Coffee with Lewis: love turned into Charity
January 19, 2009
This from The Four Loves:
The invitation to turn our natural loves into Charity is never lacking. It is provided by those frictions and grustrations that meet us in all of them; unmistakable evidence that (natural) love is not going to be “enough”–unmistakable, unless we are blinded by egotism. When we are, we use them absurdly. “If only I had been more fortunate in my children (that boy gets more like his father every day) I could have loved them perfectly.” But every child is sometimes infuriating; most children are not infrequently odious. “If only my husband were more considerate, less lazy, less extravagant”…”If only my wife had fewer moods and more sense, and were less extravagant”…”If my father wasn’t so fernally prosy and close-fisted.” But in everyone, and of course in ourselves, there is that which requires forbearance, tolerance, forgiveness. The necessity of practising these virtues first sets us, forcesus, upon the attempt to turn–more strictly, to let God turn–our love into Charity.”
Decline and fall of charity
January 15, 2009
Here is an article called “The Decline and Fall of Charity.” The author notes some troubling statistics and trends in the giving habits of American churchgoers and troubling statistics and trends in the way that churches spend money. Here is an excerpt:
…fewer than 5 percent of churchgoers actually tithe 10 percent of their income; the average, according to numbers from Empty Tomb, a Christian research group that puts out annual reports on church giving, is now 3.4 percent, or 21 percent less than what dust-bowler counterparts gave during the worst of the Great Depression. Figures show that churchgoer contributions have been cascading downward since the 1960s. Religious conservatives do give more. Problem is, they only give nominally more and other groups give next to nothing.
May God deliver us from the consumeristic mindset (READ: idolatry) that is corrupting us all.
Mid-South Men’s Rally, Fri., Jan. 30
January 14, 2009
I attended my first Mid-South Men’s Rally back in 1988. Richard Pratt, Frank Barker and John Sartelle spoke. I still remember a lot about those sermons. There have been some great ones since, and I expect this year’s to be great as well. Thanks to our friends at First Presbyterian, Jackson, here is some more biographical information on this year’s speaker,Reverend Richard D. Phillips, the Senior Minister of the historic Second Presbyterian Church, Greenville, SC.
Rev. Phillips served in the US Army for 13 years, holding command and staff positions in a number of combat units. While gaining his M.B.A. at the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, he was converted to faith in Christ through the preaching of the gospel at Tenth Presbyterian Church. A few years later, while serving as assistant professor of leadership at West Point and holding the rank of major, he and his wife were persuaded of God’s call into the ordained ministry. Resigning from the Army, they moved back to Philadelphia to attend seminary.
While still in seminary, Rick became minister to a large inner-city outreach to singles and within a few years was preaching weekly at Tenth Presbyterian Church in downtown Philadelphia, the very church in which he was earlier converted and where he had met Sharon. During that time he also served on the staff of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a radio and publishing ministry led by Rick’s mentor and senior pastor, James Montgomery Boice. He remains on the board of directors of that organization, currently serving as vice chairman. He also chairs the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, founded by Dr. Boice in 1974 and passed on to Rick’s leadership after Dr. Boice’s death in 2000. Rev. Phillips’ preaching is heard nationwide on the radio program, God’s Living Word.
Rev. Phillips focuses his ministry on what he refers to as the “3 P’s”: preaching, praying and pastoring. Additionally, God has called him to a writing ministry and he regularly authors books and articles. He has written numerous books on the Bible and theology, including commentaries on Hebrews and Zechariah, Jesus the Evangelist, and the recently released The Incarnation in the Gospels. Rev. Phillips frequently speaks at conferences on the Bible and theology and is active in overseas missions, especially in East Africa. In addition to his ministry duties, Rick likes to spend time with his wife and children and is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox.
Sweet counsel 1.13.09
January 13, 2009
This is the third in a weekly series of reminders and wandering thoughts about what is going on at FPC Kosciusko. Thanks for the positive comments and response to the first two installments. I’ll probably post this on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future.
RALLY TIME: Men, it’s time to plan to attend the Mid-South Men’s Rally at Jackson’s First Presbyterian Church, Friday, January 30. The first service is at 6:30 pm, and the second service ends around 9:00 pm. Rick Phillips, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC. In addition to being a prolific author, he is also a retired Army Officer, taught leadership at West Point and graduated from the prestigious Wharton School in Philadelphia. Bring your sons, relatives and friends. Sunday’s bulletin will have details on departure times and sign up.
YEAR-END GIVING: WOW! The Father has blessed beyond all expectations. We entered November with a deficit of $45,228.94. We entered December with a deficit of $33,765.71. Receipts in December were $81,151.65. We finished the year with a surplus of $1,374.84. For those who like percentages, that surplus is 0.0027% of the budget! After final tinkering, we expect to have the 2009 budget adopted and approved by the Session this week, and then a congregational meeting will be called to present it to you.
Having said all that, taste and see that the Lord is good. Rejoice in him and give thanks. This money has not fallen out of the sky; God has moved you to give generously and joyfully. He has taken care of us as a congregation in three different centuries. To God all praise and glory!
PRAY FOR YOUR PASTOR: Thursday evening I have the privilege of preaching at the RUF large group meeting at Mississippi State. I hope to have a few young men from our church traveling with me as well. I will be preaching at State once or twice a month for the rest of the semester because Nathan Tircuit, who has served so ably as campus minister over the last three years, has accepted a call to pastor the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Bartlett, Tennessee. For me it is thrilling to preach to an auditorium of 200-250 students who are eager to hear the Word of God. More than that, RUF at State is very precious to me, as it was instrumental in my Christian growth and in Judy’s conversion and Christian growth.
On that subject, as you remember me in your prayers, please pray for me in my responsibilities as a member of the Mississippi Joint Committee on Campus Work. Presbytery appointed me last year to serve on this committee, which oversees the Reformed University Fellowship works at Mississippi schools, as well as the University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University, Rhodes College, the University of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee-Martin. Kosciusko native Bebo Elkin is serving in his 26th year as coordinator.
Calvin: staring at the sun
January 12, 2009
When the mood strikes, I’ll throw in something especially sweet from John Calvin, as I’m joining with a lot of others in reading through the Institutes of the Christian Religion this year, which happens to mark the 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth. This is from the opening chapter, in which Calvin contemplates knowing ourselves and knowing God–and how the two connect and feed one another. Too often we measure ourselves by ourselves or by the standards of others. Calvin says that we think we see well enough on a sunny day until we look up at the sun and find ourselves blinded and confused by its brilliance. He continues,
As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods. Suppose we but once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and to ponder his nature, and how completely perfect are his righteousness, wisdom, and power–the straightedge to which we must be shaped. Then, what masquerading earlier as righteousness was pleasing in us will soon grow filthy in its consummate wickedness. What wonderfully impressed us under the name of wisdom will stink in its very foolishness. What wore the face of power will prove itself the most miserable weakness. That is, what in us seems perfection itself corresponds ill to the purity of God.
As an added (and rather unrelated) bonus, here’s a link to the video for U2′s 1997 single, “Staring at the Sun.”
50 million pennies
January 7, 2009
Even though this happened right here in Mississippi, it took a blog post from Justin Taylor to make me aware of it. The 
Mississippi Baptist Convention has built The Memorial to the Missing to enable us to get some visual sense of the number of abortions in the U.S. since 1973–estimated to be around 50 million. The memorial is filled with 50 million pennies collected from churches around the state and is located at their main office across the street from the State Capitol.
A plaque on the memorial reads:
“Before you is a collection of 50 million pennies! Each penny represents one child who has been aborted since the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade in 1973. A penny like a baby seems to be so small and sometimes of very little worth, but when seen in a collection of 50 million it becomes enormous.
Each coin is a person, but in many cases it also represents the difficult process of decision-making, fear, and loneliness. While some speak of pro-choice, these babies had no choice. While some speak of a mother’s right to control her own body, 50 million babies were not given their right to live.
Fifty million missing children represented by these pennies must be cause for us to stop, pray, consider what we are doing as a nation, ask God to forgive us, seek ways to help those who are struggling with the decision, and look to the Lord to restore each of us.”
Orthodox, catholic, and charismatic
January 6, 2009
Is your church orthodox? Is it catholic? Is it charismatic? Around these parts, those words aren’t typically used to describe the church. In our ordinary usage, those terms mean something like this:
- Orthodox: dead, sterile and formal OR the kind of churches Greek people attend
- Catholic: affiliated with or sympathetic to the Church of Rome
- Charismatic: possessing magnetic charm OR tongues-speaking, pew-jumping worship that values spontaneity at the expense of decency and order
I agree with Dr. Donald Macleod that every authentic church must be orthodox, catholic and charismatic. Such words rightly understood would mean:
- Orthodox: professing and defending biblical truth (1 Timothy 4:6; Titus 1:9; 2:1; Jude 3)
- Catholic: belonging to the one church that Jesus has established and continues to build (Matthew 16:18; Acts 9:31; Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; 1 Timothy 3:15)
- Charismatic: depending upon the power, gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit for our survival and growth (John 3:5; 16:13; Romans 8:2, 9-11; 14:17; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:4ff; Galatians 5:5; Ephesians 2:18-22; 4:4; Revelation 22:17).
Sweet counsel: 1.5.09
January 5, 2009
This is the second in a weekly series of reminders and wandering thoughts about what is going on at FPC Kosciusko. It will be available each Monday at fpckosciusko.org and at sweetdropper.com. If it helps you, let me know via blog comment or in person. The aim is to improve communication, comment on church events, and help everyone stay better connected with each other and focused on our mission.
REMINDERS
First Things (last): The final meeting of First Things is this Wednesday, January 7, from 6-7 pm in the Jackson Room. In that final meeting I will try to communicate the “big picture” of how we seek to glorify and enjoy God here at FPC and give people a sense of how they can get in on the action. It’s a teaching session I really enjoy. Even if you haven’t attended in previous weeks, come on in.
Officer nominations: Nomination forms have already started to come in. Thanks for adjusting to the new system of submitting a signed nomination form. Remember: if someone wants to nominate you and you unsure about your qualifications or sense of calling, talk with me about that. It is good to serve as an elder or a deacon. But it is not easy work. No one should rush into the process without reflection; but neither should anyone run from or take lightly the church’s recognition of gifts and graces.
COMMENTS
Culpeper, VA: This past Sunday Joe Holland gave us a brief report on the work he is undertaking in Culpeper, Virginia. The Hollands are traveling to Virginia Friday, January 9 to do some fund-raising and development work. He’ll be away from us for each of the next two Sundays. This is a good time to fill you in about the transition plan that Session has approved.
After Joe informed us that he intended to accept the call to Culpeper, I talked with him, with the elders, with some other church planters I know, and with Fred Marsh at Mission to North America. From those conversations, it seemed to us that the best thing we as a church could do for Joe and for this new work was to continue providing salary and benefits for Joe and his family up to the June 1 launch date of the work. Doing so would mean that Joe would not have to live off money he is raising now before he actually moves to his new field of service. Between now and the end of May, Joe will devote about 50% of his time to FPC and 50% to the Culpeper project. That time will not be equally divided week to week. Session also approved a transition plan which involves times and ways in which Joe will hand off various duties to others in our church. Remember to pray for the Hollands and the Culpeper project. You can designate giving toward the project if you desire.
Calvin 2009: The year of our Lord 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. Our friend Dr. Derek Thomas has produced a system by which you can read Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion during the year by means of 5 daily readings each week. If you’re interested in a copy of the list, let me know. Many are intimidated by Calvin’s writings, but those who begin reading will find him to be a lucid and lively writer. He translated his work from Latin (the language of scholars) into French (the everyday language of Genevans) to make his work available and accessible to all kinds of people, or as he put it, “to lend them a hand, in order to guide them and help them to find the sum of what God meant to teach us in his Word.” I’d love to have FPC folk join me in reading Calvin this year.
BIG THINGS FOR JANUARY AND BEYOND:
Jan. 7 Final session of First Things, 6 pm
Jan. 12 Diaconate meeting, 6 pm
Jan. 15 GriefShare begins, 6:30 pm
Jan. 28 MIC-WIC night, 6 pm
Jan. 28 Session meeting, 7: 15 pm
Jan. 30 Mid-South Men’s Rally at First, Jackson
Feb. 3 FPC hosts Mississippi Valley Presbytery
