to believers. Centuries later, Calvin fleshed out Augustine’s definition by saying that the sacraments are “an outward sign by which the Lord seals to our consciences the promises of His goodwill toward us in order to sustain the weakness of our faith.”


Excerpt FromGlorifying and Enjoying God: 52 Devotions through the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Boekestein & Cruse & Miller)


The visible Word. The Puritans note that these sacraments “represent, seal and apply” the benefits of the new covenant to us. We in the modern church are not used to such language or even such representations. There is reason why God told Abraham to look to the stars to represent how numerous his faith children would be. And there is reason for Jesus Christ to give us Communion or The Lord’s Supper. It is a visible reminder and sign that God is with us in Christ as we obediently and reverently partake the elements. What do you think about when you take Communion? What is its meaning to you?


A Puritan Prayer —

“LORD JESUS CHRIST,

Fill me with thy Spirit

that I may be occupied with his presence.

I am blind—send him to make me see;

dark—let him say, ‘Let there be light’!

May he give me faith to behold

my name engraven in thy hand,

my soul and body redeemed by thy blood,

my sinfulness covered by the life of pure obedience.

Replenish me by his revealing grace,

that I may realise my indissoluble union with thee;

that I may know thou hast espoused me to thyself for ever,

in righteousness, love, mercy, faithfulness;

that I am one with thee,

as a branch with its stock,

as a building with its foundation.

May his comforts cheer me in my sorrows,

his strength sustain me in my trials,

his blessings revive me in my weariness,

his presence render me a fruitful tree of holiness,

his might establish me in peace and joy,

his incitements make me ceaseless in prayer,

his animation kindle in me undying devotion.

Send him as the searcher of my heart,

to show me more of my corruptions and helplessness

that I may flee to thee,

cling to thee,

rest on thee,

as the beginning and end of my salvation.

May I never vex him by my indifference and waywardness,

grieve him by my cold welcome,

resist him by my hard rebellion.

Answer my prayers, O Lord, for thy great name’s sake.”


Excerpt From

The Valley of Vision

Edited by Arthur Bennett



"We must unquestionably receive its [the Bible's] statements of fact,  bow before its enunciation of duty, tremble before its threatenings, 
and rest upon its promises." – B.B. Warfield


Send us a Message