CALVIN and BLOGS: Unbecoming Unions

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What should Christians say about the increasing noise all around us concerning same sex unions?   Well one thing we say is that it is neither wise nor right.  But what do we argue for in the larger culture?   As our president has made a declaration that we find completely unacceptable on theological and moral grounds, how do we speak to all of the things that surround this?  I have a few thoughts here that I am putting down quickly as the beginning of how we think and what we say to this.   This is an area where the church and state have overlapped.  It is the state that issues a license to marry and that recognizes the legal bond that has financial and civil implications.   The church has given oversight to the ceremony and has served to declare that there is a union.   Our church does not issue a license — we host and perform weddings.   The state also has an office for this if people choose not to be married in a church.

I have particular views that are theologically based regarding what is wise and right pertaining to marriage.  I do not believe that the state (as the state) can or should share my theological beliefs.   Neither should the state intrude on them or compromise them.  The state cannot compel me to perform any wedding that I do not believe is right.

But as a citizen who is a Christian, on what basis do I ask the state to operate according to my views re/ marriage since the state does not stand in the circle of my belief system?  I have to find other bases for this or just not speak to the matter and operate in my own sphere w/ respect to what the state does or does not rule.  Are there pragmatic grounds?  Are there other criteria that support my own particular values?

I believe that a person should not lose his civil rights just because he out of accord with the biblical view of moral and social things.  The rights that married people enjoy as citizens should be common to all — even where they are living in a way that I believe is out of accord with the bible.   A person who is an American should have the right to vote even if he belongs to a cult like the Mormons, holds to false and heretical beliefs, or is the most vocal blasphemer in the county.  Those in same sex partnerships should have some legal and civil rights even if they are living in a tragic and depraved arrangement.  They do not cease to be Americans just because they are not in accord with the biblical pattern.

I believe that marriage is a foundational cultural institution and that when it is damaged the culture is harmed.  The fact that the children born today to parents not married to one another hovers at right around 50% is a disaster — more expensive than the bank failures, home loan foreclosures, and the Wall Street scams.  Whatever strikes at the foundation of the family threatens the society and civilization at the most fundamental levels.

Does recognizing same sex unions further weaken marriage as a cultural institution?  I do not know – but that seems to me to be the first question to ask. Does this have the unintended consequence of opening the door to things such as polygamy or 1 year marriage “contracts?”   I do not know that either.

We are crossing a line here and it may have no repercussions and it may have enormous ones — so we need to be very careful.

Either way — I will continue to operate w/in my own ecclesiastical sphere as I always have.   People living together in a sexual way who are not married may — and probably do on occasion — attend church at SAPC but they will not be admitted as members.  Our message to the culture does not ever change – in Christ there is life and that life is the light of the world.  Come to him and live.   I will have more to say about this but this is a beginning for considering what promises to be a very volatile topic.

Bill

Small Group FELLOWSHIP!!!

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Small Groups – it is that time of year where schedules are crazy, school is winding down, Summer is revving up, and our Small Group fellowship takes a break for a while! Aside from the usual Summer Bible Study (which will be during the month of July this year at Bill and Brooke’s house!), many of the Small Groups at St. Andrews won’t meet again until the Fall. However, some of our groups will meet during the Summer for a night (or weekend) of fellowship, food, and fun. I thought it would be a good idea to share what our groups have done, are doing, or plans to do this Summer! Maybe you haven’t talked about it yet or haven’t even thought about it – but I hope you will. For our Small Group, the times that we have met – just to hang out and have fun – usually result in sweet fellowship. For instance, this past winter, we spent the weekend up at Pine Mountain and had a blast doing absolutely nothing! We had options and things to do, but we found ourselves sitting around and conversing or playing games with one another instead. This time of fellowship was precious to us and we look forward to doing it again! Obviously, my Small Group does not have any kids and our ability to go away for the weekend is a bit easier… but I know we have some resourceful and creative people in our church. So, what are your Small Group’s plans? What have you done? What will you do to foster fellowship and community? Let us know and share some of your ideas!

Zach

Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction!!!

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The Youth are having another fundraiser that should be fun for the entire family! On May 18th, 2012 (next Friday), you will have the opportunity to come and purchase an incredible Spaghetti Dinner plate AND you get the chance to bid on our students and Youth Volunteers in our Silent Auction! The people being sold in the auction are selling their time for you – to help you do whatever you need. If you need a babysitter, some yard work done, your house re-organized, or some family photos taken – then come on out next week and bid on our great selection! If you have any questions, please contact Zach at youth.SAPC@gmail.com or you can call the church office at 706.327.7750.

God’s Plan is Perfect.

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To our dear St. Andrews Family,

For those of you who were not a church this past Sunday – I proclaimed good news to the church – that God is sovereign and has a perfect plan for our lives! I also announced that in God’s sovereign plan, He has opened up the door for me to go to medical school and Chelsey and I believe He is calling us to walk through that door. It is with much sadness and joy to announce that we will be leaving Columbus (and St. Andrews) at the end of July. God has graciously allowed so many great and wonderful things to happen to us over the last 4 years and we are so thankful for the people we have met, the memories we have shared, and the privilege it has been to serve the body here at St. Andrews. This is not a farewell letter but an announcement to tell those who were not at church on Sunday. Tears will not come just yet, as we have more than three more months to spend together. However, as I think back upon the last four years, I can honestly say that they have been the most fulfilling and joyful years I have experienced in my short life. God has revealed himself to me in such unique ways and allowed me special insights into what it means to be a member of the body of Christ. He has taught me the important of community and fellowship, of speaking truth into each other’s lives, and of spending time in His Word. There are so many things I want to say, memories to re-live, and I pray God allows the time to say and remember them over the next few months. Chelsey and I see this as “temporary leave” and look forward to joining you all for holidays and special events. We love you all and are committed to keeping you in our prayers.

Zach

CALVING and BLOGS: doing ministry

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In the past 6 months I have been watching you.   I have been increasingly aware of a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of things that can only be described as ministry.  Providing team and group leadership, touching lives of people with various needs, operating within the body of believers – and outside as well – with the use of Spiritual gifts with the result being that the body of Christ is building itself up.   Teaching, encouragement, leadership, comfort, service, mercy, better organization and so much more are taking place and all with the purpose of the glorification of the name of the Son whose church this is.  I see this and want to remind you that this is going on because it matters that we see what God is doing among us and that we say “Yes” to him for what he is asking us to do.   It is so easy for me to see what we are not doing well as a church.  It is easy to see where we miss things and where there are voids of ministry – we have not got an effective college outreach at CSU and we are pretty disorganized with our approach to local mercy ministry.  Because of that we can be set up for the attacks of the evil one to make us focus on our flaws and our vacancies.  I can sometimes make an entire list of things that we are either not doing or doing poorly and let that rob me of daily joy and put me on the sideline moping instead of picking up the next thing God has given me to do.   It is hearing the good news of the life, death and resurrection of the Savior that sets me right again.  It is he and not I who died for the church.  It is he and not I who sends the Spirit and who brings his children to life.  It is he and not I who truly love, lead and enable each step of the church in our daily calling.   He sustains the church and none of us.   From that perspective I gain new eyes and once again I see all that God is doing in us and through us.  It is a joy and privilege to be among you and to serve in my role because I have one of the best seats in the house for the daily display of grace.

The reformer Martin Luther realized the same thing 500 years ago and wrote this.

  It is not we who can sustain the Church, nor was it our forefathers, nor will it be our descendants.  It was and is and will be the One who says:  “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”  As it says in Heb. 13:  “Jesus Christ, heri, et hodie, et in secula.”  (yesterday, and today and forever.) And in Revelation 1  “Which was, and is, and is to come.”  Verily He is that One, and none other is or can be.

            For you and I were not alive thousands of years ago, but the Church was preserved without us, and it was done by the One of whom it says, Qui erat, and Heri.  (Which was and yesterday.) 

            Again, we do not do it in our life-time, for the Church is not upheld by us.  For we could not resist the devil and the sects and other wicked folk.  For us, the Church would perish before our very eyes, and we with it (as we daily prove), were it not for that other Man who manifestly upholds the Church and us.  This we can lay hold of and feel, even though we are loth to believe it, and we must needs give ourselves to the One of whom it is said, Qui est, and Hodie  (which is and today)

            Again, we can do nothing to sustain the Church when we are dead.  But He will do it of whom it is said, Qui venturus est and in secula. (which is to come and forever.)  And what we must needs say of ourselves in this regard is what our forefathers had also to say before us, as the Psalms and other Scriptures testify, and what our descendents will also experience after us, when with us and the whole Church they sing in Psalm 124:  “If the Lord himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us,” and Psalm 60:  “O be thou our help in trouble, for vain is the help of man.”

            …May Christ our dear God and the Bishop of our souls, which He has bought with His own precious blood, sustain His little flock by the might of His own Word, that it may increase and grow in grace and knowledge and faith in Him.  May He comfort and strengthen it, that it may be firm and steadfast against all the crafts and assaults of Satan and this wicked world, and my He hear its hearty groaning and anxious waiting and longing for the joyful day of His glorious and blessed coming and appearing.  May there be an end of this murderous pricking and biting of the heel, of horrible poisonous serpents.  And may there come finally the revelation of the glorious liberty and blessedness of the children of God, for which they wait and hope in patience.  To which all those who love the appearing of Christ our life will say from the heart, Amen, Amen.

                                                            Martin Luther (W. A. 54, 470, and 474f.)

His Story Is Ours

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While teaching at Calvary Christian School, to my great surprise, when I once asked a class to try a new mnemonic method, a girl anxiously raised her hand and told me she did not think her mother would like me teaching “demonic devices”!  When I saw her concern (and my employment at a Christian school flashing before my eyes) I quickly explained I was using memory techniques like rhymes, jingles, and acrostics which had nothing to do with the devil.  Thankfully, this cleared up her confusion and she joined the learning exercise, much relieved!!  Those of us who came to the Ladies’ Spring Bible Study at St. Andrews this past Tuesday actually used mnemonic methods to learn the scope and chronology of the Old Testament. To our amazement, we can now verbally explain the sequence from Genesis to Malachi in about 5 minutes! Our teacher Margaret Sue Moseley has taught the “Walk Through the Bible” method for many years to many people in Columbus and uses visual aids on the floor, hand motions, and clever quips which group members repeat and act out.  In subsequent weeks, Margaret Sue also will be teaching us significant details about God’s plan as it unfolded in the Old Testament.   I love the symbolism in the scriptures, the fascinating culture of the ancients, and the richness of the Hebrew language.  However, the Old Testament is not just a book of biographies, history, or poetry. It is the foreshadowing of Messiah.

Clearly God’s people then and now need to be saved from ourselves and the Enemy.  God, in His mercy, has been actively on a rescue mission since the very moment Eve and Adam bit into the forbidden fruit.  Old Testament stories of miraculous births, persecution, deliverance, obedience, and forgiveness all point to Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.  As has often been said, history is “His Story.” Jesus, being sinless, was the only person who could succeed in the rescue mission.   The fact that He went willingly to the cross and suffered humiliation and physical agony is not lost on the faithful.  He truly is worthy to receive honor and praise for the ultimate sacrifice He made on our behalf.  As He said on the cross, His mission was “accomplished.”

So as we have fun marking lengths of time with our hands, counting major historical points on our fingers, and making dramatic gestures depicting Old Testament people and events, I realize that by reason of my adoption by Christ, I am reciting my family history.  I have been rescued by the One called down through the ages Messiah, Emmanuel, The Lord of Hosts, Yeshua, and the Christ.  His story is my story and so it continues…….

Diane McGowan

Missionary Moment: Mitch and Amy Jaeger

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St. Andrews had the privilege of watching one of it’s own children (Amy Jaeger) grow up, go to college, get married (in the church), and become one of our missionaries we support!  Here is a report from Amy:

Our Campus Crusade movement just started at the University of Southern
Mississippi in August. In January, we started having a weekly meeting
where we gather with students on campus to worship through fellowship,
song, the Word, and prayer. This semester we have been studying the
book of Ephesians and what it means to be a “Christ-centered laborer
(or disciple)”. Although the movement just truly began in January, we
are having a consistent group of 40-50 students come out to our weekly
meetings. In addition, we spend the days during the week hosting Bible
studies, book studies, discipleship meetings and weekly prayer in the
campus chapel.This summer, we will be sending 3 students on Campus
Crusade international mission trips as well as 2 students on a year
long international internship to South Africa come January.Two weeks
ago, two of our students leaders invited two girls and two guys from
each greek house on campus for a whole weekend of learning the
importance of prayer and how to pray for their greek houses. All of
these things and the things to come could not be possible without the
love and support of our church family and we are so grateful. God has
been doing amazing things here at Southern Miss and we are so thankful
that He has chosen to use us to meet the needs of college students!

You can keep up with Mitch and Amy on their blog: The Jaeger Letters

CALVIN and BLOGS: Did Jesus truly rise from the grave?

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I want to follow up a bit on the Sunday School Class and the message in church  from this past week and write about the question “How can we be sure that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the grave?”  

Part of the reason for this is that this is the single most important claim for historic Christianity and therefore is always relevant as a matter of discussion.   Part of it is also as a response to the editorial by James Evans in the Saturday Ledger-Enquirer.  Mr. Evans who represents the voice of (very) theologically liberal Protestantism is very unhappy that on Easter Sunday preachers in America  stand in pulpits and claim the 1) Jesus rose on the first Easter Sunday as the Bible says and 2) because of that the claims of the New Testament are true.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2012/04/06/2002776/james-l-evans-believing-in-the.html

(Like Paul does in his speech in ACTS 26 and in I CORINTHIANS 15.  And I know Mr. Evans is correct about at least one pulpit in America)

I am not very concerned about our particular local religious opinion writer but I want to spend some time interacting with the editorial because it represents a voice that is still very much a part of the landscape.  Among those who call themselves “moderates” or “enlightened” or some other term to mark their separation from people who actually take the Bible at face value there is a sort of bi-polar message – “The Bible is not true but we ought to believe (some of) it anyway.”

We are told that the resurrection as the Bible sets it forth did not and could not have happened but we will all be happier and better people if we believe in something — referred to in the article as the “theological hope” of “possibility.”  (The mixed message of theological liberalism – There is no God and Jesus is his Son).  This is exactly the opposite of what Paul says in I CORINTHIANS 15:17-19.  And the opposite of what preachers in pulpits must say if they are faithful in their calling.  If Christ has not been raised from the dead, and our hope (theological or otherwise) is only those benefits in this present life from following Jesus – possibilities? —  then we are not better off we are worse off, the most pitiful of men.

The voice of theological liberalism has not ceased and it is essential that believers not be intimidated by it or lose our nerve in the face of it.  It takes a little work and research to answer the attacks on faith from these sources but to quote a friend of mine “Why be a Calvinist and a type ‘A’ if you are not going to get a little work done.”

As I did Sunday I want to recommend a couple of books by N. T. Wright – The Resurrection of the Son of God and Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church .  The first is a 700 + page, comprehensive research effort of the evidence for the resurrection.  The second is a shorter and more accessible treatment of the same topic.   Professor Wright says in both works that the most compelling and inescapable argument

1) the empty tomb and 2) the eyewitness accounts of those who saw him after his crucifixion.   Just one of these facts would not be conclusive but the two together are compelling.  There is no other reasonable explanation for these two facts than that the account is true.

If there were only the claims of the disciples on Pentecost but the authorities were able to produce the still dead body of Jesus then the matter would have been ended.  If there were only an empty tomb then there might be claims that the body had been stolen or that people had gone to the wrong tomb.  Both facts together – the inability of the authorities to produce a corpse and the unchallenged claims of the 500 + eye witnesses to the risen Christ – form the most conclusive of all of the lines of evidence for the case for Christianity.

Following on this is:

  • The transformed lives of the disciples from terrified followers to bold witnesses
  • The rise of the church in the most hostile and unlikely of situations
  • The existence and influence of the New Testament itself

No other explanation satisfies the data except that Jesus who was crucified on the Friday following Passover was raised to life on the following Sunday.

Next time I want to do a little more here on this matter of the case for the resurrection and also consider the not so subtle assault on those believers who continue to believe all of the Bible.

Bill Douglas

CALVIN and BLOGS: Good Friday!?

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Good Friday?   At first brush this seems an odd term for the day we remember the greatest crime in history.   This was a horrible day and a terrible day.  This was the day when the Father turned the sky dark at mid afternoon because of the horror of the deed done – the only innocent man who ever lived was executed by brutal Roman soldiers in a place of shame and derision.   Alister McGrath writes of seeing believers in an Asian town walking in procession on Good Friday and weeping with loud sobs of anguish because their Lord has been crucified. 

Here are some lines from the English writer George Herbert who has written my favorite of all poems about the crucifixion –

Oh all ye, who pass by, whose eyes and mind
 / To worldly things are sharp, but to me blind; / To me, who took eyes that I might you find: / Was ever grief like mine? 



And now I am deliver’d unto death, 
/ Which each one calls for so with utmost breath, 
/ That he before me well nigh suffereth: 
/ Was ever grief like mine? 



So sits the earth’s great curse in Adam’s fall
 / Upon my head: so I remove it all
 / From th’ earth unto my brows, and bear the thrall: 
/ Was ever grief like mine? 



O all ye who pass by, behold and see; 
/ Man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree; 
/ The tree of life to all, but only me: 
/ Was ever grief like mine?

But now I die; now all is finished.
 / My woe, man’s weal: and now I bow my head.
 / Only let others say, when I am dead, 
/ Never was grief like mine.

Herbert points out in powerful verses that the good in Good Friday is what comes to us through his agony and death.  We receive life, peace, healing, redemption.   In his prophetic picture Isaiah reminds us “By his wounds we are made whole.”

It is right for us to draw near by faith and remember and meditate on his passion for us.   We will have a Good Friday service on April 6 at noon in the sanctuary where we will do just that.

Another, much less critically acclaimed poem on this topic comes from a cartoonist – Johnny Hart – who used to write the B.C. cartoon comic strips that appeared on newspapers across America.  Hart, who taught a high school Sunday School class in his church often took strong criticism for the open testimony of his faith in the Savior.  His Christmas, Good Friday and Easter strips were filled with clear statements of the hope of the Gospel.   Just reading the text without the pictures loses something but I have still included one here.  His character Wiley is sitting under a tree and composes this poem:

Who can call Good Friday good?

A term too oft misunderstood

You who were bought by the blood of His cross

You can call Good Friday good!

  William Douglas