The Messenger is the monthly magazine of our church. Following are some recent articles by our pastor.
Dear friends,
It has been pointed out that a Christian is a lot like a tea bag, - not much good unless it is immersed in boiling water!
The boiling water, necessary for the tea bag to produce tea, is also necessary for the Christian. The trials of our lives are instrumental to the development of our Christian character. Because of that Romans 5:3-4 says: “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” James 1:2-3 echoes that teaching: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
The way suffering develops our character and brings maturity is similar to the gradual process of a pearl’s formation. A pearl is produced by the irritation of sand, or another foreign object, within the oyster. Without the irritant there would be no pearl. The irritant causes the oyster to put a coating of nacre over the irritant. The nacre is the same substance as the shell of the oyster, but the nacre is put over the irritant for years and years. It takes 7 to 8 years for a good pearl to be formed.
The irritant produces a pearl of great beauty, and, in a similar way, God allows suffering in the lives of His children to produce godly character, perseverance and hope. 1 Peter 1:7 reminds us that trials come into our lives so that “our faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Currently we have some among us who are suffering greatly, and all of us suffer to some degree, for “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward from the fire” (Job 5:7). In whatever troubles you and I face, may we rejoice that God works all things for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). As we focus on Him we will find, as Paul found when the thorn was deeply embedded in his flesh, that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness, and His grace is sufficient for every trial and “thorn” we face (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Cordially yours in Christ,
Pastor Ted Gray
Dear Friends,
The Bible, being a very practical book, shows us how to overcome the various disappointments that life brings our way. One instance is in 2 Corinthians 2:13 where Paul writes about his disappointment at not finding Titus at Troas. He writes: “I had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus here. So I said goodbye and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”
In that passage we see three keys to overcoming disappointment. The first key is to give thanks for what we have. You and I have a way of getting disappointed by what we don’t have. But if we would stop and consider the blessings that we do have, our disappointments would dissipate like the wisp of morning fog on a sunny day.
The second key is that the Apostle went on with his life. Yes, he was disappointed. Titus wasn’t at Troas. The wrench had been put to the spokes. His plan would not work out as Paul had expected it to, - but does he sit down by the road to Troas to mope and complain, allowing the disappointment to destroy him in waves of self pity?
Not at all. He says, “I went on to Macedonia.” In other words he kept going, even though it was not to the destination he had planned. So, too, in your life and in mine it is crucial for us to keep going after the disappointments life may bring our way. If we don’t keep going, disappointment will grow like a rapid sink hole until we are mired in the bottom of a desolate pit of discouragement.
The third key to overcoming disappointment is to see that God is in control even over the disappointing events in our lives. In verse 14 Paul writes: “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” Paul recognized that God’s hand was at work even in this disappointing time. He recognized that God had a “Plan B” and that God’s plan was actually the “A plan,” - far better than anything Paul could come up with. Paul had planned to meet Titus at Troas, but God planned for Paul to go to Macedonia. Through his work there others would know Christ and experience the “fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”
I hope that the new month ahead, and the year before us, does not bring great disappointment into your life or mine. Yet we all know that disappointment is a reality in this fallen world. In whatever disappointments come our way, may we follow the good example set by Paul, and follow, as he did, the leading of our faithful God who brings blessings out of even the greatest of human disappointments.
Cordially yours in Christ,
Pastor Ted Gray
Dear friends,
In this month of March we focus again on the suffering of our Savior. This is the period of Lent, the time leading up to the betrayal of Jesus, and the humiliation and suffering that ultimately led Him to the most horrific death, death on a cross.
All of Scripture points us to that sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. It is already foretold in Genesis 3:15 where the Lord says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” Later, in Genesis 22, as Abraham sacrifices his son on Mount Moriah, we have a shadow of the sacrifice offered by our heavenly Father of His one and only begotten Son. In addition, all the Old Testament bloody sacrifices were looking ahead to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The reason is clearly given in Leviticus 17:11, “The life of the creature is in the blood... it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
Throughout the Old Testament we have a foretaste of not only the suffering of Jesus, but also His three-fold office as Prophet, Priest and King. The prophets whom God inspired to write the books of the Bible were types or foreshadows of the one true prophet, Jesus Christ, “the Word who became flesh and dwelled among us” (John 1:14). In a similar way the Old Testament priests, as they offered sacrifices and served as mediators between the people and God, were pointing ahead to our great High Priest, who offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins and ever lives to intercede on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25). Godly kings of the Old Testament, especially King David, also foreshadowed the kingship of Him who is “the King of kings and Lord of lords.” No wonder Luke describes what Jesus taught to the disciples, after His resurrection, this way: “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).
As we reflect on the life, death and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior our hearts should “burn within us” as did the disciples’ on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:32). We should be especially touched as we reflect on how Jesus’ suffering and death was done for us.
Dr. Derek Thomas, in a message from Isaiah 53, writes: “You know those words of Aaron’s benediction, ‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” My friends, do you understand what it cost Jesus for those words to become meaningful for us? That God, His Father in heaven, would speak to His own Son as our sins were laid upon Him and say, “The Lord curse You and cast You away. The Lord make His face to frown upon You and be angry with You, and the Lord turn away from You and give You torment.”
Dr. Thomas is describing there how the teaching of 2 Corinthians 5:21 came to be fulfilled, that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
May you and I reflect with deep gratitude and awe on what Jesus has done for us, reflecting with gratitude, not only in March and April as another Good Friday and Easter come along on the calendar, but always.
Cordially yours in Christ,
Pastor Ted Gray
Dear friends,
Growing up in a Christian Reformed Church and going to Christian Reformed schools as a youngster often brought inquisitive and sometimes not so pleasant questions from neighborhood kids. Most of them didn’t understand why I went to a special school and many wondered just how bad a boy I had been to end up in a “Reform School.”
That name “Reformed” has touched the curiosity of many outside the church, and in more recent years seems to have confused many within the church. A popular definition of what it means to be “Reformed” is that we are always changing, reforming, doing things in a “new” way. But each fall, as we remember “Reformation Day,” we are reminded of why we are truly reformed.
Our reformation stems back to the historic Protestant Reformation, best known by the posting of Martin Luther’s 95 thesis on the castle door at Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. Luther was a monk in the Roman Catholic Church who had tried everything he could to be right with God, but never gained the satisfaction in his soul that he was right with God. Then, finally, he came across Habakkuk 2:4c quoted three times over in the New Testament. That verse simply says “the righteous will live by faith.”
Finally it dawned on Luther that righteousness is not something we obtain by works; we cannot obtain it through an ascetic lifestyle, or buy it with tithes and offerings. He realized that the righteous will live by faith as the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed - credited - to the account of everyone who believes in Him.
Meanwhile, the Roman church was selling “indulgences,” slips of paper that people could buy, and according to one especially eloquent friar, John Tetzel, the moment the money went into the church’s coffer the soul of a departed loved one would rise from purgatory into heaven. Luther, having finally realized that the righteous live by faith, objected greatly to the sale of indulgences, which his 95 theses (statements or propositions) were against.
That historic posting on October 31, 1517, marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Many other leaders carried the Reformation forward, leaders such as John Calvin, John Knox, and many others. They were called “Protestants” because they protested the corruption of the Roman Church, and they were “reformed” because they sought to reform the teaching of the church back to the teaching of the Bible.
The Bible teaches that our salvation is all by grace through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-9) and that we are saved not by righteous things we have done but by God’s immeasurable mercy (Titus 3:4-7). As a result we do good works which were before ordained for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), and live to the praise of the glory of the One who chose us in sovereign grace before the world was even created (Ephesians 1:4-6,11-12).
Consequently, to be a Reformed Church means that we are a Bible-believing congregation. In whatever way we can “reform” to be more in tune with Scripture we are to change. But change, just for the sake of change, has nothing at all to do with the essence of being a truly Reformed Church.
It was hard to explain that as a child, especially to the kids on the block who were quick to ridicule “that Gray kid who goes to reform school.” But what a blessing to be, by God’s grace, reformed to the eternal truths of His Word! May we rejoice in that blessing every month, every day, of the year.
Cordially yours in Christ,
Pastor Ted Gray
