News from August 2009
What if someone knew everything about you?
Posted on August 26, 2009 by Pastor Tom
If someone knew absolutely everything about you, do you think they’d change their opinion about you? I was studying that most famous love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. You know “Love is patient, love is kind. .” But I was in the “unfamous part.” Near the end of the unfamous part, the author (Apostle Paul) writes this statement “Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
“Then” refers to the end of time when Christ comes back and ushers in the new age. He points to some sort of greater knowing that will be given at that point. But the last phrase really got me – “even as I am fully known.” Who knew Paul fully, completely and totally? God!
How would you feel about someone who knew you fully? I mean, I don’t even know myself fully. I let other people know a little bit about me. My wife knows much more about me than most people (and still stays with me – thanks L!) But I spend a lot of time ensuring others see the best part of me and don’t see the worst side. I honestly don’t want others to know me fully.
Yet God already does. “Even as I am fully known.” Not “even as I one day will be known.” But “even as I am fully and completely known by God today!” And despite all that God knows about me, He continues to love me and do His good work in me.
Whoa! That’s scary, amazing and humbling. God can handle who we really are! And He still calls to us, invites us to Himself and loves us.
Multi-tasking - a good thing?
Posted on August 25, 2009 by Pastor Tom
Texting, Twittering, Facebook, Email, Talking on cellphones and driving. Do you admire someone who has the “ability” to do all this almost simultaneously? Is multitasking super-wonderful? Or might it actually detract from us really accomplishing anything?
Check out this link for some very interesting discoveries:
Gotta get back to my message, email, meeting, letters, study and voice mail now! :)
The Gift of Life
Posted on August 20, 2009 by Pastor Tom
In the past week, I have heard about the death of our former school president’s wife, the tragic accident taking the lives of a missionary father and daughter, the death of a nearly full term baby in the womb and the pending death of someone we’ve been praying for in our church family. These realities remind me to treasure each day of life.
Yes, I have troubles. But I also have life, health, strength, family, clean water, cars that work, food in my fridge and choices about the use of my time today. I was born into a family and country where I wouldn’t have to haul water 6 hours a day to keep my family going. Instead I could expend all that energy on development, education and other activities. I earned none of this!
And my greatest treasure is the Lord. He has shown me a love far beyond my comprehension. Jesus sacrificed Himself for me so that I might not only have physical life but spiritual life.
Life is no small gift. May you (re)discover the treasures in your life today!
Life ain't easy
Posted on August 19, 2009 by Pastor Tom
Sometimes I get mad when I suffer. I look around and see others who apparently aren’t suffering anything. I wonder what I have done to “deserve” this? But I need to constantly challenge my unrealistic expectation of a “suffering-free existence.” I subscribe to Joni Earekson’s daily thought. She comes from a very different perspective. She’s been a quadriplegic since she was 17. She needs someone to turn her at night, dress her and do her hair. She helps me regain perspective during the tough times. Here’s her thought for today.
Life Ain’t Easy
We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.
—Acts 14:22
Everyone who takes the Bible seriously, and many who don’t, agree that God hates suffering. Jesus spent much of his short life relieving it. Scores of passages tell us to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit inmates, and speak up for the helpless. When we feel compassion for people in distress, we know that God felt it first. He shows this by raising sick people from their beds—sometimes to the wonder of doctors, in answer to prayer. Every day he grants childless women babies, pulls small-business owners out of financial pits, protects Alzheimer’s patients crossing the street, and writes happy endings to sad situations. Even when he has to punish sin, he says it gives him no pleasure (Ezekiel 18:32). In heaven, Eden’s curse will be canceled. Sighs and longings will be historical curiosities. Tears will evaporate. Tissue companies will go broke.
But it simply doesn’t follow that God’s only relationship to suffering is to relieve it. He specifically says that all who follow him can expect hardship. But didn’t Jesus hang on a cross so we wouldn’t have to suffer hell? Yes, but not so we wouldn’t have to suffer here—on earth. Listen to the Bible on this:
“I will show [Paul] how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16).
“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ… to suffer for him… ” (Philippians 1:29).
- * * * *
The Bible goes even further. After calling Christians “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” it adds—“if indeed we share in his sufferings.” In other words, no one goes to Christ’s heaven who doesn’t first share Christ’s sufferings. Do you think you should be exempt from suffering? Listen to this final word from Hebrews 5:8, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered…” This week, purpose in your heart to be no greater than your Master. If he suffered, you can expect it too.
May I learn obedience through the hard thing I’m going through right now, God.
Why a "private Christian faith" is a contradiction
Posted on August 18, 2009 by Pastor Tom
It is very common today for people to affirm our faith if we keep it private or for us to think we’re doing pretty good if we prayed once today. But the Christian faith was never meant to be kept private. That’s because the Gospel was to have world transforming impact. Rich Stearns, in his book “The Hole in our Gospel” makes this plain.
“Being a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world.”
“We are the carriers of the gospel – the good news that was meant to change the world. Belief is not enough. Worship is not enough. Personal morality is not enough. And Christian community is not enough. God has always demanded more.”
“When we committed ourselves to following Christ, we also committed to living out lives in such a way that a watching world would catch a glimpse of God’s character – His love, justice and mercy – through our words, actions and behavior. . . . God chose us to be His representatives. He called us to go out and proclaim the “good news” – to be the “good news” – and to change the world. Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.”
Thoughts?
The Gospel for non-Christians AND Christians
Posted on August 17, 2009 by Pastor Tom
Check out this article on the Christian’s continual need for the Gospel.
Tullian Tchividjian on The Gospel for Everyday Life. http://www.crpc.org/blog/?p=708
A colleague of mine from my Wisconsin study group says
“The best post I’ve read in the past couple of weeks: Tullian Tchividjian on The Gospel for Everyday Life.”
This is what I’ve been trying to get across in the “Love” series. We can’t just pick up and love. We need Christ and the Holy Spirit to empower and enable us to love this way.
PT
The Lost Art of Reading
Posted on August 15, 2009 by Pastor Tom
Blogger Justin Taylor quotes an article on the decline in reading.
The Lost Art of Reading
from Between Two Worlds by JT
David Ulin, book editor at the LA Times, has an important article that articulates something I have been feeling recently, namely the slow erosion of “the ability to still my mind long enough to inhabit someone else’s world, and to let that someone else inhabit mine.” He writes:
Reading is an act of contemplation, perhaps the only act in which we allow ourselves to merge with the consciousness of another human being. We possess the books we read, animating the waiting stillness of their language, but they possess us also, filling us with thoughts and observations, asking us to make them part of ourselves. This is what Conroy was hinting at in his account of adolescence, the way books enlarge us by giving direct access to experiences not our own. In order for this to work, however, we need a certain type of silence, an ability to filter out the noise.
Such a state is increasingly elusive in our over-networked culture, in which every rumor and mundanity is blogged and tweeted. Today, it seems it is not contemplation we seek but an odd sort of distraction masquerading as being in the know. Why? Because of the illusion that illumination is based on speed, that it is more important to react than to think, that we live in a culture in which something is attached to every bit of time.
. . . What I’m struggling with is the encroachment of the buzz, the sense that there is something out there that merits my attention, when in fact it’s mostly just a series of disconnected riffs and fragments that add up to the anxiety of the age.
Are others out there experiencing something similar? If so, what are you doing to swim against the information stream?
When life gets overwhelming
Posted on August 14, 2009 by Pastor Tom
Sometimes, my desk is overloaded with things to do and my mind is overwhelmed with people in need or decisions to make. In times like that, I need to go to Psalm 131.
“My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child (me) with its mother (God),
Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel (Tom), put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.”
May God grant you His wisdom today to know your part and the “too wonderful” things you need to leave in His hands.
Why we need protection from God.
Posted on August 12, 2009 by Pastor Tom
God is certainly my protector. I seldom thought about my need for protection FROM Him. But God is holy, pure and all-powerful. I cannot just enter His presence on our own. I learned this by reading about close encounters humans had with God in the Bible. Ezekiel was given a special glimpse of God’s glory and presence. But at the end of his encounter with God, Ezekiel 3:15 tells us “I sat for seven days, overwhelmed.” After Daniel encountered God, he “was exhausted and lay ill for several days,” (Daniel 8:27)
God is so far beyond me, so deep in holiness, so awesome in power that I cannot bear His presence on my own because of my own sinfulness and frailty. But He didn’t leave it like that. He poured out His just wrath for my sin onto Jesus on the cross. So when I put all my trust in Jesus, God not only saved me from hell, He took off my filthy rags of a sinful life and clothed me with the perfect robe of Jesus’ life. So when I talk with God now, I won’t be sick for days because I’m covered!
When I do see Him face to face, somehow I’ll be able to bear His presence. (But I think I’ll still be pretty overwhelmed!).
The son of man and THE SON OF MAN
Posted on August 11, 2009 by Pastor Tom
I was reading in Ezekiel 2 this morning. The Lord says to Ezekiel “Son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you.” That must have been a scary moment for Ezekiel. In fact, he reveals that God’s Spirit entered him and set him on his feet. Perhaps he was so weak in the presence of God, He needed God’s help to stand up.
When God calls Ezekiel “son of man,” it means “person, human being” and emphasizes the prophet’s frailty and humanity compared to the Glorious God. But in the Gospels, Jesus is called “son of man” 81 times. However, Jesus was not calling attention to His frailty. He was the Son of Man who came from heaven to earth and then ascended back to heaven. That glorious moment is described in Daniel 7:13–14. Today, Jesus, in a resurrected human body, the Son of Man, rules the universe from the right hand of God.
This is incredible news for us. We weak sons and daughters of man have THE SON OF MAN on our side. He prays for us, watches over us and empowers us through the Spirit to live and act in ways honoring to God. In those moments when our weakness is especially apparent we can turn to the all powerful SON OF MAN with whatever troubles us today.
Recapturing the Vision
Posted on August 5, 2009 by Pastor Tom
Sometimes life’s troubles blur our vision of God. A devastating diagnosis; a phone call bearing bad news; restructuring at the office; a visit from the police; a call from the principal; all can dominate our thinking and field of vision. We can become consumed with that bit of news or that problem before us. During those times it is critical to spend time recapturing a clear vision of who God is. One way I do this is to visit Bible passages where people saw something of God like Isaiah 6, Daniel 7, Revelation 1 and Revelation 4.
This morning I read Ezekiel 1. Ezekiel says he saw “visions of God.” After describing four living creatures, he gets to God in v. 22–28. Her writes “I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.” Ezekiel had a hard time describing whom he saw. Yet he did his best.
Our God is that one full of fire and surrounded by brilliant light. He continues to reign and rule even in troubles. If you’re vision of God has been blocked by something today, you can recapture some of it by going to Ezekiel 1. Then look back at your troubles knowing this same God is in control.