The Ort Family

A month ago, the Grace Bible Church congregation gathered in front of the church building after the Sunday morning service to hear testimonies and witness baptisms of 9 brothers and sisters in Christ.

We should never be ashamed to own him as a brother whom God will own as a son.
Thomas Manton

Sinners are saved individually, but they are not saved in, or for, isolation, but in a way that binds them together as members one of another and makes them useful to each other.
H. Cartwright, Paper of the 1999 Youth Conference of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland – ‘What the Bible Says About Church Government’, F.P. Mag. Vol.112, No.8, August 2007

The following gave public testimony of the Lord saving them and then were baptized in obedience to Him.  The Lord’s work is marvelous!

I heard the following read at church, and wanted to share it here as well.  Celebrating Christ coming to earth should cause us to meditate on Who He is.  This sermon excerpt expresses well the awesomeness of our Lord in showing to what great extent He humbled Himself.

“He, by whom time was made, was made in time.
And He, older by eternity than the world itself, became younger in age than His Own servants in the world;
He, who made man, was made man;
Through a mother whom He brought into existence, He was given existence;
Hands of a woman whom He formed, carried Him;
Breasts which He filled with milk, He nursed;
In a manger, He Who is the Word cried as a baby, in speechless infancy – and ever since has left all human eloquence speechless!”
translated into English from a Latin sermon by Augustine of Hippo

Yet another passport experience…

Passport and Ticket Officer: Are you with that lady?

Peter: Yes.

Officer: Is she your sister?

Peter: Yes.

Officer: She was born in Nepal and you were born in Pakistan.  Is that normal?

…Paul Stefan comes up to show his passport and ticket…

Officer: And where were you born?

Our fatal error is believing that wanting to be happy means wanting to be made much of.  It feels so good to be affirmed.  But the good feeling is finally rooted in the worth of self, not the worth of God.  This path to happiness is an illusion.  And there are clues.  There are clues in every human heart even before conversion to Christ.  One of those clues is that no one goes to the Grand Canyon or to the Alps to increase his self-esteem. 

That is not what happens in front of massive deeps and majestic heights.  But we do go there, and we go for joy.  How can that be, if being made much of is the center of our health and happiness?  The answer is that it is not the center.  In wonderful moments of illumination there is a witness in our hearts: soul-health and great happiness come not from beholding a great self but a great splendor. -John Piper

Does Being Loved Mean Being Made Much Of?

For many people, this is not obviously an act of love.  They do not feel loved when they are told that God created them for his glory.  They feel used.  This is understandable given the way love has been almost completely distorted in our world.  For most people, to be loved is to be made much of.  Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distortion of love.  We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone’s self-esteem.  Love is helping someone feel good about themselves.  Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees. 

This is not what the Bible means by the love of God.  Love is doing what is best for someone.  But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us.  It is, in fact, a lethal distraction.  We were made to see and savor God—and savoring him, to be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. 

Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them.  To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors.  – John Piper

The pictures were taken during our visit to Switzerland in 2005.

"Are you from Hungary?" – a man at the bus stop

"No way!…children from America have a German father and were born in Nepal and Pakistan?"

Search me, O God, and know my heart today;            
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.            
See if there be some wicked way in me;            
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.            
            
I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;            
Fulfill Thy word, and make me pure within.            
Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame;            
Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.            
            
Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine;            
Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine.            
Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;            
I now surrender, Lord – in me abide.            
            
O Holy Ghost, Revival comes from Thee;            
Send a revival, Start the work in me.            
Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;            
For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead.           

Tune: Eventide  page 295, Abide with Me

"…Spirit-motivated disciplines facilitate the Christian walk.  Oh, I'm not discounting all the warm feelings along the route, when I've sung Jesus-songs and held hands and the rest.   But our sensuous age forgets that feelings come and feelings leave you, but the disciplines of life are what get you to where you want to go."

-Anne Ortlund, Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman, chapter 1

Read the best New Year's Resolutions I've ever read here.   I appreciate how those resolutions really keep the Lord as the focus, rather than our own feel-good-about-ourselves motives.

Spurgeon gave a New Year's sermon and wrote a New Year's benediction which you may be interested in reading. If you're not familiar with the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards, do familiarize yourself with them, as they are noble goals to strive for.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do great things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for-but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken words were answered.

I am, among men, most richly blessed.

Anonymous

What gifts has God given you this year?