Notes of Faith May 4, 2025

Notes of Faith May 4, 2025

We (Still) Walk by Faith

How to See Beyond the Secular

Ecclesiastes 3:11 haunts the human mind that pretends to be secular:

[God] has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

At first blush, secular answers — that is, those that refuse to acknowledge any religious or spiritual basis for human life and our world — may attract those aching to suppress the truth that God has made plain in his creation (Romans 1:18–20). But soon the sparkle wears off. Secular life does not prove satisfying — emotionally or intellectually. Secular “believers” may enjoy the initial thrill of feeling free from divine oversight and the wages of sin. But the wishful thinking of cosmic rebels proves empty sooner or later. As it always has.

God made us, and made us for himself. The Potter has designs. In our sin, we want to spin away from him. Yet in the very clay of our humanity, we were made for him and cannot get around or beyond his purposes, no matter how much sin pressures us to flee.

While Christians in this generation may feel a new acuteness in secular pressures, the Christian faith has always required the look of faith to the unseen. Some forces seem new; the fundamental realities of the Christian life remain unchanged. Long have we been a people with a different kind of vision, mindset, and joy than our surrounding society.

1. A Different Kind of Vision

First, we have a different kind of vision than our unbelieving age. We live by faith. Believers the world over may dispute or variously read a number of passages, but every stripe of church and tribe of Christians confesses, with Paul, “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

From where does such faith come? “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). And oh how counter-secular are such invisibilities! Against a visibly focused age, our invisible faith — arising in the inner, unseen person — comes from hearing the audible yet invisible word: the good news about Christ. And that through an unseen Helper we call the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:5).

Of course, we live in this world and look at seen things all day. We are bombarded with sights and their accompanying sensations, and now all the more with glittering pixels. But in Christ, we do not look to the things that are seen to get our ultimate bearings about reality. Rather, we look to the unseen. By faith, we see the invisible.

Has not this faith in the unseen been the legacy of our heroes? Noah’s faith received God’s word “concerning events as yet unseen” and moved him to build the ark to save his household (Hebrews 11:7). Abraham, by faith, left his home, “not knowing where he was going,” stretching by faith to see what he could not yet see (Hebrews 11:8). Moses’s faith sent him out from Egypt, “for he endured as seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). And Christ himself (both the focus of our faith and our supreme exemplar) endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him” — that is, not a joy at hand he could see and reach for, but a yet unseen joy in the distance that would lead him to and through the visible and sensible horrors of crucifixion, and all the way to his Father’s right hand (Hebrews 12:2).

Even if obstacles to this kind of sight are especially pronounced in our day of secular assumptions and pixelated visuals, the life of faith has always run against this grain: looking through and beyond what we can see with our physical eyes to yet unseen rewards we taste even in the present. “Faith is the [foretaste] of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). From afar, faith draws near to the unseen God, not just believing that he exists but “that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith hears and embraces his audible-yet-invisible word and lives in light of it.

2. A Different Kind of Mindset

Second, we have a different kind of mindset than our world’s. Faith in the unseen God frees our minds from the prison of “the immanent frame” — that small slice of reality that we can see, hear, touch, taste, and feel. Christian faith liberates us from the earthly mindedness into which we are born as natural humans. As the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, helps us to see through and behind and beyond the phenomena of our world, he also makes us increasingly spiritually minded.

Even in an era of oppressive earthly mindedness that claims so many as its victims, we inhabit the glorious freedom of Colossians 3:2, setting our minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. In Christ, we have reckoned ourselves dead, and our true life is now hidden with him in God (Colossians 3:1). How could our souls be raised with Christ, and we not “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1)? We live in this world. Earthly things rightly cross and occupy our minds every day. But in Christ, we learn to set and reset our minds elsewhere, upward, to things above, where he is. And from that regular reset, we put to death what is earthly in us, the old self and its practices (Colossians 3:5–9), and put on the new self in Christ and its fruit (Colossians 3:10–17).

If we coast, the world will have its way with our minds and their frame. We might still read our Bibles and frequent churches and even speak in pulpits; we might still quote verses and expound Christian doctrines. But from what mindset and to what end? Have our world’s terms and ends infected and seized our cast of mind? Pretending there is no God or unseen, our world can’t help but fill the void with politics, sports, decadence, and trivia. If our own hearts have been captured by this mindset, our dreams and greatest joys will look very much like the world’s, and very little like the different kind of joy on offer in Christ.

3. A Different Kind of Joy

Finally, we have a different kind of joy than the world’s — a joy that flows from our different vision and mindset. As we see the unseen God (vision) and see our world through his eyes (mindset), our joy rises far beyond the joy rooted merely in this world we can see.

Surely, the world has tasted and talks about a kind of “happiness” — one that is fleeting, unpredictable, impulsive, and superficial. And it’s a happiness that dishonors God, diminishes Christ, ignores Scripture, and leads to damnation, not final, eternal bliss. But in Christ, ours is a different sort of happiness — one that is lasting and deep and soul-satisfying. It is rooted in God and expands through loving others and doing them good. Our happiness is the kind of joy that sustains us in suffering, as it did for Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), and gets us in the end to the great reward that is God himself in Christ.

And stunningly, in this different kind of joy, we do not diverge from the one who made and upholds our world, and who will decide our eternity, but in Jesus our joy is at one with the very purposes of God. “The end and goal of all things,” says John Piper, “is the glory of God reflected in the gladness of his people in God.” Isaiah spoke of this different kind of joy seven centuries before Christ when he said Christ’s people will “go out in joy and be led forth in peace . . . and it shall make a name for the Lord” (Isaiah 55:12–13).

Unseen World

This month at Desiring God, we turn our focus to the unseen world with a three-part structure: (1) the unseen world within, (2) the unseen world without, (3) the unseen world to come. Our focus will be reclaiming our felt sense of these unseen realities: the human soul, the Holy Spirit, demons and angels, the glorified Christ, and his coming return.

Join us in celebrating the life of faith, and seeing the unseen, in a world trying to see only the seeable.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for Desiring God

Open the eyes of my heart Lord.

Open the eyes of my heart,

I want to see You.

To see You high and lifted up,

Shining in the light of Your glory.

Pour out Your power and love,

As we sing Holy, Holy, Holy

Holy, holy, holy

Holy, holy, holy

Holy, holy, holy

I want to see you.

Lord, increase the eyes of our faith, that we might see Your glory and holiness today!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 3, 2025

Notes of Faith May 3, 2025

Contagious Calm

Disaster was as close as the press of a red button. Four Russian submarines patrolled the Florida coast. US warships had dropped depth charges. The Russian captain was stressed, trigger-happy, and ready to destroy a few American cities. Each sub was armed with a nuclear warhead. Each warhead had the potential to repeat a Hiroshima-level calamity.

Had it not been for the contagious calm of a clear-thinking officer, World War III might have begun in 1962. His name was Vasili Arkhipov. He was the thirty-six-year-old chief of staff for a clandestine fleet of Russian submarines. The crew members assumed they were being sent on a training mission off the Siberian coast. They came to learn that they had been commissioned to travel five thousand miles to the southwest to set up a spearhead for a base near Havana, Cuba.

The subs went south, and so did their mission. In order to move quickly, the submarines traveled on the surface of the water, where they ran head-on into Hurricane Daisy. The fifty-foot waves left the men nauseated and the operating systems compromised.

Then came the warm waters. Soviet subs were designed for the polar waters, not the tropical Atlantic. Temperatures inside the vessels exceeded 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The crew battled the heat and claustrophobia for much of the three-week journey. By the time they were near the coast of Cuba, the men were exhausted, on edge, and anxious.

The situation worsened when the subs received cryptic instructions from Moscow to turn northward and patrol the coastline of Florida. Soon after they entered American waters, their radar picked up the signal of a dozen ships and aircrafts. The Russians were being followed by the Americans. The US ships set off depth charges. The Russians assumed they were under attack.

The captain lost his cool. He summoned his staff to his command post and pounded the table with his fists. “We’re going to blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all — we will not disgrace our navy!”

The world was teetering on the edge of war. But then Vasili Arkhipov asked for a moment with his captain. The two men stepped to the side. He urged his superior to reconsider. He suggested they talk to the Americans before reacting. The captain listened. His anger cooled. He gave the order for the vessels to surface.

The Americans encircled the Russians and kept them under surveillance. What they intended to do is unclear as in a couple of days the Soviets dove, eluded the Americans, and made it back home safely.

This incredible brush with death was kept secret for decades. Arkhipov deserved a medal, yet he lived the rest of his life with no recognition. It was not until 2002 that the public learned of the barely avoided catastrophe. As the director of the National Security Archive stated, “The lesson from this [event] is that a guy named Vasili Arkhipov saved the world.”1

Why does this story matter? You will not spend three weeks in a sweltering Russian sub. But you may spend a semester carrying a heavy class load, or you may fight the headwinds of a recession. You may spend night after night at the bedside of an afflicted child or aging parent. You may fight to keep a family together, a business afloat, a school from going under.

You will be tempted to press the button and release, not nuclear warheads, but angry outbursts, a rash of accusations, a fiery retaliation of hurtful words. Unchecked anxiety unleashes an Enola Gay of destruction. How many people have been wounded as a result of unbridled stress?

And how many disasters have been averted because one person refused to buckle under the strain? It is this composure Paul is summoning in the first of a triad of proclamations.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. — Philippians 4:5 NIV

The Greek word translated here as gentleness (epieikes) describes a temperament that is seasoned and mature.2 It envisions an attitude that is fitting to the occasion, level headed and tempered. The gentle reaction is one of steadiness, evenhandedness, fairness. It “looks humanely and reasonably at the facts of a case.”3 Its opposite would be an overreaction or a sense of panic.

This gentleness is “evident to all.” Family members take note. Your friends sense a difference. Coworkers benefit from it. Others may freak out or run out, but

the gentle person is sober minded and clear thinking. Contagiously calm.

The contagiously calm person is the one who reminds others, “God is in control.”

The gentle person is sober minded and clear thinking. Contagiously calm.

This is the executive who tells the company, “Let’s all do our part; we’ll be okay.” This is the leader who sees the challenge, acknowledges it, and observes, “These are tough times, but we’ll get through them.”

Gentleness. Where do we quarry this gem? How can you and I keep our hands away from the trigger? How can we keep our heads when everyone else is losing theirs? We plumb the depths of the second phrase.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. — Philippians 4:5-6 NIV

The Lord is near! You are not alone. You may feel alone. You may think you are alone. But there is never a moment in which you face life without help. God is near.

God repeatedly pledges His proverbial presence to His people.

To Abram, God said,

Do not be afraid… I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

— Genesis 15:1

To Hagar, the angel announced,

Do not be afraid; God has heard. — Genesis 21:17 NIV

When Isaac was expelled from his land by the Philistines and forced to move from place to place, God appeared to him and reminded him,

Do not be afraid, for I am with you. — Genesis 26:24 NLT

After Moses’ death God told Joshua,

Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. — Joshua 1:9 NIV

God was with David, in spite of his adultery. With Jacob, in spite of his conniving. With Elijah, in spite of his lack of faith.

Then, in the ultimate declaration of communion, God called Himself Immanuel, which means “God with us.” He became flesh. He became sin. He defeated the grave. He is still with us. In the form of His Spirit, He comforts, teaches, and convicts.

Do not assume God is watching from a distance. Avoid the quicksand that bears the marker “God has left you!” Do not indulge this lie. If you do, your problem will be amplified by a sense of loneliness. It’s one thing to face a challenge, but to face it all alone? Isolation creates a downward cycle of fret. Choose instead to be the person who clutches the presence of God with both hands.

The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? — Psalm 118:6 NIV

Because the Lord is near, we can be anxious for nothing.

This is Paul’s point. Remember, he was writing a letter. He did not use chapter and verse numbers. This system was created by scholars in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The structure helps us, but it can also hinder us. The apostle intended the words of verses 5 and 6 to be read in one fell swoop.

The Lord is near; [consequently,] do not be anxious about anything.

Early commentators saw this. John Chrysostom liked to phrase the verse this way:

The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety.4

Theodoret of Cyrus translated the words:

The Lord is near. Have no worries.5

We can calmly take our concerns to God because He is as near as our next breath!

Excerpted from Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

I am working on being gentle in times of stress and conflict…not easy, but Jesus was, always. I want to be like Jesus. How about you?

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 2, 2025

Notes of Faith May 2, 2025

All the Time

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Joshua 1:8

If you are a young person in love, you probably think about your beloved “day and night.” If you are facing a challenging situation at work, your focus is on finding a solution “day and night.”

In Hebrew culture, phrases like “day and night” and “east to west” serve as all-inclusive indicators. That is, “day and night” means “all the time.” It is natural for certain situations to consume our thoughts all the time. But Scripture admonishes us to focus on one thing in particular: God’s Word. When Joshua prepared to enter the Promised Land, God encouraged him to meditate on His Word continually (Joshua 1:8). Moses said that Israel’s kings should focus on God’s Word (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). And the psalmist promised blessedness to the one who meditates on God’s Word “day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2).

Consider how you can incorporate God’s Word into your thoughts “all the time” through reading, memorization, music, and other means.

It takes calm, thoughtful, prayerful meditation on the Word to extract its deepest nourishment.

Vance Havner

Deut 17:18-20

18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Make sure that you are in the Word of God today. I am enjoying the “Living Desert” today with my family and still MUST spend time with the Lord first thing in the morning. Be prepared for your day, that nothing might cause you to be disturbed by what you may face, for the Lord is with you wherever you go!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith May 1, 2025

Notes of Faith May 1, 2025

The Verse on the Wall

Thou God seest me.

Genesis 16:13, KJV

Violet Liddle was a remarkable Christian maid who served the likes of Churchill, Eisenhower, Lady Astor, and George Bernard Shaw. Growing up, she came downstairs every day beneath a framed Bible verse on the wall, which read: “Thou God seest me.” As a result, some of her first memories involved knowing that God watched her wherever she was. “Still,” she wrote, “I don’t really regret this introduction to God because it did instill in me an understanding that God is always around us, and I’m glad that over the years I’ve come to recognize that the verse is a promise of God’s loving care.”1

God’s Word was an important part of life for the people of Israel. God gave leaders, kings, and everyone else specific instructions for the ways to remember His words by placing them in places they would see each day. Deuteronomy 6 tells us to write God’s Word “on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”

(verse 9).

Look around you today for places to post Scripture so it stays at the forefront of your mind. A verse on the wall may reside in your children’s minds for decades to come!

Down through the years, I turned to the Bible and found in it all that I needed.

Ruth Bell Graham

Heb 4:12-13

12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Rom 1:16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes

Starting the day seeing the Word of God displayed in your home will help your attitude and walk through the rest of the day. Put a special verse to you on a wall, on a shelf, maybe next to your bed. Read God’s Word early in the morning. Talk to God…He is ready to listen and hear your prayers. He is with you every moment!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 30, 2025

Notes of Faith April 30, 2025

On November 28, 1965, Howard Rutledge’s fighter plane exploded under enemy fire. He parachuted into the hands of the North Vietnamese Army and was promptly placed in the “Heartbreak Hotel,” one of the prisons in Hanoi.

When the door slammed and the key turned in that rusty, iron lock, a feeling of utter loneliness swept over me. I lay down on that cold cement slab in my 6 x 6 prison. The smell of human excrement burned my nostrils. A rat, large as a small cat, scampered across the slab beside me. The walls and floors and ceilings were caked with filth. Bars covered a tiny window high above the door. I was cold and hungry; my body ached from the swollen joints and sprained muscles...

It’s hard to describe what solitary confinement can do to unnerve and defeat a man. You quickly tire of standing up or sitting down, sleeping or being awake. There are no books, no paper or pencils, no magazines or newspapers. The only colors you see are drab gray and dirty brown. Months or years may go by when you don’t see the sunrise or the moon, green grass or flowers. You are locked in, alone and silent in your filthy little cell breathing stale, rotten air and trying to keep your sanity.1

Few of us will ever face the austere conditions of a POW camp. Yet to one degree or another, we all spend time behind bars.

My email contains a prayer request for a young mother just diagnosed with lupus. Incarcerated by bad health.

I had coffee with a man whose wife battles depression. He feels stuck (chain number one) and guilty for feeling stuck (chain number two).

After half a century of marriage, a friend’s wife began to lose her memory and her health. He had to take away her car keys. He has to stay near so she won’t fall. They had hopes of growing old together. They still may, but only one of them will know the day of the week and remember their life before dementia.

Each of these individuals wonders, Where is Heaven in this story? Why would God permit such imprisonment? Does this struggle serve any purpose? Joseph surely posed those questions to himself as he slumped behind his prison bars.

Joseph spent time in jail. Here’s the backstory.

In the household of Potiphar, Joseph moved up the career ladder like a fireman after a cat. He earned promotions. He earned clout. He earned attention — too much attention, in fact. It didn’t take long for Mrs. Potiphar to notice this handsome young Hebrew and to make her intentions crystal clear.

And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, ‘Lie with me’. — Genesis 39:7

Verse 10 says she courted him “day by day.”

Joseph had plenty of opportunities to consider the proposition. And reasons to accept it. After all, wasn’t she married to his master? And wasn’t he obligated to obey the wishes of his owner, even if the wish was clandestine sex? And it would be clandestine. No one would know. What happens in the bedroom stays in the bedroom, right? And didn’t Joseph deserve a little pleasure after everything he’d experienced? A little comfort? A little release?

But no. Adultery would have been only another form of abandoning his destiny. Another way of giving up. So young Joseph held firm.

Intended evil becomes ultimate good.

Unfortunately, so did Mrs. Potiphar. If she couldn’t flirt Joseph into her bed, she would force him. She grabbed for his robe, and he let her have it. He chose his character over his coat. When he ran, she concocted a story. When Potiphar came home, she was ready with her lie and Joseph’s coat as proof. Potiphar charged Joseph with sexual assault and locked him in jail.

And [Joseph] was there in the prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. — Genesis 39:20–21

Not a prison in the modern sense but a warren of underground, windowless rooms with damp floors, stale food, and bitter water. Guards shoved him into the dungeon and slammed the door. Joseph leaned back against the wall, slid to the floor.

I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.

— Genesis 40:15

Joseph had done his best in Potiphar’s house. He had made a fortune for his employer. He had kept his chores done and his room tidy. He had adapted to a new culture. He had resisted the sexual advances. But how was he rewarded? A prison sentence with no hope of parole. Since when does the high road lead over a cliff?

The answer? Ever since the events of Genesis 3, the chapter that documents the entry of evil into the world. Disaster came in the form of Lucifer, the fallen angel. And as long as Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8 NIV), he will wreak havoc among God’s people. He will lock preachers, like Paul, in prisons. He will exile pastors, like John, on remote islands. He will afflict the friends of Jesus, like Lazarus, with diseases. But his strategies always backfire. The imprisoned Paul wrote epistles. The banished John saw Heaven. The cemetery of Lazarus became a stage on which Christ performed one of His greatest miracles.

Intended evil becomes ultimate good.

Remember, God is not sometimes sovereign. He is not occasionally victorious. He does not occupy the throne one day and vacate it the next.

The Lord will not turn back until He has fulfilled and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart (mind). — Jeremiah 30:24 AMP

This season in which you find yourself may puzzle you, but it does not bewilder God. He can and will use it for His purpose.

1.Howard Rutledge and Phyllis Rutledge with Mel White and Lyla White, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, 1965–1973: A Prisoner of War (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1975), 33, 35.

Excerpted from Never Give Up by Max Lucado, copyright Max Lucado.

John 16:33

In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

Every day we experience trouble, discouragements, something unexpected that interrupts our norm. It needs to be taken care of to return to that norm. These interruptions can seem but a small irritation but others can change a day, a week, or more, in our routine. God is still in control and works out His plan for us through all of these “interruptions”. Trust in His plan. Work through the trials expecting God to get you to the other side, more gracious, more patient, more merciful, more loving…you get the picture. God uses all things to make us more like Christ in character. Learn to trust Him and use all things to bring glory to God and spiritual growth in you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 29, 2025

Notes of Faith April 29, 2025

Spiritual Eyes

Because you say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

Revelation 3:17

Perhaps the saddest of the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor was delivered to the church in Laodicea. This city was wealthy due to it being on one of the major trade routes of the region; it was a major banking center. Apparently, the Christians in the city had participated in the prosperity and saw themselves as being self-sufficient due to their wealth. While they may have been materially well-off, Christ saw them as being in great need spiritually: They were “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Their condition illustrates a principle in Scripture contrasting physical and spiritual eyes. This contrast was illustrated in the life of the nation of Israel. Because of their sin, they could see physically but could not perceive spiritually (Isaiah 6:9). Christ reaffirmed their spiritual blindness when He taught them using parables (Matthew 13:14-15). Just because we can see physically does not mean we always perceive spiritually and therefore truthfully.

Pray with the psalmist: “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law” (Psalm 119:18).

It is no advantage to be near the light if the eyes are closed.

Augustine

Matt 13:14-15

14 "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND;

YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE;

15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL,

WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR,

AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES,

OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES,

HEAR WITH THEIR EARS,

AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN,

AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'

We do not know who will listen and hear, therefore, we must share with all, even if they mock, and scorn us and the message of God’s grace that we bring. They may some day come to faith…they will come to faith if they are the chosen of God. Let us keep working as the Father, the Son, and Spirit are working, exhausting ourselves for the sake of eternal salvation in Christ Jesus!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 28, 2025

Notes of Faith April 28, 2025

Strong When Weak

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.

Zechariah 4:6

Paradox derives from an ancient Greek word, paradoxon, that meant “contrary opinion.” The Bible contains many paradoxes: The last shall be first, we receive by giving, we live by dying, and more. One of the most practical paradoxes in Scripture is that when we are weak, we are strong. The apostle Paul stated as much in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 when he found himself in a situation of weakness. He discovered that his own weakness allowed the strength of Christ to be manifested in his life more clearly.

It is almost paradoxical that the church in Asia Minor that Christ commended for its faithfulness was also a church that had “little strength”—the church in Philadelphia. The church was being persecuted by the Jewish community and was in a place of human weakness as a result. And yet Christ commended them for keeping His Word and not denying His Name. They demonstrated that it is possible, when humanly weak, to be spiritually strong.

If you find yourself in a place of weakness today, meditate on Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12 and ask God to manifest His strength in your weakness.

I cannot go deeper into weakness than Jesus went.

John Hindley

Mondays for many are not the best days of strength. Even pastors may spend Monday feeling their weakness in the day previous. But the glory of God does shine through in our weakness and others more readily see Christ than the person before them. We all want to bring glory to God. Therefore, give thanks, praise God in your weakness that His glory, profound truth, and life giving gospel, will rise with power and strength when you are weak!

2 Cor 12:7-10

7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me — to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 27, 2025

Notes of Faith April 27, 2025

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10

Have you failed?

Psalm 51 is the prayer King David offered after his moral failure with Bathsheba. He humbly confessed his sin and pled for God’s forgiveness. Then he asked God to create a clean heart within him and to give him a renewed, steadfast spirit. The Lord granted his request.

This is an important chapter in the Bible for all of us because we all fail in various ways and we’re not always victorious over temptation. When we sin, we should admit our guilt, but God doesn’t want us to wallow in that guilt. In Christ, we are under His blood. We should seek a cleaner, purer heart. And we must ask God for personal renewal, revival, and spiritual rejuvenation.

In another psalm, David said, “He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:3). Whatever you’ve done or however you’ve failed, come to your Savior in confession and repentance today. You’ll find Him ready to create in you a clean heart and to renew a steadfast spirit within you.

No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still; with Jesus even in our darkest moments, the best remains and the very best is yet to be.

Corrie ten Boom

1 John 1:9

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We cannot hide our sin. We must admit our failure, our fallen nature and propensity to sin, seek forgiveness from God, rise from the depths of despair and pursue the holiness of God. In Christ we are clean and pure. Walk with Jesus through every moment of your life and He will guide your heart and mind.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 26, 2025

Notes of Faith April 26, 2025

Introducing the NIV Application Bible—a Bible based on the bestselling NIV Application Commentary series and designed to help you connect Scripture to your everyday life. With insightful notes, articles and real-world application, it bridges the world of the Bible and contemporary times. Whether you’re new to the Bible or a longtime reader, this resource is here to help you grow in faith and live God’s truth daily.

Here are two of the 52 total Character of God articles included in the NIV Application Bible that explore different aspects of God's character and what they mean for our lives today.

Character of God: God is Love

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. — Ephesians 2:4-5

To anyone who questions whether God truly loves them, Paul can point to a very concrete proof: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God did not love us because we were lovely or perfect or worthy. No, we were sinners, dead in our transgressions (Eph 2:1). God did not love people because we deserved it, and this shows the amazing measure of God’s love.

God’s love is central to His nature.

God lacks nothing, and yet He chose in love to create the universe. This act was selfless, directed out from Himself to His creation. God’s love led Him not only to watch that creation curiously from afar, but also to be involved with it. God upholds the workings of the universe by His loving providential hand.

God’s love led Him even further. When human beings, whom He formed in His image, fell into sin, God did not abandon or destroy them. Rather, He bound Himself to them even more closely. In love, He took on human flesh and came to dwell among people. God the Son emptied Himself of the glories and benefits of Heaven and lived as a man. He allowed Himself to be arrested and crucified to open the way for eternal life for all believers. God did not do this because He had to; He did it because of love. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us to take away our sin and make us children of God.

APPLICATION

While none of us can love like God, as God’s image-bearers we can imitate God’s love in our world. God’s loving nature is one of His “communicable” attributes — one that we ourselves can share in and demonstrate. When we practice the kind of selfless love Christ demonstrated, we glorify God and point others to Him. No Christian testimony is complete without a deep offering of love.

Character of God: God is Truth

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. — John 14:6

Scripture teaches that God is truth. When the Son of God became a human in Jesus, He came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Speaking to Thomas at the Last Supper, Jesus announced that He was “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

Everything Jesus spoke was the truth. His words were not only His own; He spoke what the Father desired (John 12:49). Therefore, because we know that God is trustworthy and that God and Jesus are full of truth, we can be assured that no word of Christ will fail. In the same way, we can trust the words of the Bible. If God is truth, then His words in the Bible are true. There are no lies, mistakes, or guesses in God’s Word. Scripture is founded in God’s supreme wisdom and knowledge.

The completely truthful nature of God means that God is in fact the very foundation of truth. Nothing outside of God’s design is true, and there is and there is nowhere else truth can be found. Saint Augustine wrote that wherever truth is found, it belongs to God: All truth is God’s truth. This means that all things in creation that humans discover as facts belong to God. Nothing is outside of God’s domain.

APPLICATION

In today’s world, it can be difficult to know what is true. So many voices clamor for our attention and claim to have the right answer, the true answer. Truth is so important to our society and in relationships. It is necessary for trust. It is necessary for justice. So, how do we pick through the lies and find the truth? In order to know truth, we must know God. When we immerse ourselves in His Word and cultivate a relationship with Him through prayer, we will find that we can discern the truth from lies because we will become transformed into a person more and more like Jesus (Romans 12:2). As we remain in Him, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free (John 8:31-32).

Excerpted with permission from NIV Application Bible, copyright Zondervan.

I have this commentary series, although it is not my first go to, it is designed to give historical understanding and application for today. I have not seen this Bible, written in the same style, it should give help to understanding and application for the one who reads it. I pray that whatever Bible you use that you are reading it today!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith April 25, 2025

Notes of Faith April 25, 2025

Open Door Policy

I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

Revelation 3:8, NIV

Wilcox’s Pier Restaurant in West Haven, Connecticut, prepared great seafood for its patrons. But many people came just to watch waiters with arms full of trays walk right through a door that magically opened for them. The first automatic door was installed in 1931 at this restaurant so servers wouldn’t have to use their arms to push the door open.

Rev 3:7-13

7 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:

8 'I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 'Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie — I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you. 10 'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 11 'I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12 'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. 13 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

The Lord has been in the open-door business from the beginning. The church in the New Testament city of Philadelphia had great opportunities to serve Him. Their location was strategic. Their presence was timely. The Lord blessed their efforts, and He does the same for us.

Pray for God to open doors for you to spread His Word. Look for the opportunities He sends, and take advantage of them. Sometimes the door opens just enough for us to say a few words or to exercise a moment of kindness. The Lord constantly sets before us open doors that no one can shut.

In how many ministries has God given to us illimitable opportunities! Oh, how many facets and in how many areas are there opportunities to serve God! “Behold, I set before thee an open door.”

W. A. Criswell

Our work on earth will soon be finished. We will be able to work no more. Pray, pray, and pray again, for more opportunities both small and great to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone today. A smile, a small gift, a helping hand, a sacrificial loan or purchase for someone in need, speaks the gospel without words, and may bring opportunity, an open door to share the gospel that someone may be saved! That is our work while life still lasts, to walk through those open doors of God and speak to the hearts of those in desperate need of a Savior. Pray for such an open door for you today.

Pastor Dale