Puzzled By Life's Trials? There's Help!

What are you planning to do this year to improve spiritually? I suggest taking in God's Word. No surprise there. Read with the Holy Spirit's help. Read in order to KNOW God more intimately. Last year I read 5 different devotionals in addition to reading through Scripture. As a pastor, I have that luxury. Perhaps your job or schooling prevents such a time constraint. I understand that, having been in the labor force for many years--construction, sales, etc. But we can do something. And certainly more Christians could do more. Well, one devotional I am going to read this year has as its preface the following (in part). Compiled by Diana Wallis, she culled out of the writings of great preachers of the past such teachings as might aid our spiritual examination and improvement. I include the following for your beginning-of-year encouragement. And maybe you'll get your hands on a copy of this or another good and challenging devotional and stick with it throughout the year. God bless you richly!! Here's an excerpt from Wallis' compilation:

The preachers quoted in this volume weren’t of the smile-God-loves-you variety. They didn’t sugarcoat life. Take this, for example, from a sermon preached by Arthur John Gossip shortly after the death of his wife:

I do not understand this life of ours, but still less can I comprehend how people in trouble and loss and bereavement can run away peevishly from the Christian faith. In God’s name, run to what? Have we not lost enough without losing that too? If Christ is right—if, as he says, there are somehow, hidden away from our eyes as yet… wisdom and planning and kindness and love in these dark dispensations—then we can see them through.… Already some things have become very clear to me. This to begin, that the faith works, fulfills itself, is real, and that its most audacious promises are true.… Further, one becomes certain about immortality. You think that you believe in that. But wait till you have lowered your dearest into an open grave, and you will know what believing it means.

 When facing calamities large and small in our own lives, surely we can take heart from such testimony as that.   

That the gospel is clearly proclaimed in these pages may seem superfluous in a book whose audience likely already believes in Christ. But, first, these preachers did, after all, proclaim the gospel. And second, the gospel is the great joy of believers. So be reminded, and meditate on the truths of it.

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily devotions with the church's great preachers (6–8). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

Enjoy Grace by Hating Your Sin

The Babylonian Destruction of Jerusalem, from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

Sin led to Judah's awful destruction. Jeremiah 39 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar killed all of the sons of Zedekiah (king of Judah) in front of him. Then he slew all of the nobles before him, put out Zedekiah's eyes, placed him shackles and led him away to Babylon! Dreadful scene. Unbelievably harsh. What is made clear is that sin was the cause. Jeremiah's case was the opposite. Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to take care of him. In verse 18, we read that the LORD (Yahweh) was the one who did all of this, the bad as well as the good. I so appreciated the emphasis that John Barry gives to this passage that I am copying it directly over to you. There's actually hope here. . . . IF. 

It’s important to pause occasionally to reflect on the cost of sin. If we don’t, we can find ourselves living in it without thought of the ramifications. Few passages illustrate the cost of sin more vividly than the fall of Jerusalem recorded in Jer 39. The fall of Jerusalem is brutal, depressing, and sadistic, but we can learn from Jeremiah’s account of the event.

We could view Jeremiah’s depictions as merely historical, or we could recognize the theological lessons they offer: Sin is expensive. Sin will destroy you. Sin will bring a nation to its knees. Sin will leave you begging for mercy. Sin is death. That’s what God’s people learned from this event: Disobeying Yahweh is a costly action. It’s not that God wants His people to endure this pain, but pain is a natural consequence of their decisions. He cannot defend people who refuse to live as beacons of light—of goodness, beauty, and blessing—to the world. If they aren’t willing to live in His image, then He is not willing to be their defender. If Yahweh did not allow for Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem, the people would never learn. And the exile that comes in this moment is also a natural result of their sin.

When we’re faced with the horror of the destruction of Jerusalem, we’re given a choice: Will we listen to the prophets of our age and respond accordingly? Will we hear God when He calls us back to obedience? Or will we continue to live in sin and suffer the consequences?

As a side effect of the grace that God has given us in Jesus, many people assume that sin is somehow okay—that it’s okay to allow it to exist. God’s response is the opposite. The grace is unmerited, and we must respond with the only merited response: complete dedication and obedience to Him. We must see the death of sin and deny it.

What sin is currently present in your life? What do you need to repent from? Have you asked God for direct you in this?          

Barry, J. D., & Kruyswijk, R. (2012). Connect the Testaments: A Daily Devotional. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

Fearing the End of the World? DON'T!!

At the risk of repeating what I just wrote to our Church members, after writing this, I thought it wise to send it out to "the world." Note: I've been sending John Piper's daily advent readings to the church on a daily basis. So, the first part is mine, and second, obviously, Piper's. God strengthen us all. 

Beloved:
Mayan prophecies and prince of Darkness considered, many might be, at least to some degree, prone to fear on this day when the end of the world is coming. Actually, the prophecies record that today would be the end of one era and the beginning of essentially, "The Age of Aquarius."

Did any of this make you fear? Don't! Today's reading suggests why. Jesus Christ is ETERNAL. So? you might ask. So, whatever prognosticator's and devil worshippers would have us believe (and we should take them somewhat seriously), nothing, I mean NOTHING takes our LORD by surprise, or throws Him off His plan. NOTHING! (Did I already say that?). And we should most definitely take God seriously!!

Read this closely. “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 54:17, ESV). Did you see that? "This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD." All the people of God, not just the Jews of Isaiah's day rest under this promise. Notice too: "And their vindication is from me, declares the LORD." This means that our success in the court of this world's attacks is assured since our Advocate (Lawyer) is God. And "if God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31. See also Num. 14:9; 2 Kgs 6:16; Ps. 118:6; 1 Jn. 4:4).

Be blessed as you stake your hopes in Christ alone!

Standing together before God,
Pastor Dave

THE BIRTH OF THE ANCIENT OF DAYS 

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” —John 18:37 

This is a great Christmas text even though it comes from the end of Jesus’s life on earth, not the beginning. 

The uniqueness of his birth is that he did not originate at his birth. He existed before he was born in a manger. The personhood, the character, the personality of Jesus of Nazareth existed before the man Jesus of Nazareth was born. 

The theological word to describe this mystery is not creation, but incarnation. The person—not the body, but the essential personhood of Jesus—existed before he was born as man. His birth was not a coming into being of a new person, but a coming into the world of an infinitely old person. 

Micah 5:2 puts it like this, 700 years before Jesus was born:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 

The mystery of the birth of Jesus is not merely that he was born of a virgin. That miracle was intended by God to witness to an even greater one—namely, that the child born at Christmas was a person who existed “from of old, from ancient days.”

Hope in Dark Times from Gabriel's Announcement!

And the angel answered him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, . . .  (Luke 1:19)

Zechariah didn’t believe the angel. So, now the angel must identify himself as God’s messenger. In the most authoritative tone that rises to insurmountable proportions, Gabriel utters a word that sets not just Zechariah, but all unbelief back on it’s heels:

“I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God.” Volumes are bound up in these few words! It’s as if Gabriel were saying, “What? You don’t believe me? That’s the end of the matter. Who do you think you’re talking to now? What? Do you think that God is like everyone else, unable to see the whole picture? What? Is God’s mind so addled or his power so frail that he cannot perform this simple task? I’m not simply some “fly-by-night” messenger boy who just went through puberty. My knowledge of life didn’t begin yesterday. This message I bring to you was written on the parchment of eternity before ever there was a universe, much less an earth and sinners upon it. You imagine, do you, that your faithlessness can prevent the sure mercies of God? Can the Almighty not open the Red Sea and stop the sun in it’s path for a day. Has he not given life to the dead, and children to the childless, and salvation to the hopeless? What impossibility has the Lord God NOT performed that you should doubt him now? You are a mere man of few years and yet I cannot do as I say? I tell you, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God.” Rest assured, Christmas birth and Easter resurrection are my plan, and shall I not carry it out? In a universe of such complexity that boggles the minds of the wisest men, shall it be thought the least bit inconceivable that I have considered every possibility and planned out perfectly every detail and enabled every person in my will? Archimedes may have said, “Give me a lever and I can move the world.” That’s child’s play. I remind you again, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God.”

O dear Christian, what task looms so large before your eyes that God cannot change it? What sin has captured you from which this God cannot free you? What Katrina catastrophe or Connecticut* tragedy unseats our God from his throne of eternal wisdom and limitless compassion? When shall we learn like Job, to cup our hand over our mouth and say no more? Mysteries abound all about us. We have entered into a realm inexplicably outside our ability to understand. But, Oh, not one which we cannot appreciate. For he who formed all things beautiful has granted unto man the eyes to see it, so that both the beauty and our discerning eye swell our hearts for the Creator. 

*Reference to the senseless slaughter of an entire kindergarten class with the principal and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, 14 Dec., 2012.  

Holy & Reasonable Thanksgiving

American Thanksgiving can be a wonderful holiday celebration. I say it CAN be. It may be (and no doubt it is) nothing other than yet one more day to feed the many appetites of the flesh--food, fun, football [American style], and a day or two off from our vocations. None of these, mind you, is necessarily bad in itself. But it was originally planned to be a day commemorating God's protection and providence in bringing the religiously disenfranchised to a new world where they might find freedom to worship God as conscience dictated. Indeed, all men are free to worship God (god) in any way they wish. They are--make no mistake about it--NOT free to create God; that is something quite outside the purview of their abilities. And the right worship of God is not something which we may determine. We need the help of God in his holy Word, the Bible. The true God has and will exercise his unique right to determine HOW he is to be worshiped. 

That said, for those who submit to God's Kingship, there is very much for which we might be thankful, not the least of which is the forgiveness of sin, which paves the way to a blessed life with God both here and forever in heaven. But many mistake the basis of God's forgiveness of sin. First, they imagine their sins are not as bad as God knows them to be! Second, beyond that they may imagine God to be that grandfatherly and somewhat demented "deity" who fumbles about boringly in heaven, one who naively winks and "forgives" us all because he really thinks a lot of us. After all, we "mean well," and (many mistakenly think) he needs us! Nothing could be further from the truth. Man has grossly offended the thrice-holy God. He needs no one, for the Godhead is complete within itself. Furthermore, most don't seem to realize (or they've forgotten) that man is intensely unholy and therefore God cannot have them in his presence. “You . . . are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, ” (Habakkuk 1:13a). So, there are huge hurdles to overcome. Many don't seem to understand this today.

So, with this in mind I thought it vital to our right teaching and therefore to our correct celebration to quote Oswald Chamber's devotion for November 19th. Please read this slowly. Much is gotten into few words. But critical words they are. If you appreciate this, you may just be well along your way to a proper giving of thanks to Him who who is most worthy of all praise. May God bless you. 

And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin.… John 16:8 

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only—“Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.” When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.

Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.

Chambers, O. (1986). My utmost for his highest: Selections for the year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering.

Speaking Out Against the Sins of Our Day. That's LOVE!

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as having said, "To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards out of men." Lincoln certainly lived in disturbing times, as do we. But we seem to be at a loss for wise and sane voices to speak out against false doctrine today. Many seem to be more concerned with how others will perceive them than about the dreadful destiny of the deceived! Let us speak out for truth! Let us "cry aloud" so that others may be diverted from the errors that sap the spiritual from the individual leaving them bereft of anything godly! Now, isn't that vastly more important than whether anyone perceives of me as nice? Read this devotional from the pen of John Barry . . .

How should we respond when those around us seem to be not only falling short of the glory of God, but actually abandoning God’s work? What should we do when we witness neighbors or friends tolerating or even justifying acts of injustice, oppression, greed, or idolatry? We live in such a time. So did the prophet Micah:

Woe is me! For I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of the grape harvest, when there is no cluster of grapes to eat or early ripened fruit that my soul desires. The faithful person has perished from the land, and there is none who is upright among humankind. All of them lie in wait; each hunts his brother with a net. Their hands are upon evil, to do it well; the official and the judge ask for the bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; and they weave it together (Mic 7:1–3).

Micah did what should be done—he spoke up; he told the truth. When we find ourselves in evil times among evil people, we must do the same. God may be calling us to be a voice crying in the wilderness (John 1:19–25; compare Isa 40:3). By boldly proclaiming the truth, we may make a way for others to come back to God.

Much of the world is corrupt, and it is our job as Christians to fight such corruption, to stand above it, and to help others find the better way—God’s way. The brokenness of our world is not simple. How many people are led astray unconsciously? How often does money or power trump the rights of the vulnerable? Do we recognize injustice when we see it? Do we have the courage to speak up, even when it hurts?

Micah provides an example here, too. Although he spoke vividly about God’s coming judgment on Samaria, he also told us where we would find the Savior who would heal our brokenness once and for all—in Bethlehem.

How are you standing against the evils of our age?

JOHN D. BARRY

Barry, J. D., & Kruyswijk, R. (2012). Connect the Testaments: A Daily Devotional. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

Hi-jacking the Truth in "Truth in Love"

This is such a common mistake on the part of many in the church that I feel it necessary to re-post Tony Reinke's article "Speaking the Truth in Love." It seems that what happens (quite unintentionally I'm sure) is that everyone wants the "love" part so much that inadvertently truth gets hijacked! This must not be. Read on and see how Tony describes this phrase in the context of Ephesians:

For much of my Christian life I have had a one-sided view of “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). I assumed that the verse meant only that when hard news or rebuke needed to be brought, it should be done with tenderness and sensitivity. I was wrong.

Not totally wrong. I understood correctly the verb and the love: that hard news and rebuke should always be brought with appropriate sobriety, humility, and never with arrogance and harshness.

But I neglected to focus on the other part of Paul’s phrase: the noun and “the truth.” The context of the passage helps to explain Paul’s meaning.

In his sermon, “How the Saints Minister to the Body” (1992), Pastor John explains the earlier context:

First, the equippers of the saints in verse 11 are all truth agents:

              apostles (the authoritative, foundational witnesses to the truth),

              the prophets (the charismatic speakers of truth that apply it with supernaturally guided pointedness),

              the evangelists (who do the work of evangelism with the truth of the gospel in regions where apostles have planted the church),

              the pastors and teachers (who take the truth and use it to feed and protect the flock of God).

Every one of these offices centers on the truth of God and Christ and the gospel. These people are truth agents.

Second, verse 13 says that the goal of building up the body of Christ is to attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. So the building begins with equippers who are all agents of truth, and the aim of the building is unified knowledge, that is, unified grasp of truth.

Third, we have seen that verse 14 shows Paul’s great concern: As we grow into corporate Christlikeness, we are not to be babes who are blown around by every wind of doctrine. The issue is stability in true doctrine, so that we will not be deceived by false doctrine.

Thus, our call to speak the truth in love to one another is gospel-oriented.

Today we gather together as Christians to worship our God. If we are led by faithful preachers, that is a gift from God equips us to speak truth. As we gather, we find opportunities to speak the truth of the gospel to one another. This is how we serve and protect one another doctrinally. This is how we build up one another and build unity in our churches. This is how God gives grace to others through us (Ephesians 4:29).

At its core, we speak the truth in love when we care enough to speak the gospel into the lives of those around us. This is God’s everyday calling for every Christian, including Sundays.