Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:43:29 -0800WeeblyFri, 10 Feb 2012 12:37:17 -0800http://www.georgelawsonjr.com/1/post/2012/02/the-words-of-life-from-the-jaws-of-death-an-example-of-pastoral-love-and-sacrifice.htmlIn the beginning of May, 1665 London had a divine appointment with what the Puritan Thomas Vincent described as “one of the most terrible plagues that was ever visited on this or perhaps any other kingdom.” We now know it as a bubonic plague.

The disease at first claimed the lives of only 9 people, but after a pause it rapidly spread across the city and was soon taking no less than 470 people a week. The number of deaths collected from the bills of mortality amounted to 68,596 in that first year, though some have estimated that the number was much higher.

Vincent tells us that the progression of the disease “began with a pain and dizziness in their head, then trembling in their other members.” They felt “boils under their arm…and saw blains to come forth in other parts” and when spots appeared they were considered “the certain tokens of near approaching death.” (Vincent, God’s Terrible Voice pp. 14-15)

The introduction to The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ contains a description of the outbreak:

“On every hand were to be heard the groans of the dying, the lamentations and the distress of the survivors. In vain did thousands look for consolation in their last moments from those who had ministered to them the Word of Life. Dismay and terror had alike seized the pastor and his flock and a place of safety from the plague was all that either the one or the other had time, or in general the inclination to seek.”

Vincent was pastoring a flock that was at the heart of the outbreak, and he was strongly urged by fellow ministers to flee the city. In one of the more remarkable cases of pastoral sacrifice, he refused. He said he would not allow any to “weaken his hands in this work.” He could not bring himself to leave his flock “in the time of their greatest need” and committed himself to the protection of his God.

“Without fear he rushed into the scenes of contagion and entered the dwellings of disease and death” and “though upwards of sixty-eight thousand died in London including seven persons in the house in which Mr. Vincent resided, yet did he continue in perfect health during the whole season of the visitation.”

It is worth noting that Vincent had no divine revelation that promised his safety through this plague. There was no guarantee that he would be immune to the disease as long as he was engaged in the Lord’s work. He understood that committing himself to the protection of God did not obligate the Lord to preserve him.

So why then would he risk his life to enter the jaws of death itself?

The 17th century Puritan gives us at least one answer to this question from his own hand. In his book The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ he writes:

“If you have but little love to Christ, you will be apt to faint in the day of adversity, to shrink when you are called to take up His cross and suffer for His sake. Lesser sufferings will decompose you, greater sufferings will frighten you and amaze you, and you will be in danger of turning into fearful apostates in time of great trials. There is need of great love to Christ, as well as great faith, to carry you through sufferings with courage that you may persevere unto the end” (p. 33).

Thomas Vincent’s words, backed up by his example, strike a blow to my anemic love for Christ and His flock.  “May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5)

]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:50:16 -0800http://www.georgelawsonjr.com/1/post/2012/01/ineffably-excellent.htmlIneffably Excellent By George Lawson

Not too long ago I came across these words written by Jonathan Edwards who is considered by some to be the greatest Theologian America has ever produced. Read what he says (and you’ll have to pay attention or else you’ll miss it)...

Sometimes, only mentioning a single word caused my heart to burn within me; or only seeing the name of Christ, or the name of some attribute of God. And God has appeared glorious to me, on account of the Trinity. It has made me have exalting thoughts of God, that he subsists in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced, have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate; but in a direct view of the glorious things of the gospel....

Once, as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737... I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception — which continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time, in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to love him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve and follow Him; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity. (From the Personal Narrative of Jonathan Edwards)

Now for those of you who might think he’s describing some out of body experience or heavenly vision, he’s not. This was, in his own words, his time of contemplation and prayer.

It was his practice to spend time praying to God, and contemplating just how awesome and majestic the persons of the Trinity are. And the beauty of Christ was to Edwards ineffable, indescribable, and overwhelming, Christ appeared so excellent that thoughts of Him were great enough to swallow up all thought and conception (so his thoughts of Christ eclipsed anything else that may have been on his mind.)

Reading of Edward's experience causes me to ask myself a few questions that I think we'd all do well to ask ourselves:

• How far has the present day church been removed from this kind of view of Christ?
• Where have we lost our sense of awe?
• When did we replace the terrifying majesty of our Lord with a lord who is slightly above us but not too far out of reach?
• What has made us believe that Christ exists to make much of us? When, as John Piper says,“we exist to make much of Him”? May God forgive us for our abundance of pride that makes us think we’re the center of the universe when really, HE is.

In Christ Alone,
Pastor George

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