Needing the Gospel

I am so grateful that Christ has called me to serve among you here at Columbia Presbyterian. Christ has worked among us over the twenty years that my family and I have been with you. One of the most wonderful things He has done is to show us how much we need Him and His work in our lives and in His body.

These past weeks have been hard weeks. We have watched friends as they have cared for loved ones in their last days of life. We have watched this weekend as two friends have lost loved ones unexpectedly. Several of you have also gone through difficult times of illness or injury.

God promises that He will not oppress us more than He strengthens us to endure. Sometimes it seems like He has a different sense of what we can endure than we do. Paul, in a time where he expresses being "perplexed, but not forsaken" also says "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Sometimes I think my scale is messed up. According to my scale these things do not seem light. They don't seem momentary. They don't seem transient. God has a different, more real, perspective. I am measuring the hard times against the scale of my lifetime. God views them against the scale of eternity. He promises to take care of us through these times and to use them in our lives to build a glory that is beyond scale, beyond comparison. I can't wait to see that glory and get a clear sense of its scale.

In times like this I need to know that my loving Father is still my loving Father. I need to focus on the amazing love Jesus has irrefutably demonstrated in His coming, His willingness to die, and His eagerness to redeem. He died willingly. He redeemed us eagerly. Even when I doubt Him, or wrestle with Him because of the painful things He is using to build glory in us, the Gospel tells me that He demonstrates His glory by loving me in the midst of my disputes with Him. He is there with me at the end of the process when I am finally willing again to rest in His care. I can see that throughout the entire process He has been holding me all along. He has been loving us, and accomplishing His good in the midst of our sufferings.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 is utterly true and right. I pray for all of us that we will see more clearly how it is true and right. I pray for all of us in the midst of these trying times that we will see how God is bigger, more patient, and more loving than we have yet seen.

Steve