My way, in my time, by my preference

I appreciate my local QuickChek™ store so much. It’s close by and I am able to get gas, a good cup of coffee, a bottle of ibuprofen, milk, a sandwich … and anytime of the day or night! The aptly named “convenience store” charges higher prices for the same things I could buy at a large supermarket, but I gladly pay the premium to save a longer trip. I am a true American consumer.

Even in this time of declining involvement with the local church, many who claim the Name of Christ Jesus are basically consumers who drop in when a crisis comes, who show up when life is tough and they feel the need for a little ‘inspiration’ or when they want the prayer. Missing the point of Christ’s Church, they have no desire to build any real relationship with other Christian or to serve in the larger Body in any way. Instead, they trade a donation for some ‘religious goods.’  

The result is an immature and undeveloped faith that is truly an ‘adventure in missing the point.’

The best and deepest Christianity requires a mix of several choices: 
receiving God’s grace by faith,
learning God’s ways through regular study and daily prayer,
becoming part of God’s family in a local church, and
serving God’s purposes as life’s highest priority.

Being a disciple is often inconvenient!

Jesus teaches us that His call is comprehensive, touching every facet of life, and seeking our full engagement. “Take up your cross and follow Me,” He said. Think about that. It is not a pretty metaphor.

A cross is an instrument of death, not a means of finding one’s personal path of pleasure. The invitation is to ‘follow,’ not to lead. His invitation is costly, not convenient, but it comes with great promise. “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?" (Luke 9:23-25, NLT)

Knowing how quickly human beings will abandon the pursuit of the Holy, Moses warned the ancient Israelis about wandering. God was going to give them blessings, provide abundantly for them. Would they be grateful, careful to remain devoted to Him? Read on. "“The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land filled with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, be careful not to forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name." (Deuteronomy 6:10-13 NLT)

Tragically, they did forget the Lord! Just a couple of generations after they entered the Promised Land, they wanted more, turned to worship of local fertility gods, and abandoned the LORD. Like true consumers when crisis came, they ran back to God Who faithfully loved them, though they suffered for their sin. Restored to wholeness, they prospered and wandered again. The pattern was repeated many times!

Here are some questions we who are trained as consumers should ask ourselves frequently.

Am I treating the things of the Lord as consumer items?
Are my prayers more fervent, my searching Scripture more intense, when some stormy season arrives, only to be laid aside when things level out?
Is my expectation that God will meet MY need or that I will seek His will and way?

True joy, deepest fulfillment, and the ultimate eternal reward will be found by those who take Paul’s inspired counsel to ‘keep step with the Spirit’ walking in the road of the humble servant.

I can tell you from experience, even as a “professional” Christian who has spent his life in the Church that seasons will come when you have not desire for worship, prayer, or service. You will find people in the Church who disappoint you. I am sure that in the thousands of sermons I preached there were some real duds that bored the socks off of those in the pews. But … we stay faithful, not because we are buying something new, exciting, or even appealing; but rather because we are called by God into His holy family.

Don’t let American consumerism turn you into a church shopper. Instead, pray to be guided by God to a place where you can commit, serve, and grow in grace through every season.

Here is a word from the Word. "So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved." (Hebrews 10:35-39, NLT)

Amen

_______________________________

Video at https://www.youtube.com/@JerScott55

“C’mon! Get it right!”

A friend offered a gentle rebuke to me recently. It stung because I realized the statement was true. When I pointed out what I perceived to be a lack of effort on the part of another, I heard this- “Well, I guess nobody but you gets it right.”  Those words poked a big hole in my pride, helping me to know that I needed to do better at encouraging, letting go of critical thoughts.

Why do those critical comments come to us so easily?
Ever criticized another’s marriage without really understanding the relationship?
Ever said of another “C’mon. Get it right!” without thinking about the hardships they are trying to survive?
Ever looked at a public person with contemptuous criticism having little actual knowledge of the pressure they face each day in their duties?
Ever threw a word grenade at a fellow Christian who is struggling with some habit, or doubts, or fear when what they needed was support and encouragement?

To be sure, there is a place for evaluation and even criticism. Nobody ever gets it right all the time. We grow when we are made aware of our flaws, when we are challenged to make a better effort. But the years have taught me that it is a lot easier to toss grenades to blow things up than it is to build things.

Jesus generally approached others with offers of acceptance, understanding and lifting them up. Yes, He could be a critic, when necessary, but reserved His critical comments for the self-righteous.  

When some grenade throwers dragged a woman caught in sin He did not lash out at her with scathing words about her shamelessness. He did not chide her for the failure to understand the consequences of her choices. He did not shame her for a lack of character.  He offered her love, gave her dignity. Only then did he say, “Now, go and sin no more.”  (John 8)

Truth here!
*People who are secure because they know the redemptive and complete love of God will be much better at the work of encouragement.
*Those who understand their calling and know their own strengths and weaknesses will have less need to compare and criticize.

When you find yourself tossing those grenades of criticism, pause to take an inward look. Ask yourself where you are feeling anxious about life, what you fear. Renew your understanding of God’s amazing grace, with grateful prayer for His mercy and love. 

This passage has rescued me from judgment more times than I can remember. John says – “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.”  (1 John 3)

God offers full acceptance, not because we are good, smart, or perfect in every way. The Word tells us that “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ.”  (Ephesians 1:7-9, NIV) Yes, He showers kindness on us, not criticism!

The example of Israel’s great leader, the Lawgiver, Moses, is rich for us. When the LORD told the man that his leadership was ending, he argued asking for more time. Instead, God told him to get another ready to take his place – “commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.” (Deuteronomy 3:28, NIV) Moses’ obedience was remarkable. He became Joshua’s biggest supporter, urging him on, endorsing him before the nation. In part, Joshua’s amazing success was directly attributable to Moses’ encouragement.

There is joy found in instilling another with hope, helping to lift a burden, pointing one to a new way of thinking. Some may realize what you have done and say, ‘thank you.’ Some may never know the wind that you redirected into their sails. Will you toss grenades like any old critic, or will you hold out hope?

Here’s a word from the Word. “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13, NIV)

Amen
_______________________________

Video at  https://www.youtube.com/@JerScott55

The Inevitable!

As I stood looking down into the coffin which contained the body of an elderly Christian women the weight of my own mortality bore down on me. When I was greeting the family members, one woman of my age remarked that she looked at a picture recently and realized everyone in it except her had passed on. “Yes,” I replied, “we’re next in line.” It could be a depressing fact!

That appointment, deny it though we may in so many ways, is inevitable. For the Christian, there is a promise that gives hope. The end of this earthly life is not the end. It is a change of address as we go home. What a home God promises for us. That eternal home has no sin nor suffering. Tears are wiped away forever and our longings for God are fulfilled. David’s words are mine - "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple." (Psalm 27:4, NIV)

Eternity is written into our hearts by our Creator. Solomon said, "God has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT)

Dallas Willard one of my favorite Christian teachers, urges Christians to lift their vision, to ‘see’ beyond time’s horizon. A faith-inspired vision of our promised Paradise protects us from despair. He writes –

"I meet many faithful Christians who, in spite of their faith, are deeply disappointed in how their lives have turned out. Sometimes it is a matter of how they experience aging, which they take to mean they no longer have a future. But often, due to circumstances or wrongful decisions and actions by others, what they had hoped to accomplish in life they did not .... Much of the distress of these people comes from a failure to realize that their life lies before them...  one that goes on endlessly before us in the kingdom of God."  (The Divine Conspiracy) 

The frustration and futility that stalk us in this present realm lose much of their power when Heaven is in our heart! Right here, even now, we are eternal creatures. Yes, the bodies we live in are aging. This globe we call home is decaying, but we are alive forever in Christ!

Jesus stood outside of the tomb of a dead friend, looked his sister, Martha, in the eye and promised “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live." (John 11:25, The Message)

Eternal life begins now, not when we die. The hope of Heaven is ours today, not just when our bodies are in the grave! I am a citizen of Heaven, now by the grace of Jesus Christ. I am connected, right here and right now, with the Lord of Glory, through the Holy Spirit’s immediate Presence. I do not sit around pining for my Heavenly home because I know that my mission is to bring Heaven to earth, even as I live with an expectation of glories to come. I know the joy of overwhelming the darkness of sin with the Light of Heaven, right now!

Let’s be like Abraham. He heard God's call, grasped the reality of eternal life, and lived the rest of days here on earth on pilgrimage. He took some detours from the straight and narrow path, but he never lost sight of where he was going. "It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent. And so did Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave the same promise. Abraham did this because he was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God." (Hebrews 11:8-10, NLT)

The ‘heaven’ of our modern imagination, which fills the movies, is far from the reality of Scripture. Misty fog enveloping transparent spirits floating in a ghostly realm, spirits living at the edge of human consciousness trying to reach us, are inventions of storytellers.

Heaven is a real substantial place, created by the same Person that thought up the refraction of sunlight by water moisture which produces the beauty of a rainbow.
Heaven is unfathomable beauty.
Heaven is suffused with the love which we see in Christ Jesus, who left His place to seek and save those who are lost. The most beautiful music, the deepest love, the most stirring worship, the most blissful day - are just glimpses of what will be ordinary in eternity!

So, by faith, reach out and hold onto Heaven even as you live your life to the full. 
When life is overwhelming, when sin threatens to engulf you, when everything seems futile, when disappointment breaks your heart - look up and thank God that He has written Heaven into your heart. It is precisely the longing for Paradise that makes us unwilling to settle down and desire our best life now. We are headed home!

The word from the Word is a portion of the ‘faith’ chapter that describes the hope of saints in times of trouble. 

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."   (Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV)

The inevitable appointment is robbed of dread when we remember that we are on our way home.
Amen!

Video of this blog

 

https://www.youtube.com/@JerScott55