This and That - An Update
Good morning, friends. Here are a few personal matters I wanted to share with you. So many say to me, “I am praying for you.” How grateful I am to everyone who prays with and for me, trusting God with you that he will hear our cry and speedily answer us with his wisdom love, and mercy in Jesus. Perhaps those of you who are praying with and for me will find some of the things I mention here to be helpful in prayer as we seek the Lord together.
On the medical front. As you know, I was struck by a car while cycling last December 6, suffering a badly broken right leg that required surgery and a considerable amount of hardware to repair. It's been a painful and slow recovery, one that the doctors say will take a full year to complete. Throughout this ordeal, so many of you have reached out to help us, pray for us, and encourage us. We are deeply grateful. I have an appointment with my surgeon today, and I hope to hear that I can begin some weight-bearing on the mending leg, progressing to physical therapy and the next phase of recovery. Honestly, I’m really struggling right now with the pain, especially at night, and that’s discouraging. I know there will be good days and bad days, but sometimes those bad days loom larger in our minds than the good ones shine. Pray for my patient endurance, that the weakness will lead me to greater dependence on the Lord. Let’s remember to pray today for ALL who work in medical services who do so much to care for the sick, the wounded, the grieving, and the recovering. Thank God for great doctors, nurses, researchers, emergency workers, and all caregivers!
Preaching: We are in the middle of our series on the Ten Commandments, and how grateful I am for Brian Haring’s strong word this past week on the Sabbath. If you missed it, head over to the YouTube SRC channel and listen in. I’m going to take two weeks on the Fifth Commandment - Honor Your Father and Mother. I can’t promise you that they’ll be the two best sermons I offer this year, but I will say this: they might be the two most consequential messages I bring this year, and I would urge you to do whatever is necessary to attend to those messages. This brief commandment carries implications far wider than you might imagine at first glance. Indeed, how we shape not only family but every aspect of culture is embedded here. Drawing on this Scripture, we’ll be looking especially at how we respond to all manner of human authorities, what constitutes real education, and why we have hope for the future when many people are calling it quits on covenant marriage and family.
Teaching: Starting with my dear friend and fellow elder Greg Hazle (who has the voice of the Lord!), many people have urged me to teach on Biblical eschatology. Well, despite the pain meds making one’s interaction with apocalyptic passages even more colorful than usual, I am going to walk in where angels fear to tread and offer a five-part series on the subject this Spring. We will host it on Wednesday evenings, starting right after Easter. Watch for the. forthcoming information about it. I’ll teach the same material this Summer at our annual VBS for Adults, which meets every Wednesday at lunchtime in June. We’ll cover the basics, including some vital interpretive materials, a solid intro to “inaugurated eschatology,” and offer a brief reading guide to Revelation. The goal will be to help believers cultivate love for the truth and humble, gracious hearts with one another, learn to interpret key passages, understand how the blessed hope of Jesus’ coming moves us towards holiness rather than anxious speculation, and secure in us a focus on the centrality of Christ and his mission rather than the end-times mania promoted by many. I hope you’ll join me. I wrote a separate post today on reading Revelation - you might find it helpful.
Do you know about the Alliance for Mission and Renewal in the PCA? The Alliance brings together many Great Commission-focused leaders and churches to promote discipleship, community, evangelism, and a strong commitment to promoting the gospel in all of life. There are some helpful articles available on the website, and I hope you’ll check it out: https://a4mr.org/
More to come next week!
See you Sunday,
David