Instructing a Child's Heart

Tripp's follow-up book to the Shepherding a Child's Heart (which is the one GC is gladly giving away to every parent...or anyone else in our fellowship who doesn't have a copy!).

Yes, It Is Sort of Like A Military Kid's Address...

The GC blog just keeps moving! Our new(est) blog address is:


www.gracechurchmemphis.wordpress.com



There are several new posts there already.

Grace Church Sermon Links

<-- Are now on the sidebar.

Lots-O-Grace Stuff

1. Have a great Thanksgiving
2. No Grace Lunch Fellowship next Sunday, November 25
3. No Grace Groups next Sunday, November 25
4. Christ-centered Time Stewardship | 6:30p | Wednesday, November 28 | Marion, AR [RSVP here].
   
5. Men's Retreat | Fri-Sat, December 7-8 | New Albany, MS [To guarantee sleeping spot, RSVP by Sat., Dec. 1].
   
6. Mr. Richard Owen Roberts | Sunday, December 9* - Wednesday, December 12**

* Sunday morning, December 9, Mr. Roberts will be preaching at Grace Church.
** Sunday evening, December 9-12, Calvary Baptist Church of West Memphis has allowed Grace to use their facility to host sessions each evening with Mr. Roberts beginning at 6:30p (childcare provided).

(pictured: Richard Owen Roberts)

6p-Nigeria Meeting

What: Discussion and prayer about Grace Church's future involvement for the gospel in Nigeria

When*: 6:00-7:15p

Where: Jordan & Tracy Thomas'

* We believe that we incorrectly announced 6:30p during Sunday's announcements. The meeting will begin at 6p (sharp).

The LORD Gives And The LORD Takes Away

The following is an article that JT wrote for FBC West Memphis's church newslettter (FBC is Grace's local sponsoring church):
____

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
May the name of the LORD be praised”
Job 2:21-NIV

Horatio Spafford wrote the famous hymn, “It is Well.” He wrote it out of deep pain and suffering. His son died in 1871. His livelihood was lost in the great Chicago fire. On top of that, all four of his daughters drown in the Atlantic Ocean in a shipwreck in 1873. His wife broke the horrific news to him through her now famous telegram, "Saved alone." His hymn is his response to it all. You know how it goes… “When peace like a river… When sorrows like sea billows roll… Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say… It is well, it is well with my soul.” Spafford knew suffering. More importantly, Spafford knew God (John 17:3).

You can’t sing the biblical meaning of “It is well” without also believing that God is responsible for the suffering. How else can we obey the will of God by “giving thanks in everything” (1 Thess. 5:18)?

It is unlikely that any of us have—or ever will—suffer like Spafford. It is even less likely that we will suffer extensively like Job. But, like Spafford, when the report came to Job that all of his livestock had been stolen or killed, his servants (save three) captured or killed, and that all ten of his children had been killed, Job immediately worshiped God (Job 1:20-21). Worshiped God? For suffering? Yes! Would that be my response? Would it be yours? In an instant, when Job’s world came crashing down, he humbly worshiped and asked, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10). Accept trouble from God?

Some want to excuse God from pain and loss by believing that He had nothing to do with it? Others will want to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Biblically speaking, neither response is appropriate.

This fall at Grace Church we are on a mission to worship God by forgetting about God. I mean we are seeking to forget what we’ve always thought to be true about God…while, on the other hand, we are seeking to embrace—with big-hearted faith—all that God has said to be true about Himself in the Bible. That would be a brief synopsis of our current sermon series: God: The Greatest of All. Please pray for us to know Him (John 17:3) and to believe Him (John 6:29).

Speaking of believing God, have you ever noticed that Job 2:10 concludes by stating, “…In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” The “all this” is significant because in the previous breath Job attributed both his prosperity as well as his sufferings to…GOD! Also, in Job 1:22, the bible states, “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.”

Wait a minute! Did you catch that?

While it may be logical for us to suppose that blessings come from God, while adversity comes from Satan, that line of thought is simply unbiblical (Lamentations 3:38; Amos 3:6; Isaiah 45:7). That is a staggering truth!

When it comes to man’s standard of “fairness,” the world looks horribly backwards. We don’t have to look far to find that the wicked often prosper (Psalm 73), while the righteous often suffer (Just think of Christ’s sufferings! —Hebrews 12:2-3). But “fairness” is the last thing man wants from God. We have all sinned and fallen short of His well-deserved glory (Rom. 3:23). All of us are doing better than we deserve! Do you believe that?

At the very least, the bible demonstrates that God was not a passive bystander in Job’s troubles. Not at all! (Job 1:8, 12; see also, 1:11; 2:5). At the conclusion of Job’s story, after his fortune is restored, the account again clarifies that GOD was the responsible Agent in Job’s sufferings: “All [Job’s] brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him…” (Job 42:11). Did you catch that? The LORD brought “all” of Job’s trouble upon him.

How will you respond to adversity and suffering? Will you (unbiblically) suppose, “God had nothing to do with it?” Or, will you give God the credit for your pains—believing that He is giving you an opportunity to fellowship more deeply with Christ (Phil. 3:10)? More than that, will you continue to worship Him for causing the trials (Job 1:20; Genesis 50:20)? God gives grace for this (1 Pet. 4:11).

Worshiping God. That is the crux of the matter. Even if our life's lot is difficult, the sheer fact that we are not objects of God’s righteous wrath is entirely owing to His grace and mercy. Each person is a monster of iniquity. Only in the gospel of Jesus Christ do we have hope for receiving the favor of God. Are you clinging to Jesus alone for acceptance with God? This life is a vapor, and will be gone tomorrow. Is Jesus your greatest Treasure?

I know this isn’t easy. But it is biblical. And clinging to Christ during trials demonstrates the beauty of Christ to the world. As we cling to Jesus no matter what “sea billows” may roll, God is glorified.

My prayer for you and I is that we, along with Job and Spafford, will respond all of life (including suffering) by worshiping God (Job 1:20)! The thing which ultimately sustained Job was a great view of God (Job 38-42). God is our greatest need. Not comfort. In truth, the good pleasure of God usually works so that most of the Christian’s “rejoicing” is also mingled with deep “sorrow” (2 Cor. 6:10; Ps. 30:5).

Please continue to pray for Grace! We love you all.

Praying with you, for Christ to be displayed in our lives as the Great Treasure that He is, John 3:30

Jordan

The book of Job

Is basically an exposition of this verse.

Two Conferences

Please pray for a few men from GC as we are going separate ways this weekend to two different conference.

Nathan and Jordan are at the Miami Pastor's Conference
Bryan and Jim are at the 9Marks workshop

Thank you.

Worship Preparation

• Reading Job would be the very best heart prep.
  
• And, if there is any possible way that you can listen to John Piper read The Misery of God and the Mercy of Job (4 parts; total of about 50 min.) while you follow along in the text as he reads, I trust that your heart will be very ready for corporate Christ-exaltation on Sunday.

Praying For the Nations

For Vijay, and for the training of Indian pastors. Email snippet:

Please say helo your family members and friends at the Church.

We will be starting our second batch of training program from 12 Nov - 22 Dec 2007. Please continue to pray for the students, teachers and the training programme.

Thanks
Vijay.

Explaining the Gospel to Children

Every believing parent is concerned for the salvation of his or her child(ren). The article linked below is a helpful one for me. And, the book pictured to the left is the best and most biblical counsel I've come across on the subject thus far.

Good (negative) point from the article to keep in mind:
"Too many ministries to children equate every positive response with a real conversion."

Good (positive) point from the article to keep in mind:
"Certainly children are limited in their ability to understand spiritual truth, but so are adults. Very few people intellectually understand all the gospel truth at the moment of salvation. Fortunately, the essential truths are basic enough that even a child can understand. Jesus Himself characterized saving faith as childlikeness (Mark 10:15). True belief is not a function of advanced intellect, sophisticated theological understanding, or complex doctrinal knowledge."

You can read the short article here.

(article HT: TC)

Here I Stand

Although their outcomes were different, Luther at Worms reminds me of Esther before Xerxes, which is our sermon text for Sunday (Esther 4:11; 5:2-3).

Worship Preparation: "Spread & Go" Offering This Sunday

Most churches call it a "love offering." That's a great name, because it implies that we love to give of the resources the Lord has given to us in order to aid the work of advancing the kingdom of Christ in the world.

Our vision at Grace is to glorify God by treasuring Jesus Christ and spreading His eternal joy. Our mission is to guide people to faith in Jesus Christ; grow together in biblical maturity; and go to our neighbors and the nations.

So the "love" offerings taken at Grace are intricately tied to our vision and mission of spreading eternal joy by going to the whole world with the gospel of Christ.

This Sunday, we will have the special privilege of hearing briefly from Rev. Daniel Seidu, from Ghana, West Africa. Daniel is the pastor of God's Glory Baptist Church (great name!), and is passionate about reaching his people--The Wala people--with the gospel.

Come prepared to give towards the ministry of reaching the Wala people for Christ!

Lunch Prayer

I'll appreciate your prayers today as I speak during lunch for a bible study at a law firm downtown.
JT

Song For the Day

Click here.