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An Open Letter to the Saints

An Open Letter to the Saints

      My dear brothers and sisters, I thank God for you and for your faith. I thank Him for calling your souls out of darkness and into His marvelous light; for transferring you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

As long as I am alive, my greatest desire for you will be that you would know Almighty God – the King immortal, eternal, invisible.

Now, we often speak in these terms: knowing God, and knowing Jesus. But O! How far short we often fall of allowing the golden weight of that aim to fall heavy on our hearts! To know God – that is our goal! To know the One who created all things; the One to whom we owe our existence; the One who upholds all things in every moment – this is the God we seek!

And my friend, my great desire is that in knowing Him you would be awed by Him! We are not strangers to awe. A sunrise over a chill morning, or a sunset behind the mountains, or the vast expanse of the oceans, and a thousand other things sometimes take our breath away. Awe and wonder wells up in our souls as we see and contemplate the glorious beauty of our surroundings.

And yet, these are only reflections of the Master! The most glorious scene of creation is but a dim echo of the eternal, rapturous beauty of the Creator. I pray that God would give you spiritual eyes, so that you might see the unyielding, burning glory of our great God. I pray that your breath would be taken away as you see God for who He is, in all His eternal beauty. O, that God would remove the scales from our eyes that we might be awestruck by His glory, which outshines the beauty of ten thousand sunsets put together!

Now, when God answers these prayers, there can only be one response: delight! The LORD of hosts gives us this command through the Psalmist: “DELIGHT yourself in the Lord…” (Psa. 37:4). Dear brother, dear sister – God does this, not by force, but by a revelation of His ultimately satisfying goodness.

There are moments in life when a circumstance or blessing or scene of beauty is so intensely good that we literally are filled to bursting with joy at it. A child we love grasps our neck and says, “I love you.” A scene of indescribable beauty in creation stops us in our tracks. The love of a spouse makes our heart ache until we feel like bursting. The fellowship and love of family gives us deep, comforting peace.

And dear brothers and sisters, all of these things are merely gifts given out of the abundance of the goodness of God! All good things flow from Him. The welling up of love in our hearts for a child or spouse, the peace and comfort in our family, the aching delight of beauty – all of these flow out of the limitless stores of beautiful goodness in our God! The most filling and delightful blessings we know in this life are like small streams of goodness which flow out of a limitless ocean of good beauty which is in God!

Dear brothers and sisters, if we can find delight in the streams, how much more delight is there to be had in the ocean!

O God,

show our feeble hearts the meaning of delight;

overwhelm our spiritual eyes with your beauty;

fill us full to capacity –

pressed down and running over,

and welling up –

with everlasting joy in your goodness!

Help us, King Jesus,

to see the incomprehensible strength,

the infinite mighty power,

the eternal victory in your right hand.

 

O God,

help us to see You and be satisfied.

Give us a feast of good,

that our cup might overflow

with joy in you alone.

Give us more joy,

and more delight and happiness,

and more awe and wonder

than we can bear.

 

O God,

OVERWHELM us

with delight in you.

In our glorious and beautiful King-Savior,

Pastor Daniel

Summertime – good for more than just sunburns

So, one of the things they neglect to tell you in graduate school is that, regardless of your skin’s previous tolerance to the sun, at the end of a year of school your skin will be whiter than a fluffy-white bunny. After being shielded for months by library bookshelves from the need for any sort of melanogenesis, a bit of sun can be bit of a rude awakening. Perhaps each student could be given a small tube of sunscreen after taking his or her last final, with a small note alongside reminder him/her to apply it liberally, and then wear a thick wool blanket the first time out in the sun. The top of my arms look like someone took a red highlighter to them. It’s quite extraordinary, really.

Anyway, I know that it’s been quite some time since TOT blog has had any new fodder (the past couple months have been woefully and wonderfully busy, with church events and the end of school) but, as evidenced by the fact that I had plenty of time to go outside and get sunburned yesterday, I should have more time to put pen to paper…er…fingers to keyboard(?) during the rest of the summer months.

I’d like to post several times a week, though that may be slightly more ambitious than realistic. A couple good brothers in the Lord and myself are also working on launching a new blog to which we will all contribute. I’ll link that sometime once it gets running.

What are you doing with your summer? Let me challenge you to: read something, write something, study a language, learn something you’ve always wondered about, stimulate your mind. Summertime is good for more than sunburns and grass stains, so use the time to decide what you want to do with your brain, and DO IT.

I ask, God does.

If you read the last blog, you know that I’ve been thinking about prayer and have been convicted to pray more often, more fervently, and more specifically. As all these things have been going through my head, one of my many encouragements to rejoice in the great privilege of prayer was to remember answered prayers.

I wanted to share a few of these with y’all. Some of them are from old journals. Some of them are simply remembered. All of them are fairly recent, and are specific answers to specific prayers.

1. Oct 1, 2009 – Prayed that God would provide me with an opportunity to preach the Word

  • I began to have opportunities to supply preach Nov. 8th. One of those opportunities led into being called as the interim Pastor beginning Jan 1, 2010. That grew into a Full-Time pastorate beginning Sept 19.

2. Oct 1, 2009 – Prayed that God would enable me to provide a living for myself

  • Just a week later, I was given a tutoring job. This was supplemented by supply preaching and the interim pastorate. I am now completely provided for and well -supplied by my Church.

3. Jan 1, 2010 – Prayed that God would begin to renew, heal and enliven New Castle FBC through my humble preaching of His Word.

  • This is an ongoing prayer, and has received an ongoing answer. God has been very gracious to do a good work in His people here completely through His Word; in spite of the fact that I am inept and inexperienced.

4. Jan 1, 2010 – Prayed that God would send me to serve for a time in dark places so that I might encourage and build up his persecuted people.

  • A very short time after this prayer, having forgotten that I prayed it and wrote it down in my journal, I was introduced to an organization called Training Leaders International. Through this group, I went to Tunisia for 2 weeks and was able to meet and pray with various groups of persecuted Christians to encourage them.

7. On September 26, 2010, I got a phone call in the wee morning hours to come to the hospital bedside of a saint in my church whose family was gathered with her. The family, the doctors, and everyone in the ICU were quite certain that if there were not her last moments, they would be coming soon. I prayed with her that night and continually since then, and she is currently alive and living near family in Tennessee.

8. At the end of last year, a wonderful couple in our church who have been married nearly 64 years began to have some significant health problems. They had to spend months apart from each other, when they had never been apart all these years. The husband was in very poor health and significant despair. As I and the church prayed for them, they were preserved. Each made significant progress in their health. And they are now back living together and continually gaining ground in their strength and resolve to get healthy enough to come back to church.

9. There are MANY others, but I’ll end with a very recent one. I have been yearning for the opportunity to disciple people in my church in an 1-on-1 atmosphere lately. I was in my office yesterday praying, and I prayed that God would send me someone who wanted to know about the gospel and be discipled. I fully expected someone to catch me Sunday or after Wednesday prayer meeting and ask about this. What I did not expect was for someone to walk into my office 30 minutes later and tell me that they wanted to be involved in mission work and discipleship, but needed to know how to share the gospel. We talked for nearly an hour about the gospel and how this person could get involved in ministry in the future.

My friends, prayer is GLORIOUS. Do you realize that the eternal Creator HEARS our prayers and then acts in accordance with what we pray? How unfathomable! How humbling! How incredible! In the words of Francis Chan: “When I see all that God does through prayer…WHY do I do anything but pray?”

Be encouraged, and PRAY.

Waiting for the lion

 

Do I desire Christ?

That question has been echoing in my brain for a while. By God’s grace alone, I can say that yes, I do desire Him. I long to be in His presence. I yearn to be a faithful servant, pleasing to my Savior.

BUT

There are so many other things that capture my attention. There are so many other things that draw my gaze away from my glorious Redeemer. Yes, I long for Christ, but I find my heart longing after MUCH that is not Christ also…and I hate it.

I hate it.

I despise this wicked heart of mine that can be so unmoved by God’s grace; that can in one moment rejoice in salvation, and in the next instant water at the mouth for sin.

I HATE it!

I imagine that the Christians in the arena had no distracting desires. Desires for love, wealth, fame, strength, power, etc were not even a blip on the radar in their minds. As they waited with uplifted eyes for the lion’s mouth, Christ was their sole desire. As the fires were lit beneath them, it became all too clear just how lasting Christ IS compared to how fragile this life is. It would be ludicrous to want some silly, worldly thing in that moment. No, Christ was ultimately captivating in that moment. The purest earthly worship that ever came from a Christian’s heart was the moment the world was shattered.

So the question that my heart is crying out is this: When will my lion come?!

Some of you will read that and think I’m unstable; that I desire pain or am some sort of masochist. No! I shudder to think of persecution. I do not want to suffer. I do not like pain. But if the lion’s mouth destroys the desire for the world in my heart so that I might desire Christ fully, then let it come! My desire is Christ, and I want to desire nothing else.

What a terrifying question. When will my lion come? Oh, but how beautiful is the Savior? Oh how He loves us! What will it take for my heart to love Him as much in return?

When will the lions come? God help me.

Sometimes people ask me questions

For whatever reason, 2 brothers in ministry have wanted to interview me recently. I’m thankful that I have such gracious brothers, and I’m honored that they thought to invite me to interview.

The first, a radio interview with Tommy Lanham, you can listen to here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tommylanham/2010/10/05/tommy-lanham-with-daniel-lowry

Here’s the transcript of a second interview, done by Jason Kees – a good friend a brother down at Southwestern Seminary:

An interview of Daniel Lowry, Pastor of New Castle First Baptist Church, by Jason Kees.

How do you manage your time weekly?

What I have set out to do currently breaks my time up into 3 slots during the day. In the mornings I spend time personally with Christ, study for sermons, and pray. During lunchtime and afternoon I spent time with people: visiting, sharing a meal, etc. As I’m not married, my evenings are sort of a free-space. Sometimes they are for more study. Sometimes they are filled with meetings. Sometimes they hold fellowship. And sometimes they’re just for rest.

Sunday evenings are usually for rest. On Mondays I look at the sermon text for the following week and begin meditating, praying, and thinking on it. The first part of Tuesdays and Thursdays are given to class, and those evenings are given to study. Wednesdays are used to prepare Bible study for that night, and begin outlining the sermon. I try to have sermons outlined and titled by Thursday night. Then, Friday and Saturday are used to write a manuscript and let it soak a while. Throughout all of this, people’s needs take precedence. If someone calls me during study time, I answer the call and do what needs to be done. If that means I lose sleep that night in order to finish studying, so be it. My people come before my comfort.

What good books have you recently read on Pastoral Ministry?

The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter – This is the most powerful exhortation to an urgent, hands-on view of ministry that I’ve ever read. I was convicted in nearly every sentence, and encouraged throughout. It is a book that made me excited about sacrificing my life and time for the people over whom God has given me watchcare.

1 and 2 Timothy by Paul – Yea yea, pastor’s answer, right? But seriously, shouldn’t my Pastoral ministry always be shaped by God’s guidance, given through Paul to a young Pastor? I find it beneficial to read and meditate on a portion of one of these books every week.

Brothers, We Are NOT Professionals by John Piper – In this book, Pastor John warns against the professionalization of the ministry, and calls pastors back to doing ministry in the mindset of being called by God. It may be one of the most stirring and practically useful books on the ministry I have ever read.

What is your preaching plan?

My general method is to systematically preach through entire books of the Bible. This ensures that I am feeding the people the entire counsel of God, while at the same time guarding me against shying away from difficult topics or harping on soapboxes. Currently, I’m preparing to preach through the Gospel of Mark. Preaching the entire gospel will, of course, take quite some time.

In the long term, my goal in preaching is to show how the entire testimony of Scripture either prepares for Christ or exalts Christ. One of the most common statements I hear is: “The Old Testament is harder to understand than the New Testament.” I don’t doubt that this is true, but only because I think the teaching of the Old Testament has been neglected. So, one of my main goals is to show my people how God is proclaiming Christ through the Old Testament.

What is your approach to ministry?

This won’t be an exhaustive list, but here are a few things that (hopefully) describe my ministry.

  1. Spirit-led – What sticks in my mind is Exodus 40:36-38. As the people of Israel are being led around in the wilderness, they follow the Spirit of God. When His Spirit stays, they stay. When His Spirit moves, they move. They always have His Spirit fully in view of their eyes. That’s how I want to minister. I want to be so tied to the Spirit that I go wherever He goes, and don’t leave there until He leaves.
  2. Prayer-empowered – The Lord has been gracious to remind me often of my complete inability to accomplish His work apart from His power. Woe to me if I don’t pray, because I have guaranteed that I will fail. Yes, the Lord has set my life aside for gospel ministry; for the proclamation of His word. However, I can no more wield the sword of truth than could an infant use the sword of a mighty hero. If my preaching of the Word and my gospel ministry is to be effective, I must relinquish any notion that I can do anything apart from His power. Prayer puts the gospel sword into the hands of the Eternal Warrior King and says, “Lord, save your people! Because this weak shepherd cannot.”
  3. Hands-on – “The faithful shepherd always smells like the sheep.” If I am always shut up in a study, or standing behind a pulpit, then I will never know the people with whom God has placed me. I want to be involved in their lives. God forgive me if I shy away from sitting on the ground with the sheep because I don’t want to dirty my preacher’s robes. I AM a sheep of our mutual Savior. How dare I act as if I were in a higher fold.  I must know my people, spend time with them, and lay down my life for their good every single day.
  4. Kingdom-minded – One of the main passions I want to transfer from God’s heart, to my heart, to the hearts of my people is an urgent passion for the Kingdom of God. That means letting the Kingdom take root in every corner of our own hearts and lives; proclaiming the Kingdom in our own community and living as lights on a hill in our surroundings; being involved in the expansion of the Kingdom worldwide. Only let a love for God take over our own affections, and we will be a people who cannot help but send the gospel out from our hearts into the whole world.

What are some contemporary challenges to ministry?

Two things immediately come to mind, as far as challenges specific to our time. First, a lack of Biblical knowledge is almost universally present. Now, I’m not lamenting people being unable to outline the literary structure of Revelation or something. I’m referring to the inability of the general church member to simply state what they believe, why they believe it, and where in Scripture they might find support for that belief. Even a simple presentation of the gospel, telling someone how they might be saved, is difficult for many church members. This is heartbreaking! It seems that the basic facts of Biblical doctrine have been assumed and taken for granted for many years, and have thus been lost. Of course, that causes all sorts of other problems. Namely, the people of God are more susceptible to being led astray, since many do not have the grounding of Scripture as an anchor.

Secondly, the general depravity and increasing hostility of our society is making it increasingly more difficult to live as a faithful child of God. We are living surrounded by a society that glorifies sexual immorality, demands that Biblical truth be set aside, and persecutes those who stand firmly on a God-based morality. I think a time is quickly approaching when Pastors and faithful Christians will be threatened with jail and punishment for simply speaking Biblical truth. We will be hated for lovingly saying that sin is sin. This makes things difficult for those who want to follow Christ. They are constantly force-fed worldly pleasures by our society, and ostracized and threatened when they choose to stand for Christ. Of course, this state of opposition and persecution are still for the glory of God. Bring on the fires of the furnace, that the golden faith of God’s people might shine the brighter! Amen. Come what may.

How is ministry different today?

Well, I may not be the best one to answer this question, since I’ve only recently begun my ministry. I have little to compare with my experience. I expect some of the biggest differences have to do with some of what I’ve already said. Ministers cannot assume that their members really know even the most basic truths of Scripture. They must challenge many who have been in church for their entire lives. All this while having answers for and warnings against our increasingly anti-truth society.

Remembering and evaluating

As the first day of class looms near, I was remembering something I posted after the first day of class last year. In a post titled “This one thing I do” I said:

  • If I do anything in seminary, if I gain anything from my time spent here, it must be this: To grow ever closer to my savior; to love Him more; to serve Him better; to glorify Him more; to be ever more awed by and submissive to Him.

If I go through my studies here and do not attain this, the time will have been wasted. What advantage will this time be to me if I leave – a master of greek, hebrew, philosophy and theology – and yet am no closer to my God? What advantage to the kingdom will I be if my studies outrun the advance of my passion for Christ? Why am I here if not to grow in grace and sanctification?

This one thing I do: seek to grow in grace and knowledge of my God, and to love Him ever more steadfastly.

Father, give me the diligence to seek you first, not letting my studies replace or supplant you in my heart. Help me watch myself closely and make me able to discern when I have become too focused on knowledge and not focused enough on loving you more. Keep me from an idolatry of knowledge, Father. I beg you, bring my knees to the ground before your throne.

So, the question I must ask myself is this: “Have I grown closer to my Savior? Am I more passionate for Christ? Have I grown in grace and sanctification as much or more than I have grown in knowledge?”

I think, by the grace of my Lord and Redeemer Jesus, I can say yes. In conversation with friends and such about my time here, I’ve mentioned the fact that I was somewhat unprepared for what the Lord was about to do in me. I imagined, as I prayed that prayer at the end of the quote, that it would be a slow drizzle of Spiritual growth to match my intellectual growth. How very wrong I was! Perhaps part of the reason I was unprepared for God to work in me as He chose to was because I was prideful. I thought I was doing fairly well and was pretty much a holy guy. Ha…of course, that just shows how slow I am to understand the endless depths of God’s holiness. If He calls me to be holy as HE is holy, then there will never be a point in my life when there wasn’t room for vast improvement of my personal holiness. So, the Lord poured out His grace on me. Now, that’s not to say that I’ve arrived now. Not at all. If anything, I realize how desperate I am – that if Jesus Christ does not enable me to live righteously, I cannot do so. He has shown me through the past year, however, that He is entirely willing and capable to strengthen my feeble arms and weak knees.

One of the foremost methods He used to bring about my sanctification has been working in a church. The last sentence of the prayer quoted above – “…bring my knees to the ground before your throne.” – is precisely what He did. To feel the weight of my inadequacy, and to know that I will be held accountable for how I carried out the spiritual oversight of a flock of His people has kept my knees on the floor, constantly begging Him for strength and wisdom to fulfill my calling in a manner that pleases Him. I have never known the sort of desperation in prayer that comes from being called upon week in and week out to bring the voice of God to His people through the Word. I have seldom felt the urgency in prayer that comes from knowing that unless He upholds me, I will be unable to accomplish that to which He has called me.

So, am I on task? Am I being faithful to “this one thing”? By God’s grace, I believe I can say yes. (To note: I do, however, welcome your opinion on the matter. So if you read this and can point out areas in my life which need to be sanctified, please do not withhold that edification from me.)

What about yourself? Have you grown closer to the Lord, no matter what you’re doing? Do you love Him more than last year? Do you know His Word more than last year? Do you pray more than last year? Do you do these things more than you did 5 years ago? 10 years?  If not, now is the time. Pray that the Lord would pour out the Spirit on you so that you could live righteously. Pray that God would sanctify you. Your days are short, and now must be the time for you to decide whether you will seek Christ, or seek other things.

My prayer is that you seek Christ above all else. May He bless you with the passion to do so, and strengthen your will by the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out your passion.

Be blessed!