Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor
Another Advent Poem...
Advent Summons
by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C.
Come forth from the holy place,
Sweet Child,
Come from the quiet dark
where virginal heartbeats
Tick your moments.
Come away from the red music
Of Mary's veins.
Come out from the Tower of David
Sweet Child,
From the House of Gold.
Leave your lily-cloister,
Leave your holy mansion,
Quit your covenant ark.
O Child, be born!
Be born, sweet Child,
in our unholy hearts.
Come to our trembling,
Helpless Child.
Come to our littleness,
Little Child,
Be born unto us
Who have kept the faltering vigil.
Be given, be born,
Be ours again.
Come forth from your holy haven,
Come away from your perfect shrine,
Come to our wind-racked souls
From the flawless tent,
Sweet Child.
Be born, little Child,
in our unholy hearts.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Risk of Birth
Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor
I thought I'd kick off December and the Advent season with an Advent poem from Madeleine L'Engle (probably best known for her A Wrinkle in Time series). I'll try to post some more of these as Christmas approaches.
The Risk of Birth (Christmas, 1973)
Madeleine L'Engle
This is no time for a child to be born,
with the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out and the sun burns late.
That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour and truth were trampled by scorn-
Yet here did the Saviour make His home.
When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn-
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
Children/Communications Pastor
I thought I'd kick off December and the Advent season with an Advent poem from Madeleine L'Engle (probably best known for her A Wrinkle in Time series). I'll try to post some more of these as Christmas approaches.
The Risk of Birth (Christmas, 1973)
Madeleine L'Engle
This is no time for a child to be born,
with the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out and the sun burns late.
That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour and truth were trampled by scorn-
Yet here did the Saviour make His home.
When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn-
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The Lazy Blog
Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor
I have a confession to make as November draws to a close and December peeks its frosty head around the corner: I'm lazy by nature. It's a roaring grizzly bear that I've had to wrestle as long as I remember, although I think that as I've gotten older and matured some of that laziness has been tempered. At least, I hope so! I don't know where it came from; my Dad and Mom are some of the hardest working folks I know. My work ethic must have been a genetic mutation.
Here's an example of my sorry lazy self. When I was in high school I was given the all important job by my Father of mowing the grass on Saturdays. Now, this was back in the day before there was a neighborhood behind my parents' home and our backyard was much larger. (That was my one mitigating comment.) I would literally take our mower and mow a small square in about fifteen minutes and go back inside to cool off for an hour or so. Then I would head back outside and repeat the process. Ad infinitum. What should have taken me maybe two hours would literally take all day. My Dad would come home and stare incredulously at his half-cut grass. (Wait, I do have one other mitigating comment: One time our lawn mower was broken and we borrowed Mr. Jones' riding mower. I knocked that job out in no time and forever lobbied for a riding lawn mower to no avail.)
It really shames me to dredge up those memories, but maybe some of you can identify. The challenge in my life is, how do I overcome this slothful inclination in my heart when I study my Bible? Because really studying the Bible, getting down to the nitty and the gritty of it, is hard work. We went through Living by the Book in our Life Groups this past Spring and Howard Hendricks gives an example of Acts 1:8 when he discusses the art of observation. It's one verse and he mentions that over the years in his classroom students have come up with over six hundred observations on Acts 1:8. Did I mention it's only one verse?! Six hundred observations!
In my Bible study, I have to develop my powers of observation and that requires hard work! It doesn't come naturally to me. My constant prayer has to be Psalm 119:8: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law," and 2 Timothy 2:15: "Be diligent to present yourself to God, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth."
Children/Communications Pastor
I have a confession to make as November draws to a close and December peeks its frosty head around the corner: I'm lazy by nature. It's a roaring grizzly bear that I've had to wrestle as long as I remember, although I think that as I've gotten older and matured some of that laziness has been tempered. At least, I hope so! I don't know where it came from; my Dad and Mom are some of the hardest working folks I know. My work ethic must have been a genetic mutation.
Here's an example of my sorry lazy self. When I was in high school I was given the all important job by my Father of mowing the grass on Saturdays. Now, this was back in the day before there was a neighborhood behind my parents' home and our backyard was much larger. (That was my one mitigating comment.) I would literally take our mower and mow a small square in about fifteen minutes and go back inside to cool off for an hour or so. Then I would head back outside and repeat the process. Ad infinitum. What should have taken me maybe two hours would literally take all day. My Dad would come home and stare incredulously at his half-cut grass. (Wait, I do have one other mitigating comment: One time our lawn mower was broken and we borrowed Mr. Jones' riding mower. I knocked that job out in no time and forever lobbied for a riding lawn mower to no avail.)
It really shames me to dredge up those memories, but maybe some of you can identify. The challenge in my life is, how do I overcome this slothful inclination in my heart when I study my Bible? Because really studying the Bible, getting down to the nitty and the gritty of it, is hard work. We went through Living by the Book in our Life Groups this past Spring and Howard Hendricks gives an example of Acts 1:8 when he discusses the art of observation. It's one verse and he mentions that over the years in his classroom students have come up with over six hundred observations on Acts 1:8. Did I mention it's only one verse?! Six hundred observations!
In my Bible study, I have to develop my powers of observation and that requires hard work! It doesn't come naturally to me. My constant prayer has to be Psalm 119:8: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law," and 2 Timothy 2:15: "Be diligent to present yourself to God, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth."
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Into the Deep
Part Seven in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...
Here's Part Two of the last word-picture in Psalm 107:
"Others went to sea in ships,
conducting trade on the vast waters.
They saw the Lord's works,
His wonderful works in the deep." (verses 23 & 24)
It's important to realize that navigation was so little practiced amongst the Israelites that if you were an Israelite sailor you received major props--the occupation of sailing was looked upon as one of incredible danger. Anyone who had survived a journey on the sea was given respect and an ancient mariner was listened to with great reverence. Voyages were looked on as descending to an abyss ("going down to the sea in ships"). Israelites tended to avoid the sea unless they had business to attend to. Solomon didn't even keep a pleasure boat. The Mediterranean was "the great sea" to David and his countrymen.
"He spoke and raised a tempest
that stirred up the waves of the sea.
Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths,
their courage melting away in anguish,
they reeled and staggered like drunken men,
and all their sill was useless." (verses 25-27)
He spoke...God's word is enough for anything. All He has to do is say it, and the tempest rages. The glassy surface of the ocean is broken by waves and it rises up in fury.
We would probably need to have been on the ocean in a violent storm to appreciate how accurate these frightening words are (verses 25-27). The sailors rise up on the crest of the wave and it's like they're being lifted into the sky, but it's only for a moment, because then they quickly fall back down to the depths. They are tossed up and down, up and down (are you feeling sick yet?). If you have ever been in the spiritual depths of a great storm in your life you can identify with this verse. There is no heart left for anything. Your courage is gone; your hope is almost dead. They were like men intoxicated. All of their skill was useless; they had tried everything.
"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and He brought them out of their distress.
He stilled the storm to a murmur,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet.
Then He guided them to the harbor they longed for. (verses 28-30)
Though they had come to the end of themselves, these sailors still had the wits to pray. And again, God heard them. God hears us in the thunder and answers out of the storm. When we call out to Him we honor who He is: His Sovereignty, His Wisdom, His Rescue, His Faithfulness. John Trapp once wrote, "He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn."
When they prayed, look what happened in verse 29: The waves bowed in silence at the feet of the Creator. There was peace. It's hard to appreciate these verses unless you've been in a storm at sea, but the principle is this: the rougher the voyage, the more the sailors long for port; and likewise for us as believers, heaven becomes more and more a desired destination. Phillip Henry Gosse said, "Blessed be God for the gift of His beloved Son, the only Harbor of Refuge for poor tempest-tossed sinners."
"Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race.
Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people
and praise Him in the council of the elders." (verses 31 & 32)
Have you ever seen a movie when the characters have endured something at sea and they finally get to land and they just jump out and lay in the sand? Sometimes they kiss the shore? That's the picture I see in verse 31. And then in verse 32, the Psalmist teaches us that our thanks to God for His mercies should be public; in the place where men and women gather for worship. When you have been in a great spiritual storm and have at last found peace, the acknowledgment of the Lord's mercy before His people should follow.
This fourth word-picture speaks not of our guilt before God, but of our smallness. The hurricane, the storm, shakes us into seeing that in a world of gigantic forces we live by grace. The point is made in verse 27, "all their skill was useless." There are wonderful works both to humble man (verse 24) and to save him (verse 31).
We, as the redeemed, should be filled with thanks. One of the marks of an unbeliever is given in Romans 1:21: "They neither glorify God as God nor give thanks to Him." If we are followers of Jesus then our lives should be characterized by thankfulness! By hearts filled with joy for whom God is and what He's done in our lives!
Here's Part Two of the last word-picture in Psalm 107:
"Others went to sea in ships,
conducting trade on the vast waters.
They saw the Lord's works,
His wonderful works in the deep." (verses 23 & 24)
It's important to realize that navigation was so little practiced amongst the Israelites that if you were an Israelite sailor you received major props--the occupation of sailing was looked upon as one of incredible danger. Anyone who had survived a journey on the sea was given respect and an ancient mariner was listened to with great reverence. Voyages were looked on as descending to an abyss ("going down to the sea in ships"). Israelites tended to avoid the sea unless they had business to attend to. Solomon didn't even keep a pleasure boat. The Mediterranean was "the great sea" to David and his countrymen.
"He spoke and raised a tempest
that stirred up the waves of the sea.
Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths,
their courage melting away in anguish,
they reeled and staggered like drunken men,
and all their sill was useless." (verses 25-27)
He spoke...God's word is enough for anything. All He has to do is say it, and the tempest rages. The glassy surface of the ocean is broken by waves and it rises up in fury.
We would probably need to have been on the ocean in a violent storm to appreciate how accurate these frightening words are (verses 25-27). The sailors rise up on the crest of the wave and it's like they're being lifted into the sky, but it's only for a moment, because then they quickly fall back down to the depths. They are tossed up and down, up and down (are you feeling sick yet?). If you have ever been in the spiritual depths of a great storm in your life you can identify with this verse. There is no heart left for anything. Your courage is gone; your hope is almost dead. They were like men intoxicated. All of their skill was useless; they had tried everything.
"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and He brought them out of their distress.
He stilled the storm to a murmur,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet.
Then He guided them to the harbor they longed for. (verses 28-30)
Though they had come to the end of themselves, these sailors still had the wits to pray. And again, God heard them. God hears us in the thunder and answers out of the storm. When we call out to Him we honor who He is: His Sovereignty, His Wisdom, His Rescue, His Faithfulness. John Trapp once wrote, "He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn."
When they prayed, look what happened in verse 29: The waves bowed in silence at the feet of the Creator. There was peace. It's hard to appreciate these verses unless you've been in a storm at sea, but the principle is this: the rougher the voyage, the more the sailors long for port; and likewise for us as believers, heaven becomes more and more a desired destination. Phillip Henry Gosse said, "Blessed be God for the gift of His beloved Son, the only Harbor of Refuge for poor tempest-tossed sinners."
"Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race.
Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people
and praise Him in the council of the elders." (verses 31 & 32)
Have you ever seen a movie when the characters have endured something at sea and they finally get to land and they just jump out and lay in the sand? Sometimes they kiss the shore? That's the picture I see in verse 31. And then in verse 32, the Psalmist teaches us that our thanks to God for His mercies should be public; in the place where men and women gather for worship. When you have been in a great spiritual storm and have at last found peace, the acknowledgment of the Lord's mercy before His people should follow.
This fourth word-picture speaks not of our guilt before God, but of our smallness. The hurricane, the storm, shakes us into seeing that in a world of gigantic forces we live by grace. The point is made in verse 27, "all their skill was useless." There are wonderful works both to humble man (verse 24) and to save him (verse 31).
We, as the redeemed, should be filled with thanks. One of the marks of an unbeliever is given in Romans 1:21: "They neither glorify God as God nor give thanks to Him." If we are followers of Jesus then our lives should be characterized by thankfulness! By hearts filled with joy for whom God is and what He's done in our lives!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Shackleton's Amazing Voyage
Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor
Part Six in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...
Let's take a two-part look at the last word-picture in Psalm 107:
One of my favorite books in the past few years is called Endurance by Sir Alfred Lansing. It's the true account of Shackleton's amazing voyage to the Antarctic in 1914-1916. Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men became stuck in the ice and had to abandon the ship, which eventually sank. This would not be heartening for a sailor I don't believe:
They were stuck on the ice, but eventually made their way to Elephant Island. Their only hope for rescue was to get to a whaling station on South Georgia Island so Shackleton and five of his men boarded the James Caird (one of their three remaining lifeboats) and proceeded to attempt the crossing of one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Here's a photo of the James Caird:
Not only were they in this tiny boat that was in constant peril of capsizing, but all they had for the journey to navigate to South Georgia Island was a sextant, which is not easy in calm waters much less the stormy and incredibly rough South Atlantic.
In fact, two of the men would hold the navigator up over their shoulders while he tried to sight the sun. The horizon could only be estimated. Over the seventeen day, eight hundred nautical mile journey they were only able to take four readings because of the ocean and the weather. The slightest mistake could have caused them to miss the island. Amazingly, they made it and not one man was lost. Check out the route of the James Caird (and you can see where they drifted on the ice as well, previously):
When I was reading verses 23-32 of Psalm 107 I couldn't help but be reminded of this part of Shackleton's voyage! A lot of commentators say that the most beautiful, the most poetic, and certainly the most stirring section of Psalm 107 are the verses that describe the peril of God's people while at sea. It might have been descriptive of the difficult sixty-five day, late-fall cross of the turbulent North Atlantic by the Pilgrims as well.
Stay tuned tomorrow as we dive into the text of this fourth word-picture!
Children/Communications Pastor
Part Six in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...
Let's take a two-part look at the last word-picture in Psalm 107:
One of my favorite books in the past few years is called Endurance by Sir Alfred Lansing. It's the true account of Shackleton's amazing voyage to the Antarctic in 1914-1916. Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men became stuck in the ice and had to abandon the ship, which eventually sank. This would not be heartening for a sailor I don't believe:
They were stuck on the ice, but eventually made their way to Elephant Island. Their only hope for rescue was to get to a whaling station on South Georgia Island so Shackleton and five of his men boarded the James Caird (one of their three remaining lifeboats) and proceeded to attempt the crossing of one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Here's a photo of the James Caird:
Not only were they in this tiny boat that was in constant peril of capsizing, but all they had for the journey to navigate to South Georgia Island was a sextant, which is not easy in calm waters much less the stormy and incredibly rough South Atlantic.
In fact, two of the men would hold the navigator up over their shoulders while he tried to sight the sun. The horizon could only be estimated. Over the seventeen day, eight hundred nautical mile journey they were only able to take four readings because of the ocean and the weather. The slightest mistake could have caused them to miss the island. Amazingly, they made it and not one man was lost. Check out the route of the James Caird (and you can see where they drifted on the ice as well, previously):
When I was reading verses 23-32 of Psalm 107 I couldn't help but be reminded of this part of Shackleton's voyage! A lot of commentators say that the most beautiful, the most poetic, and certainly the most stirring section of Psalm 107 are the verses that describe the peril of God's people while at sea. It might have been descriptive of the difficult sixty-five day, late-fall cross of the turbulent North Atlantic by the Pilgrims as well.
Stay tuned tomorrow as we dive into the text of this fourth word-picture!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
In a Dry and Thirsty Land
Part Five in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...
Let's take a look at the first word-picture in Psalm 107:
"Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.
They were hungry and thirsty;
Their spirits failed within them." (verses 4 & 5)
I can't think of too many things more depressing than for a man to be lost in a desert. How could they find a city? There were none! And they weren't just passing through. These people are actually wandering aimlessly, nowhere close to any path or any road that might lead them out.
It's easy to see how these verses would have resonated with the Pilgrims. They had been driven from their homes and were hounded from place to place. At one time escaping England for Holland before finally setting sail for the North American continent. According to William Bradford they were: "hunted and persecuted on every side...Some were taken and clapped in prison, others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their enemies hands; and most were constrained to flee and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood."
Their spirits failed within them. When your body is exhausted it sure is hard to have courage and to keep pressing forward. No food, no water, no streams in the desert. Nothing. Total despair.
"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He rescued them from their distress.
He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live." (verses 6 & 7)
Did you notice there wasn't any praying happening until things got bad? But, in the midst of their trouble they finally did pray, and to the right person: The Lord. It was all that they could do. They couldn't help themselves, or find help in other people, and so they cried out to God. Many of us are never going to pray until we're half starved and desperate, and it's really in our best interests to be empty and faint than to be full and brave. Someone once said, If hunger brings us to our knees it is more useful to us than feasting; if thirst drives us to the fountain it is better than the deepest drink of worldly joy; and if fainting leads to crying out to God then it is better than the strength of the powerful.
So, God hears the people's prayer and not only does He find the right way for them to escape from their wanderings, but he made the way, and gave them the strength to walk upon it. He gives them a place of rest; a city where they may dwell.
"Let them give thanks to the LORD
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for the human race.
For He has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things." (verses 8 & 9)
We would have to be criminally ungrateful to not honor a Deliverer who rescued us from the wilderness and from cruel death! As believers, we should be stirred to praise the Lord again and again. Lives characterized by Thanks-Living!
One of the really cool things about this first word-picture in Psalm 107 is that the themes of lostness, thirst, hunger, and exhaustion are all pictures that Jesus uses to describe Himself as the Way, the Bread and Fountain of Life, and the Giver of Rest. The scene in this word-picture unites all these parts of salvation and crowns them with that of a city to dwell in.
Cultivating a Life of Thanks-Living
Melody Merritt
Women's Ministry Director
Part Four in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...
What is the difference between giving thanks on one day and living thanks every day? Thankfulness should not be expressed just at Thanksgiving or when everything is going good for us, but giving thanks should be a part of our lives every day. Cultivating a life of gratitude and thanksgiving should be who we are as believers in Christ Jesus. 1 Chronicles 16 says, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 reads: "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." The Amplified Bible states verse 19 this way: "Thank God in everything no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks, for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus, the Revealer and Mediator of that will."
Paul writes in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."
How do we cultivate this life of thanksliving? By spending time with God in His Word, and in praising Him. Take time to thank God for everything everyday and begin living a life of Thanks-Living today!
Women's Ministry Director
Part Four in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...
What is the difference between giving thanks on one day and living thanks every day? Thankfulness should not be expressed just at Thanksgiving or when everything is going good for us, but giving thanks should be a part of our lives every day. Cultivating a life of gratitude and thanksgiving should be who we are as believers in Christ Jesus. 1 Chronicles 16 says, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 reads: "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." The Amplified Bible states verse 19 this way: "Thank God in everything no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks, for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus, the Revealer and Mediator of that will."
Paul writes in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."
How do we cultivate this life of thanksliving? By spending time with God in His Word, and in praising Him. Take time to thank God for everything everyday and begin living a life of Thanks-Living today!
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