Ok, I realize that’s a bold statement for anyone to make. Suggesting that God actually spoke a thing, directly to a human, may upset some, or at least puzzle them. We can, however, look to the Bible to see if such a ‘word from the Lord’ lines up with Scripture. Knowing that God cannot lie gives us confidence that whatever man has to say about a thing must line up with what God has already said. In those seemingly gray areas that the Bible isn’t clear we can at least discern the Spirit of such a ‘word’.

We are told to ‘test’ such ‘words’, which is exactly the process I spoke above. Is the ‘word’ for me, or just for global society? Does this ‘word’ require anything of me? Is it personal?

So, go ahead, test this ‘word’ using both the Bible and your discernment, but be prepared in case God is speaking! It may be He is speaking to a global audience, but it is also possible, very possible, He is speaking directly to YOU!

During a pretty normal week I was going about my life, living hours of regular stuff, interspersed with moments of sheer wonder! My life is like that. Lots of church stuff, family stuff, some business stuff and too much yard maintenance. I enjoy some daily devotions and prayer, but not enough. I say ‘not enough’ because when I am purposing myself to be ‘spiritual’, God always shows up and blesses me, and then the phone rings or my cell phone beeps at me. These are real ‘wonder killers’. You know what I mean.

Then things began to change. Troubles began to pile up. Not just interruptions, but actual problems began to manifest and demand attention. If busyness happens because I initiate some things, well, that’s kind of ok because I’m thinking I’m in charge. But when things happen outside of my control, messing up my day, causing pain or confusion, well, that’s not ok. After all, I’m a man of education, of experience, of faith! I’m a child of God! I know stuff, and I’m successful, and I don’t like it when things go wrong, or bad, or, especially, painful to me or my loved ones!

So, on this day when my world was being attacked by all sorts of issues, and my ‘normal’ ways of dealing with them were not working very well, meaning that I wasn’t able to stop it all, even by praying a prayer and have it all ‘right’ again, I paused to … ask God for help.

I suppose a lot of our prayers are like this. The history of Israel is certainly proof that when in trouble men call upon God to deliver them from whatever bondage they find themselves in, but when life is good the people quit seeking Him, and, well, stuff happens to draw them back to Him again. Right?

Now, back to that ‘week’ I was having. After a time of verbalizing to God how upset I was, about the stuff upsetting me, I knew it was time to be quiet. (Those of you who know me will no doubt chuckle at that thought, of me being quiet, but it does happen!) I resolved to try, again, to ‘let go and let God’.

The simplicity of this concept is very attractive to me. The best theology I know of is the theology that draws a person to Jesus, so I pondered how to ‘get more of God’. A song goes “More love, more power, more of You in my life…” and certainly speaks to what I was desiring. I know I need more of God’s love, not FOR me but for others FROM me. I definitely want more of God’s power, in my life and in YOUR life! And, of course, I agree with the lyrics and want more of God in my life.

So, that was my simple prayer: “I want more of You, God.”

(Drum roll) Perhaps your prayers are like mine in that they are not immediately answered. But when they are, what then? You see, this is exactly how it happened, and how the Lord spoke this ‘word’ to me, and to this very moment still has me upended, or should I say set aright!

I said: “I want more of You, God.”

And the Lord said to me: “I want more of YOU, Skip.”

That was it. No lecture. No in-depth teaching. Just a simple request BY GOD ALMIGHTY!

I’m sure you can take it from here. You can apply this to your life, or discard it altogether. Either way … God is speaking to you as well, asking each you to respond to His Voice. Why? Because He loves you. Because He listens to you so often asking Him for this or that, and now asks YOU to give to Him!

Go ahead. “Get under the spout where the Glory’s pouring out.” You won’t regret it!

Have you ever thought about the ‘power of story’?

‘Story’ is how the ancients have communicated throughout history. Good and bad, right and wrong, and everything in between ‘recorded’ by ‘story.’

It seems to me that the power of story is being lost, cheapened, if you will, by the instant communications we have today. Depth is lost because we don’t have the time to go deep. Richness is lost because we only want the scintillation of the moment, moving so quickly to the next one we miss the real point of the current one.

Our Bible is, after all, a story. Plot lines and characters and everything else you can imagine are in God’s story book for us. In fact, this story has a bunch of stuff you CAN’T imagine, which makes the mystery and the intrigue and the wonder of it all so amazing as it all unfolds for us, right there on the pages! Our minds can’t help but ‘go there,’ when we read God’s story.

Take a minute right now and try to comprehend the story of our creation as told to us in Genesis. So many questions pop up. Who made us? How were we made? When were we made? Why were we made? Is the story really real, or just a human made delusion of the ancients? Was there a real Garden of Eden? Who was the serpent, if he wasn’t a snake? Was he just a snake? Was it really an apple they ate? Who else was in the Garden? Was anyone watching it all? Who? How many were watching? Where did they come from? What’s the point of this story?

Talk about a serial-made-for-life, or a made-for-life-serial. Either way, this one is fantastic from the get-go, and best followed from the beginning, although you can pick it up in any episode and it’s still fantastic. You don’t need a DVR because you have a Bible and can re-visit any part of the show at any time you wish. It would be nice if we could switch on the closed-captions and get a running commentary of what was unfolding, because we can’t quite keep up. Know what I mean?

You see, from one perspective this Bible is the Story of God, and from another view it is the story of man and his, man’s, response to what God is up to. Isn’t it amazing that this God Story, the one He wrote since He is the Creator, is so analyzed and argued by man, the creation? Even though we have Romans 1 to tell us this fact, that things are backwards in our thinking, we continue running along…..backwards. (laugh here)

Why is it that a really good story, one like A Few Good Men from modern times, or Tom Sawyer from a bit earlier, can be watched or read, over and over, with excitement and joy and even learning of some kind each time, and yet God’s Story, the Bible, sits on the shelf of so many homes? Put on the DVD of Hunt For Red October, or Jason Bourne, or even Sense And Sensibilities and I can watch for hours, again, even though I know the lines!!!

Is it because we don’t really think about what we are reading when we read the Bible? Perhaps we don’t really believe it. Perhaps we say to ourselves “Oh yeah, I know that one….” and move along without sincerely pondering what we just read. Perhaps it’s because what we just read in the Bible is so fantastic, so amazing, so almost other-worldly that we can’t process it!

Some of us have the habit of going to the end of a book and trying to see if we want to invest the time in getting there. Is it worth it? Let’s just read the Summary, if you will, and decide from that if the details merit further reading. Ok, news flash! At the end of The Book, God restores His Creation, re-creating what He wanted at the beginning, defeating all His enemies, placing His creation, man, with Him in Glory. The reader is left with a pretty simple question: “Will I be there?”

The answer to that one is, thankfully, in the pages prior, starting with Genesis… Go for it! It’s a fantastic read.

John McCain died today, and the news has been, properly, honoring and remembering him and his incredible life. It’s made me think about how ‘good’ we can be if we choose to do so. Senator McCain was far from perfect. He endured a failed marriage and more than a few infidelities along his way to growing into the ‘mentor of character’ so many attribute to him today.

We are choosing, now, to remember the ‘best’ of John McCain. We are choosing to look at his real accomplishments, not his failures or shortcomings. His differences with his political colleagues, his notable temper, whatever else the smear-mags could dig up….none of that is what has defined him. It’s been his character. His life-long service. His devotion to family and country. His goodness!

Perhaps we could be encouraged by this man’s life. Perhaps we could see that we too have failures and shortcomings, but that our Father in Heaven, God Almighty, through Jesus Christ and by the Power of His Holy Spirit, looks at ‘our’ character through a crimson lens, the blood of Jesus. He ‘sees’ us as cleansed and pure and righteous and holy….all the things we would never claim. God sees goodness.

The Lord looks at our heart, so see if we are repentant, humbled by our mistakes, and seeking that grace called forgiveness that He so freely offers us. My human nature is to defend myself; to try to say that I’m right because of how I feel and think. But when the I AM shows up everything is put right, including me. Can you see it? Can you see how the puny “I’m” has to give way to the majestic I AM ?

As we honor John McCain, looking beyond his human weaknesses, let us honor God, and look straight into His incredible strength, and hear Him tell us again “I love you, and I will never leave you.”

Christianity has strayed, at times, far from the teachings, life, and Love of Christ. We all know this. We need to always ask ourselves if we are really ‘following the Way’, and make the course corrections in our lives, so that the Blessings of Christ can be abundantly poured upon us.

Is it complicated? Does it require great academic understanding of the Scriptures, knowledge of ancient languages, and submission to human authorities we might question? Is that Christ?

I am amazed at how people don’t want to read the Bible because they think it is too complicated, too controversial, or too boring. The Bible is, after all, God’s Word to us and He certainly wants us to read it and be set free from the bondage of sin. Is it possible the Bible really IS readable by anyone, or everyone? Of course it is. I believe the Bible is meant to be read, over and over, because it consistently speaks to us. God knows exactly where we are and what’s going on in our lives and what we need to ‘hear’, and that’s why with EVERY reading of the Bible His voice comes to our inner man and speaks to what we need, individually and specifically. It’s truly amazing!

For example, I just read Romans 11-13 as part of our Church reading schedule. I’ve read the book of Romans many times, and yet with recent reading something popped out at me I hadn’t ‘seen’ before. Each of the 3 Chapters can be titled, or summarized, in a word: Mercy, Sacrifice, and Authority. Each of these words capture a main point of the Chapter and certainly don’t replace all the other words and ways God might speak to you. Subsequent readings might change the title summaries. Exciting stuff!

However, for THIS reading look what happens when you think of God’s mercy as a sacrifice of authority, or God’s authority sacrificed with mercy. Or God’s sacrifice of mercy, or His sacrifice of authority. Or His authority to sacrifice mercy, or His authority to mercifully sacrifice!

You get the point. These three words, no matter how read or arranged, speak of God’s LOVE for us, poured out upon us.

As we try to obey just two simple ‘words of Jesus’, the ‘love God and love one another’ commands, we cannot help but run into mercy, sacrifice, and authority!

How simple following Christ really is! His love for us was surely demonstrated by His sacrifice for us. His mercy surely saves us from the penalty due us because of our sins. His authority surely causes every knee to bow before the King of Kings, Who has defeated every foe. Etc.

Read it. Connect the dots. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you the revelation of the mystery, Christ in you, the hope of Glory!

About 11:30 this morning, between the storm clouds, came a burst of sunshine so inviting I had to go for a 4-mile hike around the wetlands and forests near here. It’s a special Blessing to be able to take advantage of such things.

Another Blessing is the great benefit that hiking provides- the time to think- and to be alone with one’s self. After a mile or so the mind can get rid of all the normal day-stuff to process and explore more important things.

Let’s examine the Wonder of Discovery. First, let’s think about what Discovery is. It’s much more than just learning something new or experiencing something for the first time. In the simplest terms, Discovery means to dis-cover something. To remove the cover; to un-hide; to see deeper, etc.

The great explorers of days past, like Columbus or Lewis & Clark, dis-covering the new continents, ‘worlds’ to them, were filled with awe as they pushed on. Whatever hardships they endured were the victories of the discovery, as they not only overcame, but triumphed in seeing and being a part of something so new, un-dis-covered, if you will. The excitement builds, emotions peak, things become awesome…full of ‘wonder’. (awe; surprise; marvel)

And so, in this Wonder of Discovery, I not only ‘learn’ something, but actually ‘experience’ the thing, adding to the mental addition that a piece of knowledge gives, but also the emotional and even spiritual dis-covering.

But wait! It gets better. The Wonder of Discovery leads us to a higher place, that spiritual place so difficult to explain but which I’m sure the explorers of old surely confronted:

The Discovery of Wonder

Once something is un-covered, and whatever lies beneath begins to reveal, one doesn’t throw the cover back on! One doesn’t run from, but to! The Wonder happens. Wonder is awesome, isn’t it? Wonder drives us, if we are free enough to let it happen. A touch of fear may grip some of us, because of the unknown becoming known, but the excitement builds and the mind marvels, and even the pores open and the body demands more oxygen as the endorphins explode within us. We might now say it becomes Wonder-full!

I think Wonder is a God thing, which is the main point. Wonder is God revealing Himself to us, the dis-covering of science or nature or His being and nature. If we can just take the time to Discover the Wonder. It’s happening all around us, all the time, covered by the world and our busy lives of earth-dwelling. God gives us His Word so that we can uncover and discover His Wonders. The Bible will come alive to you if you pursue the Wonder it reveals, and not just the history or geography or whatever else keeps it ‘covered’.

When slaves are set Free they rejoice. They dance and sing and praise and go all crazy because of being no longer captive, bound up, limited and…enslaved. Freedom is the greatest Wonder for a slave to imagine. God sent us Jesus Christ so we can be set free, and He leads us to Discover the Wonder of relationship with Him.

Using the calendar to remember key dates is surely a part of our everyday lives, so it’s not unusual that it would help us in our life of faith. However, Church Calendars are not a big part of most Evangelicals faith and practice, although a solid part of both Protestantism and Catholicism through the centuries, as a way to “remember Me” as taught by Jesus Christ. Jewish calendars are based upon the many feasts and festivals the Lord commanded, again so His people would ‘remember’ what He did for them! We Christians concentrate, of course, on the Christian, or Church calendar, although we fully agree that understanding what the Lord did throughout Jewish history is part of Biblical teaching and therefore ‘sacred.’ We believe the entire Bible is Holy, and necessary for the practice of our faith.

The Lectionary is a calendar of the Church Year put together by Denominational leaders so that congregations across the country, and world, can be in unity, reading the same Biblical texts and remembering the same historical developments at the same time of year. The Pastors who ‘preach’ from the Lectionary benefit by having much of the textural research done for them so they can tailor the message to their own congregations. This is all good, I think, and pray that these sermons can bring life and peace to the Body of Christ.

While I do not use the Lectionary to develop sermons I do think ‘following’ the Church Calendar is beneficial to us, for reasons stated above. We need to remember Christ, and we benefit greatly by remembering the history leading up to His Advent here, His life here, His resurrection victory, and certainly what lies ahead , about which we have so many opinions and so little understanding! 🙂

The next weeks, leading to Easter (Resurrection Sunday) are the most concentrated dates on the Christian Calendar for the entire year. Our entire understanding of The Gospel rests upon the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Who makes it possible for our salvation and eternity with God Almighty. Our Doctrines of Grace, Liberty, Atonement, Forgiveness, Sacrifice, Salvation, etc., are complimented with the fulfillment of so much Biblical Prophecy about The Christ as Messiah found in the Old Testament!

Therefore, I ask you to concentrate on these next week’s by remembering Christ and His Love for you. Here are the key dates we will follow, whether formally or informally, providing you with both remembrance and a way to focus your devotions:
Feb 14, Ash Wednesday (and so it begins)
Feb 18, 1st Sunday in Lent (fasting, prayer, renewed devotion)
Mar 25, Palm Sunday (Celebration)
Mar 29, Maundy Thursday (foot washing) (last supper)
Mar 30, Good Friday (Why ‘good’?)
April 1st, Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday (Victory in Jesus)

While thinking about this coming year, and how we should approach it as a faith community, I landed on the following quotation we will use for our Bible study in 2018: “A Living God – A Living Faith.”

These words are very simple, yet so very profound. There are so many ways to try to understand them, and even more ways to try to put the understanding into real-life practice!

Take a pause, right now, and ponder a bit; see where it takes you before you continue reading!

I hope you enjoyed the exercise, and perhaps the few questions that arose in your mind. Feel free to send them to me, questions or just comments, as I’d love to hear any of them. Just hit the ‘comment’ link and I’ll get it sooner or later. 🙂

You see, we do have a Living God, not a dead god. What this means in reality is almost too wonderful to capture into words, albeit overwhelming just to consider. He’s not just alive, He’s everywhere. His ways are not our ways the Bible tells us, and we don’t really know what to do with that because the only ways we seem to understand are man’s ways, which, unfortunately, fail us repeatedly. So we tend to ‘think’ that God fails us, probably because we didn’t get the result we hoped for from some prayer we prayed trying to convince God to act the way we think He should! I’m very good at trying to pray a prayer that is worded so well, even quoting what I think His Word is saying to me, that, well, He HAS to grant the request! Hmmm. Perhaps I need to grow in my understanding of God being God.

A Living God. Yes. Indeed. Which, if believed in, would result in a Living Faith! I wonder if there is a correlation here? How does my ‘belief’ translate into my actual life experience? Is my ‘faith’ alive too? Does ‘faith’ have life? Can it grow? Can it move me, or direct me, or impact in any way what I actually DO in my own…life? I’m not trying to play some game here of stimulating a bunch of questions with no purpose. I think this is big stuff. I think how we approach God, dead or alive, and how we live our faith, dead or alive, translates into actual results here on Earth, here in our very lives!

We know that God wants to Bless us. He says so. And we do want the Blessings, no doubt! Perhaps we can enter into a more prosperous year of Blessings if we reinvigorate our Faith in a Living God, and then dare to actually Follow Him. Perhaps this year will bring many new trials our way, offering even more opportunities for us to be Alive in Christ, seeing Him lead us to new victories, His way!

(When I first typed this, two lines above, I typed ‘trails’ instead of ‘trials.’ Prophetic? I so look forward to the new trails too, which present their own trials, etc.)

Happy New Year
Pastor Skip

Ok, let’s ‘interpret the tongue.’

In my use here, a blog is a fairly short writing about something. This blog, then, is my response to an email I received, from a trusted source. A ‘link’ is a reference to what was emailed to me, which is given below, which is from a law professor, addressing his students. You will need to read the ‘link,’ before my response, if you can.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/24007/law-professor-students-if-you-say-i-feel-rather-i-hank-berrien

(To the person who sent me the email) that is so, … timely! I’ve just been studying Romans 12:2 “be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds,” word by word, in the Greek, to try to “get it.”

You see, it is Christmas-time, and this is a time of year when “feelings” are heightened with all sorts of family issues, financial issues, emotional issues of all kinds … so many based on “feelings.”

Even the “facts” we use to justify the “feelings” are selected to support the “feeling” and avoid the veracity of it all, much less the Word of God.

I’m asking God to really TRANSFORM me, into “another form,” says the Greek, and am completely dependent upon Christ Jesus for any of it to happen, other than my willingness …

Even hospital and doctor visits increase this time of year, as the emotional invades the physical and generate real medical issues to deal with.

I am in no way making light of the power of feelings, of emotions, to impact our physical bodies and certainly our minds. My desire is to learn from God how to deal with it spiritually; Godly; His way. Perhaps we would do well to pray, asking God to fulfill Romans 12:2 in our own, personal lives.

Jesus Christ is the biggest “change agent” of all history, for He comes to change US, into a New Creation. “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

From time to time the news brings us to the tragic reality of P.O.W.’s (prisoners of wars), whether current or historical. Immediately we are caught in an emotional war within ourselves. We certainly grieve those who have died, and somehow try to work out the great loss, and how we can continue on with our lives without them. But then the horror that some are still alive, but in captivity, enduring who-knows-what kind of treatment, stirs us up almost unbearably because we can’t do anything about it!

We can go to funerals and Memorial Services to try to get some closure for those who have died, and many other things as well; but what can we DO about the P.O.W. ? We pray. We write letters perhaps. And we hope that our country will get them set free.

The real purpose of this blog is to point instead to the reality that WE ARE ALL P.O.W.’s. We are all in a war; a spiritual war. We are all being held captive, and tortured, daily. Our enemy is fierce, and he hates our Savior. Our enemy wants us to renounce our Citizenship, and join with him. The peer pressure is severe, as so many have gone the wrong Way. We are plied with all sorts of inducements, distortions of truth, even lies, in addition to the pains of various tortures.

So, how does a P.O.W. survive his captivity? A common report from those who did endure and get set free was the mental determination, the focus, the resolve to never give up and to keep remembering the purpose the war was fought for. Let Freedom Ring is an American mantra, but a Christian one even more-so.

For this Thanksgiving, we can do much more than say ‘grace’ at mealtime. We can understand that Jesus Christ has won our Freedom, and offers it to us. We may have to endure for a season, but the outcome is sure: He wins. We can even die in our captivity, secure in the knowledge we will be resurrected in Glory! The Bible declares that our citizenship is in Heaven, not in a cage here on Earth, which is only a temporary dwelling place.

For most of us Americans we can easily rejoice this Thanksgiving, for we have so much. Let’s not let ourselves be numbed by the stuff. Let’s continue to Praise God from Whom all Blessings flow! Let’s renew our confession of Faith, and our resolve to be Disciples of Jesus Christ. It might be good to reflect not only on the war that has us captive, but also on God Almighty, Who will bring about our Deliverance!

May the Lord immerse you in His Holy Spirit, this Thanksgiving, with thanks-giving. Amen.

In our Church we are reading through the Bible in a year. One year. Entire Bible. Yes, it’s a lot of material to cover, especially when we have so many TV shows to watch and sports events to attend, not to mention vacations and family reunions; but what a great read!

It’s now July, and we are in The Psalms. Here we have King David, mostly, writing poems to be sung as songs of praise, or Hymns of Worship, to his God. We can picture him with a musical instrument of some kind working his way through the creative process. But our picture shouldn’t be a scene of complete peace and meditative praise, with the poetry flowing from a contented heart. David isn’t on a tropical island basking in the tranquility of uninterrupted nature. Perhaps some of the time he is at peace, but much of the time he is in full-blown crisis!

I find as I read Psalms that every possible human emotion is not only revealed, but explored. It’s almost as if God were showing us HOW to talk to Him. With honesty and transparency. If you were writing a love letter you would probably use different language and a different approach than if you were writing to some business or other entity. You would probably be more intimate, more personal, and, if wise, more honest about things, especially feelings and perceptions.

You see, we cannot approach God Almighty and act as if things inside us were somehow hidden or secret. He knows everything. We can’t con Him and we can’t manipulate Him with clever speech. God knows it all. I think He waits, patiently, for us to come to Him with openness and honesty about how we feel, even if it is sometimes a rant or a scream. Even if it’s a rant or a scream about Him!

Prayer seems to be a hard thing for many people to do. I’ve heard folks say they don’t “know how to pray.” I’ve witnessed, so many times, folks who defer to others, almost ANY other, when asked to pray. It’s like they don’t feel competent somehow; not trained; unable to “do it right.”

Have we forgotten to Whom we pray? Is that why we are timid? Is it really just better to NOT talk to God? Or is it that we just don’t want to do so in public where others may get an idea about our real life? I’m sure there are lots of reasons, each one personal and valid, yet each one missing the point.

You see, I believe God wants you to open up to Him and tell Him what’s on YOUR mind. If it’s thanksgiving, wonderful! If it’s a call to help someone else, terrific! If it’s just the stated understanding of how Great God is, that’s amazing! But also, if you’re hurting or scared or confused or panicking….whatever, tell Him. By getting honest with God you show that you understand the situation, and by asking Him for help you begin the process of yielding, which, you see, is the deal.