Can you hear the triumphal music in the background? Can you see the troops marching down main street in line as they head off to battle? Can you feel the honor, the courage, the duty!!!

Progress is going great at Faith West. This week we will have finished the carpet on the fourth floor of the apartments. The construction workers are working their way down to the first floor and anticipate being done July 1.

As the construction workers exit the rooms they will have cleaned up most of their mess, but there is still work to be done to get the building ready for students to move in and for us to be able to serve our community well. And that is where you fit in!!! We need you in the Faith West Cleanup Army.

So I am calling on our Faith Family to come and help serve by getting Faith West ready for launch. We are looking for men and women who are ready to serve by taking up a rag and cleaning counters, picking up a vacuum and sweeping the carpet, and everything else that needs to happen to get the building in tip-top shape.
No matter who you are, there is a job for you. You may be a stay-at-home mom with kids, you may be a college guy who has free time, you may be a member whose children are out of the house and looking for opportunities to serve. We are calling on everyone to help make Faith West look amazing!

This may not be the most glamorous serving opportunity in the world, but it is very important to the cause. We need everyone’s help, especially those who have the gift of cleaning. We need your help in making Faith West look great!

I am calling on you to be part of this great opportunity to serve the Lord. Please contact me at jgreiner@faithlafaytte.org to let me know how you can serve!

Sincerely,

Josh Greiner

The featured image is from spirit of america / Shutterstock.com.
The US Stamp image is from catwalker / Shutterstock.com

One of the background observations we made was how many international students graduated that day as well.  Of course we recite the statistic frequently–that Purdue has the second highest number of international students of any public university in our country.  But it becomes especially obvious when you hear the names, see their families, and marvel at how the world comes to West Lafayette, IN year after year to study.

It is fascinating to see how many times God commands His people in His Word to have a special place in our hearts for those from foreign lands.  Deuteronomy 10:19 sums it up succinctly — “So show your love for the stranger.” As a church and community, we have the privilege and the responsibility to show love to those God brings to our town from the nations.

When the ceremony was over, the parking garage directed us out along Northwestern Avenue.  In the providence of God, we passed Faith West at 1920 Northwestern as the workers were applying the beautiful shades of finish paint to the upper floors of our student ministry project there.  It takes your breath away to think about the enhanced opportunities the Lord will give us to reach out to college students in the coming days including young men and women from around the world.  A visit to graduation and Faith West on the same day was a wonderful juxtaposition of ideas which resulted in great thanksgiving.

1. Thank the Lord for Purdue.  It really is amazing that we have a world class university right in our own community.  What we drive across town for–others fly across the world to enjoy.  It is easy to take this fact for granted unless we constantly cultivate a thankful heart.
2. Thank the Lord for the privilege of ministering to college students.  College is a place where many times life is making up its mind.  We have the opportunity of reaching out to young men and women at a very impressionable time in their lives.
3. Thank the Lord for international students.  The Lord has literally brought many of the mission fields of the world to our front door.  A good percentage of the young people who received degrees Saturday hail from countries where it is difficult and sometimes impossible for a missionary to enter and serve.  But we have the opportunity to proclaim the good news of Jesus openly during the time they are in our midst.
4. Thank the Lord for Faith West.  Because of God’s blessings and the visionary giving of our church family, we are a few weeks away from having a platform for college ministry that is beyond our wildest dreams.  If you are part of helping this unprecedented opportunity come to fruition, thank you for your generosity.

Many will come to Purdue in the coming years from around the world as strangers.  Some will leave as brothers and sisters in Christ, prepared to share the good news of salvation with those in their homeland as leaders in their culture with an American degree.  Thanks be to God for this incredible calling to love the stranger.

Usually, they fight the bad-guys and at some point in the episode Robin says, “Holy [something], Batman,” as he reflects on something amazing, large or formidable. When I read about the impact a group of believers in Macedonia had on the people around them, I feel like having a Robin moment.

A Lesson from 1 Thessalonians

In our Adult Bible Fellowships at church we have been studying through the book of 1 Thessalonians, observing how connected that church was with each other, even in the midst of trials. Their love for one another and for other people was powerful. How powerful? How about more powerful than carrier pigeons, text messaging, twitter, facebook, television or any of our other modern communication methods.

1 Thessalonians 1:6–10  — 6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Paul is saying that the Thessalonians testimony of trusting Christ is not only an example to all Macedonia and Achaia, but the Word of the Lord has “sounded forth” throughout the whole area. In fact, so prevalent was the gospel transmitted to the surrounding area that Paul and his fellow ministers have “no need to say anything”.

That is powerful for two reasons. First, the sheer distance of communication at that time in history is remarkable. God is truly sending out the gospel to constantly bear fruit in all the world (Col 1:5-6). Secondly, the clarity and fidelity of the message itself. It wasn’t just an interesting story that trended around ancient world campfires, it was public testimony of the repentance of men and woman who have turned from idols to serve the living God and are waiting for Christ’s return and trusting in His work on the cross to rescue them from the wrath of God.

In other words, not only was the gospel transmitted far and wide, it was transmitted accurately. O how I pray that our love for one another, because of the Gospel, would send a powerful and accurate message to those around us. God is the living God in which we have the honor to serve by loving one another and all people (1 Thess. 3:12).

Holy Powerful God, Batman!!

Have you ever been sitting in a worship service and thought back to your previous week?  Suddenly your heart sinks because the words that are coming out of your mouth do not line up with your actions or attitudes.  Instead of singing “I Surrender ALL” you feel like you should be singing, “I Surrender SOME” or maybe some of the other worship songs in the above video.

Where is the truth in your worship?

In John 4 Jesus interacted with a woman who lived a life of failed worship.  Jews looked down on this Samaritan not only because of her ethnicity but also because she was a promiscuous woman.  Jesus tells her (in John 4: 23-24) that the Father seeks people who worship in Spirit and Truth to be His worshippers.

In this story there is a great amount of cultural tension present.  The fact that Jesus was speaking to a woman was scandalous for their culture.  Also, the fact that Jesus, a Jew, was speaking to a Samaritan was scandalous because of the racial tensions between the Jews and the Samaritans.  To make things even more scandalous, this woman was sexually promiscuous, having had multiple husbands.  This woman was a failed worshipper.  Jesus could have done two things.  He could have preached condemnation on this woman and quickly removed any hope of her being redeemed.  Another reaction Jesus could have had was to run far, far away from this woman…but He didn’t.

This woman at the well may have begun her day with a worship fail, but she ended it on the right note.  She believed that Jesus was the Messiah and proclaimed this truth to all who would hear (John 4:39).  Her repentance was evident.

Jesus loved this failure of a woman and spoke words of life to her. These same words of life are offered to you and me.  When we fail at worshipping God, throughout our week, God is right there offering us forgiveness.

Sunday morning is a great morning to begin worshipping.  One element of your worship service on Sunday (whether individually or corporately) should be a time of repentance.  Repentance is an integral part of worship.  It is how we can prepare our hearts to worship God in Spirit and truth.  It is how we turn a worship fail into a worship win.

Discovery #1: My weariness was not normally based on my schedule

Busyness can be a problem. But I found that a nap was only in order about once every two or three weeks. Even in my busiest seasons of all, a nap once or twice a month was more than enough to keep the body functioning.

However, I also learned that when I lose focus on Christ, the level of my weariness rises significantly. On those days, every new assignment at work is an injustice of massive proportion – even if it only takes 5-10 minutes to do it. Every new “to do” list at home is like giving blood two quarts at a time. Every failure is another reason to crawl in bed and make the day go away.

In other words, over and over again weariness was not a function of WHAT I had to do, it was a function of the ATTITUDE I had doing it. The more my mind was fixed on the amazing grace of Christ, his elect love for me, the rebirth he has caused in me, the legal declaration of righteous through the righteousness of Christ, and freedom I have from the power and penalty of sin, the more I found my duties as opportunities, the more I saw my responsibilities as opportunities, and the more I believed my life was lived with purpose.

This should not really surprise me, after all David in Psalm 32 reminds us that sin brings weariness to our soul that far outweighs the challenges of our external circumstances. Maybe you are like me, just because you have knowledge in your head does not mean it always makes its way to your behavior.

While I occasionally need a nap, the real source of my weariness is my refusal to meditate on the instruction of the Lord.

Discovery #2: My sinful anger, self-pity, and grumpiness were tied to my purpose

There have been many times over the past year that I have been sinfully angry, been in a funk of self-pity, or been very grumpy. But as I reflected on those moments I also discovered that they were almost always tied to my purpose at the time. When I was seeking to build my kingdom then it was easy to be angry with my children … who cared less about my kingdom than I did! It was easy to be angry at those around me at work since they were messing with the kingdom I was seeking to build. In other words, the more I tried to build my kingdom, the more my kingdom came into conflict with other kingdoms (either selfish kingdoms those around me were building or God’s kingdom).

However, when I looked at my purpose through the grid of serving, honoring, loving, and seeking the kingdom Jesus builds, then my anger gave way to action, my self-pity gave way to thankfulness, and my grumpiness was converted to joy.

That again is not very surprising. James reminds us that when we are proud God opposes us, he removes his blessing from us, and he allows us to experience the natural consequences of our pride. On the other hand, the humble receive grace. In fact, in the very next verse we are reminded that when we draw near to God, he draws near to us.

So, what were the results of my experiment? I found that the more I focused on my position in Christ and the more I worked to do something toward his kingdom, the less weary I was, the more I actually did, the less I was sinfully angry, the more I was righteously angry, the less I focused on self-pity, the more I experienced humility, the less grumpy I was and the more joyful.

Conduct a little experiment of your own or better yet, just learn from mine.

Do you ever wonder if God does that with us? Does He ever say just the thing we want to hear, only to reveal later that He’s had his fingers crossed the whole time? Perhaps God’s beautiful promises are merely great intentions gone awry in the face of real life, or just playful trickery and wishful thinking…or are they??

Trust in the Promise

It can be extremely difficult to trust God’s promises, like when He says that all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Rom. 8:28)

Really?? Even in the face of:

Divorce?

Abuse?

Heartbreak?

Disappointment?

What about the promise that God will never leave us, nor forsake us? (Heb. 13:5)

Really?? Even in the face of:

Loneliness?

Loss?

Death?

Poverty?

What about the promise of forgiveness for my sins if I confess and believe? (Rom 10:9; I John 1:9)

Really?? Even my sins of:

Addiction?

Bitterness?

Betrayal?

Hypocrisy?

So how do we make a conclusion about the certainty of those promises? Just like we do in the rest of life, we should observe the trustworthiness and strength of the Promiser.

We must ask these two questions?

Is God trustworthy when He promises?

Is God strong enough to accomplish what He promises?

One helpful passage is 2 Chronicles 13:1-22. In this passage, King Abijah, a descendent of King David, goes up against the rebel usurper Jeroboam and his great army. Jeroboam’s men outnumber Abijah’s two to one and surround the King of Judah’s forces. Abijah confidently claims a promise God made to his forefather David, that one of his descendants would reign as king and be protected and blessed by God.

In a dramatic turn of events, God destroys Jeroboam’s stronger and better positioned army and routs his men before Abijah. The text focuses on God’s commitment to uphold his covenant with David and David’s descendants. We find out in the following chapters that Abijah was not a blameless man, simply one who trusted the promise God had made to his ancestor.

Rest in the Promiser

God has the perfect track record in the Scriptures when it comes to His promises; He is completely trustworthy. In fact, there is still an heir to the Davidic throne who is alive, and will be exalted above all the nations. Jesus Christ, the true son of David, has come and is alive and will someday reign as king over the whole earth. Now, He rules a spiritual kingdom, and His rule extends to all who have trusted in Him. This promise was fulfilled, both in Abijah’s time and in ours!

God is also fully capable to complete what He has promised; He is completely strong. Even armies cannot stop God’s Word. Military advantage cannot stop God’s Word. Not even our own sinfulness and failures can thwart God’s promises!

Just like Abijah, you may think that the odds are against you and that it would take a miracle to produce life from your current situation. I would encourage you to remember the promises of God toward you and believe in God’s great love and provision for you. Even when you don’t see how God could come through, the good news is that the fulfillment of the promise does not rest with the one promised, but issues from the faithfulness and strength of the Promiser.

And God always keeps his promises!

This nine-year journey has reinforced in me the value of a variety of spiritual virtues.

Planning

Faith’s vision for a church based training facility for pastors that included a credentialed faculty started long before 2004.  The seminary initiative was part of a previous strategic planning cycle.  The seminary has now been established and growing since 2007.  And, Rob and I are fully credentialed.  In the words of Hannibal Smith (from A-Team fame), “I love it when a plan comes together.” God’s granting Faith the fulfillment of these plans should stir us on to participate passionately in this year’s strategic planning cycle.

Perseverance

Nine years.  Wow!  I never would have conceived of being a part of a project that from start to finish was nine years in duration. This has reminded me that the Christian life is more akin to a marathon than a sprint. I had to persevere until the professors said, “you are done.” I pray that I will continue to persevere in my life until Christ says, “you are done.”  For those of you struggling through challenges or hardship, remember that your momentarily light affliction (relatively speaking) is producing in you an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison if you persevere (2 Cor 4:17).

Dependence

I failed my Greek comprehensive exams twice.  Last year, I wasn’t even sure if my dissertation committee was going to let me proceed with my topic that I had spent eight years researching.  There were months that went by when I had no idea of the outcome of my work.  I had no assurance or promise that this PhD thing was going to end with doctorate.  For me, academic uncertainty has never been an issue in my life. Worry and fear have been a regular certainty in my life, however.  God continued to show me how I needed to trust Him in the midst of academic uncertainty. God was teaching me that I had to depend upon Him alone and not on any perceived academic abilities. I had to turn to Him daily for refuge or else I would have been consumed and immobilized by fear and worry.  He quieted my noisy soul throughout the journey when I trusted Him (Is 26:3; Matt 6:25-34; Phil 4:6-9,).

Servant hood

I had to redefine “success” in this nine-year journey.  Success could not be defined as whether I would obtain my doctorate—that was never God’s promise. Success had to be defined as, “Have I loved those I have encountered on this journey and have I responded to the difficulties like Christ?” So when my family and I were in Chicago studying at Trinity in 2004-2005, we had to remind ourselves we were there to be a blessing to those in our apartment complex and to those at the church we attended.  Or, when my studies were not going as I thought they should, my goal had to be focused on how to be a blessing to my professors.  I confess this was not always easy.  But it is right.  Whatever plans you have made for yourself that may not seem to be going as you thought, remember Christ does not define success by whether or not you achieved your plan, but by how you have loved God and served others during the journey (Matt 25:37-40).

Gratitude

The following is from the acknowledgement page of my dissertation.

Appropriate honor should be given to the many who have supported me during this endeavor. Foremost I give thanks and praise to Yahweh my God and His Son—Jesus Christ. Yahweh is my Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, and Lover of my soul in Whom I hope for salvation from my desperately sinful heart. He has given me a desire to know His word and on many occasions I have prayed, “God, please help me to understand Your word better so that I may know You more.” I believe this study is in part an answer to this prayer.

I would like to give honor to my wife, Janet, who has been the model of an excellent wife through this journey. She has truly been an “Edenic” helper to this man (Gen 2:18). Janet went wherever I went on this journey. Janet lodged wherever I lodged on this journey. Janet’s people became those in my sphere of influence. And Janet learned of God what I was learning of God through the journey. Janet was a model of hesed to me. Janet encouraged me to persevere. Janet comforted me when I was discouraged. Janet rebuked me when necessary. And Janet spent countless hours meticulously reading and proofing this work.

Third, I would like to give honor to my children Joshua and Karis. When I started the PhD journey in 2004, Joshua was six years old and Karis was five. At the completion of this work they are fifteen and thirteen. For nine years of their lives, they did not see their father as much as they would have liked on the weeknights or weekends. During these years they have grown in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and are becoming servants like their Savior. May the Lord keep their feet on this path.

I would like to give honor to my parents who raised me in a Christian home and gave me the foundation on which to build a life-long pursuit of God. They have always supported me no matter how far my studies have taken me away from my roots and proximity to my family in Oklahoma. I know that they would have preferred me closer to home.

I wish to acknowledge and give thanks to my pastor, Steve Viars, and the people of Faith Church. Pastor Viars encouraged and supported this endeavor throughout these years. My education costs were carried by the sacrificial giving of the Faith Church family of Lafayette, IN. And, obviously, time spent pursuing the PhD was time not allotted to shepherding the Faith family. Truly I am grateful for this body of Christ led by Christ’s faithful servant, Steve Viars.

I acknowledge and thank my dissertation readers: Dr. Mark McGinnis, Dr. Alan Ingalls, and Dr. Rodney Decker. All of whom have gone through significant personal physical trials during their oversight of my dissertation (Not because of me :-).and have been models of graciousness.

I acknowledge and thank the faculty and staff of Baptist Bible Seminary for the vision to create a modular PhD program without which I would not have been able to pursue this kind of endeavor.

I wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Willem VanGemeren for challenging me in 2004 to become a student of Isaiah during his class on Isaiah 40–48. I have been striving to fulfill that challenge and God has helped me to see and hear the revelation of His Son in ways I had never known.

To God be the glory.

Before the identity of the bombers was even determined, CNN ran an opinion piece by Will Cain asking whether human beings are inherently good or inherently bad.  That is not the kind of question you discuss while standing in line at a fast-food restaurant.  But when bombers purposely attack innocent people, the question of the nature of man is given center stage and rightly so.

Inherently Good?

The writer’s conclusion was that while the bombers were possibly evil, the average person in our world certainly isn’t.  Quoting actor Patton Oswalt (and isn’t that just like our world to quote an actor when discussing metaphysics), Cain said,

The vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

Inherently Sinful.

Students of Scripture view the question through a far different lens.  “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  While our doctrine of total depravity does not suggest that we are all as bad as we could possibly be (and thank God for that), episodes of violence and brutality cause us to take a long look in the mirror.  No, we didn’t set off a bomb to injure another human being, but what about those hurtful words you spoke in anger last week that cut a person down instead of building him up?  Jesus called that murder, too (Matthew 5:21-22).  Sigh.  If we are depending on our own goodness to “wash away the evil doers,” we are in big trouble.  We need a cleansing agent far more powerful than that, don’t you think? (Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 1:19).

Amazingly, our world is now even questioning whether the bombers themselves were evil.  After Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed, reporters opined that the younger brother Dzhokhav was not responsible for his part in the slayings, because he was simply following the example and teachings of his older brother.  As the story continues to unfold, the boys’ uncle is now suggesting that Tamerlan was “brainwashed in America.”  In other words, now the bombers themselves aren’t evil, they were simply led astray by the influences of others.

Exactly what would an individual have to do in this culture before we would look at them and say, “You are an evil person. You were wrong.”?

And when will anyone stand up and say; “what I did was evil.”  No blaming it on other people.  No suggesting that I was simply led astray by others.  ”I was wrong.”

Why is it that our culture has such a hard time labeling evil as evil?  Perhaps it is because, if we do so, we know it is a very short walk to having to acknowledge that there are aspects of my own identity that are evil as well.  That conclusion would make us admit our need for Someone Else capable of washing away our evil.  Someone who could forgive us of our sin and grant us a kind of righteousness we could never conjure up on our own.

The city of Boston could easily lead us to a wooden cross if we’d simply be honest about who we inherently are.

Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew 6:19-20).

Recently, we asked some of the servants and kids involved in our Children’s Ministries to tell us about their experiences.  In this video, you can check out some of the rewards that come from investing in the lives of children.

If you’re a member of our church and would like to begin storing up these kinds of treasures by serving in our Children’s Ministries, you can sign up here.

There are many things for which I was extremely grateful when I came to Faith Bible Seminary in fall of 2010. I was thankful for a church that would give so sacrificially as to make it possible for me to go to seminary for free. I was thankful for faithful men of God who would commit years of their life to training young men like me. I was thankful that God was with me as I came to a brand new world in Lafayette, Indiana.

I’m still very thankful for all of those things. But there are several new things that I’m thankful for now because of my seminary experience.

1. I’m thankful for disorientation.

When I first arrived in Lafayette, “disoriented” would be a good way to describe the way I felt. Faith was worlds apart from anything I had been accustomed to. At the time, the disorientation was unpleasant, but now I realize that it was part of growing. Though none of us remembers it, we all entered the world in a state of total disorientation. But disorientation precedes big stretches of growth. Algae on a stagnant pond is rarely disoriented, but that’s not what any of us would want to be.

 2. I’m thankful for upset stomachs.

I had never cleaned up so much product of upset stomachs until I came here. Working in children’s ministries and at the Community Center has provided ample opportunities for practice. I’m thankful for it, first of all, because apparently my (now) wife Courtney saw me cleaning it up one Wednesday night and decided that I was a servant, and she might like to marry me. But I’m also thankful for all the sorts of things about my seminary internship that vomit represents—the menial jobs, like cleaning toilets at the Community Center, shoveling the church out from under three feet of snow. I personally needed to wash a lot of proverbial feet, and I thank God for some of the not-so-fun moments of seminary.

 3. I’m more thankful for the people of God.

I was thankful for Christ’s church before I came to seminary. But I and my family have been so blessed to be a part of a body of people who set aside petty squabbles to work together in the kingdom of God. The love and prayers that the people at Faith Church have showered on us has been incredible!

 4. I’m more thankful for the word of God.

Some seminaries produce men whose faith in God is dead by the time they graduate, giving rise to the joke that “seminaries” are actually “cemeteries.” But FAITH BIBLE Seminary’s name fits it well. I appreciate God’s word more now than I ever did, having seen its power to change lives.

As you look back over the last few years of your life, what has God taught you? What are you thankful for that maybe you weren’t at the time?