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Reminder: Home Sweet Home?
I have note on my desk that says, “Remember, you have never been home.” Sometimes I can get frustrated when life doesn’t go my way or things aren’t “just right.” It is freeing for me to remember that we live in a broken age with a new world dawning that will do much more than make everything just right.
No matter where I go, I will never be home until I’m with Jesus.
Christians are bound for a better country.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Hebrews 11:13-16
So, if your life is not all that you had hoped it would be — take heart — it is not supposed to be! Happiness without end and fulfillment without measure, that is for later. These are the days of trust in Jesus and trouble with each new day.
I can’t wait to go home.
One Opinion about Exodus
Leland Ryken, noted author and literary expert, had this to say about the book of Exodus:
Exodus is the greatest adventure story ever told. After long centuries of slavery under Pharaoh, God remembered his covenant with Israel and delivered his people out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. The story of Israel’s salvation has everything that anyone would want in an adventure story: a cruel villain (Pharaoh), an unlikely hero (Moses), overwhelming disasters (the plagues), a spectacular deliverance (crossing the Red Sea), a long journey (through the wilderness), a mountaintop experience (where Moses received the Ten Commandments), and a grand finale (the presence of God coming down to the ark of the covenant, filling the tabernacle with glory). The story features unexpected setbacks and unpredictable delays, magic tricks (from Pharaoh’s sorcerers) and miracles, feasts and festivals, music and dancing, and many close encounters with the living God. God’s purpose in all of this was to show his glory by fulfilling the promises he made to his people in the covenant. The exodus is the archetypal deliverance of the OT—the definitive salvation event that established the identity of Israel as the people of God and demonstrated the character of their Deliverer as the God who saves.
This week we will be studying Exodus 4:18-31. Here are some questions that you might want to consider going into Sunday:
- How is it fair that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart?
- Why would God try and kill Moses, and how did Zipporah’s quick thinking help?
How to Own Promises
On Sunday we thought together about how to own specific promises in the Bible. Problems seem to make promises fly away. The trouble with trouble is that hard times shrink our vision and shorten our memories. How do we hold on to specific promises when the winds of trouble blow in our faces?
Try this: Start simple; hold one promise in your heart at a time.
Which one? It depends on the kind of trouble you are facing. Search scripture like a treasure hunter for that nugget of gold that will deliver hope to your broken heart.
Do you struggle with fear?
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
Are you weighed down by worry?
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you… Psalm 55:22
Are you burdened by regret?
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. Psalm 103:10
Does the cloud of hopelessness hover over you?
So, we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16
Is the darkness of depression falling on you?
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Change your promises as your trouble changes. Keep the promises of Jesus close at hand. What are the promises you are holding onto at the moment?
You can listen to Sunday’s sermon here.
Thoughts from Exodus 3 – God Promised
As the bush burned, but did not burn, God spoke promises to Moses. Among others God said, “and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land…a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:17). When the Living One promises, no power in any existence can move him off his word. Instead of hearing and believing God’s promise, Moses doubted.
Are you deaf to God’s promises because of the roar of your doubts? As Christians, the promises to us are all connected with Jesus and his gospel. In Christ we have great promises, promises better than Moses could imagine. What can a Christian do that is dogged by doubts?
John Bunyan has some timely counsel for those shouted down by their doubts,
I tell thee, friend, there are some promises though and by which the Lord has helped me to lay hold of Jesus Christ, that I would not have out of the Bible for as much gold and silver as can lie between York and London piled up to the stars; because through them Christ is pleased by his Spirit to convey comfort to my soul.
The Bible is a book unlike any other, there is gold in that there book. All the promises that it contains are resplendent, which ones sparkle for you now?
You can listen to the sermon from Sunday here.
Boasting in Weakness, Part 2
What keeps me from joyful, constant dependence on the Lord — from boasting in my weaknesses and rejoicing in His strength? Last week, I posted Part 1 about boasting in weakness, as found in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. This week I’d like to give a few common “alternatives” to boasting in weakness that are more appealing to our sinful natures:
1. The Facade approach: We simply pretend we don’t have weaknesses and work through our weariness, pain, difficulty, struggles, and temptations. We would rather seem strong to ourselves and others than admit our need and receive the Lord’s strength.
2. The Frustrated “God” approach: We choose to believe that our current weakness, trial, or challenge is not what God wants for us, but that he is either too weak or too short-sighted to eliminate the problems. God is a sympathetic observer, watching us face situations out of his control.
3. The Angry “God” approach: This is the approach of Job’s friends. Our experience of trial, temptation, or pain — our “weakness” — is exclusively the result of our sin. Either God is allowing our sin’s consequences to punish us or he is bringing calamity directly to us as a result, a direct punishment, for our past and present sins. In this approach God communicates anger through pain. We might rage against the punishment or agree in a type of self-loathing, but we certainly would not boast in our weakness, since it reflects God’s wrath.
4. The Self-Pity approach: We consider our situation to be unique and since it is unique, a God-centered response is an unreasonable expectation. Or, a slight variation, we find a morbid solace in what we “ought to have been.” Weakness becomes an opportunity to talk about what we “could have” or “should have” if only our situation had been different. In this world our unrealized potential becomes our boast, rather than our real-life weakness and God’s sustaining grace.
5. The Neglected Calling approach: Many times we experience weakness regardless of our choices. Sickness, job-loss, relational trials — many weaknesses are not connected to a particular choice to serve God. Sometimes, however, weakness is experienced precisely when we seek to pursue the calling that God has for us. Pastors experience criticism in their attempt to care, mother’s experience discouragement in their attempt to train, husbands experience weariness in their attempt to lead, missionaries experience persecution in their attempt to evangelize. In some cases the experience of weakness increases the more the calling is pursued. In these cases one way we avoid having to boast in our weakness is to avoid the callings that expose our vulnerability. We would rather avoid weakness, even if it means neglecting God’s calling.
Whatever the approach we might take to avoid boasting in weakness, the root cause is the same: I don’t want to admit my need for God. But God made me to boast in my weaknesses as the theater to display his glorious strength. My “weaknesses” are the backdrop to showcase God’s grace — healing grace in sickness, comforting grace in sorrow, sustaining grace in physical pain, assuring grace in trial, protecting grace in danger, empowering grace in weariness, fruit-bearing grace in my imperfect labor, accomplishing grace in my calling, and most importantly of all — the category that rises above all the others — saving grace for my sins. My weaknesses are an opportunity to know and see the supremely glorious grace of God.
Lord, all that I have is found in you. You have done for us all of our works. I count it all as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing you.
(This 4-part series originally posted on my blog here. Check back next week for Part 3.)
Boasting in Weakness, Part 1
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
To boast in weakness is an elusive honor reserved for broken men and women who have been rebuilt by grace. I find that I’m always searching around for some fragment of strength to boast in, always hoping for God to change his mind about showing his power in my weakness. I don’t mind weaknesses as an addendum to a history of strength. As in, “And he did all of these in spite of his inability!” But no, God isn’t looking for a way around my weaknesses, but rather to magnify himself in them. The Bible is one long narrative of God’s intention to bless the poor in spirit, to comfort those who mourn, to be with the contrite, to remember those who cry out for help, to deliver the prisoners, to heal the sick, to ransom the captives, to atone for the guilty, to resurrect the dead.
Paul’s claim that he boasts in his weaknesses often seems to be a contradiction in terms. To boast is to promote yourself, to show forth your most impressive quality, to call attention to something that will make you seem great in the eyes of others. Weaknesses are those parts of us, whether self-inflicted or providentially given, that we hope no one else will see and that we desire to deny even to ourselves. How can it be that Paul would boast in his weakness?
There are a few interpretations that I believe are incorrect. Paul is not saying that to be weak in a categorical sense is preferable to being strong. He’s not saying that the image of someone lying on a couch, ambitionless and proud of it, is the picture of godliness that he’s looking for. Laziness and hopelessness and fruitlessness are not glorifying to God. After all, Paul is the one who calls us “more than conquerors” and wants us to be “strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” Neither is Paul claiming that we should publicly highlight our weak areas while secretly harboring confidence in our “strengths.” After all, God sees our hearts! And Paul cannot be saying that in most areas we really are self-sufficient but God wants us to recognize the areas where we need his “help.” A sort of “thanks for the boost, God” lifestyle.
No–the truth is far more penetrating, convicting, transforming, terrifying, exhilarating. Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
Precisely at the point of weakness and need. Precisely at the point of our desperation. Precisely at the point of our dependance. Precisely at the point that we see that we have nothing without God. When…whenever…I am weak…then…at that point…in that moment….I am strong.
Admission of my weakness is the access point of supernatural power. So that when I am weak, then I am strong.
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Cor. 12:10
Help me, Lord Jesus to boast in my weaknesses. Help me to love your glory more than my own–to run forward risking all and giving all for you, all the while admitting that I have nothing to offer that you don’t first give, then empower, then sustain, then preserve, then render eternally useful. Jesus, keep me near your cross of power in weakness, glory in shame, hope in death. And make my boast only in you. Reveal my true state of perpetual and comprehensive need for you. Help me to humbly admit my weakness. And then glorify your unlimited strength in my life. Be strong in my weakness, Lord. I want the “most impressive thing” about me, the thing that I “want others to see,” my areas of “boasting,” to be you.
(This 4-part series originally posted on my blog here. Check back next week for Part 2.)
Waiting on the Lord
I’m grateful for David, the shepherd-king, for many reasons. Like many Christians I have been grateful for his example of trust in the Lord, of passionate worship, of constant prayer, of broken confession. I’m also grateful for something that he has taught me again and again from the last few verses of Psalm 27, to “wait on the Lord.”
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
What does it mean to wait on the Lord? My heart prefers self-important busyness or self-indulgent laziness. But waiting on the Lord indicates a readiness to move when the Lord speaks, combined with an admission of dependance on the Lord’s strength and guidance. Waiting on the Lord means that I do not issue my own orders, but follow his. It means I have no strength of my own but must glory in his. It means that I cannot live without prayer. It means that I live in constant need of the Lord’s sustaining grace and guiding Word. It means that the Lord is my rock and my salvation–that I am neither rock-like nor a champion, but rather a weary pilgrim in need of heavenly rest.
Lord, teach me to wait on you. Teach me to be always ready to move at your command, but equally content to stay in my current circumstance at your order. Let my “heart take courage” as I “wait on the Lord.”
To read this and other blog posts, you can visit my blog here.
Foster Care & Adoption
We all know that the gospel is a message that we must share with non-Christians. One of the most practical ways to share the love of Jesus is by taking children in our homes who would otherwise have no place to go. Through adoption, not only can we give them a home with us, but we can also point them to the eternal home with Jesus. Interested? Jessica Prather, a social worker in our church, has some thoughts:
We have a conviction through scripture to care for the orphans in our world
We believe that scripture calls us as Christians to care for and love children (James 1:27). One way that our church would encourage responding to this call is through fostering and adopting Arizona’s vulnerable children. Our state is in a crisis and in desperate need of Christian families to step up and become foster and adoptive parents. Our prayer is that our church would be filled with families who become foster and adoptive parents to children in need of loving homes.
First Steps
If you are interested in becoming a foster/adoptive parent, the first step is to attend an orientation to gather more information regarding foster care and adoption (2012 orientation schedule can be found here). The other option is to schedule an intake meeting with a Christian Adoption Agency (agencies listed below), and the intake coordinator can explain the process to you.
Resources
We hope you find these resources informative in helping you on your way to becoming foster and adoptive parents.
Agape Adoption Agency
Christian Family Care Agency
Bethany Christian Services
Adoption Tax Credit
Together for Adoption
If you have any questions regarding foster care and adoption you can contact Jessica Prather via email.
Relate 2012 Session Messages
This past weekend our church and the tfs ministry were host to Relate 2012. This 2-day conference brought singles age 17+ from SGC, neighboring states, and local Phoenix churches together to look at the topic of relationships and romance. The three sessions were taught by Jon Payne, who sought to direct our focus to the only source of advice we need when it comes to this area of our lives–God’s word. Jason Hansen led worship with the tfs band and a few additions from other churches. And we can’t forget “The Jordans” (Jordan Johnson and Jordan Morales) who did the “announcements” throughout.
You can listen to the messages by going to the Relate website here. Pictures will be posted soon on the Relate website, but here is a preview of what the conference was like. We look forward to doing this again at Relate 2013 in January next year!
Christmas at Rancho 3M
The wonderful staff at Rancho 3M in Mexico sent us pictures of the kids opening their Christmas gifts that we sent. Thank you Sovereign Grace Church for your generosity! Please take a look at these photos to see the kids’ appreciation…
Christmas Trip to Rancho 3M, Day Two
A second letter from Dale Furnish, writing from Rancho 3M on Monday, December 19, 2011:
“I started this in the El Paso airport waiting for a flight to Phoenix, having bailed out early on the group of fourteen at the Rancho 3M. It is spitting rain here, and pretty cold. In fact, it looks like most of the grunt labor has finished and tomorrow promises fun and games and crafts and Christmas cookies with the kids.
We got a lot done, including a night session after dinner on Sunday, when all the boxes of Feliz Tree presents were unloaded and stored away to wait for Christmas, several more classrooms got painted, the two tetherball posts were cemented in, and further cleaning of the workshop took place. Today was a cold, raw day with a cold, cutting wind and serious chill factor, and most of the kids stayed mostly inside. Meanwhile, we got new doorknobs and deadbolts on all the classroom doors and the chapel doors; the tetherballs placed on the new poles, which immediately begin to attract a group of kids to learn a new game; new basketball backboards up; more classrooms painted—the painters were within reach of finishing all fourteen rooms when I left; and a large galvanized steel pipe greenhouse frame perhaps 20’ by 30’ out of its site behind the school (where it had apparently never been used to teach the children about gardens and growing vegetables as originally intended), over a 7-foot fence with barbed wire at the top and on its way across the Rancho 3M campus to the area of the family homes where the Adameks and others can grow vegetables in it. I may have forgotten something, but we at least did all of this, and seemed to complete our punch list.
The greenhouse moving project was everything good about working at Rancho 3M. To me, it looked borderline impossible. It provoked discussion about how to accomplish the whole job, from getting the bolted-pipe frame free from its moorings, to getting it over the fence and finally moved about a quarter mile or more. It was good to have the manpower that we had this trip for this project, and to see the cooperation that made it possible. In my recollection, it seems like a miracle that we got that frame over that fence, doing it the way we did it. Fortunately, no safety experts or union reps were on the job, but God was.
While some of the men played in the dirt and wielded cordless drills and hammers and other tools that made noise, the younger women helped paint and helped clean up the workshop (a never-ending task, but it is in pretty good order now), and all the women found time to help out wherever needed on all the other jobs and also set up meals and all of the arts, crafts and games. I did not see any of that, but if the craft and games day is like the meals, it will come off flawlessly and lift the hearts of children and everybody else, and get the Sovereign Grace folks started home in good spirits, a little beaten up and achy here and there perhaps, but with a strong sense of accomplishment and thankful for another opportunity to receive God’s blessings in our service to others.
Overall, the visit left me with a renewed respect for the regular staff. We supply lots of support and real improvements, but the whole campus needs constant maintenance and administration. The environment beats on everything, and the orphanage uses it hard. We can step in and make a real difference, but do not put out any of the daily fires and problems that come up. As one example, we got new doorknobs and deadbolts on beaten-up doors. A lot of the doors really need to be rehabilitated completely, and will cause regular problems that staff will have to deal with.
Monday afternoon, we broke out the gloves and soft baseballs again, and everybody was outside with a glove playing catch at the end of the day. Almost everybody from Sovereign Grace was playing ball with the kids in a scene of happy chaos. There is another day Tuesday, and more of the same, probably the most specific contact with the kids, as the visit winds down. There are some new kids at Rancho 3M, and some that we had gotten to know have left, but the core of children remains, growing, learning, forming patterns and attitudes that will shape their lives. To know that the children’s development takes place in the godly environment Rancho 3M provides, and to which we contribute, should encourage every heart. The world is hard and filled with sin and depravity, but we can overcome through Jesus and serving Him. Rancho 3M is a clear and present blessing for us all, and should fortify everyone’s faith and trust in the Lord, His grace, His mercy and His salvation for us all, on both sides of the border.”
Christmas Trip to Rancho 3M, Day One
A letter from Dale Furnish, writing from Rancho 3M on Sunday, December 18, 2011:
“The sun has gone down—a beautiful sunset behind the hills to the west—on our first full day at Rancho 3M, and the Felíz Tree Christmas-present boxes are being transferred into the Women’s Guest Dormitory right now. The Bells and the Schepps pulled in this afternoon in time to take part in the “mostly locals versus the mostly visiting gringos” soccer game, which the locals won 3-1. Diane and Scott Mitchell are preparing supper and all of the kids are in their dormitories, after a very active day.
The trip over for eight of us on Saturday produced no major events, good news. We got across the border by 2:30 PM local time, and the Mexican customs and army gave us the minimum of checks, opening a few suitcases and then waving us through. The first day was overcast, raw and cold, but we broke out baseball gloves and balls and had everybody playing catch, some for the first time judging from the way they threw and the fact that they did not know how to put on their gloves and often tried them on the wrong hand. Every kid enthusiastically joined in, although we fell a few gloves short.
We accomplished a lot of tasks today, which dawned clear and crisp. After a great breakfast of egg-sausage casserole and fresh-ground coffee (we seem to eat very, very well on these trips . . . courtesy of several wives who are not here, and Diane, who is, but for all of whom we are very thankful) we split up. Hunter Stout, man of a hundred skills, started welding reinforcement rails on the fence, with Aubrey Lyts and Diane carrying the rails to the fence. The fence is about 3½ miles long, so Hunter will probably not get it all welded this trip, but he put in a full day at it, with one break when he ran out of gas for the welder.
Scott, and then Diane after she had finished carting steel rails, cleaned out the shop, a feat close to Hercules’ mythical cleaning of the Sysiphian stables. Three trucks full of junk and other stuff went to the dump, and the workshop now looks neat, clean and organized as it has not looked for decades.
Danny Stehlik and Enrique Canales started painting classrooms in the school—now out for vacation until after Christmas. There are fourteen classrooms and Danny figured 1½ hours per classroom, so it should take over 20 hours to get them painted. Aubrey joined the painters after she finished her hauling stint. So far three rooms have been painted, and we will paint at night to see if we can get all rooms done.
Jonathan Lambros and I put a roof on the pump station/welding shop, and began to install two tether-ball poles.
We did take a break to join everyone for a great mid-day meal of tamales, rice and beans, singing Mañanitas (Mexican “Happy Birthday”) to all September-December birthdays. Rancho 3M normally does not serve dessert, but every three months or so, they have a mass birthday party, this one with cupcakes and ice cream cups. In between lunch and dessert, we played field hockey, and then finished off the day with soccer.
So it was a day with a lot of work, a lot of good food and a lot of time with the kids and Rancho 3M personnel. When we play sports here, everyone participates, from me (71) to the little 7- and 8-year-olds, and everybody in between, all at the same time, all in the same game. It is great to see the soccer ball moving upfield through about 20-25 people of all ages, and a 10-year-old execute a great fake and go around a 40-year-old.
Nice to see the six reinforcements arrive without incident, and be around a table with fourteen Sovereign Grace saints, breaking bread and planning projects. Rancho 3M has changed a lot since I began coming here, notably for the better. There are more and better structures, and the existing structures have improved under our efforts. We are not the only church that visits Rancho 3M, but we certainly contribute to the ongoing enterprise of the orphanage.
The kids are the reason for Rancho 3M and make it what it is. The kids’ enthusiasm overflows. It shows in their eyes and in their body language. It shows in their energy and the joy with which they do everything . . . everything! In many ways, they do not have a lot. By our standards, they are poor in material goods and lifestyle. They are getting a good education, however, and they all know about the Lord and the gospel. They are not all believers, but they have as strong a start as any children could get in the Word. They are active, healthy kids, much more active physically than many American kids these days. They respect discipline, despite their typical kids’ inclination to get into trouble. There is a lot going on with these kids, body, mind and heart, and it is virtually all good in this environment on the Rancho 3M. The Rancho 3M kids prosper in every way that counts.
Never forget, however, that every one of these kids has a horrible story behind them. Some carry visible scars. All carry internal scars that seem to heal, and hold out hope for their spiritual development and spiritual maturity over the long term. The older kids here seem less rebellious and more caring towards the younger kids than we often expect. Some of the current full-time personnel grew up on Rancho 3M.
All of the Rancho 3M personnel glorify God with their work here. While we are blessed to be able to come down every three months or so, they are here full time, at great sacrifice in worldly goods and praise. The Rancho 3M staff sets the tone for the whole operation. They are joyful, godly people. They are fun to be around. I have not met one who does not manifest the fruit of the Spirit. If the kids are the reason for Rancho 3M, the Rancho 3M staff is the reason that the kids are so bright-eyed and bursting with healthy growing. I cannot think of a greater blessing to all of us than to be a part of supporting Rancho 3M.”
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