Newsletter

Have you seen the patches of wildflowers that they planted in the median of the highway?  I have.  I have often wondered; what do they smell like.  I would like to spread out a blanket and rest there for a bit.

But, I am on the highway, moving at 70 – 80 miles per hour, and I have places to go, things to do, and people to please.  So, I don’t stop – I am too busy.

Well, stop and smell those wildflowers!  What a picture of modern life – go fast, go far, but never stop and smell the Roses.  We rush past some the best things in life because we do not hit the brakes.

Thanksgiving is a time to slow down, cross the river, and rest in the shade of the trees.  It seems that we do not have the time to be grateful – to notice the rich blessings that surround us every day.

Well, hit the brakes, get out the blankets, and allow your mind and heart to rest in the blessing that God has given.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

If pastoral permission will help you to pause and give thanks among family and friends, you have it.  God is good, all the time. And we can give thanks in all circumstances.

After you have paused and smelt the wildflowers, then you can crank it up to 70 mph again; but now, you carry the aroma of rest and gratitude with you.

So, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

How can you recognize a fellow Christian? What are the distinguishing marks of a sibling in Christ? Some claim that the Christian is known by what he says, others by what he believes, and still others by what he does? Who is right?

An argument could be made for three conclusions. A believer must confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in his heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). So, what we say is essential to being a Christian. Also, our theology matters. What we understand God to be and to require makes an enormous difference in our lives. But the Christian also must act on what he says and turn his theology into deeds. What we say and believe comes to full fruition in what we do. So, the best method of discerning another maturing Christian is by what they do.

The Christian is known by what he does; what he hates, and what he loves. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:9-13).

Deeds of love are marks of the Christian – some say it is the mark! Our love, for brothers and others, must be sincere. You can’t fake real love or mimic a genuine heart for other people. The Christian’s focus is on the needs and wounds of the other and not on themselves. They give their time and concern away to the needs of others freely and with great joy. But, to love well also means to hate fiercely. Christians do not compromise with evil, nor make treaties with wrong. We abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good even if society disagrees.

Christians, readily and happily, show honor to others and freely praise them. Christians are whole and content in the love and provision of their God. It is not about them and their needs anymore. We can boldly honor and praise what is honorable and praiseworthy without taking any thought for ourselves. We are set free to work hard and serve sacrificially because we are resting in God as we labor for Him. Having God, we have hope even in difficult times. Our God is good to us all the time. We can pray at all times, and open our hearts and homes to others. Out of our fullness in Christ, our lives overflow in loving actions toward others. That is the mark of the Christian. And it develops, not by focusing on our good deeds, but rather on Christ, and the completeness of his love. We enter into the vast love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and carry others along in our wake. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). So, find someone to love and do it well; for Christ is working through you.

When the King speaks, when He commands, His people obey. Or, do they? When God called me into the ministry I immediately answered, “Here I am, send somebody else!”  Instead of following God’s call and trusting his grace I revisited the empty excuses of Moses. “I am nobody, I can’t do this. I am not eloquent, please send someone else; perhaps my brother, Aaron.”  Neither I nor Moses really heard God say, “I will be with you,” and “Who made the mouth?”  Moses and I were looking inward, at our lack of gifts, wisdom, experience, etc.  We were not looking to God, nor trusting his call, his provision, his ability.  God will not issue an order and then promptly turn his back on his obedient people.  With the command God gives the power, ability, and assistance to complete the task.

I am not alone, I think, in questioning God’s call to service.  Jonah ran in the opposite direction, Peter denied that he even knew the Lord Jesus, Gideon and Joshua needed assurance before they followed the voice of God.  Why do we hesitate to follow the wisdom of the almighty all wise God?  Often, we look to the current supplies on our shelves and calculate the impossibility of the task.  Said in another way, we fail to believe in the wisdom and might of the God who calls us. We look to our present ability instead of depending on God’s promised provision. We act as if it all depended on us and drive ourselves to despair. We think that we are ill equipped and feel very alone.  Cast your eyes on the full shelves of the King of the Universe! “What he says is always best and what he requires is always good.” Paul Tripp

We need to fix our minds on the One who has called us to serve.  He is almighty. He has a plan and a purpose that cannot fail.  He is doing something amazing and no one and no thing can hinder his masterpiece.  When he calls us to any type of service, he is inviting us to his victory parade.  He is giving us meaning, purpose, and even guaranteeing success (when viewed from His perspective).  It is most dangerous to rely on our own wisdom, and most safe to rely on His.  God calls us in order to mature us into childlike faith. Learn to walk in simple confidence in God.  We don’t need to know the whole story to write the first line. When you hear the call of God, take that first step of joyful faith.  

When God calls to serve, just do it. Don’t hesitate, don’t question, don’t begin to marshal seemingly legitimate excuses.  God knows all things, and in His wisdom He has called you! Now, this call of God can be something very simple – say a prayer for a friend, call to encourage a sister in Christ, give to a family in need, teach a class, or join a small group.  It is not the size of the calling that trips us up.  As a rule, those who obey in smaller things are given larger tasks. The key to joyful rest and submission is child-like faith. Just do it. Have the confidence that you and God can do anything. Labor in the assurance that you are not alone. Obey with evident joy because the Master has called your name and delights in your service.

What is Hospitality? Noah Webster calls it, “The act or practice of receiving and entertaining strangers or guests without reward, or with kind and generous liberality.”  Hospitality could be described as opening your hearts and home to strangers and making them friends. It is planning to have our lives overlap. It is an intentional investment in friendship.

God requires elders to be hospitable and encourages all the people of God to open their hearts and homes to others. We read in Titus 1:7 “For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” All Christians are exhorted to show hospitality.  “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2), and “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:9-10).

Opening your heart and home to others and sharing your time with them is a duty but also a delight. When you aim to bless others you often receive a blessing in return. Generosity produces friendship. “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered” (Proverbs 11:24-25). Serving others with generosity can deepen friendships. “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24). “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Proverbs 17:17). The main thing that stifles a growing friendship is space and time. Hospitality is intentionally being in the same place at the same time. This is the soil that grows deep friendships and multiplies Christian companions.

Hospitality strengthens the bonds within the church fellowship. Making and deepening Christian friendship is a vital necessity in the congregation. Some leave the church because they have no friends. Within the body, the same source of life and strength must flow to all the members of the body. All our members should be “in circulation.” One long harsh winter in Michigan my father was snow-blowing his driveway.  It was thick, heavy snow and the snowblower blades would often stop spinning.  My dad reached in and freed the blades. And the blades freed my father of the tips of three fingers. Off to the hospital, my dad said, “Quickly get the fingers.”  They were still in the snow gloves. Sadly, The doctors could not reattach the tips of the fingers. My question is, what happened to those tips of three fingers when they were detached from the body? Well, they grew a whole new body! Or perhaps they thrived in their new environment because they had so much freedom. Nope. They died. When you separate yourself from the life of the body of Christ, you die. When parts of the body are cut off from circulation, they die. Hospitality keeps the sun shining and the snow away so that you do not need to reach into the snowblower and lose your fingers.

The Bible assumes that the people of God will often be together. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). What are some practical suggestions for showing hospitality? Invite others over for games or to watch a movie. Meet someone for lunch and talk. Send flowers or a card to one who is ill. Visit the widows and the sick. Invite another family to the park for a picnic with all the kids. Welcome someone over for a meal after church. As our lives overlap we are bound together with the cords of love. Therefore, let us “show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 

Can you imagine teaching your 5-year-old child to swim by tossing him, alone and afraid, into the deep end of the pool?  That is cruel and abusive.  Instead, we should get in the pool with them, teach them slowly and surely how to swim.  Watch their fears wane and their confidence increase.  Then we can throw them into the deep end with assurance.

We are all trying to make sense of our lives and the world that we live in.  Why are we here? What is wrong with this world? What should I be doing here? Where can I find meaning and purpose in this crazy world?  For many, it seems that God has thrown us into the deep end of the pool unassisted.

We struggle to come up with an interpretive grid to understand ourselves, and the fallen world that we live in.  We are playing the game but we do not know the rules.  We struggle to make sense of life, our desires, and dreams, our struggles and failures.  We want to be better than most and have a little fun as we walk through life.  We are like that 5 year old in the deep end of the pool; fighting to make our way to the edge of the pool.

Has God thrown us into the deep end?  No, he has taught us to swim first.  God has given us the true interpretative grid to understand ourselves and the world we live in. We were created in his likeness to image him to the world around us.  We were fashioned to be God’s friend and his representative in this world.  The world was created good.  

But sin, rebellion, pride has entered our hearts and polluted the world around us.  We live as confused rebels in a broken world.  Nothing seems to make sense. Life is now lived without the true interpretative grid so we make it up as we go along and struggle at the deep end of the pool.  Man attempts to forge his own meaning, from his own perception of himself and the world.  In pride, rebellion, and confusion, he fashions his own filter of meaning and purpose.  But he does so with a fallen mind and a selfish heart.  We witness the damage of an independent man and his rebellious mind all around us. The man at his best is a confused, selfish mess. And the society that grows up around sinful men is marred and ugly.  We are all flailing for our lives in the deep end of the pool and we don’t know how to swim.

God’s Word has been compared to glasses. Through these corrective lenses, we can see ourselves and the world clearly. We are fallen and the world is broken.  But God has sent his Son to forgive our sin, heal the scars and return us to a home better than Eden.  God has taught us to swim.  We have the interpretive grid that fits with life as it really is. 

We need to wear the glasses to benefit from this corrected vision. We are rebels, redeemed by the grace of God.  The wisdom of fallen man is foolishness to God.  Independent man has rejected God’s glasses and therefore flails about in the deep end of the pool.

Do not fear the wisdom of the wise. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:25  “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8.  The wisdom of God pours forth from His Word as you read it and hear it taught and preached. Follow the wisdom of God and you will know how to swim. You will have the interpretive grid for life and know true meaning and purpose.

I have tomato seeds in my garage that never grow.  They lie stagnant, dormant, just above my rarely opened toolboxes.  Why don’t they grow? They are not planted in nutrient-rich soil and they receive no water.

Christians, given the seed of regeneration, are to grow deeply into the Grace of God and the knowledge of God. “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”  Those who are declared to be the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12) are to live for the glory of God from now on into eternity.  Christians are not to lie dormant on the shelf in the garage.  They need to be dive deeply into the soil of the Word of God and be watered by the Spirit of God – they need to grow!

How do we do that? The Scriptures boldly and clearly give the answer. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Word of God is the richest possible soil for the Christian seed to grow.  In fact, the Word was given for that very purpose.  The Bible is unique (it comes from God), the Bible is powerful (it is the Word/power of God), and the Bible is life-transforming.  We cannot come into contact with the dynamic Word from God, it having been watered by the Spirit, without being transformed by the encounter.

Scripture is breathed out by God. The same Word that was spoken and the universe came into existence, the same Word that became flesh and dwelt among us for our salvation, is the same Word that we read, preach, and mix with faith. It is the Word, blessed by the Spirit that engenders growth.

The Bible is profitable for teaching.  God’s fingerprints are on the whole of His creation but we can read His signature, and see his portrait, in the Scriptures. If you want to know God and grow in your knowledge of God, listen to Him speak in His Word.  It is his authorized autobiography! Men derive their patchwork guesses about God from many other sources, experience, other religions, what my grandma told me, what Hollywood portrays; but the only true, pure, accurate knowledge of God comes from His own revelation. For a Christian to grow one must study the Word from God.

The Bible is profitable for reproof. When you see God clearly, in all His holiness, glory, purity, and power, you also begin to see yourself accurately.  And the picture isn’t pretty.  In the light of His glory our sin, selfishness, and rebellion cannot be denied. Our self-constructed glory appears as rebellion in His holy presence.  This is where many stop reading and studying the Word of God.  It is uncomfortable to be humbled by the truth.  We tend to prefer to live in a comfortable lie than to submit to the rigors of the truth about ourselves.  Personal change requires prior knowledge that something is wrong with us.  The Bible correctly diagnoses our foundational sin; pride-driven rebellion against the only God.

This brings us to correction.  The Bible not only points out the problem, sin, it also drives us to the solution.  His Word is beneficial for correction. The Bible provides answers to the human dilemma; the law of God. Our sinful rebellion is forgiven and washed in the blood of Christ, and not we live in gospel gratitude to God by submitting to his will.  “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  The Bible at once points out the wrong path that we are on and points out the proper path we should be traversing.  The Bible cuts a path back to the highway of holiness.

Training in righteousness is the mission of the Word of God. Once back on the path, we improve the road.  We serve the highway on which our brothers and sisters are traveling.  We are equipped to do every good work. Loving, willing, self-sacrifice service is the norm among mature, growing, path-walking Christians. If a Christian is not walking in humble and joyful service to our Lord and King Jesus then the steps must be re-traced.  Does he need to be trained? Or, one step farther back, does he need to be corrected? Or is the stumbling block reproof? Does sin have a crippling stranglehold on the believer in some area of his life? Or finally, is the root of the problem teaching? He doesn’t understand God, the gospel, the law, the way, the truth, or the life?

Yet, wherever the wrench in the works is found, the solution is always the same – heavy doses of the pure, undiluted Word of God, blessed by the Spirit.

All this is simply to ask, how are your daily devotions going? Are you planted in the life-transforming soil of God’s Word? Does the Word instruct you? Expose you? Refocus you? Train you in humble service? Or are you on the self in the garage waiting for the soil and the water to come to you?

The water. I have only hinted at the water so far.  The Word of God must be blessed by the Spirit of God for it to work its wonders! So, how do we know that the Spirit is present and active in our devotions? We ask God to send him. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

Spend time with God listening to his Word and asking for his blessing. That one-two punch will get you off the shelf and into the God-glorifying life that you were reborn to live.

How We Display the Grace of God

1 Peter 4:10

1 Peter 4:10, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:”

Every Christian has been gifted by God. This is spectacular news! We received spiritual gifts from God through the Spirit. We are redeemed from sin and renewed in the image of God in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. We are saved to serve. We are equipped by God to serve one another in love.

When we receive the Spirit, we receive gifts. Our gifts are not an attachment to us; they are us. We are our gifts. Our gift is us. Or, better, the Spirit in us; united to us. When we exercise our spiritual gifts we are being ourselves for the glory of God.

We, through the exercise of our spiritual gifts, are the conduit through which the Spirit of God is redeeming and sanctifying the world. Together we are stewards of the grace of God.

But our gifts are received not merited. They are donated to us by God. You do not campaign for certain gifts or talents. They are given. They are part of how you are uniquely made in the image of God. Your gift is your divine fingerprint. You should not weep because you don’t have a different gift. Rather, you should rejoice in the gift that you have been given – recognize and develop your gift.

If you have the Spirit, you have a gift or a talent.  “As each has received a gift…” (1 Peter 4:10). “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us…” (Romans 12:6). We are our gift!

As you walk in the Spirit, your gifts will become evident and you will increase your capacity to use them. Growing in grace, is in some sense, growing in usefulness. You are uniquely gifted by God, and you have a unique service to fulfill for his glory.

That is good news! We can respond to the grace of God, we can make a return to Him in loving others with our spiritual gifts. We are like a water balloon. We receive the boundless grace of God and we become bloated, burgeoning with blessing. Using our spiritual gifts is like throwing a tightly stretched water balloon at your brothers and sisters in Christ.  We shower them with the blessings we have received! The blessing that comes to us through Spiritual gifts is passed on to others by our exercising those gifts.

Our gifts must be known and then joyfully employed. “As each has received a gift, use it…” (1 Peter 4:10). To know ourselves is to know our gifts. How do I discern my spiritual gift? Here are four methods to find your spiritual gift.

1. 1. Self-assessment –What am I like?  What do I like? 
   2. Past Experience – What ministries have you done well?
   3. The counsel of others – What do others see in you?  How are they encouraging you to serve?
   4. Try something – You really do not know until you try.

Our gifts are given so that we can serve others.  (“use it to serve one another,” 1 Peter 4:10). Your gift comes from God and belongs to others in the body of Christ. They need you to exercise your gift. The health of the church requires that you exercise your gifts.“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).

Our gifts, faithfully used, display the Grace of God. It is in the exercise of these gifts that we see Christ in others. We can see the hands of Christ working. We can serve as channels of God’s grace to others. The New English Translation says this, “Like good stewards dispensing the grace of God in its varied forms.” In a healthy, growing, serving the church, the members are healthy, and growing, and serving; they are using their gifts in service to others. You should be feeding on and fulfilling some ministry in the church. You should be blessed by the gifts of others, and you should be a blessing to others in the church.

What are some reasons that we do not exercise our gifts in the church?

1) I don’t know what they are. (Well, find out!).

2) I don’t have time. (Or, I don’t take the time).

3) I don’t want to fail. (You are failing now if your gifts lie dormant).

4) I don’t want to. (Well then, you are selfish and a poor steward who refuses to distribute his master’s wealth).

5) I don’t know what I could do. No one has asked me to do anything. (Well, I am asking today).

6) I am young, I don’t have to serve in the church, do I?  (Yes you do).

So, Rejoice that you have received the Spirit of God. Rejoice that you are gifted for service in the kingdom of God. Rejoice that you can serve God and your brothers and sisters in Christ.