Chesterbrook Taiwanese Presbyterian Church

John Piper on “What is the Recession for?”

1. He intends for this recession to expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.
2. He intends to wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.
3. He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods, in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.
4. He intends to advance his saving mission in the world—the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church—precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.
5. He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.

This story is so sad. In Japan, the suicide rate increased 15% since last year due to the global recession. Here’s an excerpt from CNN:

Taro, a 46-year-old man fired from his job at an iron manufacturing company, hoped to fade into the blackness. “My will to live disappeared,” said Taro. “I’d lost my identity, so I didn’t want to live on this earth. That’s why I went there.” Taro, who did not want to be identified fully, was swimming in debt and had been evicted from his company apartment. He lost financial control, which he believes to be the foundation of any stable life, he said. “You need money to survive. If you have a girlfriend, you need money. If you want to get married, you need it for your life. Money is always necessary for your life.”

Yesterday, we were going over some of the material by Soma Communities on the gospel when we came across Luther’s take on the first commandment:

Luther said that the first commandment is the gospel – “You shall have no other gods before me” is the same as, “You shall have no other justification for your life, your righteousness, your significance, your security etc… other than me.”

My hope and prayer for this guy is that he would one day be able to find a true foundation for his life. During these times, may our identity, significance, and security come from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, we talked about different ways of seeing the gospel. We can look at the gospel  through two lenses:

1. Systematic/thematically [e.g. God-Sin-Jesus-Faith]
2. Story/narrative [e.g. Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration]

You need both perspectives and cannot pit one against the other. If you want to dig deeper, check out Tim Keller’s article entitled, The Gospel in All its Forms.

Here are some good reminders for us via Paul Tripp:

The central work of God’s kingdom is change. God accomplishes this work as the Holy Spirit empowers people to bring his Word to others.

We bring more than solutions, strategies, principles, and commands. We bring the greatest story ever told, the story of the Redeemer.

Our goal is to help one another live with a “God’s story” mentality.

Our mission is to teach, admonish, and encourage one another

• to rest in his sovereignty rather than establishing our own;
• to rely on his grace rather than performing on our own; and
• to submit to his glory rather than seeking our own.

This is the work of the kingdom of God: people in the hands of the Redeemer, daily functioning as his tools of lasting change.

Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (p. 35)

Our leadership team just came back from our Vision Retreat. We had a great time sharing, envisioning, planning and praying together.  In years past, we focused on more big picture, but not many concrete steps. As a corrective, we attempted to be more practical by focusing on the “next step” and everything in between. Although I am greatly excited and encouraged by people’s creativity and input, I confess I am exhausted and overwhelmed. So today, I find myself in a mixed bag of emotions. Parts of me wants to get cranking and fill up my to-do-lists while another part of me doesn’t want to think about anything related to ministry. During these moments, I need to remind myself and the rest of you that these are prime moments for Satan to exploit our weakness and fatigue. (more…)