belief | Discipleship at Messiah

Hope Reborn

Posted on 5/6/14 by On the road with Jesus.

“we had hoped”-Luke 24:21a

What a sad text. To loose hope is the bottom of the human spirit. Two followers of Jesus, distraught over his death and confused by reports, had lost hope. And they represent most of Jesus’ followers at that point. They were not gullible, ignorant people as critics suggest but hard-headed realists who needed to be convinced. Even as the risen Jesus walked with them, they did not recognize who he was. Then, gathered with flawed but like-minded followers, Jesus convinced them.

Discouraged, struggling, hurting, at wits end? Join other lovers of Jesus and look for him to show up.

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Doubting?

Posted on 5/6/14 by On the road with Jesus.

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” -John 20:28
Even “Doubting” Thomas believes. It took an encounter with Jesus, but it happened. To meet Jesus changes everything.

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“Thanks Giving Is What You Do”

Posted on 11/27/13 by On the road with Jesus.

Understand what the Lord’s will is…. Speaking. …Sing….always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. –Ephesians 5:17-20

There is a popular story about the writer Rudyard Kipling. In his prime he often wrote for newspapers. He received fifty cents a word for his work. Some Oxford University students were not impressed. One of them sent Kipling fifty cents with a request: “Please send us back one of your very best words.” Kipling cabled back to the student a one-word message: “Thanks.”

Kipling was right. “Thanks” is one of the very best words, especially for a Christian. And to have a day on the calendar set aside to give thanks is more important than we realize. It sometimes gets distorted as “turkey day,” a time for gluttony and football. It seems insignificant compared to Christmas and Easter. But make no mistake; there is no more important activity than giving thanks.

It is the most basic Christian action. Failure to give thanks is the basic charge against the “ungodly” and “wicked in the Bible: “So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” (Romans 1:21) The Apostle Paul tells us all God does for us has a purpose—to increase thanksgiving.

Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (II Cor. 4:15- NRSV)

Thanksgiving is not complete just because we feel grateful. Nor is thanksgiving just a day. It needs to be expressed, through our words and our actions.

Thank you God for Jesus.

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Power AND Love

Posted on 11/22/13 by On the road with Jesus.

More than once I have heard God say that power belongs to him and that his love is constant. –Psalm 62:11,12 b (GN trans)

Recently a young woman came to our church saying she was overwhelmed with life. She thought it hopeless and didn’t see how she could go on.

Do you sometimes feel a little overwhelmed with life? Does it sometimes seem like no matter how hard you try, no matter how many times you overcome particular obstacles, life just keeps relentlessly eroding your strength, your resolve, your confidence? Does it seem to you, that life just becomes more and more complicated and harder to keep together?

Flip Wilson once expressed it this way. “If I had my entire life to live over, I doubt if I’d have the strength.” Dilbert, the comic strip character had this advice: “When you don’t know what to do, walk fast and look worried. Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

Jesus warned his disciples these times would come. He paints a rather gloomy picture of the course of history. We are specifically told that it is not about progress—things aren’t getting better and better. To the contrary, civilization will become more and more dangerous, more and more ungodly, more and more inhuman. Only God’s personal intervention will bring this to an end.

He warned of the threat it poses to our spirit. He described it in terms of its effect on the heart. Hearts will fail for fear. There is the danger of our hearts becoming “weighed down” so much that we would be unable to keep our spiritual perspective and could even be caught unprepared for God’s glorious intervention.

At her request, I prayed with the young woman mentioned earlier. I also shared with her these words from Psalm 62: One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you O God, are strong, and that you O Lord, are loving. It is critical that we hold those two things together. But it is not easy. We tend to either emphasize God’s love or God’s power. Put those two things together and nothing is hopeless. God cares about you and will use his power for your good.

Yes, we live in perilous times for the human spirit. Yet we live in times of unprecedented opportunities and are closer to God’s final victory than any people have ever been.

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Encouraged To Be Disciples

Posted on 8/20/13 by On the road with Jesus.

Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye. -Acts 20:1(NIV)

Some years ago, I attended a conference at Asbury Theological Seminary. I don’t know if the conference leaders had consulted with one another or not. But there was a recurring theme that I didn’t really notice at first.

After the week was over and I returned to the church where I was pastor. And on Monday morning I met the jarring reality of everyday life—Council Meeting, etc. It was a typical Sunday/Monday morning syndrome of pastoral life.

It “so happened” (God’s work) my daily reading was in the book of Acts. And one day something caught my attention: “Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said good-by…”

Something started to stir—first, just a little bubble. I’m dense, but God is equal to the task! Without me knowing it, for two weeks God had been putting something together. The recurring theme—encouraged, strengthened, Barnabus (Son of encouragement?). And then I remembered Jesus’ charge to His disciples, what we call “The Great Commission”: “Make disciples.” But it was the final words: “I’m with you,” which brought it together.

Encouragement of his people is a priority for God. He knows about the Sunday/Monday morning syndrome, the wear and tear of the battle, the discouragement brought by the deceitfulness of sin, the failures of our weakness.

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18)

Encouragement is also a key element in discipleship, both in the being and the making. We tend to loose sight of this element, perhaps in the excitement of new people coming into the church. But later, as the apostles return from their missions, their ministry to the Christians is encouragement.

God’s method of encouragement is that human beings filled with His Spirit, stand with one another to encourage and strengthen. In the book of Hebrews we are told to encourage one another daily (Hebrews 3:13).

Bothers/Sisters God has made provision for Monday morning, for the discouragement that lurks around the corner, for the draining effect of the battle.

That is the primary ministry that we are to have to one another. Any consideration of the way we shape our lives together must keep that in focus.

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“God’s Children Bear A Family Resemblence”

Posted on 7/9/13 by On the road with Jesus.

I John 3:2 we are God’s children now; …we will be like him.

All important events in the life cycle are connected to certain rituals which most of us know and in which we readily share. For instance—when a baby is born:

“Who does she/he look like?”
“He has his Dad’s nose.”
“Her face is shaped just like her mother’s.”

Now, often that is not a fact so much as expectation. We look for and expect a child to resemble its parents and family members. As a child grows it usually exhibits more and more traits of family. It may not be so noticeable to those who see it every day but is often obvious to others.

So when John says we are God’s children, it raises some expectations. If you were reading this in the Greek text, it would say “NOW we are God’s children.” The emphasis is on the “now.” In context, it is clear that those who are trusting Jesus belong to God’s family.

To say we are God’s children has powerful implications. Not the least of which is that it establishes our identity. To know who you are, to have a sense of identity, may well be one of the most important factors in your mental and emotional health. If you do not have a sense of identity, if you do not know who you are, chances are, you have some real problems in your life. This is especially important in our day, because we live in a world where there is a tendency to treat a person as an object, to manipulate a person, to see a person as disposable, to see one as useful only as he/she serves me and my ends.

To have a sense of belonging, to have a sense of identity is also vital to our spiritual health. Often when someone introduces me, they tell my name but add something to that. He’s our neighbor, a pastor at Messiah Church, Alana’s husband. And the less they know me personally, the more likely they are to do that, to identify me by my function, my job.

Probably you have been identified, not by who you are so much, as by some relationship—Joe Blow’s wife or Susie Blow’s husband, or by some job you perform.

But when we say we are God’s children, it establishes our identity, not by our function or even just our relationship but OUR NATURE. The CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT SIMPLY TAKING ORDERS FROM GOD OR EVEN FOLLOWING JESUS’ EXAMPLE. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS LIVING OUT A NEW NATURE, being part of a new kind of people. Obviously as to “behaving like God’s children” most of us have a ways to go. The child is not yet what he/she may become. But the genes are there and with normal growth and development maturity will come.

And we have that amazing promise: “We shall be like Him!” “Not yet but shall be” is essential to being human. There is always the tension between what I am (performance) and what I shall be. As Gordon Allport has said, “All people are in transit.”

Are you anxious to be like Jesus? Keep trusting him and following and it will happen.

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A New Song

Posted on 7/3/13 by On the road with Jesus.

Psalm 40:3- “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.”

How much, how often do you praise God? For most of us (myself included) it’s not nearly enough. Part of reason for that I suspect is that we see praise as motivated by good things happening to us, things going well for us, etc. Certainly it is important that we are grateful and express that. But praise for God goes beyond that. It is an important part of our discipleship.

It is clear from Scripture that praise pleases God. Here are just a few examples:

“For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise” (I Chron.16:25)
Psalm 33:1- “it is fitting for the upright to praise him.”
100:4- “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.”
The last 5 psalms begin and end with “Praise the Lord.”
150:6- “let everything that has breath praise the LORD.”
I Peter 4:11- “so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ”

Praise has a profound effect on us. It makes God real and triggers joy in my heart. Few things so rejuvenates us as to praise God. When the New Testament describes the church it is this way: “We’ll be praising Christ, enjoying each other.”( Phil 1:26 msg) Does that sound like the church you know? What about you personally?

Besides that, it does something to those around us. It makes Jesus attractive. I’m not talking about some of the mindless examples—slogans, or trite phrases that seem artificial and forced. From Charles Wesley’s first hymnbook (1737) this song was sung:

Let every Land their Tongues employ,
And hymns of Triumph sing.
…
Release his Praise with awe profound,
Let Knowledge guide the Song.
Nor mock him with a solemn Sound
Upon a thoughtless Tongue.

Phillipians 1:10-11 reads:

You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. (msg)

It has been said, “God is preparing the whole universe to be an orchestra of praise and adoration to his Son.” (FB Meyer)

I read about the conductor of an orchestra of 500 who missed the piccolo and waited for it.

God is waiting for your voice to join in! Praise the Lord. Let all that have breath praise God.

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Loving Life

Posted on 4/26/13 by On the road with Jesus.

Whoever would love life… -I Peter 3:10

          How important is life to you; to most people? Who wants to die?
The rather normal and expected answers are that everyone (unless something is wrong with them) believes life precious and clings to it.
        So the text which says “whoever wishes to love life” seems strange to us. The suggestion that ordinary, normal, healthy people may not love life is met with disbelief.  Is Peter so out of touch with reality? Or, is he talking to people for whom life is so painful and difficult that anything would be better?
          At first glance, the latter seems to be a likely explanation—these people are in the midst of, or at least facing terrible persecution. This is an underlying theme of the whole letter. Certainly that would be an important message for people for whom life has dealt a cruel hand.
          However, giving that its due credit, when you see the solution he suggests, it becomes clear that this applies to everyone not just a hand-full of persecuted first century Christians.
          It is a fact that not everyone loves life. In the Bible, the writer of Ecclesiastes is direct: “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecc. 2:17)
          Peter wrote in a day of much cynicism about life and it is a growing attitude in our time. Earnest Hemingway expressed it when he said, “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into.” For many, life is characterized by frustration and boredom.
Do you love life? I don’t mean do you want to live as the better of two alternatives. It is one thing to say we love life in the abstract and quite another to love the particulars of our life.
          The pursuit of satisfaction in life is major preoccupation of an affluent society. Some seek it in success. Others believe possessions, things deliver what they long for. Years ago I read this story:

A wealthy man moved into a new house, next-door to a Quaker. Quakers believe in plainness and simplicity. The Quaker watched as the moving company unloaded a great amount of furniture, clothes, and decorative things.
Finally, he walked over to his new neighbor and said, “Neighbor, if thee hath need of anything, please come to see me and I will tell thee how to get along without it.”

To those early Christians, persecuted and suffering, Peter tells the secret to loving life whatever one’s circumstances: “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.”
In short, do good. Goodness is not just what you ought to do, it is also the best way to live. It is living in tune with God and His ways, it is living the way we were intended, the way we work best. What you say and do, the way you relate to people is the key to loving life.
The kind of goodness called for begins with love for Christ. “In your hearts give Christ a unique place.” I Peter 3:15 (Barclay)
Do you want to love life? Make Jesus Lord of your life.

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Living In the Present—For the Future

Posted on 4/12/13 by On the road with Jesus.

“Wait.” “Now is the time…now is the day.” -Acts 1:4, I Corinthians 6:2

Do you remember the Fram oil filter commercial. A mechanic tells about a major repair job on a car, and suggests that if the owner had spent a little more on a Fram filter it could have been avoided. And then, he holds up a filter and utters the ultimate advertising wisdom, “Pay me now or pay me later.”

It is a classic human dilemma—tension between having it now or later, living for the present or the future. For almost all of our early lives, there is someone telling us to wait for something:

            wait until you’re old enough to go to school
            wait until you’re in High School
            wait until you’re married
            wait until you’re through with your education
            wait until you have a good job
            wait until you have some security to get married

There are right and wrong times to wait. Some years ago this story appeared in Reader’s Digest:

An Air Force TAIL-GUNNER was being court-martialed. “What did you hear in your headset?” demanded a superior officer. “Well,” replied the airman, “I heard my squadron leader holler, ‘Enemy planes at five o’clock!'” “What action did you take?” persisted another officer. “Why, sir,” replied the gunner, “I just sat back and waited. It was only 4:30.”

There are some people who live their whole lives in the waiting mode. They never seem to “experience life.” Totally goal oriented, so much so that when they get there, satisfaction, fulfillment seems to allude them.

On the other hand, there are competing voices saying do it now. Our desires often want it now, want immediate gratification. Our environment, advertising says, “Have it now, buy now, pay later.” “Grab all the gusto you can.”

When life is lived on this basis—pursuit of immediate gratification, we are robbed of the most important things in life, like character, meaning, joy. These things only come with time.

Some might suggest that this is a non-issue from a Christian perspective. All Christian living is future oriented, is lived for future results/rewards. And in one sense that is true but it is short of the whole truth. You will find both “wait” and “now” in the Bible:

The problem is that we are inclined to want to put off what we ought to do now and to want now what can only come in time. How can we live making the most of the present but also building for the future?

Know that life as God intends it is both an experience to be appreciated/ enjoyed/ lived now and a goal, destination to be anticipated. The living now and the future are part of the same parcel. The secret is trusting God and living with sensitivity to God’s timing.

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The Power of the Cross

Posted on 3/26/13 by On the road with Jesus.

the message of the cross…is the power of God. -I Corinthians 1:18, also Mark 15:22-39; Romans 5:6-10

The Cross is the power of God. The NT says there is power in Jesus’ death! Let me repeat that. Maybe I need to say it a third time. But no matter how many times it is repeated, there is dissonance, an incongruity.

It is not that the words Death/power don’t belong together. Death has power. It is pervasive, it is inevitable, it is unavoidable. In fact I think Saul Bellow was right when he expressed the philosophy of this generation by saying, “Death is God. This generation thinks—and this is its thought of thoughts—that nothing faithful, vulnerable, fragile can be durable or have any true power. Death waits for these things as a cement floor waits for a dropping light bulb.”¹

The New Testament denies that. It is says that God took the enemy’s biggest weapon, his most powerful and most destructive act and not only experienced it but used it to accomplish his own purpose. It is through death that Jesus entered Satan’s stronghold. Jesus’ dying, the event, the act, has power to effect you, me, all of creation, then, now and for all time.

We are inclined to minimize the cross, the death in order to magnify, the resurrection, Easter. In the gospels, in contrast, the “spotlight is on the passion”. The New Testament exalts the cross as the central act of our salvation. Malcome Muggeridge called the cross the intersection of time and eternity. Paul, the apostle makes explicit what all the New Testament breathes: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (I Cor 2:2).

The good news is that Jesus died for you. His death has power and it becomes effective when we, by faith, surrender our lives to Jesus. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, struggling with faith and life found that true one night. He described what happened:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

“I did trust in Christ” is the telling fact. That is how you can experience the power of the cross. For help click here or contact me.

¹Christianity Today, 9/18/87, 20).

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