A Warning

In Deuteronomy 6:10-12, Moses warns that Israelites that when they enter the land of promise they need to care for their souls. The land is rich and pleasant; it is full of all sorts of good things: vineyards and olive trees, houses that they did not build, cities that they did not build -- and all of these things will belong to them. Yet, there is great danger. The temptation is to enjoy oneself with all these good things and to forget the Lord. That is, it will be easy for them to become enamored with stuff and consumed by material things. And they can lulled into thinking that they acquired all these things on their own. Pride and self-sufficiency easily will creep in. They can easily forget that it was God who promised them the land, redeemed them from Egypt, and brought them into the land.

This warning is also for the church today. How easy it is for us to become complacent in our Christian walk. St. Augustine said that "earthly riches are full of poverty." Indeed, earthly blessing can breed complacency in one's Christian walk, and it can breed forgetfulness -- it can cause a Christian to move away from God and to cling to the things of the world. Luther was truly convinced of this truth when he said, "a full belly can be a great trial for a Christian"! So let us enjoy the blessings that God has bestowed on his church, but let us remember that anything that we have is due to his mercy and grace to us who are so undeserving.

Time to Read the Bible

George Muller commented regarding his reading of the Bible: "I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God. Friends often say, 'I have so much to do, so many people to see, I cannot find time for Scripture study.' Perhaps there are not many who more to do than I. For more than half a century I have never known one day when I had not more business than I could get through. For four years I have had annually about thirty thousand letters, and most of these have passed through my own hands. Then, as pastor of a church of twelve hundred believers, great has been my care. Besides, I have had charge of five immense orphanages; also, at my published depot, the printing and circulating of millions of tracts, books, and Bibles; but I have always made it a rule never to begin work until I have had a good season with God and His Word. The blessing I have received has been wonderful."

Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter, the great Puritan who wrote such works as The Reformed Pastor and The Saint's Everlasting Rest, was a frail invalid for most of his life. What kept him going in life and performing spectacular duties for Christ? His secret was simple: each day he would spend a half hour meditating on the life to come, therefore, putting at the forefront of his day the glory that awaited him. J. I. Packer comments on Baxter's practice: "Diligent cultivation of hope gave him daily doggedness in disciplined hard work for God, despite the debilitating effect each day of his sick body." One of the reasons Baxter was a good worker in the vineyard for Christ despite his sickness was because he looked to the celestial city; his eyes were upon the heavenly city, the city with foundations.

D. L. Moody put it this way: " Take courage. We walk in the wilderness today and in the Promised Land tomorrow."

Hugh Stowell

For the last two months, on Sunday evenings, we have introduced a hymn of the month. This practice is so that we as a congregation can learn the hymns of the Trinity Hymnal. I am surprised by how few of them I know. Along with the hymn, those who introduce the hymn also do some research about the author of the hymn. This past month's hymn was by Hugh Stowell (1799-1865). Stowell was Oxford educated and served in the Church of England his entire life. He is perhaps most well known for his writing of children's hymns.

The hymn by Stowell that we learned was "From Every Stormy Wind That Blows" -- if you do not know it, it is well worth learning! I could find very little written by Stowell apart from his hymns. I did find one quote, and I believe it is worth citing: it reflects his view of the Scriptures:
"Here (in the Bible) is milk for babes, whilst there is manna for Angels; truth level with the mind of a peasant, truth soaring beyond the reach of a seraph."

Wandering Thoughts

Do you have wandering thoughts during the singing of hymns at worship? If you are like me, I often sing hymns without paying much attention to the words that are on the page. I suppose I have the attitude of looking so forward to the sermon, which is the central focus of the service, that I want to get the preliminaries over with. I was recently brought under great conviction as I read an account of the life of the great hymnist Fanny Crosby. She was converted when she was 30 years old by listening to the words of an Isaac Watts hymn "Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed". The following words were particularly striking to her:

Was it for crimes that I had done he groaned upon the tree!
Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

God can use any part of the worship service to change hearts of unbelievers and to edify his people. As pastors, may we choose hymns well and ones that are biblical. And may God focus our hearts and minds upon them as we sing them in worship.

The Pilgrim

I have written previously about the language of "journey" and "story" that is used ubiquitously today. Everyone is on a "journey" and everyone has a "story". We need, as Christians, to be careful using this type of language because for many people today it simply reflects a meandering, rambling path that has no purpose, end, or goal. There is no telos. Most people do not know where they are going. In addition, most of those who use this language are centering the journey upon themselves: it is a self-serving story. It is a journey of self-importance.

Christians, on the other hand, are on a path that has an end in sight; we are heading for the celestial city, the city with foundations, that is, the land that will never perish or fade away. And we are going there to meet the King! It is he whom we serve on this pilgrimage. One of the Puritan prayers in the Valley of Vision puts it well:

"May I feel that I am a stranger and a pilgrim on earth,
declaring plainly that I seek a country,
my title to it becoming daily more clear,
my meetness for it more perfect,
my foretaste of it more abundant;
and whatsoever I do may it be done in the Savior's name."

Alexander Peden

I have written often about the Great Ejectment in Great Britain in 1662 in which well over 400 ministers were removed from their pulpits because they would not conform to the Middleton Act. These pastors were not only thrown out of their pulpits, but they were removed from their manses and their pay was cancelled. One of these men was Alexander Peden, who after the ejectment spent his years preaching to the covenanters on the hills and in the moors of southern Scotland. He did this at great risk to his life.

His church, before the ejectment, was in New Luce. On his final Sabbath with his people, he preached in the morning and the evening from Acts 20. In the evening service, his final sermon was on Acts 20:32, "And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." The people did not want to leave at the close of church; great emotion gripped them as they knew the time of parting with their pastor had come. As Peden left the pulpit, he turned and knocked on the pulpit three times with his Bible and he said the following words: "In my Master's name I arrest thee; that none enter thee but such as enter as I have done, by the door." It was a striking moment, and a statement that came to pass. For the next 27 years the pulpit of that church remained unoccupied, and no minister who had conformed ever entered the pulpit. The man who succeeded Peden, 27 years later, was a man after Peden's own heart, a man of great covenant conviction named William Kyle.

Obeying the Higher Power

In an essay titled "The Freedom of the Free Churchman", Paul Cook makes the following statement: "The Christian's subjection to human governments and magistrates and his respect for local and national laws should arise from recognition that such authority has been delegated to men by God. The living God is the One to whom the believer renders ultimate obedience; should the state and its officers trespass from their civil duties into the spiritual realm, where it has no legitimate authority, then the Christian is to obey the higher power." Over the centuries many Christians have paid steep penalties, often execution, for holding fast to this truth. In 1593, for example, Henry Barrows, John Greenwood, and John Penry suffered death on the scaffold over this very issue.

John Penry was a Welshman who was a graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge, and he came under deep conviction for the spiritual needs of his brethren in Wales. He became a separatist because of the indifference of the Church of England over sending the gospel to Wales. He was found guilty of sedition, and in May 1593 he followed Barrows and Greenwood to the scaffold. According to Robert Oliver, at his trial, Penry declared: "Imprisonment, judgement, yea death itself are not meet weapons to convince men's consciences, grounded on the word of God." He left a Bible to each of his three daughters, and his will ends with the words, "I leave the success of my labours, the calling of my country to the knowledge of Christ's blessed Gospel unto such of my countrymen as the Lord is to raise after me."

Cost of Discipleship

William Ames (1576-1633) held a post at Cambridge University where he had a stellar academic career. He had been converted under the ministry of William Perkins. He was forced to leave the university and all of his degrees were suspended because of his Puritan convictions. He went to the Netherlands where he was given a position at the University of Leiden and, later, at a university in Friesland. He lost the last post for the same reason: his Puritanism and conviction of practical godliness. He finally became a pastor of a church in Rotterdam. According to Robert Oliver, Ames' "lasting memorial is his Medulla Theologiae or Marrow of Theology published in 1627. As a university tutor he had attempted to 'call students away from questions and controversies obscure, confused and not very essential, and introduce it to life and practice so that the students would begin to think seriously of conscience and its concerns.' He began his Medulla with the words, 'Theology is the doctrine of living to God.'"

What Can I Do For God?

What Can I Do For God?

Most of us would like to do something special in life, something to distinguish us. We suppose that we desire it for God's sake, but more likely we are discontent with ordinary life and crave special privileges. When Israel asked if they should offer some spectacular sacrifice--thousands of rams, ten thousand "rivers of oil," a firstborn child--the answer was, "He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Mi 6:8 RSV).

There is nothing conspicuous about those requirements. It is not a "special" service for which one would be likely to be decorated or even particularly remembered. But it is worth more to God than any sacrifice.

Lord, deliver me from the delusion of imagining that my desire is to serve You, when my real desire is the distinction of serving in some way which others admire.

Elizabeth Elliot (submitted by Meg Spear)