From the Pastor, Celebration Church, Luthern and Anglican Services, Fredericksburg, Virginia

June 19, 2010

Dear Celebration Family,

Many good things are happening and we are prayerfully planning many good things to come. Please join us tomorrow as we remember our earthly fathers and as we honor our great Heavenly Father.

Tomorrow we will have a special ceremony for all those who wish to become an official member of Celebration Church, who want to make Celebration their primary place of worship, serving, giving, receiving, and standing firm in the faith once delivered to the saints.

"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58).

In the Family,
Toby+

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1John 3:1).

March 24, 2010

Lenten Devotion on Psalm 143

A psalm of David.

1 O LORD, hear my prayer,

listen to my cry for mercy;

in your faithfulness and righteousness

come to my relief.

2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,

for no one living is righteous before you.

3 The enemy pursues me,

he crushes me to the ground;

he makes me dwell in darkness

like those long dead.

4 So my spirit grows faint within me;

my heart within me is dismayed.

5 I remember the days of long ago;

I meditate on all your works

and consider what your hands have done.

6 I spread out my hands to you;

my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah

7 Answer me quickly, O LORD;

my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me

or I will be like those who go down to the pit.

8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,

for I have put my trust in you.

Show me the way I should go,

for to you I lift up my soul.

9 Rescue me from my enemies, O LORD,

for I hide myself in you.

10 Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God;

may your good Spirit

lead me on level ground.

11 For your name’s sake, O LORD, preserve my life;

in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.

12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;

destroy all my foes,

for I am your servant.

As we move through the penitential season of Lent and approach its Easter end, let us think about Psalm 143, considered the last of seven penitential psalms. Verse 2 shows David's deep regret before God, yet there is more to his prayer than acknowledging how short he falls.

Most of Psalm 143 invites us to look at troubles David faces. His enemies (143:1-6), however, are unnamed so we can personalize them for ourselves. In the midst of trial David resolves to lean on God’s ways and God’s power (143:1), not only for vindication and redemption, but for personal direction as well. A few thoughts:

1. David sinks into the slough of despond in verses 5-6. His way to deal with his current life in the pit is to appeal to God’s faithfulness and righteousness to fix the wrongs that surround him. We do that too, don’t we? We call on the Righteous Judge and ask that in his integrity and power he would vindicate us. This appeal is tricky when we remember that we ourselves, as well as our enemies, are dirtied compared to the Almighty's holiness. And so David acknowledges that “no one living is righteous before you.” This Lent as we look to the approaching cross of Good Friday we see how God solves that strain (Rom. 3:21-26).

2. King David looks back to “days of long ago” and remembers what God has done, how in the past he has moved in power and perfection; in this way David reminds himself that God has already brought great moments of redemption. David, like us, meditates on the God who has revealed himself in the Bible. David cries out to God, as Jesus did on the cross. The connections seem plain enough: “I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” (143:6; c.f. John 19:28-29).

3. Each of us, like David, as we approach this end of Lent can pray for our own guidance in times of trouble. Here is how David prayed: “Show me the way I should go” (143:8); “Teach me to do your will” (143:10a); “May your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (143:10b). Why ask these things? Well, we are not unlike the psalmist. Who is not familiar with their own refined ability to stumble, to rebel, to make up ways that seem "right to me" but are not right to God? May the Lord have mercy on us, and may he have mercy on our neighbors, and on our leaders, on our nation, and may the church have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying in any day of trouble. May the saints of God remember what God has said and done in past days of difficulty. May we appeal to God’s strength. And chiefly, let us remember that he knows the ultimate problem we face. He laid in place the only solution to fix it: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor. 5:21).

Toby+

March 12, 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Celebration Church,

In this special season many followers of Jesus Christ make renewed efforts to transform their lives. As we remember how Jesus focused his eyes on Jerusalem, and the cross in fulfillment of what the prophets had written about the Son of Man (Luke 18:31), we set out to see how we can live more purposely into our privileged journey that Jesus has given us (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). How can we do this?

God’s word says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). What does this mean? Four observations.

1. “Above all else, Guard your heart.” In the Western world we talk about the heart in symbolic language: e.g., “I love you with all my heart.” “The heart” for us is roughly akin to the seat of emotion. In the ancient world of Scripture, however, the heart is the seat of the whole person. There is not an easy way to express this today. Perhaps the closest equivalent might be to talk about guarding “the mind.” This, really, is too cerebral a meaning, too limiting for what God has in his mind.

2. “Above all else, guard your heart.” “Guard your heart” means more than “keep a close check on what you think about.” It’s more like, “keep a close eye on what you value,” “be careful about what you treasure most,” “safeguard what you put your deepest affections on,” and “make sure you take great care in choosing what you think about most.”

3. “Above all else, guard your heart.” Do this, God says, because “the heart ... is the wellspring of life.” In other words, do it because what you set your emotions on, what you fix your mind upon, influences what you do and where you go, moment by moment. In this sense, our hearts determine the course of our lives.

4. “Above all else, guard your heart.” Since “the heart” is the core and sum of our personality, it is paramount that we protect it, above everything else we have. If our hearts pursue things peripheral (not necessarily concupiscent, etc.) then we become fully occupied with things nonessential. We fall victim to a life of distraction. If, for instance, our most steadfast ambitions and vigorous pursuits involve acquiring things (whether stuff, positions, salary, reputation, temporal security, whatever) then those things will determine the prominent shape of our existence. One of my favorite professors, Dr. G.K. Beale once said, “What we revere we resemble, for restoration or ruin.” If, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the word of Truth, we hold our chief aim to “above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” then we will resemble what we revere, we’ll be God’s children enjoying transformed lives.

Toby+

February 27, 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

"The LORD’S compassions never fail... great is His faithfulness" (Lam. 3.22-23).

Just a quick note. On deck for Sunday − we'll look into something we must be fully aware of in order to successfully negotiate life and to make sense of the harder aspects of it − namely, we hope to get clear on that part of the invisible universe with which even Jesus battled. Please join us for what may be an important word from God to you at this time.

Bless the Lord, enjoy him, and enjoy each other, and plan to really enjoy the Lord's Day!

Your brother in Jesus,

Toby+
Pastor, Celebration Church

"Show hospitality so that we may work together for the truth" (3 John 8).
"Above all, love each other deeply ... offer hospitality to one another" (1Pet. 4:8)

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Celebration!

Thank you, all, for helping to launch us into the first hours of Lent 2010 with a satisfying Ash Wednesday evening.

Now let's all plan to enjoy the first Sunday of Lent together, too. We have a special Lenten service planned and we will focus one of the most meaningful sentences in the Bible.

See you Sunday at 10!

Your brother in Jesus,

Toby+

February 13, 2010

Warmest Celebration Greetings,

Two pieces of really good news.

1. We have worship this Sunday together. Wow! The parking lot is plowed and the sanctuary is warm. See you at 10:00.

2. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, and we are planning a special service at 7PM, at the church. We will have impartation of ashes to begin the important season of Lent.

Child care will be provided. A time of cookies and refreshments following. See you at 7:00.

Here is a link to a meditation from Bishop Dave Bena. You may recall he was with us December 13 for a beautiful confirmation service, and a time, too, of earnest prayer for many saints on a day that stands now as one where they stood firm in their faith and witness. One of Bishop Dave's trademarks is the small red hat he wears as a symbol of the Holy Spirit falling at Pentecost. May the Holy Spirit continue to be poured out on God's people in these days (Acts 2:18).

Please join Celebration Church this special welcome back Sunday, and this special Wednesday.

See you all soon!

Your brother in Jesus,
Toby+

February 6, 2010

“The LORD sends his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

He spreads the snow like wool”

(Psalm 147:15-16)

Celebration Church Family,

“Snow like wool,” indeed, a blizzard of fleece! Shoveling, down time, family time, serving neighbors, good smells from the kitchen that might not have otherwise happened, and a whole lot of looking out the window to see who is there and doing what. God delights in reminding us that our times are not in our own hands, they are in his. He can change anything in a moment's notice, or without any notice at all, even give us the sense of looking into the "storehouses of his snow" (Job 38:22).

We will not have corporate worship this Sunday, again. I encourage you to glorify God with your families, even neighbors at home, and eagerly prepare to worship together in spirit and in truth on Valentines Day Sunday!

May I suggest we read and talk about Psalm 19 in the light of Jesus Christ. God is wonderfully generous in his self-disclosure. He has not revealed himself in a chintzy way, but in the grandness of nature, in his Word, by his Spirit, in great events in redemptive history, in institutions he ordained to make known his purposes and his nature, and in our own makeup as we share his image (imago Dei). Psalm 19 shows three of these thoroughfares of divine self-disclosure.

The first is nature, at least one part of it enjoyed by each of us. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour fourth speech; night after night they display knowledge” (19:1-2). We can hear God in the silence of a snow storm. Any shadow of deep-seated philosophical commitment to the notion of random, purposeless, mindless, accidental, “steady-state” origination of things disappears under the light of God’s gracious disclosure. The patent conclusion for us is of a supremely intelligent God capable of spectacularly wonderful design. The evidence is here; the clouds and skies and the celestial host “pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” May we enjoy nature, as given by God, as part of his indescribably glorious revelation.

The second is “the law of the LORD.” Perfect, trustworthy, right, righteous, radiant, reviving the soul, pure, sure, making wise the simple, giving joy to the heart, enduring forever, more precious than gold, sweeter than honey, warning, promising great reward (19:7-11). From time to time God calls us to be quiet but may we never silence what he has revealed. Powerful minds tried to, and have wasted their lives working to undermine the credibility of what God has said. New epistemologies lesson God’s words to make them appear as no more revelatory than the root documents of any other religion. Still worse, Christians who bemoan a missed Super Bowl catch can themselves fail to watch carefully and take hold of the Word of God that he has graciously placed right into our hands. May we cling to God’s Word as his indescribably glorious revelation.

The third is conscience. "Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression" (19:12-13). A well-functioning, Christ-informed conscience also bears pure witness to God's self-disclosure. And even as my family moved this week, 20 some pillows still a jumble, we remind ourselves of the mostly true saying that the "the softest pillow is a clean conscience."

The fourth is, and it goes without saying, but must be said, that in these last days, God has spoken to us, "by his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe" (Heb. 1:2)!

My dear new friends of Celebration Church, and longtime friends of Celebration, God’s design in nature has changed our weekly rhythm yet again, but let us respond with the psalmist together (in unison though separate): “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer” (19:14).

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

Toby+

P.S. While Celebration corporate worship is cancelled for this Sunday, worship and celebration in our homes is still on! Be safe, and have a marvelous Sunday!