Hello FBC Friends! (Hope you’re enjoying this sunny Thursday!)
Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look, and see our disgrace!
(Lamentations 5:1)
Some of us are using the same Bible reading plan this year, and we finished up Lamentations today. I preached on Lamentations a couple years ago, but every time I go through it I’m again reminded of some of the great lessons for us today from this often-neglected prophetic book. Once again I love what the Gospel Transformation Bible says here:
“As chapter 4 mirrors chapter 2, so chapter 5 returns to the desolation of chapter 1. But there is a significant difference, for here hope is a constant theme. This hope grows out of the realization of guilt, the confession of which leads to hope in God’s mercy (5:1-18). The plea that God should remember (v. 1) becomes a plea for restoration (v. 21). The author realizes that Israel’s sin is not momentary. The reference to the sins of the fathers (v. 7) only demonstrates this people’s continuing lineage of sin and in no sense diminishes their guilt (v. 16-18)
Though Lamentations focuses on one particular horrifying event, it becomes relevant for all time. Its darkness reveals the utter lostness of sinful humanity. But through the storm clouds streams a bright beam of hope that stems from God’s mercy. This hope in the covenant faithfulness of God finds its full realization in Christ as He takes the weight of our rebellion upon Himself on the cross of Calvary.
Lamentations guides our lips and our hearts in how to relate to this world. On the one hand, we are to take the horrors of this fallen world with utter seriousness. Christians, of all people, should not be frivolous or trite, given our doctrine of creation, the fall, and original sin. Yet on the other hand, the redemptive purposes of God in His grace get down even underneath the weight of sin and fallenness. Christ has Himself gone through suffering and death and has come out on the other side. He has conquered every final reason for us to throw our hands up in the air. In Him, kindness appeared in tangible, human form, yet not kindness that ignores evil and sadness. This was a steely kindness that came for the very purpose of overcoming all evil and sadness.
The writer of Lamentations says,
The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning (5:15). Such is the state of the soul that many of us will find ourselves experiencing at various seasons of life. Yet this state is not our final status. One day all joy will be restored, and mourning will turn to dancing. Jesus Christ, who underwent the ultimate mourning in Gethsemane as He prepared to be abandoned by the Father, has secured our eternal joy. His abandonment means our acceptance. This is the great exchange of the gospel. Look the horrors of this world and of your own soul square in the face, and trust Him
.”
Wow! All I can say is, “Amen!”
Well, this is an exciting week at FBC as we welcome Justin & Lynsey Hostetter and their children, Evie, Nora, and Grady. They arrived Tuesday evening and have already participated in a few events with some of us. But I wanted to just remind you of their remaining schedule while they are with us:
Tonight – Speaking to parents at Awana at 7pm, doing the counsel time for Sparks at 7:30, and the TNT Counsel time at 8:00.
Friday night at 7pm – All are invited to a time of dessert and snacks in the fellowship hall. Justin will be available for Q & A and you can get a chance to meet his family. Desserts and snacks have been coordinated by someone on the search task team, so just come and join us!
Saturday – 7am – Justin will join us for Men’s Breakfast, he’ll share a short devotional with us, and men can ask him questions there as well.
– 11am – Lynsey will be joining some FBC ladies at the Pregnancy Alternative Center tea in Lebanon.
– 6pm – Teens & Parents night with pizza. If you have junior high or high school students, they and you are all invited. Also the junior high and high school Sunday School teachers are invited. This will mainly be an informal time of getting to know them.
Sunday – 9am – Justin and Lynsey will be sharing their testimonies with the adults and junior high and high school during Sunday School in the sanctuary.
– 10:30am – Justin will get to introduce his family briefly during the worship service and he will be preaching the message. He will be speaking on Matthew 7:24-27, so I’d encourage you to read that before Sunday (like many of you tell me you do when I preach!).
– 12pm – FBC Quartely business meeting and voting on Justin as Associate Pastor of Youth and Family Ministries. We are also voting on a few other items which are posted on the bulletin board in the foyer.
– 5:30pm – They are invited to join the Teen Group with the Trimbles
And they fly out of Portland Tuesday morning!
Thank you for praying for us as a church and for Justin & Lynsey and their family this week! May the Lord guide and direct us clearly into His will.
I love you all and thank God for you! Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael