Notes of Faith November 8, 2023

Notes of Faith November 8, 2023

What to Do While Waiting

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. — Acts 16:25

There was a time I felt utterly stuck. The sun rose with new and limitless opportunities, but as it set, everything felt the same. The day was new, but the issues were old. No matter how much positive thinking, Bible reading, verse quoting, and attitude changing I did, I felt imprisoned.

My desk was the same. My coworkers were the same. The feelings of hopelessness and frustration were the same. No matter how much money I saved, I still felt the pang of insurmountable debt. No matter how many lunches I prepared and packed — counting macros and calories — my weight stayed the same. No matter how many times I tried creating systems and structures for success, my workload felt heavier instead of lighter.

Have you ever felt stuck like that? No matter what you try, nothing seems to make much difference? This is the waiting period — the place where we linger until divine timing permits us to move forward. It might sound dramatic, but these seasons can feel like prison.

You are doing everything right. You are setting up a system for success. But you feel trapped in the system of same, a prison where nothing changes no matter your effort. But know this:

grit and perseverance help us to develop more than the ability to wait. They help shape the way we behave while we’re waiting.

And who might you guess would’ve understood that feeling? Paul, of course, our model of grit and resilience. He knew the feeling of being stuck in prison because he was in prison.

In Acts 16, we read that Paul and Silas were on their way to pray with their friends when a demon-possessed slave girl began to follow them. She was being used by her owners to tell fortunes in exchange for money, and she shrieked and yelled until Paul turned to her and cast the demon out. But once free from the spirit oppressing her (and telling fortunes through her), the girl was no longer a source of income to her owners. Needless to say, it didn’t go over well with them.

Paul and Silas were taken to the local officials, stripped and beaten, then thrown into prison.

Just so we don’t miss anything here, let’s review some key points. Paul was on his way to pray. He was in community with other believers. He delivered a girl from the shackles of demonic oppression. And now he was being punished in prison.

With no release date set, Paul and Silas were chained and imprisoned like common criminals. But what did Paul do in the waiting? And how can that help us understand what we should we do in the waiting? We’ll take a look at the story and see what tips we can discover through examining Paul’s experience, but first, we have to get real about our current patterns of behavior.

Take a look at the list below and circle which choices are common during times you feel stuck:

Journaling

Listening to worship music

Calling a friend to pray with you

Serving others and investing relationally

Joining a community or church group

Exercising

Starting a new hobby

Finding a series on Netflix to lose yourself in

Eating your emotions and bingeing on snacks

Hopping on dating apps to distract yourself

Shopping excessively online

Spending hours on social media apps

Sleeping in, staying up late, or frequently napping

Do you notice a pattern? Are you proud of your choices? If you’re anything like me, some of the behaviors you circled aren’t exactly worth bragging about. I’ve squandered so much time with distractions and diversions that I’ve had to set up a new system to ensure I stay on track.

What to Do in the Waiting

Over the past ten years, I have discovered that if I don’t intentionally set up rhythms for myself, I will easily end up returning to my old, unhealthy patterns. I’ll sit and scroll endlessly, binge-watch Real Housewives, and eat my feelings to avoid having to actually feel them. To ensure I resist these temptations and stay motivated in my waiting seasons, there are five things I’ve learned from brain researchers to do consistently:

Work out (my body)

Get out (in nature)

Clean out (my space)

Go out (in solitude)

Sing out (like you can)

Don’t get overwhelmed. I’m not adding more to your to-do list. I’m simply sharing the system I’ve created that works for me. You can copy it or create your own version to help you evaluate the most useful ways to invest your time during waiting seasons.

Excerpted from Grit Don’t Quit by Bianca Juárez Olthoff, copyright Bianca Juárez Olthoff.

Isa 40:31

31 But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

God is good all the time! We can draw close even in times of waiting. We can be strengthened and be able to continue to move forward with the days needs and concerns while waiting on the Lord for answers to prayer.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 7, 2023

Notes of Faith November 7, 2023

The Reason Why We Vote

The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics... God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground... It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation are becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they think God does not see what they do in politics. ~ Charles Finney

If America is to survive, we must elect more God-centered men and women to public office — individuals who will seek Divine guidance in the affairs of state.

~ Billy Graham

God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good, so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. ~ Noah Webster

We are blessed with the freedom to live as we wish, vote as we choose, worship where we want to, and express our opinion without fear of retribution.

The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. ~ Samuel Adams

I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7:17

Praising God should be an everyday and throughout-the-day occurrence in this great country we call home. We are blessed with the freedom to live as we wish, vote as we choose, worship where we want to, and express our opinion without fear of retribution. These are privileges we should not take for granted. May God be our guide this November as we plan for the future and prayerfully exercise our right to vote.

Excerpted from If My People by Jack Countryman, copyright Jack Countryman.

Every Christian should be growing ever close to God, pursuing righteousness and holiness, loving every person and thing God created. During times of unrest, which we should label lawlessness, our hearts are crushed and defeated. How could people possibly act the way they do? You will hear TOO much over the next year: promises, plans, hopes, dreams, all for the purpose of winning your vote. Please delve deep into the person(s) that you are considering to lead our country, state, and cities. Pray fervently that you might choose the candidate that will lead a life pleasing to God and therefore bless you. Please vote! And vote your conscience as God gives you from His Spirit within you.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 6, 2023

Notes of Faith November 6, 2023

Who Do You Say That I Am?

People all around us are walking away from what they once believed because they’re facing cultural challenges that are truly difficult. McDowell and Marriott offer ways to approach those questions while hanging on to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

True Christianity is an all-out commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. ~William MacDonald

Why do you call Me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say?

— Jesus, Luke 6:46 NIV

Imagine for a moment that you’re remodeling a building. Two steps are involved in any remodel. First, you must dismantle certain sections of the building. Second, you have to put them back together again differently than before. There are a lot of ways you can go about dismantling a building, but one thing is certain: if you stand on it while you tear it down, you’ll go crashing down with it. To dismantle a building, you need to stand back from it.

Deconstructing one’s faith is a lot like remodeling a building. It’s an exercise in taking apart and then reassembling a belief system. Both remodeling a building and deconstructing one’s faith have a set of tools to accomplish the task. Dismantling a building uses sledgehammers, crowbars, and jackhammers. Deconstructing your faith utilizes the tools of question-asking, reflection, and analysis to question beliefs taken for granted. Remodeling a building requires a solid place to stand; so too does deconstructing your personal faith. In other words, deconstructing your faith requires a foundational theological commitment that’s exempt from analysis, which is to say that deconstruction can’t even start without a belief that’s immune from suspicion. In matters of faith deconstruction, there must be at least one theological given. The question is, What could that theological bedrock be?

Is there one foundational, non-negotiable belief of Christianity that can’t be questioned, but from which all other beliefs can be? Yes, there is, and His name is Jesus.

What Do You Say?

Christianity isn’t first and foremost a set of beliefs. Christianity is first and foremost a Person. Jesus is Christianity. That’s why the first followers of Jesus were called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). The name Christianity literally means “the religion derived from Christ.”1 He’s the hinge on which the door of the religion hangs. He’s the foundation on which the entire house of faith is built. You can take off the roof, pull off the siding, remove the windows, and even take away the frame, but if you break apart the foundation, there’s nothing left to build on.

If you’re serious about rethinking your faith and you’re equally serious about remaining a Christian, then the deconstruction stops with Jesus. He’s the bedrock of Christianity.

Christianity begins and ends with Jesus.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t pursue refining your concept of Jesus. You can and you should. We never have a perfect understanding of Jesus. As his followers, we ought always to seek a clearer and more accurate picture of him. But Jesus Himself established boundaries that the refining process must stay within. Otherwise, you will have moved off the foundation and onto theological quicksand.

“Who Do You Say That I Am?” echoes a question Jesus once put to His disciples (Matthew 16:15). Impulsive as usual, Peter spoke up and declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Those who follow Jesus recognize that’s a good answer even though it requires some explanation and exploration. Getting a handle on what is meant by “Christ” and “Son of the living God” helps establish the foundation on which any authentic version of Christianity must be built. The term Christ comes from the Greek word meaning “anointed one” and is related to the Hebrew word translated as Messiah. Christ is a title, not a last name. It indicates that Jesus is God’s anointed representative, sent to be the Savior-King of the new Kingdom that God is building. The title Son of God indicates that Jesus is literally “of God,” which means even though He was human, He shared in God’s very nature, making Him divine. Now, we doubt Peter understood all the theological implications of his statement at the time, but his answer to Jesus’s question indicates that the man Jesus of Nazareth was (and is) the Messiah and the divine, sovereign authority over all creation. We believe affirming those two claims is crucial to having a solid foundation on which to rebuild your house of faith.

Jesus wasn’t just a rabbi. He wasn’t just a prophet. He wasn’t just a miracle worker. No, Jesus is the Christ who was prophesied in the Old Testament. As Christ, He is Lord, and as Lord He is God. As such, Jesus sets the rules for human beings. He calls the shots, and He says that those who love Him will obey Him (John 14:15). As you rethink Christianity, it’s important to appreciate that, according to Jesus Himself, He is the one who determines what it means to be a Christian.

Christianity begins and ends with Him.

Therefore, to deconstruct what you believe without sinking your faith, it’s imperative to make sure you have at minimum a correct conception of who He is.

Jesus’s discussion with Peter reveals that there are at least two nonnegotiable aspects of Jesus. The first has to do with Jesus’s identity as Christ. Having a minimally correct concept of His identity is necessary to be a Christian. Without it, you’re not in the Kingdom. John says that the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar who does not have eternal life (1 John 2:22–25). The identity of Jesus is serious business.

The second nonnegotiable has to do with how we must respond to Him as Lord. Unless our posture toward Jesus is correct, we won’t be willing to let Him define what it means to be a Christian. We’ll take that prerogative for ourselves and, in doing so, create Christianity in our image, not His. Again, the demons correctly understood the identity of Jesus. When Jesus came to their town, the two demon-possessed men identified Jesus as the “Son of God” (Matthew 8:28–29). They had a good theological understanding of Jesus’s identity, but they rejected Him as Lord. Correct beliefs alone about Jesus are not enough. Jesus’s identity as the divine Son of God and our response to Him as Lord is the place where the dismantling aspect of deconstruction must end and from which the rebuilding begins.

Excerpted from Set Adrift by Sean McDowell and John Marriott, copyright Sean McDowell and John Marriott.

“It’s all about Jesus” is a foundation that our church has built on for the last 30 years. We don’t have a religion that we practice. We have a Lord and Savior that we worship and serve. Yes, there are many details that we learn from the Word of God to live out our faith, but it all begins with Jesus. Sharing our faith with others usually includes how knowing Jesus has transformed our lives, but we should start by sharing who Jesus is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He promises to do. It really is all about Jesus!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 5, 2023

Notes of Faith November 5, 2023

The Cure for Disappointment

I am the Lord, the God of every person on the earth. Nothing is impossible for Me. — Jeremiah 32:27

We need to hear that God is still in control.

We need to hear that it’s not over until He says so.

We need to hear that life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. They are simply a reason to sit tight.

Corrie ten Boom used to say, “When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through.”

The way to deal with discouragement? The cure for disappointment? Go back and read the story of God. Read it again and again. Be reminded that you aren’t the first person to weep. And you aren’t the first person to be helped.

Read the story and remember, the story is yours!

~ He Still Moves Stones

God Is For You

He will rejoice over you. — Zephaniah 3:17

God is for you. Turn to the sidelines; that’s God cheering your run. Look past the finish line; that’s God applauding your steps. Listen for Him in the bleachers, shouting your name.

Too tired to continue? He’ll carry you.

Too discouraged to fight? He’s picking you up.

God is for you. Had He a calendar, your birthday would be circled. If he drove a car, your name would be on His bumper. If there’s a tree in Heaven, He’s carved your name in the bark.

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” God asks in Isaiah 49:15 (NIV).

What a bizarre question. Can you mothers imagine feeding your infant and then later asking, “What was that baby’s name?” No. I’ve seen you care for your young. You stroke the hair, you touch the face, you sing the name over and over. Can a mother forget? No way. But “even if she could forget her children, I will not forget you,” God pledges (Isaiah 49:15).

Excerpted from Grace for the Moment by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado

Are you prepared for whatever meets you today? Maybe, maybe not. But God will be there with you. He is always prepared, knowing the ending from the beginning. Jesus said, “I am with you always, to the end of the world.”

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 4, 2023

Notes of Faith November 4, 2023

Test, Seek, Pray, Fight

The Pursuit of Holy Affections – What Do You Desire?

Early morning hours are precious. The house is still, quiet. The aroma of coffee wafts from the steaming mug. A single lamp illuminates the chair and table. Here is a sanctuary, a peaceful place of communion between a man and his God.

And yet on many days, it is anything but peaceful. Rather than quiet contemplation, I find myself battling on my knees against a persistent and pernicious straying of the heart. The prayer is not that of the demonized boy’s father: Lord, “I believe; help my unbelief” (though I too have prayed such words). Instead, I pray, “Lord, I desire; help my erring desires.”

While striving to meditate on the steadfast love and faithfulness and eternal goodness of God, I find that other concerns arrest my attention: anxious thoughts about how my work will be received, a nagging fear that somehow I’m just not doing enough, questions about what my coworkers think of me, jealousy over the success of others. A long list of anxious thoughts grip my mind and lead me away from the one offering rest and peace, satisfaction and joy. Here lies the battle. The straying thoughts reveal what’s driving my heart this morning: desire for the fleeting approval of man, not the eternal good.

One misaligned desire would be a significant battle by itself; this is a wide and diverse war. Fears about parenting failures reveal desires to be self-sufficient. Worry about a medical condition (whether minor or life-threatening) may indicate a greater love for this present life than the never-ending one to come. Pride fails to acknowledge that our plans are in the hand of the Lord, and reveals an arrogant boasting rooted in the desire to order life according to our own design. My sanctuary, it turns out, is also a battlefield.

Disordered Hearts

The struggle to rightly order our desires lies at the heart of each Christian’s daily walk. Our redeemed hearts, still twisted by sin, simply do not function as they ought. In general, we have no problem desiring. We do have serious problems desiring rightly. Our hearts are disordered, and so we frequently spin out days chasing small and fleeting ends that fail to satisfy. We grow weary and despondent in our Sisyphean pursuits, and we wonder where our first love has gone.

In a meditation on Psalm 119:97–104, the late John Webster (1955–2016) describes the reordering of affections as “one of the most weighty claims [of] the Christian gospel” (Christ Our Salvation, 6). He argues that the affections are “the fundamental loves which govern us and determine the shape of our lives . . . [the] part of us through which we attach ourselves to things outside of ourselves. . . . [They are] the engines of our attitudes and actions” (7). In other words, each and every day, what we love and desire determines what we set ourselves to pursue.

‘Nature Abhors a Vacuum’

God made us, each and every one of us, to pursue. He gave us hearts that desire. Our pursuits — what we desire and strive toward — reveal our hearts because behind our pursuits lie affections. Imagine a string tied between the desire in your heart and each object you run after. If you pause long enough to tug on the strings, you will unearth what lies (and pulls) in the hidden recesses of your heart. And far too often, those hidden recesses are not filled with pure love for God; they contain the kind of covetousness that leads to strife (see James 4:1–4).

Sometimes, in the battle with such wayward affections, the temptation to quell desire rises to the forefront. “If only I could put the desire for X to death, then I would walk in freedom.” Erasing that disorderly affection seems like the key to holiness. And so we aim (rightfully, I should say) to put sin to death (Romans 8:13). We fight the battle with X and, by God’s grace, win. Then we stop.

Consider a knight on the warpath. He has heard of a dragon who reigns over a castle and keeps a king’s daughter locked up as a prisoner in the tallest tower. With great courage, he risks life and limb to face the dragon in open combat. Eventually he emerges from the battle victorious (though certainly wounded and a bit more well-done). What does he do next? He mounts his warhorse and returns home. No, good stories don’t end that way — and for good reason.

Everyone recognizes that the knight has won only half the battle. The princess still needs rescuing. If he leaves her locked up and the castle vacant, another winged, fire-breathing worm will soon take the place of the first. So too, the man who cleaned the house after the unclean spirit left suddenly finds himself fighting the original spirit again, plus seven more (Matthew 12:44–45). The man needs to fill up the house, not leave it empty; the knight needs to actually rescue the princess.

Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) wrote, “Nature abhors a vacuum” (The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, 41). What did he mean? It does no good to merely take away a man’s sinful affection. By God’s design, man cannot be affectionless. To attempt to remove all that stirs his heart, in the name of pure and holy living, would be an “unnatural violence” to his soul (44).

Let’s apply Chalmers’s insight to my early-morning battle. As I analyze the internal struggle, I see how my worry over how I might be received reveals a desire to please men. Behind my desire is an unhealthy craving for the kind of recognition, applause, and affirmation I might receive from my coworkers. I might pray in that moment for God to remove that desire from my heart — but the struggle doesn’t stop there. Affection cannot merely be put to death; it must be remade.

‘Seek the Things Above’

Paul wrote to the Colossian believers about the emptiness of merely negative commands. Seemingly powerful and wise in the fight against sin (at least initially), “they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:23). We cannot stop at mere negation. For this reason, Paul gives the Colossians a positive command: “Seek the things that are above. . . . Set your minds on things that are above” (Colossians 3:1–2). Do not expect denial, by itself, to lead to holiness. We need redirection.

God created us with the capacity for affections, and it’s a good design. To attempt to merely get rid of sinful desires (and not redirect the heart) is to deny our very nature. Chalmers understood this, which is why his little sermon continues to resonate with readers. “We have already affirmed,” he wrote, “how impossible it were for the heart . . . to cast the world away from it and thus reduce it to a wilderness. The heart is not so constituted, and the only way to dispossess it of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one” (49).

The pursuit of holiness has to be just that: a pursuit. And to pursue something means that we desire it, we want it, we set our minds and order our days to have it. Left to ourselves, such a task is hopeless. Twisted and corrupt trees do not produce good fruit. But we haven’t been left to ourselves. The Lord has raised us up to new life (Colossians 3:1). He has given us his Spirit. And he is at work to detach our affections from their empty, death-producing objects and reattach them to their proper treasures. We do not enter the fray alone or without hope.

Test, Seek, Pray, Fight

What might this good battle look like each day? We can sketch the fight in four steps: test, seek, pray, fight.

TEST

What captures your heart today? What do you find yourself aiming for? What do your recent actions and decisions reveal about what you love? Start pulling on those strings. Try to unearth the loves behind and beneath those strings. Before you engage the enemy, you have to know who the enemy is. What do you find yourself repeatedly struggling against? Unfortunately, the desire for others’ approval didn’t simply go away that morning. I still find myself seeking to put it to death (and quite frequently).

Honest self-reflection, while important, can’t be the only means to putting twisted desires to death. We need communities of brothers and sisters around us who know us well. Because we’ve cultivated strong relationships of trust, these fellow soldiers have the freedom to tell us when a path we’re pursuing leads to death.

SEEK

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above” (Colossians 3:1). The apostle’s command requires us to actively set our hearts on other, heavenly objects. We must come to see them as more worthy of pursuit than the ones that tempt us.

Early-morning meditation has been the single best practice I have learned over the years (and one that countless believers have practiced throughout history). Psalm 90:14 sets the agenda: “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” Finding our delight in the Lord orients and redirects our hearts. When we have tasted and seen the goodness of God, the fool’s gold of worldly pursuits grows tarnished in our eyes (1 Peter 2:1–3). Where do we see his goodness displayed? In the word as we open it with fresh eyes of faith.

PRAY

While prayer accompanies every step in this battle, concerted effort comes during and after time in the word. “Lord, you’ve shown me your goodness and character this morning; grant belief and desire for more. By your Spirit, mold my desires to conform to your goodness, your holiness, your majestic worth.” These steps of prayer and seeking, like testing, can (and arguably should) also take place with our local church. The Lord uses fellow saints to help us see more of him in the word. And God will use the prayers of other saints to strengthen and encourage right thinking and feeling in our hearts and minds.

FIGHT

“Put to death,” writes Paul. Them’s fightin’ words. Just because we taste and see the goodness of God doesn’t mean our battle is over. Sinful desires remain, and they reveal themselves throughout the day in our attitudes, actions, and words. Paul calls us to the strenuous life, actively working to kill corrupt desires in the hope that God himself works within us to cause conformity to the image of Christ (Philippians 2:12–13).

So, test and seek, praying at all times, and then fight. And fight alongside friends, because wars like these are lost alone.

Seth Porch is an adjunct professor at Bethlehem College & Seminary as well as a contract editor for Desiring God and the Center for Pastor Theologians.

We all have sinful desires if we will admit it and need to work hard at killing them, as believers we are to be dead to sin…a dead person cannot sin…And we are to be alive in Christ, with His heart’s desire to only do that which pleased God, His Father. If we spend time early in the day with God in prayer and in His Word, listening to Him speak to us, our desires will become like His desires and we will be pleasing to Him. Let us pursue the desire of holiness!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 3, 2023

Notes of Faith November 3, 2023

A Tone of Thanksgiving

I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. — Psalm 116:1–2

Take another look at these two verses from Psalm 116. Though not one key word about gratitude — thanks, thankfulness, grateful — appears here, the tone of thanksgiving is unmistakable.

The proclamation “I love” implies gratitude and communicates joy. The writer celebrates the reason for this love: “Because He has heard my voice and my supplications.” The vow to “call upon Him as long as I live” also reflects this speaker’s thankfulness for the way God hears and answers.

Even without the word thanks, these verses communicate gratitude. Do our lives do the same? Put differently, what do the ways we carry ourselves, speak, and communicate using facial expressions and body language suggest about our attitude toward life? Is it clear we’re grateful people?

Consider what retooling your attitude might need. Of course the “tone” of our lives alone cannot sufficiently express our gratitude to God or to the people in our world. But when our actions indicate a thankful heart, the words we speak ring truer.

Let’s express our thanks to God in every way we can.

Lord, show me how I can make a tone of thanksgiving unmistakable in my life.

I Get To!

I will love You, O LORD, my strength. — Psalm 18:1

You’re familiar with the concept of I have to versus I get to, right? These opposite attitudes create very different outcomes.

We have to clean up our own kitchens; we get to clean up a friend’s who has welcomed us for dinner. 


We have to wash the windows, or we get to clean off the winter grime so we can watch spring spring! 


We have to go to the grocery store — or we get to buy an abundance of food from the wide variety available on well-stocked shelves. 


We have to give thanks to God — or we get to thank Him for who He is and what He does for us. 


God created human beings with free will; He didn’t construct robots and program us to love and praise Him. After all, forced love and worship would be fraudulent. God wants a relationship with us, and we build our friendship through expressing our love for Him in praise. But God never forces relationship or gratitude.

As we come to love God more, we no longer have to but more freely and joyfully get to offer our thanksgiving. 


Thank You, Lord, that I never have to love and praise You! The truth is I get to love You and offer You my thanks! 


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

If should be easy for the believer and follower of Jesus to stop at any given moment and give thanks to God for life, for relationships, for sustenance, for opportunity to show thankfulness in service to Him. God is indeed good all the time and we need to stop often, not to smell the roses, well maybe, if you are giving thanks to God for them. Give thanks to God often for His love for you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 2, 2023

Notes of Faith November 2, 2023

What is Advent?

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

— John 1:9

There are certain signals that reveal Christmas is on its way. Coffee shops add peppermint mochas to their seasonal menus. We start making lists of gifts to buy, and retailers set up elaborate displays to entice us to buy even more. With so much clamoring for our attention, sometimes it’s a challenge to remember the true reason for the season of Advent.

The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming” or “arrival.” It’s a season of preparation, not for extra expenses or family gatherings, but to remember the Christ child who came to live among us to secure our redemption.

It is a time to pause and cherish God’s most precious gift to us.

Advent is also the anticipation of Christ’s return at the Second Coming. When we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we’re honoring the sacrifice He made for us too. Gathering around the manger is only part of it. We also need to journey to the foot of the cross.

So while you might still get swept up in all the hurried activity of the Christmas season, be intentional this year to take time during Advent to prepare your heart. Remember that God laid aside His glory to become human because of His great love for you, and He will also return one day to restore glory to His people. There are few truths in this world that can be more wonderful, more exciting than this.

What kinds of things mark the start of the Christmas season for you?

Is celebrating Advent part of your traditions? If not, how can you make it a special part this year?

Do you tend to feel harried and overwhelmed this time of year? If so, how can you carve out some time for reflection to prepare your heart?

Advent is a time to pause and cherish God’s most precious gift to us.

A Season of Hope

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. — Romans 15:13 NLT

Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas, but even without a calendar it’s easy to know when it starts because of the Advent wreath Many churches have a large, beautiful wreath near the front of the altar, and when the season of Advent begins, the first candle in the Advent wreath is lit.

The first Advent candle, known as the Prophet’s Candle, represents hope. Throughout the Old Testament many prophets, especially Isaiah, waited in hope for the Messiah they knew would come. None of them knew when God’s promise of a Savior would be fulfilled, but they kept trusting in God, because He is always faithful.

We all have things we’re hoping for. Some of them we can write on our Christmas list, and maybe they’ll appear under the tree. Other things we bring to God in prayer. But sometimes it’s hard to stay hopeful when the thing you’re waiting for isn’t happening.

As we begin this season of Advent, let’s embrace this time of hope. No matter what our circumstances look like, we know — just like the prophets knew — that God is faithful and good. He loves us, and He wants to draw us closer to Him. We can let go of our worry, stress, and envy, because our hope is in Him.

What are you hoping for this holiday season?

Can you think of a time when something you’d been hoping for finally happened?

What do you do when you feel your hope start to waver?

Excerpted from The Advent Project copyright Zondervan.

I love celebrating the birth of Christ. I love looking forward to His return. But my looking forward to His return is in His coming in the clouds and calling His bride to come and join Him, the believing dead raised in resurrected glory and those that are alive, transformed and joining them to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. I pray that you are looking forward to His return also. Can’t wait to share a meal with you in heaven!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith November 1, 2023

Notes of Faith November 1, 2023

Jesus is Waiting for You

I’ve always loved the worship that the Christmas season brings. There’s something special about the promises of God that seem closer, more palpable, and ready to come to life as we journey towards the birth of our King Jesus. For Shelley and me, it doesn’t get much better than decorating a freshly cut Christmas tree, spending time with family and close friends, and taking part in the traditions that weave joy and celebration throughout these wintery days.

As idealistic as that may sound, let’s be honest — Christmas, and consequently, the season of Advent — isn’t always the most peaceful time of year. In fact, you might quickly find yourself buried under the mountain of gifts, glitter, holiday parties, cookie swaps, and a whole host of unmet or underwhelmed expectations. That’s not even to mention that for many families, Christmas isn’t actually a season of celebration, but a stark reminder of painful memories, loss, and disappointment.

If that’s you, I understand — Shelley and I have walked together through hard seasons. Ten years ago when I was writing an Advent devotional, Waiting Here for You, I felt the Lord encouraging me to write with a specific family in mind — a family that was going into the Christmas season under the diagnosis of cancer. So, I did… only to come to find out a few weeks later, right after Thanksgiving, that Shelley’s dad, who is a hero to me, was given a very serious cancer diagnosis. The words and devotions from Waiting Here for You became a lifeline for our family during that Advent season and in the many since that diagnosis.

Shelley’s dad fought valiantly against his cancer, but after a long fight, he went to Heaven earlier this year. So this will be our first Advent season without him, and to say it will be hard is a massive understatement. I share this because I want you to know that I understand that Advent isn’t always all bows and baking, even though all the current popular Christmas movies would try to make you believe it is.

Yes, Advent can be a wonderful season of celebration. But it can also be full of confusion. Of desperate need. Of waiting for God to come through.

Whether your Advent this year bears the arrival of peace and joy or the arrival of sorrow and sadness, Jesus is not only aware of your story — He’s with you in your gladness or your waiting. He never leaves you to navigate this season alone.

The word Advent means arrival — meant to reference the arrival of Jesus onto planet earth all those years ago. While this should give us confidence, the rush and crush of the Christmas season can convince us to think of Jesus’ arrival in that Bethlehem manager as just another act of history, old news. You might even find yourself thinking, “Jesus showed up then, and that’s all good and well, but I’m waiting on Him to show up now. To answer me. To prove that He cares today.”

I hear that. But here’s the great news that can change everything for you: Jesus’ arrival wasn’t just another day in history. It was the day in history. When Jesus arrived on earth, He emphatically pronounced that He wanted to have permanent proximity to you, and you to Him. He proved the promises of God to not only be true, but to be everlastingly possible through His life, death, and resurrection.

That’s why if you currently find yourself waiting on God, it’s not a waste of time. He is working while you wait because He is closer than you realize. You don’t have to hope that He will draw near to you. He’s already arrived. You don’t have to wonder if He cares for you. He came down from Heaven so that you would never again have to fear that He is uninvolved, uninformed, or unwilling to step into your story.

True, your tensions may not immediately evaporate. That diagnosis your loved one received might not improve tomorrow. Your heartache may not mend with a few carols or cups of eggnog. But here’s what you can take confidence in —

Jesus has arrived, He is with you today, and He is at work in your life. That’s why you can worship Him.

Just like Shelley’s father, there is a day coming for every Believer where we will arrive with Jesus. Where every waiting and every longing will be fulfilled immediately by His glorious grace and love. That wholeness and victory is a future reality in your story. But it may not be the headline for today.

Today, you may keep waiting on your earthly circumstances. But Jesus is waiting with you. And there are people all around you who need to know that there was a Baby, born in a messy manger a few thousand years ago, who has never failed and never faded. Who keeps every promise and stays steadfast in every situation. A Savior who knows what it means to be human, who draws near in every hardship, and who is working on your behalf in every way this Christmas Season.

Written for Faith.Gateway by Louie Giglio, author of Waiting Here for You.

If the stores can start Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, then a good spiritual reflection should be good also! I am grateful in any season for the life God has given me. Indeed, there have been struggles, but God has always been in the midst of them, providing, caring, guiding, strengthening hope. If you have a need today and would like me to join in prayer for you, please send a message, an email, phone call, contact me any way you can, and I will gladly raise up your need before the throne of grace. You are loved!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 31, 2023

Notes of Faith October 31, 2023

If God Is Real, Why Is He So Hidden?

Along with the problem of evil, the problem of divine hiddenness has become one of the most prominent arguments for atheism. ~ Philosopher Travis Dumsday, “C. S. Lewis on the Problem of Divine Hiddenness,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion

Interview with Kenneth Richard Samples, MA

Rocked by the suicide of his brother Frank, Kenneth Samples began to seek answers to deep questions. Frank had plummeted into despair after struggling with drug addiction and incarceration, and Ken started wondering, What do I have in my life that’s really meaningful?

His spiritual curiosity had already been piqued when his sister gave him a copy of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Later he had a vivid dream in which he encountered a Christlike figure with scars and bruises on his face. “When he spoke — I kid you not — it was like thunder,” Samples told me. This resulted in an insatiable urge to study the Bible and attend church.

He became a committed Christian and immediately gravitated toward apologetics. He earned an undergraduate degree in history from Concordia University and then a master’s degree in theological studies from Biola University.

After working alongside legendary countercult apologist Walter Martin, Samples now serves as senior research scholar for Reasons to Believe, a nonprofit that focuses on science and faith. For more than twenty years, he has taught at Biola and lectured at universities around the country. His books include Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions and Christianity Cross-Examined: Is It Rational, Relevant, and Good?

Seated at a desk and wearing his gray hair cut short, Samples spoke in a sincere tone with an even cadence, unruffled by questions that might challenge his faith. After all, there are virtually no objections to Christianity that he hasn’t addressed over his career.

God’s Silence through the Centuries

I began by referencing several theists through history who struggled with the apparent silence of God and yet didn’t abandon their faith. For example, the Hebrew psalmist cried out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?... I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.1

The prophet Isaiah wrote,

Truly You are a God who has been hiding Himself.2

“An important component of ancient Israel’s worship was the engagement of divine absence,” said Old Testament scholar Joel Burnett.3 He added that in ancient Israel, “the sense of divine absence [and the sorrow and suffering that goes along with it] is regarded as a normal part of human experience.”4 Nevertheless, observed Michael Rea of the University of Notre Dame, none of the biblical texts that wrestle with divine silence ever question the reality of God.5

I turned to Samples. “Why do you think that many theists have struggled with the so-called hiddenness of God and yet never jettisoned their belief in Him?” I asked.

“I would start by defining faith — it’s a confident trust in a reliable source,” he began. “That means faith is not trust in any source or every source, but we put our faith in something that’s reliable. By that definition, faith has a rational component to it.” He paused, then continued. “These individuals put their trust in the one true God, someone they determined to be reliable and trustworthy. It was a faith that made sense and was fully rational. Of course, as C. S. Lewis said, you have to feed your faith.6 I believe they did that and ended up building a robust and resilient faith that could withstand the times when they felt perplexed by the seeming absence of God.”

“How did they feed their faith?”

“Through regular prayer, the study of Scripture, being part of a faith community, for example. And when you invest in your faith that way, it can sustain you even during those times when God seems distant.

“Sometimes when I talk to people who have walked away from faith, I ask them about their prayer life and their connection to a church, and there isn’t anything there,” he added. “Without that firm foundation, a person’s faith can crumble during times when God seems particularly distant. I know in my own life that when God appears hidden, it’s often at a time when I’m at a spiritual low.”

A quote by Corrie ten Boom sprang to mind:

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”7

Her faith remained intact despite her painful circumstances during World War II because she knew that God could ultimately be trusted.

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away your ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer. ~ Corrie ten Boom

“Put Your House in Order”

I gestured toward Samples. “What about you personally — have you ever felt exasperated because God didn’t make Himself more apparent?”

“Well, the answer is yes,” he said. “When I was forty-five years old, married with three children, I came home one day feeling sick. It turned out I had contracted a rare bacteria that resulted in a large lesion on my right lung and six brain abscess lesions. I remember the doctor telling me, ‘What you have has a mortality rate of 80 percent.’”

My mouth dropped open. “I had no idea.”

“Yeah, when the doctor gave me that percentage, it was like a cold breeze ran through my soul. I ended up going through a difficult period.”

“I can only imagine.”

“I remember being hospitalized and having lung surgery. Through it all, there certainly were times when God seemed present, and that was comforting. But then one night, my family and friends went home from the hospital and I couldn’t sleep. I thought, Lord, where are You? I’m in a tough spot.”

“Did the silence of God threaten your faith?”

“Not in a serious way. As I began to think more clearly, I started to fall back on some things I had learned through the years.”

“For instance?”

“I realized this experience of God’s silence didn’t invalidate the fact that I had encountered God before. And it certainly didn’t rule out the solid argumentation that I had discovered about God’s existence and the truth of Christianity. So, yeah, there were times when I thought, Lord, where are You? Admittedly, that can be scary. But when I fell back on the spiritual practices that I had nurtured through the years — prayer and worship, for example — the dark thoughts dissipated. Just reading the gospels raised my spirits.”

“Were you concerned you might die?”

“I remember the doctor saying to me, ‘Hey, put your house in order.’ I started by asking myself, What do I really believe about life after death? That prompted me to go through all of the evidence for the resurrection that I had researched through the years.”

“Was that helpful?”

“No question, it really buoyed me. I realized that the evidence was sound when I first came across it, it remained sound, and I trusted that it would continue to be sound into the future.”

“In the end, did this experience make you more sympathetic to people who wrestle with the silence of God?”

“Absolutely,” he replied. “I can relate to what they’re going through. And yet at the same time, can we really say that God has been hidden when the second person of the Trinity took on a human nature and entered into our world? I remember the theologian J. I. Packer saying that the incarnation is greater than anything in literature. I’ve found that just the practice of bringing that to mind has been an encouragement to me.”

Excerpted from Is God Real? by Lee Strobel, copyright Lee Strobel.

The questions of “Is God Real” and “What Happens When You Die” must be answered by each and every person. The faith that God has given me assures me that there is an eternal life, that we were created to be eternal beings. Sin or disobedience to God brought about the division of where one spends eternity. We all deserve hell and the Lake of Fire, but God in His love for mankind sent His Son to pay the price we each owe for sin. Those who believe in Jesus, His work on the cross, His coming again for those who love Him, will be taken to live in the presence of God forever. Those who do not believe that there is a God and His Son that came to redeem them must pay their debt of sin, eternally separated from the God that created them and alive suffering torment forever. Think clearly, examine the evidence and come to Jesus to receive forgiveness, redemption, salvation, and ultimate glory through the faith that He gives you to believe.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 30, 2023

Notes of Faith October 30, 2023

The Platform of Love

If you've ever had an In-N-Out burger, you know their dedication to serving really delicious fast food. This year is the 75th anniversary — 75 years of Double Doubles, shakes, and fries... Mmmm! Lynsi Snyder, the owner and President of In-N-Out shares their story in her new book The Ins-N-Outs of In-N-Out Burger.

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

— Mark 16:15

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ — Acts 20:35

Customers often notice Bible verses printed on In-N-Out products, and that practice has a history tied to my good memories about Uncle Rich.

Both Dad and Uncle Rich grew up with some faith in their home. As boys, my grandmother told them about God and taught them how to pray. When they were teens and young men, they wandered from their faith. But in the early 1980s, Rich reconnected with God in a much bigger way. He became an active member of Costa Mesa’s Calvary Chapel, led by Pastor Chuck Smith, and dedicated his life to Jesus. Rich didn’t claim to be perfect. But he finally found that the deep need in his heart could only be satisfied by Jesus and by finding his own identity in Him. I remember my uncle telling me once,

“I’m not always a good Christian, but I’m a Christian.”

In 1985, Rich began printing tiny references to Bible verses on In-N-Out paper goods. It was a way for him to express his faith, and he wanted to put that little touch of faith on our brand. In a 1990 episode of BTV, Rich explained, “I quietly did it a few years ago. I’m a Christian. For those who know me, they definitely know that I’m not perfect and neither is In-N-Out. We are trying to serve our communities and do a good job the best we can. I guess the reason [for the verses] is it’s my way of thanking God for helping In-N-Out so much. I took over In-N-Out when I was twenty-four years old, and for me it was kind of tough. I thank God that He helped me.”*

Love God and love other people.

To this day, Revelation 3:20 is discreetly printed on hamburger and cheeseburger bags. Nahum 1:7 is on the Double-Double wrappers. Proverbs 3:5 sits underneath milkshake cups, Isaiah 53 is on certain holiday cups, Isaiah 9:6 is on Christmas cups, and John 3:16 is underneath soda cups. That tradition continues to this day. After I became president, I added Proverbs 24:16 to our fry boats, Luke 6:35 to coffee cups, and John 13:34 to the hot cocoa cups... We never try to force our beliefs on anyone, and customers with any faith tradition, or none, are certainly welcome through our doors. We hire and promote associates and managers who don’t share our faith.

God loves all people, and so do we! My family simply wants our faith to take a meaningful place in everything our company does. The verses act as encouragements.

Always, the goal is to love God and to love other people, and we’ve learned the platform of love is huge.

The feedback we get about the Bible verses is almost always positive. Customers don’t always share our faith, but they appreciate that we’re honest about our own faith journey, and that we want it to be part of the integrity of our company. Many commend our efforts to reach out, care for people, and lead with love.

An awareness of the blessings God has given inspires generosity. I think that was Rich’s intention in 1991, when he began sending In-N-Out Cookout Trailers to the missions around Los Angeles to prepare meals for the unhoused. That’s how the In-N-Out Feed the Homeless Program began, as a quiet way of providing delicious meals for the less fortunate.

We currently serve people involved with the Los Angeles Mission, Ventura Rescue Mission, San Diego Rescue Mission, and Long Beach Mission. These initiatives fit beautifully with part three of our mission statement, which states our purpose to help “communities in our marketplace [become] stronger, safer, and better places to live.” We invite other people to serve alongside us too.

It’s better to give than to receive.

*Rich Snyder on BTV, In-N-Out Archives.

Excerpted from The Ins-N-Outs of In-N-Out Burger by Lynsi Snyder, copyright Lynsi Snyder.

After preparing this mornings Notes of Faith, I am hungry, how about you?

Pastor Dale