Grow through it!

Each Friday morning, I find a newsletter called Friday Update in my email from a pastor - Mike Woodruff- who collects news of note, adding his comments and wisdom. Today he opened with this good thought. “We can learn much about ourselves, God, and life by suffering. Many say as much. The tuition is high, but some go so far as to thank God for it — i.e., for cancer, unemployment, and similar challenges. Not everyone, of course. And we need to be clear: not everyone gets better via suffering. Some simply get bitter. Growing through suffering requires the right conditions, starting with reflection, humility, and faith.”  .  (click here for a free subscription)

If your life is full of sunshine, love, and plenty - give thanks to God and enjoy it. Know this - sunny days will give way to rainy ones. Because we live in a world where there is sin and brokenness, we will inevitably run into hard times; some the result of our own choices, many simply because things like aging, illness, economic cycles, and imperfect people are part of the world in which we live. How we walk through those days, the choices we make, can make us better or bitter.  I really like Mike Woodruff’s line.  If we want to grow deeper and stronger in life, “the tuition is high,” but the result is so worth it, my friend. Faith grows. Love flourishes. God comes nearer to us. The Psalm says -“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” (Psalm 119:67)

The value found in suffering is revealed in so many of the stories of the Bible.

Joseph would never have become the salvation of his family and the Prime Minister of Egypt without the horrific trip through slavery, false accusation, and imprisonment.

Daniel might well have concluded that his life was over, before it even started, when the Assyrians took him from Jerusalem to become a servant of the court of Babylon, but God turned a slave into a counselor to kings, changing history. Daniel did his part by doing what was right and godly, even when it looked as if he had no reason to do it.

David walked into a face to face challenge that looked ridiculous, a hero on the other side named Goliath, and he, a teenage shepherd from a backwater village. Mocked by the champion, David showed his heart. “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Today the Lord will conquer you.”  (1 Samuel 17:45-46)

Jesus was taken down from the Cross, buried by dispirited friends who thought it was over. I would like to know what the conversation among those disciples was like on Saturday. Regrets, perhaps? Recrimination?  But, God was not finished. His Son had entrusted Himself to the Almighty and on Sunday morning, the earth shook, the stone rolled away and death was conquered.

Paul was beaten up by life, opposed by enemies – spiritual and human – and his rivals dismissed him as just a ‘big talker.’ In city after city after preaching the Gospel of Christ he found himself rejected, arrested, and sometimes in peril of death. In Corinth it got so bad that he concluded his life was over. But, God was not finished with him. 

Reflecting on that time later in his life, he wrote -  "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many." (2 Corinthians 1:8-11, NIV)

From my own experience, I can tell you that God is faithful and that He accomplishes His purposes in us when we are willing to wait, to trust, to humbly accept His will, and to lean into His love.  I barely recognize the man I was three decades ago. Success found me early. God blessed me with a beautiful wife, wonderful children, with a fulfilling life that overflowed with good things.  Sadly, I allowed myself to think that somehow I had made it happen.

Pride overtook my heart and choices I made led me into a wilderness I did not seek. But God was there and I grew to know His grace in a way that I could not have known until that time in life. A decade ago, the awful diagnosis of cancer came to my wife, my love, and in 20 months her life here came to an end. It was the worst blow I had known in my life - emotionally and spiritually. But God was there; leading and loving me.  And I know this- I have not yet graduated from the school of discipleship!

Our strength is not blind faith. It is Christ-centered faith. We are not fatalists fumbling our way to the finish. We are people of purpose, called to follow the Spirit, assured of His promise and our ultimate place worshipping eternallly around the Throne of God. So, let’s go make a difference. Finish the game, for the glory of God.

The word from the Word:  "I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 1:16-20, NLT)  And He "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20, NIV)

Let’s grow on!

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(Video of this blog at this link)

Be Thou My Vision

 

Be Thou my vision

O Lord of my heart

Naught be all else to me

Save that Thou art

Thou my best thought

By day or by night

Waking or sleeping

Thy presence my light

 

Be Thou my wisdom

Be Thou my true Word

I ever with Thee

And Thou with me Lord

Thou my great Father

I Thy true son

Thou in me dwelling

And I with Thee one

 

Be Thou my shield

And my sword for the fight

Be Thou my dignity

Be Thou my might

Thou my soul's shelter

And Thou my high tow'r

Raise Thou me heav'nward

O pow'r of my pow'r

 

Riches I heed not

Nor man's empty praise

Thou mine inheritance

Now and always

Thou and Thou only

Be first in my heart

High King of heaven

My treasure Thou art

 

High King of heaven

When vict'ry is won

May I reach heaven's joys

O bright heaven's Sun

Heart of my own heart

Whatever befall

Still be my vision

O Ruler of all

 

Eleanor Henrietta Hull | Mary Elizabeth Byrne

© Words: Public Domain

The Most Excellent Way

Yesterday, while I was returning from a trip to Home Depot, I noted that the driver in the right lane paused for a few seconds before making a turn on red, simply being cautious.  A blaring horn announced the anger of the driver behind him who apparently found his caution a source of irritation. She gestured rudely while shouting words I can only imagine were not a blessing. Her flare-up of anger is not uncommon, is it?

Road rage contributes to a significant portion of traffic accidents and deaths on our highways. Aggressive drivers who crowd others, who drive too closely, or even who use their vehicle as a weapon are showing up on our roadways every day and every where. About a third of drivers self-report to experiencing road rage at least occasionally. Why is this happening?   Sociologists point to several factors. Among them are increased levels of general stress in life, feelings of isolation and being disconnected from a larger community, thinking of one’s self as anonymous and therefore unaccountable, and more crowded highways.

Let’s widen the lens on life.
Are you an angry person, quick to offense, meeting life with clenched fists?
Do you struggle with unresolved hostility, always ready to ‘defend your turf’ because you perceive a world that is hostile towards you or yours?

Paul was inspired by the Spirit to teach us as Christians to live differently!   “And now I will show you the most excellent way.  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Corinthians 13:1-7, NIV)

That passage makes clear the absolute necessity of love in our Christian practice.  We learn that without love eloquence is just noise. Without love spiritual gifts lose their ability to accomplish God’s work in the world. Without love personal service and devotion is without reward. Without love great knowledge becomes worthless.

Love is not just a syrupy emotion for special moments. It is not reserved for a select few, for children, or the sentimental. Love is a way of life that is vigorous, powerful - ‘the most excellent way.’   Authentic love is bold, engaged with the world, taking on difficult people, refusing offenses, actively going after what is best all of the time.  When we take time to process that passage, especially the second part, we find that love is never passive. It shapes each and every part of our lives and will make us radically different in this world.

So, how do we come to love in the ‘most excellent way?’  We will never achieve it simply by determination or discipline. Love begins with love!  John tells us "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:15-16, NIV)  By faith we accept that “God loved the world so much that He GAVE His son to save us”   The Spirit lives in us and reveals God’s love to us. Like the wayward son of the story of Luke 15 we turn towards home and find the arms of our Father open wide, ready to receive and forgive.  Loved, we learn to love!  Friend, let me underline this fact - God loves YOU.  His love is not limited or conditional.  He loves us from His essence, which is love. His grace is given to us, costly to Himself, free to us for the receiving. This is the start of becoming loving.

Then, we begin to live in love. 
We choose forgiveness because we are forgiven.
We refuse pride because we know we are “God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:10, NLT)  
We learn to live patiently because He is patient with us in our failures. 
We live outwardly focused because we know that He holds us secure in His grasp into eternity. 
We refuse to keep score in life because His love is the best affirmation we can ever know.

We feel no need to hide from the truth because we know that the ‘One who knows us best, loves us most!’

Choose love. It is ‘the most excellent way.’   Love pays rich dividends now and in the future with God.  I hope you will let Him love you to life.

The word from the Word is worthy of our meditation today. Jesus says "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:34-35, NLT)

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(Video of this blog at this link)

God So Loved (Live At The Wheelhouse)

Come all you weary

Come all you thirsty

Come to the well that never runs dry

Drink of the water

Come and thirst no more

 

Come all you sinners

Come find His mercy

Come to the table He will satisfy

Taste of His goodness

Find what you're looking for

 

For God so loved the world that He gave us

His one and only Son to save us

Whoever believes in Him will live forever

 

Bring all your failures

Bring your addictions

Come lay them down at the foot of the cross

Jesus is waiting there

With open arms

 

For God so loved the world that He gave us

His one and only Son to save us

Whoever believes in Him will live forever

The power of hell forever defeated

Now it is well I'm walking in freedom

For God so loved God so loved the world

 

Praise God praise God

From whom all blessings flow

Praise Him praise Him

For the wonders of His love

 

For God so loved the world that He gave us

His one and only Son to save

 

Bring all your failures

Bring your addictions

Come lay them down at the foot of the cross

Jesus is waiting

God so loved the world

Andrew Bergthold | Ed Cash | Franni Cash | Martin Cash | Scott Cash

© 2019 Angie Feel Good Songs; Bay19; Capitol CMG Genesis; Capitol CMG Paragon; Scott Cash Publishing Designee; We The Kingdom Music

For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com

CCLI License # 810055

Hope

Last Saturday I stood in an old cemetery in Dunmore, PA where I was leading a graveside burial service, I was surrounded by hundreds of monuments, some dating back more than a century.  I spoke the familiar words - “we commit her body to the earth in the in the certain hope of the Resurrection through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” 

On the drive home, I thought back to Friday evening when I was called to pray with a man near the death. I stood in the presence of grief with his family, anointing him with oil, confronted with the ugly reality of dying.  In prayer, I invited the angels to lead him through the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ to his home with the Lord.  The grim darkness of the cemetery, the heavy sorrow in the room of that dying man, starkly contrasted with the joy of Resurrection Sunday worship a few days previous when we sang - “Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!”

Death seems an implacable enemy, doesn’t it? We ignore aging, move quickly through the rituals of mourning, and too often attempt to smother the grief that comes after the loss. We may ask questions of our faith, wondering if our hope is real. Those stones with names etched on them, the grimness of a vigil at the bedside of the dying, can make the promise of life eternal hard to grasp.

Yet, I do have hope and so can you! "But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:20-21, NLT)   That whole passage invites us to faith.  Paul reminds us that the Resurrection is based on solid witness testimony. "I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me—that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles. After that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles." (1 Corinthians 15:3-7, NLT)

But what of those graves filled with bones of those now long dead, we might ask? 

There will come a time when God will call them from the grave, when He will miraculously and mysteriously give those who now live in His Presence, new bodies, eternal bodies, imperishable bodies.  The bodies long decayed into dust will somehow be raised, but new and beyond the death of mortality.  "It is the same way for the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies, which die and decay, will be different when they are resurrected, for they will never die. Our bodies now disappoint us, but when they are raised, they will be full of glory. They are weak now, but when they are raised, they will be full of power. They are natural human bodies now, but when they are raised, they will be spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, so also there are spiritual bodies." (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NLT)

Those who have left us do exist in the Presence of God even now.  We are told that "when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. … we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. … God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:1-8, NLT)  Those who die slip beyond our reach but they remain ‘alive’ in God’s Presence awaiting that moment of final Resurrection, the end of this old earth and the expectation of a new creation!

This is our hope, assured by the Resurrection of Jesus, who is the evidence of what is to come. Do we understand it all? No, we do not. By faith we only see the outlines of the Promise. The veil between this world and the next remains impenetrable for us at the moment. So we look to Jesus and we pray, “I do believe, help me overcome my doubts!”

Are you grieving, dear friend? Seek the comfort of Christ Jesus, focused on the promise of Heaven’s home.

Do you live in fear of dying? Hold onto the assurance of the gift of life that is provided freely through Jesus’ grace, purchased by His death at the Cross.

Hope!  We know it, by faith, and find strength to live, though we are indeed now in a mortal body that will surely die!

The word from the Word urges us to the best life, lived in the light of Eternity. Let this truth own your mind and your heart.  "For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." (1 Corinthians 15:53-58, NLT)   Add your Amen!

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(Video of this blog at this link)

 

Graves Into Gardens

I searched the world but it couldn't fill me

Man's empty praise and treasures that fade

Are never enough

Then You came along and put me back together

And every desire is now satisfied here in Your love

 

Oh there's nothing better than You

There's nothing better than You

Lord there's nothing

Nothing is better than You

 

I'm not afraid to show You my weakness

My failures and flaws

Lord You've seen them all

And You still call me friend

'Cause the God of the mountain

Is the God of the valley

There's not a place

Your mercy and grace won't find me again

 

You turn mourning to dancing

You give beauty for ashes

You turn shame into glory

You're the only one who can

 

You turn graves into gardens

You turn bones into armies

You turn seas into highways

You're the only one who can

 

Brandon Lake | Chris Brown | Steven Furtick | Tiffany Hudson

© 2019 Brandon Lake Music; Maverick City Publishing Worldwide; Music by Elevation Worship Publishing; Bethel Music Publishing

CCLI License # 810055