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What it means to live under grace is illustrated by the life of John Newton. Newton was born in London, half a century before the American Revolution, to a mother of superb spiritual qualities and a nondescript father. His mother died when he was six. Five years later he went to sea with his father who was a ship’s captain. He became a midshipman and for a time led a wild existence, living in utter disgrace. He rejected the God of his mother, he renounced any need of religion and he lived an irresponsible and sinful life. Eventually he became a slave trader, crossing the ocean several times as captain of slave ship, responsible for terrible human degradation among the captives he had crowded on board. But grace was always a factor in his life. He survived a deadly fever in Africa, and his ship survived a terrible storm which almost killed him.
Finally, dissatisfied with his life, he began reading the writings of Thomas a Kempis. Somehow, the Holy Spirit began stirring inside his soul, awakening him from sin, urging him toward salvation until he finally gave his heart to Christ. He was so thoroughly converted, in fact, that he felt a call from God to enter the ministry. He was eventually ordained in 1781 and accepted a pastorate in Olney, England.
But Newton’s disgraceful past never left his memory and he was completely dumbfounded over the privilege of living joyously free under the divine grace of God. In an intense moment of inspiration, when he was thinking of the wonder of the grace of God which had saved even a wretch like him, he wrote the hymn, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound."
Illus.: “You Can’t Practice Burying Me”
Shortly after a recent seminary graduate had assumed his first pastorate, he and his wife went to visit his family. His mother sensed that her daughter-in-law was unhappy, but not wishing to interfere, she pretended not to notice. As they were leaving, she heard her daughter-in-law say, “All right, we can go by the church and you can practice baptizing me just one more time. But remember this—when you have your first funeral, you are not going to practice burying me!”
A. Todd Coget
I heard of a preacher the other day who was asked, "What’s the size of your pastorate?" he said, "Twenty-five miles wide and one inch deep."
That is what bothers a lot of preachers these days.
[Church Growth, Church Depth, Citation: Vance Havner in On This Rock I Stand. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 13.]
Alan Redpath once formed a "mutual encouragement" fellowship at a time of stress in one of his pastorates. The members subscribed to a simple formula applied before speaking of any person or subject that was perhaps controversial.
· T - Is it true?
· H - Is it helpful?
· I - Is it inspiring?
· N - Is it necessary?
...
Pastors Perceptions: Barna Research has recently completed an extensive survey of Senior Pastors in America. 83% describe themselves as "evangelical Protestant and 81% say they are "theologically conservative." 37% claimed to be Wesleyan or Arminian and 32% are Reformed or Calvinist in their theological views. Seeker-driven pastors head 1/3 of the nation’s Protestant congregations. Only 8% of all pastors claim to have the spiritual gift of evangelism while 66% cite teaching or preaching as their gift. Other gifts claimed include administration (16%) prophecy (13%), leadership (12%), evangelism (8%) and encouragement (6%). 95% of Senior Pastors are married men serving full-time. More than 80% have a college degree and their median age is slightly under 50. (13% have been divorced at least once). Only 60% have a seminary degree. The typical pastor has his or her greatest ministry impact at a church in years 5 through 14 of their pastorate, yet the average pastor lasts only 5 years at a church. (Barna Online 9/26/01)
I FIRST BEGAN THE STUDY OF GOD’S WHITE STONE IN REV. 2 MANY YEARS AGO, AT MY FIRST PASTORATE, BECAUSE OF A GEOLOGIST IN THE CHURCH THAT ELUDED TO THE WHITE STONE VERSE,IN A BIBLE STUDY LESSON I HEARD HIM GIVE. I LATER WAS STUDYING THE REVELATIONS AT D.B.U., UNDER DR. BELL, WHO IS ONE OF THE FOREMOST NEW TESTAMENT AUTHORITIES OF OUR GENERATION. OUR STUDY, CONCERNED THE BACKGROUND MATERIAL OF THE BOOK, BECAUSE THE REVELATION CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD APART FROM IT’S SETTING, JUST LIKE OTHER BOOKS IN THE BIBLE.
GOD WOULD MAKE A PROMISE, AND THAT PROMISE WAS MADE TO THE INDIVIDUAL, WHO IS INVOLVED IN LIVING THE VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE. WE LEARNED THAT CHRISTIANS WERE UNDERGOING GREAT SUFFERING, AT THE HANDS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, PARTICULARLY IN THE PERSECUTION OF DOMITIAN AND NERO. AT THAT TIME, LITTLE GROUPS OF CHRISTIANS WOULD GATHER IN A HOME TO WORSHIP GOD, SING, PRAY AND STUDY GOD’S WORD. NOW, YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER, THAT MANY STATEMENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WERE ADDRESSED TO THE CHURCH AS LOCATED IN A PARTICULAR HOME OR HOUSE, BECAUSE IN THOSE DAYS, CHRISTIANS WERE INVOLVED IN THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING CHURCHES, NOT CHURCH BUILDINGS. AT THAT TIME, THE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM HAD APPROXIMATELY 12,000 MEMBERS BEFORE IT EVER HAD A BUILDING. NEVER-THE-LESS, WHILE THIS SMALL GROUP OF CHRISTIANS WERE ENGAGED IN WORSHIP, THERE WOULD COME TO THEIR EARS THE SOUND OF THE IMPLEMENTS OF WAR. THE DOOR WOULD BE BROKEN DOWN AND ROMAN SOLDIERS WOULD SUDDENLY BE UPON THEM. BABIES WOULD BE HELD BY THEIR FEET, HANDS AND THEIR HEADS DASHED AGAINST THE WALL, TO THEIR DEATH. AT SPEAR-POINT, THEY WERE DRIVEN TO THE ROMAN JAIL AND CAST INTO A DARK AND FILTHY DUNGEON WHERE THEIR BODIES WERE INFESTED WITH LICE BY DAY AND NIBBLED ON BY RATS, AT NIGHT. MANY TIMES, THE MEN AND WOMEN WERE CROWDED TOGETHER IN SMALL CELLS WITH NO SANITATION FACILITIES; ALL OF THIS FOR NO OTHER CRIME, THAN THE FACT THAT THEY WORSHIPED GOD. ON A SPECIAL ROMAN FESTIVAL DAYS, THIS LITTLE NOMADIC GROUP OF CHRISTIANS WOULD BE BROUGHT INTO THE COLISEUM THAT STILL STANDS TODAY IN ROME. FAMILIES WOULD BE HERDED INTO THE CENTER OF THE ARENA AND AT A SIGNAL FROM THE ROMAN RULER, IRON GATES WOULD BE RAISED AROUND THE WALLS AND WILD, HALF STARVED BEASTS FROM THE JUNGLE WOULD BE TURNED UPON GOD’S PEOPLE. A BABY WOULD BE TORN FROM IT’S MOTHER’S ARMS; AND THE FATHER WOULD WATCH HELPLESSLY AS HIS FAMILY WAS TORN TO SHREDS. TEEN-AGE BOYS AND GIRLS WOULD GO DOWN IN SCREAMS WHILE THEY WERE EATEN ALIVE. AFTER A WHILE, NOTHING WOULD BE LEFT EXCEPT A FEW BLOODY RAGS AND THE ECHO OF SOBS AND ALL THESE PEOPLE WERE PERSECUTED FOR, WA WORSHIPING A TRUE AND LOVING GOD. WHEN BEASTS WERE DRIVEN FROM THE ARENA, THE BARS WERE LIFTED IN FRONT OF THOSE WHO SURVIVED AND ROMAN ARCHERS MARCHED INTO THE ARENA AND USE THEM FOR LIVE TARGET PRACTICE. A SOLDIER WOULD RAISE HIS BOW; AN ARROW HISSES THROUGH THE AIR TO LODGE IN A SHOULDER, THEN ANOTHER ARROW IN A THIGH, THEN A LEG, UNTIL THE BLOOD DRIPPING FROM THE ARROWS. THEN FROM THE SHEER LOSS OF BLOOD AND WEIGHT OF THE ARROWS, THE CHRISTIAN’S HEAD WOULD DROP FORWARD, GASPING IN DEATH, BUT NOT ALL OF THE PEOPLE WERE PUT TO DEATH LIKE THIS, MANY WERE BURNED AT THE STAKE. A ROW OF STAKES WOULD BE SET UP AND GOD’S PEOPLE WERE BROUGHT OUT TO BE BOUND WITH ARMS AND LEGS TIED TO THESE STAKES. BRUSH WAS PILED AT THEIR FEET AND AT A SIGNAL, A SLAVE CAME AND STUCK A TORCH TO THE BRUSH AND THE ODOR OF BURNING FLESH FILLED THE AIR. MANY OTHERS WERE PLACED ON A CHOPPING BLOCK TO HAVE THEIR HEADS SEVERED FROM THEIR BODIES. ALL THIS, FOR NO OTHER CRIME, THAN SIMPLY BEING A CHRISTIAN. THE HEIGHT OF BARBARISM FOR THESE ARISTOCRATIC ROMANS CAME, IN WHAT WAS DONE TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN. MANY OF THEM WERE BROUGHT TO A ROMAN COURTYARD BY NIGHT TO BE NAILED UPSIDE DOWN TO CROSSES.
YOU WILL REMEMBER THESE EARLY CHRISTIAN WOMEN DID NOT CUT THEIR HAIR, AND AS THEY WERE NAILED TO THESE CROSSES AROUND THE COURTYARD WITH THEIR HAIR HANGING DOWN, THEIR BODIES WERE SATURATED WITH WHALE OIL AND AT A GIVEN SIGNAL, A SERVANT CAME WITH A TORCH AND SET FIRE TO THEIR HAIR AND THEY BECAME LIVING TORCHES, FURNISHING LIGHT FOR THE WILD ROMAN ORGIES.
WHAT A PRICE TO PAY, FOR LOVING THE LORD!!
We have a custom of viewing the body, not just out of curiosity or to judge the mortician’s skill but to face reality. In doing that we grieve, which ventilates our sorrow and helps to bring emotional healing and relief.
A young boy in my former pastorate suffered the death of his thirty-year-old father. Well-meaning but mistaken family tried to protect him by not letting him see the body. Some years later his grandmother told me he was greatly disturbed, because his father’s death was not real to him.
Great effort is expended to recover bodies of drowned hunters; the military goes to great expense to return the bodies of their dead. We do all that because it has value for us.
During the time of the Second Great Awakening in America, Charles Finney was the foremost among the great evangelists. Many people know him. However few know the name, Daniel Nash.
Nash was a lackluster pastor in upper New York State who, at the age of 48, dedicated his life to prayer. Long before Finney would arrive in a town Nash would be there in an empty cellar or boarding house room praying for the power of God to enter the city. Finney relates:
“When I got to town to start a revival a lady contacted me who ran a boarding house. She said, ‘Brother Finney, do you know a Father Nash? He and two other men have been at my boardinghouse for the last three days, but they haven’t eaten a bite of food. I opened the door and peeped in at them because I could hear them groaning, and I saw them down on their faces. They have been this way for three days, lying prostrate on the floor and groaning. I thought something awful must have happened to them. I was afraid to go in and I didn’t know what to do. Would you please come see about them?’”
“No, it isn’t necessary,” I replied. “They just have a spirit of travail in prayer.”
Within four months of Nash’s death, Finney...
I know you’ve heard the passage time and time again. 6 Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Psalm 22:6
My mother never missed a beat. There was a time when my dad resigned from the pastorate when we lived in Illinois that he took to the road performing gospel concerts. It would have been easier for mom not to have to get the four of kids dressed and off to church but she didn’t miss a Sunday. Now she didn’t always cook lunch but we won’t knock her for that. It’s funny because I called mom this week and we were talking about that and she remembered a skit the kids did where my brother Kevin played the Devil which, given his conduct and lifestyle during that time, might have been considered type casting. But that just proves the point. With all the trouble that my brother Kevin was into in life he came back to the things of faith. Moms the most protective thing you’ve done or can do is bring your kids and grandkids up in the way of the Lord.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer left his pastorate in London in 1935 to return to Germany as the head of the Confessing Church Seminary. When the Nazis rose to power, he returned to the United States in 1939, but the move was short-lived. He called it a "mis¬take." Bonhoeffer returned to Germany once again and was soon imprisoned under the Nazi regime. Conditions in prison were horrible and the inmates were not allowed to speak. However, their code signifying "God With Us" was three taps on the wall. On April 9, 1945, Dietrich was escorted to the gallows for hanging. As he was, the entire prison body responded with a thunderous "three taps" in rapid succession. God is with us.
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