Doing Good, as we have opportunity

I thought Kevin DeYoung's blog post today, Doing Good, But a Little Less Than Others, was very helpful. I don't follow or subscribe to him, but I happened upon it today and greatly benefitted.

When we get fired up about a particular good cause, good idea, or good read, we think everyone should be too. But isn't it ok, on some matters, that our conscience and convictions and capabilities lead us down different paths of passion?

This is especially tricky because some behaviors are commanded of everyone in Scripture, and yet are also considered special gifts for only some. We should all contribute to the needs of the saints (Rom 13:13), but some have the gift of generosity (v. 8). We should all serve (v. 11), but some will be particularly gifted in serving (v. 7). We won't all be as good or zealous about the same things. This is by divine design. Our gifts will differ according to the grace given us (v. 6).

...I'm always trying to figure out how I can possibly be obedient to all the Lord seems to want from us. At times it feels like God expects us to be 24-7 prayer warriors with a commitment to social justice and involvement in the pro-life cause and lead lengthly family devotions and mentor a young Christian and read five Christian books a month and work through Operation World and adopt a child from Africa. Have you ever thought, "Lord, I don't have enough hours in the day to be obedient to all that you expect from me?" If you have, something is wrong with the way you use your hours or with your sense of God's expectations.

...I don't have it all figured out. But here are a few thoughts that help.

1. Most importantly, any lasting obedience must grow out of the gospel. . . We read and give and go overseas and evangelize and feed the poor and adopt orphans and get up early to pray and mentor college students and write blogs because we have nothing to prove, nothing to earn, and nothing to do except glorify God in a million different ways and enjoy him forever.

2. At Lausanne 2010, John Piper told the audience (I'm paraphrasing), "We should care about suffering, especially eternal suffering." . . . He didn't want to say we should do something about all suffering. Because we can't do something about everything. But we can care....

3. We must allow for various callings and various gifts. . . .

4. Don't forget about the church. The work to be done in the world is Christ's work. And Christ works through his body, corporately in word and sacrament, individually in a million other areas of life. I can't do it all, but the church - both gathered and scattered, the church as institution and as organism - can do all that the head of the body expects her to do.

5. Lastly, we should pray. a)...short, immediate prayers... b)...general categories to your daily, weekly, or monthly prayer list

It's good to be reminded that while I am called to so many areas of obedience, God chooses to use the body and not simply the individual to work his purposes in this world. We each have different lives and different opportunities. I can see a lot. I can care a lot. I need not allow that to overwhelm me, but cause me to be thankful and amazed at the little part I am allowed to play, being thankful for my brothers and sisters and first and foremost amazed at my Savior, who did it all at Calvary.

Groveling in Sin

This week has afforded me some time at work for podcast and sermon listening, due to the combination of a fairly empty calm office and compiling 2010 giving reports, which is a long and monotonous project in need of less brain activity than usual. The up side to reducing my mind to dull machine-like operations is that I can actively listen to some audio.
I re-listened to a couple sermons from the 2010 Pastors Conference: John Loftness on "The Advantage of the Small(er) Church" and Kevin DeYoung on "The Prayer of Exasperation." These are excellent, and I'm so glad I got a second listen. You can find them here.

Kevin's message spoke to me powerfully this fall, and once again brought much conviction and encouragement. There is so much I am thankful for about this message, but I'll share one particular. He described being grounded in your sin versus groveling in your sin. Being grounded in a sin is like running full force into a brick wall, realizing it hurts, and doing it over and over again. Groveling in your sin is running full force into a brick wall, then sagging down and wallowing over the fact that you crashed into the wall. While you are moping and whining there, God is calling you to get up and move away in a different direction.

That is a somewhat lame attempt at relaying his illustration, so you will just have to check it out for yourself. But basically, I can identify so much with groveling over my sin. And it is not a humble, mature, or godly thing to do. God's grace offers repentance. The blood of Christ is powerful; is it precious to me? Oh that it would be, ever increasingly precious and sweet to my soul.

photo: Bolzano, Italy 2007

Vision for Plodding

Someone asked me today if there is anything new or exciting going on in my life recently. Hmmm, not really. I'm just plodding along indefinitely.
Well, what is exciting to me? What am I looking forward to? Paradoxical and practical as it may be, I look forward to more of the same old same old...but to being renewed in my joy and zeal for the things God has called me to in my days. I want to not just be a plodder, even a faithful one. No, I want to be a plodding visionary. Another way to say it is that I don't just want to obey God, but I want to enjoy and desire more of Him in the moments of my days.
The vision is what fuels the plodding. Which word sounds more exciting, "plodding" or "visionary?" I suggest the latter, but they come as a package. Do I find myself to be simply a plodder without a vision? How do I know when that is the case? It's probably when I check my pulse and find discontentment, weariness, selfishness, boredom, complaining, etc.
So, how do I become envisioned? I can be spurred on in my plodding by many different visions, but there is just one vision that I want to catch and keep. It is the vision of Christ. Christ as my goal for eternity and Christ as my joy in this moment.
I want to make God my study and delight, and in so doing all the other little (or big) things will fall into place and serve to glorify God and deepen my enjoyment of him. Then guess what? Without thinking about it, look at that, life is fresh and exciting!

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.

Thou my best thought, by day or by night,

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

High King of heaven, my victory won,

May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

And how blessed am I that I get to (and indeed need to) live out a vision for Christ as part of his church. Check out Kevin DeYoung's message from Next 2010 on the church, and be refreshed in your role as a plodding visionary.

photo: part of the Italian Alps, 2007

NEXT Highlights

I just came home from the NEXT conference in Baltimore, MD. The past few hours were spent "debriefing" with my family, eating dinner, enduring a fairly severe thunderstorm (wow, it feels like summer here, hot, humid, and stormy), and checking my work inbox, which is flooded with 40 new messages (I'm happy to report that they are mostly notifications). Despite feeling an oncoming cold, most likely my body's response to not getting it's fill of rest this weekend, I am very refreshed and thankful to God for his faithfulness and kindness to me in so many ways over the past few days.

I want to pour over my notes and the scripture passages from this weekend in the upcoming days, weeks, months, etc. (I love how I can often come back to NEXT messages throughout the year). Please follow-up with me on this; good intentions are not enough. But before I go dig back into the specifics, I want to recount the highlights, so I can remember how the Spirit ministered to me. He did meet me - very deeply, graciously, lovingly, and oh so clearly did he meet me where I was and reminded me of his love and gospel mission in my own particular circumstances.

So, the highlights for me were CJ's message on Sanctification, Kevin DeYoung's message on the Church, and the fellowship of my family group. I'm so thankful for CJ. I feel his pastor's heart when he preaches, and I'm so glad to be under his care in Sovereign Grace. He's such a spiritual father type figure - I love how I've benefitted directly or indirectly from his ministry for my entire life. In this weekend, I was served immensely in how he fleshed out Sanctification. I've been needing this so much, to see broken down before me how man's responsibility and God's sovereignty play out in my life. To leave behind discouragement and be encouraged that God is constantly at work - his part and my part are not equal. God fed my soul through CJ's message, and I thought for sure that it would be my highlight sermon to take home. It was, but God was not finished. Kevin DeYoung spoke on the Church. And the Holy Spirit melted my heart. He cut me open and placed a direct IV line to my soul, that is how specifically his message ministered to me. I do believe that it, at least by the end of his message, affected my soul in the same way as a specific prophetic word, and the tears flowed. "Do not despise the little things." "Be plodding visionaries." "Get on the right road and keep going." "You can be just part of the crowd because God knows your name." I was reminded that the mundane is glorious; the little things are not insignificant, no matter how much they seem to be so. I am not alone, but Christ's church is filled with servants, plodding visionaries.

God did much in my heart through these sermons, but I am also so thankful for CJ's exhortation to not give more credit to speakers like these at a conference than to our own pastors at our home churches. They have faithfully been planting the seeds. Those who get to reap the harvest did not play a bigger role than those who planted and built.

I am also very thankful for how God used my family group. By halfway through NEXT, our group had dropped in numbers significantly to be only 5 people. I like small groups best. :-) We were able to genuinely spur one another on, and I developed new friendships that span across the US. Even if these cannot be continually built upon here on earth (although modern technology may assist with that), they certainly remind me of one of the joys that await in heaven in the fellowhship of the saints.

oh, another highlight was that we only needed to drive 1 1/2 hours to get there and the same to get home! I soaked that in, especially on the way back, knowing that next year's conference is in Orlando, FL.

The kitchen is calling me, dishes in a household of 7 do not pause. And interestingly our dog is currently giving birth to her first litter of puppies. There is much activity in this home. I hope mine will be the same someday.

photo: NEXT 2008

(sorry, I did not bring a camera this year)