poolsandpastures
Thoughts on the Gospel, Life, and Ministry
Overcoming Anger: Embrace Humility and Trust God
My wife and I recently took a great trip to Nashville to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We walked over 10 miles, visited the sites, listened to some good music, and ate well. We were shocked to see the extent of Hurricane Helene’s devastation along the Pigeon River as we traveled the two-lane I-40 through western NC. I’m unsure how they plan to rebuild the mountainside to support the eastbound lane. Thankfully, greater minds than mine are working on it.
Somewhere between Nashville and Knoxville on our return trip, I scanned radio stations and landed on a preacher preaching on Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 5:21-26 about anger. I’m always intrigued when I come across someone preaching on the radio, so I paused for a few minutes to listen to what he had to say. He was “bringing the heat,” as they say. The part of the sermon that stuck with me (I don’t remember whole sermons either) was when he gave his explanation for why there are so many angry and bitter people in our world (and the church). He said,
“We get mad and bitter when we try to fix things we don’t like about ourselves or that have happened to us. We don’t have the power to do that, but it doesn’t stop us. We fail. We get irritated with our failure. We try to fix the things that caused our failure. We fail again. We get frustrated again. The cycle will continue, leaving us consumed by anger and bitterness. This is why there are so many bitter and angry people in our world. They’re trying to fix themselves, other people, and our society, and they can’t. It makes them mad.”
He’s right. You, like me, are probably too familiar with this cycle. You’ve been frustrated by a failure, tried to fix it yourself, realized you couldn’t, and then got mad at yourself and others or things/circumstances because nothing you try seems to resolve your problem. And, to add insult to injury, not only are you mad at yourself and everyone else, but you don’t like your angry self.
What’s the solution?
First, we must set our pride aside. That’s hard because it requires us to admit and accept that we aren’t perfect and that we are powerless to make significant change in these difficult moments. We think that acknowledging our weaknesses will enslave us to the forces of the world working against us. However, it frees us from the burden of trying to fix our problems on our own, enabling us to trust in God’s ability to heal and change our hearts and lives. Second, we must trust our Lord to receive us as we are and to fix our problems. The most freeing part of the gospel, in my opinion, is the reality that Jesus welcomes us with all our imperfections and failures. Trusting him to do it, however, is excruciatingly hard. We are determined to “fix ourselves up” before giving ourselves to him, but that’s as unnecessary as it is impossible. We must learn to release more and more of ourselves to Jesus daily. Third, we must do what we can to improve our situations, make amends, and put ourselves in the best position to glorify God in everything we do. While we can’t fix ourselves or others, we can certainly take steps to improve our lives, make amends to those we’ve offended, alleviate burdens, and make good decisions (Matt. 5:23-26). God expects us to take responsibility for the things we change while leaving the results to him.
Prayerfully, these thoughts will help you this week as you navigate through our broken, fallen, and imperfect world. Set your pride aside, trust the Lord, and take the steps necessary to improve yourself, your life, and the lives of others.
Have a great day, and glorify God in everything you do!
Praying More Robustly
I am making plans for our congreation’s upcoming Wednesday night fellowship dinners and bible lessons. Our children and youth will continue working through the various catechisms of the Church, and our adults will study prayer. To help me organize our lessons on prayer, I’ve enlisted the help of Prof Donald Whitney from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. He wrote a small volume on prayer titled, Praying the Bible, to address a common “problem” in Christian prayers — “saying the same old things while praying for the same old things.” To him, praying like that makes prayer boring.
He explained the predicament like this.
“[D]ue to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, you believe in prayer and you really want to pray. But when you try to pray, it just feels like, well, like something’s wrong. Then perhaps you hear a sermon on prayer, or you hear a testimony about answered prayer, or you read a book on prayer, and for a while you go back to prayer, recommitted and rejuvenated, but basically still saying the same old things, just with a bit more spiritual ‘oomph’ behind it. Very soon, though, the new enthusiasm evaporates, and you find that saying the same old things about the same old things is as boring as before, only now you feel guiltier than ever because you had been so resolved that things would be different this time” (21).
Before I move on, I need to make two comments about that paragraph. First, it summarizes exactly how I have felt at times in my prayer life, and I’m not proud about it. Second, the paragraph’s description of prayer as boring and my identification with it makes me uncomfortable because it forces me to confront how I’ve felt about an essential spiritual discipline at times in my life. You may have experienced this problem yourself.
What is the remedy?
Whitney says we need to learn to pray the prayers of the Bible to counteract our boredom problem. Specifically, he points to the Psalms as a place to turn to help give expression to our hearts’ desires and our thoughts about God. He’s right. The Psalms were written as songs to be sung in worship — whether private or corporate — and as prayers to be prayed when we don’t know how to pray. We’ll study this more in depth during our Wednesday evening lessons.
Another place to turn for help in prayer is the prayers of the saints who’ve gone before us. They are a treasure trove of wonderful prayers for us to consider. Here’s an example from the Book of Common Prayer. It is a prayer “For All Sorts and Conditions of Men,” which is one of those same old things about which we often pray the same old way.
“O God, the creator and preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for thy holy Church universal; that if it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are in any way afflicted or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.”
Isn’t that a beautiful prayer? It’s far from boring.
Below are three links to good resources full of solid prayers to help you as you learn to pray more fervently. Check them out.
The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions.
Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship
The Book of Common Prayer (1662)
Have a great day!
In Christ,
Clint
Under His Wings and Revivals
What’s up, everyone?
Sunday, our congregation sang the hymn Under His Wings during worship as we prepared to read and hear from Psalm 91. Many in our congregation know this beautiful old hymn as #188 from the old Bible Songs songbook, compiled in December 1930 by the Executive Board of the General Synod. Its purpose was to enable the Church to sing “the songs of inspiration in the best possible metrical and musical renderings.” The songs of inspiration are the psalms, for they are the songs God inspired through His Holy Spirit that His people have sung in worship from King David’s day onward.
Under His Wings was written by Ira D Sankey in the late 19th century. Sankey was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania on August 28, 1840. He came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ when he was 19 at a revival meeting. After a stint in the Union Army during the War Between the States, he worked for the Internal Revenue Service and led the choir in his local congregation. By 1870, he was president of his local YMCA, which allowed him to attend the YMCA’s national conference that year. There he met famed evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who convinced Sankey to leave his government job to join him for his evangelistic crusades. From 1872 until he died in 1908, he committed himself to the cause of Christ and the evangelization of the lost.
Until I realized that Sankey authored Under His Wings, I thought it was odd that I sang the hymn in the Church I attended before moving to Pisgah ARP Church at age 11. I also thought it was strange that it was one of my grandmother’s favorite hymns because she was a “died in the wool” Baptist and a lifelong member of Unity Baptist Church. There was no standing tradition of singing the psalms in her congregation. But, it makes sense given that Ira Sankey wrote the hymn’s words upon his reflection on Psalm 91. His goal was to compose, sing, and popularize music that connected with the congregation, capturing their hearts and empowering their voices. He wanted the people to enjoy singing the hymns of praise to the Lord. One historian wrote that “Sankey chose hymns with accessible tunes that were easy to learn and insisted that the accompanying music be played softly, to emphasize the message of the words.” I think he achieved his goal with Under His Wings. Don’t you?
Stories like this one always buoy my spirit as they illustrate the providence and the grace of God at work in the history of His Church. We still sing this wonderful rendition of Psalm 91 some 130 years after Sankey wrote it. The God under whose wings Sankey found refuge is the same God under whose wings we find shleter. The Psalm’s original singers found their shelter there as well. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He works through His Church and we are blessed to inherit her legacy. May we embrace our heritage in the Lord.
Have a great day!
What Is The Church Supposed to Do?
This is my favorite time of year. Late February to the end of May in South Carolina is the season of which dreams are made! Beautiful sunshine, warmer weather, and flowers starting to bloom. In the words of Psalm 19, God is showing off his glory right now!
As we discussed Sunday, Acts 2:42-47 gives us a remarkable description of how the earliest Christians built their church on the Lord Jesus in such a way as to have a tremendous impact in their world. The description we find there also sheds light on their congregational and ministry priorities and activities. They devoted themselves to “the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (vs. 42), and they involved themselves in ministries of mercy, generosity, and outreach.
If we were to break each of those congregational priorities and activities found in Acts 2:42-47 down in detail, it would take pages upon pages to complete. And, that is NOT my desire! I want to remind us of what we called, on Sunday, the early church’s essential components of congregational life. These are the things that we must emulated if we are to be faithful and effective in the 21st century. The Bible and our culture demands a church that is focused on worship, community, service and outreach.
1. Worship — The Christian church is a worshipping family of faith. Therefore, along with the early church, our desire is to worship our Savior in such a way that is intellectually and emotionally stimulating. We are devoted to the apostles’ teaching, and so, we gather to hear God’s Word preached, sing Psalms and hymns, and offer ourselves as one in our prayers. Our worship extends to every aspect of our lives, for we are created to worship God.
2. Nurture — The Christian church is a family. God refers to the church as his family on several occasions in the Bible. Therefore, we seek to follow the early church’s example of building one another up in love by encouraging one another’s spiritual growth through fellowship, faithful stewardship, gracious generosity, christian nurture and education. We want to encourage, equip, and inspire all our brothers and sisters in Christ, young and old, to be growing and faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, reflecting him in the world.
3. Service — The Christian church is called to respond to the needs and brokenness in the world. This response isn’t to be overly planned or programmed; it is to be spontaneous, personal and organic. The early church simply responded to needs within and without their congregation. They did it generously and joyfully. So should we. We are to share God’s love by loving and caring for others in a way that brings them to Christ and allows them to flourish spiritually and personally.
4. Outreach — The Christian church is a sharing community of faith. We share the hope of our salvation with others. We let it ooze from our veins. We witness to the glory of Christ by words and deeds. Acts doesn’t specifically tell us of outreach/evangelistic programs that the early church used, but it does tell us that they had “favor with all the people,” and that “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (vs. 47). There is only one way to be saved — believe in Jesus — and there is only one way to hear of Jesus — someone telling the gospel story. Therefore, we share his love, grace and mercy with all people in all places.
The earliest Christians lived and breathed in times that were very similar to ours. They were certainly no strangers to the ideas of societal relativism and cultural narcissism. They also suffered from another deadly “ism,” syncretism, which wreaked havoc on their spiritual and religious climate. Yet, they found their balance and we are to learn from them. May we commit to being a faithful congregation that worships our God, nurtures one another in the faith, serves Christ, each other, and those of our world, and witnesses the glorious salvation that Christ gives through his grace and love.
Keep God’s Word Close to You
On a recent Sunday morning, our congregation studied Daniel’s prayer of confession on behalf of the ancient Judeans after Darius the Mede had conquered the Babylonians. It’s a beautiful prayer that really helps us understand the main components that any prayer of confession should contain. There is an acknowledgment of sin, an acceptance of responsibility, a plea for mercy, and a statement of dependence upon God for his mercy.
I didn’t have the opportunity to cover everything about Daniel 9:1-19 that I wanted to in the sermon since my emphasis was primarily on Daniel’s prayer of confession. So, I’ll comment on the first two verses of Daniel 9 now. They’re intriguing.
“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans — in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years” (Daniel 9:1-2).
Besides giving us a historical setting, these verses give us insight into Daniel’s spiritual life and commitment to God’s Word. There had been a transition of leadership in Babylon. The Medes now reigned in the place of the Babylonians. Because of his sensitivity to God’s will and plan for all things, Daniel knew the significance of this transition.
You may remember that in chapter 2 he interpreted Nebuchadnezar’s dream of a statue with a golden head, abdomen of silver, thighs of bronze, and feet of clay and iron. This dream, according to the LORD, depicted the succession of kingdoms which would rule the region over the next 1000+ years. The Babylonian kingdom would give way to the Medo-Persian Empire. The Medes would surrender to the Greeks, and the Greeks would succumb to the Romans.
Chapter 9 is set in the first year of the transition from the Babylonian Empire to that of the Medo-Persians. Daniel knew something big was happening. So, he studied Jeremiah’s prophecy because he knew that God had revealed his plans for Judah’s captivity through Jeremiah. When doing so, he revisited that God-ordained timeline with which he was already familiar. Then, he did the math. The seventy years were nearing completion.
The point I want to make is that Daniel never gave up on the Word of God. He kept it close to his heart. He knew what God had revealed regarding His purpose and plan for His people. He knew God, for God’s Word was never far from him. I wonder if it was Jeremiah’s prophecy that he was reading in view of the window that led to his being thrown into the lion’s den.
God’s Word is a gift to us. It is His self-revelation to us. It tells us exactly who He is, what He is like, and what He desires from us. It tells us His plans for His glory and our good. We should be like Daniel and keep it close to us. We should keep it in our hearts. We should keep it in our minds. Like Daniel, we will find comfort and wisdom for living every day from it.
Devote yourself to learning God’s Word and studying the Scriptures. You’ll not regret it!
The Prayer God Will Always Answer
During our adult Sunday School class this past Sunday, our congregation studied Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer from Luke 11:1-13. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray by his example and his words.
Luke referred to Jesus’s normal practice of praying alone more than all the other gospel writers. After one of his private times of prayer, Jesus’s disciples ask him to teach them to pray. Interestingly, they don’t ask him to teach them to pray as he prays. Rather, they ask him to teach them to pray like John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. I think they did this for two reasons. First, they knew Jesus had a unique relationship with His Heavenly Father that they couldn’t mimic. Second, they wanted practical lessons on how they are to pray. They wanted to pray but didn’t feel confident doing it because they believed that they didn’t know how to do it. So, Jesus taught them.
The most intriguing part of Jesus’s instruction on prayer as Luke records it is verse 13 where Jesus says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
To understand the first clause of this conditional statement — If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children…, we have to understand that Jesus is referring to two illustrations he used in verses 11 and 12. There he taught, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” No human father, who has the good of his son or his daughter in mind, would give his son or his daughter something harmful instead of something good. If they need a fish to eat, he’s not going to give them a snake. If they need an egg, he’s not going to give them a scorpion. Being good to your children is intuitive and expected even for sinful men and women. Jesus’s point is simple: if this is true for us, how much truer is it for our Heavenly Father who is inherently and perfectly good?
Jesus takes this spiritual truth and applies it in a specific way at the end of this verse by teaching that our Heavenly Father will not withhold His Holy Spirit from those who ask for Him. Our temptation when reading Jesus’s teaching on prayer, often, is to think God is binding himself to give us everything we ever ask for from him. For instance, Jesus says in Luke 11:9-10 that we will receive that for which we ask, that we will find that which we seek, and the doors upon which we knock will be opened. Is Jesus saying that we will get everything for which we long? No, he is not. God is far wiser than we are and has better plans for us than we could ever imagine. Sometimes he must tell us no for our own good.
What did Jesus mean, then, since he clearly taught that “everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened?” The answer is found in the promise that Father will never withhold His Spirit from those who ask him. Our greatest need in this life is to have the anointing and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we seek to fulfill God’s call to be faithful to Him in our lives. Thankfully, our Father will always meet that need. He will never withhold the Holy Spirit from us, and He will guide us in our prayers. He will enlighten us to our real needs and teach us to prioritize our requests to God as we pray. The more we grow in our relationship with God in Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, our prayers will specifically target our actual needs, which we know God is sure to meet. So, maturing in the faith means we leave behind the broad, materialistic, and human-centric prayers of our youth and learn to make specific, spiritually alive, and God-honoring requests of our good and gracious God. That’s the beauty of Jesus’s model prayer.
“Father, hollowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive our sins.
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
May you all be blessed in Christ and may God be pleased to pour His Spirit out upon you as you ask for Him. May he also teach you to pray in the same manner that Jesus taught His disciples while on earth.
A Prayerful Response to an All Too Familiar Reality
This post was originally sent to the members of Chester ARP Church as a pastoral letter written in response to the tragic school shooting in Nashville, TN on March 27, 2023.
Like most of you, I watched the news in horror Monday evening as the reports came streaming in from the most recent school shooting in our country. Sadly, these kinds of reports have become all too familiar to us.
I remember standing in the lobby of Burgaw Hall on the NC State Campus as the news from Columbine High School was reported in 1999. I was shocked that someone would open fire in a school. But that was then. In the 24 years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 15 of their classmates and injured another 24, we have seen over 350 more active shooter situations on our K-12 school and college campuses. That is staggering.
Thankfully, most of those situations have not ended in mass casualties. However, that does not mean that the collective numbers of those shooters’ victims are insignificant. One report following the May 2022 incident at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX indicated that at that time 554 children, educators, and school staff had been victims of gun violence on school grounds since 1999. The same report went on to say that 311,000 students have been exposed to gun violence in its various forms while at school during the same time frame. There have been an additional 23 people killed or injured while on school grounds in 2023 alone. This is simply unacceptable for a civilized nation. We have a problem.
Admittedly, the news from the Covenant School hits me differently. The Covenant School is a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Nashville, TN. One of the children killed Monday is the 9-year-old daughter of the congregation’s lead pastor, Chad Scruggs. I’m sure you are already connecting the dots. I am a pastor whose kids attend a Christian school. One of mine is also 9. Patti and I can’t begin to imagine the pain and confusion that Pastor Scruggs and his family are enduring today.
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) is a sister denomination of the ARP with whom we have an extremely close relationship. I have spoken with several ministers in the PCA since Monday and they are all hurting for the families who lost loved ones in the tragic shooting and for the Covenant congregation as well. You can certainly imagine how we would rally to the aid of our brothers and sisters if this had happened to an ARP congregation. In the community of God, we can rally to the good people of Covenant Presbyterian’s aid in prayer as well.
Inevitably, there will be many solutions offered to our ongoing crisis with gun violence. I do not profess to have any of those. I do not understand the ins and outs of policing, school safety policy, or what may or may not be reasonable gun control legislation. I will leave those discussions to the people who are equipped to evaluate our current cultural and legislative moment and make decisions moving forward. I will, however, commit myself to praying for the families of these most recent victims of gun violence as well as the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who are impacted by gun violence regularly. I read one telling statistic yesterday that claims that 59% of Americans have experienced gun violence (including suicide by firearm) or know someone closely who has experienced it. That’s 6 out of every 10 of you reading this letter!
God promises to hear our prayers and answer them. He heals the broken-hearted and comforts the grieving. He also moves among the nations to establish righteousness and justice among men. We must pray to that end.
Join me, if you will, in bringing the following requests before our God.
- That He will comfort and heal the victims of gun violence and their families who may be mourning the loss of a loved one.
- That He would protect our children, their teachers, and other school staff members while they attend school each day.
- That He will provide clarity for school administrators who are constantly reevaluating their preparedness in the case of an active shooter incident.
- That He will grant courage to the brave men and women of law enforcement and other first responding agencies as they work on their readiness to respond when called upon in these situations. (Thankfully, he already answered it in Nashville.)
- That He will revive our society’s sense of the sanctity of human life. Human life is priceless and must be protected by all.
- That He will bestow wisdom on our legislators and their advisors as they consider potential actions that may or may not be necessary for us to move forward.
- That He will send his Spirit of revival into the hearts of men, women, and children and draw us to himself in his grace through Christ, our Lord.
As we pray, we should also be willing to take practical steps to improve the safety of our communities and schools. Let’s secure our weapons, practice proper gun safety and teach our children and grandchildren to do the same, advocate for good mental health, and collaborate with people from different backgrounds and perspectives to address our ongoing crisis with gun violence. The number one cause for death among our children should not be “death by firearm.”
May our Lord be pleased to hear our prayers, protect our children, and heal our land.
A Life of Decreasing
Friends,
In our study of John’s gospel on Sunday mornings we’ll jump over some interesting stories in order to hit the highlights. We simply don’t have the time to go verse by verse.
One of those stories we’ll skip is found in verses 22-36 of chapter 3. In these verses, “John the Baptist exalts Christ.” Interestingly, Jesus and John the Baptist were in the wilderness baptizing men and women within eyesight of one another. John’s baptism was one of repentance and preparation for Jesus’s coming into the world. Jesus’s baptism was one of repentance and faith in himself. John pointed to Jesus in his words and baptism. Jesus drew people to himself. They both were of God but had radically different purposes. You may remember that John “was sent from God” and “as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through His testimony” (John 1:6-7).
While the two men were baptizing people John’s crowd got smaller and Jesus’s grew larger. The townspeople were no longer going to see John to be baptized; they went to see Jesus. Why wouldn’t they? Why would they remain with a prophet when the Lord was present? They wouldn’t because it doesn’t make sense. When John’s disciples asked Jesus later in his ministry why his disciples didn’t fast like they and the Pharisees did, he answered “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” It’s time to celebrate when the bridegroom is present for his wedding.
There were some men, though, who remained loyal to John. He was their ride or die. Their problem, however, is that they failed to see that John wasn’t interested in keeping disciples for himself. He wanted everyone to follow Jesus because he knew that Jesus was “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29) and the one who “came from heaven” and is “above all” (3:31-32). In fact, John had no problem admitting that he was not the Christ. He reminded his disciples of their experiences with him when he said, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him'” (3:28). John was simply doing his job and wasn’t bothered by his decreasing ministry and Jesus’s growing one. That’s the way it was supposed to work.
One of my friends, Bob Elliott, told me once that his favorite verse in John’s Gospel related to his own life is John 3:30 — “He must increase, but I must decrease.” John the Baptist made this statement in reference to his own life and ministry. it was his desire and pleasure (3:29) to decrease so that Jesus could be exalted. John wasn’t “in the game” for himself. He wanted Jesus and his fame to grow. He wanted those who came to hear him preach and be baptized, including his disciples, to place their faith in Jesus, “the true light which enlightens everyone” (1:9).
I think Bob’s perspective on John 3:30 is both healthy and inspiring. Like John, all of us have been called to be witnesses to Jesus and his glory. We are to point others to him in our words, actions, and commitments. We should always be pointing to Jesus saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And, we must always pursue a life of humility that enables us to decrease while he increases. May God be pleased to work in and through us to elevate Jesus.
In Christ,
Clint
Embracing the New Year
Friends,
It’s January 4, 2023! It’s a new year.
I’ve always liked the transition from one year to another. It brings a sense of change. The old is gone — 2022 — and the new has come — 2023. It’s a time for fresh starts, new routines, a new set of goals to accomplish. And, for an optimist like me, it’s a welcomed relief.
Now, we all know that the past doesn’t go away. Most, if not all of the challenges we faced in the previous year stick with us. They follow us into the new year. Our health scares are still with us. Our tense family relationships are still here. Our vices still pull on us. And, the consequences of our sin must still be dealt with. However, 2023 brings an opportunity to us — an opportunity for change, for growth, for forgiveness, for repentance, for maturity, for disciplined lives. We don’t have to be trapped by our pasts, whether they are good or bad. We can change. First, by the grace of God. Second, by faith and repentance. Third, by choices and behaviors. This is what makes New Year’s Resolutions so popular around the globe (a practice that some historians argue goes back to the ancient Babylonians).
The more cynical of us will say, “What’s the point in making New Year’s Resolutions if I’m just going to break them in six weeks?” We’ve all been there. We’ve all started strong on a new health routine, a plan for spiritual growth, or a determination to break a bad habit. My gym will be packed for the next 6-8 weeks with all those who have determined that 2023 is the year that they’re going to drop that pesky 10-20 pounds and get in better shape. By March, a significant percentage of them will stop coming and I’ll be able to use the machines and weights at my normal leisurely pace. But, does that failure to establish a new lasting habit mean that they wasted their time in January and February? No. if nothing else, they got two good months of exercise that they wouldn’t have had they not made the New Year’s resolution to start going to the gym. Those two months were better than nothing.
As you can tell, I’m a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. I think they are good for our overall health and lifestyles. For example, this year, I want to be more present with my family and our congregation, so I have logged off social media. It drains my energy and traps me to my phone as I’m constantly checking to see what the latest political or theological battle is taking place on twitter, or what kind of silliness I can find to numb my brain on Instagram reels. Also, as a family, we want to be more encouraging and grateful of each other and other people, so we have committed to writing more notes and sending more appreciative text messages.
I think the key to a good New Year’s resolution is to take a positive instead of a negative approach. Often we think negative things that we want to change about ourselves because we don’t like them. However, that approach is not beneficial to long-term change. It’s far better to settle on a version of who you or your family wants to be and then make the changes to become that person or family. A common example is: instead of saying, “I want to lose 20 lbs because I don’t like the size that I am now,” say, “I want to be healthier physically so I will get serious about having a better diet and being more active with the goal of dropping 20 lbs.” That way you have a goal to work toward without getting discouraged if you don’t achieve it quickly. The same is true for our spiritual and mental growth too.
So, I ask you, “Who do you want to be moving forward? What do you need to change in order to become the man, woman, or family that God has called you to be for his glory?” Prayerfully determine that and then make the necessary changes in your life while relying on the grace of God and his strength to change you from the inside out.
Have a great new year!
In Christ,
Clint
Be An Encourager by Faith
Friends,
One of my favorite characters in the Bible is Barnabas. In Acts, Luke tells us that he was an early convert to Christianity who came from a rich Jewish heritage. He was also one of the most generous members of the early Church. However, his encouraging spirit is the best reason for which he is remembered, for his name means, “Son of Encouragement.”
Acts 9:26-27 reads, “And when he (Paul) had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him (Paul) and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.”
Every time I read these verses, I’m struck by how instrumental Barnabas was in bringing Paul into fellowship with the other Apostles. Barnabas stood in the gap for Paul by testifying to his conversion, his initial gospel work, and his defense of the faith against the Hellenists (Acts 9:28-29). Without him, becoming a member of the small and skeptical band would have been much more difficult for Paul, if it was possible at all. They were scared of Paul, and rightly so. He was the one who had violently persecuted the earliest christians and oversaw the stoning of Stephen. How would they know he wasn’t trying to join them so that he could destroy the Christian Church before she ever got started? Barnabas’s testimony provided the necessary proof of Paul’s life-change.
Three aspects of Barnabas’s character stand out to me when I think about his story. First, he had a solid faith in our sovereign God. His faith caused him to believe that Paul could be changed by the gospel. It also caused him to give credence to Paul’s testimony of his own salvation while causing him to rest peacefully in God’s sovereignty over all the events that would take place. Second, he was courageous. Standing up for Paul wouldn’t have been an easy thing for Barnabas to do. It took courage. Everyone in the room was skeptical about Paul’s transformation. The easy thing would have been for him to remain quiet, but his courage wouldn’t let him. Third, he encouraged Paul and the other Apostles. He intentionally spoke positively about Paul’s change while reassuring the Apostles that Paul would be a great addition to their fellowship and a benefit to their mission.
We would do well to emulate these three characteristics of Barnabas’s life. We need faith to believe that life-transformation is possible, that the testimony of that transformation is credible, and that our God is sovereign over everything that happens on this earth. We should be willing to exhibit courage on the behalf of other people. Additionally, we must develop the habit of encouraging one another as we grow in grace together and spread the gospel. If we would commit to being more faithful, courageous, and encouraging our lives would be fuller, and the world would be a better place to live.
Here’s this week’s Pastoral Update where I discuss becoming an encourager in more detail. Have a great day!
In Christ,
Clint
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