Strength for Weakness

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
- 2 Corinthians 11:30

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
- 2 Corinthians 12:9

“God accepts our prayers, though weak, because we are His own children, and they come from his own Spirit; because they are according to his own will; and because they are offered in Christ’s mediation, and he takes them, and mingles them with his own incense.”
- Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, p. 51

“A weak Christian and a strong Christ shall be able to do all.”
- Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, p. 41

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

Christians are people of great weakness. At the end of the day we are plagued by insufficiency, inability, inefficiency, and weakness. As I think about all of the responsibilities of church planting and being a faithful pastor I realize I am incredibly weak. As I think about being an effective father and husband I am aware of terrible shortcoming and weakness. At times I realize my prayers are weak, my zeal is often flagging, my love for the Word is lacking, my care for the lost is tepid, and my love for Christ’s church is not what it should be. At every point I need a strong Savior, mighty to save and mighty to fill every lack for my weakness. Often I ask myself, who is sufficient for these things? The amazing thing is God delights to graciously show Himself strong in our weakness. When discouragement seems to overwhelm me and when my strength is at its lowest ebb, God desires to show Himself mighty. I take courage from other saints that have found themselves to be weak and have found God to supply sufficient grace and strength. It is amazing to see the perspective the testimony of others brings. This week I was reading Jonathan Edwards’ account of David Brainard in John Piper’s, The Hidden Smile of God. Brainard was a missionary to Massachusetts Indians. As a very young man he was zealous to bring the gospel to these people, and at the same time he was dying of tuberculosis. I haven’t read about Brainard for a while, but I remember reading his diary years ago and being moved to tears. In great weakness God provided Brainard with incredible strength and zeal and resolve. As an encouragement, just when you think you’ve reached the end of your rope, read Brainard’s diary. You will see grace given for incredible weakness. I’m afraid that often we give up too soon and we don’t see the strength that God provides for our weakness. The reason for this is to show the incomprehensible power of our mighty God on our behalf. He delights to placard His power and strength in our weakness, so that He is made glorious. We may boast in our weakness, but we’ll boast the more in His overwhelming sufficiency and power.

Grateful for God’s grace and strength for my weakness,

Dan

The Cross and the Crucible

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
- Romans 5:3-5

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ.”
- 2 Timothy 2:3

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
- 1 Peter 1:6-7

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (HarperCollins, 2002), p. 91

“There is nothing accidental, or fortuitous, or contingent about God’s work. It is all planned and worked out from the beginning right until the end. In our experience it comes to us increasingly, but in the mind and purpose of God, it is already perfect and entire.”
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Why Does God Allow Suffering?, p. 122

“…God wills that the mission of the church advance through storm and suffering.”
- John Piper, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, p. 91

“Suffering, for the Christian, is a vocation – we are called to suffer.”
- Dan McCartney, Why Does it Have to Hurt? – The Meaning of Christian Suffering, p. 101


Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

Here’s a promise - Christians will suffer. In the words of one author, suffering is not a matter of if, but, when. For all of us suffering has already come or is soon coming. In the mystery of God’s wise providence suffering is sent to every true Christian to serve purposes that only God-directed suffering can. We may recoil at the prospect and promise of suffering, but it is precisely in the crucible of affliction that God accomplishes His most enduring work. And though suffering is not salvific (securing redemptive favor with God), it does have a sanctifying effect. With the effectual work of the Spirit, suffering changes us and makes us more like our Savior. God uses the crucible of suffering for our good and His glory.

In reading through a sermon by Puritan John Owen on affliction he commented that suffering and affliction have an effect upon the Christian that nothing else can have. I know that suffering has had this effect in my own life. Some of the suffering Judy and I have experienced I never want to experience again, however, each time I think about these sufferings I thank God for what He has accomplished through them. There have been severe trials that have come that have served God’s purposes far more effectively than anything else imagined. Suffering is not some foul fiend to steer clear of. Suffering is the handmaid of God’s sanctifying purposes. In the Christian suffering is a sure indication of the presence of sanctifying grace.

As Christians, here are a few things to remember about suffering –

1) Suffering is an indication of sonship (Hebrews 12:6-11).
2) Suffering is a sign of Divine love and not Divine abandonment. We only have to look at the Cross to see God’s favor to sinners in the grandest display of suffering (Romans 8:32).
3) Christ is identified with His people and His people are identified with Christ in suffering.
4) All suffering is God-ordained.
5) Suffering is designed to bear good fruit in us.
6) Some suffering will not make sense this side of heaven.
7) All suffering will make sense in heaven.
8) Suffering provokes us to bear with one another, pray for one another, and love and serve one another.
9) Suffering brings God glory and serves our good.
10) There are things God can accomplish in us, both individually and as a church, that come about only in the crucible of suffering.

As God inevitably brings suffering our way may we resolve to embrace it with great gratitude, love for Him, and confidence in His grace-filled purposes.

Dan

Reminding One Another of the Gospel

“…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,….”
- Ephesians 5:18-19

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,….”
- Ephesians 1:7

“The gospel is the air we breathe in the house of God. To change metaphors, the gospel is the conversation taking place in the house—our Father speaking to us, his children, about the gift of his Son. The gospel is the life-transforming story with a promise for all who hear and believe.”
- Alfred Poirier, The Peacemaking Pastor

“…be on your guard against the neglect of grace.”
- Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone, p. 215


Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

We’re very glad to be back from vacation. We had a great time in Canada attending a wedding and visiting friends at Crossway Community Church (http://www.crosswaycc.net/) and then we got plenty of sun as we camped in Central Oregon, but we’re glad to be back home with you all!

Recently I recounted this story to a friend –

A number of years ago Judy and I sat across the table from a wise pastor and his wife. Though Judy and I had been Christians a long time we found ourselves starving for the gospel. I asked this wise pastor to explain the gospel to us, and as we sat with them we wept as he slowly and painstakingly took us through a biblical understanding of man’s total inability, God’s unconditional electing love in Christ, the extent of Christ’s atonement, God’s irresistible grace in drawing sinners to Himself, and God’s ultimate preserving power in the life of the Christian. When he finished I asked him to start over again. I had been a Christian for years and had never heard the simple, straightforward gospel. Up until that point my Christian theology was a muddled mix of legalism, phariseeism, and fear. As I understood it my performance dictated my right-standing with God and though I understood myself to be a Christian my belief was woefully uninformed. It seems that a misunderstanding of the gospel or an inadequate view of the gospel is rampant in these days. Old thought processes and the mind of the legalist die hard. The gospel must be continually fought for in the battleground of our minds. And some of the ways we can do that is by being faithful to continually remind one another of the gospel by speaking, praying and singing the gospel when we’re together, by availing ourselves of the means of grace God provides in baptism and the Lord’s Table, and by gladly hearing the Word of God expounded as the gospel is brought to bear upon us through the Scriptures. Without diligence in these things our inclination is drift away from the gospel. The remedy for drift is reminder. I need you to remind me of the gospel and you need me to remind you of the gospel. Husbands you must remind your wives of the gospel and wives you must remind your husbands of the gospel, and both need to remind your children of the gospel. The gospel alone is the power of God to change the sinner’s heart. Performance, legalism, and the commitment to do better will not change us. We must be renewed by the transformation of our minds through the power of the gospel. Under the efficacious influence of the Holy Spirit the oft-repeated rehearsal of the truth of the gospel will change us. Incrementally, and by degrees, the gospel will work its work in us.

I’m glad to be home and I’m profoundly grateful to be in a community of believers that remind me of the gospel.

Dan

The Church's Proclamation and a Few Thoughts on 'Building Up'

“ If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. 26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.”
- 1 Corinthians 14:23-26

“When there is a proper apprehension of the value of the truth and a sincere appropriation of the promises of God to ourselves, there will be the desire to acknowledge his goodness and proclaim the truth to others.”
- Charles Hodge, 1 Corinthians, p. 261

“What is mandatory is that everything aim at edification.”
- Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 691

Hi Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

I’ve been thinking…and that’s always a dangerous thing. As I’ve been thinking about COR’s worship I’ve been thinking about everything we do on Sunday morning. I’ve been thinking about the purpose for everything we do in the context of Sunday morning worship. I think there is something significant here that I’ve not paid close attention to, especially as we consider the presence of both believers and unbelievers within the context of COR’s Sunday worship.

In the context of Corinthian worship there was a self-conscious effort given to the elements of worship that pointed to the believer’s relationship with Christ and union with him. In the context of ‘building up’ the church the unbeliever was made aware of his distance from God and what came was conviction of sin. The secrets of his heart were disclosed by those around him by calling attention to the grace of God in a hymn, revelation, tongue, or interpretation. This seems to be amazing - edification or building up the body results in encouragement to the church and conviction of sin for the unbeliever.

I think what this means is that our worship must be more self-consciously God conscious. This comes by building up the church, and this through drawing attention to the gospel and the grace of God shown to us. Too often worship has been self-focused and not God-focused. What this looks like for COR is an intentional magnification of the gospel in everything we do. Worship, proclamation, giving, communion, fellowship, set-up/take-down, all must be done with a self-conscious awareness of the grace of God that has been shown to us in the gospel. May God give us all a strong desire to ‘build up’ the church by drawing attention to the amazing grace of God in our own lives and in the lives of others.

I will miss you all this next weekend as we’re travelling on vacation

Dan