On January 11, 2013, Skip and Carol watched the movie The Way, starring Martin Sheen, about the Camino de Santiago. While we’d never heard of it before, we were definitely struck by something, which I’m calling unction, especially since we both felt the same about it at the same time. We learned about an ancient pilgrimage through Spain and immediately planned to go. At first we planned on going in 2014, but after about two weeks confessed to one another that we’d like to go this year, and again we agreed immediately. This is not normal. But this is surely awesome. When married folks are in such unity it is indeed wonderful, and thus the plan was hatched. If you would like to follow their adventure go to pilgrimage.banksdayspring.org.

Dear Church,

I’ve just been watching the opening segment of The Bible on the History Channel, and I am struck by one profound truth. I’m sure there are many more, but this one stood out for me: Promise. After all the debate one could have about how God works and why, it is clear that what He promises, He achieves. We may not know the why’s of it all, but we can trust in His Promises. This certainly sets our God apart from other gods, who can deliver nothing, and no one.

Some of you did a further study on the I AM, and what the Word of God says about you. Good for you; it’s not too late for the rest to also dig deeper into these, because they are promises. What God says, He can achieve, and our part seems to be cooperating with Him. Praise God for His great Love for us, and for helping us to trust Him and follow His Word.

God Bless you,
Pastor Skip

“…for the Lord our God is holy!” Psalm 99:9

We know the Lord is holy; the Bible says so in many places, and the Old & New Testament each provide many stories of His holiness in demonstrated action. He is Awesome. He is Powerful. The word “God” is what we use to try to convey the meaning of His power and righteousness and attribute it all to His Being!

The more one studies the holiness of God the more one shrinks. Not in fear, as in cowering, but in pure awe and surrender. Well, that is, “if” one surrenders. The more we try to get our mind around the holiness of God Almighty the more we perceive our own failure or weakness or inability to “be perfect as He is perfect.” (MT 5:48) If we’re not careful, this entire “study” of an attribute of God can lead us to negative feelings about ourselves, and be used by the enemy to pull us away from the very relationship God wants for us, Himself.

Here it is! A mystery revealed! We can say with certainty that God wants us, and He wants us to be in relationship with Him in such a way that we would call it “personal.” When Jesus spoke that the Kingdom was at hand He didn’t mean in the future, He meant right then, right there, and right now. Adam had a personal relationship with his Creator that was broken by sin, causing a great separation, such that God has been working to restore this relationship with His Creation ever since. Jesus offers that. Jesus Christ isn’t trying to create a new religion on planet Earth. He is offering Himself to restore what was lost, and He makes it personal.

Herein we find a problem, with us, not with Him. The saying “familiarity breeds contempt” is proved out all too well in our relationship with a Holy God. In our “familiarity” with Him we tend to bring Him down, rather than grow ourselves up. We try to make Him be like us, instead of our being transformed into His likeness. One author has said it this way: “God is not a big one of us.” He is, after all, and I do mean all, God Almighty. Sometimes we are subtle, often not so much, in our attempts to manipulate Him to do our will, answer our prayers, lead us where we want to go, provide for us what we want, etc. We even try to use His Words, which we quote back to Him, as if to persuade the God of Heaven to do for us what we feel is best. The creation telling the Creator a this or that! Imagine!

A friend of mine likened it to a lion behind the fence at the zoo. He is ferocious, powerful, and not a bit tame. We stand behind the fence as if we were stronger, somehow better, because we seem to control the relationship. The Lion of Judah from the Old Testament is ferocious, powerful, and not a bit tamed by us, yet He becomes the Lamb of God, as Jesus Christ, and removes the fence without destroying us. Rather, He offers us the opportunity to follow Him into the wonders of a real life of joy and victory. I realize any illustration like this is somehow incomplete, but the point is clear. We cannot approach the Holiness of God from our side of the fence, with us in control. We cannot “get” holy by being separated from Him.

Isaiah saw the Lord, and declared “Holy is He”! “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips.” He got it. He understood the depth of his dilemma. And the Lord worked a miracle upon Isaiah and said “Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” (Isaiah 6: 3,5,6) The Lion was certainly able to walk through the bars of separation and devour the man, but instead He became the Lamb and saved him. This is Jesus Christ. And, if you can possibly wrap yourself around this last truth, it’s a gift!

The mother of a family of 5 children asked the father to help with getting the kids ready for bed. Dad thought that his 6-yr old son would do well to take a shower this night, so began helping him get that done. Just before stepping into the shower the boy says “Dad, did you know you can talk to God even though you can’t see Him?” Not knowing exactly where this came from, or why, and not really prepared for a thorough father/son theological discussion, with a 6-yr old, the task at hand was to get the boy clean, so the father replies “Of course, son, you can talk to God at any time,” and pulled the curtain as the boy entered the shower.

The boy then began, to the father’s amazement, wonder, and delight, a conversation with God.

We have questions, right? What did the boy say? What did God say? What topics did this conversation with God cover? Certainly not about World politics or National crises of any kind. Certainly not about how to solve the fiscal cliff! What could a small child possibly have to talk to God Almighty about?

They probably talked about the more important things. Perhaps the boy asked “God, how are you today?” or “God, my sister’s sick. Please make her well” or the boy may have said to God “Christmas is coming. Can I get you anything?”

I know this 6-yr old boy. I see him almost every Sunday, and I can assure you he simply believes in Jesus, and believes that you can talk to Him, about anything. The Love they share, this boy and Jesus, is available to each of us. Jesus is ready to talk with you about anything, so ponder what you might want to say to Him, and then begin…

Take a break for a few minutes. Relax. Let your mind’s eyes see something wonderful, and real. Just because we can’t see it with our natural eyes right now doesn’t mean it isn’t real. You can imagine all sorts of things, the well-spring of hopes and dreams.

For now, let your imaginer loose into the pages of the Bible. John is telling us about incredible things to come, almost too amazing to comprehend, but things which are true none-the-less. Our task is to read about them and ponder them and allow the Holy Spirit to Bless us as we do. This is good stuff.

We read that one day we will have new bodies. I don’t know what they will look like, but I know Who made them, and that’s enough for me to be excited about it. We’ll have a new name; a new identity, if you will. Again, we can’t say much about how all this works, but we know Who is working it out, and that is enough to prompt us to dreaming about it. Imagine!

This coming realm is so fantastic that we risk all sorts of errors just trying to think about it, as we try to understand the future in terms of the now, or the past, both of which have failed so badly we should welcome dumping them both for the glory of what is coming. We know this in our spirits.

So put yourself there, right now, in this new realm of what God has promised those who believe in Him. Imagine that you are happily engaged in doing something. What that might be I can’t say, but I’m sure we will be on assignment, not just sitting around bored.  You’ll probably be doing something, custom designed by Jesus just for you to do, which will use whatever gifts and powers He has given you for that task. Whatever you need He will give you. If you need others to help they will be there. Whatever power or gift or talent- whatever- He will provide it all, to accomplish His will through you. Cool, huh?

There we are, in Heaven, or the Heavenlies, where ever in Creation He wants us to be, doing whatever He wants us to do, completely fulfilled and full of awe and wonder each moment. No worries. No tears. No anxieties, fears, or doubts. There may be troubles, but that’s probably why we are there, to deal with them according to His Will. Very cool, indeed.

Now imagine this: A voice of some kind is heard. It’s probably not the voice of God, but of one of His agents; maybe one of us, or an angel. Or some other created being. Wow. We all hear the voice at once, in the same way, understanding what is said perfectly, without any confusion of any kind. We know exactly what is being said, and we know exactly what to do, and we respond with joy and willingness, because we so desire to serve the Lord and obey His Word to us. In fact, the emotion of anticipation builds to a crescendo as the voice calls to us.

Then, whether all at once, or in some kind of divinely ordered distribution of time, we hear it. The Word is instantly familiar to us, because we’ve heard it so often, both here, in Heaven, and before, in our former lives, the ones you’re living now. We no longer wrestle with the Word, as we did before. We don’t reject it for some other pleasure. We don’t neglect for some other perceived duty. We don’t ignore it because we’re doing something we value more importantly. Immediately we respond, properly and completely, because we really WANT to, because this is more important than ANYTHING else we might do.

Because we can now see our past so clearly, we see all those times we heard this Word before. It adds to our joy. All through the ages the Church of Jesus has begun its service with…..and now in this present future we still hear this Word….a call to worship. The very first thing God wants is for us to worship Him. We stop everything to worship Jesus Christ, because we WANT to. We are filled with wonder and awe, again and again, as He reveals more and more of Himself to us, throughout eternity. Imagine, if you can, the worship of God Almighty.