January 28, 2022
I'm looking forward to our Missions Festival starting up next Sunday! From my earliest days as a Christian (which in God's providence coincide with my earliest days as a human, since I was born just a few years after my parents were converted to Christ, and God enabled them to raise me in such a way that I don't really remember a day I didn't know Him as Savior and Lord), I learned that bringing the gospel to the lost in the nations was a part of what it meant to follow Jesus. Like other universities, the nations were coming to LSU to study, and my parents were involved in international ministries at my church in Baton Rouge (The Chapel on the Campus), and we regularly had an international college student that we "adopted" and had over for dinner, holidays, etc.
As I transitioned into high school, I was privileged to go with our youth group on mission trips to Reynosa, Mexico; Mandeville, Jamaica; and the Yucatan Peninsula. My church took adult trips to Russia, and when I started LSU I took Russian, thinking that if I had the opportunity to go with my church, I'd love to be able to communicate (unfortunately I never was able to go, and now I've forgotten nearly all of what I learned!). These trips - the ones I participated in and the ones I heard about from others who participated - were formative for my spiritual development. Missions was not some "add-on" or "expansion pack" to the Christian life, it was part and parcel with what being a Christian was all about. I hope that is what my children will recall about growing up in our home, and what you are learning as a member of Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church.
Missions Festivals/Conferences have always been a highlight of my year, because it's a been chance to hear directly from those with boots on the ground from around the world and around town, and it's been a spiritual shot in the arm to my own ministry wherever I have been serving. To hear of God's global purposes of grace, of the expansive nature of Christ's kingdom, of the call to go into the world and make disciples of all nations, of the reality of sin and judgment and hell, of the glories of salvation - all of these things combine annually to be a spur to my apathy, pride, and forgetfulness. This year's conference looks to be wonderful. Not only will we get to hear God's word preached from a missionary on the US/Mexico border, a church planter, and a pastor who loves missions, but we'll also get to hear reports from several of the ministries we support. Be encouraged, be convicted, be challenged, be resolved to bring the gospel to the lost, to bankroll the gospel's progress around the world, and to pray for the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do.
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This Sunday we gather together around the Lord's table (one week earlier than the usual first Sunday of the month, because of the Missions Festival on February 6). It is so easy to take sin, even our own, for granted. Yet to understand what sin deserves, we must look to the cross, where the Son of God bore the awful load of the wrath of God in the place of sinners. Sin deserves death, and the blood of bulls and goats was in no way able to take away the sin of men and women and boys and girls. Our Savior came into this world to pay the price for our sins. He was beaten, whipped, mocked, unjustly treated in the courts, forsaken by friends and abandoned by His Father. So that we might never forget the cross, which demonstrates to us both our great sinfulness and His great lovingkindness, Jesus left us with a symbolic meal to eat regularly. Meals represent fellowship and peace, and thus we call this meal “Communion,” because we have peace with God and commune with our Savior as we eat and drink. We also commune with one another, and have fellowship in one another’s gifts and graces.
I love looking at the Westminster Larger Catechism as I prepare to come to the Lord's table. Question 171 is especially helpful: "How are they that receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper to prepare themselves before they come unto it? They that receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper are, before they come, to prepare themselves thereunto, by examining themselves of their being in Christ, of their sins and wants [lacks]; of the truth and measure of their knowledge, faith, repentance; love to God and the brethren, charity to all men, forgiving those that have done them wrong; of their desires after Christ, and of their new obedience; and by renewing the exercise of these graces, by serious meditation, and fervent prayer." (If you don't have a copy of the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, let me know and I'll give you one, so that you might be able to read the Scriptural foundations of each one of these phrases, and all the rest of the meat of this ancient document that so beautifully summarizes what the Bible teaches.) May the Lord Jesus grant us an increase of faith and hope and love as we feed upon Him by faith, and may He confirm and seal to our hearts our continuance and growth in Him by grace!