In Honor of My Granddaddy

This was originally posted five years ago, shortly after my Granddaddy's death. Today is the 5th anniversary of his going home to be with the Lord and I miss him, but I still adore the goodness of God even in the midst of the sorrow.

April 11, 2008

Sarah Edwards was the wife of the great pastor/theologian Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards died from a smallpox vaccination. Sarah wrote these words to their daughter shortly after the death of their husband/father:

“My very dear child! What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore His goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and He has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be. Your affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards.”

I adore the goodness of God in all the years that he gave my granddaddy to me and my family. I do hurt at his death. I hurt in a way I have never hurt before. It's a hurt that seems to cut both ways. In a sense, you want it to go away or ease up. But, in another way--just as fervent--you don't want it to leave because the depth of the hurt is an indication of the depth of the love and I never want that love to be minimized or forgotten.

However, even through the hurt I do, by God's grace adore the goodness of God that we had my granddaddy for so long. I adore his goodness in using my granddaddy to bring me to faith in Christ and for setting such a marvelous example of a loving grandfather and faithful pastor. Granddaddy wrote in one of his sermons, "As times got harder for Paul, Jesus got sweeter." And it was so with my granddaddy as well. The harder things got, the sweeter Jesus was. He did not articulate it maybe the same way I do, but he treasured Christ in and through all things. He loved his family. I adore the goodness of God in giving me and our family our Granddaddy for so long.

I adore the goodness of God this past week as well in the prayers and kind words of church members and family and friends. I adore the goodness of God in being able to be a small part of my Granddaddy's memorial service, which was spectacular. I adore the goodness of God of being able to weep with my family and to do so as a family. I realized or was reminded this week of just how much I love my family and how much I want to show that more from now on.

One of the most cherished graces of God to me this past week came the day of the funeral. The family time for visitation was from 10-2pm. I was in the church with some other family members: my mom, two uncles, grandma, and other family. I had purposefully tried to not see my granddaddy at the visitation the night before or at the funeral home on Saturday. I just didn't want to remember him that way. But it was inevitable that I would see him sometime in the week. I did several times. I found myself looking at all the flowers that had been sent and I began to weep and tried to hold it in and just let it out quietly. My uncle Larry noticed me and came to my side. He came to my side and put his arm around me and hugged me and let me weep on his shoulder. It may not have been special to him, but it was a priceless gift from God to me.

Our family has wept and we will weep. I don't know if I realized just how much I loved my Granddaddy. I do now--now that I know he will never call me again on a Sunday night to ask me how my day went or he will never say again to me on the phone, "Can I do something?" which meant he was about to pray with me. I'll never again here him say, "You tell Holly and the girls that some crazy guy said hello and that he loves them." He'll never ask again, "How's the boss?" which meant, "How's Shadow doing?"

But in and through all of those "never agains" God is good and kind and right in all that he does. One day, because of the work of Christ in the life of my granddaddy and in my life, we will see each other again and I know that when we see each other, he will give me a great big ol' bearhug just like he gave me as a little boy and we will adore the goodness of God in the face of Jesus Christ forever and ever.

Jesus Is the Son of God In Power

I'm reading Russell Moore's Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ and I thought this was very timely for this week of remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Part of the curse Jesus would bear for us on Golgotha was the taunting and testing by God's enemies. And he drowned in his own blood, the spectators yelled the words quite similar to those of Satan in the desert: 'Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.' (Mark 15:32) But he didn't jump down. He didn't ascend to the skies. He just writhed there. And, after it all, the bloated corpse of Jesus hit the ground as he was pulled off the stake, spattering warm blood and water on the faces of the crowd.

That night the religious leaders probably read Deuteronomy 21 to their families, warning them about the curse of God on those who are 'hanged on a tree.' Fathers probably told their sons, 'Watch out that you don't ever wind up like him.' Those Roman soldiers probably went home and washed the blood of Jesus from under their fingernails and played with their children in front of the fire before dozing off. This was just one more insurrectionist they had pulled off a cross, one in a line of then dotting the roadside. And this one (what was his name? Joshua?) was just decaying meat now, no threat to the empire at all.

That corpse of Jesus just lay there in the silence of that cave. By all appearances it had been tested and tried, and found wanting. If you'd been there to pull open his bruised eyelids, matted together with mottled blood, you would have looked into blank holes. If you'd lifted his arm, you would have felt no resistance. You would have heard only the thud as it hit the table when you let it go. You might have walked away from that morbid scene muttering to yourself, 'The wages of sin is death.'

But sometime before dawn on a Sunday morning, a spike-torn hand twitched. A blood-crusted eyelid opened. The breath of God came blowing into that cave, and a new creation flashed into reality. God was not simply delivering Jesus--and with him all of us--from death, he was also vindicating him--and with him all of us. By resurrecting Jesus from the dead, God was reaffirming what he had said over the Jordan waters. He was declaring Jesus 'to be the Son of God in power' (Rom. 1:4)

What I Wish I Had Said

Every pastor has experienced that moment either as soon as he descends from the pulpit or maybe when he gets to the office on Monday morning when he thinks back over his sermon and realizes he forgot to say something or wishes he had said something differently.  Well, I had one of those moments this Monday morning.

We've been going through the the book of Nehemiah for the past three weeks on Sunday mornings. This past Sunday we looked at Nehemiah 2:11-20. It's the account of Nehemiah walking around the city to inspect the condition of the walls and then exhorting the people to rise up and build.  I pointed out from the passage the need to face reality when God sets out to restore or rebuild His people.  If you are truly serious about rebuilding your church or your life, you have to be brutally honest with yourself as to what current reality is and then move on to what needs to be done to change that reality. 

So what is it I wish I had said or wish I had said differently?  Well, I mentioned that facing reality as a church, a follower of Christ or an someone who doesn't follow Christ is uncomfortable or hard not because we don't know what we will find when we do, but rather because of what we know we WILL find when we do.  We will find lives and churches that aren't what they should be and that can be uncomfortable, even scary.  But here's what I should have done a better job of stating: "Because of Christ, facing reality doesn't have to be uncomfortable or scary."   Facing reality is uncomfortable or scary because of either the guilt of our sin that we find there or the seemingly impossible journey it will take for us to see a new reality come to fruition.

However, because Jesus lived perfectly on our behalf and died perfectly in our place and is risen from the dead, and has ascended to the Father, we do not have to fear facing reality because of the sin or disobedience or lack of passion for the things of God that we will find there.  Jesus already faced that reality for us and has taken our guilt for it and through his life, death, and resurrection has paid the penalty for that sin. Therefore we can face reality and be honest about where we have sinned and disobeyed and do so with full confidence that through faith it is forgiven in Christ. We don't have to be afraid of the reality of what is.

Likewise, we don't have to be afraid of the seemingly impossible journey it will take for us to see a new reality come to fruition.  Change is hard and uncomfortable. It stretches us. Whether it's you as an individual or you as an entire church family change can be frightening and seem impossible to achieve. And it is on our own.  But notice what Nehemiah says in Nehemiah 2:20, "The God of heaven will make us prosper and we his servants will arise and build." The people no doubt had to get up and work and sacrifice, but it was God who would make them prosper.  A New Testament equivalent might be from Paul in Philippians 2:12-13, "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."   Yes, change is hard as individuals and as a church. The journey can be awfully long and uncomfortable. But God will work in us to will and to work for his good pleasure. How does he do that? It's because His Holy Spirit lives within us. Well, how does his Holy Spirit live within us? It's because his Son lived and died and rose again for us, to forgive us of our sins and give us new life--a life that is available to us by faith, a life that can face reality without fear and face the journey of change as well. We don't have to be afraid of the reality of what needs to be.

Well, that's what I wish I had said or at least wish I had said better. And I could beat myself up over it and as a pastor it's tempting to do. BUT, I don't have because Jesus has lived, died, and rose again for all the things I wish I said or wish I had said better, but didn't.

40 Years Is Long Enough

Church or Coffee?

While in North Carolina for Thanksgiving this past week I ran  across a church sign (at a very large church) that gave times for "Blended Worship" and "Bold Worship." What does that mean, if anything, to unchurched, lost people? "Worship" in and of itself would be confusing not to mention trying to decipher what "blended" is versus "bold." Are we talking about church or coffee? We should be strange and misunderstood where the Bible commands us to be, but in our attempts to reach lost people are we putting up needless barriers? Or, maybe we're not aiming at lost, unchurched people at all and just don't want to admit it.

Pastors Should Be Jerks

I recently came across this quote from John MacArthur. We need more pastors to be jerks.

"I'm not here to preach you sermons so you can have more information. As much information as I give you that's not what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm not here to offer you some oratory upon which you can render a criticism and an evaluation. I am basically here to jerk you out of your complacency week after week after week after week after week and yank you back to a God consciousness. I'm here to pull you back into Scripture. I'm here to pull you toward heaven. I'm here to refocus your thoughts. I'm here to shift your gears off of whatever it is you think about all week. Everything from your job to your family issues to the neighborhood to fixing the fence to the TV sitcoms and whatever it is you occupy yourself with; I'm here to jerk your mind back to spiritual reality so that you can fix yourself on God. And that's why we don't forsake the assembling ourselves together. You don't need to come to church every single Sunday morning and every single Sunday night to accumulate more information but you need to be jerked back to spiritual reality. And I'm the jerk.”

Is This the Best Way to Say This?

Let's think about this, indeed. This is a pretty popular slogan among churches these days and has been for quite some time. And the idea behind it is commendable. The motive is honorable. It is indeed the case that far too many churches are content to just be the church on Sunday mornings and never actually live sent lives in their communities. There is much more to being the church then just gathering together on Sundays. We are to live as a sent community of believers to be salt and light in the world, making disciples of our neighbors and the nations as we go about our lives each and every day.  I am all in favor for that biblical truth.

However, when we toss around so frequently slogans such as "Don't go to church. Be the Church," are we not communicating something that is fairly unbiblical? Likewise, when churches actually cancel their Sunday morning gatherings occasionally to go and "be the church" is that really a practice we honestly think that Paul or Timothy would have ever signed off on? It seems to me that when we use phrases and practices such as this that we are implying that "the Church gathered" is somehow inferior to "the Church scattered."  It is as if we should not be as excited and awe-inspired about what goes on Sunday mornings when we gather together as the Church as we are about what happens throughout the week when the Church is scattered.

Yet, when we look at the New Testament and the references to the "church" I think we will find that there are far more occasions where it is the church "gathered" together than the church "scattered" together. The majority of the epistles were written to the church gathered together. The letters to Timothy were written to Timothy to help him in leading the church gathered together.  As you look throughout the Book of Acts, yes there are occasions where individual members of the church or a couple of members from the church are out doing ministry, but predominantly when the church or group of believers are mentioned they are mentioned as being together and worshiping together. 

The Church scattered is a vital component to the missional identity of the Church. And it is one that is far too often neglected.  However, the fuel for the church scattered throughout the week in our individual callings and areas of ministry influence is what happens when the church is gathered together each week. It is as we come together--not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together--addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,singing and making melody to the Lord in our hearts (Eph. 5:19), praying with and for one another and the Gospel ministry God has called us to, hearing from the Lord from His Word reminding us of the realities and glories of the Gospel, that we are encouraged and refreshed to scatter out across our streets and across the oceans to make disciples of our neighbors and the nations, being the Church.The "church gathered" cannot rightly be called the church if it is not also the "church scattered." Likewise, the "church scattered" is unable to rightly be the church scattered if it is not also the "church gathered" together on a weekly basis. 

Jeff Purswell writes,

By definition, to be the church is to gather in God’s presence and to worship God together. And when we begin singing, we join the glorious worship that takes place unceasingly before the throne of God.

This is true regardless of how we feel, who leads worship, what songs we sing, or how we think worship went. There is something incredible happening on Sunday morning!

Be the church and go to church. Something eternal is going on in there. Don’t miss it. 

May we never think or inadvertently imply that this is not being the Church...

Preaching: Before and After

I'm currently reading Mark Dever's and Greg Gilbert's book Preach: Theology Meets Practice. In Chapter 8: "Delivering the Sermon" I came across some of the most helpful advice for before and after delivering the sermon.

Before...

"Is there anything quite like the few seconds right before you open your mouth and begin to preach? The music is done, everything is quiet, all eyes in the building are on you. You step to the pulpit, open your Bible, lay out your notes on the podium...and pause. Or at least I do. For just two seconds--maybe three--I pause before I begin speaking and let my eyes scan the congregation, maybe even make a split-second's eye contact with some people...It's to remind myself why I'm there, to press into my own heart one last time the enormity of what I'm doing. 'These people,' I think, 'belong to Jesus. They are His. He loved them, He spilled His blood for them, and He has put all the resources of omnipotence behind his determination to bring them safely home. And now, for the next hour, He's putting them...in my hands. To teach them and encourage them.'"

And after...

"Few preachers who preach God's Word feel great when the sermon's done. I'm usually thinking about everything I didn't have time to say or even a few things I did say that I wish I hadn't. Then the time for the benediction slips up on me, I give it, and then I sneak to the back door to talk with people as they walk out. Sometimes people come to talk, and I'm humbled and encouraged by the ways they say the Lord used the sermon in their lives. Other times no one says much of anything, which bothers me more than I wish it did.

But the immediate feedback--as much as we crave the instant gratification--isn't the point. A pastorate is made up of a lot of sermons, and the fact is, most of those sermons are going to be singles rather than triples or home runs. But that's fine. If the Lord is so kind as to give you even a long string of singles, that's purely of His grace, and your congregation will benefit and grow from that. You score runs with a string of singles. So don't worry if you haven't hit a home run in a while--and if you hit one today, don't get cocky! Either way, go home, rest, thank God for the grace He gave you to teach and encourage His people again, take some time off, and then start the whole process over the next week. Our God is a good God, and week after week, sermon after sermon, He will give grace and strength and insight to the men who preach His Word."

Good, good stuff.

Church: The Most Unlikely Place For Father's on Father's Day

I came across an interesting statistic in relation to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in a recent USA Today article.  The article was based on a recent survey conducted by Lifeway Research.  The survey had to do with the highest attendance days in churches in America. Ninety-three percent of pastors surveyed said that Easter was one of the top three high attendance days.  Eighty-four percent of pastors surveyed said that Christmas was one of the top three high attendance days. Fifty-nine percent of pastors said that Mother’s Day was one of the top three high attendance days in the life of the church.

Now what about Father’s Day? Only four percent of pastors surveyed said that Father’s Day was one of the top three attendance days in the life of the church each year.  Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research, said, "Clearly, mothers want to be present for the affirmation that is typically offered in most churches, but families also are present knowing their attendance will honor their mother. Many families make church attendance on Mother's Day nearly obligatory. The attendance difference between Mother's Day and Father's Day is telling. Either churches are less effective in affirming fathers, or families believe Christian fathers don't value their participation in worship services."

Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research wrote, "It seems that on Mother's Day, moms say, 'Let's all go to church.' But on Father's Day, dads say, 'I'm going to go play golf,' " I think the research possibly says something pretty revealing about the difference in the spiritual health of mothers and fathers.  Mothers generally want to be in church on Sunday, with their children. Fathers on the other hand, for the most part, don’t want to be in church with their children on Father’s Day.

Therefore, I want to encourage you as Fathers and Grandfathers to stop that trend this Father’s Day.   Dads, Granddads, would your children or grandchildren pass out if you picked up the phone and said, “Hey, I’d love it if you and your family would come and go with me to church this Sunday?”  Children and Grandchildren, would your Dads and Granddads, pass out if you picked up the phone and said, “Hey, I’d love to have you join me at church this Father’s Day morning?”

 

Why don’t you call them and find out?  See you on Father’s Day!

Being a Mom: The Hardest & Best Job In the World

“The hardest job in the world is also the best job in the world. Thank you, Moms!”

That’s the closing line in this advertisement by Proctor & Gamble for the upcoming Summer Olympics in London.  2.6 million people have watched this video online.  One of those commented, “Watching this and thinking, ‘Will I ever be a good mother?’” 

 As much as I liked the commercial, I thought it was potentially more discouraging to mothers than encouraging. Why? I completely agree that being a mom is the hardest job in the world. Having been raised by an exceptional mom and now being married to an exceptional mom, there is no doubt it, it is the hardest job in the world.  But is what makes it the hardest job in the world the fact that you have to do laundry, take them to school, and bandage up their wounds?   No, what makes it the hardest job in the world I think has more to do with the fact that you do all of those little things and rarely do you hear, “Thank you, Mom. I love you.”  What makes it the hardest job in the world is watching watch those little, or formerly little ones, go through sickness and heartache that you can’t heal. What makes it the hardest job in the world is watching them grow up and make bad decisions that you can’t change. 

And is it really true that what makes being a mom the best job in the world the fact that your child competes and succeeds in the Olympics and that makes it all worth it?  What about those kids who grow up and just do ordinary stuff the rest of their life?  Sometimes, what makes it the best job in the world is the fact that your kid is still living. Sometimes what makes it the best job in the world is that your child grows up and learns from their mistakes.  But sometimes they don’t and they never get it together.  

But it’s still the best job in the world because for the most part, mother’s never stop being moms.  They keep doing it and loving.  What other job is there where you put so much into it and potentially get so “little” out of it but you keep the job? In any other job like that , a person would just quit, but not moms.  That’s the greatest proof that it’s the best job in the world.

Why do moms do that?  1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 says, “Be we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become dear to us.” It’s because children are dear to their mothers. It’s because moms are affectionately desirous of their children.  Therefore they give themselves away no matter the outcome or result. And that’s a small, but beautiful picture of God’s love for sinners through Christ: affectionately desirous and self-sacrificing for our good.

Therefore, to all the moms this month who have raised just ordinary kids, like me, you really do have the hardest and best job in the world and we are glad you never quit.  And to all of us ordinary kids who have been raised by these extraordinary moms, “rise up and call her blessed.”

There's Something Behind Those Trees

 

We've been going through the Book of Philippians on Sunday mornings since the beginning of this year. We are currently making our way through Chapter 3.  Chapter 3 contains some of the more memorable Pauline passages.  It is in this passage that Paul states, 

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."

Paul states in this passage that he used to see things a certain way, but now because of Christ, he sees them in a completely different way. In vv. 5-6 of Chapter 3, Paul lists the things that used to be important to him in life, areas that he found the most pride in. However, now, because of the surpassing value of Christ, being accepted by God through the perfection of Jesus Christ and not his own, and knowing Him more and more, he sees all of those things as filthy trash. 

I attempted to illustrate this transformation as I ended the sermon one morning, but I ran out of time to really develop it. So I thought I would take a moment to do a better job at it.  I'm sure you've had the experience that I mentioned to our congregation that morning.  When you move somewhere different and especially if you move there during the summer months you find that all of the trees are in full bloom and completely leafed out.  Therefore when you travel down the interstate most of the time all you see is the barrier of beautiful trees that line the parallel sides of the interstate or the back rode that you are traveling down.  

But what happens when Fall and Winter roll around? Those beautiful trees begin to go through a kind of death and the leaves begin to fall off and before too long all of those beautiful trees are barren. And then as you drive down those same highways or country roads you are treated with a whole new scenery.  This is especially surprising if it's your first winter there.  As you are driving down those same roads that you drive down everyday you notice that behind those trees, which are now barren and see-through, is an amazingly beautiful house or scenic view that is just breathtaking.  

Now, the beauty of that house or that landscape has always been there. It didn't just appear. But this is the first time you have been able to see it because nothing is blocking your sight now.  Then as Spring and Summer come back around the trees begin to bloom again and the leaves return and the roads are lined once again with sight of just those trees. But you can't drive down those roads the same way any longer. Why? Because you've seen what's really behind those trees. No matter how beautiful and green they may be you know that behind those trees is something much more beautiful and satisfying and you never forget that. 

Living life before coming to faith in Christ is like driving down the road and only knowing the scenery of those lush trees that line the highway or the country roads. Those "trees" are what makes up our life, what our world revolves around. For some of us those "Trees" may be sinful things that we fill our life with and for others of us those "trees" may be good gifts from God that we have turned into ultimate things, even idols, that we have built our life around. It may be our family, our job, our health, our retirement.  That's all that we can see and we become used to that and satisfied with it. 

But then something happens. A kind of death happens, not to the trees but to us.  Through faith in Christ we die to our sin and the world and all that stuff that our lives centered around becomes crucified to us and we to it as well. And by the grace and kindness of God through faith we are able to see the beauty and all-satisfying reality of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection for our sins and the new life He gives to us and the hope of enjoying His presence forever and ever.  Now like the beautiful house behind the trees or the scenic landscape, the beauty and reality of Jesus Christ has always been there. We just couldn't see it because of our sin.  But now our eyes have been opened and we see it and we love it. 

The result is that we now travel down the road of life completely different.  Oh, the trees (sinful temptations and idols) bloom again. But we do not fall for or become satisfied with their beauty. We've seen what's on the other side of those trees and He's captivating. We can't get the beauty of Him out of our heart. He's unforgettable and clear as day even though we can't see him now. And we can never be the same and we know that one day, we will see Him as He is, and we will be like Him.