For I am With You

Much has been going on in the last few days. Friends suffering with personal issues, the death of a relative, cancer, and at times like these I feel useless. So my typical response is to say and do nothing, mostly because I don’t know what to say or do.

One thing I am certain of is that I can pray and I can turn to the Word. While doing that I came across a passage in Acts that just brought so much comfort to me, but also could lend comfort to anyone struggling in any way!

Acts 18:9-10
9One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."
Isn’t that amazing; no matter what we can trust in Christ for he is with us. It is a question of faith and trust. We find these words throughout the Old Testament as well and John Stott in his commentary on Acts calls this the “greatest of all encouragements”.

Taking it a step further we can certainly by faith come to understand this issue of truly trusting God. Jerry Bridges wrote a great book called “Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts” and in it he says “In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense.” You have to think about that for a while. He goes on to say someone he knew expressed it this way; “God in His love wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.” That is somehow so very encouraging to me.

I think I will go and say or do something – even if it is just being there.

My friends, do not be afraid for He is with you!

Grace and Peace…

Ready? Set? GO!

Just got back from a mini-vacation and it was a great time of rest, relaxation and reflection. We scrambled to get things packed and I had carefully planned to catch up on some reading. I selected several books to bring along; Bible, The Reason for God, The Cross of Christ, The Deliberate Church among others. Those that know me know that as a relatively new Christian, I have this drive to learn as much as possible about this new faith, this new relationship through Christ that I have been graced with. As such, I was really looking forward to this time away.

We begin our journey to a very remote island on the west coast of Florida only accessible by ferry. A little more than half way there I realize that I had failed to pack my book bag (and my laptop). My very considerate wife offered to turn back and the thought really crossed my mind as I was beginning to panic a little. What was I going to do for four days with nothing to read? We are traveling on back roads, but decided to continue on. I was hoping to find a shopping Mecca to buy something to read.

As we get closer to our destination, no shopping was in sight when on the horizon I spot a bright shiny CVS. I just knew that they would have something to read. We storm the store and head directly for the book and magazine rack. No surprise, but there was plenty of typical beach reading, but nothing that struck my theological needs. I start digging through the volumes of fishing magazines and find tucked away a book on clearance. It was called; Living in God’s Love and was Billy Graham’s last three sermons during his New York crusade of 2005. It is a wonderful little book and I left with at least some relief.

I read the book in about 2 hours. It contains some really good thoughts – if you look deep. I kept getting the message that as human as we are, we all strive for things and these things become our obsession; yet when we obtain these things we are still left feeling empty. Tim Keller says that we must continually battle not to let worldly things become our ultimate things. These worldly things can quickly become our ultimate desire, the thing we worship most and that is so dangerous. This is much like my life; at least until very recently and I still struggle with this. I was always after the next big thing; job, raise, car, house…the list goes on.

Reading the book so quickly left me plenty of time for reflection, prayer, thought…just getting in touch with the one thing that should be our ultimate; my very relationship with God through Christ. Sometimes I get so focused on learning and reading that I forget about the relational aspect that is so vital.

Reverend Graham’s last sermon of the crusade was on Sunday June 26, 2005 and was focused on Matthew 24:36-39

36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[a] but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

In his sermon, he asks; "are you ready?" We will not know the day or the hour, but what does it matter. What matters is; are we ready? What is your ultimate? Here is hoping and praying that by God's grace; we get ready!

Grace and Peace

A Good Old Fashioned Barn Raising

Have you noticed the focus of much today is on the individual? Be a better you. Maximize your ability. What’s in it for me? The me generation. I could go on. Really I am not saying we should not “hone our skills”; I am really speaking of the internal motive we all have. I am intrigued and think what we really need is a good old fashioned barn raising. If you look to history, barn raisings were an amazing event; where people would come together each providing a gift or talent, pulling together (not apart) to accomplish something good. To me they were building so much more than a barn. They were building a community; physically and spiritually.

We all have much to offer, if we can somehow get the focus off of us and onto Christ. If we can just realize the ultimate gift of grace He made possible through His ultimate sacrifice. I do struggle with this positioning of the heart; gratitude. Matthew Henry once said; “We receive from the Lord every day the fruits of his mercy. Let us render ourselves; all we are, all we have, all we can do: and after all, what return is it for such very rich receivings?”

I think Romans 12 speaks so clearly to this.

3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[b]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Can we do this? Can we start in our churches, our neighborhoods? Can we do this with the right attitude; and not from an attitude of self justification? John Piper writes on this passage saying; “the opposite of high self-regard is faith in Christ. The opposite of high self-regard is not mainly low-self-regard, though that is a needed starting place in view of our sin and God’s holiness. The opposite of high self-regard is high regard for Christ. The opposite of pride is not paralyzing self-condemnation, but liberating Christ-exaltation. Which means that the best way to use your spiritual gifts is to forget about yourself as your joy in Christ spills over in love to other people.”

Here’s hoping that we can all come with our gracefully provided gifts and that our joy spills over as we build that next barn!

Grace and Peace!