"Our Strength"

This week I find myself in the middle of a Seminary semester and I’m tired!  Physically and emotionally.  I’m trying to continue ministering and commuting to school about 120 miles away.  What happens in trying to keep up with all the reading I find myself sinking further and further into academics and I lose connection to the one thing that can carry me through and that is the Holy Spirit.  Once we start trying to do things in our own strength we soon lose momentum and eventually run out of gas.  I picked up a book of “The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon” and in the back of the book he is addressing primarily pastors, but there is something here for all of us.  Here are some of the highlights and you’ll see what I mean.

   

"If we make a treaty with error or sin, we do it at our own risk. If we do anything that we are not clear about, if we temper with truth or holiness, if we are friends of the world, if we make provision for the flesh, if we preach halfheartedly and in league with errorist, we have no promise that the Holy Spirit will go with us." 

"When the Spirit of God is gone, even truth itself become an iceberg. How wretched is religion frozen and lifeless! The Holy Spirit has gone, and all energy and enthusiasm have gone with Him."

"We never go a step towards heaven without the Holy Spirit. We never lead another on the heavenward road without the Holy Spirit. We have no acceptable thought, word, or deed apart from the Holy Spirit. Even the uplifting of the eye in hope or the ejaculatory prayer of the heart's desire must be His work. All good things are of Him and through Him, from beginning to end. There is no fear of exaggeration here."

"Every Man who goes to the land of the heavenly knowledge must work his passage thither; but he must work out the passage in the strength of the Holy Spirit or he will arrive at some island in the sea of fancy and never set foot upon the sacred shores of truth."

"No, we know nothing till we are taught of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to the heart rather than to the ear"

I am drawn to Spurgeon like a moth to the flame!  I read his sermons and writings and I am amazed how penetrating his words are 130 years after he spoke them.  He lived in the scripture and sought the Spirit to guide him in a time when the Victorian world around him was in the midst of the industrial revolution and reason was the new champion.  This is the age of Darwin's new thought, God was being marginalized and for profit thousands in the greater London area was suffering.  I can't help to see but see some parallels of our world today. 

We live in the technology revolution or the information age.  We will receive millions of bits of information daily and we have to sift through this deluge of information and try to make sense of it all.  In this flood of information is a growing hostility towards Christianity and an intentional effort to confuse those who profess to believe or who are thinking about faith.  This presents a problem for those who are not grounded in their Bibles and unsure of their faith. On top of all that we are busy, busy running everywhere and going no place. How in this time do we slow down enough to even begin a relationship with God, let alone sustain one? 

We have to slow down and take the time to spend time with God.  To place the Lord first in our lives requires effort and a shift of priorities.  What I know this much is true, we will not do anything until we see the value in what we give priority to.  But the dilemma is if we have never given priority to your faith how can you know it should be a priority!  As a Christian I can do nothing apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.  John 15:5, Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing”.  I need to draw near to Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Without the strength of the Spirit I am helpless.  It is only when we take the time to earnestly seek Christ in His word and through prayer that I will find the strength I need to continue. 

I need to slow down and take time for Christ, I need the Holy Spirit to help me love the people around me, to understand the scriptures and to even pray.  There is nothing I do as a Christian I do that I don’t need the Holy Spirit enabling power. It is only when I recognize this weakness that I am made strong Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9:  

"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me.”

Jesus said this to start the beatitudes:

 "The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. (Mat 5:3 HCSB)

It's when we humble ourselves before God and confess our weakness to Him that we are made strong.  Its when we finally realize we cannot manage our own sin, when we acknowledge we cannot meet our own expectations, let alone those others impose on us.  When we are finally broken by the weight of it all and God picks up and enables us to do far more than we could ever imagine.  

Our faith, our ministries, our lives, everything we do as Christian's has to be dependent and empowered by the Holy Spirit, apart from Him we are helpless and our efforts are but powerless and heavy to carry.        

Inexcusable

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” ― C.S. Lewis

I have thought a lot about forgiveness over the last week.  I write this having experienced the death of my father.  My father finished well. He was adored and loved by the people around him and especially his family.  This is despite a horrible beginning.  All of dad’s closest family members carry the scars of his sins.  As a result we all spun out of control for a period of time, some longer than others.  All of us were terribly hurt by the “inexcusable” sins of this father and husband.  What has amazed me the most was how all of us who were impacted—God is working in our lives, actively working.  He in His own time is healing and mending our hearts.  We have all tried different ways to cope with his sins.  We have turned to sin in the hope of finding temporary relief and as a result we have lost spouses, damaged relationship and hurt others as our father hurt us. We have all tried to ignore the problems, we have finger pointed, we have even tried to hurt each other and we have all carried some level of resentment.  Fact remains we still have a lot to work through and we need each other more than ever.  What my father did was inexcusable. 

If the story ended right here it would be a tragedy.  But the beauty of this story is not in the man and his sin but in a God and His love.  It’s the story of a selfish man and a humble God who gave His life for selfish sins.  God died for men like my father in order that His glory may be displayed in his life.  Once God grabbed hold of my dad's heart He made him a new creation in Christ.  My father started to live for something other than himself.  My father could not have possibly saved himself it was an act of God.  It didn't happen overnight but over time and as his physical health declined he learned to lean on God’s love, strength and mercy.  In the end through suffering my father learned to be dependent on God and His grace and as a result God begun a “mighty” work through him.

In the end my father was surrounded by the people who he had hurt the most.  This wasn't because of anything my dad did but because of the work God did in him.  God had forgiven him of the inexcusable sin he had committed against God by the way he lived his life.  My father understood the height of God’s grace because he understood the depth of his own sin and the wake of destruction he had left behind. It was by God’s grace my father was who he was and it was by God’s grace his family surrounded him as he took his last breath. 

God forgives the inexcusable in our lives, and there is nothing I have done that deserves God’s grace and mercy and yet he loved me despite my sin.  He didn't just say I love you, he did something about the inexcusable in our lives by doing the most improbable.   He became flesh and lived the life we could not and sacrificed that life.  He died for our sins and was buried in our place.  But this story doesn't end there, he rose again and became life.  We live because Jesus lives, we will die in this body and we will rise again because Jesus is alive!  Christ did the improbable to forgive the inexcusable.  Through Christ we must do the same.  All I can do is invite you to come taste and see the goodness of the Lord for yourself.

Wiped Out

"He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross." (Col 2:14 HCSB)

ἐξαλείψας (exaleipsas) means to destroy something entirely, to wipe it out. In the HCSB it is translated erased. Think of this verse in this way--Christ's sacrifice on the cross wiped out any debt of sin you had, past, present, future--He took and nailed it to the cross! Nothing is left it is gone! You did nothing, He did it all. That is what we put our faith in when trust Christ. We trust this is true and believe it with the way we live. Live thankfully, full of grace towards others because much grace has been shown to you.

That is just incredible to think about! I am in awe of Christ and his goodness towards us. The more I think on the verse the more I want to serve Him and share Him with others. We all struggle with sin and the desires it produces in our hearts. We try and try to overcome sin on our own terms and fail miserably. Yet here is the key, Christ has overcome sin, he has destroyed its hold on you, he removed it! Why do we live as if sin still rules over us? Because I believe we have a small jesus, and he cannot take away our BIG sin. The reality is we have a HUGE JESUS who took away the sins of the WORLD! Want freedom from sin that rules over your life? Look to Christ, trust in Him, seek Him, make much of Jesus in your life, He is BIGGER than any sin. God is good!!

Abundant Joy and Eternal Pleasures

Did you ever think it was ok to live life with abundant joy?   Did you ever think it was not sinful to seek pleasures?  The question is where do you seek them?  Every human being on the planet wants to be happy.  I have never come across anyone who is always seeking to be miserable and it they are I promise you for some strange reason and in some strange way—it pleases them.  The reality is we are all wanting to be happy in some way.  We also like to enjoy pleasure, we seek pleasure in a variety of ways, food, sex, relationships, sports, television, movies, music, and I could go on and on.  What we fail to understand sometimes is its ok to seek joy and pleasure, what matters is where and in what.  If we seek joy simply for the sake of joy it can become idolatry.  And if I seek pleasure simply for purely pleasure sake it too will become idolatry and it will eventually enslave me.  How do I escape idolatry and enslavement and still have joy and pleasures? 

The Psalmist answers this question like this.  “You reveal the path of life me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.” (Psalm 16:11)  Our ultimate joy and our ultimate pleasure can be found in God and in God’s glory.  It is in Him everything finds its purpose and meaning.  Through Him we can understand what joy really is and we can understand and truly experience pleasure as Christ lives through us. Maybe you have hit a rough patch or life has gotten you down, get on the path of life with God and enjoy Him.   

~PS    

Words and Flaws

One of my personality FLAWS is I take criticism personally. Being in ministry means you will be criticized and there isn't any way around it.  I’ll go one step further being married means you are going to be criticized. Having teenagers, neighbors, friends, family, I think you get the point.  Not everyone is going to agree with you and that is alright.  As I write this I realize my choice of words is reflecting my flaw.  Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean its criticism!  Maybe they are just trying to help you, what is their intent?  Most people I know have good intentions and truly don’t want to cause harm, but truly want to help you.    

I have two thoughts, first is thankfulness. God is forever working on me to be better. He loves me and wants me to be more like him in every way and thus he uses other people to help shape me. The second is grace. God extended me grace, even when I am stubbornly defiant. He has done this in the past and continues to extend me grace to guide me along, to learn to trust him.

The question for us all then is how are you going to handle the person who takes what you said wrong and runs with in directions you never thought of or intended? Do you lash out at them, or do you try to love on them and extend them grace? Do you say I'm sorry or do you take a stand?

Proverbs 15:1-2 says, "A gentle answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath. The tongue of the wise makes knowledge attractive, but the mouth of fools blurts out foolishness."  How we respond matters.  What we say at the moment we read or hear something reflects our hearts.  Jesus said in Matthew 12:34b “For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.  When I read this Proverb I see the heart of the person.  The heart that loves God and loves others is the one who answers gently and who answers not to prove a point or to win the argument for argument sake, but wants the other person to grow in knowledge of truth. Plus I want to stay humble to know there may be a lesson for me to learn from the other person!  

The heart that is centered on self throws out the harsh words and is quick to criticize for the sake of being right.  In the process that person ends up being the fool.  Sadly, I know this not by observation but by experience, for I have played the fool far too many times in my life and in ministry. 

Paul said in Ephesians 4:29, “No foul language is to come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.  “No foul language”, looks like this in Greek πᾶς λόγος σαπρὸς, and literally means (no word rotten) Paul is using the word σαπρὸς (sapros), which means something that is in decay or unpleasant.  The word is meaning something has died and is rotten.  So the question to ask in light of this is, are your words killing or are they giving life?  Are you building up or are you “killing” something with your words. 

I am trying to be less the fool and more like the wise man. I love the people God has placed in my life. From my wife, my sons and family to my extended family in the church and everywhere else. And I am thankful he uses every one of them to help me grow, especially those closest to me.  I want my words to give life to others, to build them up and to help them grow in Christ. 

You should ask yourself a question before you say something, Are my words going build the other person up or kill something.  Something to think about.  

Knowing the Will of God

As a pastor I get asked a lot of questions about “God’s will” in life.  People want to know if what they are doing is in God’s will.  It could be in relationships, in their jobs, buying a big ticket item, giving in the church, and the list goes on and on.  I know there are time in my life that I have struggled to find God’s direction.  There are those moments when you are unsure of what is next, where do I go from here type thoughts.  I have asked God to give me a sign and when I say sign I mean “a sign” as one right outside my window that tells me exactly what to do. I can assure you though I have asked for such things I have never received them.  So, the question comes back to “how I can know the will of God in my life?”  There are certain bible verse that come to mind when I think about this and the main one for me is Romans 12:1-2

“Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

Paul in answering this question to the Romans urges the members to start by offer themselves wholly to God.  Which means if I want to know the will of God it starts by knowing God, getting close to God. A good way to get to know someone is to go on a walk with them.  In Paul’s time walking was the way people got around.  If you wanted to go visit somewhere you walked and if you took someone with you really got to know them.  To know the will of God we need to walk with God.  We need to go a distance with Him in prayer and reading scripture.  By walking with God we start to follow what you learn in his word, we become doers of the word as James tells us. This can only be done by walking with God, a quick hour visit on Sunday mornings is not enough.  We have to spend time each day.   

As you start to live out the scriptures—God starts to change you from the inside out.  He starts to slowly change your desires.  Things that use to matter begin to slowly fade into the background and your priorities start to rearrange.  As you walk closer and closer to God something else will start to emerge in your life.  You will start to know God’s will because God’s will, will become your will.  God doesn't want you wandering through this life aimlessly, but he wants you to be purposeful in what you do.  And it starts with a closer walk with Him.  I want to encourage you this month to take time with God, walk with Him in bible reading, prayer, and serving one another.  Live the way God wants you to live and I promise you will learn the will of God for your life and it will be good, pleasing and perfect—just like God.  

-PS  

Live as an Ambassador

“Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.”  (1 Peter 2:12 HCSB)

Peter’s letter to suffering Christian’s is one of my favorite in the bible. In it we hear the now wise Apostle Peter urging believers to hold fast to the faith and to glorify God with their lives.  He reminds them they are strangers in this land.  He reminds them there will come a day when Christ will return and we are to look forward to that day.  He also gives them strong words to live by to protect from the world around them.  The Roman world was an evil place.  From the top down everywhere a Christian went they would face the challenge of not compromising their beliefs. 

Peter doesn’t tell to blend in and become like the Romans.  And he doesn’t tell them to draw attention to themselves and bad mouth the government.  In those times that could get one killed, but he tells them to live honorably.  He encourages them to live in such a way they will have to glorify God.  In others words when they compare their lives to yours they will have to acknowledge God and give him praise! 

Today we live in an ever changing world and it is difficult to see some of these changes.  The world around us is becoming increasingly “ungodly” in that many live their lives without even acknowledging God exists at all.  This reflects in all levels of society and we have to pass more and more laws to govern the masses.  It’s easy to become discouraged in this as a follower of Christ.  But we have to remember this is the world Christ died for and he has placed us here now, in this time for the purpose of displaying Christ to this generation.

I recently read a post form a pastor I know and he said, “God is all powerful, all knowing and ever present.  Live like a person convinced of this truth.”  I think we lose sight of who we are and what we are here for.  I think we lose sight of the God we serve.  We are not here to uphold a nation or a politician we are here as representatives of the King of kings, we are ambassadors to an eternal kingdom.  We need to start living in light of this truth and represent our King honorably.  We need to live to bring glory to Him and our future home.    By "living kingdom minded" we can be used by God to show his love towards those who don’t know him.  Live your life in such a way that when the people in your life examine your life (and they will) they will want what you have.  They will want the fruit of peace, love, kindness, self-control, patience and joy that is displayed in your life.   The time is short and when Christ returns let us not be found living like the people around us, but let us be found living for Christ and his glory.             

~PS

I Ask You?

I have been reading through Jeremiah and Ezekiel now for a few weeks.  It has troubled me greatly.  And I know you cannot connect America, the Church with Israel and the Jewish people.  But God’s character is clearly displayed.  He hands the people over to their desires. God hands the people over to lust for sex, money, material things, greed and to the oppressing of the poor.  He hands them over to their idols and the killing of their children to those same false gods.  He then judges them and he pours out his anger on them for one purpose…to make his name known.  In the midst of destruction people turn to God and pray for his mercy.  He is their only hope from themselves.  

People say they don’t want this kind of God, they shake their fist in his face and curse his name.  He then turns them over to the desire of their hearts.  They plunge themselves into the depths of their sin without restraint, whatever their hearts desire they do.  They engage in sexual sin at the expense of thousands lured by the possibility of easy money, in turn they use the innocent to inflame the lust of the people who enslave millions of young children and young adults to further satisfy their desires.  They abort the millions whose voice cannot be heard in the name of freedom of their genital and exchange the truth for a lie and natural relations for unnatural.  

Their quest for lust of things cannot be satisfied, they sacrifice their futures and the futures of their children for the satisfaction of the now.  God hands them over to the desires of their stomachs and thus we create an entirely new line of medical problems never seen before in the history of man.  GURD, diabetes, hypertension, knee and hip replacement to hold the weight, cancers and on and on the list goes.  

God Hands us over to the technology and toys which enslaves us to mindless entertainment and endless distraction around us.  On the other side millions are enslaved who toil in mines of needed metals to eke out an existence for the promise of a better life, while other grows fat by their labor.  Factories workers work 16 hour days in city factories to produce the next fruit phone or big screen television.  In this pursuit of self-desires we sacrifice our children and abandon them to the machines of mindless games, fatherless refuges, which grow up strong in youth without moral restraint and the character needed to control their anger and rage…and cannot understand why one would walk into a classroom and shoot children dead.  We'll give up freedoms in return —with the hopes of controlling their broken and sick hearts with words written on pages of books for lawyers and judges. 

This is just a little piece of what’s going on and how long will a just God sit back and let this happen before he steps in.  I ask you.             

Why Church??

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV)

  I was awakened early in the morning thinking about the church and this verse was set upon my heart.  I have seen the trend in America concerning the church.  I have attended churches that turn all the lights down low and make the room very dark.  The music is loud and when the pastor speaks the only light in the room is focused on him.  What this does is focus everything on the individual sitting watching and for a moment, everything is all about them.  Understand me when I say this, I am not knocking those pastors or churches.  These churches are just giving the people what they want.  The pastors know it and are trying to reach people for Christ, using the culture.  It’s reflective of our narcissistic society.

But what if I told you it’s not Biblical?  What if I told you church service had nothing to do about you directly, but it was about Christ and the person sitting in the seat next to you?  One of the things I absolutely love about scripture it how relative it is to us today.  Something written thousands of years ago can still apply to us in 2013.  The reason this is true is because the human heart hasn’t changed, we still act the same way regardless of our setting. The human on the stage never changes, just the settings around him changes from scene to scene.  

The writer of Hebrews was faced with a problem, members of churches were falling away from the faith and he reminds them “why church” is important.  He reminds us to “hold fast” to the confession of our hope, that is Christ.  Christ is the living hope and we are to hang onto Him as if our lives depended on it.  Think about a ship on the sea and you are on the deck, and the ship is being tossed about by the waves.  In the middle of the deck is a large mast.  As the waves increase and you are being tossed around, you grab hold of the mast and you hang on for dear life, because if you don’t you will perish over the side.  We want to hold fast to Christ as the waves around us grow in fury, because we know God is faithful.    

Next the writer says, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”  Here is the thought here, we are to gather together regularly, we are to hold fast to Christ and encourage others around us to do the same.  The way we hold fast is by focusing ourselves on Christ and loving one another and loving others.  In fact the writer uses the phrase “to stir up” and the reality is—we are moved by the love of others.  We are motivated by the encouragement of others going through the same thing we are.  

I recently attended a band concert at the local middle school.  It seemed like most of the town was packed into the gym that night.  My family and I had to stand off to the side.  This was my youngest son’s first concert and he plays the trumpet.  Joe has gotten up early for months to practice before school and his band teacher Mr. Achilles has also sacrificed to teach him.  It would have been a great disservice to my son Joe and Mr. Achilles not to attend, why?  Because as a father I want to encourage my son to continue working at learning an instrument, because I know how this will benefit him for the rest of his life.  Secondly, I want to encourage Mr. Achilles and to thank him for his dedication and service to our community.  I can do both simply by attending, being their physically to show my support.  Having the large crowd stirred my son and he was excited to play in front of so many people.  Not because he is a glory hound, but because he had worked hard and wanted to share with others what he had learned.  By attending we stirred Joe up to continue to get up early and to practice…to continue to discipline himself to get better.

As we attend church or gather together for fellowship with one another we encourage each other, we stir up each other to love.  From the time we arrive to the time we leave it’s about encouraging each other to hold fast.  This love displayed carries us and fills our hearts.  We take it with us and it spills over onto everyone around us.  The fact is we cannot live out our faith without the love and encouragement of others.  We can try for a time, but eventually we will fade away and be tossed over the side.  This is especially true when the waves of life grow more violent.  

I have seen so many people struggle in the faith and when this struggle begins the person begins to “unplug”.  They stopped reading the bible, their prayer life dries up and they stop attending church.  Once this happens it’s just a matter of time before they are tossed off the ship and will need to be rescued if they can be found.  The way we avoid being lost in the sea of discouragement and sin, is we hold fast to Christ and encourage others to do the same.  This can simply be done by just showing up.  By you being there, the person next to you or across the room will see you and be encouraged by your presence.  From here things start to happen, you will encourage and start to love each other.  You will miss seeing someone and you will call them and pray for them when they are not there.  You will stir up the hearts around you and when the storms of life hit, to will cling to the mast of Christ and you will hang on together.  

Church is not about you it’s about the person next to you.  With that thought in your mind, remember there is a person next to you who is there for you, you are not alone.  By giving of yourself for others, you receive much more in return.  Let’s commit to church and fellowship in 2013!       

~Pastor Steve            

Big God

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and His robe filled the temple. Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; His glory fills the whole earth. The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke."
(Isaiah 6:1-4 HCSB)

The prophet Isaiah had a life changing encounter with a holy God.  He sees in a vision God in his temple.  The imagery used by Isaiah is awe inspiring, the Lord's robe flowing from the throne fills the sanctuary.  God is high and lifted up and the massive angels called Seraphim are crying out while circling above the throne, holy, holy holy is the LORD of Hosts.  Their voices shake the foundation of the temple.  This picture tells us something of the nature of God that is very important for us to know.  God is big, I mean BIG.

Why is it important for us to understand how big God is?  Firstly just trying to understand the size of God, makes us seem very small!  Humility is the first step to knowing God.  Humility, brings us to our knees and causes us to cry out for help.  Humility allows us to say, "Lord forgive me", Lord help me to repent and put my faith in you.  Secondly, having a big God helps us deal with big problems.  If your problems are bigger than God, how can he help you?  Knowing I have a God who is bigger than my sin strengthens me to resist.  Having a God who is bigger than my marriage, helps me love my spouse the way Christ loved me and showed me grace and having a big God helps me when I receive that phone call about my teenager who just crashed his car and is on his way to the hospital.  

Having a Big God makes all the difference in the world.  Life will have it's ups and downs and if your problems seem overwhelming open up a bible to Isaiah 6 and start reading.  Think about the size of God and then think about how this big God is.  Think about how this big God sent his only Son to die on the cross for your sins and in doing so displayed his big love to you and the world. Get a big view of God, ask God today to show you just how big he is and trust in HIM.