Toughest School Ever (2)

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In my first post on the virtue of content, I likened it to schooling that takes place over one’s lifetime under the providence of God.

In this post and those to come, I wish to continue working the same metaphor describing various aspects of the curriculum from the Scriptures.

The place to begin, I believe, is with the nature of this discipline as a compulsory subject. Anyone who has done any higher education grasps the difference between required courses and electives. I loved electives in college. I got to pick and choose what I liked. Motivation wasn’t an issue. When it came to the required stuff, I had no choice. I either took the class or faced dropping out.

Certain texts make it clear that we can’t do an end-around on the school of contentment. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have.” There’s no denying it. God commands that we stay clear of the desire for more stuff and find satisfaction in whatever He has given us, big or small, or in between.

Then we have Paul’s words in First Timothy 6:8. “But if we have food and clothing, with these will be content.”  Really? Talk about setting the bar low when it comes to your possessions. He doesn’t even include shelter in his short list. Grub in the belly and clothes on the back. Enough for me. Satisfied. No problemo. Yikes!

But here’s the kicker in that same context. If you back up to verse 6 you read this: “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” You can’t miss the duty in v. 8, nor back in Heb. 13:5. We have an obligation to pursue contentment. It’s a gospel necessity. We can’t skip this course. We can’t clep out of it. We’ve got to take the class, if we belong to King Jesus.

But don’t miss the glory of it, as my new-found friend Jeremiah Burroughs would say. For that we go back to First Timothy 6:6 where Paul touches on what makes for great gain. Anybody NOT interested in great gain? I didn’t think so.

He doesn’t say that godliness in-and-of-itself amounts to great gain; he contends that godliness with contentment is great gain. Here’s how I read that. Without contentment, whatever gain belongs to godliness isn’t as great as it is with contentment. As for me and my house, not settling for less than great gain!

Of course, all this begs the question “What is contentment?” I can’t improve on the old Puritan’s definition. I’ll end with it:

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

Have you enrolled? The course is not optional for followers of Jesus. It is decidedly compulsory.

Submit to the duty, but go for the glory.

Toughest School Ever

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I don’t make a big deal out of it, but I have three earned degrees. I like to say I am officially educated beyond my intelligence. My bachelors at UCF in Liberal Studies didn’t really demand that much of me. The M. Div. at seminary put me through a great deal more pain, especially on certain subjects. The D. Min. at RTS focused on such a practical curriculum that I can’t really say that I found its challenges all that great. The one exception to that came in the form of writing my dissertation. I thought I would never finish that monster.

By far, the toughest school in which I ever enrolled, and in which I continue to matriculate quite honestly, is the school of contentment. I call it a school because of the way Paul writes about this virtue in Philippians 4:10-13.

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Paul wrote from prison. They did things differently back then. Jailers didn’t feed their inmates. Prisoners depended upon outside help for provision. The Philippian church so loved Paul that they sent a gift to him. He responded with this letter, including something of a thank you note at the end.

Quite obviously they pleased him. Their gift caused him to rejoice greatly in God. He commended them for their gospel grace of generosity. But not so fast. Lest they get the wrong impression, he made haste to point out a surprising absence of need in what to most readers most certainly would have seemed quite the opposite. He categorically denied anything of the like.

And with that he spun off into a testimony of his own enrollment with Christ in the school of contentment. Again, I call it a school because of the repetitive terminology Paul uses. “I have learned.” “I know.” The language suggests a process of instruction over time in the school of God’s providence that brought Paul to an enviable state of contentment he enjoyed regardless of his circumstances, including a dungeon!

In subsequent posts I hope to share insights from the text, as well as other Scriptures about the nature of this most rigorous school of contentment. But let me close with this analogy and insight from Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) from his classic The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment:

When the yoke is first put upon a heifer and it wriggles up and down and will not be quiet, if after many months or years it will not draw quietly, the husbandman would rather fatten it and prepare it for the butcher than be troubled any longer with it. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb 12:11). It is true: our afflictions are not joyous, but grievous. Though it is very grievous when our affliction first comes, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. When you have been a long time in the school of afflictions, you are a very dullard if you have not learned this contentment. “I have learned,”said Paul, “in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Phi 4:11). Paul had learned this lesson quickly, [but] you have been learning many years! A new cart may creak and make a noise; but after it has been used a while, it will not do so. So when you are first a Christian, perhaps you make a noise and cannot bear affliction; but are you an old Christian and yet will you be a murmuring Christian? Oh, it is a shame for any who have been a long time in the school of Jesus Christ to have murmuring spirits.
This particular heifer feels that shame more than he cares to admit after 40 plus years in the the school of contentment but still struggling with a murmuring spirit. Oh for grace to learn better the secret of contentment. More on that to come in the reflections on my toughest school ever.
After all, who wants to be dullard, whatever that means.

“Law-Speaker” or “Grace-Speaker”?

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Here is food for thought from Peacemaker Ministries to reflect upon:

Many times it is difficult to consistently weave the gospel into our conversations with others until the gospel is first woven deeply into our own hearts. Many of us are by nature “law-speakers”–we bring judgment much more easily than we bring grace. If that is you, pray that God would give you a major heart change, to make the gospel central to everything you think, say and do. Pray that God will open your eyes more fully to the glory of what Christ has done for you. Learn to delight in reading about, meditating on, and rejoicing in Jesus’ completed work on the cross. When your soul, your thoughts, and your conversation are saturated with the gospel, it will overflow into other areas of your life, bringing hope and encouragement to others.

Family Meeting Summary

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I meant to do this post last week as a follow up to our our congregational meeting of 6/23/13. Best laid plans. Better late than never.

If you missed the meeting for whatever reason, here is a summary of what we covered:

Budget Update
Presently we are are roughly $35,000 down relative to what we had budgeted and forecasted for giving for the year-to-date.  The good news is that we are mindful of these things and in terms of what we have spent year-to- date we are only $4,000 behind giving.  That said, it is never our desire to be behind in giving relative to the budget and certainly not our desire to be behind relative to our actual expenses.  Please remember our church in all your giving and be mindful of us during all your summer travel plans. I am pleased to report that yesterday’s giving met our weekly budget requirements, even with a special love offering for Greg and Christina. Thanks be to God. Still, we will continue to watch carefully the numbers . If necessary, we will take a hard look at where we can cut the budget. We will keep you posted.

Capital Campaign Update
Our three-year capital campaign, which came to an end in May, was a huge success!  94% of what was pledged was received ($224k received of $239k pledged).  In addition, the efforts to receive outside funds and non-pledged monies was also fruitful, yielding $117k in additional monies to retire our debt.  63% of all pledged givers gave at least 75% of what they pledged and many gave 100% or more of their pledged gift.  A huge thank you to all the people that gave sacrificially above and beyond their tithe to help in this fashion. Leadership plans to bring a proposal to us in the future for debt retirement, but we are waiting a bit on that so as not to be a church always in capital campaign mode that wears people out.
Worship Music Transition Update
As the elders faced the prospect of losing Greg from the mix, several considerations came into play. Given a variety of factors affecting the possible folks within the body who might have assumed responsibility for this important ministry and the budget constraints, it became clear to us that Susan Woods was God’s provision for the role. For this we remain very grateful. That being said, we recognize that change brings challenges. We ask that we all be patient with the process. Also, we have built into the transition feedback loops so as to ensure regular evaluation about how things are going. Part of that includes an option for Susan to withdrawal at the three-month mark, if the fit proves unacceptable for her and her family. Furthermore we recognize that we have a need for more musicians to join the mix, particularly at guitar and in leading. We are working on trying to pull others into the team. Finally, we exhort all of us to embrace the opportunity for maintaining a peacemaking ethic in the way we navigate dealing with what arguably can prove pretty tricky for churches. Music preferences often vary greatly in any congregation. We have an opportunity to defer to one another. Let us speak the truth in love as we engage one another in conversation about things. Please refrain from jumping to conclusions about any matters pertaining to the transition. If you have a comment or question, please address them to your elder. We will be glad to help in any way we can. A meeting of the worship team itself has been called for July 13 where I and another elder will meet with the members to discuss the process and pray together for God’s favor. I made this statement in that meeting and I want to repeat it here. I am almost as interested in the success of this transition as I am in what will be revealed in our hearts by the way we deal with it. I constantly battle making my ministry an idol. I want things to go well. When we hit turbulence, my reactions sometimes reveal my demanding, sinful heart. I/we need to be vigilant over our hearts as we seek to come together as a church to see what God has in mind for our worship and music ministry in the days ahead.
So on all three counts – the operational budget, debt retirement, and our music transition, please join me in praying for God’s favor, wisdom, and direction. Many thanks.

What Kind of Assistant Pastor We Should Want

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I finished my Father’s Day message for this year today. I selected Psalm 112 for my text. The writer commands us to praise God for the extraordinary blessing of a man who fears the Lord. I call that kind of man an awestruck man. The man who fears the Lord lives moment-by-moment in a reverent awe of God that shapes everything he does.

As we prepare to interview on Saturday four men from our body for the assistant pastor of administration post opening this summer at OGC, we should concern ourselves with numerous issues related to character and skill, but none more than this one. Paul Tripp, in his book Dangerous Calling, explains:

Awe of God must dominate my ministry, because one of the central missional gifts of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to give people back their awe of God. A human being who is not living in a functional awe of God is a profoundly disadvantaged human being. He is off the rails, trying to propel the train of his life in a meadow, and he may not even know it. The spiritual danger here is that when awe of God is absent, it is quickly replaced by our awe of ourselves. If you are not living for God, the only alternative is to live for yourself. So a central ministry of the church must be to do anything it can to be used of God to turn people back to the one thing for which they were created: to live in a sturdy, joyful, faithful awe of God.

Would you pray for the interviewer team that we ask the right questions and probe the right issues in our time with these men? Pray especially that we get to the bottom of all-important issues like their degree of awestruckness (yes, I made up a word) before the God of the universe. While you are at it, pray this pastor knows something more of the same virtue for the glory of God and the joy of our people.

By the way, how’s your awestruckness quotient these days? Praying it gets bigger and bigger for us all.

The Grand Canyon of the Gospel

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Have you ever visited the Grand Canyon? I have. Twice. The view from every vantage point takes one’s breath away.

As stunning as that vista is, it doesn’t compare to the scene of God’s love on display in the gospel of Christ. Greg Gilbert capitalizes on that illustration in his book What Is the Gospel?

How long has it been since you looked up from the earthly details of life and came face to face with the Grand Canyon of what God has done for us in the gospel—his unfathomable grace in forgiving people who have rebelled against him, his breathtaking plan to send his Son to suffer and die in their place, to establish the throne of the resurrected Jesus over a kingdom of perfect righteousness, and to bring those who are saved and redeemed by his blood into a new heavens and new earth where sin and evil will be forever conquered!

How is it that I let the beauty and power and vastness of that gospel be crowded out of my mind so often and for so long? Why is it that my thoughts and emotions are often dominated by silly things like whether my car is clean, or what’s happening on CNN right now, or whether I was happy with my lunch today, rather than by these glorious truths? Why do I so often organize and think about my life as if I were wearing blinders, rather than in the light of eternity? Why does this gospel not permeate, all the time and all the way to the bottom, my relationships with my wife and children, my coworkers and friends and fellow church members?

I know exactly why. It’s because I’m a sinner, and worldliness will continue to linger in my heart and war against me until the day Jesus comes back. But until then, I want to fight against that. I want to fight against spiritual laziness—against the drugged stupor this world constantly threatens to put me in—and I want to embrace this gospel hard and let it affect everything—my actions, affections, emotions, desires, thoughts, and will (p. 114-15).

Content likes that makes me eager to sit under Greg’s teaching this Friday night and Saturday morning in our Living in the Grip of the Gospel Conference at OGC. Oh for a people who embrace the gospel hard and let it effect everything!

Employing Basic Familial Liturgies

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I realize that’s not your average post title.

I borrow heavily from R. C. Sproul, Jr. in a recent issue of Tabletalk magazine.

It struck me as significant as I have been reading Proverbs 4 throughout this fourth month of the year. There the writer exhorts his son in the first four verses:

Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight,
2 for I give you good precepts;
do not forsake my teaching.
3 When I was a son with my father,
tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
4 he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.

Of course that begs the question, “What words?” No more important a concept may be conveyed to our children than that of their identity in Christ as followers of the Lord. Here’s where I thought Dr. Sproul Jr. hit the ball out of the park:

When my oldest children were still young, my wife and I labored to be certain that their identity was in Christ, in our shared identity as a house that, like that of Joshua before us, would serve the Lord. I instilled this in my children partly through some rather basic familial liturgies. While Hollywood and Madison Avenue were seeking to get my daughter to see herself in terms of her demographic, I wanted her to see herself in light of her Savior. So I taught her, when I asked her name, this call and response: Me—“Darby, what are Sprouls?” Darby— “Sprouls are free.” Me—“And whom do Sprouls serve?” Darby—“Sprouls serve King Jesus.” Me—“Whom do Sprouls fear?” Darby—“Sprouls fear no man; Sprouls fear God.”

May I suggest that you employ such a liturgy in your teaching of your children? May they keep His commandments and live.

Demythologizing Discipleship

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To demythologize a subject is to reinterpret it so it is free of mythical or heroic elements.

This needs to happen with our concept of discipleship in the local church.

This occurred to me recently in a conversation with someone at OGC about his need for a discipler. Try as he might, he has failed to enlist the help of another believer in teaching him all that Christ has commanded – the essence of discipleship (Matt. 28:18-20).

I empathized with the disappointment. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. This applies to discipling as it does to evangelizing (though both concepts actually fall under the command to make disciples). Chronic shortages seem to apply on both fronts.

But after resonating with the frustration in this regard, I summoned the courage to ask a question. Whom are you discipling? I was working off a concept I read recently by Randy Alcorn in an article in the current edition of Eternal Perspectives. In dealing with the challenge of depression he writes:

Hurting Christians increasingly complain about the treatment they’ve received from other church people. If you’ve had a bad experience, write out a list of what you wish church people had done for you and what you wish they hadn’t done. Then follow your own counsel and use it as a guideline to reach out today and minister to others who need your wisdom and encouragement.

My brother immediately responded, “I can’t disciple anybody. I’m not spiritually mature enough. Discipleship means somebody further down the road spiritually taking someone less mature under their wing and helping them grow in the faith.”

That certainly can be the case. Consider yourself blessed if you’ve got someone like that in your life. But must we limit our definition of discipleship to such narrow parameters?

I think not. Jesus commands all His followers to make disciples, as referenced in the Great Commission passage mentioned above. A disciple (the Greek word is mathetes) means simply a learner. The moment I cast my allegiance with Jesus as Savior I instantly became a learner of all His teachings. I will never outgrow that definition until I go home to glory. He commands me to own the identity as discipler – helper of others in the learning process. John MacArthur puts it this way:

There are only disciplers and we are all disciplers. It’s only a question of the availability to God to be that wherever we may be. It’s irrelevant. It’s immaterial where it is. It’s only material and it’s only relevant that it is that we are disciplers. You’re not a discipler because you went to Bible school. You’re not a discipler because you went to seminary. You’re not a discipler because the church pays you to do it. You’re not a discipler because you joined a missionary organization. You are a discipler because you’re saved, because you’ve come to Christ.

I pressed in the conversation with my reluctant discipler friend with another question. If you had another Christian come to you confessing a struggle with worry, where would you take them in the Bible to help them with the problem? Now admittedly he felt put on the spot by a pastoral pop quiz. But he eventually got to Phil. 4:6-7. I tried to bring home the concept that discipleship isn’t a super-spiritual believer helping a not-so-spiritual one get with the program. It’s brothers and sisters in relationships bringing the Word of God to bear on one another’s lives in the power of the Spirit.

Are you looking for someone to disciple you? How about reaching out and discipling somebody you know? Friendship with a compass, our recent women’s retreat speaker called it. If the principle what you sow you will also reap (Gal. 6:7) is true, and I believe of course that it is, then you may get closer to having a discipler if you determine to live like one yourself.

Fasting – an Expedient Appointment

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That’s what John Calvin called voluntary absence from food for spiritual purposes. “Whenever men are to pray to God concerning any great matter, it would be expedient to appoint fasting along with prayer.”

He had good reason to advocate this given the godly examples we have in the Scriptures.

When Moses went up to Mt. Sinai to receive the law of God on tablets of stone, he went without bread and water in a supernatural fast for forty days and nights (Deut. 9:9).

When Nehemiah got word about the disastrous condition of Jerusalem’s walls and gates, he fasted and prayed for days about the situation (Neh. 1:4).

When Daniel perceived the seventy years that needed to pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, he sought the Lord with pleas for mercy with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Dan. 9:3).

Lest we think examples lie only in the Old Testament, the New Testament reveals that even Jesus practiced fasting for forty days when He went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:2).

The apostolic church followed suit by committing important decisions like sending out missionaries (Acts 13:2-3) and setting apart elders (Acts 14:23) for their work of ministry through prayer accompanied by fasting.

In the spirit of these examples, our elders have called our congregation to a 24 hour period of fasting and prayer for a special purpose. As many of our people know, our sister Chantel has fought for years now a battle with sleeplessness. We want to believe God for a breakthrough in 2013 restoring to Chantel normal and restorative sleep. The tenacity of this affliction and its wear and tear on our sister and her husband warrant our joining together in a concerted effort of fasting and prayer beginning at sundown tonight and ending with Communion tomorrow in our Good Friday service at 6 PM.

Again I would remind you, if physical limitations prohibit you from fasting from food, consider some other form of gospel-motivated self-denial in its place.

Regardless of your form of this expedient appointment to go with your praying, please remember these insightful words of Edith Schaeffer about fasting:

Is fasting ever a bribe to get God to pay more attention to the petitions ? No, a thousand times no. It is simply a way to make clear that we sufficiently reverence the amazing opportunity to ask help from the everlasting God, the Creator of the universe, to choose to put everything else aside and concentrate on worshiping, asking forgiveness, and making our requests known-considering His help more important than anything we could do ourselves in our own strength and with our own ideas.

May God hear our pleas and grant deliverance to our sister for His glory and our joy.

Sweet Fruit of Gospel Accountability

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For several years now I have enjoyed a relationship with another pastor outside our city. We meet not as often as I would like. But my life has been much enriched by his fellowship and partnership in the gospel.

In our last encounter he shared quite vulnerably with me about an area of his life and ministry for which he felt great concern. I sensed the weight of his burden. The Lord nudged me to propose a mutual forty-day exhort-one-another-daily accountability campaign of sin-killing in the spirit of Heb. 3:13. So for several weeks now we have engaged in daily contact whether by text, email, or phone – all bathed in prayer designed to pull down strongholds.

Today I received from my brother the text of a hymn over which he had wept and prayed earlier this morning.  The hymn is by John Newton (written in a particularly difficult season in his life) entitled I Asked the Lord.

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.

It was 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.

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.

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.

Yes, more with His own hand, He seemed,
Intent to aggravate my woe.
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

“Lord, why is this?” I trembling cried.
Will You pursue Your worm to death?”
“This is the way” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and strength.”

“These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set you free;
And break your schemes of earthly joy,
That you may find thy all in Me.”

This is an example what I call sweet fruit of gospel accountability. Do you have someone in your life waging war with you against sin in gospel grace? Pray that God gives you such a brother or sister and enjoy the spoils that will come your way. Challenge someone to do this with you soon, particularly if you are locked in a battle you are struggling to win.

For a soulful treatment of this hymn by Indelible Grace click here.