Andrew Peterson
IN CONCERT
October 7th, 7 p.m.
North Hills Community Church
4952 Edwards Road
Taylors, SC 29687
864-609-5321
866-578-2267 (toll free)
FREE ($5 donation suggested)

*Note to all bloggers: Please feel free to post this information on your blog as well if you wish.

Parents have it rough. I know mine did. And I was the main reason for that. Think about all they have to do. Diapers, cooking, cleaning, spanking, listening to fighting & whining. And that’s all before breakfast!

Now, I know what your thinking. “What can C-dog possibly know about parenting? He has no experience. And what in the world does the Gospel have to do w/ parenting” Well, you’re right. I have no experience. But then again, how much experience do any of us have rearing our first child? And the Gospel only has everything to do w/ parenting. Just a couple of thoughts.

1) The Gospel gives parents rest from having to have the perfect child.

We’ve all seen it. We’ve seen a child throw the temper tantrum in public or do something that’s quite foolish. Probably that’s been your child. You know the feeling. Your child does something foolish & you want to find the nearest hole in the ground. Alot of times parents want their kids to behave so that their public image will be esteemed. I know the feeling. I don’t even have kids yet, but I know I don’t want people to think I’m a slacker of a parent or that my child is some little demon.

But the Gospel speaks to that. The Gospel says that my acceptance with God isn’t based on my kids behavior or my perfect parenting. Remember, Jesus was treated as if He were the misbehaving child or the slacker parent. He also was & is the Perfect Son, always doing the things that please His Father. So know that your acceptance with the Father is based on Christ’s perfect record, and view your child’s misbehavior as an opportunity for both of you to grow in the knowledge of Christ’s forgiveness and perfection

2) The Gospel gives parents courage to seek forgiveness.

You know what I’m talking about. You’ve wronged your child before. You’ve gotten angry or been unjust, or just been lazy and didn’t want to deal with his sin problems that flesh themselves out in his behavior. What do you do?

Some parents are under the illusion that their children think they are perfect. They think they need to maintain that. Little do they know that they’re children see right through that.

The Gospel gives me courage to ask forgiveness from my own children. You see, I know that if I ask my Father to forgive me, He will b/c of His Son’s sacrifice on my behalf. I also know that I don’t always have to be right b/c Jesus was always right for me. I can suck up my pride & go to my child whom I’ve wronged, confess my fault against them & ask their forgiveness.

Parents, if you do this, you’ll gain monster loads of respect from your youngin’. We should all be doing this to one another, forgiving & seeking forgivness. This is the kind of power the Gospel gives us!

Being a teenager is tough. I remember, even though it’s almost been 10 years ago. You’ve got to deal w/ school, clothes, facial blemishes, girls, high school sports, girls, learning to drive, girls, uncontrollable appetites for junk food, & then to top it all off, you have to worry about dating girls. Oh, and there’s one other thing: Parents (rents for short).

Does the Gospel relate to how a teenager deals with his parents? You better believe it! You’ve heard the typical complaints from teens about their parents. They’re too old, too strict, too slow, too hard & they just don’t get it. Well, since the Gospel speaks so much to our identity, I think it would be good to see a couple of areas where the Gospel affects teens and their relationship with their parents.

a) The Gospel allows me to forgive. Let’s face it. We’ve all been wronged by our parents at some point. They’ve gotten angry or been unjust or just been, well, human. But the Gospel speaks to that. The Gospel says that I’ve been forgiven infinite sin against an infinite God. Why? Because the wrath for me has been spent on Jesus & His blood is cleansing me from sin. My record is now clean because of Christ. The cross is where “Your boundless love conquered my boundless sin.” So since I’ve been forgiven infinitely, I can forgive a finite sin against me. And I can do it again & again because, NEWS FLASH…parents are flesh & blood & they’ll keep sinning. So forgive because you’ve been forgiven much.

b) The Gospel allows me to submit. We all know that we’ve each had the meanest parents in the world. And soon we’ll grow to be the meanest parents in the world. We all remember rebelling against our parents. But the reason I rebel is because I think, “I’m my own person; my identity is wrapped up in what I want to do.” This could be clothes, music, attitude, standards, etc. But the Gospel says that my identity is secure in Christ. Because of Christ, I’m accepted and loved forever. I don’t have to buy into the world’s philosophy that says I must rebel against my parents to be my own person. I can submit just like God intends because my identity is not wrapped up in being my own person apart from my godly submission to my parents.

So the Gospel is that great! It transforms relationships w/ parents!

I Kings 18 tells one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It’s the story of Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Or more correctly, it’s God vs. Baal on Mt. Carmel. It’s a great story of God drawing attention to Himself once again. Basically, He takes Baal out behind the woodshed (if you don’t know what that means, ask your parents).

This past summer, I heard a message on this passage. It was pretty much a de-secularized pep talk about how we need to be bold like Elijah. Don’t get me wrong. We certainly need to be bold as Christians in the face of idolatry and worldly philosophy. But that’s not the center of the meaning circle in the passage.

The hero of the story isn’t Elijah, it’s God. I really can’t tell someone to be like Elijah, b/c in the story, we aren’t Elijah. Unfortunately, we are the people of Israel. We are the ones who have gone and are going to great lengths to worship something that is an idol of our own imagination. We are even hurting ourselves to worship this false god.

But something happens. The fire will fall, but where does it fall? It’s supposed to fall on the people. We, the people deserve the fire of God’s judgment. We deserved to be incinerated, burnt to a crisp for having other gods before the One True and Living God. But the fire fell on the sacrifice instead. And what happens in the story? The people confess that the LORD is God. Their hearts are turned back by the sacrifice being consumed by the fire of God.

You see, it’s ultimately the Gospel of Jesus Christ that keeps us from facing God’s wrath. The Perfect Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, has already faced God’s wrath for us. We may now confess that Jehovah is God, not because of what we’ve done, but because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Are you struggling with an idol? I know I am. Look to the Perfect Sacrifice!

I’ve never been accused of looking like Brad Pitt. I know, I know, some of you were looking at the picture and thinking, “C-dog, I’m so surprised.” Well, we are both guys & we are both made in the image of God. But that’s where the similarities stop. I’m short, I don’t have hair & no one is going to put me on the cover of any muscle magazine anytime soon. But that’s OK.

You see, the world would have us believe that if you don’t have great hair, great abs, great looks, a great personality & great other stuff, that you’re aren’t really that significant. The world would have us believe that if you don’t look like anyone of many magazine models, then you are not really accepted. But the Gospel changes all that.

You see, acceptance with God does not consist in the state of my abs, the number of hairs on my head (although He knows each one & it’s getting easier for me to know as well), how tall I am or how many movies I’ve starred in. Acceptance with God consists in something much more difficult! Acceptance w/ God demands perfect adherence to His Law. Now, with enough surgery, I can have great abs, flowing locks & a square jaw. But that won’t get me a perfect record w/ God.

But the Gospel can. Jesus lived a perfect life & died a perfect death for me. He has perfectly adhered to the Law of God for me. That’s what gains me acceptance with God. And because of my union w/ Christ, I am a son & that’s significant! Age & death will take away that other stuff. Acceptance & Significance with God thru the perfect Son will never be taken away.

So don’t compare yourself w/ the magazine models. Instead, meditate on your union w/ Christ!

Ah, now that school is back in full swing, we get to deal w/ the dreaded monster known as grades. Teachers have to give ‘em, students have to earn ‘em & their very presence hangs over our heads like that ex- that just won’t go away. Isn’t it great? You study your brains out & work your keister off in order to prep for that big test the next day, only to get jacked up by it & have it eat your lunch. So what does the Gospel have to do w/ grades? Only everything.

You see, we get upset by grades when we think our identity rests in how people percieve us. We want people to percieve us as intelligent & diligent & if we get a poor grade, they’ll think poorly of us. But the Gospel changes that. The Gospel says I’m identified with Christ. God has accepted me in Christ & made me a child of His, with all the rights that come with it. I’m always in Christ no matter what. A bad grade can’t change that. The Gospel also restores the created order. It says I can work hard in school in order to do well, not so that people will think I’m smart or God will like me more, but b/c the Gospel empowers me to be a good steward of the mental resources I’ve been given.

So study hard! But remember you’re accepted in spite of your GPA because Jesus has earned a perfect record before the Father & credited it to you.

Jason is finishing up a M.Div. at RTS of Charlotte, NC.

I asked Jason Cornwell if he would be my guest blogger for the next week or two. He’s finishing up a M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary of Charlotte, NC. Enjoy!

Post #1:

I am amazed at how much we spend examining ourselves in the mirror. This is not simply limited to the stereotypical teenage girls. We all spend time in the morning, when we go to the restroom, passing by a reflective window, and in our cars making sure we look great, that everything is buckled, buttoned, zipped, covered, in place & that nothing is sticking out or up that isn’t supposed to be sticking up or out.

Too bad we don’t do the same thing w/ our interior. We all fail to examine ourselves as we should; we all fail to look at ourselves as the Scriptures say we are. Perhaps this is due to the fact that we’re afraid what we’ll see, or we’re afraid that what others have said about us may be true. It may be that we’ve heard 1 too many guilt ridden messages that simply leave us in the Slough of Despond, taking us to the Law & leaving us there to our own determination and decision.

But the Gospel changes all that. The Gospel lets me know that I’m far worse than I can ever imagine. The Gospel freely lets me look inside myself because that’s not the end of the line. The Gospel says that God’s “boundless love conquered my boundless sin.” I’m free to look inside b/c I know that there is One Who was treated as if he were as guilty as I. This One, Jesus is His name, shed His priceless blood to cleanse me from what’s inside & from what I am & took upon Himself the wrath of God that I deserved. But He didn’t just do that. He lived a perfect life, beyond my imagination. That law-keeping, favor-earning record is credited to me. So now when I look inside myself, I may immediately look to the One Who has took my place both in life & death. In Christ, everything is buttoned, buckled, zipped, covered & in place. So, my fellow believers, look now at yourselves in Christ, the way the Father sees you.

“[Jesus’] entire experience was lived out both as a private person in his own right and also on our behalf and in our place…Our Lord’s obedience reaches back over the course of his whole life, so every part and every facet of that life was lived for us. Not only did his redemptive suffering on the cross happen in place of us but so did his agonizing sorrow in Gethsemane, his wholehearted trust in God and his prayer to the Father…When he was baptized by John the Baptist, a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, he transparently did it on our behalf rather than on his own. It fulfilled all righteousness, being prospective of the cross itself. Thus his faith as well as his obedience was vicarious…If Christ’s whole life was vicarious, every aspect of piety was on our behalf and in our place. It is his faith, his obedience, his faithfulness, his prayer that avails for us. As our great high priest, he offers up worship and praise acceptable to a holy God, the fruit of a life of perfect faithfulness, flawless and pure. By virtue of that perfect intercession we are acceptable to God, having been bought by the grace of God to entrust ourselves into his hands. We therefore have full and open access to God precisely because Christ himself ahs full and open access to God. It is fully and only in Christ’s mediation that we have such confidence to know that the way is open” (Robert Letham, The Work of Christ, 117-118).

“We must always keep focused on the gospel because it is in the nature of sanctification that as we grow, we see more and more of our sinfulness. Instead of driving us to discouragement, though, this should drive us to the gospel. It is the gospel believed every day that is the only enduring motivation to pursue progressive sanctification even in those times when we don’t seem to see progress. That is why I use the expression ‘gospel-driven sanctification’ and that is why we need to ‘preach the gospel to ourselves every day’” (from “Gospel-Driven Sanctification” by Jerry Bridges).

“Believing that God is willing to help other people but unwilling to help you shows that your faith is dead. It’s like believing in a fairy tale. You shouldn’t waver or have any doubts about God’s intentions toward you. You must train yourself to firmly believe that He is able to do great things for you and that He is willing to do them. This kind of faith is alive and real. It will spread throughout every aspect of your life and transform you.” ~Martin Luther

How do we train ourselves to firmly believe this? By daily rehearsing and meditating upon the gospel.

I received this quotation from Tom Wood of Graced Again.

Mr. Standfast (a.k.a. Bob) is at it again. He’s recently launched another blog. If it is anything like his first one, it will be a worthwhile surfing destination. He has entitled it Gratitude & Hoopla. If you are wondering why he named it that, here’s his answer:

I’m no cockeyed optimist when it comes to this life, this world, but, well, I know the hope (the celebration) to which I’ve been called. The end, the destination, is a party. The joy then will be complete. Perfect. Not marred by sin, tears, dissipation. So . . . I’m already excited. If it looks and sounds like pure foolishness to you, oh well. I’m just letting you know, this is what I’m about. this is where I’m. This is why it’s called “Gratitude & Hoopla.”

Go take a look here.

This hymn text was written this past week by David McGrew, a friend and colleague of mine. It is meant to be sung to “Come Thou Fount” [tune name: NETTLETON]

Praise our Savior—He who bought us
We are truly owned by Him.
Praise His willingness to suffer
He—though God—to call us Kin!
This is why we join together:
Christ has born the wrath of God
What a King—to love His people
Loved to death . . . New Life He brought!

Sing together Church of Jesus,
Center all your thoughts on Him.
He the Maker of all nature
Great Redeemer from our sin.
God bestowed on Him the Name-of-names;
None shall stand before His face
Bow your soul in pure surrender
Humbly grasp the Gospel’s grace.