Notes of Faith November 8, 2022

Notes of Faith November 8, 2022

The Reason Why We Vote

The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics... God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground... It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation are becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they think God does not see what they do in politics. ~ Charles Finney

If America is to survive, we must elect more God-centered men and women to public office — individuals who will seek Divine guidance in the affairs of state.

~ Billy Graham

God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good, so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. ~ Noah Webster

It's election day. Vote!

 The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. ~ Samuel Adams

I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7:17

Praising God should be an everyday and throughout-the-day occurrence in this great country we call home. We are blessed with the freedom to live as we wish, vote as we choose, worship where we want to, and express our opinion without fear of retribution. These are privileges we should not take for granted. May God be our guide this November as we plan for the future and prayerfully exercise our right to vote.

Excerpted from If My People by Jack Countryman, copyright Jack Countryman.

I am on my way to vote this morning. I pray that you have already exercised your right to vote or are planning to do so later today! We have been blessed to live in a country as Christians with less persecution than many others and need leaders that love, trust, and follow the Lord for the benefit of all American citizens. It is the Lord who raises people into positions of leadership and takes them down as well. Let us pray that our votes lead to glorifying God and bringing peace and security to all.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 7, 2022

Notes of Faith November 7, 2022

Growing Strong

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us. — 2 Peter 1:3

How can we develop a faith strong enough to see us throughout our lives?

The key is this: God wants us to be spiritually strong and has provided us with every resource we need.

We need God’s strength to face life’s challenges — and He wants to give it to us.

Tragically, many Christians never discover this. They have committed their lives to Christ… they may be active in their churches… they pray and read their Bibles on occasion — but they remain spiritually immature and weak in the face of life’s temptations and setbacks.

We may be old in years, but if our faith is immature, we will be fearful and unprepared. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Just as a baby needs food and exercise in order to grow, so we need the spiritual food and exercise God has provided for us. Without them our faith is weak, but with them spiritual strength increases, and we are better prepared for whatever life has in store for us.

What are you doing now that will make you spiritually mature when you’re older?

From Seedling to Tree

He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season. — Psalm 1:3

It is no accident that the Bible compares us to trees, urging us to grow spiritual roots that are deep and strong. But a tree wasn’t always a tree. It began as a small seed. Spiritual life also begins with a seed — the seed of God’s Word planted in the soil of our souls that eventually sprouts and becomes a new seedling as we are born again. But though we’re saved, we aren’t meant to remain spiritual seedlings, weak and vulnerable to every temptation or doubt or falsehood or fear. God’s will is for us to grow strong in our faith and become mature, grounded in the truth of His Word and firmly committed to doing His will (1 Peter 2:2).

Giving your life to Christ is an essential first step — but it is only the first step. God’s will is for you to become spiritually mature, growing stronger in your relationship to Christ and your service for Him. Conversion is the work of an instant; spiritual maturity is the work of a lifetime.

Is your faith like a seedling, a sprout, or a mature tree?

Mature Fruit

Be mature and complete, not lacking anything. — James 1:4 NIV

We cannot pretend to be something we are not; a Christlike character cannot be faked. If Christ is not real to us or if we haven’t learned to walk with Him and submit our lives to Him every day, then our spiritual impact will be far less than it might have been. People are very sensitive to hypocrisy; if they sense it in us, they will dismiss our pretenses and pay no attention to our advice. On the other hand, if they can sense our faith is sincere and our love is authentic, then they will respect us and take us seriously (even when they know we are not perfect).

This is why it is important to begin building our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ now, instead of waiting until it is too late and the problems of old age overwhelm us. Every gardener knows that mature fruit does not appear overnight. It takes time to grow — and so does the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Start tending your garden today, so you may be “mature and complete.”

In what place in your life do you most need spiritual growth?

Excerpted from Peace for Each Day by Billy Graham, copyright Billy Graham Literary Trust.

Christianity was never intended to be fire insurance. We are chosen, called, saved, redeemed, children of God to give back to God the offering of worship, praise, and service with all that He has given us . . . our very lives! In doing so, we will grow and mature in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please do not think, “I believe in Jesus, that is all I need”, you may get into heaven, but …

1 Cor 3:10-15

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

NIV

Eternal rewards are so much greater than temporal earthly rewards and yet it seems everyone is seeking them. Spiritual maturity, becoming more like Christ day by day, brings blessing now and great reward when we leave this earthly life.

Pursue the Lord Jesus with all that you have until you see His face welcoming you home and you will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That is the reward I seek for living in God’s will in this life. Join me in pursuing Jesus!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 6, 2022

Notes of Faith November 6, 2022

Article by Greg Morse

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

You sit in the waiting room of the hospital, mindful that your case is not urgent. Yours is no life-threatening illness, no shrieking pain or broken bone, no bloody show. People rush in with needs more dire than yours; you gladly concede your spot and move further and further down the list. You sit — a day, a week, a season — never a calm moment granting you admission.

Finally, your name is called. You walk to the reception desk, and the nurse asks why you’ve come. It then dawns on you that you’re not entirely sure. “Any trouble breathing?” No. “Any lingering headaches or soreness of throat?” No. “Any fever or trouble sleeping?” No. “Then what brings you in today?” Well, something like a slow disorientation, an inescapable fatigue — symptoms of living as a single sock left at the back of the drawer.

You feel useless, ungifted, unneeded — in life, and even in the church.

You listen to the preacher every Sunday, and you know he is being used of God. You see the young couples raising children in your local church; you pray for more of God’s fingerprint upon their lives. You intercede for missionaries risking life and limb in foreign lands, lost in the blinding light of the Great Commission. You realize you have never lived twenty miles from your hometown.

You serve the Lord Jesus, but you can’t escape feeling like a background character — cast as “baker #3” — in the unfolding story all around you. More prominent actors live. Compared to them, you merely exist. Maybe you feel it keenest around a friend or family member who eclipses you in Christ. “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,” you remain. Every other puzzle piece seems to fit. If you went missing from the congregation, would any take notice? Are you just “singing and praying churchman #13”?

Unimpressive

You do not doubt that Christ has accepted you purely of grace apart from works — apart from your doings of the past, the present, or the future. But when cynicism descends, you still wonder how the church is better off with your inclusion. You’re unimpressive — okay, no problem. You know Paul reminds the church at Corinth that most were not wise in the world’s eyes, not powerful, not noble. Rather, there was a foolishness about them, a weakness and lowliness to win the world’s sneer. A church full of kids picked last at recess — to shame the strong and silence the boasting (1 Corinthians 1:26–29).

But you still wonder why you don’t feel more alive and useful. You are not the sluggard or his sophisticated brother, excusing himself from the committed life. Maybe the Master has cast you as the one-talent saint of lower ability, yet you still want to invest it the best you can — unlike the servant who buried his one talent and, in the end, lost it (Matthew 25:15–30). You want to invest all of you, however much that amounts to, even if you won’t be Adoniram Judson, George Whitefield, or Elisabeth Elliot. But on yawning days, you secretly fear that your ordinary life amounts to a wasted one.

So you sit in the waiting room. With great sins and desperate situations, you don’t want to take up the pastor’s or small group’s time droning on about the inarticulate sense of purposelessness. Thankfully, envy has not swallowed your joy toward the Hermione Grangers of Christ’s kingdom when you admit yourself to be more like Neville Longbottom. But you wonder, What’s the point?

Indispensable

Dear Christian, even timid, lackluster, unimpressive Neville plays his part, a vital part, in the end. And if you pass your days with a sigh and suspicion that even in Christ you don’t much matter, be comforted by one word: indispensable. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you,’” Paul writes to the church in Corinth.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:21–26)

“Hear him proclaim over your gifts, your service, your membership in the body, ‘indispensable.’”

They, like we, were tempted to value some spiritual abilities and service as vital to the church and others as insignificant. They learned this from the kingdom of men. Most kingdoms tout the rulers and the rich and the noble horsemen and the wise as the indispensable ones. The strong and the skilled move about the board as bishops and rooks and knights, while the rest of us move forward as pawns. Expendable. But the pawns, in Christ’s economy and kingdom, are essential. He turns them by grace into kings and queens, and teaches the rest to see with his eyes, so that all the members might care equally for one another.

Empowered

So, brother or sister in Christ, you may not be able to teach like him, or share your faith like her, or show hospitality quite like them, or pray like that, or shine as brightly with good works. You may feel like the baby toe of the gathered assembly. The eye of the body beholds hidden glories, the mouth proclaims Jesus with boldness, the fingers perform great acts of service — you feel as though you rest in your shoe and darkness. You feel sweaty, stuffy, unventilated. Yet if Christ’s Spirit dwells in you, hear him proclaim over your gifts, your service, your membership in the body, indispensable. One whom we simply cannot do without. The church of Christ needs you.

“Christ did not save you with an eye toward what he might get from you.”

And although countless ways exist for you to walk more faithfully to your calling and live more boldly for the common good of the church, remember that Christ did not save you with an eye toward what he might get from you. The good shepherd has no need of any from his flock. He did not peer into the future and decide whether you were worth the bother of the cross. He does not now look upon you with indifference or wait for you to earn your keep. Treasured saint, before he works in and through you for his own good pleasure, he forgives you, and clothes you, and calls you indispensable — a member of himself already. We put on our new lives and new works of service “as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3:12).

No one whom the Father has chosen before the foundation of the world, no one whom Christ has shed his precious blood for, no one filled by the Holy Spirit of God is dispensable or unnecessary to the body. As the Lord gives life, each is needed, each is necessary. So let that word indispensable wash over your insecurities and carry you upon its waves to greater love and works until we stand before our golden King to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

You ARE indispensable! No one has the has the authority or knowledge of your indispensability more than God. Others may mock you, make you feel weak and useless, but God places you in His body as an indispensable organ, appendage, or other needed body function in which we all must work to sustain health and function. God made you and gifted you for His glory! Return His love for you by using what He has given you to bless and serve Him. Give thanks for who you are in Christ and be filled with joy that God calls you indispensable!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 5, 2022

Notes of Faith November 5, 2022

The Cure for Disappointment

Grace for the Moment

by Max Lucado

I am the Lord, the God of every person on the earth. Nothing is impossible for Me. — Jeremiah 32:27

We need to hear that God is still in control.

We need to hear that it’s not over until He says so.

We need to hear that life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. They are simply a reason to sit tight.

Corrie ten Boom used to say, “When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through.”

The way to deal with discouragement? The cure for disappointment? Go back and read the story of God. Read it again and again. Be reminded that you aren’t the first person to weep. And you aren’t the first person to be helped.

Read the story and remember, the story is yours!

~ He Still Moves Stones

God Is For You

He will rejoice over you. — Zephaniah 3:17

God is for you. Turn to the sidelines; that’s God cheering your run. Look past the finish line; that’s God applauding your steps. Listen for Him in the bleachers, shouting your name.

Too tired to continue? He’ll carry you.

Too discouraged to fight? He’s picking you up.

God is for you. Had He a calendar, your birthday would be circled. If he drove a car, your name would be on His bumper. If there’s a tree in Heaven, He’s carved your name in the bark.

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” God asks in Isaiah 49:15 (NIV).

What a bizarre question. Can you mothers imagine feeding your infant and then later asking, “What was that baby’s name?” No. I’ve seen you care for your young. You stroke the hair, you touch the face, you sing the name over and over. Can a mother forget? No way. But “even if she could forget her children, I will not forget you,” God pledges (Isaiah 49:15).

Excerpted from Grace for the Moment by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

Heb 13:5

"I will never leave you nor forsake you."

ESV

Matt 28:20

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

ESV

In and through all things God is always with us. He has compassion on us. And for those who believe in Jesus and His work, God will bring these to Himself having perfected them in Jesus and making them holy, pure and perfect, blameless, without sin, and physically glorified like the resurrected Jesus!

John 16:33

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

NKJV

Life has its tribulations, but we will overcome through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 4, 2022

Notes of Faith November 4, 2022

Give Thanks Out Loud

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen. — Revelation 7:11-12

You might know something in your mind, but it becomes tangible and sticks with you when you write it down. The same can be said for repeating something out loud. It’s another way to solidify the truth in your heart that you have so many reasons to give thanks.

Spend a few minutes reading out loud the gifts you’ve written down so far. How did reading them aloud affect your mindset and your mood?

Did you think of more gifts during the process? Write them down — and say them out loud too!

Give Thanks Before Others

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.” — Revelation 4:9-11

Choose a friend, coworker, child, or relative. Tell him or her a reason — or several reasons — why you’re grateful. Your honesty will bless you both.

What are your thoughts about expressing your gratitude to someone else? Are you hesitant or eager? Why do you think you feel this way?

Do you have someone you can share your thoughts and feelings with? Do you know how you want to share your thankful heart? Write it down here first, like you’re writing a letter. You don’t need to be formal; just describe why you’re grateful.

Gratitude is a new window you can use to see the world.

The Purpose of Gratitude

Always give thanks for everything,” Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:20 (TLB).

Okay, Paul, we think. But you don’t know about…

No doubt you face difficult circumstances. Paul did too — we’re talking stonings, shipwrecks, and starvation. He faced hard times, and because of them, he knew we’d need a reminder: always give thanks.

It takes work and intention to be grateful — to see what you have and not what you’re missing, to focus on your gifts and not on your losses. It requires setting your mind on the right things and putting forth effort day by day, again and again.

It’s challenging, friend. But it’s so worth it.

How do we know? Paul told us, after grasping for gratitude firsthand. Even behind prison walls, Paul found gratitude a key ingredient to a hopeful perspective and a happy life. Not because it took away his chains but because it changed the way he saw them:

I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare [the gospel] boldly.

— Ephesians 6:20

Gratitude can do the same for you. You may be stuck in difficult circumstances. The rough road you’re walking may stretch for unknown miles. But gratitude can renew your mind (Romans 12:2) and transform the way you see your circumstances.

Said another way,

gratitude is a new window you can use to see the world.

You may peer out and see the same old life, same old circumstances, and same old struggles. But among them, now you also see something good. Something hopeful. Something praiseworthy. Something to be thankful for.

Excerpted from The Weekly Gratitude Project, copyright Zondervan.

I prayed, and gave thanks this morning, as I prepared to go to the doctor, for the pain that I am feeling in my left foot. Being a diabetic, even type two, takes away many feelings of pain. Things could get worse without my knowing. So, although I am suffering some pain, I am grateful for it making me aware that I need to have someone look at the situation and prayerfully (part of my reason for praying) they will have a remedy for the situation and can do more than alleviate the pain.

Your pain may be different than mine, but God uses all things that He allows to come into our path to make us more like Christ. Christ suffered physical human pain, emotional pain, spiritual separation from His Father…you and I will never suffer as did our Lord. Let’s be willing, even thankful for the bodies that He has given us and give thanks – even for the pain, because it speaks to us of something that needs to be paid attention to, remedied, if possible, but certainly in prayer God will respond to our need for His closeness and tenderly holding our hand until we are in His presence!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 3, 2022

Notes of Faith November 3, 2022

Ordinary Mornings, Extraordinary Grace

Sure as the Sunrise

From His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace — John 1:16

Today, take note of what brings you gladness. That which gives you pause or causes you to take a deep breath. These are glimpses of God’s goodness in our lives, brought to life through moments and things, memories and sounds. Realizations and hope. In its biggest forms: a moment you wish you could freeze in time, and in its smallest: a sliver of grace, otherwise overlooked.

I wake up to the smell of fresh laundry, sheets cool against my skin. One eye open, I peek down at the floor next to me, and there you are in your pink sleeping bag, wearing your cheerleading camp T-shirt.

I stare at you a while, smiling at who you once were, all bright pink lips and big, bold, spunky laugh. And who you are now: deeply loving, a servant’s heart, a laugh still the color of sunshine.

You wake, voice full of sleep, and say, “Hi, Mama. I’ll make you some coffee, okay?” and you’re off, wide awake in just a few seconds flat.

And now here I am, cup of coffee in my favorite Ted Lasso mug, brought to me by my favorite six-year-old barista who just learned how to work the Keurig. Splash of cream, made with love. Ordinary morning, extraordinary grace.

Name your delights today. What’s your ordinary moment full of extraordinary grace?

"Live today with eyes wide open."

– Emily Ley

Mercy and Delight

You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.

— Song of Solomon 4:7 NIV

There’s something about writing that makes you live life with your eyes wide open. I’ve learned, though, that this is a lovely thing to practice. Moments of mercy and delight are all around us, but like our fleeting moments of in-between bliss, they will evaporate like snowflakes landing on warm palms if we don’t pause long enough to notice them.

A butterfly flying in an open window. Fluttering in, then right back out. Little butterflies don’t belong in houses; what could he be doing here? This is what hope feels like.

A genuine moment with a child, eyes locked. “Mommy, you’re the very best.” Please stay this age forever, my darling. This is what love feels like.

Rainy Saturday mornings, the kids watching cartoons outside our door, me curled up with you. You always said that spot was mine. I think I’ll stay here a while, the rain reminding us of the warmth and safety of home, everything we love inside these walls. This is what trust feels like.

A North Carolina waterfall, hundreds of miles from home, the three of us totally outside of our comfort zones, relishing the mountain air, the adventure of the day, God’s glorious creations on grand display, nature beaming at us from every direction. This is what growth feels like.

Consider your moments of mercy and delight God reveals Himself to us in these tiny moments, those fluttering lashes, the sound of the rain on our windows. As you move about your day, take note. Live today with eyes wide open.

Excerpted from Sure as the Sunrise by Emily Ley, copyright Emily Ley.

There are glorious blessings of God’s glory all around us! A smile from a neighbor or even a stranger on the street. The beauty of old trees and beautiful flowers, clear flowing streams, crashing waterfalls. With all of the pain and suffering in our lives we can still expect the glory of God to bless us each new day. Be aware of His gifts to you and give thanks for His grace, more than enough to lift your heart and soul!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 2, 2022

Notes of Faith November 2, 2022

Don't Forget Thanksgiving

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him. — Psalm 95:2

Have you ever noticed how after Halloween, many stores immediately bring out their prelit trees, ornaments, Christmas wreaths, and candy canes? The weeks between Halloween and Christmas are often a blur of colored leaves and turkey, prepping for gift shopping, and holiday parties.

In the frenzy of holiday preparations and Black Friday deals, it can be all too easy for us to skim over Thanksgiving. Sure, we serve the turkey and gravy, and mention what we’re grateful for, but do we linger on giving thanks? Or once the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals come out, do we immediately focus on all the things we want and all the savings we could have? Are we more excited about counting the gifts than we are about counting our blessings?

When the retail world becomes loud, ask the Lord to speak louder. When your eyes become focused on the newest, shiniest gadgets, ask Jesus to fix your eyes on Him and His gifts — and on the greatest gift of salvation.

Don’t let autumn and its season of gratitude get lost in the blur of Christmas fanfare. Let Thanksgiving have its day — and its attitude — in your heart.

Father, I’m so grateful for an annual reminder to give You thanks. Keep me focused on all I have, not on all I want.

Growing in Gratitude

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. — Psalm 98:4

In this world of both instant communication and Instant Pots, it’s important to remember that some important things come slowly. Hear the wisdom of radio host and author Nancy Leigh DeMoss:

The grateful heart that springs forth in joy is not acquired in a moment; it is the fruit of a thousand choices. ~ Choosing Joy

As much as we may want to live with a heart rooted in gratitude, we can’t flip a switch or push a button to make that happen. Arriving at the point is a process, and by definition a process takes time.

Every new day gives us countless opportunities to develop gratitude. Think of it: with everything we see, hear, taste, touch, think, and experience, we can choose to be grateful. Review your day so far. Identify a handful of moments when you expressed thankfulness — and another handful when you could have, and be grateful now!

Many things develop and improve over time. Today let’s be encouraged that we are more thankful today than we were yesterday — and that we can choose to be even more thankful tomorrow.

Lord, give me a keener awareness and appreciation of Your goodness every day.

Excerpted from 365 Devotions for a Thankful Heart, copyright Zondervan.

I can’t imagine waking up each day and not giving thanks to God for another day! Maybe it is because I am a little older and don’t take some things for granted as much as I used to, but we should always expect the glory of God to show up in our lives every day. And therefore, we should give thanks as it begins. Give thanks to God for God! Give thanks for others!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 1, 2022

Notes of Faith November 1, 2022

Boundaries Without Question Marks

Good Boundaries and Goodbyes

It’s no wonder we are anxious and feel boundaries are only acceptable and legitimate if the other person agrees with and respects them. In other words, instead of stating our boundaries and ending the sentence with a period, we tag on a question. “You good with that?” “Okay?” “Does that work?” “This is understandable, right?” “You see where I’m coming from, yes?”

Posing a boundary as a question opens us up to be questioned, debated, and disrespected. If a boundary is presented with doubt, it won’t be effectively carried out.

Now, add on top of that the weird notion that if we are Christians, then we are absolutely obligated to sacrifice what’s best for us in the name of laying down our lives for others.

Where did we get the idea that we aren’t allowed to say no, have limitations, or be unwilling to tolerate other people’s bad behavior?

If we are filtering our thoughts of boundaries through wrong perceptions, it’s no wonder many of us find boundaries not just challenging but pretty close to impossible.

Here’s why:

We aren’t sure who we really are.

We aren’t sure what we really need.

We aren’t sure that if others walked away from us, we’d be okay.

Let’s take an honest look at an important question.

Who are you?

When I took time to answer this question for myself, I wondered why I’d never addressed this before. In a moment of honest reflection, it felt incredibly freeing to state for myself who I really am rather than when I’m trying to defend myself against the judgments of others.

Here’s who I am. I am a woman who loves God and loves other people. Therefore, because of Christ in me (Galatians 2:20), I am empowered to be the version of me God intended when He created me. I’m kind, creative, caring, generous, fun, and loyal.

I have those qualities, but they aren’t what is most apparent when people use me, take advantage of me, make unrealistic demands of me, and make wrong assumptions about me when I say no. In other words, when I’ve let someone violate my boundaries, I can get so frustrated that I act in completely opposite ways from the woman I really am. This type of reaction is on me — and I need to totally own it — not what someone else does, but my reaction to what they do.

So, boundaries help me stay true to who I really am. Without boundaries, I can hyperextend myself to the point where I become anxious, bitter, resentful, angry, annoyed, and distant. That’s not who I really am, so it’s my responsibility not to let another person’s actions and expectations wear me down to the worst version of myself. In a biblical sense, it’s me not allowing another person to make me betray who I am in Christ.

Okay, your turn to answer this crucial question: Who am I?

Pause here. Think about this.

And if you’re having a hard time answering, maybe it’s because you’ve lost her. Sometimes we’ve let other people’s opinions and needs define us for so long that we lose ourselves in the process. Or maybe circumstances have been so confusing, maybe even brutal, that we feel like life has reduced us to someone who others feel badly for. I’ve felt this exact way during the past several years of my life. I wanted to be a victorious woman of God, not a victim of a bunch of circumstances that caught me off guard and ripped the rug out from beneath me.

There is so much more to us than just being a sum total of what’s happened to us. Right?! So, how do we get back to that person we were before all the hard stuff?

I was on a group Zoom call recently with my friend Amanda after she had read an early version of what I’ve written here. She got choked up as she told me about a picture her mom found in her grandmother’s jewelry box after she passed away. The old black-and-white photograph was of a beautiful little chubby-cheeked baby with dark hair.

“That little face in my grandmother’s jewelry box was one I hadn't seen in more than twenty-five years since I last laid eyes on the picture. Twenty-five years. It’s me as a baby. The most pure version of me. This is me before life happened and wrote its own story on me. Before I got hurt and heartbroken and jaded and run over by what life had become.”

Her tears spilled down her cheeks as the rest of us tried to manage the lumps in our own throats. The baby in the picture was Amanda, but the truth of this moment applied to all of us.

Picture yourself as a tiny baby fresh from God’s hands. Innocent. Blissfully unaware of tragedy and trauma. Imagine yourself looking into her eyes. What would you say to her? Who do you want to tell her she is before life gets written on her? Speak that over her now.

Remember, you are closest to who you really are when you are the closest to who He created you to be.

Another memory you could recall is to remember yourself before you were really hurt. Before she said what she said. Or he did what he did. Or, before that event when everything changed, and you felt a bit damaged. Who were you?

Think of a memory, a memory from early on in your life, and try to remember who you were before you started looking to others for validation. Before you started becoming so hyperaware of your faults and frailties that you stopped seeing yourself as worthy, valuable, and designed by God on purpose. If nothing comes to mind from your early childhood, just speak to one of your baby pictures and tenderly tell her why she doesn’t need to live her life with an unhealthy pursuit of constantly seeking validation from people.

Now, write down the qualities that are true about the most authentic, wonderful version of you.

That’s your beauty. The goal is to humbly, and purposefully, walk in that beauty and own it. Serve from that fullness. Give from that wholeness. Walk confidently in the fact that our all-sufficient God did not make you insufficient or broken. Yes, we need to grow and develop and seek to become more and more like Jesus. But just like a seed contains everything in it necessary to bloom, so do we. All that a seed goes through to grow into a plant is part of the process of becoming what it was designed to be — not a process of determining its worth or value

(1 Corinthians 15:38–44).

This exercise is more important than you know. If we don’t know who we are, we will constantly be manipulated into who others want us to be or become enmeshed in the needs of other people.

When we know who we are, we are whole and available to love, serve, and give to others from that fullness. If we don’t know who we are, then we will love, serve, and give, hoping people will fill our empty places and make us feel whole. And in doing so, we will always be defined by how well or how poorly someone else makes us feel.

My passion for all of this may have put a tad too much wind in my sail — or words in my chapter. Welcome to my overextended TED talk. Just kidding.

There’s an even more secure foundation to knowing who we are than just naming it for ourselves. We want to let God’s Word become the words of truth for our identity.

When God is the source of our identity, we are much less prone to others feeding our insecurity.

I’ll leave you with these words I first wrote in my journal and then put in my book Uninvited years ago: “God’s love isn’t based on me. It’s simply placed on me. And it’s the place from which I should live... loved.”1

Lysa TerKeurst, Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 259.

Excerpted from Good Boundaries and Goodbyes by Lysa TerKeurst, copyright Lysa TerKeurst.

We are created “to be” in Christ. In Christ is who we are. We should be able to live safe and secure in Christ. Those who believe different, live different, cannot cancel who we are in Christ. They are the ones who miss the call of God, His love on their lives, their purpose in life, because this world is all about them. But it is not, is it? It is all about Jesus! Let us try harder to live in Christ and be who we are called to be, to bless those around us with the love of God, even if they disrespect us and reject God. Let us remain true to who we are!

Love God! Love others!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 31, 2022

Notes of Faith October 31, 2022

GOD IS ABSENT IN THE WAY WE MOST DESIRE

BUT PRESENT IN THE WAY WE MOST REQUIRE

That Safe Darkness

You have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. — Lamentations 3:44

“I call, I cling, I want — and there is no One to answer… Where I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. — Love — the word — it brings nothing. — I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.”1

These are the words of Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa, originally named Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu, was born in 1910 and raised in a pious Catholic home in Macedonia. At eighteen, she joined the Sisters of Loreto and was given the name Sister Mary Teresa. The Dublin-based order of Loreto ran missions in India, and that is where Teresa was sent.

While on a train from Calcutta to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa said she heard the voice of Jesus telling her to leave her own religious order for the sake of serving the poor. So she moved to Calcutta. She helped the poor and the sick and was known for helping the terminally ill die with dignity, joy, and comfort.

But it was not just good deeds that drew the world’s attention to the poor Catholic nun — a nun serving the poor doesn’t usually make headlines. Mother Teresa garnered a special audience because of her way with words. She has been called the “poet laureate of the soul” and the “sound-bite saint.” Her writings have encouraged millions into a more radical service of Jesus.

So it was no surprise that some of her letters were released following her death in 1997. However, the world was shocked to discover the extreme struggle with doubt her letters revealed. For nearly fifty years, from 1948 till her death, Mother Teresa wrote privately as one in spiritual anguish, with only one month of relief in 1958.

Listen to a few of her other laments:

“I did not know that love could make one suffer so much… of pain human but caused by divine.”2

“The more I want Him — the less I am wanted. — I want to love Him as He has not been loved — and yet there is that separation — that terrible emptiness, that feeling of absence of God.”3

Mother Teresa experienced the same desire as Moses — more wanted more. She was so in love with God that the absence of His actual and immediate presence was insufferable to her. A distance lay between her and God that some may see as closeness. But to a lover, even an inch of distance can seem like an infinite gap. An inch can feel like absence.

The more Mother Teresa loved God, the farther she felt from Him.

There is a great story of what it feels like to be far from God in the life of the prophet Jonah. As she told it, Mother Teresa was on a train when God spoke to her, but Scripture does not reveal what Jonah was doing when God came and audibly spoke to him.4 We can assume he was going about his normal life. However, this presence of God was far from normal. God revealed the presence of His voice to Jonah.

The prophet was chosen by God to take a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh, who were known for their violence and wickedness. Though a mighty call was now on his life, Jonah was fearful for his own safety and bitter that God would be willing to save such a wicked people. Nineveh, after all, was a horribly violent town — nicknamed “the city of blood.”5 Jonah wanted nothing to do with this call.

So Jonah did his best to flee from God. He quickly made his way to the sea, where he hired a boat bound in the opposite direction of God’s call. Jonah was now bound for a port city called Tarshish. He thought that putting distance between himself and the location where God showed up would put distance between his responsibility and the command of the Lord. Jonah was not only trying to escape the presence of God. He was trying to flee from the will of God.

The presence and will of God are inescapable.

This was Jonah’s first lesson regarding the presence and absence of God: we don’t get to decide when God is absent and when He is present. Only God can do that. When Jonah tried to run away from the location of God’s presence, he found his escape attempt as futile as trying to outrun the air. You may think that you have put too much distance between yourself and God over the years, but that is impossible.

There is nowhere you can flee where God is not already present.6

Neither the presence nor the command of God can be escaped by any swiftness of the legs, any distance of the sea, or in any depth of the earth. When God sets His choice upon an individual, His chase is fiercer than any gale. Like a seasoned hunting dog after its prey, when the scent of our souls is placed in his nostrils, no escape can prove successful.

Francis Thompson, author of the famous poem “The Hound of Heaven,” captured God’s chase of us with visceral imagery:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase,

And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat — and a Voice beat

More instant than the Feet —

“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”7

No matter how long it has been since you’ve pulled into the church parking lot. No matter how many times you’ve turned your back on Jesus. No matter how often you drop your cross to pick up old habits. No matter how far gone you think you are from God’s will. No matter how dark the night of your soul may be. You cannot run from Heaven’s hound.

Your flight from God and His demand on your life is just as vain as Jonah’s flight to the ships sailing far from Nineveh. All your Christian life you may have thought it was you who was pursuing God, but all along it has been God pursuing you. So no matter how long it has been since you have looked toward the Father, no matter how absent you believe God is, neither the steps of your feet nor the sin of your life can move you one inch away from God’s love if you are in Christ Jesus. It may feel like absence now, but Presence is hot on your trail — even though it may come upon you like a storm.

We never escape the presence of God though in our sin we try to run the other way. God is always there waiting patiently for His child to draw near and grow in grace and knowledge and obedience . . . yes, I would like to have left that last one off, but that is what God wants, our obedience. What loving parent does not want their children to be obedient? Let us try to dwell in the presence of the love of God and obey His every word and call on our lives! Love God! Love others!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 30, 2022

Notes of Faith October 30, 2022

Dear friends that share our church facilities are having a special event today calling it “holy-ween.” Let us pray for a safe day for the children and the candy and prizes that they receive and the opportunity to share the gospel to adults and children alike, all for the glory of God!

Thank God That I Am Not God

Do you remember the scene in the movie Rudy when he’s trying to get accepted into Notre Dame but it's not looking good so he goes to a priest for some advice? The priest says that in thirty-five years of religious studies he’s only come up with two hard, incontrovertible facts: “There is a God. And I'm not Him.”

When I first saw the movie I thought that was the most pathetic answer ever. You're a priest and that's all you got? Come on, man.  Over the years, however, the priest’s answer has grown on me, because as I’ve grown in both years and spirit, I've discovered that one of the more challenging and comforting aspects of faith is the realization that I am not God. 

Confessing I’m not God is challenging  because while I say I believe in God I mostly live as though I were God. I am the expert, I know what to do, I am the one upon whose shoulders rests success or failure. I choose what it is right and what is wrong based upon my education, my experience, and my gut. 

My words say there is a God. My actions say that God is me.

Setting aside my ego to actually trust in God’s sovereignty is a daily struggle. 

On the other hand, confessing I’m not God is wildly comforting each time my depression and anxiety rears its ugly head to torment my body and soul.  

You see, I count myself among the 1 in 4 Americans who struggle with their mental health each and every year. There are days when I wake in the morning only to be met by an immediate and unprovoked ocean of anxiety flooding my brain.

Other days I wake and discover I have neither the desire or strength to get myself out of bed.  I did not choose to suffer these maladies nor did I do anything to bring them upon me. Rather, they are simply aspects to the reality that is my life. 

Why do these harsh realities help me find comfort in the declaration that I am not God? Because in this admittance comes the realization that

I need not — nor can I — save myself.  So I thank God that I am not God. 

But what, exactly, does that mean? 

Can I pray the depression away? Can I attend enough church services to convince God to heal me? Can I increase my faith to the point where I’m so filled with the Holy Spirit that I transcend my suffering?

No. 

No. 

And… no. 

That’s not to say I don’t bring my depression to God in prayer or beg God for healing in my moments of pain. I do! What I don’t do is ignore the resources that God — the Ultimate Healer — has provided for healing. 

For me, and many others who battle their mental health, that means availing myself to therapy, medication, and a strong support network of a trusted community.  For too long Christians have hyper-spiritualized mental illness by marginalizing these healing tools. As a result, countless children of God have suffered in ways that could have otherwise been otherwise. 

We would never ask a believer to forgo chemotherapy for cancer or a diabetic to skip out on their daily injections of insulin.

Likewise, we must avoid the temptation to characterize issues of mental health as wholly spiritual issues. Instead, we need to acknowledge depression, anxiety, and other forms of psychological distress are every bit as bodily as any other form of disease. 

Fortunately, we have a God who chooses to rescue us in our bodies with His own body. When God decided it was time for humanity to more fully understand His very nature, He chose to come in a body. It was in this body that He taught us, loved us, died for us, and rose again in power to redeem us. Of all people, Christians should be the first to embrace the idea that our deepest suffering need not wait to be relieved in the life to come but in the life that is here and now with the tools given to us by the here and now. 

Gone are the days when mental illness was seen as a mysterious force that could only be treated by mysterious means. These days we know a great deal about how to help people think, feel, and act better. 

We go to therapy. If appropriate, we take medication prescribed by trained physicians. We allow people we love to hear us, us love us, and normalize our pain.  If the body of Christ is to be truly serious about treating all the bodies that belong to Christ then we must not be afraid of the means by which these bodies find their healing. 

Encouraging Christians to seek out the resources offered by the mental health community is not of minor importance but in many cases, quite literally, a matter of life and death. All of which brings me back to the wise old priest Rudy went to see. 

I am not God, for which I say, “Thanks be to the God all healing!”

Written for Devotionals by Ryan Casey Waller, author of Depression, Anxiety, and Other Things We Don’t Want to Talk About.

All illness and suffering lasts for but a vapor and then for the believer it will be gone as we are transformed into the image of Christ in His resurrected body.

Let us have compassion, respect, and love for all human beings who suffer from the effect of sin on this world and pray for eternal healing that can only come from the Creator and perfect Healer, the Lord Jesus Christ! Love God! Love others!

Pastor Dale