A SHEPHERD’S WORDS FOR HIS FLOCK

March 31, 2020 By revheff in Trials Tags: comfort, perseverance, suffering 2 Comments

Pastoral Perspective for the Pandemic

U.S. naval hospital ship Comfort.

However inadequate we may feel for the responsibility, it remains the task of servants like me to offer comfort and help from the Scriptures for their flocks under duress.

I pray these words might encourage the fainthearted and help the weak (1 Thess. 5:14)–and I count myself among them–in the hard providence that is COVID-19.

Here are six exhortations from the Scripture in hopes that Proverbs 24:10 may not indict us in this challenging season.

Behold Your God

I awoke this morning to snowfall. Welcome to Spring in Idaho!

The Lord reminded me of Psalm 147:16-17–who can stand before his cold?

He reminded me of Job 26:6-14–Coronavirus disease is but the outskirt of his ways.

He reminded me of Isaiah 45:7–he is the Lord who does all these things.

He reminded me of Job 2:10–in all these things Job did not sin with his lips.

And he reminded me of 1 Peter 5:6-7–casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

And so I ask you, dear saint, sheep of his pasture, how big is your God–even in the face of global calamity? “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it (Amos 3:6)?”

Stand in awe of your sovereign God.

Strengthen Your Hand

Check out 1 Samuel 30:1-6. Take this text to the bank of your soul for fighting distress.

When hemmed in by seemingly insurmountable troubles, what did King David do?

He strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

Little flock, in these days when providence has robbed us of the regular means of grace which are corporate worship, the preached word, the Lord’s Table, and one-another community, perhaps more than ever we must press on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3).

Read your Bible. Anchor your thoughts in texts like Luke 12:32.

Pray alone and with the members of your household. Trade time in anxiety for precious minutes of intercession in pursuit of God’s peace (Phil. 4:6-7).

Stream redemptive resources which abound on the internet.

Dear ones, move toward your God, not away from him.

Remember Your Examples

We have need of patience which forges in us the enviable virtue of steadfastness.

James 5:7-11 aims for this reality of genuine faith. “We consider those blessed who remained steadfast” (11).

Take your cue from the farmers, the prophets, Job, and the archetype of patient suffering reaping all its rewards, Jesus Christ (Heb. 5:7-10).

Read biographies. I highly commend John Piper’s 7-volume series The Swans Are Not Silent for readable, accessible, and profitable use of sheltered-in-place time.

Remember those who spoke the word to us and imitate their faith (Heb. 13:7).

Love Your Neighbor

Oh, how we need one another within the family of God and without (Gal. 6:10)!

Pray for one another. Text one another. Email one another. Call one another. Message one another.

And long for one another!

Do you not miss as I do taken-for-granted Sunday-together delights like warm embraces, robust hymn singing, earnest praying, hearing God’s word preached, feasting at the Lord’s Table, fellowshipping over lunch, and more?

It is a form of sharing in Jesus’s suffering to be deprived of such things. Identify with your persecuted brothers and sisters around the globe who regularly take their lives in their hands to enjoy such privileges (Heb. 13:3). They know better than we.

Consider Your Ways

Church, exploit, don’t waste, the severe mercy of a stay-at-home order. You have time to ponder and examine your ways which normal busyness wars against.

To whom or what do you turn for comfort in these challenging times?

“Little children, keep yourself from idols” (1 John 5:21). There are places on the internet you must not go. There are things on the TV you best not watch.

There are pursuits–good pursuits of which you are robbed for a season–that you may choose to pursue Mary’s better part (Luke 10:38-42).

Drink from the fountain of living waters, not broken wells that hold none (Jer. 2:12-13).

Temper Your Judgments

Resist the temptation to take God’s place on the throne. Jesus warned of this (Luke 13:1-5). God alone knows his ultimate purposes (Deut. 29:29). And he always judges perfectly. We do not.

The peoples of China, Italy, Spain, New York, Louisiana, California and other hard-hit COVID-19 hotspots have nothing on me as an offending sinner deserving judgment.

I, like Paul, am the worst (1 Tim. 1:15).

What to do? “Unless you repent, you will all like wise perish” (Luke 13:3-5).

Dear flock, examine yourself (2 Cor. 13:5). Believe the gospel again (1 Cor. 15:1-2). And hope in God–our refuge, strength, and very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).

OPERATION ROBOJAW COMPLETE

August 1, 2018 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: endurance, suffering, trials 4 Comments

A Survey of My Unimaginable Journey

New Teeth

I’ve waited a long time to log this post. It required an image of my nine-teeth-brand-new-bridge in place before writing.

What a beauty!

The sheer joy of biting down on a sandwich again. The exquisite pleasure of chewing on the right side of my mouth again for the first time in years.

It has been three years to be precise.

My jaw started to fail in May of 2015. An implant inserted to replace a failed root canal dislodged over breakfast one morning. Little did I know what dominoes would fall from there.

My PCP, fearing a recurrence of oral cancer, sent me to a local oral surgeon. He hit me with a diagnosis I never heard of before–osteoradionecrosis–bone death by radiation.

They fried my jaw back in 2005 to save my life. I’ll live with the tradeoff. Pun intended.

After hospitalization for excruciating pain in December of 2015, a CT scan revealed a pathological fracture of the right mandible. I would need a jaw transplant. Gulp.

Fortunately for me the main man for this kind of herculean undertaking works for UHealth in Miami–Dr. Robert Marx. What a gifted, skillful healer.

We got to be buds over the next two years. Talk about someone who knows you inside and out.

February 2016. Eight hours on the table to remove half my jaw and insert a titanium implant. No fun at all.

A total of 45 hyperbaric dives before and after that procedure ensured needed wound care. No fun at all.

November 2016. Six hours on the table for bone graft surgery to rebuild the mandible in preparation for teeth. They wired my jaw shut for three weeks while the graft hardened. No fun at all.

March 2017. Two plus hours on the table for a hip debridement procedure. Inflammation caused the wound from the last surgery to open. Nothing else could close the incision.

That procedure occurred two weeks before my wedding to Jan Leslie. No fun at all. Not the wedding and honeymoon, of course–sutures in the hip notwithstanding.

August 2017. Another couple of hours on the table at Jackson South to sink four implants in the rebuilt jaw. Four more teeth were extracted. No fun at all.

February 2018. Two more hours in surgery at my Miami home away from home to expose jaw tissue for placing healing abutments on the implants. A nightmare splint held them in place for three miserable weeks. No fun at all.

March through July 2018. Several trips to team Tiralossi/Pileggi dental reached the finish line of this marathon.

After wearing a temporary bridge for several weeks, the final product pictured above got screwed in place. No fun at all–except that it is finished.

Lessons I’ve been learning? Among them . . .

One, life in Jesus is a perpetual test of faith (Heb.11:6). God’s promises sustain through trials from start to finish (2 Pet. 1:3-4).

Two, suffering of any kind promotes humility and dependence upon God’s care for persevering over time and awaited outcomes (1 Pet. 5:6-7).

Three, the help of others at strategic points along the way eases the burden and lifts the spirit (1 Sam. 14:7-14).

Nancy, Jan, Chuck, Rob, Ryan, Ross, Dan, OGC, my family, my doctors, dentists, surgeons, nurses, et al carried my armor up the mountain to slay my personal Philistine.

I am forever grateful.

Four, I am learning–always learning–to run with endurance the race set before me looking to Jesus who alone sustains and empowers us to the finish line (Heb. 12:2).

Question: What lessons has God taught you through a challenging season of life?

LEADING FROM LOSS

March 14, 2018 By revheff in Trials Tags: example, perspective, suffering 6 Comments

When God Scripts a Different Plan

As I suffered through the post-op discomfort of a fifth and final jaw reconstruction surgery in February, it dawned on me.

God’s designs for my last years as my church’s lead pastor differed greatly from my deepest desires.

Who longs for a stewardship of loss, suffering, and pain? Nobody in his right mind.

Ernie Johnson didn’t. A friend of mine sent me his video story suggesting we share a lot in common. He was right. See for yourself.

For a more detailed version, watch here.

My hope for the end game was to lead from growth, gain, and mission. Instead providence scripted the opposite.

I’ve buried a son and a wife.

I’ve endured a pathological fracture of the right mandible due to osteonecrosis from radiation for head and neck cancer.

Jaw reconstruction has involved a total of five surgeries in Miami, a bout with osteomyelitis (bone infection), speech therapy, loss of all my bottom front and right side teeth, chronic drooling, impaired swallowing, and thousands of dollars of medical and travel bills not covered by insurance.

I’ve been in and out of the pulpit so often and so fast I’ve got chronic whiplash.

While recovering from the latest surgery, something else hit me. This year likely brings yet another loss–the end of nearly a two-decade investment in ministry at my church.

It’s time to pass the baton to a younger man. I have no doubt. It’s my idea and God may well have a successor on the immediate horizon.

Talking about succession the last couple of years didn’t faze me much. Theory is like that; reality is not.

I didn’t feel the loss coming. But now I do. I hope to navigate this loss like the others–with the help of God’s grace–as I have often blogged about in the past.

A few days after news of the transition went public, I received an email from a relative newcomer to our church. These words encouraged my perspective greatly:

I read about the big succession announcement in the E-news and heard about it last night at community group. Woah! I am selfishly so sad that you all are phasing out, but I feel like I can resonate on some level . . . and that I should be unselfish and rejoice with what God seems to be doing. Praying for you guys as this next year sounds like it will be filled with many changes and mixed emotions. Last night in community group, and the last few times, people have mentioned in conversation how much your sufferings have impacted their spiritual walks and worship of Jesus as they have watched the grace of God as you have walked through such hard providences. It makes me wonder if your lives as a living sermon illustration are the most powerful, though the most painful, sermon you could give. I have heard it said in community group multiple times how much power of the Spirit has come in your preaching over the past few very hard years. I think it all has been and is doing more than we could ever know this side of eternity. Praying that God encourages your hearts in this season.

That note goes in my “Why I Became a Pastor File.” A great reminder to say “yes” to the unscripted.

SDG

Question: How has God used the unscripted in your life to advance His purposes and grow you spiritually?

A STRATEGY FOR LOVING LIFE AND SEEING GOOD DAYS

December 5, 2017 By revheff in Peacemaking Tags: happiness, suffering 2 Comments

How Peacemaking Commitments Make for the Good Life

Blaise_Pascal_2

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), the French philosopher warned:

Let it not be imagined that the life of a good Christian must be a life of melancholy and gloominess; for he only resigns some pleasures to enjoy others infinitely better.

The apostle Peter, writing to believers suffering severe persecution, would concur with that sentiment. Consider his words in 1 Pet. 3:8-12.

⁸Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. ⁹Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. ¹⁰For
“Whoever desires to love life
    and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
    and his lips from speaking deceit;
¹¹let him turn away from evil and do good;
    let him seek peace and pursue it.
¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Verse 10 holds out hope that Pascal knew what he was talking about. “Whoever desires to love life and see good days.”

Know anybody who does not want that? Nobody in his right mind wants to hate life and see bad days. We all want the best life has to offer.

Few things can threaten a Christian’s sense of happiness and well-being like their church imploding with conflict.

The summer our church melted down I recall for many among us at OGC as some of our worst days. Loving life fell far short of how any of us would describe our experience.

If King Solomon got it right in Prov. 17:14 (and of course he did)–“The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.”–then heeding Peter’s advice here makes a lot of sense.

The best church fight we will ever have is the one we never experience. We all have to get equipped with this kind of strategy particularly as it pertains to countering evil when it rears its ugly head in our relationships.

I will warn you up front. The strategy prescribed here flies in the face of the world’s approach. This is a distinctly counter-culture way to fight for the good life.

But Peter has been arguing ever since 1 Peter 2:9-10 that, based upon who we are as God’s chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, and treasured possession–based upon these extraordinary appointments of grace–we must make certain radical commitments.

We must determine to conduct ourselves in strategic ways with God’s help in all kinds of places–from the state, to the home, and now, wrapping this section up with Finally in v. 8–the church.

Here’s the main idea I think he is saying: Our extraordinary identity as God’s people calls for radical peacemaking commitments in the church.

There are three. They are showing grace (8), refusing revenge (9a), and giving blessing (9b-12). Future posts will unpack each in the interest of loving life and seeing good days.

THE LATEST ON NANCY’S FIGHT WITH CANCER

January 29, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: adoration, cancer, health, Job, PET scan, suffering, update 9 Comments

Nancy A natural-friendly MD Nan now sees in Lakeland advised from the get-go that she have a full-body PET scan. I remember them well from my own cancer journey back in ’05. This will give us a baseline from which we can determine how things progress over the course of treatment.

She had the scan this past Tuesday. Her OB/GYN called us in to review the findings just this very morning. I wish I could post a more encouraging report. The results showed that my beloved lost ground over the last few months. The disease definitely has spread. Nan asked me to divulge no greater specifics than these given the sensitive nature of anyone’s health history.

What does this mean now that we’ve got a clearer picture of her condition? Beyond one move for certain, we don’t know just yet what the Lord would have her do. I respect my wife for the patient processor that she is. She will definitely talk with the Lakeland doctor today for his input. The additional move for certain involves her getting a medical oncologist on the team. Her OB/GYN enthusiastically consented to my suggestion that she refer Nan to the medical oncologist who cared for me way back when. The personal relationship we have with Dr. G will serve things well in terms of helping Nan weigh her options. Once a direction comes into focus I will post further updates as necessary.

How are we doing? Good question. I think Nancy is sorting that out for herself; I feel a bit numb at this point. Of course we continue to covet the prayers of God’s people for His purposes to carry the day at every turn on this roller coaster ride. The emotions ride higher than usual in January as it brings each year another anniversary of our son’s death back in 2014. These latest developments challenge the emotions all the more. Through it all I keep asking the Lord to anchor us in a Job-like grip on reality. Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return (Job 1:21a). Mike Mason captured it well:

Job knew one of the great secrets of faith: the believer in God has no worldly rights. The true believer is someone who has abdicated all rights, freely accepting the status of a slave and no longer laying claim to any earthly chattel, whether it be “houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields” (Matt. 19:29). These are precisely the sort of things that Job has just lost, and yet his initial response to their loss is not bitter complaint, nor even mere acquiescence, but adoration (The Gospel According to Job, Crossway, 37).

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Though He Slay Me

January 23, 2016 By revheff in Trials Tags: glory, hope, pain, suffering, trials, Trust 2 Comments

Much comfort from the singers and the preacher in this video. I had seen it before when our son died. It ministered to me in that emotional pain. It ministers to me now in this physical pain.

Chronic Pain & Deeper Healing

January 10, 2016 By revheff in Trials Tags: healing, pain, sanctification, sin, suffering 3 Comments

I dealt with considerable pain from my tongue cancer and its treatment back in 2005. But it doesn’t compare with my experience these days enduring a pathological fracture of the jaw. Pain which never lets up brings a whole new series of challenges to redeeming suffering as a follower of Jesus.

Knowing I would have hours of windshield time to and from Miami last week for the consult with the surgeon there, I did a search online the day before I left. I wanted to download some resources/messages on the subject of pain. The Lord reminded me of Joni Eareckson Tada along the way. If anyone would have words of wisdom about dealing with chronic pain, she most certainly would. I had no idea just how right that impression from the Lord would prove to be.

Of the half-a-dozen or so talks to which I listened on the road last Monday and Tuesday, this one struck home with the most Holy Spirit force. Nancy and I just finished watching it together prior to my writing this post. Whether your story involves protracted suffering or not, I cannot commend more strongly this teaching from a woman who testifies authentically with the poet, “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees” (Psalm 119:71, NLT).

Please, I plead with you, do your soul a mega-good. As soon as you possibly can, invest the mere thirty minutes it will take to view Joni’s message. My prayer is that every one of our covenant members at Orlando Grace would do so. Beyond that, of course, all the better.

The Creed According to “Creed”

December 31, 2015 By revheff in Trials Tags: creed, fight, suffering, trials 4 Comments

I told Nancy all I wanted for Christmas–other than a new jaw, of course–was to see the movie “Creed.” Hailing from the Philly area and long a fan of the “Rocky” films, regardless of their relative quality, I wanted to see this latest edition in the saga, even if it hadn’t gotten such a good review. For Flikster’s take on the film click here.

The point of this post isn’t for me to review the film, although my bride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sylvester Stallone delivers a surprisingly nuanced performance as Adonis Creed’s trainer. Michael B. Jordan is riveting in his portrayal of the conflicted son of one time heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. Be advised if you do see it, that there is one scene of PG-13 sensuality which did not seem necessary to me, but Hollywood will be Hollywood.

Oops, I slipped into review mode after all. Enough of that.

castaway

I felt led to do this post because I sensed the Lord speaking to me rather distinctly through the movie. OK, some of you are thinking, pastor’s painkillers have taken their toll. I’m not talking about any kind of audible voice. It’s hard to describe. I’ve only ever had it happen to me one other time that I can recall. That was back in 2001 with the movie “Castaway.” So this is rare. But just as the Lord had a word of encouragement for me with Tom’s Hanks’ port-o-potty washed ashore his island prison, He clearly used this film in a common grace timely way to help prepare me for what looms around the corner in 2016.

Take a look at the trailer, if you like, and I will explain what I mean.

In the film, Creed has his fight and Rocky has his. “It’s just another fight,” Adonis pleads. They got me with the two of them standing before the mirror. So in the ring, also in life. One’s biggest opponent is oneself. “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). As for this jaw replacement challenge, it’s just like any other fight. “One step, one punch, one round at a time.” Oh I wish that oft repeated line in the movie had made its way into the trailer! That, dear ones, is the creed according to “Creed.”

What heavyweight bout looms on your fight card in 2016?

So maybe God won’t speak to you from a movie, but what about these jewels from His word as you enter the New Year fray?

“Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim. 6:12).

“If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom. 8:31)?

“We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

It’s just another fight.

Sorrows and Preaching

December 28, 2015 By revheff in Trials Tags: pastoral ministry, suffering 2 Comments

If the good people of Orlando Grace Church can possibly summon the patience to wait AGAIN for this pastor to struggle through what feels like his thousandth sorrow, I hope eventually to return to them a better preacher and pastor. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

For my readers not enamored by the likes of D.A. Carson or Tim Keller or even my beloved John Piper, I ask your indulgence through viewing this video. I wept and prayed as I watched.

Mandible Misery My Mentor

December 9, 2015 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: jaw, mentoring, pain, suffering 2 Comments

I know. I don’t look very miserable in this picture. That was a good day coming forth from hyperbaric O2 therapy number whatever for deep wound treatment to my radiation-decimated jaw. I managed to prevail on the nurses’ good graces that day to get some pics from the bowels of the compression chamber so others could have some idea of what my new normal looks like these days.

Here’s another.

I’m not hooked up here, of course. There is no O2 flowing. But this gives an idea of the rig I have to wear as a delivery system of 100% O2 for three thirty-minute periods, five times a day at Florida Hospital South. All sorts of fun.

So far I’ve navigated twenty-one of these. Nineteen to go. The adjustment hasn’t gone all that rough. I read a good bit of the time now. Apart from the occasional nausea bout, things go pretty smoothly.

Unfortunately I don’t have much progress to report. Hence my word “misery.” This past weekend my pain spiked. I cut church. If you know me, I never want to give up a preaching opportunity and chance to worship with God’s people (Heb. 10:24-25). Oops. I probably should have put them in the opposite order. Oh well. Sunday is the best day of the week, by far. I am thankful for an extraordinary pastoral intern who stepped in for me at the last minute. You can listen to his message here.

With the pain spike came a fever on Sunday night. OK, now I’m getting nervous. Long story short, after consulting my dentist, infectious disease doctor, and oral surgeon since then, we have a unanimous verdict. Off to the hospital I go. It’s time to circle the wagons and call in some big gun consultants to play what-do-we-do-with-what’s-left-of-this-preacher’s jaw. The idea is to get my pain under control. I’m all for that. Then to get me hydrated and built up nutritionally. Not only can’t I eat; I am also having difficulty swallowing. It hurts that much. Then, Lord willing, next week they will operate again to remove more dead bone and hopefully save the jaw. I’m not kidding on that one. If my mandible gets a pathological fracture, I’m looking at some sort of radical replacement surgery I DON’T EVEN WANT TO THINK ABOUT! Has my sense of urgency come across the page? Please pray for mercy for me in this regard. I have read about this procedure. I would really rather avoid it, if at all possible.

But if I do, my mandible mentoring, miserable as it might be, will continue with sovereign efficacy. God wastes nothing in our suffering, whatever its nature. In hard providences like these, I remember verses like Psalm 119:71.

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

This slow learner apparently needs an extra dose of afflictions that he might learn all the more the treasure of treasures, the law of the Lord. Mentor me, oh my Master (and I don’t mean my mandible, but my mandible-maker), but please, I beg of you, go easy on what’s left of this poor man’s miserable jaw. Amen.