The unexpected...

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

⁶ So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. ⁷ For we live by believing and not by seeing. ⁸ Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. ⁹ So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. ¹⁰ For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

This past Friday started out much like any other. I went to work, helped the gentleman I work with get ready to go and took him out the door. I dropped him off for his routine Friday appointment, and half an hour later, he was gone from this world.

It was surreal. One moment, he was laughing and smiling, the next, he was gone. Just...like...that.

The above promise from the Apostle Paul is so commonly read at Funerals, but I think the last bit is the most important. Yes, we who have put our trust in Jesus Christ have a blessed hope that we are being sanctified through His blood and will be together with him when we die; but what does that matter if we have not truly lived for Him.

A couple of weeks back, I was heading to an appointment and I ended up behind a funeral procession and it was one of the saddest things I ever saw. Aside from the hearse and the limo, there were only six vehicles in the procession, and they only had one or two people in each. Only six. Now, I don't know the details, perhaps it was a young child who had passed, or perhaps someone who was so old at the time of their death that most of their friends and relatives had gone on ahead of them, but it was still a powerful image to me:

When I die, will I be remembered only by a few, or will I have such an impact for the cause of Christ that my memory will not soon fade? I know when my dad passed away nearly ten years ago now, there was a memorial service in one of the largest churches in Springfield, Mass that was standing room only. A young man whom I had the privilege of serving as a youth leader recently left his pastorate, wife, young son and family behind, and they had to book a bigger church just to hold all the people who went to his memorial service. Both men had an immense impact on those around them because they looked to the cause of Christ, not to themselves.

Now, don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to say I want a huge memorial service when the Father sees fit to call me home. What I'm saying is, I want to have lived my life so much for the cause of Christ that my life will be of value. I'm a person who doesn't really like a lot of attention; one who is content to just do what needs to be done and love and serve the people around me. I don't think I'm really cut out to be a pastor of a church, though I am gifted to teach. I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts with my small audience of friends and family, and I believe that has merit. I enjoy working with the youth at church and working with the various folks at Friendship Community whom I have been honored to serve for nearly eight years.

Yet I wonder: am I doing enough? It's not that I think I will lose my eternal hope of salvation because I'm not doing enough. I suppose it's more a feeling of; "am I adequate? Am I doing everything I can?" Really, I don't know, but I do know that God has used me to touch some lives in a positive way, and for that I am thankful.

As for my friend who passed out of this life into the next just two days past, I look at his life, and it was vibrant. He lived to serve other people, and he will be remembered. Perhaps I will be remembered for the same, but I hope the honor is not given to me, but rather to Jesus Christ whom I serve.

I'm worn...

Read 1 Kings 19
 Sometimes I feel alone. I feel...worn. I was listening to the song by that title by Tenth Avenue North, and it really touched my heart tonight and got me to thinking about Elijah. The Prophet Elijah was tired. He'd been fighting for Jehovah, and still someone wanted to kill him. In fact, he had just come down off the mountain where he had called on the Almighty and had been rewarded with fire from heaven to consume his worthy sacrifice.  

We find him as he's run away to the wilderness. He feels God has abandoned him, yet miraculously, a bird brings him food every day. Even then he fears for his life at the hands of a human queen. 

But don't I do that too? Don't I run and hide from those who trouble me and threaten me and try to hurt me, forgetting all the while that God is all powerful. He is the power of the wind, and the small voice. 

In the words of the song linked below; I want to see redemption win. I want to see the power of God manifested in an undeniable way. Then, He shows His power, He does a great work, and I am in awe...for a moment...

Until the next struggle...

And I run to the wilderness...

And despite my lack of faith, God nourishes me from the stream of His spirit and the bread of his Word, and takes me up onto that metaphorical cliffside to teach me yet again that He is there in the stillness...

When I am quiet...

When I rest in Him...

While the winds of life wear me down, He is the quiet whisper of reassurance...and I can carry on. 

 

Forever fruits...

Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

The following is an open letter to my son:

Y'know, when you invest your time and love in another person , and you finally start to see your efforts bearing fruit, that is an amazing feeling.

Nine and a half years ago, you came into our lives. Your mother and I weren't sure what to expect when a bespectacled seven-year-old came into our lives, walked into our humble little trailer and exclaimed "sweet! I have my own room!"

The first time you called me Daddy, I knew I was hopelessly lost.

Your life with us has been at times a battle, at times, a heartbreak, and at other times, absolute bliss. There have been times we've been so worried for you, we couldn't sleep.

Now, getting close to ten years later, you've grown into a handsome young man. Not only that, you've grown in other ways that touch my heart. Fewer are the moments of frustration,  and greater are the moments when I see a glimpse of the great man you are becoming.  Over the last two months, and even moreso, over the last three weeks, I have seen you exercise a maturity and a tender heart that make me realize, I was right to stay strong through the hard times.

I am proud to call you son, and look forward to seeing you grow fully into a man of strength and integrity.

Now I'm going to go have a little cry...a happy one.

Finding peace

^{John 14:23-27
 
23} Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
²⁵ “All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

This is probably the time of year I dread the most. No, not winter. Winter I actually enjoy. No, the time of year I dread the most is tax time. Taxes are an unfortunate part of life. Even Jesus paid taxes, and in one instance had help from a fish.
 
Just the same, every year, the same fears assail me. Will I make a mistake on my taxes? Will I owe money? Will I owe more than I can afford? And so on and so forth. The peace I generally have little trouble grasping, suddenly flees like an elusive wisp of fog.

But then, I force myself to take a deep breath and call on the One who has always been faithful and little miracles happen; like the check I found locked in my safe yesterday that will pay for an eye doctor appointment, or the check that a kindly gentleman at church always gives to my wife and I every Christmas, or an encouraging word from a friend when I'm feeling the most lost.

this weekend is the ninth year for the annual men's retreat of the Bible Fellowship Church of Terre Hill. I've been there every year, and this year I have the privilege of sharing the blessing with my son. And there's another worry on the list; will my son embrace all the things I've tried to show him, or will they be forgotten whenever the road gets difficult?

This I know and have found to be true; God is faithful. Even when things seem at their darkest and even when I cannot see the road ahead, He has always been there and has always made a way. I look back on all the dark times in my life and every single time, He has brought me through, perhaps bruised, and perhaps crawling on my knees, but always into the Light.

There is no time so dark that the Spirit of God cannot give us light; no pit so deep that He cannot reach in and pull us out.

the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Proverbs 12:17-23

17 An honest witness tells the truth,
    but a false witness tells lies.

¹⁸ The words of the reckless pierce like swords,
    but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

¹⁹ Truthful lips endure forever,
    but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

²⁰ Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil,
    but those who promote peace have joy.

²¹ No harm overtakes the righteous,
    but the wicked have their fill of trouble.

²² The Lord detests lying lips,
    but he delights in people who are trustworthy.

²³ The prudent keep their knowledge to themselves,
    but a fool’s heart blurts out folly.

My dad used to tell me to always be honest; to tell the truth when asked, but that it wasn't necessary to tell everything I know. This was usually after, as a child will, I had shared something embarrassing.  

Truth and wisdom are commonly intertwined in scripture. The search for truth and knowledge is a noble thing in fact. Solomon wrote about it extensively, then concluded: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body" (Ecc. 12:12b). In context, that statement is a caution to heed the words of the wise and not add useless extra thinking to it. We seem to do that a lot, particularly in theological circles. Don't misinterpret me here, I love theology and the mental prodding and goading (as in the context of the aforementioned statement); however, over-thinking (the writing of many books) is a failing of theologians; which has led to many a divisive argument (which is one of the fruits of the flesh mentioned by the apostle Paul).

The Apostle Paul also cautions us toward "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), which, again taken in context, comes from understanding the teachings of scripture and not being taken in by every wind of doctrinal division that blows our way. I do not mean to say that understanding of Biblical doctrine is useless, not by any means; on the contrary: the understanding of Biblical doctrine is of utmost necessity. It is the application and dissemination of extra-biblical discussion and thinking that leads us down the dangerous path toward division. 

So, getting back to the original text, truth is a wonderful thing, and the pursuit of the knowledge of truth is excellent and admirable. When we seek out truth and speak it in love, we pursue the epitome of the use of knowledge. Knowledge without understanding is useless, so it is good to study the scripture, and even look at the writings of others to help us understand better what the scriptures tell us. So it's really an endless cycle of study, but if we do not apply ourselves to the study of the Bible, we will have no foundation and no anchor to hold on to when we are confronted with ideas that may fall outside the teachings of the scripture. 

While Jesus was on trial, Pilate asked Him; "What is truth?" The irony of that is, he was looking the Truth in the eye. In many ways we do much the same. We search so heavily for truth, poring over scripture and commentaries and the thoughts of men on what the scriptures really mean, we lose track of the very truth staring us right in the face.

Spirits...testing, testing...

1John 4:1-6
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit^[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

An intelligent young man with whom I am friends on Facebook, pointed out something which I have mentally chewed on for many years. Denominationalism; or perhaps better put; why do we argue so much about things that don't really matter in the long run and get caught up in divisions that tear apart people of faith rather than building them up?

The apostles spent a fair amount of time fighting just that in the early Church. Early divisions occurred around the topics of circumcision, meat sacrificed to idols, etc. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul nearly came to blows with Peter about the latter apostle's treatment of gentiles in the church. Later issues came up with groups like the Nicolaitans, and the Gnostics. 

The apostle John, dealing with early gnostics in the Church, wrote about the "Spirit of Antichrist" and its presence in the world. The Gnostics believed several things that were out of line with the core teachings of scripture. These teachings, based on the thinking of man and heavily influenced by the Greek Sophists, detracted from the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.  

Having grown up in an ultra-conservative Baptist environment where legalism was a way of life, I've seen that same spirit at work up close and personal. It's not a pretty thing. Consider that the greatest commandment of scripture, according to Jesus Christ Himself, is "Love God with all your heart soul and mind, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself," well, it seems God's greatest commandment is a "do" command, not a "do not" command. Legalism is by its very nature a denial of the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ because it assumes that we must do more things on top of what Christ already has done.

The Apostle Paul, who called himself a "Jew among Jews" due to his training and early devotion to the Jewish faith, spent a lot of time in his letters to the early Church, correcting the erroneous thinking that what we do not do, or what we abstain from, is what makes us people of faith. Not at all.

There is only one thing that makes us people of faith: "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9 NIV). That's it. Nothing else. Yes, after receiving God's forgiveness, He does a work of grace in us to produce good works (See Ephesians 2, or James' letter), but that is not our doing, it is His.

I'm not saying here that it's not important for one to know what one believes; on the contrary, understanding at least the basics of theology is helpful for spiritual growth and not knowing at least those basics is a recipe for being led away into various traps that the spirit of antichrist will lay for us (including legalism). What I am saying is that we should know the most important teachings of Jesus Christ and His apostles, carry them with us in our hearts and our minds, and live them in such a way that others will see Jesus Christ living in us, rather than us living in a downward spiral of infighting and hypocrisy.

So, we test the spirits. We watch, we pray, and we do...we love.

To quote the great Yoda: "Do, or do not...there is no try"...Ok, well, that doesn't really fit, but he's green and muppetty, so we will let it slide.

Faith's refuge

Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

The other day, I woke in a panic. I realized I had misjudged when a bill would fall and was unsure if there would be money in the right account to cover it. I'd been praying for peace, and for a provision of some sort, but I couldn't push the fear aside. But then, I woke, and above my panic, the above verse played itself over in my head just out of the blue, and the peace was there, and the bill didn't fall until the next day, when the money was there to cover it. 

The work I do is a ministry. It's not easy and the pay is not great, but something I've learned over the years is that God takes care of those who serve Him; those who take refuge in Him, if you will. There is a joy to be had in watching the Heavenly Father provide, and when you work in any kind of ministry He has to provide a lot. 

Earlier in the same passage, the psalmist writes:

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
    their faces are never covered with shame.
This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
    he saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
    and he delivers them.

This promise is huge! I've seen it again and again. If we are faithful, God's provision is vast. Working in any sort of ministry can require seat of the pants faith, but God loves us so much and is such a great deliverer, He rewards that faith and sends his angels to protect us. It's so amazing to live in the middle of God's provision.

This isn't anything like the "God wants you to be rich" message some folks preach. No, it's a "God wants you to rely on Him," message. Do His will, trust in His grace, and He will provide.