Grosey's Messages

[Jesus] went up on a mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons (vv. 13–15).

Note the three purposes for which Jesus "appointed" the twelve apostles:

1. "So that they might be with him."

2. "He might send them out to preach."

3. "And to have authority to cast out demons."

 Neither our culture nor our churches reward these priorities.

The harder we work in ways the world can measure, the more the world will celebrate our work. Over my forty five years of pastoral ministry, would you like to guess how many times someone in our church encouraged me to spend more time alone with the Lord? Not once. But the hours I spent at the church and in the community serving others were noted by church leaders who measured my success in the same way they measured theirs: by definable output.

For a few years I submitted to serve in a ministry as the under pastor of a dying Anglican Church under the senior minister who administered another nearby church. 

For the first six months I didn't even get paid!  

I was responsible for two services each Sunday pastoral care, commencing a Bible college, getting it accredited and teaching at it each week.  Again I was burning out.  And the senior pastor was looking for definable results. 

It's only human nature to do what we are rewarded for doing, to please those whose opinions affect our sense of well-being and even our professional future.

But living without God at the heart of our lives is choosing to be our own god, to repeat the Fall with its "will to power" (Genesis 3:5). And as CS Lewis noted, "Out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."

By contrast, the closer we are to Jesus, the more his Spirit makes us like our Lord (Romans 8:29), and the more our lives count for eternal significance today.

 Our spiritual enemy will do all he can to lead us to reverse the priorities of Jesus.

The church secretary at that time decided I needed weekly meetings with him to supervise my work at 7:30 am.  I already had weekly meetings with the deacons, and two each week  with the elders, and another monthly with deacons and elders together. Can you imagine ?  Being held accountable so many times. 

That day I made Fred the church secretary (chairman of deacons) wait outside for an hour while I engaged in another more important appointment.  He was angry!  His position meant he didn't need to fit in with my appointment schedule!  And when no car pulled up in front of the church house he was angrier!  

An hour later I told him (note: told) that my appointment with the Lord in his word each day was much more important than any meeting he could devise with me! 

Satan obviously wants us to fall into heinous public sin that destroys our ministries and shames our Lord. Failing this, if we insist on seeking to do good in the world, he will tempt us to make such good our purpose and measure of success. He will lead us to confuse the good with the best, to make the needs of others the definition of our call, to spend our days in a fervor of activity that produces (we hope) enough good to be worth the effort.

The famed preacher Arthur John Gossip once wrote:

Perhaps the ministry was never busier than it is now. Hundreds of men are hoarse from continual speaking, and are wearing out with running here and running there. If things slow down, we evolve yet another type of meeting. And when this new and added wheel is spinning merrily with all the other wheels, there may be no spiritual outcome whatsoever, but there is a wind blowing in our faces; and we hot and sticky engineers have a comfortable feeling that something is going on.

These words were written in 1952. How much worse are things today?

In My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers similarly wrote: "If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted . . . but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men."

performance anxiety

performance anxiety is a real thing pastors experience when they seek some form of justification for their identity as pastors. 

Today is, therefore, a good day to decide that we will walk with Jesus before we try to work for him. We will draw closer to him than ever before in the knowledge that this is his highest purpose for us. And we will make him known as we know him so that others can do the same.

"How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"

St. Polycarp died on this day in AD 155. Reliable tradition identifies him as a disciple of John the apostle, also known as the "beloved disciple." He clearly learned from his mentor the importance of personal intimacy with his Lord as the foundation of his life and work.

When Polycarp was led into the Roman stadium, the proconsul challenged him to renounce his faith and live. He replied, "Eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"

Sentenced to die by fire, he prayed as the soldiers prepared the wood, thanking God for the privilege of martyrdom. His last words testify to the depth of his love for his Lord:

I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be glory to you and with him and the Holy Spirit, both now and for ages to come. Amen.

No matter what we face today, if we are "with" Jesus in intimate fellowship, we will face it with him. And our words and our lives will glorify our Lord in this world and the next.

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

the strains of the beautiful hymn, When I survey, nearly melted me to tears before the waiting workers. Think about these words.
"When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, "
I seem to see before the eyes of my heart the very dying form of One who suffered there for me.
The Prince Of Glory. Lord. Creator. Second person of the Trinity! God incarnate.
Sometimes I have wondered, "How Could God ever forgive those men that nailed His Son to the cross?"
The Lord Jesus prayed for them "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."
His prayer was answered, we read in Acts 6 where many of the jewish priests became obedient to the faith Acts 6:7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
How could God forgive those men who nailed His Son to the cross?
How could God forgive men for whose sins His Son was nailed to the cross?
See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown.
How could God forgive me?
When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,
My riches gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.
The cross speaks of God's grace. This communion table with bread and grape juice speaks of God's grace. 

1. The Condition Which Grace Meets.

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

Boast in the Priority of the cross

Boast in the centrality of the cross

Boat in the Mercy of the cross 

s this not the very condition in which God's Amazing grace found us?
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found was blind but now I see.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear.
It was right that we should fear God because of our sins. It was our sins that were so grievous to God.
We were away from God. We were Afraid of God. We were Antagonistic towards God!
And how the devil blinded us to the fact of God's great love and purpose towards us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"And grace my fears relieved.. how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed."
Romans 5:8 says. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 2 Cor 4:4 says But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2. The Salvation Which Grace Ministers.

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

It was a mark of acceptance 
Romans 5:9 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
It was also a mark of assurance.

We come only by invitation: his invita­tion.

We do not come because we are pure. We come because we want to be pure. We do not come because we are innocent. We come because we want to be innocent. It is a measure of our acceptance that in spite of our spiritual awkwardness and our great limitations, he invites us still. In that ac­ceptance, there is the blessed assurance that Jesus is ours.
There is also a sense of abasement here.

3. The Response Which Grace Merits.

Boast in the victory of the cross 

But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

Just two hundred years ago, Stenberg at Dusseldorf painted his Gipsy Girl. As his model posed upon the dais, her black eyes wandered round the studio. They were arrested by an altarpiece painted for Father Hugo of the Church of Saint Jerome – a representation of the thorn-crowned face of Jesus. When the gipsy stepped down from her platform, she begged the artist to explain the picture to her. He tried, but found it difficult; for the thought of Christ stirred no profound emotion within him. When he had finished, the girl remarked simply: 'You must love Him very much, Signor, when He has done all that for you!'

The artless words pierced the painter's soul. They filled him with shame, for, in point of fact, he did not love Christ at all. But he soon did. And, when he did, he painted another picture – a picture of the Christ he now adored. Underneath the thorn-crowned face on the new canvas he inscribed the words:

All this I did for thee;

What hast thou done for Me?

He then presented it to the public gallery at Dusseldorf. And one day Count Zinzendorf was among the visitors who stood before it. Young, rich, gay and impressionable, the picture powerfully appealed to him, whilst the question beneath it rang through his soul like a challenge. It was a challenge, and he accepted it. He went out to serve his Saviour. He became the founder of Moravian Missions. Within a few months missionaries were sent to the Esquimaux and to the people of the West Indies. In a year or two, evangelists of the Cross were dispatched to all parts of the world. The Moravian Brethren became, in 1738, the means of the conversion of John Wesley, and thus the amazing revival of the eighteenth century was initiated. The Cross had shattered the indolent monotony of Zinzendorf's life. He became a new man; the Church became a new Church; the world became a New World! The soul-stirring challenge had been accepted: the great escape had been made: and, as long as the world endures, men will rejoice in the sensational developments that followed.

F W. Ballroom, 'The Squirrel's Dream,' A Witch's Brewing (London: The Epworth Press, 1932), 98 to 99.

There's a popular contemporary Christian worship song called "My Lighthouse" by Rend Collective. While it features a catchy chorus, the song has divided some churches over a fundamental question: Is it acceptable to call Jesus a "lighthouse" if the Bible never explicitly uses that term?

Usually, this question is framed within the debate about what's "allowed" or "forbidden" in worship (regulative principle versus normative principle). Worship wars aside, if we look at this question through the lens of communication––specifically speech act theory (SAT), as I'll discuss below––the question becomes whether the image of a lighthouse accurately captures the action God is performing in Scripture.