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Hope Generated in His Promised Plans: A sermon on Psalm 138…
The Simple Christian Life – Love, HOPE, FAITH
Hope Generated in His Promised Plans
Psalm 138
† I.H.S. †
May this message about the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ increase your hope and expectation of God’s role in your life!
Abraham: Blinded
Even though the sermon is based on the Psalm – I want to start with the Old Testament reading about Abraham. God is talking about hiding His plans from Abraham, and there are days I wonder if the Trinity hasn’t had the same conversations about us.
Not that God is going to do something like he did through Abraham with us. I mean, having a kid at 100, or when Kay is 90? Maybe that is Al and Shirley’s task? Carol and Chuck’s?
But what about this idea that we don’t know the plans God has for us. TO be honest, I am personally struggling with that one right now. God, I don’t understand what You are doing, it doesn’t make sense!
You see that in the psalm as well – when at the end of praising God, when at that end of realizing that God has saved us while realizing that God will work out His plans for our life because His love is faithful. The psalmist then pleads…
“Don’t abandon me. (remember) you made me.”
I get that… and yet.. the entire Psalm speaks to the fact He will not.
There, we can find the truth that helps us, when we don’t have a clue about what God has planned for our lives.
The answer is profound, and it will give a profound hope, an incredible expectation of what God can and will do in our lives.
Even after the praise – Even after the climb
I am going to shift for the moment, to the end of the Gospel of Matthew, to a seen that didn’t make sense to me when I first realized what it says:
16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28:16-18 (NLT)
They had seen him crucified, they spent significant time with him after the resurrection, and it said that some of them still doubted.
Just like the Psalmist.
Just like me when I am at a convention, or when I am struggling with not knowing which way life will twist next. When I don’t know the plans He has for me, and to be honest; I wonder if the plans are truly good and right.
Because of the sin of the world, because of my sin, because of the brokenness of everything, trusting, expecting, depending on everything to turn out right is a challenge at times. Sometimes it isn’t even about sin; it may be that we are simply tired.
Like the 11, some of us doubt,
It’s not new; it’s not something that will result in your condemnation, or in God abandoning you, even though it seems at times like He has, or He might or He should.
Just because you don’t know his plans, doesn’t mean that what He has planned for us is horrid or evil.
So how do we cope when we don’t know his plans, and this leads to doubt?
Back to the basics – He rescued us -why would he waste us?
We go back to what we do know, what we count on.
God.
Who He is.
Seven times his name, His personal name is used in this passage. Eight more times David uses pronouns directly talking to or about Him. 2 more times he references the name of God.
We have to hear these things for ourselves. Let’s read them together
- You answer me
- Your unfailing love and faithfulness
- Your praises (backed by your name – who you are!)
- You answer me
- You encourage by giving strength
- You will protect me
- You reach out your hands
- Your right-hand saves me
- Your faithful love endures forever.
and, - You made me.
The very reason we praise Him, along with Kings from all over the earth is that we Hear His words, we understand His care for all – especially those of us who are broken and humbled by life. They need to hear Him, and they shall, for this is His desire.
This is the reason we have hope in life, why we expect that at the end of our days there is life everlasting. This is why we know that as we walk through this life – we hear Him. For we are people who are people who are His priests and kings.
Behind the plans, God has made His nature, the very same nature we see backing up the promises He made and kept in the life and death, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
Like Abraham, and even more closely, we walk with God, His Spirit dwells within us, His voice resonates in us because He is with you.
Which is why we do what he did,
Hear the words again,
I have singled you out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord, by doing what is right and just.
Does that sound like this?
19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.
We, those who God has made plans for, who are blind to them, and sometimes doubt, have the same call – to help all of Abraham’s children of faith, not matter Jew or Gentile, to hear His voice, including the answer to the last cry of the Psalmist
And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20 (NLT)
He won’t abandon us; He is with us… This is most certainly true. AMEN
Socrates and the Paradox of Spiritual Maturity
Devotional thought of the day:
25 Brothers, pray for us! 1 Thessalonians 5:25 (ESV)
318 Place yourself before the Lord each day and tell him slowly and in all earnestness, like the man in the Gospel who was in such great need, Domine, ut videam! —Lord, that I may see!; that I may see what you expect from me, and struggle to be faithful to you.
An oracle once identified the smartest man of his time, the philosopher Socrates. When asked about this Socrates thought and said the statement is not based on how much Socrates knew, but that Socrates realized how much he didn’t know.
Spiritual maturity is like that, the more mature we become, the more we need to pray, the more we need others to pray for us.
I think society has become confused as to what maturity is, about what it looks like. I think the problem has to do when we consider independence a necessary part of maturity. It is as if we measure maturity based on how much we can do for ourselves. That is because our ability to be independent parallels our physical and emotional growth, but that doesn’t mean being independent is an aspect of maturity, or for that matter is good.
I would tie interdependence to physical and even emotional maturity before I would think about independence.Being part of a community, being a part of family, being married, these things require interdependence. Maturity can require a giving up of self. A sense of sacrifice, a sense of commitment.
If that is true in regards to physical maturity, I would suggest that it is even more true in regards to spiritual maturity. That we don’t become independent of God, but that we see our life more connected to Him, as well we become more connected to the family of God!
Like Socrates view of his intelligence, a spiritually mature person will run to God in prayer, will not hesitate to ask others to pray for them.
That is the paradox, you become spiritually mature by becoming more dependent on God, more aware of His work in your life, more content and at peace, knowing the Spirit is here, and that this life is not all there is, there is something far more… The more spiritually mature we are, the more we end up appreciating the sacraments, the time where God’s grace is showered upon us. Likewise our time in meditation on God’s love, that marks as us His in baptism, and our time laying in His hands all our burdens, all the things that cause anxiety.
It’s not easy though, to take such time. Hence, the request for pray, even as Paul did. Please pray for me! And for all who minister to others.
Lord help us all to take the time, to know and to ponder this basic truth.
There is God, and we are His.
Knowing that, may we cry out for the mercy that will enable us to see you! AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Forge (Kindle Locations 1273-1276). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Glory of God and Human Worth
The Glory of God and Human Worth
Psalm 8
† IN the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit †
May the Holy Spirit make us more and more like Jesus Christ, causing us to reflect His glory into our broken world.
A precious lesson to remember
I’ve been doing a bit of thinking since I realized that this summer will make it 30 years since I was a pastoral intern. Some of that pondering has been in awe of what God has done, other moments have brought tears. It has been especially rough as this year has seen some dear people pass away at each of the churches I’ve served at. Nor does it help that in my devotions I’ve read Job recently, and presently am reading Ecclesiastes, where Solomon’s chorus seems to be,
All is meaning-less.
And there are days that I hear this!
Over the thirty years I’ve also learned to disregard that attitude, to know that even when I don’t see how everything will work out, that I am assured of God’s promises, and can rest secure knowing He is faithful.
That’s not where this sermon on Psalm 8 is going, well, not directly, but that is part of the background. Thirty years ago, actually thirty-three years ago, a phrase was drummed into my mind. It took 3 years to make sense, and a lifetime to implement. It is a great guideline for theologians and preachers, and it helps those who listen to sermons and try to apply it to their lives.
These are those words,
You cannot fully understand any Biblical truth until you have reduced it to a corollary of the idea of Covenant.
or to put it in the way I came to understand it,
You can’t clearly understand any doctrine, in Christianity until you understand it in view of the relationship God calls us into with Himself, as described in the New Covenant.
Which includes the incredible glorious mystery we celebrate today, that God is One, and God is, simultaneously three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What we call the Trinity the merger of the words Tri and Unity. Until we understand that in view of God’s relationship with us, His relationship that He calls us into, the result is meaningless.
Failure to Understand the Relationship
So how does this work? Why can’t we understand the idea of the Trinity, the doctrine that God is Triune, if we don’t include our relationship with God in contemplating it? Why is understanding the Covenant necessary to understanding this?
The answer is somewhat simple, we can’t understand the Trinity until we are actively involved with it. To understand the Trinity, we must move and live in unison with God, in sympathy with God. It is as if we are dancing with Him, moving as His partner.
And if we don’t understand this, it is as if we are standing in the corner of life, just observing His glory, yet not able to understand it.
We end up with a partial picture of Psalm 8,
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers, – the moon and the stars you set in place – what are people that you should think about them, mere mortals that you should care for them?
From a distance, this is how we see God, all the incredible beauty he creates, the skies, the mountains, a smile a joy filled laugh. It is glorious for sure, it is beyond the scope of our ability to describe, but we still don’t understand God, we still don’t know Him. We think we know all about Him, but we do not know Him, and we cannot see the fullness of His glory, His majesty, His love.
It is as if we are a high school freshman, at his first dance, looking at an incredibly beautiful girl. He can describe her dress, her beauty, but until he is dancing with her, looking in her eyes, he really doesn’t understand her beauty.
Neither can we understand the Father, Son and Holy Spirit until we are moving with God. Our lives lived in Him, and He dwelling in us. Until that point it is an academic exercise, one were we put ourselves in the place of judgment, as if we are the experts in judging His glory, because of our great understanding. The understanding that is merely theological, that is merely from a distance.
Which means we read this psalm and say -God doesn’t think about us, He couldn’t care about us! He has a universe to run! Like desists we think that God is far off, that He isn’t involved, and that it is up to us to run our own lives.
That gives us freedom, to go after what we want, to do what seems good to us. It means we can justify our sin, thinking it doesn’t really matter to God, that He doesn’t really care, and that we should just enjoy life.
Ultimately, sin is nothing more than choosing to remain in the corner, distant from God, unengaged with Him. We refuse to walk with God, preferring to stay at a great distance, able to describe Him, and creating explanations for what we do not understand. Explanations that encourage sin, and encourage living life to what we think is the fullest.
That separation leaves us unfulfilled it doesn’t satisfy the hunger, it just makes it greater, and it enslaves us. And once enslaved, with sin pulling us further and further away, our “expert” view of God becomes more blurred, and often more hostile.
Until we agree with Solomon, that all is simply meaningless.
Sure, God is three, and He is One, but what does that matter if my life is spent against the wall, alone with my speculation and philosophy and theology books?
Trinity understood through Covenant.
When we reduce the doctrine of the Trinity (not the Trinity itself) to a corollary of covenant, when we see this incredible mystery of Three in One from the point where we engage God, when we see it defining who we are, we begin to understand this,
This is my God, and I am His child!
It is like looking into the eyes of your beloved as you dance together. You may not be able to describe what you see, heck, you may not be able to speak. Eloquence evades you, but you know your beloved at a level that transcends truth. This is when we begin to understand how much God does think of us, how much He truly cares.
It is when the Psalmist begins to understand the answer to his question,
what are people that you should think about them, mere mortals that you should care for them?
You made them only a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority.
The answer is simply understanding the Trinity in view of our relationship with God.
For we see the Trinity involved with us from the beginning, as God makes us just a little lower than Himself, making us in His very image. In our creeds, as we describe this glorious Trinity, we see God the Father, the Creator at work,
And then God crowns us with glory and honor. This is the work of Jesus, the Son. of the Father, and our Lord. It is His redeeming us, pulling us out of the corner, bringing us to dance with God. This is Jesus, our righteousness, whom we are untied to in baptism, made one with, as He cleanses us from all sin and all unrighteousness. His very birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension affect s our lives, from redeeming us to being our advocate, proclaiming us Holy and deserving of the crown and righteousness.
And then the Spirit sanctifies us, setting us apart, conforming us to the image of God’s son. We are revealed to be in Christ Jesus, the Spirit dwells in us, and gives us the role of God’s trusted children, trusted enough that He puts all things under our authority, our responsibility, as we walk with Jesus. This is what it means to be holy, to be sanctified, to walk with God,
And so we see God, in all of His glory, working in our lives. Creating us. Redeeming us, Sanctifying us. Making us His people. That is what the creeds describe the Trinity doing, simply engaged with us, thinking about us, caring about us so much that God invests Himself fully in our lives. His is what we confess; it is what we believe. It is our Credo – why we depend on upon God.
It is a description of our faith in God who reveals Himself in this way to us,
This is why Paul can preach as the He describes in Colossians,
For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing in His glory. Colossians 1:27 (NLT)
This is how we are to understand God, not with high minded philosophy from afar, but moving in unison with God as our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ who died to save us, and the Holy Spirit who will bring to completion our transformation into the children of God. He thinks about us, He cares for us, HE LOVES US!.
As we come to know the Trinity this way they share with us the peace that surpasses all understanding and will share the glory of eternity. For this is true!
We are His people; He is our God… AMEN!
The Reason the Church is Here….
Devotional Thought of the Day:
17 When they saw him, they fell at his feet in worship, even though some of them struggled to trust Him. 18 Jesus went to them and said, “I have been given all responsibility in heaven and on earth. 19 You area going disciple people of all cultures: by baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20 and instructing them to treasure this covenant relationship I committed to with you! And I am with you ever day, for forever.” Matthew 28:17-20 (parker’s paraphrase)
To be a disciple of Jesus means that we can and must follow a way that is directly opposed to our own natural gravity, to the gravity of egoism, to the search for what is merely material and for the maximum pleasure that we confuse with happiness. Discipleship is a way through agitated, stormy waters that we can follow only if we are in the gravitational field of the love of Jesus Christ, if our gaze is fixed on him and therefore supported by the new gravity of grace that makes possible for us the way to truth and to God that we would have been unable to follow by our own efforts. That is why being a disciple of Jesus is more than concurrence with a definite program, more than sympathy and solidarity with a person whom we regard as a model. It is not just Jesus, a human being, that we follow; we follow the Son of the living God. We follow a divine way. Where does Jesus’ way lead us? It leads us to the Resurrection, to the right hand of the Father. It is this whole way that we mean when we speak of following Christ as his disciple. Only thus do we journey the whole way of our vocation; only thus do we really reach the goal of undivided and imperishable happiness. And only from this perspective do we understand why the Cross is also a part of our discipleship as followers of Christ (cf. Mk 8:24). There is no other way for us to come to the Resurrection, to the community of God. We must follow the whole way if we want to be servants and witnesses of Jesus Christ. And every single step is different depending on whether we intend to go the whole way or merely to carve out for ourselves a kind of human party program. We can come to Christ only if we have the courage to walk on the water and to entrust ourselves to his gravity, the gravity of grace.
I have to start with a disclaimer. I want to write nothing about this post, save what you see above. The charge for us to disciple the world, by helping people enter into a relationship as part of the people of God, and then to teach them to treasure this covenant relationship, this relationship based on God’s plan, on His terms, for Hs is God. That is the work of the church that is how we are to love our neighbor; that is the work of God, or as my favorite pastor/author noted, the Opus Dei.
These words of Cardinal Ratzinger in blue (later Pope Benedict XVI) are an incredible description of that relationship, this discipling process. Go back and read them again. Go ahead, go do it. And again, savor the words describing your relationship with God, as you are pulled into this incredible.
But is this what we are about in the church?
Is this what we value in our own lives personally? Do we understand this incredible, blessed fellowship we have been brought into with the Father, Sona nd Holy Spirit?
We need to, and we need to get that this is far more than obeying laws and commandments (though that is part of it). It is, to use the Old Testament prophecies, the very “being” that is knowing that we God has made us HIs people, and He is our God.
This is what is revealed, from the very beginning to creation to each time someone is baptized or is revived as their sins are forgiven, or are renewed as they take and eat the Body broken for them, the bloodshed to bring them into this covenant relationship.
This is what we treasure; this is what we guard, (which is what tereo means – not just obey/observe) This is what we reveal to the world, it is how we disciple, this is how we live.
Even when we struggle, or doubt, for Jesus is our Lord. And He is with us.
AMEN!
(1) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (p. 140). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
The Theological K.I.S.S. Principal for Preachers/Pastors/Priests
A Devotional Thought of the Day:
5 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.
Matthew 5:5 (NLT)
8 No, the LORD has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.
Micah 6:8 (TEV)
The simple faith of simple souls merits the respect, the reverence of the preacher, who has no right simply to pit his intellectual superiority against a faith which has remained simple and which, by its simple and intuitive comprehension of the Faith as a whole, can, in some cases, understand the essence of that Faith more profoundly than is possible for a reflective faith that is fragmented by division into systems and theories . (1)
Whether I agree with him completely or not, Pope Benedict XVI has to be counted as one of the most brilliant theologian-pastors in the last 100 years. He wrote documents and letters that are stunning in how profound they are, and yet they are intimately pastoral, a look into the life of an introvert who pastored a billion people.
Seeing writings like that in blue above, perhaps it would be better phrased to call him a pastor-theologian, a man who kept his priorities straight, and recognizes it is the faith in Christ, our trust, and dependence on God, that matters more than our meager intellectual pontifications. That is why those of us who would count ourselves as theologians, as professionals in the world of religion, need to respect and honor the simple and deep faith of the simple soul.
It is that Jesus points us to in the Beatitudes, that Micah calls us to, to realize that God’s silliness is far greater than our wisdom, and to live our lives in recollection of this.
For, in the end, it is not the stimulating blogs, our journal articles we write, or the great tomes on doctrine, or our understanding of the great theologians and philosophers in the past that matters.
Rather, as the former pope, who before was responsible for all the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church wrote, the understanding of the essence of our faith.
The joy we take in hearing and responding to phrases like this:
“He is Risen!”
and
“The Lord is with you!”
and finally, knowing that God will hear and answer our cry,
“Lord have mercy!”
So keep it simple my brothers, reveal to them the height and breadth, the depth and width, of God’s love for them, seen in Christ Jesus! AMEN!
(1) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (pp. 94–95). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
Was She a Victim or a Hero, a Sinner or Saint; and her Overlooked Encounter with God
Devotional Thought of the Day:
7 The angel of the LORD met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur 8 and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.” 9 He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.” 10 Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. 11 You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your cry of distress. 12 But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.” 13 Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” So she called the LORD, who had spoken to her, “A God Who Sees.” 14 That is why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” 15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old at the time. Genesis 16:7-16 (TEV)
Her story struck me far different this morning that it ever had before. Usually, she is just an aside, we acknowledge she is there and quickly pass her by.
She slept with another man’s wife, (even if at the wife’s direction). She didn’t have a good attitude to either afterward, and they didn’t have a good attitude toward her either. She tried to escape her situation and that is where the story gets interesting.
God chased after her.
Even as I type that, I think, this is increible.
God chased after her.
He chased after her, blessed her, made her promises and restored her.
Despite all the drama in her life. Despite all the pain.
As she so perfectly puts it – He is the God who sees. God saw her, in the midst of her brokenness, in the midst of her trauma, in the midst of running away, trying to escape the drama. He saw her, and blessed her, and gave her the strength to go back, to return to the midst of the brokenness,
And we have this encounter, with the one who was not favored with the one who would struggle, with the one whose descendants would constantly battle God’s people, until one of the descendants of Issac would be born, and die, and become the ultimately blessing to all peoples.
Including Hagar’s descendants.
I asked in the title if she was a victim, or a hero, a sinner or a saint. I also wonder what the relationship between Sarah and her was like upon her return. The questions are interesting and I honestly don’t know.
But what is important. what I do know about Hagar is this. She was the lady whom God saw, and she lived.
May we as well, in our mixed up, broken lives, know the love of God who sees even those of us whom others overlook. For we too are a part of Christ’s story… for He saw us, and died, and rose again, for us. May we too, encounter Hagar’s along the road, and watch God minister to them, through us.
God’s peace my friend.
AMEN!
Prayer, Holiness Mission and the Unplugged Cellphone
Devotional Thought of the Day:
8 O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:8 (NLT)
107 Sanctity without prayer? I don’t believe in such sanctity.
109 If you’re not a man of prayer, I don’t believe in the sincerity of your intentions when you say that you work for Christ. (1)
I woke up this morning and reached for my cellphone to see what time it was. I unplugged it and tapped the screen three times to turn on the screen.
Immediate I got a warning, less than 5% power remaining, and it shut itself off. No power and it didn’t work. No phone, no internet, not even the simple information about what time it is. Apparently, while I ensured I plugged the one end of the cord into my phone, the other end wasn’t plugged into the wall.
No problem, I’ll just switch to my tablet. It had power, and I found out it was 8 o’clock here, or 5 am at home. Okay. I got what I want.
But then during my devotion time, I came across a number of passages about prayer, and the necessity of it. Then a blog post that talked about all of the different conferences and things that help pastors become more missional, more serious about the apostolate.
I started to wonder, how many of these conferences have a focus, not just a section or a speaker, I mean an entire conference, If it were, would pastors and church leaders come?
Do we see the correlation between time spent in conversation with God, bi-directional conversation, and effective ministry? The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (one of the basic documents explaining the Lutheran understanding of our relationship with God) encourages prayer, even naming it as a sacrament because then men may pray more.
Because we need it. It is not just our source of power; it is our source of life. It is the source of our mission as well. Without an active conversation with God, our life becomes stale, our wisdom is reduced to dry knowledge, and there is no relationship we can share with others. Like a cellphone with a dry battery, a believer without prayer is dead.
But an active prayer life helps us understand the will of God, His desire to love all of us, to show us mercy so we could realize that love. It brings healing to our brokenness. Healing so great it drives us to others, with the compassion to share the healing with them.
One last thing. Don’t read this and start praying so that you will be a more effective evangelist, to be a better witness of God’s mercy. The more time you spend with Him, the more the zeal for inviting others to the conversation will occur, not forced, but naturally.
Just walk with God, pouring out everything to Him, and hear him pour out His heart to you.
Have a blessed day…. with Him!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 399-402). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The God Who Would Be Involved With You…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
19 I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference. 20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Revelation 3:19-20 (NLT)
Saint Luke tells us of some fishermen washing and mending their nets by the shores of Lake Genesareth. Jesus comes up to the boats tied up alongside and goes into one of them, which is Simon’s. How naturally the Master comes aboard our own boat! “Just to complicate our lives,” you hear some people complain. You and I know better; we know that our Lord has crossed our paths to complicate our existence with gentleness and love. (1)
I once was told “God wouldn’t be involved with the likes of me.”
Actually, I’ve been told it more than a few times. From people who were incarcerated, from people on the streets, from people with multiple graduate degrees but with a past that wasn’t just broken, it was shattered.
While I understand, heck I know the feeling, whenever I hear that, I cannot help weeping.
Not because of their past. But because they believed something that is a lie. Because in trusting in that lie, they miss out on what we call grace. More simply put, the blessing of knowing that God loves you, that His love means that He will show mercy to you, and knowing the miracle of that mercy, you will know peace.
To those that believe God won’t be involved with you, the lesson of Peter’s boat is a good one. Imagine Jesus getting into your car. Just walking up, opening the door, getting in and saying, “let go for a ride”. Or the passage from Revelation, he knocks at your door, comes in and asks, “where is dinner”” That is what Jesus does throughout all of history.
He get’s involved with people. Involved with them to where there is no protective comfort zone. Deeply involved, for that is where we need Him, even if we don’t like Him that intimately involved in our lives. He comes in, and would make Himself at home with us. Celebrate the good stuff, comfort us as we grieve. He would bring healing to the brokeness of our lives, even to those who are shattered. He would make everything brand new. Not like brand new, He will make us completely brand new.
That’s what Jesus does when He determines to get involved with us. Which is why it doesn’t matter how broken we are, or from what kind of life we have survived. He is here to get involved, and that may be a little uncomfortable at first… but the depth of His Spirit’s involvement is guaranteed to be glorious.
He’s going to get involved because He wants a relationship with you. Once that relationship begins, expect Him to make Himself at Home in your life, and rejoice as you walk together, for you are loved.
AMEN
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). Friends of God (Kindle Locations 532-535). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Effectiveness in Ministry and Life is Simple…..
Devotional Thought of the Day:
20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. Galatians 2:20-21 (NLT)
513 The secret of being effective, at root, lies in your piety, a sincere piety. This way you will pass the whole day with Him.
It seems like almost daily I get e-mails from well meaning people, who want to help pastors to become more effective. They define effectiveness differently, and often talk of different aspects of ministry. Some on discipleship, some on outreach, some of being more pure in doctrine. Many are willing to be consultants, put one seminars, even become coaches of those who serve the church.
Some of these people have great experience in ministry and rely on their experience. Some have studied it from a distance, and teach and coach based on observing others effective ministries. They all have god ideas, some work better in this place, rather than that place. It is good to have their ideas available, but it takes wisdom born of prayer to know which might work, and when to shift from this idea to that.
But effectiveness as a servant of God, in whatever role, is found apart from methodologies, strategies, and even experiences. For even as Christians are not clones of each other, but are gifted and driven by the Spirit as the Spirit desires, so are churches. Some are great at evangelism, some are great at being resource centers, some are great at ministering to those that don’t feel at home in a church, who need very tender care.
Because they are different, because we are different, the same rules, programs, processes, worship styles don’t work in the same places.
What is needed in every place? Piety, or what I prefer to define simple as “walking with Jesus” or “walking in Christ”. Piety is simply the practice of realize our lives are focused in Christ, they are not lived some how distant from God, and this is a good thing. We need Him!
He is there.
With His grace, His wisdom, His love, His comfort, and yes, He shepherds us. We learn of His heart, and we are transformed into Him image according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 3. The transformation results in working in the ministry of reconciliation, just as presenting our bodies as living sacrifices results in the Holy Spirit using us in certain roles to minister to each other in Romans 12, and receiving the Lords Supper resolves into a similar discussion in 1 Corinthians 12-13.
Walking with God, Abiding in Christ, or even more clearly, the passage from Romans above – it is Christ that is living in us as we trust in His promises, in His work; there is the key to effectiveness, success, and even survival, whether as a church of 20, or one of 2000. Each different, each not just being directed by God as if we are soldering in Afghanistan receiving orders from the Pentagon and White house. Rather we are directed here, where we live, for we live and breath with Christ. There is where effectiveness occurs, there is where there is peace and joy, even in the midst of trauma, tribulation and even real persecution.
Walk with Him… talk, listen, love.. and see where He leads.
AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 1949-1950). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Two Kinds of Apostles: Which Are You?
Devotional THought of the day:
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light.
19 This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistants from Jerusalem to ask John, “Who are you?” 20 He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah.”21 “Well then, who are you?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?” “No,” he replied. “Are you the Prophet we are expecting?” “No.” 22 “Then who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” 23 John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way for the Lord’s coming!’ ”24 Then the Pharisees who had been sent 25 asked him, “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?” 26 John told them, “I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognize. 27 Though his ministry follows mine, I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandal.” 28 This encounter took place in Bethany, an area east of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing. John 1:6–8, 19–28
This morning a group of pastors and I gathered around an altar, and then a table. During our time for communion, and then later, this passage formed the basis for our conversation. The attitude of John the baptist. This is a summary of my devotion.
You know in this passage there are two types of disciples, and in our own ministry we have to choose which we are, and which type we will encourage our people to be.
The first type of apostle is John. He’s the sent one, the apostle’d one. The one that comes from God to bring a message – a message that affects his very life. He pours his life into the message, and he will have his up and downtimes. But he is not just a messenger, he is a martyr, a witness (martyr is a Greek word for witness – but the witness is willing to die to prove their truthfulness) to the work of God, and to the message God has given him to share. The Holy Spirit is working through him, and the results are evident. Those who hear the word are granted repentance, and will be cleansed of their sins.
That’s not to say he is perfect. We will struggle with faith while imprisoned because of the faith. He trusts in God, and yet, the despair can reach in, and he knows he needs to be reminded again of the promises of God. John knows who he is in relationship to the messiah, yet his message is to point to Jesus, where we will find hope, mercy and the love of God.
The priests and levites (temple assistants) are also sent, but by man.
Look at the attitude of these ecclesiastical visitors, these men who are sent.
They demand to know who John is, they have their checklist, they want to know why John is caring for the needs of the people they were supposed to shepherd and serve. They are all about the examination of John, ignoring the needs that are being met, ignoring the response of people whose lives are being cleansed and cleared of sin. They know the limits of their authority and responsibility only in view of those who sent them, their message is to bring back an evaluation, answers to whether the ministry is done well and proper.
How different is God’s messenger, who humbly gets down in the water, who serves, who doesn’t demand an answer, but gives the answer, the answer full of hope, the answer that will reveal the depth of the love of God. That’s his message, as imperfect and outrageous he is. His message is from a humble man – to other men. Truly a cry of brokenness and despair, a call to make ready the way for the Messiah for everyone.
And people listen, they hear his message and respond…… they know He is there to bring them a message of repentance and yes hope. I really like how Luther explains it:
Build up, build up, prepare the way. “Behold, this person shall become a preacher for you, because one who will trust in Me will be full of the Spirit so that he is able also to teach others.” Now, this is the voice: Build up, as John says, “Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). The preacher must first reprove the world, so that they may repent and remove the roadblocks, that is, their own righteousnesses and religions. The preacher’s first message is to teach penitence, remove offenses, proclaim the Law, humiliate ( I would rather see this as the verb humble) and terrify the sinners. No one can do this but a godly preacher. Hypocrites cannot preach this way because they do not truly feel sins.[i]
John is sent/apostoled/given the mission by God. He knows the brokenness of sin, and the blessings of God’s promised mercy. The apostles of men can’t know that, they haven’t witnessed it personally, they don’t know this love, this grace, this overwhelming peace. That’s the difference, the difference that all of us, sent by Jesus into the world, clergy, laity, pastor, prophet and simple witness need to realize. THe message only gives hope, it can only transform and bring faith and repentance, if it is a witness to the work of jesus..
May we indeed bring a message to others of what we’ve seen God do, that they too may believe!
[i] Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 17: Lectures on Isaiah: Chapters 40-66. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 17, p. 277). Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.
