from Standing Strong Through the Storm

A pastor imprisoned for his faith in Eritrea recently wrote to his wife:

God, by His holy will, has prolonged my prison sentence to five years and four month. I very much long for the day that I will be reunited with you my dear wife, our children and God's people in the church.

My dear, listen to me—not only as a wife, but also as a Christian woman who has come to understand who God is and how deep and mysterious His ways are. Yes! I love you, I love the children, and I would love to be free in order to serve God. But, in here, God has made me not only a sufferer for His Name’s sake in a prison of this world over which Christ has won victory, but also a prisoner of His indescribable love and grace. I am testing and experiencing the love and care of our Lord every day.

When they first brought me to this prison, I had thoughts which were contrary to what the Bible says. I thought the devil had prevailed over the church and over me. I thought the work of the gospel in Eritrea was over. But it did not take one day for the Lord to show me that He is a sovereign God and that He is in control of all things—even here in prison.

The moment I entered my cell, one of the prisoners called me and said, “Pastor, come over here. Everyone in this cell is [unsaved]. You are very much needed here.” So, on the same day I was put in prison, I carried on my spiritual work.

My dear, the longer I stay in here, the more I love my Saviour and tell the people here about His goodness. His grace is enabling me to overcome the coldness and the longing that I feel for you and for our children. Sometimes I ask myself, Am I out of my mind? Am I a fool? Well, isn’t that what the Apostle Paul said, “Whether I am of sound mind or out of my mind, I am Christ’s!”

My most respected wife, I love you more than I can say. Please help the children understand that I am here as a prisoner of Christ for the greater cause of the gospel.

well done

I think I first heard of Howard Hendricks from nearly every professor I sat under my freshman year at Grace. One class involved his "Living by the Book" on studying the Bible. Somewhere I still have that book I suppose. 

If even 10 people in every church knew the principles Henricks lays out in that book, I'm afraid lethargy would thrive less, Sunday school classes would waste less time with "Well, this is what I think..." diatribes and we wouldn't be waiting around to hire the right pastor or assistant pastor or worship leader to do things God clearly expects us to do for ourselves.

Even Pastor Dave from the last church we attended talked about Howard Hendricks and his classes under Dr. Hendricks at Dallas Theological Seminary. Hendricks spent 60 years there teaching, disciplining and training.

For some of us, going to heaven might be a big transition since we've wasted much of our time on silly, trivial things that didn't matter. I wonder if perhaps the transition was very natural for Dr. Hendricks when he arrived there this week. 

 
 



 

from Charles Spurgeon's sermon at New Park Street Chapel

“For who maketh thee to differ from another?” 1 Corinthians 4:7

If thou leave me, Lord, for a moment, I am utterly undone.

“Leave, ah! leave me not alone, Still support and comfort me.”

Let Abraham be deserted by his God, he equivocates and denies his wife. Let Noah be deserted, he becomes a drunkard, and is naked to his shame. Let Lot be left awhile, and, filled with wine, he revels in incestuous embraces, and the fruit of his body becomes a testimony to his disgrace. Nay, let David, the man after God’s own heart, be left, and Uriah’s wife shall soon show the world that the man after God’s own heart still has an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Oh! the poet puts it well -

“Methinks I hear my Saviour say, ‘Wilt thou forsake me too?’”

And now let our conscience answer:-

“Ah, Lord! with such a heart as mine,
Unless thou hold me fast,
I feel I must, I shall decline,
And prove like them at last.”

Oh be not rashly self-confident, Christian man. Be as confident as you can in your God, but be distrustful of yourself. You may yet become all that is vile and vicious, unless sovereign grace prevent and keep you to the end. But remember if you have been preserved, the crown of your keeping belongs to the Shepherd of Israel, and you know who that is. For he has said “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” You know “who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” Then give all glory to the King immortal, invisible, the only wise God your Saviour, who has kept you thus.

Sam's Seventh

We celebrated...staying overnight in a hotel, swimming in a overly chlorinated pool and riding Mall of America rides for a day

then we visited little Amelia and her brother Luke and her parents

and she fit quite well in Anneka's arms

and didn't fuss much when Ellie held her...

and then Sam celebrated his birthday again with coveralls...

and tools.