Reflections On Miami
 Brothers:
Praise the Lord!! What an awesome conference!! What a joyous time in the Lord and what above all, what a great, glorious and incomprehensible God we serve!!
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We have returned from the Miami Pastor’s Conference and have already resumed our routines, or more aptly stated, we have already recommenced the daily challenges of our ministerial stewardship. If our experience at the conference were one of heightened joy and authentic fellowship in the Spirit, then our reoccupation with the testing joys of our divine vocation are firm reminders that the top of the mountain is a momentary elevation for the gathering and reviving of the Lord’s workers. It was but a summit for the strengthening and sustenance of the saints. If it were one of immense encouragement and refreshing respite, then it must be regarded as one of the manifold tokens of our gracious Lord’s evangelical encouragements to His servants in whose mortal bodies He has seen fit to manifest His death and life in, 2 Cor 4:11. If the conference provoked us to higher levels of adulation and deeper intensity of homage to our sovereign Triune God, then the resumption of our pastoral duties is to be regarded as the setting for the implementation of all that was learned afresh and all that was reinforced there. It may well be that some of us are encountering unusual difficulty in re-acclimatizing, but this is not difficult to imagine; Miami 2007 abundantly re-awakened our religious affections for our gracious God. Yet, we dared not build tabernacles there in south Florida for it was simply a providential oasis amid the arduous demands of pastoral responsibility.
Now at ground level, I have demurred from my original plan to summarize the conference by examining each presentation – perhaps another brother may see fit to so do. Instead, I have elected to reflect on the “bigger picture(?)� For example, the rising number of young(er) African-Americans in attendance, many of whom were accompanied by their wives, was of enormous joy and contentment to me. They exuded both a profound delight in and a growing hunger for the truth that is Reformed Theology. The fact that they are at various points along the spectrum of maturing comprehension only testifies to the vast inroad this teaching is making among our people after the flesh. It is very encouraging to hear younger folks articulate the doctrines of our faith. It is enormously satisfying to witness the joy in the hearts and on the lips of our brothers and sisters as they contemplated the profundities of the Doctrines Of Grace. It was exceedingly gratifying to listen to the delightful accounts of some brothers and sisters who were divinely rescued from the throes of stifling legalism, overbearing moralism, uncontrolled subjectivism, prosperity illusionism, and so on, into the freeing richness of authentic Biblical Theology. We praise our God for His superabundant mercy!
The conference’s topic, “What Is The Gospel?� was very well addressed by the speakers. “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. .. � 2 Cor 3:5-6. To my mind, the consistent and continual emphasis on the monergistic, sovereign work of God in the prosecution of His redemptive purposes in history was the single most outstanding characteristic of the presentations. Over and over and on and on, this sine qua non of catholic Reformed teaching was propounded with invigorating clarity and inspiring cogency. Oh, how much did we all need to have this teaching resonate in our ears and in our hearts! Oh, how well do we understand that we, who are God’s instruments responsible for proclaiming these eternal verities, need to have them preached to us again and again! With what readiness do we cheerfully concede that God’s teachers must also be teachable students!
I count this bold articulation of the sovereign work of God in attaining salvation for His elect to be the hallmark of “Miami 2007.� It instigates me to recall the words of Princeton divine Dr. B.B. Warfield in his insightful and instructive comment on Calvinism (Reformed Theology):
“Perhaps the simplest statement of it is the best: that it lies in
a profound apprehension of God in His majesty, with the inevitably
accompanying poignant realization of the exact nature of the relation
sustained to Him by the creature as such, and particularly by the sinful
creature.. It begins, it centers, it ends with the vision of God in His
glory: and it sets itself before all things to render to God His rights in
every sphere of life-activity.�
(From “Calvin And Calvinism,� in Benjamin B. Warfield Collection, Vol 6, Copyright, © 2003, By Digital Publications, Dallas, Texas, USA, 186-188, passim.)
When we add to this divine initiative in (creation and) redemption, the prominence of the unity of orthodoxy and worship; the exaltation of God and the self- abnegation of man; the utter dependence of the creature upon Creator and Redeemer, we are compelled to conclude that our conference was God-honoring; Christ-exalting and Spirit-empowered. We have no choice but to assert that our primary gaze was upwards towards heaven, the dwelling-place of God, and not horizontally along the plane and purview of man.
That these primary principles of biblical religion were systematically sustained was of great comfort to us all. Their emphasis was a fitting reminder that we cannot and must not consider the concepts and vocabulary we in the Reformed Faith employ, to be commonplace. [Therefore] It reinforced the need for us to continue in our diligent study of the Word of God and of the history of our faith. It instilled in us a deeper motivation to share these distinctives, in the spirit of truth and love, with our non-Reformed brothers and sisters who are still being woefully exercised by the persisting perils of Arminianism. It also called us to use these principles prudently and carefully in the course of evangelism.
The conference’s overall impact may be summed up as:
reinforcing the robust substance of the gospel, which of necessity requires a corresponding robust teaching and preaching.Â
strengthening our understanding that all of salvation is of the Lord, Jnh 2:9.
increasing our grasp that Reformed Theology is true religion in its purest and most consistent expression.
reasserting that “before an infinite, holy and omnipotent God, we are to shut our mouths in awe-inspiring silence and to consider ourselves as nothing but helpless, dependent and groveling creatures before Him.� Warfield, Ibid
So overwhelming was the spirit of Miami that Michael Horton publicly wished that “the train� would travel from city to city infecting others with its holy joy stemming from the triumphant declaration of the gospel message, until it reaches its destination in heaven. Here we have the original, true biblical notion of the soul train….. minus the Coors Light, of course. We thank our great and glorious God therefore, for condescending to choose us, even in the full display of our continuing wickedness, to employ us as His chosen instruments in the continuance of the digging of this stream of theological thought, one which we pray, Deo volente, will not remain in this dimension but one that He will be pleased to enlarge, even as unto a mighty surge of the Atlantic.
All in all, this year’s conference was a refreshing experience not only to serve and to be served in the proclamation of the Word of God, but also to have a deep “grounding with my brothers.� [Borrowed from the title of a book written by late Guyanese author and scholar, Dr. Walter Rodney, cataloging his experiences with the Rastafarians while studying at the University Of The West Indies in Jamaica]. We were able to strengthen and encourage one another in the faith as we partook of the sobering reality that there are 7,000 others who have not bowed their knees to the spirit of the age. We were able both to appreciate the great strides the Lord is making in His work through us and to assess the magnitude of the work still needing to be done. We were filled with that unique fullness of joy and depth of gratitude that only comes from the God of the gospel. Lastly, we were lavishly treated to an appetizer, an hors d'oeuvre of that grand consummation in glory, far beyond our comprehension of which our eyes have not yet seen neither have our ears heard the half of it.
What the shall we say to these things? Brothers, let us therefore put our hands to the plough as God’s servants fit to serve in His vineyard. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.� Gal 6:9-10. “.. my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.� 1 Cor 15:58
Finally, my brothers, remember that “.. God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.� Heb 6:10-12.
Amen.
P.S. Be on the lookout for the next stop of the soul train. Seems that I can already hear the whistle!
Cubanbybirth-ReformedbythegraceofGod
November 15, 2007