Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me… Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:1,5-7

“Jesus didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that He was. He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you would “come to the Father.” He said that it was only by Him—by living, participating in, being caught up by the way of life that He embodied, that was His way.” (Frederick Buechner)

Seth Polk, outgoing chairman of the International Mission Board trustees, in his final address at the May trustee meeting, shared a quote by Dr. Paul Chitwood, President of the IMB. “As Dr. Chitwood regularly states, 154,937 people die without Christ every day around the world. This is unacceptable and our purpose as the redeemed is to make Jesus known, so the lost will be saved and the saved will be discipled.” Dr. Chitwood is passionate about getting the gospel message to the ends of the earth.

I fully agree with Dr. Chitwood’s remarks of the tragedy of those who die without Christ. Yet, maybe just as heartbreaking are the billions who must face every living day without Jesus. For many, they live without knowledge of who Jesus is. For many, they live life fully knowing about Jesus but have made the decision to reject Him in their life. Countless others live life having made the decision to follow Jesus yet live their lives as if He doesn’t exist. The modern trend of deconstructing their faith leaves many people living life without the hope of Jesus. Hopefully in their reconstruction of faith they will find Jesus for their life.

Jesus welcomes our questions of faith, responds to our challenges but He always comes back to “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Jesus spent a lot of time teaching about the Kingdom and helping us live a Kingdom focused life. Jesus’ mission was to move people out of darkness into the light. His strategy was simple: “Follow me.” As we follow Jesus we avoid the darkness and can walk on His well-lit pathway. Those walking in darkness are constantly bumping into objects – objects of hatred, violence and philosophical hopelessness.  For those of us who walk in the light of Jesus, we see the path ahead allowing us to avoid many of the pitfalls.

The billions who live in the world daily without Jesus and the billions who live in the world daily with Jesus all live in the same chaotic world. A world where injustice still impacts people, violence causes unrest and lack of peace, physical and spiritual hunger abound all amid a heightened mistrust of others.

Dallas Willard, commenting on John 8:12 wrote, “Another important way of putting this is to say that I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were I. I am not necessarily learning to do everything he did, but I am learning how to do everything I do in the manner that he did all that he did.”

My preference is to always walk in the daylight. I find it rather challenging to see in the dark, maybe age has something to do with the problem. What I do know is that I avoid a lot of sore shins if I walk in the light. This is even more important in my spiritual life. I am confident of Jesus’ promise that if I walk with Him, I “will have the light of life.”  What about you?

God is great,

Pastor Lynn

 

 

Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

“Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.” Matthew 19:13-15

In this touching, but powerful scene captured by Matthew, Jesus rebukes the disciples for putting up barriers that keep children from coming to him. I can picture Jesus standing up and pushing aside the disciples to make a pathway for these little ones to come to Him. Jesus had a way of welcoming the marginalized of society, including children, into His kingdom.

The spirit of the disciple’s view about children continues through the generations. The English proverb, “children should be seen and not heard” dates back to the religious views of the 15th century. Our current modern attitude towards children is now closer to “not seen, not heard.”

The Care Quality Commission from the U.K. issued a report addressing child abuse and neglect. Part of their report stated, “Society has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, with leaps in technology and increased global mobility presenting new challenges. Children are groomed for sexual exploitation and radicalization on social media, and young people from certain communities can be at risk of trafficking and female genital mutilation. The number of children identified as having been abused or exploited is only the tip of the iceberg – many more are suffering in silence.”

Over the past few months, I have read of four-year-old Cash Gernon being taken from his bed in a Dallas neighborhood to be found murdered only blocks away, 12-year-old David Mack, shot and killed in southwest Atlanta, 13-year-old Floridian Tristyn Bailey stabbed to death by a 14-year-old fellow student, and a  9 year old Atlanta boy recovering after being shot.

If these stories break our hearts, how much more do they break the heart of Jesus! The value that Jesus placed upon children is being lost in our so called “modern society”. “Modern” children face a major obstacle in just being born. According to Guttmacher Institute, 18% of U.S. pregnancies in 2017 ended in abortion. Living is not easy either since, according to The American SPCC group, five children die every day in the United States from abuse while 45.4% of deaths caused by child abuse are children under the age of one year. Other life obstacles such as gender identity confusion and drug use are also prevalent.

When Jesus was asked the question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He didn’t hesitate in His answer by doing a “show and tell” for them. “He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” (Matthew 18:2-5)

Helen Keller said, “alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” As a father and now as a grandfather, my heart breaks to think of the challenges our children face. Yet I am reminded we have a powerful advocate for our children in Jesus. “It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.’ (Luke 17:2)

Now is the time for us as followers of Jesus to take seriously Jesus’ compassion for children and to pray against the evil that is destroying the lives of our children, the lies that are being forced upon them daily and the abuse that is physically being done daily.

Lord, hear us as we cry out to you today on behalf of our children. Restore to our children the tenderness and innocence of their childhood, protect them from the abuse of adults, the misery of drugs and the lies of the evil one.

“God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Gal 4:6

God is great,

Pastor Lynn

 

Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

“Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” Matthew 9:2

Do you remember your first loan? I signed my name on the loan papers for a used 1968 Dodge Charger when I was in high school! Over the next many months, working after school, doing odd jobs, I made the monthly bank payment for my car. I quickly learned the definition of debt, “Something owed, such as money, goods, or services. An obligation or liability to pay or render something to someone else.” I drove the car, but technically the car belonged to the local bank until the day I made the final payment and my debt was paid in full.

The feeling of being debt free was as amazing then as it is now. The same feeling was experienced yesterday as our church celebrated being Unleashed. It was an amazing day of celebration and praise as we watched the note that had kept us leashed to debt for years, go up in flames. Yesterday marks a new beginning when our church will no longer be leashed to debt.

Paying off a debt places the responsibility on us as an obligation, compared to forgiveness that places the responsibility on another person to extend grace. The lender holds no claim on you since you made the last payment but in a richer life-giving way, the one extending forgiveness holds no claim on you since you have been forgiven. I knew I could pay off the car loan given enough time and payments. Our church knew that we could pay off the building note even if it took years. However, there is one debt we could never pay off without help. Scripture tells us that, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

Jim Denison tells the story of a priest in the Philippines who carried the burden of a secret sin from years before. He repeatedly confessed the sin to God but never found peace until he learned the power of forgiveness. A woman in his parish loved God deeply and claimed to have visions in which she spoke directly with her Lord. The priest was skeptical and said “the next time you speak with Christ, I want you to ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary.” The woman agreed.

“A few days later, the priest asked her, “Did Christ visit you?”

“Yes, he did,” she replied.

“And did you ask him what sin I committed in the seminary?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what did he say?”

“He said, ‘I don’t remember.’”

Forgiveness is freedom. No longer do we carry the burden of debt. No longer do we worry about the next payment. No longer do we allow our past to destroy our future. Astronomer Copernicus asked that this epitaph be on his grave: “O Lord, the faith thou didst give to St. Paul, I cannot ask; the mercy thou didst show to St. Peter, I dare not ask; but Lord, the grace thou didst show unto the dying robber, that, Lord, show to me.”

Matthew records that Jesus confronted the teachers of the law who objected to Jesus’ words to the paralyzed man in chapter 9 that his sins were forgiven. Most likely they would have been OK if Jesus had simply healed the man but not the bold declaration of, “your sins are forgiven.” Yet Jesus would not let the man be held in bondage and responded to their unforgiving legalism by saying, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven, or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” Then he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” (9:4-6)

We are wonderfully and beautifully reminded that, “as far as the east is from the west…he removed our transgressions from us,” (Ps 103:12) and “whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” (Romans 4:8) Forgiveness based on the promise “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” (2 Cor 5:19)

In Jesus, our forgiveness is complete.

God is great,

Pastor Lynn

 

 

 

 

 

Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

“David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of those who say, ‘David seeks to do you harm’? This very day your eyes have seen how the LORD gave you into my hand in the cave, and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not raise my hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’s anointed.” I Samuel 24:9-10

David had the opportunity to kill Saul.

David had the backing of his supporters to kill Saul.

David had the motivation to kill Saul.

David had justification to kill Saul.

David had political and military rationale to kill Saul.

What David didn’t have, was God’s blessing and permission to kill Saul.

This encounter between David and Saul in I Samuel is a powerful story that has a lot of application for us today. We can have all the right to do something but unless we do it under the leadership of the LORD then it becomes only revenge. David respected Saul, not as a man known for his character or leadership but as God’s anointed king. David trusted God to act on his behalf in the right time. “I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life. May the LORD judge between me and you! May the LORD avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you.” (24:11b-13)

G. Wells wrote that “If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters.” David could have easily justified his actions in the court of human opinion but he knew he could never justify it before God. It is easy to justify any action, belief or activity unless we are truly seeking to glorify God in all situations. Like David’s response to Saul, we live in an age when the world needs to see us not desiring revenge, but trusting fully in God’s timing and response to handle every circumstance.

David would be king and he knew it, because he had been promised the role and anointed by Samuel. Yet now he finds himself living in caves and running for his life. It seems as if God had abandoned him until this moment when it looks like the tide had turned in his favor and he could get rid of his enemy. He could have become impatient and hurried up the process. He could have decided that God needed some help to make his kingship happen. However, David knew his kingship wouldn’t be on his timetable, but on God’s.  “May the LORD therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you. May he see to it, and plead my cause, and vindicate me against you.” (24:15)

I can listen to the news and begin to think there is no hope. I can think of a million ways how God should handle the problems in our world. I can get frustrated and anxious, or I can let God handle life since He has a lot more knowledge and experience than me. Watchman Nee expresses well what the world needs from us today.

“A day must come in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ…There must be a day when, without reservation, we surrender everything to Him—ourselves, our families, our possessions, our business and our time. All we are and have becomes His, to be held henceforth entirely at His disposal. From that day we are no longer our own masters, but only stewards. Not until the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a settled thing in our hearts can the Holy Spirit really operate effectively in us. He cannot direct our lives until all control of them is committed to Him. If we do not give Him absolute authority in our lives, He can be present, but He cannot be powerful. The power of the Spirit is stayed.”

David could have taken events into his own hands but at what cost to his future? We can take our life events into our hands but at what cost? However, when we put our trust in God, we can know there is a hope and future for us. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (I Cor 2:9)

God is great,

Pastor Lynn