A Song for our Month of Missions

A couple of hours ago we announced that all our activities this weekend at CPC are cancelled because we are expecting a "storm of historic proportions" to blanket our area with a whole lot of snow. That means (for those keeping track out there) that the start of our Month of Missions will have to wait yet another week to begin.

One of the things that I will have to put off until next week is my plan to introduce (or 'revive' depending on your familiarity with the Trinity Hymnal) a song entitled, How Sweet and Aweful is the Place written by Isaac Watts in 1707. I love the beautiful melody in the Trinity Hymnal, but it is the lyrics that I want to bring to your attention in this post.

The hymn takes us on a journey of wonder as the singer (sinner) discovers God's mercy and loving-kindness to sinners, marvels at God's transforming grace, and proclaims the Holy Spirit produced phenomena that causes our hearts to desire to participate with Him in His ministry of reconciliation (see 2 Corinthians 5:11-21).

Verse one describes the assembly of the saints in worship marveling at the glorious Bridegroom:

How sweet and aweful is the place with Christ within the doors,
While everlasting Love displays the choicest of her stores!

Although the updated Trinity Hymnal lyric says 'sweet and awesome', the original phrase was sweet and aweful. The first time I encountered this song several years ago that definitely caused me to pause and consider what I was hearing. The term, awful is commonly used now-a-days for something unpleasant, or of poor quality, but it literally means something that is full of awe or awe inspiring. The place where Christ is lifted up and adored is a sweet and aweful place.

Verses two through four reflect the jaw-dropping realization of the predestinating, unconditionally electing, undeserved favor that believers receive as a free gift of God's amazing grace:

While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues, "Lord, why was I a guest?"

"Why was I made to hear thy voice, and enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice, and rather starve than come?"

'Twas the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste, and perished in our sin.

We are reminded of what the 11th hour worker might have experienced in Jesus' parable in Matthew 20:1-16 as he was given according to his need, NOT according to what he deserved. Amazing!

Then the hymn takes an interesting turn to look outside of ourselves to the world around us and Watts gives us voice to intercede on behalf of the nations. Note the ordinary means of God's Word preached that is the vehicle by which the 'strangers will ultimately be brought home.'

Verses five and six are the reason why I wanted us to sing this as a congregation during our month of missions:

Pity the nations, O our God! constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad, and bring the strangers home.

We long to see thy churches full, that all the chosen race,
May with one voice, and heart and soul, sing Thy redeeming grace.

I have to be honest here - is that my 'heart for missions'? Do I long to see His churches full of persevering pilgrims awaiting the glorious return of the King who came to deliver His people from their sins? I want to grow in that.

Over the last week as it became clearer every day that we were in for a major snow event. We were warned to be prepared. If you ventured into a grocery store in recent days you saw many people heeding those warnings (I was in both Food Lion AND Giant twice each - ask me later why). We won't know the extent of this storm until Saturday or Sunday. However, there is coming a Day when all humanity will be judged by the righteous standard of a Holy God. Not only do we have the clear warning of the Scriptures to prepare for that Day, we also have the exceedingly good news of great joy which shall be for all people - both locally and globally.

I look forward to being able to sing How Sweet and Aweful is the Place with the congregation of CPC and, by God's grace, to live out the song together.

Pastor Tim

Clarifying comments on Sun Jan 31

Last Sunday one of my applications of Matt 20:26-28 was to folks who have come to CPC for a long time and have not gotten involved. I raised the question of whether that might be because these folks want to avoid serving by remaining peripheral. I think that is a valid question to ask if you have been visiting CPC for years and still see yourself a simply a visitor.

However I want to clarify a couple of things:
1. I realize that there may be a number of reasons why you could choose to continue to visit CPC, and not join or get more involved that have nothing to do with your avoiding serving. I was not assuming I knew your motive.

2. I also realize that some of you are not members and yet serve as much or more than some members. The question was not about membership but serving.

3. I am not judging the hearts of people who visit CPC for some time without getting involved. I was simply raising that question among several others as applications of the text for self-examination.

I am convinced that obedience here, as in every one of Jesus's words to us, will increase our joy,not decrease it.

So I offer these words to all who heard me on Sunday with a prayer that we will all hear Jesus and raise difficult questions that draw us closer to Him in our recognition that we need Him to change our self-centered-want-to-be-served hearts. (By the way no one complained to me about what I said! I simply thought a clarifying blog might be in order.)

Enjoy a White Weekend!
Allen Harris

How to Engage Postmodern Cynics with the Gospel

Blog:
How to Engage Postmodern Cynics with the Gospel

I just finished a book that I took an unusual amount of time to read because it has so much to offer: David Henderson’s Culture Shift: Communicating God’s Truth to Our Changing World. This is probably the most helpful book I have seen in many years for helping Christians to understand our culture and how to communicate the gospel to it.

He not only gives a brief history of philosophy in understandable terms, but also lots of concrete examples from his own experience in leading post modern cynics to faith in Christ. Just following how he talks to people makes the book worth the price and time to read it.

He divides the main part of the book into two broad topics:
I. Who we are, and II. How we think.

Each of these is divided into three subtopics, and each of those has two chapters: the first on understanding our culture and how it got to be that way, the second on how we as Christians address it with the gospel.

I. Who we are: Consumers, Spectators, Self-Absorbed Individuals

II. How we think: Beyond God, Beyond Right & Wrong, Beyond Meaning & Purpose

This is not just an intellectual text, but a punch-to-the-gut-make-you-feel-the-despair of lost people in today’s world. For example his quotes from today’s thinkers such as Woody Allen: “Civilization stands at the crossroads. Down one road is despondency and despair, and down the other road is total annihilation. Let us pray that we choose the right road.”

Or the T-shirt that says, “A man’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another beer.”

While there are a few things I disagree with him on, the approach is very God-centered and faithful to the truth of the gospel. It is a bit like Francis Schaefer for the 21st century. This is not just a book to read, but to do. It encouraged me to engage unbelievers because God is at work in our culture of people unglued from Reality, and dying of spiritual thirst.

I just checked; the book is available from Amazon.com: 24 new from .99 and 40 used from .49.

Allen Harris

Thanks for your support

You guys are a wonderful church family for me. So many of you are coming up to me and asking where things stand with my transition into full time pastoral counseling that I thought I ought to write a blog and fill you all in at once.

Ann and I will indeed be moving out to the Portland area with a number of our kids to start this new ministry. We will be going out after Daniel graduates from Reservoir High School and after we sell our home. The churches in Portland/Vancouver are very positive about my coming out to work with them. I am excited about going out to work with them. I have a fairly clear sense of the need and of what I have to offer. I see God's hand in this fit.

I will also be going out periodically to do some teaching and build the relationships with churches out there. My next trip will be to go out in early March to teach a seminar in Eugene on Marriage and a seminar in Vancouver, WA on relationships. In the week between these two seminars I am going to be teaching about Biblical counseling in a church in Seaside, Or. I am very excited to be going out and having the time with these churches and the members of their congregations. Please pray for these sessions and ask God to use them to build His kingdom and to pave the way for our transition to the west coast.

There are several key prayer items I would love for any who are interested to pray for us: pray that these teaching times will build the churches in this area; pray that we will be able to sell our house and buy the right house in the right neighborhood in Oregon; pray for our family to live well in the stressful times of transition; and pray for us to follow God wherever and however He leads.

Feel free to contact me with any questions you have, but you will still be seeing a lot of me over the next months. I do not envision leaving before late June.

Thank you for your support, prayers, and affection. I love you all!

Steve

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

Thanks for your support

I was at the Day Center today dropping off the abundance of food, toiletries, and even some money that you have been donating for the folks we serve at the Day Center. I was struck by how the help was both necessary and appreciated. As I heard from the people staffing the pantry that they were so very grateful to see me (or at least the many bags full of food I was carrying ;-)) I realized I haven't passed their gratitude on to you.

Today the shelves in the pantry were a bit sparse prior to my arrival with your generosity. The three staff in the pantry quickly grabbed the bags out of my hands and put the food on the shelves. As I went out to get other bags still in my car, I saw a line forming outside the pantry. When I brought in the second and third loads of food to the pantry a few more folks had gotten in line to get food.

Your gifts to these folks are deeply appreciated. I bring in our special bags (thank you SS) and I am immediately identified. They empty the bags and give them back to me so that we can bring them again with more food.

God has given me a trusted place with our friends, who know we at CPC care for them. He has opened doors for gospel conversations. Even today I had another conversation with one of my friends. We talked about Jesus, and how our love for Him drives us to care for her and for the folks at the Center. We have had good times of prayer together, and I believe God is using our work to honor Him. He will use our labors to build His kingdom and reach His people.

So, thank you. Your sacrifices and prayers are making a difference. I am proud to represent you at the Center and to share with you how God is at work through you.

Steve

Living In Tumultuous Times

I have been thinking a lot lately about our economy. President Obama and his team met today to work on their plans to stimulate the economy and do whatever is necessary to rebuild our economy and lead us back to prosperity.

The difficulty is that there are many things beyond our ability to “fix.” As I work in Celebrate Recovery I am constantly forced to face the many ways we live in denial. Last week as I taught I dealt with the topic of POWERLESS. One theme recurred over and over again as we looked at this acrostic. That theme was the choice between living in fantasy or in reality.

We are in a very tough time economically for our world. Global Financial markets are declining. Banks are at risk of failing. President Obama has undertaken responsibility to focus our government on the task of rebuilding. I am sure he will do his best to manage country’s massive resources in this endeavor. But all of those resources and all the wisdom of our country’s finest minds won’t be enough to solve this.

So I ponder all this and ask myself “Where is your hope?” We are tempted to live in the fantasy that denies our troubling circumstances. We can also live in the fantasy that says that we have to fix our problems and it is up to us. Or, we can live in the reality that God really does exist and that He really is in control. He is accomplishing His good purposes and the truth is that I don’t control Him. I can’t tell Him what to do, when to do it, or how to do it. In my more sane moments, I don’t want to find hope by living in a fantasy.

As a child I was taught to pray “…give us this day our daily bread....” Philippians 4:19 tells us that God will supply our needs. That truth hasn’t changed as the economy falls apart. It is true for believers, individually and corporately. I am called to trust the sovereign God of the universe who holds the created order in His hands. When I falter in my faith, I am called to recognize that, repent of it, and return to trusting Him. He died to redeem me, to redeem us. He has demonstrated His love for me on the cross, and His power to save in the reality of an empty tomb.

When I think of the needs we have, my mind moves to think about the stewardship we have as well. God has entrusted to us material goods, spiritual gifts, talents, health, experiences, and all sorts of other things. He has entrusted them to us with a purpose. Contrary to what I sometimes think, this trust is all about kingdom. Jesus tells us that He is not only able to meet my needs, and our needs, but the needs of the entire world. He is using us and our limited resources to do that. This economic turmoil doesn’t endanger His kingdom building. We are still called to be part of building His global kingdom. As Allen preached Sunday Jesus calls us to build the kingdom in our Jerusalem (“home”), our Judea (nearby), our Samaria (different and fairly nearby), and to the uttermost parts of the earth. I am thinking a lot about what that means, and I look forward to how God will, through this month of missions, continue to challenge me in how to use the investments He has made in me to build His kingdom.

I hope you will pray as well that God will show you His presence, power, and purposes in this tumultuous time. We have a great and awesome God!