Check out the mirror!

When I watch the political drama that passes for ‘government’ in this era, one of the great tragedies is the rewriting of the ‘facts’ by our politicians that keeps our nation from finding real solutions to our real problems. Each side points to the ‘failures’ of the other while seeming to be oblivious to their own. This refusal of the facts is not just a politician’s problem. We are all tempted to excuse or justify our choices, often to the point of hypocrisy. Jesus reminds us, in that well-known passage, about the foolishness of trying to take the splinter out of another’s eye when there is a fence post in our  own eye.

In my reading of Scripture, I read the words of John, the Baptist, who challenged his hearers to "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matthew 3:8, NIV)  Christians who are quick to point out the sins and failures of others while apparently blind to their own tattered robes of righteousness rob the Gospel of its beauty.

Spiritual pride is a terrible disease of the soul.  I hear myself ranting about ‘those people who do those things,’ sometimes. Thankfully there is the faithful witness of the Holy Spirit Who challenges me to go look in the mirror!  Yes, He says, Jerry, "produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matthew 3:8, NIV)  

Grace-filled disciples are called to be holy as God is holy, overcoming temptation. When we are authentic about our own needs and God’s grace, we will lead others to Christ, rather than point out their sins. Paul, who acknowledged his own need of mercy and grace, invites people to “follow me as I follow Christ.” Such a statement in the absence of humility and authenticity is the height of arrogance.

Jesus told the Pharisees who insisted that others that they should emulate their efforts at spiritual purity that they were the equivalent of like “whitewashed tombs, gleaming outwardly but full of death.”  Why? Because they were unwilling to see the truth, preferring to look good over actually being good.

My friend, when we are obedient, submitted to the Spirit, and in daily prayerful conversation with Christ He will lead us into a beautiful wholeness of life. This does NOT grow out of our own religiosity. It is the ‘fruit’ (the evidence) of the presence of the Spirit living in us, by faith.  In such people there is a beautiful and undeniable reality that, while often understated, makes Jesus visible.

Timothy Keller, a now retired pastor from New York City, speaks of Christians  who lives with a “contextualized Biblical Gospel.” These Christians do not segregate their ‘spiritual’ life from their work or home life. They seeks to integrate the Gospel of Christ in each decision. The good news of Jesus is taken out of the pulpit and into to the streets and leads people from evil that enslaves into the freedom of the Spirit.

An understanding of the Gospel like that does not allow us to be hypocritical! It is a transforming experience, something that happens by working the inside out. Jesus said it is like a seed that germinates and pushed to the surface, growing until it bears fruit.

Here is the word from the Word. It challenges us to live authentically, starting with knowing ourselves. "Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 

But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law—the law that sets you free—and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us." (James 1:22-27, NLT)

Let’s let His beauty shine today!

(Video of this blog at this link)
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No Longer Slaves

I'm no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
I'm no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God

You unravel me with a melody
You surround me with a song
Of deliverance from my enemies
Till all my fears are gone

From my Mother's womb
You have chosen me
Love has called my name
I've been born again into Your family
Your blood flows through my veins

You split the sea so I could walk right through it
My fears were drowned in perfect love
You rescued me so I could stand and sing
I am a child of God

Brian Johnson | Joel Case | Jonathan David Helser

© 2014 Bethel Music Publishing

CCLI License # 810055

 

Am I part of a plan?

 

 

I like to be ‘included,’ to be useful, contributing to the world in which I live. Knowing that I am helping someone gives me a sense of meaning and fulfillment. Since I retired from pastoral work in the local church I have wrestled with the issue of finding where and how I continue to ‘fit’ into the larger scheme of life.  Thankfully serving pastorally does not require being ‘the pastor’ of a local congregation and there is no shortage of opportunities to care for others. In the desire to have purpose I am not unique. Most people want to sense that they matter, that they are part of a family, a church, a project – valued as being a person of worth. 

So, how about you?
Do you think about how you can contribute to a better world, how your life can make a difference?
Do you ever feel like you are too (fill the blank) to be useful in God’s purposes in this world?

While reading Matthew 1 this week, I took note of five names included like footnotes in the genealogy of Jesus. There among some big names like Abraham, Isaac, David, and Solomon are five women who were included in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.  Each of these people might have concluded that they were incapable or unworthy of being ‘included.’  

Tamar was a young woman who was widowed and left childless. Her father in law refused to follow the custom of marrying her to another of his sons so she scandalously tricked him into getting her pregnant. (Genesis 38)  Yes, that is in the Bible! She is part of Jesus’ lineage.

Rahab was a resident of Jericho, a prostitute who received Israeli spies, acted in faith, and was saved from the city’s destruction and was included because of that faith.

Ruth was another outsider, a Moabite (not a Jew) who was widowed and who came to Israel with her mother in law, Naomi, poor and alone. She was full of courage and became the wife of Boaz, a great-grandmother of David.

Bathsheba was caught up in scandal, part of adultery and David’s plot to kill her husband, Uriah, yet she is part of the plan, too.

Mary was a young woman in obscurity, a nobody from nowhere that God knew and who knew God. She became the mother of Jesus!

As I read those names and reflected on the fact that they are included I felt the whisper of the Spirit reminding me that God has a plan and a place for each one of us. Our culture admires the beautiful, the talented, the rich. Even the Christian church in America is infected with the celebrity culture, giving admiration to those who enjoy ‘success’ of fame.  Those of us who live ordinary lives might come to think that we are of less worth or even that we have no place in God’s purposes. That is a lie, a devilish deception designed to cause us to ignore our spiritual gifts and/or to miss out on the ministry to which God calls.

The Word assures us that God will work in us and through us. Consider this passage from 1 Corinthians. I choose to use a paraphrase, The Message, to help with clarity of understanding. "God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!" (1 Corinthians 12:4-7, The Message)  

If we desire to know the most meaningful life, we will look higher than money, fame, or temporary rewards. We will invite the Spirit to lead us, equip us, and help us to live faithfully today, right we are. Many Christians fail to know the joy of the Lord because they are waiting – for another season, for different situations, for a time when they ‘feel’ more qualified. The decision to be all that God desires starts today!  None of us can begin to know how God will weave the threads of life together in the grand tapestry of His design. The testimony of the five women in Jesus’ genealogy is evidence of that fact.

Here is the word from the Word. "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity." (Colossians 4:5, NIV) "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20-21, NIV)

Let’s do it!

(Video of this blog at this link)
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You Say
(a beautiful song performed by Lauren Daigle)

I keep fighting voices in my mind
That say I'm not enough
Ev'ry single lie that tells me
I will never measure up

Am I more than just the sum of
Ev'ry high and ev'ry low
Remind me once again just who I am
Because I need to know oo oh

You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
And when I don't belong oh You say I am Yours
And I believe oh I believe
What You say of me I believe

The only thing that matters now
Is ev'rything You think of me
In You I find my worth
In You I find my identity

Taking all I have and now I'm laying it at Your feet
You'll have ev'ry failure God
You'll have ev'ry victory

Oh I believe yes I believe
What You say of me I believe

 

Bebo Norman | Jason Ingram | Lauren Daigle | Mike Donehey | Paul Mabury

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CCLI License # 810055

Endure!

So, here we are at the beginning of 2022. Most of us thought that the pandemic mess would be behind us after nearly two years. Surprise! We are in the middle of an outbreak of a new variant, coping with yet more uncertainty. This tiny virus keeps on reminding me of our tenuous grasp on life. Sickness and death seem to find people quite randomly, shattering any illusions I might have about my mastery of fate. Yes, it’s personal for me.  I have lost too many friends and prayed long and hard for many more.  I can hear your thought about now.  “Jerry, I thought that CoffeeBreak is about encouraging us?”  Yes, friend, it is! 

The reality about our existence that the virus has made more evident is one that the ancient Psalm attributed to Moses declares: "You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust!” For you, a thousand years are as yesterday! They are like a few hours! You sweep people away like dreams that disappear or like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered." (Psalm 90:3-6, NLT) Grim? Perhaps, but living with the knowledge of the brevity of life can help us to gain focus. That same Psalm continues with this prayer: "Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom. … Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives." (Psalm 90:12-14, NLT)

God invites us to real life, to live with peace and hope, in spite of  the state of the world in which we are living.

Jesus speaks! “I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:25-33, NIV)

Here in the opening days of a New Year, His familiar words challenge me, again, to refocus on what matters, on what cannot be taken from me by the winds of change that blow through my life.

Will you receive those words with faith?
Will you pray, as I have, to find a secure anchor for your life in the eternal promise of God? 

God says that our soul can be secured by Him and that we can find a life that is richer in joy, one that finds meaning. 

How? It is more than the money we acquire, more than the pleasures we enjoy, more than the moments of happiness that we find.  Jesus invites us to live in His kingdom and righteousness. What does that mean? We surrender ourselves to Him, humbly acknowledging that He is in charge, that He directs us, that we live to serve His purposes. 

Given our cultural love of independence, it is difficult for us to accept that peace and fulfillment can be found in submission to Him. Will we pray, as He did, “Lord, not MY will, but Yours be done?”   And He invites us to receive the gift of a right relationship with God that leads us to live as the people of God.  What a key part of knowing the life God intends for us. We need not dread Him, or hide from Him, or work endlessly at ‘proving’ that we are good enough.  He provides us with a gift of grace, acceptance with Him that is beyond our merit or purchase!  Put on the Righteousness of Christ. Secure in Him even death itself loses its terrors.

Reset. Refocus. Refuse the angst so common in the world at the dawn of 2022.  Instead, choose life in Christ.

The word from the Word is a reminder, a little phrase that I pray will find a place in your mind today and for the rest of the coming year. "If we endure, we will also reign with Him." (2 Timothy 2:12, NIV)  

Lord, steady us, help us to seek You above all else that we may live in hope and know Your peace. Amen.

(Video of this blog at this link)
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Be Thou My Vision (Slane)

(Selah sings this beautiful, heart-felt prayer. Pray along with their song)

Be Thou my vision
O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me
Save that Thou art
Thou my best thought
By day or by night
Waking or sleeping
Thy presence my light

Be Thou my wisdom
Be Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee
And Thou with me Lord
Thou my great Father
I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling
And I with Thee one

 High King of heaven
When vict'ry is won
May I reach heaven's joys
O bright heaven's Sun
Heart of my own heart
Whatever befall
Still be my vision
O Ruler of all

 Eleanor Henrietta Hull | Mary Elizabeth Byrne © Words: Public Domain