Today I was reading Iain H. Murray's "Spurgeon V. Hypercalvinism" and found a story I had not heard before about the great English preacher. In October of 1856 during a Sunday morning service in which thousands of people were packed into the Metropolitan Tabernacle to hear the eloquant young preacher, someone in the crowd yelled "Fire!" The stampede from one of the balconies resulted in 7 deaths. The commotion was so far from Spurgeon that he continued preaching without knowing what had happened. When he was told later about the tragedy, he collapsed in his office and many feared it might be the end of his preaching ministry.
It was a passage of scripture that finally lifted him out of his depression:
9"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
(Philippians 2:9-11)
The next time he preached, he told his congregation that it was because of these words that he was instantly lifted out of the clouds of his depression and able to go on- it was the knowledge that in spite of what kinds of tragedies we go through in this life- that Christ is still on his throne.
The account reminded me of a story I once heard about Dr. Robert G. Lee, the former pastor of Bellvue Baptist Church in Memphis Tennessee. A family in his church was overcome by the grief of losing a young child in a kind of freak accident at their home. The boy had fallen off their roof on to a picket fence and had been killed instantly. In anquish, the mother asked Lee, "Where was God when my boy fell off that roof?"
Lee comforted her by saying softly, "He was in the same place as He was when they pulled the lifeless body of His Son off that cross- He was on His throne."
There is no greater knowledge in good times or bad than the central truth of our own existence- that God is in control in spite of our circumstances. The greatest tragedy that has ever occurred in human history is also the greatest victory. This means that as Christians we can always see that no matter what our circumstances bring, all things work for His glory.
He is on His throne.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
blessings flow from the hard places
They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."
Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?"
Last week I was talking to a friend of mine who is a financial adviser and estate planner. He was telling me that these days he spends a good part of his time trying to calm people down. "People need to know that their life isn't destroyed as the stock market goes down", he told me.
My friend could see that the key issue people deal with in a panicked financial environment is essentially a spiritual one. There is a reason that the first commandment was that we are to have no other gods before the Lord God- anything else at the center of our heart will ultimately crush us to the ground. In his greater catechism, Martin Luther observed that all the commandments essentially feed off the first one, and that the reason we struggle with issues of money, sex and power is because we have something else at the center of our lives besides the Lord God.
We learn in the Exodus event that the desert is the place where one comes to the understanding that one has no other resource available other than what is given by the grace and mercy of God.
The wilderness teaches me that until I know that God is all I have I will never know that God is all I need.
The desert is where all the other brooks dry up. But the reality is as long as I am drinking from any other source, I will never taste the sweetness of His fountain.
The desert is where God leads me to the hard places- the places where His abundant blessing flows. And as a believer I know this to be true because I can see that the ultimate hard place was the cross- and that Jesus is the rock struck.
Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?"
But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." (Exodus 17:2-5)
Last week I was talking to a friend of mine who is a financial adviser and estate planner. He was telling me that these days he spends a good part of his time trying to calm people down. "People need to know that their life isn't destroyed as the stock market goes down", he told me.
My friend could see that the key issue people deal with in a panicked financial environment is essentially a spiritual one. There is a reason that the first commandment was that we are to have no other gods before the Lord God- anything else at the center of our heart will ultimately crush us to the ground. In his greater catechism, Martin Luther observed that all the commandments essentially feed off the first one, and that the reason we struggle with issues of money, sex and power is because we have something else at the center of our lives besides the Lord God.
We learn in the Exodus event that the desert is the place where one comes to the understanding that one has no other resource available other than what is given by the grace and mercy of God.
The wilderness teaches me that until I know that God is all I have I will never know that God is all I need.
The desert is where all the other brooks dry up. But the reality is as long as I am drinking from any other source, I will never taste the sweetness of His fountain.
The desert is where God leads me to the hard places- the places where His abundant blessing flows. And as a believer I know this to be true because I can see that the ultimate hard place was the cross- and that Jesus is the rock struck.
Monday, March 2, 2009
it takes a season
We are one of those rare Baptist churches that actually celebrates the Lent season- and I know that this fact always raises a few eyebrows and causes more than a few questions from some of the people we encounter in the community. "I thought you were Baptist..." or "I didn't know you were Catholic" are just a few of the responses I've heard people encounter during this season.
I always like to remind people of a few things whenever we talk about this season:
1. The Lenton season predates denominationalism as we know it. It has been a Christian tradition for at least 1,100 years- therefore it does not reside with any particular faith tradition exclusively. In fact, the earliest history of a forty day fast before Easter Sunday actually dates to the first century in the earliest church- there is strong evidence that the earliest believers set aside this time before Easter as a time of training and preparing new believers for baptism. It is a tradition that is now practiced by Christians from all stripes- including conservative evanglelicals. Several years ago when the movie "The Passion of Christ" came out, popular Baptist pastor and theologian John Piper wrote a series of devotions for Lent season focusing on the meaning of the cross.
2. We started the tradition in our church because we have come to see the value of long seasons. Our desire is to take the Christian holidays back from secular culture. Our desire is to turn the holidays into Holy Days again. Secular society has made Christmas about Santa Clause and Easter about the Easter Bunny. We believe that as followers of Christ we have a responsibility to reclaim the holy ground lost over the past 100 years or so in Western culture. There is value in taking a season of time, in this case 40 days of fasting, and focus your heart and attention on the one thing that is most important in your life and to your existence- the cross of Christ and His resurrection.
3. It is a great way for families to help their children understand the importance of the teaching of the cross. Our family has celebrated the Lent season since our children were small. The result is that it has become a very important part of their lives- to take time out in the Spring season, when the days are lengthening and the weather is beginning to turn mild, to focus on the most important issue to human life and existence- the substituionary death of Christ on the cross and the life that that event has brought to us.
The truth of "boast only in the cross' is not something one only thinks of in a passing way. It is a truth to be meditated on, contemplated, chewed up and digested. It is a truth that should become manna and should grow in it's meaning and understanding and eventually become a part of your being and even possess you and take a place of prominence in your heart and thinking.
In order for a person to come to that point of understanding that everything in this life that I have to boast about was brought to me as a result of the cross and purchased by His blood one has to really dig down and think. I mean really think. A person has to think for more than thirty seconds during the commericals or at the stop light- a person has to think about it a long time and over a long period of time.
A person has to come to it every day and make it daily bread. A person can't just look at a diamond like this one time and then put it down. That person has to hold it in his hand for days on end and turn it over and over again and hold it out and really look at it through the light.
That doesn't happen in just a day or an hour.
It takes a season.
And even after many years of seasons you will come to realize if you haven't already that as incredible and beautiful the reality of the gospel really is to you, you have really only begun to scratch the surface of the true meaning of it.
I always like to remind people of a few things whenever we talk about this season:
1. The Lenton season predates denominationalism as we know it. It has been a Christian tradition for at least 1,100 years- therefore it does not reside with any particular faith tradition exclusively. In fact, the earliest history of a forty day fast before Easter Sunday actually dates to the first century in the earliest church- there is strong evidence that the earliest believers set aside this time before Easter as a time of training and preparing new believers for baptism. It is a tradition that is now practiced by Christians from all stripes- including conservative evanglelicals. Several years ago when the movie "The Passion of Christ" came out, popular Baptist pastor and theologian John Piper wrote a series of devotions for Lent season focusing on the meaning of the cross.
2. We started the tradition in our church because we have come to see the value of long seasons. Our desire is to take the Christian holidays back from secular culture. Our desire is to turn the holidays into Holy Days again. Secular society has made Christmas about Santa Clause and Easter about the Easter Bunny. We believe that as followers of Christ we have a responsibility to reclaim the holy ground lost over the past 100 years or so in Western culture. There is value in taking a season of time, in this case 40 days of fasting, and focus your heart and attention on the one thing that is most important in your life and to your existence- the cross of Christ and His resurrection.
3. It is a great way for families to help their children understand the importance of the teaching of the cross. Our family has celebrated the Lent season since our children were small. The result is that it has become a very important part of their lives- to take time out in the Spring season, when the days are lengthening and the weather is beginning to turn mild, to focus on the most important issue to human life and existence- the substituionary death of Christ on the cross and the life that that event has brought to us.
The truth of "boast only in the cross' is not something one only thinks of in a passing way. It is a truth to be meditated on, contemplated, chewed up and digested. It is a truth that should become manna and should grow in it's meaning and understanding and eventually become a part of your being and even possess you and take a place of prominence in your heart and thinking.
In order for a person to come to that point of understanding that everything in this life that I have to boast about was brought to me as a result of the cross and purchased by His blood one has to really dig down and think. I mean really think. A person has to think for more than thirty seconds during the commericals or at the stop light- a person has to think about it a long time and over a long period of time.
A person has to come to it every day and make it daily bread. A person can't just look at a diamond like this one time and then put it down. That person has to hold it in his hand for days on end and turn it over and over again and hold it out and really look at it through the light.
That doesn't happen in just a day or an hour.
It takes a season.
And even after many years of seasons you will come to realize if you haven't already that as incredible and beautiful the reality of the gospel really is to you, you have really only begun to scratch the surface of the true meaning of it.
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