DISCIPLINE!

I am not for it! At least not the physical kind of discipline. I have no intention of rapidly running through my finite allotment of heartbeats, in typical Esau fashion despising my birthright and greedily devouring my ration of systoles and diastoles. If you want to speed things up a bit, by all means, go ahead. No tachycardia for me!

[Something wrong with my theology here?]

Anyhow…

This, folks, is a special week in the church calendar—that cycle of events that keep time in the life of the Body of Christ. This is a special week because this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.

In the church, Lent (from the Old English word for spring) has come to demarcate the 40 days, excluding Sundays, that lead up to the greatest event on the church calendar, the event because of which the church exists—the Resurrection.

Lent serves as a preparation for this glorious redemptive event and, traditionally, the community of God’s people has prepared for its celebration with an examination of why, in the first place, redemption was necessary. The church through the ages (indeed, Lent was discussed in the Church Council at Nicæa, in 325) has utilized Lent for self-examination—a probing scrutiny of the sinful human condition and its deadly consequences for individual and society, and an equally intense consideration of the new life offered to us in Jesus Christ.

Discipline has been the key word of the Lenten season—intentional and sustained acts of self-control, not proceeding from a sense of duty or obligation, but from a heart of grateful devotion to God and Christ.

… discipline yourself
for the purpose of godliness;
for bodily discipline is only of little profit,
but godliness is profitable for all things,
since it holds promise for the present life
and also for the life to come.

1 Timothy 4:7–9

Think of the disciplines as ways we can place ourselves in the path of God’s sanctifying grace. Like placing your hands under a faucet: it is the water that cleans, but you’ve got to place your hands in the stream of water. Spiritual disciplines are to spirituality and godliness what a training regimen is to an athlete.

If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily,
and follow me.

Luke 9:23

There are things we can do and/or things we can give up (temporarily or permanently) in the denial of ourselves for the sake of following Christ, for the sake of developing godliness. Dallas Willard (The Spirit of the Disciplines) calls them the disciplines of engagement: worship, fellowship, study, prayer, service, etc.; and the disciplines of abstinence: solitude, silence, celibacy, simplicity, fasting, etc.

Consider engaging in one or more this somber season of Lent. Hopefully this disciplinary exercise will become a habit that transcends the span of 6+ weeks. I sure hope it will with the discipline of engagement I’ve resolved to undertake: regular memorization of Scripture. Anyone care to join me in this enterprise of treasuring God’s Word in our hearts (salvaging a few cardiac impulses in the process)? At least those Bible verses on this blog weekly?

Or you could consider one or more of these practices: skipping a meal or a favorite food? scheduling more time for prayer or Bible study? giving of your self and your resources in service of our fellowmen? … ?

Discipline. For the purpose of godliness. For the profit it holds for this life. For the profit it holds for the life to come. For the glory of God!

…discipline yourself
for the purpose of godliness …

POWER!

This blog will be rather disjointed—a collation of reports from my various homiletical exertions this weekend.

9:00 pm on Saturday, February 18
Just got back from Kirkcaldy, a town just north of Edinburgh and a two-hour drive from Aberdeen, after preaching at a friend’s induction as pastor of a Baptist church (that's David and I in the picture). An enjoyable experience. Real friendly folks. Very appreciative of my efforts. Lots of food (with the exhilarating option of dousing all the desserts in “double cream”—a more calorific version of heavy cream; I took the option … and all the desserts).

1:00 pm on Sunday, February 19
Morning service at High Church Hilton (Church of Scotland) went very well. God was gracious!

First time I’m preaching in a service with a pipe-organ in employment. However, just as I embark upon my opening illustration, the organist drops a book or something on the manuals, setting off a disconcerting musical squawk! However, it came at a perfect point in the story, so I was able to weave that “noisome pestilence” right into it! The things preachers have to do!

5:00 pm on Sunday, February 19
Preached at a Chinese congregation. They sang in both English and Cantonese … at the same time! One gets a feel for what Pentecost must have sounded like (and what heaven might, too). And having a translator was a different experience; it does give you time to think on your feet, and tweak things even as you go along.

One more service to preach ….

9:00 pm on Sunday, February 19
The relaxed (no bow-tie!) evening service at High Church gave me a few more precious minutes to preach than I had in the morning (30 min. vs. 25 min.). People tended to hang around after this service over tea and biscuits (i.e., cookies); that was a delightful time to meet folks.

Well, I’m done … for now! A most enjoyable week for me (and hopefully for my hearers as well). Thanks to all those who held me up in prayer in response to last week’s aBeLOG. And, by God’s grace, I’m none the worse for these exertions of preaching—neither particularly fatigued nor strained. I’m well aware that were it not for the Holy Spirit’s strengthening, none of this would have been physically possible. Paul would agree about the indispensability of God’s empowerment …

For this purpose also I labor,
striving according to His power,
which mightily works within me.

Colossians 1:29

Preaching, as I taught in my seminar last week, is doxological in goal: to change lives for the glory of God. The preacher is just one cog in that complex process by which God is molding all of us by His Spirit into Christlikeness. The cog, therefore, functions contingently upon the sovereign designs and agency of God the Spirit. Ministry cogs that we all are in some form or another, we are (and we must be) utterly dependent upon the Third Person of the Trinity, if we are to achieve our doxological aims. Needless to say, the power of God is available to all believers—not just preachers. In every ministry activity we engage in, may we do so relying upon God, by whose power alone we can do all things. And may God be glorified by it all.

Now to Him who is able to do
far more abundantly
beyond all that we ask or think,
according to the power
that works within us,
to Him be the glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations
forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

PROCLAMATION!

It’s been a long time. And I miss it. The last time I occupied a pulpit was about six months ago at my ordination in Plano Bible Chapel, TX (see picture).

Engaged as I have been in exploring preaching here in a foreign land, opportunities for undertaking the other two facets of the triad of my life (!)—explaining preaching and exemplifying preaching—have been few and far between; in fact, they have been non-existent. Until now.

Between this writing and the next (Deo volente, next Sunday), I am scheduled to be preaching four times and conducting a 3-hour “teaching of preaching” session.

• WEDNESDAY: Speaking God’s Words (a preaching seminar for about ten postgraduate students from the University of Aberdeen; organized by the church I attend).
• SATURDAY: Preaching at a Baptist church in Kirkcaldy (near Edinburgh) that is inducting its new pastor, a friend of mine (and a DTS alumnus).
• SUNDAY: Preaching in the morning and evening services at my church (High Church Hilton, Church of Scotland)—two different sermons; and also in the afternoon service of the Chinese congregation there.

God has been gracious in providing me these occasions to involve myself in the exercise of what might be my spiritual gifts. And I’m excited to be doing so, for that’s what I’m most passionate about.

We proclaim Him,
admonishing every man
and teaching every man
with all wisdom,
so that we may present
every man complete in Christ.

Colossians 1:28

May I utilize this public venue to request prayer for preparation that is adequate, for protection from the wiles of Satan, for passionate delivery, and, above all, for the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifest in me and in my hearers as I engage in the ministry of the Word? May God be glorified in Christ through the Spirit.

Spiritual gift or no, we are all called to be proclaimers. In season and out of season. To those who believe and to those who don’t. In word and in deed.

In a sense, whether we acknowledge it or not, we are always proclaiming—proclaiming something! The question is what!

But you are a chosen race,
A royal priesthood, A holy nation,
A people for God's own possession,
so that you may proclaim
the excellencies of Him
who has called you
out of darkness
into His marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9

The Great Commission! For all of us to undertake. Let us take to heart the exhortation of the author of Hebrews (5:12): “… by this time you ought to be teachers.”

Proclaiming the excellencies of a living God is not easy: it was hard then, it is hard now. Let us take some small steps towards getting into the habit of proclaiming God, so that we become skillful in proclaiming God, so that we develop a character that, as a matter of course, continues in proclaiming God. A suggestion for starters (that I, too, intend to carry out): As naturally as we can, let us try to introduce the word “God” into our conversations. Eugene Peterson called it “centering”—locating God in the center of everything. A brief mention. A quick nod in His direction. A slipping in of His name. “God.” And perhaps those small beginnings will lead to bigger and better things.

Proclamation! May He employ us all in that glorious task!

HEALING!

It was a tremendous delight and privilege to don on my white jacket again this week, as I returned—temporarily—to my vocation as a dermatologist. Not only was it a joy to see the friendly faces of the clinic staff, it was a pleasure to see patients, both familiar and new, and to get back into the absorbing and challenging task of diagnosis and therapeutics, the art and the science of medicine (their “rhetoric” and their “logic”?).

The schedules were full. Lots of patients. Lots of work. All the days I was there. I would love to think that everyone of those folks were successfully treated and relieved of all of their ailments. But the limits of my knowledge and the awareness of my finitude inform me otherwise. That’s why the unparalleled recurrences of those incidents in Matthew’s Gospel were remarkable as I read them this week.

They are striking! Aside of Jesus’ healings (therapeuo in Greek) of specific individuals from their specific afflictions, Matthew sprinkles his record with intimations of the Lord having healed everyone who came to Him (in chapters 4, 8, 12, 14, 15, 19, and 21). Everyone. All were healed. Of all their physical complaints. And several of those texts make an explicit connection between Jesus’ curative campaigns and His compassion (Matthew 14:14, for instance).

Also interesting is that therapeuo does not occur outside of the Gospels and Acts (and twice in Revelation). Whatever that signifies, medical personnel, to this day, continue that noble and divine tradition of attempting to give relief to their patients and fellowmen.

Relief! Comfort! Consolation! Rest! That’s what everyone seeks. For body and mind. No one, most certainly, is going to find that absolute and totality of ultimate relief and comfort this side of heaven. For body or mind.

And not all of us, of course, are licensed to dispense medication or perform surgery to alleviate the tangible indispositions of our fellows.

But one thing we can do—all of us. We can be a “refreshment” to one another in the community of God. Even the apostle Paul sought such relief from Philemon. He exhorts:

Yes, brother,
let me benefit from you
in the Lord.
Refresh my heart in Christ.

A “refreshment” in Christ, to another. What a marvelous picture!
Bringing Christ’s compassion to each other. Being a conduit of His love.
His hand. His heart.

Therapeuo may not occur in the Epistles, but parakaleo certainly does. “To comfort.”

Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and
God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our affliction
so that we will be able to comfort those
who are in any affliction
with the comfort with which
we ourselves are comforted by God.

2 Corinthians 1:3–4

A refreshment. A relief. A comfort.
A helping hand. A supporting shoulder. A praying heart.
Compassion. Kindness. Generosity.
Warmth. Smiles. Love.

A refreshment, indeed. May we be so to those around us. For everyone. Always!