Notes of Faith October 25, 2021

Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. — Isaiah 43:19

In the classic Broadway musical and film The Sound of Music, the Reverend Mother sends Maria away from the convent to work as a nanny for the Von Trapp family. Maria is unsettled at the idea of leaving the abbey and giving up on her dream of becoming a nun. The Reverend Mother reassures her with the now-famous cliché, “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.” In other words, whenever one opportunity ends, another opportunity will come along — and it will probably be a better one. Sure enough, the closing abbey door leads to the opening of the window that ushers Fräulein Maria into the arms of the dashing Captain Von Trapp.

Though the cliché is meant to help people stay positive in the face of disappointment, it isn’t exactly true. God doesn’t promise that when something doesn’t work out, something better is waiting for us just around the corner. His pledge is far more substantive than that. He promises to sustain us amid life’s disappointments. When all the doors and windows remain shut, He helps us make our way through the dark room, and He sustains us. Our circumstances do not always change for the better. But we can be confident that He will use them to change us for the better.

‘I know the plans I have for you’ — this is the Lord’s declaration — ‘plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope’. — Jeremiah 29:11

MEDITATION

When was the last time you faced a closed door? During this time, how did God make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert? Why can you trust Him with closed doors, even when there are no windows in sight?

GROW GRATEFUL

Thank God that He makes a way through the wilderness.

*

Grateful That God Is for Me

The Lord is for me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? — Psalm 118:6

When our family plays board games, everyone is out to win. It’s a no-holds-barred, every-man-for-himself, dog-eat-dog rivalry. Through our sons’ teen years, we often played Settlers of Catan. The battles were epic. Still, they were all in good fun. Mostly. But things took a turn for the worse when we expanded the game with cards that could be used as a method of attacking other players. This (and the ambiguous rules) started to create problems. Competitions turned into arguments and hard feelings. Some players felt that others really were “against them.” Things got so bad that we had to call it quits and find some board games that were less combative.

It’s one thing to have an opponent in a game — but having a real- life opponent is an entirely different matter. Especially when that opponent is out to do you harm. Some people think God is out to do them harm. Perhaps they’ve lost a job or encountered a series of unfortunate events. They look at the hand they’ve been dealt and conclude that God is not on their side. But according to the Bible, this is not true. The Lord is for you and not against you. He may not always answer your prayers in the way you expect. Nevertheless, He delights in your well-being (Psalm 35:27) and rejoices in doing you good (Jeremiah 32:41). Whenever life gets rough or people try to do you harm, don’t despair or be afraid. Remember that God is always on your side.

MEDITATION

How do you feel knowing that God is for you and not against you? Why do people sometimes struggle to believe that God is for them? What difference does it make to have God on your side when people come against you?

GROW GRATEFUL

Thank God that He is for you.

Excerpted from Growing Grateful by Mary A. Kassian, copyright Mary A. Kassian.

There is so much uncertainty these days. But, what is not uncertain is that God is for you. He is with you. He has good plans for your life. He will make a way. Believe it and thank Him for His goodness today! 

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 24, 2021

“You rejoice in this faith and love. You rejoice with a joy that is unable to be expressed, and which is, literally, “glorified” — or “full of glory,” as the NASB has it (1 Peter 1:8).

We Become What We Crave

Now, I think the way we have defined joy goes a long way to helping us understand why it’s inexpressible and why it is glorified. I’ll ask this question to make the connection for you: Where does joy get its moral quality — not just its intensity? We’re talking about quality here: inexpressible and glorified — not just big, not just strong. There can be a lot of strong emotions without Jesus, but we’re talking here about a joy that is not only very great, but it has a glory dimension to it. It’s got glory on it and in it somehow. So let’s just ask the general question: Where does joy, your joy, get its moral dimension? And the answer to that question, I believe, is this: your joy gets its moral quality from what you are enjoying.

So if you enjoy dirty jokes, you’ve got dirty joy and a dirty heart. If you enjoy bathroom language (that really makes you laugh) or lewd pictures (that really makes you happy), you have a dirty heart and dirty joy. Joy gets its moral quality from what you enjoy. Or if you enjoy cruelty and arrogance and revenge, that’s dirty too. And there are a lot of movies and TV programs that cultivate that kind of joy, to get you to be really happy in revenge. That’s the kind of heart you get. Your heart will be shaped that way. You become what you crave. Where you get your joy, you get your moral dimension to joy.

Or if you just love things — if you find your life, your joy, increasingly happy in more and more material things — do you know what happens inside? You die. Your heart was made for God and love and faith and joy. And if you find that this computer just so satisfies you — I have tasted that too. Wow, computers are incredible. Dan Lane got me into this new America Online thing, which connects you up with ten million billboards and stuff. It is absolutely addicting — at least for a week or two. It is.

There’s great danger from — I mean, you just name it. There are ten thousand material things in the world that can so enamor you and capture you, and you come to the end of a day, having looked at the screen of this computer, and say, “I’m dead. I’m dead — deader than I was when I started this day. I’m smaller. I’m drier. What have I done?” And some people spend their whole lives like that, and they will say that on their deathbed — unless they’re so dead that they can’t feel it.

We’re made for joy and Christ and relationship and love and the big unseen realities. So my answer to the question “Where does joy get its moral component?” is that it gets its moral component from the thing enjoyed.

Joy and Glory Streaming Back

Now Christian joy, I would argue, then, is inexpressible and glorified because the Christ who is precious to us is inexpressibly precious. And the Christ who is reliable to us is inexpressibly reliable. And even though we never attain to the maximum joy in this life that we will have someday, nevertheless our joy is hooked in, tied in, to an inexpressible treasure: Jesus. He is inexpressibly glorious. He is inexpressibly beautiful and reliable and precious. And if your joy is in him, that preciousness, that inexpressibility, comes from the thing enjoyed into you, and your joy leaps up from time to time with inexpressibility.

And the same thing is true for glory. I think Peter is saying that in the process of loving and believing and rejoicing, the goal of that — namely, salvation — is happening in part, in measure, now. The glory of the one we love is precious and reliable, and it is streaming back through our joy into our hearts. And our joy is in measure, right now, glorious. It partakes in glory because you always participate in what you enjoy. You become what you crave in large measure.

Eyes of the Heart

Final question: How can all of this happen when we don’t see him? Twice Peter says that: “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). Why does he stress that twice? Evidently, some people were saying something like, “But we’ve never seen him. You saw him, Peter. Sure, you can have that kind of joy. But we’ve never seen him.”

“More important than seeing with the eyes is seeing with the heart.”

Now, how? Surely the answer is that there is a seeing with the heart that is not a seeing with the eyes. And I want to argue this morning that seeing with the heart is more important than seeing with the eyes. More important than seeing with the eyes is seeing with the heart.

Paul said that his mission to unreached peoples, in Romans 15:20, was this. These are people out there in the Roman empire who, like us, have never seen Jesus.  Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written,

“Those who have never been told of him will see,
     and those who have never heard will understand.” (Romans 15:20–21)

The preaching of the gospel is the means by which those who have never seen Christ see Christ in the gospel. Here’s another way of saying it, which Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

In your heart, the light of God goes on, and you see his glory in Christ’s face. What in the world is that? There were hundreds and hundreds of people who saw Jesus during his lifetime on the earth who did not see him. They didn’t see him. They were blanked out; they were totally confused; they were totally adrift. They didn’t know who this Jewish carpenter rabbi was; he made no sense to them whatsoever. And they saw him hour after hour after hour. Is that valuable? That sends to hell. Don’t exalt seeing with the eyes. Don’t begrudge that you live in the twentieth century with only a Bible.

Listen carefully now. We were at a Michael Card concert on Friday night, and he sings this song about childlikeness that captures this paradox of seeing and not seeing.

To hear with my heart, to see with my soul To be guided by a hand I cannot hold To trust in a way that I cannot see That’s what faith must be.

There is a seeing with the soul, or the heart, that is not a seeing with the eyes. And it happens through the word of God in the gospel. And it happens through the reading of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I commend the Gospels to you: read the Gospels day in and day out. They are the living Christ to you. Read them with an openness to Christ, and you will see him better than Nicodemus saw him, better than the Syrophoenician woman saw him, better than the centurion saw him, better than the widow of Nain saw him, better than the thief on the cross saw him, better than the thronging crowds who got snatches and pieces saw him.

Better Than Being There

Think about this in closing now: the Gospels are better than being there. Why? In the Gospels, you are welcomed into the inner circle with the apostles, where you never could have gone had you been there.

• In the Gospels, you can go with him to Gethsemane, where you couldn’t have gone.

• In the Gospels, you go to him with the trial, where you couldn’t have gone.

• In the Gospels, you go all the way through the crucifixion.

• In the Gospels, you go in and out of the tomb with him.

• In the Gospels, you are with him, with every meeting after the resurrection.

• In the Gospels, you hear whole sermons, not just little snatches and pieces because you were way back there in the back of the crowd, and there’s a baby crying beside you, and you couldn’t figure out what was going on up there, and you only heard, “Blessed are the . . .” — what was that? And you couldn’t hear it.

“The Gospels are better than being there.”

You’ve got the whole thing, and not only do you have the whole big sermons and big discourses, you’ve got them with God-inspired contexts to give them interpretations, which those poor peasants didn’t have a clue about. They didn’t know what was going on.

• You see him in his freedom from anxiety, as he has no place to lay his head.

• You see his courage in the face of opposition.

• You see his unanswerable wisdom when he’s peppered with questions.

• You see him honoring women.

• And his tenderness with children.

• And his compassion toward lepers.

• And his meekness in suffering.

• And his patience with Peter.

• And his tears over Jerusalem.

• And his blessing on those who cursed him.

• And his heart for the nations.

• And his love for the glory of God.

• And his simplicity.

• And his devotion.

• And his power to still storms and heal sicknesses and drive out demons.

They didn’t have a clue compared to what you have. The Gospels are better than being there — if the Holy Spirit, who was needed just as much in that day as now, will simply open your eyes to see the glory on his face.

John Piper

Can you see Him?  Do you know Him?  The gospels truly do give us a clearer picture of Jesus than if we had been there and tried to be one of thousands following Him.  Praise God for being alive and seeing Jesus today!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 23, 2021

Dad was in his late sixties when I joined the family, so he was fairly old to be fathering another little boy. Sadly, his own parents never got a chance to become old themselves. When Dad was about eight or nine years old, a drunk driver, who happened to be white, ran his parents down and killed them as they were walking home from church one Sunday. The driver never went to jail or faced any consequences, and Dad remembers a policeman saying, “Well, that’s just two less niggers to worry about.”

There was no justice, yet Dad somehow never let bitterness set up inside of him. I once asked him how, after all he had been through, he didn’t hate. How could he keep telling us to never let hate win, to not focus on racism in everything we see, even though it was there? His answer seemed so simple: “Jesus.”

Dad didn’t mean that simply because of Jesus, there was no justification for feeling the pain of racism in his past. The harms inflicted by racism are like all unjust harms; they deserve justice.

Walking in forgiveness toward others does not mean ignoring or excusing these harms. It does not free the guilty party from the demand for justice. It does not deny one’s hurt. Forgiving does not mean forgetting. To truly forgive, we must remember. How can we forgive something we don’t recall happening? Forgiving also doesn’t mean trusting someone who hurt us — we can forgive and still maintain healthy boundaries. Neither is forgiveness the same as making amends (owning your wrongdoing), much less experiencing reconciliation (full restoration of a relationship).

My dad walked in forgiveness not because he gave up all demands for justice but because he gave them over. He knew that Jesus suffered the harshest judgment for all the wrongs the human race has ever committed. This means that not only did Christ willingly pay for the wrongs I have committed but also he paid for every wrong committed against me. Everyone can either accept his costly payment for our wrongs by grace or deal with the consequences ourselves. Dad learned that he could forgive those who had hurt him even if they never asked for his forgiveness or sought to make amends.

As a Black man, I have forgiven those who have wronged me, and I want to help other Black people forgive, but not in the falsely prescribed way of acting as if nothing ever happened or that racially motivated wrongs don’t still happen today. I’ve heard many Christians use words like forgiveness and racial reconciliation, but it often sounds less like repentance and more like an excuse to toss off a halfhearted “sorry” so they can just move on.

What I and my Black brothers and sisters are looking for instead is authentic, ongoing biblical healing that comes through honest confession and a courageous ownership of harm so we can love each other better moving forward.

Dad remembered his past, but he wasn’t bitter, and he wasn’t quick to take offense even when he had a right to. One time when he and his old friends were hanging out at the barbershop, an old white man was with them and made a racist comment. The man laughed and said he knew my dad was the one stealing their moonshine, but they could never catch him because “You people are too fast.” I was there at the time — a thirteen-year-old boy in 1976 who was paying close attention to what was being said about my beloved father. Whether Dad actually took the moonshine, I’ll never know, but I know he didn’t seem offended by the man’s slur. I couldn’t understand how he just laughed and moved right past it.

When I asked him about it later, it was apparent that he had not just moved on but moved forward. Instead of stuffing his bitterness and moving on with life, he had allowed God to move him forward, away from bitterness and into a hate-free life not contingent on others’ dealing with their own bitterness. Dad was born in 1911, so he lived during some difficult times in our nation’s racial history. He acknowledged that back in those days, Black people had to be extremely careful where they went, how they spoke, and when and where they were seen by white people.

Dad could tell I wasn’t satisfied with his answer. “I have chosen to teach you not to hate,” he said, “because if I had hated, you wouldn’t be who you have become today. You have a chance to do something I never got to do. I could only survive, but you can change it all.” Looking back, I can see that he was right, but it hurts to think about all the injustices he had to endure over the years. He wasn’t swallowing his offense as self-protection but truly had chosen not to allow such offenses to dominate his attitude or actions.

Dad never denied racism, but he didn’t want it to be a reason for his kids to give up on how far we could go in life. He knew we would be tempted to think that white people were chosen over us — that being Black was a disadvantage.

The truth is, there are disadvantages in being Black, but he knew that if we went down the dark road of bitterness, it would be hard to ever come back.

Now that I’m old enough to address these issues without getting caught up in anger and hate, I can see how focusing on racism could have hardened me when I was younger. Dad was right, but the time has come for us as a society and as a church to recognize that not hating is merely the beginning.

God wants us to fully believe in and deploy the principles of honesty, confession, and forgiveness to help foster authentic healing and leave behind the cloud of stubbornness and apathy that hangs over our heads.

All Chocolate Is Good

Dad once told me that all people are like chocolate — some are white chocolate and some are dark chocolate, but hey, all chocolate is good. I often quote him when I open a school rally because it always gets a laugh. It also puts people at ease by gently acknowledging America’s elephant in the room: race.

This analogy isn’t just about skin color. All chocolate is good means that not all cops are racists. Not all football players who kneel during the national anthem are unpatriotic. Not all people concerned about racism are radical liberals. Not all white people are bad. Not all Black people are good.

All people have something in them that’s good, but only as a distant echo of our divinely crafted origins as God’s image bearers. We rarely do good things out of good hearts because pure goodness isn’t in there. Even if we have good intentions, there is usually someone we hate — regardless of their flavor of chocolate — even if it’s not about skin color. The liberal. The “woke” ones. The conservative. The social media troll.

Not being enslaved to hate was a gift my dad gave me, but he was just regifting it from God.

This doesn’t mean I don’t get angry when the N-word is occasionally dropped near me on a plane or the countless times I hear it in public schools. I don’t like being pulled over by a police cruiser and searched for no reason when I’m on my way to speak to fifty thousand people at a Christian festival, but it happens. Yes, these things are pretty commonplace in my life — and no, they shouldn’t be.

This is why I feel now is the time to take my dad’s message of being free from hate and put it to work changing hearts and systems. The stakes are high, but it will be impossible to begin addressing the issues if we can’t learn how to get beyond the insult we all feel about racism. Getting beyond the insult does not mean trying really hard to be nice. It does not mean becoming the Christian “tone police” who worry more about hurting feelings than speaking truth.

Feelings may get hurt, but if we are willing to experience those feelings in a spirit of humility, teachability, and devotion to the gospel, hearts and systems can change as we allow our feelings to become catalysts for healing rather than harm. Hearts beat in the chests of individuals, so even though paying attention to their stories and needs won’t be enough to end racism, it is the right place to begin.

Excerpted from Not So Black and White by Reggie Dabbs & John Driver, copyright Reggie Dabbs & John Driver.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. — John 15:12

The stakes are high. Being like Jesus in a multi-cultural world full of hurt and confusion is challenging and takes humility, patience, and a lot of listening to the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 22, 2021

Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” — John 11:33-37

We know from earlier in the passage that Jesus intentionally delayed His coming for four days to prove He had power over death (John 11:1-17). Here we find Mary weeping because of her brother’s death, and the people believed Jesus also wept for Lazarus. But I believe Jesus wept for a different reason.

When believers pass away, they go to Heaven to be with God.

We know the Bible teaches us they are in a better place. The loved ones left behind grieve, just like Mary did in today’s passage. But one of the reasons Jesus wept may have been because He knew He was about to bring Lazarus back to this earth to face death. If we truly believe our loved ones have gone to Heaven, although we may miss them, it would be selfish to want to bring them back.

The people questioned, “Since Jesus could give the blind sight, why didn’t He save His friend from dying?” But He came to give sight to blind sinners so He might raise us all from the dead as long as we believe in Him.

God, I pray You will help those who grieve for the loss of a loved one. Amen.

~Dr. Kevin C. Williams, First Baptist Church, Villa Rica, GA

Heart Transformation

“Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” ... Then the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to those in captivity. — Ezekiel 11:19-20, Ezekiel 11:24

I served in the U.S. Army and trained against a certain enemy. I served during the first Gulf War and developed a hard heart toward the Muslim culture. While I knew governments caused the war, the war still affected how I viewed those people.

Recently, God saw fit to send me back to that region. I never thought God would send me to minister to the very people I once called my enemy. But I had a heart transformation. I found myself seeing them the way Jesus intended me to see them — with love and compassion. My heart turned from stone to flesh. I began to develop relationships with them, which allowed me to share the gospel. Many became believers.

God wants us to love the nations the way He does. We are to have a heart of compassion toward our enemies. Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-44). I now understand how to do that.

God, please transform my heart to be like Yours and help me to see people the way You see them. Amen.

~Dr. Kevin C. Williams, First Baptist Church, Villa Rica, GA

Excerpted from The Spirit Within You, copyright Thomas Nelson.

Jesus is infinitely compassionate. He is love and His love embraces us in every situation we face, every day, every moment. He is chipping off the hard places of our hearts and transforming us into people of compassion just like Him. Can you feel it happening? Do you sense your feelings about people you used to hate or judge changing?  The compassion of God comes from the Holy Spirit within a true believer.  We must let God change our preconceived walls of anger and hate to compassion and love toward all made in His image!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 21, 2021

To whom will you compare Me? Or who is My equal?’ says the Holy One. — Isaiah 40:25

As Moses announced:

Who among the gods is like You, Lord? Who is like You — majestic in holiness? — Exodus 15:11

And the psalmist asked:

Who in the skies is comparable to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the Lord? —
Psalm 89:6 NASB

As Augustine prayed:

What then are you my God? What, I ask, except the Lord God. For who is the Lord besides God? Or who is God besides our God? — Most high, most good, most powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, most secret and most present; most beautiful and most strong; most stable and incomprehensible; unchangeable (yet) changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, and bringing the proud to (the collapse of) old age; ever acting, ever at rest; gathering, and not needing; carrying and filling and protecting (all things); creating and nourishing and perfecting; seeking, though you lack nothing.1

Consider the work of His hands.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.

Speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea tell you.

Every one of these knows
that the hand of the Lord has done this.

The life of every creature
and the breath of all people are in God’s hand. — Job 12:7-10 NCV

The next time you feel the weight of the world, talk to the One who made the world. As your perception of God grows greater, the size of your challenge grows smaller. If God can sway the heart of a Persian monarch, if He can reverse certain death into victorious life, if He can turn a scheduled holocaust into an annual holiday, do you not think He can take care of you?

I’m sorry for your exile in Persia. I’m sorry for your deep wounds and weariness. I’m so sorry that you so quickly understand the meaning of words like pain, fear, and sadness.

Springtime seems like forever from now, I know. But, friend, it isn’t. The story of Esther dares you to believe that God, though hidden, is active. He brings life out of broken things. The apostle Paul was summarizing Esther when he wrote:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. — Romans 8:28

“We know,” Paul said. There are so many things in life we do not know. We do not know if the economy will dip or if our team will win. We don’t always know what our kids are thinking or our spouse is doing. But according to Paul we can be dead certain of four things.

We know God works. He is busy behind the scenes, above the fray, and within the fury. He hasn’t checked out or moved on. He is ceaseless and tireless.

He never stops working for our good. Not for our comfort, pleasure, or entertainment, but for our good. Since he himself is the ultimate good, would we expect anything else?

To do this He uses all things. Panta in Greek. As in panoramic or panacea or pandemic. All inclusive. God works, not through a few things or just the good things, best things, or easy things, but in all things God works.

He works for the good of those who love Him. Good things happen to those who trust God. The umbrella of God’s providence does not extend to cover the evil and hard-hearted. But for those who seek Him and His will, in all things God works.

A puppet in the hands of fortune and fate? Not you. You are secure in the hands of a living and loving God.

A random collection of disconnected events? Far from it. Your life is a crafted narrative written by the Author of life, who is working toward your supreme good and a sublime ending.

Relief will come.
Will you be a part of it?

It seems to me that the entire world is in a state of trauma. People do not know why they were born or where they are destined to go. This is the age of much know-how and very little know-why. The invisible enemies of sin and secularism have left us dazed and bewildered.

The world needs you! We need people with the resolve of Mordecai and the courage of Esther. The world is in desperate need of a people of God who will stay steady in the chaos.

People like the ones who gathered in war-torn London. No one would have blamed them for canceling church services on that Sunday morning. A bombing raid had roared in the city throughout the night. London was a circle of fire. Buildings were destroyed. Even the walls of this church were flattened. Members arrived to find pews covered with dust and mortar. But rather than despair, they chose to worship. Amid the heaps of stones they began to sing:

The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord; She is His new creation, By Spirit and the Word: From Heav’n He came and sought her

To be His holy Bride,
With His own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.

Can you envision that circle of brave souls? Smack-dab in the center of global chaos, they worshipped. They set their faith on our unfailing God. The song was an admonition of sorts, a declaration of truth amid a crumbling society.

The song may well have saved the life of Ben Robertson. He was an American war correspondent who had arrived in London the day before. The night bombing left him undone and terrified. The explosions, sirens, and cries of the wounded caused him to despair of life itself.

“If this is what modern civilization has brought us to — if this is the best that modern man can achieve, then let me die,” he prayed.

At some point he dozed off. He awoke to the unexpected sound of people singing a hymn. He looked out the window and saw the congregation gathered in the rubble.

He later wrote: “Suddenly I saw in the world something that was unshatterable — something that had endured through millennia, something that was indestructible — the spirit and life and power of Jesus Christ within His Church.”2

Bombs are still dropped. Worlds still explode. Walls still collapse. Pandemics still rage. But in the midst of it all, the Lord still has His people. And when they proclaim the truth of God in the middle of a crumbling world, you never know who might be changed.

God is in the middle of this. This steep climb. This uphill struggle. This cold, fierce headwind you are facing. You feel overwhelmed. Weary. Ill-equipped to weather it. But lift up your eyes. That is your Father standing on the driveway. He is in this moment with you. Who knows but that you have been chosen for such a time as this?

1. Fr. William Most, “Excerpts from St. Augustine,” 1.4, EWTN, https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/excerpts-from-st-augustine-9962.

2. Benjamin P. Browne, Illustrations for Preaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman, 1977), 72–73.

Excerpted from You Were Made for This Moment by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado

If Jesus is your Savior, you can trust that He will work for your good in the situation that is causing you heartache, pain, and trouble. He loves you. You are His! 

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 20, 2021

The Scoop on Skin

He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you can hide. His truth will be your shield and protection. — Psalm 91:4 NCV

There’s a lot more to your skin than meets the eye.

First of all, your skin is actually an organ — just like your heart, lungs, and kidneys. In fact, it’s the largest organ of your entire body. The average-sized person has 22 square feet of skin!

That’s about the size of a small blanket. Skin comes in all different colors — all created by God using a pigment called melanin. Think of melanin like an artist would think about paint. The more melanin you have, the darker your skin.

The less you have, the paler your skin.

Skin not only covers your bones and muscles, it also senses the environment around you and helps control your body’s temperature. Your skin sweats to cool you off when you get hot, and it closes up its pores to keep in the heat (think of goose bumps!) when you’re cold. But one of your skin’s most important jobs is to protect the rest of your body from injury and disease. It’s like a shield for your body.

And while your skin is the shield for your body, God is the shield for your heart, mind, spirit, and body. It’s easy to be afraid and anxious about the bad things that could happen in the world.

But the Bible is filled with God’s promises to watch over and protect you, like this promise God gave in Psalm 18:30:

The Lord’s words are pure. He is a shield to those who trust Him.

And this one:
He is our help, our shield to protect us. — Psalm 33:20

And:

The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust Him, and He helps me. — Psalm 28:7

The list could go on and on. So when you’re scared or feeling threatened, run to God, and He’ll be your shield!

God, You are my rock, my protection, my Savior, and my shield. When times get tough, I’m so thankful You surround me and keep me safe.

Be Amazed

Here are some weird skin facts: Underneath all its fur, a polar bear’s skin is black. A rhinoceros’s skin can be almost 2 inches thick. And frogs? Their skin is really unique. Instead of drinking water through their mouths, they actually soak it in through their skin!

A Hairy Situation

When five sparrows are sold, they cost only two pennies. But God does not forget any of them. Yes, God even knows how many hairs you have on your head. Don’t be afraid. You are worth much more than many sparrows. — Luke 12:6-7

Hair — it’s everywhere!

It’s on your head and on your skin. It makes up your eyebrows and your eyelashes. It even grows in your ears and in your nose!

In fact, the only places hair doesn’t grow are on the palms of your hands, the bottoms of your feet, and your lips. Hair isn’t just for looks either. It has a purpose. The hair on your head helps keep you warm. Eyelashes keep dust and dirt out of your eyes, while eyebrows help keep the sweat and rain away — not to mention helping you look shocked and surprised! And those nose and ear hairs help keep germs, pollen, and other bits of stuff out of your body.

Hair grows out of a special organ under your skin called a follicle. The average person has 100,000 follicles on his head — and more than 5 million on the entire body. That’s a lot of hair!

And God knows each and every hair in each and every follicle! You might not be able to count them all, but He can. The Bible tells you so.

When you’re going through a tough time, especially if it’s a long, tough time, you may start to feel that God has forgotten you. But that’s not true. God could never forget you. Jesus said God knows what happens to every tiny bird in His world. And He loves you a lot more than any bird! When tough times come, God doesn’t forget you, and you’re not alone. God is always with you, even though you may not see it. Remember, the God who knows every hair on your head also knows exactly how to take care of you.

Lord, You know everything that happens in my life — even how many hairs are on my head! So I’ll always trust You to do what’s best for me.

Be Amazed

Hair is one of the main characteristics of mammals (and people are mammals too). In fact, all mammals have hair or fur. Even naked mole rats have tiny hairs on their feet.

Excerpted from Indescribable by Louie Giglio, copyright Louie Giglio.

Isn’t God amazing?! Isn't His creation amazing?! God, the Creator of everything in this humongous universe that is so big it cannot even be measured, loves us so dearly that He keeps count of the number of hairs on our head. That’s amazing love! 

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 19, 2021

So I’ll cherish 

the old rugged Cross,  

Till my trophies at  

last I lay down;  

I will cling 

to the old rugged Cross,  

And exchange it some day  

for a crown. 

George Bennard was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1873, less than forty-five minutes from my own hometown of Alliance.

He also happened to be the writer of one of my all-time favorite hymns, “The Old Rugged Cross.” It is arguably the most beloved hymn of all time.  

After coming to Christ during a Salvation Army meeting, Bennard and his wife became active in the Methodist Church. It is said that he wrote “The Old Rugged Cross” in response to some ridicule he had received. The source or topic of the ridicule isn’t clear, but his response is found in the lyrics of the hymn. His answer was to cling to the cross. He is reported to have said that, for him, “Christ and the Cross were inseparable.”  

Perhaps it is best that we do not know the specific reason Bennard was ridiculed. Who among us has not faced criticism or torment of some kind? We can relate to his situation without knowing the details — maybe even more so because we do not know the details. We can then apply his answer to anything we encounter.  

The answer is always to cling to the Cross.  

Have you ever been mocked for your faith? Cling to the Cross.  

Have you ever been misunderstood? Cling to the Cross.  

Have you endured hardship and heartache? Cling, sweet friend, to the Cross.  

Don’t be afraid to bear its shame and reproach because, one day, you’ll exchange it for a crown.  

Lord, help me to always be true to the Cross. 

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

Cling to the Cross. No matter what is going on in your life today, the answer is “cling to the Cross”. Jesus came and paid for your sin. No matter what you are enduring, know that Jesus is with you, for you, He loves you, He will never leave you, and the Cross is the proof of His unfailing love.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 18, 2021

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You! Trust in the LORD always, for the LORD GOD is the eternal Rock. — Isaiah 26:3-4 NLT

After my second dose of chemotherapy, I noticed my brain getting fuzzy. I’d always been able to think through things logically, but now I couldn’t focus on anything for long. Simple arithmetic befuddled me; the numbers just wouldn’t line up. My brain cleared after a few days, but it didn’t return to its former sharpness until well after my treatments were over.

I felt betrayed by my brain. I’d already lost my health. Was even my ability to think clearly being taken away from me? That’s when something Elisabeth Elliot wrote in A Path Through Suffering leapt off the page at me:

“Open hands should characterize the soul’s attitude toward God — open to receive what He wants to give, open to give back what He wants to take.”1

Are my hands open? I thought. Or are they holding on to the way I want my life to be going? So I lifted my clenched fists to God and one by one peeled back the fingers until my palms lay open before Him.

Father God, this cancer path has resulted in so many losses. Now I even seem to be losing my ability to think. I’m scared, Lord. I need Your peace. You’ve promised Your peace to those who trust in You. I want your way, Lord, for I know that You love me and have a plan for my life that is far better than anything I could think up for myself. I choose to trust You, for You, Lord God, are the eternal Rock.

Thank You for loving me enough to die for me. Now I want to die to my preconceived notions of what my life should be like. I choose to follow You wherever You lead me, even if it means the loss of things and abilities I hold dear. I don’t want to trust in those abilities, Lord; I want to trust in You. Help me to see those abilities as gifts from You in the first place.

I lift my hands up to You with open palms — they are empty of my plans and are ready to receive Yours. Transform me into the person You want me to be.

~Amy Givler, MD Author, Hope in the Face of Cancer: A Survival Guide for the Journey You Did Not Choose

Today’s Tip: Lift your clenched fists to God. Then slowly open your hands and tell Him you’re ready to let go and ready for Him to fill them.

Prayer reference: Isaiah 26:3-4

1. Elisabeth Elliot, A Path Through Suffering: Discovering the Relationship Between God’s Mercy and Our Pain (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant, 1990), 69.

Excerpted from Praying Through Cancer by Susan Sorensen and Laura Geist, copyright Susan Sorensen and Laura Geist.

Peace through our struggles, especially trials as big as cancer, is a supernatural gift from Jesus. Fear, loss, trauma, pain, anxiety about what the future holds... only God's peace is big enough to cover that... and it does when we rest in Him.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 17, 2021

This year, Olympian Steele Johnson took a deep dive into God’s faithfulness. Long ago, Johnson was nearly killed when practicing a difficult dive. His head hit the platform. He cracked his skull, fell more than thirty feet, and plunged into the water headfirst and unconscious. He eventually recovered and kept diving.

In 2016, he brought home a silver medal from the Olympics in Brazil.

This year, Johnson didn’t make it to the Olympics. He had to withdraw because of an injured foot. Despite surgeries and therapies, it wouldn’t heal quickly enough, causing Johnson deep disappointment and financial hardship. Losing his spot at the Olympics was agonizing.

Johnson told his fans: “I don’t understand the timing of this, and may never know why the pain hit its critical point at the Olympic Trials, but I know that God is good and that there will be blessings in this decision… My identity is rooted in who Jesus says I am… It might take me a while to feel contentment, but I’m choosing to believe the Lord is faithful ALWAYS.”1

Steele Johnson knew how to take a page from Jeremiah’s Journal, because he was practicing a spiritual technique that goes all the way back to Lamentations 3 — choosing to believe in the facts one knows, not in the feelings one has at any given moment.

Perhaps you’re acquainted with the Old Testament book of Lamentations. Jeremiah composed these morbid, gut-wrenching laments as he gazed over the smoldering ruins of Jerusalem. It was the worst moment of his life.

Sooner or later, we’ll encounter the worst day of our lives. Perhaps you’ve already lived through a day like that — or several of them, when you were overwhelmed with loss and grief. Maybe you’re fighting off those feelings now.

Jeremiah had devoted his life to bringing spiritual revival to Judah, but he couldn’t stop the decadence and decline of his culture. Even his family turned against him, and everything cascaded into ruin in 587 B.C. The Babylonians destroyed almost everything and everyone, and even God’s redemptive grace seemed lost.

“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!” sobbed Jeremiah. “Her fall was astonishing… This is why I weep… I am the man who has seen affliction.”

But exactly in the middle of his lamentations, we have this classic biblical passage: Yet 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.2

See why I said Steele Johnson was taking a page from Jeremiah?

Have you learned to do that, to bring the biblical facts to the forefront of your mind in brutal moments?

For me, it takes all the discipline I can muster. I have to grab my lapels, wag my finger in my face, and quote one of God’s promises. It’s like jumping off the high board. But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope…

It seems frightening to trust unconditionally in God’s faithfulness, but it’s the safest plan. His love is immeasurable. His compassion is inexhaustible. His promises are unfailing. His mercies and blessings flood our lives like a rolling tide each morning. All the Father’s promises were purchased for us by Christ’s blood and guaranteed by His resurrection.

God’s faithfulness is His absolute determination to keep every sentence, every word, and every syllable of every promise He has ever made, based on the redemptive work of Christ. It is His unchanging integrity to His Word. Because He cannot lie, His words cannot fail.

In researching my book, Great is Thy Faithfulness, I found nearly 100 Bible verses that explicitly mentions God’s quality of being faithful. For example:

• Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

• The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does (Psalm 145:13).

• The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

• But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

We can’t avoid bad news and awful times. Just checking the national and world news is  enough to foul up our days.

Personal issues can drive us to distraction. But listen to Steele Johnson again: “It’s cool to see how God can use something that life throws at you, something horrible, something that could absolutely take you out for the rest of your life or end your life, and He can use it for good later on down the road.”3

So when you feel like you’re in a nosedive, remind yourself you’re simply diving into the bottomless ocean of God’s faithfulness. And while you’re plunging through the air, sing to Him a hymn, like…

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Thou changest not, Thy compassion, they fail not.

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Robert J. Morgan, author of Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

God's faithfulness is something we can always be sure about. Everything can come crashing down around us in a moment, but God remains faithful. Life changes again and again and yet God is faithful. No matter what, He is faithful!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 16, 2021

Notes of Faith October 16, 2021

Robin and I were blessed with seeing and having dinner at the new Melnick home in Rockwall, Texas yesterday.  Preparing for the Bryant memorial service this morning and forgot to send a notes of faith earlier.   Here it is….

Olivier Melnick

Romans 7:14
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

• Paul was struggling with the flesh just like anyone of us would. He would find himself doing what he knew he shouldn’t and not doing what he should. We need to remember that while we are forgiven, our flesh is still very much part of who we are for the time being. The Holly Spirit is always here to guide us, but that’s it, because we still have a choice to make. Do we listen and yield or do we ignore and quench. He guides and convicts us, but He will not force us.

May God bless all of you richly.  Seek righteousness especially when the struggle with the flesh is hard.

That which I would not, that do I do.  I wish I wouldn’t do it but I’m already through! 

UGH!  Keep pursuing righteousness and holiness in the power of the Holy Spirit!

Pastor Dale