In preaching God must give us what we want to give to others.

"Oh Lord my God, hear my prayer, and let Thy mercy regard my longing, since it burns not for myself alone, but because it desires to benefit brotherly charity; and Thou seest into my heart that so it is.  I would sacrifice to Thee the service of my thought and tongue; and do Thou give what I may offer to Thee."  - Augustine, Confessions.

The church has climate

An ethos is a tone, sentiment, or climate of a people or community.  I like the word climate the best. Denominations and individual churches throughout history have had a myriad of climates; from war to greed, from gospel to legalism, from fundamentalism to 19^th century Victorian acceptability etc.   The question is not whether we should have an ethos; the question is which one, and who or what will give us this ethos. 

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer traveled in America in 1930-31 he said this about the American church ethos.  "The church is really no longer the place where the congregation hears and preaches God's word, but rather the place where one acquires secondary significance as a social entity for this or that purpose."  Imagine coming to church only to hear about ourselves and our reason for having church! 

No wonder people left the church from the 1950’s on.  Why go when the climate is so bad or boring.  Praise the Lord this is slowly changing.  God in Jesus Christ is true, challenging, divine, judging, holy, and world-changing.  This is not bad or boring.  To be in Christ and have him proclaimed in church is to be in an exciting environment, in a good climate. 

We can do nothing without God's help

We have no strength in and of ourselves to live as God purposes. The gospel of Jesus gives us strength. (1 Tim 1:12). Gurnall gives a great illustration of this.

"If the ship launched, rigged, and with her sails spread cannot stir, till the wind come fair and fill them, much less the timber that lies in the carpenter's yard hew and frame itself into a ship.  If the living tree cannot grow except the root communicate its sap, much less can a dead rotten stake in the hedge, which hath no root, live of its own accord.  In a word, if a Christian, that hath his spiritual life of grace, cannot exercise this life without strength from above, then surely one void of this new life, dead in sins and trespasses, can never be able to beget this in himself, or concur to the production of it.  The state of unregeneracy is a state of impotency.  'When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly,’  Rom. 5:6."

My new Facebook page

Today I started my own public Facebook page. My goal is simple: to encourage people in the glory of Jesus Christ. To put it another way I want my posts, pictures, church work and whatever else I put up to serve in the spread of the Kingdom of God. Christ's kingdom will spread. He is the victorious King and I pray this Facebook will encourage people in Christ. There is no reason for Him to fail; and so there is no reason for his people to be overcome with fear. John Calvin once wrote, "Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness."

The Facebook name is...Henry Bartsch, Trinity Presbyterian Church

Enjoy!

The fearful judgment of God - not being able to obey.

It is always fearful to read Romans 1:26' "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts."  What an awful judgement when a man or woman cannot get obedience & love for God from himself. Augustine says, "The punishment of a man's disobedience is found in himself, when he in his turn cannot get obedience even from himself."

Who do I give myself to?

Read Romans 12:1-2.  We can give ourselves to God to advance his glory here now on earth because of his great gospel of grace.  So it is much better for me to give myself up to his love than give myself up to loving myself and living for me. Of course as Christians we are still often tempted to love ourselves first, but we know this is stupid.  So thanks be to God by the gospel we are awakened out of sleep to see we are risen with Christ to give ourselves to him.

My Thoughts On What the Ministry Is

I am on holidays and like always I meditate on the pastoral ministry. Here are my thoughts on what the pastoral ministry is. Perhaps a young man will be encouraged to take up this work.

The pastoral ministry is filled with great joy and trials; and it is a very great work in our world. But why? Here is my answer in summary. The purpose of a Christian pastor is this: the pastor is a servant of Christ and a shepherd of God's people, responsible for proclaiming the gospel and protecting the church from spiritual predators. His work is to declare the glory and power of God in preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. In all this he works for the salvation of the elect. But also in his work he brings Jesus Christ's lordship into the world as he tells of God's grace in Christ. Week after week, year after year in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit he serves people Jesus. Lastly his pastoral ministry is always done together with the rigorous study of Scripture, prayer, and preaching.

God’s sovereignty over evil is beautiful and comforting.

Here is another tid bite of wisdom from Stephen Charnock on God and his control even over evil.

"If we deny God the government of sin in the course of his providence, we must necessarily deny him the government of the world, because there is not an action of any man’s in the world, which is under the government of God, but is either a sinful action or an action mixed with sin. God therefore in his government doth advance his power in the weakness, his wisdom in the follies, his holiness in the sins, his mercy in the unkindness, and his justice in the unrighteousness of men; yet God is not defiled with the impurities of men, but rather draws forth a glory to himself, as a rose doth a greater beauty and sweetness from the strong smell of the garlic set near it."

God's Providence and Sin: He even brings it to glorify him.

This is an encouraging word from Stephen Charnock on the providence of God and his sovereignty over evil.

God by his providence draws glory to himself and good out of sin. It is the highest excellency to draw good out of evil, and it is God’s right to manifest his excellency when he pleases, and to direct that to his honour which is acted against his law. The holiness of God could never intend sin as sin. But the wisdom of God foreseeing it, and decreeing to permit it, intended the making it subservient to his own honour.

Charnock, S. (1864–1866). Vol. 1: The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 1–5 (29).

Finally Back

For the past 2 1/2 weeks I have been extremely busy so I have not been able to write.  But things have settled again and I am back to the routine. 

The picture above is one of my most resent adventures at a local pipe smoking club.