Cancer Journal (09.03.27): Cancer-Free Party

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: . . .
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance (Ecclesiastes 3.1, 4).

Well, friends, it's time to party!

It looks like I am in the clear ("cancer-free," "in remission," take your pick), at least for now. I am on an every-three-month checkup schedule for the next two years. But the doctors are very pleased with where I am. So let's celebrate!

From Kimberly's Facebook invitation:

For all our family and friends who have prayed for us, cried with us, and ministered to us in innumerable ways - please come to our open house and give God the glory for what HE has done! Since not everyone is on facebook, spread the word! Hope to see you there. :-)

The party will be at our house on Friday, April 3, from 5pm-8pm. It's an open house, so just drop by whenever you can. If you have a Facebook account and are planning to come, please mark "Attending" on the Event page. If you don't have a Facebook account and are planning to come, please post a comment on this blog post. Doing one or the other will help us in our planning.

Your prayers, cards, and love over the past nine months have been an incredible gift to me and my family. And the gift of your presence is the only one that I'd like at my party. Just wanted to make that clear. =)

Hear this, O [friends];
stop and consider the wondrous works of God (Job 37.14).

The Gospel is the Power of God for Sanctification

A friend/accountability partner of mine sent me an e-mail yesterday that was of such encouragement to me, I asked if I could post it here for your edification. This is a tremendous, practical summary of how the gospel is at work to transform us in the midst of our temptation. It is only lightly edited.

I had a breakthrough last night and today, while meditating on the gospel, the resurrection, and Romans 6 ("Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace").

I know that Jesus Christ overcame the power of sin and death. I know that He forgave my sin and counted His righteousness to my account. But He also overcame sin for me right now, in 2009. In Christ, I am free to present my being to God rather than to sin.

My breakthrough is this: In the midst of temptation, I usually believe that sin is the most powerful thing, that it can't be overcome, that I have to give in, that I have no power against it (so often I do give in, feeling I have no real power to overcome it). But this is not the case. Jesus overcame the power of sin in me, in 2009. And Christ is in me. The reality is that with the Spirit in me, I have the power to say no to temptation and sin. I really can and will overcome temptation because God dwells in me and because I'm under grace.

I know that I hate sin, that I don't want it, that I want Christ. I know I'm forgiven and counted righteous. But the power of God being in me to overcome sin just hit me this morning. So, this is my work - in the midst of temptation - to believe that the power in me is greater than my sin or the Devil, that I don't have to give in. I can walk away from sin because of God.

It goes like this: I Corinthians 15 - "O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." My being "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord" is dependent on the victory Christ has won for me in the resurrection over sin. He has won the victory - I just have to believe that He has won it - and then don't budge when temptation comes, because it has no more victory over me.

Sin lost in Christ - once and for all. What a glorious truth. I must "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ" and "be saved," especially in the midst of temptation. This is the hope of the gospel.

Thanks for preaching the gospel to me!

PCRT Greenville Pre-Registration

PCRT Greenville is coming soon! The pre-registration for this conference on the doctrine of justification ends Tuesday, April 7. The conference will be held April 17-19 at Second Presbyterian Church in downtown Greenville. This year's speakers include Steven Lawson (pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, AL), Jerry Bridges (prolific author), Derek Thomas (minister of teaching at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, MS), and Rick Phillips (senior minister of the host church).

Registration is $125, but groups of five or more may register for $95. Lawson will conduct the pre-conference on the life and legacy of John Calvin. Those who register for the pre-conference ($35) qualify for the discounted rate for the rest of the conference ($95).

If you are from Heritage and interested in attending as a group, please let me know. Simply post a comment with your name and contact information. (Since I moderate all comments, your information will not be made public. After I receive your comment, I will delete it.) Let me know if you wish to attend the pre-conference, too. I'll then register us as a group. Please contact me by Friday, April 3.

WSJ: Church Planting is the Newest Missionary Field

Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard and frequent commentator on Fox News, has written a piece for today's Wall Street Journal on a most unusual topic: church planting. As an orthodox Anglican whose church left the Episcopal Church in 2005, Barnes was challenged to help plant a church in Alexandria, VA. He recounts his experience in this article.

Why do young pastors desire to plant churches? "Planting and then leading a new church is an ideal option." One Anglican minister who desired to serve a theologically conservative congregation opined, "In order to do that, you had to go out and do it yourself."

What We Shall Be

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust,
we shall also bear the image of the Man of heaven.
-1 Corinthians 15.49

What a glorious hope!