Brokenness is the Pathway to Spiritual Fruitfulness

Dear Friends,

     Today's "thought" confronts us with a reality we sometimes wish were not so.  Yet, it's a truth proclaimed both in Scripture and from the mouths or pens of numerous saints throughout history: Brokenness is the pathway to spiritual fruitfulness.  Before God can truly use you, He must first break you.  As much as we might wish it were otherwise, it is true. This selection comes from the devotional, "Streams in the Desert" by L. B. Cowman (with added content).  Enjoy.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God,

you will not despise.”

Psalm 51:17

     “Those people God uses most to bring glory to Himself are those who are completely broken, for the sacrifice He accepts is, "a broken and contrite heart.”  It was not until Jacob’s natural strength was broken, when “his hip was wrenched” at Peniel (Gen. 32:25), that he came to the point where God could clothe him with spiritual power.  It was not until Moses struck the rock at Horeb, breaking its surface, that cool “water flowed out of it for the people to drink” (Ex. 17:6).  It was not until Gideon’s three hundred specially chosen soldiers “broke the jars that were in their hands” (which symbolized brokenness in their lives, Judg.7:19), that the hidden light of the torches shone forth and brought terror to their enemies.

     It was once the poor widow broke the seal on her only remaining jar of oil and began to pour it out that God miraculously multiplied it to pay her debts and thereby supplied her means of support (2 Kings 4:1–7).  It was not until Esther risked her life and broke through the strict laws of a heathen king’s court that she obtained favor to rescue her people from death (Est. 4:16).  It was only when Jesus took “the five loaves . . . and broke them” (Luke 9:16) that the bread was multiplied to feed the five thousand.  It was through the loaves being broken that the miracle occurred.  It was when Mary broke her beautiful “alabaster jar of very expensive perfume” (Matt. 26:7), and destroyed its future usefulness and value, that the wonderful fragrance filled the house.

     Mary (the mother of Jesus) was not only told of the joy of her being chosen by God to give birth to the Messiah, but that her heart would be pierced also -- cut and broken in two, as if by a sword. Overwhelming grief would cut deep into the joys of bearing and raising Jesus.  Peter was broken of his stubborn pride through the crushing and humiliating experience of denying Jesus three times in His hour of greatest need. Yet, through such failure and humiliation, he was made more humble and dependent on the Spirit, readied through the pain of brokenness to lead the early church.  Heartless Paul was broken on the road to Damascus as Christ appeared to him and blinded him, and he was led helpless, dazed, humbled, and broken in spirit, into the city, like a little child.  Likewise, it was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken by thorns, nails, and a spear, that His inner life was poured out like an ocean of crystal-clear water for thirsty sinners to drink and live! 

     It is not until a beautiful kernel of corn is buried and broken in the earth by DEATH, that its inner heart sprouts heavenward and grows to produce hundreds of other seeds or kernels. And so it has always been throughout history — GOD USES BROKEN THINGS.  Those who have been gripped by the power of the Holy Spirit and are used for God’s glory are those who have been broken in their finances, broken in their self-will, broken in their ambitions, broken in their lofty ideals, broken in their worldly reputation, broken in their desires, and often broken in their health.  Yes, He uses those who are despised by the world and who seem totally hopeless and helpless, just as Isaiah said: “The lame will carry off plunder” (Isa. 33:23).

     ‘Oh, break my heart; but break it as a field is plowed and broken for the seeds of corn… Oh, break my heart; break it, victorious God, that life’s eternal well may flow abroad... Break it as when the captive trees, breaking icy bonds, regain their liberties.  And as thought’s sacred grove to life is springing, be joys, like birds, their hope, Your victory singing.’ (Thomas Toke Bunch)”

     This theme is spoken of repeatedly throughout church history.  Martin Luther once wrote in similar terms suggesting: “God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man nothing, God can make nothing out of Him.”  Another saint said, “God always builds on ruins.”   Alan Redpath said: “God will never plant the seed of His life upon the soil of a hard, unbroken spirit. He will only plant that seed where the conviction of His Spirit has brought brokenness, and where the soil has been watered with tears of repentance as well as tears of joy.”   Hudson Taylor the famous missionary to China said, “When God wants to do His great works, He trains somebody to be quiet enough and little enough, and then He uses that person.”  Revival, says Isaiah, comes not to those who think they have it together, but to the broken: “This is what the high and lofty One says – He who loves forever and whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.” (57:15).  Being broken is never pleasant, but it is the path that leads to spiritual fruit and usefulness.

     The way God makes us whole is to permit us to go through experiences that "break us" — because brokenness is the pathway to wholeness and restoration.  Pride is like steel that must be softened in the heat of the furnace before it becomes something that can be formed and molded.  The human heart is by nature like hard parched ground which must be watered with tears, and broken by the plow of trials, before the seed of His word can penetrate and take root. The will of man is like a hard lump of clay which the Potter must first pound and squeeze and stretch and then repeat the process all over again, before he can then take it and make it into a beautiful piece of colorful pottery.  Lord, how we wish there was an easier way... 

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Joyful Blessings Journal

Greetings All!

    
     I came back from my trip to India only to move into a new office down the hall.  As a result over a hundred boxes of books needed to be transported and re-shelved in the new office!  And in that process I came across things that I had not seen for many years! One in particular was a journal I picked up somewhere along the line because of the quotes on each page. That's what I will share today - twenty various quotes from the "Joyful Blessings Journal" that were gathered or selected by Marla Tipton.  I trust that some of them might offer helpful insights and encourage your heart.  Enjoy



"It is pleasing to God whenever you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart."

Martin Luther

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

"Worrying is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere."

Unknown

"You pay God a compliment every time you ask great things of Him." 

Teresa of Avila 

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."

Victor Hugo

"Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every budding leaf in springtime."

Martin Luther

"Our life if full of brokenness -- broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful, except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives."

Henri Nouwen

"God often comforts us, not by changing the circumstances of our lives, but by changing our attitude toward them."

S. H. B. Masterman

"If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear.  His eye is upon us, His arm is over us, His ear open to our prayer. His grace is sufficient and His promise unchangeable."

John Newton

"A true friend (shares) freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably." 

William Penn

"Every now and then it is delightful to have the kind of laugh that makes your stomach jiggle... that sends tears down your face and causes your eyes to squint so it's impossible to see!"

Unknown

"When I think upon my God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap from my pen."

Composer Joseph Haydn

"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar; but I cherish the friend who for me does not even consult his calendar."

Robert Brault

"The thought of You stirs us so deeply that we cannot be content unless we praise You, because You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in You."

St. Augustine

"Consider the postage stamp; its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there." 

Josh Billings

"Gratefulness is the key to a happy life which we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy, because we will always want to have something else or something more."

Brother David Steindl-Rast

"God cannot give us happiness apart from Himself, because it is not there, There is no such thing."

C. S. Lewis

"How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource!  We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go.  And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven."

George MacDonald

"Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace."

Jerry Bridges

"Happy is the one who has learned to hold the things of this world with a loose grip. Of all classes and descriptions of people on this earth, they are the happiest of whom it may be said that the things most hoped for by them are the things not seen."

Mennonite Writings

With Prayers for the Abundance of God's Grace to You, Pastor Jeff

Brokenness

Greetings All!

     Just this week a good brother blessed me with a copy of a classic Christian book on revival that I did not have. Yet even better than receiving the book was the content within it. Only two chapters into it I found myself nodding and agreeing (from Scripture and experience) with much of what he was saying.

     The author is Roy Hession (1908-1992) and the book's title is "The Calvary Road."   Hession had been doing full-time evangelistic work in Great Britain for years, but in 1947 (by his own admission) he had fallen into a state of deep spiritual need, somehow having lost the power of the Holy Spirit that he had once known in the Lord's work.  It brought him to lament, "I still had to conduct evangelistic campaigns, but without His power -- a terrible experience."  As a pastor, I have known such periods too.  And yes, it is a terrible experience!
     Realizing he lacked spiritual power, he simply worked harder and increased his efforts, which made him increasingly tense and forceful - "a poor substitute,"he says, "for the Spirit's gentle penetrating power."  Yet, during this season of spiritual dryness, he invited some missionaries from the East African Revival Movement to speak at an Easter conference he had organized. And from that week on, everything changed. Their strong emphasis on a personal implementation of the basics of the Christian faith, and in particular, the healing powers of openness, transparency, and repentance made a profound impact on his life.  And as Hession wrote in the preface to the 1973 edition, "This little book expresses the truths that lie at the heart of revival, simply because it is the product of revival."  Enjoy.

BROKENNESS

     "We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts... Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and victorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others. And that is Revival in its essence.

     If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will. To be broken is the beginning of Revival. It is painful and humiliating, but it is the only way... The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken. 

     This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God's will, admits it's wrong, gives up its own way to Jesus' way, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory - that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words, it is dying to self and self-attitudes. 

     As we look honestly at our Christian lives, we can see how much of this self there is in each of us. It is so often self who tries to live the Christian life... and self, too, who is often doing Christian work. It is always self who gets irritable and envious and resentful and critical and worried. It is the self who is hard and unyielding in its attitudes to others. It is the self who is shy and self-conscious and reserved. No wonder we need breaking!  As long as self is in control, God can do little with us, for all the fruits of the Spirit (they are enumerated in Galatians 5), with which God longs to fill us, are the complete antithesis of the hard, unbroken spirit within us and presupposes that it has been crucified...

     Brokenness in daily experience is simply the response of humility to the conviction of God. And inasmuch as this conviction is continuous, we shall need to be broken continually. And this can be very costly when we see all the yielding of rights and selfish interests that this will involve, and the confessions and restitutions that may be sometimes necessary. For this reason, we are not likely to be broken except at the Cross of Jesus. The willingness of Jesus to be broken for us is the all-compelling motive in our being broken too. We see Him, who is in the form of God, counting not equality with God a prize to be grasped or hung on to, but letting it go for us, and taking upon Himself the form of a Servant - God's Servant, man's Servant.  We see Him willing to have no rights of His own, no home of His own, no possessions of His own, willing to let men revile Him and not revile in return, willing to let men tread on Him and not retaliate or defend Himself. Above all, we see Him broken as He meekly goes to Calvary to become men's scapegoat by bearing their sins in His own body on the Tree.

     In a pathetic passage in a prophetic Psalm (a Messianic Psalm about Jesus), He says, "I am a worm and not a man" (Psa 22:6). Those who have been in tropical lands tell us that there is a big difference between a snake and a worm. When you attempt to strike at them the snake rears itself up and hisses and tries to strike back - a true picture of self.  But a worm offers no resistance. It allows you to do what you like with it, kick it or squash it under your heel - a picture of true brokenness.  And Jesus was willing to become just that for us - a worm and not a man. And He did so because that is what He saw us to be --  worms having forfeited all rights by our sin, except to deserve hell. And He now calls us to take our rightful place as worms for Him and with Him. The whole Sermon on the Mount with its teaching of non-retaliation, love for enemies, and selfless giving, assumes that that is our position. But only the vision of the Love that was willing to be broken for us can constrain us to be willing for that.

     But dying to self is not a thing we do once for all. There may be an initial dying when God first shows these things, but ever after it will be a constant dying, for only so can the Lord Jesus be revealed constantly through us (2 Cor 4:10). All day long the choice will be before us in a thousand ways. It will mean no plans, no time, no money, no pleasure of our own. It will mean a constant yielding to those around us, for our yieldedness to God is measured by our yieldedness to man. Every humiliation, everyone who tries and vexes us, is God's way of breaking us, so that there is a yet deeper channel in us for the Life of Christ. You see, the only life that pleases God and that can be victorious is His life - never our life, no matter how hard we try. But inasmuch as our self-centered life is the exact opposite of His, we can never be filled with His life -- unless we are prepared for God to bring our (self) life constantly to death. And in that, we must co-operate by our moral choice."

     Hard words for the modern day person -- steeped in psychology and not Scripture -- to accept. In the Bible, there are not many passages that speak specifically of revival, but one does confirm what Hession has said here. It is found in Isaiah 57:15-16.  There God speaks through his prophet and says: "This is what the high and lofty One says -- He who lives forever and whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to REVIVE the spirit of the lowly and to REVIVE the heart of the contrite."  And the context that follows suggests that this "contriteness" and "lowliness" stems from a remorse over their sin, wickedness and selfish greed.

     That's what we need to see. Revival does not come to those who think they are fine just the way they are. It does not come to those who believe they have what it takes or have their act together. It does not come to the proud, the holier-than-thou, the self-satisfied, or self-sufficient.  It comes to those who have been broken and humbled by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and thereby made contrite by seeing the ungodliness and sin that exists in their soul, and their desperate need for God's grace in Jesus.

     It comes to those who KNOW they are entirely lost without God, spiritually dead without Jesus, and powerless apart from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  It comes to those whose inner awareness of personal sin and need causes them to fall on their faces in humbled lowliness and plead for that which they cannot produce, or receive, except by the graciousness of God who gives them what they could never deserve.  It is the lowly and contrite whom God revives, not the proud or haughty or self-contented.  Or to use a more contemporary term, it does not come to those who have a wonderful, glowing and undeflateably good self-esteem.

     God ever calls us to come before Him in prayer.  With what shall we come?  Requests that He notice how good we've been doing in our Christian walk?  Hopes that He sees what fine specimens we are?  Or with honest transparency that openly confesses our sin and lack and our desperate need for His grace?  It has often been said that, "To be full of God's Spirit you cannot be full of yourself."  It's true. For God does not dwell with the haughty and self-satisfied, but the lowly and contrite -- "to revive the spirit of the lowly, and revive the heart of the contrite."

With prayers for personal and corporate revival, Pastor Jeff

Not A Fan Testimony

Greetings All,







Today's 'thought' comes to you once again from Kyle Idleman's book, "Not a Fan."  Interspersed throughout the book are testimonies of people who were "fans" of Jesus at one point or another in their lives, but are no longer.  They had attended church, said their prayers, put some money in the offering plate, claimed a vague belief in Jesus, and generally went through the religious motions. But then at some point in their lives realized that it had all been superficial and not real.
     In most cases -- usually as a result of going through sickness, or trauma, or addiction, or coming close to death -- that which had been superficial in their lives became real. They stopped being a "fan" of Jesus, and became a true disciple and follower of Jesus.  This is Gary Polsgrove's testimony.  He's a man Jesus brought to his knees before He put him back on his feet. Enjoy.

Not A Fan Testimony

     "Sitting in front of the judge's stand, I started to cry. I heard the judge say something about jail time, and I sobbed even harder. An officer handcuffed me and took me to jail. I spent a few days there, trying to figure out what had happened to my life. How did it come to this? I had reached the pinnacle of my career as a pilot for UPS. I had everything going for me. Having left my wife in 1993, I didn't have anyone weighing me down. I had money, girls, friends, a great job — everything a guy could want. My life was all about saying yes to myself.

     But then I got caught at work stealing airline tickets. I didn't know how much my job had meant to me until the night I was fired. When I went in that night, they didn't just take my badge - they took away my entire identity. All these years, I had let my job define me. Losing that job felt like I was dying. But just because I had lost my job didn't mean I was giving up my lifestyle. Hard-headed guys like me don't go down easily. Without a job, I started missing child support payments. They gave some warnings that I better pay up, but before being sentenced, I still thought I was untouchable. That day in court was a major wake-up call.

     After my jail time, I stayed in a halfway home. I lived out of a duffel bag. I was allowed to work, but I wasn't allowed to drive. I rode the bus all around. I ended up working at a bagel shop. Some days, I'd run into co-workers from UPS. I can't describe the shame I felt. I know what I'm about to say doesn't make any sense, but it was during this time when everything I had worked for was dead, and my old life had died, that I started to finally discover true life. With nowhere else to turn, I returned to the faith of my youth. I began praying honestly and searching for comfort in the Bible. For the first time Jesus became real to me. I started saying no to me and started saying yes to Jesus.

     Soon after leaving the halfway home, I got a great job and started climbing the corporate ladder. My success was back. But I was afraid the old me would come back, too. I wanted to make sure that the old me stayed dead. I got on my knees and asked God to guide me and I committed to living completely for him.

     These days that continues to be my prayer. Now I mentor young men at church who are looking for spiritual guidance. God managed to take my mistakes and turn them into a priceless tool for keeping the young men I mentor from making the mistakes I made. I am also working with incarcerated men. It has become my passion to bring God's hope and healing into the broken lives of these men. Only God could take that kind of mess and turn it into a message about grace and redemption. My name is Gary Polsgrove, and I am not a fan." 

     St. Augustine once said in his well-known classic "The Confessions": "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."  I've often turned that into a prayer I pray for others who are walking aimlessly in sin, seemingly oblivious of their need for the Lord.  I've prayed for others (maybe even some of you!):  "Lord, give them no rest until they rest in you."

     To some it may at first sound "mean" to pray such a thing.  Yet if difficulty, hardships, trials and failure are what God uses to show us our desperate need for Him, and if we will never come to Him so long as we are comfortable where we are, it really is the most loving thing I could pray for any unbeliever or straying believer.  In fact, in love, I pray that for any to whom that may apply right now.

In the Bonds of Christian Affection,  Pastor Jeff 

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd

Greetings All,

     I had a breakfast with a few friends today and the name David Brainerd came up. It led me to think of offering you some thoughts regarding his missionary activity among the Indians in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey between June 1744 through June of 1745. He ministered near the Susquehanna, the Forks of the Delaware River, and in Crossweeksung, before succumbing to tuberculosis, riding his horse from there to Massachusetts, and then passing away in the home of Jonathan Edwards at the young age of 29.
     Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut, on April 20, 1718. His father died when he was nine, and his mother when he was 14 -- leaving him (his four brothers and four sisters) orphaned.  In July of 1739 (at the age of 21), he was so overcome by the sense of God's wrath against his sins, and the imperfection in all his religious duties, that it drove him to seek -- by faith in Christ alone -- "that way of salvation that is entirely by the righteousness of Christ." 
     He started at Yale College in New Haven in September of that year, studying to enter the pastorate. Though he was at the top of his class, and likely to be the valedictorian that next year at graduation, he was casually asked by two friends what he thought of one particular professor (Mr. Whittelsey).  He answered that he had no more grace (in him) than the chair he was sitting in. Another student, who happened to overhear his remark, told the faculty and Brainerd was dismissed from the college or ever returning. It would be hard to describe the shame and brokenness of spirit this caused Brainerd -- since without a degree from Harvard or Yale, or a European college, one could not gain a pulpit in New England.
     Yet, by the providence of God, this led Brainerd to his short but impactful life's work among the Indians.  Due to the severe conditions of working outside, and traveling with the Indians, he succumbed to tuberculosis and died in 1747. Jeshua Edwards (Jonathan Edwards 17 year old daughter) fell in love with him as she nursed him during the last six months of his life in their house.  In the last week of his life he told her: "If I had thought that I should not see you, and be happy with you in another world, I could not bear to part with you..."  She herself contracted tuberculosis from him and died the next winter at the age of 18.

     The excerpts that follow are taken from his journal and diary which were never intended to be public, or published.They were discovered by Edwards after he died, who after editing out some of the more personal content published them under the title: "The Life and Diary of David Brainerd."  It was one of the volumes which William Carey read that inspired him to pursue foreign missions. My son David is named after him.  Enjoy.

     Saturday, October 5, 1745: "Preached to my people (the Indians at Crossweeksung, N.J.) from John 14:1-6.  The divine presence seemed to be in the assembly. Numbers were affected with divine truths and it was a season of comfort to some in particular. Oh what a difference there is between these Indians and the Indians I had lately ministered to at the Susquehanna!  To be with them seemed like being banished from God, and all His people; but to be with these, is like being admitted into His family, and to the enjoyment of His divine presence!  How great is the change lately made upon numbers of these Indians, who not many months ago were as thoughtless and adverse to Christianity as those upon Susquehanna! And how astonishing is that grace which has made this change!"

     Sunday, Lord's Day, October 6, 1745: "Preached before noon from John 10:7-11. There was a considerable melting among my people. The dear young Christians were refreshed, comforted and strengthened, and one or two persons newly awakened (or made alive in Jesus). In the afternoon I discoursed on the story of the jailer in Acts 16, and in the evening expounded Acts 20:1-12. There was at this time a very agreeable melting spread through the whole assembly. I think I scarce ever saw a more desirable affection in any number of people in my life. There was scarce a dry eye to be seen among them, and yet nothing boisterous or unseemly. Nothing that tended to disturb public worship. But rather, to encourage and excite a Christian ardor an spirit of devotion. Those who, I have reason to hope, were savingly renewed, were the first affected, and seemed to rejoice much, but with brokenness of spirit and godly fear... appearing to be the genuine effect of a Spirit of adoption.
     After public service was over I withdrew (being much tired with the labors of the day) and the Indians continued praying among themselves for nearly two hours together. These continued exercises appeared to be attended with a blessed quickening influence from on high. I could not but earnestly wish that numbers of God's people had been present at this season to see and hear these things, which I am sure must refresh the heart of every true lover of Zion's interest..."
     October 24, 1745:  "Discoursed from John 4:13-14. There was a great attention, a desirable affection, and an unaffected melting in the assembly. It is surprising to see how eager they are of hearing the word of God. I have oftentimes thought they would cheerfully and diligently attend divine worship twenty-four hours straight, had they an opportunity so to do."

     October 25, 1745: "Discoursed to my people respecting the resurrection, from Luke 20:27-36. And when I came to mention the blessedness the godly shall enjoy at that season; their final freedom from death, sin, and sorrow; their equality to the angels in regard to their nearness to, and enjoyment of Christ (an imperfect degree of which they are favored with in the present life, and from whence springs their sweetest comfort)... numbers of them were much affected and melted with a view of this blessed state."

     October 26, 1745: "I was asked to help assist in the serving of the Lord's Supper at a nearby congregation (of Englishmen). Invited my (Indian) people to go with me. In general they accepted the opportunity cheerfully, and attended the several discourses (in English) with diligence and affection, most of them now understanding something of the English language."

     Lord's Day, October 27, 1745: "While I was preaching to a vast assembly of people, there was one Indian woman, a stranger, who never heard me preach before, nor ever regarded anything about religion. She was persuaded by some of her friends to come to meeting, though much against her will. She was seized with pressing concern for her soul, and soon after expressed a great desire of going home, more than 40 miles distant, to call her husband, that he might also be awakened to a concern for his soul. Some other of the Indians also appeared to be affected with divine truths this day. The pious people of the English (numbers of whom I had opportunity to converse with) seemed refreshed with seeing the Indians worship God in that devout and solemn manner with the assembly of His people. And with those mentioned in Acts 11:18, they could not but, "glorify God, saying, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."

     October 28, 1745: "Preached again to a great assembly, at which time some of my people appeared affected. And when public worship was over, were inquiring whether there would not be another sermon in the evening, or before the celebration of the Lord's Supper ended, being still desirous to hear God's word."

     About a year before his death (September of 1746) he wrote in his diary: "My heaven is to please God, and glorify Him, and to give all to Him, and be totally devoted to His glory. That is the heaven I long for. That is my religion, and that is my happiness, and always was ever since I suppose I had any true religion in me."

     May the Lord be pleased to pour out upon the lives of many in our day the same spirit of hungering after God. In God's providence Brainerd was kept from pastoring a comfortable New England church.

     Yet he was driven by his love for souls to preach -- to the Indians -- people he came to love so much that he often pleaded for their rights against the settlers, "complaining of the horrid practice of making the Indians drunk, and then cheating them out of their lands, and other properties, with too much warmth of spirit" (righteous anger).

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Holy Fools - Following Jesus With Reckless Abandon

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes to you from the book, "Holy Fools - Following Jesus With Reckless Abandon,"  authored by Matthew Woodley.
     It's a short but challenging read. The word of exhortation on the cover is true: "A spiritual jolt for when your respectable faith becomes deadly dull."
     This selection has to do with power in brokenness. Enjoy.

     "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

(2 Corinthians 12:9)

     "Brokenness doesn't just imply that I'm "damaged" because life has victimized me. In the Christian story, my brokenness means that life has shattered me, but it also means that I have contributed to my own brokenness -- and to the world's brokenness. In other words, I'm not just a victim of life's gusts; I'm also a rebel and fugitive.

     Every shattered piece of my life is still marked with the Master's beauty, but I'm not whole. Whatever I am, I'm not what I was made to be. I'm in pieces. Stated less delicately, I am, at least in part, a screwed-up human being.

     And it gets even worse, because according to the biblical story, I live in a broken world. One of the central themes of the Christian story found in the Bible is what theologians call 'the fall of man,' or 'total depravity."  Don't let the labels scare you. They just mean that although we're glorious creatures made in the image of God, every human being on this planet is also deeply flawed. Total depravity doesn't mean that every part of me is as bad as it could be. It just means that all my attitudes, actions, and even my deepest and most spiritual thoughts and aspirations are bent and flawed toward sin...

     This concept of depravity sounds depressing, but it actually flows into the other core element of brokenness: power. This power -- God's power -- has been released into our powerlessness. When we look at our brokenness, we don't just throw our hands in the air and say, 'I'm a total loser; I quit.'  Not at all. Brokenness also means finding strength in our weakness. It isn't just being shattered; it's finding wholeness in Christ.

     It's interesting that the New Testament uses the Greek word 'dunamis,' or power, forty-one times, but it's often combined with the word 'asthenia,' or weakness. Power and weakness link together in an inseparable bond. God wants to share his power with us. God longs to plant and cultivate real strength in us, but it often grows in the soil of our weakness.

     The power of the powerless isn't a negative message. This God of power wants to pour his strength into broken human recipients, empowering us to live with love and courage, to enter into the mess of a frightening world, to forgive and be forgiven, to face our own sin and darkness, to live with joy and thanksgiving, to endure suffering. God is looking for people who will receive and then display his power. And he will find them. But only the humble, the open, the empty-handed, and the broken will receive his power. If he finds our hands full, or our lives preoccupied with our own self-importance, he won't give us what we don't want [or what we're convinced we don't need]...

     I'll never forget nearly twenty years ago when an Anglican priest named William laid his hands on me and prayed for the strength of the Holy Spirit to fill me and empower me. At that point in my life, I was so broken and weak. I felt inferior and inadequate. But through an unlikely source -- William's touch and voice -- the living God spoke truth into my heart. As William prayed for power to ignite my powerlessness, I had a clear image enter my mind: An oak tree had just been planted in my heart. It was strong and true. It even felt solid inside my chest. And I had the distinct impression that it would continue to grow tall and straight. For twenty years it has been growing inside my soul slowly (painfully so for others around me) settling into the core of my identity. William's simple, daring prayer became my initiation into the power of the powerless." 

     May it be so for us as well. We don't have to be "fixed" to be used by God.  His power reveals itself most fully in our brokenness, weakness, limitations, inadequacies, and powerlessness. Our prayer should not be, "Make me strong."  It should be, "Show Yourself strong through me, weak as I am."

     Have a most blessed week reveling in the God whose grace is sufficient, and chooses to use us in spite of ourselves, not because we've attained an appropriate degree of "togetherness."

In the Bonds of Christian Affection, Pastor Jeff