By Andy Farmer

I was talking recently to a pastor from another church about differences in the way our congregations are being led and built. We realized that we agreed on far more things than we were different. One difference we talked about was eschatology – the study of the final things. We differ in our understanding of how God is going to wrap up this glorious salvation project we call history. We affirm the same Gospel but we differ on the end times – so much so that we realize that we can do ministry together, but we probably couldn’t build a church together. What you believe about the end times will shape how you build the church in present times.

Historically there have been a number of different ways of understanding and applying the very challenging apocalyptic passages in the Bible. Sadly, many churches and believers have done great harm to themselves and others by taking their end times speculation well beyond what the scriptures actually teach. But within the Gospel-believing communion of faith, you can have some diversity in understanding the eschatology of the Bible. And since we are dealing with things that are to play out in the future, it is wise that we hold our own eschatology with humble hearts and minds.

As pastors, we want to avoid using eschatology as a calling card. In other words, we don’t want our church known for its views of the millennium, or what the mark of the beast really means, etc. – we want to be known for the Gospel. We also want to avoid using eschatology as a litmus test – whether we accept someone as a brother or sister in good standing based on whether they are getting ready for the Rapture or not. Eschatology should matter to us because Jesus is coming back and resolving everything that went wrong when sin entered the universe through man. That should stir our hearts to great hope and confidence. It should motivate us to reach out to the lost. And it should keep us serious and sober in a foolish world, as Peter called us.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. (2Peter 3:1-12a)

If you'd like to get a recent take on how we work in this area of eschatology, Jeff Purswell gives a great brief summary of what's important in our thinking in the following post:

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/The-Last-One-Jeff-Purswell-Eschatology.aspx

By Andy Farmer

One of the crazier events in the sports world this summer was the LeBron James free agency extravaganza. Sometimes you read something that captures your feelings about an event. This column by Leonard Pitts, of The Miami Herald from July 14 does it for me.

An open letter to 24th century historians.

I've left this note for you as a public service. Three hundred years from now, when you study the things that dominated American thought in the summer of 2010, I suspect one pressing question will rise above all others:
 
Who the heck was LeBron James?
 
I'm here to answer that for you but first, let me say how very cool it is ("cool" was a slang term we used to indicate that a thing was good) to find myself addressing you like this. The idea that you might stumble across these words in some archive of the future, that you might be reading this letter (or absorbing it through your skin or however it is you process text in your era, assuming you still do) long after I am dead fills me with questions. I wonder:

What is the state of healthcare in 2310?

Is interplanetary travel now routine?

Did BP ever get that oil leak fixed?

Of course, unless you've invented time travel (you haven't, have you?) there's no way for you to answer my questions. So let me get down to business and answer yours.

Who was LeBron James?

Some of you probably think he was a wizard, a mystic, or some minor-league deity. You'd base that conclusion on press reports indicating that his decision to withdraw himself from a place called “Cleveland” left that region staggering, devastated, bereft of its civic will to live and ripe for plundering by roving bands of “Lakers”, “Celtics” and “Bulls”. Well, he wasn't some minor god.

Some of you probably think he was a great general who betrayed his own troops in battle. You'd base that conclusion on a letter a man named Dan Gilbert posted on the website (do you still have websites?) of an organization he owned called the “Cleveland Cavaliers”. In it, he accused this LeBron James of cowardice, disloyalty, heartlessness, selfishness, callousness and traitorousness -- and even put a curse on him. So I can understand how you'd figure LeBron James was a military leader, but he wasn't that, either.

Some of you probably think he was a human-rights icon who took some bold stand for freedom. You'd base that conclusion on a statement from a man named Jesse Jackson Sr., who accused Gilbert of treating James like “a runaway slave”. Of course, Gilbert was said to be willing to pay James $125 million over six years for his services; I don't know how it is in your era, but that was a lot of money back in 2010 -- way more than one makes as a slave. So, no, LeBron James wasn't a human-rights icon.

Some of you have no idea who he was, but from the way we, in this era, couldn't stop talking about him, from all the anger, argument and invective his name stirred, you may believe he must have been a figure of transformational importance in world history. He wasn't.
And, yes, I'll keep my promise to answer your question, but I have to say, the answer is embarrassing. It speaks to the propensity we had in my era for aggrandizing the trivial. And to our tendency to lose all perspective. And to our occasional inability to tell the difference between that which diverts or amuses us and that which defines our entire self worth.

So, who was LeBron James?

He was a basketball player. In the summer of 2010, he announced his decision to leave a team that played in “Cleveland” to join another in a city called “Miami”. He did this on a television special (do you still have TV?) some regarded as a monument to his ego and exaggerated sense of his own importance.

So there you have it. LeBron James was a guy who played basketball.

To anticipate your next question: Basketball was a game invented by a man named James Naismith back in 1891.

We used to enjoy watching and playing it. It was fun.

By Andy Farmer

One of the common conversations in the church today is how we experience Christ – what he means in my present experience and how I relate to Him. A lot of emphasis seems to be placed on this, our communion with Christ, and with good reason. It is a consistent theme in the New Testament and an vital implication of true faith. But in focusing on our present experience of Christ we can subtly move the historic basis of that communion in the cross to the background. And this is not a good thing.

Interestingly, this was a concern in the church early in the last century as well. J. Gresham Machen spoke the following counsel to God’s people then, and it is equally helpful to us today.

“We ought never to set present communion with Christ, as so many are doing, in opposition to the gospel; we ought never to say that we are interested in what Christ does for us now, but are not so much interested in what He did long ago.

Do you know what soon happens when men talk that way? They soon lose all contact with the real Christ; their religion would really remain essentially the same if Jesus never lived.

That danger should be avoided by the Christian man with all his might and main. God has given us an anchor for our souls; He has anchored himself to us by the message of the Cross. Let us never cast that anchor off; let us never weaken our connection with the events upon which our faith is based.

Such dependence upon the past will never prevent us from having present communion with Christ. Unlike the communion of the mystics it will be communion not with the imaginings of our own hearts, but with the real Saviour Jesus Christ.

The gospel of redemption through the Cross and resurrection of Christ is not a barrier between us and Christ, but it is the blessed tie by which He has bound us for ever to Him.”

—J. Gresham Machen, What Is Faith? (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 153-54
Taken from the blog “Of First Importance” under the entry: He has anchored himself to us by the message of the Cross

By Andy Farmer

Editor’s Note: The following is a testimony from Christy Ware, who was a team leader at Youth Camp. Christy is a teacher and coach at Delaware County Christian School. She knows teens and she knows camps.

I wanted to attend Youth Camp in order to serve the body I have grown to love, and to get to know others in the church. My plans seemed simple, but God did much more than I could imagine.

I had the privilege of serving the Black Team with Nathan Lee and Kelsey Farmer - two past honor campers. Apparently they were stacking our deck, because I’m a “newbie” and need lots of help. The campers of the Black Team were excited, some tentative at first. As the week went along, we started to care for each other so deeply. Our discussion times were real and personal, and once again reminded me that while I might be a few years ahead, my struggles are so similar to my younger brothers and sisters. This was evident as I watched the students minister to each other, not only during ministry time on Friday night but almost more importantly, during meals and competition and simple walks down the path. This is the next generation – what beautiful anticipation – not just of what God has in store for their lives in the distant future, but in their families, schools and friendships NOW!

Jared said that the happiness of the church is bound up in the youth. Covenant loves its youth. They serve them. The pastors love to come and pour into them. I was so impressed that a guest speaker didn’t deliver the messages, but our pastors. The gospel wasn’t watered down. No, it was amplified message after message. The true gospel, not emotionalism.

Besides the deep encouragement received through observing the passion of the youth and the church leadership to shepherd them, I personally was challenged to decrease and to allow Christ to increase.

This is the testimony of team leader Jason Stowell

One thing that really stuck out to me, and is something that always sticks out to me about Covenant Fellowship, is the love for Christ that the youth have. It is something that I just haven't been a part of outside of this church. I was also affected by the care that I saw in the other team leaders. I left camp thinking "I want these kids to love Jesus as much as some of these leaders do". I felt very encouraged as well as challenged by the heart for our youth that I saw come out on the fields, in the team leader meetings, and during times of ministry.

The last night the Spirit of God really met us. I loved how that Friday night was, in most ways, just like every other meeting we had that week. There wasn't any special effort made to purposefully work up the kids emotions in order that there might be a response. The way that it was executed seemed to be just like all other times we gather to praise God and hear from His Word... but the fruits of that night were unique and powerful. As soon as the message was over, one of the very first kids that went forward was a kid that didn't want to even go to camp in the first place and almost didn't. He was followed by almost the whole camp. A lot of them went forward to pray for and encourage those who went up first, but even that was wonderful to see. The openness and desire for the work of God in their hearts that night was powerful. That night, in our cabin discussions, the two kids that hadn't hardly spoken a word all week during group talks were the ones that were speaking the most about the conviction taking place in their own hearts and their fresh desire to live in obedience to Christ in specific ways. One of the guys broke into song near the end of the meeting. That was a sweet time.

It just seems so obvious to me that over the years, as the Gospel has been faithfully preached in this church, that God has blessed our church. The truths of God's Word run deep in the hearts of the older and younger generation, and the fruits of that were evident at camp this year (as last year). Both years that I have lead at youth camp I have left feeling grateful that I got to be a part of God's continual goodness to our church. To be a part of a camp where the Gospel is preached, ministry is happening, the Spirit is at work, love is abiding in God's people is just such a privilege. It is one that I often take for granted, but it wasn't something that I took for granted after camp. It was so good to be reminded of God's faithfulness yet again.

By Andy Farmer

The Lord has always been faithful to visit our teens at Youth Camp. Many of our adult members are able to point back to a particular message, or moment, or interaction at a Youth Camp and say, ‘that’s where the Lord got my attention’.

This year was no different. In fact, it appears that there was an unusual outpouring of the Spirit on the youth throughout the week, but particularly on Friday night following Jared’s message. Upwards of 30 kids responded to the gospel for the first time or to recommit their lives to Christ. And many others who came up to pray for those teens were swept up in what the Spirit of God was doing and also affected. Many would have said they came into Youth Camp indifferent to the things of God were met in powerful ways.

As parents we can face a wonderful but perplexing dilemma in caring for our kids after an event like Youth Camp. We rejoice to see remarkable immediate changes in our kids and their perspective of God. But we don’t want to trust in the emotional response in a situation that is so unlike where they live day in and day out. Only God can ultimately establish a genuine work of the Spirit in a person. As parents we have been given responsibility by Him to wisely discern and shepherd our children’s hearts – and the grace to serve our children in this important ‘training up of our children in the way they should go’. (Prov. 22:6)

The following are some suggestions for how you as a parent can shepherd the activity of the Spirit that may have occurred in your teen’s life at Youth Camp. To keep things simple, they are going to flow along with the Camp them of ALIVE.

Accept that Youth Camp experiences are not typical experiences. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t authentic experiences. Rejoice that anything ‘more of Jesus and less of me’ is God at work. Never despise small beginnings. Emotions may fade, but every time our teens see their teammates, or sing songs from camp or look at pictures they will be reminded of what God did for them. At the same time don’t cast doubt upon your teens experience simply because you see them struggle in a familiar sin pattern. How many of us have been struggling for years with the same familiar sins.

Look for themes. Look for themes in the preaching that resonated with them and help them focus more in those areas. Look for themes in your teen’s experience that can connect with their lives before and after youth camp. For example, your teens might have been struggling with how they are viewed by others before camp – is there any experience they had where the Lord dealt with that struggle?

Invest in God’s agenda that was highlighted at youth camp. As parents we tend to have our own agendas for where our teens need to grow and change – more focus on studies; a better attitude at home, more diligent in responsibilities, better choices among friends, etc. These are all good to pursue. But Youth Camp is a good time to examine parental agendas. We can trust God that if we are investing in his agenda, then our agendas will take care of themselves. Consider reviewing the youthcamp messages in the months to come. Hearing the messages a second time can remind our teens of how God’s Word spoke to their heart and keep their resolve to follow the Lord strong.  http://www.covfel.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=51731

Value the stubborn grace of God. If the experience of youth camp seems to become a distant memory to your teen in the weeks and months to come, God isn’t frustrated that he gave it his best shot and it didn’t take. Be careful not to say things like, ‘what happened to you, you were so different after Youth Camp’! Youth Camp and real life are a lot different. The creature comforts are far superior at home; the distractions of the world are far worse. If your child went to Youth Camp the Lord is able to water the seeds planted there and bring them to full fruit. Remember their team leaders – most of them were where your teen is at one time, and the Lord has done incredible things with them.

Encourage your teen to some practical steps in response to what God did. A commitment to attend Cross Culture monthly meetings with you would be a great place to start. For your 9th -12th grade students, consider plugging into your Cross Culture small group again. Perhaps the Bridge is a good next step for them. Certainly helping them develop regular devotions is good. You may also need to help them think of something to turn away from – maybe in media or social networking. You don’t want to overdo changes – small steps in key areas can make a big difference.

Above all, rejoice that God visited your teen in Youth Camp! It was real, and it will matter.

By Andy Farmer

Last week in our Acts series Jared spoke on the Gospel breaking out into the Gentile world as Peter came to speak to the household of Cornelius (Acts 10-11). You can catch the message at: http://www.covfel.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=120107

One of the main points of the passage is that the Gospel moving beyond its Jewish roots resulted in a transforming moment in human history. God was making salvation available to all mankind – regardless of race, ethnicity, or social standing. The Gospel invasion into the Cornelius household is the end of prejudice. Jared defined prejudice as when we give our own preferences and perspectives authority in how we accept or reject others. For a faithful Jew like Peter to fraternize with Gentiles was defiling – to potentially accept a Gentile as a brother was an abomination.

As I listened to Jared I was thinking, ‘who is the Gentile in my world?’ Since I’m a Gentile myself I have to go farther afield than Peter to answer the question. I think of someone of another race than me – but I live and fellowship in a multiracial church so that doesn’t seem to be a big challenge in my day to day experience. And then I thought – the Gentile in my world is gay.

It is clear from Scripture that Peter had a more than passing familiarity with the Gentile, yet to him they were patently unclean. I’ve had a variety of experiences with people in the homosexual community. I have had acquaintances and co-workers who were openly gay. I had homosexual professors who served as my academic mentors in college. Tragically, I have had childhood friends and even relatives who died of AIDS contracted in the homosexual lifestyle. There are brothers and sisters of mine in the Lord who struggle with homosexual temptation. I also have been the target of accusations that I’m a bigot and a fascist because my Christian faith defines homosexual behavior as sin.

In short, I’ve had plenty of reasons to have conflicting attitudes about gay people. And those reasons come not just from life experience but from a heart that recoils against people who seem different than me in ways that unsettle me. Like Peter, it can be hard for me to see my personal gentile as a real person whom God has created in his image. At best he or she is profoundly different – there is a gulf between us where no bridge is possible. At worst my mind conjures up the radical, anti-Christian activist who seems to delight to tear down the moral institutions that matter to me most.

So homosexuals make great modern day Gentiles. But if you’re perceptive you might object and say something like, ‘the gay person is not the same as Cornelius the centurion. Cornelius was born a Gentile; homosexuality is a choice.’ Even if that’s true (and you’ll get some pretty strong responses if you put that as your Facebook status), there’s a larger point here. In Acts 10:28 Peter made a radical confession; God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. When God declared the Gentiles ‘clean’, he wasn’t declaring them saved. He was declaring them eligible to receive the Gospel. In other words, there was no sin or state of being that set any person outside the call of grace. Whether a homosexual repents of his or her sins (rejection of Christ, not simply sexual preference and behavior) or not, we should see all men and women as worthy of our mercy and beyond the pale of our prejudice. We must never forget that somewhere, somehow, we are someone else’s Gentile.

Who is the Gentile to you? Who would you cross the street to avoid? Who would you instinctively dismiss from meaningful personal relationship? Who do you fear or reject simply because of what they are to you? Who in your mind is unclean and ineligible for the only hope for all mankind? There is a Cornelius experience out there for you – are you, like Peter, willing to go and meet it?

By Andy Farmer

Last Thursday night Dave Harvey had the opportunity to participate in a live video chat with Scott Anderson on Desiring God Live, John Piper’s regular forum for discussion on relevant topics in the culture.  Typically this is an extended conversation with Dr. Piper himself, where he fields questions from the interview as well as responds to live twitter questions from people looking on.  Dave talked about themes around his book Rescuing Ambition. 

 

It’s great to see Dave interacting with the larger Christian community on our behalf. 

Here is the link:  http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2580

By Andy Farmer

Here’s a great quote for the days of battle from Herman Bavinck, a theologian of the 19th Century who deserves to be known by 21st Century folks. It is courtesy of http://www.firstimportance.org.

“Christ is our holiness in the same sense in which he is our righteousness. He is a complete and all-sufficient Savior. He does not accomplish his work halfway but saves us really and completely. He does not rest until, after pronouncing his acquittal in our conscience, he has also imparted full holiness and glory to us.  By his righteousness, accordingly, he does not just restore us to the state of the just who will go scot-free in the judgment of God, in order then to leave us to ourselves to reform ourselves after God’s image and to merit eternal life. But Christ has accomplished everything. He bore for us the guilt and punishment of sin, placed himself under the law to secure eternal life for us, and then arose from the grave to communicate himself to us in all his fullness for both our righteousness and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). The holiness that must completely become ours therefore fully awaits us in Christ.”

—Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Academic, 2008), 4:248

By Andy Farmer

I really got into the World Cup this summer. I couldn’t see a lot of games live, but caught the condensed versions of most matches on the internet. I also had the chance to be in Europe to watch some of the knock-out round of games with Germans, Spaniards, Italians, etc. That was a blast! After the US went down, I was rooting for Ghana, who lost, then Paraguay, who lost, then Germany, who lost, then Netherlands, who lost. But it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

Now that it’s over, I’m experiencing something of a void in my life. After much self-therapy I realize what I’m experiencing is vuvuzela deprivation. I just can’t make it without the drone! Maybe you’re struggling with vuvuzela deprivation as well. If so, I’ve found some great treatment options. Daily doses of the following videos will get you through withdrawal. Trust me, there are better days ahead.

Treatment One: Vuvuzela for the sophisticated taste:


Treatment Two: Vuvuzela for the adventurous spirit





There! Don’t you feel better already?

By Andy Farmer

One of the guys on the team sent me the following link. Did you ever wonder who would actually live in the rooms and houses that are created in magazines to advertise furniture and home decorating? Somebody has answered that question in some humorous ways on the following web site:  http://www.catalogliving.tumblr.com/

By Andy Farmer

I spent a couple of days hiking in the mountains last week. Though as a pastor I love a life of community, there’s a part of me that really loves to get away into the open spaces. No emails or cell phones, no misunderstandings, no need to be careful what you say. No need to say anything at all. The only thing I’m listening to is the sound of the wind and crunch of rock and soil beneath my feet. My personal space expands to the horizon. Alone on the trail my mind clears and my thoughts are freed from the shackles of to dos and appointments and the buzzing noise of the hurried life. Who needs community when you have communion with nature?

But as I was walking I began to realize that the world of the great outdoors and the world of community are not as polar opposite as I might think. With the hike come the blisters – those festering irritations that threaten your progress and make each step an act of discipline. Life in community can have blisters as well. Folks can rub us the wrong way just by their very proximity to our lives – too close for comfort. And the small irritations left untended can rupture into offenses and confusion that stumble us in our tracks.

Whether you’re out on the trail or in cozy confines of community there are always pests as well. Outdoors they are the gnats and flies and other swarmy things that create a solar system around our heads. There is nothing like pausing to catch your breath only to have some flying bug go spelunking in your throat or windpipe. Life in community has enough pests to choke a rhinoceros. I’m not talking about pests in the form of people. I’m thinking of thought pests – worries about our appearance, cravings for attention or appreciation, anxiety over what people think about us. These pests aren’t content to buzz around our heads – they infest us from the inside.

Then there is the weather – winds coming out of nowhere, whipping up dust, pushing against your forward progress. Anybody who does any amount of hiking will tell you not to trust a cloudless sky. Storm clouds rumble up over the mountains changing a pleasant walk into a frigid and muddy ordeal. To spend time in nature is to welcome its challenges. And to spend time in community is to weather storms as well. In community there are oppositional winds, blowing us toward discouragement and fatigue. We can be caught up in storms of disagreement, or bogged down in the quagmire of relational conflict.

But whether we get away into the great outdoors or throw ourselves into the world of community, we do it for the beauty. We’re willing to put up with the inconveniences of our environment for the experience it brings us. For those of us who prefer our solitude in large doses, community is our place of reality and growth. For those who crave the support of community, solitude can remind us that being constantly in the crowd makes it hard to quiet our souls. The beauty of life comes in the God given rhythm of solitude and community, working together to keep us dependent on our Savior and not our environment. We hear his voice in the stillness and in the voices of those around us. We learn of him in private devotion and public worship. We see his expansiveness in creation and his intimacy in community.

As men let’s live the adventure wherever God chooses to make it happen.

by Andy Farmer

Watch out Blog-o-sphere – a new blog has been launched into the firmament!  Yours Truly has just started up his own blog.  Are you looking for the personal wit and wisdom of Andy Farmer unleashed from the editorial confines of the CFC blog?  Are you ready for penetrating cultural analysis?  Deep theological reflections in concise everyday language?  Sound biblical counsel for the challenges of daily life?  If that’s what you think is missing in the blogs you read….

You won’t find it on my blog. 

I’m calling it I See Dead People.  It is a blog devoted to one single purpose – to chronicle my quirky hobby of graveyard tourism.  What do I mean?  Well, I have a friend from high school whom I still keep up with and over time he developed a hobby of getting autographs and his picture taken with famous people.  He’s got a great collection.  I do kind of the same thing, except all my famous people are dead and therefore not available for autographs. 

So why this fascination with the dearly departed?  Here’s my explanation from the blog: 

Why this blog?  I like grave searching.  Why grave searching?  Maybe because I'm a history guy and this is tangible history.  Or maybe because pondering the inevitable earthly end of the great and the small helps me use my short time here to greater purpose.  You might call it odd; I call it tourism for the eternally minded.

Every month or so I'll put up a grave shot with some commentary so you can see dead people with me. 

I’m kicking off the posts with Jonathan Edwards.  But in future months you’ll have a chance to learn about: 

• The secret connection between A. W. Tozer and Lebron James.
• The well travelled head of Oliver Cromwell
• The Westminster Abbey of racehorses
• The common ground of Stonewall Jackson and a pioneer missionary to the Muslim world. 

And much, much more.  How can you resist?  And it’s only once a month – like a full moon. 

If you want to check it or subscribe just go to:  http://iseedeadpeople-andy.blogspot.com/.  Don’t try to Google to find me – I’m not that popular and you’ll run into some really weird stuff – comparatively speaking.  After all, I make a hobby of seeing dead people. 

By Andy Farmer

 

I came across a recent blog by Kevin DeYoung on the Gospel Coalition where he shows a clip from the movie Amistad.  Amistad was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 1997.  If you don’t know the story, here’s a brief synopsis from IMDb. 

Amistad is the name of a slave ship traveling from Cuba to the U.S. in 1839.  It is carrying a cargo of Africans who have been sold into slavery in Cuba, taken on board, and chained in the cargo hold of the ship.  As the ship is crossing from Cuba to the U.S., Cinque, who was a tribal leader in Africa, leads a mutiny and takes over the ship.  They continue to sail, hoping to find help when they land.  Instead, when they reach the United States, they are imprisoned as runaway slaves.  They don't speak a word of English, and it seems like they are doomed to die for killing their captors when an abolitionist lawyer decides to take their case, arguing that they were free citizens of another country and not slaves at all.  The case finally gets to the Supreme Court, where John Quincy Adams makes an impassioned and eloquent plea for their release.

The movie is rated “R” – appropriately, for some graphic depictions of cruelty to slaves, but the vast majority of movie is about the people involved in a situation that tests the values and convictions of all involved.  Interestingly, the clip DeYoung presents is a remarkable presentation of the Gospel through the experience of two imprisoned slaves who are trying to make sense of the images portrayed in a picture Bible they find in a church.  It is well worth watching.

 

A Gospel for All Nations, watch HERE

By Andy Farmer

 

I’m fascinated with myself.  What I mean is that I’m fascinated with people, of which I am one.  I’m fascinated by what makes us tick and why we don’t all tick alike.  The other day I was thinking about how I think – why some things seem easy to remember (like the lyrics to pop songs that I didn’t even like when they were popular) and other things seem totally unretainable (like how to work my point and click camera that is supposed to be so easy it doesn’t need directions.)  In doing this little thinking exercise I found myself stumbling into clarity that I didn’t’ expect.  I don’t know if this qualifies as insight, or even if it is valid, but it seems clear to me so I’m going with it.  So here goes.

 

There are two types of thinkers – Flow Thinkers and Stuff Thinkers. 

 

Flow Thinkers take in information and flood it with emotion and feelings.  This turns information into mental fluid which can slosh around our brains and fill in wherever there is space for it.  The great thing about Flow thinking is that we can blend things that wouldn’t seem natural to go together and come up with really creative stuff.  I think that’s what happens with artists.  Artists are Flow Thinkers (at least in my analysis).  They take in information, puree it on a sensory/emotional level, blend it with other fluid information they have sloshing around in their brains and then spray it out in some form that is totally particular to them.  When Flow Thinking works well it produces art and originality.  When it doesn’t it produces relational chaos and unemployment.

 

Stuff Thinkers take in information and distill out subjectivity so that what is left is easily quantifiable and manageable and objective stuff.  This stuff can be readily stored in pre-organized categories for future use.  As need arises, Stuff Thinkers can go to the Stuff Warehouse of the Brain and pull material that is appropriate for the task at hand.  Because it is pre-molded, stuff can be arranged or built into a complex of ideas or strategies that can then be converted into logical actions and decisions.  Whether they have the education or not, Stuff Thinkers are engineers at heart.  They will spend a great deal of time and energy making sure they’ve got the right stuff to work with and are putting it together in the most systematic way.  When Stuff Thinking works well you get order and progress.  When it doesn’t you get … relational chaos and unemployment.

 

Maybe I’m oversimplifying a bit here.  Maybe.  But I do believe that we have a way we like to organize the information of life that seems to work for us.  But we may be totally unaware of the benefits of thinking outside of our little Flow or Stuff mentalities.  We may have little appreciation of the way others think.  And all too often we may be oblivious to the downside of our thinking habits.  

 

Proverbs 28:26 tells us that “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.”

 

Maybe when we’re thinking about our thinking we should remember that wisdom includes knowing how to keep that which should stay flow as flow, and that which should stay stuff as stuff.     

By Andy Farmer

 

Opening day of the 2010 baseball season is less than a week away!  That means summer is now officially beginning – at least in my mind.  For us Phillies fans it means looking forward to - dare I say expecting – another World Series run.  It wasn’t too long ago that a winning record seemed like a pipe dream.  Now anything less than AT LEAST playing baseball in November will be a season falling short.  Are we spoiled or what?

 

That’s the funny thing about being a baseball fan.  It’s a game designed as a grind, a relentless march toward ultimate victory with 162 individual battles engaged along the way.  No other sport requires a fan to live and die on a nearly daily basis for so long, hoping that enough little victories add up to a grand parade at the end of the campaign.  Celebrating a World Series Championship isn’t so much about conquest as it is about survival – last man standing gets to claim the spoils.

 

So to help prepare us for the war ahead I wanted to kick off the season with a story – something to remind us that life is more than the game.  I think this one works.  It’s the story of Chris Coghlan, a brother in Christ who also happens to be the reigning National League Rookie of the Year. Read the story HERE.

By Andy Farmer

I’m dropping in a blog by C.J. Mahaney today from about a year ago on Self-sufficiency and the battle with prayer.  I have two reasons.  First, in responding to the collective sense we have as a church that we want to grow in prayer as we move into the book of Acts; this is a great bit of wisdom on how to make sure we don’t simply depend on formal prayer times.  The second is to highlight the blog itself.  I find it is very helpful, not only to keep up with what’s going on in our family of churches, but to be fed by helpful thoughts from an array of insightful folks.  

The link for the blog is here.

And here’s the post from 3/31/09:

As the typical day unfolds, the unexpected expectedly happens.  With one eye on the clock and another on our schedule, we can often watch our planning derail throughout the day.  And as I realize my plans for the day will not be flawlessly executed, my soul has a tendency to be weighed down by accumulating cares.  But rather than humbling myself as I should, I find myself vulnerable to self-sufficiency, at risk of relying upon my limited strength and wisdom.  This is pride.

If we are not watchful, our burdens will subtly accumulate over time, and will gradually weigh down our soul.  But it doesn’t need to be this way.  There is a biblical alternative.  

Casting Pride and Casting Cares

Scripture calls us to cast all our anxieties on God, because he cares for us.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  (1 Peter 5:6–7, ESV)

Casting all my cares upon the Lord is a means of humbling myself before the Lord.  In reading these passages we discover that casting our cares upon the Lord falls under the command to humble ourselves.  Casting our cares is an expression of humility.  When I fail to cast my cares upon him, I display prideful self-sufficiency.

A Few Words of Prayer

As I make my way from meeting to meeting, decision to decision, and phone call to phone call, I find the counsel of Charles Spurgeon very helpful.  “I always feel it well,” he wrote, “to put a few words of prayer between everything I do.”  Throughout his busy days, Spurgeon scattered words of prayer between each activity, a model I have sought to emulate over the years.  

The content of my “few words of prayer” is not unique and if you overheard them, you wouldn’t be impressed.  I am a simple man and when I think of casting all my cares it is a simple acknowledgement of my dependence upon God and my need of grace throughout the day.

But the very act of pausing in a busy day to pray is an act of weakening pride in my life, acknowledging that I am a dependent creature.  I am not self-sufficient.

And taking a brief moment to humble myself in prayer makes all the difference in my soul throughout the day.  

At its root, weariness is often the result of pride and self-sufficiency in my life.  When I neglect casting my cares upon the Lord, the heavy fatigue of weariness will settle into my soul.  

Casting our cares upon the Lord and humbling ourselves before him are critical activities, regardless of how busy we are.  And this practice cannot be replaced by hours of careful planning and scheduling.

How about you?  Do you follow the practice of Spurgeon and “put a few words of prayer” between everything you do throughout each day?  Are you casting cares or accumulating burdens?  Are you humbling yourself before the Lord or displaying self-sufficiency?

By  Andy Farmer

This is the second post reflecting on a book I recently completed.  It is a small, 103 page biblical theology on the Kingdom of God and the church entitled, well, The Kingdom of God and the Church.  The author is Geerhardus Vos, a Dutch/American theologian of the turn of the 20th Century who taught at Princeton Seminary along side the last of the orthodox lions of that great institution, B. B Warfield and J. Gresham Machen.  Vos is known as the ‘Father of Reformed Biblical Theology’, which might not mean a lot to some folks.  But his works on how the story of redemption plays through the entire Bible are foundational for understanding the grand purpose and beauty of the Scriptures as they reveal the Savior, Jesus Christ.
 
In this book Vos has accomplished an extraordinary task of taking the massive theological topic of the Kingdom of God and pressing its essential Biblical theology into a small and very readable text.  I ended up using it in my devotions and found myself regularly stopping and pondering the deep significance of some of the truths he was offering in small measure throughout.  Here’s another statement that spoke volumes to me.  

Faith and unbelief are experiential states and acts in which the whole spiritual condition of the individual comes to light.  (100)
    
This statement comes near the end of the book, following a wonderful discussion on repentance and faith.  To Vos, repentance and faith are "the two main aspects of the kingdom, righteousness and the saving grace of God, translated into terms of subjective human experience.”  In evangelism we talk about bringing the Gospel to the unbeliever; in mission we talk about reaching the unbelieving world.  Yet I’m not sure we think well about what ‘unbelieving’ means.  What we encounter in experience in evangelism and mission is not people who see themselves as ‘unbelievers’ but as people who ‘believe differently’.  And when we accept that premise as the starting point of outreach, we find ourselves trading in a market that places no value in what we offer.  We may begin to debate on the superiority of our message, be tempted to offer attractive temporal benefits of our system, or adapt our message to the tastes of those with whom we speak.  In any case we succumb to the fallacy of ‘relative unbelief’ – that resistance to God is something that can be overcome with strategy, persistence or our own great example.  But Vos presents faith as a gift of God, the sovereign activity by which He overcomes the sinful unbelieving heart with the saving power of the Gospel.  Unbelief is not alternative belief.  It is a spiritual deadness of our soul to God – an experiential state as well as a religious one – which can only be remedied by divine intervention.  

It might not be good outreach strategy to address our neighbor, co-worker, family member to their face as a ‘rank unbeliever’.  It certainly doesn’t seem loving.  But in our minds and hearts and prayers we need to keep in mind that faith can’t be teased out by our efforts.  Saving faith is God’s doing and we are privileged beyond all reason to participate in the sowing of the seeds which give birth to it.  

This statement takes on a whole different connotation when I think about personal ministry to my brothers and sisters.  At times I’ll ask somebody if they are struggling with unbelief.  Often the response is something like, ‘I’m sure I am’, followed by a ‘but what I’m really struggling with is…..’  But to Vos unbelief is an ‘experiential state and act in which the whole spiritual condition of the individual comes to light’.  It isn’t something you can skip over in the inbox of the soul to get to the real problem.  If the key to life in Christ is faith, then in some sense the key to struggles in life is unbelief.  This doesn’t mean that effective pastoral or personal ministry is summed up in squashing unbelief.  But it does seem that to truly help people we need to be able to discern how the ‘whole spiritual condition’ of those we are counseling is affected by unbelief.  And it seems that we need to be able to address truth to the specific manifestations and strongholds of unbelief in a person’s life.  Effective ministry is helping people appropriate honest and grace empowered faith to the difficulties of life.  Our practical theology of faith must contain biblically informed remedies against the dissipating effects of unbelief.  Vos has given us a one sentence truth agenda that can serve us in every evangelistic and personal ministry situation we face.   

By Andy Farmer

Over the next two weeks I’m going to blog some thoughts that come from a book I recently completed.  It is a small, 103 page biblical theology on the Kingdom of God and the church entitled, well, The Kingdom of God and the Church.  The author is Geerhardus Vos, a Dutch/American theologian of the turn of the 20th Century who taught at Princeton Seminary along side the last of the orthodox lions of that great institution, B. B Warfield and J. Gresham Machen.  Vos is known as the ‘Father of Reformed Biblical Theology’, which might not mean a lot to some folks.  But his works on how the story of redemption plays through the entire Bible are foundational for understanding the grand purpose and beauty of the Scriptures as they reveal the Savior, Jesus Christ.  

In this book Vos has accomplished an extraordinary task of taking the massive theological topic of the Kingdom of God and pressing its essential Biblical theology into a small and very readable text.  I ended up using it in my devotions and found myself regularly stopping and pondering the deep significance of some of the truths he was offering in small measure throughout.  

As a minister I come to this book with two intertwined concerns - the church in its culture and the people in their church.  In other words, I read a book like this for it’s relevance to how I lead my church in its mission and how I care for God’s sheep as an under-shepherd of the flock.  The missional and pastoral calls can seem to be at odds in practical ministry, but they are always in view to me.  To emphasize one over the other is to undermine the distinctive character of the church as God’s missionary flock in the earth.  The impact of this book is that in numerous places Vos skillfully addressed this dual call in ways that present compelling and practical insights for my own ministry.  Vos’ work, though written in another generation and addressing the challenges to church in that day, is tremendously relevant in my context.  

In these two blogs I’m going to simply quote a sentence from Vos and reflect on how it speaks to me both as a pastor and as a follower of Christ.  

“The Kingdom is a conception which must of necessity remain unintelligible and unacceptable to every view of the world and of religion which magnifies man at the expense of God.” (p. 52)

The context of this statement is Vos’ argument that the kingdom is not an abstract idea – it is the manifestation of the sovereign grace of God.  It is a profoundly missiological statement; amazingly apropos for the church in our therapeutic and post-modern culture.  In Vos’ time it appears there was a great effort in the church to present the moral logic and historic standing of Christianity as a basis for significance in an increasingly skeptical world.  Vos hammers any instinct that would make divine truth subject to modernity’s man-centered search for truth.  But in doing so he also, unknowingly, takes aim at our relativistic cultural milieu as well.  The world into which my church has been called to witness is happily accepting of who we are and what we teach as long as it isn’t oppositional to other truth claims.  We live and minister and evangelize in a world where God makes no sense unless he/she/it exists to magnify (bring glory to) man.  But the Gospel magnifies God at the expense of man (read humanity), and to our culture that is ‘unintelligible and unacceptable’ religiosity.  Vos’ statement above is a missiological gauntlet thrown down at any ministry that contextualizes the message away from its God-centered offensiveness.  

I find that this is an equally stringent medicine for pastoral care and personal ministry.  One of the givens in personal ministry is that life problems inevitably draw our attention away from God (his character, his commands and promises, his power) and turn our gaze inward upon self.  One of the ways my compassion gets tested is when I realize that the person I am speaking to clearly identifies themselves as a Christian but seemingly has no sense of connection between their situation and the God in whom they believe.  I want to talk about the relevance of the Gospel to their situation; they want to talk about what will fix what afflicts them.  Vos pastors me here, because he reminds me that when man gets to the center of life, the Gospel of the Kingdom is inevitably unintelligible and unacceptable.  Simply heaping kingdom command and kingdom promise on top of the instinctual man-centeredness of trial and temptation will simply not work.  So ministry for me must be a compassionate deconstruction of self-centeredness with Spirit empowered truth.  It isn’t expedient, but it is the way Jesus modeled the kingdom call of personal ministry.

By Andy Farmer

 

Two Sundays ago Dave Harvey preached a message on humility and ambition that was developed out of the study he did for his forthcoming book Rescuing Ambition.  I thought it was so timely that I’m taking the rare step of including the Take It Home Questions right from the message in today’s blog.  Guys, we need to take heed to this – all of us! 

 

If you want to hear the message in its entirety, it’s on our web site LISTEN HERE.  Also, check this out as well.  It’s DTH talking to the Acts 29 brothers about his upcoming time in May with them at their church planting boot camp. 

 

http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/the-churchs-sins-are-centered-around-sloth-dave-harvey-on-ambition/

 

Speaker:  Dave Harvey 

Title:  The Shrinking Christian 

Text:  Phil. 2:1-11

 

Main Point:  It’s really huge to be small

 

Key Ideas

 

Rivalry is how our self interest negatively affects relationships.  Rivalry is about both a tendency to exalt ourselves above others on the one hand, and being jealous of others being exalted above us on the other.  

 

This passage is a call to humility (v. 1-4) followed by the most amazing motivation possible (v. 5-11)

 

How can we catch a vision to embrace smallness?

 

1. Perceive how Christ counted himself (v. 5-8)
   • Christ emptied himself for us in a way we can never empty ourselves.  His is an unrepeatable emptying of his glory to carry our guilt.
   • But we can follow his example of emptying himself in ways that bring him glory.  We can empty ourselves of our presumed rights, our expected privileges and out need for the esteem of others.

 

2. Count others higher than ourselves (v. 3)
   • Our concern for others should never be overshadowed by our concern for ourselves.
   • We can count others needs as important
   • We can count others opinions as important
   • We can count the correction of others as important

 

3. Make it a goal to help others be counted as successful (v. 4)
   • We should live with a vision to make those under us successful (children, younger siblings, employees, folks serving with us in ministry, etc.)
   • We should live with a vision to make those over us successful (parents, employers, coaches, ministry team leaders, etc)
   • Let us liberate our agenda for ourselves so that it includes the success of others.  God’s interest includes both our interests and the interests of others.  

 

Fellowship Starters

 

Treasure - Application to stir our love for Christ

 
                    1.  Is there anything you heard in this message that seemed as if God was speaking to a specific issue in your life?  

2. How has becoming a Christian changed your view of comparison with other people?

 

Grow - Application to stir our obedience to Christ

 

3. Have you ever found yourself in rivalry with others in the past:
   • By seeking to promote yourself in social climbing?
   • In letting competitive desires get the best of you?
   • In struggling with jealousy over what somebody else has that you don’t have?
   • In struggling with resentment over not being recognized for something you’ve done?
   • In struggling with discouragement by comparing yourself with somebody else?

 

4. How can we tell when a desire to achieve things or succeed at something can be pursued without selfish rivalry?

 

Proclaim - Application to stir our witness for Christ

 

5. How could this message apply to your situation at work or school, etc. where you might have an opportunity to count an unbeliever as greater than yourself or pursue their success?

By Andy Farmer

I’ve really enjoyed watching these Olympic Games.  And not just because the US has been rocking it on the medal stand.  Some of the things I’ve enjoyed most are not involving US athletes.  In contrast to other years, it seems like there is relatively little politicking and whining going on.  Also, it seems that except for the unexpected ‘agony of defeat moments’ where an athlete falls or fails to finish, it is taking truly great performances to win medals.  Competitor after competitor is doing a personal best, only to have that topped by somebody else’s personal best.  And that’s what makes for good sports, no matter who wins.

This brings me to what is still in my mind the greatest Olympic moment of all – the 1980 US Hockey Gold medal.  In the movie “Miracle” Kurt Russell does a great Herb Brooks, including one of the all time best rallying speeches in the history of sports.  You can check it out here (note there is one bit of mild coarse speech in this).

But after you watch that you’ve got to check out this version of the speech delivered by 5 year old Josh Sacco – it’s outstanding!  They interviewed him on SportsCenter and he talked about how he went and delivered the speech to the US Hockey team before they played the Canadians this past weekend. Is that cool or what?

And finally, if you haven’t had enough, here’s Herb Brooks played by Kurt Russell, with voiceover by Josh Sacco.  

I love the Olympics!

By Andy Farmer

 

I don’t tend to like to make social commentary on a blog, but I couldn’t resist.  Here it is a couple of weeks away from the Winter Olympics and I’ve been presented with an ethical dilemma.  I’m a life long Olympics fan (both summer and winter games) and over my history I have learned that controversy comes with the Games.  I have vague memories of the 1968 Games and the black power salutes on the 100 meter medal stand.  Politics has always been an issue – who can forget the absurd boycotts of the 1980 and 84 games.  And of course you’ve always had the judging problems and the performance enhancing drug scandals.  So I’m no purist when it comes to ‘the Olympic Ideal’. 

 

But the Fox Fur Predicament has me in a no – win situation.  Here’s the deal.  US figure skater Johnny Weir has decided his uniform of choice should include, among various swirls and sequins, fox fur trim.  But now People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have pressured Weir to drop the fur.  Here’s the story along with a picture so you get the idea of what Mr. Weir is styling these days and why this is a big issue.  http://www.idahostatesman.com/450/story/1059905.html

 

 

So why is this my problem?  Well, like I said, I don’t mind controversy in my sports, but I like to land on one side of the issue.  And this one has me flummoxed.  Do I (assuming I ever had the chance to make my case to Weir or PETA) say,

 

“PETA, do us all a favor.  Get Johnny to dump the fir.  While you’re at it see if you can talk him into a hoodie and sweats. 

 

Or, do I say to Johnny,

 

Listen Sport; don’t let the Animal ACLU push you around.  It’s a free country – wear whatever you want – just bring home the Gold!

 

Either place I land some sensibility in me gets messed with.  I don’t really want animal rights zealots (as much as I love animals) brow-beating people on their costume choices.  But I don’t want my USA male athletes prancing around in fur trim tights.  Probably the only thing that would satisfy me is to see JW skating around in a hoodie and sweats in a routine set to Ted Nugent songs.  But that may be more than I can hope for with two weeks left to go before the Olympics. 

 

On a related note, here’s a picture of Jill and me at the International Olympic Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland a couple of years ago.

 

Bring on the Games!

By Andy Farmer

One thing that happens in the blog world is the emergence of certain blog trails, where an issue gets picked up and added to through several sources.  I came across one of these trails a couple of days ago involving television journalist Britt Hume. 

I picked up the scent on Josh Harris’ blog, where he focused on some amazing comments made by Hume on his Christian Faith.

Here’s Hume on being a Christian,

Christianity is uniquely and especially about redemption and forgiveness.  That is what the cornerstone of what the faith is about.  Now other faiths aren't hostile to the idea, but think of what the message of Christ and Christianity is.  It is that the God of the universe sent His only begotten Son, who died a hideous death on the cross, to atone for all of our sins.  And we are thereby offered through that act a new covenant in which we are offered forgiveness and redemption on a continuing basis in return for our faith in God and our continuing efforts to live the Christian life.  That is a unique doctrine.

Pretty amazing stuff.  But Josh’s blog also led me to Justin Taylor’s site where he comments on an interview Britt did with Bill O’Reilly where he comments on things he said regarding Tiger Woods and his need for Christ.  You can check that out here.

Taylor’s blog gives more background on this well known figure who retired from the top of his profession so that he could better serve the Lord in his family and in community. 

Let’s pray for men like Britt Hume who, though he is no longer reporting from the White House, are seeking to make good use of the public platform God has given them in our culture. 

By Andy Farmer

 

This past Saturday Jared spoke at our Cross Culture youth meeting on ‘Making Much of the Fifth.’ (Listen here) It was a great message exhorting the teens to see the grace contained in the Fifth commandment to honor parents found in Deut. 5:16.  He derives his message title from a quote by Thomas Watson,

 

“He in whose heart godliness lives makes as much conscience of the fifth commandment as of the first.”  (Thomas Watson) 

 

In our Extra Point for parent’s application, we looked at a parent’s responsibility in helping children “make much of the Fifth.” Extra point here. In his letter to the Colossians (mirroring his instructions to the Ephesians), Paul calls children to honor their parents followed by this call to fathers (and mothers):

 

Do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged (Col. 3:21). 

 

We recognized that there is an operating assumption that our kids want to honor us.  Nothing shames a kid more than a parent whom he or she doesn’t think is honorable.  Your kids want to obey the Fifth because they love you.  And they want to obey the Fifth because they are learning to love God. 

 

In response to Jared’s message to the teens, here are Five Ways to Fuel a Fruitful Fifth in your Family

 

1.      Be united in your parenting approach.  In a home where parents are at odds over how to raise kids, things tend to break down into a debate over which parent is more right.  In a united home, the issue is not which parent is right.  It is whether the parents’ position aligns with God’s position.  Where this happens, there is clarity of care and leadership.  If the teen is struggling with parental decisions, he or she can make appeals, knowing that neither parent’s strong opinion will necessarily rule the matter. 

 

Being united may be more important in the long term than being right in every situation.  It’s easy to feel right and argue for it.  It’s hard to be united.  To be united takes listening; it takes humility.  It takes self-assessment.  It takes realizing that we’re wrong sometimes.  Believe it or not, you don’t always have to be right to earn your teen’s honor. 

 

2.      Leave room for emerging personality in your teen

 

One of the hard things to discern in parenting is whether a teen is fighting your authority or expressing personality.  Often it’s a mixture, but if we always treat our kids’ tendency to be independent as rebellion we’ll miss opportunities to help guide them into healthy individuality.  To cultivate honor in our teens we need to learn the art of wise guidance of who they are becoming and not seek to mold them into a pre-determined idea of what they should be.

 

3.      Be watchful of fear and frustration in your parenting

 

We portray in our words and actions the size of God and the character of God.  If we are parenting in fear we teach them that God isn’t really able to take care of his children.  If we parent in frustration we teach our kids that God is doesn’t have any room in his plan for our failure.  Besides prayer, the most important thing parents of teens can do is help each other guard their hearts.  If we see spouse falling into anger or fear patterns in relating to our teens we can help them retain an apprehension of the Gospel for themselves, so that grace is imparted to our teens. 

 

4.      Learn to be a voice in your teen’s life

 

Are we a mouth or a voice to our teens?  A mouth is always jabbering, always commenting, always opining.  A mouth always assumes the best way to handle things is through words – and the more the better.   

 

A voice is concerned with what it says and how it is heard.  A voice doesn’t want to just say things; it wants to make a difference.  Voices love to ask questions, help make sense, fill in meaning.  A voice realizes that sometimes direct confrontational words are necessary for the situation and that stating something to arrest behavior or address attitudes is the right approach.  But the voice never wants to be turned into a mouth.  Teens filter out mouths.  They open up to voices.  Let’s be a voice.

 

5.      Parent as if the teen years are transformation, not trial.

 

As we move through the teen years, it can be tempting to think that the ‘best years’ of parenting are behind us.  We can look back to those first steps, the first words, the adorable adulation that our kids showered upon us, and think that raising teens is the beginning of the end of family.  They seem to need us less, even want us less.  Home becomes the base of operations; the greatest need our teens seem to have is for food, transport, and communication with the outside world.  At times, parenting teens can seem like a trial. 

 

But it’s good to remind ourselves that the teen years are not about family ending, but about family maturing.  We’re all maturing – together.  For me as a parent, I realize that I can’t become what I’m meant to be without the process of my teen becoming what he or she is meant to be.  Our lives are forever linked in God’s plan.  I need the teenage years as much as my teen does.  As he or she matures, so will I; that’s how our amazing God works in families.  And we are all meant to look back at these years and see how they were truly formative for future generations of our family together.    

By Andy Farmer

 

Over the past year I’ve had the privilege of developing a relationship with a number of men from around the country who are building models of biblical counseling in the local church.  These fellow pastors are from a variety of churches – Baptists, Presbyterians, Bible Churches, Acts 29, etc,.  What links us together is a passion to see the Scriptures as the basis for the care of souls, and the care of souls taking place in the church. 

 

Last Friday we all engaged in a conference call where we were seeking to hammer out a common understanding of what we mean when we say ‘biblical counseling’.  You see, for someone to say they do Christian counseling doesn’t always mean the Bible is the ultimate authority in how they diagnose and treat the problems people face.  Often Christian counseling is based in a secular understanding of the human condition - and therefore treatment.  In much Christian counseling the Bible is used mostly as illustration material.

 

But even to say ‘Biblical counseling’ is something that needs thought.  Does biblical counseling mean that we only deal with problems that are explicitly talked about in the Bible?  Does it mean we can solve all problems simply by finding the right chapter and verse to apply?  What are we thinking when we think about Biblical counseling?

 

So, we were all thinking out loud.  To cut to the chase, we didn’t somehow come up with that one twitter-length definition that summed it all up.  But we did realize in our thinking out loud session what an amazing thing true Biblical counseling is – and how radical it is in our day and age.

 

For example,

 

When we say Biblical counseling we are saying that every person is made in the image of God, and therefore all people in their problems have some connection to the purposes of the God who made them. 

 

When we say Biblical counseling we are saying that God has invaded the world in the person of Jesus Christ.  Every problem we face will find its present meaning and ultimate resolution in personal relationship to Jesus Christ on the basis of his life, death, and resurrection for us and our eternal salvation.  The Gospel is the key to Biblical counseling.

 

When we say Biblical counseling we are saying that the agenda for counseling is not set by the counselor or counselee.  It has been pre-set by God himself, who is at work transforming people into his likeness by His Holy Spirit through their experiences, weaknesses, choices, relationships – every facet of their lives.   

 

When we say Biblical counseling we are saying that nobody’s problem can be understood in purely individual terms.  We are created, and saved, as people in relationship with others.  So Biblical counseling always has in view the person in community, not just the isolated soul.

 

We can say a lot of other things about Biblical counseling, but we can at least say what I just said.  And I’ll guarantee you won’t find those things said in most places people go for counseling. 

By Andy Farmer

In my devotions these days one of the books that is feeding me is J. C. Ryle’s classic book “Holiness.”  Ryle is writing in the 1800’s to address tendencies in his Christian culture for people to go to extremes.  One extreme is to see holiness is something we ‘get’ through some powerful spiritual experience – what was then called a ‘higher life’.  The other is to view holiness as a comparative thing – it’s OK as long as long as you don’t get too carried away with it.  In other words, Ryle was writing to people like you and me.  

In his third chapter he attempts to unpack the practical reality of holiness.  Reading his description has become a great test of my own desires for holiness.  Men, as we head into the new year let’s put ourselves under the Ryle’s practical holiness test.  Where is God putting his attention for our holiness in the coming year?  What clear deficiencies need to be addressed if we are to grow in practical holiness?

The following list is a summary of Ryle’s description of practical holiness with an application question to consider following each item.  Perhaps there are one or two items on Ryle’s list that the Lord has put on your list for 2010.  If you’re searching for some good sound reading for life change – get the book.  It is a true classic.

Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture.

• What role is the Bible currently playing in the way you make decisions?  

A holy man will endeavor to shun every known sin and to keep every known commandment.

• Are there any areas where you know you are failing to obey God, and not doing anything about it?  

A holy man will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ.

• When was the last time you soaked in one of the Gospels – and learned about the way to follow Jesus?  

A holy man will follow after meekness, longsuffering, gentleness, patience, kind tempers, and government of his tongue.

• How do you do in situations where you are wronged?  

A holy man will follow after temperance and self–denial.

• Are there any areas of excessive self-indulgence that you are falling into on a regular basis?

A holy man will follow after charity and brotherly kindness.

• Are you battling the tendency of self protection or self promotion with love toward others? 

A holy man will follow after a spirit of mercy and benevolence towards others.

• Are you looking for opportunities to do good to others?  

A holy man will follow after purity of heart.

• Is there anything you regularly watch or listen to that would defile your heart?

A holy man will follow after the fear of God.

• Is there anything you regularly do simply because it pleases the Lord for you to do it?

A holy man will follow after humility.

• Are you looking for opportunities to promote the interests of others over your own?

A holy man will follow after faithfulness in all the duties and relations in life.

• Do you see faithfulness to your responsibilities as a blessing?

Last, but not least, a holy man will follow after spiritual–mindedness.

• Are you looking to order your life around the things that stir your thirst for Christ?

By Andy Farmer

 

When I was growing up life was simple.  There were really only four college bowl games that really mattered.  The Orange Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Rose Bowl.  We didn’t care about the national championship – mythical, BCS or otherwise.  We just wanted New Years day to have great football. 

 

Now, of course, we have a gazillion irrelevant bowl games with names advertisement names.  That doesn’t mean that its bad football.  In fact, each year some of the best games happen in these little bowls, even if all we see is highlights on Sportscenter.  But for me, its too much football, to along with the two much sugar, too much fat, too much couch and clicker time that is part of the holiday ritual.

 

In preparation for the bowl glut, I thought it might be good to pass along a short video that can help bring some perspective.  This is an ESPN piece on a little boy who loves sports.  And for once, sports actually return the favor.  In the world of biblical faith we call this a story of common grace – evidence that God is at work in mercy even where he isn’t being glorified.

 

Enjoy – and Happy New Year 

 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4695418

By Andy Farmer

For many of us the holidays are one of the best opportunities we have to reach out to unsaved family members.  But this isn’t always the experience we would hope for.  About a year ago Mark Altrogge offered some great advice on how we can prepare for the always interesting but often challenging holiday family get-togethers.  This is from www.theblazingcenter.com.

What to Do with Your Unsaved Relatives this Christmas

Many of us have unsaved relatives that we see infrequently, or only once a year at Christmas.  What if they’re not open to the gospel?  Maybe they’re downright opposed to Christ.  What if God has yet to open a door to share the good news with them?  What’s a believer to do?  Here are some suggestions.

1. Pray

Before they come, pray that the Lord would open doors for the gospel and give you an opportunity to share it with them.  Ask the Lord for a sincere love for them, the grace serve them and that they would see Christ in you.

2. Serve

I can easily sink into a selfish malaise at family gatherings, especially after meals.  I find myself lying on the couch drifting into oblivion or staring comatose-like at the television.  By God’s grace, what I try to do is to look for opportunities to serve.  It may be something as simple as clearing the table or doing dishes.  Unbelievers are watching us.  Let our goal be to show them Christ, who did not come to be served but to serve and give his life for others.

3. Serve their Children

Before family get-togethers I have often told my kids that our goal for the evening is to try to make sure our relatives have the best time they possibly can, especially their children.  Serve your relatives’ children, and encourage your children to serve their children.  For many years after our Thanksgiving meal with relatives, I would do a Christmas craft with all the kids.  We’d make Christmas ornaments with Play Dough or 3-d Christmas trees out of construction paper, glitter and beads.

Remember, Jesus welcomed children, blessed them, and said that when we receive a child in his name we receive him.

4. Take an Interest in Them

Seek to take a sincere interest in your relatives.  Ask them about their jobs, hobbies and interests.  Ask them what kind of Christmas traditions they had as kids.  Ask them about their favorite childhood Christmas presents or memories.  Ask them about their health if you are aware of any problems.  You could offer to pray for them if it seems appropriate.

Look to the interests of others as Christ looked to our interests.

Let your light shine

The whole goal is to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).  Perhaps God will give you the opportunity to share the gospel with them.  If not this Christmas, maybe next.  Keep praying for their salvation.  Who knows, God may do something in the future that will make them open to the good news of Jesus Christ.

By Andy Farmer

As we look ahead to the Christmas here is a nice blog for your holiday thoughts on the whole Santa thing, written by Noel Piper at Desiring God.  You can access the blog directly at Thinking About Santa

Thinking About Santa

Over the years, we have chosen not to include Santa Claus in our Christmas stories and decorations.  There are several reasons.

First, fairy tales are fun and we enjoy them, but we don’t ask our children to believe them.

Second, we want our children to understand God as fully as they’re able at whatever age they are.  So we try to avoid anything that would delay or distort that understanding.  It seems to us that celebrating with a mixture of Santa and manger will postpone a child’s clear understanding of what the real truth of God is.  It’s very difficult for a young child to pick through a marble cake of part-truth and part-imagination to find the crumbs of reality.

Third, we think about how confusing it must be to a straight-thinking, uncritically-minded preschooler because Santa is so

much like what we’re trying all year to teach our children about God.  Look, for example, at the “attributes” of Santa.

He’s omniscient—he sees everything you do.
He rewards you if you’re good.
He’s omnipresent—at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
He gives you good gifts.
He’s the most famous “old man in the sky” figure.

But at the deeper level that young children haven’t reached yet in their
understanding, he is not like God at all.

For example, does Santa really care if we’re bad or good?  Think of the most awful kid you can remember.  Did he or she ever not get gifts from Santa?

What about Santa’s spying and then rewarding you if you’re good enough?  That’s not the way God operates.  He gave us his gift—his Son—even though we weren’t good at all.  “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  He gave his gift to us to make us good, not because we had proved ourselves good enough.

Helping our children understand God as much as they’re able at whatever age they are is our primary goal.  But we’ve also seen some other encouraging effects of not including Santa in our celebration.

First, I think children are glad to realize that their parents, who live with them all year and know all the worst things about them, still show their love at Christmas.  Isn’t that more significant than a funny, old, make-believe man who drops in just once a year?

Second, I think most children know their family’s usual giving patterns for birthday and special events.  They tend to have an instinct about their family’s typical spending levels and abilities.  Knowing that their Christmas gifts come from the people they love, rather than from a bottomless sack, can help diminish the “I-want-this, give-me-that” syndrome.

And finally, when children know that God’s generosity is reflected by God’s people, it tends to encourage a sense of responsibility about helping make Christmas good for others.

Karsten, for example, worked hard on one gift in 1975.  On that Christmas morning, his daddy stepped around a large, loose-flapped cardboard box to get to his chair at the breakfast table.  “Where’s Karsten?” he asked, expecting to see our excited three-year-old raring to leap into the day.  Sitting down, I said, “He’ll be here in a minute.”

I nudged the box with my toe.  From inside the carton, Karsten threw back the flaps and sprang to his full three-foot stature.  “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them . . .” He had memorized Luke 2:8-20 as a gift for his dad.  Karsten knew the real story.

In fact, a few days later, he and I were walking down the hall at the church we attended then.  One of the older ladies leaned down to squeeze his pink, round cheek and asked, “What did Santa bring you?”  Karsten’s head jerked quickly toward me, and he whispered loudly, “Doesn’t she know?”

(Adapted from Treasuring God in Our Traditions)

By Andy Farmer

I was perusing the Sovereign Grace Ministries blog recently and came across interesting posts.  Both have video or audio content, so if you have a chance, check them out.   

The first is a video interview that Together for the Gospel did with C. J. Mahaney in his office where he talks about his day to day routine – and some stuff he keeps on his shelves.  

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/cj-mahaney-office-sports.aspx 

The second is an interview that Mark Dever does with Voice (Curtis Allen) and shai linne, two hip hop artists who are faithfully proclaiming the Gospel.  shai linne is a friend of many of our folks and Voice has been up here several times to do shows and minister in our church.  

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/post/Christian-Hip-Hop-interview.aspx

By Andy Farmer 

 

I’m subbing for Jared today.  In thinking about this Christmas season, and specifically about the preaching series, ‘God With Us’, I’ve been thinking about Jesus in the cradle.  I have a hard time grasping the idea that a little helpless baby could be simultaneously the Sustainer of the Universe, though I know that’s true. 

 

But I’ve also been thinking about the baby Jesus in terms of what he came to do as Savior.  Specifically what he came to do as Savior for me – today.  For me to escape all the cultural trappings of the Christmas season (most of which I actually enjoy), and live with the essence of the message of Christmas, I have to bring myself right up to the manger and ask that little baby – ‘what does this mean for me today.  One thing that speaks to me in this meditation is a quote from Paul Tripp’s book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand. 

 

“The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss.  It is the news of a Redeemer who has come to rescue me from myself.  His rescue produces change that fundamentally alters my response to these inescapable realities.  The Redeemer turns rebels into disciples, fools into humble listeners.  He makes cripples walk again.  In him we can face life and respond with faith, love, and hope.  And as he changes us, he allows us to be a part of what he is doing in the lives of others.  As you respond to the Redeemer’s work in your life, you can learn to be an instrument in his hands.”  (p. 16)

 

The work of my redemption, which was effected in the cross, and which is working itself out every day, began with a baby in a manger.  And as I reach beyond myself to serve God’s purpose in others, that redemption work is being done through me, at the same time it is being done in me.  I’m in an instrument in the little Baby’s hands.

By Andy Farmer

I’m just finishing up a class at Westminster Seminary called ‘Counseling and Physiology’.  It has been a very helpful and timely course.  There may be no area of present day life that is more Gospel-resistant than the world of counseling and psychiatry.  This doesn’t mean that everything out in that world is evil or unhelpful.  In truth, to do effective biblical counseling we must not only have some familiarity with a psychological view of people and their problems, we should have a reasonable appreciation for some of the insights and perspectives that are developed from within that world. 

For one, the world of psychology is increasingly recognizing that people are a complex blend of the physical/mental-emotional/relational/and yes, even spiritual in some cases.  If we understand ourselves as the Bible describes us, we will recognize as well that we are integrated beings.  We cannot separate what happens to us physically from what happens to us mentally from what happens to us spiritually.  We are all three, all the time.  While we don’t want to get our understanding of who we are from psychology, we can glean insights into how we tick from these fields of study. 

Another example of how we can benefit from the study of human physiology and personality in the secular world is in the area of addictions.  For example, it is very helpful to know how different drugs affect the brain.  It would be easy to see addictive tendencies and substance abuse as simply a matter of moral choices.  But even a basic sense of how chemicals affect the brain tell us much about how people can struggle to free themselves of drug dependencies.  When we are trying to help people overcome cocaine addiction it can be helpful to know that it can take the brain up to a year and half to return to normal status after a cocaine episode.  And that there are so many different ways that alcohol affects the brain that it is virtually impossible to develop an effective treatment plan for severe alcoholism.

But even with this appreciation, we need to stand firmly committed to a biblical understanding of personhood.  And that means holding the idea of personal responsibility for sinful actions as the key to dealing with addictions.  When the world would say that the addicted person is a victim of bad genes or brain chemistry, we must stand on the biblical truth that all addiction is fundamentally false worship and can only be ultimately corrected by an encounter with the living God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Counselor Ed Welch helps us see the need to keep moral responsibility at the heart of addictions in his book Addictions – A Banquet in the Grave.  Welch writes,

Why is it important to talk about responsibility for both cause and cure?  First, because it is true.  We are sinners, even when we are not obviously sinning.  Until Christ returns, sin is part of our fabric (1 John 1:9). Second, because any other perspective would essentially nullify or limit the cross of Christ, the ultimate resting point for all Christian counseling.  It is impossible to get to the good news of the cross from a starting point that limits moral responsibility.  If we are born good and have been ruined by a dysfunctional environment or a biological abnormality, then any help we receive is intended only to heal.  The goal is to restore an addict to his or her original good state.  Jesus is there only to help us when we trip or to make us feel better about ourselves.

This, however, is not the gospel.  The gospel is that Christ died for sinners and then rose from the dead.  It is good news to people who sin and are sinners.  It is good news for desperate people, not nice people who occasionally do wrong things.  And its goal is a completely new person, not a person who has been cleaned up a bit.”  (Page 194-5)

By Andy Farmer

Jared is out so I’m guest blogging.  I recently had some opportunities to give out some of the “How Good Are You” tracts, both after opportunities to share the Gospel, and just as invitations to the church.  I find that the thought that is usually in my head when I hand a tract to someone is, ‘they’re going to think this is really stupid, and therefore think that I’m stupid.  Then maybe they’ll think that God is stupid, and then they’ll go to Hell.  Or something like that.

So I love to be reminded that tracts can actually work.  One certainly did for the great 19th Century missionary Hudson Taylor.  Here is how a tract changed his life. 

A bored youth of seventeen, apprentice of his druggist father, took out a tray of tracts to find a story to while away an hour off duty in June 1849.  He picked one and went into a warehouse in the stable yard of their shop and home in the Yorkshire town of Barnsley, intending to enjoy the story and skip the moral.  James Taylor, his father, was a Wesleyan lay preacher as well as a druggist and apothecary, but Hudson Taylor, his only son, had inwardly distanced himself from religion, having been influenced by a free-thinking fellow clerk during a brief spell in a bank.
      
Taylor began to read about a sick coalman who believed his sins stopped him from reaching Christ, until some pious visitors read him the Bible verse:  “Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree.”  The coalman cried, “Then it’s done – my sins are gone!”

Contrary to all Taylor’s expectations, the words struck him with force.  Underneath his rebellion had lingered a longing for that friendship of Christ that thrilled his parents and his sister, but he had given up the struggle to reach Him.  Suddenly, as he read the tract, he realized that Christ had opened the way by dying on the cross.  God could not deny His own promise – all that was necessary was to repent and trust Him.  This he did instantly, on the warehouse floor.

(From the book, More Than Conquerors, by John Woodbridge, p. 50-51)

In this past week’s message in our Sunday series As We Gather, Rob Flood showed the importance of prayer in God’s gathered people as he surveyed Nehemiah 9.  To hear the full message, go to here.

 

Rob shared a very interesting quote from Tim Chester’s Biblical survey on prayer, The Message of Prayer, that highlights something that we all need to consider.

 

It is sometimes said that good private prayer is the foundation of good corporate prayer, but it may be more biblical to say that corporate prayer is the foundation of private prayer.  Our experience of God in Christ is corporate.  Western individualism has made the individual alone with God the centre of spirituality.  For the people of the Bible it is the relationship between God and his people that is central.  Personal prayer revolves around this common experience-not the other way around.  (Tim Chester, The Message of Prayer, p.153)

 

This is certainly not how I usually think of prayer.  To me prayer is a ‘me and God’ thing and praying with other people is kind of like a secondary option.  But my experience so often is that private prayer is fitful and distracted; yet when I come together to pray with my brothers and sisters my heart and eyes are lifted to God in faith to pray with boldness and fervency.  Rob gave some excellent examples of why corporate prayer is the fuel of private prayer.

 

When we pray with others, we hear things we never thought of praying for.  Perhaps we hear things that we’ve been praying for but thought we were the only ones praying.  There are even times when we’re moved at the passion someone has for a topic we’ve become indifferent to?  There is a unique grace that comes upon people when they are gathered with others in prayer.

 

Is there no wonder why folks in time of need throughout the Bible and throughout history gathered together in upper rooms and lowly catacombs, great cathedrals and flimsy tents?  They knew the need and the value of corporate prayer. 

 

Where are you gathering with God’s people in corporate prayer?  Have you ever attended a House of Prayer?  Or our pre-service prayer at the front of the auditorium.  If your personal prayer times are in need of vision, seek out others – pray with the church!

 

By Andy Farmer

 

Jared has been on vacation so I’m guest blogging. 

 

A couple of weeks ago the pastoral team had the opportunity to gather at the Sovereign Grace Pastors College where we, along with dozens of other pastors from around the country, joined with this year’s class of PC students to study pastoral ministry.  Led by C. J. Mahaney, the class was not so much a seminar but a fellowship.  Men from around the country in various sizes of churches dialogued together on the call and responsibilities of shepherding the flock of God under the passionate biblical exposition of C. J. and other well tested pastors. 

 

One of the most soul-challenging and fear of God-stirring sessions was on dealing with criticism, an inevitable reality to all pastors.  But pastors aren’t the only ones who have to face this issue.  Everyone experiences criticism, just or unjust, at some point – from a spouse, child, parent, boss, co-worker, fellow Christian, neighbor – anyone one can turn a critical gaze and ungracious tongue in our direction.  C. J. shared two quotes in particular which I think can help us all when we face criticism.  Read the two quotes below in order.  Let David Powlison describe you in detail through his personal experience.  Then let Charles Spurgeon draw your eyes off yourself and onto the Savior who knows your sins better than any critic; and yet showers you with mercy and favor because of the Gospel. 

 

David Powlison: “…There was a time in my life where the heat—what I was facing—was a constant.  A man who was out to get me, a man who slandered me, who was trying to trash my reputation, and publishing all sorts of falsehoods about me.  And one effect was that wherever I would go and speak, it would be one of the inevitable questions—“What about what so and so said about you?”  It was just an onerous thing to have to deal with.  And the form of sin that came out was simply being preoccupied and brooding about it.  And I started to realize that when I woke up in the morning it wasn't wisdom who said hello to me, it was what was happening to me, and the fact that I didn't like it.  When I stand in the shower what am I thinking about?  I am constructing my own mental self-defense.  I am trying to defend my reputation in my mind.  I am calculating answers to give and what I should write to him and who I should get to help me and if somebody asks me a question what should I say to them.  And in that distractedness, that preoccupation, that brooding, that obsession with my own self-defense, sins of omission, I am not as attentive to my family.  I am not as attentive to students.  I am preoccupied with myself and the fact that this guy doesn't like me and he is out to get me.  Here is the heat: the slander, the continual questions being raised.  You see the thorns: preoccupation; sins of omission.  Not really difficult rocket science to figure out what is ruling my heart here, right?  It is my love of reputation.  It was my desire to be thought well of.  It was my desire to be treated fairly, my desire to be understood and not misunderstood and caricatured.  It was idealism, a romantic ideal of the unity of the Body.  This man was a professing Christian.  Why couldn't we all get along?  Why does this keep happening?...”  (Excerpted from 2007 Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference message)

Charles Spurgeon (on Psalm 37:5–9): “In the matter of personal reputation we may especially be content to be quiet, and leave our vindication with the Judge of all the earth.  Our strength is to sit still.  If we look to the Lord's honor, he will see to ours.  It is wonderful how, when faith learns to endure calumny (slander; defamation) with composure, the filth does not defile her.  Even in the worst cases, where a good name is for awhile darkened, Providence will send a clearing like the dawning light, which will increase until the man once censured is universally admired.  No shade of reproach will remain.  This requires much grace to carry it out.  To await in holy patience the time for clearing up the difficulties of Providence—this is what every gracious heart should aim at.  A silent tongue in many cases shows not only a wise head, but a holy heart.” (From the Treasury of David)

 

 

By Andy Farmer

One area of our Anniversary Museum that drew a lot of attention was our book table of Dave Harvey’s 25 Books That Built the Church.  A number of folks have asked if we could post the list and the descriptions from Dave about each book. 

The following is the list of books in no particular order, along with the descriptions of the books that were on the display table.  Please note that these are not the 25 books Dave would most recommend.  That’s another list.  These are just books that he felt played a significant role in our church over the years.  They say a lot about who we were, and about what we’re becoming.

Dave Harvey’s '25 Books That Built the Church'

 We asked Dave what 25 books have had the most significant impact on our church in its first 25 years.  An impossible question to answer.  One thing he reminded us of is that some books had significant impact on our church at a certain time in our history.  But they’re not books that would necessarily make it onto Dave’s ‘25 Books You Should Be Reading Now’ list.  That list will have to come out at a different time.

So this display represents books that have shaped us in as a church throughout our history.  Where possible we’ve tried to display the version of the book that was in print when it was having affect on who we were becoming as a church.

                                                                                   Clap Your Hands

by Larry Tomczak

Larry was very involved in helping this church get established and this book was a Christian best-seller at the time.  Many folks who would have come to the church in the early days would have either seen Larry speak at a conference or read this book about his life.

                                                                                      Knowing God

by J. I. Packer

Many say this will be one of the few books from our generation that will still be in print a hundred years from now.  Nothing says ‘all of life is doctrine’ better than Knowing God.  It formed a spiritual backbone in this church from the very outset.   

Money, Possessions and Eternity

by Randy Alcorn

Randy articulated and applied a New Testament view of life to the wallet, the retirement plan and the stuff we think we need.  He became a friend who counseled us in our building project and in our view of the mission of the local church.  His writing on social issues and works like Deadline and Heaven have continually reminded us that what we have here is not all there is to life.   

Trusting God

by Jerry Bridges

The church is a place where suffering people gather.  In our early days we found many folks coming from troubled church backgrounds – we called them ‘burnt stones’.  We needed a biblically sound and graciously written book on suffering and the sovereignty of God.  Jerry Bridges has delivered it because he has lived it.  We are indebted to him as an older brother in the Lord and as a friend to our church.   

Power Evangelism

by John Wimber

Wimber lived with evangelistic zeal and robust confidence in the dynamic role of the Holy Spirit in the spread of the Gospel.  To be influenced by Wimber is to live expectant that God will go before us to prepare hearts for the Gospel, and to be bold when the opportunity to share it occurs.    

The Holiness of God

by R. C. Sproul

This book ‘swept through’ our family of churches during the late 80’s spurred by a message C. J. did on Uzzah and the Ark of God.  This message and Sproul’s writing maybe did more than anything else to move us from a man-centered view of things to a God-centered view of life.  God is holy, we’re not.  That’s the point.   

The Body

by Charles Colson

In our early days we were casting around the evangelical world for some affirmation of the priority of the local church in the life of a believer.  This book helped us dialogue with other churches and ministries beyond our world and learn from them.

Temptation and Sin

by John Owen

To read Owen is to realize that our greatest enemy is not the devil, or the dude in the cubicle next to us.  It’s remaining sin in our hearts.  Coming from a charismatic theology and a therapeutic culture, we needed to hear that.  Fortunately there are ways to ramp up to Owen’s Puritan writing with books that could easily make this list, like The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges and The Enemy Within by Kris Lundgaard.  But Owen is the real deal. 

The Peacemaker

by Ken Sande

Where there are people there’s conflict.  But conflict creates Gospel opportunities.  Unity in the church is not built through absence of conflict, but by pursuing the redemptive opportunities that come with conflict.  Ken Sande has served us with his writing and his personal counsel.  There’s still nothing like this book out there.

Spiritual Leadership

by J. Oswald Sanders

We’ve benefitted from a lot of great books on leadership over the years, but this one has been with us from the beginning.  Sanders takes us into the heart of New Testament leadership.  A must read for anyone considering the call to ministry but very helpful for anyone in any capacity of leadership in the church, the home, or in the world.

Desiring God

by John Piper

This book sets out Piper’s big themes.  God’s delight in Himself.  The need for strong affections rooted in biblical truth.   The joy and pleasure of obedience to Christ.  Finding true joy in the true joy of others.  Where would we be without these truths?   There may be no current pastor/theologian beyond our movement who has more affected us as a local church.

Surprised by the Power of the Spirit

by Jack Deere

The mid 90’s was a time when a lot of controversy was floating around about experiencing the dynamic activity of the Holy Spirit.  Jack Deere came along and brought biblical, theological and historical depth to our understanding of the power,  presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God’s people.

Systematic Theology

by Wayne Grudem

Grudem gets it.  The ‘big blue book’ sets out a thorough but readable systematic theology for the church.  Chapter 16 on God’s providence broke us.  And, thanks to the editorial work of Jeff Purswell, Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s College, we also have Bible Doctrine, which is not Grudem for dummies, its Grudem for folks who want to major on the majors. 

Experiencing God

by Henry Blackaby and Claude King

There was a time when ministry was all about finding and using your gifts.  This book exploded that by rooting ministry in throwing yourself into what God is doing and letting him give the gifts as He pleases.  That’s made a big difference in this church, beginning with the pastoral team.  

When People are Big and God is Small

by Ed Welch

This book redrew the map of our relationships for a lot of us when we read it.  There is not an area of life – marriage, family, ministry, friendship, outreach – that isn’t affected by the fear of man.  Ed helps not only identify this pervasive idolatry, but stirs a Gospel-centered fear of God in the fight against it.  This stuff will never get old. 

Religious Affections

by Jonathan Edwards

In the mid-90’s when the charismatic world was talking about how God would ‘offend the mind to get to the heart’, C. J. sent us to Edwards and the Great Awakening to learn some important lessons on what authentic experience of God’s power should look like.  This was a guiding light in chaotic times.  But it is a book for all times.

The Cross of Christ

by John Stott

I could fill this list with books on the cross but this one can’t be topped.  We learned that to be Gospel centered meant that we needed to move the Cross to the center of everything.  That’s what Stott does in a magisterial way.  C. J. recommends reading one book on the cross a year.  Make sure this one is on your list.

The Doctrine of Repentance

by Thomas Watson

Watson is one of the easier Puritan’s to read, and this little book speaks volumes about the heart and life change that occurs when true repentance takes place.  We thought we were pretty humble till we read this. 

The Cross Centered Life

by C.J. Mahaney

This book put what it means to ‘keep the main thing the main thing’ into words that folks can understand and apply.  C. J. put a whole lot of important biblical truth in a great small package.  All of C. J.’s inestimable influence on this church has had the goal and effect of putting the cross at the center of everything we do. 

Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

by John Piper and Wayne Grudem

How we understand the roles of men and women in God’s design is not a small issue.  It ultimately defines what kind of people, and church, we become.  The gender debate rages all around us, and this book (recently updated) still speaks with biblical clarity and force that cannot be denied. 

Shepherding a Child’s Heart

by Ted Tripp

In our early years we placed a lot of emphasis on the parent’s leadership and the goal of raising happy and obedient children.  Ted Tripp brought the Gospel into the center of parenting responsibility through this book and a seminar he did with us in the early 90’s.  This fits with his brother Paul’s book Age of Opportunity, which applies the same Gospel centered view to parenting teens.  I thank God for these books and these friends - as a pastor and as a dad. 

War of Words

by Paul Tripp

Paul is a dear friend and older brother to this church and his influence through writing and teaching can’t be overstated.  This book has rebooted a lot of mouths for the good – including my own.  God has spared us from the disease of gossip and slander that has plagued many churches, and I know this book has been preventative medicine. 

Spurgeon vs. Hyper-Calvinism

by Iain Murray

I had to have something Spurgeon in here and this might seem like an odd choice.  But as we’ve sought to understand and articulate what it means to be ‘essentially Reformed’, Spurgeon’s commitment to Gospel and Bible over any strict adherence to a theological system is worth following.  This book was read by the pastors and folks in leadership training, but would be valuable to anyone who wants to know how to humbly stand for truth.  Gotta throw in Beside Still Waters, The Power of Prayer in a Believer’s Life and Dallimore’s Spurgeon – A New Biography here as well.

The Valley of Vision

edited by Arthur Bennett

What a treasure!  A collection of Puritan prayers that exalt the Savior and survey the soul.  I’m one of many who always keeps this on my devotional table.  We’re displaying the old ugly paperback version that we were first turned onto, but Banner of Truth gets props for the small leather edition – unexpectedly brilliant marketing.

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

by Donald Whitney

I had to include a spiritual disciplines book and this one is the best out there.  Whitney makes both the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘discipline’ aspects of our devotion to Christ come together better than any book I’ve read.  And you should take it a step further and read his Spiritual Disciplines in the Church.

 

By Andy Farmer

We’re in the thick of the baseball post season, with visions of another World Series coming ever closer.  Today’s an off day for the Phils.  So to change things up this week in Take Five I thought I’d pass on a short video clip that I saw on the Kowalker.com blog.  You don’t have to be a baseball geek to get this.

http://kowalker.com/2009/10/01/the-call-of-the-baseball-year/

By Andy Farmer

Dwayne Bennett, who does a wonderful job (with his wife Toni) overseeing our Children’s Ministry, sent the following email to Mark Prater with their observations about some of our kids. 

This 8th Grade class has been very responsive to God's moving in their lives both at Youth Camp and at the Cross Culture meetings.  When Toni and I were discussing the 8th Grade response at Youth Camp she made the observation that this is the first class that has had God's Story in Promise Kingdom from Preschool through 6th Grade.  I don't want to take credit from God for their response to the Gospel...  I just want to point out that God may have chosen to use God's Story in their lives in the last 9 years of Sunday morning Children's Ministry.
 
While this group of kids were in the 6th Grade Promise Kingdom class, a few of the Teachers mentioned to me that this group had well thought out questions and rather mature answers to questions posed to the class.  Again, I don't want to try to take away from what God is doing in the lives of this class by pointing out that God's Story may have played a significant part.
 
Thanks,
Dwayne

Dwayne is right on when he cautions against seeing any particular program or leadership approach as capable of producing true spiritual fruit.  But God uses means to accomplish his purposes, and the God’s Story curriculum was developed as a means to show the riches of God’s grace in the Gospel as displayed throughout the entirety of God’s word.  God’s Story is a practical application for our kids of Paul’s words to the Colossians,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  (Col. 3:16)

So we can just as rightly give thanks to God for the curriculum (and it’s author, Marty Machowski), for the teachers and helpers who make it come alive each week for the kids, and for the parents who draw God’s Story into their families through the devotionals and in everyday conversation.  When Gospel centered resources are put in play, we should expect spiritual fruit over time. 

If you aren’t familiar with God’s Story and how it can serve your family, check it out on our web site HERE.

By Andy Farmer

Here’s one more look at some of the highlights of our 25th Anniversary Celebration. 

By Andy Farmer

This week we’re looking back on our 25th Anniversary Celebration.  The next two days will be reflections through pictures.  Today we’re going to remember our anniversary museum from construction through its brief but lively existence.

By Andy Farmer

This coming week we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Covenant Fellowship Church.  To get us primed for the event I thought it would be good to take us back 25 years to October 1984 and look at what was happening that month.  Here are some random factoids that may or may not get you in the mindset for our next week.  Remember, there’s still time to get the mullet going.

Big News:  Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984.  An attempted assassination of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by an IRA bomb fails.  Kathryn Sullivan becomes the first woman to do a spacewalk on a mission aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.  For the first time the massive famine in Ethiopia is reported.  Americans are in the final weeks of the presidential race between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale (In case you don’t remember, Reagan won).

Economy:  The Dow Jones average for October 1984 is 1,207.  A gallon of gas is $1.10.  Movie tickets average $2.50.  The average mortgage rate for single family homes is 12.53%

Sports:  The Detroit Tigers defeat the San Diego Padres in the World Series.  The Phillies finished the season in third place in the division.  The team included Steve Carlton, Jerry Koosman, Tug McGraw, Mike Schmidt, Gary Maddox and Juan Samuel.  It probably didn’t help that they also had Steve Jeltz, Sixto Lezcano and the overrated Von Hayes.  The Eagles were in the midst of a 6-9-1 season under Marion Campbell.  They finished last in the division.

Other Stuff:  Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” was number one for 3 weeks in October 1984.  Prince’s “Purple Rain” was the top album during the month.  Ghostbusters was the highest grossing movie and Dynasty was the top rated TV show. 

And to the best of my knowledge, George Orwell’s apocalyptic vision in his book 1984 didn’t come to pass.

Happy Anniversary!

By Andy Farmer

 

A couple of days ago a few of us went back over to the old Gauntlett Center in Newtown Square to shoot some video for our CFC 25^th Anniversary Celebration. The Gauntlett Center is the former middle school where Covenant Fellowship Church met for the first fifteen years of our existence.  For long timers that should conjure up memories of strange smells, wild heat fluctuations and all manner of crawling life forms as a part of church life.  Let me report to you, it’s like we never left.  Below is a picture of the auditorium and cafeteria rooms which are virtually unchanged since we moved out after our final service in September 1999.

 

 

It was truly a trip back in time.  But as Jim and Marty and I walked through each area of the building a couple of things stood out to us.  One was, for all of the inconveniences and seeker insensitive features of the building, it was a place where God touched changed many lives – including our own in profound ways.  We talked about how well we were fed through the preaching of the word and how we were met by God in so many ways through gathering as a church each Sunday morning.  We were all ordained on that stage.  My children, who are now beginning to build families of their own, were dedicated to the Lord in that auditorium.  As we moved through different areas of the building we were reminded of God’s faithfulness – how he cared for our children in the various nooks and crannies and cardboard corrals of our children’s ministry.  When we went into the Community Room we were filled with memories of youth meetings, singles meetings, Move Among Us meetings.  You can’t walk anywhere in that old box of bricks without being reminded of God at work building the church at the Gauntlett Center.

 

But we were also reminded of something else.  The Gauntlett Center was not the church; it was where the church met.  And God in his perfect timing moved us from there to Glen Mills, to a much more user-friendly facility.  The Gauntlett Center is full of memories of what God HAS DONE, but what God IS DOING is right here among us – in Community Groups (not home groups), Thrive (not Frontline), Cross Culture (not Powerhouse), Promise Kingdom (not children’s ministry), Gospel and Servant Outreach (not Glad Tidings), Covenant Mercies (not Impact), and on and on.  As we celebrate 25 years together, let’s rejoice for what God has done, and let’s press into what God is doing.   

 

 

By Andy Farmer

I came across a post from Kevin DeYoung (DeYoung, Restless and Reformed) where he talks about significant speeches that have affected world history.  He includes excerpts from three he considers truly great – Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech, Reagan’s “Brandenburg Gate” speech, and Lincolns “Gettysburg Address”.  Hard to argue with the greatness of any of them.  Just take a listen.  I would add to the short list Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”. 

What makes a great speech?  In my mind a great speech happens when leaders in the crucible of testing are called to speak out of that testing to define and inspire those around them.  A great speech also must wield the power of language as a tool of vision and hope.  Words must capture our attention simply because they are the right words for a significant moment.  These days we prop up mediocre speech with images, but in a great speech words themselves carry the weight.  And finally, a great speech must stand the test of time.  It must not only speak to its immediate audience, but those who hear or read it later, even generations later, must be able to see transcendent reality in what is said. 

Listen to great speeches on the link below.  Do you have any to add to the short list?  

http://www.revkevindeyoung.com/2009/08/great-political-speeches.html

By Andy Farmer

A couple of Sundays ago we celebrated all God did at Youth Camp 2009.  During the service we had the chance to hear from a young man, Evan Wisneski, who received the saving grace of Jesus Christ during the camp.  At the end of Evan’s testimony he made a very profound theological statement.

“I never saw it coming, but I was saved at Youth Camp 2009"

As soon as he said this my mind went immediately back to that late night on February 10, 1981, when I was saved.  Like Evan, I never saw it coming.  I sat down in a college dorm suite lounge convinced that belief in God was “the opiate of the masses” (as my hero Karl Marx said it), and stood up a few hours later a follower of Jesus Christ.

The truth is, for all of us the fitting end of our testimony is, ‘I never saw it coming, but I was saved at…..’  The apostle Paul seemed to enjoy the irony of it all – his Damascus Road arrest by the risen Savior is a key part of the story he tells about himself to whomever will listen.  And he surely never saw that coming!  Essential to Paul’s Gospel is the idea that no one seeks after God.  It is God who seeks after us (Romans 10:3-26).  Repeatedly, Jesus tells us that he has come to seek the lost, not the searching; to open the eyes and ears of the blind and the deaf.  The very people in Jesus’ day who said they were longing for deliverance from God never saw it coming.

This doesn’t mean that people don’t search for something like God.  I was certainly searching back in 1981.  I’m sure Evan would say he was searching before he went to Youth Camp.  The world is full of searchers, and there are plenty of gods, both spiritual and temporal, that are easily found.  But no human searching can find God.  Sin has ruined the eyes that are essential to see Him, ears that are essential to hear Him, and hearts that are essential to desire him.  No, my brothers, if you have found Jesus Christ, it is because he revealed himself to you.  Admit it, you never saw it coming. 

Thank you, Evan, for preaching Gospel truth to us.  I’m glad he saved you when you never saw it coming.  I know what that feels like.  It feels right.

By Andy Farmer

 

Note:  This is the ninth and FINAL in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776.  For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE.

 

When we get to the end of this letter we’d love a big payoff – a final zinger that would bring it all home.  Instead we get an odd warning about being careful in how we interact with our relatives.  Was Newton running out the door and needed to wrap this up quick?  Was he having some in-law problems that surface here? 

 

But as I’ve thought about it, this is a fitting end to his advice.  Newton lived in a time and place where family connections and relationships were crucial to social standing and financial security.  To fall out of favor with your family was understood to be a sign of poor character and untrustworthiness.  It was assumed that personal religion shouldn’t have the poor taste to infringe upon a person’s role in the extended family.  And certainly, evangelism of family members was considered very bad form. 

 

So the pressure to live a certain way in the world and another way in the family was pretty intense.  Newton was offering a godly, yet practical way to maintain the consistency of witness in our lives.  In considering our (extended) family connections we should seek to maintain them but be careful not to allow family obligations to require ‘concessions’ that we cannot make in good consciousness as followers of Christ.  In effect Newton is making a practical application of Jesus’ words to the disciples after the confrontation to the rich young ruler - ‘Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.  (Matt. 19:29)

 

To be a Christian is to undergo a profound change in family relations.  We move from a primary identification with a biologically created family to a spiritually created family.  And it is our place in the spiritually created family that should define and impact our behavior and identification with our biologically created family. 

 

As I’ve thought about this, I’ve realized this really is good Newtonian advice.  One of the hardest places to live out Christian convictions is among our natural relations.  They know who we ‘really’ are behind all that religious talk.  They’re not afraid to remind us with words, or maybe just with subtle looks, that they don’t ‘buy it’.  And we don’t like being talked about by other family members when we’re not around – ‘What’s his problem?  Does he really think he’s better than us?  Is he in a cult?  He used to be so much fun, now he seems so up tight.  Does he have to come to the Christmas party?’

 

I get the sense that if we can walk out our convictions in a humble and loving way among those who have known us since we were little tykes, and whose opinions of us have already been set,  we will be well prepared to stand for what we believe in the rest of our lives. 

 

So, that’s it from the pen of John Newton, Pastor and sinner amazed by grace, on the subject of Christian liberty.  Let his close be my close to this series.

 

I dare not be dogmatical; but I think what I have written is agreeable both to particular texts, and to the general tenor of Scripture.  I submit to your judgment. 

Note:  This is the eighth in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776.  For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE.

By Andy Farmer

John Newton pastored a church in the heart of London bordered by the financial district on the one side and the theater district on the other – the Manhattan of the 18^th century.  His folks knew what was hip; every trend that was trendy was part of their cultural immersion.  And Newton kept his finger on the pulse of it all.  He was acutely aware of the winds of fashion and popularity, and the quirky human tendency to feel the need to be relevant to the world around us.

 

Newton understood that we are not truly free to exercise liberty however we choose.   What we want and enjoy is significantly determined by the culture we’re immersed in.  Perhaps our great concern is not throwing ourselves into the world in one great leap, but in being enveloped by it just enough so that it gains our allegiance.  He warns us,

 

The places and amusements which the world frequent and admire, where occasions and temptations to sin are cultivated, where the law of what is called good breeding is the only law which may not be violated with impunity, where sinful passions are provoked and indulged, where the fear of God is so little known or regarded, that those who do fear Him must hold their tongues , though they should hear his name blasphemed, can hardly be a Christian’s voluntarily chosen ground.  Yet, I fear, these characters will apply to every kind of polite amusement or assembly in the kingdom.

 

Newton’s antidote to cultural intoxication?  In considering what is culturally popular, we should have a ‘peculiar spirit’, carefully discerning those present day enticements which are particular expressions of the spirit of the age and not building lifestyle around them.  In talking about a peculiar spirit he is drawing on covenantal language that roots in God’s choosing of a people to be his own possession.  So we read in from Newton’s King James translation,

 

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.  (Deut. 14:2)

 

How do we maintain the peculiarity of our relationship to God in an enticing world?  Paul answers that question.  The Christian must apply the grace of ‘NO’ whenever he finds that the culture requires some kind of allegiance in our participation. 

 

Titus 2:11-15   ¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,  ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,  ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,  ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession (or in the KJV ‘a peculiar people) who are zealous for good works. 

 

Does playing the game of office politics at work require you to compromise your biblical testimony?  Does being a ‘true fan, require you to devote money, time mental attention and emotional energy to a team that would be more profitably spent elsewhere?  Do you need to be up on the latest movies, coolest bands, newest styles?  The truth is, there is no eternal value in being fashionable or hip.  It will produce nothing but vanity and wasted opportunity in our lives.  Any Christian who is out and about in life will get all the exposure to the world he needs.  But our value to God and our meaning to others is determined not by relevance but by our peculiarity. 

 

How can you indulge your peculiarity today?

By Andy Farmer

 

Note:  This is the seventh in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776.  For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE.

 

John Newton was a man who was acutely aware of the time he had wasted in life before submitting himself to the Savior.  He carried a deep desire to use his remaining time on earth in spiritual productivity.  But he also recognized a certain folly in activity blindly done, even spiritual activity. 

 

He understood that work in the world was taxing, but that simply bouncing the intensity of everyday life and throwing ourselves into some spiritual activity to compensate wasn’t sustainable Christianity.  He understood that leisure had its place, if for nothing else then providing a pause in life from constant secular, or even spiritual, pursuits. 

 

Newton would appreciate the value of a walk in the woods, a good book, hanging out with friends, listening to music, a good meal and all that goes with it.  But he also saw the snare in escaping into liberties with the same intensity.  Why? Because more than anything else, what we do in our liberty has the greatest possibility of any endeavor of wasting the precious time God has given us.  

 

We’re talking about uses of liberty such as the couch potato, the internet zombie, the gaming geek and the gym junkie.  Activities that justify intense leisure because we have just been doing intense work, or intense ministry.  Things taking over our time and our lives like weeds in a garden.   Here we need to nail the exhortation of the apostle Paul to our mental doorpost:

 

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,  making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Eph. 5:15-17)

 

Newton’s solution to the balance problem in life is simple.  In considering the preciousness of time, we should not be compelled to constant productivity, but should allow our rest to have its appropriate effect.  Not to retreat from spiritual productivity but to refresh for renewed spiritual productivity.

 

By Andy Farmer

Note: This is the sixth in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776.  For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE. 

Last week we saw how Pastor Newton applied the law of love to our exercise liberty before a dying world.  He next takes a step back and looks at the unbelieving world as a system of doing life.  Newton was, if anything, extraordinarily practical in his spiritual counsel.  He’d spent years in the worldliest of world systems – the trading of human beings as property in the form of slavery.  As a repentant sinner engaged in the care of souls, he understood first hand both the enterprise and enticements of the world.  He knew that withdrawal from the world was not an option for the believer.  Here’s his interesting solution.

In our way of little life in the country, serious people often complain of the snares they meet with from worldly people, and yet they must mix with them to get a livelihood.  I advise them, if they can, to do their business with the world as they do it in the rain.  If their business calls them abroad, they will not leave it undone for fear of being a little wet; but then, when it is done, they presently seek shelter and will not stand in the rain for pleasure.  So providential and necessary calls of duty that lead us into the world will not hurt us, if we find the spirit of the world unpleasant and are glad to retire from it, and keep out of it as much as our relative duties will permit.  That which is our cross is not so likely to be our snare; but if that spirit which we should always watch and pray against, infects and assimilates our minds to itself, then we are sure to suffer loss, and act below the dignity of our profession.

Most of us work in occupations which function entirely on systems created in the world.  We may be an engineer, or a construction worker, or a health care professional, or a student, but we know that the world in which we work doesn’t have as its highest value the glory of God.  So we must learn how to succeed in it without becoming a part of it.  In Newton’s analogy, there’s no way to not get wet with the world.  But there is no reason we have live soaked with the world.  We know that we’re soaked with the world when its values, language, and choices become ours. 

Paul operates a different metaphor when he warns believers to not be ‘unequally yoked’ with unbelievers – to have who we are and what we do tied to what the world is and what it does.  Instead, we are to ‘go out from their midst, and be separate from them (2 Cor. 6:14; 17).  In other words, get out of the rain!

How wet with the world are you?  Do you, like the street smart city worker, have a skill at finding those dry shelter spots in the rain so that you can do your business without getting soaked?  Or have you just gotten used to being wet?  One of the ways we make sure that the pleasant wetness of the world doesn’t become our preferred existence is to cultivate and protect our love for the things of God.  The true joy of the Lord, the fellowship of the saints, the untarnished satisfaction of servanthood are shelters in the rain of the world that we can always find – if we are looking for them.  The Christian who exercises liberty well knows when he’s getting wet, and how to stay dry. 

By Andy Farmer

Note: This is the fifth in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776. For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE. 

Last week we looked at how the law of love governs our liberty as it relates to our brothers and sisters.  Pastor Newton then extends this principle to our example to unbelievers.  In considering the unbeliever, we should desire that their interactions with us will not only leave them conscious of our graciousness, but our set-apartness as well.

I remember in the first few months after my conversion I met a girl at church who said she believed the Lord had called her to go to dance clubs because they provided great opportunities to evangelize.  I’m pretty confident the clubs she was talking about weren’t quaint little village pubs where she could discuss eternal security over a game of darts.  I was only a few months distanced from the bar scene myself and I was taken aback by my sister’s strategy and rationalization.  I had been going to bars for years and had never met a guy who had any desire for conversation, spiritual or otherwise, while he was there.  I didn’t have the nerve to ask her how it was working out.

But this young woman was simply making her appeal based on a disco version of what is often called ‘incarnating’ in our day.  Christians need to be ‘incarnational’ – need to mix with regular folks in the stuff regular folks do – to have a platform of relevance upon which to share their Gospel story.  There is some good reason in this – we do need to share truth with both our words and our lives.  But the slippery slope of incarnation is that we become so involved with our mission field that we forget the mission task.  We get too alike the people we’re trying to reach.  To be honest, I’ve done my share of ‘over-incarnating’ over the years – sitting in on ungodly conversations, imbibing when I could have easily abstained, telling stories that accent my raucous past rather than my pedestrian present.  My logic is something like, “They see me as this really good moral person, I should show them I’m normal so they ask me what makes the difference.”  And maybe this works from time to time.  But Newton helps us to see that if we buy into the relevance logic we may misrepresent the more significant evidence of God in our lives – our set-apartness, our holiness.  The world is full of people who are trying to be relevant.  What it needs are people who are willing to be different.  The mark of an authentic work of God in a person will combine a discernable holiness of character with an attractive, gracious spirit.  The apostle Paul expresses it with this exhortation:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,  just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.  (1 Cor. 10:31-33)

In holiness we live for the glory of God; in graciousness we live for the benefit of the lost.  Our exercise of liberty should always have in view the saving purposes of God in the unbelieving world around us.  Or as Newton sums up,

Happy are they who are favored with most of the holy unction, and best enabled to manifest to all around them, by their spirit, tempers, and conversations, what are the proper design and genuine effect of His gospel upon the hearts of sinners.

By Andy Farmer

Note:  This is the fourth in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776.  For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE.

After assessing the effect of how we pursue liberty on our own souls, Pastor Newton calls us to turn our attention toward our brothers and sisters in Christ.  In this he is applying the teaching of the Apostle Paul, who advocated liberty constrained by the law of love in his letter to the Romans

Romans 14:14-21  ¹⁴ I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.  ¹⁵ For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.  By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.  ¹⁶ So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.  ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  ¹⁸ Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.  ¹⁹ So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.  ²⁰ Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.  Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.  ²¹ It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble

Newton advises us, in considering our brothers, that charity and prudence may require us to abstain from things that might be suitable for our liberty but would be a stumbling block for someone weaker.  But to Newton love doesn’t just mean we watch what we are doing around weaker people.  He reminds us that we don’t always know who might be affected by what we do in the exercise of liberty.  We will never know whose faith has been undermined by taking their cue from observing us when we didn’t know we were being watched.  And therefore we won’t be able to help a person who might stumble beyond our awareness.

 

He also makes a connection between how we view our liberties as they relate to what we want to be our example.

 

And it seems that an obligation to this sort of self-denial, rises, and is strengthened, in proportion to the weight and influence of our characters.

 

In other words, those who aspire to greater influence for God should be all the more concerned about their example to others. 

 

The important thing here is that we are not motivated by what others think of us.  That would be fear of man.  We are, rather, motivated by a love for God and others that will seek to make sure that our lives are lived for the ‘mutual upbuilding’ (as Paul says it) of our brothers and sisters in the faith.  So we don’t simply think in terms of avoiding what might stumble others.  We want to see our lives among our brothers and sisters as opportunities to strengthen the faith of others through how we make decisions regarding liberty.  Liberty strained through the law of love will be liberty well expressed. 

By Andy Farmer

 

Note:  This is the third in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776.  For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE. 
 

John Newton’s approach to liberty and worldliness begins with the effect of our choices and pursuits on our own souls. 

 

In considering our souls, Newton challenges us to refrain from things that ‘deaden our hearts to divine things’, and exhorts us to not ‘pursue, rest in, or allow’ anything that gives us greater joy than our chief joy in God.

 

Last week we dealt with a false distinction between public and private spirituality.  Newton reminded us that our public and private lives are constantly intertwined, because God sees all.  In this exhortation he deals with another misunderstanding.  We often live with a functional divide between our ‘sacred’ (meaning the things we do that are consciously about our religious experience), and our ‘secular’ (meaning the things we do that we don’t consider religious) lives. 

 

When we live with a distinction between sacred and secular, ‘Christian Liberty’ can simply become the religious permission we assume to do worldly things.  We can avoid uncomfortable evaluation of our worldly pursuits by pointing to all the religious activities (quiet times, service, meeting attendance, good deeds, etc.) that give us the right to a reasonable amount of worldly indulgence.  In a sense, we live as if we need to ‘protect’ our secular liberties from sacred contamination.  The truth is, we never have to guard our secular lives from the influence of the sacred world.  I don’t remember a time when I was watching an Eagles game and suddenly got the urge to shut off the tube and read my Bible.  Even if they were losing. 

 

At risk in this sacred/secular distinction is true joy in our soul.  Our souls weren’t created with bipolar tendencies.  They were created to find joy in God and him alone.  It is God’s lavish grace that allows us to experience true joy in God through secondary joys.  And Christian liberty may be best understood as the kind permission of our Creator to enjoy the things He has created for us.  I believe this can include things that we have created for enjoyment as well – art, music, visual imagery, sports, Mexican food, roller coasters, jokes, beach vacations, movies, Ford Mustangs… well, the list is getting a little long and a little too personalized, but you get my point.
 

The first test is, according to Newton, whether something we enjoy through liberty works against our joy in God.  If it does, it will have an enslaving and ultimately damaging effect on our souls.  And liberty was never meant to produce those results.  To rightly understand and enjoy liberty we must remove the sacred/secular divide.  All our secular enjoyments have sacred implications.  And all our secondary joys must ultimately feed our primary joy in God. 

 

 

Psalm 24:3-6  ³ Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?  ⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.  ⁵ He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.  ⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

By Andy Farmer

 

Note:  This is the second in a series of posts on Christian liberty based on a pastoral letter written by John Newton in 1776.  For background on the letter see the 6.18.09 post.  You can read the letter in its entirety HERE .

 

In his advice to Lord Dartmouth, John Newton begins by offering three helpful insights. 

 

First, for most people who are saved out of a life lived apart from God, their initial tendency is to flee many of the ‘worldly’ activities that caused them trouble in life.  But as we move on in the Christian life there is an inevitable interest in reopening some of the doors we had closed behind us in the name of liberty.  We don’t want to go back, we just want to safely sample what we used to crave.  In these seasons we assume that our maturity will allow us to express our liberty.  But Newton reminds us that sometimes the supposed rigid legalism of a young convert is godlier than the easy liberty of the self-professed mature believer.  How we define ‘maturity’ and ‘liberty’ says a lot about what we really desire in life. 

 

Second, it is ultimately unhelpful and unnecessary to approach the question of liberties asking, ‘how near we may go to the utmost bounds of what is right without being wrong’.  If my approach to liberty is based on how much worldliness I can experience and still call myself a solid Christian, I seriously misunderstand the scriptures and I demonstrate a glaring deficiency in my love for God and others. 

 

Third, Newton offers two guiding principles for all considerations of liberty:  True godliness calls us ‘to maintain communion with Him in our own souls and to glorify Him in the sight of men.’  In other words, everything we do affects our fellowship with God and our witness about God to others. 

 

Sometimes we can see how some liberties can affect our fellowship with God but we have a hard time seeing how they affect our witness to others.  If I listen to death metal through my ear buds while I’m doing my devotions, I might have a tough time engaging with the Lord.  But all anybody at that moment would see is me reading my Bible.  So my witness would be intact.  Right? 

 

Conversely, if I have a beer at a ball game and somebody from my church sees me and thinks I’m a lush, my witness might be affected.  But if I’m only having one beer and it’s an appropriate place to have it, I can do it in faith and not have my communion with God affected.  Right? 

 

Wrong on both counts.  Newton reminds us that there is an inseparable link between what we do in private and what we do in public.  When that link is ignored we call it hypocrisy.  If God is God then he is the God of our private life and our public life.  To have a right understanding and practice of Christian liberty we must live before the face of God – Coram Deo - who works in our private lives to make us fit representatives in our public lives.  The light we have in God is the same light that is to shine through us to the world.     

 

Eph. 5:8-10:  For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

By Andy Farmer

 

One of the issues we regularly have to deal with as pastors is the challenge of Christian liberty.  We deal with it on a personal level every day of our lives – what we listen to in our cars, what we watch on our TV’s, what we buy, what we enjoy, what we promote.  But is also an issue we are asked about a good bit as well.  Parents want to know what standards they should have in their families regarding worldly influences.  Men and women both want to know how to interact with all of the virtual and real-time lifestyle choices that are common in the culture around them.

 

The battle with the world is a uniquely Christian problem.  If you are not aware that there is a difference between life in this world and life in the next you are probably not a Christian.  But if the draw of the pleasures and distractions of this world we live in, or questions about liberty, license and legalism matter to you, then you have some good evidence of the Kingdom of God doing its invasive work in your heart.  And you’ll probably wrestle with things that most folks won’t comprehend.

 

When I’m wrestling with whether something I want to do is appropriate for me as a Christian I’ll often pull out a letter written nearly 250 years ago.  Over the next few Thursdays I’m going to be sharing the contents of this letter in bits and pieces in this Thursday blog.

 

Why?

 

First, I think some of the best advice in our current age is to listen to the wisdom of previous ages.  None of our present day temptations are really new, and it can be helpful to see how saints gone by dealt with their versions of our trials. 

 

Second, the letter is written by John Newton, who knew the world from vivid experience, and counseled about it with great pastoral and practical insight. 

 

Third, however, is the recipient of the letter.  This letter is part of a pastoral correspondence between Newton and Lord Dartmouth (founder of Dartmouth College), who served as a key advisor to the Prime Minister of England during the American Revolution.  Dartmouth was a Christian seated at the highest level of worldly influence.  The letter we will be looking at was written in November 1776; just about the same time a copy of a little thing called the Declaration of Independence would be crossing his desk.  Ironically, at the same time that this Lord of the Realm was being reminded that the self evident truth endows every human with an inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; he was wrestling with his conscience over whether being a Christian limited the liberties he could rightly enjoy.

 

What we’ll look at therefore is advice to a man who is wrestling in his soul over how to be faithful to his Savior at a moment in time when both worldly influence and worldly temptations are converging upon him in historic proportions. 

 

If you’d like to read the full letter as it is written, here is a copy of it in its entirety.  We’ll unpack it and apply it in pieces over the next few weeks.          

By Andy Farmer

Editor’s Note:  Below is the content that Andy Farmer shared at our Cross Culture meeting on Saturday night.  Using  the three main points from the message Rob Flood preached to the whole group (found here), Andy applied them directly to parents.

LIFE IS SHORT

When you’re parenting young kids, you find yourself saying ‘how long?’ a lot.  How long till they learn to sleep through the night?  How long till she’s potty trained?  How long will it take you to do this one page of math problems?  How long is it till dad gets home to deal with this?! 

With teens, life seems much shorter.  Didn’t I just buy you a new pair of shoes?  Didn’t we just fill this fridge?  Didn’t you just have a game yesterday?  Family events blur as we try to find time to get everyone actually together without anyplace somebody needs to be heading.  When kids are young, being ahead of their age group is a good thing – ‘no kids his age can do that’.  With teens it’s a thing we dread – ‘no kid his age should ever do that’!

With younger kids we look forward to our children passing on to the next stage of development so we can see who they are becoming.  But with teens we realize that with each new stage we are not the sun, moon and stars to them anymore, just another planet in their orbit.  And we are becoming increasingly aware that there will come a stage of development that will end, if not our parental relationship, certainly our parental vocation. 

The Psalmist calls us to measure all of our parenting days – to know the extent and purpose of each season.  These days may be short, but they also should be sweet. 

GOD IS ACTIVE 

Parents expect a certain amount of trouble with little kids.  We expect misbehavior, mistakes, crying, even temper tantrums.  We may not like it, but we deal with it as part of the process of raising kids.  But somewhere in the process between preschool and pre-teen we assume that we’ve passed the test.  We’ve put in the time and now we expect to see results.  Though you may tell me that raising teens can be a challenge, well, that’s for folks who didn’t do the job right early on.  In very subtle ways we can look to the teen years as a validation of what we’ve done right as parents. 

But that doesn’t happen.  Is it because we failed early on?  Probably not.  It’s because God is active.  He’s active in our teens to show them that good parenting doesn’t mean that they don’t need the Good Shepherd.  And He’s active in our lives in good old fashioned sanctification.  He won’t let us take credit for our children’s salvation, and He won’t let us take our ease in this life.  The messiness of the teen years is designed so that middle-aging parents don’t get soft in self-sufficiency.  We’re still called to pick up the cross, die to self and live for Christ.  God is active so that we who have become wise through experience might stay wise through perseverance.

WE BELONG TO GOD

When we are raising small children we struggle with fear when we leave our kids.  But with teens you struggle with the fear of when they leave you.  What are they doing out there?  Who are they with?  Does anybody have a watch?  How can a child who texts people eighty times a day forget to make one call and say he’ll be late coming home?

One thing that parents know whatever season they’re in is fear.  Fear of failure.  Fear of calamity.  Fear that our children will reject us, or reject the God we serve.  Parents of teens deal with fear juiced with an awareness of the passage of time and opportunities lost.  We’ve had years building an identity as parents, but it begins to dawn on us that parenting does, one day out there, end. 

Who are we if we’re not parents?  What else can we do if not raise kids?  But we need to remember that the God who made provision for us to be parents has made provision for us to become something else after that.  Maybe grandparents.  But certainly more than that.  Why?  Because we belong to Him and He has purposes for us in every season of life.  So let me put to you the questions Rob put to the teens:

Will you be defined by your earthly successes?  …your earthly failures?  …your earthly possessions or relationships?  Will you be defined by the trials you face?  …the blessings you enjoy?  When you ask yourself the question, “Who Am I?” how do you answer?

I am a mere breath?  I am a shadow?  I am nothing before you?  I am spent?

Or, do you answer, “I am a sojourner…a child of the living God…an heir with Christ… A follower of Jesus Christ… a disciple… I am part of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation…a citizen of heaven…a saint…I am raised with Christ…I am redeemed…I am bought with a price…a slave…a bondservant of Christ…I am a brother or sister of Christ… a temple of the Holy Spirit…a member of the Body of Christ…an eternal being created and redeemed for fellowship with my heavenly Father.”  THAT is an identity that is sure…that is secure…and that is forever.

By Andy Farmer

The following is the text of our pastoral encouragement to the moms in our church on Mothers Day.

Happy Mothers Day.  In past years we’ve done a lot of different things to celebrate Mothers day.  We’ve preached from God’s word on the purpose and value of motherhood.  We’ve done drama sketches and special songs to celebrate the day.  We’ve honored specific moms in our midst.  And we’ve given things away – always a popular gesture. 

But today we just want to speak to you from our hearts as pastors.    As the old Spanish proverb says, an ounce of motherhood is worth a pound of clergy.  Mom’s, its important for you to know how much we value your role in the building of this local church.

Why the broom?  At first glance a man carrying a broom might be a great thing for a mother to see on Mothers Day.  And dads and sons, you could do far worse today than to pick up a broom, or a rambunctious two year old while mom puts up her feet in your favorite chair. 

But as I was thinking about motherhood, what came to mind was, well, a broom.  Let me explain.  Sweeping, like so much of a mother’s life, is never ending.  No matter how much you sweep, you’ll never get every speck.  And even if you could, by tomorrow you’ll need to sweep again.  Here’s the funny thing.  Moms never cause crumbs.  Moms never track dirt in on soccer cleats.  Moms never spill sugar on the floor.  Others do that.  Moms deal with the environmental impact of everybody else just living life. 

I know every mom has at one time at least had this thought.  “What if I didn’t clean this up?”  Would anyone even notice? 

But you know what happens, don’t you.  The fear that maybe nobody else would notice.  And then the nightmares.  What new life form would grow up on that tile?  What creatures would crawl in looking for food?  That knock on the door is  the health inspector – and I’m still in my pajamas! 

So moms make peace with the repetitive task.  Mothers have to remove words like ‘pristine’ and ‘finished’ from their vocabulary.  Moms we want to honor you because, in dying to the ideal of perfection you find a million small ways to be truly great.

There’s a more significant reason why I think the broom is an appropriate symbol for Mothers Day.  Allow me to turn the corner a bit and point your gaze upward.  Did you ever think about a broom this way?  A broom is an instrument of separating that which is of no value from that which is of true value.  You’re here today because the Lord Jesus Christ wants to make sure you know what he sees.  And what he sees is great value. 

If your vision of motherhood is infused by the confidence that God has not swept you away in judgment, but has swept you into his eternal purposes in the Gospel, then the ordinary and repetitive tasks of motherhood will never define you as a person.  In Christ you are redeemed; you are a saint, you are a daughter of God.  And you are called to be a mom. 

Abraham Lincoln once said, “I regard no man as poor who has a godly mother.”  Your pastors want you to know that we see this church as exceedingly rich in godly mothers.  We hope you feel our love and gratefulness to the Savior for you today, and every day. 

By Andy Farmer

 

On Sunday Jared preached the last sermon in our series, In My Place.  For me it has been a tremendous journey through some of the most profound passages in the Bible.  In this series we’ve been fed by the word of God from:

 

·        1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (The Centrality of the Gospel)

·        Exodus 12:1-27 (The Passover)

·        Leviticus 16 (The Day of Atonement)

·        Mark 15:16-47 (The Crucifixion)

·        Romans 3:21-26 (Justified by Grace)

·        Galatians 3:10-14 (Redeemed from the Curse)

 

Why not take your devotions this week and read back through these passages to dig deeper in reflection on the substitutionary work of Christ for you.

 

In his message Jared exhorted us with this:  “If we ever find ourselves in a place where we are saying ‘I've got that, let's move on' when it comes to the substitutionary death of Christ for our sins, we need to wave a great big caution sign over our lives"

 

Let’s face it.  There are a lot of things going on in life where we want biblical answers.  And there are a lot of big issues we face where we’re tempted to say, ‘thanks a lot, that was great stuff, now can we talk about…..’  But I think what Jared is getting at in that statement, and what this series has resoundingly declared, is that any answers or direction that can’t find connection to what Christ has done for us will not lead us to what God wants for us.  So here’s my personal take home in two points: 

 

1. I want to regularly study and meditate on the cross so that it worms its way into all my thinking and feeling and therefore into all my doing. 

By giving consistent attention to this truth of truths I will build connecting bridges into every area of my life.

 

2. I want to regularly study the circumstances and happenstances of my life and trace them back to the work of the cross.      

Are things going well?  Am I grateful because I’m living in the blessings of God purchased by Christ’s blood?  Are things not going well?  Am I in faith for the promises of God that have become mine in Jesus? 

 

Am I living my life in light of what could have been, and where I could have gone, if Jesus hadn’t died in my place?  As J. C. Ryle writes,

 

The more I keep the cross in my mind's eye, the more fullness I seem to discern in it.  The longer I dwell on the cross in my thoughts, the more I am satisfied that there is more to be learned at the foot of the cross than anywhere else in the world.

By Andy Farmer

 

This past Saturday, April 25, was the anniversary of the death of William Cowper.  Cowper (pronounced Cooper) is one of the great poets of the English language, and one of the great hymn writers of the Christian church.  He died April 25, 1800. 

 

If you or someone you know battles severe discouragement or experiences depression you should know about Cowper.  His is not a happy story, nor does it have an inspirational ending.  But it is a story of faith, a faith propped up against a lifelong storm of loneliness and despair.  And though that storm never let up even till Cowper’s dying day, his faith remained anchored in truth.  He never turned away from the Savior, even when the earthly comforts of the truth didn’t turn the tide.  Truth is eternal – it cannot be washed away by the trials this side of heaven.  Long time friend John Newton wrote his confident assessment of Cowper’s ultimate triumph this way,

 

“Oh, what a surprise of joy, would he find himself immediately before the throne, and in the presence of his Lord!  All his sorrows left, and earth exchanged for heaven.”

 

We need to have room for experiences like William Cowper’s in our understanding of faith.  And we need to have room for people like William Cowper in our lives. 

 

Take some time to get to know him by checking out this blog from Between Two Worlds.  Justin Taylor includes a short video on Cowper produced by Mars Hill Church, and link to the transcript of a message John Piper has done on Cowper’s life and God’s purposes in it.

 

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/04/william-cowper.html

By Andy Farmer

In his book, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand Paul Tripp describes how we view ourselves as something akin to looking at ourselves through a carnival mirror (p. 279).  This is such a wonderful description of how I look at myself.  Sure, I see myself, but not clearly or consistently.  And like the distorted views of a carnival mirror, sometimes my perspective of myself can be way off.  That’s usually the case when I’m in a conflict with Jill and I can’t fathom why she doesn’t see the pristine logic of my arguments.   

But the truth is, even if I had a Hubble-quality mirror, I wouldn’t be able to fully see myself.  Whenever I look in a mirror I can only see one side of me.  That means I’m effectively blind to the rest of me.  When I turn to see a different side I lose sight of what I was just looking at before.  It’s not only impossible to see myself fully, it is also impossible to keep what I have seen in view when I’m looking elsewhere. 

This is true in a physical sense, but it’s also true in a spiritual sense.  For example, when I’m trying to focus on my impatience with others, I can seem to get a good idea of how that works.  But I can’t easily see how impatience is connected to some other selfish craving, like control.  And when I try to focus on the ways I want to control my life I lose sight of how I can impatiently treat people like circumstances or impediments.  I am so grateful that the Word of God is a true mirror, not only in its accuracy, but in its three dimensionality.  It shows my life in all its interconnectivity.  And I’m thankful that I am not dependent on natural sight to truly see.  The Spirit of God is able to open my eyes and direct my gaze not only to who I really am, but what he is really doing by grace.

Posted by Andy Farmer

 

I turned 50 last week.  People ask me how if feels – a half century old.  I can’t really tell much difference from 49.  But I did have one of those ‘whoa, I’m not a young man anymore’ moments on my birthday. 

 

I have always had this tendency to judge my age by how I mentally picture people I read about in a newspaper.  For so long when I would read, ‘the suspect was a 50 year old white male….’  I’d think ‘what is an old coot doing something stupid like that for?’.  Now I’m that guy – or at least could be a candidate for a police line-up in the investigation. 

 

But I’ve had another more helpful insight on my birthday as well.  I’ve just started reading a book in my devotions called Keeping the Heart by Puritan pastor John Flavel.  In his introduction I came across something that seemed to be a birthday present from the Spirit of God.  Flavel writes,

 

“Remember that you are at the door of eternity and have other work to do”

 

Puritan paragraphs can wear me out, but Puritan sentences wake me up.  So what does this sentence do for me?  One of my defining characteristics is how long it takes me to leave somewhere.  I admire people who pick up the keys and go.  But my family and friends have always marveled at how many things can distract me between going and gone.  I’ll be headed to the door and then suddenly realize it’s a perfect time to change that light bulb to a higher wattage, download that song, fix that door handle…..  then get to the car with no keys in my hand.  Common sense says that to get anywhere in a timely way the best course of action is to forget everything else and walk out the door. 

 

But Flavel helps me see that there’s one door that we will all go through that isn’t best approached with expediency.  The door of eternity is coming closer and closer to me.  Age makes it all the more real and all the more interesting.  But I want to reach for that door intensely distracted by the work of the Kingdom yet to be done while I’m here.  I want to go through that door a busy man; maybe even surprised that I’m leaving because I’m focused on the other work I have to do.  That’s the prayer of this newly minted fifty year old coot.

Posted by Andy Farmer

Last week I threw myself into some home repair problems around my house.  It was a practical disaster.  Now I don’t claim to be very handy, but I did think I was tackling some things that were in my proficiency range.  Guess again.  The good news is that nearly everything is fixable in a house if you’re willing to throw money at it; which is eventually what I did.  So this week the Farmer household is calm because the Farmer house is no under siege by its owner.  As usual, when this kind of thing happens, I want to learn what I can from the debacle, so I can make sure I learn fresh, new things from the next debacle.  So here are a few things I’ve learned this time around. 

Don’t try to do two jobs at once.  I know, this should be a no-brainer.  In this case I thought I could do some painting and then, between coats, fix my water heater.  Don’t do this.  There is a math to home repair that says it typically takes 3 times as long as you plan for it.  I’ve learned the law of exponents in this experience – 1 job X a factor of 3 X 1 job X a factor of three is nine times the hours I thought it would take to do the job.  That’s math that really hurts.

Self-pity seems like an convenient refuge, but is really a depressing pit.  There is a low point you get to in something like this where you realize you’re too far in to go back, and too far from finishing to want to go on.  I had about nine of those points (see above algebra) last week.  The thing I learned from last time is that anger doesn’t help.  I learned this time that self-pity is just as bad.  Sitting down in my basement on an overturned bucket lamenting my lot in the cosmos felt good for a little while, but I found it stayed with me.  I couldn’t shake it; in fact, I felt the urge to try to invite everybody else to my little pity party.  Everybody sent their regrets, which was probably good.  Note to self – next time, avoid anger AND self pity. 

Failure can’t define my future.  I made mistakes.  I exercised poor judgment.  I didn’t plan real well.  I lacked skill I needed.  I failed.  The temptation is to say, ‘never again!  My maintenance days are over’.  But failure today can’t drive my decisions tomorrow.  I know something else will break, or need to be replaced, and I’ll need to be ready to strap on the tool belt and get to work.  That’s life.  It’s part of being a man. 

Sometimes God simply wants to show us our limits.  In 2 Corinthians 12:10 the Apostle Paul writes,  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.  This right after he talks about his thorn in the flesh.  I’m not sure what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, but I imagine it put some serious limits on what he considered important for him to do.  My calamities aren’t like his, but I do know that God can lovingly reveal my weaknesses if for no other reason than to remind me that I have them – for the sake of Christ.  That’s when I realize grace is sufficient.

And I guess that means things work out right after all (Rom. 8:28).

 

 

By Andy Farmer

 

Editor’s Note:  At Saturday night’s Cross Culture Meeting, Andy Farmer gave the Extra Point (a time for parents of teens to apply the message they’ve just heard.)  The following is a summary of his comments.  You can listen to his full presentation as well as the message that  preceded his comments HERE.

 

Our teens are not little lumps of Play-Doh ready to be shaped into whatever identity God has for them.  Our identity is always being shaped by something…and so is theirs.  For Christians in general, and teens in Christian families, life is an identity crisis.  Whatever shapes us ultimately defines and identifies us.

 

As parents we are called to make sure the identity shaping influences of the world don’t become the identity defining influences in our teens lives.  To help in that task, here are three identity shapers that need to be on our radar.  These are just some of the things that are cluttering the airspace of our teens’ world.

 

1. Style is more identity shaping than Substance 

Style can be determined quickly, without time or investment.  Style says something about your teen immediately. Substance makes us think. Substance costs more.  It takes time.  Far from immediate, substance delivers a delayed payoff and is far more meaningful. 

 

Our identity in Christ is not about style; it is about substance …the deepest substance a person can experience. And it calls us to a life of faith…which is a lifestyle of delayed payoff.  If our teens are consumed with style as identity, a life of faith will be irrelevant.

 

As parents, we battle Style with Substance by learning to have “but why?” conversations.  With care, grace, and patience, we can walk our teens through the allure of style to discussions on substance.  By asking them why questions, they are forced to think beneath the surface.  By avoiding an accusatory tone, we free them to actually answer and enter into discussion.

 

2. Social Standing is more identity shaping than personal relationships 

Peer pressure is built on this. It leads the teen to say, “I care far more about what people think of me than who really knows me.”  It causes teens to become other things…things that will establish them in social standing.  The fleshly heart is driven by social climbing…and is influenced by others.

 

Our identity in Christ teaches us the opposite though.  It calls us to be influencers, not the influenced.  The world ought not define who we are to be.  Christ defines that and the world around us should be influenced by that.

 

As parents, we can help our teen as we hold the line on a biblical definition of friendship.  If we help our teens avoid using social standing as a replacement for friendships, we direct them toward Christ and away from the world.

 

3. Perceived bad things are more identity shaping than perceived good things 

The most life shaping experiences are not the good times, but the bad times. In the bad times, things are decided about ourselves, about the world, and about God.  These things set in our hears and shape us profoundly. 

 

This is why brushing off a crisis in our teens’ lives is so damaging.  Even if we think it is inconsequential, they perceive it as significant and are thus shaped by it.  If we fail to come alongside them, we stand a great chance of losing them to the identity of these bad things.

 

As parents, we help our teens by understanding their bad experiences in light of where they are in life, not where we are.  We feel things the way they would, not the way we would.  We are then positioned to help care for them in light of the gospel…because we will be applying it to where they sense the need.

Posted by Andy Farmer

At the end of his excellent book, In Christ Alone, Sinclair Ferguson includes a letter written by a close friend and colleague from Westminster Seminary, Dr. Al Groves.  It is a letter written by Dr. Groves to be read at his own memorial service.  In the last stages of a battle with cancer, Dr. Groves looked to those he would leave behind.  Gentlemen, read this excerpt from the letter and ask yourself, ‘if I could speak to the people attending my funeral, what would I say?’. 

As I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I have walked hand in hand with Jesus, the one who has already walked through that valley and come out the other side, alive, raised from the dead.  And as I hold his hand and trust him, I too am raised with him, for this was his purpose in walking that path: to raise those who trusted in him.  His rod and staff, his cross of suffering, have become my comfort.
            Now as I have died, I come before the God, the king of the universe, and I come in Christ.  He chose to suffer and die on the cross in my place, so that on account of him I might have forgiveness from sin and victory over death.  And now I have received the resurrection and eternal life that has been my only hope, past, present, and forever….
            Through all my life, Christ has been constant.  Even as I have grown and changed, he is still the one whom I loved that first day.  And nothing ever changed in how I came to him; every day of my life the story is the same: I have come to God in Christ.  His love for me has been steadfast, and he has pursued me through every time I have turned way from him and every time I have returned.  The constant prayer of my heart for my own life and the lives of those around me has been that we would see Jesus, and that he would be welcome and present among us.
            There may be some here who have never trusted Christ for life, who have never known that he is the answer to the sin and death in our lives.  I urge you to consider the claims he made to being the Son of God, to consider that he didn’t stay dead and sends a message down through the ages that there is life in him and him alone.  His death on a cross, humiliating though it seemed, was his glory, but which he has defeated our true enemies – sin and death.  By the ultimate sacrifice he made, he humiliated all powers arrayed against him.
            If you struggle with faith, let me encourage you that in the hardest moments I have faced, he has been there.  And death has been defeated.  I am in Christ, as you are in Christ.  So let us live out of the grace we have received.  Let us live out of Christ.  This means looking daily for him, asking him to open your eyes to him, and embracing what you see.
           Seek him with all your heart.  Love him with all your heart.  Love those he loves with all your heart, even to the laying down of your life for him.  Jesus, the way, the truth, the life.  In no other do we have hope.  But in him we have hope that endures forever.  We grieve, but we grieve with hope.  The hope of a resurrection; the hope of life eternal.  Together with Jesus.
            For most of my Christian life I have wanted to see Jesus face to face, to join in with the heavenly chorus in his presence around his royal throne and declare his praise in new ways.  Something else has grown through the years: an abiding sense that this is not for me alone.  Being with Jesus myself is not what he wants, nor is it what I want.  To be there with you all, those he loves and those I have come to love, that is true joy.  I have often thought of coming to heaven as Jesus standing at the finish line of a race waiting those looking for him, trusting in him, pursuing him.  But it isn’t a race for me to finish first or alone.  It has always been a race for us to finish together, arm in arm, having encouraged one another in faith.
            He is good.  From the beginning, his steadfast love has endured.  It endures forever.  He is a gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.  Trust in him with all your heart, for he is faithful.

As quoted in Sinclair Ferguson.  In Christ Alone.  235-237

This advice from John Newton is enough to chew on without comment. Enjoy!

 

“The days speed away apace; each one bears its own burden with it, to return no more. Both pleasures and pains that are past are gone forever. What is yet future will likewise be soon past. The end is coming. Oh to realize the thought and to judge of things now in some measure suitable to the judgment we shall form of them when we are about to leave them all! Many things which now elate or depress us will then appear to be trifles light as air. One thing is needful: to have our hearts united to the Lord in humble faith; to set Him always before us; to rejoice in Him as our Shepherd and our portion; to submit to all His appointments, not out of necessity, because He is stronger than we, but with a cheerful acquiescence, because He is wise and good and loves us better than we do ourselves; to feed upon his truth; to have our understandings, wills, affections, imaginations, memory all filled and impressed with the great mysteries of redeeming love; to do all for Him, to receive all from Him, to find all in Him. I have mentioned many things, but they are all comprised in one, a life of faith in the Son of God.” Dated 8/28/1779.

From "The Voice of the Heart, p 221

By Andy Farmer

These days when we think about how the church should interact with the culture, there is a lot of talk about identifying with the needs around us and being part of the solution to the world’s problems. While we always want to see our place as citizens as a privilege and the needs of our society as our responsibility, what we can never forget is our citizenship in heaven. In being part of solutions here – whether it is standing for the weak and defenseless, taking care of our environment, or pushing for justice and social change – we can never forget our citizenship in heaven. And we must always handle social responsibility here n light of eternal responsibility before the Lord of All. Here is a great perspective from about 35 years ago that is every bit as relevant now as it was then.

 

“We are not sent to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not a new social order but a new birth; not revolution but regeneration; not renovation but revival; not resuscitation but resurrection; not a new organization but a new creation; not democracy but the gospel; not civilization but Christ; we are ambassadors, not diplomats.”

 

—Hugh Thomson Kerr, quoted in George W. Peters, A Biblical Theology of Missions (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972), 65 – courtesy of firstimportance.org

By Andy Farmer

Stephen Altrogge at www.theblazingcenter.com gives us seven reasons he’s glad God created women. Funny thing is, I wouldn’t have come up with any of his seven reasons, but I can’t argue with a single one. Which only goes to show how important my wife is to me. Check out Stephen’s Seven here. And don’t miss the accompanying videos. You’ll identify!

Last week the American League All Stars beat the National League All Stars in an epic, fifteen inning marathon All Star game. But that wasn’t the only epic event of the All Star week; played at historic Yankee Stadium in the last year of its existence. In the Home Run Derby the previous day a remarkable thing happened. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers slugged an astounding 28 home runs in the first round of the derby – more than all the other competitors combined!

Josh Hamilton? Who is this guy? And where did he come from. Hamilton is a former Number One ‘can’t miss’ prospect who fell into serious and nearly fatal drug addiction which cost him his career, his family, and everything he valued in life. But about three years ago, his life was arrested by the only one who could save him – Jesus Christ. Over the next two years, Josh Hamilton began a long road back to health, to his family, and eventually to the game of baseball. Against all odds, he became a 26 year old Cincinnati Reds rookie last year and rediscovered both the love of the game and the skill that had been lost to drugs. After a respectable rookie year he was traded to the Texas Rangers during the offseason. All he has done with Texas is lead the Major Leagues in RBI’s so far this season (98 in 100 games!) and play in the All Star Game.

In July 2007 ESPN.com let Josh Hamilton tell his story when he was still basking in the initial joy of baseball redemption. Considering all that has happened since that time, it is an even more remarkable story today. It’s worth it to read the entire piece, but here are some excerpts.

I have a mission now. My mission is to be the ray of hope, the guy who stands out there on that beautiful field and owns up to his mistakes and lets people know it's never completely hopeless, no matter how bad it seems at the time. I have a platform and a message, and now I go to bed at night, sober and happy, praying I can be a good messenger.

I get a lot of abuse in visiting cities, but it only bothers me when people are vulgar around kids. The rest I can handle. Some of it is even funny. In St. Louis, I was standing in right field when a fan yelled, "My name is Josh Hamilton, and I'm a drug addict!” I turned around and looked at him with my palms raised to the sky. "Tell me something I don't know, dude," I said. The whole section started laughing and cheering, and the heckler turned to them and said, "Did you hear that? He's my new favorite player.” They cheered me from that point on.

But there is one story that sticks with me, so much so that I think of it every day. I was driving out of the players' parking lot at Great American Ball Park after a game in May, with Katie and our two girls. There's always a group of fans standing at the curb, hoping to get autographs, and I stop to sign as many as I can.

And on this particular night, a little boy of about 9 or 10, wearing a Reds cap, handed me a pen and something to sign. Nothing unusual there, but as I was writing the boy said, "Josh, you're my savior."

This stopped me. I looked at him and said, "Well, thank you. Do you know who my savior is?"

He thought for a minute. I could see the gears turning. Finally, he smiled and blurted out, "Jesus Christ.” He said it like he'd just come up with the answer to a test. "That's exactly right," I said.

You see, I may not know how I got here from there, but every day I get a better understanding of why.

The article is aptly titled “I’m Proof that Hope is Never Lost.” Aren’t we all! If you’d like to read the whole thing, go here.

By Andy Farmer

Do you ever wonder why God doesn’t let you in a little bit more on what He’s thinking as he works in the circumstances of your life? Wouldn’t faith be so much easier if we got a ‘head’s up’ when something was about to happen that we hadn’t planned for? Or if he’d make the Bible glow at the pages we need to pay attention to as trying to figure out what to do in a difficult situation. Trust would be so much easier that way. Or would it?

 

John Piper has some very helpful thoughts as to why we don’t get more than we do from God in the way of explanation in his blog post, “Why God Doesn’t Fully Explain the Pain (7/14/08).

 

God cannot make plain all he is doing, because there are millions and millions and millions and millions of effects of every event in your life, the good and the bad. God guides them all. They all have micro purposes and macro purposes. He cannot tell you all of them because your brain can’t hold all of them.

Trust does not demand more than God has told us. And he has given us immeasurably precious promises that he is in control of all things and only does well to his children. And he has given us a very thick book where we can read story after story after story about how he rules for the good of his people.

Let’s trust him and not ask for what our brains cannot contain

 

If you want to read the blog post in its entirety, go here.

By Andy Farmer

This is a bit of a longer blog than we typically run, but it is worth the read. It’s a real life story from Mark Altrogge, on his blog the blazing center

February 29th, 2008 by Mark Altrogge

We’d lost touch with each other over the years.

Gerry had one of the first Beatle haircuts in town and was in “The Legends.” I was in a rival band, “The Signets.” Both were blue-eyed soul bands. The Legends once played a 2-chord instrumental for 3 hours straight on a friend’s front porch. That had to be a Guinness record – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, the longest song known to man, was only 17 minutes long and they had gone 3 hours! I think that qualifies for canonization. Gerry had one of the nicest guitars of anyone I knew, a blonde Epiphone Casino like John Lennon’s. We were friends in college, drinking beer together and wasting time in the Student Union drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. After college, my life went downhill until Jesus apprehended me. Gerry’s life took a downward turn as well, and he developed agoraphobia. He would have a panic attack every time he’d attempt to leave town. So from sometime in the 70’s he became a prisoner of our town. He never left again.

Along the way, Gerry and I both got married, had children, and our lives took different directions. A few years later I heard that he got divorced.

Fast forward 25+ years. One day I see him from a distance in Wal-mart. The Lord prompts me to give him a call. I tell him I’d seen him and wondered if he’d like to get together for coffee. He’s glad to hear from me and anxious to hook up. So we meet at Starbucks a couple days later, two fifty-something guys getting reacquainted after being out of touch for far too long.

I start off by telling Gerry my favorite memory of him. It was the time a friend and I were supposed to meet him at a campus apartment, but we show up an hour late. When we come in, Gerry is sitting at the kitchen table, studying a beer bottle. He looks up at us, takes a drag on his Kool filter and says, “This is the famous Budweiser beer, brewed with the finest hops and malts….” While waiting for us, he has memorized the entire label on a bottle of Bud. That snapshot pretty much captures our lives back then.

Gerry tells me he has cancer. I wouldn’t know it by looking at him, but he tells me that 2 years ago the doctors gave him 2 years after discovering a large tumor in his intestines. He tells me he’s been reading the Bible for a year, which leads to talking about Jesus and his death as a substitute for us. God does something significant that day in our lives. We reestablish our friendship.

For the next year, Gerry and I get together regularly. He comes to our church and some other former friends renew their relationship with him. He meets new friends. Frank becomes a faithful Bible study partner, as do Dennis and Tim. Each week they call Gerry and talk about a Bible passage. Every Sunday Gerry comes to our church and stands in the back listening to me preach – he’s pretty sick - often in so much pain he can’t sit, but he usually makes it through the message before he has to go home and back to bed.

We go out to lunch once a week – I get the salad bar and load up my plate, but all he can eat is a few fries with gravy. He often treats me. Week after week, we talk of Jesus, as Gerry grows more thin and frail. He tells me that he and Frank are reading 1 John and that Jesus has convicted him that he needs to love people. He tells me that for years he has hated many people but now he has decided to forgive everyone who has ever wronged him. He wants to devote his life to Jesus, doing all he can to please him for the rest of his days. He wants to do as much good to as many people as he can.

In these days of suffering, God gives Gerry a gift – painting pictures. He paints every day. Landscapes, boats and Mediterranean seaport scenes. And he gives his paintings away. One hangs in my office.

Fast forward to this past Wednesday evening. I call and his dad answers. “How is your son?” I ask. “We’re in a death watch. Come over and see Gerry.” I get there and see him, lying in the special bed they’d set up for him in the family room. Gerry’s eyes are open, his breathing is shallow, a “death rattle”. I don’t know if he can hear me, but I hold his hand and tell him Jesus loves him, and thank him for being such a good friend. I tell him that nothing can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and pray for him.

Gerry’s dad and mom are there, grieving, watching their son’s last moments. Then his mom says, “Gerry can finally leave town now.” His agoraphobia is over. He’s leaving town – for heaven. For a face to face appointment with his Savior. I tell Gerry goodbye. “I love you, Gerry. See you soon.”

Gerry left town yesterday at 1 in the morning. I can’t wait to see him again.

By Andy Farmer

Today’s blog corresponds to one of the points from Andy’s message at the Family Life Meeting on Saturday Night. If you didn’t have a chance to hear the message you can download soon here.

 

We can enjoy peace in busyness through wise planning

 

SIGNS THAT YOU MIGHT NEED TO WORK IN THIS AREA:

• You don’t have a functional way to manage your family’s calendar or budget
• You’re continually surprised by things that you’ve committed to but don’t remember.
• You have trouble saying no, or find yourself saying yes to things you wish you didn’t.

 

Vision from God’s Word:

 

Hebrews 13:20-21 ²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

Enjoying Peace Through Application:

 

1. BATTLING YOUR PRESSURES: Consider which of the following desires can tend to drive the way you make decisions and spend your time. Discuss with your spouse and your fellowship group the specific ways you see these desires play out in your life.

 

Common Controlling Desires

The desire for comfort/pleasure (peace through ease, leisure, avoidance of difficulty, enjoyment of indulgence)

The desire for control/independence (peace through order or productivity, control over others, or not being controlled by others)

The desire for approval (peace through the respect or approval of others, avoidance of conflict, people pleasing)

The desire for rights (peace through being correct, not being questioned, sensitivity to issues of justice)

The desire for possessions (peace through having money or the things money can buy, needing bigger, better, newer, or, conversely, trusting the ability to provide or wisely manage money)

 

2. TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR PLANS: Choose a usable calendar that both husband and wife can access and coordinate. Mark out non-negotiables – things like community group, date nights, Family times, important meetings, etc for up to a year. Talk about your upcoming schedule on a weekly basis

 

3. FOCUSING YOUR ATTENTION: If you use Microsoft Outlook, have the program open to your calendar, not your email. This will help you focus more on things you planned to do than on things that are coming at you through email. To do this:

 

In Outlook – hit Tools

In Tools – hit Options

In Options – Hit Other

In Other – Hit Advanced Options

In Advanced Options, in the blue box under “General Settings” see the command ‘Start-up in this folder”. Choose “Calendar”

Then “OK” Your way back through the menus

 

4. BUILDING YOUR PRIORITIES: Make a list of all the significant responsibilities that fill up your calendar. When you’re done, prayerfully prioritize these items by placing numbers next to them. One is the top priority. When you are finished, take a look at them in light of the following questions
   • Which of my high priorities do I most often neglect? Why is that?
   • Do my schedule priorities reflect God’s priorities in scripture for me?
   • Is there a place where my spouse and I disagree? Who can we invite into our lives to help us talk through any disagreements
   • How do your priorities compare with other believers around you? Who could you show your list to for fresh evaluation?

 

What in your schedule has a trumping effect – something that always seems to get attention? Make a list of items which have the effect of “bumping” things off your calendar. Try to think of three things. Then sit down with your spouse and evaluate whether these items are appropriately invading your calendar. Caring for a sick relative, for instance, may be creating havoc on your calendar but be God’s unique call upon your schedule in this season. The latest events on “CSI: Dancing With the American Idol at The Office” may be a little more demanding on your time than you might think.

 

What church events are important for your family in this season, how does your calendar reflect this priority.

 

Do you have a pressure season in your work, school, or home? For example, accountants are going to have a busy schedule around tax season for instance. Where are these challenges present in your schedule? How can you plan for them in advance so they don’t effect your priorities too much?

By Andy Farmer

For the past three months we have had a pastor from Sydney, Australia living among us and seeking to experience something of what Sovereign Grace Ministries means as expressed in a local church. Many of you have met Kevin and Debbie Reid and their three kids, and we have thoroughly enjoyed having them in our church family. They arrive back in Sydney today. Kevin sent me this blog to express his thoughts and appreciation to God and the folks at CFC for their time here in the States. Please read this and experience God’s pleasure for the impact you’ve had on a pastor and new friend from the Land Down Under.

What could an Aussie learn spending 11 weeks at Covenant Fellowship? Too much for one blog entry. Yet what I’ve learned could be summarised in a statement by CJ Mahaney at Together for the Gospel: A growing awareness of God’s Sovereign Grace should lead us to humility, gratitude and joy. My time at Covenant Fellowship has, I hope, helped me grow in each of these.

1. Humility. I had heard that Americans were arrogant. Yet at Covenant Fellowship I was convicted of my own pride as I saw so many pursuing gospel-driven humility. As I saw pastors and others confess sin to each other, my own heart was opened up to see my own sin more clearly. As I saw people invite feedback and observations from others, I saw my need to more actively seek observations from other Christians. I saw pastors choosing to serve in roles that best served the team or the church rather than themselves. I saw people serving in a variety of ways. I experienced prophecy given in humility – willing to be tested, yet seeking to encourage. All of these have encouraged me to more actively pursue the humility of our Saviour.

 

2. Joy. I had heard that Americans took themselves too seriously, that Aussie humour wouldn’t go too well over here. Whoever said that has never been to a Covenant Fellowship pastoral team meeting! They laughed at themselves, they laughed with me as I laughed at their strange American expressions and habits, and they laughed (affectionately) at some of my strange Aussie ones. Of course there were weighty decisions that had to be made yet even in these; there was a sense of gospel-driven joy. I saw office staff serving with joy, I saw smiling car park attendants on mornings that seemed amazingly cold to this Aussie family! We saw people singing to God with evident joy in their heart, motivated by the cross.

 

3. Gratitude. At Covenant Fellowship and the wider Sovereign Grace family, I kept meeting people whose lives overflowed with thankfulness for the cross. I was moved by two ‘older’ Sovereign Grace pastors who told me that after ‘many’ years of ministry they are now more grateful than ever for the cross of Christ. My thankfulness to God grew as my understanding of my adoption through Christ grew through the preaching of the word. The goodness and kindness of God are a constant theme at Covenant Fellowship, and my thankfulness to God grew as I saw God’s character more clearly. This trip was made possible largely through the generosity of the Bard's and the Doyle's who hosted us and the church who risked their Oldsmobile with a family used to driving on the other side of the road! Your generosity pointed us to the even greater generosity of our heavenly Father, and our thankfulness to Him has grown.

 

I thank my heavenly Father for the way Covenant Fellowship modeled gospel living to me, as you pursued humility, gratitude and joy.

By Andy Farmer

In his blog “The Blazing Center,” Mark Altrogge recently related the following story under the heading “An Opal Ring and a Piping Bullfinch.” His point was to celebrate the tender kindness of a God who gives us more than we can ask or imagine. But it is also just a wonderful little romantic story of a husband and wife in the delightful generosity of a God-glorifying marriage.

 

Charles Spurgeon's wife was an invalid for many years and usually unable to accompany her husband on his travels. She writes: "One ever-recurring question when he had to leave me was, 'what can I bring you, wifey?’ I seldom answered him by a request, for I had all things richly to enjoy, except health. But, one day, when he put the usual query, I said, playfully, 'I should like an opal ring, and a piping bullfinch!’ He looked surprised, and rather amused; but simply replied, 'Ah, you know I cannot get those for you!'

Mrs. Spurgeon recalls how they "made merry" over her request for two or three days. Then one Thursday evening Charles returned from the church "with such a beaming face, and such love-lighted eyes, that I knew something had delighted him very much.” He held in his hand a tiny box, from which he took a ring and placed it on her finger. "There is your opal ring, my darling," he said, and told her how he'd received it. An old lady whom Spurgeon had visited once when she was ill had sent a note to the church requesting that someone come and pick up a small gift for Mrs. Spurgeon. His secretary picked up the parcel and brought it to Charles, who unwrapped it to find the ring.

Mrs. Spurgeon writes, "How we talked of the Lord's tender love for His stricken child, and of His condescension in thus stooping to supply an unnecessary gratification to His dear servant's sick one...I can remember feeling that the Lord was very near to us."

Not long after that God surprised Mrs. Spurgeon again. She writes, "One evening, when my dear husband came from London, he brought a large package with him, and, uncovering it, disclosed a cage containing a lovely piping bullfinch!...He had been to see a dear friend of ours, whose husband was sick unto death; and, after commending the sufferer to God in prayer, Mrs. T-- said to him, 'I want you to take my pet bird to Mrs. Spurgeon, I would give him to none but her; his songs are too much for my poor husband in his weak state, and I know that 'Bully' will interest and amuse Mrs. Spurgeon in her loneliness while you are so much away from her.'

She writes, "When 'Bully' piped his pretty song, and took a hemp seed as a reward from the lips of his new mistress, there were eyes with joyful tears in them, and hearts overflowing with praise to God, in the little room by the sea that night; and the dear Pastor's comment was, 'I think you are one of your Heavenly Father's spoiled children, and He just gives you whatever you ask for."

Mrs. Spurgeon reminds us, "He who cares for all the works of His hand, cares with infinite tenderness for the children of His love, and thinks nothing which concerns them too small or too trivial to notice.” She concluded this story saying, "'Bully's' sweet little life and ministry ended at Brighton; but the memory of the Lord's tenderness in giving him to me is a life-long treasure; and the opal ring glistens on my finger as I write this paragraph.” (From The Full Harvest, The Autobiography of Charles Spurgeon)

By Andy Farmer

It is spring – and that means Little League to many families. Whether it is baseball, softball, soccer, or any other game; the spring sports season can occupy huge chunks of time in our family schedules. How can we make the best use of the time the family invests to let our little Jimmy Rollins run the basis or our petit Mia Hamm cover midfield? I’ve got a son who does fall soccer and spring baseball and here are some things I’ve learned.

 

• For many folks, little league sports functions as an equivalent of a church. They are sincerely committed and see it as a positive part of raising their children. But I have a church and sports is just a game. So I shouldn’t be surprised at how much commitment on the part of parents and families is assumed by the leagues. I need to bring wisdom to how much time and money commitment my family makes, and help my little leaguer have his or her expectations of involvement set by the family and not by the team.

 

• I’ve talked with my son about his role in being a witness for Christ on the team. All of my instruction to him about obeying the coach, playing hard but fair, guarding his tongue and ears, being an encourager, watching his attitude, etc are directed first at his opportunity to be a witness. While there are leadership and sportsmanship values to be learned, they are secondary to remembering who he represents on the field.

 

• Having established a wise balance of commitment and helped my son prepare for his role, I want to invest myself as fully as possible. This is the greatest evangelism opportunity I may get all year. I try to be at every practice I can, and help out any way I can. If it means dragging the field, umpiring, lining the base paths, coaching first base – I make it my goal to serve my child’s coach in any way he can use me. This gives me an opportunity for servant outreach and, in addition, let’s me be part of my son’s experience beyond just rooting him on.

 

• As a family we have an evangelistic focus to little league. My son has his role – to be an example and befriend his teammates, particularly the ‘uncool’ ones. I have the job of getting to know the dads and developing conversational relationships that can lead to witnessing opportunities. When Jill can be there she is engaging moms. It all works together. As my son handles himself in a godly way on the team, dads notice, which opens up doors for me. And as I engage dads, moms take notice and that opens up doors for Jill.

 

• Often our chicken barbecue outreach invitations come out right before the end of the season. So we have something of a goal to be in position to invite folks to that outreach through building relationships.

 

Last Spring we were away for several weeks during the season, which made it more difficult to develop relationships. But two years ago I had the chance to share at various times with the dads on the team and was able to spend an hour and a half sharing the Gospel with one dad when we took some of the boys to a minor league game.

 

If you have kids in league sports this spring, pray that God will give you a strategy for Gospel impact with the time you invest.

By Andy Farmer

Phil Ryken, Senior Pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, blogged recently in Reformation 21.org on the issue of overload in our lives – that sense of too much to do, to think, to handle that we all increasingly feel. He describes his own struggle with it,

“I’ve felt that way a number of times recently. I felt overloaded when we made a few small domestic renovations and our home was in something more than its usual disarray. I felt the same way when I went to delete the messages in my inbox archive and discovered that more than ten thousand emails had accumulated since the end of last summer. And I felt that way when I went to count the books on my “recently acquired, really important to read books shelf”—or shelves, actually, plus some piles on the floor—and discovered that I am now 157 books behind (not counting the pile beside my bed at home).”

Ryken describes overload as the inevitable effect of progress in our lives. The more we accomplish, the more responsibility we take on, the more we have, the more cluttered and pressed our lives become. He quotes the words of a pastor of the 1800’s which could easily be spoken today,

“The more we watch the lives of men, the more we see that one of the reasons why men are not occupied with great thoughts and interests is the way in which their lives are overfilled with little things.”

Ryken offers some great antidotes to overload which I will summarize here:

First, whatever you do, make time for communion with Christ. That’s how things come into perspective.

Second, embrace your finitude. As he says it so well,

“Rather than feeling anxious and distressed about everything you’re not getting done or always complaining that you need more time, take satisfaction in the many daily reminders that you are not God.”

Third, chose wisely. The hardest choices are between good things and best things.

If you want to read the whole post; go here

Let’s not let overload become our overlord.