By Author & Blogger Tim Challies

Gospel weariness. It’s a little phrase I picked up from a friend when he preached at our church not too long ago. His text was James 1, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…” As he began to preach he told of some of the difficulties his church had encountered in recent days. Most recently and most painfully, dear friends who had only one opportunity to have a child had experienced stillbirth at eight and a half months, just two weeks from delivery. What tragedy. What sorrow.

He and his friends are Christians so they know that suffering is not empty, it is not purposeless, it is not meaningless. But that doesn’t make it any less painful.

Why? Why do we experience such suffering? Why does God allow it? Just from these early verses in James we see something unexpected—trials do us good. Trials do us good by developing spiritual maturity, by developing the most precious character traits. “Trials don’t come about because of what you’ve done but because of who God wants you to be.” Trials generate humility, leveling the field as small and great alike experience pain, miscarriage, death. Trials develop compassion and dependence, teaching us to sympathize with others and be dependent upon God. Trials give us courage in forcing us to handle what we were sure we could never deal with. The couple that lost their child displayed all of this when they said, “We have nowhere to go. All we have is God and his character to lean on.” At the funeral they declared, “Though the fog will not lift and the pain will not go, we hold on.” That’s faith.

Trials do us good in at least one more way: Trials develop a gospel weariness, a weariness with this world. Reflecting on all he had seen and experienced my friend said, “I hate this world right now. All it has done is break my heart.” It had broken his heart and the hearts of the people he loves. “None of us want to stay here. We want to rise in the resurrection and be done with the pain. All this world does is fool you and fail you. It over-promises and under-delivers.”  

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By Stephen Witmer from DesiringGod.org

Gossip is tasty to its speakers and hearers. “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts” (Proverbs 18:8 NIV).  A choice morsel is exciting and enticing, swallowed greedily, like potato chips or onion rings. But gossipy words aren’t just a burst of flavor on the tongue; they “go down to the inmost parts,” promising to meet the deep desires of our hearts.

Why does gossip taste so good? Ironically, while gossip’s content usually focuses on other people, at its core, gossip is really about me. It promises to make me feel a certain way about myself. We gossip because of what gossip promises to do for us. Therefore, when we gossip, we’re serving and worshiping ourselves (perhaps that’s why Paul lists gossip as a sin of idolatrous people in Romans 1:29).

Jonathan Dodson’s articles have helped me identify gossip’s false promises. Let’s consider four of them it makes to us.

1. “You Are Interesting.”

We all like to feel accepted, and interesting gossip can serve as our entrance badge into a conversation or group. All the more so if the gossip is negative and leads to mutual complaining. Gossiping and griping can be a bonding experience (“Did you hear the latest about our boss?”).

But gossip offers what it can’t deliver. When gossip says, “You’re interesting,” or, “You belong,” it’s lying. To people who thrive on gossip, you’re only interesting as long as your gossip is interesting. When we use gossip to gain access into a community (a church, a workplace, a friendship circle), our words tear apart the very community we want to join.

Jesus gives us a true community, the church. Our entrance badge into that community is his own blood, which unites the church in love. We don’t get into the church based on what we say about others. We get in based on what God says about us in Christ.

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Frank Retief was pastor at St James Church Cape Town for 31 years, having planted the church in 1968 with his wife Beulah.  He became the Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa until he retired in 2010.  Frank remains active in ministry through preaching, teaching, pastoral work & writing, and has authored a number of books.

An uncommon King – Part 1
Matthew Chapter 1 v 7 – 11

We now begin a series of reflections on the Christmas story, and we start with the few verses referred to above as a start. These bible verses are part of the introduction Matthew gives us to Jesus’ birth. He and Luke both give us a genealogy of Jesus.Genealogies were important in ancient times to prove where people came from to validate their claims to certain privileges.  It was important for Jesus to be born of the line of David, so that all ancient prophecies about the Messiah could be fulfilled, and indeed both Matthew and Luke proved exactly that.Christians claim that Jesus Christ is God’s king of all creation and that the glory of His kingship will finally be seen by all when He returns. It was imperative in those days for kings to have water-tight pedigrees to go with their status and privilege. But our king, the Christian’s king was an uncommon king. He was different in so many ways and some of those ways may be observed in the genealogy referred to above.Four of the ancient kings of Israel are mentioned above, cause us to pause and reflect. They are:

Rehoboam:  1 Kings 12 – 14
Joram:  2 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 21
Amon:  2 Chronicles 33 v 21 – 25
Jechoniah (also called Jehoiachim):  2 Chronicles 36 v 9 – 10

What was unusual about them?  They were all extremely wicked people.  They were evil kings yet here they appear in our Lord’s genealogy.  This teaches us amongst other things how sinful and corrupt the human heart is.  Grace does not always run in families.  In spite of godly forebears and the presence of prophets to guide them, those kings behaved sinfully and brought great trouble upon the nation.

It also teaches us how great the mercy and grace of Jesus is, to condescend to be born of a woman, who like all of us was a sinner. Reckoned to be the son of Joseph he came from the kingly line of David, but some of his forebears were total failures.

Godly and privileged though Mary was, she would herself, need her Son to be her Saviour. She was merely the instrument God used, so that the Word could become flesh.

This is amazing. Think about these things.

Meditation: The God who made the heavens, in Mary’s womb?  The coming king of Israel, with such wicked forbears?  Unthinkable, but it happened.  Do not marginalize Jesus!  He condescended greatly to save you.

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Written by Trevor Bradley

Paul, nearing the end of his journey, decides to write to Timothy, his “spiritual son”.  2 Timothy 4 vs 6-8 is his heart.  What would you say, if you were asked by a younger person to share some of word of advice, about this journey called “life” ?  Paul says/does 3 things here:-

• He LOOKS AROUND;
• He LOOKS BACK;
• He LOOKS AHEAD;

When Paul looks around, even though things are going “pear-shaped”, he has no fear.

When looking back, Paul has no regrets about past disappointments or failures.

Then looking ahead, Paul has no doubt.

It is easy for us to allow the devil to fill our hearts with fear as we look at the here and now. With the #feesmustfall violent protests, the fear that our country will be downgraded to junk status, concerns about the leadership capabilities of our government, it is easy to be fearful and concerned for our future.  One of the biggest tools the evil one uses to immobilize us and to render us ineffective, is to get us to look back.  Based on what we see, the devil tells us that GOD cannot and will not use us.  Read the life story of Peter and many others in the Bible and you can argue with him on that one.

Fear …Regrets… Doubt…  These are tools he uses against us often.  How do we overcome this?  Read Revelation 12 vs 11 and 1 John 5 vs 4.  These people overcame because of the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.  They declared that God is who is says He is.  He is doing what He said He would do, and He is in control of everything that He said He would be in control of in our lives.

So yet again I ask – If asked as you looked around, looked back, looked ahead, would you be able to encourage the younger generation, that the God we serve and have served is Faithful?  That the work set out for you to do, you have done?  That the course that was set before you, you have run?

Paul encourages us in Philippians 3 vs 13 & 14 ” forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I PRESS ON”.  That’s someone that is not scared of what is going down.  This is a person which says I know that soon I will receive a crown in glory, as all of us will (2 Timothy 4 vs 6-8), therefore I will give it my “best” to the end.

That’s the kind of person the younger generation are looking for as role models.  I want to be one, do you?

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