Treading Grain » Empowered Living

Question of The Day: What is Your Only Comfort in Life and Death?

Steve — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:47:42 +0000

The answer to the question, found in The Heidelberg Catechism, has been particularly resonant with me (for unknown reasons) this morning.

Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A: That I am not my own,¹but belong — body and soul, in life and in death —²to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.³

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,⁴and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.⁵He also watches over me in such a way⁶
that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;⁷in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.⁸

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life⁹and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.¹⁰

¹ 1 Cor. 6:19-20
² Rom. 14:7-9
³ 1 Cor. 3:23; Titus 2:14
⁴ 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:2
⁵ John 8:34-36; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:1-11
⁶ John 6:39-40; 10:27-30; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:5
⁷ Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18
⁸ Rom. 8:28
⁹ Rom. 8:15-16; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14
¹⁰ Rom. 8:1-17

Friday Morning Video :: Caine’s Arcade

Steve — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:54:50 +0000

A nice short movie (10 min) about a 9 year-old boy who built a cardboard arcade in the back of his dad’s auto parts store and is about to have the best day of his life. I’m a sucker for stories like this.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why Impostors Love the Church

Steve — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:45:24 +0000

Ran across this fascinating article by Russell Moore. Your thoughts on the matter?

The New Testament warns us, of course, about spiritual impostors. Sometimes these “wolves” are there to introduce subtly false doctrine. But, just as often, it seems, these spiritual carnivores hold to true doctrine, at least on the surface. But they use this doctrine and service for predatory ends. The sons of Eli, for instance, use their priestly calling to co-opt the fat of the offering and to lay with the women at the altar (1 Sam. 2).Virtually every New Testament letter warns us about the same phenomenon (e.g., 2 Pet. 2; Jude).

But why, when there is so much opportunity for debauchery out there in the world around us, do such people choose the church?

Read the rest.

Friday Morning Video: Jessica Smith Testimony

Steve — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 06:48:33 +0000

Jessica Smith, our worship leader at St. Andrew’s City Church, reminds us that our own story is a continuing story of God’s love and mercy.

Blind High School Wrestler Qualifies for State Tournament

Steve — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:58:08 +0000

This is a nice story.

If you follow wrestling you’ll know that Ohio is a hotbed of some of the best high school wrestling (and pretty good college wrestling, too) in the country. To be blind and to qualify for the state tournament is quite an accomplishment. All the more so considering the quality of competition this young man faced.

Jesse Gunter never lost faith.

Blind since birth, the Coventry senior has pursued his dream of wrestling at the state tournament with a relentlessness drive and unrelenting faith.

No one would have blamed Gunter if he had given up, and not because of his physical impairment. Rather, it was a string of misfortune on the mat that might have derailed other wrestlers.

But Gunter made it. He made it to state last Saturday, winning the so-called “go-to” match that has been his Achilles’ heel. Gunter’s consolation semifinal victory at the Alliance district tournament clinched a 120-pound berth in the Division II state tournament beginning Thursday at Ohio State.

Some would call Gunter disabled. He feels blessed.

“My point is: ‘This is how God made me, and you might see me differently. I see myself as unique,’” said Gunter, who carries a 3.68 grade-point average while taking classes at the University of Akron.

Gunter is as thoughtful as he is motivated. It should come as no surprise his plan is to study psychology and theology and become a preacher.

“My faith is very important to me to me because it’s something I’ve been raised with, and it’s always in my heart,” he said. “It never goes away, and it never will.”

Read it all.

The Passing of a Truly Wonderful Lady

Steve — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:41:42 +0000

This past Wednesday, Liz Young, the mother of SAMPs own, Nancy McEniry, departed this world to be with her Lord. My interactions with Mrs. Young were limited to a handful visits over these past 11 years that I’ve known Nancy. I always enjoyed those visits. Mrs. Young was charming, gracious, and shared with delight her love of Charleston and its history. She led a fascinating and rich life and Charleston was the rich recipient of her local work.

This morning, the Post & Courier ran two columns noting her life and death – one on the Editorial Page and another on the Local & State page (linked below).

The funeral will be tomorrow at St. Michael’s at 10.00am. Please keep Nancy, Chip and the family in your prayers.

Post & Courier Editorial

Post & Courier Local & State column

It Is Not Your Imagination: The Men Are Not In Church

Steve — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:31:02 +0000

It’s not your imagination, the men aren’t in church. You probably don’t need a survey to tell you that. There’s been a bit of a buzz in the internet community the last few days over John Piper’s recent talk, “The Value of Masculine Ministry” (you can watch and/or read the transcript here. It’s worth your time). Piper’s commendation of a more masculine Christianity coincides with the reporting from the Telegraph that for the first time in the history of the Church of England more women are seeking ordination than men, a moment the Telegraph denotes as a “watershed.” My first conscious awareness of the, then emerging, trend came in seminary when I read, “The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity” by Leon Podles.

I’d be curious to know your thoughts on the questions, “why are men checking out of church?” and “what can be done to reach them?”

The folks over at Church for Men offer up some interesting statistics on the topic:

The typical U.S. Congregation draws an adult crowd that’s 61% female, 39% male. This gender gap shows up in all age categories. [1]
On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches. [2]
This Sunday almost 25 percent of married, churchgoing women will worship without their husbands. [3]
Midweek activities often draw 70 to 80 percent female participants. [4]
The majority of church employees are women (except for ordained clergy, who are overwhelmingly male). [5]
Over 70 percent of the boys who are being raised in church will abandon it during their teens and twenties. Many of these boys will never return. [6]
More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians. But only one out of six attend church on a given Sunday. The average man accepts the reality of Jesus Christ, but fails to see any value in going to church. [7]
Churches overseas report gender gaps of up to 9 women for every adult man in attendance. [8]
Christian universities are becoming convents. The typical Christian college in the U.S. enrolls almost 2 women for every 1 man. [9]
Fewer than 10% of U.S. churches are able to establish or maintain a vibrant men’s ministry. [10]

Church is good for men:

Churchgoers are more likely to be married and express a higher level of satisfaction with life. Church involvement is the most important predictor of marital stability and happiness. [11]
Church involvement moves people out of poverty. Its also correlated with less depression, more self-esteem and greater family and marital happiness. [12]
Religious participation leads men to become more engaged husbands and fathers. [13]
Teens with religious fathers are more likely to say they enjoy spending time with dad and that they admire him. [14]

And men are good for the church:

A study from Hartford Seminary found that the presence of involved men was statistically correlated with church growth, health, and harmony. Meanwhile, a lack of male participation is strongly associated with congregational decline. [15]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “U.S. Congregational Life Survey – Key Findings,” 29 October 2003, .

[2] This statistic comes from Barna’s figures on male/female worship attendance, overlayed upon the Census 2000 numbers for adult men and women in the U.S. population.

[3] I came up with this figure by taking the U.S. Census 2000 numbers for total married adults and overlaying Barna Research’s year 2000 percentages of male vs. female attendance at weekly worship services. The figures suggest at least 24.5 million married women attend church on a given weekend, but only 19 million married men attend. That’s 5.5 million more women, or 22.5%. The actual number may be even higher, because married people attend church in much greater numbers than singles.

[4] Barna Research Online, “Women are the Backbone of Christian Congregations in America,” 6 March 2000, <www.barna.org>.

[5] Ibid.

[6] “LifeWay Research Uncovers Reasons 18 to 22 Year Olds Drop Out of Church,” PowerPoint presentation accompanying study, available at the LifeWay Web site,http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0,1703,A=165949&M=200906,00.html, accessed 12 September 2007.

[7] Barna, “Women are the Backbone of Christian Congregations in America.”

[8] I get an e-mail message about once a month from a pastor overseas whose congregation is almost totally female.

[9] Camerin Courtney, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Christianity Today, Single Minded. View athttp://www.christianitytoday.com/singles/newsletter/mind40630.html.

[10] Based on a show of hands at the National Coalition of Men’s Ministries meeting in 2005. The consensus in the room among hundreds of men’s ministry experts was that less than 10% of congregations had any ongoing ministry to men. Compare this to the 110% of churches that offer women’s and children’s ministries.

[11, 12] “Why Religion Matters: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability,” The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, 1064, 25 January 1996, .

[13] Penny Edgell (Becker) and Heather Hofmeister, “Work, Family and Religious Involvement for Men and Women,”Hartford Institute for Religion Research, .

[14] Christian Smith and Phillip Kim, “Religious Youth Are More Likely to Have Positive Relationships with Their Fathers,” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 12 July 2002, findings based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997).

[15] C. Kirk Hadaway, FACTs on Growth: A new look at the dynamics of growth and decline in American congregations based on the Faith Communities Today 2005 national survey of Congregations. Hartford Institute for Religion Research, http://hirr.hartsem.edu.

Friday Morning Video: Tim Wood Testimony

Steve — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:27:14 +0000

Yes, that’s my boy.

The Necessity of Affliction

Steve — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:34:33 +0000

In April 1938 war was looming in Europe. Germany had just invaded Austria. C. S. Lewis wrote to his friend Dom Bede Griffiths:

I have been in considerable trouble over the present danger of war. Twice in one life – and then to find how little I have grown in fortitude despite my conversion. It has done me a lot of good by making me realise how much of my happiness secretly depended on the tacit assumption of at least tolerable conditions for the body: and I see more clearly, I think, the necessity (if one may so put it) which God is under of allowing us to be afflicted – so few of us will really rest all on Him if He leaves us any other support.

Later that year Lewis returned to this theme in writing Owen Barfield:

I had so often told myself that my friends and books and even brains were not given me to keep: that I must teach myself at bottom to care for something else more (and also of course to care for them more but in a different way) and I was horrified to find how cold the idea of really losing them struck. An awful symptom is that part of oneself still regards troubles as ‘interruptions’ as if (ludicrous idea) the happy bustle of one’s personal interests was our real work, instead of the opposite.

I did in the end see (I dare not say ‘feel’) that since nothing but these forcible shakings will cure us of our worldliness, we have at bottom reason to be thankful for them. We force God to surgical treatment: we won’t (mentally) diet.

–The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 225-26, 231-32

Eat Your Veggies – 3 Ways to Grow Up Spiritually

Steve — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:23:45 +0000

Ran across this helpful article from the folks over at The Cripplegate. It addresses the matter of Christian maturity. Specifically, the article highlights the intentional nature of the Christian life and growth. Personally, I have found that I have never become more mature by accident – or by some kind of spiritual osmosis. While I would never want to imply that there are only “3 ways” to attain maturity because, in reality, maturity, and just about every dimension of life (regardless of how many self-help books – Christian or not – tell you ) is much more complex and inseparably integrated to every other dimension of our lives, the article does highlight some positive considerations of attaining Christian maturity.

Here’s a clip:

In his peculiar short story, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, F. Scott Fitzgerald supplies a disturbingly fresh look at maturity and social development. What is so curious about Benjamin, is that he is born old, and with the passing of time, becomes young. The novella is a fascinating take on how people mature, love, and grow up, and the ironic infantile state of the infirm elderly.

Sometimes in the church we encounter the curious case of the well-churched immature believer. Often we find that when a person is a baby believer, freshly saved from their sins, their formerly lackluster life suddenly morphs into an Incredible Hulk of untamed enthusiasm. They evangelize zealously, pray constantly, read their Bible devotedly, and enjoy serving in church.

But sadly, it is not uncommon to witness that this verve is but a fleeting sugar rush of novelty. The preciousness of salvation begins to grow commonplace, church becomes a routine, Bible reading a chore, prayer incidental. Sermons they used to relish are now a bland plate of brussel sprouts. As the years grind on, they dutifully trudge through the motions of spirituality, but the light flickered out years ago.

I have met folks in the church who would say they have been saved for decades, but are petty, grumbling, selfish, and pessimistic. They are spiritually grumpy old men.

How about you? Have you grown immature with age? Have you let the furnace of passion from your conversion grow cold? Or have you steadily grown in your knowledge, wisdom, and most importantly application of God’s word?

Read the rest.