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The Gap Between Our Fear and His Calling

An Excerpt by Joseph V. Novenson from Heralds of the King pp. 29

9781433504020I was in India during one of the most stirring cross-cultural mission experiences I have ever known. While I was speaking in southern India to the General Conference of the St. Thomas Evangelical Church, the police arrived and vigorously opposed, in their native tongue, my preaching the gospel. Seeing that I was confused due to my linguistic ignorance, an Indian translator calmly explained to me that the police did not want me to continue. Fear immediately shot through me like electricity as I found myself confronted by official opposition to my carrying on ministry. Actually, “terror” seems a reasonable description of my emotional state. With that terror I sensed afresh the enormous gap between my spiritually fragile inner man and the remarkably high calling upon my life as Christ’s servant. My fear and his calling seemed separated by an unimaginably huge chasm.

This hardly seemed an appropriate moment to discuss options, but I awkwardly sought counsel from an Indian Christian near me. “What should I do?” I stammered.

He calmly counseled me in great contrast to my obvious abject terror. In a very matter-of-fact manner, he indicated that his Bible had a few verses in it that said to keep preaching when people told us to stop. Then, in the same matter-of-fact tone, he inquired whether or not those verses were in my Bible as well.

Needless to say, his gentle rebuke to my fear hit me like a brick bat across the bridge of my nose, and I began to cry. I realized, in my fear, that I was now standing where, for thousands of years, my forefathers and foremothers had stood when the authorities ordered them not to preach God’s truth. This brief mental connection with Christian history heightened my sense of the gap between my horribly fearful and weak condition and God’s incredibly high calling upon my life.

September 30, 2009 | Posted in: Books,Fear and Anxiety,Missions | Author: Crossway Staff @ 7:37 pm | 0 Comments »

Never Before Published Works from Lloyd-Jones

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In 1951 the Second World War was not long over and the Cold War was generating anxiety in the West. It was then that Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached these eight sermons on the great truths of John 14:1-12 to comfort, strengthen, and encourage those dealing with fear and uncertainty.

In these never-before published sermons, Lloyd-Jones does not lull fear to rest. He shows how to deal with fear by confronting it, recognizing it, and realizing that the only way to address it is found in the unchanging gospel.

Below find an excerpt from Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled:

The business of the gospel of Jesus Christ, therefore, is not to reform the individual or the whole world; it is to take hold of us one by one and to bring us out of it, to give us a new birth, a new life, a new beginning. It makes men and women children of God. It gives them a new outlook, a new power, and sets before them the blessed hope of life with God in eternity.

That, let me emphasize again, is the Christian message. The gospel is not merely an exposition of the Sermon on the Mount and its social application in order to make this world a better place. Men have been preaching that kind of thing for so many years and trying to put it into practice, but look at the results! To ask unregenerate people to live the Sermon on the Mount is mockery; they cannot do it. They cannot keep the Ten Commandments; they cannot even live up to their own moral standards. But how glibly people talk about “the social application of the gospel” and about bringing in the kingdom of God.

There is a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light, and these two kingdoms are here together in this world.

Oh, the tragedy of it all! No, we need to be born again, to be regenerated, and the gospel offers to do that. So side by side in this world of time, you have these new people, the citizens of the kingdom of God, and those who belong to Satan. “Ye,” said Christ to the Pharisees, “are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). There is a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light, and these two kingdoms are here together in this world—that is another aspect of the gospel message.

(Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, pp 99).

June 18, 2009 | Posted in: Books,Fear and Anxiety,Preaching and Teaching | Author: Crossway Staff @ 1:32 pm | 0 Comments »

Cultivating Godly Emotion

web_cover_imageIn Feelings and Faith, Brian Borgman draws from his extensive biblical knowledge and pastoral experience to help readers understand emotion within the Christian faith. Borgman establishes the theology of godly emotions and practically applies truth to help Christians put to death ungodly displays of anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, anxiety, worry, and depression.

This new Crossway release is a valued resource in personal study, marriages, small groups, and Sunday school—as it teaches glorious gospel truths to help believers grow in Christlike character.

Endorsements

“Borgman shows that love for God is more than feelings, but never less, and that there is a huge difference between emotionalism and God-centered emotion. If you have been looking for a clear, practical, and balanced book on the appropriate role of feelings in the Christian life, look no further.”  Tullian Tchividjian, pastor, New City Church; author, Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different

Feelings and Faith provides unusual insight and wisdom for growth in holiness through understanding better the crucial role godly emotions play in our lives, as God designed them to do. Here is a valuable resource for personal study, marriages, small groups, and Sunday schools.” – Bruce and Jodi Ware, president of the Evangelical Theological Society in 2009, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

May 8, 2009 | Posted in: Endorsements,Faith,Fear and Anxiety | Author: Crossway Staff @ 8:49 am | 0 Comments »