Notes of Faith November 4, 2022

Notes of Faith November 4, 2022

Give Thanks Out Loud

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

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

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

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

Give Thanks Before Others

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

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

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

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

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

The Purpose of Gratitude

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Ephesians 6:20

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

Said another way,

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

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

Excerpted from The Weekly Gratitude Project, copyright Zondervan.

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 3, 2022

Notes of Faith November 3, 2022

Ordinary Mornings, Extraordinary Grace

Sure as the Sunrise

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Live today with eyes wide open."

– Emily Ley

Mercy and Delight

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

— Song of Solomon 4:7 NIV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 2, 2022

Notes of Faith November 2, 2022

Don't Forget Thanksgiving

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

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

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

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

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

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

Growing in Gratitude

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 1, 2022

Notes of Faith November 1, 2022

Boundaries Without Question Marks

Good Boundaries and Goodbyes

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s why:

We aren’t sure who we really are.

We aren’t sure what we really need.

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

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

Who are you?

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

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

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

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

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

Pause here. Think about this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(1 Corinthians 15:38–44).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love God! Love others!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 31, 2022

Notes of Faith October 31, 2022

GOD IS ABSENT IN THE WAY WE MOST DESIRE

BUT PRESENT IN THE WAY WE MOST REQUIRE

That Safe Darkness

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

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

These are the words of Mother Teresa.

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

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

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

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

Listen to a few of her other laments:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The presence and will of God are inescapable.

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

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

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

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

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

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

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

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

But with unhurrying chase,

And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

They beat — and a Voice beat

More instant than the Feet —

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 30, 2022

Notes of Faith October 30, 2022

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

Thank God That I Am Not God

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But what, exactly, does that mean? 

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

No. 

No. 

And… no. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 29, 2022

Notes of Faith October 29, 2022

Article by Joe Rigney

Teacher, desiringGod.org

Tucked away in Psalm 16 is a shocking statement:

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. (Psalm 16:3)

“All my delight?” Could King David mean that? Could he really mean that all of his delight is in the people of God? He could. He says the saints are “the excellent ones.” This word is an important word, found throughout the Bible. Elsewhere it is translated as majestic.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1)

So then, as the name of the Lord is majestic and excellent, so the people who bear that name are majestic and excellent.

Ordinary and Majestic

This word for majestic (or excellent) can also be translated as mighty or noble. It’s often linked to glory, power, and magnificence. Mountains, ocean waves, massive cedars, great cities — all of these are described in the Bible as majestic. When used of people, the word often refers to princes, rulers, and lords, those who have official positions of authority over others.

David Mathis explores the meaning of this biblical term as applied to God:

In our language, as in biblical terms, the word captures not only greatness but also goodness, both bigness and beauty, awesome power together with pleasant admiration.

God’s people have a kind of grandeur about them, one that calls forth awe and wonder from David. Such grandeur may not be visible physically, but, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, someday it will be. “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship” (The Weight of Glory, 45).

When Dante encounters the apostles Peter and James in Paradise, he bows down before these “great and glorious princes.” After an encouragement from his guide Beatrice, he raises up his eyes “unto those mountains that had bowed them” (Paradiso, canto 25, lines 38–39). Dante, like David, is awed and delighted by the saints, who are as majestic as mountains.

Mankind and My Odd Neighbor

It’s important to note that David doesn’t delight in the saints merely as they will appear in glory; he delights in the saints “in the land.” In other words, these are real people, on earth, at the present time. How easy it is to love mankind in general, and yet how difficult to love particular individuals. As the old joke says, “I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand.” The Christian variation of this is to love what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls “the visionary ideal of community” (Life Together, 27). But this idealized abstraction is merely a wish-dream, and the moment it comes into contact with concrete people, it vanishes like a mist.

Lewis identifies the demonic strategy in such a temptation. Screwtape encourages his young protégé to exploit the gap between glorious expressions like “the body of Christ” and the actual faces in the next pew.

Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous. . . . Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anticlimax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. (The Screwtape Letters, 6–7)

“How easy it is to love mankind in general, and yet how difficult to love particular individuals.”

David’s celebration in Psalm 16 avoids precisely this disappointment. David is not confessing his delight in an abstraction, in a wish-dream community. The majestic ones that have captured his delight are the saints in the land, near at hand, singing out of tune with their double chins and odd clothes. David looks upon them and says, “Majestic. Excellent. All my delight.”

Captured by God for God

How is David able to do this? How can he see majesty in such mundane simplicity? Because David knows that these are saints. That is, they are not merely the excellent ones; they are the holy ones. What draws David’s delight is that God’s people are set apart for his purposes.

These people reflect, however imperfectly, the majesty and glory and beauty of God’s own holiness. Henry Scougal once said, “The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.” And so, David looks upon those who love God, he sees their worth and excellence, the majesty of their souls, and he says, “These are my people, and I love them.”

Jonathan Edwards said much the same thing. When we love something, we love when others love that same thing. That’s why fans of the same sports team immediately hit it off. The mutual joy forms the foundation of a new friendship. How much more when the object of our mutual admiration is God himself?

What heightens and advances the pleasure of society is the excellency and the love of those with whom we converse. But the saints are the excellent of the earth; they are possessed of excellency of the highest kind, and they only are endowed with true excellency. Proverbs 12:6, “The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor”; and 17:27, “A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.” And certainly in such conversation is the greatest delight to be found. Psalm 16:2–3, “My goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.”

And as religion makes lovely, so it begets love, the purest and most ardent. Nothing so much tends to charity, peace, mutual benevolence and bounty as Christianity, and therefore nothing so much sweetens human society. (Works of Jonathan Edwards, 109).

Do We See Nobility?

David’s celebration, then, becomes an exhortation to us. It forces us to ask questions of ourselves and to seek God’s help in being conformed to the image of Christ. Do we see nobility in the simplest of saints? Do we delight in the saints in our land, particularly in our local church? Do we delight in actual people — quirks, warts, and all? Do we delight in them for their holiness and majesty, and do we delight in them in hopes of spurring them on to greater holiness and majesty?

If not, then perhaps we should turn Psalm 16 into a prayer.

Lord, we say to you, “You are our Lord; we have no good apart from you.” Help us to find your goodness in your people. Make us to know your holiness reflected in your saints. Lead us to see the worth, excellency, and majesty of each and every Christian that we meet, from the great to the small, from the strong to the weak. And then fill us with the joy of Jesus himself, who takes pleasure in you and in his people with all his delight.

I love the saints! I have not always, but thought of their perfect sinless state and looked forward to what they would be…me too! Then the Lord taught me through the Scriptures that I should love them now with all of their issues and imperfections. It is a process. But I am learning to love as He loves. Please join me in loving that which God loves and is placing us together in His family.

Love God! Love others!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 28, 2022

Notes of Faith October 28, 2022

Holy Ground

I am your Father-God. Listen to Me! Learn what it means to be a child of the everlasting King. Your richest duty is devotion to Me. This duty is such a joyous privilege that it feels like a luxury. You tend to feel guilty about pushing back the boundaries of your life to make space for time alone with Me. The world is waiting to squeeze you into its mold and to crowd out time devoted to Me. The ways of the world have also warped your conscience, which punishes you for doing the very thing that pleases Me most: seeking My Face.

Listen to Me above the clamor of voices trying to distract you.

Ask My Spirit to control your mind, for He and I work in perfect harmony. Be still and attentive in My Presence.

You are on holy ground.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. —Isaiah 9:6

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

— Zechariah 9:9 NKJV

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. — Romans 8:15–16

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” — Exodus 3:5

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

— Exodus 3:5

Learn to listen to Me even while you are listening to other people. As they open their souls to your scrutiny, you are on holy ground. You need the help of My Spirit to respond appropriately. Ask Him to think through you, live through you, love through you. My own Being is alive within you in the Person of the Holy Spirit. If you respond to others’ needs through your unaided thought processes, you offer them dry crumbs. When the Spirit empowers your listening and speaking, My streams of living water flow through you to other people. Be a channel of My Love, Joy, and Peace by listening to Me as you listen to others.

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” — Exodus 3:5

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. — 1 Corinthians 6:19

“Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. —John 7:38–39

Excerpted from Jesus Listens Note-Taking Edition by Sarah Young, copyright Sarah Young.

God blesses those that believe in Jesus and His work in providing salvation and eternal life with His Spirit to live within them. The problem or issue that continues is that we do not yield to the leading and prompting of the Spirit. All power and authority resides within us through the Holy Spirit. We MUST learn to listen and obey the gift of God . . . Himself . . . to help us in our daily walk in every situation.

Give Him glory and yield to His divine plan for your life and be used by Him in the lives of others! Love God! Love others!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 27, 2022

Notes of Faith October 27, 2022

Wild About You: Wounds

About HER first

Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. — Psalm 25:16

To do any sort of justice to a book for women would require me (John) to go deeper, listen even more carefully, study, delve into the mystery (okay, mess) of a woman’s soul. Part of me didn’t want to go there. Pull back. Withdraw. I was keenly aware of this going on inside me, and I felt like a jerk. But I also knew enough about myself and about the battle for a woman’s heart that I needed to explore this ambivalence.

What is this thing in me — and in most men — that doesn’t want to go deep into a woman’s world?

“You are too much. It’s too much work. Men are simpler. Easier.” And isn’t that the message you’ve lived with all your life as a woman? “You’re too much, and not enough. You’re just not worth the effort.” Now, part of a man’s fundamental reluctance to truly dive into the world of a woman comes from a man’s deepest fear: failure. He fears that having delved into his woman’s world, he won’t have what it takes to help her there. That is his sin. That is his cowardice. And because of her shame, most of the time a man gets away with it.

Most marriages reach this sort of unspoken settlement. “I’m not coming any closer. This is as far as I’m willing to go. But I won’t leave, and that ought to make you happy.” And so there is this sort of détente, a cordial agreement to live only so close. The effect is that most women feel alone.

Lord Jesus, you know the ways in which I feel alone. Give my husband courage to come near, even as I draw near to you.

Now About HIM

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. — Psalm 109:22

For most of us, our wounds are an immense source of shame.

A man’s not supposed to get hurt; he’s certainly not supposed to let it really matter. And so most men minimize their wounds. King David (a guy who was hardly a pushover) didn’t act like that at all. “I am poor and needy,” he confessed openly, “and my heart is wounded within me” (Psalm 109:22). Or perhaps men will admit it happened, but deny it was a wound because they deserved it.

After many months of counseling, I asked Dave a simple question: “What would it take to convince you that you are a man?” “Nothing,” he said. “Nothing can convince me.” We sat in silence as tears ran down my cheeks. He had embraced the wound and owned its message as final. There was no sign of emotion at all. I went home and wept — for Dave, and for so many other men I know, and for myself because I realized that I, too, had embraced my wound.

The only thing more tragic than the tragedy that happens to us is the way we handle it.

God is fiercely committed to you, to the restoration and release of your masculine heart. But a wound that goes unacknowledged and unwept is a wound that cannot heal. A wound you’ve embraced is a wound that cannot heal. A wound you think you deserved is a wound that cannot heal.

God, give me the courage to acknowledge my wound so that I might heal. I trust you to restore me and release my masculine heart.

Excerpted from Wild About You by John & Stasi Eldredge, copyright John Eldredge and Stasi Eldredge.

Wow! I never realized how much I hold myself at a distance, or don’t delve into the woman that is my wife. I feel so close, in love, partnered for life and yet what do I really know about her experience as a woman? I pray that any wounds that I have suffered have not made my God-made masculine heart weak and afraid to embrace and draw near to the gift God gave me in my wife. I pray this for all of you, men and women to think why we process things the way we do. Maybe there are some wounds that need to be addressed to bring healing and real intimacy between one another and God. Love God! Love others!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 26, 2022

Notes of Faith October 26, 2022

The Warrior King

Longing for the Warrior King

The salvation Jesus brings is multifaceted.

Jesus saves us from the spiritual powers of sin, Satan, and eternal death through His crucifixion. He saves us from the deterioration of our bodies and minds through His resurrection, giving us healing in this life and raising us with a body like His in the life to come. And Jesus saves His people from persecution. Like healing, sometimes He brings this about in this life, and sometimes He calls His own to follow Him all the way to death. But His final rescue is sure, and His people can cry out, “Lord Jesus, save me!” because

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. — Hebrews 9:28

While we can see this holistic salvation now, at the time of Jesus’ first appearing, those languishing under Roman oppression were not so sure. John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus’ public ministry, sent messengers from prison to ask,

Are you the One who is to come, or shall we look for another? — Luke 7:19

John had pronounced in Jesus the coming of “the salvation of God” that would include wrath, fire, and an axe laid to the root (Luke 3:4–9). Now John was in prison, decidedly unrescued, and wondered whether he had identified the wrong one as Messiah. From James and John requesting to sit on thrones flanking Jesus “in your glory” (Mark 10:37) to Peter rebuking Jesus’ insinuation of crucifixion and slashing his sword at the soldiers arresting his Master, this question of Jesus’ relationship to the Roman and Jewish power structures of His day sits tensely in the backdrop of all the gospel narratives.

We anticipate Jesus’ second coming in a similar way to how John the Baptist and others anticipated his first. He will return not as the sacrificial lamb or the suffering servant but as the Warrior King. We share their ancient hope of rescue: His real promise to deal with the real aggressors who harm us. While we will focus on the immediate context of persecution for the faith, I believe the imagery of deliverance could help you who have suffered abuse, discrimination, or harassment. These are tragically prevalent in our day, and if they are part of your story, I pray you will find hope in beholding this aspect of Jesus.

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.

— Hebrews 9:28

The Thlipsis of the Thessalonians

The apostle Paul ministered under constant persecution, receiving the same dogged aggression from Jewish religious leaders that he once carried out against Jesus’ followers. This was not hidden in the fine print of his conversion. Days after Paul’s blinding Damascus road encounter, Jesus sent word to him by a messenger:

I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name. — Acts 9:16

Paul spoke openly of this expectation of persecution for Jesus’ sake wherever he shared the gospel. One of the places where new converts faced fierce, immediate opposition was in Thessalonica. Indeed, because of public outcry Paul was able to proclaim the news about Jesus for only three weeks before he was forced out of the city (Acts 17:1–9). Not long after, he wrote to the brand-new church about the persecution they continued to face.

In both of his letters, Paul speaks often about their “afflictions” (thlipsis in the Greek) because of their allegiance to Christ. When they first believed, the Thessalonians “received the word in much affliction” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). After his expulsion from the city, Paul sent Timothy back to exhort the new, persecuted believers “that no one be moved by these afflictions” (1 Thessalonians 3:3). He rejoiced upon learning from Timothy that “you are standing fast in the Lord”

(1 Thessalonians 3:8).

Whatever time passed between Paul’s first and second letters to the Thessalonians, the afflictions did not abate. The young church had persevered so admirably that Paul wrote,

We ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

— 2 Thess. 1:4

Apparently, the church misunderstood Paul’s teaching on Jesus’ return — a confusion complicated by a letter, falsely attributed to Paul, teaching that “the day of the Lord has come” (2:2). So Paul merges the issues of their afflictions and the day of the Lord to explain exactly what will happen when their Savior appears. He holds out to them the hope of rescue.

The Warrior King

We do not know the precise nature of the Thessalonians’ persecution. Acts 17:5 records an attack on the house of Jason during Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica that sounds similar to what our sister in India endured — physical beating and the destruction of property by an angry mob. Their experience of thlipsis likely also included social and economic ostracization and an unwillingness of the government to protect them from acts of aggression.

The larger story of these afflictions is the story of powerlessness. Abuse survivors have tasted it. Victims of workplace discrimination know it. Anyone who has been on the wrong end of the misuse of power has felt helplessness to stop what is being done or to find justice when the aggressor is protected. Having no voice, no recourse, no traction with your account of what happened is one of the most horrific and dehumanizing experiences in this fallen world.

With that taste of powerlessness in your mouth, consider the hope you would feel when you beheld this vision of Jesus:

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. — 2 Thessalonians 1:6–8

Let’s use our sanctified imagination to develop this portrait of Jesus’ appearing as Warrior King. I’m going to suggest a thought experiment that will be immediately applicable for some and something to file away for others. If you are facing affliction, my guess is that the person or group that is making you miserable looms large over your life, haunting your thoughts. I wish there were a way to erase their image from the canvas of your mind. I’m not sure there is. But there is a way to paint something around that image that will put the terrible afflictions you face now into a larger context.

Paul says that Jesus will come “with His mighty angels.” This is not the first reference connecting Jesus with an army of angels. On the night of his betrayal, Jesus commanded Peter to put his sword away because, had Jesus needed military backup, He could call on His Father and “He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:53). A Roman legion consisted of six thousand soldiers. Whether Jesus meant exactly 72,000 angels or simply an innumerable host, the point is that they serve to fight at His command. Of course, He doesn’t need them, being God the Son, almighty and eternal. But the optics give a stunning visual for those overwhelmed by persecution.

So on the canvas of your mind, where you see the menacing face of the one antagonizing you, imagine behind them the risen Christ. Surrounding Him are thousands of angels. If you’re trying to mentally populate the space, imagine a line of thirty-six angel warriors on either side of Jesus, backfilled a thousand warriors deep, as far as your eye can see.

But don’t forget the fire. Jesus is portrayed “in flaming fire,” a common theme in most visions of the risen Jesus and a symbol of judgment and purification throughout the Bible. So, however you were envisioning Jesus before on your mental canvas, this one is not cuddling a lamb or smiling serenely toward Heaven. This Jesus is on the move, forward marching, sword in hand, blazing with the fiery judgment of God, coming to bring relief to you and to inflict vengeance on those who torment you.

Help is on the way.

Excerpted from Bright Hope for Tomorrow by Chris David, copyright Chris Davis.

If we are here a little longer, more persecution is coming for those who follow and proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior. It will be worse than any living at that time have ever experienced. God gives His own grace to endure. Stephen asking God to forgive those who were stoning him to death. We may or may not experience such persecution, but it is becoming more deadly. Our way of providing for our families may be hindered or stopped by persecuting forces. Our homes could be taken away. We may suffer greatly for the name of Jesus . . . but in the end we will be glorified for glorifying Jesus while we wait for His return. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus! Endure your short time of persecution waiting expectantly for the glory of the Lord to appear!

Pastor Dale