August 26, 2022
Be in prayer for your elders tomorrow, as we spend the day together at a retreat.
We'll be considering several questions about our church's long-term ministry vision, and discussing practical ways to be better shepherds to you the flock of God entrusted to our care.
Give thanks for you elders (and deacons), for they are men committed to their calling, willing to sacrifice time for the sake of the Lord's people, and filled with wisdom and grace. Pray for their wives as well, as they sacrifice much as well because of their husbands' calling.
It is a rich privilege for me to labor alongside our officers here at POPC!
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Men, if you're looking for a small group this fall, don't forget to sign up for the book study I'll be leading in September and October.
It's a six-week study of J. I. Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. I love this book not only for its theological depth but also for its practical motivation and encouragement to a facet of our ministry as Christians that can often be intimidating.
Find more details and register here.
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I hope that our mini-series this month on our new purpose statement has been encouraging to you, and has spurred you on to consider how God might use here at POPC you to pursue transformation by truth and grace together to the glory of Christ. Pastor Christian will close us out this coming Sunday by thinking about how the church seeks to equip the saints for active participation in ministry. God has given each one of His children gifts to be used for the sake of the body, and for the spread of the gospel. We are called to be engaged and involved in doing the work of ministry. Yet how easy it is to treat membership in a church like having tickets to a football game, showing up once a week as a spectator to watch and be entertained. But the truth is that whether we gather together or scatter into the world, people are hurting - sin and sorrow fill their hearts - they're in need of truth and grace. And God uses us as His instruments to accomplish His transforming purposes in their lives, for truth and grace are delivered through relationships with living human beings.
I've been reading through Psalm 119 recently in my private times of worship and devotion. There are several verses that connect the word of God to affliction:
This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your word has revived me. (v. 50)
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. (v. 67)
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. (v. 71)
I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. (v. 75)
If Your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. (v. 92)
I am exceedingly afflicted; revive me, O LORD, according to Your word. (v. 107)
Look upon my affliction and rescue me, for I do not forget Your law. (v. 153)
How important the word of God is in our times of suffering, and therefore how vital it is to use the word of God in our ministry to others! It revives and comforts the afflicted. It shows us that God has a purpose in our affliction - to call us back from our wandering astray, that we might learn and keep His commands. It reminds us that God is faithful in all His difficult providences. It teaches us how necessary is delighting in the word of God when we suffer. And it gives us words to pray in the midst of our affliction. May the Lord enable us to grow in our knowledge of His word so that we might apply it not only in our own lives, but in the lives of those around us!