Archive for month: June, 2020

Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.” 2 Chronicles 7:13-15

Preambles are important to set the tone and expectations of a book or program, and especially nations. The original signers of the Declaration of Independence sought to set in motion a government for all the people. A mighty river begins from the tributaries of small rivers and creeks, coursing through the many bends and turns of its path until growing into a powerful, rushing river; so it is with nations.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Stephen Lucas writes that these words have been called “one of the best-known sentences in the English language”, containing “the most potent and consequential words in American history”. For 243 years the people of this nation have sought to capture the ideas set out in these words. Though our history has often been blemished and stained from our failure to live up to these challenging concepts yet the soul of our nation was filled with hopes and aspirations to be greater than any one event. It was the passion and desire of those who ratified the constitution to change the course of history and events until the goals of these words were achieved for all. For every wrong thing there have been multiple rights. Men of clay feet drafted the constitution but they had a desire that their children and their children’s children would someday embellish the heart of these words and make a better nation.

God set in motion a new nation in Genesis 12 when he appeared to Abraham with a most interesting preamble, “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” It is hard to imagine a great nation when you don’t have land or people or resources. God even goes one step further and enlarges the vision by telling Abraham, “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.” (Genesis 17:6)

Nations and governments have come and gone on the pages of history since God set in motion a great nation arising from Abraham. Yet a mighty nation did arise and continues to arise as each day people come to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

As we approach our 244^th birthday as a nation. we can either mourn our failures or look with hope to the future. Today we face a multitude of challenges that can either weaken or strengthen us depending upon where we put our hope and faith.

The stains of our past, whether as a nation or individuals will always be with us but we are not condemned to live in our past. The stains of the past, when brought to the foot of the cross can be reshaped to display a beautiful mosaic of color and designs.  Believers find at the cross the only beacon of hope. On the cross the words, “forgiven” are etched through our past because of the grace of God.

The founders of our nation had a vision of what we could become when we are untied. This is a time our nation needs us, as a church, to pray for grace-filled reconciliation, spirit-led unity and Christ-centered forgiveness.  As we celebrate our 244^th birthday, maybe part of the celebration should be reading aloud the words that God gave Solomon in 2 Chronicles on the night of the temple dedication. Truly seeking God’s face, turning from our wicked way and asking Him to heal our land. For only in God can we truly live out the dream of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

God is great.

Pastor Lynn Burton

“The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit?” Proverbs 18:14

A crushed spirit seems to be a perfect description of how we are living through these first months of 2020. If the pandemic was not bad enough, during the last several weeks, newscasts have painted pictures of unwarranted deaths followed by destruction and anarchy. The ugliness of these months again raised questions about how we treat each other.  The picture painted by the world is one of despair. It offers false hope in the wrong ways and methods. When we hear the news and read the accounts of the day, we can quickly lose hope and seek to respond to the narrative in the world’s ways.

It is imperative that the church takes back the narrative that is being told. The church in America and around the world has not always responded well to race relations. We have blemishes in our history; yet when the church body is vibrant and walking closely with Jesus, the church has fought the injustice of slavery and its untold evils. We can offer the only true hope in how to care for each other regardless of race.

Andrew Murray penned the following powerful words in the late 1800s. Murray, a South African pastor and writer, knew the only hope for his nation would be in the unleashing of God’s power into the lives of the people.

“Note how God has placed the races side by side to see if our Christianity will enable us to overcome race hatred. Will we, in the power of Christ’s love, prove that “In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us (Colossians 3:11)?”

What an opportunity there is for the church to prove the power of God’s love to change race hatred into brotherly love! God has abundant power to make this happen. As Christians, we need to pray for ourselves and for each other that we would obey the Word of God and live in the power of Christ’s love.”

Evil will always seek to divide and destroy. Only as we seek to daily abide in Christ will we be able to change the narrative that is so desperately needed in our time. Each generation will face the same challenges and the same response will be given to them as to us, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” (John 15:4)

The narrative of the world will always be destruction and division. Our narrative must be one of unity and hope. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Jesus Christ did not say “Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right.” The Gospel is something completely different. In fact, it is directly opposed to the world.”

We change the narrative when we tell how from the foundation of time, “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27).

We change the narrative when we proclaim, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

We change the narrative when we show the world the true church as being “a great multitude that on one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” (Revelations 7:9)

We offer a narrative of hope because “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God is great,

Pastor Lynn