Dynamite

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV). One of the “oxymorons” of our world is that Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, also was the man who created dynamite. There are many stories surrounding the discovery and development of this compound that has been used for both good and bad in our world. It is said that when he discovered the compound and its effects when ignited, he needed a name for it. According to sources, he spoke with a friend who knew the Greek language well and asked him what the Greek word for "explosion" was. That word was dunamis, and so Nobel named his invention "dynamite." When the Apostle Paul wrote our paragraph today he used the word we translate as “power.” So think of dynamite, think of something dynamic, think of an explosion, and you will have an idea of what Paul was saying. There is explosive power in the simple message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is an explosion when the gospel goes out. The apostle will go on later in the letter to explain how this power will be disseminated into the world. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:14-15 ESV). Those of you who know me also know that I believe no one is born again without the express work of God in their lives. However, that is facilitated through the preaching of the Gospel. That’s why I share the grace of God as often as I have opportunity. Now there are those who would say that since I am a pastor, then obviously I have been gifted and called to do just that. Often they add, “And, we’ll be praying for you too.” Well, that’s good, but it is not what God has in mind. We are all commanded to share the Gospel. That may not look the same as when I “preach,” but it is the same principle of power that goes out when we use our individual gifts and callings to make people aware of this great gift of God through Jesus Christ. So, I would ask you, what are you doing with your “dynamite”? Are you constructing great roads and bridges? It is that kind of power.

Glass Houses

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1 John 2:7-11 ESV). The saying goes, “people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” It is a relatively new urban proverb that has come to mean “one should not criticize others for faults that they have themselves. Our reading today is an incredibly plain declaration that points us to the kinds of lives we are to have in our relationships to fellow believers. Contrary to this encouragement from the apostle, some of the most hurtful experiences in our lives come from the least likely of people and places. We would think that the safest place for us to be is in our family or faith community; and yet, it is those two places we are most often wounded. This is especially true in the church. Nearly every week I talk with someone who tells me they have been "hurt by the Church." Every time I hear these words, my heart breaks because I know exactly what they mean. The real question is what can we do to heal those hurts and return to healthy relationships? Here are some suggestions that have helped others in the past: First, stay connected to the Lord. It is always a great temptation to withdraw. That is the easiest path to follow; it is also the most likely to slowly erode your ability to experience the healing love that comes from a community that is connected to the power of the Holy Spirit. There is a caution I would give you at this point. Jumping from one church to another is rarely the answer. It may be that you will need to find another community of faith; however, you should leave with humility and blessing, not pride and anger. Second, pursue personal purity in your faith and practice. If your disagreements are based in your interpretation of Scripture, take the high road and realize that while it is your responsibility to share your beliefs with others, it is not your responsibility to chasten them. That is God’s prerogative alone. Third, trust in the promise that God will bring His love to prevail. In your life, love regardless. To love someone is to seek his best. I can love someone without even liking him. I can find someone frustrating, but still genuinely and truly want what is best for them. Love does not mean avoiding tough conversations or life-on-life accountability, but doing those sorts of things from a loving, humble, gracious, and patient position which is from a mind and heart like Christ’s. Remember, we all live in a glass house. Live like it; love one another in all things!

Bedtime Prayers

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14 ESV). The classic bedtime prayer is: “Now I lay me down to sleep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I never really had that ritual with my children, even though I do now have a bedtime prayer. Mine is pretty simple and straightforward. I “call the role” as the last thing I say to the Lord each evening before I drift off to sleep: “Dear Lord, take care of Mary, Kyle, Brandy, Faith and Logan, David, Becca, Maggie, and Aaron.” It’s not fancy or very deep theologically, but it is the last thing I want to tell my heavenly Father each day. I suppose one of the most difficult tasks any of us have is in regard to praying for our families. So, let me suggest two simple prayers. Of course, its fine to do your role call; but, let me go a little bit further for your development of another bedtime ritual. First, pray that God would forgive you. It all begins here. John tells us that God forgives us of every unrighteousness and cleanses us from every sin, if we simply confess (cf. 1 John 1:9). That passage is unique in that it really means that we simply agree with God that we are need of his forgiveness. The wonder of that truth is that God has already done all that is necessary to forgive us. When Jesus died on the cross, he finished the work of atonement on our behalf. There is no one and nothing that yet remains to secure our complete forgiveness. No matter what your day may have consisted of, no matter how great your failure may have been, Jesus has done everything to make our restoration a reality. Ask! Second, pray that God would forgive others, especially your family. My sons are all adults. They have done well. But they sin, just like I do. My daughters-in-law can do no wrong in my eyes. I love them as my own; but, they too sin. My grandchildren are “Mary Poppins” children (you know… “practically perfect in every way), but they sin. They were born in sin. So, I pray on their behalf and for their hearts to be made pliable to the work of the Holy Spirit in their life. I like to pray for others in the same way. I creates a depth of compassion in my heart just as it was in the heart of Jesus when he looked over the city of Jerusalem and wept for them as they wandered about as sheep without a shepherd. At the end of the day, we are all in God’s hands and heart. Knowing I can come to him and ask for our safety in his hands brings me great comfort. It is a prayer he will answer. Make it your prayer too.

It Is Well With My Soul

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. (Philippians 1:21-26 ESV). I love some of the old hymns of the faith. This is not to say that I don’t love some of the more contemporary hymns and choruses of today’s church. I do. I simply don’t know the back stories of those as well. One of my favorites is “It Is Well With My Soul.” In 1873, a man received a message from his wife, who had sailed with their four daughters to Europe, where he had planned to meet them soon. The note read, “Saved alone…” She and the girls had been in a terrible collision at sea and their ship had gone down. All four daughters died. It was just the latest awful news in three horrifying years for the family. They had lost their son in 1870. Soon after that tragedy a massive fire ruined them financially. Then the horrors of the accident at sea befell them. The man was Horatio Spafford. As he crossed the sea to meet his grieving wife, he penned the words of this wonderful old hymn: When peace, like a river, attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul. Really? It is well? What could anchor the mind and heart of a man in tragedies like these and free him to sing these words? The answer is always found in our relationship with Jesus. Paul certainly understood this. In the midst of all the difficulties in his life, he knew that it would be well. To live and continue to suffer for the Gospel, or to die and go to heaven, either was “well.” I know that’s a lot easier to say than to do; but, the truth does not change with the difficulty of the practice. The rest of Spafford’s story is interesting. Following the sinking of the Ville du Havre, Anna gave birth to three more children. On February 11, 1880, their son, Horatio Goertner Spafford, died at the age of four, of scarlet fever. Their Presbyterian church regarded their tragedy as divine punishment. In response, the Spaffords formed their own church, dubbed "the Overcomers" by American press. In August 1881, the Spaffords set out for Jerusalem as a party of thirteen adults and three children and set up the American Colony. Colony members, later joined by Swedish Christians, engaged in philanthropic work amongst the people of Jerusalem regardless of their religious affiliation. During and immediately after World War 1, the American Colony played a critical role in supporting these communities through the great suffering and deprivations of the eastern front by running soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages and other charitable ventures. Four days shy of his 60th birthday, Spafford died on October 16, 1888, of malaria, and was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Jerusalem. It sure was “well with his soul”!

How Much Do You Have?

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-9 ESV). Please do not stop reading this devotional yet! I know it appears from the title and the chosen reading that I am going to get around to asking you for money. Well, I’m not. And, further, it has nothing to do with what you have, as much as it has to do with what you perceive you lack. Jon Bloom recently wrote: “Nothing will deplete your faith like looking at what you lack. I find that the more I fixate on my lack of resources, the strengths I don’t have, the weaknesses I do have, the heavier the weight of unbelief becomes and the harder the race of faith becomes. Looking at a deficit fuels our fear and drains our hope. A deficit says we don’t have enough to make the payment, meet the need, make the deadline, preach the sermon, fix the marriage, instruct the child, counsel that hard case, defeat the sin, or overcome the weakness. We don’t take risks with a deficit in view.” Listen to the apostle again: And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. God’s desire is that we lack nothing, so he pours out his grace into us so that we will have “sufficiency” in everything. Here’s what the dictionary says about that word: Sufficiency is the state or fact of being sufficient; adequacy. It is a sufficient number or amount; enough. It is an adequate provision or supply, especially of wealth. I don’t know about you, but for me, there are times when I wonder if I have enough. Usually my concern is whether I have enough physically to accomplish some task. I am always reminded when I begin to question whether I have enough that my God has more than enough; and, his resource is at my complete disposal. So, why then do I find myself inadequate for some projects or tasks? Perhaps it is the task that is the problem. Maybe it’s not something God is interested in me doing. Perhaps the doing of that task would bring me harm and God desires to protect me from it by directing me to things that are more realistically achievable with my resources. Perhaps it’s just not the right time for me to do it. Whatever the reasons, I know that God withholds no good thing from his children. I have everything that I could possibly need. So, when I ask, “How much do I have?” The answer is always “enough.” That’s encouraging!

Revolution

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12 ESV). Very few people will recognize today as a significant day in the fight for independence between Texas and Mexico. However, it is the beginning of the revolution that ultimately led to the establishment of Texas as an independent nation. There were already growing tensions between Mexico and the people living in what would become Texas; and, in 1835, violence erupted when Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, ultimately sparking the Texan war for independence. Texas, or Tejas as the Mexicans called it, had technically been a part of the Spanish empire since the 17th century. However, even as late as the 1820s, there were only about 3,000 Spanish-Mexican settlers in Texas, and Mexico City’s hold on the territory was tenuous at best. After winning its own independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico welcomed large numbers of Anglo-American immigrants into Texas in the hopes they would become loyal Mexican citizens and keep the territory from falling into the hands of the United States. During the next decade men like Stephen F. Austin brought more than 25,000 people to Texas, most of them Americans. But while these emigrants legally became Mexican citizens, they continued to speak English, formed their own schools, and had closer trading ties to the United States than to Mexico. In 1835, the president of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, overthrew the constitution and appointed himself dictator. Recognizing that the “American” Texans were likely to use his rise to power as an excuse to secede, Santa Anna ordered the Mexican military to begin disarming the Texans whenever possible. This proved more difficult than expected, and on October 2, 1835, Mexican soldiers attempting to take a small cannon from the village of Gonzales encountered stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia of Texans. After a brief fight, the Mexicans retreated and the Texans kept their cannon. The determined Texans would continue to battle Santa Ana and his army for another year and a half before winning their independence and establishing the Republic of Texas. In our reading today we see the apostle remind his readers that they continued to suffer for the cause of their freedom from sin and death. They understood the incredible freedom that Christ had provided through his work of grace. They could not contain this message, hiding it secretly. It was a treasure to be shared with the world, even in the face of great persecution. That “revolution” ultimately brought freedom to every corner of the world so that today Christianity is represented in virtually every nation of the earth. It must have seemed a prudent thing to disarm those early missionaries through that persecution, when, in fact, it merely drove them more to preach the gospel. I wonder if we have that kind of passion for maintaining our hard won freedom in Christ. We should.

The Thrilla in Manilla

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV). On October 1, 1975, one of the great championship boxing matches was fought in the Philippines. It has come to be known as the “Thrilla in Manilla.” Mohammed Ali fought Joe Frazier for the third time. It was everything it was billed to be. Ali once was quoted as saying, "Of all the men I fought, Sonny Liston was the scariest, George Foreman was the most powerful, Floyd Patterson was the most skilled as a boxer, but the roughest and toughest was Joe Frazier. He brought out the best in me, and the best fight we fought was in Manila." Frazier had won their first bout and Ali their second. It was 10:45 a.m. in the Philippines when their rubber match started, and the "The Thrilla in Manila" lived up to the hype. The bout turned out to be three fights in one: The first had Ali, the champion, outboxing and outscoring Frazier, nailing him with clean, sharp shots. The second fight, from the fifth through the 11th, had Frazier giving a terrible pounding to Ali. The third fight began in the 12th round and somehow Ali, with the will of a champion, tore into Frazier for the next three rounds. When the bell rang for the 15th round, Frazier, with his eyes almost completely shut, remained in his corner as his trainer, Eddie Futch, threw in the towel. "Man, I hit him with punches that'd bring down the walls of a city," Frazier said. "Lawdy, lawdy, he's a great champion." Ali said, "It was like death. Closest thing to dying that I know of." I remember watching that fight on television. I was indeed a heavyweight match unlike any I have ever seen! There is a greater fight to be fought than that one though. The Apostle Paul speaks of it in our reading today. He talks about his training and relentless pursuit of excellence. He pushes himself to such lengths because he knows at the end of this life there is a crown waiting for him that is incomparable to any title of championship anywhere in any area. It is the crown of eternal life that will only be given to those who have overcome death through the work of Christ in their life. While the grace of God is secured through Christ, we cannot make the mistake of thinking that it requires nothing of us. It requires everything from us. We give our lives to him, not as an exchange for eternal life; but, we give it as an act of gratitude for what he has already done. It is as if, at the end of the match between Ali and Frazier, Ali were to have given his title to his trainer. I wonder, how are you training and fighting in this contest of life today? Our enemy can throw some devastating punches, but none of them can beat us. Christ has already taken care of that. Let’s get back in the fight!