C. S. Lewis - Faith, Christianity and the Church

Greetings All!

A post by a friend on Facebook yesterday reminded me of the wisdom of C. S. Lewis and how I have not delved into one of his books for quite some time. So, to correct such an inexcusable oversight, I decided to share this excerpt from his books, "Selected Literary Essay, De Descriptione Temporum" (#1)  and  "Letters: C.S. Lewis/Don Giovanni Calabria" (#2). Though both written in 1953, Lewis simply points out a biblical truth spoken of by both Jesus and the apostle John (Matthew 12:43-45 / I John 2:18-19). I hope one might see how it applies to our present day situation. Enjoy.

"Whereas all of history was for our [European] ancestors, divided into two periods, the pre-Christian and Christian, for us it falls into three -- the pre-Christian, Christian and what may reasonably be called the "post-Christian." This surely must make a momentous difference... [for] it appears to me that the second change is even more radical than the first. Christians and Pagans had much more in common than either has with post-Christian.  The gap between those who worship different gods is not as wide as that between those who worship and those who do not... That Europe [and I will add America] can come out of Christianity "by the same door as she went in" and find herself back where she was, is not what happens. A post-Christian man is not a Pagan.  You might as well think that a married woman recovers her virginity by divorce.  The post-Christian is cut off from the Christian past, and therefore cut off doubly from the Pagan past..."

---------------------------------------------

     "What you (Don Giovanni) say about the present state of mankind is true; indeed, it is even worse than you say. For [present day people] not only neglect the law of Christ, but even the Law of Nature as known by the Pagans. For now they do not blush at adultery, treachery, perjury, theft, and other crimes which not only Christians, but the pagans and the barbarous, have themselves denounced.  They err who say "the world is turning pagan again." I wish that it were!  The truth is that we are falling into a much worse state.  "Post-Christian man" is not the same as "pre-Christian man."  He is as far removed as a virgin from a widow...

    Regarding the moral condition of our times (since you bid me prattle on) I think this: Older people, as we both are, are always "praisers of times past." They always think the world is worse than it was in their younger days. Therefore we ought to take care lest we go wrong.  But with that proviso, certainly I feel that very grave dangers hang over us. This results from the apostasy of the great part of Europe [and America, I might add] from the Christian faith.

     Hence we are in a worse state than the one we were in before we received the Faith. For no one returns from Christianity to the same state they were in before Christianity, but a worse state; the difference between a pagan and an apostate is the difference between an unmarried woman and an adulterous. For faith perfects nature, but faith lost corrupts nature. Therefore many men of our time have lost not only the supernatural light, but also the natural light which pagans possessed.

     But God, who is the God of mercies, even now has not altogether cast off the human race. In younger people, although we may see much cruelty and lust, yet at the same time do we not see very many sparks of virtues which perhaps our own generation lacked? How much courage, how much concern for the poor do we see!  We must not despair. And (among us) a not inconsiderable number are now returning to the Faith." 

     I have seen what Lewis (and Jesus) are speaking about. The "pagan," be that person polytheistic or monotheistic, has some semblance of a code of virtues based on that belief in a divine being.  It's a pre-Christian similarity to the Christian faith which makes the true pagan open to the teachings of Jesus.  In fact, the pagan who is attracted to Christianity is generally drawn to it because he is moved by the hope he sees for redemptive change.

     But the disillusioned post-Christian is not in that category. The post-Christian has turned against the Christian faith and frequently becomes hostile to it. This is a group which has as some of it's most avid adherents, those raised in the church (or those who simply tasted of the cultural aspects of Christianity, without ever truly embracing Christ) and found mere Christian moralism lacking or unloving.  Such a person often refuses to even entertain the thought that Christianity can bring about positive change. Their nominal associations with the faith, as the old saying goes, gives them "an ax to grind."   Some of the most anti-Christian people I've ever met are not unbelieving pagans, but those who "went out from us" (I John 2:19). They were people who were somehow connected to the Church and found it lacking.  Yet as John goes on to point out:  "They did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. Their going out showed that none of them belonged to us"  (I John 2:19b).

     Unlike the pagan who still has the hope of change, they have turned against any hope in redemptive change, and in losing it, feel the grace of Jesus is ineffective.  And when one gives up on redemptive change, they resort to other methods to bring about change -- including the use of power -- which is often aimed at the church to demean or suppress it.  (And yes, I am well-aware that earnest Christian people impatient for change, have also fallen prey to the use of power instead of grace). Which brings us to another insight of Lewis: "The descent to hell is easy, and those who begin by worshipping power soon worship evil."  May that never be true of us!

     Just some food for thought.

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Thanksgiving History

Greetings All,

     Since those of us who reside in the United States are celebrating Thanksgiving Day in just two days, I thought a little history regarding the day would be helpful for carrying out your celebration more in keeping with the reason for which it was originally instituted.

Some useful facts are:

          1.) George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789 as "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God."  This was a one time observance and had more to do with the victory over the British, the establishment of the United States as a nation, and the growing prosperity of the nation.

     2.) Thanksgiving as we know it today did not became a nationally observed annual holiday until 1864 (see below).

     3.) It was instituted by Abraham Lincoln as a day to offer thanks to God out of gratitude for Northern (Union) military victories that seemed to suggest the war would soon be over, prosperity despite war, and the re-union of North and South an impending reality.

     4.) It included an admonition to, "reverently humble ourselves in the dust AND FROM THERE offer penitent and fervent prayers to [Almighty God as] the Great Disposer of Events."

     5.) The focus on the Pilgrims, strongly prominent in past years, but less prominent in our day, came to be the focus over time (after the Civil War ended), since it would have been hard for Southerners to celebrate a national day of thanksgiving in which they are referred to as, "the enemy, who is of our own household."

     6.) The first Thanksgiving celebrations were observed by the Pilgrims (celebrated in 1621, 1623, and 1631). The first celebration included 52 colonists [consisting of both Saints (or believers in Jesus), and Strangers (or unbelievers)] and 90 Wampanoag Indians. It apparently lasted three days.

     7.) The food they ate at that first celebration included: "goose, duck, swan, eels, clams, lobster, deer, Indian corn, chestnuts, gooseberries, and beer."

Proclamation 118 - Thanksgiving Day

October 20, 1864

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

     It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:

     Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,  Secretary of State.

------------------------------------------------------------------

     It is my hope that you might be moved to spend the day as Lincoln first envisioned it:

     "as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe.  And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land..." 

In Grateful Praise to our Abundantly Gracious and Generous God, Pastor Jeff

When Christians Suffer

Greetings All,
       
     This week's "thought" is about enduring afflictions. It comes from a book entitled:"When Christians Suffer," written by Thomas Case (1598-1682).  And what makes his writing strike home with greater force to comfort the afflicted, is the fact that the author does not write from the soft, cushy, air conditioned setting of a university or church office.

It was written from the prison cell into he had been cast in in 1648, in the Tower of London, for being true to Christ and his conscience at a time when many others willingly compromised their faith, and the truth, in order to keep their pastoral positions and possessions.
     As Thomas Manton (a friend of Mr. Case) wrote: "To treat of afflictions when we ourselves flourish and abound in ease and plenty is more like the orator than the preacher, and the brain than the heart." 

     Case, then, writes from the heart, not just the mind; from experience, not mere theory.  He lost his charge (church) and possessions, and thus he writes from the perspective of one who learned these truths firsthand.  I offer you six of the insights he gained, hoping they will encourage you.  For as Case himself put it: "Discourses on affliction can never be out of season..."  Enjoy.

     "The FIRST lesson God teaches us by affliction is to have compassion for those who are in a suffering condition.  We are prone to be insensitive when we are at ease in Zion!  This is partly out of the delicacy of self-love which makes us unwilling to sour our own sweet blessings with the bitter taste of a strangers' afflictions. For this very reason God brings a variety of afflictions and sorrows upon His children. He suffers them to be plundered, banished, imprisoned, or reduced to great extremities, that by their own experience they may learn to draw out their souls to the hungry, and to be able to say within themselves, "I know what it is to be plundered, starved or cast into prison"...

     SECOND:  Through sufferings God teaches us to prize our outward mercies and comforts more, and yet to dote upon them less.  We need to be more thankful for them, and yet less ensnared by them.  We can undervalue our mercies even while we glut ourselves with them.  Behold, while men fill themselves with the mercies of God, they can neglect the God who gave them. When God is most generous in remembering us, we are often most ungrateful in forgetting Him. To enable us to put a true value on the mercies that our foolish, unthankful hearts delight in, God often takes them away, that we may learn to prize them by having to do without them....

      FOURTH:  In affliction we learn humility and meekness of spirit.  God led Israel into the wilderness to humble them. Pride is a disease that naturally runs in our veins, and it is nourished by ease and prosperity. To tame this pride of spirit God takes a believer into the house of correction, and puts his feet in the stocks, and there teaches him to know himself (Deut. 8:3).  A man by trouble comes to know his own heart, which in prosperity he was a stranger to.  He then sees the weakness of his grace, and the strength of his corruption, and this lays him in the dust... Truly when a man has learned this lesson, he is not far from deliverance...

     SIXTH:  The school of affliction teaches us to pray.  He that has never prayed before will pray in affliction... Affliction causes men to pray more frequently.  God's people are full of the spirit of prayer, and God draws it out by affliction... In prosperity every trivial matter distracts us from prayer, but affliction keeps us on our knees... In affliction we learn to pray more fervently and earnestly...

     FIFTEENTH:  God teaches in affliction the one thing that is necessary...  Affliction reveals how much we were mistaken about our "necessities."  In our health, strength, and liberty, we think this thing must be done, or that thing must be done. We think riches necessary, honors necessary, large houses necessary... and the like. But in the day of adversity when death looks us in the face, when God causes the horrors of the grave, the dread of the last judgment, and the terrors of eternity to pass before us, then we can put our mouths in the dust, smite upon our breast and confess: "O how I have been mistaken!  O how I have fed upon ashes and deceived my heart.  How I have made the unimportant the main thing, and the main thing unimportant."  In a word, Christ alone is the one thing necessary and all other things, at best, are maybe's (Philippians 3:8-9)...

     TWENTY-FIRST:  In the day of affliction God reveals to the soul the fullness of Jesus Christ.  There is an infinite fullness in Jesus Christ. There never was a king anointed with such power. There never was a prophet with such wisdom. There never was a priest with such grace and righteousness. God gave Him the Spirit without limit (John 3:34). It is infinite fullness which fills Jesus Christ as Mediator, that we of His fullness might receive grace for grace. But we do not always have a capacity to receive or to see that fullness. The reason is that we fill ourselves so much with the world in our prosperity. We seek the pleasures and profits of the world, and have no room for Christ... The world glitters in our eyes and there is no beauty in Him that we should desire Him (Is. 53:2).  We are very prone to love the world and be satisfied with earthly things themselves, instead of these leading us to be more fitted to walk with God.  The greater our love for earthly things, the less our delight in Jesus Christ.  This is our sin and folly -- that we do not fear the unlawful use of lawful things.  We do not see the snare for us to be encouraged to love earthly things in a way that only God should be loved. This brings great reproach to Jesus Christ. 

     But when God spreads sackcloth over all the beauty of the earthly, and by some flashes of lightning strikes us blind to the world, then we can discover the beauty and excellence of Christ. For His beauty infinitely transcends all the beauty and excellence of the world.  When the God of heaven has famished all our gods on earth, and has starved us of our creature-comforts, in any way whatsoever, then we can hunger after and taste the sweetness and the fullness which is in Jesus Christ... Truly God sees it absolutely necessary to exercise us with a severe discipline that He may endear our hearts to Jesus Christ, and seclude us from the world, that we may study and know deeper of His fullness."

     The book has over 40 things that God can teach us through affliction. I have listed only six (and even those not in full).  Should you desire to read the rest, it would be well worth the time it would take to read this small (three inch by four inch), short (122 page) booklet.  For if you have not suffered, someone you know has, or is, and the insights learned by Mr Case can help comfort and give hope to all who may be afflicted.

In the Bonds of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

Jesus Never Moves On

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes from Tim Challies and is entitled: "Jesus Never Moves On" (www.Challies.com July 3, 2013).
     I share it with you because it is such a common scenario -- even in the church -- and such a wise, yet often overlooked Gospel-like response. We can (in the midst of temptation) forget that as believers our relationship with Jesus lays the groundwork for how we are to live all of life.
     To "love one another as I have loved you," would resolve many an intense struggle before it even arose or got to the point where it was so difficult. The way God in Christ deals with us should lay the groundwork, and be the blueprint, for how we in turn relate to others. Challies reminds us of this truth through a conversation he had with another believer over dinner. Enjoy.

Jesus Never Moves On

     "She just seems so much easier to live with than my wife."  It was a conversation over dinner between sessions at a conference, a conversation in a state far from home. The man felt his heart drawn away from his wife or, perhaps more accurately, toward another woman, a woman who was not his wife, a woman in his church, a woman who was another man’s wife.  He believed these thoughts were involuntary, that the ideas were extrinsic to him, that Satan was tempting him with a sin perfectly suited to his weaknesses, to his heart idolatries. He was battling hard to keep the temptation from turning into fantasy, and from there to action.

     “My wife is difficult to live with at times. She is needy. She is complicated. And this other woman seems so easy to figure out, so simple to live with.” He saw it not as a judgment of his wife as much as a simple statement of fact: it is difficult to make a life with another person. On the one side he had a woman who needed so much from him and on the other side he had a woman who looked like she would only give without taking. He knew it was a lie, he hated every thought that drew his heart toward her, and yet day after day it crept up and presented him with what promised to be an easier path.

     We shifted the conversation away from his wife, away from the other woman, and toward Christ. Sometimes it is difficult to see how the gospel applies to life; sometimes it is not difficult at all. The Bible tells us that a man is to love his wife in such a way that he imitates the love Christ has for his church, for his people. And if there is anything at all we know about Christ’s love for his people it is this: it is a love that will never end. Though we may stray for a time, he will draw us back. Though we may give up on Christ, he will never give up on us. His love will endure. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

     Christ’s love for the church provides the model of a husband’s love for his wife. This is the deepest kind of challenge for the Christian husband. Christ will never grow so worn out that he will shift his attention toward someone else instead. His heart will never stray. His affections will never waver. He will never grow so weary of us that he moves on.  I could hardly blame him if he did. There must be people out there who would prove a lot easier to deal with than me. There must be people out there whose hearts are less sinful than mine, who would progress in holiness faster than I would, who would worship more wholeheartedly and who would live with greater gratitude. And yet he has chosen me, he has set his love on me, and nothing will cause him to abandon me. He will never give up.

     This husband is called to love with that same endurance. He is called to love with the same hope, the same dedication. The security he has in Christ is the security his wife must have in him. This is the gospel. This is the display of the gospel in marriage.

     This life, says the Bible, is but a vapor, or mist, that appears in the morning and is gone by noonday (James 4:14). We have only so many years to serve Jesus.  We have only so many years to live for His glory.  We have only so much time to seek to reflect to the world the type of love and commitment that our Father, and our Lord Jesus, have for us. To reflect an other-worldly type love that is beyond measure -- higher, wider, deeper and longer than we are even able to begin to understand (Ephesians 3:18-19).

     And how do we do that? It must begin by stepping back, taking a breath, looking into the Word, and considering how richly we've been graced. How richly we've been graced with a love we did everything not to deserve, and still do so much to be unworthy of -- even in our best of days. Only when we take the time to honestly consider the unbelievable depths of the grace and mercy and forgiveness and commitment and innumerable "second chances" shown to us by God, can we even begin to seek to love others as He has loved us.

     Do it now, before the temptation grows into full-blown sin, and leads to the needless death of a relationship that could be salvaged by an earnest and prayerful glance at the Gospel of God's unfathomable love for us.

Hoping To Fix Your Eyes Upon Jesus, Pastor Jeff 

The Day Jesus Lost His Temper

Greetings All,

     Today I'm doing something out of the ordinary. Because today my 'thought'  comes from a section of my sermon from this past Sunday (Palm Sunday) where I spoke about Jesus withering of the fig tree and cleansing the Temple (out of in Mark 11:13-14 and 20-21). 
     Many told me afterward that it helped them understand a text that had always confused and bothered them.  So, if  you are such a person, my prayer is that it may do the same for you. Enjoy (hopefully)!

     "The day after that first Palm Sunday, Jesus headed to the Temple, and on His way cursed a fig tree which had no fruit on it, and it eventually withers and dies (Mark 11:13-14 and 20-21). It's a story that makes some struggle, because it makes it seem like Jesus is simply in a bad mood, or being mean and irrational, since he expects a fig tree to bear fruit when it's not even the season for figs!

     Yet our struggle with the event can be resolved when we understand that Jesus is not mad, nor cursing the tree because He's irritated. Rather, He's engaging in a common form of prophetic instruction -- using a symbolic act that teaches a truth or serves as a warning of things to come. 

     God employed this form of instruction with Hosea when He called him to marry a prostitute and to remain faithful to her, even though she would be unfaithful to him -- sign of God's faithfulness to unfaithful and idolatrous Israel, as well as a reminder to us who so often "cheat on God" with other gods or idols. Isaiah engaged in it as well when he as called by God to walk around barefoot and naked for three years -- a sign to Egypt and Cush that they would be defeated by Assyria, and "led away stripped and barefoot" (Isaiah 20:2-6).

     So why does Jesus curse and wither the fig tree? Because as we often see in the O.T. the fig tree represents Israel (Jer. 8:13 / 29:17 / etc.). Paul uses the same imagery in Romans 11.

     And what's the message Jesus conveys through it? The fig tree, like Israel -- looks good from a distance to the human observer (v. 13).  She lush and green and healthy and full of leaves, and from all outward appearances seems like a tree that should be laden with fruit. But upon closer examination, she is found to have produced no spiritual fruit at all (v. 13b).  Yes, Israel had her large, magnificent temple (which even Roman writers described as one of the world's most magnificent buildings). She had her intricate religious organization with over 700 priests on duty at any given time, along with her highly detailed order of rituals and sacrifices and a priesthood with all its colorful robes and finery. She had her High Priest, religious lawyers, scribes and elders. There was even the Sanhedrin, the Temple guards, and so much more. It was all quite massive and impressive (similar in many ways to the Vatican).

     But like the fig tree Jesus cursed, she had not produced what God desired most: The fruit of a holiness. A people that loved Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, prayerfully worshiping Him in spirit and truth and praising all the consummate glories of His Name. People who through great effort and personal sacrifice take the message of His greatness to the ends of the earth. And therefore, like the cursed tree which the disciples found withered and dead (v. 21), Israel would also be judged -- for she was not what she appeared to be. She lacked the spiritual fruit she was supposed to produce. That's the message of Jesus through the withered fig tree. Any "fruit-bearing tree" (or person) that BEARS NO FRUIT, will eventually be judged, wither, and die (Mt. 3:10-12, 7:15-20, John 15:6...). 

     And the same is true for the cleansing of the Temple. It's another prophetic and instructive visual sign where Jesus seeks to show them, through actions that no one can ignore, that God is not pleased with the way they have taken what He ordained to be a place of worship and prayer and made it into a religious circus, and money-making machine.  As with the fig tree, Jesus "wrath" is a prophetic sign of what God would soon do to the nation if they did not repent and restore the Temple to what it was supposed to be  -- a place of reverence and praise and earnest prayer and the worship of the true God for people from all nations (vv. 15-17).

     Like the withering of the fig tree, the temple cleansing is intended to be a prophetic sign, foreshadowing in miniature what would actually did happen in reality in the year 70 A.D. when the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem, and then dismantled the Temple stone by stone, until "not one was left upon the other" (Matt. 24:2). It may even foreshadow the Day of Judgment when God will clean house and separate the sheep from the goats.

     If those who witnessed this event had only heeded its true message, and the warning Jesus was giving them through it, it would have saved them from experiencing a much worse judgment in the future.  For in reality, it's a very gentle form of "wrath" that is meant to save them from a much harsher form of wrath in the future.  Which means it is really an act of God's grace and mercy, clothed in instructive anger, and conveying to all -- through a visual warning no one could forget -- a wrath that will be infinitely worse in the future if they refuse to repent and change their ways."

Food for thought as we approach Good Friday and rejoice to remember that Easter is coming! 

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Supernatural, Not Sentimental Concern

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes to you from an author I've truly come to enjoy -- Gary Thomas.  He is best known for his book, 'Sacred Marriage'.  This particular excerpt is found in his book, 'Simply Sacred,' a collection of daily readings.
     I have thoroughly enjoyed it and would suggest it as a possibility for anyone who may have experienced the frustration of looking a good devotional book. In my humble opinion it is well worth the price should you happen pick one up. This thought is called, 'Supernatural, Not Sentimental Concern.' Enjoy.


     "My wife volunteered to work with a week-long camp that reached out to inner-city children from troubled backgrounds. She soon learned what she was up against. Any romantic notions she might have secretly harbored about the week were quickly dispelled when the trainer taught volunteers how to respond to a kid who is biting you. (Just FYI, rather than pull your arm back -- which allows the child's teeth to set -- you should push your arm into the child's mouth until the child stops biting. When the arm is pushed in, it's far more difficult to receive a hurtful bite.)
     At the end of camp, I joined my wife for a luncheon given in recognition of the camp workers. One young man received an award for being the most patient in the face of the most abuse. He had been kicked, hit, pummeled, even spit on.

     It is important to mention this because some people actually pursue selfless work for selfish reasons. They usually don't last long. That's why Christians who are eager to serve should first do a motivation check. Are you doing this to be loved (or thanked) in return? Are you doing this to save a life? What if the person doesn't want to be saved? What if the addict refuses to quit? What is the crisis pregnancy center client gets pregnant again? Will that make you quit?

     Social mercy is based on obedience to God and depends on God's love for his failing children. We cannot maintain or manufacture a false love. Sentimentality won't last until lunchtime in real ministry. Nothing short of God's supernatural care and concern will suffice.

     Yet behind this pain is an unparalleled, almost otherworldly pleasure.  J. I. Packer once told a class of seminary students, 'As you serve the Lord, you hurt. And as you serve the Lord, your hurt, which feels sometimes like a death experience, gives way to a joy which feels like a resurrection experience. The Lord makes it happen.' 

     Let's serve well -- for the right reasons with the right motivation." 

      During my time serving in a program in the Dominican Republic, as well as in my time in Honduras, I was able to witness this -- first in myself and also in others. It was the inner thought or assumption that in serving others they would respond to my help or personal sacrifice with appreciation and gratitude and I would feel good or more fulfilled for having served them.

     Yet it didn't take long to realize that one can work their hardest with very few "thank you's" coming back in their direction.  Ask most any missionary on the field. In fact, if the desire to be loved, thanked, or appreciated for one's "selfless" service to others is among the primary driving forces behind that service, it's really not 'selfless,' and as Thomas points out, "They usually don't last long."  That is, they don't last long unless that death/resurrection experience takes place and the motivation for their service changes.

     God must graciously help them -- He must help us -- to realize that our primary motivation must be to do what were doing simply because our Lord and Redeemer has called us to do it.  We are to do it for Him, and not what we can get out of it, or we won't do it long.

     I believe this is what Jesus meant when in the process of telling Peter to, "feed my sheep," He asks him three times, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"  In fact, He repeats it enough times to exasperate Peter!  (John 21:15-19)

     Why does He do it?  To drive home this point: If we serve Jesus' people for any other reason than that we love Him -- if we do it to be loved, admired, looked up to, thanked, appreciated, noticed, recognized, praised, etc. -- then when those things are not forthcoming, or we receive just the opposite (like the gentleman mentioned above) we will tend to become quickly disillusioned,  and likely quit or move on from that field of service.

     Only if we do it out of love for Christ will we do it regardless of what might come our way (or fail to come our way). It was an appropriate lesson for Peter, who would end up martyred alongside his wife for simply feeding Jesus sheep -- and a lesson we all need to heed as well.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Collective Thoughts of Richard Sibbes

Greetings All,

     This weeks "thought" consists of many individual thoughts by a man named Richard Sibbes (1577-1635). He was one of the greatest Puritans of his age and greatly influenced the direction and content of Puritan preaching, theology, and writing in both his homeland of England and in America.

Of him Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote: "I shall never cease to be grateful to Richard Sibbes, who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil.... I found at that time that Richard Sibbes... was an unfailing remedy. His books The Bruised Reed and The Soul's Conflict quietened, soothed, comforted, encouraged, and healed me."

     That seems to have been the stated purpose of Sibbes preaching, for he wrote: "To preach is to woo.... The main scope of all [preaching] is, to allure us to the entertainment of Christ's mild, safe, wise, victorious government [or Lordship]." And historian William Haller says of his sermons: "They were the most brilliant and popular of all the utterances of the Puritan church militant.” Charles Spurgeon's so cherished Sibbes writings that he asked his wife Suzanne to read to him from Sibbes' book "The Bruised Reed" when he was bedridden. In fact, just reading that one book, as I've told many, will change your attitude toward the Puritans.

     Here are some gems taken from his writings. Enjoy.

     On July 4,1635, the day before his death, he told a friend: "I commend and bequeath my soul into the hands of my gracious Savior, who hath redeemed it with his most precious blood, and appears now in heaven to receive it."

     Of Jesus' righteous life of obedience, and His atoning death for sin, the merits of which God graciously credits to the the account of the believing sinner, he wrote: “God knows we have nothing of ourselves, therefore in the covenant of grace he requires no more than he gives, but gives what he requires, and accepts what he gives.”

     The following quotes will ring true to anyone who has walked with Christ for any length of time.

     “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us... No sin is so great but the satisfaction of Christ and His mercies are greater; it is beyond comparison. Fathers and mothers in tenderest affections are but beams that point and lead us upwards to the infinite mercy of God in Christ”

     "Measure not God's love and favor by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof.” 

     "Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.”

     "Weakness, with acknowledgement of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect his strength in us; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to him in whom our strength lies.” 

     "Whatsoever is good for God's children they shall have it; for all is theirs to help them towards heaven; therefore if poverty be good they shall have it; if disgrace or crosses be good they shall have them; for all is ours to promote our greatest prosperity."

     "Self-emptiness prepares us for spiritual fullness."

     "The love of a wife to her husband may begin from the supply of her necessities, but afterwards she may love him also for the sweetness of his person; so the soul first loves Christ for salvation but when she is brought to Him and finds what sweetness there is in Him then she loves Him for Himself."

     "Partial obedience is not obedience at all; to single out easy things that do not oppose our lusts, which are not against our reputation, therein some will do more than they need; but our obedience must be universal to all God's commandments, and that because He commands it. Empty relationships are nothing; if we profess ourselves God's servants and do not honour Him by our obedience, we take but an empty title." 

     "When we are foiled, let us believe we shall overcome; when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again. Jacob, after he received a blow which made him lame, yet would not give over wrestling (Gen. 32:25) till he had obtained the blessing. So let us never give up, but, in our thoughts knit the beginning, progress and end together, and then we shall see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies."

     "It is evident that our conversion is sound when we loathe and hate sin from the heart."

     "Let us lay ourselves open to the Spirit's touch. When the Spirit has ruling sway in our lives he fine-tunes our souls much like a musical instrument, and then he plays our lives as a piano concerto before God... The Holy Spirit must rule; he will have the keys delivered to him. We must submit to his government, and when he is in the heart he will subdue bit by bit all high thoughts, rebellious risings, and despairing fears."

     As we approach the celebration of Christ's incarnation, I offer these as truths for you to meditate upon so as to stir afresh the glowing embers of your love for Jesus. In Him, Pastor Jeff