“When God doesn’t do what you want, you decide to kill Him.” That was the subtitle of my message this past Sunday. We started the series “Passion Week”. We are focusing on the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Sunday I talked about Palm Sunday. The crowds worshiped Jesus when He arrived in Jerusalem…He didn’t give them what they were hoping for…by the end of the week, the crowds cried out, crucify Him!”
This past Sunday I talked about Jesus’ command to love one another. I have been a Christian for almost 19 years. I have seen the body of Christ do this well. There have also been times it has not done well in loving one another. When we love one another, we demonstrate our faith in Christ and we are following His example.
This past Sunday I preached the second part of the 4-part series “Love”. This week’s message is “What is Love?” We looked at the Bible’s description of love found in 1 Corinthians 13.
On Sunday I talked about Jesus loving the unlovable. We looked at Zacchaeus, a wealthy, dishonest, tax collector.
I just submitted this article to be published in our church’s monthly newsletter. I talked briefly about love. Our goal as followers of Christ is to love like Christ. It is not always easy. But God never commands us to do easy things…He commands us to do those things which require is strength!
This month we celebrate Valentine’s Day. In this time much is said about “love”. If you ask 5 people to define love, you’ll probably get 5 different definitions. Our society has many ways to define and describe love. In fact we use the word so often that it loses meaning. How can we use the same word to say “I love my children” and “I love ice cream”? Obviously the word means many things.
In the Scriptures we have the clearest definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13. The type of love described here is the love believers should have for one another. Even though this passage is often recited at weddings, it is not primarily a romantic love. Verses 4-7 say that love is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, not rude, not selfish, not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in evil but rejoices in truth. The Bible says that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” What a high standard! This is how we are to relate to one another as followers of Christ.
As followers of Jesus, we are to model His life. We are to live like He lived and love like He loved. In fact we can take these 14 descriptions of love and insert the name of Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love. We can read these verses and replace the word ‘love’ with the name ‘Jesus’. This gives us a great picture of the character of Christ. Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, etc.
May God strengthen us to live out this Christ-like love towards one another!
Earlier this week a friend posted 42 reflections on his life. It motivated me to do the same. He’s about twice my age, so I did 21 reflections!
This morning at breakfast, we had a water spill, but it was a win
Last night, Carter asked Matthea to make bacon and toast for breakfast. This morning when we got the kids up at 6:45, there was bacon, toast, fruit, and fried eggs waiting for them. Many months ago we started waking the kids up a little earlier and enjoying a sit-down breakfast together before heading off to school. Sure, we have to wake up earlier, but the time with the kids has been great. We give ourselves enough time so we aren’t rushing around the house.
As we’re eating breakfast Matthea usually shares from a family devotional and we discuss it. This morning, the devotional was on apologizing. It talked about the difference between saying “I’m sorry” and meaning “I’m sorry”. You know, we often say “I’m sorry” without having any meaning of sorrow, remorse, or repentance. We then talked about the need to forgive someone when they apologize and what that means. How we are to treat them as if it didn’t happen, we aren’t to hold it against them.
In the midst of helping the kids think through some real life examples, Carter got up from his chair and walked over to get some grapes. He broke one of our table rules – you are supposed to ask someone to pass the serving dish to you. While doing this, he accidentally spilled Caleb’s tall glass of ice-cold water onto the table and into Caleb’s lap!
Caleb’s face came to life (as would with your lap full of ice-cold water.) He didn’t raise his voice, or have any verbal response. I helped him out of his chair and began drying him off. Carter ran to the linen closet to got a towel and was back helping dry off his little brother in no time. After everything and everyone was dried off, Carter looked at Caleb and said, “I’m really sorry for spilling water on you.” Caleb said, “that’s okay, it was an accident. I forgive you.” Caleb went over and gave Carter a hug. Matthea and I watched this and knew we didn’t need to come up with any real life example to demonstrate the point of today’s devotional. As they were hugging, Caleb said, “now don’t touch my shorts unless you want to get wet!”
This was a great picture for our kids about applying God’s Word to our lives. They got to see a potentially bad sibling episode handled in a way that honored Christ! It was a great reminder of the importance to teach and live out the Scriptures to our children.
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.
What a great word from Habakkuk 3:17-19. At the end of this heartbreaking book, Habakkuk lays out a desperate situation. There is emptiness on the fig tree, the vines, olive crops, the field, the flock, and the herd. From a human perspective, it is empty, cold, and lifeless. So how does he respond? He rejoices in the Lord. Let’s be honest. There is nothing else to rejoice in under these circumstances.
If you are a follower of Christ, you have an enemy (see Ephesians 6:10-20) and he wants you to feel hopeless and paralyzed. In that desperation of hopelessness he is eager for you to focus on what is not going well. It may not be a fig tree or herds of sheep, but you know what it is in your life. Your enemy (see Ephesians 6:10-20) wants you to pay attention to your despair. Once you have reached despair, you are paralyzed and immobile. You have no desire to serve Jesus. No desire to know Jesus more. When you’re at that place…your enemy (see Ephesians 6:10-20) has won.
So, what are we to do? Focus on the Lord. Notice Habakkuk says he will rejoice in the Lord. He is not rejoicing (or despairing) in the emptiness around him, but rejoicing in the Lord. The God who brings salvation. He is the author of joy. The God who gives strength, He is to originator of joy!
If you are paralyzed by the things around you, look to the Lord. He is salvation, He is your strength, He is your joy. Everything else may fail you, but He never will.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23 is perhaps the best known passage in all the Bible. Familiarity is good, but it can cause us to overlook truth. In the first few sentences we see the peaceful existence of the sheep. Everything is supplied, no needs go unmet. There are still water…peaceful. No worries, no cares, no trouble. All of the sudden the path goes in an unwanted direction. The once peaceful path leads into a valley. Not just any valley. This valley runs alongside a giant mountain. A mountain so large that it casts a great shadow onto the path. The mountain is death.
Few things in life hit like death. All loss is difficult and requires adjustment. Change can be difficult, but we know that what is lost can be regained. Not so with death. There is a loss that cannot be regained on earth. This is why the mountain of death seems impossible to climb. It is a tall mountain with a long shadow. Walking in that shadow is dark. It is cold. The temperature drops in the shade. In the shade you cannot see the light. It is dark and without warmth. For whatever reason God leads His children on this path. When we try to look and find God, all we see is the mountain. The mountain of death.
On this path, we cannot see the light but we must trust that it is still there. We cannot see God but we must trust that He is still God. In these times we are desperate to know what God is doing. The reality is that it doesn’t matter that we know what He is doing. What does matter is the we know that HE KNOWS what He is doing! It is His plan to lead us onto this path so that we learn to trust Him. While on this path, only two things give comfort…His rod and His staff.
The rod and staff are indispensable tools of the shepherd. He uses them to guide, lead, and correct the sheep. This is a reminder to the sheep that the shepherd is near. When in the valley of the shadow, He is very near! We cannot see Him. We cannot feel Him. But He is very near. THAT is the lesson of the valley. HE. IS. NEAR.
Rest in His goodness and nearness. Even though it doesn’t feel like it, even though it doesn’t appear so….He is near to you.
A Pastor's Thoughts 