Encouragement from the ordinary means of grace

I was so blessed by both church services yesterday...
In the morning KDY preached on Acts 6:8-15, when Stephen is seized and appears before the council.  A few highlights to remind myself later:

2 myths the story of Stephen dispels:  1.  I won't have to face what Jesus faced, and  2.  If I am called to suffer, I will be a horrible witness to Christ.

• We sign up for risk, not ease and comfort, when we give our whole lives to Christ
• Let us not think the way of the cross is for other people in other lands at other times
• We serve a suffering savior, a crucified Christ - we should be prepared to die
• When we are faced with marginalization and hostility, we can respond with gentle appeasement, bitter rage, or like Stephen - a cheerful defiance
• not stop singing, smiling, or speaking the truth
• the only approval that truly matters is from the Son of Man

• Stephen bore faithful testimony to Christ, not of his own strength, but full of the Holy Spirit
• We can't be as holy as Christ and earn God's favor, but we can be a faithful witness to him

• You cant prepare for opposition or suffering by worrying or practicing suffering, the way to speak of Jesus then is to walk with Jesus now.
• Don't meditate on yourself, meditate on Christ
• know him, love him, worship him, so when the fiery trial comes you will stand

In the evening, we continued going through the Heidelberg Catechism for it's 450th birthday, Lord's Day 2:  Our Human Guilt.

• To enjoy our comfort, we must understand our misery, but we were not meant to wallow in it!  
• Our misery comes from 2 things:
• we are sinners
• because of this sinful nature, we are deserving of God's wrath

• We can so easily see misery/fault in others, but we must be SHOWN our misery
• the law shows us our sin and convicts us of it
• without the law, we don't need a savior
• the law shows us how far the gap is between God's standard and our reality 

• Matthew 22:37-40  --  37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
• it doesn't matter if you have 613, 10, or 2 commandments - you fail, you can't keep them
• one of the reasons we don't fee our guilt is because we don't feel the greatness of God

• We won't know our only comfort in life and death if we don't know our misery, and what wonderful comfort we have been given!
•  (see question 1)

At the end, I was introduced to this beautiful song by John Newton that just amazingly articulated some of my feelings and frustrations lately...

 I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”