I'm not a health food fanatic by any stretch of the imagination, but I eat a balanced diet that includes less and less 'junk' these days. Maybe it's wisdom, maybe it's just my inability to eat junk food and still feel well, that makes for more discipline in my diet. Whatever it is, high fat, high sugar foods don't find their way into my mouth as much. People have been preaching to me a long time about the quality of the food I choose to nourish my body. Now I am understanding that nutrition is more than putting stuff into your mouth.
What nourishes you spiritually? The Psalmist sings "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103, NIV) The prophet said that "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty." (Jeremiah 15:16, NIV) It's an interesting analogy, isn't it? God's Word as food and drink. Our minds and hearts want to be fed. We have a hunger for instruction, for knowledge of the way to live that lets us be satisfied, peaceful, and whole. We can temporarily ease that hunger with material that does not satisfy our soul.
But, when we consume the Word of God, He uses it to create a strong heart in us, to give us insight and discernment. As a shepherd of God's flock, I am concerned by the failure of many to 'eat' the Word in quantities that will provide real strength. Merely reading a few inspirational thoughts each day cannot replace sitting down to thoughtful meditation on the Scripture. A 'verse for the day' will produce about the same kind of strength that you would have if you tried to survive on a single vitamin tablet! Then, too, there are many teachers preparing meals for people but the 'food' they offer is tainted or diluted with human philosophy to great degrees. The "Word" they offer is junk food, tasty morsels that cannot provide nutrition.
Get two good Bibles! One solid translation (New International, English Standard, or even New Living) matched with a contemporary paraphrase like The Message are all you need to get started. Make a plan to read a portion of the Scripture every day, with understanding, allowing the Spirit to apply the principles of God's Story to your life. No one masters the Scripture or is mastered by the Truth in a month or even a year! It's a life-long commitment, with rich rewards.
Here's a word from the Word. I pray it challenges you to check your 'soul food' for nutritional content.
"Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws. I have suffered much; preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word. Accept, O Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws."
(Psalm 119:97-108, NIV)
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Monday, February 07, 2011
SuperBowl and Sunday rest
It’s over. The $300,000 commercials are being dissected. The halftime show that delighted and disappointed (A ‘who cares’ shrug from me) will be discussed terminally today. The men who strained to win a championship for the season will be taking pain-killers and either celebrating their triumph or regretting their stumbles. We all go back to work and life goes on. It was fun, wasn’t it? The anticipation, the jokes and jabs, the gatherings for the party. Events that allow us to break up the tedium of life keep us from turning into joyless drones. And that’s a good thing!
God likes celebration, too. Did you realize that? He inspired Moses to create a calendar for His people that included multiple holy days. It was the holy days in the calendar that caused the work to stop, that made a break. The Lord knew that we would tend to worship our work and play at our worship so, from the very beginning, He asked for one day in seven to be set aside as holy, a regular holiday break. The 4th commandment says: “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you." (Exodus 20:8-10, NLT) Our modern word ‘holiday’ is derived from ‘holy day.’
I am convinced that the New Covenant in Christ releases us from an obligatory observance of the Sabbath. Romans 14 is clear that every day is holy to the Lord, and yet we who are disciples of Christ need to remember the gift of the holy day, the importance of breaking into our work for renewal, for worship, to gather with other disciples for focused and intentional worship. The Sabbath principle survives in God’s plan for His holy people. From the 2nd decade of Christianity, the “Lord’s Day” was celebrated by gathering of Believers for worship and the ‘love feast’ and instruction in the Scripture. The Word strongly directs us to keep the practice, for our own good. "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." (Hebrews 10:24-25, NLT)
Few spiritual principles are more widely disregarded by 21st century American Christians than the principle of a day each week given to worship and God. The “Lord’s Day” has become, at best for many, “the Lord’s hour or two.” The day off from the factory or office turns into a day to shop, fix the car, do the laundry, get groceries … almost everything but rest and worship. And, we are poorer for our rejection of His gift of a holy day. We justify our neglect of our souls by pointing to the many responsibilities of our daily lives, and in so doing we are like the money manager who is penny-wise and dollar-foolish. Unless we are willing to put God first, we will never discover the order for life; the increased productivity He can provide when we live in His promised rest.
Disciple, honor the Lord with your time. Recover the principle of taking a day for worship and rest, a day devoted to celebrating His goodness. It’s not a practice that needs to be a dull duty. It’s a celebration of the goodness of our God, a reminder that He owns us, that He cares for us, and that we are eternal beings first, creatures of this present world second. Push gathering for worship to the top of your list of priorities and discipline yourself to spend the balance of your ‘holy day’ in hospitality, in service to your King, in renewal of the spirit by intentional pursuit of the Presence of the Lord.
The weekly holy-day is His gift. Receive it with joy.
Here’s a word from the Word. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give you insight as to the application of the principle to your Christian life.
“Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
Then the Lord will be your delight.
I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Isaiah 58:13-14, NLT)
God likes celebration, too. Did you realize that? He inspired Moses to create a calendar for His people that included multiple holy days. It was the holy days in the calendar that caused the work to stop, that made a break. The Lord knew that we would tend to worship our work and play at our worship so, from the very beginning, He asked for one day in seven to be set aside as holy, a regular holiday break. The 4th commandment says: “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you." (Exodus 20:8-10, NLT) Our modern word ‘holiday’ is derived from ‘holy day.’
I am convinced that the New Covenant in Christ releases us from an obligatory observance of the Sabbath. Romans 14 is clear that every day is holy to the Lord, and yet we who are disciples of Christ need to remember the gift of the holy day, the importance of breaking into our work for renewal, for worship, to gather with other disciples for focused and intentional worship. The Sabbath principle survives in God’s plan for His holy people. From the 2nd decade of Christianity, the “Lord’s Day” was celebrated by gathering of Believers for worship and the ‘love feast’ and instruction in the Scripture. The Word strongly directs us to keep the practice, for our own good. "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." (Hebrews 10:24-25, NLT)
Few spiritual principles are more widely disregarded by 21st century American Christians than the principle of a day each week given to worship and God. The “Lord’s Day” has become, at best for many, “the Lord’s hour or two.” The day off from the factory or office turns into a day to shop, fix the car, do the laundry, get groceries … almost everything but rest and worship. And, we are poorer for our rejection of His gift of a holy day. We justify our neglect of our souls by pointing to the many responsibilities of our daily lives, and in so doing we are like the money manager who is penny-wise and dollar-foolish. Unless we are willing to put God first, we will never discover the order for life; the increased productivity He can provide when we live in His promised rest.
Disciple, honor the Lord with your time. Recover the principle of taking a day for worship and rest, a day devoted to celebrating His goodness. It’s not a practice that needs to be a dull duty. It’s a celebration of the goodness of our God, a reminder that He owns us, that He cares for us, and that we are eternal beings first, creatures of this present world second. Push gathering for worship to the top of your list of priorities and discipline yourself to spend the balance of your ‘holy day’ in hospitality, in service to your King, in renewal of the spirit by intentional pursuit of the Presence of the Lord.
The weekly holy-day is His gift. Receive it with joy.
Here’s a word from the Word. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give you insight as to the application of the principle to your Christian life.
“Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
Then the Lord will be your delight.
I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Isaiah 58:13-14, NLT)
Friday, February 04, 2011
All You Need Is Love
Remember that old Beatles song? It’s simple, universal, and resonates with us. Love hunger is universal. Though it is often confused with other things; in our current culture that is sex, we understand love when we experience it and we respond. Last week my one year old grand-daughter, Adelina, visited here. She knew that Grandpa loved her and when she woke up from her nap in my house, she was smiling and saying, “Papa.” Why? She wanted to be loved! When I visit the elderly who are confined to the nursing home and share genuine interest in who they are, they respond to love and anticipate that little crumb of human care. In pastoral counseling, I find that the first step to helping another find wholeness is simply offering them love. It’s absolutely amazing to see how men, women, teenagers, and little kids respond to the love of God.
Love says to another – “You matter. I see you, not just what you do, what you can contribute to my life, or how you perform. I care that you exist.” It’s really rather rare on this earth, isn’t it? We get pre-occupied with our work, caught up in making life work for ourselves, or absorbed by our own interests and forget to love. It’s not that we intentionally are hostile to others, but even benign neglect is unloving!
Jesus told us a love story we need to hear- over and over again. It’s recorded in Luke 15. A son went to his old Dad and asked for his inheritance early. What an idiot! The father handed it over and the young man headed to the bright lights. He lived it up with parties and prostitutes. When the money was gone, the ‘friends’ he had found disappeared. He found himself alone, afraid, and desperately hungry. He hatched a plan. "I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’ “So he returned home to his father.” Part of his thinking was correct. He had deeply offended both God and Dad! He didn’t deserve a second chance. But what he had never really understood was the heart of his father. The story continues, “And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." (Luke 15:18-20, NLT) Restoration, not probation! Forgiveness, not reparations!
Scandalous, isn’t it? Hard to understand and yet it tugs at us, doesn’t it? That’s because Jesus’ story is about you and me. When we took the gift of life and misused it, we broke God’s heart by chasing after things that could not make us whole or happy. Then, we were convinced that He was out to get us, that He needed to be bought with gifts or goodness. What He really wants is for us to ‘come home!’ Will our choices have consequences? Of course, but He’ll love us through it all.
John tells us that "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." (1 John 3:10-11, NIV)
"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death." (1 John 3:14, NIV)
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (1 John 3:16, NIV)
"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. We love each other because he loved us first." (1 John 4:18-19, NLT)
So, here are two questions:
Will you look up and accept the Love of God, not bargaining, nor buying, but receiving the gift?
Will you then become a lover of others, giving them the self-forgetting, forgiving gift that you have been given?
Here’s a word from the Word. Long before John Lennon thought it, God said it. “All you need is love.”
"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13:1, NLT) "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NLT)
"Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13, NLT)
_________________
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game -
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time -
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be -
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Lennon/McCartney
Copyright 1967
Love says to another – “You matter. I see you, not just what you do, what you can contribute to my life, or how you perform. I care that you exist.” It’s really rather rare on this earth, isn’t it? We get pre-occupied with our work, caught up in making life work for ourselves, or absorbed by our own interests and forget to love. It’s not that we intentionally are hostile to others, but even benign neglect is unloving!
Jesus told us a love story we need to hear- over and over again. It’s recorded in Luke 15. A son went to his old Dad and asked for his inheritance early. What an idiot! The father handed it over and the young man headed to the bright lights. He lived it up with parties and prostitutes. When the money was gone, the ‘friends’ he had found disappeared. He found himself alone, afraid, and desperately hungry. He hatched a plan. "I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” ’ “So he returned home to his father.” Part of his thinking was correct. He had deeply offended both God and Dad! He didn’t deserve a second chance. But what he had never really understood was the heart of his father. The story continues, “And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." (Luke 15:18-20, NLT) Restoration, not probation! Forgiveness, not reparations!
Scandalous, isn’t it? Hard to understand and yet it tugs at us, doesn’t it? That’s because Jesus’ story is about you and me. When we took the gift of life and misused it, we broke God’s heart by chasing after things that could not make us whole or happy. Then, we were convinced that He was out to get us, that He needed to be bought with gifts or goodness. What He really wants is for us to ‘come home!’ Will our choices have consequences? Of course, but He’ll love us through it all.
John tells us that "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another." (1 John 3:10-11, NIV)
"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death." (1 John 3:14, NIV)
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (1 John 3:16, NIV)
"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. We love each other because he loved us first." (1 John 4:18-19, NLT)
So, here are two questions:
Will you look up and accept the Love of God, not bargaining, nor buying, but receiving the gift?
Will you then become a lover of others, giving them the self-forgetting, forgiving gift that you have been given?
Here’s a word from the Word. Long before John Lennon thought it, God said it. “All you need is love.”
"If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13:1, NLT) "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NLT)
"Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13, NLT)
_________________
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game -
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time -
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be -
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Lennon/McCartney
Copyright 1967
Thursday, February 03, 2011
End Times Fever
The Arab nations are in turmoil. Demonstrations in the streets threaten the governments in several nations and have already overthrown the Tunisian government. The state of Israel, always a flashpoint in that region, likely faces even more hostility if Egypt’s Mubarak is driven from power, since he has been one of the ‘friendlier’ leaders in the Arab world. Is this cause for End Time Fever to rise? Apparently some Christian ministers think so. I am not jumping on that bandwagon! A thousand other political upheavals over the last 60 years have supposedly been ‘the beginning of the End’ - the signal for the start of the final drum roll that announces the Kingdom. Yet, here we are.
When we are too quick to sound the alarm we risk deepening apathy about the wonderful promise of our Lord’s return if our warnings and prophecies turn out to be half-informed fulminations of fevered dreamers, more sensational than thoughtful. The Lord Himself cautioned His followers about being seduced by those who point to various ‘signs of the end of the age.’ “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities, claiming, ‘I am Christ, the Messiah.’ They will deceive a lot of people. When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Famines and earthquakes will occur in various places. This is nothing compared to what is coming." (Matthew 24:4-8, The Message)
The Truth that keeps us faithfully engaged with the work of the Kingdom; serving the poor, defending the weak, praying and working against evil’s death grip on humanity, proclaiming the Gospel that transforms, and pointing people to the Way of Christ; is that our future is secure in the One who loves us. Jesus taught that if our hearts are in tune with the Spirit, if we are holy in our words and actions, we will be ready for the King’s arrival! We don’t need prophecy charts and doomsday clocks! He said, "Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:32-36, NLT) Instead of playing guessing games around the political events, as interesting as that might be, we should live with our hope firmly anchored to the Eternal Christ even as we are doing what He taught us to do right now, right where we are!
Spinning wild theories about Arab Caliphates, Anti-Christ, and angelic armies sells books and raises offerings from the gullible, but these things do next to nothing in the true work of the Lord. They may give us a little soul shiver, even a kind of thrill that we may be the generation that sees the coming of the King, but if we pay too much attention to it all, we risk becoming so distracted that we are no earthly good to the Lord. End Time Fever infections have turned good churches into irrelevant little bands of kooky people who spend too much time peering into things that will ONLY be clearly revealed in the Father’s good time.
Jesus Christ will come back to this Earth. This is promise of the prophets of the Old Testament and the hope that underlies the eschatology of the New Testament. We cannot dismiss this doctrine. It is the Blessed Hope of the Church. It assures us that evil will be defeated someday and that which Isaiah so grandly described. "In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all." (Isaiah 11:6, NLT) "Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord." (Isaiah 11:9, NLT) Until then, there’s a lot of work to do, so let’s be about it.
__________________
But until then
My heart will go on singing.
Until then
With joy I'll carry on.
Until the day
My eyes behold the city.
Until the day
God calls me home.
Until Then
Hamblen, Stuart
© 1958 Hamblen Music Company
CCLI License No. 810055
When we are too quick to sound the alarm we risk deepening apathy about the wonderful promise of our Lord’s return if our warnings and prophecies turn out to be half-informed fulminations of fevered dreamers, more sensational than thoughtful. The Lord Himself cautioned His followers about being seduced by those who point to various ‘signs of the end of the age.’ “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities, claiming, ‘I am Christ, the Messiah.’ They will deceive a lot of people. When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Famines and earthquakes will occur in various places. This is nothing compared to what is coming." (Matthew 24:4-8, The Message)
The Truth that keeps us faithfully engaged with the work of the Kingdom; serving the poor, defending the weak, praying and working against evil’s death grip on humanity, proclaiming the Gospel that transforms, and pointing people to the Way of Christ; is that our future is secure in the One who loves us. Jesus taught that if our hearts are in tune with the Spirit, if we are holy in our words and actions, we will be ready for the King’s arrival! We don’t need prophecy charts and doomsday clocks! He said, "Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:32-36, NLT) Instead of playing guessing games around the political events, as interesting as that might be, we should live with our hope firmly anchored to the Eternal Christ even as we are doing what He taught us to do right now, right where we are!
Spinning wild theories about Arab Caliphates, Anti-Christ, and angelic armies sells books and raises offerings from the gullible, but these things do next to nothing in the true work of the Lord. They may give us a little soul shiver, even a kind of thrill that we may be the generation that sees the coming of the King, but if we pay too much attention to it all, we risk becoming so distracted that we are no earthly good to the Lord. End Time Fever infections have turned good churches into irrelevant little bands of kooky people who spend too much time peering into things that will ONLY be clearly revealed in the Father’s good time.
Jesus Christ will come back to this Earth. This is promise of the prophets of the Old Testament and the hope that underlies the eschatology of the New Testament. We cannot dismiss this doctrine. It is the Blessed Hope of the Church. It assures us that evil will be defeated someday and that which Isaiah so grandly described. "In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all." (Isaiah 11:6, NLT) "Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord." (Isaiah 11:9, NLT) Until then, there’s a lot of work to do, so let’s be about it.
__________________
But until then
My heart will go on singing.
Until then
With joy I'll carry on.
Until the day
My eyes behold the city.
Until the day
God calls me home.
Until Then
Hamblen, Stuart
© 1958 Hamblen Music Company
CCLI License No. 810055
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Rugged faith
“Pastor, I just don’t feel Jesus in my heart. I don’t know if can go on believing.” Comments like that reveal a basic misunderstanding about the nature of faith. Somehow the idea that faith is a feeling, that Jesus creates ‘good vibes,’ has replaced the faith of Scripture which inspires greatness, holiness, and steady commitment. Truth - the bedrock of faith is not found in emotionalism, sentimentalism, or even inspiring stories from Guideposts! Rugged faith is founded on God’s revealed truth, the holy Word. It is strengthened by daily decisions that are made in alignment with that Truth.
Many years ago I responded to the Spirit, trusted Christ with my life both present and eternal. I do not mean to imply I have found perfection! (Ask my family.) However, the overall course of my adult life has been the pursuit of the will of the Lord. Sure, there are moments and days when I ignore Him or miss His purpose because of stubbornness. But, when I feel conviction, when the Word and Spirit make me know that there is a gap between my profession and my choices, I repent. Grace is extended and faith is strengthened. So, today I stand in this time of trial, with a heart that is pained by sorrow, yet secure. I can say "I know Whom I have believed and that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him." (2 Timothy 1.12)
Paul urged a young pastor named Timothy to let a rugged faith develop. "My son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:1, NKJV) "You … must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." (2 Timothy 2:3, NKJV) A disciple who does all he can do to avoid hard choices and steep pathways actually has an under-developed faith. Taking a pass on service that demands sacrifice, running away from conflict that requires forgiveness, never facing up to the hard facts about our real needs and/or flaws, makes faith superfluous.
The wide detours in life that keep us on smooth and wide paths where we can perpetually sing happy songs makes our spiritual muscle tone non-existent. I’m not suggesting we live like martyrs, looking for pain, asking for misery! But, we need to obey today and that obedience will certainly lead us through deep valleys as well as onto high mountains. The Holy Spirit will lead us to disciplined development of character. He will take us through seasons that cause us to hunger deeply for more of God. This means we will live outside of our comfort zone on regular basis.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He said “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it." (Matthew 7:13-14, NLT)
If that seems to involve rigor to you, you're right. It does! Why work so hard to own what we cannot see or hold in our hands? We do so in order that we can own a faith that is rugged, up to the task of sustaining us in ‘the valley of the shadow of death.’ Disciple, do not be seduced by the preachers who promises perpetual youth, unending happiness, and untroubled days. Such “Christianity” is nothing but an expressions of sentiment. It is characterized by 'Bible study' that is nothing more than a superficial search for the daily promise, or a short reading of 60 words from "God's Moment for the Busy 21st Century Saint!" It lets the “Christian” leave real service to the lost and needy as a job for 'somebody with more time.' Pleasure and games replace worship. 'Faith' becomes a feeling rather than a conviction.
Here’s a bold prayer from the Proverbs. "Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" (Proverbs 30:8-9, NLT) Reflection will prove the wisdom of that prayer, though most of pray for more rather than for enough! We do not want grace for the trials. We want exemptions from tough times and a magic carpet ride to heaven.
If your life is blessed today, praise God and begin to 'lay up treasure' in Heaven, by building a rugged faith that will stand when the world around you crumbles. The steady practice of spiritual disciplines produces a harvest of righteousness from which we can be sustained in the lean times.
Worship faithfully, not the ‘god’ of your imagination, but Awesome Lord of Glory found in Isaiah’s visions, at the Cross of Calvary, and in the dungeon with Paul.
Learn the Word and really eat the Truth, meditating on it, so it is driven down deep to the core of your soul.
Don't let religious jargon that sounds like the real thing replace the Truth that will keep you in times of trials.
Here’s a word from the Word. Note especially the outcome of a rugged faith. “It will bring you much praise and glory on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9, NLT)
_____________________________
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found!
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
The Solid Rock
Mote, Edward / Bradbury, William B.
© Public Domain
Many years ago I responded to the Spirit, trusted Christ with my life both present and eternal. I do not mean to imply I have found perfection! (Ask my family.) However, the overall course of my adult life has been the pursuit of the will of the Lord. Sure, there are moments and days when I ignore Him or miss His purpose because of stubbornness. But, when I feel conviction, when the Word and Spirit make me know that there is a gap between my profession and my choices, I repent. Grace is extended and faith is strengthened. So, today I stand in this time of trial, with a heart that is pained by sorrow, yet secure. I can say "I know Whom I have believed and that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him." (2 Timothy 1.12)
Paul urged a young pastor named Timothy to let a rugged faith develop. "My son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:1, NKJV) "You … must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." (2 Timothy 2:3, NKJV) A disciple who does all he can do to avoid hard choices and steep pathways actually has an under-developed faith. Taking a pass on service that demands sacrifice, running away from conflict that requires forgiveness, never facing up to the hard facts about our real needs and/or flaws, makes faith superfluous.
The wide detours in life that keep us on smooth and wide paths where we can perpetually sing happy songs makes our spiritual muscle tone non-existent. I’m not suggesting we live like martyrs, looking for pain, asking for misery! But, we need to obey today and that obedience will certainly lead us through deep valleys as well as onto high mountains. The Holy Spirit will lead us to disciplined development of character. He will take us through seasons that cause us to hunger deeply for more of God. This means we will live outside of our comfort zone on regular basis.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He said “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it." (Matthew 7:13-14, NLT)
If that seems to involve rigor to you, you're right. It does! Why work so hard to own what we cannot see or hold in our hands? We do so in order that we can own a faith that is rugged, up to the task of sustaining us in ‘the valley of the shadow of death.’ Disciple, do not be seduced by the preachers who promises perpetual youth, unending happiness, and untroubled days. Such “Christianity” is nothing but an expressions of sentiment. It is characterized by 'Bible study' that is nothing more than a superficial search for the daily promise, or a short reading of 60 words from "God's Moment for the Busy 21st Century Saint!" It lets the “Christian” leave real service to the lost and needy as a job for 'somebody with more time.' Pleasure and games replace worship. 'Faith' becomes a feeling rather than a conviction.
Here’s a bold prayer from the Proverbs. "Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" (Proverbs 30:8-9, NLT) Reflection will prove the wisdom of that prayer, though most of pray for more rather than for enough! We do not want grace for the trials. We want exemptions from tough times and a magic carpet ride to heaven.
If your life is blessed today, praise God and begin to 'lay up treasure' in Heaven, by building a rugged faith that will stand when the world around you crumbles. The steady practice of spiritual disciplines produces a harvest of righteousness from which we can be sustained in the lean times.
Worship faithfully, not the ‘god’ of your imagination, but Awesome Lord of Glory found in Isaiah’s visions, at the Cross of Calvary, and in the dungeon with Paul.
Learn the Word and really eat the Truth, meditating on it, so it is driven down deep to the core of your soul.
Don't let religious jargon that sounds like the real thing replace the Truth that will keep you in times of trials.
Here’s a word from the Word. Note especially the outcome of a rugged faith. “It will bring you much praise and glory on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9, NLT)
_____________________________
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found!
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
The Solid Rock
Mote, Edward / Bradbury, William B.
© Public Domain
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Becoming an eternal glory
Once again I am on life watch, standing by to offer love and comfort to my mother. She is critically ill. Life has come to a standstill – a wait, a pause with purpose. Usually in my work a pastor my days are full of conversation, study, phone calls, and decisions. But, here at Mom’s place, I prepare meals, offer a drink, hold her hand, pray, and think- a lot - about God, life, choices, and mortality. Seeing the frailty of human flesh up close leaves no choice but to ponder life’s real questions. I would be a fool not to understand my own mortality and to ask: "Jerry, what are you spending your days to own? When you're the guy writing the last chapter, will you be looking for the rewind button, full of regrets or will you be at peace as you anticipate stepping from time into eternity?”
Most of accept, with few questions, that we should seek success, which is usually defined around stuff and status. We are programmed to get an education, choose a career, and start to work to create a stream of income. There is an unwritten but persuasive maxim driven home by a million advertisements: "If you get more stuff, you will enjoy a better and happier life." Sure, it's nice to have enough money to buy things we want, but there is a bargain with the Devil. As a result of our acquisitive ways, we have less time to enjoy the stuff we can afford and we must work harder to keep it all. It's a mirage, promising a satisfaction never found. We are certain that 'if we had more,' we would be able to create happiness. God’s wisdom says - "Life is not defined by what you have, even if you have a lot!" (Luke 12.18 The Message)
And, then there is this: even if we do a great job in getting it, keeping it, and piling it higher – someday we will leave it all behind. The government and our kids will divide the pile and what nobody wants will end up at the Salvation Army or on the curb!
What if we focused on an entirely different goal?
What if instead of getting things we worked with the Spirit to become somebody?
What if we determined that the measure of a good day was not the size of the deal we closed, the hours we put on the clock, or even the fun we had in some diversion; but rather determined by ways we helped another person feel the love of God, find real worth, and be encouraged? That will not happen unless we radically accept God's love for ourselves, becoming centered and satisfied in Him, made emotionally whole, forgiven of our sins, and freed from the tyranny of ego! That's the sense in which I mention -becoming somebody. And, we continue - becoming - as God leads us on.
How do we live a ‘becomer’? Becoming a real somebody requires surrender! John Ortberg (pastor and author) writes that "surrender is not passivity nor abdication. It is saying yes to God and life each day. It is accepting the gifts He has given to me - my body, my mind, my biorhythms, my energy. It is letting go of my envy or desire for what He has given to someone else. It is letting go of outcomes... Surrender is accepting reality ... the ultimate reality: I am a ceaseless being with an eternal destiny in God's great universe."
{When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back Into the Box, 2007, Zondervan} The deepest surrender, Ortberg says, grows out of the profound realization that I am not master of the game, Another is.
The depth of our surrender to Him directly effects the extent to which He is able to use us in His purpose of building the Kingdom of God - here and for eternity. Jesus says "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, 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 and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it." (Mark 8:34-35, NLT)
What would life look like if instead of working to impress others or building a network of power to defend our rights, we chose humble service without needing thanks or applause?
How would life look if instead of measuring success by our ability to make situations fit into our expectations we were content to place ourselves at God's disposal with no expectation other than to find the joy of obedience?
I hope this week is one that God uses to chisel another piece of the likeness of Jesus Christ into my life! Surrender, letting go of my will to find His purpose – this is my adventure of faith this week. I want, by the grace of God and the help of the Spirit, to live as a “becomer,” (not staying as I was yesterday, but pursuing Christ to become like Him today) for the glory of God.
Here’s a word from the Word. "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil (old sinful and self-centered ways) removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image." (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, NLT)
Most of accept, with few questions, that we should seek success, which is usually defined around stuff and status. We are programmed to get an education, choose a career, and start to work to create a stream of income. There is an unwritten but persuasive maxim driven home by a million advertisements: "If you get more stuff, you will enjoy a better and happier life." Sure, it's nice to have enough money to buy things we want, but there is a bargain with the Devil. As a result of our acquisitive ways, we have less time to enjoy the stuff we can afford and we must work harder to keep it all. It's a mirage, promising a satisfaction never found. We are certain that 'if we had more,' we would be able to create happiness. God’s wisdom says - "Life is not defined by what you have, even if you have a lot!" (Luke 12.18 The Message)
And, then there is this: even if we do a great job in getting it, keeping it, and piling it higher – someday we will leave it all behind. The government and our kids will divide the pile and what nobody wants will end up at the Salvation Army or on the curb!
What if we focused on an entirely different goal?
What if instead of getting things we worked with the Spirit to become somebody?
What if we determined that the measure of a good day was not the size of the deal we closed, the hours we put on the clock, or even the fun we had in some diversion; but rather determined by ways we helped another person feel the love of God, find real worth, and be encouraged? That will not happen unless we radically accept God's love for ourselves, becoming centered and satisfied in Him, made emotionally whole, forgiven of our sins, and freed from the tyranny of ego! That's the sense in which I mention -becoming somebody. And, we continue - becoming - as God leads us on.
How do we live a ‘becomer’? Becoming a real somebody requires surrender! John Ortberg (pastor and author) writes that "surrender is not passivity nor abdication. It is saying yes to God and life each day. It is accepting the gifts He has given to me - my body, my mind, my biorhythms, my energy. It is letting go of my envy or desire for what He has given to someone else. It is letting go of outcomes... Surrender is accepting reality ... the ultimate reality: I am a ceaseless being with an eternal destiny in God's great universe."
{When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back Into the Box, 2007, Zondervan} The deepest surrender, Ortberg says, grows out of the profound realization that I am not master of the game, Another is.
The depth of our surrender to Him directly effects the extent to which He is able to use us in His purpose of building the Kingdom of God - here and for eternity. Jesus says "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, 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 and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it." (Mark 8:34-35, NLT)
What would life look like if instead of working to impress others or building a network of power to defend our rights, we chose humble service without needing thanks or applause?
How would life look if instead of measuring success by our ability to make situations fit into our expectations we were content to place ourselves at God's disposal with no expectation other than to find the joy of obedience?
I hope this week is one that God uses to chisel another piece of the likeness of Jesus Christ into my life! Surrender, letting go of my will to find His purpose – this is my adventure of faith this week. I want, by the grace of God and the help of the Spirit, to live as a “becomer,” (not staying as I was yesterday, but pursuing Christ to become like Him today) for the glory of God.
Here’s a word from the Word. "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil (old sinful and self-centered ways) removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image." (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, NLT)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Don’t go it alone
If know me, you know this – I love my family! We love and bicker when we’re together. We cheer and critique each other. Nobody can get under my skin more quickly, nobody can hurt me more deeply and nothing gives me more joy than my families! Yes, I have two families; those with whom I am connected by blood relations and those who are part of my spiritual family. This means I enjoy a double blessing.
Yesterday, after the pastoral prayer at church, I was emotionally wrecked. The sorrow of my Mom’s critical illness and a few other stresses left me ready to crumble. As I walked from the pulpit, big Nate opened his arms and pulled me into his chest as if I were a little boy. His daughter and daughter in law extended their arms, too, and I found myself in an embrace of loving concern. I’m not the really ‘touchy feely’ kind of person! But, I found that embrace a precious gift; a non-verbal expression that spoke love to me. Prior to the service, Garry and Phil joined me in my office to pray with me and for me, offering support. For the rest of the day, I was comforted by the knowledge that I had a family, a community, that cares.
The Scripture uses familial language to describe the Church. In Ephesians we read that God "predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—" (1:5, NIV) Before time began, He purposed and planned a new community and called us to be part of it. Jesus told us that our deep love for one another would be the distinguishing mark that would uniquely identify us as His people. John calls us ‘brothers and sisters’ repeatedly and says that our love for one another grows out of God’s love for us. What a powerful truth. I observe it in people all the time. Those who are loved and given secure relationships as children become trusting loving adults who are able to form attachments to others that are mutually enriching. Those who are raised in insecurity are wounded, suspicious, and quick to offense and defense!
I pray that our church, just one small part of His Church, will continue to develop as a real family. Yes, the process can be messy. Misunderstanding arise. Different expectations stress the ties that bind us together. Dysfunctional people pour their pain into the family and without great grace we can be split apart. Then, too, we must be aware of the Evil one is always working to divide, to turn secondary issues into major ones, to fan the flames of jealousy into a bonfire of destruction. But, the Father of love is greater. The Word calls us to enter actively into the family!
"What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are." (1 John 3:1, The Message)
"For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other. We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time. The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead." (1 John 3:11-14, The Message)
Don’t go life alone. Cherish the community called – the church. Invest the time required to make it a real family. You’ll be blessed and a blessing.
Here’s the word from the Word, a prayer for His family.
"When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21, NLT)
________________
The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the word.
From heav'n He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
Elect from ev'ry nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses;
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With ev'ry grace endued.
The Church's One Foundation
Stone, Samuel J. / Wesley, Samuel S.
© Public Domain
Yesterday, after the pastoral prayer at church, I was emotionally wrecked. The sorrow of my Mom’s critical illness and a few other stresses left me ready to crumble. As I walked from the pulpit, big Nate opened his arms and pulled me into his chest as if I were a little boy. His daughter and daughter in law extended their arms, too, and I found myself in an embrace of loving concern. I’m not the really ‘touchy feely’ kind of person! But, I found that embrace a precious gift; a non-verbal expression that spoke love to me. Prior to the service, Garry and Phil joined me in my office to pray with me and for me, offering support. For the rest of the day, I was comforted by the knowledge that I had a family, a community, that cares.
The Scripture uses familial language to describe the Church. In Ephesians we read that God "predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—" (1:5, NIV) Before time began, He purposed and planned a new community and called us to be part of it. Jesus told us that our deep love for one another would be the distinguishing mark that would uniquely identify us as His people. John calls us ‘brothers and sisters’ repeatedly and says that our love for one another grows out of God’s love for us. What a powerful truth. I observe it in people all the time. Those who are loved and given secure relationships as children become trusting loving adults who are able to form attachments to others that are mutually enriching. Those who are raised in insecurity are wounded, suspicious, and quick to offense and defense!
I pray that our church, just one small part of His Church, will continue to develop as a real family. Yes, the process can be messy. Misunderstanding arise. Different expectations stress the ties that bind us together. Dysfunctional people pour their pain into the family and without great grace we can be split apart. Then, too, we must be aware of the Evil one is always working to divide, to turn secondary issues into major ones, to fan the flames of jealousy into a bonfire of destruction. But, the Father of love is greater. The Word calls us to enter actively into the family!
"What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are." (1 John 3:1, The Message)
"For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other. We must not be like Cain, who joined the Evil One and then killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because he was deep in the practice of evil, while the acts of his brother were righteous. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time. The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead." (1 John 3:11-14, The Message)
Don’t go life alone. Cherish the community called – the church. Invest the time required to make it a real family. You’ll be blessed and a blessing.
Here’s the word from the Word, a prayer for His family.
"When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21, NLT)
________________
The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the word.
From heav'n He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
Elect from ev'ry nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses;
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With ev'ry grace endued.
The Church's One Foundation
Stone, Samuel J. / Wesley, Samuel S.
© Public Domain
Friday, January 28, 2011
Dying safe?
Are you spending so much time avoiding risk that you’re failing to experience life at it’s best? I’m not talking about being stupid. Yes, it is prudent to wear your seat-belt when you drive. But, it’s tragic if you won’t drive more than 100 miles from home! It’s a good idea to floss your teeth and eat a balanced diet. It’s sad if you never allow yourself a piece of chocolate or a cheeseburger. Does every decision have to be driven by fear? I know people in their 50’s who won’t go out to dinner or take a vacation because they are afraid they won’t have enough money set aside for retirement. Some never let themselves fall in love because they are afraid of getting their heart broken. Others never have children because they are afraid their kids might turn out to be criminals. Each of these choices are ‘safe,’ but also limit the experience of a rich life.
If you choose to live as a totally committed follower of Jesus Christ, you will have to let go of the safety ropes! A life of faith involves a kind of risk. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1, NIV) Use your imagination as you read these words: "As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:18-20, NIV) “At once” these men responded. They did not question the compensation package. They did not talk it over with their advisers. They heard the Call, responded in faith, and ignored the cost.
Let’s be clear. Their decision opened up possibilities they could not have imagined, but it did not lead them into endless days of bliss. The faith choice did not exempt them from discouragement, from difficult moments, from struggle, or even from sorrow. In fact, every one of them found a life of much more danger than they would have known if they had remained with their fishing boats in Galilee! AND, they found life to the full, eternal life, living in the center of the will of God.
In the ‘faith chapter’ – Hebrews 11 - Moses is an example. We read that "By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. He chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. He valued suffering in the Messiah’s camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff." (Hebrews 11:24-27, The Message)
Fear is life’s worst motivator! Don’t let your decisions be formed by ‘what-if’ and ‘could be’ and ‘limiting exposure to risk!’ Listen for the call of God. Love with your whole heart. Get out of the house and do something creative today. Any attempt to live by faith includes the risk of failure. You might get it wrong if you try. You might go broke, fall on your face, and have to endure some ridicule. But, you will have really lived in the process.
There is an important footnote to all of this. I am not writing about selfishness or ‘just being yourself!’ Ignoring the cost of your actions to others, causing pain to your friends and/or family by your foolish desire to break all the rules or fulfill all your fantasies, is not at all what the fore-going words were intended to encourage. I am writing about a life of total submission! Yes, it is not unfettered Self that leads to the best life, but complete surrender to the mastery of Jesus Christ, letting Him lead. That choice is never safe, but always wise!
I want to leave you with this thought -
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the Unites States
If you choose to live as a totally committed follower of Jesus Christ, you will have to let go of the safety ropes! A life of faith involves a kind of risk. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1, NIV) Use your imagination as you read these words: "As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:18-20, NIV) “At once” these men responded. They did not question the compensation package. They did not talk it over with their advisers. They heard the Call, responded in faith, and ignored the cost.
Let’s be clear. Their decision opened up possibilities they could not have imagined, but it did not lead them into endless days of bliss. The faith choice did not exempt them from discouragement, from difficult moments, from struggle, or even from sorrow. In fact, every one of them found a life of much more danger than they would have known if they had remained with their fishing boats in Galilee! AND, they found life to the full, eternal life, living in the center of the will of God.
In the ‘faith chapter’ – Hebrews 11 - Moses is an example. We read that "By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. He chose a hard life with God’s people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. He valued suffering in the Messiah’s camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff." (Hebrews 11:24-27, The Message)
Fear is life’s worst motivator! Don’t let your decisions be formed by ‘what-if’ and ‘could be’ and ‘limiting exposure to risk!’ Listen for the call of God. Love with your whole heart. Get out of the house and do something creative today. Any attempt to live by faith includes the risk of failure. You might get it wrong if you try. You might go broke, fall on your face, and have to endure some ridicule. But, you will have really lived in the process.
There is an important footnote to all of this. I am not writing about selfishness or ‘just being yourself!’ Ignoring the cost of your actions to others, causing pain to your friends and/or family by your foolish desire to break all the rules or fulfill all your fantasies, is not at all what the fore-going words were intended to encourage. I am writing about a life of total submission! Yes, it is not unfettered Self that leads to the best life, but complete surrender to the mastery of Jesus Christ, letting Him lead. That choice is never safe, but always wise!
I want to leave you with this thought -
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the Unites States
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wise, or just smart?
Watching my daughter parent her two little ones during their visit in our home has been a delight. Maribel is focusing on teaching Devin and Adelina about character. It’s the little things she does – like reminding them to be thankful, causing them to understand the importance of respect, encouraging them to take care of themselves and their surroundings. She is laying the foundation of life for them by training them in something one author calls “intellectual virtue.” Michael Austin (Wise Stewards) says that intellectual virtue is an excellence of the mind that “enables a person to reason well for the purpose of living well.” (CT, January, 2010)
I believe that a major failure of American parents is that they seek to make their children smart by providing them the best education while ignoring the virtues that are the basis of true wisdom which governs the way of life. The emphasis is too often placed on what our children are able to do rather than on who they are equipped to become. Bereft of the ability to understand the real meaning of their existence because they are trained to think Scripturally, with God and His will as the roadmap for life, they chase after fulfillment in job titles, beauty, fame, celebrity, or materialism. In truth, genuine joy in life is much less related to what a person owns or his place in this world than it is in who he is on the inside. Even that cannot be accomplished simply by stuffing a little head with Bible verses! He must be turned toward the Son, his mind opened to the Spirit, from Whom he will receive Light and Life.
Moses directed the people of the Lord to parent with a view to more than future salary or success. “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders." (Deuteronomy 6:4-8, NLT) Let me summarize that passage – “Love the Lord and integrate that love into your everyday life!”
If you’re a parent, I encourage you to make ‘intellectual virtue’ a primary goal. And that’s not just for kids, either!
Let me ask you, disciple: Are you just smart or are you truly wise? Are you simply equipped with facts but lacking the wisdom to make choices that produce the best long-term results, the highest joys, and ultimately will allow you to receive the Lord’s commendation: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”? Be you 4, 40, or 84 – it’s never too late to turn your heart and mind to obedience to the Lord. As you kneel at the Cross, there is salvation, transformation, and restoration to full destiny available in Christ’s great grace.
Here’s a word from the Word. Meditate on the truth of it.
"I’m single-minded in pursuit of you; don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin myself bankrupt." (Psalm 119:10-11, The Message)
"By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path." (Psalm 119:105, The Message)
_____________
Be Thou my Vision,
O Lord of my heart;
Nought 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,
And 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.
Riches I heed not,
Nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance,
Now and always:
Thou and Thou only,
First in my heart,
High King of heaven,
My Treasure Thou art.
High King of heaven,
My victory 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.
Be Thou My Vision
Hull, Eleanor / Byrne, Mary E.
© Public Domain
I believe that a major failure of American parents is that they seek to make their children smart by providing them the best education while ignoring the virtues that are the basis of true wisdom which governs the way of life. The emphasis is too often placed on what our children are able to do rather than on who they are equipped to become. Bereft of the ability to understand the real meaning of their existence because they are trained to think Scripturally, with God and His will as the roadmap for life, they chase after fulfillment in job titles, beauty, fame, celebrity, or materialism. In truth, genuine joy in life is much less related to what a person owns or his place in this world than it is in who he is on the inside. Even that cannot be accomplished simply by stuffing a little head with Bible verses! He must be turned toward the Son, his mind opened to the Spirit, from Whom he will receive Light and Life.
Moses directed the people of the Lord to parent with a view to more than future salary or success. “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders." (Deuteronomy 6:4-8, NLT) Let me summarize that passage – “Love the Lord and integrate that love into your everyday life!”
If you’re a parent, I encourage you to make ‘intellectual virtue’ a primary goal. And that’s not just for kids, either!
Let me ask you, disciple: Are you just smart or are you truly wise? Are you simply equipped with facts but lacking the wisdom to make choices that produce the best long-term results, the highest joys, and ultimately will allow you to receive the Lord’s commendation: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”? Be you 4, 40, or 84 – it’s never too late to turn your heart and mind to obedience to the Lord. As you kneel at the Cross, there is salvation, transformation, and restoration to full destiny available in Christ’s great grace.
Here’s a word from the Word. Meditate on the truth of it.
"I’m single-minded in pursuit of you; don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin myself bankrupt." (Psalm 119:10-11, The Message)
"By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path." (Psalm 119:105, The Message)
_____________
Be Thou my Vision,
O Lord of my heart;
Nought 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,
And 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.
Riches I heed not,
Nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance,
Now and always:
Thou and Thou only,
First in my heart,
High King of heaven,
My Treasure Thou art.
High King of heaven,
My victory 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.
Be Thou My Vision
Hull, Eleanor / Byrne, Mary E.
© Public Domain
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Scarecrow in a melon patch
Today there is one organizing principle that stands way above every other thing in my life: the will of my God! It is the standard by which I will measure everything else. You will do it, too. Everybody does. We choose to buy this, to say that, to go there, to stay here – not as randomly as we might think. We are serving something or somebody. The question is not ‘will I serve my God?’ for we are designed for that purpose and fulfill it. The primary inquiry should be – Who is my God? The worshipper takes on the character of his god.
Jeremiah preached about the choice of gods sarcastically chastising his audience for their silly decision to serve idols.
“Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. … Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.”
No one is like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols. …
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King." (Jeremiah 10:2-10, NIV)
“Your gods,” he mocks, “are like scarecrows – can’t walk, can’t talk; can’t hurt, can’t help!” He goes to point out that because they serve fraudulent gods, they are “senseless and foolish.” Now you might thinking, “Jerry, this doesn’t apply to me. I’m far beyond carving a god and carrying it around for good luck.” Probably true, but have you made a god of Chase Bank, or the US Government, or your best friend, or your Self? Gods come in many forms. If your hope for the future relies on an increase in your net worth- your god is money! Whatever you’re organizing your life around, giving your best energies and resources to, and drawing your security from – is your god!
A god of gold will make a worshipper of greed.
A god of sensual pleasure will make a worshipper of gluttony or lust.
A god of reputation will make a hypocrite obsessed with social conformity.
The Lord of Glory will make a worshipper of who is filled with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV)
Jesus told us to carefully evaluate our words against our actions when it comes to declaring our God. Singing the right songs on Sunday does not make the Lord our God, He says. Getting involved with a missions project does not mean we love the Lord. Take a look. “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’ " (Matthew 7:21-23, The Message)
Who is your God?
It’s an important question with consequence in this life and eternity.
"O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago." (Isaiah 25:1, NIV) "You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. " (Isaiah 25:4, NIV)
_______________________
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks
You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Gotta Serve Somebody
Bob Dylan
Copyright © 1979 by Special Rider Music
Jeremiah preached about the choice of gods sarcastically chastising his audience for their silly decision to serve idols.
“Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. … Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.”
No one is like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols. …
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King." (Jeremiah 10:2-10, NIV)
“Your gods,” he mocks, “are like scarecrows – can’t walk, can’t talk; can’t hurt, can’t help!” He goes to point out that because they serve fraudulent gods, they are “senseless and foolish.” Now you might thinking, “Jerry, this doesn’t apply to me. I’m far beyond carving a god and carrying it around for good luck.” Probably true, but have you made a god of Chase Bank, or the US Government, or your best friend, or your Self? Gods come in many forms. If your hope for the future relies on an increase in your net worth- your god is money! Whatever you’re organizing your life around, giving your best energies and resources to, and drawing your security from – is your god!
A god of gold will make a worshipper of greed.
A god of sensual pleasure will make a worshipper of gluttony or lust.
A god of reputation will make a hypocrite obsessed with social conformity.
The Lord of Glory will make a worshipper of who is filled with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV)
Jesus told us to carefully evaluate our words against our actions when it comes to declaring our God. Singing the right songs on Sunday does not make the Lord our God, He says. Getting involved with a missions project does not mean we love the Lord. Take a look. “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’ " (Matthew 7:21-23, The Message)
Who is your God?
It’s an important question with consequence in this life and eternity.
"O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago." (Isaiah 25:1, NIV) "You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. " (Isaiah 25:4, NIV)
_______________________
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks
You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Gotta Serve Somebody
Bob Dylan
Copyright © 1979 by Special Rider Music
Monday, January 24, 2011
Purity is not just for pruds!
Bev and I went to see “The King’s Speech” and sat through the preview for “No Strings Attached” a film about two single professional adults who are sleeping together as the title suggests without any obligation. Their immorality is a source of much hilarity according to the trailer. Also over the weekend, media reported on a new MTV show that has been an instant hit among teens called “Skins,” which celebrates the party culture, including uninhibited sexuality, of American urban high school students. All restraint is gone. Sex is god in our de-spiritualized culture.
Even Christian teens are heavily 'sexualized.’ Most consume the media and entertainment of our culture with few filters. It should not be a source of amazement to us that our teens cannot understand the Bible's call to sexual purity. The message of the culture obliterates the truth of the Word. It isn't just teens that are effected, either. Pornography and sexually explicit material has invaded all of our lives. When I did computer consulting work from 1997-2000, I found evidence of pornography access on computers in every business to which I was called! Barna Research found that 38% of Christians in America think that there isn't really anything wrong with pornography as long as it doesn't involve children. Many call it ‘dirty’ but don’t think it’s really sinful. They fail to understand that pornography exacts a heavy price from ALL who become consumers. It is not a harmless diversion. Pornography drains away our wholeness - spiritual and emotional - one little bit at a time.
The Word tells us "There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others.
In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body." (1 Corinthians 6:16-21, The Message)
The answer to the flood of sensuality that surrounds us is not a retreat into prudery where all sex is dirty and/or hidden away. Nor is the answer to impose dress codes that laud yesterday's fashion. The answer is to know the truth about sex. Sex is God's gift to us for pleasure and to bond us to our spouse for life in an intimacy that mirrors our love for Him! Sexuality is not something Christians should avoid like a sickness, it is something we should celebrate, lifting it out of the filth of the street by our celebration of this gift of God.
What messages about sex are filling your mind, your home?
Are you becoming a victim of the porn culture- unaware of the destruction it creates in your soul - like the proverbial 'frog in the kettle?'
I strongly advise you to evaluate ALL of your entertainment consumption habits. Put filters in place that keep you sensitive to purity. Choose wisely what you consume! The fact that you're reading this means you have Internet access. Are you computers monitored to protect the kids in your home? Are you monitoring your own online patterns? Offer yourself - including your sexuality - to God and pray that the wholeness that is found in His ways will make your life a light in a world of darkness.
Here's a word from the Word. I pray you will conform your life to it today:
"You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world, such as, "Don't handle, don't eat, don't touch." Such rules are mere human teaching about things that are gone as soon as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, humility, and severe bodily discipline. But they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person's evil thoughts and desires.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power. ...
Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. ...
now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. ...for you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds.
In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you. (Colossians 2:20- 3:10, NLT)
Even Christian teens are heavily 'sexualized.’ Most consume the media and entertainment of our culture with few filters. It should not be a source of amazement to us that our teens cannot understand the Bible's call to sexual purity. The message of the culture obliterates the truth of the Word. It isn't just teens that are effected, either. Pornography and sexually explicit material has invaded all of our lives. When I did computer consulting work from 1997-2000, I found evidence of pornography access on computers in every business to which I was called! Barna Research found that 38% of Christians in America think that there isn't really anything wrong with pornography as long as it doesn't involve children. Many call it ‘dirty’ but don’t think it’s really sinful. They fail to understand that pornography exacts a heavy price from ALL who become consumers. It is not a harmless diversion. Pornography drains away our wholeness - spiritual and emotional - one little bit at a time.
The Word tells us "There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others.
In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body." (1 Corinthians 6:16-21, The Message)
The answer to the flood of sensuality that surrounds us is not a retreat into prudery where all sex is dirty and/or hidden away. Nor is the answer to impose dress codes that laud yesterday's fashion. The answer is to know the truth about sex. Sex is God's gift to us for pleasure and to bond us to our spouse for life in an intimacy that mirrors our love for Him! Sexuality is not something Christians should avoid like a sickness, it is something we should celebrate, lifting it out of the filth of the street by our celebration of this gift of God.
What messages about sex are filling your mind, your home?
Are you becoming a victim of the porn culture- unaware of the destruction it creates in your soul - like the proverbial 'frog in the kettle?'
I strongly advise you to evaluate ALL of your entertainment consumption habits. Put filters in place that keep you sensitive to purity. Choose wisely what you consume! The fact that you're reading this means you have Internet access. Are you computers monitored to protect the kids in your home? Are you monitoring your own online patterns? Offer yourself - including your sexuality - to God and pray that the wholeness that is found in His ways will make your life a light in a world of darkness.
Here's a word from the Word. I pray you will conform your life to it today:
"You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of this world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world, such as, "Don't handle, don't eat, don't touch." Such rules are mere human teaching about things that are gone as soon as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, humility, and severe bodily discipline. But they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person's evil thoughts and desires.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power. ...
Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. ...
now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. ...for you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds.
In its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you. (Colossians 2:20- 3:10, NLT)
Friday, January 21, 2011
Who Do You Look Like?
I looked into the face of my grandson and saw the face of his Mom when she was 5! Her DNA was giving shape to that little face. In a sense, he bore her image. His relationship to her is unmistakable. Now let me ask, who do you look like? There’s a line in a Christmas carol that poetically describes the mission of the Christ: “Adam’s likeness now efface, stamp Thine image in its place.” God created us to bear His image. Think of that. He comes to our lives, broken and deformed by a sinful nature, heals us, infuses us with new Spirit-life, and transforms our appearance!
In ancient times, the king would set up an image (TSELEM) of himself in every corner of his empire so people would know whose kingdom they were in. Just in case you think we’re past that kind of thing, take note that politicians still hang their picture in public buildings! For the same reason that a king places images of himself around so people would know who was ruling, God wants to stamp His image in you and me to show Himself and His reign to this world! N.T. Wright observes that ‘God has placed his own image, human beings, into his world so that the world can see who its ruler is.'
This is what God reveals in Genesis when He inspired this passage: “Then God said, "let us make human beings in our image; in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish..." So God created human beings in his own image, In the image of God he created them; Male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27) This is single most world-changing truth about human dignity and equality ever recorded. Imagine what it did to the heart of peasants and slaves when they heard that not just kings but EVERY human being was made in the divine image.
The fact that you were made in the image of God tells you not just about your worth, but also about your destiny. The main point of ‘image of God' language in scripture is not about some ability or trait we share with God, it is about the mission He has given us. God's plan was to graciously share His power through Spirit-breathed little dust bunnies. Through our learning, our work, our culture, our relationships, technology, the arts, medicine; we are- with humility - to add goodness and beauty to families and societies and creation so that God's whole project becomes a glorious delight to all who see it; “For the earth will be filled with the glory of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14) (Before you read on, go back and re-read that paragraph!)
Your destiny is to be contribute more creative God-given goodness to the earth than you can currently imagine; and to offer more earthy joy and gratitude to God than you can currently contain. Tom Wright has a beautiful picture of the IMAGO DEI. “Imagine God up above, the earth below. In between them, human beings are set at a 45 degree angle with a mirror.” Our job, our destiny, is to reflect the holy reign of God down on to the earth-to care for all of creation and particularly human beings the way God would want you to; and then to gather up all the goodness and delight of the earth and put it into words and offer it to God in worship.
The Bibles' language for this is: “you will be a king; you will be a priest.” Peter calls us ‘a royal priesthood… that you may declare the praises of Him who called you!’ This is not a solo act. We are to do this in community- a KINGDOM of PRIESTS.
• Are you letting the Holy Spirit do His work of the formation of the inner character—the spiritual formation— that lets the image of God (IMAGO DEI) be stamped in place of the sinful, broken likeness of Adam?
• Are you regularly and faithfully opening up your heart and mind to the Spirit in prayer, in Scripture intake, in worship (both solo and in church), in service to others, in meditation, in confession? We cannot make ourselves look like God, but we must be willing to let Him work deeply in us.
The ultimate destiny our Father has planned for us is revealed in this line from the Revelation: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the new city, and his servants will worship him...and they will reign forever and ever.” (22:3-5) And, we can start now, by leaving our old slave lives behind and letting Him raise us up to be seated in heavenly places.
(Today’s CoffeeBreak is a re-write of an article authored by John Ortberg, teaching pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church)
____________________
Make me more like You,
Jesus, make me more like You.
Give me a heart that filled with Love,
And make me more like You.
In ancient times, the king would set up an image (TSELEM) of himself in every corner of his empire so people would know whose kingdom they were in. Just in case you think we’re past that kind of thing, take note that politicians still hang their picture in public buildings! For the same reason that a king places images of himself around so people would know who was ruling, God wants to stamp His image in you and me to show Himself and His reign to this world! N.T. Wright observes that ‘God has placed his own image, human beings, into his world so that the world can see who its ruler is.'
This is what God reveals in Genesis when He inspired this passage: “Then God said, "let us make human beings in our image; in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish..." So God created human beings in his own image, In the image of God he created them; Male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27) This is single most world-changing truth about human dignity and equality ever recorded. Imagine what it did to the heart of peasants and slaves when they heard that not just kings but EVERY human being was made in the divine image.
The fact that you were made in the image of God tells you not just about your worth, but also about your destiny. The main point of ‘image of God' language in scripture is not about some ability or trait we share with God, it is about the mission He has given us. God's plan was to graciously share His power through Spirit-breathed little dust bunnies. Through our learning, our work, our culture, our relationships, technology, the arts, medicine; we are- with humility - to add goodness and beauty to families and societies and creation so that God's whole project becomes a glorious delight to all who see it; “For the earth will be filled with the glory of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14) (Before you read on, go back and re-read that paragraph!)
Your destiny is to be contribute more creative God-given goodness to the earth than you can currently imagine; and to offer more earthy joy and gratitude to God than you can currently contain. Tom Wright has a beautiful picture of the IMAGO DEI. “Imagine God up above, the earth below. In between them, human beings are set at a 45 degree angle with a mirror.” Our job, our destiny, is to reflect the holy reign of God down on to the earth-to care for all of creation and particularly human beings the way God would want you to; and then to gather up all the goodness and delight of the earth and put it into words and offer it to God in worship.
The Bibles' language for this is: “you will be a king; you will be a priest.” Peter calls us ‘a royal priesthood… that you may declare the praises of Him who called you!’ This is not a solo act. We are to do this in community- a KINGDOM of PRIESTS.
• Are you letting the Holy Spirit do His work of the formation of the inner character—the spiritual formation— that lets the image of God (IMAGO DEI) be stamped in place of the sinful, broken likeness of Adam?
• Are you regularly and faithfully opening up your heart and mind to the Spirit in prayer, in Scripture intake, in worship (both solo and in church), in service to others, in meditation, in confession? We cannot make ourselves look like God, but we must be willing to let Him work deeply in us.
The ultimate destiny our Father has planned for us is revealed in this line from the Revelation: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the new city, and his servants will worship him...and they will reign forever and ever.” (22:3-5) And, we can start now, by leaving our old slave lives behind and letting Him raise us up to be seated in heavenly places.
(Today’s CoffeeBreak is a re-write of an article authored by John Ortberg, teaching pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church)
____________________
Make me more like You,
Jesus, make me more like You.
Give me a heart that filled with Love,
And make me more like You.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
True assurance
When life gets downright gritty, down to the basics, on what will you stand? If you have not been there already, a time will come that tests everything you claim to believe. It may tragedy, it may success beyond your wildest dreams. It may be fiery criticism, it may be the applause of thousands. And, in the depth of your heart you will need an unshakeable assurance. What will it be? Some trust their intellect. Some trust their morality. Some trust their money, others their social status.
When the prophet Jeremiah delivered his sermons of judgment to God’s people warning them that God was done with their unfaithfulness, that He was going to let the armies of Assyria come down to reduce their cities to rubble, they responded with impatience, insisting that it could never happen to Jerusalem because it was the city of God, His symbolic dwelling place on the earth. Jeremiah said, "Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” (Jeremiah 7:4, NIV) History tells us that he was right! The city was destroyed, the Temple was razed!
Our Christian hope, our true foundation, is Christ Jesus and the salvation provided by His Cross and secured by His Resurrection! It is not our church membership. It is not the good vibes we feel in our worship experience. It is not our ministry or our service to others. In our humanity we like to hold onto tangible tokens that help us to feel secure. “Look at my good works!” we say, just like the Jews of old who pointed the Temple in the center of the city! “I’m indispensable to the work of God,” we think, “so how could He allow bad things into my life?” If this is what we think when everything shakes, when circumstances come that strip away our illusions and/or pretensions, we are stunned, left hopeless and dismayed. But, if our hope is in Christ alone, we stand secure though all crumbles around us.
Here’s how Jesus taught this Truth: “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 7:24-28, NLT) Paul, a man with much of which to boast in terms of heritage and religion said that he tossed all that aside. In terms of assuring his relationship with God he said it had the same value as dung! And he writes, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14, NKJV)
Are you defined by the Love that Christ has for you?
When troubles come, when success beckons you sin in pride, are you holding only to the One who loves you?
That is true assurance.
_______________
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song!
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground;
Firm, through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ Alone
Townsend
© King's Way - Thank You
CCLI License No. 810055
When the prophet Jeremiah delivered his sermons of judgment to God’s people warning them that God was done with their unfaithfulness, that He was going to let the armies of Assyria come down to reduce their cities to rubble, they responded with impatience, insisting that it could never happen to Jerusalem because it was the city of God, His symbolic dwelling place on the earth. Jeremiah said, "Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” (Jeremiah 7:4, NIV) History tells us that he was right! The city was destroyed, the Temple was razed!
Our Christian hope, our true foundation, is Christ Jesus and the salvation provided by His Cross and secured by His Resurrection! It is not our church membership. It is not the good vibes we feel in our worship experience. It is not our ministry or our service to others. In our humanity we like to hold onto tangible tokens that help us to feel secure. “Look at my good works!” we say, just like the Jews of old who pointed the Temple in the center of the city! “I’m indispensable to the work of God,” we think, “so how could He allow bad things into my life?” If this is what we think when everything shakes, when circumstances come that strip away our illusions and/or pretensions, we are stunned, left hopeless and dismayed. But, if our hope is in Christ alone, we stand secure though all crumbles around us.
Here’s how Jesus taught this Truth: “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 7:24-28, NLT) Paul, a man with much of which to boast in terms of heritage and religion said that he tossed all that aside. In terms of assuring his relationship with God he said it had the same value as dung! And he writes, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14, NKJV)
Are you defined by the Love that Christ has for you?
When troubles come, when success beckons you sin in pride, are you holding only to the One who loves you?
That is true assurance.
_______________
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song!
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground;
Firm, through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ Alone
Townsend
© King's Way - Thank You
CCLI License No. 810055
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Backsliding?
Have you ever been guilty of ‘backsliding?’ It is exactly as it sounds, sliding backwards from some higher goal. For example, I’ve backslidden on a dozen diets! With determination to shed that 20 pounds, I eliminate cakes, ice cream, and potato chips from my menu. I do my daily walk faithfully … for a couple of weeks. You know how it goes. More seriously, there have been habits I know are not consistent with my love for God. In some moment of conviction, I swear that I will change; and I do… for a few days or weeks. Alas, I confess that sometimes I slide back into the old ways. What then? Must I live in guilty fear, ashamed, loving God, but from a distance?
Let’s learn from an old story of amazing love! The Lord pled with His people to return to Him. “I thought to myself, ‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’ I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land— the finest possession in the world. I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’ and I wanted you never to turn from me.
But you have been unfaithful to me, you people of Israel! You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
But you have been unfaithful to me, you people of Israel! You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Voices are heard high on the windswept mountains, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s people. For they have chosen crooked paths and have forgotten the Lord their God. “My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.” “Yes, we’re coming,” the people reply, “for you are the Lord our God." (Jeremiah 3:19-22, NLT)
Again that final thought- “Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.” “Yes, we will come to you, for you are the Lord our God." (Jeremiah 3:22, NIV)
Spiritual fidelity cannot be sustained with raw determination or even behavior modification techniques. Every natural impulse tells us to get our act together and then to come and present ourselves to God. But, that is wrong. We bring our mess, our sin, our guilt, our shame to Him! Yes, that is the way to be cured of backsliding. The Cross of Christ does not offer grace to the whole and holy. There God opened the way into His holy presence for sinners, even for backsliders. John’s familiar words are often addressed as though they were an invitation to those outside of the faith, but a closer reading shows them to be words for Believers, wonderful words of promise.
"If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God. I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s." (1 John 1:8-2:2, The Message)
To whom does John write? “We” meaning himself and those in the Church that would read his letter. It’s an offer to backsliders! “Come home. Own your failure.” In that response of faith, the Spirit is given access to lead us forward. It’s so counter-intuitive to the way we normally attempt change, which is focused on trying harder. The Lord not only forgives, He coaches us into maturity and intimate love.
Do not misunderstand. Our backsliding has consequence and invites the Lord’s judgment. One only has to read the prophecies of Jeremiah to know that sin brings judgment. However, He is a gracious God, who loves us. "God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: “Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me— The very thing you’ve been unwilling to do." (Isaiah 30:15, The Message)
_____________
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou biddest me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome pardon cleanse relieve.
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God I come I come.
Just As I Am
Elliott, Charlotte / Bradbury, William B.
© Public Domain
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Fool’s Gold
Pyrite is the classic "Fool's Gold". Pyrite is so common in the earth’s crust that it is found nearly everywhere. It’s golden look, however, has made more than a few people think they’ve stumbled onto a rich vein of gold! Iron sulfide is often found near actual gold deposits which compounded the confusion of early prospectors.
How easily we can be tricked by the fool’s gold of life! I’m not talking about the obvious glitter and glam of wealth or celebrity. God offers us a rich life, deeply satisfying; His gift to those who will walk in His ways and make Him their true God. Self offers us another kind of satisfaction when we make it our god. Feeding our desires can provide satisfaction, too; and often one that is more easily and quickly available than the satisfaction that comes from Christ. But like pyrite, what we think is worth our great effort, proves to be worthless. The great tragedy is that many do not realize that they are buying fool’s gold until their treasure is all spent.
Jeremiah challenged God’s people to reflect on their lives. “My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." (Jeremiah 2:11-14, NIV)
"Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty." (Jeremiah 2:19, NIV)
Think today.
Have you mistaken speaking positive words for genuine faith in God?
Do you think you can find peace with God through being morally upright and somewhat nicer than the average person instead of through receiving the grace of Jesus Christ?
Are you chasing after a ‘spiritual’ experience that is nothing more than an emotional high, confusing the work of the Spirit with mere exhilaration?
Have you allowed yourself to remake God in your image and likeness (fool’s gold!) or are you humbly inviting the Holy Spirit to work a transformation of character in you – though it cost you dearly of the things most valued by others?
Follow the way of Christ. It is true treasure.
"The payoff for meekness and Fear-of-God is plenty and honor and a satisfying life." (Proverbs 22:4, The Message)
______________
How easily we can be tricked by the fool’s gold of life! I’m not talking about the obvious glitter and glam of wealth or celebrity. God offers us a rich life, deeply satisfying; His gift to those who will walk in His ways and make Him their true God. Self offers us another kind of satisfaction when we make it our god. Feeding our desires can provide satisfaction, too; and often one that is more easily and quickly available than the satisfaction that comes from Christ. But like pyrite, what we think is worth our great effort, proves to be worthless. The great tragedy is that many do not realize that they are buying fool’s gold until their treasure is all spent.
Jeremiah challenged God’s people to reflect on their lives. “My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." (Jeremiah 2:11-14, NIV)
"Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty." (Jeremiah 2:19, NIV)
Think today.
Have you mistaken speaking positive words for genuine faith in God?
Do you think you can find peace with God through being morally upright and somewhat nicer than the average person instead of through receiving the grace of Jesus Christ?
Are you chasing after a ‘spiritual’ experience that is nothing more than an emotional high, confusing the work of the Spirit with mere exhilaration?
Have you allowed yourself to remake God in your image and likeness (fool’s gold!) or are you humbly inviting the Holy Spirit to work a transformation of character in you – though it cost you dearly of the things most valued by others?
Follow the way of Christ. It is true treasure.
"The payoff for meekness and Fear-of-God is plenty and honor and a satisfying life." (Proverbs 22:4, The Message)
______________
Friday, January 14, 2011
Onward, Christian Soldiers
The Tucson tragedy of last Saturday fills the news. A loner who apparently lost touch with reality shot 20 people, 6 of whom died, including a sweet child. As happens with all of these tragedies, the blame game is being played out in the public square. Some point at the guy’s parents who failed. The Dems tried to make it about over-heated political rhetoric from the Repubs that drove the murderer to his desperation. Others have decried the lack of strict gun laws that let him buy a deadly weapon. What I know is that God weeps along with us. At the root of this tragedy is the same evil that causes a billion people to lie down in sorrow each night!
Evil is real, friend. We ignore it to our peril. When we fail to name sin and evil for what it is, when we think it can be defeated with more laws, more spending on government programs, more education or economic opportunity, we are only kidding ourselves. It is the Gospel of Christ that changes individual people from sinners to saints, and it is those saints who bring the rule of Christ to this world, pushing back the borders of evil with the power of the Spirit who fills us with love. If we turn the Church of Jesus Christ into a “bless-me” holy huddle, a kind of religious country club where we can be isolated from the ugly realities of the world, we are failing and are saying to our world, though perhaps unknowingly and unconsciously, “Go to Hell!”
In recent years, many have rejected the old militant songs like “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” Too war-like, they say. Perhaps we need a refresher course in Jesus’ words that are quite clear about the true nature of our mission – the defeat of evil by the establishment of His reign. His kingdom is one of love; but it is not a ‘soft lights, violin music’ kind of love! It’s a bold love that advances against evil. We don’t attack people. That’s wrong. We bring Light to dark places, we love the unlovely, we sacrifice Self to serve the least, the lost, and the lonely that they might come to know the One who cares for their soul. We teach a Biblical world view that runs directly counter to the materialism that shapes the thoughts of most. By telling The Story that we learn in the Scripture, we defeat the sensuality that is the spirit of the age. Where Christians do the work of Christ, evil is curbed.
Take time to re-read these familiar words. I pray that they will create a sense of mission in us, that the Church of Jesus Christ will renew her commitment to the true work of building His Kingdom, defeating the powers of evil.
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions." (Matthew 7:15-20, NLT)
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27, NLT)
"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NLT)
______________
Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before!
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
See His banners go!
At the sign of triumph,
Satan's host doth flee;
On, then, Christian soldiers,
On to victory!
Hell's foundations quiver
At the shouts of praise;
Brothers, lift your voices,
Loud your anthems raise!
Like a mighty army
Moves the Church of God:
Brothers, we are treading
Where the Saints have trod.
We are not divided,
All one body we:
One in hope and doctrine,
One in charity.
Crowns and thrones may perish,
Kingdoms rise and wane,
But the church of Jesus
Constant will remain.
Gates of Hell can never
'Gainst the church prevail;
We have Christ's own promise,
And that cannot fail.
Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before!
Onward Christian Soldiers
Baring-Gould, Sabine / Sullivan, Arthur Seymour
© Public Domain
Evil is real, friend. We ignore it to our peril. When we fail to name sin and evil for what it is, when we think it can be defeated with more laws, more spending on government programs, more education or economic opportunity, we are only kidding ourselves. It is the Gospel of Christ that changes individual people from sinners to saints, and it is those saints who bring the rule of Christ to this world, pushing back the borders of evil with the power of the Spirit who fills us with love. If we turn the Church of Jesus Christ into a “bless-me” holy huddle, a kind of religious country club where we can be isolated from the ugly realities of the world, we are failing and are saying to our world, though perhaps unknowingly and unconsciously, “Go to Hell!”
In recent years, many have rejected the old militant songs like “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” Too war-like, they say. Perhaps we need a refresher course in Jesus’ words that are quite clear about the true nature of our mission – the defeat of evil by the establishment of His reign. His kingdom is one of love; but it is not a ‘soft lights, violin music’ kind of love! It’s a bold love that advances against evil. We don’t attack people. That’s wrong. We bring Light to dark places, we love the unlovely, we sacrifice Self to serve the least, the lost, and the lonely that they might come to know the One who cares for their soul. We teach a Biblical world view that runs directly counter to the materialism that shapes the thoughts of most. By telling The Story that we learn in the Scripture, we defeat the sensuality that is the spirit of the age. Where Christians do the work of Christ, evil is curbed.
Take time to re-read these familiar words. I pray that they will create a sense of mission in us, that the Church of Jesus Christ will renew her commitment to the true work of building His Kingdom, defeating the powers of evil.
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions." (Matthew 7:15-20, NLT)
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27, NLT)
"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, NLT)
______________
Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before!
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
See His banners go!
At the sign of triumph,
Satan's host doth flee;
On, then, Christian soldiers,
On to victory!
Hell's foundations quiver
At the shouts of praise;
Brothers, lift your voices,
Loud your anthems raise!
Like a mighty army
Moves the Church of God:
Brothers, we are treading
Where the Saints have trod.
We are not divided,
All one body we:
One in hope and doctrine,
One in charity.
Crowns and thrones may perish,
Kingdoms rise and wane,
But the church of Jesus
Constant will remain.
Gates of Hell can never
'Gainst the church prevail;
We have Christ's own promise,
And that cannot fail.
Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before!
Onward Christian Soldiers
Baring-Gould, Sabine / Sullivan, Arthur Seymour
© Public Domain
Thursday, January 13, 2011
And Joseph wept . . .
Forgiveness is a precious gift and one that brings joy to both the forgiver and the forgiven. There are not many choices we can make that will return as rich a reward to us as the choice to release others with forgiveness. Holding a grudge requires constant investment of emotional energy and locks us into a fixed state that prevents growth. No wonder Jesus urges us to forgive those who trespass against us.
A Christian who has been forgiven by his Heavenly Father must likewise forgive if he would live in the fullness of grace that is offered by the Lord to him. That is why the Word urges us to "never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink." (Romans 12:19-20, NLT)
In the story of Joseph, there is a sad footnote about forgiveness. He brought his whole family, including the brothers who had treated him so terribly in his youth, to Egypt. After 17 years, Jacob died. Even though Joseph had been kind to them, showing no inclination towards revenge, those men lived in fear that he had not truly forgiven them. The Bible says they cooked up a lie and went to their now powerful brother. “Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said. But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?" (Genesis 50:16-19, NLT)
Lacking the godly heart of their brother, these men acted to protect themselves. Their failure to understand or accept Joseph’s forgiveness does not provoke him. Instead we read that ‘he broke down and wept.’ He felt sorry for the brothers who were still locked into a prison of fear and guilt by their failure to receive forgiveness and to forgive themselves! He shows us the true heart of a forgiver when he says that final justice belongs to God!
Disciple, are you hanging onto a grudge?
Are you trapped by some old debt, unwilling to either extend forgiveness or to receive it?
It’s time to change that. In Christ, we find complete forgiveness of our sins. The Word says, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:10-12, NIV) Knowing that kind of mercy and grace, we are then enabled to release those who have sinned against us into His hands, fully forgiving them. Will you? It’s a great gift to others and to ourselves!
Here’s a word from the Word. Receive it with faith and live in the joy promised. "But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” (Mark 11:25, NLT)
_______________
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt!
Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss.
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty Cross.
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! There is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within!
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?
Grace Greater Than Our Sin
Johnston, Julia H. / Towner, Daniel Brink
© Public Domain
A Christian who has been forgiven by his Heavenly Father must likewise forgive if he would live in the fullness of grace that is offered by the Lord to him. That is why the Word urges us to "never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink." (Romans 12:19-20, NLT)
In the story of Joseph, there is a sad footnote about forgiveness. He brought his whole family, including the brothers who had treated him so terribly in his youth, to Egypt. After 17 years, Jacob died. Even though Joseph had been kind to them, showing no inclination towards revenge, those men lived in fear that he had not truly forgiven them. The Bible says they cooked up a lie and went to their now powerful brother. “Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said. But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you?" (Genesis 50:16-19, NLT)
Lacking the godly heart of their brother, these men acted to protect themselves. Their failure to understand or accept Joseph’s forgiveness does not provoke him. Instead we read that ‘he broke down and wept.’ He felt sorry for the brothers who were still locked into a prison of fear and guilt by their failure to receive forgiveness and to forgive themselves! He shows us the true heart of a forgiver when he says that final justice belongs to God!
Disciple, are you hanging onto a grudge?
Are you trapped by some old debt, unwilling to either extend forgiveness or to receive it?
It’s time to change that. In Christ, we find complete forgiveness of our sins. The Word says, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:10-12, NIV) Knowing that kind of mercy and grace, we are then enabled to release those who have sinned against us into His hands, fully forgiving them. Will you? It’s a great gift to others and to ourselves!
Here’s a word from the Word. Receive it with faith and live in the joy promised. "But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” (Mark 11:25, NLT)
_______________
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt!
Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss.
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty Cross.
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! There is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within!
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?
Grace Greater Than Our Sin
Johnston, Julia H. / Towner, Daniel Brink
© Public Domain
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Human nature is persistent.
“Pastor, pray that …” and what follows is often a request for some change in life. I should not say this, but often my prayer is tinged with a suspicion that nothing will come of our entreaty. Why? Do I doubt God’s power? Not at all. The Spirit of God does transform the human heart, but not without some cooperation on our part. What produces my doubt is the knowledge that many people want God to do a magic trick for them. They seek to own the treasure of faith and/or character without any effort on their part. In those moments I feel like the alchemists of old of whom kings demanded lead turned into gold!
In the story of Joseph there is a little line that made me smile as I read it today. After his glorious reunion with his brothers, after the Pharaoh loaded them up with money and an invitation to come back and live on the ‘best of all Egypt,’ Joseph sent them away with this caution: as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!” (Genesis 45:24, NIV) Their actions over the previous several months as he had tested them revealed they were still selfish, sinful men!
They had grown older but they had not matured into wise men spiritually! How sad, but too often true of so many of us. Joseph, by contrast, had lived through terrible testing, the kind of experiences that destroy most people, and emerged with a stellar character, amazing wisdom, and deep faith.
Disciple are you just growing older in the faith or are you growing deeper and stronger, too? A long record of church attendance is no indicator of spiritual maturity. Are you still dealing with the same sins and habits that you wrestled with 20 years ago? Are you still crying out to God for a magic trick of deliverance, instead of working with Him for deep transformation of character into a person of steady faith, integrity, and humility?
The twin rails of spiritual change are prayer and practical choices! Without the intervention of Christ and the power of the Spirit, we remain in our sin, slaves- the Bible says – of a sinful nature that cannot change! So pray and accept the freedom provided by Jesus. And then, make the choices necessary. “Choose today whom you will serve,” was the challenge put before God’s people by an old man named Joshua whose life was a model of faithfulness for them.
Meditate for a few moments on this passage. Then, let God defeat the persistence of sin in your nature revealing the nature of Christ in you.
"Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." (Romans 5:1-5, NLT)
___________
Change my heart, oh God,
Make it ever true.
Change my heart, oh God,
May I be like You.
You are the potter,
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray.
Change My Heart Oh God
Espinosa, Eddie
© 1982 Mercy / Vineyard Publishing (Admin. by Music Services)
CCLI License No. 810055
In the story of Joseph there is a little line that made me smile as I read it today. After his glorious reunion with his brothers, after the Pharaoh loaded them up with money and an invitation to come back and live on the ‘best of all Egypt,’ Joseph sent them away with this caution: as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!” (Genesis 45:24, NIV) Their actions over the previous several months as he had tested them revealed they were still selfish, sinful men!
They had grown older but they had not matured into wise men spiritually! How sad, but too often true of so many of us. Joseph, by contrast, had lived through terrible testing, the kind of experiences that destroy most people, and emerged with a stellar character, amazing wisdom, and deep faith.
Disciple are you just growing older in the faith or are you growing deeper and stronger, too? A long record of church attendance is no indicator of spiritual maturity. Are you still dealing with the same sins and habits that you wrestled with 20 years ago? Are you still crying out to God for a magic trick of deliverance, instead of working with Him for deep transformation of character into a person of steady faith, integrity, and humility?
The twin rails of spiritual change are prayer and practical choices! Without the intervention of Christ and the power of the Spirit, we remain in our sin, slaves- the Bible says – of a sinful nature that cannot change! So pray and accept the freedom provided by Jesus. And then, make the choices necessary. “Choose today whom you will serve,” was the challenge put before God’s people by an old man named Joshua whose life was a model of faithfulness for them.
Meditate for a few moments on this passage. Then, let God defeat the persistence of sin in your nature revealing the nature of Christ in you.
"Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." (Romans 5:1-5, NLT)
___________
Change my heart, oh God,
Make it ever true.
Change my heart, oh God,
May I be like You.
You are the potter,
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray.
Change My Heart Oh God
Espinosa, Eddie
© 1982 Mercy / Vineyard Publishing (Admin. by Music Services)
CCLI License No. 810055
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
He sent me here!
The Lord can use even the unjust actions of evil people to accomplish His purposes in our lives. I believe that whole-heartedly, but living it out can be such a challenge. My natural response when someone takes advantage of me, or when they accuse me unfairly, or when they fail to keep the promise to me is to rise up in self-defense. If the situation is critical enough I might even start to grumble about what seems like the Lord’s failure to ‘take care of me.’
Many years ago, an egotistical, power hungry man I’ll just call Will entered the congregation I was pastoring. He challenged my teaching, worked hard to gather a following, and created all kinds of problems in the church. I prayed earnestly about how to preserve the flock from his harm. Finally the Lord spoke into my heart about some repentance that needed to happen in my own life with the promise that when I obeyed, He would take care of Will! I did, and He did!
Was God the author of Will’s sinfulness? Not at all, but He was using him to reveal a flaw in me. Once I was aligned to His plan, I could see clearly how to proceed and saw His provision for my situation at the time.
Joseph, the patriarch whose story is told in the latter part of Genesis, was cruelly treated by his brothers, rejected because he was prideful and favored by their father, Jacob. When they found an opportunity to be rid of their little brother, they sold him into slavery and he was carried off to Egypt. Years later, Joseph had become the Prime Minister of the empire and his brothers found themselves in his court. When they finally realized that the powerful man standing before them was the brother they sent to a living death, they trembled, waiting for retaliation. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping." (Genesis 45:4-6, NIV) God was working, all the time, in every situation.
Have others broken your heart, blocked your way, sinned against God and harmed you?
Are you ready to respond with hatred?
Are you tempted to abandon the Lord’s will and do your own thing to even the score?
Don’t do it!
Take a lesson from Joseph and do the right thing even in the most trying of circumstances. "Open up before God, keep nothing back; he’ll do whatever needs to be done: He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon." (Psalm 37:5-6, The Message) That’s not fatalism. That is true faith that waits on the Lord.
In time, you will see, like Joseph (though he waited two decades!) that God is greater, that His purposes prevail, that He is Lord of all.
Here’s a word from the Word. Pray it today! Learn it, own it, live it.
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust,
who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare." (Psalm 40:1-5, NIV)
Many years ago, an egotistical, power hungry man I’ll just call Will entered the congregation I was pastoring. He challenged my teaching, worked hard to gather a following, and created all kinds of problems in the church. I prayed earnestly about how to preserve the flock from his harm. Finally the Lord spoke into my heart about some repentance that needed to happen in my own life with the promise that when I obeyed, He would take care of Will! I did, and He did!
Was God the author of Will’s sinfulness? Not at all, but He was using him to reveal a flaw in me. Once I was aligned to His plan, I could see clearly how to proceed and saw His provision for my situation at the time.
Joseph, the patriarch whose story is told in the latter part of Genesis, was cruelly treated by his brothers, rejected because he was prideful and favored by their father, Jacob. When they found an opportunity to be rid of their little brother, they sold him into slavery and he was carried off to Egypt. Years later, Joseph had become the Prime Minister of the empire and his brothers found themselves in his court. When they finally realized that the powerful man standing before them was the brother they sent to a living death, they trembled, waiting for retaliation. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping." (Genesis 45:4-6, NIV) God was working, all the time, in every situation.
Have others broken your heart, blocked your way, sinned against God and harmed you?
Are you ready to respond with hatred?
Are you tempted to abandon the Lord’s will and do your own thing to even the score?
Don’t do it!
Take a lesson from Joseph and do the right thing even in the most trying of circumstances. "Open up before God, keep nothing back; he’ll do whatever needs to be done: He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon." (Psalm 37:5-6, The Message) That’s not fatalism. That is true faith that waits on the Lord.
In time, you will see, like Joseph (though he waited two decades!) that God is greater, that His purposes prevail, that He is Lord of all.
Here’s a word from the Word. Pray it today! Learn it, own it, live it.
"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust,
who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare." (Psalm 40:1-5, NIV)
Monday, January 10, 2011
I love you, Bev!
Today we mark our 36th wedding anniversary. Bev is the best thing that ever happened to me, my best friend, my partner. We share a ministry calling, four great kids, a ton ‘o memories, and love for Christ Jesus. We were just kids when we married - 19 and 20 years of age – but from the first we gave ourselves to Him first, and that has been the key to the endurance of our love. We know firsthand the truth that "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour." (Ecclesiastes 4:9, KJV) "And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken." (Ecclesiastes 4:12, KJV)
We sailed some rough waters over these years. Bev endured living with a head-strong young husband who mistaken thought that being head of the home gave him the divine right of a king! A year and a half into our marriage, she followed me, without complaint, across the country in pursuit of my dreams of changing the world, and today our Wyoming chapter, as we call it, is one of our treasured shared experiences! I waded through a decade of emotional upheaval as Bev struggled with the stresses of being 'Mommy' to four energetic kids. Of course, like most young husbands, I overflowed with compassion and empathy. (OK, I just lied!)
As we entered the second decade of our marriage a major change in career plans and financial situation left me fighting with depression. Bev stood alongside of me through it all, and was my most faithful advocate before the Lord. All four of our children were teenagers at the same time. To those who are parents, need I say more? Our innate styles of parenting were so different, we spent as much feuding with each other as we did guiding our kids, or so it seemed at the time. But, today we are friends with them all and proud of the people they have become.
The truth is I would not be who I am today with her. Our lives are completely interdependent, both of us stronger together than we could possibly be apart. So, here we stand at #36- so very thankful for the faithful care of the One who has led us all this way! I confess that sometimes I wonder what lies ahead in this thing called – life! Through it all, we have loved and laughed as our love grew mature. Yet, still it sparkles with the same kind of passion and excitement we felt as two kids. I love Bev today in ways that were incomprehensible to me 36 years ago.
Happy Anniversary, Bev – I love you!
______________________________
"Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies.
Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life." (Proverbs 31:10-12, NLT)
"She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.
She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness.
Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
“There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise." (Proverbs 31:25-31, NLT)
We sailed some rough waters over these years. Bev endured living with a head-strong young husband who mistaken thought that being head of the home gave him the divine right of a king! A year and a half into our marriage, she followed me, without complaint, across the country in pursuit of my dreams of changing the world, and today our Wyoming chapter, as we call it, is one of our treasured shared experiences! I waded through a decade of emotional upheaval as Bev struggled with the stresses of being 'Mommy' to four energetic kids. Of course, like most young husbands, I overflowed with compassion and empathy. (OK, I just lied!)
As we entered the second decade of our marriage a major change in career plans and financial situation left me fighting with depression. Bev stood alongside of me through it all, and was my most faithful advocate before the Lord. All four of our children were teenagers at the same time. To those who are parents, need I say more? Our innate styles of parenting were so different, we spent as much feuding with each other as we did guiding our kids, or so it seemed at the time. But, today we are friends with them all and proud of the people they have become.
The truth is I would not be who I am today with her. Our lives are completely interdependent, both of us stronger together than we could possibly be apart. So, here we stand at #36- so very thankful for the faithful care of the One who has led us all this way! I confess that sometimes I wonder what lies ahead in this thing called – life! Through it all, we have loved and laughed as our love grew mature. Yet, still it sparkles with the same kind of passion and excitement we felt as two kids. I love Bev today in ways that were incomprehensible to me 36 years ago.
Happy Anniversary, Bev – I love you!
______________________________
"Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies.
Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life." (Proverbs 31:10-12, NLT)
"She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.
She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness.
Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her:
“There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.
Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise." (Proverbs 31:25-31, NLT)
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