He served God’s Purpose

In my lifetime, I have read dozens of “how to” books, full of advice for finding my best life. A stand-out that is memorable is Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.  Some were worth the time to read, if not memorable. Despite my best efforts and the good advice of others I know this:  I only live my best life when my will is aligned with the purposes of God.  This week I was struck by a line in the book of Acts – "When David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep." (Acts 13:36, NIV)

It’s a question I ponder - am I living to serve God’s purposes for my time?   We cannot aspire to that lofty goal unless we are transformed by the Spirit. The Christian life is more than a self-help program. It is a Spirit experience, God working in us. When we are loved by God and love Him in return, trusting Christ Jesus with our life and destiny, letting Him be Lord, He promises something amazing: He will “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power! " (Ephesians 3:20, NIV) 

Let’s not confuse ‘serving God’s purpose in our generation’ with religiosity or serving on church committees.  It is quite possible to remain a miserable person living far below your God-given potential while sitting through church. God’s Church has an irreplaceable place in the Christian life but true change is personal, starting in the individual’s heart. Only when we experience, by faith, the Gospel, the daily inner transformation of eternal life, will the purpose of God be revealed. We love God by surrendering ourselves to Him and accepting Christ's love and mercy by faith, by pondering His mighty works worshipfully, and by allowing the Spirit to move deeply in us. That inner work will surely produce spiritual fruit – love joy, peace – the evidence of His life.

Receiving God's grace and practicing the disciplines of the Spirit as taught in the Scripture opens the door to maximum living, making us into the best possible person we can be! Because of Christ, we can be forgiving, gentle, and loving. In Him we find that hope that is so critically important to keeping us from becoming bitter, broken, or cynical by life’s disappointments.  The Creator of the Universe points His Spirit in us and inspires us to be creative, part of the answer for the questions of this broken planet.

Are you trying to ‘make a life’ apart from God? Do your efforts come up short of your expectations?  Are you asking questions like that rich young noble asked of Jesus: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  The answer remains the same today as it was then – receive the kingdom of God by faith, making Jesus Lord of life and accepting His grace for each day.  We walk it out and if we are led by the Spirit, when our race is run, it will be said of us what was said of David: He “served God’s purpose in his own generation.”

Thank God for the potential He's given you.
Ask Him to inspire you to be the best you can be in His grace.
Never just settle for what is easy, or natural!
Let God make a masterpiece of your life.

Our word from the Word,  is a prayer that Paul offered for those he loved in the church in Ephesus. I pray it for you. Receive it with your amen "I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19, The Message) Amen.

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MASTERPIECE

 

Heartbreak's a bitter sound

Know it well, it's ringing in my ears

And I can't understand

Why I'm not fixed by now,

Begged and I have pleaded

Take this pain, but I'm still bleeding

 

Heart trusts you for certain

Head says it's not working

I'm stuck here still hurting

But You tell me

 

You're making a masterpiece

You're shaping the soul in me

You're moving where I can't see

And all I am, is in Your hands

You're taking me all apart

Like it was your plan from the start

To finish your work of art, for all to see

You're making a masterpiece

 

Guess I'm Your canvas

Beautiful, black and blue

Painted in mercy's hue

I don't see past this

But you see me now, who I'll be then

There at the end, standing there as

 

Your Masterpiece

You're shaping the soul in me

You're moving where I can't see

And all I am, is in Your hands

You're taking me all apart

Like it was your plan from the start

To finish your work of art, for all to see

You're making a masterpiece

You're making a masterpiece

 

Heart trust you for certain

Head says it's not working

 

You're making a masterpiece

You're shaping the soul in me

You're moving where I can't see

And all I am, is in Your hands

 

You're taking me all apart

Like it was your plan from the start

To finish your work of art, for all to see

You're making a masterpiece

You're making a masterpiece

I'll be Your masterpiece

• Danny Gokey

 

Sound the Alarm

 

Somebody said, “The problem with being a prophet is that nobody likes them.” That made me laugh. Prophets, those who hear the Lord’s Word and speak on His behalf, are given an unenviable task of calling for change and pointing out failure. We love the comforting words of the Gospel, the worshipful words of the Psalms, don’t we? But, oh those prophets.  They go on and on about judgment, death, and destruction.   

Do you, like me, tend to leave them unread, unheard?  They do have a message for 21^st century Christians: hard words, but important words, that make us sit up and take notice of the ways of our Holy God.

In my Scripture reading this morning, I went to one of those books, the work of Joel. He left us a little book, just 3 chapters, full of thunderous sermons. He lived in Judah about 800 years before Christ. The nation experienced a plague of locusts that stripped fields bare, leaving people and livestock on the brink of starvation. In those locusts, Joel saw a foreshadowing of a far worse plague, the invasion of foreign armies that God would allow. 

He saw the decay of faith and, moved by the Spirit, cried out - "Sound the alarm in Jerusalem! Raise the battle cry on my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us. It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness. Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army appears. Nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again." (Joel 2:1-2, NLT)

As much as we may recoil from that type of words, we need them in our time, too. America, much like ancient Judah, hates those who raise their voices to call for a return to the Lord. “Shut up. Go home. Tell someone else your bad news.” But, the truth is, an alarm needs to be raised, a prophetic warning of the destruction that will inevitably follow rejection of the ways of the Lord God. When we are consumed with ourselves, without spiritual vision and values, we need brave souls who know God’s voice and fearlessly sound the alarm.

As I read Joel’s message I saw words of hope, too. He speaks of God’s faithfulness, His desire to save those who will turn to Him, leaving sinful ways. “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish." (Joel 2:12-13, NLT) 

It is a terrible mistake to take stock of our spiritual poverty and decide that there is no future, that we are headed without remedy for the junk heap of history.  Instead of exclusively railing on the failures ‘out there’  I believe the better choice today is for Christians to return to prayer, to genuine repentance, so that they can lead the way to spiritual renewal.

This nation I love is intoxicated with Self, staggering like a drunk, consumed with pleasure, many of us bent on doing our own thing with no thought to what is ‘right’ or ‘just’ or ‘good.’ Our worst sins are Self-will and disregard of God. Justice is compromised. Corruption is rampant. We are indulgent of ourselves, in most every way imaginable. 

Americans who enjoy unparalleled wealth and power have made things their idols, a materialistic people. We are pleasure mad, chasing happiness in ever more diversions. Should anyone even suggest that it might be wise to pause and reflect, that we could benefit from humility, that God waits for us to ‘come home,’ there are only insults and dismissive words for that prophet. 

My prayer is that God, the Spirit, will place the spirit of the prophets in His people, that we will let His words come alive in us, that we will, ourselves, turn to Him, leading the way to repentance. Then, we will be able to turn the corner from judgment to hope. "Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rains he sends are an expression of his grace. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring. The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil." (Joel 2:23-24, NLT)

The words of Joel I love most promise the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Who refreshes us like spring rains renew the earth. 

Here is a word from the Word. May we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us.  "“Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike. “I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth—blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon will turn bloodred before that great and terrible day of the Lord arrives. 

And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. There will be people on Mount Zion in Jerusalem who escape, just as the Lord has said. These will be among the survivors whom the Lord has called." (Joel 2:28-32, NLT)

_______________

Send Revival Start With Me

We're looking to Your promise of old
That if we pray and humble ourselves
You will come and heal our land
You will come
You will come

We're looking to the promise You made
That if we turn and look to Your face
You will come and heal our land
You will come
You will come to us

Lord send revival start with me
For I am one of unclean lips
And my eyes have seen the King
Your glory I have glimpsed
Send revival start with me

Matt Redman

© 1996 Thankyou Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055

 

The Jeep Community

 

Ten years ago I bought my first Jeep Wrangler. When I drove past other Wrangler drivers they raised their left hand from the steering wheel, usually just the fingers, keeping their thumb hooked onto the wheel, and they waved. What was going on? Did I have a light out? Was something wrong with my vehicle? Soon I realized that there is a community among Jeep owners, particularly Wrangler drivers. That left hand wave? It’s a thing, really, called the “Jeep Wave.” (Go ahead, Google it.) Now I do it, too. See a Jeep headed my way?  Yep, I raise my left hand and with a wave I acknowledge my place in the Jeep Community.

Far more significantly, I belong to another community, the Church. I became part of that family through faith, at the invitation of Jesus. "So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26-28, NLT)  This passage reveals God’s plan for His Church, a unique community in this world. Our affinity is not built around ownership, heritage, or race. We share God’s life in the Spirit, which erase the lines that too often separate people in this world.

We need to hear the voice of the Spirit in this time where so many things are tearing apart the world in which we live.
We are not white or black Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’
We are not rich or poor Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’
We are not male or female Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’ 
We are not politically progressive or conservative Christians. We are ‘in Christ.’ 

Honestly, I’ll admit that those statements are so much easier to write than to live. Deep suspicion about others and their motives is part of life these days. Power is worshipped as the means of gaining equality which makes authentic conversations impossible. If we attempt dialogue we will be viewed as a collaborator with the ‘other side’ no matter the issue. If you agree that black lives matter then you must be anti-police. But, it is equally true that if you say that blue lives matter your good faith in racial matters is suspect. If you say that you are committed to the sanctity of human life then you must hate women. And so it goes …  the greater tragedy being that the Church, God’s family, allows these issues to creep in and divide those who are called to be ‘one’ – people deeply committed to Him and to one another.

Christian community is radically important to our spiritual health. We cannot  be all that God intends without being in communion with His Body, sharing our spiritual gifts, living life together, supporting, strengthening, and living the Gospel of Christ in our world. The calling is just too big for one person to even attempt alone. The truth is that a solitary Christian just cannot be. "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Romans 12:4-5, NIV)  

Post-COVID America has even less place for ‘church’ it seems than it did a year ago.  For reasons I have yet to understand, large numbers of people who claim faith in Jesus are attempting a faith without fellowship. That choice is one of spiritual peril. We do not just enjoy each other’s company, we need to be committed, working at sharing the life of God in our worship and service. Our unity must go beyond a polite nod or a convenient moment that we fit into our schedule.   

Yes, the Church and your church, has issues!  Politics has crept in, an ugly perversion of the mission of Christ. Corruption is too often allowed to go unchallenged. Misfocused missional statements turn Christians inward rather than outward to serve. Dysfunction makes some churches places of ongoing conflict to such an extent that we might wonder why bother at all?

But, for all those problems, there is also a rich fellowship of Believers, real love, and the fulfilling work of redemption that is possible when we become His Body rather than a club or association. My challenge to you today is to renew your commitment to Christ and His Church. Work at it! Make gathering a priority. Begin conversations about BIG IDEAS of service and mission, daring to turn dreams into reality as the Spirit empowers.  Let’s repent for our pride, our desire to be served, our insistence on uniformity of conviction. Instead let us pray that we will learn how to be ‘one’ in Him.

Can you receive the directive of the Word? Will you humbly accept His call? "And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near." (Hebrews 10:21-25, NLT)

Now that is real community, promising far more than the Jeep Wave!

_____________

 We Will Stand

(I love this 1980’s song with a timeless message. Let Russ Taff’s artistry encourage you to stand together with other Christians.)

 

Sometimes it's hard for me to understand

Why we pull away from each other so easily

Even though we're all walking the same road?

Yet we build dividing walls

Between our brothers and ourselves.

 

But, I don't care what label you may wear,

If you believe in Jesus you belong with me!

The bond we share is all I care to see,

And we'll change the world forever,

If you will join with me,

Join and sing, sing.

 

You're my brother, you're my sister,

So take me by the hand.

Together we will work until He comes.

There's no foe that can defeat us,

When we're walking side by side,

As long as there is love,

We will stand!

 

The day will come when we will be as one

And with a mighty voice

Together we will proclaim that

Jesus, Jesus is King.

It will echo through the earth.

It will shake the nations.

And the world will see, see that;

 

You're my brother, you're my sister,

So take me by the hand.

Together we will work until He comes.

There's no foe that can defeat us,

When we're walking side by side,

As long as there is love,

We will stand!

 

James Hollihan | Russ Taff | Tori Taff

© 1983 Word Music, LLC (a div. of Word Music Group, Inc.)

CCLI License # 810055

God’s possibilities

 
I serve a God of possibilities! He made me in His image, capable of creativity, with abilities to build, to know, to love. In Him I find purpose, meaning, and hope.  He is not my ‘good luck charm.’ It is a tragic misunderstanding of God’s promises that causes some people to of God kind of like a lucky rabbit’s foot. Remember those?  In the past (does anybody do this anymore?) people sometimes carried a preserved rabbit’s foot. Allegedly the charm would bring ‘good luck’ to its owner. Silly? Of course.

Is God your good luck charm, only brought to mind when you need healing, or financial resources, or help with a wayward kid, or an advantage in some effort in life?  That is not faith, that is superstition. Let’s explore that together. Following a discussion about salvation and serving God, the disciples felt overwhelmed, aware of their inability. Jesus told them “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” (Matthew 19:26, NLT)  That phrase finds its way into many a discussion when life is hard, when a new project is proposed. Often it is reset into a context of positive thinking, changed from “with God all things are possible” into “since God is with me, all things are possible…for me.”  The focus shifts from God’s leading to our desires, and HE becomes our good luck charm.

More than a few people have told me that their faith has collapsed, that they are giving up on God.  The conversation goes something like this. “Pastor, I have faithfully gone to church, tried to live by the teaching of the Bible, said my prayers, gave in the offering, and did my best to be good, but God let my _____ (fill in the blank with some major disappointment). So, I do not believe anymore.”  I feel their heartbreak, empathize with their disappointment, and wonder how they came to think that they should be exempt from the common human experiences that include things like sickness and death.

The God of possibilities invites you and me to know His will, to seek to be led by Him, to trust Him to create new things out of the rubble of life in which we sometimes find ourselves.

Did Daniel’s faith exempt him from ‘bad luck?’ Not at all. In fact, his faith caused him great difficulty in the short term when his prayer life made him a criminal, breaking the rule of the king!  Serving God led him into the lion’s den! But, he continued to trust and God used that horrible night to increase Daniel’s stature in the Babylonian empire. 

Paul’s faith caused him to become a traveling messenger of the Gospel.  God asked him to endure years of hard travel from one end of the Roman Empire to the other as he built the Church. As he faithfully served God, he also experienced persecution, shipwreck, and imprisonment.  Did he grow disillusioned?  Not at all.  In fact he declares, “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." (Romans 5:1-4, NIV)

God doesn’t exist to be our personal good luck charm. He asks us to make Him our “Lord of life” and promises to walk with us through each day leading us until we are welcomed into our eternal home.  IF we insist that God keep us from all troubling situations, if we attempt to use prayers to ward off every unpleasant thing, that ‘faith’ will fail because it is not really faith in God; it is faith in our ability to use God for our own purposes.  

Here is an amazing fact about true faith – God does do things in us, for us, and around us that are ‘impossible,’ in the words of one my favorite passages – “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”  (Eph 3:20)  This is the God of possibilities! 

Disciple, don’t allow your faith to be reduced to the status of a silly superstition! Make faith in God the center, that by which all things in your life are measured, from which all decisions flow. There will be moments when it will seem that God is not present, when prayers go unanswered, when nothing makes sense. Remain faithful!

Here’s a word from the Word. Meditate on the revelation of His majesty, praying for faith to let God truly be God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (Isaiah 55:8-12, NIV)

________

Thrive

(Casting Crowns reminds us that God is at work!)

Here in this worn and weary land

Where many a dream has died

Like a tree planted by the water

We will never run dry

 

So living water flowing through

God we thirst for more of You

Fill our hearts and flood our souls

With one desire

 

Just to know You and to make You known

We lift Your name on high

Shine like the sun make darkness run and hide

We know we were made for so much more

Than ordinary lives

It's time for us to more than just survive

We were made to thrive

 

Into Your Word we're digging deep

To know our Father's heart

Into the world we're reaching out

To show them who You are

 

Joy unspeakable

Faith unsinkable

Love unstoppable

Anything is possible

We were made to thrive

 

Mark Hall | Matthew West

© 2014 Atlas Holdings (Admin. by Atlas Music Publishing)

Highly Combustible Music (Admin. by Atlas Music Publishing)

House of Story Music Publishing (Admin. by Atlas Music Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055