Jesus calls us to faithfulness and to an honest seeking first of His kingdom and righteousness. He has not called us to be good listeners only. He has called us to hear His Word and to do it. He hasn’t called us to just say right things. He has called us to right action, action endorsed by the truthfulness and integrity of our words.

Words are a dime a dozen these days; the internet has seen to that. Yet, it ought not to be this with followers of Christ. For us, our words matter. Words reflect the heart, and words hastily spoken can sometimes do irrevocable damage.

More than words, Jesus calls us to obedience. Words should reflect the fact that our hearts are being shaped and formed into the image of Christ. Our actions then follow our words and reveal what we are really like. Keeping our words tells those around us that truth matters to us, that righteousness matters, that Christ-formed integrity matters. Our words and our actions meet in Jesus, and both of them reflect what we really believe about Him

The greatest action is the action of self-forgetful love. Jesus didn’t say that people would know we are his disciples if we say wonderful things. He said they would know we are His disciples by the love we have for one another. Words are wonderful and we ought to be very careful as to the words we say. Love is greater still.

Isn’t it the Bible that says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy going or a clanging cymbal” (I Cor. 13:1)? Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21).

Ten years ago today men, principled in a culture of anger, hostility, suffering and death, hijacked their religion, stole airplanes, flew them into buildings, and took the lives of hundreds and hundreds of innocent people. These men died for their cause. It was an act of faith for them, a sign to the world that all who did not think as they thought were worthy only of death and destruction.

Contrary to the thoughts of many the world didn’t change on September 11, 2001. It just revealed again the depth of perversity that can lead to despicable acts of man’s inhumanity to man. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us the reason humankind can act so inhumane. The prophet writes, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Jesus came to change the human heart, to draw human beings into the very life of God. In HIM people learn to love, accept, and forgive. The people of Jesus are the salt and light of God in the world. We must not be about life the way those who do not believe in Jesus are about life.

We cannot judge anyone, either. This is not our job. Our job is to live and move and have our very lives in the life of Jesus. He defines who we are, how we live, and how we go about life.

On this day of remembrance do not judge. Remember, reflect, mourn, grieve, vent, pray. Dignify the lives and memories of the 2977 people who died that day. Determine, in your heart of hearts that, by the grace and mercy of God in your life, you will not be as those who do not know God. Turn the situation over to God again, and bring the redemptive heart of God into the human situation. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).

Prayer for 9/11: God, help this planet. We do desperately need you. We do desperately need your love and mercy and grace. We don’t seem to catch on to the fact that we are loved by the God of the universe and that You are present to mend our broken lives and to set us on the road to true peace. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Amen

I have lived in the church long enough now to have reached one incontrovertible conclusion – the church is not perfect. Sorry if I caught somebody off guard with that eye opener, although I doubt I did so. One doesn’t have to be around the church long to know that it is filled with imperfect, in-process, broken and real people. If you are looking for a place of perfection, look elsewhere. The church won’t ever rise up to meet your high standard.

This is all very good news, however, because it means that there is room even for you in this imperfect, in-process, broken and real people. There is even room for me? Can you believe that? After all these years I am still stunned that there is a place for me within the family of God.

Jesus tells the members of His church to be patient with each other, to be intentional and relational with each other when someone fails. I’m not sure the church historically has been as faithful to this teaching as it could have been, but it is right there, front and center, in the Gospel (See Matthew 18:15-20). It’s hard to miss it.

There is a place for discipline in the church, and a strategy to which the church must give itself if it is to be faithful to Jesus. There is a place for prayer, too. In fact, prayer is at the foundation of all we do in Jesus’ church.

There is a place, too, for intentional, Christ-centered fellowship, fellowship that gathers, lives and moves in Jesus. It’s more than getting together and sipping on coffee and eating pie. The fellowship to which Jesus calls His church is a fellowship of followers, longing for Jesus to have His way in all things. This is not an addendum to Christianity. This is life lived in such a way that Jesus becomes a part of every thing going on, even in a group of two or three gathered in His name.

The fellowship we share must be shaped and formed around Jesus or we have missed the whole point.

It had to hurt, hearing Jesus say to him, "Get behind Me, Satan" (Matt. 16:23). Peter didn't mean to get it wrong. He was doing the noble thing, really. After all, if you had a friend who said he was going some place to die, wouldn’t you step up and tell that friend, "Not on my watch. I love too much to let you die. I'll do all I can do to keep you alive"?

Yet, Peter had it wrong and if he had had his way, there would be no cross, no redemption, no new life in Christ. It all would have been a tragic failure. So, he hears Jesus saying the jolting words, "Get behind Me, Satan."

Is it possible that our motives might be right but that our actions based upon "good" motives be wrong? Is it possible to love the Christ but misunderstand what it means to love Him? Can we follow a Savior who calls us into that mysterious world called "making hard choices?" Can our love for Him be so deeply a part of who we are that should he call us to what we perceive to be the unthinkable, we still follow Him determinedly?

The way of Jesus led Him to a cross. It had to be; at least it had to be if He was going to obey His Father. Today, the way of Jesus leads us to a cross. Jesus said to Peter and his band of friends, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24). It gets even more descriptive. Jesus says, "Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it…what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (vs. 25).

Sounds like Peter and the disciples have some thinking and praying to do; maybe even some soul searching. Dare we join them? Can we bring our lives into the Christ so fully that everything else pales in comparison to following Him into the destiny He has for us?

Jesus had just affirmed to His disciples that He was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16-17). Then He told them not to tell anyone about it. That’s quite a secret to keep. The most astonishing news the world would ever hear and they were to keep it to themselves for a while.

The Good News was not yet ready to be articulated verbally. First, it had to be lived out. In following Jesus the disciples would learn what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. It needed to become internal before it could have meaning in the external. So, Jesus stayed close to His men, and kept drawing them to Himself, making them into what C. S. Lewis called, “little Christs.”[1]

Preparation is a crucial part of any event. The Christ-event, particularly needs people whose hearts and minds and spirits have been prepared by staying close and living in Jesus.

Dare we say that the Gospel is more caught than taught, not that the two are incompatible. We are taught by catching something, and that something is the very life of Jesus. We see Him, draw near to Him, become captivated by Him, fall in love with Him, and then stake our lives on His claim to be who He is.

If we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, let that reality consume us. Let it envelop us and shape us and form us into “little Christs.” May we live the meaning of it and then put into words what we have already been modeling to those in our sphere of influence.

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[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperSanFrancisco:HarperCollins Publishers), 177, 225.

She was a woman, a Gentile, a descendant of the ancient Canaanites (a people who were enemies of Israel in the past, and whose paganism had often led Israel into idolatry), and she was desperate. Her daughter was suffering something so terrible that the condition was described as being “demon possessed” (Matt. 15:22).

She comes to Jesus, and he seems to be so focused on His mission to Israel that He isn’t interested in this woman or her daughter. She keeps insisting and the disciples get frustrated and ask Jesus to get rid of her. He didn’t make an attempt to get rid of her but he certainly affirmed what the culture of that day said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Matt. 15:26).

We’re not sure all that Jesus intended by that statement, but it sure seems out of character. The woman didn’t care. In fact, she agreed with Him. She knew that in the eyes of the Jewish folks she was less than a dog, but she was desperate, and don’t ever mess with a desperate mom, when her desperation is because of her child. In essence she said to Jesus, “You’re right. I know who I am. I’m a nobody, according to the rules, but my daughter needs help. Even the family pet is allowed to eat food that has fallen on the floor” (See Matt. 15:27).

This stopped Jesus in His tracks, and the story takes an incredible turn. He is stirred by what He hears and tells her, right there in front of all who stood close by that her faith was great, and that she was going to get her request. (Matt. 15:28).

A Gentile woman stuns us by her faith and we see that in the things of God it isn’t our background or cultural situation that matters. What matters is that we have faith in God.

Faith in God is the distinguishing difference.

O, Canaanite woman, your faith is great. They will be telling your story ages and ages hence. They will tell of the day when the doors of the lost sheep of the house of David got blown off their hinges so that forever and ever whosoever will may be.

The God with whom nothing is impossible is among us in the person of Jesus. When Jesus told us to pray for God’s kingdom to come, He also modeled for us what it means for the kingdom of God to be with us. He shows us what the Father is like and how grace and mercy work in the world.

In truth, if we want to know about the kingdom we need to take a long look at Jesus. What is God like? Look at Jesus? What does grace look like? Take a look at Jesus. What does compassion for a broken world look like? Take a look at Jesus. What does honest and authentic humility look like? Take a look at Jesus. What does truth look like? Take a look at Jesus.

At the heart of the Christian faith is the fact that the eternal Word became flesh and blood, and that this Word made His home among us in Jesus (John 1:14). Whenever we see Jesus we see the eternal Word of God, enfleshed, being who He is in the natural order of things, as we perceive the natural order of things.

In this world our lives are covered by God. He is in our story. The question is whether or not we will open our hearts to His presence and let Him be who He is among us. Faith is like that. It embraces Jesus and longs for Him to be Himself in the midst of His people.

When Jesus is present all the possibilities of God are present, too. It is in this light we say that the God with whom nothing is impossible is among us in the person of Jesus. Embrace Him and let Him be Lord in you.

By the time the day ended well over 5000 people were gathered around Jesus, captivated by the fact that He was healing people right there in their presence. But, the hour was late and the disciples suggested to Jesus that He disperse the crown so they could make their way back to their various towns for supper (see the Story in Matthew 14:13-21).

Jesus was considering another alternative, however. He suggested the disciples feed the folks. They gathered up what they could find and managed to retrieve five loaves of bread and two fish. Bad plan, Jesus. Sorry. However, Jesus hadn’t gotten to the plan yet. He told them to bring their food collection to Him. Why? What’s the use? Good grief, when you don’t have enough, you don’t have enough. Then Jesus prayed over the inadequate and far too small offering, and that huge group of folks ate until they were filled, and they still had leftovers.

Moral? I’m not sure Biblical stories like this have a moral so much as a divine insight into the way things are in the Kingdom of heaven. In Jesus’ economy give what you have to Him, let Him pray over it, and then when He gives it back to you, start using it. Don’t sweat the size of the resource until God has mingled and meshed His grace into it.

When the bigness of things seem to be overwhelming place them into the hands of God. Then be faithful and leave results to Him. You are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Don’t be distracted by anything.

In Matthew 6:10 Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come.” This is coupled with the phrase, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s kingdom and God’s will seem to be the two realities that ought to consume the lives of people who dare call Jesus Savior and Lord.

Is there a way for all of life to be lived with God’s kingdom and God’s will as the basic, non negotiable passion and pursuit for a person? This leads to the question about how exactly God’s kingdom is among us and how we can discern it’s influence.

In some of His parables Jesus spoke of how the kingdom is like leaven or a mustard seed; small, almost unnoticeable until it reveals how it is present, and then it’s presence cannot be ignored. At the same time the kingdom is of such value that it would be quite realistic for a person to give their whole life to it; no holding back, no marginalizing, only all out and full commitment to what God is doing in all His creation.

Jesus calls us to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom. This is how important it is to Him. Nothing to the left, nothing to the right; the kingdom of God only. YOUR WILL BE DONE, He prayed. Do what you have to do, sell what you have to sell, jettison anything that stands in the way, and live for the presence of the kingdom of God among us.

Fall in love with Jesus and build your life around the grace of God that comes to us in Him. Nothing to the left; nothing to the right; “Thy kingdom come; they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We Christians need always to remember and to recognize the fact that the enemy of God and His holiness is at work in the world.

The enemy seeks daily to snatch the Word of God out of people, to wear them down through affliction and persecution, and to overcome them with worries about life. According to Jesus the enemy is about the work of sowing weeds in the fields that have been sown with good seeds of wheat (Matt. 13:24-25).

This means that followers of Jesus must always be alert and tuned into the fact that the enemy will not rest as along as there is opportunity for him to do his evil work in the lives of people. Most likely he will seek to work unnoticed, in the darkness, when his presence won't be quite as noticeable as it could be.

Jesus likened the work of the evil one to an "enemy" who came into the field of good seed, when the workers were sleeping, and contaminated the field with weeds. When it was discovered the workers were willing to go back into the field and pull up the weeds. This was too risky, however, because in pulling up the weeds, the wheat itself might be destroyed. So, Jesus said that they should let them grow up side my side. In the right time, the Son of Man will come and do any necessary clearing or separating.

The Church's job description is to stay alert and sharp, to be faithful and diligent. In a world where the enemy is busy doing his thing, and in a culture more than willing to take it all in, Jesus is Lord. Nothing will escape His notice.

Don't despair. Instead, be faithful. God is at work. He knows what's going on.

King David gives us a wonderful word in Psalm 145. In a heart-felt prayer he says to God, “I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever” (vs. 2-3).

Don’t you want to get in on this wonderful celebration? How can we not celebrate our God when “His greatness is unsearchable” (vs. 3)? He is worthy to be praised and so David declares, “Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness”( vs. 6).

God is so good. He is “gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness” (vs. 8). Now we have the wonderful pleasure and privilege of living out the meaning of God’s greatness in the world that has been assigned to us. We get to live for God. Who would have thought it? We get to live for God.

We get to tell the story of Jesus to our generation. We are privileged to be one generation in an unbroken succession of generations that praises the works of God to the generation coming up behind us (vs. 4). We have the awesome privilege of speaking about the glory and power of God’s kingdom (vs. 11).

I want to be a part of that people who live out the Faith with clarity and attraction. God is too good to do anything other than this. Go out this week and make God look good because HE IS GOOD.

As wonderful as is the message of Jesus, it is also that dangerous. It can divide. Many times people who do not believe in Jesus separate themselves from those who do believe. The unifying Christ can become the dividing Christ.

It’s not Jesus came to divide; it is simply the fact that some people want nothing to do with the Good News, and they disconnect in every way shape and form from Jesus and His Word. When this happens it is a sad day.

Jesus knew that following Him would be costly. He never promised His followers their lives would be easy. He told them, in fact, “…he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:38).

Faith is serious business, isn’t it? It is costly. Yet, the promise of Jesus, born of His own cross, is that if people will let go their life in this world, turn it all over to God, and leave consequences of faith, to Him, that they will find their life, really find it, find a life that is filled with eternal implications.

There is no relationship in all the world more important than the relationship between a person and God. When one lets God become every thing to them, they discover that they are free to love and to care and to live in grace. Their lives become a means of grace to others.

Some people may not understand this miracle of grace in a person’s life but those who know Jesus understand, and wouldn't change it for the world.

As the early church was formed Jesus gave the Church a mission statement to go and make disciples, doing two things as their foundation: baptizing these disciples and teaching them. He sent them out to do their work “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). He sent them out with the promise that all authority had been given to Him and that He would be with them even to the end of age (Matt. 28:18, 20).

Christians are a sent people. We live within the authority of Another, the One who sent us. We live and move and have our being in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What we do, we do in the name of the Living and True Triune God.

We best not be about God’s business if we are not living in the Call that has come to us. We live in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We serve in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We teach in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We baptize and worship and consume the Eucharist in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We live out the meaning of our faith in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Any hope we might have of being fruitful for the kingdom of God is dependent upon us conducting our lives in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The hope believers present to the world is rooted and grounded in the triune God, who models for us what it means to love and to heal and to care and to restore and to redeem. In God we see how a perfect community works. There is distinction but there is community and unity and singleness of purpose.

We are rooted and grounded in the community of God, the trinity who gives us our lives. What we do we do because the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have embraced us into the very heart of God, and we cannot stop living out the meaning of what we have experienced.

PENTECOST SUNDAY

Fifty days after Easter we celebrate Pentecost. This day is related to the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot, which remembers and celebrate God giving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt. For Christians this day remembers and celebrates the pouring out of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the resurrection. It is the birth of the Church, God’s Spirit-filled people.

Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit and His indwelling and empowerment of people. It was to people who already believed in Jesus that the Holy came. He filled them with power from on high and set them loose in the world to witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is alive.

Without the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit there is no church. When the Holy Spirit is not the primary influence on a people, that people, regardless of their beliefs, confessions , and actions, are not the church. The church is that people in whom the Spirit of God dwells, through whom the Spirit of God reflects the reality of Jesus, and in whom God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth is praised, celebrated, and honored.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is central to what Jesus came to do. In John 16:7 Jesus said to His disciples, who were confused about His telling them that He was going to go away, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” Fifty days after His resurrection this promise of Jesus came to pass.

Don’t try to live the Christian life with the presence of the Holy Spirit in you. It won’t work. Power to be what God has called us to be is dependent upon the Holy Spirit whom Jesus gives to us Embrace Him, and let God be God in your life.

Who can you trust? This may be the question of the decade. People around the world, even in our beloved homeland, have been betrayed by those to whom they have given their trust. The powerful and influential have exploited their position and have wielded their influence on the backs of common people, people who do not deserved to be treated as if they really don’t matter in the scheme of things.

Suffering is not new; it goes as far back into human history as can be known. It seems to go with the turf of being in a broken world. No one is exempt; no one.

Suffering is a major theme in the Bible. God does not ignore this huge issue, because it is a part of the human experience; it is a part of the Christian experience.

From the early Church right on down to this very morning, Christians have suffered simply because they are Christians. Some of the suffering is regulated by governments, some comes simply because of man’s inhumanity to man.

Suffering is not unique to the Christian but it is such an important theme in Scripture that one would be unwise to ignore the counsel. The letter of I Peter was written to Christians in suffering. Peter told them not to be surprised at the fiery ordeal among them (4:12) but to make sure than always and forever their suffering came not because of some evil action on their part, but because they were seeking to faithful to Christ.

Peter’s word of counsel went further. He told them that they could be sure that God was the One to whom they could entrust their souls, and that He would always do right by them.

Some times life doesn’t make sense and it is hurtful, but on the journey God is with His people, and He can be trusted even with their souls.

I’ve walked by faith in Jesus for quite a while now, and I have matriculated among those who have done the same, and I have reached one conclusion that, I believe, is incontrovertible – We are who we are because of the fact that we live in Christ (See John 15). We abide in Him. We make our home in Him. In Him, we are shaped and formed and enabled to be who we are. Jesus and His church explain our lives. Without Jesus and without the Community shaped by Him, our lives make no sense; at least they shouldn’t make sense.

It is in saying Yes to Jesus’ invitation to live in Him that we find how He actually lives in us. Henri Nouwen said, “God is a God of the present and reveals to those who are willing to listen carefully to the moment in which they live the steps they are to take toward the future.”[1] We are in Christ and as we live the moments of our lives, made possible by living in Jesus, we find our strength, our nourishment, and even the direction we should go in moving into our future.

Jesus speaks of this kind of relationship in the metaphor of a branch abiding in the health of the vine. As the vine goes, so goes the branch. The branch doesn’t drive the vine; the vine drives the branch. In His metaphor Jesus is the Vine and his disciples are the branches. As the Vine goes, so goes the branch. What makes Jesus who Jesus is flows through the rightly connected and abiding branch.

The Word from Jesus is “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). It is a mutual abiding. As we make our home in Jesus, He makes His home in us. The fruit of our lives comes as we abide in Jesus. The love that is in Him flows through us. His desire to keep the commandments of His Father flows through us and enables us to be faithful.

Why did Jesus teach these things. He said, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your Joy may be made full” (John 15:11).

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[1] Henri J.M. Nouwen, In The Name Of Jesus (Crossroad: New York, 1989), 3-4.

Jesus worked quite a few miracles in His life and He did them, it seems, not to demonstrate His great power but, rather, to express His great love … A love that chooses to heal, to restore, to forgive, to accept the downtrodden, to embrace the disenfranchised, and to bring the grace and mercy of God into situations and people.

In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to You, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

I can’t walk on water, I can’t raise the dead, I can’t heal the sick, and neither can you. And, that’s not what Jesus is talking about anyway. But, I can have a heart of love that cares enough to build bridges so that people don’t have to deal with the water. I can’t raise the dead but I can support the efforts around the world to build hospitals and medical clinics that bring the gift of healing into the lives of people, in Jesus Name, people who would not normally have access to health care. I can be a part of a plan to help people do the things necessary to fight off sickness and disease. I can love the unlovely, embrace the lonely, touch the untouchables. I can bring the life of Jesus into my little world by being the kind of person He calls me to be, to love others because they matter to God, and to live in the spirit of grace and love and compassion and mercy in a world where these things are often sacrificed for the wants of the greedy, the powerful, the rich, the haves.

I have concluded, rightly I think, that there is just about nothing a group of Christians , who have been captivated by the authoritative love of God, can’t do if they decide to do it in Jesus’ name. Deciding is the issue. Get a bunch of people who have encountered the living God, and turn them loose on some need, some impossible situation, some hard and difficult problem that needs to be resolved, and they will do what might be considered undo-able by certain onlookers.

In Jesus the Way, the Truth and the Life is among us, and He is present to work His mighty works in a world that seems to be distracted and unmoved. He shows up and does a few things that astound us but more than these, He actually draws near to people and loves them. Who would have thought it? He embraces the outcasts, the lonely, the marginalized, the wealthy, the poor, the healthy, the sick, the Jew and the Gentile. Who would have thought it?

And now He says to us that we will do greater works than these because He goes to the Father. His plan was to pour out His Holy Spirit on His people, and turn them loose in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). They would go in the power of the promise of Jesus, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth… and… I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).

How foolish some Christians must look to the world. Spouting off that the rapture is to take place tomorrow makes even Jesus looked uninformed. Worse, according to the word circulating about, the world (no; that’s not right – the universe itself will be destroyed on October 21, 2011 (153 days after the rapture).

How sad that many who claim the Bible as their Book, have no idea how to read it.

How sad that the one who started the rumor will still have a job on Sunday.

All day tomorrow I think I will just be a clandestine Christian because, quite frankly, I’m embarrassed. I’ll get over it, probably just after I post this, but, good grief, where do these people come from?

Bye, for now. See you on the 22nd right here on the good earth.

Some people view God as hard and demanding, They see God as a rigid taskmaster who has no heart for people but only for what He wants. God, for them, is to be avoided because He just doesn’t care about people or life or anything except what He wants. So, God is to be feared as a tyrant of some kind, just seeking for his opportunity to pounce on anything that might bring a person pleasure.

Jesus knows nothing about that kind of God. That God is as foreign to Him as is the thought that the man in the moon is considering forming a cheese maker union.

The God Jesus reveals to us is a shepherd (Psalm 23) who leads and restores and guides His people. He is the Shepherd who walks with His people “through the valley of the shadow of death” and who comforts His people with a rod and staff of divine proportions. The God Jesus reveals is the One who is so faithful that He overshadows His people with “goodness and loving-kindness,” and when the time of their stay on earth is over He welcomes them to dwell in His house forever.

God is such a shepherd-God than when Jesus spoke of His own life and ministry He called Himself the “good shepherd” (John 10:11), and says that He loves His people, whom He calls His sheep, so much that He lays down His life for them (John 10:11).

There are powers at work in the world present to steal and kill and destroy, but they are not of the Shepherd-God of Jesus. They are of one Jesus called “The thief” (John10:10). Jesus is of abundant life, and He brings into our lives the heart of God who loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

Apparently people don’t have to address God as their Father, but if they do address Him as their Father the apostle Peter calls them to live for Him in the greatest reverence one can imagine. Get real and stay real before God -- that’s the issue. God knows our hearts better than we know them, so get real and stay real before God.

Maybe the question, “Who’s Your Father?” is the most important question. On one level I am a son of Samuel James Savage, Jr. On another and greater level I am a son of the Father who according to His great mercy has caused me to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Pet. 1:3). How I respond to the one who is my heavenly Father speaks volumes about who I am as a person going about my life during the time of my stay on earth (I Pet. 1:17).

Today the Father embraces me in “His great mercy” (I Pet 1:3) and ever reminds me that my life matters more to Him than anything silver or gold might provide. He has redeemed me “with precious blood…the blood Christ” (I Pet. 1:19) and established the life I live, both and now and in the future, upon the marvelous proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ “from the dead” (I Pet. 1:21).

Called to the deepest level of reverence for the God who would love us like that, all persons who “are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory” (I Pet. 1:21) are called to live “in obedience to the truth” (I Pet. 1:22), an obedience that leads us to “a sincere love of the brethren,” a love that calls us to “fervently love one another from the heart”(I Pet. 1:22).

God is an awesome Father and we celebrate Him best when we love one another. We are never more like our Father than when we “fervently love one another from the heart” (I Pet. 1:22). We reveal to the world how important God is to us in the way we love.

Even though they were in the midst of deep suffering and persecution, the apostle Peter called on the people to bless the name of God. How could he do that? Didn’t he know they were suffering? How could he call them to praise and celebration in the midst of such pain? Isn’t that a bit insensitive?

Peter’s response to questions like these is founded in a story that is greater than any immediate story. He shares with the people that in Christ they have come into a new way of living, a way defined by the phrase, “a living hope” (I Peter 1:3). This living hope is rooted firmly in “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Pet. 1:3).

An extraordinary thing has happened in human history and this “thing,” this “resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” sets into motion a reality of life so real that even in the midst of suffering and pain, there is a hope that trumps everything, and ignites a spirit of rejoicing even when one is “distressed by various trials” (I Pet. 1:6).

This life of faith in Jesus is dramatic and wonderful; it is like no other life in the world. It is life lived in all the moments given to us, but it is life invaded by the supernatural life of God in Jesus. We have a living hope that holds us steady in the arms of God, and a promise that there is still more to come.

Today we live in and for Jesus, seeking to allow His life to shape and form us into Christ-like persons. On this journey we “are protected by the power of God” (I Pet. 1:5). Nothing, in the words of the apostle Paul, can “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:39).

Our lives are covered by grace, and we do not walk alone.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is either utter nonsense or the most profound thing ever to happen in the history of the world. Many people live to call it nonsense. Some people live in the manifest glory of that divine reality. Those of us who have believed in Jesus and responded to the call of this resurrected Christ consider it to be the best decision we ever made.

John Henry Jowett writes that "Everything is transfigured in the Risen Christ. Everything is lit up when 'the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings.' Life is lit up, and so is death, and so are sorrow and daily labour and human friendships! Everything catches the gleam and is changed. 'We are no longer of the night, but of the day.' 'Walk as children of light.' 'Awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.'”[1]

Have you caught "the gleam?" Has the glory of God in the face of Christ captured your imagination and captivated your living? Have you let the majesty of this One who died that you might live embrace you in the grace and mercy of God? Have you allowed the Living Christ to enter into the ebb and flow of your life and set you free deep down inside your life where nobody lives but you?

Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to us. Based on this we believe everybody ought to know who Jesus is, why He came, and how He saves. He is God's response to the deepest needs of the human heart, and He lives to bring abundant life.

In the film, "The Shawshank Redemption," one of the characters says to another, "Get busy living, or get busy dying." I like that; and, I, for one, have chosen to "get busy living." God is too good to do otherwise.

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[1] John Henry Jowett, My Daily Meditation, April 10

GOD IS GOOD. This I believe with all my heart. I will go to my grave believing God is good. Human beings are suspect, and one has to be very careful in choosing just whom one will trust, but God is good.

God's lovingkindness is everlasting and the Bible says, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes" (Ps 118:8-9). How do we know this? Because the Bible tells us that it is human beings who rejected the One who was actually God's chief cornerstone," the One who showed us that God is our God (Ps. 118:22, 28).

Knowing that God is good affects those who believe it to the very core of their being. Having tasted the goodness of God, those who call Him their God seek to live in response to that marvelous goodness. How could it be otherwise? Embraced within the loving goodness of God, His grace becomes a way of life for them. It isn't about religion. It isn't about creed. It isn't even about giving oneself to the highest principle possible. It is about being in relationship with the Living God, the Living God who is good.

God is good and He loved the world so much that "He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). On that basis we can trust Him. We can worship Him. We can live for Him. We can say, "The Lord is for me; I will not fear…the Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation" (Ps. 118:6, 14).

All these things caused the psalmist to say, "The Lord is God, and He has given us light…You are My God, and I give thanks to You; You are my God, and I extol You" (Ps. 118:27a, 28).

We live in a busy world that seems never to slow down much. It’s really a 24/7 world. Even the freeways (of Southern California at least) are busy at all hours of the day and night. Busyness seems to be a badge of honor to many people. Cell phones interrupt conversations routinely because the thought of turning them off or placing them on silent mode is simply unthinkable. Many people in our age can’t slow down or intentionally disconnect from the outside world. As a result, we live tired, tense, and frustrated, always wondering why we’re tired, tense, and frustrated.

God has a word for us concerning this. It is the wonderful word REST. The ancient prophet wrote of God, “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3). Jesus said, “I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). These thoughts raise a couple of question. Who do we ultimately trust? On whom do we keep our thoughts centered? The answer we give impacts whether or not the peace of God will be free to embrace our lives.

Personally, I am not asking God for a slower life. I like the fast pace; I enjoy the tempo. I find myself more productive when I am under pressure and must create for myself deadlines, deadlines that keep me focused in a world where distraction comes far too easy. What I am asking for is the presence of God to be so real in me that I will never let anything or anyone jettison Him from being front and center in my life. Some things are non negotiable; this is one of them.

In the midst of noise and busyness our minds and hearts can be fixed on God. Let nothing interfere with this. God Almighty Himself is with us, and His presence is a calming embrace. Let Him embrace you.

As followers of Christ we are on a great journey for God, and we have every right to be excited about it. God has called us to Himself, to join with Him in reaching people for Jesus Christ.

We are a part of a world-wide group of people who believe that Jesus is God’s response to the deepest needs in the human heart. We want everybody to know who Jesus is, why He came, how He loves, and what life exhilarating thing He wants to do in them.

What a wonderful time to be alive, to share the love of God with people. People are looking for spiritual answers, and the people of God are ambassadors of Christ, sharing the Good News with a watching, searching, and hurting world.

God never calls His people to a work in which He is unable to empower them. God is able; always, and without exception. A situation may seem impossible but with God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26). God is not limited.

God is all powerful. The prophet, Jeremiah, prayed “Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You” (Jer. 32:17). Embraced by the amazing power of God let’s enter the arena, make the attempt and do our best.

Jesus is Lord! He is enough.

When Dr. Phineas Bresee was in process of becoming pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Pasadena somebody asked him what he intended to do there. He said he intended, by the grace of God, to make a fire that would reach heaven.

What would our answer be if someone asked us what we intend to do in Pasadena? Personally, I like Dr. Bresee’s answer, and I’m not sure it can be improved on. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize people with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11). In that case, let’s light the fire.

Do we have what it takes to light the fire of God in our town? A good question, but first we ought to ask ourselves whether or not the fire of God is ablaze in our own heart. If it is aflame it is because the Holy Spirit has been set free in us to do the work of God; and when the Holy Spirit is free to do the work of God, watch out because we will find ourselves in the marvelous wonder of divine intervention, guidance, power, revival and, yes, even “the greater works,” Jesus promised His Church would do (John 14:12).

Dr. Bresee’s ministry in Pasadena ended in 1890. Later he would lead an effort to began a new church that would be called, The Church of the Nazarene. Today the work goes on, but I wonder if the fire is still burning. Is it burning with the glorious intensity of the Holy Spirit? Whatever the answer, may God help us to make sure that we are a people who will keep the fire kindled.

Get in touch with God and let Him ignite the fire in fresh new ways. Then let’s do all in our power to be faithful so that the fire will reach heaven.

Have you ever wondered what you might do for God at this particular time in your life? You love Him, you want to serve Him, you want to bring honor to His name. What might you to do put feet to that desire?

Sometimes we think sacrifice is the answer. We’ll sacrifice something just for God, and in that act bring praise and honor to Him. As important as sacrificial living is, however, the Bible sees something more important. I Samuel 15:22 says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Isn’t that interesting?

God wants our obedience and faithfulness more than what we might sacrifice for Him. God wants us to live in His love, giving our lives for what His loves means to us. Sometimes its easier to sacrifice something than it is to live in His love.

How can we best live in the love of God? That’s the question. If I love someone I will do the best I can to honor and to esteem that person. It might mean sacrificing something. It might mean encouraging them or supporting them in something. It might mean coming alongside them and helping them to carry a heavy burden of some kind. What ever the act might be the motive behind it is just as important as is the act.

How do we transfer this kind of love to God? How can we honor Him and esteem Him, and be there for Him? The answer is simple. Love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; do what love calls us to do, and be what love calls us to be.

My love-for-God-questions have come to be, “What I can do for my God today?” What can I do just because I am desperately in love with God? How can I reflect that, with all my heart, I want to live for Him and Him alone?

I look at my world and realize how much it needs a Shepherd and how it doesn’t seem to have the foggiest notion about what it means to pursue the ways of God. On top of that, I look at my world and see that in the way things are now, it seem like it is falling apart.

Psalm 4:2 asks the question, “How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?” That’s a probing question isn’t it? “How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?”

I hear that question and realize that we live in a world where some things are worthless and rooted in lies and falsehood, and those things need to be jettisoned from our lives; dropped out of our life experience because they steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10a). Can’t you almost hear God saying, “Let them go. They are no good for you. Drop the dead weight and be free in your soul”?

Psalm 14:2 says, “The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.” There are many people who simply don’t believe in God or who don’t believe God has a claim to their lives. The Bible says there are people who have “turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Ps 14:1-2). It’s a haunting thought, and it may be the reason behind the fact that God is looking down from heaven for people who understand and who seek after Him.

The question seems to come down to whether or not we will love what is worthless and aim at deception or will we seek after God. That’s about what it comes to, isn’t it? I think people need to ask themselves, “Do I want to live a life that is enveloped by the grace and love of God or am I content to go through my days pretending that everything is okay when deep down inside my life I know things aren’t okay.

Jesus invites us to be enveloped by the grace and love of God.

In a startling statement one day Jesus spoke of certain people whom He said, “..while hearing they do not hear” (Matt. 13:13). It’s a paradox to say the least. To hear but not to hear – there’s the rub.

I've been guilty of it, I'm sorry to say. Somebody said something to me and I said, “Uh huh.” Then a few minutes later reality sinks in and I say to myself, “What did I just say ‘Uh huh” too? I heard but I didn’t hear. The truth is that this aspect of human life may be the most important destructive factor in the breakdown of communication between people.

In Matthew 11:15 (in just one of several places) Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Why would He say this? Could it be because having ears doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is really hearing what is being said.

In Matthew 15:10, at a critical point in a teaching He was giving, Jesus said to the Pharisees and Scribes who were the audience, “Hear, and understand.” I think Jesus knew these people were going to hear the words but that they were not really going to hear what the words were saying. They had ears but they had a most difficult time hearing.

I would suggest that many of us, in some way or another, needs to work on our spiritual hearing -- learning to hear until what we are hearing seeps into the very fiber of our souls and becomes a part of our life experience.

God is saying to His people today, “Hear My Word. By that He doesn’t simply mean “check it out. Peruse it. Glance at it.” He means hear it until it becomes a part of our lives. Hear it out (examine it, scrutinize it, study it, analyze it). Hear it through. Hear it until we know it. Hear it until its ours and we can act upon it.

Listening for the voice of God in our world can be a very challenging thing. Natural distractions are everywhere, competing voices are all around us, and slowing down a bit just to listen seems to be a lost art.

As Christians it is profoundly important that we listen for the voice of God. We believe that God has spoken in Jesus and that Jesus is the Word of God to our lives. In John 6:68 Peter said to Jesus, “You have words of eternal life.” Peter speaks for us in that sentence, doesn’t he.

In John 10:27 Jesus, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” It is the voice of Jesus we know and it is His voice we trust. There are a lot of good voices in the world, good for what they have to say, but there is only one Jesus and His voice is the One Voice we most need to hear.

In Isaiah 30:21 there is a wonderful word from God to His people. The people had come through a difficult time of judgment but God says to them that in the future, “Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” May God gives us all ears to hear that word.

I’m not sure that God shouts a lot. He might, and I wouldn’t rule it out, but most likely God will speak in the still small voice that resonates in our hearts. That’s why a listening spirit is so important to us.

There might be a hundred voices calling out for our attention but because our hearts are tuned to that One Voice, all other voices pale in comparison.

We hear His voice and we follow Him.

A lot of people know about God. Therein lies a huge problem.

People from every walk of life have an opinion about God. Just ask them. Everybody is a theologian and quite ready to debate all comers as to the truth about God.

Having opinions about God does not equate to knowing God, however. Knowing about God (or at least one’s idea of God) can have knowledge, street savvy, old wives tales, a little bit of upbringing thrown in, and who knows what else and, suddenly, we have a walking profundity called, “God According To Me."

Knowing God is a far different matter than having thoughts about God. Knowing God leads to worship not debate, celebration not one-up-man-ship. Knowing God evokes prayer not argument, praise not elitism, and hunger for more of God not an attitude of “That’s my opinion; conversation over."

Interestingly the Bible does not call us to know about God. Once we know Him we want to learn as much about Him as we can, but only because His love has captivated our imagination and satisfied the hunger in our souls. Maybe that is why when Jesus teaches us to pray He does not call us to pray, “O Thou high and omnipotent One. Instead, He calls us to pray, “Our Father.

Until we know the Father we do not know what we most need to know about God.

Do you know the Father today?