The Vain Bright Lamps of Creation

December 24, 2009 By revheff in Church Year, Personal Reflection Tags: Advent, creation, incarnation, revelation, salvation Leave a comment

saturn

Were he to have had access to modern technology and therefore able to view the likes of Saturn in this photo would John Calvin have referred to it, though stunningly bright and glorious, still vain in some respect?

Absolutely. Creation, though brilliantly putting the glory of God on display, especially in the far reaches of the universe, serves only to leave man without excuse as to God’s existence. It cannot, in and of itself, lead man to a personal knowledge of God and rescue him from his condition of fallen sinner (Rom. 1:20).

This is why Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, speaks of the vanity, of even so many bright lamps.

In vain for us, therefore, does Creation exhibit so many bright lamps lighted up to show forth the glory of its Author. Though they beam upon us from every quarter, they are altogether insufficient of themselves to lead us into the right path. Some sparks, undoubtedly, they do throw out; but these are quenched before they can give forth a brighter effulgence. Wherefore, the apostle, in the very place where he says that the worlds are images of invisible things, adds that it is by faith we understand that they were framed by the word of God (Heb. 11:3); thereby intimating that the invisible Godhead is indeed represented by such displays, but that we have no eyes to perceive it until they are enlightened through faith by internal revelation from God (Book First, Chapter 5, No. 14).

At this Christmas Eve of 2009 are we not indeed grateful for not just the general revelation of creation, but even more so the special revelation of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ (John 1:14), and the sacred writings that are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 3:15)?

A million Saturns on display in the universe cannot bring forth that necessary internal revelation from God which only His Son and the holy Scriptures can. The people who walked in darkness have indeed seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2)!

The Blessedness of Making Beef Bourguignon with Your Beloved

December 21, 2009 By revheff in Arts & Culture, Personal Reflection Tags: cooking, feasting, fellowship, food, marriage, movies 4 Comments

Beef Borg 001

Sometimes a guy just has to take stock of how good he’s got it. Today is such a day. My 35th anniversary. That’s right. Thirty-five years ago today Nancy and I tied the knot. Don’t know what we were thinking getting married four days before Christmas but somehow we pulled it off. Definitely would have picked a different time of year if I had it to do over again!

I could reflect on a lot of aspects of married life with my bride that I treasure, some more spiritual than the theme of this post, but somehow it just seems fitting to camp out here for some reason.

On Friday, our day off, Nancy asked me what I would like to do with our day. I replied, “I would like to make beef bourguignon!” Not your average day off response from me, so let me explain.

Recently we saw the movie Julie and Julia. Twice. Yes, I admit it. Please, no mail or negative comments. I found the film so redemptive on so many fronts, not that it’s perfect, that I wanted us to see it a second time (at the dollar theater, by the way, on Tuesday for 75 cents). It is filled with substantive themes like living life with passion and purpose, sweet fellowship with friends, feasting with joy, blogging (the main character blogs about her making over the course of one year every one of Julia Child’s recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking), writing (a parallel theme is Child’s writing her cookbook), and, in many ways, marriage. Much of the movie concentrates on the relationships both women had with their husbands throughout the ups and downs of their writing experience. Beef bourguignon is one of the signature recipes in the story. It looked so mouth watering good I was dying to try it.

So sneaky me, I bought Nancy Mastering the Art of French Cooking at Costco for our anniversary (OK, it was really for me) and proposed on Friday that we tackle the recipe together. And we did! We wrote out the menu, shopped together, and spent two hours that afternoon following the recipe (man, am I glad I married a home ec major – talk about complicated) and popped it in the oven for three hours.

That night we sat down to a sumptuous feast of tender beef simmered in red wine with white onions and mushrooms, poured generously over egg noodles with a side dish of peas. And we just lingered at the table. We talked. We laughed. We listened to Christmas carols. We fellowshipped.

Little wonder Jesus describes the intimacy of fellowship with Him like coming for dinner in Rev. 3:20.

My marriage and its intimacy points me to a greater more permanent, more satisfying intimacy I will share with Jesus in the kingdom forever.

Man, am I ever grateful to get that truth and to share thirty-five years and counting with just the sweetest, most faithful woman on the planet. OK, I’m biased, but you have to admit, blessed, indeed, I am.

Nancy, OGC makes me want to be a better pastor. You are the only one who makes me want to be a better man. Thank you. I love you. Always will, by God’s grace. Here’s to our 70th, Lord willing.

Many Ways to Destroy a Church

December 20, 2009 By revheff in Books, Personal Reflection Tags: Advent, peacemaking, prayer 2 Comments

Carson cross More than once recently I have come across this quote from D.A. Carson (in his book The Cross and Christian Ministry).

At first I wasn’t inclined to post it. But something happened to me during the silent communion time this morning that changed that.

During the fourth movement of the communion we prayed through the flock. My pastoral role means I know more about everybody on the list than almost anyone else in the church. While I pray through parts of the flock every day, I don’t often pray through it in its entirety. As I worked my way quickly through the list it dawned on me how many issues I prayed for related to peacemaking in troubled relationships of all kinds. No surprise that Dr. Carson includes such things in his list of ways to destroy a church.

The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it-admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively over the long haul. Building the church with superficial ‘conversions’ and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifying love will build an assembling of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism-all of these things, and many more, can destroy a church. And to do so is dangerous: ‘If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:17).” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

During this holiday season, when relationships can be strained by expectations and disappointments galore, may we be a peacemaking people in our homes and in our church that the enemy not have his way in destroying either.

Reflections on My 37th Birthday

December 14, 2009 By revheff in Personal Reflection, Uncategorized Tags: grace, perseverance, regeneration 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.

Saints: No Strangers to Sickness

December 11, 2009 By revheff in Personal Reflection 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).

Seven Benefits of Church Membership from the Book of Hebrews

December 8, 2009 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: apostasy, assurance, church membership, Hebrews, submission Leave a comment

Recently I finished another edition of Discover OGC, our newcomer orientation series. Over the next few weeks our officers are interviewing various candidates for membership at our local church.

Perhaps you have yet to make this decision. I commend these brief thoughts from Hebrews to your consideration as ample argument for moving ahead with membership. If you have made such a decision and are a covenant member at OGC or some other local church, I commend these thoughts to you as well as an encouragment that such a choice is in your best interest.

1. It will help protect you from the peril of spiritual drift (Heb. 2:1,3). The writer pleads for greater attention to spiritual realities “lest we drift away” and warns “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Connection to a church body can be one strategy to counter the tendency to drift.

2. It can protect against the danger of an evil heart of unbelief (3:12-13). “Exhort one another daily . . . lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin,” the text says. Membership puts you more readily in touch with people who will do that for you. And, of course, it assumes that you will do the same for them.

3. It will add to the extent of your eternal reward (6:10). “God is not unjust to forget what you do toward His name, in ministering to other saints.” Where will you more readily find other saints to which to minister than in your church where you are a member?

4. It puts you in a place where mutual provocation can take place (10:24-25). Love and good deeds continually require external stimuli, the kind which comes from not forsaking assembling together but exhorting one another more and more.

5. It enables the pursuit of sanctification (12:14). We are to pursue peace with all and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. No one grows in a vacuum. We need each other to achieve Christ-likeness. Mark Dever calls church membership “an assurance of salvation cooperative.” We need each other in covenant community to help promote the assurance that we are indeed saved based upon some degree of evident sanctification in our lives manifested within the church and among its membership.

6. It more readily exposes you to examples worth imitating (13:7). Hebrews assumes the necessity of leaders whose lifestyles set a pace worth emulating.

7. It offers you the benefit and profit of glad spiritual oversight (13:17). How are you to ensure adequate shepherding of your life if you do not readily “arrange yourself under” (the literal meaning of the Greek for submit) spiritual leaders and gladly receive their spiritual ministrations on your behalf? Notice how often the writer emphasizes the assumption that you have spiritual leaders who rule over you – vv. 7, 13, and 24.

Don’t give in to modern evangelicalism’s pervasive plague of individualism. Covenant to become a member of your local church. The stakes are too high to neglect this gracious provision of God on our behalf.

In Praise of Constructive Peacemakers

November 17, 2009 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: anger, church membership, peacemaking 5 Comments

OGC made the local paper not long ago.

Someone sent this little ditty into the Ticked Off section a few weeks back.

A sign that says “The Future Home of the Orlando Grace Church” has been posted on Maitland Avenue in Altamonte Springs across from St. Mary Magdalene Church for at least 38 years now. How much longer do we have to wait?

I have to admit. At first I wondered if someone from OGC put that in the paper! Just kidding, sort of.

No matter who submitted it, I sincerely hope no one will have to wait much longer for us to get into a facility, certainly not another 38 years (don’t you just love sarcasm?). But this post doesn’t concern building programs and God’s providence for when a project of that magnitude gets off the ground and when it doesn’t. This post is about peacemaking, constructive peacemaking, in particular.

I HATE this section of our paper. Nothing about anonymous griping and grousing over anybody or anything promotes constructive peacemaking when someone gets ticked off. That’s peacebreaking, even peacefaking at its worst.

Peacemaking, the biblical kind, governed by the principles and constraints of scripture, is constructive in every way and commended by God (Matt. 5:9).

I decided to write about this for a couple of other reasons beyond the snipe in the paper.

First, someone recently confronted me about a beef they had with me. They honestly shared their feelings in a calm and constructive fashion. The first words out my mouth were, “Thank you for telling me. This gives us an assignment from God to do biblical peacemaking to the glory of God.” And we did. We prayed. We talked. God was honored. The relationship was restored. Confessions were made (by me too). I emailed the party after the fact and thanked them again for loving me well as a constructive peacemaker. May their tribe increase!

Second, I just finished teaching on peacemaking in our new member’s class. I am not sure why, but I think it might be my favorite session. Probably because of the practical value of the content and its enormous importance to the peace and purity of our church.

Sande In the class I cover the 4 G’s of biblical peacemaking as outlined by Ken Sande in his book, The Peacemaker. Do you have them memorized? I pray you do. They have saved my pastoral keister in more than one conflict. Here is a quick refresher.

Glorify God – determine to conduct yourself in the conflict in a way that honors God from first to last (1 Cor. 10:31).
Get the Log Out of Your Own Eye – examine your own contribution to the conflict and admit any sins/faults you contributed along the way (Matt. 7:3-5).
Gently Restore – engage the conflict with a view toward another’s restoration all the while moving through the various steps with a spirit of gentleness (Gal. 6:1-2; Matt. 18:15-17).
Go and Be Reconciled – pursue the complete restoration of the relationship through the practice of biblical forgiveness (Eph. 4:31-32).

So the next time you get ticked off (and we all do), what will you do? Determine to be a constructive biblical peacemaker. I for one will rise up and call you blessed.

Soldiers, Athletes, Farmers, Web Designers & Other Workers for the Kingdom

November 14, 2009 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: internet, website 5 Comments

Following Christ is decidedly not easy. It involves a lot of hard work.

That much seems clear from the variety of word pictures Paul uses in 2 Tim. 2:1-15 to motivate his pastoral charge, Timothy. Every one of them – soldiers, athletes, farmers, workers of all kinds – engages in strenuous activity to accomplish his objectives.

Terry Johnson, in this month’s edition of Tabletalk Magazine, observes:

Success in these endeavours requires aggressive, focused, energetic involvement. Each may, and should, pray to God for help, for wisdom, and for strength. God’s strength is necessary for these activities. But the soldier finally must pick up his sword and fight; the athlete must step into the arena and compete; the farmer must work the soil, plant, water, weed, and harvest; and the workman must lay each brick. Dependence upon God never means passivity; reliance upon God never means inactivity. Fail to grasp the human contribution to Christian service and personal sanctification and one is doomed to experience continual frustration and defeat.

If the apostle Paul had lived in the computer age, when so much of kingdom work takes place on the Internet, I suspect he may have included web designers in his list of metaphors from which to motivate us.

I say this because I have watched Greg, John, and Ray put in long hours and work extremely hard to create our recently launched, though still-under-construction, new web site for OGC.

No one knows for sure just how significant the rebirth of our website will be. While the previous version has served us well for years, and many thanks to servants like Mark and Dan for their hard work during that season, time had come for a redo. Most new people now indicate that they come to OGC because of searching the web. That fact alone means we must pay attention to our first impressions in that realm and make our site as serviceable to the needs of those who visit is as we can possibly make it.

I am thrilled at the new look and features and I commend these brothers for their hard work in the Lord!

A Nasty Trick

November 6, 2009 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: faith, fear, perseverance, prayer, worry 1 Comment

More like a dreadful scare actually.

I thought I had oral cancer again.

Two months ago a sore developed in my mouth on the same side where tongue cancer hit four years ago. After it didn’t go away for two weeks, I played it safe and made an appointment with my ENT to check it out. This week I saw him for the third time. No sign of the thing anywhere. Your mouth played a nasty trick on you, he said.

We’re not sure what it was. I might have accidentally bit my cheek. It could have been a canker sore. Turns out after radiation treatment of an area in the mouth, sores like that don’t heal near as fast as with normal tissue. I didn’t know that. Now I do. Lesson learned.

I have to admit, it really scared me. Even the prospect of an early-stage lesion in my mouth brought back horrible memories of surgery and treatment. I can hardly describe the roller coaster of emotions I rode until the doctor pronounced the no-cancer verdict. I kept it a secret from Nancy until I knew for sure. I couldn’t bear to subject her to the same kind of anxiety we went through the first time while we waited for a diagnosis. When I finally told her I fought back a flood of tears at the backlog of feelings and the waves of relief.

Phew. That was a close one. But a nasty trick? No way. I’m a child of the King. My Father loves me with undying, lavish love. He promises me that all things work together for my good (Rom. 8:28), not just cancer scares, but actual bouts with the dreadful disease.

I know who sent the sore. And He meant it for my good. It reminded me that the battle with unbelief and war against fear will go on until my dying day. Only one strategy will do in the face of dreadful scares. Philippians 4:6-7 says,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Are you mistaking the presence of some adversary or trial as a nasty trick when in fact God has so ordained your circumstances so as to test your faith and strengthen your endurance (James 1:2-4)? Slay the giant of anxiety with relentless spears of prayer and know the peace of God guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.