Testimony of William Grimshaw

Greetings All!

     There comes a time in the life of every believer where they must wrestle with what they truly trust in; where their hope lies, and what the only true object of saving faith is. This week's "thought" is a true account of the one man's journey along that road -- a road that led from misplaced faith and depression, to true faith and joy!
     It is not unusual (at least at the beginning of our life of faith) to have a faith that when tested is found lacking or misplaced. Hopefully this testimony about William Grimshaw's journey from trusting in the wrong thing, to being led by a miraculous event to trust in the only true saving object of faith will be of help to all -- either as a guide that takes you to where you need to be, or a reminder not to stray from there. It comes from "The One Year Book of Christian History" by Michael and Sharon Rusten.  Enjoy.

     "William Grimshaw was born in Lancashire, England, in 1708. He went to Christ's College, Cambridge, intending to enter the ministry. During his third year he fell in with the wrong crowd, becoming, in his own words, "as vile as the worst."  Still, he chose to enter the ministry, finding no incongruity between his sinful lifestyle and his chosen profession.  Ordained in the Church of England in 1732, Grimshaw was assigned a church in West Yorkshire. He married a young widow, but within four years she tragically died, leaving him with two small children.

     Already a troubled soul, Grimshaw was plunged into a deep depression. He sent his children away to be raised by relatives. All he could think about was his own mortality and the necessity of making arrangements for his own funeral... In his written instructions for his funeral he specified: "To attend my funeral I desire that 20 persons be invited (of my next relations and intimatest acquaintances) and be entertained in the following manner: Let 5 quarts of claret (a red wine from Bordeaux) ... be put in a punch bowl and be drunk in wine glasses until it is all gone."

     At this time an itinerant preacher began rebuking Grimshaw for his legalistic view of salvation [a view whereby he encouraged people to trust in their own efforts, works, or aspects of their own performance for their acceptance with God]. He said to Grimshaw, "You are no believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are building on the sand."   Grimshaw tried to avoid the man, but the words "you are building on sand" kept haunting him.  In 1741, while visiting a friend, Grimshaw saw a book on the table and picked it up.  As he opened it, and discovered it was by John Owen, a Puritan theologian, a flash of heat flushed his face. Puzzled, he looked at the fireplace, wondering if the fire had caused his sudden flush of heat.  Opening the book again, he read the title: "The Doctrine of Justification by Faith."  Suddenly a second flash of heat swept over him. Astonished that it happened again, Grimshaw took it as a divine imperative that he was to read the book.

     Taking the book back home, Grimshaw noted in the preface that Owen had written the book for people suffering from the same anguish and distress of soul he was experiencing.  The book confronted the reader with the question of whether he would 'trust in his own personal inherent righteousness (his own efforts and religious or moral performances) or, in full renunciation of it, take to himself the grace of God and the righteousness of Christ alone.' To Grimshaw the choice was clear.  As he would later confide to a friend,  "I was wiling to renounce myself, every degree of fancied merit and ability, and to embrace CHRIST ONLY for my all in all.  O what light and comfort did I now enjoy in my own soul, and what a taste of the pardoning love of God!"

     His ministry immediately changed, and he found peace and joy in his heart as well as his soul. He fell in love with a local girl, married her, and brought his children back home...  He applied for a new parish and moved his family to nearby Haworth, where he ministered powerfully and effectively until his death in 1763 at the age of 55. Under his spiritual leadership the little-known village of Yorkshire became one of the leading centers of the Christian faith in all of England. His funeral was quite different from the one he had planned years before. Vast crowds of loving parishioners followed his coffin to its final resting place. The pastor who spoke summarized the faith of Grimshaw by saying, "Upon Christ's atoning blood and justifying righteousness alone, did EVERY HOPE of his soul's acceptance with God depend" 

     Upon what does your hope rest?  What is the object of your faith? What does your hope or trust for pardon and salvation rest upon?  Is it your efforts at trying to be a "good" person?  Is it a list of accomplishments or a resume of cataloged good works?  Is it a mix of faith in Jesus plus your attempts to be righteous? Here it helps to remember that when it comes to saving faith, Jesus plus anything nullifies Jesus. If you are trusting in anything of your own, you are trusting in you, and thus not fully (or for that matter, not at all) in Jesus.  The Gospel's message is clear: We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  Add anything into the mix and you disbelieve the Gospel, negate Jesus, will struggle incessantly with emotional highs and lows, find the need to pretend, have a fear of being open, honest and transparent about your sins, wrestle with a sense of of frustration with God and self, fall into occasional depressions, and a lack of assurance of God's forgiveness and complete acceptance.

     Only when one's hope for acceptance with God is in CHRIST ONLY -- only when both eyes are glued on Jesus, instead of one on Jesus and the other on the sin-stained performances of the self -- are they liberated from all those afflicting things to experience peace, joy and release from the weight of burdens too heavy to carry.  John Owen was right in asking: "will you trust in your own personal inherent righteousness [which is always stained by sin and thus unrighteous or unacceptable righteousness], or in full renunciation of it, take to yourself the grace of God and righteousness of CHRIST ALONE."

     Blessed is the person who stops hoping and trusting in their own efforts, and looks instead to Christ alone for their pardon and acceptance with God.  As one who fell into this Grimshaw's mistake, I can tell you from personal experience what a blessed liberation comes as we get our eyes off us, and simply, "fix our eyes (of faith) on Jesus..." (Heb. 12:2).  And please notice it says "eyes" -- that is, both of them!  Not one eye of faith fixed on what you do, and the other one looking to what Jesus did, but BOTH OF THEM fixed on Jesus. For He is the only true object of saving faith, and faith in HIM ALONE is the only means of salvation or remedy for the countless malady's of the soul.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

The Time to Pray is Before the Shooting Starts

Greetings All,

     Today's "thought" comes from the Blog of Melissa Edgington entitled: yourmomhasablog.com  In light of a month that has seen so many needless shooting deaths and injuries, this post caught my attention. I know I sent out a thought on prayer last week, but I would like to follow it up this week with another -- dealing with the rush to pray (or at least promises to pray) AFTER heartbreaking situations occur.  I read Melissa's post and felt it was worth sharing.  I trust you will find it true and challenging. Enjoy.

The Time to Pray is Before the Shooting Starts

  I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among Christians. We are not a praying people.  Oh, we love the idea of prayer.  We love sharing memes about it and ranting on social media about prayer in schools. We love organizing prayer vigils after some awful tragedy has struck.  We follow the same predictable patterns of making prayer a low priority until we have absolutely no other recourse but to turn to the God of the Universe.

     As His children, we must start examining what it is that keeps us from prayer. Is it that we really don’t believe that God is in control? Or do we just not care what He does until He does something that negatively affects us? Do we really think that the best time to pray is after the mass shooting?

     At most prayer meetings, only a fraction of the church takes time to attend. It isn’t a time issue. Parents and grandparents alike can make it to every little league game, anytime, anywhere, with three or four kids in tow. In most cases it isn’t a matter of limited mobility or poor health. The majority of us are perfectly able to meet together to pray. We just don’t want to.

     Imagine how our communities and churches and schools might change if we approached the throne of God with an expectation that He will hear our prayers. With an excitement about what He will do with the pleas of His people.  Consider how things might be different if we had eyes to see how He uses our prayers to accomplish His will, if we had the faith to believe that prayer really matters.

     Imagine if we weren’t afraid to humble ourselves before our God, before our family and friends and fellow believers, if we marked prayer meetings on our calendars in ink, making it clear to our children that we make prayer with fellow believers a priority in our homes. Instead, most of us hear the words “prayer meeting” and tune out. Not for us. Not important. Not worth our time.

     We spend so much time worrying about the world our kids and grand-kids are growing up in, so many hours scheming and planning ways to shelter them, and so little time talking to the One who can actually change things. If you want to know the truth, it isn’t the youth of today or the evil governments or the wicked schemes of man that make me fear for the future. It’s the empty prayer meetings.

     “The Cinderella of the Church today is the prayer meeting. This handmaid of the Lord is unloved and unwooed because she is not dripping with pearls of intellectualism, nor glamorous with the silks of philosophy, neither is she enchanting with the tiara of psychology. She wears the homespuns of sincerity and humility and so is not afraid to kneel.” – Leonard Ravenhill

     After learning of the latest statistics on how few Christians there are that regularly share the gospel, or spend any significant time in prayer, a friend of mine once said (somewhat tongue-in-cheek, of course, regarding what motivates people): "The only mistake God made was that he didn't offer to give us five dollars for every person we share the Gospel with, or contract to pay us an hourly wage for time spent praying. Or better still, that He didn't make our salvation dependent on doing both."   I do often wonder how many more people would do those two things if they were financially reimbursed for the time and efforts. 

     Those are some pretty encouraging promises to be given from the One who has all power in heaven and earth!  Yet, given the commitment to prayer on the part of many Christians, you would never know Jesus had spoken such words!  Yet He did, not only because He intends to make good on them, but also to encourage and move us to pray.  One must ask: What will it take to get us to do so?  Could the carnage be stopped if God's people would flood the throne of grace with petitions for His intervention to prevent them, instead of prayers of comfort for those who have lost loved ones after the fact?  Because I believe Melissa is spot-on - The Time to Pray is Before the Shooting Starts.

     "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, FOR THIS IS GOD'S WILL FOR YOU in Christ Jesus." (I Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Pastor Jeff

The Mystery of Prayer

Greetings All,

     After two weeks away I am back from a relaxing vacation! Time spent in nature, in the woods and mountains of New England, has its benefits in refreshing the soul!
     This morning a friend asked a question about prayer.  It was a question many ask, since prayer is something that takes time to understand, even though we will never fully comprehend the mystery of it. After all, there are so  many different views and opinions and approaches people have toward praying.  Therefore, I decided I would send out this "thought" on prayer by Gary Thomas, entitled: "The Mystery of Prayer."  It is found in his book, "Sacred Pathways."  It does not address the question asked this morning, but given the fact that most all people struggle at one time or another in their prayer life, I thought some might find it helpful and encouraging -- especially those who have encountered the often confusing dilemma called "unanswered prayer."  Enjoy.

The Mystery of Prayer

     "Is there anything more mysterious than prayer? Prayer moves us to call on a Being we cannot see and ask him to altar that which we can see.  Formulas do not work; rituals cannot guarantee success. Neither the length nor the form of prayer makes the prayer potent. This is why we need to create pockets of prayer in our lives, learning to trust God to come through in unexpected ways. There is an element of mystery, however, against which we sometimes rebel -- the mystery of unanswered prayer, or, perhaps more appropriately stated, prayers that receive the answer "no." 

     Because God sometimes answers our prayers with a yes, it can become intoxicating, and this intoxication can become so addicting that we begin to demand that God answer every prayer with a yes When a prayer doesn't get answered in the way we want it to be, we may mistakenly assume there must be hidden sin, lack of faith, or some other buried obstruction, which then sends us into hours of fruitless introspection.  But to demand that God answer all our prayers with a yes is to ask for his omnipotence (power) without having the benefit of his omniscience (knowledge).

     Looking back, I'm thankful that God said no to some of my prayers. The mystery of faith calls us to love and serve a God whom we can't always understand. We love this when the result satisfies us and God answers in ways that make our knees weak. It is much less exciting, however, when the mystery leads us to believe that God is silent, indifferent, or even cruel. Mystery is mystery. It has its exhilarating elements as well as frustrating ones, and we can't expect one without the other.

     The pursuit if maturity will lead virtually every one of us through this canyon of unanswered prayer, where expectancy runs dry and the only mystery seems to be where God is hiding. Understand that this is a necessary avenue on the destination to holiness and that it usually has an end -- in God's timing however."

     Some thoroughly enjoy prayer.  Some struggle with snags and disappointments in prayer.  And some have dispensed with prayer -- at least in the more formal sense -- though I do not believe it's possible for the true believer to dispense completely with conversational interaction with God. Few will go an entire lifetime without the "why's" of both answered and unanswered prayer, yet there is blessing in persevering. Just as a child passes through phases of equilibrium and disequilibrium in their trek to maturity, so also the person maturing in prayer goes through such phases. The key, in the famous words of Winston Churchill, is to, "Never, never, never give up." 

     With you in what is often the struggle to find God, and the pathway to the throne of His grace, in prayer, Pastor Jeff

Thoughts on Leadership

Greetings All!

     This week's post is a collection of 25 quotes relating to leadership.  I post them for three reasons.  First, because it is my conviction that no matter who we are, someone is looking up to us as an example, or for guidance of one sort of another, which makes us a leader of sorts even when we don't have the title and didn't ask for the responsibility.  One does not have to be delegated the authority to carry out the role, and we can inadvertently carry out the role without even knowing we are!  The person simply trying to be an example to others is being a leader in their own right.

     The second reason I post them is because we can all gain insight and wisdom from leaders of the past who have shared what guided their leadership -- even if we don't consider ourselves to be one.  And last, I share it because as I looked hem over I was amazed how much current thought of leadership is little more than a confirmation (plagiarization of sorts) of the teaching of Jesus on the topic, or practical insights gained from His words and example, even when those giving the advice are not themselves Christians. I had many more than listed. I paired them down to 25. I offer them as the best of what I found.  If you have a favorite (or favorites) and have a chance, let me know which ones.  Enjoy.

Thoughts on Leadership

1. "The true test of a leader is this: A respect for that person that is so deep that people will continue following their lead even when the official title and delegated authority have been taken away."

2. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”  Ralph Nader

3. “Leaders must possess courage.  Yet do not be mistaken: Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is the determination not to let our very real fears paralyze us, hold us back, or scare us into silence and inactivity when words and actions are what is needed.”

4. “You aren’t fit to lead until you know how to follow.  If you want to become a remarkable leader, follow a leader of character, conviction, and vision. Don’t ask people to follow you until you’ve humbly followed someone else. Following is perhaps the most neglected development principle of remarkable leadership… Follow advice from those more knowledgeable.  Follow a vision bigger than yourself.  Follow someone you respect.  Follow the most noble person available.  Follow someone who is going somewhere.  Remarkable leaders are remarkable followers. Admiration of big-egoed-leaders degrades us all.  Worry less about becoming a remarkable leader and more about becoming a remarkable follower.”   Dan Rockwell

5. “The chief characteristic of Christian leaders, Jesus insisted, is humility not authority, and gentleness not power… The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.”  John Stott

6. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”   John C. Maxwell

7. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”    Vince Lombardi

8. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it...  I never failed, I just learned 10,000 ways that won't work.”   Henry Ford

9. “According to Scripture, virtually everything that truly qualifies a person for leadership is directly related to character.  It’s not about style, status, personal charisma, clout, or worldly measurements of success. Integrity is the main issue that makes the difference between a good leader and a bad one.”   John MacArthur

10. “Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it.”   Unknown

11. “True greatness, true leadership, is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you.”   J. Oswald Sanders

12. "My research debunks the myth that many people seem to have… that you become a leader by fighting your way to the top. Rather, you become a leader by helping others to the top.  Helping your employees is as important as, and many times more so than, trying to get the most work out of them."   William Cohen

13. "The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one's capacity to lead is severely limited."    Robert Greenleaf

14. “The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.”   Sheryl Sandberg

15. "We must be silent before we can listen.  We must listen before we can learn.  We must learn before we can prepare.  We must prepare before we can serve.  We must serve before we can lead."   William Arthur Ward

16. “To change your life, you have to admit what’s not working. You have to humble yourself. You have to ask for help. You have to learn... Your ego will defend your current circumstances, but you cannot allow a fleeting feeling of shame to eclipse reason. You cannot live the rest of your life as you are just because you are too prideful to admit something isn’t right.”   Brianna Wiest

17. “If your objective is to be as good as you can be, then you’re going to want criticism.”  Ray Dalio

18. "If leadership serves only the leader, it will fail.  Ego satisfaction, financial gain, and status can all be valuable tools for a leader, but if they become the only motivations, they will eventually destroy a leader. Only when service for a common good is the primary purpose are you truly leading."   Sheila Murray Bethel

19. “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go but ought to be.”   Rosalynn Carter

20. "People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care."   John C. Maxwell

21. "When you get to be the president, there are the honors, the 21-gun salutes, all those things.  You have to remember it’s not for you.  It’s for the presidency…  It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”    President Harry S. Truman

22. "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."    John Wooden

23. “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.”   Max Lucado

24. "Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain."   Ralph Waldo Emerson

25. "Servant leadership is all about making the goals clear and then rolling your sleeves up and doing whatever it takes to help people win.  In that situation, they don't work for you; you work for them."   Ken Blanchard

     So, what are the key characteristics of good leadership?  Humility, learning to be a follower, the heart of a servant, integrity, character, love, determination, a desire to see others excel, pushing beyond our fears, and many more. They are all virtues that anyone can apply to their lives.  And when we do, we may in some cases find people following our lead -- even when that wasn't our objective.

Living in His Grace, Pastor Jeff