Category Archives: Miscellaneous

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When Death Strikes

The End of Death

For Ryan, Jayme, and Eli

I’ve been helped these last few months, when thinking about the Smiths, by an old poem of John Donne’s titled, “Death, Be Not Proud.” It says,

Death, be not proud, though the whole world fear you:
mighty and dreadful you may seem,
but death, be not proud—for your pride has failed you— you will not kill me.
Though you may dwell in plague and poison,
You’re a slave to Fate and desperate men—
So death, if your sleep be the gates to heaven, why your confidence?
You will be no more. Even death will die.

A Season of Unusual Suffering

When we began our fall series on Job I was personally stepping into waters of great trepidation. Who in our church would be met with unexpected suffering over the course of our study? Who would say the truth from Job arrive “just in time” for them during a season of pain and hardship?

I didn’t think those questions were unrealistic. God is sovereign over His powerful word. It is never accidental that a church hears the text it hears each week it gathers together. If, after much humble prayer and meditation, a new book of the Bible is selected for study, I take it to mean God wants those people to hear that book at that time. If you agree with that statement, then a mere cursory knowledge of Job would lead you to conclude – like me – that unusual suffering might be coming our way this fall.

And came it did.

The fall of 2014 will be indelibly written on my heart as a season of shepherding a small church through unusual suffering. Unusual suffering that included this story of the Smiths and little Eli.

When Questions Become Real

In almost every one of our studies in Job I tried to pull out from the individual text what I saw as the dominant question at that moment in Job’s experience of suffering. I went back and looked and here were the questions we’d considered in the month leading up to when Ryan and Jayme first found out about Eli’s condition:

  • Will you magnify God even if you suffer innocently?
  • Will you trust God even if your suffering is unexplainable?
  • Will you hope in God if [no one understands your pain]?
  • Will you trust God is for you when your suffering makes no sense?

Little did any of us know how real those questions were about to become to Ryan and Jayme’s experience. It was the week after that last question that Emily got a phone call from Jayme telling us the news about little Eli. A few hours later in a text message exchange we had Ryan said, “We are thankful for your teaching on Job. There was never any doubt that we’d need it, we just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon.” My immediate thought was, “Me too brother. Me too.”

Faithful Acceptance When God Doesn’t Answer

One of the more amazing things about Job’s story is that he never gets an answer from God of why he was made to suffer so grievously. We know from chapters one and two because the reader peaks behind the veil of heaven. All Job gets is a sovereign God appearing in a whirlwind saying, “All you need to know is that I’m sovereign over everything.” So in and around Thanksgiving as we walked through the whirlwind chapters the main thoughts we considered were:

  • Trust in God’s sovereignty will sustain you through suffering.
  • Surrendering to God’s sovereignty will keep you steadfast in suffering.

I know you all agree, and we’ve already celebrated tonight, that Ryan and Jayme have modeled surrender to and trust in a God sovereign over their suffering. I have personally taken a few encouragements and challenges from the Smiths through this season that I’m sure many of you will resonate with.

The sweetness of God’s sovereignty. The most consistent Bible verse I’ve heard from Ryan and Jayme these past few months is Job 1:28, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” I remember saying in our study of that text, “I’ve always wondered if I would respond like Job when surprising suffering comes my way?” I don’t have to wonder about Ryan and Jayme. Their lives and words have preached a powerful sermon these last few months. A message that says there’s a powerful and peculiar sweetness in knowing God is sovereign, even over the matters of pain and loss.

The sweetness of Christ’s victory. Richard Sibbes a Puritan so enflamed with love for Christ he was called the “Sweet Dropper” for all his joyful meditations on God’s glory once said, “Death is only a grim porter to let us into a stately palace.” Faith in Christ give Christians a totally new perspective on death. It’s why Paul can say, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” It’s why the Smiths can say in an email, “We are thankful that God has taken Eli in a way that was easiest for him, and that he is now in his permanent home, worshiping the Lord. It is hard to believe that we have a child who has gone home before us, but we take so much comfort in that reality.”

That reality which the Bible declares,

 Behold! I tell you a mystery . . .

 “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

 Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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A Wednesday of Weeping

Today is one of those days when tears of sorrow cover a pastor’s soul.

Back in November I mentioned how some members at IDC – and close family friends – found out their third child, a thirteen-week-old infant, had anencephaly. It’s a serious birth defect that meant the baby, if it made it to term, would not survive many hours out of the womb.

Yesterday they found out little Eli didn’t even make it to term. He died in the womb at twenty-four weeks.

And so this Wednesday is one of weeping for our church body.

Yet we do not weep from fear. We weep with faith, for death will be no more.

Then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

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Another Arrow

imageKnox Andrew Stone made his long-awaited debut yesterday. We are praising God for His blessing of a fourth arrow in our quiver! (Psa. 127:3-4)

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A Wedding Exhortation

Two Become One

For Jacob and Haley.

We gather today as observers of a wedding because God loves to make new things. We are witnessing before our very eyes the formation of a new household through a new marriage. It’s wise for us, especially in the shifting shadows and institutions of the world we live in, to understand what we are watching tonight and why we are watching it. What I first want to do, then, is briefly outline what the Bible understands marriage to be – I want to help us all meditate on that. After, I want to encourage Jacob and Haley individually in the God-given design of husband and wife.

To the Witnesses

It is a wondrous thing to know a God who providentially rules and governs everything in the universe. Ephesians 1 tells us he works all things to the counsel of his will, to the praise of His glory. So then it is no accident we are here tonight; God has been on the move in the lives of Jacob and Haley.

Marriage is not something we create, but it is something God purposes to sing and shout His grace. It began all the way back in the Garden of Eden. Right after the Lord created Eve, the Bible says something surprising. Adam had found no helper suitable to him among all the beasts that he had named, it was not good for him to be alone, and so God caused a deep sleep to come upon him, removed a rib from his side, and fashioned a woman out of it. God then presented the woman to the man, and his first words—the first human words uttered in the Bible—were words of poetry in praise of the gift he had been given. And what does the next verse say? It says that every marriage after that point should in some fashion be an imitation of this one. It uses the word therefore. Here it is: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). God gives us four vital elements of marriage in this one verse. It is an exclusive relationship. It says that a man shall cleave to his wife. The baseline pattern is one man, one woman, one time. Second, marriage is a public relationship. Notice that it says that a man shall leave his father and mother. This is something that people notice. It is public. Third, it is a permanent relationship. The text says that the man is united to his wife. He cleaves to her. Jesus, later in quoting Genesis 2 says, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” And fourth, marriage is a united relationship; the two become one flesh. Thomas Adams said, “God by creation made two of one, so again by marriage He made one of two.”

So these are the normative parts of marriage: it’s an exclusive, public, and permanent union. But we must add a fifth. It is a gospel-declaring relationship. Paul too quotes Genesis 2 (in Ephesians 5) and says the marriage relationship reveals to the world the relationship between Christ and his church. The Bible tells us every person is born in sin and are thus under the wrath of God. They can do absolutely nothing to remedy the Black Plague of Sin that mars their soul. But God, in His great love for sinners like you and me, sent His Son Jesus Christ to live the perfect life we were supposed to live and die the death we were supposed to die. Three days later He rose again and now reigns at the Father’s right hand. He reaches down and gives eternal life to all who turn from their sin and trust in Him. This is the gospel, the good news. By His blood He ransomed His church, which the Bible also calls His bride.

And marriage, under the gracious sovereignty of God, is meant to declare and display this good news through the relationship between a husband and wife. Now we give our attention to the about-to-be husband.

To the Groom

Jacob, your role as a husband is clear as crystal: in your love and leadership of Haley you are to reflect the love and leadership of Jesus over His church. This means foundationally that you are to love Haley with a love that knows no height, breadth, length, or depth. It is a love ordinarily typified by sacrifice. You must give yourself every day to see your Haley grow and increase in the grace and knowledge of God. This assumes therefore that you are growing as well. Do not let your affections for the Lord run dry, for the minute your affectional-river drains is the minute your leadership of Haley runs on the fumes of small smoke, rather than the full flame of God. Be diligent to cultivate a deeper sense of the unsearchable riches of Christ. And keep everything in proper proportion. Haley, as wonderful as she is not meant to satisfy you, she is meant to come alongside you and help you glorify God, help you together find nothing more satisfying than our great God.

To the Bride

Haley, the kindness of God means we also don’t have to guess at what He wants you to be as a wife. Just as the church serves, submits, and dedicates herself to the Lord Jesus, so too are you to give of yourself to follow Jacob – wherever our good God leads. You are both created in the image of God and thus stand before Him as equals in Christ, yet your roles are different. To submit to Jacob as the church submits to Christ means you have a growing inclination to follow Jacob’s leadership and a delighted disposition to yield to his decisions. Doing this, you will glorify God by relating to your husband the way that the church is to relate to Christ. If you are walking with God—constantly thanking Him for His moment-by-moment grace and continually calling on Him for help—you will find your God-appointed role to be like rich, fertile, pleasant soil, and like a beautiful flower of a wife you will flourish.

To You Both

William Carey once said, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” God is giving you a great thing in this marriage. You must now use this marriage to do great things for God. You must remember, great things are never easy things. When you step down from this stage as husband and wife you enter a spiritual battlefield unlike any other you’ve ever faced. Marriage is meant reveal the gospel and the Snake hates the gospel. He will launch a frontal assault to destroy your joy in marriage so that God will not get the glory He must receive. But do not fear the bared teeth and destructive pursuit of this roaring lion named Satan; Jesus, the Lion of Judah, has conquered. Your marriage is one to be lived as a visible announcement to the world of Jesus’ victory.

So then, let me end by encouraging you to pray for and pursue four things at you attempt great things through this great union of marriage.

Pray for and pursue holiness. Marriage is meant to make you holy, and holiness is the ultimate happiness. Jacob, what Haley needs from you more than anything else is your personal holiness. Haley, what Jacob needs from you more than anything else is your personal holiness. Strive with the Spirit’s power, through the word, for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord and no marriage can find its intended delight.

Pray for and pursue wisdom. When God set Solomon as king over Israel He appeared one night and said, “Ask what I shall give you.” Solomon said, “Give me now wisdom . . . for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?” We can something similar about this covenant relationship. Who can glorify God in marriage, which is so great? Those who are wise in Christ. The treasures of wisdom are hidden in Christ and they come from the fear of God; get those treasures through that fear.

Pray for and pursue humility. Pride is Satan’s favorite tactic of assault; slay it with humility. Each of you, have the mind of Christ, and count the other as better than yourself.

Pray for and pursue joy. Joy in God is the fountainhead from which joy in each other flows. Sin and Satan will rapidly want you to be bored with each other and grow cold towards each other. If you let joy in God be your constant song you will then find your home to a symphony of love for each other and glory for God.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.

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Thankful for Surprises

Thankful

Back in early June I spent a couple days at a cabin in the middle of Nowhere, TX for a period of what Spurgeon called “holy inaction and consecrated leisure.”

I’m not sure it’s a good thing to have measureables for holy inaction (is it truly “inaction” at that point?), but I nevertheless walked into the cabin with several goals in mind. One of them was settling the preaching calendar for the remainder of 2014.

CRUNCH TIME WAS COMING

At any given moment I usually have the next twelve months of sermons at IDC planned. We were due to finish the gospel of Mark at the end of June and the existing plan called for a series of summer sermons in Proverbs before turning to Genesis in the fall. For well over a year I was preparing those respective series, but as time went by I increasingly felt as though the Lord was leading elsewhere. My restlessness was largely due to shepherding conversations I’d had. Proverbs and Genesis would undoubtedly be profitable for us (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16), but I sensed they wouldn’t directly address the issues our congregation was facing at that moment.

My problem – and hence the indecision after months of pondering – was that I seemed incapable of articulating exactly what those very issues were. It was a strange place to be sure.

Clarity then came in an unexpected way.

A SOVEREIGN SURPRISE

JobOn my second morning in the middle of Nowhere I pulled up Feedly to read the morning’s blog posts and was immediately summoned to a post from Justin Taylor entitled, “The Richest, Most Moving, Most Deeply Cross-Centered and God-Glorifying Treatment of Job I Have Ever Read.” The post simply listed the endorsements from Christopher Ash’s forthcoming commentary on Job. The smashing and superlatives statements contained in the various endorsements steeled my gaze in a most certain way: I knew Job was the next book of the Bible we needed to study.

It was one of those moments of rare, immediate, and unexpected Spirit-wrought certainty.

As I prayed and meditated on the matter I realized what those “impossible to articulate” congregational matters were: 1) the sovereignty of God and 2) the suffering of God’s people. Our congregation was (and is) full of people falling headlong into one or both of these issues. Some were learning and leaning into the application of God’s sovereignty to their lives, others were going through seasons of pronounced difficult and pain.

Studies in Proverbs and Genesis would no doubt apply to those issues, but Job confronts them with peculiar power.

And so we’ve spent the last few months studying Job and his story of suffering has indeed confronted us with peculiar power. I’ve never before received consistency of comments like, “That was exactly what I needed to hear,” and, “I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a sermon series.” Job has been a sovereign word for multiple seasons of suffering.

And so I’m thankful for sovereign surprises.

How has God surprised you with His sovereign care this year?

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The Cemetery of Ministry

Cemeteries and Sanctification

“Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.” – Edwards

It doesn’t take anyone long to notice I live a life of routine. The less charitable might call me predictable, while the more understanding call me disciplined. I’m sure the reality is somewhere in between.

For the majority of my pastoral ministry I’ve been in a more traditional church setting, replete with church buildings and offices. Those structures are great friends for habit and routine. It was easy to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same place. Those were the good ol’ days.

MOVING IS MY ENEMY

Since we started Imago Dei Church at the beginning of last year my grip on routine was dealt a mighty blow, as we have neither a church building nor office. For much of the last two years my daily routine was everything but routine. Where I was on a given day depending on any number of factors. Sometimes I would move to three or four locations in a given day based on what work I had on my plate. I imagine that those of you who love changes in scenery would think that workflow would be fun, but to me that constant movement is an elusive shadow that haunts my soul. Yes, it is that grave.

So it was to my profound joy and comfort that my parents purchased a townhome – now popularly known in our family as “The Townhouse” – in McKinney earlier this year (they live in Bryan, TX) and asked if I’d like to use it as an office when they weren’t around (which on average is about three weeks a month). “Let me think about it . . . uh, YES!”

Routine returned and productivity flourished.

A CHANGE OF SCENERY

The still silence of The Townhouse has allowed my mind to focus, but I’ve realized in recent weeks how my soul is feeling less energized. Maybe it’s because I’m not around a consistent conversational banter during the day or because the lonesome structure can easily amplify Lone Ranger feelings in ministry. Whatever the reason, I thought to myself this week, “I need to find another place where I can consistently go; a place that will fuel the soul.”

After thinking for a few minutes of options nearby the proverbial “Ding! Ding! Ding!” went off in my mind.

I needed to go to the cemetery.

TRUST AMIDST TOMBSTONES

Two things in this created world seem to have unique power to stir my soul: mountains and cemeteries. We don’t have any mountains in McKinney, but we do have cemeteries.

Walking amongst the tombstones always does something powerful. I am reminded of: my mortality, God’s gracious provision of life, the fleeting nature of time, the impact of faithful generations, and how much I long to do something with this vaporous moments that remain.

Pastoral ministry is a ministry of life and death. Our gilded age celebrates the life-giving nature of faithful ministry, but what of the death-demanding side of things? We must give ourselves over to death so our people might live. We must die to the flesh, the world, and the devil. We must prepare our people to die trusting in the kind arms of the Father.

Sitting under a tree at the cemetery reminds me of all these things. It helps me pray with perspective. It helps me read and write with purpose.

In short, it feeds my soul.

WHAT’S YOUR PLACE?

While not every pastor has my possibly morbid attachment to cemeteries, I’m sure every one of us has a particular place or setting that stirs the soul. What’s yours?

Know it, find it, and then use it to propel you to greater faithfulness in the ministry to which He’s called you.

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The Beautiful Game

Precious few things will cause me to deviate in this space from things related to ordinary ministry through the ordinary means. But today I venture out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

For this afternoon the 2014 World Cup begins.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . .”

For the next month I will be glued to the drama soon to unfold down in Brazil and you should be too. Remember, our God reigns over the nations, and those nations are transfixed with “the beautiful game.”

To whet your appetite I give you the greatest American moment from the 2010 World Cup.

My man Landon1 shook up the country with his 92nd minute strike against Algeria to secure the team’s place into the Round of 16.

And I celebrated with seminary students in, of all places, Charlotte, North Carolina. I had traveled out to RTS for a summer module and actually thought hard about dropping the class when I noticed it would cause me to miss the USA’s final group game against Algeria. World Cup Soccer does things to me few people understand. But I went, and in God’s providence the scheduled class ended early on that fateful day of June 23, 2010.

The classmate on my left, one brother named Joel, pulled up the game on espn.com and we were able to watch the nail-biting final twenty minutes. I wish someone would have taken a video of us that day for we would surely have made the YouTube offering above. Fifteen seminary students – many of whom cared little about soccer – were huddled in close to a fifteen inch screen yelling, pounding tables, and crying out in exasperation. When LD smashed home the game winner we made such a ruckus that all the administrative staff ran upstairs to see what the emergency was.

What a day.

What a moment.

What a game.

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  1. I had the occasion to play with him on the Olympic team during our failed bid to make the 2004 Summer games in Athens. Not to mention the other times I had to chase him around the field during my few years in the MLS. ↩
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The Twilight of Youth

Another Decade

On Sunday I began the fourth decade of my existence. In other words, I turned 30.

Such an occasion provides the opportunity for focused introspection, so allow me to take a diversionary dive in this post.

HERE’S TO THE SUNSET OF FOOLISHNESS . . .

Unsurprisingly, many people have asked if I feel “old” now that I can no longer lay claim to being a vicenarian.1 I actually feel little difference between being 29 or 30 because there is still “youth” in the 30s. But there isn’t any youth in the 40s, thus my youth is in its twilight. And I intend to make the most of that sun setting beyond the horizon.

Among the many different things associated with youth we can probably all agree that “foolishness” would lie close to the fore. If the 30s are in fact the twilight of youth, they ought to also be the twilight of foolishness. My hope, should God be kind enough to give me another ten years, is to labor to find foolishness fading and wisdom flourishing.

I often think about going back in time and counseling various versions of my early self. And I have found that my counsel always centers on slaying the various parts of my soul that loved to play the fool. Why not then, in this fourth decade of life, declare war on foolishness and strive for its sunset?

. . . AND THE SUNRISE OF WISDOM

A plodding perspective is needed however. As long as sin remains it will find a faithful friend in folly, so this declaration of war is means D-Day more than the Battle of Berlin. The foe will be vanquished, but the fight will be longer than I’d like with defeats and distractions – maybe even disasters like Market Garden – along the way. (Let the WWII readers understand.)

I think it took me a full three decades to understand two things, the first of which is truly seeing the value of wisdom. I have seen the world, tasted of fame, filled a bank account, added to my quiver, wanted for nothing, and yet found all these things to be wanting in and of themselves. Wisdom is better. God said so. Gold, silver, rubies, and precious jewels have nothing on this beauty named Wisdom (Prov. 8:11; 16:16).

The second thing I now see after climbing God’s mountain for 29 years are the two inseparable fountains from which wisdom flows: the fear of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Fear-filled awe of God is after all the “beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 1:7) and Christ is the treasure chest of “wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

Beholding God’s glory in Christ then is the ultimate weapon to carry as I storm the shores of folly on the way to wisdom. Therefore, I must gird the spiritual loins with the Word of God. May this be a decade of biblical advance through meditation, study, and application. May my love for the things in this world darken as I look unto the Sun of Righteousness who is seated at the right hand of God on high. Why should my days be occupied with anything else?

A BURNING LIGHT

It seems like advancing into a new decade is commonly a cause of lamentation and not celebration. I propose to buck the trend. Increased age is not regress, but progress. A pilgrim-like progress unto the celestial city.

May I, light the Baptizer, be a burning light whose life cries out, “Behold the Lamb!” Wisdom shines and burns. So God, help me get a heart of wisdom.

  1. A silly, but fun way to say “twenty-something.” ↩
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Spring Break in Africa

Starting tomorrow the blog will be silent as I am on my way to Uganda with a team from IDC.

Sixteen of us are off to serve at Restoration Gateway over spring break. We will be doing everything from teaching the Bible, to construction, to soccer camps, to dental and medical clinics, to kids programs and caring for orphans. I’d appreciate any prayer!

Somewhat regular blogging will resume, Lord willing, on March 17th.

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The Parable of Sleep

In Quest of Rest

I am currently in the midst of a rather grueling schedule of ministry, meetings, and post-graduate studies. There is simply not enough time in the day to do everything I would like to do.

And so my solution is to fight sleep. Which is always an ungratefully bad idea.

An old article from Piper captures the blessed struggle of sleep with characteristic aplomb:

Why did God design us to need sleep? We sleep a third of our lives. Just think of it: a third of our lives spent like dead men. Just think of everything being left undone that could be done had God not designed us to need sleep. There is surely no doubt that he could have created us with no need for sleep. And just think, everyone could devote himself to two careers, and not feel tired. Everyone could be a “full-time Christian worker” and still keep his job. There is so much of our Father’s business we could be about.

Why did God imagine sleep? He never sleeps! He thought the idea up out of nothing. He thought it up for his earthly creatures. Why! Psalm 127:2 says, “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved in his sleep.” According to this text sleep is a gift of love, and the gift is often spurned by anxious toil. Peaceful sleep is the opposite of anxiety. God does not want his children to be anxious, but to trust him. Therefore I conclude that God made sleep as a continual reminder that we should not be anxious but should rest in him.

Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God. “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). But Israel will. For we are not God. Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. How humiliating to the self-made corporate executive that he has to give up all control and become as limp as a suckling infant every day.

Sleep is a parable that God is God and we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while a hemisphere sleeps. Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day: Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Don’t let the lesson be lost on you. God wants to be trusted as the great worker who never tires and never sleeps. He is not nearly so impressed with our late nights and early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties on him and sleeps.

So even though there is more I wanted to do this day, I head to bed . . . in quest of rest.