Stand Firm!

Was reading earlier about the some of the darkest times in history. Moments in time when it looked as though all was lost  - and would have been if it wasn't for some individuals that said "I will stand firm."

Christopher Columbus was under great pressure the last few weeks of his journey to find the New World. His crew was threatening mutiny, but he kept telling them, just a little while longer. In the face of opposition that would have robbed him of the fulfillment of his mission, he stood firm.

George Washington, if he had been pragmatic about the army he commanded at Valley Forge, would have seen only the army of that winter, not the renewed and strengthened one he saw in Spring. He looked ahead and stood firm.

Winston Churchill looked across the Atlantic where Germany had consolidated its conquests by kicking the last British troops into the sea at Dunkirk and went before the English people and told them not to quit - that this would be their finest hour.

They held onto hope until things changed. They stood firm. What's the secret to doing that?

The great British General Wellington, when asked after Waterloo the difference between his victorious troops and the beaten French said this "My men are not braver than the enemy. They are just brave 5 minutes longer."

If we can learn from history, we can certainly hear and learn from God's Word right?

3 Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.14 And do everything with love1 Cor 16:13-14 (NLT)

15 With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter.2  Thess 2:15 (NLT)

There are far too many times people quit when if they had just held on a little longer they would have realized what they longed for.

My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace.
1 Peter 5:12 (NLT)

Peter - biggest failure there was, who once He experienced the risen Christ became the Rock Jesus saw he could be.

Rocks stand firm. Peter did once he let his love for and faith in Christ rule His life and overcome his fears..

There's still time to decide that your future is not going to depend on your goodness but on God's grace. Still time to rely on the strength of God in you rather than your own strength. Still time to retrace your steps back to where you stepped out of God's will. Go back and decide that the next time you are tested, you'll stand firm.

Grace and peace,

David

The Look

"You just have to give them the look."

A grandmotherly lady was in the middle of her conversation with the Michael's cashier when I walked up. The cashier was giving her a look, but it didn't look like one that agreed with her customer.

"You know, when they are doing something that they shouldn't, just give them the look that says 'I mean it'."

"That doesn't work anymore," said the cashier.

"Then you must not be doing it right," replied the grandmother without missing a beat.

It took everything I had not to laugh out loud.

But I'm wondering today as I read the gospels, what must it have felt like to get a "look" from Jesus?
Matthew 19:25-27 (The Message)

25The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?"

26Jesus looked hard at them and said, "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."

Okay, so we have here an example of a "look" and not just a glance but a "hard look" from Jesus. How did it work?

27Then Peter chimed in, "We left everything and followed you. What do we get out of it?"

LOL

You'd have to admit that Peter's statement may be one of the dumbest, most clueless ones of all time. :)

And it came after they received Jesus' "look". The "hard" one.

Parents, it's not your "look" that will produce change in your children. It's your LOVE.

Check the gospels. Jesus gave every ounce of love He had to those who followed Him. And though their progress was slow - and even frustrating at times - eventually they became the people who changed the world.

Grace and peace,

David

When Love Breaks Through - A Glimpse of New Hope

25 Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: "Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. 26 Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work."

Matt 11:25-26 (MSG)

So it's Wednesday night at New Hope, with all the warmth and frenzy that we some how manage to hold in equal portions. We've made it past the frantic preparation of the meal and its consumption. The different groups have scattered and I'm in with the adult prayer and Bible Study group.

A few years ago, instead of calling on someone to lead and close in large group prayer, we went to small table groups. It's made a huge difference in participation. Almost without exception, everyone prays out loud.

Praying out LOUD is Tommy's specialty. He's developmentally disabled, but really seems to enjoy coming for the fellowship, and he takes part in the prayers. Tommy, like many people with that affliction, tends to fixate on an either / or, black or white, good or bad - on everything. And that extends to pretty much everything - baseball, football, and politics.

Somehow, Tommy became a Republican. And his prayers reflect that. One of our kindest members had to instruct him to calm it down about the politics when he's here at New Hope, because we aren't about that. We're serious about following Him Who can make a real change - in us and in the world He created. But still, Tommy's prayers tend to be laced with appeals for God to smite the evil Islamic terrorists, create democracy, and to make America great again.

So he launched into his prayer last night. Pretty much as I described - he really doesn't know any better.

But then he asked God to give His mercy to Ted Kennedy and his family. To reach out and touch him with His peace. To heal him.

Maybe Tommy knows more about God's grace than we realize.
Maybe God used him last night to speak a word of grace and mercy into our lives. As far as I know, no one else had prayed for the Senator.
Maybe love broke through. After all, that's the way the Father likes to work.

Have a great Memorial day weekend, giving thanks for those the Father has given us who gave their all for us.

Grace and peace,

David

--
Visit with me at my blogs:
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
http://itslikeherdingcats.blogspot.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/
http://www.churchcloud.com/new-hope-valp/

With Arms Open Wide

Every now and then I'll be reading the Bible and come across something that I've seen before, but never SEEN before. That ever happen to you?

So here I am today in the middle of the minefield of Romans 9 through 11.

You can lose a theological leg here.

Well meaning believers have been beating up other well meaning believers over what's in those three chapters for centuries, while the world walks by looking for the love of Jesus. After all, those three chapters are about who's in and who's out. How God is going to handle the Jews. All that interesting stuff.

Admit it - you skipped them.

You need to stop by again.

20 And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God:
"I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me."Romans 10:20 (NLT)

Could be you. Maybe you're off the gospel train, haven't been to church in a while, but something's been bugging you, or you've been wondering a lot lately about "things." Good news - God's available for a sit down anytime. In fact He's been pinging you for a while.

Of course it could be you've taken an inventory of your soul practice and found yourself a little messed up in the whole holiness department. When you get that way it doesn't seem to take long for people to turn away from you. Thing is you know you are doing it, but something in you causes you to wind up doing it anyway.

Well, God's so BTDT

"All day long I opened my arms to them, but they kept disobeying me and arguing with me."

Romans 10:21 (NLT)

Listen, friend.

Please?

God is waiting with arms open wide for you to come home, or to come home again. "All day long..." gives testimony to just how good, and patient, and loving He is. Do NOT base your opinion of God on how those of us who try imperfectly to follow Him live out what we believe. Trust Him to be Who He says he is in the Bible.
I just saw again today how He's waiting for all of His rebellious and stubborn children - With Arms Open Wide.

Turn around.

David
--
Visit with me at my blogs:
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
http://itslikeherdingcats.blogspot.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/
http://www.churchcloud.com/new-hope-valp/

She'll Fit Right In - A Glimpse of New Hope!

There are some times when I read the Bible and I just have to step back and go "wow!". Hebrews 11 is one of those places. If you begin reading it, you'll find a list of heroes there and descriptions of just what they did. It builds and builds, and each one leaves you wondering how in the world did those early believers stay true to God, given what they went through for Him. It ends with this:

We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—
38 the world didn't deserve them!— making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
39 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised.
40 God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours. Hebrews 11:37-40 The Message

"Making their way as best they could..." seemed to me to fit the life of Marie Rice. I only met her a couple of times, but the last time I did, she was suffering the effects of terminal cancer, and yet, she was alive in Christ. Her faith in her time of struggle was just amazing. Even in the last couple of days, as this life dimmed and the life promised her by Jesus came into focus, she kept reminding those around her of how good God is.

Her brother Larry and her husband John were sitting beside her bed and struggling with the thought of losing her to death. As believers do, they turned to God and John said to Larry, "all I can say is what a mighty God we serve."

At that moment, Marie, who they thought was in a coma, said "Then say it."

Marie passed away Tuesday. The family will gather tomorrow night for the viewing of her body, and Friday they'll meet and her pastor will put it all into context and help the family see their path in the days to come.

Friends, Marie knew where she was going. Like Paul, she was convinced.

38 I'm absolutely convinced that nothing— nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow,
39 high or low, thinkable or unthinkable— absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:38,39 The Message

Now Marie is with those heroes you can read about in Hebrews 11.

And you know what?

She'll fit right in.

Grace and peace,

David

Life On Tiptoes - A Glimpse of New Hope!

When I was a child growing up in Macon Georgia, our family used to go downtown every year to watch the Christmas parade. I can remember vividly some parts of what I saw - the excitement of the marching bands, the hilarity of the Shriners and their little cars, and of course, Santa Claus, who always was the last float in the parade.

I can also remember trying hard to see around other people, knowing that something was coming that I absolutely did not want to miss. It's been a while since then, but I got that same feeling today when I was reading the 8th chapter in Romans. Verse 19 says, "The creation waits in eager anticipation for the sons of God to be revealed." The word behind the English translation "anticipation" has a sense of straining to see, or looking around and over barriers to see." So J.B. Phillips translated it this way:

"The whole creation is waiting on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of God's sons and daughters coming into their own."

Isn't that awesome?

Yesterday was Earth Day, and all around there were people reminding us of our responsibility to care for God's creation. We were offered a tree at one store, asked if we wanted a bag for a book we purchased "or did we want to celebrate Earth day and forgo one?" People took time yesterday to think about how our actions affect this planet we share. That's a great thing that we should all do.

But the Bible says to take it further - much further.

All of creation has been affected by our fallen nature, and is waiting like a boy on tiptoes at a parade to see what will happen when Jesus returns for His children! Since the fall, despite our best efforts, mankind has never been in harmony with nature. So all creation is waiting.

And one day, Jesus will return and make all things new.

Oh, glory!

So friend, as long as you live, take care of what God has graced you with - His glorious creation. But know this - "no eye has seen, no mind has imagined, what God has in store for those who love Him."

Until then, live life on your tiptoes.

Grace and peace,

David

Will the circle be unbroken if we round off Pi?

Today is Pi day.

Remember? 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 etc etc etc?

That mathematical constant that defied your TI calculator's poor attempt to finally, once and for all, say what Pi was?

All these years since then, somehow you have managed to live a fairly normal life without ever resolving that question sufficiently. So I think that there's hope for you when I tell you that you can believe in Jesus.

Huh?

Yes. You can believe in Jesus.

I'm writing today to those among you who are struggling with the questions still unanswered about Jesus, the Bible, and God. If that's not you, then please forward this along to your sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, that guy in the next cubicle, your prof in psych class, that neighbor who'll change the subject - you know plenty of them.

There just seem to be a lot of people who will not give Jesus a chance because of some misguided idea that in order to do so, every question they have about Him, God, the Bible, the Church etc, has to be 100%, completely, nailed down. (Of course, those of us who follow Jesus consider something being 'nailed down' as certain, but I digress).

Jesus asked, as near as I can figure, 287 questions of the people around Him while he was here during His earthly ministry. Some people were baffled. Some people intrigued. And some gave incomplete answers at first, but were able to understand the answer later.

Like this man. His name was John, and he spent most of his adult life it seems trying to understand who Jesus was and how it was possible for God to love him. He kept referring to himself, this John, when he wrote everything out for us to read - in the third person, like some sort of Monty Python mode "we are not amused". Except he wasn't kidding. "the disciple that Jesus loved" is the way he'd describe himself.

So he got to the end of his life here, this John. The last few years. He was trying to make sense of it all. This is what he wrote.

1 From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in— we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. 3 We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!

1 John 1:1-4 (MSG)

Look very carefully at that again. Do you see any explanation of why what he saw happen... happened? Do you detect any attempt to explain the intricacies of God? No.

Just an attempt to invite others to live the questions with him and experience the same joy.

I'm not saying that we can't learn the deeper truths about God, or that we shouldn't.

What I am saying is that we can live, laugh, cry and experience joy even though some parts of our understanding of God and His work through Jesus remain unresolved to us. Kind of like how we have lived with Pi all these years.

Come. Follow Jesus. Enjoy the journey. Live the questions until the Truth makes Himself known to you.

Grace and peace,

David

Nazareth's Gone Country

Hi friends, just sitting here rereading everything I've collected in the past few weeks about Joseph of Nazareth in preparation for Sunday's sermon. It's pretty clear to me that Joseph lived a life that only a country music lover could appreciate.

Think about it.

He's a tradesman/builder. If he were alive today, he'd be driving a pickup with a toolbox in the bed. He'd probably be wearing jeans and work boots with a T shirt advertising something that he got for free. Oh and the T shirt and jeans would be holy - well, hole-ly. He'd have one of those cellphones that let's you beep the other job sites, and wouldn't have shaved today.

Yeah, he'd probably have a friend or two he called Bubba.

He'd have a reputation too. "Measure twice, cut once", would be his stock in trade, along with "a man's word is his bond." Yeah, he might be a poor ordinary working man, but he would do an honest days work for an honest day's pay. Nobody would beat him to the job site, or catch him sneaking off fishing when he should be working. There was plenty of time for that after the job was done.

And crazy as it seems, he'd be a guy looking to settle down with one woman for life. Not that he hadn't had chances for a fling here and there - he was a young, strong guy in a culture that valued all that. Oh and I expect he knew how to laugh at life - even laugh at himself. Most carpenters I've ever known can do that. They understand that a piece of wood, like a life, has to be shaped and shaved into something on purpose - that it's pretty rare to get that perfect piece of wood, and that you have to learn to work around and through the rough spots. Laughter really helps with that.

He found a girl he loved, made the proposal and came away a winner. Got started on a house and was prepping his mind around the whole husband and yeah, father deal. But then his fiancee told him she was pregnant - and Joseph knew it wasn't by him.

I wonder if George Jones ever wrote a song about Joseph?

So what would Joseph do?

Well, here's the thing. Carpenter's and brick layers - really anybody that works to build things, know that there are times when you can just "eyeball" the job and know what to do next, and then there are times when you have to go back to the architect and ask him "what the heck were you thinking?"

The Bible says that Joseph was a "just" or "righteous" man.

Those kind of guys know who to ask when the plans don't square with reality on the ground, or when it just isn't going to work. So when Joseph went to sleep that night after Mary dropped her bombshell. I have no doubt that Joseph had looked at what happened from every angle he could think of. He would have done his best to make it all go away without costing anyone more than it had to. He'd try to do the right thing. But what was the right thing?

He went to sleep tossing and turning, and then God showed up.

And God showed Joseph a new set of plans.

20 While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God's angel spoke in the dream: "Joseph, son of David, don't hesitate to get married. Mary's pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God's Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. 21 She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus— 'God saves'— because he will save his people from their sins." Matt 1:20-21 (MSG)

Armed with that change in plans from the Master Builder...

24 Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God's angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. 25 But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus. Matt 1:24-25 (MSG)
The working man done good. Nazareth's gone country, folks.

Grace and peace,

David
--
Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

The Book Stack

Just thought I'd mention what books I have stacked on my desk right now.

Since I'm working through the life of David on Sunday Mornings:
A Heart Like His, Beth Moore
David - Charles Swindoll

Since I'm working on the life of Christ within this David:
My Utmost for His Highest, both original and updated versions
disciplines for the inner life - Benson
So You Want To Be Like Christ? - Swindoll
He Speaks Softly - Benson
No Holds Barred - Mark Roberts
Posers, Fakers, and Wannabes - Brennan Manning
Ordering Your Private World - Gordon McDonald

Since I'm Desperate To See God's Church Succeed In Its Vocation:
Out of Their Faces and Into Their Shoes - Kramp
Radical Reformission - Driscoll
The Church of Irresistible Influence - Lewis
How Should We Then Live - Francis Schaeffer
Simple Church - Thom Rainer
The Disciple Making Church - Bill Hull
Conspiracy of Kindness - Steve Sjorgen
Church Planting Landmines - Rohrmayer
Natural Church Development - Schwartz

And some others working their way into the reading rotation:
Living the Questions In Matthew - The Navigators
Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods - Rick Warren
The Incredible Patience of God -Adams
The Preaching Event - John Claypool
The Jesus Creed- Scot McKnight
Traveling Lightly - Eugene Peterson

I read everyday, a lot. I'll pick up one book and read it a while, then another. If I'm in study mode for a sermon or series, I'll devour everything I can on that text, context, and culture. So these are just the books that are here today. Stay tuned.

crust and crumbs

I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! 6 I'm sorry—forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor."

Job 42:5-6 (MSG)
I've been thinking and praying today for those who don't "get" God.

Some of whom I know personally, and love.

Being kind of heavily invested myself in following Jesus, it is sometimes hard for me to step out of my "Holy Bubble" and understand just why people who I know have heard the story of God's love through Jesus and who have even followed Him for a while just never really commit.

But I'm getting help.

Reading that snippet of Job and God's conversation helps me see how someone can be very religious, go through all the right hoops and do all the right notions - even know the secret handshake - but miss God by a mile. Living off someone else's faith, never wrestling personally with the deep questions, just trusting that others know is like the hearsay and rumors Job talks about. Faith in Jesus is a personal decision, and if you don't ever really choose to follow Him, as soon as those who really are following - the ones you are hanging with - move on, you are left without even a thimble of real faith.

So Job is helping me see that faith in Jesus always has to be intensely personal. No second-hand faith - through family or friends - will get you where you need to be - with God.

Then there's Donald Miller, an amazingly authentic person who writes without benefit of exposure to the cultural Christianity most of us live in. He has this annoying habit of looking at what most of us and our churches do, and telling others about it.

For example:

We believe a person will gain access to heaven because he is knowledgeable about theology, because he can win at a game of religious trivia. And we may believe a person will find heaven because she is very spiritual and lights incense and candles and takes bubble baths and reads books that speak of centering her inner self; and some of us believe a person is a Christian because he believes five ideas that Jesus communicated here and there in Scripture, though never completely at one time and in one place; and some people believe they are Christians because they do good things and associate themselves with some kind of Christian morality; and some people believe they are Christians because they are Americans.

If any of these models are true, people who read the Bible before we systematically broke it down, and, for that matter, people who believed in Jesus before the printing press or before the birth of Western civilization, are at an extreme disadvantage. It makes you wonder if we have fashioned a gospel around our culture and technology and social economy rather than around the person of Christ.

- Donald Miller in Searching For God Knows What

You think?

Being a Christian means following Jesus Christ. In every situation. With every thought, every word, every action. It means a surrendered life that renounces selfishness for a life spent in loving God, loving your neighbor, and serving both.

It is an intensely personal commitment lived out among others who share it, for the benefit of those who don't. It's first hand knowledge, like this:

From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in— we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. 3 We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!

1 John 1:1-4 (MSG)
My heart aches for those I love who don't love Jesus. If I contributed to you hearing rumors or hearsay and tried to give you a second-hand faith, I'm sorry. Faith is won after a struggle, where you surrender in order to win - and admit defeat to claim victory. You choose to follow Christ, no matter what.

No one else can do that for you.

It's your life.

Shalom,

David
Lead pastor - New Hope

She Meant Well

18 Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night.

Deut 11:18-19 (MSG)

I've been sitting here for the last few minutes praying through our church directory. The people in it are all lined up nice, neat and alphabetical. Most are smiling, and I get to look at how they were on whatever Sunday morning their pictures were taken. Then I balance that snapshot against what I see happening in their lives, and I pray. Hard.

Most any of us can suck it up and look like we have it all together for the length of time it takes to have our picture taken, or the time it takes to "do church." But life invariably requires more of us that that, and we find that some are having trouble we'd never see in a snapshot of time.

As a pastor, my job is as one writer has put it is "to keep the congregation attentive to God".

Way over my head. I need a lot of help. So I pray. A lot. When I talk to my friends who are pastors, they echo the same feelings I have. Just different places, different names. People are people, I guess.

For some people seem determined to do everything else except focus on their walk with Jesus. I know personally what a heartache it is to look back over the course of your life and realize I had taken control and not let God order my days - it breaks my heart to know others are going down that same, well traveled, road.

The man who puts his work ahead of his family.
The woman who does the same.
The teenager or young adult who lets the culture or their friends determine their values and morals.
The parents who push their kids to be involved in every sort of extracurricular activity, even if it conflicts with worship or Bible study.

I know, they mean well.

But I get a horrible picture when I think about the consequences. That of the Greek mother last week whose town was threatened by wild fires. She got her kids together and tried to flee. They were found to have perished together, with her arms around them.

Her home was untouched by the flames.

She made a decision. There's absolutely no way she could have known for sure that her house would have been spared. What she did, even to the last, she did out of love.

She meant well, she just didn't know.

For a Christian, meaning well while in effect denying that your life and day planner has been surrendered to the cause of Christ just won't cut it.

We know better.

Life is a dress rehearsal of sorts to see if we are ready to meet God. We're given everything we need to succeed at it. The very Spirit of God takes up residence in us and gives us all the strength, courage, and wisdom we need - if we will surrender our ordinary days to Jesus.

At the end of our lives, I don't believe we'll be looking back on how many hours we put into that project at work, or how well we did in middle school band, high school chorus, or any of those things that we're valuing over walking with Jesus now.

When we stand in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, saying "I meant well" just isn't going to work.

Turn it over, all of it, to God. Pick up His plan, His scheme and walk in it. Don't get distracted by those things that ultimately won't matter at all.

Don't just mean well.

Follow Jesus.