Notes of Faith June 15, 2022

One day in my midtwenties while studying to become a pastor, I was alarmed to see a suicide note published in the local newspaper. It was written by a pastor. In his note, the pastor said, “God forgive me for not being any stronger than I am. But when a minister becomes clinically depressed, there are very few places where he can turn to for help... it feels as if I’m sinking farther and farther into a downward spiral of depression. I feel like a drowning man, trying frantically to lift up my head to take just one more breath. But one way or another, I know I am going down.”

The deceased had been the promising young pastor of a large, thriving church in Saint Louis. Having secretly battled depression for a long time, and having sought help through prayer, therapy, and medication, his will to claw through yet another day was gone. In his darkest hour, the young promising pastor decided he would rather join the angels than continue facing demons for years to come. The signoff to his note, “Yours in the Name of Our Blessed Lord, Our Only Hope in Life and Death,” brought a strange comfort, because grace covers all types of things, including self-harm and suicide.

·         One can only imagine the deep compassion in Christ’s heart when His beloved children lose their way like this.

Yet for this aspiring pastor, grief and confusion felt more real than hope did.

Grief and confusion grew even larger when a second pastor, also from Saint Louis, asphyxiated himself to death because of a similar, secret depression.

The news of these two pastor suicides shook me. How could these men — both exemplary leaders who believed in Jesus, preached grace, and comforted others with gospel hope — end up losing hope for themselves?

I had also heard others teach that being a Christian and being depressed aren’t supposed to go together. “Light always drives out darkness,” these misguided teachers would say. “When you’re believing the right things, peace and joy will always follow.” In that same season, a worship song based on such teaching was released that became very popular among Christians. The lyrics confidently declared that in the Lord’s presence, all our problems will disappear.

But when reality strikes, such teachings and songs hurt more than they help. Two faithful pastors, who prayed and sought solace from Scripture every day, who served their churches and cities and counseled people and preached grace, ended their lives. What drove them to do so was that in God’s presence, their problems, curiously, did not disappear.

I, too, have battled anxiety and depression from time to time. My struggle with both has most often been more low grade than intense. But in one particular season, anxiety and depression flattened me physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

During those days, I could not fall asleep for two weeks straight. Even sleeping pills couldn’t calm the adrenaline and knock me out, which only made things worse. At night I was fearful of the quiet, knowing I was in for another all-night battle with insomnia that I was likely to lose. The sunrise also frightened me, an unwelcome reminder that another day of impossible struggle was ahead of me. I lost 15 percent of my body weight in two months. I could not concentrate in conversations. I found no comfort in God’s promises from Scripture.

·         I couldn’t bring myself to pray anything but “Please help,” “Please end this,” and “Why?”

According to a study conducted by Thom Rainer, circumstance-triggered anxiety and depression hit ministers at a disproportionally high rate. Because of the unique pressures associated with spiritual warfare, unrealistic expectations from congregants and oneself, unrestrained and unaccountable criticism and gossip toward and about ministers (especially in the digital age), failure to take time off for rest and replenishment, marriage difficulties, financial strains, and the problem of comparison with other ministers and ministries, Rainer says that ministers are set up as prime candidates for descent into an emotional abyss.1

The two pastors committed suicide because they could not imagine navigating the emotional abyss for another day. Both also suffered their affliction in silence, for fear of being rejected. The one who left the note said that if a pastor tells anyone about his depression, he will lose his ministry. People don’t want to be pastored, taught, or led by a damaged person.

Or do they?

Maybe instead of labeling anxious and depressed people as damaged goods, we should learn from the psalms and Jesus and Paul about the biblical theology of weakness. Maybe we should start learning how to apply that theology in our lives and also in the lives of those who are called to lead us. Even the apostle Paul said that it is in weakness that we experience the glory, power, and grace of God. This is how God works.

·         God is upside down to our sensibilities.

Better said, we are upside down to His.

I once heard someone say that it’s okay to realize that you are crazy and very damaged, because all the best people are. Like nothing else, suffering has a way of equipping us to be the best expressions of God’s compassion and grace. It has a way of equipping us to love and lead in ways that are helpful and not harmful. A healer who has not been afflicted is extremely limited in his ability to participate in the healing of others. As Henri Nouwen has written, “The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.”2

Conversely, she who has been afflicted is strangely strengthened in her ability to lead others into the less arid, more fertile, healing pastures of God.

The apostle Paul encourages us with these words:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.3

According to Scripture, the “crazy, very damaged” people are the ones through whom God did the greatest things. It is worth adding more examples to the ones given previously. Hannah had bitterness of soul over infertility and a broken domestic situation. Elijah felt so beaten down that he asked God to take his life. Job and Jeremiah cursed the day that they were born. David repeatedly asked his own soul why it was so downcast. Even Jesus, the perfectly divine human, lamented that His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow. He wept when His friend died. Each of these biblical saints was uniquely empowered by God to change the world — never in spite of their affliction, and always because of it and through it.

The likes of these are God’s chosen instruments to bring truth, beauty, grace, and hope into the world. Many of the best therapists have themselves been in therapy. It’s how God works.

If you have experienced anxiety and depression, I share this part of my story to remind you that there is no shame in having this or any other affliction. In fact,

·         our afflictions may be the key to our fruitfulness as carriers of Jesus’ love.

What feels like the scent of death to us may end up becoming the scent of life for others as we learn to comfort others in their affliction with the comfort that we, in our affliction, have received from God.

Broken trees bear fruit, and I am one of those trees, bent and broken.

In my darkest hour, in those months of facing into the abyss of anxiety and depression and a rapidly diminishing will to live, there were two people who put themselves on permanent call for me. These two carried me day and night, with constant reminders that though I was down, I was not out. Though I was afraid, I was not alone. Though I had been called upon by God to face some demons, I was surrounded by an angelic presence. Perhaps these two, also, were my guardian angels.

These two angels were my brother, Matt, and my wife, Patti. Both were outstanding healers because they were themselves wounded healers. Both had suffered with anxiety and depression, too. Having been bent and broken themselves, they helped me in my hour of need to find the straight path of hope again.

Being afflicted does not make you ineffective.
Being damaged does not mean that you are done.
Anxiety and depression can also, ironically, be occasions for hope.

After I had served as pastor at Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Church for about two years, one of our members told me that he thought I was a gifted preacher and that he was entirely unimpressed by this fact. He told me that the moment he decided to trust me, the moment he decided that I was his pastor, was when I disclosed to the whole church that I have struggled with anxiety and depression and that I have needed therapy for many years.

In that very moment, it dawned on me: as a pastor and as a man, my afflictions may end up having greater impact than my preaching or my vision ever will. It is helpful to remember that nearly all of the psalms — and all the books of the Bible— were themselves written from dark, depressed, wrecked, and restless places.

1.     Thom S. Rainer, “Pastors and Mental Health,” Charisma Leader, March 3, 2014, https://ministrytodaymag.com/leadership/personal-character/20758-thom-rainer-pastors-and-mental-health/. 

2.     Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer (Melbourne: Image Publishing, 2013), 72. 160

3.     2 Corinthians 1:3–7.

Excerpted from Beautiful People Don't Just Happen by Scott Sauls, copyright Scott Sauls.

We all have weaknesses…issues of imperfection that are better talked about and lived with than attempting to hide them in some secret inner sanctum.  We will be encouraged by others and able to encourage others ourselves in offering the truth of our suffering in weakness.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 14, 2022

The Final Reset
by Mark Hitchcock & Jeff Kinley

For all the justified criticism that has been leveled against the great reset, there is one point the great resetters have right. There is one point we can all agree on.

This world desperately needs a great reset. We need more than a simple tune-up. We need a total transformation.

Our planet is groaning and heaving. War, social and racial unrest, shattered families, surging suicide, runaway debt, inflation, deadly new viruses, drug and alcohol abuse, rising lawlessness, and political polarization are coalescing to drive civilization to its knees. In today’s environment, good news can be difficult to find. Hope is in short supply. Our world is increasingly weary, worried, and worn. Something has to change. Something big. We all know it. We all know deep down inside that this world is not what it is supposed to be. We all yearn for things to be much better. We imagine utopia on earth — a new world order — a great society permeated with peace and prosperity, where everything is made right. But how in the world could that ever come to pass?

Is it even remotely possible? If so, who can possibly pull it off? Is there any hope?

This final, ultimate reset we need for planet Earth will not come as a result of human effort, no matter how heroic. Humanity has created the mess, and humanity cannot fix the mess, as hard as we might try. It just keeps getting worse. The reset will not be produced by climate change advocates, the WEF, the Democrat Party, the Republican Party, peaceful protests, economic equality, the US government, the Chinese government, better laws, world religions, nuclear disarmament, or peace treaties.

The only true Global Resetter is God.

Only the Creator can be the Re-Creator. Only the One who set the world in motion can reset it back to its original condition. God is the “Great Resetter,” and the work of total transformation will commence on the day when He sends Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, back to planet Earth just as He promised two thousand years ago when Jesus ascended back to heaven. When Jesus fulfills that promise and comes back to earth, everything will change. His return to planet Earth is the fulcrum of history. All hope for this dying, broken, disintegrating world flows from the reality that he is coming again to conquer and receive the inheritance that Adam and Eve forfeited in the garden. He will do it.

You have God-given purposes

In 47 BC at the Battle of Zela, the Roman army under Julius Caesar soundly defeated the forces of King Pharnaces, who fought the Romans for control of Pontus in Asia Minor. After his victory, Caesar returned to Rome and made his famous announcement, “Veni, vidi, vici.” “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

Some seventeen hundred years later, a Polish military strategist, King John III Sobieski, led a brilliant campaign to drive the Ottoman invaders out of central Europe. Leading a force of twenty-five thousand men, he came to the aid of the German emperor Leopold I and beat the invaders back to the walls of Vienna, saving the city and the emperor. The Polish king was given audience before Pope Innocent XI, who congratulated him on his victory. King John’s reply was classic: “I came, I saw, God conquered.”

So shall it be in the last days. God will destroy the evil forces of hell and the wicked armies of the earth at the triumphal return of Jesus. Jesus will come, the world will see, and God will conquer. That will be the glorious consummation of history and the climax of this age.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before Jesus comes to initiate the final, great global reset, there will be a great tribulation — a time worse than any period in history up to that point. Jesus spelled it out.

For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. — Matthew 24:21

A great tribulation will precede global transformation. Things on this earth are going to get worse, much worse, before they get better. All the destabilizing forces we see at work in our world today will multiply and intensify and peak in the earth’s final days.

Excerpted with permission from Global Reset by Mark Hitchcock and Jeff Kinley, copyright Mark Hitchcock and Jeff Kinley.

Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 13, 2022

So I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” — Nehemiah 6:3

 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. — Hebrews 12:1

 A long time ago a guy named Artaxerxes was the Persian ruler of the Jewish people. Despite some early friction between Artaxerxes and the Jews, he had an unexplained change of heart toward them as a people. Nehemiah was a servant — the king’s cupbearer — when all of this was going on. The cupbearer was a special job in the palace. This person would pour the wine and taste it before the king did. It wouldn’t have been a bad first job — unless someone was trying to poison the king and you got a mouthful. Then, not so much.

Nehemiah was someone the king trusted with his life, but he was also a slave to him. It was an odd juxtaposition but a deal many of us make all the time. Jerusalem was the big city. If you’ve read the history books, it was forever in the middle of a controversy, much as it still is. It was leveled twice, attacked more than seventy-five times, and recaptured almost as often. One group would overthrow the city, destroy it, and take over, then another group would arrive and do the same. The last group that overthrew the city of Jerusalem had the city walls destroyed and the gates burned (again).

• Nehemiah had a special love for Jerusalem and asked the king if he could leave court and help rebuild the city.

It was a bold ask for a slave, but the king trusted him and told him he could take leave and go. 

There was a lot of work to do, but Nehemiah didn’t just think about it; he got to work. It wasn’t long afterward that some people tried to distract him. These men called him names, said mean things about him, and tried to intimidate him. Their hope was that Nehemiah would become so distracted that he would bail on what he had come to do. Nehemiah made a power move I hope you will adopt in your life. He looked down at the men below calling his name and declared: “I’m doing important work, and I can’t come down!”

• He was a guy who had cracked the code. He knew what he was there to do. He knew why he was doing it. And he wouldn’t be distracted.

Another group figured out where Nehemiah was and threw everything and the kitchen sink at him to get him off task — but once again it didn’t work. Nehemiah yelled down to them while stacking bricks on the wall.

“I’m doing important work, and I can’t come down!”

I can see him — head down, focused, confident, unwilling to yield to the noise around him. Nehemiah knew plenty about distractions, including the power of a distraction to interfere with his larger God-given purposes. He knew these distractions would come his way, and he figured out what he was going to say when they did. You should take a lesson from him.

• “I’m doing important work, and I can’t come down!”

He probably practiced in the mirror so he didn’t have to think about it on the spot. Do the same. Practice saying this to disruptions when they come your way.

“I’m doing important work, and I can’t come down!”

This phrase wasn’t just a slogan for Nehemiah; he had a strategy and a plan to back it up. Here is what he did. Half of the people with him worked on rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem while the other half protected them.

Here are a couple of questions I have for you: What are you going to say to the people and circumstances that come your way, conspiring to distract you from your greater purposes? Will you have the guts and grit to tell these people and the noise around you, “I’m doing important work, and I can’t come down”? Nehemiah couldn’t complete his work alone, and you probably won’t be able to either. Who’s got your back when you are doing the important work? Who is going to help you stick to the important work when you can’t come down?

There was a valley nearby called Ono, but it is pronounced “Oh no.” I’m not kidding. You couldn’t make this stuff up. The people who came at Nehemiah wanted to do more than just distract him; they wanted to take him out. To do this they tried to get him off the wall and down to the “Oh no” valley. I’m willing to bet you’ve been to a place called “Oh no” in your life at some point. Perhaps you’ve listened to the cautious and fear-laced advice from the people around you. “What about this? Oh no. What about that? Oh no.” You might feel like you are on the edge of this place, or perhaps you’ve been living there for a long time. Maybe you have fears born out of disappointments and letdowns in the past. Or anxiety about the future. Perhaps you are in the “Oh no” valley so often it feels like you should get a timeshare there and make it kind of like a lousy trip to Hawaii.

If you aren’t in the “Oh no” valley now or haven’t been there recently, I bet you know people who are the greeters. They are easy to spot because when a great idea comes their way, their first reaction is always: “Oh no. It’ll never work. Why try? Give up! You’re wasting your time. Be more realistic.” These phrases are the coin of the realm for people in a constant state of “Oh no.” Don’t be one of them, and for Pete’s sake, quit hanging out with people who are scaring you off the scent of your beautiful and lasting purpose. Remind yourself that you are doing important work, and you’re not going to come down.

Excerpted from Undistracted by Bob Goff, copyright Bob Goff.

If we want to be like Jesus, we need to be about our Father’s business, doing His work!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 12, 2022

He Will Hold Me Fast

When I fear my faith will fail

Christ will hold me fast

When the tempter would prevail

He can hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast

(Ada Habershon/Robert Harkness 1906-07)

This beautiful old hymn has become one of my favorites in recent times. It seems almost on a daily basis we are confronted by bad news, difficult prospects and personal tragedy. The world, the flesh and the devil conspire to attack our joy, shake our faith and subvert our confidence in a Holy God and the sufficiency of His Word.

I could never keep my hold

He will hold me fast

For my love is often cold

He must hold me fast

We must always remember that even when our love for Him “cools,” perhaps because of the “cares of life, the lusts of the flesh and the deceitfulness of riches”; His love for us remains ever fervent. Why you may ask? Because...

I am precious in His sight

He will hold me fast

Those He saves are His delight

He will hold me fast

This hymn has its roots in three continents. American evangelist, R.A. Torrey, and his music director, Charles Alexander, were holding an evangelistic campaign in Australia in 1902. There they met a new young pianist named Robert Harkness.

Harkness was invited by the local organizing committee to play the piano for the meetings. During the campaign Dr. Torrey asked Harkness, “Are you a Christian?” Harkness replied, “No, I’m here to play the piano!”

Charles Alexander shortly thereafter led Harkness to faith in Christ. Harkness then served with Torrey’s ministry team for several years.

The team traveled to Tasmania, New Zealand, India, and eventually to London where they came in contact with songstress, Ada Habershon.

In early 1906, the team was in Toronto, Canada. Harkness met a young convert there who “expressed the fear that he would not be able to hold out.”

Harkness wrote to Habershon in England to request more texts to address this sentiment. At a mission in Philadelphia later that year, Harkness pulled out some slips of paper that Ada Habershon had sent him. Among the lines written down was the phrase, “He will hold me fast.” Harkness immediately worked out the music for the verses and chorus then and there.

The following summer in 1907, the song was introduced at the Moody Bible Conference in Northfield, Mass. Later that year in an evangelistic campaign led by Dr. Charles Gordon, assisted by Charles Alexander (and probably Harkness) in Kansas City; He Will Hold Me Fast was sung and regarded by many to be the “highlight of the experience.”

“The climax of the service of song came when Mr. Alexander united choir and audience - 6,000 strong - in singing Mr. Harkness’ new hymn, He Will Hold Me Fast. The people were electrified by the vast volume of melody, such as was probably never before heard in the building, and by the thought of Christ holding us fast amid all of life’s temptations.”

May we, across the span of time, join our hearts and voices with that “audience of 6,000 strong” as well as many thousands of others who have sung these words amidst the trials and tribulations of their lives.

He’ll not let my soul be lost

Christ will hold me fast

Bought by Him at such a cost

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my savior loves me so

HE WILL HOLD ME FAST!

In Christ,

Dallas Holm

Great music is an expression of great faith.  May we not only understand but believe the truth that He Will Hold Me Fast!  You are safe in the hands of the One who loves you best.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 11, 2022 2nd Edition

Comments from Compass International, Inc.

Food and the Tribulation

There will come a day, probably sooner than later, when Satan will have achieved his goals on planet earth. He will no longer need the Democrats, liberals, atheists and those with Biblical perversions to spread his pathetic misery.

Yep, the time will come when Satan can operate without the Holy Spirit's Restraint, causing death, disease and destruction of most of the humans on earth. This time begins right after the "big boom" ...our exciting exit!

Boy, will all the non-believers be in for a shock both from the Rapture and the immediate results following the Rapture!

Just after the Rapture, in quick succession, Jesus begins breaking seals of destruction and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are first to appear.

The Four Horsemen

Rev. 6:2 - 1st

World leader conquers with drugs(1)

Rev. 6:3 - 2nd

World war and chaos

Rev. 6:5 - 3rd

Economic calamity

Rev. 6:8 - 4th

Death and hell on earth

The result of the first three horsemen—the drugs, war and economic calamity—is the 4th horseman, who brings massive death worldwide totaling roughly two billion people (1/4 of the earth).

Famine is specifically mentioned:

Authority was given to them [Death & Hades] over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. Rev.6:8b

One out of every four people on the earth will die in the first months of the Tribulation, mainly from mass starvation.

Few will have access to enough food and water to keep themselves alive and will die a horrible death. Or they can't afford to purchase food due to severe inflation (Rev. 6:5).

All the Satanic liars who have wrecked our great country will get their due. They won't be exempted from the billions who die in just a matter of months. All death will be equal across the board.

Satan Wants Death

Satan wants death and misery for everyone—the unsaved Republicans will fare no better than unsaved Democrats.

The unsaved church-goers will fare no better than the unsaved atheists. Those with Biblical perversions can't whine and demand they get food.

All those who told the Lord to take a hike and all those who thought they were Christians will now be in the same starvation mode.

They'll be scrambling for anything to eat and willing to do anything to get food. Ultimately food becomes more valuable than gold.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! James 5:1-3

A person needs sleep, food and water to survive. Ultimately the lack of food causes a person's mind to be obsessed only with food. Sleep and water seem less important, which hastens their death.

Those outside of major cities will fare better in the short run as they will initially survive the food riots. But in the long run, it doesn't really matter, God's wrath has arrived. No one will escape.

A Silver Lining

The silver lining in all of this mess is that all the death listed in Rev. 6:1-8, the first four seals released by Jesus, is followed by an uncountable number who are martyred for their faith.

After these things [The Four Horsemen] I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; Rev. 7:9

This is exciting because we all know people who seem to understand and be knowledgeable about the Gospel but never connected the dots to Believe by faith that results in a salvation experience.

But after the Rapture they'll know exactly what's happened. They'll refuse to serve the New World Order to survive. Rather, they'll Believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ and therefore have their sins washed away—even if it costs them their lives.

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Rev. 7:13-14

This is confirmation that our witnessing today, during this ramp-up to Rapture, could be a lifeline to our family, friends and co-workers who miss the departure.

Maybe some of our bright blue Millions Missing booklets will come in handy! :-)

And as I've said many times, the only thing that ultimately matters in this life is who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. A LOT of people will recall our words of warning, and we'll see them again in heaven!

For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Rev. 7:15-17

So as we get more and more confirmation that God's wrath is getting closer, we can be comforted that Jesus' rescue is near.

Therefore comfort one another with these words. 1Th. 4:18

CQLJ!

BP

1) https://compass.org/a-bow-without-arrows/

Notes of Faith June 11, 2022

The longing for things to be good again is one of the deepest yearnings of the human heart. It has slumbered in the depths of our souls ever since we lost our true home. For our hearts remember Eden.

Most of the time this beautiful, powerful longing flows like an underground river below the surface of our awareness — so long as we are consoled by some measure of goodness in our lives. While we are enjoying our work, our family, our adventures, or the little pleasures of this world, the longing for things to be good again seems to be placated.

But when trials and heartbreaks wash in, the longing rises to the surface like a whale coming up for air, filled with momentum and force. This is especially true after times of severe testing, because during the testing we are rallying. But when the storm subsides, the longing for things to be good again rises up to demand relief.

How we shepherd this longing — so crucial to our identity and the true life of our heart — how we listen to it but also guide it in right or wrong directions, this determines our fate.

God has given each human soul a capacity and drive, a primal aspiration for life. This is as fundamental to you as your own survival.

The epicenter of our being is the deep longing to aspire for things that bring us life, to plan for those things, to take hold of them, to enjoy them, and start the cycle over as we aspire toward new things! This is the essential craving for life given to us by God. Let’s call this capacity the Primal Drive for Life.

Our Primal Drive for Life has taken a real beating over the past few years.

It isn’t only the pandemic. We were all running like rats on a wheel before 2020 — addicted to technology, overwhelmed by global news, wrung out from social tensions, exhausted body and soul from the madness of modern life. We were set up to be steamrolled by the pandemic. Then came the repeated cycles of fear, control, chronic disappointment, all those losses great and small, the inability to make plans for the future.

God wants to make His life available to you

I know, I know — most of you think that what you need right now is three months at the coast. Walking on the beach, drinks on the deck, and with all my heart I hope you find that. But

for most of us, a sabbatical in some gorgeous refuge is not available. What is available is the River of Life, God Himself, in ways we have not yet tapped into.

God wants to make His life available to you. Remember — He’s the creator of those beautiful places you wish you could go to for a sabbatical. All that beauty and resilience, all that life comes from God, and He wants to impart a greater measure of Himself to you! The life of God is described in Scripture as a river — a powerful, gorgeous, unceasing, ever-renewing, ever-flowing river.

Ezekiel was given a number of beautiful visions, glimpses into the kingdom of God that permeates this world. He saw the temple of God in Jerusalem, and out of the temple was flowing the River of Life. As it flowed forth across the countryside, it became so deep and wide it wasn’t possible to swim across it — an image of abundance! I love how the passage ends:

Where the river flows everything will live. — Ezekiel 47:9

Everything will live. This is what we want — to live, to find life in its fullness again.

There is so much life flowing from God that it flows like a mighty river. Isn’t that marvelous? Follow me now — the River of Life is not just for later. Jesus stated clearly that the river is meant to flow out of our inner being right here, in this life:

Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

— John 7:37–38

The mighty life of God flowing in you and through you, saturating you like a river.

In order to tap into the River of Life, we begin by loving God in our longing for life to be good again. That’s where things are decided. Nearly all of us have been chasing relief in a myriad of hopes, plans, and dreams without first turning to God. So we need to enter the longing, feel it, become present to it, and in that place start loving God. Choose Him.

Our first step toward resilience is to return our Primal Drive for Life and our longing for things to be good again to God; we come back to Jesus from all other places we’ve been chasing life. We ask God to fill us with the river of His life.

Jesus, I come back to You now in my longing for life to be good again. I love You here, Lord, in my soul’s longings, desires, and heartaches. I consecrate to You my Primal Drive for Life. I surrender to You my ability to aspire for good things, plan for them, take hold of them, enjoy them, and keep on aspiring. I consecrate all living in me to You, Lord Jesus; I give you my famished craving for life to be good again. I love You here. I love You right here. And now I ask that the river of Your life would flow in me, in my Primal Drive for Life and in my longing for life to be good again. I open my heart and soul to the river of life. Let it flow in me, through me, and all around me — restoring, renewing, and healing me. You alone are the life I seek, and I welcome Your river into my heart and soul; I receive the river of Your life in me. Thank You, God! In Your mighty name I pray.

Give this simple prayer, asking for the River of Life, a try for one week; you’ll see.

Written for Devotionals Daily by John Eldredge, author of Resilient.

We do need more of God.  More of His presence through prayer, more of His love and power through His Word, more of our praise through worship.  Let the river flow!

More of you, more of you

I've had it all, but what I need is more of you

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 10, 2022

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. — Hebrews 12:1-2

In recovery we hear that “hurt people, hurt people.” We’ve all experienced this, and sometimes, we see it happen to others. It’s heartbreaking. School shootings, for example, are a grotesque display of true evil that has brought heartbreak and pain to so many lives. How are we to deal with such deep pain? Where is the hope in a tragedy such as this?

The answer is that

we have no hope apart from Christ.

Without Him, such tragedies just spawn more hurting people who go on to lash out at others in a futile effort to quench their own pain. Jesus is the only source of comfort and light capable of guiding us through our pain to a better place.

When our hearts are breaking and we have questions swirling around in our heads — questions we fear have no answers — God invites us to come and talk it out with Him. Many of the answers may be past our comprehension, but knowing the answers are safe with Him allows us to hand our questions — burdens too great for us to bear — over to Him. God cares about everything that concerns us, everything that grieves our hearts. In the midst of the darkness, He is our hope, the one we can trust.

Prayer

Lord, my heart is breaking as I see hurting people hurting people all around me. Help me to leave my unanswered questions with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

*

In the midst of the darkness, Jesus is our hope

A Picture of Redemption

If you do what is right, will not you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. — Genesis 4:7

Every once in a while God gives us the chance to witness a miracle! Recently, a leader in Celebrate Recovery shared this miracle with me: “A year ago a man walked into my office, broken, at his wit’s end, with a heart full of despair. He was angry and trying to cope with a host of substances and other unhealthy habits that were destroying his mind and hardening his heart. He was ready to abandon his wife and family. Last night I saw this man again at a Celebrate Recovery graduation service. Now, eleven months sober, he is a completely different man.

“With tears in his eyes, he accepted his 12-Step chip and then expressed his love for his wife who was sitting close by. I was humbled as I heard him talk about the restoration that had come to his marriage and how his kids are rejoicing and talking about God. He then quoted the following Bible passage, changing you to I:

‘If I do what is right, will I not be accepted? But if I do not do what is right, sin is crouching at my door; it desires to have me, but I must master it.’

“The man I met a year ago is no more. In his place, a new leader has been born. That’s what I call a true miracle — the transformation of a human life.”

Prayer

Dear God of miracles, I stand in awe of what You have done in so many lives. My words cannot express Your greatness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Excerpted from Celebrate Recovery Devotional by John Baker, Johnny Baker, and Mac Owens, copyright John Baker, Johnny Baker, and Mac Owens.

Even though I have not experienced the struggles of alcohol or drugs to this kind of extreme, I do have the same kind of hope in Jesus for the sins I do commit!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 9, 2022

Article by Vaneetha Rendall Risner
Regular Contributor

Waiting for the Lord.

Hoping in his word.

Watching for the morning.

Those phrases from Psalm 130 still bring me to tears. They describe how I lived for years, after my once-comfortable life dissolved in front of me. I waited, hoped, and watched for life to be good again.

I wanted the wait to be over quickly so my life could return to normal and I could move on. But those years taught me that in God’s hands, waiting is not a meaningless pause, an empty space to be rushed past. No, waiting has a purpose, much deeper and more refining than I ever would have imagined.

Songs That Taught Me Stillness

The psalms showed me how to wait. In my desperate longing, I read them over and over and over again. They gave me words when I had none. They gave me hope when hope was gone. They taught my heart how to trust God even in my darkest hours.

The psalms named the ache in my waiting and gave me words I could offer to God. Through the psalms, I learned that waiting is a holy exercise, one that requires my full attention. I learned stillness and silence, hope, patience, and trust.

Stillness (Psalm 37:7) and silence (Psalm 62:5) let me hear from God, without the noise of technology and the chatter of people vying for my attention. God’s still small voice spoke to my inner being when I intentionally stopped and listened. I wanted to be busy while I waited, to distract myself from the pain of the present empty moment and my overwhelming longings, but God invited me to bring those longings to him instead. Instead of busyness, I found my rest in him. Instead of distraction, my eyes and ears fixed on him.

Waiting patiently for the Lord (Psalm 40:1) is a common theme in the psalms. In those years of waiting, I was often impatient, ready to move on and move past my pain. If impatience is being discontent with the present moment, then patience is embracing the present and letting God meet me in it. I can enter into a holy experience with God in the deepest pain as I breathe in and out his presence. When all I had to hold onto was his presence and his promises, I discovered that he was and is more than enough.

God Works in Our Waiting

The psalms also showed me what God was doing in my waiting. They pointed me to the goodness and grace of God as the psalmists put their hope in him even when everything was falling apart. Sometimes I’ve received what I was waiting for, and the psalms have taught me to look back with gratitude for God’s kindness. Other times, God has not given me what I asked for, and the psalms have taught me to be equally, if not more, grateful for how God met me and transformed me.

At times, I have mistakenly assumed that nothing is happening in my waiting. Yet God works in our waiting, answering both spoken and unspoken requests, molding us into his likeness. He is preparing us for his work and teaching us his ways.

“God works in our waiting, answering both spoken and unspoken requests, molding us into his likeness.”

In our waiting, God is growing our roots. I once transplanted a beloved camellia bush only to put it in a spot with too much sun. It was quickly scorched by the heat of summer. I cut the bare twigs down in the fall, convinced the plant was dead. But over the winter, its roots expanded; what we thought was dead was teeming with life about to emerge. In the spring, green leaves sprouted at the base and our bush came back to life.

That’s a picture of what happens in our waiting. Life looks dormant on the surface, but God is strengthening and expanding our root system to tap into his streams of living water. When we turn to God, we become stronger and more confident in God because of our wait.

More Than the Morning

Finally, the psalms taught me what I was waiting for. I was not waiting for a particular outcome, though I initially thought so. I was waiting for God himself. At first, I was waiting for clarity or direction, the answer to my questions and an outcome for which I had long prayed. But just as Job discovered, the answers to my deepest questions were found in the person and character of God himself.

While we wait, we are not just biding our time, hoping that life will eventually change. We’re putting our hope in the one who will never disappoint. We wait for the Lord, hope in his word, and watch for the morning.

I learned so much about God through seemingly endless dark years as I watched for the morning. Psalm 30:5 says, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning,” but my weeping lasted more than a night, more than a thousand nights, before I saw the night slowly give way to dawn.

At first, all I wanted were glimmers of light indicating my prayers were answered and the wait was over. I was waiting for the outcome I wanted, or at least for an indication of where life was headed. Was life going to get better, or would it continue to deteriorate? Would I get what I’d earnestly prayed for, or would God’s answer be no? I wanted to know which outcome to put my hope in.

That’s when I learned that my hope wasn’t in an outcome. It was in God alone. I needed to trust in the goodness of God and lean into him as I waited. I wasn’t watching and waiting for the morning; I was watching and waiting for God.

As Surely as the Dawn

That realization brought profound change in me. The night was still pitch black as I learned to wait for God more watchfully, more attentively, more expectantly than watchmen wait for the morning (Psalm 130:6). Before sunrise, watchmen see shadows dimly in the receding darkness that become clearer and clearer as the night turns into day. They are looking closely, attentive to the details. And they have no doubt about the outcome.

“Can we wait for God and be satisfied in him alone without insisting on the outcome we want?”

All the psalms echo this earth-shifting revelation. We are waiting for the Lord. For God alone, our soul waits in silence. We wait patiently for the Lord. What we wait for is certain. As Hosea 6:3 says, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

So as we wait, we can ask ourselves:

Can we be still and know that he is God when everything in us wants to fix the situation?

Can we embrace the present moment, with its suffering and sorrow, its pain and imperfections, or are we just waiting for our problems to disappear?

Can we live with uncertainty, trusting that God is doing something in what appears to be an empty silence?

Can we wait for God and be satisfied in him alone without insisting on the outcome we want?

The psalms are songs of hope. Not hope that our situation will change immediately or even in this life. But hope in the God who makes all things new, who cares fiercely and tenderly for us, and has all of eternity to show us what he did in our waiting. Our hope will never disappoint because it is not in an outcome but in the living God. Our hope is in him (Psalm 39:7) and from him (Psalm 62:5), and we wait patiently for him (Psalm 37:7), more than watchmen wait for the morning.

He will always come to us. As surely as the dawn.

Isa 40:31

31 Yet those who wait for the Lord

Will gain new strength;

They will mount up with wings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,

They will walk and not become weary.

NASU

The Isaiah verse above has always been one of my favorites.  Let us learn to wait on the Lord.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 8, 2022

The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” — Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

The world tries to convince us that the Devil is dead, but it’s a specious argument, one based on circular reasoning. Both Scripture and my own personal experience undercut this argument. Truth is, my life attests: Satan, the father of all lies, the chief prevaricator, is very much alive. Truth is, he’d rather have you believe that he’s dead, inactive, or a myth if it’d keep you out of the arms of God.

The question of God — who first posed it? You know the story of Genesis, how God planted a garden and set a man named Adam in the middle of it. From Adam’s rib he cut a woman and named her Eve. As the story goes, God gave Adam and Eve full rule over the garden, with only one restriction. They could not eat of the tree in the center of the garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they did, God said, they would die. Seems simple enough, right?

Jesus came to bring freedom

Enter the Devil.

Taking the form of a serpent, the vile liar visited Eve and tempted her first with a question: “God told you not to eat from that tree?” Eve responded and said God had warned them that if they ate from the tree, mankind would be finished. That’s when the first lie entered the ears of a human. “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” (Genesis 3:4–5 ESV). You can set yourself free of God, the Devil intimated; you can kill him and become your own god.

Sound familiar?

Eve was tricked by the Devil’s lies, and what was the result of that trick? Sin entered the world, and with it, an endless cycle of death and destruction. Into the world came drunkenness. Into the world came sexual immorality and perversion. Into the world came wars and rumors of wars. Into the world came violence and racial divide. The world was forever changed because of the crafty lies spun by a slithering serpent.

Those lies have slithered on throughout history.

In the Gospels that record the life of Jesus, we see the Devil, still scheming, still spinning the same sorts of lies, still tempting people with the lie that life would be so much better if we could only be free of God.

In the eighth chapter of John, Jesus was speaking to the people, and some religious leaders were in the crowd. Jesus — a man known for saying it like it was — spoke the truth, said that every last one of them had been born into sin slavery. Jesus outed the truth. The Devil was alive and active, and he controlled the desires of the religious leaders of the day.

There was good news, though. He’d come to bring freedom, and if they followed His command, they’d be free indeed.

Jesus, thank you for coming to this world and exposing the Devil’s lies. The enemy of our souls tempts us to become our own god, but You came to reveal that You alone can set us free.

Excerpted from Your Daily Phil by Phil Robertson, copyright Phil Robertson.

Listen to and follow Jesus and His Word and you will not hear and be deceived by the lies of the Devil.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 7, 2022

You may relate, but there are times that I struggle to keep the faith. Faith like that of the Shunammite woman. Have you heard her story? Let’s look.

“One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to eat some food. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. Then she said to her husband, “I know that the one who often passes by here is a holy man of God, so let’s make a small, walled-in upper room and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him. Whenever he comes, he can stay there.”

One day he came there and stopped at the upstairs room to lie down. He ordered his attendant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her, and she stood before him. Then he said to Gehazi, “Say to her, ‘Look, you’ve gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She answered, “I am living among my own people.” So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.”

“Call her,” Elisha said. So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway. Elisha said, “At this time next year you will have a son in your arms.” Then she said, “No, my Lord. Man of God, do not lie to your servant.” The woman conceived and gave birth to a son at the same time the following year, as Elisha had promised her. The child grew, and one day went out to his father and the harvesters. Suddenly he complained to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

So he picked him up and took him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon and then died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in, and left. She summoned her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back again.” But he said, “Why go to him today? It’s not a New Moon or a Sabbath.”

She replied, “Everything is alright.” Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Go fast; don’t slow the pace for me unless I tell you.” So she came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his attendant Gehazi, “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman. Run out to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your son all right?’” And she answered, “Everything’s alright.” When she came up to the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone — she is in severe anguish, and the Lord has hidden it from me. He hasn’t told me.”

Then she said, “Did I ask my Lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not lie to me?’”

So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your mantle under your belt, take my staff with you, and go. If you meet anyone, don’t stop to greet him, and if a man greets you, don’t answer him. Then place my staff on the boy’s face.” The boy’s mother said to Elisha, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”

So he got up and followed her. Gehazi went ahead of them and placed the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life, so he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy didn’t wake up.”

When Elisha got to the house, he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed. So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay on the boy: he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. While he bent down over him, the boy’s flesh became warm. Elisha got up, went into the house, and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

— 2 Kings 4: 8-35 CSB

God will always accomplish what He says He will

In 2 Kings 4:17 God promised the woman a son which she gave birth to a year later. Years go by, and she watches her promise grow. Life was good until one day it wasn’t. The boy fell ill, and not just sick, but the Bible says, “he died.” What a blow that must have been. Her promise from the Lord was dead. The promise she had prayed for and cared for, the promise God didn’t have to give her but chose to give her.

Can you relate? Perhaps you’ve not lost a child, but you’ve lost a dream. You’ve heard the voice of God, stepped out in faith, only to find your dream looking lifeless?

John 16:33 reminds us that in this life, we will have trouble. Sometimes life throws us surprises, and not the good kind.

It could be a diagnosis, a financial struggle, a rebellious child, marriage issues, or a host of other things. No matter what problem has wedged its way between you and your promise, don’t start mourning just yet. It may not be as lifeless as it looks.

If you read on down, about 2 Kings 4:23, the Bible says, while the Shunammite woman’s son lay dead, she goes on her way, saying, “it will be well.” Call me crazy, but it doesn’t seem too well to me. Her son is dead. It’s over, let the tears flow! Nope. Not this momma. She responded with faith in the Promise-Giver. Momma was looking past her circumstances and straight at her promise. I hate to admit this to you, but too often I respond the opposite. I put more faith in my circumstances than I do in God’s promises. But I am learning that the way we react to our situations is often the very thing that determines whether our promise lives or dies. Had the Shunammite momma mourned her loss and never went to the man of God, her promise most likely would’ve died and stayed that way. There was no one else with the power to bring her son to life. And friend,

there is no one besides God that has the power to revive your promise.

My question for you is this: how are you responding? Where have you put your faith? In your circumstances or in the Promise-Giver? God wants to breathe life back into your promise, despite how things appear.

God will always accomplish what He says He will.

So my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.

— Isaiah 55:11 CSB

Daily Prayer

Father, today I’m tired. I’m tired of the circumstances that lie to me and distract me from the promise You have for me. Lord, today I am choosing to trust Your word over my life and over my situations. I know that not one word from Your mouth will return void. Although things may LOOK lifeless, I am confident You can bring them to life again. Lord, I love You, and I wait for Your promise. In Jesus name. Amen.

Excerpted from Chasing Jesus by Cassie Downs, copyright Cassie Downs.

We must cling to the words, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  No matter our circumstances the Lord goes before us, walks beside us, and follows behind us.  He is faithful to fulfill His promises.  Trust in Him!

Pastor Dale