Gratitude

Speaking of the Christian vs. secular college debate, a valid alternative to choosing a Christian college is choosing a secular school based on the churches/campus ministries resident on or around that secular campus. For instance, my denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, has a campus ministry called Reformed University Ministries. RUM's work is called Reformed University Fellowship on each campus. Of course, this work is better on some campuses than others. It's excellent at Vanderbilt.

This was a prominent factor in our encouraging our second child, Joseph, to consider Vanderbilt.

RUF is self-consciously church-based and biblical exposition forms the centerpiece of their on-campus weekly meetings. Much different than every other evangelical parachurch campus ministry (trust me), RUF doesn't just pay lip-service to the local church but it pushes its students to be committed to a church--and not as secondary priority after their involvement in the RUF campus ministry, but as foundational to Christian discipleship.

On to a story. Joseph narrowed his choice down to Covenant College or Vanderbilt. He and I visited both of them and Joseph still couldn't choose. When we visited Vanderbilt, Marvin and Susan Olasky's son (Joseph, I think) hosted Joseph overnight and gave high marks to his experience there. Eventually, Joseph chose Vanderbilt.

So with some fear (but always faith), in the Fall of 2000 our family piled in the car and took Joseph to Nashville. We stayed at our son-in-law and daughter, Doug and Heather's, on Friday night and Saturday morning got in the minivan to move Joseph into his dorm room about half an hour away.

The building had only singles and was a pit. It's never easy to let a child go so I was feeling some gloom as we finished carrying boxes and clothes up to the room. The time came to leave and, after praying and giving him a kiss and a hug, we walked out of the room and headed to the staircase. Turning left out of his room and starting down the hall (with tears in my eyes, I admit), I was startled to look in the next door and see, exactly at the same place in the bookshelf over the desk, the same two-volume set we had just placed in the same position in Joseph's room: the Banner of Truth two-volume set of the Works of Jonathan Edwards.

I did a doubletake and looked again, thinking I'd likely been doing the moonwalk and not actually moving down the hall at all as I walked. I must still be looking through Joseph's doorway. So I looked more closely and saw through the door a stranger and his mother. I walked straight into the room and asked the young man, "What in the WORLD are you doing with a two-volume set of Jonathan Edwards on our bookshelf!? Come here, I've got to show you something."

We walked out the door and, turning right, I had him look in Joseph's room and see what he had on his shelf. Then it was time for our new-found friend to do a doubletake. Joseph's next door neighbor then told me how he had an older brother who had gone off to college--a non-Christian school by the way--and been led to faith in Jesus, there. His brother came home and told him about Jesus, at which point he too placed his faith in Jesus Christ.

His brother also turned him on to John Piper, so this younger brother began reading Piper. And he noticed in the footnotes that Piper drank waters from Edwards' well, so he went out and bought this set of Edwards and brought it to school so he could read it. Cinching the matter, he told me his name was Joseph--my son's name, also.

Praise God for His loving provision for His children, even down to determining among thousands of students that two students matriculating at Vandy who love Him would have adjoining rooms and doctrine.

Both Josephs attended RUF which was absolutely critical in their spiritual lives while at Vandy; both grew stronger in their friendship and faith while at Vandy; and our family's faith was strengthened as we saw how much God protects those who belong to Him, including their children.

Incidentally, it turned out that their dorm was sort of a self-selective group of sold-out Christians because all the men living there had asked not to be placed in a co-ed dorm.

"What is faith?" I wondered as I walked back to my car after having my teeth cleaned down in Bedford. Dr. Howell's dental hygienist, Dee, had probed me on our church plans. Her son is a pastor and his church had just completed a new church building so Dee wanted to know what was happening with our building.

"We broke ground a few weeks ago," I said, "and we're expecting to begin building in a couple months, when it gets warm. We have a man in our church who builds refrigerated warehouses around the country and he's leading our building program."

"Where did he come from?" Dee asked.

"Who, the builder? He comes from forty-five minutes away each Sunday," I said.

Dee seemed not to have heard me. She pounced on me, "God sent him to you, didn't He!"

"Well, of course God sent Mike Boles to us," I thought. "God does everything."

But that's not what Dee meant...

Jesus tells us that in Heaven, the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Watch this beautiful video for a glimpse of Heaven.

(Thanks, Doug.)

Daily I praise God for the church Mary Lee and I are privileged, with our children, to have for our spiritual home. Last weekend, we had a men's retreat and our youngest, Taylor, came along. There he is, sitting with Alex Bristol, David Canfield, Lawrence Howell, and Steve Traeger's shoulder. Later in the day, we played basketball, and ultimate frisbee. Click through to the next page and you'll see they're both serious business to us.

Sunday afternoons following Home Fellowship Groups, forty of us or so gather at Olcott Park and play soccer until it's too dark to see. It's wonderful--boys and girls, old and young, all having fun together. And finally, a picture of our Easter Sunrise service in our new church building. (Thanks, Colin Hobbs, for serving as our church photographer. Excellent job!)

If you don't have a church home, come and join us. You'd move for a job. Why not for a church? We're always making a place for new members of the family, young and old, single and married, patriarchal and egalitarian, Reformed and Arminian, credo and paedo, highbrow and lowbrow--all are welcome, as long as you recognize that your officers will be boringly biblical on all doctrinal matters, having subscribed to the Westminster Standards.

Of course, David might argue you should move to Toledo, instead. Keep in mind, though, that they're just starting their capital campaign, whereas ours is finis.

Two days ago, our dear brother, Bob Sands, and his crew painted the exterior of the building. Today, Taylor Concrete poured the floor for the office and classroom wing. By Friday, the gym/sanctuary floor should be finished, also.

(by Tim) In connection with the hymn, Like a River Glorious, a man I respect surprised me recently when he commented concerning the line, "Every joy or trial, falleth from above; traced upon our dial by the Son of love," that some would question the biblical support for this statement.

Listening to him, I thought how fearful and dreary it must be to go through life as a believer in Jesus Christ who denies that our Heavenly Father is in control of sickness, temptation, and death. But more than the dreariness of it, what can these people be thinking when they read such texts as this from the Luke 4 account of Jesus' wilderness temptations...

(Tim) Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region; They did not find a way to an inhabited city. They were hungry and thirsty; Their soul fainted within them. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses. He led them also by a straight way, To go to an inhabited city. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good.

There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, Prisoners in misery and chains, Because they had rebelled against the words of God And spurned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore He humbled their heart with labor; They stumbled and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death And broke their bands apart. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! For He has shattered gates of bronze And cut bars of iron asunder.

Fools, because of their rebellious way, And because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all kinds of food, And they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, And tell of His works with joyful singing.

Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters; They have seen the works of the LORD, And His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, Which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; Their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, And He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, So that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet, So He guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them extol Him also in the congregation of the people, And praise Him at the seat of the elders.

He changes rivers into a wilderness And springs of water into a thirsty ground; A fruitful land into a salt waste, Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it. He changes a wilderness into a pool of water And a dry land into springs of water; And there He makes the hungry to dwell, So that they may establish an inhabited city, And sow fields and plant vineyards, And gather a fruitful harvest. Also He blesses them and they multiply greatly, And He does not let their cattle decrease. When they are diminished and bowed down Through oppression, misery and sorrow, He pours contempt upon princes And makes them wander in a pathless waste. But He sets the needy securely on high away from affliction, And makes his families like a flock. The upright see it and are glad; But all unrighteousness shuts its mouth.

Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things, And consider the lovingkindnesses of the LORD.

Thus says the LORD, ‘I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.’ Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age.

And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.’ (Zechariah 8:3-5)

(Tim) When David and I speak privately, it's a rare conversation we don't speak of our gratitude to the Lord for the wonderful churches He has blessed us with. And this isn't the one-upmanship of two brothers who are both pastors. Trust us, we know about that. Rather, it's the true joy of men for whom the lines have fallen in pleasant places recognizing it's all of God.

My Scripture reading today reminds me of one of our principal joys--our congregations' great fruitfulness physically and spiritually. Physically?

Well, between Christ the Word in Toledo and Church of the Good Shephed here in Bloomington, Indiana, I'd estimate between thirty and forty children will be born or adopted by a Covenant family this year. And this happens year after year--fruit, fruit, and more fruit! Our aisles and nurseries and gym and hallways and cars and homes and fellowship halls are filled with boys and girls playing together...

As I was in the prime of my days, When the friendship of God was over my tent; When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were around me; When my steps were bathed in butter, And the rock poured out for me streams of oil! (Job 29:4-6)

(Tim) Lord willing, in a few hours our third daughter, Hannah Marie, will be married to Lucas Dee Weeks, son of Ron and Doris Weeks. This will leave Mary Lee and me with one child still living at home--Taylor, our fifteen year old son.

As I sit here writing the wedding sermon, it occurs to me that the joyful sadness Mary Lee and I feel as our Hannah departs is a graceful sadness...

(Tim) I received a poem by e-mail this past week and asked its author if she would allow me to post it. Here we have a short summary, wonderfully conceived, of the two paths women choose today, one which ends in death and the other in life.

The last few days, our home has been graced by my mother-in-law, Margaret West Taylor, who's visiting for the week. As I think about her sacrificial life, I also look around at other women of my own family and church and I praise God for their godliness! It's hard to conceive of the full spectrum of leadership these women exert among the sons, brothers, pastors, elders, deacons, and husbands, let alone children and other women, as we watch them lose their lives.

Here, then, is the text I received:

* * *

I Think You Want a Wife

Written by, to, and for a woman who thinks far too much of herself to surrender her life for her husband; but ultimately, to God.

I think you want a wife, not a husband.
Someone to join with
you, to make
you into your true self, to follow
you wherever
your heart leads.

A man to validate
your feelings, make
you sure of who
you are.

You realize your full potential.

I think you want a wife, not a husband.
 

(Tim) At 4:15 this morning, the God of the universe blessed Ben and Michal Crum (our son-in-law and his bride) with the safe birth of a son, Zion Bjorn Crum. Zion joins his older brother, Daniel Peregrine, and he and his mother are doing quite well. Praise God with us for this sixth grandchild.

Also, please join us in praising God for the graduation of our first class completing the three-year curriculum at ClearNote Pastors College. We have two graduates--Joseph Bayly and Steve Moxey. The worship service of thanksgiving and commencement will be held this Sunday afternoon, beginning at 5:15, with dinner and fellowship following. If any of you are close enough to join us, please do. My brother, David, will be here with us and we'd love to have you here, too.

And, as always, if you're considering pastoral ministry and your church would recommend you for preparation for that calling, check out the pastors colleges at David's church, Christ the Word, in Toledo; and our Church of the Good Shepherd here in Bloomington, Indiana. (Here's the web site of ClearNote's campus ministry at Indiana University.) For more information on Reformed Evangelical Pastors College in Toledo, please call Pastor Andrew Dionne at (419) 297-4453. For information on ClearNote Pastors College in Bloomington, please call Pastor Stephen Baker at (812) 360-7457. Fifteen students have enrolled thus far and we'd be happy to put you in touch with some of them if you have questions you'd like to ask students.

(Tim) Since the election, I've boycotted the news, and my family will be skipping January's investiture or ordination or coronation or divination--whatever it's called. But what to think and feel? Balking at the idolatry is not faith and prayer.

Then, this morning, I read Kyriosity, the blog of our esteemed sister Valerie, and here's what she had to say...

(Tim) Recently, a new professor at a Christian college asked for recommendations concerning magazines or journals he'd find helpful in his work. I suggested he subscribe to First Things and Touchstone, but also that he go to the library and skim each issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. A charter subscriber to First Things, I consider it indispensable to my work. So just now I was saddened to receive this e-mail forwarded by a dear friend... It's written by First Thing's managing editor, Joe Bottum, reporting on the grave condition of First Thing's founding editor, Richard John Neuhaus. Let's pray for him.

I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

(Tim) One of the men just interviewed and accepted into ClearNote Pastors College for matriculation this coming September is a middle-aged recently-retired law enforcement officer whose gift is keeping the peace. He's trained men for SWAT team duties and has a deep understanding of the weaknesses and strengths of warriors. What will he add to CNPC's curriculum?

This morning, this brother sent me the poem below which has been widely circulated within the law enforcement community in recent years. As I read, I found myself thinking what an excellent commentary it is on Jesus' teaching in John 10 on hirelings, wolves, the flock, and the Good Shepherd.

Fellow pastors and elders: We're all happy to live in a nation that's never suffered any serious invasion by hostile forces, but we are silent when our President is attacked precisely for his vigilance in our behalf. We're all pleased as punch to live in the suburbs where we never hear the crackle of gunfire as we watch our male soaps of urban warfare, but we look askance at discussions of weapons, wondering what kind of monsters have a zeal for this or that brand of hand gun? We worship in Protestant churches holding to Protestant doctrine faithful to Scripture, but our skin crawls when our pastor warns us against heresy. Any heresy. Any heresy at all--but particularly Roman Catholicism.

In other words, we live in peace given to us by the Man of Blood; we live in the midst of a civil security given us by men of blood who laid down their lives for the sheep; but then we pull back in horror when one of them barks, kills a wolf, or comes to church with blood on his hands. "He's so dirty! He should be Baptist or Pentecostal."

(Tim, w/thanks to Jake) For a number of years, Yale's been hard at it putting the works of Jonathan Edwards online, freely available for hoi polloi who can no longer afford the critical edition now running around $110 per volume . It's an ill wind that blows nobody some good, though, and I suspect the high price of the hard copies is part of the reason all of us are now able to search the volumes online. So I'm happy.

Don't allow anyone else to give your Edwards to you. When I was at seminary in New England, I took a course in Edwards' works under Richard Lovelace. One night (it was a small evening seminar), I well remember coming to the session with great anticipation, having read a good portion of Edward's harder truths that week. But then, Dr. Lovelace started the class with a statement to the effect that "Here, Edwards goes a little bit off the deep edge, engaging in his well-known penchant for negativity."

Yes, yes; that's the problem with Edwards. He's so negative you get an ulcer reading him. What we need today is something positive that people can relate to; something that will give people hope and not lead them into despair.

Well, if you've read Edwards, you know that there are few men in the history of the Church who are more...

(Tim) This past Lord's Day, I was strengthened to sit under the preaching of God's Word done by Lucas Weeks, one of the middler year men in our ClearNote Pastors College. Lucas' sermon was titled, "We Are a Fragrance to Christ," with the text 2Corinthians 2:12-17. Download the sermon here from the iTunes store (of course, there's no cost). Then listen to it the next time you take a walk.

(Tim) Conrad Mbewe serves as the pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia--one of the more vital reformed witnesses the Lord has raised up in our time. The congregation is known for reaching into the dregs of society in a non-patronizing way, doing frontline evangelism, training pastors at a pastors college they sponsor, planting churches around the country, etc. As I said, the Lord's presence and blessing are obvious to those familiar with the congregation. This is a reformed congregation with a large heart, no censorious spirit, expansive in its witness and hopes, and living in the fear of God.

Maybe that's the thing that most strikes me about Pastor Mbewe and his people: they have not used reformed doctrine as a pathway to cheap grace that silences the fear of God. Everything is not "grace, grace, grace" to them. Their harp of ten thousand strings does not harp on that one string so long.

This is a test. Read through Kabwata's prayer letter noting the parts we must admit would never be written; or, if written, never quite make it past the editor's keyboard of our own churches' newsletters. To help with the task, I've put several in bold italics.

If the letter piques your interest, here's Pastor Mbewe's blog where you'll find a truly Biblical apostolic African voice.

* * *

KABWATA BAPTIST CHURCH PRAYER LETTER

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

March 2009

Dear brothers and sisters,   

We open this prayer letter with the words of Scripture, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6). That is our testimony as a church as we review the last few months of the year 2008, including the first few months of this year.

MEMBERSHIP
The year 2008 was full of tears, as we lost precious church members who graduated from the church militant to the church triumphant. We also wept much over the excommunications that were necessary in order to avert the judgment of God upon the church...

(Tim) First, if you haven't read the sermon David preached yesterday posted just below (A Sermon for the President--and for the People of God), I commend it to you. We need sermons like this to be preached across our country until those called by God as civil magistrates lead us to return to the fear of God and mercy to the poor, helpless, sojourners in our midst, and unborn. Note particularly David's comment about our self-made bonds.

Second, we're still getting the occasional Christmas/Easter letter and I thought we'd all benefit from this statement from my dear Roman Catholic friends from Denver, John and Molly Archibold:

Just right...

(Tim) Two weeks ago, our high school men and women went over to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to serve those trying to recover from the terrible flood the community suffered last year. Led by their youth workers, David Abu-Sara, Veronica Allen, Abram Hess, Emily Hess, and Ryan Schnitzer, they returned reporting that the governmental authorities were not particularly helpful to the residents, being better at red tape than getting things done.

The work done by the group was coordinated by church planters, Jeremy Knapp and Michael Langer, of One Ancient Hope (PCA). Our men and women were given a place to sleep in the basement of Hope Evangelical Church (PCA).

The Iowa Independent ran an article on the post-flood political problems and our group made the blurb under one of the pictures...

(Tim) This post is to recommend that you become a charter subscriber to a new journal from the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society titled, The Family in America.

Why?

Over twenty years ago, now, I subscribed to a small newsletter called Religion and Society Report edited by the late Richard John Neuhaus. It was helpful to me as a young pastor, thinking through how to lead and teach my flocks to honor God in our evil day. At the time the publication was humble and helpful.

Not too long after subscribing, there was notice of a breach between the editor and publisher, along with embarrassing notes of this and that person being thrown out of the publication’s offices in New York City. Who knows what happened. Happily, though, it was an ill wind that did blow somebody some good.

My pride is less that I was there at the beginning than that I financially supported a truly worthy enterprise for many years. Here we had a magazine that actually deserved support (unlike Christianity Today which has been dying the slow death of morbid obesity for decades, now).

Like the rest of us, through the years Neuhaus made his mistakes...

(Tim) During four years in the late nineties and early two-thousands while pastoring Church of the Good Shepherd, I also led the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood as its Executive Director. My brother, David, joined me in that work and was a great help, designing our first web site and providing invaluable counsel while also serving in the pastorate.

Part of my work was editing CBMW's journal. Periodically, we ran interviews--one being with my hero, Elisabeth Elliot. Naturally, I did the interview myself.

Growing up, the Bayly family had a long personal association with the Howards of Philadelphia--particularly Dave Howard and his sister, Elisabeth Elliot. A couple months ago, Elisabeth's husband, Lars, wrote me telling of a recent trip he and Elisabeth had taken to visit family down in South America. For those of you who know and love them, Lars and Elisabeth are doing well.

So then, here's the interview from CBMW's Journal, Volume 5, No. 1.

* * *

PLAIN AND SIMPLE: AN INTERVIEW WITH ELISABETH ELLIOT

JBMW: We are delighted to be able to speak with you. Why do you think you've been a lightning rod in the evangelical world on this particular issue?

EE: I didn't know I was! I have just proceeded the way I've tried all my life to proceed-by studying what the Bible says and living by it. If I'm asked to talk about it, of course I have a responsibility to talk about it. It is from this that I have learned that I'm not wanted in many circles...

Yesterday, commenting on the mile marker this blog reached in readership, I neglected to say something very important--to pay a large debt David and I owe.

Here on this blog, David and I frequently have expressed our appreciation for those of you who make this blog the repository of your Godly wisdom. Your comments are the reason for the length of time people spend here and the two and a half page views per visit. If I were to start naming names, there would be no end to it, but I can't fail to thank three whose labors are simply outstanding and give us great joy.

Ladies first...

To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children (Genesis 3:16a)

(Tim) One mother who recently gave birth to her first child wrote this meditation on the pain of childbirth, woman's curse from our Heavenly Father. Thank God for this mother and every other woman who is not ashamed of her sex, but gives herself to it as an act of faith and courage. How I love and praise God for these women that surround us as we do the work of husbandry in the home, church, and public square! "The woman is the glory of man."

* * *

Thank you ______ for this testimony of motherhood... I had similar thoughts of the "pain in childbirth" part of the curse until this past year.

Even after I realized that the whole pregnancy was included in "childbirth," I think I still thought that once I got through labor and delivery, I would be done with the pain of childbearing. Almost every day, I realize how wrong that is, but I started to learn that lesson in my first days after delivery...