Jan
23
Water Leak
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I was waiting for the first thing to go wrong. Phillip left for Peru, leaving me, the second in command, behind the wheel. It would only take time for Murphy and his law to visit. Today he came. We’ve had a small water leak on the Fellowship Hall side of our building. Maybe you’ve noticed it. Was it a natural spring? Was it a leaky pipe? No one knew the answer until today. Three of our able bodied deacons unearthed a pretty decent water leak from an underground pipe. It will be repaired tomorrow. The only inconvenience will be that the water will need to be shut off to the building. That means that the Day School is canceling classes tomorrow and the church offices will be closed. It also means that our Wednesday Night Church Supper is canceled. Without water our cooks cannot prepare the food soon enough. From all that we know now, the water will be turned back on when the pipe is fixed mid-afternoon. We are therefore going to still have our Prayer Meeting at our normal time of 6:15. On the off chance, read extremely off chance, that the repair takes longer than expected and we can’t get the water back on, we’ll notify Prayer Meeting attenders by phone that prayer meeting is canceled. All that to say, come tomorrow night to prayer meeting unless you hear otherwise.
In addition to praying for Phillip and Danny, pray for a boring next few days for me!
Jan
23
Buenas dias from Lima, Peru
Filed Under Missions | Leave a Comment
I am writing this from Lima, Peru. I´m still non-tekkie enough to be amazed by this. Danny Temple (a ruling elder in our congregation) and I arrived in Lima last night. Later in the week I´ll be preaching for a missions conference held in conjunction with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church here. I´ll try to update you on what is going on there. Remember us in your prayers.
Jan
19
Today
Filed Under Christian History | Leave a Comment
On January 19, 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism was published. This is the catechism that we have been using in our morning worship over the past few months to help us to understand the teaching of the Apostles’ Creed. Even those who know very little about the Heidelberg Catechism probably have hear its famous opening question:
Question - What is thy only comfort in life and death?
Answer - That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
Jan
18
4 big ideas: #3-integrity
Filed Under Christian Living, Four big ideas, The Church | Leave a Comment
In preaching through Galatians last year I identified four big ideas that run through Paul’s letter. Those four big ideas should form and shape how ministry is carried out in the day-to-day life of the Church. I am trying to embody them in my own ministry and to impart them to our leaders at First, Kosciusko. This is the third of the four big ideas, which are truth, authority, integrity and love.
INTEGRITY: Walk in step with the gospel. In Galatians 1-2 Paul asks, Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. He is reminding these folk of the integrity of his doctrine and life. The two were one. In ch.2 when he describes his confrontation with Peter, he writes I say that their conduct was not in step with the gospel. Peter acted differently toward the Gentile converts when the brothers from Jerusalem came to town. Paul calls this breakdown of integrity conduct…not in step with gospel. The welcome and acceptance Christ has shown us was not reflected in Peter’s behavior. Peter did not announce a change in his views. I’m sure he could, at that moment, have preached a dead-solid-perfect gospel sermon, but his behavior was not in step with the gospel.
In the final chapter of Galatians, he writes that the distinction between circumcision/non-circumcision is irrelevant. What is relevant, what counts for everything is a new creation (6:15; cf. 4:26-29; 2:20). Therefore everything else that identifies us or gives us significance or status with each other doesn’t count for much at all. I might as well boast of the shape of my eyebrows. What matters is a new creation–the mindset of utter reliance upon Christ demonstrated by a faith working through love–a path of Christ-exaltation over self-exaltation. I think about Paul’s words in Philippians 2, Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit and am convicted by how much of my activity, even as a minister, springs from rivalry (’Let me prove to you that I am better than ______…’) or conceit (’Hey, watch me do this and be impressed!’). Instead, I must walk in step with the gospel that exalts the Savior and humbles the sinner–all the time.
Peace and mercy be upon all those who walk by this rule…
Jan
16
Machen on the Church
Filed Under The Church | Leave a Comment
I’m on a quoting kick right now. If anyone would like to suggest a topic or series they would like me to blog on, feel free to do it below. Until then, content yourself with the final paragraph from J. Gresham Machen’s, Christianity and Liberalism. He has just finished proving that liberalism, by definition, undermines and is undermining the church.
Is there no refuge from strife? Is there no place of refreshing where a man can prepare for the battle of life? Is there no place where two or three can gather in Jesus’ name, to forget for the moment all those things that divide nation from nation and race from race, to forget human pride, to forget the passions of war, to forget the puzzling problems of industrial strife, and to unite in overflowing gratitude at the foot of the Cross? If there be such a place, then that is the house of God and that the the threshold of heaven. And from under the threshold of that house will go forth a river that will revive the world.
Jan
12
Joy
Filed Under Christian Living, Holiness, Puritans, Thomas Boston, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
One of the more prevalent critiques of Christianity is that it is simply drab and boring. In preparing for my Sunday School lesson on Westminster Shorter Catechism question 36, I ran across this Thomas Boston quote, on the subject of Christian joy.
Most groundless is the prejudice against religion, that it is a melancholy thing (Proverbs 3:17, ‘Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.’) None have such reason to rejoice as the believer has. If the poor wretched and condemned creature has more ground to rejoice than he that is pardoned and enriched with his prince’s favor, then the wicked has as much ground to rejoice as the believer who is justified by grace. Oh! if the ungodly saw their state, they would never rejoice; and if the godly saw theirs, they would never despond.