Notes of Faith September 25, 2022

Notes of Faith September 25, 2022

Article by Scott Hubbard

Editor, desiringGod.org

Once, the young Jacob ran, fleet-footed, wherever he wanted. Later, he walked with a limp.

Once, David led Israel’s armies without rival. Later, he fled through the wilderness, surrounded by enemies.

Once, Paul traveled and preached with a thornless side. Later, he prayed, pricked and bent, for a mercy that would not come.

Many of us likewise may remember a once when life and ministry felt smoother. Back then, we were more productive, less hindered. Our body didn’t trouble us so much. We faced fewer criticisms. A relationship had not yet ruptured. But we move slower these days, our backs more bent. Limping. Surrounded. Thorned.

How tempting to imagine how fruitful we might be without such burdens. Wouldn’t we be better parents, leaders, workers, Christians if we could run faster? Wouldn’t we do more good for God’s kingdom?

Maybe Jacob, David, and Paul wondered too. Limps and hurled spears and thorns have a way of hindering efficiency and ruining plans. In time, however, the wisdom of God became plain. Jacob’s limp leaned him toward his Lord (Genesis 32:31), David’s enemies made God his stronghold (Psalm 27:1), and Paul’s thorn brought a word far sweeter than strength: “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Their stories bear witness to the surprising paths of God’s mercy. As Charles Spurgeon once preached, “It is a good thing to be without a trouble; but it is a better thing to have a trouble, and know how to get grace enough to bear it.”

Untroubled Days

Note well the first part of Spurgeon’s counsel: it really is good to be without a trouble.

Untroubled days are echoes of our Edenic past and whispers of our better future. They are a wilderness oasis, a lodging house for weary pilgrims. On untroubled days, Jesus says to us, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31). They come like green pastures and still waters, like unlooked-for Sabbaths, like a visit to the land of milk and honey. They are gifts wrapped and sent by the Father of lights (James 1:17).

And yet, for people like us, too many untroubled days can bring trouble. Jacob proved self-reliant and spiritually aloof in his most comfortable moments. It was on an untroubled rooftop, far from the fields of war, that David saw Bathsheba and didn’t look away (2 Samuel 11:1–2). And if Paul’s heavenly visions had come without humbling, conceit may have killed him (2 Corinthians 12:7).

I suspect we can relate. Untroubled days are a gift; they are also a hazard. Without great care, the most peaceful days make Bible reading feel less urgent, prayer less desperate, sin less dangerous, Satan less active, Jesus less precious, and spiritual reality less, well, real. On untroubled days, we more easily neglect our post and drift, unguarded, onto the rooftop.

Sometimes, then, the greatest dangers to the soul are not burdens, but uninterrupted blessings; not pains, but endless pleasures; not troubles, but long tranquility; not suffering, but unthreatened safety. How difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:24) — how difficult, too, for the untroubled.

When Cares Are Many

Trouble, of course, does not guarantee spiritual depth. If the devil holds prosperity in his right hand, he holds calamity in his left. Hence the second part of Spurgeon’s counsel: “It is a better thing to have a trouble, and know how to get grace enough to bear it.” Without grace, burdens break us; with grace, they bend us toward God.

“Without grace, burdens break us; with grace, they bend us toward God.”

Where then do we get the grace that not only makes troubled days endurable, but in some sense better? God has many rivers and streams of grace, but in one way or another, they all flow through his word. Here in the living words of the living God, he holds grace for every trouble, relief for every burden, balm for every broken heart. Hence, it was a word of blessing that both lamed and healed Jacob (Genesis 32:29), a word of welcome that steadied and supported David (Psalm 27:8), a word of promise that made the weak Paul boast (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

As with so many burdened saints, these three men discovered the secret that God gives his best treasures to those who have most troubles. So much of his word was born from trouble, written by persecuted prophets, weeping psalmists, and imprisoned apostles. The Bible is a book of tears — and a book too of the God who wipes them away. So often, then, trouble opens the door to our Father’s deepest comforts.

Certainly for me, God’s word rarely shines so brightly than when other lights go dark. Another’s cruelty made me feel God’s kindness in Psalm 16, the darkness of doubt illuminated Isaiah 50, sleeplessness brought near the God of Psalm 139, and loss gave me glory in Philippians 4.

“When the cares of my heart are many,” the psalmist writes, “your consolations cheer my soul” (Psalm 94:19). What could be better than the consolations of God himself — his hand upon the shoulder, his voice speaking courage, his arm bearing us up? And yet, such precious consolations come only through many cares. Many sighs, many groans, many troubled thoughts — these are the cups into which God pours the comforts of his word.

And in time, they become the cups out of which we give comfort to others.

Deeper Fruitfulness

God, then, is willing to give burdens to his people — even burdens that slow our pace, trouble our peace, and seem to hinder our fruitfulness. We might conclude that God cares less about fruitfulness than we do; in fact, however, he cares far more. His idea of fruitfulness just goes deeper than ours.

Too often, I fear, my own idea of fruitfulness is merely a baptized version of productivity. I can act as if effectiveness in the kingdom of God looks and feels like effectiveness in the kingdom of man: predictable plans, smooth execution, unhindered success. And such effectiveness, of course, has little room for limps, arrows, and thorns. But in fact, productivity forms only one part of true fruitfulness — and not the most important part.

Without trouble, for example, Jacob never would have built an altar “to the God who answers me in the day of my distress” (Genesis 35:3). And David never would have learned to sing, “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear” (Psalm 27:3). And Paul would not have boasted “all the more gladly of my weaknesses” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Humble praise, radical faith, sorrowful joy in Jesus — these are fruits that grow only on trees of trouble.

“Humble praise, radical faith, sorrowful joy in Jesus — these are fruits that grow only on trees of trouble.”

And often, these are the fruits that feed us and others best (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). Some of the best parents walk with a limp. Some of the best leaders preach and serve from a besieged soul. Some of the best workers labor with a thorn. And some of the best Christians carry trouble with them wherever they go. What we so desperately need, and what others so desperately need from us, is not a life free from trouble, but a love for Jesus that lives and thrives in the midst of it.

God cares deeply about our fruitfulness — so much so that he may, for a time, limp us, or surround us, or send us a thorn.

Blessed Are the Burdened

I would like to think I could make it safely to heaven on a smooth path, running straight and wide beneath bright skies. I would like to imagine I would remain faithful to God without the training rod of trouble. Sometimes, I would like to rephrase Paul’s words in Acts 14:22 to say, “Through many untroubled days we must enter the kingdom of God.”

But in a world like ours, and with hearts like ours, some of God’s best gifts come wrapped in the black box of trouble. In his good hands, troubles are the limps that lean us toward Jesus, the enemies that chase us toward God, the thorns that give strength from above. They burden us, sometimes almost unbearably. But they also bend us toward the one whose steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63:3).

So, as good as it is to enjoy untroubled days, it is better to have a trouble, and to walk with God in the midst of it.

Do any of you have no trouble? Experience no burden? Ah, but how do we perceive the experience. Indeed in Christ, we can do anything. We will do what glorifies and honors the Lord even though He gives or allows us burdens that seem to hinder our lives. Choose to love, worship, praise, serve God with all that you are and through all that this life brings. The next will have no burdens!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 24, 2022

Notes of Faith September 24, 2022

Did the Devil Really Make Me Do It?

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. — 1 Corinthians 10:13

Early on in my Christian pilgrimage, I discovered the value of Scripture memorization. First Corinthians 10:13 was the first verse I ever deposited in the memory bank of my mind. Because I had hidden this verse in my heart, only God has recorded how many times across the years — when I found myself faced with some sort of temptation — it surfaced in my memory and kept me from many a potential mistake. Scripture memorization plays a vital role in overcoming temptation.

D. L. Moody’s worn Bible, from which he preached to millions in the nineteenth century, had these words written in his own hand in the flyleaf: “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”

It is not a sin to be tempted.

Temptation comes our way in all sorts of forms and sizes. Our minds are like a hotel. The manager cannot keep someone from entering the lobby. However, he can certainly keep that person from getting a room. Likewise, it is not a sin when a temptation passes through our mind. The sin comes when it does not do that, when it doesn’t pass through our mind. The sin comes when we give that thought a room in our mind and let it dwell there.

One should not confuse temptations with trials that come our way. Most often, trials are allowed, or even sent, by God to cause the Christian to stand. Temptations are sent from the devil to cause the Christian to stumble.

Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. — James 1:13-14

The devil never made us do anything. He simply dangles the bait in front of us.

Then we are tempted; we are “drawn away by [our] own desires and enticed” by that which is outside the boundaries laid out for us in God’s Word.

Make no mistake about it: we will be tempted. As long as we are encased in human flesh, it desires to rebel against what is good and godly. We never have to teach our children to disobey. They pick right up on it. We have to teach them to obey. So it is with us and the issue of temptation. It is a reality that is not going to go away. Consequently, it behooves us to know how to deal with temptation when it comes.

Some people live with the erroneous concept that the longer we walk the Christian path and the deeper we go with God, the less we will be tempted. None of us will ever arrive at the place when temptation will not be looming before us in some form or fashion.

Most of the great heroes of the Bible faced their greatest temptations near the end of their pilgrimage rather than in the beginning.

This was certainly true of Moses, Elijah, and David.

There is a word of assurance here for those who may feel a sort of pseudo guilt over being tempted: it is a reality. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man.” It is inevitable. Temptation is “common to man.”

Life may have its shadows, but one thing is certain: they are never caused by God’s turning or by His changing. He is faithful.

James reminded us that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

Years ago, while in the process of memorizing James 1:17, I found myself one night in a parking lot standing under a light. When I stood directly under it, no shadow was cast. However, as I stepped away from the light, I began to see my shadow in front of me. The farther I walked, the larger the shadow, until finally I walked far enough to be in the darkness. The shadow was caused by my turning, my changing, and not by the light. Difficulties in life are never caused by God’s turning or changing. We can rest in the reality that even though we may be tempted, we have a Lord who is faithful.

God provides a way of escape for us

The word picture here is of a mountain pass. The idea is of an army that is apparently surrounded, and then suddenly they see an escape route to safety through a mountain pass.

None of us needs to succumb to the temptations that come our way. Jesus will make a way of escape. Many who have fallen into sin did so willfully because they refused to take the path of escape that the Lord put before them.

You say, “I am tempted.” The Lord says, “What else is new? I, too, was tempted in all points as you, yet I was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus taught us how to overcome our temptation. For forty days He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness of Judea. On each occurrence, Jesus overcame by quoting Scripture.

The Word, hidden in our hearts, will also keep us from sin when applied by faith to our lives.

We should not be surprised when temptation comes our way. It is, after all, “common to man.” But Christ Himself is our way of escape. And one thing can certainly be said of Him — “He is faithful.”

Meditate on the words of James:

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. — James 1:12

Excerpted from The Joshua Code by O.S. Hawkins, copyright O.S. Hawkins.

The Word of God has always been the escape route from temptation in my experience. The Holy Spirit brings that which I have read, studied, meditated on, and hidden in my heart to provide the escape. May we all memorize the Word more and more that we may be able to flee from every temptation.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 23, 2022

Notes of Faith September 23, 2022

How Do I Find My Way Out?

Observing Painful Patterns

If you are a woman who learned to hide or make yourself small, please know this is not the life God has for you. If you are a woman who has felt like you have to mute your personality, your take-charge attitude, or your leadership abilities, please know this is not the life God has for you.

God wants the best of you.

And God wants the best for you.

God wants for you to heal, for you to come out from hiding.

God wants for you to learn how to grow big inside yourself, full of His Spirit and might.

God wants for you to learn how to stand up for the convictions inside of you.1

But I have found through my work as a counselor that many women are slowly giving up on these truths. Don’t get me wrong: most women are not giving up on being helpful or kind to others. Most women are not giving up on God. But after working with women for over two decades, the truth is that many are slowly and subtly giving up on parts of themselves that need healing.

In fact, this is exactly where I found myself well into my thirties. I loved God and sought to care for other people. But I had almost given up on the idea that maybe, just maybe, God wanted me to bring out the best of me.

The Hidden You

It started with an “almost” breakup.

“I love you, but I don’t think we’re ready to get married,” the man I was dating said one night as we sipped drinks at a local restaurant. I was stunned. At the age of thirty-seven, I had never been married. We had dated for more than a year, and I was ready for him to put a ring on it.

Joe was a widower with two young children when we met. He had loved his first wife, the mother of his kids, and had cared for her and for them through her debilitating illness as she passed away. Based on what he’d been through in life and the way God made him, he wasn’t someone who shied away from hard conversations.

“I’m committed to you. I’m not leaving. Please hear me say that. But we have work to do,” Joe said. “I love your mind and your heart. But I can’t get to the root of who you are and what you want out of your life. Sometimes it feels like you’re hiding from me. If we can’t both put all our cards on the table — the good and what’s hard — it won’t be healthy for either of us.”

As he spoke these words, the life force sucked out of me. I felt as if I’d left my body and was floating above the table, where I watched myself nodding and listening attentively, somehow willing myself to move a water glass over to my mouth. Shame had washed over me, and while I was aware of a terrible feeling, I was simultaneously aware of myself staying calm and present with him.

I was witnessing my own fawn response in action.

As an adult, I had traded the invisibility cloak of my teen years for the expert position of full-time helper, otherwise known as a psychologist. I had honed my ability to focus on other people. No longer just a helpful daughter or an encouraging friend, I was now a bona fide doctor of healing. I made my living tending to other people’s problems, and I was good at it — so good that I could lose myself in it.

I worked for God now. I was His helper. I didn’t need other people.

I was proud of the way that I helped others. But part of me longed to be seen. I hadn’t yet learned to let God’s healing light shine onto the inside of me, let alone let someone else into my longings, fears, and vulnerabilities.

Hearing these words from this man I deeply admired touched on a wound that went all the way back to my childhood, back to that sixth-grade girl buried deep inside who longed to show up big in her own life.

I am not going to leave you.

I love you.

I’m committed to you.

God was the driving force behind the healing I would find

As I sat there listening, still detached from my body, those words somehow reached me.

Wait, he’s not leaving me. Then what is he saying?

I love you. But I can’t find you.

I could not make sense of this message.

On one hand, it sounded as if he was saying the exact words I feared — he could not see me. On the other hand, he was saying something new, words I had always longed to hear.

I won’t leave you. I want to find you.

The shame lingered, but I smiled and nodded through the rest of our dinner.

The next day, the battle within me began.

That jerk! What gives him the right to tell me to work on myself? Look at all his flaws. They are way worse than mine.

I’m being like Jesus by always focusing on other people. What does he have to say for himself?

Tempted to pick up the phone and download all the terrible things about him to my friends, some part of me wouldn’t let me. (Well, maybe I did a little bit.)

“He’s not wrong,” I wrote in my journal.

Something deep inside me knew that he was right. When you have lived decades of your life camouflaging who you are — even while you’re doing “good things for God” — you get that it might be hard for someone else to find you, to know who you really are.

Joe had my attention.

God had my attention.

But here was my dilemma: How in the world do you stop being camouflage when it’s all you’ve ever been? How do you let someone in when you’ve worked overtime to stay hidden?

I had learned to cope in relationships — and feel like a valuable person — by always focusing on others. Yet God had brought into my path a man who had exactly zero interest in all my efforts to focus on him. To experience the kind of love I actually wanted, I had to learn to make myself visible.

Understandably, part of me experienced Joe’s words as a rejection. But he wasn’t rejecting me. Instead, he was desperately trying to get a message to the hidden me buried deep within:

I want you.

I want the real you that is hiding.

This camouflage keeps me from the person I want to spend my life with.

I knew he was right. He wanted to know all of me — not just the pleasing, helpful perception of me I was so good at creating. And I was the only one who could open that door. Instead of focusing on others, I had to start focusing on the deep, life-changing work of bringing forth the person I really was.

In order to be known by other people, you have to show up as your true self. In order to show up as your true self, you have to face your wounds.

In my case, it was Joe who served as a catalyst for me to dig deeper into the work of facing unhealed wounds and confronting aspects of my conditioning that had encouraged me to hide. But the truth is that

God was the driving force behind the healing I would subsequently find.

In the same way, God wants to heal and draw out the real you, including the parts of you that have learned to stay hidden. To join God in this effort, you have to start paying attention. You have to become aware of the ways you’ve been wounded, the methods you’ve used to cope, and the countless subtle and not-so-subtle messages of your conditioning. This work is tender. It requires compassion, courage, and care. And it requires a strong foundation of trust, the cornerstone of which is developing trust with yourself.

After all, how can you trust someone else with the real you if you aren’t sure what they’ll find?

Ephesians 6:10.

Excerpted from The Best of You by Allison Cook, copyright Dr. Allison Cook.

Do you trust anyone, even God who already knows everything? We need people in our lives to help us heal and nurture us toward making godly choices. Try not to hide your real self. Give yourself even if it hurts. Our life is short and then there will be no more pain or suffering with the things of this world, only joy and the blessing of being with our Lord and Savior forever!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 22, 2022

Notes of Faith September 22, 2022

Step Outside the Boat

Making God laugh with your plans isn’t something you have to avoid at all costs. While your mind is busy producing, creating, and planning, don’t allow the idea that your plan may not pan out the exact way you have in mind keep you from producing at all.

If you’ve come to a place where you’ve accepted your identity as an extension of God on Earth, it may take some time for you to figure out exactly how you’re supposed to show up and where you will be most effective. That means there may be moments when even your best efforts end in failure. Failure is not a curse word, and even when we fail in the pursuit of what God has for us, we have a promise that it will all work out for our good.

Have you heard the story about Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, attempting to walk on water? Jesus’ disciples were in a boat in the middle of a storm. Right in the middle of them losing it, Jesus appeared and told them to be calm even though the storm was raging (Matthew 14:28). I’ll paraphrase, but Peter’s response was basically, “God, if that’s really You, command me to come to You.” As in, Jesus, don’t stop the storm, but allow me to walk through the storm the way that You are doing.

There’s a whole sermon in that, but stay focused. Jesus commanded Peter to come to Him, and for a split second Peter began to walk on the water. Unfortunately, he took his eyes off Jesus, and the moment he did, he began to sink. Jesus rescued him from drowning and placed him back on the boat.

There’s much conversation about how Peter didn’t have enough faith, but I can tell you he had more faith than I would have had in the moment. He may not have completed the task the way he had in mind, but he did accomplish something he would have never accomplished had he not challenged himself in the first place.

Don't allow the fear of what other people think keep you from spreading your wings

Why is this important and what does it have to do with your journey? I want you to begin making goals for yourself without fear of failure or of the unknown. I want you to come to a place where you are content with starting to head in the right direction and that you don’t get caught up in whether you’ll reach the desired destination.

If the disciples had been anything like my siblings, when Peter was alone, they would have been clowning him for not being able to keep walking toward Jesus. Nothing would have been off-limits in the commentary, from the way Peter trembled when he saw he was sinking to how he even thought he could do it in the first place. Imagine having an audience while you step out on faith when you’re still battling uncertainty; the possibilities of failure are high.

You may hear a chorus of voices from people in your circle with their own set of commentary as it relates to your goal, but do you know what the other disciples will never be able to say to Peter? They will never be able to say that they know what it’s like to step on water.

He may not have been able to accomplish his goal, but the mere fact that he attempted the goal set him apart from anyone who could have negative feedback about what he attempted. In addition, Peter learned something about Jesus that none of the other disciples were brave enough to learn.

Don’t allow the fear of what other people think keep you from spreading your wings.

What you’re called to do may be different from the circle around you. No one but you and God may understand that for some time, but what matters is that you and God have that understanding. That’s you! If our goal is to become more and more like the image of our Creator, we’re going to have to step out of what we know and begin seeking out what God knows.

I feel like there’s someone reading this and God is saying that He has something He wants you to know about Him that He hasn’t shared with anyone around you. You won’t discover this revelation by staying in the boat. You will only come to this revelation by stepping out and away from those who think they know you so that you can figure out what God truly knows.

Sometimes we think that we need to step away from people forever while we pursue what God is commanding us to do, but the truth is that there will be instances when you only need to step away long enough to get a revelation. Peter gets back in the boat. Peter keeps walking with the disciples. Peter keeps connecting with the world around him, but he is not the same Peter he was before he stepped out of the boat. Peter and Jesus have an insider understanding that only the two of them know. Maybe you just need to step away from your circle long enough to get some inside information about who God is and what God can do with you.

Excerpted from Woman Evolve by Sarah Jakes Roberts, copyright Sarah Jakes Roberts.

Might I also suggest “If You Want To Walk On Water You’ve Got To Get Out Of the Boat” by John Ortberg. Believing faith acts in simple and deep ways. How are you doing in your journey with Jesus? If we want to know God and make Him known, we must read His Word and pray, commune with Him, listen to God as if He is always with us wherever we go (He is), and our journey through this life will stay focused on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 21, 2022

Notes of Faith September 21, 2022

Article by David Mathis

Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

We are a generation crying wolf.

Jesus said to beware “ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Paul warned of “fierce wolves” (Acts 20:29). And for two millennia, one of our enemy’s best schemes has been to quietly infiltrate the flock with predators. There have always been wolves.

Yet our awareness of wolves, and access to their stories, is particularly acute in our times, and with it has come hair-trigger suspicion of even worthy leaders. In an effort to expose wolves in sheep’s clothing, some today imagine real shepherds to be wearing wolves’ underwear. The contagion is tragic. In the end, those who will be hurt most are the genuine victims, whose real cries for help will become harder to hear in the din of over-eager accusations.

In confused days like ours, as in every generation, we’re called afresh to take our cues from Scripture, rather than what’s trending in an unbelieving society. We need God’s word on how to watch for wolves, and we also need a positive vision of what to look for in our leaders. As the list grows longer of what to beware, do we have any corresponding clarity on what to pursue?

Three Big Categories

Into one of the great questions of our time, the risen Christ provides some bracing and clear answers. First comes his own words, while among us, in Mark 10:42–45: his leaders don’t “lord it over,” but serve. Then, we have Paul’s remarkable words to the Ephesian elders captured in Acts 20. Add Peter’s charge to “fellow elders” in 1 Peter 5. Hebrews also sounds a clarion call in its final chapter (Hebrews 13:7–8, 13). And most extensive of all, we have the letters of Paul. Especially the Pastoral Epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. There, among other passages, we find the “elder qualifications” of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, where the apostle lays out a bounty of fifteen traits in each list, with the two lists largely overlapping.

We have not been left without direction.

However, sometimes we do get lost in plentiful data. In fact, we have so much guidance available for us on what makes for true, enduring, trustworthy leaders that it might help to have some simple, memorable categories to bring organizing clarity to the many details.

Consider one such effort to slice the pie into three pieces, based on the graces catalogued in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The three each start with an H (or H sound). And I’ll show the work on which specific traits go under each heading.

1. Humbled

First and foremost comes the man before his God, that is, “in secret” (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18). The man is his truest self alone before God, with no human eyes watching. This is the man that family, church, and world may not see directly, but they will most definitely see him indirectly by his fruit. Over time, this man, the real man, comes out. And perhaps the chief manifestation will be a genuine, compelling humility that cannot be faked. “He must not be arrogant” (Titus 1:7).

A pastor might pretend to have first steeped his soul in hearing God’s voice in Bible meditation and having God’s ear in prayer, but he can’t pretend it for weeks on end. His spiritual thinness will manifest. The sheep will know in time.

To be clear, the humility we’re looking for here is not a virtue that a man “grows from scratch,” as if he had been born without pride and just needed to develop the opposite. Rather, he was born a sinner, with deep native conceit — and apart from the grace of God, this original pride will deepen and calcify. And God does not typically purge a man of the main roots of his pride through quiet, painless processes alone. He usually roughs him up in painful moments. He humbles him. It can be ugly. And in time, a different kind of man, by grace, emerges on the other side.

Tim Keller tells of Martyn Lloyd-Jones sitting in a gathering of older pastors who were discussing some younger preacher with extraordinary gifts:

This man was being acclaimed, and there was real hope that God could use him to renew and revive his church. The ministers were hopeful. But then one of them said to the others: “Well, all well and good, but you know, I don’t think he’s been humbled yet.” And the other ministers looked very grave.

Lloyd-Jones, says Keller, was hit hard that “unless something comes into your life that breaks you of your self-righteousness and pride, you may say you believe the gospel of grace but . . . the penny hasn’t dropped” (The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, 119).

HUMBLED TO LEAD AND FEED

We need humbled pastors. And for most, if not all, God designs the calling process to the pastorate to be part of this humbling. Aspiring to the office is critical, as 1 Timothy 3:1 notes — because in this line of work it is vital to labor “not under compulsion” or “for shameful gain” but willingly and eagerly (1 Peter 5:2). Yet aspiration alone does not make a pastor. He also needs the affirmation over time of fellows in his local church, and then, and often most humbling, the specific real-life appointment of some local church to the office. He may aspire to pastor, but he is not yet called to pastor until some real church appoints him.

“We pray for humbled, whole, and honorable pastors who together will face the challenges that come at each local church.”

So too, under this banner of the humbled man before his Lord, comes the requirement that pastor-elders be (1) “able to teach” and (2) “sober-minded.” Christ calls his undershepherds to lead and feed the flock — that is, to govern and to teach. Which relates to the particular call of church leaders to the word of God and prayer (Acts 6:4). Faithful pastors teach God’s word, not their own preferences, and they lead prayerfully, with God-given sober-mindedness, not natural human wisdom.

Such humbled men “keep their heads” (sober-minded) in conflicted and trying times. They’re calm, settled, secure, and wise — and wise enough not to go off on their own but contribute to and receive wisdom in the context of team leadership, that is, a plurality of local pastors. And such humbled men, when matched with teaching ability (able to teach), are a powerful combination in the leading and feeding of the flock, where genuine skill and ability in teaching is required and where we do not “teach ourselves” as our subject but the stewardship of Scripture we have from Christ.

2. Whole

Second, then, growing out from a man’s devotional life, and life of humility before his God, is the man before those who know him best. We might say “in private.” Does he have integrity? Is he whole, the same in public and private?

One aspect of his wholeness is the broad (and beautiful) banner of self-control (prominent in 1 Timothy 3 and mentioned twice in Titus 1). Has he gained a relative, settled, and holy mastery of his own appetites and bodily passions? Does he seem, by the Spirit, to control his own gut, or is he controlled by it? Related are the two disqualifiers “not a drunkard” and “not a lover of money.”

Intimately connected with “self-control” biblically is sexual holiness and being (literally) a “one-woman man,” which is not simply a box to check (“husband of one wife”) that he’s married and not divorced. Rather, “one-woman man” presses deeper to the fidelity of the man’s soul. Is he faithful to his wife in body, mind, heart, and words? Does he care for her as Christ does for his church? As one of the pastors, he will be part of the team of leaders caring for a particular local church.

Such wholeness, then, also relates to his own household management: “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (1 Timothy 3:4–5). Distraction and abdication at home make him unfit for the leadership the church needs.

3. Honorable

Finally, we have the inevitable public dimension: the man before the watching church and world. At first blush, we might find it strange that spiritual leadership relates so much to public perception and reputation, but we should keep in mind the public nature of church office. It is vital that our pastors be honorable.

The express trait that gets at this most clearly is “respectable,” that is, the man’s life and words make it easier (rather than harder) to respect him, both within the church and in the broader community. So, leading the lists in both 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 is “above reproach.” This likely begins with Christian eyes, though it’s complemented with “outsiders” in 1 Timothy 3:7: “Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”

One aspect of this honorable public life is hospitality, which is literally “love of strangers.” Rather than defaulting to fear or dislike of unknown persons, he extends welcome in Christ, whether to the church or into his own home or into conversation.

One final piece of honorable public bearing is how the man carries himself in conflict and when upset. Paul says “not violent but gentle.” Gentleness is not the absence of strength, but the addition of virtue to strength. It applies strength in life-giving, rather than life-harming, ways. One last disqualifier is “not quarrelsome.” Mature Christian leaders aren’t afraid to engage when they must, but they don’t go around picking fights for sport (2 Timothy 2:24–26).

Resilient in Conflict

The nature of the Christian faith is such that good leaders are perennially important. Yet, as many of us have learned in tough times, good leaders prove even more precious in conflict. That’s the setting in both Ephesus and Crete, as Paul writes to Timothy and Titus, and it’s foregrounded in 2 Timothy 2:24–26 and in 1 Peter 5:1–5.

“Good pastors, as a local team of sober-minded teachers, shine all the brighter in tough times.”

Good pastors, as a local team of sober-minded teachers, shine all the brighter in tough times, in the times of difficulty and suffering that already were in the first century, that many face today, and that are coming in the days ahead. And so, we pray for humbled, whole, and honorable pastors who together will meet the challenges that come to each local church.

Even as our generation cries wolf, we pray and look expectantly, knowing that such worthy leaders do not emerge by accident, nor are they as rare as some may suspect. Rather, they are divine gifts, sovereignly appointed and provided, supplied by the risen Christ, for the joy and health of his church.

My desire is to draw ever close to the throne of grace, to know my Lord and Savior as I am known. As I seek my Master, He calls to lead others to Him in the same manner that He did/does. I recommend that you pray for any spiritual shepherd in your life, that they might be humble, whole, honorable, resilient in conflict and much more for the glory of God!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 20, 2022

Notes of Faith September 20, 2022

Freedom Revolution

Imagine hiking in a swampy area. The going is tough, and you’re all alone. You keep a watchful eye out for predators, but you don’t notice that you’ve suddenly strayed into some sandy-looking terrain. The ground feels spongy for one step. Two. Suddenly it gives way.

You’re up to your knees in quicksand.

It’s wet. Shifting. You’re stuck and very slowly going down. You shout for help, but no one’s around. You fight to free yourself, but you can’t reach any handholds to lift yourself up. You struggle. You flail against the wet sand, but you’re soon up to your thighs and slowly continuing to sink. You’re trapped. Definitely panicking now.

An hour goes by. Another hour. Still another. The sun is scorching hot overhead. You vow not to give up, but you’re growing exhausted. The harder you fight, the more the quicksand weighs you down. You’ve heard somewhere that struggling only makes you sink faster, so you try to be still, but it’s against all your instincts. You flounder. Grasp for anything. The grit of the murky sand chafes against your skin. You’re past your waist now, your body firmly wedged in the trap. Another hour goes by. Another. You’re down past your chest. You barely have the energy to kick anymore. You can hardly move.

Here’s a startling fact about quicksand: due to the physics of shifting sand and weight distribution, the grains of sand that trap you almost always jam up and bind together before you sink too far. It’s a phenomenon called “force chain,”1 and unlike what you see in the movies, you won’t be suddenly sucked in over your head. In the real world, you can sink a long way down, particularly if you struggle, and you definitely can die in quicksand. Yet people seldom die from sinking and suffocating, as you might think. Instead, they die from exhaustion. From the effects of desperation and exposure.

They die because they wear themselves out trying to escape.

Train your mind and heart to see yourself as victorious in Christ

When it comes to fighting sin, the same can be true. Many of us are floundering in poor choices; for years we’ve battled against the spiral of sin and temptation as though it were quicksand, but it keeps sucking us down. We keep struggling, but we can’t seem to climb onto solid ground. In desperation we panic or lapse into spiritual exhaustion. It seems no matter what we try, we can’t free ourselves, and it feels like we’ve reached the point where we can’t fight anymore. We’re an inch from giving up. But guess what?

You do not need to be swallowed in the quicksand of sin.

SURROUNDED, CLOTHED, SECURE, NEW

You have victory in Christ. This is not mere preacher-talk or church rhetoric. Jesus has already won. He’s seated in the place of victory at the right hand of God (Hebrews 12:2). When eternity unfolds, Jesus won’t return to earth to fight sin again. He’ll return as the ultimate victor. Because Jesus has already won the victory over sin, you have access to this victory too. You are freed from sin’s quicksand by living in your new identity. Sin, temptation, and a poor thought life don’t need to hold you down. The power to live freely comes from your close association with Christ and His victory.

To be clear, our battle isn’t won because the pressure lifts from our lives or because our circumstances change. We’ve seen this all along in our study of Psalm 23:4–5. We will still walk through dark valleys throughout our entire lives. We will still sit at a table that’s surrounded by enemies. The battle isn’t won because the pressure lets up. No. The battle is won because of who walks with us through the dark valleys and who sits at the table with us when we’re surrounded by troubles.

What does it mean to be associated with Christ and His victory? Let’s unpack this concept. Second Corinthians 5:17 says we are “in Christ” and a “new creation,” and Galatians 3:26–28 says we are “clothed” with Christ. It means that Jesus makes us brand new, and we’re completely enfolded by the righteousness of Christ. Colossians 3:3 talks about how our lives are “hidden with Christ.” Imagine a hidden room in a house, or a hidden pocket inside a coat. When something is hidden, it’s both concealed and secure. Our brand-new righteousness isn’t fleeting. It’s protected and safe.

Train your mind and heart to believe that you are a new creation. Your righteousness is safe because of Christ.

There’s more. Ephesians 2:6 says,

God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms.

That means we are united with Christ in victory. Since Christ was brought up from the grave, we are brought up together with Him also. We are that closely connected with Christ. Whatever Jesus has won, we have won also. God Almighty took on the form of a human who took the full weight of the world’s sins on the cross. Jesus suffered and died and was raised to life again. That is what has won the battle. First Corinthians 15:57 says,

Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Train your mind and heart to see yourself as victorious in Christ.

When temptations threaten us, we first become free by changing our perspectives. Instead of floundering in the quicksand of sin and temptation for the rest of our lives, we change how we think. We take responsibility for what happens in our minds and say, “I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. I am a brand-new creation. Christ is the victor, and I can adopt a mindset that sees me walking in all the victory Jesus has won for me.”

Your new mindset tells you that God is faithful. You remind yourself of this truth. You remind yourself and remind yourself again. That constant reminding begins to change the old patterns that led you to defeat. Sin is not the end of the story anymore. Your faithful God promised a way out of temptation. True to His promise, He provides the way out, so you can and will escape this temptation. You can walk through dark valleys, and you can sit in the presence of your enemies with a different way of thinking about what God has for you. First John 5:4 says,

Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world.

How do you refuse the Enemy a seat at your table? You must start from this place of identity. You remind yourself that Jesus has already won your struggle. And because you are joined with Him, something powerful has already happened. Whatever He has won, you have won. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. Since Christ has victory, you have access to that victory right now. You’re not fighting the battle against sin on your own strength. You’re tapping into the huge, all-powerful engine of God’s resurrection power (Philippians 3:10). This is that engine for change we hinted at earlier.

Maybe that sounds like a lot of theological rhetoric to get your mind around, but it really isn’t complicated. It boils down to God’s faithfulness. Let’s look again at 1 Corinthians 10:13:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (emphasis added)

It’s that straightforward. Read the verse again. God is faithful.

When you rely on Him, He will provide a way out.

“What Happens If You Fall into Quicksand?,” produced by What If?, in conjunction with Underknown and Ontario Creates, July 24, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYlZyO62V7A.

Excerpted from Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table by Louie Giglio, copyright Louie Giglio.

Fighting temptation and sin by yourself is a losing battle. Fighting temptation and sin with the power of God and all that He provides for you with His Spirit within and the fellowship of other believers brings a glorious win! Seek the Lord, His Word, His power and strength at the first moment of struggle with temptation and sin and you will experience the glory of God!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 19, 2022

Notes of Faith September 19, 2022

God is Good All the Time

I’ve heard of an old man, a stalwart of the Christian faith, who slipped from earth to heaven with the words of a child’s song upon his lips: “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back.”

I’ve heard the account of a renowned theologian who summarized his entire life’s work in a melody he learned upon his mother’s knee: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”1 Sometimes the simplest words are the most important. Though we hike beyond theological foothills to explore the towering mountains of God’s thoughts and deeds, we never forget the beauty, never stop needing the blessing, of the simplest truths.

I once attended a church where it was the custom of the pastor to pause in his liturgies or sermons to say, “God is good,” to which the congregation would reply, “All the time.” Then he would say, “All the time,” and the congregation would answer, “God is good.” It was a recital of the simplest of truths — that goodness is not an occasional attribute of God, not an infrequent disposition, but a constant one. It was meant to remind us that God’s goodness does not vary with our circumstances but is fully present and on display in our worst moments as well as our best, in our most lamentable experiences as well as our most joyful. And though the pastor’s little phrase may have become trite over time, though I may have grumbled about it in the past, today, right now, nothing is more precious to me, nothing is more important to me, than this:

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

This is not the only truth that is propping me up.

I’ve heard people in grief speak of God’s sovereignty, perhaps repeating a well-known phrase that compares it to a pillow upon which the child of God rests his head, giving perfect peace. Sovereignty speaks to power and the right to reign. It is the attribute of kings or potentates or others in positions of supremacy. Ultimately, it is an attribute of God himself, who rules Heaven and earth to such a degree that nothing happens or can happen apart from his will. Nothing is given to us that does not pass first through God’s own hand. God’s sovereignty is a sweeping doctrine that touches every aspect of life across every moment of creation and every corner of the universe. There is no moment, no spot, no deed, no death, that falls outside of it.

God is good all the time

God’s sovereignty is offering me comfort in these dark days. It assures me that there was no earthly power, no demonic power, no fate or force above or below, that had its way with my boy, that interrupted or superseded God’s plan for him. There was no moment in which God turned his back or got distracted with other affairs or nodded off to sleep. There was no medical deformity or genetic abnormality that had been overlooked by God. God’s sovereignty assures me that it was ultimately no one’s will but God’s that Nick lived just twenty short years, that he died with so much left undone, that he has departed and we have been left here without him. When Job was told of the death of his children, he did not say, “The Lord gave, and the devil has taken away,” but

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.

And with that certainty he blessed the name of that Lord.

But while God’s sovereignty offers comfort, it offers comfort only if I know something more, something of his character. After all, God might be sovereign and capricious. He might be sovereign and selfish. He might be sovereign and arbitrary. He might be sovereign and evil. So for this reason I ask, “What else is true of God?”

If I am laying my head on any pillow in these days, it is the pillow of God’s goodness. I keep saying it: “God is good all the time.” I may be saying it with sorrow and bewilderment and something less than full faith. I may be saying it as a question: “God is good all the time, right?” But I am saying it. I don’t necessarily understand how God is good in this, or why taking my son is consistent with His goodness, but I know it must be. If Nick’s death was not a lapse in God’s sovereignty, it was also not a lapse in His goodness. If there was no moment in which God stopped being sovereign, there is no moment in which He stopped being good — good toward me, good toward my family, good toward Nick, good according to His perfect wisdom.

God can’t not be good!

God’s goodness means that everything God is and everything God does is worthy of approval, for He Himself is the very standard of goodness. Those things that are good are those things that God deems good, that God deems fitting, that God deems appropriate. For something to be good is for it to meet the approval of God, and for something to meet the approval of God is for it to be good.

If that’s the case, then who am I to declare evil what God has declared good?

Who am I to condemn what God has approved? It falls to me to align my own understanding of goodness with God’s, to rely on God’s understanding of good to inform my own. Ultimately, it’s to agree that if God did it, it must be good, and if it is good, it must be worthy of approval. To say, “Thy will be done,” is to say, “Thy goodness be shown.” It’s to seek out evidence of God’s goodness even in the hardest of His providences. It’s to worship Him, even with a broken heart.

Excerpted from Seasons of Sorrow by Tim Challies, copyright Tim Challies

Rom 8:28

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 18, 2022

Notes of Faith September 18, 2022

Don't Waste Your Pain

Silver Linings in Dark Places

Surveying the various good outcomes God frequently produces from our agonies requires a careful word of caution.

Because knowing the mind of God is impossible (Romans 11:33-34), discerning His intentions demands humility. Though it is true that God may have a singular goal for our afflictions, His desired end is often multifaceted and complex. You may understand something of God’s design for your hardships, but the full breadth of His intentions is often incomprehensible.

Grasping for understanding of what God might be teaching you is commendable, but speaking dogmatically for Him is not. We should be proactive in order to grow, without being presumptuous regarding the Lord. With these boundaries in place, the following list is by no means comprehensive. These are just some of the beneficial results God brings into our lives through our suffering.

Trials Grow and Strengthen Our Faith

Because God is more concerned with our character than our comfort, sometimes He chooses to use calamity in order to sanctify us. James 1:2-4 explains:

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If ease or happiness is your primary goal in life, you will likely feel frustrated and betrayed when God chooses to deepen your maturity through a trial. The potential for meaningful development and growth, however, may be greatest when we are hurting the most. Will you eagerly follow a God who will likely break you in order to mature your commitment to Him?

Before Carson was sick, I confess that my life was relatively easy — no major heartache and few serious problems to weather. This first real challenge to my faith tested everything I said I believed. Even though I had preached for more than a decade with an adequate knowledge of the Scriptures, suddenly my situation forced me to reckon with my confidence in the fundamentals of my faith.

Surface faith will not suffice when circumstances threaten what you treasure most in life.

I am thankful that throughout our dilemma, my confidence in God’s truth only deepened. Before I might have told you what I believe about Christianity. Today I can tell you what I know from firsthand experience.

Trials Deepen Our Fellowship with Jesus and Reveal His Strength

We seldom consider how our current struggles might prepare us for future service, yet God often equips us to serve others as a result of our most painful experiences. In 2 Corinthians 1:4, we learn that God the Father comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

In addition to the personal benefit God produces, the fruit of adversity in our lives will often bear the seeds of comfort for other hurting believers along the way. The Lord’s intention to comfort us is also His investment in bearing the pain of others who are not even hurting yet. When we enjoy the supernatural peace that surpasses our understanding today, we become distributors of that same consolation to others tomorrow and every day thereafter (Philippians 4:7).

Today I regularly receive calls from other pastors and churches whenever a child they know is diagnosed with cancer of some sort. Though I was completely unaware of it at the time, God was giving my wife and me the gift of His comfort so that we could share it with other hurting people. Your trials will enable you to do the same.

Trials Embolden Other Christians to Be Courageous for Christ

Similar to its impact on those outside of Christianity, resolute commitment to the Lord despite adverse realities is a powerful motivator for other believers as well. Again, God’s servant to the Gentiles is a powerful example of maximizing our deepest moments of despair for the kingdom of God. Philippians 1:14 celebrates this: “Most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.” In other words, Paul’s devotion to Christ in prison was a powerful influence on believers who were not suffering. Those who were less committed were challenged to devote their lives to the gospel because one man was willing to serve God under any circumstance.

Think about the Christians who inspire you the most. Chances are you watched them walk through a season of difficulty without wavering. When I was a boy, my favorite teacher fought a brain tumor for nearly four years. This giant of a man demonstrated the substance of Christianity to me in a profound way. Before one of his surgeries, he sat me down in the hallway of my elementary school one day and declared, “I am not afraid to die, and you won’t be either if you will live every day of your life for Jesus Christ.” That conversation still impacts me today. Mr. A, as we called him, ultimately lost his earthly battle with cancer, but he is still enjoying his heavenly reward for such profound faithfulness. His life emboldened me to give myself more fully to my Savior. Your suffering may allow you to do the same for someone else.

Trials Can Be a Form of Discipline Intended to Produce Repentance

No Christian will ever experience the condemnation of God (Romans 8:1). However, Scripture explicitly teaches that God does discipline those who belong to Him. Hebrews 12:9–11 reminds us:

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Sometimes trials are the consequences of our sinful choices and actions. Other times our adversities may not be directly traceable to a specific moment of disobedience, but God intends to produce greater holiness within us nonetheless. God loves us too much to ignore any behavior or perspective that would push us away from Him. Like a loving father, He carefully and expeditiously works to correct us when we stray. Though this involvement in our lives can be painful at times, it proves God’s affection for us rather than His abandonment of us.

Excerpted from Hope When Life Unravels by Adam Dooley, copyright Adam B. Dooley.

Not a single person that I know is without pain. It is part of living.

Rom 8:28, 37-39

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

but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Peter 1:5-9

5 (You) who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls

Let your pain serve you and others for the glory of God!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 17, 2022

Notes of Faith September 17, 2022

Article by Marshall Segal

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

How to Squander Your Spiritual Gifts

What particular abilities has God given you? When God wove you together before you were born, and when he made you new in Christ, he chose gifts for you — special resources, experiences, and abilities for you to steward and practice. Do you believe that? If so, do you know what they are? Can you name some specific ways you’re striving to use them and grow in them?

If you believe in Jesus, he has given you something of his power and ability. Whoever you are, and however “gifted” you feel compared to others, you have abilities from God that are meant to make a difference in the lives of others.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4–7)

In everyone means “in you.” To each means “to you.”

Where Abilities Wither

The reality is that while all of us have particular potential for good, not all of us realize that potential. Some squander the miraculous and personal gifts of God. They sit, as it were, on shelves in the basement, decorations of a life focused elsewhere.

The apostle Paul charges the church in Rome, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Romans 12:6). So what keeps us from using our gifts well? What keeps you from putting to work the grace-filled abilities God has given you? When we squander our God-given resources and abilities, we often don’t realize we’re squandering them. This is part of Satan’s craft. If he can’t convince us to reject God altogether, he’ll draw us away from him in a hundred smaller ways. He’ll embed some subtle temptation, barely discernible, that slowly corrupts our impulses and buries our potential.

“Most spiritual gifts die not by outright rejection, but by distraction.”

Most spiritual gifts die not by outright rejection, but by distraction. These temptations become spiritual cul-de-sacs, comfortable places to live, but leading nowhere. Paul passes by four of these cul-de-sacs in Romans 12.

Selfishness Street

Perhaps the most common way we waste these gifts is by assuming they are about us and not about meeting the needs of others. Paul’s charge to use our abilities comes directly after this remarkable statement of our identity:

As in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:4–5)

The abilities God gives us are not mainly for advancing our careers or unlocking favorite hobbies or giving us a sense of achievement or fulfillment; they’re for blessing and supporting the body of Christ, the church. You’re good at what you’re good at because the church needs that, in some way, shape, or form — because the church needs you.

This is not how the world thinks. What are gifts if they’re not mine to use and spend however I want? Like the 5-year-old hovering over his host of Matchbox cars, we survey our abilities, resources, and time, and declare, “Mine!” God sees gifts so differently. What are gifts, he asks, if they die on the vines of self? No, gifts are only truly experienced and enjoyed when we hold them loosely and gladly say to God, “Yours!”

Pride Boulevard

Beyond a selfishness that blinds us to the needs of others, we might squander our gifts because we think too highly of ourselves. A couple of verses earlier, Paul writes,

By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)

Sometimes gifts spoil because we’re too focused on self; other times, because we think the needs we might meet are below us. We assume we’re too gifted for quiet, ordinary, thankless love. Pride inflates our heads, lifting us out of reality and making real needs seem small, even trivial, next to our conceited priorities. God-given abilities, however, suffocate at that elevation. They breathe and flourish when they’re rooted in real, ordinary lives with real, ordinary needs. Our gifts won’t reach the heights of their potential if we refuse to use them on our knees.

“Our gifts won’t reach the heights of their potential if we refuse to use them on our knees.”

Paul tucks a weapon against this gift-smothering pride in the verse quoted above: think sober thoughts about yourself, he says, “each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” The abilities you have are assigned by God. Even the faith you have is assigned by God. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Anything you do well, remember, you do well only by the creativity and generosity of God.

Worldliness Lane

A third cul-de-sac may be the most prevalent and subtle: worldliness. We waste or misuse our gifts because we prize and prioritize what the world does, rather than seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). It’s far too easy to fall in line with the crowds casually strolling away from the cross. “Do not be conformed to this world,” Paul warns, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

What does the wrong kind of conformity look like? We spend the best parts of ourselves at the office, rather than at home and in church. We’re more excited about our hobbies than we are about heaven. We find the most comfort and “rest” by scrolling through the leftovers of others’ lives on social media. We stay up to date on our favorite shows and movies, but struggle to find time to sit and meet with and enjoy God.

When our hearts are in all the wrong places, it’s no wonder when our gifts — our time, our attention, our resources, our abilities — consistently land in the wrong places too (or never land at all). Those who use their gifts well reject what the world would teach them to do with their gifts. They carry and spend their gifts where God leads them through his word, prayer, and the fellowship of other believers.

Passivity Circle

The last cul-de-sac along this narrow path of faithfulness brings us back to Romans 12:6: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” Like an especially fertile weed, passivity poisons the gardens of giftedness.

How many God-given abilities shrivel because we’re too preoccupied or insecure or lazy to even try? We had an impulse to serve in this way or that, but we kept putting it off. We knew that person might need a call or a visit, but we assumed someone else would reach out. We heard the church was looking for someone to cover that base, but we kept finding excuses to stay in the dugout. Paul says to the church — young and old, male and female, new believers and older saints, healthy and hurting, outgoing and shy, musical and, well, not — “You have abilities (yes, even you), so use them.” Find some way, any way, to use whatever you do well to care for someone else.

Being gifted in these ways doesn’t mean you’re more gifted than everyone else or that God doesn’t expect us all to teach and serve and exhort (and give and lead in various ways); it just means that there’s evidence God has given you greater measures of grace in certain areas to meet the needs of others. “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). Whatever experience or ability God has assigned to you, start using it.

Wait, What Are My Gifts?

Some, however, still may not know what their gifts are. Perhaps you’ve never really thought of yourself as “gifted,” and can’t point to any particular skill or knowledge you would consider a gift. How does someone begin to uncover his or her gifts?

In Romans 12:6–8, Paul does give us a few examples: Some are gifted to teach, so find someone to teach, even if it’s three or four 6-year-olds in Sunday school. Some are gifted to serve, so find someone to serve, even if it’s helping out around the house for a widow who sits a few pews away. Some are gifted to exhort — to encourage, to challenge, to correct, to inspire — so find someone to exhort, even if it’s the guy faithfully teaching three or four 6-year-olds.

A lot more could be said here, but you might start with a simple question: What do you enjoy doing well that a ministry or family in your church might need? What do other people thank you for doing? It could be teaching, or encouraging teachers. It could be leading music, or setting up equipment. It could be serving meals, or cleaning up meals. It could be hosting big gatherings, or befriending lonely people. It could be greeting guests as they come in on Sunday morning, or faithfully praying for fellow members. Every church, however small, has real and significant needs. Sometimes the needs are even bigger in smaller churches because there are fewer leaders and resources. What’s something you do well that meets the needs of others?

If your gifts have wandered into a cul-de-sac and begun to wither, it’s not too late to revive them and put them to use. Lay aside the pride, selfishness, worldliness, and passivity that devour what God has given you. Liberate your gifts from the cul-de-sacs that suppress them. Identify something you do well by God’s grace and ask him to help you find a need to meet.

Jesus promised to build His church, but He is using those who belong to Him to help it grow in number and maturity. Without the use of everyone’s gifts in the church, it will become weak and perhaps suffer and die. Please, learn, know, and use your gifts for the benefit of His church. You will be immensely blessed!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith September 16, 2022

Notes of Faith September 16, 2022

Praying For A Job

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you. — Psalm 32:8

I can’t tell you how many parents, when they heard I was working on this book, let me know they had a story to share. I was excited to interview them, but I had to laugh when I realized that at least two-thirds of the stories were variations on the same theme: praying for your child to get a job. Everyone who has ever had an adult child has, apparently, been down this sometimes long and winding road.

One mom told me how frustrated she had become after her son batted away one job lead after another, since they just didn’t seem to fit his “work/life balance.” (I thought she was kidding, but then I found out it’s a real thing, that today’s graduates really are looking for jobs that come complete with a gym membership, Friday happy hours, and even — since I guess they are waiting longer to have children — things like health insurance for their pets. Seriously.)

Another said her daughter didn’t want to work “in a cubicle, like Dad.”

And a third shared her son’s Goldilocks-style journey through everything from starting a business to playing in a rock band, until (and I think this is a brilliant idea) her husband invited a group of older men to serve as an advisory board in the young man’s life — a move that ultimately opened the door to a “just right” career in television.

I’d go on, but you get the idea. Plenty of kids need to figure out what to do with their lives, and plenty of parents are praying. And I’ll admit it. I didn’t expect to have to pray so hard about my own kids’ jobs — and I said as much to author Paula Rinehart when the two of us had lunch together one day. I’d just finished reading her Strong Women, Soft Hearts, and I’d loved what she’d said about trust.
“Trust,” Paula had written, “hangs somewhere between knowing what your heart longs for and trying to dictate the shape or timing or outcome of your heart’s desire. It lies in the willingness to accept the particulars of how and when and where God chooses to intervene. It waits in the cool shade of surrender.”1

The cool shade of surrender. I liked that image, but I was nowhere near to experiencing it. Instead, I was working up a sweat over things like timing and outcomes in Hillary’s life.

“Hillary doesn’t have a job,” I confided over lunch. “She is back home and living in her bedroom — she’s one of those boomerang kids — and she seems content.”

“She only graduated three months ago,” Paula countered. “Trust me; she is probably not content. She’s an engineer — they think in linear terms. She is pursuing a job; she’s just not doing it the way you would.”

Well, she had that one right. Hillary was definitely not looking for a job the way I would have. I would have loaded my résumé into the barrel of a shotgun and pulled the trigger, splattering my education and experience all over any company that was hiring. But Hillary was a little more particular. She graduated with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and she wanted to be an astronaut. It was a dream she had since the fifth grade, and if she couldn’t actually wear a space suit, she at least wanted to do something with rockets.

At first, I shared Hillary’s enthusiasm. “Provide the job you have ordained for her,” I wrote in my prayer journal. “Fill her life so full of blessing that she will not be able to contain it! Let her joy be complete.”2

That’s a good, biblically based prayer for any new graduate. And I wish I could say that my positive attitude continued, and that I had the faith to believe that God puts desires in our hearts that He wants to fulfill. (He does. Psalm 37:4. I’m just saying I wish I would have had the faith to truly believe that.)

I wish I could say I had taken Paula’s words to heart and waited in “the cool shade of surrender.”

And I wish I could tell you I stood by my daughter, loving her and supporting her and letting her live at home with us, rent-free, as spring rolled into summer, and summer turned to fall, never once resenting the fact that she had polished off the last of the Starbucks K-Cups.

But I didn’t. I didn’t do any of the good-mother things I should have.

Prayer Principle

If we want to pray with faith, we must anchor our requests in God’s promises.

Instead, I spent the better part of a year grappling with fear, frustration, and even anger. And if that’s where you are in your own child’s job-hunting season, can I just say this one thing? Don’t beat yourself up. Give your worries to God, and remember that His grace is sufficient to cover all your mistakes, and His power is made perfect in your weakness.3 Hold on to that promise — and to others — because when discouragement and fear try to creep in and cripple our confidence, the Bible is the anchor for our hope. I like how author and prayer expert R. A. Torrey put it: “If I am to have faith when I pray, I must find some promise in the Word of God on which to rest my faith.”4

I hesitate to tell this story (it does not make me look good), but since we’re all in this parenting thing together, I’ll go ahead. Maybe you’ll find some helpful prayer prompts. Or maybe you’ll just read it and be glad you’re not me. Either way, here goes!

I was really proud of Hillary for academic accomplishments (she had gotten an A+ in Spacecraft Design), and I looked forward to seeing how God would use her education in the real world. But then, as one after another of her peers landed jobs with important-sounding companies, I felt the first crack in my confidence. Had she missed the hiring window? Were there no space-ish jobs to be had? Or maybe it was the reverse. Hillary would be the first to admit that decision making is not her strong suit, and I began to fear that she hadn’t gotten a job because maybe there were just too many interesting choices. The ink on her diploma was still wet, and I was already starting to panic. “Don’t You realize how late it is?” I cried out to God. “Don’t You think it’s time to step in and do something?”

I knew I was being a little dramatic, but I was also conscious of a nagging fear that I had somehow failed as a mother. Had I done something to create a lack of urgency in Hillary? Had I made her tentative or insecure? Or at the other extreme, was I being too pushy? Would it all backfire?

In the midst of my emotional hurricane, I sensed God’s rebuke. “Quiet!” He said. “Be still!”5 It was the same thing He said to the disciples in the boat one stormy night, and I felt my own winds of fear subside. I began to pray that Hillary would also be attentive to His voice.

“Be Hillary’s shepherd,” I asked, borrowing from John 10:2–4. “May she hear Your voice as You call her by name. Lead her into the grown-up world, and may she follow You.”

A month went by, during which friends offered suggestions about jobs that Hillary might want to do or cities where she might want to live. “May Hillary be willing to listen to advice and be humble, so that You will guide her and teach her,” I prayed.6 And even though I knew this was a promise given to the Israelites (and that contemporary Christians who claimed it did so knowing that it pertained more to spiritual and eternal blessings than to things like good health, good wealth, and good jobs), I pulled out Jeremiah 29:11. “I know You have plans to prosper Hillary, to give her hope and a future,” I prayed, “and I am so grateful for that. But I would also love it if part of Your long-term plans for blessing my girl could include a here-and-now job.”

July rolled around. Hillary kept researching space companies and looking at job postings, but it didn’t seem (to me, anyway) like she was making much progress. I searched the Scriptures for something — anything — that would help me cope with the chasm between my plan (“Just get a job!”) and Hillary’s (“I want to be an astronaut!”), and I came upon Proverbs 16:9 (NLT):

We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.

I realized that it didn’t matter whose plan we were following; the outcome was up to the Lord. My job was to get out of His way.

Prayer Principle

We can make all the plans we want — and so can our kids — but God is the one who directs our path.

That acknowledgment was my first step toward the cool shade of surrender. And the next thing I knew, Hillary had taken a job.

As a surf instructor.

To Hillary, the surf job (which was at a camp where she worked in previous summers) seemed like the perfect way to earn an income while she continued to send out résumés. To me, it looked like she was procrastinating, like she was looking for a way to avoid growing up and having to wear shoes every day. And then another worry entered my mind. Surf camp was a place where Hillary clearly fit in; maybe she didn’t know if she belonged in the space program. Was she secretly as anxious as I was? I didn’t know.

I kept on praying that God would show her where to go, career-wise, using verses like Psalm 32:8 as the basis for my prayers: “Instruct Hillary and teach her the way she should go; counsel her and watch over her.” But I also began to pray for her spirit, writing words just like this in my journal:

Give Hillary a sense of BELONGING. Let her know she is CHOSEN.7

Give Hillary a sense of WORTH. Remind her that she is YOUR WORKMANSHIP, and that you have prepared GOOD WORKS for her to do.8

Give Hillary a sense of PURPOSE and IDENTITY as your child, and fill her soul with the knowledge that she is VALUABLE and PRECIOUS and USEFUL to you.9

I prayed this way for nearly two months. And when Hillary came home from the surf camp, two job prospects were waiting. The first was from a winegrower in California who wanted her to design a new way of processing grapes. That sounded good to me, but it didn’t appeal to my girl. The second was with a structural engineering firm, but when Hillary went for the interview and the guy (who seemed a little creepy) asked her to lie down in the middle of an Applebee’s and show him how to “pop up” on a surfboard, she balked.

I would have too.

But that didn’t prevent me from wishing that Hillary would just let go of the whole astronaut thing. I figured there had to be a million jobs out there for engineers; why did she have to be so single-minded in her focus? “Aim lower” has never been the best motivational speech, but it’s pretty much the way I began to think (and speak) about Hillary’s job search. I’ll spare you the details, but you know the Proverbs 31 mother, the one who “speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue”? Picture the opposite.

I wrote some fairly frank things in my prayer journal, and I was sure that God would understand, and that (being a parent) He’d take my side. I opened my Bible to give Him a chance to respond. And — no kidding — here’s what I read:

Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.10

Okay, then. God wanted me to encourage Hillary with gentleness and patience instead of sarcasm and snapping. Point taken.

But He wasn’t finished. I read the next few verses:

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.11

Was He serious? I could pray, and I could resolve to thank God for whatever it was that He had planned. But… be cheerful? I was glad I knew Philippians 2:13

It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose

because if cheerfulness was required to live the way God wanted me to, He was going to have to give me some sort of divine lobotomy.

September crawled by. Since she had time on her hands and an affinity for teenagers, Hillary volunteered to work with Young Life, a ministry to high schoolers. Hillary loved the kids, and they seemed to love her back, and as I watched a sense of purpose and joy begin to bloom again in Hillary’s life, I realized that her volunteer work was something I could be thankful for. Maybe even cheerful about.

In October, a neighbor arranged for Hillary to take a tour of NASA Langley Research Center, which is about forty minutes from our home. Hillary was captivated. She loved the designs and projects she saw, and even better, she could understand how everything worked.

But NASA didn’t have any job openings, so Hillary began making plans to go to Brazil, where she had done volunteer work during her college spring breaks. The orphanage where she had helped out was opening a trade school; Hillary figured she could teach welding or some other engineering-related job skill.

Then she got a phone call. Could she come to NASA for an interview the next day? A post had just opened up — one designed to be filled by a young engineer — and someone she had met on her tour remembered her name.

Flustered — and giddy — Hillary put Brazil on hold and began planning her interview wardrobe. I wasn’t sure how a rocket scientist was supposed to dress, so I left her staring at her closet and dug out my Bible. I’d moved into Daniel by then, where I found a gold mine of prayer prompts:

Cause the officials at NASA to show favor and sympathy to Hillary.12

Give her knowledge and understanding, and may she speak with wisdom and tact.13

Let Hillary have a keen mind and the ability to explain riddles and solve difficult problems.14

She went for the interview and loved it. But then a couple of weeks went by with no word. Hillary took NASA’s silence in stride, figuring it might take a while for them to interview other candidates, but I was worried. Had God forgotten my girl? Had the whole thing just been a big tease?

I opened my Bible to Nehemiah 9, the part where the Israelites show up in sackcloth and ashes and confess their sins. I could relate. “Lord,” I prayed, “I am sad and I’m hurt. I thought I knew you and how you would work in answer to our hopes and our prayers. I thought you had put the desire to work at NASA in Hillary’s heart and that you would fulfill that desire. “But maybe I haven’t really trusted You. Maybe I’ve been focused on your provision for Hillary’s life, finding my joy in that outcome rather than finding my joy in You. I confess that I have been controlling, self-centered, and driven by fear. I’ve questioned Hillary’s approach to job hunting, and I’ve questioned Yours. I am sorry for my arrogance. Please give me Your grace.” There it was. The cool shade of surrender. Hillary’s dream job was within sight — but after eight months of wrestling in prayer on her behalf, I was willing to let it go.

I sat there, staring at my open Bible.

Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.

That was what the priests told the Israelites to do, once they finished their confession. Even though I felt about as big as a worm (and like the last thing God might want was to hear anything more out of me), I figured I ought to join them.

So I did. I began to praise God for His faithfulness, for the way He walked alongside our family through the job-hunting journey, and for the provision He had given us in His Word. Nothing had changed outwardly — Hillary still had no job — but in the shade of surrender, that didn’t matter so much anymore.

And then my eye fell on Nehemiah 9:8:

You have kept Your promise because You are righteous.

You can probably guess what happened. Two weeks later, NASA called again. Hillary was ordering chicken nuggets with her Young Life girls when her phone rang, so she put the space people on hold. (Did I mention that she doesn’t always do things the way her uptight mother would?) Anyhow, they offered her the job, and she took it.

Poised for Prayer

Why did it take eight months for Hillary to get a job? Or to put it another way, why did it take me eight months to pry my controlling fingers off of her life and surrender to God? I don’t know. But God does. And as Priscilla Shirer teaches in her Discerning the Voice of God, “The purposes of God not only involve specific plans; they also involve specific timing.”16

Prayer Principle

Trusting God with our children’s future means being willing to trust His timing.

Had God provided Hillary’s job when I wanted Him to — the day she graduated from college — she would have missed the opportunity to work with Young Life, a volunteer post she loved. She’s still passionate about engineering, but as she told me just the other day, the chance to invest in the lives of young girls has been more satisfying than anything she could have imagined.

Not only that, but had she gone straight into the workforce after graduation, she might have missed the opportunity to meet (and then fall in love with) her husband, who brought a group of guys on the same Young Life ski trip where Hillary showed up with her crew of young girls.

God’s agenda is always so much bigger than ours. My prayer for Hillary’s job was about her finding employment; His answer was about teaching me to relax, to wait in the cool shade of surrender, and to realize that what Hillary and I really needed — and what God wanted to give us — was more of Himself.

Paula Rinehart, Strong Women, Soft Hearts: A Woman’s Guide to Cultivating a Wise Heart and a Passionate Life (Nashville: Nelson, 2001), 75.

A prayer based on God’s promises in Psalm 139:16; Malachi 3:10; John 15:11.

2 Corinthians 12:9.

R. A. Torrey, How to Pray (Chicago: Moody, 1960), 50.

Mark 4:39.

Proverbs 12:15; Psalm 25:9.

Ephesians 2:19; Isaiah 41:9; Ephesians 1:4.

Psalm 139:13; Ephesians 2:10.

Romans 8:15-17; Isaiah 62:3.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 MSG.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 MSG.

Daniel 1:9.

Daniel 1:17; 2:14.

Daniel 5:12.

Nehemiah 9:5.

Priscilla Shirer, Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When God Is Speaking, rev. ed. (Chicago: Moody, 2012), 172.

Excerpted from Praying the Scriptures for Your Adult Children by Jodie Berndt, copyright Jodie Berndt.

It is all too easy to think and do, meaning try to leave God out of our lives. But He is intimately involved in everything with perfect timing for our good and His glory.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Pastor Dale