You Were Meant for Better Things, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

2:1  When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2:2  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
2:3  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
2:4  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
2:5  Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.
2:6  And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.
2:7  Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
2:8  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?
2:9  Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
2:10  Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
2:11  Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
2:12  All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"
2:13  But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
2:14  But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.
2:15  Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.
2:16  No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
2:17  'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
2:18  Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
2:19  And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
2:20  The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
2:21  Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

This Sunday, May 27, is Pentecost Sunday, commemorating that day in history when the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the church, as Jesus promised. No one keeps promises like our Lord. But are you ready? For the last five months, around the world and here in America, those who follow Christ have been under attack; some lost rights, some lost homes and churches, some lost their children to murder, some lost their own lives. And it continues. History moves in step with God Almighty, and this Sunday, though the Father of Lies will be discomforted by our celebration, we are but one day closer to the promised return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Are you ready?  You were meant for better things.

Luke tells us in the book of Acts of a promise that was given 2000 years ago: that normal people will lead extraordinary lives; that disciples, who were terrified on the night of Jesus' death, were transformed into bold saints of God; and that fishermen, tax collectors, and housewives..normal everyday people..became empowered, and turned the Roman Empire inside out and upside down!

In Acts 2, we read about the initial outpouring of the Spirit during Pentecost. But then in Acts 4 (v. 23-31), just a few chapters later, the same saints who had been once filled to overflowing, sought to be refilled again. It was not a onetime experience, but rather a constant refilling of the Spirit which they needed to change their world. They repeatedly sought to be empowered to accomplish whatever task God assigned to them. They just kept going back to the Well that never runs dry, and so they kept getting filled...and refilled...and refilled again!

Don't ever become spiritually "satisfied"! Seek to be filled, but once filled, seek to be refilled!  And refilled again! How do we live in a constant state of revival? By always seeking more!  In doing so, God will empower everyday people like you and like me to turn our world inside out and upside down!

But wait.  Wait for it ... wait for it ...

What did you accomplish in the last six seconds?

For that matter, what did you accomplish in the last hour, the last day, week?  Was there anything there that will stand out after you are gone?

If so, or if not, is that what you were designed for? 

The following comes from a sermon by the Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, entitled "Gone.  Gone For Ever," which he delivered on May 28, 1876.

"I care not what you do nor what you are; though you should be owners of a score of counties, if you love not God your soul is poor and degraded; though men should set you on a column high in air, and account you a hero, if you have not lived for God you have lived in vain. As the vine which yields no cluster is useless, so is a man who has not honored God. As an arrow which falls short of the mark, as a fig tree which yields no figs, as a candle which smokes but yields no light, as a cloud without rain and a well without water, is a man who has not served the Lord. He has led a wasted life — a life to which the flower and glory of existence are lacking. Call it not life at all, but write it down as animated death."

We come to consider that we were each made for better things on this Pentecost Sunday.  It's not an accidental amalgamation of ideas, Pentecost and our being created for better things.

Pentecost was a God-inspired feast day for the Jews. Of course, "Pentecost" is a Greek name, so they called it the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. It is mentioned five places in the first five books of the Bible, in Exodus 23, Exodus 24, Leviticus 16, Numbers 28, and Deuteronomy 16. This was the celebration of the beginning of the early weeks of harvest, of which there were two harvests each year in Palestine. The early harvest came during the months of May and June; the final harvest came in the Fall. Pentecost then, was the celebration of the beginning of the early wheat harvest, which meant Pentecost always fell sometime during the middle of the month of May or sometimes in early June.

There were several festivals and celebrations taking place before Pentecost; Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Feast of Firstfruits. The latter was the celebration that took place as the barley harvest began. So you figured out the date for Pentecost by going to the day of the celebration of Firstfruits, and counting off 50 days. On the fiftieth day you had the day of Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks.

I share this because there are three things to know about Pentecost that will help us understand what we find in Acts 2.  First, Pentecost was a pilgrim festival requiring all adult Jewish males to come to Jerusalem and attend the celebration. Secondly, as Pentecost was a holiday, no ordinary work could be done. Everything was closed and it was party time.  The streets were full of joyous people.

Finally, there were sacrifices and offerings required by law to be performed by the High Priest.  It was a wonderful time of harvest and celebration, and the streets of Jerusalem were filled with thousands of pilgrims from every region to celebrate God and the bringing in of the wheat harvest.

It was in the midst of this great and grand celebration of the nation of Israel that we read what happened in the second chapter of Acts.  In the midst of all those celebrating people, the Holy Spirit came to just a few; a select few before God.

In a recent sermon, Pastor Duke Tabor said that he had run into several people who thought Christianity was merely a set of rules and regulations that people follow and if somehow someone can prove that those rules and regulations are irrelevant or wrong, then Christianity and the Bible are wrong. This led him to thinking about how we ever got to the point that the question is about rules and regulations and not about the message of the gospel which is clearly one of having a hope and a future, that people can change, and that there is a power that can only be found in Christ so that even the worst of sinners can become the greatest of saints. Somehow we have forgotten the power of Christian transformation that is available for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.  It's not a debate of logic and law.

What it's really all about is that Christ came to set at liberty those who are captive.  And that is set forth no better than in Luke 4:18 (New Living Translation) ... "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free..."  The principle is that Jesus came to change lives.  He can to transform them. He did not come to leave them the same. Somehow this message has been lost.  The power, the expectation of transformation has been lost.

Amazing, isn't it?  Christians have the greatest message of hope and power in this world.  We have the message that no person, regardless of who they are or what situation that they were born into, they don't have to stay in that situation. We have the message of transformation, of a new creation, of the sinner set free!  So how did we get to the point of preaching to the world anything other than the gospel of Christ?

Well, first, like all mankind, Christians are still sinners saved by grace.  We just forget about that, and we start centering on sin, our desires, instead of the solution to sin which is allowing Christ to transform our lives, making sure Christ is the center of our lives.

 Then, too, there are many of us who are simply creatures of habit. We forget that the power of our faith isn't in religion or methods, but it's in the our personal relationship with Christ. It's not about how we perform, what we do, but in the condition of our heart towards the Lord. 

Thirdly, we tend to transform God into our image rather than allowing God to transform us into His image.  Perhaps above all else, this has weakened the power of the church's message to America.  The message of salvation and transformation has been swapped out for the preaching of a prosperity gospel; riches, health for all, a chicken in every pot.  Instead of God being the one who changes us, we became the ones who dictated what God would or would not do.  We are urged to "name and claim" from God.   Transformation is no longer taught.  Instead the message is to "name and claim" what we can get out of God.

So we come down to the question, is transformation really all that important?

Consider, Jesus took fishermen, zealots, tax collectors, and prostitutes and changed them into people empowered to rise up and change their world with a message of transformation. Christian transformation is important because it came with the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and without it we are just another of a wide variety of religions. We have no power. Because of the promise that if a person is in Christ, they have become a new creation, the Christian message is unique and different; people are transformed.  It's not about you and me trying to be good, because we can't on our own.  It is about God coming to live inside of men and women, and because of that amazing reality, a human being is changed from the inside out.

This message is the message to be given to those caught in sin, to alcoholics, the drug addicted, the porn addicted, the gays and lesbians. If they have been born with a penchant to do such things, they don't have to stay that way.  There is a way out. There is no such thing as inevitability or unchangeableness when the transforming power of Jesus Christ comes in.  

When the church once again preaches the message of salvation through Christ, of the transforming cross and the power of the resurrection, then we have the real answer to the problems of this world.  Instead of being against something, we will be for something. We will be for changed and transformed lives!

In the same way the scales of blindness fell away from Paul after his encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:18), the Holy Spirit begins working even before we are believers to reveal the character and true nature of the Christ.  Showing us first the saving power of Jesus, as we choose to become believers, the Holy Spirit brings to our awareness the nature of the Lord through Bible reading and observation of God’s work in our daily life.

Even as we are learning of the Christ who is conforming us, the Holy Spirit at the same time reveals to us our need for, and our inadequacy to appropriate for ourselves, such divine attributes without His intervention. We are called to surrender our will and our way of dealing with life so the Holy Spirit may live the character of Christ through us. Trading frustration for peace, anger for patience, and the shallow happiness we've become accustomed to for pure joy, we begin taking on the likeness of the Lord we serve.  Our old life of lonely desolation, those old cravings and desires, are pushed away in favor of a triumphant Christian life through Christ, with the Holy Spirit's involvement in our life.

With each passing day we become closer to the "end times", closer than we were yesterday.  At the same time, those of the Jewish faith and those who believe in Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God, are drawing closer and dealing with the issues of the Torah, Jewish festivals and other conflicting matters.  Much of this is confusing and of concern to Christians.  It need not be.  Since I know some who are of the Messianic faith, and observe the Torah, I want to intensely continue researching the Word of God for information on my place as a Christian in regards to the Jewish faith.  And yet many are led into confusion by not understanding the intent of verses such as Galatians 2:14, which reads: "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, 'If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?'

This was happening when this text was written, and it still happens today.  Why?

For myself, I see Galatians 2:14 being used as a litmus test by those who, by scripture, have no right to be requiring such performance.  There are those Christians among us who want to "test" the purity and sanctity of the love we say and portray that we have for God.  But what is missed is that this is a relationship, and just as Jesus rebuked Peter when Peter demanded to know "what about him?" (John 21:21-22), our relationship with our Lord and Savior, with our God, is between us and the Almighty. You cannot judge God, whether He really "is" or not, by my relationship with Him.  As Jesus told Peter, "....what is that to you? You must follow Me."

          What is important is your relationship with God.  As for others, share the good news with them, love them as Jesus loved, and be discerning of who they are and in what they are involved,  But don't bother judging them.  God already has a monopoly on that.  Jesus told us that by their fruits we will know them.  Otherwise, as J.B. Phillips told us in his wonderful book, "Your God is Too Small."  The Holy Spirit has transformed you if you belong to Christ, so be that bigger person of Christian faith, hope and love.  After all, you were meant for better things, in Christ.

Week of Worship

May 27, 2012

Invocation:  Ever-watchful God, Who knows the heart and secret desires of all persons, search my heart, I pray.  See if there be any harm in me, and lead me in Your way -- forever.  I pray in the name of Your own gentle Spirit.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 104

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                Ephesians 4:17-32

Tuesday               Ephesians 3:14-21

Wednesday          Ezekiel 39:21-29
Thursday              Hebrews 13:1-25

Friday                   2nd Corinthians 1:3:11

Saturday               2nd Corinthians 8:1-15

Sunday                 Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:22-27; Psalm 104:24-34;  John 16:4b-15

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Like the Murmur of the Dove's Song"

Benediction:  Come upon me, Spirit of the Living God.  Melt all the hardness of heart.  Use me for Your own purposes wherever You are sending me now.  Amen.

The Church is Not at War, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture:  2nd Corinthians 11:2 -- "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."

Ephesians 5:24 -- "Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything."

Revelations 19:7-9 -- "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.  And he said unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God."

Revelations 21:1-2 -- "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

I preach this morning to the Church in America, across the board, to the Bride of Christ spoken of in 2nd Corinthians 11:2-3 where Paul likens the church to a new bride presented to Christ, and in Revelations 19:7 and 21:9, where the bride is both the church and the residents of the New Jerusalem.

If the church today can be likened to a bride, then the bride has muddied her gown with the vagaries of society's situational ethics and morals; she has lost some of her beauty by rubbing up against questionable issues about which God speaks plainly, without question.  But too many in the church don't want to accept it, and so it chafes.  The church has not taken seriously her responsibility to speak the word of truth in a world fouled with the slippery standards of relativism, rationalizing and equivocation.  Instead of holding high the light of God's truth, the church of today has attacked and buffeted God's truth, hiding it under a bushel out of fear of controversy so the world stumbles along in its own false light.  The church today has ignored and compromised the word of truth that should have been a lamp to its feet, confusing the world and depriving those outside the church of moral leadership.

The church today is not at war with evil, but it should be.

The church today must announce her independence from the world's system, declaring war on the blurred dichotomy between the Bride of Jesus Christ and society.  The church today needs to go so far as to publicly state her allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring war on religious ambivalence, on "go along to get along" church politics, on everything and everyone opposing the Lord of Glory.  The church today needs to abandon the world's value system and embraces the values of the Word of God, declaring war on greed, on the preaching of the prosperity gospel, on hunger and policies that harm the disenfranchised.

The church of today needs to reach outside the church, love more, attack less, wage war against evil in ways that heed the Word, lead with the Word, and feed the truth of the Word into every human situation just as Jesus Christ did when He walked this earth as the majestic author and finisher of our faith.

This issue of leading the church down dead-end rabbit trails, away from the personhood of Jesus Christ, is not unique to 21st century.  Just ask the martyrs who refused to bow their knee or confess that Caesar was lord.  Evil is always at war with the church, always.  Today the church is not burned at the stake or stoned or crucified.  Instead, the church undergoes corrupting riches, ear-tickling blasphemies, and comforting lies.  Riches do not have to be corrupting but when they become the focus they often are.  Humor and laughs at the expense of others often ride the thin line between fun and lying blasphemies.  And emotional desires that ignore the truth of God easily give us false hopes, doctrinal lies, and a false sense of power in our human abilities.

As a result, our hopes go up in flames, our world is rocked by realities we ignored, and our dreams and our future die bleeding to death nailed the tree of sinful desires grown for us by the Father of Lies.  As a church many of us have lost our way, rationalizing God's truth into human compliance to meet emotional desires.  Unless we have determined to stand on the firm  ground of the inspired word of God, we find ourselves relying upon what we, and others, think is just and right and good.  But God spoke to this long, long ago, telling us plainly in Isaiah 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."  To put a fine point on it, the "filthy rags" are translated in the original words as "menstrual rags."  Pure and simple, our idea of "good" isn't even in the same universe as God's standard of good.  And yet we have repeatedly abandoned God's standards for our own sense of right and wrong.

The single reason America is in the ethical, moral ditch it is in today is not because there are so many evil politicians and fellow travelers, but because the people who KNOW better, the church congregations and their pastors, sit silently and do not call a lie a lie, do not call evil the evil it is, do not demand America and Americans live up to the ideals upon which this nation was founded.  To quote former First Lady Nancy Reagan when speaking of drugs, "Just say NO!"  The world that we love needs the church to be at war against evil.

When we say no to people who mean well but ignore the precepts of God, we honor God.  When we demand the protection of innocent children from what is termed "adult entertainment", we honor the God who tells us in Matthew 18:10, "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones.  For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven."

As a church, as the Bride of Christ, somehow over time our vision of who we are to be, our focus on Jesus Christ, has gone askew.

What is it that is important to us about our relationship with Jesus Christ?  Where should our focus be?  Is He fire insurance to avoid the flames of hell?  Is He a guide to teach how to help and heal the sick, the poor, the disenfranchised?  Should we simply lie down and let the world stomp us into the dust as they curse the Christ?  Should we allow those outside of Christ to call Him by their favorite pagan name, pretending it's all about the One God, ignoring what Christ said about being the way, the truth and the life?

How far have we moved away from what God has told us He wants from us, just so we stay part of the group, not offending anyone, and we don't stand out?  Our nature is to avoid confrontation, travel the easy way, avoid war, even against evil.

In Japan they have a saying that essentially declares "the nail that stands out gets hammered."  Don't laugh, it's a societal truth.  If you are the only one whose life stands for Jesus Christ in a room full of people, you are going to stand out.  You will become the object of their attention.  If you apologize for standing for Christ and deny Him, as Peter did, three times, the human instinct smells blood and they will come after you with every argument under the sun, just to gauge your reaction, just to see if what you believe is so true you will stand up for it at last, under any pressure. 

It is only when people see the results of a relationship with Jesus Christ in you, an extension of the Living God, only then will they believe in the possibility that, as God told the ancient Israelites, "I Am," that they will look to you for support, for affirmation of such a possibility as a Living God. 

Is the church on earth doing this?  Not very well or people would not be leaving the church, there would be no churches dying and unable to pay their bills, churches would not be empty and up for sale.  But they are, as casualties of not taking a stand against evil, not waging war against evil.

Hebrews 4:12 says that "The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  If each individual follower of Jesus Christ would wield a weapon of war like that through their daily life in the world today, salvation, growth, the cause of Christ would be successful, for Isaiah 55:11 assures us that God's word never returns to Him without results.  How are you doing?

The imagery and symbolism of the bride and marriage is applied to Jesus who is the Christ and to the body of believers known as the church in order to enhance understanding of the issues involved. The church consists of those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal savior and have received eternal life.  In the New Testament, Christ, the Bridegroom, has sacrificially and lovingly chosen the church to be His bride, as we see in Ephesians 5:25-27; "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." 

Just as there was a betrothal period in Biblical times, when the bride and groom were separated until the wedding, just so the bride of Christ is separated from her Bridegroom during the church age.  Her responsibility during this betrothal period is to be faithful to Him, as described in 2nd Corinthians 11:2 and Ephesians 5:24.

At the Second Coming of Christ, this worldwide church, the Bride, will be united with the Bridegroom, the official "wedding ceremony" will take place and with it, the eternal union of Christ and His bride will become actual reality, as set forth in Revelation 19:7-9;21:1-2. 

In light of what scripture details about the Son of God and His bride, the church, it becomes easier to see why it is important for the church today to understand all that is involved, so the church can be all it is intended to be when Christ returns.  The Father of Lies will wage any battle to keep that from happening but, praise God, he must fail.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are part of that church.  For the universal church, His Bride, is made up of individual worshipers who daily wage war as only the church can.  The important question is this, are you prepared for what He expects of His bride?  Is your church prepared?  Perhaps there is work to be done.  Let's be about it.  Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

Week of Worship

May 20, 2012

Invocation:  Our Lord, before Your trials of suffering You prayed that all Your disciples might be one in Spirit.  Grant that we may be bound together in love for one another and in obedience to You, that the world may see and believe.  In Jesus, our Lord.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 133

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                1st Peter 1:13-25

Tuesday               Titus 3:1-11

Wednesday          Philemon 1-25
Thursday              Hebrews 13:1-25

Friday                   2nd Timothy 1:1-14

Saturday              1st Thessalonians 1:2-10

Sunday                 Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; 1st John 5:9-13; Psalm 1;  John 17:11b-19

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Jesus, United by Thy Grace"

Benediction:  Enlarge my heart, dear Lord, that I may truly love You and live in harmony with all my fellows.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Don't Squeeze the Skunk

By Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: John 14:23-29

23 -- 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. 

24 -- He who does not love Me will not obey my teaching.  These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.

25 -- All this I have spoken while still with you. 

26 -- But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 

27 -- Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

28 -- You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.'  If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 

29 -- I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

          Pastor Joe McKeever tells of the time he was giving a push to his eight-year-old granddaughter Abby in the swing in her front yard.  She and her twin Erin had been learning about childbirth from their mother.  Abby was not liking what she was learning. “I’m not going to have children, Grandpa,” she said. “It hurts too bad.”

          McKeeveer said his first thought was to say, “If your mother felt that way, you would not be here.  And if your great-grandmothers felt that way, none of us would be here.”  But what he did say was, “You’re right.  It does hurt.  But the pain goes away, and you’re left with this beautiful child, and you decide that it was worth it.”

          He said Abby turned, looked him square in the eye and said, “You’re a man. What do you know?”

          Such blatant wisdom from someone eight-years-old.

          She's right, we're men, what do we know.

          But what she doesn't know, yet, is that love comes in all shapes and sizes, all colors and strengths, in all sorts of raging love, nuances of gentle affection, and life-long caring.  And there is much about that which describes being a mother.  Not all women are mothers.  Not all women want to be mothers.  Some wish to be but never have the chance.  But being a mother is something only half of the human race has the chance to be.  In that role, love often works out in some very strange ways.  

          For example, a 15-year-old boy finally wandered home at the end of the day, very hungry, as 15-year-old boys often are.  But he found his mother lying in bed and was suddenly seized with concern.

          "Mom, are you sick or something?"

          "Well, as a matter of fact," his mother replied weakly, "I'm not feeling too well."

          "I'm sorry Mom," the boy responded, looking very worried.  After a brief pause, he then added: "Don't you worry a bit about dinner. I'm getting pretty big now, and I can carry you down to the stove!"

          Believe it or not, there is love in there.

          Among the many types of love which the Greeks identified, and had very different words for, is a subtle kind of love that doesn't necessarily speak love, but shows love.

          There was a teacher who was trying to teach her class a lesson about fractions. After the lesson she tested one of the boys who was in a large family.

          "Johnny," she said, "There are six people in your family.  Your mom bakes a pie, and she cuts it up for you, what percentage of the pie will you receive?"
          Johnny, thought for a minute and said," One-fifth".

          The teacher said, "Now, remember there are six people in your family, how big would your piece of pie be."

          And again the boy said, "One-fifth."

          The teacher said, "No, you don’t understand fractions."

          And Johnny respectfully said, "You don’t understand my Mom.  She would have said, that she didn’t want any."

          That's the kind of mother's love with which most of us can identify.  And it's that kind of love which led most of us to respond by doing the things our mother told us to do.  We obeyed not out of fear, not because of threats or rules or regulations, but we obeyed because we loved and were loved.

          In today's scripture, Jesus says, "If anyone loves me, he will obey My teaching."

          We know that Jesus loved us before we ever knew Him, and we find it difficult not to love the One who loved us first.  We have had that example from the first moments we can remember, as a mother loved us and cared for us.  Mother's love held us close, gave us a feeling of safety and belonging, kept us from danger and taught us how to deal with the world.  We obeyed because we loved.  So that later in life, when we find our Savior saying "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching," we've already seen and lived that kind of love.

          Throughout the scriptures we find examples of love in action that lays the groundwork for understanding the Savior's love and what He expects from us.

          From the Old Testament scriptures we find in II Kings 22 and II Chronicles 34 the story of Huldah the prophetess who inspired Josiah to lead the Children of Israel to national revival.  She was faithful in voicing God's word and that led to the teaching of an entire generation after Josiah, who were later exiled in Babylon.  Huldah's spiritual mothering led to the grounding of faith and truth for Shadrack, Meshack, Abednigo as they were thrown into a fiery furnace, and even for Daniel.  Her treasuring the word inspired a king, who inspired a nation.

          Perhaps through Huldah's example we can see we are all to be spiritual parents to the next generation, an understanding that should radically change our sense of who we are and what God wants us to do.  But then, again, our Jesus says it plainly in John 14:23, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching."

          Through our mothers, just as through the prophetess Huldah in scripture, we are given an example of the  nurturing, sensitivity and compassion inherent in our Savior and our God.

          All of which raises the question, if we are, indeed to be spiritual parents to the next generation, where do we start, how do we begin, how does that manifest itself?

          Again, we return to Jesus' statement, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching."  For in His brief time in the flesh on this earth, walking among us, Jesus gave us a wealth of teachings on how to conduct not only our own lives, but how to have a spiritual impact on the lives of others.  But for us to do the things Jesus has said, we, as individual followers of Jesus Christ, must move from the entry level milk and pablum stage of babes in the Word, to studying and understanding the meat of the Scriptures. 

          As Christians we need to move from the complaint all too familiar to most Pastors of "I'm not being fed here," to "How do I feed others?"  At some point the new babe in Christ must move from being a bottle-fed believer to reaching out and feeding themselves and others in the Word.

          And where to begin?  With prayer.  Always begin with prayer.

          Jesus taught us by example how to approach the Father in prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, and as part of His Sermon on the Mount in Luke 11:2-4.  Here Jesus guides our prayer, "after the manner" of His instruction.  And in 1st John 1:9 we are urged to keep short accounts with our Lord, where John writes, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."  It all begins with prayer.  

          It may be that some of us were fortunate in our young lives to have a mother who would kneel with us beside our bed each evening, teaching us the habit of prayer.  And we would mumble that first prayer we learned, "Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."  And then perhaps we would launch into a litany of blessings for mother and father, for grandparents, for our pets, and for our favorite stuffed animals.  But we learned not to let the day pass without approaching the Throne of Grace in prayer to our God.

          For those who never learned that lesson at an early age, now would be a good time to begin.  Prayer blesses us, helps to put our own lives into perspective, and is certainly a better alternative than worrying about things.  In fact, most experts agree we as human beings spend far too much time "squeezing" our worries.

          John Haggai once wrote a book entitled "How to Win Over Worry," which included a story about the dangers of "squeezing" our worries.  He told the story of a woman in Darlington, Maryland, the mother of eight children, who came home from the grocery store one afternoon to a house much too quiet.  As she walked into her home everything looked pretty much the same, although it was much less noisier than usual.  As she looked into the living room she saw five of her darling children sitting in a circle, very quiet, concentrating on something in the middle of the circle. She put down the sacks of groceries and walked into the living room.  There she saw they were playing with five of the cutest skunks you can imagine.
          She was instantly terrified and she shouted, “Run children, run!"  Each child grabbed a skunk and ran, in five different directions.  She was so beside herself she screamed louder and more frantically.  But that just so scared the children that each one squeezed his skunk!  As the author, John Haggai put it, “Skunks don’t like to be squeezed!”

          Perhaps one day we can stop squeezing our worries, engage in daily and meaningful prayer that puts others ahead of ourselves.  We can feast on the meat of scripture and put our love of our Lord into practice by obeying what He teaches us.  Then we can live out the example of Huldah the prophetess in building into others the gifts of encouragement, hope and inspiration, Christian traits that will live into future lifetimes.  That's what our mothers have done for us.  That's what Jesus is expecting of us, as His followers in love.  For God is with those who love Jesus, and through Him we have the promise of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of peace.

          Now, go take your Mother out to lunch.

          Amen.

      

Week of Worship

May 13, 2012

Invocation:  Ever-loving God, Who having loved us loves us still, help us to hear again Your word.  "By this shall they know you are My disciples; that you love one another."  Turn our hostility into hospitality and our callousness into care.  Through Christ, we pray.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 128

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                Romans 12:9-21

Tuesday               Colossians 3:12-17

Wednesday          Galatians 5:1-15
Thursday              1st John 2:7-17

Friday                   1st John 3:1-18

Saturday               1st John 4:7-21

Sunday                 Acts 10:44-48; 1st John 5:1-6; Psalm 98;  John 15:9-17

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Forgive My foes?  It Cannot Be"

Benediction:  In this hour, loving God, You have touched me with love.  Send me now to be Your touch-of-love for another.  May the love of Jesus flow through me, a current of healing and life.  Amen.

The New Red Letter: H, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Ezekiel 33:1-11

1  Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 

2  “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 

3  when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 

4  then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 

5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 

6  But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

7  “So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 

8  When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 

9  Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

10  “Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘Thus you say, “If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?”’ 

11  Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

          First, a few words about these specific verses. 

          Although every city had a designated watchman, to warn with trumpet of approaching danger, the nation of Judea had become isolated and was in danger of attack from the Babylonians.  But more than being isolated without treaties among others, within Judea the people had begun to mock the prophets, seek their own pleasures, do away with public worship of God, and ignore God's precepts of right and wrong.  As a society they were in disarray, every man for his own pleasure and amusement.

          You notice in verse 10 God speaks of transgressions and sins, and how the people are prone to simply live in their sins and not change.  But there is a price for such behavior and these people have seen their country wasting away, their city burning, public worship being abolished, until there seemed to be a lack of even hope.  Think about it, our own nation right now is in economic failure and we are wasting away for lack of jobs and money, homes lost, families broken up, prices rising and hope declining.  We have seen our cities in flames, even as extremists promise more, and there is a continual challenge to any worship of Almighty God in the public forums.  Do these verses from the ancient writings of the prophet Ezekiel not speak to us?

          In the past, Ezekiel had prophesied against many nations, but he had been forbidden to say anything about the Jews.  Now, God opens his mouth and bids him speak these words of warning to a stiff-necked, sinful people.  In our modern churches today we have concentrated on worshipping a Jesus of love and healing, and have not wanted to speak out against our own people who claim to know the Christ but do not the things He says, who praise Him out of one side of their mouth, and please themselves, against the warnings of God, out of the other.  And we stay silent out of love.  We have not wanted to speak out about sin, about consequences, about hell.  I submit we do that because our version of God is too small.  The God of all creation is bigger than that.  He is capable both of love and discipline.  We need to love those He tells us to love, and speak out where His word tells us to speak out against the sins of mankind that stand against the words of God.  We need to hear the trumpet of warning and speak out.  The enemy is in the camp!

          One of the signs that the enemy is in the camp and among us in this day is a new, dangerous application of emotions, a new calling of names, separating brother and sister from brother and sister, dividing us up for the slaughter by the Father of Lies.  Somehow the ethical and moral discernment that comes from God has come to be equated with the dreaded accusation of hate.

          If I hate murder and I hate bullying and I hate crimes against others, am I then a hater?  Being accused of being a hater seems to be the new "red letter" of shame, as once the letter "A" was applied to adulterers in the early days of this nation.

          Suddenly those not ethically or morally in favor of something that others prefer are "hate-faced" and their speech "hate-filled".  Speak out against sexual sins and you are labeled a "hater."

          The basic problem lies in the truth that there are ethical and moral absolutes, just as Ezekiel was told to remind the Israelites, which do not change with every generation or culture.

          However, those who do not like those unchangeable ethical and moral absolutes must resort to other methods to slur or slander those high water marks of behavior since they cannot change the standards.  And so instead we see the messenger being slurred and slandered as a hater.  We see that anyone who abides by those high standards or promotes such ethical and moral behavior is denounced as a hater.  Their social status and value to others is degraded even as if they had the initial "H" for "hater" branded on their forehead.

          Unethical and immoral behavior must be supported and promoted by those so engaged, so those dedicated to conscience and discernment must be made out to be haters and hate-mongers.   They cannot appear to be the concerned, loving, followers of God-given ethics and morals that they are.  Otherwise, those who fly in the face of such ethics and morals for their own pleasure and debauched entertainment would be seen as wrong!

          Gasp!  Yes, a mock gasp, for such scams and misleading lies by the Father of Lies are not new.  Only the fact that so many, many souls are caught up in his web of lies, demanding wrong be called right, is new.  Never before in the history of mankind has he had such success in such numbers.  Even as God calls them back to their first love, calls them home, they will not listen.

          The God breathed scripture we find in Isaiah 5:20 warns us, "Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"

          Saying it doesn't make it so.  Enjoying it doesn't make it right.  Calling truth a lie doesn't change the truth.  In John 14:5, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life..."  Throughout the Bible there are 20 specific verses equating God with truth.

          That great writer and modern day lover of God Francis Shaeffer warned us, “Today not only in philosophy but in politics, government, and individual morality, our generation sees solutions in terms of synthesis and not absolutes.  When this happens, truth, as people have always thought of truth, has died.”

          Even in the home, as a son or daughter turns away from God's truth in order to enjoy illicit sexual pleasure, demanding parental approval and acceptance, adherence to the truth of God is sacrificed for the sake of familial peace.  The great Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, J.C. Ryle, who gave up a life in banking for the poverty of the ordained ministry, urged us, “Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.”

          Our God can see all of humanity from its beginnings to its end.  He knows all of our deceptions, all our twists and turns, all our attempts to make a wrong into a right.  But as Satan knows, as all his demons know and despise, there is no right way to do a wrong thing.

          Then we come down to "what is a wrong thing"?  And it is here that those who have been influenced by the Father of Lies make their stand, claiming the Bible doesn't mean what it says.  As if the God who is all-knowing and all-powerful could not make His meaning clear to each generation.  The favorite target of these deniers of truth is Genesis 19, where it describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for amoral sexual behavior.  Here those who would call wrong to be right claim that Genesis 19 is about rudeness and bad manners, not about God destroying cities and people for their sins of the flesh.  Their claim begs the question, would God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and those people for bad manners?  Really?  Nowhere in the inspired Word of God does He warn that rudeness or bad manners are a sin against God.  God's Word does address the actions of people with foul sexual desires, such as are described in Genesis 19.  Attempting to escape the truth of God's Word by changing the subject simply doesn't wash in this day and age when we have compendiums of what the original writings meant, what the original words meant and mean today.  God said what He meant, and He still means it.

          In Proverbs 15:22 we are advised that "Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established."  If people will not take the time to seek God's counsel, plans and projects are likely to fail.  To put it simply, if God is not involved in what we're doing, if we are doing it for our own sake, to promote our own pleasure, it will eventually fail.  Projects, plans, churches, fail for lack of following what God has said to us.

          The Son of God, our Savior and our Lord zeroed right in on the crux of the matter when He said in John 14:15 that if we love Him we will do the things He says.  We cannot claim to follow Christ and then ignore what God says to us about sin.

          Labeling those as haters who call a wrong thing as wrong, is as wrong as labeling as haters those who care about you in your sin.  Not "sinful" wrong, just wrong.

          If you are engaged in homosexual acts, and I tell you the bridge is out on that road -- that God has said you can't get to Him that way -- I tell you that not because I hate you, but because whether you are a blood relative or not, you were created a child of our Father, Almighty God, and called to better things.  You are my brother, my sister, I want the best for you, and that is found in Christ, not in the fleshly enjoyment of ourselves.

          At the same time, our Father has told us we cannot walk on by and leave you dying in your sin.  That would be an act of hate and of cowardice.  In today's scripture lesson, verse 8, God has given us this lifetime admonition, "When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand." 

          In truth, I want to see you reunited with the Father, not separated from His love and caring, forever.

          God loves you, and I'm trying.  Amen.

Week of Worship

May 6, 2012

Invocation:  O God, Whose nature invites us always to stay close by You, help us now to make Your word our home, that we may be Your true disciples.  Through Jesus Christ, Who is the Word, the way, and the life.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 34

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                Psalms 18:1-19

Tuesday               Matthew 7:21-28

Wednesday         Mark 12:28-34
Thursday              James 1:19-26

Friday                  Colossians 1:15-29

Saturday              Ephesians 3:14-21

Sunday                Acts 8:26-40; 1st John 4:7-12; Psalm 22:25-31;

                             John 15:1-8

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Christ Is Alive"

Benediction:  And now, my Lord, send me from this sacred place, still keeping me close to You.  May the journey of this day bring me closer, ever closer to You.  Amen.