Facing Death – Living Life

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Facing Death – Living Life

I love vacations but I tread that final day. I endeavor to deny the existence of that last day of vacation. True joy, needed rest, and belly laughing fun will all be over and I will return to normalcy – that sounds so uninspiring. Can I somehow extend the vacation, or make it last forever? Despite my efforts my vacation dies.

We often think of death like that last day of vacation. We dread it. We avoid thinking of it at all. Our tranquil lives are often greatly disturbed by thoughts of death. Disrupted, it feels more like violated, by the death of loved ones, by the unexpected death of friends. Yet, greater than all other thoughts of death is the disquieting intrusion of our own impending death. Best not to think about it, we surmise. Don’t think about death just go on living.

But the Biblical prescription for dealing with death is far different. We are called to courageously grapple with death in order live well. “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:2) The living lay it to heart. They think on it. They embrace it. “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) Facing our death leads to a heart of wisdom. Counting our days backwards infuses greater significance to our hours and minutes.

Thinking on death helps us live real life. Many of the things that torment us in life, harsh words, rejection, setbacks, slights, seem quite petty and insignificant in the face of death. Don’t sweat the small stuff. It is all small stuff. Also, when death first penetrated my mental barriers it helped to drive me to Christ and to understand his life and death in a saving way. We also tend to dig our tent stakes in pretty deep in this life. We drift into actually believing that his life is all that there is. This makes death a total loss of everything that holds meaning for us.

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:9) In Christ we have great hope for this life – to know God and his Son is eternal life already begun! (John 17:3) Jesus Christ’s love, his rule, wisdom, compassion, guidance are a great blessing in this life. But, this life is still a twisted mess. He is preparing us a better place and he is preparing us for a better place. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2-3) This image pictures a bridegroom adding a separate room to his father’s home and when completed he goes to retrieve his bride. He is preparing a place for us, and us for a place.

Death, when seen through to eyes of faith in the beginning of the marriage! Death ushers us into fuller life, better life, eternal life with a perfect husband and a loving Father. Death is not the end of the perfect vacation, it is the beginning of a vacation that will never end.

Plato’s Cave: We Prefer our Small Shadows

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Plato’s Cave: We Prefer our Small Shadows

Our view of the world around us and the world about us bas been so greasy enhanced that it would seem that we have been catapulted into a majestic theater that gives daily displays of remarkable glory. Yet our view of the world is perhaps more earthbound and nearsighted than ever before. Ours is the age of myopia, an age in which we declare that the sum total of reality is th here and now. this is an unprecedented kind of secularism. In our quest for liberation from the sacred and creaturely independence, we have succeeded only in cutting ourselves off from the sacred. We live in a smaller cave than Plato envisioned, and the shadows we behold are cast not by a roaring fire but by rapidly cooling, smoldering embers….

We refuse to turn (our) gaze to the obvious. We put blindfolds on ourselves, and then we stumble along, cursing the darkness…

We are creatures who prefer life in the cave to the full light of the blazing sun. The glory of God is all around us. We cannot miss it. However, we not only fail to stop and smell the flowers, but we also fail to notice the glory of the flowers’ Maker.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God

Communion Meditation August 2019

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Communion Meditation August 2019

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

God’s love is an astonishing kind of love.

God so loved the world. The world was not so big that it took a great deal of love to love it. The world was so bad that it took a special kind of love to love it. It is this special, divine, self-generated love that we embrace by faith in the Lord’s Supper.

We needed this special kind of love because we had sinned and were separated from God. This love reconciles us to God.

He gave his only Son. The great love of God gave his only Son, for His people, His children, for believers, for you. This table is for believers. For sincere, struggling, genuine believers. You will never know greater love. When you partake of the Lord’s Supper in faith, you are not only remembering that great love; you are receiving it.

Eternal Life. This great love of the Father never ends. Eternal life begins the moment you first believe. You are tasting eternal life now and it only gets better. This meal is a real taste, and a foretaste of life with the Father that never ends.

Come to the Father’s love, receive the Son by faith, and join with your brothers and sisters at the table of eternal love.

Communion Meditation

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Communion Meditation

We preachers emphasize sin a lot. It is really hard not to. It is an undeniable truth about our fallen nature. Sin is not just what we do, it is who we are by nature.

We can turn the fact of our sin into redoubling our efforts to do it right. We become hard nosed legalists that no one wants to be around. Except other legalists.

We can turn the fact of our sin into guilt and shame. And then live out of that shame and guilt. We beat ourselves up all the time as a strange form of penance.

We can, and this is perhaps the worst option, ignore our sin entirely.

What must we do with our sin?

Communion with our Lord Jesus Christ calls us away from these destructive methods of dealing with our sin. We must take our sins to the cross, lay them at the feet of Jesus, and receive His grace and forgiveness. This is faith; casting yourself on the promise and provision of Jesus Christ.

And then live out of that forgiveness received by faith.

This table is designed for the family of faith; if you are an unbeliever, do not come.

Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Justified by faith

By faith we lay hold on the perfection of Jesus Christ our savior. His perfect life is our obedience. His perfect death is our covering for sin. We are justified before the eyes of a holy God. We are saints, holy, accepted and beloved, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Peace

We have peace. We don’t long for it, or strive to achieve it, we have it. Now, in this life. Peace with God; peace in forgiveness.

Access

The swords that guarded the Garden of Eden and prevented us from entering in, are taken away. We can enter the holy of holy now. We have access to God. We have communion with him. Fellowship with him. Access to him.

Rejoice

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. This simple bread and cup proclaim an astonishing truth. The glory of God. The promise of full, unfettered communion with God, of an endless life without sin, is freely given to us. So, we rejoice, even now, before we fully arrive.

Now, as we take the bread, the body of Christ which was given for us, remember Jesus became flesh that he might take us home to the Father.

Now as we take the cup, remember, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Your sin is gone, and you bear its guilt and shame and condemnation, no more. You are free, a child of God, a resident of glory.

Holding the Other End of the Rope

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Holding the Other End of the Rope

‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’ ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ ‘What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.’ This is the type of encouragement that many give to those enduring a painful providence. There is a shred of truth in such counsel but there isn’t much real comfort.

Our painful experiences in this fallen world make us feel like we are all alone in the bottom of a deep dark well. It is damp and cold with little light and no apparent way out. We may be able to see a few bright stars from the bottom of the well but we cannot seem to get to the light. Then, we hear someone at the top of well. We shout, ‘Help me, I am stuck at the bottom of this well and I can’t get out!” The welcome sound of another voice responds, “How can I help?” “Throw me a rope.” “Ok, sure, I got one in the truck. Just a minute.”

He returns and throws you a rope. You begin bitterly to complain. “Why did you throw the rope down?’ ‘That is what you asked for. What’s the matter?’ “Well, you could have held the other end of the rope!!”

Platitudes throw the whole rope down the well; true comfort holds the other end of the rope. To come alongside one who walks in darkness may mean simply sitting with them in silence, or praying for them, or sending them a card or a meal. Just being there is often a comfort. It may mean pointing them to God by being the presence of God in the darkness. It may mean showing the compassion and love of God in countless practical ways.

My family and I are at the bottom of the well with hundreds of ropes surrounding us. We are truly overwhelmed by the love and compassion of the Westminster Family and the wider church as well. So many have gone the extra mile to serve and encourage us. To experience the heartfelt love of God from so many and in so many practical ways is true comfort. I thank God that you are holding the other end of the rope for my family.

It almost makes being at the bottom of the well a thing to welcome with open arms. Almost.

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Communion Meditation

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Communion Meditation

Exodus 12:23

When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

During the Passover, the Lord, the destroyer was passing through the land of Egypt to claim every firstborn son. Every household door with blood from the spotless lamb was protected from death.

Death was coming to all, but the blood of the covenant protected those who sheltered beneath it.

The sons of the covenant were no better than the sons of the Egyptians. All have earned the judgment of God. But the blood shelters them.

When we come to the table, we find shelter in the blood of the spotless lamb of God. We are not claiming to be better than anyone else. We are admitting our sins, and confessing that we need forgiveness, shelter from the judgment due us for our sins.

We come, trusting in the blood to cover us. We come believing in Jesus, the spotless lamb of God, and his sacrifice for sin.

We come as the covenant people of God trusting in the promises of the Covenant.

If you have no faith, don’t come. If you are a member of covenant community in good standing, then come in faith to the shelter that God has provided for you.

Communion Meditation

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Communion Meditation

John 3:16-18

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned,

but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

God loves. That is the heartbeat and the core of the good news.

God so loved the world. The world was loved in an astonishing manner.

BB Warfield, “The point … is not to suggest that the world is so big that it takes a great deal of love to embrace it all, but that the world is so bad that it takes a great kind of love to love it at all.”

A Good God greatly loved a bad world. How do we know? What is the evidence?

He gave his son. A lot is contained in those simple words.

He gave his son to suffering, humiliation and death; so that the guilty might be forgiven. That is an astonishing kind of love.

“That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” He sent his son, that “the world might be saved through him.”

This good news comes to a world in rebellion against God.

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” Not condemned. Forgiven, accepted, loved, adopted into the family of God. He is taken from darkness into the marvelous light of the Lord.

Those who embrace this good news are family; forgiven, accepted – they have been given eternal life. Their faith has made them whole.

But there are some who are condemned. And why are they condemned? Because they have not believed in the Son of God.

If you do not believe, do not come to this table.

Faith is required to come to Christ and to come to this table.

If you believe, you are not condemned, even though you have sinned.

Come, trusting in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The blood and righteousness of Jesus makes us worthy partakers of the Lord’s Supper.

Session Summary December 2019

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Session Summary December 2019

For our last session meeting of the year we had one elder away on business and one on injured reserve. Two women of the church also attended the meeting to share their wisdom. Pastor Mark led a devotion on Psalm 133 and how good and pleasant it is when brother dwell together in unity. Roy Smith will again give a brief meditation at our Christmas Eve service. Eric Eagle and Ed Payne will fill our pulpit on December 29 and January 5. Our next session meeting will be on January 20th. We discussed the officer nominations and noted that Jim Finlay, Randy Waters, and Ted Kuhn, are scheduled to rotate out of office having completed their terms. We discussed the possibility of new signage for the church. The financial report for end of November shows we are $30,000 in deficit spending YTD. We are moving ahead with plans to update our web site, computers, equipment and to enhance our digital ministry to improve our appearance to the world. We discussed environmental stewardship, outreach to Fort Gordon, Worship and possibly contributing to our debt reduction. We also prayed for many families of the church and closed the meeting praying for each other and our families.

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Communion Meditation

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Communion Meditation

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Lord’s supper is personal. This is my savior – I know him, I love him, I live for him.

The Lord’s supper is also communal. We partake together. Each of us personally communing with and committing to Christ. But we do this, together. We come as the blood bought people of God, together, in unity with one another.

The Lord’s Supper is a confirmation of our faith. Jesus Christ feeds us with his body and blood to assure us of the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.

The Lord’s Supper is a profession of faith. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; he is our savior. We come expressing gratitude for our blood bought redemption and we commit ourselves to thankful living in loving fellowship with God.

The Lord’s Supper is a separation from the world. It defines the believing community and separates them from the world. This is a family meal; the family of God.

The Lord’s Supper is a bond of love. Here is the love of God in Christ. Here we respond to his love with love to God and to his people. Being untied to Christ, we are bound to one another – for eternity.

When you partake, you say, (Galatians 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

When you partake, do this. (Philippians 1:27) “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”

Communion Meditation

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Communion Meditation

Communion Meditation November 24, 2019

Titus 3:3-8

Who we are.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

What God did about it.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us,

How did God save us?

not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

Why did God save us?

so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

During communion, we confess our need, and God’s provision.

We needed saving. Our very nature needed to change. He washed us in regeneration.

We now stand justified with God, we are the heirs of God, having the sure and certain hope of eternal life.

If you are born again, given saving faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation, this table is spread for you. Come, embrace the provision of your Savior.

If you do not believe, do not come. This is not a mere ritual for the rebellious, it is a salve to the saints. It is designed to strengthen faith and to encourage obedience to such a great salvation.