Notes of Faith March 15, 2022

Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. —Romans 5:5

Our God is the God of hope, the God of the second chance, and the God who transforms the lives of seemingly hopeless people, including characters like former gang member Ronnie Bronski and a hard-hearted reporter.

And like you too.

But it’s often easier to count on God to redeem our past than it is to trust Him with our present and our future. Our tendency is to begin our spiritual journeys with a childlike belief in God’s miraculous power, and then gradually revert to a reliance on our own human efforts. It was because of this tendency that the apostle Paul challenged the believers in Galatia:

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?—Galatians 3:3

The all-too-frequent answer then—as now—was a resounding yes.

I don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I think there’s a diabolical plot afoot, one designed to tell us that it might make sense to trust God with our problems of yesterday, but not for those of today or tomorrow.

“Sure,” Satan whispers, “the Big Guy reached down and helped you turn things around after what was a pretty sordid past. But He has a whole world to look after, with countless emergencies happening all the time. So don’t expect Him to be intervening from this point forward in your insignificant life. You’ve already gotten all the help you’re going to get. From here on out, you’re on your own!”

This enemy of our souls, the one the Bible calls “the accuser” (Revelation 12:10), does all he can to drain us of hope. Were it not for God’s ongoing infusions of power in our lives, we’d be in real trouble.

Thankfully, God is not just all-powerful; He is also a power-sharing God. He cares so much about us that He’s willing to imbue us with some of His strength if we choose to tap into it. Put another way, God can give us power as power is needed.

A Psalm of Power

Let me illustrate this with a passage of Scripture that is not only magnificent in its descriptive force, but it also contains an encouraging surprise ending.

Trying to creatively express the extent of God’s incredible strength, King David harkened back to his days as a shepherd when he would watch awesome thunderstorms rumble through the desert with frightening intensity. Based on these experiences David extolled God’s great power in Psalm 29:

The voice of the Lord is over the waters. —Psalm 29:3

Apparently, this storm was roaring in from the Mediterranean.

The God of glory thunders,

the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. —Psalm 29:3-5

Do you know how big the cedars get in Lebanon? They can grow up to thirty feet in diameter and rise as high as a twelve-story building. But David was saying that a mere whisper from God is enough to instantaneously splinter those towering trees into kindling. That’s power!

[God] makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox. —Psalm 29:6

Sirion is a nine-thousand-foot mountain. In other words, God’s voice is like a mighty earthquake that makes the plains and mountain ranges shake and quiver and undulate and dance.

The voice of the Lord strikes

with flashes of lightning. —Psalm 29:7

Think about the incredible power released by the one hundred lighting strikes happening around the planet every second. Each lightning flash discharges up to one hundred million volts of electricity and can raise the temperature of the air 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is five times hotter than the surface of the sun!1 Yet a single utterance from the lips of the Lord is far more potent than all of the lightning in the two thousand thunderstorms taking place around the world at any given moment.2

The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;

the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. —Psalm 29:8

Kadesh is in the south; Sirionis in the north. These references tell us that God’s tremendous power is manifest across the entire land. Nobody can flee from it.

The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. —Psalm 29:9

You may remember the photographs after Mount St. Helens erupted in the state of Washington in 1980. In a blast that had the explosive force of five hundred atomic bombs, giant trees over an area of 230 square miles were toppled like matchsticks and stripped clean of their bark. Millions and millions of trees were destroyed, enough to construct three hundred thousand houses. Yet that is all child’s play for the God of the universe. It would only take a murmur from Him to flatten the entire 815 million acres of the Amazon rainforest.

So what should be our response to our God whose strength is so immense that it completely dwarfs the incredible energy released in an epic desert thunderstorm? David’s response serves as a great example:

And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

the Lord is enthroned as King forever. —Psalm 29:9-10

What other reaction can we have but to worship such a mighty and breathtakingly awesome God who rightfully reigns over all of His creation?

Then, suddenly, David’s poem takes a surprising turn. After describing God’s incredible power, the psalm concludes suddenly and with a totally unexpected twist:

The Lord gives strength to His people;

the Lord blesses His people with peace. —Psalm 29:11

Here’s the point: our omnipotent God doesn’t hoard His power. Instead, He is an empowering Deity who cares deeply about the people He created and who wants to share His strength with us.

That’s really good news, because it means that in Him we can find peace when we’re panicky, endurance when we’re empty, and courage when we’re cowardly.

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity,” said the apostle Paul, “but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). What a hope-filled promise from an incredibly mighty God!

1.National Geographic News, “Flash Facts About Lightning,” June 24, 2005, accessed February 3, 2015, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0623_040623_lightningfacts.html.

2.“Average Daily Global Lightning Strikes,” July 8, 2005, accessed February 3, 2015, http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/wea00/wea00239.htm. 

Excerpted from The Case for Hope by Lee Strobel, copyright Lee Strobel.

Are you feeling panicky? Empty? Worried? Lacking in courage? God’s got you! He’s in complete control! Rest in Psalm 29 today and know that the Lord is mighty in power.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 14, 2022

Years ago, I was slandered publicly on the internet. People said awful things about me and my beliefs, about my work, about what I stand for. And other people believed them.

I hung up the phone after reading the hateful words to my friend who lives across the country. She had tried to comfort me, but the situation was too big, overwhelming, and distressing. Feeling sad that her words didn’t lift me, I walked into my bathroom and turned on my shower. Getting under the showerhead, I released all the tension in my body, and the flood of tears came pouring out.

I cried tears for every awful word this person said about me. I cried tears for the people who believed her. I cried tears for the pit in my stomach that made me think, How could someone actually believe all that?

The experience brought so much pain, self-doubt, and confusion. Self-doubt in what I was doing online cultivating the community of Blessed is She and about my pure and transparent heart for others. Confusion about my ability to trust others and how someone could treat me so poorly and have little to no regard for my feelings, my family, my faith.

And yet, as painful as it was, it did not discourage me from my work spreading God’s teachings, especially on love.

Despite that situation, I still believe in people, redemption, and mercy because of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In today’s scripture, Jesus is very specific:

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.—Luke 6:27–28

Our Lord Himself teaches us that even if someone hates us, we still love her. Even when someone curses us, we still pray for her and bless her.

I believe when Jesus Christ commanded this, He meant a soul-surrendering sort of love. One that doesn’t make sense, is contrary to every instinctual feeling. This kind of love means that even if someone were to try to harm your heart... you would love her.

Lord, if that’s not one of the hardest commandments You’ve ever said, I don’t know what is.

• Loving her means treating her with dignity even when it is painful to do.

I’ve come to understand that loving someone doesn’t always mean letting him or her in your life over and over again to potentially cause you more harm. If we are in a position of danger, we absolutely should get out of the situation and pray for and bless someone from afar.

Sister, Jesus knows about that suffering you or someone close to you may have gone through or is currently going through. And He is with you in that pain. He will never leave or forsake you.

Even when (not if) someone hurts you—in your workplace, in your families, in your friendships—you are invited to treat them as you would have them treat you, just as Jesus commands us today in Luke 6:31.

But He doesn’t stop there. His commands are actualized in His life and death. He isn’t asking us to do something He Himself isn’t willing to do. He demonstrated that on the cross. He showed us what it costs to “love [our] enemies” (Luke 6:27).

• Jesus gave His life even for those enemies who crucified Him.

He lived in the freedom of the Holy Spirit to give even in the midst of the attempt to strip Him of His dignity, His worth, His life.

And in the midst of that suffering, He freely gave for you and me. In the midst of whatever comes our way, we can listen to our Savior’s commands and see how He lived His life to love as He did.

Like Him, we can lay down our lives, every single day. Like Him, we can love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who hurt us. With Him, we can live a life of mercy.

Excerpted from Made New: 52 Devotions for Catholic Women by Nell O’Leary, Leana Bowler, Brittany Calivitta, Jenna Guizar, and Liz Kelly, copyright Blessed Is She Inc.

Can you think of a person you have known in your life who has modeled the Golden Rule for you, who has been like Jesus to you? Maybe drop that person a line today and tell them how they have encouraged your walk with Christ! Or if they are already in Heaven, thank God for them and emulate their Jesus-likeness. May we be like Him today! 

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 13, 2022

Praise Defeats the Enemy

I will declare Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You. —Psalm 22:22 NKJV

One way to drive Satan to distraction, and to overcome him, is through praise of Jesus.

Regardless of whether the enemy is a visible foe in front of us like the scribes and Pharisees or an invisible foe outside of us like the Devil himself or an invisible foe inside of us like depression, praise drives the enemy away. In the very prophecy that describes Jesus’ inmost thoughts and feelings as He hung on the Cross, tortured, bleeding, and dying, the psalmist declared,

But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of [Your people].—Psalm 22:3 NKJV

In other words, He is enthroned —He rules in power, authority, and supremacy —through our praise.

In some supernatural way, praise ushers the authority of God into any given situation. One practical way to maintain your praise is to begin every prayer with praise. First praise God for who He is. Then praise Him for something He has done for you. Start now!

~Pursuing MORE of Jesus*

*

Praising Jesus Is Contagious!

To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! —Revelation 5:13

The apostle John gives us a thrilling glimpse into a universal celebration that one day we are going to participate in. He describes four living creatures who surround the throne on which Jesus reigns supreme. These living creatures never stop saying,

‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.—Revelation 4:8

While the living creatures proclaim glory, the twenty-four elders fall down and worship. And as the elders praise, millions of angels join in the chorus, singing in a loud voice,

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!—Revelation 5:12

Then John describes the entire universe beginning to roar in the continuous acclamation of Christ as every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea sings, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever!”

Who is praising Christ because you are?

~Pursuing MORE of Jesus

Excerpted from The Joy of My Heart by Anne Graham Lotz, copyright Anne Graham Lotz.

Get your praise on! Whether the wind is at your back and life is going smoothly or you are struggling, suffering, and filled with worry...praise Jesus! Praising God ushers in His presence, tells Him we trust Him, and reminds us that God is in control of everything. Let’s lift our hands and worship Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 12, 2022

Article by Joe Rigney
Teacher, desiringGod.org

Let’s talk about framing. Not framing as in home construction, but framing as in the way we perceive reality. Framing refers to how we see things. In particular, it refers to the fact that, as human beings, we don’t merely see things; we see things as. If you see a bear, you don’t just see a bear. You see the bear as dangerous. When you see a sunset, you don’t just see the sunset; you see the sunset as beautiful. That’s what I mean by framing. We see things as.

And not just sight, but our other senses as well. We hear the buzzing of a fly as annoying. We hear the laughter of a child as delightful. We smell the aroma of cookies as pleasant. We taste and see that honey is good. Framing, then, has to do with the immediate and snap judgments we make about reality and its relation to us.

Changing Lenses

Our framing is not static. The child’s laughter that is delightful at one moment is a nuisance when you’re trying to get work done. The laughter is the same; the framing — your snap judgment — is different.

“Framing has to do with the immediate and snap judgments that we make about reality and its relation to us.”

Let’s take another step. We’re always framing, and it’s good that we are. It’s what keeps us alive. Our snap judgments lead to snap reactions. The framing bear-as-dangerous is why you jump in the car and drive away when you see one. The speed of our snap judgments engages our snap reactions almost automatically. In fact, we might say that our snap judgments and snap reactions are not in our immediate control (though, as we’ll see, they are shaped over time by our choices and experiences).

As humans — with souls and bodies, hearts and minds, intellects and wills — our snap judgments are often incredibly complex. They don’t merely involve simple and straightforward judgments about dangerous bears and delightful laughter. Behind our framing lies a complex web of imagination, memory, narrative-framing, embodied experience, and our present expectations, desires, and fears. In short, because we are human, why we see things as we do is a complicated question.

More than simply being human, our fallibility and sinfulness complicate our framing. Because we are fallible, our framing can be mistaken. We might mistake a garden hose for a snake and unnecessarily panic. And because we are sinful, our snap reactions following our snap judgments are not always good. Your spouse makes an observation; you make a snap judgment — comment-as-insult — and you react with your own insulting comment, and the situation escalates. You see the two places you could go wrong: Was your snap judgment correct? And was your snap reaction appropriate?

Our Chosen Stories

We can think of many other examples. Was that question from your coworker simply a request for information? Or was it a subtle shot at your ignorance? Your friends go out one night and don’t invite you. Did they simply forget or intentionally leave you out? Snap judgment, snap reaction.

And now we can see how our framing — and the snap reactions that flow from it — sets us on a path.

They didn’t invite me. They intentionally left me out. They don’t want to be around me. They’ve rejected me as their friend. I’ll show them.

With every judgment, we add a corresponding reaction, which together make the frame sturdier. Our experience and our choices, our memories and our imaginations, the stories we tell ourselves and the things that happen to us — all of these work together to shape and reshape our framing.

What then should we do?

First, we ought to be curious about our own framing. I reacted because I made a snap judgment. Why did I make that judgment? And was that an appropriate reaction? Growing in self-awareness is crucial if we are to frame the world rightly. Our reactions are tied to our framing, and both often reveal subtle assumptions that we may not even be fully aware of. C.S. Lewis describes just this sort of dynamic in The Screwtape Letters.

Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied. The more claims on life, therefore, that your patient can be induced to make, the more often he will feel injured and, as a result, ill-tempered. (111)

Note the snap reactions: anger and ill-temper. Note that what produces them is a snap judgment: misfortune conceived as injury. That’s the framing: hardship as violation of a claim. What assumption is revealed by this snap judgment and snap reaction? Screwtape continues.

Now you will have noticed that nothing throws him into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him. It is the unexpected visitor (when he looked forward to a quiet evening), or the friend’s talkative wife (turning up when he looked forward to a tête-à-tête with the friend), that throw him out of gear.

Now he is not yet so uncharitable or slothful that these small demands on his courtesy are in themselves too much for it. They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption “My time is my own.” (111–12)

There is the assumption, the pattern, beneath the snap judgment — “My time is my own.” Curiosity about our reaction leads us to awareness of our judgment and the revealing of our (false) assumption. Thus, reframing our view of our time becomes essential in shaping us in a more humble and godly way.

Notice How Others Frame

Second, be curious about the framing of others. My spouse or child or friend reacted strongly because they made a snap judgment about me. Why did they do so? Does their snap judgment fit a real pattern I display? And rather than escalating the situation with my own snap reaction, how can I love them through it?

Again, Lewis describes how important such self-reflection is in our closest relationships. Listen to Screwtape’s strategy for provoking our snap judgments and snap reactions in our domestic lives.

When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother’s eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it.

Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy — if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As he cannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed. (13)

Again, note the way that our reactions and judgments reveal improbable assumptions. Our awareness of such facts allows us to be curious and compassionate toward our family and friends and, Lord willing, love them more wisely.

Be Transformed by Scripture

Third, mind the patterns that shape your framing. Paul says it clearly in Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world.” In other words, don’t frame reality the way that the world frames reality. Its pattern is not to be our pattern. Instead, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This is why we read the Scriptures and seek God in prayer and worship with God’s people — so that our minds can be renewed and we frame reality the way God does.

“Don’t frame reality the way that the world frames reality.”

Finally, marvel at the amazing reframing that God has worked in us in our view of Christ. At one time, our frame was darkened and blind. We saw Christ as a stumbling block and foolishness. Christ-as-ugly, Christ-as-dull, Christ-as-trivial — that was our frame.

But then, the God who said “Let light shine out of darkness” shone in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6). He called us from darkness to light and reframed Jesus for us. Now we see Christ as the power of God and the wisdom of God. Through the miracle of the new birth, we see Jesus differently. Christ-as-glorious. Jesus-as-worthy. This is the frame of frames, the pattern that transforms us from one degree of glory to another.

I need to be in the Scriptures more and more to slow down my framing and snap reactions.  This is sin that I was aware of but not allowing God to change my behavior.  I don’t want to say I love this sin, but it happens so fast and my mind tries to tell me that it is okay.  It is not okay!  It is sin.  It is my sin.  Is it yours?

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 11, 2022

Notes of Faith March 11, 2022

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.~ Oscar Wilde

During a difficult season in my life, I asked a mentor of mine if we could have lunch. He had always given me such great advice and perspective. This time he listened, didn’t say much, and then wrote a few Bible verses on a napkin and handed it to me before we left the restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, I love the wisdom of the Bible, but to be honest, I was looking for more. I stuffed the napkin in my pocket, and that night my wife asked about our lunch. I told her I was a tad bit disappointed by his lack of advice. I told her that he had simply written a couple of Bible verses on a napkin. She asked what they were, and I had to admit I hadn’t bothered to look at them. So I pulled the napkin out of my pocket and read what he wrote:

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.—1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Those verses ended up becoming part of a major life message for me and helped me through times of struggle and conflict and my cancer scare. I’m not exaggerating when I say that they changed my life, because they helped change my attitude. Let me explain.

Cultivate Joy

As I investigated the Scripture passage my friend John wrote on the napkin and how it relates to my attitude, I wrote at the top of a page in my journal the word joy. Then I wrote, “My goal is joy!”

Rejoice Always

“Rejoice always.” Another more modern translation of that verse reads, “Be full of joy.” I then circled the word joy. I knew from past study that when a person has deep-rooted joy, it is something much more than happiness after eating a great meal or watching a wonderful movie. Joy comes from the inside, and it’s connected to the well-being of the soul. Part of my journey toward deeper joy is knowing it’s a choice and not usually based on circumstance or chance.

About that time, I was having dinner with my friend Henry Cloud. Over the years, Henry has been one of the leading voices on the subject of creating healthy relational boundaries and finding joy in the midst of difficult circumstances. At dinner that night, he gave me a great illustration about developing joy. He said, “Yes, you can make joy a goal and choice for your life, but you can’t just will to have joy. You have to choose the practices and activities that enrich your life with joy, just like you would cultivate a garden.” Hmm, a lot like deciding to have serious fun and then implementing a plan to do so.

Here is another insight I learned around that time: circumstances are not as important to our joy as most of us would think. Two people can have a similar negative circumstance, and one of those people can rise above it and still have joy, while the other doesn’t. It’s more a matter of mindset than circumstance. I saw a poster recently in a hospital waiting room that read, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass... it’s about learning to dance in the rain” (Vivian Greene). Many years ago, a scientific researcher named Sonja Lyubomirsky wrote a book called The How of Happiness. In this book, she developed a simple “Pie Chart of Happiness.”

Whether or not this is accurate in your life, the pie chart reminds us that there are at least three major influences to develop deeper joy: genetics, circumstances, and activities. The research also reveals that our circumstances have the least to do with it. If only 10 percent of our joy or happiness comes from circumstances, and there is not much we can do about our genetics or biological set point (50 percent), then our focus needs to be on activities and choices we make that increase our happiness. While there’s still the matter of deciding whether a brisk walk or another Twinkie will garner the results we seek, when you think about it, having such control over our attitudes is good news. Back to what Henry Cloud told me at dinner that night, that our joy mainly comes from our activities and life practices: this translates to our attitude.

While battling cancer, I realized that it really had been a draining season of life and that the joy that I’d had glimpses of at times seemed out of reach. As I studied the word joy in the Bible, I realized that more than five hundred times we are commanded to practice choosing joy above anything else. So almost every morning before I get out of bed, I recite Psalm 118:24:

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.—NIV

Repeating that verse day after day reminds me that He is God and I am not, and that my joy comes from healthy practices and activities. It’s a daily practice, more of a running stream than a stagnant pool. Here’s the bottom line: You won’t get joy from others or from money or from fame. Joy is an inside job, and you make it happen.

Pray Continually

If my goal was to have a deep-seated mindset of joy, how could I attain it? The words “pray continually” didn’t seem to help, but as I investigated what Scripture says about prayer, I realized there is an intriguing promise connected to it.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:6-7

The more I looked at this, the more I wondered, “If I spend time regularly with God in prayer, just talking with Him about everything, with thanksgiving, will I experience more peace?” All I’d studied and witnessed about people who live with joy seemed to indicate this was the “secret sauce” for being more at peace. Even more interesting was that most of them had the same relational and work problems anyone else has, but they didn’t get as bent out of shape about them. They had already chosen a different mindset.

So I decided to commit to twenty minutes of prayer a day. To some people, that might sound super spiritual; to others, it might seem spiritually wimpy. But over the long haul, spending twenty minutes a day reading Scriptures like these, praying and journaling my thoughts, and looking for any gratitude I could find grounded me in my situations and often changed my perspective. It’s no magic formula. There are times I don’t remember what I’ve read or prayed about. (But then, I don’t always remember what I ate for dinner a week ago, but somehow it still nourished me then.) And there are times when I read, pray, and journal and, instead of peace, the result is focusing all day on a fear or worry. But I can say with confidence that most days, this twenty-minute discipline has worked for me.

Let the reader beware: results may vary! One day I was talking with leadership expert and author Nancy Ortberg about spiritual disciplines and joy. I told her that I read through the One Year Bible every year, and I pray and journal. She smiled and said, “That’s what my husband, John, does. I think that is sooo boring!” She said she needed to walk in nature and listen to God instead. Obviously, she recognized the need for prayer, and she wasn’t opposed to the discipline I was talking about, but my routine just didn’t work for her. When it comes to prayer and cultivating a joyful attitude, there just isn’t a one-size-fits-all regimen. Do what works for you. I’m typically not a person who finds cutesy little formulas from the Bible helpful. But the Scripture my friend John handed to me on the napkin that day translated into “joy = giving thanks in prayer.”

And that has stuck with me and done some good work on my crusty soul

Give Thanks in All Circumstances

This is the phrase I had the most trouble with, but eventually it became the most powerful one of all. In all circumstances? Really?

Was I truly supposed to thank God for the death of a parent or for war or for a friend’s drug addiction? Then I noticed it didn’t say give thanks for it; it said in it. Well, that made all the difference in the world! I could thank God in my mother’s passing, even though I grieved her loss. Her passing freed her from the pain of her cancer. She was with God in Heaven. There were plenty of things I could thank God for in my circumstances, once I slowed down enough to consider everything.

• Thanksgiving truly is a key that can help even in your unhappiest and most depressed moments.

I’m now convinced that a discipline of thankfulness is tied to our attitude in any circumstance.

Here is what I think: Thankfulness transcends circumstances. Your circumstances may stink and rightly cause you to want to throw a fit, but seeking the things you’re still grateful for can keep your head above your attitude, and that makes all the difference in the world. I learned that my circumstance may never change, but my attitude can change how I view it.

Anne Lamott once wrote, “You breathe in gratitude, and you breathe it out, too.”1 Dallas Willard died May 8, 2013. He was truly one of the greatest thinkers, writers, and philosophers of the century. Lying in his hospital bed, about to leave this world at any moment, all of a sudden he leaned his head back slightly as if looking toward Heaven, and with his eyes closed, he smiled and in a voice clearer than he’d had in many days said, “Thank you.” Soon after that, he entered eternity with the One to whom he had given thanks. What a life of cultivating a joyful attitude.

Seems like a worthy enough idea to practice, don’t you agree?

1. Anne Lamott, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers (New York: Riverhead, 2012), 60–61.

Excerpted from Have Serious Fun by Jim Burns, copyright Jim Burns.

How's your attitude? Spend a few moments today taking your attitude temperature and ask the Holy Spirit to help you start having serious fun by choosing joy, rejoicing always, praying continually, and giving thanks in all things!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 10, 2022

Maybe you love your birthday. You love an excuse to eat cake. You find great joy in opening gifts and relish the opportunity to mark the moment by reflecting on your blessings from the year. You see your birthday as a chance to take inventory of your life —to get really honest about what is working and what needs to change. You might even relish being honored —not for what you do but for who you are.

Or perhaps the attention your birthday brings makes you uncomfortable. Possibly you feel threatened by the idea of getting another year older. Or maybe observing the day you were born feels frivolous and indulgent and you are repulsed by the thought of being at the center of anyone’s attention. Maybe it’s a struggle to believe that our mere createdness is something to be celebrated.

• Accepting any affirmation of who we are is often lost in the chasm between pride and shame.

For some of us, our sense of significance is defined by attributes and accomplishments that we have allowed ourselves to believe are self-achieved. Outside affirmation has built our identity. To celebrate who we are instead of what we have done feels weak or like we are settling somehow. It’s difficult to tolerate celebration of ourselves in the present with unresolved dreams and unaccomplished goals. Pride tells us that celebration is a reflection of our accomplishments.

You might avoid and decline opportunities to be honored because you fear appearing self-absorbed and prideful and, therefore, default to shame. You assume that to acknowledge gifts in yourself or to observe growth would be boastful. So to avoid appearing narcissistic, you brush off compliments and minimize others’ praise.

I have often rejected praise and refused to celebrate myself because the kindness feels foreign to the liesI’ve claimed, the stories I tell myself about who I am, and what makes me worthy of celebration. I suspect you’re a storyteller too. Maybe you tell yourself stories about why people stay and why people leave or tales about the reasons you haven’t been chosen or were left on the outside of the circles we love to draw in our minds and hearts. Maybe your favorite stories to tell are the ones about the person who is the better version of yourself —the more disciplined, more creative, prettier, kinder, all-around-better edition of who you are right now. And he or she has become your constant and unrealistic point of comparison.

It will be difficult to choose joy when these are the stories written in ink on your heart. There’s no room to imagine or reflect on the gifts God stored inside you when you commit to those lies. The truth about your value will always feel like it’s true for someone else but not for you. The celebration will always sit on the far side of a dream realized or a goal achieved, a mirage of satisfaction. You will decide that joy was possible until you made that mistake —that mistake that invited shame to move into your heart.

Of course these stories don’t change the truth. Your feelings are undoubtedly real. But there is a profound difference between your real emotional experience and the truth. There are three sources of truth: God, ourselves, and others.1 All three sources are significant.

• God is the author of all truth. The Bible is filled with affirmations of God’s delight in you and full of promises about your safety in His economy.

But the reality is that God has given us a choice in whether or not we will take Him at His word. The same is true when He speaks through other people in your life. You have a community —family members, friends, mentors, co-workers, fellow church members —who have seen and named gifts in you. They’ve expressed appreciation for the difference your presence makes in their lives. They’ve complimented and called upon your talents. Perhaps you felt joy in this moment. But affirmation’s lasting effects will depend on the story you choose to tell yourself.

Choosing joy will be particularly difficult in the face of painful feelings. We all have life experiences and relationships that have shaped our wounds. Maybe you’ve been on the receiving end of betrayal by someone who promised to be faithful, consistently unpredictable behavior of a caregiver, or you’ve endured a chronic health condition with no promise of relief. I know that, like me, you have very good reasons for feeling the way that you do —feelings that make joy feel foreign. But once again, I take comfort in the fact that there is a difference between feelings being real and feelings being true. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection, we can experience emotional hurt and know that pain is not the end of the story. Perhaps, given the options of pride and shame, shame is the more attractive choice because in being self-deprecating, we feel less self-absorbed.

• But the truth is, shame is just as self-absorbed as pride.

Whether you choose to inflate your ego or deflate your ego, pride and shame will both ensure that you remain focused on yourself. There is no nobility in claiming a worthless identity. Neither pride nor shame empowers us to choose joy. We need a different way.

Pride celebrates who we are apart from Christ. Shame refuses to celebrate what Christ has done on our behalf. But true humility celebrates who we are in Christ.

Both pride and shame are focused on what we deserve and find safety in what can be earned. The freedom of humility is realizing what we don’t deserve and can’t earn but are given anyway.

It might require some nerve to stare into the extent of our brokenness. But many of us underestimate the courage that is required to gaze into the expanse of our belovedness.

What if allowing our souls to feel their worth was a cornerstone of courage?

Both the stories of creation and the cross extend an invitation to see our significance. When God created the beauty of the world we enjoy, shaping creation from formless and empty space and breathing life into creatures big and small, He chose to pronounce every piece of His creation “good.” When God spoke, “it was so” (Genesis 1:7 NIV) and “God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10 NIV) —a phrase repeated throughout Genesis 1, He created the beauty we relish. The separation of light and darkness, sea and sky were good. Plants that grow, bloom, and bear fruit and sun, moon, and stars that hang as lights in the vault of the sky were good. On God’s command, the water teemed with living creatures and animals roamed the land and God saw they were good. Finally, God made humans —His children —in the likeness of the triune God and blessed them, and He saw His creation was good.

The first chapter of Genesis is not merely a historical account of how the world was made. He celebrated us as His beloved. Often, as Christians, the early chapters of Genesis serve as an opportunity to confront the reality of our brokenness as we consider the fall when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin entered the world. And to be clear, our brokenness is both true and essential to understand if we wish to absorb the full hope of the gospel. But in the biblical narrative, our brokenness is best understood by first acknowledging our belovedness. Image bearers is the identity we celebrate as His beloved. This was our starting place. And the Voice that calls you and me beloved must be the primary voice we hear moving forward.

The cross is yet another invitation to choose the joy of being cherished by God. Romans 8:1 offers this promise:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.—NIV

This is the Good News. God considered us “good” when He created us, and we are seen as good once again because by grace our sin is covered by the blood of His Son.

An honest look at your life will reveal weaknesses in your character, areas in which you need to grow, events and relationships gone awry. But there is no part of you or your story that disqualifies you from the promise that you are priceless.

This is our permission —our encouragement —to believe the beautiful truth about ourselves. We are free to confess our sin and free to speak honestly about our gifts and accomplishments, knowing that we are ultimately defined by God’s delight and celebration of us as His children. Celebrating who we are means acknowledging the reality of our failures and the truth of our gifting and feeling joy about who we are apart from both.

Celebrating the person we are requires both time and intention. As my mentor, Terry, often says, “The brain goes where it knows.” Getting your brain to agree to venture into the unchartered territory of celebration —particularly, choosing to find enjoyment in who you are —will not happen simply because you think it sounds like a good idea. This requires effort and discipline.

One place to start is by paying attention to your response toward affirmation. Do you qualify others’ kindness by making statements like, “Oh, you’re just being sweet.” Or do you diminish the truth in someone’s compliment toward you with a response along the lines of, “Well, I guess you’re catching me on a good day.” Or maybe you deflect the affirmation with sarcasm, saying something like, “You should ask my spouse and kids what they think!”

My work at the Hideaway Experience, a marriage intensive experience, has taught me a great deal about receiving affirmation. Toward the end of our four days of working together, there is a time of affirmation before everyone departs for home. Many years’ worth of groups have helped us understand that receiving personal affirmation is challenging for most people, so we set up some guidelines, and one rule is particularly important: the only words you are allowed to give in response to affirmation are “Thank you. I receive that.” While I don’t always use these exact words every time, I have done my best to adopt this tenet in my own life. When someone offers me kind words, I make every effort not to judge the statement, question it, qualify it, deflect it, or reject it. I try to simply say some version of “Thank you. I receive that.”

Taking it a step further, we are empowered to tell ourselves a different story —the truth about our identity. A warning: don’t wait to feel this truth before you are willing to speak it and claim it as your own.

• Actions don’t follow feelings. Feelings follow actions. Join the chorus in telling the story you know and not simply the one you feel. Often, we have to choose the joy we hope to feel.

Delighting in others will be helpful in seeing value in ourselves. Surprisingly, one of the marks on a person’s life who has learned to celebrate themselves is their ability to celebrate other people. When we are neither drawing attention to ourselves by proving ourselves with our pride or by shaming ourselves in our insecurity, our gaze is free to focus outward.

In The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, Timothy Keller noted that C. S. Lewis recognized this to be true as well, saying, “The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.”2

1. Terry Hargrave and Sharon Hargrave, 5 Days to New Self (self-pub,2016), Cenveo-Trafton Printing, 51.

2. Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness (10Publishing,2012), 32.

Excerpted with permission from What If It's Wonderful? by Nicole Zasowski, copyright Nicole Zasowski.

Do you know that you are delighted in? Do you receive His affirmation and the celebration of others? As God's creation and in Christ Jesus, you are good!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 9, 2022

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. —Isaiah 41:10

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”—Deuteronomy 31:8

My great-grandmother Mary was severely depressed, emphasized by the fact that her husband was a raging, abusive alcoholic. This played a hand in why she beat her kids. One day she was trying to beat her son for some misbehavior. He ran away, jumped a fence, fell, and broke his hip. As punishment, Mary didn’t take him to the doctor. For the rest of his life, he walked with a limp. My grandmother, too, faced severe depression and mood swings and was onProzac most of her life... My dad struggled with it.

So it wasn’t entirely surprising that at an early age I started to show signs of depression too. At the age of twelve the depression was so bad I tried to take my own life.

There were so many factors: my father was dealing with a life-changing injury, and my mother was consumed with caring for him; we kids were shuffled from family member to family member, no sense of normalcy whatsoever; our family was facing the financial stress of my father being out of work and the mounting medical bills.

I had no friends; my only friend had moved away. I was stuck in this small, extremist community, either at home or at a harsh, lonely school, surrounded by nothing but chaos. Even at twelve, I remember feeling like I couldn’t live that way anymore. So on one particularly bad day, I decided I was going to do it—the thing I had thought about so many times before but had never had the guts to try—I was going to kill myself.

I opened the medicine cabinet and picked out the first bottle I could find. Something I knew you weren’t supposed to eat a lot of. I chewed up the entire bottle of cherry-flavored children’s Tylenol and went to sleep, hoping that would be the end of me. That I wouldn’t have to wake up to the insanity anymore.Of course, since I’m telling you this story today, you know that didn’t work. I woke up, surprisingly without any ill effects. I lived through that harsh season of life, and while I wouldn’t say I necessarily learned my biggest lessons then, it did help prepare me to overcome when I was hit hard again about a decade later...

Alcohol had never touched my lips before...But the second I discovered it, I went off the deep end and hung out therefor six months. Partying, going to clubs. You wouldn’t expect such simple activities to dramatically change someone’s life, but let me tell you: for me it changed everything.

I met Josh during that time. He was six feet five. He was charming. He was the life of the party. Three months after we met, three months into that new, exciting life so foreign to anything I’d ever experienced, I found out I was pregnant.

And everything I’d had going was suddenly... gone. All my plans, my hard work—gone.

We dashed down to the courthouse. I sealed myself in marriage to a man I hardly knew. Sealed myself to a man who would turnout, as I discovered soon enough, to be the opposite of what I had expected.

My world was completely flipped upside down—all because of a few bad decisions. All because of a few nights trying out a different life. All that immediate change again triggered that deep, dark depression that would take me to the ledge.

We lost the baby.

And on top of that grief, I was suddenly stuck in a marriage I’d never wanted.

Then Josh’s own issues starting spiraling out of control, and I felt worse than stuck. I needed something better than children’s Tylenol. I needed to make this better or I was going to drown.

Cornered, I zoned in on the one thing I thought could fix everything: having a baby. I had lost the one, so maybe, just maybe, if I had another one, that would make everything better. Maybe that would heal the hole inside me, fix him, fix our marriage, and make our lives work. Obviously I’d screwed up my old life plans at Bible college. I might as well make new ones.

And I did get pregnant again. But even after I had my daughter, I was still depressed. In fact, I loathed myself. I loathed my life. I succumbed to an eating disorder and let the number on the scale dictate my happiness.

Then things with my husband began to get really bad. He was out of control and eventually did things that I just couldn’t ignore anymore.

I moved out.

And oh, wasn’t it all so painful. The grief of living a life I never wanted. The depression I masked so well. All compounded by the guilt that I was now separated from my husband when, in my family, nobody got a divorce. No one knew how low I felt.

Getting a divorce was the one thing in the world that nobody did. Abuse your kids? Manipulate them? Withhold love? Fine. But divorce? Never. That was the sin that mattered. That was the sin I could never overcome.

And then I got pregnant again, with the husband I’d just separated from. Whatever you’re thinking now, I’ve heard it. Not only did I carry criticism from those who didn’t support my decision to move out, I also gained new criticism the moment I saw those two faint pink lines on the pregnancy strip. How could I have gone back to him, even momentarily? What was I thinking? I’d almost gotten out. I was almost free.

Then suddenly there I was, alone, pregnant with my second child.

Broken.

But in that moment of being pushed so deep into that dark hole, of really hitting rock bottom, I found a pebble of strength. In that moment of feeling so bad, I realized I had to do something, right then, or I was going to die.

That’s when I finally went to a doctor, got counseling, and began to work through my issues. My exterior problems didn’t end there, but it was a powerful moment and the mark of a fresh beginning.

Eventually, out of nothing but pure desperation, I turned to the Bible. Because I had to do something to stop the voice inside my head that was hounding me day after day, telling me, You’re now a single mother because of your failure to stay in the church... just like they said would happen. Your life no longer has value. Your mistakes are all you are. Everything they said would happen without them has happened. And in a desperate attempt to salvage my ruined life, I turned to the only thing I knew: my religion. But this time, in reading the Bible, I discovered a way so radically different from anythingI had ever been taught...

I read and realized that the Bible was much more than fire and brimstone and rules and regulations; it was about a relationship with a Being who wanted to know me and loved me, failures and all.

Excerpted from From the Ground Up , by Noell Jett, copyright Noell Jett.

We can make such gigantic messes of our lives, can’t we? It snowballs and gets way out of control. But, in the meantime, we never leave the love of Jesus behind. He’s with us and He loves us. All we have to do it turn to Him and His love is right there.

What is your story?  Every life has its mess.  But how we handle it is a different matter.  God knows, understands, and is with you through your story.  Live life with Him and everything that comes your way will be more bearable as you look forward to the joy of eternal life that He sets before you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 8, 2022

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! —2 Corinthians 5:17

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. —Romans 12:2

I was sitting on the doctor’s examination table... again. My whole life I have been a pretty healthy guy. Rick would be in soon to see what was going on with my heart rate. He has been our family doctor for decades, and I have literally trusted him with my life more than once. He has sewn up deep cuts and repaired a partially severed finger on one of my kids. He was by my side a few years ago when we figured out I caught an aggressive form of malaria while traveling in Africa. On that occasion, it was even money I’d be looking down from heaven by the end of the week, but Rick helped me through that one too.

He came in and we cycled through the standard pleasantries between a patient and a primary care physician, swapping stories like buddies do. Then Rick put the stethoscope on my chest. He must have just gotten it from the freezer or something. I took a startled breath as he leaned in and listened to my heartbeat. He asked about some of the symptoms I had been feeling, such as dizziness as soon as I stood up and shortness of breath just from going up the stairs. I mean, I am willing to confess I’m not the paragon of health, but I didn’t think these symptoms were normal for the shape I was in.

Rick usually has a good poker face, but not this time. I watched as he furrowed his brow and focused his attention even more on my heartbeat. The concern I saw was unmistakable. In a hurry he brought a bunch of equipment into the room, put patches and cables on my chest, and started making recordings. The tape coming out of the machine had squiggles on it like a seismograph. Had this been a lie detector machine in disguise, he would’ve had enough wires attached to really get the goods onme.

After Rick was done with his bevy of tests, he looked me square in the face and said my heart wasn’t beating the way it should. He rattled off some of the likely causes, and at the top of list was that serious case of malaria. I won’t go into details because I didn’t fully understand all Rick said, but I knew it wasn’t good news. In summary, my heart beat faster when I was sitting than some people when they were running a marathon. It also didn’t beat consistently...

Over the next several days, Rick got me appointments with some really smart cardiac specialists to confirm his findings and drill down on the core issues. After more freezing stethoscopes, wires, beeps, and furrowed brows, these experts said the only way to get my heart beating correctly again was to stop it momentarily and restart it with a huge electric jolt. You read that right. They would have to stop my... heart to help it find a new beat.

• Here’s my question for you: Would you do it?

Would you be willing to risk dying in order for your life to be more lasting? Would you risk everything for the chance to live your life more fully? That’s the kind of reset Jesus said following Him would entail. He told His friends it would be like dying and starting all over again. He said it would take something as drastic, invasive, and complete as a do-over to be fully His —undistracted by everything else.

We can all be new creations if we want to be.

The cold hard truth is most people don’t. We settle for the safe and distracted life we know rather than the one God has promised is available to us. Sure, we can agree that Jesus wants us to be new creations, but if we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’ve got to admit there’s nothing new about it. A total reset isn’t easy, and it involves risk. Maybe an enormous tragedy or loss causes us to reset. Or a reset might be the result of making time to clear our minds in the morning. Find a new rhythm for your heart. Here is my simple suggestion:

• Decide in advance that you will do whatever it takes to get your heart right, and then do it —even if it will kill all previous versions of you.

You need to ask yourself what makes your heart beat in ways that make you stronger, more courageous, more giving, and more loving. Figure out what makes your heart skip a beat with joy and what makes it miss a beat with dysfunction and distraction. Be willing to change all of it if you need to. Our hearts all beat a little differently, and I’m glad they do. Some thump fast, and others thump slow. Things that instantly blow your hair back might be a yawn for someone else. What totally bores you could totally light up someone else. What makes you weep may not cause someone else to notice. Something that is no big deal to you could filet another to the bone. Be patient with each other when this happens. We all have a heart condition; it just shows itself in different ways. Someone who doesn’t know me might make assumptions about my heart without knowing what it’s actually doing. In the end, we’re all looking through a keyhole at eternity as we try to figure out our lives today. Don’t be distracted by how different you are from everyone else. Our hearts were meant to beat together, not the same.

If you want to dazzle heaven, stop being distracted being everyone else.

Go be you. Do anything less, and the unique gift God wrapped in you will never be fully opened. Jesus said a rich relationship with the Father is only possible by having a right relationship with each other. In other words, if we say we love God but don’t love the peopleHe made, even the ones as weird and insecure and fallible as you and me, we have a heart condition we need to address. Don’t keep ignoring, medicating, or being indifferent to it. If you want to find a richer faith than the one you have right now, the fix isn’t more knowledge or arguments or distractions. Go be “one” with the people around you. You don’t need to get in their face to be in their lives.

And don’t just pursue the easy people either. If you want to move up to the graduate level class in this, find the difficult people around you and be “one” with them too.

If you are thinking yikes about this new way of doing things, I’m right there with you, but it’s a new heartbeat I want, not more of the failing one I’ve ended up with.

Getting to a better place will require a restart.

Excerpted from Undistracted by Bob Goff, copyright Bob Goff.

Go be you for God's sake! You're the only you He made! Do you need a reset to get rid of all the distractions? What would that take?

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 7, 2022

Recently, I was in a situation in which someone I trusted betrayed me. At a point in my life when I needed help the most and longed to surround myself with safe people, this person not only lied to my face but also took something from me that wasn’t theirs to take. I was so angry that I found myself fantasizing about getting revenge. I allowed my mind to mull over the offense, festering within my heart a deep resentment toward this person. When I wasn’t thinking about the offense, I was talking about the offense. And the more I talked about it, the more my words fed the anger within my soul. My words kept the offense alive and before I knew it, I was becoming angry, resentful, and bitter.

Every one of us has a story about someone who has wronged us.

The events and circumstance may vary, but the pain of being betrayed feels the same. The hurt from the disappointment and the anger from the injustice of it all can make up the perfect storm for a joyless life. In fact, take a moment and think about your own story of when someone deeply offended you. How did you deal with it? Were you able to let it roll off your back and move on — joyfully walking in true freedom and forgiveness? Or did you find yourself tripped up and trapped by the weight of the burden of it all? Well, if your answer is the latter, I get it. So, keep on reading.

Listen, there are few guarantees in life. Taxes, death, and someone offending us are just a few. The bottom line is this: How do we manage it? The offenses, that is. And not just manage it, but truly let them go? Well, I believe the answer is in the how. How do we fully release it so that we can experience genuine freedom, peace, and joy?

The great news is that God gives us the answer to these questions in his Word and lays it out beautifully.

First, we must recognize that talking about the offense keeps the offense alive. Scripture reminds us about the power of our words:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. — Proverbs 18:21

Words have the power to create, fuel, ignite, and influence how we see, think, and believe. In fact, our very own words can either fuel our faith in relation to the Word of God or they can dampen our faith when we speak out of our negative emotions. The good of life only comes by speaking the good of God’s Word into our lives. The key is recognizing the power of our words. If we can’t speak positively about a person or a situation, then maybe we should stop speaking about it — period. After all, 99.9 percent of the time when we speak negatively about something, we inevitably feel negatively about it. To shut things down, sometimes it’s best to shut things up. As in, shut our mouths.

Second, we’ve got to suck it up and pray for those who have offended us. And not just that — we must use our words to bless them. I’m not making this up, Scripture says so.

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. — Luke 6:28

Most of us would agree that it is a thousand times easier to cuss someone out (and yes, it counts if you go off on someone in your head) than to pray for that person. But God wants us to open our mouths and bless the offender. As my mother says, “Do it until you feel it.” Besides, it’s not about whether or not we “feel” like it, it’s about obeying the Word of God.

Because here’s the cool part: somehow, some way, when we use our words to bless people as well as to pray for them, God supernaturally allows us to see them as He sees them and to love them as He loves them.

And even more important, he allows us to forgive them as God has forgiven us. Why? Because only God knows why people do what they do. Everyone has a backstory. So even when we don’t know their story, we must trust God in the process. It’s choosing to love and forgive the offenders right where they are — just like we desire others to do for us.

Just saying.

And finally, sometimes it’s as simple as making the choice to say, “I’m choosing to let go of the offense. I’m going to release it right now. I’m going to hand the offense and the offender over to the Lord and choose not to go back to that negative place by picking it back up again.” Sounds good, right? But what if you say those words with your mouth yet your mind continues to hold onto the offense by replaying it over and over again.  This is when you step aside by pulling out the big guns. It’s in those hard places that you’ve got to allow the power of the Holy Spirit to take over. Remember, when we’re weak, He is strong. The greatest part about walking with the Lord is knowing that Jesus Christ is more than capable of handling any situation: anytime, anywhere, and anyhow He chooses to do so.

Allow the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work for you by giving the burden over to Him. When the task is too difficult to bear, it’s as simple as praying, “Lord, will You forgive this person through me? Whatever You need, God will give it to You!” In fact, He’s even given you His mind. Scripture says,

We have the mind of Christ. — 1 Corinthians 2:16

So when those old offenses try to play themselves out in your mind, say, “I cast down every imagination and take every thought captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5), reminding yourself that you have “the mind of Christ.” He’s given you the power to think as He thinks, to know as He knows, and to forgive as He forgives. As He releases all our offenses toward Him into the sea of forgetfulness, we can do the same for others.

So today, take it, speak it, and live it — and talk yourself happy!

Original post by Kristi Watts for Devotionals Daily, author of Talk Yourself Happy , copyright Kristi Watts.

Who has offended you? What offense are you still talking about? What thoughts do you need to take captive? Choose to release those old injuries and the injurers and forgive as Christ forgave you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith March 6, 2022

We Are Not Omnipresent

I grew up in an apartment and always had food on the table, thanks to my mom’s waiting tables at a restaurant nearly every night. She often worked “doubles” too, adding lunch shifts to pay the bills. But we didn’t travel or vacation often —that wasn’t a part of our reality. I attended a “rich” high school because of an interesting way the school boundaries were designed. The cars in the student parking lot at my high school were much nicer than those in the teachers’ parking lot. When I arrived at my high school, it felt like I had pulled up to the school inBeverly Hills, 90210, one of my favorite TV shows growing up.

Most families at my high school had money, yet they rarely traveled outside the country. I can recall only one student I knew who went on a big trip. She went to Paris with her family over the summer. Things have changed since the early 1990s. Now people travel... a lot.

In our modern age, we enjoy more and more access to nearly anywhere we want to be. We can be present in different ways because of advances in travel (for example, affordable cars, cheap airfare, improved international travel), written communication (for example, postal service, text messages, email), audio communication (for example, telephones, long distance phone calls, international phone calls, cell phones), as well as video communication (Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, and so on). I believe these wonderful advances in technology have also brought a curse. I call this the curse of “everywhereness.” We think we can be pretty much anywhere at any time. But we can’t. This is beyond our limits.God existed before any created “space” existed. Before we talk about space and location, it’s important to know that God transcends all “locatedness.” Before any location came to be, God existed and created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Ever since the creation of the world, God exists throughout all creation, every square inch, all the time. God proclaimed rhetorically through Jeremiah,

“Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24).

Is there a secret location, perhaps a cave or an island, or even some sort of otherworldly place where God isn’t already there? No. The psalmist teaches us,

If I go up to the heavens, You are there; If I make my bed in the depths, You are there.—Psalm 139:8

God does not need a passport. God does not travel. God is already anywhere you can think of right now, and everywhere you can’t think of, and has been there forever. Deists —those who believe God created the world like a machine, started it, and then stepped away —confine God to a distant Heaven. Wrong. Polytheists —those who believe in multiple gods —confine God to certain places here and there. Wrong. Pantheists —those who see God in everything —confine God to creation itself. Wrong. God is not His creation. He transcends it. Yet He is omnipresent in all His creation and beyond.

You might concede my point and say, “Okay, I get it; God is omnipresent and humans are not.” Yes, it’s true. But many of us have not let this truth sink into our hearts. We feel the pull of being everywhere, of doing it all, and want to avoid the fear of missing out (FOMO). We have been convinced by our friends’ curated social media travel highlights, the connectivity of our smartphones, and perhaps our own travels that we can, and maybe should, be able to be anywhere, perhaps everywhere, we want to be. We long for the impossible, for serene island vacations or almost anything different from our daily reality.

• The grass is always greener on the other side of our social media feed. But more significantly, we expect more of ourselves than is humanly possible. We want to be physically present in more than one place at a time. We want to be God.

The temptation of the garden echoes yet again in each of our lives.

When we are at work, we want to be elsewhere, and so we use technology to approximate omnipotence. We pull up pictures of a different location on our phone. When we are speaking with someone right in front of us, we may wish we were with someone else, and that becomes possible by sending a quick text message or taking a peek at our phone. When we are at home, we feel like being somewhere else, and that can be done by ordering an Uber to shuttle us across town. Are any of these inherently bad? No. But they are idolatrous pathways by which the lure of omnipotence —being like God —captures our heart. We fail to focus on where we are and who we are with. We disregard, overlook, and disrespect where God has already placed us right here and right now.

The majority of Jesus’s life was spent in a relatively small geographic area. A two-hour drive, as the crow flies, could take us from Bethany, the southernmost city of Jesus’s ministry, to Tyre and Sidon, the northernmost area of his ministry. From east to west, the area of Jesus’s travels was narrow, perhaps as little as thirty miles wide. The earth has over fifty-seven million square miles of land, which is about 29 percent of its total surface. Jesus’s entire ministry inhabited fewer than four thousand square miles, or roughly 0.007 percent of the land on earth. God’s strategic plan for the redemption of the entire cosmos occurred on one small speck of the earth.Jesus was certainly aware of other locations to which He could have gone. I’m sure Mary and Joseph told Him of His time in Egypt as an infant. Jesus, like everyone in the Roman Empire, would have heard many details of other cities in the empire, not the least of which was Rome. And as a Jew, He would have heard a lot about the history of Jewish people in Egypt and of the Babylonian exile.

Jesus didn’t use a cheat code to transport Himself to His destinations; He endured the sweat and callouses of walking long distances from one place to the next. The gospel accounts are full of the details of His journeys, and Jesus made the most of this time. He taught. He listened. He encountered people He wouldn’t have met if He teleported Himself place to place. He stopped. He continued. Jesus embraced the entire experience of slow, limited, and interrupted travel.

• Jesus’s limited presence during His ministry made life difficult for others as well

For example, in John 11, Jesus knows that His friend Lazarus is dying, yet He takes several days to arrive and be physically present. In that time, Lazarus has died, waiting for Jesus to get there. Jesus goes on to raise Lazarus from the dead and uses this situation to foreshadow His own resurrection. Yet the particulars of this story were all a by-product of the fact that Jesus’s life on earth was limited. He could be in only one place at a time, even when the life of a dear friend was at stake.

In Luke 8 Jesus is on His way to heal a twelve-year-old girl who is dying. Jesus pauses and delays His journey to listen to an outcast —a perpetually sick, bleeding woman —whom He heals. When Jesus continues His journey and arrives at the house of the little girl, He is too late. She had died (Luke 8:53). Yet Jesus raises her from the dead. In this case, Jesus’s physical presence was integral to the healing.

The Gospels also show us that Jesus healed from a distance. Jesus healed the daughter of a woman even though her daughter wasn’t physically present with Jesus (Mark 7:24-30; Matthew 15:21-28). He healed the servant of a centurion in a similar way (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10). This also happened to an official’s son in John 4:46-54. While Jesus wasn’t physically present with those He healed in these situations, we should note that the mother, centurion, and official were with Jesus. All these people lived within 0.007 percent of the land on earth that Jesus roamed during His ministry. They benefited from the limited human presence of Jesus Christ. Certainly, there were other people on earth in those exact same moments who would have longed for Jesus Christ in the midst of their emergencies, yet Jesus wasn’t physically present with them.

The power of God is never limited to one small speck of the universe.

God is both omnipotent and omnipresent. God’s presence is not limited; human presence is limited. This is what we learn from the life of Jesus as we focus our theological bifocals on the two natures of Christ: human and divine. In the Gospels, we see Jesus embracing the limits of being human. He walks in a limited area. He is late because His trip took an unexpected twist. He is accessible only to those who are around Him. He didn’t bend the rules of being human; He embodied them. He modeled how to live a limited human life. The human life of Jesus Christ is our guide for living with our own limited capacities.

Excerpted from The Good News Of Our Limits by Sean McGever, copyright Sean McGever.

Let's embrace our limitations of physical space and time as Jesus did. Let's let Him be our guide instead of constantly suffering from FOMO!

Pastor Dale