By a wonderful providence, God had a friend invite me to drive down with him to the initial organizing meeting of The Gospel Coalition - Michigan Chapter. What a delight to fellowship with many brothers in a freezing basement room warmed by the fire of the gospel!
One particular brother, Eric Russ, is a church-planter in Detroit...Lead Pastor of Mack Avenue Community Church in Detroit. He spoke on two non-negotiables of church-planting: (1) gospel-clarity (and the culture's blurring pressure) and (2) horizontal reconciliation...this is what I want to highlight. His exhortations in this area were stirring for my soul. His thesis was basically that the reality of vertical reconciliation (i.e., our being made right with God) should be necessarily evidenced by horizontal reconciliation. What was so challenging to the status quo thinking of my own heart was how he explained this "horizontal reconciliation." Simply put, Eric thundered in that little room the need for us to reach out to those who are different from us (e.g., because of handicaps, color, socio-economics, cultural differences, etc.) BECAUSE GOD DID LIKEWISE FOR US!
He was absolutely right. I was as different from God as I could be, when He rescued me through the powerful story of what His Son had done for me. And not different in an attractive or valuable way, different in an evil, worthless way. Meditating on Romans 5:6, 8 and 10 helps me to remember:
"While we were still weak...while we were still sinners...while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son."
In light of His reconciliation of a sinner like me, how much more should we talk to people unlike ourselves with this powerful message of grace (2 Corinthians 5:18-21)!
I'm grateful for the Spirit speaking through this new friend of mine, urging me to think about people different than myself...but who have the same need that I had when I encountered the Savior. I pray that my heart will yield to the urging.
__________________
Come Fellowship in the Gospel this May 3-4, 2013.
Early Registration is thru March 1st at www.FG13.org.
Men's Conference on Pursuing Genuine Biblical Revival
May 5 & 6, 2017
Theme: "Capture Our Hearts Again!"
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ray Ortlund
Pastor of Immanuel Church (Acts 29 plant in Nashville, TN)
President of Renewal Ministries
Regional Director of Acts 29 Network
Formerly Assoc. Prof. of OT & Semitic Languages @ Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL)
Council Member & regular blogger at The Gospel Coalition
Author of commentaries and many books including Isaiah: God Saves Sinners in the Preaching the Word Series Commentary Series, When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ in the 9 Marks Building Healthy Churches Series and most recently Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel.
Pre-Conference Workshop - 2 Sessions (Content to be released soon)
Special Guest Speaker: Dr. Tom Schreiner
James Buchanan Harrison Prof of New Testament Interpretation, Professor of Biblical Theology and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
James Buchanan Harrison Prof of New Testament Interpretation, Professor of Biblical Theology and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
Author of many commentaries and books including The Law and Its Fulfillment: A Pauline Theology of Law, The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance; The King in His Beauty, and Romans in the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Series.
Registration opens soon at www.FGCon.org
Registration opens soon at www.FGCon.org
Hosted by:
Union Lake Baptist Church
8390 Commerce Road
Commerce, MI 48382
248.363.9600
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment