Restore to me the joy Your salvation

“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm51:12).

Sometimes the cloudy skies of our daily life in this dark, groaning world beats us down spiritually and emotionally. Sometimes it’s not the sin of others, but our own sinfulness that tries to close the curtains of the windows of our heart to hide from the Sunshine. In these seasons, sadness plays in our minds and the joyful event of when Jesus first conquered our hearts seems like a faded memory. If and when you find yourself in this dark place, we must follow David to approach the throne of grace.

We must remember that salvation belongs to the Lord (Psalm 3:8). “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” We are hopeless to be restored to God; thus, utterly dependent upon Him to save us! If salvation is sovereign to God, then so is the joy of His salvation. So we cry out to the Source of our salvation to restore to us the joy of His salvation. 

What is the joy of God’s salvation? David cries out to God “Cast me not away from Your presence” (Psalm 51:11). The joy of our salvation is enjoying God. We do not simply enjoy His blessings of peace and comfort, we enjoy Him! So David in this Psalm first turns to God to enjoy God! But when we turn to our holy God, we recognize our need for Christ. David prays that God would wash him to hear the joy of God’s salvation that in David’s brokenness he may rejoice in God (vs7-8). 

God will not despise an honest, broken, and humble approach to Him through Jesus (vs 17). We must draw back the curtains of our hearts, be fully exposed to God with confessions of our sinfulness and brokenness. The painful burning of His glorious purging of our sins meets His amazing grace which does not push us away, but rather draws us into His presence to enjoy Him. His transforming grace visits us and gives us a willing spirit to find our delight in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

May our God of grace restore His joy of His salvation in Jesus to you; a joy in our present brokenness with a full hope in Christ’s resurrection and return to complete His Kingdom work.

March 2015 Newsletter

“If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” – II Corinthians4:3

The lostness in our world is more than a moral problem. We see people living out their lives apart from God in such meaningless ways and investing so much confidence that their little pleasures and philosophies on life will provide just enough happiness to get through each day. Their lostness is not simply found in rebellion against God, but in their blindness to God. They don’t see God as beautiful and majestic and lovely.  They don’t see His Word as teaching us an immense increase to our joy (John 15:11). The sinner’s rebellion is much more than questioning God’s authority by screaming at Him, “Don’t tell me what to do and what not to do!” The sinner, the lost, cannot see God as more beautiful than sin!

So, what am I to offer this rebellious and blind world? Are we to tell people to simply stop their rebellion? Stop doing drugs, sleeping around, being lazy, being sad, or being angry. Is that all we, the body of Christ, has to offer a world broken in sin? Perhaps we should simply offer positive things to change lives: go to church, go take care of business, start being nice to people and your sadness and anger will go away. Is that the voice of the church today?

Sin keeps the lost “from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Corinthians 4:4). It’s not just moral problems; it’s blindness! How can a blind and broken world see the beauty of God? We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord (II Corinthians 4:5) because He is the God who called the sun to shine from the darkness and Jesus is a brilliant light that shines in the dark hearts of sinners (II Corinthians 4:6).

We proclaim Christ as Lord because He alone can restore sight to the blind and change the heart. The cry of the blind, “Lord, recover my sight,” can hear the voice of Christ say, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well” (Luke 18:41-43). Christ reveals His beauty and joy, and the rebellious sinner surrenders and has eyes to see He is altogether lovely.

My Prayer with Selah Joy

God has blessed my wife and I with a little girl, Selah Joy Hancock. She was born March 10th, 2015. Our first daughter.









I pray that our God would be gracious to my wife and I as parents. May He bless us sinners with His Spirit through His Word. Bless us the unwise, O Lord, with Your wisdom. Bless us the stumblers, O Lord, with the Light unto our feet. Bless us the unloving, O Lord, with Your unfailing love.
Be kind to us, O Lord, and may Your Word be on our hearts to teach our children and lead them in Your everlasting way. May we show Christ to Selah, in our instruction to her and our lives before her. Bless our marriage to display the love of Christ to His church.
You and You alone, O Lord, are our righteousness. Apart from Christ, we have no righteousness, no wisdom, and we can do nothing. We rejoice in Your grace that we are found in Christ. Jesus is the propitiation of our sins, the treasure of our heart, the delight of our life.
In Your grace, O Lord, You display Your perfect patience in these sinners' lives. Display Your glory in the life of our family, in our parenting, in our worship of You. Your Name is great and we delight in the work of Your hands. You have knitted my daughter in my wife's womb. You have been kind to Your servants and blessed us with an arrow to sharpen with Your Word. May we be found faithful to the glory of Your great Name.

February 2015 Newsletter

“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death” (I John 3:14).

We display God’s transforming work through Christ by how we as Christians love each other in a gospel community. The evidence the Apostle John wants us to see played out in our life is “love the brethren;” that is, love the church. Love is not a mere feeling or words to say. In short, love works its way into the life of the church by honoring and living in harmony with one another (Romans 12:10-16), instructing one another (Romans 15:14), having equal concern for one another (ICorinthians 12:25), serving one another (Galatians 5:13), carrying each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), forgiving each other (Ephesians 4:32), singing praises to God with one another (Ephesians 5:19), encouraging one another daily (Hebrews3:13), gathering regularly for worship (Hebrews 10:25), confessing sins to one another (James 5:16), praying with one another (James 5:16), and having each other in our homes regularly (I Peter 4:9). This is not even half of the commands of love in the local church, but this gives us a glimpse of how love plays out in the lives of followers of Jesus.

Does this sound like you? Do you want to love and be loved like this? Jesus told us, “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Are you a disciple of Jesus? Have you left death into life and express love in the church? Love is dirty and it gets into everybody’s business and everybody’s in yours. But God’s love forgives and transforms. God did not save you to face this world as a lone ranger. The Christian life cannot be lived solo, but is played out in the life of a loving gospel community.

Church, let us love one another. Let us be forgiving, confessing sins, praying, instructing, encouraging, building each other up, and live as a loving gospel community for the good of the brethren to the glory of God.

A little note to my flock

After a long couple of days at the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio Annual Meeting, I looked forward to today (Friday) to spend time visiting many of you (Allison Avenue Baptist Church) at your homes. I seemed to have contracted a cold, however, and instead of sharing it with everyone, I've come to be alone in my office.

I've printed out Sunday's sermon notes, read some, written emails, and ate a very spicy Hunan beef. Now, I'm listening to worship music on Pandora. I glanced over to my calendar when a piece of paper with a long list of names written on it catches my eyes. They are your names, my beloved flock.

With each name I read, the Lord recalls to my memory joyous fellowship I ponder in my heart. I cannot thank the Lord enough for each of you. The love and kindness you have shown my family and I have been a warm blessing. When I read your name, I pray for you.

So, I thought I would send you guys a note today. What a tremendous honor and privilege I have to be your shepherd and to gather with you to worship our Good Shepherd together. Let us together praise the Lord for His goodness toward us and His grace to save us.

Please pray for me to not only recover from this cold but also ahead of Sunday's sermons. I pray to be found faithful to the Lord and to preach not only in word but also in power. Please pray for my family. We need Him. Please pray for our church to be faithful to the Great Commission of our Lord. Please pray for the lost in our community to know Christ and for laborers to work in the field in and around Hamilton.

May the grace, peace, and joy of our Lord Jesus Christ bless you, my dear flock.

October 2014 Newsletter

“See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand” (Galatians 6:11).

In the history of God’s creation, we live in an amazing time of technology. Never before have we been so instantly connected by things like cell phones and social media. Yet, it seems that the instant access and connection has made life seem more and more impersonal.

The Apostle Paul had people write as he spoke aloud letters, but at the end of his letter to the church in Galatia, he wrote with his own large handwriting, which is his way of making a personal mark to his letter. Paul had so many personal touches to his writing. In Philippians, Paul expresses his joy in remembering the Philippian church in prayer (1:3) and even longs for all of them with the affection of Christ Jesus (1:8). 

Being a church, or a group of transformed and transforming sinners by the grace of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to love one another (John 13:34).  Express your love and care for others in the church. For example, a simple text of encouragement, a letter of gratitude, or even meeting face to face to share concerns and cares for each other.

No matter how advanced technology gets or how busy our lives are, we as redeemed disciples of Jesus are called to be closer and more loving than any worldly relationships. We remain personable, for our God became flesh and dwelt among us. Let us strive for such loving relationships for joy in the church and for the glory of our gracious God and Savior Christ Jesus the Lord.

August 2014 Newsletter

School is starting up again. Thinking, studying, and learning are important. We are commanded by God to worship Him with our minds (Matthew 22:37) and to glorify God in whatever we are doing, even school stuff (I Corinthians 10:31). Without the honoring worship of God with our minds, our minds will become darkened and our thinking will become meaningless (Romans 1:18-21, 28).

So, what are we as parents of school aged children to do to keep Christ at the center of our lives, even through the chaos of school time? We ask the Lord to “teach us to number our days” (Psalm 90:12). That is, we must know we are here for such a short time (James 4:14). Even though the urgent things call for you to keep busy and never rest, the importance of Christ is to keep at the center. We are to rest, pray, and worship Christ, not in isolation, but with our spouse and our children.

Pick a time and day each week to sit down with your family, read Scripture aloud, pray for each other with each other, and rest in Christ together. God is worthy of the worship of your family. Keep this time sacred. With Joshua, I call you to “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

I pray to our God that you and your family are blessed by His grace and peace in Christ Jesus. Amen.