Notes of Faith June 8, 2020

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6

Have you ever experienced such intense grief that you didn’t think you were ever going to experience the joy you once had, in the same way again? Has there ever been a time in your life where you were so depleted of strength because all you did was worry which caused you to not want to get out of bed? Or, have you ever been in a place, after you have given so much of yourself, that now you are left feeling weary and faint and you want to give up?

I have been through all of the above and I know most of you have too. We all go through seasons of feeling overwhelmed with worry. I have come to realize that being a Christian doesn’t make your life suddenly perfect. Jesus never promised a life without difficulty, or that while we were here on earth that we would just tip toe through the tulips until eternity. Life throws us curve balls and sometimes these difficulties nearly take us out, but even though we will face adversity and hardships that drive us to want to worry and give up. 

The good news is that we have a God who never runs out of strength, and who never leaves us or forsakes us.

I remember when I was 29 years of age, and my cousin who was also my age and my very best friend overdosed and died suddenly. I couldn’t believe it. How could this happen? I had prayed for her life for decades… and I was believing with my whole heart that she would get well, and she was seemingly on the road to recovery. 

This was not supposed to happen. 

I will never forget the day I found out. I was on tour with my husband leading worship with our church, and receiving that phone call shattered my heart into a million pieces. There I was on the other end of the phone, hearing words that were too difficult to process. I dropped the phone and began to weep uncontrollably as I fell into my husband’s embrace. I wept for hours and could not stop. It felt like I had cried out every tear I had in my body.

As we continued to drive to the venue in which we were about to lead a worship night, for the church that were eagerly anticipating to encounter God, I couldn’t think of anything further from worship that I felt like doing in that moment. I was worried about my family, her family, and everything else that comes with sudden shock. I was overwhelmed with disappointment and I had so many questions that I felt I would never have the answer to.

All I wanted to do is curl up in a ball and fall asleep, hoping that when I awake from this nightmare, it would have all been a dream. I sat in the corner of the church as we arrived — not wanting to talk to anyone, as I was so heartbroken and so exhausted from the physical pain of crying so hard. I felt so weak I could hardly stand up.

My leader reached out to me and said that I can totally sit this one out, considering the circumstances, and I was relieved. How was I going to be able to do anything with this grief that felt like a thousand bricks piled up on my chest? I couldn’t breathe and I felt so overwhelmed with grief. I made plans to leave on the next flight out to be home with my family, but there were no flights until the morning.

I remember sitting in the church staring into nothing and crying out in my heart to God, “What am I supposed to do now?” I remember sensing in my heart these words, “Alex, I need you to sing tonight.” 
“Sing!” I thought to myself, I can’t even stand up, let alone sing, but I kept sensing in my heart that this was what God wanted me to do to help me overcome. I remembered this scripture as I sat there contemplating how I would do this:  

Corinthians 12:9-10 

My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.

I sensed God saying, “When you are weak, and you let My grace move through you, then you will be strong.” It made no sense to me in the natural, but I knew God enough to know that if a thought popped into my head that did not come from me, because it was the last thing I felt like doing, then it must be God and I should obey Him. I will never forget this night for as long as I live, because as soon as I got up to worship and began to sing, the heaviness that was covering me like a blanket, lifted off of me. I worshipped through my tears but I chose to sing anyway. It was like incense to the Lord. 

It was my sacrifice of worship unto the Lord, and as I sang I felt His presence begin to carry me and give me the strength that I needed to face this season of grief. I can’t explain it, but the atmosphere in the room that night impacted the entire church. I had people come up to me afterwards weeping and saying that they also sensed God’s strength in the room. It’s not that I wasn’t sad, because I was. But His strength carried me supernaturally and I overcame my feeling of weakness in that moment.

That night taught me that His grace does have the power to carry us and give us the strength that we need when we are naturally depleted of it. The following week was the hardest week of my life, and yet I felt the strength of God propel me to lead and overcome the grief that I never thought I could. I learned to sing and worship the Creator — regardless of my circumstances, and allow Him to pour His grace into my situation and my heart, as I choose to lean on Him as I walk through hardships and difficulties. The circumstances didn’t change but I changed on the inside. 

As I worshipped my way through the pain, I felt a peace that surpassed all natural understanding.

That was sixteen years ago, and the same principal applies today. I have understood that life will not be perfect, but the One who has the power to carry us through the most difficult situations will enable us to overcome hardships and live with supernatural peace.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Alex Seeley, author of The Opposite Life.

Have you ever faced a heartbreaking crisis and felt God call you to worship through the heartbreak or worry? What happened? How did turning your face toward your loving Father change and bless you?

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 7, 2020

From Bagdad KY., we bring you today's Notes of Faith:

 In Genesis 2, at the end of the creation story, we read,
 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work.

The creation story starts with God working and ends with God resting. After six “days” of world making, it’s done. The universe is “completed.” And you think your week was productive?

Then we read that God rested. Make sure you catch that. God rested.

God, who doesn’t need sleep or a day off or a vacation, who doesn’t get tired or worn down or grouchy, who is without parallel to any other being in the universe, rested.

We are made in his image.

We are made to mirror and mimic what God is like to the world.

God works, so we work. God rests, so we rest. Work and rest live in a symbiotic relationship. If you don’t learn how to rest well, you will never learn how to work well (and vice versa).

After all, the opposite of work isn’t rest — it’s sleep. Work and rest are friends, not enemies. They are a bride and groom who come together to make a full, well-rounded life.

Sabbath isn’t just a day to not work; it’s a day to delight in what one Hebrew poet called “the work of our hands.” To delight in the life you’ve carved out in partnership with God, to delight in the world around you, and to delight in God himself. Sabbath is a day to pull up a chair, sink into it, look back over the work of the last six days, and just enjoy.

The word rested in Genesis 2 is shabat in Hebrew, where we get the word Sabbath. It essentially means “to stop” or “cease” or “be complete,” but it can also be translated “to celebrate.”

Jews have been practicing the art of Sabbath for millennia. We have a lot we can learn from them. They talk a lot about menuha — another Hebrew word that’s translated “rest,” but it’s a very specific kind of rest. It’s not just a nap on the couch. It’s a restfulness that’s also a celebration. It’s often translated “happiness.” And to the Jews, menuha is something you create. It’s not just that you stop working and sit on the couch for a day every week. It’s about cultivating an environment, an atmosphere to enjoy your life, your world, and your God. It’s more of a mode of being than a twenty-four-hour time slot.

We all need a little menuha once in a while. And that’s what the Sabbath is for.

The Sabbath is a day when God has my rapt attention. It’s a day when I’m fully available to my family and friends.

The Sabbath is a day with no to-do list. It’s a day when I don’t accomplish anything, and I don’t feel guilty.

It’s a day when my phone is off, my email is closed, and you can’t get ahold of me. 

The Sabbath isn’t a day to buy or sell — to get more. It’s a day to enjoy what I already have. 

It isn’t a day to be sad.

Because the Sabbath is a day for menuha — for the celebration of life in God’s very good world.

After six “days” of universe-sculpting work, God rested. And in doing so, He built a rhythm into creation itself. We work for six days, and then we rest for one. And this cadence of work and rest is just as vital to our humanness as food or water or sleep or oxygen. It’s mandatory for survival, to say nothing of flourishing. I’m not a machine. I can’t work seven days a week. I’m a human. All I can do is work for six days and then rest for one, just like the God whose image I bear.

After God rested, we read,

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.

There are two fascinating words here that we need to drill down on: blessed and holy.

The word bless is barak in Hebrew, pronounced like the president. A barak, or a blessing, in the creation story is a life-giving ability to procreate — to make more life.

God baraked three times in Genesis. First, God blessed the “living creatures” (the animal kingdom) and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth.”

Then He blessed human and said the exact same thing, “Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth.”

And then He “blessed the seventh day.” So he blesses the living creatures.

Then He blesses human.

Then He blesses, a day? How does that work?

The Sabbath has a life-giving ability to procreate — to fill the world up with life. No matter how much you love your job or fine-tune your work/ life balance, by the end of the week, you’re tired. Your fuel cells are on empty. But rest refills us — with energy, creativity, vision, strength, optimism, buoyancy, clarity, and hope.

Rest is life-giving. Because God baraked the Sabbath day.

Next we read that God made the Sabbath holy. In Hebrew, it’s this weighty, serious word — qadosh. What does God make holy?

Time.

The Sabbath. This God isn’t found in the world of space — in a temple, on top of a mountain, at a spring, around a statue or a monument. He’s found in the world of time.

For six days we wrestle with the world of space — the hard work of building civilization. But on the Sabbath, we savor the world of time. We slow down, take a deep breath, and drink it all in.

We push the Slow-Mo button.

It’s a day where your goal is to savor every second. Because it’s holy.

A holy Sabbath to the Lord.

This language of holy to the Lord is used all through the Scriptures. It can also be translated “dedicated to the Lord.” So the Sabbath is an entire day that is holy, set aside, dedicated to the Lord.

It’s a day for rest, and it’s a day for worship.

When I Sabbath, I run everything through this grid — is this rest? Is this worship? If the answer to both questions is yes, then I delight in it; if the answer is no, then I hold off until the next day.

Because the Sabbath is not the same thing as a day off. Make sure you get the difference.

On a day off you don’t work for your employer, but you still work. You grocery shop, go to the bank, mow the lawn, work on the remodel project, chip away at that sci-fi novel you’re writing…

On the Sabbath, you rest, and you worship. That’s it.

Think of the Sabbath like a weekly holiday. You don’t just wake up on Christmas morning and think, What should we do today? No, you get ready for it. The same is true for Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July or your birthday or anniversary — you plan and prep and shop and look forward to it for days at a time.

Here’s what I’m saying: there is a rhythm to this world. For six days we rule and subdue and work and draw out and labor and bleed and wrestle and fight with the ground. But then we take a step back, and for twenty-four hours, we sabbath, we enjoy the fruit of our labor, we delight in God and His world, we celebrate life, we rest, and we worship.

The Creator God is inviting us to join Him in this rhythm, this interplay of work and rest. And when we don’t accept His invitation, we reap the consequences. Fatigue. Burnout. Anxiety. Depression. Busyness. Starved relationships. Worn-down immune systems. Low energy levels. Anger. Tension. Confusion. Emptiness. These are the signs of a life without rest.

You can skip the Sabbath — it’s not sin. It’s just stupid.
You can eat concrete — it’s not sin. It’s just dumb.
You can stay awake for days at a time like Josh Lyman in The West Wing. Go ahead. God’s not mad at you. But if you do that long enough, you’ll die.

At one point, Moses calls the Sabbath a gift. That’s exactly what it is.

Just like work, when it’s done right, is an act of worship, the same is true with rest.

You can rest as an act of worship to God.

Excerpted from Garden City by John Mark Comer, copyright Zondervan.

How often do you keep the Sabbath? Sadly, many of us may be thinking I don’t have time to take a whole day off every week. What would change if we considered it a present from God for our spiritual, mental, and physical health and happiness?

 My personal opinion might differ from this author.  “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,” sounds pretty much like a command to me.  God’s commands are for our good and His glory. Many can not take “THE Sabbath day” off as that is a normal work day for them.  Sunday is our traditional Sabbath, which for some including myself a normal work day.  We all need to take a day of rest because God designed us this way…we recharge, refocus on Him and move into the week ahead prepared for whatever might come in His power and presence.  The Sabbath rest has much to do with worship…which we should do every day, and remembering how we are to live…in Christ, in His power and might and not our own.  Lord, teach us to rest, that we might truly live in Your power.  Bring honor and glory to Yourself by giving us this life-giving discipline.  We pray this in Jesus name.  Amen!

 Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 6, 2020

Notes of Faith June 6, 2020

 That all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. — Joshua 4:24

The more I’ve studied the fear of the Lord, the more I’ve realized that it’s as much a part of the message of the Bible as God’s great love for humankind; you can’t really have one without the other.

As I read Scripture with new eyes, I begin to see this fearful aspect of God and His nature in so many familiar passages. It was like discovering a new side to someone. This can be uncomfortable, I know. Just how much so was brought home to me during a show For Today played in Atlanta.

We were at the Masquerade, an old brick building with wood floors that didn’t seem to have been cleaned in a century or so, all feeling a bit like a castle. Candice and I decided that my two older boys were at an age to watch a show for the first time, from the wings of this famous venue.

There was a full house, several hundred kids getting into the music, and I was doing my thing, sweat and hair flying. Loud music. Strobe lights. Smoke. Energy. Aggression. To the uninitiated, pandemonium with a beat.

At one point I stole a glance to the side. Kai and Caleb were each clinging to one of their mom’s legs, heads half-buried while peeking out at me with eyes wide like saucers, a mix of recognition and shock. It was as if they were saying, “This is Dad, but this isn’t the dad we know.” I went over to them during a song to give them a high five, to signal, “Hey, it’s okay, it’s me,” but they weren’t having any of it.

Only after the show did they come cautiously for hugs, as if to check it was still me, and I held them close as we went out front to talk and pray with people. This was their own Brock moment, when they discovered the fierceness of a father who was both their promise and their protection.

In a similar kind of way, I have found dimensions of God’s fierceness and fearful nature in the stories of some well-known Bible characters.

ADAM

We don’t have to wait long for fear to crop up in the Bible. It first appears in Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve did the one thing they were told not to do, eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

God came for what seems to have been His regular walk with them in the garden and could not find them. When He called out,

Adam answered, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself”. — Genesis 3:10

It’s interesting that Adam and Eve weren’t afraid of the devil; they were afraid of being exposed before God. Even though they had only seen and known His goodness up to that point, that experience of pure, perfect intimacy with Him provoked fear at what breaking such communion would mean.

Yet we see so much of God’s loving heart and kind intentions in this whole encounter. He didn’t call out angrily, “How dare you!” or “You have betrayed me!” or “Get out of my sight!” Instead, He asked Adam, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).

What an odd question. But as John Bevere points out in The Fear of the Lord, “Anytime God asks a question, He is not looking for information.”1 It’s not as if God didn’t know exactly where Adam and Eve were, after all. He asked the question because He was giving Adam room to respond, to move toward God in his sin. I suspect, too, that His tone was tender rather than stern, an invitation to come out of hiding rather than scaring him away. That God would show such tenderness to Adam even in his rebellion is a beautiful picture of His love for us all in our fallenness and brokenness. Yet God’s question still evoked fear in Adam. He knew the enormity of what he had done.

What strikes me, too, is how God’s main concern is revealed in His question in verse 11: “Who told you that you were naked?” He was not primarily focused on the fact that Adam had eaten from the banned tree — that question came second. First, above all, He was concerned that Adam and Eve had listened to the wrong voice.

In fact, that’s the source, the essence of all sin, isn’t it — listening to the wrong voice?

As long as we are focused on God and what He has to say, we will be okay.

This is why it is so important that we pursue an intimate relationship with God, so that we can discern His voice from all the others clamoring for our attention. We can be confident that this is not only possible, but something God wants for us. Jesus said,
 

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. — John 10:27

This story from the garden also should emphasize to us all just how seriously God views sin. Adam and Eve sinned only once, but that led to their separation from God and their banishment from His presence. Those were pretty serious consequences — for us all!

If only we viewed our own sin in the same way. Instead, we minimize and rationalize.
 

“It’s just porn. It’s not like I am actually having an affair.”

“Did you hear about… ?”

“No one will notice it’s missing.”

While we see God’s continuing love for Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, we also see the fearful, sobering consequences of their sin.

ABRAHAM

There is a pretty simple litmus test for knowing if someone fears God, and it’s found in the Genesis 22 account of the life of Abraham, the father of our faith.

This episode is significant in a number of ways, including the fact that it is the first time the words worship and love are used in Scripture. But Abraham wasn’t there on the mountain to sing songs or dance — he was there to sacrifice the thing he loved most in the world.

It was his son, Isaac, of course. This was the child Abraham and Sarah had waited for through many long years, born in their old age when it seemed impossible. If God was going to fulfill His long-ago promise to Abraham to make of him “a great nation” (Genesis 12:2), it would have to be through this son. Yet God told Abraham,
 

Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. — Genesis 22:2

As a father myself, I can’t imagine what went through Abraham’s heart and mind, but he obeyed. He journeyed to the mountains of Moriah, built an altar, laid wood on it, then bound Isaac and laid him on top. Only at the last minute, as Abraham raised his knife, did God intervene. A voice came from heaven:
 

Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me. — Genesis 22:12

Obedience. This was the measure of how Abraham feared God — that he did what God had directed even when it seemed to be counterproductive to the fulfillment of God’s promise to him.

It’s fairly easy to do what God says when you can understand what He’s doing and even see the fruit of your actions. It is a whole lot harder when you don’t understand, when what He is saying seems to move you away from the dream He’s given you. Do we fear God enough to do what He says even when it’s costly, inconvenient, or uncomfortable? We must realize that the real dream is intimacy with God, not productivity for God.

The fact is, He still wants us to be willing to “kill our babies” today. But, you say, God called you into ministry, and your church is flourishing. God gifted you in music and is opening so many doors for you. There’s no way that He would want you to walk away from that and do something else.

Are you so certain? As it was for both Abraham and Adam, it comes down to hearing, honoring, and obeying God’s voice and doing what He says, come what may. In Abraham’s obedience, his unwavering trust, we also see how the fear of the Lord led to blessing. God had previously spoken to Abraham about birthing a people through him, but it was only after this encounter that He got specific. The angel of the Lord told Abraham:
 

By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son — blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice. —
Genesis 22:16-18

When people talk about “mountaintop” experiences in worship, they usually mean sweet moments when they are lost in a sense of God’s love and peace. Abraham’s mountaintop experience of worship was a far different thing. His fear of the Lord was evidenced by radical obedience.
1. Bevere, The Fear of the Lord, 158 (see chap. 3, n. 1).

Excerpted from Scary God by Mattie Montgomery, copyright Mattie Montgomery.

The phrase “the fear of the Lord” can be a confusing one, even a turn-off. But, in God’s eyes, fearing Him means radically obeying Him, no matter what the cost, no matter how confusing it may be. It is loving and worshipping Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 4, 2020

Before all this upheaval, pastors used to have at least some vague idea of whether or not we were being good shepherds. Now, in this season of social distancing, livestreaming, disinfecting, and Zoom meetings, who even knows?

Over the next few weeks let us get our bearings and our balance from Paul’s farewell words to the Ephesian elders, a compass given to us in Acts 20. We’ll take it slowly because these words are God’s mercy to you, not another burden you are ill-equipped to carry.

When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents” (Acts 20:18-19).

Paul will talk about his Word work among them and the importance of shepherding their congregation but first he says is, “You know how I lived ….” Ministry credibility starts here. Not with your vision, leadership, or study, but by how you live, in full view of your people, especially your leaders.

Paul shows us that serving the Lord requires three knee-benders that I suspect never appeared on any of our job descriptions.

“Great humility” comes to no one naturally. What’s more, leading while holding a basin in one hand and a towel in the other can seem uncommonly difficult. Humility is not actually a virtue you can summon up by trying. Rather, it is awkward, personal truth-telling, taking off our clerical costume to reveal our rags and empty pockets. To put it another way, (as Jesus did), humility is becoming child-sized so we can maneuver naturally through the low doors and narrow corridors of the kingdom.

Pastors like Paul also serve Jesus “with tears.” Ministry brings a lot of moments that break our hearts but Paul thought particularly of one burden. In verse 31 he said he “never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Pastors bear the weight of their people’s destiny like parents anxiously waiting up for the kids to get home. I imagine that one of your burdens of these last months, distanced from your people as you’ve been, was worrying if they’d remain faithful, if they’d return stronger or weaker, or if they’d return at all. Who can blame you?

Finally, serving the Lord brought Paul “severe testing” from gospel enemies. Few of us face any opposition so severe as his but every pastor worth their salt has felt the diabolical pushback against kingdom progress. For a time, I led a seminary class where each week a student would bring a case study and we’d all talk through how to handle it. Those future pastors were analytical and theological but I realized they were missing something. “If you were in this situation,” I began to ask, “what would it do to you? Given your personality and vulnerabilities, what kind of toll do you think it might take?”

Serving the Lord will take the stuffing out of any shepherd. Humility, heartbreak, and the inward toll of devilish trials are not only hard, but they need to be experienced in full view of your people. Pastors must keep plenty of secrets but our weaknesses aren’t among them. Our flock doesn’t need to know all our heartaches and failures but transparency and vulnerability under pressure are part of pastoring. Here is where we earn ministry credibility. These are the steep steps up to the pulpit. But there is a mercy in these things, too, for they free us from pretense. Our people are watching us, to be sure, but no longer up on that infernal pedestal.

Be ye glad!

Surprise kidnapping this morning…heading to Kentucky for Carissa’s and my birthdays.  Will do my best to keep these coming while traveling.  Love you all.  Stay safe.  Worship God!  Love one another!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 3, 2020

Isa 59:15-16

there was no justice.
And He saw that there was no one,
And wondered that there was no intercessor;
Therefore His own arm brought salvation…

Many of us are born “fixers.”  Our natural tendency is to take matters into our own hands, to fret and worry, to demand solutions, to feel responsible for changing the people around us – spouses, children, friends, coworkers, neighbors, politicians, justice systems, looters, criminals, even pastors – anyone who is doing or saying things differently than the way we prefer.

Yet in the process, we often bypass the most effective means of making a difference in their lives.  A little plaque in my study provides a frequent and much-needed reminder:  “Have you prayed about it?”  Unfortunately, I too often ignore this simple question until I have exhausted all other ideas and bombarded people with my righteous “suggestions” as to how they might improve.

Sometimes I imagine God sitting in heaven, watching us frantically trying to manage everyone else’s lives and solve their problems.  I can almost hear Him saying, “Do you really want to take care of this yourself?  Then go ahead. . . Oh, you want Me to handle it instead?  Well, that is better.  Now, just sit back and let me show you what I can do!”

I am convinced if you and I would spend a fraction of the time praying for others that we spend worrying about them, talking about them, and trying to fix their issues to our own liking…we would see a lot more positive results.

Why not enter God’s presence today, Praying, Lord, I can’t meet these needs, nor change ways of thinking.  I am not able to solve the problem or fix things.  But I know that nothing is too difficult for You.  Please, draw those created in Your image Yourself and continue to draw me closer as well.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 2, 2020

 Matt 28:20

I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

The 1989 Armenian earthquake needed only four minutes to flatten the nation and kill thirty thousand people.
Moments after the deadly tremor ceased, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived, he saw that the building had been leveled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child:

No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.

Driven by his own promise, he found the area closest to his son’s room and began to pull back the rocks. Other parents arrived and began sobbing for their children. “It’s too late,” they told the man. “You know they are dead. You can’t help.” Even a police officer encouraged him to give up.

But the father refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, thirty-six hours he dug. His hands were raw and his energy gone, but he refused to quit.

Finally, after thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He called his boy’s name, “Arman! Arman!” And a voice answered him, “Dad, it’s me!” Then the boy added these priceless words,

I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.’

Excerpted from Dad Time by Max Lucado, copyright Thomas Nelson, 2014.

Are you that deeply secure in the fact that God the Father will always be there for you no matter what your circumstances?

Some people’s actions for the purpose of their own gain . . .

Matt 23:23-24, Luke 11:42

. . . have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done . . .

In bringing about justice and mercy and the love of God, we must remember that it does not take place through wrongdoing (breaking other of God’s commands.)

Ex 20:15
15 "You shall not steal

Eph 4:25-27
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. 26 BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.

1 John 4:7-9
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God has not left us alone to deal with the Covid-19 virus, to deal with injustice, a lack of mercy and love.  He is with you as you struggle with what is going on, not only in our neighborhood, city, state, and country, but the world.  Stand firm in truth and pray fervently for the will of God to be poured out upon us.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 1, 2020

A declaration of war has been issued. We have been told to expect attack. Yet it is easy for us to think we live in peacetime conditions, and to be surprised when we find ourselves embattled and attacked, (even or especially mentally).

 I think of this quote by Charles Spurgeon often: “When you sleep, remember that you are resting on the battlefield; when you travel, suspect an ambush in every hedge.”

 The reality: We’re engaged in deadly spiritual warfare.

Ephesians 10-13:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

 The Christian life is a battle. Some people think that the Christian life is peaceful, and I know where they are coming from, but the Bible is clear that when you become a follower of Christ, you have entered a war. In this passage, Paul uses an extended military metaphor to help us understand what the Christian life is like. He says we need armor, and the reason is that we are engaged in a deadly spiritual warfare against the devil.

 We have enemies. Verse 11 talks about the schemes of the devil. He is the head of the demons, the fallen angels who are enemies of God. Jesus called him a liar and a murderer. He is out to deceive us, and to rob us of our very lives. And he is not alone. Verse 12 says that he is joined by “rulers, authorities, the cosmic powers over this present darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

 There is not just one spiritual being who is our enemy, but a whole range of evil spiritual forces. They vary in rank, authority, and capability, but they are all opposed to us.

 We don’t have enough information to figure out every detail of how the hierarchy works. But we know enough to realize that a battle is going on with unseen spiritual forces. They are powerful, wicked, cunning, and invisible. If our fight was against other humans, we would maybe have to worry, but at least we would have a more fair battle. We have no chance on our own against these unseen spiritual enemies.  Paul is going to tell us what to do to stand under the attack of these spiritual forces.  Don’t be surprised when you feel like you are under attack.

 They have tactics. Paul tells us that we are to stand against the “schemes of the devil.” What is a scheme? It is a strategy designed by a careful strategist to defeat us. It means that the devil and his forces will use every scheme possible to turn us aside from pursuing Christ and achieving the goals that God has for us. Beneath the surface, there is a battle going on. One preacher says:

 He has been honing his methods for millennia. His emissaries visited the church councils at Nicea and Chalcedon. He sat in on medieval faculty meetings. He is an accomplished philosopher, theologian, and psychologist. He has had thousands of years to study.

 I am no genius at mathematics, but even with my limited capabilities I could be terrific at math if I worked at it for 100 years (maybe!). If I labored hard at it for a 1,000 years and read all the learned theories, I would be a Newton or an Einstein. Or what if I had 10,000 years? Given that time, any of us could become the world’s greatest philosopher or psychologist or theologian or linguist (we could curse or preach in a thousand languages). Satan has had multiple millennia to study and master the human disciplines, and when it comes to human subversion, he is the ultimate manipulator. (R. Kent Hughes)

 When you read this passage, you may have pictures of wild spiritual battles and direct spiritual attack. But there are a variety of ways that he can come after us. Clinton Arnold has listed some of the schemes or tactics of Satan:

• interjecting an image into our minds of something enticing but sinful (Matt 4:8–10; Luke 4:5–8)

• exploiting a sinful tendency, such as anger, and causing it to flare out of control (Eph 4:27)

• inspiring others to create a principle, teaching, or idea that sounds plausible, but is wrong and dangerous to our souls (2 Cor 11:3, 15)

• afflicting us with a physical illness or condition (2 Cor 12:7)

• sending a horrible dream or demonic manifestation during the night that produces fear (Job 4:13–16; Ps 91:5)

• enticing us to lie (Acts 5:3)

• instigating a series of horrible “natural” calamities, e.g., the death of a loved one, loss of one’s home, or destruction or loss of property (Job 1–2)
  
  Most of the time, Satan and his demons don’t use a direct attack. What we experience most of the time is much more subtle than that. That is why the devil is so wily. He doesn’t usually tip his hand. He likes to use trickery and subterfuge. As one person said, “Evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal; it gains entrance by appearing attractive, desirable, and perfectly legitimate. It is a baited and camouflaged trap” (Klyne Snodgrass).
  
  One of his most effective tactics is simply to get us to question God’s goodness. He tries to tempt us to think that God is holding back on us. He causes us to question God’s Word. He loves to deceive us, and he knows what works. He has been at it for thousands of years. We have an enemy, Paul says, and he has tactics.
  
   One man reflects on the battle as he has faced it, and says this of a defeat:
  
  I was a fool. I believed lies, which led me to tell lies.
  
  This is why temptation is so tempting. It’s insane how quickly it becomes rational and reasonable to believe and do destructive and evil things.
  
   That captures it all. Remember that Jesus said that Satan is a liar and a deceiver. Satan gets us to believe lies, and uses these lies to get us to doubt God and do destructive and evil things. He has tactics, and one of the main tactics is deceit.
  
  The battle is up close and personal. Paul says, “We wrestle…” The word for wrestle is more of an athletic one than a military one. When you wrestle, you are in close contact with your enemy. Paul uses this image to help us realize that this isn’t warfare that takes place with drones and joysticks. It is close and intense. The battle takes place in our minds and hearts. It could not be closer and more intimate than it is.
  
  So the first thing we learn in this passage is that we are at war, and that we have enemies who have tactics and are up close and personal.
  
  What to do: Be strong by putting on the armor of God.
  
  It is important that we understand that we’re engaged in warfare. But the way to win at the war isn’t to focus on the enemy.
  
   It was C.S. Lewis that said:
  
  There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.
  
  The way we win at this battle is not to excessively focus on our enemy.
  
  Paul tells us what we should do:
  
  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-11)
  
   “Be strong in the Lord.” Paul doesn’t say just to be strong. We are too weak to be strong. Self-sufficiency is a killer in this battle. He says we need to be strong in the Lord. This whole passage is about that. We need God’s strength in verse 10. We need God’s armor, in verses 11 and 14 to 17, and we need open lines of communication with God in verses 18 to 20. We need God.
  
  We are not alone in this battle. You could easily read this passage and miss this, but Paul isn’t writing to us as individuals. He is writing to a church. I had lunch with a friend this week, and we talked about this passage. He said, “The thing that bothers me is that everyone preaches this passage and applies it to the individual. What kind of person goes to war alone? Would you send one soldier to war in Iraq?”
  
   He has a good point. The context for this battle is the church. Given that the Christian life is war, it makes no sense to try to do it alone. We need strength and encouragement from others if we are going to make it. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other if we are to survive. These are instructions for the church collectively to put on God’s armor, and stand as one person in battle.
  
   We can be strengthened. Verse 10 says, “Be strong in the Lord.”  It means that we receive strength from an outside source: from God. It is not, “Make yourself strong.” It is, “Receive from the Lord what you need in order to be strong.”   We must take action, and the action is to seek God and present ourselves to him for filling with his power.
  
  We are reminded of the words of Martin Luther in his song
  
  A Mighty Fortress:
  
  Did we in our own strength confide, 
  our striving would be losing, 
  were not the right man on our side, 
  the man of God’s own choosing. 
  
  It is only because Jesus is on our side that we can be strengthened.
  
  Tim Keller gives an illustration that helps me with this. Picture being sent into a battle in which you are vastly outnumbered. You know that there is not a chance that you can win against the enemy. You are about to be slaughtered. But your commander says, “Tomorrow you are going to go and attack that fortification.” But then he says, “Remember that as you attack that behind you, over you, and all around you will be this vastly superior air power. Charge, but count on the fact that you won’t be alone. If you don’t charge, you won’t beat them. But if you charge and trust that what I tell you is true, then you will be victorious..”
  
  We would like to see the air power first, but that is not how it works. Our job is to fill our minds with the magnificence of the power that we have all around us, and then to go out and battle like we believe it is true.
  
  Here is what this means for us. We must fill our minds with what God has done for us. We are going into battle, but we need to remember that God has already defeated Satan through Jesus Christ.
  
  Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil… (Hebrews 2:14)
  
  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:15)
  
  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus… (Ephesians 2:4-6)
  
  As a church, we want to keep coming back to the reality that Jesus has done for us what we cannot do. We want to keep coming back to the gospel. We want to fill our minds with what he has done, and then live in that reality.
  
  The great news is that the weakest among us can be strong in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished at the cross. Jesus has accomplished everything that we need. We can trust in His work, and believe that He has abundant strength for us. He has everything we need. We can draw on that strength continuously. We can know the greatness of His power and live in that reality.
  
  One of our values as a church is that we are dependent: apart from God, we can do nothing.  The only way that we can stand as a church in the battle is if we stay connected with God, as we fill our minds with what He says is true. The only way we will be ready for battle is if we believe in the “air support” all around us.  It is why prayer is so critical.
  
  There are things we can do. Paul describes the armor of God. In addition to taking advantage of our relationship with Christ, there are some things that he says we should do. He calls us to appropriate some gifts and to cultivate some virtues that are going to be important.  He says to put on the whole armor of God, not just one or two pieces.
  
  We have looked at this passage and learned that we are at war, and that we have enemies who have deceptive tactics, and who are up close and personal. We have also learned that we can be strengthened together by taking advantage of the resources that God has provided.
  
  The good news: We can stand.
  
  Paul says that if we strengthen ourselves in God, and take up his armor, then we will be able to stand against the enemy of our souls. The word “stand” repeats itself four times in this passage:
  
  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)
  
  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6:13)
  
  Stand therefore… (Ephesians 6:14)
  
  Stand means that we hold our position. It means that the devil doesn’t gain an inch in our lives, or move us off course. When the devil advances, we are to hold our position and refuse to be moved. It doesn’t mean that we only play defense; it can mean that we take an aggressive stand against Satan. It means that we take up defensive positions, and also that we “stand like an oak against the winds of Satan’s lies that would sway us, against the floods of his temptations that would sweep us away, and against the leeches of his accusations that would deprive us of grace” (Stanley D. Gale).
  
  Because we’re engaged in deadly spiritual warfare, we need God’s help to stand firm.
  
  We have been warned that a state of war exists. We have powerful enemies who employ sophisticated tactics to try to defeat us. But we have been given strength by God through Jesus Christ so that we can stand.
  
  Let’s fill our minds with all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ, put on the full armor of God and stand firm.
  
  Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 31, 2020

Amazing prophecies of God’s plans for the world can be found embedded in the customs of the feasts of Israel. The intricate detail of the prophecies illustrated in the observances of these feasts provide insight into God’s plan for the ages. Today, Sunday May 31st is Pentecost, also known as The Feast of The Weeks in English and Shavuot in Hebrew.

On Passover, the people of Israel were finally released from slavery in Egypt; and on Shavuot they were given instructions on how to live post-slavery life well in the Torah. With this love letter from God, His people became a nation committed to serving the Lord. The word Shavuot means weeks because the festival of Shavuot is the end of the seven-weeks between Passover and Shavuot. 

Explicit parallels and contrasts are evident between the Feast of Pentecost in the New Testament and the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament. The Feast of Weeks is the same feast the disciples observed in the New Testament, known as the Feast of Pentecost. At the first Feast of Weeks, God provided the law. God had given the children of Israel freedom from bondage and slavery, so He then gave them the law to guide them in living.

As slaves they were told what to do by their masters, but in freedom they needed guidance from their new Master, the Lord God of Heaven. It should be noted that God gave them freedom, salvation from slavery, before He gave them the law.

Keeping the law was not a condition for receiving their freedom; it was a response to God’s grace in setting them free.

At the first Feast of Pentecost in the New Testament, God provided His Holy Spirit for guidance. The Feast of Weeks/Pentecost celebrates God’s provisions for life. This feast is observed during the time of the wheat harvest, a major provision of the Lord. In Leviticus 23:15–16 God told the Jews:

You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.

A new grain offering was to be offered in the Feast of Weeks:

You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as firstfruits to the Lord.

Leaven is now introduced to the bread in place of the unleavened bread of the former feasts. But why?

Checking with the messianic rabbis, I discovered a logical answer to this question. While the Passover is referring to God and the purging of sin, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost refers to God’s people who receive the law and the Spirit. We still have sin in our lives until we receive our new glorified bodies at the Rapture. We read in 1 Corinthians 10:17:

Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

The two loaves mentioned in Leviticus 23:17 picture the Jew and the Gentile, but we are now one body, “one loaf.” There are a number of other offerings and sacrifices that are presented at the temple at this time as well, and they are applicable to several things, from sins to thanksgivings.

Counting of the Omer

According to Leviticus 23:15-16, the Jews were commanded to start counting fifty days from the day of the Feasts of Firstfruits to the next feast, the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost. During the forty-nine days of this count, which they call “the counting of the omer,” the wheat crop is in the ripening process. By the end of the omer count, the crop is ready for harvest, and the firstfruits of the wheat crop can be brought to the temple for Pentecost on the fiftieth day. Shavuot, the Hebrew name for this festival, means “seven weeks.” This concludes the festival season, which began at Passover. Just as Firstfruits celebrate the ripening of the barley crop, Shavuot celebrates the ripening of the wheat crop.

The Remembrances

The feasts all have a historical significance.

The Feast of Passover is a remembrance of the slaying of the Passover Lamb.

The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt. The Feast of Weeks is a remembrance of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The seventh day after Passover, according to tradition, reminds the Jews of the crossing of the Red Sea. The counting of the omer is regarded as a remembrance of the intervening days between the exodus from Egypt and the revelation at Sinai. That is why the Feast of Weeks became known as the anniversary of God’s appearance at Mount Sinai.

On the first Feast of Weeks, signs and wonders accompanied the giving of the law. We read in Exodus 20:18:

All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.

Thomas Lancaster, pastor of Beth Immanuel Sabbath Fellowship in Wisconsin, maintains that the Midrash also makes mention of what took place at the Feast of Weeks when the children of Israel heard the voice of God giving the law from Mt. Sinai. He says that according to the Midrash, a collection of Jewish oral traditions of the things that happened in history, the people in the camp saw sound waves in the form of fiery substances. Each commandment, as it left God’s mouth, circled the whole camp and eventually rested on each Jew personally. He also noted from the Midrash that the people heard God’s voice in many different languages.

Exodus 19:16 states:

So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

The parallels are quite fascinating when we read Acts 2:2–6:

And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

We cannot prove that everything recorded in the Midrash happened, but we can assume that all the people who were in the room in Acts 2 were familiar with the events. They could immediately make the connection between the Feast of Weeks and their present experience on the day of Pentecost as being of God.

Filling of the Spirit

The concept of the filling of the Spirit has always evoked different opinions regarding its meaning. One thing I observed about filling was that in the Greek there are two different words for the process. In Ephesians 5:18 the word for filling is pleroo, which conveys the idea of growth to maturity or being molded by the Word of God. If we compare Ephesians 5:18 to Colossians 3:16, which discusses the same subject, we can see that “be filled with the Spirit” is the same as “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.” Since this command in Ephesians 5:18 is in the present tense, this indicates a continual experience or process. Both phrases have the same result: praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.

On the other hand, pimplemi in Acts 2:4 is in the aorist tense, which indicates a single event or happening. In context, the word implies an empowering for a work of service.

Today, since the Spirit indwells us as believers, we can be empowered by the Holy Spirit in our respective ministries. So the Holy Spirit is doing two major things for us: empowering and maturing us.

It is also interesting to note that when Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

he used the Greek word naos, which means “the innermost holy place of the Temple where God dwelt.” The other word for temple, hieron, means “the entire temple.” By Paul’s use of the word naos, he wants believers to understand that their bodies are truly the intimate dwelling places of the Holy Spirit.

Further Observations

I was also intrigued by one important contrast between the Old Testament Feast of Weeks and the New Testament Feast of Pentecost. In Exodus 32:28, we find that three thousand men died on the day the law was given, but in Acts 2:41 we read that three thousand people were saved on the day the Holy Spirit was given.

The law brought death, while the Spirit brought life!

It is interesting that the entire Godhead was involved in the fulfilling of the spring feasts. The Son honored and fulfilled the Feast of Passover by His death. The Father honored and fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits by raising up Christ from death and the grave. The Holy Spirit honored and fulfilled the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost by His descent fifty days after the resurrection of Christ. Now we, in response to the fulfilling work of the total Godhead, can truly serve the Lord in all power and truth!

Excerpted from Unlocking The Secrets Of The Feasts by Michael Norten, copyright Thomas Nelson.
 

“The law brought death, but the Spirit brought life!” That remains true to this day!

 Life, real life, walking hand-in-Hand with God is lived filled with the same Holy Spirit that filled the first followers of The Way in Acts 2, and being empowered and matured through Him.

 May His grace, mercy, and love continue to fill us and empower us to live each day, until we meet our Savior face to face!

 Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 30, 2020

My husband, Kent, was installed as pastor of the First Reformed Church of Durham (North Carolina) in April of 2012. From the moment that Kent received the call, we started praying for opportunities to love our church neighbors. Located five blocks from a progressive, well-heeled (for now) research university and down the block from the LGBTQ community center, we met roadblocks every step of the way. We tried barbecues and block parties. Nobody came.

After eight years in this neighborhood, only two neighborhood contacts remain: National Neighbor Night Out (first Tuesday in August), where Kent and other men from our church serve as grill masters, and Reformation Day (October 31), when our church distributes treats and tracts and opens the church for respite to hundreds of weary goblins, princesses, and their parents. Even at these all-neighbor events, however, we were feeling the cool breeze.

In August, neighbors would ask if our church was LGBTQ affirming, and if not, why we were here. In October, parents would clutch the hands of their costumed-children and cross the street, directing them not to take anything from our hand or even receive our smiles. Finally, a small case of vandalism last year discouraged many of us when someone took permanent marker to a yard sign. The original sign — “Please Curb your Dog” — was defaced to “Please Curb your God.”

With sadness, as the culture lurched aggressively toward identity politics, we realized that instead of representing good news for all, our little church had become a symbol of suspicious intent.

Surprising Answer to Prayer

We continued to pray that the Lord would give our church a reason to be in this neighborhood, and that our neighbors would receive our desire to do them good. Then God answered our prayers by sending COVID-19, and with it, shelter-in laws and severe restrictions against assembling in groups for any reason.

How could COVID-19 be an answer to our prayer for opportunities to love our neighbors?

I know that this might ring wrong in our ears. After all, God is not the author or cause of sin. How could a global pandemic, a novel-virus killing machine plaguing six out of seven continents, be considered an answer to prayer? And why would anyone thank God for months of shelter-in orders, an aggressive government intervention whose deleterious economic and social harm will be felt for generations?

Let me explain.

The Next Supper

COVID-19 has profoundly (and some say permanently) changed the food chain across the globe. Here in North Carolina, this hit us like a brick in March. Big chain stores were rationing basic items, and people were in a panic. Farmers had food, but much of it was wasted because the restaurant business was shut down and the food was packaged and distributed only to restaurants.

Severe shelter-in policies discouraged people from leaving their homes at all, and all residents were encouraged to order their groceries from a delivery service. Most services had waiting lists and confusing rules. COVID-19 outbreaks in meat-packing plants made people seek a cleaner food source. This was (and is) a perfect storm. Food is a basic need, and people were (and are) panicked.

So, my 14-year-old daughter and I started working to deliver food for a farm-to-table CSA (community supported agriculture) program that we have been using for eight years. Families order curated boxes and then add meat and dairy products to those boxes as suits their needs for the week. To serve as delivery drivers, we received quick and intensive training. Delivering food in a pandemic is no small thing. Indeed, it is holy work.

Churches in New Light

Providentially, the route that the company assigned to us is the neighborhood in which our church resides. On our first day on the job, Kent and our teenage son helped as well. It was all hands on deck for the Butterfields. That first day, it took us twelve hours to complete our deliveries.

Our neighbors received us with joy and thanks. And many of them knew us as the pastor and pastor’s wife from the church down the block. People were (and are) in a state of panic about COVID-19. And the people willing to bring them their food mean something to them. Our role as food deliverers has allowed us to be seen in a new light.

After a grueling first day, we realized that our church building could also serve the food distribution. Our church building, like others, had been unused and unopened for weeks by state demands. We offered the company the use of our church as a truck stop, and the use of our kitchen, bathrooms, and building as storage and respite for their drivers. My daughter and I learned how to clean and disinfect the building to the new COVID-19 code, and we put up signage (“This Facility Practices Social Distancing”), provided extra face masks, and opened the doors for business.

Gaining Ground

Now, on Tuesdays, our church is open, alive, and serving. Kent and our son stay at the church to help drivers with any needs, while my daughter and I deliver food to 35 (and counting) households. Neighbors who had once been suspicious are thanking us for our service. Many are asking for prayer.

“God so loves us that he appointed us to serve and share and proclaim the gospel
in the thick of the crisis.”

After our deliveries are done, we often meet with concerned neighbors and try to connect people in need of food with the programs that serve food. Everyone we meet is in an existential crisis. And God so loves us that he appointed us to serve and share and proclaim the gospel in the thick of the crisis.

We come home with lists of people to pray for and serve in additional ways. In a global pandemic, where people are literally afraid to breathe, the proclamation of the gospel in word and deed gains new ground. One practical way that COVID-19 answered our prayers was that its devastation has provided a clear reason for our conservative and biblical church to be located in this progressive community. God never gets the address wrong.

Thanking God for Everything

COVID-19 also has sharpened my theological understanding of good and evil, providence and calamity, sin and repentance, belief in Christ and grace. As my brother Drew Poplin said during a virtual prayer meeting, only Christ’s own can thank God for his “sinless use of sin.” And if that’s true for sin, surely it’s also true for a pandemic. So I am committed to thanking God for his purposes in COVID-19.

God’s word shows us how this kind of prayer works. The apostle Paul says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). And, “Be filled with the Spirit, . . . giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:18–20). And, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7).

Giving thanks to God for everything, including COVID-19, humbles us — deeply. It reminds us that God’s providence is perfect and our point of view flawed. Because God is good, just, and wise, all the time and in every circumstance, then COVID-19, for the Christian, must be for our good and for God’s glory.

National and Personal Idols

Giving thanks to God for COVID-19 also positions us to begin to see the world from his point of view. The pandemic destroys our idols of prosperity, breaks down the false confidence of all men, and makes us all feel unsafe in our own strength — and feeling unsafe is sensible. As John Calvin writes in his commentary on Hosea 1:5, “There is no reason why we should feel safe when God declares himself opposed to and angry with us.”

The idols that God is destroying are both national and personal. God is pointing his finger at all of our hearts. If taking away our prosperity is how God will shake us up from our national and personal sins, are we all in?

“The idols that God is destroying are both national and personal. God is pointing his finger at all of our hearts.”

Have you considered the ramifications that this June will be the first in decades without a public gay pride march? Why is this big news? First, sexual identity depends on an affirming audience who can sway others to its side, using an ideology of personal freedom and victimhood. A virtual platform draws only the faithful, denying them the oxygen that this particular fire needs.

Second, without an audience, sexual identity cannot be normalized. Here is the heart question for us. Are you praising God for this disruption? Or is it your preference to complain about gay pride (and other sins) from the air-conditioned comfort of your home, in the midst of an economy that benefits from all kinds of sin?

What Will Overcome

Giving thanks to God for COVID-19 highlights our union with Christ. It shows how union with Christ depends on the person and work of Jesus Christ in our lives and not on an affirming audience of mere men. It draws us deep into God’s means of grace, and makes us lament over the Lord’s Days that have come and gone without public worship.

Lastly, Christians publicly giving thanks to God for all things, including COVID-19, gives glory to God and gives encouragement to a world suffocating from panic and frenzy, while putting its hope and trust in itself. John writes, “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith” (1 John 5:4).

COVID-19 will not overcome the world.
 

Christ Will.

And we will in Him.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 29, 2020

Crouching Sin, Gathered Grace

A young fellow came to our door the other day selling security systems, including a little camera allowing us to see who is at the door. No matter how good it is, there’s a threat that camera would miss. “Sin is crouching at your door,” God told Cain, with a warning that echoes down to us. “It desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Gen. 4:7).

In these difficult days you have sought to strengthen your people in the face of their fears. You’ve fortified their faith with the promises that God knows and cares about their needs and reminded them that this world is not our true home. You have encouraged them to be light and salt. But don’t forget about sin.

Sin, of course, is always our greatest threat, always stalking us, always crouching at our doors. But in these days, temptations find new toeholds because of our new fears, our isolation from most people, and from the inescapable company of a few. Temptations lurk in our boredom, frustrations, and the disruption of healthy routines. This is not only true for our people but for us as pastors. Sin knows where our doors are, too.

Going to church—gathering every Sunday with fellow believers—has always brought both a restraint and a relief from sin. The whole experience of gathering together is a means of grace. Simply seeing fellow believers generates a kind of sweet, unspoken accountability. Being among the saints helps us be saintly. Singing together harmonizes our hearts to lyrics of worship, grace, faith, humility, and yearning. We pray together to build God’s kingdom and for supply of our needs, for forgiveness, and God’s protection from evil.

And there is preaching.

All those benefits help guard against sin and find assurance of pardon. But for the time being, pastors will have to fortify ourselves and our flocks less directly. In the contacts you and other leaders have with your people pray with them that God will preserve them from temptation and deliver them from the evil one. In your notes, calls, and video chats remind them to be on guard against the prowling devil and hearten them in their God-blessed walk of righteousness. Affirm their faithfulness whenever you see it.

That said, let me assume that we have sinned and that our people have also sinned, and that our enforced isolation from fellow believers may have left us with stagnating guilt and spiritual atrophy. Sin is always doing more harm in our peoples’ lives than we realize. So bring them to the cross of Christ! Not a week passes when our people do not need our High Priest’s intercession. Every sermon does not need to be on this theme but in one way or another bring your people often to the throne of grace.

For me, in dealing with my own sin, the Holy Spirit has led me recently to two grace-rich resources. One is Dane Ortlund’s wonderful book, Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. The other balm of mercy is music. I’ve been listening to a concert of grace including, “He Will Hold Me Fast,” “The Blessing,” “It Is Well with My Soul,” and “Is He Worthy?” I’ve especially loved the rich poetry of a song by Matt Papa and Matt Boswell, based on a line from a sermon by John Newton who said:

If our Physician is almighty, our disease cannot be desperate and if He casts none out that come to Him, why should you fear? Our sins are many, but His mercies are more: our sins are great, but His righteousness is greater: we are weak, but He is power.

See you at our Grace Gathering this Sunday May 31, 2020.

Pastor Dale