At Hope Springs Christian Church, in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, our message is one of Hope. It doesn’t matter where you came from or where you are at, if you don’t have hope for the future you will lose your confidence in the now. Hope affects your confidence because what you hope for affects what you believe now. The Bible says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” (Heb 11:1). You can see how our present confidence is affected by what we hope for.
The word “confidence” comes from two root words -“con” - meaning ‘with’ and “fide” - meaning ‘faith.’ The instability of our current world can cause us to loose confidence in our government, the financial system, our health care system, and large corporations if we have place our faith with them. We can easily loose hope that things will change. That is why faith in the God of Hope is so important. He never changes, His word is an immovable rock, and His promises are a sworn truth so that we can lay hold of the hope that is set before us as and anchor for our souls (Heb. 6:18-19). We only have faith or live life with confidence if we have hope. The Bible says that ‘faith and love’ spring from the hope that is given to us in the word of God (Rom 10:17 and Col 1:5).
Because what we believe affects the way in which we act, we see love comes from faith in God’s word. In fact, our faith is dead if it is not expressing itself by love (Gal 5:6). The Bible goes on to teach that our works of faith are prompted by our love (1 Thes 1:3).
This is the message of hope: “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast,” (Eph 2:4-5; 8-9).
The future is bright because God has already caused us to triumph in Christ Jesus, if we will receive it. I challenge you to begin looking at how the Bible teaches what Christ has already done. It is said, "All other religions can be summed up in a single word - 'do.' While Christianity can alone be summed up in the single word - 'done.'"
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
My Darling
A large seminar was held for ministers in training. Among the guests were many well-known motivational speakers. One such boldly approached the pulpit and, gathering the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that wasn't my wife!" The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying, "And that woman was my mother!" The crowd burst into laughter and he gave his speech, which went over well. About a week later one of the ministers who had attended the seminar decided to use that joke in his sermon. As he shyly approached the pulpit one sunny Sunday, he tried to rehearse the joke in his head. It seemed a bit foggy to him this morning. Getting to the microphone he said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of another woman that was not my wife!" His congregation sat shocked. After standing there for almost 10 seconds trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurted out,"...and I can't remember who she was!"
A couple of nice songs in the past sang about how their love was still the one they turned to, still the one they loved, and the one they longed to be with. Love is not really romantic if it can be replaced by a fling with someone else. In fact, that infidelity betrays the very concept of love and devotion. It was in my parent’s era that husbands and wives would call each other, “darling.” Darling is an interesting word that is actually used in the Bible to refer to God. The meaning of the word darling is “only one.” You can see why the translators used the word to refer to God. He is the “only one” in so many ways: He is the only one who truly loves us; the only one who saves, the only one that is due our devotion, the only one from whom came all things, etc. You can only have one “only one,” only one darling.
When I first came to faith in Christ, I searched churches for pastors and people that truly knew God and were really Christ-like in their character. To my disappointment, after I got to know them better, I realized that they all came up short in some area of their life. I would pray, “God if there is someone I should follow show them to me and I will follow them.” No matter how sincere I believed them to be there was always some weakness in them. It didn’t matter if it was big or small they all failed and they all were at times oblivious to what seemed to be a huge contradiction. They would act rudely, like invite me to lunch and talk on the phone the whole time. They would miss appointments. They would contradict themselves while preaching. I even heard one pastor preach on the importance of forgiving others who met a man after church that he told, “I will never forgive you, that sermon was not meant for you.”
So what does all of this have to do with finding someone to follow, or what your expectations of a pastor should be? I think the point is that only one should have our full devotion and expectation of never failing – that is Jesus. Every true man of God points away from himself to Christ. Like John the baptizer, a man after God’s own heart proclaims, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” A minister that focuses on his ability to preach and minister will not only fall and hurt himself, but he will fall on others and hurt them.
It is not the oratory skills of a minister that makes a great man of God, rather his or her ability to point others away from themselves to Christ. When the apostles prayed for individuals in the Bible who subsequently were miraculously healed, they didn’t go and begin booking speaking engagements in all the cities for healing revivals. They were quick to say things like, “Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. (Acts 3:12; 16). I am afraid that many preachers are only trying to make a name for themselves and not make much of the name of Jesus.
Paul said, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power,” (1 Cor 2:4-5). Yes, it is important to be “apt to teach,” as it mentions in another place in the Bible, but if that is all one is relying on to see lives changed for Christ they are really doing a disservice to the gospel. When we get people to follow us we are in error. We need people to follow Christ. If people are determined to follow Jesus, they will be more apt to accept the failures of a pastor who says, “I am not the one you need to be devoted to, be devoted to the ‘Darling of Heaven;’ The only Holy One, Jesus Christ.”
A couple of nice songs in the past sang about how their love was still the one they turned to, still the one they loved, and the one they longed to be with. Love is not really romantic if it can be replaced by a fling with someone else. In fact, that infidelity betrays the very concept of love and devotion. It was in my parent’s era that husbands and wives would call each other, “darling.” Darling is an interesting word that is actually used in the Bible to refer to God. The meaning of the word darling is “only one.” You can see why the translators used the word to refer to God. He is the “only one” in so many ways: He is the only one who truly loves us; the only one who saves, the only one that is due our devotion, the only one from whom came all things, etc. You can only have one “only one,” only one darling.
When I first came to faith in Christ, I searched churches for pastors and people that truly knew God and were really Christ-like in their character. To my disappointment, after I got to know them better, I realized that they all came up short in some area of their life. I would pray, “God if there is someone I should follow show them to me and I will follow them.” No matter how sincere I believed them to be there was always some weakness in them. It didn’t matter if it was big or small they all failed and they all were at times oblivious to what seemed to be a huge contradiction. They would act rudely, like invite me to lunch and talk on the phone the whole time. They would miss appointments. They would contradict themselves while preaching. I even heard one pastor preach on the importance of forgiving others who met a man after church that he told, “I will never forgive you, that sermon was not meant for you.”
So what does all of this have to do with finding someone to follow, or what your expectations of a pastor should be? I think the point is that only one should have our full devotion and expectation of never failing – that is Jesus. Every true man of God points away from himself to Christ. Like John the baptizer, a man after God’s own heart proclaims, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” A minister that focuses on his ability to preach and minister will not only fall and hurt himself, but he will fall on others and hurt them.
It is not the oratory skills of a minister that makes a great man of God, rather his or her ability to point others away from themselves to Christ. When the apostles prayed for individuals in the Bible who subsequently were miraculously healed, they didn’t go and begin booking speaking engagements in all the cities for healing revivals. They were quick to say things like, “Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. (Acts 3:12; 16). I am afraid that many preachers are only trying to make a name for themselves and not make much of the name of Jesus.
Paul said, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power,” (1 Cor 2:4-5). Yes, it is important to be “apt to teach,” as it mentions in another place in the Bible, but if that is all one is relying on to see lives changed for Christ they are really doing a disservice to the gospel. When we get people to follow us we are in error. We need people to follow Christ. If people are determined to follow Jesus, they will be more apt to accept the failures of a pastor who says, “I am not the one you need to be devoted to, be devoted to the ‘Darling of Heaven;’ The only Holy One, Jesus Christ.”
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
How Can We See God?
“How many people believe in prayer? How many actually pray? Huh, more than I thought. How many believe that God actually hears your prayers? …About the same number. And how many people believe that God answers your prayers? Okay you all got this great belief and obviously God isn’t too busy to answer you individually. Let’s get him up here. Alright, you ready? Everybody start praying. One, two, three – God come on down; let’s show it to us. (pause as nothing appears on the stage) Surprise, surprise… Why do you believe this? Why didn’t He come down here? That would be my first question to Cliffe (Pastor Cliffe Knechtle). Why didn’t He come up, right? He did it for St. Thomas…why doesn’t He do it for us now?” Michael Newdow, the well known atheist, mocked in what was touted as The Great Debate – Atheism versus Christianity in 2002.
The physical presence of God is described as being so awesome in its brilliance that the Bible calls it “unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16). And that God is described as so holy that (His) “eyes are too pure to look on evil” (Hab 1:13). There is most certainly a veil that separates us from God (see Heb. 10:20) at this time – our flesh.
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
…“Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (2 Cor 5:16). Because Jesus is in the heaven making intercession for us, we are now in the day of the Lord’s favor – the day of Grace, or the Day of Atonement when God’s people put their faith and trust in the actions of the High Priest, who alone is able to work. This is the day that the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. To see God will mean certain judgment of ALL sin as the Scripture has said, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:9-10a).
So how can we see God? Jesus said, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17). Since the Father is always working, if we learn to understand the character and desire of God, we should be able to recognize His work.
Which leads me to why I think that people don’t see or recognize God’s work; they misunderstand His agenda. This is why people rejected Jesus in the days of His flesh; they misunderstood and at times disagreed with Jesus’ agenda. Certain of the disciples only expected the agenda of Christ to be that of one who would restore the kingdom to Israel. Therefore they couldn’t see Him on the road to Emmaus. Some people only saw Christ only as the son of David so they rejected His claims to be the divine “Son of God” – eternally pre-existing before Abraham, Lord of the Sabbath, able to forgive sin, etc. Others saw Him as one who went about doing good and healing the sick and heard no demand for repentance or live change (Mt 11:21). Pilate proclaimed, “Behold the man,” as Jesus stood before the crowd in a crown of thorns and a purple robe. The crowd rejected what appeared to be a man too weak to be the King.
How many miss seeing God’s works for the very same reason – they don’t recognize His agenda. They see Jesus only as one who cares for our needs and do not see Him as the one who teaches us to care for the needs of others. They only see Jesus as a revolutionary, one who overthrew the then established religion and do not see Him as the peace giver who teaches us the blessing in being a peacemaker. They see Him only as loving full of grace and don’t want to see His wrath. Some people only see Jesus in a manner that is similar to them selves and do not see the man from Galilee who had no form or beauty that we should desire Him, who was despised and rejected of men.
How many see Jesus as the western emasculate image and refuse to see Him as one who was a Middle Eastern Jew, much less as the apostle John saw Him with eyes of fire and hair white as snow with a face brighter than the noon day’s sun? Our preconceptions often lead us into misconceptions that blind us from what God is doing.
Michael Newdow further asked, “What level of evidence do we need to believe in God?” Do we need to see God visibly to know He exists? What would one do with that knowledge? How would it affect our behavior? I would suggest that the greatest evidence for God is found in the Bible by way of learning what God is doing and what God is not doing. Proverbs 2:5 tells us that finding the knowledge of God is linked to our desire to cry out for understanding and the wisdom that comes from God alone. If we assume God do be doing something but we find it to be contrary to His word, we will miss God.
Some how our faith has to move beyond our faith to conviction as Josh McDowell teaches. That we must move from believing about God to believing God as Beth Moore teaches. Notice how Jesus teaches that someone will understand God and have Him reveal Himself to them:
“If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:17).
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:22-23).
Jesus taught that if we will first choose to do God’s will, we will be taught of God. Second, He taught that obedience to His teaching results in a revelation of God in their lives – He will love them and live within that person. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Glory is the manifest presence of God. Too many people miss God because they follow their ever changing feelings and circumstances instead of God's unchanging Word. We are not taught to follow our hearts as the world teaches (our heart's are deceitful and wicked - we don't even know them); we are taught to follow Jesus (who is called the Word of God) because He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
The physical presence of God is described as being so awesome in its brilliance that the Bible calls it “unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16). And that God is described as so holy that (His) “eyes are too pure to look on evil” (Hab 1:13). There is most certainly a veil that separates us from God (see Heb. 10:20) at this time – our flesh.
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
…“Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (2 Cor 5:16). Because Jesus is in the heaven making intercession for us, we are now in the day of the Lord’s favor – the day of Grace, or the Day of Atonement when God’s people put their faith and trust in the actions of the High Priest, who alone is able to work. This is the day that the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. To see God will mean certain judgment of ALL sin as the Scripture has said, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:9-10a).
So how can we see God? Jesus said, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17). Since the Father is always working, if we learn to understand the character and desire of God, we should be able to recognize His work.
Which leads me to why I think that people don’t see or recognize God’s work; they misunderstand His agenda. This is why people rejected Jesus in the days of His flesh; they misunderstood and at times disagreed with Jesus’ agenda. Certain of the disciples only expected the agenda of Christ to be that of one who would restore the kingdom to Israel. Therefore they couldn’t see Him on the road to Emmaus. Some people only saw Christ only as the son of David so they rejected His claims to be the divine “Son of God” – eternally pre-existing before Abraham, Lord of the Sabbath, able to forgive sin, etc. Others saw Him as one who went about doing good and healing the sick and heard no demand for repentance or live change (Mt 11:21). Pilate proclaimed, “Behold the man,” as Jesus stood before the crowd in a crown of thorns and a purple robe. The crowd rejected what appeared to be a man too weak to be the King.
How many miss seeing God’s works for the very same reason – they don’t recognize His agenda. They see Jesus only as one who cares for our needs and do not see Him as the one who teaches us to care for the needs of others. They only see Jesus as a revolutionary, one who overthrew the then established religion and do not see Him as the peace giver who teaches us the blessing in being a peacemaker. They see Him only as loving full of grace and don’t want to see His wrath. Some people only see Jesus in a manner that is similar to them selves and do not see the man from Galilee who had no form or beauty that we should desire Him, who was despised and rejected of men.
How many see Jesus as the western emasculate image and refuse to see Him as one who was a Middle Eastern Jew, much less as the apostle John saw Him with eyes of fire and hair white as snow with a face brighter than the noon day’s sun? Our preconceptions often lead us into misconceptions that blind us from what God is doing.
Michael Newdow further asked, “What level of evidence do we need to believe in God?” Do we need to see God visibly to know He exists? What would one do with that knowledge? How would it affect our behavior? I would suggest that the greatest evidence for God is found in the Bible by way of learning what God is doing and what God is not doing. Proverbs 2:5 tells us that finding the knowledge of God is linked to our desire to cry out for understanding and the wisdom that comes from God alone. If we assume God do be doing something but we find it to be contrary to His word, we will miss God.
Some how our faith has to move beyond our faith to conviction as Josh McDowell teaches. That we must move from believing about God to believing God as Beth Moore teaches. Notice how Jesus teaches that someone will understand God and have Him reveal Himself to them:
“If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:17).
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:22-23).
Jesus taught that if we will first choose to do God’s will, we will be taught of God. Second, He taught that obedience to His teaching results in a revelation of God in their lives – He will love them and live within that person. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Glory is the manifest presence of God. Too many people miss God because they follow their ever changing feelings and circumstances instead of God's unchanging Word. We are not taught to follow our hearts as the world teaches (our heart's are deceitful and wicked - we don't even know them); we are taught to follow Jesus (who is called the Word of God) because He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
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