Wanting What God Wants

When we want something other than what God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy.”[1]

C. S. Lewis

I believe I can say with confidence that there are few, if any, people on the face of the earth who do not want to be happy. A large amount of our energy is spent running after, or trying to obtain happiness. We look for satisfaction in the things we buy, in the people we choose to surround ourselves with, and how we approach our careers and vocations.

Society tells us that the only way to be happy is to be true to your inner self. The only problem with that is that the majority of us have trouble deciding what we want off the dollar menu at a fast food restaurant, much less searching through the deepest parts of our soul to find that part which is authentic, if indeed there is one.

My question in this dialogue is, “Why would we spend so much time searching for what has already been found? Why do we go on the quest that has already been accomplished? If we want to how to operate a piece of technology in the most beneficial manner, it is usually best to consult the manual or to ask someone who knows a great deal about the piece of equipment in which we are interested? God qualifies in every aspect of that issue, but often he is the very last person we want to consult.

We fear that God will make us start something we really don’t want to do or require that we cease an activity that has become a personal favorite.

The truth of the matter is that God has programmed us to find peace, happiness, and satisfaction  in any kind of ultimate sense only as we conform to his standards. Anything else is a shadow of that ultimate reality, temporal and fleeting.

This season, as we light the candle representing love, consider Christ, the one who gave himself that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.

Pastor Craig

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[1] #CSLewis at Twitter.com

God With Us!

The sky is gray. The water is black. The air is cold. My cell phone is down to 4%. I have no electricity. The house is quiet because the fans blowing heat do not operate. There is no television to provide background noise. The two noises I do hear are the snoring of a dog and the rhythm of a grandfather clock. Even the hum of the refrigerator, which I dare not open lest it lose valuable cold, is silent. In the midst of this I find humor. I am trying to banish cold from one place while doing all I can to keep it in another.     

I wait for deliverance. In no way do I want to equate Oncor with my Savior. However, it is in times like these, even when our “suffering” is so trivial, that we are reminded of Advent. We get so comfortable. We love our conveniences, and we don’t know what to do when they are gone, even if it is only for a brief period.

Deliverance is a beautiful thing. It is the anticipation that pushes our patience to the limit. It is the only thing that our modern secularized Christmas has retained from its original. Children and many adults, waiting to see what has been left under our tree. For some of us, the wait is excruciating.

All those Advent hymns begin to make sense now: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, O Come, O Come, Emanuel, Prepare the Way. Then finally to burst forth with the praises of Joy to the World, Good Christian Men, Rejoice, Go, Tell It on the Mountain, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.

In Isaiah, the Lord promised king Ahaz deliverance from foreign invaders. He wanted to show the strength of His commitment to Ahaz by binding it with a sign. Yahweh God said, “Ask the Lord you God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

Ahaz, trapped in his own self-righteousness turned down the chance to see God’s power first-hand.

God’s response through the prophet Isaiah? “Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call Him Emmanuel!”

Ahaz did not live to see that sign, nor did Isaiah, but we have seen what they did not. We live in the rejoicing when they lived in the anticipating. We now live in the anticipating of the victorious second return – Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus!

Pastor Craig

Doing Advent Right!

If Christ is the revelation of the whole meaning of humanity, if the meaning of human life is solely and entirely to be found in the fact that I am a child of God, then everything in my life becomes relevant or irrelevant in proportion as it tends to my growth as a member of Christ, as a child of God, and the extension of Christ in the world of humankind through his Church.[1]

Advent: A time spent in reflection and preparation for the coming of the Messiah. If the quote we began this short essay with is true, then we are doing advent very, VERY wrong.

Now, without getting all negative and ruining the Christmas spirit you are trying so hard to create at this time of year. If Lent, another season of preparation that most evangelical Christians would rather overlook, is about our life in reverse and thinking about our past sins and the lengths our Creator chose to take to assure our relationship with him, then Advent must be about looking to the future and how we should be living that we might glorify our Savior when he comes again. Think about it again. Lent is about our past and motivates us to glorify God in the season of Easter for he tremendous gift of our salvation. Advent is about the present and future, where we look at where we are ask, “How is my present life showing forth my citizenship as a child of the Kingdom of God?”

Few of us wish to put ourselves through such a period of examination. Most of us would rather sing another verse of Joy to the World and light another candle. But, Christianity is a faith that seeks to move us forward. Sometimes the best way to do that is to take a good look at the road traveled thus far, thanking God for his guidance grace and mercy for putting up with us. Other times, the best way to do that is to take stock of where we are and plan for the journey that is yet in front of us, making sure our road is straight and our pace is steady.

So, how do we approach this season we begin today? How do we keep it from being a mournful time? None of us, including myself want to, entirely, give up those rousing Christmas hymns that remind us of shepherds and angel songs and kings on long journeys to humble places? I think we do that by embracing the true meaning of this season. We look at where we are, we celebrate God’s continued faithfulness in the midst of our ever so glaring failings, we set our hearts on our destination, and we gird ourselves to complete the journey ahead. All of this we do with the firm reliance on God’s continued faithfulness, on the Spirit’s continued guidance, and the Son’s ever forgiving and restoring grace; the things of which those great Christmas hymns have always been made.

Let us light the Candle of Hope – again.

Pastor Craig

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[1] Thomas Merton The Good News of the Nativity

By My Own Merit

At hearing this, great sorrow gripped my heart. For many persons of the greatest worth were held, I knew, suspended in this strip. “Tell me, sir, tell me, my dearest teacher,” so I began, determined – on a point of faith which routs all error – to be sure, “has anyone, by merit of his own. . ., left here then been blessed?” And he, who read the sense my words had hid, answered: “I still was new to this strange state when, now advancing, I beheld a power whose head was crowned with signs of victory. He led away the shadow of our primal sire, shades of his offspring, Abel and Noah, Moses, who uttered the law, of Abraham the patriarch, David the king. . .All these he blessed. Until these were, no human soul had ever been redeemed.”[1]

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, as Dante begins his journey through hell, he has a question for his guide, Virgil. On the very first level, with eight more left to go, he asks the question, “Has anyone ever made it out of here on their own merit or effort?” Dante expresses this concern because so many of the people he saw were people of “reputation and honor.” Surely, there must be someone who would be considered of sufficient moral character, who would have made it out of hell and gone to heaven. These are good people, people we respect, admire, and wish to emulate.

Virgil’s response is, “Only one, and his head was crowned with the signs of victory!” We tend to think we are moral people. We like to view ourselves as only needing a little boost to skip over hell and land in heaven. If we choose to hang on to that notion, we will find ourselves ill equipped for the afterlife when the time comes. It turns out that hell is filled with “good” people, “honest” people, people of “good reputation,” and exhibiting strength of character. They are there because, in the end, they rejected God’s way, even as the first human beings did, and rely on their own works.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.[2]

The crown of thorns has become the sign of victory!

Pastor Craig

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[1] The Divine Comedy: Canto 4. Dante.

[2] Ephesians 2:8-9

White Martyrdom

I remembered something about Celtic monks that I thought I'd share - some of you may know much more than I about this history, but my point has to do with servant-leadership:

I read an article some time back addressing the leadership of the Spirit. It made comment about the "white martyrdom" of the ancient Celts. White martyrdom is a commitment to live a sacrificial life that will result in one's ultimate death, rather than a "red martyrdom" of being killed in some bloody way for the faith. Ascetic monks who lived in the desert were white martyrs; people who were missionaries in places so far-flung they would never make it home were white martyrs.

Around the 800's Irish monks would embrace white martyrdom by setting sail from the coast in round, brown leather boats, called coracles, that had no rudder. The idea was that they would let the ocean currents (guided by the hand of the Holy Spirit) take their little boats and deliver them to wherever it was the Spirit wanted them to work - hence, they needed no rudder, sail or helm, other than the Spirit's hand. Because of the way the currents flowed, they would likely never return home, and certainly could not turn around and go back intentionally, so they would die at their ultimate destination.

It isn't exactly an example of leadership, but I do think it is a good example of the mindset of a servant-leader - and the sacrificial sense of genuine leadership - and the way we have to trust the Spirit in leadership. Without the leading and aid of the Holy Spirit, our best efforts at leading a church are really nothing more than can be done on the ocean in a round boat. In both cases we might die, but with the Holy Spirit we at least have a chance of doing the Kingdom's work instead of our own."

Pastor Craig

The Defects of Others

We would willingly have others perfect, and yet we correct not our own faults. We will have others severely corrected, and will not be corrected ourselves. The large liberty of others displeases us, and yet we will not have our own desires denied us. We will have others bound down by ordinances, and we ourselves endure no further restraint.

And thus it appears, how seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance with ourselves.

Thomas A` Kempis of the Imitation of Christ

The sad thing is that I have already proven the truth of these words many times over. You too have proven them if you thought about anyone else but yourself as you read this passage. I even had in mind people to whom I would send it in hopes that they might listen to the Scriptures and be corrected!

The Scriptures go so far as to warn us that we will be judged with the same severity we wish to put upon others.[1] Now, we are to be discerning. So, what is the difference between the two, discernment and judging?

Judging strikes out. It seeks punishment. In its most harsh display its goal in fact is punishment alone. Judgment has decided a guilty verdict already. It has concluded the severity of the consequences to be meted out. It will decide when the debt has been paid in full. When we are the ones doing the judging, that means we reserve the right to decide when the punishment is sufficient and the debt has been paid.

Discernment seeks understanding. Discernment may recognize that an offense has been committed, but it seeks to understand the circumstances that prompted one to commit the act itself. Yes, consequences may still need to be enforced. However, even in the enforcement of correction the ultimate goal is restoration. How do we restore a person to the position they had before. Not, how do we punish them so severely that they will never consider committing the same offence again.

When we trip over our own morals, how would we wish to be dealt with? Most of us would hope for someone who would understand our situation, that as they decide our fate, they could put themselves in our situation and say, “if that were me, I might have done the same thing.”

Cover your neighbors’ faults with love, that they might do the same for you when your time comes. In so doing you show forth the love of Christ and your life proclaims the good news of the gospel for all to hear.

Pastor Craig

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[1] Romans 14:13

Self-Expectations

Charles Dickens' Great Expectations includes this brief passage of when Estella first made Pip feel worthless:

I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots. My opinion of those accessories was not favorable. They have never troubled me before, but the troubled me now, as vulgar appendages. I determines to ask Joe why he had ever taught me to call those picture-cards Jacks which out to be called knaves. I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.

Most of us, at some time in our life, take a long, hard, and very unfavorable look at some aspect of our being. Now, I know that there are aspects of my own being, as I am sure you are aware of yours as well, that should be changed, and I know that I would be a better person for having changed them. However, there is a difference between a decision of our own to better ourselves or to grow as a person and someone else giving us reason to feel less than or inadequate in our being because of their evaluation of us.

It might be anything. It could be something we might change as easily as our own socks or something as difficult as the fact that we were born taller or shorter than someone else has decided is "appropriate."

I have tried, when confronted with hurt in my being to ask, "Would I be a better person for taking this individual's advice? Would I be a more loving husband or father? Would my preaching improve? Would I remedy some inconsistency within my Christian testimony?" If the answer is, "Yes," than it is appropriate to thank the person, recognize an opportunity for self-improvement, and put the suggested action to work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

However, if the answer is, "No," I recognize that my Savior is wiser than either of us and has given me certain talents and abilities as well as certain challenges and shortcoming - all to His glory, and all to be put to use in doing the work of His Kingdom.

If you have ever read the 500+ pages of Dickens' masterpiece, you will remember that this one event, a passing comment about the roughness of a young boy's hands and the commonness of his boots, marks the beginning of a dissatisfied life where Pip continually tries to better himself but never seems to find satisfaction. It awakens something within him that new boots can never cure.

Paul writes in an almost insulting way to the church at Corinth. He tells them that they really don't have any wise members in their midst, none of noble birth, hardly any with any real degree of athleticism. It's enough to give a complex worse than Pip's! Yet, Paul goes on to remind them that all this is to God's glory because of the Holy Spirit's ongoing work within that local gathering of believers.

Whether that is important to you or me or not comes down to whose opinion really matters most to us, doesn't it?

Pastor Craig

Becoming a Christ!

I am to become a Christ to my neighbor and be for him what Christ is for me.[1]

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.[2]

What does it mean to be Christ to someone else? Our answer must be with the full knowledge of what Christ has done for us. Only as we know who Christ is and what Christ has done for us can we truly become Christ for our neighbor. We find our "job description" as we experience Christ within our own being.

The Holy Spirit has prepared us in exactly the way we need to minister to those people drawn across our path. You are equipped! You are able!

Have you been alone and without friends in a strange place and had to rely on the relationship with Christ alone? If the answer is yes, then your command is to be Christ to the lonely and those without friends.

Have you been afraid and wanted comfort more than lecture about your fear? Then your presence is the Christ you bring to those in fear.

Remember when you made such a mess of some decision in your life? What you wanted was someone to listen as you expressed your frustration rather than remind you of what their advice had been and how it had been the opposite of what you decided. Knowing that, are you able to be present as a pastor/caregiver before you put on the role of professor, teacher, or corrector. 

How did you want Christ to be present for you in your time of need? More than likely, that is how you may need to be present for the person standing before you in their moment of need.

Yes, Christ does come to us at times as the corrective person when we have gone against his command for us. Yes, there are times when we are called to pull a sibling in Christ aside and, with the same compassion Christ would have used with you, issue that corrective word to another member of the family of God. Yet, it is always with the full compassion of Christ that we come to this moment. We begin and end with compassion. We always seek to restore the brother or sister to their place in the family. We show forth Christ in our life in such a way to draw others to Christ, always prepared for the person and the time when we are called to demonstrate how present Chris is within us.

 Pastor Craig

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[1] Martin Luther

[2] 1Peter 3:15

Beyond Our . . .

The next moment is as much beyond our grasp, and as much in God’s care, as that a hundred years away.[1]

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.[2]

What are your plans for this afternoon? Will you watch a little football? Work in the yard? Go visit family or friends?

The truth is, none of us really know, do we? Oh, we have plans. It would be foolish to go through life in a totally random fashion. We must save for retirement, for our kids’ education, for a house, car, or any other large purchase. What the Scripture wants us to recognize is that each day and, by extension, each breath is a gift from God. As that first breath in the garden was given to Adam as a gift from his Creator, so each breath we take is a gift from God, a blessing of one more day we have to serve him in his creation.

It is our hope that each breath we take is gifted to us by God and our gift back to God.

Life is an adventure when we live it God’s way. When we put ourselves totally at his disposal, we will never know what the next moment holds. He may prompt us to step outside our cautious self and to talk to the person quietly sobbing in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. The Holy Spirit may convict us to write the check for the mission project AND pack our bags to go along.

Our God loves to be unpredictable. He loves to come to you at your weakest point and calmly whisper, “Trust me.”

Will you? Do you? Can you? The unknown future is not next century, it isn’t whether the glaciers melt due to global warming or not. The unknown future is your next breath.

Now, all that uncertainty might raise the anxiety level of some people. Please remember, the one who holds your future is the one who has been present all through your past. It is the same one who has walked every step of your existence with you. It is the one who knew you before you were born, and it is the one who offered himself on Calvary for your failures in order that whatever your future may hold you can always know the certainty of your Savior’s love for you and his presence with you.

 Pastor Craig

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[1] C. S. Lewis

[2] Romans 5:2

Outside Your Comfort Zone

Shut yourself up in an intellectual monastery, do not disturb yourself with the thought of unregenerate men, and of course you will find it easier to he a Christian, just as it is easier to be a good soldier in comfortable winter quarters than it is on the field of battle. You save you own soul – but the Lord’s enemies remain in possession of the field.

-J. Gresham Machen

It is easy to hide ourselves away from  culture. When we do, there are no questions about abortion, gay marriage, fair taxation, the rights of migrant workers, or what to do with undocumented workers within our borders. We hide in our quiet little world and let everything else work itself out, taking no stand on anything. However, Christ does not call us to be safe or content. And, on many of the issues above, there are few answers that give us comfort in every scenario we could envision.

Christ calls us to a life of tension, to live openly with the “I don’t know.” It would have been so much easier, easier to condemn and to judge. It also would have left us farther from our Savior. There would be no struggle to deal with loving people wrapped in things we would like to call sin. There would be no question as to who our brothers and sisters in Christ truly are; obviously, they would be people like us, people who believed as we believed, who never challenged or questioned us. Neither would there be growth.

When we struggle with issues of faithfulness and righteousness we also find ourselves turning to the Savior more for the answers that lie far beyond our comprehension. We are left with “God, HELP ME!” far more often than our hearts and minds would like.

However, it is as we get dirty in the culture, as we come in contact with those across the fence from us, that we show forth the love of Christ more clearly and more to His glory. There is nothing hard about hiding in the church, safe in our cocoon. If we do that, the enemy is in control of the field, and our love for Christ is a faint shadow of what it could be, allowing the light of the Living One to be lived out where it needs to be seen more clearly. Leave your comfort zone.

Pastor Craig

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

Free Indeed!

Without the church, liberty becomes license. Liberty is the precondition to love and service. License is the precondition to bondage. It is bonding because when we believe we deserve anything in this world, then our abundance is based upon rights rather than blessings; it leads us inexorably into worship of false gods.[1]

So If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed    (John 8:36)

We seek freedom in so many different ways. The problem is most of those ways only lead us into greater bondage. In seeking to be free from “restrictive” moralism, we become enslaved to our own lusts and passions. Claiming that “No one can dictate what we do but ourselves,” we become spiritual, moral, and philosophical orphans with no home or foundation.

The more laws we create, the more we must agree with the Apostle Paul that we are slaves to the law and not free men. I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[2] The law can only identify sin. It cannot, by its very nature, abolish it.

It is only through the work of Jesus Christ that covetousness, adultery, lying, stealing, murder, hatred, prejudice, and idolatry, once identified by the law, can be eliminated.

Yet, we try to bind Christ more and more to the church building, and the church building alone. When we do this, we only drag ourselves into greater and greater bondage. We become chained to what we hate and isolated from all hope, peace, love, forgiveness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Let us submit to the Son and become free indeed.

Pastor Craig

[1] Laverentz, Eric (2012-05-08). Is Caesar Our Savior? (Kindle Locations 2116-2118). First Edition Design Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[2] Romans 7:7

Baptism

Q. 94. What is baptism?

 A. Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.

                   The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Probably, the majority of people who read this will have been baptized. It would be interesting to ask all of them what actually happened when they were baptized! Some would say that they became a Christian at that moment. Others would comment about it as an entrance ritual for church membership.

In the few lines that follow let me see if I can describe the event. First, Baptism is a sacrament. That means that something takes place during the ceremony besides an individual getting wet. An earlier question of the catechism says by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.

Represented: The visible events show us what takes place “behind the scenes.” We use water as a symbol of cleansing. Some denominations use immersion (the person being baptized is put under the water rather than a pouring or sprinkling of water over the individual’s head) to represent a burial and resurrection. The use of water represents a new and righteous life being given to the believer.

Sealed: Something becomes ours that cannot be taken away. In Biblical culture a seal was the consummation of an agreement. In this sense, we give ourselves, or our child to God, and God seals that child as His very own.

Applied: This new life and its benefits mentioned above are applied to us. In a rather irreverent way, compare this to updating your computer. The updates are there. They have been downloaded and installed, but you get little benefit from their presence until they have been applied, until they have been put into practice in the individual’s life.

Most of us understand the part that is represented; we get it. We are assured in our faith when we hear about being sealed. It is a tremendous comfort against our doubtful selves. However, it may be the greatest blessing when these benefits are applied, when we start living as children of our Heavenly Father, knowing that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Craig