For the third year in row our church family has the wonderful opportunity to serve our community through volunteering from 8:00 to 2:00 at the Maudlin End of Summer Bash on September 10!

In addition to the great activities for families and children, the South Carolina Barbeque Association will be present to host a professional BBQ Cook-Off. Come ready to enjoy some great food and great fun!

The city needs our help with registration and running the events. If you’re able to volunteer, and you haven’t signed up please email Kimberly Grant with the times that you are available (from 8:00-2:00), or be sure to sign up at church this Sunday.

The following day we’re having a church service at 10:30 a.m. at a picnic-shelter in Sunset Park. We’ll also have a bring-your-own-picnic lunch following the service, and we’d love to see some of the Summer Bash attendees join us for the service and picnic.

Pray for a great weekend!

Sunday’s message (The God-Glorifying Design of Singleness) was another installment in our series on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

We referenced two helpful books on the topic.

Singles at the Crossroads: A Fresh Perspective on Christian Singleness by Albert Y. Hsu. Hsu’s treatment of singleness is readable and thoughtful. He writes as a single person to us all.

You can get a feel for the book from the chapter titles. (Note: Having been published in 1997, the statistics in the first chapter are woefully out of date.)

Why This Book?

1. Where Singles Are Today?
2. A Brief History of Singleness
3. The Myth of the Gift. (This chapter is a brief, and somewhat novel, exposition of 1 Corinthians 7.)
4. The Issue of God’s Will
5. Freedom and Opportunity
6. From Loneliness to Solitude
7. From Aloneness to Community
8. Rethinking Romance
9. Temptations Singles Face

Epilogue: A Visions for the Future

Appendix: John Stott on Singleness

The Appendix is one of the most insightful parts of the book, where Hsu interviews the recently deceased John Stott. Stott carried out his fifty-plus years of ministry as a single man. In this interview he shares his insights on relevant passages, his personal struggles, and the sacrifices and privileges of being single.  

Redeeming Singleness: How the Storyline of Scripture Affirms the Single Life by Barry Danylak.

This is a heavier read than Hsu’s book, but it is probably a more important one. Rather than looking piecemeal at various issues and passages that Christian single men and women wrestle with, Danylak takes a biblical theological approach to the issue asking the insightful question: How does singleness function in the storyline of Scripture? The answers are breathtaking. The kneecap of his argument is this:

Christian singleness is a testimony to the supreme sufficiency of Christ for all things, testifying that through Christ life is truy blessed even without marriage and children. It prophetically points to a reality greater than the satsifcation of this present age by consciously anticipating the Christian’s eternal inhertinace in the kingdom of God. Christian singleness lived as a testimony of this gospel truth is a redeeming singleness (215).

Here are the chapter titles.

1. Begetting from the Beginning: Procreation, Marriage, and the Blessing of God to the World
2. Living in the Land: Why Every Israelite Man and Woman Married
3. Prophetic Paradox: How Failure of a Nation Brings Blessing to the World
4. Good News for the Gentiles: How Abraham’s Offspring Come from Jesus Alone
5. The King and the Kingdom: Jesus’ Surprising Statements on Singleness and Family
6. A Charisma for Corinth: Paul’s Vision of Singleness for the Church

This fall we’ll look at what the Bible says about gender identity issues, especially as they relate to manhood and womanhood. Brad will preach a series of sermons on the topic, which will be followed by a short, interactive series in our Family Bible Class led by the Lawrence’s and the Payne’s. 

We are excited to announce that Andrew Franseen, pastor of Grace Bible Church, and Andy Naselli, member of Grace Bible Church and Research Manager for D.A. Carson, will help kick off the series for us with a special seminar Saturday, August 27th from 9:30am-12:30pm.

Manhood and Womanhood is not finally about sorting our roles in the world and the church. The issue is important because the nature of God is important. We are created to reflect his image, and the way we view gender roles reveals the way we view God. Andrew and Andy will help us think through The Relationship of the Trinity to Manhood and Womanhood. 

The following is a tentative schedule:

9:30-9:45 Welcome and Introductions 

9:45-10:25 Session 1: The Tri-Unity of God (Franseen)

10:35-11:35 Session 2: How Does the Trinity Inform How Husbands & Wives Should Relate to Each Other? (Naselli)

11:45-12:20 Session 3: What the Trinity Means for Life in Our World, Our Homes, & Our Churches (Franseen)

12:20-12:30 Q&A

Please pray for Andrew and Andy as they prepare to serve us in this significant way on a special day. 

For communion this past Sunday we meditated on Christ, The Lord of the Feast. For many of us our faith tradition rightly emphasizes the need for solemn self-examination in approaching the Lord’s Table. In doing so we’ve unintentionally neglected another important biblical emphasis: the Lord’s Table is meant to increase our assurance of pardon and reassure of his steadfast love. Yes, it’s a Table for repentant sinners. But it’s still a Table for sinners. 

Accordingly, many of us often approach the Lord’s Table suspicious of his grace. We think that God’s called us to the Table “to get us” rather than than to reassure us. In the end, even his desire to reassure of his love through the Lord’s Supper is meant to lead us to ongoing repentance and faith, as his goodness and grace always do. 

To illustrate how suspicious of grace we are when coming to the Lord’s Table, we referenced the film Babette’s Feast. An entire congregation grows suspicious about an extravagant meal being provided by a loyal housekeeper. The film provides a convicting reflection of the way we often approach the Lord’s Supper-suspicious of grace. It also displays the unifying results within a congregation when we boast in his lavish grace and nothing else. 

In case the weather in the Upstate hasn’t been convincing enough, the calendar announces today as the official beginning of summer. One of the most popular things to do during this time of year involves filling out a summer reading list.  

Sunday’s message from Nehemiah 6 referenced two books that should be on everyone’s summer reading list. 

1. Charles Simeon: A Pastor of a Generation 

If anyone’s life parallels the pastoral endurance and prudence Nehemiah models (especially chapter 4-6), it is Charles Simeon. 

Charles Simeon (1759-1836), contemporary of John Newton (1725-1807) and William Wilberforce (1759-1833), served the same congregation for fifty-four years. He did so amidst much hardship and isolation. Three years after his conversion, suffering from loneliness, he lamented that he had been unable to find even one person who shared his evangelical beliefs.

The first twelve years of his ministry at Holy Trinity Church (where Richard Sibbes and Thomas Goodwin once pastored) were characterized by blistering opposition. 

• He was regularly locked out of his own church. 
• The congregation hired another minister to lead a second Sunday service so they wouldn’t have to hear him. 
• Students at nearby Cambridge University regularly interrupted whatever services he was able to conduct and pummeled him with insults. 

In addition to the brutal hardships he endured as a minister, he served on faculty at Cambridge University, where he was a constant object of verbal terrorism and scorn by his colleagues.

I read this book about twelve years ago at a particular low point in life. It ministered much grace to me then, and I have returned to it for refreshment many times since. Simeon’s biography will rouse you from your summer slumber to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2:3). It will also encourage you to labor and toil by setting your hope on the living God (1 Tim. 4:10).

(In addition to the paperback copy linked to above, Simeon’s complete biography can also be accessed on Google Books.)

2. “The Blind Eye and The Deaf Ear”  from a short chapter in Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students.

This entire book is a worthy read. With perfect whit and wisdom, Spurgeon addresses many subjects that will demand the minister’s attention (and every lay person’s attention, too).

Nehemiah endured malicious gossip and slander throughout his ministry. In “The Blind Ear and The Deaf Ear” Spurgeon advises Christians to employ “one blind and eye and one deaf ear” against such verbal terrorism. The veteran Spurgeon ends the chapter with his usual whit encouraging Christians to use the blind eye and the deaf ear:

Is not this a sufficient explanation of my declaration that I have one blind eye and one deaf ear, and that they are the best eye and ear I have?

The headings from “The Blind Eye and The Deaf Ear”:

• Blind Eye and Deaf Ear in Beginning a New Ministry
• Blind Eye and Deaf Ear in Regard to Salary
• Blind Eye and Deaf Ear Toward Gossip
• Blind Eye and Deaf Ear Toward (Personal) Criticism
• Blind Eye Towards Opinions About Yourself, and
• Blind Eye and Deaf Ear Toward False Reports (About You).

Here’s part of his advice to those who, like Nehemiah and Charles Simeon, are enduring false reports:

In the case of false reports against yourself, for the most part use the deaf ear. Unfortunately liars are not yet extinct, and, like Richard Baxter and John Bunyan, you may be accused of crimes which your soul abhors. Be not staggered thereby, for this trial has befallen the very best of men, and even your Lord did not escape the envenomed tongue of falsehood. In almost all cases it is the wisest course to let such things die a natural death. A great lie, if unnoticed, is like a big fish out of water, it dashes and plunges and beats itself to death in a short time. To answer it is to supply it with its element, and help it to a longer life. Falsehoods usually carry their own refutation somewhere about them, and sting themselves to death.

(Similar to the book above, almost all of Lectures to My Students is free on Google Books)

Below is a helpful post by Adrain Warnock.

“I know and am very grateful that a number of you have bought my book already.  But many have not.  And some of you who have bought it have not read it yet, of that I am sure because I know how many unread books I have on my shelves that I got with good intentions!  So this month I want to challenge you tobuy a copy of a book about the resurrection if you have not already, read it, and then recommend it to your friends or better yet review it on Amazon or your own blog. Never assume that your friends have heard of a book that you read and like.  They may well not have.  Word of mouth is the best way for people to hear about helpful books. If you, or someone you know, prefers audio books (if you have a long car commute they are ideal) there is an mp3 version available.

There are of course other books out there on the resurrection, and if you like the look of one of them better, I will not be offended if you read it instead!  A good shorter one is Lifted by Sam Alberry and a good (much!) longer one is N.T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God. Every Christian should read a book about the resurrection at least once in their lives. Why not determine to do it before this Easter.  If you are going to be reading it through, why not let me know and post any questions in a comment here or @ me on Twitter and betweeen now and Easter I will do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Two parts of a study guide which includes video are available: 1- Do We Neglect The Resurrection? and 2 – How can we know Jesus really rose again?

I have also filmed a third episode but not written questions yet.  If anyone has ideas for good study guide questions do let me know, I intend to try and complete this as soon as I can given other commitments.”

~Visit Adrian’s blog for more great resources and articles.

Everything, dear friend, that makes you to differ from the common sinner is the gift of God’s grace to you. You know it is.

Perhaps, my dear brother, there is a difference between you and other saints. I am sure there is reason for some saints to eclipse others, for some professors are very poor things indeed. Well, brother, you have a great deal more faith than others; where did you get it? If you received it from anywhere but from God, you had better get rid of it.

Dear brother, you have more joy than some, and possibly you feel ashamed of your fellow Christians who are so doubting and sad: beware that you do not become vain of your joy, and remember, that if your joy is true joy you received it of the Lord. Are you more useful than others? You cannot help looking at certain professors who are idle, and wishing that you could stir them up. I know I do; I would put a sharp pin into their downy cushions if I could: but for all that who gives us activity, who gives us usefulness, who gives us zeal, who gives us courage, who gives us everything?

If you, dear friend, get into such a condition that you begin to whisper to yourself, “I have improved my gifts and graces at a very noble rate, and am getting on exceedingly well in spiritual things,” you will soon have to come down from your high places. If you register yourself A 1 at Lloyd’s I will not sail with you, brother, for I fear your proud barque will tempt the tempest. I would rather sail with some poor Christian man whose weather-beaten vessel would go to the bottom if Jesus were not on board, for I am persuaded he is safe. “Blessed is the man that feareth always.”

Blessed is the man who lies low at the foot of the cross, and who, concerning everything that he has, whether temporal or spiritual, ascribes all to the Giver of all Good.

-C.H. Spurgeon. “Pride Catechized and Condemned” A sermon (No. 1271) delivered on January 2, 1876, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

We’re on the front end of a series exploring Ezra and Nehemiah. Here are five resources that will help you dig into each book for yourself. Consider purchasing one of them to help enrich your own study and to help prepare your heart to receive God’s word on Sundays. 

1. Listen to these one-message overviews to help remind you of the overall theme of each book. 

• Ezra: The Faithful God Who Restores His People
• Nehemiah: The God Who Rebuilds and Renews His People

2. Read one of these three books. 

The first two get all the details right, while being full of pastoral comments. 

• Kidner, Derek. Ezra and Nehemiah (Tyndale Old Testament Commentary)
• McConville, J.G. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther

This last one is best current resource on Ezra. It approaches the book from a literary perspective. Although it is far more technical than the previous two, the reward will be worth the effort. The chapter at the end of the book called “A Readers’ Guide to the Theological Message of Ezra” is alone worth the price of the book. And the good news is that it’s also the easiest part to read.  

• Brown, A Philip. Hope Amidst Ruin

Tim Keller, writing in his new book King’s Cross (on the Gospel of Mark), looks at how saying “I’m unworthy” can sometimes function not as a plea for deliverance but as a form of pride:

There are two ways to fail to let Jesus be your Savior.

• One is by being too proud, having a superiority complex—not to accepted his challenge.
• But the other is through an inferiority complex—being so self-absorbed that you say, “I’m just so awful that God can’t love me.” That is, not to accept his offer.

Keller goes on to quote from John Newton’s letter to a very depressed correspondent:

You say you feel overwhelmed with guilt and a sense of unworthiness.

• Well, you cannot be too aware of the inward and inbred evils you complain of, but you may be (indeed you are) improperly controlled and affected by them.

You say it is hard to understand how a holy God could accept such an awful person as yourself.

• You, then, not only express a low opinion of yourself (which is right!) but also too low an opinion of the person, work, and promises of the Redeemer, which is wrong…

You complain about sin, but when we examine your complaints, they are so full of self-righteousness, unbelief, pride, and impatience that they are little better than the worst evils you complain of!

—Works of John Newton, vol. 6, p. 185.

(Reposted from: Justin Taylor of The Gospel Coalition)