July 27

Take time to read Psalm 45 today, I like the New Living Translation if you are reading online. Envision Jesus as the King in the song and we, His church, as the daughters/bride. Enjoy!

Pastor Fred

July 26

²³ For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, ²⁴ and he said...

This comes from Acts 27 in today's reading. In these few words we find three of the most foundational concepts of Christianity!

First, does my belief in God translate into a sense of belonging to Him? I have met few people who deny in the existence of God but many who have no sense of belonging to Him, acknowledging His right to fully govern and rule over their lives. In Greg Gilbert's book, "What Is the Gospel?" he lists four questions that we should all acknowledge as being vitally important to our existence: Who made us and to whom are we accountable? What is our problem, in other words, are we in trouble and why? What is God's solution to that problem? How has He acted to save us from it? How do I, myself, right here, right now--how do I come to be included in that salvation, what makes this good new for me and not just for someone else? One of the reason I love this book is because he defines sin, at its very essence, as living in a state of rebellion, denying God's sovereign right to rule over us. If we believe but do not submit, we are anchored in sin. We must belong to Him!

Next, in my belonging to Him, am I serving Him? I teach about 12 Pathways that lead us into the depths of eternal life this side of heaven, believing that eternal life is not just measured on the time continuum but the depth continuum as well, a life that is forever, yes, but also full! You show me a person whose life is tracking on every path: Scripture, worship, prayer, fasting, gathering, relationship, accountability, reaching, rest, service, generosity, and stewardship and I will show you are person who is serving Him! Belonging to God is a matter of the heart, serving Him is a matter of effort. I cannot earn His love, I cannot earn His grace, I cannot earn His salvation...but make no mistake, serving Him is about activity. The book of James brings this perspective like no other book in Scripture, read it, live it!

Finally, we come to "he said..." which is the angel speaking to Paul. If I belong to Him, if I am serving Him, I will not endure without and expectation that He will speak to me. Whether by angels, visions, the Holy Spirit, divine encounters, a prophetic voice...we must have a vision for a God who speaks! I have never heard the audible voice of God but seldom does a day go by that I do not feel His whisper to my soul.

Submit to Him, work for Him, and above all, be listening!

Pastor Fred

July 22

¹ Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
² Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,^[c]
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
³ When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away,
and I groaned all day long.
⁴ Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.Interlude

⁵ Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.Interlude

⁶ Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time,
that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.
⁷ For you are my hiding place;
you protect me from trouble.
You surround me with songs of victory.Interlude

⁸ The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
⁹ Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

¹⁰ Many sorrows come to the wicked,
but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord.
¹¹ So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him!
Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!

May Psalm 32 be the story of our lives!

Pastor Fred

July 20

If you have been following this blog for any amount of time, you have found that there are three beliefs central to my faith in God as a devoted follower of Christ: the goodness of God, the potential of people, and the centrality of church.

Psalm 27:13-14 from today's reading is a hallmark verse for my unwavering confidence in God's goodness...

¹³ Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness
while I am here in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

I love how David doesn't say that the only way he will see God's goodness is once he is in heaven with Him after death. No, there is goodness here! But still, as he concludes in verse 14, he acknowledges that often patience is required of us in waiting for this goodness to be realized. And as we continue in today's reading, we come to Acts 22 where we find a narrative that exemplifies this foundational truth, God's goodness.

We find Paul arrested, bound, and about to be beaten and tortured for the purpose of rendering a confession from him. I wonder if in the moments before he was recalling Psalm 27? Our belief in the goodness of God does not include a denial of hardship. On the contrary, we have every expectation of hardship! The promise of the goodness of God contains an assurance that when we face hardship, the suffering is never meaningless. The goodness of God is not just about seasons of ease but most certainly also seasons of affliction. When God chooses to allow me to suffer, I see His goodness because in such places my character is formed, my destiny is advanced, and the message of the gospel of Christ is preached to people I would have otherwise never encountered! Even when I am suffering because of my own folly and foolishness, my suffering becomes my teacher, helping me to eradicate sinful patterns from my life.

I must have patience for God's goodness to be realized this side of eternity, for a season of suffering to change into a season of ease and also for a revelation of understanding to see how the season of suffering was in itself purposeful for me, my future, and my world!

He is GOOD!

Pastor Fred

July 15

¹ Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
² Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
³ Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
⁴ Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
⁵ Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.

Psalm 15

May it be for each of us!

Pastor Fred

July 15

¹ Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
² Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
³ Those who refuse to gossip
or harm their neighbors
or speak evil of their friends.
⁴ Those who despise flagrant sinners,
and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
and keep their promises even when it hurts.
⁵ Those who lend money without charging interest,
and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.

Psalm 15

May it be for each of us!

Pastor Fred

July 14

In today's Old Testament readings, we find Psalms 10, 11, and 12. What a tremendous picture of our emotional journey at times when we are in crisis.

Psalm 10 conveys the sentiment of feeling abandoned by God. Verse one opens with, "O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble?" Have you ever felt this way? God doesn't want us to ignore our feelings. He doesn't want us to be ruled by them either. Suppressing our feelings is what leads to being controlled by them. One of the great lessons of Psalms is to bring our feelings to God in prayer. When we do, we find our hearts turning towards Psalm 11.

This Psalm opens with "I trust in the Lord for protection..." We must note that David's situation has not changed, rather his outlook, his heart. When we feel abandoned, ignored by God, we bring those feelings honestly to Him and in that place, we find His presence, we experience His comfort, we sense His voice and direction and hope comes alive in our hearts. Amazingly, that same heart that once despaired now becomes a well spring of trust and faith, preparing us for Psalm 12.

In verse five we find the long awaited moment, "Now I will rise up to rescue them..." God's timing may not be what we would at first prefer but we must trust in His sovereignty. We must let truth saturate our heart and mind (Psalm 119). We must be honest with Him about what we are feeling and remember that waiting on God is not a sign of His delay but an opportunity for us to grow!

Wait well!

Pastor Fred

July 8

At the end of Acts 15, we find the account of Paul and Barnabas' disagreement that led to a parting of ways for a time. Unfortunately, for many Christians, this is where their story ends... but not for Paul, Barnabas, John Mark, and Silas.

We are destined to have disagreements with people that we love and respect, unavoidable. However, we are expected to work through those differences and even if we cannot come to a place of agreement, we reach a place of mutual respect and being relationally reconciled. In the end, the relationship has to be more valuable to us than being right.

Eventually, these men were once again working together in ministry. See 2 Timothy 4:11 for Paul and Mark and 1 Corinthians 9:6 for Paul and Barnabas. In addition, according the Expositors Bible Commentary, both Luther and Calvin believed that 2 Corinthians 8:18-19 refers to Barnabas, placing him together ministering with Paul and Silas.

Paul practiced what he preached. In Ephesians 4:3 he speaks of "the peace that binds us." He was in prison at the time of the writing of the letter to Ephesus making his metaphor clear. We should be held captive by our commitment to be at peace, reconciled to one another always eventually.

A hallmark of being spiritually unhealthy is whether or not a person has a lengthy list of people with whom they are estranged, that fractured relationships characterize them, especially people with whom they have worked closely in ministry.

Acts 15 is not permission to part ways, it is given to us to remind us of the "bond of peace" to which we are committed to uphold, usually at the expense of our pride!

Pastor Fred

July 7

Acts 15...unity is when absolute commonalities transcend relative dissimilarities.

Great leaders are always asking the question, "What are the absolutes, immutable truths, timeless principles, upon which we agree, hold in common? And, what are the issues where we disagree, dissimilarities, that are relative to ones perspective, opinion, preferences?"

When we elevate issues that are relative to an undeserved place of absolutism, we create a legalistic environment. When we concede absolutes to an undeserved place of relativism, we create a compromising environment.

Discern, dialogue, distinguish...lead.

Pastor Fred

July 5

In reading Acts 13:26-52, I am struck at how similar the predicament of Paul's Jewish audience in Pisidian Antioch is to so many people in our time.

The people to whom Paul was speaking had in their possession the Holy Scriptures of their day, for us, that would have been the Old Testament since much of the New Testament had not even been written, much less canonized. And in the Old Testament Scriptures, as Paul so aptly identifies, Christ is clearly identified as the Messiah. Yet, even when confronted plainly with the truth, a life altering response is not forthcoming from the crowd.

I meet few people who do not embrace a belief that the Bible is sacred and from God. I meet few people who do not embrace a belief that Jesus is divine, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, rose from the dead, and will one day judge us to determine our eternity. Yet, I meet many people, as with Paul's day, whose beliefs do not alter their existence.

What of the Bible do we believe? How have those beliefs changed our lives? Paul speaks plainly in his second letter to the church of Corinth when he wrote in the fifth chapter, the seventeenth verse, "Therefore, if any person is in Christ, they are a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

If you believe, what old things for you have passed away, what new things have come...and may it be that the passing away of the old and the coming of the new never cease as long as we have breath! May that which we declare to believe forever define us as we live!

Pastor Fred