Found Faithful?

I have a pastor friend who constantly reminds me that we (pastors), are not called to be famous, but faithful. Those are good words because it's easy to focus on the wrong things. It is tempting to want people to "see you in action", but it's been said that we are playing to an audience of ONE. I should only be concerned with what God thinks, what God sees.

Here is what the Bible says about this: Luke 16:10 "Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
 I guess you have to prove yourself faithful first in little...It's a matter of responsibility. You have to prove you can handle "a little" before you can handle "much". With God's grace and power, I hope to do that.

The Waiting Game

At Bellwood, we are seeking to hire an Associate Pastor of Youth and Children. We have a diverse group of folks who are serving on the Search Committee. We had been meeting every other week to do a lot of preparatory work, but now we are in the period of waiting to see who may respond to our new position. I sent the Committee this email today to hopefully encourage them a bit.

Since we seem to not really have a need to meet until we have some prospects, I thought I would touch base with all of you. I hope that we are faithfully praying for the new Associate Pastor of Youth and Children and that we are praying for Bellwood. I really feel good about the work we have done so far. There is evidence of that (job description, church profile, 20 Pastoral tasks). These are the things we can see, but we might be tempted to get discouraged because now we are in a mode of simply waiting – and not necessarily seeing results.Yesterday, while reading in the Chronological Bible, this jumped out at me:  Psalm 5:3 “Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly”. Isn’t that good? We bring our request…and we wait with expectation. We are not just hopelessly waiting or blindly waiting. We wait with anticipation that God will answer and provide at the perfect time.Hang on to this! Don’t get discouraged. Don’t lose hope. Something good is already happening.

Waiting is hard, but this Psalm encourages us to wait with expectation - meaning that God does hear. He is not deaf or turned away. We may have to wait awhile - a very long while in some cases- but we wait knowing that some day, some way God will answer. Be encouraged. 

Theocracy vs. Monarchy

In our readings in the Chronological Bible, God has made it quite clear that He was to be Israel's king (theocracy), but the people wanted a human king (monarchy). Theocracy is God's ultimate will, but since the people rebelled, His remedial will is to meet the people where they are and lead them back to His ultimate will.

Saul was the people's first king. He had his good points: Didn't amass wealth, had no standing army and stopped the Philistines. He also had his bad points: He took on a religious role (remember he didn't wait for Samuel the prophet?), he also didn't follow the rules of Holy War.  

King David also had his good and bad points. Good: He defeated the Philistines, expands the empire, makes Jerusalem the capitol, and develops the arts. Bad: breaks rules of Holy War, took matters into his own hands with Bathsheba, took a census of standing army, builds palace and sets up a harem.

Despite all of this, God still used these two men to accomplish His will. God promises David that a king will always sit on his throne. David's son Solomon will be the next king (we haven't gotten there yet), but that is God's remedial will. However, we know that God's ultimate will is for His Son Jesus to sit on that throne. Jesus is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

We have a ways to go in our readings before we get to Jesus. We will actually see that Solomon's kingdom will divide and create a whole host of problems for the people of God. They will end up in exile (which looks like that's the end of the story) But through it all, God continues to show his steadfast love by offering the promise of hope and a deliverer...

Grace really is FREE

This past Sunday I shared the story of David extending grace to Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth. David called him to eat at the king's table all the rest of his days as the tablecloth of grace covered his deformed feet. Chuck Swindoll says, "Grace isn’t picky. Grace doesn’t look for things that have been done that deserve love. Grace operates apart from the response or the ability of the individual. Grace is one-sided…Grace is God giving Himself in full acceptance to someone who does not deserve it and can never earn it and will never be able to repay it.”
 
I can't help but think of our annual Free Grace Sale (coming up on May 5th).  This is a huge opportunity for us to extend grace to others. We are freely giving away items to ANYONE in need. It's just like when King David decided he wanted to show kindness to Saul's family, he asked if there was ANYONE left. Not - is there anyone qualified, anyone worthy - but is there ANYONE?


It will be exciting to hear and see people's responses again this year. I hope you will plan to join us for this great experience.

Quite a Pair

There are just some things in life that go together well: Peanut Butter and Jelly, Cookies and Milk, Flatt and Scruggs, Lewis and Clark, Batman and Robin, macaroni and cheese...I could go on.

In our readings this week, we have seen how close David and Jonathan were as friends. 1 Samuel 18:1 (NIV) says, "After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself".

Saul was king, Jonathan would have been next in line but David was about to become king. If I was Jonathan, I know I would have felt jealousy and bitterness toward David but nowhere does it say that happened. Jonathan was always looking out for and protecting David from his tormented father. Saul was the one who was jealous and out to kill David every chance he got.

Jonathan and David made a pact to look out for each other and each others children. 1 Samuel 20:42 (NLT) says, "At last Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have made a pact in the LORD's name. We have entrusted each other and each other's children into the LORD's hands forever." Then David left, and Jonathan returned to the city."

David is on the run. He's a man on the run - for his life. One day, while hiding, Jonathan finds him to give him encouragement. 1 Samuel 23:15-18 (NLT) says, "One day near Horesh, David received the news that Saul was on the way to Ziph to search for him and kill him. Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. "Don't be afraid," Jonathan reassured him. "My father will never find you! You are going to be the king of Israel, and I will be next to you, as my father is well aware." So the two of them renewed their covenant of friendship before the LORD. Then Jonathan returned home, while David stayed at Horesh.

Jonathan risked his own life in order to go and offer some encouragement to David. (remember: Saul was ticked at him for protecting David). What a true friend!

And that's it. That's the last we hear of David and Jonathan, because the next time Jonathan's name is mentioned is in 1Samuel 31 where the Philistines kill Saul and Jonathan. David mourns and is deeply saddened - but he does something amazing to honor his best friend. He's a man of his word...and for the rest of the story, you'll have to come to Bellwood this Sunday to find out what it was.

It's the Same !!

I love this passage from Romans 8:11, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you".

The very same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you and me? Do you realize what that means? It means that God didn't give Jesus one type of "spirit" and then gave us a "lesser kind of spirit". It says that we have the same spirit. But do we live our lives as though we believe that?

In our Old Testament readings, God only gave His Spirit to a select few people but now that Jesus has come, the Spirit is available to all. Acts 2:38 says, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit".

To me this says that I don't necessarily have to wait until the Resurrection to be living a new life. Jesus said in John 3:5-6 that no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

If God's Spirit is living in me (Christ in you and me), then we have the power to overcome whatever it is that wants to keep us beaten down. I love what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 6:2-4: "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

We can live a new life - now, because the Spirit lives in us. We have the power to break the chains of bad habits that may continue to plague us. May the same Spirit of the Lord that was with Moses, Gideon, Joshua, Samuel and Jesus come powerfully upon us!

Called to Remember

Our reading for today (April 3) is about the Ammonites oppressing the children of Israel. Judges 16:6-18. The reason?

Israel (once again) has abandoned God, stopped serving Him, and done evil in God's sight. So He turned them over to the Ammonites who oppressed the Israelites for 18 years. Israel was in great distress - and once again, they cried out to God saying, "We have sinned against You because we have forgotten everything You did for us." (my translation). But God initially says to them, "Nope. Sorry. Not this time. Go cry out to the other gods you have been worshiping. I am not your "whipping-god". (again, my translation). But verse 15 says, "But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and said, 'Punish us as you see fit, only rescue us today from our enemies.' So they put away their foreign gods and served the LORD". Here's the interesting part; It says that God "was grieved by their misery".

God loved them so much that He was grieved by their disobedience. It must have broken his heart. He desperately wanted them to worship and serve Him only - not because He is some kind of narcissist, but because He had good plans for them; a purpose. He wanted to bless them and "tabernacle" among them as their God and they would be His people; but He was grieved by their misery.

It's a miserable thing when you are distressed and oppressed by sin. But here's the good news for us; Jesus took all of that "misery" for us to the cross. He showed us how to live faithfully and restored hope to all us. because Christ lives in us, we are new creations.

This week is a week of remembering. The entire universal church focuses like a laser beam on the nucleus of our faith – the passion and resurrection of Jesus. Because God is grieved by the misery that sin brings to our lives, He sent Jesus to ultimately rescue us from that oppression. Do we recognize that when we sin, it means that we have forgotten everything God has done for us? Jesus must have known that we would constantly suffer from spiritual dementia when at the Last Supper he said, “Do this in memory of me”.

Join us at Bellwood on Thursday evening (6pm) as we are called to remember and celebrate everything God has done for us.