Happy St. Patrick’s Day

The post below is three years old, but has lots of good links about St. Patrick and is well worth checking out. At the very end of the post I have included a new video on St. Patrick from the Apostleship of Prayer. Enjoy.

Blessings,
Dale

As I write this I am wearing a green shirt. I began the day in a light blue shirt. But my kids steadfastly refused to stop pinching me until I yielded to the tradition of St. Patty’s Day.

I got to know a little about St. Patrick through two sermons/lectures. One was by Joe Morecraft and the other by T.M. Moore. Both men captured my imagination as they revealed to me more than I ever knew about this incredible Christian man. I’ve provided three short articles and/or devotionals below that will introduce St. Patrick to you. God used him mightily and celebrating his life every March 17 is probably a good thing insofar as it points us to Christ and what one person can do for the Kingdom of God.

St. Patrick: Why His Message Still Matters
Brother Colmán Ó Clabaigh, OSB
at CrossWalk.com

March 17 is upon us again, and all over the world everyone is an honorary Irishman or Irishwoman for 24 hours. St. Patrick’s popularity is a result of the wanderlust of the Irish, and there is no corner of the world in which his name is not honored.

Yet, if his name is known, his story is less familiar and his message often gets drowned out by the parades, the plastic shamrocks and the green-dyed beer.

The little knowledge we have of him comes from two letters he wrote in the course of his missionary work in fifth-century Ireland.

Click here to read the whole article. (also, make sure to check out the great links to more info on St. Patrick at the end of the article.)

In Honor of St. Patrick
by Mark D. Roberts
at The High Calling

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. Most people think of this day as a time for wearing green and that’s about it (unless you’re Irish!). St. Patrick gets relatively little attention on his day, so I thought I might offer a few thoughts in his honor, including a prayer that is attributed to him.

Patrick’s story reads like an Indiana Jones-type adventure. Raised in Britain (yes, not Ireland), Patrick was captured by pirates in A.D. 405 when he was only sixteen years old. The kidnappers whisked him away to Ireland and sold Patrick into slavery. He spent eight years as a captive in this pagan land.

Click here to read the whole article.

Concealing the Gift
by T.M. Moore
at The Fellowship of St. Ailbe

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We are right to remember this great saint, who labored so diligently in the cause of the Gospel, against unimaginable odds, but with unprecedented fruit. Sechnall, Patrick’s contemporary, was correct in referring to him as the light of God to the Irish. That, indeed, is what he was.

And what about us? Patrick’s mission field was all of Ireland, and he lit up the house with his diligent and faithful work. Our mission field is wherever God has set us, in the places and among the people we see week-in and week-out. Are we shining the gift of the Gospel on the people around us or concealing the gift of God under the bushels of timidity, fear, or simple disobedience?

Click here to read the whole article.

The Lord Bless You,
Dale

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Making Jesus Cool

(Selected verses from 1 Corinthians)

“If people like us, they’ll like Jesus too. If they think we’re cool, they’ll think Jesus is cool too.” Such is the wisdom of the world. Such is the way the church thinks all too often.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. [28] He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, [29] so that no one may boast before him. (1 Cor. 1:27-29)

Why is it that when a celebrity – whether an actor, musician, or sports star becomes a Christian, we immediately want to parade them around in front of the world? They are immediately put on the speaking circuit, often without any preparation, study, etc., at all. Is it perhaps because we are thinking that, “If the world sees that we have “so-and-so” on our team, they’ll have to take notice of us”? It’s the same mentality of sitting at the “cool table” in middle school. We hope we’ll be “cool” by association. And if they think we’re cool – they’ll think Jesus is cool too.

Gone is the offense of the Cross – of our message. In verse 17, Paul wrote,

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

If the church isn’t parading celebrities or local sports heroes around like King Tut’s fortune, then it’s very often genuflecting toward Madison Avenue, asking the PR gurus what sells. And what never sells is a hard message. The sharp angles must first be sanded down so as not to stick would-be seekers. Rather than heed Scripture and trust God, we seek to rob God of his message – his only message for a dark, decaying and lost world – and replace it with our own. We empty the cross of its power by our words of human wisdom. Like a magician or confidence man, we engage in misdirection with our audience, hoping that they won’t see the real Jesus and his Cross under the trapdoor.

For a variety of reasons, we all too often neuter and distort the message of the Gospel beyond all recognition. We ask seekers to just “add Jesus” to their lives. After all, just like Coca Cola, things go better with Jesus. No dying to self – no cross-carrying – no hell or wrath; it’s easy believism for everyone. (And don’t forget about our celebrities.) Message to world: Not only are we cool, but we’re so easy to get along with too.

It must be asked if the “Jesus” being presented to thousands today is the Jesus of Holy Scripture. Is it the same gospel at all? If you are persecuted (as Jesus promises to those who follow him), if you are ashamed of his gospel from time to time, if you occasionally offend someone simply by stating the gospel – then chances are awfully good that you have that which is considered “foolishness to those who are perishing.”

On the other hand, if you’ve never felt ashamed, never been persecuted, never once offended a person by merely declaring the message of Christ and his Cross, then it must be asked, “What exactly have you been sharing?”

Make no mistake about it; the Gospel of Jesus Christ – in all its fullness – is an offense and stumbling block. But to those who are being saved it is the power of God – it’s majestic – it’s beauty incarnate – it’s precious and lovely – it’s indescribable.

Let’s resolve not to “improve” upon God’s message once for all delivered to the saints. Mind you, we don’t need to rush out and become Jerks for Jesus as we share it. Instead, let’s be winsome, compassionate, persuasive, and wear big smiles on our faces. But let’s not alter the message to gain social acceptance like a high school freshman smoking a cigarette. Let’s trust God. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 Cor. 1:25).

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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I’m Just Here for the Cookies

Last week one of the men in our men’s small group ministry shared with me a little about his Kairos Prison Ministry retreat that he had just been a part of.

One of the things he told me was that since the prisoners don’t often get to eat any sweets in prison, many of them volunteer to attend the Kairos weekend “for the cookies.” In other words, they want a less stressful weekend… some cookies and other good food… but not necessarily Jesus. He just happens to be there with the cookies.

My friend then commented about how wonderful it is for the men who run the retreat to watch the transformation of these same prisoners over the course of the weekend. On the first day of the retreat the prisoners almost boastfully declare that they are there for the cookies. However, over the course of the weekend, as the Spirit moves in and through the men, the Word, prayer, fellowship, testimonies, etc., those same “cookie-seeking” men (at least many of them) really do encounter Christ and are truly changed by his Spirit.

For those who “come to Christ” and his church for dubious reasons, God often “stoops to conquer.” That is, God will often show up and lavish his grace upon a person, regardless of why that person “thinks” he is there. When a person, even unwittingly, puts himself in the way of grace, Spirit-led change takes place.

Just think of these examples…

• People who “come to Jesus” to fix their marriage (but not because they want Jesus).
• Christmas Eve and Easter worship attenders who come twice a year, “religiously.” (because “you’re supposed to.”)
• People who start going to church because they’re trying to get out of legal trouble and want to make a good impression on the judge.
• Folks who start getting involved at church because they’re trying to get elected to office.
• Fill in the blank with 100 other examples.

It’s easy to judge such people. We think we know what’s going on in their hearts. And it is true that some folks do all of this and more and leave only having eaten a few cookies. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, we are too easily pleased. A holiday at the shore is offered us, but we’re content making mud pies in a puddle. Yet, instead of judging such folks, let our hope be that they brush up against God’s grace and that God’s grace will be filed away in that person’s heart for God to use at a later time. That should be our prayer.

So let folks come for the cookies. And let us pray that they genuinely meet our Lord and come to know, love, and follow him… and stay with him for the feast.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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The Task of Missions

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A Prayer for Missions and Missionaries

O God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature: Make us faithful and obedient to do thy holy will. Give us compassion for all who are unaware of thee in all the world. Send forth, we beseech thee, laborers into thy harvest. Protect and guide them wherever they go. Give them patience, love, and a right judgment in all things, and give them fruit for their labors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

from The Book of Worship for Church and Home of The Methodist Church, 1965

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Richard Baxter on Pastors and Evangelism

from The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter

O sirs, surely if you had all conversed with neighbor Death as oft as I have done, and as often received the sentence in yourselves, you would have an unquiet conscience, if not a reformed life, as to your ministerial diligence and fidelity: and you would have something within you that would frequently ask you such questions as these: Is this all thy compassion for lost sinners? Wilt thou do no more to seek and to save them?… Shall they die and be in hell before thou wilt speak to them one serious word to prevent it? Shall they there curse thee for ever that thou didst no more in time to save them? Such cries of conscience are daily ringing in my ears, though, the Lord knows, I have too little obeyed them…

How can you choose, when you are laying a corpse in the grave, but think with yourselves, ‘Here lieth the body; but where is the soul? And what have I done for it, before it departed? It was part of my charge; what account can I give of it?’ O sirs, is it a small matter to you to answer such questions as these? It may seem so now, but the hour is coming when it will not seem so…

Let [ministers] that have taken most pains in public, examine their people, and try whether many of them are not nearly as ignorant and careless as if they had never heard the gospel. For my part, I study to speak as plainly and movingly as I can…and yet I frequently meet with those that have been my hearers eight or ten years, who know not whether Christ be God or man, and wonder when I tell them the history of his birth and life and death as if they had never heard it before…

But most of them have an ungrounded trust in Christ, hoping that he will pardon, justify and save them, while the world that their hearts, and they live to the flesh. And this trust they take for justifying faith. I have found by experience, that some ignorant persons, who have been so long unprofitable hearers, have got more knowledge and remorse in half an hour’s close discourse, than they did from ten years’ public preaching. I know that preaching the gospel publicly is the most excellent means, because we speak to many at once. But it is usually far more effectual to preach it privately to a particular sinner…

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Evangelism to the Cultural Elite with Eric Metaxas

Socrates in the City, Part 1 with Eric Metaxas

Socrates in the City, Part 2

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