Make The Most of Every Opportunity

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9,10 ESV)

What about now? What about today? You realize that tomorrow has not been promised to any of us. What I do today is important. Don't let the failures of yesterday spoil today. Even a cup of cold water will not go without reward. For those of us who have "living water," let us offer some to others today. Freely you have received, freely give. Stay faithful!

Being Occupied With God

"Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD! Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised!" (Psalm 113:1-3 ESV)

In other words, every place on this mortal soil, is a proper place to worship and offer praise! Note, I didn't say the only place.

In the early '60's, when JFK was our president, his brother served as Attorney General. While on tour of Brazil, Robert Kennedy was introduced to a farmer from the interior of Brazil. He decided to ask this simple farmer a deep philosophical question. "What did the farmer esteem as his highest calling throughout the day in his existence in the interior of Brazil?" Without a moment's hesitation, the farmer replied, through his interpreter, "Being occupied with God."

Certain that the farmer had misunderstood his question, Kennedy asked him the same question once again. Again, the simple farmer immediately responded through his interpreter, "Being occupied with God." Unbeknownst to the Attorney General, the simple farmer living in the immense Amazonian Rain Forest had recently responded to the Gospel call of a missionary and had come to know the Maker of the Universe in an intimate way.

Being occupied with God is one simple way we can fulfill the Scriptural admonition to praise the Name of the Lord from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same.

Predestined To Be Conformed

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,..." Colossians 3:16a ESV "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11 ESV

Scripture, God's Word, is to be at home in our lives in a very copious, magnanimous way. It is the Spirit's work to conform believers to the likeness of Jesus Christ. However, the Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum. The Spirit always uses the Word of God in our day-to-day transformation.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes He would bring back to their memories all that Christ had taught them. The Word that we hide in our hearts, is the same Word that the Holy Spirit uses to conform us to the image of the Son that He loves. Just as a potter keeps his hands wet as he molds the clay, the Holy Spirit wets His hands with the "water" of God's Word as He molds and makes us into the image of the Beloved Son.

Let us renew our efforts of hiding God's Word in our hearts so that God's Spirit may continue His work in our lives

God Is Still On His Throne

"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will." Proverbs 21:1 ESV

Take heart timid souls, at the top of every organizational chart is the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Rejoice, everything is under His control!!

Luther reflects on his conversion

"Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, “As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteousness and wrath!” Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St. Paul wanted.At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory. I also found in other terms an analogy, as, the work of God, that is, what God does in us, the power of God, with which he makes us strong, the wisdom of God, with which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.

And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word “righteousness of God.” Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise."^[1]

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^[1]Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 34  : Career of the Reformer IV, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1960). 34:III.

And Can it be That I should Gain (Charles Wesley)

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,

And claim the crown, through Christ my own

Nuggets from Owen

“That the beholding of the glory of Christ is one of the greatest privileges and advancements that believers are capable of in this world, or that which is to come. It is that whereby they are first gradually conformed unto it, and then fixed in the eternal enjoyment of it. For here in this life, beholding his glory, they are changed or transformed into the likeness of it, 2 Cor. 3:18; and hereafter they shall be “for ever like unto him,” because they “shall see him as he is,” 1 John 3:1, 2.Hereon do our present comforts and future blessedness depend. This is the life and reward of our souls. “He that hath seen him hath seen the Father also,” John 14:9. For we discern the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God only in the face of Jesus Christ,” 2 Cor. 4:6 (John Owen, The Works of John Owen., ed. William H. Goold (Edinburg: T&T Clark). 287.)

“No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter, who doth not in some measure behold it by faith here in this world. Grace is a necessary preparation for glory, and faith for sight.” (John Owen, The Works of John Owen., ed. William H. Goold (Edinburg: T&T Clark). 288.)

"Quotable"

"God is always like Himself." - John Calvin

"It is impossible to reason someone out of something that he did not reason himself into in the first place." - Jonathan Swift

"God never gives us discernment in order that we may be critical, but that we may intercede." -Oswald Chambers

"Remove natural man from his rituals and he must begin to think in the realm of impossibilities." - Pastor William Downing

"Contentment is spiritual equilibrium - in both favorable and adverse circumstances." -Anonymous

The President, the Passengers, and the Patience of God

January 21, 2009
By John Piper

[Note from Lee Shelton, III: Here is an excellent article from Pastor John Piper of DesiringGod.org]

Sometimes we are so overwhelmed at being treated better than we deserve that we must exult in the all-sovereign God—the God of birds' flight and Obama’s rise. When King David pondered how many were God’s “wondrous deeds,” he said, “I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told” (Psalm 40:5). That’s the way I feel watching God’s public mercies in the last few days.

Have you considered how unlikely was the crash of USAir flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15—not just the rescue but the crash itself? Picture this: The Airbus A320 is taking off at an angle—maybe 30 degrees. It’s not flying horizontal with the earth. Not only that, it is flying fast—not full speed yet, but perhaps four times as fast as your car would go at top highway speeds.

The geese are flying horizontally with the ground, more or less. They are not flying in a cloud like a swarm of bees. They fly level with the ground, often shaped like a V. In view of all that, what are the odds that, traveling at this speed and at this angle, this airplane would intersect with the flight of those geese at that very millisecond which would put a bird not just in one of those engines, but both of them?

Two laser-guided missiles would not have been as amazingly effective as were those geese. It is incredible, statistically speaking. If God governs nature down to the fall (and the flight) of every bird, as Jesus says (Matthew 10:29), then the crash of flight 1549 was designed by God.

Which leads to the landing in the Hudson River—which is just as unlikely. The airbus now has no thrust in either engine. The flight attendants said it was as quiet as a library in the plane without the sound of engines. The plane is now a 77-ton glider with its belly full of fuel. Captain Sullenberger decides to land in the river. Anywhere else would mean one big fireball.

He banks and misses the George Washington Bridge by 900 feet and glides the plane into a perfect belly landing. A few degrees tilt to the front or back or the right or left and the plane would have done cartwheels down the river and broken up. On the water, the flight attendant does not let passengers open the rear door. That would have flooded the cabin too fast. The emergency doors and front doors provide exits for everyone and the plane floats long enough for all of them to climb out. Ferry boats are there almost instantly. The captain walks the aisle twice to make sure everyone is off. Then he leaves. Later the plane sinks.

If God guides geese so precisely, he also guides the captain’s hands. God knew that when he took the plane down, he would also give a spectacular deliverance. So why would he do that? If he means for all to live, why not just skip the crash?

Because he meant to give our nation a parable of his power and mercy the week before a new President takes office. God can take down a plane any time he pleases—and if he does, he wrongs no one. Apart from Christ, none of us deserves anything from God but judgment. We have belittled him so consistently that he would be perfectly just to take any of us any time in any way he chooses.

But God is longsuffering. He is slow to anger. He withholds wrath every day. This is what we saw in the parable. The crash of Flight 1549 illustrates God’s right and power to judge. The landing of the plane represents God’s mercy. It was God’s call to all the passengers and all their families and all who heard the story to repent and turn to God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and receive forgiveness for sin.

I am writing these thoughts on the evening after the inauguration of Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States. I cried twice today. There were two points when I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. Once was when I prayed with some brothers after Obama’s speech and was overcome with the sinfulness of my own racist background. The other was in trying to express my emotion to an African-American brother about what this must mean for him.

As much as I reject Obama’s stance on abortion, I am thankful to the bottom of my soul that an African-American can be President of United States. The enormousness of it all is unspeakable. This is God’s doing. The geese were God’s doing. The landing of Flight 1549 was God’s doing. And the Obama presidency is God’s doing. “He removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21).

And I pray that President Obama has eyes to see. The “miracle on the Hudson” and the “miracle in the White House” are not unrelated. God has been merciful to us as a nation. Our racial sins deserved judgment a thousand times over. God does not owe America anything. We owe him everything. And instead of destruction, he has given us another soft landing. We are not dead at the bottom of the Hudson.

O that Barack Obama would see the mercies of God and look to the One whose blood bought everlasting life for all who trust him. The parables of God’s mercy are everywhere. The point of them is this: God is a just and patient Ruler, and Jesus Christ is a great Savior. Turn. Turn. Turn, O President of the United States and passengers of this planet.

Full of thanks for all God’s mercies,

Pastor John