Summer 1989
Reformed Quarterly Volume 8, Issue 1 The Reverend Terry Gyger is coordinator for Mission to North America of the Presbyterian Church in America. A former pastor, Gyger was also the co-founder of Ministries in Action, a church growth organization which has served over 2,000 congregations from 38 denominations.
Sir Leonard Wolfe, publisher and statesman over the first fifty years of British history in this century, wrote in his autobiography:
Sir Leonard Wolfe, publisher and statesman over the first fifty years of British history in this century, wrote in his autobiography:
Looking back at the age of eighty-eight over the fifty-seven years of my political work in England, knowing what I aimed for and the results, meditating on the history of Britain and the world since 1914, I see clearly that I achieved practically nothing. The world today and the history of the human anthill during the last fifty-seven years would be exactly the same if I had played ping-pong instead of sitting on committees and writing books and memoranda. I have, therefore, to make the rather ignominious confession to myself and to anyone who may read this book that I must have, in this long life, ground through between 150,000 and 200,000 hours of perfectly useless work.Modern man trapped on the merry-go-round of meaningless activity identifies with Sir Leonard Wolfe. No doubt this feeling of emptiness in the midst of busyness is what drives many individuals to bizarre interests and "far-out" pursuits. On the surface, we Christians know how we should respond to such a statement of purposelessness. After all, Christ makes the difference; He brings purpose to our lives. But wait a minute! Sometimes I feel like Sir Leonard. Driving home recently, I began to reflect on my hectic day --the memos, phone calls, letters, projects, interviews. I asked myself, "What does all this mean? What was actually accomplished?" Do you have days like that? Children, dishes, clothes, cleaning, reports, sermons, trips, counseling, tests, homework, projects -- hectic days that seem purposeless.
THE BIG PICTURE
Often in the Scriptures, God met His people in the quiet places. It was in the desert that John the Baptist grew; it was in the wilderness that our Lord Himself prepared for His public ministry. He frequently retreated from the hectic pace around Him to the solitude of the mountain, alone in the still of the night. It was isolated in Arabia that the Apostle Paul apparently was trained at the hand of his new Lord. We need to leave the cities of our lives with their busyness and meet God on the quiet mountaintops where we can listen and meditate. By His word and Spirit we need to see our lives from His perspective. We need to see the big picture. We need to reflect on what God is doing in our lives. What is His purpose for us? Romans 8:28-30 deals with the big picture.And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.Many of the great doctrines of our faith are packed into this short passage. We marvel at the mystery of God's sovereignty relating to His decrees. We stand amazed at the graciousness of His call. We are thankful for the perfect legal position we have in Christ, and we praise God for the certainty of the glory we will experience in the future. But what is the "good" toward which God is working all things for us? Many take this passage to mean that in God's providence somehow everything will "work out" in ways that are best for us. Sometimes we overlook a phrase in Romans 8:29 that can help us understand God's ultimate goal for us: "For those God foreknew He also predestined "to be conformed to the likeness of His Son•." In industry the designers often build a prototype of a new product which the company intends to manufacture. What starts as an idea later is transformed into a tangible three-dimensional model. The engineers and production people then build the product according to the model. God, the master builder, has redeemed us from the junk heap of life and placed us on His divine work bench. Day by day he is remaking us into something useful. But where is the pattern from which He works? Who is His ideal, His model? Jesus! Above the work bench is Jesus, the perfect God-man. While God's fingers shape and reshape us, His eyes are first on us then on Jesus. As He continues His perfect work of restoration, the model is ever before Him. God is slowly but surely conforming us to the likeness of His Son. That, then, is the great "good" toward which He sovereignly causes "all things" to move.
