Unbelievable Quality in the Wonder of Grace

Ray Ortlund post:  Now he could relax

“About fifteen years ago I was sitting at the dining room table looking out the window and watching five boys fooling around with a BB-gun and wondering a little to myself how long it would be before one of them shot another in the eye. Finally one of them grabbed the gun to shoot at a little sparrow sitting on a tree just outside the dining room window through which I had been watching this whole performance. I could see the whole action unfolding before my eyes; it seemed almost slow-motion, uncanny, inevitable. The boy aimed deliberately at the bird, shot at the bird, missed the bird and put a hole in the window right in front of me, and away they all ran with me racing out of the house after them. I didn’t catch any of them!

In a few days I had found out that a boy named Dave White had pulled the trigger. Also in a few days I had the window fixed and paid for. Then I began to think about Dave. He was evading me at every turn. He would not face me and he had no notion of confessing. In the meantime the other boys had floated back to games in the vacant lot and in the street in front of the house, while Dave, the guilty one, was on the outside of all this, ‘weeping and gnashing his teeth.’ He would have none of us. So I went after him, not to punish him but to save him. He had to face me in judgment, then in grace; only thus could we renew our fellowship, only thus could I bring him back to the gang.

I caught him alone. Now we stood face to face to have it out. The boy was rebellious, tense, tight, ready to fight me, ready to run away again. He admitted he had wronged me but I gave him the surprising message that the window had been paid for, that I had no notion of collecting anything from him, that what really interested me was to know how we could get him to come back to be one of the gang again. . . . I told him over and over again the same old story: the price has been paid, it’s all over; let’s be friends. What a time I had getting that message through to him. Why? Because he didn’t believe me. There is always an unbelievable quality in the wonder of what we call grace. But I wish you could have seen him when he finally did believe me. What a wonderful look, what a release of tensions, what a rolling away of the burdens, what a newness of life. Now he could quit running. Now he could relax. Talk about peace of mind; you should have seen that boy. What total commitment he offered me henceforth, and by no request of mine! There was nothing he wouldn’t do for me.”

Addison H. Leitch, Interpreting Basic Theology (New York, 1961), pages 113-114.

Gospel Manna

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer about Life as a Nonstop Coming to Jesus Meeting

     As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 1 Pet. 2:4-6

Heavenly Father, I used to think that “coming to Jesus” was a phrase whose meaning is exhausted when we first trust your Son to be our Savior—that magnificent merciful moment of crossing over from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son you love.  For sure, that is the most glorious and essential “come-to-Jesus-meeting” we’ll ever have. How I praise you for showing me how much I needed the gospel, and for giving me the faith to trust Jesus-plus-nothing for my salvation.

But it’s obvious to me now that the whole Christian life is about coming to Jesus. The day we stop coming to Jesus is the day we no longer need grace. We need Jesus today as much as the first day he entered our lives. In fact, we’ll never exhaust our need for what he alone can give. Even as we enjoy life in the new heaven and new earth, we’ll forever discover more and more reasons to give Jesus the worship, adoration, and praise of which he alone is worthy. Father, we arise and come to your beloved Son right now…

Indeed, Lord Jesus, you are the life-giving living Stone for your beloved people; the precious cornerstone of the living temple called the body of Christ; the rock of refuge that’s higher than I am (Ps. 61:2-3); the rock from which God gave water in the wilderness in Moses’ day (1 Cor. 10:1-4). You are the honey-giving rock of whom Asaph spoke (Ps. 81:16), and you are Daniel’s stone, cut from a mountain by the hands of God, which will become an everlasting kingdom of redemption and restoration (Dan. 2:36-45).

Lord Jesus, we exalt you and delight in you. The more precious you become to us, the more we watch our shame melt away. The more we treasure you, the more our other “treasures” become like empty-nothings, fool’s gold, and broken cisterns. The quicker and more often we come to you, the more we realize that it’s you who is always coming to us first. We can’t outdo you at anything except sinning.

Jesus, we come to you right now—we come bringing our thirst to the fountain of your fullness; we bring our misery to the commissary of your kindness; we bring our weakness to the endless supply of your strength; we bring our brokenness to the infirmary of your infinite mercies; we bring our weariness to the oasis of your refreshing affection. We come to you right now, Lord, for enough gospel manna to meet the demands of this one day. So very Amen, we pray in your precious and shame-freeing name.

Cannot Delegate

Mark Batterson post:  A New Normal

Please hear me pastors and leaders.

Your job as a leader is to delegate everything you possibly can, but there is one thing you cannot delegate. Please, don’t delegate prayer.  In fact, delegate everything else so you can pray!  Isn’t that the pattern established in Acts 6:4.

It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.  We will turn this responsibly over to them and will give our attention to prayer.

Let me make a confession.  For fifteen years, I feel like I’ve failed in leading our church in corporate prayer.  I was guilty of gross negligence. But it’s a new day, a new normal at NCC. This 21-Day prayer challenge has been the greatest three week period in NCC history. Something broke in me, in us during this 21-Day prayer challenge.  Honestly, I think the key was fasting.  I’m never been more empty, more full. I’ve never been weaker, stronger.   I’ve never been more broken, more whole. I can’t even describe it.

Yes, some miracles happened during this 21-Day Prayer Challenge.  A church gave us their church building worth well north of $1 million dollars to NCC.  Ridiculous!  A staff member had a dream that a large check would be written to NCC and that dream was fulfilled right down the penny within 24 hours. Unbelievable!  But the thing that gets me the most excited?  We’ve never praised God like we did last night.  The intensity was off the chart.  There is a raw hungry for God coupled with disciplined desire.  We “gained a position” during these 21 days and we’re not turning back.  It’s our new normal.

I’m so glad Lent follows so quickly.  I’m praying that God gives us marching orders so we know how to leverage the forty days leading up to Easter. I already have a holy hunch.  I’m circling II Chronicles 7:14.  All I can think about is 7:14.

I’m also circling I Corinthians 3:6.  We have planted and watered with our prayers.  God is going to hold up His end of the bargain and “give the increase.”  This is God’s time. We’re going to see a harvest way beyond anything that can be manufactured with the emphasis on the “man” in man-u-factured.

Buckle your seat belts. Keep your arms inside the ride at all times! And hang on for dear life because this prayer roller coaster is headed toward the loop de loop.

Not Time Saving

Kevin DeYoung post:  A Needed Reminder

Richard Swenson:

The best thing to remember about time-saving technologies is that they don’t. Instead, they consume, compress, and devour time. All the countries with the most time-saving technologies are the most stressed-out countries–an assertion that is easy to prove.

One Christian executive reports that he receives 1800 e-mails each day, while a Pentagon leader told me he had to do sixteen hours of e-mails every Saturday from home.

While standing at the hospital bed of a dying man, a pastor interrupted his prayer to answer his cell phone.

A youth pastor reported that he loved his job and tolerated long hours well–until he got home and routinely saw the answering machine blinking 9 messages. The escalating use of accessible technologies MUST be controlled, for the sake of your spirit and your sanity. (Margin, 124).

I know, easier said than done. But just reading about a pastor answering his cell phone at the death bed is enough to scare me straight. We need it.

Life-Line of Amazing Grace

Tullian Tchividjian post:  What Kind Of A Pastor Do Sinners Need?

Sinclair Ferguson answers this question from his Marrow Controversy Lectures:

But when your people come and have been broken by sin and have fallen into temptation and are ashamed to confess the awful mess they have made of their life, it is not a Calvinistic pastor who has been sanctified by vinegar that they need. It is a pastor that has been mastered by the unconditional, free grace of God. It is a pastor from whom ironclad orthodoxy has been torn away and the whole armor of a gracious God has been placed upon his soul–the armor of one who would not break the bruised reed or quench the dimly burning wick.

You see, my friends, as we think together in these days about a Godly pastor we have to ask, what is a Godly pastor? A Godly pastor is one who is like God, who has a heart of free grace running after sinners. The Godly pastor is the one who sees the prodigal and runs and falls on his neck and weeps and kisses him and says, “This my son was dead, he was lost and now he is alive and found.”

Pastors, when sinners are drowning, don’t tell them to paddle harder and kick faster. Throw them the life-line of amazing grace.

Every Church Is Different

Kevin DeYoung post:  Numbers in the Church: Is Bigger Badder or Better?

I’ve heard it from both sides, if not always so forthrightly.

“How many people now go to that church? It’s huge! It must be the music. Or maybe they have lasers and a smoke machine. I hope we never sell out like that.”

Or,

“How many people even go to that church? It’s so small! They haven’t baptized a believer in years. Their influence and importance is basically nil. I hope we are never irrelevant like that.”

I realize people rarely state their opinions so candidly, but the sentiments are out there. And both sides have a point. Some big churches are more show than substance. They may have thousands of people, but they sacrificed maturity, depth, truth-driven preaching, biblical ecclesiology, and maybe even the gospel to get there. On the other hand, some small churches are backward and insulated. They may talk a big game about standing for truth, but their small size is less about gospel courage than the fact that they are hyper-critical, dated in the worst ways, and unconcerned about the lost.

Churches can be big or small for all the right reasons. Or for all the wrong reasons. We simply should not conclude that bigger is better or smaller is more sanctified. In God’s eyes, the success of your church and your pastor are measured by criteria more important than weekend attendance. While we must not be scared of bigger numbers or automatically skeptical of them–numbers in the best cases represent people after all, people who are hearing the gospel and bearing fruit–neither should we fixate on numbers. Every church is different, with varying locations, gifts, opportunities, abilities, facilities, people, and cultural contexts that we can’t possibly be so crass as to think big churches are always doing things better than small churches. Surely, the emphasis must be on faithfulness.

If a blessed forgetfulness about numbers seems anti-missional, we should listen to Leslie Newbigin, still one of the most seminal theologians in missional circles as he summarizes the New Testament approach to numbers:

Reviewing, then, the teaching of the New Testament, one would have to say that, on the one hand, there is joy in the rapid growth of the church in its earliest days, but that, on the other hand, there is no evidence that the numerical growth of the church is a matter of primary concern.

There is no shred of evidence in Paul’s letters to suggest that he judged the churches by the measure of their success in rapid numerical growth, nor is there anything comparable to the strident cries of some contemporary evangelists that the salvation of the world depends upon the multiplication of believers.

There is an incomparable sense of seriousness and urgency as the apostle contemplates the fact that he and all people “must appear before the judgment seat of Christ” and as he acknowledges the constraint of Jesus’ love and the ministry of reconciliation that he has received (2 Cor. 5:10-21). But this nowhere appears as either an anxiety or an enthusiasm about the numerical growth of the church. (The Open Secret, 126).

Wise words. We love to see more people loving Jesus and living in greater accordance to his commands, but we should not think church size, when judged by the only Judge that really matters, is a reliable measure of a church’s success or a pastor’s faithfulness.

Preaching Evangelistically

J.D. Greear post:  Spurgeon on counting numbers

I found these thoughts from Charles Spurgeon’s book on preaching evangelistically,The Soul Winner, to be particularly helpful and remarkably relevant to contemporary discussions. Spurgeon had the rare combination of being one of the most evangelistically successful, as well as doctrinally rich, preachers of his day. How we need more who can do both!

“We would bring men to Christ, and not to our own peculiar views of Christianity. Our first care must be that the sheep should be gathered to the great Shepherd; there will be time enough afterward to secure them for our various folds. To make proselytes is a suitable labor for Pharisees; to beget men unto God is the honorable aim of ministers of Christ… There is such a thing as selfishness in our eagerness for the aggrandizement of our own party and from this evil spirit may grace deliver us!” (14–15)

“Do not, therefore, consider that soul winning is or can be secured by the multiplication of baptisms and the swelling of the size of your church. What mean these dispatches from the battlefield? ‘Last night… fifteen souls were justified…’ I am weary of this public bragging, this counting of unhatched chickens, this exhibition of doubtful spoils. Lay aside such numberings of the people, such idle pretense of certifying in half a minute that which will need the testing of a lifetime. Hope for the best, but in your highest excitements be reasonable… if [a harvesting of responses] leads to idle boastings they will grieve the Holy Spirit, and work abounding evil.” (16)

(About the passion that comes from emotional, hyped services) “Give me the godliness which flourishes upon Calvary rather than upon Vesuvius.” (16)

“To win a soul, it is necessary not only to instruct our hearer and to make him know the truth, but to impress him so that he may feel it.” (19)

“The unequal legs of some ministries cripple them.” (19)

“It is a horrible thing for a man to be so doctrinal that he can speak coolly of the doom of the wicked, so that, if he does not actually praise God for it, it costs him no anguish of heart to think of the ruin of millions of our race.” (19)

“No minister living can save a soul; nor can all of us together, nor all the saints on earth or in heaven, work regeneration in a single person. The whole business on our part is the height of absurdity unless we regard ourselves as used by the Holy Ghost and filled with His power.” (22)

(About repentance) “Instead of saying, ‘It is only a change of mind,’ it seems to me more truthful to say it is a great and deep change—even a change of the mind itself.” (23)

“If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows his Lord’s will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Has the Lord said, ‘And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and cometh after me, cannot be my disciple?’ Mistakes as to what the Lord’s will may be are to be tenderly corrected, but anything like willful disobedience is fatal; to tolerate it would be treason to Him that sent us.” (24)

“Remember our Saviour’s words, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.’ Do not number your fishes before they are broiled, nor count your converts before you have tested and tried them. This process may make your work somewhat slow, but then, brethren, it will be sure. Do your work steadily and well, so that those who come after you may not have to say that it was far more trouble to them to clear the church of those who ought never to have been admitted than it was to you to admit them.” (25)