Personal “Take-Outs” From A Three Day Fast

Personal “Take-Outs” From A Three Day Fast – January 2023

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

As I type in these thoughts, I have questioned myself about the propriety of sharing them. After all, Jesus cautions us strenuously in Matthew 6 about fasting so others will see us and even urges specific concealment of our fasting. So it seems a bit wrong to talk to a friend or even family member about my particular fasting, let alone to publish about it.

Matthew 6 and Motives

But, unless I, and others more godly and knowledgeable than me, need correction on the matter, it seems Jesus’s concern was false motives for fasting and helping us protect against pride in religious disciplines. As Piper explains in his book “Hunger for God,” the people of God, both Old Testament and New Testament, participated in corporate fasts together. So each would know generally that others were fasting (Acts 13). More to the point, we would not discourage someone from urging other believers to see the benefits of the spiritual discipline of prayer or the practice of generous giving, which are treated in the same manner in Matthew 6. To the contrary, we expect pastors to lead in prayer, and in giving, and to urge congregations to the benefits of those responses to the Gospel. Yet, we tend to put fasting in another category.

Latent Hypocrisy

At any rate, I’m sure there is always some hypocrisy in me, whether I were to write about more acceptable subjects like prayer, or even giving. Such is the case to some degree with fasting as well, but as far as I’ve searched the matter in my heart, I write this for the benefit of others who are on the journey of fasting or might consider adding this “means of grace” to their spiritual growth pathway. In this manner, hopefully these thoughts are not aimed in the least at me “wanting to be seen by men” and therefore already having my “reward”.

My Fasting Journey

Perhaps it will further help to confess out of the gate that I’m not much of a fasting person. I did not really learn about fasting as a spiritual practice for believers until my college years and I don’t think I practiced it at all until seminary in my mid-twenties, despite several invitations earlier by my church. In seminary, I read Piper’s book and began to fast regularly one day a week, but only for a season of about a year or two. At the same time, only from the encouragement by some ministry partners serving with college students did I try a fast for 3 days (thanks, Jeff McCord). I found that greatly rewarding but when I went on staff for another church in my first ordained role, I don’t believe it was as common a practice for that body of believers, or others around me at the time, and I don’t recall doing much on my own to pursue it.

When my wife and I began praying seriously about a call to plant a church, I believe I pursued some more seasons of three-day fasts, and was likely further encouraged to do so through the prayer emphasis of Al Baker, in his role as Alabama Church Planting Network Coordinator. As our new church began we called for fasting around some key events including capital campaigns, missions endeavors, and other large decisions or special ministries. Perhaps twice a year, we pursue these fasts and have used Donald Whitney’s material on fasting as a guide. I’m thankful for church leaders who have always encouraged this and many times joined in the fast with me.

More recently, my wife and I have been reading Piper’s book together. She has grown tremendously in recent years in a heart for prayer, so it has been good to combine that passion from her with my fasting burden, and have some seasons together as a couple, outside of any called church fast.

Lots to Learn, Maybe a Little to Share

So I would not say I’m much of a fasting person. In that sense, I’m a product of my time and culture where it seems the spiritual practice even among seriously minded Bible-believing Protestant Christians in “the West” is not widely or deeply practiced. So I suspect I may have fasted more than some in our time, but probably greatly less than most serious believers around the world today, or in other branches of Christianity, and certainly throughout Christian history. So hopefully all of that introduction will dissuade any from feeling Matthew 6 is violated by anything I write below, and you will read this as just “one beggar trying to tell other beggars where to find bread.” – pun/metaphor fully intended!

Why at Three-Day Food Fast?

What I found interesting during a recent fast (really 2 ¾ day since it began after dinner Thursday and ended at lunch Sunday) as part of our church Missions Month, was slowing down to follow some of the “seasons” of such a fast – Or as I’ve tried to put in cleverly, the “take-outs” of the fast. I’m sure some key lessons could be gained when participating in just one day of fasting, and I bet there would have been more to share had I carried the fast further. Oh, and when I write of fasting, I’m talking about not eating any solid food and enjoying minimal liquid nourishment – coffee, a little bit of Gatorade in water, maybe some chicken broth. I understand people can fast in other ways, and children or those in poor health may need to modify, but I don’t think we get the full benefit the Lord intends from food fasting, without actually fasting from food.

Although I do not detail it here, prayer and fasting go hand in hand. Maybe I’ll write another blog after my next fast about prayer lessons. A benefit of fasting is the time we all normally spend eating each day can be allocated to special prayer, or prayer walks alone or with others. What I write below are lessons learned, not a full schedule of time spent in the fast.

Beginning the Fast

Every time I have called our church to fast or done any personal fast, I have experienced some kind of discouragement to pursue it as the starting point approached. “Mandatory” life events shift, or some illness comes along, or something, which threatens to derail the plan. I think anyone pursuing any fast should be prepared to encounter some barrier and be prepared to move past it. The devil does not want us to fast, any more than he wants us to pray or give.

My experience has also been that instead of joyfully anticipating how I will grow in the Lord during the fast, I often have a bit of dread as the actual start approaches. At that moment, the benefits of deferred gratification don’t seem at all worth it, the promises of Scripture seem rather irrelevant, and the end of the fast seems a long way off.

Key Take-Outs

Lunchtime First Fast Day

In some ways, this is the toughest “craving” time of the fast because even though energy levels are still good physically and mentally you may feel fine, the body wants its usual intake and it is noticeable. I also think it is pretty common later in the afternoon to feel some headaches.

For me this is the point where I have fresh cognizance of how “programmed” my body is for food intake and the first chance to look to the Lord for help. It is also a chance to remember our various bodily desires do not have to rule us and with God’s help internal drives that seem very strong can be tamed. Many others have written on this topic and how fasting provides a “practice field” for learning through hunger to surrender in many areas – anger, substance addiction, sexual lust, over-eating, worry, and other “impulses” do not have to rule us.

Bedtime First Fast Day

This holds true for the second evening as well, but a new dynamic that the Lord impressed on me recently was compassion for the millions who go to bed hungry all the time and who don’t have an immediate way out of it. This compassionate impulse merged with greater thankfulness for God’s provision – all 48 years of my life, 365 days of the year, I have always had access to however much food I would need, and healthy, safe food. I especially thought of children like the ones I have seen on mission trips to various Third World cities, who must scrape together sustenance and probably have the exact reverse experience I have had…they hardly know one night in 365 days of the year when they do not go to sleep with hunger pains, and have not ability to be confident in future food provision.

Depleted Second Fast Day

One of the reasons I have preferred in recent years to do occasional fasts for 2-3 days rather than more regular one day fasting is the spiritual benefit of what happens after the first day hunger pains fade. Generally by the time a 3 day fast is set to end I am looking forward to eating (see below) but I’m actually not hungry in the typical sense. I guess the way to put it is that by day two, the body is not seeking food to fill the hunger pangs, it is depleted and not maintaining energy or mental focus. At least in my case, on a one day fast, I never reach the point where my stomach is not really seeking food, but on day two and three I’m keenly aware that I am in a weakened state. There is a difference between feeling hungry and experiencing body and brain weakness. One is more in the realm of desire and the other in function or capacity.

When you get very drained going on a short prayer walk with your spouse, or can’t compose a thought for a work task like you would normally, and maybe even get a bit light headed if you bend over to get something or stand up from a chair quickly, you are not “hungry” but rather “depleted.”

I’m sure a lot of spiritual lessons could be taken from this but for me it is typically a time to realize that the only reason I’m alive at all is because God made me and sustained me. He could remove the sunlight and quickly we would all have no life because of no plant food. He could hold back his daily hand of mercy and some illness could not just make the price of eggs go a little high, but wipe out every animal. He could remove the oxygen from the air and our demise would be even faster.

More specifically, you and I can’t accomplish our tasks as mothers and fathers, as students at school, as employees in the workplace, if the physical engine known as our metabolism does not run. And our minds can’t work well either. This is a great reminder, just as a sabbath day each week teaches us that God is ultimate provider, not our ability to work.

And in many ways, this is the most humbling time of the fast, where I sense God is really helping me take a sledge hammer to that core sin that drives all other sin…my pride…self sufficiency…and giving me a special chance to root myself more deeply in core dependency upon Him.

As Christians in a society where our (very beneficial) capitalist system has allowed great material wealth, such that even the moderately poor among us lives like the upper class of old and in a country where our physical protection is secured by the most formidable military might known to man, and at a time when human innovation through technology and medicine allow us knowledge, connection and restoration not even dreamed of in past eras, and where we have rebelliously gone so far as to turn the rainbow symbol of God’s kind mercy for justly deserved flood of judgement into a cultural juggernaut championing human self-re-identification – we need humbling, and we need it badly – if we hope to be lifted up by the Lord.

Eternal Hope and Anticipating the End of the Fast

Regardless of how long a fast that an individual or group might choose, at some point the planned fast concludes. In my recent fast I was intrigued how refreshed I was to hit the afternoon of my second fast day, knowing that I was just one evening and one morning away from enjoying a meal.

In recent years I have had a general deepening focus on the new heavens and the earth. The writings of C.S. Lewis in “The Space Trilogy” and “Great Divorce,” as well as Randy Alcorn’s book, “Heaven,” have blessed greatly. But fasting with an eye toward eternity is a special experience because it reminds us that a key part of the Christian life is the “already and the not yet.” We see close friends in marriage turmoil, we see young people take their own lives and others running to gender modification to find an identity the Lord has already provided, and of course many with chronic pain, and all of us with recurring sin patterns that offend the Lord and affect others but also just leave us discouraged in this life (Romans 7).

Nearing the end of a fast gives fresh perspective on the joy of waiting and the blessing of anticipating. As with other aspects of fasting, we are essentially creating an “artificial” suffering, in which we can strengthen spiritual muscles for daily living and crisis moments. Just as knowing that meal is coming in 18 hours helps empower to the finish line of the fast, so too, the hope we have of heaven in all our spiritual journey.

Thankfulness When the Fast is Complete

In some ways the few moments before one takes a bite of food to end a fast is a mixed bag. Recently, I found I was both absolutely ready to eat and also a bit sad that the season of purposeful personal growth and empowered prayer was ending. I was both thankful for the special connection to the Lord I had received, and for the material provision to refresh my weary body. As a physical being, God designed me to run on food, and to enjoy the tasting of it and fellowship around the table with family or friends. What a joy that He provides something much higher than the enjoyment and provision of food, and He also provides the enjoyment and provision of food!

I hope in some way these “take-outs” from one short season of fasting will bless others as they decide to fast or seek out the Lord in their fast. Perhaps we can inspire one another to move from the most well-fed and least fasting Christians in history, to the most God-fed and more deliberate fasting believers.

Knowing Christ and Making Him Known

The theme for this year’s Missions Month is “Knowing Christ and Making Him Known”, and the theme applies to our missionary partners globally and locally – and also to all of us as believers in Jesus. 

Our Scriptural theme this year is taken from Isaiah 6. When Isaiah had been saved by faith “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for”, he responded to the call of God to go and proclaim the Gospel message by saying “Here I am! Send me”. Similarly in Matthew 4:19, Jesus calls to brothers Simon and Andrew saying, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Those who are called by the Savior are transformed and respond to the call to make him known! 

Os Guinness referred to the same thematic idea by using the words “Primary Calling” and “Secondary Callings”. Our Primary Calling is to Christ (to faith, to fellowship with Him, to The Kingdom, to eternal life, and to holy living). And our call to Christ works itself out in Secondary Callings – to human family, church, community, and our vocational work. These secondary callings flow from the primary calling. As ambassadors of Christ, we make Him known in the various spheres of our callings. 

The questions for us and our missionary partners, therefore, are:

  • How is your relationship with Christ? Are you daily surrendered to Him for His glory alone?
  • Is His life, which flows through us, resulting in fruit for the Kingdom?

“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples”.
– John 15:8

May this Missions Month conference be a time when we all grow in knowing Christ and making Him known.

Pastor
Reverend Chris Peters, Ph.D. (with help from my Ghost Writer, Paul Johnson)

 


Missions Month 2023:

Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

On Sunday, December 11, one of our church elders, Brian Gross, will guide us in our combined adult Sunday School discipleship class. He will walk through in detail, the reason for Christian confessions of faith and catechisms, why they have historically been used by nearly all denominations of believers, and how they can play a vital role in spiritual growth for us today.

I hope we will have to bring in extra chairs for that gathering in Room 4, which will be an excellent complement to this blog about our plan for churchwide daily devotional growth in 2023. In the more recent past we have used Starr Meade’s book (with a blue cover) on the Westminster Catechism. This year, we will engage with her book on the Heidelberg Catechism. Find it online here. Both come from the historic Reformed Christian framework. It is certainly notable to see how detached from our Christian heritage we are as believers, when the knee-jerk reaction most of us have to the word “catechism” is either suspicion or ambivalence, rather than interest and confidence.

I realize both Brian and I have our work cut out for us to make the case. For my part, I simply want to ask a few questions… with no requirement to make a digital show of hands! ha

  1. Who was chomping at the bit at the end of 2021 when our church shared the Read Thru the Bible plan for 2022? Probably not many of us. Who dove into it for at least part of the year, and maybe all of it, and found growth in God’s Word that you would not have enjoyed otherwise?
  2. Who thinks selecting our own personally preferred method of spiritual growth or devotional reading each year might involve some “selection bias” and actually leave us missing the challenge and encouragement of spiritual truths we might not normally seek ourselves?
  3. Who thinks our contemporary church, including pastors like me, and other leaders and authors, might have on cultural blinders and therefore we could benefit from voices from another era (the 1500-1600s for instance)? The “clean sea breeze,” as CS Lewis described reading from other centuries than our own?
  4. Which moms and dads in our church would love to have a resource you can keep by the dinner table and easily pick up 1, 3 or 7 nights a week, as time allows, and know that you will have meaningful discussion material to guide your children? Or have an $11.45 tool you can put in your child’s hand, of reading age, and challenge that child to read on their own one catechism question a week and one paragraph of commentary per day?
  5. Who wants to have a richer Sunday worship experience, not just buoyed by the general daily prayer and devotional pursuits of our congregation members, but even better, united by reading during Sunday worship one catechism question and answer each week, as a sort of churchwide spiritual theme for the week?

One might call all of those questions “loaded,” or “leading” and indeed they are. I’ll close with this, the Gospel is a message of grace from top to bottom. We are not saved by our daily reading pace or content or accomplishment… but we grow spiritually by means of grace and all believers should want to “Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever” (that’s a catechism question answer! Sneaky!). When we pursue the means of grace and help direct our family to do the same, we will grow.

You will hear me and others announce in the coming weeks plenty of times the Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds book. We know it will be tough in the midst of the busy Christmas and New Year’s season to remember to prepare to start this journey in January.

Would you take the following simple steps:

  1. If you are married, talk to your spouse about a plan as individuals or together to participate in this journey in the new year? And if you have kiddos, to talk with them about how you want them to participate?
  2. Would you get the book (and however many additional copies are needed for your household)? For the cost of one meal out, you can help your family learn to be spiritual self-feeders all year long.
  3. Would you pick up a copy of the schedule for the readings and make a note on whatever calendar system you use for your life planning, to begin the journey January 1? (actually Jan 2 cause that is our first Sunday)

A Season of Growth and Flourishing For Cross Creek Church

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

What a difference two years makes! As we enter into what seems to be a new season of growth and flourishing for our church body, I think it is valuable to reflect. In doing so, we realize that the Lord is in our midst in every season, and working His purposes even when, to us, things may look bleak and lean.

  • Two years ago we did not really know whether to plan any “Fall kickoff” ministries because we did not even know what ministry amidst Covid would look like.
  • This year, we are delighted to see a full worship space on Sundays, a great lineup of groups where all in our church can connect, and multiple missions/service initiatives having significant kingdom impact.
  • Two years ago we were sharing a church building, at the kind invitation of a sister church, but not able to renovate or improve the facility for it to most effectively serve the gospel ministries of our church.
  • This year, many in our congregation made planned giving commitments for our “Twelve – Called by Him, Called for Him” building purchase and renovation initiative. As those contributions are received, we have already renovated almost all of the church interior flooring and walls, upgraded our technology/security infrastructure, refinished and repainted the exterior, recoated the parking lot, improved the water flow around our site, and will very soon install a new playground.
  • Two years ago we were forced to learn to love each other and show grace to each other across varying viewpoints on matters of physical health, and it sure wasn’t easy at times.
  • This year, we are able to translate the unity amidst diversity that the Gospel provides into celebratory weekly worship and a purposeful pursuit of our church vision.

 Over the next few weeks, we can pray for one another to:

  • Engage meaningfully in personal and family devotionals, perhaps joining in on or resuming the Read-Thru-The-Bible plan, and also growing in truth through our weekly sermon series in Isaiah.
  • Commit to our Sunday morning pathways for discipleship in Sunday school as a great blessing to young and old who “put themselves in the way of God’s grace.”
  • Connect for the first time, or more deeply in Christian community through our Life Groups and also the joy of fellowship at our Men’s and Women’s ministries gatherings.
  • Serve dependently, trusting God to provide gifting and strength for us to all play our part in the spiritual family of our local church.
  • Invite those around us who need the love and truth of Christ into our homes, into relationship, and into the ministries of our church, with the ultimate hope for revival to come, such that many are spiritually saved and even our culture is transformed.

Salt and Light – For the Sanctity of Life

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

-Matthew 5:13-16


For those interested in why our church and denomination have historically been, and presently remain, thoroughly pro-life, here are just a few blog posts from The Gospel Coalition. These posts cover the issue from numerous perspectives for thoughtful consideration. For a more extended written treatment, Randy Alcorn’s book, Why Pro-Life? is also helpful. As always, our pastor and church elders would be more than happy to talk about the spiritual importance of these matters.

Why I’m Thankful for the Biblical Commitment of Our Denomination: On the Eve of General Assembly 2022 in Birmingham, AL

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

Blessed in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)

As our city of Birmingham prepares to host the General Assembly of the PCA, the annual gathering of pastors and elders, I’m thankful for our denomination. I have been an ordained “teaching elder” in the Presbyterian Church in America for almost 20 years. I’m definitely encouraged to see other Biblically focused denominations in our nation and around the world, and I know we in the PCA certainly have issues we regularly seek to work through, but I’ve been greatly blessed by those who have gone before me and by my brothers and sisters in the denomination currently. 

Why be “denominational”?

Before talking about some reasons for my thankfulness, I probably should answer a question some may ask in our “non-denominational” era. While I understand the impetus for both pastors and church members to seek such an unaffiliated church, I have always felt I needed the accountability and the structure of a committed network of churches. At the end of the day, every “non-denominational” church must decide what it believes about debated biblical matters and church practices – who to baptize and when, what type of leadership structure, what theological framework, and so forth. Denominations at their best are simply groups of churches and church leaders who have agreement on these matters. I value both the agreed theological framework and the connectional life of the PCA. Furthermore, knowing my weakness and the ways I have seen other church leaders stumble, I’m concerned whenever I see pastors live outside of accountable networks of peers.

Lean Not On Your Own Understanding

One of the things I love about our particular affiliation is our consistent commitment to the Bible as the “only infallible rule for faith and practice.” In the 20 years I have been in the PCA, and for that matter, in the 27 years prior to that, I have seen that manmade culture blows wherever it will,usually with devastating consequences. Proverbs 3:5-6 provided a central message of conviction and encouragement for me in my conversion – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” A central step of my coming to faith in Christ was realizing not just that I did things that were wrong to others, but that I offended God with the things I did and did not do, and that the very framework I had in my mind for living was prone to be out of alignment with the flourishing path of God’s revealed commands. As one both morally and mentally out of alignment, I was so thankful to realize God’s grace to me through the atoning work of Christ, and hopefully continue to grow in that gratitude every day.

Fruitful “Study Committee Reports”

In light of this, I’m regularly refreshed by a denomination where “Study Committees” assess pressing matters, seeking to acknowledge Him and follow his direction from a Biblical framework. We in the PCA can undoubtedly be too cognitive, and maybe to some seem overly precise, but as I read the Scriptures, God is quite interested in how His people and His church will live out His will. We should never prescribe where He has been silent, but we also should not fail to speak where He has done so if we hope to be a people of God who glorify Him as He has designed and as we seek to be salt and light in this needy world.

To that end, I would commend to anyone, the “Position Papers” as they were more commonly called in the past, or just “Study Committee Reports” as we seem to prefer to call them today, from over 4 decades of our history. You can see the list of them all here. These are non-binding but, when received by the General Assembly, certainly to be understood as a valid expression of denominational views at the time of publishing. 

Presently our denomination is greatly focused on matters of sexuality, and specifically homosexuality. I am thankful for a denomination that proclaims God’s free grace to those who have repented of sexual sin (heterosexual or homosexual), and by faith alone have received the righteousness of Christ. I praise God, that although glorifying God with my own sexuality remains a daily journey of sanctification for me and I have a far from perfect track record, I can know God’s plan for fidelity in heart, mind and action. As a student of history, I know that we live in a very particular moment in a particular American societal framework, and that people in other times, and presently in other places were not perfect in their understanding of God’s design for sexual flourishing. Nevertheless, we have made decisions as churches and as a society going back to the 1960s and 70s, to ignore Jesus’s challenge to recognize the lustful look as adultery, to abandon the idea that God has a purpose in sexuality within a lifelong committed marriage of one man and one woman, and more recently to reject God’s design for sex to be an activity of a male and a female, rather than any other formulations. To any open to insight from the Lord on these matters, I would commend these Biblically based studies on the topic (2021 Report and 1980 Report), and also Kevin DeYoung’s book. Or for more general understanding of the comprehensive message of the Bible about sexuality, Paul David Tripp’s book. Whatever the outworking of this summer’s General Assembly on the specific matters before us, I’m glad for where we have planted our feet so far, as we speak the truth in love, pointing in all matters of sexuality to God’s good plan of flourishing, and warning about both the temporal and eternal impact of ignoring that plan.

Indeed, as I have considered the more recent study report on sexuality, it has reminded me of many other areas addressed by these helpful study reports, all of which give such rich grounding for the life of believers in an age where both truth and identity are re-invented annually, where down is up and up is down. If you are interested, here are some of those topics and why I’m thankful for the PCA caring enough to speak to them:

Creation

Nearly all the applications of Biblical truth to the matters of Christian living and impact as salt and light in our society, flow from the vital reality that we, as people, and our environment, the universe, are the handiwork of the Sovereign, Righteous, and Loving God. While we make room for varied perspectives on the length of those creation days, we robustly affirm that all is from God, was created of nothing, that humanity, male and female, is in God’s image, and that Adam and Eve were real people in a real place.

Male and Female Complementarian Flourishing

The PCA also clearly affirms there are two sexes, male and female, though not ignorant of the tiny percentage of people born with some deformity that confuses the physical distinction. The distinction between male and female is not something we define or “identify” for ourselves but is how God defines us, and can be seen across much of animal creation. Although across cultures and time, and allowing for a scope of distinctions in the particular individual manifestation of maleness or femaleness, the Bible prescribes human flourishing best achieved when we recognize the equal value of men and women, while at the same time acknowledging a different role each will generally play. Notably, in the church, men are called to loving wise leadership authority in the ordained role of elder, and the servant role of deacon, and in the household, men are called to the same, as they sacrificially shepherd their family, and their wife respects and follows his direction, in all matters Biblically sound. If we did not see the tremendous value and great blessing of holding strongly and vocally to a complementarian view in the past – over against merely egalitarian perspective of men’s and women’s roles at church and home – the current absurd confusion in our culture over such matters should help us desire clarity.

Race

Although the PCA is a predominantly “Anglo” denomination, the fact that we are not “all white” or “all black” and also have always included a large number of Korean churches, and more recently a growing number of Latino congregations, means that based on raw percentages we are more ethnically diverse than most American denominations, even though we desire to more readily reflect the ethnic diversity of our nation. In addition to consistently affirming the image of God in all human beings, we have most recently aimed to repent of any sins of omission as well as commission regarding the Civil Rights Movement, while at the same time guarding against more contemporary views of race which seem likely to move us backward, as Thaddeus Williams seeks to address in his book Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth.

Divorce

We recognize that “redefining” marriage is not merely an issue of the 21st century concerning homosexual partnerships, but that marriage as a life-long covenant relationship between one male and one female has been a target of the Enemy since our fall into sin. The Bible certainly offers valid reasons for which a marriage may be ended, and God is gracious to forgive any past decisions we may make. But the purpose of every married couple should be not only to remain in that bond, but also to live life both “face to face” and “arm and arm,” as sinners, but with purpose toward each other and the world. There are a variety of threats to the sanctity of marriage, including adultery and abandonment, as well as abuse and lack of forgiveness, but undoubtedly the proliferation of pornography, and media content laced with such imagery, has undercut the core intimate bond.

Preventing Abuse

We have also aimed for our churches to adopt policies of child protection to make our churches as safe as reasonably possible for young ones. Although not yet adopted by our General Assembly, we will consider this year a full study report on this topic, as well as other forms of abuse, in general.

Sanctity of Life

Last, but certainly not least, as we see the shifting waves of our society, I’m grateful we are a denomination seeking to uphold the sanctity of human life comprehensively – organizing women’s care centers, promoting chastity outside of marriage as God’s good design, advocating adoption as the right pathway in the case of mother/parents who are unable or undesiring to keep and raise their child, and working toward the end of abortion. Simultaneously we extend to men and women who have pursued abortion, the same free grace and forgiveness that Jesus offers to all, whatever choices any may make against His good commands, and we foster groups for abortion healing.

Many of these same topics are also addressed by articles found on The Gospel Coalition website in more contemporary and specific formulation. The site is not aligned with any particular denomination but seeks to share Biblical perspectives on matters for the church and culture.

For all the reasons and a host more, I’m thankful for the PCA, and all others of like-minded conviction on these vital matters. I’m hopeful, as we move forward, we will continue to “lean not on our own understanding” and “trust in the Lord” every step of the way.

Go to Dark Gethsemane

Go to Dark Gethsemane

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

For some years now, I have been challenged and blessed by the simple song “Go to Dark Gethsemane.” From what I can tell, not many contemporary Christians have heard or sung it. Perhaps there are musical reasons for that, but the words are profound, and I trust will strengthen and enlighten all who ponder and apply them, especially this Easter week. Below are the lyrics followed by one rendition of the song. Note, in particular, the call to unite with Christ in his life and death. This might seem a bit mystical, but is in fact a privilege for all believers, simply through faith in Christ’s gracious sacrificial death for all of us sinners, and a repentant intention of our hearts to turn to him and away from denying his Lordship in our lives.

In particular, this week, note the final line of each stanza calling us to take spiritual steps – Pray, Bear, Die, Rise

1 Go to dark Gethsemane,
You who feel the tempter’s pow’r;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see;
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from His griefs away;
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

2 Follow to the judgment hall;
View the Lord of life arraigned;
O the worm-wood and the gall!
O the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suff’ring, shame, or loss;
Learn of Him to bear the cross.

3 Calv’ry’s mournful mountain climb
There’ adoring at His feet,
Mark the miracle of time,
God’s own sacrifice complete:
“It is finished!” Hear the cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.

4 Early hasten to the tomb
Where they laid his breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom;
Who hath taken Him away?
Christ is ris’n! He meets our eyes:
Savior, teach us so to rise.

 

Prayer

Prayer

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

“You can do more than pray after you pray, but you cannot do more than pray, until you pray.” – John Bunyan

The past Sunday, I invited our church to join me in four weeks of growing our prayer life. This is not only a helpful theme in general, but an important way for us to conclude our fantastic Missions Month and prepare to enter our Building Campaign in about a month.

4 Passages

Over the next few weeks we will examine four passages the Apostle Paul wrote, each of which gives us a model of how we can pray for ourselves, our families, our church family and our community. We started with Colossians 1:3-14 and saw that both spiritual growth, in general, and maturing in prayer, in particular, are grounded in God’s Good News of grace. We can pray and we should pray, propelled by the knowledge God has “qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” And he has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His Beloved Son.” Because of Christ’s work in our lives we have the privilege and responsibility of prayer.

4 Tools

In addition to learning from these specific passages from Paul, I hope to share four key resources for prayer. On Sunday, I mentioned Donald Whitney’s short, but profound, book Praying the Bible. He contends that the primary reason most of us don’t pray more is that we are bored in prayer, and that we are bored in prayer, not because we pray over the same life matters, but because we do not use Scripture to direct our prayers.

In the upcoming weeks I will help us learn for the first time, or recall for fresh application, the acrostic A.C.T.S as a format for prayer, and also will show us how to use PrayerMate, a useful prayer App for smart devices. And lastly, we will talk about combining fasting with prayer.

In all of this, I hope we will be propelled to engage more deeply in prayer for missions, as one commitment we call make from our Missions Month, and I trust we will be equipped for the season of prayer we aim to have as a centerpiece for Twelve – Called By Him, Called For Him – our upcoming Building Campaign.

Strangers and Aliens

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

A few weeks ago, in the men’s discipleship group I lead with 3 guys who are studying what the Bible teaches about the core beliefs of the Christian life, we came across the “heroes of faith” – chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews. It reads, in part…

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

As I’ve mentioned in some comments and other written communication to our church recently, God seems to want to make sure Cross Creek Church remembers we should never get too comfortable with the things of this earth and this life. We can enjoy all the blessings of this life deeply and sincerely, and in fact, our relationship with God should enliven that enjoyment, but we also hold all things with a loose hand.

When the 100 year rain storm we had a few weeks ago flowed into the church building we are preparing to buy, it was a bit perplexing. After 12 years of growing to a place of having our own church facility, meeting at two area schools the first 8 years, and the last few renting the church building we are purchasing, you would think we would have no trouble remembering we are strangers and aliens in this world… but I know I easily forget.

God knows best, even in what appears to me to be setbacks or frustrations. Thanks to Parkwood Church of God we have a temporary space and will have the joy of coming back into a building with new flooring and paint, but we can thank Him most of all for helping us remember what the church actually is – God’s people, not a facility; the ministries we have for outreach and our own growth, not an address on a map; the vision to Glorify God By Inviting All Into God’s Grace, pursued by Growing in Truth, Living in Community and Serving in the Kingdom, not a deed and title.

I’ve said before, spiritual Alzheimer’s is one of our chief problems – failing to remember what we know from God’s Word, what God has shown us in experience, what others have helped us believe. Let’s thank God these next 4-5 weeks while we are at a temporary meeting place, for helping us remember the nomadic life… the alien existence. And when we set foot on new carpet and new plank flooring, let’s ask God to help us also remember the good vision he has given to us as a church, to be salt and light to a hurting and fallen community and to invite others to experience the grace we have the privilege of receiving through the ministry we use our facility to pursue.

In a few weeks, I’ll have the blessing of staying up late 3-4 nights to teach a seminary course online for 40-50 pastors halfway around the world in a place where churches are rare but the Gospel is rapidly spreading. Just like church facilities are helpful in our part of the world for all the ministries of the church, they are likewise for the churches led by these faithful pastors. Limitations of resources, of government restrictions and of community persecution might keep these believers from having a building. Yet we have more in common with them, than we might presume. They, like us, stand in the light of the accomplished work of God in Christ. Thus we can all say together…

“For you have not come to what may be touched….but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:18-24)

Embracing the Means of Grace

[Written by Dr. Chris Peters]

As we come into the final few months of 2021, now is most certainly a good moment to pause and look back at the first 75% of this year, even as we pivot and look to finish the year well. That can mean a lot of things, but in my 25 years of pastoral ministry and almost 30 years of walking in the Lord, it does not mean less than embracing the means of grace.

The means of grace, or spiritual disciplines, as they are also called, can be intimidating for all of us. Perhaps they bring to mind our failed attempts to carve out regular prayer time, or our stumbling with any regular personal scriptural and devotional reading, or more ominous and demanding practices, like fasting. Hopefully we are all growing in our identity in Christ, by grace, through faith alone, such that we don’t head off in either misguided “license” (using God’s mercy as an excuse to live without purposeful obedience to God) or “legalism” (overestimating our ability to follow God and perhaps even creating extra rules that we might be wired to accomplish easily, so we can perform spiritually). Instead, we would aim to elevate both the radical call to transformation we are invited into by grace, and the radical love God has shown to credit righteousness to sinners like us.

It is with this perspective, and only with it, that we can look at things like Starr Meade’s devotional book, and read the recent sections on the tenth commandment without dodging their impact or ditching the faith altogether. As the Apostle Paul reminds us, and Meade highlights, the tenth commandment – you shall not covet – is the tour de force of the commandments. Even if we miss the way that the other commandments compel us to seek grace and call us to even deeper obedience than we thought, we find it very hard to do with the tenth. The catechism #80 reminds us to be distinctively content in life. Everything else around us and in us, bids us to do the exact opposite. What joy to know that we can square up with the undoing of God’s law and let it land fully on us, because we know Jesus bore all the punishment for us, and gifts perfect righteousness to us.

This same perspective allows us to look back at 75% of the year and be honest with ourselves about where we have fallen short in our purposes and aims…perhaps including spending time and guiding our household through a spiritual growth plan like Meade offers and our church has pursued. And this also allows us to not wallow in where we fell short but to be inspired by God’s amazing kindness to put ourselves and our household in the way of grace through spiritual disciplines these last few months of 2021. All of us, including myself, can give a lot of reasons to justify where we and our household are, not the least of which has been another year of Covid issues, but as the theologians of the past have simply said, so I call to myself and our church – “Further In…and Further Up!”…in our 2021 journey of faith.