Notes of Faith October 21, 2024

Notes of Faith October 21, 2024

For the Love of Work

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”

Amos 9:13

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do is the name of a 1974 book by the late journalist and historian Studs Terkel. The author interviewed scores of “ordinary” people to explore how work can result in the discovery of meaning in life—or not.

Because work can be difficult, we often resent it. But because humans were created to work (Genesis 1:26; 2:15), it can be incredibly rewarding. What if work could be both enjoyable and rewarding at the same time? While the Bible doesn’t describe work in the Millennium specifically, we do know that all of creation will reflect God’s created order and purposes without the constraints of sin. The prophet Jeremiah saw it as a time of abundance in the earth with the souls of mankind being “like a well-watered garden” (Jeremiah 31:12).

When work makes you weary, look to the day when your work will be the ultimate expression of God’s gifts and purpose in your life.

A machine can do work; only life can bear fruit.

Andrew Murray

I too, have noticed in many conversations that what one does, or has done (work), is what people talk about. Their life’s work consumes their thoughts and therefore pours out of them most easily. We see this in others more than we see it in ourselves. It does not matter what you do…you are working. Spending time with your family, teaching, playing…in any activity you are sharing your life, wisdom, experience, hopes and dreams with those around you. The truth of God can be shared in all circumstances and is what bears eternal fruit.

Col 3:23-24

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 21, 2024

Notes of Faith October 21, 2024

For the Love of Work

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”

Amos 9:13

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do is the name of a 1974 book by the late journalist and historian Studs Terkel. The author interviewed scores of “ordinary” people to explore how work can result in the discovery of meaning in life—or not.

Because work can be difficult, we often resent it. But because humans were created to work (Genesis 1:26; 2:15), it can be incredibly rewarding. What if work could be both enjoyable and rewarding at the same time? While the Bible doesn’t describe work in the Millennium specifically, we do know that all of creation will reflect God’s created order and purposes without the constraints of sin. The prophet Jeremiah saw it as a time of abundance in the earth with the souls of mankind being “like a well-watered garden” (Jeremiah 31:12).

When work makes you weary, look to the day when your work will be the ultimate expression of God’s gifts and purpose in your life.

A machine can do work; only life can bear fruit.

Andrew Murray

I too, have noticed in many conversations that what one does, or has done (work), is what people talk about. Their life’s work consumes their thoughts and therefore pours out of them most easily. We see this in others more than we see it in ourselves. It does not matter what you do…you are working. Spending time with your family, teaching, playing…in any activity you are sharing your life, wisdom, experience, hopes and dreams with those around you. The truth of God can be shared in all circumstances and is what bears eternal fruit.

Col 3:23-24

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 20, 2024

Notes of Faith October 20, 2024

Christ in Me?

Three Wonders of Life in the Spirit

Article by David Mathis

Executive Editor, Desiring God

Talk about the Holy Spirit? That’s always been tricky. After all, he is the Spirit, the Wind, the great unseen Enigma, that most mysterious and hidden Person of the ineffable Godhead.

Also, we live in times that can make thinking and speaking about the Spirit all the more difficult. For one, pervasive secular influences pressure us to deal with concrete phenomena — the seeable, hearable, touchable, tastable. The effect is a subtle but strong bias against the Spirit. With Jesus, we’re talking real-life humanity, at least in theory; with the church, we’re talking real-life fellow Christians; with creation, we’re talking tangible, sense-able, the world that surrounds us; with anthropology, flesh and blood and our own undeniable inner person. But the Invisible Wind is almost a no-starter for the mind shaped by secular influences.

What’s more, many Christians have the unfortunate tendency to quickly turn Spirit-talk to “manifestations of the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 14:12) — that is, spiritual gifts and especially controversial ones like speaking in tongues. All too soon, we are not even talking about the Spirit and the real heart of his work but mainly speculating about ourselves and telling strange stories.

In Scripture, the Spirit himself does not receive the front-and-center attention that the Father and the Son do. He often hides in compact, meaningful phrases and works quietly in the theological background. Of course, this is the Spirit’s own doing. He is the author of Scripture, thrilled to shine his light on Father and Son, to carry along prophets and apostles in word ministry, and to empower the words and deeds of the eternal Word himself. Scripture’s brevity of focus on the Spirit isn’t oversight or suppression. The Spirit likes it that way — he did it that way.

‘Life in the Spirit’

Still, hide and work quietly as he may, he does step forward in a place of striking prominence, in one of the greatest letters ever written, at the very climax of Paul’s magnum opus: “The Great Eight.”

Romans chapter 8 is one of the few spots where the Spirit pulls back the curtain and says, in effect, “I will tell you a little bit about myself: as much as you need to know, but not too much, and not for too long.” For centuries, devoted Christians have given special place to the promises and wonders of Romans 8, which is well summarized in the ESV with the heading “Life in the Spirit.” Romans 7:6 sets up the contrast that follows in the rest of chapter 7, and into chapter 8:

We serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Romans 7:7–24, then, rehearses the challenges of serving under the oldness of the previous era and its law (holy, righteous, and good as it was), and Romans 8:1–27 bursts into the joys and benefits of living in the newness of the Spirit. In Christ, the Spirit is not only with us, as he was with old-covenant saints, but now, poured out from heaven in new fullness by the risen Christ, the Spirit testifies to us of our status, intercedes for us in our weakness, and even dwells in us as the present, personal power of the Christian life. Consider these three Spirit-glories in Romans 8, working from the outside in.

Sonship: He Testifies to Us

First, the Spirit speaks to us — and not any insignificant word. His is the foundational word about our most foundational identity. And it’s a weighty word, a testimony — knowing with certainty what has already happened, he testifies to us about what is truly the case, like a witness in court, in order to persuade us of the truth.

Not only are we creatures of the Creator, humans formed from humble dust, and not only are we sinners who have turned against our King, but now, in Jesus Christ, God’s unique Son, we too are “sons of God” (Romans 8:14). “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). He is “the Spirit of adoption as sons” (Romans 8:15) who solemnly testifies to assure us that we are God’s chosen — not mere creatures but beloved children drawn into his family, who now irrepressibly cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15). Already we are children. The Spirit knows this and bears witness to it so that we, too, might confidently know and embrace it.

Hidden and enigmatic as the Spirit may seem, he is not some silent force but a revealing, speaking, leading Person. He is “the Spirit . . . of revelation” (Ephesians 1:17), who not only “carried along” the prophets and apostles as divine mouthpieces (2 Peter 1:21; Ephesians 3:5) but still speaks, says, indicates, and testifies (1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 3:7; 9:8; 10:15; Acts 20:23; 1 John 5:6) through the living word of Scripture. He still prompts and leads God’s people (Romans 8:14; Galatians 5:18).

His profile may often seem unpronounced, but he is not silent. If you know yourself to be a beloved, chosen child of God, the Spirit is the one who awakened and sustains that recognition in you. Without him, sinners may cry out for help to a distant, unknown deity. With him, saints cry out for the care of our Father. And that crying out leads to the second glory of the Spirit in Romans 8.

Intercession: He Prays for Us

To be beloved children — “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17) — is almost too good to be true. Yet so it is in Christ. But this towering ideal of sonship doesn’t mean Romans 8 is unrealistic about our lives in this sin-sick and cursed world. The heights of God’s grace do not ignore the depths of our lives. We suffer. We groan. We know ourselves to be weak.

Because of human sin, God subjected the creation to futility, and

the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22–23)

We know ourselves to be children through the Spirit’s testimony. Yet we still wait for the public formality and revealing. Yes, we are heirs, but still to come is our full inheritance. In the meanwhile, we groan. In this life, we navigate seasons and sequences of pain. At times (if not often), we come to forks in the road where we don’t even know how to pray — whether to be spared pain or to endure it faithfully, whether for respite from our groanings or holy persistence in them.

“Hidden and enigmatic as the Spirit may seem, he is not some silent force but a revealing, speaking, leading Person.”

Here, amazingly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness: “The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). In the agonies and complexities of this age, we come wordless before God, unable even to articulate the heart of our sighs and groans. “We do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Romans 8:26). And oh, what comfort in these moments to have God himself at work in us praying to God for us. Beyond our ability to ask as we ought and even articulate our prayers, the Spirit appeals to the Father for our everlasting good.

Christ’s intercession for us (Romans 8:34) is outside of us, in heaven, where he sits at the Father’s right hand, having accomplished his atoning work and risen again to make good on it through his life. The Spirit’s intercession is in us, prompting us to pray and empowering our prayers (Ephesians 6:18; Jude 20). The Spirit is not only deep in God (1 Corinthians 2:10) but also deep in us (Romans 8:26–27) — which leads to a third Spirit-glory in Romans 8, perhaps the most astounding of all.

Indwelling: He Lives in Us

In Romans 8, and elsewhere in the New Testament, we find a bundle of mind-bending claims about God himself and Christ dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit. Paul hammers it on repeat in verses 9–11:

The Spirit of God dwells in you. [You] have the Spirit of Christ. . . . Christ is in you. . . . The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you . . . his Spirit . . . dwells in you.

In case you missed it: if you are in Christ, you have the Spirit. You have him. He dwells in you. God himself has taken up residence, as it were, in your body and soul — in you. In a way that was not part and parcel of God’s first covenant with Israel, the risen and glorified Christ has given his Spirit to new-covenant Christians (John 7:38–39).

Our having the Spirit (Romans 8:9, 23) does not mean we own and control him. He also has us. He is in us, and we are in him (Romans 8:5, 9). He is sent into our hearts (Galatians 4:6), given to us (Romans 5:5), supplied to us (Galatians 3:5), and not just once but continually (Ephesians 1:17; 1 Thessalonians 4:8). And through faith, we receive him (Romans 8:15). So, as Paul repeats elsewhere, the Spirit dwells in us (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:14). This is what it means to have “Christ in you” (Romans 8:10; Colossians 1:27).

God Only Knows

If you are a Christian — if you claim Jesus as Lord and delight in him, and he is transforming you — consider what you’d be without the Spirit, without his opening your eyes and giving you a new heart and new desires. Without his still, quiet, daily promptings and leadings. Without his ongoing supply of spiritual life to your soul. Without his sealing and keeping your heart from your still-indwelling sin.

Jude 19 mentions those “devoid of the Spirit.” We get some glimpses as to what at least some people without the Spirit look like: scoffers, who speak up to put the truth down; those who follow their own ungodly passions and cause divisions; in short, “worldly people” (Jude 18–19). If that’s not you, if you are different, what has made you different? Might it be the Holy Spirit? However little you realize it and stay conscious of it, your life, from the smallest details to the biggest, is pervaded by the reality of having the Spirit. God only knows what you’d be without him.

Numerous Things He Does

Best of all, do you trust and treasure Jesus and love to speak of him? As Fred Sanders so helpfully observes, “The people most influenced by the Holy Spirit are usually the ones with the most to say about Jesus Christ” (The Holy Spirit, 3). He also quotes Thomas Goodwin, that the Spirit “is that Person that leadeth us out of ourselves unto the grace of God the Father, and the peace and satisfaction made by Jesus Christ” (21). Have you been led out of yourself to lean on the grace of God? The Spirit does that. Have you ever experienced peace in Christ? The Spirit did that. Have you enjoyed satisfaction in Jesus? The Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit.

In him, we receive the washing of regeneration (1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:5), the righteousness of justification (Romans 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Timothy 3:16), and the holiness of sanctification (Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2).

He teaches us (1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; John 6:45) and gives us spiritual life and energy (1 Corinthians 12:11; Ephesians 3:16).

We worship in the Spirit (Philippians 3:3).

He gives us love for others (Colossians 1:9), joy (Romans 14:17; 15:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:6), peace (Romans 14:17; 15:13) — indeed all “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22–23).

He fills us with hope (Romans 15:13; Galatians 5:5), stirs our hunger for God, and turns our attention to “the things of the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 8:5), rather than sinful distractions.

He seals us (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30) and keeps us faithful to guard the gospel (2 Timothy 1:14).

In him, we also enjoy “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 4:3–4; Philippians 2:1; Hebrews 6:4) with others who have the same Spirit in them.

“It is characteristic of the doctrine of the work of the Spirit,” says Sanders, “that it is expressed in lists, wonderfully various lists of numerous things the Holy Spirit does” (162).

We can scarcely trace the “numerous things” he does in and for us. For born-again Christians, the Spirit’s work in our lives, in our thoughts, in our desires, in our wills, is far deeper and more expansive than we can even sense. To receive him, to have him, is to walk in a newness of life that touches and affects everything — yet in such a way that doesn’t keep the spotlight always on him.

Talking about the Spirit is admittedly tricky. But oh, how grateful we might be to have him! We can live in the holy confidence that the supernatural Helper dwells in us. How awesome to have the Holy Spirit.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org

I have only a suggestion for today. Living in and by the Spirit of God could be followed up with abiding in Christ. Read the gospel of John chapter 15 today and strive to abide in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit within you!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 19, 2024

Notes of Faith October 19, 2024

If My People: Pray and Seek My Face

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

Many biblical scholars think of 2 Chronicles 7:14 as the greatest formula for revival ever written. Regional and national revivals occur in the church with God’s people who are called by His name. We must humble ourselves, pray, and seek His face.

John Piper wrote, “Seeking the Lord means seeking his presence. ‘Presence’ is a common translation of the Hebrew word ‘face.’ Literally, we are to seek his ‘face.’ But this is the Hebraic way of having access to God. To be before his face is to be in his presence.”1

The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles tell us to “seek the Lord and His strength…evermore” (1 Chronicles 16:11), “to seek out all the commandments of…God” (1 Chronicles 28:8), and to set and to prepare our hearts to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 11:16 and 12:14). The hearts of all those who seek the Lord are to rejoice (1 Chronicles 16:10).

Seeking God through prayer is serious business. Let’s not neglect it!

Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan.

John Bunyan

1. John Piper, “What Does It Mean to Seek the Lord?,” Desiring God, August 19, 2009.

What Does It Mean to Seek the Lord?

Article by John Piper

Founder & Teacher, Desiring God

Seeking the Lord means seeking his presence. “Presence” is a common translation of the Hebrew word “face.” Literally, we are to seek his “face.” But this is the Hebraic way of having access to God. To be before his face is to be in his presence.

But aren’t his children always in his presence? Yes and no. Yes in two senses: First, in the sense that God is omnipresent and therefore always near everything and everyone. He holds everything in being. His power is ever-present in sustaining and governing all things.

And second, yes, he is always present with his children in the sense of his covenant commitment to always stand by us and work for us and turn everything for our good. “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

When He’s Not with Us

But there is a sense in which God’s presence is not with us always. For this reason, the Bible repeatedly calls us to “seek the Lord . . . seek his presence continually” (Psalm 105:4). God’s manifest, conscious, trusted presence is not our constant experience. There are seasons when we become neglectful of God and give him no thought and do not put trust in him and we find him “unmanifested” — that is, unperceived as great and beautiful and valuable by the eyes of our hearts.

His face — the brightness of his personal character — is hidden behind the curtain of our carnal desires. This condition is always ready to overtake us. That is why we are told to “seek his presence continually.” God calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of his supreme greatness and beauty and worth.

What It Means to Seek

This happens through “seeking.” Continual seeking. But what does that mean practically? Both the Old and New Testaments say it is a “setting of the mind and heart” on God. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God.

Now set your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God. (1 Chronicles 22:19)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:1–2)

A Conscious Choice

This setting of the mind is the opposite of mental coasting. It is a conscious choice to direct the heart toward God. This is what Paul prays for the church: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5). It is a conscious effort on our part. But that effort to seek God is a gift from God.

We do not make this mental and emotional effort to seek God because he is lost. That’s why we would seek a coin or a sheep. But God is not lost. Nevertheless, there is always something through which or around which we must go to meet him consciously. This going through or around is what seeking is. He is often hidden. Veiled. We must go through mediators and around obstacles.

“God calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of his supreme greatness and beauty and worth.”

The heavens are telling the glory of God. So we can seek him through that. He reveals himself in his word. So we can seek him through that. He shows himself to us in the evidences of grace in other people. So we can seek him through that. The seeking is the conscious effort to get through the natural means to God himself — to constantly set our minds toward God in all our experiences, to direct our minds and hearts toward him through the means of his revelation. This is what seeking God means.

Obstacles to Avoid

And there are endless obstacles that we must get around in order to see him clearly, and so that we can be in the light of his presence. We must flee spiritually dulling activities. We must run from them and get around them. They are blocking our way.

We know what makes us vitally sensitive to God’s appearances in the world and in the word. And we know what dulls us and blinds us and makes us not even want to seek him. These things we must move away from and go around if we would see God. That is what seeking God involves.

And as we direct our minds and hearts Godward in all our experiences, we cry out to him. This too is what seeking him means.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. (Isaiah 55:6)

If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy . . . (Job 8:5)

Seeking involves calling and pleading. “O Lord, open my eyes. O Lord, pull back the curtain of my own blindness. Lord, have mercy and reveal yourself. I long to see your face.”

Humility Essential

The great obstacle to seeking the Lord is pride. “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him” (Psalm 10:4). Therefore, humility is essential to seeking the Lord.

The great promise to those who seek the Lord is that he will be found. “If you seek him, he will be found by you” (1 Chronicles 28:9). And when he is found, there is great reward. “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God himself is our greatest reward. And when we have him, we have everything. Therefore, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalm 105:4).

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.

I believe that ALL of the Scriptures were written for application to all who read it and learn from its truth, God’s righteous commands, even those things spoken to Israel as a nation or specific people throughout the Word of God. The spiritual implications do not change. God does not change.

If My people…are you one of His people? Will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways…humility is difficult, pride is easy. We want to take care of everything in life ourselves, even the things that are totally out of our control. Seeking the face, the presence of God, is required because only God can answer every issue in life. Striving to live in the presence of God, (who is always there and available) is describes the life of Enoch…he walked with God. All of mankind sins. Enoch was a sinner and yet Scripture tells us that he walked with God. My understanding is that he sought the face of God continually. His mind was set on things above, not on the things of earth. As we pray to God we should worship Him, ask for His eternal kingdom to come, followed by true repentance for our sin and wandering away from the presence of God. God hears every prayer. Spiritual revival starts in the heart of each person. Faith and trust in God is infectious and can spread to friends and neighbors, throughout a church, community, state and nation…but it starts in the heart of one seeking the face of God.

Are you that one this morning? I know this devotion was long. I have been praying that you would read it and consider taking the time today to seek the face of God, seek to stay focused on Him and heavenly things as you go through today’s tasks. I can think of no greater blessing than “walking with God.” The reward is eternal, the blessing continual. Join me as I strive to seek the face of God today and every day…

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 18, 2024

Notes of Faith October 18, 2024

In Our Element

Happy are the people who know the joyful shout; Lord, they walk in the light from your face.

Psalm 89:15, CSB

A. W. Tozer said, “The people of God ought to be the happiest people in all the wide world! People should be coming to us constantly and asking the source of our joy and delight.” Charles Spurgeon felt the same way, writing, “God made human beings as He made His other creatures, to be happy…. They are in their right element when they are happy.”

Ps 89:11-18

11 The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;

The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.

12 The north and the south, You have created them;

Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name.

13 You have a mighty arm;

Strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand.

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;

Mercy and truth go before Your face.

15 Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!

They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance.

16 In Your name they rejoice all day long,

And in Your righteousness they are exalted.

17 For You are the glory of their strength,

And in Your favor our horn is exalted.

18 For our shield belongs to the Lord,

And our king to the Holy One of Israel.

One day the world will be filled with joy when Christ returns. Isaac Watts wrote, “Joy to the World,” which is actually based on the Millennial passage of Psalm 98 about the Second Coming. But we don’t have to wait for the return of Christ to be happy. He lives in, among, and through us right now by His Spirit. Choose happiness today!

Francis of Assisi said, “Let us leave sadness to the devil and his angels. As for us, what can we be but rejoicing and glad!” And Jonathan Edwards added, “He has created man for this very end, to make him happy in the enjoyment of himself, the Almighty, who was happy from the days of eternity in himself.”

Man is more himself…when joy is the fundamental thing in him.

G. K. Chesterton

The saying, “Don’t worry, be happy,” takes on a whole new meaning when the source is God! It is not flippant. It is not wishful thinking. It is a sure hope and trust in God who will bring honor and glory to those He chooses to pour out His love and eternal life. If you are one of those…be filled with His joy today. He is working in and through all things to bring you to perfection, to bring you to Himself, changed, transformed, perfect, to be the bride of Christ and share His Kingdom forevermore!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 17, 2024

Notes of Faith October 17, 2024

A River Glorious

I will extend peace to her like a river.

Isaiah 66:12

Frances Ridley Havergal was a popular singer, devotional writer, and British hymnist. One of her most well-known songs says: “Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace, over all victorious in its bright increase.” Her imagery and inspiration came from the book of Isaiah.

Isa 66:12-13

12 For thus says the Lord:

"Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,

and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;

and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,

and bounced upon her knees.

13 As one whom his mother comforts,

so I will comfort you;

you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Writing about the Millennial reign of Christ, Isaiah said, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream” (Isaiah 66:12). Christ will establish global peace for the world just as He gives us His inner peace now. Havergal knew another verse from Isaiah too—Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.” Her chorus says: “Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest, finding, as he promised, perfect peace and rest.”

War has been with us since the days of Cain and Abel, but it isn’t eternal. One day God’s peace will flow through the world like a river. But even now, it can flow through our hearts when our minds are stayed on Him. Claim His perfect peace in your situation today.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand, never foe can follow, never traitor stand.

Frances Havergal

Perfect peace is coming, though it may look impossible to us now. The Sovereign Lord will return to claim all that belongs to Him, His creation, His people, and all will live together with Him in perfect peace! As this world fights for many and various selfish reasons, it is hard to imagine this perfect peace, but Jesus is closer to returning than He has ever been! Each day, even moment appears to fulfill prophecy of His soon coming. Be prepared. Do the work God has given you until the moment of His return, or until you can work no more. He knows and will bring you home to be with Him forever! Look up, for you redemption draws near!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 16, 2024

Notes of Faith October 16, 2024

Don’t Get Down!

Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child. Isaiah 65:20

One elderly man said to another, “I’m so old that my blood type has been discontinued.” The other replied, “Yes, but you can’t let aging get you down. It’s too hard to get back up!”

Isa 65:17-25

17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;

And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.

18 "But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;

For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing

And her people for gladness.

19 "I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people;

And there will no longer be heard in her

The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.

20 "No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,

Or an old man who does not live out his days;

For the youth will die at the age of one hundred

And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred

Will be thought accursed.

21 "They will build houses and inhabit them;

They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22 "They will not build and another inhabit,

They will not plant and another eat;

For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,

And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.

23 "They will not labor in vain,

Or bear children for calamity;

For they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord,

And their descendants with them.

24 "It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 "The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the Lord.

We laugh about getting older, and we take great comfort in God’s promise to care for us all our days. The Bible says, “Even to your old age and gray hairs…I am he who will sustain you” (Isaiah 46:4, NIV).

Yet there are two things better than living to a ripe old age. The first is living to be hundreds of years old; the other is enjoying eternal life. Both blessings will be present during the Golden Age. When Jesus sets up His Kingdom, lifespans will return to the patterns we see early in Genesis—hundreds of years. Meanwhile, those who have been raptured and resurrected will have ageless, glorified, eternal bodies.

Today is only the most recent installment in a life that never ends. Enjoy it!

The Second Coming of Christ will be so revolutionary that it will change every aspect of life on this planet.

Billy Graham

There is coming a day when we (believers and followers of Jesus) will be made new. We will not be old. We will never wear out, be weary, worn out, or broken. God will not just heal but make us perfect to dwell with Him. We must then be without sin! The world will be so different, but more beautiful than we could possibly imagine. Keep looking up…your redemption is near!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 15, 2024

Notes of Faith October 15, 2024

Return to Eden

Isa 11:6-9

6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,

And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;

And a little boy will lead them.

7 Also the cow and the bear will graze,

Their young will lie down together,

And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,

And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.

9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

As the waters cover the sea.

“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.

Isaiah 65:25

In the “kingdom” of Eden, peace prevailed. In fact, that peace existed both among humans and animals. There was apparently no hostility between humans and animals in Eden (Genesis 2:19-20); animals were not even part of the human diet (Genesis 1:29). But after sin entered the world, that peace disappeared as the rule in creation. Violence became the norm for both man and beast (Genesis 6:5-8).

But peace will return when the Prince of Peace rules the world: “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). Natural enemies like wolves and lambs, leopards and goats, and lions and calves will exist harmoniously together. Even a child will play with a deadly snake (Isaiah 11:6-8). Just as peace was the norm in Eden, so peace will be the norm in Christ’s Kingdom on earth.

Until that day, let us fulfill our stewardship responsibilities towards God’s creation that He has entrusted to us.

I can’t wait. Although it is my understanding from the Word of God that Jesus returns to take His church out of this world before the full weight of God’s wrath falls on this world. Then, seven years later when Jesus returns to establish His Kingdom on earth, all of the things in Isaiah mentioned at the beginning of this devotion will be true. Peace on earth, because the Prince of peace rules the world!

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 14, 2024

Notes of Faith October 14, 2024

Growing Wise as We Grow Old

How Hardship Teaches Us to Hope

Article by Jon Bloom

Staff writer, Desiring God

I just attended my fortieth high school reunion. It feels a bit surreal to write that. Forty years have passed already? It’s another reminder of my recent reflections: our lives are very brief, briefer than we’d like to think.

I remember graduation day like it was yesterday: all of us a mere seventeen or eighteen years old, and most of us feeling a flush of euphoria as we stood together for a moment at that milestone, on the very brink of adulthood, full of hopes and dreams.

Now most of us are older than our parents were when we graduated high school — in fact, a significant number of us are grandparents — which made our reunion somewhat bizarre to experience. Photos of us from our high school years played on the monitors in the venue as we reconnected with old friends and acquaintances, all of us now with thinning, graying hair and our bodies showing the tolls that gravity, solar radiation, and changing metabolisms have taken as we’re rapidly approaching our culture’s retirement age.

But those aren’t the only tolls we’ve paid. We’ve also experienced, in different ways and to differing extents, the universal reality that Moses spoke of when he wrote,

The years of our life are seventy,

or even by reason of strength eighty;

yet their span is but toil and trouble. (Psalm 90:10)

We’ve discovered that life not only passes faster than we expected; it’s also harder than we expected.

“Life not only passes faster than we expected; it’s also harder than we expected.”

I know this all sounds a bit depressing. But our hope has to be real hope if it’s going to sustain us through real life, not the illusory hope of the mirage-like dreams my classmates and I likely had when we graduated. Real hope is only realized when we come to terms with the dismaying reality we all face in this age. Truly facing it is what forges in us “a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12), the kind of heart that Psalm 90 teaches how to cultivate.

Why We Are Dismayed

It’s actually heartening that Moses, one of the godliest people to walk the earth, one who grounded his hope in God and his promises, was dismayed by his experience and observation of life — just like we often are. But in this psalm, he doesn’t take a shortcut to hope. His real hope is grounded in the reality of the human condition. Which is why we first hear him lament the end we all face: death.

Dismayed by the Dread of Death

Moses cuts right to the chase when he says,

You return man to dust

and say, “Return, O children of man!” (Psalm 90:3)

We all dread death. We dread it for myriad reasons, but underneath all others is a primal root reason: death is God’s judgment on sinful humanity, and we intuitively know God’s judgment is dreadful. When Moses prays, “You return man to dust,” we can see he’s in touch with reality because he’s quoting God’s words back to him:

You [shall] return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust,

and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:19)

Perhaps you and I will be among those alive when Jesus returns, and we will experience our mortal bodies being “swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). I imagine every saint since Jesus’s resurrection has hoped and prayed for that experience. But there is wisdom to be gained from pondering the significant likelihood that someday soon — bewilderingly soon — God will say to us, “Return, O child of man.”

Dismayed by God’s Anger

Then Moses delves into the core of our dread of the judgment of death:

For we are brought to an end by your anger;

by your wrath we are dismayed.

You have set our iniquities before you,

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days pass away under your wrath;

we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

The years of our life are seventy,

or even by reason of strength eighty;

yet their span is but toil and trouble;

they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger,

and your wrath according to the fear of you? (Psalm 90:7–11)

For those of us living on this side of Jesus’s substitutionary work on the cross, these words can sound confusing and disturbing. Didn’t Jesus pay it all for us? And if so, in what way are we still under God’s wrath? Here is where we, as believers, find the ground for real hope.

Hope in Our Dismay

Moses’s description of our dismay over our toil and trouble reminds us of the mysterious experience of living in the already–not yet kingdom of God. For when Jesus died, he did pay the full price for the sins of all saints past, present, and future.

God put forward [Jesus] as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins [of former saints]. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25–26)

Jesus’s death “delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10), so that when we “appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10) we will not stand condemned (Romans 8:1). Rather, we receive “the free gift [of] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

But in this age, until Jesus returns, we still endure the wretched experience of living in a body where sin dwells in our members (Romans 7:23–25). We still suffer the toil and trouble of living in a world subjected to futility, along with the groaning that comes with it (Romans 8:20). And we still suffer the dreadful experience of the death of our bodies. In other words, we still experience the same kind of dismaying sorrows Moses lamented.

“Life not only passes faster than we expected; it’s also harder than we expected.”

But for those who have ears to hear, there is gospel in this profoundly sober part of Moses’s prayer. When he prays, “Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?” (Psalm 90:11), the answer is that the believing saint does. For those who trust in Jesus, our fallen bodies, our toil and trouble, and our approaching death cause us to consider the reality of God’s judgment and see that they all point to the gospel hope — the same hope Moses had, even if he saw it only in copies and shadows (Hebrews 8:5).

For believing saints, these sorrows cause us to lay up our treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:20), to fight our remaining sin with all our might (Romans 6:12), to sojourn as “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13), to share with others the hope we have (1 Peter 3:15), and to ultimately view death, however we may dread experiencing it, as gain (Philippians 1:21).

Teach Us to Number Our Days

On that happy June evening in 1984 when my classmates and I celebrated our high school graduation, not only did we not comprehend how fast our lives would pass; we didn’t comprehend how difficult our lives would be. We know much better now.

But that doesn’t mean we all have cultivated a heart of wisdom. Not all my classmates have a hope grounded in the sobering explanation of why our days are so brief and so full of trouble. Not all have considered the power of God’s anger and his wrath according to the fear of him. O God, have mercy! Open their eyes that they may consider these things and be delivered from the wrath to come!

But for those of us who have put our hope in God, it is good for our souls to continue to consider these things seriously — even, with Moses, to the point of lament. Because feeling the weight of our fleeting days and troubled lives can teach us to number our days and so teach our hearts wisdom. It also can teach us to feel more fully the joy that is set before us (Hebrews 12:2) and to be filled “with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit [we] may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

To know God and receive eternal life from Him is to experience wisdom. In this life we all have tribulation, but Jesus said, take courage, I have overcome the world. In Christ, we too, will overcome the world and walk into the world prepared for us to live with God forever!

Pastor Dale

Notes of Faith October 13, 2024

Notes of Faith October 13, 2024

Sink Your Teeth into This

Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! — 1 Samuel 12:16 NIV

When you think about a shark, probably one of the first things you imagine is its teeth! More than 400 species of sharks are in the world, and they all have teeth! Lots and lots of them. That’s because they also lose lots and lots of those teeth... as they rip and tear into their prey. Yikes! Sharks would quickly starve without their teeth, so God gave them a unique teeth-replacement system.

Sharks’ teeth are arranged in rows in their mouths, one behind the other. Some sharks have “only” 5 rows of teeth, but others, like the bull shark, have 50 rows! These rows basically act like conveyor belts. When one tooth is lost, another tooth from the row behind it pushes for- ward to take its place.

*

You can always trust Him to take care of you!

Be Amazed

Sharks are born with a full set of teeth, unlike humans, who are born toothless! Sharks’ teeth vary in shape, depending on the type of shark and what it eats. For example, the shortfin mako shark has razorlike teeth for tearing, while the zebra shark has flat teeth for crushing the shells of the mollusks it likes to eat.

Sharks aren’t the only creatures God takes care of in unique ways. He comes up with some pretty unusual ways to take care of His people too. Think about the Israelites who wandered and camped out in a desertlike wilderness for 40 years. Their shoes and clothes never wore out!

Then there was Elijah — God fed him by sending ravens carrying bread and meat. And the widow of Zarephath? Even in the middle of a terrible famine, her jars of oil and flour never ran out. What a miracle! Many more examples of God’s miraculous protection are in the Bible. The point of them all is that God takes care of His people, sometimes in amazing, creative, and miraculous ways. So you can always trust Him to take care of you. Just watch and see what creative ways He does it!

Lord God, You are amazing in all the different ways You take care of Your creation. Open my eyes to see how You take care of me.

Excerpted from Indescribable by Louie Giglio, copyright Louie Giglio.

We all need care, even those A type alpha personalities that believe they have the world by the tail and are in control of everything in their lives! Thoughts, emotions, body aches, frailties, and disease all need care. We were made for community. Even God, though One, lives in a community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We need God! We need one another that He has given us to meet the needs of life. Trust God and His working through others to care for you!

Pastor Dale