Pastor’s Blog

Thursday, April 30, 2009

“Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.  It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.  For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity.”  Ecclesiastes 7:3-6

Laughter, joy, and just plain happiness are so very important.  In Nehemiah 8:10 we read, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”  In Proverbs 17:22 King Solomon tells us, “A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.”  In Proverbs 15:13 we find, “A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.”  Everyone needs to laugh.  Everyone needs joy.  A marriage without laughter is usually a marriage headed to trouble.  Children raised in a home without happiness often  go looking for happiness in all the wrong ways.

So why does Solomon say, “Sorrow is better than laughter”?  Maybe he was thinking of the infield decadence at the Preakness.  Maybe he was thinking of the unbelievably vile , juvenile garbage that passes for comedy in Hollywood.  Maybe he was thinking of the Happy Hour at the corner bar that’s anything but happy.  In other words, you can laugh yourself right into alcoholism.  You can laugh yourself right into divorce.  You can laugh yourself right into hell.  Though laughter and happiness are wonderful gifts from God; they can become, sadly, a means of denial.  How many persons keep themselves in a constant pursuit of happiness as a way of avoiding thinking about and dealing with things that need to be changed in their lives?  Thus, Solomon advises, “It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.”  When God brings to light sin in your heart, mourn over that sin.  When something needs to change in your life, don’t avoid it by numbing yourself with “happiness,” deal with it.  This is what Paul speaks of in II Corinthians 7:10, “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, though worldly grief produces death.”

Those who preach the Word of God find themselves tempted quite often to soften the message; that is, to preach light, easy-to-swallow sermons.  Many of the very large churches have chosen exactly that.  In those churches you will never hear the hard truths of Scripture.  Those hard truths tend to chase people away.  But what’s the point of light, easy sermons?  Those kind of sermons are like “the laughter of fools” which, Solomon would say, is like “the crackling of thorns under a pot.”  If you cut down a thorn bush and burn it in a campfire, it will produce a lot of noise but not much heat.  So it is with light sermons; a lot of noise but not much affect upon people’s lives.   One thing I thank God for is that He’s always helped me to preach the Word as it is without worrying about the consequences of doing so.

Prayer:  Father, please help us to go to the house of mourning when we need to be in the house of mourning, rejecting the laughter of fools; so that true happiness, true laughter, and true joy may come to our lives.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

“Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a striving after wind.”  Ecclesiastes 6:9

How much time do we waste looking for what we think will make us happy?  Will more money make me happy?  Will a new relationship make me happy?  Will a new church make me happy?  Will a new car, a new house, a new job make me happy?  While we spend our lives looking for something new that we hope will change everything, we miss all the blessings that are right in front of our eyes.  Bloom where you are planted.  Look for the blessings God has given you, not the ones you think you are missing.  There’s no end of looking for something new.  Proverbs 27:20 tells us, “never satisfied are the eyes of man.”  We would do much better to heed Paul’s advice to Timothy, “There is great gain in godliness with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world; but if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”  (I Timothy 6:6-8)  In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul wrote, “…I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content.  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want.  I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.”

Does all this mean that we should simply accept things the way they are and never seek to make any changes in life?  No, absolutely not.  Christians are the people who turn the world upside down!!!  We are the people who rescue orphans.  We are the people who feed the hungry.  We are the people who befriend the lonely.  We don’t look at the problems of the world and say, why?  We look at the solutions Jesus gives and say, why not?  To learn how to be content does not mean we lose our motivation to be people of action who do all we can to bring the love of Jesus to a hurting world, but instead it means that we learn how to tell the difference between what can or should be changed, and what cannot or should not be changed.  When something cannot or should not be changed we find the strength in Jesus to accept that.  That’s what Solomon is talking about in Proverbs 17:24, “A man of understanding sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.”

Prayer:  God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.  Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;  Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will;  that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen

(prayer written by Reinhold Neihbuhr)

Monday, April 27, 2009

“Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.  For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.”  Ecclesiastes 5:2-3

“For when dreams increase, empty words grow many; but do you fear God?”  Ecclesiastes 5:7

A pastor I knew many years ago spoke quite frequently about the big dreams, visions, and plans that he claimed God had given him.  This pastor was able to speak quite eloquently, and had the ability to get people excited about what he said God was going to be doing.  The problem was that not one dream, vision, or plan he spoke of ever came to pass.  Not one.  Did God actually give him those dreams, visions, and plans?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that whether God gave them to him or not, there was far too much said about them.  Solomon’s counsel to, “Be not rash with your mouth,” and, “therefore let your words be few,” is so very important.

Whenever we speak about the future, and whenever we speak of revelations or words from God, we would be wise to heed the cautions of Scripture.  In James 4:13-16 we read, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain’; whereas you do not know about tomorrow.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.’  As it is you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.”  In Jeremiah 23:31-32 we read, “Behold I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their tongues and say, ‘Says the Lord.’  Behold I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and by their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.”

What’s the good news?  The good news is that our relationship with God does not consist of “empty words.”  Instead, we have one question: do you fear God?   In other words, do you acknowledge that you need what Jesus did for you on the cross?  Are you, in gratitude for the cross, seeking to obey God and serve Him?   Eloquent words can be pleasing, but they are only the icing on the cake, they are not the heart of the matter; and when those eloquent words are empty words, they are dangerous.

Prayer:  Father, thank You for making things so simple for us.  In Jesus, Name, Amen

Friday, April 24, 2009

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.  For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.”  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Don’t try to follow Jesus alone.  It doesn’t work.  Years ago I knew a Christian man who got himself into a huge amount of trouble.  Down he went; from pornography to chat rooms to adultery; from materialism to greed to fraud.  He lost everything: his wife, his children, his business; even his freedom, spending several years in jail.  The tragedy of it all is that though he was active in church life, participating in Bible studies and small groups; he never allowed anyone in to his heart.  He kept a wall of denial and dishonesty around his life so that no one knew what was going on until it was too late.  If he would have had the courage to let his wife or his Christian brothers in to the secret places of his heart he would have received the corrections, the warnings, the encouragement, etc., that might very well have given him the strength he needed to turn back from the disastrous road he was traveling.

Are you letting anyone in to the secret places of your heart?  The prophet Zephaniah spoke words of warning to the city of Jerusalem that each one of us would be wise to heed, “Woe to her that is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!  She listens to no voice, she accepts no correction.” (Zephaniah 3:1-2)  It’s not easy to allow persons, even the persons who love us the most, in to the secret places of our hearts; but if we don’t we are preventing that voice of truth and word of correction from being spoken in to our lives.  That’s a dangerous place to be.  Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto by his side.

When lions go hunting for dinner they attempt to separate their prey from the herd.  If they can frighten and confuse a zebra or a gazelle or an antelope so that it mistakenly runs away from its herd, the lions know they won’t go hungry that night.  If the devil can get you alone, he knows he will have you for dinner.  Do everything you can to find those Christian brothers or sisters you know you can trust enough to give access to your heart.  If you’re married, do everything you possibly can to have an honest, transparent relationship with your spouse.  These things are not easy to do, but they are so necessary.

Jesus never sent His disciples out alone, but always two by two.  There’s a reason for that.

Prayer:  Father, please give me the wisdom not to hide my heart away.  Please give me the persistence to find those trustworthy persons I need.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

“I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts.”  Ecclesiastes 3:18

When God allows hard times to come to our lives, it’s a test.  Will we respond as children of God, or will we respond as beasts?  The economic challenges, for example, that we all are facing at this time are revealing the quality of character of persons.  Some are responding with increased trust in God, increased compassion for others in need, and increased prayer; while others are responding with fear, anger, and even “beastly” crimes (the murder/suicides that we are seeing almost every day in the news).

When a teacher in a classroom gives a test, it’s not for his or her benefit, it’s for the student’s benefit.  It’s to show the students what they have learned and what they haven’t learned.  So it is with God.  God tests us to show us our character, and to give us opportunity to grow.  When you squeeze a toothpaste tube, what’s in it will come out.  When God squeezes our lives, what’s inside of us becomes evident.  That’s why Solomon said that, “God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts.”  At that point we can choose to get better or get bitter.  What are you choosing?

When the Apostle Paul was in the city of Ephesus the Roman government arrested him for preaching Jesus Christ, and threw him to the lions.  He survived and wrote these words about his experience, “we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.  Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (II Corinthians 1:8-9)  Paul chose to get better, not bitter.  He was “utterly, unbearably crushed,” but he decided not to get angry with God about it, but instead to learn through his experience how to trust God more.

King David said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I keep Thy word.” (Psalm 119:67)  Pain can be your best teacher.  If you so choose, afflictions and troubles can be like a mirror to your soul, showing you the true state of your soul; and they can be the best  coach you ever had, inspiring you to be, at last, the person God put you here on this earth to be.

Prayer:  Father, most of the time I seem to complain about my problems.  Please teach me instead to give thanks for my trials, knowing that through them I can become who I was created to be.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”  Ecclesiastes 2:11

“So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind.”  Ecclesiastes 2:17

King Solomon discovered that the answers to the great questions of life are not to be found, “under the sun.”  Solomon ruled over Israel at a time of extended peace and great prosperity, thus affording him the opportunity of sparing no expense or effort in searching out these great questions.  The first and second chapters of Ecclesiastes are the record of his doing so.  Solomon sought to find the answers he was looking for in the pursuit of knowledge. the pursuit of pleasure, in wealth, in hard work, in creativity…but no answers were to be found.  What is the meaning and purpose of life?  What are the secrets of happiness, contentment, and satisfaction?  Why are we here?  Solomon came up empty; and thus he concluded that all he had done, and all there is to do “under the sun,” is nothing more than, “vanity and a striving after wind.”

The only answers Solomon finally does come to see, and the only answers there are, come from beyond the sun.  They come from God.  Thus, Solomon concludes, “to the man who pleases Him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy.”  (Ecclesiastes 2:26)  Do you pursue your life in the things that are under the sun?  Or, have you found, as Solomon did, that happiness, contentment, meaning, and purpose ultimately come only to those who make it their purpose to serve and obey God?

When Solomon said, “So I hated life,” he didn’t mean that he was angry about life, that he wished he had a different life, that he despised the fact that he had been born,  or that he wanted to harm himself or end his life.  Instead, he meant the same thing that Jesus did when he said, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25)  It’s the same thing Jesus meant when he said on another occasion, “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)  What both Solomon and Jesus meant by the word “hate” in these passages is, “to be willing to lose.”  So, Jesus told his followers that they had to be willing to lose the blessings of family (think of Christians thrown in jail for their faith, or Christians whose family members turn on them because of their faith) or even lose their lives.  So, Solomon was willing to lose the pleasures and pursuits of this world for the sake of finding true purpose, meaning, and happiness in obeying God.

Prayer:  Father, please give me the wisdom and the courage to be willing to lose everything for the sake of one thing; for in gaining that one thing, pleasing You, I will find the answers to the questions of life.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Monday, April 20, 2009

“All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”  Ecclesiastes 1:8

“I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.”  Ecclesiastes 1:14

In my life I have met poverty-stricken men and women living in mud huts their whole lives, sleeping on dirt floors, who were happy; and I’ve met millionaires living in mansions who were miserable.  I’ve met young, attractive, healthy men and women who were filled with gloom; and I’ve met elderly saints dying of cancer, bearing up under chronic pain, who were filled with joy.  One Friday morning recently I met a man who has made millions of dollars in real estate, has a lovely wife and children; and all he did the whole time I was in his company was to speak in angry, bitter terms about the government and the future of our nation, warning us all that we had better make sure to arm ourselves with automatic weapons and lots of ammunition.  That afternoon I visited with a woman who suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis.  Her body has been bent and contorted by this painful arthritis for years, she and her husband have very little money; and yet all she did while I was in her company was to speak of how good Jesus has been to her, and how blessed she and her husband have been to share such a wonderful love for so many years.

King Solomon understood that the inside is bigger than the outside.  What does that mean?  It means that what’s inside your heart is far more important than what’s outside your heart in shaping your life.  It means that all of the circumstances and events of life, good and bad, are not ultimately what determine the quality of your life.  One would think that if you have good health, lots of money, are well educated, travel the world, and have people to love you; that these are the things that would give you contentment and satisfaction in life.  The truth is, however, it’s all, “vanity and a striving after wind.”

Do you place your hope for happiness in the outward circumstances of life?  It’s a misplaced hope.  The real question is, what’s going on in your heart?  In Philippians 4:4-7 the Apostle Paul gives us a prescription for the heart:  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let all men know your forbearance.  The Lord is at hand.  Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Prayer:  Father, please help me remember it’s the inside job that counts.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Friday, April 17, 2009

“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved”  Ephesians 2:4-5

No one is too far gone.  No one is without hope.  The same Holy Spirit the Father sent to raise Jesus up from death and hell itself, will raise us up from our sins to new life in Christ.  Wherever you are in life,  whatever your sin, you are not beyond the resurrecting power of our God.  When Jesus went to the cross, He took all the sin of all the world upon Himself, to the point that He became our sin.  He became murder, rape, greed, selfishness, lust, anger, bitterness, dishonesty, gossip, cruelty, etc.; and went to hell for it all, and yet the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, was able to raise Him up from that death and darkness to the glory of everlasting life and heaven itself.  If the Father was able to raise Jesus up from all that, surely He is able to raise you up from whatever sin has gotten hold of you.  This is why the Apostle Paul said, “For our sake He became sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (II Corinthians 5:21)

Do you look at your sins and think there is no possibility that you will ever overcome them?  Have you, in effect, written yourself off?  Or, do you look at others, perhaps those with very conspicuous sins, and write them off?  Instead, remember Paul’s words, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” (Romans 5:20)  Remember also, “as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)  There is no sin, no ingrained shortcoming of character, no generational pattern of behavior that is too powerful that it cannot be transformed by the same Holy Spirit that raised up Jesus.  Believe that.  Trust in that.  Don’t write yourself, or anyone else, off.  “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view…if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” (II Corinthians 5:16-17)

I very much dislike the television show, “Survivor” (though I’ve only seen it once).  Why?  The whole premise of the show is voting people off the island.  God votes no one off the island.  God voted for you, and everyone else, casting the deciding vote when He sent His Son to die for you on the cross.  Who do you vote off the island?  Yourself?  Persons who have done you wrong?  Persons with conspicuous sins?  Persons of other races?  Persons with different political views?  God’s opinion is clear; “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  (John 3:16-17)

Prayer:  Father; please increase my faith that I would truly believe in Your resurrecting power, voting myself or no one off the island.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen

Thursday, April 16, 2009

“What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus?  If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’”  I Corinthians 15:32

John Lennon’s song “Imagine” asks us to imagine a world in which there is no heaven and no hell, nothing beyond the life that we can see or touch; and promises that if more and more people could believe that, there would be more and more peace and “brotherhood” in the world.  What do you think about that?  John Lennon was obviously thinking about all the wars that have been fought in the name of religion, and concluded that if there were no religious beliefs there would be less to fight about.  At first glance it’s a persuasive arguement.  However, it seems to me that any objective look at history would show that though  religion has, in fact, been used falsely again and again to justify evil; when there is no belief in heaven and hell, and more specifically, when there is no belief in the One, Jesus, who defeated the power of death on the cross, there is far more evil and far less ability to stop evil.

In other words, I think John Lennon got it completely backwards.  When you believe that heaven is real, when you believe that Jesus did indeed destroy the power of death by the loving sacrifice of His own life on the cross, then you can find the strength you need to make whatever sacrifices you must make to do good in this world.  In the nation of Liberia a women’s prayer movement finally brought an end to a horrible civil war that killed a third of that nation’s population.  The United Nations couldn’t stop that war; peacekeeping troops from other West African nations couldn’t stop that war; but women who prayed found the courage to keep putting their lives on the line until the madness stopped.  In the Philippines a group of Christian military officers who had prayed together in a Bible Study for twenty years led, at great risk to themselves, a bloodless revolution that brought an end to the corrupt government of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.  All across Eastern Europe it was Christian leaders, pastors and priests, who risked their lives to stand at the forefront of the movements that overthrew the repressive communist governments of those lands.

All around the world, throughout history, and to this very day, it has been followers of Jesus who have established the first hospitals, schools, universities, orphanages, nursing homes, health clinics, relief agencies, etc., at great cost and sacrifice.  Why?  Because followers of Jesus believe in the crucifixion and resurrection.  If you don’t believe in that, then as the Apostle Paul said, your philosophy might as well be, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”  If, however, you do believe then let these words from Paul inspire you, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”  (I Corinthians 15:58)

Prayer:  Father, please guard my heart from the lies of this world.  Please give me strength to do good in the Name of my Risen Savior.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last He will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!”  Job 19:25-27

Job was a prosperous farmer who lived a thousand years before the time of Jesus.   In rapid order three tragedies befell him:  marauding thieves stole all that he had; his children were killed in a horrendous windstorm; and, a skin disease covered his body with intensely painful sores, to the point that he was scraping himself with broken pieces of pottery to gain some relief from the pain.  Job was in such misery that even his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?  Curse God, and die.” (Job 2:9)  Three of his friends came to comfort him, but their words, which in the end proved to be ill-chosen and off-target, only added to his misery.  In the midst of all this, when even God seemed to be his enemy, Job spoke the amazing words quoted above.  What is Job telling us?  He’s telling us that no matter what happens in life, though God Himself might seem to turn against you, you can find the strength to, “hold fast your integrity,” do the right thing, by trusting in the God who lives and will raise you up.  This God is your Redeemer. He is for you.  He has paid a great price for you, and will not forsake you.  By trusting in Him you will find a strength far beyond yourself to do the right thing no matter what.

Why was Jesus in such agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, to the point of sweating great drops of blood, as the stress caused the capillaries near the surface of His skin to burst?  (see Luke 22:44)  He was in agony because He knew what was about to happen.  He knew He would be betrayed by one of His own disciples, arrested, abandoned by the rest of His disciples, falsely accused, falsely tried, mocked, beaten horribly, and hung on a cross to die an excruciating death.  More than that He knew that on the cross He would become the sin  of all the world, paying the price of that sin.  He knew He would descend into hell.  How did Jesus find the strength to stay in that garden until the soldiers came?  He could easily have fled into the darkness.

Jesus found the strength to to go to the cross by trusting that our Heavenly Father would raise Him up, as He had promised, from the death and hell of that cross.  Our Father has paid a great price for us, and He has promised to raise us up from whatever “crucifixions” come to us.  As Job found the strength to do the right thing, no matter what; as Jesus found the strength to go to the cross, no matter what; so we can find the strength, no matter what, to carry whatever cross we must carry for the sake of obeying our God.

Prayer:  Father, please give me strength as I consider how you raised up my Lord Jesus from death and hell itself.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.