Two Dimensional Thinking

Of a Personal Matter

2009-09-05T18:48:00.003-05:00

I guess "two dimensional" ought to mean "two dimensional." I am firmly convinced that to ignore the spiritual part of life while living in the physical realm is disasterous. It's like living without your left arm and never acknowledging it. At the same time, living in the physical realm without occassionally addressing issues there can be just as debilitating. So I will try to do so once in a while.

Our country is under attack. For too many years forces have been at work to undermine the firm foundations left by our forefathers. While those who would dimantle our representative republic, take away our freedom and enslave us have been quietly yet resolutely chipping away; our culture has been lulled into a stupor by materialism, security and a life of ease.
I believe the election of Barak Obama has been a wake-up call to those who would be free. Mark Levin's book, Liberty and Tyranny, is an excellent compilation of how we got here and how we must proceed to restore our freedom and our liberties. However, only time will tell if we are too late.
The 2012 midterm election is closer than we think. If the people of this country do not "clean house" of every liberal democrat, blue-dog democrat and spineless republican; and replace them with principled, tough-skinned and "spoiling-for-a-fight" representative that loves our liberites and serves the people instead of seeking to be served by the people - then we will have lost our country.
As of this writing, it looks as if our Congress, in spite of the obvious desire of the majority of our citizenry for the government to stay out of health-care, will pass as health care bill that dictates government control of our lives in an unprecedented way. They don't care what we think or what is best for the country as a whole or into the future.
They have an agenda they don't want to divulge. They are liars, thieves and cheats. They are the grown-up version of the playground bullies. Just because they say something is so does not make it so.
When those in charge of our government want to take advantage of every crisis, it is a very short step to the manufacture of multiple disasters in order to deepen the dependency and control of government. How do we know the difference between a real disaster and a manufactured one?
The Bible tells us that as we live in this world, we are to be as wise as serpents relative to how the world works (evil), yet innocent as doves as to participating in evil ourselves. Let it be so!
God help us!

What Do We Really Deserve?

2009-09-05T18:40:00.001-05:00

The 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew tend to scare me. They are depressing sometimes when I read them. When you look at them, they relate Jesus’ words about the signs of the end of the age as well as the unknown date of His return. The Parable of the Ten Virgins makes me reconsider each time I read it whether the presence of the Holy Spirit is evident in my life. Of course, as you look at the end of chapter 25, you see the Lord dividing the sheep from the goats, or the final judgment, which causes me to both rejoice and dread the event, for I am concerned for those who are not true believers and I rejoice that He has chosen me as His child.
Did you notice as you looked over those two chapters the Parable of the Tenants? It strikes a chord in my heart. Many times we are called on to take stands which are not popular and are not understood. The reason must be because of our understanding of our position as stewards of what God has given to us and why He has given over into our care the things He has. God has entrusted to His people, the church, His property just as the owner of the land in the parable did so with his property. Each servant received the resources necessary to accomplish what the master desired of him to do in his absence. God has also given to each of us something to do in this life. Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Now if we understand this, we must also accept that He has given us all we need to accomplish the task. II Corinthians 9:8-9 tells us, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’”
And just as the different tenants were held responsible for how they fared with the resources given them, so will we be held responsible for how we have fared with the resources God has given us. I believe one of the major problems in the Church today is that we too often view ourselves as owners. It is our time, our money, our schedules, our possessions, our church, our families, our vacations, our health, our lives. But it is not really. God has given us basically three things for which he will expect an answer from us when we die or when Christ returns. 1) Time, how we spent it to accomplish the tasks He desired for us to accomplish, 2) resources, how we spent the relationships, the material things and the affections of our lives to make better that which he has given to us, and 3) our lives, whether we have been willing to expend our lives for His sake, even to death itself should he call upon us to make that ultimate sacrifice.
We all want to hear from God those wonderful words, “Well done, good and faithful servant….” But we must never forget that those words come after much sacrificial labor for the kingdom of God. It is not a matter of our being saved, it is a matter of what we do after we have already been saved. Unfortunately, many sit back and expect everything to go their way at the best, or do not expect to have to give up anything or be inconvenienced at the worst. How can this be? Jesus gave His all for us and we, who claim to be redeemed by His sacrifice are hesitant to give Him our all? We ought to be searching out everything in our lives to give to Him! There should be no area of our lives that we have not examined to find anything that we are holding back from Him.
The parable mentioned above gives God’s thoughts about unfaithfulness. I shudder to think that I might be found unfaithful by my Lord and Master. That’s why I love this definition of sanctification, “A work of God’s Holy Spirit in the Christian whereby each day he is enabled more and more to die to self and each day enabled more and more to live for Christ.” Our God has loved us in spite of ourselves and patiently works on us and waits on us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of His Son Jesus.
Yet if we think that we will be found special in His eyes because of our works, we are mistaken. We are already special and can’t be any more so. We can be found pleasing in His eyes as we are faithful to His calling upon us, but it is our duty to cheerfully give Him our all. Jesus said in Luke 17:10, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
May the Lord find us faithful in the power of His Holy Spirit, and may we find His loving smile upon us as we seek to spend ourselves in the cause of His gospel.

Talking About It ... or Doing It

2009-09-05T18:30:00.002-05:00

As I was reading through a passage in the Book of Philippians, I was struck by the desire of Paul for those under his ministry. He told them in the first chapter (1:4-6), “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Paul, who was a praying man, remembered those Christians in Philippi because of their partnership with him in the gospel.
This struck me as somewhat out-of-keeping with many churches today, where the pastor is considered just another employee and the one primarily responsible for the work of ministry in the church. It made me quickly realize that God has blessed me personally and our church corporately with leaders and members who do not have this attitude, so that I can pray with the same joy for the same thing that Paul did. We are all in partnership in the gospel!
I do thank our God with great joy that there are partners with me in the ministry of the Gospel. When we leave the building after a worship service or a Bible Study, we are entering our own God-given mission field. But we are also a very important part of the ministry and work of the church each time we come into the building – so we are in a real sense partners together as we seek to lead the church as God would have us to do. It is one thing to be in a leadership position, but it is another thing to know that those who follow us do so with the same love for Christ and desire to see His kingdom advanced according to His will. May the joy we experience because of His gift of faithfulness to be oursas we see God’s faithfulness in us.
Paul goes on to say that his confidence is not in the Philippian Christians, as much as he loves them. His confidence in the advancement of the kingdom of God is in God Himself. “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” I feel strongly that the church in general today has not only erred greatly, but the World would love nothing better than to see the church lose sight of it’s true self. What I mean is this – the church in general has become self-centered and strayed from its Biblical foundation of being God-centered and obedient to His Word.
There are two reasons for this: 1) When the church began to doubt the truth of the Word of God, then it could not keep its spiritual eyes on Jesus. When that happened, the only thing to do was to become too important in our own eyes and seek to please ourselves in every aspect of the life of the church. So the church willingly gave itself to the World’s way of thinking.
2) We cannot for a minute discount the fact that nothing would please the World more than to see the church compromise itself to accommodate the World’s way of thinking. So The World seeks to entice the church away from its commitment to the truth of Scripture and its love for Christ. That is why Paul pointed back to the real reason for the successful completion of anything that is done in the church.”…he who began a good work in you…” is none other than Christ Himself. We are born again into Christ! We are in a relationship with the risen Savior! We are the children of God! We owe Him everything, starting with the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life and going on from there!
So the answer to the unspoken question is this: we can stay God-centered and resist becoming self-centered by keeping our eyes on Jesus. By seeking to love Him more by seeking to know Him better. By seeking to know Him better by being ever more knowledgeable of His Word. By asking each day, each hour, each minute and each second, “Lord, I love you – what do you want me to be doing, saying and thinking that will please You?” Then, by living our daily lives in this “mode”, God has promised to enable us to live for Him. Our desire coupled with His power bring Him glory and brings to us His blessings. When our hearts seek Him, then our hands cannot help but serve Him and our tongues cannot help but praise Him. Then His joy will be ours and the “peace of Christ will rule in our hearts” (Colossians 3:15)
My prayer for us is just that – that God would find us willing partners with Him in the gospel, submitting ourselves to Him, depending on His Spirit within us, and keeping our eyes on His Son Jesus, who is “the author and finisher of our faith.”

The Uselessness of Faith

2009-03-01T23:33:00.003-06:00

In this post, I would like to discuss the uselessness of “faith”. All too often today in Christian circles, we hear the phrase (or something like it), “You just have to have faith, and that will get you through.” So let me pass along to you some thoughts on what the Scripture says about faith – real faith.
First, the English word for faith is a noun, but in the Greek, the word is both a noun and a verb. Now I am no Greek scholar, but I believe the best translation of the original as a verb would be “trust”. So faith is not just belief, but also the act of trusting. And this trust is nothing less than a “leaning upon” something. So once again, we have a case of the current Christian culture, and consequently the world that watches, being misled by carelessness and/or ignorance. Trust must have an object in which to trust. Trust must be placed in or on something. So to use that great Evangelism Explosion example, I can intellectually believe in the ability of a chair to hold me up, but until I actually sit in it, by belief is not trust. When Ephesians 2:8-9 speaks of faith, it is more this aspect of trust than a simple intellectual acknowledgement. It says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast.”
But this trust which Paul is speaking of is an unusual trust, for it is a life-changing trust. I think he put it well in the 1st chapter of Romans when he described the gospel this way, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes….” (16) When the good news of the forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Christ for lost sinners is believed (trusted in), then lives are changed forever. One is reborn, made new – in Christ. New eyes to see the truth of God’s Word, new ears to hear the proclamation of His will, a new heart to seek Him with, a new purpose in life which did not exist before. Everything has changed and this new trust continues to grow and change the one trusting in Christ from “glory into glory”. It is the work of God’s Holy Spirit to grow us up in this believing, this trusting. Theologians call the process “sanctification”. It is the life-long maturing of the Christian into the image of Christ.
So when we speak of the “need to just have faith”, we must be careful to finish the thought. We do “just need to have faith” – in a saving and powerful Savior named Jesus and His Holy Spirit that is within each true Christian! We miss so many opportunities to proclaim the great Savior that can redeem us into eternity. How many well intentioned and sincere people will go into Hell because they thought they were safe on the basis of some nebulous “faith”? The Church has much to answer for in not clearly proclaiming the truth of God in all it’s politically incorrect glory. Sinners cannot be saved apart from faith in Christ and repentance from sin. Faith (trusting) in the finished work of Christ on the cross to pay for sin, and repentance from the very sin that sent Him there, is the only way of salvation. As Peter boldly told the Sanhedrin in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” There are many ways to Jesus, but He is the only way to the Father. Eternal life comes only through Him and must be obtained in His way, by trusting in Him alone.
“Faith” by itself is useless, for it says nothing of the one believed in and trusted. So to leave the thought unfinished is to miss an opportunity to bring God glory that is His due. Let us not rob God!
This week, may the Lord increase our faith in Him. May our prayer be as the prayer of the man with the demon-possessed son in Mark 9:24, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”, and may our lives be characterized by a steady march out of unbelief into the light of trusting in Jesus with our whole heart.

The Powerlessness of Prayer

2009-03-01T23:30:00.001-06:00

I have increasingly heard over the past few months about the “power of prayer”. I recognize that this is an election year and that everyone will seem to be more “spiritual” in their speech, but every time I hear this terminology, I cringe. The phrase itself carries so much “baggage that needs to be unpacked” before it can properly be understood. So I thought I would address myself to this subject – albeit in a form that is too brief and not nearly thorough enough for such an important thing as prayer.
God made man a praying creature. This can be seen plainly in Genesis when Adam and God walked together in the Garden of Eden. They weren’t just walking, they were also talking, and essentially that is what prayer is, talking with God. But, as someone once said, “God created man in His own image, and after the Fall, man has been returning the favor.” Man takes that for which he was created and perverts it, using it for his own glory. Prayer, unfortunately, has fallen under the effects of this abuse. Let’s be honest – Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus all pray. Even the proverbial “atheist in the foxhole” prays. But is it really the prayer itself that is powerful? God’s Word says in Isaiah 1:15, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers I will not listen.” If God is saying this to those who call themselves His children, how much then does He listen to the prayers of those who do not belong to Him? I believe that the only prayer that God hears that is offered up by a lost person is the Sinner’s Prayer, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!”
So what do we make of this currant belief in the “power of prayer?” In the increasingly godless context of our culture, I believe it to be hogwash. Prayer – in and of itself – is powerless. Prayer in the dictionary is a noun, but prayer only occurs when one prays, which is a verb – and so demands a subject and an object. Just as one does not just “go”, but rather one “goes to the store”, so one who prays must pray to someone or something.
Many in the Christian community assume that when they say that there is power in prayer that everyone understands they mean prayer to God in heaven. But I believe the assumption to be a false one. For surely the Muslim prays – often with more outward zeal than the Christian. For the Christian to say in a culture of ignorance of God’s truth, that there is power in prayer is to be misleading.
But the question arises, if prayer is powerless, what do we do with James 5:16 which says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”? Just a cursory study of prayer in the pages of Scripture reveals that as sinners we must approach a holy God in the righteousness of Christ, so if a righteous man prays at all, he prays not in his own righteousness, but in that of the Savior. And according to the promise of Jesus in John 14:13, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” So it is not prayer that is the deciding factor here, but the one prayed to that is important.
But you may then ask why it is that unbelievers pray for things that happen (and so continue to perpetrate this misconception). We must then remember that God is sovereign in all things and has a plan and a purpose which He is actively following to His own glory. Ephesians tells us this when it says, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”(1:11) So when we see pagans and unbelievers praying and their prayers are answered, then we must understand that it was in God’s plan for that to happen and fit into His purposes. For a brief instant and in a single circumstance, their desire and God’s will coincided.
But as those who are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit and trust in His sovereign love for His people, we must participate in prayer with our desires increasingly matching the will of our heavenly Father. Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Nevertheless not my will, but yours be done.” And so must we say the same thing. The Lord’s Prayer as Jesus taught us to pray includes, “…Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”
At what point will we loudly proclaim the power of our God to answer prayer that is lifted up in His Name according to his revealed will? Our God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, should receive all the praise for answered prayer. To give credence to the “power of prayer” only is to give glory to the “pray-er.” This robs God and is a dangerous practice. This week, let us put prayer in its proper perspective and practice it with fervency and faithfulness, so that God is pleased.

The Love of God

2009-03-01T23:26:00.001-06:00

Three verses in Scripture go particularly well together and I have noticed that they are tied together with a common theme. They are I John 4:16, Romans 5:8 and Jeremiah 31:3. Let me quote them here and you will understand. John records the words of Jesus when He said, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” The passage in Romans tells us, “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And Jeremiah says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love…” These verses tell me that the God we serve is defined by selfless, sacrificial love that He demonstrates by action. He loves us with an everlasting love. Everlasting! It never ends and has always been, even “before the foundation of the world!” Which brings me to a point which I believe would benefit us to consider.
I have recently asked, even from the pulpit, a question most never consider. It is this, “What do you have that can never be taken away from you?” Those I have asked immediately are forced to think of all those things that they “own” and consider the security with which they hold on to them. So they consider their homes, which can burn down; or their bank accounts, which can be stolen or lost; or they consider their investment portfolios, which everyone understands as able to be lost; they consider their families, which – like everyone else’s - can be lost to death or disease. Then they consider their reputations, which can be ruined in an instant; or their very lives, which can be taken from them - also in an instant. They realize quickly that there is nothing in this world that cannot be taken from us. We did not choose the time or place of our birth and we will not choose the time and place (or manner) of our passing either. God does all of that. As Job so aptly put it in Job 1:21, “…The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Since we are created, the Creator is in charge of His own creation.
That is why those who reject God and so confidently assert their views are to be pitied. One day, they will discover they were wrong – and God is not at all happy about their rebellion and He will give them their due. How wretched they will be who have held on tightly to that which could be taken away from them. Which brings us back to the original question - “What do we have that can never be taken away from us?” Yes – there is something, but it obviously must be from outside of us.
It is the love of God Himself. Our salvation is ours through the undeserved and unearned love of God. And because it is rooted in His very character, because it defines who He is, when He makes a promise to us based on Himself; He cannot lie. So the love of God that sent Jesus to the cross for us cannot and will not be taken away from us. That is why God could say through the writer of Hebrews (13:5), “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” What a real comfort! That God will never leave His children or abandon them to the carnivorous habits of the world and appetites of Satan.
What should be our response to a God like this and the love He shows for us? I believe it would be appropriate to thank Him – constantly. David says in Psalm 30:12, “O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.” We sometimes get so busy we forget to thank one another for kindnesses shown, so how much more do we forget to thank God for His eternal kindnesses to us?
Then I would think that remembering God’s love to us would cause us to put worldly things in perspective. God put us here and gives us things and relationships and time, and we all too often put them ahead of God in importance. Created things become more important than the Creator. How sad! Let us reprioritize each day so that He has the preeminence in all things.
Finally, remembering God’s everlasting love for us would give us a sense of comfort and security unlike anything the world can offer. Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I leave with you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let you hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
May the everlasting love of our saving God be upon us this week and may we have that peace of knowing that it can never be taken away from us. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) Amen!

Pansies at Christmas

2009-02-20T21:36:00.002-06:00

Someone commented to me the other day about the pansies that had been planted in the planters at the front of the church. It brought back good memories of my mother planting pansies during the winter when I was growing up. I once asked her why she was planting flowers in the season when flowers didn’t normally grow, and she taught me that pansies actually prefer the cold months and cannot survive the summer heat. My father is partial to pansies and so is the one who planted them at the church. That led me to think about how we use the term “pansy” as being synonymous with being a “wimp”, or being unable to cope with the normal trials and tribulations of life that others seem to have no trouble dealing with. What a terribly unfair association for such a wonderful flower! When I thought about it in light of what my mother taught me, I realized that unless you know how hardy the pansy really is, you would have a totally wrong idea about the world used to describe it. It is a very misunderstood flower.
So are the people of God. I Corinthians 2:14 tells us, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them…” And later in the same letter, (3:18-19) Paul tells us, “Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a ‘fool’ so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight….” So while the world may have certain thoughts as to the values and worth of Christians, those thoughts are usually based on ignorance or blindness or both. I find it strange that many Christians seek to please the world or at least be found pleasing to the world when we are clearly told in Scripture that it is a useless endeavor. That is why Paul told the Corinthian Christians not to deceive themselves. It’s a very easy thing to do.
In this Christmas season, so many people will do so many things for others that will appear on the outside to be very good; and humanly speaking – they will be. But all too often, the reason in the heart is for the praise of men. If we can deceive ourselves by thinking ourselves “wise by the standards of this age”, then we can also deceive ourselves by thinking that we are doing something good for God’s sake when it is really just for the “warm and fuzzy” we get inside when we help someone else.
But Jesus was very specific in Matthew 25. (vs. 40) In response to questions about the service of His people on earth, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” When we do for others in need with the idea of receiving praise from men, we are no different than the ones that Jesus castigated in Matthew 6 for doing their deeds in the sight of men only for their praise. But when we do something for someone in need and we do it because Jesus has met our needs, both now and into eternity; we bring glory to Him and mirror to the world the real love of Christ.
So it really does not matter what the world thinks of us. It can consider us “pansies” if it wants to. But let us never give it reason to think of us in that way if the meaning is a worldly meaning. We are not “wimps” and we are more than able to cope with the trials and tribulations of this world. Philippians 4:13 says it all when it reminds us that, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” It is only in Christ that we are capable of doing anything good and right in God’s eyes and He is the only one we should seek to please.
So let our understanding of ‘pansies” be the correct one. Pansies are beautiful little flowers that flourish in the harshest of winters. They are able to be beautiful in the middle of dreariness and cold. They bring brightness into an otherwise colorless world. As the world gets more harsh and more unfriendly, let us be the ones to show the “brightness” of the gospel by our actions as well as our words.
Let it be said of us what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
May the Lord be pleasedwith the attitude of our hearts, as we seek to point others to Him in this Christmas season by our actions of mercy, kindness and generosity. And may those very actions mirror His mercy, His kindness and His generosity to us, His children.

Sin and Grace

2009-02-19T23:21:00.001-06:00

Upon occasion I have been accused of preaching about sin a bit too much. That’s okay. You see, when the text speaks of sin – I speak of sin. But if the first thing people hear is the only thing they hear, then I can’t help it when they miss the good news – that forgiveness of sin is what God gives to those who seek Him. And that is worth hearing about! God’s grace; what a wonderful thing – that a sinner such as I could find forgiveness from the very hand that should be rightly accusing me of sin. The Scriptures tell us in Psalm 96:13, “He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.” But it makes it very plain in Colossians 1:13-14, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” So the very One who will judge all men is also the One who forgives sins. What a great and loving and merciful God we have! Unlike any other so-called “god”!
Now how should I respond when I am reminded of sin by His Holy Spirit and His Word? I could be like some and think the message too harsh. After all – I am probably better than most and surely God keeps that in mind when he thinks of me, doesn’t He? Well - according to His Word, He sees me alright, but not exactly like that. We read in II Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God made Jesus to “be sin for us”, meaning that on that cross God treated His Son Jesus as He would have treated us for all of eternity in hell! I guess no one but the God-Man could experience an eternity of God’s punishment in hell for all His people in just six hours on the cross. But when He said, “It is finished!” I believe He meant it. All my eternal physical, emotional, spiritual and mental punishment was experienced by Jesus in my place on that cross. You bet I want to know more about my sin, so I can “die” more and more to it each day and live more and more each day to Christ! I want to daily experience the deep, deep love of Jesus as I learn more and more each day of my great sin and His greater grace! I love what that old hymn by Julia Johnston, Grace Greater Than Our Sin says, “Marvelous grace, infinite grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, Grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.”
But the love of God towards sinners does not just cleanse from sin. It does not just make Jesus to be sin for us. Look back at II Corinthians 5:21 above and you will see that “in him we might become the righteousness of God.” What a thought! That as I seek to follow Jesus in the way I think, speak and act – that His Holy Spirit within me enables me to become more like Christ. Paul says in Romans 4:4-5, “Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” God sees me as the righteousness of Christ! Not only am I innocent, but I am perfect! (at least in the eternal eyes of God.)
Now we all know I am not without sin, but that is a far cry from being guilty in the eyes of God for those who trust in Him. I am innocent for the sake of Jesus who lived and died for me. I am a forgiven sinner, and my chief desire on this side of heaven should be to sin less and be more obedient to Jesus who gave Himself up for me.
What folly to think that I can live for myself and for Him at the same time! What foolishness to think that I can be saved without a recognition of the very sin from which I need saving and without the very righteousness Christ will freely give me by His Spirit. It is only in this righteousness, that of Christ, that enables me to enter into God’s heaven! This is deep and “heady stuff” - all at the same time. But it is serious “stuff”, for I am also convinced of the truth of Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”
As I have said before - as Christians, we should live as if it is all about Christ and not at all about us. May He be pleased to find it so with us this week!

Our Part in Missions

2009-02-19T23:18:00.001-06:00

Let me share with us all the words of David in Psalm 145: 3-12, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All you have made will praise you, O LORD; your saints will extol you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.” What a passage! Did you notice the progression? First David acknowledges that God is great, and then He commits himself to meditate on what God has done. Then he relates how God’s people will rejoice and celebrate God’s goodness, His grace, compassion, patience and love. It is only when those things happen that the people of God speak in such a way that all men listen and learn of Him.
We will learn during this week of our Missions Conference how people around the world and right here at home are hearing of His mighty acts and the splendor of His kingdom. I hope we are ready for the blessing. I hope we have acknowledged exactly who God is and committed ourselves to think about His wonderful works. Paul said in Philippians 4:8, “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” Surely the things that God has revealed to us in His Word and what He is doing in the world are marvelous things! I pray that they hold for us as much that is worthy of meditation as they did for David.
I look forward to the day when our Savior reveals to us completely how much a part of the work of His kingdom our church has been through the efforts of missions and prayer. We truly are as Paul called the Philippian Christians, “partners in the cause of the gospel.” When a person is born again, when a church is planted, when the weak are strengthened and when the needy are helped; God’s kingdom is advanced. And when we help to make it possible by obediently giving of our prayers and our resources, then we are pleasing to our Father. He has promised to bless us when we keep our eyes focused on Him and do what we do out of a love for Him.
As any other weak sinner saved by the grace of a sovereign God, I sometimes wonder whether all the hard work is worth it and whether it has made any difference. Then the Lord, through His Holy Spirit, shows me what He is doing and how precious each of His children is in his sight. If only one person comes to salvation in all the years of the work of this church, then it has been worth it. If only one church is planted where the gospel was never heard before, then it was worth it. If one orphan is saved into eternity by the shed blood of Christ, then it was worth it. If only one missionary is encouraged and sent back into the field with renewed energy, then it was worth it. If only seeds are planted and never harvested, but left to others to faithfully do that part of the work, then we have been faithful. If we get to harvest and rejoice in what the Lord of the Harvest has allowed us to do and see, then we will be content and thankful. But this week, let us rejoice that God has given to us work to do that has eternal value. Let us “celebrate His abundant goodness and joyfully sing of His righteousness.”

Knowing the Signs of the Times

2009-02-19T23:14:00.002-06:00

In the minds of most who watch what is going on in our country,(and are aware of the condemnation Jesus gave to the Pharisees and the Sadducees in Matthew 16:3, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”) we are headed for some “rough waters”. The economy is slowing down, jobs are being lost, and bad news is having a “rippling effect” in our society. Following the election, many are jubilant that our nation has its first African-American president, yet not seemed to have gone much past that euphoria. Our government has now resumed the funding of oversees abortions, confirmed tax-dodgers have been confirmed for Cabinet-level positions, and legislation is passed for no other reason than, “we won the election – so we can do this without bothering about any opposition.”
So what are we Christians to do? Where is our God in all this? He can’t be pleased! …….. Or can He? We have heard over and over about how God is in control (sovereign) and how He loves us and works all things out for our good and for His glory. (At least from me.) So how does increased government spending on projects aimed at increasing the strength of our nation’s new idol – big and powerful government, bring glory to God? But does God really want these things to happen? Has He really allowed them to come about?
Yes – emphatically, yes! Let me attempt to give some perspective so that we might better “interpret the times”. It was as a minority in a sea of sinfulness that Noah built the ark. It was in the slavery of Egypt that God built Israel into a nation. It was in the exile of Israel that God brought great glory to His name through Esther, Mordecai, Daniel, Nehemiah and Isaiah – as well as numerous others. It was in the legalistic straight-jacket of a Roman dominated Palestine that Jesus was born and ministered and died and rose again. Nothing gives us the right, nor can we assume the privilege; that we are better than the saints of old. Suffering in some form or another is the result of the curse of sin upon the world and we live in it as citizens of heaven – redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus. So the World doesn’t just dislike us – it hates us. Matthew 10:22 gives Jesus’ words, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Someone might be tempted to read this and say, “You are so negative, such a doom-and-gloom person!” My response is simple. Say what you want about me, but the Word of God is plain in when it says in Ezekiel 33. Let me quote various verses from that passage. (6) “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.” (10-11) “Son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’ Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!...”
I am as Paul – I am compelled to preach and teach the truth of God’s Word as the standard by which we must live as the people of God. We do not play at Christianity or church. We deal with the eternal souls of men. In a thousand years, what we do in obedience to Christ will still be bearing fruit for our Savior. Serious business? This business of the saving of souls and the strengthening of God’s people is second to none in its importance! We all, not just me as a pastor and minister of the Word of God, will give answer to our Sovereign LORD one day. I for one do not want to be found faithless, but faithful. I’m sure you do to. Let’s put trivialities aside and get down to the work our Father has given to us to do. For the love of Jesus and for the love of His saints, let our praying be fervent, our service willing and sacrificial, and our worship joyful! Let’s show that we love our Savior more than we love the world.

Okay, I give in!

2009-02-19T23:12:00.004-06:00

I seldom have the time to write out my thoughts for this blog, so I might as well start posting the things I write each week for the church I pastor. Perhaps I will discover some extra time and post other thoughts as well. In the meantime, I will try to group all these "Thoughts from the Pastor" so they can easily be found. Hope you are blessed and enjoy them.

Journaling and Blogging

2008-10-06T21:19:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure which is which! I have known for years that I am NOT a "journaler". But I do enjoy putting my thoughts on paper upon occassion when they strike me. Please note that it is not too often and that I have been way too busy to put anything down on paper that was not essentially work-related. hence the scarcity of my posts.
So I guess this must be blogging, because it sure isn't journaling.
I think I'll just let this "thought" sit awhile and get back into this blogging thing a little bit at a time.

The Peace of God

2008-07-01T17:55:00.001-05:00

Exactly what does “RIP” stand for? We see it on the tombstones in old western B-films and upon occasion we even see it on gravestone in cemeteries today. So what does it mean?
It stands for “rest in peace” and comes from a decidedly Christian world-view. There are more passages on the peace which God gives to His children than can be recounted here, but Isaiah 57:2 may be helpful in beginning this “Thought”. It says, “Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.” Because our nation was founded by Christians upon the foundational principles of God’s Word, there were many in our nation that were indeed Christians and understood that this life is a struggle even in the “good times” because our struggle is actually with the sin that is within us. Those who have died in Christ no longer struggle with sin – but are in eternal peace with the Lord Himself.
But Christians do not have to wait to “be called Home” to have the peace of God in their lives. Psalm 29:11 reminds us, “The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.” Peace is ours – now. When there is peace between us and God through the forgiveness of our sins by the shed blood of the Savior, then there is peace indeed. When we overcome sin in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit that is within us, then there is peace indeed.
Isaiah 26:3 is such an encouraging verse. It comforts us with these words, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” The key to having peace in this life is not avoiding strife or suffering or troubles; no, it is simply trusting in the Lord Himself. That He will provide, protect, guide and lead. It really is a matter of trusting in Him who has made innumerable promises to those who love Him and are His adopted children in Christ.
I love Philippians 4:9, when it ties this trusting God to the expected response – obedience to the commands of Him whom we love. It says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the peace of God will be with you.” The progression is simple – He loves us and saves us, in gratitude we love Him and desire to obey Him in the power of His Holy Spirit – having been taught from His Word and lead by godly example, He gives us His peace in this life as we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus, He gives us eternal peace when we arrive in Heaven.
But the world offers a false “peace”. It puts forward the idea that if we abide by a certain set of rules, or live our lives in a certain way (usually determined by mere men and not by God), then we will have “peace”. To them, the absence of war, strife, suffering, or conflict is tantamount to “peace”. They forget that Jesus Himself said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” The peace Jesus was referring to was the supposed overthrow of Roman oppression and the restoration of the peace that was thought to be present during the reigns of David and Solomon. The peace that Jesus brings is peace with God in the inner man. The sword He spoke of is what the church gets when God’s truth collides with the World’s lies.
As His children, we must seek after the “peace that passes all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7) We are commanded to as citizens of heaven and ambassadors for Christ in this world. I Peter 3:11 makes it plain when it speaks of the man of God. “He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.” That is our calling – to zealously chase after the peace that God provides to them who love Him and obey His commands.
This week, I pray that the godly pursuit of His peace in our lives, exemplified by joyful and willing obedience to Him, will be blessed with that which we pursue – His peace. And when we find it in any fashion or in any quantity, we will discover the truth of Ephesians 2:14, “For He Himself is our peace…” May the peace of Christ rule in our hearts this week!

The Christian's Duty in Life

2008-05-15T12:47:00.001-05:00

I have recently been struck by a subtle attitudinal shift in the life of the church in general and many Christians in particular. I’m sure it has been a factor in the Church throughout the ages, but in various ways, I have been impressed by its presence more so lately. Let me attempt to explain the shift.
Jesus points out in Luke 12 the need to be watchful as we live here on earth; to always being ready for Him to return. He says in verse 38, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.” It has always been the case that the Church, and individual Christians, will be held accountable for what is done and said in the name of Christ. We bear His name, we have been purchased with His blood, we are indwelled by His Spirit, we are not our own – for “we have been purchased with a price.”
The subtle shift I have come to recognize is the shift from an attitude of “stewardship” to one of “ownership.” What I mean is that many churches and many Christians no longer see themselves as stewards, or managers of that which belongs to Jesus, but have taken ownership in their hearts of all that God has given to them for His own glory. The church has become their church – “possessive” instead of their church – “associative.” So there is a decline in submission one to another, there is an increase in tensions when one or another party cannot get its programs or methods instituted, there is suspicion of others that they may be themselves taking control of the church, there is bitterness when things do not go the way any one person or party may think things should go, there is blame when worldly standards - sometimes unconsciously adopted - are not met. These things tie in with Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The church should NEVER be conforming to the standards of this world in any fashion. It is not for us to decide how the church should be run or what should be taught in it.
Now we do have a great deal of leeway given by the Master, but the authority is still His and we will give an answer for all that we say, do and think. We hold any authority given to us in trust. We should seek His will in running our nation, our households, our churches and our own lives. His will is found in His Word. It is no mere coincidence that a decline in the commitment to and knowledge of the Word of God has been accompanied by a decline in the power and influence of the Church. It is because the Church as a whole has not sought God’s will for His Church , but has used its influence and power to promote itself and seek its own good and glory. No wonder God has not blessed. The same holds true for local churches, households, and individuals. We are all stewards of everything God has given us – our time, our attitudes, our jobs, our activities, our families, our church, our resources, even our “free” time.
As Christians, we all acknowledge that is will not go well at the Last Day for all who have rejected God’s free offer of salvation through Christ alone. But have we considered how sad He will be to ask and ashamed we will be to answer the question, “How have you managed the things I left in your care for my glory?” While none of us have done as good a job as we should have or could have, many of us have ceased trying. We have given up even being concerned about how the Master will find us when He returns. That is why God reminds us in Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good…”
We have been studying the end-times on Wednesdays and I would remind us of what Jesus says to John in the first chapter. He said in verse 17, “Do not be afraid.” And late He said to the Church in Revelation 3:2, “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent.”
Some may say that I am an alarmist or that I concentrate too much on sin, obedience, and judgment. So be it. If that is what I have been charged by the Master to proclaim, then I will answer to Him for what I have reminded us about in this short piece. But what if what I have written is needed? Have we considered whether we ourselves have taken ownership of that which rightfully belongs to God? Have we considered Luke 12: 35-48 in the light of our own actions and attitudes?
My prayer is that if the Master returns this week, He will find us to be watchful, and faithful stewards of all He has put into our charge. May the Lord bless us all this week!

Life Ruled by Emotions - or Truth?

2008-05-06T11:16:00.001-05:00

I, like so many today, am constantly tempted to think that my feelings are more important than what the facts may be saying. In other words, I am sometimes more reliant upon how I feel in a situation than I am to the facts of the situation. Having and acting on feelings is not always a bad thing, but God never intended us to act solely on them. Our emotions are given to us by Him and are to be used according to His will, but never are they to circumvent or replace His revealed will and the use of the reasoning ability that He gave us.
We are all familiar with Romans 12: 2 where Paul reminds us, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Now the mind that Paul speaks of is our reasoning, logical, conscious thoughts that help us as we make our way through this life. The world would have us to think according to its way, but God wants us to think the way He has given us. David says in Psalm 26:2 “Test me, O Lord and try me, examine my heart and my mind…” He desired for God to confirm that the intent of his soul and the thoughts of his heart were in accord with what God wanted them to be. The very fact that he prayed this prayer reveals that David also had the temptation to act more on his feelings rather than what he knew to be true.
I am thankful for our emotions. They are a gift from God. Some have more of them than others, some have them “closer to the surface” than others, but we all have them because we are made in the image of God – and He has them as well. The shortest verse in the Bible reveals this when it simply says, “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35) God “feels” love for His children, hatred towards sin, compassion for the orphans and widows, indignity at injustice, and sorrow for sickness and death. II Peter 3:9 tells us, “… He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” God desires good for His creation, because He loves it and wants all in it to be right before Him.
Yet we get into trouble when we mix up our priorities. We succumb to the temptation to make our feelings, or emotions, the deciding factor in so much of our thinking. We even forget to surrender our emotions to Christ as we have our spirits and drop our guards concerning the misuse of our feelings. The Devil knows this and seeks to tempt us into making our feelings paramount in our decision making. We become self-centered without even realizing it, because our every decision starts from the standpoint of “What do I think?’ or “How will I feel if that happens?” or “Just what is it that I will get out of this that will make me fell good?” Yet God calls upon us to jettison those thoughts and think as He wants us to. Going back to Romans 12, we find that the verse quoted above is preceded by verse 1, which says, “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” God says that our true spiritual act of worship is the giving of our physical bodies (every aspect of our whole lives) up to Him and His service. To withhold anything in our lives - even our emotions and feelings – from Him is to offer up only half-hearted worship. The “trick” is to submit even our feelings to Him. We need to ask ourselves whether what we feel is more important than what we know from His Word. Even when we see what His Word says, do we still act on the basis of our emotions or feelings, or do we trust His Word enough to go counter to our feelings and remain true to His Word? Hard questions with sometimes uncomfortable answers, yet because there is no area of our lives for which Jesus did not die, we are obligated to turn over even our deepest emotions to Him. Let me quote from I Chronicles 28: 9-10, as God speaks to Solomon before his great work of building the Temple began, “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.” Like Solomon, the Lord has chosen us to “build” a temple, he has given us His Word, His Spirit and gifts for the task; now let us be about the work! Let us serve Him with wholehearted devotion and willing minds. Let Him find us faithful as we act on the truth, seasoned with our emotions – but not ruled by them.

A Right Understanding

2008-04-29T14:31:00.000-05:00

I overheard someone the other day mention that they knew God and the phrase struck me as unusual. I’m sure what they meant was that they were in a relationship with the risen Savior, for which I am thankful. Yet the phrase got me to thinking about that very thing – our relationship with God. We are physical creatures, bound by time and space in such a way that proves that we are created and not the Creator. We sometimes forget who and what God is and truly what we are in relation to Him. We think of Him as being too unimportant and of ourselves as being too important. So let me try in this small space to put some of this into perspective for us.
Psalm 57:5 tells us, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens: let your glory be over all the earth.” Psalm 103:11 say, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him…”. David apparently had a good grasp of the grandeur, the infinite nature, and the omnipotence of God.
We have such an “advanced” society that we too often think of ourselves more highly than we ought. We don’t stop to think that we are born on the day that God intended, into the family that God intended, live our lives and die on the day that God intends for us. While we are blessed by our Creator with the ability and freedom of making choices in this life, He is in such control of all the circumstances of our lives that even in our freedom He is sovereign and nothing happens that He has not “fore-ordained whatever comes to pass.” As our Confession states in the Shorter Catechism answer to Question # 7, “The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass.” Ephesians 1:11 is the basis for this statement and says, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”
But let me put it this way; if you could take all the people ever born from Adam’s children to the last person born before the coming of Christ and the end of Time, and put them head to foot, they would stretch out in a line too long to measure. Yet that line would not even be measureable when compared to the immensity of our God. If all the power on earth (electric, nuclear, mechanical, heat, wind, etc.) were combined, it would not only be measureable, but would not even be a “drop–in-the-bucket” to the awesome power and inexhaustible nature of our God. Should all the kingdoms of the earth from first to last be combined and all the political and military power be concentrated in one place in time and space, it would not impress God at all, for Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me…” How can we measure and immeasurable God? How can we comprehend an eternal and infinite Creator? We say we will live for eternity, but we are only considering eternity future. Our God exists both into eternity future and eternity past.
If you have ever seen the movie, “Men in Black”, you will appreciate the last scene. Starting with the physical location on the earth of the last scene, the camera backs up to view the earth – and keeps going. Back, back, back until the planets are past, then the stars, then the distant galaxies – until the whole universe is seen as a ball which is actually a marble, which is scooped up and put into a bag with innumerable other “marbles” by a creature out of sight. Now this is just the fantasy of the writer, but it graphically gives some idea of the immensity of the God of the Bible that has revealed Himself to His people through the pages of His written Word and by His Holy Spirit. What a God that would do that for us! Calvin called it the “condescension of God.” That He would condescend to communicate with His creation in such a way that we could even understand Him at all is amazing! The study of God should be a life-long endeavor that is the desire of every Christian.
But think for just a moment of the greatest example of the “condescension of God”. Is it not Jesus Himself – who became man. The God-Man is not only God in all His power, glory and sovereignty, but He is also man in his physical being, his ability to endure pain, fatigue, hunger, and in His “human-ness”, finiteness. He is God, yet one of us, yet without sin. Praise His Name that He has saved us. Praise His name that He has loved us from before He created one atom of this physical universe. What a God is our God!

God's "GPS" for Life

2008-04-23T16:47:00.002-05:00

I find it interesting that Paul, in his final letter to his protégé Timothy, takes the time to explain to him the importance of the Word of God. He says in II Timothy 3:15-17, “… you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Paul knew that the greatest challenge to Timothy himself would be his own trust in, adherence to and living by the Holy Scriptures.
A few months ago, I was given a GPS navigation device for my car. It’s really neat and I love “playing with it”. One of the features is a screen that shows you exactly where you are according to latitude and longitude. Now I really don’t need that detailed information, but it fascinates me to know that anywhere in the world I go, I can not only be found, but also I can find my way according to the measurements given. [For us novices, Latitude is East to West, Longitude is Pole to Pole. Measurements are in Latitude or Longitude Degrees, Minutes (60) and Seconds (60). I guess I no longer can use the excuse that I got lost.]
Many don’t know about or care about that detail of map reading or knowledge of where they are or how to get somewhere. Sadly, there are also many who do not care about their spiritual condition and have not even considered where they are going or how not to get there. And even more sadly, there are many Christians with similar attitudes about the Holy Scriptures, our “highest rule of faith and practice.”
Christians are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit, whose purpose in our lives is to lead us into all truth, according to Jesus Himself. And I Corinthians 2:10 reminds us, “…but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” As Christians, we are to be constantly following the leading of the Holy Spirit into the “deeper” truths of the Word. Just look at the expectation of our leaders found in I Timothy 3:9, “They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.”
When Christians are committed to a lifetime of delving deeper in the truths of Scripture, we are lessening the chances of our stumbling along the way. David says in Psalm 119:9-11, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” The Bible, regardless of what the World thinks of it, is the very word of the Creator God for the salvation of the lost and the instruction of His people. If we belong to Christ, then we are to be increasingly knowledgeable of His Word and increasingly obedient to it. Not because we must (or else!), but because we want to do so. Let me quote from a further passage in Psalm 119 (12-16), “Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” David loved God’s Word because He loved God. He loved God because he knew that God was his salvation, even though he, David, did not deserve it at all. So must our thoughts be as we approach God and His Scripture.
I can hardly get on the wrong path with my GPS system, and God promised that if I stay on course according to His “GPS” system, I will not get onto the wrong path either. My GPS system has another feature which I like – it will automatically reroute me if I do take a wrong turn, even upon occasion telling me to “take a legal u-turn as soon as possible” to return to my original course. Scripture tells us that God “…will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”(Hebrews 8:12) and I John 1:9 reminds us that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Our God is a forgiving God for the sake of Jesus who stood in our place and took our eternal punishment upon Himself. What a sacrifice! I think I can spend my life getting to know a Savior like that better – don’t you?
We won’t ever become experts in the Bible, but we can know more today than we knew yesterday. This week, may God give us a holy discontent where our knowledge of His Word is concerned.

The Place of the Word of God in Our Lives

2008-04-21T17:53:00.001-05:00

I find it interesting that Paul, in his final letter to his protégé Timothy, takes the time to explain to him the importance of the Word of God. He says in II Timothy 3:15-17, “… you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Paul knew that the greatest challenge to Timothy himself would be his own trust in, adherence to and living by the Holy Scriptures.
A few months ago, I was given a GPS navigation device for my car. It’s really neat and I love “playing with it”. One of the features is a screen that shows you exactly where you are according to latitude and longitude. Now I really don’t need that detailed information, but it fascinates me to know that anywhere in the world I go, I can not only be found, but also I can find my way according to the measurements given. [For us novices, Latitude is East to West, Longitude is Pole to Pole. Measurements are in Latitude or Longitude Degrees, Minutes (60) and Seconds (60). I guess I no longer can use the excuse that I got lost.]
Many don’t know about or care about that detail of map reading or knowledge of where they are or how to get somewhere. Sadly, there are also many who do not care about their spiritual condition and have not even considered where they are going or how not to get there. And even more sadly, there are many Christians with similar attitudes about the Holy Scriptures, our “highest rule of faith and practice.”
Christians are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit, whose purpose in our lives is to lead us into all truth, according to Jesus Himself. And I Corinthians 2:10 reminds us, “…but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” As Christians, we are to be constantly following the leading of the Holy Spirit into the “deeper” truths of the Word. Just look at the expectation of our leaders found in I Timothy 3:9, “They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.”
When Christians are committed to a lifetime of delving deeper in the truths of Scripture, we are lessening the chances of our stumbling along the way. David says in Psalm 119:9-11, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” The Bible, regardless of what the World thinks of it, is the very word of the Creator God for the salvation of the lost and the instruction of His people. If we belong to Christ, then we are to be increasingly knowledgeable of His Word and increasingly obedient to it. Not because we must (or else!), but because we want to do so. Let me quote from a further passage in Psalm 119 (12-16), “Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” David loved God’s Word because He loved God. He loved God because he knew that God was his salvation, even though he, David, did not deserve it at all. So must our thoughts be as we approach God and His Scripture.
I can hardly get on the wrong path with my GPS system, and God promised that if I stay on course according to His “GPS” system, I will not get onto the wrong path either. My GPS system has another feature which I like – it will automatically reroute me if I do take a wrong turn, even upon occasion telling me to “take a legal u-turn as soon as possible” to return to my original course. Scripture tells us that God “…will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”(Hebrews 8:12) and I John 1:9 reminds us that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Our God is a forgiving God for the sake of Jesus who stood in our place and took our eternal punishment upon Himself. What a sacrifice! I think I can spend my life getting to know a Savior like that better – don’t you?
We won’t ever become experts in the Bible, but we can know more today than we knew yesterday. This week, may God give us a holy discontent where our knowledge of His Word is concerned.

Availability in Life

2008-04-16T20:32:00.001-05:00

May I lead us through a progression of thought? I was considering what it was we had to offer to God in the way of service and came to the conclusion that it is not “ability” that God desires of us, but “availability.” I noticed throughout Scripture the phrase, “Here am I.” I was intrigued and did a quick study. The preponderance of verses dealt with the expected responses of the Old Testament saints to the call of God upon them. There was Abraham, Jacob, and Moses in Genesis. There was Samuel in I Samuel and Isaiah in Isaiah 6. Then there is the Messiah in Hebrews 10 and Revelation 3. But tucked away in the book of Isaiah, I found a remarkable instance of “divine availability.” I thought I might share that in this short note with the prayer that we might all be encouraged by it.
We read in Isaiah 58 where God Himself says “Here am I”. He has just said to His people that their idea of fasting (or sacrifice) was to fast for one day while at the same time to seek after their own welfare. They were only playing at fasting and sacrificing for God after their own fashion. But God seeks to correct their view and practice of fasting with these words (verses 6-9) “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” God tells us the proper attitude to have towards a sacrificial lifestyle, then He reveals four things that will happen: 1) “Then your light will break forth…” 2) “Your healing will quickly appear…” 3) “your righteousness will go before you…” and 4) we will call, or cry for help and the Lord will answer, or say “Here am I…”.
God has promised His own availability to us His people! Once we understand that the whole of our lives should be spent in sacrificially giving to Him by serving others in the name of Christ, then “all heaven breaks loose”. When we begin to live sacrificially every day, He will show us a “divine availability” that we have never known before! The rest of Isaiah 58 is also worth exploring. It should encourage us all as we look even more closely at what God will do. I love that He ends this passage with the words, “The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” There is that sense of finality in God’s purpose and the thought that the matter is settled beyond any other outcome. God has said what He desires of His people, what motivations we must have, and what we must daily do to please Him. But then He says how He will bless us. I don’t know about you – but I want those blessings for me, for my family, and for our church!
Finally, did you notice what will go before us and follow us? “Our righteousness” will go before us and the glory of God will be our “rearguard.” Christ Himself is our righteousness – He will go before us. And as the glory of the Lord was always between the people of God and their enemies in Exodus, so will the glory of our God be between us and those who would destroy us. What a comfort in a world of people and things and attitudes and temptations that would destroy us.
This week, may God work into our hearts the truths He has for us!

Life in the "Dry" Times

2008-04-16T20:17:00.002-05:00

Have you, like me, been tired lately? It just seems that the normal “living of life” drains us of energy and leaves us without motivation or resource. Of course, some of it may be that we are too busy to “stop and smell the roses” and we really do need some rest. But I believe some of it may be from unbelief. Yes, I said “unbelief”. Let me explain.
As you have probably gathered by now, I have lately been studying Isaiah, and I have come across a familiar passage that really challenges my belief. After all, we say we are a people who trust in God and His Word. So do we really believe it? That passage is Isaiah 40 28 – 31, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” I think that our problem is that sometimes we forget to take God at His Word. It is He that does not grow weary – not us. It is He that never sleeps and always keeps watch over us (just read Psalm 121). It is really not a question of not growing weary – or tired. It is a question of waiting on the Lord to renew our strength. We must trust in Him in our “dry times”, that He will once again reveal Himself to us and give us His strength.
Our Confession (WCF XVIII – IV) reminds us of this when it points out that true believers may have their faith shaken in various ways, one of which is when God withdraws the “light of His countenance”, and suffers “even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light.” But our Confession does not leave us there, even as Isaiah does not. It goes on to say, “…they are never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived; and by the which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair.” Or – to put it into plain English – God never abandons us, but He does sometimes remove an awareness of His presence to test our faith. We must then wait upon Him, even when we do not “see” Him, believing that He will do as He promised for us.
Isaiah has reminded us of God’s greatness and His concern for His people. He not only calls us to His purposes, but He gives us the strength to accomplish His will. It is about here that I realize how much of God’s energy I have wasted on my own silly endeavors. And that thought wearies me even more. Then I remember that our God forgives our sins and sets us upright once again for the sake of our loving Savior – Jesus. What a God we have! What a great salvation is ours through our Lord Jesus Christ!
This week, as we seek to be obedient to our Saviors will, may we “soar on wings like eagles”, “run and not grow weary” and “walk and not faint”. And so may our Savior find us when He returns!

The Life of Being Led

2008-04-16T20:14:00.002-05:00

I have been struck recently with the term “mutually exclusive”. It simply refers to the situation when two things cannot exist together at the same time in the same place. Cats and dogs, oil and water, sometimes even Auburn and Alabama fans! You get the idea.
Galatians 6 has something to say about our choices and the mutually exclusive nature of our lives. If we are truly God’s children, we have two natures. Our sinful and “fleshly” nature, and our reborn, spiritual nature. According to our Confession, our sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to die more and more each day to our sinful nature, and live more and more each day to Christ in our reborn, spiritual nature.
Galatians 6 also has something to say about this mutual exclusivity. In verses 16-18, Paul says, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Living by the Spirit is not compatible with living according to our old sinful nature. They are mutually exclusive. We must choose everyday, every hour, every minute; to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. Living in the power of the Holy Spirit means to be led by the Holy Spirit. To be led means to be on the lookout for where He would have us to go, to be sensitive to what He would have us to do, and to desire to do so with the power that He gives us.
The really neat part is that the whole process is exactly what God wants us to be about. Being led by the Holy Spirit is the “operational reality” of being God’s child. It defines being a Christian. Jesus promised to “be with us to the end of the age.” He promised His Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and to remind us of all the things that He taught His disciples. God keeps His promises.
This week, my prayer is that God will enable us to live by His Spirit, to make the good and right choice to be found in Him, living by His grace and not by our works. The promise is right there in Galatians – “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law” What a great promise all by itself! That we are not under the judgment of the Law, but we are under God’s grace – that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” What great joy is ours through Christ!
May our joy be complete in Christ, may our lives reflect Him and may He be pleased with our living in His Spirit!

The Foundation of Life

2008-04-15T12:47:00.002-05:00

I was reading through Isaiah the other day and I came across the following verses, “The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.” (33:5-6)
I was struck immediately by the fact that Isaiah first and foremost declares “God is exalted” and that He dwells in heaven. I believe that is a very important starting point. God is not to be understood in human terms, but must be worshiped on His own terms and understood only so far as He reveals Himself to us in His Word.
Then Isaiah tells us what God says He will do. He will “fill Zion with justice and righteousness”, He will “be the sure foundation”, He will be “a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge.” What a promise God gives us through the prophet! What more can we ask of God for ourselves, for our families or for our church! We, as the people of God, are of course “Zion”. We are, as Paul says in Ephesians (2:22), “being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Both individually and corporately, we are “Zion”. All that happens in our lives and in the church comes from this “treasure-house” of God’s blessings.
How then do we appropriate it to ourselves? How do we benefit from it so that it becomes ours in Christ? Isaiah tells us this as well when he says, “the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.” And what exactly is this “fear of the Lord?” It is the awe and reverence we have for Him as our Creator, together with the love we have for Him as our Savior and the obedience we owe to Him as our “indwelling” God. It is a holy balance of attitude we seek to maintain between our God who is intimate with us, and our God that is transcendent in His glory and power.
I don’t know about you, but I was “blown away” by the power of these thoughts as well as by the simplicity of them. If we would but “fear” God as He demands and expects, love Him as he desires His children to do, and trust Him as His people; He promises to be “the sure foundation for our times.” And don’t we need just that! May God grant to all of us this week a solid footing on His sure foundation, that His blessings might be poured out on us all!

The "Reset Button" of Life

2008-04-15T12:42:00.002-05:00

I have just finished a friendly conversation with an old friend and he said something which struck a chord with me. He mentioned, in “computer-ese”, that life has no “reset button”. Unlike computer games, PDA’s and pencils with erasers; once something has happened in this life, time moves on and we must live with the consequences. Oh, how I wish I could go back and change some things in my life! I, perhaps like you, have done things, said things and thought things that I wish I could retract and “hit the reset button”.
Someone has said once that “self judgment is the hardest judgment of all”, but from Scripture we know that ultimately, God’s judgment is the hardest of all since there is no recourse or escape from God’s judgment. But when we have experienced the saving grace of God through Christ Jesus, we find in Scripture that our relationship to God relative to judgment has changed. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” What a phenomenal thing! If we are “in Christ”, that is – reborn by His Spirit, then God does not judge us as sinners, but rather as sons. Not as to whether we have perfectly kept His Law, but whether we, as His children, have been obedient to His call upon us to live for Him. His love for us in sending Christ to die for us cannot and will not be rescinded. Indeed, He will never leave us nor forsake us.
This, of course, does not give us any license to sin, but rather frees us from any unwarranted burden of false guilt, and sets us onto the path of joyful and willing obedience to Him who saved us for Himself for eternity.
The life of a Christian does not need a “reset button.” When God sees us, He sees the perfect obedience of His Son Jesus. Our whole lives as believers on this earth are to obediently grow up into that very thing that God says we are in Christ – perfect. When we learn the secret (which is really no secret at all) of confessing our sin as soon as the Holy Spirit reveals it to us and repenting of it and turning in faith to the Lord for help in overcoming temptation to sin in that way again, we find that each day is a growing experience. An experience of ever-increasing enjoyment of the love of Christ and getting to know Him better who gave Himself for us.
I hope that this week, we can all find greater peace in knowing that God Himself does not condemn us if He has already vented His wrath upon His Son Jesus in our place. I hope that we find greater strength in Christ as we battle temptations to sin. I hope that we find an increasing love for the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Preparation for the Lord's Supper - and Life

2008-04-15T12:29:00.002-05:00

About every two months now we are reminded in the Worship Service that we will be having Communion the following week. We are encouraged to spend some time preparing our hearts to partake of the Lord’s Supper, so that the blessings that God has promised to those who obey with willing hearts, are ours as we “join in the feast” (as Michael Card sings it).
But as I have tried to prepare myself for this wonderful sacrament, I have once again discovered what we have known all along – that finding the time, or making the time, to spiritually prepare for anything can be a taxing endeavor. In a culture of instant gratification, frenetic activity, over-scheduling, and an overwhelming number of obvious and sometimes not-so-obvious temptations to blend into the “rat-race”; Christians can so easily and simply forget to do the things that benefit their growth in Christ. It is not our intention, but it is often the outcome of living in our “juiced-up” society. As I have not only experienced this along with you, I have also been challenged by God’s Word to be aware of it and seek to do something about it. But what should I do? Everyday, we have choices to make. I’m not referring to what we eat for breakfast or what errands should we run first; but rather to how we will spend out time. Society pulls us in one direction, and often the Lord pulls us in another. The World wants our time, and so does our heavenly Father. And that is exactly the choice we face daily. Who gets our daily investment of time? Who gets our thought-time, our desires and our affections? As Christians, we desire to give them to Christ, but it is so hard to make the right choice every day!
I believe the first thing we need to do is to ask for God’s help. Our prayers need not be formal or public, but they do need to be definite. Not just expressed desires and wishes, but heart-generated pleas, soul-based expressions of a desire to know Him and love Him more. He says in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God…” To be still in our society means we must choose to give up something – to forgo doing something else which might not even be wrong in-and-of itself, but which takes our affections away from Him who gave His life for us.
To quietly sit and think about (meditate) on the Word of God can be a challenging task, since we will be tempted to think that we are “wasting our time”. If we think about this for just a minute, we will see the absurdity of this thought. Exodus 14:14 reminds us that, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still…” God can make anything succeed for him who wholeheartedly serves the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. In other places in Scripture, God does call us to duty – at home, at work, and at church. But God never calls us to that duty before He calls us to know Him and spend time with Him. He will fight for us if we meet with Him in quietness and solitude as Jesus did. If we fellowship with God first, then all subsequent “fellowships” will be sweet. If our affections are first for Him, then all our other affections will fall into their proper place on our priority list. If we commit ourselves to Him first – then He has promised to guide us in all our endeavors.
This week, I hope you will join me in seeking all the more to “be still before the Lord”. To seek Him out in private prayer, to meditate upon His Word; so that He will be pleased to know of my hearts first love - Him, and so that He will “fight for me” in every other area of my life.

Whom Do We Seek To Imitate?

2008-04-01T10:36:00.001-05:00

The temptation to be attractive to others is a strong temptation. We learn it from an early age and perfect it as we seek to woo a spouse. Earthly relationships and the approval of others is not only quite understandable, but God actually designed us to be in relationships. However, He never wants us to put our relationships with others ahead of our relationship with Him. Hence He desires that we seek His approval before we desire the approval of others. Proverbs 29 speaks to this in verse 25 when it says, “Fear of man will prove a snare…”
Relationships are curious things. There is a “give-and-take” in each relationship and its effectiveness is dependent upon the attitude of those in the relationship. If both parties are “takers” then eventually fear and disappointment will rule. If both are “givers”, then sacrificial and selfless love will rule. The relationship we have with God is different, however. He is the ultimate “giver” while we, in our sinful natures, are “takers”. It is as we grow more like Christ Himself that we become more “givers” than “takers”.
Once we have been born again and adopted into the family of God, we are indwelled by His Holy Spirit, who enables us more and more to become “givers” in a relationship with God Himself. And what a relationship that can be! When we increasingly trust in God, we increasingly become like Him and less like the World in which we live. So the “supernatural” progression for maturing Christians should be to love God more and love the World less.
The writer of Proverbs 29 goes on in that 25th verse to say, “…but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” Then he goes on in verse 26 to say this, “Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that man gets justice.” Many who are Christians seek relief from perceived or real injustices from earthly rulers. Many actually seek spiritual “rightness” from earthly sources. The World and all its “trappings” only brings fear, for the World “takes” and does not “give.” When Christians seek their answers to the perplexities of this life, when they do not guard their hearts from the attraction of the ways of the World, when they are lulled into a false sense of trust in the World’s philosophies; then deep-seated fear works its way into their hearts. Inattentiveness on the battle line invites attack.
We sometimes forget the 27th verse of Proverbs 29, “The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.” There is no commonality – no agreement – no kinship, between God’s people and the World. Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters.” And James 4:4 agrees, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” Our Savior, and James, did not leave us any “wiggle-room”. As the redeemed people of Christ, we must turn our backs on the World and seek His face.
This is not easy – as a matter of fact it is so hard that many abandon the admonition and give in. But we must struggle with this and persevere as Jacob did when he wrestled with God, until He blesses us with Christ-likeness. There are too many who call themselves Christians in today’s world that do not struggle at all and they adopt worldly philosophies easily because they have not committed themselves to such love for God and His Word that they would die for it.
Life is serious business, but then again, so is death. At the end of each life awaits death – and on the other side of death is eternity and each person must deal with it. The world detests Christians because we deal with death by being in a relationship with the One who gives eternal life through Jesus our Savior. The World cannot stand for that and would lull us to sleep with ease and comfort and security. Empty words and promises all! But we must fight! We must persevere in the struggle! We must be willing to give up everything for the sake of Him who gave up so much more than everything, for us. How about it Christian, have we committed ourselves today with all our beings, to Him who died for us?

Burning Up in the Atmosphere

2008-03-31T15:50:00.002-05:00

Today has been one of those days that go so fast that you are in danger of burning up in the atmosphere. I have not stopped all day and although I have accomplished much, there is still much to do. As I tore through my "internet" work, I happened to stop along the way at the Blog og my daughter-in-law. She is a much better blogger than I am and is so very articulate. She even includes pictures of my favorite subjects - my grandchildren. As I read today what is going on in their world, I realized what was going on in my world was just not that important. While I live and operate sometimes in a whirlwind, I sometimes forget just what I ahve to be thankful for and go about as if God has not blessed me beyond measure. How sad. Let me correct that now.
God has given to me eternal life through His Son Jesus. Anything more than that and I am blessed beyond measure. Yet He does just that - He blesses beyond measure. I have a wife of almost 30 years that I love dearly and loves me. I have "two and a half" children that also love me and whom I love. I have two grandchildren who are both blessings from the Lord. What more can you ask, you say? Looking in the other direction on the family tree, I have two parents and two in-laws that also love the Lord and have been such a blessing to me in Christ over many years. They are all in relatively good health for which I am most thankful. All my "in-laws" and "out-laws" are believers. I have two brothers and one brother-in-law, all of whom are married to believers and are themselves believers. I have six nephews and two nieces that are believers. The two nieces are married to believers. I have a great nephew that, along with my grandson, we pray will come to know Christ at an early age. My granddaughter, at the tender age of three, has already professed faith in Christ and shows every sign of being in a true relationship with the risen Savior. Talk about covenantal blessings! Our God is a great God!
So I really have much to be thankful for and not much to worry about. If I do "burn up in the atmosphere", I just hope it will be to God's glory. And I hope my family knows how much I love them and am thankful for them - every step of the way.

Taking Us By Surprise

2008-03-20T21:34:00.002-05:00

Easter came early this year. According to the newspaper a few weeks ago, it can't be any earlier than the twenty second of March. So Easter being on the twenty third is really early. It caught me by surprise, but it got me to thinking about the good news and the great victory Christ won over sin and death. It caught everyone by surprise and it still does. The rising of our Savior from the dead was not supposed to happen according to the plan of Satan. Jesus was supposed to stay dead. But He rose bodily from the grave in a glorified body just as He will give us one day when He comes again. His rising was most unexpected, although welcome by all who belonged to Him. He will come the last time one day and surprise everyone once again.
All of this gives me reason to rejoice! Our Savior is alive and He reigns! He is infinitly more powerful than anything we can even devise or imagine. Or Satan. Our God reigns! He is always in control of every circumstance and every moment. I can rest secure in Him and trust that He will let nothing happen to me that will harm me. He loves me and having already given His Son up to death for me, He will not let me go now or ever!
Praise His Name! Thank you Father for my salvation, bought with such a price! Thank you Savior for going to the cross for me and taking the punishment for my sins! Thank you Holy Spirit for having patience with my sinful self and teaching me God's truth and leading me in "the way everlasting".
Oh the peace that comes when Jesus is my Svior and my Lord. Praise His Holy Name!

In Case You Haven't Noticed

2008-03-07T14:55:00.002-06:00

Just in case you haven't noticed, I AM NO BLOGGER!!!
I find it diffucult enough to get done with the things I am expected to finish - so going to my own Blog and posting my thoughts for the day is hardly an exercise that is toward the top of my priority list.
However, if you have found this site, I appreciate the time you have spent here.
Lately, I have been impressed with the fact that not only am I not important or the center of the universe, but no one else I have to deal with on a daily basis is either. People have seemed so important to themselves and so intent on making the world fit into their mold, that I have had to look at myself to see whether I was doing the same thing. And in so many cases, I do the same thing.
I am just thankful that God knows all of me, down to the blackest corner of my black heart - and He still loves me and still blesses me. He sees me as righteous for the sake of His Son Jesus. I am actually perfect in His sight! Not just pardoned, but without guilt! So when I do think of myself as being important, He looks at me as a father looks at his young son who thinks of himself as having a "handle on life" and smiles knowingly. He has a plan for me and will work it out in His time and in His way so that I am made more like His Son Jesus just a little more today.
As a matter of fact, when I think of myself as His teenage son, grownup in so many ways with so far yet to go, I find the going is easier. I do not know it all, I do not have all the answers, and I most certainly am not in control of my life. But He is in control, He does have all the answers, and He does know it all - literally. So for me, when I stay within the confines of His revealed truth - the Scriptures - then I know I am "safe".
I'm not smart enough to lead anyone else - so I might as well lead them the way He leads me, beside "the still waters" of His Word. Then, even when the blackness of my heart shows itself, He is there to remind me of it and show me that He is my forgiving Heavenly Father for the sake of Jesus, who paid the eternal penalty for my sin on that cross so long ago.

A personal note on a brief window in time.

2008-01-22T16:04:00.000-06:00

We have finally gotten through the Christmas season. That sounds like it was a real burden - but it was really a great joy. Time spent with family and friends. Time to reflect on how God has so richly blessed me and my family in the past year. Times of trial and tribulation that, in the scope of eternity mean very little, but going through them taught invaluable lessons. We are coming up on some great things in 2008. The church seems to have "turned a corner" and by God's grace the atmosphere is positive and expectant. God is working in the lives of so many individuals that it is obvious, at least to me, that 2008 holds some significant blessings. But right now - today - we are in a very brief window of time. I am looking at Presbytery coming up in less than a month, Financial Peace University coming to LCPC, and Scholarship School having a single seminar (the latter two which our community needs desperately). Hard on the heels of Presbytery comes our Missions Conference, then Holy Week, then Spring Break, then Presbytery again and then Edmund finishes college. Somewhere in there we would like to sell our house and begin building another closer to work. I hope to "blog" more - certainly not for my own satisfaction and promotion, but because I feel the leading of the Lord to express myself in this medium more and more. If this medium is where the people are - then I need to be presenting the claims of Christ and the truth of His Word here. Perhaps some will find this site and God will use it in their lives. If you belong to Him and have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, pray that this happens for all who stumble upon this site. I do not promote it and I will not. God will guide those who find it to come here.

Wisdom and Foolishness

2007-12-10T16:38:00.000-06:00

I believe it was St. Augustine of Hippo that once said, “He who would have God for his Father must have the Church for his Mother.” Given what Paul said in Ephesians 5:23 – “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.”, it is an easy step to understand what Augustine was saying. I bring this up because as I was reading in Proverbs 10 this morning, the very first verse struck me in a way I have never seen before. That verse says, “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother.” Now given Augustine’s statement, wisdom on the part of Christians brings joy to our heavenly Father. When we act wisely God is so pleased with us that it amounts to joy. Yet when we as Christians act foolishly, it is the church (as well as God) which suffers grief. This is a sobering thought to me as your pastor, for I desire to act wisely in order to please my Heavenly Father, but often forget that my foolishness can damage the church.
Since I consider that my job description is to be found in Ephesians 4:12-13, “…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”; the last thing I want to see is our church being unprepared instead of prepared, immature instead of mature, divided instead of united and ignorant instead of knowledgeable. I do not desire to see the foolish act of this “child of the church” cause grief to my “mother”. I would imagine that you would feel the same way about your own relationship to the body of Christ. So how do we act wisely and not foolishly?
I would suggest that we start today by reading the rest of the 10th chapter of Proverbs. (I have found it a good practice to daily read the chapter in Proverbs that corresponds to the date of the month.) Then I would suggest that we pray that God would help us to be wise. James 1:5 reminds us that – “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask of God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him.” An easy way to remember what wisdom is is this – Biblical wisdom is the godly application of Biblical knowledge. In short, wisdom plays itself out in the lives of Christians in the great and small acts of daily obedience to the commands of God. To obey as God would have us obey is to be wise. To be foolish is to disobey God’s commands.
But there is a “catch”. We must know what those commands are, and many in the church today do not know what God commands them to do, or what He commands them to say or think. I believe I have a very simple, yet difficult solution to this “problem”. It is simple because it is not complex, yet it is difficult because it is also not easy. Here is the solution – 1) pick up our Bibles, 2) prayerfully ask God to show Himself to us as we carefully read it, and 3) read it.
Pick a book and read through it, or use a preprinted schedule, or by using a concordance study a word or subject. Just do it. That is the key! Don’t advertise it, just quietly go about learning more about what God says to you in His Word. Don’t try to understand every word in it – you can’t and no one else can either – just seek in the depth of your heart to take in and believe what you do understand. The Holy Spirit was promised to us as our Teacher, so let us be taught by Him.
May God show us this week more of Himself in His Word as we open it and read it as wise children!

Recharging Our Batteries

2007-11-09T21:40:00.000-06:00

The other day an unusual thing happened. Not only did the battery in my PDA demand to be recharged, but the batteries in my cell phone as well as my Bluetooth Earpiece complained, too. To top it all off, the battery in my office clock went out - also necessitating a battery replacement.
It all got me to thinking, which can in-and-of-itself be a dangerous thing. Anyway, I was thinking that God made us that way too. We really can't go far physically or spiritually without getting our "batteries recharged". For everyone, the physical is easily understood. After all, just go a few days without sleep and we would all be "basket-cases". But spiritually getting our batteries recharged is another story. Only those who are alive in Christ have the right batteries to get recharged. And just like I can't use the recharger for my cell phone on my PDA, or vice versa; so also we really can't get our souls recharged with the wrong "recharger". So what is the right recharger? God's Word says it is the Holy Spirit that indwells all of God's people. (Please don't get me started on who God's people are - they are those who have been born again into the family of God when they repented of their sins and turned in faith to Jesus Christ as the only Svaior of sinners.) The Bible tells us that apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in us we can do nothing that pleases God. So also it tells us that Jesus Himself called the Holy Spirit "the Comforter". That name implies a recharging of sorts, since I cannot imagine not being charged up and ready to go being a comfort. Being ready to do that for which we are made is what we really want - so I would think that the Holy Spirit is in fact God's "recharger".
But unlike my electronic gadgets, I have a choice in when and how I get spiritually recharged. If I think I can make it on my own, I can choose to go without recharging, or try to get a "fake" recharging from a source that I am really not meant to use. Maybe something like a totally emotional high that lifts me up for a short time, but from which I quickly descend. And then I can choose to get recharged only on certain days, like Christmas or Easter, or even just on Sundays when everyone who calls themselves Christians are getting together. I guess that means that the preacher better be good and his sermon jam-packed with "power", or else twenty or thirty minutes once a week will not be enough to keep me going.
Perhaps the best thing for me to do to get my spiritual batteries recharged is to do what the "manufacturer" suggests. God has already given us the way to get recharged - just stay "in Christ".
To use another metaphor, we need to be like fish - eat, breath, sleep, move about, think, speak "in the Spirit". Fish do that with water and we must do that as Christians if we are to really be "in Christ."

"Lord, help me today to live more and more "in Christ". Enable me today to be more and more in subjection to Your Holy Spirit as my only "recharger". Forgive those numerous times of neglect and rejection that You experience from me. Help me to serve You cheerfully more and more each day, so that my obedience pleases You - my heavenly Father. Thank you for Your Holy Spirit that indwells my heart and for Your Son Jesus that died for me.

Keep me close to You!

In the name of Jesus I pray!"

Amen

Good Doctrine or Practical Advice?

2007-11-01T17:39:00.000-05:00

I was recently confronted with the difficult question of “doctrine” versus “practical instructions in Christian living.” Often these two things are placed in opposition to one another and I find that sad, for they are not in opposition at all. But the question remains, which is more important, good and sound doctrine – or practical, Biblical instruction on how to live in this fallen and sinful world? So I did what I have asked you to do upon occasion, I turned to Scripture, praying that God would show me what He wanted me to understand about this issue.
He took me to the Book of Colossians (3:1-2). Paul has just explained to the Christians in Colossae the freedom we enjoy as believers. Our salvation(justification) is not by works, but by God’s grace alone. Therefore, we are free from human regulations and should not allow ourselves to be put under the law for purposes of our justification ever again. What good news to those who have been burdened by “works-based” religions and beliefs!
Then Paul says these words, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Once we have a true and clear understanding of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone, then Paul tells us to set our hearts on the things above. “First things first.”
Clearly, the balance between doctrine and practical instruction can be upset, but following Paul’s example, doctrine precedes practical instruction. And so as he writes in every epistle to the churches, he lays a strong foundation of doctrine and then he gives instructions based on that foundation as to how we should live. The really fascinating part is that his instructions are timeless and applicable to every culture. They work because they are addressed to sinners saved by God’s grace. Every culture in every age since Adam’s fall have had that one thing in common – sin. And as redeemed sinners, Paul’s doctrine and his instructions are still God’s truth.
We do well to keep them in order, not upset the delicate balance between the two, and follow the instructions after learning the true “doctrines of our holy religion.” I would also put forward that we should not emphasize one over the other. Let us keep them in balance and ignore neither.
These are difficult things to “hassle” through and require the wisdom that comes from God. But He will give it to us if we ask, having committed ourselves to Him and His service. As Paul said, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
May the Lord bless you this week!

The Key to a Treasure!

2007-10-31T22:34:00.000-05:00

I was reading through the Book of Isaiah the other day and I came across the following verses,

“The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.” (33:5-6)

I was struck immediately by the fact that Isaiah first and foremost declares “God is exalted” and that He dwells in heaven. I believe that is a very important starting point. God is not to be understood in human terms, but must be worshiped on His own terms and understood only so far as He reveals Himself to us in His Word.

Then Isaiah tells us what God says He will do. He will “fill Zion with justice and righteousness”, He will “be the sure foundation”, He will be “a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge.” What a promise God gives us through the prophet! What more can we ask of God for ourselves, for our families or for our church! We, as the people of God, are of course “Zion”. We are, as Paul says in Ephesians (2:22), “being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Both individually and corporately, we are “Zion”. All that happens in our lives and in the church comes from this “treasure-house” of God’s blessings.
How then do we appropriate it to ourselves? How do we benefit from it so that it becomes ours in Christ? Isaiah tells us this as well when he says, “the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.” And what exactly is this “fear of the Lord?” It is the awe and reverence we have for Him as our Creator, together with the love we have for Him as our Savior and the obedience we owe to Him as our “indwelling” God. It is a holy balance of attitude we seek to maintain between our God who is intimate with us, and our God that is transcendent in His glory and power.

A Further Explanation is in Order

2007-10-31T22:31:00.001-05:00

What do you mean, "Two Dimensional Thinking"? Good question! As a Christian, I recognize that I live in two dimensions - the physical, temporal world; and the spiritual, eternal world. If I had not been saved by God's grace and made a new person in Christ, I would remain dead to all things spiritual. So the fact that I can recognize two dimensions in my life attests to the presence of the Holy Spirit and to my eternal life found only in Jesus Christ. So as I live my life in this world which is physical and temporal, I also live in it as a person with eternal life, doing things from an eternal perspective, and looking forward to life eternal in Christ. I will take more time in the future to speak more about his subject, but please understand that you, too can have eternal life. God gives it to all who come to Him and repent of their sinful ways, trusting in Christ alone for their salvation as He is offered to us in the Scriptures. I hope you know Him and that He knows you. If so - then you too live a "two dimensional" life.