Reading Plans 2012

Reading Plans 2013

-Geoff

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Dear Parents,

The recent events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut are horrifying and tragic. We are all saddened by the loss of innocent life–especially of the 20 children. We know our school community has been deeply affected. In light of this, we wanted to briefly share some crucial things with you.

First, while no precautions can avert every catastrophe, SGCS has clear and effective procedures in place to help protect those on our campus. In light of last Friday, these have been revisited and reviewed. We think it important for you and your family to be assured of this.

Second, you may want to consider keeping your children from the media barrage. Much that is being reported is speculative, sensational and unhelpful. Rather than having your children absorbing news reports, it would be better to have them talking with you about what has happened.

Finally and most importantly, the Bible speaks to the issues that arise from the Sandy Hook tragedy. We understand that such events take place because there is sin in the human heart. The Scriptures tell us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9); and again, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The lasting solution to the kind of tragedy that just confronted us is not new legislation, or skilled grief counseling, or more safety procedures. The ultimate solution is the Gospel, because there we find God providing a remedy for sin, and transforming the human heart. Our deepest need is dealing with our sin problem, and this God has done by sending his own Son into the world to pay the penalty of sin on the cross for all who will believe and making them a new people–a people who have an eternity secure with him that can not be touched by any circumstance in this world.

This is the real message of Christmas. When the angel appeared to Joseph, he instructed him to give the baby the name Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) And when the angel appeared to the shepherds that first Christmas night, his message was, “I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10–11).

Because of who Jesus Christ is, and the death he paid on the cross for sin, it is possible for us to have peace–real peace. In fact, the Bible calls Jesus “the Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6). Turning to Christ in faith makes this peace possible: “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

There is of course so much more that can be said. The Bible deals clearly with matters of justice, God’s goodness in a world marked with evil, and the other difficult issues that come to mind when we are confronted by such circumstances. If you would like to discuss what the Scriptures have to say about these or other areas, or some suggestions on how to talk with your children about what has happened, please do not hesitate to contact us. One of our pastors or other staff members would be privileged to share with you. We believe the Bible holds the answers to our deepest questions, and Christ is able to bring healing to the aching heart.

Our prayer is that the truth of the Gospel will bring peace to you and your children this Christmas season.

In Christ,

Pastor Greg Golden

School Superintendent

Make sure you go full screen on this video, it helps.  Click here to link to the video.

I recently read a blog post on The Gospel Coalition that I thought was a great reminder. I hope it is as helpful to you as it was to me.

See you Sunday!

Pastor Dave

- Geoff

They come along every couple of years…the book that will change your life and the life of your congregation. A similar phenomenon appears as the seminar, or the campaign. Then there is the usual hype, promotional pieces, small group curriculum, and celebrity endorsements. Eventually the buzz fades, and the American Consumer Christian awaits the next greatest thing to come along.

Well, like I said, I thought I had successfully avoided this one. I thought it had passed. But then one day, as I was in the checkout line at the grocery store, having a pleasant chat with the cashier, the question came…“Have you read The Shack?”

In the course of our small talk, the cashier learned that I was a pastor, to which he excitedly responded that he too was a Christian. Come to find out, he hadn’t read the book, but had heard a lot about it. Then one of his co-workers, overhearing our conversation, enthusiastically piped in, “I read it! I loved it! I was very inspired!”

Ok, so I guess it wasn’t gone yet, and for the sake of trying to understand my neighbor and the zeitgeist of the SGV in 2012, I thought I should read it. I have now read it. I didn’t love it. I was not inspired. In addition to being a theological train wreck, I found it pretentiously creative and emotionally manipulative. It is the emergent church writing fiction.

But there has been a lot written about The Shack, so I will not go into great detail here. If you would like to read a good review of the book, I would direct you to an excellent review written by Tim Challies that is accurate, clear, and yet not vitriolic, which unfortunately is the tenor of many of the reviews. You can find Challies’ review here.

However, I will say that life is too short to read bad books. There are too many good books to read, and we all are stewards of only 24 hours a day. So, when one popular Christian author in his gushing praise of the book makes the assertion—“This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!”—my reaction is, “Whoa, settle down there Jethro! Let’s not get carried away.” Pilgrim’s Progress is a true Christian classic, which has withstood the test of time and is not just some flash-in-the-pan sensation. Bunyan’s allegory, was published in 1678 and has been translated into over 200 languages. It is considered one of the greatest pieces of English literature every produced. Charles Spurgeon claimed to have read the book over 100 times. If The Shack is even in print a hundred years from now, then maybe we can consider comparing it to Pilgrim’s Progress.

Do yourself a favor dear reader, if you’ve been lucky enough to avoid reading The Shack thus far, don’t bother. If you’re looking for good fiction, pick up a true classic like Pilgrim’s Progress, or Screwtape Letters, or The Lord of the Rings, or The Brother’s Karamozov, or Jane Eyre. Of course, there are many more, too many, and that’s just the point. Yes, there are good new books too, but as we are looking for new books to read, we need to resist the urge to read whatever is popular and remember the wisdom of C.S. Lewis, when he said, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.”

Pastor Dave

If you’ve wrestled with these questions, you are not alone. Most Christians, if honest, would probably agree that they should be sharing the gospel more often than they are, and one of the main reasons they don’t share their faith is that they don’t know what to say.

Greg Gilbert, an assistant pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC, has written an excellent little book simply called What is the Gospel? In just over 100 pages, Gilbert offers a clear presentation and explanation of the essential elements of the gospel message. I highly recommend this book!

In the process of answering the question What is the Gospel?, Gilbert also hopes to accomplish a few other things, as he states in his introduction…

First, if you are a Christian, I pray that this little book—and more importantly, the glorious truths it attempts to articulate—will cause your heart to swell with joy and praise toward Jesus Christ for what he has accomplished for you.

Second, I hope that reading this book will give you a deeper confidence as you talk to others about the good news of Jesus.

Third, I pray that you will see the importance of this gospel for the life of the church, and that as a result you will work to make sure that this gospel is preached, sung, prayed, taught, proclaimed, and heard in every aspect of your church’s life.

Fourth, I hope this book will help to shore up the edges of the gospel in your mind and heart.

Finally, if you’re not a Christian, then I pray that by reading this book you will be provoked to think hard about the good news of Jesus Christ.

For the sake of His name,

Pastor Dave

The reality of the incarnation is so central to our faith that for two millennia every expression of Christianity that could make any claim to orthodoxy has busied itself articulating and defending and honoring that sublime verity. Nor could there be a more noble or God-honoring busy-ness to which we might give ourselves!  But might it be that in the course of those two thousand years we have become altogether too accustomed  to the notion of the God-man, that we have lost something of the wonder that ought to grip us as we contemplate that reality?  Even as the season especially given to the celebration of the nativity of our Lord passes, it is appropriate to take a moment to consciously contemplate the bottomless mystery intrinsic to that narrative.

I wonder whether God has ever set before men any truth that more thoroughly drives then to their knees in humble submission than this: The Word became flesh! How it scandalized the sensibilities of the Jewish generation to whom the man Jesus was initially revealed.  And well it might have.  Throughout her history, Israel was surrounded by pagan peoples who professed belief in whole companies of pretender gods.  Those puny “wanna-be” deities were said to live just outside of town on this or that mountain; they were wickedly and selfishly regarded as gods, but in fact they were nothing more than men-blown-big.  They lusted big and battled big, but in no sense did they transcend the things of this earth.  To the contrary, Yahweh, the God of Israel, had revealed Himself as holy, as transcendent, as ontologically separate from this universe in all of its parts, as the Maker of all that exists outside of Himself.  In short, central to all that the God of Israel revealed concerning Himself is this: Yahweh God is not a man!  And yet here was a man standing before that generation of Israel claiming to be God!  It is almost impossible for men today to appreciate how desperately difficult it must have been to bow the knee to such a claim.  But Jesus did many signs (Ac 2:22), and even given the claim to deity all that Jesus taught was entirely consistent with that which God had revealed in days gone by (Ac 17:11; Isa 8:20).  Thus were men brought to their knees in humble submission to the blessed but unspeakably difficult truth: indeed, the Word has become flesh!

But before there was a God-man, there was a God-baby. Here is a helpless child, recently born into ignominy and want, lying in a stone manger. Luke’s staggeringly sublime telling of the story of that birth includes the poignant remembrance that “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (2:19).  What things she had to ponder!  The visit of an angel with the message that she, a peasant maiden residing in the most despised village in all of the land, would bear the promised Messiah.  The unmistakable recognition of the Baby newly gestating in her womb by another yet unborn child who had been growing for six months in the womb of Mary’s aged cousin, Elizabeth. The experience of giving birth to a child while she was yet a virgin.  The arrival of a company of shepherds to the humble place where the Baby had been born, and the story told by those shepherds of a company of angels who had assured them that they would find that royal Babe resting in an animal’s feeding trough. The young woman could not deny the reality of all that, and yet her soul/spirit staggered at it nonetheless.  And would we not be advantaged to ponder the bottomless wonder of those events, and especially the marvel of the central event of the narrative, the eternal Word made flesh!  Embrace that truth – celebrate it, share it, defend it!  But in all of that, vigilantly guard your spirit so that you never for a moment get used to it.

–Pastor Dave

The Certain Success of Evangelism

W. G. T. Shedd

Inasmuch as each and every disciple of Christ is bound to contribute his share towards the evangelization of the globe, it becomes an interesting and important question, “Is the work feasible?” May it not be that the church is attempting too much? The greater part of the world is still pagan and totally ignorant of God in Christ. And a considerable part of nominal Christendom consists of unrenewed men who are as distant from heaven as the heathen, so far as the new birth is concerned.

How can the church at large, and the individual Christian, be certain that they are not undertaking a work that is intrinsically impossible of performance? No laborer desires to spend his strength for naught. It was one of the torments of pagan hell perpetually to roll a stone up a hill, and just as it reached the summit, perpetually to see it slip from the hands and roll back to the bottom.

We propose to mention some reasons that make it certain that evangelistic labor will succeed. The effort of the church to preach Christ crucified will no more fail of its effect than the rain will fail to water the earth and cause the seeds that are sown in it to germinate (Isa. 55:10).

We argue and derive the certainty of success in evangelistic labor, in the first place, from the nature of God’s truth. There is something in the quality and characteristics of the doctrine which we are commanded to preach to every creature that promises and prophesies a triumph.

We need to keep this fact in view if we would see any ground of certainty for the success of the Christian evangelist. Unless he is commissioned to teach something that is superhuman; something that did not originate with the sphere of earth and of man; something that is not found in the literatures of the world; he will spend his strength for naught. The apostles of human reason, the inventors of human systems, and their disciples, have labored for six thousand years without radically changing a single individual man, or converting any of the sin and misery of earth into the holiness and happiness of heaven. And if the Christian herald does not go entirely beyond their sphere and proclaim truths from another and higher world, he will only repeat their futile endeavor. He must teach the Word and commandments of God�a higher doctrine than the commandments of man, a wisdom superior to that of any people, Hebrew or Hindu, Greek or Roman.

God’s Special Interest in His Word

We argue the certain success of evangelistic labor, in the second place, from the fact that God feels a special interest in his own Word.

This fact is clearly taught in Isaiah 55. “My word,” says God by his prophet, “shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Here is personal interest and personal supervision. These doctrines relating to the salvation and destiny of man are not sent forth from heaven as lonely messengers to make their way as best they can. The Third Person of the Trinity goes with them. He exerts an influence through them that is undefinable but is almighty and irresistible within its own sphere and in its own way. For there is not a human heart upon the globe, whose hardness cannot be penetrated by the combined operation of the Word and Spirit of God.

In this fact, then, we find a second ground of certainty of success for evangelistic endeavor. You may proclaim all your days, your own ideas, or those of your fellow men, but you will say with Grotius, at the close of a long and industrious career: “I have spent my life in laboriously doing nothing.” But if you have passed your days in teaching the unevangelized and conveying into their dark and blinded understandings the truths of the law and gospel, you may say, at the close of life, as you sum up your work: “I have erected a monument more durable than brass. I have taught the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever, to many human souls.”

The same law that rules in the individual experience prevails in the larger sphere of mission. There must be a ceasing to look at the creature and an absorbing, empowering looking to the Creator and Redeemer. No sinner obtains peace until he sees that God’s grace is greater than his sins. So long as his sins look larger than God’s mercy, so long he must despair. Precisely so is it with efforts to save the souls of men. The church will not be instrumental in evangelizing the globe, unless it believes that God the Holy Spirit is more mighty than man’s corruption. So long as the work looks too great to be accomplished; so long as the ignorance, vice, brutality, and apathy of the sinful masses all around seem insuperable by any power human or divine; so long there will be no courageous and confident labor for human welfare. No missionary would ever have gone upon his errand of love, had his eye been taken from God and fixed solely upon man and man’s hopeless condition.

Do you think that the apostles would have started out from the little corner of Palestine to convert the Greco-Roman world to a new religion if their vision had been confined to earth? Apart from the power and promise of God, the preaching of such a religion as Christianity, to such a population as that of paganism, is the sheerest quixotism. It crosses all the inclinations and condemns all the pleasures of guilty man. The preaching of the gospel finds its justification, its wisdom, and its triumph, only in the attitude and relation which the infinite and almighty God sustains to it. It is his religion, and therefore it must ultimately become a universal religion.

Excerpted from Professor Shedd’s Sermons to the Spiritual Man (1884). Reprinted from New Horizons, May 2003.

to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Psalm 50:23

Thanksgiving is coming. There are so many things I love about Thanksgiving: the kids being home from school, time with family, preparing a big meal and then slowing down long enough to enjoy it. All of these things are good.

There are scores of verses in the Bible about giving thanks. One of the verses that always makes me stop, pause and reflect is the verse above from Psalm 50, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me”. The giving of thanks brings glory to God. Being thankful honors God. Being thankful magnifies (makes much of) God. Why? Why does it honor God to be a thankful person? Because it puts God in the right place in out lives. Thanksgiving recognizes that God is the giver of good gifts. Thanksgiving brings glory to God because it shows God to be big!

But there is a flip side to this reality and one that I believe strikes at the heart of the lack of gratitude so often present in our lives. To be thankful, I must be humbled. To be a thankful person, I must recognize I am not self-sufficient. Thanksgiving flows form a heart that has been humbled. This is at the heart of the second half of this verse; Salvation comes to the one who is thankful because thanksgiving is evidence of a life that has been properly ordered. Thanksgiving is evidence of someone who has acknowledged their need for God, their need for salvation, their need for a Savior.

This is not a trite word of thanksgiving offered up to God one day of the year. This is the humbling reality of ordering my life rightly under the hand of an all mighty God whose salvation I desperately need. Offering thanksgiving is evidence of a heart that has been humbled by the reality of what Christ has done on the cross. Giving thanks is characteristic of a heart that brings glory to God because it has recognized its own insufficiency, its own weakness and has turned to the cross.

To say “thank you” to God is profound, it is humbling and it brings Him glory.