The Need for Counseling
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by Jason Park
Thankful for Men of Faith
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by Jon Buck
This past Sunday, I had the privilege (with the other leaders) to hear God’s word taught by a group of guys at FBC. This group is called ‘Men of Faith’, and they’re going through a theological and teaching process.
Each of the lessons were videoed so that the guys could watch themselves, and appreciate the work they’d put in. What’s more, watching a video provides an objective perspective, after the stress of teaching to all the leaders! (Feel free to request to see those videos! The guys have to give permission. :) )
The teaching times were incredibly encouraging. They covered texts from all over the Bible, and were Spirit-led and full of honesty and truth.
One of the greatest signs of the working of the Spirit in the church is His provision in the hearts of guys to want to teach the Word. When the Lord is moving, He identifies and empowers men to speak for Him!
For that reason, as elders and leaders, our hearts are super encouraged to see God’s work in these guys! We’re excited to see how the Lord continues working in them, and in others!
Letting the Past Remind Us
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by Jon Buck
Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. ~ Heb. 13:7
These days, it seems there’s always something new to consider. Some new idea, some new mantra, some new philosophy. It’s easy to spend our time getting caught up in all the ‘latest’ that’s happening.
This week, however, as I’ve prepared for Sunday, I’ve found myself reading old dead guys. Now, keep in mind that, as a pastor, I spend a lot of time reading. And most of that time is spent reading from men who have gone before me.
But this week was unique. The sermon is focused on application of Romans 8:1, and so I spent quite a bit more time reading other books than I might normally. And hearing the thoughts of others has been remarkably helpful!
The thing that has struck me so strongly as I’ve read is how profoundly wise previous generations have been. Where they perfect? NO! But were they wise? Yes, and more than I know.
No wonder, then, that the author of Hebrews calls us to remember those who have led us, shared God’s word with us, and gone before us.
Not only were they profoundly wise in many ways, but their faith weathered the trials of life, and carried them to heaven.
While I can sometimes get caught up in the ‘now’ of life, I’m thankful that there are so many that I can remember, to learn from their wisdom, and imitate their lives!
Inside Out
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by Jason Park
Evil is lodged deep in the heart of man. And the heart of man that holds all that evil is indeed very deep (Psa 64:6). And the evil therein, before it ever comes out in word or deed, is a false belief, a wrong attitude, a lawless thought, or a devious affection.
Before David’s enemies in Psa 64 shot at him with the arrows of bitter speech, they held firm in their evil purpose against him (64:5). They indulged in internal and then external evil because they believed that no one, especially God, saw them. To them, no one saw what they were scheming; no one knew what was in their hearts (64:5). And holding onto that false belief drove them to keep devising and perfecting their plots against the king of Israel (64:6).
Now, there’s a whole second half to the psalm that deals with God’s justice on David’s behalf. But for this post, I want us to focus on where our sinful words and actions come from. They come from within. That is, the secret counsel of our hearts shapes what we say and do. What’s being conceived, nurtured, and pored over on the inside will inevitably bubble up on the outside. Jesus said as much – the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart (Matt 12:34).
Why is this crucial? Because it reminds us that our behavior is determined by what we think, feel, and intend. So, to deal with sinful behaviors or external manifestations of sin, we need to dig. We need to dig into our hearts and uncover what we really want and what makes us sad, afraid, or angry. We can’t just treat the symptoms while leaving the disease alone. So, we need to uncover the false believing and false worshiping taking place in our hearts.
Just changing the behavior will work, but only temporarily and superficially. We won’t have truly changed one bit. Why? Because the actual disease in our heart hasn’t been dealt with. And the only remedy for the disease hasn’t been applied.
Sin is first and foremost an internal, heart issue. And unless we apply Christ and the glories of the gospel to the heart, we won’t change, we can’t change (cf. 2 Cor 3:18; 1 Thess 2:13).
Devotional on Love, Part 6 - Love is Not Jealous
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By Jon Buck
In a Dry and Weary Land (A Riff on Psalm 63)
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by Jason Park
I can get on these Twitter/Facebook “runs” that take up too much of my time. Coronavirus, social injustice, cancel culture, who’s right, who’s wrong…I get caught up in all the noise, and by the time I manage to slog my way out of the vortex, I’m exhausted.
Now, I don’t think we should put our heads in the proverbial sand and not bibically deal with the issues at large. But is your heart experiencing the fatigue of everything that’s going on in our society? I know I am. And over-indulging in social media posts and following the news do not help me…except in one, unintended way: they remind me that God is the only One who can satisfy my soul.
What am I looking for when reading all these posts? What’s my heart doing in that moment? Do I want control through knowledge? If I read enough, I can get a handle on that issue. If I get a handle on that issue, I’ll be on top of things. And I like that because it makes me feel as though I’m in control.
OR, am I looking for something more exciting than the Bible? Is the Bible functionally dry to me? Knowing the latest Twitter trends can provide a quick surge of gratification. You feel like you’re in the in-crowd with a pulse on the nation. The Bible doesn’t specifically address the trends of the day. It can seem irrelevant. Plus, it requires meditation…faith…spiritual digestion. Twitter, Facebook, the news…they don’t.
In all this, the Lord is convicting me that I’m looking for something else to satiate my thirst. I feel like I’m in a spiritually dry and weary land when I’m combing through the news, but like a dog returning to its vomit, I keep going back…when I should step back and see the power and glory of Christ in the gospel…when I should remember Him in on my bed…when I should remember the many times He’s satisfied my soul with His love. Because He is my God and His lovingkindness is better than life. How much truer is that for us because Christ is our God and our eternal life (1 John 5:20)? How much truer is my tasting of His kindness in saving me through the gospel (1 Pet 2:3)?
I have every reason in Christ to sing for joy and cling to Him. He is so good. How often I fail to believe that! Thankfully, He forgives me when I confess my sins, and He restores to me the joy of my salvation.
It’s good to stay abreast of the world’s affairs. But be careful. It can pull your heart away from Christ one post at a time. So, drink in some news. But be filled with His love and glory as you fill your heart with His Word.
Devotional on Love, Part 5 - Love is Kind
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By Jon Buck
Running to Win
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by Jon Buck
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. ~ 1 Cor. 9:14
We live in an age of self indulgence. Our culture has come to a place where we really enjoy pampering ourselves.
We have spas, nail salons, massages, rest times, vacations, comfort food, naps, ‘downtime’, etc. Why? We like the feeling of rest. We enjoy feeling pampered.
Now, to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but they can lull us into a place of feeling like those are ‘needs’ rather than blessings. We’ve learned to enjoy giving the flesh what it desires.
Paul’s perspective
The Christian life is rarely referred to with those terms. True, we’re called to rest in Christ, but that’s related to our need for righteousness from Him.
Paul appeals to the Corinthians in this verse, and it’s context, to encourage them toward self-control for the sake of Christ.
The metaphor of a race is common in the New Testament. Paul appeals to them here to run as those who want to win the race.
Later in the chapter, Paul will tell them that he makes his body his slave in order to ‘win’ the race of his Christian life. His call to them, and to us, is to fight against the nature yearnings of the flesh, to turn away from our natural bent of self-service, and to labor in our Christian lives like those who are.
Winning the race
But for Paul, his point isn’t to finish the race with the most trophies. He wanted to remain faithful. In fact, at the end of his life, he said that he had ‘finished the course’ in the same breath as saying that he had ‘kept the faith’ (2 Tim 4:7).
For Paul, victory was remaining faithful to Christ until he entered His presence. The danger of allowing his flesh to win was ever-present in Paul’s mind, right up until his death. To win was to die in faith, and to be received into the presence of Christ.
Fighting our flesh can be tough, but Paul’s call to us is to run our Christian lives like a race, and to train ourselves to run until we win.
From Fear to Faith (Psalm 56)
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by Jason Park
God knows us so well, doesn’t He? The command not to fear is the most common one in the Bible. Why? Because we are fearful people. The world is an unsettling place. And our lives are often unsettled. Our lack of knowledge and control only amplifies our anxiety.
Thankfully, the Bible provides several ways to overcome anxiety. And Psalm 56 offers a robust, multi-pronged approach.
(1) Ask for grace (v. 1a) David knew he didn’t deserve God’s help. He needed it. Apart from grace, we cannot fight, let alone overcome, our fears. Grace is essential to any spiritual victory over sin. It means we can never deal with sin on our own.
(2) Admit your fear (v. 3a) David says, “When I am afraid…” It’s reassuring to know God receives us in our weaknesses and sins. He is gracious. He is the God we can come to. And when we confess as David does, it frees us from pretending to be strong when we’re not. Before God, we can be totally open about who we are.
(3) Affirm God’s love (vv. 8-9) God puts David’s tears in a bottle and records them in His book. God doesn’t forget our sufferings. He will make all things right in the end. That’s why we can wait on the Lord. In the meantime, He meets us in His lovingkindness right where we’re at: suffering, afraid, doubting, and crying out to Him.
As Israel’s king, David knows God has his back in a unique way (v. 9). But we know God is for all believers (Rom 8:31). In Christ, we know this more intimately through His Spirit.
(4) Trust in God (vv. 3-4, 10-11) Faith is what holds the psalm together (vv. 3-4; vv. 10-11). At first, it seems like a no-brainer. The issue, however, isn’t knowledge; it’s the spiritual response of actually putting our trust in God during a trial.
And putting our trust in God is trusting in His word; it’s praising His word, which is filled with promises and truths that produce joy and peace in our hearts as we believe them (Rom 15:13).
(5) Thank God (vv. 12-13) Because God has delivered Him from the trial (and prior trials), David will thank Him with offerings. The deliverance is sweeter because it wasn’t merely out of a trial; it was into into deeper communion with Him (v. 12 – walking before God).
Now, on this side of the cross, we’re not promised deliverance from our trials. We may be delivered, but the NT mostly speaks to enduring trials and counting them “all joy” (James 1:2).
Trials do drive us into deeper fellowship with the Lord. As we cling to His word in trials, we taste His goodness more. We also see our trials from an eternal perspective as David did – “What can man do to me?” (vv. 4, 11). The glory of Christ starts to engulf the trial which loomed so large in our field of vision. And even if the worst were to happen, nothing that truly matters will be lost because Jesus died to deliver us from sin. Our worst-case scenario has already been dealt with on the cross. So, we can, we must, trust Christ and His word. In this way, we’re letting Him through His word do His work of helping us overcome our fears.
Hebrews 12
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By Jon Buck
Devotional on Love, Part 3 - All for nothing?
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By Jon Buck
Fighting the Dullness
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by Jon Buck
“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” ~ John 15:11
My natural tendency is toward idleness, and apathy creeps into my heart often.
The recent COVID lockdown has left me a bit dull, to be honest. Everything ground to a halt, and the nation was stuck at home. At first it was frustrating, but then it became the new normal. Eventually, normal feels nice.
Now that life is beginning to wind back up again, I find myself apathetic at times. The dullness of NOT doing things has lulled me into believing that it’s better to remain as I am—idle.
This is terribly dangerous.
When I find myself tempted to live in the apathy that the COVID crisis has created, I need to remind myself that God’s commands are designed for my joy. I need to remember that God loves me, and He has promised that walking in obedience to His Word will result in true happiness (John 15:11).
Of course, everyone has a different level of comfort when it comes to the virus, and we need to love one another as we walk through this time. However, we all need to be conscious of the danger in our hearts toward dullness.
Obeying that craving to be idle will only produce sorrow. Obeying God will produce joy!
Devotional on Love, Part 2 - A True Know It All
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By Jon Buck
Satan’s Choice of Words
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by Jon Buck
“And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” ~ 2 Cor 11:14
Satan isn’t dumb.
He knows that very few people will move rapidly and directly into certain types of evils.
So instead of presenting evil as it really is, he disguises it and makes it palatable. One of the clearest places we see his handiwork is in the words he chooses to use.
The term ‘catholic’ means universal. But the Catholic Church is anything but universal.
The words ‘planned parenthood’ sound like a set of rational choices for loving parents. But the words hide the most bloody genocide of the past 60 years in the legalized murder of the unborn.
These days, Satan has found a new phrase to weaponize in confusing the minds and consciences of people. The phrase is ‘black lives matter’.
Now, please read carefully. Black lives DO matter! They matter because black men and women are made in the image of God. They are precious to their Creator. For that reason, all Christians everywhere should vehemently affirm that ‘black lives matter’.
However, Satan is no fool. He has taken that phrase, which should be precious to us as Christians, and attached it to a god-hating institution.
The Black Lives Matter movement is overtly anti-family, pro-homosexuality, and anti-god. It explicitly intends to tear down the ‘Western’ concepts of family, motherhood, and sexuality, and replace them with neo-Marxist ideals.
Of course, this places Christians in a difficult position. We want to affirm that black lives matter, but we must find ourselves against Black Lives Matter as an institution.
Nevertheless, while this is complex, it is important. We must carefully navigate these times, affirming the biblical realities of righteousness and justice, while at the same time condemning Satan’s work in defaming God’s name.
The world won’t love us for not wholesale accepting its position, but that should not surprise us—the world hated our Savior too.
Like Saying, “There is no God.”
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by Jason Park
Psalm 53:1–3
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.
2 God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there is anyone who understands, Who seeks after God.
3 Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
We know this passage well from Paul’s use of it Rom 3:10-12. It is a cornerstone of the doctrine of total depravity.
I’m assuming that none of you reading this has said, “There is no God.” I’m assuming that we don’t see ourselves in the group in which “no one…does good” and where everyone “has turned aside…become corrupt.” We’re grateful for our redemption from our sins by Christ.
But have we ever said in our heart, “Where is God?” Or, “God is not in this!”? Have we ever said anything that resembled such practical atheism? Maybe during a trial, when we lost something, when we were down? Maybe we haven’t doubted God’s existence. But have we doubted God’s involvement and care in our lives?
I can’t imagine there’s any believer reading this who has genuinely said, “There is no God.” But I also can’t imagine there’s any believer reading this who hasn’t genuinely felt as though God wasn’t there in a given situation. Maybe you didn’t even consciously think such a thought, but you were frustrated, angry, scared, or sorrowful. We have these emotions when we say in our heart (consciously or not) that God has abandoned us.
I’ve been there. In the pit. Crying out, “How long?” Angry at God for some trial or some perceived good He wasn’t giving me. Hurt that He wasn’t helping as quickly or as tangibly as I thought He should. I didn’t say, “There is no God,” but did I ever come close.
It’s only when God awakens me by His word that I realize I spiral downward when I want control…when I want results…when I want God to bend His will to mine (James 4:1ff).
Thank God, however, that He doesn’t operate by my timetable or buckles to my every demand. I can’t imagine what monstrosities I would create or what monster I would become if I got everything I wanted when I wanted it. God alone is wise and good so that by His power He can execute a perfectly wise and good plan that glorifies Him and blesses us. No amount of human wisdom or righteousness could ever do that.
God is on His holy throne. And on His throne, He loves me and tells me He will never forsake me. And because He is my Father, I can trust Him in the lowest points of my life. In fact, I can trust Him with my whole life. He’s given me eternal life after all!
In the pain, He is right there with me. His Spirit tells me so as He gently whispers, “Look up. There is a cross. That is your hope. That is your peace. Rest there, and find your burden lifted, even if nothing around you changes.”
Devotional on Love, Part 1 - Annoying
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By Jon Buck
Build with Bricks, NOT Air
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by Jon Buck
“…knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” ~ 1 Cor 8:1
Paul writes to the Corinthian church about food sacrificed to idols. Importantly, Paul is appealing to the church to be very careful with participating in certain actions because they can cause others to stumble.
However, some in the church in Corinth had appealed to the fact that everyone ‘knows’ that idols are nothing but wood or stone, and therefore, with that knowledge, they should feel free to eat the meat.
In other words, the church was using their ‘knowledge’ to act against Paul’s instruction regarding idol worship.
Tricky situation
Paul’s answer needed to be carefully crafted. It is true that idols are just wood and stone, and therefore, the knowledge that the Corinthians held was true! However, that knowledge had caused them to act in proud ways, even to the point of falling into idol worship.
Paul’s answer needed to affirm the truth but critique the conclusion.
Two ways to build
His answer is that there are two ways to build—one is to build with air, and the other is to build with bricks.
Paul says that knowledge alone ‘puffs up’. When we think we know something but do not have love, it does nothing but fill us with pride. It’s true, knowledge is growth, in one sense, but it is growth in proud self-righteousness, and is not pleasing to God.
But Paul says that there is a better way. Love, he says, edifies. The word used is for the building of a house, and meant to strengthen something.
Paul wants them to build with knowledge, but knowledge with love. Love builds with bricks in ourselves and in others because it is not simply intellectual, but it is connected to God Himself.
The Corinthians were relying on their knowledge and were acting in pride, and as a result were hurting others. But Paul’s answer is not to reject knowledge, but to let knowledge be influenced by love.
When we truly, from the heart, love others, we can share knowledge with them and use our knowledge for their good as we seek to grow them into the image of Christ.
Both knowledge and love build, but love builds to last.
Through Trials to Christ and His Word
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by Jason Park
It’s been all too easy for me to drown in the social media sea of posts and stories about our current state of national unrest. Reading the massive amount of material is one thing; to digest it all is quite another.
If you’re like me, watching and reading the news hasn’t quieted my heart. It hasn’t pointed me to Christ. It’s stirred up anxiety, fear, hopelessness, and confusion.
Now, this post isn’t about how to think about our state of affairs, which is important and must be addressed with biblical principles.
But this post is about recognizing our personal sinfulness in the midst of our two current trials: the COVID-19 lockdown and now, the massive upheaval regarding race in our country.
Trials expose us for who we really are, don’t they? They expose what our true gods are: security, power, pleasure, praise of men, etc. They can also accelerate the growth process as they purify our faith so that what remains is faith’s tested genuineness (1 Pet 1:7).
By God’s grace, any trial distresses us only for “a little while” in light of eternity (1 Pet 1:6). Because eternity is the true time scale we live by – whether we’re conscious of it or not. By that scale, the things that men live for and root their lives in are temporary. But the word of God, the gospel, endures forever (1 Pet 1:25). And because it endures forever, we, God’s people, will endure forever. No earthly threat can take away our faith or our future with God. He protects us by His power through our faith in Him (1 Pet 1:5).
So, if it’s not Christ we turn to today, who is it? What is it? And how effective have these substitutes been in providing joy, peace, or rest? What pundit or prognosticator, even the best of them, has allayed our fears, soothed our consciences, or helped us feel stable in times of great instability? None! Only Christ can do that! And we see Him, feel Him, and know Him through His word.
Let God use today’s trials to reveal what’s really going on in our hearts. And as He does this, let’s commit to confessing our sins, believing in Christ for the forgiveness, and walking in the Spirit to love God and love one another. Let’s cling to His promises. Let’s proclaim them to our own hearts and to one another.
Nothing I’ve written is new. In fact, it’s all quite basic. But in times of distress, we need the basics; they serve as our foundation…so that when all else crumbles, we’re standing firm, not in ourselves, but in our Rock and Redeemer and His impregnable word.
Liberal Love
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by Jason Park