We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28 ESV

In 2015, the New York Times ran an article called “Googling for God.”1 In this article, author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz started by saying, “It has been a bad decade for God, at least so far.” He went on to ask, “What questions do people have when they are questioning God?” The number one question was “Who created God?” The number two question was “Why does God allow suffering?” But it was the third question that slammed into my heart and made me realize the depth at which many of us struggle when we walk through devastating situations: “Why does God hate me?”

I’m not alone in wondering about God’s feelings when circumstances beg me to feel betrayed. While I would have never used the word hate, seeing it typed out as one of the most commonly asked questions about God shows me just how dark our perspective can get. The most devastating spiritual crisis isn’t when we wonder why God isn’t doing something. It’s when we become utterly convinced He no longer cares. And that’s what I hear hiding behind that Google search.

And I shudder to say this, but I think that’s what was hiding behind my own disillusionment as well.

What makes faith fall apart isn’t doubt. It’s becoming too certain of the wrong things.

Things like: Forgiveness doesn’t matter. It’s not worth it. It’s not time for that kind of obedience. God isn’t moving. What I see is absolute proof that God isn’t working.

That’s where I can find myself getting more and more skeptical of God’s love, God’s provision, God’s protection, God’s instructions, and God’s faithfulness. And most of all, where I start fearing He really has no plan at all, and I’m just truly going to be a victim of circumstances beyond anyone’s control.

The problem with that thinking is, while it may line up with what my life looks like from my place of pain and confusion, it doesn’t line up with truth. And before everything went haywire in my life, I had already put a stake in the ground, proclaiming that God’s Word is where I would turn and return to no matter what.

I could resist trusting God and turning to His truth. I could run from it. I could, with bitter resignation, put my Bible on a shelf to collect dust for years. But I wouldn’t be able to escape what was already buried deep in my heart.

I knew in this deep-down knowing place that what I was seeing wasn’t all that was happening. Past experiences where I have seen God’s faithfulness remind me that I don’t always see God working in the midst of my hard times.

There are a few times in my life where I’ve seen dramatic moves by God happen quick enough for me to say, “Wow, look what God is doing!” But most of the time it’s thousands of little shifts so slight that the dailiness of His work doesn’t register in real time.

It’s hard when we are living in that space where our head knows God can do anything but our heart is heavy because He’s not doing what we are hoping for, what we’ve prayed for, what we’ve believed for, for a long while.

I get it — and I’ve cried many tears because of it.

So what helps? It helps to know these things:

• God is active even if we can’t see His activity. Just because we can’t discern or detect what He’s doing, doesn’t mean He isn’t working.

We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

• What may feel like a lack of intervention is not a sign of His lack of affection.

This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:21–23)

• God loves us too much to answer our prayers at any other time than the right time, and in any other way than the right way.

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)

Today look for beautiful ways God is showing you assurances of His love. His deep affection is all around you, friend. Even in the waiting places.

God, I confess it’s easy for me to become skeptical when things are not working out the way I had planned. Even when I don’t see it… even when I don’t feel it . . . I will stand on the truth that You are working all things together for good. In Jesus’ name, amen.

1. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, “Googling for God,” New York Times, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/sunday/seth -stephens-davidowitz-googling-for-god.html.

Excerpted from Seeing Beautiful Again by Lysa TerKeurst, copyright Lysa TerKeurst.

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!  There is no one good but God!  He is holy, righteous, and just.  It is mankind’s pride and evil thoughts that brings about destruction and death.  God loves His creation of which you are His highest love, created in His own image.  Don’t believe the lies of Satan.  Trust, love, and follow through all circumstances, in the footsteps of Jesus into the eternal arms of your heavenly Father!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 4, 2021

The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. — Romans 16:20

Who is responsible for the infamy, terror, and agony that we see all around us? How can we account for the sufferings that we all experience if evil is not a potent force? Education has, in truth, impeded our minds. Because of allegedly scientific findings, some have lost their belief in the supernatural powers of Satan, while others worship him.

George Galloway summed up this dubious contribution of current education when he said, “The theory that there is in the universe a power or principle, personal or otherwise, in eternal opposition to God is generally discarded by the modern mind.”

The modern mind may discard it, but that doesn’t cause the evil principle itself to disappear! Once asked how he overcame the devil, Martin Luther replied, “Well, when he comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks, ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, ‘Martin Luther used to live here but he has moved out. Now I live here.’ The Devil, seeing the nail-prints in His hands, and the pierced side, takes flight immediately.”

What can you do when you are confronted with evil?

RESIST AND PRAY

Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. — 1 Peter 5:9

A poet once said, “The devil trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.” We can depend upon the blood of Christ when we are under attack. There are times when we simply must hide behind the person of Christ and ask Him to handle our problems. Jude says, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (v. 9 KJV). That’s what we need to do — call upon God.

Now, the Bible says that we are to “resist the devil, and he will flee” from us (James 4:7 KJV). But before that, God says, “Submit yourselves... to God.” If you have fully submitted, 100 percent yielded and surrendered yourself to Christ, then you can “resist the devil,” and the Bible promises he will flee from you.

The devil will tremble when you pray. He will be defeated when you quote or read a passage of Scripture to him and will leave you when you resist him.

Does the devil flee from you when you pray in Jesus’ name?

Excerpted from Peace for Each Day by Billy Graham, copyright Billy Graham Literary Trust.

Don’t forget we have an enemy! Rather than being afraid of him, we can put him in his proper place… subject to Christ Jesus. When we are submitted to Jesus, when He is our all in all, when we pray in His name, the devil will battle us, yes, but he has to shrink away . . . a loser!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 3, 2021

Everything in Scripture was written for the sake of the Messiah. The book of Ruth is no exception. It provides not only the backstory for the birth of King David but also many deeper revelations and allusions to the Messiah.

One of the seemingly subtle but deeply significant allusions to the person and work of the Messiah is found in Ruth 2:14:

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here and eat some bread and dip your piece [“small morsel” in Hebrew] into the wine vinegar.” So she sat beside the harvesters and he held out to her roasted grain. She ate until she was full, and some was still left.

Boaz’s dialogue with Ruth seems very wordy given the fact that Ruth was a foreign woman whom he had just met. The amount of detail also seems to be a bit too mundane and even uncharacteristic of Boaz. Would Boaz, after being so generous to Ruth, really just offer her a tiny morsel of bread? Something deeper must be implied. Rabbinic commentators see Boaz’s words to Ruth as prophetic allusions to important events that would occur in the life of her future descendants.

“Come Over Here”

The first way that commentators prophetically interpret Boaz’s statements is by connecting them to King David:

“When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, ‘Come over here (halom).’”... R. Elazar said: [By using the word halom he gave her a prophetically inspired hint], telling her in effect: The royal house of David will descend from you. [Ruth was the great-grandmother of David.]... Halom is also used in reference to David, for it says, “Then King David came and sat before God, and he said, ‘What am I O Lord God, and what is my family, that You have brought me halom, to this point (2 Samuel 7:18).’” [Halom thus refers to both Ruth and David.]1

King David was a type and shadow of the Messiah. The events in his life were meant to point to the Messiah, the ultimate Son of David. Thus, the life of Jesus would mirror the life of David in many important ways. This connection is powerfully seen by the way the rabbis connect Ruth 2:14 as speaking prophetically both about King David and the Messiah.

When Boaz said to Ruth, “Come over here,” he was actually alluding, on a prophetic level, to Ruth’s future descendant, King Messiah, who would establish the messianic Kingdom.

The phrase “coming near” is important in Jewish thought. It has been interpreted by the rabbis as “come/draw near to the Kingdom.”2 The foundation of Old Testament worship was the offering of sacrifices. The Hebrew word for “sacrifice” is korban, which is derived from the Hebrew root karav, meaning “to draw near.” Sin creates separation, but a sacrifice draws one near to the Lord. The Messiah, Jesus from a New Testament perspective, would offer His life as a sacrifice (korban) to draw us close (merkarev) to the Lord.

This was the primary mission of Jesus and His ministry — to draw near and cause us to come closer to God:

But now in Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. . . . And He came and proclaimed shalom to you who were far away and shalom to those who were near.

— Ephesians 2:13, Ephesians 2:17, emphasis added

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly,

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

— John 7:373, emphasis added

Concerning Jesus, even the rabbis in the Talmud say He was “near to the Kingdom.”4 Ruth and the Messiah who descended from her would both “come near to the Kingdom”5 and draw others near as well.

“Eat Some Bread”

Boaz’s invitation for Ruth to “eat some bread” (Ruth 2:14) alludes to “bread in the kingdom” (Luke 14:15). The Messiah, like Moses, would provide bread from Heaven and would actually be “the bread of life” (John 6:35). The rabbis connect bread and kingship on the basis of 1 Kings 4:22 (NIV), which associates the royal provisions of Solomon with bread. The total amount of flour and meal mentioned (90) is the numeric value of both “bread” (lechem) and “king” (melech) in Hebrew. In the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, the messianic Kingdom is significantly connected with bread:

Your kingdom come... Give us this day our daily bread.

— Matthew 6:10–11, emphasis added

“Dip Your Piece into the Wine Vinegar”

After telling Ruth to “come over here,” Boaz told her, “Dip your piece into the wine vinegar” (Ruth 2:14). This points to the suffering of the Messiah:

He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

(Isaiah 53:5)

Amazingly, the rabbis interpreted Isaiah 53 as referring to the Messiah, which some later rabbis and Jewish scholars deny.

Boaz’s request connects back to two key events in the life of Jesus. The first was the Last Supper, when Jesus spoke about the one who would betray Him:

He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. — John 13:26 KJV

Both the original Greek text of John 13:26 and the Greek translation of Ruth 2:14 use the same word — psomion, which refers to food soaked in liquid before being eaten.

Ruth’s dipping her morsel in the sop, which the rabbis connect to the suffering of the Messiah in Isaiah 53, was partially fulfilled when Jesus dipped the sop and gave it to Judas. Judas’s betrayal of Yeshua for thirty pieces of silver would directly lead to the Messiah’s suffering and affliction on the cross.

Ruth’s dipping her “piece into the vinegar [sop]” also alludes to the Messiah’s death on the cross:

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. — John 19:28–30 KJV

What Scripture was Jesus seeking to fulfill when He said, “I thirst”? Jesus, the Son of David, was fulfilling Psalm 69:22, a psalm of David, which says, “For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” The Hebrew word for “vinegar” is hometz and is the same word used in Ruth 2:14 for the sop of vinegar in which Ruth dipped her bread, which clearly connects to Yeshua drinking vinegar on the cross.

The Greek word for “vinegar” is oxos and has the numeric value of 400. The Hebrew letter tav, written in the form of a cross, also equals 400, as well as the words “unto glory” from this passage: “For it was fitting for Him... in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the originator of their salvation through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10 NASB). The Messiah tasted the vinegar (400) of affliction both at the Last Supper, the start of His suffering, and on the cross (400), which ended His suffering, so that we might be brought to glory (400) as God’s children.

“She Sat Beside the Harvesters”

Ruth 2:14 continues with the phrase “she sat beside the harvesters.” This verse alludes to the kingship being taken from the Messiah for a time. But the key question is when.

According to the rabbis, this will occur during the end-times battle between the Messiah and Gog, the king of Magog, as the prophet Zechariah described in Zechariah 14:2. I don’t agree with the interpretation of the rabbis. I believe that kingship was taken when the majority of the leaders of the Jewish people rejected Jesus as the Messiah. This is substantiated by Isaiah 53:3–5:

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows...
One from whom people hide their faces... Surely He has borne our griefs

and carried our pains. Yet we esteemed Him...

 ... afflicted.
But He was pierced because of our transgressions.

This connects the idea of the Messiah’s affliction, which the rabbis connect to Ruth’s dipping in the vinegar, to the Messiah’s rejection.

This rejection of the Messiah will lead to Him being hidden for a season, as Esther Rabbah expounded: “Just as the first redeemer, so too the final redeemer, the Messiah. Just as the first redeemer [Moses] appeared and was concealed from them... so too the final redeemer will appear [to the Jewish people] and will be concealed from them for a time.”6 Moses was concealed twice, just as the Messiah was. Moses and the Messiah were both concealed at their births when they were safely hidden from homicidal rulers.

Moses was concealed a second time after he struck the Egyptian taskmaster dead while trying to save his Hebrew brothers. Stephen, commenting on this in the book of Acts, said,

He [Moses] was assuming that his brothers understood that by his hand God was delivering them, but they did not understand. — Acts 7:25

Moses had to flee Egypt and was hidden for forty years due to being rejected by the children of Israel. In the same way, the Messiah was rejected and had to be concealed like Moses until the day Israel’s final redemption comes.

“He Held Out to Her Roasted Grain”

The kingdom of David, as a political earthly domain centered in Israel, in some real sense was taken from the Messiah Yeshua. But the good news is that it will be restored, which is the meaning of “he held out to her roasted grain” (Ruth 2:14). David’s kingship was renewed: “He will strike the land with the rod of His mouth” (Isaiah 11:4). As it was with David, so must it be with the Messiah.

POINTING FORWARD

A key part of Ruth and Boaz’s beautiful love story is its conclusion. Ruth’s marriage to Boaz points to the greatest fulfillment of grace and the truth of the Messiah. Boaz shows Ruth incredible grace, protection, and provision.

Likewise, the Messiah, when we trust fully in Him, gives us a vast amount of grace, protection, and provision. The key is looking forward, not backward, to the promises of Messiah and to what He can do in your life.

Ruth is a perfect example of someone who wasn’t everything the world thinks is ideal. Ruth was destitute. She was a widow. She was a foreigner who came from a people group hated by the local community. But Ruth’s unwavering loyalty and trust opened the door not only for Gentiles to be part of the line of Yeshua but for anyone willing to set aside what they did in the past and come to Yeshua, the Messiah. Ruth opened the door for anyone who thinks they fall short of what the Messiah is looking for. This means you.

Pastor Jon Courson wrote:

Ruth was washed, anointed, and clothed with new raiment just like we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and robed in His righteousness.

She’s washed. She’s anointed. She’s robed. She’s amazed.7

Ruth, the foreign widow, was amazed. You will be amazed as well when you let Yeshua have the reins of your life. You and Yeshua, like Ruth and Boaz, can travel together in a glorious story. God doesn’t give up on His people.

1. Rabbi Yaakov Ibn Chaviv, Ein Yaakov: The Ethical and Inspirational Teachings of the Talmud, trans. Avraham Yaakov Finkel (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999), 110.

2. Midrash Rabbah: The Five Megillos, Ruth, vol. 1, Kleinman Edition (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2013), 49:1.

3. See also Mark 10:14; 12:34.

*see blog for full list of attributions

Excerpted from Mysteries of the Messiah by Rabbi Jason Sobel, copyright Rabbi Jason Sobel.

It’s all about Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. You just have to open the book and read!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 2, 2021

And now, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to start all over again. I’m taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I’ll court her. I’ll give her bouquets of roses. I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. — 
Hosea 2:14 MSG

 “Jess is hard on stuff.”

My friend was describing me, specifically as it related to my worn-down jacket that I’d just tossed on the floor. I was eighteen and in my freshman college dorm. As the frayed outer garment hit the ground, the words hit my heart. And I haven’t forgotten that phrase, said so casually and innocently, for almost two decades.

Jess is hard on stuff.

It’s true; I can be. I can love people into exhaustion. I can belabor a point like no one you’ve ever met. I take it too far! It’s what I do. To jackets, foods, people, ideas, and thoughts. I hold on to them tight and squeeze all the goodness out of them, because when I love something, or even like it, I just want more of it.

It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit and many years of failure that I’ve learned you can love something so much that you take tenderness too far in all the best ways.

You can love something the way God does and express it through patience and gentleness; you can love tenderly and expectantly, and that’s not weak or holding back.

There’s a connection with our Father that takes place when we move toward things, people, ideas, dreams, visions, gifts, and scenarios that we love, while also realizing what kind of love and care that thing, person, idea, or scenario needs.

And sometimes things need tenderness. Sometimes they need tenderness taken too far. Sometimes I need tenderness taken too far. And God always delivers and always teaches me through His intentional care for me.

I can be hard on stuff, but I can also be tender, because I’m made in His image. And being tender can be taking it too far. I can be my fully awake, alive, extreme self and still be tender. Because He is too.

How has God been tender with you? Is there a person, idea, or place that needs some tenderness from you right now?

Excerpted from Take It Too Far by Jess Connolly, copyright Jessica Ashleigh Connolly.

Maybe this season has brought out a little more roughness and hardness than you wish you possessed. Maybe tenderness has taken a back seat to irritation and intensity.  Pray that even during this season of life God may bring out the tenderness He placed within you . . .

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith August 1, 2021

God is the One who knows the end from the beginning!

He is never caught off guard by our circumstances or bewildered by our behavior. He never feels pressured by the passing of time. God has always been — and will always be — in complete control of His creation.

Isaiah’s acceptance of God’s eternal nature, sovereignty, and faithfulness was evident in the way he prayed. He knew that God had a plan — a faithful and sure one formed long ago. Isaiah knew what Jeremiah knew: God’s plans for us have been prepared in advance (Jeremiah 1:5), and they are plans to prosper us (Jeremiah 29:11).

When we understand that God has a plan and that nothing about our existence is haphazard or out of control, it changes the way we pray. And when we understand that we were made on purpose and with a purpose, it changes the way we live. Each of us is intentionally and uniquely handmade by a holy God who has a plan for us.

God has proven time and again that He is able “to rescue the godly from trials” (2 Peter 2:9 ESV). He led His followers out of lions’ dens, fiery furnaces, and prisons because He still had plans for those individuals. If there’s still breath in your body, He isn’t finished with you.

Trust Him to be as He has always been: faithful and sure.

Only You, God, are worthy of my trust. You know the plans You have made for me, and I can rest assured in Your promise.

Excerpted from 100 Favorite Bible Prayers by Stacy Edwards, copyright Thomas Nelson.

Are you still alive? Then God still has a great plan for you! He is faithful and sure to fulfill His promises to you. Trust Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 31, 2021

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. — 1 Peter 5:8

Why is it important to understand the enemy?

Before you fight a war, it’s always a good thing to know something about your enemy. Nowhere is this statement truer than in the spiritual realm.

Many Christians do not take the enemy seriously because they don’t know enough about him to take him seriously.

In fact, Satan’s cleverest strategy is to make us believe that he does not exist or that he’s not a real threat.

Some Christians do not even believe in a literal devil.

Instead, they believe he is a biblical symbol for evil. But that is not the position of the Bible. The devil is every bit as real as God is. It’s hard for a symbol to do the things attributed to Satan in Scripture: deceiving, murdering, tempting, destroying, lying, accusing, and controlling.

In the famous exchange between God and Satan in Job 1, God asked Satan from where he had come. The devil answered,

From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it. — Job 1:7

Satan is active on the earth today, involved in human affairs.

In fact, the whole world is under his control (1 John 5:19). God has given Satan authority on the earth for a while, and God will one day take back that control. In the meantime, anyone living on planet Earth is subject to the devil’s actions. And we must keep our guard up against him.

In the book The Art of War, written twenty-six hundred years ago, author Sun Tzu observed:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.1

Is it possible for Christians to become preoccupied with the study of Satan and his demons?

There are two extremes we should avoid. If you hold the position that you don’t want to know anything about this subject of the enemy and his forces and you aren’t going to study it, then you give Satan an advantage through your ignorance of him. On the other hand, if you think you need to know all there is to know about Satan and you read just about every word in print about him, then you will fail to focus on other important truths in Scripture that God wants you to study. Know your enemy, but don’t become preoccupied with Satan and his demons.

What do we know about Satan’s origin?

Satan’s original name was Lucifer, which means “shining one,” “morning star,” or “son of the morning.” And strange as it may sound, he came from Heaven. Lucifer was the chief of the cherubim — the highest order of angels. And before the fall, he was in Eden, the garden of God, and he had access to the throne of God (Ezekiel 28:13-14).

We also know that Lucifer was “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” (Ezekiel 28:12). In fact, Ezekiel 28:13 describes the beauty of Lucifer with gems that reflected the glory of God:

“sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.” No creature had been so fully prepared to reflect the glory of God.

This same passage in Ezekiel also gives us a musical description:

The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. — 
Ezekiel 28:13

God had given Satan the very special commission to minister unto Him and cover His glory with music through worship and praise. Of Lucifer’s musical abilities, Terry Law has written: “Pipes apparently were built into his very body… He was a master musician.”2

He was a walking orchestra. And that was the distinctive purpose that God gave him:

Lucifer was one of God’s best works, created to praise God in Heaven.

From the pomp and beauty of heaven, this glorious creation will be “brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit” (Isaiah 14:15). All his beauty will be gone. In the epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton, we see this illustrated.

There is a battle in heaven as Satan and his followers fight against God for supremacy. After being defeated and chained in a lake of fire, Satan is still not willing to accept defeat.

Satan would rather be a king in hell than a servant in Heaven.

In fact, so great is Satan’s arrogance that, even after being cast out of heaven, he has continued to work to subvert the plans of God by corrupting His most prized creation:

mankind. Satan also attempts to make evil seem good as he enchants human beings with false gods. From the glories of heaven where he was created, Satan has fallen, and his ultimate destination for all eternity will be a pit.

What caused Lucifer to fall from Heaven?

Lucifer was perfect “till iniquity was found in [him]” (Ezekiel 28:15). Isaiah 14:13-14 tells us what happened in Lucifer’s heart when he rebelled against God:

You have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”

Lucifer’s heart was captivated by pride.

He decided it was no longer good enough to be an angel created in the beauty of God. Lucifer wanted to be like “the Most High.”

He desired God’s place in Heaven — God’s position, His power, His perfection, His privilege. And when Lucifer (day star) became Satan (adversary) due to this sin in his heart, he was banished from heaven (Ezekiel 28:16). His proud heart was the reason for his fall, and the Bible tells us he did indeed fall. Here are Jesus’ own words:

I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven. — Luke 10:18

The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride… It was through Pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.3 

~ C. S. Lewis

How could a perfect, holy being fall?

Satan wasn’t created as the devil. God created Lucifer.

Lucifer forfeited that name and became Satan (meaning “adversary” or “enemy”) of his own will. But how? Lucifer had no sinful world to lure him, no tempter to push him, and no innate sinful nature to overpower him. How could the first unholy affection arise in an angelic being? The answer lies in the fact that — like you and me — Lucifer was created with freedom to choose.

Each of us has the choice: the opportunity to say yes to God… or not. Lucifer chose to use his gift of free choice against the Giver. In his own heart, Lucifer pridefully determined that he would elevate and glorify himself. And that was the first sin ever committed in the universe — the sin of pride.

As a result of his anointed role in the heavens and his great beauty, Lucifer’s heart filled with pride, and God cast him out of Heaven (Ezekiel 28:17). To this day Satan remains arrogant, prideful, and rebellious against God (Isaiah 14:12-14). It is a warning to us as Christians that, since Satan’s personality is characterized by pride, he will tempt us by using the same weakness in ourselves.

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels. ~ Augustine

How does Satan attempt to deceive the world?

Spiritual deception may be Satan’s most insidious weapon in his guerrilla warfare against us. Jesus and the apostles speak of it nearly thirty times in the New Testament. John 8:44 records Jesus’ reply to a group of Jews who were resisting His message. Jesus boldly told them that they were children of their father the devil and that they were not hearing the truth because their father’s native language was lies. A person’s native language is what he or she converses in most easily. And Satan speaks the language of deception quite fluently.

In fact, Revelation 12:9 refers to Satan as the one “who deceives the whole world,” and he does so by imitating the work of God through counterfeit and camouflage. Satan’s last and greatest deception will be to bring the Antichrist to the world at the end of the age. Initially the Antichrist will be a peacemaker who uses persuasive speech and manifests supernatural powers much as Jesus Himself did. But once people fall for this counterfeit, the Antichrist will lead them not to God but away from Him.

Pastor and theologian R. Kent Hughes explains one of the reasons for Satan’s effectiveness as a deceiver and manipulator:

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 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… Satan has had multiple millennia to study and master the human disciplines, and when it comes to human subversion, he is the ultimate manipulator.4

The devil’s disguises are very clever, and he hides in the most unbelievable places. One of his favorite hideouts is religion. He also hides behind intellectualism. He hides in poetry and art and oftentimes in music. He hides in psychology and human understanding. Satan can even use the subtle method of Scripture taken out of context to deceive. When people take verses out of context and use them to prove something they were not intended to prove, those people are falling right into Satan’s trap.

Satan never tempts us to believe blatant error: that would be too easily discerned.

Satan is subtle, and that is why we as the people of God must stay alert.

1. Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Hollywood, FL: Simon and Brown, 2010), 11.

2. Terry Law, The Truth About Angels (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2006), 126.

3. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1952), 121.

4. Kent Hughes, Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1990), 217.

Excerpted from The Spiritual Warfare Answer Book by David Jeremiah, copyright Dr. David Jeremiah.

How often do you consider Satan and actively guard against and pray against him?  Be aware that we have an active enemy who “prowls about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8) not in fear, but in preparation. 

Father, help us to stay alert and to keep our focus on You. Help us to root out pride in every form in our lives and to remain humble, in Christ.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 30, 2021

This is a portion of an article from Compass International, Inc., dated 7/29/2021 regarding life after death or those seeking to never die that are not God’s way to eternal life.

Compass International, Inc.
Thu 7/29/2021 11:48 AM

Artificial Intelligence Seeking Eternal Life

When Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thankfully the Lord protected the human race by placing a cherubim to guard another nearby tree—the Tree of Life.

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” Gen. 3:22

So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Gen. 3:24

God knew that if Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Life, they would have lived for eternity in that sinful, unredeemable state.

And since Adam's sin nature was passed to all humans throughout time (Rom. 5:12), the Lord was also protecting all future humans from being born into an unredeemable state.

This way Jesus could come from heaven and pay the ultimate price to redeem us with His blood shed on Calvary.

The last thing anyone on this earth wants is to live eternally in a body with unredeemed sin because that means you're going to hell.

God is clear—only those born again, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, go to heaven to live joyously forever. Your only other option is eternity in hell.

How Bad Is Hell?

I've had more than one person tell me "Yeah, I know I'm headed to hell, but at least I'll be there with all my friends."

Just saying that proves they've simply been duped by the great liar Satan. Truth is, those who are not born again will spend eternity wailing and gnashing their teeth in eternal hot flames. They won't have a clue where their friends are.

Hell is referred to as:

> "fiery hell" Luke 16:24

> "lake of fire" Rev. 20:13-14

> "burns with fire" Rev. 21:8

> "place of torment" Luke 16:28

> "eternal punishment" Matt. 25:46

> "the fire is not quenched" Mark 9:48

> "tormented day and night forever" Rev 20:10

There IS life after death. And certainly going to hell is something you want to avoid at all cost. Since our sin nature prohibits us from entering heaven, many people would love to have a way to enjoy immortality without first bowing to the Creator God of the Universe.

TODAY'S ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Recently I watched a creepy 2 minute video of some robots dancing to the classic song, "Do You Love Me, Now That I Can Dance."(2)

When I say creepy, I mean this video really spooked me out. These robots had human-like moves. It made my skin crawl.

But it shows you how far mankind has progressed making computers human-like. I mean it's one thing to strap on a mask that takes you into another surreal world, which is creepy enough.

But it's a whole new ballgame when the robot is physically in the room with you...say reading the morning newspaper so it can converse intelligently with you about the weather or the day's events. But believe it or not that's where we are.

Scientists are moving quickly now that they have unlocked our DNA, our God-ordained design, and began manipulating exactly who we are and how we operate.

Today's scientists refer to our DNA as our operating system and see no problem with changing the software. They're literally changing us, currently through mass va[[inations, to be more like what they think people should be like. Trust me, it's not meant to make us closer to God.

AI and ETERNITY

Just like in the time of construction of the Tower of Babel, mankind has reached a point of doing whatever he can imagine.

The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Gen. 11:6

The "same language" today is achieved by computers. And it seems that nothing is impossible, the sky's the limit of what we can do. God warned us about this:

“But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.” Dan. 12:4

I think we're definitely in the time of "increased knowledge." And nothing is off the table in the future.

Did you know the ultimate goal of artificial intelligence is to reach the point where humans can have eternal life?(1) Yep, Satan is so good with his lies that he has all these Globalists believing they can avoid hell altogether.

These people are planning to go from hooking our bodies directly into the Internet to measure health, location and bank accounts, to hooking our brains up to machines where we think commands into action.

It's not a stretch to go from there to having everything in your brain copied and living forever in a robot.

They honestly believe one day they'll be able to skirt judgment, live forever without God, and/or miss the "go to hell penalty" part.

Just like Satan lied and said to Eve, "You don't have to die, you can live forever—just eat the fruit!," the Globalists/Satanists will lie with another irresistible offer—"You don't have to die, you can live forever, just take this little mark."

But there's a huge problem.

Whatever part of humans they manage to hook into machines, they'll be trying to live forever in their sinful, unredeemed life.

Believers recognize this is a lie because no one can skip God's final judgment. But soon we'll be gone, having vanished into thin air at the Rapture. Wholesale evil will follow.

However, I can promise that regardless of what they claim they'll be able to do, it'll all come crashing down on them on God's Judgment Day. There is no escape.

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. Rev. 20:12

Since God says there are none righteous (Rom.3:23), and all our works are as filthy rags (Is.64:6), Judgment Day for the non-Believers won't go well. And there is no appeal or some liberal judge to bail them out.

Behold, I am coming quickly [suddenly], and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. Rev. 22:12

So even though these yoyos will buy into Satan's lie that they can circumvent God's provision for eternal life, they will still have to stand in their sinful bodies before a righteous God.

Oh, they may receive some short-term kudos in this life from like-minded humans. But God's Judgment Day IS coming and it'll wipe the smirk off their faces forever.

Make no bones about it, God's getting ready to judge this wicked earth with His wrath from heaven. He even put in writing what is, and is not, sin. You can ignore God's commandments, but you'll pay a horrible price.

One day the Rapture will happen, we just don't know for sure when. Could be minutes or days away, or it could be in the 2030s. But when it happens, it'll pave the way for His judgment to come on this earth.

When God's wrath is finished 7 long years after the Rapture, only a "few" will be left on earth (Is.24:6). Billions will have died from starvation, fire, and disease in the first 3 1/2 years. Then in the second 3 1/2 years it gets really bad.

And those who thought they could live forever hooked up to machines, I wonder how they'll do without electricity? When the mountains of the world are shaken to the ground, there will be no electric grid.

But it will usher in true World Peace with Jesus ruling on His Throne in Jerusalem. And the Tree of Life that God protected us from 6000 years ago, because of our faith in what Jesus did, He'll give us full access to it.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Rev. 22:14

And we'll live forever in unimaginable beauty and peace, eternally grateful for Jesus' faithfulness in permanently redeeming us from our sinful bodies.

Shalom!

BP

References

(1) https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/XH-7QBAAAFlDH0xf

https://emerj.com/ai-future-outlook/these-three-companies-want-to-use-a-i-to-help-humans-live-forever/

(2) https://futurism.com/the-byte/video-boston-dynamics-robots-busting-impressive-dance-moves

Notes of Faith July 29, 2021

‘Rejoice When You Are Slandered’
How to Do the Humanly Impossible
by John Piper

My aim in this message is that God would take my words and use them to perform the miracle of Matthew 5:12 in your life: Rejoice and be glad when you are reviled and persecuted and slandered for your faithfulness to Jesus — in reliance on Jesus, in obedience to Jesus, for the glory of Jesus. I call this a miracle because it is humanly impossible. In fact, I would argue that this is the most difficult command in the Bible — namely, for Jesus’s sake to feel joy and gladness when you are reviled and persecuted and slandered.

This is not a command to do anything with your muscles; it is a command to feel, and we don’t have immediate control over our feelings. It is a command to feel a spiritual emotion — or, if you prefer, affection — that goes contrary to all natural human experience: joy and gladness when lied about, joy and gladness when verbally abused, joy and gladness when persecuted, including harsh physical treatment and even death.

Later in the chapter, we are told to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). And loving our enemies is defined in part as “pray for those who persecute you.” And in Luke, love for our enemies is defined as this: “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27–28). And I am saying that all of those — praying, doing good, blessing — are easier than feeling joy and gladness when reviled, persecuted, and slandered. It is a humanly impossible command. And my aim in this message is that you would experience the miracle — the supernatural ability to feel what we are commanded to feel.

On Christ’s Account

Jesus says that the key to this miraculous obedience is the equally miraculous treasuring of the greatness of our reward in heaven (Matthew 5:12). So, that’s where we will start. He says, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” It’s the greatness of the reward in heaven that makes the miracle on earth happen, contrary to the mocking voice that says, “Pie in the sky, by and by, has no present usefulness.” Well, we are not talking about pie. Jesus teaches that if we can perceive clearly enough, and treasure highly enough, and be satisfied deeply enough with the greatness of our reward in heaven, the miracle will happen: we will rejoice and be glad when reviled and persecuted and slandered for Jesus’s sake.

And just a word of clarification about the term “for Jesus’s sake.” Or as Matthew 5:11 says, “on my account”: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” It’s the same phrase as in verse 10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” — or, on account of righteousness.

This does not mean that the persecutor must acknowledge that their persecution is because of Jesus. In fact, few people in our society will say that they are reviling or persecuting or slandering because of Jesus. When Jesus says that we may be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” he does not mean that our persecutors will concede that we are acting in righteousness. No, they will be calling our righteousness wickedness. That’s how the persecution is justified. Jesus said in John 16:2, “Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”

“What matters is that our thoughts and words and actions flow from Christ and for Christ — not whether anybody acknowledges it.”

Revilers, persecutors, and slanderers do not honor us by informing the world that we are noble martyrs for a great teacher or a great cause. No, what Jesus means when he says that we will be persecuted “for righteousness’ sake” (verse 10) or “on my account” (verse 11) is that, when our thoughts and our words and actions are conformed to his will, this will often meet with reviling, persecuting, and slandering. What matters is that our thoughts and words and actions really do flow from Christ and for Christ — not whether anybody acknowledges it.

Inestimable Treasure

Now, back to the greatness of our reward in heaven (Matthew 5:12). What is it? Staying here in the context of the Beatitudes, we see a sixfold answer. The future blessedness of the disciples of Jesus is described in six ways that are sandwiched between the summary blessing of verse 3 — “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” — and the summary blessing of verse 10 — “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Six Aspects of Our Heavenly Reward

What does it mean to live forever under the heavenly rule of God? Six immeasurable, glorious aspects of our great reward:

We will see God. Verse 8: “They shall see God.”

We will be shown mercy. Verse 7: “They shall receive mercy.”

We will be part of God’s family. Verse 9: “They shall be called sons of God.”

We will experience God’s comfort. Verse 4: “They shall be comforted.”

We will be co-owners of the whole world. Verse 5: “They shall inherit the earth.”

We will be satisfied with personal and universal righteousness. Verse 6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

The presence of God, seen and enjoyed forever in the face of Christ, covering us with mercy because of all our sins, calling us his children, comforting us for all pain and loss in this world, bequeathing to us the universe for a familiar homeland, with everything set right in our souls, and in nature, and in the social order of the new world: this is our great reward.

God’s Miracle in Us

Jesus tells us that if we can perceive this reward clearly enough, and treasure it highly enough, and be satisfied in it deeply enough, the miracle of verse 12 will happen: we will rejoice and be glad when reviled and persecuted and slandered for our faithfulness to Jesus — because our thoughts and words and actions are from him and for him. God really has performed this miracle. He has done it in the past. He can do it today.

Acts 5:41: The apostles “left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” The miracle of joy for being shamed for Jesus’s sake.

Hebrews 10:34: “You had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”

2 Corinthians 8:1–2: “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace [the miracle!] of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”

Acts 16:23–25: “When they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison. . . . [The jailer] put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

Jesus did not speak in vain when he said to his disciples,

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. (Matthew 5:11–12)

Four Obstacles to Rejoicing in Persecution

There are many obstacles to obeying this command from Jesus. Some of them are peculiar to the cultural moment in which we live. Others have always been there. I’d like to deal with four of them to see if I can help you get over them and experience the miracle of verse 12.

1. Deep sorrow mingles with joy.

The context itself presents an apparent obstacle. Matthew 5:4 says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” So, if the sadness of mourning is pronounced as blessed, where does rejoicing fit in? Paul says in Romans 12:15, “Weep with those who weep.” And he tells the Thessalonians that there is a kind of grieving that is not hopeless (1 Thessalonians 4:13). All of these texts assume that there are good reasons for tears and sorrow and mourning in the Christian life. There is real pain. And pain really hurts. And tears are inevitable and right.

So, where does rejoicing and being glad fit? The solution to this obstacle is that the Bible presents two relationships between sorrow and joy. One is that they happen sequentially; the other is that they happen simultaneously. For example,

Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Psalm 126:5–6: “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!”

Weeping, then joy. Tears, then shouts of joy. Sequential: first one, then the other.

On the other hand, Paul says in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice,” even though just a few verses earlier he had referred to his own tears over the enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:18). If we pressed him how this can be, I think he would refer us to 2 Corinthians 6:8–10 where he said, “We are treated as . . . sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich.” “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Simultaneous.

“Whether the boulder of your joy is above the water with a shining face, or beneath the water of tears, it can be miraculously real and solid in the face of reviling and persecution.”

In other words, even though there are manifestations of sorrow and joy that don’t look like each other and are sequential, nevertheless there is also an experience of sorrow and joy in which the joy is like a great boulder on the rocky seacoast that can rise shining above the surface of the sea, or can be submerged beneath the waves of sorrow, but never ceases to be what it is: a rock of joyful confidence in the word of God, and the greatness of our reward.

Whether the boulder of your joy is above the water with a shining face (like Stephen’s just before his death in Acts 6:15), or beneath the water of tears, it can be miraculously real and solid in the face of reviling and persecution and slander — and even death.

2. Culture trends in the opposite direction.

The second obstacle to obeying the command to rejoice and be glad when we are reviled and persecuted and slandered is that the dominant cultural currents in America today are all flowing in the other direction — namely, a direction that says these words of Jesus, and words like them, discount the experience of those who are suffering mistreatment, and tolerate the verbal violence of the abusers, and so become complicit with the structures or people of power who need to be called out and punished. (For more on this, see, for example, The Coddling of the American Mind and The Rise of Victimhood Culture.)

One of the reasons this cultural tendency can easily take root in the church is that the Bible does say that there is a place for rebuke, and there is a place for discipline, when Christians speak evil of other Christians or mistreat other Christians. So, I am not saying that the fabric of relationships in the church is woven out of only one kind of material. There are strands of patience, and mercy, and endurance, and tolerance. And there are strands of accountability, and admonition, and rebuke, and discipline.

One of the ways that contemporary secular culture distorts biblical teaching and congregational life is by pulling out one or more of the biblical strands in the fabric of Christian relationships, with the result that the beauty of the symmetry and balance and proportion of the tapestry of Christian teaching and Christian life are disfigured.

What I’m suggesting is that the miracle of Matthew 5:12 is not woven proportionately into the fabric of the personal and communal life of many churches. Paul did as much rebuking as anybody in the New Testament, but the tenor of his life — the way the strands came together in the tapestry of his ministry — was this: “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things” (1 Corinthians 4:12–13). Behind that tapestry of life lay the miracle of Matthew 5:12: “Rejoice and be glad when you are reviled and slandered and persecuted.”

3. Our persecutors may be loved ones.

The people in Matthew 5:11 who “revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely” on account of Jesus are lost. They are perishing. And they may even be members of your own family. So, we are being told by Jesus to rejoice even though the occasion of our joy is the very sinfulness that could take our loved one to hell.

Jesus said this, knowing that he himself would weep over the unbelief and reviling and persecution and slander of Jerusalem. Luke 19:41–42: “When he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’”

“It is precisely the indestructible joy that we have in the great reward of the worth of Christ that glorifies the preciousness of Christ.”

The crucial insight in overcoming this obstacle is to realize that if the unbelief and reviling of people we love could destroy our joy in the great reward of Christ, we would have nothing to offer them. It is precisely the indestructible joy that we have in the great reward of the worth of Christ — the infinite, all-satisfying worth of Christ — that glorifies the preciousness of Christ. Let me say it again: Our joy in Christ, in spite of slander, is what shows the slanderer the preciousness of Christ. And this is what they need more than anything. Therefore, paradoxically, though the tears may flow when our loved one reviles the name we love, rejoicing in the face of that reviling testifies to the reality and preciousness of the one they need so badly. It is an act of love for their soul, not indifference to their lostness.

4. Rejoicing in reviling is (humanly) impossible.

Finally, the fourth obstacle to rejoicing and being glad when reviled and persecuted and slandered is that it is humanly impossible. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a fallen human to feel joy when reviled and persecuted and slandered.

Jesus faced such impossibilities head-on in his ministry. His response was this: “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). Or to put it differently, he said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7).

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. (Matthew 5:11–12)

If we have been born again, we have within us the power to see that reward clearly enough, and treasure it highly enough, and be satisfied in it deeply enough that the miracle of verse 12 will happen: we will rejoice and be glad when reviled and persecuted and slandered for our faithfulness to Jesus.

John Piper

Such persecution for followers of Jesus in the United States if not the world is coming through government leadership, spurred on by Satanic influence in a war against all that true.  Be prepared to stand firm in truth, trust what you know to be true and depend on Jesus for your every thought, feeling and action.

Blessed are you . . .

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 28, 2021

As I arrive nearer and nearer to the heart of things — at least as close as I’m able to get right now — what lies at the center are these four things: Jesus, Aaron, gratitude, and strength.

As I leave things behind — heavy things, things that have kept me trapped and exhausted for so long — the outer ring of this beautiful center is gratitude. I’m so thankful for what it is to be human, and for this world and how gorgeous and odd and heartbreakingly lovely it is. I’m so thankful for blackberries and peonies and newborns and the smell of rosemary and the sound of singing, especially the wild, raspy, throaty kind. I’m so thankful for kisses from little boys and the hush of snowfall and the scent of lavender. I’m grateful for Paris and Jerusalem and San Francisco, and for Three Lakes, Wisconsin; South Haven, Michigan; and the bonfire pit at my in-laws’ house, where four generations of that special family have roasted marshmallows and, invariably, sung in perfect six-part harmony.

I’m so thankful for Aaron, for our marriage; for the gentle, daily, weaving together of stories and souls and bodies; for the life we’ve made together, the family. With each passing year, I’m more thankful. We’re more than we were a year ago, and a year before that.

The temperature’s dropping as the sun dips behind the clouds. I feel like I’ve sat on every bench in this entire camp, and at the same time, I feel like I never want to leave.

Tomorrow I’ll walk for coffee, maybe, early, in the cool of the dewy morning. And then I’ll find another bench, maybe an entirely new one, and my laptop and I will settle in for as long as it takes.

I used to be afraid that I was hollow somehow, that I only existed if someone could see me and hear me, like a toddler playing peek-a-boo. My whole life was an elaborate attempt at never having to be alone with myself. But the invitations kept coming, grace upon grace, to leave things behind, shed old skins, release long-held brokennesses, and when I finally walked away from all those things, there I was, alone with myself, and what I found astounded me: I wasn’t afraid at all.

More than that, instead of being afraid, or hollow, or nothing at all, what I found was strength. I found an unshakable core of love and passion and desire to make the world better. I found focus and a sense of power I’d never known.

This is the great anomaly of it: we cling to these structures because we think they are what keep us safe — as if we’re bugs who need exoskeletons, shells outside of ourselves to protect us. But when you start to understand how strong you are, you realize that you don’t need a shell at all. The inside is strong and secure, and doesn’t need to be shielded by all those other things — performance, proving, busyness.

There is nothing left to be shed, and at the center is strength, gratitude, Jesus.

I’m practicing that last part, to be honest. For reasons I still don’t totally understand, the idea that the person of Christ is sitting next to me, bodily, keeping me company, breathing in and out as I do — it’s still tricky for me. And it’s still tricky for me to hand Him all my silly human concerns — little wounds and worries, dreams and discouragements. But I spend more and more time sitting with Him, not with the Platonic ideal of divinity, abstracted away to a safe distance. I sit with Jesus, the human-and-divine Being sent to be with us, Emmanuel. I practice being with Him. It feels as awkward as I’m making it sound, I’m sure.

I’m learning, minute by minute that I spend sitting with Him, allowing myself to be heard, my heart held, my dreams known. We’re in uncharted territory now, so I don’t know exactly how things shift from here, but I’m finding that my ability to sit with Jesus makes me more present and connected with Aaron, with my boys. As I create space and imagination within myself to be heard by the actual person of Christ, my capacity to hear the people I love is increasing. And my sense of strength, deep inside myself, grows and grows.

So much of life seems to be about reclaiming. Creativity, of course, is so easy and natural for children, and most adults struggle to recover that wild courage to make and imagine and play. And I’m learning that spiritual practice is a reclaiming, too. I used to know how to do this kind of prayer, when I was a child, when so many voices weren’t yelling their bad advice at me while I prayed, telling me I’m doing it wrong in a thousand different directions.

Here’s the thing: I might be doing it wrong, in someone else’s view. But as I sit, my heart grows more compassionate. My gratitude increases. I become more humble, more thankful, less fearful. So maybe there isn’t a wrong on this one, so long as it’s yielding a God-ward heart. And at the end of it all, at the center of it all, that’s the whole of who I am: this God-ward heart. Amen.

Excerpted from Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist, copyright Shauna Niequist.

What heavy things are you leaving behind that used to make you feel trapped and exhausted? What are you thankful for in your walk with Christ? Let’s pray today to have God-ward hearts as we practice being present with Him. He is here. He is always with you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 27, 2021

Article by Garrett Kell
Pastor, Alexandria, Virginia

Richard and Andy worked in a factory outside a west Texas town. Andy’s new faith was growing, but he told Richard his drive home was a daily battle. A few miles from his house was a fork in the road: a left turn led home, but a right took him to the strip club that had long been his escape.

One afternoon, Andy confessed he craved to go to the club after work. Before Richard left, he prayed with Andy and assured him Jesus would help him resist.

It was pouring rain when Andy began his drive. Approaching the fork in the road, he noticed something in the median. As the windshield wipers brushed aside the rain, he saw Richard standing at the fork with a large piece of cardboard. On it was an arrow pointing home. Andy turned left toward home that day, and every day since.

Richard is the kind of brother we need, and the kind of brother we all should want to be. Whether you are a man or a woman, we need help from fellow sign-holding saints to point us away from temptation and toward our heavenly home. What follows are four exhortations to help you help others home.

Resist Shallow Relationships

The path of faith must not be journeyed alone. Perseverance is a community project. God intends each of us to protect others from apostasy. We can be tempted, however, toward shallow relationships. Rather than stand in the storm as Richard did, we are tempted toward apathy. Rather than humbly confess our need as Andy did, we are tempted to avoid accountability. But beware: shallow relationships leave you susceptible to Satan’s snares.

“We are too weak to make it to heaven alone. This is why God gives us one another.”

Consider Sarah, a sister who had grown tired of being single. She had prayed and waited on God, but no one at church pursued her. So, when a non-Christian coworker began pursuing her, she felt dangerously vulnerable. Had Sarah been isolated in shallow relationships, she acknowledged that she could have fallen into Satan’s trap. Thankfully, she confessed her temptation to several Christian sisters who helped her resist his advances.

God calls believers to be committed to a deep, honest, loving church community (Hebrews 13:17). We are a body (1 Corinthians 12:12) and a family (Matthew 12:49–50; Ephesians 2:19; 1 Timothy 5:1–2), and we are entrusted with nearly forty “one-another commands” that exhort us toward deep, spiritual love. We are too weak to make it to heaven alone. This is why God gives us one another. Surround yourself with people who help you toward heaven, and love others by doing the same for them.

Remind One Another of Scripture

Sin seduces us away from God, but Scripture keeps us spiritually sober. Consider Solomon’s warning regarding the dangers of the adulteress: “My son, be attentive to my wisdom . . . for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” (Proverbs 5:1, 3–4). Sin assures us that indulgence brings delight. Scripture warns that sin’s end is bitterness and destruction.

We must remind one another of these truths. As the author of Hebrews says, “Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). Sisters, remind each other that pleasure isn’t found in forbidden lovers, but “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Brothers, remind one another that pornography’s folly is empty and that Jesus promised, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

The broad road of destruction is marked by sin’s lies. Hold up the sign of Scripture and point one another toward the narrow way that leads home.

Rejoice in One Another’s Sanctification

One way sin lures believers into its web is through discouragement. When we doubt God’s love for us or disbelieve that he’s working in us, we are susceptible to the tempter’s traps. Encouragement, however, is a potent antidote to sin’s snare.

Several years ago, I became discouraged by an ongoing battle with sin and felt like I was never going to get past it. But God used the encouragement of a friend to help me. He assured me that I needed to keep growing but pointed out how far God had brought me. The Lord used his encouragement to help me keep trusting God and fighting sin.

“Sin assures us that indulgence brings delight. Scripture warns that sin’s end is destruction.”

Celebrate God’s work in others’ lives, especially in the lives of struggling saints. Point out evidence of his saving grace in them, and encourage them to keep growing (1 Thessalonians 1:4–10; 4:10). Help them thank God for their sanctification (2 Thessalonians 2:13) and take joy in their salvation (3 John 3–4). Rejoice in their sanctification and remind them that God has promised to finish the work of making them like Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

Rescue One Another from Straying

Sadly, some of our fellow brothers and sisters will stray into prolonged patterns of sin. When they do, we have a calling to attempt a rescue. “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19–20).

The church is to be marked by love that seeks to save one another from sin’s snare. We mimic the Good Shepherd, who sought us, when we go after those who stray. Is there anyone who needs you to seek them out? Has anyone strayed into sin that you’ve neglected to pursue? If you fell into sin, who knows and loves you enough to pursue you?

Christlike love seeks to rescue one another and restore each other to the Shepherd. Pray for straying sheep (Luke 15:3–7). Pursue them in love (John 13:34–35). Reason with them from God’s word (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Warn them about the dangers of hardening their hearts against God (Hebrews 3:12–14).

As you aim to rescue, remember Paul’s counsel to the Galatians: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1–2).

Be certain that gentleness guides your rescuing efforts. Resist impatience and harshness (James 3:17). Consider how gentle Jesus has been with you (Matthew 11:28). Guard yourself from the temptations of self-righteous judgmentalism (Galatians 5:15, 26) and potentially falling into the same sin they have (1 Corinthians 10:1–13).

Almost Home

The journey home is long, and at times grueling. But God is faithful to bring us into our heavenly home (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18). He will use others to help you fight sin, and he will use you to help others. So, keep resisting, keep reminding, keep rejoicing, and keep rescuing.

Do not lose heart. We’re almost Home.

The joy and reward that the apostle Paul speaks of in Philippians 4:1 and 1 Corinthians 9:1-2 is people who have come to Christ through his preaching and teaching.  What an incredible reward to be blessed with in heaven . . . to see even one person who came to Christ because of your testimony! 

Preach Christ, brother and sister, that your reward may be made full and the joy of the Lord fill you to overflowing when you meet in heaven!

Pastor Dale