If These Were Silent, The Very Stones Would Cry Out

There is an interesting saying of the Lord in the Gospels that I always particularly liked. It is when Jesus told the Pharisees, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40)

Imagine the scene. The Lord rides on a donkey into Jerusalem and is celebrated as the Messianic King who is to rule over the people of God, the One foretold by the prophets and expected for centuries. In Jesus’s ministry, the people saw the confirmation that this One truly is the Messiah because the power of God evidenced by healings and miracles flowed abundantly. No mortal man could do such things on his own. Jesus’ fame grew; thousands of people heard His teachings and saw His miracles. In this scene now, multitudes of people followed Him, celebrating and rejoicing, shouting, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (v.38) The excitement, the joy, the hope and expectation in the air must have been magnificent. But among the multitude of celebrating people were also some Pharisees who could not quite engage with the same euphoria. Instead, the words the people shouted made them uneasy, to the point where they moved up to Jesus in the masses and told Him to rebuke His followers to stop shouting these things. In their deeply ingrained religious mindset, it was blasphemous to talk like that and politically incorrect to make those kind of statements, while the crowd around them could not care less, they just saw the pure joy of the coming New!
 
How many times I wonder, in our modern day and age, are we confronted with a quite similar situation. We shout aloud praises to our Lord and Savior, we worship Him publicly and glorify him as the Only God, the Only Savior, the Only solution to our lives. And then are faced with people for whom that does not sound politically correct, or even offensive. I am so glad our politicians are boldly declaring the Gospel message on public scenes and standing by the founding principles of our Christian nation, what a blessing to see. And in those moments, I am reminded of the response the Lord gave those concerned people, saying, “if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” What a powerful truth because the praises and the glory to God that are due His name will go forth; it will happen regardless of our stance or opinion of it. It is His creation, His salvation plan, His will that unfolds before our very eyes. And it will glorify Him. The question for all of us is whether we want to be found on the cheering side, or the offended side. I hope and pray we all are ignited with the same joy and cheer as most of how that multitude was and that if onlookers rebuke us for our joy because it might sound politically offensive, that we would have the courage and boldness of David who said, “I will be even more undignified than this!” Why should the glory of the Lord be reflected off of cold, lifeless objects like stones, when He created us as vessels for His glory and praise!

May the Lord bless you today and may His praises be on your lips and your heart truly overflow!

For unto us a child is born, a son is given.

These words from Isaiah 9:6 echo throughout the history of Christendom. They are recited every Christmas season when churches, mangers displaying the Holy Infant, gather for Christmas services to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. The familiar words have long become tradition, but have you paused lately to consider their depth and beauty again?

The prophet Isaiah spoke those words during the decline of Israel, in the looming shadow of Assyria, to a people “deaf and blind” (6:10) who would not listen to God’s warnings of judgment for their sins. With the same breath, God prophecies by His Spirit that a Savior will come – the Messiah, who will restore Israel and lead the nation into their true calling as God’s people. Not to Israel alone, but there will also be an extension of His rule that effects all nations (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6): A Messiah, a Savior, in the line of David, born in Bethlehem.
For hundreds of years, people lived in expectation of His coming, knowing that one day it would happen, but no one knew exactly when. On that blessed night in Bethlehem, in poor conditions and discomfort, a baby boy was born. This baby Jesus grew up to be called the Christ, meaning “Anointed One” or “Messiah,” and we “Christians” are so-called because we are the followers of this Anointed One, our Messiah, the Restorer of all things, and Savior of the World to everyone who believes.

The promise, the hopeful expectation, the fulfillment… Today we get to live the life of faith that was made possible by these events! Take a moment this Christmas Eve and let this sink in. We are part of something much larger, much grander. He is great and greatly to be praised! Allow the Lord to give you this heavenly perspective as you take in the beauty and wonder as we celebrate Christ’s birth!

A very Merry Christmas!

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

We have all been there: We walk to the fridge and open it only to discover we ran out of food and it’s time to go shopping again! Or we reach for an ingredient in our recipe just to realize there isn’t enough for the dish we are making for the company arriving any minute!

Jesus and His disciples were in just such a situation. Mark chapter 8 tells us how a large crowd gathered to hear Jesus teach at a remote location some distance away from any village. Some had traveled from far away, possibly even more than a day’s journey. At this point, the people had been with Jesus for three days and most of them had run out of food already. Jesus knew that even if He dismissed them now, some might be so weak that they would not be able to make the journey: “And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”  

The fridge was empty. The situation was somewhat dangerous. But we know, Jesus had compassion for the people and turning to His disciples, asked them: “How many loaves do you have?” The answer was seven. Jesus took it, gave thanks, and distributed it among the disciples to give to the people to eat. Miraculously, four thousand people were fed that day!
How often have we run out of supplies, of gas, or resources to cover a basic need? Sometimes those situations were on the verge of becoming dangerous too. But it is in those moments when the Lord shows His faithfulness to us, and in creative ways, aids us out of nowhere. I highlighted in my Bible the words, “How many loaves do you have?” because I believe the answer to that question did not have much to do with the result or effectiveness of the miracle. If the disciples had said 10, 20, 5 or 3, it would have all been the same. The love of our Lord and His intention to supply all we need is not limited by what we have left; He just uses whatever it is we have left. How profound this truth is for our lives. Our natural reaction could be to withhold some of the leftovers to keep them for ourselves “just to be safe.” But it is those things we withhold that never experience the miracles of God. Instead, whatever we have can become a means to supply all our needs, if we yield them to the Lord. He does not want us to faint or to become overburdened because of our circumstances. He wants to supply us and in order to do so He asks us this question: What do you have left?

I want to encourage you this morning, if you need a miracle, or simply another encouragement. Trust what you have, as little as it may seem, to the Lord. Trust His love and faithfulness towards you and watch how He will bring resources and supplies from where we did not expect.

To all who labor and are heavy laden,

Most of us are much busier than we wish to be. We rush from place to place with lists to check off and struggle to keep our spiritual life how we would like to see it. All of this can result in our walk with the Lord feeling sluggish, until we realize what has happened and make a conscious decision to come to Him again - the source of our strength and life.

I would like to encourage you this morning from Psalm 37:23 where King David writes: “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way.”

I’ve had people quote the first part of that Scripture to me in times when they tried to encourage me to trust that the Lord will establish my steps and guide my way, and I love it. But there is a second half to this verse that I have not heard quoted quite so often, a part that I think is essential to the promise of the first half, that is: “when he delights in his way.”

You see, when King David wrote these words, he didn’t just write a blanket statement that the Lord would bless and guide our ways or all our labor and busy work. Instead, he conveys a wisdom that he found to be true in his life because he has seen it many times. When David was fearful and discouraged, he had a hard time seeing the path of the Lord and the solutions to his problems, but if he sought the Lord and found pleasure in His presence again, then all of the sudden, things worked out better. Our steps can be established and made secure by the Lord and He desires to do so, but that blessing is often related to our attitude and walk with Him. If we only see the issues and walk in discouragement, we lack faith and faith is what the Lord takes pleasure in because it shows that we love and trust Him regardless of our circumstances. More often than not it is a conscious decision that we can make to “delight” ourselves in the Lord, not because of outward circumstances, but simply because of the goodness of the Lord and the comforting presence of His Spirit. It can put a spring back into our steps, and as that happens, the love and grace and blessings of the Lord start flowing again in our life. Not because of merit or seeing a betterment of our situation, but purely because we “delight” ourselves in the fellowship of the One we love despite all our surroundings.

Let the Lord put a spring in your step this morning and walk as a child of the Most High, delight yourself in His fellowship and linger just a little longer in a state of prayer with Him. And as you do this the promise that goes with it will bear fruit: that the Lord will guide and guard your steps to avoid pitfalls, mistakes, misunderstandings. I think we all need that because we often feel our days are booby trapped enough by the enemy. So find a time and place to delight yourself in the fellowship of the Lord and in His company during your busy day and let it put that spring in your step!

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37-39 ESV)

What a wonderful appeal. Imagine the situation: The Lord and His disciples are on the last day of the Feast of Booths, also known as Sukkot. This feast is the Jewish commemoration of the forty-year journey of Israel through the desert. At this festival, booths are erected to commemorate the temporary shelters the Israelites lived in during that time. The situation here is taking place on the last day of the feast and Jesus and His disciples are in Judea where the religious authorities are already on high alert for Him (John 7:11). Halfway through the feast, Jesus and His disciples went up to the Temple, and he started to teach the crowds there regarding Himself (v.14). This triggered a commotion among the people, who debated about Jesus (v.25-27), which led the religious authorities to send men to arrest Him (v.32). Jesus was not oblivious to these things and knew what situation He was in, and yet, on the last day of the feast, He stood up and made this appeal from our passage with a loud voice. The Greek word here for “cried out” is “ekrazen,” which means to cry out, or to shout out, or to exclaim with a loud voice. In such a manner Jesus made His appeal to anyone who could hear Him: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Note that in the Greek the word for heart does not necessarily only refer to the heart, but means any and all internal organs, which can be translated as belly, stomach, womb, etc. It refers to the source of feelings and emotions that come from within. Jesus shouted out that this river of living water will flow from within your very self, where all our emotions and feelings, passions and fire are born.

I love that! Jesus did not say we will have a river of living water nearby that we can go to; rather He said that this source of life, joy and contentment, which satisfies any spiritual hunger and thirst, will come forth from within us, teaching about the coming presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

That means that our faith connects us to the Lord, and as we approach the day with that faith, the Holy Spirit within us produces a river, a steady stream, of what can only be described as life. Not natural life, but spiritual life, described as a river that can satisfy any and all spiritual and emotional needs.

As you go through your day today, tap into this river and source of life and let it impact your day. Make sure business does not carry you away, because by the end of the day it will not be about what you accomplished, but whether or not its source was the river of life.

This past Sunday, as I was preaching about the Abrahamic Covenant, how Abraham sojourned in Canaan, and the fact that he never saw the larger extent of the fulfillment of the promise God gave him, it reminded me of another verse by one of his great, great, great grandchildren, King David, which I highlighted long ago in my own Bible:

“For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.” Psalms 39:12

Though a “man after God’s own heart,” King David was not a perfect man. As a matter of fact, in this psalm David expressed how he felt the heavy hand of God on his life (v.10) because he suffered the consequences of his mistakes (v.11). He knew that he needed forgiveness, humbled himself before God and repented. David always knew that the source of his hope, joy and his life altogether was God alone - “My hope is in you.” (v.7)

We know that David did not learn this at a late age, he knew it even in his youth. It was a firm foundation he kept coming back to when he sinned or wandered off too far. But there is something else here in David’s words, something that he sought from God that was meant to help him stay in a right relationship with God. It’s in the words, “make me know my end and what is the measure of my days.” (v.4) David wanted to have an awareness and a right perspective of how quickly his life was passing because he knew that in being aware of this, it would drive him to spend every day in right relationship with God. David understood that he was just a “sojourner” with God, “like all his fathers.” That means that God is the One who walks the full journey and that he, like all his ancestors before him, were only road companions each for a short part of the journey.

I love that perspective because too often in our modern day and age we act as if life revolves around us, as if God would fashion His plans around our lives, when in reality we are part of His plan, guests in His house, each with one lifespan to invest. God is the Owner of the house (2Timothy 2:20) and the Master of His vineyard (Matthew 20:1) and we as beloved children are invited to sojourn with Him, each invited to contribute our unique abilities and talents.

What a wonderful perspective and it might be as David desired, a cure for our selfish and egocentric thinking. With this in mind, I ask myself the question, would such a perspective change the way we think of things around us? Would it change something in our approach to problems we face or perhaps issues with other people? I want to believe it does. It takes away from the discontent when things don’t go our way and from the tireless chasing after ever more goals that really don’t matter at all. Instead, it gives us greater awareness of God’s Plan and of the fellowship of the Lord in our everyday life.

Let’s sojourn with Him and let’s strive to make our stay as guests in His house a pleasant one!

Real joy and gladness sure can be a rare commodity these days. In the push and pull of daily life, these qualities are often ground away in the pursuit of efficiency. We must toil and strive to get ahead. There is always much to do, so much to take care of, places to go, needs to meet, even dreams to follow.

Life for David, king of Israel, was full of difficulties. We get a glimpse into his heart in a short psalm, number 70, which he concludes by writing, “But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay!” (Psalms 70:5) Though the king lived in a splendid palace, had choice food and servants to supply him with all his needs, he described himself as “poor and needy.” The weight of his position was very great. He refers to his many adversaries in verse two, the cause of this plea of helplessness, a longing for divine assistance. Yet, King David inserts a word of exaltation in the middle of his plea: “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, ‘God is great!’” (Psalms 70:4)

I am fortunate to be married to person that has an unwaveringly positive outlook on life. She is blessed to see the positive when I at times do not. For her, it isn’t a question of seeing the glass half full, she sees it overflowing! I admire this quality in my wife because no matter what our circumstances, she will always look for the God-factor. As children of God, even in our trials this is how we ought to walk, like the Apostle Paul admonished the Philippian church: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…” (Philippians 1:27)

In his plea, King David differentiates between those who seek his life and those who seek the Lord. “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, ‘God is great!’” (Psalms 70:4) There is something in these words that I believe is the key to change our outlook on the trials of life, even to change the attitude of our heart: the words “seek” and “those who love your salvation.” The way we look at circumstances around us is less about those external factors, for there will always be more troubles around us in this broken world, and more determined by what is inside us, or internal factors, and these are: to seek God’s face and to learn to love the salvation we have already obtained. This is the source of our true joy and gladness, even in an imperfect world.

My prayer this morning is that if you find yourself driven by all the chaos, to-do lists or troubling circumstances around you, take a moment to seek His face. Take a moment and be joyful about your salvation, a salvation which neither the world nor the enemy can take away from you!

“Who am I? What am I doing here? Am I on the right path?” It isn’t just young people who ask these questions. People of all ages wrestle with the question, “who am I?” This query will pop up periodically in all of our lives, when life takes unexpected changes and also in the absence of struggle, which often keeps us preoccupied. At times, some may even go so far as to say they have lost every purpose in life. However, even in peaceable and agreeable seasons, when one has time to reflect, this same question arises. Really, it is an insecurity that only emerges in the absence of our one, true purpose. We were not created to have a purpose or identity apart from the One who created us and we sense this in moments when we draw close to God, when we immerse ourselves in prayer or the reading of the Word. In these moments all the questions about identity, who we are, or what we were meant to be, fade away as though we have found it in that moment and are deeply satisfied with the answer. That is because in those moments we connect with our Creator, who created us for a purpose, His purpose. Living vessels, carrying a living spirit, created in God’s own image, to glorify Him in our lives. It almost sounds too simple and abstract, but it is real, more real than any fading or fleeting thing in this world can ever be to us. No wonder when our Lord prayed for us in the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer, He said:
“1 Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you… 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do… 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours… 11 …Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one… 20 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17:1-23)

This is perhaps one of the clearest examples in Scripture that speaks to our purpose and identity: To be one with the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, close to the Father through our Lord. What a great place that is! That’s where all those plaguing questions about our purpose and what we are here for, find their answer. It is not through tasks or accomplishments, but in truly being one with the One who created us.

I want to encourage you today that if life has troubled you and brought you to a point of questioning the purpose of it all, try connecting and immersing yourself in the Lord and through Him, in the Father. Allow the presence of the Eternal and Unchanging to permeate your confusion and uncertainty. Allow the presence of God to touch your heart when hurts dominate, and to settle your mind from trying to figure out a way forward. Choose instead, like the Lord prayed for you, to connect to Him in being one with Him. Just as when our electronic device runs low on battery and we connect it to a power source to recharge it, connect to the source of your life again and be re-charged with life eternal and the joy that can only be found in His presence!              

In the second part of our Salvation series, we looked at the subject of “ownership.” As I immerse myself in this topic, I find myself reading those passages where it talks about us serving the living God from that perspective of us belonging to him. (1Corinthians 6:19-20)

“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Hebrews 9:14
 
“…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:28

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…” Colossians 3:23

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace...” 1Peter 4:10

“No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” 2Timothy 2:4

And one of my favorites: “20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” 2Timothy 2:20-21

We have to understand that we are not simply set free to do whatever we please and live however we want. The Lord purchased us at a great cost, we are His! If we go about to do our own will again, we go back into the sin of rebellion against the One who created us and set us free. The Son redeemed us from that, we stand in His service now, to do His business. And this begs the question, what business is that? Is it finance, real estate, e-commerce? This is the business of the Lord: that the Son of Man came “not to be served but to serve,” an act He illustrated to His disciples when He washed their feet after the Last Supper. (Matthew 20:28)

The question we should ask ourselves every day is this: Lord, how can we serve you today? For the Father is at work all the time, all around us, and so is the Son (John 5:17), and we as His servants must join in that business as long as we have breath in our lungs.
 
I love seeing so many of our church members do exactly that in the many creative ways the Lord has given them, whether through acts of kindness, serving at church, making cards or quilts, or opening their business for Bible studies, or through prayer or the giving of finances. Many are looking at what the Lord has given them and how He has enabled them and seek to use it for the Lord’s business: to serve one another. This is church! This is the body of Christ!

Just this past Sunday, we launched into a new sermon series called Salvation. The more I ponder the depths of our redemption, the more I stand in awe at His beautiful picture. Every time I come across this word now in my Bible reading time, I think about “release by means of payment” – that we went free because someone stayed behind and took our place. We were released because someone gave Himself as a ransom for us, someone who was willing to take the pain and the suffering (Hebrews 5:1, 8-9).

I pray that we all come to a fuller understanding and appreciation of redemption right in our own current situations. May we look at our freedom and know how costly was its price. Because none of us were there to witness this event happened over two thousand years ago. We know of it as we read about it in the Word and we even understand the theological significance of it. But when has it last broken our hearts? When has it last brought tears to our eyes? Has it impacted us as it truly should? Has it changed the course of our days that no matter how bad a day may turn, we know that we could have it even worse, and the reason it is not is because He took our place and ransomed us out from that darkness and hopelessness. He brought us into a loving relationship with the one true God, who deeply cares for us. No matter what suffering we face, no matter what circumstance we are in, we get to live our lives as the children of God Most High.

Psalm 107:14 reads “He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.” And again, in Colossians 1:13 “For he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Do we realize how deep this truth is? He purchased us out from that domain of darkness with the costliest price, His own life. We say so easily that the Lord “touched our lives”, either during a time or worship, or during a sermon, or during a time of prayer, but do we see that those same hands are nail-scarred hands, for us. How beautiful our Lord and Savior! How deep His love is towards us! But too often we carry on with our daily lives, really not grasping the depth of this at all, even flirting with darkness and compromise, undermining the depth of what the Lord did for us. It is the season now where darkness and death, the occult and witchcraft get celebrated packaged as family fun. As I drive through my own neighborhood, my heart is heavy with the celebration of darkness, though many of them are Christians. Was it not for the sake of redeeming us out of this darkness that our Savior suffered and paid the ultimate price? He paid it with his own life, that darkness may no longer have a hold on us. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

I wonder then if the depth and beauty of our Redemption is really understood and appreciated? And my prayer in this season is that the Lord would truly show us the gravity of what he did for us. How personal it was for him towards us, and how much we are still lacking in our personal affection for Him.

For today’s devotional, I was led to revisit a parable in the Bible I had preached about last year. It is the parable of the Ten Virgins who waited for the bridegroom to come. Five of them are described as wise because of their actions, while the other five are described as foolish. The Greek word behind the word "foolish" is "morai", from which is derived in later linguistic development the derogatory word "moron". A word that was coined in 1910 by psychologist Henry H. Goddard, which meant "dull" and was used to describe a person with a mental age in adulthood between 7-10 on the Binet scale - in other words, immature. The body grew older, but the mind and maturity did not.

Without reading this later meaning back into the biblical text, it is interesting to note that the Lord uses this word and this parable to teach us about the Kingdom of Heaven, when He said:
1“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.” (Matthew 25:1-2 ESV)

The question is, who are we in this parable? Are we like the foolish virgins or the wise? What determines this is where it gets interesting. See, the wise and the foolish virgins all had much in common. They all loved the bridegroom, a symbol for the Lord Himself, as do we. They were all excited for that great day of the wedding, as we are also in that we look forward to when the Lord our Savior will come for His bride. In addition, they all prepared for the wait by having their lamps with them that provided light and comfort in the surrounding darkness, as do we who have the presence of the Lord and His Holy Spirit in us to guide and comfort us in this present darkness. But there was one major difference. Whereas the ones described as “wise” brought extra oil with their flasks, the agent that keeps the fire burning, the ones described as “foolish” brought only the minimum of what they thought was necessary. Let’s look at the story:

3"For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.” (Matthew 25:3-10 ESV)

It is a sobering moment to pause and think about the implications here. This parable was meant to teach us that many of us live our lives with the Lord with only the minimum requirement. We have accepted the Lord as Savior into our lives, but somehow never grew beyond that to a fuller maturity. When the storms of life hit, we waiver, and when the road gets long, we run out of what keeps us going with the Lord. The parable also teaches us that as much as we love each other in Christ, the stuff that keeps us going cannot be shared among each other. It can be inspired to have and get more, but it cannot be passed on from one to the other. Oh, how I wish we could, to see someone in need and infuse them with our faith and confidence. But that is not how it works. Every believer must grow and gain that “fuel” for themselves, we cannot live off another one’s faith.
 
Every time I think about this parable, it makes me wonder if I have enough fuel to keep me going, when the wait is long and the period of darkness feels all the longer. Do we have enough to draw from when circumstances hit? Or when failures and disappointments happen?

Take a moment today to think about this parable. Consider the spiritual fuel you have and let me encourage you, if your tank is empty, don’t wait! Don’t keep on driving, look of the gas station, look for the “free refill” the Lord will provide in abundance if we are taking our time with Him. Surrender all things to Him and invite His presence to light the fire again.
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1 ESV)

A Resting Place for the Lord

How many times in a week do we come to a point where we long for a little rest? Our lives are busy, perhaps jobs or family obligations take a lot of our attention, and we continue to push through with all our tasks until they are somewhat finished, and we finally get some time to breathe, sit, and rest. And there is nothing wrong with rest; as a matter of fact, God Himself invented rest as we see in Genesis 2:2-3 and later commanded it for our benefit in the law, Exodus 20:8-11.

But our lives can get so busy that another kind of “rest” is even more at risk - a spiritual resting place for the Lord in our lives. We don’t often think about that because we believe and know that the Lord is ever-present in our lives regardless of what we do. But listen to what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:
“1 Remember, O LORD, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, 2 how he swore to the LORD and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, 3 “I will not enter my house or get into my bed,
4 I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, 5 until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Psalms 132:1-5)  

Written as a song of ascents to be sung as people climbed and traveled the hills on their way to the temple to worship God, the song echoed the events that took place in King David’s life when he had it within his heart to build the temple for the Lord, recorded in 2 Samuel 7:1-2, “1 Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.”

At some point the Lord had given David rest from all his enemies and it made a noticeable difference in his daily life. So much so that he had time to look at his own estate and the splendor of his royal palace and notice that the ark, and with it the presence of God, still dwelled in the tent which outwardly looked unappealing with its greyish badger skin covering.

David knew the difference between a temporary tent and a permanent house. He spent many days and years of his life on battlefields and traveling, sleeping in temporary and movable shelters. Later, he lived in a permanent palace with all its amenities and luxuries. It was the difference between temporary and permanent, between make-shift and purposefully lasting. King David desired the latter rather than the former for the Lord whom he loved so much. Simply, he wanted the Lord to enjoy the same luxury and comfort of a permanent palace, like he enjoyed himself as king. Anything less bothered him and caused him unrest because he felt selfish in living this way.

I love that. Too often we stress about our daily lives, constantly fixing up our own houses to enjoy their comfort, while we treat the presence of God in our lives as somewhat more flexible, or as an afterthought altogether; as something that will have to fit into our busy lifestyles, like a backpack lunch we get to pull out and enjoy during our breaks. Truth is, even though the Lord desires to have first place and room in our lives, He is not demanding it, much like He also didn’t demand David to build a house for Him. But those of us who felt like David, not being satisfied with the little room we gave to the Lord, and desired to do whatever we could to give the Lord more prominence in our daily lives, experienced the notable difference it made. We noticed how all of a sudden, the time of our day became more meaningful altogether. Not only did our breaks in the day become more enjoyable, but the whole workload seemed lighter too. The days pass and we hardly remember the toil, we mainly remember that the presence of the Lord was there with us. It’s the difference between a flexible, temporary presence in our lives that we tune into when we have a moment, and having our lives become a habitation for the Lord.

May the Lord bless you and show you the riches of His presence today as you go about your ways. May His presence increase, and your daily routine become a habitation for His glory, love, and rest.

October 1st, 2025_The Father at the Door

Over the course of the last ten years as a pastor, but also years prior to that as professional Christian counselor, I encountered many prodigal stories. Most of the time because of a son or a daughter that chose to live their life in the world, distant from God. Often, they were even raised in a church environment, attended with their parents, went to kid’s church or kid’s camps, and even raised their hands to accept Jesus into their hearts when asked by the Sunday school teacher. But as time went on the allures of the world drew all their attention and devotion and they made a conscious decision to live a life different from their upbringing, pursuing their passions and exploring their own will and ways instead. But in many cases that led to much suffering in their lives, and in the hearts of their parents that ache for them and want to see them come back to the Lord.  
Almost without fail, every time I encounter a story like that, the Lord stirs in me to counsel them with the truths from the story of the Prodigal Son found in Luke chapter 15, a parable the Lord taught when the Pharisees and scribes of His time grumbled against Him because He would receive and eat with sinners who wanted to know more about the closeness of the Father-God (v.1-3).  
But in this parable, one peculiar truth strikes me the most. The fact that the father did not run after his lost son into the world searching for him and begging him to come home with him. Instead, he stayed at his house and kept his eyes on the horizon to watch for his son’s return: “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (v.20 ESV) 
The compassion and the desire to see his son return can be unmistakably seen in the father. And yet, unlike the two preceding parables in Luke 15, in which the Lord shared about the Lost Sheep, for which the shepherd went out searching until he found it, even leaving the ninety-nine in the open countryside, and the parable of the Lost Coin, for which the owner of the house lit a lamp and swept diligently until she found it, the father in the parable of the prodigal son stayed put and did not go out to seek his son diligently, or left his house unattended to do so. 
And for that peculiar difference, I am very thankful. Because it is our Savior’s mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), and we surely join Him in that mission (Matthew 28:19-20), but even though we hold out the truth to them, we can’t convict the world of its sins, that is the job of the Holy Spirit. All we can do at times apart from praying, and especially when it comes to people who willfully walk away from God, is to keep our doors open and to wait until the Holy Spirit has given conviction to their hearts, and the Lord our Good Shepherd has led them home again. How we ought to receive them back, is where this parable teaches us volumes. But going diligently after the ones who willfully walk away can at times even prove counterproductive, as it can drive them even further away to pursue their own will. That is because we are dealing with the will of man who does not want to see or admit the error in their ways yet. The lost sheep wanted to be found, it was disoriented, and the lost coin had no resistance to being found. But people who want to walk their own way apart from God are different, it is the prerogative of their free will.  
All we can do as parents is what the father did in this story, who kept his doors and gates open day and night in the hope of his son’s return, and during the day always scanned the horizon to see the silhouette of his son returning home, even from a distance off. 
I want to encourage all who are in this place, who struggle with the fine balance of not enabling their loved one’s bad choices, while recognizing their free will, but at the same time with aching hearts search the horizon daily for signs of turnarounds. Don’t give up, pray without ceasing, as long as it takes, and know confidently that the Lord our Good Shepherd is out there searching for them, standing at the door of their hearts knocking, and will not return without them in His loving arms.  

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”
These words rang in the back of my mind when I watched the Memorial Service for Charlie Kirk this past Sunday. There is a renewed passion arising in many, to take God more seriously than they have before. As a pastor in a local community that is very encouraging to see and be a part of, as it is the goal of every sermon and teaching we have preached and taught for years.

But in those words that King David wrote nearly three thousand years ago, a timeless truth rings true today as it did back then. In Psalm 51, David’s famous psalm of repentance, he writes the following words:
“10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (vs.10-12 ESV)

Notice how he started out, with the outcry of his heart, saying “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”. David struggled in his everyday life as he fell into sin, but what ached him more than any punishment, was that he felt his heart towards God had changed, and that the spirit he once possessed as a young passionate youth that made him stand up to a Goliath when everyone else shrank back, has become a distant memory of the past. Because now, he stayed home from battle while his subjects fought the battles for him. Not only did he stay home from what he once fought so passionately himself, but he also became complacent and allowed it to lead him into sin. A lot has changed since then, and David noticed that things are no longer the same. This awareness brought him to his knees with a deep outcry to God, that He would restore his heart and spirit again. Because one of the natural consequences was, that David felt distant to God, which we see in his next words as he wrote: “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” David feared that distance to God as of late and that disconnect in his spirit. More even, he felt the joy of God’s salvation missing in his life, and that his heart no longer desired to put God first.

It is a condition in which we all find ourselves throughout the course of our lives. Perhaps because of times of busyness, or changes of life circumstances, or simply because we have grown complacent over time. But the solution is still the same as it was back then - repentance. Oh, that sweet place, when we get to bring our lives before the Lord and ask him to restore us to a right standing with Him, and to fan into flame again the first love we once possessed, perhaps even to a more mature one than back then. We see this in the lives of many in our nation right now, and I want to encourage those that find themselves in a place like this lately. Give it to the Lord once more, and allow Him to touch your life again and truly make you whole again.

“Count It All Joy”

These words ring differently today, as we still grieve the tragic loss of Charlie Kirk. One of a handful of voices that boldly stepped forward in a public way these last years, sharing his faith and standing up for the clarity of the gospel message, when doing so got so easily labeled as “Christian nationalism”. In the United States we seldom faced persecution for our faith as Christians in many countries around the world do. But over the course of these last several years, it felt as though this concept came closer to the doorsteps of our churches and homes than ever before. But this is not a new thing, but rather as old as the church itself. Peter admonished his readers in regard to these trials already since the first century AD, when he wrote:
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1.Peter 4:12-14 ESV)

What is curious though is that Peter, without blaming the cause of these trials on the government or specific circumstances of his time, simply said that these trials are part of a testing for us believers. Almost as though it were a natural part of being a Christian, and that it is the sort of exam we all need to pass. Furthermore, he admonishes us that we ought to “rejoice” in it, because these tests identify us in a closer way with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ than in any other way. Similarly, the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the church in Philippi wrote:
"...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own..” (Philippians 3:10-12 ESV)

James also wrote regarding these trials, to:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4 ESV)

We see that trials and sufferings of various kinds are a common theme in the early church. Not because of their special historical circumstances of churches in the first century AD, but because it is common to being a Christian, a naturally occurring tool to refine our faith - like a blacksmith uses heat to forge iron, and like a person using a sandstone to sharpen the blade of a knife. It is not something Lord always spares us from, but something He uses to refine our faith. So that it would produce in us “steadfastness”, and steadfastness when it has its “full effect” like James said, will gradually “perfect and complete” our faith, so that we are not “lacking in nothing”.

Many of us strive to better ourselves, walk closer to the Lord, and desire to be more fruitful in our daily lives. We go to church, attend Bible studies, fellowship with other believers, and read and pray that we may grow up in Him who is the head and become more mature as believers. These trials, whether we like it or not, are a big part of it. They ought to produce in us something that will reshape our character, thinking, and the way we live our daily life.
We have seen this effect in many just recently that were affectated in this way by the death of Charlie Kirk. Suddenly it sparked in them a desire to go to church, spend more time in the Word, and be bolder in their faith.

We pray the Lord may comfort the Kirk family for their tragic loss, and for us as a nation, to learn from it and grow back stronger than before. But also, of us individually, that the Lord may use this grief and testing of our faith, to produce in us greater godliness, passion and love for the Lord.

"Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good." (1.Peter 4:19)