Yet Pray!

Do you pray impossible prayers?

That without God's intervening Grace

All will go ignored?

Yet Pray!

Pray the prayer that's easy done?

Stay at home, He will not come.

Yet Pray!

You can't conceive the answer come?

All is useless shouting sky!

Yet Pray!

I've asked for years, so does He hear?

He asks us this, What is a year?

Yet Pray!

For would you could,

That He respond,

In a week, a month or year?

Yet Pray!

God needs not us, but we need Him.

If He were starved, He'd not let us.

Yet Pray!

Dig Deep

It's that time once again to go out and buy a new paper calendar--if you're a dinosaur or live in a cave without hot and cold running iPhones, iPads and 24/7 Facebook. The simplest cellphone will automatically update the time, Daylight savings or not. I remember the day when the only calendar was paper and hung on the wall or sat on your desk, I got two of those this year from companies I do business with. I couldn't figure out what to do with them or where to put them besides the trash, so I kept them to keep from feeling guilty.

Anyway all that was said to say Yippee! a new year is here in a matter of hours for me, some part of the world it is already here. People, in The USA at least, make a big fuss about it. I almost never have except in a previous life(style) to curl up around a bottle, get stoned and stay inside where it's safe. Now I pay it even less mind. Although I do like to look over the past year and see if I've moved along in my faith or personhood and figure what needs shoring up, throwing out or making brand new. It's a great time for that.

One of those things is, I don't ever want a shallow faith. I don't want to just show up at church on Sunday and go home to what I was doing before I got there. I want change, and that will take work.

Here's what Jesus said, "Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock."-Luke 6:46

Coming to Jesus is relatively easy since it is an act of faith and we can't see Him-YET.

Hearing Him takes a little more work. Of course there is hearing and there is hearing. One just takes the sound vibrations into our ears(no effort at all), the other is to take those sayings and apply to our lives. By the way, if we are still talking about Jesus here, we don't get to cherry-pick the ones we like and forget the rest. Doing those sayings will take a lot more work and lifelong dedication.

And we're just two commas into the first sentence. Phew!!! wipe your brow

Doing the above, Jesus says, is like building a house, and every house has foundation, and if not, it's just a shed, hut or hovel. To have any real substance, my house needs a foundation. I could diverge here and go off into all the ways that Christ is the foundation throughout scripture but I won't.

Before you even laid the foundation, you had to dig down deep until you get to solid ROCK.

The ROCK is the most important part but it takes work to get to it. you have to dig, Jesus said, and not just a little. we have to dig DEEP. We can't settle for the shallows such as words alone or scripture memorization and passive church attendance. But, we need to strive for and mine the depths of God.

Only one way to go deep and its all internal, spiritual things.

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.1 Corinthians 2:10

Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

 And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.Psalms 139:23-24

This is the work of digging down deep and getting to the foundation so our house is secure. Allowing God unfettered access to the deepest parts of our heart and soul.

Stop relying on externals and meet God where He dwells, in our hearts by faith. I don't want just the theological knowledge of these truths, I want the experiential know how. I want to live out of my heart more this year. I want to meet God there and look deep and long into His things.

Happy New Year

Borrowed Armor

Can I see a show of hands for how many of you have heard, read or seen the scriptures on your spiritual armor?

Quite a few. That's what I thought.

And for those of you who haven't here you go-

Ephesians 6:11-16

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

I hope I haven't lost you. This is good.

The armor that some of us put on along with our clothes every morning is really not bought(not by us, but purchased by Christ with His life and blood), 

It is all borrowed except for one piece, faith, and I believe even that has been gifted to us.

"So, what's the fuss Mike about it being borrowed?"

I'm glad you asked.

I believe that if we believe that we are wearing Christ's armor rather than our own, we can/will be ever stronger. If we wear our own we are limited, but if Christ's then the lid is off and there is no limit to the battles fought and won.

In order of mention-

1. The belt of truth.

We still must put it on and make it a part of us TRUTH.

Firstly that Christ is and is for us. Not some subjective knowledge but truth. There can only be one. It comes down, not to what I believe but what IS. If you are unsure, then it is not truth, at least not to you, and without it you will be caught half naked with your pants/dress around your ankles.

2. Breastplate of righteousness. His not ours. His is everlasting all powerful and ours alone is a filthy weak thing.

The breast plate protects our most vital organ, the heart. Without it we cannot go very far. Unfortunately these days too many live from their day-to-day circumstance rather than our heart.

Make your plans but let God order your steps.

3. Shoes- the gospel- the good news- are you prepared with it and are you at PEACE with it.

The good news that Christ lived and died and lived again for us so that we can rise in new life too.

This brings me more peace than a full bank account.

4. The shield of faith. This is a gift not a loan as the others are. This one we must hold on to and use, we cannot leave home without it, but in the end we will leave it at the door. We will need it no longer when we are in heaven with Christ.

5. Helmet of salvation that guards the mind. Are you secure in your salvation? A sure cure for a troubled mind. Not a salvation by how good or accomplished I am, but by what Christ accomplished for me on His cross. The death for our sins but His rising again for our acquittal.

6. The only weapon we are given is His word and it is a sword, not a rapier but a dirk. A small straight sword used for cutting and killing. It has A point to it and cuts both ways.

Again it is borrowed since it is His word.

And the only sure hold-in-your-hand kind of evidence is the bible. If you have your doubts about its veracity, you are missing some other parts of the armor if you have any at all. If you doubt it, you probably have not prayerfully read much or any of it.

Doubters and complainers usually doubt what they are ignorant of and complain about the very things that they do or don't do. ie people that complain about the churches money and teaching on it are the very ones that never give more than a buck or two.

Let's use our borrowed armor well, use it till it is dented, bent and tarnished. I think its original owner is most happy in the end to get it back well used.

Suspicious Love

We can love someone though we might not be able to trust them. So it is with God.

The Bible's verdict is that God loves us because He chooses to despite our faults, sins, and failings. He doesn't give up and say, "That's the last straw, and dump us off," but continues knowing that there is hope and He believes in hope. In fact, hope is only second to love, which by the way God IS, in its track record at transforming hearts and therefore entire lives.

The great love chapter sums it up--

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

I said all that to say we can love someone without necessarily trusting them or even liking them much.

Just ask any mother with a treacherous wayward son, or father with a much to wild or loose daughter.

Why do they get burned time and again, it's not because they trust it's because they hope in a future change that they genuinely yearn to see for their loved ones own peace and happiness.

Once again, besides the image of God we are made in, we act much like Him.

So it is with God, He may not trust us with certain things, but yet helps us out of one more jam hoping we look up to see Him looking down with love and pulling the magic strings.

Romans 8:24-25

For in hope we were saved. But hope which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what he already sees?

 But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.

Take the Chain Off he Door

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.-Jesus Christ in Revelation 3:20

A verse used extensively over the years to speak the heart of the Gospel and no doubt God's heart for people 'astray'. As a pastor, I have found nearly legion the numbers of people that can believe the truth of this verse BUT...

It takes faith to open the door, only a smidgen, and Christ didn't say how wide so I take it that a crack will do. 

My point to this being, I have seen the aforementioned legion able to believe and able to open the door, but unable to believe that Christ actually comes in to be with them in such friendly terms as a meal.

It may be that the previous four verses have left a dent in their heart, but truth often hurts, and more from those who love us most;

V15 you're lukewarm and I wish you would pick cold or hot

V16 I spue lukewarm water out of my mouth

V17 you think you need nothing, but are really wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked--

V18 buy from me gold refined in fire and eye salve so you can see.

V19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

Therefore is there for us to see that, He tells us this in love and V20 means after all that He still wants to live with us.

The answer is not to believe in ourselves, but Him. Not merely His existence or who He is, but in His love for us, and out of that love He has a desire to hang out with us as a TRUE FRIEND would.

And yet, closer than any earthly friend. Believe is more than a nice platitude, it's a life altering choice.

The Same God

2 Corinthians 4:6-15

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The same God who spoke into darkness and nothingness and created light, a light that never before existed, is the same God who brought light to your hearts in the form of and through Jesus Christ. The same God who brought real light and real truth to our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ.

And lest we think we are gods ourselves, the Apostle reminds us,

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 

THINK--cracked clay pots holding the dazzling brilliance of THE SAME GOD willing to dwell with us, IN US.

If we can keep this in mind, God can do some mighty things in and through us. The moment we think we are SOMETHING, is the moment we begin to lose sight of the LIGHT and who it is who brought it.

PERHAPS, that is why the troubles come. To remind us, not punitively nor with malice, but with a loving Hand, as God ushers us ever closer to Him.

8We are hard- pressed on every side, yet not crushed; 

He will not let us be crushed, though we can often feel the overwhelming pressures of life.

we are perplexed, but not in despair; 

Confusion sets in the moment we look for more than God, He who made us can save us.

9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—

Some truths take an iron grip of faith to hang on to, and this is one. When the entire world including those humans who are most suppose to love us have betrayed, rejected or turned against us, even through OUR OWN failures. WE--who we really are in Christ-- can never be struck down, can never be destroyed for we... 

10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Just as the true life of Jesus was not revealed until He died and rose again, nor will the beauty of ours be brought into view until we have been battered, bruised, pierced and struck down, for surely, IN HIM, we will rise again here in this life and in the hereafter.

 10For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 

An attitude worth keeping, just as Jesus did,

15For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Paul wrote, "for your sakes." WE are the 'your' he was talking about, and he was as human as we, and now we go through all of these things for YOUR SAKES that the same grace we know in Christ May spread to you.

If that attitude be in us, it will surely make the bumpy ride here more joyful.

Comfortable?

As I rode in a van across Nicaragua a dear friend with us said, "I'm not comfortable." That was the mid-90's and we were not Contras, Sandinistas nor CIA, we were missionaries there to spread the gospel of the kingdom. On our way to a prison to hold a service, our beat up Mitsubishi van was packed  with 7 guys, sound equipment and food for the inmates (in the US we bring literature, in Nicaragua we bring FOOD) and it was Nicaraguan HOT! The road was bumpy and the place prone to uprisings and sudden Civil War.

Needless to say the other 6 members looked at him with unbelief, like it even needed to be said. One even yelled, "Stop the van! R's not comfortable!" and made a big scene, in fairly good humor.

We were all uncomfortable!

But our sense of mission overcame our discomfort and even made discomfort a pleasure, for the Gospel's sake.

I believe most Christians in North America, including I, have been rocked to sleep in the comfortable arms of the world around us.

After Jesus had gone to such great pains to pass down to us the info of how this is going to all turn out, are we going to give a collective yawn and sigh when we now think of His imminent return?

That means he could come back while I'm writing this.

His disciples came right out and asked, "When are you coming back, and what will the signs be?"

"Wars, plagues, earthquakes and such." 

"Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.-Matthew 24:12

Sound familiar, it's what you read in this mornings newspaper, and even if we can focus our prophetically manic minds on those signs we often relegate the end result to Sunday School classes and once a decade sermons.

Christ's imminent return

We need to shake ourselves as Samson did when he woke up bound and blinded in prison.

We need to not only remember the fact, we need to act on it.

Matthew 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Some unintentionally foolish preachers have failed to parse the word ALL correctly. The Greek word πασ or transliterated into English pas. That part is useless info until you realize it doesn't mean some magic counter to when the last person hears, but instead going to each people group and ALL means some of each.

I said all that to say that there is nothing else that really needs to happen before Jesus pulls us all out of here.

Keeping this close to our hearts, mouths and feet will change how we act.

How we participate in our local church.

How we give to our local church.

How we relate to our neighbors, strangers, family and friends.

How we behave in secret and in public.

Jesus capped it all off with a tightly cinched knot.

But he who endures to the end shall be saved.-Matthew 24:13

Endures means more than hiding in a secure hole with our lounge chair and big screen.

...and then the end will come.- Matthew 24:14

We cannot fit too comfortably into the world around us. We are to be in it, and to be all things to all people(1 Corinthians 9:22), but we cannot be too close without losing the most important things.

Things are LOOKING UP