Month: May 2012

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Let the Race Begin!

My Wife Melanie & I
My Son Tobias & I


 

 

 

 

 

 

I graduated from The Master’s Seminary on Sunday night, and it was a thrilling time for my family and I. The last 4 1/2 years have been a time I will always thank God for. Studying at TMS has changed me and will impact how I view ministry and think of God’s Word for the rest of my life. It was also a very trying time as we went through many trials (see my post, My Senior Testimony in Chapel at TMS), and especially tiring as I worked almost 40 hours a week, attended classes, studied, carved out precious family time together, and made time for ministry. This made Sunday night sweet (even though I finished classes in December), as it brought finality and joyous celebration to what God had done in bringing us to TMS and sustaining us.

Even though there was a great solemnity to the Graduation and the realization that I had been equipped and now needed to be a steward of what I had been given, I was smiling almost the whole time thinking of God’s goodness. My heart was overflowing with gratitude for this opportunity, knowing that it was all of God’s grace, and with thanksgiving for my supportive wife and family. What caught me off guard and brought tears to my eyes was when the last Diploma had been handed out and the crowd of over 2,500 was told it could now applaud. The Worship Center erupted into a standing ovation with cheers and shouts of joy. Once our friends and family had sat back down, I heard more than one man around me trying to hold back tears. I immediately thought of Hebrews 12:1-2:

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Those witnesses cheering us on Sunday night as we arrived at the finish line were not the faithful martyrs mentioned in Hebrews 11, but they had encouraged us along our “race”. I then thought of how in a very real sense, even though the race of seminary was now over, the race of ministry was just beginning. In fact, each of us, you included, have been running the race of the Christian life (including being active in ministry) since the moment we were saved. We in the Body of Christ are to be cheering each other on and encouraging each other to keep our eyes on Jesus. One of my primary jobs as a pastor will be to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). This means that I want my life to be poured out in ministry, but a large part of that is preparing and encouraging others to fully take hold of the ministries God has given them. If only the pastor was a “minister,” hardly any ministry would happen from any given church. But if every member understands they have a ministry, then that church will have a great impact for Christ.

Is your ministry hosting a Bible Study? Helping in Children’s ministry? Hospital visitation? Leadership? Missions? Worship music? Organizing meals for those who are sick or just had a baby? Planning outreach activities or VBS? Discipling somebody by going through a book with them? Maybe focusing on ministering to your husband and children right now? It could be anything that God has gifted you in which brings glory to Him and furthers His Kingdom. What is your ministry?? I would love to hear from you if you would like to comment below. Let the race begin!

(Although I want this to be primarily a ministry and devotional-related blog, I know that many of you are family and friends and that you would love to see pictures so I am including several pictures from the Graduation.)

My Daughter Gracie & I
John MacArthur & I
We Were So Blessed by Family & Friends at an Amazing Reception
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God Crushed His Son for Our Good & His Glory

A few weeks ago my wife and I were in the kitchen when we heard a terrifying sound: a huge crash coming from our son’s room and then screams of fear and pain.  I ran into his room to see the most frightening scene I have witnessed in my life yet: my 4 year old son was crushed under his dresser that had completely fallen on top of him.  He had pulled all of the drawers out as he was putting something away and it toppled onto him.  All I remember in the seconds between seeing what happened and lifting it off of him was his body crushed, and his head sticking out from underneath the top of the dresser with a look of terror and “help” in his eyes as he screamed.  We are so thankful that he was fine. The Doctor said he just needed to take it easy for a few days, and as I write this he is happily playing energetically as he normally does.

Maybe because our pastor is preaching through Isaiah 53, the next day I thought of the verse speaking of Christ that says, “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him…” (Is. 53:10). It is no wonder that Christ cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46b). When Christ was bearing sin on the cross and taking the full brunt of God’s wrath against sin, it is not just as if God saw His Son crushed “under the dresser” (sin) and turned away, but rather that it was actually His will for Him to be crushed. This is why some “Christian theologians” have so mistakingly called substitutionary atonement “divine child abuse.” They have a completely unbiblical view of the fact that Christ was both man and God and came into the world for this plan of salvation that had been in the works since before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). In His humanity Christ cried out as He was crushed by sin and His very Father’s wrath as He bore our sins: “But He was wounded for our trangressions; He was crushed for our iniquities…” (Is. 53:5). In His deity, Christ was resolute: “…And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” (John 12:27b-28a).

When we think of Christ’s sin-bearing from the perspective of God pouring out His wrath on His beloved Son, it can be shocking and seem “scandalous.” But when we think of it from the perspective of Christ bearing our sin, we praise the One who did this for our good and His glory. Thank you Lord for this truth: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

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