The Gospel Coalition

“No stroke or calamity upon the people of God can separate them from Christ.  Romans 8:35, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation?’  There was a time when Job could call nothing in this world but trouble his own.  He could not say, ‘My estate, my honor, my health, my children,’ for all these were gone.  Yet then he could say, ‘My Redeemer.’”

John Flavel, Works (London, 1799), IV:488.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  James 5:16

The Journal of John Wesley for May 1, 1738, records how he and others made this verse a working reality in their lives:

“In obedience to the command of God by St. James, and by the advice of Peter Bohler, it is agreed by us:

1.  That we will meet together once a week to confess our faults one to another and pray one for another, that we may be healed.

2.  That the persons so meeting be divided into several bands, or little companies, none of them consisting of fewer than five or more than ten persons.

3.  That every one in order speak as freely, plainly and concisely as he can the real state of his heart, with his several temptations and deliverances since the last time of meeting. . . .”

The “real state of his heart” opened up freely, plainly and concisely in a regular small group of non-accusing friends in Christ, with prayer — no wonder there was healing!

“[Grace is] my favorite word in the lexicon of the English language.  It’s a word I’m depending on.  The universe operates by Karma, we all know that.  For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.  There is some atonement built in: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.  Then enters Grace and turns that upside down.  I love it.  I’m not talking about people being graceful in their actions but just covering over the cracks.  Christ’s ministry really was a lot to do with pointing out how everybody is a screw-up in some shape or form, there’s no way around it.  But then He was to say, well, I am going to deal with those sins for you.  I will take on Myself all the consequences of sin.  Even if you’re not religious, I think you’d accept that there are consequences to all the mistakes we make.  And so Grace enters the picture to say, I’ll take the blame, I’ll carry the cross.  It is a powerful idea.  Grace interrupting Karma.”

Bono, in U2 by U2 (London, 2006), page 300.

Acts 29 pastor Steve Fuller recounts how God intervened for his grandfather during a crisis moment for the advance of the gospel here.  As a boy, I watched Charles E. Fuller and his generation of gospel-stalwarts scale heights for Christ that seemed impossible.  Indeed, they were impossible.  But the Lord was with them.

What are you going to do that is utterly impossible, unless God is with you?  Have you ever stuck your neck out that far?  Wouldn’t you love to, really?  It is so freeing to attempt the impossible for Christ, and to pray and struggle and strive and suffer, and then watch it happen, by his grace and power.

Don’t live your life without the thrill of experiencing the impossible!

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  Matthew 5:4

“The difference between an unconverted man and a converted man is not that one has sins and the other does not; but that the one takes part with his cherished sins against a dreaded God, and the other takes part with a reconciled God against his hated sins.”

William Arnot, Laws From Heaven for Life On Earth (London, 1884), page 311.

One of the books from my dad’s library which I received after his death in 2007 was this one:

He had his assistant use this book to keep a personal record of the various aspects of his pastoral ministry through the years, starting with his ordination in 1950.  There are 486 pages in the book, most of them filled out — pages and pages and pages recording weddings, baptisms, funerals, new members, sermons.  For example, here are his sermons from March to October of 1963:

All in all, these pages record, one by one, over 1800 sermons during his ministry at Lake Avenue Congregational Church alone, and by no means a complete record even during those years.

How many hours of preparation and prayer and study are represented by this simple but eloquent written record, I wonder?  Add to that the weddings, funerals, ordinations.  Add to that the committee meetings, the personal evangelism and counseling, the social events.  Add to that the seasons of strife and opposition which he had to endure, all the while keeping up the steady output of gospel ministry without being crushed.  Add to that the way he came home every evening with something emotionally positive to give to the family.  Add to that the fact that he not only came to all my high school football games but even to many practices during the week.  Add to that . . . .

I am not impressed by young pastors who seem too eager to publish books and speak at big events and get noticed.  They are doing the work of the Lord, and that’s good.  But what impresses me is my dad’s daily slogging, year after year, in the power of the Spirit, with no big-deal-ness as the payoff.

This is the pastoral ministry that brings Jesus into the world today.

Earlier today I received via email the following from one of the fine men at Immanuel Church.  I reproduce it here with his permission.  This warms my heart!

Five Things I Don’t Understand About Men’s Community at Immanuel:

1.  How when I reveal the darkest sins of my heart and my innermost struggles, I receive not humiliation, shame, or condescension, but forgiveness, hope, and unconditional love.

2.  How when I honor a man, he is not made glorious, but rather the One who works in him.

3.  How when I am honored, I am not puffed up, but humbled that God would use me in such a meaningful way in someone else’s life when I’m a complete mess on my own.

4.  How as I learn more about God, he doesn’t become more boring and static to me, but more exciting, unfathomable, and deep than a lifetime’s pursuit could ever uncover.

5.  How when I feel like I’ve gone far with God, the men of Immanuel show me how much further I can go in my relationship with the Lord.

Whenever we put a qualifier in front of the noun “Christian,” we might be inserting legalism.  But we might not be.  It depends on whether we perceive that qualifier as meritorious.  Does it elevate us above other blood-bought Christians who don’t wave the banner of that same qualifier?

It is possible to be a “missional” Christian or a “radical” Christian or whatever, and that language is being used merely as a way of communicating something biblical that you want to call people to, something truly in Christ.  But it is also possible — it all depends on internal factors, difficult to discern even in ourselves, much less in others — to use such qualifiers in a way that is truly legalistic.

Legalism is a serious accusation, as is obvious from Galatians.  That makes me reluctant to use it in a targeted personal way, naming names.  I could identify a specific man as a legalist only if (1) he makes an obvious theological blunder in writing, diminishing the finished work of Christ on the cross, adding something of his own to the empty hands of faith as the way of receiving that finished work, and he stands by his stated error even after appeals to reconsider, or if (2) I can have direct personal conversation with him and really press into what he means by what he says and I find out that, yes, he really is requiring more than the cross, received by mere faith, for peace with God.  But without that clarification, legalism is an easy accusation to make, and a difficult one to prove.  And any unprovable accusation is itself a wrong — a different kind of wrong, but still wrong.

It can get complicated, and quickly.  Caution seems wise.

“Where are the young men and women of this generation who will hold their lives cheap and be faithful even unto death?  Where are those who will lose their lives for Christ’s sake, flinging them away for love of him?  Where are those who will live dangerously and be reckless in his service?  Where are his lovers, those who love him and the souls of men more than their own reputations or comfort or very life?

Where are the men who say ‘no’ to self, who take up Christ’s cross to bear it after him, who are willing to be nailed to it in college or office, home or mission field, who are willing, if need be, to bleed, to suffer and to die on it?

Where are the adventurers, the explorers, the buccaneers for God, who count one human soul of far greater value than the rise or fall of an empire?  Where are the men who are willing to pay the price of vision?

Where are the men of prayer?

Where are God’s men in this day of God’s power?”

Howard Guinness, Sacrifice (Chicago, 1947), pages 59-60.

“God’s goodness is a spreading, imparting goodness. . . . God is more willing to bestow good than we are to ask it.  He is so willing to bestow it that he becomes a suitor to us, ‘Seek my face.’  He seeks us, to seek him.  It is strange that heaven should seek earth, and yet so it is.”

Richard Sibbes, Works (Edinburgh, 1983), VI:113.