Let Us Glorify God for the Greater Thing

People often gave glory to God when Jesus healed their disabilities:

When Jesus healed many: And they glorified the God of Israel (Matthew 15.31).
When Jesus healed a blind man: And all the people, when they say it, gave praise to God (Luke 18.42).

It was right for them to do so! God himself was performing miracles in their presence.

But, like us, they sometimes confused things — giving greater glory for gifts they could see rather than the gifts that are eternal.

The Paralytic Man in Mark 2

We see it in the story of the healing of the paralytic in Mark 2:1-12. . .
Four men bring a paralyzed man to where Jesus was staying, vandalize another person’s property, and lower him down through the roof. They do all this to make sure this man is brought to Jesus.

And Jesus does the greatest thing ever: He forgives this man’s sins! Think of the many benefits Jesus instantly gives him:
• Right standing before the perfect judge of his soul who could cast him into hell;
• The assurance of increasing measures of joy with Jesus for eternity;
• The incredible opportunity to tell others about this Jesus.

Yet the three accounts of this miracle do not say that the next response was spontaneous bursts of praise. Actually, the opposite: questioning (Mark 2.6), and accusations of blasphemy (Matthew 9.3; Luke 5.21). The crowd did not glorify God until after Jesus heals the man's paralysis (Mark 2.12).

This physical healing is tremendous, but it only lasted for a short season. That man has been dead for nearly 2,000 years. And if he had died in his sins, all he had to look forward to, for eternity, was wrath.

But that wasn’t this man's story. Jesus says to him, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” From what the Bible tells us, God gave this man the best gift ever.

And it's this event of God giving this man the best gift ever that convicts me over what I rejoice in. I find I must temper my criticism of the scribes in Mark 2 because I also do not easily believe a profession of faith in Jesus. Like the Pharisees, I like to see evidence.

The Dark Places of Must-See

That desire for evidence can take us into some very dark places. In its most cruel form it is known as the health and wealth prosperity gospel. Under that wretched misapplication of the gospel, those with “real” faith never experience the hardships of poverty or disability.

But, of course, that implies that Jesus isn’t really enough. It implies that things on this earth that will eventually end, like wealth and health and even life itself, have equal standing with the blood-bought forgiveness of sins that brings us the holy God (2 Peter 3.18). This is wrong. Unbiblical. Unhelpful.

God may or may not offer physical healing in this present age. Even during His earthly ministry, Jesus walked through the multitude of people with disabilities in John 5.2-17 only healing one man. I’m grateful God provided that example, because my sinful heart continually draws me toward the desire for comfort in this present age.
But thankfully, we can live under an entirely different, biblical, joy-filled promise, including all who will live a lifetime with disability (and those who love them!). That promise is this: God’s love as expressed through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus and His triumph over sin means that all sins can be forgiven and we’ll get to be with Jesus forever!

And being with Jesus, obviously, is a greater gift than anything we can experience today, even a life free of disability. So let us first rejoice in that! And if God provides healing, then we'll give glory to God alone for His marvelous, secondary, gifts!




original post by John Knight @ Desiring God

Is it Okay for Christians to Believe in the Doctrine of Hell But Not Like It?

It takes a certain courage to look at what the Bible teaches, not like it all that much, and still believe it. I am thankful for brothers and sisters who believe in hell or believe in complementarianism or believe in election and reprobation or believe homosexuality is a sin despite their internal protestations. It’s a good sign when we take our stand on the Bible even when we’d prefer to take our stand somewhere else.

But it’s a better sign when we take our stand on the Bible and learn to love where the Bible stands.

Take hell for example. Should Christians rejoice in the doctrine of hell? That’s a loaded question that does not allow for a simplistic answer. On the one hand, if God does not want any to perish, neither should we (2 Peter 3.9). Paul has great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart at the thought of his Jewish brothers falling under God’s curse (Rom. 9.1-3). It is natural and right that we should be sad to think of people we love suffering in hell. So in one sense it is appropriate for Christians to say “I don’t like the idea of hell.”

But be careful. It’s never safe to dislike the truths God has revealed. We should actually like what the Bible teaches. We may struggle to get there–we may not immediately resonate with the hard parts of the Bible–but the goal is to get to the place where we can. The law of the Lord should be our delight. We should tremble under the word of God, not begrudgingly accept it. Hell is a hard doctrine to embrace, but God sends people to hell for his glory. The punishment of the wicked in hell vindicates God’s honor (2 Thess. 1.5-12), avenges the persecuted church (Rev. 6.10), exposes the utter sinfulness of sin (2 Peter 3.11-13), upholds divine justice (Rev. 19.1-2), and makes known the riches of His glory to vessels of mercy (Rom. 9.22-23).

To admit that God says hard things is admirable honesty. But to profess our dislike for what He does or wish that He were a different kind of God who did things in a different way–even if we come around to accept these ways in the end–is not the right kind of humility. It’s one thing to say to unbelievers and skeptics, “I struggled with the same questions you’re asking.” It’s another to throw God under the bus, admitting “I don’t like hell anymore than you do. I’d take it out of the Bible if I could. But it’s in there, so I can’t deny it.”

God is good and His ways are always right. It is a measure of our maturity that we not only affirm the truth of God’s word but rest in the goodness and rightness of it. Christians should have anguish in heart at the thought of eternal suffering, but we should also see the glory of God in the Bible’s teaching on eternal punishment.

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing is one way to put it (2 Cor. 6.10), even with the doctrine of hell.



original post by Kevin DeYoung

The Giver Gets The Glory

Taken from John Pipers blog 7.18.11
Only a few things have gripped me with greater joy than the truth that God loves to show his God-ness by working for me, and that his working for me is always before and under and in any working I do for him.

At first it may sound arrogant of us, and belittling to God, to say that he works for us. But that’s only because of the connotation that I am an employer and God needs a job. That’s not the connotation when the Bible talks about God’s working for us. As in: “God works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

The proper connotation of saying God works for me is that I am bankrupt and need a bailout. I am weak and need someone strong. I am endangered and need a protector. I am foolish and need someone wise. I am lost and need a Rescuer.

"God works for me" means I can’t do the work.

And this glorifies him not me. The Giver gets the glory. The Powerful One gets the praise.

I just completed a series on Twitter (@JohnPiper) celebrating some of the texts that express this truth.

Here’s the summary list. Read and be freed from the burden of bearing your own load. “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). Let him do that work.

1.“No eye has seen a God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 64:4)

2.“God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, but he himself gives life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:25)

3.“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

4.“The eyes of the LORD run through the earth, to show himself strong for those who trust him.” (2 Chronicles. 16:9)

5.“If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. Call on me, I will deliver you. You will glorify me.” (Psalm 50:15)

6.“To old age I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” (Isaiah 46:4)

7.“I worked harder than any, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians. 15:10).

8.“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Psalm 127:1)

9.“Whoever serves, let him serve by the strength God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified.” (1 Peter 4:11)

10.“Work out your own salvation, for it is God who works in you, to will and to work.” (Philippians 2:12–13)

11.“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6–7)

Here Comes Trouble

"In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world." – Jesus

I’m still feeling great loss from my brother’s suicide back in January. The all-consuming, overwhelming, debilitating sadness has passed. What’s left is an ongoing, dull, residual pain and sadness that seems to lurk around the corners and hide in the darkness. I find myself continually replaying those tragic events that led up to my brother’s death. And although death is as much of a reality as life is, it still seems completely surreal at times and difficult to fully comprehend.

This past week I learned that one of my cousins has terminal brain cancer. He’s 47 years old with 3 kids and 2 grandkids. One of his daughters found him laying in his office, incoherent a few days ago. He was most likely there for 2 days before she found him.

He was immediately rushed to the emergency room. Within hours, they had discovered his brain was full of tumors. His brain cancer is so pervasive that he has been given just a couple of weeks to live.

This morning our pastor told us about a dear woman in our church who has been diagnosed with cancer as well. Her cancer has invaded all of her major organs and she too will likely die from this within just a few short weeks.

This weekend a young man was at football practice and was run over by a Gator utility vehicle. He is in the neuro trauma unit here in our town fighting for his life.

Life happens, doesn’t it? And when it happens, there really are no guarantees that the storms that rage and the tornadoes that wage war against our very lives, won’t hit us just as hard as they seem to hit others.

As a matter of fact, there ARE some guarantees in life. Jesus actually said, ”in this world you WILL have trouble.” He Himself warned His followers that they were not exempt from the trials and hardships in life.

But His warning also came with a promise. What is the promise, you ask? The promise is this – I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD! That’s right. In the face of excruciating pain and extraordinarily difficult circumstances, the promise we can cling to is that Jesus is bigger than all of that. As much as it feels like life has us pinned against the wall with its hand on our jugular, we can rest knowing that it’s really just the opposite. Jesus is the One who has pinned the circumstances of our lives up against the wall, and He is the One who has guaranteed the victory.

For me personally, it’s sometimes difficult to live that reality when life feels like I’m in the middle of a vortex that’s threatening to end me. So, even though I don’t understand much of what God is doing and I often times feel like my faith is pretty puny and pathetic, I am learning to just trust Him. I can’t always trace His hand, but I can certainly work on trusting His heart.

Truthfully, I get a bit uptight when I listen to the proponents of the prosperity gospel and they say I don’t have enough faith and that I just need to believe harder. And if I believe harder, than those “bad” things wouldn’t be happening to me.

When I hear all that crap and think about all the suffering just in the lives of those in my little world, I can’t help but think to myself “well then, what are all these people doing wrong? Would they be spending the night in their own beds tonight if they just had more faith?” I mean, can it really be that simple? OR is pain and suffering a natural part of life that should just be expected?

I fall into the later of those 2 categories. I read Scripture and it tells me that suffering, excruciating suffering and unbearable pain, is an integral part of life on planet earth and should be expected by both believers and unbelievers alike.

“God makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5.45

Scripture is full of references about personal pain and suffering. For instance – Romans 8.17, 1 Corinthians 12.26, 2 Corinthians 1.6, Philippians 1.29, 1 Peter 4.19, 1 Peter 5.10, Romans 5.3, 2 Timothy 1.8 and Colossians 1.24…just to name a few of the places in Scripture that make mention of the pain we are certain to face in this life.

Jesus plainly stated in John 16.33 that His followers WOULD have trouble. It WOULD find them. There was NO escaping the traumas and tragedies in life.

But, He also equipped His followers with an unshakable promise of hope and certainty. Jesus promised that no matter how big, how nasty, how painful, how invasive, how debilitating, how crippling our pain is, He is bigger. He isn’t only bigger, but He has conquered. His death and resurrection doesn’t exclude us from the excruciating pain in life, but instead attaches a promise to our pain that He is there with us in the midst of it and He hasn’t abandon us to the devises of the Enemy. Jesus Himself has conquered and overcome.

If trouble has come knocking on your door, don’t be naïve enough to think you just need to believe harder or trust more, and when you can do that, then the trouble will go away. It doesn’t work like that. What you can do when trouble comes after you is tighten down the hatches, be sure you’re buckled up, and trust that the Author and Perfector of your faith is working in you and around you and you are not alone.

He has indeed overcome.

God's Great Name - Malachi 1

A little background about Malachi:
It was written to Israel by Malachi.
He called people to repentance in regards to:
The priesthood, which had become corrupt
Worship, which had become routine
Divorce, which had become widespread
Social justice, which was being ignored
Tithing , which was being neglected

Here's what was going on in some of these verses....
6-9
Priests are not honoring God. Instead of sacrificing the perfect, pure, spotless, animals, they were giving Him the lame, blind, blemished animals. God was getting the leftovers. He was getting the runts of the litter.

10
God’s response: “O that there would be ONE who would do the right thing.”
ONE who would stop compromising
ONE who would stop following the crowd
ONE who would stop listening to the masses
ONE who would be willing to make necessary sacrificesfor the sake of
obedience
ONE who would say No to the allures of the world and Yes
to the voice of God

11 “From the rising of the sun to its setting, My name will be great among the nations….My name will be great among the nations.”

3 OBSERVATIONS FROM VERSE 11

1. It is a STATEMENT OF FACT. Absolute truth. “My name WILL BE GREAT among the nations”

2. We agree with it and it becomes for us a DECLARATION OF FAITH “God, Your name WILL BE GREAT among the nations.” This is not “name it and claim it”
God said it, I believe it, and I’m declaring it to be true.

3. It is a PROVISION OF FREEDOM Freedom FROM all the trivial pursuits of life
Freedom TO invest the whole of your life making God’s name great among the
nations.

Malaise is a mercy that feels yucky

Malaise is that feeling you get when you’re getting sick but you don’t quite know it yet. It’s a vague sense of dis-ease. Your energy is draining. You just want to lie down. Emotionally, you might feel discouraged, irritable, depressed, or cynical for no identifiable reason. You ask yourself, “What’s the matter with me?”

Precisely what you’re supposed to ask. Malaise is the early warning system God designed for the body. It’s telling you something destructive is attacking your bodily systems. It’s a messenger running ahead of an invading enemy alerting us to get our defenses in place.

The soul also has its diseases and they are more deadly than the body’s. Soul diseases attack our belief systems. Corrupted beliefs can be very serious if left untreated. They grow and spread, wreaking destruction in us. And when contagious, as they frequently are, they harm others. Such diseases can result in soul-death.

Mercifully, there is a malaise of the soul. I’ll bet you know what I mean.

Because hope is to the soul what energy is to the body, soul-malaise manifests itself as a flagging hope in God. It’s a vague, doubty, spiritual discouragement. You wouldn’t describe it as a crisis of faith. You might avoid talking about it because it’s hard to describe. You just feel spiritually sluggish. You don’t feel like doing anything spiritually significant. You ask yourself, “What’s the matter with me?”

Precisely what you’re supposed to ask. This malaise is the early warning system God designed for the soul. It’s telling you something destructive is attacking your belief systems. It’s a messenger running ahead of an invading enemy alerting us to get our defenses in place.

So what should we do when we experience soul-malaise? Similar to bodily malaise, we pray and get prayed for, get plenty of rest, seek to identify the source (what is draining my hope in God?), head to God’s pharmacy (the Bible) for some meds (promises) and if needed (as it often is) we get some help from soul-physicians (friends or pastors) who are skillful at treating these diseases.
It’s not wise to ignore malaise. Left unchecked you will get sicker.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching (1 Timothy 4:16)

This is a re-post from John Piper and DesiringGod.org on 6.17.11

A New Kind Of Church

Truth is, I’ve been struggling for the past 10 years. Not with drinking or drugs, but with something much more destructive. Before you write mean letters or post anonymous comments on my blog, I should first explain that I know the bible says we should be content in every situation. It was the Apostle Paul who said he learned to be content when naked or clothed. He also learned how to be content when he was hungry and when his belly was full. It was Paul who said, godliness with contentment is great gain. I know what he was talking about. And I couldn’t agree more. Honest.

I’m not one of those Christians who pick and choose what verses to believe and which ones to omit. I believe the bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness so the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I have strived to practice this type of contentment that Paul was talking about. I pray often that God would take away my lust for more stuff. I plead with God to make my heart yearn for Him and not the things of this world. I don’t want to spend my money on things that will ultimately be burnt up. I long to invest the resources that God has entrusted me with, on things that will grow the kingdom of God. I genuinely desire that God would teach me this type of contentment that the world does not know. I have such a long ways to go though.

But I must confess, I am still very discontent in a certain area. I have a good friend who calls this a “holy discontent”. I’m not discontent with the house we live in, the car we drive, or the clothes we wear. We don’t have super nice stuff, but I’m incredibly aware we live better than 95% of the world’s population. Over 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. More than 2 billion people live on $2 a day. Nearly half of the world’s population of 7 billion people live on less than $2 a day. So, by all accounts, I am a wealthy man. By American standards, maybe not so much. But like I said, God is teaching me how to be content with what He’s entrusted me with. And He’s also teaching me that He measures my generosity, not by how much I give away, but by how much I keep.

However, I am deeply discontent in the area of the American Church. I’m by no means pointing fingers at any one person, pastor, church or denomination. But for the past 10 years, I’ve become more and more discontent with my “church” experiences. I understand no church is perfect. And more than a couple of people over the years have told me that if I ever find a perfect church, I shouldn’t join it because I’ll ruin it.

The more I study the Word of God and the more I fall in love with Jesus, the more He conforms me into His likeness. I believe it is this process of transformation and sanctification that allow me to be painfully aware of some of the things that grieve the heart of God when it comes to His corporate body. He’s also showing me the types of things that bring Him pleasure.

For the purpose of this blog entry, my attention is turned to the things that grieve the heart of God. I know that Jesus said that His church WILL prevail and that the very gates of hell will not deter His kingdom purposes from being sovereignly fulfilled.

We would be foolish though to think that there aren’t things we can do to miss the mark. We’d be naïve to think that God hasn’t given us a very clear model of what He wants His church to look like. Arguably, most bible scholars and pastors would direct you to the book of Acts for an overview of what a local, New Testament church should look like. Specifically, most of us would direct you to Acts chapter 2 for a very specific and detailed portrait of what the first church looked like and by all accounts what our churches should look like today.

I’ve been reading through Acts for the past couple of months. I’ve also been meditating on and studying Acts 2.42-47. I read this passage and I hold it up to the average, American, evangelical church. It would be good for all of us to take a good, hard look and use this Acts model as the litmus test to evaluate whether or not we’re anything like what a New Testament church should look like.

Here’s a brief description of the church outlined in Acts 2. The church was characterized by:
1. Devotion to the Apostles teaching
2. Devotion to the fellowship
3. Devotion to breaking break
4. Devotion to prayer
5. People were filled with awe
6. Apostles were doing extraordinary things through the power of the Holy Spirit
7. Believers were united
8. Believers had all things in common
9. Believers sold their possessions and belongings
10. Believers pulled their resources to help those who were in need
11. Attended the temple together
12. Broke bread in their homes
13. Grateful hearts for food and provisions
14. Hearts that praised God
15. Favor with the people
16. Numeric growth

For the sake of time, I cannot address each of these characteristics. However, I think it’s wise and fair for us to take a thorough look at this list and ask ourselves if we’re a part of a New Testament church that is committed to following the model set up for us, or have we somehow been duped and persuaded that church is more about the nice buildings, tailor made ministries, comfortable pews (or chairs), polished music and a gifted speaker? Isn’t it true that we’ve become a very self-centered, consumeristic church as opposed to a giving, sacrificial, disciple making, gospel taking, darkness penetrating church? My fear is, most churches across our country today aren’t even close to doing what God has outlined and mandated us to do – namely, to proclaim the glory of God to the nations of the world.

It seems painfully obvious that the way we evaluate and grade the effectiveness of our churches has little to do with how effectively and obediently we are adhering to two things: 1. the mandate Jesus gave us to make disciples of all nations, and 2. the church model the early Christians gave us in Acts 2.
Instead we evaluate our churches based on trends, church growth techniques, baptisms, building campaigns, vibrant AWANA programs, and our preference for music and our style of speakers.

As passionate followers of Jesus Christ, we should be committed to ensuring that our churches are adhering to clear biblical principles and mandates. And when they aren’t, we should be willing and courageous enough to speak with our church leadership about it.

Can I ask a question? If we’re following the Acts 2 church model described above, how can it be that in the same church, we have pastors barely making minimum wage while other pastors are making 6 figures living in luxurious homes? I understand corporate America. But, the church is not corporate America. The church is a very unique entity marked by the life of a sacrificial Savior who came not to be served but to serve, and who came to turn the world upside down as it relates to EVERYTHING.

If we are co-laborers in the gospel, and if we are committed to following the model set up for us to follow, why do we have wealthy people in our churches on one pew and desperately poor people just a few feet down the row at the other end of the same pew? How can this be? How can the same church justify paying a senior pastor a lucrative salary with retirement, insurance and all the perks that typically come along with the position of senior pastor, while his co-laborers are on food stamps? Isn’t there something inherently wrong with this paradigm that we’ve created? It certainly is not the model Jesus created for us and it most definitely isn’t the model the early Christians set up for us.

But, it is our model. It’s the one we’re most comfortable with. It’s the model that ensures we don’t have to make any huge, crazy sacrifices as we climb our way up the comfortable ladder of American Christianity.

I have so many questions about the church. I wonder if I’m just too idealistic sometimes. Or, could it be that God has raised up some men and women who will be courageous enough to cause us to question the status quo that we’ve blindly accepted for so long? Could it be that God Himself is sounding the alarm to awaken within us a sensitivity to His spirit that we’ve been missing for so long?

God is ready to mark us with a fresh move from on high. God longs to use His bride as a unified instrument to declare the glory of God to the nations of the world.

If we’re ever going to have the kind of impact that we were designed to have on the world, we will not do it by being lone rangers on the field of Christianity. We will do it as the bride of Christ takes seriously the mandates in Scripture and is willing to lose our lives, abandon our comforts, and lay down our entitlements for the sake of the elect.

As radical as it might seem, I’m ready to join an Acts 2 community. Are you?

Is God Glad Osama Bin Laden's Dead?

God’s emotions are complex—like yours, only a million times more. Right now, your emotions about bin Laden are not simple, i.e. not single. There are several, and they intermingle. That is a good thing. You are God-like.

In response to Osama bin Laden’s death, quite a few tweets and blogs have cited the biblical truth that “God does not delight in the death of the wicked.” That is true.

It is also true that God does delight in the death of the wicked. There are things about every death that God approves in themselves and things about every death that God disapproves in themselves.

Is God Double-Minded?

This is not double talk. All thoughtful people make such distinctions. For example, if my daughter asks me if I like a movie, I might say yes or no to the same movie. Why? Because a movie can be assessed for its 1) acting, 2) plot, 3) cinematography, 4) nudity, 5) profanity, 6) suspense, 7) complexity, 8) faithfulness to the source, 9) reverence for God, 11) accurate picture of human nature, etc., etc., etc.

So my answer is almost always “yes, in some ways, and no in other ways.” But sometimes I will simply say yes, and sometimes no, because of extenuating circumstances.

Here is why I say God approves and disapproves the death of Osama bin Laden:

In one sense, human death is not God’s pleasure:

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? . . . For I do not pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live. (Ezekiel 18:23, 32).

In another sense, the death and judgment of the unrepentant is God’s pleasure:

Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. (Ezekiel 5:13]

[Wisdom calls out:] Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you. (Proverbs 1:25–26)

Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her! (Revelation 18:20)

As the Lord took delight in doing you good . . . so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. (Deuteronomy 28:63)

We should not cancel out any of these passages but think our way through to how they can all be true.

God is Not Malicious or Bloodthirsty

My suggestion is that the death and misery of the unrepentant is in and of itself not a pleasure to God. God is not a sadist. He is not malicious or bloodthirsty. The death and suffering considered for itself alone is not his delight.

Rather, when a rebellious, wicked, unbelieving person is judged, what God has pleasure in is the exaltation of truth and righteousness, and the vindication of his own honor and glory. (For further discussion of God’s heart in judgment see the section in The Pleasures of God called “How Is God Like George Washington?”, pp. 147–149.)

When Moses warns Israel that the Lord will take pleasure in bringing ruin upon them and destroying them if they do not repent (Deuteronomy 28:63), he means that those who have rebelled against the Lord and moved beyond repentance will not be able to gloat that they have made the Almighty miserable.

God is not defeated in the triumphs of his righteous judgment. Quite the contrary. Moses says that when they are judged they will unwittingly provide an occasion for God to rejoice in the demonstration of his justice and his power and the infinite worth of his glory (see also Romans 9:22–23).

A Warning

Let this be a warning to us: God is not mocked. He is not trapped or cornered or coerced. Even on the way to Calvary he had legions of angels at his disposal: “No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my own accord”—of his own good pleasure, for the joy that was set before him.

At the one point in the history of the universe where God looked trapped, he was in charge, doing precisely what he pleased—dying to justify the ungodly like you and me.

(Adapted from The Pleasures of God, pp. 66-74.)



original post by John Piper - May 2, 2011

My New Book - The Cost Of The Disconnect

It probably goes without saying that having your first book published is a pretty cool moment in time. Not the coolest moment in time, but it certainly ranks up there somewhere on the top 10 or 15 things I can think of.

This past weekend Julie and our kids and I went to my brothers ranch in Florida for a few days to enjoy Spring Break. While there, we swam with the camels, camped out in the coolest Moroccan tent in the world, and.....hunted alligator. And I must say, taking a small boat back into a dark, gator infested swamp was amazing. Words fall short to describe that experience. Two days later, I have some pretty wicked pictures, a freezer full of gator meat, and some incredible memories of that night. Something my boys and I will remember long into old age.

But the book is different. It'll be around forever. Well, technically speaking, the Word of God will last forever. But, as long as non-canonical books are around, my book will be around. And there's something pretty special about that. I wrote this book about Biblical discipleship because it's what my heart beats for. And it has since I first made the decision to run hard after Jesus. For the past 22 years, God has graciously allowed me to be discipled by some incredible men. And I've had the awesome opportunity to disciple some pretty awesome guys myself.

I love God's Word. And I never cease to be fascinated, as I read through Scripture, with the high cost that Jesus attaches to His call on our lives. And I love helping people understand what all that looks like. My intention was to do that in the book.

My deep and earnest prayer is that I succeeded and that God will speak to His bride clearly through the pages of this work. You can decide for yourself. THE COST OF THE DISCONNECT can be ordered from our website at www.2911.org The retail price is $15.99 plus $4.00 shipping. If you live outside the US, shipping rates are different. Please email me at dirk@2911.org for international shipping rates.

I hope you'll consider ordering a copy or two. I also hope you'll consider buying a copy for your pastor(s). We really do believe that the message of the book is one the church needs to hear. She may not want to hear it, but she needs to hear it. IF the church is ever going to be radically and passionately faithful to God's Word and IF we're going to be used by God to make disciples of the nations, I believe the message in my book is crucial.

Please join us in praying that God will use The Cost Of The Disconnect far beyond anything we could ask for, think of, or even imagine. All for the sake of His name among the nations.

To see a short PROMO VIDEO for the book, visit my facebook page @ www.facebook.com/dirkydirk

Not One Of, But the ONE

There is one foundational question each of us must face. By “foundational” I don’t mean it is the only question we must answer. What I mean is that this question is so important that if you get this one wrong you are going to get most everything else that really matters wrong. The foundational question is found in all three synoptic gospels. It is the famous query Jesus posed to the disciples at Caesarea Philippi: “Who do you say that I am?”

It may be surprising to some that Jesus even asked this question. The foundation question for Jesus is not “who are your parents?” or “are you openminded?” or “what will you do for me?” The foundational question concerns what you believe. Jesus is interested in faith. He begins with doctrine.

Not too long ago while walking across a bridge near our church I spotted some graffiti underneath the overpass: “I don’t need religion. I have a conscience.” I can only guess what this spray painter was trying to say, but my guess is he (or she) assumes religion is just a trick for getting people to line up and behave. Religion for him is nothing but a moral code for doing good. And who needs a religious code with all its ritual and institutional trappings if you have a conscience? But the graffiti sloganeer has grossly misunderstood Christianity. The foundational question for Jesus is not “what do I want you to do?” but “who do you say that I am?” Everything flows from a right understanding of Jesus. Not just what he taught or what he did, but who he is.

Initially, Jesus asked the disciples “Who do people say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). In other words, “What are you guys hearing about me? What’s the word on the street?” They give three responses. “Some are convinced you’re John the Baptist. Others figure you’re Elijah. And then there are those who aren’t sure, but think you are one of the prophets.” That’s pretty impressive company. The crowds recognize Jesus to be a man who teaches the way of God, a leader who calls people back to God. They know he does miracles like Elijah, speaks with authority like the prophets, and has a following like John. Not too shabby. To call Jesus “one of the prophets” after four hundred silent years following Malachi is quite a statement.

And yet the crowds are dead wrong. Jesus is not one of; he is the One. Jesus is not a pointer like John, Elijah, or one of the prophets. He is the point. It sounds very lofty to call Jesus a prophet, or a popular teacher, or a wonder worker, or a good man, or a brilliant example, or part of a long line of enlightened figures. But all of these descriptions miss the point. Because in all of them you are saying Jesus is one of (see v. 28). And if you say Jesus is only one of and not the One, you haven’t understood him. You don’t see who He really is. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16).

You may think you’re saying very complimentary things about Jesus when you call him one of the prophets, a great man, an enlightened teacher, but you’re not actually complimenting him at all. It’s like saying the sun is one of many lights we use to illuminate the house, or that Michael Jordan used to throw the ball around for the Bulls, or that Barack Obama owns a home in Chicago. Those statements are all true. But they are also all false because they don’t say enough. The sun is the star in our solar system. Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever. Barack Obama is the President of the United States. If you don’t say those things you’re not saying what really matters. By not saying what is most important and most unique you’re actually saying something very misleading.

When it comes to identifying Jesus, partial truths that miss the biggest truth end up telling a lie. True, Jesus is a prophet (Mark 6:4; Deut. 18:18). But he is not like John the Baptist. He is not another Elijah. He is not merely one of the prophets. He is the one to which all the other prophets were pointing. So to call him a prophet and nothing but a prophet is to misunderstand at the profoundest level who this man is. If you were to describe your wife as “a beautiful woman among many beautiful women in the world,” or “an individual I deeply respect” or “the last, in a long line of women I have loved” would your wife be pleased? Obviously not. You’ve damned her with faint praise. You’ve insulted her by demeaning her uniqueness and describing her in terms so much below what she deserves.

So away with all this nonsense that Jesus is like Mohammed or like the Buddha or like the Dali Lama or like Ghandi or like your saintly grandmother. He is not like anyone else. And so we will not pretend to be impressed when others call Jesus a good man or an enlightened figure or one of the prophets. He is not one of, He is the One.





(this entire blog was taken from Kevin DeYoungs blog - DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed)

When Will It Be Morning?

Not sure how this will work. I feel like I’m totally consumed with the difficult and numbing process of grieving, and yet I know if I wait until it all makes sense, I may never write again. Here is my attempt to put some words to the horror of my life.

I am the youngest of six children. I grew up in a highly dysfunctional family. Both of my parents were alcoholics. My mom and dad divorced when I was seven. As I grew up, I saw my dad for a few weeks out of the summer. By all accounts though, the relationship between us has always been skewed at best. My earliest memories consist of my dad cussing at me while telling me how worthless, incompetent, flawed and pathetic I was. I have few positive memories as they relate to my younger years with my father. As much as it pains me to write those words, they are true.

My five older siblings and I all grew up with our own twisted self image and deteriorated sense of value. From our earliest days, we each had a common heart condition – it was that we believed that we somehow did not belong, were completely inept and therefore were not worthy to exist. An accurate assessment would be that we each found different ways to attempt to anesthetize this enormous pain and heartache that we lived with each day of our lives.

As I mentioned, I am the youngest of six kids. I am forty and my oldest brother is fifty three. Each of us were affected by our home life differently and we’ve each responded to it and compensated for it in different ways. But, if you spend any significant amount of time with my family you’d quickly see where the fractures are and the affects of growing up in this kind of destructive environment.

Unfortunately though, the affects were more obvious and more devastating for two of my brothers. For one of my brothers, Dwight, I cannot count on one hand how many times I remember seeing him sober. He was by all accounts a functioning alcoholic. His life was ruled by his desire and consumption of alcohol. Our family gatherings were all greatly affected by his presence because he was always acting under the influence of whatever liquor he had consumed that day. It was heartbreaking to watch him waste so much of his life trying to drink away his pain.

Darin was the brother I was closest to and is five years my senior. I’ve spent more time with him than probably all of my other siblings combined. Because we were closer in age, our lives intersected more as we were growing up and thankfully our bond continued through adulthood. When my parents divorced, my mom moved away with me, Darin, and my only sister Denise.

From the time I was about 8 or 9, I remember Darin going out and coming home smelling funny. I didn’t know what pot smelled like back then. His recreational pot use later turned into a recreational use of alcohol and cocaine. Into his adult life, his frequent use of drugs and alcohol seemed to invade and disable his desire to live a normal, healthy, functional life. Darin would have days, weeks, sometimes even months where he would live without the influence of drugs. But, early on a pattern developed. He seemed to be caught in a vicious cycle somewhere between (clean and functioning) and (abusing and emotionally/physically MIA). This too was incredibly painful to watch. Countless efforts to help and intervene by many of those involved in Darin’s life would bear only temporal results. It wouldn’t be long before the destructive and devastating cycle of abuse would repeat itself, each time yielding greater consequences and deeper pain and turmoil to Darin and those closest to him.

Five years ago my brother Dwight killed himself by an overconsumption of drinking liquor. For several years the doctors told him that if he didn’t stop drinking it would end his life. One year before his death, his doctor reiterated this critical warning and told Dwight that if he didn’t stop drinking he would be dead within a year.

I’ll never forget the phone call. I was working outside in the yard with some college students. My brother Darin called and told me that Dwight was bleeding internally and that he was being rushed by ambulance to the hospital. I ran to the airport and hopped on the next flight to Ohio. I arrived that evening only to find that my brother was already on life support.

For two long weeks we watched as the machines did for him what his body was unable to do for itself. From time to time, he would respond to verbal commands to squeeze our hands. Throughout the two week 24/7 vigil we kept in Dwight’s ICU room, there were several times that the doctors told us that his internal bleeding had started again and they would need to perform surgery to tie off the bleeding. This happened three or four times during the two weeks Dwight spent on life support.

One evening we left for dinner, which was a rarity because we really never left his room. This evening, we left to head home to clean up and grab dinner. Our plans were quickly altered by a phone call from the hospital telling us that we needed to make our way back immediately. We all had a sense of what was happening.

When we arrived, the doctors told us that Dwight had more internal bleeding and that they would not be able to do anything to stop it. We were left with two choices - we could let him bleed to death which the doctors told us would probably take about 24 hours. Or we could turn off his life support machines and end his life immediately.

After a short, emotionally charged family conference, we decided to turn off the machines that were keeping my brother alive. We did our best to process the events that were unfolding around us, said our good-bye’s and stood by his bed and held his hands as the machines were turned off and his body stopped breathing. Four days later I performed Dwight’s funeral and later that day we buried his body.

Those were three of the most difficult weeks I’ve ever lived through. I cannot even begin to tell you what it was like. If you’ve lived through something similar, you understand. If you haven’t, then you probably don’t and perhaps can’t understand. I remember coming back to my home in North Carolina and having what amounted to a physical, emotional and spiritual meltdown. I just found the pain and sadness consumed the entirety of my life. That lasted for several months before God eventually lifted the consuming darkness that had enveloped me.

Three months ago I got a phone call that my brother Darin was missing. He had gotten his hands on several thousand dollars. So, after twenty four hours and lots of detective work it was discovered that my brother had had contact with a local drug dealer and was more than likely alive, but had consumed an incredibly large amount of crack cocaine.

As I was making my flight preparations to get to Ohio, I got the call that Darin had been found. He somehow ended up at a local hospital and they were currently holding him in the emergency mental health wing for assessment. The story of what unfolded during the following week is long, convoluted and incredibly painful. One I plan on sharing someday, but not now.

For now, you should know that after many years of watching my brother weave his way through the destructive cycle of his addictions and mental illness, most of my family agreed that the only thing we could do for my brother to help him was to encourage him and help him get in-patient and long term therapy in some kind of treatment facility.

The short version of the story is, our efforts failed. My brother decided that he didn’t need the treatment and was going to make another attempt at getting his life together, making better decisions, keeping his medications regulated, attending AA meetings, etc , etc, all without the help of any outside agency or medical supervisor. He was in essence going to make this work on his own, a futile effort he had made countless times in years past.

On Tuesday January 25th at 11.30 a.m. I received a call that will be etched into my memory for the rest of my life. My oldest brother’s wife was calling from my mom’s phone. When I answered it, I was expecting to hear my mom’s voice. Instead, my sister-in-law said “Dirky, it’s Sue. Darin hung himself.”

I cannot even begin to tell you how instantaneously dark things got. I fell to the floor and wept for what seemed like an eternity. I could not escape the haunting images in my mind of my brother hanging himself and I was unable to process the incredible depth of sadness that my heart was feeling. All I could do was weep and wail.

It hasn’t even been three weeks yet. Some days I feel like it happened yesterday, other days I feel like I’ve been walking through this hellish pain for years. And perhaps in some ways I have. I don’t know.

What I do know is this – God has been preparing me for this season of pain, sadness and suffering. I don’t feel ready for it, but I’m confident that God has been working on my heart to equip me to process it and respond to it in ways that will ultimately make much of His sufficiency and greatness.

I must say, I love my family deeply. Each of my brothers and my sister are incredible people. Dwight and Darin were two extraordinary human beings. Of course, like all of us, they each had their own junk to manage and navigate through. But, aside from all of that, they were amazing people. Huge hearts, creative, talented, generous, gregarious, great golfers, one was an introvert while the other was an extrovert, but both were the life of the party. If you walked into a room, you’d just need to listen for the most noise. Wherever the most noise was, there you would find both of my brothers. People around them were laughing and enjoying a moment that would no doubt be etched into their minds for years to come. That’s just the type of people my brothers were.

But, they’re gone now. There are no more parties. There is no more laughter. The noise has all been eclipsed by the deafening sounds of sadness and grief. This road marked with suffering is indeed a painful one, but one I know must be walked in order for there to be a triumphant display of the magnitude of the grace and glory of God.

For months now, I’ve been praying that God would allow me to experience a degree of suffering that would deepen my understanding of His sovereignty and also better equip me for the ministry He has called me to. And here I am.

Some days I can’t quite figure out how to get my clothes on the right way. Other days I don’t even have the desire to breath. My heart aches. It hurts. Not just emotionally but it actually hurts physically. I’ve cried more than I thought was possible. I fall asleep thinking about my brothers and wake up thinking about them. Most of my days are consumed with thoughts of the final hours of Darin’s life. It’s hard to escape those haunting images as I learn to process this grief and sadness.

I have great friends who I know are praying for me. They’ve delivered food, sent cards, emails, texts, left messages, visited, etc. I also have an amazing wife and seven really sweet children who are also very sad. In their own ways of course. It seems it’s been significantly less debilitating and easier for them to “move on” than it is for me. I don’t know exactly what “moving on” looks like, but it doesn’t feel as if it’s on the immediate horizon for me.

So, why am I blogging about this? Truthfully, I’m not sure. Most days I feel like I don’t have anything of value to share with anyone. My heart seems awfully achy and incapable of doing much for others at the moment. Some day, I believe this story will be told and it will be clear. And I believe that God will use it to minister to others, either those walking through their own misery or those living with the aftermath of the tragedy of suicide and loss.

But, today is today. I honestly don’t really feel like I have much to offer. What I’m writing I hope will prove to be therapeutic for me. I also hope the pain and chaos of my life can somehow help you find hope and healing with what you might be walking through yourself.

From the first moments that I could put words to my pain, I was saying…’God, I am very weak. But You are strong and Your power is made perfect in weakness. Your grace is sufficient for today and Your mercies are new every morning.’ That really is about the extent of what I could muster up on most days.

I have few answers, but the Scriptures that God has been leading me to are:
Psalm 119.27 ‘My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to Your Word.’
Psalm 119.50 ‘This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life.’
Psalm 119.68 ‘You are good and what You do is good.’
Psalm 56.3 ‘When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.’
Psalm 56.8 ‘You have kept count of my tossing’s, put my tears in Your bottle.’
Psalm 56.12-13 ‘I must perform my vows to You, O God; I will render thank offerings to You. For You have delivered my soul from death, yes my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.’
Psalm 91.15 ‘When he calls to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him.’

I usually fall asleep listening to Steven Curtis Chapman’s CD Beauty Will Rise. I resonate with Steven’s heart when he sings:

“I don’t even want to breathe right now, all I wanna do is close my eyes, but I don’t wanna open them again, until I’m standing on the other side. I don’t even wanna be right now, I don’t wanna think another thought, and I don’t wanna feel this pain I feel, but right now pain is all I’ve got. It feels like it’s all I’ve got, but I know it’s not, and I know You’re all I’ve got…and I will trust You, I’ll trust You, trust You God I will, even when I don’t understand, even then I will say again, You are my God and I will trust You.’

Shameless Frauds

My book is about finished. Part of it details a bit of an expose' of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel. While writing, I came across an excellent article written by John MacArthur. I'm posting a portion of the article. For more, check out www.gty.org/blog/B091207

“Someone needs to say this plainly: The faith healers and health-and-wealth preachers who dominate religious television are shameless frauds. Their message is not the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing spiritual or miraculous about their on-stage chicanery. It is all a devious ruse designed to take advantage of desperate people. They are not godly ministers but greedy impostors who corrupt the Word of God for money's sake. They are not real pastors who shepherd the flock of God but hirelings whose only design is to fleece the sheep. Their love of money is glaringly obvious in what they say as well as how they live. They claim to possess great spiritual power, but in reality they are rank materialists and enemies of everything holy.

There is no reason anyone should be deceived by this age-old con, and there is certainly no justification for treating the hucksters as if they were authentic ministers of the gospel. Religious charlatans who make merchandise of false promises have been around since the apostolic era. They pretend to be messengers of Christ, but they are interlopers and impostors. The apostles condemned them with the harshest possible language. Paul called them "men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain" (1 Timothy 6.5). Peter called them false prophets with "hearts trained in greed" (2 Peter 2.14). He warned that "in their greed they will exploit you with false words" (v3). He exposed them as scoundrels and dismissed them as "stains and blemishes" on the church (v13).

Those biblical descriptions certainly fit the greed-driven cult of prosperity preachers and faith healers who unfortunately, thanks to television, have become the best-known face of Christianity worldwide. The scam they operate ought to be a bigger scandal than any Wall Street ponzi scheme or big-time securities fraud. After all, those who are most susceptible to the faith-healers' swindle are not well-to-do investors but some of society's most vulnerable people—including multitudes who are already destitute, disconsolate, disabled, elderly, sick, suffering, or dying. The faith-healer gets lavishly rich while the victims become poorer and more desperate.

But the worst part of the scandal is that it's not really a scandal at all in the eyes of most evangelical Christians. Those who should be most earnest in defense of the truth have taken a shockingly tolerant attitude toward the prosperity preachers' blatant misrepresentation of the gospel and their wanton exploitation of needy people. "But we don't want to judge," they say. Thus Christians fail to exercise righteous judgment (John 7.24). They refuse to be discerning at all.”

To Love Is To Do

This could possibly be one of the most exciting times over the past twenty years of ministry for me. My first book is in the process of being published. A project I am very proud of and one I believe has the potential to catapult followers of Jesus Christ into a clearly defined purpose and strategy for living the remainder of their days.

The book is about biblical discipleship and the great chasm that exists between professed Christians and the mandates we find in Scripture that pertain to those who’ve aligned themselves with Jesus.

Most would concede the body of Christ (namely the church) is lacking severely when it comes to faithfully fulfilling the mandate to take the gospel to the ends of the earth and making disciples of all the nations. The church does a lot of things, and even does many things well. But in evaluating the landscape of churches around the country, we can only conclude that we spend a vast majority of our time and resources on initiatives, programs and ministries that have nothing to do with sharing the gospel with unregenerate people around the globe and making radical disciples of the nations.

This all comes at a great price. What is that price? Well, that’s part of what my book is about so I hope you’ll buy a copy and read it.

Much of what we find about the mandate to invest our lives making disciples comes from Matthew 28. This morning I was reading it again and several interesting details surfaced.

1. When Matthew describes the scene when the angel of the Lord showed up and moved the stone away from the grave, the angel’s clothes are described as being white as “snow”. I never thought about it until now, but how would Matthew think to equate white with snow? Of course, we would use the illustration of snow in describing something white, only because we’re very familiar with white snow. But Matthew? In ancient Israel? How in the world would he know what snow was? – verse 3

2. When the angel appeared, the guards fell over like dead men. That seems pretty significant. They weren’t actually dead, just speechless and perhaps incapacitated. In any case, it’s interesting to note that the angel never talked to them. Matthew only records that the angel spoke to the two Mary’s. Apparently the angel just totally ignored the men passed out on the floor beside him. Or maybe he was just smart enough to know that speaking to unconscious men would prove unprofitable. – verses 4-5

3. The soldiers were paid off to lie about what they saw. Jesus had indeed been resurrected and was walking around with blood flowing through His veins and with air in His lungs. When news of this reached the religious leaders, they paid the guards to lie about what happened at the tomb. They didn’t want the truth to get out about Jesus. In other words, two thousand years ago people were propagating a false doctrine purely for financial gain. Seems not much has changed in two thousand years. The world is filled with people who have fabricated a perverted gospel, void of truth, in order to line their pockets and profit themselves. – verses 11-15

4. And of course when Jesus gave the disciples the directive and mandate to make disciples of all the nations, He told them to teach people how to obey….all that He had commanded. Therein lies the heart of discipleship. We teach people how to obey. We don’t just preach. We don’t just lecture. We don’t just provide ministries to keep people busy. We are given the mandate to undertake the arduous task of making passionate, biblically literate, selfless, committed followers of Jesus Christ. This indeed is a lifelong endeavor that requires a far greater investment than mere attendance and acceptance of the status quo. It requires that we know the Word of God and that we commit the whole of our lives to teaching it to others. Plain and simple, biblical discipleship is teaching people how to obey the commands of Jesus (namely the Word of God) – verse 20

5. I think what most of us miss seeing here is the correlation between obedience (Jesus commanded us to teach people how to obey) and love. Love, as we know, is demonstrated not by lip service or simple confession. Love is proven valid only by actions. God the Father and God the Son are not looking for fans, They aren’t looking for moralists, They aren’t looking for religious people. They are looking for people who love Them more than life itself and whose lives authenticate the confession they make with their mouths.

May we be those people!

Fleeing Quarrels and Correcting Opponents

Fleeing Quarrels and Correcting Opponents
(originally posted by www.desiringgod.org on January 3, 2011)

2 Timothy 2:22-26
‘So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.’

God’s word warns us that some controversies are foolish and ignorant. They breed quarrels. We have been freed from sin and death—we ought not to be quarrelsome but kind to everyone. Instead of looking for a fight we ought to flee these sorts of vain disputations.

Does this mean that we should not correct our opponents? To the contrary, in the same passage where Paul warns against foolish controversies he also commands Timothy (and us) to correct his opponents with gentleness. Correction of false doctrine is commanded, and so is gentleness.

It isn’t arrogant to correct our opponents, gently. God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and escape the snare of the Devil. Without correcting them, this would not happen. The implication is that it must be done gently for God to grant it to them. Note that God is sovereign in this transaction—he “grants” repentance. We are called to trust that God blesses his own means of grace.

What happens if we do not correct gently?

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

If we do not correct gently, it is probably because of pride and a lack of long-suffering. We leave ourselves wide open for temptation. Instead of running toward temptation, we ought to flee it and pray for protection from it (Matthew 6:13).
We need to return our eyes again to the cross, remembering that we were once enemies of Christ, dead in our sins. Our pride and short-suffering wranglings are not in keeping with the gospel . . . what do we have that we have not been given (1 Corinthians 4:7)? We might be correct in our argument, but if sin motivates our hearts rather than “faith working through love," it is worthless (Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 13:3).

So let us flee foolish controversies. But when we must correct an opponent, let us do it gently, “by faith working through love,” in order that God might grant repentance.

Good Bye Elizabeth

Today marks a very sad day in our home. We received notification this morning that a dear friend of ours in Liberia, Africa passed away.

As most of you know, we’ve adopted four children from Liberia. Elizabeth Johnson is the birth mother of our youngest son Ephraim. We met Elizabeth on the beach in May of 2007 when we were in Liberia adopting Moses and Nana.

Elizabeth had walked for days looking for someone who would take her son Ephraim. He was sick with malaria, malnourished and very ill. Elizabeth followed us from the beach back to the place where we were staying. She had been carrying little Ephraim on her back for many days and had already traveled a very long distance. Elizabeth just wanted someone who would take her son and care for him, something she realized she was not able to do.

Long story short, Julie and I decided to adopt little Ephraim in March of 2008. I went back to Liberia in August of 2008 to pick Ephraim up, along with another one of our Liberian sons, Ezekiel.

Since our first encounter with Elizabeth and Ephraim on the beach in May of 2007, we were connected. We had no idea what God was purposing to do, but looking back we can clearly see how He was working through all of the details to make it possible to bring Ephraim into our family.

Throughout the past three and a half years, we’ve been able to watch God do a great work in Elizabeth’s life. She enrolled in school, excelled in her academics, and transferred to a nursing program last year. We were honored to walk alongside of her during these past few years.

During the summer of 2010, Elizabeth was afforded an amazing opportunity to travel to South Africa with several other honor students to participate in a nursing program. Again, we walked with her through this season and celebrated each step along the way.

On each of my trips to Liberia, I always get to see Elizabeth. Both Dawson and Cassie have also been able to meet Elizabeth when they've been in Liberia with me. And this past summer, while Julie was in Liberia for three weeks, Elizabeth had her over to her small little home and cooked a very special meal for her. Julie and Elizabeth had a great time making memories and sharing their hearts together. These two beautiful women have had a very intimate bond through this special little boy we call Eph.

In mid December, we were notified that Elizabeth had become ill and needed serious medical attention. It would take nearly $2.500 to transfer her from South Africa to Ghana where she could receive the proper medical attention she so desperately needed.

This is the note we received from Elizabeth on December 18th.

Hi mom and dad,
kindly help me towards my medical fees. Am seriously ill and need advance treatment now. Mr joeseph is here with me now and he have tried 2 raise some amount from friends and my mother pls am begging u 2 do something 4 me aleast this coming wk. 2day i manage 2 seat up 4 a while.
How is Ephraim doing? pls take goo care of him.
Can't say much pls am on my knees begging u 2 do something.

Urs Elizabeth

Unfortunately, we did not have this amount of money to send. Instead, we prayed and trusted that God would do what only He could do in caring for Elizabeth.

Over the course of this past week, we were notified several times of her condition. She emailed and texted us on numerous occasions and her school mates also notified us of her condition. Feeling a bit paralyzed because we were not able to send any money, we simply prayed. The truth is, Julie and I contemplated how we could raise money to help, but our past efforts to raise money for dire needs in Liberia have not been successful, so we decided our efforts would again be in vain. We did nothing.

Unfortunately, on Friday morning, December 31, 2010, at 9 a.m. we were notified that Elizabeth had passed away.

For both Julie and I, our hearts broke. Not only are we saddened to have lost someone so special and dear to us, but we also immediately felt like we could have done something to prevent this from happening, but didn’t. And because we didn’t, Elizabeth is now gone.

So many things have been on my mind and my heart today. I feel bad. We both feel bad. We feel guilty. We wonder if we could have somehow raised the money and sent it, would Elizabeth still be alive. We’re wondering how to tell little Ephraim about his mom. He talks so much about his “Africa mom”, as he would affectionately calls her.

God has been gracious to remind me of His truth today. Several things continue to come to mind:

1. God holds the keys to life and death. He ordains man’s life and every day is accounted for in His book before one of them ever comes to be.

2. God’s plans and purposes cannot be thwarted. He will do what He has purposed to do, and nothing I do or don’t do will change that. It doesn’t mean I don’t have my part to play in His design. It just means He is sovereign and will accomplish what seems good to Him.

3. There is so much work to be done in Liberia. In the past two weeks we’ve been presented with a myriad of opportunities to be a part of helping people. And although it seems like we have failed in our previous attempts to raise funds for our work in Liberia, we will continue striving to raise the awareness of the dire conditions in Liberia, and we will continue investing in people’s lives, for the glory of God.

4. Each day that slips by, I’m continually reminded that we can live with much less. And the more we purpose to live below our means, the more we’ll have to invest in the kingdom and the less we’ll be hoarding for our own indulgences.

5. The body of Christ here in North America has an enormous opportunity and incredible privilege to be a part of God’s redemptive purposes around the world. We really CAN make a difference in people’s lives by our giving and by our going.

6. In spite of the economy, in spite of certain friction with the Liberian government, in spite of our separation from our Liberian contacts, in spite of our prior inability to raise sufficient funds for our Liberian projects, we will continue running hard after the Lord and doing what we can to intercept lives, preach the gospel and make disciples.

7. You can join us in this work. To give a financial contribution to help send people to school, care for orphans, dig wells, and projects like these, just go to our website (www.2911.org) and click on the DONATE NOW tab. Your tax deductible contributions allow us to continue investing in people’s lives and making a lasting difference for the glory of God.

We know Elizabeth loved the Lord Jesus and was purposing to know Him and make Him known. And although we are deeply saddened by her passing, we know her lungs are filled with the aroma of heaven and she has joined in the anthem of heaven declaring the worthship of Jesus. She will never tire of saying “holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. Who was and is and is to come”

For the first time, she now sees, with unveiled face, the glory of God in the face of Jesus. She is alive. She is whole. And she can clearly see her life and momentary trials were nothing in comparison to seeing Jesus face to face.

I look forward to joining her. Because for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.