Notes of Faith January 24, 2023

Notes of Faith January 24, 2023

Boundaries: Guard Your Heart

We were created to be who God designed us to be, to love who God calls us to love, and to accomplish what God tasks us to accomplish. That is the secret to a fruitful and fulfilled life, with great relationships and a deep sense of purpose.

Unfortunately, we all encounter obstacles which can distract, or even paralyze us, from that great life God had planned. Some of the most difficult obstacles are the inability to say no, confront, and establish consequences in relationships when you need to. There are a number of examples of this sort of problem:

A child who doesn’t do homework or clean up after herself

A husband who controls his marriage by getting angry when his wife disagrees with him

An employee who is defensive about poor performance, and becomes “unconfrontable”

A boss who intimidates her employees by being critical of those who speak up about problems in the organization

These obstacles can sap your energy, get you off track, discourage you and even damage you emotionally. Most of us know how this can feel, and it’s not a good place to be.

The Bible presents a solution, which, in a word, is called boundaries.

Boundaries are your personal property line, where you set out where you end, and where the other person begins.

They help you own your time, energy, resources and money, and decide for yourself what to do with them. Boundaries help you determine when to say yes, and how to say no. Yet so many people feel guilty about having boundaries, or that the Bible teaches us not to have them.

Proverbs 4:23 is a wonderful verse which teaches on a very rich level, how boundaries can help us. Let’s take a look:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

— Proverbs 4:23

This is a great encapsulation of the why and the how of boundaries. Here is the breakdown of the passage, not in the exact word order, but in a linear flow for you:

Your heart: Your heart is the core of who you are, your insides, literally the “inner person.” The word refers to all of the contents that reside in your brain. That includes your values, thoughts, opinions, feelings and decisions. If you have ever experienced “losing heart”, when you become discouraged or demotivated, it is often because you either allowed someone to take your time or energy, or because you allowed someone inside your heart who had no business being there, and the result was that there was hurt and damage.

Everything you do flows from it: Why is your heart so important? Because your entire life’s path depends on how healthy your heart is. All of your actions, how you treat yourself, how you engage in your relationships with God and others, and the impact you make on the world, is directed by what happens in your heart. For example, leaders who reflect on their careers will often look back on matters of the heart as being tipping points that changed the trajectory of their lives. Think of it from the health perspective. If you take care of your body and eat right, exercise and sleep well, you are likely to have a healthy body for a long time. But neglecting or abusing your body can easily result in sickness and dysfunction. Your heart is simply critical to living life in God’s way.

Guard: literally, to protect. In other words, watch over your inner self, and keep it from harm. I love the fact that God put this specific word in this specific place! That is the role of a boundary, whether it be the word “no”, a difficult confrontation or some limit you need to set in a relationship. So often, people think that saying “no” and taking responsibility to guard yourself is selfish and “all about me.” But we have been entrusted with the task of guarding this most precious gift of God. I often tell people to change the “S” from Selfishness to Stewardship, for that is how the Bible teaches it.

Above all else: All 30,000 verses of the Bible are, by definition, from God. So when you see the words “above all else” in the Scriptures, that’s a highlighter, meaning, “pay attention, this is a priority.” So often we think that saying no to preserve our hearts should be unimportant. But God instructs us that this is a critical and life-preserving stance to take.

This is just one of so many passages that teach us that clear and loving boundaries are a tool for good in our lives. Pray over this verse and ask God to guide you to the right boundary that you need to establish today. For more information on the topic, read the Updated and Expanded edition of Boundaries by me and Dr. Henry Cloud. God bless you.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Dr. John Townsend, author with Henry Cloud of Boundaries.

Matt 15:10-11

"Hear and understand. 11 "It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."

NASU

Matt 15:17-20

everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? 18 "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. 19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 "These are the things which defile the man…

NASU

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

— Proverbs 4:23

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 22, 2023

Notes of Faith January 22, 2023

Article by Joe Rigney

Teacher, desiringGod.org

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. (Psalm 16:4)

So far in Psalm 16, David has sought refuge in God, asking for God to preserve and keep him. He has confessed that Yahweh is not only the Lord, but that he is David’s Lord — the all-sufficient and all-satisfying Good, from whom every good gift comes. And under that greatest Good, one of the chief earthly goods that David has received is the saints in the land, God’s people. They are holy and majestic, delighting David with their grandeur. Because he loves to be near God, David likewise loves to be near his people.

As he continues to pray, David next considers another group of people, those who run after other gods. Perhaps he has in mind the nations around Israel, who seek refuge not in Yahweh, but in Baal, Dagon, and Ashtoreth. Israel is married to Yahweh, covenantally bound to him as her Lord and Husband. The nations, on the other hand, have married false gods, demonic powers. They have run after them and acquired them in marriage.

And what has happened as a result? When David considers the saints and their marriage to Yahweh, he thinks of the majesty of mountains with great delight and pleasure. When he considers idolaters around them, he sees a very different picture — sorrows, pains, injuries, hardships, and wounds. And not just static sorrows, but multiplying, growing, and abounding sorrows.

“Having run after other gods and acquired them, the ungodly have brought down on themselves pain, strife, and hurt.”

Having run after other gods and acquired them, the ungodly have brought down on themselves pain, strife, and hurt.

Prosperity of the Wicked?

Such sorrows are not always immediately evident to us. In Psalm 73, Asaph expresses his dismay at the prosperity of the wicked, and his confusion at their success. The wicked have no pangs until death; they are well-fed and insulated from trouble. They don’t have the struggles and hardships that most men do (verses 4–5). Despite their pride, violence, folly, malice, and oppression, they prosper and succeed in all that they do (verses 6–9). They are always at ease as they increase in their riches, brazenly mocking God for not seeing and not knowing of their evil (verses 10–12).

Such a picture stands in stark contrast to David’s observation in Psalm 16. So how can these two pictures be reconciled? Do the sorrows of idolaters multiply, or are the wicked always at ease? Does their idolatry injure them and cause harm, or does it redound to their prosperity and success?

Asaph shows us the way. His vexation gives way to clarity, but only after he worships Yahweh in the sanctuary. Only after he seeks refuge in God as his highest good is he able to discern the end of the wicked (Psalm 73:17). And when he does, he draws the same conclusion as David.

Truly you set them in slippery places;

you make them fall to ruin.

How they are destroyed in a moment,

swept away utterly by terrors!

Like a dream when one awakes,

O Lord, when you rouse yourself,

you despise them as phantoms. (Psalm 73:18–20)

In other words, while the wicked may prosper for a moment, in the end their sorrows will multiply. Their foot slides in due time. Having run after vanity, they dissolve into phantoms. Having worshiped creatures, they fall under a curse. In the end, the bill comes due.

In this life, the sorrows of the wicked are unevenly distributed. At times, we see their destruction early, when God gives them a taste of the harvest they have sown. We see it in the consequences of their actions — the brokenness, pain, and loss wrought by sin. This is a severe mercy, a kindness from God that is meant to lead the wicked (and us) to repentance.

But others avoid such earthly sorrows. They temporarily evade being swept away. But even these are storing up wrath for “the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). And when that day comes, the sorrows will multiply forever.

False Worship and False Confession

Having observed and discerned the end of idolatry, David must act on what he knows. And so, he commits to avoiding their idolatrous sacrifices and their false confessions. In particular here, he mentions avoiding their “drink offerings.”

Israel offered drink offerings to Yahweh as part of the sacrificial system (Leviticus 23). In Israel’s drink offering, the priest poured out wine on behalf of the worshiper, in conjunction with one of the other primary offerings, whether an ascension offering, peace offering, or purification offering (Numbers 15; 28–29). Such offerings were to be offered only once Israel had entered and taken possession of the land. In the Bible, wine signifies triumph, celebration, and rest. As one commentator puts it, bread is morning food, eaten to give strength for the day’s labor; wine is evening food, imbibed at the end of the day in gratitude for a job finished and done well. Thus, drink offerings of wine were meant to celebrate God’s triumph over his enemies and his faithfulness to his promises.

In Psalm 16, then, David refuses to participate in idolatrous drink offerings. More specifically, he rejects “drink offerings of blood.” While blood was certainly used in Israel’s sacrifices — sprinkled on the horns of the altar or poured out at the base of the altar — Israel was strictly forbidden to drink blood. The nations around Israel, however, seemed to have drunk blood, and they also offered some to their gods in drink offerings. Because “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11), it’s possible that they did so in order to receive life from the animal that was slain. Israel, in contrast, received life directly from Yahweh himself.

More than simply rejecting their sacrifices, David also rejects their confession. Refusing to take their name on his lips is more than simply avoiding saying the wrong word. David is refusing to invoke the names of the false gods, refusing to call upon them as his lord. This is the counterpart to his seeking refuge in Yahweh and confessing him as Lord.

Model of Faithful Resistance

For us today, David’s clear-eyed fidelity to God is a model. We too often see the wicked prospering in the world. Their sin, far from harming them, seems to enable their success, and in doing so, it becomes a temptation to us. The pressure to go along — to placate the false gods of our evil age, to invoke the world’s objects of trust and worship, to run after other gods in order to fit in and find earthly success — is real.

But we must discern their end. Their sorrows will multiply. The ease, if it exists, will last only a moment. The light and momentary success of the wicked is working for them an eternal weight of affliction that will far outweigh earthly prosperity.

And when we discern this end, we are strengthened to resist the pressure of our age. Rather than conforming ourselves to the pattern of this world, we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Rather than seeking to placate false gods or false men, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God alone (Romans 12:1–2). Rather than echoing the lies and falsehoods in our society, we say with our lips and from our hearts, “Jesus is our Lord; we have no good apart from him.”

Ex 20:2-3

2 "I am the Lord your God. . .

3 "You shall have no other gods. . .

NKJV

Prov 3:5-6

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

NKJV

Nothing. No thing can ever take the place of God! He is Creator, Sustainer, and giver of life! Worship Him and Him alone!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 21, 2023

Notes of Faith January 21, 2023

In the Presence of My Enemies

Psalm 23 has brought comfort to believers since it was first written, read, and sung.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can You ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) — John 4:7-9

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first throw a stone at her.” — John 8:3-5, 6-7 NIV

God of the Hated,

You who sought out

the scorned and the pained:

bless the parts of us

that others have blamed

as too blinded, brash,

and untamed;

because your two hands

of Goodness and Love

ever and always reach

toward the shamed.

Amen.

A shepherd cursed me,

and church became

a source of trauma,

a reminder of pain.

Before I left the church

of my wounds, I stood

at the altar to call.

The last person to descend

the aisle was the man

who made my life hell.

My heart was pounding

in my chest. And with

one deep breath,

I was given a choice.

I could extend mercy to him.

The body of Christ

broken for me

was broken

for him too.

The blood of Christ

spilled for me

could cover

this pain too.

In that moment

we were balanced

at the foot of the cross.

It is still

the strange place

where curse meets blessing.

Communion

did not save me

from loss and lament.

But it did give me

a sanctuary

I could carry

out the door.

God gives us a feast while our enemies stand by.

Neutrality is the nicest kind of evil.

God prepared a table without two sides.

God gives us a feast while our enemies stand by.

Do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. — Matthew 10:26 NIV

Almighty God,

Even the darkness

is not dark to You.

Blow on the ember

of faith in our hearts,

for we are in need

of the oxygen of trust

that all the harm

that is done

in the dark

will one day become

mere ash and dust.

Consume it all in the fire

of a belonging that is better

than controlling one another.

This we pray

through Your Son,

Jesus Christ, who

was betrayed

by a friend

in the night

and put to death

by a government

in plain sight,

yet raised by the Spirit

into indestructible life.

And there He now sits

and reigns with You,

Three-in-One: Father,

Spirit, and Son, all

declaring to darkness:

the light has won.

Excerpted and edited from The Book of Common Courage by K. J. Ramsey, copyright Katie Joe Ramsay.

Indeed Light has won eternally. May we remember even as we experience deep darkness around us that the battle is over and Jesus Christ has WON!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 20, 2023

Notes of Faith January 20, 2023

Facing Doubters, Deniers, and Defenders

To understand John 3:16 — indeed to understand Jesus — this title is required reading: “... one and only Son...”

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

Jesus, the one and only.

The Greek word for “one and only” is monogenes, an adjective compounded of monos — “only” and genes — “species, race, family, offspring, kind.” When used in the Bible, it almost always describes a parent-child relationship. Luke uses it to describe the widow’s son: “the only son of his mother” (Luke 7:12). The writer of Hebrews states: “Abraham... was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac”

(Hebrews 11:17 NLT).

John employs the term five times, in each case highlighting the unparalleled relationship between Jesus and God.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1:14

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known. — John 1:18

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. — John 3:16

Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. — John 3:18

This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. — 1 John 4:9

In all five appearances the adjective modifies the subject “Son.”

“Monogenes,” then, highlights the singular relationship between Jesus and God. He is a Son in a sense that no one else is. All who call on Him are children of God, but Jesus alone is the Son of God. Only Christ is called “monogenes,” because only Christ has God’s genes or genetic makeup.

The familiar translation “only begotten Son” (John 3:16 NKJV) conveys this truth. When parents “beget” or conceive a child, they transfer their DNA to the newborn. Jesus shares God’s DNA. He isn’t begotten in the sense that He began but in the sense that He and God have the same essence, same eternal essence, unending wisdom, tireless energy.

Every quality you give God, you can give Jesus.

Jesus claimed:

Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father! — John 14:9 NLT

And the epistle concurred:

This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. — Hebrews 1:3 The Message

Jesus enjoys a relationship with God that is unknown and unexperienced by anyone else in history; He claims to occupy the Christ the Redeemer perch. Through the pen of Matthew He gives two features of the relationship.

My Father has entrusted everything to Me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. — Matthew 11:27 NLT

Via these words He calls Himself the One and Only Ruler.

My Father has entrusted everything to Me. — Matthew 11:27 NLT

With that holy authority came power. Power to condemn, power to forgive, and the wisdom and discernment necessary for both. The Son understood this responsibility. Never more so than one day at the temple . . .

The voices had yanked her out of bed.

“Get up, you harlot.”

“What kind of woman do you think you are?”

Priests had slammed open the bedroom door, thrown back the window curtains, and pulled off the covers. Before she felt the warmth of the morning sun, she had felt the heat of their scorn.

“Shame on you.”

“Pathetic.”

“Disgusting.”

She scarcely had time to cover her body before they marched her through the narrow streets. Dogs yelped. Roosters ran. Women leaned out their windows. Mothers snatched children off the path. Merchants peered out the doors of their shops. Jerusalem became a jury and rendered its verdict with glares and crossed arms.

And as if the bedroom raid and parade of shame were inadequate, the men thrust her into the middle of a morning Bible class.

Early the next morning [Jesus] was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and He sat down and taught them. As He was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do You say?” — John 8:2–5 NLT

Stunned students stood on one side of her. Pious plaintiffs on the other. They had their questions and convictions; she had her dangling negligee and smeared lipstick. “This woman was caught in the act of adultery,” her accusers crowed. Caught in the very act. In the moment. In the arms. In the passion. Caught in the act by the Jerusalem Council on Decency and Conduct. “The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

The woman had no exit. Deny the accusation? She had been caught. Plead for mercy? From whom? From God? His spokesmen were squeezing stones and snarling their lips. No one would speak for her.

But someone would stoop for her.

Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust. — John 8:6 NLT

We would expect Him to stand up, step forward, or even ascend a stair and speak. But instead He leaned over. He descended lower than anyone else — beneath the priests and the people and even beneath the woman. The accusers looked down on her. To see Jesus, they had to look down even farther.

He’s prone to stoop. He stooped to wash feet, to embrace children. Stooped to pull Peter out of the sea, to pray in the garden. He stooped before the Roman whipping post. Stooped to carry the Cross. Grace is a God who stoops. Here he stooped to write in the dust.

Remember the first occasion His fingers touched dirt? He scooped soil and formed Adam. As he touched the sunbaked soil beside the woman, Jesus may have been reliving the Creation moment, reminding Himself from whence we came. Earthly humans are prone to do earthy things. Maybe Jesus wrote in the soil for His own benefit.

Jesus trumps the devil’s guilt with words of grace.

Or for hers? To divert gaping eyes from the scantily clad, just-caught woman who stood in the center of the circle?

The posse grew impatient with the silent, stooping Jesus.

They kept demanding an answer, so He stood up. — John 8: 7 NLT

He lifted Himself erect until His shoulders were straight and His head was high. He stood, not to preach, for His words would be few. Not for long, for He would soon stoop again. Not to instruct His followers; He didn’t address them. He stood on behalf of the woman. He placed Himself between her and the lynch mob and said,

‘All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!’ Then He stooped down again and wrote in the dust. — John 8:7–8 NLT

Name-callers shut their mouths. Rocks fell to the ground. Jesus resumed His scribbling.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. — John 8:9 NLT

Jesus wasn’t finished. He stood one final time and asked the woman,

Where are your accusers? — John 8:10 NLT

My, my, my. What a question — not just for her but for us. Voices of condemnation awaken us as well.

“You aren’t good enough.”

“You’ll never improve.”

“You failed — again.”

The voices in our world.

And the voices in our heads! Who is this morality patrolman who issues a citation at every stumble? Who reminds us of every mistake? Does he ever shut up?

No. Because Satan never shuts up. The apostle John called him the accuser:

This great dragon — the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world — was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the Heavens, ‘... For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth — the one who accuses them before our God day and night’. — Revelation 12:9–10 NLT

Day after day, hour after hour. Relentless, tireless. The accuser makes a career out of accusing. Unlike the conviction of the Holy Spirit, Satan’s condemnation brings no repentance or resolve, just regret. He has one aim: “to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10 NLT). Steal your peace, kill your dreams, and destroy your future. He has deputized a horde of silver-tongued demons to help him. He enlists people to peddle his poison. Friends dredge up your past. Preachers proclaim all guilt and no grace. And parents, oh, your parents. They own a travel agency that specializes in guilt trips. They distribute it twenty-four hours a day. Long into adulthood you still hear their voices: “Why can’t you grow up?” “When are you going to make me proud?”

Condemnation — the preferred commodity of Satan. He will repeat the adulterous woman scenario as often as you permit him to do so, marching you through the city streets and dragging your name through the mud. He pushes you into the center of the crowd and megaphones your sin: This person was caught in the act of immorality... stupidity... dishonesty... irresponsibility.

But he will not have the last word. Jesus has acted on your behalf.

He stooped. Low enough to sleep in a manger, work in a carpentry shop, sleep in a fishing boat. Low enough to rub shoulders with crooks and lepers. Low enough to be spat upon, slapped, nailed, and speared. Low. Low enough to be buried.

And then He stood. Up from the slab of death. Upright in the tomb and right in Satan’s face. Tall. High. He stood up for the woman and silenced her accusers, and he does the same for you.

He is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.

— Romans 8:34 The Message

Let this sink in for a moment. In the presence of God, in defiance of Satan, Jesus Christ rises to your defense. He takes on the role of a priest.

Since we have a great priest over God’s house, let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience. — Hebrews 10:21–22 NCV

A clean conscience. A clean record. A clean heart. Free from accusation. Free from condemnation. Not just for our past mistakes but also for our future ones.

Since He will live forever, He will always be there to remind God that He has paid for [our] sins with His blood. — Hebrews 7:25 TLB

Christ offers unending intercession on your behalf.

Jesus trumps the devil’s guilt with words of grace.

Excerpted from In the Footsteps of the Savior by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

2 Cor 5:21

21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

NASU

We as blessed beyond words in what we have and who we are, in Christ, all done by and for the glory of God! May we rejoice and seek His face and favor by living to bring glory and honor to His name. His love and grace wins all battles against the Evil one. Stand firm in Jesus’ claim on your life.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 19, 2023

Notes of Faith January 19, 2023

Article by David Mathis

Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

An overseer, as God’s steward, must be . . . a lover of good. (Titus 1:7–8)

In times when the love of many grows cold, we will do well to pause over an overlooked Christian virtue that warms against the chill.

Not only is such a trait designed by Christ to be increasingly true of all Christians; it is required to serve in the church’s lead office.

To be clear, what Christ requires of his pastor-elders (1 Timothy 3:1–8; Titus 1:5–9) is not simply for qualification to enter the office. Rather, these virtues are the ongoing, daily graces needed to serve well in the office. Yet these too are the qualities Christ means to grant in growing measure to his whole church. Pastor-elders are examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:3). They not only labor at teaching and governing, to feed and lead the church, but they model, as a team, the Christian maturity toward which we hope all Christians will progress.

So, in days that seem embattled and divisive, it might be freshly helpful, if not convicting, to remember that Christians, with their pastors leading the way, are not to be known for circling wagons and battening down hatches. Rather, we are to be wide- and warm-hearted, maturely magnanimous, “lovers of good” (Greek philagothos), as Titus 1:8 obliges church leaders. That is the opposite of how Paul characterizes the last days in 2 Timothy 3:3: “not loving good” (aphilagathos).

What, then, might lead to, mark, and accompany such “lovers of good,” that we might discern whether we ourselves, and our leaders, embody what Christ designs?

1. Believe in good.

First, let it not go unsaid that those who love the good believe in good. In distressed days, such pastors and Christians still believe in good. They know their God — who is Goodness himself and the source and standard of all good — made this world and called it good. Good came first and is deeper than evil. And we know, in Christ, that whatever devastations evil has wrought, one day the sin and death which so pervade and pain us will be no more (Revelation 21:4), while good endures forever, as the one who is Good dwells with his people (Revelation 21:3).

“Lovers of good believe that true good is older, deeper, and will outlive the bad.”

Lovers of good believe that true good is older, deeper, and will outlive the bad. And even outside the church, in the darkest of places, still the light of good flashes for those with eyes to see. They believe it. And so too they look for it.

2. Look for good.

Those Christians who genuinely believe in good become the kind of people who are hopeful for good. Knowing Christ and his promises, they know that good is to come — it’s only a matter of time. They cannot long entertain cynicism, or stand to become Chicken Littles nervous that the sky is falling. Rather, they consider the present moment, with all its uncertainty, turbulence, and change, to be a great time to speak the gospel, press for conversion, plant churches, and pour fresh energy into global mission.

Philippians 4:8, addressed to the whole church, well captures what good pastor-elders model for their congregations in relation to their surrounding unbelieving society:

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Far from being a call to remove ourselves from the world and bunker down to think Christian thoughts in isolation, Paul’s charge is to engage the world, looking for the good, as argued by commentators Moisés Silva (Philippians, 196–98) and Gordon Fee (Philippians, 413–21).

Paul selects the verb consider (logizomai, to count or compute; rather than, as we might assume, phroneo, to set one’s mind). So also he chooses six adjectives and two nouns that are more typical of the first-century pagan society than the church. Along with his “if anything” double proviso, this comprises an exhortation, writes Fee,

designed to place them back into their world, even as they remain “over against” that world in so many ways. . . . Paul is telling them not so much to “think high thoughts” as to “take into account” the good they have long known from their own past, as long as it is conformable to Christ. (414–15)

Pastor-elders, as “lovers of good” (Titus 1:8), are to be men like this, who see the world with realistic yet hopeful eyes and can spot and point out the good, even as they warn of and reject sin and deception. But such leaders will not be content with looking for the good. Quite naturally (and supernaturally), their belief in the good, and hope for the good, will lead to their commending the good, and their own doing of good.

3. Do good.

Lovers of good are eager to “do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). Christians in general, and pastor-elders in particular, are to be the kind of people, according to commentator Robert Yarbrough, who are “zealous to see that what is good flourish in and out of the church,” noting “a connection between this pastoral quality and the ‘good works’ enjoined on Titus and the congregations elsewhere in the letter” (Letters to Timothy and Titus, 486–87). This is a conspicuous thrust in Paul’s short letter to Titus:

In contrast to false teachers who are “unfit for any good work” (1:16), Titus is to “be a model of good works” (2:7) and so lead the church to be “a people . . . who are zealous for good works” (2:14).

Expressly in relation to their unbelieving society, Christians are “to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (3:1–2). It’s a charge that many of us today can scarcely rehearse too often.

And if that weren’t striking enough, Paul lays it on even thicker still: pastors will insist on the glories of the gospel (3:4–7) “so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works” (3:8).

Finally, note that Paul himself does not commend faithfulness without any concern for fruitfulness. Rather, he says, “let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful” (3:14).

Pastors — and increasingly their churches with them — are to be doers of good, not mere self-proclaimed lovers, deceiving themselves. Genuinely loving the good leads them to dream up ideas, take fresh initiatives, and do good that benefits all, especially those of like faith.

Love good.

Lest we conclude with the wrong emphasis, however, we return to the particular verbal concept Paul commends in Titus 1:8: love. A certain kind of heart is the heart of this requisite. As John Piper writes about “lover of good” as a pastoral qualification,

He should love to see good done and love to be involved in doing good. This is more than doing good. This is a bent and love to see it done. A kind of expansive person.

As much as we clarify that actually rising to do good, not armchair quarterbacking, will be the observable effect, the requirement is a condition of the inner man: he loves good. He believes in it, looks for it with a tangible hopefulness, commends it, and does it because he loves it — both good things and good people, in the church and beyond.

“The goal for every Christian, and a requirement for every pastor, is that he be a lover of good.”

Such lovers of good are not irritable or resentful; they do not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoice with the truth. In their very person, they are, and are becoming, the kind of people who embody the distinctively Christian love that bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:5–7). They demonstrate the wide hearts and capacious, expansive souls that, in time, become bracing evidence of a sinner’s supernatural encounter with God himself in Christ.

Love the Good First

In times that shrink some hearts, remember that hatred is not the heart of Christian ethics. We are first lovers of good, on God’s terms, and then, as a function of such love, are we righteously haters of evil. As Scott Swain observes,

The opposite of an error is not the truth. It’s the opposite error. Passionate resentment of falsehood is unlikely to make one the next Athanasius “contra mundum.” It’s more likely to make one the next Apollinaris or Eutyches (famous heretics).

There is a place for righteous anger in the Christian life. But it has to follow the right “order of operations.” Love of what is good breeds an appropriate abhorrence of what is evil. Hate, by itself, breeds no virtues, intellectual or otherwise.

And so we hear the apostle afresh in our day. The goal for every Christian — and a requirement for every pastor — is that he be a lover of good.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 18, 2023

Notes of Faith January 18, 2023

Risk: Get Out of Your Safe Zone

Mr. Risk-Taker

In the work God has given me through the years, I’ve had to make a lot of difficult decisions. Left to myself, I might have erred too often on the side of safety and security. But there’s a man in the Bible who inspires me to keep stepping out and taking risks with wholehearted confidence in the Lord. I’m convinced you’ll be able to go forward — unafraid to take risks — if you can embody his spirit.

That man is Caleb. Do you know him? Many people don’t know a great deal about Caleb because he only occupies thirty verses in the Bible. But what verses they are! What a man of faith! In this chapter, I want to show you how this Old Testament hero left a legacy of courage for you — a powerful example of risk-taking, future-grabbing grace.

In the book of Numbers, Moses sent twelve men — Joshua, Caleb, and ten others — as an advance party to reconnoiter the promised land. These men left the safety of their encampment, forded the Jordan River, and slipped into Canaan. Their mission: to make notes of the land, observe the enemy, study the fortifications, estimate the population, and bring back enough intelligence to aid Moses in planning the coming invasion of the land God had promised the Israelites. The Bible tells the story this way:

So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin… Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai — all descendants of Anak — lived. — Numbers 13:21-22 NLT

The city of Hebron had been the ancestral home of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but now it was inhabited by an evil tribe of huge warriors known as the descendants of Anak. The sight of these warriors terrified some of the spies.

The scouts quickly harvested some pomegranates and figs from the orchards of Canaan, and two of them lugged back an enormous cluster of grapes, carrying it on a pole between them. Imagine the excitement when the spies returned to Kadesh Barnea! Their mission had taken forty days, during which no one knew if they had survived or perished. Day after day, sentries at Israel’s parameters watched for them. Now they were back — all of them safe and sound.

But they were not united.

Don’t minimize the opportunities God has for you in the future.

How to Live Life in the Safe Zone

In professional football, NFL coaches study the smallest statistic to find every possible advantage. But according to author John Tierney and research psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, many coaches make the same simple mistake week after week. It happens on fourth-down-and-short situations, when their team only needs a yard or two to keep possession of the ball. Nine times out of ten, instead of the riskier decision to try to win by going for another score, the coach settles for trying not to lose and sends in the kicker to punt the ball to the other team.

Statistics show that trying for the goal and the win is actually the better strategy. So why do coaches punt on fourth down? Tierney and Baumeister concluded there’s another factor involved. They call it “the power of bad.”

Simply put, our brains are wired to give more importance to negative events than positive ones. So “bad” events influence our decision-making more than positive ones. That means no matter how much we want to succeed, avoiding “bad” events can easily become our primary goal.

Back to the coach. He knows if he chooses the risky play and fails, and the other team goes on to score, the fans and press will be unforgiving. Sportscasters will denounce him as reckless and use phrases like loss of momentum and the turning point in the game. If his team loses by a narrow margin, that failed fourth-down attempt will be blamed for the loss and replayed endlessly afterward.

That image of potential failure is hard to overcome. So the coach plays it safe. The fear of failure has lost many a game.1

Have you ever heard these names: Shammua, Shaphat, Igal, Palti, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi, and Geuel? No? These are the names of the ten spies who risked their lives on an espionage mission only to lose heart, doubt God’s power, and miss God’s will (Numbers 13:4-15). They came back so discouraged they disheartened the people of Israel.

Those men made three terrible mistakes. They fell into three traps you and I must avoid at all costs.

Maximize the Opposition

God wants you to go forward. He has adventures, challenges, victories, and meaningful tasks for you. As you look at the bridge to your future, are you looking at the ropes or at the holes? Jean Hanson wrote, “If you’re one of those people that are afraid to take calculated risks, worry about every little thing, and have a hard time making decisions in your life, it’s time to take a break and do a little work on yourself… I learned a long time ago that being timid and conservative will get you nowhere.”2

In Numbers 13, the ten spies magnified every threat. They looked at the “bridge” God had designed for the future, and all they saw were the holes. The Bible says,

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” — Numbers 13:31-33

Notice all the holes the ten unbelieving spies fixated on:

We are not able to go up against these people.

They are stronger than we are.

The land devours its inhabitants.

The men are of great stature.

The men are giants.

They are from Anak, the land of giants.

We are like grasshoppers in our eyes.

We are like grasshoppers in their eyes.

If you propose to move forward in life, especially if you aspire to leadership, you’ll have to learn what it means to take risks — to live by faith. Scripture says,

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. — 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

Whenever we compare ourselves to the opposition, instead of comparing the opposition to God, we can get into a state of fear. If that’s a pattern in your life, the first step forward is recognizing it.

When Jesus left Galilee to travel to Jerusalem near the end of His life,

His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. — Luke 9:53

Jesus knew the Cross awaited, yet there was no looking back for our Lord, no comparing, and no fear. His way forward was clear and He faced it head on.

You must do the same. Recognize the risk and properly evaluate the opposition. Then, when you have an inkling of God’s will for your life, set your face toward it and go forward.

Minimize the Opportunities

While the ten spies maximized the opposition, they also minimized the glorious opportunities that lay ahead of them. They only had a dim perception of what God had in store for them; they believed in their hearts that God was setting them up for destruction, and their unbelief was contagious.

You can read it for yourself in Numbers 14:

So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, ‘If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’” — Numbers 14:1-3

Their perception of God would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic. After all the Lord had done for them! He delivered them from slavery! Parted the wide waters of the Red Sea! Accompanied them with cloud and fire! Gave them His Law! Provided food and drink in the wilderness! Promised to make them a great nation in a land flowing with milk and honey!

How could they so quickly forget?

More importantly, how can we? When we forget all the blessings God has provided for us in the past, we’re apt to minimize His ability to guide us in the future. We may even dread the future and where we think God is leading us. If so, we’re exactly where the devil wants us: in a place of avoiding risks and playing it safe. Oh, we of little faith.

What I’m telling you is this: don’t minimize the opportunities God has for you in the future. Don’t put all your efforts into avoiding loss or turn your face away from the future He has planned for you. Instead, go forward with confidence and courage to do the task He has set for you.

John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister, The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us, and How We Can Rule It (New York: Penguin, 2019), 11–12.

Hanson, “Worry and Fear Kept Me From Taking Action.”

Excerpted from Forward by Dr. David Jeremiah, copyright David P. Jeremiah.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. — 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

Interestingly enough, this verse was shared with me by a very close friend on the day of my marriage to Robin. I have never forgotten it and we have “fought” many battles together for the Lord’s sake against the enemy of God. Forty-four plus years later we have grown together in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and try to stay on the front lines of the battlefield for His name’s sake. Join us, knowing that being on the Lord’s side, you win, you cannot lose. Eternal life is waiting. The glory of the Lord is waiting for us to see and experience in full. All His promises will be fulfilled and you will be made perfect! No sin, no sorrow, no pain and suffering, only the glory that God has prepared for those who love Him. Stay in the battle. Trust your leader, Lord, and Savior both now and for the future glory to come!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 17, 2023

Notes of Faith January 17, 2023

Do the Will You Know

The First Step for Further Guidance

What is the will of God for your life? An air of mystery surrounds the question. God’s will can seem elusive, ambiguous, difficult to discern — a land without maps.

Is this the right job for me? Would God have us get married? Should our family move to the city or the suburbs? Is God leading me to full-time ministry?

Such questions send us searching for clarity — praying, thinking, pro-con listing, often second-guessing. What is your will, O God? And how do I find it? Depending on your charismatic convictions, you may do more: wait for impressions, read signs in your circumstances, lay out a fleece. I once flipped a coin.

We understandably agonize over such decisions. What job we take, whom we marry, where we live — these choices change the course of our lives. Yet because of their very importance, they also can distract us from the primary ways Scripture speaks of God’s will. Like hikers who pay more attention to each new fork in the path than to their compass, we can easily lose our basic sense of direction by fixating on one decision after the next.

Thank God, then, that in all our most difficult decisions, we have a compass:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9–10)

This familiar prayer may not offer the direction we long for — an unmistakable nudge, a whisper from heaven — but it does offer the direction we most need.

‘Your Will Be Done’

“Your will be done” is a prayer with levels and layers of meaning, a multiple-story petition.

On one level, we ask, “Your will be done on earth.” In the broadest sense, the prayer settles for nothing less than a transformed, transfigured earth — an earth where God’s revealed will is no longer ignored, neglected, or despised, but done with the same angelic zeal, the same seraphic joy, as his will is done “in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

On another level, we ask, “Your will be done — not mine.” Here we follow the example of our Lord Jesus, who not only taught us to pray these words, but prayed them himself: “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). We who follow Christ will never come close to the agony of this moment; like Peter, James, and John, we ever remain on Gethsemane’s edge. But in our own anguished hours, “Your will be done” is likewise for us an opening of the hands, a bending of the knees, a bowing of the head to God’s painful yet perfect plans.

And then, on a third level, we ask, “Your will be done in me.” As wide as earth and as high as heaven, the prayer nevertheless turns back to us, bidding us to ask not only that God’s will would be done everywhere out there, but also everywhere in here — right now, today, in every part of my life.

Which returns us to our beginning question: What is God’s will for my life, and how do I walk in it? Beginning from the Sermon on the Mount and broadening from there, we might answer with two simple sentences: Do the will you know. Discern the will you don’t.

Do the will you know.

We’ll see in a moment that Scripture gives direction for discerning God’s will in unclear situations. But as we’ll also see, Scripture gives a fundamental prerequisite for such discernment: attentive obedience to what God has already revealed. Doing the will you know is necessary for discerning the will you don’t.

“Doing the will you know is necessary for discerning the will you don’t.”

And not only necessary, but far more important. Consider the words of Jesus in the chapter after the Lord’s Prayer: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Heaven hangs on doing the will of God. And the will of God here is no hidden key, no secret whisper. As Jesus says three verses later, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man . . .” (Matthew 7:24). In the most basic and crucial sense, the will of God is found in the words of God.

Imagine a man who, after hearing Jesus’s sermon, says to his friend, “That’s all well and good, but I still wish I knew God’s will for my life.” His friend would be right to respond, “Weren’t you listening? God just told you his will for your life! Embrace poverty of spirit, meekness, and peace. Let your light shine. Kill anger, lust, lying, and vengeance. Pray and give and fast in secret. Don’t worry; seek the kingdom. Enter the narrow door. Build your house on the rock. That’s God’s will for your life.”

How many of us, like this will-of-God seeker, wonder what job we should have while neglecting godly diligence in our present job? How many seek his will for whom to marry while not pursuing a biblical vision of singleness in the meantime? How many ask God where they should live while overlooking neighbor love and the local obedience Scripture so clearly prescribes?

Far better to know and obey this will, always available and ever clear, than to have the greatest situational insight and neglect this will. Or as the apostle Paul might say, if we discern the right decisions to make, and if we receive all impressions and leadings, and if we gain all guidance, so as to choose the right paths, but do not obey the plain words we already know, we are nothing (Matthew 7:21).

Discern the will you don’t.

At the same time, the very Scriptures that give us God’s clear will also tell us to seek his unclear will. “Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord,” Paul tells the Ephesians (Ephesians 5:10). And then he writes in Romans,

Do not be conformed to this world, 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)

And now we see why hearing and doing the will of God we know is the prerequisite to discerning the will of God we don’t. Right discernment depends not merely on a clear mind or an intelligent mind, but on a transformed mind — a mind, John Piper writes, “that is so shaped and so governed by the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant factors with the mind of Christ.”

We can see this discernment process at work even in the life of Jesus. In Luke 4, for example, Jesus decides to leave Capernaum to “preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well” (Luke 4:43). The decision was by no means a simple one: the people of Capernaum didn’t want Jesus to leave (Luke 4:42); neither did his disciples (Mark 1:36–37). But Jesus knew his Father willed for him to preach the gospel broadly (Luke 4:43). And so, after spending time in a desolate place (Luke 4:42), he applied the clear will of his Father to an unclear situation through patient, prayerful discernment.

Let the emphasis land on patient and prayerful. Discernment often will not come easily or quickly. Gathering the appropriate words God has spoken, understanding how they relate to our present situation, rightly weighing all relevant factors and friendly counsel, praying for wisdom all along the way, and obeying what you know in the meantime — this is no small task. But it is God’s normal method of guiding us through the hundreds of moments when we stand before two (or more) paths, none of which has a sign that reads, “Go this way.”

“In a world without maps, our best compass is an increasingly Christlike will, informed by an increasingly renewed mind.”

In a world without maps, our best compass is an increasingly Christlike will, informed by an increasingly renewed mind.

Led by the Spirit?

Some, at this point, will wish to say more — and understandably so. “What about the leading of the Spirit?” they might ask. “What about dreams and visions and impressions?” Three responses are in order.

First, at times, the Spirit does indeed lead his people in a more manifestly supernatural manner. In the life of Jesus, we might remember when “the Spirit . . . drove him out into the wilderness” after his baptism (Mark 1:12). Even more clearly, we might recall how God led Peter to Cornelius, and then led Paul and his team to Philippi, through visions (Acts 10:9–16; 16:9–10). And so he may sometimes lead us.

Nevertheless, these instances of striking guidance take place within the larger framework of doing and discerning. The Spirit came to Jesus in baptism (Mark 1:9–11), to Peter in prayer (Acts 10:9), to Paul on mission (Acts 16:6–8) — in other words, he met them in the midst of their present, intelligent obedience. Unless we too are willing to follow the Spirit’s more typical paths, we cannot expect him to lead us down unusual paths — nor can we assume we would recognize those paths or rightly walk them.

Second, such manifestations of the Spirit may prove dangerous if we rely on them too much. Those who say, “Lord, Lord,” in Matthew 7 did not lack powerful spiritual experiences; they did lack obedience to God’s clear will (Matthew 7:21–23). Ironically, some who are most eager for a spectacular method of finding God’s will can be most prone to neglecting the ordinary opportunities for pleasing God right in front of them.

And third, the renewed mind’s rigorous application of the Scriptures to unclear situations need not sidestep the Spirit’s ministry — not when done humbly, prayerfully, and God-dependently. In fact, as J.I. Packer writes, “The true way to honor the Holy Spirit as our guide is to honor the holy Scriptures through which he guides us” (Knowing God, 236). The Bible is no dead letter, but the living breath of the living Spirit. Those who listen well to Scripture listen to him.

Decisions from Our Knees

Lest we forget the obvious, “Your will be done” is a prayer, a request that God would do in us what we cannot do in ourselves. Apart from him, we cannot know the will he reveals, we cannot obey the will we know, and we certainly cannot discern the will we don’t know. And so, we bow our heads, lift our hands, and say, “Our Father in heaven, . . . your will be done” (Matthew 6:9–10). The best decision-making happens from a kneeling soul.

In all your decisions, then, don’t neglect to do the will you already know. Then, with that will clear in your mind and alive in your life, do the hard work of discerning, as best you can, what might please God most in your work, your relationships, your home. Weigh the factors; seek counsel; view the matter from several angles. And through it all, ask him again and again for his good, pleasing, and perfect will to be done in you.

We can fulfill the will of God if we will yield to the Holy Spirit within us. No, we will never finish this battle until we are taken from this world to the next. But God who calls us His own will fulfill His plans for His creation. Do you want to be a part of His plan on earth? Join me in fervently seeking Him and His will for your life. He loves you and desires you to love Him and worship Him. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 16, 2023

Notes of Faith January 16, 2023 The Dangerous Prayers of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. is widely regarded as American’s leading advocate for nonviolence and one of the greatest leaders in world history. Dr. King led the American civil rights movement from December 1955 until his untimely death on April 4, 1968. During those thirteen years, more advances were made toward racial equality in America than in the previous 350 years combined.

Born on January 15, 1929, at the family home in Atlanta to the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King, the young boy grew up to follow his father into the ministry. In 1951, he moved to Boston to attend school. While there, he began dating Coretta Scott, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music. They married in 1953. In 1955, he graduated with a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University School of Theology.

I have a dream...

— Martin Luther King Jr.

During the late 1950s, Dr. King launched a campaign to achieve legal equality for African Americans in the United States. His strategy involved utilizing acts of nonviolent resistance, the power of communication, and grassroots efforts, which together achieved seemingly impossible goals. Dr. King also served as the spokesperson for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which ultimately led to the end of racial segregation on public transportation. In 1963, he led the March on Washington, which drew 250,000 people to the national mall and influenced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act, making it illegal to discriminate against minorities.

Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” and his “Letters from a Birmingham Jail” are among the most revered messages in American history.

He is the only non-president to have a national holiday to memorialize him, and at age thirty-five he became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

O God,… we thank Thee for Thy Church, founded upon Thy Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon Thee… Help us to realize that man was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity. Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace, help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow, will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Excerpted from Dangerous Prayers by Susan Hill, copyright Thomas Nelson.

We celebrate a national holiday today when maybe we should be celebrating the hard work of Dr. King and continuing the dream for work that still needs to be done. May our hearts and minds be diligent to be what the Lord made us and calls us to be. Mankind is one in Christ and one in created nature having the same life giving blood in our veins and for believers and followers of Jesus the same eternal life giving hope. May we, followers of Jesus work and pray fervently to draw closer to one another daily until the Lord Jesus comes and makes this a true reality.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 15, 2023

Notes of Faith January 15, 2023

Begin where you are. This simple sentence, tucked away in C.S. Lewis’s book Letters to Malcolm, has the potential to transform your prayer life. In four basic words, it ties together a biblical vision of prayer that avoids two errors that often smother our thanksgiving and adoration of God and hinder our requests to him, especially in relation to earthly blessings and goods. Consider these errors, and whether you recognize them in your own life.

The first I’ll call worldly prayers. Such prayers, though offered by a Christian, are in reality no different from those that an unbeliever might pray. Twice in Matthew 6, Jesus draws a contrast between the prayers and aims of the Gentiles and the prayers and aims of his followers.

When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7–8)

Do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (Matthew 6:31–32)

Jesus criticizes both the manner of unbelieving prayers (empty phrases and many words) and the aims of unbelieving prayers (anxiously seeking earthly provision and material goods). Christ’s warning implies that his followers can wrongfully imitate unbelievers at precisely these points. We can seek material blessings as our highest goods, anxiously craving and desiring them. And then, we can attempt to manipulate God into providing us these blessings, treating him like a butler who exists solely to supply our earthly needs and preserve our earthly happiness.

False Spirituality

In reaction against the danger of worldly prayers, some Christians fall into a second error, which we can call false spirituality: a pious refusal to pray for earthly goods at all. Because we see the danger of worldly prayer around us, we begin to regard praise and communion with God as the only true forms of prayer.

The only blessings we thank him for are spiritual blessings, the kind set forth in Ephesians 1. Thus, we praise him that he chose us, predestined us for adoption, redeemed us by Christ’s blood, forgave us for our trespasses, and sealed us with his Holy Spirit, all to the praise of his glorious grace. Likewise, the only requests we make to him are for spiritual goods — for holiness, for help to walk in his ways, for filling with the Holy Spirit.

Clearly, such prayers are good prayers. The falseness comes from the word only. We may not use this word directly, but we may still subtly begin to operate according to it. The only requests that truly please God are those for spiritual things. The only thanksgiving that truly honors him is gratitude for spiritual blessings.

This attitude ignores the plain and simple fact that Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). What’s more, it ignores the litany of passages in the Psalms where the psalmists seek God for deliverance from earthly enemies, ask him to supply earthly needs, and render him thanks for earthly kindnesses. The Bible is filled to the brim with thanksgiving and supplication for earthly provision and blessing.

And so, to avoid both errors, we offer spiritual prayers for earthly goods. And “begin where you are” can help.

From Pleasure to Thanks

Lewis commends this principle as a way of fostering worship and adoration. We often find that spiritual blessings, being invisible, feel abstract to us. However much we may want to summon a heart of worship for God’s attributes, character, and saving acts, our hearts struggle to get off the ground. Lewis’s principle encourages us to begin with the concrete and the present.

The earthly blessings that surround us, however minor, are present to us in ways that help us to begin. A warm shower, shoes that fit, a satisfying breakfast of biscuits and gravy, indoor heating in the middle of winter, the laughter of your children, a hug from your spouse — all of these are concrete blessings, extended to you with kindness from God. “His mercy is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9).

“Direct your attention to the mercies that press upon you at every side, and see them for what they are.”

Thus, Lewis says, rather than try to conjure up feelings of adoration directly, direct your attention to the mercies that press upon you at every side, and see them for what they are. They are beams of glory, striking our senses, giving us pleasure, and inviting us to chase them back to the sun. Every pleasure, Lewis says, can become a channel of adoration when we experience the pleasure and then frame it rightly as a message of kindness from our generous Lord.

Lewis, therefore, encourages us to attend to our pleasures and then to give thanks for them — to say, “How good of God to give me this,” elaborating on this with all the concrete specificity we can muster. “Thank you, Lord, for the smoothness of the table, the softness of my socks, the sweetness of the honey, the silliness of my son, and the wisdom and compassion of my wife.”

From Thanks to Adoration

Then, having given thanks, we follow the sunbeam back to the source, turning thanksgiving into adoration. “Such earthly blessings, O Lord, are simply the far-off echoes of your own bounty and goodness. These are but the fringes of your ways, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

From our first breath in the morning to our last conscious thought as we rest our head on our pillow, Lewis encourages us to receive God’s earthly kindness, to give thanks for God’s earthly kindness, and then to leap from that gratitude to the heights of worship, weaving in the spiritual blessings of redemption, forgiveness, and sanctification all along the way.

“The higher does not stand without the lower,” Lewis reminds us (87). And that’s why we must begin where we are.

One must learn to walk before one can run. So here. We — or at least I — shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have “tasted and seen.” Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are “patches of Godlight” in the woods of our experience. (91)

Daily Bread, Heavenly Bread

The same principle applies to our requests. Though the Gentiles seek for earthly goods (food, shelter, clothing), Jesus does not tell us to cease praying for such gifts. Instead, he exhorts us to “seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), and then to pray for our daily bread.

We see this in the Lord’s Prayer itself. The request for daily bread is sandwiched between “Hallowed be your name” and “Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.” In other words, our requests for earthly provision are framed and animated by our desire for the sanctifying of God’s name and the coming of his kingdom.

Framing the prayer for earthly provision in this way enables us to avoid the foolishness of unbelieving manipulation that Jesus condemns. How many of us have earnestly desired some earthly good, but instead of asking God directly for it, have asked instead for some spiritual good in hopes that he’ll see our spiritual request and throw in the earthly good for good measure? Is this not the equivalent of piling up empty phrases and many words in order to trick God into giving us what we really want? Is there not a fundamental dishonesty at the heart of such pious prayers?

Instead, begin where you are — with the desires and needs and anxieties that you actually have. The daily needs are real, and we are taught to ask for them directly. Bring them before God honestly, with no pretense or fakery. No doubt, our earthly desires are often excessive or misplaced. But the best way to reorder them is to bring them to God and let him do the moderating and refining.

“Prayers for daily bread lead naturally (or supernaturally) to prayers for heavenly bread, for the bread of life.”

In this way, we can begin where we are, but unlike unbelievers, we can press beyond where we are. We don’t seek merely the earthly provision; we seek God’s kingdom first, above all, as our highest good. Thus, as with gratitude, we ask for the earthly good, and then we press through the desire for the earthly good to a deeper desire for the heavenly good. Prayers for daily bread lead naturally (or supernaturally) to prayers for heavenly bread, for the bread of life.

Your Heavenly Father

Finally, don’t miss what ties all of these prayers together — the goodness of our heavenly Father. Why don’t we pile up empty and manipulative words for what we need? Because our heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8). Why don’t we anxiously pursue earthly goods? Because our heavenly Father knows that we need them all (Matthew 6:32).

And this presses home the goodness of beginning where we are and asking for daily bread. Just the other day, I was burdened by an earthly problem. I could see no earthly way out of it. And so, I bowed my head and asked God for help. “I don’t know what to do, Lord. You will have to do something. Make a way.” Thirty minutes later, the answer came, clear as a bell.

Had I not prayed for the provision, I might have missed out not only on the blessing (since God does truly answer prayer) but also on the kindness and care of “our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). When I begin where I am, I pray to him who knows my needs before I ask, and who tells me to ask anyway, because he loves to give good gifts to his children (Matthew 7:11).

Can we all say a hearty amen?! God know us, loves us, and cares for us from eternity past to eternity future, and of course, the right here and now. May we rejoice in His love and care and yearn to draw closer to Him all the days of our life! Start where you are . . .

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith January 14, 2023

Notes of Faith January 14, 2023

Accept the Gift of Himself

Begin Again

I had heard about You before, but now I have seen You. — Job 42:5 TLB

It all happened in one day. One day he could choose his tee time at the nicest golf course in the country; the next he couldn’t even be the caddie. One day he could Learjet across the country to see the heavyweight bout at the Las Vegas Mirage. The next he couldn’t afford a city bus across town.

Talk about calm becoming chaos...

The first thing to go is his empire. The market crashes; his assets tumble. What is liquid goes dry. What has been up goes down. Stocks go flat, and Job goes broke. There he sits in his leather chair by his soon- to-be-auctioned-off mahogany desk when the phone rings with news of calamity number two: the kids were at a resort for the holidays when a storm blew in and took them with it.

Shell-shocked and dumbfounded, Job looks out the window into the sky that seems to be getting darker by the minute. He starts praying, telling God that things can’t get any worse... and that’s exactly what happens. He feels a pain in his chest that is more than last night’s ravioli. The next thing he knows, he is bouncing in an ambulance with wires stuck to his chest and needles stuck in his arm.

He ends up tethered to a heart monitor in a hospital room, his only companion the beeps and alerts of medical machines.

Not, however, that Job lacks for conversation.

First there is his wife. Who could blame her for being upset after the week’s calamities? Who could blame her for telling Job to curse God? But to curse God and die? If Job didn’t already feel abandoned, you know he does the minute his wife tells him to pull the plug and be done with it.

Then there are his friends. They have the bedside manner of a drill sergeant and the compassion of a chain-saw killer. A revised version of their theology might read like this: “Boy, you must have done something really bad! We know that God is good, so if bad things are happening to you, then you have been bad. Period.”

Does Job take that lying down? Not hardly.

“You are doctors who don’t know what they are doing,” he says. “Oh, please be quiet! That would be your highest wisdom.”1

Translation? “Why don’t you take your philosophy back to the pigpen where you learned it?”

“I’m not a bad man,” Job argues. “I paid my taxes. I’m active in civic duties. I’m a major contributor to United Way and a volunteer at the hospital bazaar.”

Job is, in his eyes, a good man. And a good man, he reasons, deserves a good answer.

“Your suffering is for your own good,” states Elihu, a young minister fresh out of seminary who hasn’t lived long enough to be cynical and hasn’t hurt enough to be quiet. He paces back and forth in the hospital room with his Bible under his arm and his finger punching the air.

“God does all these things to a person — twice, even three times — to turn them back from the pit, that the light of life may shine on them.”2 Job follows his pacing like you’d follow a tennis player, head turning from side to side. What the young man says isn’t bad theology, but it isn’t much comfort either. Job steadily tunes him out and slides lower and lower under the covers. His head hurts. His eyes burn. His legs ache.

And he can’t stomach any more hollow homilies.

Yet his question still hasn’t been answered: “God, why is this happening to me?”

So God speaks.

Out of the thunder He speaks. Out of the sky He speaks. For all of us who would put ditto marks under Job’s question and sign our names to it, He speaks.

For the father who holds a rose taken off his son’s coffin, He speaks.

For the wife who holds the flag taken off her husband’s casket, He speaks.

For the couple with the barren womb and the fervent prayers, He speaks.

For any person who has tried to see God through shattered glass, He speaks.

For those of us who have dared to say, “If God is God, then...,” God speaks.

He speaks out of the storm and into the storm, for that is where Job is. That is where God is best heard.

God’s voice thunders in the room. Elihu sits down. Job sits up. And the two will never be the same again.

“Who is this that obscures My plans with words without knowledge?”3 Job doesn’t respond.

“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”4

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you know so much.”5

One question would have been enough for Job, but it isn’t enough for God.

“Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying?” God asks. “What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”6

Questions rush forth. They pour like sheets of rain out of the clouds. They splatter in the chambers of Job’s heart with a wildness and a beauty and a terror that leave every Job who has ever lived drenched and speechless, watching the Master redefine who is who in the universe.

God is never irritated by the candle of an honest seeker.

Have you ever once commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east? Have you ever told the daylight to spread to the ends of the earth, to end the night’s wickedness?7

God’s questions aren’t intended to teach; they are intended to stun. They aren’t intended to enlighten; they are intended to awaken. They aren’t intended to stir the mind; they are intended to bend the knees.

Has the location of the gates of death been revealed to you? Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell Me about it if you know! Where does the light come from, and how do you get there? Or tell Me about the darkness. Where does it come from? Can you find its boundaries, or go to its source? But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced!8

Finally Job’s feeble hand lifts, and God stops long enough for him to respond. “I am nothing — how could I ever find the answers? I lay my hand upon my mouth in silence. I have said too much already.”9

God’s message has connected:

Job is a peasant, telling the King how to run the kingdom.

Job is an illiterate, telling e. e. cummings to capitalize his personal pronouns.

Job is the batboy, telling Babe Ruth to change his batting stance.

Job is the clay, telling the potter not to press so hard.

“I owe no one anything,” God declares in the crescendo of the wind. “Everything under the Heaven is mine.”10

Job couldn’t argue. God owes no one anything. No explanations. No excuses. No help. God has no debt, no outstanding balance, no favors to return. God owes no man anything.

Which makes the fact that He gave us everything even more astounding.

How you interpret this holy presentation is key. You can interpret God’s hammering speech as a divine in-your-face tirade if you want. You can use the list of unanswerable questions to prove that God is harsh, cruel, and distant. You can use the book of Job as evidence that God gives us questions and no answers. But to do so, you need some scissors. To do so, you need to cut out the rest of the book of Job.

For that is not how Job heard it. All his life Job had been a good man. All his life he had believed in God. All his life he had discussed God, had notions about Him, and had prayed to Him.

But in the storm Job sees Him!

He sees Hope. Lover. Destroyer. Giver. Taker. Dreamer. Deliverer.

Job sees the tender anger of a God whose unending love is often received with peculiar mistrust. Job stands as a blade of grass against the consuming fire of God’s splendor. Job’s demands melt like wax as God pulls back the curtain and heaven’s light falls uneclipsed across the earth.

Job sees God.

God could turn away at this point. The gavel has been slammed; the verdict has been rendered. The Eternal Judge has spoken.

Ah, but God is not angry with Job. Firm? Yes. Direct? No doubt. Clear and convincing? Absolutely. But angry? No.

God is never irritated by the candle of an honest seeker.

If you underline any passage in the book of Job, underline this one: “I had heard about You before, but now I have seen You.”11

Job sees God — and that is enough.

But it isn’t enough for God. He will give Job a chance to begin again. The years to come find Job once again sitting behind his mahogany desk with health restored and profits up. His lap is once again full of children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren — for four generations! A new beginning indeed.

If Job ever wonders why God doesn’t bring back the children He has taken away, he doesn’t ask. Maybe he doesn’t ask because he knows that his children could never be happier than they are in the presence of this One he has seen so briefly.

Something tells me that Job would do it all again if that’s what it would take to hear God’s voice and stand in His presence. Even if God left him with his bedsores and bills, Job would do it again.

For God gave Job more than Job ever dreamed. God gave Job Himself.

Job 13:4–5 TLB.

Job 33:29–30.

Job 38:2.

Job 38:3.

Job 38:4 TLB.

Job 38:5–7 TLB.

Job 38:12–13 TLB.

Job 38:17–21 TLB.

Job 40:4–5 TLB.

Job 41:11 TLB.

Job 42:5 TLB.

Excerpted from Begin Again by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

Pastor Dale