Dear ones, who prayed with me today for the G’s thorugh the H’s in our Seven Day Prayer List at OGC?

My prayer for each, among other things, was Col. 1:9-12.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

D. A. Carson got me fired up today with this thought from A Call to Spiritual Reformation:

If we are to improve our praying, we must strengthen our loving. As we grow in disciplined, self-sacrificing love, so we will grow in intercessory prayer. Superficially fervent prayers devoid of such love are finally phone, hollow, shallow (p. 85).

Beloved, let us love one another well by praying for one another daily.

Oh, church, read and feast upon Christ through the work of Puritans like Thomas Brooks!

O blessed Lord! Upon my first believing and closing with Jesus Christ, Thou didst justify me in the court of glory from all my sins, both as to guilt and punishment. Upon my first act of believing, Thou didst pardon all my sins; Thou didst forgive all my iniquities; Thou didst blot out all my transgressions; and as upon my first believing Thou didst give me the remission of all my sins, so upon my first believing thou didst free me from a state of condemnation and interest me in thy great salvation. Upon my first believing, I was united to Jesus Christ and I was clothed with the righteousness of Christ, which covered all my sins and discharged me from all my transgressions. Remember, O Lord, that at the very moment of my dissolution Thou didst really, perfectly, universally, and finally forgive all my sins.

No wonder all heaven ceases its activity and rejoices at the salvation of even one sinner (Luke 15:10). Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Puritan William Gurnall wrote this:

Consider God’s unspeakable love for His beloved Son as He watched Him–alone–enter the stage of bloody tragedy. Be still here and know the painful price both God and His Son paid for you to be one with Him. I think you are at the highest stair God’s Word can lead you to ascend into the meditation of His love.

Picture a father who has only one son–and can have no more–sending that child to prison and with his own lips sentencing him to death. And then, to guarantee the execution be completed with the most horrible torment possible, he watches his child’s death with eyes brimming not with grief but with anger. If you study this parent’s countenance you conclude surely he hates his son or the sin he committed. This is what you see in the Father towards his Son, for it was God, more than men or devils, who caused Christ’s death.

Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!

August is something of unofficial missions month at OGC. We devote the 9:30 hour to reports from and prayer for our various short and long-term folks on the field.

Need a motivational jolt to be a global Christian? Check this video out. I caught it on Justin Taylor’s blog.

Here is a portion of my journal from 8.17.05.

The day has finally arrived. The treatment finish line! I get my last radiation session on my neck and my last chemo blast to the body. What a long six weeks it has been! Of course, I still have the aftermath of these treatments to deal with, but there is much prayer going up on my behalf and at least I won’t be having continuous radiation while the chemo side effects take their toll. At this point I just want the whole thing over with. As [John] Piper wrote to me in an email, “May you come forth as gold.”

Proverbs 25:11 says, A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. In other words, a comment made or written at just the right time in just the right way with just the right truth is a beautiful thing. Pastor John’s reference to 1 Peter 1:7 helped catapult me into a frame of mind to endure what lay ahead. I had no idea just how much I would need such a promise given the suffering yet to come.

I’ve seen this video a while ago, but not with Pastor John’s comments on it as well.

I love it. Check it out.

Ever since reading this summary of the gospel in Dever and Alexander’s book, The Deliberate Church, Crossway Books, 2005, 221 pages), I have sought to be all the clearer in my presentation of the gospel to unbelievers and in my teaching of the gospel to our new member classes.

This from 8.15.05 in my journal.

The final week of treatment, Lord willing. I can see the finish line. Had visitors today. Someone recited John 14 from the ESV, flawlessly. What an encouragement that was. Someone stopped by with food for Nancy. Someone else brought the video of the OGC service to the house.

James says pure and undefiled religion before God is to visit widows and orphans in their distress (1:27). I counted the endless stream of folks who visited this pastor in his cancer distress as a certain pure and undefiled religion that I will not soon forget.

Another insight. I went in and out of the hospital five times that year. Some of those stays lasted multiple days. Since that time I have never taken hospital visitation as a pastor lightly or as something to begrudge.

Every visit to my hospital bed or the couch in the family room meant the world to me in my suffering. Thanks to all who showed such mercy and kindness in our season of need!

Still home this morning. Feeling a bit stronger. Hope to make it in to the office after lunch.

This entry from my journal of 8.13.05 reminds me how much prayer can be a part of a season of suffering in a believer’s life.

One day closer. Vomited twice. Mucous is constant. Today I get my final tumor bed radiation treatment. Now things will be able to heal. After this, three neck treatments and I am done. I just want it to be over. Strengthen me, Lord. It has been so long since I have felt well. May this season come to a close soon.

It felt like I “rowed” on the stormy sea forever. But Jesus did get into the boat and take me to the other side. I’m grateful.