The Sweet Dropper

REMIND

Please remember to stay a few minutes after Morning Worship next Lord’s Day, July 12, as the Session has called a congregational meeting for the purpose of electing deacons from the slate of nominees approved by the Session: Kerry Hudgins, Keith Paton, Scott Pickle, and Sam Potts (Michael Holman, Culley Newman, and Bill Roos will rotate off the Diaconate. Dennis Baird has been granted a one-year leave of absence, effective June 1). Also, Eddie Thomas is returning to elder duties after a sabbatical (Greg LeVert begins a year-long sabbatical in July).

The rotation system (3 years of active service for deacons and 6 years for elders) is designed to give the men a rest from Diaconate and Session meetings and primary administrative duties related to the office. But it does not mean that a man who “rotates off” stops being a deacon or elder. Ordination to office is for life, unless a man is called by God to serve elsewhere, or disqualifies himself in some way, or is unable to perform his duties. People, projects and needs in the church do not wait or adjust annually for experienced leaders to step away and new leaders to step in. Both the newly-ordained officer and the officer returning from a year off are thrown right into the deep end of the pool. Remember to pray for our deacons and elders. Encourage and support them in any way you can. They carry out so much of the ‘ground war’ of our efforts. I thank God for each of them.

REVISIT

Church-wide Taste of Grace supper: A group of 75 or so was treated to a delicious sampling of the culinary riches of the new Taste of Grace cookbook this past Sunday evening. Taste of Grace is available for $20, and sales help fund the 2010 youth mission trip to Peru. The time of singing was excellent (the hard floors of the fellowship hall really help!). Sandra Fowler helped organize the logistics. Deborah Templeton has carried the cookbook project forward since its inception. Thanks to you both!

RELATE

Mission: Japan update: Nelson and I are leaving for Japan on Thursday, July 17! Here are some updates regarding the trip:

• Mississippi Valley Presbytery has been very generous toward us in offering to pay our in-country expenses (train passes, lodging, etc.). As for the airfare and other expenses, I am following Paul’s example of self-support in Corinth (2 Corinthians 11), so as not to be a burden on FPC funds.
• Some have asked about our plans for lodging. We will be spending a total of 3 nights in hotels. While in Nagoya we will stay in Linda Wixon’s apartment. Linda will stay with another female member of the MTW team who lives about a ten-minute walk away.
• Rev. Kaz Yaegashi underwent stomach surgery last week in Yamagata. He is recovering well. His son Morris has been sending reports. The surgeon removed 55% of Kaz’s stomach. Here is a quote from Morris’ email about a strange conference with the surgeon after the operation was completed (not for the squeamish):

The nurse finally appeared and told us to come in to a little room next to the waiting room. Dr. Onishi, the surgeon (who, by the way, is an expert in this specific type of surgery that was performed on Dad. He has done hundreds.) appeared from the OR carrying a plastic container (It actually looked like a casserole dish) with a red blob stretched out in it. It was Dad’ stomach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   I nearly threw up.  Mom started crying. The nurse was looking at us all worried; then the doctor said, “problem?”
So, I said to mom “Just don’t look at it if you don’t want to,” as I turned back to the plate of stretched-out, red THING, formally known as Kaz’s stomach.
Dr. Onishi then pointed out the specific location of the cancer, and explained why the surgery took longer than scheduled.

REFORMED YOUTH MINISTRIES

On Monday 14 high school students and 2 chaperones from FPC Kosciusko will depart for the Reformed Youth Ministries (RYM) Sr. High Conference in Panama City Beach, Florida. They will join 1,250 students from around the Southeast for a week of biblical teaching in seminars, worship, preaching from Rev. Joe Novenson of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church, and a whole lot of fun.

I will be heading down there on Sunday to do some advance preparation work for the start of the conference (I’ve served on the RYM Board since 1996). Pray for me, as I’ll be teaching a seminar on God’s grace in the life of Jacob (See how good I am at recycling?). Below is a history of RYM that Wayne Herring and I co-wrote. Much to my surprise, it appeared in the most recent issue of the Reformed Theological Seminary Leadership magazine:

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, students of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson, Mississippi, returning in the fall after summer internships at various churches around the South, frequently voiced to one another a complaint that became all too common: there simply was no good youth conference to which they could take their young people. Plenty of conferences were available, but the primary—if not exclusive—purpose seemed to be to provide fun. Good biblical teaching for high-school students was hard to find, and where it did exist, it was often dry and legalistic. No one, apparently, wanted to teach the basics of Reformed theology and play basketball.

Three RTS students—Wayne Herring (class of ‘71), Pete Hurst (‘72) and Wayne Rogers (‘72)—good friends who loved both theology and fun, decided to attempt do something about the situation. The need yawned large in their minds, and the burden grew in their hearts. In the autumn of 1971, a Saturday afternoon of planning, dreaming, and prayer yielded the idea of Reformed Youth Movement (so named because they were unable to think of anything cleverer). Gradually, though, “RYM” stuck.

Hurst and Rogers, graduates of King College in Bristol, Tennessee, thought the college might welcome a summer youth conference there. Once the college agreed to rent its facilities, the three men wrote letters to far and wide, made phone calls, and did all they could to get the word out. They prayed that God would send fifty young people. To their great surprise and delight, 125 came! The mornings were filled with solid teaching and the afternoons were devoted to fun. Evenings featured serious preaching with an evangelistic emphasis provided that first year by Dr. O. Palmer Robertson.

The conference grew rapidly, moved several times to different locations, and settled in at Covenant College for a run of nearly ten years. In the mid-1980s Bebo Elkin convinced the RYM Board to try Laguna Beach Christian Retreat in Panama City Beach, Florida. Before that move, the conference usually numbered around 400. After the move to Florida, attendance went up dramatically and eventually reached what it is today: 1,200–1,300 in the Senior High Florida conference alone.

Herring recalls that many pastors and church leaders were initially unsure about RYM and could not wholeheartedly support it. Gradually, he says, that changed, and today “we are very grateful for the men who came and stood with us in those early days. And we still believe that only eternity will tell what God has done through RYM. To him alone be the glory.”

As the Senior High Florida conference grew the RYM Board recognized that there were more opportunities to reach students for Christ and strengthen youth ministry in the local church than ever. The lives and culture of youth need the transforming power of the gospel of Christ.  Families and communities devastated by sin need the restoration and hope that only the gospel of Christ can bring. Thus, in the late 1990s the RYM Board decided to expand its conference base beyond a single-site summer youth conference. In the summer of 2000 a junior high RYM conference was begun at Laguna, and youth ministry training seminars were held at various sites. In 2004 and 2005 additional summer conferences were planted in Colorado and the Pacific Northwest; and in 2008 RYM is adding both a Mercy in Missions Project and a winter conference in Colorado.

RYM (recently renamed Reformed Youth Ministries) is now poised to assist churches by providing training and resources in the development and implementation of a biblical philosophy of youth ministry, a church internship program, and the promotion and publication of curriculum and other resources to help church leaders and parents point young people to Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of sinners. We thank God for the birth and growth of this ministry—and we’ve never grown tired of having fun!

Evening Worship: Grant will continue preaching from Ephesians 1 and minister at the Lord’s Table. We will sing Thy Works, Not Mine and How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place.

REMIND

Remember the VALUES: Worship, Teaching, Nurture, Reaching

The Apostle Paul gave his protege Timothy a number of charges and exhortations in the two New Testament letters addressed to Timothy. Paul wants Timothy to lead his flock wisely, courageously and virtuously. He offers as something of a thesis statement this marvelous assertion in the opening of his first letter to Timothy:

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith [1 Timothy 1:5].

Love requires personal holiness (a pure heart), honest self-assessment and charitable assessment of others (a good conscience), all of which flows from one’s relationship to God (sincere faith).

• a pure heart: a heart delivered from corrupting idolatries and influences, rather than being dominated by sinful desires;
• a good conscience: a true knowledge of God and a true self-understanding, rather than being deceived by and laden with guilt; and
• a sincere faith: living a God-ward life, receiving his Word and gifts on his terms, rather than living with pretense and hypocrisy.

Church-wide Taste of Grace supper: Sunday evening, June 28, at 6:00 pm we will gather in the fellowship hall to celebrate the release of the Taste of Grace cookbook (fundraiser for 2010 youth mission trip to Peru). You are asked to bring dishes from recipes you submitted for the cookbook. We will also have a time of singing and prayer. Your response to the call for recipes was overwhelming. No doubt this will be an evening of great food and sharing.

REVISIT

37th General Assembly of the PCA: The 37th General Assembly of the PCA met this past week in Orlando, Florida. While I did not attend as a commissioner this year, I’ve tried to keep with the proceedings via computer. Most of the denomination’s agencies (Administrative Committee, MNA, MTW, Reformed University Ministries, Ridge Haven, PCA Foundation) have cut their budgets by 15-20% because of decreases in church giving. Belt-tightening is going on everywhere, not just at FPC Kosciusko.

When we speak of General Assembly, many people want to know if there are any ‘controversies’ brewing. The only issue that would qualify as such is ongoing debate over the roles of women within the local church, especially with reference to the office of deacon. This week, by a margin of fewer than 20 votes, the PCA’s General Assembly voted against adopting overtures that would form a study committee to examine women’s roles in the denomination. The vote was 427 in favor and 446 opposed. Earlier in the week, the GA’s Overtures Committee had recommended that the Assembly reject Overtures 5 and 10—which called for a study committee to be formed to craft a pastoral letter to churches on the issue. (Last year, a similar overture was rejected.)

According to Overtures 5 and 10, “the PCA has struggled with the question of how women in the local church are to exercise their God-given gifts within the framework of the Book of Church Order (BCO).” Additionally, “many PCA churches are uncertain about how to use appropriately God’s gifts among the many capable women within the membership of those churches.”

Why vote against a study committee? The narrowly-prevailing argument was that a study committee report does not have real constitutional authority (like the Westminster Confession, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and the Book of Church Order), but in reality such reports often take on that kind of authority in presbyteries and sessions. Thus, if further clarification or amendment needs to take place on this issue, it ought to be done through the process of amendment of the Book of Church Order.

Those arguing for a study committee believe that more pastoral instruction needs to take place, and that a study committee could produce a document that defines boundaries of biblical practice on

RELATE

Mission: Japan: I love world missions, and I love pastoring a church that loves world missions. As the pastor of such a congregation, I have a number of opportunities come my way to see the work in various parts of the world. Many of them I have to turn down. On others (Peru in 2007 and Romania in 2008) I have been very blessed to see first-hand the advance of the Savior’s kingdom.

In July I have the rare opportunity to retrace some steps, doing some preaching and teaching with the MTW team in Nagoya, Japan. Many of you know that I spent the summer of 1989 in Nagoya, assisting the church planting team there. A couple of members of that team are still there, and I look forward to renewing those ties, seeing some Japanese pastors I worked under back then, and observing how the work has changed in two decades. I am taking Nelson with me, and he will assist with conversational English classes. A key part of our visit to Japan will be to take a few days and visit Kaz Yaegashi in Yamagata (northern Japan). Kaz is a PCA minister who was sent to Japan as a missionary (though he is a Japanese citizen) by Mississippi Valley Presbytery back in the 1970’s. I have known Kaz and his wife Katie for the last 10 years. Katie’s father, Dr. Jim Moore, pastored the Macon church from 1961-1968. Kaz was recently was diagnosed with stomach cancer and will be undergoing surgery to remove most of his stomach on June 25. Kaz’s illness makes the trip take on a different tone, as he will no doubt still be recovering. I pray that the trip to Yamagata will convey the concern and love of the brethren here in the States for Kaz and Katie.

REFRESH

Between Sunday, June 21 and Sunday, June 28, the Palmertrees have the opportunity to get away to Gulf Shores…and we’re taking that opportunity.

Evening Worship: How the Lord has been with us through these sermons on Revelation. I’ll be preaching on Revelation 17-18 this coming Lord’s Day evening. Ch. 17-19 elaborate and expand on the message of the sixth and seventh plague bowls, which tell of the systematic destruction of the enemies of God—the red dragon, the beast from the sea, the beast from the land, Babylon and all those who bear the mark of the beast.  We will learn from the imagery of the downfall of the great harlot Babylon. This is not our first meeting with her [14:8; 16:19]. We will see how true the old sayings are: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” “Appearances are deceiving.” “All that glitters is not gold.”

Last week I had to pull out of town before I could get Sweet Counsel completed. We went to Lucedale, where Nelson and I put in two flower beds for Judy’s parents. So, let’s catch up…

REVISIT

Vacation Bible School: As I write, there is one more day of Vacation Bible School left. The King Is Coming has been a great curriculum, but what makes a good VBS is great workers and helpers. We’ve had plenty of those. Christi Sims has done an excellent job directing the week. As of Wednesday, we’ve had 78 different children come at least one day, with an average daily attendance between 65-70. Our youth always come through with great help with activities in the gym, teaching, crafts, music, skits, sound engineering, nursery. In fact, our teenagers provide help in every facet of VBS. We couldn’t do it without them. And, space does not permit me to talk about how great the skits were…You can find photos on fpckosciusko.org sometime on Friday.

RELATE

Mission: Japan: I love world missions, and I love pastoring a church that loves world missions. As the pastor of such a congregation, I have a number of opportunities come my way to see the work in various parts of the world. Many of them I have to turn down. On others (Peru in 2007 and Romania in 2008) I have been very blessed to see first-hand the advance of the Savior’s kingdom.

In July I have the rare opportunity to retrace some steps, doing some preaching and teaching with the MTW team in Nagoya, Japan. Many of you know that I spent the summer of 1989 in Nagoya, assisting the church planting team there. A couple of members of that team are still there, and I look forward to renewing those ties, seeing some Japanese pastors I worked under back then, and observing how the work has changed in two decades. I am taking Nelson with me, and he will assist with conversational English classes. A key part of our visit to Japan will be to take a few days and visit Kaz Yaegashi in Yamagata (northern Japan). Kaz is a PCA minister who was sent to Japan as a missionary (though he is a Japanese citizen) by Mississippi Valley Presbytery back in the 1970’s. I have known Kaz and his wife Katie for the last 10 years. Katie’s father, Dr. Jim Moore, pastored the Macon church from 1961-1968. Two weeks ago Kaz was diagnosed with stomach cancer and will be undergoing surgery to remove most of his stomach on June 22. Kaz’s illness makes the trip take on a different tone, as he will no doubt still be recovering. I pray that the trip to Yamagata will convey the concern and love of the brethren here in the States for Kaz and Katie.

REPENT

Below is a very insightful comparison between “religion” and “the gospel” drawn from the sermons of Tim Keller (Senior Pastor of Redemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and author of The Reason for God and The Prodigal God). Tim does a remarkable job of probing hearts and revealing how easily we slip into self-dependence. Read the comparison list below with humility and care. It will do your soul good.

RELIGION: I obey-therefore I’m accepted.

THE GOSPEL: I’m accepted-therefore I obey.

RELIGION: Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.

THE GOSPEL: Motivation is based on grateful joy.

RELIGION: I obey God in order to get things from God.

THE GOSPEL: I obey God to get to God-to delight and resemble Him.

RELIGION: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or my self, since I believe, like Job’s friends that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.

THE GOSPEL: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle but I know all my punishment fell on Jesus and that while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial.

RELIGION: When I am criticized I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a ‘good person’. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.

THE GOSPEL: When I am criticized I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a ‘good person.’ My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ. I can take criticism.

RELIGION: My prayer life consists largely of petition and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment.

THE GOSPEL: My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with Him.

RELIGION: My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel insecure and inadequate. I’m not confident. I feel like a failure.

THE GOSPEL: My self-view is not based on a view of my self as a moral achiever. In Christ I am “simul iustus et peccator”—simultaneously sinful and yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad he had to die for me and I am so loved he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deeper and deeper humility and confidence at the same time. Neither swaggering nor sniveling.

RELIGION: My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work. Or how moral I am, and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to ‘the other.’

THE GOSPEL: My identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for His enemies, who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by sheer grace. So I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. Only by grace I am what I am. I’ve no inner need to win arguments.

RELIGION: Since I look to my own pedigree or performance for my spiritual acceptability, my heart manufactures idols. It may be my talents, my moral record, my personal discipline, my social status, etc. I absolutely have to have them so they serve as my main hope, meaning, happiness, security, and significance, whatever I may say I believe about God.

THE GOSPEL: I have many good things in my life—family, work, spiritual disciplines, etc. But none of these good things are ultimate things to me. None of them are things I absolutely have to have, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness, and despondency they can inflict on me when they are threatened and lost.

Evening Worship: Thanks for the encouraging comments on the Revelation series! If you need to give me discouraging comments, state them now, because I am ready to press forward! We will be looking at Revelation 15-16. The passage shows us the fourth set of visions, which consist of a vision of seven bowls of God’s wrath being poured out. Like the seven trumpets, the bowls and reminiscent of the plagues against Egypt in the book of Exodus. The bowls sumbolize the wrath and judgment of God against evildoers. If we belong to Christ, the wrath of God will never touch us, for Christ has faced it and had it poured out on him at the cross. Well did Augustus Toplady pen these lines:

If Thou hast my discharge procured,

And freely in my room endured the whole of wrath divine;

Payment God cannot twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand, and then again at mine.

Thanks, Joe! Sunday is Joe’s final Sunday on our staff. The Hollands will still be here for a while, as they are awaiting the sale of their house. Joe will be something of a “church planter in residence” here, tending full-time to the development of the church plant in Culpeper. They will be here on Wednesdays and Sundays when they are not traveling or visiting other churches in our Presbytery. We rejoice at the news that his support is at 94% now. We are sad to see them go, however. Joe has been a good laborer and has served us well. You can follow the development of the Culpeper, Virginia church plant at http://culpepermission.org/.

He dumped water on me in the picture on the right because I was supposed to be wet in that uniform for a VBS skit back in 2006. I still think his face shows a bit too much delight in the task.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT CONNECTION: The original plan for Wednesday Night Connection was for us to continue the Ladies’ Bible Study and Men’s Forum on the first Wednesday of the month. However, Maureen Boswell, our Ladies’ Bible Study leader, has to stay on in Fredricksburg, Texas, after Johnny’s injury and surgery. So we are giving Ladies’ Bible Study and Men’s Forum a vacation in the month of June. The Truth Project and Framework of Faith will continue through the entire month of June. Wednesday Night Connection is designed to connect us with one another in fellowship and reaching and to dig deeply into God’s Word through Bible-centered studies for children, youth, and adults. There’s always room for more–and just because you missed the first and/or second session, don’t think you can’t join in now.

Remember the schedule for the summer:
6:00   Children’s ministry; adult and youth electives will gather in their respective meeting rooms

Electives
•    Framework of Faith: a study of fundamental Christian teaching that aims to be rigorous and refreshing, systematic and stimulating (led by Phillip Palmertree). A number of people have been asking for a survey of systematic theology, and here it is. Join us for a study of the skeletal system of Christian living. Meeting in the Mary Thornton Room.

REPENT

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland voted last week to sustain a call to a minister who is in an openly same-sex partnership. This is sad and grievous news. My friend David Robertson, minister of St. Peter’s, Dundee (a Free Church of Scotland congregation) spoke to his flock about the situation this past Lord’s Day and posted his remarks on his blog. Below is an excerpt.

1) We reject all forms of homophobia. There is no need for Christians to be afraid of homosexuals. If you are a homosexual you are as welcome in St Peters as you are if you are a heterosexual. And just as we would expect heterosexuals to live according to biblical standards as Christians, so we would expect homosexuals to live according to biblical standards as Christians.

2) We accept the teaching of the Bible about human sexuality. In other words sex is between one man and one woman in the context of marriage. Anything else is sinful.

3) The Church of Scotland last night voted to endorse and accept a minister who openly goes against the Bible’s teaching.

4) The Church of Scotland based this decision on a teaching that destroys the Church. They stated, “The ‘Word of God’ is not synonymous with the Scriptures, but it can, in part, be discerned from the Scriptures through prayer and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit”. The difficulty here is that whilst this sounds spiritual it means that the General Assembly of the Church becomes the Magisterium – a court which may use the Bible but which in reality tells the rest of us what God says. This is a recipe for an authoritarian church that limits the freedom of the believer to follow the Word of God, which IS synonymous with the Bible.

5) The implications of this decision are enormous. The Church of Scotland decision will hasten the day when the State persecutes those who uphold the Bible’s teaching and when people like myself will be prosecuted for teaching the Bible. This week for example I received an e-mail asking if a talk I gave could be put on a website but suggesting that it would have to be password protected in case I was prosecuted for homophobia – what did I say? Only that marriage was between one man and one woman. People are being prosecuted and losing their jobs, not because they are homophobic, but rather just because they dare to believe that what the Bible says is true.

I’ll keep you posted on what happens next with our brethren back in the homeland of Presbyterianism.

REMEMBER

Pentecost Sunday is fifty days after Easter, the occasion of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the promise of Joel 2:28-32 (“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…”). In the Old Testament Pentecost was a feast that celebrated the first fruits of the year’s harvest (Exodus 23:16; Numbers 28:26). In the New Testament, the fulfillment appears, and the long-expected Day of the Lord has arrived: the powers of the age to come are released; the harvest of the world begins to come in. Christ—crucified, risen and ascended—pours out the Spirit in unrestrained measure and without geographical or ethnic limitation. The gospel promise “is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2:39). Giving special attention to the person and work of the Holy Spirit in our worship helps us recognize our utter dependence on his presence and work in our lives as disciples of Christ.

Last year I heard about an Episcopal church in Jackson which noted Pentecost in a memorable way in their liturgy. A reader began reading Acts 2, and when he came to the part about the disciples of Jesus speaking in various languages, he was joined by readers reading the same passage in Spanish, German, Chinese, and an African language–all of them reading the passage simultaneously!

Evening Worship: I rushed through Revelation 11 last week. We’ll be marching at a fast pace as we look over Revelation 12-14. The passage is a procession of visions of a beast. First, John sees warfare between a dragon (Satan) and a woman who bears a child. The dragon cannot kill the child and is eventually thrown down as a voice declares that the kingdom of God and his Messiah have come. Secondly, John sees a beast rising from the sea. This beast appears to prevail over the saints and gain the allegiance of the rebellious world. Another beast appears to aid him. Then John sees teh lamb on Mount Zion at the head of his army of 144,000 marked with the Father’s name (rather than marked by the beast). Then John sees a vision of the son of man glorious in triumph and ready to carry out his judgment.