Just Finished

I just finished "I am a Jew I Don't Do Jesus" by Merle Hogan, wife of Deacon Paul Hogan at Resurrection Church, Woodstock, GA. Good read. Fascinating story of her life. Amazing actually.

Other quotes of interests....

Spurgeon: "We admire a man who was firm in the faith four hundred years ago, but such a man is a nuisance today."

Vance Havner: "The Bible is a bittersweet book... It humbles or hardens the human heart."

On a marker at Epworth by the Sea, the methodist Camp Ground at St. Simon's island, GA where John Wesley and George Whitefield had been ministers:

Let us read the story of John Wesley again. This cultured, conscientious gentleman, resolute in self-denial, punctual in all observances, doing all the good he could, and avoiding evil, had everything but peace in his heart. Then the room in Aldersgate Street and his face-to-face confrontatoin with His Saviour. Presently, that masterful little gentleman climbed on his horse to set out on the conquest of England, with only one resource, the assurance given him that Christ had taken away his sins. Soon that spark of grace set ten thousand hearts on fire.

April Newspaper Column

April's Newspaper Column is now posted at http://awordfromthelord.org/page.asp?pg=April%202010

A Busy Week

A cake made by the people

of Holy Trinity, N. Augusta, GA

The past week has been busy and fruitful. As part of the starting the new diocese, I attended informational meetings in Chattanooga, Augusta, and Atlanta last Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Each meeting went well with a lot of very thoughtful and insightful questions. I came away excited that folks were talking as if they were not interested in playing church, but sharing Jesus Christ with a needy world.

Wednesday night I attended our weekly Wednesday night healing service where we have teachings about healing and an opportunity for people to receive prayer with anointing of oil and the laying on of hands by folks who pray for healing. I am always amazed at how our Lord uses these to bring healing to people's lives.

Friday, my wife and I drove to Valdosta to visit with my daughter for Parents' Weekend at VSU.

It was GREAT being with her and hearing and seeing the things she's doing there.

After a late night Saturday night in returning home, we began Holy Week at church with Palm Sunday. A great day of church in the Lord!!! Sunday afternoon, we had a training session for our acolytes. I then went home and began to cut the grass!!!

Our Lord is awesome!! What he went through on the cross so that we might have eternal life and a relationship with Him is overwhelming. Thank you Lord for your grace.

The Sweetness of Prayer

Our Church is in the midst of our Quarterly 24-hour Prayer Vigil where we sign up to go pray in the church for periods of 30 minutes - one hour for a 24-hour time period. My time was last night in the middle of the night, and I have to say, it was one of the fastest hours I have had in a while.

There is something about being in the Presence of the Lord which changes things -- but not just things, but you! He shows you to you as you really are - sin and all, and then pours out His grace and love on you. This was one of those times where I could not get enough of God. His love surely endures forever (Psalm 136).

I entered into this time tired and weary, and left renewed, strengthened, and refreshed. Being with Jesus does that. I entered into this time concerned about several things, and left knowing the time of intercessory prayer made a difference.

"Let my prayer be set forth in Your sight as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Psalm 141:2

Reflecting On These This Week

Galatians 2:20 -- I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me, and the the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and who gave his life for me.

Galatians 6:14 -- May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

March Newspaper Column

March Newspaper Column now posted at http://awordfromthelord.org/page.asp?pg=March%202010

The Crucifixion of Ministry

Andrew Purves' book, The Crucifixion of Ministry, should be read by every person who has served in ministry for over three years whether working in a church or a para-church organization. He says some things which you have always known, but when you read how he says it, it can't help but penetrate your perspective on serving Christ. The crucifixion of ministry is about dying to one's ministry and tapping into Jesus' ministry. Below are a sampling of quotes from the book which I have underlined and plan to reflect on over and over again.

There is little, maybe nothing, we who are ministers of gospel can do that really change things. If anything worthwhile is to happen, Jesus has to show up.

Our ministries in themselves are not redemptive. Only the ministry of Jesus is redemptive.

Ministry should be understood as a sharing in the continuing ministry of Jesus Christ, for wherever Christ is, there is the church and her ministry.

On a 2002 Study of Clergy... Of the study's sample group, 62 percent of ministers have little spiritual life! Excessive demands on time, conflicts within congregations and between ministers and members, loss of personal spiritual life and loneliness account for a deep malaise with our professional and personal lives.

We are tired, often overworked, usually over-stressed and underpaid, theologically confused, often ill-educated for the tasks before us, bored and probably guilty for feeling that way. Whatever the reasons, national figures show that around one-third of ordained persons leave the ministry after five years, never to return. It's that bad! The rest of us continue to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning and labor on.

A Doctor of Ministry class once insisted to me that about 90 percent of their time was taken up with congregational administration of one kind or another. I wandered, Whatever happened to the Word and Sacraments?

Whether we are 'successful' or 'unsuccessful' or somewhere in the middle, we get in the way. Whether we minister with mediocre skill or with truckloads of competence, whether with small success or with much public acclamation, God brings us to the point where our reliance on what we can do is killed by God.

The second crucifixion enables us to see the glorious freedom of ministry expressed by Paul: Not I but Christ. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me" (Galatians 2:20). Everything we now do is built on this foundation. Jesus Christ stands in for us. As in faith and worship, so now also in ministry, he does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. This is what I mean by the vicarious humanity and ministry of Jesus Christ. We are bumped aside by God with whatever forcefulness is required, so that Jesus stands in our place.

Jesus is not a big deal; he is the whole deal! He's not a name on a list; he is the whole list!

To ministers let me say this as strongly as I can. Preach Christ, preach Christ, preach Christ. Get out of your offices and get into your studies. Quit playing office manager and program director, quit staffing committees, and even right now recommit yourselves to what you were ordained to do, namely the ministry of Word and Sacraments. Pick up good theology books again: hard books, classical texts, great theologians. Claim the time and energy for study for days and days at a time. Disappear for long hours because you are reading Athanasius on the Person of Jesus Christ or Wesley on sanctification or Augustine on the Trinity or Calvin on the Christian life or Andrew Murray on the priesthood of Christ. Then you will have something to say that is worth hearing.

Let most of what you do be dominated by the demands of the sermon as if your whole life and reason for being is to preach Christ, because it is. Claim a new authority for the pulpit, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, over you and your people. Commit yourself again to becoming a careful preacher of Christ. Don't preach to grow your congregation; preach to bear witness to what the Lord is doing, and let him grow your church. Dwell in him, abide in him, come to know him ever more deeply and convertedly.

John Stott on Tradition and Scripture

"The Reformers taught the supremacy of Scripture over tradition. And Reformed Churches still do, including the Anglican Church. It is often said that the Anglican Church has a three-fold authority -- Scripture, tradition, and reason. But this is not so. To be sure, tradition and reason have a vital role to play in the elucidation of Scripture. But what shall we do when Scripture, tradition, and reason are in conflict? The answer is that Scripture has supreme authority."

Bishop Charles Obaikol of Uganda

For the past eight days we have been hosting Anglican bishop Charles Obaikol and his wife, Margaret, from Soroti, Uganda. He preached at our church on Sunday and shared at several functions throughout the week. My wife and I have been humbled by their zeal for the Lord, their loving character, and the lives they have lived for the Gospel.

Bishop Obaikol has recently retired and is spending his retirement days attempting to help the poor and needy in his region of Uganda. Child-led families and children orphaned by AIDS present tremendous needs for housing, food, and education. Providing water and trees in their communities for good health is a real challenge. During recent civil conflicts, thousands of people were run off their lands and relocated in refugee camps. Now that peace has broken out, they are returning seeking to reclaim their lands amidst chaos and confusion. He and the Church in Uganda are attempting to play servant leadership roles bearing witness to Jesus Christ.

Let us pray intentionally for our brothers and sisters in Christ in Uganda, and give to share in the Lord's provision in their lives.

A Word from John Piper

The following quote if from John Piper's website http://www.desiringgod.org/AboutUs/OurDistinctives/OurHistory/ .

I think he is right on in his perspective. May God so work in me and our ministries.....

As we move into the future, we are aware of the danger of growth. The bigger we get, the greater the temptation to refrain from risk. It’s tempting to be pre-occupied with internal systems and management. It’s tempting to be anxious about financial security.

But our calling is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. We are not called to preserve ourselves but to spend ourselves. We are called to treasure Christ and show him as glorious to as many people as possible. When you think of us, pray that the Lord will continue to give us grace to love him passionately, trust him radically, give generously, and preach Christ boldly.