I will not be afraid

Who enjoys being afraid?  Yes, there are those who ‘enjoy’ the temporary terror produced by a horror flick. (Not me!)  Then, too, there are thrill seekers who like to push the envelope in life feeling the surge of emotion that is triggered by a moment’s fear. (Think sky-diving!) But, on the whole, feelings of insecurity and threats are not pleasant.  Our experience in this world can create fertile ground in which fear can readily grow. Storms comes. Illness visits. War rages. Economies fail. Evil is a reality. In the middle of all those things God invites us to leave fear behind for a life of faith.

Some Christians mistakenly believe that they can pray away all the things that trouble them. They invest huge amounts of energy in trying to eliminate all their problems; rebuking this, cursing that, calling on God to make their lives unending bliss. There is nothing wrong with asking our Father for healing, victory, or prosperity.  Even as we pray for blessings, our core hope must always center on His Presence.  Since we live in a broken, sinful world where the rain falls on both the just and the unjust, we cannot realistically expect unending days without pain or troubles. We can live near to the heart of God!

"The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 118:6, NIV)  “God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6, NLT)

Living near to God’s heart requires choices to love Him more than we love ourselves. Jesus said, “If you love me, do what I say!”  There is a sweet intimacy with the Spirit that is possible, but not if our willfulness or love of this present world grieves Him and pushes Him away.  Read John’s instructions for a live of confidence thoughtfully. "We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love." (1 John 4:16-18, NLT)  We live in God, that is, as He desires and allowing Him to direct us. When we do, He grows greater love in us and that love displaces the fearfulness of the things of this world!

The time to build this kind of intimacy with God is before the storm, not during it!  Christians who have lived carelessly, without any real ongoing desire for God’s Presence, encounter some life-shattering circumstance and come running to church, crying, wondering why they are so afraid.  Desperately they seek a place of comfort. My heart breaks when I see their frantic reach for the peace that they know exists but that seems beyond their grasp. Then, there are those who have steadily walked with God, loving Him with their heart, soul, mind, and strength, who enter the same kind of storm and ride it out with assurance. Sure, they feel the same pain and they cry, too.  But, they know peace.

Here’s the word from the Word. It is Jesus’ promise for us. I will not be afraid, what about you?  “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." (John 14:15-17, NIV) “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:25-27, NIV)

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

    W. George Cooper | Warren D. Cornell

    © Words: Public Domain

Extending a warm welcome

My friend was socially awkward. Conversations with him tended to have long, uncomfortable pauses. Amazingly, he loved entertaining people so much that he built his house specifically to allow for extending hospitality.  He included two extra bedrooms, a big dining area, along with an over-sized kitchen in the plans. Every visit with him was enjoyable in spite of his quirky personality.   I am sure you have noticed how some homes just say, “Welcome, friend” from the moment you enter the door. It’s not just the meal that has been prepared or the towels laid out on the guest bed for you. You can feel the love and acceptance of the host that says, “We’re glad you are here with us.” 

The Bible says  that being hospitable is one of the traits of a Spirit-filled Christian. Paul tells us to "Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality." (Romans 12:13, NIV)  Peter says it, too. "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." (1 Peter 4:9, NIV)  John also teaches Christians to be welcoming. "Show hospitality … so that we may work together for the truth." (3 John 8, NIV)  Has the warmth of God’s love radiated to every corner of your heart so that you are able to warmly welcome others into your life? 

Here’s the key to genuine hospitality: Welcome the Spirit into your life.  He will cause you to love and accept others. A Christian who wants God, the Spirit, to be ‘at home’ in his life, will be hospitable to Him. Does the way you live extend a warm welcome to Him?  We must consider that it is possible to push Him away, to make Him feel unwelcome. "Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted." (Ephesians 4:30, The Message)

If our lives are filled up with self-interest; if we let filthy speech spew out of us; if we clutter our minds with images and songs that celebrate sin; we should not be surprised that His Presence is unknown to us.  He will be grieved by our lack of hospitality! Hospitality requires choices that put the other person first.  Likewise, if we want God, the Holy Spirit, to be our Friend, we will throw out the welcome mat to Him, concerned that we do not drive Him away with our thoughts, words, and actions.

Here’s a word from the Word.

"If God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him.
Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about.

But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself?

When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!"

(Romans 8:9-11, The Message)

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Holy Spirit Thou Art Welcome

Holy Spirit, Thou art welcome in this place.

Holy Spirit, Thou art welcome in this place.

Omnipotent Father of mercy and grace,

Thou art welcome in this place.

Lord, in Thy presence there's healing divine.

No other power can save, Lord, but Thine.

Holy Spirit, Thou art welcome in this place.

Thou art welcome in this place.

Fill all the hungry and empty within.

Restore us, Oh Father, revive us again.

Holy Spirit, Thou art welcome in this place.

Thou art welcome in this place.

Rambo, Dottie / Huntsinger, David

© 1977, 1983 John T. Benson Publishing Company (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc., 741 Coolsprings Blvd., Franklin TN 37067) / HeartWarming Music (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc., 741 Coolsprings Blvd., Franklin TN 37067)

CCLI License No. 810055

Can I be trusted?

A sign taped to the wall of the man’s home was written in big, hand scrawled letters.  

“Trust no one ever!” 
There had to be a story behind it. I did not get the sense it was posted in jest. I knew he had a past that included broken relationships and that he was estranged from his extended family.  Whatever had happened, the result was a tragic. 

Who would want to live in a world where everyone was perceived as a threat, where suspicion tinged every interaction with other people?  That sounds exhausting to me!

Who do you trust completely? We know we cannot trust everyone. That would be naïve and yet I hope there are some who have proven trustworthy and true. A Frontline (PBS) documentary about the Vatican (broadcast 2/25/2014) discussed the broken trust of people who were victims of corrupt priests and a structure of power that refused to be accountable. Watching a woman now in mid-life relive her abuse at the hands of a priest was heart-wrenching. Hearing a man, once a priest of promise who was called to Rome, describe how he lost his ability to trust many in high church office, was painful to say the least. As I processed that program when I went to bed, I lay in the dark talking to my Heavenly Father, asking the Spirit to help me to be a friend, pastor, and father worthy of trust.

Trust. What creates it?

Above all, a trusted person must have integrity. Does your ‘inside’ match your ‘outside?’ Does your private life align with your public profession? Jesus’ scathing words addressed to the Pharisees are a lesson for us all.“Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs-beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy.”  (Matthew 23:27-28)

Then, too, Jesus says, trust emerges from a life that handles the details faithfully. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" (Luke 16:10-11, NIV)  If we neglect the stuff of life we think is inconsequential, we will also fail in the major commitments.

And He teaches us to keep our words simple and direct. "Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." (Matthew 5:37, NIV)  In our time of extended contracts, 100 page mortgages, and pre-nuptial agreements that command seems so out of reach.

I realize that trust is my choice, as well.  When we are hurt by the faithlessness of another, choosing to trust others again can be difficult. Like the man whose story opened this thought, we may decide that we will never trust.  

The wisdom of God asks us to forgive, to grow, and to secure ourselves in His love. And He says that true love "always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13:7, NIV)   May the Lord teach us to be trustworthy and surround us with those we can trust. In this we are made rich.

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I Would Be True

I would be true,

For there are those who trust me.

I would be pure,

For there are those who care.

I would be strong,

For there is much to suffer.

I would be brave,

For there is much to dare.

I would be friend of all,

The foe, the friendless.

I would be giving,

And forget the gift.

I would be humble,

For I know my weakness.

I would look up and laugh,

And love and lift.

Howard Arnold Walter

Public Domain

God's own for God's glory

A young man I know was probably destined for prison. He was failing in school, hanging out with a crowd of losers, going nowhere. He made ‘easy money’ by being a courier for drugs from one city to another. One day he met a Marine recruiter and somehow, despite the haze that clouded his vision, saw something to admire. The Marine helped him see a new vision for his life, that he, too, could become a United States Marine! When I saw that young man after he finished basic training, it was hard to recognize him. He stood erect. He had pride in the corp. He was disciplined. The Marines boasts that they can take a young man without purpose and/or direction and make him into a warrior. It must be true, for I have witnessed the transformation, more than once.

Becoming one of Christ’s Own, a genuine experience of the Spirit’s renewal will produce a transformation that is even more dramatic! Jesus commissions us (Christians) to live in such a way that we lift Him up. Our lives become a thing of beauty when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.  And, having attracted notice,  He tells us to ‘go and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded.’ (Matthew 28)  Peter exults about the power of God to take 'nothings' and make them into 'somethings.'  Peter defines how God sees those He calls into His "Ekklesia," His Church! "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." - 1 Peter 2:9-10 NASV

Elect, royal, holy, God's treasure! Those words give us an identity, call us to a purpose, and ennoble our lives. Is pride possible? Not if we know the whole story which includes the reality that we are who we are only because of His work of Grace. "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God." (Ephesians 2:8, NLT)  "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:10, NLT)

Are you living in your God-granted privileges today?
Are you rejoicing that He has called you out of the dark and into His wonderful light?

Zechariah urges people called by God to take their place, to live in His promise, and to know their destiny. The pictures painted by his words are jolting yet compelling. "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey... Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, and the LORD Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones. They will drink and roar as with wine; they will be full like a bowl used for sprinkling the corners of the altar. The LORD their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be!" Zechariah 9:9,14-17 NIV

What are the words used to describe the people of God?  Protected. Powerful. Celebrating their victories with the abandon of those who are intoxicated! Precious as jewels and as beautiful, too!

IF you are Christ's then you can live that description. Shake off that 'I'm nothing, unworthy; don't look at me' attitude.
You're one of the Chosen. God has set His favor on you. Live in it today with thanksgiving, humbled by His grace, and fed by His goodness!

Warriors of love, empowered by the Spirit, we defeat the powers of hell and extend the borders of the Kingdom of our Lord and Christ!

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Do you hear them coming brother,
Thronging up the steeps of light,
Clad in glorious shining garments,
Blood washed garments pure and white?

Do you hear the stirring anthems
Filling all the earth and sky?
'Tis a grand, victorious army,
Lift its banner up on high!

'Tis a glorious church,
Without spot or wrinkle,
Washed in the blood of the Lamb;
'Tis a glorious church,
Without spot or wrinkle,
Washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Wave the banner, shout His praises,
For our victory is nigh!
We shall join our conqu'ring Savior,
We shall reign with Him on high!

A Glorious Church
Hudson, Ralph E. © Public Domain