You’re in Good Company

Ever feel poor, needy, guilty, weak, attacked, helpless, sad, and discouraged?

 

Take heart, my friend, you’re in good company!  King David – a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14) – often felt this way.  Listen to how he begins his earnest pleading to Yahweh in Ps. 86:1 –

 

“Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.”

 

Such is the cry of a desperate soul!  As David pours out his longings through this Psalm, he exemplifies the very disposition Peter exhorts in 1 Pet. 5:6-7 –

 

“Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God…casting all your anxieties on him, because He cares for you.” 

 

When in desperate and difficult situations, Peter knew, as David knew, that help comes only from the God who cares!  Thus we’re called to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God’s care.  And such humility is expressed through honest, dependent, expectant prayer.

 

Beloved, when you feel desperate and alone, where do you go for help??  Help comes only from the God who cares for you through Jesus Christ, the God whose steadfast love and faithfulness is great toward you.  He is good, forgiving, merciful, and gracious to all who call on Him!  Take some time to get alone with Him, even praying and reading through Psalm 86.  In so doing, may you know His great help and comfort afresh!

 

Pleading and rejoicing with you,

Greg

Our Sure and Certain Hope

Grieving and groaning are inescapable experiences in this rebellious, broken world.  From terrorist attacks, to painful disappointments, to the deaths of loved ones, the words of Jesus ring true:  “In the world, you will have tribulation.” (Jn. 16:33)  But God’s people can live with the assured peace of what Jesus goes on to say in this text, “take heart, I have overcome the world.”

 

The Holy Spirit, through Paul, elaborates on these truths in Rom. 8:18-39 –

 

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Beloved, may your souls be strengthened through faith in God’s unconquerable love in Christ.  And may you persevere in waiting patiently for the fulfillment of our sure and certain hope.

 

Praying for you, and with you,

Greg

Christ’s Gift

How Jesus Christ cares for His body, His church!  Now exalted at the right hand of our Father in heaven, Jesus has sovereignly and diversely gifted every member of His body.

“But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”  (Eph. 4:7)

As Paul goes on to explain in Eph. 4:8-16 , Christ has done this that His church might be equipped and made mature in His holy love.  All of this is for the ultimate purpose that the church might live more fully to the praise of God’s glorious grace (see Eph. 1:6,12,14 and Eph. 3:20-21).

What this means for every believer is that to love Christ is to love His body!  To serve Christ is to serve His body!  It is love for Christ, and zeal for the Fathers’ glory, that should enflame us to walk worthy with all humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, and diligently preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:1-3).  Obviously, these truths have great implications for our lives together in a local church.

The more we’re gripped with zeal for God’s purposes in Christ, the more we’ll understand and obey His will for us as members of His church.  And the less we’ll be concerned about ourselves and our often self-centered desires, instead pouring ourselves out in love for one another.  Consider this exhortation:

“Let us be done with our little kingdoms as well as the spirit of complacency that does not care if the church is divided or immature.  On the contrary, let us seek out our gifts and ask how we may use them to the building up of Christ’s body.  Christ does not squander His gifts; each one is essential.  He does not withhold his gifts; they are poured out in full measure.  He is not indifferent to how His gifts are used; He has His own wise and lofty purposes in view.”  (James M. Boice, Ephesians:  An Expositional Commentary, pg. 138)

Beloved, what a privilege to share life in Christ together with you.  May God help us to keep walking worthy of His calling, for the glory of His great name!

Greg

Visible Unity

Preserving unity in the church matters because of the eternal unity of God!  This is the heart of Paul’s exhortation and explanation in Eph. 4:1-6.

 

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

 

God designs for every believer to have a deepening sense of our identity as members of His one body, the church.  He likewise designs for every believer to actively fulfill our responsibility in making His unity visible in our relationships with one another.  New Testament scholar Peter T. O’Brien, in his excellent Commentary on Ephesians, captures the significance of God’s purpose for His people:

 

“Ultimately, the unity and reconciliation that have been won through Christ’s death (Eph. 2:14-18) are part and parcel of God’s intention of bringing all things together into unity in Christ (Eph. 1:9-10).  Since the church has been designed by God to be the masterpiece of his goodness and the pattern on which the reconciled universe of the future will be modeled, believers are expected to live in a manner consistent with this divine purpose.  To keep this unity must mean to maintain it visibly.  If the unity of the Spirit is real, it must be transparently evident, and believers have a responsibility before God to make sure that this is so.  To live in a manner which mars the unity of the Spirit is to do despite (hate, spite, insult) to the gracious reconciling work of Christ.  It is tantamount to saying that his sacrificial death by which relationships with God and others have been restored, along with the resulting freedom of access to the Father, are of no real consequence to us!”  (O’Brien, pg. 279-280)

 

Beloved, let’s keep walking in holy love with one another, as those for whom all of God’s redeeming purposes in Christ have great consequence!

 

Praying with you, and for you, to this end,

Greg

One Sovereign Voice

The words of mankind never seem to cease.  Whether in print, through social media, over the airwaves, on a podcast, or live and in person, EVERYONE’S got something to say about EVERYTHING.  And my oh my, how the voices intensify during an election year!

 

Thank God for the wonderful gift of communication, and the many venues through which our voices can be heard.  But never forget that over and above every voice, there is ONE UNCHANGING VOICE that silences all others; ONE SOVEREIGN VOICE that commands the worship of all.

 

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

  Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;

worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

  The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

the God of glory thunders,

the Lord, over many waters.

  The voice of the Lord is powerful;

the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

  The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;

the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.

  He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,

and Sirion like a young wild ox.

  The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.

  The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;

the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

  The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth

and strips the forests bare,

and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

10  The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.

11  May the Lord give strength to his people!

May the Lord bless his people with peace!

 

Amen!  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.