Are you beautifully whole?

 

Think about your life and the people who have helped to make you who you are. Some taught you formal lessons as your teachers. Perhaps it was someone you never knew except through the pages of a book or a podcast. Others influence through proximity. They are ‘around us’ and their ideas and values subtly transfer into our lives. I reminded my kids when they were growing up that the people with whom they chose to ‘hang out’ would have an influence on them. Your friends do, too, regardless of your age!

Jesus speaks to our influence in the world using two easily understood metaphors. The words are in His Sermon on the Mount. “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:13-16, NIV)

Salt, for us, is mainly a flavoring in our food. The right amount makes that bowl of soup delicious. In Jesus’ day, salt was incredibly valuable. Having no refrigeration, salt was a primary preservative for their food. We best understand His word to us about our influence from that perspective. Christians are not just a bit of pleasant flavor in the world, they are the preservative influence, the people through whom the Spirit pushes back hatred, restraining evil. The role is not just a passive one, it is a robust calling that engages with the rot of sin.  Are you a person God can use to make a measurable difference in your world?

Light does so much more than dispel the darkness. I am glad that I can flip a switch and walk through a once darkened room, now lit up, without falling over the furniture. I am glad that the floodlight on the side of my house lets me come home in the dark of night and see if the local bear or skunk is hanging around my garage! I would not want to stumble into a close encounter with either of those creatures. But, light does more. Light brings out beauty! Think of the sun’s rays shining through the atmosphere at sunset. The colors created by the refracted light are a delight. So, too, Christian, as God, the Holy Spirit, fills us with light we shine into the world and bring beauty. Do you?  Are you cognizant of His presence and shining in a way that causes others to ‘see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven?’

A frequent phrase in my prayer, both public and private, is “Lord, by your Spirit working in me, help me to make a measurable influence in my world.”  My desire is to defeat the rot and reveal the beauty of life! The answer to that prayer requires that I choose to be involved, that I use my head and hands to serve others.  Sometimes that is accomplished with concern.  Note the weary or worn and offer a word of encouragement. Take time to speak with that person who spends life largely in the shadows. Are those life-changing choices?  Maybe not, but they are ‘salt and light’ choices. When you can wisely engage someone who is living a lie, chasing the wrong dream, or ignoring God by sharing the truth, in love, you are being salt and light.  Honestly, I’ll admit that life is simpler if I choose to remain ignorant of need, if I hide my eyes from suffering, if I choose not to see sin around me; but my Lord demands that I care.  

No matter how wise and gentle we are, as Christians, we must expect a reaction when we are genuinely practicing our faith. Jesus, who was Love Incarnate, provoked reactions ranging from adoration of a woman who washed His feet with her tears to hatred of Pharisees who plotted His death. Salt brings out the flavor of the soup and it stings when used to cleanse a wound. Light shows the way through the dark and it reveals hidden sins.  

So, are you having a measurable influence on your world?

When you’re around do people feel the love, see the light, and react?

Some will love you, some will hate you. That’s as it will be. Jesus was clear about this. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." (John 15:18, NIV)

The word from the Word is that same text quoted before, this time from The Message, a contemporary paraphrase of the Gospel.  Jesus says, “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:13-15, The Message)

Let’s make a measurable difference in our world for Christ – with consistently loving, holy lives, full of God’s beauty!

_____________________

 

Holy Spirit

 

There's nothing worth more that will ever come close

No thing can compare You're our living hope

Your Presence

 

I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves

Where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone

In Your Presence Lord

 

Holy Spirit You are welcome here

Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere

Your glory God is what our hearts long for

To be overcome by Your Presence Lord

 

Your Presence Lord

Your Presence Lord

Your Presence

Oh God how we love Your Presence Lord

 

Let us become more aware of Your Presence

Let us experience the glory of Your goodness (Lord)

 

Bryan and Katie Torwalt

© 2011 Capitol CMG Genesis (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

Jesus Culture Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055

Yahweh Shalom

 

The reality of the ‘next step’ settled on me yesterday.  In December, 2019, I began the process of preparing the church which I have served for 21 years for my stepping aside from the pulpit. Yesterday, the congregation elected  a man to that position who will begin his service, on September 1^st.  There is ample evidence that God has worked in amazingly wonderful ways over the intervening 18 months – with many participating in this process behind the scenes.  

 But, change is difficult for most of us, not the least for me, so I as the moment of decision approached I internalized anxiety. Until … I finally released the church and my future to Him anew.  I felt the whisper of the Spirit - "Let the peace of Christ rule your heart... live in peace... be thankful!" (Colossians 3;15) Don't you love it when God hands you a prescription for spiritual health? He invited me to receive His peace. I did, again. Before I left the church building my new Pastor prayed for me. I went home from the meeting, restful in heart, and fell into a deep and peaceful sleep. 

Peace can be an elusive quality of life. Pressure, problems, change, people, and challenges can give us knotted muscles, sleepless nights, and restless hearts. If we believe, as many do that peace is circumstantial- only found if we are able to change situation.  God promises that for the faithful there is a “which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.”  (Philippians 4:7) Will you choose to live in His promise?

The ancient Israelis named God in many ways. One was Yahweh Shalom - "the LORD is peace." Raiders from the neighboring country of Midian overpowered them driving them into the hills where they hid in caves. Desperation was everywhere! Gideon, who was a farmer, needed to feed his family in spite of the raids and attacks in Israel. So he ventured from the caves, down to the fields. Judges 6 tells that he was hiding out near a winepress, threshing grain, fearing for his life. Suddenly he felt aware of a Presence and heard a voice! "The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!" (Judges 6:12 NLT)

Gideon was anything but a mighty hero. He was desperately trying to avoid detection at that very moment. He asks "Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." (Judges 6:15, NIV) He goes further and questions God's messenger about the desperate times that his people are experiencing. But, when he saw the evidence of God's power and received the promise of God with faith, Gideon's heart changed. "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. (Yahweh Shalom)" {Judges 6:22-24 NIV} That Hebrew word, shalom, is a rich one that speaks to a state of wholeness, serenity, and satisfaction.

Shalom is possible in any situation, IF we will choose, by faith, to live in the Presence of God. His Spirit produces a serenity that allows us to rise above situations that cause others to panic or to fall apart. Life's circumstances will rob us of the peace of God if we forget that He is Lord of all. If we attempt to exert control over situations, if we become a little ‘god’ attempting to impose a 'peace' of my own design, it likely that our frustration will deepen, our sense that life is beyond meaning will be overwhelmed.

God invites us to come to Him.  There we re-center our soul, waiting in quiet prayer.  He says “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10, NIV)  We can, without words, let Him take charge, and find renewed peace.  My experience has taught me that even when the “situation” remains exactly the same, I am changed.

God does not ask us to detach ourselves from reality or that we live in foolish denial of reality. He sends us into this world as His people who are fully engaged with life. Our mission is to create beauty, to be bearers of His healing to the broken, and to resist evil wherever it brings death.  Though the task can exhaust us, we can live in peace! "Endure hardship like a good soldier," Paul says.  That endurance is not a stubborn refusal to retreat!  We endure because the Spirit lives in us, His strength steadies us, His voice speaks and quiets our fear.

Restless? Troubled? Uncertain?  That’s quite human. Take the invitation of Jesus and find a place to retreat into the Presence of God.
Meditate on His Word, commit yourself and your circumstances to Him.
Invite the Spirit to use you as a agent of the Kingdom of Heaven wherever life takes you throughout this day.

When you find yourself tensing up, feeling the pressure, breathe a prayer for peace—"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7 (NIV)

The word from the Word is my prayer for us as we begin a new week; one focused on Him.
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
(Ephesians 3:16-21, NIV)

____________

Wonderful Peace

Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight
Rolls a melody sweeter than psalm
In celestial-like strains it unceasingly falls
O'er my soul like an infinite calm

 

Peace peace wonderful peace
Coming down from the Father above
Sweep over my spirit forever I pray
In fathomless billows of love

 

What a treasure I have in this wonderful peace
Buried deep in the heart of my soul
So secure that no power can mine it away
While the years of eternity roll

 

Ah soul are you here without comfort and rest
Marching down the rough pathway of time
Make Jesus your friend ere the shadows grow dark
O accept this sweet peace so sublime

 

Warren D. Cornell

Public Domain

Yesterday’s Gone!

 

A Facebook ‘memory’ showed up on my news feed from 8 years ago, pictures of a summer vacation in Florida that did not go so well. Looking at them I felt a flood of regret. I wondered what would I have done differently had I known it was the last summer trip that Bev and I would enjoy before her cancer arrived?  Do you ever slip into that place of wishing for a  ‘do-over’ for past decisions, thinking about words said or perhaps that you wish you would have said?  Are you paralyzed in the present by 'yesterday?'  

Allowing regret to own us will throw a strong chain around us holding us back today’s opportunities.   We will certainly miss out on this moment if we are trying to relive yesterday – whether to fix it or to enjoy it again.

We can learn much about looking back from the experience of the Israelis who were called out of Egypt to the Promised Land. In spite of many experiences of both the faithfulness and power of God, they missed the purpose of God because they allowed regret to take control. They remembered Egypt, but inaccurately. "The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-6, NIV)  

 God was feeding them everyday, miraculously, with perfect food, manna. They were full and fed but not happy. Why? They forgot the slavery and only remembered the food. The memory of their dinner table was without context. Perhaps there was greater variety in their diet, but their sons and daughter were without hope, enslaved and consigned to poverty! They seemed to forget that important detail of their past lives.

Memory is selective and the regret we feel is probably without context, as well. "So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did." (Hebrews 3:7-9, NIV)

We do not have to erase the past. Memory is important. Celebrating those loved, special days, shared accomplishments, and so much more, enriches our lives. A prime example is the celebration of Communion, remembering the Cross, experiencing the mystery of Christ in us. We also learn from the past when we recall history’s lessons. But, yesterday’s gone! Celebrate the wins. Forgive the wrongs. Learn from the mistakes. Then, LIVE today.

The word from the Word is a familiar passage, words of Paul who had done some regrettable things in the past. There were also some high moments of spiritual experience in his life. Note what he teaches us about the PRESENT. "I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven." (Philippians 3:12-14, NLT)

"We have this moment to hold in our hands,
And to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand,
Yesterday's gone, and tomorrow may never come,
But we have this moment today!"

- Wm. Gaither, 1975

Truly Blessed 7 – Persecuted but Glad

Because of my faith in Christ Jesus and the convictions that come from God’s Word, I often feel like a stranger in a foreign land these days. That really should not surprise me because people who truly love God have never ‘fit in’ with the world; not in the past, nor in the present. Preparing this thought today gave me some pause, because I know some will take these words to justify political positions that have little to do with being a disciple of Christ. This is not about the political party with which you are aligned, nor is it about enjoying favored status by the government. 

My words today are not about being weird or offensive and calling that ‘Christian.’  It is much deeper, about loving Jesus in such a way that you are ‘left out’ or marginalized, even by family perhaps, because your life is radically committed to love, life, hope, and healing rather than self, money, comfort, or security.

Jesus said  "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:10-12, NIV)

Many American Christians confuse ‘righteousness’ with noisy opposition to the increasing secularization of the nation. It is true that Biblical values are quickly disappearing from our culture. However, persecution is not the same as losing ‘majority’ status, though many confuse the two. 

Persecution is knowing rejection for His Name’s sake. Being right with God is about loving Him, living for Him, being a person who is surrendered to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. That way of life will inevitably put a person at odds with the world in which he lives and may lead to genuine persecution.

Jesus says when that rejection comes, not because we have acted as obnoxious fools but because we are committed to Him above all else, we are in a place to find God’s joy, to know the comfort of living within His Kingdom embrace. Ah, Christian, we cannot, must not, become defensive when we feel attacked, rejected, or marginalized. Jesus says that if such things are coming our way because we love Him, we should ‘rejoice and be glad’  because of the assurance that God keeps the real score and His reward is rich and eternal.

Christian, we must learn to deal with our fear of being persecuted, quietly securing ourselves in the Love of God. Fearful people become defensive, shrill, and angry.  It is time we read, with new understanding, the story of those first Christians recorded in Acts that show us that God keeps His Church alive. They lived in a hostile world, often hated, but they were not angry or complaining.

Because of the new life of the Spirit they were “humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”   They did not fear being overcome by the darkness in which they lived.  They believed that the Light they knew would always dispel the darkness.  Their witness was not to protest the cruelty of Rome or the unfairness of the local magistrate, it was about the grace of Jesus that made those dead in spirit alive to God!

The Truth in which we live is unyielding to cultural pressure, unconcerned about polls or acceptance, but it is never arrogant. As the people of God we must learn to show that same compassion that Jesus showed for the wayward and lost people that He encountered. Did He attack the adulterous woman that ‘religious leaders’ dragged to him for judgment? No! He met her with loving acceptance, offered a new way, and pointed her to God’s redemption so that she could  ‘go and sin no more!’  Did He demean Zacchaeus, the collaborator with Rome, a tax collector, and a cheat? No! He scandalized the ‘religious community’ when He went to his house for dinner and, while there, laid out the message of God’s redeeming grace.  What happened?  The greedy crook was transformed and gave away his ill-gotten wealth!

Our Gospel is about Christ Jesus, about finding life in the Spirit. Jesus did not tell us to go wave banners, form coalitions, or elect people to office to protect our privileges. He told us that we are “the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:13-17, NIV)

Yes, loving God and His Word, will put us at odds with the world. That has always been the case. We need have no concern about our ‘relevance’ or public acceptance. We must be people of integrity who are committed to living His Word in its entirety.  God’s people will value the gift of life, but not just when it comes to abortion.  They will be resistant to war, to systems that deprive people of their lives through oppression.  God’s people will care deeply about the covenant of marriage and demonstrate their love of God by preserving their own family values rather than noisily attacking same sex marriage.  God’s people will love those of every color, welcoming all into the fellowship of the Lord.

Christians major on the Gospel because they know that real transformation is not a legislation issue, but requires a new heart given by God through His Spirit. We preach Christ, not rules.  He makes us righteous and should others turn on us because we bear His name with humble integrity, we are quietly glad.

Here’s a word from the Word.  "Be happy if you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God will come upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his wonderful name! … So if you are suffering according to God’s will, keep on doing what is right, and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you." (1 Peter 4:14-16, 19, NLT)  Now there is food for thought.

________________

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found

He is my light my strength my song

This Cornerstone this solid Ground

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love what depths of peace

When fears are stilled when strivings cease

My Comforter my All in All

Here in the love of Christ I stand

 

In Christ alone who took on flesh

Fullness of God in helpless babe

This gift of love and righteousness

Scorned by the ones He came to save

Till on that cross as Jesus died

The wrath of God was satisfied

For every sin on Him was laid

Here in the death of Christ I live

 

There in the ground His body lay

Light of the world by darkness slain

Then bursting forth in glorious Day

Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me

For I am His and He is mine

Bought with the precious blood of Christ

 

No guilt in life no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From life's first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

 

Keith Getty | Stuart Townend

© 2001 Thankyou Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055