THOUGHTS ABOUT THE WORD OF GOD

Pastor Dave shared a powerful message with us this past weekend dealing with a question that always seems to be present.  It has to do with whether or not the Bible is God’s inspired Word.  Is it reliable?  Is it factual?  Can it be trusted?  Was it compiled simply for the convenience of the church as some carefully orchestrated propaganda?  What do we do with the Book that a dramatic and ongoing movement in history says is the Word of God?

           

How one responds to the Bible seems to be a matter of either faith or skepticism.  Doesn’t seem to be much middle ground about this book.  People either love it or hate it.  More specifically, people seem either to live by it or to ignore it. 

One ancient spokesman chose to believe the Word of God, and to live by it.  He spoke so clearly about it that his words have become foundational words to people who believe in God and, also, that God is working in the world.  He said to God, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  (Psalm 119:105). 

Pastor Dave got us to thinking about what lamps and lights we have tried in our lives.  What is my LAMP?  What is my LIGHT?  Something is lighting the way for us in our world.  From what source do we get our wisdom?  What lamp have we chosen to light the path in front of us?  What light do we allow to shine in front of us that becomes a light to illuminate the path on which our feet walk? 

How might you complete the following sentence?  “__________ is a lamp to my feet and light to my path.”  In other words, “__________ is the foundation upon which I am building my life.”  None of us can see even sixty seconds into the future.  Based on this sobering reality what will we allow to be the lamp and light we trust in our journey through life?

In Jesus’ story of the prodigal son we see the journey of a young man who felt that the lamp and light, which lit his way, were insufficient for him.  He asked his father for what belonged to him, and off he went to seek a lamp and light that would better fulfill his needs and wants.  When the money ran out the new lamp and light faded, and the young man finds himself in desperate straits.  He enters into a deeply troubled time.  After struggling and suffering for a time Jesus said the young man “came to his senses” (Luke 15:17).  He came to see, through the school of hard knocks, that not all truth is equal, not all truth is all it announces itself to be.

The young man returns home in hopes that he might find an answer to his dilemma.  Upon arrival he discovers something he didn’t expect.  He sees his father so excited to see him that he throws a banquet for him.  This father is so thrilled that his son is home he celebrates and rejoices.  The young man discovers that his father loves him so much he is invited back into the family fold.  He is a son, after all, a son who is loved, accepted, and forgiven.

In his prodigal life the son chose poorly.  He walked away from the blessings, safety, and energy of home and sought another path.  He followed other lamps and lights, and they led his path to a pigpen and a sense of utter separation and disconnection. When he “came to his senses” the young man saw a truth that is eternal and not temporal and relative.  He saw love in action.  As listeners to Jesus’ story we see a love affair between God and His people. 

We’re back to the question of what we will allow to be the lamp and light that shine on our path.  Like the prodigal we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. We’ve all followed our own way, pursued our own quest, and lived separated from the Father.  Now we have a choice, a choice to live in tune with the Father or in discord with the Father.  As Pastor Dave suggested we can be king of our own dysfunction if we want to.  There are pigpens all around us that would love for us to dwell in them.  Or, we can come home to the Father who loves us with an everlasting love (See Jeremiah 31:3). 

Jesus is calling us home to the Father.  His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path that doesn’t lead us to pigpens but to love, safety, life, energy, wholeness, renewal, transformation – HOME.

Once upon a time there was this father who lived in outrageous love, and His Word was so truthful and powerful and transformative that it offered itself as a true foundation upon which people could build their lives. 

Did you ever read something and think, “Man, I wish I had said that”?  Years ago I ran across a paragraph that had me saying to myself, “Man, I wish I had said that.”  On top of that we don’t know who said it; so I don’t know whom to credit. This being said here is that paragraph about the Bible.  As you read it please remember the words of the psalmist, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

"This Book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity.

Forward Still,

Rick

THOUGHTS ON GOD'S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Pastor Dave’s message of this past weekend was about the unconditional love God has for us.  I’ve believed in the unconditional love of God my entire Christian life.  I’ve heard it preached my whole life, and have even preached on it myself.  Still, as I set there this weekend and soaked in the Word I found myself overwhelmed again “that God should love a sinner such as I.”  In and of myself, I don’t get it.  It doesn’t make sense.  It doesn’t compute.  The One who knows me best chose not to write me off but to embrace me in His love.  Who would have thought it?  

This weekend we reflected on Jesus’ story about a son and how his journey took him far from home, left him wasted and worn, and then after much pain and suffering turned him homeward only to find that his father was waiting for him, longing for his return, hoping against hope that his son would find his way home, thrilled that his son who had been lost was now found.

In the story the father represents God, and we see that God is the God who doesn’t write us off but who opens wide His arms to receive us to Himself.  I feel like that prodigal.  I’ve made poor decisions and acted in unbecoming ways.  Sin found its way into my heart and took control.  Yet, by a grace I don’t understand and a love that blows me away, God has never walked out on me.  He has never acted in an unbecoming way to me.  He has never dropkicked me out into the darkness, leaving me to wander aimlessly.  When I have wandered, and I have, it wasn’t God’s doing.  It was mine.  When I came to my senses, like the prodigal in Jesus’ story, and realized that it was my choices that led me to wander, I discovered the up-side-down ways of God.  He loved me.  He cared about me.  He wasn’t against me.  He was for me.  The poet got it right when he said of God, 

And now He takes me to His heart a son. 


He asks me not to fill a servant’s place. 


The “Far-off country” wand’rings all are done. 


Wide open are His arms of grace.

Did you know the prodigal had a brother who had his own issues?  He didn’t like it much that the father went easy on the run-away brother.  He didn’t like it at all, and made his feelings known.  His argument went something like this, “I’ve been here all the time.  I didn’t reject you and waste money on endless parties.  I stayed home and worked my heart out.  Why are you treating my brother with such extravagant love?” 

The father gently reminded his second son that all he had was there for him to use and enjoy. He said to him, “You have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31). The actions of the first son and the attitude of the second son were their issues.  The father loved them both through and through, and in his heart there was always a place for them.  His home was their home.  He wasn’t the problem; he was their hope, their place of safety, their father.

In this world we do seem to reap what we sow but we are never outside the love of God.  “For God so loved the world,” is our proclamation (John 3:16). God’s Word to all creation is, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). When Paul was speaking to the early church he said, “[T]he love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5).

George Matheson’s song, written in 1882, reflects upon the incredible love of God for us.  In fact, it is a response to God’s great love.  When we come to believe God really does love us, how should we respond?  Matheson said this,

O Love that wilt not let me go, 


I rest my weary soul in thee; 


I give thee back the life I owe, 


That in thine ocean depths its flow


May richer, fuller be.

If you are the child that ran away or the child that stayed home, know this -- God loves you.  In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer says

It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God

that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men…

Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever.

Do you know what this means.  It means God loves you, and you can’t get out of it.

Forward Still,

Rick

To Worship Is To Serve

October 2, 2013

Pastor Dave wrapped up our series on worship on September 29 by sharing with us about our place in the body of Christ and of how we need each other.  He referred us to First Corinthians 12 and Paul’s teaching about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Here are a few of those verses.

4-7 

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work… 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

12-14

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many…

27-31

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Disciples of Jesus are a part of something God-created.  This something is not a thing at all but a “body.”  We are “the body of Christ.”  Each of us has a part to play, an essential part.  Paul tells us there are different gifts and different kinds of service and different kinds of working, “but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” 

Is Christ your Savior and Lord?  If so, then He has given you a way to participate in the His body, the church, on earth.  His Word calls this way, “gifts.”  Everyone of us is needed to make the church all it should and can be.  We each have a different role, a different part to play, but regardless of where we are placed we can be confident that, in Christ, our lives are filled with the Spirit of God and that His Spirit is gifting us into all that we can be.

When each of us shows up being who we are and doing what we do in the power of the Holy Spirit God, the possibilities of God fill His body, the church, and we come to that place where we understand that “God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).  In that place the visions and dreams of God promised in Acts chapter two find fertile soil, and the church lives in the power and possibilities of God. 

It is very important that we all understand that we don’t have the same role in the church but that the role we play is essential and that our part in the body is the plan of God to change His world in Jesus’ name.  This means that the church doesn’t do its work in its own power or ingenuity or creativity.  Rather, the church does its work in the power of the Holy Spirit.  We take what has been given us by the Spirit and turn it loose in the church.  We do what our gifts enable us to do.  We don’t focus on the whole so much but, rather, our part in the whole.  Like a football team, each of us has a position on the team and our role is to fill that position in the power of the Spirit. When each part is running on all cylinders the team moves with a precision that is very impressive.  When some one is out of sync, however, it is a different picture; and not pretty.

The moral to all of this?  Let the Holy Spirit fill our lives, give us whatever gift or gifts He chooses to give us, take those gifts and use them for God in the work of His body, the church.  Truth is, we are in this thing together and, as my old college professor, Rev. Reuben Welch, used to say, “We really do need each other.”  Standing alone, we are not going to be fruitful for Christ but standing together, doing what God has gifted us to do, we become a force for God in our world.

Isn’t that what we really want to be, a force for God in the world?  Don’t you want to live for something greater than yourself?  Let God show you what you can do for Him, and then make the effort.  Who knows what God might do as we join together, let Him use us as He will, and trust His presence in us.  What ever the result might be you can count on one thing and that is that it will be the ride of your life.

Forward still,

Rick

Thoughts on worship

Years ago A. W. Tozer wrote something about how our need to worship is rooted and grounded in God’s choosing to love us and to embrace us to Himself.  Tozer said,

Sometimes I go to God and say, ‘God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth, I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already.’ God’s already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn’t pay Him for what He’s done for me.

Tozer’s words resonate with us, don’t they?  In this month of September our congregation is focusing on what it means to worship God together.  Surely we know that if we were to live one million millenniums we couldn’t pay God for all He has done for us.

There are a lot of ways to worship our God.  He is worthy to be praised and it is becoming to us to open up our live to express His worthiness.

We can praise Him with music, with words, with loving what He loves, and with the talents, skills, and treasures we have.  We can shout for joy or set in silence.  We can pray, serve, give, encourage, exhort, affirm, forgive, touch, and care.  We can bear one another’s burdens, feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, visit the sick and imprisoned, embrace the marginalized, love an enemy, and do good to one who hates us. 

This month we have been thinking about what it means to use all our senses to lift us into the presence of God so that we might offer Him worship “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).  How can we take our gifts of seeing and hearing and touching and smelling and tasting, and through them draw near to God so as to say to Him with our lives, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:1).  How might we live so as to “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name?”  How might we “worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness” (Psalm 29:2)? 

Recently Pastor Dave reminded our congregation of the prayer of Psalm 19:14 where David says, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”  This leads to a “what shall I do with my life?” question.  This is the kind of prayer that gets us out of ourselves and into a greater story, the story of God.   This is the kind of prayer that stretches our imagination, gets us out of the box of our own little worlds and draws us into the life of God who continually stuns and amazes us by the countless expressions of His amazing grace. 

In one of A. W. Tozer’s prayers he says, “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.”  I get that.  I understand it.  Like you, I have experienced it.  It leads me to say to God, as did the worshippers in Revelation “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME….Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (vss. 8, 11).

Astonishing Acts of Grace

I get the feeling once in a while that God is just waiting for the right moment to burst into peoples’ lives with the awesome and wonderful message -- YOU REALLY CAN BE  ALIVE IN YOUR LIFE.

Every once in a while I get overwhelmed at just how good God has been to me and of the fact that I am just one in multiple millions of people who could and do say the same thing. 

Just the other day it happened.  It was about 10:30 in the evening and I found myself crying out, "Oh my goodness; my whole life is an underserved act of amazing grace." It just hit me hard that  I am forgiven of my sins.  I am loved by the God of the universe; embraced by the One person who, knowing me through and through and better than anybody else does, still dares to love me and to care for me and to lavish His grace on my life.

Who would have thought it?  Who saw it coming?  With the majority of my life behind me I can still say, "I'M ALIVE!  I'M ALIVE! I'M ALIVE."  Grace surrounds me.  Love envelopes me.  Mercy permeates me.  I deserved nothing and got God.  Who would have thought it? 

God's Joy fills me.  God's peace saturates me.   God's patience is molding me.  God's kindness is shaping me.  God's goodness is guiding me.  God's faithfulness motivates me.  God's gentleness holds me steady.  God's self-control is being worked out in the deep places of my very own life.  My whole life is an undeserved act of grace.

This is huge because what God is doing He is doing for everyone who will receive Him.  Along with millions of other Christians, the passion of my life is to tell the story of God to others so that the unbelievable incomparable, astonishing, wonderful and amazing grace of God can embrace their lives, no matter where they may find themselves in these days. 

The Good News of Jesus is life transforming.  It connects with people right where they are and sets them free to live and move and have their being from within the embrace of the love of God. 

Life gets redefined and becomes filled with meaning.  Persons become filled with purpose and value.  Relationships find healing, renewal and help.  Old things pass away and new things come into the life of people who have connected their lives with the life of God in Jesus Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:17).

What a humbling and yet tremendous call to be one in hundreds of thousands and millions of people that are seeking to connect people with God.  We get to be ambassadors of Christ in a world in need of Him.  We are recipients of amazing grace and we believe that hope can re-emerge in people; that the future can be better than the past, and that tomorrow can be totally different and profoundly better than yesterday.

We get to live for God who loves us all so much that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

It can't get any better than that.  And the best is still yet to come.

REFLECTING ON THE RESURRECTION

This summer we’ve been on a theological journey of Bridging the Gaps, seeking to understand the trajectory God has His people on as He builds them into His people and incarnates His life into their lives.  On this journey last Sunday, August 11, pastor Scott Chamberlain took us to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  As I listened to his message, setting on the third row from the front on the left side of the Bresee Chapel, agreeing with every point he shared, I thought to myself how silly this must all sound to people who have not yet come to Christ.  Resurrection!  Come on now.  Isn’t that pushing it a bit?

This is what we believe, however.  That Jesus was raised from the dead is at the very center of all it means for us to be followers of the One we believe is, in fact, both Son of man and Son of God, “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29).  This faith statement, precious to us, for some is “a stumbling block” and for others “Foolishness” (I Cor. 1:23).  To us Jesus is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:24). He has caught us up into God’s amazing grace and we lived stunned and in awe that God would be so good. 

Spiritual things are spiritually appraised so I would ask, “What if the resurrection of Jesus actually did happen?  What if God chose to enter into human history, to live within the confines of the very world He created, and to take upon Himself the full weight of humanity?”  Sound outrageous? Of course it does.  Gods don't empty themselves of the perks that go with being gods. If there is any bending it will be done by the servants of the gods, and never the gods themselves.  There are some things that are just beneath the dignity of gods.

Yet, this is exactly what the God of the Bible did.  He came into human history in the person of Jesus, took upon Himself what it means to be human, died on a Roman cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and then, (are you setting down), rose up from that borrowed tomb, took up His life again showing us the height, depth, and scope of what it means for God to be God.

We Christians are a resurrection people.  In fact, we are a crucifixion-resurrection people.  What it means for God to be God gets all meshed into our lives and our lives take on a magnitude of meaning that comes from what it means for God to be God. Death couldn't hold Him because in the depth of what it means for God to be God, He is Life. 

In His life our lives are given a hope that is energized with an authority that permeates us and sets our lives on a journey of meaning that engulfs every part of what it means for us to be who we are.  Of this I would say don’t be too hard on people who don’t believe.  Love them.  Pray for them.  Live the life of a fragrant aroma among them.  Serve them.  Make God look good to them.  But, don’t be too hard on them?  Only God can touch a human heart and bring it to the place of understanding and believing.  Let the Holy Spirit do what He’s supposed to do, and let’s do what we’re supposed to do – live the life of a new creation.

Let me pass this off to someone who says it better than I could ever say it. In an Easter sermon preached around 400 AD John Chrysostom proclaimed,

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.


He has destroyed it by enduring it.


He destroyed Hell when He descended into it.


He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.



Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."


Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.


It was in an uproar because it is mocked.


It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.


It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.


It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.



Hell took a body, and discovered God.


It took earth, and encountered Heaven.


It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.



O death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?



Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!


Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!


Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!


Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!



Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;


for Christ having risen from the dead,


is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.



To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Blessings on you,

Rick