Pastoral Notes for Sunday, January 12, 2020

I had several encouraging phone calls and meetings this week with folks. The encouragement wasn’t so much my particular enjoyment of their company and fellowship, though that’s a given. It was in the spiritual joy of the encounters.

Two of the meetings centered on what it means to seek God for direction in life. In both cases, the persons were on the cusp of significant life decisions that would have a bearing on the direction of their life. In both instances, they sought counsel from godly advisors. In both cases, they explored various scenarios and outcomes. In both cases, they sought the Lord earnestly in the Word and praying frequently and perseveringly. And in both cases the Lord kindly supplied them with the wisdom and resolve they needed to make the decision.

In other words, these meetings were not a cry for help but an offer of thanksgiving. They wanted, of course, to inform me of their decision, which I appreciated. But, more importantly, they wanted to share with me what God had done and to invite me to rejoice with them.

It’s no wonder they were so full of peace! Not the kind of peace that comes from being sure that you made the right decision. Since the decisions were matters of liberty not morality, that kind of peace wasn’t possible. For no matter how sure we are, we never know how something is going to turn out. We are, after all, not in control of the outcome. And that was the point for these dear folks. Their peace wasn’t in the decision, but in God. Their peace came from knowing that God was Lord over the decision, was with them in the decision, and that He can be trusted with their future no matter what (Phil. 4:6-7).

Now, that’s a truth to hang on to as we start 2020. Who knows what this year holds for you? What joys will you know? What sorrows will you face? God knows. In fact, He’s already written the story of this year (Isaiah 46:10), and if you know and love Him, rest assured—He’s working all of it together for good (Romans 8:28).

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, January 5, 2020

I saw somewhere online that the head football coach of the LSU Tigers, Ed Orgeron, was asked if he made any resolutions for the New Year. With his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, he responded, “Probably try to eat less, and it won’t happen.”

Coach O’s answer summarizes how a lot of people feel about resolutions. We know that we need to change this or that about us, but truth be told—we don’t have enough desire/drive to do what it takes to make the change. Very simply, our heart is not in it.

That raises a question. What does it take to get one’s heart motivated for change? For starters, fear is a good motivator. How many of us don’t start exercising or eating better until we have a major medical issue? The fear of death or of a painfully reduced life motivates us to make changes, to live differently.  

The same is often true with our spiritual disciplines and practices. I asked someone this week, “When did you become a consistent reader of the Scripture?” He answered, “In my mid-30’s I lost my job and almost lost my marriage in the same year. The pain and fear of that season sent me looking for answers in the Bible.” Interestingly, he’s been in the habit of reading through the Bible annually ever since. 

Though fear and pain are motivators that often shape new directions and habits, there is a better way. Before you’re lying on a gurney or bankrupt or headed to divorce court, ask yourself this question, “What’s your vision for life?” I’m not asking you to craft a vision statement for your life, though that’s a good idea. I’m asking you to dream a bit about the future. Where would you like to be a year from now? Five or ten years from now? Begin to imagine how much better life would be if you reached certain goals or formed certain habits. How can the decisions you make today move you toward that end?

Now, before we go too far, let me ask you a game-changer question. What if the focus of the questions above wasn’t you? What if we asked the questions to God instead? How might He answer them. What’s God’s vision for life? Where would God like you to be a year from now? What decisions and habits would God want you to form this year? How can you grow toward the person God’s called you to be? 

I’d like to suggest that these are the most important questions any of us can ask as we enter 2020. This year like every year is not about you but about God, which is why we’re opening the new year with a three-week sermon series designed to explore God’s call on our lives. Please join me in praying that over the next three weeks our hearts would be captured by God and His mission, and that all His perfect purposes would be fulfilled in and through us this year!

For Freedom Set Free

·      January 5, “My Chains Fell Off: When the Truth Sets You Free” (John 8:31-36)

·      January 12, “Slaves To God: When Obedience Is Your Happy Choice” (Romans 6:15-24)

·      January 19, “Freely Bound: When Serving One Another Is Your Heart’s Desire” (Galatians 5:1, 13-14

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, December 29, 2019

Tony Giles is taking over the Pastoral Notes this week to introduce our new prayer initiative.

Learning to Pray Again

The door is open and the table is set. 

The Father grants us access to the throne of grace where we find help in time of need. (Heb.10:16). The Son in heaven always lives to make intercession for us. (Heb. 7:24-25). The Spirit within us brings his holy nature with him creating in us holy hungers, holy loves and intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26-27) The Trinity continues to be at work at this matter of prayer.

So how can something so important to the Father, the Son and the Spirit – so available and vital to our spiritual lives – be so elusive and difficult for so many? Our prayer lives seem to always to be “under construction.” When it comes to prayer, we are most needy.

·           Can we learn to come to our Father messy, weary and as a child?

·           Can we learn to pray prayers that are close to the heart of God?

·           How are we to ‘take hold of God’ in prayer?

·           What do we learn about prayer from Jesus’ teaching and example?  from the Psalms? from saints who have gone before us?

To that end, we are taking the first weekly prayer meeting each month to learn how to pray again. Would you join us for a recurring Prayer Summit to learn to “strive together in prayers to God” (Rom. 15:6) and to step into this means of grace at the Father’s beckoning call and gracious invitation?

We plan to meet for that singular purpose the first Tuesday of each month from 6:00-7:15 p.m. starting January 7. Each monthly gathering will include a different brief teaching on prayer followed by a “Prayer Lab” of sorts practicing the lessons learned.

Come every month or as often as you can. The door will be open and chairs arranged. Let us take hold in prayer of the One who has taken hold of us. Because the gospel is true, we have a Father in heaven who genuinely delights in the prayers of his people.

And as we learn to pray again – we rehearse the lavish love for the Father for us.

As Paul Miller writes, ‘Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks at the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers.

 

May our hearts be changed as we cry out to him from our poverty of spirit to His listening ears and tender mercies.

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, December 22, 2019

One of the things I look forward to during Christmas is dusting off the tried-and-true Advent books in my library and then adding a few new ones to my collection. Though my time for reading was limited more than usual this year, I managed to get through two small works and a few really good blog posts. For your reading pleasure, I’ve posted a few highlights below. Let these short snippets minister to your heart as together we make room for Jesus arrival.  

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”—Charles Dickens

“The Christmas story clearly shows that the hope of the universe is a person. Hope was what the angels sang about. Hope lay in the manger. Hope caused Mary to wonder in her heart. It was hope that the shepherds came to worship. Hope was presented with gifts from the Magi who had traveled so far. The Advent story is a hope story because it chronicles the coming to earth of the One who is hope, Jesus.”—Paul David Tripp

“God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle.”—St. John Chrysostom

“The whole life of Christ was a continual passion; others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found a Golgotha even in Bethlehem, where he was born; for, to his tenderness then, the straws were almost as sharp as the thorns after; and the manger as uneasy at first, as his cross at last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and morning of one and the same day.”—John Donne  

“Now, newborn,

In wide-eyed wonder,

He gazes up at creation.

His hand that hurled the world

Holds tight his mother’s finger.

Holy light, spills across her face

And she weeps,

Silent wondering tears

To know she holds the one

Who has so long held her.”—Joan Rae Mills

 

Pastoral Notes for Sunday, December 15, 2019

I’m a sucker for Christmas, and it’s always been the case. I am one of those weirdos that looks forward to climbing the stairs to the attic the day after Thanksgiving to retrieve the Christmas decorations. I love picking out a tree, tacking up the garland, hanging the stockings by the chimney with care all while listening to Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas.”

I’ve tried to figure out why I’m so smitten with Christmas. I used to think it was just the buzz and sparkle of it all. To be sure, that’s part of it. I’ve come to realize, however, that something deeper, purer is at work, something childlike and innocent. More than any other time of the year, Christmas wakes up my imagination to the reality of the truth of things.

The phrase “wakes up my imagination to the reality of the truth of things” may seem like a strange way to put it, because we don’t usually think of the imagination as the vehicle for communicating what is true. Fairy tales, fiction, child’s play – that’s the stuff of imagination, right? Well, yes, it is, but the imagination is much more than that, too. It’s endowed with a deeper magic we might say—that is, the ability of mind to see the unseen, to visualize the real but invisible.

This may be surprising to hear but the capacity to imagine lies at the very core of Christianity. As the writer of Hebrew reminds us, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). The capacity for faith requires the ability to envision what we can’t see. And the ability to envision what can’t be seen is the work of the imagination. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. How else could we know and love a God whom no one has or can see (1 Timothy 6:16) if we don’t have the capacity to see with our “mind’s eye” what is true and real but hidden from sight?

What this means is that tending our imaginations is an important spiritual practice for a strong and vibrant faith. God wants our imaginations to be healthy and holy, and for that to happen, we must learn to care for them—to fill our minds with “…whatever is true whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise…” (Philippians 4:8). With the Spirit’s help this Christmas, let’s commit to pluck up the weeds of cynicism, unbelief, and despair. Let’s let the holy enchantment of the Christmas season to take hold of our hearts, as we’re swept up into the wonder of the story of the gospel all over again.