Mental Musings

Cabin Fever on Noah's Ark

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 18:24:00 +0000

Imagine being confined inside with the same people for 150 days. Not just the same people, but family. There are some things you would never say or do in front of friends or co-workers, but with family you have no problem letting your guard down.

Those annoying little habits, those little slips of the tongue, those momentary lapses in judgement may not get on their nerves during normal circumstances…but lock them inside the same ship with you for 30, 60, 90, 150 days and they might just be ready to jump overboard…or throw you overboard. That’s what Noah and his family had to endure inside the ark.

On top of that, think of the stink. The smell of sweat, the animals, hay, manure, and urine. The suffocating air of stench that must have permeated every nook and cranny of the ark. The restlessness of the animals and Noah’s family. 150 days without fresh air. 150 days of doing the same thing day in and day out. 40 days of talking about the weather, “Well…looks like rain again today,” followed by 110 days of wondering if they will ever see ground again. Yep, they had cabin fever.

Last week we looked at the life of Enoch, a man that walked with God. Enoch was the father of Methuselah, who was the father of Lamech, who was the father of Noah. The Bible tells us a little more about Noah than our previous two recipients of the Faith Hall of Fame.

While the world was wicked and corrupt, Genesis 6:8 says, “Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord.” He found favor with God because he did everything God commanded of him.

God told Noah that He was about to destroy the entire world with water. Every man, woman, and child except for Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives. Not only the people, but God intended to destroy every animal except those that he sent to Noah to save. Their means of salvation was an ark. God designed it and gave the blueprints to Noah commanding him to build it.

Genesis 6:22, “And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.” Time and time again in the story about Noah, the phrase, “he did everything that God commanded,” is used. Noah obeyed God and that is why he is listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.

⁷By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7, HCSB)

Noah Walked by Faith, Not by Sight

The first part of this verse shows us that Noah had enough faith to believe that God was going to destroy the world with a great flood. Something he had never witnessed with his eyes. Something he could not see coming. God said it would happen and Noah had enough godly fear that he trusted and obeyed.

Often throughout the bible the word fear is used to describe respect or awe. We tend to read the word fear and think that people only obeyed because they were afraid that not to obey meant they would be punished by God. Noah had enough respect and awe of God, he trusted that God would not lie to him, he believed that God would do as he said he would do, and therefore, he obeyed God’s commands. Can we walk by faith even if we have no idea what the future holds?

Noah’s Faith Condemned the World

For 40 years Noah built an ark; enduring the ridicule of those around him. Some people say Noah preached those 40 years trying to win converts to join him, but the Bible doesn’t tell us that. God said that He was making a covenant with Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives. Period. I think Noah knew that this ark was not meant for anyone else. Not for his grandfather Methuselah. Not for his father, Lamech. Not for his friends or neighbors.

Imagine the mental anguish that Noah must have felt day after day as he built the ark. None of his friends or extended family would be saved. Think of how he felt as the door was shut by God and everyone he knew aside from his wife, sons, and their wives was left outside.

That is why Hebrews 11:7 says that Noah condemned the world by his faithfulness. Noah didn’t actually condemn anyone to death. God did that. But Noah knew, nonetheless, that obeying God would bring about the death of everyone he knew. Can we walk by faith even though our obedience is continuing to bring about God’s final judgment on the world?

What’s Your Story?

What’s the story of our church? We want our church to be healthy. We want our family to be loving. That takes work. We must guard our hearts to ensure that we are creating a positive and loving atmosphere, not creating problems. And we must protect the church body from people that are detrimental to the health and stability of the church.

It has been said that when two or three people get together in a church, you can bet that one of them is thinking about starting another church. People have a tough time getting along when things are great. Toss in a few problems and the relationships get stressed. We get restless when we spend a lot of time around the same people week after week. Sometimes people are just waiting for a lull in the storm to make a run for it.

Author Richard Broholm once said, “The church is a lot like Noah’s Ark—if not for the storm outside, you couldn’t stand the smell inside.” The smell in the church, the day in and day out problems that we must overcome and grow through, will occasionally be difficult to live with…but remember the storm outside.

In a healthy church, everyone understands that we occasionally need our space. We know that everyone has good and bad days. We realize that everyone grows at their own pace. Some of the animals on the ark were better suited to wide open spaces and suffered in the confined space. The same is true of humans. Some of us need more space, while some of us need to be around people. Some of us need more time to grow in our faith, while some grow quickly and wonder why others are so slow. Some of us need to be encouraged and goaded to work, while others are self-motivated.

As a church, we must watch out for these types of destructive people and pray that we are never one of them.

The Pharisees

The very nature of being a follower of Jesus is judicial. We must come to an understanding that we are sinners in need of a Savior. We confess our sins and God is faithful to forgive them and learn to walk in His ways. Because we are keenly aware of our failures we are often quick to see the failures of others as well.

The church, like the ark, can be a very close, confining place. And it gets even more crowded when others are judging everything about your life. Judicial people can be a pain and religious judicial people can be impossible. The worst are those who think they speak for God when they criticize others. The self-proclaimed, self-righteous Pharisees or prophets of today.

The Relatives

Since the church is a family we can sometimes get on each other’s nerves. Mark Twain loved to misquote Chaucer when he would say, “Familiarity breeds contempt…and children.” Distance with relatives is essential for getting along. Families are close enough to each other to smell the garlic, hear the whining, and get in your business. More negative thoughts will emerge about people you know well, and you know family better than anyone else. But family can also be some of your biggest supporters and best advocates.

The Doubters

It seems that anytime you make a major step in faith, someone is there to bring doubt into your life. They are the doubting Thomas’s of the church: “Are you sure that we should do that?” “Can we afford that?” “I just don’t like change.” Not everything we do as a church will be successful and these people will be the first to remind us that they were opposed from the beginning. These people cause the church to hesitate often when God is telling you to move now.

The Vengeful

No one is more difficult to live with than a vindictive person. They seem to be in every church, family, or group. They get their feelings hurt and may wait for years to enact their retribution. Sadly, they often do not even realize that they are vindictive. They believe that they are doing the right thing because the person that hurt them deserves what they get. Others will often warn you to watch you back or be careful what you tell that person because they have seen how they attack and lash out at others.

We may want to simply avoid these types of people, but God wants us to find a way to draw them back into the family in a healthy manner…in spite of our cabin fever.

By Faith

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 13:05:00 +0000

I wanted to start today with a little demonstration. I have asked these brave volunteers to help me demonstrate to you the act of faith.

See video of message to watch the demonstration

2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith, not by sight. Walking by faith means that, even though we are unable to see what the future holds, we trust the One who knows the future, sees the path that we are to follow, and can safely guide us down that path.

Today we begin a 3-month journey through Hebrews chapter 11. We will learn the stories of men and women that had faith in God. We will also learn about your stories. The word story comes from the Latin historia, which means history. Today many people think of Bible stories as fictional or fairy tales. These stories that we will learn are part of a real history recorded by various men inspired by God to write them down in what we call the Bible.

As we begin this study, it is important that we understand a few things about the book of Hebrews. Nobody knows for certain who wrote the book. Some have suggested Paul. In fact, the original King James Version of the Bible listed Hebrews as an epistle of Paul. Most theologians

have shown that there is no doubt that Paul did not write Hebrews.

There are some clues to who wrote Hebrews. Chapter 2:3 shows that the writer heard about Jesus from someone who had heard the Gospel directly from Jesus. The original readers of this letter knew who wrote it because in chapter 13 he asks the readers to pray that he could visit them and that he hoped Timothy would join him on the journey.

So, we don’t know who wrote the book. What about the audience? Who was this letter intended for? We don’t actually know that either. The intended audience was probably Jewish believers with a similar background to those Jews who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were not eyewitnesses to Jesus, but they had learned of him from those who were. Among locations suggested are Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome, with the latter being the best possibility.

Why did I just take the time to tell you in detail that we don’t know who wrote the book and that we don’t know who they wrote it for? Because I think it is important for us to understand that while there are some things we will never know or understand about the Bible, we can trust God and His Word.

1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.2 For our ancestors won God’s approval by it. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by God’s command, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible. (Hebrews 11:1-3, HCSB)

Hope Comes from God

Eyesight produces a conviction about objects in the physical world. We understand certain things and believe certain things because we can see them. Faith produces the same convictions for the invisible. It produces an assurance that what we hope for will happen. [Anders]

The dictionary describes hope as a feeling or desire for something to happen. The Bible uses the word hope in a different way. Romans 15 says that our hope comes from God. Psalms 33 says that we put our hope in the Lord. If our hope comes from God and we put our hope in Him, then we have a certainty...not just a feeling or desire for something to happen. We can know that the God who gives us hope is able to do what He has said He will do. This is our hope.

Hebrews 11 is often called the Hall of Faith for God’s Chosen People. Verse 2 shows that these people we will read about won God’s favor. Many of these individuals were far from perfect people, but they won God’s favor because of their faith in God. Verse 3 shows that by faith, they believed that God was the creator of the universe.

Believing that God created the world involves a leap of faith. Faith points to an unseen power who made the world we see. By faith we know that all we see around us and all that takes place on earth came from one we cannot see. [Anders] Satan has and continues to do everything he can to shake our faith... starting with attacking our core beliefs in God as creator.

Science tells us that the universe and everything we see and know came about as a random act. Everything there is came from some small amount of matter and that the universe progressed along a wildly unpredictable, yet incredible path until life sprang forth from some ooze and over millions of years evolved into the intelligent life form that we call humans. With all of the scientific data that they have used to explain the universe, science has yet been able to answer one simple question: where did that original matter come from?

Creation Points to God

God’s Word teaches that the universe was created by God. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It was created ex nihilo, meaning out of nothing. Science cannot answer where the original matter came from because God created it. In John 1, we read, “All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.”

One day a group of scientists having discovered the ability to clone humans said that we no longer had a need for God because now they knew how to create life. God said, “I created man out of dirt. Let’s have a little competition to see if you can create life the same way.” The scientists agreed and bent down to scoop up some dirt. God said, “No, no, no. Go get your own dirt. I made that.”

The actual details of creation are something that theologians continually argue. Some say that you must believe in the 6 literal days of creation. Some say that the number of days is not important as long as you believe that God created. Some claim the world to be around 6000 years old. Others claim the earth is billions of years old. Some say that God created every new creature from scratch. Some say that God created new creatures through the process that science calls evolution.

It could take billions of years just to explain the various theories and thoughts from among the Christian community concerning creation. Perhaps because of the uncertainty of how God created, science has been able to persuade many more people to believe their Big Bang theory and their theory of evolution. How does a Christian respond when a scientist says that they can carbon date items with a measure of certainty and that some items have been found to be millions of years old?

My response is that I trust God who says He created the world out of nothing. If God could create a man that had the ability to walk instantly on legs that had never walked before, using muscles that had never been used before, with the appearance inside and out of a man rather than that of a newborn baby, then why is it so hard to believe that God can create a universe that has the appearance inside and out of one that is far older than it actually is?

Believing that an unseen power, God, created the universe out of nothing is an act of faith, and, I believe, is one of the primary steps of faith that we as followers of God must accept. If we cannot trust God’s Word when it says that God created everything out of nothing and that there is nothing that exists that God did not create, then how can we trust God when He says that He sent His Son to die for us? How can we trust Jesus when He said that He has gone to prepare a place for us? Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. God’s people lived by faith.

What’s Your Story?

That is their story. What’s your story? Beginning tonight, we are going to learn how to share our story. A story that should point others to God’s story.

Under Pressure

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 11:48:00 +0000

Anyone ever feel pressure? The weight of the world pushing down on you? IN 1982 David Bowie and Freddie Mercury wrote the song Under Pressure. In it they talk about the struggle of people on the streets. “Under pressure that brings a building down, splits a family in two, puts people on the streets.”

Pressure. It is a powerful force that has a goal of compressing everything down into the smallest possible state. It is pressure that caused my back problems. Two vertebrae have been compressed due to pressure to the point that there is just bone rubbing against bone and creating all kinds of pain in my back and nerve pain in my legs.

How do we handle the pressures of life? What do you do when a major problem arrives? When your world as you know it starts to spin out of control? Paul gives us some advice based on his own time under pressure.

¹⁸Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. ¹⁹Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. ²⁰For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should. (Ephesians 6:18-20, HCSB)

Handle with Prayer

Prayer should be the last thing we do. It should also be the first thing we do. We should pray continually throughout every day. Prayer is not some memorized recitation of magical phrases that help us overcome all of our problems, yet prayer is a powerful tool that most people don’t even think about until they are knee deep in a pile of their own crap being drug down by the pressures of life.

So tonight, we are going to learn the hows and whys of prayer. Not only that, but we will focus on some specific ways to pray that will help you prepare yourself to face the pressures of life, to help you stand strong when you are under pressure, and to overcome the immensity of the many pressures that you will face in life.

Why should you pray?

Prayer is our communication with God. It was God’s original plan for us to be in a relationship with God, like family or friends. He desired to be able to walk and talk with his creations. But sin separated us from God. When Jesus paid the price for our sins, it restored the relationship between God and individuals that are willing to accept His free gift of grace.

Now we have the ability, opportunity, and privilege to communicate directly with God once again. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways. Not everyone that talks with God will hear God speak to them in an audible voice. That has only happened a few times throughout all of history to those like Moses, Abraham, Elijah, etc.

For the rest of us, we must learn how to discern God’s voice among the noise of the world around us. This comes by spending time with God. Reading His Word, talking to Him in prayer, learning from the circumstances in our lives, and through personal insight that other followers of Jesus, pastors, and teachers might have to say to us.

How should you pray?

There is no specific method to prayer, but the Bible does give us some examples of prayers. When Jesus was asked how we should pray, He used an example that is known as the Lord’s Prayer.

⁹“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. ¹⁰Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹Give us today our daily bread. ¹²And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.] (Matthew 6:9-13, HCSB)

This is just a blueprint of prayer, not specific words that we are to use. So let’s break it down into the parts that we should include in our prayers to God. I like to use the acrostic ACTS to help me remember how to pray.

Adoration:we should begin our prayers acknowledging who God is; that He is worthy of our adoration and praise. Heavenly Father, you are holy, you are honored, you are great and mighty, you are awesome to me. You are the creator, the redeemer, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Prince of peace. You are the very air that I breathe. Tell God what He means to you.

Confession:God already knows our hearts, but He wants us to verbally admit our sins, our mistakes, our failures, and to own up to them with Him. Just as a parent who knows the truth from the chocolate smeared around your mouth, but still wants you to admit that you did eat the cookie that you were told not to eat.

Thanksgiving:Giving God the credit for all that He has done for us. Providing food, clothes, a family, even the air we breathe in order to live. It all comes from God. Thank Him for the work that He has done and is doing in your life; drawing you closer to Him. Thank God for the answers to prayers, for healing, for peace, for whatever you have asked God to provide and have then seen the results of those prayers.

Supplication:This is where we spend time with God, enjoying His presence, sharing our life with Him, telling Him our victories and fears, allowing Him to comfort us when we are down, drawing strength from Him for what we will face today, and asking God to help in certain areas of our life and the lives of others. We should also learn to sit quietly and wait for God to speak to us. You may never hear Him audibly, but you will learn to hear Him speak to your heart.

After all of this, you may still not be sure how to pray. The Bible actually teaches us that there are times when we are so stressed that we don’t even know how to pray.

²⁶In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for uswith unspoken groanings. (Romans 8:26, HCSB)

I have found that sometimes we can learn more about prayer by simply praying the words of scripture. What do I mean? As we read the Bible we will learn that it has many verses that are there to help us during times of difficulty and trouble. If you are feeling the weight of the pressures in your life and having trouble sleeping, read and pray the words of Psalms 4.

⁷You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and new wine abound. ⁸I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, Lord, make me live in safety. (Psalms 4: 7-8, HCSB)

Struggling with doubt. Read and pray the words of Jeremiah 29.

¹¹For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹²You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13, HCSB)

Many people find that journaling helps them with learning how to pray. Write your prayers to God as you would a letter to a friend. If that is too difficult, text a prayer to God. You might laugh, but there are people that really believe in texting a prayer to God. They even set-up a contact on their phone for God and they send Him text prayers often. One person gave 5 reasons why others should text their prayers:

1) It “de-formalizes” the conversation.

Texting my prayers helps me to approach God naturally and conversationally.

2) It helps me get straight to the point.

My texted prayers are never verbose or rambling.

3) It reminds me that God is immanent.

That’s just a fancy word for “right here.” He is not distant or hard to reach.

4) It helps me to pray at times when other ways of praying may be difficult.

Like in a business meeting or while waiting in line at the bank or in the airport.

5) It “catalogs” my prayer texts.

I can scroll back to see what I have prayed. And, while God hasn’t yet texted me back, I have often experienced answers to those texted prayers, which prompts new prayers of thanks and praise!

Whatever works for you, start spending time praying every day and see if the pressures of life seem to fade away as you feel the grace and peace of God in your life.

How to Feel Secure

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 18:32:00 +0000

What is security? For many it is knowing that they will have enough to retire someday. For others it is knowing that they are safe inside their home. Being secure involves one key element: preparedness. You must be prepared. Paul explains in detail how we may provide for our own security in this spiritual battle.

We live in a world of increasing immorality. What was once considered rude and inappropriate behavior in public is now encouraged and celebrated. What would have caused a person to die from embarrassment is now the thing that causes them to gain great recognition and achievement.

Our world is a mess. Many Christians have tried to make a difference in the political realm, yet nothing they do seems to make much of an impact on society? Perhaps it is because they are approaching this from the wrong angle. Christian author and theologian C.S. Lewis had some great wisdom that he shared about just this topic:

Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought the most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither. (Mere Christianity Book Three, Chapter 10)

Paul gave us instructions for focusing ourselves on the things of Heaven.

¹⁰Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. ¹²For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. ¹³This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. ¹⁴Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, ¹⁵and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. ¹⁸Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:10-18, HCSB)

Prepare for War

We are to wear the Belt of Truth buckled around our waist. Roman armor included a belt that was very much like those of today. It served one function: to hold the sword. In our analogy, the sword is the Word of God. There could be no better truth than that.

We are also to wear the Breastplate of Righteousness. A breastplate was worn over the shoulders and used to protect a soldier in close combat fighting. The Roman breastplate typically did not have a back to it, because Roman soldiers were trained to never retreat.

We are to prepare ourselves with Shoes of Readiness and Peace. A good boot will protect soldiers from many unseen obstacles as well as protect against extreme temperatures. Paul tells us that these shoes prepare us because of the gospel of peace. That probably seemed like a strange idea to people who were used to wars. Christ did not come to conquer the world with military might, but to bring “Peace and goodwill to all men” as the angels proclaimed at His birth.

The next piece of armor was the Shield of Faith used to block all of the attacks by the evil one. Most of the spiritual attacks against us will not come in close combat. They will come from those standing off at a distance shooting at us with fiery arrows meant to discourage and frustrate us. The shield, if used correctly was a trustworthy piece of equipment. If dropped or forgotten it became useless and the soldier’s fate rested with himself. We have faith in Jesus as our shield. We cannot rely on our own abilities in this battle.

The Helmet of Salvation is next. A helmet was essential in battle. It was possible for a soldier to recover from attacks that struck his body, but a blow to the head was almost certainly fatal. Paul uses the word salvation to indicate that the helmet is a source of total deliverance. It provides deliverance in every situation – spiritual, emotional, and physical – through Jesus.

The Sword of the Spirit is the last item usually listed. Paul explains that this sword is the Word of God. Remember, that the sword is held in the Belt of Truth. Hebrews 4:12 tells us about this sword: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

One part of the armor that I believe is often missed is what we are to do with our minds. We should have the mind of Christ. In verse 18 Paul tells us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, to always be alert and keep praying for each other.” I believe that this was mentioned last because it is the most important for us to remember. We often use prayer as a last resort in our battles, but it should be the first and last thing we do and we must continually do it.

With all of these things done, we will be secure and ready for battle. But God does not tell us to go rushing out into battle now that we are ready. In verse 13, Paul instructs us that after we have done everything we are to stand.

Stand Firm

God has already won the war and the battle belongs to the Lord. That is the reason that we are ordered to stand after putting on the armor. God did not tell us to go into the fray. Many people think that standing is much easier than going into battle, but that moment just before a battle begins is often the most terrifying moment. Even when fully safe and secure, standing side by side with fellow soldiers, when the enemy begins to advance many begin to have fears and doubts.

It is in that moment that we separate the men from the boys. Author J.M. Barrie created the character that never wanted to grow up. Peter Pan, also the title of his famous book, did not want to become an adult and be forced to deal with all the stress and struggles that came with the transformation. So, Peter found his way to Neverland where, along with his lost boys, he could remain a carefree child forever. But those who know the story also know that carefree was not all that it promised, for villainous Captain Hook constantly lurked around the corners, and then there was that tantalizing Wendy who stole Peter’s heart before he even knew what hit him.

Millions have seemed to follow in the footsteps of Peter Pan. People that no longer value the virtues of adulthood: especially responsibility, strong work ethic, self-dependence, selflessness, and community awareness. You don’t have far to look in our society before you see lost boys, and girls, running around everywhere. Grown men and women who want others to take care of their every need, lazy employees who could care less if they provide competent services for decent wages, people who constantly blame others for their problems, people who are more concerned about getting what they want when they want it regardless of who they inconvenience, and entire communities of strangers who are afraid to interact with each other. This infantile behavior has taken root in many of our churches as well.

Too many Christians would rather emulate Peter Pan than Peter the disciple of Christ. Too many Christians would rather act like lost boys than like those who were lost but now are found. Too many Christians never want to grow up and be responsible for following God’s commands to worship Him, follow Him, serve Him, and share about Him. We have become a kingdom of children in Christ rather than a kingdom of warriors for Christ. It is time to put down the pacifiers, quit complaining about life, and start suffering for the One who suffered for you. It is time to take off the pampers, put on the full armor of God, and stand firm among the ranks of those who are actively involved in the battle that rages around you. Make the decision to put away childish things and become an adult willing to help others do the same. When we take a stand for God He will do the work of changing the hearts of the people.

Where does this leave us? We must first realize that God is still in control, regardless of how desperate the times become. He has a plan and He is working His plan to completion. We also need to stay focused on the tasks that He has given to each of us. Jesus spent more time chastising the religious leaders than he did the political leaders. As God, He had authority over both groups, yet He was more concerned with changing hearts than changing governments.

We can be stronger in Christ when we put on the Armor of God and stand firm.

Family: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 11:59:00 +0000

Last week we taught about the foundation of the family.

¹Children, obey your parents as you would the Lord, because this is right. ²Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, ³so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land.⁴Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:1-4, HCSB)

The first thing to notice is that we are to obey our parents as we would God. I think this is pretty straight forward. If your mom says to clean your room, you clean your room. If your mom tells you to be home by 10pm, you get home before 10pm. If your mom tells you not to drink alcohol, you don’t drink alcohol.

Next we see that we are also to honor our mother and our father. Honor means to speak and act in a manner that brings them honor. Does this mean that we are to show honor even if had lousy parents?

The word “honor” does not mean that we tolerate abuse and obey our parents like mindless robots. It does not mean we have to love parents who chose to abandon, reject, or abandoned us. The original Hebrew word kābēd that is used for the word for honor has many meanings, including to “be heavy.” This can be interpreted as “giving weight to” or seriously considering a relationship. It does not suggest being subordinate or obedient to parents who harm us.

How can we show honor to our parents as young children? Obedience is definitely one way to honor your parents. Another is to speak to them kindly, rather than yell. To show them the respect that they deserve as your parents. To do nice things for them. To love them and allow them to show you love in their own way.

How can we show honor to our parents as adults? We can respect them even when it may be difficult. Never yell at or belittle your parents. They may not have been the best parents, but they loved and nurtured you in the way they thought was best. You survived, so be thankful and respect them.

Find ways to thank them for the good things that they did in raising you. Be there for them and help them physically as you can. Aging parents often need more help getting to doctor’s appointments, doing yard work, etc. Set some healthy boundaries so that you are not too intrusive in their life. They may need your help, but they don’t want you to treat them as infants. And don’t try to change them. Stop worrying about what they did wrong and try to just love them.

If we show honor to our parents, the Bible promises that things will go well with us. In other words, life will be better and less stressful.

But just as with the relationship with the husband and wife, Paul feels compelled to give a warning to fathers for how they should treat their children. Paul says not to stir up anger in your children. Some translations say not to antagonize your kids.

Why would Paul only say this to dads? Some believe it is because Fathers are the spiritual head of the household and are to be an example to their children. Others say it is because dads love to tease and pick on their children. Still others think it is because dads are the ones that typically tell their children to grow up and stop acting like a child.

Regardless of his intent, we can say that this verse speaks volumes to our culture where many dads do things to make their children angry. Biological fathers that abandon their family. Deadbeat dads that won’t get off their butts to support their family. Dads that haven’t grown up themselves and spend most of their time playing video games rather than spending time with their kids. Or dads that spent too much time at work neglecting their kids.

Studies have shown that children are typically better adjusted and happier when they have both a mom and dad in their life. So, Paul is telling us that families are stronger when children obey and honor their parents and when dads love and care enough for their kids to not act in a way that makes them angry. Children are often a reflection of their parents. If we want to grow stronger children, we need to have stronger moms and dads.

Family: Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:07:00 +0000

What is a family?

“Families can be difficult, they can be comforting, they can be frustrating, they can be wonderful. Love 'em or hate 'em, families are one of the biggest influences on our lives. So much of our personalities, our emotions, our dreams, our fears, all come from our families.

“So, with something so important, naturally, social scientists need to define it. A family, by definition, is a group of people affiliated by a specific relationship. Basically, the family is the most fundamental unit of social organization that with which we most intimately identify. Your family influences your personal, emotional, intellectual, and social development, so if you really need to know who you are, look no further. It really is all in the family. (Christopher Muscato, professor at University of Northern Colorado)

God gave us some important instructions for the family. Today we focus on the core of the family: husbands and wives. Many families in our area and throughout the world no longer have this core foundational part of the family. God’s intention and plan was for the family to begin with a husband and a wife. The coupling of man and woman together into a single unit called marriage is something that God designed.

²¹submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. ²²Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, ²³for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body.²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:21-24)

Submit

This one word has caused so much frustration, fear, and even failure among marriages. The word submit is not a word that we like to use. Most people like to feel independent of others with no need of their help or guidance, especially in the United States where we emphasize our freedoms. Submission doesn’t seem to go hand in hand with freedom. But when we understand the overall message what Paul calls this mystery in verse 32, we should better be able to accept our call to submit.

First thing I want to remind you is that we cannot take one verse or one passage of the Bible and make concrete statements without considering the rest of God’s Word. The message of the New Testament and the new covenant of God clearly shows that we have been given great freedom through Jesus. It also shows that we have been bought out of our slavery to sin and death when we choose to ask God to forgive us and let Him be the boss of our lives.

A boss is someone that, like it or not, we must submit to his or her authority. They have the right based on their position to make decisions and to organize the work that needs to be done in order to accomplish the goals of the business. The same is true with our relationship to God and with our relationships to each other. We all must learn how to submit: at work, at school, in groups, at church, and in the home.

Submission to God seems easy, yet we fail at it every time we choose to ignore His commands and do our own thing. If we can’t even trust God enough to always submit to His authority, imagine how much more difficult it is for us to submit to the authority of other humans who are just as fallible as we are. And then God asks women to submit to their husbands.

“However, in the overall scheme of things, God has placed all of us in differing positions of authority and submission. The man may be in authority at home but submissive at work. The woman may be in submission at home and in authority at work.” (Max Anders)

Later in this passage Paul uses a different word for submit that helps to relax the struggle that many women have about submitting to their husband. He says that wives are to respect their husbands.

“This does not mean that she submits to her husband in the same way and to the same degree as she does the Lord, since the husband might ask her to disobey God. Rather she serves the Lord by having a submissive heart toward her husband and by obeying him as long as it does not require her to disobey the Lord.” (Max Anders)

If you think submission is a difficult thing, look at the instructions that Paul gives to the men. He only used 2 short verses about how wives are to relate to their husbands, but it takes him 6 verses to explain the man’s role in the family.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. ²⁷He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. ²⁸In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, ³⁰since we are members of His body.

Love

You thought submission was difficult, imagine loving someone so much that you would be willing to die for them so that they can become a better person. That is the love that Paul describes here. Husbands are to love their wives enough that they would be willing to die for them.

Why did Paul tell men to love their wives as they love their own bodies? Because men have no problem feeding their own desires, whether it is with food, entertainment, sex, or just laziness. Paul said that the same amount of love that they have for themselves, they should use to love their wives. To adore her enough to care about her needs, wants, and desires.

Women are called to respect, but men are called to love. Respect shows an understanding that someone else has authority over certain areas. Love shows that you are fully devoted to that person’s best interests. If a husband loves his wife, does everything within his ability to make sure that she lives a happy, safe, productive life, then it should be easy for his wife to respect him.

If a husband loves his wife just as Jesus loves the church, she will be a better person. She will not live in fear, she will have joy, she will have freedom, she will have support, she will have strength, she will be made complete. Just as we are because of Jesus’ love for us. What does it mean to love? Look at 1 Corinthians 13:

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not conceited,

⁵does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs. ⁶Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.

⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8

That is the role that husbands are called to in the marriage. If a man loves his wife in this way, she would have no reason to fear showing respect for him.

³¹For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,

and the two will become one flesh. ³²This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:21-32, HCSB)

Sum

Paul concludes by giving us a summation of what he has explained. In this he explains that marriage is actually a symbol of our relationship with Jesus. The Bible refers to the church, or those that believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, as the bride of Christ. We are called to leave our past and become one with Christ. Just as a man leaves his past, his parents, and is joined with his wife to become one.

Paul calls it a mystery, but it is a beautiful display of God’s love for us. The Bible is often referred to as God’s love letter to His church, His bride. Jesus loved His bride so much that He chased after her, He died for her, He restored her relationship with her Father, He loved her enough to make her pure and holy, He continually loves her so that she will become better and stronger and draw her closer to Him.

That is the calling of every husband. Man, our job is difficult. To love our wives as much as Jesus loves us. The calling for every wife is to love her husband enough to respect him. This all starts with our understanding that we must be willing to submit to one another out of our respect of God.

Sola Fide

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 12:07:00 +0000

Everyone has felt the sting of rejection. Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because the editor felt he lacked imagination before going on to create the highly imaginative Disney company. Oprah Winfrey was fired as a news reporter because she was too emotional attached to her stories before she made it big as a talk show host. After a performance at the Grand Old Opry, Elvis Presley was told that he should return to Memphis and drive trucks for a living because he would never make it in music. Lucille Ball’s drama instructors tried to get her to go into another field because she just didn’t have what it takes to be an actress.

¹ I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience is testifying to me with the Holy Spirit— ²that I have intense sorrow and continual anguish in my heart. ³For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood. (Romans 9:1-3)

Israel’s Rejection

Today we take a look at God’s path of grace as we see Israel’s rejection and learn something wonderful about God’s grace. Paul begins in Chapter 9 by sharing how Israel rejected the Messiah and that he grieves over their rejection. His grief is such that he says he almost wishes to be cursed and cut off from God’s grace if only it would save his fellow Israelites.

He continues in this chapter to show that God chose Israel to be His people, but that they rejected Him time and time again, eventually rejecting His Messiah that was sent to save them. Have you ever just thought to yourself while reading about the many times throughout the Old Testament that Israel rejected God, “If I was God I would have turned away from Israel long ago and chosen another nation to be my people? Thankfully God didn’t reject Israel simply because they rejected Him. He still hasn’t rejected them as He continues to call them to repentance even to this day.

¹⁵For He tells Moses: I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ¹⁶So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture tells Pharaoh: I raised you up for this reason so that I may display My power in you and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth. ¹⁸So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden. (Romans 9:15-18)

This may seem cruel to us, but God has a purpose and a plan in place for everything and everyone. All are chosen to show God’s power, authority, righteousness, and glory. Even the bad things that happen in life can be used by God to show his glory.

³⁰What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. ³¹But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. ³²Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. (Romans 9:30-32)

Chapter 10: ⁹If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. ¹¹Now the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on Him will not be put to shame, ¹²for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. ¹³For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13)

Gentile’s Gain

In Romans 9 Paul used the words of the prophets Isaiah and Hosea to show that God already knew that Israel would reject the Messiah. Nothing surprises God, because He is Omniscient, all knowing.

God chose Israel to be His people to receive His blessings, His salvation, and His grace. But after they chose to reject His Messiah, God sent Paul and Barnabas and Mark and Peter and many others out into the highways and byways to compel others to come into His household. Jesus foretold this turn of events in Luke 14 as he described the great banquet feast. The chosen ones refused to attend for one reason or another. They rejected the master’s call, so he called to the sick, the lame, the poor, the blind, any that would come and sit at his table. God showed His grace to the non-Jews.

We learned in Acts that God offered His salvation as a gift for all people and that we are to work at calling all people to righteousness. And how do we receive righteousness? By faith alone. It does not require adherence to the law. The law that Paul is speaking about are the 613 mitzvots or commands that the people of Israel were expected to obey. These laws were believed to be the way that Jews could become right with God. They include everything about sacrifices, feasts, festivals, attitudes, treatment of wives, slaves, property, etc.

Paul said that the Jews who pursued righteousness by way of the mitzvot, have not obtained righteousness, while the non-Jews who did not pursue righteousness by way of the mitzvot, have obtained righteousness by God. It is not about following the mitzvot, which Romans 9:32 says is equivalent to trying to work your way into heaven. We obtain righteousness only in one way: by faith alone. Sola Fide.

Sola Fide is a foundational belief of Reformation theology. It was a result of studying Romans that Martin Luther came to believe that his salvation was a gift of grace provided by God alone and not a result of anything that he could do.

In other words, Paul is saying that righteousness is not bound by the laws of Israel, the traditions of the Jewish people, because righteousness comes only by faith in the Messiah who provided one salvation for all people, Jews and non-Jews, through faith alone. Paul shows here that there is no need to add the requirements, the laws, of the Jewish faith to the message of salvation.

Trust and Obey

Some religions teach that you must act certain ways, wear certain clothes, conform to a certain lifestyle in order to be saved. God said you only need faith for righteousness, to be made right with God. Whenever there is doubt or disagreement concerning anything from the Bible, I always go with what God had to say. We are not bound by traditions or rules or man-made expectations.

The Bible also says that we are called into a relationship with God and that He will direct our paths. Why? So that we can learn to obey God’s commands. Which commands? All of them. Jesus knew that the Jews had taken God’s commands and added hundreds of unnecessary requirements, restrictions, and traditions that had become a burden to His chosen people, so, Jesus made it simple for us. When he was asked what the greatest command of all was, Jesus replied,

³⁷“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the greatest and most important command.³⁹The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

If we focus on these two things, love God and love others, we are bound to obey all of God’s commands. You cannot love God and worship other gods. You cannot love others and steal from them or hurt them. Jesus provided so much freedom here, but He also provided us with a road map for our process of sanctification: being made holy by God so that we can be used by God in order to bring glory to God.

Not only have we been called to trust God, but to obey God. Jesus is not only our way to salvation, but He is also our leader, our boss, our Lord. We have been bought out of our slavery to sin and we have been made adopted sons and daughters of the King. All this has been done by our faith alone. And as children of the King, we each have the responsibility to obey the King. David Platt, recent past-president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission’s Board, had this to say about Sola Fide:

Do not give into the subtle temptation to embrace justification by faith alone, yet try and do life and ministry in the flesh alone. Christ loved you enough to die for you two thousand years ago, and Christ loves you enough to live in you today, to enable you with his sustenance and empower you with his strength.

Every step we take away from the cross of Calvary, we take in the same faith that brought us to the feet of Christ. Our every move is made in the full assurance of Christ’s power, the complete sufficiency of his sacrifice, and the overwhelming joy of his victory.

We have been made right with God through our faith in Jesus, the Messiah, and we use that same faith to live our lives for Jesus as we trust and obey.

Consistency

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 13:01:00 +0000

Have you ever known someone who was not very consistent? You know the type: not dependable, always late, rarely finish assigned tasks, float from job to job and relationship to relationship, and never seem to do what they say they will do.

In classical deductive logic, a consistent theory is one that does not contain a contradiction. When we are talking about a person’s life, we say that consistency means that you walk to talk.

Walk the Talk

¹⁵Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— ¹⁶making the most of the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:15-18)

Paul shares several examples in this passage of how you can walk the talk. He cautions us to not be foolish in how we think or act, but to understand what God wants for us and from us. To do this, we must continue to grow in our knowledge and understanding of the Bible, which is God’s instructions for our lives.

In verse 18 we see that Paul knew his audience well when he told them not to be drunk, because it would lead to reckless actions. The Ephesians were from a Greek culture that annually celebrated the feast of Bacchus, the god of wine. The Greek philosopher, Plato, wrote that there was hardly a sober person to be found in the whole region during the feast.

Paul wanted to remind the church that drinking to excess as was common among their culture was not living a life that honors the one true God. Instead, they should be filled with the Holy Spirit. How? The next 3 verses answer that:

¹⁹speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. (Ephesians 5:19-21)

Speaking to others in music does not mean that we sing everything we say to people. It means that we use the wisdom and teachings of the scripture in how we interact with others. Remember that Jesus said that all of God’s commands could be summed up in these two: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

We are to live our lives with consistency. Martin Luther said this as the eulogy for pastor Nicholas Haussmann, "What we preach, he lived." That is consistency. Walking the talk.

Creativity is Expected

Consistency does not mean that our worship should be mundane. Oscar Wilde said, "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." I think he got consistency and complacency confused. We can worship in consistency and still be creative. We first worship God through psalms, songs based on the Bible, and then hymns, the old songs of the church, and also spiritual songs, which are new songs of praise that we sing to God. Paul continues by instructing us to make new songs to God from our hearts.

We must be creative in how we worship God. Anytime we refuse to create new songs of worship to God, we see a staleness that sucks the joy out of our worship. But we also must continue to sing the old songs that remind us of our past and how God worked through us and the church. Worship isn’t about one style or the other, it is about all and then some.

Through our music we let God know that we are thankful for all that He has done, is doing, and will do for us. But don’t just sing a bunch of songs that say, “Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.” Be creative, expressing your joy, sadness, hope, love, struggles, and more through the music of our souls. Opening up to God in all things so that He sees just how thankful we are.

Be Vulnerable

Finally, Paul instructs us to be vulnerable. Not vulnerable to sin, or evil, or the world, but to be vulnerable to one another, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Too often we come to church or speak to each other wearing masks. We have this persona of who we want others to see and that is all that we show them. But that is not the real us.

True submission to one another can only be accomplished when we are willing to drop the masks and let our real selves show. We do this so that we can help each other through this messy, sticky, difficult, hellish life that we live. God never intended for you to try and grow stronger in your Christian life all by yourself. He gave you a family to help along the way.

Family that accepts you and loves you enough to help you grow in your knowledge of God. Brothers and sisters that can help guide, instruct, and care for you. Family that will laugh with you, cry with you, be there for you. Family that loves you no matter what you have done. Family that doesn’t expect you to be perfect.

That means that you must be willing to be vulnerable. To submit to the spiritual authority of others knowing that what they do and say is done and said because they love you as part of the family of God. Submission here is done between all, not just submitting to one central authority. We all have roles and we all must submit to each other.

Children of Light

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 12:57:00 +0000

Have you ever been inside a deep cave? Some of these caves are so secluded from any light source that if they were to lose electricity you would be in absolute darkness. You wouldn’t even be able to see you hand if it was directly in front of your face. Darkness seems to be extremely powerful, however, it only takes one small candle to extinguish the dark.

As we continue our series from Ephesians, we learn that we are to be children of the light.

⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light— ⁹for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth— ¹⁰discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:8-10)

Once Upon a Time

This passage reads almost like a classic story. Once upon a time you were part of the darkness. You were floundering around through life blind and lost. Everything around you was filled with darkness, deceit, desire, disruption, despair. You could see no hope, no light, no way out.

Then one day, you looked up and saw a small light way off in the distance. It seemed to be beckoning you toward the light. Drawing you away from the dark toward its warmth and safety. Cautioning you and protecting you from the many dangers that surrounded you in the dark, like the sight of a lighthouse that you finally glimpse from the middle of a horrendous stormy sea.

You made a choice to leave the darkness, the only thing you had ever known in life. You chose to walk toward the light. As you got closer and closer you noticed that the darkness was shrinking away from the light. You realized that in order to approach the light, you would have to leave the darkness.

The light continued to glow bright and eventually you made the decision to trust the light and leave the darkness. Now you are no longer part of the darkness, for darkness cannot exist in the light. You have become part of the light and are called to walk as a child of the light rather than the child of the dark that you once were.

Happily Ever After

Most stories that we read as children ended with something along the lines of, “and they lived happily ever after until the ends of their days.” God, the Light of the world, has promised that those who leave the darkness and come into His light will all have a happy ending. Yet the journey to get to our happy ending may be filled with many struggles and difficulties.

Romans 7 talks about a great war that is waged every day. A war between good and evil. A war between Heaven and hell. A war between light and dark. A war that is fought within our very selves as we struggle to live our lives as children of the light rather than reverting to our old nature as children of the dark. The war is one that requires our full attention. A sailor knows that he must keep his eyes focused on the light from the lighthouse in order to find safe passage through the dark waters. Otherwise he may inadvertently wander off course and run into trouble from many unseen things surrounding him and suddenly be dragged down to the depths of the sea. In the same way, we must keep our eyes focused on the Light of Jesus Christ so that we do not stumble, fall, and be dragged down by the dark things of this world.

We are encouraged to continue to stay connected to the Light, because He is our salvation and our hope for an eternity with God. Yes, we will have our happy ending. One day we will all be caught up to heaven to live in mansions that God has prepared for those who have accepted His call to become His adopted sons and daughters. We will live happily ever after.

Fruitful and Multiply

For most of us that will not happen anytime soon. For that reason, we have been called to remain in the Light and become children of the light. That way we can grow as children of the light. No plant can grow without sunlight. God knows that for us to grow, we must be near the Light.

Plants automatically reach upward toward the light because it is the source of their lifeforce. We must learn to do the same with God. Keep our eyes focused on Him and reach toward Him daily. Learning to become more and more like Him.

The closer we become like God, the more we are able to direct others toward Him. Then they too can leave the darkness and enter into the light. We direct others to God by being a reflection of His light and by bearing fruits of the spirit. These fruits are spelled out in more detail in other passages, but here Paul mentions these actions: goodness, righteousness, and truth, so that we can discern what is pleasing to God.

When we become fruitful, we will multiply. What does that mean? It means that we will share Jesus with others and more people will come to know about God’s love. More people will leave the darkness and enter the Light. More people will learn how to grow stronger in the God’s Light. Then they will also bear fruit and draw others to God.

I want to end with this parable, or story about Darkness and Light.

Darkness caressed the world with gentle reassurances. "We are all the same in here," it said. "No one need feel guilt or shame here for we have all done bad things, but the Darkness covers all of that. Come and join us and live as you desire." When Light appeared in the midst of Darkness, those living in the Dark cringed and shied away. The Dark dwellers did not like the light. The Light was seen as an angry blaze that burned past their eyes and into their souls. It was repulsive to them, so they recoiled back into the comfort of the Darkness.

Darkness could not overcome the Light, but Darkness found a way to dim the effects of the Light. Darkness whispered to the Light, "We choose to live in the Darkness and you have no right to cast your Light of righteousness and judgment on us." Those living in the Dark attacked the Light, casting sticks and stones toward the Lights attempting to put them out. At the same time Darkness began to sway some of the Lights. Darkness said, “The world was meant to be Dark and the Light is unnatural and problematic.”

Under the strain of these attacks and the caressing lies of the Darkness, some Lights started to diffuse their Light so that it appeared dim among the Darkness. The more the Light dimmed, the more accepting the Darkness was of them. The dim Lights found ways to live among the Darkness. Rather than shining their Lights upwards or outwards, they discovered that they could shield the Light by hiding it or directing it downwards, and the Darkness grew and swallowed them up.

Darkness enveloped all of the earth except for those few bright spots that Darkness could not put out. There the Lights continued to shine bright, but the vast majority of the world saw them as repugnant. The remaining Lights felt constricted and lonely, yet they continued to serve as a beacon for any who desired to come into the Light. As the years went by, the remaining Lights endured many attacks from the Darkness until one day every Light went out.

Darkness celebrated their victory over the Light. For seven years Darkness reigned. Then one day, everything changed. A LIGHT unlike any the Darkness had ever seen before burst into brilliance before them. The blaze from this LIGHT seared through the Darkness leaving no place to hide. Every nook and every cranny was filled with this dazzling LIGHT and Darkness was cast out of the world.

The Darkness did not end there. All those who had been living in the Darkness suddenly found themselves in another Dark location, but their new dwelling did not have the same comfortable feel as when they walked among the Darkness. Living among this Dark was something that seemed to be beyond Dark. The greater Darkness could only be described as a soul sucking DARKNESS. This new DARKNESS tormented them day and night for all of eternity.

When the LIGHT first appeared, the dimmed Lights that had remained felt shame before the power of the new LIGHT. Their shame fell away as they were absorbed into the brilliance of the LIGHT where they were once again reunited with the Lights that had never faded or been persuaded by the Darkness. These unwavering Lights were decorated with crowns and jewels and surrounded the blazing glory of the LIGHT. In that place the LIGHT never dimmed, and the Darkness never entered in.

Renewed

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 13:11:00 +0000

Some people seem to really enjoy old things. Old black and white movies, old classic cars, old (or retro) video games. There is such a large following of these items that people spend thousands of dollars renewing classic cars, restoring movies, and re-releasing old video games onto new systems. Old things become renewed.

The Bible teaches that we are being renewed. Pauls says that we have two selves: an old self that loves the ways of the world and a new self that strives to be more like Jesus.

²²You took offyour former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires; ²³you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; ²⁴you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-23)

The old self used to get us into all kinds of trouble, but the new self is learning how to put away those old ways and do things according to God’s ways.

²⁵Since you put away lying, Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and don’t give the Devil an opportunity. ²⁸The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. ²⁹No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. ³⁰And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by Him for the day of redemption. ³¹All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. (Ephesians 4:25-31)

Even though we strive to be more like Jesus, we will still mess up. Putting aside old things and renewing ourselves is a life-long process. But that doesn’t mean that we can excuse our bad behavior by saying, “The devil made me do it” or “I’m just human.” Part of growing stronger in heart, mind, body, and soul, is taking responsibility for our failures and weaknesses. Stop blaming others for our problems and learn from our failures so that next time we won’t make the same stupid move once again.

³²And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. (Ephesians 4:32)

We need to understand that other Christians are also on the journey to become more like Jesus and they will make mistakes now and then. Sometimes those mistakes will hurt us. Instead of allowing their mistakes to drag us down or throw them to the wolves, we must be willing to love and forgive them. Too often the church becomes a battle ground where believers fight each other because someone allowed their old self to rear its ugly head and do something stupid. When we remember that God forgave us while we were living sinful lives, perhaps we can cut our fellow travelers some slack on their journey to become more like Christ. Be stronger. Forgive and love like God.

Grow Stronger in Every Way

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 16:43:00 +0000

One of the most popular fish for aquariums is the shark. Not great whites, but smaller sharks. Apparently if you confine a small baby shark in a tank, it will stay a proportionate size to the aquarium. Sharks can be 6” long yet fully mature. In other words, you can force a shark to live a stunted life, but if you turn them loose in the ocean they will grow to their normal length of about 8 feet.

Today we are going to take a look at what Ephesians teaches us about growing stronger in every way…and why that is important.

⁴There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling— ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)

Grow Stronger in Our Heart

As a follower of Jesus, we should recognize that the heart of our relationship with God is faith. It is through our faith that we trust, that we have a hope for eternity with God, that we believe the Word of Jesus, that we join together as a church. Faith calls us, draws us, binds us, unites us, encourages us, and compels us.

If we want to be stronger in heart, we must work on growing our faith. The good news is that it is very easy to see our faith grow. As we exercise our faith, we will see a resulting growth in what the Bible refers to as the fruits of the spirit.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. —Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)

Some of the same things that Paul just instructed us to work on last week.

⁷Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah’s gift. ⁸For it says:

When He ascended on high,

He took prisoners into captivity;

He gave gifts to people.

⁹But what does “He ascended” mean except that He descended to the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰The One who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. (Ephesians 4:7-10)

Grow Stronger in Our Mind

God created us to be people that think for ourselves. God did not want a bunch of robots that did only what we were programmed to do. God wanted us to have the ability to use our brains. Sadly, we too often leave all the thinking up to others and just follow a group mindset.

I love reading the writings of great thinkers that revolutionized what the world believed. Men like Leonardo Da Vinci who believed men could fly long before the Wright brothers, Melitta Bentz who found a better way to make coffee when she invented the coffee filter system and enslaved millions to the savory taste of dripped coffee, Martin Luther who refused to just accept what the Catholic Church had to say about salvation choosing instead to study the book of Romans for himself, C.S. Lewis who strove to disprove Christianity and discovered faith in Jesus instead.

Thinkers are almost always pushing against the status flow. They investigate and learn and in turn grow stronger in their minds. God expects us to grow in our knowledge of Him daily. We do this by reading the Bible, attending Bible studies, spending time in prayer. Then we will grow strong in our minds.

¹¹And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Grow Stronger in Our Body

God gives us specific callings as followers of His. He does this so that the church, the body of Christ, may be grow stronger. He called some to be pastors or teachers to help train others to grow their hearts and minds. He called some to work in ministry areas, such as with children, worship, fellowship meals, community outreach, etc. Every person has a purpose in the church and when we fulfill our purposes we strengthen the body.

God wants the very best for His church. He loves the church, which are the followers of Jesus. He sent His Son to die for each of us so that we could be with Him for all of eternity. Because of that, He wants the church body to work together, to stay focused on our individual callings, to serve and teach and preach and proclaim and evangelize so that we can grow stronger.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ. ¹⁶From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part. (Ephesians 4:14-16)

Grow Stronger in Our Soul

Most of the analogies in the Bible that are used to express the growth of our soul compare that process to eating. When a baby first eats, it is limited to milk. Then as the baby grows, it can begin to eat soft foods. Eventually the baby will be able to eat meats. The baby progresses in this way so that it will be healthy.

As followers of Jesus, we are to grow spiritually so that our soul is healthy. We do this by learning how to discern truth, not like little children that may easily believe anything we tell them. I remember joking around with a teenager many years ago trying to convince her that the bumps alongside roadways were so that blind people could drive by braille. She believed me and told that to her mom, who in turn got angry with me for lying to her ‘impressionable” daughter.

As adults we should have enough experience not to believe every teaching that just blows in on the wind. We should have enough wisdom to discern the truth. God desires for us to have strong souls so that we can be spiritual leaders that help others grow in their walk with Jesus.

Remember our stunted sharks? Experts say that it is not good to force a shark to live a stunted life by placing them in small tanks. Doing so will cause them to have serious health issues it will shorten their lifespan. Stunted followers of Jesus are also at risk of serious problems in their life.

God calls us to be stronger. To live our lives by faith, to learn daily more about God, to build each other up so that the church can thrive, and to be spiritual mature so that we can help others to do the same.

Peace That Binds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 12:52:00 +0000

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You’ve probably heard of the get-along-shirt. An extra-large t-shirt that siblings are made to wear together when they refuse to get along. They must keep the shirt on all day until they learn to play nice. Tonight, we are going to do a couple of experiments to see how well we can get along with each other.

Group Ring: put as many people as you can around a hula hoop each holding onto the hoop with only one finger. Their finger must remain in contact with the hoop at all times. If any member of the team loses contact with the hoop they must start again. The goal is to move as a group and pick up various objects from around the room, navigate past barriers, and reach the back of the room without losing any members of the team.

Boxing Match: have the team stand in a box. All of their feet must remain flat against the bottom of the box at all times. Anytime a team member’s foot lifts, they must begin again. The goal is for each team member to do several simple tasks without knocking anyone out of the box or causing them to lift their feet.

What are some things that you learned from this experience? The importance of communication, teamwork, patience, focusing on the needs of others, how to fail and try again…

As we continue our Stronger series in Ephesians, we look tonight at Paul’s instructions to the church about living in peace.

¹ Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, ³diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us. (Ephesians 4:1-3)

Three Things

Paul urges us to remember our call, to be faithful to our call, and to work towards fulfilling that call. By doing these we can be stronger in heart, mind, body, and soul. To help us achieve these goals, he gives us three things to do.

Humility

Humility is something that often seems rare in our culture. We live in times when it appears as if everyone is trying to be noticed, everyone wants to be discovered, everyone wants to get their 10 minutes of fame. But there are some individuals who simply go about their lives in quiet humility, not concerned about being noticed or recognized for the things that they are doing.

I’m not talking about introverts who prefer to go unnoticed because they don’t like the attention. I’m talking about those who do good work, good deeds, always helping others, always thinking about the needs of others, and never trying to get their name in the paper or even to promote their church.

This is rare enough that I have run into people who have given up on going to church because of the hypocrisy that they see among church leaders. I have had people tell me that they cannot trust pastors because they are always doing things with a hidden agenda to get more people in their church and get more money in their offering plates.

Granted, some of that is from a cynical heart that is looking for the negatives, but I also know pastors who are always trying to work an angle so that they or their church gets the recognition. They refuse to do some good things because they don’t see how that can benefit their church. Paul wants us to have humble hearts. Hearts that think about the needs of others first.

Gentleness

This is another area where we struggle in our culture. The attitude is that if we don’t speak up for our cause or our wants that nobody will care about us. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. So, we push our agendas out forcefully to the point that we actually turn others away. Our friends, family, and co-workers just get weary of hearing us spout off our opinions time and time again.

We also live in a culture that believes that violence is the best way to deal with a problem. If a country is doing something that we don’t like, fire off some missiles at them. If the service was bad, yell at the employee. If a neighbor is treating you unfairly, just deck them. The government won’t listen, riot. Somebody bullies you, stab them with a knife or worse. Our culture has decided that violence is only unacceptable when we are impacted by it.

Paul understood that the only way to be effective in our calling by God, was that we practice being gentle in our nature, in the way we speak, and in the actions we take.

Patience

Personally, I struggle in this area. I have for most of my life. I would love to be more patient, I just want it to happen right now. I don’t like waiting to learn how to be patient. I don’t like waiting. I don’t like repeating myself. I don’t like repeating myself. Sorry, I’m just practicing my patience.

Paul was instructing us to have a patient lifestyle. This is the same Paul that had no problem walking into the middle of a Greek arena and telling the renowned philosophers of their time that they were ignorant because they worship 12 useless gods. Not only that, they also had a temple for the unknown god just in case none of their gods were good enough for the task at hand.

Yet Paul also knew how to be patient. He spent years growing churches and teaching others about Jesus. He spent years in prison waiting for his final execution because he told people about Jesus. Paul understood that patience would be required for all of us if were are to following God’s plan for our lives as individuals and as a church.

Always Accept

The second thing that Paul wants us to do is be willing to accept everyone in love. This is an area that the church has failed to do over and over through our history. Sadly, the church had a very bloody and segregated past. Even more modern heroes of the Christian faith have missed that God wants us to be accepting of others. God never tells us to accept the sins of others. God only asks us to accept them.

Even today many churches prefer to put up a list of thou shalt nots and tell people not to attend their church if they are going to live like that. Yet the church is made up of people that are imperfect, broken, sinners that needed God’s forgiveness. Jesus accepted us while we were still sinners, but for some reason many Christians just cannot work up the courage to do the same.

At Elevate Church, we don't care how you're dressed, how many tattoos you have, or what candidate you voted for. We don’t condemn you because of your past. God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17). Only God can and should condemn others. We should be accepting.

We're a church full of broken, imperfect people with every kind of story imaginable. We will accept you where you are right now, and we will pray and help you as we all move closer to God each and every day.

Due Diligence

When we focus on these things: humility, gentleness, patience, and acceptance, we will have done our due diligence toward being a people of peace. We will enjoy a peace that binds us together as a family, as brothers and sisters, regardless of our past, regardless of our color, regardless of our politics, regardless of our economic status, regardless, regardless, regardless. Nothing will be able to interfere with our peace.

To Him Who Is Able

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 12:03:00 +0000

The song, “Touch of the Master’s Hand,” tells the story of an auction where an old violin was being sold. The auctioneer started the bidding with $1 and got no bids. Then a man stood up from the audience, picked up the violin, and started to play the most beautiful music. As soon as he returned the violin to the table, the auctioneer started again, “Who will give me $1000, $2000, $3000 twice, now that’s a good price.”

A young man asked, “What happened? Why is everyone suddenly so interested in that old violin?” A man responded, “The difference was the touch of the master’s hand.”

Some people have great skills and abilities in certain areas and will always be far better than the rest of us. I doubt any of us can play basketball like Michael Jordan. We probably can’t even play baseball like Michael. Very few people will ever have the business savvy of Bill Gates, creating, buying, and selling numerous tech businesses as well as software and hardware. Only a small number of musicians have what it takes to create symphonies like Beethoven or Tchaikovsky.

As we continue our series in Ephesians, we take a look at how we can be stronger…by the touch of the Master’s hand.

²⁰Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— ²¹to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Tonight, I am going to share 3 things we need to know in order to be stronger in heart, mind, soul, and body?

1. Recognize Where Our Strength Comes From

Paul concludes his prayer in this letter to the Ephesians by giving praise to the only one that is worthy of our worship: God. Scripture captures the true essence of the word worship. In Greek it is, proskuneo, which literally means to kiss the hand toward.

The image is that of a man that is deeply in love with a woman and as soon as he sees her across the crowded room, he ignores everything else that is going on around, focuses everything on her, and blows a kiss to her. He is not worried about what others think. He abandons all else for the sake of expressing his love. He believes that she is worthy of his love.

Paul reminds us through this image that God is worthy of our worship and it is to Him that we lift up our prayers. Why? Because He is the source of our strength.

2. Realize That God’s Power is Limitless

So often we fail to do what God asks us because we believe we are unable to do it. We believe that we aren’t smart enough. We think we aren’t strong enough. Maybe we just don’t have the heart or care enough. When we understand that God is the source of our strength, we shouldn’t worry about the details.

Yet if we are honest, we will admit that we still do not believe that we can do some things even if God is giving us the strength. Perhaps that is because we fail to understand just how strong God is. The Bible says he is able to do exceedingly more than we can even ask or imagine.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly asked for some incredible things of God. I’ve asked for happiness, for a wife, for children, for a home, for healing, for financial help, for peace and quiet, for rest, and on and on and on. Yet nothing I ask is too big for God to provide. That doesn’t mean that He will just give me all that I ask for, but James 4:2 tells us that if we have a need it is because we have failed to ask God for it. God is able to do exceedingly more than I can ask.

I can also imagine some pretty incredible things that are far beyond my ability. When we first moved to Annapolis I asked God to provide a way for us to minister to the children in Eastport Terrace and Harbor House. I met the police chief and the housing authority director who wanted to do a sports camp for these children, so we made that happen in July 2015.

Because of that I was told that they were looking for volunteers to help with an afterschool program at the community center. I volunteered in August 2015. In 2016 I was asked to lead the Tuesday program. In 2017 I was asked to be the program director for all of the afterschool programs in Eastport and to direct an arts camp at Maryland Hall. I was just looking for a door with a small crack so that I could help with the children and God said, “I’ll throw the doors wide open, just come on in.” God is above and beyond all that we can ask or think.

3. Remember God Works In and Through Us

Understanding that our strength comes from God and that His power is limitless helps to embolden us even more when we see that God works in us and through us. The things that God calls me to do doesn’t depend on my abilities or my strength. It is God working in me to accomplish them using his strength which is limitless.

¹³I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

The things that I do for God are done by God. The strength that I use is from God. The strength that God uses is above and beyond all that we can ask or imagine. That is why we can be stronger in mind, body, and soul. It is not my abilities, but God’s abilities that count. Understanding this should give us no cause for fear, apprehension, reservations, or concerns. We have no need of specific skills, special training, or previous employment experience.

When we finally get to the point that we understand that it is God with us, then we must set aside our own selfish desires and focus on what God desires. God doesn’t promise to use His power, His authority, His strength to do what we want. God doesn’t offer us His power so that we can become a superhero beating up villains everywhere. He doesn’t give us His wisdom so that we can impress others with how smart we are. He doesn’t give us His authority so that we can stand above everyone else as some great leader.

God wants us to be stronger so that we can accomplish His purpose for His Church to glorify His name. Once again, the Bible is telling us that it is not about you. Let me explain.

God had a plan from before the beginning of time to create us for a relationship with Him. God created everything: animals, angels, and astronomy (the universe). But none of that was enough. God longed for more. Then He created us in His own image. Not a physical image, but a spiritual image. God wanted to have fellowship with beings that were similar to Himself. When God created man and woman, He proclaimed them His best creation yet.

When God created humans, He gave them the ability to think and feel and choose. And so, we humans chose to disobey God, breaking the fellowship that we had with God. Still, God loved His creation and wanted to fix the fellowship, so He made a way for the relationship to be restored through the forgiveness of sins by the death of His Son, Jesus. His great love for us accomplished His purpose.

God planned that the church would be the means for gathering those that have been restored to Him, training them to obey His commands, and then sending them out to call others into a real, relational, fellowship with God. And all of this is done so that He can be praised for the great things He has done.

Some may think this sounds very selfish of God. Everything is about Him. It is all for Him. It is to bring Him the glory. Let’s break it down into terms we can better understand.

A loving mom has a plan for her child to grow into a healthy adult that is no longer dependent on her. But, for many years, that child depends entirely on the mom for everything. The mom continues to love and nurture the child knowing that her goal is that one day they will move out on their own and start their own family.

But let’s say that the child doesn’t follow that plan. For whatever reason, the child still needs her help as an adult. Perhaps they are physically or mentally disabled. Perhaps they are just lazy. Maybe they do everything right, but they still need her help.

The mom could just decide to let them deal with their own problems. She could choose to simply kick them out of the house and ignore them. But she loves them too much and wants a better life for them. So, she does whatever she can to help them until they are eventually able to survive on their own and move out and start their own family (if possible).

That mom’s love for that child led her to help her child for many years, sometimes beyond the plan, yet the good things that the child does, and then later as an adult, makes the mom proud. She receives honor for what she did in and through the life of her child. She worked hard to bring about a positive result and deserves the praise.

That is what God does for us. Using His strength in and through us so that His plan is completed through His church to bring Him honor and glory. He deserves our praise.

The Incredibles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 May 2018 14:54:00 +0000

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Last night we had a movie night to watch The Incredibles in preparation for the long awaited upcoming sequel. So, I thought for our short devotional time before the movie that I would share 3 ways to be incredible as part of our continuing series: Stronger.

¹⁶I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit, ¹⁷and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. (Ephesians 3:16-17a)

Let Jesus Dwell in You

Paul’s prayer, and mine, is that Jesus may dwell in your hearts through faith. It is only when we allow Jesus to take up residence in our hearts that we can be forgiven and be truly free from the effects and power of sin in our lives.

You do this by first accepting that you need God’s forgiveness. God said that we have all sinned and that our sin needs to be forgiven if we want to be in good standing with God. Believing that Jesus is God’s way for our forgiveness. Jesus died so that we could have forgiveness and we must believe that He is willing and able to provide that forgiveness.

Let Jesus Be in Charge

Then you must confess that Jesus is Lord. This means that you accept that Jesus will the boss. He will be in charge of your life as He dwells in your heart. This is perhaps the most difficult part of being a follower of Jesus. Many people want to get God’s forgiveness, but they don’t want to actually let God change them. They want to continue to live their life the way they want.

God said that His free gift of salvation requires that we accept Jesus both as our savior and as our Lord. That means that Jesus must be your boss. You must agree to do the things that He has instructed us to do.

Let God Be Your Strength

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:10 to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. We don’t have to be superheroes all on our own. In fact, we just can’t. We must rely on the strength of God to do the things that God has called us to do. God doesn’t want us to do normal, everyday, routine things. God wants us to do incredible things.

I have found that time and time again when I try to do good things in my own strength, I fail. I may have all of the right intentions, I may want to really help and work hard to complete the things that I know need to be done, but I fail. On my own, I really suck at doing good things. Why? Because Satan knows exactly where I am the weakest and he will attack me there over and over and over.

If we want to be incredible, we must surrender. Surrender to God. Allow God to forgive us, allow Jesus to save us, allow Jesus to dwell in us, allow Jesus to be our boss, and use God’s strength to do the things that He has called us to be and do.

Lessons from Prison

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 May 2018 12:52:00 +0000

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Close to the Mexican border in southern New Mexico you can find the Grand Floridas. That is a rugged mountain range with jagged sharp edges and rock formations jutting up out of the ground. Looking from the north, it appears to be one gigantic, unbroken rock sculpture dropped onto an otherwise flat New Mexico landscape.

If you ride up to the mountains on horseback, you will see that they are not unbroken. The head of the range is a rock formation that rises higher than a skyscraper. Between that the main mountain range is a large valley filled with beautiful grassland and gentle slopes that are completely hidden from the distance. Until you get close, you have no idea that it is even there.

The same can be seen in certain events in the Bible. It seemed that for thousands of years God kept a secret, hidden from the world, from the angels, from the priests, from the prophets, and from the people of Israel. It seems that He kept this secret close to His heart and revealed it only through His Son to the apostles. That secret, what Paul calls a mystery, is that there was to be a new creation, a new living temple, a new spiritual body that God would use to carry the message of salvation to the ends of the world. This new creation would be comprised of both Jews and Gentiles alike. This new creation is called the church.

¹ For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— ²you have heard, haven’t you, about the administration of God’s grace that He gave to me for you? ³The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. ⁴By reading this you are able to understand my insight about the mystery of the Messiah. ⁵This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: ⁶The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. ⁷I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of His power. (Ephesians 3:1-7)

Lack of Freedom Requires Creativity

Paul shares with the church in Ephesus that he is writing this letter to them from prison. Rather than mope around while a prisoner, Paul uses his time to instruct and encourage the many churches that he helped to start throughout the Mediterranean region. Paul understood that the lack of freedom did not mean the end of his ability to minister to those he lead to Jesus. In this part of his letter Paul explains that he has already written some about what he calls a mystery in the earlier part of his letter.

Paul wants us to understand that this mystery was not only revealed to him, but to all of the New Testament apostles and prophets. Jesus first mentions this new revelation of the church.

¹³When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵“But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”

¹⁷And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it. (Matthew 18:13-18)

Paul continues to explain that this mystery was revealed to him because of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Not because Paul is some great person of faith.

⁸This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah, ⁹and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. ¹⁰This is so God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. ¹¹This is according to His eternal purpose accomplished in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord. (Ephesians 3:8-11)

Great Things Don’t Require Great People

Paul believes that he was the least of all the saints. The term saint has often been misunderstood as to represent only some great follower of Jesus. Some religions teach that to be a saint you must have performed some type of miracle and that the church must recognize your authority in order to confer on you the title of saint. But the bible makes it clear that a saint is anyone that believes and follows Jesus. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are a saint.

You don’t have to be a great person with excellent skills and abilities to do great things for God. You just have to be willing to do things for God and great things will happen. Why? Because God is great enough to accomplish great things through us regardless of our education, people skills, talents, or lack thereof.

Paul, through true humility, believed that he was truly the least of all of the saints. I believe that it was because of this humility that Paul was used so powerfully by God. Humility is not something that comes easy to leaders. Too often we see pride and arrogance creep in when someone is doing great things. Paul understood that anything he did was actually done through the power and authority of God. It was not by his own might, but by the power of God.

Why was God using him? To shed light on this great mystery of the ages. Paul would not hold this a secret but share it with all so that God’s wisdom could be made known through the church. Even while he was in prison he would continue to tell others about the great love of Jesus for all people: Jew and Gentile. And all of this, like everything we see God doing, is according to His plan so that He can receive all glory and honor.

¹²In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. ¹³So then I ask you not to be discouraged over my afflictions on your behalf, for they are your glory. (Ephesians 3:12-13)

Be Confident and Bold While in Chains

In Him, in God, we have boldness. It doesn’t seem that many followers of Jesus really understand or believe this. If we really believed that we have boldness because of God, we would not be afraid to tell others about Jesus. If we really believed that God gives us boldness, we would not walk around feeling defeated about anything in life. Not even laws that limit our ability to tell others about Jesus would should matter. If we understood the power behind the boldness of God, we would stand strong every day in the confidence that God has given to us.

This is what Paul wants us to understand. God's plan of salvation purposed before the world and executed in the cross clears the path to God. Through Christ a person can enter God's presence with freedom and confidence. The cross has provided salvation which cleanses us of sin, forgives us, makes us holy, and thus enables us to enter the presence of the Holy One.

That accessibility to God should give us reason to be bold. We have 24/7 access to God and since there is nothing that can overpower or defeat God, then nothing that happens in life should have any power over us. We can be bold and confident.

Paul finishes this part of his letter by explaining that because of this boldness in God, we should have no reason to be discouraged. The eternal plan accomplished in Christ was administered in many ways. This included Paul becoming a prisoner and proclaiming this message while in chains. Paul's situation in prison could easily discourage young churches and turn them away from Jesus for fear that they may also be imprisoned.

Paul urged the Ephesians not to let this happen. His suffering was no reason for sadness. It helped accomplish God's plan. Through Paul's suffering the Ephesian believers gain glory, that is they are led to know Christ more intimately and experience salvation more fully. When we are weak, God is strong. Paul is saying that we are to be strong in the Lord and trust in His mighty power.

The Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 May 2018 13:24:00 +0000

In Mending Walls, Robert Frost wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors … why do they make good neighbors? … before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offence."

For centuries we have built walls to keep people either out or in. The Great Wall of China, built between 800 and 200 BC was rebuilt and maintained for more than 1000 years. Its main purpose was for defense to keep invading forces out. Claims have been made for hundreds of years that the wall can be seen from space, however, modern space flight has proven that no manmade objects are visible from space.

The Berlin Wall was built following World War II. Its main purpose was not to keep people out, but rather to keep people in communist controlled Eastern Berlin. The Cold War between Russia and the Western world ended shortly after the famous speech by President Ronald Reagan calling on Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall.” The wall was torn down November 9, 1989.

Another wall made the news in 2016 when presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that he would build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and make Mexico pay for the wall. The main purpose of this wall was to keep illegal immigrants out of the country. The wall continues to make the news and recent estimates are that it would cost $22 billion to build and billions more to maintain and protect.

As we continue our series in Ephesians, Paul mentions a wall that had separated people for more than 2000 years. Now, 2000 years later, that same wall continues to separate us, but God’s plan for the church is far stronger than any wall.

¹¹So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. ¹²At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:11-12)

Hitting the Wall

The Church in Ephesus must have been dealing with some friction between the Jews and non-Jews that were part of their church. The tension was not as much about race as it was about religious differences. The Gentiles, or non-Jews, were previously viewed as being outside of God’s covenants that had been made with Israel. More importantly, Paul reminds them that they were without hope and without God.

That wall of separation is something that continues today because the majority of people in the world are living without God and without hope. They may have religion, but they do not have a relationship with Jesus. They have hit the wall, a term used in exercise that means that are fatigued or have reached their limit. They cannot get over the wall on their own. They need Jesus.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. ¹⁴For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In His flesh, ¹⁵He made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. ¹⁶He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it. ¹⁷When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:13-18)

Break Through the Wall

As followers of Jesus, it’s important for us to understand that the only thing that really separates us from others is our relationship with Jesus. Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our redeemer and boss, we no longer are separated by anything. Not race, nationality, language, gender, socio-economic positions, nothing. We are all part of the same family: the family of God.

Notice that Paul says that God tore down the wall that separated them. God tore down the dividing wall of hostility and brought peace. God did this so that He could reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death. Now all people have access to God through the Holy Spirit.

What does this mean for us? I believe that we can see two very important actions that we must take as followers of Jesus regardless of our differences:

· Worship together

· Reach out to all people

First, the church must end segregation. It has been said that the most segregated place in our nation is in church on Sunday mornings. We have churches based on race. In Shady Side, there are two Methodist churches sitting side by side. One is for white people and the other is for black people. We have many churches in Eastport that are predominantly African-American or white. And some of these churches have actually asked people not to return because the brought someone of the wrong color to church with them. God wants His family to worship together.

I understand that there are preferential differences that might keep us segregated in our churches. Some people like much more exuberant worship. Some people expect their pastor to yell and dance around the platform to show that he is working hard enough to get his pay. Some people like quiet, meditative worship. Some people like to worship without their children. Some people like to sing hymns, some like to sing country-style music, some like to sing rock-style songs, some like to have worship with a fog machine and a laser lightshow.

Personal preferences should have no place in the church. Last week we learned that it is all about God. Not about us. What we want or like has nothing to do with the church. God had a plan for the church and we see that His plan was to tear down the wall and remove the hostility between races so that we could all worship together. It’s not something that is easy to do, but it is necessary. It may be difficult to accomplish, but God. Remember that from last week? But God is the one that will be doing all of the work through us.

¹⁹So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. ²¹The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. ²²You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Building Walls Together

Paul continues by explaining God’s plan for a diverse church. First, we must recognize that we are all citizens of the same kingdom. When an Arab Christian worships God, they might speak Arabic and call God Allah, which is the Arabic word for God, but they are worshipping Jesus nonetheless. When a Chinese Christian is worships God, they might speak Chinese and call God Shen, which is Chinese for the word God. In Spanish it is Dios. In Hebrew it is Yahweh. Our languages do not separate us from the Kingdom of God.

Second, we must understand that we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus. His blood has joined us together. As a child I had a blood brother. You know what that is, right? My friend and I poked our thumbs and rubbed them together to indicate that we were blood brothers. We were saying that we were now as close as real siblings. When Jesus shed His blood for us, when we accepted His forgiveness and becoming followers of Him, His blood united us into the same family.

Third, we must work together to build walls. Not physical walls to separate us, but spiritual walls for the purpose of building a strong church. Our foundation has already been placed, by Jesus. He is the cornerstone, the rock that helps to keep our church aligned and solid in our faith.

Why are we called to build a strong church? So that we can work together to be built up. God is continually working to make us better than what we are. Like Gold from the mine, He is constantly taking us, cleaning us, purifying us, and molding us into beautiful works of art to be displayed for His glory.

To be stronger, we must meet together as diverse group of people that are united under the national banner of God’s kingdom. We must be united as one family from every tribe, nation, race, and tongue. We must be working together to build a church that will stand against the most violent storms of life. A place that equips followers of Jesus so that they will be strong in the face of daily difficulties. And all of this is done through the work that God has already done in Jesus and continues to do in us.

Stronger Than Death

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 May 2018 12:39:00 +0000

I lived in the Mississippi country during high school. I was outside as often as possible: swimming, hunting, fishing, riding motorbikes, playing football, baseball, or basketball, and even practicing my trumpet. The trumpet can be a really loud instrument, so rather than sit inside and bug my entire family with playing scales or practicing a particularly difficult phrase of music over and over and over, I would take a chair and sit outside to practice.

One day as I was just playing through some fun music, I noticed a funeral procession coming down the road. You have to understand that roads are often long and straight in Mississippi. Without thinking about it, I stood as the funeral procession drove by our home. I lifted my trumpet and quietly played Taps, also known as Day is Done.

I thought nothing about it until years later when a neighbor was talking to my parents. He said he loved to hear me play my trumpet outside and remembered one day seeing me stand for a funeral procession and playing taps. He said it really touched him to see such a show of respect for the dead.

There is something that hangs over our heads throughout our entire life: death. It is said that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes. Stories and movies of cheating death have been written, but, while some have survived death for a period, all, except for Jesus, have eventually died and stayed dead.

All around us we are reminded about death. Even our years have a season of death. Throughout school I often spent hours daydreaming in class. Call it ADHD or boredom or whatever, but I eventually started to use that time to write poetry or songs or both. This one was about the effects of winter on life.

Although the wind outside is cold It's warm inside with a blazing fire

I hear a fierce and mighty gust And see some leaves of red and gold

As gently they fall, then rising higher Descend to a shifting grave of rust

The wind will speak a stronger wail Like music of an aspen branch

As death continues on beneath it And then the snow I know won't fail

To plummet forth in a flashing lance As death continues on beneath it

In places high atop Grand Teton The white may lap to Mark Twain high

As death continues on beneath it While children tromp and slip upon

The white beneath a placid sky New life begins unseen beneath it

¹And you were dead in your trespasses and sins ²in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. ³We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. (Ephesians 2:1-3, HCSB)

We Have New Life

Today, as we continue our series in Ephesians, I want you to know that there is something that is stronger than death: new life.

Paul is reminding us in the first 3 verses that we were all spiritually dead. Our sins had separated us, alienated us from God. We walked and lived according to our own desires, which were based solely on what our flesh and selfish thoughts wanted. Nothing was wrong to do in our eyes, because our eyes were filled with nothing but the darkness of death.

In verse 4 we see a shift from the focus on our past to look instead at what God has done for us. While death continued on beneath. All the struggles of life piled up on top of us, but death continued on beneath it. We were just walking around like the dead that we were. Spiritually dead, hopelessly lost.

⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, ⁵made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! ⁶Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, ⁷so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7, HCSB)

But God

But God. I love that simply phrase. Take any problem that you have ever faced and then add “but God” after it. Take a look at any situation that you are currently going through and add “but God” to it. But God, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive. He gave us new life.

Even though we were dead, God made us alive. Even though we had screwed up everything, God saved us. Even though we…insert your worst possibly sin here…God still loved us. Even though. Even though. Even though. But God.

There Paul goes again. Reminding us of just how much God sees the potential in us to be something greater than we are. Remember last week we learned how God considers us to be of great worth? We make God rich because of what He is able to do through us. Look at verse 6.

God, together with Jesus, who God has raised up into heaven, God did this for us so that…now verse 7…He can out us on display for the whole world to see. God wants the world to see what a change He has made in us. God takes pleasure by letting others see how He has shaped us, molded us. How God took us out of the rubble and purified us into gold. This allows others to see God’s mercy and kindness because of what He has done in us.

Why does God get all the credit for us? Because He does all the work. I know, many of us are independent enough that we think all of the good changes in our lives are because we worked hard. That is what the world tells us. Work hard enough and you can become whatever you want to be. Work hard enough and you can lose weight, gain muscles, grow wealthy, etc.

The reality is that God found us in the deepest darkest place imaginable, that He cleaned us up, and that He displays us so that others can see what He has done. It is His work in us and through us that brings Him honor and glory. It is because of this great work that God can use us as lights to shine into the darkness so that we can be a part of bringing others out from among the dead.

⁸For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— ⁹not from works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9, HCSB)

Verses 8 and 9 let us know that our salvation comes from God. It is because of His grace and has nothing to do with us. We cannot work our way into heaven. We cannot be good enough to get God’s forgiveness. It is all about Him. We cannot boast about what we did to get to heaven. But God. But God. But God so loved the world. But God loved us. But God called us. But God forgave us.

¹⁰For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10, HCSB)

It is All About God

If we want to be stronger than death, we must recognize that it is all about God. We are His creation. We are created in the image of God. When we accept God’s grace and forgiveness, we are created in Jesus for the purpose of doing good works. The works don’t save us, it is because we have been saved that we do good works.

Notice that this passage ends reminding us that even the good works are not our own. These good works were prepared before time even began so that we could honor to God as we obediently did the good works because our boss, God, called us to do them.

People may fear death, but it has no power over God. Death could not hold Jesus down. Death could not keep God from bringing new life to us. Death could not stop the plans that God made from before time began. Death is nothing compared to God.

We cannot cheat death. Even God has proclaimed that. He gave each of us a death sentence because of our sins. But God…because of His great love for us, sent Jesus to die in our place so that we could have new life. Our bodies will still die, but our spirit has eternal life because of what God has done in our lives. Now, not even death can hold us down. Death cannot keep us from spending an eternity with God.

Paul emphasizes this even more in his letter to the church in Corinth when he wrote, “Death where is your victory, grave where is your sting?” As followers of Jesus, we have a strength that is greater than death because we have already died to our old life, died to our sins, and have come alive in Jesus. Through Jesus we can be stronger than death.

Gold Among the Gravel

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 12:56:00 +0000

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The Ugly Duckling - have you ever read this classic book by Hans Christian Anderson? It is the story of a duck that is laying 5 eggs on a nest. One of the eggs looks odd, but the duck doesn’t give that much thought. She loved all of her eggs. When they hatch, four of the ducklings are yellow and fluffy and cute, while one is dull, gray, and rather ugly.

The mother duck treated all of the ducklings the same, but one day the ugly duckling saw his reflection in the water. He saw the ugly dull, gray feathers, he saw his strangely shaped beak, and asked his mom, “Why don’t I look like my brothers and sisters? Why am I so ugly?” The mother duck doesn’t know why, but he is her duckling and she loves him very much.

The mother’s love was not enough to help keep the ugly duckling from being teased by the other ducklings or having self-esteem issues. Not only did he look different, he felt different. He was sure that something was wrong with him. He ran away from home trying to find out who he was supposed to be. It was a long journey filled with many interactions.

One day, the ugly duckling noticed a beautiful female swan gliding gently through the water. It was love at first sight…until he remembered that he was just an ugly duckling. As he dropped his head to cry himself to sleep as he had done many times before, he noticed something different in his reflection. No longer was he a dull, gray color. No longer did he have a strange looking beak. Instead, he saw a beautiful, brilliant-white swan looking back at him.

It was at that moment that the ugly duckling first saw the beauty that was inside all along. All those feelings of not belonging, all those thoughts of being strange or different, they all made sense now. For he was not a duck, but a swan. Filled with a new sense of pride and determination, he went to speak with that beautiful female swan. They soon fell in love and lived happily ever after.

We are almost finished with Paul’s greetings to the church in Ephesus as we continue our series, Stronger. Today we take a look at Paul’s prayer for the church.

¹⁵This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. ¹⁸I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. (Ephesians 1:15-19)

We Are Rich in Jesus

Paul wanted the church in Ephesus, as well as the church here in Eastport, to understand something very important: we are rich in Jesus.

We are chosen by God the Father to become His adopted sons and daughters. In Jesus, our sins have been forgiven, we are redeemed. We have been given an inheritance that is beyond any human measurement. We have been sealed by the power of God in the Holy Spirit, made secure until our final redemption by God when we will see Jesus face to face.

Clearly the magnitude, the scope of these riches has escaped us. We must not be able to comprehend the significance of these blessings or else we would be consistent in how we live our lives for Jesus. We would certainly let God be the boss of our lives if we truly understood all of this. That is why Paul prays that we will have a spirit of wisdom to understand our redemption, our inheritance, and the promise of strength through Jesus that we have been promised.

²⁰He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens— ²¹far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²²And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, ²³which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way. (Ephesians 1:20-23)

We Are Worth More Than We Understand

God demonstrated His power this way: We are children of God, adopted by Him as part of a plan that He made before the creation of the universe. Jesus redeemed us, forgave us, enlightened us, and has promised that we will be fabulously wealthy: both physically and spiritually in heaven. We have infinite worth.

We were once slaves until God looked at us and saw a prize worth everything in His Kingdom. God sees us as a jewel of great value. Many have trouble understanding how they could possibly be worth all of that in the eyes of God. They think of their past, of their faults, of their failures, of their weaknesses, their inabilities, and they wonder what God sees in them.

Perhaps this analogy will better help us understand what God sees in each of His children.

Imagine that you purchased property that was filled with unmined gold. The gold cries out, “How could you think I am worth anything. I’m all dirty. I’m mixed with worthless iron ore. I have filthy clay stuck all over me. I’m contaminated with mineral deposits throughout. I’m ugly and worthless.”

You then reply to the gold, “Oh, but I do love you. I see great value in who you can be. I know that you have many imperfections now, but I have plans for you. I won’t leave you the way you are now. I plan to purify you. I will get rid of all that junk surrounding you and in you. I know that all of that junk is not part of the real you. You are just temporarily mixed in with them, but I know how to change you from what you are now to what you can be.

“It won’t be easy. I will have to use an axe to pry you out of the ground and rock. I will then have to put you through great fire and amounts of stress but look at what I have accomplished with gold from other mines. See how beautiful it is? Look how it glistens and makes this jewelry so fine.

We Are Gold Among the Gravel

That is what you are meant to be. If I left you where you are, you would never become what you were meant to be, but I know how to bring you from the gravel and make you shine. I will make you beautiful and you will make me rich.

That is how God can love us, even when we are such hot messes now. God is not done with us. He has not given up on us. We are not yet what He plans for us to be. One day we will worship, fellowship, and serve Jesus unhindered by our sin. Until then, God wants us to turn from our sin and look to Him.

⁸If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

¹ My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One. (1 John 1:8-2:1)

As followers of Jesus, we can understand that once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our redeemer and boss, our sin cannot take us out of God’s strong hands. God no longer views us through our own weaknesses, but through the righteousness of Jesus. It is through Jesus that we are seen as gold in God’s eyes. He knows we are still filled with a whole bunch of worthless junk, but He has plans to permanently free us from the weight of all that sin.

God knows better than we can possibly understand ourselves who we have become in Jesus. That should allow us to be content, be happy in the rich blessings that we have in Jesus. We are called to elevate God the Father through our praises and to tell others how wonderful He is. Don’t keep the good news to yourself. Enjoy it and spread it to all the world.

When we learn to see things from God’s viewpoint, we begin to understand that we are not ugly ducklings, we are not strange, but that we are beautiful creations of God. He is making us to be the purest, most precious vessels we could be. It is in His strength that we are able to become what He planned for us to be even before time began. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

All for His Glory

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 12:50:00 +0000

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Do you celebrate Juneteenth? If you have never heard of that day, it has a major significance in the lives of many African-Americans in the South. President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to slaves in Confederate states, on New Year’s Day in 1863. Word didn’t reach all of the slaves until June 19, 1865, when a force of two-thousand Union soldiers arrived in Texas and informed them of their freedom.

Slavery in the United States was finally at an end. Many slaves had been redeemed or freed prior to the Civil War. Others were freed after the war, yet some had to wait until Juneteenth for their freedom. Early Juneteenth celebrations were picnics with family and churches that strengthened communities for the glory of God.

Do you celebrate Jubilee? Probably not unless you are Jewish. God instructed the Jews to observe a sabbath year every 7 years, just as He told us to observe the sabbath on the 7^thday of the week. Sabbath is a word that means to rest. Each week we are to work 6 days and rest one day. During that day we are to spend time focused on God as we worship Him.

For a sabbath year, farmers were instructed to let their fields rest instead of continuing to plant crops on them year after year. Why? To prevent the soil from becoming worn out and useless. The jubilee was to take place at the end of the 7^thSabbath year; every 50 years. During that year of Jubilee, all debts were to be forgiven, property would be returned back to the original owner, and slaves would be set free. It was all to be done for the praise of God’s glory.

As we continue our Stronger series, we will see how everything in our lives should be done for the glory of God. Even the many blessings that God has given to us are for the praise of His glory.

⁷We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. ⁹He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He planned in Him ¹⁰for the administration of the days of fulfillment—to bring everything together in the Messiah, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him. (Ephesians 1:7-10)

Redemption through His Blood

First thing we need to understand is that we have redemption in God through His blood. To be redeemed means to be “bought back.” It carries with it the sense of being released from slavery. By being redeemed by Christ, we are freed from sin, both the penalty and the enslaving power. This redemption was accomplished by the death of Christ on the cross where he shed his blood and died to secure our redemption. His death paid the price for our release from sin and death.

Verse 7 says this redemption is the forgiveness of our trespasses, or sins. Redemption and forgiveness go hand in hand. We cannot have one without the other. To forgive, in this instance, means to give up the right to punish someone for a transgression. It can also mean to give up our right to repayment, as I forgive you your loan.

God’s forgiveness was done out of the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. He gave us the ability to understand, the wisdom to comprehend the mystery of His will for us according to His good pleasure that he planned for us. He chose us and He piled on us the understanding of our need for forgiveness, which he provided through His redemption. All this was done for the administration of the days of fulfillment. That is the time when everything in heaven and on earth are brought together in Jesus.

¹¹We have also received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, ¹²so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory. (Ephesians 1:11-2)

Inheritance from God

Not only have we been redeemed and forgiven, but we have also been given an inheritance from God. God chose to adopt us as His sons and daughters. As such, we are co-heirs with God’s Son, Jesus. It is God’s will that everything He has and does will bring praise and glory and honor to His name. Including His children.

How is God’s name an inheritance for us? If our father was someone that had amassed a massive amount of money during his lifetime, but he did it through irreputable means, such as part of the mob or gun smuggling or the drug trade, we may enjoy a large inheritance when he dies, if he isn’t caught, but his name and his money will always be associated with that of crime. Blood money.

Yes, you would still be rich because you would inherit the fortune, but you also would inherit the name. The name of a criminal. With God, we not only inherit the riches of heaven, but we also inherit a name that has been praised, that is the only name worthy of glory and honor. We inherit a name of royalty. A name that is above all other names. That is our Daddy, the King of all kings. Besides, our inheritance isn’t about money or fame, it is all about getting to live with our Father for all of eternity.

¹³When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. ¹⁴He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

We Possess the Down Payment

Sometimes you hear about some young girl that marries a wealthy old man and everyone thinks the same thing: she is just hoping to outlive him so that she can inherit his wealth. Sometimes children of wealthy people get tired of waiting for their parents to die so that they can inherit their wealth and chose instead to kill their parents to speed up that process.

Usually you have to wait for someone to die in order to inherit anything. But God, who will never die, has already given us a down payment on our inheritance: the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to wait until Heaven to be in the presence of God. He sent His spirit to come down to us, to live in us, to guide us, to teach us. God is with us always.

God chose you…but notice verse 13. When you heard the message of truth, the message of God’s free gift of grace, the good news of God’s salvation, and when you believed in God and this message, you were immediately sealed with a promise. That seal is God’s Holy Spirit.

During the time that this was written, seals were of great importance. If a king wrote a secret letter intended for only the eyes of one of his generals, he would bind it with his seal. If that seal was broken by anyone before it got to the general, he would know that the king’s message had possibly been tampered with. The message was no longer secret.

When Jesus was put in his tomb, Pilate had his seal placed on the stone that was rolled in front of the tomb. It was protected. That seal meant that it was a crime to enter the tomb. If you broke the seal, you would face the death penalty.

When you buy food at the store, it has a seal on it. If the seal is broken, you know that the food could have been tampered with and it is no longer safe.

When the president of the United States writes a letter, it is embossed with his seal so that everyone will know that it belongs to him.

God placed His seal on all that believe in Him. It is His way of saying, “You are mine. You are safe. You are protected.” We can be sure of our inheritance as part of God’s family because He sealed us with Himself.

God the Father, sent God the Son to bring redemption to all who ask for the forgiveness of their sins and promise to let God be their boss. Because of our choice to believe and follow Jesus, God the Father sealed us with God the Holy Spirit. A seal that can never be broken. A seal that cannot be overcome. A seal that is eternal. We are His and nobody can mess with us or take us away from Him.

And all of this has been done for His glory.

Chosen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 16:33:00 +0000

Part 2 of the Stronger series study of Ephesians

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Unless you were a first-class athlete, you probably experienced a little anxiety when teams were choosing sides. Please don’t let me be chosen last. There is nothing more embarrassing than to be standing on the sideline waiting to be chosen, especially when it falls down to you and the most uncoordinated, frail, nearsighted, kid that is at least 2 years younger than everyone else that has been chosen. And if he happens to get chosen before you, well, there is no way that could happen because there is no way on God’s green earth that you could possibly be worse than he is, right? Whew!

As we continue our series, Stronger, we see tonight that followers of Jesus don’t have to stand on the sidelines feeling anxious, because the Bible tells us that we have the choice. God offers us His free gift of forgiveness and salvation, yet we must choose to accept that free gift.

We Choose to Be Like Jesus

Scientists know that ducks tend to imprint soon after birth. To “imprint” means that they attach themselves to the first thing they see after they hatch, thinking they are “that” thing. This is supposed to work for the duck, since, when they hatch, the first thing they normally see is a mama duck.

This phenomenon backfires, occasionally. Once, for example, a duckling was hatched under the watchful eye of a motherly collie dog. The baby duck took one look at the collie and decided that the dog was its mother. It followed the collie around, ran to it for protection, and slept with it at night. It spent the hot part of the day under the front porch with the collie. When a car pulled into the driveway, along with the dog, the duck would run out from under the front porch quacking viciously, trying to peck the tires.

Some things could not be changed, however. The duck still quacked, enjoyed the water, and flapped its wings. Sometimes it acted like a duck, and sometimes it acted like a dog.

Followers of Jesus often experience a similar confusion in identity. We have been born into and grown up in a fallen world, so we have learned the ways of the world. We have become like it. When we accept Jesus, we are in Him. We die to the world and are born again, so that, spiritually, we are no longer who we once were.

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Too often, however, we don't see ourselves correctly. We act like the thing we think we are, rather than what we really are. We believe and try to do the right things; but for the life of us, we cannot get it exactly right. When we least expect it, a car pulls into the driveway of our life; and we explode from underneath the front porch, quacking viciously and pecking at the tires.

God Chose Us First

What we need to understand in our Christian walk, is that we are not merely ducks that have chosen to follow God, because God first chose us. He imprinted Himself on us long before we were even born.

³Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. ⁴For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, ⁶to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6, HCSB)

There are many Christians who have trouble with verse 5, because it says that we were predestined to become Christians. It seems that this takes away our own free choice to choose Jesus. As if God, before creation made a decision that only certain people would be allowed to accept Him and that they would have no choice but to do that.

The problem is that this does not fit with the rest of scripture. There are many verses in the Bible that tell us that God sent His Son for all people, that He desires all to come to Him. There are also many passages in the Bible that teach us about free will. We all have the choice to accept God’s free gift of grace. God has not created us as robots that have no will of our own.

But how do these verses about being chosen, being predestined, fit with other verses about free will and God’s desire for all to come to Him? Theologians could spend years debating that, and, in fact, have, and still have not come to an agreement on how these can be fit together. Rather than try to fit two seemingly contrasting ideas together, perhaps it is best that we strengthen our understanding of God first.

⁸“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration. ⁹“For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

If we begin by recognizing a fundamental principle that God’s ways are beyond our reach, it follows, then, that we cannot and should not expect to understand the Bible exhaustively. If we could, the Bible would not be divine but would be limited to human intelligence. The Bible contains some things so simple that even a child can understand them and some things so complex that the brightest minds will never understand them.

When the Bible presents seemingly irreconcilable information, such as human free will and divine sovereignty, rather than trying to force the two ideas together, it is more helpful to understand them as antinomies.

Webster defines an antinomy as “a contradiction between two equally valid principles or between inferences correctly drawn from such principles.” More simply, we might say that an antinomy contains two apparently mutually exclusive truths which must be held simultaneously. The sovereignty of God and free will of people represents an antinomy. It is not intellectual suicide simply to believe them both. Here is why.

An infinite revelation will always take a finite mind beyond its intelligence. That is the case with antinomies in general, and this truth in specific. With an infinite revelation, we are simply not able to understand everything we know.

Antinomies exist outside Scripture. Take light, for example. The laws of science tell us that matter cannot be energy, and energy cannot be matter. Yet light has properties of both energy and matter. That’s impossible, yet it’s true. The character of light is an excellent example of an antinomy because while the inherent contradiction within light cannot be resolved with our present laws of physics, every morning the sun comes up.

If we are to know anything about God, He must reveal himself to us because He exists in a realm beyond our five senses. God did reveal Himself through miracles, visions, dreams, direct conversation, and then, through Jesus.

Therefore, I can accept that God is sovereign and has the right to choose me as one of His chosen followers, that I have the free will to choose Him as my Lord and Savior, and that He desires that all will choose Him. There is no contradiction even though this understanding may infuriate those who demand that we choose between them.

Remember also that our ability to comprehend God's truth has been radically affected by the fall of man.

For now we see indistinctly, as in a [poor reflection], but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

When we stand before God in heaven, we will smack our foreheads and say, “Oh, now I understand.” Until then, we suspend judgment: we hold the truths in tension, understanding who God is and who we are.

When we do that—when we accept both truths fully, without letting one diminish the other—we can rise up in glory at the fact that we have been known and chosen by God from before the creation of the world; and, at the same time, we can commit ourselves to the spread of the gospel message, knowing that among those who hear the gospel some may choose salvation.

Understanding that there are some things we just cannot comprehend is not weakness. It actually helps to strengthen our understanding of God: almighty, all knowing, ever present, sovereign creator, King of kings, and Lord of Lords. To become strong in mind, we must accept that God knows best and that some of the things He teaches us will be beyond our understanding.

One way to be stronger, is accepting our own limitations and not beating ourselves up because of it. Just think how special we are in God’s eyes: He loves us so much that before time began He chose us to be His and then sent His Son so that we would have the opportunity to choose Him as ours.

Stronger: An Introduction in Ephesians

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 11:51:00 +0000

Have you ever dreamed of being stronger?

When NASA astronaut Steve Austin is severely injured in the crash of an experimental aircraft, he is "rebuilt" in an operation that costs $6 million. That would be about $34 million today based on inflation. His right arm, both legs and the left eye are replaced with "bionic" implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norms: he can run at speeds of over 60 mph, his eye has a 20:1 zoom lens and infrared capabilities, and his bionic limbs all have the equivalent power of a bulldozer. He uses his enhanced abilities to work for the Office of Scientific Intelligence as a secret agent.

Supervising the trial of an experimental gamma bomb that he designed for the U.S. Defense Department at a nuclear research facility in New Mexico, Dr. Bruce Banner selflessly rushed to the rescue of an ignorant teenager who had wandered onto the testing field as the countdown ticked inexorably toward zero. After shoving young Rick Jones to safety in a nearby ditch, Bruce was struck full-force by the bomb blast. He survived but was irradiated by the deadly gamma energy. Afterwards, anytime Bruce would get experience a strong emotional state, he would transform into the Incredible Hulk

Born Kal-El on the alien planet Krypton, his parents become aware of Krypton's impending destruction and construct a spacecraft to carry Kal-El to Earth, where the planets yellow sun gives him super human strength. His friends only know him as Clark Kent, mild reporter for the daily planet, but the world knows him as his alter ego, Superman.

The Need for Strength

When I was growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, I was bombarded with the idea of superheroes and scientific discoveries that could make me faster, smarter, stronger. I would daydream about rescuing a group of people using my superpowers and becoming the next superhero.

It wasn’t like I was wishing I was someone else, I was just a normal little kid dreaming of fame. Yet there are many people who long to become someone else or something else as a means to escape their life. People that have been abused physically or emotionally. Those that have been bullied into believing that they are ugly or fat or skinny or weird or stupid or even too smart. Addicts.

You may be one of these individuals or you may know someone that just wishes that they could be stronger.

Strong enough to tell that cheating boyfriend or girlfriend to hit the road. Strong enough to stand up to that person that is abusing or has abused them. Strong enough to ignore the lies that bullies throw in their face. Strong enough to overcome their addictions. Strong enough to love themselves.

Today we begin a journey through the book of Ephesians to discover how we may become stronger in heart, mind, body, and soul.

The Source of Strength

The book of Ephesians was a letter written by Paul around AD 90. It is believed that it was meant to be a read in each of the churches in Ephesus, which was the capital city of the Roman empire in Asia, the area that is now Turkey. It was meant to be a letter of encouragement to those that were followers of Jesus in the light of persecution, racism, class warfare, internal struggles, and the strong allure of addictions and sexual sins that were so prevalent in the culture of that time.

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus. ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:1-2, HCSB)

Typical of his letters, Paul lets the reader know who wrote the letter before they start reading the actual letter. He gives us his credentials: he is an apostle because God called him and chose him for that position. This makes it clear that he is someone who has the authority to address them and teach them. He then lets them know who the letter was written to, in this case the faithful in Christ or believers or Christians.

In verse 2 Paul’s greeting includes a common phrase used in that time, grace and peace to you. This was a similar to the Jewish greeting Shalom, which means peace to you. But he expresses that this grace and peace are from God, our Father, and our Lord or boss, Jesus Christ.

These 2 short verses pack a lot of information into them. Paul is telling the church that he has been called by God, appointed by God as an apostle, and therefore has the authoritative backing of God as an emissary to the church.

This same God that has done miracle after miracle through Paul, the same God that created the universe, the same God that brought the flood on the world, the same God that was able to bring the Israelites safely out of Egypt, the same Incarnate God who came down to His creations in human flesh as a baby, the same God that willingly provided a way for us to have forgiveness of our sins, this same God can provide grace and peace to all who believe in Him.

Why is this important to us? Because if we want to become stronger in heart, we need to follow the One who loves the entire world fiercely. If we want to become stronger in mind, we need to learn from the One that is Omniscient, who knows all. If we want to become stronger in body, we need to grow in our understanding of the One who is Omnipotent, who is all powerful. If we want to become stronger in spirit, we must recognize the One who is able to transform our spirit from darkness to light.

The Hope of Strength

Becoming stronger in heart, mind, body, and soul begins with God who provides grace and peace to us. At the end of Paul’s initial greetings, he prays that all believers will comprehend our hope, our riches, and God’s power. Our hope is built on the promises from God.

¹⁸I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength.

²⁰He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him [Jesus] at His right hand in the heavens— ²¹far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:18-21, HCSB)

This hope that Paul writes about it not an “ify” hope, but an assurance that it will happen because of God’s ability and power to do so. Our riches in Christ is Paul’s way of trying to express that we should not focus on the worldly treasures which will only last for a short time, but rather on the heavenly treasures that are being prepared for us to enjoy for all of eternity as a part of our inheritance.

Paul reminds the church that God’s power is something tangible that they have witnessed through His miraculous works (raising Jesus from the dead, healings, etc.) and something intangible as in the way He changes lives beyond our understanding. His power can help us make our focus the hope and riches to come rather than the worldly pleasures and riches that seem to be so abundant around us.

Paul also reminds us in these verses that God gave Jesus a place of power in His Kingdom. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. In their culture, anybody that would sit at the right hand of the king was considered to be the voice of the king. Anything that person said had the same power and authority as if it came from the king himself. Paul is saying that Jesus is equal with God. Therefore, anything Jesus, or God the Son, said or did was done in the name of God the Father.

We all need to become stronger. Even if we have no problems or insecurities or addictions or hurts or pains or whatever, we still need to become stronger. The book of Ephesians will show us how we can be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power (Ephesians 6:10).

Show Me the Way

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 12:23:00 +0000

People have asked me why I do what I do. Why am I a church planter? Why am I a pastor? Why do I direct an afterschool program? Why do I hold community events? Why do I help people that have physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs? The answer is always the same: because people are calling out for help, begging for someone to show them the way.

In 1989 Nintendo began selling the Gameboy, the World Wide Web was invented, and the first GPS satellite was launched.

People mostly remember 1989 because it was the year that race riots occurred in Miami, the Exxon Valdez spilled its cargo of oil in Alaska’s Prince Williams Sound, the Tiananmen Square massacre happened, the Menendez brothers shot their parents, and the San Francisco earthquake took place during the World Series. It was a rough year.

It was also the year that televangelist John Nunes was found guilty of embezzling $158 million and televangelist Jim Bakker was convicted of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to 45 years in prison. The Catholic Church was caught trying to cover up sexual abuses by their priests. The 80s was also the era of the Religious Right as they entered into the dirty business of politics. Men such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell become the rights version of Pastors Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

In 1990, Dennis DeYoung, lead singer and keyboardist for the group Styx, wrote this song.

Dennis DeYoung and billions of others are looking for someone to show them the way. But most are looking in the wrong places. They read New York Times bestselling books, they look to politicians, they follow celebrities, they listen to the glitzy and glamorous superstar preachers on television. And they walk away disillusioned.

They talk to everyday people that claim to be Christians and yet hear and see how they display hate towards others because of their skin color or political position or religious beliefs or nationality. And they walk away confused.

Who can show them the way? Where do they go to find the way?

The Book that Shows the Way

There is only one book that can be trusted implicitly to show us the way: God’s Holy Word, known as the Bible. There are many other books that claim to show the way, but they often fall short of the truth in some way. So why can we trust the Bible to show us the way?

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, HCSB)

Often people point to the fact that men wrote the books of the Bible. Those men could have made mistakes. In this passage, Paul is reminding Timothy that God has inspired all scripture, so therefore it can be trusted.

²⁰ Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21, ESV)

I’ve shared before that prophecy can mean one of two things: a message directly from God for a prophet to share with others or a message about God that a prophet (or pastor) shares with others. Here Peter is saying that all prophecies are from God and shared by men as they were carried on (or inspired) by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible can always be trusted to be true. However, we must be wise enough to discern the truth of God’s Word based on the cultural context, historical perspective, and even the social context for which it was written.

The One that is The Way

While others are looking for someone to show them the way, it is important to recognize that there is only one way. That way is a person and that person is Jesus.

⁶Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6, HCSB)

Jesus claimed that He is the way and that nobody can find their way to God, nobody can hope to get to heaven, nobody can receive new life, except through Him. That is not a claim that anyone else can make.

In fact, many have trouble believing this about Jesus. For Jesus to make this claim he was either confident in the truth behind the claim or He was a nutcase. To make this claim He had to have some method of knowing that He was right. This claim is one of the reasons that the devout religious Jews wanted to kill Jesus. He was claiming that He was the gatekeeper to God, He was the High Priest, He was Messiah.

Jesus never swayed from this statement that He is the one and only way to God. He made this statement before He entered the city of Jerusalem to a crowd that was celebrating Him. He was told by the leaders to quiet the crowd that was shouting Hosanna and calling Him the King of Israel. Jesus responded that if the people stop, then the rocks and stones would cry out proclaiming who He is.

When Jesus was arrested He had numerous times He could have refuted His claim to be the Way. He was beaten with a whip that ripped his flesh off, yet He did not recant. He was punched in the face and beat with a stick, spit on, and his beard was ripped out by hands, yet He did not recant. He had a crown of thorns pushed down on His head, yet He did not recant. He had nails hammered into His wrists and ankles, yet He did not recant. He was hung on a cross and spent hours struggling to breathe, yet He did not recant.

These are not the actions of a man who is making something up. The amount of physical abuse and torture that He endured would have been enough to break anyone. If Jesus was not confident that He really is the Way, then He must have been a madman. I believe that He is the Way.

The People of the Way

The claim that Jesus made that He is the Way was of such renown to all people at that time that those who were followers of Jesus were first known as the people of the way. Not only did Jesus make the claim that He was the way, but His followers also claimed that He was the way.

Today, anyone that says, “Show me the way,” only needs to read the Bible (the book that shows the Way) to read about Jesus (the One that is the Way). That is one of the hopes of the ministry of the Gideons. If we can just get people to read the Bible, they will find the way. That is what happened to Matt Kasap, one of the elders at South County Community Church.

Matt was born in Turkey. His family were Muslims. When Matt moved to the United States, he encountered Christians (people of the Way). Specifically one man that both intrigued Matt, but also gave him a bad image of Christians. One day Matt decided to buy a Bible and start reading it. He struggled through Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, and by the time he hit Numbers he was frustrated. But he kept reading every night after work. When he reached the New Testament, he started to see the Way. Because of reading the Bible he came to believe in Jesus.

There are numerous stories of people picking up a Bible in their hotel or hospital room and learning about Jesus. There are numerous stories of people reading the free Bible handed to them in the military or at school and coming to believe in Jesus. But those numbers aren’t enough to reach a lost world for Jesus.

People who know the way need to tell those that are searching for the way. That is why I do what I do. That is why all followers of Jesus are called to do the same. Tell others about all that we have seen and heard about Jesus. All that we have experienced of God.

Do you need someone to show you the way?

What's Hiding Inside?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 13:06:00 +0000

A bible study based on the book "A Wrinkle In Time"

See how many words you can make out of these letters: A WRINKLE IN TIME

In the simple phrase, “A Wrinkle in Time.” 4 small words. 5 nondescript syllables. 14 unremarkable letters. But as we discovered, hidden inside there was a vast language! Did you know that rearranging those 14 insignificant letters can create 748 different words in the English language? There’s a lot hiding underneath.

It’s like that with us. On first glance, we may look pretty normal. The dancer. The jock. The joker. The writer. The slacker. Nothing new or special about you or me. But pierce the surface of any one of us, you’ll discover unending universes of thoughts, emotions, hopes, pain, dreams, regrets, curiosities and total weirdness! Those combinations of universes are what make us so unique – unlike anyone who has ever lived before us or after.

Made to Be Wonderful

In Psalm 139, the writer says to God, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:13-14) “Fearfully and wonderfully made.” “Knit together.” We are complex, aren’t we? A marvelous and messy interwoven jumble of good and bad, truth and fiction, reality and fantasy.

A Wrinkle In Time is the classic book by Madeline L’Engle. It has a very strong Christian theme throughout the book, yet the current movie leaves all of that out. The book tells the story of Meg and Charles as they attempt to find their missing scientist father. Meg is a complicated collection of thoughts and emotions. She’s smart but insecure. Calm, but emotional. Strong, yet weak. Abandoned at a young age by her father in an unsolved disappearance, Meg is missing a part of herself and often feels adrift. But then, a mysterious being enters her life. Meg and Charles don’t know what to make of this eccentric woman, named Mrs. Whatsit.

The first thing you may notice about Mrs. Whatsit is that she is a bit strange. Her mannerisms, her insights. But at the end of that clip, Mrs. Whatsit says something so profound. “We can’t take any credit for our talents – it’s how we use them that counts.” Which of you can take credit for your height? Or the color of your eyes? Or your accurate throwing arm? Or your childhood love of reading? Or your out-of-nowhere interest in baking, or music, or math, or running? Where did those skills and interests come from in the first place?

Wherever they came from, however they were knitted into us, those special talents are hiding beneath the surface in us. Hiding deeper still is the willingness to use our talents not for ourselves – but to the benefit of others. That is the real reason we were granted these gifts. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Catch all that? We’re God’s handiwork - knit together by Him Created in Jesus for what purpose? Good works. Those good works are the evidence we are in His image. Which God prepared beforehand – we are part of a dynamic ever-unfolding, eternal plan. We are a critical part of his perfect machine. Wow! That we should walk in them – which basically means “so get to it!!”

Mrs. Whatsit knows her Biblical truth when she counsels Meg: it’s not the talent. It’s how we use them that matters. Great talents are hiding inside us – but so is the capacity to use them for good.

Let’s look at other qualities hiding underneath the surface. Meg and her Mom are talking about someone they both love that they’ve lost. Meg says to her mom, "Dad's not ever coming back, is he?" Her mom talks to her and let's her know that she must have hope.

Don’t Give Up

What do we see here hiding under the surface with Meg? What are some of her emotions? These aren’t normally emotions we reveal. Usually, we bury those feelings deep down inside, don’t we? Maybe like Meg, you are struggling under the surface with hurts that are hard to talk about. Maybe those hurts are self-inflicted. Maybe, like Meg, those hurts just happened to you through no fault of your own.

I want to tell you two important things about inner pain: First, I want to affirm for you that those hurts are real and shouldn’t be ignored or denied. It’s when we try to bury our pain that it comes out in unintended ways, like Meg getting in trouble at school with her principal and classmate. Think back on your own life – have you ever silently been experiencing anger or frustration with one thing, and those emotions seep out onto something or someone who has absolutely nothing to do it? We’ve all been there, right? That usually happens when we don’t confront what’s been hurting us.

Second, it’s that healing from those pains is 100% possible. And healing often comes in a variety of ways. Sometimes it happens over time. If you get a “C” on a test you thought you aced, or get turned down for a date, that stings in the moment – but it doesn’t sting forever, right? “He will wipe away EVERY tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

So time can and will be a healer. Talking about it can help heal us as well. Sharing our pain with others – parents, friends, teachers, counselors, is a time-tested way to help heal. But that requires two ingredients: a willingness to be vulnerable and share our pain and a willing friend to share our pain. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

Sharing in one another’s pain and heartache is not only something we are encouraged to do, but by doing so it fulfills the law of Christ. What does that mean – “fulfill the law of Christ?” Jesus spells out very clearly to his followers what he means. “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)

So Jesus is telling us what it means to fulfill the law of Christ – that in bearing each other’s burdens we love as he loved us. Isn’t that awesome? By being a good friend, by being an active and empathetic listener, we show love, and we help heal. We get to be part of that mysterious healing process!

In A WRINKLE IN TIME, Charles and Calvin share in Meg’s burden by traveling with her across time and space to save her father. That’s love. And that gave her hope to press on. But there’s another lesson to be learned from the pains that are hidden under the surface of our lives. They shape us and make us stronger!

Be a Warrior

In the story Mrs. Which tells Meg to be a warrior. Why? Because Meg is afraid. Fear is a VERY real emotion that can practically paralyze us!

There are silly-fun irrational fears, but there are also natural, deep-seeded, genuine fears. Meg feels those marrow-deep fears: What if I die? What if I fail? What if my Dad doesn’t remember me? What if he left us for a reason? What if he doesn’t want to come back? Every one of those fears re-opens a festering wound of pain for Meg. Her fears aren’t a tiny spider high on a wall; these fears cut to the very core of her innermost being.

How can anyone ask her to “be a warrior” and face that?!? And how can we, in turn, face our own painful fears? The Bible says that there is a spiritual war taking place all around us and that we are to put on our spiritual armor everyday. But we can face our fears because we know that God is in charge. He is the commander and He is working all things out for His good. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

This verse is saying the following three truths:

Bad things happen. They happen to good people and to bad people. They happen to people who love God and people who don’t. People who love God don’t get a pass on bad things happening to them.
For those who love and trust God, there’s a mystery at work! That mystery is that God starts working EVERYTHING together “all things” for good. He takes our talents, or pain, our fears, or frustrations, our joys, our hopes and our hopelessness. He takes them all and deliberately starts molding them toward a good end.
When we allow God to take ALL of us – that which is above the surface and below – and surrender it, he uses all of it to achieve His purpose. That is to say He takes our weakness and uses it for His greatness.

Want to be a warrior? Use your talents to help and serve others. Love your friends by helping them carry their burdens. And surrender everything you are and aren’t to God and let him transform all of you into an instrument for good.

The Bible Doesn't Say That - Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 11:44:00 +0000

God Won't Give You More Than You Can Handle

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One day I was whining a bit to a friend. I was complaining about how difficult life is. How I was experiencing financial problems due to a bankruptcy. Griping about how much work I was doing and how little free time I had to spend with my family. Fussing about some things the kids broke at home. Stressing over the fact that we had one car with three drivers and no possible means to get another. Fretting about health issues. After I unloaded all of this on him, he gave me a goofy little smile and said, “Well, God will never give you more than you can handle.”

I was suddenly like, Dude! Where do you get off telling me some lame religious mantra like that after I just bared my soul to you? Have you even read the Bible or is your life just a collection of Internet memes that have no basis in fact? Tell me where you found that in the Bible so that I can name it and claim it, because I have read it from cover to cover many times and do not remember ever seeing any promise like that.

I know. I know. You’re thinking, “He was just trying to find something to help make you feel better.” More like he was uncomfortable and just grasped for the first quasi-religious sounding thing that he could find to say.

Why do we do that? Why do we think that we must fill that uncomfortable silence with useless noise? With no regard to whether or not it has any truth to it, just as long as we can pat them on their back, put a smile on our face, and give a great sounding bit of advice. Like telling someone hanging from the edge of a cliff, “Don’t let go!” Duh! Great advice. Do you have anything useful to tell me.

Everyone experiences problems. We just learned last week that suffering is something that is part of life and we will all go through it at some point. God allows some suffering because He loves us and loves others and wants to see us grow and overcome. But does that mean that He will only allow us to suffer to the extent that we can handle everything? No. Because all of life ends in death. I think that in itself shows we can’t handle everything thrown at us.

As we finish our series, The Bible Doesn’t Say That, we look at what the Bible actually has to say about this erroneous saying.

³Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. ⁴He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵For as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so through Christ our comfort also overflows. ⁶If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort.

⁸For we don’t want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in Asia: we were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life. (2 Corinthians 1:3-8, HCSB)

More Than I Can Handle

In this letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wants the followers of Jesus to understand that while in Asia his team was completely overwhelmed—beyond their own strength. They were filled with despair.

That despair led them to understand something very important about their ministry. While they were in despair, God was using them to help comfort others. While they were overwhelmed, God was using them to support and help others. He shares this by saying in verse 6, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.”

Paul was being very real and honest with the church. He wanted them to know that life is hard. That God has called us to do things that we cannot do. We are suffering with affliction because of what God has called us to do. We were depressed. We were desperate. We thought it would be the end of us. In fact, they tried many times to kill us.

But, all of that was done so that you, the people of this church, would be come to know Jesus. So that you could be comforted in the knowledge of your salvation. So that you could be safe and secure in the arms of Jesus.

God does give you more than you can handle.

⁹Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. ¹⁰He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and He will deliver us. We have put our hope in Him that He will deliver us again ¹¹while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:9-11, HCSB)

Not More Than God Can Handle

While God may give you more than you can handle, it is important to understand that God will never ask you to do something that is too much for Him to handle.

Paul said that they voluntarily gave themselves a death sentence so that they would stop relying on their own abilities. Instead they would trust in God who raises the dead.

He is saying that they chose to die to self and live for Christ. To put aside their own desires, their own goals, their own agendas, and focus instead on what God had for them to do.

Why would you be willing to set aside yourself and give complete control of your life to God? Paul said it is because of the terrible death that we were facing before we met Jesus. Before we repented of our sins, we were condemned to an eternity separated from God. An eternity in Hell. That is the terrible death that Paul was speaking about. Yet God delivered us from that terrible death.

Handle with Prayer

God delivered Paul from that horrible death and Paul said he had faith that God could deliver them again. From what? From whatever situation or problem or issue or frustration or struggle or whatever they found themselves in.

We will often find ourselves in over our head. We are not able to do everything on our own and we get into even more trouble when we try. God designed us to be part of a family. A family that helps each other. And God is the Father of that family and He is able to help whenever we find ourselves in too deep.

Why would He be willing to get us out of trouble time and time again? Because of His great love for us and because when He does He gets the glory. A church that comes together, grows together, and serves together, brings honor and glory to God.

"God gets glory when people who dress, eat, talk, and live differently join around the table for a meal with one heart." Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer

The church is there to help encourage us, the sustain us, to help us, to share with us, to grieve with us, to laugh with us, to rejoice with us, to serve with us, and to pray with us. We are meant to be a part of the family of God.

How did the church in Corinth help Paul? By praying for him. “¹¹while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:11). The prayers of the fellow believers, of those that were followers of Jesus, helped to sustain them during the times that they were completely overwhelmed and in despair.

Do you pray for our church leaders? Do you pray for each other? Do you pray for the little children of the church? Do you pray for those who have yet to come to church? Do you pray for the lost? We are called to support each other through prayer. To be a part of God’s deliverance of others by our prayer. God will do the heavy lifting, but we are to lift each other in prayer.

God may give you more than you can handle, but it will never be more than He can handle. And whatever we face, we are to handle it with prayer.

The Bible Doesn't Say That - Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 12:43:00 +0000

Suffering is a Result of Sin

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Imagine that you had multiple unexpected repair bills and suddenly you don’t have enough money to pay one your electric bill this month. When you call to explain this the BGE rep asks, “What sin did you do that brought about this financial problem?” Or perhaps you broke your leg on the weekend and when you went to work on Monday your boss says, “You must have really sinned big time for this to happen?” Maybe a dog knocks over your trashcan and drags trash all over the road in front of your house causing you to get a citation from the city for polluting and your neighbor asks, “Have you or your children sinned to cause this problem?”

I’m sure you would think, “What callous, cruel response to my illness, pain, or suffering.” It’s almost impossible to even imagine that someone would react like that, yet many people continue to mistakenly believe that all suffering is caused by sin. If something is wrong in your life, there must be some unforgiven sin that you are trying to hide.

This is not some new belief. In fact, even the disciples of Jesus believed that suffering was the result of sin.

¹ As He [Jesus] was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples questioned Him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1-2)

I can hear the conversation between the disciples now… Look at the poor blind beggar. I wonder whose sin caused this terrible tragedy in his life. Maybe his parents sinned, and God struck the child blind. Or perhaps the child was sinful in the womb, and God punished it by allowing it to be born blind. Either way, this man has had to live with the results of this sin his entire life. Hey, let’s ask Jesus. He’ll know who whose sin caused this to happen.

Jesus was definitely more patient than I am. I would have smacked them in the head and said something like, “Idiots! Is that what you think of God? That He just zaps sinful people with illnesses, poverty, pain, and woes all day long?” Yet Jesus calmly replied to their question so that they could learn about the love of God firsthand.

³“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. ⁴We must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

⁶After He said these things He spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. ⁷“Go,” He told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing. (John 9:3-7)

Suffering is a result of life

It could be argued that all suffering is a result of the original sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, their sin brought disease, decay, and death into the world. Since then, every living thing experiences the process of decay that leads to death.

“From the moment we are born, we begin to die.” This quote used to be one of my favorites. It both terrified and intrigued me. Only recently did I realize something new when I heard this quote. I march, not toward death, as the quote implies, but life. Oh yes, I will die. But for me, death is only the vehicle to which I take to my new life. Death (and the long, slow, often agonizing march toward it that we call “life”) is but a momentary pause, a blink, the final definitive step through the doorway that leads to my true life. (Emily Mueller, That I Might Have Life)

Suffering shows God’s love for Us

Sometimes God permits us to suffer to teach us that pain is a part of life. The Bible does not tell us that followers of Jesus will not suffer. Even Jesus suffered, bleed, and died because of His love for us. His suffering was not the result of sin. It was the result of His love for us.

God may permit suffering so we learn to respond to problems in a biblical way. Romans 12:1 says that we should present our bodies as living sacrifices. A sacrifice was something that was utterly destroyed so that it could bring pleasure to God. The process of destroying our old nature so that we might bring pleasure to God is not an easy task. It may result in suffering, but it is because God loves us and wants us to become more like Him.

The apostles suffered. It wasn’t sin that caused their suffering. Their suffering brought them closer to God. The weaker they felt, the more they relied on Jesus to help them as they shared about God’s love. Paul put it this way:

¹⁰So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Suffering Shows God’s Love for Others

The book of Job teaches us about a man of perfect integrity, who turned away from all evil. He had a large family and was extremely wealthy. God was so pleased with Job that He bragged about Him to the devil. Satan said that Job was only a righteous man because he had everything a man could want. He said that Job would curse God as soon as he had to suffer.

God allowed the devil to bring suffering into the life of Job to test him, but said that the devil was not allowed to bring any physical harm to Job himself. Job’s property and children were all killed in disasters. He and his wife were all that remained.

²⁰Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, ²¹saying:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Praise the name of Yahweh.

²²Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything. (Job 1:20-22)

His friends came to console Job, wept with him, and spent time with him. But his friends also asked Job what great sin he had committed that brought down God’s wrath on him. Job insisted that he did not sin and continued to praise God.

Satan told God that the only reason Job continued to praise God was because Job had not personally been attacked. He said that if Job experienced personal pain and suffering then he would curse God. God allowed Satan to bring physical harm to Job but insisted he must not be killed. So, painful boils spread all over Job’s body.

Job’s friends continued to insist that Job must have sinned to cause such suffering. For more than 30 chapters Job and his friends go back and forth. Even Job’s wife became furious because of what God had done to them and told Job to just curse God and die.

¹ Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind. He said: ²Who is this who obscures My counsel with ignorant words? ³Get ready to answer Me like a man; when I question you, you will inform Me. ⁴Where were you when I established the earth? Tell Me, if you haveunderstanding. ⁵Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone ⁷while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb, ⁹when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,¹⁰when I determined its boundariesand put its bars and doors in place, ¹¹when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther;
your proud waves stop here”? (Job 38:1-11)

God is basically asking, “Who are you?” It’s not like we are the Hulk facing Loki as he demands, “I am a god.” To which the Hulk responds by beating Loki to a pulp and walking away as he says, “Puny god.” No, this is the one and only true God.

We question God as if we have the authority to do so. God, the God who created everything, the God who made the laws of nature, the God who keeps the earth from spinning out of control toward the sun, that God is the One we think doesn’t know what He is doing. We question His reasons. We question His ways.

Sometimes God permits suffering to speak through our life and testimony to show others our faith in God. Jesus said that the sufferings of the blind man were “so that God’s works might be displayed in him.” God not only loves us, but He loves all people. Sometimes He may allow us to experience some discomfort so that others will be drawn to Him when they see how we give God glory in spite of our problems. Just like Job…if we are willing.