The call of God captivated Abram, who became the father of the faithful, and he became consumed by one reality. Hebrews 11:10 says, "he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." All of life for Abram was redefined by the magnitude of the call and the promise of God, and his destiny was changed forever.

We Christians say we are people of God. We have placed our faith in Jesus and we are staking our lives on the fact that He is who He says He is. We live on a premise which says, "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6). We built an altar somewhere in our lives and said that for the rest of our lives we would live for God and God alone, and that we would seek to please Him by the exercising of our faith in Him.

At some point in our lives we trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, and we stepped over into a realm of living where God and His ways became profoundly important to us.

At some point in our lives we "obeyed a noble impulse" and took "one step" of faith (John Henry Jowett, My Daily Meditation: January 1 reading), and that step has led to an incredible and wonderful life of relationship with God.

I've walked with Jesus for a while now, and I'm still growing in what it means to live by faith. When I came to be pastor here at Bresee, I began by praying, "God, what are you going to do here?" Through the days and months and years, now, I’ve discovered that God would most likely not answer that prayer. Rather, step-by-step along the way He would show us WHO HE IS. He would place His hands on us and guide us. And, as John Jowett says, "That is enough, just to feel the pressure of the guiding hand."

THAT IS ENOUGH, ISN’T IT, JUST TO FEEL THE PRESSURE OF THE GUIDING HAND. AMEN!

Having celebrated the birth of God into human history, we now have the privilege of living out the meaning of the celebration. This is a celebration like no other. It is daily, what some would call 24/7 celebration, it is personal, and it is of the essence in the community of God.

There are five psalms in the great book, Psalms 146-150, that are called the “hallelujah” psalms. They are praise psalms that reflect the fact that God is at work in the world. He is not off in the distance preoccupied with other, more important, things. God is up-close-and-personal, working in the midst of His creation. Psalm 147 captures this in powerful ways.

We see in this Hallelujah psalm that God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (vs. 3). “The Lord supports the afflicted” (vs. 6). He is at work in nature and in the human situation (vs. 8-10). His blessings are directed toward those who revere Him and who “wait for His lovingkindness” (vs. 11).

The fingerprints of God are all over this world; they are all over your life. You can’t get away from Him no matter where you go. He is sovereign and He is at work, patiently and persistently sharing His glory with all His creation.

No wonder Psalm 147 beings and ends with the little phrase, “Praise the Lord,” or “Hallelujah!” This makes perfect sense to those of us who have called upon the name of Jesus. He is God’s greatest manifestation. God didn’t just decree things from a distance. He arranged to be born into His creation to impact it all from within. On Christmas we celebrated His birth into history. Now, we will follow His life and see where it all leads.

Wherever it leads we can count on one thing. The influence of His presence will cause us to break forth in Hallelujahs and Praise the Lord.

Isaiah chapter 35 is a remarkable text to turn to for the third Sunday of Advent. I am fascinated with it because it shows us the very wonder that is God. It gives us a picture of His goodness and His grace and how He comes into His creation with life and health, with meaning and fulfillment.

What a terrific word for the times in which we live. It reminds me, in a way, of Ezekiel's vision of the river that flows from the altar out through the blistering desert and into the lifeless waters of the Dead Sea (see Ezekiel 47:1-12). In his vision Ezekiel tells us, "Everything will live where the river goes" (vs. 9). Isaiah, on the other hand, seems to speak about the emotional and psychological results of the presence of God. Everything will live where God's river flows and the way they will live is in joy and gladness.

Oswald Chambers said in the December one devotional from My Utmost For His Highest that “there is only one way by which I can get right with God, and that is through the death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the underlying idea that I can ever be right with God because of my obedience."

Isn’t that a remarkable thought to think. Jesus must do it all. In Ezekiel’s vision “everything will live where the river goes.” In Isaiah’s thought, dry and barren places become places of life and vitality. In both cases it is God who does the mighty deed. We can’t create them. We can work with them but we can’t create them.

Let’s pray together:

Father, lead us to the place of grace and draw us to yourself. We need you; we do desperately need you. Apart from you we are empty and broken. In you we are made whole. In you the desert and wilderness places come alive with life and meaning and vitality. Draw us to yourself and make us to be the people you have called us to be. Amen.

Down through Israel's history the people were to be vessels of truth, carriers of the Word of God. In them the Word of God would live. Through them the Word of God would come into the lives of others. So, in Isaiah 2:5 the word goes out, "Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." Another way of saying that is, “let us really be the people of God. Let us really live for God. Let us really, truly, worship God.” In so doing, the people would in essence be prophets of God, tellers of the story, conveyors of the truth, living witnesses of the living God.

In Numbers 11:29 there is a remarkable verse. A couple of men had begun to prophesy in the camp of Israel, and there were some who felt these men were out of order and that only Moses should prophesy. Finally, in verse 28 "Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, "Moses, my lord, restrain them." The response of Moses is intriguing. He said, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!"

Fast-forward ahead to the New Testament. In Acts chapter two the people of Jesus are filled with Holy Spirit. The apostle Peter steps up and preaches a great sermon, a part of which explains what is happening. He quotes the Old Testament prophet Joel, "And it shall be in the last days," says God, "That I will pour fourth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Acts. 2:17).

In that act, Moses got his wish. The Word of Joel came to pass. The Spirit came upon the sons and daughters. “Would that all the Lords people were prophets.” Today the mantle of the prophet has fallen on the Church of Jesus Christ. His people bring the prophetic voice of God into the affairs of men and, as the church lives scattered through out the world, the message of God is proclaimed.

In my heart of hearts I am praying that the Holy Spirit will enable us to tell the story of God well. Tell it clearly. Tell it unambiguously. Tell it with clarity. More than this, however, may the church live a clear and unambiguous witness before a world that is unaware of just how needy for God it is.

I have a feeling that long before an unbelieving people will embrace a Christian’s thinking they must first see a Christian in action. Before we go on record as being followers of Jesus our lives should already be reflecting His life in us. We ought to be a people who by our very actions and attitudes reflect the fact that God is good. Once we are doing this, then our words can be a great clarifying instrument.

Jesus said to all His followers, “You are the light of the world.” Now, the ball is in our court. We need to go out, in the power of the Holy Spirit and do what a light does ~~~ SHINE. “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them.” Well, He has done just that. Now, let’s go out and make God look good.

It is a humbling and yet exhilarating thought to think that our lives are covered by the God we see revealed in Jesus. At minimum this means we are never without hope, that God's grace is always sufficient. Take from us all that can be taken and there is still God in Jesus. Do to us what you will and there is still God in Jesus. Bless us, curse us, or snub us, Jesus is Lord not the blessings or the curses or the snubbing. Kill us, and the last word isn't death but life, Eternal life in the One who is Lord, even over death.

In Jesus is life and His life is the light of God to us and in us (See John 1:4). To embrace Him is to take His hand, as it were, and to live both now and when life here is over.

Did you know there is no place we can go to hide from God’s grace. Isaac Watts reminds us in a hymn we sing at Christmas time,

No more let sin and sorrow grow…

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

So it was that Eliza Hewitt wrote

My faith has found a resting place,
not in device or creed;
I trust the ever-living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.

Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt;
a sinful soul I come to Him,
He’ll never cast me out.

He comes to make His blessings flow ….

This ends my fear and doubt.

Amen.

The dangerous world we live in is filled with forces that can hurt us deeply and seemingly undermine any good work that God might be doing. When we walk with God, however, we can’t simply assume that what appears to be the facts are, indeed, the facts.

At the heart of our faith is this insatiable belief that no matter what comes our way, God is in the midst of our story. And, make no mistake about it, our stories can get rather messy because life is messy. However, into the “Messy-ness” comes the wonder of God. A voice calls out to us and captivates our attention, “Come, behold the works of the Lord” (Ps. 46:8). And, our eyes are opened to realities of grace we never saw before.

In the messy-ness of life we have some promises. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1). “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God” (Ps. 46:4). “God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved” (Ps. 46: 5). The Lord of hosts is with us” (Psalm 46:7,11).

And, how shall we respond to this wonderful news? “Though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea … WE WILL NOT FEAR” (Ps. 46:2).

The dangerous world has been embraced and confronted by a Sovereign God. The river of God is flowing, bringing the life of God into the midst of all we have in this world. And, another call comes loud and clear, “Cease striving and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).

In Zechariah 4:6 there is the very familiar text that has God telling His people that His work in the world was done not by might nor by power but by His Spirit. This means that we must be filled, shaped and formed by God’s Spirit if we are to be a people through whom God can work.

We must be a people filled with the power of God because “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

None of us can see into the future so it is crucial that we pray our way into the future. Jesus is the Beginning and the End even in the present. He “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8). What Jesus did then He can do now. Let’s pray that we may be a people in whom He can do whatever He desires to do.

Pastor Jim Cymbala, of Brooklyn Tabernacle, offers a prayer that drives all this home for me. He prays, “Dear Father…Reveal your will and purpose concerning us, and then give us the grace to pursue it with all our hearts.”

Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you” (Matt. 7:7). Let’s pray our way into the future. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. Remember the counsel of John Bunyan, “You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed”

There is a safe place in God that is remarkable and wonderful. David speaks of it in Psalm 31, and he does so in the painful context of certain people who took counsel together against him and were scheming to take away his life.

What do you do when life comes against you this way? Interestingly, David turned to the One person he could trust. He turned to His God. “As for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand.”

The schemers still schemed, the adversaries still plotted, the enemies still sought to persecute him, but David sensed that he was safe in the arms of God. Hidden in the secret place of God’s presence where “shelter” takes on a new meaning, David lived awed by God’s marvelous lovingkindness. The enemies of his soul had their opinions but David had his God.

David’s times were not in the hands of his enemies; his times were in the hand of God. Truth is that we can’t do much about the agendas of those who strive against God and His people but we can draw near to God because He has invited us to do so, and in His presence we see His heart and find ourselves saying things like, “How great is Your goodness,” “Blessed be the Lord,” “You are my God.”

When the enemy would seek your demise, come into the secret place of God’s presence. Call upon your God. Trust Him. He is your God. Do you love Him? Then your times are in His hand. The enemy cannot enter into the secret place of God’s presence, so come and pray and seek God’s face, and call upon His name, and live in that one, true, safe place, the presence of God.

Beloved, in these days I’ve had a lot of time to pray and reflect upon Scripture and I wanted to tell you that time after time the Spirit of the Lord has moved on my life over the past month and has ministered to my questioning and processing soul. There have been some dark moments where I have had to cling to Jesus and there have been some moments when I was too perplexed and tired to cling, only to discover that He was already clinging to me, inviting me to let go and to fall into his embrace.

Today I want to testify to the faithfulness of God. This cancer has shaken me up a bit, but you know what, I’m still here, I’m alive and I have hope. A hundred times over the past month I have borrowed David’s prayer and made it mine, “But as for me, I trust in you, O Lord. I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand” (Psalm 31:14-15).

And, I want to testify to the Father in your behalf telling Him how faithful you have been, how committed to pray, and how driven to stay the course. I want Him to know that you all have touched my life. Your prayers, your cards, your words of encouragement have been a dynamic part of God entering my story and building hope in me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So, with all my heart my word to you today is “Nothing to the left; Nothing to the right; Jesus only.” May God bless you and keep you, and may His grace shine down upon you.

The words in this article come from
the old Prayer Warrior, E. M. Bounds,

in his book, Power Through Prayer.

May they wet an appetite in our spirits

to be men and women of prayer.

People of Prayer

We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the person or sink the person in the plan or organization. God's plan is to make much of the person, far more of the person than of anything else. People are God's method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better people.

"There was a man sent from God whose name was John." The dispensation that heralded and prepared the way for Christ was bound up in that person, John. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." The world's salvation comes out of that cradled Son. When Paul appeals to the personal character of the men who rooted the gospel in the world, he solves the mystery of their success. The glory and efficiency of the gospel is staked on the people who proclaim it.

When God declares that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him," he declares the necessity of a person and of His dependence on that person as a channel through which to exert His power upon the world. This vital, urgent truth is one that this age of machinery is apt to forget. The forgetting of it is as baneful on the work of God as would be the striking of the sun from his sphere. Darkness, confusion, and death would ensue.

What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but people whom the Holy Spirit can use -- People of prayer, people mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through people. He does not come on machinery, but on people. He does not anoint plans, but people -- people of prayer.

I have been thinking about the place of prayer in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul declared, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Eph. 6:18). In Romans 8:26 Paul indicated that there are times when “we do not know how to pray as we should,” and that in those time “The Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” In Romans 8:34 Paul declares that “Christ Jesus…who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God….also intercedes for us.” And, bless his heart, Augustine says, "Man is a beggar before God.”

It was John Bunyon who said, “You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” In other words, for those of us who believe in Jesus, prayer is the heart of who we are as a people. Getting before the Father and calling upon His name in prayer is a fundamental issue with those who have trusted in Christ for salvation.

To pray is to come alongside Jesus, responding to the fact that God’s will is “Good, acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12;2). In Christ we are able to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:1). We are free to pray like this because we know that always and forever God’s will is good, acceptable and perfect. It can’t be improved on.

I’ve been prayed for a lot recently, and, quite frankly, I have found great peace and comfort in knowing that God’s people are praying for me. Ironically, what I haven’t needed to know is the specifics as to what God’s answers to those prayers might be. I have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I am a part of the eternal Church of God, and I know that God’s will is good, acceptable and perfect. Here I stand. I choose to stand at no other place. God has spoken into our world and HE is enough.

May we draw near to God and pour out our hearts before Him in intercessory prayer.

How many times have you said it to yourself or to someone close to you, “I’m at my wits’ end”? You feel like you’ve reached your limit. It’s like the fellow who said to a friend of his, “I’m down to my last nerve and you’re on it.”

Did you know the Bible speaks about being at wits’ end? It’s that moment when there seems to be no answers, no solutions, and no way out. Everywhere you turn it is as if you hit a brick wall.

Psalm 107 speaks about men who go down to the sea in ships and do business on great waters (vs. 23). While at sea a raging storm develops that rips into the ship as if it were a toy. The men on board the ship are fearful, tired, and weary. They try everything they know to do to survive, but the raging storm pays no attention. Then at this point the Bible says in verse 27, “Thy reeled and staggered like a drunken man, and were at their wits’ end.” They’ve run out of options and they know they’ve had it.

However, at this point the men did something that turned out to be the smartest thing they ever did: “They cried to the Lord in their trouble.” And, guess what? “He brought them out of their distresses” (Ps. 107:28).

What shall we do at wits’ end? Crash and burn or rise and conquer? Wits’ end may be a real place but it isn’t Lord and, unless we allow it to, it will not have the last word. Remember, this awful place in which to find oneself becomes a means of grace.

There isn’t a storm big enough to shut down God, so rise and conquer.

In these busy times It is a good practice to find ways to slow down a bit, to refresh one’s soul, and to re-energize one’s life. This call isn’t about self-help or self-realization, or positive thinking. This call is about drawing near to God, so near that it might be called spiritual intimacy or closeness.

Psalm 37:34 is a clear and unambiguous word about this kind of intimacy with God. King David says, ‘Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.” Here we see that God is at work and that at the right time, when the wicked are cut off, God will show us just how present He has been in the life of His people.

Until that “right time” we are called to wait for the Lord and to Keep His way.” This requires faith on our part and a releasing of our life story into the faithfulness of God. In my spirit can I slow down and wait for God? Can I give myself to be so familiar with His way that I can give myself to living in His way?

Can’t you almost hear the the Holy Spirit saying, “Don’t be rushed and prodded, treated like you are just a number, a face in the crowd. I certainly don’t look at you that way. The world will because it seems to be the only way to conduct business in the busyness of life; but, remember God is present in you, setting the tempo of life. Life may demand busyness of you, but never forget that God is in the midst of His people.”

We are invited to rest in the provisions of God. In your spirit “wait,” in your daily life “Keep His way,” In this place you’ll be okay because God is faithful and He will never forsake you.

Life is filled with challenges, isn’t it? One minute things are fine and then next chaos abounds. Even being a Christian doesn’t protect us from the realities of life. In fact, sometimes following Jesus takes us right into storms. Just ask the disciples. One of their stories is told in Matthew 8:23-27.

Jesus got into a boat one day, the disciples followed Him, and the next thing they know is that they are fighting for their lives in the midst of a storm at sea. They followed Jesus right into chaos.

Does your belief system allow for the fact that sometimes when you follow Jesus it will take you right into a storm? Does your belief system allow for obedience to God not always to be smooth sailing? Does your belief system allow for Jesus to be asleep on the boat in the midst of a storm?

I’m not sure we have Jesus all figured out and I am quite sure that His ways are very different from our ways. Take that storm, for instance. The disciples are panicked in the storm while Jesus naps in the same storm.

Storms come, don’t they; big storms, life threatening storms, unexpected storms. Isn’t it exciting to know that our Lord is so powerful that storms don’t disturb Him. Don’t you find some kind of peace in that scenario? Makes you want to sing, “Be still, my soul, the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.”

In Luke 13:22-30 Jesus shares a parable and talks to the listeners about what the parable means. The teaching event began with someone getting Jesus’ attention and asking Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved”” (vs. 23).

This question probably arose in the person's heart because of the hard sayings Jesus had be giving to the people. In chapter twelve Jesus had spoken of the cost of being a disciple. The commitment required an act of obedience that could potentially lead to division in some relationships. Some people would not understand why a friend or family member would turn to Jesus, and the act of doing so would lead to hostility and conflict on their part.

To follow Jesus was a call to give one’s whole life into the hands of God, not holding back anything, and knowing some people would not understand. So, in the eyes of someone witnessing it all, to follow Jesus was demanding, so demanding that he thought that maybe there would just be a few people who would dare take up their cross and follow Jesus!

Jesus didn’t directly answer his question. Instead he got the person thinking about the kingdom of God. He spoke of the fact that some people would just never get it but that others from all over the world, “east and west and north and south” would come into the kingdom and “recline at the table in the kingdom of God” (vs. 29).

The question the man asked was too narrow. The kingdom is huge, and the invitation is to all. “whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely” (Rev. 17b KJV).

“Whosoever.” What a mighty, wonderful, and awesome God we serve.

WITH GOD’S HELP

Because our faith in God means so very much to us if God is not at the center of our story, by default, we become the center of the story, dependent upon the mortal and finite capacity of our own little worldview. And, truthfully, this way of life leaves a lot to be desired.

In Jesus we are stretched to think outside our worldview, to think the thoughts of God as revealed in His awesome deeds in Jesus.

In Jesus we are brought into the Kingdom of God where the ways and means of God permeate all things.

In Jesus we become “I can” people. Life doesn’t have to do us in. We can face life and live in the power of God.

All these things being said, I am thinking that we ought to begin and end every dream, every work, every event, every process, and every aspiration with a prayer that says, “WITH GOD’S HELP.”

With God’s help I will undertake this thing.

With God’s help I will pursue this dream.

With God’s help I will undertake this work.

With God’s help I shall be faithful to His work in the church.

Remember what the angel said to the virgin Mary as he was explaining to here what was going to happen in her womb? He said to her, “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). And, Mary believed him, and off to the home of Elizabeth she ran to tell her the remarkable story (Luke 1:3945).

The incarnate ministry of God in history began with the promise, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” There might be a lot impossible with us, but with our God nothing is impossible.

So, with God’s help I will do what I must do.

With God’s help I will be what He has called me to be.

With God’s help I will be faithful.

With God’s help I will follow Jesus wherever He leads me.

With God’s help I shall ______________________.

In Colossians chapter three the apostle Paul shares twelve quality characteristics that are present when Jesus lives in a human heart. It’s quite a list: Compassion (12), Kindness (12), Humility (12), Gentleness (12), Patience (12), Bearing with one another (13), Forgiving each other (13), Love, which is the perfect bond of unity (14), The Peace of Christ (15), Thankfulness (15), The Word of God (16), Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus (17).

As I read this list I can’t help but pray, ”Give me Jesus.” If these are the kinds of things He brings to a life, then I give Him my life. I’m in hook, line, and sinker. It’s no turning back for me.

By way of contrast look at some of the ways and characteristics that fill the world: It’s quite a list: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech (5, 8).

When I read this list I can’t help but pray, ‘give me Jesus.” If He wants to lift me out of that kind of stuff, I give Him my life, no turning back.

In a sense this is how the church finds itself in the world. In Christ, we are brought into a new and living community where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord; or, as Paul says in verse 11, “Christ is all, and in all.” This community is one where barriers are broken down and people really do live with each other in peace.

Paul says it doesn’t matter what our background is because in Christ we blend into each other and become brothers and sisters. We become a community defined by twelve quality characteristics that define us as a people and enable us as witnesses of Jesus.

Church. What a great idea! What a great miracle! Welcome home.

Handling Criticism of Your Faith


In Psalm 42:3 there is a poignant moment where the writer is taking heat because of his faith in God. He is going through a very difficult time when his critics and detractors mock him, saying, “Where is your God?”

A part of being a believer in God, particularly those who follow Jesus, is to recognize that many people just don’t get it. Some of these detractors will come even from within the ranks of what we call “the Church.” They will seek to undermine your view and beliefs all in the name of their view and beliefs. Others, who have no room for God, will play the role of judge, jury and executioner. They have their beliefs and won’t rest until they see you writhing in pain on the floor, your beliefs having been ripped out of you by their arguments. These folks might be your work associates, a professor, a neighbor, or from a thousand other sources set on the demise of your faith.

What do you do when your faith is attacked? Some say we must have equally strong intellectual arguments to rebuff the assaults. This is probably true. The apostle Paul told Timothy that he needed to be diligent to present himself approved to God…accurately handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:16). In I Peter 3:15 believers are counseled, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you…”

There is another part of the story, however, that needs to be affirmed. You know what Christ has done for you. You know the difference He has made and is making in your life. The apostle Paul witnessed to Timothy by saying, “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him” (2 Tim. 1:12).

Some people in your world will fuss and fume about your faith connection with Jesus. Let them. That’s their issue, not yours. Don’t give them unwarranted access to your mind, your faith or your will. You know what Jesus has done for you. And, as Paul said to the Corinthian Christians, don’t “be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).

The love Jesus has for you and the love you have for him calls you to trust His integrity to keep His word. He said, “I am with you always…Come to Me…Learn from Me…You will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 28:20, 11:28-30). When the heat is on, and it will be at times, trust the One who died for you as opposed to the one who would destroy what has been so profoundly important to you, simply because they have a different view. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). What does that say about your critics and detractors? Not much except that they are on the wrong side of God’s grace and mercy. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Jesus says to us today, as He said it to His first disciples, that in Him we have peace. He said, “in the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Don’t try to win every argument because some people cannot hear the truth. Just take courage, trust in Jesus, tell the truth, and leave the results to God. Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ and remember there is nothing in all creation that is able to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).

BROKEN CHORDS WILL VIBRATE ONCE MORE
Rick Savage

A man who has greatly influenced my Christian journey was a Roman Catholic Priest from Belgium by the name of Henri Nouwen. He had reached the summit of academic excellence and held teaching positions at Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard. (The following quotes by Nouwen are found in, In the Name of Jesus (Crossroads: New York, 1989), Yet, his academic success and his twenty-five years of priesthood left him, he said,

Praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger.

Isn't that an intriguing thought? Putting my own soul in danger. Nouwen began to struggle with these issues. He said,

I began to ask myself whether my lack of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were signs that the Spirit was gradually being suppressed. It was very hard for me to see clearly, and though I never spoke about hell or only jokingly so, I woke up one day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place and that the term 'burnout' was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.

In the midst of all these things Nouwen was invited by a man named Jean Vanier, the founder of the L'Arche communities for mentally handicapped people to, as he said, "Go and live among the poor in spirit, and they will heal you." And so it was that Nouwen left the elitist world of Ivy league education and, moved from Harvard to L'Arche, from people he said, "wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or no words and were considered, at best, marginal to the needs of our society." Nouwen says this about his move to L'Arche.

The first things that struck me when I came to live in a house with mentally handicapped people was that their liking or disliking me had absolutely nothing to do with any of the many useful things I had done until them. Since no body could read my books, they could not impress anyone, and since most of them never went to school, my twenty years at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard did not provide a significant introduction. My considerable ecumenical experience proved even less valuable. When I offered some meat to one of the assistants during dinner, one of the handicapped men said to me, "Don't give him meat, he doesn't eat meat, he's a Presbyterian."

Henri Nouwen passed away a few years ago and I still grieve the loss, but I will always read his books and I will always remember this one paragraph. Speaking again of the move to L'Arche Nouwen says,

This experience was...the most important experience of my new life, because it forced me to rediscover my true identity. These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self--the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things--and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments.


I believe this is what Jesus wants to do in His Church. He wants His people to lay aside, in their inner most being, the paraphernalia of success and greatness and reclaim the unadorned self in which we are completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments.

In the Church of Jesus Christ everybody is somebody and the love of Jesus is the very air we breathe. The love He pours into our lives is the love we pour into each other's lives. The love of God in us is a healing, restoring, reinvigorating love. It's the love people most need. It is the love of which the Good News of the Gospel is made. It is the only love that has a real chance of making a different in the human heart.

Back in 1869 Fanny Crosby wrote a song that is still in our hymnbook today. I hope they never stop including it in the updating process of the hymnal just because of verse three of the song. It says,

Down in the human heart,
Crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore.
Touched by a loving heart,
Wakened by kindness,
Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.
Rescue the perishing;
Care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful;
Jesus will save.
(Rescue the Perishing" by Fanny J. Crosby, 1869)

This Jesus is the very air we breathe. May the fellowship we share together in Him be the kind in which "chords that are broken will vibrate once more.

The apostle Paul never asked this question directly but he could have, “What are you doing with your life?” Good question isn’t it? Am I giving my life to things that are destructive or am I giving my life to doing good (see (Gal. 6:8). It seems the choice is mine when it comes to me and yours when it comes to you.

Paul calls us to sow to the Spirit of God knowing that in the end to do so means to reap “eternal life” (vs. 8). The journey of being of the Spirit can be long and hard sometimes, however. We can get tempted to be discouraged, tempted to grow weary. Not everybody who really matters to us will be as excited about God as we are, and sometimes they can apply pressure that bears down on us and tempts us to “lose heart” (vs. 9). It can get very lonely out there when something like this happens.

Still, when we walk with God we walk with a certainty and a confidence that continually affirms us in our relationship with God. We know what God has done for us. We know how much Jesus means to us. Pressure may come but pressure is not lord of our lives. Jesus is Lord. So, Paul’s counsel to us is “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (vs. 9).

Remember, too, that we are people of the cross. What Jesus provides for us because of His atoning sacrifice is greater than any pressure that may come. In Him, we’ve let the old things of our lives go and we have taken upon ourselves a new life, a life bought and paid for on the cross of Calvary. Now we participate in something no less than “a new creation” (vs. 15).

My brothers and sisters in Christ stay encouraged. Don’t grow weary. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Let God be God in your life. Be blessed by Amazing Grace.

Hebrews 10:23 says, "let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." I understand this "hope" to be the relationship we have in Christ which will lead us finally to that time when we "will receive what he has promised" (Heb. 10:36), "a kingdom that cannot be shaken" (Heb. 12:28). Jesus said he was going to the Father's house, in which there were many rooms and that while there, He was going to prepare a place for his people (John 14:1-3). The hope to which we are to "hold unswervingly" is taking us to that place, heaven, the place of promise, the unshakable kingdom, where we will be with Jesus Christ forever.

However, is the Christian life only about tomorrow, and what will be? I think not. Hebrews 13:5 reminds us of the commitment of our God who said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." The fact is "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8), and as He will be with us on that final day to take us to the heaven He has prepared, He is with us now.

There is a good word in Hebrews 7:25. It says that Jesus "is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." Did you know that Jesus is talking to God about you and that He talks to God as your advocate. Right now, today, in this very world, Jesus stands with you as your saving and interceding Companion. You have no better friend in your life situation than Jesus. He is so powerfully present that who He is in you, you have as "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Heb. 6:19).

Did you catch it? An anchor for the soul! Right now, in your life, in your work, in your relationships, in your home, in your pain, in your frustrations, in your successes and victories, in your personal world -- an ANCHOR of the soul. Right now! Today! This very moment. Jesus, the HOPE.

There is a wonderful phrase used by the apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28 that is awesome. He speaks there to the church and says, "You are all one in Christ Jesus." The story of every believer is unique because people come from all sorts of backgrounds. In Galatians Paul speaks of the backgrounds of Jewish faith and of Gentiles ~~ You can't get much different than this. Jews came out of a very defined religious structure while many gentiles came out of no faith at all. Now, in the church they connect up as brothers and sisters.

Paul goes further. He says in verse 28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female…" In Christ Jesus we "are all one."

In the church every one is invited into the place of equality, equality rooted in the life of Jesus. No one is superior and no one is inferior. We are ONE. Wealth doesn't buy power in the church and poverty does not keep one away from the place of authority and influence. We are ONE. Healthy or ill, we are ONE. Red, yellow, black or white, we are ONE. Jesus died for the world and when people step out of the world into the community of Jesus they become "Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise" (vs. 29).

In Christ strangers become friends and enemies become colleagues. Differences become blurred in the church as the life of Jesus blends into and permeates everything. In Christ we become sons and daughter of God. So it is that we become brothers and sisters; we become family. In a grace that will most likely never be fully understood Jesus stepped into our story one day and invited us into a new way of doing and being. He lifted us out of the ways of the world that seem to be so divisive and tribal and hurtful, and cleared a place at His table so that with the family we could draw near to God and find a fellowship that is awesome.

Sound too good to be true? Probably; but it is true. Welcome home.

One of the challenges the early church faced two thousand years ago was what to do with all the gentiles coming to faith. Should they undergo some sort of ceremonial acceptance into Judaism first because the Messiah came through Israel, or did knowing Christ stand on its own merits. There were strong opinions on both sides of the issue.

In the end the church came to agree that knowing Jesus Christ stood on its own merits. He was enough. God had brought forth a new movement, a Church, where all stood equal and all were one in Christ, not Jew and not Gentile, just brothers and sister in the common faith.

Some folks had a more difficult time adjusting than did others. Some believers, when they were in the presence of Jews, acted Jewish. The same people, when they were in the presence of Gentiles, acted in a fashion consistent with being a Gentile. The apostle Paul did not like this arrangement at all, and said so. He was very concerned that some people "were not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel" (Gal. 2:14).

I am intrigued that Paul called the early church to a clear and unambiguous commitment to Jesus as Savior and Lord. No vacillating allowed. Straightforward was the word. He knew that the law could not save but only Jesus could save. He believed God was doing a new thing in history and that what God was doing was realized in Jesus. It wasn't keeping laws that saved. It was knowing Jesus that saved, and so Paul told the folks by way of personal testimony, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20).

It's not rules and regulations we need. It is a personal relationship with God we need. Just be Christian. Nothing to the left and nothing to the right; Jesus only.

In many ways Saul of Tarsus was a terrorist. He hated Christians, He hated Jesus, and He hated the Church. Because of this he engaged himself in a one-man extermination project, a mission to rid the world of Christians. And, he was good at what he did. Christians feared him, and knew that should their paths cross, Saul would do whatever was necessary to rid the world of that pesky Christian sect. Prison or death, it mattered not to Saul. As long as Christians were silenced the work was worth it.

On the road to Damascus one day to do his work there, Saul made a huge mistake. He stumbled onto Jesus Christ, and Jesus shook the foundation of Saul’s world, lifted him out of his sin and rebellion, transformed him within, and called him to become one of those pesky Christians, whom he used to hate.

One of the next things on Saul’s agenda was to convince the Christian community that his conversion was really real. I mean, can a man really change? Really? Can grace work that kind of miracle? Understandably it took some time for the Church to assess and evaluate and to conclude that something profound and divine, even supernatural, had transpired in Saul’s life. But, God’s grace is amazing and they began to say of Saul, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” Then Saul, who had been given a new name, Paul, said, “They were glorifying God because of me” (Gal. 1:23-24).

Isn’t that a wonderful story; from a hater of Christ to a disciple, a follower of Christ. And, in it all we see that God can break into a life that is hardened and make it soft, tender, and open. This gives me hope. God is all-powerful, and He is at work in the human situation.

How is your story going?

What captivates your imagination? Is there something that has just taken hold of your heart and won't let go? Something deeper and more profound than you ever expected to experience?

In Isaiah chapter six we learn about something that captured the imagination of Isaiah, a prophet of God. It radically altered his world and set his heart on fire with a love and passion for God that rocked his world. What was it that captured his imagination? It was a sense of the presence of God he experienced in a moment when he said, "I saw the Lord" (Is. 6:1).

Isaiah got a glimpse of God in His glory and infinite sovereignty. In the spirit of worship he saw God "sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted" (Is. 6:1). What He saw began a conversation with God that led to a conversion, a God-initiated conversion where Isaiah reaches deep down inside his heart and finds the courage to say to God, "I will live for You. I will do what You want me to do. I will go where You call me to go, and I will be Your prophet."

I have wondered if God doesn't want to give His church today that kind of earth shattering moment where decisions are made and lives are changed and futures are rewritten. I have wondered if in some way in worship the people of God ought to become so aware of the presence of God that it shakes the foundation of their world and changes their outlook and draws them into the very presence of God, setting their hearts on fire with a love and passion for God that rocks their world.

Is this asking too much? Taking into consideration the fact that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, I think not.

One of my favorite devotional writers is John Henry Jowett. His book, My Daily Meditation has touched my heart numerous times over the years. May I share his May 16 reading. I hope it touches you as deeply as it touched me. He calls it, THE DETAILS OF PROVIDENCE and bases it on Matthew 10:30. “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
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“PROVIDENCE goes into details. Sometimes, in our human intercourse, we cannot see the trees for the wood. We cannot see the individual sheep for the flock. We cannot see the personal soul for the masses. We are blinded by the bigness of things; we cannot see the individual blades of grass because of the field.

“Now God’s vision is not general, it is particular. There are no “masses” to the Infinite. “He calls His own sheep by name.” The single one is seen as though he alone possessed the earth. When God looks at the wood He sees every tree. When He looks at the race He sees every man.

“And, therefore, I need not fear that “my way is overlooked by my God.” He knows every turning. He knows just where the strain begins at the hill. He knows the perils of every descent. He knows every happening along the road. He knows every letter that came to me by this morning’s post. He knows every visitor who knocks at the door of my life, whether the visitor come at the high noon or at the midnight. “There is nothing hid.” “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

Israel desperately wanted a king like the other nations around them. They had God as their king, but they wanted a flesh and blood king to lead them. God wasn’t enough. Interestingly, God gave them over to their deep desire to have a king. When He relented and gave them their desire they realized they had acted inappropriately. They went to their prophet, Samuel, and said to him, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king” (I Samuel 12:19).”

In his response Samuel reminded the people that even though they had rejected God as their king, He had not rejected them as His people. He challenged them to remain faithful to God in this new arrangement, to “serve the Lord with all your heart” (vs. 20). They were still God’s people and He still loved them. Their sin would not separate them from His love.

The counsel of Samuel to the people who would get their king was, “Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart” (vs. 24). He challenged them to ever “consider what great things He has done for you” (vs. 24). Of himself Samuel told them, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you” (vs. 23). In this new arrangement Samuel told the people, “I will instruct you in the good and right way” (vs. 23).

We are the people of God regardless as to who our earthly leaders may be. God is still our God regardless of the powers at work in the world. Our allegiance is to the living God. We lift Him up in our lives regardless of the arrangement in which we find ourselves. Leaders come and leaders go but “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29)

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). In saying this He speaks right into the heart of lives. Shortly before His crucifixion Jesus spoke to His disciples about the coming event. He concluded by saying to them, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Some time later, after the birth of Jesus’ Church the apostle Paul called the people to “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” (Col. 3:15).

I am thinking that inner peace might just be the most important condition for which the human heart searches. We talk about peace and we pray about peace and we read books about how to have peace. Perhaps peace doesn’t come through a book. Is it possible that peace comes in a person, and that to know this person is to experience the peace that is unique to Him?

In Luke 2:79 we are told that Jesus would “guide our feet into the way of peace.” Of all the things Jesus came to do in the human situation peace seems to lie at the center of it all. He loves us and in this we discover peace. He forgives us of our sins, and in this we discover peace. He lavishes us with grace and in this we discover peace. He speaks truth to us and in His words we discover peace. He treats us with the respect and dignity of the Creator and in this we discover peace.

Let the peace of Christ rules in your hearts.

I may be more of a mystic than I have allowed myself to admit to, but as a Christian who truly believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I really do believe in dreaming and hoping and visualizing possibilities." It is a mysticism rooted and grounded in Jesus, so much so that if I had a personal creedal statement it would read, "Jesus is Lord, and He is enough."

Jesus said where two or three were gathered in His name that He would be in their midst. This one Biblical truth alone sets my heart to singing, energizes my passion to be faithful to God, and ignites a fire in my soul that ever reminds me that where people gather in the name of Jesus, all the possibilities of God are in that people because Jesus is with that people.

As we seek to be faithful in this place at this time, we have valid reasons to be encouraged for Jesus, the Lord of Lords, is with us.

We have valid reasons to dream dreams beyond ourselves because Jesus, the Lord of Lords, is with us.

We have valid reasons to be optimistic in a pessimistic world because Jesus, the Lord of Lords, is with us.

Second star to the right and
straight on until morning.

He Is Risen

"How long will you keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly," so questioned some Jews during Hanukkah as Jesus strolled through the temple in the Portico of Solomon (John 10:22). Sounds simple enough. Just tell us plainly and we’ll get it; we’ll catch on.

Jesus knew better. Jesus knows our hearts, and our words do not deter or impress Him. So, as was His custom, He got to the heart of the matter. Their problem, He said, had nothing to do with Him speaking “plainly” or keeping them in “suspense.” Their problem had to do with the fact that their hearts were not one with His. “You are not of My sheep,” Jesus told them (John 10:26). He could have spoken plainly all day but if their hearts were not of His heart, it would have been an exercise in futility.

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me," Jesus told the folks (John 10:27). Something was going on that had nothing to do with explanations or intellectual clarity. God was among us, giving eternal life to those who heard His voice (John 10:28).

Some heard and forever their lives were changed. Some would not hear, and they missed the very presence of God as Jesus mingled among them sharing the word, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

Is it really possible to miss the very presence of God in our midst? Indeed, it is. It is not necessary, but it is possible. Can you hear His voice? Does His heart resonate in you? Look at Jesus and watch Him for a while. What do you see? Who do you see? Could it be that the Father is drawing you to Himself? Could Jesus be the greatest gift any of us could ever receive?

Walking with God through His Son, Jesus, and filled daily by the empowering presence of His Holy Spirit is surely grace at its highest possible level of expression. This is truly amazing when compared with the fact that the Bible says we've all sinned against God and fallen short of his glory (Rom. 3:23).

Why would an offended God respond to the offenders in grace and love, when the natural response to them is an "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise" (Exodus 21:24). At least on the human level this seems to be a natural response. Revenge. Retaliation. Vengeance. Retribution. Reprisal. These seem to be the natural, unrehearsed response of persons to persons. Legal systems are set up to see to it that these are not the context in which judgment is handed down, yet, they still seem to be the spirit and attitude of so many people around the world.

But God does not come in revenge. Retaliation is far from Him. Vengeance is not the issue with God. Retribution is not a part of His way of doing things. Reprisal is unthinkable to Him. The way of God is the way of grace, so much so that the Bible reveals this amazing thought: "The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).

God is about life. God is about love. God is about hope. God is about renewal and new beginnings. Jesus said it was "the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy" [and how acquainted with his ways we are] but He also said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). That is grace --- Life to the full when your sins say you deserve death.

What is grace? It is God including us in when He could have written us off.

EASTER REFLECTION

We Christians believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is central to all we believe and it stands as the defining event in all history. We live in a world where Jesus has been raised from the dead. The world has a Redeemer, a Savior, a Friend. You have a Redeemer, a Savior, a Friend. None of us can say, “Nobody cares.” In fact, Somebody does care, and gave His life as an expression of the depth of His concern.

In the living Christ God brings His life into our lives and fills us with what it means for God to be God ~ Love, Forgiveness, Truth, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control, just to name a few realities of His life in us.

Jesus takes out of us things like “anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, greed, falsehood, bitterness.” He fills us with the capacity to “be kind to one another,” to be “tenderhearted,” and to be able to “forgive each other, just as,” Paul says, “God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

In the living Christ, our lives are made whole; that’s the pragmatic issue before us. In Jesus God lavishes His grace on people. He does not force Himself on people but to those who come to Christ and who believe in Him, they are lavished with His grace, awestruck by His kindness, and awed by His goodness.

Because Jesus lives, we live free and forgiven and whole. We live within the embrace of God whose very life pulsates through our lives.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed.

In Colossians 3:1-4 the Bible calls us to set our minds on the things of God. That’s a real challenge in the active, aggressive, loud, fast, and distracting age in which we find ourselves. The call reminds me of how intentional we must be if we are going to seriously follow Jesus. It is too easy to drift and to go with the flow and to get lost in the crowd, to hand our spirituality over to chance or circumstances or probability or possibility.

“Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,” Paul says (vs. 1). No meandering here but real seeking, the kind of seeking that draws one to commitment and loyalty and priority. It is the kind of seeking where one ceases to allow anyone or anything to trump the seeking. Paul speaks of it as having “died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (vs. 3).

It makes me think that knowing Christ ought to be the number one priority of a person’s life. Knowing Jesus is the kind of thing that trumps everything else. This is life at its best. In fact, Paul comes out and says boldly that Christ “is our life” (vs. 4). “In Him we live and move and exist” (Acts. 17:28), not simply in some sort of cause and effect way but in a way that defines us as Children of God” (Acts. 17:29).

Jesus has changed our lives and has made such an impact upon us that the deepest joy of our lives is to ‘keep seeking the things above where Christ is” and to focus our minds “on the things above” because in the most real of ways our very lives are “hidden with Christ in God.”

In the words of the popular chorus, “Because He lives we can face tomorrow.” Amen. It doesn’t get any better than this.

He Lives. JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.

Talk about credentials; the apostle Paul had them. He had climbed the ranks of Judaism, and had reached the ranks of respect and honor. In the religious tradition of which he was a part he was one of the top dogs. According to his own testimony he was "a Hebrew of Hebrews…a Pharisee …as to zeal, a persecutor of the church…as to the righteousness which comes in the law, found blameless" (Phil. 3:5-6)

Yet, there came a moment when he realized it all meant nothing. For him, it was empty, shallow, unfulfilling, and meaningless. So, he took his past, laid it on the altar, let God have it all, and he took upon himself the life of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Everything else he considered as "rubbish." He knew he hadn't arrived spiritually but he also knew that for him there was no turning back. He threw himself into the life of Jesus hook, line, and sinker. Then, for the rest of his life, he lived the testimony, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).

Have you thrown yourself into the life of Jesus hook, line and sinker? Are you so passionate about Jesus that you have given Him all your rewards and recognition and honors? Does He compete with anything that seeks to hold first place in your life?

Are these questions too strong? I don't think so. The days in which live demand that we answer the questions. This is no time for ambiguity. This is a time for people who love Jesus to come forth throughout our land and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings. This is a time when Christians must throw themselves into the life of Jesus hook, line, and sinker. This is a time when followers of Jesus must take their stand and proclaim, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel" (Romans 1:16).

The life we live ought to reflect the life Of Jesus. Yet, what would that life look like were we to take it seriously? I have been thinking that our lifestyle description is defined for us in the Sermon on the Mount where we are called:

To be "poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3)

To be broken before God in a spirit of "mourning" and "Meekness" (Matt. 5:4-5)

To reflect the kingdom we represent by hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of God to be revealed in us. (Matt. 5:6)

To be relational by showing mercy to those around us (Matt. 5:7)

To be a fragrance of Christ by living in openness to His purifying presence in us (Matt. 5:8)

To be diplomatic by seeking to live as peacemakers in a world prone to hostility (Matt. 5:9).

To not get offended when we are attacked or misunderstood or hurt because of our
faith (Matt. 5: 10-12)

As God was in Jesus reconciling the world to Himself, so we are in the world seeking to reconcile it to God.

How does one be a RECONCILER? These Three Keys might help.

In the context of living our lifestyle description

Let the Love of Christ control us (II Cor. 5:14) --- and live in that spirit and from that context.

Be a Matthew 6:10 person always praying, "Thy will be done."

Build bridges of love to people and don't hold people's sins against them (II Cor. 5:19).

Go out and, in the words of the apostle Paul, be a fragrant aroma of Christ (2 Cor. 2:15).

In Philippians 4:1 the apostle Paul told the church, “Stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.” However, in I Corinthians 10:12 he wrote, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.” Sounds like standing firm has a lot to do with humility and authenticity and honesty and teachableness.

Self-honesty is crucial to a vital and thriving walk with God. No time for games here. No time for pretending that things are what they are not. The ancient Israelites were so blessed by God that it is difficult to grasp fully. Still, many of them just could not allow God to be God in them. Paul says of them that they “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking for a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ” (I Cor. 10:4).

These people had so much going for them it was incredible. Yet, in verse five we read, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased.” Why? The bible says they craved things that were not of God, they were idolaters, they acted immorally, they grumbled against God (see I Cor. 10:6-10). Talk about biting the hand that fed them, the people did that and more.

Before we scold them too harshly, though, there are a couple of verses we need to hear. Verse six says, “These things happened as examples for us.” Verse 11 says, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction.”

The truth of the matter is that we have our own issues. We don’t have the luxury of fixing everybody else. The question is, how are we doing? Are we open to God? Are we in love with God? Are we living For God? Really! If so, then we can stand firm, with confidence.

According to the apostle Paul, there were people in his world whom he considered to be, “enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil 3:18). This is a fairly descriptive and poignant accusation. Paul said of these people that their god was their appetite and that their glory was in their shame Vs. 19). They had set their hearts and minds on the things of this world, so the cross was a great distraction and inconvenience to them. It challenged their very being and this led them to treat Jesus and the cross so disrespectfully that Paul said they were “enemies of the cross.”

Followers of Jesus embrace the cross and see it as the most incredible expression of love one can image. It is in the cross we see Jesus and it is in Jesus we see the cross. When God chose to enter into His creation it was not with pomp and circumstance; it was with the humility and brokenness of the cross.

This old rugged cross makes followers of Jesus citizens of another world. The enemies of the cross have fixed their eyes on this world, and are sucking it dry for their own greed and shame. The friends of Jesus have fixed their eyes on their true homeland, heaven. They have their eyes fixed not on shameful appetites but upon “a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).

Jesus is with His disciples everyday in this world, and He is getting them ready for the next world. Somebody once said, “All this and heaven, too?” It’s true. Jesus delivers us from the silliness and destructiveness of shameful appetites, with the understanding that He will at the right moment, “transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21).

In the mean time the word is, “Stand firm in the Lord, my beloved” (Phil. 4:1).

The Bible says that Jesus "is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him" (Rom. 10:12). And, who is invited to call upon Him? Everyone! Romans 10:13 says, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And what does it mean to call upon the name of the Lord? It means that we embrace with our lives what it means for Jesus to be Lord and to “believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9).

What do you really believe? Do your believe Jesus is Lord? Do your believe God raised Jesus from the dead? If you answer YES to these questions, the Bible says you will be saved (Rom. 10:9).

The Bible calls us to two expressions of faith. It calls us to confess with our mouth and it calls us to believe in our heart. The inner world of the spirit meets the outer world of works. We confess with our mouth what we believe in our heart. And, it all comes down to a matter of faith. The Bible tells us that the word of faith is “near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (Rom. 10:8).

Who I am on the inside becomes visible in the outward expressions of my life. My words reveal my character. My deeds reveal my character. Could this be a reason king David prayed, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight” (Ps. 19:14). When the outer and the inner are in balance it makes for one awesome testimony.

When my heart is set on Jesus and is filled with His Spirit, my mouth, my very life, is in a place to reflect the beauty of inward wholeness, a beauty that is made possible because God abounds in riches for all who call on Him” (Rom. 10:12).

In the Gospel of Luke we have a gentile telling the story of Jesus to other gentiles in an effort to let them know that Jesus is the Savior for everyone. In Luke 13:29 we read, "And they will come from east and west and north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God."

So, when we see Jesus in the Gospel we see God working so as to draw people to Himself. It's not so much about what Jesus can do (although, this alone is mind-boggling). It's more about who Jesus is and what God is about in His life. It's about God at work in the world, shaping and forming a people into a people who sincerely, if not desperately, pray, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

Jesus comes into the midst and quietly inundates the situation with the life of God. Has this happened in your life? Somewhere Jesus stepped into your story, and ever since He has been by your side, leading and guiding, shaping and forming, teaching and changing you. In the good and bad times (and you've probably had many of both), on the mountains and in the valleys, in successes and failures, Jesus has been the invisible but very real presence who has held you steady, kept you focused, and filled you with a power that is beyond yourself.

In Him you have found a place of service, of giving, of obedience. Somewhere along the way He took you to a new place, a place where you decided it wasn't about you but that it was about God. Today, you look back on that decision as the single most important decision of your life. You look back amazed that God would dare be so good to you.

I have been praying that God will help us to bring the healing touch of Jesus into our broken world. I find this to be a simple prayer to pray but a mind-boggling undertaking to achieve. If God were to mobilize a people actually to bring the healing touch of Jesus into the world, how might He go about it? God has already given us His grace-filled answer.

Hear the Word of the Lord! "There are varieties of gifts…varieties of ministries…varieties of effects…. God…works all things in all persons…God has placed the members each one of them in the body, just as He desired…I show you a still more excellent way…love" (I Cor. 12:4-6, 18, 31; 13:1).

Do you know the best thing a local Church can do for God is for her people to put into practice whatever talents, gifts, strengths, gifts and abilities they might have, baptize them in the love of God and put into practice what those assets bring to church and community.

Different people will have different gifts that will lead to different ministries that will lead to different effects. As we go out and be who we are, contributing what we are able to contribute, and we go out for no other reason than the love of God fills us to the brim, the power of God's presence sits loose a new level of possibility. In this arrangement the authority of Holy Spirit becomes the one defining factor. In this arrangement the people of God will be in a place to participate in God's work in God's way through God's power and by God's provision.

What can you do for God's church today? Go for it!

All of us need the touch of God on and in our lives. The presence of Jesus in the world tells us that this need has been satisfied. Acts 10:38 tells us Jesus, "went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." God was with Him and when Jesus is present with us, God is present with us, too.

Do you see Jesus this way? Wherever He went, He went there doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil!" Isn't this a great word for our age? He was about doing good and He was about drawing near to people in healing ways.

What an awesome gift Jesus is to the world. What a wonderful Savior, one who draws near to people in grace and mercy, and brings the grace of God into the very real stories of very real people.

Do you think that maybe Jesus could live through His Church that way? Wouldn’t it be great to have it said of the Church that wherever it went it did good and it brought the healing touch of God into the lives of people who lived in oppressions of a thousands kinds? I have a deep-seated theological conviction that this is our true job description, which kicks into gear the moment the church scatters from worship into the world of everyday living.

May God help us do the kind of good over which He will say, "Well done." May God help us to bring the healing touch of Jesus into a broken world.