A great way to commemorate Labor Day is to read this piece from Gene Veith on the doctrine of vocation.

Here’s how it starts:

God healed me.

I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the doctor. The nurse ran some tests; the lab technicians identified the problem; the doctor wrote me a prescription; I had it filled by the pharmacist. In no time, I was a lot better. It was God who healed me, and He did it through the medical vocations.

God gave me my daily bread.

He did it through the farmer who grew the grain, the truck driver who hauled it, the bakers at the factory, the stockers at the grocery store and the lady at the checkout counter. It was God who fed me—just as I prayed in the Lord’s Prayer—and He did it through the vocations of ordinary people just doing their jobs.

God talked to me.

The pastor read God’s Word. In the sermon, he drew out of the Bible God’s Law, which cut me to the quick. Then he proclaimed the Gospel of how Christ has done everything for my salvation. When I confessed my sins, God, through His Word as delivered by the pastor, told me I was forgiven.

This is the doctrine of vocation. The term literally means “calling.”

Read the rest here (.pdf download).

Happy Labor Day!

God instituted the model of worship found in the Old Testament.

The worship of Israel was formal and liturgical. Solemn rites were central to the experience. The setting of temple worship was anything but casual. The meeting place had an ambiance of the solemn and the holy. The ritual was designed for drama. The literature and music were high and majestic. God inspired the content of songs (the Psalms). The finest craftsmen, who were filled by the Holy Spirit, fashioned the articles of art. God designed the vestments of the priests “for glory and for beauty” (Ex. 28:2).

Everything in Israelite worship, from the music to the building to the liturgy, focused attention on the majesty of God. God, in His holiness and in His redemptive work, was the content of the form. It was solemn, because to enter the presence of God is a solemn matter.

But even God-ordained patterns of worship can be corrupted. Liturgy can degenerate into liturgicalism, or even worse, sacerdotalism, by which the rites and sacraments themselves are seen as the instruments of salvation. The forms of worship can devolve into formalism and the externals into externalism.

- R.C. Sproul, Ligonier Ministries blog

Photo cred:  Photobucket

THIS duty is absolutely commanded, and much insisted on, in the Word of God.

Where have we any command in the Bible laid down in stronger terms, and in a more peremptory urgent manner, than the command of giving to the poor?

- in his message on Deuteronomy 15:7-11, Christian Charity (or The Duty of Charity to the Poor, Explained and Enforced).

Photo cred:  Photobucket

Rue Augustin, Haiti (outside office of Cross International)

Does God hate Haiti? That is the conclusion reached by many, who point to the earthquake as a sign of God’s direct and observable judgment.

God does judge the nations — all of them — and God will judge the nations. His judgment is perfect and his justice is sure. He rules over all the nations and his sovereign will is demonstrated in the rising and falling of nations and empires and peoples. Every molecule of matter obeys his command, and the earthquakes reveal his reign — as do the tides of relief and assistance flowing into Haiti right now.

A faithful Christian cannot accept the claim that God is a bystander in world events. The Bible clearly claims the sovereign rule of God over all his creation, all of the time. We have no right to claim that God was surprised by the earthquake in Haiti, or to allow that God could not have prevented it from happening.

God’s rule over creation involves both direct and indirect acts, but his rule is constant. The universe, even after the consequences of the Fall, still demonstrates the character of God in all its dimensions, objects, and occurrences. And yet, we have no right to claim that we know why a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti happened at just that place and at just that moment.

The arrogance of human presumption is a real and present danger. We can trace the effects of a drunk driver to a car accident, but we cannot trace the effects of voodoo to an earthquake — at least not so directly. Will God judge Haiti for its spiritual darkness? Of course. Is the judgment of God something we can claim to understand in this sense — in the present? No, we are not given that knowledge. Jesus himself warned his disciples against this kind of presumption.

Why did no earthquake shake Nazi Germany? Why did no tsunami swallow up the killing fields of Cambodia? Why did Hurricane Katrina destroy far more evangelical churches than casinos? Why do so many murderous dictators live to old age while many missionaries die young?

Does God hate Haiti? God hates sin, and will punish both individual sinners and nations. But that means that every individual and every nation will be found guilty when measured by the standard of God’s perfect righteousness. God does hate sin, but if God merely hated Haiti, there would be no missionaries there; there would be no aid streaming to the nation; there would be no rescue efforts — there would be no hope.

The earthquake in Haiti, like every other earthly disaster, reminds us that creation groans under the weight of sin and the judgment of God. This is true for every cell in our bodies, even as it is for the crust of the earth at every point on the globe. The entire cosmos awaits the revelation of the glory of the coming Lord. Creation cries out for the hope of the New Creation.

In other words, the earthquake reminds us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only real message of hope. The cross of Christ declares that Jesus loves Haiti — and the Haitian people are the objects of his love. Christ would have us show the Haitian nation his love, and share his Gospel. In the midst of this unspeakable tragedy, Christ would have us rush to aid the suffering people of Haiti, and rush to tell the Haitian people of his love, his cross, and salvation in his name alone.

Everything about the tragedy in Haiti points to our need for redemption. This tragedy may lead to a new openness to the Gospel among the Haitian people. That will be to the glory of God. In the meantime, Christ’s people must do everything we can to alleviate the suffering, bind up the wounded, and comfort the grieving. If Christ’s people are called to do this, how can we say that God hates Haiti?

If you have any doubts about this, take your Bible and turn to John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That is God’s message to Haiti.

• Albert Mohler, via the Gospel Coalition

To only think of Jesus as a long-haired, gentle man in a robe and wearing sandals has devastating effects on the church.  This perception has permeated the attitudes of many who perceive Jesus as a weak character but a good teacher.

The world seems blind to the Bible’s description of the resurrected Jesus, full of power and authority.  This description is highly offensive to the world.  But to worship Jesus as the artists have portrayed him instead of as the Son of Man in all his glory, is nothing short of idolatry.

• Adrian Warnock, Raised With Christ (Crossway, page 68).

Read the book on-line here.

School of the Good Sower - Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Borrowing from another good post by Dan Cruver of Together for Adoption over at The Gospel Coalition blog.

In short, orphans need Christians who fully understand that God’s pleasure in them is equal to the pleasure He has in Jesus:

When Jesus was about to go public with the mission of God, his Father declared over him, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). As Scripture makes clear, Jesus had been sent to fulfill the Father’s mission to redeem humanity and renew creation—which includes, by the way, the removal of the word “orphan” from the human vocabulary. The Gospel writers tell us that God’s Son went forward with the mission of his Father in the strength and knowledge of his Father’s delight (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22).

What orphans need are churches that are full of people who wake up each morning hearing and rehearsing these amazing words that are declared over them. “You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased. Yes, you were once without hope and without God in this world, but I have brought you near by the blood of Jesus. I have embraced you in the Beloved. Live in my love as you move out in mission.”

Full post here and worth the read.

Dan Cruver of Together for Adoption has a good series of posts on why the gospel is central to caring for the widows and orphans in their affliction (James 1:27).

His conclusion from “Caring for Orphans While Soaked with a Sense of Exile“:

The gospel takes those who are marked with a deep sense of exile, frees them from the “need” to self-medicate, and moves them out to serve the orphan, the widow, and the marginalized. Only by the power of the gospel can we do the self-sacrificial work of caring for orphans while soaked with the sense of exile.

Read how a ‘sense of exile’ is crucial to adoption from the whole post here.

Thoughtful and worth the read.

Calvary Baptist Home & School, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Struggling with the inherent materialism of the Christmas season?

Here’s a simple solution:  Give an amount equal or greater than what you spend on yourself and family.

In his farewell address to the Ephesian elders, the apostle Paul ended his address by saying, “And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”  And then he adds this:

I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.  You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

- Acts 20:33-35

Observe:

1.  Giving proves the authenticity of faith. Note Paul’s appeal here is not to his teaching but his deeds:  “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.  You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities…”  Essentially, Paul is saying, “Judge the validity of my life and ministry not just by what I’ve said, but also by what I’ve done.”  When we give without expectation to receive, our faith is verified as true to those observing.

2.  Hard work finds purpose when providing for the weak. Now this is not the only purpose of hard work, but it was certainly Paul’s intent here with his labor.  If we work simply to provide for ourselves, we are missing the blessing of giving (which is next).

3.  Giving blesses the giver more than the receiver. Paul quotes here a beatitude from the Lord Jesus not found in the Sermon on the Mount, but one with the same authority.  Matthew Henry says it well:  Giving “makes us more like God, who gives to all and receives from none.”

If you want your Christmas:

• To authenticate your faith
• To provide greater purpose for your hard work
• To be blessed by God,

Consider giving to ‘the least of these.’

Here’s an easy way to do so.

Christ-centered worship is not just talking or singing about Jesus a lot. Christ-centered worship reflects the contours of the gospel.

In the individual life of a believer, the gospel progresses through recognition of the greatness and goodness of God, the acknowledgment of our sin and need of grace, assurance of God’s forgiveness through Christ, thankful acknowledgment of God’s blessing, desire for greater knowledge of him through his Word, grateful obedience in response to his grace, and a life devoted to his purposes with assurance of his blessing.

- Bryan Chappell, president of Covenant Theological Seminary, interviewed by Collin Hansen of Christianity Today about his book  Christ Centered Worship:  Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice (Baker, 2009).

Moving from adoration to compassion in worship is a stretch for many of us. But the Scriptures tell us that if we love God, then we’ll obey God.

If we really adore the beautiful things in God’s character, then we are to model and practice those things. If our worship is to be authentic, it has to be embodied in very real ways. Worship as compassion is an invitation to demonstrate our love for Christ by loving God’s children.

By making this commitment in worship, we move our theoretical and sometimes rhetorical confessions of God’s love, into a felt sense of anticipation.  Our compassionate worship leaves us anticipating a response. Anticipating the possibility that what we have experienced in our own faith journeys can become real for someone else.

Worship as compassion is also an indictment of our reality, testifying to the pain and vulnerability of our humanity. When we see others unjustly suffering under cruel oppression, we know that it’s not what God intended or designed.

Compassion is what takes us to the next level and compels us to act on what we know.

- Chris Tomlin, What Do We Mean By Worship, FQWorship.com.

Also see what God has to say about worship and compassion for the poor.