Alone With God and Helped By You

Dear Grace Church and Friends,

Thank you for praying fore Molly, the kids and me over the past few days. From Tuesday morning until today I spent time alone in Northwestern Wisconsin (near Hayward) at a beautiful cabin (think luxurious log-home/resort) for the purpose of prayer, Bible study, reading and communion with God. On Sunday I asked you to pray for me, confident that He would bless me more if you were praying. I am quite assured that many of you did, indeed, pray for me. I thought it would be encouraging to you if I shared some of the fruit of my time.

Here are some evidences of grace that I wrote in my journal:

1 - Sweet fellowship with God - true communion through prayer, reading and meditation on God's Word, truths and works...

2 - I was given good health and alertness - not sleepy during me time

3 - I benefited from a great setting - beautiful, comfortable, great to reading chairs, quiet

4 - My family at home did very well; they were willing to send me off and pray for me ( and were people serving them by asking if they can make a meal for them)

5 - The knowledge of friends and church praying for me was a great encouragement to me

6 - A diligence from God was given to me to spend my time wisely in reading, praying and journaling

7 - The prayers and pursuit of a vision and "holy ambition" as a pastor was a great help in focusing my time and energy and proved fruitful (if you want to know more what I mean by this - see this Sermon "A Holy Ambition" - I have been praying that God would speak to me and give me a particular burden that would drive me)

8 - The use of my Kindle was a great blessing and help to me in the accessibility of books and comfort to read longer in comfort

9 - The confirmation from God regarding a holy ambition - more to come...

10 - The knowledge that the cabin that I stayed at was being provided to me by dear friends who are part of the congregation and who love and pray for me (thank you Joe and Suzanne Tromberg)

11 - The help of sporadic breaks to provide variety to my time - Fox News, whirlpool (yes, it was luxury), a good cold run in the country (I love running in sub zero conditions)

12 - Freedom and protection from temptations of the flesh and other distractions that would draw me away from my purpose.

13 - Good sleep in a very comfortable bed...

Yes, it sounds like I was really suffering for Christ while I was up there, right!

I profess to God and to you my gratitude for these things with a sure knowledge that I don't deserve this form of grace and mercy but I rejoice that He (and you) have extended it to me.

For those who are interested, here are some things I read while I was away. I am so thankful for the time and ability to read and pray.

The Holy Scriptures:

• 1 Peter
• Romans 8
• Psalm 145 (spent a lot of time on this passage)
• Psalm 23 and 46
• Deuteronomy 4-6
• John 6, 12
• Isaiah 55
• Psalm 115
• Also - my read through the Bible plan.

Books Other than the Bible:

• Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan - Great book that reminded me of the brevity of this life and the pilgrimage that we are on until we die or He returns. This books reminded me of the spiritual warfare that we face as Christians and our need to fight the Enemy with the spiritual weapons that He provides for us.
• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan - Here the puritan John Bunyan gives the account of his salvation and his internal wrestlings with his own guilt, sin, and freedom that he found only at the foot of the cross through the Gospel. He also gives the account of his calling to be a preacher, his imprisonment for preaching without being licensed by the State Church in England (think 1660s) and his 12 year imprisonment because he insisted on obeying God rather than man in fulfilling his calling as a preacher of the Gospel. In prison he wrote books that have impacted generations of Christians.
• The Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham - After being impacted by his sermon that we listened to at the parenting seminar last fall I wanted to read his book on the same subject - The Centrality of the Home in the evangelism and discipleship of the children. This was a very impactful book for me to read as I consider our calling as a church and families to raise our kids in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
• Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton - I didn’t read this book in its entirety, but it provided a great break in my reading. Chesterton reflects on what is wrong with the thinkers of today. He has a tremendous chapter about the ethics of Elfland in which he talks about the importance of the "fairy tales" in their shaping of his imagination as it relates to the REAL world that God has "magically" made and continues to sustain.
• Helping Children to Understand the Gospel by Sally Michael and others - This book is printed by Children's Desiring God and is a book that every parent should read, be familiar with and use in their home. I was moved to pray for my kids and the kids of Grace church as well as their parents.
• The Seven Laws of Teaching by John Milton Gregory (1886) - I had this book recommended to me by Douglas Wilson and I am more than halfway done. This book is a very helpful read for every parent (no matter what stage they are in), Church teacher, pastor, elder, or anyone else who has a desire to pass on knowledge to someone else in an effective way - I hope that includes you. As a preacher it has been very insightful. I hope it helps .

Ok, if you are actually still reading, I will close with another thank you.

Together with you in the Greatest Cause,

Pastor Daniel Patz

Heading To Wisconsin - Asking for Prayer

I would like to ask you to pray for Molly and me (as well as Grace, Paul, Elijah and Barnabas) as we take a short vacation this Thursday-Monday to my parent’s house in Northeastern Wisconsin. We will be celebrating my grandmother’s 80^th birthday as well as taking a few days to rest and spend time together as a family.

Life has been quite stressful these days, yet the Lord has been so gracious and so have so many of you. I am thankful to be your pastor at Grace Church and hope to be here for a long time. At the risk of sounding self-serving (although I think it is Church-Serving) I would like to share with you these words from a great book on pastoral ministry by R. Kent Hughes called Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome. This is a book I read in college. Please keep the VanAckers and Patzs in mind as you read this:

Every pastor knows that the strength of the ministry rests on prayer, and that it is those faithful souls who pray regularly for him and the church who bring God's special blessing upon the ministry. This fact invites a marvelous "what if" scenario. What if not just a few but the entire leadership and congregation prayed in detail every day for the pastor and their church? What would happen to his heart, to his preaching, to worship, to evangelism, to missions? Can there be any doubt that the minister and his people would know greater enablement than ever before in their lives?

Prayer is where the congregation must begin in this whole matter of encouragement. Will you make a personal commitment to encourage your pastor by daily prayer for him and his work? If so, we leave you with this suggestive outline, from which you can draw your own prayer list.

Pray that he will be a true success: that he will be faithful, true to God's Word and hardworking; that he will be a servant, following the example of our foot-washing Lord; that he will love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength; that he will truly believe what he believes about Christ; that he will lead a holy life, and not succumb to the sensuality of our culture; that he will lead a life of deep prayer, following Jesus' example; that he will have a positive attitude free from jealousy.

Pray for his ministry--for his preaching, for time to prepare, for understanding the Word, for application, for the power of the Holy Spirit in delivery, for Sunday's services, for his leadership, for immediate problems he is facing.

Pray for his marriage--for time for each other, for communication, for a deepening love, for fidelity.

Pray for his children by name. Perhaps you might ask the pastor or his wife how they would like you to pray for their children.

As a reminder – Please join many from the church on Friday evening at the Holm home in Linwood for prayer. You are invited to eat together starting at 6:30. Prayer will begin at 7 PM. (contact Tony Cooper for more info at tcooper@visi.com )

Thank you,

Pastor Daniel Patz

Thank You For Sending Us to TOGETHER FOR THE GOSPEL - The Pastors at Grace

Dear Grace Church,

First I want to say thank you for sending us to the "Together For The Gospel" Conference this past week. I also want to thank you for praying for Pastor Daniel and I (and our families) while we were there. We arrived safely home last night (this morning) at around 2:00am freshly excited about God and the Good News that He loved the world in such a way that He sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross as an atonement for the sins of all who would believe in Him! I truly believe that it was an invaluable investment in Grace church.

Second, I want to very briefly summarize what we heard:

Legon Duncan spoke to us about the importance of doctrine in the life of a Gospel-centered church. Specifically, he called pastors to be systematic theologians.

Thabiti Anyabwile spoke to us about the unity that we have in Adam, Christ, the Church, and in glory.

John MacArthur spoke to us about the fact that we are all absolutely inable to receive the gospel on our own.

Mark Dever warned us not to try to "improve" the Gospel in order to make it more appealing to non-Christians.

R.C. Sproul (who can no longer stand when he preaches) amazed us by walking us through Scripture in describing the curse of Adam that we are all born into.

Al Mohler spoke on some of the contemporary challenges of substitutionary atonement (the idea that Jesus died to absorb the wrath of God in our place-that He was a substitute sacrifice for us).

John Piper pleaded with us to recognize the radicalness of the Gospel and the requisite radical response (Daniel and I agree, if you are only able to listen to one message.this is the one).

Finally, C.J. Mahaney spoke to us as pastors about persevering with the Gospel through difficult situations with thanks, faith, and affection.

You can download or listen to all of the messages that we heard at http://www.t4g.org/resources/.

Third, I wanted to suggest a few things that I'd love for you to join me in praying for regarding the implications of the conference and the Gospel at grace:

1. That we, at Grace, would truly know the Gospel.

2. That we, at Grace, would grow to radically cling to the Gospel ourselves.

3. That we, at Grace, would grow toward a radical commitment to speaking the Gospel to others.

4. That we, at Grace, would work, in the power of the Spirit, to develop a culture consistent with Gospel people (Biblical encouragement for one another, trust in God, the elders and each other, grace toward brothers and sisters in Christ, deep affection in the Lord for one another, and true unity in the Spirit).

For the God of the Gospel,

Pastor Dave (and Daniel)