Friday, November 23, 2007

New Every Morning

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? I'm sure family and friends come to mind; health, peace, and security too. This year I want to thank the Lord for mornings.

I ran across this verse in Lamentations - not known for joyful and happy phrases. It was so beautiful, though, that it stuck out like a daisy growing on a dirty sidewalk.

Jeremiah 3:22 "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Isn't that great? How many times do our heads hit the pillow full of regrets from things said in anger, or things not said when we should have - or regrets of things we've done that we know don't glorify God.

Isn't it cool that with each new day, so too are the mercies of God new? How can that be? Does he have near term memory loss? No. His mercies are new each day because our sins are washed away in God's Son Jesus Christ.

So tomorrow morning when you wake up, thank God that no matter how you failed yesterday, today is a new day in God's mercy to be transformed into his image!

Pastor Tom

Monday, November 19, 2007

When Things Go Bad - Abandon God

Some people make an error when they think about God - that he is some kind of genie that will give you everything you want. As a matter of fact, many times the opposite happens. We discover that the real source of what we thought we wanted was not from God at all.

This happened to Israel in the days of Jeremiah. God had told his people to cooperate with the discipline he was bringing to the nation and go to Babylon. The people accused Jeremiah of lying and when he told them to put away their idols they said this:

Jeremiah 44:17-19 "For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine." ESV

They would rather abandon a relationship with the God of the universe in order to get good stuff here from gods that at best have no power at all and at worst are inspired by demons who want to enslave, not assist the people.

Don't make the same mistake. Ask God for what you need. Jesus promised that God would listen to those who belong to Him and give abundantly:

Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ESV

But the important thing is that everything that comes from God, whether its bounty or famine, easy times or hard - is good for us and what we need. Don't judge what you need based on your own estimation.

Pastor Tom

Friday, November 09, 2007

Hope After Trial

I know many of you probably know this verse by heart from Jeremiah 29:

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

But did you realize in what context these words were written? In verse 10 of that chapter Jeremiah says "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place."

The future and hope came after Babylon. We love verse 11 by itself. We want a future and a hope; we want God's plans for us to come about. But what if that meant going to your own Babylon for seventy years? What if that meant you had to go through a time of great difficulty first? What if God's plans actually included the trials and difficulties to purge us of evil, to teach us His character, to reach those that need Him?

Let's not fret about our Babylons for the Lord knows where we are and that he will bring us back to a place of hope and a future in His hands.

Pastor Tom

Monday, November 05, 2007

Are Your Ears Circumcised?

Okay - so I'm not asking you to take out a knife and cut your ears. But when it comes to listening to God's Word, our minds can be open or closed. A closed mind is like having ears that are uncircumcised. See what Jeremiah says:

Jeremiah 6:10 "Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it."

How do you react to the Bible? When you read or hear a passage that is difficult to understand or runs contrary to your own feelings do you feel like just dismissing the verse? I think the idea of being circumcised in ear is to put yourself in a place of identification with the Lord, rather than your own feelings first. Physical circumcision meant setting yourself apart as an Israelite. Being uncircumcised of heart means you are hardened to the truth of the gospel.

So too our mind can be hardened by claims of some scientists or by the opinions of others or by our own lack of understanding. We think the Bible can't be true first, instead of letting God speak to our hearts through His word and ask for understanding.

Take pleasure in God's Word. It is his love letter to us. Yes, there are some things in it that are hard to understand and comprehend, but the more you take it in through open ears, the more God can work His Word into your life and you will understand.

Pastor Tom

Friday, November 02, 2007

Who Are You Going to Trust?

There are a plethora of voices out there claiming to speak God's truth. They sound good. They look good. They have huge congregations so they must be speaking the what's right, right?

Not necessarily. Speaking for God should not be a light thing. The Bible tells us that in the end times people will gather around themselves teachers that will tell them things they like to hear. People don't want to be held accountable for things done outside of the character of God (sin). People want to indulge those things that make them feel good in the moment, and if someone says that God says it's okay then even better.

Be careful. Listen to this little verse from Jeremiah the prophet:

Jeremiah 5:30 "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so..."

I could make up all kinds of "truths" and claim that they came from God. I might even be able to twist some Bible verses around to make it seem like God agrees with me. That won't make it so.

When Jesus came to earth (a real historical person, by the way) he spoke by observation, not theory, about God. He spoke the truth. Read his words in John's gospel. Read all that he said and what his servants said about him in the letters later on. Don't let someone move you away from Jesus' good news just because it sounds so good.

Why? Read the end of Jeremiah 5:31 "...but what will you do when the end comes?"

Jesus is coming back and he will hold us all accountable for the truth - his truth. Will you be ready?

Pastor Tom

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Where Does God Dwell?

If I asked you the question: "where does God live?" you would probably answer "in heaven, silly!" and you'd be right. But I want to point out something you may not have realized from Isaiah:

Isaiah 57:15 "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

Now isn't that cool? Yes, God does live in heaven, a dimension we cannot exist in unless we are like God: holy and pure. But how do we get that way? How are we prepared to enter the dimension of heaven? We get it by being lowly and contrite - repentant for our failures in other words.

You see, our flesh, our human nature, has fooled us into thinking that acting in certain ways is beneficial to us. In reality, anything that is outside of the character of God is evil and destructive. Ever told a lie, even one? If so you have done something evil. We are, in fact, evil by nature.

But as God has revealed Himself to humanity through His Word, the Bible, we begin to realize how far from God's perfect character we are. It is then that our hearts become lowly and contrite, and it is then that God dwells near us, speaking, whispering, urging us to accept His free gift of a way back to God - through the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus.

Why does God dwell with the lowly? To revive. It suggests bringing back to life. God brings life to us who realize how far away from Him we really are. He brings us back to life and we find that He is closer than we could ever have imagined.

Pastor Tom