April 30, 2007
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted
"God doesn't comfort us just to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters."
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April 14, 2007
Quote
You do not make yourself holy by keeping yourself
pure and clean from the world, but by plunging into ministry
on behalf of the world's hurting ones.
-John Wesley
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March 26, 2007
Palm Sunday Poem
will I lay my cloak before you,
when they arrest you on olive mountain,
or pull it tighter around me,
fading into the ranks of the deserters;
will I shout
'Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of the Lord!'
when they parade you
before the authorities,
or will I tell any one - and every one - around me
I never met you in my life;
will I lay my palm branches at your feet,
as they march you to Calvary,
or use them to put more stripes
on your bloody back;
will I run behind you
when they carry you to the tomb,
or turn away
as the ashes of my hopes
are rubbed into the
wounds in my heart?
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January 29, 2007
Others First
From "Strength for the journey - a devotional by Joe Stowell"
Others First! (Philippians 2:4)
I'll never forget the time my wife, Martie, and I were traveling on a rather extended ministry trip that involved several segments to our journey. We were in and out of planes, and every plane was packed with people. We felt like sardines in aluminum cans. To make matters worse, our seating assignments had been consistently terrible. But on the last leg of the journey, we noticed on our boarding passes that we had the best non-first-class seats on the plane - the front aisle seats in the coach section.
We looked forward to stretching our legs and enjoying the flight home. As we checked in at the gate, however, the flight attendant looked at our seat assignments and promptly informed us that she needed to reassign our seats so that someone who needed the leg room could be in the bulkhead row.
My first impulse was to make a scene and demand my rights. After all, we deserved to have good seats on the final leg of our journey! But I knew what we had to do. It doesn't take long to figure it out when you start with the question, "What would Jesus do in a moment like this?"
It was an opportunity to display an act of servanthood, to turn our focus from ourselves to the needs of others. While my demanding, self-serving impulses kicked and screamed, I knew that the Holy Spirit was pressing us to do what was good and right. It wasn't a very comforting thought as I walked past the "good seats" and spent the flight with the back of the headrest in front of me pushed squarely in my face - but it was the right thing!
I wish I could finish the story by saying that, as a result of our gracious response, God let me lead the person next to me to the Lord, or that some other phenomenal, unexpected outcome had proven the worth of my servant's heart. But nothing of that magnitude happened. I don't even know if the people who got the good seats realized the sacrifice we had made, or if they felt grateful for their good seats.
But the issue is not in the outcomes but in the condition of our hearts. Maybe God knew that I needed another practice run at serving to get me ready for a really big serving moment in the near future. I don't know. I just know that routine surrender is the distinguishing mark of His followers and that every opportunity to treat others as more important than ourselves makes us more like Christ. After all, He made the ultimate sacrifice for my place in His kingdom—to give me a seat that can never be taken away!
YOUR JOURNEY…
Read Philippians 2:1-11. In what ways did Jesus demonstrate the principles outlined in verses 3-4? According to verse 6, what rights did He have to make other choices?
Think of a time when you were the beneficiary of someone else’s kindness. How did it make you feel? On a much larger scale, we are the beneficiaries of Jesus’ kindness. How can you express your gratitude to Him today?
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December 12, 2006
God Intrudes...
"Despite our efforts to keep Him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked 'No Entrance' and left through a door marked 'No Exit.'"
Peter Larson
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November 14, 2006
You are a masterpiece!
It's true! God's Word says as much! Ephesians 2:10 couldn't say it any clearer. You are God's masterpiece! Created to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do.
I know, you don't feel like a masterpiece. When you look in the mirror you don't feel like a masterpiece. In those secret places where no one else is allowed in and you know your true self, or what you think is your true self, you know you're not a masterpiece.
But God wants you to know something altogether different. That's not the real you. That you that you think is the real you, is someone who has been defaced by sin. I know not a popular word. But the truth is the truth. Sin has defaced you. Satan's strategy is to steal, kill and destroy and he's been working hard to steal, kill and destroy the real you. If he's got you convinced that defaced person is the real you, he's almost succeeded.
But God wants you to know something different. He created you. Even as an artist creates a masterpiece. Carefully and purposelly. He knit you together in your mother's womb. He planned when, where and even to whom you would be born. He knows the plans he has for you, and they're good! Most important of all, he wants to restore you to masterpiece condition. He wants you to be the real you, that you, yourself, don't even believe exists.
But restoration doesn't come without a price. Cleaning up the damage that years and years of sin might have done takes some work, some time, and it takes involvement. Your involvement. All that needs to be done from God's side to restore you to masterpiece has already been done. All of it. In Jesus, through his life, his death and resurrection, all that needed to be done to restore you to mint condition has been done. One thing remains though. Do you want to be restored?
It's a choice. Your choice. God loves and respects you too much to force you. But he does invite you to a journey of restoration. If you allow him, he'll start and won't stop until you become all you were created to be. This is not just something God wants to do to you. This is a joint effort. He wants you in completely and whole heartedly. You need to be in!
So, do you want to be restored? Will you let the one who created you, who knows the real you restore you? Will you join him in this journey?
Will you enter into that journey with others who are also being restored?
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October 20, 2006
Rich or Poor?
Did you know that by New Testament standards and by the standards of today's world you are rich? Really, you!
Believe it or not you qualify under the top 15% of the world's wealthiest people. I know that's hard to believe. Even if you don't have a job, in Canada you have it better than most of the world. Things like unemployment insurance, disability insurance and Welfare are things that were unimaginable in New Testament times and are unheard of for 85% of today's world's population.
So, even if you fall at the very bottom of that 15% of riches and you feel like there's so many more people who are so much better off than you are. And if, like me, you are tempted to only compare yourself with those who have more....why not take a moment to think about the 85% of people who have less than you do, and the many who don't even have the most basic of necessities, like food, water and even clothes.
As Christians, how should that impact our lives? How does it impact yours?
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October 02, 2006
Does God want you to be rich?
A recent Time Article asked the question, "Does God want you to be rich?" You can read the article and think about it.
As we consider how God views our stuff, our finances, the little bit of time, money and opportunity that each of has been entrusted as individuals and as a Church, the question is relevant to all of us. How does God view stuff? And is his desire, simply that we accumulate more?
In the article, some of today's most "successful" (by this world's standards) church leaders paint the picture of what they believe. Interestingly enough, it's a position of opposites. Some say yes, some say no. So the question is which is it?
I think a good place for us to start is with some of Jesus' own words as he finished explaining a parable that had to do with the topic of wealth. At the end of his explanation we find the Pharasees (who are described as loving money) sneering at him. Here's what Jesus had to say to them...
"You make yourselves look good in front of people, but God knows what is really in your hearts. What is important to people is hateful in God's sight."
I think that's a good place to start thinking about this, especially that last statement.
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August 24, 2006
Wisdom
"Wisdom is, and starts with, the humility to accept the fact that you don't have all the right answers."
Anonymous
As a pastor you're taught to be a fix it person. With that comes a false assurance and expectation that you should have all the answers. Sometimes you begin to believe that you do. I think this is why, at least in part, for so long, Christianity has been reduced to being right. Belonging is, often, determined by whether or not you believe the same thing as the people you "fellowship" with. Unsaid, if you believe the right thing, if you're right, you're in and you belong. If you're wrong, even your faith is questionable. We might not say it that way, outright, we'd just rather you would associate somewhere else, with other people who believe like you do.
Over the last few years of my life I'm learning more and more, that I know less and less of the answers. I'm also learning that, most often, people aren't really interested in knowing what you think the answer is, on any given matter, if they don't already know that you're willing to journey with them through their questions, without trying to correct them at every turn, when their questions and your answers don't match up exactly, or sometimes, remotely.
Church needs to be a place where people are allowed to work through their questions and in so doing arrive at a faith that is real, true, vibrant and Christ-centered. Especially if the alternative is a faith that is stale, irrelevant and institutional.
There is freedom in not having to be right. In realizing that you don't have all the answers. Even that many of the answers you think you have, might not be right. It's not so much about what you're trusting, as who you're trusting that's really important.
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August 23, 2006
When you just don't feel like it...
"...I must confess that there are days when my circumstances don't seem to lend themselves to worship. Days when I feel so caught up in my own problems or so pulled down by my own depression that entering into worship would almost feel hypocritical.
What am I to do on those days?
On those days I am to worship anyway! I am to bring the Lord what the Bible calls sacrificial praise: 'So through Jesus let us always offer to God our sacrifice of praise, coming from lips that speak His name.'(Hebrews 13:15)"
Claire Cloninger
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August 14, 2006
Daily thought...
"Lord, help me to remember that Christianity is not confined to the church or exercised only in prayer and meditation, but everywhere I am in Your presence."
Susanna Wesley
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July 10, 2006
Your thoughts...
This morning we spoke on how to affair-proof your marriage.
What stuck our for you? What did you learn that perhaps you hadn't thought of before?
What did you think maybe should have been mentioned that wasn't?
Any other thoughts?
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July 07, 2006
Thought for the day
"Our love to God is measured by our everyday fellowship with others and the love it displays."
Andrew Murray
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June 28, 2006
Thought for the day
Dwight L. Moody said...
"Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all."
Your thoughts?
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June 26, 2006
Thought for the day
A.W. Tozer said...
"One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do no constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always."
Your thoughts?
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June 23, 2006
Thought for the day...
"A baptism of holiness, a demonstration of godly living is the crying need of our day."
Duncan Campbell
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June 20, 2006
Thought of the day
"Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, are things Christ unsparingly condemned. Destitute of fire, they are nothing more than a godless philosophy, an ethical system, and a superstition."
Samuel Chadwick
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June 19, 2006
Thought for the day...
"Few things are more infectious than a godly lifestyle. The people you rub shoulders with everyday need that kind of challenge. Not prudish. Not preachy. Just cracker jack clean living. Just honest to goodness, bone - deep, non-hypocritical integrity."
Charles Swindoll
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