SERVING A GOD OF SOVEREIGN PURPOSE

God is good!

I am not a “Calvinist”, but I may be leaning…:). Not really. But I do believe in the Sovereignty of God and in the purpose of God for all things. And I am rebuked for being among those to whom Jesus referred as “O ye of little faith!”.

When I discovered my journal missing after our family vacation, I grieved. I have ideas, prayers, private thoughts, etc. I called where we stayed and the company from whom we leased the van. No journal. I prayed. One day last week I learned to not trust “impressions”. I had a strong impression the journal was in my mail box. I rushed to the post office and there wasn’t even lint in it, much less a journal.

Thursday morning I got a text message from Greg Wells. Greg is a good friend from 121 Community Church. We meet every other week. Greg helped sponsor our SBTC Pastor’s Golf Retreat. His text simply said, “Did you lose a journal?” I was stunned and discovered he had my journal. We met for lunch. While waiting for him I told the story to the waitress whom I will call “Kelly”. Pray for “Kelly”.

Here is the story. Enterprise had no 15 passenger vans when I first tried to find one. But a few days before leaving, I got a call: “Mr. Elmore, we have located a van for you.” Apparently they got it from Capps (we paid $200 less than what Capps was going to charge me). Little did I know that the youth from 121 Community Church were going to New Orleans and were renting vans from Capps. When Capps cleaned the vans from the 121 trip, they found a journal in the console. They called the youth pastor and he picked it up. He saw my name, knows me, and knows Greg and I meet. He put it in Greg’s in-box.

I told this story to the “Kelly”. When Greg and I were finishing lunch, she brought the bill and brought up the story and said, “God works in mysterious ways.” The story on “Kelly”. She was not raised in a Christian home. She said she did not go to church until she was old enough to choose for herself. She began going to a church in the southern part of the metroplex but dropped out because some would “party on Saturday night and act holier-than-thou on Sunday”. In the conversation we discovered that she believes she is a Christian and she and her fiance are looking for a church. They want to begin their marriage right. Greg gave her his card.

I said to “Kelly”, “I don’t want to make more of this than it is and I really don’t know all that is going on. But if someday in heaven I discover the whole purpose for this was to encourage you to live for Jesus, I would jump up and down with joy.”

God is sovereign! Pray for “Kelly”. I thank those who knew and prayed I would find my journal. It is beside me.

LORD, GET ME OUTTA HERE!

Have you ever prayed that after a long and difficult Sunday or deacon’s meeting? I think most have. We long for a situation we think describes the New Testament Church. Of course, we see that as the ideal NT church and not the really messy ones described in the NT. Was the NT church all that different from many we see today?

The first church (Acts 5) contained a wealthy family whose spirituality was so hypocritical God judged them with death. The Galatian church was legalistic regarding the very essence of faith, the Gospel. The Ephesians continually had issues with governance, leadership (read Paul’s instructions to Timothy), a lack of unity, and worst of all, they left their first love. The Colossian church was filled with the wisdom of this world. The Church at Rome needed a strong foundation. Shall we really discuss the issues at Corinth? And then there are those others in Revelation 2-3.

It seems only two, Smyrna (Rev. 2:8-11) and Philadelphia (Rev.3:7-13), were complimented by the Lord. I find it interesting that Smyrna was a persecuted and suffering church. Philadelphia kept the Word of God in obedience and persevered through a time of  persecution.

So really, is it any different? Maybe, then again maybe not. There are great churches and great places of service that are life-giving in many ways. Then there are those that are life-draining. It was true then, it is true today.

Most of us abhor slavery. Our own nation experiences today the effects of having enslaved a race of people. It is tragic beyond description. And wrong.

Yet Paul’s favorite term for himself in his relationship to Jesus was “bond slave”. He saw himself indentured to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we respond when we want to pray, “Lord get me outta here!”?

I recently had conversation with someone who conveyed a story of their church during a very, very difficult period of time. As I recall there was a guest worship leader and sometime during the music portion of the worship service the leader began to softly sing “Tell It To Jesus”. Spontaneously people got up out of their seats and came to the altar to pray. The Spirit of God seemed to hover over that congregation. Today, they have rebounded from those days and it is a thriving congregation once more.

We (myself and colleagues at the SBTC) visit with many pastors. Some are rejoicing in great victories. Others are navigating difficult issues. Two admonitions stick in my mind, both from great men of God.

The first is a statement I heard from Jerry Vines during a SWBTS chapel several years ago. He said, “If you are in this (meaning “ministry”) for any other reason than Jesus, you are going to die a bitter old man.”

The second was in a message by Charles Stanley at the SBC Pastor’s Conference years ago. He said, “Have you ever considered that your green grass is somebody else’s brown grass”?

We must remember who we are in Christ, and whose we are. And yes, tell it to Jesus.

WHY BOTHER?

It has rained most all day where I am. This winter has seen its share of wet weather and clouds. Today, Monday, reminds me of the song “rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” Kudos to those in the Northwest. I am not sure I could take all the cloudy days. I work while my wife attends the funeral of a friend’s father. Such is life.

However, I do think I have had some insight. Observing Baptist congregations leads me to believe that the old “pot luck” meal is a metaphor for how we do church and why there is so much division. It is ‘pot luck’.

But lest we curse the darkness, there is light.

Thom Rainer re-tweeted from @EssentialChurch  that “The formerly unchurched are insistent that the church be uncompromising in its beliefs. They are tired of a theologically tolerant culture.” (That was one hour after he tweeted he was in conversation with Paige Patterson.)  

My recent experiences with churches has confirmed that and more. It is the younger people who are demanding we dig deep and have theological content. Here are some examples from my experience.

A pastor of a local congregation made up primarily of those under 40 recently led his leadership team through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.  I’m reporting here, not advertising, so if Grudem isn’t your favorite, you choose another. As a result of that, at least one group of lay persons in the church did the same things and each couple bought the “unabridged” edition and they are working their way through it.

A 24 year old came to me where I serve as interim and inquired about starting a small group that would study theology. He laid our the need and the desire.

I casually mentioned Calvinism in a recent sermon. In small group discussion (we were in an emphasis where the pastor’s series were discussed in small group format on Sunday evening with the focus being application) one person in the after-40 age group asked, “what’s Calvinism”.

One in an older generation said “no one listens past 20 minutes” while a 30-something said “man, forget the clock. If it is 10 minutes or 40 minutes, give what God has given you.”

All of these are examples from various locations of current reality in some churches. God is still “able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think – according to the power that works in you – to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” -Ephesians 3:20-21

Could one apply “generations” to all age groups alive today as well as the immediate context of future generations? Since each is in a sense “future”, I think so.

So why bother on a rainy Monday? Sunday’s coming!!