Notes of Faith July 4, 2023

Notes of Faith July 4, 2023

 Just my humble opinion, but many of our youth today do not realize the true meaning of the 4th of July.  It is, after all, our Independence Day.   Holidays are always fun and a great time to get together with family and friends, but freedom isn’t free, and never will be.  Men and women of America have laid down their lives so we could enjoy living in the greatest nation on earth.

I hope you’ll pause, give thanks, and remember those who died before us, and are still dying today, to preserve these United States of America.  Below are some thoughts from our founding fathers and others.  I hope you enjoy.

George Washington, 1st U.S. President

“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” 

– The Writings of Washington, pp. 342-343.

John Adams, 2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God … What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”

– Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President, Drafter and Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event.”

– Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.

John Hancock, 1st Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.”

– History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229.

Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution

“Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; But I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive, that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure.” 

– Benjamin Franklin wrote this in a letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University on March 9, 1790.

Other Independence Day Quotes

“The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation.” ~Woodrow Wilson

“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.” ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” ~Thomas Paine

“Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.” ~Albert Camus

“If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.” ~Hamilton Fish

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” ~Elmer Davis

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” ~Erma Bombeck

“Let freedom never perish in your hands.” ~Joseph Addison

“Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.” ~Harry Emerson Fosdick

“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

“This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith.” ~Lyndon B. Johnson

“For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.” ~Louis D. Brandeis

“It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.” ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to M. Grundler

“Liberty is the breath of life to nations.” ~George Bernard Shaw

“America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact – the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.” ~Adlai Stevenson

“We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.” ~Robert J. McCracken

I do pray that you enjoy this day of celebration.  Some of you may have to work on this day, while others get up late, rest and relax until it is time to enjoy fireworks displays.  Whatever your circumstance, keep your focus on God, who offers eternal liberty through the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Worship Him today and be blessed in the freedoms that we celebrate today in the U.S.A.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 3, 2023 Part 2

Notes of Faith July 3, 2023 Part 2

Just a note from Amir Tsarfati that I mentioned on Sunday, a true man of God!

One of the biggest problems of the church today, for the most part, is the lack of the Holy Spirit. I will be honest with you, when I hear on certain platforms either apathy or actual encouragement to choose a political platform and social platform, financial platform, and mostly religious spiritual platform, that is so anti-God. And to encourage that, there has to be a lack of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit upon you and in you and through you can never ever contradict the Spirit of God. This is the Spirit of God. And so the people here did not have the Holy Spirit. That was obvious. But the one that had it could not stand what he was seeing and hearing.

That’s us today. If you’re apathetic to what is going on in the world and you are indifferent to the horrific reality that we have both in America and Europe and other parts of the world, something is wrong. And, so, here David is not willing to take that and he’s willing to actually go and fight – of all the people of Israel. And, remember, Saul always gathered the most brave and the strongest people in the nation. He did not come here with a bunch of wimps. He came here with brave soldiers, and none of them was willing to fight Goliath. None of them had the courage and the guts to do anything. And David, a little boy who just left his sheep and goats and ran for about 20 miles and came all the way and was so happy, was ridiculed by his brothers that he's prideful and arrogant. See, they told him.

I can tell you one thing, you will always be accused by the world for doing the wrong things. They will always tell you that you are the wrong person. That you are the radical, that you are the arrogant, that you are the revolutionist, that you are the problem of the world. David is coming and he’s the only one who is willing to fight Goliath. Yet he is the one at which the brothers of David show their anger, not Goliath. They’re afraid of Goliath, which they shouldn’t be, and they are angry with David. The people of the world today are afraid of evil and afraid of all the evil manifestations. Yet who do they accuse and who are they against? The people of God.

Amir Tsarfati: Stand Like David

There are two biblical stories with which most people are familiar, including those who have never read the Bible. Those stories are David and Goliath and Daniel in the lions’ den. Both are remarkable stories of men who had faith in the true and living God and trusted Him completely in the face of great adversity. For David, they know about Goliath. For Daniel, they know about the lions.

These two great men also shared another thing within their distinct experiences:

1 Samuel 17:28

Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”

Daniel 6:3-5

Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”

The old adage “some things never change” is appropriate here as we note that David, a man after God’s own heart, was insulted and verbally attacked by his own family. Daniel, a faithful man without error or fault as it pertained to his job, was attacked and falsely accused by his coworkers. These things are often a part of a believers’ life experience today. Some things never change.

We live in a time when the world sees Christians as the problem. Some of these people may be in our own families, and certainly many are coworkers or fellow students.

Luke 21:16-19

“You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience possess your souls.”

The word “hated” means “to detest”, and the world today detests those who hold Biblical truths as facts. When we stand on God’s word and continue in it, the world sees us as the problem. God, however, sees us as the faithful. David was in the right and his own brother verbally attacked him. Daniel was in the right and he wound up in the lions’ den.

What we need to remember from this is that thousands of years later, people in the world today, many of whom have never read the Bible, still know about David and Daniel. Who they don’t know about is Eliab or the governors and satraps (a satrap was a provincial governor). In these two famous accounts, the world remembers the faithful, not their adversaries.

Proverbs 24:10

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

David didn’t faint when he saw Goliath, and Daniel didn’t faint when he knew his coworkers had it out for him. We live in a time of adversity today where all manner of evil is spoken against us falsely. But we must not faint or lose heart. We need to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

Romans 8:11

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Remember, David and Daniel were just men. It was their faith in God that made them mighty. If you want to leave your mark in this world, let it be that you were found faithful even in the face of adversity. The ability to do so is already in you. For the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in every born again Christian giving them the power to face adversity in the strength of the Lord.

Those who have done so in the ancient past are still known presently in our day. Let our names be found among them in the future.

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,

Notes of Faith July 3, 2023

Notes of Faith July 3, 2023

Liberty

The Liberty Bell Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me… to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. — Luke 4:18 NKJV

The Liberty Bell, one of the most familiar and beloved symbols of American independence and freedom, is now housed in the Liberty Bell Center in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historic Park. Visitors can view the famous crack running up the face of the bell and perhaps make out the words from Leviticus 25:10 inscribed at its crown:

Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.

It is certain that bells rang out joyously at the first reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776 (not July 4), and many historians believe that the Liberty Bell was among them. In the years since the Revolution, the bell has been claimed as a symbol by those seeking to end slavery and win the right to vote for women. In the late 1800s, the bell traveled throughout the country and was displayed at fairs and public gatherings in both small towns and great cities. The nation, still healing from the deep wounds of the Civil War, needed a unifying symbol to remind Americans of their common heritage.

Jesus has set me free.

The apostle Paul once wrote,

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free… Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1

He was specifically writing about those who would impose all sorts of religious rules and human traditions on believers. But these words could also apply to personal habits and attitudes that we allow to enslave us, weigh us down, and steal our joy. If Jesus intended to set us free by His sacrifice for us on Calvary, what are those things that tie us up, that trip our feet and weigh on our hearts? Is it a habit? An addiction? A cynical heart? A hardened attitude? An unwillingness to forgive? An old prejudice? Jesus died for our freedom. If we allow anything to restrict us or shackle us to a sad, mediocre life, then we are missing His great gift, paid for at such a high price.

Dear God, show me those areas in my life where I’m still acting like a captive — even though You have set me completely free in Christ.

If I’m a captive, it’s by my own choice. Jesus has set me free.

Excerpted from Seeing God in America by Larry Libby, copyright Thomas Nelson.

John 8:31-32

"If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

We must know and live in obedience to the Word of God in order for it to make us free. Make sure that you are reading, studying, meditating on the Word of God every day!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 2, 2023

Notes of Faith July 2, 2023

The Old Rugged Cross

So I’ll cherish

the old rugged Cross,

Till my trophies at

last I lay down;

I will cling

to the old rugged Cross,

And exchange it some day

for a crown.

George Bennard was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1873, less than forty-five minutes from my own hometown of Alliance. He also happened to be the writer of one of my all-time favorite hymns, “The Old Rugged Cross.” It is arguably the most beloved hymn of all time.

After coming to Christ during a Salvation Army meeting, Bennard and his wife became active in the Methodist Church. It is said that he wrote “The Old Rugged Cross” in response to some ridicule he had received. The source or topic of the ridicule isn’t clear, but his response is found in the lyrics of the hymn. His answer was to cling to the cross. He is reported to have said that, for him, “Christ and the Cross were inseparable.”

Perhaps it is best that we do not know the specific reason Bennard was ridiculed. Who among us has not faced criticism or torment of some kind? We can relate to his situation without knowing the details — maybe even more so because we do not know the details. We can then apply his answer to anything we encounter.

The answer is always to cling to the Cross.

Have you ever been mocked for your faith? Cling to the Cross.

Have you ever been misunderstood? Cling to the Cross.

Have you endured hardship and heartache? Cling, sweet friend, to the Cross.

Don’t be afraid to bear its shame and reproach because, one day, you’ll exchange it for a crown.

Lord, help me to always be true to the Cross.

Excerpted from 100 Favorite Hymns by Stacy Edwards, copyright Thomas Nelson.

I have several of these books that have written stories of hymns of the faith. It is wonderful to find out the why and how these great songs of worship were written. The truth from Scripture inspires us to make a joyful noise to the Lord during the most turbulent times. I pray that we never stop singing any song that encourages faith, hope and love. May Jesus Christ be praised!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith July 1, 2023

Notes of Faith July 1, 2023

Article by David Mathis

Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

We felt safe with Seth.

I was 16 years old, in tenth grade — right in the middle of those promising and perilous teenage years — when he came to our church as the new youth minister. I was surrounded by the pressures and confusion of adolescence, and yet Seth Buckley brought a clarifying, stabilizing presence. He embodied mature Christian manhood, with both strength and gentleness.

None could question his physical strength. He had played linebacker at Alabama, and he could squat and bench far more than any of us high-school athletes. Yet he played the guitar and sang solos. And his tender heart for Jesus, and teenagers, came through, often with tears, in heartfelt rehearsals of the gospel every Wednesday night.

The reason we felt safe with Seth wasn’t because he was weak. He emphatically was not. He was strong — both physically and emotionally. And he was gentle. That is, he knew how to use his strength to life-giving ends. To the gift of his strength, he had added the virtue of gentleness.

Neither effeminate nor brutish, neither soft nor violent, Seth modeled for us teenaged men-in-training the kind of men we wanted to be deep down — the kind of men the gospel produces over time. In this way, knowing Seth helps me imagine what it may have been like to know King David.

Expert in War

We might remember David as “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1) and forget he was first a fearless, strong, and skilled man of war. But a striking scene at the end of his life gives a fuller picture of David than the simple singer-songwriter. When David’s son Absalom rebels against his father, marches on Jerusalem, and sends David momentarily retreating, David’s friend Hushai plays loyal to Absalom in order to defeat the rebel counsel. As he makes his case (which carries the day), he characterizes David, in terms that all agreed with:

You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and that they are enraged, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war. (2 Samuel 17:8)

Not just his men, but David himself is mighty — and expert in war. And this wasn’t new. When we first meet David (even before Goliath), he is introduced as “a man of valor, a man of war”:

Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him. (1 Samuel 16:18)

In the following chapter, the Goliath account, we learn that David has already killed lions and bears (1 Samuel 17:34–36). He has the courage to face the giant, and the skill to conquer him. And though still a youth, David is strong enough to take Goliath’s massive sword, draw it from its sheath, and take off the giant’s head (1 Samuel 17:51). Soon the imposing Saul, who stood head and shoulders above the rest, would hear his people singing of David’s strength: “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7).

What Made Him Great?

Psalm 18, which David wrote in praise of God’s lifelong deliverance, celebrates the physical strength and ability that God had given and honed in his anointed. David “can run against a troop” and “leap over a wall” (Psalm 18:29); he says that God “equipped me with strength” (Psalm 18:39) and “made my feet like the feet of a deer” (Psalm 18:33). God “trains my hands for war,” making his arms strong enough to “bend a bow of bronze” (Psalm 18:34). And yet, right here, in mention after mention of his human strength, David celebrates the surpassing quality of gentleness. Strength and skill may have made him a good warrior and king, but “Your gentleness,” he says to God, “made me great” (Psalm 18:35).

“Both strong and gentle, David knows when to wield his strength and when to walk in gentleness.”

Strength, valor, and experience made David “expert in war,” but it was God’s own gentleness (which David learned firsthand) that made David great. Not only had the omnipotent God been gentle with his Anointed, in his finitude and many failings, but God’s gentleness had come to characterize David’s own leadership. As Derek Kidner comments, “While it was the gentleness God exercised that allowed David his success, it was the gentleness God taught him that was his true greatness” (Psalms, 95).

Where do we see this greatness? When did David add the surpassing virtue of gentleness to the valuable ability of his strength? Psalm 18 appears in 2 Samuel 22 at the culmination of the book, and two key mentions of David’s gentleness earlier in the story set up this climactic line and lesson.

Gentle with an Enemy

After the death of Saul, David’s commander, Joab, avenges the personal loss of his own brother. Saul’s commander, Abner, had struck down Joab’s brother, Asahel, after he had pursued Abner after battle. Abner had warned him to turn aside, and Asahel would not, and Abner struck him in the stomach. “A long war between the house of Saul and the house of David” followed, with David growing “stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker” (2 Samuel 3:1).

In time, Abner sought peace with David and delivered the rest of the kingdom to David. They feasted together, and David sent Abner away in peace. But Joab then drew Abner aside (under the pretense of peace) “to speak with him privately, and there he struck him in the stomach, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother” (2 Samuel 3:27). The contrast between David and Joab is stark and pronounced. Both can be fearsome in battle. Both are strong, brave, and experts of war. But Joab, while an asset in war, is a liability in peace.

Joab’s unrighteous killing of Abner threatens the consolidation of the nation under David’s rule. So, David publicly mourns the death of Abner so that “all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king’s will to put to death Abner” (2 Samuel 3:37). David speaks to his servants to make clear his differences from Joab, the son of Zeruiah:

Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? And I was gentle today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are more severe than I. The Lord repay the evildoer according to his wickedness! (2 Samuel 3:38–39)

Gentle with a Traitor

Second, near the end of David’s reign, when Absalom has rebelled against him, David sends Joab and the army out against Absalom, but with specific instructions. In keeping with his pattern of exercising strength, and adding to it the virtue of gentleness, David orders Joab, in the presence of many witnesses, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom” (2 Samuel 18:5).

Some commentators see weakness and indiscretion in David at this point; others see the gentleness that made him great. Peter Leithart comments,

These instructions were consistent with David’s treatment of all his enemies; he had treated Saul well, and just recently he had restrained Abishai from cutting down Shimei. He knew what Joab was capable of, and he wanted all his men to know that he treated enemies with kindness and compassion. David’s behavior again provided an Old Testament illustration of Jesus’s teaching about loving enemies. (A Son to Me, 278)

Joab, of course, defies David’s will and kills Absalom, again accenting the difference between the two men. Both are strong, but only one is great — and that through his gentleness.

Joab is the one-dimensional man of war — strong, tenacious, courageous in battle, a hero in combat. Yet his manhood is immature and incomplete. A liability at home and in peacetime, Joab is unable to cushion his strength and control his tenacity.

David, on the other hand, in masculine maturity, has learned gentleness and can thrive in all contexts. His abilities are multidimensional. He can lead a nation, not only an army. Both strong and gentle, he knows when to wield his strength and when, with admirable restraint, to walk in gentleness.

High and Exalted, Gentle and Lowly

In showing teenaged boys the strength and gentleness of mature masculinity, Seth showed us far more than the greatness of King David. While Psalm 18 gives tribute to God’s work in and through David, there is much in the psalm, writes John Calvin, that “agrees better with Christ” than with David.

“Gentleness is not the absence of strength but the addition of virtue.”

When the apostle John, on the isle of Patmos, caught his glimpses of the glory of Christ, he witnessed the paragon of mature masculinity, complete in power and grace. In Jesus, he saw not only man but “the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). “His voice was like the roar of many waters,” and his face “like the sun shining in full strength” (Revelation 1:15–16). Later John would see this Lion of a man, sitting on a white horse, as the one who “judges and makes war” (Revelation 19:11).

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. (Revelation 19:15)

Yet when the apostle looked between the angels and the throne of heaven, he “saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). A lamb-like Lion, and lion-like Lamb, awe-inspiring in his majestic strength, and yet seen to be truly great as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people.

Jesus’s gentleness cushions the application of his great power as he marshals it in the service of his weak people. Do not mistake his gentleness for weakness. Gentle is not code for weak. Gentleness is not the absence of strength but the addition of virtue to strength — in men like Seth, King David, and most admirably of all, the Son of God himself.

God is indeed all powerful and yet He is gentle and compassionate and caring as a nursing mother. Jesus exudes all of the character of God. Let us continue to pursue His likeness, to be strong when needed, to be gentle as well, proving to be true followers and believers in Christ!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 30, 2023

Notes of Faith June 30, 2023

Guilt

There is unspeakable joy… for the person who knows release from guilt and the release of forgiveness. ~ Stuart Briscoe

Guilt says, “You failed.” Shame says, “You’re a failure.” Grace says, “Your failures are forgiven.” ~ Lecrae

When I was ten years old and in the fifth grade, there was a boy in my class whose mother committed suicide. It was a horrible experience for a little boy to find his mother in the garage with the car idling and a hose running from the exhaust pipe to the driver’s side window.

As a ten-year-old it was hard for me to even imagine what it would be like for your mother to take her own life. Max returned to school about a week later. I remember wondering how he would act around the rest of us. I can remember being on the playground, and I noticed he was laughing with the other kids and having a good time. I thought he should be acting sad, so with the immaturity of a ten-year-old boy, I said a very cruel and hurtful thing to him: “You don’t even care that your mother is dead!” He immediately burst into tears and ran inside the building. I then felt horrible as I realized I had hurt his feelings.

A few minutes later I was called to the principal’s office. Both the principal and my teacher let me know that what I had said to this boy was a horrible thing to say. But they didn’t need to worry because I already felt the guilt for what I had said.

I think that is my earliest recollection of struggling with feelings of guilt. But like most people I have had a lot of things throughout the years that I regret or feel guilt over.

When I worked late at night, I felt guilty because I wasn’t at home with the kids. When I was at home, I felt guilty because I wasn’t at work. I felt guilty because I wasn’t a better husband. I felt guilty because I wasn’t a better son. When I was on the treadmill and listening to a novel, I felt guilty because I wasn’t listening to a leadership book. When we would take a family vacation, I felt guilty for spending the money. I felt guilty that I had clothes in my closet I hadn’t worn in a while. I did all the things a pastor should do but I never thought I prayed enough or read my Bible enough. I never felt like I made enough phone calls or visited enough people in the hospital. I felt guilty that I couldn’t be in two places at the same time. I felt guilty when I worked and I felt guilty when I relaxed.

I pretty much felt guilty about everything.

Feelings of guilt often come because you don’t think you measure up to your own high standards or because you did something you think you shouldn’t have done or failed to do something you think you should have done. It’s a feeling of shame or regret because of bad conduct or, more often, perceived bad conduct. And you keep yourself in that state of guilt because you think you need to pay for what you did or didn’t do.

“I feel bad for not doing that.”

“I feel horrible for letting her down.”

“I feel like it’s my fault.”

“I’m mad at myself for not…”

If you say things like this, you are probably struggling with guilt.

Through the years my wife has confronted me on several occasions and said, “Steve, you are driven by feelings of guilt, and it’s not healthy.” Which is why I’ve always related to David when he wrote in Psalms,

My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. — Psalm 38:4-6 NIV

And yet while I continue to struggle at times with feelings of guilt, I no longer feel like I’m driven by my guilt. It’s no longer habitual because I’ve taken positive steps to let go of it.

I found this startling research published in the Harvard Business Review: “People who are prone to guilt tend to work harder and perform better than people who are not guilt-prone, and are perceived to be more capable leaders.”1

Does that mean that guilt is a good thing? You do need some guilt. If you have never experienced guilt, it could be a sign you are a sociopath or have narcissistic personality disorder, making you one of those rare people who are incapable of feeling guilt or regret.

There are actually two types of guilt. There is the healthy kind that comes from the Holy Spirit. It is intended to lead us to repentance and a return to God’s plan for our life. Once we respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that guilt is gone and replaced by God’s peace and joy.

The other type of guilt is often called false guilt. That’s when you have feelings of guilt even though you haven’t done anything wrong. Or maybe you did do something wrong but have already fixed it and asked God to forgive you — and yet you still feel guilty.

False guilt can affect any area of your life and keep you trapped in an unhealthy place if you don’t do something about it.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. — 1 Peter 5:7

Maybe a friend is having marriage problems and they ask if you will come over and talk with them in the morning. But you have to work, so you apologize and ask if there is another time you can get together. They get angry and tell you to forget it, and a week later you hear they split up. Now you are struggling with these feelings of guilt, even though you didn’t do anything wrong!

People driven by false guilt feel they have to do everything perfectly so they don’t disappoint others. I’ve heard it said that if false guilt were a chariot, then fear of disapproval from others is the whip upon the back of the horses pulling it. That fear can cause you to picture the worst possible scenario to your problem. It will consume your thoughts and cause you to judge yourself inaccurately and too harshly.

False guilt can also be caused by the feeling that you are responsible to save everyone that crosses your path or asks for help. Psychologists often refer to this as a savior complex. You might sacrifice your own personal needs or overextend yourself to help others because you think you are the only one who can do it.

There can be many other reasons for your false guilt, but the most likely reason is that the devil is accusing you. Revelation talks about how Satan was a fallen angel and thrown out of Heaven.

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

The devil is a spirit and therefore has the ability to plant thoughts in your head (1 Timothy 4:1). We call it spiritual warfare because Satan always has a one-two punch. He first hits you with a temptation and then quickly hits you a second time with an accusation. Let’s say he tempts you to cheat on your taxes. You dodge the first swing by resisting the temptation. But Satan then throws his second punch by whispering in your ear, “You are a terrible Christian to have thoughts of cheating on your taxes!” If you believe his lies, the guilt will eat away at you. Jesus said the devil is a liar and the father of lies.

Satan doesn’t want you to experience God’s peace; he wants you to live under the weight of guilt.

This type of guilt is self-destructive and abusive. It will do harm to your relationship with God, with others, and with yourself. It puts a heavy burden on your back, a burden you were never intended to shoulder. Which is why Peter said,

Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. — 1 Peter 5:7

Compare the misery from false guilt to the beneficial nature of healthy guilt, or what is often referred to as godly sorrow. It’s that sense of sadness you experience as a result of the sins you have committed. Paul explains it best:

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

— 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 NIV

In the 2 Corinthians passage we just looked at, Paul said godly sorrow leaves you with no regret. But on the other hand, false guilt leaves you with lots of regrets. Guilt and regret are two words that get tossed together a lot. They are like two brothers; they are from the same family and spend a lot of time together, but they are not the same person. In the same way guilt and regret are not exactly the same either, but it’s hard to have one without the other.

And these two emotions can cause us to go down the path of “if only.”

If only I had kept my mouth shut.

If only I hadn’t dropped out of college.

If only I had gone with them.

“‘If only’ can crush hopes, steal peace, prevent forgiveness, and trap us in negative patterns of behavior. Regret is the second most frequently mentioned emotion after love.”2 Needless to say, it plays a big part in our lives.

Some people actually get so overwhelmed with guilt or regret they become physically ill, while others become so overwhelmed they take their own life. I’ve seen Christians walk away from their faith because they can’t handle the guilt from a mistake or wrong choice they’ve made. Guilt is hard to live with.

This is what regret or guilt does: it consumes you. While the weight of it will pull you down emotionally, the disappointments will disillusion you.

If you are tired of feeling guilty all the time, why not make a decision to do something about it? Guilt is never a pleasant emotion. However, it’s an emotion you can work through successfully and then, over time, eradicate from your life.

Francis J. Flynn, “Defend Your Research: Guilt-Ridden People Make Great Leaders,” Harvard Business Review January–February 2011, https://hbr.org/2011/01/defend-your-research-guilt-ridden -people-make-great-leaders/ar/1.

Jessica Van Roekel, “10 Ways to Overcome Your ‘If-Only’ Regrets,” iBelieve.com, https://www.ibelieve.com/faith/10-ways -to-overcome-your-if-only-regrets.html.

Excerpted from Creatures of Habit by Steve Poe, copyright Steve Poe.

I am guilty! But God, through the love, obedience, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, paid my debt of guilt and offers the freedom of forgiveness through believing in Him. I’m free! I’m free! I’m truly free!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 29, 2023

Notes of Faith June 29, 2023

Fully Human: Jesus Joined Us on the Floor

The Savior assumed a body for Himself, in order that the body, being interwoven as it were with life, should no longer remain a mortal thing… He put on a body, so that in the body he might find death and blot it out. ~ Athanasius, On the Incarnation

Only the suffering God can help.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

The year I got sick, I was a resident assistant tasked with emotionally and spiritually supporting a group of nearly thirty college women. I spent hours each day in the library writing papers, the day punctuated by meals and coffee dates with women from my dorm. After copious amounts of tea sipped between fervid research binges, I would walk across the dark, quiet campus to my hall, where I would stay up even later attending to the tears of peers getting over breakups or venting anger about their roommates.1

Suffering has an inelegant way of reversing relationships, and where I was used to being the comforter, I suddenly found myself learning the harder role of recipient. Out of nowhere the majority of my life consisted of crying tears of my own within the confines of four cinderblock walls, too sick on most days to even get out of bed. The body that had effortlessly carried me through the winding, steep paths of my mountainous college campus could now barely hold itself up in bed. The limbs that climbed limestone cliffs between classes now struggled to walk fourteen steps to the bathroom.

At night I often couldn’t sleep because of pain, and after hours of no relief, I’d cry from the excruciation. One suitemate in particular would often find me awake in the middle of the night, weeping on the floor of our shared study room. Instead of turning the other way or quipping about how early she had to get up for an exam, Katie would join me on the floor, massaging my aching hands as I sobbed into her chest.

In the first half of my college experience, I had started to better learn the Gospel story, where weakness is welcome and hurt is held. But I didn’t know it yet in my limbs and ache and shame. I had to learn that on the floor, where Katie came to find me, willingly holding my weak body in her embrace. When I went to college, I signed up for an education of books and lectures. I didn’t realize the education I would need for the rest of my life was the nearness of Christ and His body to the indignity, brokenness, and shame in my own.

This is grace: God joined us on the floor of this earth.

Grace is solidarity instead of scrutiny. This is the power that sustains us when suffering lingers.

God took on the human condition you and I so struggle to bear so we could be enfolded in His love.

Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. — 1 John 4:10

Many of us are confused about the purpose of Christ’s coming and the heart of our hope, often without realizing it, and the confusion amplifies our pain when suffering lingers. The very persistence of suffering might not fit with the hope we thought we had or the Jesus we thought we were serving.

We’ll keep looking in the wrong places for grace in our suffering if we don’t reexamine and rearticulate the substance of our hope and the message of our Lord.

God did not stay far from our pain. He did not judge it from a distance. He did not pity it from the other side of the universe. He became it.

Jesus said His Father’s purpose in sending Him to earth was for Him to bring the Kingdom of God near to us (Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43). But our churches often collapse His message and our hope into salvation from sin. Many unintentionally reduce the Gospel to a disembodied cure and moment of transformation, neglecting to give us the scaffolding of story and solidity of physical experience needed to build a life on God’s promises. Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost,” (Luke 19:10) and He seeks and saves us into a new reality of experiencing His presence, memory, and story. We are saved not only from sin. We are saved to join and enjoy a Kingdom where Christ reigns in love, is restoring all that has been broken by the curse of sin, and is personally present in and among us.2

In His coming, Jesus brought the Kingdom of God near to us, so near that His Spirit now lives in us, comforting us and filling us with a presence that brings life. The Kingdom of God is both our hope and the grace that carries us toward hope’s fulfillment. It is a reality we take part in now, even as we continue to feel the heavy weight of brokenness.3 Right now “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19 ESV). But the Father “has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.”

(Colossians 1:13)

The future of God’s good reign has already been set in motion with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the gift of His Spirit. Salvation is already here, but its fullness awaits Christ’s second coming. The wholeness of our salvation is a guaranteed reality that sculpts our present existence. As New Testament scholar Gordon Fee writes, our present is shaped by “the singular reality that God’s people belong to the future that has already come present. Marked by Christ’s death and resurrection and identified as God’s people by the gift of the Spirit, they live the life of the future in the present, determined by its values and perspective, no matter what their present circumstances.”4

Christ has brought His Kingdom near, and He will extend its fullness when He returns. The timing of His return is beyond our understanding,5 but we wait now with a patience powered by the Spirit’s presence and an eagerness to experience Christ’s life even in the midst of death.

Rather than pining after some distant day when we will make it to Heaven, we base our hope on the reality that Jesus is creating a new earth where those who are united to Him will live, play, sing, and love with redeemed physical bodies in a redeemed physical world as a redeemed people united in worship and radiant in diversity.

Our hope is not in being beamed up to Heaven upon death with suddenly perfected bodies. Our hope is informed and colored by John’s vision in Revelation 21: the New Jerusalem comes down from Heaven. Hope in suffering is never for a disembodied day when we can finally escape the bodies, relationships, and circumstances that have caused us so much pain. Biblical hope is expressed not in certainty but in curiosity, hearts that acknowledge and accept Jesus is already King, lives that look for the restoration of His rule right here, people propelled by a willingness to see Jesus turn every inch of Creation from cursed to cured. The relationships that were broken will be made right; our relationship to our bodies, each other, the earth, and God will be fully and finally restored.

The Kingdom is already and not yet; living in its tension rather than panicking for release is the only way to be pulled into the trajectory of hope.

A version of this story first appeared in Fathom. K.J. Ramsey, “The Education I Never Signed Up For,” Fathom (September 11, 2018), www.fathommag.com/stories/ the-education-i-never-signed-up-for.

I first heard this concept of “saved from” versus “saved to” in an undergraduate doctrine course at Covenant College with Dr. Kelly Kapic.

As citizens of the kingdom of God, we experience two conflicting realities. As theologian and pastoral counselor Eric Johnson writes, “Humanity is unknowingly under the degrading and enslaving influence of Satan (1 John 5:19), along with the ‘powers and principalities’ (Eph. 6:12), and the earth is now the site of a spiritual battle going on between Satan and his forces and God and his, ultimately limited by God’s power and plan.” If we fail to remember this, the bitterness of death will unnecessarily overpower the flavor of life Christ continuously offers us. Eric L. Johnson, God and Soul Care: The Therapeutic Resources of the Christian Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017), 132.

Gordon D. Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 50–51, emphasis added.

Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32.

Excerpted from This Too Shall Last by K. J. Ramsey, copyright Katie Jo Ramsey.

My hope is expressed in certainty that the reason for Jesus coming to earth was to redeem me for Himself. The sufferings of this world are caused by sin. Sin will not exist in the New Jerusalem of the future. Yes, I will have a perfected body and will suffer no more. In taking on a human body, Jesus suffered as we do, emotionally, physically, and even spiritually…speaking to the Father, “why have You forsaken Me.” Our suffering though caused by sin’s existence is tempered by the very presence of God and His love, care, provision, and desire to redeem us from not only the suffering and evil that is in this world, but from its very presence. Be confident that Jesus provides for you a hope that is sure, your perfect salvation, redemption and glorification!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 28, 2023

Notes of Faith June 28, 2023

The Relief of Letting Go

If you love anything at all in this world more than God, you will crush that object under the weight of your expectations, and it will eventually break your heart. ~ Timothy Keller, prayer

For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of being a mother. I pictured a house full of children, family holidays filled with laughter and traditions, photo albums filled with school pictures, family vacations, and momentous events. This desire influenced where I chose to attend college and how I built a career. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of my dreams of family. Which is in large part why finding out I had cancer while I still had young children at home wrecked me. I looked at my children and couldn’t bear the thought of missing out on their lives.

What pained me the most, though, was the very real possibility that I could die, and then someone else would take my place as my children’s mother. I didn’t want anyone else to play wife to my husband or mom to my children. That was my job. And the fact that I might not be around to fulfill it haunted me. As a result, I tried to hang on to them more tightly. Of course, the tighter you cling to people, the more they resent it. What felt like love to me felt like a stranglehold to them.

This is often the case with more than just people. Try to grasp love, and you’ll lose it. Reach for affirmation and attention, and they will remain elusive. Try to seek financial success, and you’ll miss out on it. Hold it all loosely, though, and you just might find what you were looking for.

In 1857, a twenty-year-old businessman surrendered to God. Although not rich by human standards, he had a solid head for business and desired success. But on his twentieth birthday, he came to a deep awareness of God’s reality and determined to surrender it all to Him, including his dreams of personal and financial success.

On that particular day, Thomas Maclellan penned a prayer releasing his dreams and plans to the will of Christ. This radical relinquishment is difficult to do at any stage in life, even for those who have followed Jesus for decades. But it’s hard to imagine a twenty-year-old aspiring businessman releasing his future and pending success so fully into the hands of his God. And yet this is what Thomas Maclellan did.

“To Thy direction also, I resign myself and all that I have to be disposed of by Thee as Thou shalt see fit. To Thee I leave the management of all events and desire that Thou enable me to say, without reserve, not my will but Thine be done. Knowing that Thou governest all things wisely and will ever do that which is best for me.”1 This is only a small section of the covenant he penned. But it provides a glimpse of his relinquishment of those things he would, otherwise, be tempted to cling to.

Fast-forward more than a hundred and fifty years and Thomas’s covenantal prayer has multiplied into the Maclellan Foundation and more than $600 million in total donations. One man’s willingness to give himself to the will of God has now become generations of men, women, and dollars reinvested in the kingdom. All because one man was willing to let go.2

There’s a story told in the gospel books of Mark and Luke about a poor widow who came to the temple to give her offering (Mark 12:41– 44; Luke 21:1–4). Moments before, Jesus had issued a warning against the teachers of the law, blasting them for their displays of religiosity while “devour[ing] widows’ houses.” They aimed for fame, grasping for attention and recognition. But they failed to see those who needed them most of all.

The gift of letting go... relinquishing all we have, even our lives, to a God who sees.

Against that backdrop, a widow entered the temple along with a crowd of worshipers with offerings. Many deposited huge sums, making quite a show with the sound of their gifts. But the widow offered a couple of coins, an amount so small that no one noticed. Her contribution couldn’t possibly make a difference. It was less than nothing.

Jesus noticed:

Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on. — (Mark 12:43–44)

Whether your gift is money or ministry, it is possible to give large amounts without giving anything at all. And it is possible to give little and yet give everything. The widow did what so many others find difficult: she held nothing back. Proving that God Himself was indeed her truest treasure, she relinquished all of her earthly riches. And in the end, she left far richer than the rest.

This is the gift of letting go, of relinquishing all we have, even our lives, to a God who sees. Your sacrifice matters, no matter how big or small. Trust Him with it and watch as your faith grows in the giving.

Five-Minute Faith Builder

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. — Galatians 2:20

Much like the widow with her two coins, Thomas Maclellan relinquished his life to his God in a prayer on his twentieth birthday.

“Consecrate all that I am and all that I have, the faculties of my mind, the members of my body, my worldly possessions, my time, and my influence over others, all to be used entirely for Thy glory and resolutely employed in obedience to Thy commands as long as Thou continuest me in life.”3

Read this section of his prayer one more time, and highlight any words or phrases that are meaningful to you. Then find a quiet place, absent of distraction, and pray Thomas’s prayer aloud, releasing your life into the hands of the God who loves you more than all others.

To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy. — Jude 24

1. “Our Covenant,” Maclellan.net, https://maclellan.net/our-covenant.

2. “Our History,” Maclellan.net, https://maclellan.net/our-history.

3. Thomas Maclellan, “A Wholehearted Covenant,” Renovaré, https://renovare.org/articles/a-wholehearted-covenant.

Excerpted from A Faith That Will Not Fail by Michele Cushatt, copyright Michele Cushatt.

More is done for the sake of heaven through a sacrificial giver than the one who proudly proclaims his gift through his wealth. Give as the Lord directs you with a cheerful heart and He will bless more than you could ever imagine.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 27, 2023

Notes of Faith June 27, 2023

All of Creation: Mountains and Minerals

The Peaks and Possessions We Prize

In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. — Psalm 95:4 NIV

Have you ever seen mountains from a distance? The land around you is flat, then you notice something appear on the horizon. As you get closer, what you thought might be a cloud or a hill starts to come into focus. With every step, the mountains get bigger and bigger. And if you venture up them, you might find yourself looking down at clouds of fog beneath you.

Or maybe you’ve visited a cave or a cavern and seen stalactites (the ones that hang down) and stalagmites (the ones that stick up) and been amazed at God’s hidden creativity. Think about all the beautiful things God has buried in the ground, just waiting for us to discover. Diamonds and gemstones are some of the most expensive things in the world, but they’re natural wonders made by God.

Where are these amazing things found? In mountains and mines! Before we get into how we use the stuff God’s hidden for us to discover, let’s talk about mountains and how God made them.

Where Do Mountains Come From?

There are a few different ways mountains show up in the world, but they are all related to tectonic plates in one way or another. Tectonic plates are different sections of the earth’s crust and upper mantle that float on top of the liquid magma (melted rock) near the earth’s core. Let’s break that down a bit more.

Think of the earth as a boiled egg. The earth’s crust is like the thin shell of the egg. The mantle, which is made of semi-solid rock and magma, is like the white part of the egg. And the yellow bit represents the earth’s core, which is made of iron and nickel. Tectonic plates are places where the eggshell has cracked and can float around the surface of the “egg.”

When two different plates smash into each other like a car crash in slow motion, they buckle up into mountain ranges. The Appalachian Mountains formed in this way. The tectonic plate that’s forced under gets melted and becomes part of the earth’s mantle again.

A more jaw-dropping way mountains are formed is through volcanic activity. As tectonic plates move away from each other, magma rises from the cracks and cools as crystals to form igneous rocks. Over time, these rocks grow into volcanic mountains. The Hawaiian Islands are a great example of active volcanoes turning into ever-growing mountains.

Similar to the water cycle, rocks can cycle through different stages. Over time, weather and vegetation break down the igneous rocks that make up most mountains, turning them into the sedimentary layers of the earth — the parts above the earth’s mantle. When enough of those layers stack on top of each other, they get pressed together to form sedimentary rocks. The rocks closest to the earth’s hot core get changed by the heat into metamorphic rock. Then when these new rocks melt completely, they become magma. The magma rises through volcanoes and cracks in the earth’s crust, and bam! We’re back where we started!

A Biblical Perspective

Maybe you never thought about metals, minerals, or mining practices before today. But not knowing where something comes from or how it is made doesn’t mean you aren’t responsible for using it. The fact that our lives benefit from people who destroy the earth (literally blasting it apart in the case of mining operations!) means we need to be thoughtful about how we live. We can change the way we use things and apologize to God for our part in messing up the planet, then we can accept God’s grace through the cross, on which Jesus carried our greed and destructive habits.

In Him we can have the wisdom and motivation to make changes. The first step is to start recognizing that the way we treat the environment is a part of holy, godly living. God has given us the ability to take care of the temporary treasures of earth in ways that reflect His goodness, uphold His natural world, and serve the people who rely on it.

God made the minerals and metals as resources for the things we need, but we should be careful not to be greedy or take things just because we want them. And how we get these materials from the earth should match the character of the God who put them there in the first place.

The Mountains and God Protect Us

Many times in Scripture, God’s people had to hide in the cliffs and caves of mountains when they were in danger. In Psalm 121, the psalm writer looked up to the hills for a reminder that his help comes from the Lord.

God Himself is compared to the mountains as our refuge and strong shelter.

Psalm 125:2 says,

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore. — NIV

Yet God is greater and sturdier than the most solid mountain range.

In the words of Psalm 46:1–3:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. — NIV

Minerals Are God’s Unique Creation

Silver, sapphires, opals, and gold — all the precious metals and gems — were made in the earliest days of creation, watched over personally by God. For the one-of-a-kind crystals to grow, each mineral required specific conditions and ingredients: the right mixture of elements, intense pressure, high temperatures, space, and time. John 1:3 says,

Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. — NIV

God is the melder of minerals and knows the location of each deposit. How awesome is He to hide beautiful things in the ground for us to discover!

Have you ever found a particularly sparkly rock or stone on the playground or in a park? Maybe you showed it off to your friends or took it home to add to your rock collection. Minerals and gemstones are one of the most dazzling parts of God’s creation. Sometimes Christians worry that when we appreciate the beauty in this world, we may be tempted to worship nature instead of its Creator. We can avoid this by remembering that

God is way more awesome than anything He’s created.

Beauty in nature points to its Maker. We can simply say thanks to Him! Then show our gratitude by holding our earthly treasures with open hands — happy not only to show and tell but to share.

Excerpted from All of Creation by Betsy Painter, copyright Karen Elizabeth Painter.

Ps 19:1

The Heavens declare the glory of God,

I love a clear night sky that reveals myriads of stars and planets. I love to see the wonders of God in His creation. Recently, we were visiting family in Kentucky and noticed a large hole in a post that supports our deck. Looking down and inside this hole revealed baby birds where mom had nested and was raising her young. Not my choice of where to enjoy this wonder, but it was still an amazing sight. We can find things every day that are simply and wondrously amazing works of God!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith June 26, 2023

Notes of Faith June 26, 2023

Maturing in God — What It Means to Grow in Christ

Sometimes in church or Christian circles, people focus on the moment of conversion as if it’s a sort of end point. Yes, the moment of accepting the gift of love being offered to each of us by God is crucial — but when a person comes to Christ, their journey has just begun! What flows from the Good Father to His children is a waterfall of transformation and blessing. And as His children, we can expect to take on His nature and learn from His loving example.

What does it mean to mature in God?

Some may call this process of growth discipleship. Others may think of it as God, the perfect Parent, modeling His power for His children and changing them from the inside out. Like children, we imitate God by becoming the mouth of God, the eyes of God, the ears of God, the hands of God, the feet of God, the heart of God, the thoughts of God, the compassion of God, the justice of God, the love of God. That’s how we mature. That’s how we grow up.

As we walk with God, God shows us how to truly live. Yet for those of us who like things laid out, let me offer three markers on the road to spiritual maturity. Three steps in the pathway of discipleship. As we imitate God, as we grow up to be like our heavenly Father, these are the markers we’re looking for. These are the things we should expect to see in our lives.

1. We Awaken

We awaken to who we are and to whose we are. The more spiritually mature we get, the more we constantly remind ourselves of the truth of our new identity. We are not merely followers of beliefs about God, we have a new essence thanks to our new relationship with God. He is our perfect heavenly Father, and we are His beloved children.

That’s our identity!

Our understanding of our new identity changes everything for us. By nature, we are not lost spiritual pilgrims. We are not simply churchgoers. We are not trying to be “do-gooders.” We are not merely shined-up sinners. Who we are now at the core is this: We are born of God. He is our perfect Father. We have received Christ, and we believe in His name. We are new creatures whose DNA is being transformed by the One who made us. When we wake up to our true identities in Christ, we are no longer bound by the chains of our earthly burdens.

2. We Accept

The second marker of spiritual maturity is that we accept the implications and possibilities of our new genetic makeup. It’s one thing to believe in Jesus, to acknowledge that God is our perfect heavenly Father and that we’re beloved children of God, and it’s another thing to truly live out those realities.

If we’re truly living in light of our new identity, then our lives will change, and we will lean toward that change in conjunction with the power of the Holy Spirit working inside of us. By grace, we will deliberately walk that new direction with our minds and hearts and wills and whole beings. We put off the old man and put on the new man, and we won’t tolerate the stink of sin in our lives anymore.

Far too often, even though we’re believers, we develop a comfortable tolerance of our old ways. But as dearly loved children of God, it’s up to us to shout, Enough! to the old ways of living. By faith, we can claim the light of Christ to guide our pathways.

We must not settle for second-rate living anymore. We want to truly live, in Jesus’ name.

In time, we learn to do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:5). We abide in Him; we dwell in Him; we stay close to Him, because we learn that if we don’t, then our lives are a mess. We learn that God has given us unlimited resources, as Peter told us — everything we need for life and godliness. In Him, we are enriched in every way (1 Corinthians 1:4–5), and thanks to God, we are blessed abundantly, “so that in all things at all times, having all that [we] need, [we] will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). We simply accept the bounty.

3. We Adopt

The third marker of spiritual maturity is that we’re called to adopt the behavior and character of God. We model after Him. This means we pattern after Him, copy Him, emulate Him, shadow Him, echo Him, mirror Him. We model after Him and model after Him again. Through the close relationship we have with God through Christ, we constantly study how God works and moves, and then we study Him some more. The change doesn’t happen all at once. It happens bit by bit through the trueness of our walk with Him.

This progression actually takes pressure off of us, knowing our lives are transformed bit by bit. We don’t learn from our earthly fathers all at once, and our heavenly Father doesn’t expect us to figure everything out immediately either. In our spiritual walks, we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). The key word is grow. And growth is gradual.

If you are new in Christ, the adventure of your new life and identity waits before you. God promises to accompany you every step of the glorious path. And as you awaken, accept, and adopt His perfect and powerful ways, you will discover the majesty of His abundant goodness. Your journey has only begun!

Excerpted from Seeing God as a Perfect Father by Louie Giglio, copyright Louie Giglio.

We are not created and designed to become children of God and stay as little children but to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and become more like Him day by day. This is a life-long pursuit and will not be complete until we are taken to be with Him but God promises to make those that He calls to Himself to be transformed into the image of His Son. Praise God for His daily work in your life to make you more like Jesus!

Pastor Dale