Drawing Near

Hi, everybody.

     Vonnie says I need to bring you up to date on my health status.  I think I am finally at a place where I can share it with some degree of clarity.  I also know there are more stories going on in the world than mine, so don't feel obligated to read this.  Sensory overload can be annoying, and I don't want to be annoying to you.

So, for those who might want an update, here is the latest.  I have what is called, "Primary Interosseous Squamous Carcinoma."  It began as a cancer in the oral cavity.  It has returned in the left neck area affecting lymph nodes.  Surgery was conducted on Friday, March 23. 

     I saw my surgeon for a first follow-up visit on March 29 and he told me he felt the immediate result of surgery is progressing nicely and that this part of the journey was successful. My neck is very swollen; this along with the scar from the surgery stares me down every time I look into the mirror. My energy level is nebulous, at best, and demanding great patience on my part -- something that doesn't come easily with me.  

     The sobering news in this is that I will have to have both radiation and chemotherapy.  Radiation I knew about.  We were waiting on the pathology report as to chemotherapy. In the surgery they removed and examined 61 nodes.  Enough of those nodes revealed cancer cells that chemotherapy was determined to be essential to the healing and recovery process.  These treatments will begin in about three weeks or so.  Dr. Kokot told me of possible side effects I should be aware of and that most likely I will have some difficult days, particularly late in the process.   Every person responds individually, however, so we'll see when it is time to cross that bridge.

     This is the physical side of the story.  Thank God, however, that there is more to life than the physical.  Truth is that what makes the physical tolerable, even thrilling and blessed, is that the Divine has entered into the physical world, and lives here.  Our world has been invaded by the Maker of heaven and earth.  In Christ, so says Mr. Wesley, "He…emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race." So present is God in the human situation that we are free to pray, in the words of Augustus Toplady, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee."  How many times I have prayed this prayer and found God to open the door of His grace and welcome me into the place of divine protection, love, and mercy.
     The writer of Hebrews says, "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews. 4:15-16). 

     This is a time of "drawing near" for me, a time of hearing the voice of my "great high Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God" (Heb. 4:14).  I am comfortable within the embrace of God, and come what may, nothing can snatch me out of the "Rock of Ages, cleft for me."

     I don't like what is happening to me; in fact, there are moments when, quite frankly, it infuriates me.  Don't think for a moment that I am taking all these things too lightly; I am not.  At the same time it is the conviction of my heart that Jesus Is Lord.  On the mountain or in the valley Jesus Is Lord.  Cancer is not Lord.  It has a big bite and announces itself with a big bark, but it is not Lord.  Jesus Is Lord.  In this light, Martin Luther has given me the words for my testimony as I walk this valley of deep darkness.  He said,

“Feelings come and feelings go,
and feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God--
Naught else is worth believing.


Though all my heart should feel condemned
for want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.


I'll trust in God's unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!”

            Thank you, Mr. Luther.  I'm in --- 100%.  As Eliza Hewett wrote in 1891,

My faith has found a resting place—
Not in device or creed:
I trust the ever living One—
His wounds for me shall plead…

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.

     That's it for now.  God bless you all.

FORWARD STILL,

Rick

The "Even Though"

 Sometimes life takes us where we don't want to go.  Powers greater than ourselves speak and we find that whether or not we like it a journey has been give us.  The only thing we can do is decide how we will walk that journey.

           

David's testimony has become the testimony of countless millions of people; it is certainly mine -- "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, You are with me" (Ps. 23:4).  What a profound hope we have in Christ, our Shepherd.  Everyone who trusts in Christ says, "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (Ps. 23:6). 

           

In Christ, we are not defined by what happens to us.  We are defined by Who walks with us.  Valleys come and valleys go but Jesus sticks with us "closer than a brother" (Prov. 18:24).  He says to us when we are on the journey, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heaven-laden, and I will give rest" (Matt. 11:28).  Each day He gives us strength for the journey.  Each day He lives in us as Lord and Savior.

Because of Jesus I can say,

Nothing that happens can hurt me

Whether I lose or win;

Life may be changed on the surface,

But I do my main living within.[1]

           

Because of Jesus we can say (and may I personalize it),

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
I have already come.
T''was Grace that brought me safe thus far...
and Grace will lead me home[2].

---

[1] This poem was written by the grandfather of a college roommate, David Rodes.  Dr. R.C. Gunstream was a District Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene, a great pastor, and a wonderful man of God.

[2] Third verse of Amazing Grace by John Newton, 1779.

 

Mind-Boggling Grace

 

It’s a story of outrageous, mind-boggling grace.  It makes skeptics laugh out loud, the doubter question the logic of it all, and believers to bow before Jesus and call Him Lord.  The thought of feeding over five thousand people with a small boy’s lunch of a couple of sardine-size fish and five small barley loaves, is a bit much, don’t you think?

           

Then, again, the whole of idea of God coming into history in the person of Jesus is a bit much.  Feeding five thousand people is a minimal concern if the incarnation of God into history really did, in fact, occur.   If Jesus really is God with us there is something more going on by the Sea of Galilee than who is buying lunch—something wonderful and mysterious and powerful and God-like?

           

By sunset the people were reaching conclusions about Jesus, one of them being, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14).  They saw something that made them think more deeply than about their hungry tummies.  They saw God in Jesus that day.

           

Interestingly enough when John tells this story he doesn’t call it a miracle, like we do.  He called in a “sign” (vs. 14).  It was sign to point them to something deeper than the need for lunch.  They needed God, and they needed God now.  They didn’t need a miracle worker, they needed God.    

           

By the way, we don’t need a miracle worker either.  We need God.  We need to humble ourselves before God and let God do what God does.  We need to let God be God in us.  If God gives you a lunch today enjoy it, but know that you will be hungry by sundown.  However, if He gives you the bread of His life, you will never go hungry again in your inner being.  At Sundown on all the days yet to come, you will still be satisfied because in Him you have “eternal life” (John 6:54).

Good Business or Good Faithfulness

Jesus caught a lot of people off guard one day when he walked into the temple in Jerusalem and saw that it had been turned into a business center.  Watching the activities of selling and purchasing sheep and doves and oxen, animals essential to the Passover meals, He made a whip of certain cords at His disposal and cleared the temple, turning over tables and pouring out coins and seeing to it that bodies were scampering for safety.  As he did so someone heard Him say, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business” (Luke 2:16).

The authorities approached Him and demanded He tell them by what authority He was acting in such a way.  He told them He was acting on the authority of a greater temple then the one they were violating.  He was acting on the authority of His own life, a life that, upon dying, would rise again in three days.  It took them forty-six years to build the temple they finally hijacked and turned into a place of business.  It would take Him three days to conquer the wages of sin, death, and rise up to establish Himself once and for all forever, as King of kings and Lord of lords.

During the midst of the activities that day in the temple Jesus’ disciples remembered something from their Scriptures about the coming Messiah, “Zeal for Your house Will consume Me.”  What Jesus did that day was an act of faithfulness to the Father and a reminder that the ways of God can’t be short-circuited, and that using the ways of the world to accomplish the will of God is not acceptable.  It might be good business but it is not good faithfulness.

In Isaiah 56:7 our Scriptures tell us, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."  Everything the church does, all she might possess, the actions she might take, the life she lives must take into consideration that the greater Temple is our Temple, and His name is Jesus; and, Jesus calls us to let the Church be the Church. 

Embraced By Grace

Platitudes and I don't get along too well.  There is no place in faith for empty comments, trivia, clichés, banality.  Life is too real, the consequences too serious, the battle too intense, and the implications too eternal, to major on minors or to reduce God down to bumper sticker theology. 

In this very real and troubled world we find ourselves enveloped in harsh realities of a thousand kinds.  Followers of Christ are not exempt.  There are forces at work ranging from tribulation to distress to persecution to famine to nakedness to peril and to sword (see Roman 8:35). If you have not made peace with this yet, do it soon.

Make peace with something else, also.  In the mist of all these dangers, in Christ "we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Rom. 8:37).  Our lives are embraced by grace and in the magnificent power of God there is nothing, in and of itself, that can take us down -- "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing" (Rom. 8:38-39). 

Is this a too reckless optimism?  I think not.  When Jesus was raised up from the dead He set into motion a reality that trumps every other reality.  The image of a resurrected Lord is stamped onto every event life might throw at us.  Even death itself is not longer the enemy that does us in.  Jesus is so much Lord that He said, "He who believes in Me will live even if he dies" (John 11:25). 

None of us is going to get out of this physical world alive.  None of us have to see tragedy and death as the final statement about our lives.  The free grace of God is extended and every one of us is invited into fellowship with God, a fellowship that ultimately and finally is stamped in a victory won for all eternity.

PS:  To read the entire Romans 8:31-39 passage click here.

The Distance God's Love Will Go

I Peter 3:19 is intriguing.  It tells us that in the time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus went to the people who had been unreceptive to God during the time of Noah and the building of Ark.  He preached to them there.  We don't know what He said or the purpose of his presence there.  Maybe we're not supposed to know.  Maybe we're suppose to read the story and marvel at the grace of God, and the distance He will go to invite people into His grace.    

At any rate, we do see at least two things.  First, God doesn't write people off but will go the distance to do everything possible to draw them to Himself.  Maybe that's why John Newton called it "Amazing Grace."  Secondly, we see the work of grace in the lives of people who do respond to Jesus.  As the Ark saved Noah and His family so baptism into Christ saves you and me. 

  

It is impossible to think of Jesus correctly without seeing in Him the One who "died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God" (I Pet. 3:16).  It is impossible to think of Jesus correctly without seeing Him alive because of the resurrection (I Pet. 3:21).  It is impossible to think of Jesus correctly without seeing Him "at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him" (I Pet. 3:22).

  

Our world is in such a mess and is in such great need of a Savior that we dare not proclaim Jesus to be less than He is.  It is no time to be politically correct.  People need to know that sin is their greatest enemy, that death is in their future, and that only God's grace can save them.      

Proclaim it from the mountaintop, "Jesus Is Lord." 

Promises, Promises, Promises

Over the years I’ve heard people say things like, “God is good; all the time God is good.”  I agree, hook, line, and sinker.  I would like to add another affirmation, however.  “God is faithful; all the time God is faithful.” 

Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”  In a troubling world where truth is becoming more and more blurred, God speaks the truth.  He does not lie.  He has nothing of which to repent.  In Jesus he has fleshed out the meaning of truthfulness so much so that Jesus said of Himself, “I am the truth” (John 14:6).

Perhaps this is why the apostle Paul spoke to the early church about the faithfulness of God.  He speaks a word and it is sealed. It can be counted on.  His promises are valid and we can building our lives on them.

In Jesus “as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes” (2 Cor. 1:20).  Isn’t that an interesting way of articulating a profound truth?  God has given us promises and those promises are the foundation of our lives in Jesus.  The apostle Peter said that God “has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Pet. 1:4).

God is with us day by day, in every way, always being true to His Word and consistent with His promises. We may be inundated with the harsh realities of life, but God is faithful.  We may be knocked to the ground because of the hard blows of life, but God is faithful.  We may question the inconsistencies of life in a dangerous world and  the ways of evil people who would prey upon the innocent, but God is faithful.

Our problem is never God.  Our problems are rooted in a world system that refuses to embrace the God who is faithful.  Let that cycle be broken in the Church where Jesus is Lord.

Intentional Faithfulness

 Athletes know the value of discipline, self-control, and pursing goals.  Followers of Jesus Christ ought to know the value of these things, also. In I Corinthians 9:26 Paul says, "I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air." 

Purpose, methodology, drive, design, practice, wisdom, all these are a part of an athlete mastering his or her sport.  They are a part, also, for those who have come to Jesus Christ, trusted in Him for the salvation of God, and are seeking to live the abundant and eternal life graciously bestowed on them by God.

How important is this kind of focus?  Paul thought it was very important.  In Corinthians 10:12 he counseled the early church, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall."  We Christians are not invincible and invulnerable, and we are quite capable of being distracted or, worse yet, thinking that we are better than we really are.  So, let him who thinks he stands take heed! 

Let's take our faith seriously, and embrace a lifestyle that draws us closer and closer to the heart of the God who has entered into our story so that He may draw closer to us.  If Jesus is all we say He is, may our love for Him move us to practice the kind of lifestyle that will enhance His life in us and deepen the relationship we have with Him.           

Today, let's be intentional in our walk with Christ.  We have trusted in Him; now let's live out the meaning of that trust.

What Can I Do For My God Today?

The apostle Paul said to the early church, “I have a stewardship entrusted to me” (I Cor. 9:17).  With that clarity in mind he stepped into the history of the Church and became an evangelistic and Church planting voice, with implications still being realized even at this late date.

So committed to that “stewardship” was Paul that he said, “I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it” (I Cor. 9:23).  He defined himself by the presence of God in his life, and any action that was inconsistent with God’s presence was jettisoned away. His heart beat to introduce people to Jesus Christ. 

But, we’re not Paul.  God has not called us to shake the foundations of the world as He seemed to do in Paul.  Or has he?  Could it be that in our own sphere of influence we, too, can truthfully say, “I have a stewardship entrusted to me”?  I may not be Paul, but I am me.  The Holy Spirit dwells in me, and calls me to Himself.  Isn’t that true for all of us who have dared trust in Jesus Christ?

Is it not true that even in our limited sphere of influence God calls us to “do all things for the sake of the gospel”?  Isn’t it true that God has so impacted our lives by His grace that it is unthinkable we should do anything that would not elevate that grace in our world? 

The Gospel song says, “Living for Jesus—O what rest!  Pleasing my Savior, I am blest.  Only to live for Him alone, Doing His will till life is done!”  So, we say, along with Paul, I do all things for sake of the gospel.”[1]

What can I do for my God today?

---

[1] “Living For Jesus,” by Charles F. Weigle, 1903; verse 2

Who Is Trustworthy

God is the God of righteousness, holiness, and truth.  There is nothing in the world that does more harm to human beings than unrighteousness, unholiness, and untruthfulness.  Jesus said it was "truth," when known, that would make people free (See John 8:32).  It wasn't a new thought with Jesus.  It was a thought rooted and grounded in the Old Testament.  It was a foundational thought with Moses as he prepared to die and to turn the reigns of leadership of Israel over to the next generation.

           

In his parting messages to the people Moses told them to pay attention to His prophets and to do what they called the people to do.  This raised the question of how to discern whether or not someone was really a prophet of God .  How would the people know a true prophet?  How do we know when someone is really speaking the truth of God?  It is easy to say words, but how do we know they are true words? 

           

For the people of Israel the test was somewhat simple.  If the words spoken by the so-called prophet did not come to pass, that person was determined to be a false prophet, and was not to be followed.  Sometimes it took a while to discern the truth because words were spoken and give opportunity to be fulfilled.

           

Moses said to Israel that God was going to "raise up a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen; you shall listen to him" (Deut. 18:15).  We Christians believe the One God raised up is no one less than Jesus, the Messiah. In John 12:49-50 Jesus said, ^"For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

           

The beautiful thing about Jesus is that He brings to us the Word of the Father.  In John 10:30 Jesus said, "The Father and I are one."  There is no discrepancy between the Son and the Father.  A holy, righteous, and truthful God came among us in Jesus the holy, righteous, and truthful Son.  He can be trusted.  You can build your life on Him.

HOPE

 

C. S. Lewis wrote, “Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

Hope enables us to live fully alive in the present.  When one loses hope, death is not far behind. So it is the Psalmist wrote of hope when he spoke of God saying things like, "There is forgiveness with You…In His word do I hope…With the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption" (Psalm 130).

The psalmist was in the place of pain and suffering, "the depths," he called it.  He knew he needed God, and he knew he didn't deserve God.  Still he prays, "Lord, hear my voice!"  From the depths he didn't run away from God but to God.  He didn't bail out on God, but opened his heart wide to God.  He didn't give up or give in; he simply embraced the God of his hope, and decided that the future rests with those who trust in God. 

Instead of throwing in the towel he turned to God with a dogged determination.  As a watchman late in the night waits for the morning light, the psalmist waited for God.  He may be in the depths tonight, but tonight is not Lord.  God is His Lord.  The last word hasn't yet been spoken.  "The depths," will not be the last chapter.  He will live tonight and tomorrow in the hopeful expectation that with God "is abundant redemption."  That is enough.  Rather, HE is enough.

And Word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent (I Samuel 3:1). A sobering thought, isn't it? It was a somewhat quiet time in Israel, not too much going on, for good or ill. The silence of God, however, can depict a problem on the listening end of things; not always mind you, but it can indicate slothfulness in obedience and laziness in zeal for God.

In Israel's case the silence of God indicated a time of inner rebellion and what came to be a crying out to have a king like all the other kingdoms had. God wasn't enough for them. They wanted a king and a palace and all the trappings of a monarchy. God will give them that for which they seek, but in preparation for it, He comes into the story one quiet night and speaks; speaks of all things to a young child, a boy by the name of Samuel.

Three times, Samuel heard the voice but didn't know it was God's voice. Finally, his mentor, Eli, discerned that it must be God's voice, and he counseled the child to listen carefully again and that, if the voice should call him again, he should say, "Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening" (I Sam. 3:9).

And, that's what Samuel did. He said, "Speak, for Your servant is listening." That response opened the door for God to use Samuel for the rest of his life in wonderful and astounding ways. He anointed Saul as Israel's first king. When Saul forfeited his kingship because of rebellion, Samuel was the one who saw in David the man of God's choosing to be the next king, the king through whom the Messiah would eventually come.

It was when the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord that God entered into the story and called him. May God help us to be caught up in ministering and living for God so that in our day should he choose to call our name we will hear His voice and say from our heart of hearts, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening."

A Setting-Free God

We Christians believe Jesus is the Servant-Messiah. We believe Jesus is God’s response to the deepest needs of the human heart. In Jesus the deepest needs of our lives are met; they are met with a tenderness that leaves us stunned and amazed.

Isaiah says of the Servant, "A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (3). In the Servant God doesn’t push and shove. He doesn’t demand His pound of flesh. He doesn’t bark orders like a drill sergeant. He draws near and embraces. Isaiah 40:11 says, “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”

As Christians we believe our God is a setting-free God, but we also know that setting-free is a difficult business because we humans are a broken and damaged people who act strong but know we really aren’t, who look great but know we really aren’t as great as we look. This makes redemption a real challenge because in telling us the truth about ourselves and holding us accountable, God must not so handle us that we get lost in despair. If His goal is redemption He must come within our fractured lives and show us the way to healing and redemption.

So Jesus comes gently, quietly, lovingly to open the prison doors and the self-dug dungeons of our lives. The past does not have to control the future. The future can be defined by what God has done for us in Christ. The past may be awful; the future can be stamped with the glory of God. God says, “Now I declare new things” (Is. 42:9).

What new thing does God want to bring to pass in your life just because He loves you? Can you accept the fact that God accepts you? Will you receive a new future, one shaped and formed by amazing grace?

“It is good,” says the ancient poet, “to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and praise is becoming” (Psalm 147:1). Why is it the poet reaches this conclusion? He answers the question himself when he says, “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite” (vs. 5).

This would be enough but when one adds the personal concern of this God who is “Great,” it becomes amazing and magnificent. The Psalmist says of God that He “heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds….The Lord supports the afflicted; He brings down the wicked to the ground” (vs. 3-6).

God is not distant and removed from our lives. He is a God who draws near in our pain and heals broken hearts and wounded lives. He is Sovereign over all, and unites His own life with our lives with divine-size strength and understanding.

We live in a dangerous world where bad things happen everyday, senseless things that leave us bewildered and perplexed. It is the fruit of living in a broken and fallen world. Still, God does not abandon us. He comes to us in the baby of Bethlehem and inundates Himself into history, so that, in time, He will take our pain and suffering, our sins and humanity, and die upon a cross “for Adam’s helpless race.”

“Amazing love! How can it be?"

In our culture, at Christmas we exchange gifts, a wonderful expression of love. Yet, as Christians we really ought to jettison out of our communities any hint of a high jacked holiday. How might we go about this, though? Culture is a powerful presence and it takes some work to move it off center stage and onto something nice but not essential.

For four weeks followers of Jesus have journeyed through Advent. We’ve prayed and searched and hoped and looked forward to a time and place where the kingdom of God in all its glory will be the natural order of things. Celebrating Jesus’ birth into history helps us realize that God is in the midst but that there are miles to go before we sleep.

We think it unselfish to give gifts; and it is. Yet, perhaps we ought to recognize that Christmas isn’t about us and our unselfishness. Christmas is about the Self-giving, Self-sacrificing love of God for his creation, moving Him into the very fiber of what He created. Christmas is about what God gave to the world in the life of the Baby whose birth we choose to celebrate on December 25.

Look at what God has gifted us with in the life of this baby boy. Paul wrote, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (I Cor. 1:30). Now these are some real gifts. The prophet, Isaiah, tells us this child is a “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Is. 9:6). This drives home the point that God is the Giver of everything we most need.

May God help us to receive what He has given and to live and move and have our being in the depths of His amazing grace.

King David wanted to build God a house of worship. It made sense in a way. David knew that while He was living in a house of cedar that the ark of God was dwelling “within tent curtains” (see. 2 Samuel 7:2). This didn’t seem right to David, and he wanted to correct it.

It was a noble idea but it wasn’t God’s will for David. God wanted to do not a physical thing in David’s life but a deeply and profound spiritual thing. He would allow a temple to be built but that job would fall to David’s son, Solomon.

Then a tremendous role reversal takes place. God says to David, “The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you”(2 Sam. 7:11). David is to be gifted with a house built by God. Of this house God says, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:16).

God is doing something in the world that is not rooted and grounded in the things of the world. God is at work in the hearts and lives of people, a people who actually become His “Chosen Race,” His “royal Priesthood,” His “holy Nation,’ and “a people for God’s own possession” (I Pet. 2:9). The house that God builds is “a spiritual house” comprised of people who have come to Christ, “ a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God” (I Pet. 2:4-5).

This house is comprised of what the Bible calls, “living stones,” ordinary people who by an extraordinary and amazing Grace have received mercy so as to come alive in the very life of God. The good news in this is that you and I are invited to be that people.

Merry Christmas!

Did you know God is looking for a people in whom He can rejoice? In Isaiah 65:19 God says, “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people.” He said this just after having challenged these very people, “Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing” (vs. 18).

Our God is a rejoicing God. He calls His people to rejoice in what He creates, with the promise that He will rejoice in those people. Who are these people? They are the very people to whom earlier He had said, “Comfort, O comfort My people…Here is your God” (Is. 40:1, 9).

Our God is an up-close-and-personal-God. He is not aloof and disinterested. When we are taken through the hard times of life He does not forsake us; He draws near. Even when we can’t see Him, He is present, “like a shepherd” (Is. 40:11). When we are broken and hurt, fractured and wounded “in His arms He will gather His lambs and carry them in His bosom” (Is. 40:11).

God is so much with us that we can join the prayer of old and pray, “O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand” (Is. 65:8). God is with us in the everyday stuff of life--the good, the bad, and the ugly; and He is with us in grace to shape and form our lives in awesome ways we could never dream or imagine.

In the Advent season of waiting, longing, looking forward, and hoping, God Is With Us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us (see. Psalm 23:4). In the presence of powers that would seek our demise God invites us to a divine banquet. He is our shepherd anointing us with the oil of His Spirit so much so that our “cup overflows” (Ps. 23:5).

How do you perceive God? Is He hard and cruel and unbending? Some people think so. Yet, the Bible doesn’t present this picture of God. The Bible presents Him as one who is calling for wholeness and health and life and blessing. He works so as to remove all barriers to His “good and acceptable and perfect will” (see Rom. 12:2). He lives in His world in truthfulness and justice, and at the heart of all He does is redemption, love, forgiveness, and salvation from anything that would destroy His “good and acceptable and perfect will” from being realized in the lives of people.

We live in a world where “the grass withers, the flower fades.” It is a transient world and everything moves toward the day of its death. That seems to be a fatalistic way of seeing, but it really isn’t. In this transient and temporary world the eternal God of the universe has come. He hasn’t written off the world. Rather, He is here “with might” (see Isaiah 40: 8-10). He is present as a Shepherd taking care of His flock. God is not hard, cruel, and unbending. When He is present the word goes out, “Comfort, O comfort My people” (Is. 40:1).

God is present. This is the good news. He is here not to write off but to include. Are you broken at some point in your life? Your brokenness cannot deter God. Are you bruised by some past action? Your past cannot deter God. Do you feel helpless? Your helplessness cannot deter God.

Listen for the voice of God, and hear His Word. If you do you will discover “the glory of the Lord” (Is. 40:5). Could it be that God is wanting to say to you that your “warfare has ended” (Is. 40:2)? Is there something in your life God wants to clean out and jettison away so that His “good and acceptable and perfect will” might be done (Rom. 12:2)? Each of our has our own story. God is aware of it, and is present to speak His grace into our lives.

A wonderful hymn reminds us of the birth of Jesus. I love the hymn but there is something about it that doesn't set well. Some of the words are these:

All Your works declare Your glory;

All creation joins to sing.

Praise resounds as earth rejoices

In the birth of Christ, the King.[1]

To these words my heart says "Yes," but I know many people on the earth do not rejoice in Jesus birth. They want very little to do with Jesus, in fact. To them He is an inconvenience, an ancient relic too old for our world and too demanding to be taken seriously.

In the end, however, each of us must decide for ourselves what we shall do with the baby born in Bethlehem. Shall we ignore Him? Shall we let the story rest in peace and move on to what we perceive to be greater things? Shall we follow His life far beyond the manger to see where it takes us? Shall we fall before Him and call Him Lord? What shall we do with Jesus?

For one thing, we ought not to let others determine for us what we shall do with Jesus. Those of us, who fall before Him and call Him Lord, do it because we know He is the Lord. He is the best thing that has ever happened to us. He has spoken His peace into our lives and it has forever changed us for the good.

What shall we do with Jesus? Those of the earth may or may not rejoice; but we will rejoice. We will sing, "Joyful, joyful, we adore You, God of glory, Lord of light," and we do so with hearts set on fire by His life and light and joy. He has not dealt with us according to our sins and He has received us to Himself as the Messiah, Lord of lords and King of kings.

Joy to the world!

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[1] "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You," words by Linda Lee Johnson, 1985, music by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824, arr. By Edward Hodges, 1864

Never before has there been a more measurable spiritual search in the lives of the people in our culture than there is today. People are hungry for spiritual meaning and purpose. Life hits people hard at all levels of society and no one is exempt from the realities of life. People are searching.

People are looking for the truth about things. They're not looking for membership and institutions and "big brother" answers. They are looking for hope. People want meaning and purpose; and Jesus Christ, perhaps unbeknownst to them, is exactly what they are looking for.

The poet said,

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.[1]

People need a vital and living relationship with the God of all grace, not a rigid set of religious rules that take them from one set of bondage producing things into another set.

The apostle Paul says, "It was for freedom Christ has set us free" (Gal. 5:1). That's why the message of Jesus is powerful for today. Jesus takes people to the truth and then by that truth, sets them free.

I have a lot to be thankful for, and this truth is at the top of my list.

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[1]. Verse 3 of “Rescue the Perishing” by Fanny Crosby, 1869