“We mortify pride and cultivate humility by identifying evidences of grace in those around us—evidences that we become aware of only through a divine perspective that recognizes God’s active work and calling in their lives and that places full confidence in His faithfulness to complete the work He has begun.”

More than half a year ago I set out on a mission to identify evidences of grace in fellow brothers and sisters in Christ at Crystal Valley Baptist Church.  Today, I felt stirred to return to this project with a purpose to continue.

Moving alphabetically through our church directory, I remember stopping in the “S” section.  I want to make clear that my reason for stopping months ago has less to do with my inability to identify grace in my next group of members and more to do with my lack of discipline to continue writing.  So, I do apologize if it made anyone jump to any unnecessary conclusions.

It is also worth mentioning that a number of changes have occurred in our church family since I was last able to contribute to this series.  Lord willing, I hope to eventually backtrack and to share with you some of the fruits of grace that I have seen in many of our newest members.

I regret I stopped short in my last post to mention Sharon S..  Since the first day I started attending the church, Sharon has been there to teach me how to apply Psalm 105:2, “Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!”  Keep in mind, though, that the fruit I am referring to in Sharon goes beyond the musical gifts and talents that she possesses and displays on Sunday Mornings.   Rather, I point you to the fruit which encompasses her gift of expression to convey her true affections to the Lord as she sings, as well as to beautifully articulate the praises of her heart in new lyrics and hymns which she has often committed to write and share with the congregation.

I will never forget one of the statements that Elmer S. made to the pastors during our membership interview with him in 2011.  In answering a penetrating question about the condition of his life prior to coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord, Elmer responded, “I’ve left all of [those sins] in the past because that’s what [the Gospel] is all about.”  What a testimony!  What a theology!  In my personal estimate, Elmer is a fine example of a man who lives and loves the sanctifying basics of Christianity.

Then there’s our brother, Zach W.  Two words come to mind when I think of Zach—“Dedication” and “Meditation.”  If you haven’t noticed, Zach takes seriously his day job and labors hard to fulfill his commitments to his employers and his students.  Such dedication speaks volumes to his discipline as a man and as a provider.  Further, I’ve noticed that Zach’s attention to work robs him little of his attention to Christ.  Keeping an eye of his Facebook activity, I’ve been impressed by his discipline of meditation.  What is the substance of Zach’s public thoughts?   Scripture—Theology—Scripture—Theology—Scripture—Theology.  Thank you, Zach, for staying focused consistently on Jesus.

Please stay tuned.  More to come.

Whether up close, or from a distance, I’ve seen cancer my whole life. This past year, however, I have seen two responses to its destructive work in the human condition.  One man triumphed over it to the end; displaying the sanctifying work for which God used the cancer, and eventually rode it to meet his Savior. The second man, determined to persevere in his hatred of the Creator, used cancer as a megaphone for his blasphemy.

There is no “how-to” book for dying, but I suppose that one is expected to die the way he lived. Isn’t that why men throughout time- from the apostle Paul to Randy Pausch, have used their final breaths to teach people about life rather than death? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of death-bed conversions. How gracious is our God that He would save someone who spent 99.99999% of their life in defiance to Him, and never had the chance to do any kind of good work to prove that it was real? However, I also recognize that for most people death will simply magnify who they really were. For Christopher Hitchens that meant cursing his Creator moments before he was judged by Him. For Steve Lane it meant trusting the Lord to continue to do good to him, even as he feared the unknown.

As I watched Steve’s condition digress, I wondered how Paul could say that death has lost its sting (1 Cor. 15:54-55) when it clearly seemed to weigh so heavily on my good friend Steve, on his family, and on his church who didn’t want to lose him. However, when I read Paul’s logic, it made more sense: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:56). This means that the heaviest weight that death could bring had been lifted off of Steve’s back. Sure, cancer did its worst to him- even taking away his privilege to breathe on his own- but it couldn’t separate him from the redeeming love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:38-39). Cancer (or death) was for Steve a fangless viper gnawing at him with every intention of destruction, but no ability.

Personally, I liked Christopher Hitchens. Though he represented a “new” vigorous atheism, he did his best to be honest and consistent in his beliefs. To some extent, one might say it was a gift to the world when cancer took his ability to speak, as he was one of the most brilliant writers of our time. However, we must be honest in saying that, for Mr. Hitchens, the sting of death was all too real. Perseverance- which is a virtue for those in Christ- was for him the result of a stony heart. He suffered the fangs of death refusing to merely “look and live” (Isa. 45:22). I certainly hope that Christ graciously saved him before he exhaled for the last time, but I doubt we will ever know (this side of heaven) because he has worked so tirelessly to prevent the spread of any conversion story.

As a culture, we tend to romanticize death with songs like “Candle in the Wind” but there’s nothing romantic about cancer. It won’t stop until it has taken everything, or it is been put down by means that are only somewhat less destructive to the person. Perhaps our gracious God has sovereignly orchestrated the existence and tenacity of cancer to show us the destructiveness of our sin. For Steve, God showed his mercy by destroying the power that sin had in his life- even if He partially did this by using such unspeakable suffering. For Mr. Hitchens, I fear that God will punish him for the full weight of his sin, turning cancer into a good memory by comparison.

1. Are we supporting 1 Timothy 4:16 kind of people?
2. Are we supporting ministry in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth?
3. Are we striking the right balance of word and deed in the ministries we support?
4. Are we giving priority to long-term missionaries?

View Kevin’s full article here.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

Let’s break this down and see some awesome things that God has done.  First, God has granted to us (who deserved Hell) everything that pertains to life and godliness.  What kind of life? The meaning here is not just to people who are bologically alive – but who are truly alive, physically and spiritually. Remember that Jesus says that he is the way, truth and life.  So God has, by his divine power, granted to us all things that pertain to life.  Anything that it takes for us to have life, he gave us.  What does that entail?  We cannot have life if we do not have faith.  So God gave us faith.  We cannot have life without obedience (remember, faith without works is dead) so God gave us a faith that enables obedience. 

The overall picutre here is this: every single thing that we lacked to please God and to be holy and to live a godly life has been given to us by God in his divine power.  So, how can someone say, “I am saved because I did X”.  They cannnot says this. 

Well, they might say it but it isn’t true. 

We are not Christians because of something we did – but because something happened to us.

If someone says, “Yes, God has given, by his divine power, all that we need but he only does so for those who ask”, this person fails to understand the entirety of the verse!  We need to have given to us the ability/desire/motivation even to ask God for salvation. No one has ever begged for something that he didn’t want.  How is it that this man has come to want these things from God?  The verse answers the question, namely, that God has, by his divine power, granted to us all things for life and godliness!

That sentence leaves nothing out.  We are fully and completely saved by his divine power.  Notice how this matches with Romans 1 where Paul tells us that he is not ashamed of the gospel for it is the “power of God for salvation for everyone that believes”.  If you believe, you believe because of someone else’s power.  If you are saved, it is becuase of someone else’s righteouness.  If you are holy, it is because of someone else’s holiness.

     This past Sunday we sang of one of the great miracles of Jesus, the calming of the storm. Let’s imagine the scene.  The twelve wake up Jesus, almost perturbed that he can sleep with such a storm going on all about them and say to him, ‘Master, we perish!’ (Or, maybe in our parlance, ‘Hey, were sinking here!) Can you imagine the look on their faces as he shouted directions at the storm?  I don’t know what they expected Jesus to do.  Maybe grab a bucket.  But I do know what they did not expect him to do, namely, give commands to the storm. 

     What might have been going on in their heads when he started shouting?  Again, in your minds eye, Jesus wakes up, stands up, as starts giving orders to the storm!  The first thought in the disciples minds may have been, ‘Who is he talking to?’  But then it had to be quickly followed by, ’What is he doing?  Is he crazy? Is he…hey, it stopped raining!’  Now, can you imagine their faces as they realize that he is now looking at them, quiet perturbed, because of their lack of faith?  I even have in my mind that Jesus laid back down and went immediately back to sleep.  And the disciples stood there,  jaw-dropped, in stunned silence until someone managed what all of must ask when confronted with him, ‘who is this?’ 

     Well, I can tell you that this is no Lieutenant Dan, shouting at the storm. He is the Master of the wind.   And here is the truth, the amazing truth that I wanted to share.  All things, be they weather patterns or the great cosmic clockwork of the universe, all things obey his will.

     Do you need rest, like the sea, like the gazelle?  Do you need peace like the wind and the rain?  If you only knew who Jesus was you could reach out to him and say, ‘Master, I perish! But for your saving will, I perish!’  How will Jesus respond to you?  What will Jesus say when you call on him? 

No storm can swallow the ship where lies the Master of ocean and earth and skies!  I can tell you what his response will be.  ‘Peace! Be still.’ He will say this to your soul.  He will calm your raging fear.  He will help your unbelief.  He will scoop you up like a lost sheep and carry you back to his fold. He will receive you like a prodigal son and kill the fatted calf and their will be great rejocing in the Father’s house.

• Creation
• Corruption
• Catastrophe
• Confusion
• Covenant
• Christ
• Cross
• Consummation

From man’s perspective, it might seem as though God is in complete control over the events of Genesis 1 and 2, but loses his grip on things once we get to the third chapter. Of course, I am referring to the event in which Adam and Eve sin against the direct command of God, dragging humanity (which at the time was just them) into the darkness of depravity. As we reflect on God’s sovereign hand over history, I think it would be helpful to put sin in the proper perspective.

Sin is Vertical

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight… (Psalm 51:4a)

These are the words of King David after the terribly sinful events described in 2 Samuel 11-12. After reading the story of David and Bathsheba, one is tempted to say “Are you kidding?!” It could be argued that David sinned against Bathsheba, Uriah, his child, and the entire nation of Israel. That’s true. In one sense we could say that David sinned against all of those people. However, if we don’t start with the Creator, to whom David is accountable for his life, we end up considering sin to be wrong merely on the basis of its negative results.

God is the One who created David (see part 1) and from whom came David’s standard of right and wrong. All that David did was done, first and foremost, in defiance to God. Likewise, when you and I sin, it is not primarily against anyone before it is against God. This means that all sin is, at its essence, idolatry (consider the example of Romans 1:18-32).

Sin is Horizontal

If we simply look at the Ten Commandments we can see a large emphasis on sin against other people as the final six commandments deal with sinning against other people. This is why we can say that, in one sense, David sinned against people as well as against God. This is not a very hard point for us to understand, seeing as how we tend to think of human consequences of sin first; however, it is a point worth making in order to prevent us from swerving into the ditch on the other side of the theological road.

Sin Exists to be Defeated

Now that we have taken a very brief look at the nature of sin, it is important to realize why sin exists. This is not an easy question to answer because every person knows all too well the horror that sin has brought into the world. Whether you are thinking back on someone’s sin against you, your own sinful past, or the evil which, seemingly, prevails in this world, you know that the purpose of sin had better be of great value. I have good news; it is.

While the Bible teaches us that sin is an enemy and to avoid it at all cost, it also teaches that sin is part of God’s purpose of displaying His glory through the gospel. In other words, sin exists to be defeated.

It doesn’t do justice to the biblical teaching on this point to try to summarize it in one verse, but for your sake I will try. After Joseph has lived one of the hardest lives imaginable (described in Genesis 37,39-41) he tells his brothers that their sinful actions were intended by God for good (Genesis 50:20). This didn’t negate the personal responsibility of his brothers before God, but it did show that God uses sin for his purposes.  

As Tim Kinnard has pointed out, sin is the black backdrop against which God displays His beautiful light.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen

My aim in this series of blog posts is to give a summary of how that has worked out. I have borrowed the alliterated outline from Answers in Genesis, but have added some things of my own as well. Here is the outline, followed by part 1 of the series:

• Creation
• Corruption
• Catastrophe
• Confusion
• Covenant
• Christ
• Cross
• Consummation

For me, creation is one of the easiest parts of the gospel story to forget. In fact, for the longest time I left creation out of my evangelism; assuming that my audience knew that they were created by God and, therefore, accountable to Him. However, the Bible doesn’t treat creation as a forgettable piece of trivia. The Scriptures continually remind us that God is creator and use His power in creation to show us His power in salvation.

Creation Implies Purpose

God didn’t create because He was lonely. He didn’t create because He needed servants. He didn’t create so that He could simply watch a play (i.e. history). In fact, God didn’t create because He needed anything (Acts 17:24-25). The reason God created us was for His glory (Isa. 43:1-7; Rom.9:21-23), and that glory is primarily displayed in the person and work of Christ (Col. 1:15-18; Heb. 1:1-3).

Creation Means that God Owns Us

When preaching at the local Juvenile Detention Center, a common question I hear is “what gives God the right to tell me what to do?” It took hearing this several times for me to realize my mistake. I started by telling them about their sin, and proceeded to tell them about the gospel, but I never explained the foundation of being created by a holy God. Learning from this mistake has made a huge difference in my evangelism. Not because the young men and women suddenly believe (it is the Holy Spirit who must do that work, not me), but because they now understand why God commands them to live a certain way and is able to enforce holy consequences when they don’t.

Creation is Used to Show God’s Power to Save

We so often minimize creation as a secondary truth in Scripture. Many people would rather take the story of our beginnings from scientists rather than accept the truths taught in Scripture. However, the Bible uses creation as a foundation for and illustration of our salvation.

The examples are numerous (see Acts 17:26-27, John 3:3, Eph. 2:4-5, 2 Cor. 5:17), but I will provide one here:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Here Paul is describing a dark scene in which Satan has “blinded the minds” of unbelievers so that they won’t see the gospel and embrace it. But the same God who brought light into a dark world has shined light into the hearts of those who would believe so that they would see Christ and put their trust in him.

Creation isn’t just a good place to begin a story; it is the foundation upon which the Bible places the gospel. However, we must also remember to keep creation in its proper place. Creation isn’t the gospel, nor is it greater than the gospel. As Thomas Watson writes:

Greater power is put forth in conversion than in creation. When God made the world, he met with no opposition; as he had nothing to help him, so he had nothing to hinder him; but when he converts a sinner, he meets with opposition. Satan opposes him, and the heart opposes him; a sinner is angry with converting grace. The world was the ‘work of God’s fingers.’ Conversion is the ‘work of God’s arm.’  In the creation, God wrought but one miracle, he spake the word; but, in conversion, he works many miracles; the blind is made to see, the dead is raised, the deaf hears the voice of the Son of God. Oh the infinite power of Jehovah! (A Body of Divinity, “The Power of God”)

The desires of the heart are full of irony. No one has pronounced this truth more clear than Paul, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). Language can’t do justice to this fact, but every Christian (and even some moralistic unbelievers) understands exactly what Paul is saying.

The life God saved us from contains more complex paradoxes than this. The life of an idolater is one of both master and slave. Isaiah 44:16-17 describes this sad truth in almost humorous terms:

Half of [the wood] he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

This makes me want to scream “You formed this piece of wood! It is not your God!” But the irony is that the same material we have mastered, fashioned into the desired mold, is now mastering us. This seems strange in our world. We ask, “What kind of person puts his trust in wooden idols?” All the while watching our hopes and dreams ruined by a failing economy that is increasingly based on worthless paper.

The hope of the gospel, however, is not that we stumble into an idol that can actually save us. That would be salvation through successful ignorance. Rather, the gospel teaches us that the One who created us also gives us the ability to see our own pitiful state. The gospel takes us out of our wanton role of idol maker, and makes us slaves to One who is both able to save us, and is looking out for our good. As Paul summarizes in 2 Corinthians 4:4,6:

The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace,
Stephen

Ezekiel 36:26 says, ‘And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.’  And Acts 16:14, ‘One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.’  And one more from 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, ‘In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ 

Notice what is going on in each of these.  God is doing something.  He is giving a new heart.  He opened Lydia’s heart.  And maybe the most dramatic explanation in Scripture of what God is doing when he saves someone – He shines light in the very core of our being to give the illuminating understanding of God’s glory in the person of Jesus Christ!

Now that’s conversion!  Praise God that He saves us – sheds light in our miserable dungeon and allows us to rise, go forth and follow Him.