For Nat

Though this is a dark hour, and the grief and pain we bear is quite real, the question that begs to be asked is not, “Why?” It is not, “Why her? Why now? ” or “How?”. Rather, in the midst of this tragedy, the question that begs to be asked is “How, now, might Christ be glorified?...How, now, might Christ be glorified?”

For you see, if we fail to ask that question and if we only introspectively focus upon our own grief and loss, though it be very real, then we have missed the point of her life and the Gospel purpose.

The cry of Natalie’s heart was the love of her Savior and the desire for others to share in that same love. Indeed as Pastor [ ] noted, if she were with sitting here with us now she would say, “What’s all the fuss about?” She would remind us that there is light to be shown, a message to proclaim, and kingdom work to be done. If we are able point people to Christ and his saving grace in the midst of our sorrow and proclaim his great salvation, that same salvation that wholly defined our Natalie, then her death is not in vain. If we, here and now, proclaim the glorious might and faithfulness of Jesus Christ, Natalie is truly celebrated.

I love the words of the Apostle Paul. Hear what he says in I Corinthians. This is a beautiful, in your face moment, where Paul shoots off these rhetorical questions in pure, beautiful defiance of the darkness of this world.

“O death, where is your sting?” Where? Ha! Again, “O grave, where is your victory?” It isn’t there. It can’t be found. It has failed! “For death is swallowed up in victory, through Christ.”
…
Listen to that glorious truth: death, that last instrument that the Enemy had against us, that one facet that had even a smidgen of potential to separate us from God, that same God has stripped away any and all power the Enemy had. He has rendered him impotent, useless, pathetic. For you see the sting and pain and consequence of death has been swallowed up in the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Death no longer holds power over us. Oh, it may inconvenience us, shock us, cause us grief—but it is useless in an effort to overcome us. For you see, for the believer, for Natalie, all that death can do is speed up the process in which we reach Paradise. All it does is hurry as along out of this wretched world and into glory, into the Kingdom, to our eternal rest and reward with the Savior. All it does is quicken our reward and joy.

Paul says in Philippians, “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The same is true for all believers and for our Natalie. If we live, Praise God! Christ is glorified in our life and in our service to Him and before the watching world. If we die, Praise God! We are going home to our Creator and Savior! You see, the enemy can’t win. Either way, if we live or die, because of Christ, we are victorious!

You see, it would be wrong of us to say we have lost Natalie. False. We have not lost her. Indeed how could anyone be considered “lost” when they are held direct in the palm of the Most High God? She has been bound and destined for eternity with Christ from the moment she came to saving faith in Christ Jesus. The Great King of the Universe has sealed his very name upon her, calling her daughter, Child of the Most High. Oh my friends, for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, she is not lost. We have simply lost contact with her, and only temporarily.

If Natalie were here among us now, you know as well as I what she would want to say to us all: the cry of her heart,"Trust in Christ.” For there is none other, in heaven or an earth, whereby we can be saved. For it is in Christ alone that her hope was found, and it was He and His will that she sought with all her might. She was His! And she begs you now, though being gone, she still speaks: Are you a child of King? Have you placed your trust in him alone for salvation and clung to him alone for righteousness and forgiveness of sins? You could give no greater gift to Nat than if you were to do that this very day. How now shall we glorify Christ and honor Natalie?

Indeed she did, and does, belong to the Father. And it is that same Father that wraps her in a love that cannot ever be broken. All whom the Father has given to the Son can never be lost and never slip out of his grasp. No, friends, whatever trials and despairs circumstance or the Enemy may hurl at us, there is nothing so powerful that it can remove us from the love of the Savior. Hear the glorious promise: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

…Death is swallowed up in victory. Sin loses. Natalie and Christ win.

Hear these words of an ancient hymn: “My flesh in hope shall rest, and for a season slumber. Till trump from east to west shall wake the dead in number. Had Christ that once was slain ne’er burst his three day prison, our faith would been in vain. But now has Christ arisen! Death’s flood has lost its chill, since Jesus crossed the river. Lover of souls from ill, my passing soul deliver. Had Christ that once was slain ne’er burst his three day prison, our faith would been in vain. But now has Christ arisen! ”

For now, her flesh rests, and slumbers in peace, even while her soul rejoices now, and yet looks forward to that Great and Awesome Day of the Lord: The Day of His Coming, when all the dead in Christ shall rise again in triumph, in resurrection body, and obtain their hope of glory. Christ is and was Natalie’s hope of glory, indeed her hope in everything! The question is, is He yours?

Oh, Natalie, you are loved. You are loved by the Almighty Father with a boundless love that can never be broken, and you are a diamond in his eye. You are loved by the countless friends and families gathered here who cry, not as those who mourn, but as those who have great hope. We miss you dearly…And, even now, as you look down upon us in greater health and vitality than which you’ve ever been, we know, we know, we shall see you again, oh so very soon.

Praise God! Praise God for the life he has given us in Natalie and the for joy she brought to all of us. Praise for the glory and joy she brought the Father while here on earth, and now forevermore. And Praise God for his promise of eternal life through Christ Jesus. Praise God for his saving Gospel, and for the life of Natalie Beardsley who made that Gospel truth so clear to all of us.

Indoctrination at its best

Wow

Too Good not to Re-post

Dan Brown's 20 worst written sentences.

There's enough comedy here to keep an English professor belly-laughing for a week.

Click here.

HT: Challies

Sleepy, "Lazy" Teenagers?

By Dr. Joseph J. Horton

“During the summer most teens get more sleep, staying up later and sleeping much later than they do during the school year. Are teens simply being lazy during the summer?” In “Sleepy, ‘Lazy’ Teenagers?” (702 words), associate professor of psychology at Grove City College and contributing scholar with The Center for Vision & Values— Dr. Joseph J. Horton—sums up the latest sleep research which reveals, “Being a morning person is not … an indication of moral superiority. It reflects one’s biology.” “The physiology of typical teens leads them to be night owls. This tendency to stay up late and sleep late is very resistant to change.” Citing a pilot study conducted with his colleagues at Grove City College, Dr. Horton validates the conclusions of a sleep-research pioneer, which suggest “that the students did not have a sleep disorder; they were simply sleep deprived. Teens may appear to have problems with sleep because we force a schedule on them that is not suited to their physiological cycles.”

Click here.

Let's Make Some Autumn Resolutions

By John Piper

God approves of New Year’s resolutions. And mid-year, and three-quarters-year, and monthly, and weekly, and daily resolutions. Any and all resolutions for good have God’s approval—if we resolve by faith in Jesus.

I would like to encourage you to make some autumn resolutions. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well, the examined life is not worth living either if the examination produces no resolutions. What examination and experience teach us is that the unplanned life settles into fruitless routine. The drifting life—the coasting, que-sera-sera, unreflective life—tends to be a wasted life.

The opposite of this is self-examination—life-examination, routine-examination, schedule-examination, heart-examination—followed by “resolves for good.” That’s what I encourage you to do. Here’s why I think God will be pleased when you do this by faith in Jesus.
Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12,

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ

I find this extremely encouraging. Paul prays for us—and I pray for you even as I write this—that God will “fulfill every resolve for good” that we have. This means that it is good to have resolves. God approves of it. It also means that our resolving is important, but that God’s enabling us to “fulfill” the resolves is crucial. Paul wouldn’t pray if God’s help weren’t needed. “The heart of man plans [resolves!] his way, but the Lord establishes [fulfills!] his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

But it matters how we resolve. When Paul says, “every resolve for good and every work of faith,” he is not describing two different acts. He is describing one act in two ways. It is a “resolve for good” because we will it. It is a “work of faith” because we depend on Jesus to give us power to fulfill it. That’s how we resolve—by faith in Jesus.

So Paul says that the fulfilling of the resolve is “by his power.” That’s what we are depending on. That’s what we are looking for when we resolve. We are looking to Jesus who promised to be with us and help us. “I know that through . . . the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance” (Philippians 1:19).

This explains the words “so that” in Paul’s prayer: “...so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you.” When you resolve something good and trust in the power of Jesus to help you do it, then “the name of our Lord Jesus is glorified.” If you depend on your willpower, your name will be glorified.

So Christian resolutions are different from the world’s resolutions. We believe that by grace alone we have been “called”—that is, captured by the truth and beauty of Christ. We resolve things not to make God be for us, but because he is already for us—that’s what his call makes plain. He opens our eyes to see and trust Christ. He shows us, in the cross, that he is totally for us. All our resolves are to walk more worthily of this calling.

They are faith resolves—faith that we are loved and called and justified. And faith that therefore Jesus will help us do what we resolve to do. When we resolve like that, the name of our Lord Jesus is magnified.

So pause sometime soon. Pause and examine your life this autumn. Examine what is missing that should be there. What is there that should be removed? What new dreams for ministry might you venture? What new habits do you want to build into your Fall schedule?

Remember: God will be pleased with new resolves for good if you resolve by faith in Jesus. I am praying for you “that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.”


Seeking to glorify the Lord Jesus with you,

Pastor John

HT: DG

How Fail Went From Verb to Interjection

The New York Times, in a pop culture primer, tells how the word "Fail!" went from being a verb to being an interjection as in "A conservative blog posts an image of a United States-Russian diplomatic agreement with the president's name spelled 'Barak Obama' and calls it "White House Spellcheck FAIL."

Click here for the article


HT: Challies