The Gift of Water

Posted on by Brian Burdett

“You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.”
– Psalm 65:9

Writing in a dry land that was completely dependent on rainfall to survive, David praises God as the source of the life-giving, fruit-bearing, nourishing, renewing, blessing water enjoyed by all, believers and unbeliever alike. Indeed, God is the source of all blessings, the creator of all life, and the giver of hope and for that we give thanks. God enriches the earth He created, providing the precious water needed to bring forth abundant life.

Let us give thanks for each and every blessing we enjoy – large and small – each day, for God is the source of all these blessings and good gifts (James 1:17). We celebrate God’s common blessing on all life – those who love Him and those who don’t yet know Him. He is merciful and gracious in ways we cannot begin to truly understand!

God’s gift of water also points to God’s greatest gift. We praise and celebrate God’s gift of Living Water to those who believe in Jesus the Christ: eternal life, forgiveness of sins, union with Christ, and the presence of His Holy Spirit in our daily life. Thank you Lord for your abundant kindness, grace, mercy, and love!

Stone of Help

Posted on by Brian Burdett

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Till now the Lord has helped us.’” – 1 Samuel 7:12

Ebenezer means “Stone of Help”. Why would Samuel set up and name a stone right after God’s miraculous intervention to not only protect Israel from surprise attack, but turn that attack into a crushing defeat for the Philistines? Because we have short memories!

We can quickly move from a mountaintop high rejoicing God’s visible work in our lives to a valley low in which we feel like we’re all alone day after day. We spend most of our lives in the valley and our thoughts can quickly move from “God is great” to “woe is me.” Thus we see leaders throughout the Old Testament setting up monuments to remind the people of God’s faithfulness, power, presence, and promises.

What do we have to help us in the valley? What helps us remember God’s steadfast faithfulness and love during difficult times like the present? The cross should certainly be an Ebenezer for all who follow Jesus. There is no greater symbol of God’s faithfulness, love, mercy, kindness, righteousness, justice, and grace than the cross on which Jesus died for our sins.

But do you also have a personal Ebenezer? What memories, pictures, stories, or monuments help you remember God’s faithfulness in difficult times? It’s good to rehearse and remember God’s faithfulness in our lives, because dark seasons eventually come that can lead to doubt. It’s then that we need an Ebenezer. What in your past could serve as your personal reminder of God’s tender care for you?

When There’s No Answer

Posted on by Brian Burdett

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” – John 11:5-6

There will be times when we pray that we’ll struggle to understand why God doesn’t answer immediately, doesn’t answer in the way we desire, or doesn’t seem to answer at all. Here we can learn from the story of Lazarus and his sisters. Hearing that His beloved friend Lazarus was sick, Jesus waited to go to him. He waited until Lazarus died and Mary and Martha mourned for their brother.

Jesus waited, because He had something better and more important planned for everyone involved and the entire world. He waited and permitted Lazarus to die so that He could bring Him back to life and prove to the world the truth of John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”. Because Jesus waited, we who believe in Him have confidence that after we die we will indeed live forever!

The delay was brutally painful for this family to bear, just as the tragedy and suffering we see around us in this fallen world is often painful to bear. And so we wonder why Christ delays and God seems not to hear our pleas. In truth, Christ’s Spirit is here with us at all times and God hears every request. But they know that the best is yet to come and they answer our prayers in light of an eternal perspective and in the way that is best for us and the world. That’s can be hard to understand but we must trust that God knows far better than we what is truly best.

Lift the Veil

Posted on by Brian Burdett

“Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” – John 9:32-33

There are some in the modern era who struggle with the idea of miracles. However, if there’s even the slightest possibility of an all-powerful God, then miracles are really no issue. If such a God wishes to act in ways that go against the usual patterns He has established for the world, He can. The question then becomes, what do you do when presented with an unprecedented miracle?

John’s gospel is clear about what you should do: believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God. The miracles he describes reveal Jesus’s all-encompassing power over nature, sickness, disability, and death. They demonstrate that Jesus possesses the full power of God. Jesus performed miracles to demonstrate the truth of His words and claims, that He is the way, the truth, and the life, that no one comes to the Father except Him.

Of course, there will always be those who refuse to believe, either in the miracles or especially in the implications of those miracles. John 9 is the story of some who stubbornly refuse to accept the evidence of their fully-functioning eyes. They are spiritually blind, though they see quite well physically. We pray that God grants everyone eyes to see Jesus for Who He is, lifting the veil of spiritual blindness.

Why We’re Celebrating the Lord’s Supper in A Parking Lot (and Not at Home)

Posted on by Brian Burdett

I’ve never blogged before, as you’ll quickly discern. Frankly, I’ve never felt that I had that much to talk about on a regular basis (beyond what I already say on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights). However, we’re in a strange new season and suddenly there’s an awful lot I’d like to “think out loud” about. So I’m going to give it a try and I hope you’ll think out loud with me.

Mostly I plan to use this blog to unpack my thoughts about the changes I expect to stick around for awhile in the world and culture around us because of COVID-19. I will explore how “the church” in general, and one little church in particular in Lake Ridge, Virginia, should respond to these changes to better shine the light of Jesus Christ into the dark world around us.

But first, I thought I’d explain why we’re celebrating the Lord’s Supper in our parking lot this Sunday, rather than at home as many churches have done. The answer requires some biblical reflection on what the Lord’s Supper is and how it’s meant to be observed.

My brief answer is that the Lord’s Supper is a remembrance and celebration by the gathered body of Christ of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, observed by partaking bread and drink symbolizing the broken body and shed blood of Christ by which He established the New Covenant of grace. In his helpful little book, Understanding the Lord’s Supper, Bobby Jamieson more formally defines it as

The Lord’s Supper is a church’s act of communing with Christ and each other and of commemorating Christ’s death by partaking of bread and wine, and a believer’s act of receiving Christ’s benefits and renewing his or her commitment to Christ and his people, thereby making the church one body and marking it off from the world.

In this time of social distancing, many churches have celebrated the Lord’s Supper online in individual homes, either with materials on hand, elements provided by the church, or elements baked in the home. I have no doubt these were meaningful spiritual experiences for all involved. However, I am not convinced those experiences are actually the Lord’s Supper. I realize I’m in the minority on this and may be considered needlessly inflexible and doctrinaire. I can live with that until convinced by Scripture otherwise (which is certainly possible).

I believe the Bible teaches that the Lord’s Supper is far more than an individual experience. Rather, as we unpack 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, the Lord’s Supper is meant to be experienced in the context of the gathered local church. It’s meant to remind us and reaffirm the unity of the local body of Christ. We are commanded to discern (look around, seeing, hearing, and feeling) that unified body. We cannot do so from the comfort of our homes:

  • 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.“
  • 1 Corinthians 11:17-18, “But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you…”
  • 1 Corinthians 11:20, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.“
  • 1 Corinthians 11:29, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.“
  • 1 Corinthians 11:33, “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another“

1 Corinthians 10-11 is the Bible’s most definitive teaching regarding the practice of the Lord’s Supper. As you can see, the emphasis is on coming together as the body, the local church. That can certainly be done in groups of 10 or 20 hiding from persecution. I believe it can be done in groups of 10 or 20 meeting together in a home to reduce danger during a pandemic. But coming together as the gathered body of Christ isn’t something a single person or family can do at home while sheltering in place.

The elements aren’t what make the Lord’s Supper the Lord’s Supper. There is nothing special about the bread we eat or the juice we drink. Anything that appropriately symbolizes the body and blood of Christ will serve.

The pastors and deacons aren’t what make the Lord’s Supper the Lord’s Supper. We are just ordinary people, though called by God to serve in a specific capacity in the local church.

The body of Christ gathered to celebrate the broken body and shed blood of our Savior and marveling at the unity Christ died to create within us, that’s what makes the Lord’s Supper the Lord’s Supper. We could certainly use music, prayer, and preaching to create a spiritually meaningful simultaneous consumption of bread and juice in our individual homes, but it wouldn’t be the Lord’s Supper. And so we gather in a parking lot so that we may look around and see our brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice that in Him we are one, and remember what it cost to make that happen.

As a pastor, I could be wrong, but if I’m going to be wrong, I want to be wrong on the side of theological caution in regards to the Lord’s Supper. Why? Because 1 Corinthians 11:27 warns, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.”