Notes of Faith April 26, 2023

Notes of Faith April 26, 2023

Article by Greg Morse

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

Beware of the Birds

How Satan Sabotages Sermons

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

Jesus heard them as he got up to preach.

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

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

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

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

Fowl Play

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

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

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

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

Most Regular Church Attender

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

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

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

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

But how do they do it?

How They Devour

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

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

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

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

Pecking at the Mind

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Those Who Hear Sermons

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

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

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

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

(Ephesians 6:11).

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 25, 2023

Notes of Faith April 25, 2023

Why Do Christians Struggle To Love

Article by Jon Bloom

Staff writer, desiringGod.org

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

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

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

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

Easy Yoke, Hard Way

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

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

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

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

It’s Supposed to Be Hard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only Possible with God

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

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

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

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

‘You Follow Me’

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 24, 2023

Notes of Faith April 24, 2023

What We Want and What We Settle For

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

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

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

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

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

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

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

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

To be good.

To be wanted.

To be valuable.

To be authentic.

To be competent.

To be secure.

To be happy.

To be protected.

To be at peace.

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

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

WHAT DO YOU SETTLE FOR?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 23, 2023

Notes of Faith April 23, 2023

Article by Dieudonné Tamfu

Professor, Bethlehem College & Seminary

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

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

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

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

Pursuing God with Tozer

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

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

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

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

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

Pursuing God in Theological Education

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

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

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

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

Pursuing God in Missions

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

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

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

All Satisfaction, All Pleasure, All Delight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 22, 2023

Notes of Faith April 22, 2023

In the Waiting

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

— Isaiah 41:10 NLT

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

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

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

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

Delight in Discipline

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 21, 2023

Notes of Faith April 21, 2023

The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 offer both timeless encouragement and a warning to churches and individual Christians. While two churches received only encouragement from the Lord Himself, the other five found themselves strongly rebuked.

Jesus’ words to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:5 are instructive to us still today. This beloved church, planted by the Apostle Paul, was the first to be called out by name in Revelation.

The Lord first lauded their deeds, toil, and perseverance. He also noted that they did not tolerate evil men. However, His grievance against that church was that they had abandoned their First Love. Without question, God is justifiably offended when those who know Him — and should know better — turn their backs on Him and violate the relationship into which He has called them. And that is not only true for individuals. When a nation or society that once respected and honored the Lord strays from Him, insult is added to injury, grieving the heart of God.

We tend to see with physical eyes, measuring a nation’s health by its economic vitality or its citizens’ life expectancy. Those indicators have merit, but just as God told Samuel not to look at outward appearance when anointing a king from among Jesse’s sons, “God still sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

God’s prophetic Word says that most human hearts will grow darker and colder in the last days — and that society itself will become increasingly evil. We refer to this category of End Times signs portending the Lord’s return as “Signs of Society.” And America is following the tragic trajectory of ancient Judah right now.

Set Apart and Blessed with Grace

Too often, we are deluded into thinking that our nation is blessed because we deserve God’s blessing. With shouts of “USA! USA!” ringing in our ears, we figuratively thump our chests and tout the worthiness of our nation, forgetting that even our national hymn, “America the Beautiful,” repeats the line “God shed His grace on thee” six times. Few reflect today that Katharine Lee Bates’ poem was meant to inspire humility and thanksgiving to Almighty God.

Older Americans were raised to think ours is “the greatest nation on the earth” (if not the greatest nation ever). I would agree with that sentiment when it comes to the ordered liberty that marked the American experiment for its first 200 years or so — not because our “more perfect union” was indeed perfect. Instead, our nation longingly aspired toward perfection, respecting as Bates did the Source of our greatness:

God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

And every gain divine!

Over the past century, few could dispute the unprecedented prosperity our society has enjoyed. But, sadly, that prosperity morphed into a sense of entitlement, self-importance, and self-sufficiency that has led America grievously astray.

Faith Of Our Fathers

David Barton and other Christian scholars offer clear evidence of the Judeo-Christian foundations of our society. Men such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and yes, even Thomas Jefferson, could not have imagined crafting a nation without underpinning it on Christian faith.

Some would retort that those men were hypocrites when it came to following the law of God. I would agree. All of us are hypocrites to some degree, and the founders were guilty of some glaring oversights and inconsistencies. But that realization still cannot detract from the ideals they collectively agreed to pursue — or the system of government that they established to honor “Nature’s God” and the rights of His most elevated creature.

Over time, our nation endured tremendous growing pains. The most pronounced happened less than fourscore and seven years after the original establishment of the United States. Reflecting on the horrible tragedy of the Civil War and the scourge of slavery itself, Abraham Lincoln observed, “The Almighty has His own purposes. ‘Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!…the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether'” (Second Inaugural Address).

A Christian Nation?

There is no doubt that America was founded on Christian principles. The Bible was once taught in every public school classroom alongside primers like the McGuffey Readers. Our laws and our collective morality were unapologetically shaped by the Word of God. But no more.

Some Christians still want to maintain that this is a Christian nation. I find this to be an offensive assertion. Would a Christian nation tolerate, let alone encourage:

Unfettered sexual licentiousness

Flagrant homosexuality and a willful appropriation of the rainbow (ordained by God) to convey enthusiasm toward sodomy and sin

Confusion over basic creation truths like the biological distinction between men and women

An epidemic of family-shattering divorce, though hated by God

Rampant mind-numbing drug use — prescribed or “recreational”

Millions of babies murdered in their mothers’ wombs.

Professing churches denigrating Christ’s deity and His Word.

National leaders flaunting their deceitfulness and sin that impoverishes future generations in violation of biblical principles.

I could go on and on, describing in heart-wrenching detail the transgressions against Heaven that are multiplying every day. Instead of focusing on the litany of transgressions, I’ll simply ask: Would God label our nation as a Christian nation, or would He be offended that such a people co-mingled the Name of His Son with their manifest perversions and celebration of wickedness?

It is not my point to prove here that America was founded as a Christian nation. The question that hangs over our heads today is: how did we get to where we are today?

It is not just that evil is prevalent in our nation, but that Christians tolerate and even endorse the evil that is against God and His Word. We must stand for what we know to be truth, while we yet live, and seek to live holy and pure lives, proclaiming the truth of God, until we are with Him in heaven!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 20, 2023

Notes of Faith April 20, 2023

You Are Essential: Everyday Heroes

The word hero gets thrown around a lot. A friend who brings you coffee on a busy day might seem like a hero in that moment, but the real heroes are the ones who put themselves in danger for the good of others. We often think of police officers, members of the armed services, firefighters, and other first responders — and they are, undoubtedly, heroes.

However, there are other everyday people who become heroes in a crisis, risking their lives to help. Volunteers who clear rubble after earthquakes or paddle out into floodwaters to rescue survivors are heroes. So are the doctors and nurses on the front lines battling diseases.

The good, dependable folks who go to work even in the midst of terror attacks, pandemics, and natural disasters are pretty heroic too. They rarely get honors for their service, but without them we wouldn’t be able to buy groceries, send our kids to school, have clean buses and bathrooms, buy gas, or any of the other countless things that keep our country running.

So thank an everyday hero today.

You Are Able to Love Others

Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart.

Jesus doesn’t let us sing some hymns and go to Bible study each week and say we’re done. He challenges us to do more and be better. He dares us to be bolder and braver and to love harder. He urges us to step outside of our comfort zones to care for one another in the middle of our messy lives and emotions.

Jesus was human too. He knows how we feel and what our weaknesses are. But He also knows what we are capable of. He doesn’t ask us to do anything that we can’t do. So when the Bible tells us to “love one another” and to “outdo one another in showing honor,” we can be confident that those are things we can absolutely do.

How will you rise to the challenge today?

You're a Miracle.

Go outside tonight and look up at the stars. Count as many of them as you can. The longer you look, the smaller you will feel. Isn’t it amazing that out of the vastness of space you are standing in this exact place at this exact time? The chances of your being born, just as you are, is more than one in four hundred trillion.1 Crazy! It’s truly a miracle that you are here. So what are you, as a living, breathing miracle, going to do with your one miraculous life? You owe it to yourself to make it count. Take the time to find what you are passionate about. Dig deep and discover your purpose. Discover how you can use your unique strengths to make the difference in this world that you were born to make.

“You are special, and so is your neighbor”— that part is essential: that you're not the only special person in the world. The person you happen to be with at the moment is loved, too. ~ Fred Rogers

Love Everyone

Each of us matters to someone. Your mailman is a beloved husband. Your child’s teacher is a cherished daughter. The barista at your favorite coffee shop is someone’s best friend. Think about your people. How would you want them to be treated by strangers?

Each of us deserves love, kindness, and respect. Life is challenging. We can all fall into thinking that our people and our lives matter most sometimes. But the truth is that we all need each other. Every person you meet deserves to be treated like they are one of your people — the people you love and cherish most. If we can all remember to treat others with that kind of love, imagine what a difference it would make!

Excerpted from You Are Essential, copyright Thomas Nelson.

Psalm 139 tells us a more important perspective … God created you! He made you exactly as you are, gave you specific parents, placed you in the world and loves you beyond anyone else! There is nothing more essential in your life than the love of God. Read this psalm over and over. Meditate on God’s love for you and learn to love Him because He loved you first!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 19, 2023

Notes of Faith April 19, 2023

Will We Know One Another in Heaven?

The descriptions in Revelation 21–22 of the new heavens, new earth, and new Jerusalem are literal — or they are images of an even more literal reality — and how wonderful is that? We will literally, physically, and bodily be with the Godhead, the godly personalities of the invisible realm, the saints of all the ages, and one another for eternity.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if we never recognized anyone? Is it possible we’ll be total strangers in paradise forever, that we’ll have everlasting amnesia?

No. It isn’t remotely possible — yet we sometimes wonder if we’ll know each other in Heaven. It’s an emotive question. Our relationships on earth mean more to us than anything else. I loved my dad and mom; I love my sister and her family; I miss my wife, and I cherish daughters, their husbands, and all their children. These relationships are more valuable to me than any other single thing in this world apart from my relationship with Christ. I never want to lose these bonds of love. It doesn’t matter if I lose everything else on earth, I don’t want to lose those dearest to me. I want to be where they are, and I want them to be where I am.

Jesus felt the same way. In the upper room on the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples,

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. — John 14:3

He wanted His friends to be with Him, near Him, fellowshipping with Him forever. A couple of hours later, Jesus prayed an unutterably deep prayer just before His arrest.

Father, He said, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am.

— John 17:24

Jesus Himself — God of very God — wanted His friends and family to be with Him in eternity, where He was, so He could enjoy their fellowship and love. He feels as we do about our dearest ones. These passages in John 14 and John 17 clearly imply that one of the greatest joys of Heaven will be our everlasting reunion with those we love.

While the Bible doesn’t give us a verse saying, “You will know each other in Heaven,” it treats this reality like an obvious truth, simply assuming this is the case. There are a number of passages that make this assumption reasonable and clear.

John 20:19–23

The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us our first glimpse in Scripture of what the glorified resurrection body will be like. John 20:19–20 says,

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

When Jesus rose from the tomb, He had the same identity and the same appearance He had prior to His death. The disciples recognized Him. They recognized His face and His features, they recognized His hands with the nail prints, and He even showed them His side. They recognized Him by the scar left from the Roman spear. He knew them after His resurrection, and they knew Him, though His body was now imperishable.

I’ve long believed that our resurrection bodies will have the appearance of our being in our early thirties. Jesus was about thirty-three when He rose from the dead, and Philippians 3:21 says He will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Whatever our apparent age, we will be physically, mentally, and emotionally mature, and we will be recognizable as ourselves. The essence of our identity will not be lost through the process of rapture or resurrection. Our faults and failures will be gone, but I will still be me, and you will still be you — in the fullness of the perfection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:12

Another clue comes from 1 Corinthians 13. In the first several verses, the apostle Paul commended the virtues of love, and he ended the chapter by talking about its permanence. Love will continue after we die. Faith will not be needed in Heaven, and our hope will be fulfilled. But love will continue. Our relationships with those we love will go right on, and, in fact, be far better.

Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

— 1 Corinthians 13:12

In other words, “I know Jesus Christ now, but one day I’ll know Him better; I’ll see Him fully and I will know Him just as He knows me.” The implication is that we’ll also know each other better and love each other more fully in the future than we do now.

Right now, even the best of human relationships are imperfect. One day those of us who know Christ Jesus our Lord will see His face, reflect His love, and know one another even as we ourselves are known.

Jesus Himself — God of very God — wanted His friends and family to be with Him in eternity, where He was, so He could enjoy their fellowship and love.

1 Thessalonians 4

Another helpful passage is in 1 Thessalonians. The Christians in Thessalonica were still learning the rudiments of Christian theology. They had questions about what happens when we die. Paul wrote,

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. — 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

The basis of Paul’s encouragement and comfort is that we’ll be together with those we love and with the Lord forever in heaven. Our fellowship with our Christian loved ones goes right on! We’ll pick up where we left off, and we will know even as we are known. We will recognize Him and others, even as they recognize us.

There’s no capping the encouragement this gives me!

2 Corinthians 4:13–14

In a similar vein, in 2 Corinthians 4:14, Paul wrote,

We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.

Paul knew something. He didn’t hope, think, speculate, or wish. He knew his body would be resurrected and he would be reunited with his Corinthian friends in the presence of the Lord. That gave him vast encouragement, and he repeated the same idea elsewhere in his letters to his friends and to other churches he established. For example, he called the Thessalonians “the crown in which we will glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus when He comes” (1 Thessalonians 2:19).

He fully anticipated an eternal friendship with those he had won to Christ.

Luke 16:22–31

In Luke 16, Jesus told about a neighborhood beggar who died and went to Heaven. But Jesus didn’t use the word Heaven. He used the phrase Abraham’s side, saying, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side.” The passage goes on to talk about “Abraham . . . with Lazarus by his side” (Luke 16:22–23).

In other words, a dirty but God-trusting Middle Eastern beggar went to Heaven and found himself walking down the street side by side with Abraham, the greatest figure of the Old Testament. The whole story is based on the premise that we will know one another in Heaven. Though their earthly timelines had been separated by two thousand years, Abraham and the beggar knew one another and fellowshipped together.

I don’t know if they knew one another instinctively or if they were introduced to each other. I’m curious about this. When I get to Heaven, will I instinctively know my grandfather, who was a mountain preacher and died long before I was born? Or will he come up to me and say, “On earth, I was your grandfather”?

I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to knowing him, along with Abraham, the beggar of Luke 16, and all the other heroes of the faith. One small hint that our knowledge may be instinctive comes from the next passage.

Matthew 17:1–8

The transfiguration of Christ was the moment when Peter, James, and John caught a glimpse of the intrinsic, eternal glory of their Savior. Matthew 17:1–4 says,

After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

When Jesus came to earth, He left His throne and its eternal glory. He temporarily relinquished His splendor and some of His divine prerogatives. He entered humanity as a baby in a manger. But on this occasion during His earthly life, He was momentarily enveloped with a flash of His original and eternal glory.

How amazing that two Old Testament heroes joined Him! Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all belonged to different epochs of human history. Moses dates to about 1400 BC, Elijah lived in the 800s BC, and Jesus lived in the first century AD.

Here we have three men whose earthly lives were separated by fourteen hundred years, and yet they all knew each other. They were standing there physically, fellowshipping and talking together. They were known by their same names, but they were glorified, energized, wrapped in light.

This is a sneak peek of Heaven!

So, yes, we’ll recognize our loved ones in Heaven. As someone once put it, we’ll certainly not be greater fools in Heaven than we are on earth. If we know one another now, we’ll certainly know one another in the soon-to-be.

Excerpted from 50 Final Events in World History by Robert J. Morgan, copyright Robert J. Morgan.

This world without sin would be marvelous! We do not know the depths of God and what He has planned for those that belong to Him. Though I know I have to, in my heart, I can’t wait!

1 Cor 2:9

"No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him"

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 18, 2023

Notes of Faith April 18, 2023

God Knows the Vindication You Seek

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is Mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. — Romans 12:18–19

I was eighteen years old around the time rumors were passing through the grapevine about my father’s potential affair, which for a pastor of a church is of particular concern. Not only did I, as his daughter, want to disbelieve it, but I felt passionate to defend our family name after time and again hearing it come out of someone’s mouth — often with at least some element of falsehood. Hurt, weary, fiercely loyal (and in a particular hold-my-earrings season of life after also dealing with some painful mean-girl harassment), I was in peak vindication mode when I was told the name of a person I knew who was the source behind several of the most damaging rumors about my dad.

That day, I was done with victimhood.

I was over people saying things that weren’t true and causing my family pain. I was through with doing “the right thing” by staying silent. In my mind, this had to stop, and I was the one to stop it.

Personal confrontation, biblically speaking, wouldn’t have been the wrong approach. Matthew 18 teaches us to go directly to someone who has wronged us. But I was mad. I wasn’t seeking spiritual reconciliation; I was seeking to feel better through my own form of vengeance. Those things change the game.

To make matters more combustible, I would be confronting this person at work, in a busy public place. So the conditions weren’t appropriate. In a fog of anger and teenage reasoning, I did not consider this to be of concern.

It’s been more than thirty years, but I can still remember whipping into the parking lot, jerking the car into park. The warm summer air enveloped me as I stepped out of the car and slammed the door, and the cold air hit me as I stormed into the store in what seemed like less than ten steps. I walked fast so I didn’t lose my courage. I can remember the exact moment of confrontation — walking straight up to where this person stood, working, without regard to my foolishness, and giving this person a piece of my mind. I can feel the heat rising to my ears and the adrenaline coursing through my entire body and the way my heel turned to walk away when I finished saying what I wanted to say, without waiting on a response.

I did it: approached the one who had hurt my family. Did I feel better? I wasn’t sure yet. I walked outside and slid behind the driver’s seat, heart beating fast and hands shaking.

My father sure wasn’t impressed by my theatrics. I found that out quickly thereafter, when I drove to his office and someone had already let him know. (Small-town grapevine, again, thanks.) “You can’t go around chewing out everyone who starts a rumor, Lisa,” he said, “or you’ll have a full-time job.” I knew I couldn’t, but my desire to set the record straight had caused me to at least try.

“It is Mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. — Romans 12:19

That wasn’t the last rumor that was started about my family. Some were true, some were false, and some were somewhere in the middle, as rumors usually are. Some stories were crueler and hurt deeper, and some I’ve never written about. But Daddy was right. I could never fight them all, even though I wanted to. The desire to get peace for the pain other people caused often felt overwhelming. In the days that followed, my revenge-seeking was a symptom of something deeper: I felt helpless. Then I felt afraid. Angry. And then I tried to control it.

Seeking vindication over something like gossip certainly didn’t feel small to me at the time, when gossip was hurting and affecting my family. And gossip isn’t a small concern when you consider how it damages people. I’ve seen people lose jobs, opportunities, relationships, ministries, and even their lives. James calling gossip a fire in James 3 is wildly accurate. The damage gossip can do — even when there is some truth to the rumor — is not minor.

Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

— James 3:5–6

But both things can be true: gossip is wrong, and we can also be wrong in how we go about trying to vindicate it. This is the case with vengeance regardless of the issue; it is different from biblical confrontation and different from advocacy for biblical justice. God’s omniscience covers the wrongs done to you that you long to personally make right. He knows what happened, knows the truth, and in one way or another, will set it straight.

Excerpted from God Knows by Lisa Whittle, copyright Lisa Whittle.

I have never seen someone offended, seeking vengeance, turn out well. We are not in control of our emotions and actions. All too often, rumors are just that, rumors, with little or no truth in them…a way of getting ahead of or perhaps back at someone who has offended them. Either way, it is not a biblical Christian way of handling conflict and pain. Let us offer grace and pray that we continue to receive grace from the Lord. The rumormill will always be turning out its’ pandemic flow!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 17, 2023

Notes of Faith April 17, 2023

Champions Find God’s Strength in Their Own Weakness

Run the Race!

It would be so much more comfortable if God would keep us in our “strength zone,” wouldn’t it? But God keeps thrusting us into our “weakness zone” because it is only in our weakness that He is made strong.

[Jesus] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. — 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

God is never limited by our limitations. Whenever He calls us to step out of our comfort zone and into the exchange zone, it is because He wants to do something in and through our lives.

Now, here is the critical question: How do we increase our willingness to trust in God’s strength when our own weakness is so glaring that it captures all our focus? Let’s turn to Peter’s championship training.

TRAINED TO BE A CHAMPION

The disciples were getting nowhere. When they’d pushed off from shore just a few hours before, the water had been calm and the boat seemed to offer what they needed most — rest and solitude.

They’d just learned that John the Baptist had been executed. Jesus had led the disciples to withdraw to a quiet place to rest. But the locals — about five thousand men plus women and children — had discovered Jesus’s location and soon swarmed them. Jesus miraculously fed everyone in the crowd with no more than five loaves and two fish. When that miracle was complete, Jesus told His disciples to “immediately” get into the boat and go to Capernaum on the other side of the lake while Jesus stayed behind to dismiss the crowd and then go off by Himself to pray.

Let’s focus in on Peter. Peter was no novice in witnessing miracles. Straining against the oars with every muscle, Peter must have longed to have Jesus there in the boat with him. If only the Lord were here, he must have thought, He would calm this windstorm before our eyes, like He did before.

And then they saw Him. Let’s pick up the story in Matthew 14:25-29.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”

“Come,” He said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

I love it! That’s Peter. He was all in.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” — Matthew 14:30-31

Why did he doubt? Yesterday’s miracles didn’t yet outweigh his fear of today’s dangers.

Can you relate? I believe we all can.

The danger of drowning was real. In a surge of ecstatic faith, he’d climbed out of the boat with his eyes fixed on Jesus, when it suddenly occurred to him that there was nothing under his feet but water.

And this is exactly why we need storms and trials in our lives if our faith is to grow.

UNTESTED FAITH IS FRAGILE

It’s no coincidence that the windstorm “just happened” to occur on the heels of the miracle of the loaves and fish. Jesus is omniscient. He chose to be on land, a distance from His disciples, when the storm hit. And He chose His words carefully when He said to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Jesus used Peter’s moment of weakness as a teaching moment.

In Mark 6:51-52, a parallel rendering of the Matthew 14 account, we catch on to what Jesus was showing them in the middle of that storm.

Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

They had not understood about the loaves. They had not grasped how that act had revealed the deity of Jesus — His identity as being one with God, and thus His omnipotent power over the physical world.

A few hours of fear must have softened those hardened hearts, because when Jesus came strolling along walking on top of the water, they got it.

And when [Peter and Jesus] climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” — Matthew 14:32-33

The storm had done its work!

Champions understand that God uses every trial to build our strength and endurance.

TRIALS ARE THE ULTIMATE STRENGTH-TRAINING EXERCISE

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. — James 1:2-4

The powerful message of this verse is clear — bad news can be faced with great hope. Whether your trials came as a result of your own brokenness or poor choices, or because of the choices of someone else, or by an act of nature such as a flood or an earthquake or a tornado, or as a consequence of living in a fallen world, you have reason, even while grieving and hurting, to be joyful.

Why? Because trials test your faith. Is it bad news when your weaknesses are revealed? No! Better to have them revealed so we can acknowledge them and, with God’s work inside us, see our weakness rooted out.

But notice this in the James 1 verses: It is not God’s work alone.

God gives us two commands: consider and let. We are to “consider it” pure joy. This requires us to make a deliberate decision about how we view the trial. We must “let” perseverance do its work by working with God, not against him, in the face of our trials.

We, like Peter, have choices to make in the face of life’s trials. Peter reached for Jesus. He could have sunk to his armpits and then, spitting mad, swum back to the side of the boat, cursing Jesus for allowing him to sink. But he didn’t. He cried out to Jesus, and Jesus reached for him. And do you know what happened next?

More tests. More trials. Obstacles. Hurdles. Of course! What else would we expect?

YOUR WALK-ON-WATER MOMENTS

Champions understand that God uses every trial to build our strength and endurance. This is why Jesus, knowing that within hours He would be arrested, flogged, paraded through the streets, and crucified, said the following words to us:

All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them… I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. — John 16:1-4, John 16:33

Do you hear Him? Take heart! Be of good cheer! Consider it all joy! Such times are when you will experience firsthand that greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world.

Between the disciples and Jesus that windy night, there was darkness, danger, and distance. Ever been there? Your storm is raging “here” and Jesus seems to be over “there.” Jesus knows when you are in trouble, when you have had enough, when you need strength and courage. He knows when to calm the storm and when to ride it out with you.

Climb out of that boat with your eyes fixed on Jesus. And if you falter, cry out to Him, reach out to Him, knowing He will catch you and climb into your boat. He will calm the storm. Then He will step into your weakness with His strength.

With this confidence, we can say, with Peter,

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

— 1 Peter 1:6-9

Excerpted from Run the Race! by Christine Caine, copyright Christine Caine.

I expect that if you look back on your life you can find more than one moment when you did things that in your own power you could not do. You experienced a “walk on water” moment. God provided the words for you to say to someone in need, you fell asleep driving on a long journey and yet survived unscathed, your care for someone likely saved their life. Things that God does through us, with His power, is “walk on water” moments. God can do anything and has done so in your life, if you will only recognize His work in and through you!

Pastor Dale