I Marvel at His Mercy!

I truly do marvel sometimes, at the mercy of God in setting me aside to be a preacher of His Gospel. If you knew me, you'd know what an amazing thing that is! I grew up believing that the only reason a man would ever become a preacher was because he wasn't good for anything else. I don't know why I believed that. Nobody that I remember ever said it to me. That's just what I thought.

And so I set my course in a different direction. Early on I loved to study science. I received a degree in chemistry and even worked in research for a little while (though that sounds much more impressive than it really was!) And yet God called me to Himself. He opened my eyes to see Christ as my only Savior and Lord. He turned my feet so that I would walk after Him. And then He called me to declare His praise to the nations, that all might see and hear the glories of His grace.

I don't know why he did it. I just know that He did. And now it is my privilege, among other things, to spend time in His word, seeking to understand Him and the wonderful things He has done, and then somehow to find a way to express what I have learned to others.

That's where the note that follows (or perhaps its a prayer) comes in . I sent it out as an email to our congregation asking them to pray for me. You see, my greatest desire as I stand before them on Sunday, is to be able to express, in some small way, the wonderful things God has so graciously allowed me to see! And though you may be reading this long after the particular events have passed, perhaps you might be moved to pray for me as well, or to pray for your pastor, that he, too, may be able to declare clearly "the wonders of God's grace" to his people this Sunday.

So here is the note:

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Dear Family in Christ,

Once again I am humbled to the point of great joy over the truth God has let me see in the passage we'll be studying this Sunday, from Mark 5:1-20. There is such a stunning picture here of the compassion and power of Christ! I find myself humbled and encouraged just to think of it!

Please pray with me that God will give enabling grace to share, to some degree, the wondrous mercy he's allowed me see. I always feel -- and every preacher feels this way, I think -- I always feel that I fall way short of really being able to describe the great depths of his love that I see opening up before me in the careful study of Scripture! My desire is that he would enable what he has made so stunningly beautiful to me, to appear just as beautiful to you, and that the encouragement he's giving me, will fill your heart as well when we meet together this Sunday!

Seeking Him for an outpouring of grace!

S. Scott Lee
Soli Deo Gloria
www.RockportBaptist .org

The Wages of Sin

I think this quote from my friend Charles Leiter pretty much says it all. What a vital warning in a day when we find it so easy to minimize sin -- especially our own!

One of the most fearful things about sin is its power to harden the one who practices it. The deeper a man goes in sin, the less sin bothers him. . . . Every sinner finds himself now committing sins that he once despised, and the sins that he now despises, he will someday find himself committing. It should shock us to remember that Adolph Hitler was once a little boy playing with toys just like other little boys. Man knows the beginning of sin, but no man has ever known the end of sin.

~Charles Leiter

Amen.

A Little Time Off

Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. Psalm 116:7

What a busy summer (and spring and winter) this has been! But it looks like I might have a little time to catch up on a few things this week and next. My good friend and fellow elder Bob Schembre is about to take a short sabbatical from his position of leadership at our church so he can finish up some college courses he never got to complete when he was young. He's asked to give his testimony this Sunday. Since that's relieved me of the need to prepare to speak this week, I've tried to use the time to catch up on a lot of other things that tend to pile up when things get as busy as they've been. Thank you Lord, for this opportunity!

Next week, a couple of our interns and I are going down to Muscle Shoals, AL to spend a little time with some of our good friends form HeartCry Missionary Society talking about how our church can expand it's commitment both to training young men through internship, and how we might better organize to be more personally involved in the task of world missions. That will be Monday and Tuesday.

I hope to use the rest of that week as a kind of spiritual retreat and to get some things ready to teach this fall. After that, my girls and I plan on visiting my parents and family down in Arkansas.

Not a bad way to spend a couple of weeks here at the end of the summer. How I think the Lord for every opportunity he's given, and for his ongoing grace that upholds and strengthens us for every task!

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:2

You Preachers Will Understand

It's been one of those weeks only a preacher could understand. Sermon preparation has been a struggle to say the least. I’m not really sure why. Some weeks are just like that. There are times when the Word just seems to fall off the page and God gives me an understanding of His Word as I study, that enables me to see fairly clearly what needs to be said. But then there are other times, like this week, when nothing comes easy and my puny brain just seems incapable of getting itself around the truth like it should.

And yet, as strange as it seems, I praise God for weeks like this (and there are a lot more of them than I’d care to admit). Because it’s these times that always seem to throw me back on my knees before God, pleading for understanding and help. Times like these remind me that understanding God’s word is not so much the result of my skill as an interpreter, as it is His grace in letting me see something of His Truth. How I thank God for that. Jesus said in Matthew 11:25,

"I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

I thank God as well that truth, like silver and gold, doesn’t usually lay on top of the ground where any half-hearted fool can stumble over it, but it must be sought with diligence (Prov 23:23) as we dig and sweat and seek the help of the One who is worth seeking! The One Who sought us first, and through an amazing grace has given us a desire to know Him in Jesus Christ.

My prayer is that God will give you a growling hunger for his truth that will continually send you to your knees before an open Bible seeking to know Him, and longing to be like Him. And that He will satisfy that hunger he creates in you, by giving you an intimate and growing fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ as you meet with Him regularly in His Word. For whether it comes to you easy, or it's one of those days when things are hard, it's always worth it to find that God still speaks through His Word.

New Blog "Rockportviews"

The new blog, RockportViews, is up and running! Aaron, Bob and I have been considering doing this for some time. Our goal is to be able to answer questions put to us, as well as deal with some important issues concerning the living of the Christian life. We three have enjoyed such great conversations together as we've wrestled with various things over the years, that we thought we should try and broaden the circle of conversation. We're hoping this might be one way to bring others in and stimulate some helpful interaction. Pray with us as we attempt to make this a ministry that is spiritually profitable to many.

Grace and Peace

God at Bate's Creek

Last week I was asked by our student minister, Aaron Sutton, to go down on Wednesday to Bate’s Creek Camp and spend the day teaching, participating in worship, and taking part in a question and answer session with the teenagers who were at camp there. I was glad to do so, but I must admit my expectations weren’t very high. I’ve been to camp before, you see, and kind of had an idea what to expect. You know, kids who tolerate the teaching time so they can get back to doing the things they’re really interested in doing.

What a welcome surprise to discover that this year things were quite different. Oh there were the usual displays of drama, and the cuts and bruises that accumulate whenever you have kids at camp. But from the moment I arrived it was clear God that had been moving upon the hearts and lives of many of the young people who were there in a way that is very encouraging.

One of the things that really impressed me was the response I saw from the teens in the class I taught. Aaron had asked me to speak on “What is the Gospel.” But when he told me that this would be an “elective” class held during “free time” just before supper, I thought, “Well great, that one kid that shows up and I can have a great time.” Much to my surprise fifty young people came on their own to study the Bible when they didn’t have to.

That’s amazing enough. But what really encouraged me were the answers I received to a series of questions I asked them about the Gospel. I expected to get the usual, shallow answers one usually finds in a room full of teens. To my great shock and surprise, this group of kids displayed a real depth of understanding and a deep hunger to get even more. Questions like, “What did Christ accomplish on the cross?” were met with answers like, “He gave Himself to be my substitute and took God’s wrath in my place!” Wow! I was blown away! I soon realized that this was a group of kids I could go deep with, and not only be understood, but also find that the truth was greatly appreciated. There’s no other way to say it, these kids were hungry to know God.

I especially appreciated the spirit and attitude of the youth from First Baptist DeSoto. It was clear that their youth pastor,Gene Smith , is doing a great job teaching and discipling them. Brother, it was great to meet you and your kids. I hope we’ll get to work together again in the future.

Another encouraging event was the late night question and answer session that I shared with Pastor Jeremy Muniz (also from FBC, DeSoto) and two of his staff guys (Gene and John). The young people asked more questions than we could ever have taken time to answer - but they were good questions. And even though we went way too long – they patiently listened the whole time. Quite amazing. I’ve rarely seen that many young people giving their full (or mostly full) attention to something like that when they were not being entertained, but were instead being given clear answers instruction from God’s Word.

Thank you Bro Jeremy for being a part of the whole thing with me. It was a joy to be able to field such good questions with a like-minded brother. God has given you much wisdom for your young age – I suspect that it comes through your complete dependence on the source of all wisdom – His inerrant word!

Another thing to mention, Bro John (also from DeSoto) did an incredible, Christ-exalting job of leading the kids in worship. I’ve been to many of these things where the music was more of a play time than anything else, and the cross of Christ barely an after-thought. So many today seem to think you’ve got to focus on the kids themselves and make them think the whole thing’s about them - or they won’t be interested. But that’s exactly what they don’t need. Most of their problems in life will come from thinking that it is all about them ( Isn’t that the very nature of sin?). What they need is a vision of the majesty of a Christ Who is big enough to cause them see that it’s not about them, it’s never been about them, and it can’t possibly be about them. They need to understand that there is a God Big and Glorious enough and Sovereign enough to demand their total allegiance, and able to satisfy their souls forever! You, with the help of the Holy Spirit, gave them that. I so much appreciate your leadership.

And finally, Bro Aaron, I will tell you again, how much I appreciate your hard work this past three weeks. I know you’re tired. But you wanted to make this about Christ, and you did so. I believe there will be a rich, future harvest of grace worked in many lives by God through your faithful obedience to Him this past month.

And to the rest of you who may happen to have read this far. I share this word of thanks with all of you as a word of encouragement. God has not abandoned this present generation. He’s still at work revealing Himself and His ways to hungry hearts. I pray you will come to Him hungry as well, and draw near to Him expecting to hear from him as you open His Word. And I pray God will open your eyes to the Majesty of His Son Jesus Christ, Who died and rose again to give life us who put our trust in Him.

Soli Deo Gloria
(To God Alone Be the Glory)

One Family

It's one of my many "favorite things" about being a Christian. It's happened to me so many times now, you'd think by now I'd be used to it, but it always comes as a welcome surprise. I'm talking about the joy of meeting someone for the first time-- a new friend from another part of the world -- and discovering instantly how much you have in common because of the common bond you share in Christ.

My most recent experience of this joy began back in April on my last mission trip to Romania -- you know, the one I was supposed to blog but never did! -- I met Mateusz (Matthew) Wichary, his wife Beata and their friend "Chris", all from Poland. They'd heard about the work of HeartCry and were interested in attending a conference where we were teaching, so they drove down to Romania for the week (an amazing thing in itself!). From the beginning we fell into a warm and enjoyable fellowship as we traveled along all week in what for all of us was a "foreign" country. At the end of the week, "Mat" told me he would be coming to the states during the summer to work in his PhD at Southern Seminary. I told him to contact me when he did.

To make a long story short. He emailed me about four weeks ago when he got this side of the Atlantic, and we arranged for one of our former church members, Terry Delaney, a student at Southern, to bring him to Arnold, MO for the weekend so he could join us at Rockport (thanks Terry, for taking the time!).

That weekend has just finished, and what a time we've had, laughing at silly jokes, sharing ideas, and rejoicing together in the marvels of God's grace in Christ to sinners such as ourselves. And what fun to be able to introduce him to Saint Louis and the Arch - despite the 100 degree heat! -- and then to try and explain what all the celebrating was about when Miles popped a walk-off grandslam to beat the Padres at Busch Stadium while we were standing under the arch. Have you ever tried to explain baseball to a European who's never seen it played before?

Any way, I don't know if you'll read this, but Matt it was a joy for my family to have you here and to learn what God is doing among the small, but vital group of baptists who live and worship there, and to find out how very much we are alike, despite the miles and cultural differences that might separate us! And I'm grateful to God for giving me the chance over the years to meet dear brothers and sisters of our one family in Christ from so many different places around the world!

What a mercy!
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