Crossway Life

This past week the IO (our Parent/Youth Ministry) had our annual photo scavenger hunt.  Check out some of the selected pictures from the event!

Enjoy!

For all who have suffered through no fault of their own* John Piper is coming out with a new book of poetry on the life of Job. Here’s a preview:

*if we live long enough all of us will experience this kind of suffering.

Our order last night at the ice cream parlor should have only taken a few moments.  When things extended beyond 20 or so minutes, the Plank mini-van got a bit rambunctious.  Chloe needed to be set free from her car seat to explore the van, Ethan and Abigail did their thing to pass the time, and Brenda and I almost patiently waited for several scoops of ordered ice cream to show up in the pick-up window.  We both caught one another sighing heavily and saying things like: “come on!  It’s just ice cream!”

It occurs to me now that the ice cream’s been ingested and the kids are tucked away in bed, that this is precisely how Christian character is forged: in the smaller moments of life, like when customer service fails to meet our expectations or deliver as promised.

Here is how the Apostle Paul would have addressed my sighing, eye-rolling and impatient tones: “be gentle, and… show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:2).  Not just courtesy – but perfect courtesy.  And this, my friends, is exactly what our Lord is patiently working into us as we face spilt milk, absentee waiters & long wait times for ice cream.

After all, for a person who because of Jesus has been given more than could ever be deserved – what is a 20 minute wait?

“What is truth?” Famous words spoken by Pontius Pilate in response to Jesus’s claim that he had come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Almost 2000 years later it seems that not much has changed. Our culture questions truth. Whether it is abortion, global warming or evolution we seem to be caught in an endless debate over who should have the final authority over what is right and wrong.

Recently emotions flared over the issue of homosexuality when Carrie Prejean, Miss California, responded to a question on gay marriage. She said,

“We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.

Although commendable for its honesty it is not exactly a precise defense of biblical truth. What our culture needs — and what the church is uniquely positioned to present — is the truth coupled with biblical compassion. Nothing presents a more powerful blend of truth and compassion than does the Christian gospel. Jesus stated the truth boldly and demonstrated compassion supremely when he proclaimed himself to be the only savior of the world (John 14:6) and then went willingly to the cross to die for the sins of the world (John 19:18).

The homosexual issue is a crucial example of an issue where our culture needs to hear the voice of truth and experience the hands of compassion. Al Mohler has written a very insightful article defining the proper Christian response to the homosexual agenda in America. I encourage you to read the entire article to understand how we are missing and opportunity to present the gospel to homosexuals and to learn how we can respond with biblical courage and compassion.

The church’s engagement with the culture involves a host of issues, controversies, and decisions–but no issue defines our current cultural crisis as clearly as homosexuality. Some churches and denominations have capitulated to the demands of the homosexual rights movement, and now accept homosexuality as a fully valid lifestyle. Other denominations are tottering on the brink, . . . (view entire article)

Every Friday features a post from one of our pastor’s wives specifically for the women of Crossway Church.

Earlier this week was hard for me, which I am sure was the case for others out there.  Not only was it stormy outside, but it felt like storms had been raging through on the inside too.  My flesh does not like these times; and sadly, it’s often proven in the ways I respond to the pressures and heat.  With many tasks on my “to do” list, I knew I couldn’t attack another item before meeting with God while my kids had their down time.  Today I was finally able to finish Elisabeth Elliot’s book A Path Through Suffering and once again she helped me gain proper, God-honoring perspective for my difficult days. 

The Lord of Heaven desires and seeks our companionship . . ., but we can never go far along the road if we refuse things that are hard for us.  Our spiritual apprenticeship is served only as we earnestly observe what the Master does and do it after Him, not asking for shelter from winds that beat on Him, but turning our faces to that wind, taking up and embracing His cross.  A glad acceptance of hard things opens the way for glory (191).

When the going gets tough, I want to flee as quickly as possible.  When the heat is turned up high, I shut down and merely cope to get by.  When answers don’t come quickly and easily, I fight to get my desires.

All that the world so desperately seeks the Lamb won, not by aggression but by surrender.  That is the principle of the cross.  It takes the weak and makes them strong.  It takes our sin and bestows Christ’s righteousness.  Out of bondage we are made free.  Darkness is overcome by light.  Loss turns into gain (192).

I can have joy in these days when it seems next to impossible because of all that is required.  I can find grace to respond godly when it seems like anyone would buckle under the pressure.  I can eperieince grace and joy when I choose to surrender to God’s will just as Jesus did.  I need the Lord in this, because it requires embracing difficulty and turning my face toward it.  Lord help me!  Help me embrace Your cross.  Jesus surrendered and He will help me do the same.

I love this time of year!  Spring is a wonderful season when life seems to be blossoming all around us.  The grass turns from brown to bright green and the trees start to show life.  The days become longer, the temperature becomes warmer and for some reason the sky looks bluer. It certainly puts a smile on your face and a skip in your walk.

I can’t help but be reminded of the same sort of life that’s breathed into the heart of man from God, the creator and architect of the universe. I’m talking about spiritual life.

John Piper writes about the need to be new in his book Finally Alive

But forgiveness and cleansing are not enough, I need to be new, I need to be transformed, I need life, I need a new way of seeing and thinking and valuing.  That’s why Ezekiel speaks of a new heart and a new spirit: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statures and be careful to obey my rules.”

You see because of our sin and rebellion towards God we were dead spiritually with no hope.  We needed to be made new, to be made alive.  There was no way of bringing ourselves to spiritual life on our own, nor did we want to. Our hearts were stone cold toward God and his truth.  We were unresponsive toward the redeeming beauty of the cross of Jesus Christ. But God gave us a new heart, a new spirit and the ability to walk in his truth.  It was the work of a merciful God!

 Spring might be a wonderful time of the year but the sinner whose dead heart is brought to spiritual life is an incredible life bringing event which is brought about by the God.

 Does remembering your new birth bring a smile to your face (Joy) and a skip to your walk (endurance)?  It should because it’s nothing short of miraculous. Does remembering your new birth keep you from condemnation over sin?  Does remembering your new birth spur you on to share the life changing message of the gospel with others who are spiritually dead?

Tonight there’s a thunderstorm outside our front door.  The rain isn’t very strong, but periodically the sky lights up preternaturally in a brilliant display of raw power, throwing the distant tree line into a stark silhouette.  These crashes of convulsive electricity are generally echoed by low rumblings of thunder, and it’s these latter noises that strike considerable fear into my little son’s 2 year-old heart.

What is it about a little rumble that so intimidates him?  I can look at him, with my adult and sophisticated understandings, and marvel at his fear.  Doesn’t he know he’s safe?  We’re in our weather-tight, climate-controlled, electrically-powered home.  We’re safe.  We’re untouchable.

Yet I think Aaron recognizes something I don’t–there’s an echo of God in those rumblings.  Thunderstorms serve as occasional reminders of power and forces that are outside of my control.  I like to lay in my bed at night and to listen to a thunderstorm; but I think Aaron’s reaction might be more appropriate.  

Thunderstorms remind me, in my better moments, of the God of Job.  Job endures terrible sufferings beyond what I can even begin to imagine, and as the book wears on, he comes to question the goodness of God.  He tries to call God to account.  But in Job 38, we read part of God’s answer to Job, and his appeal to sovereignty.  God references his power to give Job perspective: he is the Creator and Sustainer of all life, and will not be questioned.  Consider even this passage on the rain itself (vv. 25-28):

Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
and a way for the thunderbolt,
to bring rain on a land where no man is,
on the desert in which there is no man,
to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?

The purposes of God in his sovereignty and providence are mysterious and beyond my searching out.  God created rain, and thunder.  He has intentions for these things.  He even brings water to the desert–and nobody’s there!  And so he never tries to “vindicate” himself–rather, he points Job (and us) to who he is and calls him to faith, to trust in the good and all-powerful God.  So, too, I must trust this God.  Life will rumble, suffering will come, injustice will prevail; and I must trust in God.  One day he will return and ultimately set all to rights.  Then justice and goodness will cover the earth.  Until that day I will hear the thunder and be grateful for a God who continues to show his power and presence to his people.