March 27, 2009

One of my responsibilities as a presbyter/elder in
the Nashville Presbytery is to be on the Leadership
Development Committee (LDC), the committee
charged with supervising men who sense a call to the
gospel ministry, and examining men who are called to a
particular charge. Being on this committee is a great
privilege and a great joy. At tonight’s meeting (I write
this on Thursday), David Seitzinger and Ryan Steele will
meet with the LDC to “come under care” of the Presbytery.
These two brothers in the Lord believe God is
leading them into vocational ministry, and coming under
care is the next concrete step in that journey. Both
men desire to attend seminary, and wait to see how
God will lead in the future. Our Session has endorsed
them to the LDC, thanking God that He is raising up
men from our ranks who desire to pastor His flock.
David has grown up in Grace Presbyterian Church, and
has served in several different capacities with the youth
and children and with RUF. Ryan has been working as
an intern with our church this school year, particularly
focusing upon the youth group and missions. They are
currently teaching an adult Sunday School class on
evangelism. Be praying for them as they chose a seminary,
and be praying that God will give them diligence,
knowledge, and godliness. And pray that God will continue
to raise up pastor-teachers for His church.
******
I just reread an essay that I cannot recommend
highly enough: C. S. Lewis’ “Learning in Wartime,”
found in the book entitled Weight of Glory (one of the
best collection of Lewis essays). Lewis is speaking to
students at Oxford just as World War II is beginning,
and he addresses beautifully the questions of the priesthood
of all believers and the goodness of all work done
to the glory of God, the “sacred/secular” dichotomy,
and the importance of striving for knowledge (even
when bullets are flying, and even though there is a danger
of idolizing knowledge). These classic quotes will
hopefully tantalize you to read the whole essay: “There
are always plenty of rivals to our work. We are always falling
in love or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose
them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If
we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction
or other to end before we can really get down to
our work. The only people who achieve much are those who
want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions
are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never
come.” “What does war do to death? It certainly does not
make it more frequent; 100 percent of us die, and the percentage
cannot be increased. It puts several deaths earlier;
but I hardly suppose that that is what we fear. Certainly
when the moment comes, it will make little difference how
many years we have behind us. Does it increase our chance
of a painful death? I doubt it. as far as I can find out, what
we call natural death is usually preceded by suffering; and a
battlefield is one of the very few places where one has a reasonable
prospect of dying with no pain at all. Does it decrease
our chances of dying at peace with God? I cannot believe
it. If active service does not persuade a man to prepare
for death, what conceivable concatenation of circumstances
would? Yet war does something to death. It forces us to remember
it. The only reason why the cancer at sixty or the
paralysis at seventy five do not bother us is that we forget
them. War makes death real to us: and that would have
been regarded as one its blessings by most of the great Christians
of the past. They thought it good for us to be always
aware of our mortality. I am inclined to think they were
right.”
******
There are certain passages of Scripture that force us
to view our suffering in a whole new light; II Corinthians
1:3-5 is one of these. Paul writes, “Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all
our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those
who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings
of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort
is abundant through Christ.” These verses are the
balm of Gilead for wounded and weary souls, for they
remind us who our God is (“the Father of mercies and
God of all comfort”); they remind us of one reason for
our suffering (“so that we will be able to comfort those
who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God”); they remind us that
our suffering is a part of our relationship with Jesus
Christ (“the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance”;
and they remind us that the comfort of God is as abundant
as our sufferings are (“who comforts us in all our
affliction…our comfort is abundant through Christ”).
May God give us grace to suffer well, to look to our Father
for comfort in our trials, & to comfort the afflicted
well.
******
Mark your calendars now – on May 16, at 2:00 p.m.,
we will be hosting our sixth annual (second in Cookeville)
Strawberry Festival. We hope that this will be not
only a great time of fellowship, but also an opportunity
to reach out to people who don’t know Jesus – so invite
your friends, bring your favorite strawberry dish, and
come enjoy the afternoon with us.
******
Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for young
minstrels in the hallway of Algood School between Sunday
School and worship…