Let us Pray: Breathe on us, O God, that we may be filled with your Spirit - and led by your living word - Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless the word of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in his name. Amen.
Over the last three weeks we have heard Matthew retell a series of the parables of Jesus. This Sunday we end this series - with five of those parables
The first two parables use the images of mustard seed and yeast. Both describe how, from small, almost invisible beginnings, great things will come.
In the second group of parables we see God's realm is described as a treasure hidden in a field, something that brings about life-changing joy when it is discovered - and when we are prepared to sell everything we own to obtain it.
We see the kingdom of God described as being like a pearl of great price - a thing of great beauty, for which the merchant will give up all other pearls - so he or she may purchase it.
The final parable in this set describes the kingdom of God as being like a great net that catches all kinds of fish - which are then sorted out according to their quality - with the good ones being kept safe for the use of the Master and the bad ones being tossed away.
Finally Jesus tells his disciples how to respond to the Good News that he has just proclaimed. He tells them that those who are students of the Scriptures - those who study them diligently AND become disciples of the kingdom of God - will bring out treasures both old and new from the storeroom of heaven.
What to make of all this?
For me these parables speaks strongly about the nature of faith and what it does - and about the nature of God and what he does, and, as usual, God does far more than we normally give God credit for.
Jesus says in the first two parables that the smallest faith, the smallest seed of God, the tiny bit of the yeast of righteousness can transform itself and those things in contact with it - and so change the world.
As Jesus said at another time "If we have faith as small as mustard seed we can say to the mountains be removed - and it will remove itself."
Think of it
- just a little seed - from which can come a mighty bush.
- just a little leaven - and we can change the entire loaf.
When I was pastoring on the island of Peng Chau a few years back I met a man in one of the local restaurant one day. I was having a dimn sum meal like many Chinese people love to do, and eating tea at the same time - Chinese people drink a lot of tea in a year.
Anyway I was enjoying my dim sum meal and my nice hot green tea - and I met this man who lived in the Peng Chau community, but I, and many others in the church, really didn't know him - though he knew us - you know how it goes.
As we talked he asked me - "You're the Minister at the church on the island are you not?"
I told him that I was. And then I invited him to come out and give the church a try.
"Well", he said, "I don't really know. I haven't been to church for a long time. But I'll think about it for sure."
"What the heck", I said, "Just come and enjoy it - there's always room for one more sinner. That's what it is all about. We have all kinds of sinners at our church"
The next Sunday the man showed up at the church all by himself (his wife and children were in the Philippines. As he said, he hadn't been to church regularly for a long time. He hadn't felt right about himself. He didn't think God was too pleased with him. He was uncomfortable in the places where he used to feel at ease. --- That's how it is for a person when things aren't right - and to be frank - they aren't right quite a bit of the time for a whole lot of people.
But God calls us back - and he works with the tiniest seeds - the small bit of faith we have - and the littlest bit of His Word - whatever he can sneak right by all a person's guilt and anxiety and remorse and worldly busyness and plant.
For that man - the word that the church was full of sinners was all he needed to hear - for the seed of faith he had told him that churches that welcomed sinners would welcome him.
Nothing can stop the growing of the seed because the Power of God is in the seed. Nothing can prevent the leaven from spreading because The Power of God is in the leaven.
In God's kingdom the smallest and the least significant things have incredible power; the incredible power to affect the largest and most significant things and transform them.
From the small amount of yeast that represented that man's faith - the man I met in the local tea shop; and from the small seed of welcoming truth - the small seed of God that God let me plant that day, has come a mighty bush - or to switch parables - a mighty tasty loaf.
Today my tea drinking friend is an elder of another church on that island. And he is helping lead a revival there - a time of awakening - within the congregation - and - as is always the case when God's spirit is involved - without it.
Revival it is said "always begins with me" Something awakens in us - something gets us on fire - and suddenly marvellous things are happening - not only to us - but to those we come into contact with.
God takes a seed - he plants it - and slowly, but surely growth comes - until suddenly everyone notices it - we notice it and other people notice it in us.
The mustard seed is the word of the kingdom of God - the word of truth - the word that points the way to the living reality of God in Christ among us. And the yeast is the word that grows within us - the faith that rises up because that is the nature that God gave it - that rises up and makes new - that brings to life - that revives.
And praise God - I have seen a planting - and I have seen a sprouting - and now others, like the birds of the air - are suddenly frequent visitors because of that which God has wrought - people build their spiritual homes on the branches of faith that my tea drinking friend has produced because he listened to and held onto the word which came his way.
Which brings me to the next two parables.
In the next two parables Jesus calls us to treasure the message we have discovered in the field of life, to do everything to hold onto the wonder working seed and the miraculous yeast that we find, - or which finds us - for who can predict just how and why we would ever stumble upon treasure buried in the middle of a field? Or just how and why a pearl of tremendous beauty might come our way, even if we are merchants who deal in such things?
There has been many a pastor and many a faithful Christian in the pew - who have let go of the treasure - and whose joy and delight in God - and whose trust and confidence in God - has been not as tremendously beautiful as it once was.
We all know the facts of life. When a person finds something of great value he or she has a decision to make - to obtain that treasure - no matter what the cost - or to be content with the treasure that he or she already has.
Often what we do - is obtain the treasure - and then let it go.
We exchange it for lesser things - things that seem important at the time or maybe we just allow events to overwhelm us - so that the great treasure is once again buried in the field of our life.
And then, to mix up the parables of Jesus, we suddenly come to our senses and return home to our Father; we decide to repurchase the pearl; to once again lay claim to the treasure.
Hopefully we are not too late.
There is a word from God for us - a touch of the Spirit for us - an event for us - a person who comes to us for us - that is worth everything we have - So says Jesus!
Don't let it go by. Pick up - hold on to it - don't let go. It is a saving thing that makes all of one's life worthwhile.
The value of what God has given to us freely through his law and his prophets, the value of what God has buried in our hearts and our minds for us to find, what God has brought to us in the person of Christ and pours out upon us through his Spirit, is beyond everything. When we grasp it.
The challenge for us is to grasp it - to not only recognize what we see and hear as being important; but to take action - to hold on to it - to give everything we have for it - to stand - and then walk - and then run if need be - to that place where we can claim full ownership of it.
Hold on to the seeds cast your way - let them germinate - nurture them.
Take the yeast out of its container and risk losing it all by putting all of it into the dough of your life.
Sell everything and buy the whole field - get the pearl - and watch what happens.
What will happen is great. You'll be attacked and assaulted by doubters and naysayers. But you will see better things than you have seen before - and you will know a love and show a love that the people who live in the world can only dream about it.
Which flows into the last parable - the parable of the net - and of the judgement that comes once the net is drawn and landed on the shore of heaven.
God casts his net to catch us all - he gives us all a chance to be his - he reaches out to us - he seeks us - and as the parables we have looked at over the last three weeks - and the stories I have told indicate - he goes to great lengths to make us into the kind of catch he wants. He is patient with us. He allows the weeds to grow so that the wheat is not uprooted - he changes what appears to be beyond hope into something that is worthy of praise.
But still there is a time when the catch is landed and sorted for market, when the field is harvested and the wheat and the weeds are separated.
And God calls to heed the approaching of that time - to number our days - to have a holy fear - so that we might acquire a heart of wisdom.
What God has made good lasts forever. It is valued by the maker.
What turns out bad - and refuses to be reworked - revived - refashioned - by the Maker, perishes.
And so it should be.
"Do you understand all these things", Jesus asked his disciples when he finished speaking. "Do you understand what I have been telling you"
"Yes", they said, "We do."
So he told them "Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom."
There is a difference here drawn between being a student and being a disciple, between learning about something or knowing something and then actually doing it, between taking a stand and actually standing, and it is an important difference.
The one who becomes a disciple, the one not only learns about Christ, but who actually follows Christ, is one who discovers an abundance of treasure - treasure that is both old and new - and who displays it all for others to see, who values it all - and wants all the world to see it all.
In changing times it is good to know that the followers of Christ embrace what has gone by and recognize that which has just come has value as well.
There are so many treasures that God has sent our way - so many to value and embrace and hold up - the old law and the prophets with their guidance and their grace and the new law written in the heart by the Spirit of God, - the old rituals with their ability to calm and quieten the heart so that we may meet God, and the new ones which can energize and make fresh a tired soul, - the great grandmother with the wisdom of her age worn like a mantle upon her shoulders and the smallest child with his or her tremendous ability - born of innocence - to see God where no one else can.
God's treasure, it is said in Scripture, is contained in earthen vessels, in perishable - very mortal containers - and so the disciples of Christ value one another - and what they have to offer - whether it be old or new or in between.
There is a great mercy spoken of in all the parables we have heard. A great love, a great power, a great God, are pointed to in them.
It is worth everything and when embraced - leads to everything of importance in this world and in the next.
Blessed be God - day by day. Amen
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Genesis 28:10-19a, Psalm 139; Matthew 13:24-30,36-43a
Bless, O God, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts, that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said "Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it!"
Over the years I have met and become friends with people whom others would consider but little better than the devil himself.
I have known murderers, cheats, thieves, and adulterers, and I have come to one conclusion about all these people who have crossed my path, and that conclusion is that you cannot know what is going to come next, nor can you pin down just where God is and what he is about.
I want you to hold onto that thought today - I want you to hold onto it when you meet people that strike you as evil, and I want you to hold onto it when you feel that you yourselves are out of reach of God. I want you to hold onto it when you watch the television news and when you walk into in a court room to face a judge. I want you to hold onto it when you see the neighbourhood gossip doing her rounds, and I want to hold onto when you encounter an unscrupulous salesman doing his pitch.
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about.
This is the message of Jacob's story - the Jacob who cheated his brother and stole his birthright - the Jacob who fled to do his father's bidding fled not because he was particularly obedient - but because he feared that he would be killed if he stayed at home.
And as he fled he came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, he took a stone of the place and put it under his head and lay down, and he slept - and he dreamed - and in that dream God came to him - God came to him who was tired and fearful, to him who was alone and thought that he was loved by none except his mother - God came to him who was a cheat and a rascal and goodness knows what else, and God gave to him a vision of a staircase reaching into heaven, of a ladder upon which the angels ascended and descended to do God's bidding and as Jacob looked upon this scene God gave him a promise, the promise made to his grandfather Abraham and to his father Isaac, saying "know that I am with you - and will keep you wherever you go, that I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
And Jacob awoke - and he said - and catch this line - he said "Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it!"
Does that fit your experience?
Have you ever been in God's presence and hardly noticed it? Have you ever suddenly realized that God had been with you long before you knew he was there? Have you ever been in exile or in fear only to discover God coming to your aid? Have you ever had your picture of someone completely painted only to discover that the light has shifted - that the person you thought you saw - has completely changed? Changed for the better? Have you ever painted a picture of yourself - a picture in which the colours are all blue - all depressed - all unloveable - only to discover that someone loves you? That someone believes in you? That you are more than welcome in God's presence?
The good news of Jacob's story is not simply that there are links to heaven. The good news is not that God sometimes comes to us. The good news is not that heaven and earth are somehow connected. The good news is not that Jacob was a special kind of guy despite his tricky ways. Nor is the good news simply that we see God keeping - and renewing - his promise to Abraham and to Isaac to raise up a people and to bless them to be blessing.
No - the good news is all but hidden in that single sentence: "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.!"
Do you understand? Do you get it? Do you have ears to hear?
The gospel reading today - the reading about the parable of the wheat and the tares is instructive for us.
It is instructive - not because it prophecies the ultimate destruction of evil doers, - nor because it teaches us that the blights on our lives and the weeds that suck up the nutrition of better plants are afflictions that come from Satan - No, it is instructive for us because it counsels patience -
- patience in the face of situations that seem bad to us,
- patience in the face of attacks by Satan,
- patience in the midst of our urge to go out and fix things and make them right.
- patience in the face of our desire to make judgements about others and to act on those judgements.
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about. In fact we can't even be sure that the weeds about us will remain weeds and that the wheat will remain wheat.
Consider Moses - a murderer,
Consider David - an adulterer,
Consider the Apostle Paul - a religious vigilante,
Consider the disciple Peter - a hypocrite and a coward.
Who would think that God would work with them?
that God would be present with them?
that God would love them?
that God would make them great?
that God would grant unto them the blessings of his kingdom?.
Consider yourselves....What judgement do you make upon yourself?
Master - say the servants in the parable of the wheat and the weeds - Master, do you want us to go out and gather the weeds for burning - do you want us to pluck out the evil sown by your enemy to try to separate out the roots - to destroy that which is doing harm?
No - says the master - for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Wait till harvest time - wait till the reapers go forth. Wait.
Let anyone with ears hear...
Where is God? What is he doing?
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about.
But we can be sure of one thing - we can know one truth we can rely on one verity - and that is - God will surprise us.
God will surprise us by embracing us when we feel dirty and unclean, - God will surprise us by turning our greatest afflictions into sources of strength and healing - God will surprise us by taking the lost and lone and making them great lights - God will surprise us by changing the wicked into saints and by casting down those whose righteousness turned out to be only something they wore on their sleeves. - God will surprise us by making sour lemons into thirst quenching drinks - God will surprise us by converting moments of pain into stripes that heal. He will surprise us by changing a time of death into an eternity of glorious life.
Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it.
This could be a cry of despair -coming as it does from Jacob's most unworthy lips, it could be the kind of cry we have all uttered when we have done one thing when we ought to have done another, it could be a cry of despair and a moment of longing for that which is past. But it is not!
For Jacob that cry signals a moment of awakening, a time of opening his eyes and truly seeing, a time of opening his ears and truly listening. A time of coming from the night of uncertainty into the daylight of a holy hope.
For Jacob that cry signals a moment of discovering that, yes, God is here:here even when we do not know it, here even when we think that God can not, should not, will not be here, here even when we are not looking for God to be here.
And in discovering that God is here, it is for Jacob a moment in which he understands that God is here to bless and to heal; that God is here to comfort and to guide; that God is here to change to transform; that God is here to help and to reassure.
And Jacob woke from his sleep, and he said "surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it" and yes - Jacob was afraid - afraid not because he had made some mistake, but afraid because he realized just how holy was the place he was in - and as he looked in that fear upon the sand and rock and the dry plants and soil of that place, he said "How awesome is this place - this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven"
And Jacob took the stone upon which he had laid his head while he slept and he made of it a kind of memorial - a kind of altar, and he poured oil upon that stone upon which he had his vision and he named the place in which he had slept - Bethel - The House of God"
How awesome indeed is the place of God
- the place in which the weeds are allowed to grow up with the wheat
- the place in which all we have for pillows are stones
- the place in which we fear and long for comfort and think we have none
- the place in which the lost are found and the blind given sight.
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about.
But if we wait - if we let God do whatever it is God does - if we let God move in his mysterious ways - his wonders to perform, we will find ourselves surprised in the most wonderful of ways - we will discover that where we are - wherever we are - is the House of God and that next to us is the gate of heaven.
Lift up your heads, O Gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors that the King of Glory may come in.
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts - he is the King of Glory - Hallowed be his name, now and ever. Amen and Amen.
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said "Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it!"
Over the years I have met and become friends with people whom others would consider but little better than the devil himself.
I have known murderers, cheats, thieves, and adulterers, and I have come to one conclusion about all these people who have crossed my path, and that conclusion is that you cannot know what is going to come next, nor can you pin down just where God is and what he is about.
I want you to hold onto that thought today - I want you to hold onto it when you meet people that strike you as evil, and I want you to hold onto it when you feel that you yourselves are out of reach of God. I want you to hold onto it when you watch the television news and when you walk into in a court room to face a judge. I want you to hold onto it when you see the neighbourhood gossip doing her rounds, and I want to hold onto when you encounter an unscrupulous salesman doing his pitch.
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about.
This is the message of Jacob's story - the Jacob who cheated his brother and stole his birthright - the Jacob who fled to do his father's bidding fled not because he was particularly obedient - but because he feared that he would be killed if he stayed at home.
And as he fled he came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, he took a stone of the place and put it under his head and lay down, and he slept - and he dreamed - and in that dream God came to him - God came to him who was tired and fearful, to him who was alone and thought that he was loved by none except his mother - God came to him who was a cheat and a rascal and goodness knows what else, and God gave to him a vision of a staircase reaching into heaven, of a ladder upon which the angels ascended and descended to do God's bidding and as Jacob looked upon this scene God gave him a promise, the promise made to his grandfather Abraham and to his father Isaac, saying "know that I am with you - and will keep you wherever you go, that I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
And Jacob awoke - and he said - and catch this line - he said "Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it!"
Does that fit your experience?
Have you ever been in God's presence and hardly noticed it? Have you ever suddenly realized that God had been with you long before you knew he was there? Have you ever been in exile or in fear only to discover God coming to your aid? Have you ever had your picture of someone completely painted only to discover that the light has shifted - that the person you thought you saw - has completely changed? Changed for the better? Have you ever painted a picture of yourself - a picture in which the colours are all blue - all depressed - all unloveable - only to discover that someone loves you? That someone believes in you? That you are more than welcome in God's presence?
The good news of Jacob's story is not simply that there are links to heaven. The good news is not that God sometimes comes to us. The good news is not that heaven and earth are somehow connected. The good news is not that Jacob was a special kind of guy despite his tricky ways. Nor is the good news simply that we see God keeping - and renewing - his promise to Abraham and to Isaac to raise up a people and to bless them to be blessing.
No - the good news is all but hidden in that single sentence: "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.!"
Do you understand? Do you get it? Do you have ears to hear?
The gospel reading today - the reading about the parable of the wheat and the tares is instructive for us.
It is instructive - not because it prophecies the ultimate destruction of evil doers, - nor because it teaches us that the blights on our lives and the weeds that suck up the nutrition of better plants are afflictions that come from Satan - No, it is instructive for us because it counsels patience -
- patience in the face of situations that seem bad to us,
- patience in the face of attacks by Satan,
- patience in the midst of our urge to go out and fix things and make them right.
- patience in the face of our desire to make judgements about others and to act on those judgements.
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about. In fact we can't even be sure that the weeds about us will remain weeds and that the wheat will remain wheat.
Consider Moses - a murderer,
Consider David - an adulterer,
Consider the Apostle Paul - a religious vigilante,
Consider the disciple Peter - a hypocrite and a coward.
Who would think that God would work with them?
that God would be present with them?
that God would love them?
that God would make them great?
that God would grant unto them the blessings of his kingdom?.
Consider yourselves....What judgement do you make upon yourself?
Master - say the servants in the parable of the wheat and the weeds - Master, do you want us to go out and gather the weeds for burning - do you want us to pluck out the evil sown by your enemy to try to separate out the roots - to destroy that which is doing harm?
No - says the master - for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Wait till harvest time - wait till the reapers go forth. Wait.
Let anyone with ears hear...
Where is God? What is he doing?
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about.
But we can be sure of one thing - we can know one truth we can rely on one verity - and that is - God will surprise us.
God will surprise us by embracing us when we feel dirty and unclean, - God will surprise us by turning our greatest afflictions into sources of strength and healing - God will surprise us by taking the lost and lone and making them great lights - God will surprise us by changing the wicked into saints and by casting down those whose righteousness turned out to be only something they wore on their sleeves. - God will surprise us by making sour lemons into thirst quenching drinks - God will surprise us by converting moments of pain into stripes that heal. He will surprise us by changing a time of death into an eternity of glorious life.
Surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it.
This could be a cry of despair -coming as it does from Jacob's most unworthy lips, it could be the kind of cry we have all uttered when we have done one thing when we ought to have done another, it could be a cry of despair and a moment of longing for that which is past. But it is not!
For Jacob that cry signals a moment of awakening, a time of opening his eyes and truly seeing, a time of opening his ears and truly listening. A time of coming from the night of uncertainty into the daylight of a holy hope.
For Jacob that cry signals a moment of discovering that, yes, God is here:here even when we do not know it, here even when we think that God can not, should not, will not be here, here even when we are not looking for God to be here.
And in discovering that God is here, it is for Jacob a moment in which he understands that God is here to bless and to heal; that God is here to comfort and to guide; that God is here to change to transform; that God is here to help and to reassure.
And Jacob woke from his sleep, and he said "surely the Lord is in this place - and I did not know it" and yes - Jacob was afraid - afraid not because he had made some mistake, but afraid because he realized just how holy was the place he was in - and as he looked in that fear upon the sand and rock and the dry plants and soil of that place, he said "How awesome is this place - this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven"
And Jacob took the stone upon which he had laid his head while he slept and he made of it a kind of memorial - a kind of altar, and he poured oil upon that stone upon which he had his vision and he named the place in which he had slept - Bethel - The House of God"
How awesome indeed is the place of God
- the place in which the weeds are allowed to grow up with the wheat
- the place in which all we have for pillows are stones
- the place in which we fear and long for comfort and think we have none
- the place in which the lost are found and the blind given sight.
We do not know what is going to come next, nor can we pin down just where God is and what he is about.
But if we wait - if we let God do whatever it is God does - if we let God move in his mysterious ways - his wonders to perform, we will find ourselves surprised in the most wonderful of ways - we will discover that where we are - wherever we are - is the House of God and that next to us is the gate of heaven.
Lift up your heads, O Gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors that the King of Glory may come in.
Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts - he is the King of Glory - Hallowed be his name, now and ever. Amen and Amen.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Eph 1:7-8
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence" Eph 1:7-8
We all love to have things lavished on us. Women love to be loaded down with diamonds, furs and chocolates. Men adore a woman who buys them tools, remotes controls, gizmos and gadgets and they love to use these items with us. We all love Christmas and birthdays (yes, even those over 50 - but we just don't show it as much). Why? We love the attention we get on those special days.
God has lavished gifts on us as well. He gave us the gift of redemption - He paid our penalty for our sins - through His Son, Jesus. He has poured forgiveness on us. Why, because He loves us. It comes from His vast, immeasurable storehouse of grace.
Perhaps you have never accepted that great gift of salvation. Do it now. Perhaps you have lost that gift sometime in the past. He is still offering it to you. Take it . . . again. Maybe you think your sins are too great for God to forgive. Your sins cannot be bigger than God's grace. He loves you so much that if you were the only sinner, He would still have sent His Son to die for your sins. Accept His forgiveness now, today! It is free for the taking. (I know you are thinking "it can't be that easy." It is, He offers it freely. The hard part is humbling yourself to take it - it is easier to give than receive.)
There has never been a sinner who called on God who has been turned away. God's arms are open wide for all who seek Him. He doesn't play "hide and seek" with you. He says "seek Me and you shall find me. Call upon me and I will answer." Today is your day! Seek, call and receive! Amen and Amen.
Are YOU Right with God?
True Christianity is not about attending a particular church, or how your parents raised you, or what country you were born in. Being a Christian means that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is your Savior. It's not good enough that your priest, pastor, mother, or aunt knows Jesus, you must know Him for yourself. They cannot believe in Him for you, you must believe for yourself. They cannot repent for you, you must repent for yourself.
Jesus is everywhere all the time. He can hear you now if you ask Him for forgiveness. Please turn your life over to Him NOW. Time slips by so quickly, don't miss this opportunity. If you want to pray and ask Jesus to be your Savior, you can say a prayer something like this:
"Jesus, I know that I have sinned against you. I know the truth is that I have sinned by my own choice, and I am the one responsible for it. I know that I have earned punishment from You, and that the fair punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You died in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover or take my sin away, I am relying totally and only on You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life, take away my sin, and show me how to live my life in a way that is right and pleasing to You." Thank You Jesus, Amen
If you have prayed this, YOU ARE SAVED! You are now completely forgiven, a new creation, innocent in the eyes of God, please e-mail me and let me know and I will guide you toward Fellowship and Baptism. Welcome to the family of God! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
We all love to have things lavished on us. Women love to be loaded down with diamonds, furs and chocolates. Men adore a woman who buys them tools, remotes controls, gizmos and gadgets and they love to use these items with us. We all love Christmas and birthdays (yes, even those over 50 - but we just don't show it as much). Why? We love the attention we get on those special days.
God has lavished gifts on us as well. He gave us the gift of redemption - He paid our penalty for our sins - through His Son, Jesus. He has poured forgiveness on us. Why, because He loves us. It comes from His vast, immeasurable storehouse of grace.
Perhaps you have never accepted that great gift of salvation. Do it now. Perhaps you have lost that gift sometime in the past. He is still offering it to you. Take it . . . again. Maybe you think your sins are too great for God to forgive. Your sins cannot be bigger than God's grace. He loves you so much that if you were the only sinner, He would still have sent His Son to die for your sins. Accept His forgiveness now, today! It is free for the taking. (I know you are thinking "it can't be that easy." It is, He offers it freely. The hard part is humbling yourself to take it - it is easier to give than receive.)
There has never been a sinner who called on God who has been turned away. God's arms are open wide for all who seek Him. He doesn't play "hide and seek" with you. He says "seek Me and you shall find me. Call upon me and I will answer." Today is your day! Seek, call and receive! Amen and Amen.
Are YOU Right with God?
True Christianity is not about attending a particular church, or how your parents raised you, or what country you were born in. Being a Christian means that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is your Savior. It's not good enough that your priest, pastor, mother, or aunt knows Jesus, you must know Him for yourself. They cannot believe in Him for you, you must believe for yourself. They cannot repent for you, you must repent for yourself.
Jesus is everywhere all the time. He can hear you now if you ask Him for forgiveness. Please turn your life over to Him NOW. Time slips by so quickly, don't miss this opportunity. If you want to pray and ask Jesus to be your Savior, you can say a prayer something like this:
"Jesus, I know that I have sinned against you. I know the truth is that I have sinned by my own choice, and I am the one responsible for it. I know that I have earned punishment from You, and that the fair punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You died in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover or take my sin away, I am relying totally and only on You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life, take away my sin, and show me how to live my life in a way that is right and pleasing to You." Thank You Jesus, Amen
If you have prayed this, YOU ARE SAVED! You are now completely forgiven, a new creation, innocent in the eyes of God, please e-mail me and let me know and I will guide you toward Fellowship and Baptism. Welcome to the family of God! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Prov. 11:4-5
"Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death. The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright" Prov. 11:4-5
We've probably all heard the story of the two men who paused to pay their respect to an approaching funeral procession. As the men took off their hats, they watched as the hearse quietly rolled by followed by an armored car with the name "Brinks" painted on the side. One respectfully noted to the other, "I didn't think you could take it with you, but Mr. Brinks is sure going to try."
There is an old song that says, "Money can't buy you love." And that is a very true saying. Money can buy companionship. Money can buy a false sense of friendship. Money can buy health - to a certain extent. Money can buy lots of things that make life easier on this sparkling blue orb we call "Earth," but money can't do a thing for the man who is bound for hell. Money won't buy an air conditioner there. It won't purchase a drink of cool water. It won't even buy friendly companionship in that overheated dwelling of the ever-dying sinner. Solomon tells us that riches are worthless in the day of wrath ... the day of judgment.
On the other hand, righteousness won't buy pleasures on earth. It won't buy a fast car. It won't purchase the goods that men seem to lust after. But it will buy peace of mind, and happiness, and contentment. It will buy what money can't - it can buy love. What's more, righteousness will deliver the owner from the eternal death of hell and deliver him into the glories of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus.
In the days of the ancient kings, runners would precede the king's travel by weeks. They would tell the local residents that the king would arrive in their village on such-and-such a day. The village chiefs would arrange work crews to travel the length of the roadway to make the paths smooth for the king. Potholes would be filled. Rough road would be smoothed. Valleys would be filled and hills would be cropped off so the king would have a safe and comfortable ride through the village lands. This is what the king's influence bought him.
Our righteousness - and that is a gift from our King - is what makes our paths smooth and safe and comfortable. Certainly, I am not talking about a "pain free life." Quite the contrary, the life of the true believer might be fraught with great trials producing physical and emotional pain. Some of us might even lose our lives because of the choice we have made to follow in the footsteps of the King. But, all the while, we are comforted by the knowledge that this life is nothing but a passing vapor compared to the vast riches of eternity. All the suffering we endure on earth are just "hiccups" on the way to the rewards offered by the King of Kings to those who overcome.
If we can keep this in mind, we will be at peace ... because of our righteousness in Christ Jesus - and such a comforting thought it is! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
We've probably all heard the story of the two men who paused to pay their respect to an approaching funeral procession. As the men took off their hats, they watched as the hearse quietly rolled by followed by an armored car with the name "Brinks" painted on the side. One respectfully noted to the other, "I didn't think you could take it with you, but Mr. Brinks is sure going to try."
There is an old song that says, "Money can't buy you love." And that is a very true saying. Money can buy companionship. Money can buy a false sense of friendship. Money can buy health - to a certain extent. Money can buy lots of things that make life easier on this sparkling blue orb we call "Earth," but money can't do a thing for the man who is bound for hell. Money won't buy an air conditioner there. It won't purchase a drink of cool water. It won't even buy friendly companionship in that overheated dwelling of the ever-dying sinner. Solomon tells us that riches are worthless in the day of wrath ... the day of judgment.
On the other hand, righteousness won't buy pleasures on earth. It won't buy a fast car. It won't purchase the goods that men seem to lust after. But it will buy peace of mind, and happiness, and contentment. It will buy what money can't - it can buy love. What's more, righteousness will deliver the owner from the eternal death of hell and deliver him into the glories of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus.
In the days of the ancient kings, runners would precede the king's travel by weeks. They would tell the local residents that the king would arrive in their village on such-and-such a day. The village chiefs would arrange work crews to travel the length of the roadway to make the paths smooth for the king. Potholes would be filled. Rough road would be smoothed. Valleys would be filled and hills would be cropped off so the king would have a safe and comfortable ride through the village lands. This is what the king's influence bought him.
Our righteousness - and that is a gift from our King - is what makes our paths smooth and safe and comfortable. Certainly, I am not talking about a "pain free life." Quite the contrary, the life of the true believer might be fraught with great trials producing physical and emotional pain. Some of us might even lose our lives because of the choice we have made to follow in the footsteps of the King. But, all the while, we are comforted by the knowledge that this life is nothing but a passing vapor compared to the vast riches of eternity. All the suffering we endure on earth are just "hiccups" on the way to the rewards offered by the King of Kings to those who overcome.
If we can keep this in mind, we will be at peace ... because of our righteousness in Christ Jesus - and such a comforting thought it is! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Isaiah 55:10-13; Psalm 65; Matthew 13:1-9,18-23
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Over the next three weeks we will be looking at some of the parables of Jesus as they are found in the Gospel According to Matthew.
The parable of the sower and the seed that we read this morning is the first of several that Matthew records in his gospel and as we look at it - and some of the others in the weeks to come - it will be good for us to remember that the parables of Jesus - when they were first heard - were heard in two ways. Some found their message offensive - and others found their message to be incredibly liberating, they heard them as good news about God's love - about how God cares for the world and for everyone in it.
The offense in today's parable should be obvious to any of you who garden - and to any who have farmed or who are familiar with farming.
Seed is a precious commodity. It is not something that you spread on rocky ground or cast indiscriminately on the pathways throughout your garden or the roadside next to acreage. Nor do you sow seed in the midst of thistles.
Yes - when you sow - be it by hand or by machine - some seed will fall in those places, but it is not something that you do deliberately.
What you do deliberately is sow seed in good ground. You sow it in those places where you know the seed has a chance not only to germinate and sprout, but to grow up into a healthy plant - one that produces much fruit.
But in today's parable it seems that God has a different system of sowing.
The incredible thing within the parable of the Sower and The Seed - the thing which is both offensive to those who think that they know how things should be done, and good news to those who have ears to hear the message is the liberality of the sower of the seed and the abundance of the harvest that is produced - a harvest that far exceeds what could be reasonably expected even if all the seed landed in good soil..
Those who have ears, let them hear.....
The seed in the parable of The Sower and the Seed is the Word of God, it is the Word - or The Message - about God's kingdom.
And the sower is God.
But the seed is also the one who first tells us this story, - the seed is Christ Jesus himself - who - as the scriptures tell us over and over again - came from God that we might have life and have it abundantly - the seed is the one whom we call the Living Word - the Word made flesh - who came, while we were yet enemies of God - and gave us his life for us so that we might turn to God and live as God's beloved children in a world - and a heaven - made new. The seed is the one who tells us to do crazy things like love our enemies - and to pray for those who oppress us - and to bless those who curse us. The seed is the one who accepts us and who wants to be planted deep in our hearts and to grow in our lives even we think that we are not good enough to approach him and to ask him for his hope - his love - his strength - his joy.
While there may be a limit to what we can do in sowing the word - a limit to the energy and the love that we have for one another - a limit that might cause us to try to sow in one place, but not in another, there is no limit to what God can do and what God does do; nor is there a limit to what we can do when God's word is in our lives, working through us, growing in us as God wants it to do..
"Those who have ears", says Jesus, "let them hear."
Let them hear that God is pouring out himself in abundance upon this world upon the rocky ground and the places that thistles grow and the pathways and the good soil and that at the end - when the final reckoning is made - there will be an incredible harvest, a harvest so generous that the one who has sown so much seed so indiscriminately will be rewarded beyond anything one could reasonably hope for - even if all the soil had been good soil.
Let them hear too that we should not hoard the seed that God has given to us to sow; let them hear that God's purposes will not be frustrated if we waste a little bit of here and there, that the word of God's love and care that we manifest in our actions and our attitudes and the words we speak will not be lost if we give it freely to the those who may allow it to be snatched away, or choked out, or to wither away... it won't be lost because the harvest that will come from all our acts of sowing the good news of Jesus Christ will be more, much more, than anyone can expect.
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth" said God through the prophet Isaiah in the first reading of today.
"My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
The purpose of God is the renewal of our lives - of our lives - and of the
life of the world.
"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace", says God to his people Israel - and to us here today. "the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."
God's purpose is accomplished by God's word - the word that created heaven and earth and which has been made flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord so that the sick might be healed, the captive set free, the poor receive good news - and the dead restored to life.
It is going to happen - and we can be part of it - or not - as we choose.
But those of us who have chosen to receive the Word of God into our lives, those of us who have accepted Christ into our lives and who strive to grow in him and have him grow in us - let us not choose for others by denying to them what God has given to us, let us be wildly indiscriminate in how we share the good news, in how we love one another
This indeed is part of the harvest that good soil produces abundant seed for the sower to sow once again and grain that is more than enough for all who hunger.
They who have ears - let them hear - day by day, now and forever. Amen
Over the next three weeks we will be looking at some of the parables of Jesus as they are found in the Gospel According to Matthew.
The parable of the sower and the seed that we read this morning is the first of several that Matthew records in his gospel and as we look at it - and some of the others in the weeks to come - it will be good for us to remember that the parables of Jesus - when they were first heard - were heard in two ways. Some found their message offensive - and others found their message to be incredibly liberating, they heard them as good news about God's love - about how God cares for the world and for everyone in it.
The offense in today's parable should be obvious to any of you who garden - and to any who have farmed or who are familiar with farming.
Seed is a precious commodity. It is not something that you spread on rocky ground or cast indiscriminately on the pathways throughout your garden or the roadside next to acreage. Nor do you sow seed in the midst of thistles.
Yes - when you sow - be it by hand or by machine - some seed will fall in those places, but it is not something that you do deliberately.
What you do deliberately is sow seed in good ground. You sow it in those places where you know the seed has a chance not only to germinate and sprout, but to grow up into a healthy plant - one that produces much fruit.
But in today's parable it seems that God has a different system of sowing.
The incredible thing within the parable of the Sower and The Seed - the thing which is both offensive to those who think that they know how things should be done, and good news to those who have ears to hear the message is the liberality of the sower of the seed and the abundance of the harvest that is produced - a harvest that far exceeds what could be reasonably expected even if all the seed landed in good soil..
Those who have ears, let them hear.....
The seed in the parable of The Sower and the Seed is the Word of God, it is the Word - or The Message - about God's kingdom.
And the sower is God.
But the seed is also the one who first tells us this story, - the seed is Christ Jesus himself - who - as the scriptures tell us over and over again - came from God that we might have life and have it abundantly - the seed is the one whom we call the Living Word - the Word made flesh - who came, while we were yet enemies of God - and gave us his life for us so that we might turn to God and live as God's beloved children in a world - and a heaven - made new. The seed is the one who tells us to do crazy things like love our enemies - and to pray for those who oppress us - and to bless those who curse us. The seed is the one who accepts us and who wants to be planted deep in our hearts and to grow in our lives even we think that we are not good enough to approach him and to ask him for his hope - his love - his strength - his joy.
While there may be a limit to what we can do in sowing the word - a limit to the energy and the love that we have for one another - a limit that might cause us to try to sow in one place, but not in another, there is no limit to what God can do and what God does do; nor is there a limit to what we can do when God's word is in our lives, working through us, growing in us as God wants it to do..
"Those who have ears", says Jesus, "let them hear."
Let them hear that God is pouring out himself in abundance upon this world upon the rocky ground and the places that thistles grow and the pathways and the good soil and that at the end - when the final reckoning is made - there will be an incredible harvest, a harvest so generous that the one who has sown so much seed so indiscriminately will be rewarded beyond anything one could reasonably hope for - even if all the soil had been good soil.
Let them hear too that we should not hoard the seed that God has given to us to sow; let them hear that God's purposes will not be frustrated if we waste a little bit of here and there, that the word of God's love and care that we manifest in our actions and our attitudes and the words we speak will not be lost if we give it freely to the those who may allow it to be snatched away, or choked out, or to wither away... it won't be lost because the harvest that will come from all our acts of sowing the good news of Jesus Christ will be more, much more, than anyone can expect.
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth" said God through the prophet Isaiah in the first reading of today.
"My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
The purpose of God is the renewal of our lives - of our lives - and of the
life of the world.
"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace", says God to his people Israel - and to us here today. "the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."
God's purpose is accomplished by God's word - the word that created heaven and earth and which has been made flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord so that the sick might be healed, the captive set free, the poor receive good news - and the dead restored to life.
It is going to happen - and we can be part of it - or not - as we choose.
But those of us who have chosen to receive the Word of God into our lives, those of us who have accepted Christ into our lives and who strive to grow in him and have him grow in us - let us not choose for others by denying to them what God has given to us, let us be wildly indiscriminate in how we share the good news, in how we love one another
This indeed is part of the harvest that good soil produces abundant seed for the sower to sow once again and grain that is more than enough for all who hunger.
They who have ears - let them hear - day by day, now and forever. Amen
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Romans 7:15-25a; Psalm 45; Matthew 11:25-30
"Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way you want us to go. Amen.
Many of us here today have had, or still have, many problems in our lives. We are under constant stress from one thing or another:
- there is an interview coming up
- some one we know and love is sick
- our finances are shaky
- we feel understandably depressed and find it difficult to watch the news on TV or to think about anyone else's troubles.
Something is eating at us.
Stress is a common, all too common fact in our lives.
It could be any of a thousand and one things that afflict us, but the result is we feel tired; or we find ourselves being angry at other people for almost no reason at all or, even more commonly, we feel unable to think good thoughts or do what we believe are good things.
We are not at peace.
So what do we do about it?
A lot of people do nothing... they feel that somehow this is meant to be their lot in life - or they feel powerless to change things.
Others - those blessed with the conviction that they should be more at ease with themselves and with the world around them - are more active.
And many of these - and in this age it seems the majority - turn to the solutions offered at the local library and at the supermarket stands or on TV, and they buy self-help manuals or they watch shows featuring pop psychologists hoping against hope that by following the instructions of the books or enacting the principles outlined in 30 minutes by some expert on the tube - that they will be able to get a grip on their problems, and find a happier and more fulfilling life.
Yet, despite all their efforts - all too often they are just as tired and unhappy as those who have done nothing, perhaps even more so - since the rules and regulations and principles they try to follow to help themselves require a lot of effort.
Who will rescue me is a cry heard not only on the top 40 charts, but in the depths of our hearts.
Who will rescue me...who will rescue me from the aimlessness of my life? Who will rescue me from my pain and loneliness? Who will rescue me from the negativity of the world? Who will rescue me from myself?
Again, hoping against hope, some of us turn to religion, we turn to the values and principles taught to us on our mothers knees and we try to live our lives by the ten commandments and by the laws taught to us by Moses, Jesus and Paul.
But like Paul - we end up finding that this does not work either, we find that the good that we would like to do we do not do and the bad that we would not do, we end up doing anyway.
Like Paul we find that there is a kind of war going on inside us, And deep down we end up saying with him -
What a wretched person I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
Brothers and sisters in Christ there is a better way, - a better way than the quick fixes offered by the wise psychologists on the supermarket stands, - a better way than that which is offered to us by a religion based on do's and don'ts, laws and regulations.
The way I am referring to will strike many of you as being very silly, very simplistic, very naive, but I assure you that it is not - even when applied to problems that are larger than our own personal ones.
I do not know how many of you ever heard of a person by the name of Samantha Smith -
when she was 10 years old she woke up one morning in her home in Maine and "wondered if this was going to be the last day of the earth". She had just read about the arms race and thought that it made no sense. So she did something that only an unsophisticated child would do - she wrote a letter to Mr. Andropov, the Soviet Leader at the time. She said "I am worried about Russia and America getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote for war? Please tell me how we can stop having a war?"
To many peoples' surprise, Mr. Andropov answered her letter and invited her to Russia to see things for herself. She went and met Mr. Andropov and many children of her own age. She got along very well. When she returned to the States she said "If we can be friends by getting to know each other better, then what are our two countries arguing about? Nothing could be more important than stopping a nuclear war".
Adults cannot say such things lest they seem silly...Yet is there not a profound wisdom here? Something greater than the wisdom of our political scientists and international experts?
We have so many problems - both personal, and as a nation and a world. And we have so little peace, so little rest.
Who will rescue us?
You know that it is all enough to drive a person to pray, we get to the point after we have tried this and that formula and consulted this and that expert in our problems that we do not know what else to do.
We've tried to make it under our own steam - and we are tired, and in desperation, finally, we try God.
But wouldn't we be better off to try God first? Wouldn't we be better off to live by God's wisdom rather than the wisdom of the learned of this world?
But we don't do this do we? It is just too silly to expect that something simple can solve a complex problem.
But listen to Jesus once again. He said:
"I praise you Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children."
An ancient story is told about a Rabbi who had the prophet Elijah appear to him one day while he was in the market place.
There the teachers of the Law were holding forth, others were buying and selling goods, and still others were listening to the disputes that were brought before the elders of the people in one corner of the market.
The Rabbi asked Elijah if there was anyone in the market place who was destined to share in the blessedness of the life to come. At first Elijah said no - but then he pointed to two men and said that they would. The Rabbi went over to them and asked what they did. "We are merry makers", they replied, "When we see a person who is downcast we cheer him up. When we see two people quarrelling with each other, we try to make peace between them."
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the answers we need to our problems are often hidden from us, because so many of us, particularly those of us who are well educated cannot comprehend the simplicity of the truth - for us there always has to be a catch, we cannot accept that things might be easier than they appear.
I tell you this: God wants us to understand and find solutions to our problems. And so God has arranged things so that it is not our knowledge that is important, but rather our heart and our will.
God wants us all to have peace and fulfilment, and so there is nothing complicated here, instead there is only a call, a call to yield yourself to God, a call to follow Jesus and enter into a relationship with him.
As a theologian once put it: "the heart, not the head is the home of the gospel"
The smallest child is given the faculty of knowing Christ, of knowing what is important and what is not, - but for us adults it seems we need something more, we need a model which we can consciously follow.
Jesus said:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.
Come to me, take my yoke upon you, my yoke is easy and my burden light.
The word yoke in the scripture often refers to the TORAH - to the way of God, to the teachings of God through the prophets, and as such it is it is not so much about servitude but rather about the direction of things - the focus of our labours, which is for us the focus of Jesus and not the rules and laws of religion.
And the word easy - my yoke is easy - in the Greek means well fitted.
In the days of Jesus yokes were made of wood. The ox was brought to the carpenter's shop and carefully measured and then the yoke was roughed out. Then the ox was brought back and it was tried on him - the yoke was then marked - and carefully adjusted by shaving the wood. Each yoke was tailor made to fit each ox.
When Jesus says that "my yoke is easy and my burden light" what he means is this: The life I give you is not a burden to gall you, your task is made to measure to fit you.
What Jesus is saying is: My burden is light, it is not meant to weigh you down with demands, it is not rules and regulations about what you can and can not do, nor is it a task that you will hate doing.
No, the burden of Jesus is like the one in the old story about a man who comes upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy, who was lame, upon his back.
"That's a heavy burden for you to carry", said the man. "That's no burden", came the answer, "that's my wee brother".
What ever Jesus sends us, and whatever he asks of us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly, it is made to give not only us, but our whole world rest.
We need to give up our old way of looking at life and assume the way of seeing and living that Christ wants us to have, - the one that concerns our heart, - the one that is suited to us.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. Come to me you who are tired of doing it all under your own steam and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, take what I have designed especially for you, and learn from me, learn from me for I am gentle and humble in spirit, for I am one who is at peace, one who knows the right way. Do this, come to me, and take what I have designed for you, learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls.
You will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.
Who will rescue me?
An old hymn by the name of "Come Unto Me" says in its second verse:
Are you disappointed, wandering here and there, dragging chains of doubt and loaded down with care? Do unholy feelings struggle in your breast? Bring your case to Jesus, He will give you rest.
Come unto me, come unto me, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, Hear me and be blest. I am meek and lowly, come and trust my might. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Who will rescue me?
Jesus invites us - come to me, learn from, take my yoke upon you - and I will give you rest...
It is a promise, a promise that requires a very simple answer on our part to take effect.
Come to Jesus like a child - listen to him, talk to him, do what he asks of you, and you will find your rest. AMEN
Many of us here today have had, or still have, many problems in our lives. We are under constant stress from one thing or another:
- there is an interview coming up
- some one we know and love is sick
- our finances are shaky
- we feel understandably depressed and find it difficult to watch the news on TV or to think about anyone else's troubles.
Something is eating at us.
Stress is a common, all too common fact in our lives.
It could be any of a thousand and one things that afflict us, but the result is we feel tired; or we find ourselves being angry at other people for almost no reason at all or, even more commonly, we feel unable to think good thoughts or do what we believe are good things.
We are not at peace.
So what do we do about it?
A lot of people do nothing... they feel that somehow this is meant to be their lot in life - or they feel powerless to change things.
Others - those blessed with the conviction that they should be more at ease with themselves and with the world around them - are more active.
And many of these - and in this age it seems the majority - turn to the solutions offered at the local library and at the supermarket stands or on TV, and they buy self-help manuals or they watch shows featuring pop psychologists hoping against hope that by following the instructions of the books or enacting the principles outlined in 30 minutes by some expert on the tube - that they will be able to get a grip on their problems, and find a happier and more fulfilling life.
Yet, despite all their efforts - all too often they are just as tired and unhappy as those who have done nothing, perhaps even more so - since the rules and regulations and principles they try to follow to help themselves require a lot of effort.
Who will rescue me is a cry heard not only on the top 40 charts, but in the depths of our hearts.
Who will rescue me...who will rescue me from the aimlessness of my life? Who will rescue me from my pain and loneliness? Who will rescue me from the negativity of the world? Who will rescue me from myself?
Again, hoping against hope, some of us turn to religion, we turn to the values and principles taught to us on our mothers knees and we try to live our lives by the ten commandments and by the laws taught to us by Moses, Jesus and Paul.
But like Paul - we end up finding that this does not work either, we find that the good that we would like to do we do not do and the bad that we would not do, we end up doing anyway.
Like Paul we find that there is a kind of war going on inside us, And deep down we end up saying with him -
What a wretched person I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
Brothers and sisters in Christ there is a better way, - a better way than the quick fixes offered by the wise psychologists on the supermarket stands, - a better way than that which is offered to us by a religion based on do's and don'ts, laws and regulations.
The way I am referring to will strike many of you as being very silly, very simplistic, very naive, but I assure you that it is not - even when applied to problems that are larger than our own personal ones.
I do not know how many of you ever heard of a person by the name of Samantha Smith -
when she was 10 years old she woke up one morning in her home in Maine and "wondered if this was going to be the last day of the earth". She had just read about the arms race and thought that it made no sense. So she did something that only an unsophisticated child would do - she wrote a letter to Mr. Andropov, the Soviet Leader at the time. She said "I am worried about Russia and America getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote for war? Please tell me how we can stop having a war?"
To many peoples' surprise, Mr. Andropov answered her letter and invited her to Russia to see things for herself. She went and met Mr. Andropov and many children of her own age. She got along very well. When she returned to the States she said "If we can be friends by getting to know each other better, then what are our two countries arguing about? Nothing could be more important than stopping a nuclear war".
Adults cannot say such things lest they seem silly...Yet is there not a profound wisdom here? Something greater than the wisdom of our political scientists and international experts?
We have so many problems - both personal, and as a nation and a world. And we have so little peace, so little rest.
Who will rescue us?
You know that it is all enough to drive a person to pray, we get to the point after we have tried this and that formula and consulted this and that expert in our problems that we do not know what else to do.
We've tried to make it under our own steam - and we are tired, and in desperation, finally, we try God.
But wouldn't we be better off to try God first? Wouldn't we be better off to live by God's wisdom rather than the wisdom of the learned of this world?
But we don't do this do we? It is just too silly to expect that something simple can solve a complex problem.
But listen to Jesus once again. He said:
"I praise you Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children."
An ancient story is told about a Rabbi who had the prophet Elijah appear to him one day while he was in the market place.
There the teachers of the Law were holding forth, others were buying and selling goods, and still others were listening to the disputes that were brought before the elders of the people in one corner of the market.
The Rabbi asked Elijah if there was anyone in the market place who was destined to share in the blessedness of the life to come. At first Elijah said no - but then he pointed to two men and said that they would. The Rabbi went over to them and asked what they did. "We are merry makers", they replied, "When we see a person who is downcast we cheer him up. When we see two people quarrelling with each other, we try to make peace between them."
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the answers we need to our problems are often hidden from us, because so many of us, particularly those of us who are well educated cannot comprehend the simplicity of the truth - for us there always has to be a catch, we cannot accept that things might be easier than they appear.
I tell you this: God wants us to understand and find solutions to our problems. And so God has arranged things so that it is not our knowledge that is important, but rather our heart and our will.
God wants us all to have peace and fulfilment, and so there is nothing complicated here, instead there is only a call, a call to yield yourself to God, a call to follow Jesus and enter into a relationship with him.
As a theologian once put it: "the heart, not the head is the home of the gospel"
The smallest child is given the faculty of knowing Christ, of knowing what is important and what is not, - but for us adults it seems we need something more, we need a model which we can consciously follow.
Jesus said:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.
Come to me, take my yoke upon you, my yoke is easy and my burden light.
The word yoke in the scripture often refers to the TORAH - to the way of God, to the teachings of God through the prophets, and as such it is it is not so much about servitude but rather about the direction of things - the focus of our labours, which is for us the focus of Jesus and not the rules and laws of religion.
And the word easy - my yoke is easy - in the Greek means well fitted.
In the days of Jesus yokes were made of wood. The ox was brought to the carpenter's shop and carefully measured and then the yoke was roughed out. Then the ox was brought back and it was tried on him - the yoke was then marked - and carefully adjusted by shaving the wood. Each yoke was tailor made to fit each ox.
When Jesus says that "my yoke is easy and my burden light" what he means is this: The life I give you is not a burden to gall you, your task is made to measure to fit you.
What Jesus is saying is: My burden is light, it is not meant to weigh you down with demands, it is not rules and regulations about what you can and can not do, nor is it a task that you will hate doing.
No, the burden of Jesus is like the one in the old story about a man who comes upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy, who was lame, upon his back.
"That's a heavy burden for you to carry", said the man. "That's no burden", came the answer, "that's my wee brother".
What ever Jesus sends us, and whatever he asks of us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly, it is made to give not only us, but our whole world rest.
We need to give up our old way of looking at life and assume the way of seeing and living that Christ wants us to have, - the one that concerns our heart, - the one that is suited to us.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. Come to me you who are tired of doing it all under your own steam and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, take what I have designed especially for you, and learn from me, learn from me for I am gentle and humble in spirit, for I am one who is at peace, one who knows the right way. Do this, come to me, and take what I have designed for you, learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls.
You will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.
Who will rescue me?
An old hymn by the name of "Come Unto Me" says in its second verse:
Are you disappointed, wandering here and there, dragging chains of doubt and loaded down with care? Do unholy feelings struggle in your breast? Bring your case to Jesus, He will give you rest.
Come unto me, come unto me, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, Hear me and be blest. I am meek and lowly, come and trust my might. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Who will rescue me?
Jesus invites us - come to me, learn from, take my yoke upon you - and I will give you rest...
It is a promise, a promise that requires a very simple answer on our part to take effect.
Come to Jesus like a child - listen to him, talk to him, do what he asks of you, and you will find your rest. AMEN
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Prov. 23:23
"Buy the truth, and do not sell it, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding" Prov. 23:23
In a Beatles song, the wizards of rock sang these words, "Money can't buy you love." Despite the truth of these words, most of us continue to accumulate wealth hoping that we can buy, if not love, at least happiness. It amazes me how fast purchased happiness drains into the mundane then into the realms of drudgery.
Solomon, in his vast wisdom, tells his son that two things can, and should, be bought - truth and wisdom. The two are not the same, though many people try to make them that way. Nor is wisdom gained at the same time that knowledge is attained. Wisdom is based upon truth. Wisdom is the life application of knowledge in a good and just way. Money can buy knowledge; that is why we send our children to the best university we can afford. We want them to gain knowledge, vast amounts of knowledge, because we know that they will need it in the every day life of adulthood.
Wisdom is purchased with a currency that is not printed by the Government of Hong Kong. Nor does any government or set of government coin that currency. The currency with which one buys wisdom is time. Effective use of the time currency begins at birth as the mother and the father begin the decades long instructions that will mold an infant into a productive adult. The parents invest the initial currency because Junior has nothing to invest. He is more interested in eating, sleeping, and dirtying diapers. Eventually Junior learns to sit on Daddy's knee and listen to stories that Daddy and Mommy tell about their youth. He is now investing his own currency. If everything works out right, Junior will gain the seeds of wisdom in these precious moments. In due course, Junior will have gained enough wisdom in this manner to be able to water the seeds planted by his parents and reap sufficient harvest along the way to keep himself in God's paths. All the time he continues to gain more wisdom because wisdom begets wisdom.
Sad is the youth who ignores "the old man" and grows into adulthood as a fool. He saddens the heart of his parents. He makes a mockery of all that has been invested in him by family, teachers, pastors, and friends. His currency is wasted on debauchery and self-indulgence.
Let us buy truth and wisdom. It is never to late to begin our collection. Our collection can never be too big. And wisdom never goes out of date nor does it "spoil"! Amen and Amen.
In a Beatles song, the wizards of rock sang these words, "Money can't buy you love." Despite the truth of these words, most of us continue to accumulate wealth hoping that we can buy, if not love, at least happiness. It amazes me how fast purchased happiness drains into the mundane then into the realms of drudgery.
Solomon, in his vast wisdom, tells his son that two things can, and should, be bought - truth and wisdom. The two are not the same, though many people try to make them that way. Nor is wisdom gained at the same time that knowledge is attained. Wisdom is based upon truth. Wisdom is the life application of knowledge in a good and just way. Money can buy knowledge; that is why we send our children to the best university we can afford. We want them to gain knowledge, vast amounts of knowledge, because we know that they will need it in the every day life of adulthood.
Wisdom is purchased with a currency that is not printed by the Government of Hong Kong. Nor does any government or set of government coin that currency. The currency with which one buys wisdom is time. Effective use of the time currency begins at birth as the mother and the father begin the decades long instructions that will mold an infant into a productive adult. The parents invest the initial currency because Junior has nothing to invest. He is more interested in eating, sleeping, and dirtying diapers. Eventually Junior learns to sit on Daddy's knee and listen to stories that Daddy and Mommy tell about their youth. He is now investing his own currency. If everything works out right, Junior will gain the seeds of wisdom in these precious moments. In due course, Junior will have gained enough wisdom in this manner to be able to water the seeds planted by his parents and reap sufficient harvest along the way to keep himself in God's paths. All the time he continues to gain more wisdom because wisdom begets wisdom.
Sad is the youth who ignores "the old man" and grows into adulthood as a fool. He saddens the heart of his parents. He makes a mockery of all that has been invested in him by family, teachers, pastors, and friends. His currency is wasted on debauchery and self-indulgence.
Let us buy truth and wisdom. It is never to late to begin our collection. Our collection can never be too big. And wisdom never goes out of date nor does it "spoil"! Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Heb. 11:3
"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" Heb. 11:3
I've heard it and I'm sure you have too. "You must step out in blind faith." I've always wondered what "blind faith" is. Is it limited to those who are physically blind? Does one have to be totally blind to reality to have it? Exactly what do people mean when they use the term and is it a biblically based concept?
I had a dream once. I was walking in a pitch-black night. Nothing could be seen; even my hand was hidden from sight if I held it inches from my face. As with most people, after a while I became totally disoriented and was afraid to move anywhere. This was especially true when I heard the sound of rushing waters immediately in front of me - or was it all around me? The sound seemed to move from front to back to side and back again. Darkness does that to a person's senses. It seems like I prayed in the midst of that dream for I heard a voice saying, "Take one step at a time." I questioned the wisdom of that advice ... until I looked down and saw a faint glow on a rock immediately in front of me. I stepped out and the light became brighter illuminating the single step I was to take. As I moved each foot forward, a light illuminated the next step, and the next. Never was more than one step lit. Always the light glowed as I took the next step. I don't recall reaching a destination, but I do know I was filled with a peace knowing that the Light, which I know is Jesus Christ, directed each step of my path.
Was that "blind faith"? Some might say it was. But I know the truth. My faith was founded on two things. The first was the Voice. The second was the first glimmer of the faint light on the first rock. No, this was not blind faith. It was faith in Someone I had confidence in.
The Hebrews writer tells us that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. 11:1) He would assure us that there is no such thing as blind faith. In today's verse, he tells us that our faith, our confidence, is in a power much greater than ourselves. We look at the world around us and know that it was made by the spoken word of God out of apparent nothingness. Liberal thought would have us believe that the world "just happened" when for some reason a single particle of something unexplainably moved out of its predetermined path and struck another particle of something - they call it the "big bang theory." Yeah, sure. And where did the particles come from? And why did one of them deviate from its ageless path? The answer is vague stammering because there is no answer in neither scientific nor philosophical thought.
True faith is never really blind. It is founded upon the power and authority of one we can trust - the God of creation. While it may seem to be "blind" at times, the truth is that faith is based upon a reality that is more real than the keyboard I am using to write this epistle. When we have learned to trust in God, the most outlandish sounding command from Him is nothing but a foregone conclusion. He has made it possible. He will make it come to pass. All we have to do is take the first step... and the next ... and the next... until we reach the destination He has set for us.
Blind faith? The world might think so. But you and I know that the faith we have is never blind, but built upon the creator of all reality. Go ahead. Take the first step. See the light glowing dimly? Trust in the God who created the light and the rock and the river and you. He works all in perfect harmony. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
I've heard it and I'm sure you have too. "You must step out in blind faith." I've always wondered what "blind faith" is. Is it limited to those who are physically blind? Does one have to be totally blind to reality to have it? Exactly what do people mean when they use the term and is it a biblically based concept?
I had a dream once. I was walking in a pitch-black night. Nothing could be seen; even my hand was hidden from sight if I held it inches from my face. As with most people, after a while I became totally disoriented and was afraid to move anywhere. This was especially true when I heard the sound of rushing waters immediately in front of me - or was it all around me? The sound seemed to move from front to back to side and back again. Darkness does that to a person's senses. It seems like I prayed in the midst of that dream for I heard a voice saying, "Take one step at a time." I questioned the wisdom of that advice ... until I looked down and saw a faint glow on a rock immediately in front of me. I stepped out and the light became brighter illuminating the single step I was to take. As I moved each foot forward, a light illuminated the next step, and the next. Never was more than one step lit. Always the light glowed as I took the next step. I don't recall reaching a destination, but I do know I was filled with a peace knowing that the Light, which I know is Jesus Christ, directed each step of my path.
Was that "blind faith"? Some might say it was. But I know the truth. My faith was founded on two things. The first was the Voice. The second was the first glimmer of the faint light on the first rock. No, this was not blind faith. It was faith in Someone I had confidence in.
The Hebrews writer tells us that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. 11:1) He would assure us that there is no such thing as blind faith. In today's verse, he tells us that our faith, our confidence, is in a power much greater than ourselves. We look at the world around us and know that it was made by the spoken word of God out of apparent nothingness. Liberal thought would have us believe that the world "just happened" when for some reason a single particle of something unexplainably moved out of its predetermined path and struck another particle of something - they call it the "big bang theory." Yeah, sure. And where did the particles come from? And why did one of them deviate from its ageless path? The answer is vague stammering because there is no answer in neither scientific nor philosophical thought.
True faith is never really blind. It is founded upon the power and authority of one we can trust - the God of creation. While it may seem to be "blind" at times, the truth is that faith is based upon a reality that is more real than the keyboard I am using to write this epistle. When we have learned to trust in God, the most outlandish sounding command from Him is nothing but a foregone conclusion. He has made it possible. He will make it come to pass. All we have to do is take the first step... and the next ... and the next... until we reach the destination He has set for us.
Blind faith? The world might think so. But you and I know that the faith we have is never blind, but built upon the creator of all reality. Go ahead. Take the first step. See the light glowing dimly? Trust in the God who created the light and the rock and the river and you. He works all in perfect harmony. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
2 Tim 1:5
"When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also" 2 Tim 1:5
There are many accounts of "little people", the common man or woman, being used of God in mighty ways. We could talk of many of the prophets. We obviously recall a young woman, Mary, and her betrothed, Joseph. We might call them "salt of the earth" type of people. James and John, Peter and Andrew, fishermen with no other life in sight until Jesus walked down the beach near their boats and called them to follow Him and He would make them "fishers of men." Stephen, the disciple who became a deacon and suffered martyrdom for his preaching and Phillip the evangelist transported from the wilderness to the heart of another revival are two more of the small folk made huge by the call of God.
There is one more individual I believe we should look at. He was the offspring of a Jewish woman and a gentile man, raised in a gentile nation to follow God's laws. Timothy was called by Paul to be a companion and a student. He had little to offer except willingness to learn and the heritage of a godly mother and a godly grandmother. As a youth he began to serve Paul the Apostle. He followed him throughout the Middle Eastern and European countries of the day, absorbing the vast knowledge stored by God in the heart of Paul. Finally, Paul began to send Timothy on errands of great import until Paul made Timothy the pastor of a church that needed a gentle but firm hand.
Timothy was on his own, but not without the prayers and instruction of the great Apostle. We are fortunate to have two of the letters Paul wrote to Timothy because in them the Apostle taught Timothy, and the church as a whole, how to organize and grow a powerful local congregation. In due season, church history tells us that Timothy became a very influential bishop (elder/pastor) of the whole region, leading the churches and training men in the ways Paul was taught by Jesus in the wilderness.
Timothy had one major asset: a willingness to serve ... to be used... by God. He apparently had no great wealth. He had just a basic education. He was nothing outstanding to the world, but Paul saw something in him and assisted God in bringing it out in the open. God can do the same for and through you. He takes the simple things and makes them great. A few small fish and a handful of little loaves fed 5,000 men. A simple gold coin was used to teach about taxes and God's will for His children. A little child was the object of a lesson on the simple faith. A grain of mustard seed taught about the kingdom. A grain of salt taught us about how important we are in the world around us. And twelve simple men started a church on the Day of Pentecost.
You, my brothers and sisters in Christ, are the salt of the earth, and God wants to use you to enhance the Kingdom in your neighborhood, your state, your nation, and your world. He will take whatever small offering you have to give and multiply it over and over until multitudes are fed from what you give. But you must give it in order for Him to multiply it. You must be willing to be an offering, poured out, so that He can fill you with His glory. You must obediently raise your hand and place it in the nail-pierced palm of Jesus so He can lead you in the ways only you can tread. You ... must ... willingly... yield ... yourself ... to ... Jesus. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
There are many accounts of "little people", the common man or woman, being used of God in mighty ways. We could talk of many of the prophets. We obviously recall a young woman, Mary, and her betrothed, Joseph. We might call them "salt of the earth" type of people. James and John, Peter and Andrew, fishermen with no other life in sight until Jesus walked down the beach near their boats and called them to follow Him and He would make them "fishers of men." Stephen, the disciple who became a deacon and suffered martyrdom for his preaching and Phillip the evangelist transported from the wilderness to the heart of another revival are two more of the small folk made huge by the call of God.
There is one more individual I believe we should look at. He was the offspring of a Jewish woman and a gentile man, raised in a gentile nation to follow God's laws. Timothy was called by Paul to be a companion and a student. He had little to offer except willingness to learn and the heritage of a godly mother and a godly grandmother. As a youth he began to serve Paul the Apostle. He followed him throughout the Middle Eastern and European countries of the day, absorbing the vast knowledge stored by God in the heart of Paul. Finally, Paul began to send Timothy on errands of great import until Paul made Timothy the pastor of a church that needed a gentle but firm hand.
Timothy was on his own, but not without the prayers and instruction of the great Apostle. We are fortunate to have two of the letters Paul wrote to Timothy because in them the Apostle taught Timothy, and the church as a whole, how to organize and grow a powerful local congregation. In due season, church history tells us that Timothy became a very influential bishop (elder/pastor) of the whole region, leading the churches and training men in the ways Paul was taught by Jesus in the wilderness.
Timothy had one major asset: a willingness to serve ... to be used... by God. He apparently had no great wealth. He had just a basic education. He was nothing outstanding to the world, but Paul saw something in him and assisted God in bringing it out in the open. God can do the same for and through you. He takes the simple things and makes them great. A few small fish and a handful of little loaves fed 5,000 men. A simple gold coin was used to teach about taxes and God's will for His children. A little child was the object of a lesson on the simple faith. A grain of mustard seed taught about the kingdom. A grain of salt taught us about how important we are in the world around us. And twelve simple men started a church on the Day of Pentecost.
You, my brothers and sisters in Christ, are the salt of the earth, and God wants to use you to enhance the Kingdom in your neighborhood, your state, your nation, and your world. He will take whatever small offering you have to give and multiply it over and over until multitudes are fed from what you give. But you must give it in order for Him to multiply it. You must be willing to be an offering, poured out, so that He can fill you with His glory. You must obediently raise your hand and place it in the nail-pierced palm of Jesus so He can lead you in the ways only you can tread. You ... must ... willingly... yield ... yourself ... to ... Jesus. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Isa. 6:4-5
"And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts" Isa. 6:4-5
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to all on that day?
Traditional Folk Song
I am positive that this is the way Isaiah felt when he saw the vision of the Lord. He wanted to hide. You and I would have wanted no less. Being in the presence of God would be a frightening event - and Isaiah knew more than anyone that he was a "sinner man"! He even recorded his thoughts for us to read nearly 2500 years later. "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." He was ready to die. He knew the consequences of seeing God. He knew it was death - it always had been. And it would have been this time except for one very important action. An angel flew to him and touched his lips with a burning coal taken from the altar of the Lord. The burning coal cleansed our budding prophet and made him fit for an audience with the King of Kings. (I'm certainly glad that I have been redeemed by the blood of the Messiah. I'm not sure I am ready to have my lips touched with a burning coal from anything!)
Isaiah made himself available when God called for someone to go for Him. "Here am I, send me." We know Isaiah as one of the "Major Prophets," the author of one of the most read of the Old Testament books. In his writings, he foretold the coming of the restoration of Israel, the coming of the Messiah, and the nature of the new Kingdom of God. In the process, he tells us part of the history of the world and the nature of the conflict of which the earth and its human inhabitants are the prize to be won. Isaiah is a great man! But it wasn't always that way.
He was just a simple man like you and me. He was a sinner looking forward to the saving Messiah, "sometime," and until the Messiah came he was prepared to offer his peace offerings to the God of Abraham in order to roll his sins back for another year. That all changed when God called him. And Isaiah's response to God's call was the moment that Isaiah ceased being a "simple sinner man" and became a "mighty man of God."
That event is the only thing that makes Isaiah different from you and me. He answered the call. Then again, you and I may have already answered the call of God. I know I have... several times, for the call of God is seldom a one-time event. And it is seldom static. When God finds a person willing to be used of Him, He continues to use that individual for many other events. The only two questions remaining for us are these: 1)have we heard the call, and 2)are we willing to say "Here am I, send me"? Amen and Amen.
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to?
Oh, sinner man, where you gonna run to all on that day?
Traditional Folk Song
I am positive that this is the way Isaiah felt when he saw the vision of the Lord. He wanted to hide. You and I would have wanted no less. Being in the presence of God would be a frightening event - and Isaiah knew more than anyone that he was a "sinner man"! He even recorded his thoughts for us to read nearly 2500 years later. "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." He was ready to die. He knew the consequences of seeing God. He knew it was death - it always had been. And it would have been this time except for one very important action. An angel flew to him and touched his lips with a burning coal taken from the altar of the Lord. The burning coal cleansed our budding prophet and made him fit for an audience with the King of Kings. (I'm certainly glad that I have been redeemed by the blood of the Messiah. I'm not sure I am ready to have my lips touched with a burning coal from anything!)
Isaiah made himself available when God called for someone to go for Him. "Here am I, send me." We know Isaiah as one of the "Major Prophets," the author of one of the most read of the Old Testament books. In his writings, he foretold the coming of the restoration of Israel, the coming of the Messiah, and the nature of the new Kingdom of God. In the process, he tells us part of the history of the world and the nature of the conflict of which the earth and its human inhabitants are the prize to be won. Isaiah is a great man! But it wasn't always that way.
He was just a simple man like you and me. He was a sinner looking forward to the saving Messiah, "sometime," and until the Messiah came he was prepared to offer his peace offerings to the God of Abraham in order to roll his sins back for another year. That all changed when God called him. And Isaiah's response to God's call was the moment that Isaiah ceased being a "simple sinner man" and became a "mighty man of God."
That event is the only thing that makes Isaiah different from you and me. He answered the call. Then again, you and I may have already answered the call of God. I know I have... several times, for the call of God is seldom a one-time event. And it is seldom static. When God finds a person willing to be used of Him, He continues to use that individual for many other events. The only two questions remaining for us are these: 1)have we heard the call, and 2)are we willing to say "Here am I, send me"? Amen and Amen.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Genesis 22:1-14 and John 3:13-17
"Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way you want us to go. Amen.
Many of the people I know or talk to have problems with the Old Testament reading which you heard this morning - the story of God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah.
It is a shocking story.
And people today, as in centuries gone by, have problems with it, problems with understanding it, problems with accepting it, problems with interpreting it.
Scholars have debated and marvelled over this story throughout the centuries, just as have ordinary people like you and I. Indeed the tale - told as a story about God and about Abraham and about God and you and I evokes for us all some very deep feelings.
Did God really ask Abraham to sacrifice his son upon an alter?
How could God ask that?
What kind of God would ask that?
The feelings that we have - they fuel our questions - our debate:
- Our sense of horror as Abraham sets on his trek - Isaac beside him.
- The awful suspense when, near to the end of that trek, we hear Isaac address his father, saying:
"Father, the fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And we hear Abraham respond with what seems to be an awful lie, saying, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
Our sense of relief when as the knife is about to descend - God speaks and stays Abraham's hands and indeed provides the sacrifice for the alter which Abraham has built.
A lot of feelings and a lot of thoughts are evoked by this story: thoughts and feelings about God and thoughts and feelings about Abraham.
What kind of Father was Abraham?
What kind of man could offer up his own son?
Should he really be held up as a model of faith for us all?
Powerful, potent, questions. Powerful, potent, feelings.
And yet consider. Consider in the midst of your thoughts and feelings the story for what is - for what it purports to be with it's opening line:
"After these things God tested Abraham."
We may not understand why God tested Abraham, but do we not understand that fact that tests come to us?
Do we not pray each day as Jesus taught us "and lead us not into temptation" - lead us not into the time of trial, but deliver us from evil?
What faith had this man - this man whose son came from God by a promise?
What faith had this man - who, as he leads that son towards what seems to be his certain death, says to him when asked about the lamb for the sacrifice - "God will provide"?
Would that we would never have this trial, this test. Would that no one would ever ask of us - in the name of God - to give up our children. But would that we would be like Abraham, able to trust God that far, that much; would that we would be like Abraham and be able to say: "God will provide."
But the story is not for me just about Abraham's faith It is about God and what God does.
In Abraham's giving up of his son, something marvellous happens. His son comes back to him. God provides the sacrifice - as Abraham tells Isaac he will.
We have no way of knowing just what Abraham meant by that comment he made to Isaac, what it is that Abraham expected to happen - or to not happen, but the fact is, that in this tale of Abraham, we see something new about God emerge.
We see a God unlike the gods of Abraham's neighbours - those gods who not only demanded the sacrifice of the first born from time to time, but who took the sacrifice and gave nothing back for it.
The God of Abraham provided the sacrifice. The God whom Jesus believed in did not let Abraham down. The God who was the father of Jesus showed that despite the awfulness of the
test he set Abraham, he was a God who could be trusted utterly.
The scripture says, "After all these things" - after all that Abraham and Sarah and Lot and his wife had experienced from the hand of God over many years, "God put Abraham to the test".
We don't know why. We may not approve of the kind of test it was. But in the midst of it - God provided.
The story of Abraham does not end with Isaac being restored however. For the God who asked Abraham to give up his son - and who then gave the son back to him, ends up giving up his own son, giving him up out of love for us - as Abraham was prepared to give up Isaac out of love for God.
And in the process of God giving up his son Jesus for us - something marvellous happens. His son comes back to him - as did Abraham's. He comes back to him and in coming back to him, brings to God all of us - each one of you here today.
God has provided.
The story of Abraham is the story of God. And it is our story.
The God of Jesus, who said "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" has provided - and will provide.
The God of Jesus, who said, "Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me" has provided and will provide.
Loving God more than we love ourselves - more than we love our family is not easy. Taking up a cross - it is not pleasant - it is work - indeed it is work unto death, but you have provided and will provide. And no other god does that.
God - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jesus, provides.
And more.
We see God do what no other god has done, what no idol, no demon, no power, that hold the misguided in thrall has done. We see God give up his own son rather than demand the sons of those who worship Him.
God provided the sacrifice for Abraham. And God provides the sacrifice for us as well. A sacrifice, made on our behalf - once and for all, forever.
That is part of the meaning of the table spread before us this morning. We celebrate God having provided the perfect sacrifice. We celebrate God giving back to us not only our children and their children after them, but God giving back to us the very life that we owe to him.
There is a mystery to God. A mystery to Christ. His suffering redeems our suffering and through him, our suffering also redeems the world.
People can talk and debate and argue about what God might or might not expect of us - they can go on for hours about how a loving God would never ask Abraham to give us Isaac - they can even cast doubt upon the necessity of Jesus dying upon the cross so that our sins might be forgiven.
They can and they will.
And much of the debate is good.
But good - or bad - the fundamental fact is that in the situation in which Abraham found himself - and in the situations in which we find ourselves- God has provided and will provide - now and forever.
My God is a mystery. But my God is a mystery of love. A mystery of love that calls me to give up all that I treasure - even myself - and then provides to me something that is such much better.
May your God be the same to you.
May your God be the God of Abraham and Isaac - the God of Jacob and of Jesus - both now - and forevermore. Amen
Many of the people I know or talk to have problems with the Old Testament reading which you heard this morning - the story of God testing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah.
It is a shocking story.
And people today, as in centuries gone by, have problems with it, problems with understanding it, problems with accepting it, problems with interpreting it.
Scholars have debated and marvelled over this story throughout the centuries, just as have ordinary people like you and I. Indeed the tale - told as a story about God and about Abraham and about God and you and I evokes for us all some very deep feelings.
Did God really ask Abraham to sacrifice his son upon an alter?
How could God ask that?
What kind of God would ask that?
The feelings that we have - they fuel our questions - our debate:
- Our sense of horror as Abraham sets on his trek - Isaac beside him.
- The awful suspense when, near to the end of that trek, we hear Isaac address his father, saying:
"Father, the fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And we hear Abraham respond with what seems to be an awful lie, saying, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
Our sense of relief when as the knife is about to descend - God speaks and stays Abraham's hands and indeed provides the sacrifice for the alter which Abraham has built.
A lot of feelings and a lot of thoughts are evoked by this story: thoughts and feelings about God and thoughts and feelings about Abraham.
What kind of Father was Abraham?
What kind of man could offer up his own son?
Should he really be held up as a model of faith for us all?
Powerful, potent, questions. Powerful, potent, feelings.
And yet consider. Consider in the midst of your thoughts and feelings the story for what is - for what it purports to be with it's opening line:
"After these things God tested Abraham."
We may not understand why God tested Abraham, but do we not understand that fact that tests come to us?
Do we not pray each day as Jesus taught us "and lead us not into temptation" - lead us not into the time of trial, but deliver us from evil?
What faith had this man - this man whose son came from God by a promise?
What faith had this man - who, as he leads that son towards what seems to be his certain death, says to him when asked about the lamb for the sacrifice - "God will provide"?
Would that we would never have this trial, this test. Would that no one would ever ask of us - in the name of God - to give up our children. But would that we would be like Abraham, able to trust God that far, that much; would that we would be like Abraham and be able to say: "God will provide."
But the story is not for me just about Abraham's faith It is about God and what God does.
In Abraham's giving up of his son, something marvellous happens. His son comes back to him. God provides the sacrifice - as Abraham tells Isaac he will.
We have no way of knowing just what Abraham meant by that comment he made to Isaac, what it is that Abraham expected to happen - or to not happen, but the fact is, that in this tale of Abraham, we see something new about God emerge.
We see a God unlike the gods of Abraham's neighbours - those gods who not only demanded the sacrifice of the first born from time to time, but who took the sacrifice and gave nothing back for it.
The God of Abraham provided the sacrifice. The God whom Jesus believed in did not let Abraham down. The God who was the father of Jesus showed that despite the awfulness of the
test he set Abraham, he was a God who could be trusted utterly.
The scripture says, "After all these things" - after all that Abraham and Sarah and Lot and his wife had experienced from the hand of God over many years, "God put Abraham to the test".
We don't know why. We may not approve of the kind of test it was. But in the midst of it - God provided.
The story of Abraham does not end with Isaac being restored however. For the God who asked Abraham to give up his son - and who then gave the son back to him, ends up giving up his own son, giving him up out of love for us - as Abraham was prepared to give up Isaac out of love for God.
And in the process of God giving up his son Jesus for us - something marvellous happens. His son comes back to him - as did Abraham's. He comes back to him and in coming back to him, brings to God all of us - each one of you here today.
God has provided.
The story of Abraham is the story of God. And it is our story.
The God of Jesus, who said "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" has provided - and will provide.
The God of Jesus, who said, "Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me" has provided and will provide.
Loving God more than we love ourselves - more than we love our family is not easy. Taking up a cross - it is not pleasant - it is work - indeed it is work unto death, but you have provided and will provide. And no other god does that.
God - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jesus, provides.
And more.
We see God do what no other god has done, what no idol, no demon, no power, that hold the misguided in thrall has done. We see God give up his own son rather than demand the sons of those who worship Him.
God provided the sacrifice for Abraham. And God provides the sacrifice for us as well. A sacrifice, made on our behalf - once and for all, forever.
That is part of the meaning of the table spread before us this morning. We celebrate God having provided the perfect sacrifice. We celebrate God giving back to us not only our children and their children after them, but God giving back to us the very life that we owe to him.
There is a mystery to God. A mystery to Christ. His suffering redeems our suffering and through him, our suffering also redeems the world.
People can talk and debate and argue about what God might or might not expect of us - they can go on for hours about how a loving God would never ask Abraham to give us Isaac - they can even cast doubt upon the necessity of Jesus dying upon the cross so that our sins might be forgiven.
They can and they will.
And much of the debate is good.
But good - or bad - the fundamental fact is that in the situation in which Abraham found himself - and in the situations in which we find ourselves- God has provided and will provide - now and forever.
My God is a mystery. But my God is a mystery of love. A mystery of love that calls me to give up all that I treasure - even myself - and then provides to me something that is such much better.
May your God be the same to you.
May your God be the God of Abraham and Isaac - the God of Jacob and of Jesus - both now - and forevermore. Amen
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Psalms 103:12
"As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us" Psalms 103:12
Something strange happens when we are forgiven. Though God forgets, we don't forgive ourselves. How often we think about our past sins. How frequently we pray, "God, I've sinned the same thing again!" All we are saying is that we haven't forgiven ourselves. We still have our eyes set upon our past. Don't get me wrong. It is not bad to look at the past. We must learn from our mistakes. We must realize how we got into the mess that caused us to "fall" into sin. If we don't, we are condemned to continually repeat our sins. The truth is that we must remember our past, but in remembering, we must grow beyond it.
The thing that is wrong is dwelling upon the sins of the past - continually feeling condemned because of those sins. After all, when you are forgiven, YOU ARE FORGIVEN! Get that? The psalmist says that God removes our sins "as far as the east is from the west." Think about it. Can you ever go so far east that there is no longer an east before us? Absolutely not! We can never come "full circle" and become reattached to our sins. Can't be done. Our problem is that we cling to them. Perhaps they are a crutch we think will help us hobble into God's ways. Maybe we hold to them as a lifeline - thinking that if this "God thing" doesn't work out that we can follow that line back to the old ways. We might even think that we need to punish ourselves by pondering what we were, constantly whipping our spiritual selves so that we can be forgiven. We may even think that we can straddle the fence and live a bit in both worlds. WE CAN'T!
It is time to realize that when God forgives us, we need to forgive ourselves and quit dragging up those sins. It is time that we understand that when we ask to be forgiven, the guilt is gone. Any further guilt we fell is not conviction which leads us to reconciliation with God, but is condemnation which comes to us from Satan and leads to eternal damnation.
If you've sinned, ask God to forgive knowing that He will. Then move on into the future knowing that God is your right hand, your strength, your salvation. All things past are forgiven. All things are made new. This day is like God's grace. It is new, fresh, and clean just waiting for us to make it into a good day! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Something strange happens when we are forgiven. Though God forgets, we don't forgive ourselves. How often we think about our past sins. How frequently we pray, "God, I've sinned the same thing again!" All we are saying is that we haven't forgiven ourselves. We still have our eyes set upon our past. Don't get me wrong. It is not bad to look at the past. We must learn from our mistakes. We must realize how we got into the mess that caused us to "fall" into sin. If we don't, we are condemned to continually repeat our sins. The truth is that we must remember our past, but in remembering, we must grow beyond it.
The thing that is wrong is dwelling upon the sins of the past - continually feeling condemned because of those sins. After all, when you are forgiven, YOU ARE FORGIVEN! Get that? The psalmist says that God removes our sins "as far as the east is from the west." Think about it. Can you ever go so far east that there is no longer an east before us? Absolutely not! We can never come "full circle" and become reattached to our sins. Can't be done. Our problem is that we cling to them. Perhaps they are a crutch we think will help us hobble into God's ways. Maybe we hold to them as a lifeline - thinking that if this "God thing" doesn't work out that we can follow that line back to the old ways. We might even think that we need to punish ourselves by pondering what we were, constantly whipping our spiritual selves so that we can be forgiven. We may even think that we can straddle the fence and live a bit in both worlds. WE CAN'T!
It is time to realize that when God forgives us, we need to forgive ourselves and quit dragging up those sins. It is time that we understand that when we ask to be forgiven, the guilt is gone. Any further guilt we fell is not conviction which leads us to reconciliation with God, but is condemnation which comes to us from Satan and leads to eternal damnation.
If you've sinned, ask God to forgive knowing that He will. Then move on into the future knowing that God is your right hand, your strength, your salvation. All things past are forgiven. All things are made new. This day is like God's grace. It is new, fresh, and clean just waiting for us to make it into a good day! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Psalm 103:13-14
"As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust" Psalm 103:13-14
Wouldn't it be a scary thing if our God was not compassionate? Could you imagine the fear we would live in if our God were mean like the false gods? You borrow a penny from your wife's purse without her knowing. Is it stealing? Will God strike you with lightning - or worse yet - a lingering fatal illness? You say an angry, hateful thing to your mother. Do you duck for fear of some celestial punishment? Talking about living in fear, that would do it.
Fortunately our God had great compassion on those of us who have a healthy fear of Him. That fear is a healthy respect for, not a breath wrong and you die type of fear. Because of this great love, we live in peace knowing that forgiveness is always available should we sin.
Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten that God can be a severe judge. We take for granted that He will love us no matter what. We have not seen an Ananias and Saphira type of incident in our churches lately. So what is there to fear. We can neither see God nor feel Him nor hear Him with an audible voice. This all gives rise to the question "Does he really exist? And even if He does, is He really interested in what I do? "Sure, we never really ask those questions. But we all too often live like we did. Think about it. What do you really think about God? Who is He really? What is your real relationship with Him? Do you really know Him? Do you really care about what He says? I urge you to honestly answer these questions. If you do, you may be surprised about how much you have to grow in your spiritual life. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Wouldn't it be a scary thing if our God was not compassionate? Could you imagine the fear we would live in if our God were mean like the false gods? You borrow a penny from your wife's purse without her knowing. Is it stealing? Will God strike you with lightning - or worse yet - a lingering fatal illness? You say an angry, hateful thing to your mother. Do you duck for fear of some celestial punishment? Talking about living in fear, that would do it.
Fortunately our God had great compassion on those of us who have a healthy fear of Him. That fear is a healthy respect for, not a breath wrong and you die type of fear. Because of this great love, we live in peace knowing that forgiveness is always available should we sin.
Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten that God can be a severe judge. We take for granted that He will love us no matter what. We have not seen an Ananias and Saphira type of incident in our churches lately. So what is there to fear. We can neither see God nor feel Him nor hear Him with an audible voice. This all gives rise to the question "Does he really exist? And even if He does, is He really interested in what I do? "Sure, we never really ask those questions. But we all too often live like we did. Think about it. What do you really think about God? Who is He really? What is your real relationship with Him? Do you really know Him? Do you really care about what He says? I urge you to honestly answer these questions. If you do, you may be surprised about how much you have to grow in your spiritual life. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Amos 5:4
"For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: "Seek Me and live" Amos 5:4
A question has been inside my head lately. I've thought a lot about it. I've asked others about it. I'll ask you about it. " OK, Pastor Edwin, what's the question?" Thought you would never ask. Here it is: "Who are you living for?"
To be honest, I have to say that I live a large part of my life for myself. I'm not proud of that fact. I'm rather ashamed, to be honest. If I were to add up the minutes of my day on a ledger with two columns the first being labeled "The Lord's Minutes" and the second "My Minutes" - well, come midnight, I don't really think I want to check the totals. I'm not trying to lay a guilt trip on myself or you or anyone else, but I do have to ask myself these questions:
1.. "How many minutes a day do I read my Bible?"
2.. "How many minutes a day do I pray?"
3.. "How many minutes a day do I share my faith with others?"
4.. "How many minutes a day do I thank the Lord for His kindness towards me?"
5.. "How many minutes a day do I sing His praises?"
6.. Then there are these questions: "How many minutes a day do I over eat?"
7.. "How many minutes a day do I think about what I want?"
8.. "How many minutes a day do I do what I want to do?"
9.. "How many minutes a day do I promote myself?"
Well, that's enough questions because they reveal too well that I tend to live for myself much more than I live for Jesus. What about you? Amen and Amen.
A question has been inside my head lately. I've thought a lot about it. I've asked others about it. I'll ask you about it. " OK, Pastor Edwin, what's the question?" Thought you would never ask. Here it is: "Who are you living for?"
To be honest, I have to say that I live a large part of my life for myself. I'm not proud of that fact. I'm rather ashamed, to be honest. If I were to add up the minutes of my day on a ledger with two columns the first being labeled "The Lord's Minutes" and the second "My Minutes" - well, come midnight, I don't really think I want to check the totals. I'm not trying to lay a guilt trip on myself or you or anyone else, but I do have to ask myself these questions:
1.. "How many minutes a day do I read my Bible?"
2.. "How many minutes a day do I pray?"
3.. "How many minutes a day do I share my faith with others?"
4.. "How many minutes a day do I thank the Lord for His kindness towards me?"
5.. "How many minutes a day do I sing His praises?"
6.. Then there are these questions: "How many minutes a day do I over eat?"
7.. "How many minutes a day do I think about what I want?"
8.. "How many minutes a day do I do what I want to do?"
9.. "How many minutes a day do I promote myself?"
Well, that's enough questions because they reveal too well that I tend to live for myself much more than I live for Jesus. What about you? Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Eccl 2:11
"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun" Eccl 2:11
Solomon was an amazing man. As a young leader, he renounced gold and power in favor of wisdom when God offered him a choice. He chose wisdom so he could lead his nation in right paths. He thus became the wisest man ever to live. In the process, he was granted both wealth and power. And what did he do with it?
Read the book of Ecclesiastes and you will certainly have your eyes opened! He squandered it all in search of pleasure. He had more wives than any man could enjoy. He topped that with concubines to serve his every wish. He amassed great wealth and spent it upon himself. He built beautiful cities as monuments to himself. He spread his influence around the known world - to draw attention to himself. All of this and more did he do - to please himself.
Near the end of his life, he penned the words to this revealing book. Multiple times he repeats some variation of today's verse. "All was vanity." There was no profit in it. It served no lasting purpose. After all. Where are all of Solomon's buildings? In ruins. And his military accomplishments? In dust. His great wealth? Gone with the wind. Even the majestic Temple he built as a dwelling place for God was destroyed, smashed to bits, plundered, and hauled away by Israel's enemies. In the end, Solomon realizes that all earthly things are "vanity."
The only thing that lasts is what a person does for God. Serve God. Live for Him. Spend all the energy you have in His service and you will be building up great treasures - not on earth, but in Heaven where it really counts! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Solomon was an amazing man. As a young leader, he renounced gold and power in favor of wisdom when God offered him a choice. He chose wisdom so he could lead his nation in right paths. He thus became the wisest man ever to live. In the process, he was granted both wealth and power. And what did he do with it?
Read the book of Ecclesiastes and you will certainly have your eyes opened! He squandered it all in search of pleasure. He had more wives than any man could enjoy. He topped that with concubines to serve his every wish. He amassed great wealth and spent it upon himself. He built beautiful cities as monuments to himself. He spread his influence around the known world - to draw attention to himself. All of this and more did he do - to please himself.
Near the end of his life, he penned the words to this revealing book. Multiple times he repeats some variation of today's verse. "All was vanity." There was no profit in it. It served no lasting purpose. After all. Where are all of Solomon's buildings? In ruins. And his military accomplishments? In dust. His great wealth? Gone with the wind. Even the majestic Temple he built as a dwelling place for God was destroyed, smashed to bits, plundered, and hauled away by Israel's enemies. In the end, Solomon realizes that all earthly things are "vanity."
The only thing that lasts is what a person does for God. Serve God. Live for Him. Spend all the energy you have in His service and you will be building up great treasures - not on earth, but in Heaven where it really counts! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
1 Peter 1:13
"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" 1 Peter 1:13
Do you want to win? Do you really want to win? Then you must train. No boxer will enter the ring without proper training. It would be suicide. So with us, if we want to win the important battles, we must train.
Fortunately, Peter gives us a training schedule - the things that need to be worked on the most if we expect to win. First, gird yourself for action. This involves putting on the proper garments - We need to be wearing the full armor of God. We must prepare our minds with the weapon of our warfare - the Word of God. We must allow it to flood our thoughts so that we may fight effectively with our best weapon.
Second, keep sober in spirit. This doesn't mean that we can't have fun. It means that while we go through our lives, we need to keep alert. Like a soldier on the field of battle, we must keep our spiritual eyes always open - always looking this way and that for sneak attacks from the enemy.
Third, fix your hope completely on the grace of Jesus. There is nothing more important than realizing that the battle is ours. No matter how out numbered, how under powered, how grim the vision is, our hope and our faith is to be in Jesus Christ. If we will keep that in mind at all times, we shall remain strong in Him. And the battle will be ours - we will WIN!
You say you have no vision of grace? Sure you do. It was given to you the day you accepted Jesus as your Savior. Remember it? Remember how clean and fresh you felt that day? It is still there. Look to it. Attach your hope to it. It is a lifeline that you will never consume - it will always be there. Follow these three steps and victory is assured. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Do you want to win? Do you really want to win? Then you must train. No boxer will enter the ring without proper training. It would be suicide. So with us, if we want to win the important battles, we must train.
Fortunately, Peter gives us a training schedule - the things that need to be worked on the most if we expect to win. First, gird yourself for action. This involves putting on the proper garments - We need to be wearing the full armor of God. We must prepare our minds with the weapon of our warfare - the Word of God. We must allow it to flood our thoughts so that we may fight effectively with our best weapon.
Second, keep sober in spirit. This doesn't mean that we can't have fun. It means that while we go through our lives, we need to keep alert. Like a soldier on the field of battle, we must keep our spiritual eyes always open - always looking this way and that for sneak attacks from the enemy.
Third, fix your hope completely on the grace of Jesus. There is nothing more important than realizing that the battle is ours. No matter how out numbered, how under powered, how grim the vision is, our hope and our faith is to be in Jesus Christ. If we will keep that in mind at all times, we shall remain strong in Him. And the battle will be ours - we will WIN!
You say you have no vision of grace? Sure you do. It was given to you the day you accepted Jesus as your Savior. Remember it? Remember how clean and fresh you felt that day? It is still there. Look to it. Attach your hope to it. It is a lifeline that you will never consume - it will always be there. Follow these three steps and victory is assured. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Psalm. 57:1
"Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by" Psalm. 57:1
We've probably all watched a mother and father bird bring food to their young as they cry for nourishment in the nest. I had, as there is a pair of swallows on our veranda. The parent creatures always seem to care more for their young than they do for themselves.
On the other hand, turtles given no concern for their young. After mating, the female will dig a hole in the mud, lay her eggs, cover them with a mound of sticks, mud, and/or sand... and waddle away never to see her young hatch. Fortunately for us, God is not like the turtle. He even describes Himself in terms of winged fowl. God has wings!
That's what David says in today's verse. "... in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge ...." What a perfect picture of protection. David wrote this psalm after he fled from Saul. In particular, it was after David had hidden in a cave to elude his pursuer only to watch Saul enter the mouth of the cave and use it for his personal restroom. He was so close to David that our young hero took his knife and cut a piece off the hem of Saul's cloak!
David realized that he was not hiding in the cave. It was not the darkness that protected him. It was not his wit that kept him from harm. David realized it was the protection of God that hid him from the clutches of a deranged king. "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, For my soul takes refuge in You ..." David realized there was only one hiding place for the soul - in the presence of God.
Most of us are just "chicks" in this world. The term is not used in relationship to "age." It is used in relationship to our ability to take care of ourselves. Oh, we try. We gain great amounts of knowledge and think we have something. We achieve great heights in our field of expertise and believe we have climbed a great mountain and have acquired greatness. We work hard and retire with sufficient wealth to live the remainder of our years in comfort and leave some for the kids, and we feel that this is what life is all about. But we are just fooling ourselves. We cannot work out anything of lasting value. Where is our wealth when we die? Where is our success in business, or education? Are we remembered a generation or two after our death by anyone other than a random great grandchild? Few of us are.
No, our measure of success is determined by what lasts for eternity. What have we done for Jesus? What have we accomplished for God? How have we allowed the Holy Spirit to lead us? Those are the questions we must ask. And the answer always returns, we are nothing ... except for God. And when the times really became rough, we hide in the shadow of His wings. As Twila Paris wrote: "They don't know that I go running home when I fall down, they don't know who picks me up when no one is around; I drop my sword and cry for just awhile. 'Cause deep inside this armor the warrior is a child." Amen and Amen.
We've probably all watched a mother and father bird bring food to their young as they cry for nourishment in the nest. I had, as there is a pair of swallows on our veranda. The parent creatures always seem to care more for their young than they do for themselves.
On the other hand, turtles given no concern for their young. After mating, the female will dig a hole in the mud, lay her eggs, cover them with a mound of sticks, mud, and/or sand... and waddle away never to see her young hatch. Fortunately for us, God is not like the turtle. He even describes Himself in terms of winged fowl. God has wings!
That's what David says in today's verse. "... in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge ...." What a perfect picture of protection. David wrote this psalm after he fled from Saul. In particular, it was after David had hidden in a cave to elude his pursuer only to watch Saul enter the mouth of the cave and use it for his personal restroom. He was so close to David that our young hero took his knife and cut a piece off the hem of Saul's cloak!
David realized that he was not hiding in the cave. It was not the darkness that protected him. It was not his wit that kept him from harm. David realized it was the protection of God that hid him from the clutches of a deranged king. "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, For my soul takes refuge in You ..." David realized there was only one hiding place for the soul - in the presence of God.
Most of us are just "chicks" in this world. The term is not used in relationship to "age." It is used in relationship to our ability to take care of ourselves. Oh, we try. We gain great amounts of knowledge and think we have something. We achieve great heights in our field of expertise and believe we have climbed a great mountain and have acquired greatness. We work hard and retire with sufficient wealth to live the remainder of our years in comfort and leave some for the kids, and we feel that this is what life is all about. But we are just fooling ourselves. We cannot work out anything of lasting value. Where is our wealth when we die? Where is our success in business, or education? Are we remembered a generation or two after our death by anyone other than a random great grandchild? Few of us are.
No, our measure of success is determined by what lasts for eternity. What have we done for Jesus? What have we accomplished for God? How have we allowed the Holy Spirit to lead us? Those are the questions we must ask. And the answer always returns, we are nothing ... except for God. And when the times really became rough, we hide in the shadow of His wings. As Twila Paris wrote: "They don't know that I go running home when I fall down, they don't know who picks me up when no one is around; I drop my sword and cry for just awhile. 'Cause deep inside this armor the warrior is a child." Amen and Amen.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Genesis 1:1 - 2:4; Romans 1:16-23; Matthew 28:16-20
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday - the first Sunday after Pentecost a time of year that Popes and Bishops, Councils and Synods, Preachers, Pastors and Teachers have, for more years than this church has existed thought it good and wise to remind the millions of seekers - the millions of faithful - for whom they care - that God is a mystery which is best understood in three ways:
As creator - or Father
as redeemer - or Son
and as sustainer - or Spirit.
God is one. Yet God is three.
God is here. Yet God is everywhere.
God is mighty. Yet God is tender.
God is just. Yet God has mercy.
God is spirit. Yet God takes on flesh.
God is in Christ. Christ is in Us.
God is Spirit and the Spirit blows where it wills.
Yet the Spirit abides in our hearts.
God is one. Yet God is three.
The Apostle Paul writes this about God
"Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made."
When you go outside after this worship time, take a little bit more time to worship - look at the bark of an old tree, at the greening fields, the scudding clouds, the running waters,
and give thanks - to the power - to the grace - to the beauty that made it all.
You know and understand what I saying - that's why you're here, because God is - and God is good, and you want to remind yourselves of that - and share and celebrate that truth with your brothers and sisters in God and before God.
But there are others, and they are many, who stop just there - with the clouds and the trees - with the land and the sea and the creatures that inhabit them, and while they get a spiritual message from them - they don't get the same message of goodness and of beauty that we do - we who know God is One, Yet God is three.
Paul writes that although they know God from what has been made:
"they neither glorify him as God nor give thanks to him, but their thinking becomes futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. Although they claim to be wise they become fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
My friends - the truth of creation is that there is more to it than meets our eye, that there is a design and purpose that is greater than the sum of the parts that we see around us.
God most surely is.
And God is good.
But there is more yet. More ways of experiencing the mystery that is God, more ways of understanding than that which regarding God as the creator can give to us.
God is One, Yet God is Three
Last week we celebrated the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon the followers of Jesus the Christ. We celebrated that presence - that force - that all of us here have experienced that power, that person, who gives shape to much that we see and hear, what we do and say.
Just as only a few weeks earlier we celebrated the resurrection of a man who is somehow more than a man, one who was a child of promise - one whom our minds and our hearts tell us was more than a good person - more than a saint - more even than an angel - and yet - was so much one of us.
Jesus our teacher and guide - our shepherd and our friend. Jesus our Lord, and our God.
God the creator, God the redeemer, God the sustainer.
God is One, Yet God is Three.
It is our experience is it not.
For me the Trinity is something like atomic theory. We all learned in school that everything in the universe is made up of atoms, which are themselves made up of tiny particles called protons, neutrons and electrons. That protons and neutrons together make up a nucleus, and that the electrons orbit around this nucleus sort of like the planets in our solar system orbit around the sun.
But there is no scientist who really believes that this simple model fully explains the substance of matter. Nuclear physics is much more complex - so much so quantum mechanics asserts that we can create things by simply observing them into existence. The most educated physicist will tell you we will probably never know everything about atoms and subatomic particles. The atomic theory is just a model that explains something about how atoms work. It doesn't tell everything about what they are.
So it is with the Trinity. The idea of the Trinity tells us something about how God is revealed to us, how God works in human events. But it doesn't fully tell us WHO or WHAT God is. And I guess that is the secret of this experience we have of God - this understanding we have of God as a trinity - it doesn't tell us fully - but it tells us some important stuff none-the-less. Life changing stuff.
How much better an understanding, than none - or worse, a misunderstanding, a view that leaves a person in a situation like which Paul describes when he writes:
"claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles."
You know sometimes you just have to celebrate the faith we have. And yes - the doctrine we have. The understanding we have of the God that made it all. The understanding we have of how it all works.
The story is told about a young medical student who spent his summer vacation working as a butcher in a large supermarket during the daytime and worked as an orderly at the local community hospital at night.
Both jobs involved his wearing a white smock. One evening he was instructed to wheel a woman from her room down into surgery. He entered the patient's room and said, "Mrs. Johnson, I have come to take you to surgery." The woman, who was already frightened turned to her husband and said, "Harry, don't let him take me. It's the butcher!"
Mistaken identity can be a real problem.
That is why we as Christians ascribe to the doctrine of the Trinity. It helps us to identify God.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a mathematical puzzle or an academic formula for theologians to debate - as they have done for so many centuries.
Instead, it is a belief born out of the experience of ordinary Christians as a real life answer to the question, "Where do we find God?"
It is an answer that we believe God has given us - God has made God's self know to us in three unique ways, that there is only one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
One God who is Loving, Just, Holy, Intimate, Powerful, Wrathful, Forgiving, Life Itself, Light. And More.
Think of the words of Psalm 8 that we read this morning.
"When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that youare mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"
Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honour. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet.
It is incredible is it not. And don't our hearts echo the truth of these words even as we understand and applaud the story of creation itself: "O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
God is one, yet God is three.
God is a mystery my friends - a mystery so big, so awesome, so holy that our limited minds can never grasp the wholeness of it. Yet God has placed in us a capacity to appreciate and know the mystery that God. And more. God has taken on flesh in our midst.
In Christ, God reveals himself. In Christ God became Incarnate.
I tell you my friends, without this one, without this revelation of God whom we call the Jesus the Christ - you and I would not have the promises nor would we have the inheritance to come
Jesus is the one who reveals the way to us, the one who speaks the truth to us, the one who gives life by his touch and by his word. Jesus in the one who died and who rose again. Jesus shows us the way - and is the way. Jesus is the child of Mary. Jesus is the child of God. In him the fullness of deity dwells.
God is One, yet God is three.
We have - in God - the three in one - and one in three - something that is very precious. We have the gospel - the good news - of the salvation that is for all humankind.
We have the message concerning God's love and his desire to grant wholeness to all his children.
We have a light that shines into the darkness of human hearts and brings healing - a light that shines forth from thence into the life of all those around.
It has seemed good to hundreds of generations of our Spiritual Ancestors to remember this truth on this day of the year in a particular and special way.
And so we do today.
We remember Jesus' own words, the words he spoke shortly before his ascension into heaven, when he said to his followers
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
We remember - and we go forth - not simply because it has been commanded, but because as Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans - "In the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed".
Blessed be the name of God. Day by Day. Day by Day. Amen
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday - the first Sunday after Pentecost a time of year that Popes and Bishops, Councils and Synods, Preachers, Pastors and Teachers have, for more years than this church has existed thought it good and wise to remind the millions of seekers - the millions of faithful - for whom they care - that God is a mystery which is best understood in three ways:
As creator - or Father
as redeemer - or Son
and as sustainer - or Spirit.
God is one. Yet God is three.
God is here. Yet God is everywhere.
God is mighty. Yet God is tender.
God is just. Yet God has mercy.
God is spirit. Yet God takes on flesh.
God is in Christ. Christ is in Us.
God is Spirit and the Spirit blows where it wills.
Yet the Spirit abides in our hearts.
God is one. Yet God is three.
The Apostle Paul writes this about God
"Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made."
When you go outside after this worship time, take a little bit more time to worship - look at the bark of an old tree, at the greening fields, the scudding clouds, the running waters,
and give thanks - to the power - to the grace - to the beauty that made it all.
You know and understand what I saying - that's why you're here, because God is - and God is good, and you want to remind yourselves of that - and share and celebrate that truth with your brothers and sisters in God and before God.
But there are others, and they are many, who stop just there - with the clouds and the trees - with the land and the sea and the creatures that inhabit them, and while they get a spiritual message from them - they don't get the same message of goodness and of beauty that we do - we who know God is One, Yet God is three.
Paul writes that although they know God from what has been made:
"they neither glorify him as God nor give thanks to him, but their thinking becomes futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. Although they claim to be wise they become fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
My friends - the truth of creation is that there is more to it than meets our eye, that there is a design and purpose that is greater than the sum of the parts that we see around us.
God most surely is.
And God is good.
But there is more yet. More ways of experiencing the mystery that is God, more ways of understanding than that which regarding God as the creator can give to us.
God is One, Yet God is Three
Last week we celebrated the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon the followers of Jesus the Christ. We celebrated that presence - that force - that all of us here have experienced that power, that person, who gives shape to much that we see and hear, what we do and say.
Just as only a few weeks earlier we celebrated the resurrection of a man who is somehow more than a man, one who was a child of promise - one whom our minds and our hearts tell us was more than a good person - more than a saint - more even than an angel - and yet - was so much one of us.
Jesus our teacher and guide - our shepherd and our friend. Jesus our Lord, and our God.
God the creator, God the redeemer, God the sustainer.
God is One, Yet God is Three.
It is our experience is it not.
For me the Trinity is something like atomic theory. We all learned in school that everything in the universe is made up of atoms, which are themselves made up of tiny particles called protons, neutrons and electrons. That protons and neutrons together make up a nucleus, and that the electrons orbit around this nucleus sort of like the planets in our solar system orbit around the sun.
But there is no scientist who really believes that this simple model fully explains the substance of matter. Nuclear physics is much more complex - so much so quantum mechanics asserts that we can create things by simply observing them into existence. The most educated physicist will tell you we will probably never know everything about atoms and subatomic particles. The atomic theory is just a model that explains something about how atoms work. It doesn't tell everything about what they are.
So it is with the Trinity. The idea of the Trinity tells us something about how God is revealed to us, how God works in human events. But it doesn't fully tell us WHO or WHAT God is. And I guess that is the secret of this experience we have of God - this understanding we have of God as a trinity - it doesn't tell us fully - but it tells us some important stuff none-the-less. Life changing stuff.
How much better an understanding, than none - or worse, a misunderstanding, a view that leaves a person in a situation like which Paul describes when he writes:
"claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles."
You know sometimes you just have to celebrate the faith we have. And yes - the doctrine we have. The understanding we have of the God that made it all. The understanding we have of how it all works.
The story is told about a young medical student who spent his summer vacation working as a butcher in a large supermarket during the daytime and worked as an orderly at the local community hospital at night.
Both jobs involved his wearing a white smock. One evening he was instructed to wheel a woman from her room down into surgery. He entered the patient's room and said, "Mrs. Johnson, I have come to take you to surgery." The woman, who was already frightened turned to her husband and said, "Harry, don't let him take me. It's the butcher!"
Mistaken identity can be a real problem.
That is why we as Christians ascribe to the doctrine of the Trinity. It helps us to identify God.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not a mathematical puzzle or an academic formula for theologians to debate - as they have done for so many centuries.
Instead, it is a belief born out of the experience of ordinary Christians as a real life answer to the question, "Where do we find God?"
It is an answer that we believe God has given us - God has made God's self know to us in three unique ways, that there is only one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
One God who is Loving, Just, Holy, Intimate, Powerful, Wrathful, Forgiving, Life Itself, Light. And More.
Think of the words of Psalm 8 that we read this morning.
"When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that youare mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"
Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honour. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet.
It is incredible is it not. And don't our hearts echo the truth of these words even as we understand and applaud the story of creation itself: "O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
God is one, yet God is three.
God is a mystery my friends - a mystery so big, so awesome, so holy that our limited minds can never grasp the wholeness of it. Yet God has placed in us a capacity to appreciate and know the mystery that God. And more. God has taken on flesh in our midst.
In Christ, God reveals himself. In Christ God became Incarnate.
I tell you my friends, without this one, without this revelation of God whom we call the Jesus the Christ - you and I would not have the promises nor would we have the inheritance to come
Jesus is the one who reveals the way to us, the one who speaks the truth to us, the one who gives life by his touch and by his word. Jesus in the one who died and who rose again. Jesus shows us the way - and is the way. Jesus is the child of Mary. Jesus is the child of God. In him the fullness of deity dwells.
God is One, yet God is three.
We have - in God - the three in one - and one in three - something that is very precious. We have the gospel - the good news - of the salvation that is for all humankind.
We have the message concerning God's love and his desire to grant wholeness to all his children.
We have a light that shines into the darkness of human hearts and brings healing - a light that shines forth from thence into the life of all those around.
It has seemed good to hundreds of generations of our Spiritual Ancestors to remember this truth on this day of the year in a particular and special way.
And so we do today.
We remember Jesus' own words, the words he spoke shortly before his ascension into heaven, when he said to his followers
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
We remember - and we go forth - not simply because it has been commanded, but because as Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans - "In the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed".
Blessed be the name of God. Day by Day. Day by Day. Amen
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Psalm 81:7
"You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah." Psalm 81:7
It's scary! It's a disease that most men have. It seldom seems to strike women, and little children are totally immune to the infection. The disease is known by its scientific name,
"Honeyicantseemtofinditanywhere."
Women, you know what I mean. I can put something down and return to pick it up in ten minutes - and it is gone. After careful non-scientific analysis and observation, I have come to the conclusion that what I am looking for is not what I see. I may be looking for my wallet - black, flat, about 3-4 inches square. But, if I have placed my wallet on the nightstand and it slides off an item there and lands - in plain sight - on its side on the nightstand top, I can't find it. It is there, totally visible, but I am looking for a flat, black, square not a black item about 3-4 inches LONG and a half inch thick! Carmel walks in after my frantic, fifteen-minute search and finds it in ten seconds. How does she do that?
Sherlock Holmes, in one of his masterful mysteries, finds a stolen letter that has eluded the meticulous and repeated searching of Scotland Yard - and he does it in one short visit to the perpetrator's home. That's right. It was hidden in plain sight. The obvious is often overlooked.
Asaph, in today's verse, tells us that God sometimes hides us in a place we will never recognize: "in the secret place of thunder..." In a different Daily Word, I discussed the way God hides us FROM the storm. Today we see that we can be hidden IN the storm.
"That's crazy!" I can hear you already. "Why would God hide us in the middle of the storm? I need protection from it and God puts me IN it?"
Can you think of a better place to hide? Who in his right mind would hide from the storm IN the storm? Oh, but God has a purpose. He uses the storm to make us strong. When we are vulnerable, we learn to trust the Father. That total trust, that total confidence in the Father is something that will serve us well in coming adventures. But that trust is not learned in the comfort of our living rooms. We don't develop it in the pew on Sunday morning. We will never grasp this gift if we are always in our "comfort zone". No, we learn trust when we have no other choice - in the storm.
Asaph continues by telling us that God tests us "at the waters of Meribah." Meribah means "place of strife". In that place where trouble seems to be all around us, God proved us, He tried us, He strengthened us. You see; God never promised us a life of ease and luxury. What He did promise is that He would "be with us always." When we are in the midst of great trials and tribulations, instead of asking God to deliver us, we should ask the Father to teach us and make us strong! He gives us refuge in the storm for that very reason. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
It's scary! It's a disease that most men have. It seldom seems to strike women, and little children are totally immune to the infection. The disease is known by its scientific name,
"Honeyicantseemtofinditanywhere."
Women, you know what I mean. I can put something down and return to pick it up in ten minutes - and it is gone. After careful non-scientific analysis and observation, I have come to the conclusion that what I am looking for is not what I see. I may be looking for my wallet - black, flat, about 3-4 inches square. But, if I have placed my wallet on the nightstand and it slides off an item there and lands - in plain sight - on its side on the nightstand top, I can't find it. It is there, totally visible, but I am looking for a flat, black, square not a black item about 3-4 inches LONG and a half inch thick! Carmel walks in after my frantic, fifteen-minute search and finds it in ten seconds. How does she do that?
Sherlock Holmes, in one of his masterful mysteries, finds a stolen letter that has eluded the meticulous and repeated searching of Scotland Yard - and he does it in one short visit to the perpetrator's home. That's right. It was hidden in plain sight. The obvious is often overlooked.
Asaph, in today's verse, tells us that God sometimes hides us in a place we will never recognize: "in the secret place of thunder..." In a different Daily Word, I discussed the way God hides us FROM the storm. Today we see that we can be hidden IN the storm.
"That's crazy!" I can hear you already. "Why would God hide us in the middle of the storm? I need protection from it and God puts me IN it?"
Can you think of a better place to hide? Who in his right mind would hide from the storm IN the storm? Oh, but God has a purpose. He uses the storm to make us strong. When we are vulnerable, we learn to trust the Father. That total trust, that total confidence in the Father is something that will serve us well in coming adventures. But that trust is not learned in the comfort of our living rooms. We don't develop it in the pew on Sunday morning. We will never grasp this gift if we are always in our "comfort zone". No, we learn trust when we have no other choice - in the storm.
Asaph continues by telling us that God tests us "at the waters of Meribah." Meribah means "place of strife". In that place where trouble seems to be all around us, God proved us, He tried us, He strengthened us. You see; God never promised us a life of ease and luxury. What He did promise is that He would "be with us always." When we are in the midst of great trials and tribulations, instead of asking God to deliver us, we should ask the Father to teach us and make us strong! He gives us refuge in the storm for that very reason. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Friday, June 17, 2011
1 Peter 1:8-9
"Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls" 1 Peter 1:8-9
"Stop it!" she cried indignantly. "I will not do that! Now go away and leave me alone." Silently, ashamedly, dejectedly, the interloper backs out of the door, but a smirk crosses his face as he turns to leave, "I may go now, but rest assured, I will return." He whirls and saunters down the hallway to the bank of elevators.
The struggle this woman faced is one we face every day...the trying of our faith. It may have been a perverted temptation that caused our heroine to cringe. It could have been the temptation to lie or steal or cheat or speak falsely, but she was victorious... this time. Will she be equally firm when temptation visits again? She did the right thing. She stood firm. She denied the tempter entrance into her domain. How long can she hold out for surely the visitor will return again ... and again ... and again? If she continually turns her back on the fatal attraction, she will find her faith and her resolve strengthened and the accuser will visit less frequently. But he will use the time to devise more subtle temptations. Will she be in tune with her God enough to see the new attempts and flee from them?
Ah, the troubles and trials of the believer in Jesus. Have you ever wondered why God doesn't save people, let them preach in their new found zeal for a few months, then "take them home"? I have. Many of the people I have ministered to in the past have. It is not an uncommon thought - one that often comes to us after a failure. That's when I ask "why?" We don't like to fail. We don't enjoy falling. When we sin, we feel miserable wondering if we will ever "get it right." Those are times when our faith is tested. Those are times when we must dig deep into our spiritual reserves and find the strength to start over again. We all struggle with temptation. We all stumble from time to time. We all fail to meet God's expectations... that is what sin is.
The difference is this: God forgives and forgets; we degrade ourselves and ponder the nature of our sinful lives. It isn't God who condemns us. He forgives. It isn't the Holy Spirit that makes us feel like failures. His lifts us up and leads us into righteousness. We are the ones who cast condemnation upon ourselves because we listen to the accuser of our souls. The accuser would have us cast ourselves upon the spear of blame and impale ourselves condemned to die in the lost condition from which God redeemed us through Jesus Christ.
The object, the goal, of our faith is salvation. We need to take our sight off of our failures and focus on the beaming face of God as He sees us, as He wants us to be - perfect. And if He sees us whole and blameless, we must believe that, that is what we are through the blood of Jesus. In this way our faith is made whole and strong and perfect and we are victorious. Amen and Amen.
"Stop it!" she cried indignantly. "I will not do that! Now go away and leave me alone." Silently, ashamedly, dejectedly, the interloper backs out of the door, but a smirk crosses his face as he turns to leave, "I may go now, but rest assured, I will return." He whirls and saunters down the hallway to the bank of elevators.
The struggle this woman faced is one we face every day...the trying of our faith. It may have been a perverted temptation that caused our heroine to cringe. It could have been the temptation to lie or steal or cheat or speak falsely, but she was victorious... this time. Will she be equally firm when temptation visits again? She did the right thing. She stood firm. She denied the tempter entrance into her domain. How long can she hold out for surely the visitor will return again ... and again ... and again? If she continually turns her back on the fatal attraction, she will find her faith and her resolve strengthened and the accuser will visit less frequently. But he will use the time to devise more subtle temptations. Will she be in tune with her God enough to see the new attempts and flee from them?
Ah, the troubles and trials of the believer in Jesus. Have you ever wondered why God doesn't save people, let them preach in their new found zeal for a few months, then "take them home"? I have. Many of the people I have ministered to in the past have. It is not an uncommon thought - one that often comes to us after a failure. That's when I ask "why?" We don't like to fail. We don't enjoy falling. When we sin, we feel miserable wondering if we will ever "get it right." Those are times when our faith is tested. Those are times when we must dig deep into our spiritual reserves and find the strength to start over again. We all struggle with temptation. We all stumble from time to time. We all fail to meet God's expectations... that is what sin is.
The difference is this: God forgives and forgets; we degrade ourselves and ponder the nature of our sinful lives. It isn't God who condemns us. He forgives. It isn't the Holy Spirit that makes us feel like failures. His lifts us up and leads us into righteousness. We are the ones who cast condemnation upon ourselves because we listen to the accuser of our souls. The accuser would have us cast ourselves upon the spear of blame and impale ourselves condemned to die in the lost condition from which God redeemed us through Jesus Christ.
The object, the goal, of our faith is salvation. We need to take our sight off of our failures and focus on the beaming face of God as He sees us, as He wants us to be - perfect. And if He sees us whole and blameless, we must believe that, that is what we are through the blood of Jesus. In this way our faith is made whole and strong and perfect and we are victorious. Amen and Amen.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Prov. 22:17-18
"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your heart to my knowledge; For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; Let them all be fixed upon your lips" Prov. 22:17-18
Our elders used to say, "Be careful what you say, you may have to eat your words." At least twice in the Bible prophets had to eat a scroll or book. Ezekiel had to eat a scroll in Chapter 3 of his book. John ate a book in Revelation 10. In both cases the word was the Word of God. Also in both cases the taste was like honey - sweet. However, John's book gave him a stomach ache! I have had to eat my words - and they didn't taste like honey either. Few of us like to admit that we said something that was wrong. Another proverb tells us that it is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open our mouths and prove it!
I admit. I used to be a know-it-all. (Carmel, hush. Don't you dare tell them that I still am!) OK, she is right. But at least I try to keep my knowledge to myself unless it is asked for. It is times when I open my mouth and volunteer my "wisdom" that I get into trouble.
Solomon has a bit of wisdom for us. If we will listen to his advice, and if we will seek knowledge, and if we keep his advice, it will be pleasant for us. I don't know about you, but that kind of struck home with me. Solomon was, and is, the wisest man to ever live. Why don't I read more of his words? Proverbs is not on my favorite reading list. There are some who read a chapter of Proverbs every day - there are thirty-one chapters and about half of the time there are thirty-one days. That makes for a nice combination. But it has been years until now that I have read the whole book. I sometimes pick and choose what I want to read from Solomon's little book of wisdom. We should all read Proverbs. That way we would be getting some of the wisdom that Solomon has to offer us. Amen and Amen.
Our elders used to say, "Be careful what you say, you may have to eat your words." At least twice in the Bible prophets had to eat a scroll or book. Ezekiel had to eat a scroll in Chapter 3 of his book. John ate a book in Revelation 10. In both cases the word was the Word of God. Also in both cases the taste was like honey - sweet. However, John's book gave him a stomach ache! I have had to eat my words - and they didn't taste like honey either. Few of us like to admit that we said something that was wrong. Another proverb tells us that it is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open our mouths and prove it!
I admit. I used to be a know-it-all. (Carmel, hush. Don't you dare tell them that I still am!) OK, she is right. But at least I try to keep my knowledge to myself unless it is asked for. It is times when I open my mouth and volunteer my "wisdom" that I get into trouble.
Solomon has a bit of wisdom for us. If we will listen to his advice, and if we will seek knowledge, and if we keep his advice, it will be pleasant for us. I don't know about you, but that kind of struck home with me. Solomon was, and is, the wisest man to ever live. Why don't I read more of his words? Proverbs is not on my favorite reading list. There are some who read a chapter of Proverbs every day - there are thirty-one chapters and about half of the time there are thirty-one days. That makes for a nice combination. But it has been years until now that I have read the whole book. I sometimes pick and choose what I want to read from Solomon's little book of wisdom. We should all read Proverbs. That way we would be getting some of the wisdom that Solomon has to offer us. Amen and Amen.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Phil 3:20-21
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." Phil 3:20-21
I've said it before and I'll say it again. We cling far too hard to this life. We all claim to want to go to heaven - but not today! We become ill with a possibly terminal disease - and we fight it with all our resources. We want to stay alive. Why?
There is the need of family and responsibilities. We want our children to grow up with a mother and a father - and that is good. We want to make sure our children and grand-children are able to go through university if they want to - and that is good.
There is the need of excitement. I don't know what life has to offer tomorrow, but I want to try it. I've not done all the things I want to do yet. I haven't tried sky diving, or bungy jumping. I haven't seen Spain, or Greece, or Israel. I haven't even been to Singapore, although it is not too far from Hong Kong.
There is the need of fulfillment. I don't think my life is finished. There is still a lot of work to do. I have a house to build, a boat to buy, a job to finish. We could even be spiritual - I haven't had time to become a missionary yet. I haven't preached the perfect sermon yet. I haven't . . . and the list could go on and on and on.
The simple fact is this: if we didn't cling so hard to this life and all its needs, and clung instead to God, maybe we would be living life fuller. We have our life mapped out. But don't you think that God could map you a more exciting route? I suspect He could - and would if we let Him. We want so much to get from point A in our lives to point B, that we forget that God may have some special things for us along the way. If we will let Him be our guide, if we will claim our citizenship in Heaven instead of on earth, if we won't cling so hard to this life, then God will make our lives much richer than we could ever dream possible. And all that stuff that keeps us on earth? It is nothing compared to what God has in store. The BEST is yet to come. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. We cling far too hard to this life. We all claim to want to go to heaven - but not today! We become ill with a possibly terminal disease - and we fight it with all our resources. We want to stay alive. Why?
There is the need of family and responsibilities. We want our children to grow up with a mother and a father - and that is good. We want to make sure our children and grand-children are able to go through university if they want to - and that is good.
There is the need of excitement. I don't know what life has to offer tomorrow, but I want to try it. I've not done all the things I want to do yet. I haven't tried sky diving, or bungy jumping. I haven't seen Spain, or Greece, or Israel. I haven't even been to Singapore, although it is not too far from Hong Kong.
There is the need of fulfillment. I don't think my life is finished. There is still a lot of work to do. I have a house to build, a boat to buy, a job to finish. We could even be spiritual - I haven't had time to become a missionary yet. I haven't preached the perfect sermon yet. I haven't . . . and the list could go on and on and on.
The simple fact is this: if we didn't cling so hard to this life and all its needs, and clung instead to God, maybe we would be living life fuller. We have our life mapped out. But don't you think that God could map you a more exciting route? I suspect He could - and would if we let Him. We want so much to get from point A in our lives to point B, that we forget that God may have some special things for us along the way. If we will let Him be our guide, if we will claim our citizenship in Heaven instead of on earth, if we won't cling so hard to this life, then God will make our lives much richer than we could ever dream possible. And all that stuff that keeps us on earth? It is nothing compared to what God has in store. The BEST is yet to come. Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
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