by John Carpenter | Mar 7, 2017 | Devotional
“In whom also we obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” [Eph.1:11; Heb.10:10,14]
According to the Word of God, each person of the Trinity is directly involved in eternally assuring the success of the true believing sinner’s sanctification. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit each have their own personal and unique involvement in the sanctification of all the eternally loved, chosen, placed in Christ and blessed: In short, all the saved.
First, they have been sanctified (or set apart) by the eternal purpose and will of God the Father. The Word of God says from Is.14:24: “The Lord of hosts hath sworn saying, Surely as I have thought so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” Hence, everything about the saved sinner is divinely determined and even predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the Triune Counsel of His own will.
Second, the saved one has been sanctified (or set apart) by the eternal Son of God. It is He that was covenanted from eternity to enter by incarnation into our fallen world where we were lost – in order to become the eternal Lamb of God and give His own life and to shed His own blood — to save us. Therefore, the Word of God describes that we are sanctified in the willingness of the eternal Son of God through the offering that He made of His body as being the Lord Jesus Christ, the only sovereign/Savior substitute that there ever was, is or ever will be. All this was accomplished: “according to the eternal purpose which He (God the Father) purposed in Christ Jesus (His beloved Son) our Lord.” [Eph.3:11]
Third, all the saved have been sanctified (or set apart) by the Holy Spirit of God. He it is that reveals to our hearts and minds the secret purposes of God’s great grace. He it is that also applies the eternally accomplished atonement of Christ very powerfully to our souls, and even to our conscience. He it is that seals to us the intimate and personal and eternal relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ as being our Lord and Savior – our substitute – that, in turn, regenerates us. He it is that continues to progressively unfold the riches of God’s Word to us. He it is that satisfies our hunger and thirst after righteousness – renewing our minds – and centering all our thinking and longing on Christ our Savior.
The Holy Spirit’s entrance into the equation of the saved sinner’s life and being brings forth the quickening — that, in essence, brings forth the life and walk of the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. It is His dwelling in us that causes us to fill the Biblical description of 2Thess.2:13: “…brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
Therefore, all three persons of the Godhead – the Great Triumvirate – have fulfilled the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ (the incarnated eternal Son of God) when He prayed in the garden the night before He went to the cross: “Sanctify them (lit.) in thy truth – thy Word is truth.” The very tense of the word, sanctify, in Christ’s statement to the Father suggests an already completed action by God upon all those for whom He prays. Praise His Wonderful Name!
For Christ’s Glory Only!
– John Carpenter
by John Carpenter | Feb 16, 2017 | Camp News
**Online registration will open soon for staff and campers**
Our 2017 Camp Schedule is as follows:
Staff Training – June 5-7
Session 1- 6 to 8 Boys and Girls – June 19-22
Session 2 – 9 to 12 Girls – June 26-29
Session 3 – 9 to 12 Boys – July 10-13
Session 4 – 6 to 8 Boys and Girls – July 17-20
Session 5 – 9 to 12 Girls – July 24-July 27
Session 6 – 9 to 12 Boys – July 31 – Aug. 3
(Contact Sheri DeSchepper at 816-690-8465 or sheri@campdelhaven.org if you, or someone you know, is interested in volunteering this coming summer.)
by John Carpenter | Feb 16, 2017 | Ministry News
Well, dear friends, at this particular time we are only 7 weeks from our first work Saturday to prepare for our 2017 Del-Haven Camp season. We are embarking on our 65th year of bringing the gospel to children! All glory and thanks be unto God our Savior!
Our 2017 Camp Schedule is as follows:
Staff Training – June 5-7
Session 1- 6 to 8 Boys and Girls – June 19-22
Session 2 – 9 to 12 Girls – June 26-29
Session 3 – 9 to 12 Boys – July 10-13
Session 4 – 6 to 8 Boys and Girls – July 17-20
Session 5 – 9 to 12 Girls – July 24-July 27
Session 6 – 9 to 12 Boys – July 31 – Aug. 3
Please use this as a guide as you continue to faithfully lift up in prayer everything that is involved in this pure gospel announcing endeavor. Pray for all the children whom our Lord will send to us to hear the gospel and pray for all the staff – the soldiers that He will have recruited to engage in all the rigors of meeting the enemy head-on every day throughout the camp season. Pray for the Lord to be our strength, our patience (endurance), our shield and our buckler – just as His Word says. Finally, pray that He will be eternally glorified through it all. Thank you, dear ones for being there.
by John Carpenter | Feb 16, 2017 | Devotional
“I will direct their work in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” “Lead me in thy truth and teach me; for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.” “For this is good and acceptable unto God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and come unto a knowledge of the truth.” [Is.61:8; Ps.25:5; 1Ti.2:3-4]
Our Lord and Savior, who is the incarnated eternal Son of God, proclaimed of Himself that He is, “the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that “no man can come unto the Father, but through Him”. When the Spirit of Christ, Himself, speaks this truth to your heart, then, and only then, do you know without a doubt that it is indeed the truth! This marks our beginning in true Christianity. From this point forward – do we then realize in our lives what the above texts are descriptively declaring.
God first reveals us to ourselves and allows us to see the awful plight we are in as being the sinners that we truly are. We come to the end of ourselves in that bright all penetrating light. We see that we have no hope in ourselves to be able to save ourselves. We come to desperately see that we need another! This is the grace of repentance that the Spirit of God bestowes upon us. Then the Spirit of the Father reveals to our hearts the wonderful person and work of His beloved eternal Son. And, through His Spirit — and through His Word – He teaches us that He, and He alone, is our Savior. We wholeheartedly put all our trust in Him for our eternal salvation. This is the grace of faith that the Spirit of God works in us and through us. Praise His Name! We see by His Spirit of grace that we need another, and we see, by His grace that there is no other – but our sovereign Savior, Jesus Christ! He, indeed, is the only Way – He, indeed, is the only Truth – and He, indeed, is the only Way to the eternal Life that He, alone, is. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”– all glory to Him! The only Way to eternal Life is through the Truth concerning Him as being the only sovereign Savior substitute that there ever was, is, or ever will be!
The “Everlasting Covenant” that is mentioned in the Is.61 text above is the covenant that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit cut among themselves in eternity. This is what is commonly called, “The Covenant of Grace”; and this is what’s known as “The New Covenant.” It is in the fulfillment of this covenant when God the Father divinely purposed and decreed to send God the Son to become incarnated into the likeness of our sinful flesh and be our Savior and Messiah. It is in the fulfillment of this covenant that the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to quicken us by a revelation of the reality of our having been placed in Christ from eternity. He then seals us to Christ and directs and leads through this fallen world and on into heaven – the eternal abiding place of the full effulgence of His glory!
This same covenant is also mentioned in Ps.25:10,14: “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.” “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him – and He will show them His covenant.” It is revealing texts like these that form the context for that which 2Tim.2:19 descriptively declares when it says that: “…the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal: The Lord knoweth them that are His! And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ – depart from iniquity!” All three persons of the eternal Godhead are here mentioned. This comes forward as a profound credal statement of saving truth.
It is from this Truth (which is Christ, Himself) that we are taught and directed; by which we are led and guided; in which we are rooted and established. We grow in God’s grace given knowledge and understanding – according to His good pleasure – unto the glory, only, of Christ Jesus.
-For Christ’s Glory Only!
John Carpenter
by John Carpenter | Jan 19, 2017 | Camp News
Well, dear friends and family in Christ, Del-Haven is officially embarking on its 65th year of camp ministry to needy children. We were founded by prayer — and we have been sustained by prayer. We thank the Lord for all of you who have faithfully and prayerfully supported us over all these past decades. And, we also thank all of you who have more recently been led of the Lord to take up the blessed habit and practice of praying for us on a regular basis. It is through these Spirit led prayers that we have been sustained all these years. Praise to the Lord for His great grace!
