Dear brothers and sisters,
Last week Tuesday was a typical day in Christ's kingdom. The Missions Committee, knowing the annual report was due by week's end, gathered Tuesday to resolve one final question: What local mission could we add to this year's Faith Promise? The answer that seemed so simple and obvious was The Fold of Lyndonville, Vermont.
You might remember The Fold. Here's a blurb from their website: "The Fold Family Ministries provides Christ-centered year round residential care for up to 26 troubled teens and their families in crisis. Our slogan is 'Restoring families, one Son and one Daughter at a time.' Since 1967 nearly a thousand at risk teens have turned their lives in a new direction and distraught parents and fractured families have reconciled." Two years ago Paul and Sara Wilmot led a group of about twenty of us on a work project to The Fold. We worked two days on their gardens and landscaping. Since then Jon & Gunilla Kuniholm have become board members and several students came down to TBC giving testimony to God's grace and power through Christ. So last Tuesday the Missions Committee made quick work of our question: The Fold would be on the menu for Faith Promise. I left the meeting and returned to my office. Within twenty minutes the phone rang. It was Jon Kuniholm calling from Lyme, completely oblivious to what had just transpired in the Fellowship Hall with the Missions Team. Why did Jon call? To ask if The Fold finance committee could use TBC as a meeting location this week. I hadn't talked to Jon about The Fold for several months. I was thrilled to say, "Jon, you are not going to believe this, but the Missions Committee was just talking about The Fold." I went on to explain to Jon how the Lord had put The Fold on the Committee's mind in the same hour The Fold was on Jon's mind. The Kingdom advances and we laugh in wonder. May the Lord's mirth and might bring you great joy too!
Yours in Christ, John
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
E-note 5/21: What can Jesus do here?
Dear brothers and sisters,
These past couple of weeks I have been counseling an old distant friend who's grief's have suddenly multiplied. My friend has discovered that his teenage son has been doing drugs: smoking marijuana in the house, stealing prescription medication from his parents, selling and trading pills, and cashing out lunch money for more drugs. It is a tsunami of heartache and frustration flowing into every room of their house and into every hour of their day. Their son's erratic and wild behavior - self destructive, violent, defiant - is tearing at the fabric of every other relationship in the home. My friend's two younger children are growing up in a battlefield. I weep now as write about it. What can Jesus do here?
For starters, my friend desperately needs God as his Father. That's what Jesus can do. And that's what Jesus has done. Through the cross Jesus gave his very own Father in heaven to be my friend's very own Father in heaven. At the cross a slave became a son. My friend can now cry out to God, "Abba, Father" with as much hope and hunger as the Lord Jesus himself did. My friend desperately needs to have a Father in heaven like Jesus' Father - a heavenly Father who takes delight in his sons on earth and hears their prayers. Now my friend can shed the most productive tears of his life just like the Psalmists did, just like Jesus did. My friend is no longer an orphan because of what Jesus did!
My friend is also desperate to know that God is greater than every force known and unknown in this mess. That's what Jesus can do; that's what Jesus has done. Through the cross Jesus delivered my friend into the reign of grace. Though my friend does not deserve anything to go right, God is working everything out for his good because in Christ my friend is beloved of God. That means troubles and trials are not punishment. Jesus received in his heart all the punishment my friend could ever expect from God. Every bad thing is now God's care to deliver my friend from worse things and grow my friend in grace. My friend can not control a river's course, a king's heart, nor a son's folly. But God can, and God is my friend's God. My friend can no longer be bullied by anything because of what Jesus did.
My friend also desperately needs a fellowship of other friends who will champion and cheer him in the ways and wisdom of God. Again, that's what Jesus can do; that's what Jesus has done. Through the cross Jesus has given my friend others friends, friends who will cover his sins with love, who will speak God's truth to him, who will cheer his wise choices, who will have pity on his hardest days. At the cross Jesus showed the church that he is this kind of friend. My friend can now stop worrying about being right, being perfect, being ridiculed, or being ignored. Men and women befriended by Jesus - so full of grace and truth - are now my friend's friends. My friend is no longer in the world without true friends because of what Jesus did.
All of this does, of course, require something from my friend: faith. But Jesus gives that too. I pray my friend will be given the grace to believe all that Jesus has done and can do in his life. Maybe everything Jesus has done and can do for my friend would be powerful enough that his son would want to know Jesus too. Please pray for my friend, he is taking his son to a Christian counselor tomorrow.
Yours in Christ, John
These past couple of weeks I have been counseling an old distant friend who's grief's have suddenly multiplied. My friend has discovered that his teenage son has been doing drugs: smoking marijuana in the house, stealing prescription medication from his parents, selling and trading pills, and cashing out lunch money for more drugs. It is a tsunami of heartache and frustration flowing into every room of their house and into every hour of their day. Their son's erratic and wild behavior - self destructive, violent, defiant - is tearing at the fabric of every other relationship in the home. My friend's two younger children are growing up in a battlefield. I weep now as write about it. What can Jesus do here?
For starters, my friend desperately needs God as his Father. That's what Jesus can do. And that's what Jesus has done. Through the cross Jesus gave his very own Father in heaven to be my friend's very own Father in heaven. At the cross a slave became a son. My friend can now cry out to God, "Abba, Father" with as much hope and hunger as the Lord Jesus himself did. My friend desperately needs to have a Father in heaven like Jesus' Father - a heavenly Father who takes delight in his sons on earth and hears their prayers. Now my friend can shed the most productive tears of his life just like the Psalmists did, just like Jesus did. My friend is no longer an orphan because of what Jesus did!
My friend is also desperate to know that God is greater than every force known and unknown in this mess. That's what Jesus can do; that's what Jesus has done. Through the cross Jesus delivered my friend into the reign of grace. Though my friend does not deserve anything to go right, God is working everything out for his good because in Christ my friend is beloved of God. That means troubles and trials are not punishment. Jesus received in his heart all the punishment my friend could ever expect from God. Every bad thing is now God's care to deliver my friend from worse things and grow my friend in grace. My friend can not control a river's course, a king's heart, nor a son's folly. But God can, and God is my friend's God. My friend can no longer be bullied by anything because of what Jesus did.
My friend also desperately needs a fellowship of other friends who will champion and cheer him in the ways and wisdom of God. Again, that's what Jesus can do; that's what Jesus has done. Through the cross Jesus has given my friend others friends, friends who will cover his sins with love, who will speak God's truth to him, who will cheer his wise choices, who will have pity on his hardest days. At the cross Jesus showed the church that he is this kind of friend. My friend can now stop worrying about being right, being perfect, being ridiculed, or being ignored. Men and women befriended by Jesus - so full of grace and truth - are now my friend's friends. My friend is no longer in the world without true friends because of what Jesus did.
All of this does, of course, require something from my friend: faith. But Jesus gives that too. I pray my friend will be given the grace to believe all that Jesus has done and can do in his life. Maybe everything Jesus has done and can do for my friend would be powerful enough that his son would want to know Jesus too. Please pray for my friend, he is taking his son to a Christian counselor tomorrow.
Yours in Christ, John
Friday, May 15, 2009
E-note 5/15: Love Your Enemies
Dear brothers and sisters,
If you ever doubt that the Gospel is big and expansive and consuming of all your life, just think about your enemies. Wednesday night our Growth Group had one of those unplanned and unplugged discussions about what makes an enemy one's enemy and how the Gospel turns the whole world of enemies and grievances and hurts upside down. Here's the upside down world of the Gospel: "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:20).
Who is the enemy? For the early Christians the enemy would have been the brutish guard pacing outside the prison cell mocking his Christian captives, or the spying neighbor who reported Christian worshipers to imperial authorities. But for everyone, Christians past and present, the enemy is someone who has, or who is, delivering evil upon us. The enemy is not just someone whose mischief we might be unsure of. No, the enemy is a real someone who has undoubtedly delivered a real evil to the doorstep of our very real lives. The enemy the Gospel addresses is not a theoretical enemy who is far off, but a real enemy close enough to serve with food and drink. That, of course, makes the Gospel all the more radical - don't just endure your enemy, smiling cordially during unexpected encounters, but nourish his bodily existence with food and drink. Don't be overcome by the evil of your enemy but overcome his evil with good. Radical, otherworldly commands, aren't they?
So how do we know we are being overcome by an enemy's evil? We'll know it when we begin to withhold food and drink. We are being overcome by evil when the evil delivered at our doorstep compels us to depart from the gracious upside-down world the Gospel creates. Remember, the Gospel tells us that we were once enemies of God, delivering real evil at His doorstep, vandalizing and terrorizing His name and His glory upon His earth (Romans 5:10). Yet, the Gospel also tells us that God served us, His wretched enemies, with food and drink - the body and blood of his own Son. So we are being overcome by evil when we begin to believe that we were somehow lesser enemies before God than our enemies are before us. When we forget that we ourselves have been enemies, graciously and incredulously kept by a Holy God, then we become indignantly stingy with our enemies and overcome by their evil. Jesus says this about those who would gladly see us perish from the earth: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." What did Jesus give those who gladly willed that He perish from the earth? Prayer: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." A stunning graciousness grounded in the fact that Jesus knew his enemies could never finish Him off for he had a Father in heaven.
Yes, it is hard to care for our enemies with more than restraint. It is hard though because it is hard to believe the Gospel - to believe that I have been the worst kind of enemy and have been shown the costliest kind of mercy. So instead of pondering all the ways in which our enemies have harmed us, let us ponder all the ways our Savior has befriended us. Then we will have His power to live fully and gladly in the upside-down world His Gospel has made.
Yours in Christ, John
If you ever doubt that the Gospel is big and expansive and consuming of all your life, just think about your enemies. Wednesday night our Growth Group had one of those unplanned and unplugged discussions about what makes an enemy one's enemy and how the Gospel turns the whole world of enemies and grievances and hurts upside down. Here's the upside down world of the Gospel: "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:20).
Who is the enemy? For the early Christians the enemy would have been the brutish guard pacing outside the prison cell mocking his Christian captives, or the spying neighbor who reported Christian worshipers to imperial authorities. But for everyone, Christians past and present, the enemy is someone who has, or who is, delivering evil upon us. The enemy is not just someone whose mischief we might be unsure of. No, the enemy is a real someone who has undoubtedly delivered a real evil to the doorstep of our very real lives. The enemy the Gospel addresses is not a theoretical enemy who is far off, but a real enemy close enough to serve with food and drink. That, of course, makes the Gospel all the more radical - don't just endure your enemy, smiling cordially during unexpected encounters, but nourish his bodily existence with food and drink. Don't be overcome by the evil of your enemy but overcome his evil with good. Radical, otherworldly commands, aren't they?
So how do we know we are being overcome by an enemy's evil? We'll know it when we begin to withhold food and drink. We are being overcome by evil when the evil delivered at our doorstep compels us to depart from the gracious upside-down world the Gospel creates. Remember, the Gospel tells us that we were once enemies of God, delivering real evil at His doorstep, vandalizing and terrorizing His name and His glory upon His earth (Romans 5:10). Yet, the Gospel also tells us that God served us, His wretched enemies, with food and drink - the body and blood of his own Son. So we are being overcome by evil when we begin to believe that we were somehow lesser enemies before God than our enemies are before us. When we forget that we ourselves have been enemies, graciously and incredulously kept by a Holy God, then we become indignantly stingy with our enemies and overcome by their evil. Jesus says this about those who would gladly see us perish from the earth: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." What did Jesus give those who gladly willed that He perish from the earth? Prayer: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." A stunning graciousness grounded in the fact that Jesus knew his enemies could never finish Him off for he had a Father in heaven.
Yes, it is hard to care for our enemies with more than restraint. It is hard though because it is hard to believe the Gospel - to believe that I have been the worst kind of enemy and have been shown the costliest kind of mercy. So instead of pondering all the ways in which our enemies have harmed us, let us ponder all the ways our Savior has befriended us. Then we will have His power to live fully and gladly in the upside-down world His Gospel has made.
Yours in Christ, John
Friday, May 8, 2009
5/8 E-note: Be Supplied
Dear brothers and sisters,
"Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith" (1 Thessalonians 3:10) Now that is one loaded verse of scripture from the apostle Paul! It not only defines the shape of the apostle's own ministry, but it also marks out the shape of our own availability. Paul sees his ministry to the saints as not one of just "get 'em saved, baptized, and on the books," but of discerning where in their faith they are missing something - some understanding, some habit, some love, some theology, some right thinking, some knowledge of Jesus - and then getting that missing something into their head, heart and hands, where faith dwells. In short, it is getting the whole Gospel into the whole person. This is the primary ministry of pastors and elders in a church, to supply what is lacking in your faith (and yes, they need to be supplied too). But there is more here than that, isn't there? For this ministry venture to succeed, for faith to be supplied, for the Gospel to fully stock the pantry of a saint's faith, the saint must be available and eager to be supplied. Do you recognize in yourself a desire to have what is lacking in your faith supplied to you by the ministry and ministers of Christ's church? The apostle Paul wouldn't recognize a version of Christianity that says, "I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, I'm done 'til then." We shouldn't recognize it either, that is, we shouldn't give it quarter in our own hearts for it simply is not Christian. We have been predestined to be conformed to the likeness of the Son. Paul, knowing that - for he wrote it in Romans 8:29 - was earnestly praying to serve God's purpose in predestination by having a ministry of supplying the saints with a more mature faith. May God also grant us such an earnest desire, a desire to offer ourselves to God and to one another to receive that for which is being offered - a transformation into His likeness through faith.
Yours in Christ,
John
"Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith" (1 Thessalonians 3:10) Now that is one loaded verse of scripture from the apostle Paul! It not only defines the shape of the apostle's own ministry, but it also marks out the shape of our own availability. Paul sees his ministry to the saints as not one of just "get 'em saved, baptized, and on the books," but of discerning where in their faith they are missing something - some understanding, some habit, some love, some theology, some right thinking, some knowledge of Jesus - and then getting that missing something into their head, heart and hands, where faith dwells. In short, it is getting the whole Gospel into the whole person. This is the primary ministry of pastors and elders in a church, to supply what is lacking in your faith (and yes, they need to be supplied too). But there is more here than that, isn't there? For this ministry venture to succeed, for faith to be supplied, for the Gospel to fully stock the pantry of a saint's faith, the saint must be available and eager to be supplied. Do you recognize in yourself a desire to have what is lacking in your faith supplied to you by the ministry and ministers of Christ's church? The apostle Paul wouldn't recognize a version of Christianity that says, "I'm saved, I'm going to heaven, I'm done 'til then." We shouldn't recognize it either, that is, we shouldn't give it quarter in our own hearts for it simply is not Christian. We have been predestined to be conformed to the likeness of the Son. Paul, knowing that - for he wrote it in Romans 8:29 - was earnestly praying to serve God's purpose in predestination by having a ministry of supplying the saints with a more mature faith. May God also grant us such an earnest desire, a desire to offer ourselves to God and to one another to receive that for which is being offered - a transformation into His likeness through faith.
Yours in Christ,
John
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