Pursuing Joy

–THIS IS A GUEST POST BY LUKE HARDING, AN INTERN AT FIVE POINTS COMMUNITY CHURCH–

Veritas (college/singles ministry) has engaged the first Epistle of John for their study this summer. God has used this short book to enliven our hearts for true fellowship in the gospel. As young adult Christians, our tendency is to find unity in the gospel… plus something else. It might be the gospel plus sports, or the gospel plus indie music, or the gospel plus trendy clothes. Yet the Scriptures tell us that we find our truest and most joyful fellowship when our fellowship is centered in Christ alone through the gospel alone (1 John 1:7). Our fellowship in the church can either look exactly like the Elks club down the street, or it can cause the world around us to scratch their heads, because we have unity than can only be explained through the gospel. C.S. Lewis aids our understanding of fellowship in a living Body as opposed to fellowship in the world:

“The very word membership is of Christian origin, but it has been taken over by the world and emptied of all meaning. It must be most emphatically stated that items included in a homogeneous class are almost the reverse of what St. Paul meant. By members he meant that what we should call organs, things, essentially different from, and complementary to, one another. When we describe a man as ‘a member of the Church’ we usually mean nothing Pauline: we mean only that he is a unit—that he is one more specimen of some kind of things as X and Y.

The society into which the Christian is called at baptism is not a collective but a Body. If anyone came to it with the misconception that membership of the Church was membership in a debased modern sense—a massing together of persons as if they were pennies—he would be corrected at the threshold by the discovery that the head of this Body is so unlike the inferior members that they share no predicate with him save by analogy. We are summoned from the outset to combine as creatures with out Creator, as mortals with immortal, as redeemed sinners with sinless Redeemer. His presence, the interaction between him and us, must always be the overwhelmingly dominant factor in the life we are to lead within the Body; and any conception of Christian fellowship which does not mean primarily fellowship with him is out of court. We are all constantly teaching and learning, forgiving and being forgiven, representing Christ to man, and man to Christ. The sacrifice of selfish privacy which is daily demanded of us is daily repaid a hundredfold in the true growth of personality which the life of the Body encourages. Those who are members of one another become as diverse as the hand and the ear. That is why the worldlings are so monotonously alike compared with the almost fantastic variety of the saints. Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality.”

~ Membership, CS Lewis

Joel Zumaya, a hard-throwing pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, fractured his elbow pitching on Monday night against the Minnesota Twins.  This article on the Detroit Free Press talks about his injury and his thoughts after learning that though it is a season-ending injury, he will be able to pitch again.  After reading the piece, I thought of three things I would say to Joel if I had the opportunity.

First, the article’s title is “Joel Zumaya hopes to return next spring”.  To that, I say, “Joel, hope in Christ alone.”  All things in this world fade away.  There will come a spring that you will not spend in Lakeland, Florida getting ready for a season of playing baseball.  A life worth living is a life lived to display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, which is the ultimate purpose for the existence of everything. Living to that end will be the path of finding true joy, whether God allows you more seasons or not.

Second, if baseball is taken away from you, God means for it to be a way of pointing to the only thing that will truly satisfy your heart’s desires.  All the idols of this world are worthless and those who love them become like them… deaf, blind, empty and dead.  But sometimes we don’t know what we are idolizing and it takes God removing what we’ve put in His rightful place to realize how backwards we are living.  Suffering exists as a means of giving us more of God while weaning us off the idols of our hearts.  All we need in life is God.  We were made to see and enjoy and proclaim the glory of God.  Anything else we live for will always leave us empty.

Third, Joel said, “I felt like I had no one on my side.”  To that, I say, “When Jesus was taking the final steps of His path towards the cross, he was all alone.  The crowds were against him, the religious leaders were against him, his best friends had deserted him and one of them even denied knowing him.  In fact, even God The Father forsook His own Son at the cross.  Jesus knows what it is like to be utterly alone.”  1 Peter 3.18 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God”.  Through Christ’s suffering, God’s enemies were made His sons.  Christ’s suffering enabled us to regain fellowship with God.   So, Joel, whether you are experiencing the joy of playing baseball or the pain of having it taken away, anyone who believes in Christ alone and pursues their joy in God alone are rich beyond comprehension and have so much to live for.

So, Joel, believe that Jesus Christ, the Righteous Son of God, died for all our sins and conquered death by rising eternally triumphant over all his enemies and that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy in the fellowship with the One True God, both in this life and one to come.

“We obsess about the future and we get anxious, because anxiety, after all, is simply living out the future before it gets here. We must renounce our sinful desire to know the future and to be in control. We are not gods. We walk by faith, not by sight. We risk because God does not risk. We walk into the future in God-glorifying confidence, not because the future is known to us but because it is known to God. And that’s all we need to know. Worry about the future is not simply a character tic, it is the sin of unbelief, an indication that our hearts are not resting in the promises of God.”

~ Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something, pp. 47-48

I found this quote helpful as I am about to make a 15 block walk to the Brazilian Consulate to apply for a visa as the group leader for our trip this July to Sao Paulo.  Many details of the trip, not the least of which is bringing 23 students to Brazil, have caused anxiety.  I confess that this morning and encourage you to “walk in God-glorifying confidence” this day… a day the Lord has made and sovereignly controls.

(HT: Thabiti Anyabwile)

Pastor Brent Nelson wrote a letter to the military men and women who will receive care boxes that were packed at Five Points Community Church on Saturday April 17.  Here is an excerpt:

“We hope you find the items contained in this care package a blessing. Yet we hope even more, that they will point you to the greatest possible blessing that could ever be received: the new life in Christ that belongs to those who are sons and daughters of the living God (John 1:12).

Whether you are a soldier, airman, sailor or marine, we join with those among your family and the nation who praise God for you and pray for you. Come home safe. Not just to your physical home, but all the way home to your Father who is in heaven, through the Lord Jesus Christ.”

You can read the letter in its entirety here and there is also a link to download it at the bottom of the page.

The Gospel Coalition is a “a group of (mostly) pastors and churches in the Reformed heritage who delight in the truth and power of the gospel, and who want the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected to lie at the center of all we cherish, preach, and teach.”  Their website “is becoming a way of circulating more broadly the sermons, studies, discipleship ventures and the like of our Council members, both for our own encouragement and for the good of others.”  You can view the council members here, which include Alistair Begg, DA Carson, Mark Dever, Tim Keller and John Piper.  They also host a number a great blogs, including Justin Taylor’s and put up great sermons, lectures and videos.  This is a great site for content that is Gospel-centered.

They have also just announced their new online publication, TGC Reviews, which is “designed to bring readers helpful appraisals of books and other resources. Whether through reviews, interviews, excerpts, recommendations, or book notes the purpose of TGC Reviews is to serve the church of Jesus Christ by becoming one of the most trusted review sites on the Web.”  If you’re a book lover like me, this looks like it will be a great resource for the church!

Today is the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.  Here are some helpful resources from the past and some that have been posted around the blogosphere:

Overturning and Undermining Roe v. Wade: An Interview with Clarke Forsythe by Justin Taylor

Accusing and Excusing for 37 Years by Kevin DeYoung

How Does Abortion Relate To Spreading The Supremacy Of God In All Things? by John Piper

Like An Electric Current by Kevin DeYoung

Other Resources:

Crossroads Pregnancy Center

Abort73

Desiring God (Pro-Life resources)

American United for Life

If you are looking for an organization to support in helping relieve the disaster in Haiti, here are some options:

1. Compassion International
2. Feed My Starving Children
3. Food for the Hungry
4. World Vision
5. World Relief
6. Samaritan’s Purse
7. Love a Child
8. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
9. Compassion Weavers
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Water Missions International

Update: Another ministry to consider giving to is Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center. They’re operating one of the only clinics near the epicenter that’s open right now.  Also, Sovereign Grace Ministries has set up a fund to help their contacts who are already in Haiti here.

HT: Desiring God and Sovereign Grace

Don Whitney, professor at Southern Seminary and author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, has 10 good questions to ask at the start of the new year:

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

The English Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, rejected as error the annual celebration of Christ’s birth called “Christmas.” He arrived at this view, in part, because he was convinced the term “Christmas” was inextricably tied to the Roman Catholic mass. Since both terms contain the same root word, he concluded that Christmas was a Roman Catholic invention.  And since the Roman Catholic church remained crippled by a wrong view of the Lord’s Supper or mass (among other errors), therefore the term Christmas must be an inherently unwelcome word for biblically careful Christians. You can read more of Spurgeon’s view in his comments on Psalm 81 in his Treasury of David.

We wholeheartedly join Spurgeon in grieving gospel error, wherever and whenever it gains a hearing – in the Roman Catholic Church and beyond. But is it a fair and accurate reading of the term ‘Christmas’ to note its link with the Catholic mass and thus reject the term by virtue of its association? I believe there is warrant to retain the good word “Christmas” for God-glorifying purposes.

The second half of the term Christmas indeed comes from the Latin word missa, the very same word underlying the word mass. It is a perfect passive of mittere which translated into English simply means ‘sent.’ (You’ve just had your Latin grammar lesson for today!) The word mass in Latin refers to a sending, or to a sent one, or to the sent one’s response in going.

So when we look carefully at the word ‘Christmas’ it most basically means, “Christ having been sent.” In other words the great Bible doctrine of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is captured in this one powerful term “Christmas.”  Though the term mass has come to mean what we regard as a false and thus harmful understanding of the Lord’s Supper, the term Christmas need not be corrupted by the same error. Its origins go back much farther than any Pope or man-made festival.

Before the very foundation of the world, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit together ordained that the Son would take on human flesh. Paul writes of Him: “…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

Defined this way, I can’t help but think the good Mr. Spurgeon would approve of the term “Christmas.” May yours be merry with the great joy that unto us is born a Savior, who is Christ the LORD!

Second Coming
Part 1 (Past)

Jesus Will Return To The Earth In Glory

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers,* you have no need to have anything written to you.  2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  4 But you bare not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4

God in his great, glad, wisdom has a plan of redeeming men back to himself.  This is both perplexing and a wonderful source of joy.  “Wow, God would redeem me the sinner that I am back to his perfect holiness!”
As we enter the last week of Advent preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus (present) my thoughts go to the Old Testament (past) at the same time that they wait expectantly for the triumphant second coming of the Lord. (future) 1 Thes. 4:16-17

In this entry we will briefly  focus on the past.

In the Old Testament we see many examples that would point us back to himself in the form of theophanies and Christophanies.

Question: “What is a theophany? What is a Christophany?”

Answer: A theophany is a manifestation of God in the Bible that is tangible to the human senses. In its most restrictive sense, it is a visible appearance of God in the Old Testament period, often, but not always, in human form. Some of the theophanies are found in these passages:

1. Genesis 12:7-9–The Lord appeared to Abraham on his arrival in the land God had promised to him and his descendants.

2. Genesis 18:1-33–One day, Abraham had some visitors: two angels and God Himself. He invited them to come to his home, and he and Sarah entertained them. Many commentators believe this could also be a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

3. Genesis 32:22-30–Jacob wrestled with what appeared to be a man, but was actually God (vv. 28-30). This may also have been a Christophany.

4. Exodus 3:2 – 4:17–God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush, telling him exactly what He wanted him to do.

5. Exodus 24:9-11–God appeared to Moses with Aaron and his sons and the seventy elders.

6. Deuteronomy 31:14-15–God appeared to Moses and Joshua in the transfer of leadership to Joshua.

7. Job 38–42–God answered Job out of the tempest and spoke at great length in answer to Job’s questions.

Frequently, the term “glory of the Lord” reflects a theophany, as in Exodus 24:16-18; the “pillar of cloud” has a similar function in Exodus 33:9.

A frequent introduction for theophanies may be seen in the words “the Lord came down,” as in Genesis 11:5; Exodus 34:5; Numbers 11:5; and 12:5.

Some Bible commentators believe that whenever someone received a visit from “the angel of the Lord,” this was in fact the pre-incarnate Christ. These appearances can be seen in Genesis 16:7-14; Genesis 22:11-18; Judges 5:23; 2 Kings 19:35; and other passages. Other commentators believe these were in fact angelophanies, or appearances of angels. While there are no indisputable Christophanies in the Old Testament, every theophany wherein God takes on human form foreshadows the incarnation, where God took the form of a man to live among us as Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

Recommended Resource: Knowing God by J.I. Packer.