A Brick in the Valley

If you are a Christian, then you are gifted by the Holy Spirit to be a functioning part of the Body of Christ.  What is your attitude about your gift giving?

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When I was growing up there was a poor family with a lot of children that lived in a broken down house on the wrong side of the muddy Des Moines river.  They struggled in many ways.  The parents weren’t quite all there.

There was a daughter, Louise (not her real name), who was in my class. She was a shy girl, and pretty I think looking back on it, but unkempt.  If a boy in my class wanted to give one of his friend’s a hard time, he would say, “Louise is your girlfriend.”  We would all shudder at the thought.

(Whereas, I now cringe at the meanness of grade school boys and the heinousness of my part in it).

Our class drew names for Christmas and exchanged gifts.  The boys knew that if they drew a girl’s name, there would inevitably be some teasing, “Oh, what are you going to get ‘so and so’?  She’s your girlfriend.”

We drew names and it was a bad year for me.  I drew Louise’s name and immediately dreaded the teasing.  I remember the moment when I saw the name.  I stuffed the piece of paper in my coat pocket and thought, “all my friends are going to make fun of me for buying Louise a present.”  I told no one that I would be buying Louise a present.  I rode bus across the river and out into the cornfields in silence.

When I got home, my mom asked, “What’s wrong?”

I knew that my mom would sympathize with my plight.  What are mothers for?  I said to her, “Well, I drew Louise’s name, and there is no way I am going to buy her a present.”  I waited for my mom to provide words of comfort or to offer some solution as to how I could get out of the mess.

I never saw it coming.  It was like walking into an airplane propeller.  My mom lit into me with the moral outrage of one of the original “Sons of liberty.”  After expressing her disappointment and saying that she could only hope my grandmother never learned what I had said for she would surely be terribly disappointed, she told me how we would move forward:

You spoiled little jerk.  Do you think this is all about you?  Not only will you get Louise a present, but you will over-spend the limit that the school sets for the gift exchange, and you will give it to her with a genuine smile on your face.  Don’t you realize that this may be the only Christmas present she gets?

I look back on it and wonder how, even as a third grader, I could have missed it so badly about gift giving.  I thought the gift was all about me.  By third grade, I should have known better.  But, my selfishness blinded me to a great opportunity to give.

I gave her a nice present, that my mom picked out, and I did it with smile on my face.  There was no teasing.  But, all these years later, I’m ashamed of my initial response.

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I wonder how may times in the Body of Christ we approach our spiritual gifts like I approached our 3rd grade gift exchange.  If everything meets our expectations, and the context in which we are going to give our gift is just right, then we will give our gift.  But, otherwise, we might just pout and not be active in the Body of Christ.

We have gifts.  Let’s give them to our local churches.  It’s not all about us.  It’s about the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 12:6-8 !

Steve Dewitt (and native of the GSOI) responds to a question about being single:

As a single pastor I often get questions related to singleness.  I received some questions from a woman who went through a divorce many years ago and is struggling to be feminine and content when life demands her to assume more masculine roles.  Here is part of my response:

I would like to share a few things.  First of all, thanks for asking me!  The fact that you are seeking dialogue tells me you are in a posture of learning and growing, which is right where God wants us.

Secondly, while I can relate in some ways to your questions about singleness, image bearing, and sexuality, there are challenges to single womanhood that certainly go beyond my experience.  My heart resonates with your comments about being a woman, mom, employee, and other roles which demand a certain masculinity from you that you would rather not have to resource.  This broken world holds many tensions and disparities, that is one of them.

I guess the main thing I would say is you face a decision of perspective in these matters.  Will you define yourself according to how you perceive others to see you OR according to how God sees you.  By some standards (perhaps your family or friends), your singleness is less than ideal (I know that feeling).  You might feel that among Christians as well.  You may feel that from yourself and life dreams/hopes that you had which have not materialized.  All these things are very real but they are very temporary. 

Here for the rest.

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 comes from Alice Daniels.  You can read her blog here.

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I first met Doris Freese in the basement of our church when I was a pre-schooler and she was the children’s Sunday school superintendent. I have a very clear memory of her getting the children’s families together to make Advent wreaths and telling us what they meant and why they were important. She had a passion for children learning about and participating in worship.

I didn’t see her again until many years later when I walked into a Christian Education course in college–she was the professor and she remembered me from pre-school. She now was fighting cancer and wearing a wig because of ongoing chemo treatments, but she was completely invested in passing on the torch: educating a new generation of students how to teach children about the faith. (We women also liked it when she fixed the guys in the class with her steely gaze and said, "You think you want a Proverbs 31 woman? You better make sure you’re an Ephesians 5 man!")

Doris Freese has been in heaven for quite a few years now, but I still feel her influence in the way I teach both children in Sunday School and my own children. We have a family Advent wreath because she taught me how and why as a little girl. She brought children’s worship up out of the basement of the church and into the forefront of people’s consciousness.

Alice

One of the blogs I follow is Zach Nielsen’s.  And, it’s not only because he is from the GSOI. 

If you like jazz, be sure and enjoy some of his music.

Enter his book giveaway here or watch this.

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.

I met Matt Mitchell through the Internet.  And, I have appreciated stopping by his blog.  It is so exciting for me to read an interview like this one and know that all over our great country, there are pastors raising families and churches that are all about Christ.  Notice that Matt has been the pastor of his church for over 12 years.  Congratulations! There is a great story at the end of this post.  You can read more about it over on Matt’s blog.

Make no mistake: faithful churches like this one are the backbone of our country.

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Tell us where your church is at geographically and give us your web site. 

Lanse Evangelical Free Chuch is located in Central Pennsylvania parked along Interstate 80 about 130 miles from the Ohio border.  We’re just up over the mountain from Penn State University.  A lot of our folks work in the trucking industry.

How long have you been the pastor there?

I’ve been the pastor at LEFC since 1998 (a dozen years!).  I’m the longest serving pastor that this church has had in its 118 year history.

Tell us about your family.

My wife is Heather.  She is an amazing woman, full of wisdom and beauty.  We’ve got 4 kids: Robin (age 9.5), Andrew (age 8), Peter (age 6), and Isaac (age 5).  You read it right.  That’s 4 in 4 years!  We homeschool, live on 5 wooded acres, heat with wood, keep chickens, and play a lot.  We also love to read.

Is there a blog or web site where we can read more about you?

My blog is matt-mitchell.blogspot.com.  It’s called "Hot Orthodoxy" and it’s about loving the Lord with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength.  And there are pictures of our family up there, too.

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

We’re a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America.  Originally a merger of Swedish (like our church) and Norwegian/Danish churches in 1950, it has truly become an "all-people" association of churches.  Our mission statement is : glorifying God by multiplying healthy churches among all people.  We are gospel-centered and own the seminary called Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the Chicago area.

Are there any other pastoral staff?

I’m it!  We’ve had some great ministry interns here over the years, but I’m the only pastor for about 130 worshipers on a Sunday (more than that call this church home).

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

I try to vary the diet of preaching, but the main course is book by book expositional preaching. 

I take breaks from that to preach topical series (even those are expositional, though!).  This last Summer we did one on Money.

I’ve got a long-term plan of preaching through the Big Story of the Old Testament.  In odd numbered years, we do the next big book that carries on the narrative.  Genesis (2003), Exodus (2005), Numbers (2007), Joshua (2009), etc.

My goal is to feed my people the solid food of the Word and watch them grow!

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

We’re in the Gospel of Luke right now, have been since September.  Will be all year.  Then we’ll go to Acts.

You can read the manuscripts on my blog:  matt-mitchell.blogspot.com and we podcast the audio here:  http://www.sermoncloud.com/lanse-evangelical-free-church/

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

We have a worship team that leads us in contemporary music and traditional hymns which are projected on a screen up front.  We also have a song leader who leads us in hymns from the hymnal.  We’re not that exciting–no drums!  But we do have guitars, bass, keyboard, and a number of voices in the worship choir.  We sing popular songs that are playing on Christian radio (Chris Tomlin), a lot of Sovereign Grace Music (Bob Kauflin), and almost always an older song or two.  My favorite is when we sing "voices only!"  That’s the best instrument of worship.

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

We are trying to follow Christ.  Our church exists to glorify God by bringing people into a love relationship with Jesus Christ through worship, instruction, fellowship, evangelism, and service.

We’re nothing too fancy, but we are real.  And we’re a loving bunch of folks–loved by Christ and learning to love others.

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

I never expected to share the gospel with Craig “Tiny” Older. Tiny, a professional tattoo artist and a biker, weighed more than 500 pounds and came from a Jewish background. Needless to say, Tiny and I didn’t have much in common except that his wife attended our church.

When Tiny was in the hospital a few years ago, I went to visit. I thought it would be a quick “in-and-out” because he had never shown signs of spiritual interest. But Tiny knew that his condition was serious, and he surprised me by asking for the gospel. That began an adventurous relationship for me—making friends with and making a disciple of a Jewish biker tattoo artist.

When my friend Tiny finally died in 2006, I had the privilege of speaking at his memorial. His entire biker gang, a scary-looking bunch, showed up for the service. But our people never missed a beat. They opened their arms wide. They made our visitors a meal, sat right next to them and welcomed each one.

Standing behind Tiny’s Harley®, up front in our church, I had the opportunity to share the gospel. That was the highlight of my ministry year.

-Matt Mitchell

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.

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.

HT: Here

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 Here is the endorsement I wrote for this book.

With A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ: 100 Daily Meditations on 2 Corinthians Sam Storms has served a splendid reflection on 2 Corinthians that will benefit readers at all levels. Those with no theological training will profit from an accessible and clear style learning not only the rich content of 2 Corinthians, but also how to study the Bible and apply it to life. Those with questions about what happens after someone dies, or, how to handle discouragement, or how we can be more confident in sharing our faith with others, will find biblical answers. Pastors preparing for sermons on 2 Corinthians will appreciate Storms’ interaction with commentators, his careful exegetical decisions, and the pastoral application of 2 Corinthians. A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ is a book that is at once exegetically responsible, theologically profound, and pastorally relevant. I highly recommend it.

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.  It will be out soon . . . I highly recommend it.

Leo Tolstoy:

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.