What is your only comfort in life and death?
Answer:
That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil.
He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.
Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
From the Heidelberg Catechism, question 1.
When Asking for Grace Results in Near Despair
Indelible Grace is one of my all time favorite groups. One particular song has ministered greatly to me today (as I listened to it multiple times): “I Asked the Lord” (track #3 from their Beams of Heaven album). The hymn is by John Newton, set to music by Laura Taylor.
It’s a powerful testimony of God answering our prayer to grow in grace and faith by taking us through trial and adversity in order to bring us to the end of ourselves. The lyrics are below.
1. I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face
2. Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair
3. I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest
4. Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part
5. Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low
6. Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
“Tis in this way” The Lord replied
“I answer prayer for grace and faith”
7. “These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me.”
©2004 double v music (ASCAP).
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Kind of Bankruptcy Did You Declare?
Jerry Bridges comments on how little the grace of God tends to shape our daily relationship with God:
In the business world, financially troubled companies forced into bankruptcy have two options, popularly known as chapter 7 and chapter ii, after the respective chapters in the federal bankruptcy code. Chapter ii deals with what we could call a temporary bankruptcy. This option is chosen by a basically healthy company that, given time, can work through its financial problems.
Chapter 7 is for a company that has reached the end of its financial rope. It is not only deeply in debt, it has no future as a viable business. It is forced to liquidate its assets and pay off its creditors, often by as little as ten cents on the dollar. The company is finished. It’s all over. The owners or investors lose everything they’ve put into the business. No one likes chapter 7 bankruptcy.
So what kind of bankruptcy did we declare? To use the business analogy, did we file under chapter 7 or chapter ii? Was it permanent or temporary? I suspect most of us would say we declared permanent bankruptcy. Having trusted in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, we realized we could not add any measure of good works to what He has already done. We believe He completely paid our debt of sin and secured for us the gift of eternal life. There is nothing more we can do to earn our salvation, so using the business analogy, we would say we filed permanent bankruptcy.
However, I think most of us actually declared temporary bankruptcy. Having trusted in Christ alone for our salvation, we have subtly and unconsciously reverted to a works relationship with God in our Christian lives. We recognize that even our best efforts cannot get us to heaven, but we do think they earn God’s blessings in our daily lives. Read more…
Striving After Wind in New England
I was recently asked to supply a monthly guest post for the Gospel Alliance New England blog. The Gospel Alliance is a partnership of pastors and churches that exists to see gospel renewal in New England. You can read more about it here.
My first post is up today–some reflections on what preaching Ecclesiastes has taught me about my own pastoral ministry in the northeast: “Striving After Wind in New England.”
Enjoy.
“New Hope for New England”
I can’t tell you how excited I am for The Gospel Coalition-New England Conference that is coming up in October. I would love to see a huge chunk of our congregation at Westgate Church in attendance. I’ll talk more about why next week, but today I want to draw your attention to this post by Justin Ruddy, along with the promotional video (in which you may or may not recognize a pastor and elder from Westgate).
Justin writes:
On October 12, 1740, George Whitefield preached the gospel in the Boston Common. At that time the relatively young city had a population of about 17,000. But 22,000 people crammed into the oldest park in the United States to hear the “Grand Itinerant” tell of the glories of the grace of God in Christ. Of this we can be sure: as the region most affected by the First Great Awakening, New England was once abuzz with the gospel.
The tune sounds starkly different today. The top five least religious major cities in America can be found in New England, and only about 1 percent to 3 percent of the population attend evangelical churches. The region is increasingly identified as post-Christian. From this statistical angle, it would seem that there is little reason to hope for widespread gospel renewal in New England.
And yet, Christians in New England know that God is at work in a unique way. In what looks like rocky soil, a growing number of churches are being planted. More Christians have become enthralled by the good news of the gospel and its implications for all of life. In the face of secularism, skepticism, and unbelief, these believers are filled with hope and expectance that God is bringing about a new movement of the gospel in their region. They see New England as “the new American missional frontier” rather than as a lost cause.
On October 19-20, many of these Christians will meet for the New England regional chapter of The Gospel Coalition’s fall conference, just blocks from where that 18th-century crowd gathered to hear Whitefield preach. The conference aims to encourage the development of this organic gospel movement, and to resource believers who are seeking a deeper knowledge and experience of the gospel. We’ll be joined by Tim Keller, John Piper, D. A. Carson, and Stephen Um, along with David F. Wells, Richard Lints, Steven Chin, Jared Wilson, Wes Pastor, Collin Hansen, and more. Together, we’ll consider what it might look for New England Christians to live out “The Gospel-Shaped Life.”
Would you pray with us that God will use this conference to unite Christians in the gospel, and to spur on the gospel growth that we are beginning to see in our midst. Finally, if you’re able, please consider joining us. We’d love to see you in Boston this fall. Registration is now live at tgcnewengland.com.
Seeing Jesus in Surprising Places: Sandy Island 2012
POP QUIZ: What do the following words and phrases have in common? Son of God, Savior, Lamb of God, Son of Man, Bread of Life, Great High Priest, Son of David, Lord, Son of Abraham, Good Shepherd, Messiah.
ANSWER: At least two things: (1) they are all used to describe Jesus in the New Testament, and (2) none of them make proper sense apart from their background in the Old Testament.
As much as the church strives to know and follow Jesus, it’s strange how often we find ourselves unfamiliar with the Scriptures he read and fulfilled: the Old Testament. Jesus himself says in John 5, when some of the Jewish leaders expressed their disbelief in him:
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. . . . Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” (John 5:39-40, 45-46, ESV).
So does the Old Testament really speak so clearly of Jesus? If so, how do we read it carefully and faithfully, so that we don’t miss him or misunderstand who he is and what he came to do?
Westgate Church’s annual All-Church Retreat at Sandy Island is coming up Sept. 7-9. We hope you’ll consider joining as we rest, have fun, get to know one another better as a church, and spend time in God’s Word, that we might see, trust, and treasure Jesus as he has made himself known to us in the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Gay Movement is a Gospel Issue
It’s virtually impossible to go a day without some media emphasis on the rising tide of homosexuality in our culture. We are witnessing a sea change in attitudes and cultural acceptability—what some are trumpeting as “The New Normal.” Depending on where you stand and in what light you view it, this issue reflects a variety of opinions and elicits a dizzying array of reactions.
For many it is a social justice issue, as questions of gender identity and gay marriage bounce between legislative house, courtroom, school, church, town hall, and home. For others it’s primarily a moral issue, as people seek to uphold traditional values or biblical teaching, or to else overturn and update them. For still others it’s biological and psychological, as scientists and psychologists duke it out over genetic disposition, social adjustment, and reparative therapy. And let’s not forget that for some this is no theoretical debate, but very a personal issue, as they live daily with attraction and desire toward the same sex and the social and emotional ramifications for either acting on those desires or refraining from them.
For many of these same people it is an issue of identity—who they are, how they believe they were made (and how others categorize or marginalize them). Related to this, it is for many a family issue, as parents wrestle with how to respond to their gay children or their children’s gay friends, and with children growing up in same-sex parent households. For a few it’s still a private issue—regardless of whether they agree or disagree, it’s none of their business. And of course it is a church and denominational issue, as mainline Protestant denominations continue to fragment over it, and as evangelicals fumble over their response while the world shakes its head in suspicion and outrage.
Others could be added to the list. Whatever else can be said, the issue before us is incredibly complex, and requires much patience, compassion, and humility for all involved.
But may I suggest that more than any of the above categories, the gay movement is ultimately a gospel issue. By “gospel,” I mean the good news of what God has done to establish his kingdom and deal with our sin through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Read more here.) It is this gospel message that gives us the lenses to make sense of the present sexual upheaval, as well as the ability to see a way forward that offers hope and wholeness to everyone involved.
So how does the gospel help us make sense of homosexuality and the gay movement? Read more…
“Why the Chick-fil-A Boycott is Really about Jesus”
A lot of fuss has been made recently about chicken sandwiches–and not without reason. While I lament the scarcity of Chick-fil-A restaurants in the Boston area, the mayor of Boston recently swore to prevent the business from expanding into the city because of his disagreement with Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy’s stance on traditional and biblical marriage (i.e. marriage is between one man and one woman). In response to this, many people are showing their support for a biblical definition of marriage by eating at the restaurant for “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” and this on the day when religious institutions across the country have to begin dealing with the implications of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which has now gone into effect and penalizes religious organizations for holding true to their convictions about life and conception.
Not only is the mayor’s response (and others like it in Chicago and San Francisco) merely the latest example of a severe confusion of what free exercise of religion means (see Ross Douthat’s penetrating piece in the New York Times), it’s a clear example of why Owen Strachan is correct that as Christians, we can’t opt out of the so-called culture wars. We might lament the way they have played out in the past and the present, but Christians must weigh in on these issues because what’s at stake is not chicken, or even the future of marriage and family, but the gospel of Jesus itself.
Later this week I’ll share some reflections on the gospel and the gay movement, but today I want to draw your attention to this piece by Trevin Wax: “Why the Chick-Fil-A Boycott is Really about Jesus.” Read more…
PKs: Sinners in a Fishbowl
As we prepare to take some vacation time, this piece by Barnabas Piper on the life of a “PK” (Preacher’s Kid) caught my wife’s eye. I dare say it caught mine, too. Piper (yes, son of John Piper) commends the many blessings of being a PK, but here tries to offer a window into the unique challenges that PKs face. There is much wisdom here for know how to pray for us as parents and for our children, but also a good reminder that what every child needs is the gospel of Jesus.
Being a pastor’s kid (PK) is the only life I know. I was born one, and though I am no longer a child, I am still a PK. The greatest advantages and blessings in my life are products or bi-products of being a PK. Those blessings are not what I am setting out to describe, however. I am out to set forth the unique struggles PKs face.
Pastors’ kids have a reputation. We are the rebellious ones. We are the contrarians and the problem children. We are hell-raisers and hypocrites. Not all of us, mind you, but the shoe definitely fits for many. (I, for one, have been each of these and more.) This reputation is so common it’s become a joke. “Oh, you’re a PK? That just makes so much sense.” Hardy har har.
I can’t give a comprehensive psychospiritual analysis of why PKs are so often messed up, but there are contributing factors that need conscientious care. There are circumstances that do make life uniquely challenging for the children of church leaders, and the church itself often unwittingly and carelessly contributes to these.
PKs live in a fishbowl, or at least it feels that way. Everyone in the church knows the names and faces of the pastor’s children. There is never the safety of anonymity. Details of our lives are known by people we recognize only from the church directory. Big church or small church, the same holds true. And while this isn’t inherently harmful or problematic, the fact remains that fishbowls are for fish, not people. It is mighty hard to live a life surrounded by people knowing your every move, romantic interest, misbehavior, athletic triumph (or failure), college choice, and seemingly every other personal detail.
This fishbowl experience magnifies the already elephantine expectations that PKs feel. With people watching every move, what room is there for a mistake? There can be no missteps, no dalliances, no failings. In short, there can be no humanity. See, PKs are no different than anyone else. We sin. We fail. But there is no being normal when everyone is watching.
Pastors are to be models of the Christian life to their congregations. They are to set a standard for a Christlike life. This is part of the job, the mission. The spouses of pastors are called to the same mission and come arm-in-arm. But the kids? They have no say in the matter. They couldn’t possibly know that they too would be expected to be the model of Christian faith and obedience. But that’s reality. That’s just life when you are born into the home of a pastor.
I do not envy those Sunday school teachers, youth pastors, and small group leaders who have to (get to?) shepherd PKs spiritually. Because of the expectations, real or imagined, of holiness and biblical fluency that PKs feel, there are two temptations that roil within our hearts, sometimes taking turn, sometimes both at once.
The first is that of hypocrisy. This PK has the right answer for every question, the right verse for every occasion, the right theology for each perplexing dilemma, the best argument to defeat any opponent, the right everything for every situation. He is a farce. His heart is dead. But nobody would know that because the veneer is so shiny and perfect and seamless. The hypocrites, at least the skilled ones, are so adept at staying in character that they can even answer questions aimed at peeling back the veneer. There is no spiritual waterway this PK cannot navigate. And yet he is utterly lost.
I have been this farce, and it is rubbish. It can be penetrated by nothing but the Holy Spirit from the outside or the explosion of pent-up sin from the inside.
The other temptation is that of outright rejection. This is no worse than hypocrisy; it’s just more obvious. This PK hates the fish bowl but can’t escape it, so he simply gives the metaphorical finger to all those watching. He rejects God, the church, the life, and the standard of his parents. It’s all just too much, or too little. It infuriates him. It all seems farcical and hollow to him. Nothing is left to this PK but fight or flight.
The thing that cannot be forgotten in all this is that PKs aren’t different from anyone else. We are just sinners under the microscope. It isn’t a different gospel that is needed. It’s not a different Jesus. It’s just a real gospel and a real Jesus. See, when every day of our lives is doused in a deluge of Jesus/gospel/Bible talk from our earliest memories, it is so easy for it all to become rote or rubbish to us. Satan’s greatest weapon against church kids is familiarity, and the contempt it breeds. So we need our families, biological and Christological, to show us the gospel.
Pray for your PKs. They face the see-saw battle between prideful hypocrisy and resentful rejection. Pastors wage a spiritual war, and too often their kids are either the weapons in the devil’s hands or the casualties. Love your PKs with a genuine care. Raise them up. Encourage them. They didn’t ask for their place in life, and it can be a hard one. Remind them of God’s perfect goodness, sovereignty, and wisdom. Just not in clichés; they’ve heard those all before.
Guard Your Steps When You Go to the House of God
How genuine is our worship Sunday morning? Desiring God produced this video for their 2008 National Conference, which raises this question in an unsettling way:
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 raises this same question, as the Preacher steps out of investigation mode and into the pulpit to instruct us about the danger of religion, particularly when we forsake the gravity of having an audience with the holy God of the universe, or even worse, turn our worship into an opportunity for selfish gain. We considered this passage last Sunday at Westgate Church (audio and notes are available here).
We all face a great temptation to approach God not because of who he is or what he’s done, but because of what we think we can get out of him. We enter his presence not to love him, but to use him, treating him like something less than worthy of our full attention and devotion, and making him a means to an end, rather than the chief end of our lives. Solomon calls this the worship of fools, and not only is it stupid, it’s evil, and it’s deadly. Because it fails to appreciate God’s holiness and respond with the appropriate fear (5:7).
God is our heavenly king, not our personal assistant, or some cosmic backup plan. And taking him seriously in worship means we need to listen up (5:1), hold our tongues (5:2-3), keep our word (5:4-7), and in all these things, cling to the cross (cf. Heb. 10:19-23). Listen here for further reflections on what this means for us in our personal and corporate worship today.
in the meantime 