From John Stott's Commentary on Romans 1

Six fundamental truths about the gospel:

Its origin is God the Father

Its substance Jesus Christ the Son.

Its attestation is Old Testament Scripture

And its scope all the nations.

Our immediate purpose  in proclaiming it is to bring people to the obedience of faith

But our ultimate goal is the greater glory of the name of Jesus Christ.

The good news is the gospel of God, about Christ, according to the Scripture for the nations unto the obedience of faith for the sake of the Name.

Bonhoeffer cont.

We must consider the spiritual nature of the church. “God established the reality of the church, of humankind pardoned in Jesus Christ.” This is the church-humankind pardoned in Jesus Christ, or the communion of the saints, the redeemed ones. The disciples did not establish this, though they did establish much about the Christian church. But the death and resurrection of Christ is the only thing that made it so that there could be this communion of the redeemed. There would be no redeemed humans without Christ. And the systems and structures we have put in place support that but the cornerstone, as Paul says, is Jesus Christ.

Bonheoffer beautifully describes a dual existence of the church. It is consummated in Him (Christ) and time is annulled. It is also within time and built upon Him as the foundation. JUST as believers are both already perfect and still sinners.

The Kingdom of God, in fact, is to us a future hope, but to God, for whom there is no time, it is a reality-it always has been and always will be.

Bonheoffer is wise to remind us of another humbling fact-the work of prayer the church is called to. How quick I am to put everything before prayer-ministries and programs and teachings…but prayer is the means by which we proclaim that we are indeed an instrument of Gods will. “The devil fears the church at prayer.”

“The proper place of the church is Christ present in the world.”

May we dwell on this for a minute? The church is the place where Christ is present in the world. First and foremost, we must protect the church as such and not make it out to be anything else-in social work, the church is often made to be a community organizer or instrument of social justice-no, the church holds its own place and that is the place where Christ is present in this world. At the same time, all that Christ is, we must be. We cannot leave out any portion of the manifestation of Christ. We shall be no more than the place of Christ present, but we shall also be no less than the place of Christ present.

How do we know what it is to be “Christ present here”?

“The church lives by God’s word alone.” We know by Gods word, which reveals to us all that we need to know of Christ.

“No religious services should be without the confession of faith. The community must either confess its faith or disavow it. It cannot, like the general public, remain undecided.” Absolutely beautiful. No one is halfway in the community. If you confess the faith, you are all in, if you do not, you are not. Not because of exclusivity-because it is the SOLE condition for membership. If there is no condition for membership, nothing to separate membership from non-membership there would be no such thing as membership at all. There has to be a condition.

Indecisiveness is not an option. All in or all out.

Now, what exactly is this “Confession of faith?”

Bonheoffer puts it: ”I acknowledge and confess your truth, O God.”

“Your truth” refers to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the Word of Scripture and to a deep faith that He is real, that He is good, that He has sent His Son to die for our sin and that His Son did rise and does rule and is our salvation, our life, our glory, our All.

“The Word must be preserved as the most sacred possession of the community.”

The Word is the churches most sacred possession. It is what we have that can be found nowhere else in the entire world.

The Word needs to most protection because it is the most precious thing.

The Wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the Church

Some men just blaze history with the fire of the gospel in them.

With their giftedness and compassion and most of all their deep, hard love of their Savior. It is a joy to sit and savor the thoughts and words of those men, as a means to savor Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of those men.

Spending three hours in Barnes and noble today with “A Testament to Freedom” and a latte, I was able to take away just a bit of the beauty of the church that I had never quite grasped before. I would love to highlight a few of his thoughts for deeper meditation. (Anything that is his is in quotes…hopefully I got it all quoted, if it sounds amazing, it was probably his not mine).

First, “Just as the Holy Spirit is with the individual, so Christ makes himself present with the body of saints.”

So as the Holy Spirit is to the individual, to you or I, Christ is to the entire church. He is the manifestation of God in the church just as the Spirit lives in our own bodies.

Furthermore, “He is only present in the church where the brothers and sisters are united for brotherly loving through preaching of the word and communion”

This is where he dwells in the world. Not every equally but specifically in His church. This highlights the necessity of bringing non-christians into the church if they are to meet Christ. How humbling this is, as I often think that they will meet my savior just by me entering into their spaces-but no, the Savior is manifested in the collective church, and it is not a surprise that the body as one is a clearer vision of Him who is our Head then me as individual.

May we bring them in and may we protect and honor the Bride where He is manifested in this world. It is of utmost importance.

(So I wrote about 4 pages from what I learned, but no one likes to read long things so I'll post in stages :))

With love, Krystal

Musings from home

As I sit on our screened in porch listening to piano music (Italian summer on pandora, thanks dad) and the rain, thinking. Resting. Being. How can you not just lean into the beauty? Today lord, this is enough for me. To hear Italian summer and to write to you; to pray.
 

As I rest here, I know that I am in the sacred space of your presence. I just want to watch the drops fall steadily in the dim light. I want to hear the chorus of the night. I want to listen to the beauty of the music. My mind dances with it, seeing the colors, seeing the stream of sound like the northern lights make its way across my mind bringing me joy and rest. On the inside I dance. I dance for you.

There is specialness to every place. If I am with you, I don’t care where
I am.

I hear you so clearly in the piano. I see you in my own writing. I see your love and your grace in me, changing me, making me who I am. I see you in the well worn pages of my bible as I read the profound gospel of John and watch my Savior, watch him thirst and bleed and die and be raised by you. I watch Him pray and I read His words, His words that I have read I don’t know how many times. I think of my cousin there with Him now. I think that I am going to Him one day. 

Nothing compares to Christ. In death, in life. Nothing has brought me what He has brought. No one has dealt with me the way He has. I know His love for me. It is a force. A massive force, but a good force. Constant and divine. On me. Every day. I wake up and that love is with me. I live my day with that love around me. This I know, that God is for me. I trust and lean in. Spirit, come I whisper. Come quickly Jesus. Bring these people that you have put into my life, even for a snippet of time, into your kingdom. Usher them in. Display your glory to them. They wouldn’t want anything but you. 

"The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

One of the wisest men I have ever read. 

The wisdom of Jim Elliott

Jim Elliott writes (concerning his own writing)

"Most of it is heart cry from a little child to a Father I have struggled to get know. It is a book of remembrance to enable me to ask definitely by forcing myself to put my yearnings into words. This I have failed miserably to do, but I don't apologize now. All I have asked has not been given; the Fathers withholding has served only to intensify my desires. He knows that the hungrier one is, the more appreciative he becomes of food, and if I have gotten nothing else from this years experience He has given me a hunger for Himself I never experienced before. He only promises water to the thirsty, satiation to the unsatisfied (I do not say dissatisfied) filling to those famished for righteousness. So he has, by His concealing of Himself, given me longings that can only be slaked with Psalm 17:15 is realized. We shall behold him face to face, and He will tell us of His love in those looks as we have never known it here. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty a, they shall behold the land that is very far off."

As I ponder his writings, I see that the frustration and the struggle and the unmet desires of the previous year are perhaps His intention to give me greater hunger for Himself and loosen my attachment my life here. To show to me the inevitable "unsatisfaction" in anything other than Himself. My temptation is to slip into dissatisfaction, a very different thing as he mentioned, which leads to indifference and bitterness and busyness. Instead may I let the longings grow, knowing that they will one day be filled. Not the day that I have the right job or the right country or the right ministry or the right husband or sons and daughters, but the day where I see Him face to face. And til that I day, rather than dragging in discontentment and muting it with lots of busyness, may I dare to delight in the joy that dwelling in Christ brings and say with Paul, I have learned to be content.

Zephaniah

I know that I don’t blog much any more, but I wanted to take a moment and testify to the greatness and the beauty of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Ive been moved by his grace this weekend, as I called out with a sense of emptiness and sadness and he ushered in people to encourage me and love me well and build me up. How great he is. As I sit in his word this morning, I am again moved by this faithfulness and delighted by the least likely of books-Zephaniah.

As many of the Old Testament prophets, Zephaniah speaks to the coming judgment on the nations and the coming day of the Lord, and as I read I asked, where is the hope in here lord? And it comes rushing in towards the end of chapter 3 where the Lord says (right after declaring that he will pour upon the nations his indignation):

For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. From beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.

When I read, beyond the rivers of the Cush, I am reminded that the Lord will bring his worshippers from every land, from every nation, call them the sons and daughters and they shall be redeemed as He brings them forth.

He then says this great promise:

On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain. But I will leave you in your midst, a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the lord, those who are left in Israel they shall do no injustice and speak no lies…for they shall graze and lie down and none shall make them afraid.

When I think of the battle we wage with fear, when I think of my dear friend who described to me just last night her deep desire for security, that longing to know that we are safe and may live in the pasture of the Lord forever, I am overwhelmed that he would promise this, not to the ones who were perfect or who were best, but to all that call upon the name of His Son who removed the deeds by which we have rebelled against him.

Just a few verses later again it is declared: The Lord has taken away the judgments against you.

The King is in your midst.

Fear not.

He will rejoice over you with gladness.

He will quiet you by his love.

He will exult over you with loud singing.

He will save the lame and gather the outcast.

Will change our shame into praise.

He will bring us in, gather us together and make US renowned and praised.

Oh how good this Lord is. How good to love and be loved by Him. 

Going to amazing conference in a few weeks and will try to write lots about it. Just in case anyone wants to go, here is all the info...

I want to tell you about an upcoming event I’m excited to be a part of. On March 19-21, pastors and leaders from around the country will gather in Raleigh-Durham, NC, for ADVANCE13: Building a Faithful and Effective Church.  Speakers include John Piper, Matt Chandler, Bryan Loritts, Larry Osborne and others. Here’s a brief overview:

There is a false dichotomy in the church today, between faithful ministry and effective ministry – depth and width – making disciples and reaching the lost. Most of our churches are good at one or the other. Churches that prioritize faithfulness make mature disciples, but don’t always reach the lost. Churches that prioritize effectiveness reach the lost, but often don’t make mature disciples.

 The gospel calls for both. Faithfulness and effectiveness cannot be separated. Churches that grow wide without growing deep are not producing width that lasts. Churches that grow deep without growing wide are not as deep as they think.

We need faithful AND effective churches.

This conference seeks to answer a simple question: how do we build churches that are both faithful and effective? Its lineup reflects that tension, a mix of pastors, theologians, and experienced practitioners, both from the church and the business world. They aim to equip not only pastors but church members for everyday ministry both inside and outside the church. This promises to be one of the richest and most practical conferences this year. I/we hope you’ll join us.

My pastor Matt said, no one can condemn Jesus. Therefore no one can condemn us. We are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1). How sweet this is when all is going well, how much sweeter when we feel condemned. I feel condemned often in ministry with middle schoolers. By them, by their parents, by their teachers and administrators. I am not, and you are not. We will not be crushed, this is not the death blow. Persecuted not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed, paul describes it in Corinthians. I prepare my heart to go worship my Lord. How great and kind he is to me. The Risen One, who has set me free. In Him do I take refuge. Not in myself, not in my ability, not in my work. Those are wastelands, there is no refuge in those places. There is refuge under his wings. Praise to the One who has rescued us from the pit of sin. Dressed us in his righteousness. Therefore, God, may we be steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of the lord. Our labor is not in vain. I’m tired lord, but you are not tired. I’m discouraged, you are not. I am perplexed, oh Lord, how perplexed I am-Praise to be God that you are not perplexed. I love you. Yours I am lord. Yours I always will be. My life is hid with Christ on high. 

Work

Lord,
I know that I am so young and new in the work world, yet already I am starting to see and know the experience of work that most people live with. I was surprised by that small seed of dread I felt as I realized that it was Sunday and tomorrow was Monday and the week at the office would begin. And I have founded that Christ is honest when he tells us "Ask and you shall receive" and I so today I just want to ask, Lord, would be so gracious to change my heart toward my workplace? I know that you can do it, as I have watched and felt the transformation you have brought into my heart in so many other things, even in this week alone. God, give me a heart and discernment for those that I work with. God, let the refugees who may never known a Christian see Christ in me, and God as I am absolutely confounded with how in the world to connect with them, unsure of how you would have me act, would you show me Lord?
 I don't want to live any portion of my life waiting for 5 pm or for Friday. I want all of my life to be lived with God and for God. I know that there will not always boundless joy in every job that I have. I know that were called to hard things. And hard is different for everyone. But while I am here, am in this space, I ask you God that you would humble me so that I can listen to you, so I can be obedient to you, so I can know you more in this? Don't let me think endlessly about what I want to be doing or what I am gifted to do-let me think on these things and consider carefully what you may be calling me to, but don't let me miss the "right now" and the place where I am because I am dreaming and yearning for something better. Thank you for the perseverance that you may develop in me through the mundane or the undesirable.
Thank you for being my joy and hope so that my life is not about my comfort or having the right job or being the most successful or worthwhile. You are my greatest affection.

Thankfulness

I get to do a Wyldlife ministry at middle school in Raleigh named Ligon Middle School. I love it. For 5 really sweet months, the school was extremely open with our presence in the school, during school getting to know kids. Today, we have been told we are no longer allowed on the campus of the school because of parents not wanting Christian influence in their school. Its hard. Because we love the kids who go to Ligon Middle and we want to be with them. Emmanuel, a very wise Christian also ministering at Ligon challenged us to write down what we are thankful for the lord doing at Ligon. Here it is.

Jesus-
I am thankful that you died for kids at Ligon. Im thankful that you have loved them and known them for all time and have done everything that they may reign with you forever. I am thankful that you gave us favor with the staff and let us know them and grow to love them. I am thankful that for 5 months there was a Wyldlife leader there almost every single day even though our team has only had 3-4 people. I am so thankful for giving us the chance to do homework with kids in after school programs. I am thankful that you let us speak at a PTA meeting. Thank you for allowing 8 wonderful kids to go to weekend camp with us. Thank you for the core families who are supporting Wyldlife and opening their homes up and making this ministry possible outside of school. Thank you for letting over 50 ligon kids come to Wyldlife club. Thanks for lunches lord. What sweet time it was to sit at their tables and make new friends and ask how their day or week was going. Thank you for the teachers lord. Thank you for the administrators. Thank you for just letting us in God, that was your work that we would ever be there in the first place. Thank you for the campaigners where we had a group of 8th grade girls that did not want to stop talking about God and what they wanted prayer for. Thank you for the kids who have invited their friends to wyldlife. Thank you for the kids that we know really well that have never or would never come to Wyldlife but who you love just as they are and we love them for who they are. Thank you for just the joy it gave us to be at that school. Thank you for teaching me about what it looks like to invest your heart in a place. God thank you for showing me how powerful you are through this ministry. Thank you for letting us chaperone dances and hang out in teachers classrooms and do so much more than makes any sense at all with a public school. Thank you for making us people who don't make any sense at all as we joyfully, willingly give our life away to middle schoolers. Thank you for parents lord. Ligon parents are so special. Thank you for their support. Thank you for giving them hearts interested in Wyldlife. Thank you for the stamina to never get tired of it. To love it more and more even though its hard. Thank you for the bit of persecution we're in now with no longer being there, because persecution can be such a good thing, such a grower for your kingdom. Thanks lord for being sovereign in this. For not being stopped by any human limitations. Just for your love, lord. Your support. Your deep care for us in this. Your nearness to us. For your deep, deep love for every single one of these kids. You have been and continue to be so good. Its in your hands.

new semester

2 weeks into the semester but it looks very different as I intern 32 hours a week in Refugee Resettlement. How sweet Christ has been to me in taking away the lifestyle that I had come to thrive in here in Raleigh and taking away the hours I used to spend at a downtown middle school called Ligon that captured my heart last semester. How good he has been in showing me that my purpose is not achieve worth or value or uniqueness. That instead I get to glorify the One who has given me unending worth and value and uniqueness, His very own in fact that he has had since the beginning. I see my affection for His Word growing, just bit by bit, and my desire to rest in him growing little by little. As I ponder that drive to do and to go and to accomplish more and more and to give but is it really about giving or is it really about feeling good enough? Perhaps the latter.
And I am humbled more and more through this job that I have this semester as I do things that are not what I choose to do, not what I believe I am called to do or gifted to do, that I just don't want to do. But perhaps far harder is the fierce jealousy that wells up in me as I see my friends living how I want to live, how I lived not so long ago, and the desire for self pity and recognition and the need to do more than what God has given.
I think of the freedom I have. I am free to pray for those I love. I am free to spend time in the evenings and weekends with people or with the lord. I am free to be in the Word, to be passionate about it, to dig deeply in-and is it, are these, enough for me?

God I see my brokenness, my sin, and I know that it has been covered already. I see you and I know that you are enough. More than enough. You are my joy. You are my satisfaction. You are my worth, my identity, my life, my all.