I'm Hallie's husband, my boys' daddy, and the church planter for Christ Covenant in Culpeper, VA. I'm a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America and a member of the Acts 29 Network.
I put this quote on the front of our bulletin last week. So good...
“When the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords came into this world, he came into a stable. If you do not feel a sense of holy laughter within you, I do not see that you have a right to think that you are a Christian. Thank God, this is gospel, this is salvation. God turning upside down, reversing everything we have ever thought, everything we have taken pride in."
I came across this quote from Spurgeon reading The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century:
The doctrine of the covenant lies at the root of all true theology. It has been said that he who well understands the distinction between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, is a master of divinity. I am persuaded that most of the mistakes which men make concerning the doctrines of Scripture are based upon fundamental errors with regard to the covenant of law and of grace. May God grant us now the power to instruct, and you the grace to receive instruction on this vital subject.
- The Sermons of Rev. C. H. Spurgeon of London, 8th Series ed. (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1893), 172.
6 years ago on a Sunday evening in 2003 I was ordained to the gospel ministry. I can still remember the day. Humbling to say the least.
As I've tried to mark the day each year one quote has stuck with me. It is from Ignatius's letter to the Romans. Late in his ministry he is contemplating martyrdom. As he consider all that had gone before him and the struggles that lay in front of him he said, "Now I begin to be a disciple." What an amazing statement. He still didn't think he had "arrived". He was one of the most influential post-Apostolic writers and churchmen and yet his sense of his own weakness was always before him. I can sympathize.
However, I can't claim to have read Ignatius's first in his own works. I came across it first in reading, The Memoirs and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne. As seminary students we sat under the tutelage of Dr. Kelly. In one class he made a passing remark along the lines of, "You would do your pastoral ministry well if you read, McCheyne's Memoirs and Remains." I took his advice and am still grateful for that passing recommendation. McCheyne not only introduced me to Ignatius's quot but to a life of ministry that illustrated it. McCheyne has served for me as an example of humble, faithful, weakness-professing, Christ-honoring pastoral labors.
Each year I think about writing on what I've learned as a minister of the gospel. After all, I should be able to saying something wise, profound, or slightly helpful after 6 years. But I keep coming back to that simple Ignatian quote echoed by McCheyne, "Now I begin to be a disciple." What the last 6 years have taught me are my frailties, my ignorance, my pride, my failings, and most of all the the faithfulness of my Christ. Christ has made the past 6 years worth it. Christ has taken everything I am not and somehow used it to the glory and advancement of his kingdom.
Whether 6 years or 60 years in gospel ministry I hope I will always only be able to say, "Now I begin to be a disciple."
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
- Habbakuk
Well we didn't get the rental we were hoping for in Culpeper. My sweet wife—trying to encourage me—forwarded me the following Spurgeon quote from the Girl Talk blog.
“Unerring wisdom ordained your lot, and selected for you the safest and best condition. Remember this, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you are, divine love would have put you there. You are placed by God in the most suitable circumstances. Be content with such things as you have, since the Lord has ordered all things for your good.”
— CH Spurgeon
And in case you were wondering, the encouragement worked.
