The Waypost 316: January 2013

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Ministry in Dehradun

Sunday, January 27, 2013

The Sensitivity of the Sinless One

“Christ also suffered...who did no sin.”

John Henry Jowett (1864-1923) pastored in England at the beginning of the 20th century. He was dearly loved and known for his passion for the and sensitive shepherd's heart. Jowett believed that in his day there was a tendency in the church to belittle sin (I wonder what he would think about the situation today!). Knowing this about him caused me to take extra care in reading his commentary on 1 Peter which speaks of the sufferings of Christ and of Christians. I was taken over with emotion as I read his insights on 1:21-22. If you take the time to read it, I'm sure you will be too. I am indebted to this dear pastor of a century ago for awakening in my soul a sense of the magnitude of the sufferings which were my Savior's to bear for me:

“Christ also suffered . . . who did no sin.” [1 Pet. 2:21, 22] The two phrases must be conjoined if either is to receive an adequate interpretation. The earlier term discloses its significance by the light of the later term. If we would know the content and intensity of the suffering, we must know the character of the sufferer. “Christ also suffered.” [1 Pet. 2:21] The word is indeterminate until I know the quality of His life. Suffering is a relative term. The measure of its acuteness is determined by the degree of our refinement. The same burden weighs unequally on different men. Lower organization implies diminished sensitiveness The higher the organization the finer becomes the nerve, and the finer the nerve the more delicate becomes the exposure to pain. The more exquisite the refinement, the more exquisite is the pang.

"I do not limit the principle to the domain of the flesh. It is a matter of familiar knowledge that in the body it is regnant. There are bodies in which the nerves seem atrophied or still-born, and there are bodies in which the nerves abound like masses of exquisitely sensitive pulp. But the diversity runs up into the higher endowments of the life, into the aesthetic and affectional and spiritual domains of the being. The man of little aesthetic refinement knows nothing of the aches and pains created by ugliness and discord. The rarer organization is pierced and wounded by every jar and obliquity. It is even so in the realm of the affections. Where affection burns low, neglect and inattention are unnoticed; where love burns fervently, neglect is a martyrdom. If we rise still higher into the coronal dominions of the life, into the domain of moral and spiritual sentiments, we shall find that the degree of rectitude and holiness determines the area of exposure to the wounding, crucifying ministry of vulgarity and sin.

"We must interpret the rarity and refinement of His spirit if we would even faintly realize the intensity of His sufferings. “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” “No sin!” The fine, sensitive membrane of the soul had in no wise been scorched by the fire of iniquity. “No sin!” He was perfectly pure and healthy. No power had been blasted by the lightning of passion. No nerve had been atrophied by the wasting blight of criminal neglect. The entire surface of His life was as finely sensitive as the fair, healthy skin of a little child. “Neither was guile found in His mouth.” There was no duplicity. There were no secret folds or convolutions in His life concealing ulterior motives. There was nothing underhand. His life lay exposed in perfect truthfulness and candor. The real, inner meaning of His life was presented upon a plain surface of undisturbed simplicity. “No sin!” Therefore nothing blunted or benumbed. “No guile!” Therefore nothing hardened by the effrontery of deceit. I ask you to try to imagine the immense area which such a life laid open to the wounding implements of unfaithfulness and sin.

Now, it is a Scriptural principle that all sin creates insensitivity. “The wages of sin is death,” deadened faculty, impaired perception. “His leaf shall wither!” Sin is a blasting presence, and every fine power shrinks and withers in the destructive heat. Every spiritual delicacy succumbs to its malignant touch. I suppose that Scripture has drawn upon every sense for analogies in which to express the ravages of sin in the region of perception. Sin impairs the sight, and works towards blindness. Sin benumbs the hearing and tends to make men deaf. Sin perverts the taste, causing men to confound the sweet with the bitter, and the bitter with the sweet. Sin hardens the touch, and eventually renders a man “past feeling.” All these are Scriptural analogies, and their common significance appears to be this—sin blocks and chokes the fine senses of the spirit; by sin we are desensitized, rendered imperceptive, and the range of our correspondence is diminished. Sin creates callosity. It hoofs the spirit, and so reduces the area of our exposure to pain.

“Who did no sin!” No part of His being had been rendered insensitive. No perception had been benumbed by any callous overgrowth. Put the slightest pressure upon the Master’s life, and you awoke an exquisite nerve. “And they disputed one with another who should be greatest.” . . . “And Jesus perceiving their thoughts!” How sensitive the perception! The touch of a selfish thought crushed upon the nerve, and stirred it into agony. Such is the sensitiveness of sinlessness, and in this vulgar, selfish, and sinful world it could not be but that the Sinless One should be “a Man of Sorrows,” and that He should pass through pangs and martyrdoms long before He reached the appalling midnight of Gethsemane and Calvary."

Saturday, January 26, 2013

The All-Absorbing Life of Prayer

In preparing to preach here at Bible Bhavan in Delhi on the subject of prayer from Luke 11, I was captured by the following from Alexander Whyte:

"Now it is necessary to know, and ever to keep in mind, that prayer is the all-comprehending name that is given to every step in our return to God. True prayer, the richest and the ripest prayer, the most acceptable and the most prevailing prayer, embraces many elements: it is made up of many operations of the mind, and many motions of the heart. To begin to come to ourselves,— however far off we may then discover ourselves to be,— to begin to think about ourselves, is already to begin to pray. To begin to feel fear, or shame, or remorse, or a desire after better things, is to begin to pray. To say within ourselves, “I will arise and go to my Father,”— that is to begin to pray. To see what we are, and to desire to turn from what we are— that also is to pray.

"In short, every such thought about ourselves, and about God, and about sin and its wages, and about salvation, its price and its preciousness; every foreboding thought about death and judgment and heaven and hell; every reflection about the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ; and every wish of our hearts that we were more like Jesus Christ: all our reading of the Word, all our meditation reflection, contemplation, prostration and adoration; all faith, all hope, all love; all that, and all of that same kind,— it all comes, with the most perfect truth and propriety, under the all-embracing name of “prayer”; it all enters into the all-absorbing life of prayer.

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed:
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye
When none but God is near.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try:
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on High.

"How noble then is prayer! How incomparably noble! Who would not be a man of prayer? What wise, what sane man, will continue to neglect prayer? Ask, and it shall be given you; that your joy may be full."

Alexander Whyte, Lord Teach Us To Pray

Glory-Filled Inexpressible Joy

"Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory..." - 1 Peter 1:8

This morning I was in 1 Peter in preparing material for teaching later this week. My study had me immersed in the opening words of worship in 1 Pet. 1:3-12. As I was sorting out my thoughts here in my room on the second floor of the DBI center located here in Bible Bhavan Church in New Delhi, the sweet sound of praise music began to ascend from the floor below into my room like the savory aroma you might imagine if a master chef were downstairs preparing an incredible feast. After some time had passed, and being unable to resist any longer the urge to investigate what was occasioning such wonderful praise, I left my books to venture down the stairs. It turns out that a local fellowship of Tangkhul youth and college students were meeting here for a special weekend retreat. The Tangkhul are a people group living in Delhi from a far eastern province of India. I found the group gathered in the dining area and took the liberty to record a portion of their worship service. As they sang and I listened, it was as if the words of 1 Pet. 1:8 which I had been studying had come alive...

As you listen to the first 1:30 of the video, what you are hearing is the group praying (out-loud praying is very common outside of the Western world). And as you probably recognize, the song they are singing for rest of the video is "The Heart of Worship" by Matt Redman (in English too, which meant that I could and did sing along!). I included the lyrics below as it is one of my favorites.

The Heart Of Worship
by Matt Redman

Verse 1
When the music fades all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart

Pre-Chorus
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

Chorus
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You all about You Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You all about You Jesus

Verse 2
King of endless worth no one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor all I have is Yours
Ev'ry single breath

© 1999 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
For use solely with the SongSelect Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License # 733125

Friday, January 25, 2013

Christianity's True Power of Persuasion

"Nothing is really achieved by trying to persuade people. Christianity's true power is discovered only when it is hated by the world." Ignatius to the Romans, AD 115

Ignatius of Antioch was of the generation of disciples who came after the New Testament apostles. The church he pastored is well known to us as it is the same church in Antioch that we read about in the book of Acts. It was the Antiochene church that sent out Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13 and served as Paul's home church. It is therefore quite reasonable to assume that Ignatius had been trained for the ministry by Apostle Paul, Barnabas, and other Antioch church leaders. Ignatius wrote several letters around AD 115 while being transported from Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) to Rome where he would die as a martyr being fed to wild animals as a special feature of the halftime show at the Roman Coliseum. John Chrysostom, a famous pastor from Antioch as well, described Ignatius of Antioch as "a soul boiling with a passionate divine love."

The First Sewing Conference Begins in Lucknow

DBI's Lucknow Ashram (Oct 2010)

Please pray for our women today as they join the ministry team at Lucknow. They will be assisting Gloria Shaw in training Hindu women from the surrounding area in sewing skills. This simple skill goes a long way in helping the impoverished women and children of India with basic needs but also serves as an incredible bridge for the Gospel. Our ladies arrived last night in Lucknow with Gloria and a handful of other women and are preparing to depart for the ashram (teaching center). Meanwhile, I am here in Delhi preparing for my first class this afternoon with pastors-in-training. I will be teaching the book of 1 Peter (ring any bells, Gospel-Centered Bible Study students?).

Our First Day in Delhi!

The ladies and I took to the Khan Market this morning to pick up a few clothing items. After lunch, the women's team headed back to the airport to fly to Lucknow with Gloria and other women's teams from the US, UK, and here in Delhi. I have been asked to stay behind here in Delhi in order to preach on Sunday and teach Mon and Tues.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

God's Incredible Work to Raise Up Delhi Bible Institute

Check out more info on the amazing history if DBI: http://www.delhibible.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=61

William Carey, the Cobbler Who Gave India a Bible

by Thomas John Bach

Every pioneer missionary, in whatever phase of the work he has been active, has had some part in making possible a page or a chapter of profound interest in the history of the church of Christ and of missions. But to one man, William Carey, was given such a significant ministry that he has rightly been called "the father of modern missions."

William Carey was born near Northampton, England, on August 17, 1761. The words of the Lord to Saint Peter, "Thou art ... thou shalt be" (John 1:42), may very well be applied to Carey. Not many missionaries have started their careers with so few advantages, or culminated their work with so much success for the glory of God and the good of man, as did William Carey.

When he was fourteen years of age, he became an apprentice in a shoe shop. He was converted at the age of eighteen, and affiliated himself with the local Baptist Church. At the age of twenty-six, he was ordained. His income as a preacher was so limited that he gained his subsistence by working as a shoemaker. In his spare moments he studied languages, biographies, and conditions of the heathen world. He acquired a fair knowledge of French, Dutch, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
In front of him, on his work bench, hung a map of the world which he himself had made. In the year 1786 he pleaded with other ministers of his denomination to take up work among the heathen, but was greatly grieved when the chairman reproved him by saying, "Sit down, young man. When it pleases God to convert the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine!"

Read the rest of Carey's story: http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bcarey18.html

Our Gracious Hosts!

Gloria and Isaac Shaw

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Amrita Shergil Road,New Delhi,India

Getting Ready for Our First Day

We have made it to the land of Carey!! Now the fun begins... We are gathered for a brief orientation meeting and soon the ladies will be heading off to get some "native" clothes. Meanwhile, I am going to start preparations for teaching! Can't wait!