Why is there evil and suffering....

This month we begin a new series on the problem of evil and how the Gospel addresses it.  Here's a great quote, worth considering and contemplating, from Timothy Keller...

The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experience of cosmic abandonment. Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours…. Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us…. If we again ask the question “Why does God allow suffering to continue?” and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is. However, we know now what the answer isn’t. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.

- Timothy Keller, The Reason For God

Why Bother with Lent?

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Followed by Fat Tuesday (Madi Gras), Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the annual Lenten Season. Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a special period of fasting, repentance, personal study, moderation, and spiritual discipline. Of course, these activities can be observed any time of the year, but the purpose of doing during the 40 days of Lent is to set aside additional and particular time for reflection on Jesus Christ - his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection. (40 is a symbolic number often associated with sacrifice and the faithfulness of God - e.g., Israel's 40 years in the wilderness and Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11.) The 40 days of Lent are to be marked by repentance and personal sacrifice. Ash is sometimes rubbed on the foreheads of Christians during Ash Wednesday services as a sign of repentance (e.g., 2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3; and Matthew 11:21).

As with all liturgical season, Lent can be legalistically observed. There are no biblical warrants to observe it and it should be observed out of choice, not any sort of obligation. Elliot Grudem articulates it well, "...any special attention to the Lenten Season that honors God must include heart-level repentance and real faith, not external obedience to church tradition. So the Lenten Season and its encouragement to take an extended time to focus on the death and resurrection of Christ provides us with an opportunity to honor God...There can be a real value in marking this season, but only if done with a heart that seeks to honor God."

Lent is a time when Christians can annually connect with their heritage and their fellow Christians around the world. It's a unique opportunity to live out the "oneness" expressed in Christ's prayer in John 17 as we, together, journey through Lent, asking ask—are there things here that we need to die to? Are there habits, thoughts, and patterns of living in our lives that aren’t consistent with the life God intended us to live? At the same time, it is a time for Christians everywhere to accept the life and grace that God extends to us—celebrating the cross and resurrection as God’s definitive act of redemption in the world.

We aren't doing a special teaching this year geared toward the observation/participation of Lent; but we are encouraging you to observe Lent however you lead. I pray this Lenten Season will be a rich time growth as you prepare to celebrate the RESURRECTION!

Here are some great articles on why we celebrate Lent:

• Lent, Why Bother? by Elliot Grudem  (Read or download the full article HERE)
• Thoughts about Lent by Michael Horton
• The Perpetually-Illuminated Service Engine Soon Light - A Reflection on Lent

Also, here are some ideas to help shape the way you might choose to observe Lent this year:

• 2012 Lent Activities Calendar by Mars Hill Bible Church
• 2013 Lent Activities Calendar by Mars Hill Bible Churvh
• Parent & Children Lent Observation by Mars Hill Bible Church

It's All About HIM

This Sunday, Feb. 3rd, we are beginning our new series on the mission + vision of Grace Church and we'll be preaching through the themes of the first two chapters of 1 Peter. Peter was writing to a marginalized and ostracized Christians and how do we encourage Christians (one another) when we are suffering?  We draw one another's attention to the glory and wonder of Christ.  In fact, this is what the Scriptures are all about - they are all about HIM.

1 Peter 1:10-12

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

I was heard Tim Keller give the following summary of the centrality of Christ throughout the biblical narrative.  It's worth meditating on...

Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, "Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me," now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, "Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us."

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God's justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.

Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people's victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn't just risk leaving an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn't just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He's the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.

The Bible's really not about you – it's about him.

  

True & Better from Peter Artemenko on Vimeo.