Heroes or Real People

Romans 8:31-35, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (NJKV)   

I trust that you take note of my efforts to consistently remind you that each of us are real people that face the real issues of life. If we are not careful, we create the thought process in which we treat Biblical characters as super heroes rather than real people.   We are indeed just real, everyday people who write, sing, teach and preach about a real God who understands our real problems. The Apostle Paul stands out in the Real People Hall of Fame. He had physical problems. He had legal issues. He had interpersonal relationship struggles to deal with. And in all of this messy reality, he was setting an example for us. I am not encouraging you to think less of the Apostle Paul but I desire for you to realize that Paul lived in a real world and faced real challenges and issues. But he also taught us to trust in a real God who was aware of these real problems and that His presence was in our lives. His presence and participation in our lives would provide the answers we need. Our modern world is looking for a quick fix solution that they hope can be purchased in a paperback edition book or placed on a podcast with a very brief message. But God is looking for people who are willing to take the journey through life with Him. It is when we make this commitment to walk with God that we will be able to see the presence of God revealed in a unique manner during these “real moments” of life. I read these words in a devotional earlier this week; “Those around us who need the gospel—who need Jesus—are looking for believable people who can point them to our perfect Savior.   And that means we must be real. You, Lord, are perfection. Yet You welcome us imperfect people to come to You for salvation. You sent Your perfect Son to earth to die for us."   Help us to be real and genuine as we seek to point people to You.

Do You Like to WIN?

Ephesians 6:10-13, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (NKJV)

Many of us have made plans to travel to a certain destination that required some planning and preparation.   We looked at the various sources of information that was available to us so that we could be prepared for the journey that lay in front of us.   Each of us has begun our journey into 2016 and we do not know what awaits us in the future.   Life has taught us that 2016 will contain both blessings as well as challenges.   Life has taught us that there will some detours to our plans as we move through this coming year.   But life has also taught us that we can depend on the promises of God and that we can depend on the presence of God on a daily basis.   We can rely on the fact that the God of the present and the God of the future is the same as the God of the past.   We base our hope on the facts stated in Hebrews 13:5-6, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  ⁶ So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (NKJV)    We can also read another promise found in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (NKJV)    It is no wonder that believers can look through a different set of eyes than non-believers as they face the challenges of life!!!

Post-Valentine's Day Thoughts

Here are a few of the scriptures that I referenced in the message on Valentine's Day at New River. Would you pause with me for a moment and sense the essence of what Christ is desiring to say to us? I still desire to comprehend the depth of the Love of God even after all of the years of telling others that "Jesus truly loves you!!"

I John 3:1, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” (NKJV)

I John 3:1, “See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (Amplified)

John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NKJV)

We have just concluded the celebration of Valentine's Day 2016. Some studies estimate that over 20 Billion dollars were spent on this day of celebration with 4 Billion of those dollars being spent on jewelry. More than 35 million heart shaped boxes of chocolate candy were given away on Valentine's Day. More than 220 million roses were produced just to be given away on Valentine's Day. Some estimates say that 6 million couples were engaged on Valentine's Day. Sunday was a very busy day for those who chose to participate in the celebration of Valentine's Day.

YET, Christians both here as well as various other places in our world are a part of the greatest investment and greatest celebration that has ever been provided for humanity.   It is God who has provided the investment of His Son for the salvation of humanity.   It is God who has provided His awesome love for each of us and it is God who has provided each of us with the ability and inward desire to love one another.   I don’t know how you feel but I feel that the Love of God is worth celebrating today.   I came to service today (Valentine's Day) prepared to celebrate and participate in the worship of the True and Living God who has provided me with the ability to overcome each and everyone of the strategies of the enemy. How can I be sure that I can overcome the enemy? It is based in the knowledge that God loves me enough to provide the strength that I need to overcome. 

Valentine's Weekend

Our world has taken the Valentine's holiday and turned it into a financial bonanza for the florists, restaurants, jewelry stores as well as candy makers. Don't judge me to harshly when you first read these words. I am not against demonstrating our love for those that are a special part of our lives. But how will we live and conduct ourselves after the flowers die, the meal has been forgotten, the jewelry has been placed in the jewelry box and the candy has grown stale? Tue love lives on beyond all of the temporary gifts that we can share. One report says that Americans will spend over 20 billion dollars on Valentine gifts this year. Do we truly believe that spending huge sums of money will make our marriages stronger or better? I believe that a deeper, stronger and more committed relationship with God is what we need today!! Our lives will only truly change when we have an encounter with the Love of God that will transform us into the human being that God has designed us to become. Why don't we give God an opportunity to do His work in our lives?

Charles Stanley shares these insightful words regarding our personal relationship with God. "Far too many relationships in today's world are uncertain. Disunity is found in marriages, churches, and international alliances. Yet there's one relationship that is sure and permanent. The Lord designed people for intimate fellowship with Him. His love toward each of us is evident throughout the Bible. In fact, there is nothing tangible, intangible, past, present, or future that can separate believers from the Father's love. John 10:14 draws a comparison between Jesus and a good shepherd—a man whose ultimate task is providing for and protecting the flock. Christ's character is one of passionate care for His people. First John 4:16 clearly states, "God is love." If we believe the Bible, then we cannot deny this fact about His nature."

Do you realize that the Bible is still the greatest love story that has ever been written? Do you realize that the pages of the Bible are filled with "love letters" from God? We can read these "letters" in both the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Jesus Christ came to this world to reveal this love from God through a very personal and up-close temporary visit to this world. Jesus revealed the love of God in a very short time span that He spent on Earth. Aren't you glad that God continues to share His love to us through His Word and through the presence of the Holy Spirit? But He also reveals His love to this world through the love that various individuals share with us. This "love" flows through the lives of our family, friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. The sharing of this love fulfills the call that Jesus gives us in the Word to "love one another."

I would like to leave a familiar passage of scripture with you as we enter this weekend. The Apostle Paul reminds us of some the qualities of true love. There are many examples of "pseudo-love" in our world today. But I am interested in true love that will flow through a heart that has been transformed through the awesome, life-changing work of the Love of God. 

I Corinthians 13:1-7, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (NKJV)

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday. Today begins a 40 day journey that will take us to the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on March 27th. Not everyone participates in Lent in the same manner but I do believe that it is important that each of us take time to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for each of us. It is very easy to become attracted to the "blessings" that are associated with Jesus. This can lead to the tendency of forgetting those things concerning the "sacrificial" side of Jesus. We must remember that He left the splendor and glory of Heaven to come to Earth and dwell among sinful humanity. He took on the form of a human being so that He would be able to identify with the challenges, temptations, trials, difficulties, etc. that human beings face. 

Aren't you glad to know that He is able to identify with our humanity? He is not only able to identify with our humanity but He is also able to minister to our humanity. This serious reflection on the price that was paid for our redemption will also lead us to celebrate the freedom that we enjoy because Jesus willingly offered His life in our place on that old rugged cross over 2,000 years ago. Yet, the life of Jesus Christ is still making a difference in the lives of many people even in 2016. And I am one of the lives that senses His work in my heart on a daily basis. It is no wonder that the song declares, "Oh what a Savior..."

I would like to share something that I read earlier this morning:

"What happened on that Resurrection Day, which we’ll commemorate 40 days from now, is the most important event in the history of the world. As Russell Moore has said, “Christians from all over the world, despite all this science and all this progress and all this technology, [still confess] what the earliest believers in the catacombs of Rome cried out: ‘Christ is risen indeed.’”

We confess it because what it says about God, the universe, and us is TRUE. On Ash Wednesday and during the season of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving called Lent, we redouble our efforts to heed Jesus’ call to pick up our crosses and follow him. We meditate and remember with Paul that we have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us.

Crucified with Christ! Our hopes, desires, politics, intellect, and yes, even our sexuality—crucified with Christ. What a thing to say! Jesus, who redeemed us by His blood, lays claim to all of these things.

This is not the God of what sociologist Christian Smith has dubbed “moralistic therapeutic deism,” a god who demands nothing more than that people take it easy on themselves and be nice and fair to one another.

This is a God who says the two greatest commandments are to love Him with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And as Jesus said, to love Him is to obey Him (talk about counter cultural!) and to believe in the One He has sent. To love our neighbors, we preach the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection and His triumph over sin and death. 

Friend, what could be more authentic, more relevant, than to conform our lives to Jesus, who is the Way the Truth and the Life? Jesus did not and will not conform Himself to the culture. Why would we? How dare we urge others to? As Paul says, we were called to freedom in Christ, which is a freedom from conformity and from the desires of the flesh and a freedom to serve one another in love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5).

Now that’s a lot to swallow, which is one reason that for nearly two millennia, Christians have taken this long season of Lent as an opportunity to repent of our conformity to the world, draw near to Jesus, and prepare ourselves to celebrate the day that changed the universe."

Let each of us eagerly participate in a time of personal reflection over the next 40 days!!

​

Dependence on God

2 Corinthians 12:10, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (NKJV)

I am learning to lean on the strength of God the longer that I travel the road of life. Most of us would not identify ourselves as prideful but in reality there are times that we depend on ourselves more than we depend on God. The end result of that "false dependency" is that we rely on our strength and we do not rely on the strength of God. I believe that I am safe in saying that is not the plan of God for humanity. God calls us to lean on Him and in doing so we trust in the strength of God and not the strength of man. Earlier today I read some words from Shana Schutte that stirred my remembrance this morning. I would like to share a portion of them with you today.

"Self-sufficiency is the enemy of grace. If we believe we are able to do everything on our own, why do we need God? Our inadequacies are an opportunity for Him to show Himself sufficient. In this there is grace, a gift we could never receive if we could solve our own problems. God’s grace, and therefore His power, aren’t made manifest in those who believe they have no need for help. It doesn’t shine most brightly in the “I-can-do-it-myself” types. It shines in the inadequate, in those who know they need God’s power to succeed and endure. It shines when we are unable to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. This is when He can show up to do great things in our impossible situation. This is when He is glorified and we are strengthened in our faith and hope by watching Him work. He moves in—and through—ordinary people. He always has and always will."

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

It is with great hope and confidence that I look toward God during those moments of weakness and inability. I am not embarrassed to call on God for the strength that I need. He is the Provider of all things and that includes the strength that I need to navigate through the challenge of daily life.

Monday's Musings

Monday is usually a time of reflection and review as I prepare to move into a new week of activity and opportunities of ministry. I also usually take some time to reflect on Sunday's message. I try to gauge the interest of the people that set in the room during the service. I try to gauge the connectivity as well as receptivity of the congregation to the Word that I felt led to share that particular day. I try to seek out some input from various individuals that were in the service that particular day. And I am always thankful for those individuals who take the time to share their thoughts/views with me regarding the service and the presentation of the Gospel. NOTE: The past two weeks have found me reading emails early on Monday morning from separate individuals who felt led to share their thoughts concerning the Sunday service. I appreciate their insight, prayers and support.

This past week has found me in various ministry opportunities. These moments of ministry included a funeral, hospital visitation, personal conversations, message preparation, prayer times, devotional times, responding to phone calls as well as electronic communications, etc. I shared this information so that I could make this declaration. "I COULD SENSE THE PRESENCE OF GOD EACH AND EVERY STEP OF THE WAY."

We celebrated Communion Sunday at New River on Sunday. The sharing of these elements as a part of our Worship reminded me of the nearness of Christ and His interest in our daily lives. The elements reminded me of the love of God that was shared with this world. But the elements also reminded me that God continues to share His love with me as well as everyone else in the world on a daily basis. Aren't you glad that God loves each of us that much? But it is my responsibility to take the time to identify His love and then take the appropriate action in response to that love.

I want to share a passage of scripture that was read prior to our celebration of Communion on Sunday. I believe it will be an encouragement to each of us as we face a new week in which we will sense the Love of God in our lives.

Lamentations 3:21-23, "This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." (NKJV)

Be encouraged today!!

Sharing a Text Message

I am going to take a different approach to today's post. I am going to share a text message that I received from a person who attends the church where I serve as Pastor. This individual had to work on Sunday so they were unable to be in service that day. But  a portion of this passage of scripture was included in the message that I spoke on Sunday. Take a moment and allow these words to sink into your heart. They will remind you of the incredible love that God has for you as well as His intense desire to fight with you and for you as you face the struggles of life. 

I was reading a devotion I have been doing. I usually read the NLT and then read The Message. This allows me to see the passage from two different viewpoints. I liked how The Message explains this passage, 

Romans 8:31-39, "So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” 

Those words should be able to serve as an encouragement to you today!!! You are loved and you are not alone!!!

PS The individual was my youngest son. Him and his family attend our local church.