Tag: Presbyterian Churches

Grace and Gratitude

Nothing reveals the vulnerabilities in the supply chain like a robust pandemic.   We think we can anticipate what will be in short supply – gas, water, generators, basic food stuffs – but herd instinct offers surprises.   While some shortages, such as toilet paper, have been widely reported, you may not have heard about shortages of bikes, audio-visual hardware, and seeds.    

Avid gardeners are meticulous planners.   They order seeds like clockwork according to their climate zones and carefully scripted calendars.  Yet this pandemic has thrown their plans into disarray.  An invasive species has appeared – the victory gardener!   Indeed, this is a good thing.  But it has created shortages for seed companies and nurseries. 

For too long people have labored under the notion that food comes from a supercenter.   Panic has led many to realize that maybe, just maybe, food comes from somewhere else – their yard.   Finding and eating food is one of the most basic parts of our lives, yet most of us have lost touch with its basic mechanics – its heart and soul, its deeper importance.   The author and poet, Wendell Berry,  laments this in his essay, “Eating and Pleasure.”

The industrial eater is, in fact, one who does not know that eating is an agricultural act, who no longer knows or imagines the connections between eating and the land, and who is therefore necessarily passive and uncritical – in short, a victim….  Both eater and eaten are in exile from biological reality…. Eating with the fullest pleasure – pleasure, that is, that does not depend upon ignorance – is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world.  In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and from powers we cannot comprehend.

Wendell Berry

Nothing is more time-consuming, day in and day out, than finding and eating food.  Yet, in all that planning, finding, preparing, and eating, how often do we “experience and celebrate our dependence and gratitude.”   Sure we “say the blessing” before the meal, but do we realize how deep that thanks should go?  This failure of thanks-living, this systemic ingratitude, goes much deeper than our eating – it extends to all other areas of life.  Nothing highlights our fallenness more than ingratitude.    Paul’s ringing indictment of our fallen nature in Romans 1 crescendos in our ungratefulness.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:18-21

Ungrateful hearts and lives are futile hearts and lives.   Gratitude is our primary response to God’s graciousness toward us.  Our worship seeks to glorify God through proclaiming His grace in the gospel and by expressing our gratitude to Him in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.   Worship is a gracious and thankful conversation between God and His people.   To be ungrateful is the hallmark of practical atheism.  Thanksgiving is a sanctifying agency in our lives.   Elsewhere Paul, in writing to his friend, Timothy, remarked.

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

1 Timothy 4:4-5

Is your life characterized by thanksgiving, or better yet, thanks-living?   Have you learned to receive everything – the good and the bad, the joyful and the sorrowful – with thanksgiving?   Have you chosen to pursue every moment, every action, every aspiration to celebrate your dependence and gratitude toward the gracious God revealed to us in Christ Jesus?   Our redemption is manifest chiefly in a grateful heart.   In Psalm 107, the Psalmist exhorts us.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
    whom he has redeemed from trouble. 

Psalm 107:1-2

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.   What does your life declare of thankfulness to God?  The inspired author goes on to speak about the promptings, the praise, and the practice of giving thanks and living thankfully.   Join us this Lord’s Day, May 24, on Facebook Live at 10:30 am as we examine Psalm 107 consider the power of experiencing and celebrating our dependence and gratitude toward our Gracious God.  

A Sure Thing

One of the by-products of copious interstate driving is an ample opportunity to critique of billboards.   Billboards are a powerful way to make a statement.  They are unquestionably effective at catching your eye.  And they are larger than life, which means they will immortalize both the praiseworthy and the cringeworthy message.    I recently saw a local bank billboard which boldly proclaimed – “We want all your money!”   To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, “They keep using that phrase — I don’t think that phrase means what they think it means.”

Trusting others with our money is no small matter.   It is hard to come by, but easy to lose a grip on.   We grow suspicious when someone asks for it.   And we don’t want to invest our money with just anyone.  We need to be assured that it will be invested safely and soundly and will increase in value over the long haul.  We want a personal relationship with our financial adviser.  Horror stories abound and success stories are rare.  When someone gives us an investing tip, we often receive it with polite suspicion.  There is no sure thing – no guarantee.  Or is there?

The Bible has a lot to say about money.   Jesus’ teaching on money was more prolific than his teaching about heaven.  Much of what he had to say was shocking and unexpected.  And in Paul’s letters to Timothy, we also find warning after warning about how church leaders and its members should regard and use their money.   Included in this teaching, in a postscript to his first letter, is one of the best investment strategies a Christian can employ.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Far from advocating government-sponsored, or even church-sponsored, wealth redistribution, Paul gives those with worldly means – and those without — clear and succinct instruction how to be rich in a way that lasts beyond life in this world.   A good financial adviser should counsel regarding the relationship between risk and return. This is investing 101.  High return requires high risk.  But the Bible points to an investment strategy with a guaranteed high rate of return that continues undiminished forever with no market corrections or downturns.

Join us this Lord’s Day, February 10, as we finish our study of 1 Timothy and consider an investment strategy that produces real riches.  We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock.  Click here for directions. Come with a friend and join us for fellowship and worship. We look forward to seeing you there.

Always Late for Church?

Are you always late for the morning service?  Can’t find your child’s one missing shoe?  Keys aren’t where you left them?  Don’t sweat it, at River City Reformed we don’t get started until 5:00 pm.

The Lord has set aside the whole day for public and private worship and for a holy resting in Him.  Enjoy the day He has made to spend with you.  Then join us for corporate worship every Lord’s Day evening at 5:00 pm at River City Reformed in Midtown, Little Rock.

We currently meet at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in The Commons.   Parking for The Commons is on the north side of St. Andrews’ Campus.  Follow the traffic circle and parking lot around to the right, behind the main facility. Pass the pavilion on the right and park by the playground.  We will be there to greet you.

To get to St. Andrews from I-630:

  • Take exit 6A; head south on Rodney Parham Rd.
  • At the light, turn right onto Kanis Rd.
  • The church is 0.6 miles down Kanis on the right.