"But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" He said, "But I will be with you." (Ex. 3:11-12a)
Moses asks God who Moses is, before he asks God in verse 13 who God is. God's answer to the first question is similar to his answer to the second. The second answer...is..."I AM WHO I AM." The first answer is..."I will be with you," or "I am with you." We might think that "I will be with you" does not really answer Moses' question, "Who am I?" Moses asks about himself, Moses; God replies by speaking of himself, God. But of course, God more than answers Moses' question. Who is Moses? He is the man with whom God is. God has covenanted to stand with Moses in his confrontation with Pharaoh. So Moses is Yahweh's man; that's who he is." - Frame, ST, pp29-30
Friday, January 31, 2014
There Are More Needs than You Can Handle
"I think most Christians hear these urgent calls to do more (or feel them internally already) and learn to live with a low-level guilt that comes from not doing enough. We know we can always pray more and give more and evangelize more, so we get used to living in a state of mild disappointment with ourselves...We have to be okay with other Christians doing certain good things better and more often than we do." - Crazy Busy, DeYoung, p47.
Part of this guilt comes from an over-individualistic spirit and lack of a commitment to the local church body. We are members of a body incarnate that has multiple gifts and talents, time and opportunities. The answer to what needs to be done is not an answer for the individual only, but for the church corporately and also for her members.
Part of this guilt comes from an over-individualistic spirit and lack of a commitment to the local church body. We are members of a body incarnate that has multiple gifts and talents, time and opportunities. The answer to what needs to be done is not an answer for the individual only, but for the church corporately and also for her members.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Hospital-ity and Busyness
"Good hospital-ity is making your home a hospital. The idea is that friends and family and the wounded and weary people come to your home and leave helped and refreshed. And yet, too often hospitality is a nerve-wracking experience for hosts and guests alike" - Crazy Busy, DeYoung, p41.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Sins that Accompany Busyness
Three more pithy statements from Crazy Busy, by Kevin DeYoung, Chapter 3 -
"...our understanding of busyness must start with the one sin that begets so many of our other sins: pride" - p34.
"So much of our busyness comes down to meeting people's expectations" - p35.
"People often call it low self-esteem, but people-pleasing is actually a form of pride and narcissism" - p35.
"...our understanding of busyness must start with the one sin that begets so many of our other sins: pride" - p34.
"So much of our busyness comes down to meeting people's expectations" - p35.
"People often call it low self-esteem, but people-pleasing is actually a form of pride and narcissism" - p35.
Where Righteousness and Peace Kiss
Psalm
122 is one of God’s songs. He gave us
150 to sing and to learn from what it is He would have us sing to Him and to
one another in our services of worship.
Do not neglect the singing of the Psalms, for it pleases Your Lord.
As we gather, we are ascending to the throne of God by faith and in the power of the Spirit. We are doing what Israel pictured, what they only did in shadows, when they ascended to Jerusalem to come to the temple of God. Those who did so by faith knew that they were only practicing – and that they also would only come to God if they came by faith – the same faith which has been granted to you who are in Christ Jesus.
So
do not fall into the complacency that comes when you do not come prepared and
when you do not come thinking. Give your
attention to the Psalms, to the Scriptures, to the prayers, to the
preaching. God is at work among us which
means He is at work in you – now. And He
has something for you. He intends for
you to leave here built up, encouraged, challenged – and changed. This will be the work of His Spirit and not anyone
else – although He will use means – and this service of worship is His
appointed means. His Word, His Table,
His saints, His songs – come and worship God the Father, come in the name of
Jesus His Son, and come in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
The Dance of Trinitarian Submission
As Douglas Wilson puts it,
in a Unitarian world, authority and submission is a fist fight with a winner
and a loser, someone on top and someone beat down. In a Trinitarian world, authority and
submission are a lovely dance. Press
this metaphor out a bit. Both dancers
are submitting to the music around them. He submits to the music, sacrificing for her
by leading her, supporting her, and glorifying her in the dance. As she submits to his lead (and not to any
other dancer on the floor), she follows his left with her right, completing his
steps and glorifying his moves. She must
choose carefully to say ‘yes’ to a dancer who will lead her rightly, and she
looks foolish if she keeps stopping in the middle of the dance questioning his
next move – she must follow him in everything.
But once again, we must end with the husband: how in the world do you expect her to follow
you when you are such a lousy dancer, or when you refuse to follow the music? Yes, the Lord has commanded her to submit to
you; and you must make it a delight to do so.
Really, Really Busy
Three pithy statements from "Crazy Busy" by Kevin DeYoung, Chapter 2:
"When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk" - p26.
"Busyness kills more Christians than bullets" - p30.
"What does it say about me that I'm frequently overwhelmed?" - p31.
"When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk" - p26.
"Busyness kills more Christians than bullets" - p30.
"What does it say about me that I'm frequently overwhelmed?" - p31.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Obedient Submission
There
are many things to be learned at this Table – and so that is another reason it
is good to come here week after week.
What we witness here at this Table is the result of obedient submission
to the Father. When Jesus said, “not my
will but Yours be done,” He saved the world.
When
we give over to the Lord all that we are and all that we have – when we become
His disciples, imitating Him by faithfully dying in Him, then we join Him here
at this Table of new life. For in
Christ, every sacrifice results in exaltation.
God is in charge of when and how – but every sacrifice results in
exaltation.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
God and Mammon
Jesus made it very clear that we
cannot serve both God and Mammon. At one
point He said that whoever does not forsake all his possessions cannot be his
disciple. We must take these warnings to
heart, especially as we come here to worship Him.
Riches are not an automatic evil, but
they are something that must be carefully watched. They lure, they whisper, they entice and
quietly demand. That is why Jesus said
that it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
By any biblical standards, and by the general standards of the world and
all of history, we are those people. We had better take those warnings to
heart.
Paul followed up on Jesus’ teaching on
riches, commanding those who are rich in this age not to be haughty, nor to
trust in those uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all
things to enjoy (and so we ought to always acknowledge that the riches we have
are from God, the one we trust as opposed to the riches, and that He has given
them to us to enjoy – and so we better enjoy them to the glory of His
name). Paul goes on to say that the rich
are to do good with those riches, that they ought to be rich in good works –
that their hands ought to hold the possessions loosely, being instead ready to
give, willing to share – and that by doing so they would be storing up for
themselves a good foundation for the time to come.
Again, Jesus said that we are not to
worry about our possessions but instead we are to seek first His kingdom and
His righteousness. This command is given
to those whether they are rich or poor.
Mammon is tricky whether or not you actually have it. It turns out that the poor can be as bound up
with a love for riches as the rich can be.
And so we are called to take all of
this teaching on riches and do something about it. The first, most biblical response to this
subject is to faithfully, joyfully, thankfully tithing on the increase of your
riches. This teaches the rich that all
the riches are God’s and came from Him and are to be used for Him, enjoyed with
Him and shared with His. It also teaches
the poor to not be anxious in the moments where there is more month than there
is money again. In all situations it
declares we will not serve both God and Mammon.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Emmanuel Church Plant - 2013
1
John 5:4-5 says For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the
world – our faith. Who is he who
overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Trinity
Church is planting this church, Emmanuel, by faith – by a faith that has
overcome the world – by faith in One who has overcome the world – the Lord
Jesus Christ. How did Jesus manifest
that faithfulness? By giving Himself
away. And so Emmanuel is not being
established as much to be a place for those who will become members to have a
safe haven, a refuge and maybe “our own church.” No, it is being established by people who
love you and are giving a part of themselves away for the world – to see
another church, another branch of the Vine which is Christ, planted, extended –
and given away for the world and the glory of Jesus Christ.
We
have come to worship – we have come to give ourselves away. In this first formal service of worship,
establish a pattern and priority that will define Emmanuel. Be like Jesus and give yourselves away. Give yourselves away in your marriages, in
your families, in your friendships, in your relationships with hard people, and
to the world. Give yourselves away like
Christ – with great faith in the Father who raises the dead – with great faith
in the One who promises Victory because He attained Victory already through the
Cross.
Our ability and desire to give
ourselves away like Jesus comes from faith in God who has overcome the world. The only thing that can overcome the world is
from God. Our faith is born of God
because it is what overcomes the world.
The confession of faith is not just a general faith in God, but in
Jesus, the Spirit-Anointed King, the Son of God now installed at the Father’s
right hand, the King of kings and Lord of lords – over this world.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Communion Paradox
At
the Lord’s Table we see paradox and we see resolution – the only resolution to
the ultimate problem. How are sinners
ever going to be able to sit with God and enjoy communion with Him in peace? How could a holy God ever allow men, women
and children who come from a race stained with sin, marred with rebellion, and
filled with blasphemous words and deeds, come and fellowship with the Holy of
holies – the very definition of holiness, righteousness and truth?
And
the elements upon this Table give us the answer. God provided a way. God provided the blood sacrifice. God provided the perfect and only human sacrifice
– the only possible priestly sacrifice – the only perfect sin offering. Christ’s body was broken, His blood was
spilled, His life was ended, God’s holy wrath was satisfied – and our sins were
atoned for. Come in faith, come with
thanksgiving, come with awe and fear and humility, for you could never deserve
to come to such a table – and come with profound and deep joy, for you never
could hear a more sincere voice than your heavenly Father’s saying – Come, I
have prepared this for you - I want you
here with me.
The Fine Point of Faith
Unbelief sees rules, a
series of steps, a path, and a set of neat proverbial sayings to live by and
understand the world. All of this can be
attempted without faith and that is the damning work of a false gospel (Gal
1:8-9). Faith looks to Jesus. Faith grasps no ethic abstracted from the
Bible; faith grasps Jesus and is filled by His Spirit. And that filling causes a Christian to live
according to the Spirit and not the flesh (Rom 8:4-6). To be “filled
by the Spirit” is to be under the sanctifying influence of God. It is the ongoing life of walking according
to the gracious glory of Christ personally revealed in His people.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Gospel on Pro-Life Sunday - 2014
This is the Lord’s Day and central to
our worship must of course be the declaration of the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the worship of God the Father and all in the power of the Holy
Spirit. But as we come to worship this
Sunday, it is also the noted anniversary week of the murderous Roe-v-Wade
decision of 1973 in our nation – a decision which marks the horrible so-called
right to choose. And so, our focus this
morning will be on the need for our nation to repent, for mercy to be granted
for the murder of 50 plus million little lives and for healing and restoration,
for women and men convicted of their sin of murdering their children to find
grace and forgiveness in Jesus, and for us all as a nation in order that we
might be a people, a nation, who do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with
their God – the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The songs we sing this morning are
carefully chosen by our Chief Musician and so I want to highlight them briefly
as we are called to worship - The opening Psalm 122 already called us to join the
throngs in worship.
Once More My Soul reminds us of
the "thousand wretched souls that have fled since the last setting sun.”
Let us not forget these that have passed.
The decalogue reminds us “you shall
not kill or hate your neighbor.”
Psalm 137 reminds us of the judgment that
God brings against the children of the nation who hates Him. May we not be that
nation.
Psalm 103 reminds us that “God’s grace
alone endureth and children’s children yet shall prove how He with strength
assureth the hearts of all that seek His love.”
O God of Earth and Altar we will sing “our
earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die.”
And lest we become discouraged in all
this… “whate’re my God ordains is right” bookends our service.
The way we treat our children reflects the
idolatrous religion of our nation. But
Jesus Christ is King and this atrocity will not go unnoticed. It has not gone unnoticed – His wrath upon us
has been visited and His judgment has begun.
We must turn and repent and we must do so swiftly.
Delivering the World from Evil
“See
then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time,
because the days are evil” – Eph 5:15f.
There are two directions to take these
verses. One is to emphasize that we need
to be really, really careful, because the days are evil. The other is to emphasize that we are to take
advantage of every opportunity because the days are evil. I think Paul has the latter, more optimistic
view in mind. We are not to disregard
the days because they are evil; we are to take advantage of them with the
wisdom that is ours in Christ. We pray
that God would “deliver us from evil,” and
we ought to believe that He is regularly answering that prayer through His
church in opportunity after opportunity.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Receiving Christ Like Simeon
Just
as Simeon received the Christ Child in His arms and then left in peace – so we
have the opportunity to sup with the Risen Christ by faith in a real
relationship of peace and assurance.
Jesus is just as much our Consolation – He is so even more – for He has
accomplished all that He said He would – even our salvation – and the glory of
Israel.
As
we gather around this Table and partake, we are the evidence that God has and
is accomplishing all He promised to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to the
prophets – through Jesus His Son. For
here we are, at the ends of the earth, Gentiles like Theophilus, partaking of what all the Jewish sacrificial system pointed towards – the gift of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, for the redemption of His people.
Therefore,
all who are baptized in Christ are called to come and partake of the
Consolation of Israel – to partake of the Peace Meal with their heavenly Father
– of the body and blood of the One Who has made them the glory of Israel – the
salvation of the world.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Worship with Fear and Joy
This is a service of worship instituted by
God for His people. In this service, the
Lord renews His covenant with us. What
is a covenant? A covenant is a solemn
bond, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses. In this covenant, we are the servants, the bond-servants,
and God is the Master, the LORD, the King over all. He alone and unilaterally dictates the
stipulations of the covenant.
This should all sound rather formal to you
as you enter into worship – and it is.
You should prepare yourself in a formal way, because you are coming
before the King of kings, your King and Your God. This is why we are instructed to approach
this throne of grace with reverence and fear.
In other words, sit up, pay attention, show respect to the One Who has
called you. This isn’t a production for
you, a religious entertainment show. It
isn’t about you.
And yet, it is for you. For this sovereign Lord Who calls you His
servant, His slave in fact, also calls you His child – His adopted child,
redeemed and purchased by the blood of His only begotten Son. He says He did this out of His own free will
and desire, and delights to call His children to Himself and to enter into this
covenant renewal with joy, fellowship, singing, and peace. This is why you are instructed to approach
this throne of grace with great boldness – for you have been accepted fully and
completely in the Beloved, the One who died for all of your sins.
Reverence – deep and holy respect, mixed
with godly fear. Boldness – conscious
knowledge that you are accepted, loved, delighted over, and blessed beyond
comprehension. This is what you have
been summoned to come and renew. Come
and rejoice with trembling, worship Your God with holy fear and joy
unspeakable. Let Him again have His way
with you – for He will.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Proper Reverence in Worship
This
is a public declaration of the gospel, of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The gospel is declared when an evangelist
goes out and preaches the Good News to those who have not heard it, or who have
yet to accept it as theirs by faith. But
this is not the only way the Gospel is proclaimed. Each Lord’s Day we celebrate the Lord’s
Supper and Paul tells us that every time we eat the bread and drink the cup we
proclaim the Lord’s death (a nickname for the gospel). The gospel is declared in this service of
worship.
Everything
leading up to that communion service is gospel as well. You are summoned by God because He initiates
gospel. You hear Him call you to worship
Him. He then declares our sinfulness and
inability to come before Him except with blood-washed hands – washed by the
blood of Jesus Christ through our confession of sin and profession of
faith. Our songs and prayers are lifted
to Him in Jesus name through the Holy Spirit and God receives us in that name
and power. The Father instructs us
through His Word, rearranging us, remaking us, renewing us, and then sits us
down for a meal of fellowship and life with Him at His Table – providing us
with His food.
This
is a great and wonderful and joyful event – leading up to a great feast. But it is not to be entered into irreverently
– in some kind of breezy, informal and casual way. Hebrews warns us that we must worship God
with reverence and godly fear – and this teaches us what our demeanor in our
church worship services must be like.
Psalm 2 instructs us to worship the LORD with fear, to rejoice with
trembling. And so our worship is to be
full and robust, it is to engage our minds, our mouths, our bodies. While it is celebration, it is not a tailgate
party, a circus, a comedy show or a rock concert. We have come to worship the Ancient of Days. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be
shaken. Come and worship, but come with
the proper balance, well thought through and prepared, of great rejoicing and proper
reverence.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Mother's Day and Ascension Sunday - 2013
The
church, Paul instructs us in Galatians, is the New Jerusalem, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and she is the Mother of us all.
Life comes to the world through Jesus Christ and He is proclaimed by
means of the life and words of the church.
United to Christ, His bride is fruitful, and the world is being
dominated, grace-dominated by her offspring.
Happy
Mother’s Day to all of you then. To
mothers who are the life-givers and nurturers of us all, we give you special
honor today in our nation – and you all should – it is a good holiday. In a culture that treats your calling as
something less than glorious, God says that your role, and your work, often
mundane and behind the scene, is what is shaping the world to come in far more
profound ways than any legislation, any military force, any state welfare
system ever could. But we also honor
mothers for what they symbolize and declare in their roles – the life-giving
and nurturing nature of the church. And
so all of us gather to honor our Mother each Lord’s Day as well.
This
day is also Ascension Sunday – the Sunday after Ascension Day which was this
last Thursday, 40 days following the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His ascension guarantees that mothers who are
in Christ are ruling the world with Him and are discipling future rulers for Him. Ascension Day declares that a Man, the Man,
the God-Man, has been installed and is ruling heaven and earth with His rod and
staff. All nations and all mothers are
placed on notice: in all that you do,
whether in word or deed, do it all to the glory of God – for at the name of
Jesus every knee shall bow – both yours, and your little ones, and the nation
in which you live – and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God. This is what mothers
are called to live and proclaim to their children and in doing so they will
bestow the greatest gift of wisdom ever – God is your Father through Jesus
Christ. Believe – and live.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Gathered in Heaven
This
passage in Hebrews (12:18-24) goes on to tell us that as we gather here with the great
assembly of saints and angels before God’s throne, our worship and our
communing with Jesus is shaking up the unbelieving world around us. It is another great blow against the walls of
Hades which will not be able to prevail.
We come in victory to proclaim that victory and to call upon God to
spread His victory – Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven – we cry.
We see what life is like in heaven as we look to Jesus – and then we say, Yes, Lord, do that here too.
And
through our singing to one another, through our praise and worship of God,
through our observance of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper,
through the Word preached and received, through our prayers and offerings – God
accomplishes all that He promises He would.
What happens here will make earth-shaking differences, to the glory of
God, over the rest of the world in real time and space.
The
veil has been torn, you have entered into heaven, you have come to Jesus the
Mediator of the new covenant – and He is pleased to hear your praise and
prayers. But you must come with faith –
you must come believing. And if
believing, then it only follows that we must stop and confess our sins before
this mighty and holy God.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Jesus is Lord All Week
Jesus
Christ is Lord and King over all. He is
this Lord’s day and He was this last Lord’s day. He was Lord and King all week long as
well. There was nothing which occurred
this week which took Him by surprise or caused Him any consternation. Not a single event in your individual life,
nor in our city, our nation, or throughout the world and the whole
universe. Jesus Christ is Lord and King
over all.
Not
only is He the Creator of all things – and not only is He the Redeemer of this
sorry world – but He is the Sustainer in the meantime. Colossians teaches us that Christ is before
all things and that in Him all things consist.
That
is why you may come to Jesus with all of your sins. He was there when you sinned; in fact, you
were only able to sin because He worked through you – yet in a way that does
not allow any blame to be placed upon Him.
You may come to Jesus with all of your sufferings. He was there when the suffering began, in
fact, you are only suffering in that circumstance because He is working through
you in that suffering – yet in a way that only will bring good and glory to you
and to Him when He is done. You may come
to Him and honestly share all of your concerns and worries. He already has the future in His hands and He
intends to use your prayers and your works, shaped by Him and supplied by Him,
to shape and to supply the world with His grace, rule, and reign.
And
so we come to worship God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ by the
powerful work of the Holy Spirit in us – so that we might be used by God to
more greatly manifest that which is already and completely true – Jesus Christ
is Lord and King of all.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Easter and Suffering - 2013 exhortation
The
Resurrection of Jesus Christ teaches us many things. One of the central things it teaches us is
that for every Christian, every single suffering that God will take us through
– God will actually take us through – and when He does – the end of it will be
gain – much gain – gain for us – gain for God’s glory – gain through our
sufferings for others. How do we
know? Because the greatest suffering,
the greatest wrongdoing, the greatest offense and injustice the world has ever
known or ever will know was the Cross.
At the cross, Jesus, the perfect and righteous man, without sin and
blameless in every way, was whipped, crucified, and buried.
No
one has ever not deserved the punishment, the shame, the death, and the curse
of God in any way like Jesus did not deserve such treatment. But where did it lead? It just so happened that God was completely in
control all the way. It just so happened
that God placed all of our sins upon Christ in that horrific act and through
His death, our sins were paid. Through
that death, Jesus killed our condemnation.
And God, good to His Word and promise, raised Jesus from the dead,
declaring Him to be the Son of God with power, and providing us with our
justification.
We come to worship and especially this Sunday, regardless of the sufferings and trials which we are going through, knowing and being reminded in this service, that there is no death that God allows us to go through, no trial, no difficulty, that He is not able to take us through. And not only that, because we are in Christ, there is no suffering that He will not go through with us – of course He will – and of course, in Christ we will find at the end gain – much gain – gain for us – gain for God’s glory – gain through our suffering even for others – and all to His glory.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Palm Sunday 2013 exhortation
Fittingly,
this Palm Sunday, the children sang the meditation for us. When Jesus went to the temple on Palm Sunday,
the religious folk were condemning Him and practicing abominations while the
children were singing His praise – praise to the Son of David.
Jesus
teaches in a number of places that the kingdom of heaven is made up of children. Infants and nursing babes are the true
priests of Jesus’ temple and they instruct us as to what it means to give
fitting praise.
Now,
We older folk are invited to join in the praise as well – but we must do so
like children. We must do so like children
who believe that Jesus will change everything – and can do so in the here and
now. We must do so as weak people with a
strong faith alone and no merit of ourselves.
We must do so with a willingness to simply turn to Him because He is
here – without knowing all the answers to everything right now.
We
must do so as people who would sing, as these children just sang –
“O
blest the land, the city blest, where Christ the Ruler is confessed. O happy hearts and happy homes to whom this
King of triumph comes. The cloudless Sun
of joy He is Who bringeth pure delight and bliss.”
We
must come believing that this Jesus can bless our city, bless our land, bless
our nation, bless our homes, and bless our hearts with delight in Him forever
and no matter what.
Monday, January 13, 2014
St. Patrick - 2013 Call to Worship
(HT – George Grant) - St. Patrick was not an Irishman – he was a missionary to
the Irish, a nation full of pagan religion and fear of the gods. He was apparently born in the 4th Century AD,
into a patrician Roman family in one of the little Christian towns near present
day Glasglow. Although his pious
parents nurtured him the Christian faith, he later confessed that he much
preferred the passing pleasures of sin.
One
day while playing by the sea as a teen, marauding pirates captured Patrick and
sold him into slavery to a petty Celtic tribal king, named Milchu. During the
next six years of captivity he suffered great adversity, hunger, nakedness,
loneliness, and sorrow while tending his master's flocks in the valleys of Ireland.
It
was amidst such dire straits that Patrick began to remember the Word of God his
mother had taught him. Regretting his past life of selfish pleasure seeking, he
turned to Christ as his Savior.
Of
his conversion he later wrote, “I was sixteen years old and knew not the true
God and was carried away captive; but in that strange land the Lord opened my
unbelieving eyes, and although late I called my sins to mind, and was converted
with my whole heart to the Lord my God, who regarded my low estate, had pity on
my youth and ignorance, and consoled me as a father consoles his children….”
Amazingly,
Patrick came to love the very people who humiliated him, abused him, and
taunted him. He yearned for them to know the blessed peace he had found in the
Gospel of Christ. Eventually rescued through a remarkable turn of events,
Patrick returned to his family in Britain. But his heart increasingly dwelt
upon the fierce Celtic peoples he had come to know so well. He was stunned to
realize that he actually longed to return to Ireland and share the Gospel with
them.
Though
his parents were grieved to see him leave home once again, they reluctantly
supported his efforts to gain theological training on the continent.
Thus,
Patrick returned to Ireland. He preached to the pagan tribes in the Irish
language he had learned as a slave. His willingness to take the Gospel to the
least likely and the least lovely people imaginable was met with extraordinary
success. And that success would continue for over the course of nearly half a
century of evangelization, church planting, and social reform. He would later
write that God’s grace had so blessed his efforts that “many thousands were
born again unto God.”
We
have come to worship God, the same God
Patrick worshipped and served. This God
transforms our lives by the work of His Spirit, applying to us the blood of
Jesus, shed for our sins, and granting us resurrection lives – lives that give
themselves away in love, in hope, in great trust, fear, and delight in the God
Who saved us. Come and worship our God.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Bonhoeffer on Community and Individuality
“Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community.
Such people will only do harm to themselves and to the community. Alone
you stood before God when God called you. Alone you had to obey God’s
voice. Alone you had to take up your cross, struggle, and pray and alone
you will die and give an account to God. You cannot avoid yourself, for
it is precisely God who has singled you out. If you do not want to be
alone, you are rejecting Chris’s call to you, and you can have no part in the
community of those who are called… But the reverse is also true.
Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone. You
are called into the community of faith, the call was not meant for you alone.
You carry your cross, you struggle, and you pray in the community of faith, the
community of those who are called. You are not alone even when you die,
and on th day of judgment you will be only one member of the great community of
faith in Jesus Christ. If you neglect the community of other Christians,
you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your being alone can only become
harmful for you.” - Bonhoeffer
It is Both And - not - Either Or
Friday, January 10, 2014
Both And, not Either Or
I had a “vision” of a group of men working on a raw diamond
the Lord had given them. One expert cutter was cutting one side, with
great expertise, and another was slicing on another side, also with great
expertise. Someone then noticed that they were slicing at completely
different angles and if expert one were to slice that way where the other
expert was slicing that it would all go wrong. Someone else then decided
that this meant that the first expert must be wrong and someone else came to
the same conclusion regarding expert two. The arguments grew so strong
that all work being done by the experts were put on hold…and the raw diamond
stopped getting cut rightly. Screwtape snickered to himself…
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