Love Without Limits

I just finished reading a book by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel. The story takes place during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. If this wasn't one of those "had to" books somewhere along the way in your education, I would encourage you to read it.

The hero is one Sir Percy Blakeney. It has been said that Sir Percy was the inspiration behind Batman. He is the original, superhero in disguise.

The story tells of Lady Blakeney, who has grown tired of her husband. He is an aloof socialite, if there can be such a thing. He is labeled as a large buffoon who just happens to be the wealthiest man in England.

Lady Blakeney’s heart belongs to a dashing hero, The Scarlet Pimpernel, who risks death to save the royalty of France from the guillotine. He uses his own money, a masterful ability to disguise himself, and a razor sharp mind to remain a mystery and escape the clutches of the French Republic.

Lady Blakeney has a brother who happens to fall captive to the forces of the French Republic. Her brother is offered in exchange for her discovery and betrayal of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Since Lady Blakeney knows everyone in society, her position makes her the one who can most likely find out the true identity of our hero. 

She efforts to save her brother leads her to information concerning times, places, and meetings for our hero. She turns these over to her blackmailer in an attempt to spare her brother from   the guillotine. She is unaware that the person she is condemning to death is her own husband, a man she would never suspect of being the dashing Scarlett Pimpernel.

Upon discovering her betrayal, she uses all her resources to save her husband, whom she has now decided is worthy of her affections.

The point of using this book for this writing is to illustrate the fickleness of the heart. Affections that were dead, have sprung to life once Lady Blakeney the hero is her own husband. She will go to great lengths, endure tremendous danger to try and save him whom she hardly talked to before. That is not the lesson the author intended. However, it is one of the things that comes out of the story.

How many times do we have little interest in a person until they, suddenly, do something interesting, something that makes them “worthy” of our time and effort? How many have we cast aside because they were not "useful" to us?

Christ offers to us, and requires from us a love much sturdier than that which follows our most recent items of interest. He offers us a love that holds up in tough times, and he asks us to give to one another the same.

Pastor Craig

This Is the Way!

The great thing as a child of God is to be found at your post, living each day as if it is your last, but planning ahead as if you are going to be living in the world for a hundred more years.[1]

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice saying, “This is the way, walk in it”. (Isaiah 30:21)

We have all heard the question, “What would you do today if you knew you would die tomorrow.” However, few of us ask the question, “What would you begin today if you knew you would live for 100 more years.”  

Hopefully, it would be something grand. There is much we could do with 100 years, things that would have a much larger impact than a round-the-world-cruise, climbing Mt. Everest, or writing a famous piece of literature. Think bigger! Yes, much bigger!

You could have a witness for Jesus Christ to generations. You could tackle a social injustice and see it through, all the way to the end. You could start a mission project and see it reach an entire culture. If your smile lifted one person’s spirit each day you lived, you would touch more than 36,000 different people! If you shared the Gospel once each month, you would witness to more than 1,200 people. If you discipled those people to share with others. . . Well, I cannot imagine the numbers that could know God’s love through your efforts.

So, we could do GREAT things, right? We know that. We also know that few of us will live to see 100. My question is, “Why would we do nothing, simply because we might not be around long enough to see it become something grand.   

Paul has an excellent perspective on this. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:6). What if Paul decided never to plant because he wasn’t going to see the benefits of his planting? What if Apollos decided not to water because he would not see the benefits of his watering? We must always be prepared to face the day as our last one, but we should never withdraw our hand from the plow and idly wait for it either.

May God find us ready to go when he comes to gather us to himself. May he also find us busy in his fields to the moment he does.

Craig C. Krueger

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[1] C. S. Lewis

God, who foresaw your tribulation, has especially armed you to go through it, not without pain, but without stain.[1]

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord, who has worked wonders for you. (Joel 2:26)

We all know there are troubles in life. Probably each one of you reading this has had at least your fair share of crises, troubles, and trials. Some of us have had quite a bit more than our share.

 What I decide is fair in life may be something all, or  most all of us could agree with. However, just because you and I, or even every single one of us, agree that something is fair doesn’t guarantee it will be what happens in our life.

Even our Creator does not promise us a trial free life. He does promise us blessing, but we live in a fallen world, an existence that is not perfect by any possible definition. The one thing Christ does promise us is that he will be with us through any trial we may encounter. He will prepare us for the journey. That doesn’t mean an advance warning of death or disease, of financial crisis or vocational disaster, of family bliss and leak free roofs at home.

Advance warning only means we have time to prepare OURSELVES. That isn’t what God promises. He promises HE will prepare you. It may be that the events of yesterday are the fallow ground for God’s work and preparation to be taking root in today.

There are so many events flying at us that we don’t have time to know every aspect of the what and why for each one of them. It is generally best to leave that in God’s hands. Why do we have cancer? I don’t know. Why did our loved one have to die? I don’t know. In fact, it is very likely that, in this life, we won’t be able to come to an answer we can easily accept.  

The memory of the hurt or trial will be a part of our life going forward, but it does not have to define our life from that moment until our life’s end. It does not have to leave a stain. Some of the wonders God works in our life come when we are finally able to see the bigger picture, when we are allowed the behind the scene view and gasp at the wonder and infinite compassion of God’s plan. It is a blessing when we can see it in this life. It is closure when we stand before the throne and worship the one who led us through all things to that very spot.

Craig C. Krueger

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[1] C. S. Lewis

The Root

Faith is the root of all good works. A root that produces nothing is dead.[1]

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17)

As Christians, many of us find ourselves wishing for more faith. We envy the Bible heroes who seem to have been used in wonderful ways to further the work of the kingdom of God while we seem to be mere observers to that epic struggle taking place in the world around us. We feel that we cannot do more because we are hampered by our weak faith. If only we could believe like they did. . .

The passage in James and the quote by Thomas Wilson seem to take a different view of the cause and effect process surrounding those events. It sets up a scenario of a person who has faith but seems to do little or nothing with it.

Being a Christian, by its very nature, requires faith. So, if you have expressed faith in Jesus Christ, then, you do indeed have faith. The root, as Mr. Wilson puts it, is in place. Faith is merely stepping into the mission that God has given to you at that moment. It may be something titanic in scope, or it may be something as simple as going next door to extend an invitation to church to the neighbor you leave behind each and every Sunday when you leave for worship.

I cannot speak in an exhaustive nature on anything involving plants. However, it seems to be the norm in the plant kingdom that everything needs a root and everything needs to bloom. If faith is the root, it is through faith that we draw that which we need to grow and mature in Jesus Christ. However, our works also contribute to our maturing Christian life. It is from the blooms, the leaves, the part of the plant above ground that it gets its oxygen and sunlight. Sunlight is essential to the photosynthetic process. Generally, plants stuck in the dark do not do well (unless we are talking mushrooms, mosses, or molds).

Faith and works are both needed, just as in the picture above, to drive the ship of our relationship with Christ forward. At times, faith is stepping out and doing that which we know God expects of us, even when we are fearful to venture forward. At other times, the actions take the lead and doing something for Christ strengthens that faith we doubted we had.

It is time for us to be more than people of faith alone. We must be people who do something with our faith and whose very actions deepen that same faith.             

 

   Pastor Craig

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[1] Thomas Wilson

Mr. Bootsy

Who did you invite to church for this Sunday?

Granted, this is not the way to get a positive response to your invitation, but you've got to give the guy credit for at least making the attempt. Most of us sit on the sidelines. We want our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family members to come to church. We just seem to never get around to actually issuing the invitation.

In the meantime, those around you may be missing out on a deeper, closer relationship to Jesus Christ. Some of them may be missing that relationship altogether.

It isn't about pets going to heaven. It is about having an anchor in the storms that sometimes rock our boat in this life.

This Sunday is the time. Invite someone to come!

First Presbyterian Church
210 N. McKinney
Ennis, Texas 75119
(972) 875-3196

SORRY

We owe you this.
Christians most everywhere owe you this.
We have been too judgmental.
We think that standing by what we believe must mean we have to crush what you believe.

Yes, probably one of us is more right than the other, but can we still worship together? Can somehow I hold on to what I believe while allowing you to hold onto what you believe?

Is Christ not big enough to love us both? Can we not trust the Holy Spirit to work on both of us to bring us to a place neither of us has arrived at yet, but to which both of us are striving?

I will try if you will.

I think, since the last time you were at our place, you may have had questions about things and not been able to find answers. We are sorry we caused you to doubt, to question, we're sorry we tore you down rather than built you up. Will you give it another chance? Will you give Christ another chance? It was us, not Him, that offended. He loves and cares. We just did a poor job of showing that.

Come back. I know it might not be this Sunday, but we will be waiting whenever you are ready.

First Presbyterian Church
210 N. McKinney
Ennis, Texas

There Is No Darkness

It is not darkness where we move, for God is Light. It is not loneliness, for Christ is with us. It is also not unknown territory, for Christ is already there.[1]

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.[2]

Why would we ever doubt? Why would we ever be afraid? If Christ is already in our future, if he is present in the dark where we think we should fear, if he is always with us in every situation. . . how can we be so ineffective as disciples?

We live our lives as though Christ is not risen, as though we would have to face our gloomy days without hope, and as though the sun would never rise and displace the darkness that seems to surround us. Hebrews 11 is the great chapter of the heroes of the Old Testament. We would long to travel in the company of people who were so strong in their faith. However, that chapter leads into the thought that we are the ones they envy. They look at us as the possessors of the great mysteries of the faith which they longed to see but never fully realized. The twelfth chapter claims we are now center stage and these Old Testament heroes look upon our journey and ask, “What will they do with this great treasure that we never saw?”

At times it seems the answer is, “Little!” We live as if it has not happened. We talk about the obstacles before us and forget the Savior that stands with us. We continue to fear the dark. We continue to feel like Elijah and claim, “I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too!”[3]

Jesus Christ has not deserted you. He has not left you to battle your doubts and fears alone. He does not leave you to an uncertain future. No, he leads you and me towards a future that is bright with hope. It is bright with hope because it is bright with his presence. It is hopeful because he is already there. We question and doubt because we listen to the words of Satan when he tells us we are too weak, too few, too incompetent to handle such an awesome task as taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to a lost world.

What we have just read tells us that he is so wrong. May we accept Christ’s leadership for us into the future of bright hope and love.

Pastor Craig

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[1] Charles Kingsley

[2] I Thessalonians 4:13

[3] I Kings 19