Why do we partner with other churches in times of disaster and tragedy to meet needs?

It’s true that one factor is our gratitude for the thousands of people who came and gave to our relief efforts in our own time of disaster after the March 2, 2012 EF-4 tornado. It’s true that as followers of Jesus Christ we believe that we are called to love others and to express that love in tangible ways.

Both of those are good reasons to be involved in disaster relief efforts. But they aren’t our chief reason. Certainly our own memories and our own empathy stirs our affections, but we believe our commitment to help meet needs in places like Moore, Oklahoma comes from a bedrock foundation far stronger than our own experiences or our own feelings.

First Baptist Henryville believes deeply that the purpose of all of history, all of creation and all of life is the glory of God. God’s glory is displayed most clearly in the gospel, the self-giving act at the cross by which God brings sinners to himself in the person of Jesus Christ. This gospel that we proclaim shines a spotlight on God’s glory and transforms the lives of those who encounter it by faith. This is no ordinary announcement. This is no mundane message. The gospel is the greatest news in the world, about the greatest event in the world, focused on the creator of the world, who because of his great love for the world, saves sinners in the world, ultimately leading to the restoration and renewal of all of the fallen and hurting world. This glorifies God supremely.

And we believe firmly that an implication of this gospel is that those whose lives are transformed by it are to broadcast it to the world. We are to be tiny satellites continually communicating the greatness of God in the story of the gospel. We are to be individual mirrors reflecting God’s beauty as it is revealed in a blood-stained cross. This is the identity of believers. We are gospel people who live and die for this truth that has changed everything.

One of the ways we broadcast this good news gospel individually and corporately as local churches is through our passion for relief efforts in times of disaster. The Bible doesn’t simply say relief work between churches is a good idea. It demands it to be a natural and assumed consequence of a people whose lives have been radically changed by Jesus Christ. We are to proclaim the gospel in our homes. We are to preach the gospel in our churches. We are to share the gospel in our workplaces. We are to live the gospel in our lives, and we are to give through the gospel by meeting the needs of those who are hurting and in desperate need. We are to be a people who are passionate about proclaiming the gospel on the ground.

2 Corinthians 8-9 is a great place to see where Paul unfolds the Bible’s demand that this be the heart of believers. The church in Jerusalem (made up primarily of Jews) had been suffering under an oppressive famine. This was an economic depression and a natural disaster all bunched into one big tragedy. As a result, much of Paul’s church planting missionary work coincided with his passion to see new local churches throughout the Roman Empire (which were primarily made up of Gentiles) give financially to a relief effort to help their brothers and sisters in Christ in Jerusalem. In 2 Corinthians Paul reminds the church in Corinth that it is almost time for them to deliver their pledged relief funds. In the remaining time I have in this article I simply want to draw out ten short observations about how 2 Corinthians 9 informs our theology of gospel-fueled and church-centered disaster relief. (All verses in block quotations are from the ESV.)

1. 2 Corinthians 9:1-5

Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

Meeting needs through the gospel is to be an intentional ministry of the local church. Paul notes that he thinks it is “superfluous” to remind them about the disaster relief ministry. He knows, and assumes, that they are going to come through with their pledged donation. That doesn’t mean he sits back on his laurels and just waits for it to happen. He believes the Corinthian congregation will come through, but he is putting feet to the work in making intentional preparations to ensure they come through. He is “sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter.” He is intentional about arranging “in advance for the gift you have promised.” We cannot merely say that giving to disaster relief is a good idea. We have to put this ministry into action.

2. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Meeting needs through the gospel must come from the overflow of a willing heart. Back in verse 5 Paul noted that the gift must be “willing…not as an exaction,” and he explains what he means here. He certainly calls them to abundant and even sacrificial giving. He wants them to “sow bountifully.” He doesn’t simply want them to contribute “chump change.” Yet he doesn’t want to force the gift or tax them either. God wants the contributions to be joyous and cheerful. Because of this each believer must decide for themselves the amount and to what extent they can give to this ministry.

3. 2 Corinthians 9:8-10

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

Meeting needs through the gospel is an act of faithfulness to what God has provided. We do not engage in these efforts in our own strength. God is the one who provides our every need and provides our every resource in “all sufficiency” that we then contribute to relief efforts in the gospel. “He has distributed freely.” He “will supply and multiply your seed for sowing. “

4. 2 Corinthians 9:8-11

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

Meeting needs through the gospel is one reason for which God provides for his people. Many of us have heard the often repeated sentence, “We are blessed to be a blessing.” Sometimes that can sound trite, but it’s still true. We are given resources by God not so that we can hoard them or selfishly please our every whim, but so we may “abound in every good work.” We are told that God will certainly multiply our seed, but not for some sickened form of personal prosperity but for the purpose of sowing – meeting the needs of others for the cause of Christ. We are the recipients of God’s gifts “to be generous in every way.”

5. 2 Corinthians 9:12

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

Meeting needs through the gospel is not just about meeting needs. It’s ultimately about God. The relief efforts like the ones we are engaging in for the people of Moore, Oklahoma ultimately flow from our passion for God. It is the overflow of our own thanksgiving to God for his goodness, not simply our knee-jerk reaction to the hurting of those around us. When we give to relief efforts through local churches we aren’t simply sending a message about how we feel about the victims of tragedy. We are sending a message about how we feel about God.

6. 2 Corinthians 9:13

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others,

Meeting needs through the gospel is ultimately for the purpose of seeing others glorify God. Through our efforts we become instruments in God’s purposes to lead others to glorify God – to see and savor his greatness, power, wisdom, goodness, beauty, authority, control, and salvation.

7. 2 Corinthians 9:13

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others,

Meeting needs through the gospel is an outward sign of inner submission to God. It is a lived-out display of our own confession of the gospel. If we confess the gospel, then what overflows are joyous hearts that yearn to meet needs through the gospel. We should also note that here Paul directly connects the church’s confession of the gospel with their response to their brothers and sisters who are in need. For believers then, being engaged with disaster relief efforts with sister churches is an outward fruit of believing the gospel.

8. 2 Corinthians 9:13

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others,

Meeting needs through the gospel is not limited to one place or one event. We are to be meeting needs in our own community, in our own church, in our own state, in our own neighborhoods. We don’t exist for Moore, Oklahoma. We exist for God, and our giving to relief efforts in places like Moore, Oklahoma showcases our love for them “and for all others.”

9. 2 Corinthians 9:14

while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

Meeting needs through the gospel binds believers together. Putting the gospel into action in these ways becomes the means by which God glues and cements our hearts together. Paul told the Corinthians that the believers in Jerusalem would lovingly long for them, and faithfully pray for them. This is the steel-strong binding of Christian fellowship. In responding to meet the needs of those in Oklahoma, particularly through the local churches there, the believers there are united to us in love and prayer as we recognize that in Christ we are the recipients of God’s grace.

10. Corinthians 9:15

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Meeting needs through the gospel ultimately comes back to stirring within us the very message of the gospel itself. It’s all about Jesus. We give sacrificially to meet needs because we worship the God who in an act of infinite sacrifice gave the gift of infinitely supreme value (himself) to meet our most desperate need. Our gifts can be expressed through gift-cards and rebuilding projects. God’s gift is at heart inexpressible. It is too great to fully be expressed. All that we can do in response is believe, love, cling to, and worship in response. When we give and go and meet needs in the gospel we are always strengthened in our own overwhelming encounter with the God who has given all so that we might have him.

Will you join us in this gospel ministry? Will you join us in putting the gospel on the ground in places like Moore, Oklahoma? We are mobilizing now to work with and assist sister churches seeking to meet the needs in that tornado ravaged region. Toby is travelling to meet with pastors to plan ways we can build a long-term partnership. We have established a relief fund in which one hundred percent of the donations will go to meet real needs of real people who have been impacted by the EF-5 tornado. If you would like to contribute to this fund, please send checks (P.O. Box 87 Henryville, 47126) payable to FBC Henryville, with “Moore Relief” in the Memo-Line. Please pray for us. Please pray for Moore. Please pray that the gospel powerfully works in the midst of the pain to create something beautiful – eternally beautiful.

In this gospel and on this ground,

Pastor Cade

UPDATE: FBC Henryville has opened a relief fund. One hundred percent of donations through FBC Henryville will go to meet needs on the ground in Moore, Oklahoma. If you would like to contribute you may send checks to our mailing address (PO Box 87). Please make the checks out to FBC Henryville and place on the memo line “Moore Relief.” Also, please be praying for Pastor Toby as he meets with pastors from Moore during the week of June 10th. These meetings will hopefully set the groundwork for future partnerships with local churches there to continue to assist them in their recovery efforts.

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! 2 Corinthians 8:10-15

The moments that matter most come without warning.

I will never forget the surreal horror of standing on our church’s front parking lot and seeing the powerful EF-4 tornado looming over us. I will never forget walking dazed through the rubble of our town in the afternoon hours just after the tornado had hit as news choppers buzzed overhead and emergency sirens screamed all around us. The memories of those minutes are as fresh today as they were on the evening of March 2, 2012.

And now those memories are stirred fresh. Another massive and nightmare tornado has hit another town. The residents of Moore, Oklahoma have had their world turned upside down. I know, on some level, everything they are facing, but I also know that what I’m seeing on the news and internet shows the devastation to be far worse and on a far larger scale than anything I encountered.

So the question that comes next is how to respond. As Toby and I have been talking this morning our hearts are burning to serve the people of Oklahoma. We know the incredible outpouring of support and assistance that individuals and countless local churches gave us. God used others to meet our needs, and now we believe we are being called to be instruments to serve others as they are dealing with a tragedy so very similar to ours. Maybe you feel the same way. So how can we help? How can we join together to serve the people of Moore, Oklahoma? With the disaster having only happened less than twenty-four hours ago, here are a five initial thoughts:

1. Remember the great outpouring of love and support that we received. We have been given much, and therefore much is required. Also recognize that serving others in the gospel, particularly other local churches, is a mandate of the gospel we proclaim. We encourage you to reread 2 Corinthians 8-9. Also we’d encourage you to reread the 9Marks article that Toby and I just wrote about the need for churches to cooperate together in times of tragedy: When Disaster Strikes: How Other Churches Helped Ours.

2. Understand that in many ways the disaster in Moore, Oklahoma is far worse and on a much larger scale than what we experienced. Moore is a much larger city than Henryville on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. This truth will have to impact our response. We have to be intentional, strategic, and wise with our time, finances, and resources.

3. Know that Toby, Logan, and myself (along with other leaders) are united in our passion to give gospel-fueled assistance to our friends in Oklahoma. Be praying for us as we seek to plan ways we can respond in timely, persevering, and long-term assistance. Know that our hearts want to go now, but the situation on the ground is so volatile that to make a snap-decision trip would do more harm than good, even if we were able to get into the city itself. Our focus of assistance is going to be for long-term assistance and cooperation.

4. Sometime in the coming weeks Toby, and possibly a few others, will hopefully be taking a scouting trip to set up contacts with other local pastors in Moore and to discuss ways FBC Henryville can partner with those on the ground for ministry and service. This hopefully will be a catalyst for having others within our church involved in numerous efforts to support the victims and their families of this tragic disaster – weeks and months into the future. Pray that we are able to make contacts with local pastors to help us partner with them to aid in their recovery efforts.

5. If you are burdened to respond now there are immediate ways you can do so. First, pray for those who lost so very much in this tornado and for the thousands of volunteer workers who will be responding to meet needs. Pray that God will use this disaster, as he has done with us, as a fountain for the gospel that transforms lives. Pray that we will have burdened hearts combined with godly wisdom as we seek to lead one another to serve the tornado victims of Oklahoma. Be visible and vocal about the glorious truth that our sovereign God is both good and in complete control. Be visible and vocal also about our commitment to respond with love, support, service, and most importantly the gospel. The world is watching the way we respond. People know the great outpouring of support that we received, and now they are watching to see if First Baptist Church Henryville will respond in kind. Be vocal in saying, “YES!” Finally, if you would like to contribute immediately and financially to relief efforts we would recommend doing so through the Southern Baptist Convention’s NAMB Disaster Relief. The SBC Disaster Relief, on a state and national level, did so much for us after the tornado. Your money will be used to meet needs on the ground in Oklahoma. For more information about how to donate to the fund for Oklahoma tornado relief, please visit this link: North American Mission Board: Disaster Relief For Oklahoma Tornado Victims.

In Christ,

Cade

There is one thing every pastor knows on a Friday afternoon right after lunch. Sunday morning at 11:00 am is closing fast. Whether we feel prepared or not – prayed up, studied up, or worded up, the Sunday morning worship service is coming just the same. On Monday mornings the next week’s sermons can feel like Dylan’s Slow Train Coming, but by Friday afternoon that locomotive is speeding down the rails to the sanctuary station. Pastors feel the weight of their most solemn of charges – feeding the flock through the preaching of God’s Word, and the time for our biggest feeding is during our Sunday services. The gravity of that responsibility is illustrated well by the stories of Charles Spurgeon sleeplessly struggling through his Fridays and Saturdays with the sermon(s) that he was preparing to preach.

Most in our society view Friday afternoons as the promised reprieve from a busy week, a much needed forty-eight hour leave of absence. Yet on Fridays for Christians, the biggest day of the week is still looming just over the horizon. As a believer, and as someone who constantly identifies with everyone’s favorite fat-cat, Garfield, I would like to just let weekends rule my life. But God does. That means that however much I want to blare the George Jones song, “Finally Friday,” over my loudspeakers on Friday afternoons, I am called to see weekends differently from the world. But what exactly does that mean?

Well certainly it means living with Sunday in view. It’s not just pastors who should be looking ahead toward Sunday mornings as they clock-out on Friday afternoons. For every believer the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, the day after our Saturdays of hopeful Sabbath-rest is the day we should all be looking forward to. Not all of us will be faced with the calling and solemn charge of preaching. After all, not many of us should be teachers, for those who teach are held to a stricter judgment (James 3:1). But that doesn’t excuse us from the great hopeful expectation we should feel toward Sunday worship services with our brothers and sisters in Christ – when we fellowship together, pray together, worship together, and receive God’s Word together.

The writer of Hebrews tells us we should never neglect “to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). The “day” mentioned in this verse could be referring to one of two things. Either it refers to the final Day, the Day of Judgment, the day of Christ’s glorious return, or it is referring to the weekly day of worship, the day when the local church meets together each week. Either way the instruction is clear. We are to take the meeting of ourselves together seriously, and we should take our responsibility of encouraging one another and holding one another accountable in this practice seriously too.

That’s what I want to do. I want to encourage you to use your weekends (from Friday afternoon to Sunday night) to be intentional about not “neglecting to meet together,” and that means more than just agreeing to show up for the Sunday worship service. Implied in that one command is the call to live our weekends for the glory of God – to not just worship God during our weekends, but to worship God with our weekends. Earlier in the week I wrote an article suggesting some ways you can prepare yourselves and your families to be better sermon listeners. Those six suggestions are solid ways for ongoing improvement as a sermon-listener, but today I want to encourage you in another specific way: How to live your weekends in the light of the glory of God.

Too often, as a believer and a pastor, I can still be tricked into believing a lie. It’s far too easy for me to think that the weekends are mine. Yes, I’ll give God Sunday (at least a few hours of Sunday anyway), but in the back of my mind I will still think that its my property, a time that is owed to me for hard work during the week. Like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings I (and maybe you) view our weekends as “our precious.” This lie is subtle. There’s some truth to it. But it is deadly because it begins to make me believe that there is time that I am owed that is beyond the parameters of my life as a believer, as a follower of Christ. If Jesus owns me, then he owns every day of my week – Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sundays too, and I am called to heed the teaching that tells me that whether I eat or drink, or whatever I do, I am to do it all “for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). That “whatever” in the verse includes my weekends. So how do we enjoy weekends to God’s glory? Here are some basic thoughts. I want to offer you eight suggestions for living worshipful weekends:

1. Celebrate grace. Refuse to believe the lie that you deserve your weekends. Many of us have to work on these days. Many don’t get the schooldays schedule of two days off! That’s okay. and the idea of a weekend is a very modern idea anyway. The first thing we should remember is that as creatures and believers everything we are given (that is not judgment) is a gift of God’s grace. Paul asks a good question to the Corinthians: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” (1 Corinthians 4:7)? If we receive a few days off, a long weekend, or a Saturday night out with friends or family, then it is never something that we have earned. It is a gift.

2. Have fun. Enjoy your rest, recreation, and relatives. Living a worshipful weekend doesn’t mean sitting alone in your house with the blinds closed but your Bible open. Going to dinner is a gift. Spending time with your families at ballparks or hunting camps (or yes the mall) is a gift. Yes they can become sinful traps if we begin to see these things as the point of a weekend, but neither should we legalistically refuse to enjoy our weekends with these activities included either. Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees about the Sabbath (Saturday for Jews). They were going ballistic about Jesus’ disciples “working” on the Sabbath. So Jesus has to explain to them that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). These days of rest and enjoyment are a gift from God and we should enjoy the genuine gifts that God has given us.

3. Enjoy the source of everything good. Enjoy the true fountain of everything that weekends can only faintly provide. Remember that the enjoyment, pleasure, rest, and recharging that weekends often provide are intended to only be a faint reflection and signpost pointing us to the true source of everything we look forward to having in our best of weekends. Only in the person of God are these things found to their fullest and never-ending extent. The Psalmist remarks about God that “in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). The rest and pleasure that we truly long for are only found in the person and presence of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:6-11). May we never enjoy the gift without craving the greater reality of what we long for in the presence of the giver.

4. Take Sunday seriously. Now, I’m not about to give you a list of do’s and don’ts for your Sundays, except one. Do make an intentional and serious discipline to worship with believers in a local church on the Lord’s Day. Sunday is not the last day of the week. It’s the first, and how you begin your week sets the stage for everything that will follow within that week. Enjoy your weekends, but “don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together.” On Sundays, gathering to worship and to hear the Word of God proclaimed must take precedence over everything else. Now, grace is glorious. If there is absolutely no way for you to be with believers on Sundays that’s one thing. Many elderly shut-ins aren’t able to drive as much as they once did. Some jobs absolutely require employees to work some Sundays or to at least be on-call. Nor do I think you are sinning if you go out to eat with your family or enjoy a Sunday afternoon of recreation. All of that is one thing, but to intentionally neglect to meet with other believers in a local church when you are able is quite another thing entirely. God knows our hearts. God knows our schedules. God knows what we allow time for in every other area of our lives. God knows what is most important to us, and for many of us that is exactly what should frighten us.

5. Share the gospel. Begin to think of weekends as an opportunity to share the gospel with friends and family members. As believers we should already be developing a passion to proclaim the gospel and reach our friends and family members with it. That should be a daily desire. Weekends, however, provide unique opportunities for us to enjoy time with unbelievers and to be a living and speaking witness for the gospel. The book of Galatians tells us to “do good to all people as we have opportunity” (Galatians 6:10). Certainly doing good includes doing what is infinitely best, being a light and instrument to share the gospel with those around us. Weekends – time at ballparks, cookouts, get-togethers, and in many other ways – provide a great opportunity to put this into action.

6. Preach priorities. Be intentional about letting your friends and family members know that the ultimate purpose of life is to “glorify God and enjoy him forever” as the Westminster Catechism says or “to glorify God by enjoying him forever” as John Piper says! There are a thousand little ways that we can do that. Be involved with your local church. Don’t sleep in on Sundays but tell your children through your words and actions that Sunday worship is the priority of the week because the gospel is the priority of your life. Priorities are proclaimed in what we spend our time enjoying, preparing for, and talking about. If we asked our families if they know we place a high priority on the gospel, would they be seeing it by those three evidences in our lives?

7. Prepare for spiritual warfare. If believers are to be encouraging one another to meet together as the church, and if God would have us use the weekends for his glory and his gospel, then how surprised should we be that Satan and his demons want the exact opposite? Do not be surprised when roadblocks, traps, temptations, and snares seize your Saturdays and Sunday mornings. It’s not a question of if that will happen. It’s gonna happen. C.S. Lewis, quoting the fictional demonic tutor Screwtape, noted that in Satan’s mind, “nowhere [does he] tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar.” We shouldn’t take weekends lightly because for many of us they are ground zero for sin’s Satanic attacks as believers. Satan wants you to celebrate yourself. He wants your worship with other believers to be either avoided all together or miserable if you even make it to the church on time. You are hunted. As Leif Enger might say, “We and the world [sin and Satan] my children, will always be at war. Retreat is impossible. Arm yourselves.” Pick up the armor of God. Read Ephesians 6. Take the full armor of God. Resist the devil. Fight him. He is coming for you. Be ready.

8. Prepare yourself spiritually. Finally, we come back to the preacher in his study on Friday afternoons. He is diligently preparing for sermons. He must be diligently preparing his heart and his mind. He must be steadfastly praying for those who will hear the message on Sunday. If this under-shepherd of the flock is to take such great care spiritually to feed those who are under his care, how much should we who are the recipients of this labor prepare our own hearts to receive it? Study your Bible (or Sunday School Lesson) as a family or as a couple on Saturdays. Read the passages which will be preached. Read the earlier article about being better sermon listeners (Tolle Lege). Pray for your family and with your family for the preacher, the sermon, and the working of God’s Spirit. Examine your life in the week that has just past. Confess sins. Build (or rebuild) relationships that have gone askew. Get a good night’s sleep (if possible) so you’re rested and ready to worship on Sunday morning. Life is lived in the little things. Spiritual lives are grown and disciplined in the little things and the hundreds of little choices we make each day and week, especially in the few hours that we call the weekend.

The Day is approaching, and in this case I am definitely referring to our last day before the throne of God. May we never have to confess to wasting our weekends. May we never have to whisper that we didn’t think those hours mattered. May we never have to fall down and admit that we thought Jesus was Lord every day of the week, but we thought we could live like he wasn’t on certain days more than others. The weekend is here. Worship in it, and through it, and with it.

I hope to see you Sunday.

In love with you, with God, and with his gospel,

Pastor Cade

Most of the time we use this Pastors’ Blog for the specific purpose of encouraging you in your faith and/or addressing current events or issues that relate to Christianity, the church, and society. Occasionally though, we want to share things that are just of a particular or personal interest or passion to us individually. That’s the case today. I want to share with you my (admittedly) overly ambitious summer reading list, and encourage you to pick out some of your own books to read this summer.

I love to read – anything and everything. So at the beginning of each summer I will usually go looking around and compile a book list to keep me busy during the hot summer months. This year I want to share with you some of the things on my shelf that I’ll be reading (or trying to read) through in the coming weeks.

Not all of these books are the same length or the same reading difficulty, and I may not (and probably won’t) get to all of them this summer. I’m more than ok with that. Some of these books I may start and just not feel any passion to keep going to the end so I’ll set them aside. As much as I love to read and believe in reading, I don’t think it should be something that is a painful duty. If you’re reading a book and you just can’t get into it, it’s really okay to chunk it aside. There are too many good books and life is far too short to spend time reading something that you absolutely hate. That’s why some of these books may be replaced by some old already read favorites. A few of these books I’ll devour and a few I’ll read slowly through all summer long until the end. Some I’ll just scratch in place of another book that catches my eye. Some I may have to put aside until another time because of other reading demands for sermon preparation, The Ephesian Fellowship, or a summer class I’m taking in late July. And I already know about a few books that will be releasing this summer that may bump some of these titles out of my agenda.

All of that is okay. My point and passion isn’t to check these books off the list or to fulfill some impressive quota of books read during the summer. I just want to be perusing books that piqued my interest, and the months off from school and the long summer days are a good time to do this! I readily admit that not all these books are for everyone. In fact, I can’t even endorse these books yet since I’m just now having them stacked up to begin reading, but I hope you’ll join me in setting some time aside to read this summer. Make reading the Bible your first priority, and then under that look for some other good books that spark your interest. Your books may not be any of these on my list. You may be able to read a lot more or a lot less. None of that matters. Just join me in picking up some good books and reading as you are able.

Before I get to the long list below, let me leave you with two words of encouragement. The first is an encouragement from Winston Churchill about how to think about books and reading. He instructs us to love books but not to obsess over the daunting mountain of trying to read everything:

“If you cannot read all your books…[handle] them—peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances.”– Winston Churchill

Finally, let me marshal one of my biggest influences, Charles Spurgeon. In a great sermon entitled Paul – His Cloak and His Books(Link Provided) said the following:

“Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure time, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, ‘Bring the books’ — join in the cry.” – Charles Spurgeon

That’s a pretty good admonition and encouragement. So with that I’ll turn to my coffee and an open book and heed the overheard remark that sparked Saint Augustine’s conversion to the gospel… “Tolle lege…Take and read…”

- Pastor Cade

I. General Non-fiction / History

1. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World, by Mark Pendergrast
2. Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, by Glen Weldon
3. Over The Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen
4. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America, by John Barry
5. The Duck Commander Family: How Faith, Family, and Ducks Built a Dynasty, by Willie and Korie Robertson

II. Biography / Biographical

1. Recovering Classical Evangelicalism: Applying the Wisdom and Vision of Carl F. H. Henry, by Greg Thornbury
2. Charles Spurgeon: The Early Years,by Charles Spurgeon, Susanna Spurgeon, and Joseph Harrald
3. Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles Shields
4. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham
5. The Last Lion: Volume One: Winston Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932, by William Manchester

III. Fiction/Literature

1. The Confession, by John Grisham
2. The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin
3. True Grit, by Charles Portis
4. Suttree, by Cormac Macarthy
5. Light in August, by William Faulkner

IV. Theology / Christianity

1. Where Mortals Dwell: A Christian View of Place for Today, by Craig Bartholomew
2. Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture, by Peter Leithart
3. Counsel From the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ, by Elyse Fitzpatrick
4. Justification by Grace Through Faith: Finding Freedom from Legalism, Lawlessness, Pride, and Despair, by Brian Vickers
5. The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments, by Tom Schreiner

I’m really anticipating all of our upcoming sermon series. In addition to our continued sermon series on Sunday mornings, The Power and the Glory: The Gospel of God in the Book of Romans, this summer will see the start of some great series. On Sunday evenings we’re going to be celebrating the gospel’s impact on our lives through a series, entitled Testimony: Speaking the Gospel in Our Stories of Grace.. On Wednesday evenings in the summer we’ll be talking about local church ministry through a topical series entitled Operating Instructions: The Life and Ministry of the Local Church and beginning in the Fall we’ll begin an expositional walk through 1 and 2 Samuel in a series entitled The Shepherd and the Scepter: Seeing the Gospel in the Books of Samuel. On Sunday evenings beginning in September we’ll start a journey through the story of the Bible looking at a different Bible story each week in a series entitled The King and the Crown: The Grand Story of God in the Epic Stories of the Bible.

I think these series are going to be great, and one of the things I want to be doing as both a pastor who will be preaching some of these sermons and as a member of the church who will be sitting under the preaching of some of these sermons is to begin now to prepare my heart and mind to receive these sermons. As a child I grew up singing the song that encourages us to “be careful little ears what you hear,” and one thing we can all learn as church members is how to listen more carefully to sermons. Listening to sermons is not a passive activity. Oftentimes we think that hearing weekly sermons is either a necessary benefit for our lives as believers (at best) or a weekly duty to be overcome (at worst). Certainly the first view is far better, but I think it can be strengthened by seeing our participation in the local church in hearing sermons preached in our local church as an essential discipline of our Christian discipleship. And if it is a discipline of our discipleship then it is something we must take much more seriously than many of us do.

So how can we all begin to cultivate the discipline of intentional and gospel-minded sermon listening? Well, here are six simple suggestions that I want to begin making a part of my own life:

1) Pray daily.Pray for your pastors as they are preparing their weekly sermons. Pray for yourself and your fellow believers that faith will be strengthened and lives will be sanctified. Pray for unbelievers who will be present that God’s Word will work powerfully to shatter hearts of stone. Spend regular and deliberate time with God in prayer each week. To listen to sermons well our hearts must be prepared prior to the preaching.

2) Read the scripture texts for the upcoming week. As pastors one of the many reasons we love preaching through books of the Bible is because each week we all usually know as we approach our worship services what text will be preached. Not only that, due to our connection with social media through Twitter and Facebook, the upcoming sermon verses and sermon title are almost always posted well in advance (Follow us on Twitter at @TtobyJenkins, @DCadeCampbell, and @loganhuff). Prepare yourself to hear these passages preached by reading them in your own times of Bible study and devotions. Meditate on some of the verses coming up. Read them with your spouse or family. Not only must our hearts be prepared through prayer but our Bibles must be opened daily and deliberately.

3) Talk to your pastors about upcoming sermons. Talk to them about the task and beauty of sermon preparation. As pastors our primary calling is to feed God’s people with God’s Word. Because of this, one of the primary tasks each week is to pray through and prepare the sermons for the upcoming worship services. Yet it is rare for anyone to ever ask us about or talk to us about the one thing that we are spending so many hours each week doing. It’s true that the nature of preaching means that much of the work of sermon preparation is spent with the pastor, God, and the Bible being alone in the study. But we aren’t isolated in our relationships within the church, and we would never stay silent about the other things we spend our days doing. Think about your own families. One of the weekly necessities of a household is the planning and preparing of meals, and oftentimes we’ll be talking about these upcoming meals on a daily basis. Amy is an amazing cook (as many of you know), and she is always asking me or talking to me about meals that she is planning to prepare, and I love talking with her about the amazing meals she is getting ready to cook! If we are that interested about the physical food that we eat on a daily basis, how much more should we be interested in the food of God’s word that is fed to us each week through preaching?

4) Jot down sermon notes. I’m not very good at this, and Amy really is. So I know that some people are more inclined to listening to sermons and taking notes than others. As bad as I am about note-taking, I still acknowledge how helpful this one simple activity can be in listening to and engaging with the sermon. And it’s not like you have to take down every word in shorthand. When you take sermon notes, you don’t have to worry about trying to write out a full transcript of what’s said. Just do a few simple things: Write down the sermon title, text, a few points that may be made, observations, summary of the main point of the message in your own words, anything that sticks out in your mind about applying the text to your own life. In all honesty good notes can be taken by just writing down a few sentences about each sermon. Taking notes may not come as naturally to me as to my wife, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t benefit from the regular activity of taking notes!

5) Dig into some really good Christian books. Read some good, solid Christian books for your own personal Bible study/devotionals that are connected to what is being preached during the worship services. Later in the week I’ll be posting some great books that you can be reading that are great complements to the current sermon series and the ones coming up in the future! Our own personal growth in grace need not be isolated from the weekly ministry of preaching through the local church.

6) Talk about and review the sermon. Talk with your wife and/or kids about the sermon when you get home. During Sunday lunch take a few minutes to ask your family about what the sermon said and meant for your own lives. This shouldn’t be a weekly opportunity to “roast the preacher,” but it can be a useful time to let the sermon’s message marinate in your own families. This one simple weekly tradition of talking about the sermon after one of the worship services can have a big impact on your family. It is one of the few simple things that will begin to set an example for your spouse or kids that listening to the sermon is one of the major events of each week. It’s one of the things that takes a small amount of time but pays huge rewards! When we hear the sermon and then act like we’ve forgotten it as soon as we crank our cars in the church parking lot we sometimes unintentionally send the message to ourselves and our families that hearing the sermon is a duty that is best forgotten as soon as possible.

Will you join me in taking these steps to become better listeners? I hope so. If you’d like more information and encouragement for becoming a better listener, I would also recommend these helpful resources (Links Provided):

1) Pick up Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons by Christopher Ash. This little pamphlet can be purchased online for only $2.39!
2) Listen to this sermon by John Piper: Take Care How You Listen!
3) Read these helpful instructions by George Whitefield: How to Listen to a Sermon
4) Read the helpful encouragement from Wheaton College President Philip Ryken:
How to Listen to a Sermon

In His Gospel,

Pastor Cade

Fan into flame the gift of God – 2 Timothy 1:6

The ancient city of Ephesus was an important port and trade center for the Roman Empire. In the providence of God it also became a central hub center for a growing Christian church with a far-reaching impact throughout the neighboring region. And how was that impact achieved? Well certainly in the sovereignty of God Ephesus was placed at a strategic point on the coast of the Aegean Sea, a major bridge between Asia and Greece. God’s power and plan for cities like Ephesus also worked themselves out by the on-the-ground methodology of the first wave of Christian missionaries, most notably the Apostle Paul himself. Ephesus’ regional and global impact developed gradually as it became a center not just for trade but for focused Christian training.

Paul’s missionary strategy seems to have been to plant churches and personally oversee the discipleship within those churches in the major urban centers of the Empire, and then to use his team of associates as field missionaries for the smaller towns, villages, and regions surrounding them. In keeping with this missionary vision, Paul spent months of time living in Ephesus preaching the gospel, discipling believers, and training leaders who would serve the local church in Ephesus and be sent out as church planting missionaries and pastors into the other neighboring regions. In fact, Paul spent a good part of three years (Acts 20:31) during his third missionary journey based in Ephesus. The letters of 1 and 2 Corinthians and the letter to the Romans were all likely written in the context of Paul’s work in his city.

And a portion of Paul’s work in the city was spent molding and developing the leaders who would pick up the torch after he was gone. Paul never seemed to see ministry as merely a “present-tense” pastorate. He was shepherding the people that God had placed around him true enough, but his vision was also cast into the next several decades and beyond. An aspect of local ministry then was the ongoing training of young leaders for the work of continuing local ministry. The New Testament is full of examples of this passionate training ministry. Paul poured his life into mentoring men like Timothy (who interestingly went on to pastor at least for a while the congregation in Ephesus) and Titus (who led the growing church just south of Ephesus on the island of Crete). No one who reads through the narrative of Paul’s ministry in Acts or his own letters that follow after can avoid the overwhelming examples of Paul pouring his life into younger men who will continue in the service of the gospel long after he is gone.

As if that were not enough, early church history presents this same strategy of local ministry combined with focused ministry training as being employed by other apostles. A clear example is the elderly John the Apostle, the Beloved Disciple. John seems to have been both the last apostle and the apostle who lived the longest and who died of natural causes. According to early tradition he spent the last decades of his life based back in that same strategic city of Ephesus (the photo to the left is of ruins just outside Ephesus at the traditional tomb of John the Apostle). Except for a short period of exile on Patmos, his last years were spent in the same city of Paul and Timothy, and he spent those years writing his own account of Jesus’ ministry (The Gospel of John) and training younger men like Polycarp for the purpose of gospel ministry for the local church.

The pastors of First Baptist Church Henryville believe there is a great and specific weight placed upon pastors and the ministry of a local church to follow this example. When given the opportunity and resources by God, we must take the responsibility seriously to engage in developed training of men for the purpose of ministry. Christian colleges (like Boyce College) are immensely valuable and graduate seminaries (like Southern Seminary) are of great benefit for the purpose of ministry training. This is the testimony of Toby, Cade, and Logan. We all agree that the resources and training provided by these institutions meet a training need that cannot be met to the same extent in any other setting. These schools (and many other schools like them) provide focused education and training that cannot be received anywhere else. That does not, however, excuse the local church from the hands-on engagement of training those within its body for active ministry. Pastors and churches must receive the command of Paul to Timothy: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:1-2).

With this burden in mind the pastors have developed and are in the process of beginning a new ministry entitled The Ephesian Fellowship (Hereafter EF). This ministry is designed to be a focused apprenticeship and training residency for men within our congregation who both sense a calling to ministry and have that calling affirmed by the local body. So what will this look like for First Baptist Church Henryville? What can you expect from the EF?

1. The EF is designed for men who are members of our church and who have publicly acknowledged a desire for and commitment to some form of gospel ministry, and who would like to voluntarily participate in this residency program. They will have the title of “Pastoral Resident” or “Pastoral Apprentice,” a position as an understudy. Pastoral Residents are not an official office (or a paid position) within the local church so participants won’t have an official leadership role just because they are participants in the EF, although they will have the opportunity for guided service within the church.
2. The EF is a program that is designed to take men who are members of our church through a two-year residency program. During these two years participants can expect:
A. Ongoing accountability from one another and the pastoral team
B. Regular reading and discussion times with one another and the pastoral team through books of particular importance and usefulness for local church ministry
C. Opportunities to gain experience by accompanying and assisting pastors in various ministry and pastoral responsibilities
D. Opportunities to accompany pastors to a variety of ministry conferences, retreats, or other learning possibilities related to local church ministry during the two-year period
E. Opportunities to serve FBC in various aspects of ministry service under the guidance of the pastors, deacons, and other church leadership.
3. The EF is not designed to be a substitute for the educational training that can be found at Boyce or SBTS, but it is designed to be a helpful, experience building, training ministry to supplement other aspects of preparation for ministry service.

We’re excited about beginning this new residency ministry. We pray that God will bless it as we seek to be his instruments in the preparation of men for the future. We’re excited for the men in our church who have already expressed interest in participating. We are looking to launch this residency ministry with our first group of guys in June 2013.

We hope and pray that all our members at FBC will come alongside us and these men as we strive together to proclaim the gospel and disciple believers in Henryville, Indiana, the United States, and around the world. Through them we have the opportunity to serve members of our own fellowship as well as the untold and unknown thousands that we pray will be impacted through their future ministries. So how can you be involved? There are three specific ways that you can assist us in training men for gospel ministry.

1. First, do not fail to pray for these men on a daily and weekly basis. Pray that their calling and gifting from God will be enflamed to a roaring blaze. Pray that they will persevere in the faith and in the ministry of the gospel. Pray that their affections would be continually stirred for Christ and that God by his Spirit would protect, sanctify, and cleanse them as the fruit of the Spirit are grown in their own lives.
2. Second, encourage these men on a daily and weekly basis. Esteem them and hold them accountable to the standards of gospel ministers. We are told in the Bible that “if anyone aspires to the office of overseer (pastor), he desires a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1), but the tasks nobility is guarded by high demands and requirements for service (1 Timothy 3:2-7). Again, in Philippians we are told to “honor such men,” in this context men who are understudies of Paul and servants of the churches that he ministers to (Philippians 2:19-29). Late in that same letter we are told to keep our eyes on those who walk according to the example set by faithful gospel ministers (Philippians 3:17). Ministry can be lonely. There are times when ministry (even preparation for ministry) in a local church means engaging in things and enduring things that no one else can know or understand. They (as well as your pastors) need your encouragement and accountability to persevere.
3. Finally, if God places in your heart to do so, pray about assisting these men in some of the financial burdens associated with their ministry preparation. The EF is not a budgeted ministry of FBC and is not designed to require any ongoing financial cost to the church. Each participant knows about the small regular costs of the residency and is committed to fulfilling those obligations as well as the costs of more formal training and education through schooling at Boyce College or Southern Seminary if possible. There will be times, however, when these men might need and would certainly appreciate physical outpourings of support. They understand that ministry preparation will require ongoing reading as they “study to show themselves approved” (2 Timothy 2:15). This means they’ll be purchasing one or two books each month (at least!) for reading assignments. And as they have the opportunity they may be able to attend various conferences or ministry retreats and these opportunities usually involve some cost. So if you feel so led, I know they would appreciate occasional demonstrations of support, having their books paid for some months or having the cost of a weekend retreat covered for instance.

As a group of pastors we absolutely love our calling to feed and care for the sheep of our Great Shepherd. We couldn’t ask for a better group of men, women, teenagers, and children to serve in the gospel than those at FBC Henryville. It is a delight to serve you through the ministry of the Word. We love each of you, and as your pastoral leaders we are excited to pour our lives (as we pour them into all of you) into men who are set aside for specific ministry to God’s people. We carry the torch of God’s gospel to you each week. Now we are excited to fulfill the calling to build the fire in others who will take up that torch afterwards. Join with us in fanning that flame.

In Christ,

Pastor Cade

God created the universe in the course of six days, and then rested on the seventh. One week past.

The nightingale’s song was heard in the evening shadows. The fish splashed off the shore of Eden. The crickets hummed in the dusk. The magnolia blossoms scented the air afresh, and the lightning bugs blinked back at Adam and his wife, a couple reveling not merely in the joy of being newly wed, but in the ecstasy of being newly made.

And it was good. And it was very good.

But the pleasures that sprang from that one week past were not to remain, for in the evening hours a serpent slid into the forests of the world and conspired against the creation’s melody.

And the couple ate the sin-ripened fruit. And the serpent smirked at the shadows that fell in the cool of the day. And God walked alone through the well trod garden paths. And he called out searching, a cry of knowing pain as he gazed upon the guilty and began even then to feel in advance the sting of a thorn bush upon his royal head.

It was not good.

And all our weeks since have been blurred by the tears flowing from Eden’s lost river. And we have not known a week without heartache.

Instead we have known bombings. We have known murder. We have known terror. We have known tragedy. We have known death. The world that once sounded only with the quiet praise of songbirds is now pierced by the sound of gunfire in residential neighborhoods. The nights where God’s light was warmed by the smiling creation of fireflies is now lit by the raging whirls of rushing sirens.

Now this evening has only been one week more. One week past. One week in which the curse of the serpent’s hiss was heard as every hour sounded. The succession of seven days is a struggle to survive.

There was evening and there was morning…

And we find ourselves burdened like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. All the world is vain to our vision. The pain is numbing. And so, unfeeling we turn in to our pillows with the knowledge that another fallen Monday is waiting with the dawn.

And yet…

And yet the gospel says something new. The word of the gospel is as startling, and unexpected, and darkness shattering as those first words that first hurled galaxies screaming past the speed of light. And this word, this good news word, is what begins our week on Sunday and sings us to the peaceful rest of Sabbath all through the workweek hence.

The gospel tells us that what defines time, what defines life, what defines hope, what defines eternity past and future is not what we think. Our weeks in Christ are not defined by the bloody images of a modern Boston Massacre. They are not defined by the unspeakable sight of a Texas town with a miniature mushroom cloud hanging over its landscape. Instead all of history is defined by a God-Man hanging over the landscape of Jerusalem, and the blood of the creator who was murdered by a mob of terrorists so that the creation could sing again.

The disciples on that first Easter weekend experienced a week like our week has been, only worse. Their world was shattered. What had seemed so promising before, lay in ruins just one week later.

But a new week had started in the early morning hours. And as they gathered upstairs on that Sunday evening their own formless voids, deep darkened caverns of nothingness, were pierced by the whisper of Eden’s king.

This last week has been hard – personally and nationally. Yet here we gather again on a Sunday evening, looking at the coming space on our calendar. And we are reminded of the deepest truth. During our Sunday morning worship service a man was baptized, a young woman believed the gospel and her life was changed, a young man obeyed God’s call on his life for ministry. And the Spirit of God still hovers, speaks, works, and invades our lives.

The weeks of tragedy do not get to set the agenda for our futures. The King has risen. The stone casket cellar that held him is now unoccupied. Jesus lives. Jesus reigns. Jesus saves. Jesus rules…in this week and in all the weeks to come. Our sobbing does not get the last word. Our Savior does.

As it was in the beginning, we shall find it so again.

It is good. Yes, it is very good indeed.

-Pastor Cade

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

I love movies. I love fairytales. I love epic stories that show amazing battles between good and evil, with good ultimately triumphing in the end. So I’m a huge fan of movies like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Taken, or just about every John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movie ever made. Maybe you’re like me. There is something in us that is drawn to these good stories where life and death hang in the balance – where the stakes are high, the cost is everything, the demands are daunting, but the reward is sweet.

As much as I love these stories, however, I recognize one great danger. If I’m not careful I can be lulled into believing that these stories are just fantasy, entertainment, and escapism confined to a page in a book or a screen in a theater. The truth is much bigger, scarier, better, and amazing than that. The Bible tells me that I’m in a much greater story, that I have a horribly heinous enemy, and that good will indeed triumph at the end of all things. Sometimes I can be so engrossed in lesser stories that I forget that you and I find ourselves participants in the greatest of all stories.

We are real people. We live in a real world. And we have a real enemy. The Bible uses lots of names to describe him. Sometimes he is simply referred to as “the enemy.” Oftentimes he is named the Adversary, Satan, the Father of Lies, the Devil, the serpent, and the book of Revelation even calls him the great dragon (Rev. 12:9). Our enemy is far more cunning, far more evil, far more deceptive, and far more violent than anyone or anything that can be imagined. The White Witch, Voldemort, Sauron, and Darth Vader combined don’t even compare to this enemy. This enemy, our real enemy, makes those guys look like the Tooth Fairy and her merry magical cousins.

The Bible’s story tells us how this evil prince of darkness led humanity into rebellion against its good creator, its true king. The creation was wrecked. The cosmos were cursed. The universe was unhinged, and evil grew. But this isn’t the end of the story. No, this is only the beginning. The Bible tells us how God, the great and good king, had a plan to reverse the evil effects that were birthed in the heart of the dark one. So God spoke. God worked. God forgave. God promised…and finally God came. The creator entered the cursed creation in the very form of the creation. The creator of flesh and blood fashioned skin and bone onto himself and entered the arena in disguise. He came to a death-match with the enemy, to triumph over him once for all, to kill the devilish forces of death.

And the King died.

And he didn’t just die…he was violently tortured and killed.

The creator of life, the very essence of life itself, fell slain into the dust of death. And darkness covered the earth. And the ground shook violently. And the good king was laid to rest in a graveyard.

But again…this isn’t the end of the story.

In history’s greatest reversal, the cold-dead paralyzed limbs of Jesus swung back to life. The cemetery that imprisoned him burst open and cast him out of its confines. The King of the Universe had been carried as a corpse into a sealed tomb, but he walked out living on the other side. The King was resurrected, and by his death and his life again he defeated that evil snake, crushing its skull into pieces. He rose in triumph and has now empowered his people, those who follow him, those who are citizens of his kingdom to continue this epic struggle with the forces of sin and Satan until that day when he will return to bring history to a close, eternity to a beginning, and evil to its final resting place…forever.

This is the story we were made for. This is the great story that is unlike any other. And you are invited to jump in and join in the greatest narrative that began eons ago and will continue forever as we celebrate the victory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

On Monday evenings at 7:00 pm at Pastor Toby’s house our men are gathering to plot and conspire to do battle with our enemy. We’re going through a Bible Study entitled Putting on the Armor, a two month journey through Ephesians 6 that seeks to equip men – husbands, sons, brothers, the adopted sons of the King, the knights in Christ’s army, to war against Satan in their own lives, against their own temptations, and for their own lives and the lives of those they love most. Every man in our church and community is invited to join with us for these weekly war councils.

Additionally, Toby, myself (Cade), and Logan are in the beginning stages of preparing for the Sunday evening sermon series that will begin this fall. It’s entitled The King and the Crown: The Grand Story of God in the Epic Stories of the Bible. This series will walk us through the great narrative of the great war, showing the curse of the evil dragon, the imprisonment of the ones God loves, and the great lengths that our good and glorious King has gone to in order get us back and destroy evil forever.

We hope you’ll join us in this struggle. We hope you’ll pray for our men as they meet weekly. Pray that God will equip them to wear his armor and to fight with his weapons and to battle against our common enemy. Pray and prepare for our sermon series, get involved in our mission efforts and our ministry opportunities. Join this fight. The war is raging all around us. It’s end is certain, but it’s violence continues for a time. You cannot escape the battleground, and you must pick a side. “Choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).

Thursday night I wrote a few initial thoughts on the horrors of the Gosnell baby murders and the hope of the gospel message (“God, Gosnell, and the Gospel”). I did so in an attempt to join with thousands of others around the United States who have been seeking to pull back the shades of secrecy and shed light on the horrors of what was happening in the Philadelphia murder trial, especially as it highlighted the general horrors of the abortion industry in our country.

Make no mistake, the ghastly horrors described in the reports and testimonies in this trial are not merely a shocking anomaly in an otherwise sanitary and sane realm of reproductive medicine. What happened in the Philadelphia clinic is certainly gut wrenching and sickening to an extreme, but it is little more than the natural consequences brought about by the practice and acceptance of abortion by society as a whole. Pro-Choice advocates, and the leading voices for legalized abortion (i.e. Planned Parenthood) will be publicly opposed to the nightmare in Philly. Yet their outrages will consistently be made with the qualification that this horror resulted from a failure of regulation, an absence of government oversight which is inexcusable. Such a failure of oversight is criminal, but the heart of the issue will be diverted away from the basic issue of abortion and will be deflected toward the issues of better standards and more intentional watch care over clinics like the one owned and operated by Kermit Gosnell. These deflections will be made in an attempt to feign shock while not admitting that this is exactly what should be expected where abortion is normalized.

Don’t buy the lie. The base philosophies that undergird the pro-abortion industries see little difference between the murder of a child in the womb (during any trimester) and the murder of a child on a clinical table after being born alive. The Gosnell massacres don’t simply reveal the consequences of abortion procedures gone wrong. They show the very face of an abortive-worldview unmistakably unmasked. We are called to know the difference, and we are commanded to speak the truth in the middle of a societal silence. We are to be a people with a voice.

In Thursday’s article I referenced the Canaanite god Molech (or Moloch), the dark demonic false-deity worshiped by Canaanite and Phoenician people for centuries. John Milton (quoted above) describes this false god as one of Satan’s chief demons, and in gripping poetic language describes the wreckage of his worship, even in the very midst of Israel alongside the temple to Yahweh himself. Molech’s worship was shown by the continual act of child sacrifice. Children, infants, babes were cast into the flames in the enraptured attempt to please the bloody appetite of this devil.

God made it clear to his people. They were to reject this false-god and were to take extreme stands against those who would practice such atrocities. Leviticus 20:1-5 says,

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. 4 And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, 5 then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.

Notice what God says. One, God takes the murder of children so seriously that the people are to take extreme measures of retribution against those who practice such acts of worship. But he doesn’t stop there. He reveals an intense hatred not just with the practice of child-sacrifice but also with a people who claim to worship the true and living God and yet turn their faces and refuse to acknowledge and stand against what is really happening (vv.4-5). To refuse to speak and act against atrocity is to be complicit in that atrocity and to be found to be numbered with those against whom God has turned his face.

So what does this mean for us? No, we are not under the Mosaic Law. No, we are not to stone or bring about physical harm to those who argue for abortion, have had abortions, or who practice abortion. The gospel message that we proclaim showcases the very end of this type of retributive justice. It showcases the horror of God’s judgment alongside the height of God’s love for those who truly deserve wrath. Calvary is the epicenter of God’s mercy toward sinners and the place of God’s crushing wrath on sin. The Golgotha outcropping of rocks, among which the cross of Christ was anchored, removes any stones of judgment from the hands of you and me, because it is there that the world of abortion clinics and infanticide was confronted by the conquering Christ.

So how does this passage apply to believers in this radical gospel who live among a people who still gratify the lusts of Molech? It forces us to face two truths: God’s holiness is the real standard of all of life, and those of us who are his people are commanded to speak truth to a world who would much rather not be bothered with it. We cannot be silent. We dare not be a people who see the horrors of hell’s fog and yet pull down our blinds and pretend that we can simply eat pizza and watch reality television and make the world go away. The fires in which Molech’s baby victims were thrown outside Jerusalem’s walls became known as Gehenna in the Himmon Valley (pictured on the left), the very image and description of Hell. We see the smoke from that valley rising over our own landscape today. How could we stay silent? How can we not speak? Children are being thrown into the waiting flames. To do and say nothing is equal to casting a raging fuel onto the fire.

-Cade

Or an alternate title could be Morality, the Media, and Molech, because it seems that our brave new world is nothing more than old world Canaan.

In the last twenty-four hours I have felt both the gravity of silence and the weight of knowing details no one enjoys knowing. I’ve asked several friends and family members over the last twenty-four hours, and almost to a person they haven’t heard the news out of Philadelphia involving the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor accused of infanticide, of running a baby-butcher shop. And I’ve sat with my wife sobbing at the nightmare testimonies, knowing the weight of so deeply wanting children, being childless after several years of marriage, and having to read of newborn babies crying with their first and last breaths of life as they are executed.

The mainstream media (with few exceptions) has been largely silent on the ghastly details of what this story reveals about ethics, abortion, life, death, and ourselves. Yet even in the imposed shadows of those who would rather not speak, the echoes of those tiny infants will not be silent. And neither will God: “The LORD roars from Zion.. (Amos 1:2).” In the deafening height of that roar, there are several short remarks that I would like to bring to you my church family – notes of confession and a call:

1.) The story of Kermit Gosnell has revealed my own weakened heart for the cause of life and the unborn, and of that I repent. Yes, I have consistently preached and written against abortion. Yes I have supported pro-life causes, but consistent pro-life stances can coexist in tepid pro-life living. I have reacted differently to this story. Its horrors have gutted me, and yet I am forced to the realization that the horrors of this story are nothing more than the pulled-back curtains of the entire culture of death that our society is propagating. Every abortion is of equal horror, and is just as abhorrent to a holy God as the terror in Philadelphia. But I had grown (or had always been?) calloused and dare I say, complacent. This story forces me to the truth that to not scream with the loudest voices and to not oppose with the fullness of effort is complicity in darkness just as blackened as the Holocaust. I have been silent and apathetic for far too long.

2.) The story of Kermit Gosnell reveals the plain truth of human depravity, and our desperate need for a worldview shaped and directed by biblical truth. Mere philosophical dialogue or political interaction is not enough. There are no categories of secular theories large enough to hold the truth of what has happened. If we are to understand and speak to a society in which these atrocities occur we are forced to use biblical language and the standard of the biblical text itself as they reveal to us the biblical God. Let us never grow tired or frightened of words that the Bible uses to convey the clearest picture of where we find ourselves.

3.) The story of Kermit Gosnell must remind us that abortion is about God, and he has been clear from the beginning: The murder of children is an abomination. It is the sacrificial murder of children on the altar of a secularized and sexualized and scandalized false deity. It is nothing more than the modern worship of Molech. Hear the words of Leviticus 20:1-5,

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. 4 And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, 5 then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.

God takes the murder of children seriously. Or see Deuteronomy 12:29-31:

When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

Make no mistake about it, we dare not be sheepish about that which God has declared to be abhorrent.

4.) The story of Kermit Gosnell should remind us as a church that standing and speaking and working to stop the murder of children (along with a host of other sins) is a necessary consequence of the gospel itself. A passion for the gospel cannot coexist without a passion for the holiness of God, and a passion for the holiness of God cannot exist apart from a deep passion for what God is impassioned for and against. In other words, for First Baptist Church Henryville to be a gospel-centered people we must certainly be a gospel-proclaiming and a gospel-discipled people. But we must also be a gospel-living people, and our views on society, sexuality, health, ethics, politics, society, and everything else must conform to and flow out of the message of who God is and what he has done in Christ. And that does not allow for either fence or sideline sitting in the arenas that we find ourselves in today. Abortion, and our response to it, is about the gospel. And because we care deeply for it, we must care deeply for anything opposed to it.

And in so doing, we must hold out the hope of the gospel as a light in the midst of the darkness just as we seek to shatter that darkness by its truth. The inexplicable brilliance of the gospel is that even those who would murder infants are not beyond the radical and transformative power of Jesus Christ. Even now if Mr. Gosnell will repent and believe this good news, all his sins will be forgiven. The grace that has saved me is the same grace that reaches those who would do even those things which we find (and should find) absolutely beyond imagining. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to disabled pastors’ sons like me and longtime baby murderers like him, if only we will flee to Christ. And herein lies the great heart of the gospel. In the face of a world gone wrong, and in the face of newborn sons and daughters being butchered, God has given his own Son to be butchered in the place of sinners as the end of all the pain and horror around us. The world pierced by the whimpering cries of Gosnell’s lair is met head-on by the dying cries of triumph from Calvary’s cross.

5.) In closing, the story of Kermit Gosnell calls each of us to an active response. The society around us will not do it. The culture of death will not do it. We, the people of the living Christ, must. First Baptist Church Henryville, and all others who might read this, you are called to action. Pray for women daily who are facing the option of abortion procedures. Pray for doctors and nurses who are administering abortions that their hearts and lives will be gripped by the gospel. Pray for fellow believers and your pastors and church leaders that we will be brave to speak and to proclaim truth in our day. Hold your children tightly. Love them dearly. Celebrate and work for adoption and couples seeking to adopt. Write and tweet and post on Facebook the truth of what is happening and what must happen as a result. In love speak truth to friends and family. In love care enough to care for the most vulnerable. Get involved with Pro-Life causes and with ministries seeking to serve the needs of children and parents. Write, speak, work, love, go. There is blood crying out to and against us if we hear, see, and know, and yet do nothing.

For more information on the Gosnell trial, I would recommend these helpful and informative articles passed on to me from others:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/04/10/philadelphia-abortion-clinic-horror-column/2072577/

http://www.worldmag.com/topic/gosnell_trial/

http://theveritasnetwork.org/2013/04/11/we-stand-for-human-rights-all-of-them/

Standing beside you and with you and for you,

Pastor Cade