Serving others through suffering

Two posts on serving others and suffering that are very helpful.

First this quote from Elisabeth Eliot which Ray Ortlund brought to my attention:

“We are not often called to great sacrifice, but daily we are presented with the chance to make small ones — a chance to make someone cheerful, a chance to do some small thing to make someone comfortable or contented, a chance to lay down our petty preferences or cherished plans.  This probably requires us to relinquish something — our own convenience or comfort, our own free evening, our warm fireside, or even our habitual shyness or reserve or pride.  My liberty must be curtailed, bound down, ignored (oh, how the world hates this sort of thing! how our own sinful natures hate it!) — for the sake of the liberation of others.”

Elisabeth Elliot, A Path Through Suffering (Ventura, 1990), pages 67-68.

Then Z links to an article by Ajith Fernando with a very powerful and challenging article for all Christians to consider

From the piece:

Several people have sympathized with me, saying it must be hard and frustrating to serve in a country wracked by war and hostile to evangelism. Indeed, we have suffered. A few months ago, one of our staff workers was brutally assaulted and killed. But I think the biggest pain I have experienced is the pain I have received from Youth for Christ, the organization for which I have worked for 34 years. I can also say that next to Jesus and my family, Youth for Christ has been the greatest source of joy in my life. Whether you live in the East or the West, you will suffer pain if you are committed to people. This is suffering that can be avoided. We can avoid pain by stopping the relationship or moving on to something more “fulfilling.” But what do we lose?

Some years ago I was preparing a message on commitment while traveling in the West. Within the space of a few days, three people told me how they or someone close to them had left a group or a person because of problems. One had left an unhappy marriage; another, a church; another, an organization. Each person described his leaving as a merciful release from suffering. But I could not help asking myself whether, in each of these cases, the Christian thing to do would have been to stay and suffer.

His conclusion:

In a world where physical health, appearance, and convenience have gained almost idolatrous prominence, God may be calling Christians to demonstrate the glory of the gospel by being joyful and content while enduring pain and hardship. People who are unfulfilled after pursuing things that do not satisfy may be astonished to see Christians who are joyful and content after depriving themselves for the gospel. This may be a new way to demonstrate the glory of the gospel to this hedonistic culture.

I have a great fear for the church. The West is fast becoming an unreached region. The Bible and history show that suffering is an essential ingredient in reaching unreached people. Will the loss of a theology of suffering lead the Western church to become ineffective in evangelism? The church in the East is growing, and because of that God’s servants are suffering. Significant funding and education come to the East from the West. With funding and education comes influence. Could Westerners influence Eastern Christians to abandon the Cross by communicating that they must be doing something wrong if they suffer in this way? Christians in both the East and the West need to have a firm theology of suffering if they are to be healthy and bear fruit.

Read the whole thing.

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What does it mean to love the church?

John Crotts has a new book out that looks helpful in answering the question, “What does it mean to love the church?”  The book is described as:

Loving the Church reminds us how glorious God’s family really is, and the countless ways that you can flourish within it. In recent years the family has experienced a revival within Christian culture, but with this increased emphasis on the importance of the family, less value has been placed on God’s family, the church. One of the most important relationships for all Christians is their involvement in God’s family. Loving the Church lays the vital foundation for applying his glorious plan to our own lives. Enter as friends and explore together what it means to love the church. Follow the story of five friends as they wrestle with important questions about the church. After each of their discussions about the church, the author leads the reader to understand the beauty and joy of being a member of the household of God.

I would hope the price might be reduced for this 140 page book (or maybe it will come out on Kindle or Ibooks for much less).

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Is it OK to grieve in your church?

That’s the question that Justin Taylor asks.  He draws on some excerpts from one godly woman and one godly man to help us think through this rarely thought about but very important question.

Excerpt from Nancy Guthrie

Grieving people have four primary needs that the church has a key role in addressing:

1. They have intense sadness that is lonely and lingering that needs to be respected.
2. They have significant questions that need to be addressed in light of Scripture.
3. They have broken relationships that need to be healed and normalized.
4. They have a deep desire to discover some meaning and purpose in their loss.

Excerpt from Carl Trueman:

Now, one would not expect the world to have much time for the weakness of the psalmists’ cries. It is very disturbing, however, when these cries of lamentation disappear from the language and worship of the church. Perhaps the Western church feels no need to lament—but then it is sadly deluded about how healthy it really is in terms of numbers, influence and spiritual maturity. Perhaps—and this is more likely—it has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards them as little short of embarassing. Yet the human condition is a poor one—and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart and are looking for a better country should know this. A diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist street party—a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a world of broken individuals. Has an unconscious belief that Christianity is—or at least should be—all about health, wealth, and happiness corrupted the content of our worship?

There’s a good deal more with helpful links here.

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Should we separate civil and religious marriage?

That’s the question four pastor wrestle with in a recent blog post.

Colin Hansen frames the debate:

Religious and civil marriage have historically been closely linked in America, many of whose founders inherited their views from 16th-century Genevan reformer John Calvin. Splitting with fellow reformer Martin Luther on the issue, Calvin required engaged couples in Geneva to register with civil magistrates, according to John Witte Jr., author of From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition. They received from the magistrate a marriage certificate, which they gave to a pastor. He would then announce their pending marriage for three weeks in a row, thereby inviting anyone to offer objections privately. If authorities heard no objections or found them unpersuasive, the couple would be married in the church within six weeks. Thus, Calvin set a pattern linking religious and civil marriage that persists in America today.

Perhaps the time has come, however, for pastors to rethink this position. Some leaders, including D. A. Carson, have already declared their preference for more clearly differentiating between civil and religious marriage, citing practices in other nations, particularly France. I surveyed four experienced pastors for a new feature, TGC Asks: Should pastors separate the Christian wedding ceremony from the civil rite?

Here are some thoughtful answers from four different pastors.

How would you answer the question?

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