Aloneness

The Pastor’s Page

Alone – Aloneness is a scary word. Some of you know it well. There are those, I am sure, who will read no further than this first line or two because of the memories dredged up by doing something as simple as seeing the word on the page.

Not all aloneness is the result of betrayal. However, betrayal and aloneness are close neighbors. Betrayal can shove aloneness upon us with such force that it overwhelms us. It overcomes us. We lose hope. The darkness is an eternal night. The glimmer on the horizon is not the rising sun, but the last few rays of day before the blackness of everlasting night.

Please notice I use the word aloneness instead of loneliness. They are different, at least in my mind. Loneliness recognizes that there are people out there. There may even be some that we could be friends with, with whom we might feel a connection and companionship. We just haven’t met those people yet. We hope to meet them. We may even long to meet them, just not yet.

Aloneness has that quality of being on the planet all by yourself. No one is in your life and no one will ever be in your life. You are truly alone. It is a desperate, hopeless, lost feeling – a pit of the deepest, darkest blackness.

I know – a bit of cheery reading to help brighten your day.

I hope none of you have ever experienced what I am writing about, but my sad guess is that at least a few of you have, even if only for a moment. If you have been there, if you know that of which I speak from personal experience, then you too have a glimpse of what Jesus was willing to go through for you, in hopes that you will never have to feel that again.

Jesus’ aloneness was greater than any human being has ever endured. You see, Jesus had God Himself turn His back on Him as well because He bore the sins of you and me. We may feel separated from God, but the truth of the matters is that as long as there is breath and life in us – our Heavenly Father refuses to give up on us! That’s what Jesus’ alone time bought for you and for me – the knowledge that how ever many others may abandon us and turn their backs on us, leaving us all alone – our Savior NEVER will!

Pastor Craig

Forgiveness

Forgiveness, through the eyes of Robinson Crusoe – Upon debating the foolish choices which, eventually, would lead to him spending years alone on an island, Robinson Crusoe wrote in his journal: As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbors, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only but even everybody else; from whence I have since often observed how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which can only make them esteemed wise men.

What is your sin? Oh, don’t worry. I’m not asking you to come by the office for confession. I’m asking you to consider, as is the case for some of our sins, the passion with which you pursued the transgression as opposed to the timidity with which you approached owning up to it as transgression.

We run towards that which makes us unclean and flee the very source of cleanliness. Maybe that is what original sin is about.

Christ is never embarrassed to call us brother or sister. We are the ones ashamed to claim the title. The Father was more than eager to claim The Prodigal as his son! It was the son who was reluctant to return AS A SON to his father.

Our Heavenly Father stands with open arms and tears streaming down his face waiting for us to return. The tears are not over what we have done but, rather, because we will not run to Him, the only one who can possibly fix it, with all our strength and all our being immediately upon committing the transgression! Instead of the blessings of the Kingdom we dwell in loneliness on the island with Robinson Crusoe waiting for the fellowship and community our Heavenly Father is more than willing to give.

Are you ready to come home? Have you spent enough time alone on the island? Run to the Father who will grant you that perfect fellowship. He will restore you and your relationships if you will only leave the foolishness of Robinson Crusoe behind and become wise!

Pastor Craig

What Song Will You Be Singing This Sunday?

A Song of Ascent – Hope keeps us going. It has been said that people can go for weeks without food, days without water, but won’t last even a few hours without hope.  

This morning I performed a funeral for a person I did not know, a person not even from Ennis. That is always a difficult thing to do for a family. You do not know the loved one. In this case, I did not even know any of the family. In fact, I met them only 30 minutes prior to the funeral. They had wanted a graveside service officiated by a Presbyterian pastor, and I was their only option in Ennis.

Every pastor is faced with something similar at some time in their ministry. We cannot speak to the loved one’s eternal condition. We cannot address their lifestyle, exemplary or otherwise! Usually what we do is speak of the hope of the resurrection! That is something to which we all look forward.

The Psalm of the day is the 126^th Psalm in the Bible. It is called A Song of Ascent. In case you were wondering what that meant. The common belief is that Songs of Ascent were sung by pilgrim or travelers on their way to Jerusalem. This song proclaims the goodness and blessings of God by the people returning from a generation of enslavement in a foreign country.

The captives returning from Babylon were travelling as though they were in a dream. They had been gone for about eighty years. This meant that there were those in the midst to whom Jerusalem and the temple were only legends, stories told by parents or grandparents – legends about a temple covered in gold and wondrous beyond belief. That temple was gone. It had been sacked, along with most of the rest of the city, when their ancestors had been capture many years before.

These pilgrims were travelling back to a city in ruins, one where the rats and the wild animals ran free. Yet, somehow, they returned filled with laughter and with a song on their tongues, proclaiming, “THE LORD HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR US AND WE ARE GLAD!”

Yahweh God, as it turned out, had NOT abandoned them. Yahweh, himself, had come to rescue them. He had moved the kings of the earth to rise up against each other to secure their freedom. Their captor had become the captured and the enslaved vassal had become the property owner! God had indeed done GREAT things.

This morning, as you wound your way to worship, did your heart sing the praises of God! Did you shout, even in the confines of your own heart, “The Lord has done great things for me, and I am glad!” You are indeed God’s child. He will move mountains and monarchs to bless you and to bring you to himself. GREAT THINGS, INDEED!

Pastor Craig

The Day the Manna Stopped!

From Blessing to Promise! – The open door has always suggested some kind of opportunity. It symbolizes the leaving behind of one thing or way of life and laying hold of something different or a different way of life. For the people of Israel, it symbolized a leaving behind of a blessing but taking hold of a promise – not just a promise, not just any promise, THE promise. It was the promise of the land, a land of their very own. A land that would give them protection and symbolize that God had indeed chosen them as His special and unique people.

The difficult part is giving up that blessing. I mean, really, the Israelites had it made! Breakfast was right outside the tent door each and every morning, well, except the Sabbath morning. But, that only meant that the blessing had been doubled the day before. The blessings were fresh each time. Even in times of thirst God had provided His people with water bringing it forth from the very rocks of the desert if the need arose. In times when they had become distant, He sought them and longed to bring them back to Himself, even as the father longed for the Prodigal Son to return home.

Yahweh God provided a sign of His physical presence with His people, the  cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night. These too stopped when the people began the journey into the land.

Blessings are miracles that take place right in our presence. For the people of Israel, they happened every day while they wandered in the wilderness. These blessings had a catch though. They only lasted on the way to the Promised Land, not once the people were in it.

What if you had an opportunity to choose? You could turn down the Promised Land by not entering. In doing so, you would continue to receive all those blessings that had been yours in the wilderness. One does not always HAVE to go through the open door!

The door of opportunity can lead to tremendous changes in your lives. You walked through that door when you decided to be a person who would live out their faith rather than just talk about it. You may go places you never dreamed possible. You may achieve things that were never dreamt of before. BUT, you leave behind what you had in hope of attaining the promise of something better. The Israelites left behind what some may call a life of ease in order to obtain the promise that had been made to their patriarch centuries before.

The cessation of manna was not a sign that God’s presence had stopped. It was only a sign that a temporary provision had come to an end because God was about to provide something much greater! May the same be true in your life!

Pastor Craig

The Cost of Free

If it’s free, it must be priceless – What if something was so valuable you had to give it away.  Our main Scripture for today comes from Isaiah 55. Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, Come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor for what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare!

Why spend so much energy on something that will not satisfy? You’ve been out to eat before where you have been waiting to go to a specific restaurant and/or to have a certain dish. You’ve thought about it all day. That evening you get to go. You know exactly what you want. You tell the waiter when he comes to take your drink order. You don’t need time to think about it. You don’t even have to look at the menu. You KNOW what you want.

The server brings it to your table and you dig in. However, there seems to be a problem. Somehow, this just doesn’t hit the spot. How can this be? This is what you’ve been waiting for! What went wrong? You can tell it is prepared right. There isn’t anything wrong with the way it’s been fixed. It tastes exactly the way it has in the past. It just isn’t what you really wanted. Why would you spend money on something that doesn’t bring any satisfaction?

Isaiah calls to the people to come for more than the essentials of life. He calls them to fill themselves with something that will last. He calls them to recognize that God offers them something more than survivalist rations.

Isaiah asks, “Are you thirsty?” “Are you hungry?” Don’t settle for rice cakes. God offers so much more. God calls you to a feast.

“We are not prepared for something so grand,” you say. “We are afraid we will be expected to cover the expense when the check comes!” No money! No problem!

This is not a case of you get what you pay for. This is milk and wine. “Listen to me,” Isaiah cries. “Don’t chase after the worthless things that only take the edge of your “hunger” for a moment.  No, eat what is good. We have real food that offers real satisfaction!”

Our God prepares a wonderful feast. You have your invitation. Why would you possibly delay in coming!                                       

Pastor Craig

One Thing!

One Thing! – It is a wonderful thing to have a focus for one’s life isn’t it. Few of us are so focused as to be able to claim that.

Our interest flits, like a butterfly, from one flower to another. We are never quite sure where we will land. Maybe this one. No, that one over there looks much more appealing. Even when we land it is only for a moment, and our attention is soon drawn somewhere else. We even have names for disorders that make it more difficult for some of us to focus than others, but for most of us, it is simply a lack of discipline.

The Psalmist had many distractions. A war with flesh eating enemies would tend to shake our confidence in many things. It would probably cause us to rethink our priorities. However, the Psalmist doesn’t even blink!

Regardless of immediate circumstances, the Psalmist says, “I will be confident!” His confidence has a centering effect on his life. He focuses on a single priority and builds his life around this one thing. I want to dwell in the house of the Lord ALL the days of my life. I don’t want to remember a day when I was not in intimate contact with my Lord! I want to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple. I want to be consumed by my devotion and love for my Creator.

Nothing else matters once I have settled that #1 priority. Let them send armies against me. Let them declare war. Let my enemies come after my very flesh to consume it. I will have confidence in the Lord. I will not doubt regardless of the odds. Though all others would laugh at my faith, yet I will stand firm.

We have seen lives consumed by the things of this world – drugs, wealth, power, fame, sex. Imagine what a difference one could make if they allowed their Savior to be the thing that consumed them and gave them the confidence of a life well lived.

D. L. Moody is credited with saying, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him. I will try my utmost to be that man.” Imagine a life so centered, so focused, with such confidence. Imagine a life lived totally and completely for the glory of God. Are you willing to be that person. Imagine the confidence with which you will be able to approach life’s greatest challenges when you have your Savior by your side!                       

Pastor Craig