6th century BC, 1st century AD, 21st century AD... let's keep preaching!

Six centuries before the revelation of God in the flesh, the Lord GOD spoke the following words to His prophet Ezekiel:

"And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."

Moreover, he said to me, "Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' whether they hear or refuse to hear."

-Ezekiel 2:7-8,10-11

Seven centuries later, Paul, "an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus", wrote the following to the evangelist Timothy:

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

-2 Timothy 4:2-4

And yet another two millennia later, I don't believe that anything has changed for the people of God, who are charged with proclaiming the glory of the LORD on His earth, and who will find true joy in nothing else.

There always have been, and always will be people who refuse to listen to the word of God. There always have been, and always will be people who will persecute those who bring that word. There always have been, and always will be seasons when the Gospel of Christ will be received, and others when it will be abhorred.

But we must not forget that there also always has been, and always will be a great and sovereign God whose ultimate ambition is to proclaim His great worth, drawing men and women to experience His everlasting glory. We must not forget that the Gospel of Christ has been sovereignly planned and executed by this glorious God. And we must not forget that the Gospel will go forth, because it is a manifestation of God's glory. The Gospel will not fail, because God cannot fail.

So let us preach the word of God, in season and out of season, whether they hear or refuse to hear. It is God's Gospel that we bring, not our own. He will ultimately sustain it, but He chooses us to be blessed by being the messengers.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

-Romans 1:16a

A good name (or two!)

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.

-Proverbs 22:1

A friend asked me tonight what "M" stood for.

It took me a while to realize that she was referring to the "M." of "Christopher M. Carignan", in my email signature, which stands for "Michael". Christopher was the most popular name the year I was born and Michael was the second most popular. But the question itself got me thinking about how much I appreciate what my first and middle names actually mean...

Christopher: From the Late Greek name Χριστοφορος (Christophoros) meaning "bearing Christ", derived from Χριστος (Christos) combined with φερω (phero) "to bear, to carry".

Michael: From the Hebrew name מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el) meaning "who is like God?" This name is commonly misunderstood as meaning "one who is like God". However, the name is actually a rhetorical question, implying that nobody is like God.

I like my names because they remind me of...

• Who I am: I am a redeemed sheep of Christ's flock, whom He has brought back to the fold by the effective call of His voice. The love of Christ shown to me in His atoning sacrifice creates a gratitude in me which is such a compelling force that I cannot help but preach the Gospel, in season and out of season. I am called to be a Christ bearer.

• Who I am not: I am not God. I cannot do the work that only God can do. I may be called to be a Christ bearer, but I recognize that none of my words, none of my logic, none of my convincing can ever turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. It is the Holy Spirit alone, regenerating a person to understand the oral or written proclamation of the Gospel, which can do this. When people believe on this message, they are saved, both instantly and eternally. I am nothing more than a redeemed sheep who is blessed to be a part of this work by bringing the message to those who will listen.

So, thanks, Nina, for the reminder. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me these two awesome names. And thanks, God, for all You have done to give these names meaning!

Wanna share the Gospel? Then pray.

Very often, we spend so much time trying to figure out how to pray for God's will in certain situations, because we don't know what His will is concerning the matter. And yet we seek Him anyway, asking that His will be done.

However, there's at least one thing in which we can be absolutely certain of His will... but so seldom do we (or, at least, do I) actually pray for it: personal evangelism.

God has been teaching me in the last couple of years the importance of praying for very specific, providentially ordained situations which God would use to allow opportunity to point others to the cross. I started doing this, praying for specific people, that God would use me that month, that week, even that very day to speak to them about Christ.

And you know what? He has.

He's been answering those prayers... in a fury of humbling, awe-inspiring blessing to others and to me.

But the funny thing is that I've actually been kind of surprised by how readily He answers these prayers (literally within hours, in some cases)... yet, I shouldn't be. I know that God wants me to preach the Gospel, because it brings glory to His Son, His very Self. It's not as if He's going to have something better for me to do than to give Him glory, after all... because spreading the glory of God is the greatest activity that we could ever hope to be involved in.

Consider this as an encouragement. Are you feeling stuck? apathetic? discouraged? The atoning sacrifice of Christ at the Cross is the answer to these ails, and telling others of this glorious news will bless you as it blesses them.

So pray for opportunities to proclaim of Christ's work, remembering that it is not of your power to reap the growth, only to sow the seed. But remember as well that God wants to give you opportunities to sow the seed... so just ask Him to give you what He already wants to give, and be blessed, brothers and sisters. Be blessed.

Keep it on Christ, Chris... keep it on Christ.

God has certainly taught me much in the past year... it has been a difficult year, to be sure... but I've understood lately just how much this difficulty was necessary for God to grow me just a bit more.

As many who might read this may already know, my relationship with my ex-girlfriend was ended a little over a year ago. This has been incredibly difficult for me to deal with, because I was moving towards making the relationship a bit more... ehh... permanent, if you will. Yah. Almost bought the ring, yo. Almost bought it.

Having that kind of relationship taken from me rocked me to the core, I have to admit (mostly because she was yet another one of the idols of my idol-factory heart). I was shaken and beaten, and didn't know what to do with myself. I was so sure that marriage was where that relationship was supposed to go. But God has taught me a good thing lately, a thing which - among other things - I'm not sure I would have been able to learn without being shaken so thoroughly (coffee, anyone?).

I have been thinking about my pastor's view on evangelism, which is that the fruit of his ministry isn't really his concern, it's God's. He's always said that, as he preaches the Gospel, if God decides to fill the church with 1000 people, he will praise God. If God decides to fill the church with 10 people, he will praise God. Whatever fruit God decides to bear from his ministry should have no effect on his calling to preach the Gospel and nothing but the Gospel. He keeps it on Christ.

In meditating on this, I have realized that I was focusing so intently on the fruit that I thought would be reaped from being in a Christ-glorifying relationship with a godly woman (namely, marriage), that I completely lost sight of the fact that I had been in a Christ-glorifying relationship with a godly woman. I was part of something which brought glory to the name of the Son of God, and seemed to have forgotten how much of a blessing this was, and how both of us can now glorify Christ more fully and deeply in our separate lives, having been a part of that relationship for a time, than if it had never happened.

Praise God for His faithfulness and goodness, and for His glory! Lamentations 3:37-38, Job 1:21, 2:10.

So, my prayer is that God would continue to remind me of this as He grows me. No matter what the fruit may be that He decides to bring about in my life, that is His business to deal with, not mine. My business is to bring glory to the name of Jesus, by the power of God's Spirit, and to lead others to the foot of the Cross in any and all ways that God will choose to use me to do so. As I do that, I pray that I would remember that anything that comes about in my life as a result is simply God's will unfolding, and that His will is good.

Keep it on Christ, Chris... let God take care of the rest.

Cream of Wheat

Christian music, originally called Jesus Music, once fearlessly sang clearly about the gospel. Now it yodels of a Christ-less, watered down, pabulum-based, positive alternative, aura-fluff, cream of wheat, mush-kind-of-syrupy, God-as-my-girlfriend kind of thing.

-Steve Camp, thesis 41, "A Call for Reformation in the Contemporary Christian Music Industry"

I'm dying.

Good, that got your attention. Now that I have it, I would like you to take the time to read this post and take it seriously. Not seriously, as in an overly cliché "look-at-him-he-thinks-he's-so-emo-who-does-he-think-he's-trying-to-fool" kind of way, but in an honestly serious way. I'll try not to make any jokes, to help you take it seriously. Just take the time to read, and think, whoever you are, even if I don't know you. It may be long, but please read it all, and think.

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For one reason or another, I've been thinking about death lately. I'm not entirely sure why. It's not that it's been crowding my thoughts, in an unhealthy, morbid sort of way. It's just that I've been having an abnormally sober judgment of my own life and the fact that it's ending.

I want to tell you that there will come a day when I'll close my eyes for the last time, my heart will pump its last bit of blood through my body, and my lungs will release their sustaining hold, never to expand again. It will be at that moment that I will no longer be alive, and I will never spend another waking moment in this world as I now know it. A couple days later, perhaps even a week or so, there will be a small section in the newspaper that will try to explain why it happened. It will say that my life ended because of a heart attack, or some sort of cancer, or an incurable disease, or even a car wreck. Who knows, maybe if I'm lucky it will say that I died of natural causes in my old age.

But whatever it says, it won't be true. I want to tell you that right now. Whatever the doctors say is the reason for my death will not be the truth. The true reason why my body will no longer function on that day is because I'm related to you... and because you're related to me... because we're both related to a man named Adam who lived, and died, a long time ago. I'm going to die because of the fallen state that I was born into. I was born to die, actually. I guess it won't really make sense for me to ever have to tell anyone, "I'm dying", or even for anyone to ever react to that statement. The fact is that I am dying now. I've been dying for 26 years. Nothing a doctor will ever say to me can change that.

Because I'm a Christian, I think that people believe that I'm not supposed to be afraid of that day, that I'm supposed to be happy because that's the day when I will get to see my Savior Jesus Christ in all of His glory. But I want to admit to you that that's not true. I'm kind of scared for that day, and it makes me sad to think about it. No matter how much I may think I know about resurrection and heaven, the fact is that I don't really know what it will be like. Will death hurt? Will I be scared on my death bed? What will I think about? Who will be with me? What will they be thinking about?

I get sad sometimes when I leave somebody, not knowing when I will ever see them again. But there will come a day when I will leave everyone around me forever, in a sense. My wife, my children, my friends, my family: I will never again get to see them in the same way that I see them in this life. Sure, I hope to see them in heaven, but I don't even know what that will be like. My wife won't be my wife anymore. What will she be to me? Will I remember the time I spent with her during this life? What will happen to those memories? Will my children know that I'm their father? If not, how will I feel about that?

What about the people I knew and loved who didn't look to Jesus' work on the cross for their eternal salvation, who were misled by the people around them, by their culture, and by their own hearts into thinking that God would have mercy on them because they were "pretty good people"? They will not be with me. Will I cry for them? What will I feel? I don't even want to think about what they will feel.

There's a part of me, deep down inside my emotions, that doesn't want to go, that doesn't want all of this to end. I know that I should want it to end, that I should want all of the the hurt, disease, war, hate, hunger, and worry of this world to be nothing more than a faint memory of something that once happened long ago. I know that I should want to leave and be with God now. But I don't yet. There's so much to do still. There's so much time to spend with my friends and family before I'm gone, or before they're gone. And there are so many people to talk to about Jesus. And I'm scared.

If you're reading this, and you don't know of the good news of ultimate salvation from the sting of death and from the curse of sin, and I talk to you someday (hopefully soon) about it, please don't take offense. Please don't be angry with me for it. The truth is that if I talk to you about it, I will be very scared. My heart will be beating fast in my chest, my palms will be sweaty, and my body will be warm with adrenaline. This will be happening to me because, if I talk to you about Jesus, I will be afraid of what you might think of me, of what you might say back to me. I'm afraid that you will think I'm a freak, or some sort of a brainwashed nutjob. But the very real truth, as honestly as I can tell it to you now, is that for me to find the courage to talk to you about Jesus anyway, in spite of my fear, is because I care for you. If I try to talk to you about your eternal salvation, it's because I wonder about it, and I care about it, because I care about you. If I ask to talk to you about the gospel, it's because I love you. Please don't be mad, because I'm going to be scared enough as it is. But please listen to me, because I love you. If you know that I love you, please listen to what I have to say.

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If you're reading this and you don't know what's going to happen to you on the day that you die; or you think you do, but you're not really sure; or you try not to ever think about it, and put it in the far back of your mind; or even if you once did, but you don't have a confidence or an assurance about it anymore... please talk to me. Send me an email. It doesn't matter if you don't know me. I would like to talk to you about it, even if I'm scared. If you're scared, I won't think you're silly, because I'll be scared, too, but please talk to me anyway. If you do know me, don't be alarmed if I send you an email sometime, or give you a call to talk. Please don't think I'm silly, but talk to me.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." -Romans 1:16

carignanc@gmail.com

Where are all the yellow stripes?!

Well. Everything's finally wrapping up to a close this semester... and this has definitely been the veritable semester from "you-know-where"! Sooooo glad it's just about over!

But that means that I'll have more time on my hands now. And you know what that leads to? Right! More blogging! I'll finally finish the series of posts on Protestantism (I promise), but I'll first give just a little sump'n sump'n today.
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Charles Spurgeon (Go, C.H.! Go!), a firm believer in Paul's view of election, was known to say the following in response to the common question "If God elects people unto faith, then why bother evangelizing?":

"If God would have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect I would go around lifting shirts. But since He didn’t I must preach 'whosoever will' and when 'whosoever' believes I know he is one of the elect."

I just read 1 Thessalonians yesterday, and this last point that Spurgeon makes - that he would know the elect by their belief in the Gospel - is a clear allusion to 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5a-

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

It is interesting that Paul (along with Silvanus and Timothy) does not say "We know that God has chosen you because you live a good Christian life, and He owes it to you", nor does he say "We know that God has chosen you because you first chose Him". No, Paul says that he recognized that the members of the church at Thessalonica were first chosen by God because they believed in the Gospel.

But look closely at the way that Paul says this. What is the root of the act of believing in the Gospel, according to Paul? Power, and that, through the Holy Spirit. The Gospel was preached to many people in Paul's age, as it is today. However, Paul recognized that to some, it only came "in word". It fell on deaf ears. Empty words falling on dry soil. However, to others, as was the case for the church at Thessalonica, the Gospel came in power. And how was this power able to be recognized? Because the fruit of this power working in the elect was full conviction. And where did this power come from? The Holy Spirit gave men the ability to do that which they were incapable of doing on their own: namely, repenting of their sin, and accepting the Gospel.

If sin has corrupted the heart of man to the point that he is unable to choose God over sin (which I believe the Bible clearly shows) then repentance and faith are not something that man can give to God by his own ability. Man cannot reach into the treasure chest of his heart and pull out faith... because it simply isn't there to pull out! If we, on our own, do not possess the ability to choose to love God, then it is rather God who chooses to first love us:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
-1 John 4:10

A propitiation for whose sins? The sins of the elect, for this epistle is written to the believing Jews (2:7), but includes believers from all nations (2:2). And what is the initial sign of this electing love? Belief in the Gospel, plain and simple. For belief in the Gospel requires full repentance and love toward God... two things which are impossible for man to do without the power of the Holy Spirit.

The elect show themselves to be the elect by believing in the Gospel.
-Mike Shea

Evangelize for the glory of Christ!

So last weekend I drove down to Tennessee with Alli and her sister (yes, in my Prelude... which now has 240,000 miles... and is still going strong!!); their cousin was getting married on Sunday. Great weekend, and a beautiful part of the country, by the way!

Before going down there, however, I guess I didn't pay too much attention to the fact that the majority of that side of their family are Jehovah's Witnesses. I had never before spent any time sitting down with a Jehovah's Witness to discuss their personal beliefs, so I decided to go to one of their services, and spent a good while over the weekend talking with a couple of the cousins, an aunt, an uncle, and various other people in their congregation. When asked what my thoughts were, I was honest with all of them in saying that, although I appreciated the Sunday service and their genuine hospitality, I disagreed greatly with their doctrines... especially their view of Jesus: not as God, but as the first-created of the angelic beings, Michael the Archangel.

During these discussions, I found myself getting frustrated at my lack of ability in pulling specific Scripture references to support my beliefs on various points. Now, this frustration was not due to me not being able to win over another person in a theological debate. No... I don't believe that it was not that kind of prideful frustration. Rather, I was frustrated that the glory of Jesus was not being shown to its full extent during these conversations, and lifted up in adoration and praise for what it truly is. At least it wasn't to my eyes, at any rate; but I'm not a faithful judge of that. Who knows how God used/is using/will use those conversations to glorify His Christ.

Long story short, though, God used these discussions over the weekend to put a renewed fire in my soul to continue learning Scripture as much as I possibly can, and to preach the Gospel with less timidity. I feel frustrated that Jesus' glory is being trampled on everywhere we turn! In short, God gave me a renewed vision for evangelism this weekend. And I wanted to share this here because I believe this vision is important not just for me, but as an encouragement to any brothers and sisters who might read this.

In our spreading the good news of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross, His glory is at stake. God does not "need" our help in order to declare the glory of His Son; He can certainly make rocks cry out, or raise up Abraham's children from among them. However, as Christians, we have the extreme privilege of being able to bless, and be blessed, by declaring God's plan for salvation, and in this, to not only see souls brought into eternal glory... but to also see the glory of Jesus Christ be declared as the perfected, divine, awe-inspiring, mouth-stopping thing that it is! This, alone, should give us reason to preach the Gospel to every person that we meet!

When the truth of Christ's work on the cross as a divine propitiation for the sins of mankind is not preached, His glory does not shine forth as splendidly as it should. So, let's ask God that He would give us monthly, weekly, even daily opportunities to preach of the cross to others, and when we do so, let us remember that we preach not only of personal salvation, but of the glory of Christ!

The Gospel is the POWER of God!

Now, does not this understanding of the Gospel motivate you to proclaim it? Don't you just wanna tell it to someone?! Just to see what happens?! I became more liberated to preach the Gospel when I came to understand that the Gospel is not a product that you pitch! It is the power of God!

I don't wanna overstate the point, and say that all persuasion and apologetics is unnecessary, but primarily your job is not to persuade, and convince, and cajole people into believing! Your job as an ambassador of Christ is simply to deliver the message, and the message is able, all by itself, to give sight to the spiritually blind, and awaken the spiritually dead!

-Mike Shea, on Romans 1:16

Overwhelmingly fantastic!!

Wow. When I moved here at the beginning of last year, the pastor of my church was in the middle of an exegesis of the book of Romans.

Well, I just read this sermon that he gave from the year before... and I'm now determined to hit the archives this summer and catch up on all of the pure gold that I missed!

Here are a couple of excerpts if you don't want to read the whole sermon (but I strongly suggest that you do!! It's not that long!):

The reason why people accuse the true gospel of being antinomian (licentious, lawless), is because they are ignorant of the power of the true gospel alone to transform lives. They think they need to add in some law to keep grace from leading people to run wild. But the truth is that preaching grace produces holiness and preaching law does not.
-Mike Shea

Wicked men will drown themselves in the rivers of truth as readily as in the pools of error…Many people think that they ought to guard the gospel, but it is never so safe as when it stands out in its own naked majesty. It needs no covering from us.
-Charles H. Spurgeon

Give Men Time

Wow, wow, wow... wow.

This blog post is great, and was really good for me to read, I think. I'd like to share it with you only because, even though it seems the author is referring to specific doctrines within the beliefs of Christianity, I think it has a direct extension to the whole of the Gospel, and our commandment to preach it to the world:

"It is easy to be frustrated with people for not being able to see and accept the truth instantly... Instead of those realities being seen for what they are (majestic and glorious) they are often seen through a vision that has been distorted by misrepresentations, and by expectations moulded by caricatures of the real thing."

It's funny that I read this today, because I was just having a discussion on this very topic with a friend last night. The Gospel itself is, in its very nature, offensive to the rebellious hearts of men. Until the scales fall from our shrouded eyes, we won't understand it, we can't understand it. What's more, the world sees misrepresentations of it all around. It would do us good to remember this.

We should remember that it is not our job to convert unbelievers, only to preach to them of the hope, glory, and joy of Christ's atoning sacrifice on a wooden cross. We cannot possibly know what kind of soil will catch the seeds that are planted by means of our proclamation of the Gospel: that is not our work, but the Spirit's. We need only plant, plant, plant, and not be impatient with people if we do not see immediate, direct evidence of the growth of those seeds.

The growth is God's business, not ours. We need but plant, be patient, and pray that God would give growth to the seed.

Oh, oh, oh!! Blessings!!

Yo.

Feeling like you're not doing much good for the Kingdom if you're not a pastor/missionary/etc. ? Feeling like you can't serve God or show the love of Christ to others unless you're behind a pulpit or off in another country?


Bzzzzzzzz... wrong.


You should all take some time to read this short sermon outline.

Besides... Douglas Wilson is a theological stud-muffin.


May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you!

The Gospel!

Let us not assume that we've ever fully understood the Gospel, and cease to teach it to ourselves and to other brethren regularly.

The Gospel Driven Blog has done a wonderful job of summing up the Gospel and its purpose with Scripture and references from books and catechisms. Read and be blessed.

Soli Deo gloria!

The History of Religion

I saw this linked on a couple of blogs, so I thought I would share it as well.

Puts things in perspective a bit.




Note the boom of Christianity from missions.

Missions, missions, missions!

Conviction

Wow... today was a day of heavy conviction for me.

We had one of those fire-and-brimstone, "you're going straight to Hell because you listen to rock and roll music" preacher types come to our campus today. As I usually do, I joined the crowd, hoping to engage in discussion with those who were also there to listen.

In short time, a couple of people near me started talking to each other, and some dialogue broke out; I decided to join in as the group grew larger. At first, I stayed mostly silent, but interjected here and there. Soon, my points turned from being based in Scripture to being formed through logic. Soon after that, my arguments ceased altogether. The two other Christians who were in the group were able to answer objections in a reasonable manner, using much Scriptural support when appropriate; in short, they were "prepared to make a defense to anyone who ask[ed them] for a reason for the hope that is in [them]" (1 Peter 3:15). It quickly became evident to me (and perhaps, sadly, to others) that I could not do the same.

During this time, a friend of mine had called me, so afterwards, I returned her call, and told her about what had happened.

I told her, "I don't know. It just feels as if I've spent too much time... I don't know..."

To which she responded, "Preaching Calvinism, and not the Gospel?"


Ouch.


I say "ouch" not because I feel that this statement was unwarranted, but - on the contrary - because this has been weighing heavily on my heart lately. And I realized today that, if pressed, I would be able to give a more intelligible and convincing argument for the tenants of Reformed doctrine than for the basis of my own faith. This should not be so!!

This is not to say that God is "in need" of our help to defend His holy name, nor that apologetics is the only way to evangelize (certainly not!), nor even that we should have an answer for every question that is asked, but when we are told in Scripture to "always be prepared to make a defense"... shouldn't we be prepared with something?

Also, this is not to say that I believe that studying theology is wrong (again, certainly not!), but as I think back on my efforts spent in seeking out discussion of my faith recently, I am saddened that I have spent more time trying to reveal to other Christians the Scriptural and logical evidence for what I believe to be certain theological truths (as wonderful a blessing as they may be!) than pointing unbelievers toward the glory of Christ and His sacrifice on the cross.

Thankfully, we serve a God of absolute grace, who is slow to anger and rich in love (Psalm 145:8). He is also generous enough to gently rebuke us when we err, compassionately revealing to us our sinfulness, that He might purify our hearts. Therefore, I do not cringe at this conviction, but rather embrace it, and thank God for it.

Please be praying for me, that God would be working His refining fire in me, cleansing my heart of all unloving and unrighteous grime that might be lining it. And pray that He would glorify Himself in my life!

Utmost Importance

Well, today was my day for the blog fast... which does not mean that I fasted from blogging. It meant that I used today to fast, pray, and read Scripture, and am now blogging about it.

I wasn't completely aware that the point of this fast was to pray about a specific organization, so I went about the last couple of days trying to think about organizations that I feel strongly about that I could support through this experience. I kept coming back over and over in my thoughts to missionaries that I know from back in Washington, and various people I know who are seeking support so that they can fulfill the purpose that God has set apart for them to do.

"But that's silly," I thought. "There's nothing special about that. Every church has missionaries that it supports, or at least can get people in touch with missionaries if they want to support somebody!"

And that's when it hit me. The "organization" that I was seeking was right there: the global mission field.

I read through the first half of the book of Acts today, and was amazed once again with the fervor which which the early Church spread the good news of Jesus' resurrection and atonement for sin... as well as the recipients' intensity in hearing this news, and the utter joy that they expressed upon receiving the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of their justification.

But I was also struck, once again, by the generosity of the early Church. Everybody sold their possessions, and pooled together their resources, distributing wealth where need was felt. I believe that God enabling this abundant generosity was what made the missionaries' work possible.

If we believe that the Gospel is truly good news, and that the spreading of it is of utmost importance, we must not only do our part to obey Jesus' commission, but we must be willing to help support those who have made this end their life's work.

If you are reading this, I would encourage you to not only consider supporting a missionary, not only look at your check book to determine your capabilities, not only discuss the matter with your spouse (I say not only because these things are surely important!)... but to devote time in your daily prayers to intercede for these men and women, and to ask God if He would reveal to you your role in this matter of utmost importance.

Does Sin Sadden Us?

As I continue to meditate on chunks of Psalm 119, I was struck this morning by a subtle, yet important, theme: the existence of sin in the world not only angered this psalmist... it made him sad.

Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your law. (v. 136)

My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten Your words. (v. 139)

When we view our world, and we see the rampant spread of a lack of reverence for God, how do we react? Perhaps we get angry! "How dare we, who are created, treat our Creator this way!" we may shout... and rightly so! This anger is certainly a righteous indignation if it is rooted in the desire to see the LORD's name hallowed on this earth.

However, how often do we weep for the world when we realize how corrupt we are? How often can we echo the sentiments of the psalmist in reaction to the fallenness of creation, with "water running down from our eyes"? Does sin sadden us?

I believe that it is right to be angered by sin, but I also believe that it is right to be saddened by sin: The sin in the world. The sin in our country. The sin in our city. The sin in ourselves.

Ah! But we must not stop here! If you have the Spirit of God in your soul, and the sacred word of the Almighty on your lips, you have hope for yourself and for the world! Let your anger and anguish toward sin spur you on to proclaim your salvation from its reign! Use your godly sorrow for all that opposes God to tell those who are bound by their sin of the Cross, sin's ultimate defeat!

Let then sin madden you, sadden you, and provoke you to preach of its Conqueror!