Sunday, April 18, 2021
Worthy
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Hide and Seek
This morning I was listening to our pastor's message from Resurrection Sunday last week, and I was thinking of all of the appearances of Jesus after He rose from the dead. They are so surreal! For someone who spent His time on Earth revealing Himself and His Father clearly and plainly, after He rose it's like He was playing games with them. First He appeared to a woman at His own tomb, but He seems just fine letting her think He was the gardener at first. He didn't lead with "Hey, check me out, I'm Jesus!" Then He appeared to two of His own disciples who were traveling, and He let them think He was just some random guy the whole time. They're telling Jesus the story of what happened to Jesus, and He never said "Um guys, did you notice that here I am, I'm that guy?" What He does do is explain to them what He had told them before He was crucified, without actually telling them that He is Jesus. Then as soon as they finally recognize Him, does He hang out and visit? Nope... He vanishes!
Then later he reveals Himeself to Thomas by just sort of appearing in a house with all of the doors locked. Then later the guys go fishing, and Jesus just shows up on the shore of the lake, and Jesus is like, "Hey guys! Catch anything?" He doesn't say "Hi, I'm your risen Messiah!" He just acts like He's a guy talking shop with fishermen. This time, though, John recognizes Jesus, and when he tells Peter, Peter recognizes Him too, and jumps in the water to get to Him faster!
Was Jesus just messing with them? That's the question I asked myself this morning. Was this a childish game of hide and seek or something? BOOM I'm here, BOOM I'm gone, hey check out my disguise, haha you didn't know it was Me! Obviously, that's not what Jesus is like. I think what was really happening was that Jesus was showing what it's like for believers between the Resurrection and the Second Coming. It's rare that someone actually visually sees Jesus. Sometimes things happen that are the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and we have to recognize them with the eyes of faith because they're not obvious. But Jesus is there, popping up at unexpected times and in unexpected places! We just have to open our eyes, remember what He has told us and what His Word says, and recognize the work of Christ in our lives!
Sunday, April 4, 2021
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Song Thoughts: "Build My Life"
Worthy of every song we could ever singfrom "Build My Life" as recorded by Housefires
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
...
Holy, there is no one like You
There is none beside You
Open up my eyes in wonder...
Monday, November 25, 2019
Perfect peace 4: No Fear
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© 2011 Shaun's Wildlife Photography, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio |
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. - John 14:27 ESVEver get afraid? I certainly do. I get afraid for my own safety sometimes, or my children's safety or my wife's. I get afraid that the money won't be there for whatever. I get afraid that I won't make a difference in the world. I get afraid of the sound outside my house at 3am that I don't know the cause of. I get afraid when I watch the news and see what's going on in politics, or when I think about how we are slowly polluting our world, or when I think about the fact that there are weapons in existence that could literally kill pretty much every living thing on planet Earth, certainly including all of the human beings. There's a lot out there to be afraid of.
But you know what? Jesus clearly said in the Bible verse above that we can reject fear. We can simply not let it be part of our experience of the world. Apparently there's a way to put up a stop sign: sorry, Mr. Afraid and Mrs. Troubled, you're not allowed here! Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Again, remember, I'm not making it up. It's in the Red Letters, right there!
So how do you do that? Well through the rest of this mini-series we've learned that it's done by focusing on the things of God. If you haven't read the other posts, I invite you to click "Back to the beginning" below and go through them all. Let's practice turning that stoplight red, putting down that gate, and not letting fear in. Wouldn't a life free from fear be an amazing thing?
Back to the beginning
Monday, November 18, 2019
Perfect Peace 3: Life or Death
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© 2010 Gareth Jones, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio |
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. - Romans 8:6 ESVWow... "to set the mind on the flesh is death." That seems really extreme, doesn't it? By the way - when the Bible says "the flesh" it doesn't mean what we mean when we say flesh. It doesn't mean any part of your physical body, at least not directly. It means your human nature, specifically the darker part of it. The part of it that makes you want to cut someone off on the highway when they did the same to you. The part that makes you want to yell at someone when you feel angry. The part of you that wants to eat more dessert than is healthy for you.
So, setting your mind on that is equated to death. We already found out that focusing our minds on Jesus is a catalyst for peace inside, and we found out that we don't really need to be anxious about whether we have all the stuff we need (like food, clothing, shelter) because God knows and promises to provide. But this verse seems to indicate that if we focus on the wrong things, it will lead to some sort of death!
I don't believe that a person who has given his or her heart to Jesus can experience spiritual death in Hell. I think that once you've given that to Him, you can't take it back. If that's the case, and since we all know that it's perfectly possible for us to focus on sinful things, this must be a different kind of death.
The flip side (after the word "but") is focusing on the Spirit, and the result of that is not only life, but peace. Remember, in the Hebrew language, peace means not only inner tranquility, but physical health and material prosperity. Maybe the "death" here manifests itself in lack of inner tranquility, or maybe it manifests itself as getting fat because we ate too much dessert, or maybe it manifests itself in our bodies becoming sick because we spend our time being angry and bitter against others. There are lots of things that could easily fit under the heading "death" here. My personal take is that when we spend all of our time focusing on gratifying our sinful natures, eventually, the "death" will be physical - maybe actually dying early, but maybe the loss of health and quality of life. Think about this passage from Proverbs:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. - Proverbs 3:5-8 ESVMaybe I'm wrong and living for the sinful nature doesn't cause physical sickness, but this passage pretty clearly indicates that if you're not putting all your trust in the Lord, you're missing out on some actual physical health benefits available to you. I'm not making this up - I'm just calling them as I see them!
The next time you start to get angry, or anxious, or gluttonous, or whatever Achilles heel your flesh presents to you - take a second to intentionally set your mind on the things of the Spirit. Let's see if God's health plan starts kicking in!
Back to the beginning
Monday, November 11, 2019
Perfect Peace 2: Needs
The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. - Romans 14:17 ESVThis verse is about more than having Subway and a Diet Coke. I think that when this verse says "it's not about eating and drinking" it's more broadly talking about everything we need. Jesus made a similar statement in Matthew 6:31-33:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.Jesus added clothing to the mix. I think we can also add in the car you drive, the job you work, the house you live in, the computer or phone or tablet you're reading this on - anything you need or want. These verses are saying that those things are irrelevant to your inner spiritual life. If you keep your focus on Jesus (as we talked about last time) then you can have peace, joy, and righteousness in your life regardless of whether you have anything to eat, drink, or wear at the moment. Jesus adds a promise that if you seek God's kingdom above those other things, God will provide the eat, drink, and wear things. That's not to say that if you are hungry and have a $5 bill, you should pray that someone will magically bring you your sub sandwich. By all means, head to the restaurant if that's the food you want. But the food should not be your primary focus at any time. Or your clothes or lack of clothes, or your money or lack of money. Seek God's Kingdom first, and see what happens!
Back to the beginning