Kicking Against the Goads, by Evan Haynes

I’m an ox. I admit that freely. I may not be as dumb as one, but I’m just as slow as one. God has me plowing his field. He guides me in the row of righteousness for his name sake. He prods me with an ox-goad. I don’t like the way it feels, but it teaches me humility, how to gain strength from weakness, and submission. I focus on the discomfort often. When I do, I kick against that goad and thereby cause myself more pain as the goad sinks deeper in to my rear. It was only meant to poke me but because I fought against it, I unwittingly forced it to pierce me.

Every Christian has a goad. Whether you feel like an ox or not, Jesus describes you as one in Acts 26:14. He was originally describing the apostle Paul, but the illustration also applies to us. We kick against our ox-goads when we act out in anger towards God. We may do so by committing a sinful act, we may do so by questioning His judgment, but however we do it, it causes us more pain in the process. My goad is something that has prodded me all my life and I have kicked at it ever since I learned about it. My goad is my disability.

I was born with Asperger’s syndrome, a high functioning form of autism. Ever since I was little, growing up under Presbyterian biblical teaching has grown my deep belief in the sovereignty of God. I have never quite understood why God decided that I would be born with special needs. I have often found myself unable to live with God, hating him for what he has made me. And yet I cannot live without him either. I have seen, through the eyes of faith, that God has a plan to use my disability and abilities for His glory.

God’s gift of Asperger’s to me has made me unable to drive, and that has taken away a lot of potential freedoms, such as independence and the freedom to go where I want when I want to. Other people have graciously compensated for this by driving me places, but mostly it’s to where I need to go, not where I want to go. This makes me want to question God’s wisdom, because it feels like foolishness to me sometimes. I wonder why God would want to hinder me like this. Driving is often dangerous, I know, so He may be protecting me. But a lot of times, I don’t want his protection.

Another providence of God that I have struggled with is He did not give me the skills I need to have my childhood dream job. When I was young, I would pretend that I was a rock star. I was the front man of my own concert. That’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. It’s still what I want at times, but that wish has not been granted. God gave me gifts that place me backstage. I am a playwright, not an actor; a lyricist and decent guitar player, not a front man. I would be working a stage or toward a stage production, but I can’t play the starring role. I acted in a lot of plays in high school, but I never got a huge part until one of my last performances, and it took me a long time to be able to act without being nervous. And even in that show I entered before I was supposed to once, embarrassing myself. So, when I started taking writing classes at Belhaven one of my poems expressed this same story, but in more of a complaining tone. I felt that God had robbed me at a chance for greatness at not giving me the talent to do what I wanted to do.

Writing is not a lucrative occupation and I have found it hard to find lucrative work; none of my jobs have put my writing skillset to work. This is how God’s providence has prodded me, only giving me the opportunity to share what I have written in ways that glorify him. I have written about topics other than my faith, but something usually goes wrong when I do. It doesn’t get the response I have wanted or expected. So, I find myself asking God, “Did you or did you not inspire this work I have done? And if you did, why are you not using it to its full potential?”

And yet through that storm we have reached a shore. God has taught me to accept my Asperger’s as a gift, not a curse. I can understand and reach out to others like me, and have ministered to my local and southern special needs community through Joni and Friends and my church’s special needs program. God has given me all this, but I still want more. Christ gives himself away through salvation, revelation, and mediation every day. But I still struggle to trust God with my life and my future.

I keep asking Him to tell me His reasons why he has made these judgement calls, and I get no answer. As Jerry Bridges points out in his wonderful book, Trusting God, God never explains. He doesn’t owe us an explanation for His plans for us. I feel like He does and I have convinced myself that He does, but I have been deceiving myself.  The best thing I can do is stop questioning him and trust that He is prodding me in the right direction. I must die to wanting to know His reasons, to kicking against his goad.

Things You Need to Know About Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why (Part 2), by Molly Dawkins

Warning: the following article contains spoilers. For Part 1 of this article, read May’s issue of Notes from the Orchard.

 It was a relief to finally finish the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. In the final three episodes the darkness continues to deepen leading up to Hannah’s suicide in the last episode. There are a few major events that contribute to her final decision to commit suicide.

- She can’t get the flashes of her bad sexual experiences out of her head for a “good” experience with Clay.

- She loses the money she was supposed to deposit in the bank for her parent’s pharmacy.

- She goes to a party and is raped by the same guy that she witnessed rape her friend Jessica in episode 9.

- She meets with the school counselor and doesn’t get the responses she wanted.

Hannah desperately desires to be loved. We all do. We can all identify with Hannah in that desire. Tim Keller says it well in his book The Meaning of Marriage:

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

Hannah wants this real love. Not only in a romantic sense with Clay, but also in a friendship love by Jessica or Alex. We have all been designed as relational beings, and she is missing a core of who she is. She does not have the freedom from fear that Keller talks about. She does not know the unending love we have from our Father, the Love that never wavers because of what we’ve done. As Christians, we are fully known in our brokenness. We experience freedom because of the perfect sacrifice in Christ and are clothed in his righteousness, not our own. Hannah has isolated herself, and her past experiences have closed her off. Justin betrayed her by sending a sexually explicit picture of her around the school. Courtney left her to take the hit after the picture of them kissing circulated around the school because Courtney didn’t want anyone to know she was a lesbian.

The afternoon before Hannah’s suicide she meets with the school counselor. He is the 13th reason she gives of why she kills herself. She goes into his office with the intention to record their entire meeting. It’s as though she’s testing him, wanting him to fail. Based on their conversation, I think there were things he could have done differently, but I don’t think he can be blamed for her suicide. He could have pointed her to someone to talk to when he learned that she was raped, but there was no way for him to know the extent of her internal struggles. As an audience we know what has been happening in her life, but Hannah did not give him enough information for him to know she was to the point of suicide.

Towards the end of the series, Hannah’s parents open a trial to look into their daughter’s suicide. Students are brought in for depositions. The students on the tapes become increasingly more nervous about the tapes coming out and their involvement being made known. One student named Alex wants them to turn in the tapes, but the others refuse. Alex is overcome by the guilt of the situation, and in the end shoots himself in the head. We learn that he is in critical condition at the hospital. Is this the reaction that Hannah wanted? Another attempted suicide? What was she hoping would happen when she recorded the tapes? Similar to Clay’s reaction to get revenge on Tyler (more details in Part 1), Hannah is only continuing the cycle causing more pain and suffering on others in her “revenge suicide.”

Suicide is never the answer. You can always get help. Be honest about your struggles to a trusted parent or friend. Parents, ask your teens, “What is school like for you?” “What are some lies you can pick out from 13 Reasons?” “What is the truth of these issues based on Scripture?”

 

 

A Report on the 45th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America

Last week, elders, members and friends of the Presbyterian Church in America gathered at the Koury Convention Center at the Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons in Greensboro, NC, to participate in the 45th meeting of the PCA’s General Assembly. Ken Haynes and I represented Pear Orchard as elder commissioners, while John and Martie Kwasny and Rod and Jeanne Russ were there for One Story Ministries in the exhibition hall. Tammie Haynes was also with Ken to take part in the activities of the week.

You may be unfamiliar with what happens at a General Assembly. It is part trade show, part family reunion, part training seminars, and (most importantly) part meeting of the highest court of our church. The GA is an opportunity for denominational agencies and committees, as well as organizations and ministries like One Story that are connected to the PCA, to display their offerings and services so that we might learn ways we can increase our fruitfulness and participation in the kingdom of God around the world. It’s also a time to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. It was a rich blessing to get together with friends from seminary and those I’ve met since being ordained in 2003, as well as building new relationships with elders from around the country and world. One highlight was getting dinner with Kenny Foster and Jonathan Seda from Grace Dover, the church that has been such an encouragement to us as we seek to become a more multi-ethnic congregation. On Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning, and Thursday morning, seminars covering a wide array of topics are offered. We purchased recordings of all these seminars if you are interested in hearing them (visit http://www.pcaac.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Seminar-Listing.pdf to see the list of seminars offered this year).

The most important part of the week is the gathering of teaching and ruling elders to deliberate matters pertaining to the life and work of our denomination as a whole. From Tuesday evening through Thursday evening, commissioners debate overtures and motions that come from Presbyteries and permanent committees and agencies. Here are a few observations from this year’s assembly:

1. Dr. Alexander Jun was elected Moderator of this year’s assembly. Though the PCA has had Korean members for some time, this was the first time a Korean elder was elected Moderator. He is a ruling elder of New Life Mission Church in Fullerton, CA, and teaches at Azusa Pacific University in California. The growing diversity of the PCA was beautifully on display this year, particularly when Dr. Irwyn Ince, an African American teaching elder, gave a report on the committee he chaired. The sight of these two men standing before the Assembly was an encouragement for the PCA to continue seeking to reach the whole of our country with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. There was a disappointingly low number of ruling elders this year (1094 teaching elders compared to 292 ruling elders). The PCA affirms that ruling elders share an equal place in the government and oversight of the church at all levels, yet when few ruling elders attend the assembly, the denomination is prevented from enjoying their individual and collective wisdom. Perhaps it was too costly to fly to Greensboro, or too costly to take time off of work – whatever the reasons, the history of the PCA’s formation shows the importance of ruling elders to keep our church from drifting away from faithfulness to the Scriptures and our confessional standards. So it’s never a good thing when ruling elders don’t attend GA.

3. The biggest issue discussed at this year’s General Assembly was the report of a study committee on women in ministry. Based on its understanding of the Bible, the PCA allows only men to be ordained to the office of elder and deacon, and women minister to the church and to the lost in many ways. Yet there has been a minority, more vocal in the past decade or so, that has challenged our belief and practice regarding the office of deacon in particular. There has been an increasing polarization between those who believe women’s gifts are not being used by the church in appropriate ways, and those who believe churches are overstepping the biblical boundaries of what are appropriate ways for women to be involved in the ministry of the church. A study committee was appointed at last year’s GA to study this issue further, and to write a report and come with recommendations to this year’s GA. Through much debate and many close votes, we passed the following recommendations:

·         That sessions, presbyteries, and the General Assembly recognize that, from the founding of the PCA, there has been a variety of views and practices regarding the ways in which women may serve the Lord and the church within scriptural and constitutional parameters, without ordination, and that such mutual respect for said views and practices continues.

·         That sessions, presbyteries, and the General Assembly strive to develop, recognize, and utilize the gifts, skills, knowledge, and wisdom of godly women in the local, regional, and national church, and particularly consider overtures that would allow qualified women to serve on appropriate committees and agencies within the church.

·         That sessions, if possible, establish a diaconate of qualified ordained men.

·         That sessions consider how to include non-ordained men and women in the worship of the church so as to maintain faithfulness to Scripture, as well as utilizing the gifts God has poured out to His entire church…”

·         That sessions and presbyteries select and appoint godly women and men of the congregation to assist the ordained diaconate.

·         That presbyteries and the General Assembly consider an overture that would establish formally the right of sessions, presbyteries, and the General Assembly to establish the position of commissioned church worker within the PCA for qualified and gifted unordained men and women.

·         That sessions, presbyteries and the General Assembly consider how they can affirm and include underprivileged and underrepresented women in the PCA.

These recommendations are the advice of one General Assembly to the churches, affirming what we have always held, that ordination to office is open to men only, and challenging both those who try to circumvent this belief by not ordaining any diaconate at all, and those who would keep women from using their gifts in the church in ways that are faithful to the Scriptures. As advice and recommendations (note the use of the language of “consider”), in and of themselves they change nothing about the ways that we believe or practice. For that to happen, Presbyteries would ultimately have to send overtures to future General Assemblies requesting that the Book of Church Order be changed. If and when these overtures come, and depending on what they request, I foresee even more disagreement and polarization than we currently see in the PCA. We in central Mississippi do not experience much of this polarization, since for the most part we are all on the same page in both belief and practice. But as you look at the PCA across the country, different camps and views exists. This issue of women in ministry has the possibility of being a divisive one, though I believe the report of this study committee and the recommendations that were passed will continue to hold the various positions together.

I love the meeting of the General Assembly. I’m so thankful for our denomination. God has been good to sustain us and keep us walking with Him since 1973. My prayer is that through the coming years the Lord would keep us faithful to His word, united in the truth, and committed to fostering all the gifts and graces of every member of the body in ways that are pleasing to Him and edifying to the body.

Summer Reading

The title of this article either brings back fond memories of curling up in your favorite reading nook and entering fantastic worlds with your new best friends, or it brings back terrible memories of monotony and dread at the prospect of a reading quiz the first day of school in August. But summer reading is a good idea – and not just for children in school. The different pace of the summer months, vacations, and longer days give ample reasons for picking up a book or e-reader and expanding your mind.

Ecclesiastes 12:12 is a good check on those who love to read, of course: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness to the flesh.” But when Paul in prison, for what did he long? “When you come [he says to Timothy], bring the…books, and above all the parchments.” Though like any created thing they can become an idol, books are a blessing. Indeed, they are indispensable to growth as a Christian life. Without reading (or listening to an audiobook) we cannot have the word of God implanted deep into our hearts and minds. And it’s not only the Bible I’m talking about. Books that explain the Bible, books that explain the human condition, books that describe the journeys of Christians throughout history, books that explain how God’s world works, whether fiction or nonfiction, whether written in the 21st century or the 17th century or the 2nd century – all are worthy of our time and energy.

The elders of Pear Orchard long for all of God’s people to be readers. That’s why we’re teaching through Pilgrim’s Progress this summer. More importantly, that’s why we’re reading through it. I want our class to be able to say they’ve read all the way through this Christian classic. But 17th century Puritans didn’t write the way we’re used to writing or reading. And so reading them is not easy. In fact, it might feel like work. But as the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.” I’ll never forget reading through Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom in 11th grade. Now that was hard reading. When I finished it, though I didn’t remember much about it, it was the first time that I felt I had accomplished something in the reading of a book. The Puritans are far easier than Faulkner! But they’re still tough sledding, and so by reading Pilgrim’s Progress together, we’ll help each other make it through – and I hope that we’ll be more prepared and desirous to pick up other Puritan classics on our own. Or the 18th-19th century American Presbyterians. Or even the 20th and 21st century authors. The latter are far more accessible, so why don’t you start there this summer?

Here are a few recommendations. If you’ve never read Trusting God by Jerry Bridges, do it. The same goes for Knowing God, by J. I. Packer. R. C. Sproul’s classics Knowing Scripture, Chosen by God, and The Holiness of God should be required reading for every believer. John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied is more difficult, but absolutely worth the effort (though he lived in the 20th century, he wrote like someone from the 19th century, so have a dictionary handy). John Stott’s The Cross of Christ is pure gold, as is Donald Macleod’s Christ Crucified. And don’t forget our own John Perritt’s Your Days are Numbered, and his newest book, What Would Judas Do?

May the Lord grant us – through words – a deeper knowledge of Him and His word this summer. 

How Should a Christian Think About a New President?

The 2016 presidential election has come and gone. Unfortunately – but predictably – the partisan acrimony leading up to the election did not depart with it. This time around, presidential power was transferred from one party to the other. When this happens, partisans on opposing sides swap postures. Those whose party gained power rejoice, having spent the prior administration wringing their collective hands and decrying the prior administration’s policies. Conversely, those whose party lost out will take up handwringing and decry the grave danger the incoming administration poses. This remains the status quo until presidential power changes hands again and another cycle is completed.

It is easy to fall into the partisan mindset, seeing one party as righteous and the other as profane. To be sure, elections have consequences, and these consequences are often significant. The vacancy on the United States Supreme Court that was created by the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia, and the issue of who would receive the lifetime appointment to replace him, brought into focus just how consequential a single election can be. In this case the “balance” of the Supreme Court remains, for the most part, where it was before, whereas a different appointment to that position could have dramatically shifted the court on a number of important issues. As Christians, we should care about and for our governments – and that requires vigilance and involvement in the process. But in doing so, we must keep local, national, and even global politics in the proper perspective. There are several ways Christians can think about these issues from a Biblical perspective.

First, we can rejoice in God’s sovereignty over all aspects of our lives. The Bible is clear that God is sovereign over nations. We are told that God “rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:28) and “reigns over the nations” (Psalm 47:8). More specifically, “God changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21). While it is right to care about our nation and our civil authorities, we can rest in the assurance that God is sovereign over all.

Second, the Bible has much to say about how we should think about and relate to the civil authorities. Submitting to civil authorities is an easier task when the civil authorities are doing what is right; less so when they are acting contrary to God’s word. The original audience for I Peter was Christians who were under intense persecution from their civil authorities. Nevertheless, the admonition was, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good… Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (I Peter 2:13-14, 17). This strikes me as a corollary to God’s sovereignty – we can submit to civil authorities, even those who might overtly persecute us, because we know that God is sovereign.

Third, no elected official can “save us.” A great hopefulness can follow when a politician of your choosing replaces someone you disfavor. But these expectations should be tempered by the fact that all civil authorities are merely human and are therefore broken. We are told in the Psalms: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146:3). Elections and political decisions are important, but even when we feel that the “right person” is in office, we err when we rest our hope in that person.  

Fourth, we should remember that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). We categorize ourselves into many different groups: nationality, political party, ethnicity, occupation, hometown, school, favorite sports teams, et al. We often identify ourselves by “membership” in these groups, and which one we emphasize depends on context. In the office or in the courtroom, I am generally identified by my vocation as an “attorney.” While these categories are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, they are bad when they become distractions. Our ultimate and overriding identity is as citizens of heaven, as co-heirs with Christ. When we get caught up in partisan-political frenzy, we emphasize our worldly “memberships” and minimize our identity in Christ (John 3:30).

Ultimately, our hope should rest in God’s sovereignty over human affairs. Keeping this perspective allows us to rise above partisan politics and neither trust our authorities to deliver us from evil nor despair that they will deliver us to evil.

 

Things You Need to Know About Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why (Part 1)

On March 31 Netflix released 13 episodes of the new show 13 Reasons Why. The show tells the story of Hannah Baker, a junior in high school that has committed suicide. Viewers learn about her life and death through flashbacks and the cassette tapes she’s left behind. Before committing suicide, Hannah records 13 cassette tapes with the reasons why she killed herself. For each reason there is a person connected to her death. The story on reality’s side is told through a boy named Clay, a friend and eventual romantic interest of Hannah. The story starts when he receives the tapes.

I’ve watched the first 10 episodes of the show. Since I work with POPC’s youth, I thought it would be a good idea to learn more about this show in order to be able to engage in conversations with those that have watched it. The show covers a wide range of topics: anxiety, depression, peer pressure, homosexuality, betrayal, sending sexually explicit text messages, rape, drug use, premarital sex, and of course suicide.

When I first started watching I was mostly intrigued. Since I work with teenagers, youth culture fascinates me. This show truly provides a window into the lives of teens: their thoughts, their emotions, their insecurities. The landscape is raw and unfiltered. The honesty to their pain is a strange combination of unsettling and refreshing. The unsettling part is easy to pick out if you’ve watched the show or even read articles about it. But why do I say refreshing? Our teens are living in a world where they are pressured to post a picture perfect world on their Instagrams or SnapChats. In 13 Reasons, that is shaken. We get to go behind the scenes to see what they’re really feeling. 

My intrigue turned to sadness in the fourth episode. In this episode Hannah talks about having a stalker. She could hear the snaps of a camera when she would walk home, but never knew where it was coming from. She and her friend Courtney decide to set a trap at her house one night. Her parents are gone so they start drinking. Her friend is gay, but no one knows. Her friend kisses her. They hear the camera and expose the stalker who turns out to be the yearbook photographer Tyler. But it’s too late he’s taken a picture of the two girls kissing. The picture ends up circulating around the school causing rumors and adding to Hannah’s already damaged reputation. Upon hearing the tape, Clay takes a nude of Tyler from outside his window and sends it to everyone at school for revenge.  

Why is the show so sad? Sin is running rampant in all of their lives, and there’s no hope. The sin struggles Hannah faces are both external and internal (though she may not acknowledge the internal struggles). She’s dealing with the outside forces of those that have sinned against her. Hannah has no doubt had a lot of bad things happen to her. She’s also dealing with her own sin. Hannah is very selfish. We can see this to be true in the way she committed suicide. She left tapes behind to cause others deep emotional and psychological pain. She doesn’t take any responsibility for her own actions. I’ve seen no traces of redemption in the show. Clay’s revenge on Tyler it’s not redemptive. It’s only continuing the pattern of sin.

How would life have been different for Hannah if she were a Christian? She would have known her true identity was in Christ, not in what others think of her. She would have known that God never leaves us or forsakes us in our darkest times. She would have known a real love where there is no betrayal, but perfect security. She would have known her life is not her own to do as she pleases or to even take it herself.

I can’t fully recommend watching the show. It’s very graphic in it’s depiction of sexual scenes and rape (I had to look away for most of episode 9). But this show does provide a great opportunity for us to see into the lives of our teenagers, to see what it is they’re walking into at school. We see the pressures of their relationships, and the pressures of obtaining happiness at all cost.

Ask your teens, “Have you watched this show? Are your friends watching it?” Process it with them.

 

Justice, Peace, and Abortion: An Interview with Mr. Everett White

MAY 26, 2017

Summarize in a few sentences what God has called you to do.

In terms of vocation, God has called me to be a lawyer. I've wanted to be a lawyer since I was a kid, and I never seriously considered anything else. I've been practicing now for 12 years. Until 6 months ago, I was a litigation partner at a big firm. But I recently joined a boutique healthcare firm and I've really enjoyed it. 

How does having a Biblical worldview transform the way you practice law?

A Biblical worldview transforms every aspect of practicing law. It transforms the day-to-day decisions, such as how you talk to opposing lawyers, how you bill your clients, and whether you accept certain cases. But it also transforms the ultimate goal of the work. It shifts the focus from winning at all costs to working in a way that pleases the Lord.

Tim Keller's book on work ("Every Good Endeavor") has been helpful to me on this. He reminds believers to try and connect our work to an attribute of God or to His work. In my practice, that is usually God's justice. When I'm drafting a brief, or taking a deposition, or negotiating with the other side, I try to remind myself that we are pursuing justice. And justice is a real thing. God has shown us what justice looks like in Scripture, and He cares deeply about justice being done. 

Of course, I want the best result for our clients, but not if the result is unjust. There's a natural tension there, and finding the right way to simultaneously pursue justice and your client's interest is not always easy. 

How should Christians think about lawyers?

Lawyers do a lot of different things, so it's difficult to come up with a universal statement on how Christians should think about them. One way to think about them is as peacemakers. Whether you’re a doctor in a dispute with the government about billing, or whether you’re a business who’s suffered because someone else breached a contract, or whether your crazy sister thinks she's entitled to all of your parents' estate, lawyers are the ones who can help make peace.

You are passionate about the issue of abortion – how should a Christian understanding of justice and the law guide us as we think about this issue that is so controversial in our day?  

That’s a hugely important question, and I think you’re right to link justice and the law as guides. There’s no way to answer adequately in such a short space, but I’ll try to make two points. One, abortion is a massive injustice—arguably the greatest injustice of our time. And two, our response to this injustice should be proportional and yet consistent with our obligations to the law of the land.

As to the first point, there’s an idea in the air that all sins are equal in the eyes of the Lord. That’s not true. The smallest sin surely separates us from God, but Scripture is clear that some sins are more heinous than others. Murdering your brother is worse than stealing his property.

If a fetus is a person, then abortion is the unjust killing of an image bearer. And that is a really big deal to God. It should, therefore, be a big deal to us. I think most Christians are against abortion, but my sense is that we’re not as outraged as we should be; we’ve been somewhat anesthetized to it. I agree with one author’s observation that if they were shooting toddlers execution-style, there’d probably be more outrage. But it’s really no different (a fetus is just younger, smaller, and lives somewhere else).

So how should Christians respond to the injustice of abortion? That question leads to the second point. The Sixth Commandment requires us to act to preserve the life of others. So we should do something. Yet abortion is legal, and Christians owe certain obligations to the civil law. Christians must, as a general rule, obey the law and respect the government’s authority as God’s appointed agent for administering justice. In other words, individuals can’t ignore laws they dislike, and they don’t have the power of the sword. I think there’s room for non-violent (repeat: non-violent) civil disobedience to preserve life, but that’s a different article.

Our response to abortion, in short, must be both proportional to the injustice and consistent with our obligations to the law. It must fall somewhere on the spectrum between doing nothing and storming the abortion clinic with an assault rifle. What that looks like on a daily basis is different for everybody.

For Christians who live in Mississippi, I think praying for, donating to, and volunteering at the Center for Pregnancy Choices (CPC) is one of the best things we can do. CPC, which the church supports, provides a host of services (e.g., ultrasounds, counselling, etc.) to pregnant women. It just opened a facility in Fondren near the last remaining abortion clinic in the State and is in need of monthly supporters. I don’t mean for this to sound like an ad for CPC, but I think they are really on the front lines giving women hope, loving them, and pointing them towards Christ.

 

 

Satan's Will for Your Life

How does God want His children to live? The answer is found in the pages of the Bible, particularly his "holy and righteous and good" commandments (Romans 7:12). But how does Satan want you to live? In a way contrary to the commandments of God, of course. If you took each of the ten commandments and turned it inside out, like a photo negative (remember those??), what would you get? I think you'd get something that looked like this...

Life and Theology

What does it mean to know God? Would we say that it’s primarily knowing a certain set of facts or propositions about God? Does it mean “feeling good” Sunday morning during church? Is it the same as memorizing Bible verses? What if I said that knowing God involves all of the above, and yet a crucial part of knowing God is obedience? To know God is to obey God. That might sound like a strange statement, but I want us to see that it is well-grounded in the Scriptures.

During the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah, the Lord commissioned him to deliver this word of judgment against Shallum, the king of Judah: “Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 22:15-16). Notice in this passage that the Lord connects the obedience of the king with knowledge of the Lord.

We see another example in Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees. At the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus delivers His most withering attack against the supposed “God-knowers” of his day: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice” (Matthew 23:2-3). Later in this passage, Jesus calls the Pharisees “sons of hell” (23:15). The very people who were supposed to know God the most actually proved themselves to be sons of the devil (John 8:44). In this second example especially, we can see that there is a vast difference between knowing God and knowing about God. While the Pharisees knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, their lack of obedience demonstrated that they knew the devil far more than they knew God.

We as Reformed Christians need to be reminded of this truth, because we can often equate the knowledge of God with knowledge about God, in ways that appear largely innocent. Perhaps one of the more common ways we do this is by thinking that if we are reading “theological books,” or even the Bible itself, we are automatically becoming more Christ-like. I do not want to discourage the reading of sound theological books, and I definitely don’t want to discourage us from reading our Bibles more. However, as Thabiti Anyabwile has noted, “Good theology does not mechanically lead to good living…We can stack our chips on theology, as though theology inexorably produces the social results we want with little to no attending effort.” This means that we do not become more holy by simply reading Christians books, or even by the bare reading of Scripture, as if by a “mystical osmosis” the words will produce right living. Rather, it is in striving to obey the Word, both in our “vertical” relationship with the Lord, as well as in our “horizontal” relationships with neighbors, that we gain a greater knowledge of God.

We must keep in mind, even as we educate ourselves and one another, that education is not our ultimate goal. Rather, it is “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). We should ask ourselves every now and again whether we’re truly growing in our knowledge of God. Perhaps we might be tempted to think that the only way to judge that is whether we’re reading our Bibles for longer periods of time, or whether we’re making it to church every Sunday. These indeed are essential barometers of spiritual growth, but along with these questions, let’s ask whether we are delighting in Jesus more, whether we are seeking justice for the oppressed and poor in our neighborhoods, whether the Bible is in fact coming “alive” in our words and deeds, through our love for Christ and others. While it takes time and effort for us to “connect the dots” between the word of God and the world in which his word is applied, it is well worth it! Let’s press on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3).

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Passing the Torch: Our Commitment to Teach the Next Generation to Sing the Songs of our Savior

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The Music Ministry at Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church exists to lead the saints in their service of worship before God and equip them for kingdom work, utilizing God’s gift of music in obedience to His Word. You may not realize when you joined POPC that you joined our largest choir – the congregation. God’s word commands and exhorts us to sing and make music to Him. He created music and he has given this gift to the church to praise and worship Him. He has given each of us a voice to use to sing to Him and each voice is different. You may or may not think your voice sounds very good, but He loves to hear our voices praising Him just as a father delights to hear his child call him “Daddy.”

How do we as a church steward this gift of God? By fully utilizing it corporately in the worship of God every Lord’s Day and individually in our own lives and families. We invest our time, resources and energy to pass these things along to our children, recognizing that they are the worshipers of the next generation. Children’s choir is one of the means by which we seek to train the next generation to use the gift of music in the worship 6 of God. We recognize that we cannot change our hearts or the hearts of our covenant children, but by the grace of God, we can teach children to use their voices, plant the Word of God in their hearts, and show them what worship looks like. We do this, looking in faith to the Holy Spirit to do His work in their hearts.

The two-fold goal of our children’s choirs is to teach our covenant children what God says about singing and worship and to equip them with the skills to use their voices to participate in worship. This teaching and training of our covenant children is a gift that will serve them well their entire lives. This training could mean the difference in a lifetime of mumbling half-heartedly in the pew or singing whole-heartedly and with skill to the Lord as an act of worship. We pray that the Lord will shape our children into life-long worshippers of Him. What greater desire do any of us have for our children?

You have probably heard the statement that most people who come to Christ do so in childhood. I have my own theory that most people who know how to sing and how best to utilize God’s gift of music in their own lives, learned those skills as a child. In my experience, adults who come to me wanting to learn how to sing, often did not have the privilege of musical training as a child. The good news is that it is never too late to learn to sing! But the most opportune time to learn is in childhood.

You might ask, if God commands and equips, why do we need training? In past generations, people regularly sang and made music together inside and outside the church. Today, we are an entertainment-oriented society with the idea that only professional singers sing. We often judge ourselves and others by a false standard given to us by our culture. But God calls us to active participation. Why? Music is His gift but it is also an effective tool for us in the fight of faith as we war against the world, the devil, and our own flesh. Think of how readily we can recall scripture set to music. Can you think of a time of trial or suffering where the music of the church was used by the Holy Spirit as a powerful tool for encouragement or comfort or even chastisement?

We teach our children that what we believe is important by our actions. One of the great blessings of being in a covenant family is the partnership we experience as we join together to teach and train our covenant children. Let us be ever zealous to utilize the gift of music in worship ourselves and pass it along to the next generation that our Lord may receive glory! “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

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Longing for Diversity? Reach Your Disability Community

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If you looked out from the pulpit in our church sanctuary on any given Sunday morning, what would you see?  Hopefully, faces of people who love Jesus and are joyful worshipers of the God!  Yet, if you focused primarily on skin color, you would see about 96% Caucasian, and the rest a smattering of Africans-Americans, Hispanics, and Indians.  To put it bluntly, our church is, and has been for a long time, a very white congregation.

Now, if you are like many of us in our congregation, this is not a desirable situation.  Why not? For one thing, it doesn’t reflect heaven.  We know heaven will be filled with worshipers from every nation, tribe, tongue, and ethnicity.  But just as important, it doesn’t reflect our neighborhood either.  Go out our sanctuary doors into our metro area and you will find an entirely different mixture of color and ethnicity.  So, with those two reasons in mind, our elders formed a Neighborhood Diversity Committee (NDC) a couple of years ago.  It reflects the leadership’s deep longing to see our local church be transformed into a multiethnic congregation, by God’s grace.

But here’s something very interesting.  For nearly twelve years we our church has had a growing and thriving disability ministry to our member families as well as the surrounding community.  If you would drop by and peek through the windows of our multipurpose building on a Friday night Sonbeams Night Out (our respite care event), what would you see?  Hopefully, faces of people who love Jesus and are being joyfully ministered to by people who love them and love Jesus.  But if you looked at the 75-80 faces of those with disabilities, you would see about 50% white, 40% African-American, and 10% other ethnicities.  I don’t know about heaven, but this is much closer to the breakdown of our surrounding neighborhoods!

So, why is there a much more robust ethnic diversity in our disability ministry than in our actual church membership?  It’s certainly easy to understand the first part of that question.  Disability does not impact just one ethnicity or one color of the human race.  It also doesn’t just strike a certain socio-economic segment of our society and leave the others untouched.  Because it moves across each and every boundary and barricade that separates us, it often becomes quite a strong unifying force.  In pretty much any city, town, neighborhood in which you live, people touched by disability already have a community of their own.  And the reality is that this “neighborhood” is most often a very unchurched group of people.  This community not only needs the gospel of Jesus Christ, but local churches that will welcome them into the family of God.

How, then, do we answer the second part of the question?  If the disability community is already a multiethnic group (and that’s what we long for our church to be), why aren’t they also becoming worshipers in our church?  Certainly, a few families check out the church after a respite care event, because they feel loved and welcomed.  But why don’t more desire to join with us, and the few that come actually stick around?  That’s the question that needs to be addressed in an honest and thoughtful way.  Are we still putting up barriers that keep us from the diversity we desire?  Are we not as welcoming and warm as we think we are?  Do we send the message that we want to stay a fairly homogeneous group of Christians?

Every local church that longs to be more diverse needs to ask and answer these sorts of questions.  But don’t lose the main point here:  A fundamental way to work towards the Biblical, yet challenging goal of a multiethnic church is to reach our disability community.  This group is already ethnically diverse.  This group is already connected by their brokenness.  This group needs the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as concentrated and regular mercy ministry.  This group will gladly come around when we become churches that reach out and serve the most marginalized of all.

But there is even a better reason for reaching out to the disability community in our neighborhoods, if we long for diversity in our local churches.  Disability itself brings diversity to our churches, even if the faces are all the same color!  The diversity inherent in disability may not be cultural or ethnic or language-based; yet, it creates the same distance in our society.  In other words, the coming together of the sick, the lame, the blind, and the deaf, with those who are physically healthy, is a beautiful example of differences that must be overcome in order to worship Jesus together.  And, it is also a picture of heaven, where our spiritual brokenness will be ultimately healed as we enjoy our glorified bodies in heaves. 

We should be all for any effort to reach our neighbors for Jesus who live in the houses near us and near our church. Yet, as we seek to become churches on earth that are truly diverse, we should also prioritize and emphasize our pursuit of people and neighborhoods touched by disability!   

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Stewardship and Retirement to the Glory of God: An Interview with Jason Branning

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How did you become a financial advisor?

I became a financial advisor and business owner through God’s providence. I did not hear a voice saying this is what you should do, rather I applied for a few different opportunities toward the end of college, prayed, and watched to see God’s providence in the circumstances and options He opened to me.  

As a senior in high school I was especially interested in economics and visited a local stockbroker to hear about real world markets. I entered college and loved big ideas and critical thinking, so I majored in English and took a minor in history. As late as the summer after my senior year in college, I anticipated pursuing a PhD and becoming a college administrator or teaching in a university. I had been accepted at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and was planning to pursue a Masters in English studying C. S. Lewis with Bruce Edwards, a renowned Lewis scholar. Around the same time, I began dating Mary Kelly, who was a rising senior at Mississippi College. That post graduation summer became the fork in the road for my career. I had taken a job with Steve Morris’s brother and a few men at First Presbyterian. I had been tasked to serve on a research project for their financial planning company. Towards the end of the summer, Randy Morris suggested I would do well in the field and would enjoy serving others through financial services. He offered me a job and a training track, and I went through the open door in the marketplace rather than the academy. Looking back, I realize that I had become interested in the financial markets and the idea of serving Christ in the marketplace. As well, I wanted to remain in closer proximity to Mary Kelly while she completed her senior year at MC.

How does having a Biblical worldview transform the way you practice financial planning?

My relationship with Christ has transformed the way I see all things. Lewis says it better than I, but this is how I feel: “I believe in Christianity [or Christ] as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” I strive to apply the command to do unto others as I would want done to me as I serve clients. I believe we use the best academic research in the field of finance and prayerfully attempt to apply biblical wisdom to each client. Some of the published research I have done with a business partner is an outworking of stewardship principles. We have prioritized goals we believe will offer a wise way to use all resources the Lord gives through retirement.

How should a Christian think about retirement?

Some Christians believe retirement is not biblical. Yet in a fallen world, retirement from one’s primary job in the marketplace is a reality for most everyone due to declining physical or mental health or changing market dynamics. I believe Christians, as stewards, should appropriate over a working career the resources God gives them to prepare financially for this stage of life.

I think the Christian should think about their retirement the same way as they think about their life lived before God. Two principles come to mind: Lordship and Stewardship. Retirement should be a willing act of submission to the Lordship of Christ. Believers recognize that we do not control our lives, the Lord does. Our days are numbered on this earth and until He returns, part of our submission is being realistic about typical life stage patterns in this world - accepting that aging involves a process of decay. The Christian retirement can bear witness to God’s faithfulness over a lifetime in His provision and the wise handling of His resources as believers rightly save toward this phase of life.

As well, believers can model the creational Sabbath rest cycle in light of our broken world and human frailty during retirement. We can fully rely on the Lord until the end of our lives here and be at rest in the reality of His presence and provision. 

Finally, retirement from the marketplace does not mean retirement from the kingdom. All believers at every age and stage have a role of serving, learning, teaching, relating, and glorifying our Savior. Retirees should be on guard against making an idol of retirement’s worldly promises of free time, leisure, autonomy, rather than (if healthy enough) seeing themselves as free to generously serve or give in new ways.

What are some of the areas of weakness that you often see in how Christians approach their money, wealth, and retirement planning?

All of us fight a spectrum of emotions and ideas about money. Some see money as offering security or hope, while others think it is evil or dirty. I think the Bible shows that money is a neutral object. “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” It is how we use money that is the issue and we must not hold money as a love. We will project meaning or significance on resources based on our heart inclinations - either use money as godly stewards with generosity and wisdom or it will be our false idol that will enslave and destroy us.

Christians should strive against a worldly mindset that says wealth accumulated provides stability while refusing to trust God rather than money. If we get fearful when money is tight, we should pray for God to show us what our heart really treasures and repent if we rely on anything but God. Wealth accumulation is not evil but can be a sign of the wise application of biblical principles. Yet, worldly wealth is not promised us in this life.

The main idea Christians should keep in mind is our position as stewards of the resources God gives us. We ultimately do not own anything - our lives, fortunes, or time - but are called to honor God with all He gives and all we are.

Sent as Priests

This past weekend I had the privilege of preaching the Missions Conference at Bay Street Presbyterian Church in Hattiesburg, MS. It was a delight to be with these saints and to open up God's word with them. We meditated upon the glorious reality that our election is for the purpose of mission - our identity is also our calling. We saw from John 17 that Christians are in the world, though not of the world - because we have been given to the Son by the Father out of the world - and the Son sends us into the world, even as He was sent by the Father into the world (17:18), so that we might speak the truth of the gospel in love. We are sent into the world as a kingdom of priests (I Peter 2:9ff.; Exodus 19:4-6), to represent God to man and man to God. We are the Lord's special treasure, His chief delight, a people for His own possession, for the purpose of declaring His excellencies - His holy character and mighty deeds - among the nations. He has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light, He has taken us who were not a people and has made us His people, He has showered us with mercy - and now He calls us to go into the world, living holy lives and being always ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us. We go into the world as fishers of men, seeking the lost, taking the initiative with them even as God took the initiative with us. And as we go, we have the confidence that the Lord will draw His elect to Himself through His word. He has His people across the world, and it is our privilege to be used as instruments in bringing them to a knowledge of His grace. 

Some think the doctrines of grace - the five points of Calvinism - are a hindrance to evangelism. Unfortunately, those who embrace the doctrines of grace are often practical hyper-Calvinists, living as if we don't need to speak the gospel to the lost for them to be saved. But if we really believed our theology, we would have the strong conviction that the gospel must be spoken. For the God who has ordained the end has also ordained the means, and it is through the means of His word that the lost are found, the dead are raised to newness of life, the guilty are forgiven. The more strongly we embrace the sovereignty of grace, the more fervently we should desire to speak the gospel to those around us. 

Reflections of an Adult MK

Mr. Daniel Borden is a third year student in the counseling program at RTS. His parents were MTW missionaries in Zimbabwe and South Africa from 1993-2011, and from that time they have worked with MINTS (Miami International Theological Seminary) in the United States. Daniel graduated from high school in 2004, and from the Bible Institute of South Africa in 2007. He is married to Melissa, and they have one daughter, Charis.

Home is everywhere and nowhere

Home is a word that encapsulates a sense of familiarity, safety, and memories. Yet when I ponder this word, I wonder where to fully lay my restless feet. My mind begins to reflect on the many places where my feet have rested in the past history of my life. I think back to the summer of 1992 in Detroit, Michigan, when my parents underwent missionary training. I have memories there of the children programs that I participated in before my family made the big move to Zimbabwe in 1993. From that time onwards, the places I’ve called “home” have spread into a plethora of localities. I reflect on living on the campus of a Bible College in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. My mind drifts next to the rural, mountainous, lush countryside of Zimbabwe where my father taught at African Bible College on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This place was home for only two and a half years, but I remember so much from those days. Thankfully, many of those experiences have been saved on my parents’ old camcorder and the collection of home videos at my parents’ house. I continue on and remember home later being in St. Petersburg, Florida, where my parents attended a chiropractor center while on medical leave for a time. I remember home being near colonial Williamsburg in 1996, and then changing suddenly in the fall of 1997 to the tip of South Africa, in a small, southern suburb of Cape Town called Fish Hoek. I could list other “homes” as well, including Harrisonburg, Virginia, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Lynchburg, Virginia, and various places around Atlanta, Georgia. Together, these places hold a kaleidoscope of memories, conversations, friends, cultures, and various forms of other things left behind. My list of “homes” currently numbers around twenty-two.

The hardships

Not everything about my cross-cultural adventures has lent itself to epic tales of excitement and adventure. Sadly, there has been the “darker side” as well, which has created in my soul a kind of wrestling with how I grew up. I’m a sinner, just like the rest of the body of Christ, and my particular sin has often morphed and shifted along the line of contentment. When I came of college age, I began to realize more fully that my history was so very different from many of my peers. This led to a very compulsive-like desire to “fit in” with all those around me. When my efforts did not achieve the desired results, I found myself trapped in a whirlpool of feelings including depression, anger, anxiety, loneliness, and a deep sadness that would not dissipate. I was angry that my life had not been a normal (who knows what that is) upbringing. I was upset that I was different. I envied those who lived in the same location for long periods of time and appeared to be culturally savvy. I remember once the all too real longing of desiring to be in the same place for Christmas two years in a row just so that I could say to those around me, “Remember what we did last Christmas?”

God’s mission is the scene behind all scenes and the end of time.

We are all human and have pasts to wrestle with as we grow in our relationship with the Lord. My past has been unique, yet my heart is not unique. One of my biggest longings has been for God to transform my imagination. Paul Tripp, in his book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, makes the point that as Christians, we need a vivid imagination that fixes on what is real, but unseen (p. 7). The apostle Paul, right after mentioning momentary afflictions, elaborates on this in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “…we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” I need a sanctified imagination. I need to set my mind on things above, not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2). When I was a child, I had a vivid imagination. When I was about 8 years old, I used to sit on my “thinking rock” in the Zimbabwean countryside and try to figure out eternity in my head after hearing that word in Sunday school. Of course, I never quite figured it out, but I miss those long afternoons of pondering! As an adult TCK (third culture kid), I long to have such an imagination. Even more, however, I long to have a picture of the behind-the-scenes reality of God’s work in the midst of deep heartache.

Yet I pause and realize that my emotional experiences of pain were very real. The culture shock that I experienced in college was almost unbearable at times. The loneliness ate at me like a sinister virus, and remnants of that virus remain even now. The longings for days past sometimes still take hold of my heart, and I begin to believe that the “if onlys” would fix me (for example - if only I lived in one place for years at a time…if only I had not been an MK….the list goes on). Yes, I’ve been angry at the “aftermath” of growing up a missionary kid. There was a time when I was tired of not knowing the rules of football, and sitting during the Super Bowl and feeling as though I was hearing a foreign language. I was tired of sitting in awkward silence because I missed the “normal” jokes and humor that surrounded me when I moved to new places. I was tired of feeling a lack of identity, and tired of trying to figure out the question “Who am I?” Of course, as a Christian, I know my identity is in Christ, but it is still 3 sometimes hard to experience that due to life circumstances that seem to clash against that reality. I desire to rest fully in my identity in Christ, yet I long to be heard when I battle against such things as cultural identity and the very real thoughts, feelings, and emotions that wage war inside my soul.

While there is an inward struggle, another story must take center-stage. It is not that my struggles have not been real, but I pray that another story behind the scenes will continue to grip my heart. I think to the early days in Zimbabwe when my mom used to run the “Good News Bible Club” on Fridays. Fast-forward twenty years, and a letter comes of how one of those boys is now a pastor in the land of Zimbabwe. I also think of a South African pastor who came to get trained in a night class that my dad was teaching, so that rural pastors could further their education. This pastor used to be a fervent preacher of the prosperity gospel. He became friends with my father, was equipped, and is now pastor and principal of a small Bible College that happens to be next door to the witch doctor’s residence in one of the townships of Cape Town. I could go on and on with the many students equipped and families served through the ministry of my parents. I think of Revelation 7 and the wonderful picture of people from all tribes and nations, worshipping and praising God, for salvation belongs to Him. It is not our mission, but His mission. He chooses to use the church, despite the weaknesses, sins, and shortcomings of her members. I’m thankful for my experiences, because though I don’t always feel it, I know that God will use my background in a unique way for the glory of His name. However, it is such a beautiful thing to be heard and validated in the uniqueness and difficulty of my story. It has meant so much in the past to see the arms of the church reach out to my family in my growing up years and even now to my new family as a married man. During my youth it meant so much to have the church pray for us, send Christmas gifts, read the newsletters, and join with us in pain. That was a beautiful picture of weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice (I Corinthians 12). I have received grace from others, and out of that grace I hope to be the “hands and feet of Christ” in the lives of others as well.

God’s mission is to bring His elect from all generations into His kingdom, saving them through the death of His Son, and working out that salvation in the lives of His children through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Let us rejoice that He uses broken vessels to accomplish His overarching plan for humanity, and that the church can comfort her members in the continued journey to this reality.