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

Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory

Greetings All,

     Yesterday I received a book in the mail sent to me by a wise old friend. As one who loves to climb mountains, the title captured my attention when I opened the package: "Canoeing the Mountains," by Tod Bolsinger. Yet, the secondary title clued me into the fact that it probably was not what I initially thought - "Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory."

     As I read the first chapter I felt like the author had been a fly on the wall in many of my conversations in recent years!  He even mouthed some of the exact phrases I had used!  So, today, I let you in on an issue that has been weighing on me (and many others in ministry) for at least the past decade or longer - trying to minister in a post-Christian (often anti-Christian) culture.  This selection below is just to give you a taste of what he will address in the rest of his book -- offering hope for a breakthrough where many seem to have run into what FEELS like an impenetrable wall we were not trained or equipped to break through. Enjoy.

     "One night after a long day of meetings, an older pastor let out a heavy sigh. He was nearing retirement, and we were working together on a project that was supposed to reorganize our entire denomination in order to help our church better minister in a changing world. And that changing world weighed on him.  He remembered well how not that long ago life was different. He stirred his drink and said to me, 'You know, when I began my ministry in a church in Alabama, I never worried about church growth or worship attendance or evangelism. Back then, if a man didn't come to church on Sunday, his boss asked him about it at work on Monday.'

     Sociologists and theologians refer to this recently passed period as 'Christendom.' The seventeen-hundred-year-long era with Christianity at the privileged center of western cultural life. Christendom gave us 'blue laws' and the Ten Commandments in school [and prayer in schools]. It gave us 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance and exhortations to Bible reading in the national newspapers. (I have a copy of the Los Angeles Times from December 1963 that has stories on the Warren Commission (investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy), the nine-thousand-member Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and a list of daily Bible readings for the upcoming week.  Can you even imagine the Los Angeles Times exhorting people to read their Bibles today?) It was the day every "city father" laid out the town square with the courthouse, the library, and a First Church of _______ within the center of the city.  For most of us these days are long gone. (For some of us, that is good news indeed. Did you notice the reference to 'man' in my friends statement?)

     In our day (unlike then) cities are now considering using eminent domain laws to replace churches with tax-revenue generating big-box stores, Sundays are more about soccer and Starbucks than about Sabbath, Christian student groups are getting derecognized on university campuses, the fastest growing religious affiliation among young adults is 'none,' there is no moral consensus built on Christian tradition (even among Christians), and even a funeral in a conservative beach town is more likely to be a Hawaiian style 'paddle out' than a gathering in a sanctuary.  As we see all this we know that Christendom as a marker of society has passed.

     Over the last ten years I have had one church leader after another whisper to me the same frustrated confession: 'Seminary didn't prepare me for this. I don't know if I can do it. I just don't know...'  A number of pastors are ready to throw in the towel. Studies show that if given the chance to do something else, most pastors would jump at it. Reportedly, upwards of fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry EVERY MONTH  [Every year more than 4000 churches in the U.S. close their doors, almost double the number from 20 years ago.] 

     A couple years ago I learned that three of my pastor friends around the country had resigned  -- on the same day. There were no affairs, no scandals, and no one was renouncing the faith. But three good, experienced pastors turned in resignations and walked away. One left church ministry altogether.  The details are as different as the pastors themselves, but the common thread is that they finally got worn down by trying to bring change to a church that was stuck and didn't know what to do. Their churches were stuck and declining, stuck and clinging to the past, stuck and lurching to quick fixes, trying to find an easy answer for what were clearly bigger challenges. What all three churches had in common was that they were mostly blaming the pastor for how bad it felt to be stuck.

'If only you could preach better.' 

'If only you were more pastoral and caring.' 

'If only our worship was more dynamic.' 

'Please, pastor, do something!'  (That is what we pay you for, isn't it?)

     And to make matters worse, the pastors don't know what to do either. As a seminary vice-president I am now charged with confronting this reality head-on. Our graduates were not trained for this day. When I went to seminary, we were trained in the skills that were necessary for supporting faith in Christendom.  When churches functioned primarily as vendors of religious services for a Christian culture, the primary leadership toolbox was:  1. TEACHING (for providing Christian education).  2. LITURGICS (for leading Christian services).  3. PASTORAL CARE (for offering Christian counsel and support).  In this changing world we need to add a new set of leadership tools..." 

     If you would like to know what those new and necessary tools are, you will need to purchase his book for yourself!  As a pastor who has lived long enough to see Christendom progressively and purposefully deconstructed, and replaced at almost every turn with secularized and post-Christian alternatives, it has been stretching.  I'm not one of the pastoral casualties he lists, but in all honesty there have been times I have come pretty close. In fact, given those statistics it may be time to start a "pastor support group" for those who feel they are on the verge of being one of those 1500 pastors every month who leave the ministry.

     I haven't had time to read far into his book, but I wanted to share the introductory chapter so people can know there is a voice of encouragement from someone who has his ear to the ground, and has himself been a pastor ministering in our post-Christian culture.   A culture where traditional styles of leadership and ministry (which garnered much fruit in the not-so-distant past) can actually be a hindrance and obstacle in the present. His word to pastors - "Start with conviction, stay calm, stay connected, and stay the course - even when navigating loss."

     Ministry has always required people to, "run the race with perseverance"  (Hebrews 12:1-2).  Yet today is one of those cultural seasons or times when like a runner in a marathon on a hot and humid day, people in ministry are encountering what in the Boston Marathon is called, "Heartbreak Hill" -- a long gradual incline at the 20 mile mark.  It's a "grueling test of endurance" as one writer puts it, which drives many to give up before the finish line.  A place where one must be mentally prepared, make adjustments, and persevere, or become a casualty.  If you happen to be at that place, maybe you might want to see what Bolsinger has to say.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Spiritual Renewal

Greetings!

     This week's "thought" is about spiritual renewal.  Its about the power and presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our lives.  It comes to you from Jim Cymbala's book, "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire."  Cymbala has been the pastor of the large multi-racial "Brooklyn Tabernacle" since 1971, a church which had only 30 when he arrived that year, but now has over 16,000 members -- which is not, as this thought will show, what he really cares about.

     The Brooklyn Tabernacle is a church which has, by God's grace, broken down many racial and economic barriers, offering in the present a small taste of the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, inclusive body of Christ, where believers of every tribe and tongue, rich and poor alike, will one day gather side by side before the throne of God (Rev. 7:9).  Part instruction, part biographical, his book is well-worth the read if you have the time. Enjoy.

     "Are we not all prone to be a little cocky and think we can handle things just fine?  But let some trouble come, and how quickly we sense our inadequacy. Trouble is one of God's great servants because it reminds us how much we continuously need the Lord. Otherwise, we tend to forget about entreating him. For some reason we want to carry on by ourselves.  The history of past revivals portray this truth in full color. Whether you study the First Great Awakening, the Welsh Revival, the 1906 outpouring on Azuza Street in Los Angeles, or any other period of revival, you always find men and women who first inwardly groan, longing to see the status quo changed -- in themselves and in their churches. They begin to call upon God with insistence. Prayer begets revival and revival begets more prayer.  It's like Psalm 80, where Asaph bemoans the sad state of his time, the broken walls, the rampaging animals, the burnt vineyards. Then in verse 18 he pleads, "Revive us, and we will call upon your name." 

     The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer.  Only when we are full of the Spirit do we feel the need for God everywhere we turn. We can be driving a car, and spontaneously our spirit starts going up to God with needs and petitions and intercessions right there in the middle of traffic. [Eyes open of course!]  If our churches don't pray, and if people don't have an appetite for God, what does it matter how many are attending the services?  How would that impress God? Can you imagine the angels saying, "Oh, your pews! We can't believe how beautiful they are! Up here in heaven, we've been talking about them for years. Your sanctuary lighting -- it's so clever. The way you have the steps going up to the pulpit, it's wonderful..." 

     I don't think so.   If we don't want to experience God's closeness here on earth, why would we want to go to heaven anyway?  He is the center of everything there. If we don't enjoy being in his presence here and now, then heaven would not be heaven for us. Why would he send anyone there who doesn't long for him passionately here on earth?  I am not suggesting that we are justified by works of prayer or any other acts of devotion. I am not a legalist. But let us not dodge the issue of what heaven will be like --  enjoying the presence of God, taking time to adore him, listening to him, giving him praise. I have talked with pastor after pastor, some of them prominent and "successful" who have told me privately, "Jim, the truth is, I couldn't have a real prayer meeting in my church. I'd be embarrassed at the smallness of the crowd. Unless somebody's teaching, or singing, or doing some kind of presentation, people just won't come. I can only get them for a one-hour service, and that only once a week." 

     Is that kind of religion found anywhere in the Bible?  [Gathering to go to] Jesus himself can't draw a crowd even among his own people!  What a tragedy that the quality of ministry is too often measured by numbers and building size rather than by spiritual results. As a preacher myself, let me be blunt here. When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ, he is not going to ask me if I was a clever orator. He is not going to ask me how many books I wrote. He is only going to ask whether I continued in the line of men and women, starting way back in the time of Adam's generation, who led others to call upon God." 

     Cymbala is right.  God is not impressed by numbers, attendance figures, technology, marketing skills, architecture, stage presentation, etc.   Rather, what God wants is people who want him.  He wants people who want to spend prayerful time with Him in His presence.  He seeks people who yearn to seek Him (Jeremiah 29:13). He wants us to trust in Him and live a life of dependence on Him (II Corinthians 1:9). He wants us to realize what Jesus said so clearly in John 15:5 in the context of bearing spiritual fruit -- "I am the Vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."   That's what the Christian life is about:  Remaining in Jesus all the time. Abiding in Christ every conscious moment.  Being joined to Him unbroken fellowship.  Dwelling in intimate fellowship in His presence.  Bringing every thought captive to Christ (II Corinthians 10:5).  Communing with Him in ongoing prayer (I Thessalonians 5:16-18). Trusting Him with all our hearts (Proverbs 3:5-6). Living a life of reliance, surrender and dependence (II Corinthians 1:8-10).  If people are not led to call upon God, and seek His face in loving fellowship, earnestly seeking to do His will, all that other stuff matters little.  For "success" in the eyes of the world is much different than success (fruit that God desires) in regard to Christ's Kingdom.

May We Be Moved to Pray and Pursue Him More Passionately, 

Pastor Jeff

Pioneer Missionary Adoniram Judson

Greetings All!

     After a week in Costa Rica I am back to sending out the weekly thought!  And being in that foreign context led me to choose sending out this encouraging account regarding a missionary who struggled for many years in a foreign context before seeing any fruit whatsoever. I trust that you (especially if you are active in sharing the faith) will be encouraged by it.  It comes to you from "The One Year Book of Christian History" by Michael and Sharon Rusten.  Enjoy.

     
     "Pioneer missionary Adoniram Judson graduated from Brown University as valedictorian at the age of nineteen, and in 1810 graduated in the first class of Andover Theological Seminary.  After much prayer, he and his wife (Ann Hasseltine) sailed from the docks in Salem, Massachusetts, to the predominantly Buddhist country of Burma (now Myanmar), arriving in 1813.  Shortly thereafter he was joined by two other missionaries. However, after six years of labor not one Burmese had trusted in Christ.

     Then on June 6, 1819, Judson received a letter from Moung Nau, a Burmese man who had shown great interest in the gospel but up to this point had not acted on it.  The letter read:  "I Moung Nau, the constant recipient of your excellent favor, approach your feet. Whereas my Lord's three (ie: Judon and the other two missionaries) come to the country of Burma -- not for the purposes of trade, but to preach the religion of Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternal God -- I, having heard and understood, am, with a joyful mind, filled with love. I believe that the divine Son, Jesus Christ, suffered death in the place of men, to atone for their sins. Like a heavy-laden man, I feel my sins are very many. The punishment of my sins I deserve to suffer. Since it is so, do you, sirs, consider that I, taking refuge in the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, and receiving baptism, in order to become his disciple, shall dwell as one with yourselves, a band of brothers, in the happiness of heaven, and therefore grant me the ordinance of baptism. It is through the grace of Jesus Christ that you, sirs, have come by ship from one country and continent to another and that we have met together. I pray the Lord's three that a suitable day may be appointed, and that I may receive the ordinance of baptism. Moreover, as it is only since I have met with you, sirs, that I have known about the eternal God, I venture to pray that you will still unfold to me the religion of God, that my old disposition may be destroyed, and my new disposition improved."

     Three weeks later Moung Nau was baptized, and the barrier of unbelief was broken. What enabled Adoniram Judson to faithfully labor so many years before seeing any fruit from his labors? We can see evidence of his motivation in the following lines, which he penciled on the inner cover of a book he used in his translation of the Bible into Burmese:

     "In joy or in pain,
     Our course be onward still;
     We sow on Burma's barren plain;
     We reap on Zion's hill."

     After thirty-seven years as a missionary in Burma, Judson could look back not only on good times, but also on extremely difficult times. He was imprisoned for 20 months between 1824-1826. The sufferings and brutalities of those 20 long months in prison -- half-starved, iron-fettered, and sometimes trussed and suspended by his mangled feet with only head and shoulders touching the ground -- are described in detail by his wife, who passed away shortly afterward from illness in 1826.  From the time he landed Judson struggled against persecution, disease, and the sadness and discouragement caused by the death.  He not only lost his wife Ann to death, but two of the children he had with her -- 7 month old son Roger, and 2 year old daughter Maria, not to mention one that was still-born. After eight years alone, he married his second wife Sarah Hall Boardman and lost three of the children he had with her -- only to lose her to sickness as well.

     Yet at the end of Judson's labors, he could look with satisfaction on a complete Burmese translation of the Scriptures; a Burmese-English dictionary; sixty-three churches among the Burmese and Karens; and best of all, seven thousand Burmese Christians.  Today there are more than two million believers in Myanmar, and 40 percent of the Karen people to whom Judson directed his ministry are now Christians."

     Judson's belief was that nothing enduring comes without sacrifice. Ann was of the same mindset, and her story of faithfulness and perseverance is also well worth reading.  It is hard for many to imagine what makes a people give up and sacrifice so much. Jim Elliot (who lost his life reaching out to the Auca Indian Tribe in the jungles of Ecuador probably summed it up best when he wrote in his diary (addressing those who asked why one would give up so much to go reach a small group of people): "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

     What would you be willing to lose for the sake of Christ, His church, and those who have never heard?

     If you would like to read more about the amazing life of Adoniram Judson, the book "To the Golden Shore - The Life of Adoniram Judson" is superb, and there is a free ebook "Adoniram Judson Biography"   Download eBook as a PDF file.    Download eBook as an EPUB file formatted for readers like the Nook, Sony Reader, and Apple iBooks (iPad, iPhone, iPod)  Download eBook as a MOBI file formatted for Kindle applications (this option works well on some mobile devices, and not so well on others).

     Prayer note: Between 2001 and 2004 up to 200,000 Karen people were driven from their homes due to war, with 160,000 more refugees, mostly Karen, living in refugee camps over the border of Thailand. The largest camp was the one in Mae La, Tak province, Thailand, where about 50,000 Karen refugees are hosted.  As recently as February 2010, the Burmese army continued to burn Karen villages, displacing thousands of people.   A 2005 New York Times article on a report by Guy Horton into depredations by the Myanmar Army against the Karen and other groups in eastern Myanmar stated: "Using victims' statements, photographs, maps and film... he purports to have documented slave labor, systematic rape, the conscription of child soldiers, massacres and the deliberate destruction of villages, food sources and medical services."  Many of the refugees form that attempted genocide were brought to the United States and settled in Nebraska, central New York, Pennsylvania and California.  Pray for their adjustments, faith, and the painful memories of atrocities like those mentioned above.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Service to God and Others

Greetings All,

Today's "thought" speaks of spiritual disciplines. Yes, spiritual disciplines!  Those activities we train ourselves to do to grow spiritually.  Yet this message is not always popular.  In an age of comfort and ease, even people in the church often see spiritual disciplines as "legalistic," often thinking (or suggesting) that somehow growth just happens without any effort or self-discipline on our part. Something they  will state even though Paul tells us in Galatians 5:23 that self-discipline is a Fruit of the Spirit.  It's one of the traits of character that God's Spirit (if that Spirit dwells within us) works to produce and grow in us over time as an expression of godliness.

     
     So, today, I will let Donald Whitney speak on this topic from his excellent book entitled: "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life."  For those whose hearts have been reoriented by God to desire godliness, this book is very helpful. For he shows us that spiritual disciplines are not contrary to grace, but flow out of the grace God gives. They don't earn us merits with God, they evidence that God has changed our affections so that we desire the things He wants for us.  They show us that God is within us moving us to engage in those activities that will bring growth in godliness. This selection has to do with the Spiritual Discipline called Service to God and Others.  Enjoy.

     "Discipline without direction is drudgery... It is said of God's elect in Romans 8:29: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son." God's eternal plan ensures that every Christian will ultimately conform to Christ-likeness.  We will be changed "when he appears" so that "we shall be like him" (I John 3:2). This is no vision. This is you, Christian, in a few years. So why all this talk about discipline? If God has predestined our conformity to Christ-likeness, where does the discipline come in?  Although God will grant us Christ-likeness when Jesus returns, until then He intends for us to grow toward that Christ-likeness.  We aren't merely to wait for holiness, we're to pursue it.  "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy," we're commanded in Hebrews 12:14, "for without holiness no one will see the Lord."  Which leads us to ask what every Christian should ask, "How then shall we pursue holiness? How can we be like Jesus Christ, the Son of God?"  We find the clear answer in I Timothy 4:7: "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness."

     ...There is little value in practicing Spiritual Disciplines apart from the single purpose that unites them (Colossians 2:20-23, I Timothy 4:8). That purpose is godliness... The Spiritual Disciplines are the God-given means we are to use in the Spirit-filled pursuit of Godliness. Godly people are disciplined people.  It has always been so. Call to mind some heroes of church history -- St. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Bunyan, Susanna Wesley, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Lady Huntingdon, Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, George Mueller -- they we all disciplined people.  Godliness comes through discipline.  We avail ourselves of the Spiritual Disciplines because they help grow us in Christ-likeness.

THE DISCIPLINE OF SERVING

     The Pony Express was a private express company that carried mail by an organized relay of horseback riders. The eastern end was in St. Joseph, Missouri, and western terminal was in Sacramento, California.  The cost of sending a letter by Pony Express was $2.50 an ounce.  If the weather and horses held out, and the Indians held off, that letter would complete the entire two-thousand-mile journey in a speedy ten days, as did the report of Lincoln's Inaugural Address.... Being a rider for the Pony Express was a tough job. You were expected to ride seventy-five to one hundred miles a day, changing horses every fifteen to twenty-five miles. Other than the mail, the only baggage you carried contained a few meager provisions... In case of danger, you also had a medical pack... In order to travel light and to increase speed of speed of mobility during Indian attacks, the men always rode with nothing but shirts, even during the fierce winter weather.  How would you recruit volunteers for this hazardous job?  An 1860 San Francisco newspaper printed this ad for the Pony Express: "WANTED: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk daily. Orphans preferred."  Those were the honest facts of the service required, but the Pony Express NEVER had a shortage of riders [even though 20 employees lost their lives in the year and a half it was in existence until the telegraph wires replaced the need for riders].

     We also need to be honest with the facts about serving God.  Like the Pony Express, serving God is not a job for the casually interested. It's costly service. He asks for your life. He asks for service to Him to become a priority, not a pastime. He doesn't want servants who will give Him the leftovers of their life commitments. Serving God isn't a short-term responsibility either. Unlike the Pony Express, His kingdom will never go under, no matter how technological our world gets.  The mental picture we have of the Pony Express is probably much like the one imagined by the young men of 1860 who read that newspaper ad.  Scenes of excitement, camaraderie, and the thrill of adventure filled their heads as they swaggered over to the Express office to apply. Yet few of them envisioned how that excitement would only occasionally punctuate the routine of the long, hard hours and the loneliness of the work.

     The discipline of serving is like that. Although Christ's summons to service is the most spiritually grand and noble way to live a life, it is typically as pedestrian as washing someone's feet. Richard Foster puts it starkly: "In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus' call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the Gospel, rather than His word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service we are also banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial." The ministry of serving may be as public as preaching or teaching, but more often it will be as sequestered as nursery duty. It may be as visible as singing a solo, but usually it will be as unnoticed as operating the sound equipment to amplify the solo. Serving may be as appreciated as a good testimony in the worship service, but typically it is as thankless as washing dishes after a church social. Most service, even that which seems the most glamorous, is like an iceberg. Only the eye of God sees the larger hidden part of it.

     Beyond the church walls, serving is baby-sitting for neighbors, taking meals to families in flux, running errands for the home-bound, providing transportation for the one whose car breaks down, feeding pets and watering plants for vacationers, and -- hardest of all -- having a servants heart in the home. Serving is as commonplace as the practical needs it meets. That's why serving must become a spiritual discipline. The flesh connives against hiddenness and sameness. Two of the deadliest of our sins -- sloth and pride -- loathe serving. The paint glazes over our eyes and puts chains on our hands and feet so we don't serve as we know we should or even want to.  If we don't discipline ourselves to serve for the sake of Christ and His kingdom (and for the purpose of Godliness), we'll serve only occasionally, or when it's convenient or self-serving...  However, those who want to train themselves for Christlike spirituality will find it one of the surest and most practical means of growth in grace."

     Tom Landry (former coach of the Dallas Cowboys for most of three decades) put it well when he said: "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they always wanted to be."  That's true for us as Christians as well.  "Christians are called to do things they would naturally not be prone to do -- pursue spiritual disciplines -- in order that they might become what they've always wanted to be, that is, like Jesus Christ" (Whitney).  A mentor once told me (and I now have it taped to the wall in my house): "Character is making yourself do what you don't want to do because you know it will be good for you."  This can't happen without the fruit of the Spirit we call self-discipline. In an age that tends toward undisciplined living, his words go against the grain. Yet they are totally in line with the teaching of the New Testament (I Corinthians 9:23-27).  Self-discipline is a primary part in the pursuit of godliness.

In the Service of Christ, Pastor Jeff

Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God

Greetings All,

     This "thought" comes from a man to whom I owe a deep debt of gratitude. He is one of my former professors at Gordon-Conwell and his "Life of Jesus" class still ranks as one of the best and most inspiring courses I've ever taken.
     To this day I still remember when he shared the anti-intellectual paradigm used in the Pentecostal church he was raised in: "I'd rather be a heart on fire (for God) than a mind on ice."  Yet as one who desired to pursue a PHd in biblical studies he had come to believe there was third alternative. That it was indeed possible to be, "A mind on fire for God," since we are called to love God "with all our mind."
     His booklet "The Disease of the Health and Wealth Gospel," (a mere 20-25 page booklet which critiques the obvious flaws of that movement) is well worth the read, and also had a formative effect on my theology.  Thus, this thought is in honor of him, Dr. Gordon Fee, and comes from his book, "Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God."  Enjoy!

     "Despite the affirmations in our creeds and hymns and the lip service paid to the Spirit in our occasional conversations, the Spirit has been marginalized both in the halls of learning and in the life of the church as a community of faith.

     I do not mean that the Holy Spirit is not present; he is indeed, or we are not of Christ at all. But the primary emphasis regarding the Spirit's activity has been on his quiescence [stillness, quietness], based largely on imagery drawn from Elijah's encounter with God on Sinai, where the Lord was not in the wind, earthquake, and fire, but came to Elijah "in a still small voice" (I Kings 19:11-13).  Support for this view is then found in the New Testament by emphasizing Paul's "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-23), while suggesting that the "gifts of the Spirit" in I Corinthians 12-14 were for the apostolic period only.

     Quiescence, however, has sometimes fostered anemia, not only in the church corporately, but also at the individual level, evidenced in part by the myriad of ways individual believers have longed for a greater sense of God's presence in their lives.

     This common "missing out" on the Spirit as an experienced, empowering reality has frequently been "corrected" historically through a variety of Spirit movements -- most recently in this century in the form of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.  Emphasis there has been on the "wind, earthquake and fire," and the primary texts are from Acts and I Corinthians 12-14.

       These Spirit movements have also tended to emphasize individualistic spirituality, so that the reality of the Spirit is sometimes merely experienced in the experience. Such piety frequently lacked sound biblical and exegetical basis or betrayed inadequate theological reflection.

   The net result has tended toward a truncated view of the Spirit on both sides, accompanied by an inadequate view of the role of the Spirit in Paul's understanding of things Christian. For Paul life in the Spirit meant embracing both fruit and gifts simultaneously -- what I have come to call life in the radical middle. The Spirit as an experienced and empowering reality was for Paul and his churches the key player in all of Christian life, from beginning to end. The Spirit covered the whole waterfront: power for life, growth, fruit, gifts, prayer, witness, and everything else.

   But if the empowering, experienced dimension of life in the Spirit is often missed on the one side, too often missing on both sides are two further matters that, for Paul, lie at the very heart of faith.  First, the Spirit as person, the promised return of God's own personal presence with his people; and second, the Spirit as eschatological fulfillment, who both reconstitutes God's people anew and empowers us to live the life of the future in our between-the-times existence -- between the time of Christ's first and second coming.

     If the church is going to be effective in our postmodern world, we need to stop paying mere lip service to the Spirit and to recapture Paul's perspective: The Spirit as the experienced, empowering return of God's own personal presence in and among us, who enables us to live as a radically eschatological people in the present world while we await the consummation (of the Kingdom). All the rest, including the fruit and gifts (that is, ethical life and charismatic utterances in worship) serve to that end." 

     For those who do not know what the word "eschatological" means, it essentially means "having to do with time." As believers in Jesus we are experiencing in the PRESENT, a degree of the blessings we will experience in full in FUTURE, when Jesus returns to consummate the kingdom He inaugurated at His first coming.
     Through Jesus and the Gospel, God is giving us a "foretaste" of the some of the blessings of the eternal state. In Christ, and through the influences of the Holy Spirit, God has already brought some of those FUTURE blessings (justification, healing, pardon, joy, eternal life...) into the PRESENT.

        Picture God sending the Spirit into the future age, where he takes an "armful" of the blessings promised to the saved in eternity, and brings some of those blessings (not all) back into the now, and lets us experience a taste of them in the present.

     That (though inadequate to fully explain it!) gives you an idea of what the concept "eschatological" (having to do with time) means in relation to the kingdom, the Spirit, and the Christian faith.

     And obviously, if we are to walk in step with the Spirit and emphasize His part in God's glorious work of redemption, just as the apostles did, we need to do as Fee suggests and,  "recapture Paul's perspective: The Spirit as the experienced, empowering return of God's own personal presence in and among us, who enables us to live as a radically eschatological people in the present world while we await the consummation (of the Kingdom)."

Hoping this will simply perk your interest to look at the two books mentioned above!  Pastor Jeff