The LORD is kind in all his ways

This morning I was praying through Psalms 145, you can sense the psalmist David using everything he's got to praise God because he knows that "His greatness is unsearchable." So often in my life I beat myself up because I so want to be like Jesus in the sense that I want to love as he loved, talk as he talked, obey the Father's will as he obeyed. But often my sinfulness gets the best of me & daily I fall short though I am striving in His grace. This is a painful process but it is wonderful to rest in Christ securely as he sanctifies us. It is so sweet to open God's Word & read promises to my heavy heart like, "The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down" -Ps. 145:14

I recently heard an amazing sermon by Siran Stacy, a man who tragically lost his wife & 4 of his 5 children in a car wreck with a drunk driver. Siran & his young daughter were the only ones that survived. I saw this man pour his heart out preaching & crying as he told of the 'suicidal depression' he deals with but how God's grace has been sufficient through it all.' Jesus is better than this life & he will sustain us until the joy of entering heaven. And this morning I read:

"The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." -Ps. 145:17-18

I'm sure Siran Stacy didn't feel like the Lord was kind when this event occurred but in due time God opens the hearts & eyes of his children to see Him. The greatest thing or gift we can ever have or experience in this life is God himself. Many times we experience him through trails, pain, suffering, or loss. But if we know the Lord then we can surely say that 'all we could gain in this life is counted as nothing compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ.' I pray that if I should ever have to bear a cross that is as heavy, God will be there with sustaining grace. I read of a couple whose child was born blind. I included a beautiful letter that Pastor John Piper wrote to them as they fought through this difficult reality:

It can be easy to think of Pastor John as DR. JOHN PIPER. But his heart is tuned primarily to being the pastor of a local church with real people who have real needs.

On July 4, 1995, our son arrived and we knew he would be blind as he had no eyes. On July 5, Pastor Tom Steller, now the Dean of Bethlehem College & Seminary, walked up my front sidewalk with a letter from Pastor John, which I’ve included below. It would also be published in the Bethlehem Star, the weekly church newsletter that was sent to members and regular attenders.

Sadly, in our pain and bitterness and hopelessness and sin-filled pride, we would walk away from Bethlehem just a couple of months later, rejecting both God and the people of God. But, thanks be to God, that would not be the end of the story! And this letter from Pastor John would be one of those building blocks that God used to call us to himself.

Tomorrow, one of the results of Pastor John’s calling on the church to do hard things.

Words of Hope for a Baby Born Blind

Dear John and Diane,

Last night, as I prayed with Noel, you were heavy on my mind. I said, “Lord, O Lord, please let me be a pastor who preaches and leads and loves in a way that makes the impossibilities of life possible for your people by a miracle of sustaining grace. Help me to know the weight and pain of this life and not to be breezy when the mountains have fallen into the sea. Help me to have the aroma of Christ’s sufferings about me. Prevent shallowness and callousness to pain. O Lord make me and my people a burden bearing people.”

O John and Diane, I am so heavy with your child’s sightlessness! God is visiting Bethlehem with such pain these days in the birth of broken children. Randy and Ann Erickson with their baby’s broken heart; Jan and Rob Barrett with their baby’s liver outside the body; and your precious little one! Is the Lord saying, “I have a gift for your community.” This is not one or two or three couples’ burden. This is a gift and call to the whole church. This is a word concerning the brokenness of this fallen age of futility. This is an invitation for you all to believe that “here we have no lasting city” (Hebrews 13:14). This is an invitation for you to “count every gain as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7). This is a shocking test to see if you will “lose heart” when in fact God’s purpose is to show that his grace is sufficient to renew our inner person every day to deal with the “slight momentary affliction which is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

O Lord, open our eyes to your love in this pain. Open our eyes. “Then Elisha prayed, and said, ‘O Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). John and Diane, the mountains surrounding your lives are filled with the horses and chariots of God. Only to the eyes of unbelief does the devil have the upperhand here. God is at work in ways and for years and generations and millions of people that we cannot now imagine. This is ours to believe and to bear, no matter the cost. This is ours for this short life.

It seems to me that this life is a proving ground for the kingdom to come. Some are asked to devote forty or fifty years to caring for a handicapped child instead of breezing through life without pain. Others are asked to be blind all their lives…

But only in this life – ONLY in this life. I want to be the kind person who makes that “ONLY” what it really is – very short. Prelude to the infinity of joy, joy, joy. But not yet. Not entirely.

How will we ever cope with the burdens of this life if we believe this is all there is, or even the main act in this drama of reality? O Lord, give us your view of things.

May God fill you with anticipated joy.

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

I love you,

Pastor John

The grace of Regeneration: My 4 year anniversary

I am not superstitious about dates, places or rituals but I know for sure that on this day 4 years ago I encountered the God of the universe, my own sinfulness, & the unspeakable joy of knowing Jesus Christ as my Savior & Lord. At the time of my conversion I was 19, dropped out of school, living in gross immorality, had no conviction of sin in my life, bitter, prideful, & worst of all I called myself a true Christian. On Sept. 18, 2005 I attended a church drama/service with my girlfriend Amanda (now wife) out of curiosity & by the end of that night I had no doubt in my mind that I was a new person in Christ & I was going to marry Amanda someday. I won't go into details but I will make a few comparisons to the (pre-regenerate Phil) & the now 4 years later (Phil in Christ).

So its Pre-Christ vs. In Christ.
1.) PRE-CHRIST: Living for me, serving my sinful appetites & desires by all means VS. IN-CHRIST: Living for the King, daily fighting to die to self & by all means kill sin in my life by God's grace.
2.) PRE-CHRIST: Smoking weed, drunk, hittin clubs, chancing girls & cash & trying to wake up in time for church on Sunday VS. IN-CHRIST: Praying 'God be merciful to me a sinner', pursuing holiness, hitting the streets to tell em about the gospel, & waking up preaching on Sunday's about Christ crucified to bring sinners like me back to God.
3.) PRE-CHRIST: Loved sin, hate God, dead in sin, slaved to sin, full of lust, puttin up a front, never touched my bible, only prayed for selfish reasons, destroying my life & headed for Hell! VS. IN-CHRIST: Love God, hate sin, alive in Christ, slave to righteousness, full of the Spirit, humbling myself before God, In the Word daily as my bread & water, walking in prayer, not wasting my life, & headed for heaven because THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION/JUDGMENT FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST!!!

In John 3:7-8 Jesus spoke about the amazing process of being 'born again' by God's power: "You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." I, like every sinner who has become a Christian, was born into God's family by the Spirit. It wasn't anything in me or anything I did but rather God's power that tranformed me from a hard hearted rebel into someone passionate to know & please God. We cannot control the Spirit & this is clear that "Salvation is of the Lord". He gets ALL the glory & we get unspeakable eternal joy. Not to us oh Lord, but to Your name be the glory.

When I meditate on God's grace & goodness in my life & especially the last 4 years I can hardly keep myself from breaking down. I just want to say I love Jesus, I love all that he is, all that he has done as God, King, Savior, Lord, Mediator, Redeemer, Friend, Judge, Servant, & Creator. Above all, I'm thankful that he gave me His life so that I can know, love, & enjoy fellowship with God as my treasure forever. What can compare to knowing the God of universe? $100 trillion dollars, cars, houses, fame, success, accomplishments? You can have them, just give me Jesus. I will count everything as nothing compared to knowing Jesus as my Lord & I pray that I can mean that with all my heart until the day I drop.

Preaching @ Mt. Freedom Baptist

Over the labor day weekend I was blessed to share Christ twice! On sat. at a youth conference held by Unity Christian Church & on Sunday morning at my local church (Mt. Freedom Baptist). Unfortunately there were just a few kids at the youth conf. due to all the youth being out of town for labor day but that didn't faze me because I came to lift up Christ to one or one thousand. It is just an honor to preach the very gospel that saved my own soul & also my wife, Amanda, reminded to never forget that God rejoices over ONE SINNER that repents (Amen). I experienced a very precious time with the Lord praying in a small room in the back of the sanctuary before I went up to preach. God comforted me & I felt strengthen to faithfully share the gospel to all who came. God is gracious.

Back in Wilmore the next morning I was to preach a 'remix' version of Psalms 51 at Mt. Freedom Baptist (I previously preached it at Auburndale Baptist on july 19). Our pastor, Nathan, asked me to preach that morning since he had just finished 1 Samuel and was going to be out of town. What a privilege & honor it was to preach before my local church, friends & some basketball teammates for the first time. My focus in this sermon was to explain the great problem of "How can God uphold justice and yet forgive sinners?" I also went back into Psalms 51 to show examples of what biblical repentance should look like in a Christian's life for individual examination/assurance.

Overall it seemed like the Lord blessed his word and many were attentive and really seemed to be soberly thinking about what I was saying. I got great responses after the service and talked with a few people individually about the gospel. I've been praying for those who heard the gospel that morning and I know the Spirit is doing work in the lives of his people. Pray for grace to know Christ as our eternal bread & living water that satisfys every desire of our soul forever!