Notes of Faith June 15, 2023

Notes of Faith June 15, 2023

They Walked with God: Jairus

Before You Begin

Read Mark 5:21–24, 35–43 NIV

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around Him while He was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when He saw Jesus, He fell at His feet. He pleaded earnestly with Him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around Him.

While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at Him.

After He put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with Him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

When my daughters were young, we tried an experiment.

I asked Jenna, then eight years old, to go to one side of the den. I had Andrea, six, stand on the other. Three-year-old Sara and I sat on the couch in the middle and watched. Jenna’s job was to close her eyes and walk. Andrea’s job was to be Jenna’s eyes and talk her safely across the room.

With phrases like, “Take two baby steps to the left” and, “Take four giant steps straight ahead,” Andrea successfully navigated her sister through a treacherous maze of chairs, a vacuum cleaner, and a laundry basket.

Then Jenna took her turn. She guided Andrea past her mom’s favorite lamp and shouted just in time to keep her from colliding into the wall when she thought her right foot was her left foot.

After several treks through the darkness, they stopped and we processed.

“I didn’t like it,” Jenna complained. “It’s scary going where you can’t see.”

“I was afraid I was going to fall,” Andrea agreed. “I kept taking little steps to be safe.” I can relate, can’t you? We grown-ups don’t like the dark either. But we walk in it.

We, like Jenna, often complain about how scary it is to walk where we can’t see. And we, like Andrea, often take timid steps so we won’t fall.

We’ve reason to be cautious: We are blind. Blind to the future.

It’s one limitation we all share. The wealthy are just as blind as the poor. The educated are just as sightless as the unschooled. And the famous know as little about the future as the unknown.

None of us knows how our children will turn out. None of us knows the day we will die. No one knows whom he or she will marry or even if marriage lies before him or her. We are universally, absolutely, unalterably blind.

There are times in life when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you are asking to receive.

We are all Jenna with her eyes shut, groping through a dark room, listening for a familiar voice — but with one difference. Her surroundings are familiar and friendly. Ours can be hostile and fatal. Her worst fear is a stubbed toe. Our worst fear is more threatening: cancer, divorce, loneliness, death.

And try as we might to walk as straight as we can, chances are a toe is going to get stubbed and we are going to get hurt.

Just ask Jairus. He is a man who has tried to walk as straight as he can. But Jairus is a man whose path has taken a sudden turn into a cave — a dark cave. And he doesn’t want to enter it alone.

Jairus is the leader of the synagogue. That may not mean much to you and me, but in the days of Christ the leader of the synagogue was the most important man in the community. The synagogue was the center of religion, education, leadership, and social activity. The leader of the synagogue was the senior religious leader, the highest-ranking professor, the mayor, and the best-known citizen all in one.

Jairus has it all. Job security. A guaranteed welcome at the coffee shop. A pension plan. Golf every Thursday and an annual all-expenses-paid trip to the national convention.

Who could ask for more? Yet Jairus does. In fact, he would trade the whole package of perks and privileges for just one assurance — that his daughter will live.

The Jairus we see in this story is not the clear-sighted, black-frocked, nicely groomed civic leader. He is instead a blind man begging for a gift. He fell at Jesus’ feet, “saying again and again, ‘My daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so she will be healed and will live’” (Mark 5:23 NIV).

He doesn’t barter with Jesus. He just pleads.

There are times in life when everything you have to offer is nothing compared to what you are asking to receive. Jairus is at such a point. What could a man offer in exchange for his child’s life? So, there are no games. No haggling. No masquerades. The situation is starkly simple: Jairus is blind to the future and Jesus knows the future. So Jairus asks for His help.

And Jesus, who loves the honest heart, goes to give it.

And God, who knows what it is like to lose a child, empowers His Son.

But before Jesus and Jairus get very far, they are interrupted by emissaries from Jairus’s house.

“Your daughter is dead. There is no need to bother the teacher anymore” (v. 35 NIV).

Get ready. Hang on to your hat. Here’s where the story gets moving. Jesus goes from being led to leading, from being convinced by Jairus to convincing Jairus. From being admired to being laughed at, from helping out the people to casting out the people.

Here is where Jesus takes control.

But Jesus paid no attention to what they said… — v. 36 NRSV

I love that line! It describes the critical principle for seeing the unseen: Ignore what people say. Block them out. Turn them off. Close your ears. And, if you must, walk away. Ignore the ones who say it’s too late to start over.

Disregard those who say you’ll never amount to anything.

Turn a deaf ear toward those who say that you aren’t smart enough, fast enough, tall enough, or big enough — ignore them.

Faith sometimes begins by stuffing your ears with cotton.

Jesus turns immediately to Jairus and pleads:

Don’t be afraid; just believe. — Mark 5:36 NIV

Jesus compels Jairus to see the unseen. When Jesus says, “Just believe,” He is imploring, “Don’t limit your possibilities to the visible. Don’t listen only for the audible. Don’t be controlled by the logical. Believe there is more to life than meets the eye!”

“Trust me,” Jesus is pleading. “Don’t be afraid; just trust.”

Excerpted from They Walked with God by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

Sometimes everything in the world seems to be against us, friends, family, logic and understanding of our own minds…this is where faith and trust in God must reside. He can and will deal with our issues. Do not fear, only believe! Very hard to do but following the command of Jesus brings comfort and peace.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 14, 2023

Notes of Faith June 1, 2023

Don't Fear Weakness

Bear Grylls is a survivor. You’ve likely seen him on one of his many survival and adventure TV shows, such as Man Vs. Wild, You Vs. Wild, The Island, and Running Wild with Bear Grylls. In his life, Bear has served with British special forces, climbed Everest, crossed the north Atlantic unassisted, and he currently holds the record for the longest indoor freefall! But as much as Bear knows about adventure and survival, he’s come to realize that a deeper source of strength is needed in this life. As Bear says, “I find the journey hard. I often mess up. I feel myself teetering on the edge more often than you would imagine. So for me, starting my day with God really helps. It is like food. Like good fuel for the soul.” In his book Soul Fuel, Bear Grylls offers up 365 devotions, many of which he wrote on his phone during his countless adventures. Enjoy two selections today from Bear in Soul Fuel.

Don’t Fear Weakness

I often feel inadequate because of my many weaknesses. But sometimes God works through our weaknesses better than through our perceived strengths.

We see it in Gideon. Chosen by God to lead an army, he didn’t feel that he was up to the job.

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family”. — Judges 6:15

Often our doubts and fears only really surface when we’re about to be tested. But our sense of weakness is no barrier to God. “I will be with you,” said God to Gideon. And He says it to us too.

I often draw strength from the words of the apostle Paul:

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong.

—2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Don’t run or hide from your weaknesses. Accept and embrace them, and lay them before the Almighty. He longs to enter, transform, and empower our lives. It is what He does — but only when asked, and only when there is room for Him to work.

A false sense of self-confidence often gets in the way of our progress in life. There’s a power to weakness, strange as it sounds. But when we admit that we’re unable to fight the big battles alone, that is when we learn to effectively rely on a stronger power. God-confidence is always going to win over self-confidence. Gideon knew that, as have so many of the most empowered men and women throughout history.

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Don’t run or hide from your weaknesses. Accept and embrace them, and lay them before the Almighty.

The Curtain Between Man and God

It is arguably the most poignant moment in human history: Pilate turned and looked at Jesus. Covered in blood, a crown of thorns biting into His scalp, soldiers on either side, Jesus didn’t look like much of a threat to the Roman ruler. I imagine Pilot half sneering, half despairing as he spoke:

Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you? — John 19:10

But Jesus’ reply was so calm and clear:

You haven’t a shred of authority over Me except what has been given you from Heaven. — John 19:11 MSG

It must have looked to many as though it was game over, as though Jesus’ life had been a failure — that hatred, jealousy, and ego had conquered over mercy, forgiveness, and love. But in reality, the greatest victory in the history of the world was about to be won. The conquered one, the man who looked as if He’d failed, was about to reveal a source of new life, a new vision for humankind, a new road to peace and unity.

At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces. — Matthew 27:51 MSG

Whenever we’re struggling with the circumstances of our lives, let’s see beyond what other people see as failure and look instead to what God’s doing behind the scenes in our lives. Let’s choose to remember that the greatest triumphs sometimes occur when the circumstances seem to be hardest.

He went through it all — was put to death and then made alive — to bring us to God. — 1 Peter 3:18 MSG

When we think life is dark, Christ knows better. Look up. The light is coming.

Excerpted from Soul Fuel by Bear Grylls, copyright BGV Global Limited, 2019.

It has never entered my mind to attempt any journey that Bear Grylls seems to enjoy. The physical challenge, perhaps more than anything else fear of dying during some crazy event. But his dependence on God I agree with. Starting each day with God makes every day a good day. If failure, struggle, or illness invades the day, it is still a good day in the Lord, for He is walking beside us as we experience all that creation even in its fallen state, has to offer. There is no place that we could go where God is not already there. There is no journey, no matter how crazy even Bear Grylls might think up, that God is not there.

“I will never leave you or forsake you.” God is always with us even when we sleep!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 13, 2023

Notes of Faith June 13, 2023

How to Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You

There is a very close connection between God and His Word.

Jesus Himself is called the Word of God (John 1:1, John 1:14; Revelation 19:13). To know God, you must know His Word; to honor God, you must honor His Word; to be in touch with God, you must be in touch with His Word. Mighty promises are given to those who master the Bible so well that the Bible masters them.

We are promised spiritual stability, fruitfulness, and true prosperity as we meditate on His Word day and night (Psalm 1:1-3).

When the words of Jesus abide in us, our desires will be given to us, according to God’s will (John 15:7).

Meditating on God’s Word leads to prosperity and success in our endeavors (Joshua 1:8).

We will have more wisdom than our enemies, more insight than our teachers, and more understanding than the aged (Psalm 119:97-100).

We will have greater power over sin (Psalm 119:11).

We will have comfort in affliction (Psalm 119:50).

By drawing near to God, we have His promise that He will draw near to us

(James 4:8).

These astonishing observations, these magnificent claims, these profound promises — they help us to realize how important the Bible is, and what remarkable potential we bring to our lives when we become serious students of Scripture. That’s why it’s so important that we commit ourselves to mastering the Bible so well that the Bible masters us.

There are four steps to mastering the Bible so well that the Bible masters you:

Read the Bible

Study the Bible

Memorize the Bible

Meditate on the Bible

Seems simple. Obvious, even, for those who have been Christians for a while. Yet very few people take all four steps. Many take one step. Some take two steps. A few take three steps. Very few take all four steps. As a result, very few people ever experience the full life transformation, the fellowship with God, the spiritual stability and strength, the power in ministry, the joy in worship, and the spiritual prosperity that the Bible promises to those who master it so well that it masters them.

READ THE BIBLE FOR BREADTH OF KNOWLEDGE.

To begin a mastery of the Bible, you must read the Bible. This may seem self-evident to some, but to others who have never developed the habit, it is groundbreaking. Some Christians do not read the Bible, or they only read snippets that are attached to daily devotionals. This will not get you where you want to go. You must begin to read the Bible widely.

It is only by covering a lot of territory in Scripture that you gain a breadth of knowledge. If you never read the Old Testament, you will never have a general knowledge of it. If you only read the Gospels, or the Epistles, you will never have a basic grasp of the other sections of the Bible. As a result, your life will be untouched by important truth, plus your ability to connect the dots from various different Scripture passages — a critical component of a mature Christian experience — will be limited.

The New Testament tells us that many stories in the Old Testament were “written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). If we never read those Old Testament stories, we will never gain the insight, the power, or the freedom that become ours when we do.

The good news is that there is a simple way to read for breadth of knowledge. If you read the Bible for five minutes a day, you will read the Bible over thirty hours a year! (5 minutes × 365 days = 1,825 minutes divided by 60 minutes per hour = 30.4 hours!)

Think of it!! Thirty hours a year! Perhaps no other discipline will provide a breadth of Bible knowledge more easily. If you want to master the Word so well that the Word masters you, begin by reading it.

Very early in my Christian experience, I was challenged to read the Bible at least five minutes a day. I took that challenge, and have not missed my daily time in God’s Word in over forty years. As a result, I have read the Bible for a couple thousand hours! And it was all done at the manageable pace of five minutes a day. There is no easier way I could have gained and maintained the breadth of knowledge of Scripture than by taking this simple step. I urge you to take this first step, too.

Mighty promises are given to those who master the Bible so well that the Bible masters them.

Pick a readable translation.

To begin with, pick a translation that is easy for you to read. Many Christians have a New International Version of the Bible, which is a fairly readable translation. I study out of the New American Standard Bible, which is a good study Bible because the translation is very literal. However, for those times of just reading for the story and flow, and breadth of knowledge, I have found that more conversational translations sometimes allow the Bible to come alive in a way that the NASB does not. I experimented for years with more conversational Bibles and, frankly, was disappointed with them for two reasons. First, they often interpret unclear passages for you to make it more readable, and I didn’t always agree with the translators’ interpretation. Second, in their attempt to be conversational, they often dumb down the language so that it is unsatisfying to read.

However, I have found The New Living Translation to be an effective reading Bible. This version began as a paraphrase that author and publisher Ken Taylor wrote to help his young children understand the Bible better. In a paraphrase, you start with an English Bible and reword it to make it easier to understand. But in 1995, Taylor commissioned a team of translation experts to go back to the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and change whatever needed to be changed in order to bring the version up to the level of a translation. In my opinion, they did a commendable job.

All Bible versions have strengths and weaknesses. More literal translations have the strength of being closer to the original languages but the weakness of sometimes being more difficult to understand. More conversational translations are often easier to understand, but sometimes that clarity comes at the expense of accuracy, especially when a difficult passage may have two possible meanings in the original language.

For those reasons, I prefer having both a more literal translation for studying and a more conversational translation for reading. This way, I can compare both translations to gain a fuller understanding.

Pick a time to read.

I read before I go to sleep. By experimentation, I learned that I could always carve out five minutes before I go to sleep. But when I tried to read in the morning, sometimes I would get too busy and forget, and I would end up having to read in the evening, so I just switched to reading in the evening.

I found that I can always stay up an extra five minutes to read. No matter how late it is, another five minutes is not going to make or break my evening’s rest. There have been times I have been so tired I had to read standing up so I wouldn’t fall asleep, but I did it. I have been accused of being legalistic. I’m not. I’m being realistic and disciplined. I’ve learned that if I give myself an excuse one day, I am likely to give myself an excuse another day and another day. So, I have just not given myself an excuse. And more than two thousand hours of reading the Bible later, with a breadth of knowledge of Scripture I could never have gained or maintained any other way, I am glad I haven’t.

Others find that they must read first thing in the morning. It really doesn’t matter when you read. The bottom line is: read when it is best for you.

Read for understanding.

This was a recommendation given to me by the man who led me to the Lord. He said, “When you read, don’t get bogged down by anything you don’t understand. Just skip over it, and read for the things you do understand… and underline everything that seems especially important.” This counsel was extremely valuable to me, and it set me on a course of Bible-knowledge acquisition I’m not sure I would have taken any other way. Without that advice, whenever I would come to something in the text I didn’t understand, I would grind to a halt, or be forced to stop reading and start studying, both of which destroyed the original intent.

Read with a plan.

Many people are motivated by the goal of reading through the Bible in a year. I think it is something that everyone might want to do at least once, just to know that one has read the entire Bible. However, it is not an easy task, and many who start the project do not complete it. You might set a goal of reading through the Bible without committing to having to do it in a year. Just read five minutes a day, and let it take however long it takes to get through the entire Bible. Other reading plans can be found online.

If the Bible is new to you, I recommend what my mentor recommended to me when I first became a Christian. Read the Gospel of John six times in a row, not worrying about what you don’t understand but underlining everything that seems especially important. Then you might read the rest of the Gospels and then the New Testament. After that, you might read the first seventeen books of the Old Testament, known as the historical books. Or, there are eleven primary historical books that you might start with: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Those are the eleven books that tell the story of the Old Testament. The other Old Testament books give additional information, but do not advance the Old Testament story significantly. Then, reading Psalms and Proverbs is always a profitable experience.

On the other hand, if you are a more seasoned Christian and are generally familiar with the Bible, read what is interesting to you in your current circumstances… but be open to stretching yourself into other territory from time to time, remembering the importance of reading for breadth of knowledge.

STUDY THE BIBLE FOR DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE.

Few of us can gain a depth of knowledge without sitting under skilled teachers. So, for most people, they must sit under effective preaching from the Bible and be involved in a Bible study taught by an effective teacher. For maximum benefit, Bible study must have assignments that get you studying and interacting with the Bible on your own. To gain a depth of knowledge, you cannot be passive. You must become active in the process of deepening your knowledge. Crawl before you walk, and walk before you run, but this should be your goal. That is the only way you will progress to a depth of knowledge.

If this is new to you, begin by attending a church that is committed to teaching the Bible, not only from the pulpit during sermons, but also in small groups or Sunday school classes. You might also find helpful information in Christian bookstores or online. More seasoned Christians might be able to give you helpful suggestions as well. If you are an avid reader, there is a wealth of knowledge available to you as well through good books available online or at Christian bookstores.

Excerpted from 30 Days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders, copyright Max Anders.

For those of you that read this far, my personal wish for you is that you read something, anything, in the Bible, every day! God speaks to us through His Word, teaching, encouraging, disciplining, giving us what we need for spiritual food to live. Without it, we are dying and headed toward a life that is not pleasing to God. So….please be in the Word of God daily, and listen to what He says to you through it. Pray before you read. Pray after you read. Know the intimacy of relationship with Him through this time. God created you and loves you more than anyone on earth can even attempt to do.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 12, 2023

Notes of Faith June 12, 2023

The Sinful Woman & The Woman Caught in Adultery

The Sinful Woman

A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

— Luke 7:37–38

Heartbrokenness.

It’s the only word to describe this woman’s attitude as she approached Jesus. We might wonder what her background was. How did she hear about Jesus? How did she know to come to Him for the wholeness she sought? What had she done in her life that branded her as a sinner in the eyes of those surrounding Jesus?

We don’t have the answers to these questions. But we do see something so touching, so beautiful, from our Savior in this moment. This story shows us that our pasts are irrelevant. The love of Jesus finds us wherever we are, even when we’ve made mistakes.

Maybe you have some dark mistakes in your past. If so, you’re not alone. People with dark pasts have been coming to Jesus for millennia.

He doesn’t reject those seeking to turn their lives around.

Maybe that message is for you to receive today. Maybe you need to be reminded of the deep forgiveness and love Jesus offers to each of us. But this message is also for all of us as we grow in Christlikeness, seeking to echo Jesus’ actions in our own lives. Our Savior modeled gentleness and compassion to a broken woman who believed. Let’s follow His lead!

Jesus declared this woman’s sins forgiven (Luke 7:47). How can you walk in confidence today, knowing your sins, too, are forgiven?

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Jesus doesn’t reject those seeking to turn their lives around.

The Woman Caught in Adultery

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 to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. — John 8:6–9

This is such a beautiful picture of the heart of Jesus. He knew what was in the minds of the Pharisees. He knew they were seeking to trap Him and not at all concerned about this woman or her relationship with God (John 8:6). His heart was to redeem this woman — to save her and not condemn her. Amazing, wild, wonderful grace.

Maybe you have a hard time receiving that grace for yourself. Maybe you feel dark and twisty and irredeemable inside, and you can’t imagine Jesus standing in the gap for you, protecting you from your accusers. Or maybe you have a hard time showing this kind of grace to others. Maybe it seems like the world is decaying around you and you’re the only one who is getting it right.

If either of those is the case for you right now, you’re not alone! But let’s take a close look at our Savior’s example here. He treated this woman caught in adultery with dignity, kindness, and respect, even though she had done wrong. Then he followed up with important truths, spoken in love. That’s how He approaches us, and that’s how He wants us to approach others who need His message of repentance and redemption.

Let’s take a moment to fully grab onto the idea that Jesus’ grace is for us and for all those around us, even if they’re struggling.

Do you ever struggle with grace, whether accepting it for yourself or extending it to others? Which of these is harder for you?

Excerpted from 60 Devotions Inspired by Women of the Bible, copyright Zondervan.

Anyone looking to be free from the bondage of sin can find forgiveness and freedom in Jesus. If you are in need of this freedom and peace, come to Jesus and receive His love and forgiveness today!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 11, 2023

Notes of Faith June 11, 2023

What Next?

When the war in Ukraine started, it seemed like a continuation of all that had been happening for the past couple of years. After all, starting in 2020, in addition to moving through a global pandemic, we had experienced natural disasters on most every continent — hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, drought, and flooding.1 The ground warmed enough in the mid-Atlantic region for billions of cicadas to emerge — after seventeen years of being underground.2 It was reminiscent of a plague of biblical proportions. We saw protests and riots in major cities in more than sixty countries, drawing attention to racial injustice.3 It was easy to understand why some people wanted to throw their hands up in the air and ask, “What’s next?” — because it did feel like one thing after another just kept happening. When people questioned whether it was the end of the world, it was — even though we’re all still here — because it was the end of the world as we once knew it.

Like most everyone, I was tempted to look back. To want to go back. To 2019. Or any year of our lives before 2020. To go back to normal, whatever our normal was.

To forget the new normal that we were all desperately trying to create. Yet, no matter how much I longed to go back to normal, there was no going back. That world as we knew it was finished, and God was beckoning me, along with everyone else, to move forward, to lay hold of His purpose and promises in the future.

Sorting through the tension of not looking back and trying to move forward — including trying to figure out how to move at all in a locked-down world —

I began reminding myself that while the world had changed, God had not.

He was the same as He’d always been, and I could depend on Him to guide me forward.4

During that same season of doing my best not to look back and instead to keep moving forward, I was reminded of a woman in the Bible who looked back when she wasn’t supposed to, and it didn’t go well for her. [Lot’s wife] was the woman running for her life with her family in Genesis 19. As they ran, destruction was raining down on their hometown of Sodom, and despite being told by an angel not to look back, she turned and looked back. Scripture tells us,

But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.5

What makes Lot’s wife especially significant is that Jesus said for us to remember her. In the middle of an eschatological discourse in the New Testament, Jesus dropped in three words: “Remember Lot’s wife.”6

If you’ve ever read Luke 17, it’s all too easy to miss these three words. I know because I did for years. I read them, of course, but that’s all. I flew past them. But Jesus never wastes a word, let alone three, so there must be some significance in this second-shortest verse in the Bible. (If you didn’t know that fun fact, now you do. Perhaps it will help you win your next Bible quiz.) These three words began to show me the importance of not looking back. Of always moving forward. Even in the midst of a pandemic or a war or something far more normal. They became words I couldn’t forget and words that showed me the way forward.

Remember Lot’s wife.

For thirty-plus years now, I’ve been going to women’s conferences, and I don’t remember ever hearing a message on Lot’s wife, nor do I remember teaching one. And yet, of the possible 170 women mentioned in Scripture,7 she is the only one that Jesus tells us to remember. Why her? Why not Eve, Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Rahab, Esther, Elizabeth, or even Mary, His own mother? Of all the women Jesus could have told us to remember, He mentioned only one: Lot’s wife. (For all the Bible scholars reading this, Jesus did tell us that the deed of the woman who poured oil over Him would be remembered forever,8 but He told us to remember only one woman — Lot’s wife.) This is astonishing to me. Why her? There had to be a reason.

Longingly She Lingered

Lot’s wife gets one cameo in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. That’s it. That’s all Scripture records. Why would Jesus tell us to remember a woman who appears on the pages of Scripture only long enough to disappear? A woman who has the shortest bio ever. A woman whose proper name we don’t even know. What is it about her that we’re to remember?

As I began to study her life, I noted something very important. This woman was told one thing:

Don’t look back.

And the one thing she was told not to do is the one thing she did. Furthermore, I found that understanding how she looked back quite possibly held a clue as to why she looked back:

But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she became a pillar of salt.9

She looked back longingly in an act of disobedience. I don’t want to be harsh about Lot’s wife. We all make mistakes, and we all disobey, and to think she looked back longingly causes me to feel for her. Here she was, living her life as usual, and suddenly she’s told to pack up and run for her life. All the while an angel is holding her hand and guiding her.

Even reading her story afresh while writing, compassion overtook me.

*

I can imagine Lot’s wife having deep-seated feelings. It’s no wonder she looked back longingly. Maybe how she looked back has as much to do with it as the mere fact that she looked back at all.

To look back longingly is to look back with a yearning desire.10 What was it she longed for exactly? What did she so deeply desire? Putting myself in her shoes, I can imagine any number of things. Maybe it was her home. Maybe it was the way her home made her feel safe and secure. Maybe it was the way she’d gotten everything arranged and decorated just so. Maybe it was the way her home welcomed her each time she ran errands and came back to it. Did she long for her belongings? Her friends? Her routine? Her extended family? If you have ever moved from one city to another, then perhaps you know firsthand how easy it is to long for what was, compared to the work involved in adjusting to all that’s new.

Maybe she had a position in the community, a place of prominence. After all, Sodom wasn’t an impoverished city, and she was married to a wealthy man.11 Could it be that she looked back longingly at everything she had grown attached to and was being forced to abandon? She appeared to be torn between what she was leaving and where she was going. Have you ever been there? Isn’t this our challenge in everything God invites us to do? To move forward or stop and look back? And not just to the tangible things that can slip through our fingers but to places in time, to memories, and to the feelings those memories evoke. It can be any of that or all of that, can’t it?

Maybe Lot’s wife was trying to preserve the past, something that’s all too easy to do. When we work at preserving the past, lingering in nostalgia, we can keep ourselves from the truth of the present and the pain of reality.12

If we linger in the past, we run the risk of it becoming an idealized version of what really was.

While the world has changed, God has not.

Memories can easily be distorted, can’t they?13 Of all the things that could have happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back, she turned into a pillar of salt, a substance that has been used as a preservative for centuries and is still used to this day.14 The irony doesn’t escape me. What’s more, Lot’s wife became the very subsannce that Jesus said we are. Matthew recorded Jesus saying that we are the salt of the earth.15 Perhaps we need to ensure that we don’t get stuck in a place trying to preserve the past, where we are no longer moving forward, and where we are no longer salting the world around us.

Lot’s wife looked back longingly. I have found that if we linger too long where we’re not supposed to be, we’ll start longing for what we are supposed to no longer be lingering in. When we linger, we hesitate. The literal meaning of linger is “to be slow in parting. To remain in existence although waning in strength. It’s to procrastinate.” And it includes one more eerily accurate depiction: “To remain alive although gradually dying.”16 Lot’s wife might not have had any idea that looking back would cause her death, but it did, didn’t it?

Are you longing for something that once was? That is no more? That can never be again?

Are you lingering there in that place where you should no longer be lingering?

Are you lingering in a place and longing for what was, all the while tolerating what is, in hopes that if you linger long enough, you might get back what God told you to leave?

When Lot’s wife longed and lingered, she stopped and looked back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience. Then she became calcified and stuck, frozen in time, paralyzed for eternity as a pillar of salt. I’m Greek, and because I was raised to salt food generously, I love salt. But I don’t want to get stuck and turn into a pillar of salt. I imagine you don’t either. But in a sense, I find that getting stuck like she did is so easy to do.

We can get stuck in:

our emotions

our thoughts

our attitudes

our opinions

our possessions

our plans

our desires

our habits

our comfort

our pain

our wounds

our relationships

our past

our present

our future hopes

There are myriad ways and places we can get stuck, and it is my prayer that as we journey together through the pages of this book, we will discover where we may have gotten stuck and uncover ways to get unstuck — so we can move forward into the purpose and promises of God for our future.

It’s not always easy to move on when God beckons us forward, especially when things are safe, comfortable, and just the way we like it. Equally, it is often difficult to move on when we have experienced deep trauma, pain, or suffering and we feel utterly hopeless and helpless. Moving on is something we know we should do, what we often want to do, and at times what we refuse to do, but it remains something God eagerly wants for us. Wherever you may be on this continuum, I hope you will be able to identify places where you are prone to be stuck, or maybe are stuck, and that you will be infused with the strength of the Holy Spirit to take the next step to getting unstuck.

Kaia Hubbard, “Here Are 10 of the Deadliest Natural Disasters in 2020,” U.S. News & World Report, December 22, 2020, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows /here-are-10-of-the-deadliest-natural-disasters-in-2020?slide=12.

Michelle Stoddart, “Cicada Invasion: After 17 Years Underground, Billions to Emerge This Spring,” ABC News, April 10, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cicada-invasion -17-years-underground-billions-emerge-spring/story?id =76921532.

Frank Jordans and Pan Pylas, “Detentions, Injuries at Anti- Racism Protests Across Europe in Solidarity with US,” Times of Israel, June 7, 2020, https://www.timesofisrael.com/detentions -injuries-at-anti-racism-protests-across-europe-in-solidarity -with-us; Savannah Smith, Jiachuan Wu, and Joe Murphy, “Map: George Floyd Protests Around the World,” NBC News, June 9, 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/map -george-f loyd-protests-countries-worldwide-n1228391.

Hebrews 13:8.

Genesis 19:26.

Luke 17:32.

Jeremy Thompson, ed., Lists of Biblical People, Places, Things, and Events (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2020).

Matthew 26:13.

Genesis 19:26 AMP.

Merriam-Webster, s.v. “longing (n.),” accessed January 19, 2023, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/longing.

Genesis 13:6.

Lauren Martin, “The Science Behind Nostalgia and Why We’re So Obsessed with the Past,” Elite Daily, July 17, 2014, https://www.elitedaily.com/life/science-behind-nostalgia -love-much/673184.

Martin, “Science Behind Nostalgia.”

Stephanie Butler, “Off the Spice Rack: The History of Salt,” History.com, updated August 22, 2018, https://www.history .com/news/off-the-spice-rack-the-story-of-salt.

Matthew 5:13.

Merriam-Webster, s.v. “linger (v.),” accessed January 19, 2023,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/linger.

Excerpted from Don’t Look Back by Christine Caine, copyright Caso Writing LLC.

Memories that we call good are of the past and are indeed wonderful. But being “stuck” in the past, does not allow us to look forward to the incredible future of even this very day that God has planned for us. Let us boldly go where other HAVE gone before us in faith, asking God for grace for each moment to meet what may come our way.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 10, 2023

Notes of Faith June 10, 2023

 Ordinary Mornings, Extraordinary Grace

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*

Live today with eyes wide open.

Mercy and Delight

You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you. — Song of Solomon 4:7 NIV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am experiencing ordinary daily memories with family, realizing that these are the things that bring smiles to my face and joy to my heart. I pray that you can see and truly enjoy the normal daily experiences and remember them over and over again.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 9, 2023

Notes of Faith June 9, 2023

Believe in Your Dream

Your dream may seem crazy, but it’s yours. Believe in it.

You may have dreams of tens of millions, or you may have dreams of ten. No matter what your dream is, believe in it. If you don’t believe, no one else will. My dad is still dreaming of houses and hotels, more wings to the hospital. He never stops dreaming!

It’s crazy how some of his dreams happen. I remember first hearing about the hospital he was hoping to build in Nigeria. He said it would cost over 200 million naira (that’s over half a million dollars). We didn’t have the money. But he kept on dreaming. He brought the entire team of missionaries and showed them the land where the hospital would be built. One of the missionaries actually took a piece of dirt from that land in a small bag (still not sure if that’s legal), brought it back to America, and prayed over it every day.

Eighteen months later, after two nominations for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, a wildly successful charity event, and a few generous donors, the hospital was built. What was once dirt now brings life.

Believe in your dream.

When we were working on building the Austin Harvest food mart on the West Side, we needed to raise half a million dollars. For whatever reason, I believed. Two weeks and seventeen people later, the money was raised.

Miracles happen when you believe.

There’s a story in the Bible of a boy who was demon possessed. Since his childhood this boy hadn’t been right. Until he met Jesus. After a bit of conversation, and the inability of the disciples to help the boy, Jesus met the boy’s dad with a question.

“And He asked [the boy’s] father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!’” The father had heard about Jesus. He knew about His miracles, knew about His power, but there was still a little doubt. Jesus called Him out on it: “‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.”1 I love how direct Jesus’ statement is. There’s no doubt, no confusion in his words and tone.

All things are possible to him who believes.

The story could end there, but it doesn’t.

Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief!’2

I believe this story is an example for us. An example for those who semi-believe, who almost believe. Lord, I do believe, but help my unbelief. A simple yet powerful prayer. Jesus would go on to heal the boy, but I believe the father was also changed forever. Miracles will do that to you. So will believing.

Believe in your dream.

Mark 9:21–23, emphasis added.

Mark 9:24.

Excerpted from Change Starts with You by Sam Acho, copyright Sam Acho.

All too often adults have given up on dreams. As kids they dreamed many a dream and aspired toward the impossible and miraculous. We need to continue to dream dreams, especially the spiritual ones…for the salvation of lost souls, for a spiritual revival for our world, for our own growth toward maturity and being like Jesus! Dreams do come true, according to God’s will. Let’s pray for dreams that matter most!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 8, 2023

Notes of Faith June 8, 2023

Dead. Or Not Dead.

I hate death. I hate it intensely. ~ Ray Ortlund, Tweet, June 2022

The original title of this, the opening chapter of a book on a serious subject was, “Yucky. Not Yucky.” My editor wisely suggested something more grown-up-sounding. I’m good with adult words. However, having raised two daughters all the way from silliness to full maturity, clearly the word yucky was a favorite. The target of this word could have ranged from small sticky place on the kitchen counter to something much more serious. Like mortality.

The opening two chapters in the first book in the Bible paint a pristine picture of all things good. In some cases... very good. But when we arrive at chapter 3, the landscape changes. And everything in this Genesis chapter shows us what bad looks like. In some cases, very bad.

And one of those terrible things that resulted from Adam and Eve’s disobedience was death. Until that moment, nothing or no one died. Then a decree went out that eventually everything would perish:

For you are dust, and you will return to dust. — Genesis 3:19 CSB

Like, which part of this diagnosis don’t we understand?

And the most sobering part of this God-spoken directive is that the word you isn’t just delivered to Adam. The pronoun is plural. Thousands of years later, you and I are included. The people we have loved, the people we love now, and the people we will love tomorrow are in there. And the process of dying begins the moment we suck in our first big swallow of air as tiny newborns. Like an hourglass that’s been flipped over, the sand above begins trickling below through the pinch in the middle. There’s no turning that thing right side up. We’re on a one-way trajectory.

And beyond the Garden of Eden and throughout the Bible and all of recorded history, there’s plenty more that has been written about death.

For example, the man Job, from the depths of his own despair affirmed this to be true.

Anyone born of woman is short of days and full of trouble. He blossoms like a flower, then withers; he flees like a shadow and does not last. — Job 14:1–2 CSB

A flower that “does not last.” A brilliant and descriptive metaphor for death.

Even the most beloved psalm written by David assumes life’s end. He doesn’t open this subject in the Shepherd’s Psalm with “just in case” or “maybe”; rather he begins the death phrase with the conjunction “even though,” like there’s no choice in the matter. Because there isn’t.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley... — Psalm 23:4

So because of the shortsightedness of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, and the consequence, the Bible includes the stories of men and women dying. From these accounts you and I can learn a few important things. Here are some examples.

THE MURDER OF THE BIBLE’S SECOND SON

The verses immediately following the eating of the forbidden fruit tell of the birth of two boys — first Cain, then Abel.

Imagine the joy the parents of these men must have experienced at their births. And like every mother and dad throughout the remainder of recorded history with more than one child, Adam and Eve likely wondered, How is it possible that these boys came from the same parents? They could not be more different from each other.

If you’re the parent of more than one kid, you’ve had this conversation with your mate, right?

Apparently, it was too much of a difference for Cain to bear.

Cain said to his blow-dried, always-do-everything-right brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’ And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. — Genesis 4:8, Robert’s paraphrase

God’s sentence of death directed to Adam’s sinful decision struck first in his own family. It doesn’t matter how long it was before Cain murdered his little brother, the sting must have been awful... for their dad and mom.

Remember that it had been many years since Adam and Eve had disobeyed God. We know this since there had been time for Cain and Abel to be conceived, born, and grow up. And don’t you know that when their mother and father first learned of their son’s murder, their minds must have careened back to God’s declaration of the thing called death. And this, as a result of their own disobedience. Now death was paying a visit to their family. No small thing to be sure.

As you know, the whole idea of this book is that you and I are going to die. Someday we will cross that line. The event will be complete. The finish line will be our death.

It’s a certainty. Or is it?

A QUICK ROUND TRIP

When Jesus walked this earth, there were times when He went nose-to-nose with the Genesis 3 narrative about the sentence of death and literally brought departed people back to life. If this was the first time you’ve ever heard of this, what I just wrote would have sounded incredulous. Even impossible.

But you’ve likely heard there was a Man who lived and had the power to call dead people back. And according to the gospel accounts, Jesus did this three times. Just three times — not counting His own resurrection.

The first such miracle involved the only son of a widow. Take a second and let that sink in. Here was a lone woman who had lost her husband and her only child. Jesus and His disciples were visiting the town of Nain and happened upon a funeral procession. No one needed to tell Jesus about the circumstances. No one showed Him the press clipping that included the obituary. Jesus knew. Scripture says that Jesus saw the mother and had compassion on her and said,

Don’t cry. — Luke 7:13

Jesus approached the bier and did something no self-respecting Rabbi would ever do.1 He touched the corpse and said,

Young man, I say to you, get up! Immediately, the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. — Luke 7:14–15

The biblical account tells us that Jesus left the scene and got on to the next thing on His schedule. But can you imagine what the next few hours must have been like for the young man’s mother? Dead son. Because of Jesus, not dead son.

The second account, found in Mark 5:21–43, is also a familiar one. This story has to do with a man named Jairus, the father of a daughter, which is probably why I’m so attracted to it.

Another reason to love this story is the way Jairus, a decorated Jew, humbly fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading on behalf of his twelve-year-old girl. For priests or Pharisees who may have been there, seeing a holy Israelite on the ground in front of an unschooled teacher like Jesus would have been scandalous. But Jairus didn’t care what anyone thought. This was a nothing-to-lose split second.

Once Jesus arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jairus, He entered the youngster’s room with her mother and father, Peter, James, and John. Given the likelihood of the size of the room, a crowded space, to be sure. And as He had done with the other dead body, Jesus broke protocol and took her hand. The tenderness of this scene overwhelms me. And like the man’s corpse on the cart, the young girl immediately sat up. Dead daughter. Because of Jesus, not dead daughter.

And maybe the most famous Bible story of a dead person coming to life, doesn’t include any touching at all. This time Jesus just spoke, as He had at the very beginning — at creation in Genesis — turning death into life.2

“The prohibition of Kohen defilement to the dead is the commandment to a Jewish priest (kohen) not to come in direct contact with, or be in the same enclosed roofed space as a dead human body” (Wikipedia contributors, “Prohibition of Kohen Defilement by the Dead,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_of _Kohen_defilement_by_the_dead, accessed August 10, 2022).

The Bible on Jesus and creation: John 1:3, 10; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2.

Excerpted from Finish Line by Robert Wolgemuth, copyright Robert Wolgemuth.

Eternal life, a redemption from the curse of sin, is our goal. Thank you Father for sending your Son. Thank you Jesus for giving your life for me, that I might be redeemed, saved, justified, sanctified, glorified, in You! Life is good. Yes, it has some bad circumstances and trouble, but life is so much better than death. And Jesus makes it possible to escape the curse of death by giving us eternal life through believing in Him and His work. What a glorious God, that loves us so much, that He provides a way for us to be close to Him, cleansed from the filth of sin and made holy like Himself. My prayer is that you have come to Jesus in faith and that you can’t wait for everlasting LIFE!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 7, 2023

Notes of Faith June 7, 2023

The Wisdom of Firsts

The First Hour, the First Day, the First Dime

I feel it is far better to begin with God, to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another. ~ E. M. Bounds

My father was the most successful man I ever knew. Unrelated to how I viewed him, his genius in direct-response marketing of individual life and health insurance formed the National Liberty Corporation, with its five companies and subsidiaries. The little business that started at the kitchen table, by the time of his death twenty years later, was the largest mass marketer of individual life and health insurance in the world.

To what did my father attribute his success? Enough people must have asked him that he committed it to paper in a booklet he titled God’s Secret of Success. Since his death, that vest-pocket treatise, long out of print, has played large in lives around the world. If I were to give you its contents right here, you might say: “That’s it?” But if you were to practice the points, to weave them into your life, eventually you’d be amazed that they had ever seemed small.

The First Hour of the Day

Art DeMoss believed the gate to success swung open first thing in the morning, in the day’s uncluttered hour, when he talked with God in prayer and listened to God as he read the Bible. Some people will give this tip a double take. The head of a booming corporation didn’t check in first on morning news? In those days that was the newspaper, but my father didn’t take it. Maybe TV while he got dressed? Nope. No TV set in the DeMoss home. What about the stock market, just a glance? No, again. Because as sure as he brushed his teeth and ate breakfast,

Dad started his day with God.

“It should be our rule never to see the face of men before first seeing the face of God,” said Charles Spurgeon, the great nineteenth-century British preacher. Only a fool would fail to post a guard on the gate of the day. “The morning watch anchors the soul so that it will not very readily drift far away from God during the day,” he wrote. “He who rushes from his bed to his business without first spending time with God is as foolish as though he had not washed or dressed, and as unwise as one dashing to battle without arms or armor.”1

Dad died more than forty years ago, but to this day one of my clearest memories of him is his morning routine. By example he paved the path to my similar habit now, though I admit to less than a full hour each day.

If you’re thinking you could just as easily spend time alone with God in the noon hour, you’re right, you could — unless something else comes up. You could do it in the evening before bed, assuming you still have energy and focus. You could hope to steal a few moments throughout the day. We can all hope for a lot of things. But nothing sets the day like matching our best hour to our deepest and dearest Resource.

Spending our first moments with our Creator is more practical than legalistic. It’s the only time we can truly protect. When that time is hectic with children or work or similar busyness, we can set an alarm a little bit ahead. I’m convinced the person who does this has an advantage over those who don’t.

The First Day of the Week

Besides the first hour of the day, my father gave God the first day of the week. Now that we blur Sunday with Saturday or any other workday, respect for the Sabbath seems, well, extreme, dated, obsolete. And it may be. If hours in the day are no more than measurable productivity units, then one of the world’s richest men is right. “Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient,” Bill Gates says. “There is a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”2

The lengths of the wording of the individual Ten Commandments intrigues me. Most are brief — four to ten words. “You shall not kill.” “You shall not lie,” and so on. Then comes the ninety-four-word instruction to keep the Sabbath day holy. Who can say that God devoted more words to the fourth commandment for emphasis, but who can deny that a day of rest hits reset on our minds, bodies, work, and personal relationships?

Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy was a Sabbath keeper. If you’re a patron of the wildly popular restaurants he founded, you know that come Sunday you get your chicken somewhere else. Come Sunday, every one of the twenty-nine hundred Chick-fil-As in forty-eight states is shut tight, potentially costing the family-owned business more than $3 billion a year. If you’d asked Mr. Cathy why, he’d have turned to the subject of devotion. “Closing our business on the Lord’s Day is our way of honoring God and showing loyalty to Him,” he’d say. “My brother Ben and I closed our first restaurant on the first Sunday after we opened in 1946, and my children have committed to closing our restaurants on Sundays long after I’m gone.”

My Sundays are hardly one sustained act of prayer and meditation, but neither are they a checklist of paying bills, work, emails, or prep for Monday. Sundays tend to be slower and quieter — good days to work on this book, but I didn’t. I try not to travel on Sundays, but when I’m out of town on the first day of the week, regardless of how little sleep I got the night before, I want to be in church and otherwise do as little as possible. In my life, at least, Sunday rest correlates to weekday productivity.

Plenty of people have to work on Sundays. Nurses, pilots, hotel workers, cooks, waiters, public-safety workers, to name a few. Dad wrote, and I write, to those of us who can set the Sabbath aside but don’t. As for what constitutes work on a Sunday, I came across a pretty simple definition: Decide what’s work for you, and don’t do it.

“Hurry,” said philosopher Dallas Willard, “is the great enemy of spiritual life.”3 God Himself offers promises for those who honor “His Day”:

If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, if you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God’s holy day as a celebration, if you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there—then you’ll be free to enjoy God! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob. Yes! God says so! — Isaiah 58:13–14 The Message

The First Dime of Every Dollar

Now for the success secret so personal and so often misapplied that some of my readers may consider it in poor taste to bring up: My father gave the first part of every dollar to God. The concept, also known as tithing, was not invented by modern televangelists. It is at least as old as the early Old Testament. Jesus endorsed it as an act of love, and certainly a gift of our resources is a regular and potent reminder of the Source of all we have.

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops, King Solomon advised. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. — Proverbs 3:9–10 NIV

For whatever reason, even most churchgoers overlook or outright avoid this wise principle. Evangelical giving these days averages 3.2 percent of their income — less than the percentage in 1933, during the Great Depression. Last year one in five churchgoers gave nothing at all. And then there’s John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil founder who died in 1937 having given away today’s equivalent of ten billion dollars. Of course, you say, Rockefeller was one of the richest men of all time. But his giving started when every penny counted:

I had to begin work as a small boy to support my mother. My first wages amounted to $1.50 per week. The first week after I went to work, I took the $1.50 home to my mother. She held it in her lap and explained to me that she would be happy if I would give a tenth of it to the Lord. I did, and from that week until this day, I have tithed every dollar God has entrusted to me. And I want to say that if I had not tithed the first dollar I made, I would not have tithed the first million dollars I made.4

There’s George Jenkins — “Mr. George” to Publix Supermarket employees — who lived from 1907 to 1996. The employee-owned, privately held corporation he founded currently sells $48 billion in its thirteen hundred stores. In his final interview, a reporter asked him what he thought he’d be worth if he hadn’t given so much away. Mr. George said, “Probably nothing.”5

No giver can outgive God.

We’re told to bring our tithes into the storehouse, followed by,

‘Test Me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it’. — Malachi 3:10 NIV

It’s true we don’t “give to get.” It’s also true that God says He will give when we do.

My father’s respect for giving sailed well beyond his days. In his will he directed the vast majority of his assets and holdings to a charitable foundation dedicated to telling others the good news of God’s love, a decision I never questioned or resented.

In his little booklet, God’s Secret of Success, Dad urges us to put God first in our habits and first in our homes. Success is a byproduct of first things getting top priority, he says over and over, a truth you can’t know until you try.

So try it. First for a morning, then every morning for a week, and every week for a year. Observe the Sabbath. Give the first of everything you receive and everything you are. See if you don’t also have the secret of success.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Psalm 119:147, The Treasury of David (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1884–86). 199

Bill Gates, TIME magazine, January 13, 1997.

Recounted in John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2015).

Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D . Rockefeller Sr . (New York: Vintage Books, 2004).

George Jenkins, “Lessons from Our Founder: Give Back,” Publix.

Excerpted from The Little Red Book of Wisdom by Mark DeMoss, copyright Mark DeMoss.

Puttimg God first in everything is difficult unless you have matured in your faith to an eternal perspective. But as in the life example above, teaching children to tithe, to pray, to live every day and moment for God begins with firsts. Let us endeavor to put God first in everything!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 6, 2023

Notes of Faith June 6, 2023

When You Jump into a Pit

Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.

Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. — Psalm 19:13

You can jump in. Before you take the plunge into that pit, you can be well aware that what you’re about to do is wrong, probably even foolish. But the escalating desire to do it exceeds the good sense not to. You had time to think, and then you did exactly what you meant to do even if the pit turned out to be deeper and the consequences higher than you hoped.

You, like me, probably do what you do because you want to. You like the trip. You don’t necessarily like the cost but, like all vacations, a great trip can be worth the expense.

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. — Job 33:29–30

Personal Application

Each of us will ultimately do what we want to do. Christ asks, “What do you want, Child?” How will you answer that question?

Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and He has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem. — Ezra 9:9

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Motive is huge to God. And so is character. Primarily His character, which we are created to emulate.

Dangerous Territory

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. — Galatians 6:7–9

The problem with us pit-jumpers is that we don’t want to hear God’s warnings when we get close to a pit. We want what we want. So we stick our fingers in our ears before we jump. This is by far the most dangerous and supremely consequential way to get in a pit. Motive is huge to God. And so is character. Primarily His character, which we are created to emulate. And He will not be mocked. The very segment of Scripture where we’re told God won’t be mocked is strategically centered in the context of reaping what we sow (see Galatians 6:7–9). God looks intently not only at what we’ve done and how, but also why we did it.

Reflection Question

Why is “jumping in” the most dangerous and supremely consequential method of getting into a pit?

Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right. — Isaiah 1:16–17

Personal Application

The psalmist said,

I delight to do Your will, my God; Your Law is within my heart.

— Psalm 40:8 NASB

On a continuum between “not at all” to “yes, I’m there,” how true is this for you today?

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.

— 1 Peter 1:14–15

Excerpted from Get Out of That Pit: A 40-Day Devotional Journal by Beth Moore, copyright Beth Moore.

Rom 7:15-20

For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

NASU

We are indeed in bondage to sin! Even the apostle Paul struggled with the battle between his old nature and the new creation nature given him by God … every day! We must use the Word of God through memory and the Holy Spirit in this battle or we are sure to jump into the pit. Wash your heart and mind clean through the water of the Word and stay far away from the pit of sin. We all need to follow Jesus in His walk on earth, tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Though we will sometimes get dirty from the pit, we must endeavor to please God by following Jesus.

Pastor Dale