Author: revheff

Ten Questions to Ask at a Christmas Gathering

/ revheff / Leave a comment

Don Whitney of The Center for Biblical Christianity has served well the church of Jesus Christ in recent years through a ministry of ten question downloads for various occasions and events. We will have the version for going into the New Year as a bulletin insert on Dec. 27.

Here is another helpful list for making meaningful conversation at a Christmas gathering:

Many of us struggle to make conversation at Christmas gatherings, whether church events, work-related parties, neighborhood drop-ins, or annual family occasions. Sometimes our difficulty lies in having to chat with people we rarely see or have never met. At other times we simply don’t know what to say to those with whom we feel little in common. Moreover, as Christians we want to take advantage of the special opportunities provided by the Christmas season to share our faith, but are often unsure how to begin. Here’s a list of questions designed not only to kindle a conversation in almost any Christmas situation, but also to take the dialogue gradually to a deeper level. Use them in a private conversation or as a group exercise, with believers or unbelievers, with strangers or with family.

  1. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you since last Christmas?
  2. What was your best Christmas ever? Why?
  3. What’s the most meaningful Christmas gift you’ve ever received?
  4. What was the most appreciated Christmas gift you’ve ever given?
  5. What was your favorite Christmas tradition as a child?
  6. What is your favorite Christmas tradition now?
  7. What do you do to try to keep Christ in Christmas?
  8. Why do you think people started celebrating the birth of Jesus?
  9. Do you think the birth of Jesus deserves such a nearly worldwide celebration?
  10. Why do you think Jesus came to earth?

 Of course, remember to pray before your Christmas gatherings. Ask the Lord to grant you “divine appointments,” to guide your conversations, and to open doors for the gospel. May He use you to bring glory to Christ this Christmas.

What Is a Silent Communion?

/ revheff / Leave a comment

This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Advent, will see us engage in a silent communion  during the 9:30 hour in the SDA sanctuary. Some of you may never have participated in such an experience. A silent communion is a self-directed exercise in reflection, devotion, and worship centering on the Lord’s Table conducted in silence (only background instrumental music will be heard). Upon arriving in the sanctuary (please do all you can to be prompt as we make use of every minute of the hour) you will receive a guide describing the four movements of the communion.

The first movement from 9:30 to 9:45 AM concentrates on adoration and praise. Using Psalm 145 as our guide we will worship the Lord in the silence of our hearts for His various attributes and acts.

The second movement from 9:45 to 10:00 AM calls us to a focused time of confession of sin and repentance before God. We will utilize the Puritan prayer entitled Purification for this purpose. Here is how that prayer begins:

Lord Jesus, I sin. Grant that I may never cease grieving because of it, never be content with myself, never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue, trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, peaceable, to live for Thee and not for self, to copy Thy words, acts, spirit, to be transformed into Thy likeness, to be consecrated wholly to Thee, to live entirely to Thy glory.

The third movement from 10:00 to 10:15 AM brings us to the actual supper. After reflecting on three paragraphs of our confession of faith, we will approach the table and serve ourselves the bread and cup. Here are those paragraphs if you wish to do extra preparation in advance:

Paragraph One: The Lord’s supper was instituted by the Lord on the same night in which He was betrayed. It is to be observed in His churches to the world’s end, for a perpetual remembrance of Him and to show forth the sacrifice of Himself in His death. It was instituted also to confirm saints in the belief that all the benefits stemming from Christ’s sacrifice belong to them. Furthermore, it is meant to promote their spiritual nourishment and growth in Christ, and to strengthen the ties that bind them to all the duties they owe to Him. The Lord’s supper is also a bond and pledge of the fellowship which believers have with Christ and with one another. See 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17, 21; 1 Corinthians 11:23-36.

Paragraph Seven: Those who, as worthy participants, outwardly eat and drink the visible bread and wine in this ordinance, at the same time receive and feed upon Christ crucified, and receive all the benefits accruing from His death. This they do really and indeed, not as if feeding upon the actual flesh and blood of a person’s body, but inwardly and by faith. In the supper the body and blood of Christ are present to the faith of believers, not in any actual physical way, but in a way of spiritual apprehension, just as the bread and wine themselves are present to their outward physical senses. See 1 Corinthians 10:16; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

Paragraph Eight: All persons who participate at the Lord’s table unworthily sin against the body and blood of the Lord, and their eating and drinking brings them under divine judgment. It follows,therefore, that all ignorant and ungodly persons, being unfit to enjoy fellowship with Christ, are similarly unworthy to be communicants at the Lord’s table; and while they remain as they are they cannot rightly be admitted to partake of Christ’s holy ordinance, for thereby great sin against Christ would be committed. See Matthew 7:6; 1 Corinthians 11:29; 2 Corinthians 6:14-15.

The fourth movement from 10:15 to 10:30 AM puts the church directory before us and calls us to a time of petition and intercession for one another’s needs as God brings them to mind.

I urge all of us to  make this additional observance of Communion in the month of December as a means of grace that brings even more blessing into our lives during this Advent season.

More Fuel on the Carson Prayer Book Fire

/ revheff / Leave a comment

Carson

I really do hope that as many of our adults as possible take advantage of our church-wide  9:30 hour equipping emphasis on prayer starting January 3, 2010.

To throw more fuel on the fire of your motivation I offer an online review by Chris Bruce. Here is how he begins:

Take yourself back almost 2000 years and imagine that you are Luke, Barnabas, or another of Paul’s companions. Imagine spending days and nights in lent homes or on the road, sharing Paul’s concern for the churches, and his joy in hearing of new life and growth among his spiritual children. Now imagine again that you were there when Paul took all of these things to God in prayer. How much would you know about how Paul prayed, and how would that knowledge affect your prayer life?

You might know more than Don Carson, Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and you might even be able to communicate it more effectively. But that would be some feat. Carson’s A Call to Spiritual Reformation,a study of Paul’s prayers, is a book worthy of reading and re-reading on an annual basis. Carson’s goal is “to work through several of Paul’s prayers in such a way that we hear God speak to us today, and to find strength and direction to improve our praying, both for God’s glory and for our good.” The need is dire, he says, noting “the sheer prayerlessness that characterizes so much of the Western church.”

You can read the entire article here.

Copies of Dr. Carson’s book are available at our resource table on Sundays for $13 or whatever you can afford. Pick up your copy soon and begin reading.

What a way to start the new year! Let us set our sights high for spiritual reformation in our personal lives and in the life our church.

Reflections on My 37th Birthday

/ revheff / 2 Comments

Spiritual that is. December 14, 1972, Berwyn, PA, 10:30 AM. The man came to my house and preached the gospel to me. I believed and was baptized. While the ride has been wild, to say the least, I have never once looked back. For that  I am most grateful.

My gratitude for getting to be this old in Jesus recently got a jolt of intensity thanks to Facebook. An old prof from seminary found me through the friends network. I emailed him to get caught up. He commented how good it was to hear from a former student noting his joy whenever he discovers someone who has gone on with the Lord over time. “More often than we would like that doesn’t happen,” he said.

To what should I or any aging believer attribute staying power in the spiritual life? There can be only one answer for surely there is nothing particularly devoted about my flesh. The amazing keeping power of God alone keeps one persevering toward the finish line. Consider verses like 1 Peter 1:3-5 for example:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (emphasis added).

Or Jude 1 where the writer calls us kept for Jesus Christ and in v. 24-25 where he concludes his letter with this doxology:

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (emphasis added).

So I appear thus far to be among the kept of God. That makes me a blessed man. By God’s grace I, the kept of God, intend to go on keeping myself in His love (see Jude 21) unto my 40th, 47th, and whatever7th birthday He may allow should I enjoy length of days.

I’ve got my eye on the reward. I am one day closer to hearing, I trust, Well done good and faithful servant! I long to finish well. The vision of the end I imagine is not unlike this lovely section of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress:

After this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant–for–Truth was sent for by a summons, by the same party as the others. And he had this word for a token that the summons was true: ‘The pitcher was broken at the fountain’ (Eccl. 12:6). When he understood it, he called for his friends, and told them of it. Then said he, ‘I am going to my Father’s house; and though with great difficulty I have got here, yet now I do not repent me of all the troubles I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles, who will now be my Rewarder.’ When the day that he must go home was come, many accompanied him to the riverside, into which, as he went down, he said, ‘O death, where is your sting?’ And as he went down deeper, he cried, ‘O grave, where is your victory?’ So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

Trumpets. I really like trumpets.

Where Did This Jesus of Christmas Come From & Where Did He Go?

/ revheff / 1 Comment

In this morning’s message I made much of the fact that the same words of Jesus get repeated verbatim in a very short span of verses in the text of John 7:34-36. 

34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?” 

You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come. 

That’s one of the few places in the gospels where this phenomenon happens and for good reason. He uses such a literary device for emphasis given the importance of his purpose. Not to get this, not to understand the answer to the questions where did He come from – the Father in heaven who sent him, and where did He go – back to the Father in heaven – not to get that, not to embrace it, believe it, that He came to die for you and take the punishment of your sins on His head is to consign you to death and everlasting punishment in hell for those sins. Do not be overly hasty in the conclusions you draw in answer to these all-important questions, was the gist of my exhortation. 

I also drew attention to the way the people speculated about the answer to the second question they raised in v. 35. Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? That’s more of John’s irony. The dispersion was the term for the Jews who didn’t settle in Palestine, but went throughout the empire among the Greeks, the Gentiles, the non-Jews. In one sense that, as we saw, is not what He meant, but in another way it points to the future. They unwittingly prophesied here that Jesus was, to use the words of Luke 2:32 – a light of revelation to the Gentiles. 

Upon His resurrection and commission to His disciples and His ascension to the Father’s right hand He would send His Holy Spirit upon the apostles and they would go into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and even the uttermost parts of the earth with the answers to the questions where did he come from and where did He go? He came from God and went back to God. Repent, believe these things, and live.

A Good Day for Tiger Woods

/ revheff / Leave a comment

Signature

After reading this morning’s headline about the golfer’s exit from golf for now and his statement confessing infidelity in his marriage, I clicked on his website. His signature (pictured above), attached to his statement, is the only image in the main window. You can read what he has to say here.

While this news may not make for a good day for the PGA tour and golf lovers everywhere, Tiger Woods may end up regarding it one of the best days of his life.

I say that because of a verse from Scripture like Proverbs 28:13.

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Woods’ confession may well possess all the components of what Ken Sande, in his book, The Peacemaker, calls the Seven A’s of Confession.

  1. Address everyone involved (All those whom you affected)  – he has made this statement for all the world to see.
  2. Avoid if, but, and maybe (Do not try to excuse your wrongs) – there appear to be no such clauses in his confession.
  3. Admit specifically (Both attitudes and actions) – he names his actions infidelity and rightly so.
  4. Acknowledge the hurt (Express sorrow for hurting someone) – he begins the statement, “I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt.”
  5. Accept the consequences (Such as making restitution) – stepping away from golf indefinitely certainly qualifies for this.
  6. Alter your behavior (Change your attitudes and actions) – the attitude appears altered, but only time will tell if actions change as well.
  7. Ask for forgiveness – he says the very words in his statement, “I ask forgiveness.”

Ken Sande often adds an eighth A under the seventh, namely, allow for time. It will take perhaps a very long while for Tiger to win back his wife’s trust. May we wish him well in that endeavor. Reconciliation/restoration of marriages honors God, the ultimate peacemaker.

Only one more thing could turn this good day into a very, very good day for Tiger Woods. If it turns out somewhere along the line that Psalm 32:1-5 applies to him as a result of this fall from grace, he will learn to call this his best of days.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

The biggest thing missing from Tiger Woods’ statement is any reference to God and the offense his sin makes before the Most High.

Oh that he, that we, might know the supreme blessedness of “you forgave the iniquity of my sin” through the good news of the gospel that Jesus Christ stood in his, our place, for things like infidelity and every other sin that condemns us and puts us rightly under His wrath.

The day we obtain mercy, not just from our wives, or children, or the public, but from God, that indeed is the best of all days in our life.

Saints: No Strangers to Sickness

/ revheff / Leave a comment

It’s Friday again. I’m not freeloading on my day off with this post. Well, not exactly. I pulled this piece from the file. The article below was written in August of 2008.

But the Lord prompted me to resurrect it in light of a phone conversation I had with a brother in ministry yesterday. As always I asked him about his wife. She has endured a particularly difficult history in terms of battling physical illness. I mean, really ugly stuff. Last year they finally got some relief for her with the use of a new drug on the market. When I asked him how that was going he informed me that she had since acquired yet another significant condition. I groaned inside. How much can this dear woman endure?

So, I dedicate this re-post to her and all the other men and women of God who keep fixing their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith, while they suffer with the frailties of their human bodies that can make their/our earthly pilgrimage at times seem so interminably long.

Perhaps you know of someone battling chronic illness. If led, would you kindly send them this link and tell them I wish them well?

Here is the article: 

One of the benefits of memorizing extended portions of Scripture comes when a verse you’ve read a million times before somehow stands out in a unique way during a process of diligent review. 

I experienced this one day while going over First Timothy 5 in my mind. Verse 23 jumped out at me. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments (emphasis added). It struck me. Timothy, a pastor and highly regarded servant of Christ (see Phil. 2:19-24), battled illness. A lot. He had stomach problems and he had not just occasional, but frequent ailments. So much so Paul had to prescribe a little sanctified wine drinking for his health. 

And he’s not alone in the record of the New Testament. Epaproditus was sick and nearly died while visiting Paul in prison (Phil. 2:27). Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Tim. 4:20). Paul reminded the Galatians of his illness that somehow occasioned his preaching of the gospel among them (Gal. 4:13). Some think his thorn in the flesh in 2 Cor. 12:7 involved a physical malady like blindness. 

Texts like this are something of a mercy to me. This month I pass the three year mark since finishing treatment for head and neck cancer. The year of 2005 saw me get sick nearly to the point of death. But as with Epaphroditus, God had mercy on me and spared me. 

Through much of my adult life I have struggled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It has left me sick in bed for weeks at a time when it hit me with its worst. I lost my first church over the prolonged nature of the illness. 

Sometimes when you fight disease or sickness chronically you tend to wear down with fears of having too little faith and discouraging thoughts of somehow being out of sync with God. It is true that disobedience can bring sickness (see 1 Cor. 11:30). But the examples above give me comfort. Saints in the Bible were no strangers to sickness. And I haven’t even touched on the Old Testament examples. 

Take courage, ye saints of the weaker constitution. God has His purposes in your unique design. The best of God’s servants have battled illness. Remember at all times His grace is sufficient and His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

 

Can We Trust This Jesus of Christmas?

/ revheff / Leave a comment

So far in our Advent messages we have studied John 7:1-24. Here are some thoughts in review.

In John 7:1-13, the apostle seeks to answer an important question. Who is this Jesus of Christmas?

In vv. 14-24, with Jesus engaging the pilgrim crowd in Jerusalem at the Feast of Booths, John seeks to answer a related but different question. Can we trust this Jesus of Christmas?

We can, indeed, when we consider statements He made like these in vv. 16-18:

16 “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

You will never ask more important questions than these. Who is this Jesus of Christmas? Can I trust this Jesus of Christmas? John’s answers are unequivocal. He is the Messiah, God’s Son and yes, you can trust Him as wholly true. His teaching is not His own, but the Father’s who sent Him. He seeks not His own glory but that of His Father. He is the fulfillment of circumcision, the Sabbath, and every other Old Testament type and shadow God gave to Israel. So believe. Don’t give way to intellectual snobbery born of moral depravity or legalistic hypocrisy born of superficial spirituality. Judge with right judgment with respect to this Jesus of Christmas.

Glad to Be Urbana Bound

/ revheff / 2 Comments

From December 27 through 31 I will have the privilege of attending Urbana ’09 in St. Louis. Urbana is the Intervarsity International Missions Conference held every three years. It is just about the single most important event of its kind in the realm of global missions. If you want a picture of what these five days will are like, watch this brief video.

Our team of six from OGC who are headed that way in a few weeks recently met together for dinner. We talked about our motives for attending. Other than never attending one of these before and not wanting to miss the experience, mine are simple. I believe God shows up uniquely in these kind of venues and I am eager to hear what He will say to me. Furthermore, I want Him to enlarge my heart for the cause of global missions so I can be a better sending pastor. And finally, I want to know better the hopes and dreams of these dear ones pictured below who are going as wellUrbana Team

From left to right that’s Bethany, Ashely, Carissa, Julia, me, & Danny. Each one has his or her own desires and dreams related to giving up a portion of their winter break to attend Urbana. I am excited to see what God will do in each of their lives.

The cost of travel, lodging, and conference fees total about $950 each. The mission committee will partially subsidize their expenses, and all are committing some of their own personal funds to the trip, but every one of them could use a little extra help with their finances.

If you feel led to help support our team with an extra gift this Sunday or next, please mark your memo line of your check for “Urbana” and we will see that it gets divided up among the members. Thanks so much!

With Whom Are You Fighting?

/ revheff / Leave a comment

The apostle Paul calls the Christian life a fight in places like 1 Tim. 6:12.

J. C. Ryle devotes chapter four of his book Holiness to this notion.  You can read an online version of the book here.

HolinessEarly on he asks a crucial question that reminds us of the paramount importance of practicing biblical peacemaking in the local church.

With whom is the Christian soldier meant to fight? Not with other Christians. Wretched indeed is that man’s idea of religion who fancies that it consists in perpetual controversy! He who is never satisfied unless he is engaged in some strife between church and church, chapel and chapel, sect and sect, faction and faction, party and party, knows nothing yet as he ought to know. No doubt it may be absolutely needful sometimes to appeal to law courts in order to ascertain the right interpretation of a church’s articles and rubrics and formularies. But, as a general rule, the cause of sin is never so much helped as when Christians waste their strength in quarreling with one another and spend their time in petty squabbles.

Let us fight the good fight with our mortal enemies the world, the flesh, and the devil (1 John 2:15-16; Eph. 6:11) but let us eschew any strife among one another in the family of God.