Month: February 2018

A Review of God’s Grace in Your Suffering by David Powlison

Crossway asked me to consider applying and joining their Blog Review Program. I gladly did and was approved hence from time to time you will see or read reviews of their books on this blog. I trust and pray that these reviews will be helpful to you as you consider reading or recommending books. My reviews will focus more on books about Bible studies/devotions, spiritual growth, theology, Christian living, Christian leadership, and pastoral ministry. God’s Grace in Your Suffering by David Powlison is my first review in this program. Crossway has provided me with a complimentary copy of the book.

One wise and godly man once noted that there are always three groups of people in this world. Those who are just coming out of hard times, those who are passing through hard times, and those who are about to enter into hard times. He was very right. We are all acquainted with suffering, pain, sorrow and hardship. None of us is immune to it and God never promises immunity to suffering even for his own children as David Powlison rightly observes at the beginning of his book, God’s Grace in Your Suffering.

However, although God does not guarantee immunity, he does assure and provide his children with grace and help in their suffering. This is the point that Powlison is driving home in his book by answering two key questions: “When you face trouble, loss, disability, and pain, how does the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ meet you and comfort you? How does grace and goodness find you, touch you, work with you, and walk with you through deep waters?”

Powlison ably answers these questions by taking the reader through the verses of that famous hymn which is a favorite to many Christians, “How Firm the Foundation.” As he makes his way through the hymn Powlison also shares his personal experiences of how the truths of the hymn have positively impacted him. Although most words of the hymn are direct quotes from the Scriptures, the book could have failed miserably if it focused on the hymn alone. But I am thankful that Powlison takes us beyond the hymn to the Bible itself and to the Christ of the Bible as the true source of encouragement and comfort in our trials.

Another recommendable thing about God’s Grace in Your Suffering is that it is very practical. Powlison has endeavored to accomplish this by engaging the reader and asking probing questions that enables the reader to apply the truths of Scripture to his own situation. True to its own assertion, this book is a workshop of an afflicted soul.

I think I would be right to say that when passing through hard times one has no time for jargons or hard reading and would greatly appreciate a book that hammers the nail right on its head. Powlison has also managed to do just that in this book. God’s Grace in Your Suffering is an easy reading yet full of profound truths hewn from the ever-trustworthy word of God.

 

What About the Confessions and Catechisms?

One thing that the Reformed and Presbyterian churches are known for is the confessions and catechisms. The Presbyterian churches tend to subscribe to the Westminster Standards, which consists of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. The Reformed churches lean more towards the Three Forms of Unity, which consists of the Belgic Confession of Faith, Canons of Dort, and Heidelberg Catechism.

One question I often hear regarding the confessions and the catechisms is why do we have them? Is the Bible not enough? Of course, the Bible is enough and we always need to remind ourselves that the confessions and catechisms are subject to the authority of Scripture. The confessions are not there to compete with the Bible rather they are there to aid in understanding various doctrines of the Bible. They don’t have their own authority. Their authority is derived from the truths of Scripture contained in them.

In addition to assisting us understand the Bible’s teaching better, the confessions and catechisms also help us to let others know exactly what we believe. There are so many churches that claim to teach the Bible. However, not all these churches truly teach the Bible. Therefore since “we teach the Bible” can mean different things to different people, the confessions and catechisms help us to communicate exactly what we believe the Bible teaches. As one theologian put it, “We are not a cult where we hide our beliefs from others. We are a church, so we proclaim our faith to the world. Good (confessions and) catechisms help us to do that. They say, “Here’s what we believe. You can study them, question them, reject them, or embrace them.”

Catechisms are also essential tools when it comes to shepherding and teaching the little hearts of our children. I have in mind here the shorter catechism and the Catechism for Young Children. These summarize the key doctrines of the Bible in simpler terms that even a child can understand. But make no mistake to think that since they were written mainly with children in mind then adults cannot benefit from them. To the contrary many adults have also benefited from reading and memorizing these catechisms.

When I was a child, my grandfather bought me the shorter catechism and taught me God’s truth from it. I imbibed and memorized its truths with the innocent zeal of a child. Later in my teenage years I wandered away into the world but the Spirit of God continued to use those truths stored in my mind to convict me of my sin and eventually begin the gracious work of bringing me back to faith.

Lastly but not least, the confessions and catechisms also help those who have been called to serve as ministers or elders to be accountable to their fellow elders and ministers. When one is ordained into the office of an elder or pastor they declare to their fellow elders or ministers their subscription to the confessions and by doing that they are in essence saying, “Brothers, I believe the same things you believe and what our forefathers in the faith have always believed over the centuries. If at any time my life or my teaching is not in agreement with these truths, please hold me accountable. Show me my error and help me back on the path of truth.” The confessions and catechisms, therefore, help elders or ministers to be brother’s keeper.

 

Martin Bucer: Faithfulness in Obscurity

Many readers of this post would know Martin Luther and John Calvin. These are the names that usually come to mind whenever we think of the Sixteenth Century Protestant Reformation. But how many are familiar with Martin Bucer? How many of us will be able to write at least a paragraph on this reformer? The point I am trying to drive home by these questions is that unlike Luther and Calvin, Bucer is one of obscure reformers of the Sixteenth century. Yet he was the man the Lord used to mentor the great theologian of the Reformation era, John Calvin.

Martin Bucer was born on November 11, 1491 in the town of Schlettstdat in France. Later, he became a Roman Catholic monk in Dominican order. In 1581, Bucer was in the city of Heidelberg, Germany when Martin Luther came to the city for a disputation. In the debate, Luther asserted God’s sovereign grace in salvation and that salvation is by faith alone. This marked the turning point for Bucer who attended the disputation. He fully embraced the doctrines of grace and began to preach the same. He later settled in Strasbourg and labored faithfully in teaching, preaching, and shepherding God’s people for years.

Somehow, John Calvin came to know Bucer and wanted to spend the rest of his life in Strasbourg writing and laboring alongside him. So in April 1536, Calvin left Paris for Strasbourg. But due to the war between King Franz I of France and Emperor Karl of Austria, he could not take a direct route. He decided to go through Geneva.

In Geneva, William Farel, another reformer, persuaded him to stay and co-labour with him. So Calvin settled in Geneva and began to biblically reforming the church but some resisted Calvin’s reformation efforts. Eventually the Genevan city council expelled Calvin from the city in 1538 and he headed to Strasbourg where he labored with Bucer and pastored a French refugees church for three years.

In the period of three years, the Lord used Bucer to mentor the younger Calvin. Calvin himself wrote this of Bucer: “(Bucer is the man of) profound scholarship, his bounteous knowledge about a wide range of subjects, his keen mind, his wide reading, and many other different virtues, remains unsurpassed today by anyone, can be compared with only a few, and excels the vast majority.”[1] Undoubtedly, Bucer had a great impact upon the great theologian and pastor yet Bucer remains little known to many today.

Again, the point I am trying to put across is that just like in the Bible where we have saints who were used mightily by God but are little known, we also have little known reformers who played a great role in the Reformation. Bucer is an encouragement to many who are laboring faithfully for the Lord yet the world knows little or even nothing about them. Your faithfulness is not nullified by your obscurity. The Lord sees it and he will surely reward it. Not all of us were predestined to be the “Calvins.” Some of us are the “Bucers,” but in everything we ought to be thankful and give glory to Christ for he is really the one who is at work through us all (1 Cor. 3:6-11).

[1] Keith Mathison, Ligoneir Ministries, http://www.ligonier.org/blog/martin-bucer-reformer-and-his-times/ accessed on November 30, 2017.