Notes of Faith May 1, 2023

Notes of Faith May 1, 2023

Spent the day yesterday with some of my wonderful family at Universal Studios Hollywood. A great time was had by all! Hopefully you don’t miss May 1 notes since they did not come out until May 2. May you have a blessed day today! Dale

For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

— Matthew 6:13 NKJV

I’ll never forget when my understanding of prayer changed forever.

I was a sophomore in high school, fifteen years old and newly saved, when my pastor, Larry Stockstill, taught on the Lord’s Prayer. Pastor Larry was passionate about prayer — to the point that I half-expected him to preach on the power of prayer any given Sunday. He even made sure we had prayer in the name of our church: Bethany World Prayer Center.

But hearing him teach on prayer this time was different.

It was the first time I realized that the Lord’s Prayer wasn’t just a prayer — it was an outline for prayer. My mind was blown! I thought you were just supposed to memorize the Lord’s Prayer and recite it whenever it was time to pray. And at that particular age and stage, the twenty-one seconds it took for me to say the Lord’s Prayer was just about how long I spent in prayer. The main reason I didn’t pray longer was that I didn’t know what to say. So, like most of my friends and many of the Christians I knew, I would simply recite the Lord’s Prayer, give God a few requests, and call it a day.

Learning to consider the Lord’s Prayer as an outline, a model for prayer, remains one of the greatest discoveries in my entire Christian life to date. I hope this discovery can have the same impact on you.

When His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, Jesus used a technique that many rabbis used — teaching God’s truth by providing an outline drawn from the Scriptures. The disciples already knew how to pray based on their upbringing. They had learned traditional prayers that most Jewish males memorized as part of their upbringing.

But when they saw and heard Jesus pray, they were stunned. He wasn’t praying as they had been taught, so they asked their Master to teach them to do it His way. So that’s exactly what Jesus did — He gave them the gift of an outline for how to talk to the Father. It changed everything for the disciples that day, and it changed everything for me too.

Now I hope it changes the way you understand the Lord’s Prayer — and perhaps all prayers!

Our Father in Heaven: Respect and Intimacy

Having a deliberate plan in place when you pray goes a long way toward deepening your relationship with God. Rather than stifling your connection, a prayer plan facilitates staying focused and going deeper. The primary components of prayer planning are model prayers. These are not scripted prayers to be read verbatim but simply outlines, templates, and blueprints that help you include the major elements of prayer such as praise and worship, confession, petition, and intercession.

While we’ll explore several distinct models found in the Bible, the best starting point is the prayer outline Jesus Himself gave us. It’s the model prayer of all model prayers. In response to their request, Jesus instructed His followers to pray like this:

Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. — Matthew 6:9–13 NKJV

The Lord’s Prayer isn’t just a prayer — it is an outline for prayer.

It’s important to realize that Jesus wasn’t teaching us words to memorize but rather how to connect with our Father. With this relational goal in mind, Christ gave us an outline with seven distinct aspects of prayer. Similar to rabbinical teaching of the day that followed specific outlines, Jesus concisely demonstrated elements for us to explore and expand upon as we pray.

A logical starting point when teaching others how to communicate is to focus on their audience, the person being addressed — and that’s exactly how Jesus began: “Our Father in Heaven...” It’s difficult to grasp how radical it was for His disciples to hear that they — and we — should connect with God relationally. And not just relationally — we should begin by calling God our Father, which Jesus implies may be His favorite title.

Jesus called Him “Abba,” which conveys intimacy, and told us to do the same. It’s similar to when we address our earthly fathers as Daddy or Papa. It’s warm and personal, familiar and comfortable. Rather than starting with a formal approach, we speak to God as His sons and daughters:

You have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father’. — Romans 8:15 NLT

God wants to be in an intimate relationship with you. And your relationship with Him begins with a right view of God. Nothing will determine your relationship with God more than your view of Him. Addressing Him as your Father still shows respect but accurately demonstrates your access and closeness.

When my kids were little, I loved nothing more than for them to jump in my lap, cuddle up, and tell me about their day. As they grew into adulthood, our communication wasn’t as physically close, but the love, familiarity, and intimacy remained. They know they can come to me anytime — not just when they’re struggling or needing something. I love it when they pop in and just say, “Hey, Dad, how are you? What are you working on? How’s your day going?”

God loves for us to come to Him in this same way — as children who love Him and want to spend time with Him.

Excerpted from Pray First by Chris Hodges, copyright Chris Hodges.

I did not have this kind of intimacy with my earthly father, and he died at 64 years old, before I was 28. But my heavenly Father has continued to draw me to Himself and I have been blessed to have children and grandchildren that know Him and are learning to walk with Him in this intimacy. It was one of the best days yesterday, with family, enjoying a fun time, but more importantly, each other! May your days and time with family be a blessing to all!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 30, 2023

Notes of Faith April 30, 2023

Article by Scott Hubbard

Editor, desiringGod.org

Sleep Beneath His Promises

Learning Rest from the Psalms

On some nights, as the lights go off and the house grows quiet, a restful hush seems to descend on everything around us — but not on us. We lie on our bed like Gideon’s fleece, the only dry spot in a world bedewed with sleep.

A thousand thoughts may keep us awake when all around us rests. Thoughts of work unfinished and questions unanswered. Thoughts of living sorrows and dead comforts. Thoughts of last day’s regrets and next day’s needs.

Falling asleep may seem simple enough. “All it takes,” writes sleep researcher Nancy Hamilton, “is a tired body and a quiet mind” (The Depression Cure, 207). Yet the second half of that equation sometimes feels like a wish beyond reach. We might sooner touch the moon.

Our Lord “gives to his beloved sleep,” Solomon assures us (Psalm 127:2). But on nights such as these, we can hold the gift in helpless hands, wondering how to unwrap it.

Calm and Quiet Mind

The psalmists knew just how easily cares, sorrows, and mysterious causes could chase the sleep from their eyes. They, like us, had lain for long hours on their beds, thoughts churning (Psalm 77:1–3). They had watched many moons roll slowly across the sky (Psalm 22:2). They knew that sometimes, for good and kind reasons, the God who gives to his beloved sleep also takes from his beloved sleep.

And yet, Solomon and David and the other psalmists also knew that sleep really was possible, even on the most unlikely nights. Even when hunted in the wilderness (Psalm 3:5), or sunk down in sorrow (Psalm 42:8), or consumed with thoughts of life’s half-finished buildings (Psalm 127:1–2), they had experienced the wonder of laying their cares before their God, and laying themselves down to sleep. The psalmists knew that a quiet mind could be theirs, even when a quiet life was not.

No doubt, a quiet mind comes, in part, from simple wisdom: if we drink coffee in the late afternoon, or try to sleep in the afterglow of our smartphones, we should not be surprised to find ourselves still awake at midnight. But ultimately, the Psalms remind us that a quiet mind comes from the hand of our sleep-giving God, who nightly draws near to our beds as the Lord who is our shield, our shepherd, our comfort, our life.

The Lord Is Your Shield

I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. (Psalm 3:5)

The David of Psalm 3 had every reason to be anxious, every reason to lie down on a bed of cares. Chased from Jerusalem by a treacherous son, he now ran through the wilderness, hunted like a beast (Psalm 3:1–2). I can scarcely imagine a scenario less hospitable to sleep. Yet sleep David did, and apparently without much trouble: “I lay down and slept,” he says (Psalm 3:5). But how?

David’s words just before these shed particularly helpful light on the faith that sent him to sleep:

I cried aloud to the Lord,

and he answered me from his holy hill. (Psalm 3:4)

David, king of Israel, was used to reigning on the holy hill of Jerusalem. He once sat atop that hill with tremendous authority, royal power. Yet David knows that even when his own throne sits empty, or occupied by a rebel son, God’s throne is always and ever full. David didn’t need to reign on his throne in order to sleep; he just needed God to reign on his. If only God was on his holy hill — his character sure, his covenant firm — then David could sleep in the wilderness.

“Our cares may be many and close; our God is mighty and closer.”

We may lie down tonight in some wilderness of helplessness, hunted by cares far beyond our control. We may feel utterly vulnerable before some dark and brooding uncertainty — some coming diagnosis, some job insecurity, some relational conflict with much at stake. But even then, our God still sits with crown and scepter, his holy hill untouched. He is, by night, “a shield about me,” and by morning, “the lifter of my head” (Psalm 3:3). Our cares may be many and close; our God is mighty and closer.

The Lord Is Your Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures. (Psalm 23:1–2)

In his helpful little book And So to Bed . . ., Adrian Reynolds notes that sheep lie down for only one reason: to rest or sleep (35). Picture, then, those familiar green pastures of Psalm 23 dotted with mounds of dozing wool, at rest beneath a shepherd whose faithful care assures them, “I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

How many restless nights find their source in the deep-down fear that we shall, in fact, want — that the new morning will not bring new mercies, that tomorrow’s bread will not come? How often does our lonely ruminating suggest that we do not trust the Lord to be our shepherd? How strange and sad it would be to see a sheep anxious and fearful beside the rod and staff, bleating as if it walked alone. Yet so I often am.

On such nights, we could hardly ask for a better bedtime confession than “I shall not want” — nor for a better assurance of that truth than “the Lord is my shepherd.” Especially when tomorrow seems filled with daunting needs, with wants beyond the strength of sheep, these words may become the staff that leads us to green pastures, the shepherd’s hand that lays us down.

If the Lord really is our shepherd, then our wants do not require a worried and wakeful heart. He can do far more in our sleeping than we can do in our waking. And whatever needs tomorrow holds, his provision will prove equal to the task.

The Lord Is Your Comfort

He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.

(Psalm 147:4)

Among the many kinds of restlessness the psalmists bring to their beds, the restlessness of sorrow may be the most common. Throughout the Psalms, we read of midnight weepers (Psalm 30:5), of wakeful, comfortless souls (Psalm 77:1–2), of saints whose tears stain their sheets (Psalm 6:6). Sorrow often makes for a sleepless heart.

In such moments, God’s voice in creation joins his voice in Scripture to speak comfort over our pain. Turn, then, and look out your window. Can you see a hundred burning stars — and imagine beyond them billions more? Your God “determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names” (Psalm 147:4). Such a thought might, at first, make us feel smaller than ever, our broken hearts too humble for God’s notice. But the psalmist draws the opposite application: if God names the very stars — these background props of creation — then he has certainly not lost sight of his dear people’s sorrows (Psalm 147:3; Isaiah 40:26–27).

“As surely as God knows the name of every star, he knows our hidden sorrows, our unseen aches.”

God’s exhaustive awareness of heaven’s hosts is meant to assure us not of our insignificance, but of his attention — and his attention particularly to our pains: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds,” the psalmist says (Psalm 147:3). As surely as he knows the name of every star, he knows our hidden sorrows, our unseen aches. And he is, for all his people, the great Healer of hearts and Binder of wounds.

Such a promise, shining from every star above, can become the song that sends us to sleep.

The Lord Is Your Life

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. (Psalm 17:15)

Someday, if Jesus should tarry, we will shut our eyes one final time, never to awake again in this world. The psalmists keenly felt the coming of this last sleep. But they were also given glimpses, however small, of something past this sleep. When David sings of a waking that will show him “your face . . . your likeness,” he sings of a waking beyond this world, a morning only heaven could make (see also Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2).

It was a precious glimpse, but still just a glimpse. You and I see more. For David’s Son has now come, bringing a dawn beyond death’s night. For two days he lay down in the tomb, and then on the third, he woke. The apostle Paul draws the line between Jesus’s great and final sleep and ours:

God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9–10)

As we go to sleep tonight, our Lord’s hands are ready to hold us safe. And in the hollow of his hands is a quiet that can calm the loudest mind, waking or sleeping, living or dying. Because even if this sleep should be our last, our eyes will open once again — not now upon the face of spouse or children, but upon the face of him who for ten thousand nights has been our shield, our shepherd, our comfort, and now our everlasting life.

The Lord knows that our bodies need rest…He made them that way. Even Jesus grew weary in His human body and needed rest. Our lives need to be more and more intertwined with our Savior, our rising, our laying down, and our going about the business of the day. We need to not only understand that God is always there, but that He is actively involved in all of it! Praise God for planning our life from before the creation of the world to belong to Him. We who believe and seek to follow Jesus are a love gift from the Father to the Son, a bride who can’t wait to be with her bridegroom. We can rest in God because He has prepared for us a future of blessing and joy, without the worry, pain and suffering sin has brought upon us in this world! Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 29, 2023

Notes of Faith April 29, 2023

Forgive, Let It Go, and Get Unstuck

A huge part of changing your mindset is learning to forgive and let go. If you have been through something in your personal life that is making unforgiveness and bitterness an issue, those feelings will show up in other places — and not in a good way.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean that anything that happened to you was okay. Letting go of bitterness doesn’t make a situation less unfair. But it does mean that it’s over and not keeping you stuck any longer.

Think of a situation (or situations) in your life that you just can’t get over. What is it?

Have you made attempts to forgive and move on? How did those attempts go? What happened?

Perhaps you have forgiven, but are you still bitter? When this situation comes up, does it give you a sinking feeling in the pit of your belly? When you see certain things or people on social media, do you feel triggered? Do you still feel a little hot all over at the very mention of their names?

Let’s take a quick quiz, shall we?

1. Are you often jealous of the people around you who have what you don’t?

a) Yes, I want it all.

b) Nope, I’m too blessed to be stressed.

c) Sometimes, but isn’t that normal?

2. Are you easily irritated by happy people who seem to have it all?

a) Ugh. What are they so happy about anyway?

b) No, I’m pretty happy myself.

c) Mostly no, but certain happy people drive me nuts.

3. Do you criticize or gossip about people when they’re not around?

a) Only when someone is being annoying — which is always.

b) I try really hard not to.

c) Yes, but I never say anything I wouldn’t say to their faces.

4. Does it ever seem like a person or a group is out to take things from you?

a) They totally are, so yeah.

b) No. There’s enough for everyone.

c) In certain circumstances, yes.

5. Is it difficult to trust friends and family who try to treat you well?

a) Yes. If they’re being nice they probably have an ulterior motive.

b) No, they love me.

c) Mostly no, but certain people can’t be trusted.

6. Do you have trouble giving other people the benefit of the doubt when their words or actions are awkward?

a) No one gives me the benefit of the doubt, so why should I give it to anyone else?

b) No, I try to assume the best about everyone.

c) Depends on how well I know them, I guess.

7. Do you have a difficult time apologizing when you’re wrong, or congratulating and praising others when they do well?

a) Yes. I know what I’m supposed to do, but I just can’t get past my own feelings.

b) No, not at all.

c) Sometimes it’s more difficult than others, but usually no.

8. Are you pessimistic about good news or new opportunities, always looking for the catch?

a) My experience tells me that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

b) No, I get excited and hopeful.

c) I try not to be, but a tiny part of me can’t help waiting for the other shoe to drop.

If you answered mostly As, bitterness is a big problem for you and it’s time to make like Queen Elsa and Let. It. Go.

If you answered mostly Bs, you are in the clear! You have forgiven and moved on.

And if you answered mostly Cs, it sounds like you’re dealing with a little bit of unforgiveness and bitterness, but you seem to be on the path to healing.

Regardless of how long you’ve held on to this situation, it’s got to go. God has so much more for you if you will just let go of that. My pastor once told me that the worst thing I can give my children is a grudge. Ouch! That really resonated with me. I want to teach them to forgive, let go, and move on by my example. So I have to check my heart continually for bitterness. And if you’re serious about getting unstuck and doing big things, you’ll need to check your heart continually too. You do have a choice. You can move on. The decision is yours.

The next time that thing you’ve been holding on to pops back up (because it will; that’s how bitterness works), say,

“I’ve forgiven [insert name here].”

Say it all day, over and over if you have to.

If someone else brings up the topic, change the subject.

If your thoughts start drifting that way, focus them on some of the good things God is doing in your life.

If you continually do this, I promise that eventually your situation will stop having such a strong hold over you. You will find freedom from it.

And friend?

This need for forgiveness also means forgiving yourself.

Some of you have made bad decisions, done things you aren’t proud of, hurt people, or [insert whatever thing you are ashamed of here]. And guess what? Me too. This is called being human. But if you’ve asked God to forgive you, it’s already done. So if God forgives you, and as a Christian your call is to be more like Him, why are you not forgiving yourself?

What do you need to let go of? Who do you need to forgive?

Let’s get to it. Forgive. Let go. Because you have important work to do.

God needs you free to answer His calling for you.

Your spouse deserves you to be whole. Your kids need a healed mother. You deserve to get your headspace back so you can focus on what’s important. God is offering you a holy exchange — your pain for God’s plan. And that is one heck of a deal, my friend. Take it.

Over and over, I hear women say they are waiting to do things until they feel more confident. They think confidence is the magic, secret ingredient that will get them unstuck. And that, my friend, is nonsense. How can anyone expect to feel confident about something they’ve never done before?

The truth is that so many successful people aren’t confident; they are courageous. They do things in spite of their low confidence level. Here’s the thing: confidence is an end result of doing things while you’re afraid. Confidence is what comes after you do the thing you’re scared of—and then do the thing again, and again.

Confidence has to be earned. You can’t buy it, manifest it, package it, or wish it into existence. The reason you’re stuck isn’t because you lack confidence. No, you’re lacking the experience that will help you feel confident. There’s such a huge difference.

It’s time to quit waiting for confidence before you get out of your rut and out of your head.

You don’t need confidence. You just need the courage to say yes to something even with that nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach.

So now I have to ask: What have you been putting off doing or starting because you don’t feel confident enough?

When God has put something big on your heart, something you need to get unstuck to pursue, you don’t need to feel confident to do it. You may not feel qualified, but you can be confident in the One who did the asking.

God opens the doors, but we have to be courageous and obedient enough to walk through them. Whether or not we have confidence in ourselves is not even a factor.

If He is calling you to it, He will certainly call you through it. And you can have confidence in that! It’s time to muster up the courage to do what God is asking you to do or what the desires in your heart are leading you toward.

What do you believe God is asking you to be courageous about today?

The Bible tells us to recall and remember God’s work, so let’s do that! Think about all the times when God has come through for you in the past. Write them out below so you can come back to them and remind yourself of the times you acted even though you were scared and it turned out okay.

Own It

Change is possible, but it’s entirely up to you. You — and you alone — are responsible for how you handle whatever you were handed in life and how you handle your emotions today.

Friend, whatever you do, the words you use, the thought patterns you play over and over in your mind — they matter.

You are a grown woman, capable of healing, being whole, doing hard things, and moving forward. But you must believe this to get unstuck. And you can’t believe it if you keep reminding yourself of every mistake you’ve ever made. The reason we stay tied to excuses is because we are scared. So we self-protect by making up all the reasons why we can’t. It’s time to stop letting those old missteps and excuses live rent-free in your mind.

God can fix bad thinking. He can help you overcome your feelings. Besides, your feelings about whatever you’re trying to do in life, or whatever God is asking you to do, really don’t matter anyway. (Since when did your feelings become a good reason not to do or try something?)

Your feelings do not release you from your calling. Your God-given calling is your purpose. It’s the thing that makes you tick and that only you can do. It’s your life’s work. You will not be able to do it if you are going to choose to stay stuck with your fear.

You can’t show up for God, for your husband, your family, the world, or your life if you continue to choose to stay tied to bad thinking, bad situations, and feelings that aren’t true. It’s up to you whether you stay stuck or move toward freedom. You can do this!

Let’s pray.

Dear Lord,

I’ve been through some tough stuff and I’ve allowed it to keep me stuck, but I know You’ve always been there with me and that You are here with me now. Please keep showing me all the things and feelings and old wounds that keep me stuck. I want to name them so I can tackle them and work toward freedom. Please, God, help me do that. I know I can’t do it all alone.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Excerpted from Get Unstuck and Stay Unstuck by Jennifer Allwood, copyright Jennifer Allwood.

Matt 6:14-15

14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

NASU

This verse instills fear and is one of those we would like to cross out or tear out of our Bibles as if it did not belong. All mankind is fallen and we do things that are evil. We need forgiveness from one another just as we need forgiveness from God. We cannot earn it. It must be freely given. Therein lies the difficulty.

Love God! Love others! And don’t forget to love yourself…even your fallen self. God loves you and wants to redeem you from that fallen state and make you perfect like Jesus! Let go of hurt, pain, even suffering through forgiveness and receive the blessing of peace and spiritual maturity that God wants for you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 28, 2023

Notes of Faith April 28, 2023

A Prayer for Moms

Compassionate Lord Jesus,

I ask You to use these devotions to bless and help mothers — strengthening, encouraging, and comforting them as they go about their daily lives. Remind them that You are with them each and every moment, regardless of what is happening. Please shower them with Your unfailing Love, and enable them to love their children well. Help their children truly know You as Savior and Lord.

In Your glorious, victorious Name, Amen

~ Sarah Young

I want you to learn a new habit. Try saying, “I trust You, Jesus,” in response to whatever happens to you. If there is time, think about who I am in all My Power and Glory; ponder also the depth and breadth of My Love for you.

This simple practice will help you see Me in every situation, acknowledging My sovereign control over the universe. When you view events from this perspective — through the Light of My universal Presence — fear loses its grip on you. Adverse circumstances become growth opportunities when you affirm your trust in Me no matter what. You receive blessings gratefully, realizing they flow directly from My hand of grace. Your continual assertion of trusting Me will strengthen our relationship and keep you close to Me.

I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory.

— Psalm 63:2

See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and His arm rules for Him. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him. He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young. — Isaiah 40:10–11

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. — Psalm 139:7–10

“I trust You, Jesus; help me, Holy Spirit.”

Trust Me in times of confusion — when things don’t make sense and nothing you do seems to help. This type of trust delights Me because I know it is real. Invite Me to enter into your struggles — to be ever so close to you. Though other people may not really understand what you’re going through, I understand perfectly. Find comfort in knowing you’re not alone in your struggles. I am with you, watching over you continually.

Long-term trials can drain you of energy and hope, making it hard for you to keep trusting Me. But I have given you a wonderful Helper, the Holy Spirit, who never runs out of strength. You can ask for His help, praying: “I trust You, Jesus; help me, Holy Spirit.”

Instead of trying to resolve all your problems, simply rest in My Presence.

Trust that there is a way forward, even though you can’t yet see it. I am providing a good way for you, though it is bumpy at times. When the road is rough, cling all the more tightly to Me. As your soul clings to Me, My right hand upholds you.

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. — Genesis 28:15

When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. — John 15:26 NKJV

My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. — Psalm 63:8

Excerpted from Jesus Calling for Moms by Sarah Young, copyright Sarah Young.

Prov 3:5-6

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will direct your path. NKJV

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 27, 2023

Notes of Faith April 27, 2023

Confidence in Your Calling

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. — 2 Peter 1:10

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. — Hebrews 11:1

Are you stuck trying to turn yourself into a pretzel doing things that you think you should do and not what makes your heart sing? It’s time to take the most of what you have and make something of it...

What truly puts you in a happy place? Let’s gather up your stories and stitch them together until the real you becomes as evident as paisley on a plaid background. Quit giving yourself away! Quit giving your talents, energy, and time to things that matter the least. Quit giving your talents, energy, and time to things that don’t come naturally to you.

It’s time to draw water from the well of your life and take a long, satisfying drink.

You don’t have to buy it, create it, look to someone else for it — your calling is already there inside of you. When you let go of all that busyness, you’ll feel relieved! When you figure it out, you’ll experience euphoria. These days we talk a great deal about not being able to remember things: Where did I put my keys? Why do I call my sons each other’s names when I’m fussing at them? How did I forget that fourth Zoom call of the day? But I’m asking you to focus now on remembering...

Again, and again we avoid the long thoughts. We cling to the present out of wariness of the past. And why not, after all? We get confused. We need to escape as often as we can. Unfortunately, the escape, while it lasts, is good but short lived. Soon, if we are not careful, we just live each day for the escape...

I’m asking you to reflect on how the moments of your life can inform your life going forward.

Your calling can be found in your youth, but it can be forgotten in the trauma of growing up. Your youth is when you dreamed with no limitation, no hesitation, but only with anticipation of what could be possible for your life. That’s when your calling was clear. Remember that?..

You’ve now collected the confidence to be who you are. Look around at the opportunities and then explore them. It’s not too late. You can do this right now. Just take one step. Then take another step.

God has been prompting you toward your calling your whole life.

It’s not hard; we make it hard. You’ve been collecting confidence your whole life through the experiences you’ve lived. You’ve failed and gotten back up. Maybe you’ve been married twenty-plus years and you’re still together. Or you’re on the other side of the divorce you never thought you would get over. Maybe you’ve given birth and raised teenagers who are now the prodigal sons. Or you’ve been a caretaker of a family member who is dying of cancer, or maybe you’ve overcome cancer yourself.

You have the confidence inside of you, right now, to live the life of calling you were created for.

It’s not something you do; it’s something you’ve already done. You’ve done it countless times when you were just doing the thing that came naturally.

As we get older, things tend to fade, not to mention sag, wrinkle, get blurry, and take a different shape altogether. It’s time to dream in the vivid colors we did when we were young.

God is a God of dreams. He is invested in your enjoyment. (Why else would He make puppies, Twinkies, the “Add to Cart” button, and facials?) Y’all, we are allowed to have joy!

God doesn’t give up on us or our calling. He doesn’t change His mind.

God created us to be just who we are. Don’t let the screams of the world or the whispers of your failures and shame, shape your outlook. It’s time to speak faith, the language of God. Remember what Hebrews 11:1 says:

Faith is the substance [the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists and which has a tangible, solid presence] of things hoped for. (my paraphrase)

What are the tangible things you are hoping for? When I was in the fifth grade, hope came to me easily...

But as the years have passed, sometimes it’s been harder to exist just on hope. Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that there’s more to this daily life than just the grind. I have to honor that ten-year-old in the school cafeteria who is still dreaming, creating, and singing inside of me.

What makes your soul sing? Whatever it is, it may not pay a lot or be what the world says is prestigious. You may not win a trophy... for doing the thing that makes your soul sing. But when you get in tune with what makes you content and know, really know, who you are you’ll be filled with hope. Be open to seeing what this is for you.

Excerpted from Collecting Confidence by Kim Gravel, copyright Kim Gravel.

When we were young we dreamed of being a fireman, policeman, or astronaut, or even president. As the years went by, the jobs we worked and positions we attained seemed to hold us back from any dream we had and we stopped dreaming, thinking this is the best we could do. But God has big dreams for us…that we would do even more than Jesus did! Have you completed the dream work that God has given you to do? If not, let’s keep dreaming and believe that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus! What a dream!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 26, 2023

Notes of Faith April 26, 2023

Article by Greg Morse

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

Beware of the Birds

How Satan Sabotages Sermons

Every Sunday morning, they perch among us. Listen closely and you can hear their wings flapping overhead. Singing voices have quieted, the preacher mounts his summit, the book is laid open. As the people fidget in the pew, readying to hear God speak through a man, the crows and ravens stir in anticipation. Caws and muffled croaks murmur in the rafters. Some sound eerily like a chuckle.

Jesus heard them as he got up to preach.

Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. (Mark 4:3–4)

As the preacher begins to scatter the good seed of God’s word about the congregation, it meets the path — the hard and trampled, unploughed and unhumbled heart. Disinterest, distraction, carelessness, laziness, ignorance all keep the seed out. The truth of Christ, of sin, of salvation goes into this person’s ear, rests atop the heart — never to enter it. Hearing, they do not hear. Seeing, they do not see. They never hear the word enough to turn or be forgiven.

Yet, the seed does not remain atop the hardened path — Jesus watches it get eaten by birds.

They watch from above. Heads jerk up-down-left-right-tilt. Eyes scour below, looking for seed uncovered, defenseless. There. A kernel rests for a few moments, exposed. Swoop — a dark flash falls as lightning from heaven — the seed disappears. The word about the dying God, the word of life, the word of warning, gone. Devoured. Perhaps a feather is left in its place.

Fowl Play

The picture Jesus gives within the parable of the sower unsettles. What could the birds refer to? We eavesdrop on what he said to his disciples:

The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. (Mark 4:14–15)

Who devours the rejected seed from sermon-hearers then and now? Satan. He and his legions perch overhead. He pecks at the soil of our hearts. His crooked beak steals away the miracle seed. His twitchy eyes shift to and fro looking for gospel truth to devour.

This is a horrible revelation: Demon birds hover overhead — keen, surveying — looking down upon your congregation for ignored gospel words, hungry. We can imagine our discomfort if physical birds lofted above us during the sermon. How agitated we would feel if every time Jesus was mentioned they swooped down and came pecking at our ears. But Jesus reveals something more alarming, more disturbing to his disciples: these ravens feed with malice upon words that would save sinner’s souls.

Most Regular Church Attender

Many of us do not think of Satan much; yet he thinks much of us. You might imagine him among the murderous, adulterous, and false religionists on a Sunday morning — not the church. Yet behold one of his great objects of villainy every Sunday: to rob hearts of truth-filled, Christ-exalting sermons.

“You and I might miss a Sunday sermon — Satan doesn’t. You and I might neglect feasting upon the word — he won’t.”

You and I might miss a Sunday sermon — he doesn’t. You and I might neglect feasting upon the word — he won’t. The devil is the most regular and most attentive church attender.

He does not feast for nourishment; he feasts so you won’t, that sinners might not find or continue with Christ. Luke’s account has it, “the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). Paul calls it, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus would have us hear and through hearing with faith see his glory. “Listen! Behold!” he began his sermon. “Dismiss! Ignore!” is what the birds shriek.

But how do they do it?

How They Devour

How do demons steal the word from hearts? How do these birds devour the word? And while they do so decisively and finally with the unregenerate and dismissive sermon-hearer, my assumption and sad experience is that he has stolen ignored, half-heard sermons from God’s children’s mouths as well — though he cannot finally starve them into hell.

C.S. Lewis gives us an answer at the beginning of The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, a senior demon, counsels his nephew, Wormwood, to stop employing argument to secure his patient’s unbelief. Rather, simply give him jargon, he counsels. To illustrate, he tells a story of one of his humans who wandered off into dangerous thoughts (Christian thoughts) while at the British museum.

Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years’ work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. (3)

Sunday afternoon lunch. How many profitable sermon words has the contemplation of the after-service meal stolen from believer and unbeliever alike? Simple suggestions from the enemy — about lunch, that annoying mannerism of the preacher, the volcanic warmth in the sanctuary, Mr. Jones’s glaring bald spot staring from the pew ahead, Mrs. Jones’s unavoidable perfume — anything and everything but the word.

Pecking at the Mind

But can Satan really distract us by placing thoughts into our minds? He can and does.

Satan distracts, suggests, and lies in order to steal the word from us. Satan incited David to sin and take a census of Israel (1 Chronicles 21:2). The devil filled Ananias’s heart to lie to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3). Satan “put it into the heart of Judas” to betray Christ (John 13:2). Paul warns us not to be deceived and have our thoughts led astray from a pure devotion to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3). Satan lies to us, and when he does, he speaks out of his character as the father of lies (John 8:44). He captures people to do his will by untruths. His stratagems against us haven’t changed since the garden. Our enemy brings thoughts to our mind that are not wholly ours.

Commenting on this text, John Piper highlights threes ways Satan steals the seed: through inattention, ill-will, and ignorance. Commenting on inattention, he writes,

Satan works overtime to keep people from giving serious attention to the word of God. He may keep you up late Saturday night so that you can’t stay awake during the sermon or Sunday School. He may put a dozen different distractions around you in the service to take your mind away from the message. He may send thoughts into your mind about tomorrow’s meeting with your supervisor. If he can only distract you so that the sounds coming out of the preacher’s mouth go in one ear and out the other, he will have successfully taken away the word of God and made it ineffectual for you. Inattention is his game.

“When we long for a distraction, Satan will provide it.”

Now see Satan hovering above you, suggesting trifles, mocking, and bringing endless distractions to your mind to keep the truth from germinating. When the good word meets hard soil — or good but unprepared soil — he strikes to steal. When we long for a distraction, Satan will provide it. How many well-timed daydreams about the football game or this week’s plans have stolen serious contemplations about Christ from our own hearts Sunday after Sunday?

To Those Who Hear Sermons

Dear Christian reader, the pew is a battleground. Every week, either we will feast on the word or Satan will. He sees the significance of the word preached weekly to us — do we?

He visits your church. “That malicious spirit is unwearied in his efforts to do us harm,” J.C. Ryle assures.

He is ever watching for our halting, and seeking occasion to destroy our souls. But nowhere perhaps is the devil so active as in a congregation of Gospel-hearers. Nowhere does he labor so hard to stop the progress of that which is good, and to prevent men and women being saved. From him come wandering thoughts and roving imaginations — listless minds and dull memories — sleepy eyes and fidgety nerves — weary ears and distracted attention. In all these things Satan has a great hand. People wonder where they come from, and marvel how it is that they find sermons so dull, and remember them so badly! They forget the parable of the sower. They forget the devil. (Expository Thoughts on Luke, 158)

Is it not the case that sometimes we do not even make it to the parking lot before it is as though we never even heard a sermon? Let us remember Satan on Sunday mornings. Not out of paralysis — “for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4) — but out of preparation — “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil”

(Ephesians 6:11).

And unconcerned sermon hearer, may I plead with you in closing? A man may refuse to leave his jail cell for the promise of freedom that Christ offers, but he might reconsider if he knew a tiger is in his cage. You are not alone in your unbelief; Satan is with you. He abets your pretense of atheism and lays siege on your attention and blinds you from the glory of Christ. Before you get to that parking lot bereft of what you just heard, Satan has visited you and ate what you would not.

Let us all, then, heed Jesus’s warning to be more careful how we hear (Luke 8:18).

This is not a comment on those of you who listen to my sermons but the distractions and lies that keep people from coming to Christ and being saved and the rest of us from growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, so as to be like Him. Let us be more aware of the roaring lion seeking to devour the relationship between us and Jesus. Stay focused on the author and perfector of our faith. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 25, 2023

Notes of Faith April 25, 2023

Why Do Christians Struggle To Love

Article by Jon Bloom

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

Why do Christians find it so hard to love one another? I don’t ask the question as just one more critic of the church’s failures — I have trouble enough addressing the log of lovelessness protruding from my own eye. And of course, the question has as many different answers as there are Christians — many times more, actually, since we each have multiple reasons for why we find it hard to love God and others the ways we should.

We’re not surprised that humanity as a whole finds the kind of love described in 1 Corinthians 13 so difficult. Humans are fallen; it’s impossibly hard for sinful people who are separated from Christ to “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things” as love does.

But what can surprise us is that Christians have such a hard time with love. How is it that we who have been born again, have received a new heart, and have the Holy Spirit empowering us still find loving God with our whole being, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and loving our fellow Christians as Jesus loved us so difficult? Shouldn’t it be easier than we experience it to be?

Both the New Testament and two thousand years of church history say no. One reason for this is that the Holy Spirit isn’t given to us to magically turn us into people who love like Jesus. He is given to us as a Helper (John 14:26) to teach us how to follow our Great Shepherd along the hard, laborious path of transformation into people who love like Jesus. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to love like Jesus loved, which is impossible without him. But he provides us no easy shortcuts to God-like love.

Easy Yoke, Hard Way

What’s all this talk about a “hard, laborious path of transformation”? Didn’t Jesus say, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30)? Yes, he did. But he also said, “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14). These two statements aren’t contradictions; they are two different dimensions of what it means to repent and believe in the gospel.

When it comes to the dimension of reconciling us to God, Jesus does all the impossibly heavy work required to “[cancel] the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Colossians 2:14). In this sense, Jesus’s yoke is easy: he pays the debt in full for us. The only light burden required of us is to repent and believe in the gospel.

But when it comes to the dimension of God’s conforming us to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29), of “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18), the way is hard that leads to life. In this context, for us to repent and believe in the gospel means learning to walk in “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5) — learning to “walk by the Spirit, and . . . not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16), learning to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (Colossians 1:10).

Our learning to walk in the way of Christ is no less a work of God’s grace in us than our learning to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. But it requires us to exercise our faith in Christ through actively obeying Christ contrary to the sinful desires that still dwell in our members (Romans 7:23).

It’s Supposed to Be Hard

According to the New Testament, learning to walk in the obedience of faith looks like the following:

Denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following where Jesus leads (Matthew 16:24)

Putting to death what is earthly in us (Colossians 3:5), and not letting sin reign in our mortal bodies, to make us obey its passions (Romans 6:12)

Dying every day to sin, personal preferences, and even our Christian freedoms out of love for Jesus, our brothers and sisters in the faith, and unbelievers (1 Corinthians 15:31)

Doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility counting others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3)

Putting on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven us (Colossians 3:12–13)

Repaying no one evil for evil, but always seeking to do good to one another and to everyone (1 Thessalonians 5:15)

Rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18)

Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44)

Wrestling against spiritual rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness — the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12)

“The transformational way of love that leads to life is hard. It’s supposed to be hard.”

And these are just a sampling. But it’s a hefty enough sample to give us a sense of how humanly impossible it is for us to obey the greatest commandments — for these are all expressions of love for God, our neighbors, and other Christians. Everyone who takes these imperatives seriously realizes that the transformational way of love that leads to life is hard. It’s supposed to be hard.

But why does the way need to be as hard as it is? Here’s one way Jesus answered that question.

Only Possible with God

Do you remember the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19? When forced to choose, he couldn’t let go of his wealth in order to have God, which revealed that he loved his wealth more than God, that his wealth was his god. As Jesus watched the man walk away, he said, “I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And do you remember the disciples’ response? They asked, “Who then can be saved?” When they saw where Jesus placed the bar, it hit them: no one can possibly jump that high. Which was precisely Jesus’s point: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

All we disciples must come to this realization. However morally beautiful and admirable we find Jesus’s love commands in the abstract, we cannot and will not obey them in our own strength. It’s impossible. Our flesh is simply too weak and our remaining sin too strong.

That bears repeating. It’s impossible to love like Jesus without being empowered by the Holy Spirit. Because striving to love God and others like Jesus exposes and confronts every unholy, sinful, selfish impulse of remaining sin in us, requiring us to daily put to death what is earthly in us and regularly deny ourselves for Jesus’s sake and the good of others.

None of us will consistently, continually walk in this hard way unless, by the Spirit, we truly “[behold] the glory of the Lord,” and see all the hardship as “light momentary affliction” that is transforming us from one degree of glory to another and “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:17). We will not walk this hard way unless we see that living according to the flesh leads to death, but putting to death the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirit leads to life (Romans 8:13) — that choosing the hard way is choosing the abundant life (John 10:10).

‘You Follow Me’

This doesn’t answer a host of questions that puzzle us along the path of love. Many of them, when viewed from our very limited perspective, may not seem to make sense. I know. I’ve pondered questions like these for a long time.

But when I get overly discouraged and critical of the church’s failures to love, something Jesus once said to Peter often helps me refocus on my own log of lovelessness — the failures to love that I’m primarily responsible for and can, by the power of the Spirit, do something about. When Jesus revealed to Peter the unpleasant way he was going to die, Peter essentially asked, “Well, does John have to die an unpleasant death too?” Jesus essentially answered him, “How I choose to deal with John is not your concern. You follow me!” (John 21:21–22).

God has woven so many mysterious purposes into the way he’s ordered reality, and I continue to learn just how unreliable my perceptions are when it comes to deciphering them. I am wise to heed Paul’s words: “[Do not] pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart” (1 Corinthians 4:5); I am wise to heed Jesus’s words, “You follow me!”

As Christians, our primary calling today is to follow Jesus, in the power of the Spirit of Jesus, on the hard way of self-sacrificial, God-glorifying love that leads to an incomparably glorious, abundant, and eternal life. We are not responsible for the loving witness of the whole church, or even of our whole local church.

But if we are willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus — as imperfectly as we all love this side of glory — then we will increasingly experience the result of the Spirit-born fruit of love: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Words from a hymn that speak to the way I feel sometimes … Don’t feel like I love the Lord. Don’t feel like I love my neighbor, nor do I want to. The love of God is indeed a hard thing to grasp and aspire to. I seek the mountain top intimacy with God by striving to do fundamentals of the faith; praying, reading and meditating on the Word, praising God in fellowship with others. This leads to trying to live life as I see Jesus living life daily in the gospels. Read and reread them often and you will be drawn close to the love of your Savior. This will give you hope in your daily walk of love for God and others. May you be blessed today and a blessing to those around you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 24, 2023

Notes of Faith April 24, 2023

What We Want and What We Settle For

What do you want Me to do for you? — Mark 10:51

In Mark 10, we see Jesus encounter a blind man. Jesus asks the man, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus is asking the man about his desire.

Some people would counsel the blind man by telling him, “You should want nothing more than to sit with Jesus. Your desires are irrelevant. Only Jesus’ desires matter. Tell Him you want nothing but what He wants.”

But the man responds, “Rabbi, I want to see.” The man acknowledges his desire and courageously brings it before Jesus.

What do you want? Do you know what you desire?

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

I help people on a regular basis begin to identify their core desire through a tool called the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a tool for self-awareness that can be used to help us understand how we relate to God, other people, and ourselves. If you are new to the Enneagram (“ennea” = nine, “gram” = points), you should understand that there are nine personality types within the Enneagram — each with a unique desire. Each desire is so powerful that when one emerges as more important to us than any other, we end up organizing our personalities, our relationships, and even our theology around our pursuit of it.

Consider these desires of each of the nine Enneagram types. Do any of these describe your deepest desire?

To be good.

To be wanted.

To be valuable.

To be authentic.

To be competent.

To be secure.

To be happy.

To be protected.

To be at peace.

On their own, all of these desires are good. If you look over the list, you will see that none of them are evil or immoral. Sadly, we usually believe that God will not grant us our desires. This is where our story takes a turn.

Jesus does not want to destroy your desire. He wants to fulfill it.

WHAT DO YOU SETTLE FOR?

When we don’t believe that God will meet our desires, we develop ways to try to meet them on our own that don’t require us to trust Him. We cling to our scheme so fiercely that we turn it into an idol. Do any of these sound like you?

Type 1s want to be good but settle for perfectionism. Though your good desire is to have integrity and be the same person in public and in private, you often settle for strict and judgmental rules for yourself and others. Your idol of perfectionism requires you to sacrifice having fun, having your own dreams, and giving grace to yourself and others.

Type 2s want to be wanted but settle for being indispensable. Though your good desire is to be wanted by others, you often settle for being needed. Your idol of being indispensable requires you to sacrifice asking for what you need, receiving without paying back, and even need God’s grace (you have to have needs to need grace). You often can’t tell the difference between being wanted and being indispensable.

Type 3s want to be valuable but settle for being successful. Though your good desire is to have inherent worth and a stable relational status in your community, you often settle for workaholism. Your idol of being successful requires you to sacrifice your own authenticity, intimate relationships, and being loved just as you are without being impressive. You often can’t tell the difference between being valuable and being successful.

Type 4s want to be authentic but settle for being different. Though your good desire is to be genuine and loved as you are, you often settle for needing to be unlike everyone around you instead. Your idol of being different requires you to sacrifice finding happiness, enjoying anything common, and feeling accepted and understood. You often can’t tell the difference between being authentic and being different.

Type 5s want to be competent but settle for knowing everything. Though your good desire is to have the necessary knowledge and skills to live successfully, you often settle for intellectual omniscience. Your idol of knowing everything requires you to sacrifice feeling known and loved, finding intimacy in relationships, and engaging life. You often can’t tell the difference between being competent and needing to know everything.

Type 6s want to be secure but settle for safety. Though your good desire is to have confident trust, you often settle for protocols and rigid rules. Your idol of being safe requires you to sacrifice feeling carefree and relaxed, trusting God and other people, and especially trusting yourself. You often can’t tell the difference between being secure and chasing after safety.

Type 7s want to be happy but settle for pleasure. Though your good desire is for a life of joy and contentment, you often settle for avoiding pain and indulging in hedonism. Your idol of pleasure requires you to sacrifice ever feeling satisfied, having depth in your relationships, and committing yourself to discipline and focus. You often can’t tell the difference between being happy and indulging in pleasure.

Type 8s want to be protected but settle for control and power. Though your good desire is to be able to make your own choices without being controlled by others, you often settle for being in charge and bulldozing other people. Your idol of control and power requires you to sacrifice finding intimacy with people, giving and receiving forgiveness, and having fragile feelings. You often can’t tell the difference between protecting yourself and needing to be in control.

Type 9s want to be at peace but settle for comfort. Though your good desire is for shalom, you often settle for following the path of least resistance and avoiding conflict. Your idol of comfort requires you to sacrifice your own desires, the belief that you can make a difference, and the growth that comes from conflict. You often can’t tell the difference between being at peace and indulging in comfort.

How might your idol be hurting your relationships with God, other people, and yourself? Can you see this idol at work in your life?

The antidote to idols is not to kill our desires but to recognize that idols are a naive attempt to get something only God can give us. Idols always take more than they give. Jesus always gives more than He asks us to sacrifice.

Jesus does not want to destroy your desire. He wants to fulfill it.

Jesus asked the blind man, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asks you the same. What good thing do you desire? What do you want Jesus to do for you?

Excerpted from How We Relate by Jesse Eubanks, copyright Jesse Eubanks.

When we ask for spiritual things in the will of God, He will not refuse. Ask for things like wisdom, ability to hear and respond in faith to the Holy Spirit within you, opportunity to share Jesus and the truth of the gospel. These things God will not deny to the one asking for them. Pray and ask for such things!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 23, 2023

Notes of Faith April 23, 2023

Article by Dieudonné Tamfu

Professor, Bethlehem College & Seminary

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One.

When God satisfies a soul, that soul does not stop seeking the Source of satisfaction. Once an empty, longing soul has tasted true pleasure, it can never go back to the empty cisterns and stay there. In this way, Christians are both restless and satisfied. They hunger and thirst no more, as Jesus promised (John 6:35), and they always hunger and thirst for more of God.

In God’s word, those satisfied with God spend a lifetime seeking satisfaction in God. Those filled with God search for fullness in God. Those who have found God never stop searching after God. An unrelenting pursuit of God defines believers. That is why they keep reading the same Scriptures again and again — to find more of God. They pray for more of God. They memorize passages for more of God.

Our longing is not to re-experience the joy we had when we first beheld him, but to experience new joy through a greater knowledge of him. We are not addicts, chasing the first high because the same dose does not give as much pleasure. Rather, we are climbers, ascending a mountain to see more of its beauty.

Pursuing God with Tozer

A.W. Tozer, who died in 1963, came back to life to disciple me in 2002, the year I began my journey in theological education. Growing up, I never read for fun, and I studied only when I was forced to. However, when God converted me, I began reading the Bible extensively. My first NIV black hardcover Bible was completely marked up, underlined, highlighted, and starred. In all my reading, I was on a journey to know God better, especially to know him as my Father. Having grown up without a father, this was the first time I could ever call someone my Father, love someone as my Father, and relate to someone as my Father.

In 2002, I was not reading many books besides my Bible, but I stumbled upon A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. I was not far in when the following passage greeted me:

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of his world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of his Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and . . . full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored. (23)

“It was not enough that I had found God; I must keep finding him.”

I realized that life was to be an active pursuit of God. It was not enough that I had found God; I must keep finding him. And God alone is enough to satisfy all my longings.

Pursuing God in Theological Education

Because of Tozer, I made it my goal to not miss God in my theological studies. I wanted not only to study about God, but also to be satisfied in God; not only to study God, but also to enjoy God; not only to think logical thoughts about God, but also to be logically on fire for God.

As I studied the Scriptures, it became clear that Tozer’s sentiment was true of the saints from the Old Testament to the New Testament. While the world presents an abundance of sources of joy, pleasure, satisfaction, and delight, the saints herald that God and God alone is the source.

Like Moses, those who have found favor with God constantly cry out, “Please show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18). Like David, those who have found him seek just “one thing”: “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). Like Paul, those who know God make it their life’s work to know God more (Philippians 3:10). Eternal life is defined not by its length but by its content: “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Augustine made the same observation when he wrote, “Christ is not valued at all unless he is valued above all.” If Christ is not our greatest pursuit in life, then we do not yet value him, which means we have not yet found him. If our souls are not hungry for him, then we have not yet tasted of the bread of life.

Pursuing God in Missions

When God moved me to Minnesota from Cameroon to study, I felt keenly aware of the temptations a more affluent country might bring. So I recorded this prayer in my journal:

Help me, Lord, by your Spirit to truly appreciate the beauty of this city and America only to the degree that it helps me see you. May I not be won by its beauty and miss out on the beauty of the glory of God on the face of Christ. Take my eyes and let them be fully consecrated to you. . . . May Jesus mean everything to me! Spare me, Lord, from becoming more American than becoming more Christlike in my stay here in the US. May the US be the US and Jesus be the all-satisfying Jesus still and more.

God answered my prayer. Through my studies in America, by God’s grace, I delighted in God and became more satisfied in him than ever before. Since then, God moved me to Cameroon for church planting and theological training so that others can have the same experience — not in America, but in Christ. By God’s grace, no American treasures could hold me back from spreading the joy of Christ to others. Because God had satisfied me with God and was satisfying me with himself, God freed me to let the pleasures of America go.

All Satisfaction, All Pleasure, All Delight

Tozer had tasted the freedom I found in Christ. He writes,

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately, and forever. (28)

“Make God your greatest treasure, and you will be empowered to let anything go to gain Christ.”

Do you not desire this freedom? Do you not long for that satisfaction? If you are not experiencing God as a treasure so great that no circumstance can steal your joy, then keep seeking him.

Suppose you are not hungry for God, is there hope? Yes, there’s always hope. Love for God is a gift of God. Passion for God comes from God. You could pray verses like these:

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14)

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6)

And you can pray with assurance because God promises to revive us:

Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)

Make God your greatest treasure, and you will never ultimately suffer loss. Make God your greatest treasure, and you will be empowered to let anything go to gain Christ. Possessions will no longer be chains but channels to enjoy your one Treasure. The loss of dreams and loved ones, though painful, will no longer be the loss of hope. God will be all you need. You will have all your pleasures, all your satisfaction, all your desires in One.

Oh that God would be all that I seek . . . In Him I find all that I need, all that satisfies my soul, my heart’s desire. Help me, Lord, to know You, worship You, serve You, in this life and throughout all eternity grow ever intimately closer to You!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 22, 2023

Notes of Faith April 22, 2023

In the Waiting

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

— Isaiah 41:10 NLT

The messy middle is the hardest part. When the homework project is halfway done and the room is a mess. When the kitchen renovation is at peak craziness and you’re cooking out of the back bedroom. When a loved one is in treatment, but not quite yet cured. When you’re waiting for the results, and the anticipation feels as if it may drown you. When you’re aching for that significant other, that baby, that job. When you’re slowly adding one more day to your sobriety calendar and choosing yourself over the addiction minute after minute. When you’re waiting, putting one foot in front of the other, hoping to get to the next day.

I once heard someone say, when you can’t take one more step forward, move just an inch. And sometimes it doesn’t even have to be a whole inch — just make sure you’re not moving backward. Move forward any way you can. And, if you can’t move forward, try stepping to the side. Some seasons, the strongest thing we can do is move sideways. When the grief, the struggle, the fear, or the yearning feels like it may do you in, move forward or move sideways. Seek first the Kingdom of God and trust that He will be with you in the messy middle places.

How will you move forward or sideways today? Celebrate your progress, even if it is tiny. You are one step closer to who you are becoming.

The tiny choices we make every day make up our lives.

Delight in Discipline

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. — Hebrews 12:11

Have you ever adopted a new habit — say, eating healthy — and given it up after exactly forty-eight hours because you didn’t notice an enormous change? It takes a lot of willpower and intention to make healthy choices for two whole days in a row. So why aren’t we back in our jeans from college after all that effort?!

I sometimes struggle with maintaining discipline for the long haul. I love immediate gratification, great transformation, and awe-inspiring befores-and-afters. But people who’ve achieved such things will tell you they only got there by making a series of small choices over and over again for a long period of time.

Let’s use vitamins as an example. If I take my vitamins daily for three days, I probably won’t see a fantastic impact. I probably won’t see a fantastic impact if I take them for a week. But months or even a year? That daily choice will add up to something really good for my body.

The tiny choices we make every day make up our lives. What will you commit to? Moving your body every day? Spending time with God? Wearing sunscreen? Delighting in discipline can be tough, but the long-term rewards are worth it.

What healthy daily habits would you like to implement? Make note of one or two Consider a physical reminder to help you remember this task Put a Post-it Note on your bathroom mirror or set up an automatic reminder notification on your smartphone.

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

There are habits that would be good to change in all of our lives. The discipline to keep doing them is a challenge. Bad habits seem easy. Good and godly habits are difficult to keep doing. Do we want what God wants for us? Do you want to be healthy spiritually? Maybe today is the day to pursue a spiritual habit, more time in prayer, reading your Bible daily, stopping to think (and pray) before speaking when in conversation with others… Whatever it might be, today is the day to begin a good habit for your spiritual health!

Pastor Dale