"To Him be glory forever": February 2020

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Ripples

During my sermon last Sunday I mentioned how the first sin by Adam and Eve was like throwing a rock into the water. All was calm. Smooth. Then the rock hit the water and the water rippled out from that place. Since that first act of rebellion in the garden the water has never been still. It is as if the water perpetually ripples from that one spot. The surface is never calm.

The ripples of that first sin can be seen in many different ways. One way I saw it yesterday was in preaching a funeral for a man who was just 34 years-old. I don't know any of the particulars of his death, but I do know that for life to end at the age of 34 was not the way things were intended to go in the world at the time of creation.

Another ripple. The man we buried yesterday was a pall-bearer at the funeral I did two weeks ago, for a man who was but 25 years-old.

Another ripple. The man buried yesterday was laid to rest right next to three other people whose funerals I've done, ages 53, 29 and 52. That’s a series of ripples.

The ripples of that first sin show themselves in lots of different way. I just offer these examples from my ministry because they are so freshly in my mind. I could come up with other examples from my personal life, and I'm sure that you could look at your life and find your own examples. None of us is exempt.

Because of family connections there were many people present yesterday who were also at the funeral two weeks ago. The text I preached was from Luke 8:22-25. The disciples are in a boat on the lake and a big storm comes up. It is so big that they fear for their lives. Meanwhile, Jesus is asleep. They wake him, he speaks to the storm, and all is instantly quiet. The disciples ask themselves, "Who is this?" That was the question I then answered as I pointed people to the hope that is only found in Jesus.

I chose that text because right now for some people here, life feels like being in a raging storm, and the danger feels very real. In the storms of our lives it is only in Jesus that we can find and know peace.

There was another time when Jesus spoke quite briefly. Briefly, but definitively. It wasn't like in the storm, where he gave a demonstration of his power, but it was in the pivotal event of human history, where he acted in power for the eternal benefit of all people that would one day have faith in him. In John 19:30 we read:

"…he said "It is finished", and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."

Those words marked the act that defeated the power of sin, once and for all. We still live with the ripples and so many things that just aren't the way they should be. But by faith we live knowing that one day the water will be calm again.

Photo credit: Pasieka at pixels.com

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Being Led To Serve

The phone at the house rang once. Twice. I picked it up and said "Hello. This is Brad." There was a short delay and then a recorded voice saying, "Hello. Please don't hang up. We've called…" I hung up. It was the second time they called this morning, and my response was the same each time. The first time I listened to a bit more of the message before hanging up, where they said they were from Google and wanted to update the listing of our business.

I'm of the opinion that people looking for information about our church already know where we are at. I doubt that people from far off places, be that across New Mexico, across the US, or across the world are trying to learn more about this particular small church in a small town in New Mexico. In a similar manner I frequently get offers from Facebook to increase our "reach," so that a post to our congregation's Facebook page could be readily seen by 700 to 3,000 more persons.

Out of curiosity I Googled our church. The first two links were to pages we have on the Reformed Church in America Global Mission website. The next two were direct links to our Facebook page. And the 5th link was to a website that appears to gather information about specific churches and put it all on one page. Everything I saw there came directly from our Facebook page. Whatever the recorded voice from Google was offering I doubt that it would make any real difference in people finding accurate information about our congregation.

Personally, I'm much more interested in discussing our church with the person coming to the back door of the house to talk, or who stops me to ask a question or for prayer with them while I'm out running. And even more than talking about the church I'd rather talk about the God whom our church has worshipped and served, day-by-day, week-by-week, for over 100 years.

All on my own, for the person needing help, or encouragement, or guidance, I don’t have much to offer. But as someone who loves Jesus and seeks to grow as a follower of him, He will often have something to offer that person that He will provide through me. And while I may be the pastor, I'm not the only one He can use that way. If you look to Jesus as Savior and Lord, He can use you too.

We are all different people, with different abilities, different kinds of things at our hands to offer to others, and at different places in our walk as followers of Jesus. But because He is Lord, we don't have to have all the answers. We can look to Him for guidance and then see where it is that He is giving us an opportunity to serve.

The needs of our community are great, and likely the needs of your community as well, but we serve a great Lord, who is able to accomplish more than we think may be possible, as his power works through us. Paul says it this way in Ephesians 3:20-21:

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

May you grow as His daughter or son, and see where He is leading you to serve Him in this particular place in His world.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Not Always Easy, But Always Good

"At all times I will bless the Lord,

and ever praise him with my voice.

My soul will make its boast in God,

the humble hear it and rejoice."

Those are the opening words to a song I've listened to a number of times lately. The song comes from a group called My Soul Among Lions and for the last few years they have been working on a project to set all the psalms to music that is fairly easy to sing and remember. Our understanding is that the psalms were originally sung but lacking the music, and the ability to sing in Hebrew, most of us are left reading translations of the psalms in English.

By no means is that a bad thing, for the psalms are beautiful, both in what they say and how they say it. They have much to teach us of the nature of God, as well as the nature of man. They contain the full range of human emotions. Joy, sorrow, anger, peace, love…you name it and the psalms have it. Just last week I saw a video that offered advice I've heard before, i.e. when you don’t know what to pray then open the psalms and pray God's word back to him. Personally, it was the first time I read through the psalms that I began to love the word that God has given us in the Bible.

In order to set the psalms to music the band has paraphrased the words. They have read, prayed, and then restated the ideas of the particular psalm in words that may more easily be sung. The words above are a paraphrase of Psalm 34, verses 1-2, which in the ESV translation reads:

"I will bless the Lord at all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and be glad."

You can see that what the band has done in this case is very close to Psalm 34 itself, both in the words used as well as the intent behind them. The title of this post, "Not always easy, but always good" could refer to the band's work in setting the psalms to music, but it doesn't. I've got something else in mind today.

Read that first verse of Psalm 34 again, either the paraphrase or the ESV.

"I will bless the Lord at all times" and "his praise shall continually be in my mouth."

David, the psalm's author, isn't only intending to bless, or praise, the Lord in good times, when it would be an easy thing to do. The intent behind his words is much deeper. It is to bless the Lord at all times. Good and bad. In hardship that comes at him out of nowhere. In hardship that comes as a result of his own bad choices. When he struggles to just find a way through one day, knowing that in the morning the next day may be just as challenging. Come what may, David intends to bless the Lord. At all times, continually, the goodness of the Lord will be on his mind, in his heart, and on his lips. It's not always easy, but it is always good.

One of the wonderful things about music is the way that it can help us learn things and get them stuck in our minds. I'm glad that through the work of My Soul Among Lions this psalm is one of the things getting stuck in my head. It reminds me to look around and see God at work in all things, and respond to what I see by lifting my praise to him.

May you do so as well. It's not always easy, but its good.

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Desire

If. A little word that often carries a big meaning. We use it to say how something might happen, but only when certain conditions are met first. You can go to the carnival if you'll clean up your room. We'll pay for four years of college if you'll serve four years in the military first. I'm sure there examples in your own life, maybe even today, where that small word, if, has played a large role.

There is an interesting use of the word "if" in the Bible. In chapter 27 of his gospel Matthew describes the trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus. As Jesus hangs on the cross Matthew notes the words of the leaders of the Jews, (the chief priests, elders and scribes) who observe what is happening and say:

“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

It would seem that as Jesus' life is reaching its end, and that in a most humiliating fashion, that the Jewish leaders reach a very obvious conclusion. The things that are happening to Jesus are clear proof that God has no desire for Jesus, even if the claim of Jesus to be the Son of God were to be true. Their law teaches that to die hanging on a tree is to die under God's curse, so the end result, that God has no desire for Jesus, should be obvious to everyone. Duh!

But what is going on here at the cross is more than meets the eye. That is clear to those of us who live with faith in Jesus, 2,000 years after the event and having read the fuller story. Hopefully it became clear to at least of few of the leaders before their own lives came to an end.

First of all, the desire the Father has for the Son has not wavered in the slightest throughout all eternity. The essence of the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit has never changed. There are many things about the Trinity that are: 1) Hard to understand, and/or 2) Hard to clearly articulate, but one of the easier things to grasp about the Trinity is that there has never been a time when such human emotions as anger, disappointment or estrangement has existed between any of three Persons. Never.

Second, the humiliation and death of the Son is essential to the greater purposes of God. I've made some pastoral visits recently where I've had to talk about the fact that we just can't always see or know God's purposes for things that happen in our lives. This is especially true when they are things that we don’t like. No non-believer could look at Jesus hanging on the cross and believe that God would have a greater purpose in that apparent tragedy. Not even these Jewish leaders are capable of seeing the Father demonstrating things like his holiness, his righteousness, his justice, or even his mercy, as the Son hangs on the cross.

Yes, his mercy. The third thing going on as the Son breathes his last is this. The Father desires for all those humans who would have faith in his Son to be with the Triune God forever. And that requires the death of the Son to remove the sin those women and men have committed against God during their lives. This is mercy, that God spares those who love the Son from the consequences that their sin deserves.

The Father could have easily brought the entire crucifixion to an end as the events were unfolding. He could have said, "That's enough. We don’t need for this to go any farther." Perhaps that would have shown the Jewish leaders the desire of the Father for the Son. But that would have prevented the greater purpose, the greater desire, of God, which is that by faith in Jesus that people like you and I could one day be in God's very presence.