Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Page 2 of 5

Nothing puts a lump in your throat quite like, “Drive your tractor to school day,” in Stillman Valley, IL

Published on March 26, 2010 in Iowa. 7 Comments

DSC_0011Today in Stillman Valley, we celebrated, “Drive your tractor to school day.”  I am not sure how the FFA chapter decides when to celebrate this gala event (perhaps the last Friday before the March equinox or something).  Nor have I developed a theology of it in light of Palm Sunday.  I just know that it’s a big deal.

As the name would imply, tractors are driven to school.  At the end of the school day, there is a tractor parade by the elementary school.  Jamie said that the elementary children were jumping up and down and cheering with the sort of enthusiasm city people see only at the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade.

 DSC_0051

Consider our Lord this Palm Sunday; He rides no stallion.

Published on March 26, 2010 in Luther and Quotes. 0 Comments

Matthew 21:5:

Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’

Luther on Christ’s triumphal entry:

He is presented as sheer grace, humility, and goodness, and whoever believes that of him is blessed.  Look at him!  He rides no stallion, which is a war animal, and he comes not with fearful pomp and power, but sits on a donkey, which is no war animal but which is ready for burdens of work that will help human beings.  Thereby he shows that he does not come to terrify people, to drive or oppress them, but to help them, to carry their burdens and take them on himself.

My First Seminary Grade and the Lesson Therein

Published on March 25, 2010 in Doctrine. 10 Comments

In theology every word counts.  We need to learn to speak the truth with great accuracy and clarity. 

My first seminary gradeThe picture to the right is an actual scan of my first seminary grade.  I need to give a little background so you can understand just how devastated I was by it.  Then, I’ll explain why I’m more thankful for it than any grade I’ve ever received.

In 1990 I left my job working for an R&D based company and went to Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.  It wasn’t an easy decision.  An MBA and a degree in chemistry was a good combination in that field and I was off and running working for a Fortune 50 company. 

Yet, Jamie and I believed God was calling us into vocational Christian ministry, and I finally consented to going, with all the eagerness that Jonah modeled on his way to Ninevah.  I hummed, “So send I you to labor unrewarded,” while I cleaned out my desk.

Having made the choice to leave a career I enjoyed, I was intensely motivated to do well at seminary.  By this time, I was so excited to be at seminary I could hardly stand it.  I looked forward to every class.  I started out with the Systematic Theology track with Dr. Crawford and our first assignment was to write a confession on the doctrine of Scripture.  Writing had always been easy for me as an undergraduate and graduate student.  But, I was a bit nervous so I took no chances.  Even though the confessional statement could only be two pages long, I wrote no less than seven different drafts.  After writing each draft I meticulously reviewed it and then made corrections.  To this day I still have every one of those drafts.  Each one worse than the one before, as it turns out.

When the day came for Dr. Crawford to return the assignments, I prayed with the all the urgency of Daniel in the Lion’s Den that I would get  an “A” .  I saw the grade I received as a test of whether or not I should have gone to seminary.  I wouldn’t have admitted it, but I probably felt a little like God owed me an “A” since I had answered the call.

And, I got a “D-“, as seen above.  Not just a “D”, but a “D-.”  I scheduled a meeting to talk to Dr. Crawford and he gave me the general impression that a “D-“ was a gift – - that he probably shouldn’t have even given me that, but he just didn’t have the heart to fail me. 

So, what’s the point?

In addition to humility, what I learned from Dr. Crawford is that if I am going to preach God’s Word, then I will have to select my words with utmost care.  In theology, every single word counts.  Often a preposition is the difference between sound doctrine and blatant heresy.

Which brings me to the sermon I am preparing for this week.  I’ll be stressing that we’re saved through faith, but not by faith.  We’re saved by Christ!  Do you see how one preposition makes the difference between an “A” and an “F.”  The statement, we’re saved by faith” – - borders on making faith a work.  Instead, we ought to say, “We’re saved through faith.”

J.I. Packer summarized,

“[Faith] is not a meritorious work, one facet of human righteousness, but rather an appropriating instrument, an empty hand outstretched to receive the free gift of God’s righteousness in Christ; that faith is God-given, and is itself the animating principle from which love and good works spontaneously spring; and that communion with God means, not an exotic rapture of mystical ecstasy but faith’s everyday commerce with the Savior.”[1]

And, if I have this wrong, please tell me.  I’m preaching on it Sunday.  Dr. Crawford is with the Lord, so I leave it to one of my readers to give me a “D-.”

[1] J.I. Packer, "Faith," in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), 401.

How the greatest paragraph ever written was used to deliver a hymn writer from suicidal depression

Published on March 25, 2010 in Depression, Piper and Romans. 1 Comment

If you struggle with depression – - and, what an awful battle that can be – - consider reading The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd (The Swans Are Not Silent), but, first read this post and Romans 3:21-26.

John Piper told this story this as part of a sermon on Romans 3:21-26, what some theologians say is the greatest paragraph ever written.

Most nights as I tuck Talitha into bed she says, “Sing me a song.” The one we sing most often is one of my favorites by William Cowper,

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds you so much dread,
Are big with mercy and will break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
And works his sovereign will.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

What Talitha doesn’t know, but may learn some day is that, in 1759 when Cowper was 28 years old, he had a total mental breakdown and tried three different ways to commit suicide. He became convinced that he was damned beyond hope. In December, 1763, he was committed to St. Alban’s Insane Asylum, where the 58-year-old Dr. Nathaniel Cotton tended the patients. By God’s wonderful design, Cotton was also an evangelical believer and lover of God and the gospel.

He loved Cowper and held out hope to him repeatedly in spite of Cowper’s insistence that he was damned and beyond hope. Six months into his stay, Cowper found a Bible lying (not by accident) on a bench in the garden. First he looked at John 11 and saw “so much benevolence, mercy, goodness, and sympathy with miserable men, in our Saviour’s conduct” that he felt a ray of hope. Then he turned to Romans 3:25, our text for today. This was a key turning point in his life.

Immediately I received the strength to believe it, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fulness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel.

In June, 1765, Cowper left St. Alban’s and lived and ministered 35 more years – not without great battles with depression, but also not without great fruit for the kingdom, like the hymns, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” “O for a Closer Walk with God!” and “The Spirit Breathes upon the Word.”

Haiti 70 Days Later

Published on March 24, 2010 in suffering. 0 Comments

image

More at the Big Picture.

Meet Roger: An ordinary hero

Published on March 24, 2010 in Ordinary Heroes. 8 Comments

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

*****************

Free-lance author, Shannon Popkin, wrote about this week’s ordinary hero.  While Shannon is a bit biased (Roger is her dad), I will personally vouch for this hero: one of my heroes too.  May Roger’s tribe increase.

********

Roger is my ordinary hero. He’s my dad. Here are three heroic things about him:

  1. He’s faithful. There hasn’t been even one of my thirty eight-years that my dad sat out of serving as a deacon, a finance committee member, or a Sunday School teacher.  Many a late Saturday night, I’d find him asleep at his desk, with pages of a commentary making indentations into his forehead. I knew better than to think he got bored. A more likely cause would be the 4 hours of sleep per night that his week had allowed. But no matter how much his work demanded of him, my dad has always made time for ministry. He counts it a privilege.

  1. He’s loyal. My dad makes our church look good. My dad has supported our church’s leadership, even when lifelong friends had the door swinging behind them; even when his expertise didn’t seem to be valued quite as much. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

  2. He Imparts Hope. You might be ready to leave or quit or (worse) stay and make a scene, but after a conversation with my dad, you’ll have neutralized frustration and renewed hope. You’ll wonder how God is going to use this for his glory. You’ll have a smile that you caught from my dad.

What Paul faced and what Paul did

Published on March 23, 2010 in Preaching. 0 Comments

What Paul faced (per Will Willimon):

Imagine being asked to stand before a grand gathering of the good and the wise and being asked to make a speech about goodness, beauty, the meaning of life, the point of history, the nature of Almighty God, or some such high subject and having no material at your disposal but an account of a humiliating, bloody execution at a garbage dump outside a rebellious city in the Middle East.  It is your task to argue that this story is the key to everything in life and to all that we know about God.  This was precisely the position of Paul in Corinth.  Before the populace of this cosmopolitan, sophisticated city of the empire, Paul had to proclaim that this whipped, blood, scorned, and derided Jew from Nazareth was God With Us.  (Will Willimon, Proclamation and Theology, page 66).

What Paul did:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.(1 Co 2:1-5).

Meet Pastor Darryl Dash and Richview Baptist Church of Toronto

Published on March 22, 2010 in Meet a local church. 5 Comments

One of my concerns for the church in North America today is that local churches are too disconnected from one another. While there are several highly visible churches, many of the people in our local churches have relatively little awareness of what is going on in modest congregations like the Red Brick Church in Stillman Valley, IL.

In the coming weeks, I have asked several pastors to introduce us to their churches. Today is Darryl Dash.  I know Darryl because we both received our Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell and we participate in an annual study retreat together.  Darryl also has one of my favorite blogs.

*****************

Tell us where your church is at geographically and give us your web site.
We’re located in the west end of Toronto, Canada. The church website is www.richview.org.

How long have you been the pastor there?

I’ve been pastor at Richview for almost twelve years now.
Tell us about your family.

I’m married to Charlene. We have two kids – Christina, age 15, and Josiah, age 11. Christina is a lot like me; Josiah is a lot like his mother. It keeps us all humble and gives us lots of laughs.

Is there a blog or web site where we can read more about you?
I blog at www.DashHouse.com.

What is the theological or denominational heritage of your church?  Is that identity changed?

Our church is part of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada. The Fellowship traces its history back to the liberal-fundamentalist debate of the early part of the last century. We’re the more conservative group. It’s still a fairly broad evangelical denomination. We have a senior who attends Richview who was a giant in the early days of the Fellowship. I love hearing his stories.
Are there any other pastoral staff?

Yes, we have someone in charge of outreach. We also have a part-time pastor to seniors, because our church runs (at arms length) a senior’s residence.

Briefly, what is your approach to preaching?  Do you topical series?  Book by book?

Mostly I do book by book, although I occasionally do other types of series. I’m planning a topical one now for after Easter, but mostly I like to stick to book studies.

What is currently being preached on at your church?  Can we listen online?

We’re wrapping up the Gospel of Mark on Easter Sunday. You can find us on iTunes (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=258633847) or at our website (http://www.richview.org/category/sermons/).

What style of music do you use as a part of your worship service?

That’s a tough one. It’s pretty eclectic, mostly a mix of traditional and some newer. We’ve really tried to emphasize that what binds us together in the gospel is greater than what divides us musically.

Why should someone who lives in your area and is looking for a church home think about visiting your church?

We’re not the slickest group in town. There are lots of churches around that do a better job in music and programs. But we’re real. That counts in my books for a lot more. There’s an authenticity that has grown over the years that I really appreciate, and a growing love for the gospel.

Tell us about one memory or incident from your church in which you believe God was glorified and you and your flock experienced joy.

One of our youth leaders began thinking of ways to stretch the youth to think beyond themselves. They decided to begin supporting Water Ambassadors, an organization that provides clean drinking water to people in developing countries. It’s lead to an annual garage sale and mission trips. It’s actually getting a little out of hand, but it’s stretching people in new ways.

Richview loves to serve. I’ve been amazed at how people love to sacrifice when they’re given an opportunity to serve others.

Key Words for Today’s Sermon

Published on March 21, 2010 in Romans and Soteriology. 0 Comments

Today, D.V., I will be preaching on what some theologians argue is the greatest paragraph ever written (see this post on who suggests it’s the greatest passage ever).

Here is some of the day’s vocabulary:

Atonement – The work of Christ necessary to pay the price for sin. The center of Christ’s atoning work is that that he paid the penalty for his people on the Cross.

Justification – God’s legal declaration that sinners are righteous. It does not mean that we are made righteous. Rather, it is a declaration.[1]

Mercy Seat – The covering of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark contained the 10 Commandments and was the central symbol of God’s presence with Old Testament Israel. The included picture is from the Holman Bible Dictionary.[2]

Propitiation – The turning away of wrath by an offering.[3]

Redemption – Deliverance at a cost or release by payment.[4] As a slave buying freedom.[5]

Salvation History – The true story of how God is unfolding his plan to redeem His people and His creation. We often summarize the big picture or meta-narrative of the Bible with the words: Creation, Fall, Creation, Consummation.

[1] See R.C. Sproul, Romans: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 97-104.

[2] C. Brand, Draper, C., England, A., Bond, S., Clendenen, E. R., Butler, T. C., & Latta, B. , "The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary," (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003).

[3] Leon Morris, "Atonement," in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), 888.

[4] Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 40-55.

[5] Douglas Moo, Encountering the Book of Romans, Encountering Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 83.

Tim Keller: “If you can sink this deep into your heart, you’ll be an unsinkable person.”

Published on March 20, 2010 in eschatology and Preaching. 0 Comments

If you are feeling disillusioned about the Christian life, I recommend this sermon from Tim Keller on biblical hope.  Not only is it tremendous preaching, but Keller also talks about the beginning of Redeemer Presbyterian church.

Some of the quotes I took from this sermon.

The English word that always translates the Greek word for “hope” never translates it well.

Biblical hope is life changing certainty about the future . . . being certain about the future in a way that affects how you live now.

You and I are unavoidably and irreducibly hope based creatures.  We are controlled how we live now, but what we think will happen latter.  Christian hope has to do with the ultimate future, not the immediate.

Keller quotes three things Jonathan Edwards (in a sermon on Christian hope and happiness) says about Christian hope.

(1) Your bad things will turn out for the ultimate good.

(2)  Your good things can never be taken away from you.

(3)  The best things are yet to come.

One more Keller quote:

People who do not have a proper understanding of Christian hope are always freaked out.

Here to listen.