Hope Shared

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

How we thank God for you!  Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence.  Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.  May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon.  And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.  

1 Thessalonians 3:9-12

Sharing our great hope in Jesus Christ with others is the main thrust of what we commonly call The Great Commission.  This was the job description Jesus gave to his followers on the day he ascended back to his Father in Heaven:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:18-20

The “work” is really a privilege and joy.  In his letter to the Thessalonian believers Paul outlined that work in four “pillars” that hold our witness together:

Rejoicing

Apostle Paul said he thanked God for his relationship with the church at Thessalonica, and his joy was great because of their faith growing stronger. 

When the genuine joy of knowing Christ courses through your veins, sharing that blessed hope of Christ does not have to be manufactured with a memorized speech, or pamphlets; it speaks volumes of winsomeness.

Praying

Paul’s prayer life was night and day for the presence of God to grow strong in those with whom he had shared God’s love.  When you’ve taken the bold and vulnerable step of sharing the love of Christ with others, they will not slip from your mind.  You are vested in what God will do with them in His kingdom.

Hanging-out

Because of the interest in filling-in the gaps of faith many new believers might experience, you want to be with them to nurture faith at whatever point they are challenged.  Hanging-out with believers increases faith; growing joy is the wonderful result of that fellowship.

Blessing

Paul wasn’t reproducing “Paul” in these people; he was seeing the mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory[1] manifested in those who had accepted Christ by faith, and were living under His Lordship.  His fatherly blessing was an act of love and prophetic hope…he was passing-along the faith once delivered to the saints[2].

For You Today 

Throughout my life many saints have poured-in strength and help as I’ve lived and grown.  Jesus said:  to whom much is given, much will be required.[3]  This speaks of our responsibility to pass along the joy with our prayers, presence, and always being a blessing – never an adversary – to those who need to know Christ.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Colossians 1:27

[2] Jude 1:3

[3] Luke 12:48

A Special Place in the Heart

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.  Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.  And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.  So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart.  You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News.  God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.  I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding.  For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.  May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.      Philippians 1:3-11

We all have those who occupy a special place in our hearts.  For me their number is legion.  First, by absolute default, and by choice, my family; blood is, as is said, thicker than water.  There are also those people who have mentored me in the art and heart of living the Christian life.  And there are just those people who are inexplicably wonderful to my heart, dear ones God brought into my pathway that opened new levels of friendship. 

I think Paul had that with the believers at Philippi.  There is something that happens between people, either over the course and events of our lives, or in an unexplainable bonding moment, because the Holy Spirit is working in some way to knit people together for God’s purposes.[1]  Who, really can say how it happens, or know the mind of God completely to understand why it happens; but the connection is there, and Paul expresses it as a special place in [his] heart. 

And it is a gift.  Not as in the gifts of preaching, teaching, healing – spiritual tools with which God has blessed for His service – but in the sense of a personal blessing of encouragement God has dropped on your life.  It is a comfort to know your friend will be there whatever the winds of happenstance.  It is a bond of assurance to know you can go forward, and your sister-in-Christ will forgive you, even if you mess it up big time.  It’s strength for the long haul.  It’s your touchstone person when the forecast is for 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in your country, and you don’t know how to minister to that kind of fear.  It’s that special place in your heart where there is darkness, and that person is your candle.

I don’t think this is a possibility for manufacturing.  You cannot make this up, force it in, or demand it in prayer.  This is that thin place between you and heaven, where God just knows what you need, and God’s graceful hand pulls back the fuzzy wool from your spiritual eyes and you see that person’s stamp on that part of you….and it’s a surprising moment when you realize how connected you really are to another human, eternal soul.  And, yet, it’s no surprise on the other side of that realization; you somehow sensed it, but may have resisted being that vulnerable.  And, suddenly, it’s upon you, and there is joy, like the kind of joy Peter wrote about how we love Jesus:

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.  1 Peter 1:8

For You Today

With that gift of unspeakable joy in your life there’s not a moment to waste on wringing hands in worrying fear; it’s time to step out in assured faith and live big!  After all, YOU are in a special place in God’s heart!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Philippians 1:3-11 see Together also see A Pastor’s Prayer 

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[1] See Romans 8:28

Intercessor

[1]

Thursday, August 29, 2019

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.  1 Timothy 2:1

The word intercede  is one of those nouns that really screams to be a verb!  To intercede in Bible times meant to plead with the king on behalf of a friend.  In our application, the real sense is to be; it is to be involved, in between, standing in the gap.

The cosmetic world’s Estee Lauder said that most women don’t wear enough perfume.  They always think they should just dab a little on the wrists, and the pulse points.  NOT SO, says the lady.  She says the best way to apply fragrance is to spray the air in front of you and walk into it.  Wearing perfume is a little like loving – you can’t be stingy.  You must use it abundantly.  It just may be that Estee Lauder has given the best illustration of interceding in prayer.  We must fill our entire existence with the presence of God, and the problems which plague the one for whom we pray, and walk in it, abundantly!  

Giving thanks for the ones you pray for is an act of gratitude.  Prayer is active; it’s part of a lifestyle, rather than a ritual.  Part of every believer’s daily (hourly) living ought to be an active, vibrant attitude of gratitude for God and fellow men and women.  

Let’s face it, if we are of the belief that everything happens under the control of God, and He is engineering it for our good ^{(Romans 8.28)}, then we must be thankful for all of it; we must be thankful even when we cannot understand what God is doing in our lives.

There are things I didn’t understand when I was younger.

·      I couldn’t understand how some childhood bullies I knew were not incinerated by lightning for their ways.  How could I be thankful for them?

·      I didn’t understand why my Dad had to work the graveyard shift.  He was working at night when I wanted him home.  But my lack of understanding at that point doesn’t change the fact that it was his love for his family that made him work just to keep food on the table.  I admire him now, understanding his sacrifice.  I admire his being there at ball games to cheer for me when he was probably exhausted from working those late hours.

·      I confess -- it is difficult for me to be thankful for mosquitoes and chiggers, but I will praise Him now (and ask Him why when I get home).

Believers in, and followers of Jesus Christ live a lifestyle of intercession, praying and giving thanks for one another!

For You Today

·      If you are a person who has a relationship with God the Father, because, in faith you asked His Son, Jesus to forgive your sins, and the Holy Spirit has placed you in the body….

·      and you recognize that it is time to get in the battle, and the front of the battle is where you are called, and you’re ready to follow your Captain Jesus wherever He leads…we say,

·      Come…come and die with us; die with us in the prayer room.

·      Come stand in the gap for your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

·      Come stand in the gap as we pray for marriages and children.

·      Come stand in the gap as we storm the gates of Hell against drugs, alcohol and all the habits that enslave and impoverish and kill in our communities.

·      Come stand in the gap for your neighbors, our President and all leaders, and for missionaries around the world.

·      Come stand in the gap against sin, powers of the air, wickedness in high places.

·      Come…intercessor…come stand in the Gap!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

Peace...Be Still!

[i]

Monday, July 11, 2016

Arise, O Lord, in anger!
    Stand up against the fury of my 

       enemies!
    Wake up, my God, and bring 

       justice!
End the evil of those who are 

       wicked,
       and defend the righteous.
For you look deep within the mind 

       and heart, O righteous God.   

Psalm 7:6, 9^(NLT)

When human anger gets out of hand I can barely think. 

And it’s not just my anger; it’s anyone’s anger!

Anger is as paralyzing as fear or first love.

With the emphasis in recent years on media coverage of crowds in an uproar over the most recent shooting of a citizen by a police officer, it has become a routine of mine, when confronted with a new incident to immediately pray for the family of the one who was shot, the officer and his/her family, and their community. 

And then I pray:  peace…be still!

I know I do not control the winds of any storm, but when my mind is reeling from seeing and hearing the anger, I always have that picture in my mind’s-eye of Jesus standing in the boat with his disciples, after having walked on those stormy waters, holding-up his hands, and commanding, peace, be still![ii] 

I’m not commanding; I’m asking Jesus to do it again for our human family, that officer, that family and their community.

To say that we have an anger problem in our culture would be to understate it by as far as east is from west! 

          ·       You see protest upon protest reflecting our 

                   culture’s boiling temperature, and 

                   beating us black and blue over police 

                   shootings 

          ·       Sit-ins, occupying this and that…

          ·       Political debate turning into character 

                  massacre

          ·       Rage on the roads

          ·       Facebook face-offs and melt-downs.

So, where does it stop?  Will there ever be a renewal of peace in the community? 

Will Andy Taylor, Barney Fife, Opie, and Miss Bea ever be heard from again?

And what would or could bring it about?

I fear I have no answers for any of that; only the image of a man…more accurately, a man-god, walking calmly on tempestuous waters, and then speaking the words that change everything:  peace…be still!

And I have hope.

For You Today

There cannot be peace in the community that isn’t in the heart first. 

So, perhaps this is a good start for this morning:  let Jesus speak to your heart those words, peace…be still!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

[i] Title Images: By Tony Webster, via Wikimedia Commons and Brett Gustafson, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Matthew 14:22-35

Driven to God

[1]

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

VIDEO

These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah.  In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa.  Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah.  I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.  They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah.  They are in great trouble and disgrace.  The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”  When I heard this, I sat down and wept.  In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.  Then I said, “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer!  Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel.  I confess that we have sinned against you.  Yes, even my own family and I have sinned!  We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.  “Please remember what you told your servant Moses:  ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations.  But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’  “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants.  O Lord, please hear my prayer!  Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you.  Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me.  Put it into his heart to be kind to me.”  In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.  Nehemiah 1:1-11^(NLT)

In some ways I can identify with Nehemiah hearing the sad news of what was left of Jerusalem.  He had been born in captivity, and perhaps never even laid eyes on the holy city.  Yet, as a Jew, the news of his homeland’s ruin was almost too much to bear.

I have been privileged to serve nine churches as pastor since 1982; in each the news was somewhat similar to what Nehemiah received, in that they were churches which had fallen on difficult times.  The stories are similar and as heartbreaking.

In the case of Nehemiah, the immediate response was prayer – a prayer of contrite confession for the sins of Israel.  Nehemiah was driven to God by the desolation of a destroyed heritage.

And, in today’s church, so should we pray…forgive us our sins.

Some members from one of the churches I serve gathered this past Sunday evening with a dozen or so other churches to pray.  Where did we start?  We began at the same place Nehemiah did…confession of our sins.  The pastors were called to the front and prayed with each other for forgiveness of our own sins and restoration of relationships.  The rest of the night those 400-500 people lifted up similar prayers that we might experience the days God’s prophet Joel forecasted – the Spirit of God being poured-out.

What were the results?  Can we wrap this up with a success story of thousands of lives being touched, people saved, lives restored, God receiving the glory?

We’ll see.

We’ll see what prayer was as genuine as Nehemiah’s, as opposed to merely human emotional response of the moment, absent of commitment to changing the priorities of daily life.

Nehemiah’s last comment of his prayer meeting was that he was the king’s cupbearer.  Now that’s a strange way to end a prayer, isn’t it?  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, those days I was an accountant, lawyer, surveyor, cashier, college student, retired miner….  But what Nehemiah was doing was connecting his prayer with the way he spent his days; it was lip joining life!  What he had prayed was about to enter into everything about his past, present and eternity.

Nehemiah saw God respond, and so will we, when we pray from hearts driven to God.

For You Today

Are you happy about the state of your church?  If not, the confession booth is still open.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

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[1] Title image: By Dainis Matisons from Mezares, Latvia, EU, via Wikimedia Commons