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.