Friday Fatigue!

“Dad, you sound really tired,” Chrissie said. “Why?”  Her observation was accurate. A combination of things: leadership challenges, concern for various members of the congregation, not sleeping very well for a few nights, internal battles …  just ordinary stuff of life …  tapped the reserves of body and soul!  My life is not that unusual. We all get weary especially as we come up to the end of the week, right?

We live in a world where frustration and failure is common because of sin that throws things out of balance.  It’s as old as Adam to whom, after his act of rebellion, God said "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you." (Genesis 3:17-18, NIV)  The 'normal' Christian life will include struggle and weariness because we are living as 'aliens and strangers in this world' while we are on our way home.  Paul urges us to face the tough days and “endure hardship like a good soldier." Even Jesus got weary and needed renewal. Paul spoke of his weariness saying that his work led him to places where he was "in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often." (2 Corinthians 11:27, NKJV)

But, we are no longer defeated by evil, nor are we slaves to sin, condemned to merely whistle bravely in the dark, hoping for the morning light.  We need not be perpetually weary, bone tired.  The Good News says that In the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, there is a new power at work in me that overcomes the Curse! He invites us to “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)  His invitation is not to a resort where we throw off all responsibility. It is to work with Him in the power of the Spirit where we find what He calls “living water”  that springs up in us.

Yes, there are practical things we can and should do when we find ourselves bone tired.

First, find time to unplug from life, if only for a few hours.  Take a walk, go sit by a river, play with your kids, listen to music, paint, sing. Covey calls it ‘sharpening the saw,’ taking a break from the work to regain the edge necessary for effectiveness.

Second, worship.  In my weariness, I found moments to offer up thanks, for Who He Is, and to humble myself before Him.  In my life (yours, too?) I often become my worst enemy by trying to make it all work, driving myself hard.  Then I recall that He is God and my life is in His hands. St. Augustine said, "Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee." If we offer up a sacrifice of praise - which I did - thanking God for what He has done, for Who He is, for the promises He's made - our hearts are lifted up on the praises, our weary souls restored by the entry of the Spirit.

Third, we must raise our awareness. A weary person is vulnerable to all kinds of temptation.  The Word says, "sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master." (Genesis 4:7, NLT) Weariness can easily lead to unbelief, fear, and seeking relief in sins of the flesh.

And, let me state the obvious – we need to take it all to Jesus and invite Him to come alongside of us. He knows the stresses, the sorrow, the challenges, the needs of our lives better even than we do and He cares. Yes, about the smallest detail. So, we share it with Him.  “Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” - Jesus

Are you weary today?
Take a break, if only for a few moments, and unplug.

Worship, offering a sacrifice of praise.

Don't let temptation take over.

Invite Jesus to come and stand with you.

The word from the Word is a familiar line from Isaiah.  Hear it anew.  "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:30-31, NIV)
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Abide With Me (listen at this link)

I have a home eternal home

But for now I walk this broken world

You walked it first You know our pain

But You show hope can rise

Again up from the grave

Abide with me abide with me

Don't let me fall and don't let go

Walk with me and never leave

Ever close God abide with me

There in the night Gethsemane

Before the cross before the nails

Overwhelmed alone You prayed

You met us in our suffering

And bore our shame

Oh love that will not ever let me go

Love that will not ever let me go

You never let me go

Love that will not ever let me go

Well You never let us go

And up ahead eternity

We'll weep no more we'll sing for joy

Abide with me

David Crowder | Jason Ingram | Matt Maher | Matt Redman

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I’ll help you get well!

I am thankful for the gift of healing. Several times in my life I have experienced God’s intervention to restore wholeness- a few times instantly, many times by the amazing restorative processes He built into my body, and often because of the skills of another who helped me find wholeness. And, because I live in a world still filled with the Curse of sin, I have experienced loss, too. Some of my prayers for healing have been answered with a ‘no.’  Bev’s death a little over a year ago left me wrestling with issues surrounding healing. Did I trust God enough? Why would He seem to refuse our requests?  Those questions remain to be answered farther along the road of life.

Truth remains that Christians are healers! A key part of the Gospel is restoration of wholeness.  The Bible says, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:17, NIV)  The word we read as ‘save’ is a translation of the original NT Greek word that means both ‘saved’ and ‘healed.’  “Sozo” was a word used to describe a rescue, a restoration, and healing! The Bible, from Genesis on, tells us that sin’s curse causes affliction and death. God’s plan is to bring His reign to us with ‘salvation’ so that we may enjoy wholeness. Jesus was not just a teacher of morals with a mission to help people make better choices! He came to confront evil and to defeat sin for us and in us so that we could gain eternal life as well as life that is abundant.  He came to heal! "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10, NIV) 

When we talk of healing, we must widen our lens to take in God’s view of the matter. It is not just limited to broken or sick bodies. Healing is for the heart, the mind, the soul, too. Wholeness starts on the inside, with a transformation of the person. Charles Mayo, physician and founder of the famed Mayo Clinic, asserted that 75% of disease was rooted in emotional and/or spiritual issues! The Gospel of Christ, when received by faith, restores the identity of the person as God’s child and brings eternal life, the best healing!  And, then there is restoration of relationships when we learn to forgive and love. There is healing our world when we make peace. There is wholeness in Creation when we care for the earth instead of exploiting the planet God put in our management!  And, then, too, there is healing of our bodies through prayer.

Part of the work of every Christian is the ministry of healing. We work under the guidance and in the power of the Spirit Who shows us how to set wrong right, how to defeat evil, and how to lead others to freedom from slavery to sin! Are you a healer?  Perhaps that causes you to think of the ‘divine healers’ that pray dramatic and loud prayers over those who suffer. Maybe the ideas of ‘divine healing’ and old snake oil salesmen are one and the same in your mind. Before you dismiss healing as part of the Christian life because of the abuses of those who try to profit God’s gift, consider the truth. The gift of healing is given by the Spirit to the Church.  Jesus went about healing during His entire ministry.

In the letter of James, the Spirit teaches us that experiencing wholeness requires authentic confession, too. We cannot divorce our choices from consequence, but we can face the past, look at our lives honestly, and find forgiveness and healing. "Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master." (James 5:14, The Message)  "Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with." (James 5:16, The Message)  We know that ultimately all sickness, disease, and even death are the result of sin and the Curse. However, we need to be careful about judging those who suffer (and even ourselves!) by attempting to draw direct cause and effect lines from sickness to personal sin.  Only God ultimately judges in that way. However, when we suffer, when we are sick, we do well to ask the Spirit to reveal if there is something in us, some choice we make, that literally is making us sick. Things like forgiveness, bitterness, hatred, faithlessness will negatively affect our health – emotional, spiritual, and physical.  That’s why confession is so important to healing.  We deal with cause rather than just symptom.

Remember, we are not healers in ourselves, we are given the ministry of healing.  Only God heals, and He does so in His will, and in His time. So, full of faith (the kind that trusts radically) let’s pray to make our world a better place, to restore what Satan and sin have stolen, for the glory of God.  Let this word from the Word stir faith in you and lead you to become a person who lives ‘in the Spirit,’ so that you can be a healer – of broken hearts, of lost souls, of people consumed by hatred, and of broken bodies.  The story comes from Acts, where the simple faith of the apostles, led them to offer a gift to a man.  "Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him." (Acts 3:6-10, NIV)

Lord, use us as healers in a broken, sick world – for Christ’s honor. Amen

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The Hurt And The Healer

Why

The question that is never far away

But healing doesn't come from the explained

Jesus please don't let this go in vain

You're all I have all that remains

So here I am

What's left of me

Where glory meets my suffering

I'm alive

Even though a part of me has died

You take my (this) heart and breathe it back to life

I fall into Your arms open wide

When the hurt and the healer collide

Breathe

Sometimes I feel it's all that I can do

Pain so deep that I can hardly move

Just keep my eyes completely fixed on You

Lord take hold and pull me through

It's the moment when humanity

Is overcome by majesty

When grace is ushered in for good

And all our scars are understood

When mercy takes its rightful place

And all these questions fade away

When out of weakness we must bow

And hear You say

It's over now

Jesus come and break my fear

Wake my heart and take my tears

Find Your glory even here

(When the hurt and the healer collide)

Jesus come and break my fear

Wake my heart and take my tears

Find Your glory even here

(When the hurt and the healer collide)

Jesus come and break my fear

Wake my heart and take my tears

And find Your glory even here

Barry Graul | Bart Millard | Jim Bryson | Mike Scheuchzer | Nathan Cochran | Robby Shaffer

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Can I come back to this church?

The story that spilled out in the confession was not pretty. There were sins, regrettable choices, human failures, and disappointments. After telling it, the person asked, “Can I come back to this church?” The question hurt! What a misunderstanding of what the church is and why she exists. More on that in a moment, but first, let me ask you -  do you find yourself avoiding the company of other Christians, or concealing your past, or wondering if you belong?

I did not dismiss the sins of that person as insignificant. They were.  God does not look at my sins, or yours, and wave them off as inconsequential either. We are not made whole by excusing ourselves, by comparing ourselves, or by insisting that ‘everybody does it.’  We need to be loved, forgiven, and justified. And, that is exactly what Jesus Christ offers to those who receive Him in faith. John reminds us that "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10, NIV) Our self will, our pride, our greed, our hatred were evidence of our true state; sinful, deserving of destruction. "But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)" (Ephesians 2:4-5, NLT)  No one should ever forget that grace gift is his or her only hope.

Moreover, the Word reminds that God goes beyond forgiveness. "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:1-2, NIV)  The profound love of the Father invites us to be ‘at one’ with Him.  He does not merely tolerate us, trying to overlook our past; He makes us ‘just as if we had never sinned.’  The stain is erased and we are reconciled completely to Him, accepted wholly into His holy family. Shame and guilt are to drive us to the Father, but once we have confessed those things, they are no longer needed for "there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1, NLT)

That is why that question about coming to church, about belonging, need not be asked.  
First, those who come to Christ stand on level ground before the Cross, none greater or less.

Second, the church is a place to find wholeness, to be healed, to have the wounds that  sin and life cut into us healed by His mercy and the love of the people of God.

Remember the story Jesus told (my favorite, one I cannot tell without tears of love spilling over) about a wayward, selfish, sinful son? The man abused his father, rejected the love freely given, and was ultimately ruined by his sins. He thought he could make a deal with his father so he headed for home, his defense and appeal readied.  But, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luke 15:20, NIV)  Take note of that little phrase tucked into the story – “He ran to his son.”  God is not waiting for you, glaring, loaded with condemnation, ready to heap scorn on you.  He is looking for you to come home. And when you do, He will RUN TO YOU, with amazing, scandalous grace that offers love, forgiveness, justification, and a place at His table.

So, come on home!

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When God Ran  (listen at this link)

Almighty God the great I Am

Immovable Rock omnipotent

Powerful awesome Lord

Victorious Warrior

Commanding King of kings mighty Conqueror

And the only time

The only time I ever saw Him run

 (Was) when He ran to me

Took me in His arms

Held my head to His chest

Said My son's come home again

Lifted my face

Wiped the tears from my eyes

With forgiveness in His voice

He said son do you know

I still love you

He caught me by surprise

(He brought me to my knees)

When God ran

After I left home I knew I'd broken His heart

I wondered then if things

Would ever be the same but one night

I remembered His love for me

And down that dusty road ahead I could see

It's the only time

The only time I ever saw Him run

I saw Him run to me

And then I ran to Him

I was so ashamed all alone and far away

But now I know He's been waiting for this day

 (And then) He ran to me

Took me in His arms

Held my head to His chest

Said My son's come home again

Lifted my face

Wiped the tears from my eyes

With forgiveness in His voice

(I felt His love call me again)

He said son He said son

My son do you know I still love you

He ran to me

When God ran

Benny Hester | John Parenti

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