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Showing posts with label endurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label endurance. Show all posts

Monday, April 18, 2022

Beautiful Scars - Easter Sunday

Introduction
For Easter, Our choir shared a beautiful Easter Cantata (which you can watch here).  They used music and narration to share the story of Jesus' resurrection so beautifully.  Now I want to share one ramification of that resurrection.  But first, let me read Paul’s words about the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:19-26
19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. 23 But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.

24 After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. 25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. 26 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Incredible Hope
Christians have incredible hope.  We believe our hope transcends what happens in this life.  The fact is, some of the problems in this life aren’t going to be put right in this life.  There is no greater example of this that what happened to Jesus.

Here was an absolutely innocent man–the very best kind of man who ever lived–who was humble and yet full of incredible power to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and open the ears of the deaf.  Jesus only ever loved and helped people, yet he was arrested on trumped up charges and tortured and executed–the greatest injustice ever wrought on earth.

If that was the end of the story, then it would be the most tragic story ever told.

It wasn’t the end of the story.  Easter is a Sunday that is traditionally the most well attended day of church the whole year, because we celebrate Christ’ resurrection. 
And resurrection means death is not the end.

This life–with all its troubles, many of which are never resolved in this life–is not the end of the story.  Christians believe that what is not resolved in this life, God will make it right in Eternity.

First Fruit
The Bible calls Jesus the “first fruit” of a great harvest.  What this means is His resurrection is the example of what will happen to all His followers.

Many people--including me--started gardening during the pandemic.  Perhaps this is because the pandemic began near the beginning of spring and we couldn't go anywhere or do anything except go outside.  Plus, there were concerns about food shortages.  So we took to our gardens.  And this is the time of year you plant things like tomatoes.  There's nothing like a homegrown tomato.

So you plant a tomato after Easter, after the danger of frost has past.  Then you car for the plant for several months, dreaming of those fresh tomatoes.  And then it happens. you get that first tomato.  It starts out green, and slowly ripens.  So you pick it and take it inside.  It looks great, but how will it taste.  You slice it and taste it.  And you are so pleased when it is delicious!  But the greatest things is knowing that tomato won't be the only one.  It is an example of how all the other tomatoes will taste.  If you've been successful, you will have many more tomatoes just like the first one.

Jesus is the first fruit.  Just like Christ died, we will all die.  But hang on.  It also means that just as He rose to new and eternal life, so will we (if we truly follow Him). So if we want to know what’s in store for us after this life, we just have to look at Jesus.  He shows us what it will be like.

Living with the Scars
One of the unexpected things that strikes me about the resurrected Jesus is this:  He had scars.

One of the ways the early disciples knew they were actually talking to the resurrected Jesus and not some one else pretending to be Jesus, was Jesus’ scars.  Remember, he was nailed to a cross until He died, and a soldier pierced His side with a spear to make sure He was in fact dead.  So one of the ways Jesus authenticated His identity after the resurrection was to point out His scars.  He said, “Look at my hands and feet.  Look at my side.” 

And I want to point out that these scars were not gross or festering wounds.  These scars were fully healed, but they were not erased  And they were also somehow beautiful.  These scars were a badge of honor.

Do any of you have physical scars that you received earlier in your life? Maybe you have a great story that goes along with your scar.  I got a scar once doing something really stupid.  (My friends told, "Don't tell people you got that scar doing that.  Tell them you got it fighting a bear or something.")

I have a friend who likes to tell people he doesn’t have a belly button.  It's true.  Apparently, he had a surgery when he was very young and it somehow erased his belly button.  So he likes to introduce himself saying, "Hi, I'm Dave and I don't have a belly button"  It's quite memoriable! 

Jesus’ scars tell the story of a man who was the absolutely perfect Son of God, worthy of all glory and honor and praise.  And yet, “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Philippian 2:6-8) 

“He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) 

“He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.” (Romans 4:25) 

So, when Christ shows His scars, they are the highest badge of honor that can ever be traced upon human skin. 

And that got me thinking about what scars we have now–scars that we’ve received from our own personal tragedies–whether physical or emotional.  And perhaps they won’t be completely gone when we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Maybe they will be like Jesus’ scars.  They will be there to remind us–and remind others–who we are and what we’ve been through.  But they will also not be horrific reminders.  They will be like Jesus’ scars–beautiful badges of honor that God has miraculously transformed so that we will gladly show them to people and say, “Look at my scars!  Touch them.  It’s really me!  But Praise be to God!  My wounds have been healed by the blood of the Lamb!” 

What would that mean for you?  What wounds have you received?  What scars do you bear now?

The Apostle Paul who wrote so brilliantly about the Good News of Christ, shared his own struggles.  In 2 Corinthians 12:7, he said, “...to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.” 

People have speculated as to what was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”, but we don’t know for sure what it is.  There’s no record left as to specifically identify the "thorn in his flesh ".  Some have said it was a temptation he struggled with throughout his life.  Others have said it was a speech impediment, which for a man whose passion was to preach the Gospel would have been awful (because no matter how brilliant this arguments, there would always be some people who paid more attention to his impediment than the force of his arguments).   Others have said Paul had a crippling ailment like arthritis, a chronic eye problem, malaria, migraines, or epilepsy.  It could also have been a wound that wouldn’t heal, perhaps something he sustained in one of his meaning beatings, imprisonments, or the time he was nearly stoned to death.  Those tribulations had to leave their marks. 

And Paul was just like us when we have a painful and nagging problem.  He wanted to be free of it.  He wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 - “8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

Sometimes God brings healing from our physical, spiritual, and emotional wounds in this lifetime.  When He does, it brings glory to His name.

Sometimes, we must bear up under our wounds–with God’s help–until God heals us in eternity.  

When we endure our hardships, it brings Him even more glory.  But I believe there will be a great reward in this too.  For the wounds and scars we’ve carried throughout this life will not be anything for which we will be ashamed in eternity.  Perhaps, they will be like Jesus' scars that He gladly shows.  Perhaps they will be our beautiful badges of honor in the next life.  We will be able to show them to the people we love and say, "Look at my scars!  It really is me!  Remember how I carried that burden all through my life?  But I made it!  I thought I was carrying it alone, but I wasn't.  Christ was there carrying it with me!  Remember when my loved one died and it nearly killed me too?  I didn't know how I could get out of bed and keep going.  But Jesus brought me through!  Remember how I survived that divorce (or devastation, or tragedy, or trauma, etc.)?  Jesus brought me through it and here I am and all my former hurts and wounds and scars are now fully redeemed!  Look at the scars that tell my story and the story of how Jesus set me free!" 

That’s what the power of Christ’s resurrection does.  It has the power to transform death into life.  Look at the cross.  It started out as a symbol of the cruelest, most shameful form of execution known to man.  Easter transformed the cross into the greatest symbol of hope and love we have.

Christ resurrection changed the most evil act humanity could do–murdering the Son of God–into the greatest act of grace and salvation God could offer.

Jesus was the first fruit.  He is the example of what we will experience if we follow him.

We can’t imagine how our resurrection to eternal life will completely transform us–even transforming our scars.  So as you go through this life and face whatever trials and sorrows and burdens you must bear, find hope in the Resurrection.  The Resurrection changes everything! 

And the Resurrection can change you–both now and for eternity.  I pray God will open your eyes today to see things as Jesus sees them.  See your wounds as future glory of God’s triumphant grace.

Invitation
So now, I invite you to repent of your sins, turn to God through Jesus, and follow Him so you can experience the Ressurection to eternal life.  Won't you?

Monday, December 6, 2021

5 Tips On How To Wait Well

Introduction
Do you ever feel stuck in between, like you’re just waiting for something important to happen?  What’s the hardest part of waiting?  I asked that question in a Facebook post this week.  Here are some of the responses:

  • The number one response was “waiting” – haha – or being patient
  • Letting go of control
  • The anticipation
  • To keep doing your daily activities while you wait
  • Sacrificing pride
  • Not knowing how long you’ll need to wait
  • Worrying about what you’re missing
  • Worrying someone else is getting something at your expense
  • The unknown
  • Thoughts in your head
  • Trusting God
  • Knowing there is something you want or want to do but being frustrated because you have to wait to get it.

Forty years of Stanford research found that people able to wait patiently and delay their own gratification are more likely to succeed in life than those who don’t.[i] 

The Bible is filled with long periods of time when people had to wait and delay gratification while enduring hardship.  Abraham and Sarah had to wait until the were old to have their promised son, Isaac.  The Hebrews were slaves in Egypt 400 years before they entered the Promised Land.  David had to wait to become king of Israel.  And there was a 400 year period of waiting between the time the Old Testament was completed and New Testament began with the birth of Jesus, the Messiah.

That long period of silence in between the Old and New Testament leads many to think nothing important happened, but nothing could be farther from the truth.  Case and point: When the OT closes the Persians were in control and everyone was speaking Aramaic. When the NT opens the Romans are in control and everyone is speaking Greek. Apparently, a lot happened in those in between years. 

I want to recap the history of Israel from 475 BC to the time Jesus was born.  But first, I want to read a strange apocalyptic passage from Daniel chapter 8.  I want to read it, because it is a prophecy that God gave to Daniel while he was living as an exile in Babylonia.  And yet this prophecy foretold all the kingdoms that would rule over Israel before the Messiah was born.  Let's look at the passage and then review the actually history of the intertestamental period.

Daniel 8:18-22
18 
While he was speaking, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground. But Gabriel roused me with a touch and helped me to my feet.

19 Then he said, “I am here to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath. What you have seen pertains to the very end of time. 20 The two-horned ram represents the kings of Media and Persia. 21 The shaggy male goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes represents the first king of the Greek Empire. 22 The four prominent horns that replaced the one large horn show that the Greek Empire will break into four kingdoms, but none as great as the first.

What a strange passage!  But it refers to actual event that happened between 475 BC and 4 BC when Jesus was born.  Let’s look at that history and listen to the parts of Daniel’s prophecy.

Daniel 8:19 says, “I am here to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath.”

Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC by Babylon and the Jews, including Daniel, were taken into captivity.  However, Babylon was destroyed by the Medes and Persia.  Daniel 8:20:  The two-horned ram represents the kings of Media and Persia.”

The King of Persia sent the Jews home to Jerusalem and they rebuilt their temple in 515 BC and then the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, was written about 475 BC. 

The Jews remained under Persian Rule until a guy from Greece named Alexander the Great tried to conquer the whole world.  The “whole world” included Israel and Jerusalem. 

So from 336-323 BC, Israel was part of the Greek Empire & they learned to speak Greek.  Greek became the universal language of the world (the way English is today), which is why the New Testament would eventually be written in Greek.  Daniel 8:21 says, “The shaggy male goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes represents the first king of the Greek Empire.”  The king of Greece was Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great died unexpectedly in 323 BC.  After his death, the Greek empire splintered into four smaller, less powerful kingdoms—the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, the Seleucid Empire in Syria, the Kingdom of Pergamon in Asia Minor, and the Macedonia Kingdom in Greece.  Daniel 8:22 says, “The four prominent horns that replaced the one large horn show that the Greek Empire will break into four kingdoms, but none as great as the first.”

After Alexander the Great’s death, the Israelites were ruled by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 323-198 BC.  The Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek, giving us the Septuagint.  It was also during this period that Jews began to separate themselves into two major schools of thought.  There were the Hellenist who wanted to welcome Greek culture and philosophy into the Jewish religion.  On the opposite side were the Hassidic Jews who wanted to keep Jewish culture and religion pure and undefiled.  These “pious ones” as they were called, eventually evolved to become the Pharisees of the New Testament.

We will look more at the other Kingdoms that ruled Israel in the coming weeks.  But very quickly, we see Syrian Kingdom conquered Israel from the Egyptians in 198 BC and ruled until 165 BC.

The Maccabean Revolt of 168 led to 100 years of independence (and is the event that inspired the modern Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which lasts eight days and ends this year on December 6th).

However, independence was short lived and tumultuous and never lived up to God’s standards for His Kingdom.  And the Romans conquered Israel in 63 BC and ruled for 400 years until 313 AD.

Waiting is Hard
Waiting can be hard—especially when you don’t know when the waiting will and you feel like you’ve lost control.  However, God is in control.  Daniel’s prophecy shows that God knew everything that was going to happen in Israel in between the Old and New Testaments.  And, God also knew how all these events would shape the world to get us ready to receive the Messiah.

Some will wonder, “Why didn’t God just send the Messiah? Why wait 400 years?”  Well, I don’t pretend to know the mind of God and all His purposes and plans.  I do know that there were huge differences between the world of 500 BC and the time Christ was born.

First of all, those 500 years of the Intertestamental period allowed time for the Greek language to spread so that people across the world could understand each other from one end to the other.  Also, new roads and international trade routes and diplomatic agreements made travel more possible.  In 500 BC, people were using scrolls and clay tablets.  The New Testament was written in books and letters in the first century AD.  Books and letters were a new technology that made sending written information about Christ easier.  Thus, the Good News about Jesus was able to spread across the world in the first century AD in ways that weren't possible in 500 BC.  Israel wasn’t ready for the Messiah in 500 BC. The world wasn’t ready either.  

Learn How to Wait Well
Studies show that people who know how to wait well are more successful and happy than those who need immediate gratification.  Whether or not you feel like you have the discipline to be patient, there are things you can do to improve your ability to wait well.  You can train your patience just like you can train your muscles in the gym. 

Here are a five tips that can help you practice being patient.

5 Tips To Improve Your Ability To Wait Well
First, don’t worry. Jesus said, “don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34)  He taught His disciples to simply seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness and trust God to take care of the rest.  Stay focused on doing God’s will and everything will fall into it’s proper place and you won’t be letting your thought be dominated by worries about things you can’t control anyway.

Second, enjoy the moment.  When your thoughts are consumed by what might happen next, you can miss out on the beautiful life you have right now.  Learn to appreciate the many, many blessings God is giving you today.  Tomorrow will be here soon enough.  They say, "A watched pot never boils."  If you dwell on waiting for something to happen, it will seem to take forever.  However, "time flies when you're having fun."  If you focus on enjoying the blessings God has for you right now in this moment, those times will fly by and your waiting for whatever's coming next will soon be over.

Third, practice being uncomfortable.  There are going to be times in life when you experience pain, hurt, sickness, and many other uncomfortable circumstances.  You might well practice getting used to it.  Practice denying yourself.  Skip a meal (fasting).  Spend some time being bored (on purpose).  Exercise hard and make your body sore.  Learn to deal with the pain and discomfort in a controlled environment.  It will help you deal with being uncomfortable later.

Fourth, wait before you make a big purchase.  Rather than making an impulse buy, set a rule that you have to wait 24 hours before you buy something.  If you see it today and you want it today (and you can get it today), make yourself wait 24 hours.  It’ll still be there tomorrow.   So wait until tomorrow.  Two things may happen if you wait.  First, you may discover you really didn't need or want that thing you almost bought on impulse.  Second, you will train yourself to delay gratification.

Lastly, challenge yourself.  If you truly feel stuck, like you’re not going anywhere, then do something proactive to improve yourself.  Times when you’re waiting are great times to get training that will give you new skills.  Go back to school or take a course.  Read a book.  Listen to a podcast.  These things will give you new skills and insights and may also inspire you about the next steps you could take.

Jesus is With Us
The Good News is, we aren’t waiting alone.  Jesus is there with us in those in between times too.
Jesus is not dead.  He is risen.  And He is with us while we wait.  So Jesus helps us find new strength and courage.  He will nourishes your soul and fill you with hope as you wait patiently for His return and for whatever important changes you are may come.


[i] https://jamesclear.com/delayed-gratification?fbclid=IwAR2XpwUq2x6V4W0IUBKGgxJ78cB4I9D5GlguqC8g6C0fsfPiU8lXYHvzZVQ

Monday, October 25, 2021

Love Endures Forever

Introduction
How do you know if someone is really a Christian?  What evidence that proves it?

If you asked 10 different people, you might get 10 different answers.

Some might say, “You know someone’s a real Christian if they pray for someone and actually heal them or prophecy about the future and have it come true.  That’s a real Christian.”

Others might say, “A real Christian reads their Bible and knows what it all means.  They can explain how Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. They are a real Christian because they know Christian doctrine.”

Another person might argue, “No.  It all comes down to faith.  It is only by faith that a person is a real Christian.”

Yet another person might retort, “Yeah, but what about good works?  People must do good and give to the poor and help the needy.  That shows they’re a real Christian.”

Someone else would say, “Yeah but what about the martyrs?  Someone who dies for their faith, surely that’s undisputable evidence they are a real Christian—the best Christian of all.”

The members of the 1st Church of Corinth were arguing about these things.  In fact, some were saying, “I’m a better Christian than you, because I can do this or I’ve done that…”  And in answer, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, and we find a good summary of Paul's response in 13:1-3.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

So Paul says it’s not supernatural power, it’s not knowledge of the Bible, it’s not doing good or being good, it’s not even dying as a martyr for your faith that proves you’re a Christian. Paul says, it all comes down to love.  Love is what proves you are truly a Christian.  When the love of God lives in you and you love others, that’s proof you are a Christian.

But the kind of love we’re talking about is not necessarily the type of love the world talks about.  So Paul goes on to explain what God’s love is like—the kind of love we are to have and show.  And today, I want to finish our series on Paul’s words about love from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.  Today, we learn that love endures forever.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Endurance
One of my church members, Kate Roberts, achieved a personal record at her cross country race this weekend in South Carolina.  Cross country racing is an endurance sport.  The runners push themselves to their physical limits racing long distances, competing as a team.  They train their bodies everyday to endure the pain and strain of physical exhaustion from running 3 to 6 miles as fast as they can.  I think Kate was able to run 3.1 miles in less than 20 minutes this weekend.

Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or adversity.  How in the world does endurance belong in a definition of love?  If you are young and "in love" you tend to focus on all the ways the person you "love" makes you feel good.  When you've been married a long time, you understand much better about the "endurance" element of love.

Of course, I hope by now in this series, you understand that real love (God’s love) is not about how someone makes us feel.  Love is not a mere emotion or a pleasure we derive because we like being around someone.  Love is a gift we give to others regardless of whether we get anything at all in return.  And sometimes love—real love—has to endure many things we don’t like about others.

As a parent, I can tell you I didn’t enjoy it at all the time I took my young kids to see a movie and one of them got sick and threw up on me.  And I had to take one kid to the bathroom and get her cleaned up.  I had a change of clothes for her in the diaper bag, but not for me!  So I had to wear that filth all the way home while trying to comfort a sick child.  Yeah, that was not fun and I didn’t like it at all.  But I loved my child and cared for her.  I “endured” the disgust and discomfort of “wearing” vomit soaked clothing until I could gather up my kids and get them home, cleaned up, and then clean myself up.

But that was just a hour or so of endurance.  I think about my own Mom’s enduring love over the years with me and my siblings.  I know we have all done many things to disappoint her and even break her heart at times.  Yet she has endured.  Now, as my mother is growing older and her health is declining, we are taking loving care of her more and more (especially my older brother and younger sister, because they live closest to her).

Redefining Romantic Love
As I have told you in previous blogs, 1 Corinthians 13 wasn’t originally written about the romantic love between a husband and wife.  Yet this passage is often read at weddings, because it is such relevant advice for newlyweds. 

Our society is infatuated with the concept of romantic love.  Unfortunately, popular culture—through movies and music—has degraded the idea of romantic love to be all about how a person makes us feel.  We have taken the greatest godly virtue of all and turned it upside down.  Love in the world is not about selfless sacrifice, but about deriving pleasure at the expense of the person we “love”.

It is no wonder that so many people experience broken relationships, broken marriages, and are extremely confused and scarred when it comes to romantic love.  Our culture has created an idealized fantasy about love that does not exist, and when people fail to achieve or maintain the “feeling” of love, they feel cheated, become disillusioned, are broken-hearted, and wonder “why can’t I just find true love like everyone else?”  

Can you imagine how it would revolutionize the world and our romantic relationships if the prevailing notion of love became the biblical view of love?  If it wasn’t about how another person made you feel, but about how we gave ourselves to one another sacrificially? 

Ironically, you are more likely to find “feelings” of love more often when you stop chasing them.  When you give yourself to your spouse sacrificially, you are more likely to have romantic feelings.   And when the husband and wife are both loving each other sacrificially, they will both likely feel more intense attraction to each other. 

God’s Enduring Love
Now I want you to consider the never-ending, enduring eternal love of God for the world.
God created the universe and everything in it—the stars in the sky, the land and the sea, the plants and animals and us.  In sacrificial love, God gave us life.

When humanity broke God’s heart by turning against Him, He didn't give up; God continues to love us because His love endures forever..  God made ways to protect us—even protecting us the best He could from our own sin, while still allowing us the freedom to choose how we live.  People often get frustrated or angry with God because bad things happen to them or God.  God didn't cause those bad things.  We cause them by our sin (or they were caused because humanity has been wrecking God's perfect creation for thousands of years).  It is a miracle of God's love that we are still here and haven't completely destroyed ourselves and that God has still preserved our freedom to choose how we live.  Unfortunately, our choices cause a lot of hurt and suffering, but God still preserves us through HIs enduring love.

4,000 years ago, God chose a man of faith named Abraham to begin the process of saving the world—even saving you.  4,000 years ago.  Think about how long ago that is.  The American Revolution was 245 years ago.  That seems like a long time to a lot of us, but it is only a blip on the timeline of God's love story told in the Bible.  4,000 years ago, God was thinking about you and working to save you when He called Abraham to begin the rescue mission for humanity.

Even when Abraham’s descendants were slaves in Egypt 600 years after Abraham, God's love endured and He kept working through the Israelites to save the world.  God used Moses to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

3,000 years ago, God made David the king of Israel and said, “I will raise up one of your descendants… I will secure his royal throne forever.” (2 Samuel 7:12-13)  God was talking about Jesus, who is David's great great great... grandson.

Jesus was born 2,000 years ago.  He lived as the perfect lamb of God, without sin or blemish.  He gave his life sacrificially to atone for our sin (showing God’s perfect, unconditional love for you and me).

Through all of these thousands of years, God’s love endures.  We've given God a million reasons to give up on us, but He hasn't and He won't.  God is hoping beyond hope that people will finally hear Him calling and turn from their sins, receive His love, and be saved.

And God is hoping beyond hope that we will all start to love God and love our neighbor just as Jesus did and that our love will endure in every circumstance because real love endures forever.

My mission, the reason I’ve devoted my life to work as a pastor, is so that more and more people will turn to God and receive His love and in turn love others the way God loves us.

1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!”
All the things in this world we think are so important now will pass away. 
It won’t matter what kind of clothes we wear, or the car we drive, or which house we lived in.
It won’t matter which flag we saluted or whether we were democrat or republican.
It won’t even matter if the Braves won the world series in 2021.

1 Corinthians 13:12-13 says, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that [we] know now is partial and incomplete, but then [we] will know everything completely, just as God now knows [us] completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

Thursday, September 1, 2016

The Green Light

The Truth As Far As I Can Tell…

James 4:7 – So humble yourselves before God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

            “It’s the green light.”  He said. 
            “What do you mean?”  I asked my friend, Ken.  Ken Stephens was an experienced Methodist minister who served a church a few miles down the road from mine.  He was patient, faithful, and wise from years of ‘fighting the good fight’ in the Lord’s Kingdom.
            Ken and I and a number of other pastors in Forsyth, Georgia were planning a community-wide mission event.  Unfortunately, we had experienced some minor setbacks in our plans.  It was nothing major, but enough to make some of us less experienced ministers question if we were doing the right thing.  Was God trying to tell us we were off track?  Were we doing the right thing?
            “It’s the green light.”  Ken repeated.  “When Satan sees the Church working together and doing the will of God, Satan feels threatened.  He doesn’t like it.  So, he tries his best to disrupt and discourage God’s people.  But that’s the green light for the Church.  It tells us we are on the right track.  We are making the Devil nervous.  So we’ve got to press on.  The Devil’s telling us to stop, but God’s giving us the green light to go ahead.”
            I never forgot Ken’s advice.  Whenever I know I am doing the right thing, I don’t let Satan discourage me with his minor disruptions.  Now, I just see these as the green light.  They are confirmation that I am on the right track.  If Satan is fighting us, it is only confirmation that we are on the right track.  So I pray for God to chase the Devil away and I ask other prayer warriors to join with me, knowing if we resist the Devil, he will flee from us (James 4:7). 
            Satan cannot stand against us.  Through Jesus, we have already won the victory.  Of course, I’m no expert and certainly don’t claim to know everything, but that’s the Truth as far as I can tell…

Remember, God loves you and so do I!