Can I Get a Witness?

Chris is at his last consistory meeting for a while. His term as deacon is up which feels needful and good for our family. But we’ll miss it. The time has been sweet and sanctifying (which we all remember how exciting that can be …)

In 1 Timothy 3:13 it says, “For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” When he first started, he was really eager to find out just what the last part of that verse would look like. How would serving in this role gain him great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus?

Being a deacon means knowing some intimate details about the church body’s pain, poverty, hardship, and also about their care and generosity. Though it is a weight, he taught me to call it a privilege. A privilege because every Sunday morning, we get to sing with people of whom the world is not worthy (Heb 11), but who testify to the surpassing worthiness of Christ. We look around to see some of the saints praising him while dying of cancer, some trusting while out of work, some still blessing his name even when they’re exhausted of their own neediness. And some are giving him glory, with a quiet, but cheer-filled, givers heart.

I heard recently, “If we are finite, then we must rely on testimony.” And so fellow finitians, we will testify to you that we have seen the Lord’s care of the sheep at University Reformed Church. We have grown in confidence in the faith of our Lord Jesus that he is worthy of our worship in plenty and in want.