Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes from a book well worth the time it takes to read: "Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength" by Bryan Chapell.  It has to do with God's grace and favor toward us, and the common misconceptions we often have about what it is that causes that grace to come our way.  There are very few who do not desire God's grace.  Few who do not yearn for His favor.  Yet, as Chapell points out, in our attempts to attain it, we often drive it further from us.  We often go astray in the ways we seek to become recipients of it.  I found his instruction in this regard helpful.  I pray that you might also.  Enjoy.

     "Despite the teaching of Scripture, I am at times no less troubled than Christ's disciples were with God's determination to resist human efforts to purchase his love.  I want to believe that God must be good to the organizations I serve, to the family I love, and the career in which I seek to advance, because I have tried to be good. Such reasoning abandons me, however, when I honestly compare my righteousness to Christ's standards... When I face the reality of the inadequacy of my works to merit God's favor, then I recognize that I must depend on his goodness and not my own. At times this dependence (on his goodness) is scary because it lifts control from me, but there is no other choice when I recognize the true character of my good works. For according to Scripture, even my best works are only "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:5). There is too much human imperfection and mixed motives in my best deeds to have them obligate God to do as I wish...

     That does not mean, however, that God never desires or blesses our goodness.  Walking in God's ways is itself a blessing (Ps. 1, Matt. 5:3-10). For example, being faithful to one's spouse brings integrity to a marriage that is a blessing.  Speaking honestly can enhance one's reputation and help secure faltering relationships... Still, no degree of human goodness will lock God into a pah of blessing according to our choosing, as though we have become his master through our merit.  God promises to bless obedience by using it for his purposes, but the blessings that result should be seen less as credit for our goodness, and more as evidence of his faithfulness to his purposes... Divine blessing flows from God's mercy rather than from our merit. Thus, we cannot guarantee that his care will flow according to our plans simply because we conform in some degree to biblical standards. Our works do not obligate God to care for us in the way WE think is best... God blesses according to the wisdom of his eternal mercy rather than in proportion to our works of earned merit...

     [In Luke 17:11-19 ten lepers cry out to Jesus in desperation, "Jesus, master, have mercy on us!"]... What does Jesus do when these desperate people plead with him for mercy? He shows them mercy.  Jesus shows pity to those who have nothing to claim but desperation.  He is moved by their desperate cry for help.  What is the message to us?  Our God is not moved by the deeds we trophy, but by the desperation we acknowledge as our own....

     God's heart is moved, not when we protest our innocence by pointing to our inadequate good deeds, nor when we promise that we will do better in the future. Though there is no reason for God to love us, yet he does.  This is the nature of grace that we must treasure to know the joy that God wants for our lives. Until we recognize that there is no reason God will be moved to love us other than the spiritual need we acknowledge, we have no good news to tell others or ourselves. How could it be good news that God waits to love us until we reach an unattainable standard of righteousness, or that he counts our "filthy rags" as meritorious?  Biblical faith is most evident not when we demand that God honor our flawed deeds, but when we trust that he will mercifully respond when we humbly and helplessly cry out, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

     Those who cry out in desperation have more hope of moving God's heart than any who would trophy their own righteousness before him.  Those who face the hopelessness of their spiritual condition apart from God's mercy are nearer to experiencing his grace than those who pride themselves on their goodness. Not beyond God's mercy is the homosexual dying of AIDS, who says in a broken spirit, "People may condemn me for a life they do not approve, but to tell you the truth, I would have loved anyone that loved me back."  In fact, such a man may be nearer to expressing what melts the heart of heaven, than I am on the days that my preaching, my position (as a seminary president), and my righteousness, swell my pride to make me think I am deserving of God's blessing.

     To experience God's blessing I must readily and repeatedly confess my own hopeless condition. What makes me willing to do this is the knowledge that it is my desperation that inclines God's heart toward my own.  The awareness that he does not turn away from my desperation will actually draw me to confession and deep repentance. The assumption that God only loves the righteous will tempt me to hide from him (and myself) the flaws under the public veneer of my character and my fears of deeper failures... 

     Our Lord's response to the leper's cry for mercy should compel us to confess our sin to him no matter its degree or persistence. We need not have corrected the wrong in our lives to ask him to forgive us We should not attempt to try and compensate for our sin before we ask him to love us. Remember that Jesus cleansed all the lepers when they cried out for his mercy, even though in his divine nature he could have known that only one would return to thank him.  Neither past failing nor future weakness will dissuade our Savior from showing us mercy when we honestly acknowledge our desperate need for his grace."

     One only needs to glance at the any of the four Gospels to see the truth of what Chapell says.  God inclines his ear and opens his heart to the desperate, but resists the proud. He embraces the sinful man who won't even look up to heaven but in shame cries out, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner," yet refuses to listen to the Pharisee who looks down on that heart-broken man and brags inwardly that he is so much better and thanks God he is not like him.  Pride and self-righteousness (that is, thinking we can make ourselves acceptable to God by our personal deeds and efforts) pushes the divine hand of grace away, it does not (as many curiously think) bring God's favor and blessings near.  We must always remember: "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."   It is the acknowledgment and confession of our sin, deep need, and personal inadequacy that draws close the grace and mercy of God, and the vain illusion that we have all our moral and spiritual ducks in a row that drives it away.

     If you would like to pray for grace, here is a simple prayer I often use: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal God, be merciful to me a sinner." 

For His name's sake,  Pastor Jeff 

The Best Advice I Ever Got

Greetings All,

This week's thoughts come from a book entitled, "The Best Advice I Ever Got," a book of wit and wisdom for graduates, published by Zondervan.  I offer you just three of the many selections in the book. They are helpful and wise. I trust you will enjoy them!

1. "Humility is the mark of a true winner."    Coach Charlie Siesky

     "My coach was one of the winningest coaches in the history of Indiana track and field. It was the first meet of my sophomore year.  I had done well the previous season, but I knew I could accomplish more and trained rigorously to do so. When I finished in first place I pumped my fist in the air and raised my finger to signal my first victory. I was shocked, however, to see a picture of this in the local newspaper the next morning. Even though it hadn't been my intention, it looked as if I was signaling that I was number one.  That day is when coach Siesky offered his words of wisdom. He taught me, "humility is the mark of a true winner." 

     That season I went on to win all but four meets, I set and broke the city record twice and was named to the all-state team. My picture appeared in the newspaper five more times, but never again with my finger raised."

James Cullum --  Minister and Author

2. "It can't be sunshine all the time or the flowers wouldn't grow for lack of rain."   (Words to Francine Rivers from her mother.)

     "My mother wrote these words of wisdom to me in a letter during my college years when i was struggling. I was working part time and having difficulty completing my courses, and her timely encouragement gave me the fresh perspective and boost I needed. I've never forgotten those important words. They have carried me through many trials over the years. What I have learned is that there is no achievement without struggle. The Lord uses trials and trouble to draw us to him and to teach us to rely on his strength rather than our own. He develops our character and faith through all the difficulties of life on this earth."

Francine Rivers - Author 

3. "No one can be everything to another person."   (Unnamed church lady.)

     "When my daughter was born, I felt a huge amount of responsibility to be sure that I was able to give her everything she needed. I often felt discouraged and anxious sensing that I was unable to ensure her future success or even keep her as safe and well as I thought I should. Once, while I was murmuring and self-deprecating to a woman at my church, she interrupted me and said: "You can't be everything to your daughter or anyone else. Pray that God will bridge the gap between what you can give her and what she needs." Those words were a revelation and a relief to me.

     I've incorporated that principle into every area of my life. Before I begin a writing project, prepare for a speaking engagement, or deal with an issue with a friend or family member, I pray that God will bridge the gap between what I can give and what is needed. This does not mean that I ever do less than my very best, but it does allow me to accept my limitations and refocus my perspective onto God's vast resources. What I really love is when I realize that God is using me to bridge the gap for someone else." 

Nancy Rue - Author and Speaker

     God DOES call us to do things we cannot do.  That is what drives us in faith, and the reliance of a hope mixed with desperation, to seek Him who is faithful to fill the broad gap between our can't and His can.  For he is, as Paul says, "able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or think" (Eph. 3:20).  Were He never to ask us to do what cannot be done humanly speaking, we would never know the sufficiency of His power and grace to compensate for our human weakness. 

May the Lord encourage you in your walk this day.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Finding the Holy Spirit When in Spiritual Crisis

Greetings All,

This week's 'thought' comes to you from a man named David Greco.  It is found in his book: "Renew Me -- Finding the Holy Spirit When in Spiritual Crisis."David (who is tri-lingual) is a man of extraordinary gifts and abilities. He grew up in the church, attended Bible College and seminary, and went on for his doctorate in theology at Temple University in Philadelphia.  He became involved in a radio outreach ministry based in New York City, which broadcast to Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and parts of Central and South America.  All went better than anyone could have ever hoped -- until a group of people started to spread false accusations about his motives, and accused him of fraud and deception and using monies raised for the ministry for personal gain. Everything started to unravel.

     He writes: "The Lord told us... "Don't defend yourselves, I'm working"... However, when there are slanderers and malicious people; when accusations stain our reputations and our whole vision (and life work) is in danger, it isn't so easy. My life revolved around the ministry. If the ministry collapsed, so would my life." 

     Things deteriorated rapidly as funds dried up, lawyers threatened action, and "Jesus didn't move; He didn't even seem to react."  Then, after an extended time of anxiety, struggle, tears, and both mental and physical exhaustion, he took a trip to Orlando, Florida, where he heard a preacher share a message about Abraham from Genesis 17. He shared how at 99 years old Abraham faced an impossible situation and found himself waiting for a miracle.  That's where our selection picks up. I trust his words will encourage you. Enjoy.

     "The message was for me. God had spoken to me. I had to follow Abraham's example. In the final prayer I promised God that even though I didn't understand the details, I was going to obey His Word. That same morning we packed our suitcases and returned to New York. I honestly didn't remember much of the trip, even though I was driving. My wife and girls slept most of the way. In those silent hours, the Holy Spirit cut my heart in a thousand pieces with His sword. I felt small, incapable, and ignorant.  I felt like a beggar, a man in need, an invalid.

     This was the work of the Holy Spirit. Although I felt weak, I didn't feel desperate. There was a confidence in me that I couldn't understand. The smaller I felt, the more confident and secure I felt. Confidence in my own knowledge and skills disappeared. My trust in the almighty God, El Shaddai, grew. He, only He, could produce a miracle. He, only He, could change my heart and renew me...

     How different are God's ways!  How many times we think that He prefers strong, solid, and victorious believers. We think God prospers those who try hard, those who are always doing something in the church.  Are not these the ones who are constantly testifying about what God is doing in their lives?

     My wife and I have two girls and a little boy... We love them all the same. However, when one gets sick or doesn't feel well, we devote all our efforts to comfort and take care of that child. Why? Because the son or daughter who is sick needs our attention more than those who are well. If we, being imperfect parents, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father, who didn't spare His own Son, protect us and take good care of us...

     Are you going through a desert of loneliness? Has God promised you something that you haven't received? Are you waiting for God's direction, and it won't come? Is there a threat over your life, over your family, or over your marriage? Are you rejected? Are your talents despised? Do you feel abandoned? Don't despair! The almighty God is about to appear in your life...

     In the midst of a critical situation, God captures our attention. In the midst of a crisis where there is no way out, we look for alternatives. This is where the hunger begins. Renewal begins with the hunger for God --hunger to reach new experiences, new signs, and new insights of God's work in our heart. Because of my pride and my self-sufficiency, I had never developed this desperate hunger.  However, through this trial, God was humbling me...

     I have prayed, begged and interceded with God to set us free [from the hindrances some have caused to our radio ministry]. But my prayer hasn't been answered -- yet. God hasn't removed those obstacles yet... The reality is I haven't seen the fulfillment yet. The obstacles still remain, but they don't bother me anymore. When I look at the problems, I give thanks to God because I know He is already removing them. I have faith. My faith didn't come because I heard an inspiring message. My faith came from the Word of God and the preaching of the Word...

     I don't produce faith. I don't have to manipulate my emotions to be able to feel faith. I don't have to enter into a psychological frenzy to be able to feel enthusiasm, optimism and hope. Faith is a gift of God. Faith is a gift God gives to worshipers who share with Him in communion.

Without grace, there is no faith.

Without communion (with God), there is no faith.

Without true prayer, there is no faith.

Without worship, there is no faith.

Without the revelation of the heart of God, there is no faith.

Faith is my response to such revelation... The revelation of God's heart, the manifestation of His will and purpose during times of communion with Him -- that is what produces faith."

     As Martin Luther once said, "Until God makes a man nothing, He can make nothing out of him."  There is a blessedness in being broken. Like a sealed alabaster jar of ointment, the fragrance does not spill out until the jar is broken open. The Spirit's power is actually hindered by our "togetherness."  What we need is not to be in control, and have it all together, but be pushed beyond our limits until God breaks us of our need to feel like we must be in control. For so long as we are trying to control things, we effectively quench the Spirit.

     In this sense Isaiah 30:15 is revealing: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength."   Not in frenzied activity. Not in more programs and meetings.  Not in more strenuous efforts or grand personal achievements. Not in the things done by us, but in repentance for thinking we could ever do the work of God in our own feeble strength.  In a determination to rest in His love, good purposes and provision, and sovereign unstoppable might!  In a determination to be quiet before Him and trust Him to move in response to our heartfelt prayers.

To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), Pastor Jeff

If He Wills, I Will -- Sometimes Hitting Bottom is the Only Way We Begin to Look Up

Greetings All,

      This week's 'thought' comes from a monthly devotional booklet ("In Touch" Oct. 2012) which I received (unsolicited) in the mail.  The theme is prayer, and it is filled with many stories and teachings on the topic. This particular one caught my attention. It is by Jamie A. Hughes, and is an autobiographical account of her struggle and growth after being diagnosed with an incurable illness.  It's entitled, "If He Wills, I Will  --  Sometimes Hitting Bottom is the Only Way We Begin to Look Up."  I found it both encouraging and challenging. I trust you will as well.  Enjoy.
                              "My illness was an answer to a prayer I had yet to voice..."  

     "It was the first night I couldn't feel my legs. I lay on the floor of my parents half bathroom -- the ceramic tiles leeching warmth from my body as I lay flat in the dark, tears pooling in my ears.  I was numb from the waist down because of a lesion on my spine no bigger than three stacked dimes.  Only a few days before, I'd been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis -- an incurable nuerological disease that had and would continue to damage my nervous system... This kind of news is difficult for anyone to hear, but for me, it felt like a death sentence...

      Because of two letters -- M and S -- my life would become one of injections, MRI's and uncertainty. Without reason, my body had betrayed me. 'This isn't happening,' I would tell myself during the long hours of the night. 'I'll wake up tomorrow and feel normal.'  When I didn't, I became angry, hurt, and desperate by turns. None of it made me better.  For all my efforts, I was left as emotionally black and blue as the patchwork of bruises I'd collected in the hospital.
      Up until my diagnosis, I had spent my life carving out ever-larger versions of myself, like a

Russian nesting doll, until I could no longer recognize how small the real Jamie was.  My health, education, family, and financial stability had all served as insulating layers between God and me, blinding me to the truth that I had, and always would be, reliant upon Him for everything.
       I came to the end of myself on that bathroom floor, talking to God as I never had before. 'I can't, Lord,' I told Him. 'This is too big, and I won't survive it alone.'  For once in my life I truly and earnestly prayed. 
       In the weeks between learning of my disease and that moment of desperate prayer, I came to understand how powerless I am -- how empty those outer shells I had constructed really were.  My intelligence and education, despite the pride I had in them, were utterly useless. My family couldn't prevent MS with their love, and no amount of money could buy it off or make it disappear.

When God was done whittling away at these supposed safeguards, what remained of me was like the miniature doll at the center of all those shells: a lesser, humbler version of myself, free from delusion and terrified by the truth.
      I'd been raised in church and had received Christ when I was a child, but until that moment I had known God only in theory, not in Person. Or to put it in the words of Job, my ears had heard of Him, but my eyes had yet to see (Job 42:5). I collapsed under the burden of my illness, and in the moment of my brokenness, God repeated the words He said to the apostle Paul -- 'My grace is

sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (II Cor. 12:9).
      I'd like to say that moment was one of immediate revelation and I emerged from my parents tiny bathroom a different person, but the truth is, it took time. I needed space -- breathing room and more prayers in equally unorthodox places -- to understand the reason why He had allowed disease to touch my life. Cracked open by pain and confusion, I was completely emptied of myself. And that's where my Father needed me to be before He could start my reclamation. I had to belong to Him soul and body before He would return the latter.
       Today, I thank God for the thorn in my flesh, the constant reminder of my inadequacy, because by its presence, 'I was brought low, and He saved me' (Ps. 116:6). Before being chastened, I had extravagant plans for my life --  but none of them involved seeking or serving Him.  But I now see those ambitions for what they were -- vainglorious and unsatisfying attempts to build an empire on a

foundation of shifting sand.

  Had He not graciously subjected me to this moment, I know I would have eventually come to the same dark place in time. Like David, I fell into the hands of the Lord and was subjected to 'three days of pestilence' rather than seven years of famine (I Sam. 24:10-14).  In a way, my illness was an answer to a prayer I had yet to voice, a supplication I didn't know needed to be made.
         Three months after that night on the bathroom floor, feeling returned to the soles of my feet -- the first part of my body that had gone numb. Aside from minor flare-ups controlled by medication, I now live as I did before my diagnosis. All the potential handicaps I feared have yet to occur, and doctors say my prognsis is good. Buy my wellness has nothing to do with their expertise or my merits.  The Lord loved me enough to allow a plague to come near my tent (see Psalm 91) in order to draw me to Him. But when His purpose

had been served, He drew it back as effortlessly as He once did the Red Sea.

         James tells believers, 'You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow... you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills we will live and also do this or that (James 4:14-15). This conditional statement summarizes everything I've learned through eight prayer-filled years of living with MS -- if He wills, I will. Whatever happens, I know He has permitted it for His glory and my sanctification. Recognizing and submitting to this truth has granted me a liberty I never could have gained on my own. Because I belong to Jesus Christ, I focus on all I've been spared from rather than what I could be subjected to. I do not live in fear of the unknown. Instead, I rediscover a miracle each morning: I am able to walk, see, and think, and my first thought is to praise Him, to glorify His name with everything I am and all I do. The healing He worked in my body is evidence of the restoration He first performed in my soul.  I take neither for granted, and that is one thing I pray will never change."
       May God give us the same faith-filled perspective as Jamie, trusting that, "Whatever happens, I know He has permitted it for His glory and my sanctification."  That is, our God is uses all things (painful things included) in the lives of those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. He works for our good in them despite all the pain and difficulty and struggle we may experience in the process (Rom. 8:28-29).
        In fact, in light of what Jamie says, maybe we could pray that we ourselves (and the people we love) might come to learn such lessons before God needs to graciously "chasten" us (as she puts it) to bring us to our senses and show us how ever-dependent we are upon Him.  We need to pray that we could see (and see clearly) our powerlessness, inadequacy, and all the weak, unsatisfying and vainglorious things we often rely on for our security.  Things like our, "health, education, family, and financial stability."   We need to pray they would no longer stand, "as insulating layers between God and me, blinding me to the truth that I had, and always would be, reliant upon Him for everything." 
      It's such a struggle for us to truly do it. In fact, even the apostle Paul was unable to see how much he still depended upon himself until he went through a harrowing experience where he was brought so low he felt in his heart, "the sentence of death," and "despaired of life itself" (II Cor. 1:8-10). 
      Sinful as we are, we tend to rely upon the self, or the things we wrongly perceive to be generated or controlled by the self, until God removes them all, and the degree of our need becomes so painfully apparent that we finally acknowledge the words of Jesus to be true: "Apart from Me you can do nothing."

 

         Hopefully it will not need to be so! Pastor Jeff  

Exercise your Faith

Greetings All,

I can always tell the books I brought with me to Honduras. Most of them have one or two termite holes eaten all the way through! Such is true of today's book - except it has three holes!

The book from which today's 'thought' comes is Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones book, "Spiritual Depression." I send it out because so many people -- even earnest believers -- wrestle with bouts of depression from time to time (20,000,000 people in America alone if the current statistics are accurate). It was not much different back when he wrote the book in 1965, and one of the main reasons he wrote it.

Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor and one of the best preachers in the last century, ministering at the Westminster Chapel in London, England, for almost 30 years, until his death in 1981. Thus he speaks as both an M.D. and a theologian as he shares these thoughts on how faith plays a part in the cure of depressive feelings. His thoughts are good even if you don't wrestle with depression, yet I pray that if you do struggle with such emotions, or know anyone who does, these words may be of some help. Enjoy.

"Many people seem to think that faith operates automatically. They assume that it does not matter what happens to them, that faith will operate and all will be well. Faith, however, is not something that acts magically or automatically. If it did these [disciples in the boat with Jesus during the storm] would never have been frightened. Faith would have come into quiet operation and they would have been calm and quiet and all would have been well. But faith is not like that.

What is faith? Faith is an activity. It is something that has to be exercised. It does not come into operation itself, you and I have to put it into operation. It is a form of activity -- something you and I have to bring into operation. That is exactly what our Lord said to these men. He said: 'Where is your faith?' which means, 'Why are you not taking your faith and applying it to this situation?' You see, it was because they did not do so, because they did not put their faith into operation, that the disciples had become unhappy and were in this state of consternation.

How then does one put faith into operation? The first thing I must do when I find myself in a difficult position is to refuse to allow myself to be controlled by the situation. The disciples were in the boat, the Master was asleep, the water was coming in, and they could not bale it out fast enough. It looked like they were going to sink, and their trouble was that they were controlled by the situation. They should have applied their faith and taken charge of it, and said: 'No, we are not going to panic.' They should have started in that way, but they did not do so...

Faith is a refusal to panic, come what may. Browning, I think had that idea when he defined faith like this: 'With me, faith means perpetual unbelief kept quiet, like the snake 'neath Michael's foot.' Here is Michael and there is the snake beneath his foot, and he just keeps it quiet under the pressure of his foot. Faith is unbelief kept quiet, kept down. That is what these men did not do. They allowed this situation to grip them, and they became panicky. Faith, however, is a refusal to allow that. It says, 'I am not going to be controlled by these circumstances--I am in control.' By faith you take charge of yourself, pull yourself up, control yourself. You do not let yourself get swept away, you assert yourself.

Yet that is not the whole of faith. Having taken that first step, you then remind yourself of what you believe and what you know. That again is something these foolish disciples did not do. If only they had stopped a moment and said: 'Now then, is it possible that we are going to drown with Him in the boat? Is there anything He cannot do? We have seen His miracles, He turned the water into wine, He can heal the blind and the lame, He can even raise the dead, is it likely that He is going to allow us and Himself to be drowned in this way? Impossible! In any case He loves us, He cares for us, He has told us that the very hairs of our head are numbered!' That is the way faith reasons. It says: 'All right, I see the waves and the wind, but...' It always puts up this, 'but...' That is faith. It holds on to truth and reasons from what it knows to be fact...

Very well, then, faith says: 'I cannot believe that He who has brought me so far is going to let me down at this point. It is impossible. It would be inconsistent with the character of God.' So faith, having refused to be controlled by circumstances, reminds itself of what it believes and what it knows... You may not have a full explanation of what is happening, but you will know for certain that God is not unconcerned. That is impossible. The One who has done the greatest thing of all for you, must be concerned about you in everything, and though the clouds are thick and you cannot see His face, you know He is there. 'Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.'

These earthborn clouds prevent my seeing Him, but He is there and He will never allow anything finally harmful to take place. Nothing can happen to you but what He allows, I do not care what it may be -- some great disappointment, perhaps, or it may be an illness, it may be a tragedy of some sort, I do not know what it is, but you can be certain of this -- that God permits that thing to happen to you because it is ultimately for your good. 'Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grevious; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness...' (Heb. 12:11)

That is the way faith works, but you have to exercise it... If you find yourself is this position of trial and trouble and testing, take it as a wonderful opportunity of proving your faith, of showing your faith, of manifesting your faith, and bringing glory to His great and Holy Name. But even if you should fail to do that, if you should be too weak to apply your faith; if you are being besieged and attacked by the devil, and by hell, and by the world, well, then, I say, just fly to Him at once and He will receive you and bless you. He will give you deliverance. He will give you peace. 'Where is your faith?' Let us make certain it is always at the place of need and testing."

As one man put it, "Faith is a verb, not a noun." It's an activity, not a commodity. It's something we do or put into practice, not something we simply hold on to or possess. It is active trust. "When I am afraid, I will trust in You." (Ps. 56:3-4) It is looking, seeing, leaning, clinging, believing, standing firm, refusing to let go, and refusing to allow doubt to persude us of anything contrary to the promises of God.

It is not the absence of doubt, but trusting God in spite of our doubts. It is preaching the truth to ourselves when our feelings, or the little voice of doubt in our heads, seeks to convince us to give up -- "Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." (Ps. 42:5 and 11) That's what the person of faith does -- he or she preaches to their own soul and tells their soul what to do -- like David, who tells his own downcast soul to put its hope in God! And as one who has taken David's advice, I can tell you it works.

In the Bonds of Christian Charity, Pastor Jeff

Driven to Despair

Greetings All,

This week's 'thought' comes from Os Guinness, and is found in his book "The Call." Guinness was born to British missionary parents in China during World War II. His family remained there until 1951 when the communists forced most foreigners to leave. He was educated at Oxford, is a devout Christian, and a scholar with few rivals. He is an expert on social trends, and has published 24 books.

His purpose in writing "The Call" was to help "all who long to find and fulfill the purpose of their lives."

This selection speaks of "seekers" (both true and false) and the two main ways people seek happiness and fulfillment -- the way of eros and the way of agape. The path of the one leads to a dead end, the other to the ultimate goal of their search. Thus, if you are in the midst of seeking, or know someone who is, his words can save you (or your friend) a lot of heartache and needless travel time spent on the path that leads to nowhere but despair. Enjoy.

"'We all want to be happy,' as Cicero said in Hortensius, and reasonable thought would indicate that the greatest happiness comes in possessing the greatest good... True seekers [as opposed to the uncommitted, restless, drifter who merely seeks different experiences ad nauseam -- without ever settling anywhere] are different... They become seekers because something has spurred their quest for meaning, and they must find an answer... They are people for whom life, or a part of life, has suddenly become a point of wonder, a question, a problem or a crisis... They do not come to believe in the answers they seek because of a need. That would be irrational and make the believer vulnerable to the accusation that faith is a crutch. Rather, [true] seekers disbelieve in what they believed in before, because of new questions which their previous beliefs could not answer...

All human beings are alike in seeking happiness. Where they differ is in the objects from which they seek it and the strength they have to reach the objects they desire. Jesus way (the way of agape) says, 'By all means love, by all means desire, but think carefully about what you love and what you desire.' Those who follow the way of eros are not wrong to desire happiness, but wrong to think that happiness is to be found where they seek it [in the desire or appetite aroused by the attractive qualities found in the object of its passion and pursuit]. The very fact that we humans experience desire is proof that we are creatures. Incomplete in ourselves, we desire whatever we think is beckoning to complete us.

God alone needs nothing outside himself, because he himself is the highest and the only lasting good. So all objects we desire short of God are as finite and incomplete as we ourselves are, and, therefore, disappointing if we make them the objects of ultimate desire... Because true satisfaction and real rest can only be found in the highest and most lasting good, all seeking short of the pursuit of God brings only restlessness. This is what Augustine meant in his famous saying in Book One of his 'Confessions': 'You made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.'

Considering the distance between creature and Creator, can any seeker... hope to bridge the chasm? The answer, realistically, is no. We cannot find God without God. We cannot reach God without God. We cannot satisfy God without God -- which is another way of saying that our seeking will always fall short unless God's grace initiates the search, and unless God's call draws us to him and completes the search. If the chasm is to be bridged, God must bridge it. If we are to desire the highest good, the highest good must come down and draw us so that it may become a reality we desire. From this perspective there is no merit in either seeking or finding. All is grace.

The secret of seeking is not our human ascent to God, but in God's descent to us. We start out searching, but we end up being discovered. We think we are looking for something; we realize we are found by Someone. As in Francis Thompson's famous picture, 'the hound of heaven' has tracked us down. What brings us home is not our discovery of the way home, but the call of the Father who has been waiting there for us all along, whose presence there makes home home...

But for those drawn [to the search] by lives like Leonardo da Vinci's, yet sobered by the tragic impossibilities of finite unaided human searching, the truth of 'calling' holds out comfort and promise. We not only have Jesus' explicit promise that seekers will find ('seek and you will find'), but we also have his direct example to show that seekers themselves are sought. Indeed, from the seeking wise men onward, Jesus is the greatest magnet for seekers in all history. The words given in Mark's Gospel to Bartimaeus, the blind beggar who desperately sought healing from Jesus, are God's encouragement to all who truly seek: 'Take Heart. He is calling you.'"

Around the time that Os Guinness was born, A. W. Tozer had written a similar statement in his classic work, "The Pursuit of God," where he started off his entire book by stating: "Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which, briefly stated, means that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man... We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. 'No man can come to me,' said our Lord, 'except the Father which has sent us draw him.' (John 6:44)... The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after God."

Can such statements lead to despair? In one sense, yes they can. They were intended to do so. For only when one is driven to despair in their own attempts to control their own destiny and salvation, will they discover the One who really controls their destiny and salvation -- and in finding Him they will find their purpose, calling, fulfillment and true happiness.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Faithful

Greetings All,

Today's 'thought' has to do with an experience common to most Christians (if not all) at one time or another in their lives: The sense of spiritual desertion. Those times when our experience of the felt presence of God, and sweet communion with Christ, give way to seasons where it seems (at least from the sensory level) that God is nowhere to be found.

The example that follows is a true story, and is found In Brennan Manning's book: "Reflections for Ragamuffins." It is entitled: "Where He Abides." Most, I assume, will be able to relate to one degree or another!

Enjoy.

"For a long time, Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) enjoyed a glorious prayer life. She had a highly conscious awareness of the divine indwelling. She loved to spend days alone, locked up in her little room, enjoying the presence of the beautiful God who dwelt in her heart. This was peace, joy, security. God, her God, was always with her. Life would always be a vision of peace.

So she thought, until one day when her comfortable existence exploded. She lost the familiar feeling of secure possession. She lost the sense of his presence and felt dead to his influence. Now even the memory of him seemed unreal. He had vanished into thin air. Now sin was the only thing that mattered. Impure images filled her thoughts and her body tingled in response. She felt as though she had been plunged into a pool of filth and that she had lost forever her clean, joyous life with Christ.

This loss became the moment of grace. In the same room where she had been so fiercely tempted, Catherine found Christ again. 'Lord,' she complained, 'where were you when these foul images filled my mind?' The answer of Jesus opened up a new depth of faith: 'Catherine, all during these temptations I have remained with you, right in your heart. Otherwise you would not have overcome them.'

At the very moment when Jesus revealed to Catherine that he had been with her during her ordeal of severe temptation, she lost forever her former understanding of what it meant to experience the presence of God. His word taught her that his presence in the soul is something deeper and holier than she could imagine or feel. In this life, he must always be the hidden God. Human feelings cannot touch him; human thought cannot measure him. Experience cannot heighten the certainty of his presence any more than fear of his absence can lessen it... He would always be there, in the quiet darkness of her soul, just as he had promised. She had lost the (sense of the) presence of God, only to find it again in the deep darkness of a richer faith."

Sooner or later every believer must come to see that there is an enormous difference between God's omnipresence, and His felt presence, sensed presence or what Tozer called his 'manifest presence.' Between the felt sense of His presence and his actual indwelling and sealing presence.

To those Christian's who fear they may have 'lost' the presence of God, Paul offers an insightful and encouraging word of comfort to dispel the notion. For in Ephesians 4:30 he writes: "Do not grieve (or in some versions 'quench') the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption."

Yes, we can grieve or quench the Spirit of God through sin (some are listed in the next verse in Eph. 4:31), and we can lose the felt sense of His presence for many reasons that have nothing to do with sin, but if we have trusted in Christ, we cannot lose the actual presence of the Holy Spirit, for we have been sealed with it "unto the day of redemption." His actual indwelling presence, once by grace attained, can never be lost. We may sometimes feel God has deserted us, but it is merely the inevitable danger that comes by making too close an association between God and our emotions. If God has come to indwell us, and seal us, His presence is with us and in us whether we feel it or not!

God has blessed us with emotions, and often guides us, reassures us, and reveals Himself to us through them, but we stand on terribly dangerous ground when we think our ability to feel or sense the presence or absence of God with our emotions is the defining truth. It's not! Our emotions do not define the reality of our justified state, any more than how we feel about our performance does. God's Word does! And His Word states the defining immutable truth for every Christian: You have been justified by faith (Rom. 3:21-24). And you may grieve the Holy Spirit, and thus lose the felt sense of His presence, but His Spirit remains sealed upon your soul unto the day of redemption" (whether you feel his presence or not)! That's His promise.

Thanks be to God!

Pastor Jeff