“WRESTLING” 7/31/11

Genesis 32:22-31, Matthew 14:13-21

Have you ever struggled? With a situation that was wrong. With a person who upset you. With a circumstance that seemed hopeless?

We wrestle with God more than we’d admit. The disciples were sure they knew how the day was supposed to go. Jesus teaches; folks go home. Jesus says, “You give them something to eat.” Not what they wanted to hear, so they wrestled.

Here, wrestling takes the form of justification. Because the disciples expect the world to be a certain way, they argue against anything that might alter that pattern. Even God has to conform to their preconceived understandings. We get what we expect.

God would give us what is needful and what is life-transforming. So, we wrestle.

Jacob was sure his brother would attack him, so he was on guard. He got surprised, and leaped to his defense. Don’t we do that with life a lot? Something new or threatening comes along, and we jump on it, try to beat it up, and out of our lives. Jacob couldn’t beat this intruder though. When the stranger or the strange thing is from God, we can’t win either. So we wrestle. All night long, if that’s what it takes. For years, if we have the stubbornness. We will do just about anything to get God off our backs.

God would change us in ways that bring new promise and possibility to our lives. But we don’t want that. So, we wrestle.

Two last points. One, this wrestling happens all the time, and everyone goes through it. Not saying it is good or bad, but God knows that it is and that it will be.

Point two, is this. The more time we spend wrestling, the less time we have for God’s new life in ours.

“DESIRES” 7/24/11

Genesis 29:15-28, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Jacob wants that girl!  Do we want Christ even ½ as much?

He works seven years for Rachel, gets deceived, & works seven more.  Turns out he treats Leah badly all along the way.  Hey, nobody’s perfect, especially in this story!

The point though, is this:  Jacob finally cared about something more than himself, and he changed his life around…or rather, love changed him…to do and be way more than he had ever been.

The love of Christ does the same for all who want to fall for Him.
Are there signs that one is so smitten with the Lord?  The parables offer a few.

Let the little we have serve the great God.  Mustard seeds are small, but they do grow.  Jesus exaggerates their growth to make His point:  God’s Kingdom isn’t about size, but about sincerity.

Put what we have in “hidden” places.  Yeast outside the dough does little.  Faith outside the heart of Jesus’ concerns does little too.  Put ourselves not where we get glory, but where others see the glory of the Lord.

Sell all to gain all.  The man with money finds treasure in a field.  He takes his wealth and throws it at the field’s owner, in expectation of that treasure being well worth his loss.  Do we do that with ANY part of our lives for Jesus?

Seek the one thing.  The merchant finds a precious pearl and alters his life and income to obtain it.  He focused on one thing, and got it.  We focus on many things, and often find that we “lose it.”

The one thing we need is the love of Christ, in and through us all.

“CHRIST COMES ALIVE!” 7/24/11

Ephesians 3:14-17a

Paul prays for Ephesus, that the church there really grows into that household of God.  It isn’t a bad prayer for our fellowship, either.

Paul’s prayer goes something like this, and I’ll pray it, rather than preach it.

Jesus, through You we have been given great blessings.  We know God, and are known by our Father.  That knowledge frees you to create us again; love us beyond all we could deserve; forgive and reach out again and again when we reject being created and loved.

Lord, we are willing, I pray we are willing…to be created.  To be more fulfilled following You, than in fulfilling our goals and ways.  May we be willing to have you do major surgery on our minds and memories, identities and behavior, attitudes and actions – so that the Jesus we love, is the Jesus others see.

Lord, we are willing, I pray we are willing…to be loved.  To be freed from past wounds and present discomfort.  To let go of desires for flesh and form, and hold passionately to Spirit and truth.  May we be willing to have Your love so consume us, that we act like idiots before the world – risking whatever for You, who gave all.

May this work be done by Your Spirit.  If we are in charge of it, then we will fail.  If we learn how to respond to You, learn to open ourselves to Your awesome loving work, then we will act, but You will be the main Actor.  We will speak, but You will be the Word.  We will think, but You will be our will.

We ask that this happen, Lord I pray that we ask this…so that Christ is as real to our hearts, minds, and daily lives as the air around us, the weather that affects us, the physical conditions that dominate us.  For if You are that real, then our lives and our life as a church will be dynamically real in this world, and for this world.  Amen.

“HEY, GOD’S AT WORK!!” 7/17/11

Genesis 28:10-19, Matthew 13:36-43

Jacob may be shrewd, manipulative and selfish, but he is dense.  Just like we are.  He couldn’t see God at work in his world.  The disciples couldn’t figure out Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed.  We are more than a little dense.  God’s Word is designed to lighten us up a bit.

Jacob is wrapped up with the cares and concerns of running away from home.  The disciples are blinded by the understanding they have.  Neither sees what God is up to.  The cure, for Jacob, was to lie down and be still a bit.  The cure, for the disciples, was to listen to God speak.

For us, the cure is to still ourselves and hear from God’s Word what needs to be read to us.

Jacob gets all involved with the dream, and is overawed by it.  So, he does religious rituals.  The disciples get caught up in the story and its messages.  Not too long after this, however, they prove themselves preoccupied with anything else but the Seed.  The cure, for both of them, was to live out and beyond the response.  They grew into Christ.

For us, the cure is to not “rest comfortably” in what we like about our faith, but press on beyond comfort, so that we are more open to more of Christ.

See God is at work in our world.  The Lord daily scatters the gospel, letting it fall where it may.  Angels are tending the fields; Jesus the Farmer is working the land.  Judgment is coming – both the judgment of love, and the judgment of righteous indignation.

That work is all around us.  Let us, then, be amazed, yes, but more than that.  Let us work alongside the heavenly ones.  Let us ask Jesus for some seed for us to toss to our world.  Let us rise from our Jacob sleepiness and move into living for the Lord!

“RISEN INTO COMMUNITY” 7/17/11

Ephesians 2:19-22

We are no longer to live as we used to.  Instead, by the Spirit we are capable, and we find it desirable, to live as a holy temple for God.

We are citizens.  Our home is in Christ.  Some of you have been here forever.  Some of you have ancestral roots here.  What energy you put into life here is based on the life you had here.  How much more to life is there with the eternal God?!

We are God’s family.  That is what “household” means to us.  Whoever we were, however we saw ourselves, matters not so much compared to how our Father sees us, and how He remakes us!

Our life together has a foundation.  That foundation, taken out of its poetic context here, is this.  We live held together by Jesus.  We live on the basis of the Word of God and the testimony of godly men and women who came before us.  The house isn’t ours to build – it is ours to live in!

We are risen into community.  Jesus, by the Spirit, takes each one of us beyond who and what we have said we are.  It is His sacrificial life that says, “You are that way, huh?  I died for that way.  I offer you My way.  Live or die, and I love you too much to let you die.”
We get above and beyond anything we’ve currently got, and anyone we currently imagined ourselves to be!

We have an important part of God’s household.  We are being built into that holy temple.  God does the work.  We let the work go on..  The more willing we are to be changed, the more glorious the congregation and its members become.  The more we stay as we are, and treasure who we now are, the less work of glory gets done.

All of this is BY THE SPIRIT.  Not by our wills.  Not by our opinions.  Not by our biology, chemistry, history.  By God Himself alive and working in us.  Wow!  Right, or am I wrong?

“THE HEART OF RELATIONSHIPS” 7/10/11

Ephesians 2:13-18

What lies at the heart of any relationship worth having?  Reconciliation.  Why?  People do amazing things to try to degrade, if not end, relationships.  Jesus Christ, however, is at the heart of reconciliation.

His blood is the bond.  No matter how vicious the disagreement, blood is thicker than water.  Jesus’ blood is thicker by far than any human bond.  His life is what will hold people together.

Jesus is the peace needed.  So long as two look at the problem, they will never see the solution.  Jesus is the solution.  Look His way, and walk together towards OK.

The attitudes, hurts, sins, we commit on each other or against each other are all handled and hurtled by Jesus on His cross.  When we go to the cross together, the problem, the pain, will in time die there.

The new relationship is based on His peace.  He loves both sides, so love the Lover.  He forgives both sides, so forgive the Other.  He transforms both sides, from law enforcers to Christ followers.  So, walk together after Christ.

Jesus goes the extra mile neither side is willing to travel.  What does it say in the Apostle’s Creed?  He died.  He went to Hell.  No break we have in our lives together comes close to that suffering.

Here is where it all gets practical.  Maybe the person  you don’t deal with well doesn’t know the Lord, so all the above would be really hard to do!  So, you do as He did and does.  Preach peace.  Peace with your words; peace with your tone.  Peace with your actions.  Peace with your choices.

Story of new church & the drunkard in the back.  Now an elder.

“PRIORITIES” 7/10/11

Genesis 25:19-34, Matthew 13:1-9

Jacob is a “go-getter”.  He stops at nothing, even from birth, in order to put himself ahead.  And Esau is the loser each time.  Both have misplaced priorities.

The seed sown in Jacob is that seed on the path.  It quickly gets eaten up without any chance to grow.  Any decency in the boy is squashed by his desire to make his way in the world.

The seed sown in Esau is that seed in the thorns.  He wants to do right, but there is just so much other stuff to attend to!

The other two seed types, of course were the ones that found no root and so withered, and the ones that actually flourished.  It all is a matter of priorities.

If one’s priorities are “me, myself, and mine,” then the gospel will not take hold very well.

If one’s priorities are “belief, but no commitment,” then the gospel will quickly wither from one’s life.

If one’s priorities are “faith, when the other stuff is taken care of,” then the life-changing gospel will be choked out.

If one’s priorities are, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” then one will flourish, lives will change, disciples grow, and faith that matters will move people.

“What you see is what you get,” said the Flip Wilson character Geraldine.  The world needs flourishing seeds.

But, it is still a question of our priorities.

“WISDOM PROVED BY ACTIONS” 7/3/11

Genesis 24:42-49, Matthew 11:16-19

These 2 seemingly don’t connect.  But, the link between them is just what our lives are looking for.

In Genesis, a servant is sent by a father to find a wife for his son.  The servant asks an almost unreal sign from God (a generosity that demonstrates the soul of a very kind woman), and he gets it!  In Matthew, Jesus responds to complainers.  He and John the Baptist made merry and put fun into faith.  People didn’t like that.  Then, they were quite devout and reverent.  People didn’t like that.  Then Jesus says, “Wisdom is justified by her deeds/children.”

Wisdom who?  You’ll find that answer back in Proverbs.  Wisdom is either the mind/heart of God, or a “consort” of some such, or Jesus Himself as a Creator, or the Holy Spirit, likewise.  No matter what you think, it comes out the same.  A godly person who follows the Lord proves true, no matter the times or opinions.

So, can we ask specific things from God in specified ways & get what we want?  If it is in His will, then yes we can!  That means our prayer lives must be shaping us to want and to know God’s will.

Are we allowed to judge how others respond to Jesus?  Yes we are, but Jesus would rather we follow Him, instead of looking at how others are doing.  It is easy to yell at a pitcher from the bleachers.  Christ wants us in the game.

Our actions can be amazing, if they are in God’s will.  Our lives as Christians can really affect people, if we focus and fix ourselves on His being in charge of us.  Wisdom, says God’s Word begins with this, “the fear of the Lord.”

What is that?  Respecting our Savior enough to want to know Him, His Word, His will, not only in the Bible, but each and every moment.  That is the link that holds all of real life together!

“SITTING NOW WITH JESUS” 7/3/11

Ephesians 2:4-10

Where you think you are often determines what you do.  Say, right now, you were sitting in an unprotected shark tank.  See what I mean?

So, where are you sitting right now?  God’s Word tells us, here in v. 6.  We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.  Really.

We have been graced into life apart from sin.  For the first time, we are actually free.  We can choose not to sin.  Otherwise, we’d be like everyone else, and simply choose which sin to do!

We show God’s kindness and grace.  We were judged worthy of Jesus’ love.  So, we judge others the same way.  We often are not all that changed by that perfect love.  So, we allow others to grow along with us, struggle along with us.

We are saved by grace.  Every moment, the life and purpose of God can flow from us to others.  That is the essence of being saved.  The grace is the way we do it.  How?  With His heart motivating and moving our heads and hands.

We are humble, and humbled.  Such life, such a status!  And we know, deep down, that we didn’t earn it.  So…

We move into God’s purposes, God’s desires.  Notice how mighty we are.  The good work is there before us.  God prepared the task, and us to do it, beforehand.  God, who sits with us, even instructs us in how to get it done!

To sit with Christ in heaven is an eternal chair.  It means we no longer see the world as those who have only this world to deal with.  It means we are capable of far more than those in this world can ever be.  It means you and I have fellowship with all the saints, right now, and give out that saintliness to the world.  Right now!

“YOU HAVE RISEN!” 6/26/11

1 Peter 1:3-9

V. 3:  You have, already, eternal life from Jesus.  You have, already, a hope that is alive, for its Author has risen from death.  You are, already, not who you used to be, since God Almighty has given you mercy that not only forgives you, but also makes you radically new.
V.4:  This life is yours forever!  It cannot disappear.  It cannot get rotten.  It cannot lessen in you.  You are right now connected to Heaven.  You are right now able to access the power and Person of your Lord.
V.5:  And, you need not even ask for it.  God is already at work in your lives.  You are shielded from death, held in God’s hand, safe from evil changing and/or breaking you.  When soon, Jesus returns, you are let go, and your godliness shines forever in Heaven!
V.6:  This state of existence is the source of highest joy, even as life proves difficult.  We suffer because the world does.  We suffer also because…

V.7:  God uses life to take death and sin out of us, and replace them with Christ and our new eternal selves.  Our sin self is always being extracted from us, like pus from a wound.  Our Christ self is always being strengthened in us to not only bear the wound, but get stronger in our Lord.
V.8:  This work is internal.  We don’t see it, but we know it goes on.  This is how we are as close to Jesus as the disciples were.  They knew Him, at first, externally.  We know Him, at first, internally.  And, His love will never leave us, and will always make us anew.
V.9:  What does all this lead to?  Salvation.  People seeing Christ in us.  We seeing Christ at work in us.  A time when the struggle between sin in us and Christ in us ends, and the work of the Lord on us proceeds, unimpeded, forever!

The Resurrection, the work of the Holy Spirit in us, means this.  We are able, because Jesus can.  We are mighty, because Jesus will.  We are triumphant, because Jesus conquers.

“WILL I REALLY FOLLOW JESUS?” 6/26/11

Genesis 22:1-14, Matthew 10:40-42

I talked to a young woman a week ago.  She said she loves Jesus, trusts Him with all her heart.  She uses drugs and has a child with a man she is not married to.  Is she following the One she loves?

Evil is attractive and easy.  Holiness is hard!  Before anyone claims to love Jesus, but not follow Him, it is good to ask whether or not they want to love and, therefore, follow Him.  Why?

You might be asked to kill a child you love.  There is no way to sugar coat this command of God.  It is simply horrific.  And, it should be.  Even God later on condemns the killing of children for the pleasure of a deity.

I’m not here to answer why Abraham was told to kill Isaac.  I’m here reminding us how heart-wrenching, and life-churning, the decision to follow the Lord can be.

To really follow God is partly to really lay all we are and have before Him, for His use.  Will I really follow Jesus?

Well, perhaps I won’t get asked to murder a child of mine.  Can’t.  Don’t have one!  Jesus puts an awful a command on people like me.  Be sociable.  Welcome people into your life, into your home.  Receive the God-followers and make them part of your life.

Yuck!  I’d rather be by myself and do my own thing, thank you very much.  I’d rather provide for me and mine, rather than for God’s favored.  For one thing, those I care for are way fewer than those God cares for, so its cheaper!

See, I don’t want to be put out of my comfort zone, out of what I want my life to be about.  And yet, I claim to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus.  He tells me to open my life and my livelihood up to the church.  Will I really follow Jesus?

“REAL MEN ARE FATHERS” 6/19/11

Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Matthew 28:16-20

God must love men.  He made so many of them!  The way He made them, and then remade them, tells us just who and why we are.

Who are we?  We are the image of God, just like women.  We are part of creation, and therefore respect and nurture it according to the Maker’s design and desire.  We are made after much preparation and care.  In turn, we don’t just “do” things; we make ready to do them well.  That includes relationships.  That includes children.

Who are we?  We are disciple-makers.  We are to live so that people want our wisdom and guidance to Jesus.  Then, we are to give not only that wisdom and guidance, but also our time, heart, and skill to helping people along their journey to being like Christ.  Who are we to disciple?  Family, friends, whomever God puts in our lives.

In short, we father the earth and the inhabitants thereof.  Folks do not exist for us; we exist and strive for them.  Our highest ambition is to see someone else get closer to the Savior, as we show that person the way.

Why are we?  God gave us this purpose:  To father.  A real man fathers by:
* praying those he loves closer to Christ
* living himself towards that closeness
* setting the standard for what is right and true and helpful
* receiving that standard from the Word of God, and no other source

We are, because Christ needs us to be.  This world needs our hands, our skill, our time.  Or else, it will be unaware of its Maker and Master.

“TWO MEN IN ONE SKIN” 6/19/11

Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Matthew 28:16-20

This applies to women too, BUT, as it is Father’s Day, I’m being gender specific.  Guys, we are two men in one skin.

The first man is a reflection of the Creative Caretaker, namely God.  This creation story is both poetic and awesome.  God, like a master craftsman, puts the universe together just so.  Each day’s work is not only wondrous in itself, but also a foundation for the work of the next day.  The plants are not made before the ground their roots will need, for example.

And, what a dazzling variety does God put into each day’s work!  This is no repetitive one size, one shape, one color day of work.  This is art as well as craft!

What am I driving at here?  We are the image of God.  Lives are placed in our care to work on with the same art, the same skill, the same love, as our Father does.  Our one skin is that of Hard-Working Caretaker.

Jesus tells us in Matthew what we are aiming for in doing the work – disciples.  God-loving, Christ-following, Spirit-abiding people who grow and thrive in the care of godly men.  That means wives.  That means children and grandchildren.  That means coworkers.  That means neighbors.  That means all we come in contact with.

In short, fellows, we are an advertisement for Jesus to our world!  How we act, what we say, the values and ideas we hold, reflect on how people understand our Savior and Lord.  That fact gives me a moment’s pause; I don’t know about you!

But, it also gives me great pride and worth.  Jesus works on me to work on others.  Our second skin, then is that of Jesus Himself; we are the billboard advertising the Lord to our family!  What a responsibility!  What an honor to try to uphold!

“THE SPIRIT RISING, IN US!” 6/12/11

John 20:19-23

Willard Scott honors those who live to be 100.  Once, he interviewed a recent centenarian.  “What is your secret to living such a long life?” Willard asks.  “Don’t die,” replies the man.

Is that all there is to today?  We are 200 years old, because we didn’t die?  In John, our Lord offers us a reason for those 200 years past, and how to move into the next, even greater, years to come.

1) MEET JESUS:  Sounds simple, but meeting Him is different from believing in Him.  Meeting Him moves a life, overwhelms a mind, fills and satisfies a heart.  He will present Himself to us in what we are afraid of.  In the text, the disciples were hiding behind locked doors.  What are we hiding behind?  There Jesus will enter!

2) RECEIVE HIS PEACE:  You are loved.  Accept it.  You are forgiven.  Stop nursing the dead baby of your past.  You are whole.  Set aside what you can’t do, and turn to what Jesus needs from you.
Be confident; Christ goes with you.  Be content; He is your all in all.

3) GO OUT:  Church is not meant for us to feel safe, but for the world to find salvation.  We have no excuse for not doing it.  The world has great need of us getting started.  We know we have met Jesus, that we have His peace, if we are doing what He gave us the Holy Spirit for.

4) FORGIVE:  Jesus forgave you, and set you free to live a completely reoriented life.  Your forgiving others allows them to find that same life from you.  Your forgiving yourself frees the Christ in you to flow to and redo a dying world.

We are now old enough to do what Jesus wants from a mature church.  By the Spirit, make disciples.  So, let’s make this a new life party, and not a wake for the nearly dead!

“HIS CHURCH HERE & NOW” 6/12/11

John 20:19-23, Acts 2:1-21

A Jesus church meets, at first, for its own needs and its own desires.  BUT, the people are transformed together by the presence of Jesus, into a different sort of folk!

That difference comes first by turning and focusing solely on Jesus, second by receiving the Holy Spirit, third by acting and speaking out of the wisdom and ability God has given.

FOCUS:  Both in John, and in Acts, the disciples are together, behind locked doors.  Their focus, obviously, is on whatever might be threatening them from the outside.  The space becomes the sanctuary, the people become the familiar security.  Then, Jesus shows up, and all eyes, all hearts, turn to Him.  And the world changes!

RECEIVE:  For John, this turning to Jesus immediately blesses people with the Spirit.  For Luke, it takes awhile longer.  The important thing is that they do not leave until the Spirit comes.  Church is not for them, but for the rest of the world, and they can’t be for the world until the Maker of the world has equipped, enlivened, and empowered them.  A Jesus church intends, in all it does, to be open to the Holy Spirit, and opened up by Him.

ACT & SPEAK:  A Jesus church so inspired looks like this:
* Godliness flows from people like water down hill.
* Church folk have a hunger to feed the gospel to others.
* They act and talk in ways that powerfully affect others, and inspire those others to join with them.
* The church seeks God’s will for their lives, not their lives to be helped by God’s will.

Mill Village needs that sort of church.  Are we that sort of people?

“GOD’S CARE?” 6/5/11

Psalm 68: 1-10, John 17:1-11

Storms, wars, disease.  Prayers, worship, obedience brings more storms, wars, disease.  God, our Father, cares?

The way we want God to be comes to us in Psalm 68.  Here God is our Defender.  Our Provider.  Our Warrior.  Our Justice-Bringer.  Our Good Shepherd.  BUT, haven’t we had times in life when we weren’t defended, weren’t provided for, received neither justice, nor guidance?  What kind of loving God would do that?

Now, to John, where Jesus prays for the disciples.  The two sections of this prayer help not to answer, but to adjust us to, the question above.

Jesus prays that God be glorified.  In the Bible, glory comes two ways – by God acting for human salvation, or in human condemnation.  In BOTH cases, the action is aimed at inspiring others to reach for salvation and step away from condemnation.  So our Father, as Ezekiel prophecies, acts not for our sake – but for God’s own Name/Honor.

Our Father won’t be abused by the children, and will not permit the children to determine how the house is run!

Then, Jesus asks that the disciples are given what they need to be witnesses in the world, and protected from the influence of the world.  That influence will smother, if not destroy, the witness.

So, Jesus is NOT asking that those who follow Him get contented lives with no problems, or life-long pains, but for lives that, given those awful things, rely and live by the Holy Spirit to get through and beyond them day by day.  This, then, becomes the witness to others in similar situations that God DOES make a difference, not by making all things better for the same old soul, but by making new souls to better deal with the same old misery.

“FOOD THAT MAKES HUMANS” 6/5/11

1Corinithians 11:23-26, 33-34

We become human when we live by the life of Christ.

“This is my body, my blood.”  Jesus said that.  He said that to those who would betray him.  He said that to us.

To ingest Him is to digest the life of Christ.  He willingly enters us, just as we are, to reach the deepest parts of who we are, and there to make changes.  If we are what we eat, then truly, we are no longer our former selves, but Christ.

Here we proclaim His death: that it really happened.  That He really died.  That, in dying, He accepted all our deaths, and all our infirmities, and all our sins.  At death, He buried all of it.  In His death, we see how much God is willing to give up, to take on, for our sake.  We are then asked to give up ourselves and take on Him, for the sake of a dying world.

How does one give oneself up?  The example here is that of table manners.  Come to the Lord’s Supper, not for your satisfaction, but for the supreme joy of meeting Jesus.  Come, not as though you deserve to be here over another, but because Jesus invited you, and you, and you.

At the table, act as if all there are important.  Your needs do not come first; the need of all for Christ does.  Your desires do not come first; the heart of Christ does.  At communion, we give up our agenda, give up our sense of who we are, so that we are free to meet with the One who made us, and who can remake us into who we need to be!

In sum, the Lord’s Supper transfuses eternal God into dying humanity.  The humans, then are to live as if God were keeping them alive, and God was most worth living for!

“ONE NATION UNDER GOD” 5/29/11

Psalm 66:8-20, John 14:15-21

So, if we are a Christian nation, then these marks of such a nation are shown in our national and local conduct.  Start in the Psalm.

We are people of praise.  Our voices ring with celebration over what the Lord is doing.  Complaints, disdain, ego-centered sentences all fall away.  There is just too much to praise Jesus for!

We are refined like silver.  That means we suffer.  And, in the calamity we are looking to Christ, not to end the misery, but to do His work on us through the misery.

We worship with zeal and commitment.  Worship is attended, and passionately done.  It is not a performance we grade, but an effort and heart-felt delight we offer our Lord.

We publicly talk about our God.  We say what the living God is up to, not just a vague, “God bless America.”  We actually recount to each other the blessings!

And, Jesus adds more to this.

We obey God’s commands.  No back talk.  No exceptions for “changing times.”  No effort to find some loop hole by which we excuse disobedience.  We do as God commands, not as we want.

Our highest allegiance is to Jesus.  Jesus is more important than our prosperity.  He is more important than our family’s happiness.  He is the sole source of what we regard as life.  From here, we serve our fellow citizens with noble character and unselfish motive.

Our national identity is that of God’s people.  We belong to Him, and He belongs to & believes in us.

So, how are doing as a “Christian nation?”

“FOOD TO RISE BY” 5/22/11

Revelation 3:19-22

Here is how powerful the Lord’s Supper is:

IT IS A FAMILY TABLE:  Here we learn how to be God’s family.    Where the story is told about who we are.  Where we are told, “This is the way WE do it.”  We learn how to live and think differently.

JESUS INVITES US HERE:  His knock raps on our lives and hearts.  Its echo is this, “I am here.  Where are you?  I am yours.  Whose are you?”  At the table we answer Christ, “I am with You, Lord.”  And this fellowship heals our hearts, shapes our souls, and lifts our lives.

THE FOOD HERE FUELS OUR “OVERCOMING”:  The word here indicates we can feel more like a good Christian than just a forgiven one.  How do we overcome?  John tells us in Rev. 12:11, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by their testimony.”  The blood cleanses us from duplicity.  The body gives us a life worth talking about and demonstrating before the world.  We are fed heaven to show heaven to those around us.

THE MEAL IS A SIT DOWN DINNER:  This is not a drive through, fast food fix.  We sit, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, in the throne of grace.  Communion invites us to come away from the hustle, the flow, the futility of what we call life, and set all that aside, and sit together in the presence of our God, and live.

THE SPIRIT TALKS TO THE CHURCH:  And, again, we are where I started, at the dinner table with the parent teaching us how to be whom we are to be.  This is more intimate conversation – you hear/sense from Jesus specific courses of action.  Forgive your brother.  Go talk to that person a few pews over.  Pray this.  In short, the Spirit allows the body of Christ received in us through the Supper to fuel the way we deal with others outside of us.

Truly, this is a meal of might!

“KINDNESS” 5/22/11

Numbers 22:22-35

God tries to help Balaam here.
— “Don’t go help King Balak” God says.
— God gets the donkey to stop.
— The donkey talks by God’s permission.

The donkey tries to help Balaam here.
— He turns off the road, or stops, or lies down, rather than have Balaam hurt by God’s anger.
— He ask Balaam why the man is upset, when the donkey is only trying to help.

Balaam is trying to help Balaam here.
— He knows God’s will, but wants money more.
— He cannot see God because he wants to see his own success and glory.
— He punishes the donkey to help him get where he wants to go in life.

Now, out of those three, which one/ones were showing kindness?

Kindness is not only being nice, not only being polite, but also helping a person head along the way God has for all of us to live by.

Kindness is willing to do the miraculous to help someone see that way.

Kindness is being so used by God, that another person senses God is real, and cares.

One last note.  This story is meant to be funny.  Kindness acts with humor and gentleness in love to achieve God’s goals.

So, laugh a bit.  Guide a bit.  Be kind.

“BAPTISM MEANS?” 5/15/11

Romans 6:5-11

Two weeks ago I claimed that life in the Holy Spirit meant that a person no longer lived for the culture or the values of the world.  That is the negative side.  Here is the positive.

We certainly shall rise.  One sure indication you are going to heaven – you want to bring heaven to the hells on earth.  You long for life without those hells.  Because Jesus put that desire in you!

No longer slaves to sin.  Your will is freed.  You can do otherwise!  A baptism in the Holy Spirit gives you a counselor who lets you make choices, not on impulse, not on need, not on psychology, but on holiness.

We live to God.  The Maker of the universe invites you to be part of what He is doing.  And, after baptism, a believer says, “Yes, I’m in!  What do we do?  When do we start?”

And, how does all this play out in a day to day life?  Let me give you an example.  Anne Horton.

She’s a Presbyterian minister who found herself in an abusive congregation, and found herself with an unknown, debilitating condition.  She was trapped.

God managed to have her speak to the session; they decided to fire her.  She went to a clinic.  Folks there found nothing wrong.  She went to a retreat center.  There she prayed, and learned how to pray.

The disease faded with changes in diet and behavior.  Her despair over her future got swallowed up in the love and glory of her Lord.  She began to hope again, try again, seek beyond herself again.

Now, she is in a new church, growing in numbers and faith.

“THIS SHEPHERD” 5/15/11

Psalm 23, John 10:1-10

I know NOTHING about sheep.  Don’t have to in this case.  Have to know something about this Shepherd, though.  Here’s what is unique about Him:

* His care touches deeper than our material needs, reaching into our very souls.
* He leads us where righteousness and holiness goes, not just where the greener pastures are.

* He enters our lives by the gate, by where an opening is, not forcing Himself into our lives.
* He speaks to us in such a way that we know it is He who speaks.

* He brings us through even death itself, by His own care.
* He serves us a banquet, one that makes us reconcile with enemies.

* He is also a gate, the opening by which we may know God.
* He is the pathway to what our lives are about.

* He makes us holy, set apart for the service and praise of God.
* He ensures that our lives do good on earth, and then takes us from here to be with Him in heaven.

* He gives life, a way of being where fear and dying fade by His command.
* He gives this life so that it fills us up and satisfies.

He is Guide and Guard and Gate.  He is Lord and Life and Liberation.

He is Jesus Christ, the only way to the Father, the only Shepherd of our souls

He is exactly who we need, now and always.  Right?

“MOTHER’S DAY ~ Part I” 5/8/11

Psalm 116: 12-19, Luke 24:13-35

How strong is love?  This strong!

Love is willing to be insulted, attacked, even killed, in order that those who are loved find new life.  Jesus did that.  Lovers do that.

Love is seen by those not beloved to be amazing and wonderful.  Often those who are loved are the people who treat the lover badly.  That happened to Jesus.   That often happens to lovers.

Love affects people who ordinarily “would not get involved.”  That happened with Simon of Cyrene.  Jesus’ love affected us.

Love weeps for the weak and mourns for the unloving.  Jesus did that.   Did that over you and me for, in some cases, a long time.  Lovers often hurt that way as well, but can’t do much about it.

Love forgives.  So do lovers.
Love is tested.  So are lovers.

Those who receive love like this also change.
They praise the One who loves them.
They celebrate the beloved One’s life, and find meaning and importance in that One’s death.
They are ready and willing to help the One who loves them do what the One needs done.

The first notion we have of love comes from our parents who, for better or worse, shape almost all of what we know of love and how to do it.  I say, “almost,” because, in Christ, we can know and do infinitely more than anything we can ask or even imagine.

And wouldn’t living that way make Mom proud?

“MOTHER’S DAY ~ Part II” 5/8/11

Psalm 113

Today’s Psalm is for people who have worried or even despaired over those they love.

Looking at the flat tire leaves one stuck on the roadside, but getting the jack and the spare starts to fix things.  So too with people you love.  Looking at the problem leaves one stuck.  Praising the One who can solve the problem changes how things will be.

Why?  What we are unable to perform, God can.  A day praise-filled is a day power-filled.  Worshiping God unblocks the energy and awareness our souls need to find that new way, that Christ way, in our situations.

What is that new way?  The Psalm tells us.  The poor and needy find help with God, and equality with others.  The barren woman finds a family.  God shakes up the expected order, the most likely result, so that we see that the world turns neither on physical laws, nor on experience, but on the grace and might of the living God!

How does that affect those you love?  Your prayers for them; your inspiring this congregation to pray for them, your having this congregation meet with them, all are ways to find God taking charge of what might seem hopeless.

There is no one outside the love of the Lord.  No one who is so wrong that Christ can’t set her or him aright.  This Psalm lifts the spirits of those who love others, by giving them Someone who upholds them, One they can hold to.

My mother spent years worrying about her three children.  She had reason.  We were not angels.  Every night she would stay up, as long as it took her, praying until she felt the comfort and reassurance of God’s care.  She lived this Psalm.  As do most mothers, I imagine.  And, God proved out!

“BAPTISM AS RESURRECTION” 5/1/11

Romans 6:1-4

Take this passage apart, as if we needed a dictionary to grasp it all.

“Sin”:  a state where a human ignores or disobeys God and lives accordingly.  Not just bad actions, but willful setting God aside, even in good actions.

“Dead to sin”:  a condition of life brought about by the Holy Spirit, who fills a person as Jesus’ life enters that person.  In the thrall of this glory and love, what had been desired, what had been chosen, matters not at all.

“Baptized into Christ Jesus”:  a commitment to God one is led to make by the Spirit.  It is that new life given one by God.  More than a profession of faith, it is a receiving of God Himself in one’s life.

“Christ raised through glory”:  a visible sign and proof that this baptism can and does dramatically change a person.  Jesus went from dead to alive.  We go from sinner to saint, and yearn to live that way.

“New life”:  a life controlled not by one’s past, not by one’s biology, not by one’s emotions, not by other people, but by Jesus Christ.

So, now, let me grossly paraphrase this part of Romans:  “Since God in Jesus forgives us, can we keep on doing as we have done?  Uh, NO!  We have God in us, and God hates what we used to do and be.  Now, we even agree that God’s hatred was 100% right.  The life we had is not the life that now has us.  We are different; we are alive – alive to God, to justice, to what make for peace and transformation.  The resurrection of Jesus proves and shows us that difference.  Now, let us go live differently.”

This is true of all of us here, right?

“THAT WE MAY BELIEVE” 5/1/11

Psalm 16, John 20:19-31

John wrote his gospel, not to tell about Jesus, but to convince us to follow Him.  Looking at our passages from today, following Him means what?

Apart from God I have no good thing.  What matters is Jesus. What satisfies is Jesus.  Anything else is just not good enough.

You have assigned my portion:  Life is lived not trying to get somewhere and become someone else anymore.  We can fulfill life as we are, where we are, here and now.

You will not abandon me to the grave:  Death is no longer a problem, or a long-term worry.

You have made known to me the path of life:  We are certain of whose we are, and what must be done.

OH YEAH!?  Yeah.  Look at John.

Jesus says, “Peace be with you.”  What we want to obtain is given.  What we wish the world would provide, Jesus freely offers.

“So send I you; receive the Holy Spirit”:  What must be done?  Living and telling others the gospel.  How can it be done?  By the Holy Spirit.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”:  We act BEFORE we know the outcome.  We take one step, without knowing how many steps need be taken.  Jesus is that special.

The best definition I ever heard for belief is this:  to be living in.  To believe in Jesus is to be living His way, by His Spirit, for His purposes.  Do we believe?

“HIS RISING MEANS WHAT?” 4/24/11

Psalm 114, John 20:1-18

Look at this day from the effect it has on this congregation.  Then, we all will see a fresh, dynamic meaning in His rising.

People who came to faith here have found their attitude towards life and living is better, more like mountains skipping, then hills falling on them.

At least one person here has shared the gospel in such a way that at least four new people have come here to worship.

There are some families here who are trying to make changes and fight through tough times.  They find that faith helps them a lot.

I know of one here who used to be closed off and sullen.  A heart change finds this one growing in joy and enthusiasm.

A few people here are doing things they, and I quote now, “never thought I would,” thanks to the faith that drives them.

More than a few here wrestle with, for want of a better word, personal demons.  They find here a place to wrestle, and not just surrender to the troubles and trials.

Several people here are deepening their faith, through either challenges to it, or by learning and experiencing more of it.

Quite a few people have found here relationships that matter in significant ways to them, and found that, in Christ, a stranger is a friend one hasn’t met yet.

What does the resurrection of Jesus Christ mean?  Well, who do you think is doing all this at the Union City Presbyterian Church?  A dead guy does nothing.  The risen King does all, and more!

“KING, HIM?!” 4/17/11

Psalm 118:1, 2, 19-29, Matthew 21:1-11

God brings His enduring love to Israel through the Messiah, claims Psalm 118.
. . . . . Jesus being put on parade and getting crucified, is love?

The Messiah can demand the city open to Him and allow His ways to take over.
. . . . . Jesus turned heads, but not too many hearts.

The Messiah was to be an unlikely leader.
. . . . . Well, Jesus sure fit that!  And still does.

His coming was to usher in a new day, a new history of humanity.
. . . . . Mostly, things are sort of “same old, same old” aren’t they?

The Messiah brings the glory of God to people God favors.
. . . . . Those parading Jesus then ask for His head days later.  This sort of people is whom God favors?

The Messiah is hailed as God Himself.
. . . . . Jesus got, and gets, a lot of press.  Not a lot of obedience.

And yet…

That enduring love of His has changed, and is changing, the world.

People-group after people-group have opened their cultures to His ways and Word.

Millions have found Him to be the best governor of their lives.

As He leads, history does, indeed, change for the better.

In those changes, people do see the power and glory of God.

Those who bring that glory to lives, know Jesus is Lord.

“THE CENTER OF ATTENTION” 4/17/11

Psalm 118:1, 2, 18-19 & Matthew 21:1-11

To live by the Spirit is to live for King Jesus.  Is He worthy of us?

The ancient Hebrews thought so.  The Psalmist looked forward to the Messiah/King making a new world from the faith and might of the Jewish people.  The world would know God through the lives and ways of Israel, led by this King.

That is why the ancient Jews always rebelled against their conquerors.  The King they wanted was not an oppressor, and no other ruler would do!  That is why the Roman Empire found Palestine so unruly.  Caesar said he was god.  The Jews knew better, and looked for it.  They would rather die than compromise.

Do we look for better, or settle for what our culture holds out to us?

The people who came with Jesus to Jerusalem thought he was worth it.  Knowing the Psalm, they acted it out before the “heads” of the nation.  The rag tag, rural bumpkins brought to the wise and cultured city folk the One they knew was Messiah, and yelled and whooped enough to wake the whole city.

They were committing an act of treason.  Romans let you do many things.  Setting up your own rulers was not one of those things!  Here was an act of defiance, a parade of independence.  All eyes focused on the man from Galilee and the donkey He rode.  Even those who disagreed with what Jesus stood for had to pay attention to who He was and where He stood.

Do we give Jesus that central place in our journeys to town?  Is He the reason we get up in the morning, and live each day?

When Jesus is the center of attention, the Spirit transforms hearts and minds, and the Father works wonders:  Enough to heal the world!

“DEAD THINGS RISING” 4/10/11

Ezekiel 37:1-14 & John 11:1-45

First the commonalities here, then, the important differences.

* What is raised is dead.  Much of life is dead, mere activity that makes no difference.
* What is raised rises by the Word of God.  There is no other way to be alive than by following the Word.
* It should be impossible that the dead things rise.  God is master of the impossible.
* The things rise because faith is needed.  God never performs miracles, so that we get what we want.  God acts so that He gets who He wants.

John is about why Jesus died and who Jesus is.  Jesus died because His life and love is greater than any other human’s, ever.  None but He can raise a loved one from death.  Folks jealous of that power, that love, wanted it gone.

Do you want that power in you, not to raise, but to rise?  Do you want that love, love that brings what can’t be, to happen?

Ezekiel is about faith.  Israel had the faith of long-dead corpses, meaning not much good faith at all!  God makes people new, turns them outside right and insides whole, so that they live as humans, not as zombies.  The Word of God changes who and how we are.

Do you want to be changed, or is the graveyard of life good enough for you?

See, Easter fast approaches.  Easter as the pagans celebrate, that is.  For Christians, Easter is every day and always, for “He is risen!”  As He is alive, so does He daily give those He loves the same sort of life.  Easter is every day for those living by the Son.

What does your calendar look like?  Every day an Easter?