Exerpt from "His Part and Ours"

We all deal with trying circumstances, and this is no accident.  God allows us to face trials and difficulties which are a means to mold our character and build faith in Him.  In reading "His Part and Ours" by J. Sidlow Baxter I have been very blessed by his clear insight.  Because of the trials I have faced and the certain struggles which lie ahead, here is a part I especially enjoyed: 

"His grace is sufficient for thee!  For thee - not just for this present trial of yours, but for you yourself, making you equal to all the trials that come.  See here the Divine method with us.  God does not pledge Himself to be ever altering our circumstances and removing our burdens in answer to our prayers.  Our truest blessings often come through the things that seem most grievous to us.  If God were always leveling down our circumstances to our spiritual condition we should waste away with spiritual dry-rot.  It would be with us as it was with the old-time Hebrews:  'He gave them their request but sent leanness into their soul.'  Christ's way is to make us equal to our circumstances rather than reduce our circumstances to what we short-sightedly think they ought to be.  Dr. Phillips Brooks has a forceful word to this effect:  'Do not pray for easy lives!  Pray to be stronger men.  Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.  Pray for powers equal to your tasks.  Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle.  But you shall be a miracle.  Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.'"

- J. Sidlow Baxter, quoted from "His Part and Ours," pages 16-17

Another step in the journey...

When I first visited Calvary Chapel Sydney in November of 2009, I never for a moment entertained the idea that I would be someday invited to serve as pastor there.  It would have been presumptuous, to say the least.  Most people don't take unemployed youth pastors very seriously!  I had resigned from my position as youth pastor in September to pursue the call of God to preach and pastor in Australia and left for a two-month stint.  Of all the places I visited, Sydney seemed the least likely.  I remember going to bed the first night and praying, "LORD, I'm really not comfortable here.  I don't know why.  The people are hospitable, friendly, and welcoming...I can't explain it."  There was oppression from the start.  But God lifted the dread which lay heavy upon me and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay.

Laura and I took a 10 day trip to Sydney and a few days in Brisbane in March of 2010.  This time I had been encouraged to come from a friend at Calvary Chapel Sydney and was offered an opportunity to preach for two Sunday services.  It seemed to be a great opportunity to introduce Laura to the country and friends I had met previously.  This time we would be formally interviewed for the pastoral vacancy.  Things seemed to go swimmingly, and there would be more potential candidates for consideration.  We were told that a decision would be made by the pastoral search team in a couple months if all went according to plan.

In keeping with how this wonderfully tumultuous process of walking by faith in Christ can be, our family remained without a plan.  I kept on working, Laura and the boys kept on with swim lessons, and spending time with their cousins and friends.  During silent days and weeks, our minds wondered and wandered.  To stay sane I would try to not entertain thoughts of Australia, but to no avail.  Prayers for people and hopes concerning to the pastoral position continually washed over my mind in waves.  Then about a month ago we were told the position would be offered to another and scenarios were laid out how we could possibly serve in a interim basis, but without a concrete plan.  Weeks passed as the prospective pastor considered the decision which lay before him.  The warfare must have been strong because there were days when I would be so close to saying, "That's it!  Take my name out of the running - we can't keep going on without knowing.  We've been YEARS without knowing!"  It was only God who kept us going and continually reminded us of the call and burden to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Australia.

When we were reaching the breaking point, the light of God's faithfulness, love, grace, and compassion shone through.  We received an e-mail:  the prospective pastor respectfully had declined and we were back in the running.  But here again we were left without knowing where we stood.  Our hopes were revived yet again that Sydney may indeed be the place God would open a door to serve Him.  Then we received a real, tangible invitation that made us want to jump up and shout:  "We are very glad to call you and your family to our church and to the position of pastor."  YES, without reservation!  God was in no hurry, and I praise Him for His wisdom in how all was orchestrated according to His plan.  He taught us that we MUST look to Him alone for all things.  If our strength or peace rests in anyone or anything but Him, it is a breeding ground of false hope and spiritual shipwreck.  Man does not learn his lessons easily, and therefore the path God chooses to lead us down will be hard and sometimes miserable.  But when the grace of God breaks through we are as the woman who has screamed through hard, painful labor and childbirth.  Yet when that newborn baby is placed in her arms she manages to smile and caress her living treasure borne out of pain and difficulty, and would choose to endure it all over again for the blessing of this little new life she has been given by God.  Yeah, kind of like that.

I never thought I would be a pastor, but God has seen fit to call me.  My wife and I never thought we would be someday moving our family to Australia to minister for His glory.  Who could have known?  Only God.  I thank God for receiving this unprofitable servant into His family and my heart is filled with joy at the thought of being welcomed into Calvary Chapel Sydney in a pastoral role.  I would say that it's been a long strange trip, but that misses the mark:  it has been a long, amazing walk following Jesus - but I believe it is only the beginning of a new stage of growth and maturity that will bring God glory in ways we never dreamed possible.  With God, all things are possible!

The Weight of Sin

Today was the first day of flag football practice for our boys.  I brought a book to read (The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter) at Abel's practice at Hillside Recreation Center and came upon an amazing passage.  As I looked above the green of the turf and the rushing of cars down Fletcher Parkway, soft clouds billowed overhead.  As I read it was as if a bright shaft of light illuminated a thought never considered before.  The portion I read was this:  "And I must tell you that, as it must be the great work of God's grace to give you such a heart, so if ever he mean to pardon and save you, he will make this change upon you; he will make you feel your sin as the heaviest burden in the world, as that which is most odious in itself, and hath rendered you liable to his wrath and curse; he will make you see that you are a lost man, and that there is nothing for you but everlasting damnation, unless you are pardoned by the blood of Christ, and sanctified by his Spirit; he will make you see the need you have of Christ, and how all your hope and life is in him; he will make you see the vanity of this world and all that it can afford you, and that all your happiness is with God..." (pg. 250-251)

I began thinking of all the people I have known over the years who have made a profession of faith and later fell away, choosing a lifestyle of sin rather than devotion in following Jesus.  Many people claim to be Christians for a season and what seemed to be fire at the onset turned out to be hot air in the end.  Today it is not the incredible burden and unshakable weight of sin that seems to turn people to Christ:  it is often circumstances.  When a man goes through a divorce or dealing with the death of a loved one; when a woman is suddenly incarcerated, or a child faces a life-threatening condition through accident or disease:  that is when people these days turn to God for help.  These are the people who seem to have a superficial temporary relationship with God, more like an affair than a marriage.  How tragic to pursue an affair with God Almighty when the world has let us down!

It is amazing the difference when a man comes to God begging for forgiveness due to his immense guilt, knowing the damnation he deserves and awaits him because of sin.  That is a constant.  Man is born into sin and remains a sinner.  Divorces can be made "final," people get out of jail, and children recover from illness.  Now many people have been soundly saved through circumstances, please do not misunderstand.  God is able to use anything to awaken us to our senses and recognize our desperate need for Him.  But of all the people I have seen fall away, not one was initially drawn to God because they were humbled and horrified by their sin.  It seems God and his loving people were used as an anchor while the seas stormed and were later cast aside when their use was deemed unnecessary because of present calm.

This teaches me that in the presentation of the Gospel we must be very cautious to make sure the potential future-follower of Jesus Christ is fully aware of his condition apart from God:  doomed and damned to the eternal torment of hell.  Even one sin is so heinous and wicked God must visit fierce wrath upon it.  Have you felt the weight of your guilt, O Christian?  Do you know what it feels like to be broken under the weight of your iniquity?  If you have not perhaps you are not yet free from it!  A dog's body is not washed with soap unless it is done for him, and we cannot be forgiven because we are sorry.  We must humble ourselves before the Almighty God, confess our sins, and seek forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ.  He must wash us.  I have felt the weight of my sin, and I have felt that burden removed in an instant!  What liberty and joy we have in the grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness of God!  Praise Him for that!

The Cost of Reformation

I'm reading a book written centuries ago from a English pastor to fellow pastors, encouraging and exhorting them to undertake their calling as overseers in the Body of Christ with rigor and dedication.  Two of his strongest exhortations (of which I am in agreement with) are sorely lacking in the model the modern-day church fellowships model:  "catechizing" by the pastor (personal instruction of the congregation) and biblical church discipline.  Though much as changed since 1656, it is amazing how people and their great need for Jesus have remained the same!  Following are paragraphs containing some of Baxter's observations and comments upon reformation.  These words were no doubt as true in his day as ours.

"How long have we talked of reformation, how much have we said and done for it in general, and how deeply and devoutly have we vowed if for our own parts; and, after all this, how shamefully have we neglected it, and neglect it to this day!  We carry ourselves as if we had not known or considered what that reformation was which we vowed.  As carnal men will take on them to be Christians, and profess with confidence that they believe in Christ, and accept of his salvation, and may contend for Christ, and fight for him, and yet, for all this, will have none of him, but perish for refusing him, who little dreamed that ever they had been refusers of him; and all because they understood not what his salvation is, and how it is carried on, but dream of a salvation without flesh-displeasing, and without self-denial and renouncing the world, and parting with their sins, and without any holiness, or any great pains and labour of their own in subserviency to Christ and the Spirit:  even so did too many ministers and private men talk and write, and pray, and fight, and long for reformation; and that they who were praying for it, and fasting for it, and wading through blood for it, would never accept it, but would themselves be the rejectors and destroyers of it.  And yet so it is, and so it hath too plainly proved:  and whence is all this strange deceit of heart, that good men should no better know themselves?  Why, the case is plain; they thought of a reformation to be given by God, but not of a reformation to be wrought on and by themselves.  They considered the blessing, but never thought of the means of accomplishing it.  But as if they had expected that all things besides themselves should be mended without them, or that the Holy Ghost should again descend miraculously, or every sermon should convert its thousands, or that some angel from heaven or some Elias should be sent to restore all things, or that the law of the parliament, and the sword of the magistrate, would have converted or constrained all, and have done the deed; and little did they think of a reformation that must be wrought by their own diligence and unwearied labours, by earnest preaching and catechizing, and personal instructions, and taking heed to all the flock, whatever pains or reproaches it should cost them.  They thought not that a thorough reformation would multiply their own work; but we had all of us too carnal thoughts, that when we had ungodly men at our mercy, all would be done, and conquering them was converting them, or such a means as would have frightened them to heaven.  But the business is far otherwise, and had we then known how a reformation must be attained, perhaps some would have been colder in the prosecution of it.  And yet I know that even foreseen labours seem small matters at a distance, while we do but hear and talk of them; but when we come nearer them, and must lay our hands to the work, and put on our armour, and charge through the thickest of opposing difficulties, then is the sincerity and the strength of men's hearts brought to trial, and it will appear how they purposed and promised before.

Reformation is to many of us, as the Messiah was to the Jews.  Before he came, they looked and longed for him, and boasted of him, and rejoiced in hope of him; but when he came they could not abide him, but hated him, and would not believe that he was indeed the person, and therefore persecuted and put him to death, to the curse and confusion of the main body of their nation. 'The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in.  But who may abide the day of his coming?  and who shall stand when he appeareth?  For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap:  and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:  and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.'  And the reason was, because it was another manner of Christ that the Jews expected; it was one who would bring them riches and liberty, and to this day they profess that they will never believe in any but such.  So it is with too many about reformation.  They hoped for a reformation, that would bring them more wealth and honour with the people, and power to force men to do what they would have them:  and now they see a reformation, that must put them to more condescension and pains than they were ever at before.  They thought of having the opposers!"
- Richard Baxter, quoted from "The Reformed Pastor," pg. 189-191, first published in 1656

Our views of reformation or revival are often generally outward:  we wish to see revival in our churches, revival in our cities, the power of God sweeping over nations and the entire world.  But what we often miss is that revival must take place in our own hearts or not at all.  Baxter quotes a portion of Malachi 3:1-3 to illustrate the point, and it is revealing.  This cleansing and purifying of reformation is not for the wicked of the world as much for the priesthood.  God wants to save sinners and make them holy through His Son.  But "reformation" deals with a constant refinement, the sanctification of those already being saved.  If God has made us kings and priests unto Him, it follows that it are His disciples whom He desires be purified and holy before Him.  If the church is pure, it will lend itself to making pure followers of Christ.  Where the Body is polluted and diseased, it will only spread death and destruction instead of the life Christ desires.  Like the Pharisees, many misguided men have made proselytes twice the sons of hell as themselves.

Christ wants to purify me.  He wants me to be revived and reformed.  Many pastors have laboured and prayed for revival without effect because they neglected the fact they must be revived first!  It is a personal work by the Holy Spirit.  He will do His part because that is His will for my life.  The question remains:  am I willing to pay the price reformation demands?  Am I willing to lead even if no one follow?  In a way, reformation is all about me.  Yet I cannot reform myself.  I must yield to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, placing my faith in Him.  Following Jesus will cost a man his life.  Is it worth it?  Yes.  Do I want it?  That remains a question for each one of us.  Am I willing?  Our lives will display our answer.