Notes of Faith October 19, 2022

Notes of Faith October 19, 2022

God Brings Purpose to Your Pain and Suffering

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

— James 1:2–3

“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

— Revelation 21:4

Suffering in every Christian’s life is certain. The apostle Peter wrote,

Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

— 1 Peter 4:12–13

We don’t like to talk about it because it’s hard and painful, but suffering is inevitable. In a fallen world, things happen that we don’t enjoy because we are living under the curse of sin. That means there will be death, sickness, disease, natural disaster, all the brokenness of the world, and the brokenness of our lives, but pain reminds us that we are not meant to live here forever. Every heartache and every suffering reminds us that we are not to our eternal home yet...

John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible:

Jesus wept.

Have you stopped and thought about why He wept? He was about to do this incredible miracle, to raise Lazarus from the dead, yet He wept alongside the mourners grieving Lazarus.

Why would Jesus weep when He was about to do something so awesome? Why didn’t He look at all these people and say, “What’s wrong with you? I’m about to raise Lazarus from the dead. Stop your crying!”

Instead of doing that, He wept with them. Why? Because this action gives us a glimpse into the heart of God. God takes no pleasure in our pain, nor is He separate from our pain. God is not the cosmic killjoy. God is not up in Heaven trying to ruin things or force us to live miserable lives. No. He weeps with us. He feels pain with us. He is with us.

You might say,

“Well, if God is so good and God is so loving, why doesn’t He stop weeping with us and do something about our pain?”

Here is what I say to people who think this way: God did do something about our pain. He came to earth, lived in the flesh, died on the cross, and rose again so our pain doesn’t have the final say. God has the final say. That is what #butGod is all about. Yes, we live with pain. That’s a natural part of this life, but God comforts us, strengthens us, and one day in eternity will completely free us of all pain. That’s the beautiful hope of the gospel.

When I hear anyone questioning God’s actions (or perhaps what they qualify as inactions), what I hear is them suggesting God doesn’t really care about us. Why would a loving God allow pain into our lives? Here is my perspective on that. Let’s say you don’t believe in God. Does cancer still happen? Yep. Does death still happen? Yeah. Even if you don’t believe in God, all those things still happen. The question is: Do you want to handle all of that on your own, or do you want to go through that awful experience with Someone by your side, holding you up, giving your suffering even greater purpose?

I think you would much rather say, “Man, I actually believe there is a God who created a perfect world. Sin wrecked it, and because of sin, brokenness abounds. But because God is so good, He has not left us on our own. He remains with us at all times, and not just when things are good. He comes to us in our own brokenness. He sometimes heals our pain temporarily on this earth, but even when He doesn’t, He gives us what we need to endure. One day though, He will heal us completely forever in Heaven.”

Without a belief in God, there is no beauty in the story of life, nor is there a point to suffering.

Without God, you believe your pain is all there is and healing is only possible through beating the odds on your own. Instead of dreaming of redemption, you picture dying and going into the ground. That’s it. There’s nothing more to it. If you ask me, that’s a horrible way to live. And I find most people don’t necessarily live like this when things are good. Yet, we can’t blame God when things go badly and take the credit when things go well.

Ask yourself the bigger questions in life and be honest about the answers. God brings purpose to your pain and suffering. Caleb’s life is a perfect example of pain redeemed. Remember the words of the apostle Paul as he shared the secret of contentment:

For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. — Philippians 4:11–13

Believe me, Christ strengthens you — but not through experiences you will necessarily welcome or love. Sometimes He wrecks you to remind you of His infinite love, and that only in and through Him will you be completely satisfied.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Jeremy Freeman, author of #butGod.

Rom 8:28

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose

NASU

Be blessed through (not in) all things, because God is using them to lead you to glory . . . being made like Jesus, holy and blameless and perfect!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 18, 2022

Notes of Faith October 18, 2022

Article by Marshall Segal

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

You Will Be Breathtaking!

Why God Clothes Us In Glory

It might be hard to imagine that a phrase like soli Deo gloria could be misunderstood or misapplied. To God alone be the glory. What could be unclear or mistaken in those six simple words?

Fortunately, the main burden of the phrase is wonderfully and profoundly clear. Our generation (and, to be fair, every generation before us and after us) desperately needs to be confronted with such God-centered, God-entranced clarity. The clarion anthem of the Reformation has been the antidote to what ails sinners from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. We fall short of the glory of God by preferring anything besides the glory of God above the glory of God. That’s what sin is.

We want the credit, the appreciation, the praise for any good we’ve done (and pity and understanding for whatever we’ve done wrong). We were made to make much of him, but we demand instead that he make much of us. That is, if we think much of God at all. John Piper has been waving the red flag for decades.

It is a cosmic outrage billions of times over that God is ignored, treated as negligible, questioned, criticized, treated as virtually nothing, and given less thought than the carpet in people’s houses. (“I Am Who I Am”)

God’s glory gets less attention than the fibers under our feet — and we wonder why life feels so confusing and hard. Five hundred years ago, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and other reformers recovered the priceless medicine: soli Deo gloria. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory” (Psalm 115:1).

To Us Be the Glory

The Reformers were living in a spiritual pandemic of compromise and confusion. As they walked through the darkness and corruption, they stumbled into the holy pharmacies of Scripture. And what did they find in those vials? They found, above all else, the glory of God. And that startling light became the North Star of all their resistance. They would not settle for any religion that robbed God of what was his and his alone.

Justification — what makes us right before God — had been distorted and vandalized in ways that uplifted our work, our self-determination, our glory. God’s justifying act was no longer found by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, but in significant measure, muddied by our efforts. And that emphasis on what we do in salvation siphoned off glory from the gospel. To us, O Lord, and to our name, be some of the glory.

The stubborn word of God would not surrender glory so easily, though. “I am the Lord,” the Reformers read; “that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8). “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). Then four more times in just three short verses:

For my name’s sake I defer my anger;

for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,

that I may not cut you off. . . .

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:9–11)

The only God who saves is a God rightly, beautifully jealous for glory. He plans and works all things, especially salvation, “to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14). Our only hope in life and death is that God will do whatever most reveals the worth and character and beauty of God. All our efforts to find glory beside him or apart from him only lead us further away from him and into sin. Any news that says otherwise, whether from a pope in Rome or an angel from heaven, is a curse, not a gospel.

Does God Get All Glory?

How, then, might soli Deo gloria possibly go awry? If we wrongly assume that God’s ultimately receiving all the glory means his people receive none. No, if God alone is glorified in our salvation, Scripture promises, then we too are and will be glorified. “Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). God himself glorifies someone other than God — to the glory of God.

“God himself glorifies someone other than God — to the glory of God.”

As the apostle Paul unfolds God’s plan in that greatest of all chapters, he says more: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for . . .” For what? For the appearing of Christ? For the renewed creation? No (not here anyway). “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:18–19). The creation pants to see us — what we will be. Why? Paul goes on, “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). When the creation sees us as we will be, it too will be set free.

For us to live in a paradise where fullness of joy lives — where God himself lives — we have to be something more than we are. Piper writes, “You can’t put the jet engine of a 747 in a tiny Smart Car. You can’t fit the volcano of God’s joy in the teacup of my unglorified soul. You can’t put all-glorious joy in inglorious people” (“Soli Deo Gloria”). We will be made glorious enough to swim in the wells of the greatest happiness ever conceived. The oceans, mountains, and stars are lined up outside to get a glimpse of that transformation — of our glory.

God Will Make You Like God

This thread in Scripture is as stubborn and stunning as the one beneath soli Deo gloria. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Even now, here on earth, we’re growing in degrees of glory. And then one day we’ll close our eyes for the last time on earth, and the next time we open them, we’ll barely recognize ourselves: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). When glory finally comes, it will not merely be a wonder to see, but a wonder to be.

“When glory finally comes, it will not merely be a wonder to see, but a wonder to be.”

What will happen when Christ returns? “The dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:52–53). Or as he says a few verses earlier: “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (1 Corinthians 15:42–43). We’re destined to live on a real earth like ours, with real bodies like ours, surrounded by blessings and experiences like ours, but without the weakness, mortality, and sin that plague all we know and enjoy now. That world will be like ours, but glorious. We will be ourselves, but glorious.

One of the most staggering and scandalous claims of Christianity is that God not only loves shameful, undeserving sinners, but shares his glory with them. He not only allows them to live in his presence, but he makes them like his Son.

To God Alone Be Glory

In a man-centered age like ours, it seems right that the overwhelming focus of our theology be away from self and on God. Thirty years ago, John Piper lamented, “I find the atmosphere of my own century far too dense with man and distant from the sovereignty of God” (The Pleasures of God, 2). I assume the pounds per square inch are even higher today (and many more miles farther from heaven). Soli Deo gloria is a precious, God-breathed chorus for our self-sick generation. We’re not in need of many articles exalting our glory.

We might need more than we have, though. Ironically, discovering all that we are and will be in Christ may be one key to escaping the cold cells of man-centeredness. Because anything glorious we discover about ourselves — and we will be glorious — is a mere reflection of him. We don’t receive any glory that does not whisper his glory and therefore glorify him all the more. We are “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9–11). If he makes us wise, he is always wiser. If he makes us strong, he is always stronger. If he makes us happy, he is always happier. As brilliant as the stars are — each of them blazing fires so bright they’re seen across galaxies — their Maker eclipses them all.

At our very, most glorious, nearly unimaginable best — sinless, painless, fearless — we’ll always still be candles lit by a far greater light, the Glory of glories, God himself.

Peter, James and John saw the glory of God at the transfiguration of Jesus. They saw His resurrected and glorified body. They will see, as will the rest of those who believe, His eternal glory, and we will be made like Him. No, we do not become gods, but we do receive eternal life, a sinless life, an incredible body and spirit that is difficult to understand until we are given it and yet something we should all be praising God for and waiting patiently and expectantly for this glorious blessing. Some day soon, according to Jesus, He will return and bless those who believe in Him with glory!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 17, 2022

Notes of Faith October 17, 2022

They Walked with God: Jairus

Read Mark 5:21–24, 35–43 NIV

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around Him while He was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when He saw Jesus, He fell at His feet. He pleaded earnestly with Him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around Him.

While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at Him.

After He put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with Him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

When my daughters were young, we tried an experiment.

I asked Jenna, then eight years old, to go to one side of the den. I had Andrea, six, stand on the other. Three-year-old Sara and I sat on the couch in the middle and watched. Jenna’s job was to close her eyes and walk. Andrea’s job was to be Jenna’s eyes and talk her safely across the room.

With phrases like, “Take two baby steps to the left” and, “Take four giant steps straight ahead,” Andrea successfully navigated her sister through a treacherous maze of chairs, a vacuum cleaner, and a laundry basket.

Then Jenna took her turn. She guided Andrea past her mom’s favorite lamp and shouted just in time to keep her from colliding into the wall when she thought her right foot was her left foot.

After several treks through the darkness, they stopped and we processed.

“I didn’t like it,” Jenna complained. “It’s scary going where you can’t see.”

“I was afraid I was going to fall,” Andrea agreed. “I kept taking little steps to be safe.” I can relate, can’t you? We grown-ups don’t like the dark either. But we walk in it.

We, like Jenna, often complain about how scary it is to walk where we can’t see. And we, like Andrea, often take timid steps so we won’t fall.

We’ve reason to be cautious: We are blind. Blind to the future.

It’s one limitation we all share. The wealthy are just as blind as the poor. The educated are just as sightless as the unschooled. And the famous know as little about the future as the unknown.

Don’t be afraid; just believe.

— Mark 5:36 NIV

None of us knows how our children will turn out. None of us knows the day we will die. No one knows whom he or she will marry or even if marriage lies before him or her. We are universally, absolutely, unalterably blind.

We are all Jenna with her eyes shut, groping through a dark room, listening for a familiar voice — but with one difference. Her surroundings are familiar and friendly. Ours can be hostile and fatal. Her worst fear is a stubbed toe. Our worst fear is more threatening: cancer, divorce, loneliness, death.

And try as we might to walk as straight as we can, chances are a toe is going to get stubbed and we are going to get hurt.

Just ask Jairus. He is a man who has tried to walk as straight as he can. But Jairus is a man whose path has taken a sudden turn into a cave — a dark cave. And he doesn’t want to enter it alone.

Jairus is the leader of the synagogue. That may not mean much to you and me, but in the days of Christ the leader of the synagogue was the most important man in the community. The synagogue was the center of religion, education, leadership, and social activity. The leader of the synagogue was the senior religious leader, the highest-ranking professor, the mayor, and the best-known citizen all in one.

Jairus has it all. Job security. A guaranteed welcome at the coffee shop. A pension plan. Golf every Thursday and an annual all-expenses-paid trip to the national convention.

Who could ask for more? Yet Jairus does. In fact, he would trade the whole package of perks and privileges for just one assurance — that his daughter will live.

The Jairus we see in this story is not the clear-sighted, black-frocked, nicely groomed civic leader. He is instead a blind man begging for a gift. He fell at Jesus’ feet, “saying again and again, ‘My daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so she will be healed and will live’” (Mark 5:23 NIV).

He doesn’t barter with Jesus. He just pleads.

There are times in life when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you are asking to receive. Jairus is at such a point. What could a man offer in exchange for his child’s life? So, there are no games. No haggling. No masquerades. The situation is starkly simple: Jairus is blind to the future and Jesus knows the future. So Jairus asks for His help.

And Jesus, who loves the honest heart, goes to give it.

And God, who knows what it is like to lose a child, empowers His Son.

But before Jesus and Jairus get very far, they are interrupted by emissaries from Jairus’s house.

“Your daughter is dead. There is no need to bother the teacher anymore” (v. 35 NIV).

Get ready. Hang on to your hat. Here’s where the story gets moving. Jesus goes from being led to leading, from being convinced by Jairus to convincing Jairus. From being admired to being laughed at, from helping out the people to casting out the people.

Here is where Jesus takes control.

But Jesus paid no attention to what they said… — v. 36 NRSV

I love that line! It describes the critical principle for seeing the unseen: Ignore what people say. Block them out. Turn them off. Close your ears. And, if you must, walk away. Ignore the ones who say it’s too late to start over.

Disregard those who say you’ll never amount to anything.

Turn a deaf ear toward those who say that you aren’t smart enough, fast enough, tall enough, or big enough — ignore them.

Faith sometimes begins by stuffing your ears with cotton.

Jesus turns immediately to Jairus and pleads:

Don’t be afraid; just believe. — Mark 5:36 NIV

Jesus compels Jairus to see the unseen. When Jesus says, “Just believe,” He is imploring, “Don’t limit your possibilities to the visible. Don’t listen only for the audible. Don’t be controlled by the logical. Believe there is more to life than meets the eye!”

“Trust me,” Jesus is pleading. “Don’t be afraid; just trust.”

Excerpted from They Walked with God by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

Interesting to find this after preaching about sleep (death) and the power of God over death and Jesus calling it sleep (resting). Exciting to see, watch the power of God speak life into that which is dead. He has done that to every believer in Jesus! That which was spiritually dead has been made alive by the power of God! Don’t be afraid, just believe.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 16, 2022

Notes of Faith October 16, 2022

Let's Get Naked

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. — Genesis 3:7

I often hear preachers and evangelists talk about how the goal of our Christian life should be to get back to the way things were in the Garden of Eden — back when God walked and talked openly with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and when things on earth were exactly as they were in heaven. But of course, those two numbskulls went and screwed it all up for the rest of us and here we are, stuck in the middle of a cosmic war with no end in sight.

But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to fight. Of course, with God’s Kingdom everything is a little topsy turvy, and our weapons of warfare aren’t exactly normal. We’re not welding swords or catapults, and the only super soldier serum we’ve got is the Holy Spirit (which is actually way better than anything Captain America might have had).

One of our greatest weapons rests on a choice we have to make every time we approach the throne of God.

How broken are you willing to admit you are? How naked are you willing to get with Him? As much as we say we want things to be like they were before sin entered the picture, don’t forget that Eden was a nudist colony. There was no sin, therefore there was no shame, and their diet was about as healthy as you can get. I’m assuming Adam and Eve both had rock hard abs as well. I guess it’s no wonder they didn’t mind walking around butt naked.

We have a curious habit of wanting to cover ourselves up when approaching God. Maybe it’s because we’ve been trained by church to make sure we always look our best when it’s time to get religious, but while this habit may make us feel some semblance of security, hiding our nakedness to God only creates a wall that keeps us from true transformation. I have spent much of my life in utter denial of my own depravity and sin because something inside of me needed to feel that I wasn’t a complete failure at this whole spiritual thing. I believed all the right things, but my behavior was selfish, lazy, and sinful.

What’s so crazy about all this is that God sees everything, nothing is hidden from Him. So we’re trying to hide our true selves from Him even though He knows us better than we do! I think it’s time to call a spade a spade.

When we dress ourselves up, or avoid bringing our authentic, broken selves to God everyday, we are not trying to hide from God, but rather ourselves.

He is your Father. He comes to take away your shame. So go ahead and give it to Him.

Think about your own sin, your own brokenness, your own bad habits and thoughts and general unholy behavior. It’s not a fun experience, admitting to the cesspool of your heart, because we all want to be better than that. But if you want to have a relationship with God, you’re going to have to get naked. He’s the only one who can lift you out of your depths, but He doesn’t deal with hidden things. He only deals with exposed ones.

So what does it look like to get naked with God? There are many things in our lives that we don’t mind bringing to the Lord — things we know are wrong or areas we know we need to improve on — that aren’t particularly difficult to do. Those are like wearing a bathing suit at the pool; you may not be super happy about it, but there are worse things in life.

But then there are the things in our life that we don’t want anyone to know about, things that feel shameful, dirty, or painful. It could be things you’re dealing with now, or it could be things from your past that you’ve stuffed down, but you know that by not dealing with them they still affect you today in negative ways. We’re talking about the equivalent of being at the pool and having to take off your bathing suit.

Yet God is in your garden, calling out to you. “Where are you? I want to see you, spend time with you, help you.” And you have a choice to make. Either stay hidden behind the trees, or step out in your nakedness, in who you really are and what you’ve really done, and stand before your maker.

It may be terrifying, yes, but don’t forget. He already knows it all anyway. So you might as well present it to Him and let Him clean you up. When faced with Adam and Eve’s sin and shame, God did something extraordinary.

He clothed them.

He is your Father. He comes to take away your shame. So go ahead and give it to Him.

Written for Devotional Daily by Darren Wilson, author of Chasing a God You Don’t Want to Catch.

Our God lives outside of time. He sees and knows everything before we experience it. Our sin is laid bare before Him and He wants us to acknowledge and confess it to Him. Speaking the truth of our sin to God is the only way to be forgiven and receive His peace. Let the past be gone in Christ and move forward in faith, love and the power of the Holy Spirit within to be holy and pure, pursuing the call of God and the reward that is waiting in heaven for obedience to Him!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 15, 2022

Notes of Faith October 15, 2022

Hold My Hand

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

Remember when you were little and an adult would hold your hand when crossing the street? They would look down at you and say, “What do we do when crossing the street or walking in a parking lot?” You’d parrot what they had told you over and over in your little kid voice: “We grab an adult’s hand and look both ways.” I think that universal advice is the world’s version of Isaiah 41:13.

In everything you experience, work through, and survive, God wants you to remember to take His hand.

In fact, when you forget to take His hand, He will still hold yours and lead the way forward. Then He leans down, takes your face in His hands, looks you in the eyes, and tells you, “Don’t be afraid. I will help you. I will guide you. I will show you the way. I will never leave you. I won’t forsake you either. I am here. It is good and if it isn’t good right now, it will be. I won’t let go of your hand. I promise it will get better. Do not be afraid, I’m here.”

Is there something you are going through right now that you haven’t grabbed God’s hand through? What’s it like to know He has your hand right now and that He is helping you?

He gives you peace because He is peace.

The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. — Numbers 6:25–26

Sometimes God can be intimidating. Sometimes we may even feel a little scared of Him. He is the Creator of all things. There are some of those tougher stories we read, especially in the Old Testament, where His wrath is kind of frightening. Don’t be fooled — even in those tougher stories, God’s love, faithfulness, and grace are present.

Some of the greatest lies that anxiety tells us are that we aren’t enough, that no one cares, that no one can help us, and that we are alone. None of this is true. You have a God who loves you. You have people who love you, who can and will help you. God’s face shines on you with a grace that meets you where you are and lets you know that He is with you. Even on those tough days when you aren’t turning toward Him, He will turn toward you. And not only will He turn toward you, meet you, and sit beside you with so much love, He will also give you peace.

He gives you peace because He is peace.

Even when you don’t have peace because anxiety feels like it has stolen it, Jesus can and will be that peace.

If it is a sunny day and you can go outside, go ahead and do this exercise there. Allow your face to feel the warmth of the sun and take a deep breath. Otherwise, imagine that it is a beautiful, sunny day and you are sitting in its warmth.

Write down something you’re struggling to find peace with. How will peace ease your anxiety? Now close your eyes and take a deep breath. Ask Jesus if today, even if only for this moment, He will be your peace and help you feel peace.

Excerpted from 100 Devotions for Kids Dealing with Anxiety by Justine Froelker, copyright Zondervan.

The more time I spend with people the more I am blessed. We need to love and help others in every way God has blessed us to meet their needs. God’s blessing and reward flow through your efforts done in His name. May we serve both God and those He puts around us!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 14, 2022

Notes of Faith October 14, 2022

Jehoshaphat, Isaiah, and Job: Prayers for a Time Such As This

For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You. — 2 Chronicles 20:12

Jehoshaphat and his people were about to face a great enemy, and they were afraid. Armies were on their way to drive them out of the land God had given them, and Jehoshaphat did the only thing he could think to do: he prayed. In his prayer, Jehoshaphat admitted that the people were powerless to stop what was coming at them, and they simply did not know what to do.

Haven’t we all, at some point in our lives, prayed a similar prayer? We’ve all faced a scary situation, an uncertain outcome, or a devastating diagnosis. Just like Jehoshaphat, we’ve experienced times when — on our own — we were powerless against what was coming at us. Hasn’t each of us prayerfully uttered the words, “I don’t know what to do”?

The beauty of this prayer is that, while the people didn’t know what to do, they did know where to look. To focus their gaze on the enemy or themselves would have served only to heighten the people’s fear and despair. They knew their only hope was to fix their eyes on God.

There will be times in our lives when we feel powerless, fearful, and uncertain as to what to do. In those moments, however, we can choose to fix our eyes on the One who can calm any storm, defeat any foe, and lead us through any valley.

Father, I fix my eyes on You as You fill me with Your certainty.

O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You; I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. — Isaiah 25:1 ESV

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

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

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

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

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

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.

— Job 42:5

When have you felt the closest to God? For many of us, it is during seasons of sorrow and suffering that we sense the nearness of Him the most. God has promised us that He will never leave us. We can always be assured of His presence, but it is often in those moments of agony that He chooses to reveal Himself in a whole new way.

Job was a man of great faith. He was described as a man who was “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1 ESV). He made it his practice to rise early and offer prayers and sacrifices for his entire family. By all accounts, Job was a good and godly man. Yet, in his prayer, Job acknowledged that his suffering allowed him to see with his own eyes what he had always heard to be true of God.

We can all think of times when we’ve seen God at work with our own eyes. Maybe it was in the form of physical protection from an accident or illness that should have had a worse outcome. Or perhaps it looked like provision from an unexpected source in a time of great need. Or it may have been a person who came along at just the right moment to comfort, guide, or assist us.

We have heard of You, Lord, but now our eyes see You.

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

We have one great enemy who is also the enemy of God, Satan. His influence and deception in the world is often times frightening as all around us seem to be deluded thinking evil is good and good is evil. The governments of the world are succumbing to his influence and control. But we have a glorious King who will defeats all enemies. He is all we need to stay in the battle of life. Our faithfulness and service to our King will bring His promise and joy and blessing of eternal life with Him! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition (prayer). Some of you will get that one.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 13, 2022

Notes of Faith October 13, 2022

Discipleship – Life on Life

Article by Tom Nelson

Pastor, Kansas City, Missouri

The people we spend time with profoundly shape us. I was reminded of this truth recently at a small gathering of seasoned Christian leaders, focused on forming flourishing pastoral leadership.

Seated next to me was a surgeon who had spent many years training physicians in a prominent teaching hospital. We all listened with rapt attention as he made the compelling case that while the classroom of medical school was vitally important, it was inadequate to give the wisdom, skill, and competency needed for surgery. What was absolutely essential was lots of time at the scrub sink.

He went on to describe the process of scrubbing up for a surgery alongside more inexperienced surgeons. At the scrub sink, they talked through what the surgery would involve and what they might anticipate. Leaving the scrub sink, they rolled up their sleeves and did the surgery together. Afterward, as the team cleaned up back at the scrub sink, the lead surgeon would debrief with the rest what had taken place and what they learned during that particular surgery. Then they would go to the break room for some refreshments and more conversation.

The surgeon went on to say that in preparing a new generation of surgeons, extended times at the scrub sink were not optional. They were essential. In a similar way, he advocated for more intentional scrub-sink discipleship in the church at all levels, including in the preparation and formation of pastoral leadership.

Scrub-Sink Discipleship

The scrub sink is a helpful metaphor for more intentional and transformative discipleship and church-leadership preparation. For it is in a hands-on, life-on-life scrub-sink experience where needed tacit knowledge is transferred and obtained.

What is tacit knowledge? It can be defined many ways, but the basic idea is that tacit knowledge is the kind of learning gained through personal experience and relational connection. Tacit knowledge is implicit knowledge. It is a kind of knowing that goes beyond mere words. Learning to ride a bike, for example, requires a good deal of tacit knowledge. To gain the knowledge and skill necessary to ride a bike, a bike-riding manual may be helpful, but it is far from sufficient. We need to actually get on the bike, and in most cases, we need someone else there who knows how to ride a bike to guide us and cheer us on as we learn.

The twentieth-century philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891–1976) thought deeply about the important dimension of tacit knowledge. In his masterpiece work, Personal Knowledge, he writes, “By watching the master and emulating his efforts in the presence of his example, the apprentice unconsciously picks up the rules of the art, including those which are not explicitly known to the master himself” (53).

“Shared experience is the heartbeat of the tacit dimension.”

Polanyi realized that while the classroom and curricula are effective conduits of propositional knowledge, they are limited when it comes to gaining tacit knowledge. The tacit dimension of knowing transcends words and flows from personal relationships in the context of real-life togetherness and experience. Shared experience is the heartbeat of the tacit dimension.

Jesus and the Tacit Dimension

When we reflect on Jesus and his discipleship methods, we observe a strong tacit dimension. Jesus invited his inner circle of disciples to what could be described as a three-year scrub-sink experience. Yes, they heard him preach and teach great propositional truths, but they also lived daily life with him, observing his sinless life, his miracles, his skills, his wisdom, and his spiritual practices.

Following the resurrection, Jerusalem’s religious aristocracy were in awe of Jesus’s disciples’ brilliance and boldness. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). How do we account for the astonishing transformation of Peter and John? Clearly, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost emboldened them, but I also believe the disciples’ three-year life-on-life experience with Jesus, where a much more tacit knowledge was transferred and obtained, is a large contributing factor. Don’t minimize the profound transformation that occurred in the life of Jesus’s closest disciples as a result of their personal experience with him.

Through the words of the religious aristocracy, Luke includes the pregnant sentence “and they recognized they had been with Jesus.” Is this mere historical observation to further the Acts narrative, or does it also give us something of pedagogical importance as we reflect on discipleship?

Taking Jesus’s Yoke

In our discipleship and church-leadership development, we would be wise to emulate Jesus’s life-on-life apprenticeship model, so rich in tacit knowledge. Jesus invites all who would follow him into his highly relational, highly transformative yoke of apprenticeship: “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you, and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29). In this great invitation from Jesus, he calls all who would follow him to take his yoke of apprenticeship. Entering his yoke in obedience and submission, we encounter a highly relational apprenticeship where we learn how to live as Jesus might if he were in our place.

“The tacit dimension of discipleship embraces both the precepts and the practices of Jesus.”

The tacit dimension of discipleship embraces both the precepts and the practices of Jesus. In grace, over time, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, apprentices of Jesus increasingly are formed into greater Christlikeness. Jesus put it this way: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

Emulating Jesus, the early church adopted an apprenticeship model of discipleship that was highly relational, rich in tacit-knowledge transfer, and embedded in the local-church community. Writing to his protégé Timothy, who was serving in a pastoral role in Ephesus, Paul gives this grace-filled instruction: “My child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:1–2). While entrusting sound doctrine to others has a strong propositional element, don’t miss the highly relational environment of a vibrant local church and discipleship. Paul’s description seems a lot like scrub-sink discipleship. Transforming discipleship is both taught and caught.

Read your Bible, pray without ceasing, gather together with others of like faith, and grow as the disciple God has called and made you to be. Be blessed in your obedience to do all that God has called you to do be and say.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 12, 2022

Notes of Faith October 12, 2022

Sink Your Teeth into This

Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! — 1 Samuel 12:16 NIV

When you think about a shark, probably one of the first things you imagine is its teeth! More than 400 species of sharks are in the world, and they all have teeth! Lots and lots of them. That’s because they also lose lots and lots of those teeth... as they rip and tear into their prey. Yikes! Sharks would quickly starve without their teeth, so God gave them a unique teeth-replacement system.

Sharks’ teeth are arranged in rows in their mouths, one behind the other. Some sharks have “only” 5 rows of teeth, but others, like the bull shark, have 50 rows! These rows basically act like conveyor belts. When one tooth is lost, another tooth from the row behind it pushes forward to take its place.

"God takes care of His people, sometimes in amazing, creative, and miraculous ways."

– Louie Giglio

Be Amazed

Sharks are born with a full set of teeth, unlike humans, who are born toothless! Sharks’ teeth vary in shape, depending on the type of shark and what it eats. For example, the shortfin mako shark has razorlike teeth for tearing, while the zebra shark has flat teeth for crushing the shells of the mollusks it likes to eat.

Sharks aren’t the only creatures God takes care of in unique ways. He comes up with some pretty unusual ways to take care of His people too. Think about the Israelites who wandered and camped out in a desert-like wilderness for 40 years. Their shoes and clothes never wore out!

Then there was Elijah — God fed him by sending ravens carrying bread and meat. And the widow of Zarephath? Even in the middle of a terrible famine, her jars of oil and flour never ran out. What a miracle! Many more examples of God’s miraculous protection are in the Bible. The point of them all is that God takes care of His people, sometimes in amazing, creative, and miraculous ways. So you can always trust Him to take care of you. Just watch and see what creative ways He does it!

Lord God, You are amazing in all the different ways You take care of Your creation. Open my eyes to see how You take care of me.

Excerpted from Indescribable by Louie Giglio, copyright Louie Giglio.

There have been times when I have put to the test every possible guardian angel and without a miracle from God I should have been severely injured or died. I do not understand all that God has done and is doing in my life but it would be impossible to believe that He is not there caring for and providing my every need! You too, should be able to look back and see the work of the Lord in your life. If He has brought you to Himself through faith to salvation . . . that is a MIRACLE! Let us celebrate the work of the Lord in our lives!.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 11, 2022

Notes of Faith October 11, 2022

Gathering Firewood

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people. — 1 Timothy 2:1

Gathering firewood is a chore most campers are familiar with. One wise scoutmaster, when asked by a young scout how much wood he should collect, replied, “Get as much as you think you will need and put it in a pile. Then go gather the same amount and put it on the pile. Finally, go get half again the amount you have collected and add it to the wood pile. Now you have about half the amount you will need, but at least you will know where to go look for more.”

Does prayer ever feel like that sort of chore? We pray and pray and pray. We wait and wait and wait for an answer. We wonder how long we need to pray before God grows weary of listening to us. What’s more likely is that we will tire out long before He does. An elderly saint once said that he prayed an hour when he first arose, unless he had a lot to do that day. On those mornings, he would pray for two hours. Sounds a bit like the scoutmaster, doesn’t it? However much we pray, we might want to try doubling it — and then maybe doubling it again. Paul said we should pray continually! (See 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18.)

Regardless of how we might feel, we are assured that God hears us.

I call on You, my God, for You will answer me; turn Your ear to me and hear my prayer. — Psalm 17:6

God’s Word would not teach us so much about prayer if it were not important. Jesus Himself gave us the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer. The book of James also gives instructions about prayer, as well as the assurance that “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

It is a privilege to have God’s ear, and we must not take it lightly or take it for granted.

Thank You, Father, that You invite us to pray. Thank You for the examples and instructions given in Your Word. I am so grateful that You hear my prayers.

I call on You, my God, for You will answer me; turn Your ear to me and hear my prayer. – Psalm 17:6

Mountainside Prayer

After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. — Matthew 14:23

Do you ever feel like your day is just too hectic to squeeze in time alone with God? We all have days like that, don’t we? It turns out that even Jesus occasionally had to work at it to find time alone with His Father. For instance, Matthew 14 opens with the account of why John the Baptist was beheaded. Then Jesus fed the five thousand, and later He walked on water. Those are big events, and it’s easy to miss what Jesus did in between. He went looking for solitude in order to pray — twice. The first time is in Matthew 14:13, when He had just heard about John’s death. However, the crowds heard that He had taken a boat to a solitary place, and they followed Him on foot.

Though most of us don’t have crowds following us around, we do run into obstacles to our time alone with God. Texts, e-mails, and phone calls can reach us anywhere. Kids who usually can’t be pried away from a screen suddenly need us right now. Our own minds light up like pinball machines, pinging from one concern to the next. How we need the quiet!

So how did Jesus respond when He saw the crowd waiting for Him on shore?

He had compassion on them and healed their sick. — Matthew 14:14,

and then He fed them all. He might have been tired and disappointed; He may have been aching with grief for John the Baptist. But He was tenderhearted toward the people who needed Him.

Then He tried again. He sent the disciples ahead on the boat, and He dismissed the crowd. Then, finally, He had time by Himself on the mountainside to pray.

If Jesus, who is one with the Father (John 10:30), sought time alone with the Father, how much more do we need it! We may have to try and try again. That’s okay. God is still there, waiting to welcome us.

Dear Lord, thank You for all that we learn about You from Scripture. Please help me to respond with compassion when I am needed at inconvenient times. Help me to keep trying so that I find my time with You.

Excerpted from Devotions from the Mountains by Lisa Ham, copyright Thomas Nelson.

I try to pass on to you what the Lord brings to my attention through any and all communications that I have with you. This morning, prayer is the theme. A constant never-ending communication is what I seek. I see this in Jesus as I read the gospels. No matter the circumstances, Jesus seems to be connected to His Father in prayer, sometimes more intense than others but in everything being connected as One. I want to experience this oneness that Jesus prayed for you and me in John 17. Certainly we can know this intimacy through prayer! Be blessed this morning as you pray!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 10, 2022

Notes of Faith October 10, 2022

“Dear Pastor John, I have been up until recently very happily married. I am now widowed. My husband died just a few weeks ago, and I am devastated. I believe there’s a reason for why I have been left behind. I trust God on that. I believe there’s a reason why he had to go. I can trust God on that. I believe that we can make it without him — myself, our young son, and the church my husband led. I find myself experiencing joy and longing, trust and nervousness, peace and homesickness for heaven.

“Aside from missing him and wanting the life we had back, what I can’t seem to wrap my head around are these questions. Why did God even allow me and my husband to share a love like ours on earth if this will mean nothing in heaven? Can’t I at least be guaranteed that my husband will still be my best friend in heaven? Will he even be excited to see me when I get there? In marriage, two become one. Am I just half a person left behind? I know when I get to heaven and enter God’s presence, none of these questions will matter. But they matter now. And I struggle to find wisdom and comfort as to how I must approach my remaining years on earth. Thank you.”

That’s a beautiful question, because it’s just so full of faith at the front end and then perplexity at the back end. The loss is still painful, and the questions are still real and urgent. So let me sit down, so to speak, with her for a few minutes and think out loud about three of her questions in the hope that maybe my reflections from the Bible and experience will bring some measure of Christ-honoring comfort to her.

Behind her questions is the teaching of Jesus in Mark 12:25: “When [married people] rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” In other words, marriage as we know it will not exist in the age to come. That’s behind her questions. That very fact is raising numerous perplexities for this young widow.

Echoes in Eternity

So, first, she wonders, “Why did God even allow me and my husband to share a love like ours on earth if this will mean nothing in heaven?”

The first thing to say in response to this question is that, in this present life, every relationship of love, and faithfulness, and loyalty, and sacrifice, and care will be celebrated for all eternity in tribute to the grace of God and the faithfulness of his obedient child. The “well done, good and faithful servant” that Jesus speaks to his faithful followers at the resurrection is a well done in every fruitful relationship (Matthew 25:23). Well done for that beautiful love. Well done.

God’s gracious approval of our imperfect works of faith is not a celebrative bubble that pops at the second coming and is forgotten for eternity. There are eternal good effects to all good done on the earth. Ephesians 6:8 says, “Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.” Good parenting that lasts five years before a child is snatched away in a car accident; good chastity during engagement before a fiancé dies of a heart attack before the wedding; good faithfulness and intense, mutually self-giving romance in marriage that she describes — these will not be meaningless in heaven. They won’t.

“Every good and beautiful fruit of God’s Spirit in your life will reverberate forever.”

Every good and beautiful fruit of God’s Spirit in your life will reverberate forever to the tribute of his grace and your faith. That’s the first thing to say. The sweetness and intensity of the love between you and your husband will have its echo in the music of heaven. It wasn’t in vain.

God Saves the Best Wine

And the second thing to say about this question of why God gave them such sweet love is this: this world, in its most exquisite pleasures, is designed by God to show something of himself. The heavens and everything else are declaring the glory of God, the psalm says (Psalm 19:1). And all these pleasures are meant to awaken thankfulness now and strong anticipation of the age to come when the pleasures of this age will seem as foretastes of something vastly greater. They are. The pleasures of this present age, even the most godly of them, are not the point of the universe, but they are pointers to the point.

The Bible pictures the age to come as better than this life, not just because bad things will be taken away, but because good things will be seen to be only foretastes of better things — a better feast of pleasure. Jesus showed this when he said that marriage gets replaced by something better (Mark 12:25). Paul showed it when he described the resurrection as replacing this world with something gloriously better. Listen to these words from 1 Corinthians 15:42:

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42–44)

Now, we can’t conceive fully what a spiritual body is. But in Paul’s mind, it exceeded this present body, with all its pleasures, like the brightness of the glory of a blue sky exceeds a decaying, rotting seed in the ground.

“The happiest marriage in the world is but a head start on the joys of heaven.”

So, I conclude that the happiest marriage in the world is but a head start on the joys of heaven. It is the appetizer before the feast. It is the warm-up singer who’s really good before the great artist sings. God saves the best wine, just like Jesus at Cana, till the last (John 2:10). And in a happy marriage, even the first wine was really good.

Greater Melody of Love

Then our young widow asks, “Can’t I at least be guaranteed that my husband will still be my best friend in heaven? Will he even be excited to see me when I get there?” Now, she knows as well as I do, and she says as much at the end, that Jesus is and will be her best friend. She knows that. “No longer do I call you servants . . . but I have called you friends” (John 15:15). “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

But I think what she’s feeling is that, while her husband lived, he bestowed on her something that nobody else on earth could give — a unique kind of affection, a love that gave her a very precious sense of belonging that nobody else could give on this earth. And she wonders whether she will have that sweet experience in the age to come, which only he was able to give her.

And I think the answer is we just don’t know what the music of love on earth is going to be like when it is transposed into the greater melody of the love of heaven, where there’s no sin whatsoever. This is the great unknown about the immeasurable joys of heaven. What will it be like when she and her husband are beyond the possibility of sin — the sin of self-pity, the sin of disregard? What will it be like when we are not capable of being disappointed, when we’re not capable of being sad at any relationship that God has established? Your husband, I venture to say, will be for you, and you will be for him, all that you need each other to be in order for your joy to be full in the presence of God.

Not Less, But More

And finally, she wonders this: “Since in marriage the two become one, am I just half a person left behind?”

The answer is no, you are not only half a person left behind. It’s not that simple. Yes, part of you is gone. I’ll admit that. I think you should own that, and that’s sad. Part of you is gone. Only he could draw out of you certain desires, certain kinds of laughter, anger, peace, and countless other inner responses that you can’t even put into words. He had become so embedded in your life that for him to be absent is, yes, for part of you yourself to be absent. That’s true. Things will never be just the same again. And it would dishonor him to think that they should be.

But consider this: not all that you became by union with him is lost. You know it’s not. You became a wiser, deeper, better person because of life with him. He did not take all of that with him when he left. You know he didn’t. You know who you are. And what you became through him is not less, but more than you were before he entered your life. God has not made you less, but more.

Things will never be the same. That’s true. But God’s call on your life now is to be the person you became through love with your husband, for the glory of God.

I would just like to repeat a couple of things that John Piper said… we do not know clearly what heaven will be like. But we do understand from Scripture that it is better than anything we have experienced in this life! That should give us even greater hope for what is to come.

Pastor Dale