July 19, 2020July 19, 2020 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

The Aroma of the Gospel Will Refresh Your Soul

the hope of the believer Our souls breathe better when the air contains the aroma of good news.

But we seldom have the opportunity to breathe such wonderful air. If we are honest, the air we breathe often contains no blessed smell. Our noses know only the stinks of rotting relationships, crummy bank accounts, and guilty consciences that drift up from the basements of our dark hearts.

Naturally, we want the smells gone and light the candles of social media, major news outlets, and human friendship. But as the sounds of the T.V. flood into our ears and the images on our phones capture our eyes, the foul smells of discouragement do not dissipate. They grow because the world is filled with broken people who disagree with our political, economic, and social choices.

John Kransinski of “The Office” fame has tried to counter all foulness of the world with his 15-20 news segments appropriately label “The Good New Network.” He fills the air with positive stories, impromptu weddings, and an overall fun helping of positive goodness. Though delightful, these moments fail to knock out the fouls smells that enrapture our hearts.

We need a stronger, longer lasting aroma. We need the good news of Jesus Christ.

The author of Psalm 107 directs us to that everlasting hope when he calls us to,

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever!

And it is not just a hope we passively consume with our eyes and nose; it is a hope we joyfully proclaim to the world with our mouth. The redeemed are to join in on the good news network of Jesus Christ. They are to proclaim the goodness of God, highlighting the great value of public singing, praying, and proclamation. Though pastors should preach, the beauty of the church consists not of one person proclaiming the gospel but of the whole church proclaiming the gospel. Indeed, let the redeemed say so.

Why is the gospel so great?

Why does the aroma of Jesus have such staying power? The aroma of Jesus fills our souls with hope because it is a hope of personal salvation that addresses our sins and every human struggle. God does not save us and then leave us until we get to heaven Heaven. Jesus stays intimately involved in our earthly lives.The redeemed praise God because God has saved them from homelessness, oppression, sickness, and storms. To relight hope in our hearts, we do not need the social media plugins, we need the candle of gospel remembrance.

“He has redeemed them from trouble and gathered them in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.”

To remove the odors of uncertainty, fear, dread, and boredom that stink up our lives, we need to remember the saving power of God. We need to contemplate God’s wondrous works of redemption expressed through his divine justice.

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

July 12, 2020July 13, 2020 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Why Utopias Fail and Christians Should Read More

Peace will not arise from the ashes of the human struggle. When Adam and Eve attempted their political coup, chanting “There is no God,” they unwittingly exchanged paradise for abomination, corruption, and evil. The moment God exiled Adam and Eve from paradise, human kind began the never-ending journey back to the perfection. Humans built countless towers comprised of philosophical, economic, and ethical bricks believing human efforts could guide humanity to the meadows of peace, love, truth, goodness, and justice that exists above the clouds of human experience. Yet, humanity has yet to create a lasting Utopia.

Why Utopias Fail

Despite their efforts, community organizers, politicians, and social scientists have yet to reach the outskirts of heaven. The children of Adam and Eve still remain constructed by the limitations of their first parents.

Since men and women never reach heaven, God frequently comes down to walk amongst them. When God leaves the glorious of heavenly peace, he never finds divine beauty. He encounters only mangled messes of deranged idiocy masquerading as success. Psalm 14:1 laments the sadness of the human condition noting,

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

God contains all truth, love, justice, peace, and beauty. Men and women who refuse to sit under God’s authority remove themselves from all knowledge and goodness. When goodness evaporates, evil grows. Apart from God, humans govern their hearts and this world according to their impulses which they form in accordance with their limited experiences, unstable passions, and insatiable lusts. No one does good, not even one.

Consequently, the Utopias created by philosophers, politicians, and pastors to solve societal woes inevitably end in ruin. As the New Yorker concluded,

Nearly every utopia…begins with a determination to create a new economy, usually through some amalgam of collective ownership, central planning, and voluntary labor. Yet egoism, acquisitiveness, competitiveness, and all the other ills of human flesh bob repeatedly to the surface, like a cork that will not be submerged.

After more than 3000 years of societal reforms, men and women still remain alienated from God because “of the hardness of their heart (Eph 4:18).” No amount of education, social engineering, or economic equity can erase lawlessness from the human heart. Even when all men and women have equal respect, political rights, and access to resources, they will not be content. Even if every human has one potato, all of them will eventually lay claim to their neighbor’s potato.

John D. Rockefeller summed up the human condition well when a reporter asked him, “How much money is enough?” He replied, “Just a little bit more.” The philosopher kings that Plato dreamt of do not exist. No one understands.

No amount of education, social engineering, or economic equity can erase lawlessness from the human heart.
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The Gospel Response

Though the Church knows secular solutions will always end in disappointment, she should not discount the problems of the secular world. The Scriptures teach that the human experience consists of misery. The church should appreciate the world’s sorrow. Dietrich Bonhoeffer correctly concluded, “We must listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.” The church possesses the antidote to the world’s problems. She should listen well so that she may apply the balm of the gospel to men and women who have been wounded by this world’s falses promises. But to apply this balm, she must be able to sympathize with those who hurt.

In short, failed utopias can prove to be the fertile ground of gospel growth if the church will take the time to listen well and to speak of the salvation of Zion.

While the world contains no grand humanitarian such as the fictional professor T.E. Frazier who willingly forfeits his own peace and prosperity to help humanity achieve paradise, heaven does contain such a hero, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus comes down from heaven to bring peace, love, and justice to the human race that destroyed Eden. The Messiah created social harmony between zealots intent on the violent overthrow of the government and tax collectors who enriched themselves through their defense of the government. The Son of God spent his life healing the ills of society and then died to free men and women from the limitations of Adam and Eve. When Jesus rose from the dead, he broke the boundaries of sin, showing men and women the path to heaven. He then takes the hands of those who will repent and believe and guides them to the peace, love, joy, hope, and justice of paradise. As Christians make the transition from this world to the next, Jesus walks with them, enlighten their eyes. Equipped with understand, the followers of Jesus can bring truth, peace, and justice to humanity. Though humanity destroyed the garden, God will restore it to a new and greater glory. All who believe can come.

If the church hopes to find the answers to racism or any other problem, she must listen well so that she can speak the gospel well. But before she can do either of these things, she must know the gospel well. She must know the glories of zion.

To solve the problems of today, the church must listen more than she speaks, and she read more than she listens
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To solve the problems of today, the church must listen more than she speaks, and she must read more than she listens.

How are we doing? Do we understand the limits of the human condition and the hope of the gospel?

June 28, 2020December 16, 2020 Peter Witkowski Discipleship, Memos

Memo: April’s Cancer Update – June 2020

Invisible smiles. To unmask the secret workings of April’s cancer, she and I had to cover our faces with blue, three-ply fabric bound together by elastic string seemingly designed to afflict one’s ears. Though the masks hid our smiles, they could not damper the gleam of hope in our eyes.

While the Coronavirus crisis has been a season of death, hardship, and unrest for many, April and I have found these last months to be a fruitful time of hope. April has been able to disciple and educate our children and manage a majority of the day-to-day tasks of our home. She still battles fatigue and muscle pain as she fulfills her goals for her life and for our family. Though few have been able to peak behind the outside mask of our house, April and I can both affirm it has been filled with smiles both small and big.

God has been faithful and kind to us. We have found the words of Psalm 118:5 to be true:

Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.

Though we have been weak, frail, unbelieving, confused, and depressed at times, God has been faithful. He has heard our sad souls and has sustained us by his mercy these past few months. When the coronavirus restrictions landed, we could have been laid bare. Instead, we have been infused with hope and faith as God has done more in April’s body and in our souls than we could ever imagine. Our hearts echoed the words of Psalm 118:1,

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Though our souls have been often hidden from public view these last few months, they abound with hopeful smiles.

We arrived at the Mayo clinic somewhat nervous to be at Mayo (after all no one truly likes hospitals). But, our disposition was still decidedly more hopeful than not. As we moved about the elevators decorated with yellow tape and sat in chairs spaced six feet apart that reduced the chances sharing either germs or causal conversations, the faint smiles on our faces grew. When the doctor unmasked the latest, findings, we smiled with joy.

According to April’s Mayo team, the treatment is working. All of her tumors have either stabilized or shrunk since her last scan. Most of the cancer spots have also decreased in either size or intensity. Though our faces were rendered invisible by masks, we could not help by secretly smile because we know God has heard our prayers and your prayers!

Most likely, our smiles will remain hidden for the foreseeable future since the Coronavirus refuses to surrender to the assaults of modern medicine. April and I will continue to follow social distancing and mask protocols. Because of her cancer and treatments, April remains susceptible to the Coronavirus which has claimed more than 120,000 lives this year. We long for the return to normal. But we know that day is not here yet.

We ask you to join us in praying for that day, for April’s medication to keep working, for us to have wisdom as we seek to live out the gospel in this COVID19 world while balancing love and safety, for us to have opportunities to share Christ, and for our kids to be drawn to Christ through this ordeal.

Though our smiles remain hidden because of the masks of space and time, they remain full of hope. Thank you for praying with us and for smiling with us today!