Don't Forget Who You Are!

Now therefore, if you will indeed hear my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.[1]

 We are so used to hearing the message of Grace preached fully and completely that it may be difficult to hear Yahweh God putting conditions on how we come to be treasured and holy. The “if” statement bothers us tremendously. However, if you would, take a moment to look at it with me.

 What is it that God is asking of the Israelites? The “hear my voice” statement carries a meaning beyond just being able to replicate a message that has entered our ear canal. Yes, this one does carry the double sense of obedience (hear & keep).

 What do we get in return? God is a poor negotiator. Our gift for listening to his pleas to turn from death and accept life is to get exactly what he promises and more! You will be treasured among all people. You will be a kingdom of priests. You will be declared holy. We always get far more than God asks us to give.

 We are the wayward child bent on self-destruction. Our Heavenly Father pleads with us to stop killing ourselves one piece at a time. He wants to restore us to life and health and wholeness, but he cannot do it when we stuff our fingers in our ears as soon as we hear his invitation.

 “Listen to me!” God pleads with you and me. So often, we run the other way, our hands over our ears blabbering nonsense syllables. All the time we are running away from and denying our treasured status.

 The good news is that God runs really fast, faster than you or ever can. He catches us, passes us, and puts himself directly in our path, face at our level and repeats the message louder.

We dodge him! The good news is that God is persistent. He will try again. Fortunately, so will he. In fact, I would say that God will even station himself ahead of our flight path and stick out his foot to trip us, waiting for us to take our hands away from our ears to stop our fall so he can repeat his message to us again. He will never give up. Listen to him and be blessed.

Pastor Craig

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[1] Exodus 19: 5ff

Becoming

Experience: that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

Franklin P. Jones

 

I am writing this short article shortly after Easter. The events surrounding Easter are believed to have followed approximately three years of intense contact with Jesus by the twelve disciples. These men had been witnesses to the miracles, they heard the teaching, they had been privileged to interpretations of the parables that many others had not fully understood, and they had seen the risen Christ.

In our times of doubt, difficulty, or despair we often find ourselves wishing we could stand in the presence of our Lord in the same way the early disciples did. We imagine how much stronger our faith would be if we could witness the same miracles. We marvel at the wisdom and boldness of Peter, John, Timothy, Paul, Silas, James, and others. However, when we read through the New Testament the lives of these men are not always what we would expect. Their lives still seem to be mixtures of death and life. There seems to have been a time when Peter and Paul may not have been on the best terms. Paul parted ways with his first missionary partner over a disagreement concerning whether John Mark should travel with them or not. Peter had doubts and moments of his legendary impulsiveness from time to time. Yes, they are indeed changed men, but they are far from perfected. They were living through that marvelous thing called experience. In the Christian walk, add in the Holy Spirit and we might even refer to it as sanctification, that process of becoming more like Christ as we journey along in faith.

It turns out that our faith journey is exactly that, a journey. Jesus repeated his call to “Follow me!” many times to those first disciples. It was not a one-time offer. It wasn’t a completed work when Matthew left his tax collecting booth, or when Peter, James, and John left their nets and their boats. Those acts of leaving where more like the one step of backing out of the driveway at the beginning of a cross country vacation. There is still a whole big, long adventure ahead of us.

 In one sense, a Christian is not something you became through a call to faith in Jesus Christ. It is something you are becoming. This becoming is a process that will take your whole life, a time filled with tremendous leaps forward, other times when you feel is if you have gone back to the beginning and are starting all over, and still other times when it seems as if you have been marching in place for a very long time. However you look at it, following Christ is the EXPERIENCE of a lifetime and for a lifetime.

Pastor Craig

Risky Relationships

Below is a FaceBook post by a girl who spoke no Romanian to another girl who did not speak at all. The two could not exchange words. Yet, they communicated in ways few people can. When Christ is present, sometimes no words are needed.

Maria Cleopatra was a precious girl I met while I was in Romania volunteering at a clinic. She lived to be almost five despite the fact that she had hydrocephaly. It was not expected for her to live this long, and some doubted her ability to understand or relate; however I knew different. She laughed at the sound of another person's laugh, and she cooed and stretched as you rubbed her back or head, places that were hardly ever touched due to her fragile condition. Maria, you will be so very missed, and I am glad you are no longer suffering. ♥

Today is Easter. It is a day we are reminded of the awesome work Christ did for us, the risk, if you will, God took to secure a relationship with Him. Most of us risk so little. We are afraid of the hurt we know accompanies so many relationships. Rejected affections. Broken promises. Betrayed confidences. Yet there are those who seem to risk so much, who are committed to love even when they know that hurt is on the way.

In one sense there is no risk here. The volunteer knew she would return home in a couple months. She knew the child was given “No chance” by medical staff there in Romania. It is a situation made for heartbreak. You know it will happen. You just don’t know how soon.

Have you ever thought how Jesus felt about laying down His life for you and me? He knew we were unfaithful. He knew we would quickly run after some other affection, something else that would attract our eye oh so quickly. Yet, He jumped in boldly. He held nothing back. He let us stomp on Him, beat Him, spit on Him, curse Him, and nail Him to a tree and crucify Him. It was a most serious path, leading to this wonderful day of resurrection, a day that moves us beyond language, a day that cements relationships with the bond of Christian kindness, compassion, grace, and forgiveness.

We follow the example of our Savior when we jump in boldly, giving little or no thought for ourselves, simply committing our hearts to one another, as Christ gave His life for us. When we sing They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love this is the kind of love we are singing about. Christ is Risen! We are loved. We can love in return.

 Pastor Craig