This is worth watching to hear the story R.C. tells about air accident in which Payne Stewart lost his life.
R.C. Sproul – Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
Monthly Archive for February, 2010
Justin Taylor recently shared a portion of a letter that Luther wrote to Melanchthon. Luther’s words of rebuke are ones I need to hear.
Luther wrote this letter to Melanchthon June 27, 1530:
Those great cares by which you say you are consumed I vehemently hate; they rule your heart not on account of the greatness of the cause but by reason of the greatness of your unbelief. . . .
If our cause is great, its author and champion is great also, for it is not ours. Why are you therefore always tormenting yourself?
If our cause is false, let us recant; if it is true, why should we make him a liar who commands us to be of untroubled heart?
Cast your burden on the Lord, he says. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him with a broken heart. Does he speak in vain or to beasts? . . .
What good can you do by your vain anxiety?
What can the devil do more than slay us? What after that?
I beg you, so pugnacious in all else, fight against yourself, your own worst enemy, who furnish Satan with arms against yourself. . . .
I pray for you earnestly and am deeply pained that you keep sucking up cares like a leech and thus rendering my prayers vain.
Christ knows whether it is stupidity or bravery, but I am not much disturbed, rather of better courage than I had hoped.
God who is able to raise the dead is also able to uphold a falling cause, or to raise a fallen one and make it strong.
If we are not worthy instruments to accomplish his purpose, he will find others.
If we are not strengthened by his promises, to whom else in all the world can they pertain?
But saying more would be pouring water into the sea.
If you are looking for devotional reading, then I heartily commend to you Sam Storms, A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ: 100 Daily Meditations on 2 Corinthians
With A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ: 100 Daily Meditations on 2 Corinthians
Here is a quote that Storms writes in reference to 2 Corinthians 3:18.
. . . We see here that ‘beholding is a way of becoming.’ That is to say, we always tend to become like or take on the characteristics and qualities of whatever it is we admire and enjoy and cherish most. Fixing the eyes of our faith on Jesus is transformative. Gazing on his glory as seen in the gospel and now preserved for us in Scripture has the power to bump us along, as it were, whether minimally or maximally, whether in short spurts of sanctification or great and notable triumphs, toward the fullness that is found in Christ alone but will one day be found in us, by grace, as well.”
See also, we become like what we worship.
Paul Tripp shares this Leo Tolstoy quote in What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage
Leo Tolstoy:
What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.
If you are in the midst of a conflict, Molly Friesen has posted an excellent prayer on the Peacemakers web site.
Maybe if you are in the midst of a conflict, you could print this out, get on your knees and pray through it. (If you are really environmentally conscious, rather than printing it out, kneel next to your computer).
The prayer is from The Peacemaker written by Ken Sande. I highly recommend this book as well as the other resources available in their resource store.
On pages 84-85 of The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict
, Ken Sande explores what it means to obey Paul’s command to “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phi. 4:4), even when we are in the midst of conflict. He asks, “What on earth is there to rejoice about when you are involved in a dispute? If you open your eyes and think about God’s lavish goodness to you, here is the kind of joyful worship you could offer to him, even in the midst of the worst conflict:”
Oh Lord, you are so amazingly good to me! You sent your only Son to die for my sins, including those I have committed in this conflict. Because of Jesus I am forgiven, and my name is written in the Book of Life! You do not treat me as I deserve, but you are patient, kind, gentle, and forgiving with me. Please help me to do the same to others.
In your great mercy, you are also kind to my opponent. Although he has wronged me repeatedly, you hold out your forgiveness to him as you do to me. Even if he and I never reconcile in this life, which I still hope we will, you have already done the work to reconcile us forever in heaven. This conflict is so insignificant compared to the wonderful hope we have in you!
This conflict is so small compared to the many other things you are watching over at this moment, yet you still want to walk beside me as I seek to resolve it.
See also, Four Promises Christians Make When They Forgive and The Gospel is at the Heart of Peacemaking
An ordinary hero is a person who quietly (pastors don’t qualify) and faithfully serves. These are people we should honor. Do you know any ordinary heroes? Send them to me at chris [at] theredbrickchurch.org
This week’s ordinary hero is submitted by Mary Pluhar who blogs as The Farmer’s Wife. I grew up around some people like this, and they are the salt of the earth. If I ever visit this community in Montana, I might buy Thelma and Mary and their husbands a piece of pie and a cup of coffee. Otherwise, 5th Tree, Right Side Facing the Throne.
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If she knew I was writing this, she would put her head on the table, blushing, then pick it up and give me “the look”. That’s because my friend Thelma is the epitome of “behind the scenes”. When Chris asked me to write about someone who has been a quiet hero, an encourager of faith, I truly didn’t expect it to be one of my contemporaries*. Don’t you always think of little white haired old ladies who have been at your church so long no one in the congregation remembers a time they WEREN’T in the second pew, third seat? I dug around in my memory for one of those. But then, God knocked on my head and put into my heart, my friend Thelma.
I really don’t know how to describe Thelma in any way that would do her justice. She’s warm, funny, Scottish, strong to her core, and humble beyond anyone I’ve ever met. I’ve truly never heard her say anything derogatory about anyone, and there were times I wanted to say it for her! But she wouldn’t allow it. She’s a ranchwife which entails long days outside working alongside her husband and two sons, followed by long evenings making sure they get fed and clean clothes.
After all that, Thelma quietly slips behind the piano at her church and faithfully plays every Sunday. She plays for most of the funerals and weddings in our little town, too, because it’s often impossible to find anyone who will play in public. If one of our community members is sick or has a loved one pass, there will be a casserole or rolls slipped in the door along with a note of encouragement. I see her in the 4-H booths, volunteering her help at our county fair, and baking for bakesales. But you’ll never see her accepting awards or looking for recognition in the programs that are handed out.
Some people say they’ll pray for you, and you never really know. Some people say to call anytime, and are not ever able to work you in their schedules when you do. Thelma has quietly shown me what it means to love God and those He created, with integrity and joy. God’s hands are Thelma’s hands, working, playing, helping and comforting.
*Just so the whole world knows, Thelma and I are not anywhere near the white haired old lady stage. I can’t reveal our ages, exactly, but I will tell you that we were acquainted with legwarmers and really big bangs in high school. You can figure it out from there…
Usually after church, our seven year old rides home with me. We go to my study. I take off my microphone and organize for a couple of minutes. She raids the mints, and we talk.
Sunday, she asked me to explain again what I mean when I talk about the people in our church being bricks. I said, “Well, the Bible (1 Peter 2:5) says that we are living stones being built into a spiritual house. The point is that God makes bricks with a building in mind. He never intended that you would be isolated from other Christians, but that you would be a part of the whole building.”
Mary Beth thought about this for a couple of minutes and said, “Or, we might say that Christians are like pages in a book.”
The more I think about it, the more I like it. If you are a believer, then you are written into the story of God’s people. Your individual page is part of the greatest story ever written.
I’ll buy you a piece of pie and a cup of coffee at the Royal Blue in Stillman Valley if you can find someone who gets offended if you call them a purple zebra.
Try it. Go to the mall. Or, your local coffee shop and look at someone, and tell her that she’s a purple zebra. See if they get mad.
Of course, no one in their right mind will get upset about being called a purple zebra. Everyone knows the label doesn’t fit.
On the other hand, if you tell someone that he’s a rebellious sinner, things get more interesting. Because, all people, even unbelievers, know deep down in their heart of hearts that they are accountable to a righteous God. The defensiveness of people – - (Romans 2:14 ff) shows that they have a standard of righteousness written on their hearts.
And, for those, who will be broken about their sin, we have good news . . .
Tim Keller is one of the wisest pastoral voices today in the Western hemisphere. Read his thoughts about what the Western church faces in the days to come:
1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making in the U.S. In an interview, sociologist Peter Berger observed that in the U.S. evangelicals are shifting from being largely a blue-collar constituency to becoming a college educated population.
His question is–will Christians going into the arts, business, government, the media, and film a) assimilate to the existing baseline cultural narratives so they become in their views and values the same as other secular professionals and elites, or b) will they seal off and privatize their faith from their work so that, effectively, they do not do their work in any distinctive way, or c) will they do enough new Christian ‘culture-making’ in their fields to change things? (See http://www.virginia.edu/iasc/HHR_Archives/AfterSecularization/8.12PBerger.pdf)
2. The rise of Islam. How do Christians relate to Muslims when we live side by side in the same society? The record in places like Africa and the Middle East is not encouraging! This is more of an issue for the western church in Europe than in the U.S., but it is going to be a growing concern in America as well.
How can Christians be at the very same time a) good neighbors, seeking their good whether they convert or not, and still b) attractively and effectively invite Muslims to consider the gospel?
3. The new non-western Global Christianity. The demographic center of Christian gravity has already shifted from the west to Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
More here.
