Pastor_David's blog

On Sunday, January 25 (4:30pm) we are planning to have our first ever ACC Town Hall Meeting. There will be a few brief presentations from some ministry teams and an update from the elders & pastors regarding our progress toward goals we have set as a church. Then it will be ‘open mic’ time, for people to ask questions or share feedback.

One of the presentations will come from a team of church members who have been working together to come up with a better plan for Christian education and discipleship at our church. Last October, this team did some research using focus groups at an all-church dinner, to learn more about people’s needs for training and discipleship at ACC. (Special thanks to Juran Yoon for designing the questions and analyzing the responses.) Here are some of the things that were learned from the focus groups ...

I once heard a pastor say that every New Year’s Day, reminded of the passing of time, he would pray through Psalm 90. His father had died from heart disease at a relatively young age, so he did not want to presume that his own years on earth would be numerous. He wanted to make sure he was using the limited time God gave him as meaningfully as he could. So he would pray, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12).

Below is a prayer I pray frequently. It was especially meaningful to me at the start of this new year. It is adapted from a prayer in Arthur Bennet’s book The Valley of Vision:

I hasten toward an hour
when earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain
when it will make no difference whether I have been rich or poor
successful or disappointed
admired or despised.
But it will be of eternal importance that I have
mourned for sin,
hungered and thirsted after righteousness,
loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity,
gloried in the cross.
May these objects form my chief desire."

In 1857 a devastating financial recession hit our country. Banks failed. Railroads went broke. Thousands of businesses closed their doors. Unemployment soared. Protesters took to the streets in angry frustration. Soon the crisis spread to the rest of the world. Markets in Europe, South America and Asia were all adversely affected. Sound familiar? Why does God let things like this happen?

Well, here’s what God did with the crisis of 1857…

Many thanks to Nichole M. for organizing our church’s first involvement in Operation Christmas Child. This is a program that sends gift boxes to needy children in the undeveloped world. Below is an email note from an ACC mom about her experience with this:

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the opportunity to participate in Operation Christmas Child. Our four-family homeschool group participated by putting together four boxes. For all four children it was a wonderfully positive experience. [One mom] spearheaded the project and used a map to show the children what countries their boxes might go to, and shared stories of children who had received boxes in the past. All four moms reported poignant moments where our children showed a real joy in giving the boxes. I am so glad we had the chance to be involved in such a wonderful program, and I hope this will be something we can do again next year.

I love this quote from Pastor Milton Vincent. He is talking about how his life changed as he came to understand more deeply the message of the gospel -- that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone:

"Released from the burden of having to maintain my righteous standing with God, I quickly found that I had enormous amounts of passion to put into growing in holiness and ministering God's amazing grace to other people. I had never had such energy available for ministry before, because so much of it was consumed with tending to my standing before God. I also found the grace of the gospel producing in me a huge passion to love and obey God. In moments of temptation, I enjoyed saying to myself, 'You know, I can commit this sin, and God's grace would abound to me all the more as He maintains my justified status.... But it is precisely for this reason that I choose not to commit this sin!' In such moments I would walk away from sin with laughter in my heart."
(Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians)

My father serves on the board of Hope Africa University (www.hopeafricauniversity.org), which is a Free Methodisty college in Burundi, providing professional training in a Christian context for future leaders of East African nations. He has travelled there more than once to teach classes to the students...

Here are some thoughts about voting this week that I think are worth reading:

“I’ve been surprised by the number of Christians who have given up on politics this year. ‘I don’t like either candidate, so I’m staying home,’ I’ve heard all too often.... I get fed up with the vain posturing and empty promises of politicians as well. But ... voting is never an option—it’s both our civic duty and sacred duty. Voting is required of us as good citizens and as God’s agents for appointing leaders. So how do we go about choosing the best candidate? Not by pulling a partisan lever—that’s knee-jerk ideology. Christians live by revealed truth, never captive to any party. The best place to go for wisdom is not the candidates’ websites, but the Bible.... [We] live in a democracy, so God entrusts us with the job of choosing leaders.... [We] are to commission leaders of competence, virtue, and character. That’s why not voting, or rejecting candidates because they’re not perfect on some biblical score sheet, is a dereliction of our trust. Ultimately, in casting a vote, our judgment should be guided by what we perceive to be the common good.... God has a deep and abiding interest in all people being treated fairly. If God favors any “special interest,” it is the poor, the hungry, the prisoner—those with the least access to political power.... Some of us are going to be jubilant over the outcome of the election, others bitterly disappointed. But remember, regardless of who wins, the City of God endures. So on Election Day we should be the best of citizens, voting for the candidate best for all the people. And then, the next day, after indulging in your celebration (or pity party), get busy working to advance God’s Kingdom in this earthly society.”
- Charles Colson

In church last Sunday, and in many of our Fellowship Groups this week, we are studying Galatians 3:15-22. The passage deals with a question: “If we are saved by God’s grace, then why did he give us his law?” The text tells us that the law of God (his instructions, prohibitions, demands and expectations) plays an important role in our salvation. It reveals to us the sinfulness of our hearts and shows us our need for a Savior. The law is wonderfully good in this regard. Without it showing us our brokenness, would we ever look to Christ to be healed?

The following poem by Ralph Erskine (a Scottish pastor, 1685-1752) explores the differences between the law and the gospel and the ways they relate to each other in our salvation ...

Recently in church, we have been studying the book of Galatians. Galatians spells out the folly of relying on "works of the law" in order to be right with God. If we are trusting in ourselves (the things we do, the things we don’t do) to prove our own goodness, we will find ourselves under God’s curse on Judgment Day. For we fall short of God’s standards every day of our lives. But if we place our trust in Jesus Christ (in his righteous life and atoning death), we have full acceptance with God.

But how can we know whether or not we are trusting in ourselves or in Christ? Certainly we need the Holy Spirit to help us discern the answer to this. But I found the following quote from Martin Luther to be very helpful in knowing what to look for with the Spirit’s help. His conjecture is that when a person is placing his/her trust in self the result will be a life either of pride or of despair. But when a person is truly trusting Christ the overall result will be joy. (Of course, I think even true Christians experience many moments of pride and many moments of despair, and there are times we don't feel much joy. But Luther’s comments are helpful when thinking about the overall flavor of our lives, especially when we examine the way we view ourselves in relationship to God.)

Anyway, here is his quote ...

I’ve been reading an old sermon by Thomas Chalmers, a pastor in Scotland in the early 1800’s. The title of the sermon is “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” The sermon is based (loosely) on 1 John 2:15. It doesn’t seem like it would be the most interesting sermon to have to sit and listen to, but, when you read it, you can come away with some pretty amazing ideas. Basically, what Chalmers is saying is that the human heart cannot stop loving sin merely by trying hard not to love it.