Notes of Faith May 17, 2022

Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. — Psalm 82:3

“Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!” — Deuteronomy 27:19

Injustices in the world

On October 2, 2006, a dairy-truck driver entered a one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines in Pennsylvania. The driver, Charles C. Roberts IV, first demanded that all the boys leave the room; he then ordered the eleven girls to line up facing the chalkboard.

The girls had a clear sense of the danger they faced, seeing all the instruments of violence before them: the stun gun, the nails, the bolts, the wrenches, the rope, the plastic ties to bind their feet, and the chains and clamps for restraint. Shortly before Roberts opened fire, two sisters requested they be shot first so that the others might be spared. He ignored their request. Instead he killed five girls and wounded seven before killing himself. One of the sisters was wounded; the other was killed.

The names of the girls who were killed were Naomi Rose Ebersole, seven; Marian Fisher, thirteen (one of the sisters who did not survive); sisters Mary Liz Miller, eight, and Lina Miller, seven; and Anna Mae Stoltzfus, twelve.

Janice Ballenger, the deputy coroner in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, shaken up by the event, said afterward, “There was not one desk, not one chair, in the whole schoolroom that was not splattered with either blood or glass.”1

On June 7, 1998, three known white supremacists murdered a forty-nine-year-old father of three in Jasper, Texas. The father, a black man, had accepted an early morning ride home with the three men. After attacking him, they dragged him to his death behind their truck, later dumping the man’s mutilated remains in the town’s segregated African American cemetery. Afterward they went to a barbecue. The name of the man who was killed was James Byrd Jr.2

To date, more than 250,000 people have been displaced from northeast Nigeria on account of the violence caused by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.3

In early January 2019, two men and nine teenage boys were rescued from bonded-labor slavery at an urban factory near Chennai, India.4

On January 31, 2019, the Roman Catholic Church in Texas released the names of almost three hundred priests who it said had been credibly accused of child sex abuse over nearly eight decades.5

During the late 2018 trial of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug kingpin known as El Chapo, nearly every level of Mexican government was implicated in bribes, including the presidency.6

In 2017, the CDC found the first genetic link from Legionnaires’ disease to the lead-contaminated water supply in Flint, Michigan; such lead exposure in children included the possibility of impaired cognition, behavioral disorders, hearing problems, and delayed puberty.7

By the time Hurricane Harvey left the Gulf of Mexico in August 2017, an estimated thirty thousand people had been displaced from their homes. Nearly a trillion gallons of water had fallen over the city of Houston, and the poor were hit the hardest.8

Faithfulness will spring up from the ground

No true faith without justice

The fact that injustices occur every day is obvious to anyone who reads the daily news. Injustices happen to individuals, people groups, and entire countries; they mar systems and institutions. Injustices take place in our own homes and in nature as a whole. The book of Psalms understands this. The psalmist says this about the wicked in Psalm 10:

In arrogance the wicked persecute the poor...

those greedy for gain curse and renounce the Lord.

they lurk that they may seize the poor;

they seize the poor and drag them off in their net.

They think in their heart, “God has forgotten, He has hidden His face, He will never see it. — Psalm 10: 2-3, Psalm 10:9, Psalm 10:11

The psalmists pray repeatedly for justice because they understand that a world full of broken people, dark forces, and harsh conditions generates injustice everywhere and always. Where there is enemy talk in the psalms, there is also justice talk. Where there is injustice talk, there is also a plea for a Just Judge to make things right or, as philosophers might put it, to give people what they are due.9

Many Christians, unfortunately, do not see this as clearly as the psalmists see it. The psalmists see structural injustice within society, where Christians, perhaps especially evangelicals in the West, may see only personal guilt. The psalmists see wickedness that pervades institutions and cultures, while Christians may see only the need for the forgiveness of individual sins.

The psalmists see powerless people who are oppressed by the powerful, and so they pray for justice (Psalm 37; Psalm 82; Psalm 113); Christians see only Psalm 51 with its plea for mercy.10 Writes C. S. Lewis, “Christians cry to God for mercy instead of justice; they [the psalmists] cried to God for justice instead of injustice”11 (emphasis original).

It isn’t that mercy and justice are opposed in the Psalter; they belong together intimately, integrally. But while many Christians give justice half the attention they give to mercy, the Psalter devotes twice as much space to justice as it does to mercy. This is not because mercy matters less than justice but because a world that violates justice violates God’s fundamental purposes for that world.12

In the psalms there is no true worship without justice, no faithful prayer that leaves out justice, and no genuine faith that takes justice less seriously than God takes it. There is no account of God that makes justice secondary to his nature or an afterthought to his redemptive, restorative work in the world. There is likewise no account of human beings in the psalms that allows justice to remain a concern only of other people, rather than of all humanity.

The psalms of justice

In the psalms there is no generic idea of justice; there is only God’s idea of justice.13 Psalm 89:14 says this:

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before You.

Psalm 111:7–8 adds,

The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

But for the psalmist, it is not simply that God cares about the abstract idea of distributive and retributive justice; it is that God loves justice. Psalm 37:28 declares,

For the Lord loves justice; He will not forsake His faithful ones.

Psalm 99:4 proclaims,

Mighty King, lover of justice, You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

In the psalms the Lord is king. As king, the Lord stands sovereign over all of Creation, sovereign throughout all eternity, sovereign over the nations and over the people of Israel. There is nowhere that God’s justice should remain absent (Psalm 33:5–9; Psalm 96:11–13). It should be manifest at every level of reality — locally, globally, and cosmically (Psalm 97:6). Psalm 85:10–11 articulates this comprehensive vision of justice:

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;

righteousness and peace [shalom] will kiss each other.

Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,

and righteousness will look down from the sky.

God wants justice for human beings precisely because He loves human beings. Writes Nicholas Wolterstorff, “God desires that each and every human being shall flourish, that each and every shall experience what the Old Testament writers call shalom”14 (emphasis original). Shalom, or a deep sense of well-being, is God’s original gift to the cosmos and its final goal. It is what God has promised to creation and what Je will fulfill in the new creation.

As the book of Psalms sees it, God isn’t the only One who’s in the business of making justice happen; human beings are entrusted with this work too.

1.     Tamara Jones and Joshua Partlow, “Pa. Killer Had Prepared for ‘Long Siege,’” Washington Post, October 4, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost .com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400331.html.

2.     Rick Lyman, “Man Guilty of Murder in Texas Dragging Death,” New York Times, February 24, 1999, https://www.nytimes.com/1999 /02/24/us/man-guilty-of-murder-in-texas-dragging-death.html.

3.     Bukola Adebayo and Sara Mazloumsaki, “30,000 Nigerians Flee Boko Haram Violence in Two Days, UN Says,” CNN, January 29, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/29/africa/nigerians-flee-boko-haram -violence-intl/index.html.

4.     As reported by the International Justice Mission: “They had been trapped since June 2018, making fried pani puri snacks popular in north India. These impoverished men and boys were recruited from their village with loans of as little as 10,000 rupees (about $140 USD), which they were meant to pay off with their labor. Instead, the factory owner charged them impossible interest rates and controlled their every movement so they could never repay the debt. He verbally abused them and beat them viciously if they slowed down during the 18-hour work days—ensuring they were always afraid of his power.” International Justice Mission, “Scared and Scarred: 11 Rescued from Fried Snack Factory,” https://www.ijm.org/news/scared-and-scarred-11-rescued-from-fried-snack-factory.

5.     Liam Stack, “Catholic Church in Texas Names Nearly 300 Priests Accused of Sex Abuse,” New York Times, January 31, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/us/priests-abuse-texas.html.

6.     Emily Palmer and Alan Feuer, “El Chapo Trial: The 11 Biggest Revelations from the Case,” New York Times, February 3, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/nyregion/el-chapo-trial.html.

7.     “Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts,” CNN Library, December 6, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/04/us/flint-water-crisis-fast-facts/index.html.

8.     Manny Fernandez, “A Year after Hurricane Harvey, Houston’s Poorest Neighborhoods Are Slowest to Recover,” New York Times, September 3, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/us/hurricane-harvey -houston.html.

9.     Nicholas Wolterstorff, “Chapter 7: What Is Justice?” in Justice in Love (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011).

10. John Mark Hicks, “Preaching Community Laments: Responding to Disillusionment with God and Injustice in the World,” in Performing the Psalms, ed. David Fleer and David Bland (St. Louis: Chalice, 2005), 76.

11. C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (New York: HarperOne, 2017), 14.

12. According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “It is an evil time when the world lets injustice happen silently, when the oppression of the poor and the wretched cries out to heaven in a loud voice and the judges and rulers of the earth keep silent about it, when the persecuted church calls to God for help in the hour of dire distress and exhorts men to do justice, and yet no mouth on earth is opened to bring justice.” Bonhoeffer, “A Bonhoeffer Sermon,” trans. Donald Bloesch, Theology Today 38, no. 4 (1982): 467.

13. Nancy deClaissé-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 577, 732.

14. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 82.

Excerpted from Open and Unafraid by W. David O. Taylor, copyright W. David O. Taylor.

Those created in the image of God who cannot defend themselves must also be included in our prayers to God for justice.  May we participate in seeking justice for all those who are oppressed and dealt with unjustly.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 16, 2022

You will keep him in perfect peace,

Whose mind is stayed on You,

Because he trusts in You.

—Isaiah 26:3, NKJV

The word peace first caught my attention as a child when I heard the song “It Is Well with My Soul.”

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

From that moment forward, I associated the word peace with a river, a beautiful yet powerful watercourse I had never seen with my own eyes, but it was a place I longed for. Because I struggled to fit in and feel at home in the world around me, the idea of peace drew me in. I was hungry for the green leaves that sheltered the river and thirsty for the water that flowed throughout. When I learned the story behind the song, my association deepened even more.

Horatio Spafford’s four daughters died in a shipwreck while crossing the Atlantic. When he crossed the same ocean to join his grieving wife, who had survived the wreck, he penned the words to this song.

He had known peace to be like a river in his life, and sorrows to be like the sea. He had known more than one body of water. And for him, they meant different things.

Peace like a river

As a young girl, I too associated the sea with sorrow. I learned of the slave trade that brought my ancestors over the Atlantic. The architectural plans in history books of their bodies lined up below the deck created a lump in my throat. If slaves grew ill or did not comply with the enslaver in some way, they were thrown overboard to their death. My stomach tightened at this knowledge. I still can’t look to the Atlantic Ocean without thinking of them.

In contrast, the river was a symbol of freedom and peace for my soul. I could feel this meaning in the Negro spirituals I sang as a child. All by grace, these songs have survived and traveled down through the generations. Through years of enslavement and relentless oppression, songs like “Deep River” became a part of the tradition:

Deep river, my home is over Jordan...

Oh, don’t you want to go to that gospel feast,

That promised land where all is peace?

The author of this song, and many others like it, remains unknown. I don’t have the privilege of knowing the authors’ individual stories. But I can feel the collective longing for peace beneath my skin, generations later.

As the song suggests, “peace” still exists within the question mark, not on the other side. Questions about justice, safety, healing, hope. Questions that make us wonder, “Will we ever be truly free?”

We’re still desperate to reach that deep river. We’re still desperate for peace.

Peace is a state of mind, heart, body, and soul. It is the freedom to breathe, even in the face of great challenges and chaos. Peace is the river in the desert, not on the other side of it.

Today I am still seeking that river. And not just a river far off somewhere that I must arrive at, but the river that runs wild and free in my inner life. The river that carves its way through my need for understanding and reminds me to slow down and breathe.

My senses strive for the smallest taste of peace in the morning’s dewy air. The steam lifting above poured tea. The way the house settles back into place after a freight train rolls by. Why? Because it is precisely that moment in the day when I return to the present moment. It is there I realize that when the walls shake, the ground is still steady beneath. My body finds the resolve it naturally seeks.

These are small things, yes, but in times lined with uncertainty, they remind me of the bigger things. They remind me that I can be aware of this very moment, no matter my fears of the future and no matter what I am wrestling from the past.

I am free to slow down long enough to reflect on what is true. I don’t know what lies ahead, but I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me. The strength of my great-great-grandfather who was born a slave and died free. My parents, who taught me to sing songs of peace. The painters and poets who created openly and widely, never knowing of me. The teenage girl transformed by what they made — quietly taking in their work as I stood in the narrow gaps between the shelves at the local library. It was in that small space that I found freedom to breathe.

This is what peace means to me.

I have played around with the phrases finding peace and seeking peace and peace beyond understanding in my art and poetry. And not just because they fit nicely. I hope that for whoever is on the other side of that phrase, it reminds them to exhale, right in the middle of the uncertainty. For even when we haven’t yet seen the other side of the issues we’re facing, we are still worthy of breathing deep and knowing peace right here amid them.

I write this way because I am desperate for peace. And I have a feeling you might be too.

Peace Is a Practice is about learning to seek peace in daily life. It’s about realizing we are worthy of peace. And it starts right here: with a deep inhale and a hold-nothing-back exhale as you ground yourself in the grace of the present. You don’t have to arrive at your picture-perfect life before you can know peace. The river is here for you now, wherever you are.

Excerpted from Peace Is a Practice: An Invitation to Breathe Deep and Find a New Rhythm for Life by Morgan Harper Nichols, copyright Morgan Harper Nichols.

Find the only true and perfect peace in Jesus.  Keep pursuing your relationship with Him until it becomes a continual every moment experience.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 15, 2022

What Are My Spiritual Gifts?

It wasn’t too long after creation that the animals got together to form a school. They wanted the best school possible — one that offered their students a well-rounded curriculum of swimming, running, climbing, and flying. In order to graduate, all the animals had to take all the courses.

The duck was excellent at swimming. In fact, he was better than his instructor. But he was only making passing grades at climbing and was getting a very poor grade in running. The duck was so slow in running that he had to stay after school every day to practice. Even with that, there was little improvement. His webbed feet got badly worn from running, and with such worn feet, he was then only able to get an average grade in swimming. Average was quite acceptable to everyone else, so no one worried much about it — except the duck.

The rabbit was at the top of her class in running. But after a while, she developed a twitch in her leg from all the time she spent in the water trying to improve her swimming.

The squirrel was a peak performer in climbing but was constantly frustrated in flying class. His body became so bruised from all the hard landings that he did not do too well in climbing and ended up being pretty poor in running.

The eagle was a continual problem student. She was severely disciplined for being a nonconformist. For example, in climbing class, she would always beat everyone else to the top of the tree but insisted on using her own way to get there.

Each of the animals had a particular area of expertise. When they did what they were designed to do, they excelled. When they tried to operate outside their area of expertise, they were not nearly as effective. Can ducks run? Sure they can. Is that what they do best? Definitely not.

God has given spiritual gifts to His followers

People who excel

Just as each of those animals has an area in which he or she excels, so do God’s people. As a believer, each of us has become “a new creature in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Part of that new creation is the distribution of what the Bible calls spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12). Those gifts enable us to excel, but we will not accomplish much of anything if we aren’t doing the things we were intended to do.

We already know that every Christian has been given a spiritual gift. It also bears repeating that spiritual gifts answer the What should I do? question.

Your gift indicates the role, function, or particular way in which God has intended you to serve.

Do you know what the various spiritual gifts are? Do you know your spiritual gift?

Many studies have been done and many books have been writ- ten on the subject of spiritual gifts. While there is general agreement, most of them vary in their listing of the gifts and the specific descriptions that they give each gift. There is full agreement, however, that

God has given spiritual gifts to His followers, and they are to be used to glorify God and edify others.

What are the spiritual gifts?

There are several passages that mention some of the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12; Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 4). Our list is drawn from these and other passages in order to identify the variety of ways that God has designed the church to serve Him, itself, and the world.

As you read about the gifts, reflect on your own ministry and experience. See which of these seem to be most true of you. Also, note which gifts sound like someone you know. Remember, there is no right or wrong spiritual gift. They are just different.

Now would be a good time for you to see what spiritual gift God may have given you.

Spiritual gifts/descriptions

Administration - The divine enablement to understand what makes an organization function, and the special ability to plan and execute procedures that accomplish the goals of the ministry.

Apostleship - The divine ability to start and oversee the development of new churches or ministry structures.

Craftsmanship - The divine enablement to creatively design and/or construct items to be used for ministry.

Creative Communication - The divine enablement to communicate God’s truth through a variety of art forms.

Discernment - The divine enablement to distinguish between truth and error, to discern the spirits, differentiating between good and evil, right and wrong.

Encouragement - The divine enablement to present truth so as to strengthen, comfort, or urge to action those who are discouraged or wavering in their faith.

Evangelism - The divine enablement to effectively communicate the Gospel to unbelievers so they respond in faith and move toward discipleship.

Faith - The divine enablement to act on God’s promises with confidence and unwavering belief in his ability to fulfill his purposes.

Giving - The divine enablement to contribute money and resources to the work of the Lord with cheerfulness and liberality.

Healing - The divine enablement to be God’s means for restoring people to wholeness.

Helps - The divine enablement to attach spiritual value to the accomplishment of practical and necessary tasks that free up, support, and meet the needs of others.

Hospitality - The divine enablement to care for people by providing fellowship, food, and shelter.

Intercession - The divine enablement to consistently pray on behalf of and for others; thus seeing frequent and specific results.

Interpretation - The divine enablement to make known to the body of Christ the message of one who is speaking in tongues.

Knowledge - The divine enablement to bring truth to the body through a revelation or biblical insight.

Leadership - The divine enablement to cast vision, motivate, and direct people to harmoniously accomplish the purposes of God.

Mercy - The divine enablement to cheerfully and practically help those who are suffering or are in need.

Miracles - The divine enablement to authenticate the ministry and message of God through supernatural interventions that glorify Him.

Prophecy - The divine enablement to reveal truth and proclaim it in a timely and relevant manner for understanding, correction, repentance, or edification.

Shepherding - The divine enablement to nurture, care for, and guide people toward ongoing spiritual maturity and becoming like Christ.

Teaching - The divine enablement to understand, clearly explain, and apply the Word of God, thus causing greater Christlikeness in the lives of listeners.

Tongues - The divine enablement to speak, worship, or pray in a language unknown to the speaker.

Wisdom - The divine enablement to apply spiritual truth effectively to meet a need in a specific situation.

Isn’t it amazing how many different ways we can glorify God and edify others? You may have identified with several of these gifts. Which are your top three gifts and are most descriptive of you?

Gift mixes

While every believer has at least one spiritual gift, many have several gifts, called a gift mix. The combinations of these gifts give them unique abilities to serve in various ways. For example, if you have gifts of mercy, encouragement, and hospitality, your gifts indicate a warm and tender expression of God’s grace. You are able to focus on the lonely, forgotten, and needy with the connecting and belonging desires of hospitality along with the motivating and comforting aspects of encouragement. You value, support, and build the esteem of those around them. That is different from just having the gift of encouragement.

Another example: the mix of administration, leadership, and wisdom indicates a strong ability to identify what needs to be done and to articulate the best way to do it. The systematic approach of administration plus the visionary dimensions of leadership enables you to move people and events forward. Others will sense that much of what you present “makes sense,” and they will cooperate. This mix contributes more than the single gift of administration.

So, as you are seeking how to serve, consider your gift mix. See how your gift(s) are affirmed through your ministry involvements.

Excerpted from What You Do Best by Bruce Bugbee, copyright Bruce Bugbee.

I don’t agree with the specific list that the author gives for spiritual gifting as biblical spiritual gifts, but the point is well made to do what we do best to glorify God and edify others.  These gifts are not to glorify ourselves but to be used in service to God and our neighbor (everyone)!  As a believer, you have special God-given gifting.  Do you know what it/they is/are?  Pray and seek answers from God as to what you do best and use it to serve Him with all your heart.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 14, 2022

I am the Lord your God, who holds your right hand, and I tell you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’ — Isaiah 41:13 NCV

When you hear the word lion, you might think of a big, fuzzy mane or super-sharp claws. Then, of course, there’s that whole “king of the jungle” thing. But chances are, the first thing you’ll think of is its roar.

A lion’s roar is big and loud and really scary. Especially if you happen to be a cute little gazelle trotting across the African plains. Just hearing that sound will send a gazelle running as far away from the roar as possible. Which is the worst thing it could do!

Why? Because that roaring lion isn’t where the most danger is. The real hunters are the lionesses, hiding in the tall grass behind the gazelle. You see, the lion’s job is to creep out in front of the gazelle and ROOAARR! — making it turn around and run right into the middle of all those lionesses. Gulp!

As crazy as it sounds, the safest thing for the gazelle is to run toward the roar.

That’s true for you too. When you run from the things that scare you — like trying something new, standing up for what’s right, or telling someone about God — you actually move closer to the danger. That’s because you’re moving closer to what the devil wants you to do and farther away from what God wants you to do.

Facing your fears is the best thing to do.

And guess what! You’re not some cute little gazelle surrounded by lions and lionesses. You’re a child of God, and you’re always surrounded by Him. He’ll help you face your fears. Trust Him. Be brave. And run toward the roar!

God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid

Get ready to roar!

Is something roaring in your life right now? Something you’re afraid to do? Maybe it’s trying out for the team, singing a solo, or inviting a friend to church. Or maybe it’s standing up to that older kid and telling him to leave the little kids on the bus alone. What’s the first step you could take to run toward the roar? Talk to God about it, and then run.

Dear God, when fear is roaring at me, please give me the courage to run toward the roar. Amen.

Crazy fear

I asked the Lord for help, and He answered me. He saved me from all that I feared. — Psalm 34:4 ICB

Some fears are perfectly logical. For example, if you take a step outside and see a giant, growling grizzly bear charging down the street and headed straight for you, it makes sense to be afraid. You might wonder how this huge, hairy beast happened to be on your street, but being afraid of it would be perfectly reasonable.

Other fears aren’t so logical. Like me and spiders. I hate those guys. In my head, I know I’m like a zillion times bigger than they are. I could squish one with my little toe — covered in a massive steel-toed boot, of course. But when I see a spider, all I can think about are those eight creepy little legs crawling up my arm. I know my fear is crazy, but if I see a spider, I’m outta here. And don’t get me started on snakes!

Maybe you have a crazy fear too. Maybe it’s a fear of numbers — which, by the way, is called arithmophobia. Or maybe it’s just the number eight — octophobia. Maybe you’re afraid of heights or speaking in front of people. Just because your fear seems crazy doesn’t mean you aren’t afraid.

But don’t let fear keep you from experiencing everything God has planned for you. Sure, there may be spiders in that cabin, but I’m not missing that camping trip. Don’t you miss out either — on riding the tallest roller-coaster ride, telling people about Jesus, or even visiting the octopus exhibit at the zoo. Give your fears — crazy or not — to God, and He’ll help you be brave.

Did you know?

Some people aren’t just reasonably scared of bears; they are terrified of all kinds of bears. This fear is called arkoudaphobia.

I have no idea how to pronounce it, but I do know it means a fear of all kinds of bears — whether they’re angry grizzly bears, wandering black bears, or cute and cuddly panda bears. It even describes people who are afraid of teddy bears!

Lord, I don't want my fears — real or crazy — to keep me from all You have planned for me. I will trust You to help me be brave. Amen.

Excerpted from Roar Like a Lion by Levi Lusko, copyright Levi Lusko.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 13, 2022

The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced, have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate, but in a direct view of the glorious things of the gospel... I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express... to be full of Christ alone; to love Him with a holy and pure love; to trust in Him; to live upon Him; to serve and follow Him.

~ Jonathan Edwards

She comes running through the door for me first, like she’s some prodigal’s father, widely wasteful with lavish love. “Your heart brave, too, Mama? Your heart brave like mine?”

Shiloh’s crawling up in the bed to kiss me, hiking up her t-shirt for me to see the raised scar from her heart surgery that parts her chest like a Red Sea Road, scars always a memory made into skin, a memory you can touch.

“Ah, baby girl, Mama doesn’t have a brave heart or scar like yours.” I’m smiling, but my eyes are searching the face of her papa coming in tentatively behind her. He’s the one who bears all my scars. I want to trace every one of the scars I’ve made, whisper sorry, beg mercy.

“But Mama? You got heart lines though, Mama, see?” Shiloh’s tracing lines and leads from screens to my chest.

“Shiloh? What’s Mama’s heart always tied to?”

And in one supernova explosion, Shiloh breaks into this dazzling smile, like she’s a morning star rising after a glacial dark. “I knowwwww, Mama, I always know.” And she dances her fingers on her chest and then flings both her hands toward me. And I’m laughing, mirroring her, fingers dancing on chest, then stretching both hands toward her, she and I both saying it in unison, same rhythm, same heartbeat: “My heart is always tied to your heart.”

There is no way God will ever abandon us

She throws back her head and laughs, like she is soft light dancing over a singing brook, and I’m drenched in the loveliness of her. Hearts tied, hers and mine.

Attached, we are free to love.

“Darryl?” I stretch my arm out toward him standing in the doorway... pat the side of the hospital bed. “My heart is tied to yours too... my heart is yours too.”

My heart for yours, my walk with yours,

my life bound to yours,

till my last breath, then always and forever.

He shakes his head slowly, his eyes desperately sad, wounded. Shiloh’s pulling out books and crayons from her backpack, half-singing to herself, her half a heart beating steady between surgeries. My heart is in all kinds of failure. Darryl’s standing here, the way a man can, though his heart’s breaking slow.

“I’m sorry. I am unspeakably sorry.” I can feel it, embodied in me, with the weight of my pneumonia lungs and how hard it is to breathe: “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction,” says the Word,1 destruction literally meaning narrowness, while straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to the expansive life. The way of sin is wide-open and easy, but it narrows until life becomes crushed. The way of life is narrow, but “it broadens out into the spaciousness of life.”2

The pathway of least resistance leads to the least life. It’s the narrow pathway of great resistance that leads to the great life.

What can I even stammer but this: “I have sinned against heaven and you. I am unspeakably sorry for all the ways I’ve turned my own way, gone my own way, failed in all kinds of heartbreaking ways. Ways that kinda actually broke your heart.”

“Oh, Ann.” He sits down on the edge of the bed. “You’re not alone... every single one of us has wanted our own way, gone our own way, in different ways.”

I drop my head to his chest. And I break, a dam, and everything runs liquid, free.

I’ve been addicted to me.

My addiction is to self. It is an excruciatingly painful thing to cut open your heart and see: My addiction is me.

I have committed idolatry.

I have broken the first commandment:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. — Exodus 20:2–3

Instead of laying myself down on the altar as a living sacrifice before God, I’ve put myself, my needs, my wants, my dreams, before God, before Darryl, before my love-covenant to both. Instead of trusting God to take care of me, I have turned and gone looking for all the lying ways of this hurting old world to comfort me. Instead of entering into the sufferings of Christ, who keeps His covenant to suffer with us, I have kept looking for the way out, any way out, always looking for an exodus out of pain. And where we keep looking for a way out of our heartbreak, we only drag a whole lot of beautiful souls into more heartbreak.

I bear heartbreaking witness to the way of my ways: Nothing destroys a life like idolatry. Nothing destabilizes a life like centering self. Nothing will turn your life into a colossal mess like turning inward. All your incurvatus in se will leave you begging for a cure.

Though the roads will look different for each of us, always: The only way out and through is to enter into the sufferings of Christ. Only the One who keeps His covenant to suffer with you can carry you the whole way through.

Always: The only way out is to turn outward, love reaching out to God and others.

And always, always, always: If you don’t set yourself apart for a SACRED way with God, you set out to tear your own life apart.

I’m wild to go home and tear out that clematis, that was my own wayward, turned-inward heart, that was just about the death of me, and I am desperately ready to die to self to wake to the one SACRED life I always dreamed of.

When I look up, everything is swimming and blurring, and my chest feels like a narrowing vise.

Instead of gazing on the beauty of God Himself, we’ve all kept gazing on a way, a dream of another life without suffering that we’ve made into some kind of god to us. Instead of turning toward God, we all keep returning to the garden to go our own way and eat the damned apple, and then try to convince ourselves and all the world that it tastes divinely sweet, when the truth of it is, we have never chosen to taste and see the eternally satisfying rich goodness of God.

Each of us has curved our own way and away from God, rejecting His ways through suffering, His way of wooing us through heartbreak, His way of taking care of us through everything, when it’s only His way that will make the most fulfilling way.

I brush my cheeks with the back of my hand, look up into Darryl’s eyes, and I can read God. God doesn’t break attachment and abandon those who break His heart in a thousand ways. We break God’s heart, and God calls us beloved; we’ve gone our own way, but God won’t let us go. We run, and God seeks romance.

I loved him…

I took them up by their arms... I led them with cords of kindness,

with the bands of love,

and I became to them as one who eases the yoke

on their jaws,

and I bent down to them and fed them...

How can I give you up, O Ephraim?... My heart recoils within me,

my compassions grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger;

I will not again destroy... for I am God and not a man.

(Hosea 11:1, 3–4, 8–9 ESV)

There is no way God will ever abandon us; there is no way He will ever give up on us.

He can only give us hesed-lovingkindness. The way the WayMaker’s heart beats toward every struggler, and sufferer, and straggler wandering is nothing less than:

My compassion grows warm and tender. — Hosea 11:8 ESV

“God in whose hand are all creatures, is your Father, and is much more tender of you than you are, or can be, of yourself,” assured Puritan John Flavel.3

The clematis may curve and attach this way and that, and our hearts may curve away and grow cold toward God, but God says, “I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (11:9 esv). The WayMaker’s ways are not our ways, they are higher, with stratospheric covenantal commitment, meteoric compassion, heaven-high hesed-lovingkindness. It’s not our perfect ways that persuade God’s heart, but it’s our imperfect ways that make His heart passionate for us. The WayMaker works in ways far higher and kinder than ours, and He never stops working to take care of us in ways that are working more good for us than we ever dreamed: “With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?” (Romans 8:31–32 msg, emphasis mine).

“I desire steadfast love [hesed] and not sacrifice” is what God says (Hosea 6:6 esv). “For trust did I want, and not sacrifice and knowledge of God more than sacrifice.”* God, who gives us only hesed-lovingkindness, desires faithful, hesed-attachment love from us—that we trust the ways He takes care of us, that we acknowledge how He is more than a good Father, that He is a loving, kind Father, and that we are safe to go His way.

Cheap faith says one has only to believe. But the truth is: Real Christians aren’t merely the believers. Even the demons believe (James 2:19). Real Christians are actually those who turn, faithful followers who keep turning and turning, to be the faithful trusters. Christianity is never only the mental assent of faith in Jesus, without requiring the lived attachment, trusting faithfulness to Jesus. Why in the aching world don’t we give our trusting, hesed-faithfulness back to a God who hesed-loves us like this? Because we don’t intimately yada-know Him. To truly know Him is to truly trust Him. To bear witness to an honest revealing of God’s heart is to only find God’s heart for you appealing. It is a “misapprehension of God [which] is at the root of all hostility to God in the human soul.”4 If we really knew God, how could we ever have a divided heart?

How often do we want God to divide some Red Sea for us, yet we are the ones with a divided heart?

1.Matthew 7:13.

2.G. Campbell Morgan, Hosea: The Heart and Holiness of God (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1998), 19.

3.John Flavel, Keeping the Heart: How to Maintain Your Love for God (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Heritage, 2012), 57.

4.Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018), Hosea 6:6.

Excerpted from WayMaker by Ann Voskamp, copyright Ann Morton Voskamp.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 12, 2022

Notes of Faith May 12, 2022

Empty Nest: Finishing Well

As the old saying goes, "The days are long, but the years are short." Every day we prepare for the finish line and it goes by much quicker than we think it will. Starting strong is easy; continuing that way takes planning and preparation, especially for faithful Christians who want to hear "Well done."

Principle: Do whatever it takes to make your top priorities your top priority.

“Significance and a well-lived life are not accidental.”

My friend Paul, who is in his late sixties, told me he once had a leader say to him, “I hope you are doing well as we sprint toward the finish line of life.” Sprint? Really? Isn’t life more like a marathon than a sprint? No one has ever suggested that I would make a good sprinter, ever. I wasn’t fast in high school, and now that I’m in the empty nest, I’m even slower. But one of the biggest issues of life doesn’t usually cross our minds until we hit the empty nest, and that is to finish the race well.

I’m not an expert at running marathons. I’ve run only one in my life. I finished it, but let’s just say that my time was not going to take me to the Olympics — or even the Senior Olympics. When people asked about the marathon, they didn’t ask about my time; they asked me, “Did you finish?” My pat answer was, “Yes, and standing up.”

Most runners sometimes experience tough times in a race, blisters, aches and pains, maybe a sprain or some other setback, but still their goal is to finish the race well. So it is in life.

Since the game of life is usually won or lost in the second half, there may not be a more important goal than to finish well.

The apostle Paul sums it up best:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. — 2 Timothy 4:7

Finishing well is not about results, but about faithfulness

What does finishing well mean to you in your marriage, if you are married? Or in your relationships with your adult children or with your grandkids? In your faith? In your work?

Saint Augustine suggested that the most important question regarding our legacy is, “What do I wish to be remembered for?”1 He implied that when you can answer that question, you have achieved the beginning of adulthood. When we are on our deathbeds, we won’t be asking about our retirement funds or the work we left undone. We will be asking questions like, “Was I faithful with the gifts God gave me? Was I faithful to my values, my faith, my family?”

Finishing well is not about results but about faithfulness.

Living a life of faithful significance is not accidental. To live well is to live with purpose, mindful of a goal. For me, that goal centers much more on who I am than on what I do. But that was not always the case. So much of my self-esteem was wrapped up in my vocation, success, and recognition until I finally concluded that I wanted to make my goal to be able to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” This doesn’t mean we lose our drive or work ethic. It simply means that we have a higher purpose than our vocation or kids’ success. This past year a few “superstars” of Christian leadership have stumbled in such huge ways as they neared the finish line. They had success in their careers, but they will be remembered for their lack of virtue and their failures rather than their life’s work in ministry. That is not what you want for yourself.

How will you spend the productive years remaining to you to finish well in the important areas of your life? The path to finishing well is not found. It’s most often made.

You must create the most effective path to get you to the finish line with excellence. One of the greatest byproducts of finishing well is that your family and those closest to you can benefit from your good decisions. What do you dream of accomplishing in those twenty-five to thirty-five years you have left? Even if you don’t have that many productive years left, what do you hope can happen with your life? This is where I lean into Scripture.2 I love to read the books of Proverbs and Psalms for guidance on living productively.

These two books are part of what is called the Wisdom Literature of the Bible. Some people have been greatly inspired by reading one chapter of Proverbs and five psalms each day for a month for wisdom and direction. Since there are thirty-one chapters in Proverbs and 150 psalms, you can finish both books in a month.

The Scripture that has helped me most as I think about finishing well is in the New Testament, written by the author of Hebrews:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. — Hebrews 12:1–3

This is what those few sentences have profoundly taught me about finishing well:

Learn from other runners. The writer of Hebrews mentions a “great cloud of witnesses.” It’s so important to learn from others. Are there people who positively influence you on a regular basis? If not, you are missing out on great opportunities to gain wisdom. The group of four men that I have met with every Tuesday morning for the last eighteen years has given me such great wisdom and knowledge. These men help me with my judgment. I’m a better husband, father, and leader because of those Tuesday mornings. Find your group of men or women who are your replenishing relationships. Do you have mentors? Mentors are effective in business, but I find that mentors for marriage, parenting, and spiritual focus can make you a better person. Some of my mentors are younger than me, and others I “met” after they died, by reading the wisdom in their books.

Run light. The writer of Hebrews also talks about throwing off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us. Peter Drucker says, “First things first, last things not at all.” As you run toward the finish line, is there anything you can do to run lighter and to remove obstacles that would keep you from finishing well? Stuff happens. Sometimes it’s issues with our families, health, or circumstances over which we have no control. That’s why we need to run light, saving the energy to have the right attitude about draining things that come our way, that sway us from our callings. I have a psychologist friend who always says, “Live your life at 80 percent.” Doing so creates some margin in your life when tough times come your way.

Run with perseverance. Perseverance and grit help us overcome so many of our obstacles. Perseverance, endurance, grit, and courage are characteristics of people who have successful marriages, businesses, and relationships. I don’t know anyone finishing well who doesn’t possess these traits. Psychologist Angela Duckworth, in both her book and her Ted Talk about grit,3 says her studies on high achievers in business and education reveal that success has almost nothing to do with talent but much more to do with a never- give-up attitude. She calls that attitude grit. Nobody said life would be easy, but the healthiest way to walk the path marked out for us is to combine our perseverance and passion with pure grit.

Keep your eyes on the prize. The prize for me goes back to the word faithful. That’s what I want more than anything else—to remain faithful to God, my wife, my family, and my calling. The key to my being faithful is focusing on the foundation of my faith, which is trusting in Jesus. This is a simple but not easy decision. When I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, things fall into place. I can handle the difficult circumstances life brings my way. But when I take my eyes off the prize, my focus becomes dim, and I can easily lose my way. I once asked a mentor who was nearing the end of his exemplary life, “What are you doing to finish well?” He answered, “It doesn’t start with my outside life; finishing well is an inside job.” He quoted a great thinker, Dallas Willard: “If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life. If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life.”

1. Quoted in Buford, Halftime, 18.

2. I realize many of my readers do not share my biblical worldview. I’m always so honored that you would read my thoughts anyway.

3. Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (New York: Scribner, 2016).

Excerpted from Finding Joy in the Empty Nest by Jim Burns, copyright Jim Burns.

I never dreamed about the empty nest . . . but I was a runner in days gone by and I know what it means to finish well.  Therefore,

Phil 3:12-14

I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 11, 2022

'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' — Jeremiah 29:11

I had been head coach at Valparaiso University for one season. And I’d just missed out on a chance to experience March Madness for the first time as a head coach because we lost in the finals of our conference tournament.

In some ways I was very much trying to be like my dad. I wanted to be a good family man; I wanted to be a good leader and godly example for the players and people in my life. But if the opportunity came, I also wanted to be at a place where it would be easier to make the tournament and win a national championship. I told my assistant coach, Matt Driscoll, that I loved Valpo. But my dream was still to win a title and experience that One Shining Moment.

If God has put something on your heart, don’t think it’s an accident. God is big enough for our dreams. In fact, he’s the one who gave them to us in the first place. Since I was a child, I’d always wanted to be a part of March Madness. To have a “One Shining Moment” of my own.

The chance to chase my dream came way sooner than I was expecting.

J.O.Y. — Jesus, others, self

Just a few weeks later, Coach Driscoll and I were in Los Angeles for a networking retreat. By this point, Baylor had been featured on the news for over a month. We knew that a player had been murdered and that another player had confessed.

The keynote speaker that evening was legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. Coach Driscoll and I sat at a table alongside Tim Floyd, the head coach of the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets. Hours earlier, Dave Bliss had resigned as head coach at Baylor. Given the amount of attention the Baylor scandal had received, his resignation made sense and made headline news. As we sat around the table, the topic of the Baylor opening came up in our conversation. “Actually, you would be really great for that job,” Tim Floyd said. “You’re young; you’re Christian; you’re energetic.”

It was nice to hear, but I was a young guy with one year of head-coaching experience. I wasn’t sure I could even get an interview, let alone the job. But then Coach Floyd said he knew the women’s coach at Baylor. He pulled out his phone, called her, and said, “I need to get the president on the phone.”

I couldn’t believe it.

Coach Floyd was very optimistic I would get an interview. When I was contacted by the headhunter Baylor had hired, I knew I was officially in the running. Suddenly, I had a choice to make. Did I want this job? Baylor had announced that it was self-imposing penalties, including probation, meaning it wouldn’t be eligible for postseason play the next season. My dream of having my “One Shining Moment” would be delayed at the least.

Did I really want to leave Valpo after one year? What did I really even know about what had happened in Waco? I did what I usually did when I had a decision to make. I prayed; talked to my wife, Kelly; and talked to my dad.

The thing my dad kept saying to me was with God, anything can happen. Philippians tells us quite clearly that with Christ, all things are possible. And I had never seen anyone, be it my dad, my brother, or me, go wrong by betting on God. So that part wasn’t really tough at all. And then my dad also reminded me that anything I did there would be an improvement. Baylor could only move upward—there was nowhere to go lower than where they were. So while some people saw it as a job filled with obstacles, some potentially unconquerable, after praying about it, I felt led to go to Baylor.

It was a head coach position in a major conference and a faith-based school. If things worked out, I would be able to live out my faith and have a chance to get to the Final Four. I told the headhunter I would take the interview and he arranged for me to meet the selection committee.

Once I knew I was getting the interview, I was all in. I wanted to make sure they got to know me, my passion for coaching, and my passion for connecting.

I wanted to cast a vision not for what the job was at the moment but what it could be. The people at Baylor needed to see how, in the midst of their brokenness, their redemption could reflect God’s glory.

After a four-hour interview, the Baylor selection team boarded their private jet to travel on to the next candidate’s interview. I got back in the car with my dad and returned to Valparaiso.

I’d like to say that I got the job because of my performance in that interview. I did find out that they admired my energy, my honest discussion about my faith, how comfortable I was working in a Christian environment, and thought my optimism for what God could do at that school was refreshing.

After a few days, Baylor called and offered me the job. I made sure my father was comfortable coming out of retirement and taking over at Valparaiso and that Valparaiso was good too. It is amazing how God works things out, because after sitting out a year, my dad was rejuvenated and had missed coaching. So this turned out to be a blessing for him to coach again at Valpo.

The roots of God’s plan for us are woven throughout the soil of our lives. Think about where God wants you to grow.

I accepted the job. After all, God was the One who was writing the ultimate story.

Lord Jesus, I want to live each and every day according to Your purpose and plan for my life.

Written by Scott Drew, author of The Road to J.O.Y.

God plants us where He wants us to grow and be an influence on those He places around us.  Be fruitful and bless the Lord!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 10, 2022

Grief that comes with loss is overwhelming. Emotions are so heavy we can stagger beneath the weight. Scripture becomes even more precious during bereavement. Lean in with this excerpt from Through a Season of Grief.

Your emotions

Your emotions can be intense, draining, and hard to hold back; they run deep and are tangled up inside you.

Everyone goes through some unexpected emotions, and it helps for you to identify and sort out the emotions that apply to you. This is part of the healing process.

Which emotions have you experienced during the grieving process?

denial

rejection

guilt

anger

jealousy

fear

pain

loss

sorrow

apathy

rage

confusion

anxiety

sadness

inadequacy

envy

dread

anguish

betrayal

distrust

loneliness

helplessness

disappointment

resentment

vindictiveness

depression

bitterness

dismay

abandonment

lack of control

Jesus can identify with your sorrows.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. — Isaiah 53:3

Lord Jesus, You alone know my suffering and pain. Please sort through these emotions with me. Amen.

Sudden and unpredictable

Emotions during grief do not occur in an orderly fashion. You cannot follow a checklist and mark off the emotions you are finished with and then move on to the next. They come suddenly and unpredictably.

“People ask me, ‘How are you doing?’ And I say, ‘Wonderful.’ One moment I’m sobbing uncontrollably — I carry Kleenex around in my pocket — and the next moment I’m so exhilarated with joy with all that God is doing in my life,” says Dr. Jim Conway.

Circumstances will change. People will change. Surroundings will change. But the Bible leads you to the one sure thing:

I the Lord do not change. — Malachi 3:6

Almighty, unchanging God, I grasp on to Your hand as my emotions confuse and overwhelm me. You alone cannot be moved, and I am confident that as long as I remain in You, I, too, will not be moved. Amen.

Out of control

Not only are your emotions unpredictable, but they may also seem uncontrollable. This changing nature combined with the intensity of the emotions can cause you to feel disoriented, forgetful, and over-powered.

“There was this overwhelming feeling of being out of control... overwhelmed and watching life pass by,” says Cindy following her daughter’s death.

Your response to these uncontrollable emotions can be confusing to you as well as to others; for instance, sometimes you may want people with you, and sometimes you do not. You may also act in ways you later regret.

Job expressed this sentiment:

If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been impetuous. — Job 6:2–3

Precious Lord, You know the desires of my heart. In my confusion give me peace to know that You are in control of all life and You do not make mistakes. Amen.

God puts great salve on deep wounds

This can't be happening

Although your mind knows the facts, your heart is often reluctant to accept the death of someone you know and love.

“You may have a tendency to deny,” says Dr. H. Norman Wright. “Denial covers over the sharpness of the pain.”

 Denial is a process that occurs during grieving to minimize the struggle. This is a natural and transitional part of your healing journey. Randy shares how he experienced denial after his sister died, but over time, he found that denial was impossible: “After the funeral I was basically in denial. I tried to dive into my work and forget about it. It’s taken a long time. Little things will remind me: things that she did, places she went to. Things like that will all of a sudden bring this very empty, hollow feeling inside me, where I can’t breathe. I feel like the air is just sucked out of me. It’s been five years, but trying to deny it or to ignore it is not possible.”

You may be tempted to “dive into” your work and fill your mind with anything but the truth of the situation. But the book of Proverbs tells us to be open to the truth and to pursue it:

Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding. — Proverbs 23:23

Jesus, give me the courage to face the truth. With Your help I know I can do it. Amen.

Isolation

Sometimes you just want everyone to leave you alone. So you build a protective wall around yourself, not only to keep other people out, but also to guard against unwanted emotions. You may think you are playing it safe, but instead you are blocking out the healing.

“There are people who love you and want to pray for you and want to talk with you,” says Dr. Tim Clinton. “If you allow that to happen,

God puts great salve on deep wounds.”

Doesn’t that sound wonderful—a great salve on deep wounds? Jeremiah cried out to God for just such a thing and found Him to be faithful and true.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? — Jeremiah 8:22

‘But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the Lord, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares’. — Jeremiah 30:17

Faithful God, bring me out of my self-imposed isolation that I may be healed by the Balm of Gilead—Jesus Christ. Amen.

Suppression can lead to explosion

Are you quelling your emotions within you and consciously keeping them at bay? Think about the amount of force and energy this involves. Your emotions may be packed in so tightly that the pressure could build up to the point of possible explosion.

“You can delay the grieving process by denying it or just not allowing yourself to cry or to face it,” says Dr. H. Norman Wright. “It’s like you put a lid on your life and on your emotions. It is a form of repression, and whenever you repress any of your feelings, you bury them alive. Someday there will be a resurrection, but you will not be in charge of it. It could come through depression. It could come out through explosiveness.”

In the midst of overwhelming emotional suffering and pressure, Jesus looked to God with determination.

And being in anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. — Luke 22:44

Holy God, may my resolve to release my emotional pressure and to seek You be as earnest as Jesus’ prayer. Amen.

Anger: your strongest emotion

The Bible instructs you to be angry!

Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. — Ephesians 4:26 NASB

Anger by itself is not a sin, and it is one of the most common emotions associated with grief.

“I went through that shock and denial period for about three months,” says Dora after the death of her daughter. “Then suddenly, as the shock wore off and the reality set in—anger. Intense anger. Just wanting to wail, to scream from the depths. There’s no way I could express as much anger as I was feeling.”

You need to release your anger in a way that is productive for healing and not harmful to others around you. To release your anger does not mean to lash out, to throw a fit, or to lose control of it; releasing your anger involves the open and honest expression of your emotions in a way that is physically, mentally, and emotionally freeing. You can do this by expressing your anger to God in prayer (don’t hold back!). You can release your anger in the presence of a person who will listen quietly and neither judge nor offer advice. Another healthy way to release anger is to write down every angry thought that comes to mind until you cannot think of another angry sentence to write. Some people find that expressing their anger out loud—and loudly—in a private place is helpful.

The fact that you should “not let the sun go down on your anger” means you should deal with it when it is present. Don’t go to sleep and forget it, only to have it come back in greater strength later.

Holy Spirit, grant me the freedom and opportunity to release my anger in a way that helps, not hurts. Amen.

Excerpted from Through a Season of Grief by Bill Dunn and Kathy Leonard, copyright The Church Initiative, Inc.

God can and will heal our weakness and every need will be met if we come to Him and ask for mercy and grace.  Job recognized that God’s promises are sure and that his eternal destination, salvation, healing, being made complete like the Messiah to come was guaranteed.  He worshipped through all his distress.  May we walk with God and have Him speak of us as He did Job, calling him a righteous man.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 9, 2022

When it comes to personal awareness and self-evaluation, I use three words to keep me grounded: mind, heart, and soul. These three checkpoints provide a tool to evaluate my balance and point me to next steps.

Mind

For the sake of this discussion, consider your mind as the hub of your thinking. In this hub, we store memories, create, organize, and solve issues. Not bad for such a small object! (Pat your brain on the back and thank it immediately, okay?)

We expect a lot of our minds! But here’s my next question: What do our minds need from us?

Aside from our brain’s physical needs, we can support our brain in other ways. Reading, writing, listening to podcasts, taking courses, and journaling can all help prepare our minds to complete their daily tasks.

I want to offer a simple technique I use to get in touch with my innermost thoughts. I start by sitting up, getting comfortable, and listening to my body. My physical needs must be met before I can focus, so I run to the bathroom, or wash my face — whatever it takes to get comfortable. Nice smells help too. (Some people call this a bubble bath.) When I’m finished pampering myself, I pull out a journal and pen.

What have I been consuming? Billboards? TV Commercials? Pinterest? Instagram? Books? A screen? Nature? Art? What have I been learning? Discussing?

What has my digital footprint looked like this week? How do I feel about these things? Name the feelings.

What have I been creating? Words and paragraphs? Paint on canvas? Thread to needle? How was my day?

I leave the “how was my day?” question until the end, because if I started there, I’d never get to the other two topics, which are easier to answer and more important. What I’ve been consuming causes me to face reality. Everything I do is pretty much documented in this day and age. What time I woke up, when my heart rate went up, how many steps I got in, how much screen time I used, and what I looked at in those moments. Heck, Alexa may even be listening to me yell at my kids — who knows? Since the answers to this question are so easy to determine, it quickly gives me a deeply honest perspective on my life. When I don’t like the answers to my questions, I change my behavior: less screen time, more patience, no doom-scrolling, more walks.

The answers to the second group of questions tell me what I’ve been working on and how I’m giving back.

There’s nothing more beautiful: the sharing of your soul, so bravely, with our beloved, broken world.

The answers to the third question help me reduce speed. Why reflect on a day I’ve barely finished? Reflection brings a new perspective, giving us insight and understanding into our actions. And I don’t need to convince you we could all use a slow-down.

Listening to how I answer these questions gives me insight about where I could shift my focus. I’m less concerned about if I should shift my focus. I’m a grown adult. I know what I should do. The problem is I don’t always do it. This is because I have made a choice, within my control, not to prioritize it. I can choose, going forward, to do it or not to do it. The least I can do is not beat myself up about my choices and not overcommit my future self.

The world will shame us enough, friends, if we let it. I will not let my own heart, soul, and mind jump on that bandwagon. There’s a better way to equip myself.

Heart

I know, I know. It’s what this whole book is about.

Those three questions will resuscitate many feelings. When you think about the word heart, think about your emotional well-being. Our hearts dictate:

Our self-esteem: how we feel about ourselves on any given day.

Our perspective: how we feel about life’s ups and downs.

Our empathy: how we feel about people.

Our resilience: how we feel when we’re mistreated, betrayed, or abused. (Do you feel empowered to make a choice and set a boundary, for example, or do you feel trapped?)

Our confidence: how we feel about our ability to create change in our circumstances.

Our self-compassion: how we talk to ourselves. (Is your inner dialogue critical or compassionate?)

Have you ever had your emotions take you by surprise at an inopportune time? One moment you’re fine, and the next, it’s waterworks central with emotions pouring out for everyone to see.

Everything you’ve been avoiding, everything you’ve been stuffing deep, confronts you. This is one of the pitfalls of ignoring our emotional health.

Apathy always results in a loss of motivation. Emotions are fuel for our actions.

When we overlook our emotional world (for fear of what it contains), we suppress the engine that drives many daily decisions. No wonder we procrastinate, or feel tired and disconnected! Numbness simply cannot produce the same quality of life that healthy emotion provides.

Speaking of which, two major symptoms of ignoring the emotions of our heart are meltdown and burnout. Maybe these feelings sound familiar to you. I know they do to me. When we don’t check in with our hearts, we lose sight of what we need, we allow ourselves to revert to old habits and patterns, and we eventually fall apart.

To check in with our hearts, here are a few questions we can ask ourselves:

How am I feeling?

Where in my body am I experiencing these feelings?

Am I hurt? Grieving? Angry? Scared?

Am I happy or grateful?

Is there something from my past holding me back today?

How do I feel about the future?

Checking in with my emotional heart gives me insight into the feelings that influence my outlook, beliefs, and decisions. Awareness won’t eliminate these emotions, but it will empower us to understand our feelings and support a healthy mind.

Soul

Of these three elements, the soul is perhaps the most difficult to define. But we talk about it all the time. We find soul mates, do soul-searching, and have soul sisters. People have been known to bare their souls, sell their souls, and lose their souls. There are gentle souls, old souls, satisfied and hungry souls. For as little as we understand it, culturally it seems we all agree it’s an important part of who we are.

When we discuss the soul here, I’m talking about the higher self, the part of us that feels connected to something bigger than we are. This is your intuition, the gut instinct that just knows, and your sense of purpose in the world.

Our souls are an influential part of who we are. You could think of your soul as a majority shareholder, a board member with a controlling interest in our lives. Our souls have a lot of sway in how we feel, think, and live. But they’re quiet, and easily forgotten. And many of us are ignoring our souls.

Our souls help us:

feel connected to our community,

feel a sense of purpose and order in life (even when it doesn’t make sense),

know in a deep way we are loved,

experience a sense of awe,

trust that we are supported, and

surrender to difficult circumstances, trusting there is a bigger meaning.

We all have a soul, and many of our souls are desperate for refreshment. So many souls wander this planet, feel lonely or disconnected, and wonder why they’re here or if any of this matters. A well-kept soul is a deep well from which we can draw strength when we face challenges.

We need to regularly check in with our souls. I used to disregard this soul-care stuff as new-age propaganda, but maturity has helped me understand the value of the soul. We must cling to an inner anchor, or we will perish in the outer storm. In the next section, we will brainstorm ways we can nourish our souls, but for now, here are some questions to ask yourself.

Do I feel connected to myself?

Do I feel connected to others?

Do I feel connected to nature and the physical world?

Do I feel connected to God?

Have I prayed or meditated today?

It is in our souls that we feel connection and purpose. We can discount the spiritual, the unseen, but I remind myself humans have only recently begun to overlook the spiritual part of our lives. In the outside world, things may not be going as planned, but in my inner world I feel a deep sense that I am safe and everything will be okay. With regular soul-tending, we will feel anchored in the midst of chaos.

Doing these check-ins might not fix anything right away. In fact, if you’re not used to turning to your inner world, at first you might feel as though paying attention to your thoughts, emotions, or soul makes you feel more anxious, rather than less. It might make things—for a time—more chaotic than they were before. Remember, discomfort means we’re growing. (I know, I hate it too.)

Don’t write off these checkpoints. We experience transformation when we routinely tend our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs. We make better decisions. We find conviction to say no to things not meant for us. We break the cycle of overcommitment. We gain clarity about the future while we focus on the road ahead. We navigate muddled and messy days without losing hope or our sense of self.

This is the power of the inner world. This is the gift of knowing what is happening under the surface.

Excerpted from A More Beautiful Life by Whitney English, copyright Whitney English.

We are told by the Scriptures to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.  God knows already . . . we need to find out for ourselves.  May we all find grace and mercy in the presence of the Lord.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 8, 2022

The book of Proverbs begins, "The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel." He was a great king and the son of a great king. That means he was famous and powerful and supreme in all the realm. People bowed in his presence. They did what he said. He had immense authority and honor.

Even Great Kings Should Bow to Their Mothers

How did he treat his mother in this exalted role? You recall his mother was Bathsheba. She had married his father David under very ugly circumstances—very displeasing to God. But she was his mother, and this is what it says in 1 Kings 2:19,

Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king arose to meet her, bowed before her, and sat on his throne; then he had a throne set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right.

Then they had their conversation. He rose for her. He bowed to her. And he called for a throne to be put beside his for their conversation. She was his mother. Even kings should stoop when their mothers enter the room.

Solomon was not a perfect king. He was not a perfect man. None of the writers of the Bible was. But God guided his insights and preserved for us true ones here in the book of Proverbs. And I want us to listen to God's word through Solomon today.

Six Lessons: The Ultimate Issue Is God

There are at least six things he tells us in Proverbs 1:7–9. They all relate to God. They are not merely the kind of wisdom you might pick up in reading "mindworks" or Parents magazine or Ann Landers. They overlap with the wisdom of the world. But the absence of God in the world's family-advice is ultimately a fatal flaw. Solomon means for us to hear his counsel as all related to God.

We often think of the book of Proverbs as a book of what you can learn from ordinary earthly life. And much of it is. But the point of the book is to bring all that into relation to God so that he becomes the center of it all.

Just one example. In Proverbs 30:8 it says,

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, 9 Lest I be full and deny Thee and say, "Who is the Lord?" Or lest I be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God.

Do you see what this says about God? The wise man prays, "Guard me from riches and guard me from poverty." Why? Because if I'm rich I might say, "Who needs God!" And if I'm poor I might steal. And why is that so bad? Because you might get caught and go to jail? Or because you might lose your reputation? No. He says, Because if I steal, I will profane the name of my God.

Riches are dangerous because the ultimate issue is God. And poverty is dangerous because the ultimate issue is God. The book of Proverbs—the most practical, down-to-earth book in the Bible—is written for God's sake. That we might not deny God in our prosperity and that we might not profane God in the hour of need.

All six lessons in Proverbs 1:7–9 relate to God, and they are all intensely practical.

1. The Origin of Family

The family is God's idea.

Solomon takes for granted that there are mothers and fathers and children related in relationship of unique accountability. Verse 8: "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching." This is just a given with Solomon. It used to be with us too. But perhaps it can't be taken for granted any more. Families are God's idea. God's plan. God's way. They are not arbitrary evolutionary developments based on instincts. The family is ordained by God in creation.

In the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1:27, it says,

And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth . . . "

How are they to do this fruitful earth-filling? By indiscriminate mating and pregnancies? The second chapter of the Bible (Genesis 2:24) gives the answer: A man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

A profound covenant relationship between one man and one woman—a cleaving to each other alone, in a one-flesh union—is God's idea of the heart of the family. When this is broken by a tragic death or a tragic divorce, there may have to be single parent families. And God has been faithful to millions of mothers and fathers who have had to raise children alone. But God's original purpose for the heart of the family was one man and one woman cleaving to each other as husband and wife and becoming one flesh in fruitful sexual union. In that way he meant to fill the earth with humans who image-forth his glory, and with couples whose covenant-relationship shows the world the way that God relates to his covenant people in love and faithfulness.

The family is God's idea and it is for God's glory. Solomon assumes that here in Proverbs 1:7–9.

2. The Family as a School

The family is God's basic school for instructing children how to live in the world.

Verse 8 again: "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching." The father is an instructor and the mother is a teacher. Therefore the family is a school.

God ordained the family not just to be fruitful and fill the earth with people, but to fill the earth with instructed people and taught people. The family is the place where the next generation is born and where the next generation learns how to live.

Life does not come naturally for human beings. The sucking reflex comes naturally. The falling reflex comes naturally. The iris of the eye closes naturally in bright light. We don't have to learn to cry when hungry. But that's about it. And those skills will not get us very far in this world. Humans have to learn just about everything from the most basic skills of walking and talking and eating, to the moral actions of courtesy and gratitude and respect and faith in Christ.

The family is God's school for this huge undertaking—teaching the next generation how to live in this world and be ready for the next.

And if a mother and a father seek help from others through relatives or nannies or day-care or Sunday schools or day schools or primary schools or secondary schools, the responsibility is still the parents' and we parents will give an account to God for how the minds and hearts of our children were shaped and molded by the educators and care-givers we entrusted them to.

That's point number two: the family is God's basic school for instructing children how to live in the world.

3. The Fear of the Lord as the Unifying Theme

The foundation of family instruction is the fear of the Lord.

Verse 7: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." In other words if we ask, what's the basis and beginning and integrating theme of the father's instruction and the mother's teaching—what is it that runs through all their daily modeling and counseling and explaining and correcting and disciplining that give unity and meaning to it all—the answer is "the fear of the Lord."

The family isn't just a place where children learn to hold spoons and walk on two feet and say" please" and tie shoes and read and look both ways and cut grass and put on makeup and drive a car. The family is where all of this and more begins in God, is guided by God's Word, and is shown to be for the glory of God. The fear of God—the reverencing of God, the standing in awe of God, the trusting of God—is what family's are for.

The family is God's idea. The family is a school. And the unifying theme in the curriculum of this school is God.

4. The Responsibility of Both Fathers and Mothers

Under God both fathers and mothers share in the responsibility of this family instruction.

Verse 8 again: "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching."

It does not say, "Fathers instruct, and mothers change diapers." It does not say, "Fathers work at the office and so have no responsibility to teach their children." Nor does it say, "Mothers work at the office and can turn the responsibility of teaching over to a care-giver." It says fathers instruct, and mothers teach. They share this responsibility.

If it were Father's Day I would probably trumpet a challenge to you fathers to take fresh initiatives at home. But it is Mother's Day, and I want to encourage mothers that this responsibility to teach your children is an immeasurably significant privilege.

God has a way of nullifying the greatness of the great and exalting the lowliness of the lowly. In our culture motherhood is, I think, on the upswing. But only after decades of unusual lowliness and bad-press. The last five our six years have abounded with letters and articles like this one to Ann Landers:

I'm so tired of all those ignorant people who come up to my husband and ask him if his wife has a full-time job or if she's "just a house-wife." . . . Here's my job description.

I'm a wife, mother, friend, confidant, personal advisor, lover, referee, peacemaker, housekeeper, laundress, chauffeur, interior decorator, gardener, painter, wall paperer, dog groomer, veterinarian, manicurist, barber, seamstress, appointment manager, financial planner, bookkeeper, money manager, personal secretary, teacher, disciplinarian, entertainer, psychoanalyst, nurse, diagnostician, public relations expert, dietitian and nutritionist, baker, chef, fashion coordinator and letter writer for both sides of the family.

I am also a travel agent, speech therapist, plumber and automobile maintenance and repair expert . . .

From the studies done, it would cost more than $75,000 a year to replace me. I took time out of my busy day to write this letter, Ann, because there are still ignorant people who believe a housewife is nothing more than a baby sitter who sits on her behind all day and looks at soap operas. (Ann Landers, May 1988, quoted in Mom, You're Incredible, by Linda Weber, Focus on the Family, 1994, pp. 23–24)

That's true. And it is good to have it said. But vastly more can be said. Let me give one great illustration from the New Testament: the effect of Timothy's mother and grandmother.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:5,

I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.

Then in 3:14–15 Paul says,

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them [that is, your mother Eunice and through her from your grandmother Lois]; and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures [because your mother taught them to you] which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Now that's a remarkable testimony. Timothy's father was a Greek (Acts 16:3). He probably didn't know the Scriptures. So Paul celebrates the great heritage that Timothy has through his mother and his grandmother. They did what his father could not or would not do. They filled him with the Scriptures, and the Scriptures brought him eventually to faith in Christ, and faith in Christ brought him salvation.

Timothy will live forever and ever because his mother and his grandmother were faithful to Proverbs 1:8.

5. The Submissiveness of Children

God calls sons and daughters to be submissive to their mothers and fathers.

Verse 8 again: "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching."

These two commands warn against the two common temptations of rebellion. One is when a child is home; and the other is when he is away from home. If he is home, the temptation of rebellion is not to listen when his parent speaks. So Solomon says, "Hear your father's instruction." If he is away from home, the temptation is to forsake what he was taught. So Solomon says, "Do not forsake your mother's teaching."

Young people, when you are at home, listen to your parents. Do not write off what they say. Do it for God's sake. This is so important in God's eyes that he made it part of the Ten Commandments that sum up the whole law. Exodus 20:12, "Honor your father and mother." Honor your father by listening respectfully when he speaks. And honor your mother by remembering what she taught you about right and wrong—about the fear of God—when you are away from home and no one can see but you and God.

6. The Promise of Reward

Finally, God ordains a reward for sons and daughters who do not forsake the teaching of their mother and father.

Verse 9: "Indeed [literally, "because"], they [hearing your father's instruction and not forsaking your mother's teaching] are a graceful wreath to your head, and ornaments about your neck."

What this verse makes plain is that the instruction of fathers and the teaching of mothers, rooted in the fear of the Lord, is good news. Kids don't always feel that. Sometimes parents have never grown up into grace enough to feel it either. But that's what the verse says: hearing a father's instruction and not forsaking a mother's teaching will be a wreath of grace and glory and joy; it will be like gifts and prizes around your neck. In other words it will mean triumph and celebration and joy.

The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6:2 that "honor your father and mother" is "the first commandment with promise." All the commandments are full of promise, but God goes out of his way to make this explicit for sons and daughters. There is great promise in honoring your mother and father and embracing the fear of the Lord which they taught.

"In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence . . . The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life" (Proverbs 14:26–27).

"The fear of the Lord leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil" (Proverbs 19:23).

This is the wreath on your head and the ornament on your neck for embracing the fear of the Lord that your mother and father taught you—a fountain of life and strong confidence and deep satisfaction.

A Mother's Crown of Joy

But since today is Mother's Day, perhaps the way we should end is by reminding ourselves as sons and daughters—whether old or young—that the fountain of life, and the strong confidence and the deep satisfaction that come from honoring all the truth that our mothers taught us also comes back to them as a crown of joy and honor and blessing in their later years. "Do not despise your mother when she is old" (Proverbs 23:22). "Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her rejoice who gave birth to you" (Proverbs 23:25).

Happy Mother’s Day

Pastor Dale