As I sit here at my desk listening to a song I wrote several months ago for little Eden - my new daughter - I am reminded of all that God has overtly done for me and my family.
He has so abundantly blessed me in umpteen ways. From a calling to the pastoral ministry, and that in the service of the greatest church family on the globe, to a wonderful wife and three precious little girls, God has truly showered His blessings on me!
My theology compels me to insert that tribulation and trials and persecution await me...and they do feature, and may well overcome all this for a season or the entirely of my time this side of glory, but my experience at the moment, if 'bottled' and given the erroneous stamp of 'one size fits all' would compare with the prosperity heresy!
So gracious has God been to me!
Even down to the home we enjoy, the car we have been blessed with, my guitar, food sufficient for the family...and delicious in that, awesome friends - here and abroad.
This note is somewhat scatter-brained and my purpose may seem strange, perhaps, to some, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this dark cloud, of which I will now speak, over his or her head which I have here called the Judas Complex! If that is plagiarised, I sincerely don’t recall where I heard it!
This is the mentality that says/thinks; ‘It’s just a matter of time before you mess it all up!’, 'Come on Glen, who are you kidding? You don’t have the character to sustain what God has given you! You are and will always be a looser – a problem, you’ll see! You know it...think about your temptations and sins and the gravity of the potential evil you could fall into...just wait - you will prove to be a betrayer of the Lord Jesus.'
In short, ‘in due course you will find it to be so that (given the spread of disciples) you get to be Judas!’
‘Not Peter, not Paul...no not you...Judas is your card!’
‘You’re the runt of the litter, the dud etc.’
Now before someone sends me to a shrink...like that’s going to help! Or a BA (Baptists Anonymous) meeting let me say that God is bigger than this silly - this stupid - this pathetic and utterly ridiculous rubbish!
His love is eternal and so is His gift of salvation and so the preservation of His own!
To hell with the devil!!!
I mean that absolutely literally...in other words, 'get behind me Satan!'
God has given me a 16 years walk with Him that, although peppered with failure and almost every sin imaginable in my disgusting and wretched heart, has proven to me one thing, to say the least, and that is that He is faithful...infinitely so!
I don’t have to fail! He who is able to keep me from stumbling and present me blameless with great joy on that day indwells me! I can’t do it! News flash! No one can! Only He is able to carry me all the way to the finish line! And He will...and even if I blow it hook, line and sinker...nothing can dissolve the eternal life that is mine in Him!
Of course there are false professors who prove to be so over time, but I know I love Christ!
I know He is my life, my all in all...and this alone by His sovereign grace and favour toward me!
I once was blind...O how blackened was my hellish heart...I hated God and all that represented Him to me. This is not true of me now! He changed me...gave me a new heart...wrote His Law on my heart and mind...O how I love that Law!!! I delight in the Law of God in my inner man...impossible for the old me! I know I'm now a God lover by His own doing...unchangeably so!
Nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus!
Stuff this stupid 'Judas Complex'!!!
Sorry I said 'stuff'! No other word carries sufficient emotional weight right now to capture my utter disgust of the madness of it!
I don’t know if I am even making sense right now...but let me land on a high note...God is awesome, perfect, beautiful, forgiving, slow to anger, holy, a consuming fire, and full of compassion and sympathy toward His children and their struggles!
I love you Jesus Christ my Lord and King and Saviour and Darling Bridegroom!
I will keep trying to love you more and more and your people too and to win sinners to Your worship and Kingdom!
All this by the power you supply alone...for unless you build the house, fight the battle etc. all is hopeless! O but You do build, fight, supply and sustain!
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!!!!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Angel and the Little Scroll!
The Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ is fast becoming, for me, the most exciting book in all the sacred volume!
The highly symbolic apocalyptic genre, in which these brilliant, radiant visions are wrapped, is a joy to unfold indeed.
The key thing being, I believe, the phrase, "in the spirit".
Not only does John see a vision...this he does – and, in that, many of them. But he takes part in the very fabric of these marvellous moving pictures. He becomes an actor in the story line of this final volume of Holy Writ.
This is vital in our appreciation of this pristine, prophetic epistle because it will iron out some of the creases of erroneous, speculative exegesis pertaining to the Revelation needing to be taken as literal.
John literally sees and experiences everything exactly as he says (writes) it. That is a given. But these visions of which he is himself a character must be interpreted in light of their intended associations. Rooted deeply and richly in the Old Testament Scriptures, Revelation draws its contentual imagery from the vast and rich sum of ancient sacred soil.
The first audience would immediately have grasped this.
The section we unpacked this Lord's Day past was chapter 10:1-11. Connected, of course with all that has gone before it, especially with respect to the 8th and 9th chapters, as well as leading on, in its meaning, to what follows, this section gives us none other than a re-affirmation of the Great Commission given to John on Patmos so as to encourage this suffering but stalwart saint of God to get up and get going again in the very purpose for which he was exiled in the first place...the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ - that is preaching the gospel!
Not only will John derive comfort from this portion, and that, again, to preach Christ risen and coming again, but each and every one of his audience, then and now, who too suffer for their faith will and must so draw from this holy spring sustenance and strength to ‘surf the prophetic wave all the way to the shore line’.
And so, in our text, Christ comes to John in the form of a mighty angel. (Either this is Christ or an actual angel - either way he, at very least, acts the part of Christ...note the descriptions he carries!) ‘Wrapped in a cloud’, ‘face’ shining ‘like the sun’, ‘rainbow over his head’ etc.
All of this is meant to bring our hearts and minds to familiar Biblical imagery!
Furthermore, this ‘mighty angel’ has a ‘little scroll’ (now called ‘little’ in contrast to the gigantic angelic holder thereof) in his right hand...not closed but opened! I wonder why…not!
Chapters 6ff tell us why. Christ, the Lamb/Lion took the seven-sealed scroll and, with specific reference to the conquest of the cross, has become worthy of opening its seals, all seven of them!
God's entire redemptive purpose is here meant and this is only possible by the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour!
So He, Jesus, rides off ‘conquering and to conquer’ (white horse)! This then leads to all manner of suffering unique and general that the Church must expect as par for the course.
Chapter 7 sends our minds to the positive protective side of this coin, the Church militant being sealed on their foreheads, and ends with the Church triumphant in glory resting, at last, in her Bridegroom’s arms.
Chapter 8 brings us back to the beginning of the New Covenant age with all the prayers of the saints, perfected by Christ’s intercession, ascending into the very throne room of God.
These are not only answered by God in powerful ways, but used of Him, as instrumental agencies, in the unfolding of His eternal redemptive and damning decree. From these prayers and in direct association with them come the seven trumpets of judgment...judgment, yes, but not final judgment...at least not until the seventh of these is brought to the fore (11:15ff).
These destroy ‘a third’ of the different parts of the universe and are given as parables of perdition so as to call the wicked to repentance...thus enhancing their culpableness if unheeded.
We must discern herein all the suffering of the wicked as coming from God Himself, without exception, as ‘mini-hell's’ until the real deal hits like a bare fist in the resurrected faces of the impenitent.
God is calling to repentance, with arms wide open, all sinners who will hear...this He does in these terrible, but not final, parabolic foretastes of wrath! (See Rom 1:18ff).
Chapter 10 then brings with this mighty angel (Christ - I believe) the oath to the Father (representing the Trinity) that there will be no more delay! Next in the chronological clock is chapter 11:15...however this is yet a little while away...at least as far as content and imagery goes. But the next aspect, unless the angel is ‘telling tales’, is the final judgment (the seventh trumpet).
Something important, however, remains to be said before this culminatory act of God in the Second Advent and judgment therein. This is to, quite simply, push 'pause' as it were, and that so as to call John to ‘go, take the scroll’ (once sealed, now fully opened - describing the seals and trumpets) and to ‘eat it’ (digest it fully himself), and then to ‘prophesy’ it!
This is none other than a re-enactment of the Great Commission that John had been party to receiving so many decades before, this time from the now (then) perspective of this struggling and frail apostle.
He is re-commissioned!
We are herein too re-commissioned!
Whenever we are feeling at the end of our rope…no matter how much we are suffering, this is to be interpreted as normative Christian experience!
Our prayers are heard in our trials and persecutions and even used of God in the unfolding of His eternal decree. The trumpets are how God answers and stands up for His bride against her enemies this side of the Grand Finale!
We must preach this!
This alone is Christianity!
Tell the Church what to expect and what to do in the face of suffering...that is, to get up and get going! God is yet your strength and shield!!!
Tell the devils people (all non-Christians) that all their suffering is from the hand of a very involved and blatantly busy God!
Whether He uses Satan (Job) or other demonic agencies, or people - ultimately all are His servants!
With all this right interpreting of life to the world remember all the while that ‘the gate is narrow’ and most will still reject God and curse Him to His face! That is not our problem ultimately...our business is to be faithful!
On the day of Judgment all these will not only have to give an account for their association with, and part in, the sin of our first parents, and that in the fall; not only will they have to explain their wholesale embrace of their sinful nature; not merely of all their actual sins committed in this life; not only will they have to answer for their further denial of God, albeit having heard and supressed the trumpets of general revelation in their every ounce of pain and torment throughout this life; but, more so, they will be irreparably culpable in that they have heard the preaching of the Word (little scroll) that explains God's calling to them in all their experiences and that in the view of Christ and His accomplishment on the Cross!
This, I believe, is the meaning of the angel and the little scroll!
What a glorious text indeed!
Preach it to everyone!!!
"You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings."
God be praised completely!!!
The highly symbolic apocalyptic genre, in which these brilliant, radiant visions are wrapped, is a joy to unfold indeed.
The key thing being, I believe, the phrase, "in the spirit".
Not only does John see a vision...this he does – and, in that, many of them. But he takes part in the very fabric of these marvellous moving pictures. He becomes an actor in the story line of this final volume of Holy Writ.
This is vital in our appreciation of this pristine, prophetic epistle because it will iron out some of the creases of erroneous, speculative exegesis pertaining to the Revelation needing to be taken as literal.
John literally sees and experiences everything exactly as he says (writes) it. That is a given. But these visions of which he is himself a character must be interpreted in light of their intended associations. Rooted deeply and richly in the Old Testament Scriptures, Revelation draws its contentual imagery from the vast and rich sum of ancient sacred soil.
The first audience would immediately have grasped this.
The section we unpacked this Lord's Day past was chapter 10:1-11. Connected, of course with all that has gone before it, especially with respect to the 8th and 9th chapters, as well as leading on, in its meaning, to what follows, this section gives us none other than a re-affirmation of the Great Commission given to John on Patmos so as to encourage this suffering but stalwart saint of God to get up and get going again in the very purpose for which he was exiled in the first place...the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ - that is preaching the gospel!
Not only will John derive comfort from this portion, and that, again, to preach Christ risen and coming again, but each and every one of his audience, then and now, who too suffer for their faith will and must so draw from this holy spring sustenance and strength to ‘surf the prophetic wave all the way to the shore line’.
And so, in our text, Christ comes to John in the form of a mighty angel. (Either this is Christ or an actual angel - either way he, at very least, acts the part of Christ...note the descriptions he carries!) ‘Wrapped in a cloud’, ‘face’ shining ‘like the sun’, ‘rainbow over his head’ etc.
All of this is meant to bring our hearts and minds to familiar Biblical imagery!
Furthermore, this ‘mighty angel’ has a ‘little scroll’ (now called ‘little’ in contrast to the gigantic angelic holder thereof) in his right hand...not closed but opened! I wonder why…not!
Chapters 6ff tell us why. Christ, the Lamb/Lion took the seven-sealed scroll and, with specific reference to the conquest of the cross, has become worthy of opening its seals, all seven of them!
God's entire redemptive purpose is here meant and this is only possible by the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour!
So He, Jesus, rides off ‘conquering and to conquer’ (white horse)! This then leads to all manner of suffering unique and general that the Church must expect as par for the course.
Chapter 7 sends our minds to the positive protective side of this coin, the Church militant being sealed on their foreheads, and ends with the Church triumphant in glory resting, at last, in her Bridegroom’s arms.
Chapter 8 brings us back to the beginning of the New Covenant age with all the prayers of the saints, perfected by Christ’s intercession, ascending into the very throne room of God.
These are not only answered by God in powerful ways, but used of Him, as instrumental agencies, in the unfolding of His eternal redemptive and damning decree. From these prayers and in direct association with them come the seven trumpets of judgment...judgment, yes, but not final judgment...at least not until the seventh of these is brought to the fore (11:15ff).
These destroy ‘a third’ of the different parts of the universe and are given as parables of perdition so as to call the wicked to repentance...thus enhancing their culpableness if unheeded.
We must discern herein all the suffering of the wicked as coming from God Himself, without exception, as ‘mini-hell's’ until the real deal hits like a bare fist in the resurrected faces of the impenitent.
God is calling to repentance, with arms wide open, all sinners who will hear...this He does in these terrible, but not final, parabolic foretastes of wrath! (See Rom 1:18ff).
Chapter 10 then brings with this mighty angel (Christ - I believe) the oath to the Father (representing the Trinity) that there will be no more delay! Next in the chronological clock is chapter 11:15...however this is yet a little while away...at least as far as content and imagery goes. But the next aspect, unless the angel is ‘telling tales’, is the final judgment (the seventh trumpet).
Something important, however, remains to be said before this culminatory act of God in the Second Advent and judgment therein. This is to, quite simply, push 'pause' as it were, and that so as to call John to ‘go, take the scroll’ (once sealed, now fully opened - describing the seals and trumpets) and to ‘eat it’ (digest it fully himself), and then to ‘prophesy’ it!
This is none other than a re-enactment of the Great Commission that John had been party to receiving so many decades before, this time from the now (then) perspective of this struggling and frail apostle.
He is re-commissioned!
We are herein too re-commissioned!
Whenever we are feeling at the end of our rope…no matter how much we are suffering, this is to be interpreted as normative Christian experience!
Our prayers are heard in our trials and persecutions and even used of God in the unfolding of His eternal decree. The trumpets are how God answers and stands up for His bride against her enemies this side of the Grand Finale!
We must preach this!
This alone is Christianity!
Tell the Church what to expect and what to do in the face of suffering...that is, to get up and get going! God is yet your strength and shield!!!
Tell the devils people (all non-Christians) that all their suffering is from the hand of a very involved and blatantly busy God!
Whether He uses Satan (Job) or other demonic agencies, or people - ultimately all are His servants!
With all this right interpreting of life to the world remember all the while that ‘the gate is narrow’ and most will still reject God and curse Him to His face! That is not our problem ultimately...our business is to be faithful!
On the day of Judgment all these will not only have to give an account for their association with, and part in, the sin of our first parents, and that in the fall; not only will they have to explain their wholesale embrace of their sinful nature; not merely of all their actual sins committed in this life; not only will they have to answer for their further denial of God, albeit having heard and supressed the trumpets of general revelation in their every ounce of pain and torment throughout this life; but, more so, they will be irreparably culpable in that they have heard the preaching of the Word (little scroll) that explains God's calling to them in all their experiences and that in the view of Christ and His accomplishment on the Cross!
This, I believe, is the meaning of the angel and the little scroll!
What a glorious text indeed!
Preach it to everyone!!!
"You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings."
God be praised completely!!!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Next year stuff!!!
I'm excited...a little nervous too, about what next year has for us as a church family.
I think this year ahead is going to be full of joy and growth in Christ. I pray this will be so.
God has given to each of us at KBC a loving and real Christian family. I can say, honestly and without fear of contradiction, that I love these precious people - the members of Krugersdorp Baptist.
Sad times are ahead too.
Michael and Stacy Lear, with Antje’s and my 'guard' child, little Jonathan, are leaving us to embark upon a ministry in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg. They are such an asset to us here and will be sorely missed. But God is on the throne! Scottsville Baptist is in for a tremendous blessing indeed.
We have a new deacon...Alan Krause. Alan has joined the others (Peter Gilbert and Alex Gasser) and that as a true and Biblically defined deacon.
Jeremy Pointer, a dear brother, is in the process of steadily readying himself, in every way, to join me (God willing) in the eldership. Lord willing we will have a plural eldership again soon into the New Year.
Vince Krause will begin deacons training in February 2012.
'Year for Life', after a brief 'sabbatical', will begin again next year. Zani Krause is our full time student. Quite a few others have expressed an interest in part time involvement. I would love to see everyone who is able benefit from this wonderful opportunity.
While on the one hand I long to see all our members plug in fully to the life and bloodstream of our fellowship I am increasingly coming to realize that this must come from God at work within them and not from my 'rod' upon them! I must become a man of prayer. While preaching is vital, and exhorting with that...all is meaningless unless ‘bathed’ in the earnest prayers of God's church!
Christianity Explored will begin next year.
Instead of family enrichment courses running throughout, we will have 2 family first conferences…one focusing on marriage, the other on parenting.
Financial training will also become part of the fabric of our calendar.
The Wednesday night ‘School of the Bible’ will focus on an overview of the whole Bible. Not too hectic, not too deep, just a 'book a time' approach - so as to provide the big picture for all.
The 060 ministry will continue almost the same as before baring the fact that I will be heading it up personally.
We will also be starting up 'The Middle Ages', a ministry focusing on those between ages 30 and 60. This for the purpose of assuring that the middle ages don't become the dark ages! This will focus in on mid-life matters. It will be monthly initially and on a Friday night at the same time as the senior youth ministry. Paul David Tripp's 'Lost in the Middle' will provide guidance in the choice of our topics of discussion.
These are just random ramblings out of sequence and without being exhaustive.
Great news regarding a web-page...Jay-Jay and Melanie Stein have been working on this and, Lord willing, we will be officially on line as of next year. This will be a tremendous blessing!
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Blogging is for the birds...or is it?
It has been a while since I added to this blog.
The reason...a reaction to the rampant abuse of the social network!
Now all things of this nature are essentially neutral (even positive), but the foolishness that surrounds 'face book' and the like is rife in our day...at least in some of my experiences with those involved therein.
It is amazing how my experience in pastoral ministry and counselling in particular has soured me to the potentially awesome opportunities that the internet affords the guarded and self-controlled!
On that note...so much for my self-control!
Anyway…I have a fresh hunger for God and my ministry here at Krugersdorp Baptist Church. This I attribute to the ‘Spurgeon's Fraternal’ that I had, along with my fellow elder Mike, the privilege of attending last week. God so mightily used this time of mutual encouragement to enliven and stir my heart anew for the things that really matter.
Praise Him forever!
Not much more to say than that we must use all things God gives us for good, as He deems it, and not abuse the same for evil...deep!? Seriously...not so out there, but sometimes the simplest things are the most needed!
God be praised forever and with our all in all!
‘O Lord, I am a frail and tired fool. You are perfect in all Your uncreated, infinitely resplendent virtue. I love You in limping leaps of crippled ecstasy! Revive Your own!’
Amen
The reason...a reaction to the rampant abuse of the social network!
Now all things of this nature are essentially neutral (even positive), but the foolishness that surrounds 'face book' and the like is rife in our day...at least in some of my experiences with those involved therein.
It is amazing how my experience in pastoral ministry and counselling in particular has soured me to the potentially awesome opportunities that the internet affords the guarded and self-controlled!
On that note...so much for my self-control!
Anyway…I have a fresh hunger for God and my ministry here at Krugersdorp Baptist Church. This I attribute to the ‘Spurgeon's Fraternal’ that I had, along with my fellow elder Mike, the privilege of attending last week. God so mightily used this time of mutual encouragement to enliven and stir my heart anew for the things that really matter.
Praise Him forever!
Not much more to say than that we must use all things God gives us for good, as He deems it, and not abuse the same for evil...deep!? Seriously...not so out there, but sometimes the simplest things are the most needed!
God be praised forever and with our all in all!
‘O Lord, I am a frail and tired fool. You are perfect in all Your uncreated, infinitely resplendent virtue. I love You in limping leaps of crippled ecstasy! Revive Your own!’
Amen
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