Make a Decision!

Today the prevailing wisdom is that everyone holds a bit of the truth. If we all get together and put our pieces together a complete picture of the truth will emerge. If a different group comes together then the truth will morph depending on what pieces they bring.

What that really means isn't that each one of us holds a bit of the truth but that each one of us holds different beliefs. When we put our beliefs together a complete picture of what we think emerges.

Truth is not really relative that way. Truth does not change that way. We may have different opinions about the truth about gravity, but that doesn't change gravity, only our perception of it.

But holding on to the idea that real truth cannot be known absolutely is a convenient way of putting off making a decision about it. Pilate said "What is truth?" He'd have fit in well today.

Here's the problem. If there was a fire in your house and you put off making a decision about whether to run until you had every one's idea about the fire you'd be dead. Putting off making a decision is making a decision.

That's why I think Joshua's words at the end of his life and his book are so key for all of us to hear.

"Choose this day whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15)

In the words of Bob Dylan "You gotta serve somebody." Don't just wait to decide whether you are going to trust that Jesus is Lord.

Listen to the eyewitness testimony of those who saw the whole thing. Not making a decision is making a decision and the house is burning.

Pastor Tom

The Easy Route or the Best Route

Joshua 17:14 "Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying, "Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the Lord has blessed me?"

Sounds like a reasonable request, doesn't it? During the occupation of the Promised Land, Joseph felt like they needed to get more land. But that would have required Joshua to give it to them from one of the other tribe's allotments. How fair would that be?

Furthermore, when Joshua probed deeper, it seems that they had plenty of land but were afraid of the "chariots of iron" employed by the people in the plain, and didn't want to go to the work of cutting down the forests in the hill country.

At times for us, God puts in front of us work to do. No, we aren't earning His favor by doing it, we are participating in the good works He created for us. But just because God wants us to do something doesn't mean it will be easy.

Sometimes we have to face the iron chariots and see the power of God fight on our behalf. Maybe there is a broken relationship that He wants you to mend, but it will take prayer and humbleness and patience.

In the end, Joshua didn't give Joseph the easy answer, he gave them the right answer by saying "You are a numerous people and have great power ... the hill country shall be yours ... you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron."

God asks us to difficult things, but He is the one who performs it, if we will just be willing to work hard with Him!

Pastor Tom

Tired of Walking Around Jericho

Joshua 6:15 "On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times."

If you were one of the men who got up on that day, and Joshua your leader told you to walk around the city of Jericho seven times - round about turn number three wouldn't you start to get a little impatient?

"Why can't we just go in and conquer the city now?" you might think. Then after the next time around you really might to start to tire and think "I won't have any strength left to fight and do God's work because I've spent all this time walking in circles!"

As you probably know, after the seventh time they blew the trumpets and God blew down the walls of the city and they destroyed it.

What "city" are you waiting to be conquered - what problem looms up against you that seems impossible? Has God told you to pray and to seek Him and to wait for His answer? You pray once and that seems like the right thing. You pray and wait again and that's okay. Right about prayer number three you begin to get a little impatient and you wonder why God couldn't have just answered the first time.

Yet another prayer and another day of waiting for God's wisdom and God moving and you think all of your strength has been used up praying and seeking when you could have just solved the problem yourself.

So what's the answer? When you find yourself getting impatient, remember that Israel had to walk around seven times - the number of completeness. God knows the right time to wait. He knows how long it will take to get His wisdom in you. He knows just the right time to answer. Trust Him. Wait for Him. Walk for Him.

Besides, a little exercise never hurt anyone!

Pastor Tom

Come Back!

Deuteronomy 27, 28, & 29 are some very scary chapters. Its just before Israel enters the Promised Land. Moses has the people stand on two mountains. The people on one mountain speak all the blessings that await those that obey the Lord. The people on the other mountain speak all the curses that await Israel if they disobey and stop following Yahweh.

We know, of course, that they did exactly that. They got into the land and thought the ways of the people there were pretty cool so they left Yahweh and followed after the Baals, and the other non-gods. And God did just what He said He would do and scattered the people to other nations.

We live in a different period but as a spiritual principal this still stands. If you love and serve God then decide you'd rather love and serve your own flesh and the ways of the world system around you seem cooler than God and will make you more prosperous, then you too will end up feeling like you've been cursed too. Paul says as much in Galatians 6 (check it out).

What is really cool, though, is this little section in chapter 30. From verse 1 though 6.

1 And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to min among all the nations where the Lord your God has drive you, and you return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes..."

He goes on to say He will gather and take you from where you are, bring you into a blessed land, make you more prosperous than before, circumcise your heart - and the result is you will love the Lord.

If you are in a place where you have walked (or run) away from the Lord and feel the effects of sowing to the flesh and reaping from the flesh corruption and you just don't think God wants to or even can restore you - remember this verse.

Call out to the Lord God. Three times Moses said the Lord your God. If you trusted in Jesus then you have a relationship with Him and He never really lets you go. He wants to gather you into His arms and cause your heart to soften and your ears to open. God wants to restore you to fellowship and make you even more blessed (in knowing Him) than ever!

It is never too late. Come back. He's been waiting.

Pastor Tom

Listen up!

Deuteronomy 18:15^(A) "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb^(B) on the day of the assembly, when you said,^(C) 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' 17And the LORD said to me,^(D) 'They are right in what they have spoken. 18^(E) I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.^(F) And I will put my words in his mouth, and^(G) he shall speak to them all that I command him. (from Biblegateway.com)

Did you know that these verses are about Jesus Christ? From time to time it is important to remind ourselves that God did not bring Jesus on the scene as a last minute plan to fix a broken humanity. Before the creation of the world God knew man would fail and so he planned to bring Jesus on the scene at just the right time.

There are a couple of wonderful things to point out about this person, whom the Jews referred to as The Prophet.

1. He is "from your brothers". Jesus was a human being, with all of the things we human have to deal with. He can identify with you.

2. We should listen to him. When God revealed himself and his character to the people of Israel they said "no more!" We really have no clue just how incredible God is, and how holy, and how much we don't measure up. They just wanted to stop up their ears. With Jesus we need to open those ears and listen to how God will make a way for us to share in his glory by giving us his very life.

Consider how long God waited to bring Jesus on the scene in order to speak the words of love God longed to speak. He is speaking those words into your life today. Listen up!

Pastor Tom

Loyal or Impressed?

As humans we seem to be hard wired to drive our lives by our five senses. We trust that which we can hear, smell, taste, see, and feel. When it comes to things that really matter, though, our senses can actually deceive us, or be deceived.

This is driven home in Deuteronomy 13:1 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign of wonder that he tells comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer or dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

Think about it. Someone comes along and makes a prophecy that is so specific that there is no way they could know unless they had supernatural knowledge, and their prophecy comes true. Or even better, they claim to be able to heal or do something incredible - and they do it!

If that person then said they had a different idea about the way of salvation, wouldn't we just flock to listen to them?

But God clearly warns us here not to do that. We need to trust with the eyes of faith, not our physical eyes. God gave us ample proof of who he was through the miracles he did for Israel and for us in Jesus Christ. If we keep demanding proof our senses can appreciate then we aren't trusting God and God isn't God of our lives anymore, we are, our senses are.

Believe what God did and said. Be loyal to Him. Trust in Him-no matter what!

Pastor Tom

Two Problems With Living in the World

As Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, God had some warnings for them. First He told them to destroy the peoples and their idols.

Deuteronomy 7:2 "And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction." This included destroying their idols and not intermarrying with them.

God warned them that if they didn't do this two things could happen. One, they could become fearful of the task and two, they could become impressed with the people and their gods.

As Christians we are told to destroy the flesh (see previous blog entry) which is anything that is of the old nature enslaved to things that are outside the character of God. As we set about to do that by the power of God's Holy Spirit the same two things can happen.

One, we can become fearful over the power of sin in our lives and the hold it has on us. Sin is a corpse that pretends to be alive. Paul said: "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:14

Secondly we can become enamored with the things of the world, the values it has, the goals it shoots for, because these were things we were trained to want.

Moses gives Israel this key to overcoming both of these obstacles.

26 You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction."

We should treat those things that are not like the Lord as detestable, not delectable. We, as regenerated people, have the option to consider the things of the world in this way. When we fail to do so is when the snares and fears of the world overcome us.

Pastor Tom

Seeking God, Sort of

If you have stopped nurturing your relationship with God, stopped being in fellowship with other believers, stopped learning about the Lord through His Word and stopped praying it is like not watering a plant. It looks okay for a while but then begins to wither.

Further, if you decide instead of loving God to love the things in the world around you - the lure of wealth, beauty, worldly wisdom, and power - you begin to develop a new strength, a strength against serving God all the more.

That kind of thinking is pretty common and very short term. Thinking on an eternal level, what will all those things do for you in a place where they don't matter any more?

So perhaps you find yourself convicted and think "you know, I need to get back to my relationship with God." So you go to church a little more, you pray a little bit, maybe you even crack open your Bible now and again. But you still serve those other things which have become gods to you.

Moses actually has some sage advice out of Deuteronomy 4:29

"But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Half hearted efforts at returning to God will only bear half hearted results. Search for the Lord and let it be with everything within you. I promise if you look, you'll find Him because He was right there all along, just waiting for you to give up on worthless things and seek something eternal: a relationship with Him.

Pastor Tom

Making War on the Flesh

Numbers 31 has the story of Israel's first real battle as they near the Promised Land. God tells them to fight and destroy Midian. "Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian." (3)

Remember that Midian was the nation that wanted Balaam to curse Israel. He couldn't, of course, but what they couldn't accomplish by cursing they accomplished by temptation. In chapter 25 the people invited them to worship with their gods and Israel fell into idolatry and sexual immorality.

The thought I had about this, and the war God declared on them, involves the flesh. God is about to do great things through Israel, but first the agent of their downfall into sin must be done away with.

Paul the Apostle later said: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Romans 8:13)

Ask the Holy Spirit today to make war on that which tempts you to sin.

Pastor Tom

Impatience

Numbers 21:4 "From Mount Hor they set out by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we loathe this worthless bread."

Do you ever find yourself impatient on your journey with the Lord? You've been brought out of slavery to sin and set on a course to a known destination but through unknown territory (this life). We have God's Word to chew on which brings us encouragement and challenge. But sometimes do you grow tired of "eating" the same food over and over?

And when life throws you a curve and you are scared or lonely or discouraged, do you think to yourself, "Why did I even come to Jesus if this is how my life is going to be? I was better off before."

When Israel expressed this to the Lord a plague broke out. Moses had to build a bronze serpent so that when the people looked at it they were healed of the snake bites.

For us, we need to remind ourselves that in Egypt (our sinful state) we were as good as dead from a poisonous snake. But Jesus rescued and healed us. His Word nourishes, even when we don't understand it all.

What Israel didn't realize when they complained and grew impatient was that they were about to experience great victory over the Amorites. Perhaps you are feeling impatient because the Lord is about to do a big thing in your life and the enemy is trying to distract you by having you focus on what's going on with you, instead of what is going on with God through you.

So look up to the serpent on the tree (Jesus), find new recipes for enjoying His Word, and look forward instead of backward to what new adventures lie ahead and what victories He has in store for you just around the corner!

Pastor Tom

Wrath Doesn't Matter

In my last blog I talked about Numbers 11 and how the people didn't seem concerned about coming close to God and the dangers that came with it. Many of them died in a fire as a result.

The theme continues in Numbers 16. The story of Korah's rebellion is pretty famous. Some of the Levites decided they were as "holy" as Moses (as if that had anything to do with why God was using Moses). The bottom sort of dropped out from under their argument (vs 31) and they fell from grace (so to speak).

So what I find interesting is what happened next. After God clearly said that it is His choice who He uses and puts into authority, the people "grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of the Lord." (vs 42).

God's glory appeared in the cloud over the Tent of Meeting and immediately a plague started breaking out among the people. If it were not for Aaron and Moses interceding, all the people would have died. As it was some 14,700 lost their lives.

So after the fire, after the glory, after the plagues - no one among the children of Israel seems all that worried about the wrath of God. That actually trying to approach God and relate to Him on a personal level without the proper covering was a truly dangerous undertaking.

The truth is that God is holding back. One day he will destroy evil and anything that belongs to it. It's not anger in the sense that we think of. God is not vindictive and vengeful. But He is pure. He will take this dimension back and when he does His mere presence will wipe out anything not clean.

As I've said numerous times, thanks be to God for providing that cleansing Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. Let's just not make the mistake Israel made and underestimate the presence of God and the wrath of God. Wrath does matter!

Pastor Tom

God is Dangerous

Numbers 10 - 15 is full of great stories. The quail, Miriam turning leprous, the spies in the land, and all that.

But there is a little story tucked away in the beginning of chapter 11 that I want to focus on.

11:1 "And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp"

Hebrews says "our God is a consuming fire." I think we forget how actually true that is. As the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they had the opportunity to have a relationship with the God of the universe. That is easier said than done.

Due to our own evil we are tainted, and approaching a God who is completely good is not as easy as just drawing back the flaps of a tent and saying "Hey God, how ya doin'?" Good, real good, cannot exist with evil. Or let me put it this way, evil, real evil, is destroyed in the presence of real good.

So as the people draw near to God, their transgressions begin to show and the goodness of God begins to have an affect, namely fire breaking out and destroying some of them. To draw close required a blood sacrifice, and later, THE blood sacrifice of Jesus. They simply couldn't come near in their present state and even living near God was perilous.

We just should not forget the difficult way Jesus opened for us. Being washed by His blood so that we can come to God and call Him Papa at any time is the most wonderful thing ever!

Pastor Tom

Come if you are Unclean

God was very strict in the old covenant about the fact that you had to be clean ceremonially. Leviticus is full of restrictions, one of which was touching a dead body. If you touched a dead body you couldn't participate in the spiritual life of Israel until you had been made clean again, which involved washing and waiting.

So then I come upon Numbers 9. It says "6 And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day."

The men come to Moses and want to know why they couldn't celebrate. So Moses asks God and, surprisingly, God says "10 ... if any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord."

Passover, of course, is a wonderful picture of the fact that God "passed over" us in pouring out His wrath against evil. He did this after we applied the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to the doorposts of our hearts.

God says that even if you are unclean and feel unworthy to come to Jesus, or even if you have wandered far away from Him, don't let that be a barrier to coming to Him.

"And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take water of life without price." Revelation 22:17

Pastor Tom

Blemishes

Leviticus 21 talks about the importance of holiness in the priesthood. The Lord instructed Moses that "no one who has a blemish shall draw near." (18).

It goes on to talk about what constitutes a blemish: defects in sight, hunchback, injured foot, even dwarfs couldn't come and minister before the Lord as a priest.

Now we could get into a huge discussion over what this means, and why if God is so worried about external physical deformities why isn't he worried about internal sinful attitudes? (He is, in fact).

But I wanted to point out something that is actually kind of cool. Look at verse 22:

"He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things."

The blemished can share in the benefits of the priesthood, even though they couldn't go in themselves to minister. So what does this mean to us?

Now I don't want to get too deeply into this theologically, but even as the priesthood was a picture of Jesus' sacrifice for us, we, the blemished, are not worthy to go into the Holy of Holies. Only Jesus is worthy.

But we, who are blemished by sin, can still benefit from the fellowship and sacrifice of Jesus. If you feel like you have a defect and just aren't worthy of fellowshipping with God, don't worry. Through Jesus even us who have blemishes can still partake of His sacrifice and the fellowship with God that it brings.

Pastor Tom

We Didn't Do It!

I was reading about the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. It is a special day in the Jewish year when the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies and makes atonement for the sins of the people.

Without going into great detail (there is tons of symbolism here) I wanted to point out just two small details.

One is this: "No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly or Israel." (17).

Then I noticed this verse as well: "and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you." (29-30)

As you may know, the Day of Atonement pictures the day of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. While the blood of bulls and rams "atoned" for the people's sins, it was only temporary and it was a picture of the one atonement for all time.

We've been studying John at church and how all Jesus' disciples scattered after his arrest. He faced the cross utterly alone, just as Aaron went in alone to the Holy Place. And more than that, all the people basically had to just sit and wait. They could not work, they had to pause and wait for the atonement.

Even with us, we cannot do anything to bring about the atonement (payment) for our evil. This atonement is "made for you" you didn't make it yourself. You can't do any work that can aid in Jesus paying the price for your sin.

Let us pause a little and remember THE High Priest, entering by himself into the Holy Place to offer His own blood as the one and only sacrifice.

Pastor Tom

Getting Spots Out

If you have ever read Leviticus 13 and 14 you have learned a lot about leprosy. Too much, in fact. The Law goes on and on and on in tremendous detail about how to spot skin disease--shutting people up here and pulling down the stones of houses there. It's mind numbing actually.

When a person at that time had any kind of skin lesion or eruption or boil they had to go to the priest repeatedly to have it inspected. The priest would have to check to see if the hair in the eruption was black, white, or yellow. Depending on what was happening they would have to come back and back.

If someone actually got healed from leprosy the many sacrifices and rituals they had to go through are amazing. And even after they are clean they can come back into the camp but not into their tent for a week. What if it got cold?

So then I got to thinking about what leprosy often represents: sin. According to Romans 5:12 sin, like a leprous disease, spread to us all through Adam's rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden. Not only do we have the disease but it erupts on our lives as we act on what we are and do evil.

And sin, like leprosy, is very difficult to get rid of. It seems like we clean up our act in one area and then, poof, sin crops up in another. You know the old saying, "A leopard can't change his spots," well we can't change who we are: leprous. The only way out of sin is to die. You can wash your life all you want but sin will not go away on its own.

So as Paul said "who can deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25).

Today let's rejoice that even though we were stricken with a hard to get rid of disease - we also have a cure: dieing and living again through Jesus Christ, whose blood is the only cure for the leprosy of sin.

Pastor Tom

Consumed!

In Exodus 9 there is this great story after Aaron and his sons were ordained as priests. All these sacrifices were offered and blood applied to their ears and thumbs and big toes. So then in verse 24 it says, "And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces."

Cool, huh?

So then in just the next verse we see the same thing happen, only not in a good way. Nadab and Abihu, Moses' sons, "each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord."

Not so cool.

Now I don't want to get into all the intricate details about what was going on here, but suffice it to say that these boys were trying to worship God in a way God had not commanded, going against what they should have known.

I think it is an interesting contrast. In both cases fire came out from the Lord. In one it consumed the sacrifice, on the other it consumed the worshiper.

Here's the thing that struck me. This is in a way a picture of what is going to happen on a universal scale. A cleansing will take place, a cleansing by fire. God will break out and His wrath will consume anything that is not pure.

In the first case He consumes the sacrifice, just as His wrath consumed the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who bore that wrath so that we don't have to. God accepted that offering as payment for all our evil.

But if we try to come before God in a way that He did not command (and doing the work of God is believing in His Son - John 6:28) then it is us that will be judged. We cannot just make up our own deal and call it "worship" and think it can be accepted. This isn't a play or a game. This is serious business. Evil is evil and needs to be judged. I just don't want to be judged along with it so I take Jesus' sacrifice as payment and cleansing from my evil and now I wouldn't think of coming before God outside of Jesus.

These boys apparently took approaching God lightly. They don't now. And neither should we.

Pastor Tom

Putting Sin to Death

We were having a discussion in our Tuesday morning men's Bible discussion meeting on Romans 6. One of the guys asked about the concept of putting to death the old man (that part of us that is controlled by sin).

In Romans 6 it talks about that old self being crucified with Christ. But it is hard to imagine us up on the cross when in reality we still walk around on the earth.

So then I was in Leviticus 3:2 today and thought of a good way to picture it. In the days of animal sacrifices (before Jesus became the only and only true sacrifice for sin) people would bring a goat or a bull or whatever to the Tent of Meeting.

They would then lay their hands on the head of the animal. This was a picture of transferring their sin onto the animal. Then the priest would take the animal from their hands and slit its throat. As it bled and died, so too did their sin get washed away (on credit, mind you, until Jesus came).

Romans tells us that we no longer have to sin because the power that sin had over us has been destroyed on the cross. To help us picture that process, think about your sin nature as a goat. You place your hands on it, it is you in your former self. Then that goat dies and along with it is your desire to sin.

In Jesus you don't have to do things that are outside of God's character any more. You are free now to become a slave of right things. You can do anything you want, but you only want to do those things that please God.

The next time you are tempted to sin, think of your hands on that goat and the goat dieing right in front of you. That idea of sinning can't move now. It's dead.

Then lift your eyes to the risen Savior Jesus and listen instead to his call to serve in newness of life!

Pastor Tom

Misunderstanding God

The story of the golden calf in Exodus 31 is pretty bizarre. Moses is up on the mountain talking to God and the people come to Aaron and say "Up, make us gods who shall go before us." At least they knew that they needed something beyond themselves to survive. But where were they when the Lord parted the Red Sea? "Make us gods"? I'm sure.

So Aaron tells them to take off their earrings and he fashions them into an idol. (Of course later he claims that he threw the gold into the fire and out popped a calf - I'm sure!).

So what is interesting to me is Aaron's response to the people. He says to them "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." (5). Aaron actually thought that he was worshiping Yahweh (that's what the LORD means) by making an idol of gold and bowing down to it.

It wasn't that the people and Aaron wanted to abandon Yahweh, they just created their own ideas about God in the absence of clear direction.

That didn't make it right, and the people suffered because of their disobedience. Though why Aaron doesn't suffer I still don't know.

But anyway - here's my point. We can be really sincere and really want to know God and serve him with excitement and fervor. But if we don't have clear direction about who He is, serving the creation of our own mind is just the same as creating a calf out of gold and bowing down to it.

And what is the clear direction about God that we have received? His Word and His Son. Just as God came down to the mountain and gave Moses the Law, Jesus came down from heaven and gave us grace and mercy through His death.

Don't think that just worshiping the god of your (or anyone else's) mind is enough. It isn't.

Pastor Tom

Hear the Call?

There's this little verse in Exodus 27: 3 "You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with the spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments to consecrate him for my priesthood."

In Old Covenant days God filled individuals with the Holy Spirit at specific times for specific things. Since Jesus returned to the Father, the Holy Spirit is now poured out on everyone who relies on the name of Jesus and has a relationship with Him.

God gives gifts to us to further His kingdom. God will "anoint" your skills to make them useful for Him.

Maybe this is splitting hairs a little, but God could have just put it on the hearts of those He filled to step forward. Instead he encouraged Moses to make an announcement and left it up to the individual to respond.

Today in the body of Christ there are ample opportunities to use those skills God has given you to further His kingdom. If you are part of a local body you have likely heard numerous calls for help. If it is in an area where God has "skilled" you, why not answer the call, step up and become part of something wonderful.

It doesn't have to be something spectacular or flashy. None of the embroiders got to sew their initials into Aaron's garments. The signature was God. He can sign your work too.

Pastor Tom

The Core

I was in Exodus 21-25 today. It's some of the first details of the law God gave to the children of Israel to guide them as they lived life free from the bondage of slavery in Egypt.

One of the first things that hit me was how much of our laws today are based on the values expressed in these chapters.

Okay, so none of us have oxen that might gore someone else's slave and we probably don't open up pits in our backyards, but as I was thinking about the overarching themes some things struck out at me.

There seemed to be three qualities of character that covered most of the situations mentioned.

Fidelity

Honesty

Equity

Fidelity means faithfulness. Are we faithful to our God, not worshiping others? Are we faithful to our families and to our jobs and to our neighbors and friends?

Honesty is just that. Tell the truth always and encourage truth telling. Be honest with others as you deal with them in business and in life.

Equity means fairness. Give others a good deal and expect a fair shake from them. Treat other's things with care and consideration and don't mistreat anyone.

Now, of course, these are great ideals but if we can't perform on them they won't help us much. It is only by having the life of the person who gave us these ideals inside of us that we can be this way. That life only comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor Tom

Short Term - Long Term

When we read Exodus 16 and 17, when the children of Israel continually grumbled against the Lord after He brought them out of Egypt we tend to think: "What's wrong with these people, why can't they see that God is taking care of them?"

When the people needed rescue from a tyrant, God brought them out with the strong hand. When they needed water in a dry place, He brought it forth from a rock. When they needed sustenance He gave them manna, and when they needed military victory over their enemies He gave them the ability to win supernaturally.

Yet it seemed that just as one victory or blessing passed, they grumbled again at the next trial. I personally think we are a lot more like Israel than we'd like to admit. When something goes wrong and we cry out to God and He answers we are grateful, but only until the next trial comes and then we say "God you must not love me."

So what is going on? I think it is the difference of short term experience vs long term reliance. Israel's problem was that they couldn't see around the next bend and so were afraid. God had come through but they didn't put the pieces together that God loved them not just today but always and would care for them today and always.

We see today's trial and panic. God sees the long term care and sometimes allows short term trials in order to build long term reliance on Him. Try to picture your life, not like today's crisis, but like reading through the book of Exodus, seeing the episodes build up in your life where God comes through for His glory and your benefit over and over. Build that long term trust over short term satisfaction.

Pastor Tom

What's This Mean?

During the account of God bringing Israel out of Egypt after 430 years there are three places where God specifically talks about passing on the meaning of certain things:

Putting blood on the doorposts and lintel 12:27 "It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt..."

No unleavened bread: 13:8 "It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt."

Firstborn belong to the LORD: 13:14 "By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery."

I just thought it was neat in light of what the Passover really means - our passing from death to life through the blood of THE Lamb of God Jesus Christ.

We "apply" the sacrifice of Jesus on the doorposts and lintels of our heart when we rely on Jesus to protect us from the wrath of God poured out on sin ("the wages of sin is death"). This sacrifice "washes" us clean from sin (leaven being a type of sin) and this is something "the LORD did for me" we didn't do it for ourselves. The result is we, having been spared wrath and rescued from sin belong to the LORD.

Let's rejoice in that reality today!

Pastor Tom

Why Don't They Listen?

Do you ever wonder why people seem so deaf to the gospel? You try to live your life as a believer in the open where people can see your faith. When asked you are free to talk about Jesus and sometimes you might even venture to open up a conversation about the Lord.

But some people act as if you are speaking a foreign language. They look at you like you are a crazy or deluded person who has no sense. And yet you know that we as humans have evil inside of us that we can get rid of by ourselves and that we need a perfect rescuer to make us clean. You know that the only person ever to qualify was Jesus Christ. You love Him and want others to as well.

So I found a little clue as to people's attitudes in Exodus.

In chapter 6 God tells Moses to let the children of Israel know they are about to be rescued from Egypt. But when he tells them this is says "but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery."

I find that interesting. All the years under Pharaoh's thumb had broken their will to believe that anything good could ever happen. And the time spent as a slave, though terrible, was the devil they knew.

Some people have gotten used to being without God. Life is always going to be hard and there will never be anything really good that happens so why get my hopes up. Like a person kidnapped and sent into slavery to sin, they become comfortable in their condition because it is a survival mechanism.

So I guess we just need to understand it, let the miracle of Jesus new life slowly sink through the hardened layers until they realize that rescue is possible. That all they need do is open one ear and their heart and Egypt will be no more!

Pastor Tom

Who's is it Anyway?

I'm always fascinated by the story of Moses and the burning bush found in Exodus 3-4. Moses is just walking along, minding his own business when he sees a bush burning and decides to check it out. That ends up being a huge divergence of his life path.

You know the story, I wanted to focus on just one aspect of it. God tells Moses to go back and tell Pharaoh to let His people go. Moses says "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant." In other words - I wasn't a good speaker before I met you, Mr. Burning Bush, and you haven't exactly given me a radio announcer voice while I've been standing here.

Look at what God says: "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth..."

Earlier God asked Moses what he had in his hand (a staff). God told Moses to throw down his staff and it became a snake. This was to be one of the signs Moses would show Pharaoh.

At the end of chapter 4 God says "And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs." Then in chapter 5 "And Moses took the staff of God in his hand."

So what's going on here? What started out as Moses' staff becomes the "staff of God" after Moses threw it down. What was Moses' voice became the voice of God (through Aaron as his personal PA system).

The point is this: that God made your voice and has placed things in your hand - talents, gifts, desires. If you recognize that they can be used by God no matter how small and that they actually were created by God for His use - it is amazingly freeing to just let God take you and use you without worry about not being good enough.

Pastor Tom

Here's What We Don't Know

When God told Jacob to head down to Egypt in Genesis 46 it feels as if God isn't being totally honest. He tells Jacob "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again."

What God didn't tell Jacob was that after a honeymoon period the entire nation would be subject to slavery and oppression and genocide.

Do you sometimes think you hear God's direction, you follow it, and then you get into difficulty? Do you feel like God wasn't being completely honest with you to reveal the troubles that lie in that path He has you on?

Well, for one thing, I think Jacob probably wouldn't have gone if God had told him all that (and he actually had told Abram what was going to happen). For us it can be a comfort not knowing all the trials we are going to face because we probably wouldn't do half the things God tells us to do (I have some recent experience in that department).

But here's the deal. God was transforming a small clan into a mighty nation. He was also laying the foundation to be more than just an acquaintance but a God to these people. To do that work he had to bring them into slavery then rescue them out. Sometimes God has a mighty work to do through us but He first must do a mighty work in us.

The most important thing in Jacob's vision is this "I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again." As long as God is with us and as long as He is working in the situation then being led by God into trouble isn't such a bad thing after all.

Pastor Tom

Passing it Down

I'll bet none of you regularly do devotions in Genesis 36. No, it's not the part about Joseph's dreams. That's in chapter 37. Chapter 36 lists the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother.

Esau, if you remember, threatened to kill Jacob after his brother "stole" the birthright and the blessing from him. It led Jacob on a run back to his grandfather's home town where he married Leah and Rachel. On his way back Jacob so feared Esau's wrath that he sent a huge gift ahead of him and broke up the camp into two pieces hoping one piece would escape the slaughter.

Esau wasn't as angry anymore (at least he didn't show it) but Jacob didn't trust his brother and lived apart from him.

So now comes Esau's kids. Two names strike out at me: Edom and Amalek. Do these names sound familiar? The Edomites and Amalekites were sworn enemies of Israel and had to be wiped off the face of the earth.

I point this out because I think that somehow the anger of Esau got passed down to his kids and grand kids and so forth until it worked its way into the very fabric of the people. I think that it is important as parents and mentors to pay attention to those things in our lives that do not reflect the character of God. If they are persistent and pervasive they will have a tendency to get passed along to your kids and those around you that you influence.

It's not a one to one ratio - just because you got angry once doesn't mean you will have angry kids. But just pay attention to the trends. If there are things you are doing a lot that God wouldn't do, then change your mind about it, ask God's forgiveness and then cleansing.

The good news is that the things you do often that do reflect God's character get passed along too.

Pastor Tom

Whose Work Is It Anyway?

Do you remember the story of Abraham's servant going to get a wife for his son Isaac?

It's a pretty cool story. As the servant arrives at the well at Nahor he prays "O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today." (Genesis 24:12)

He asks for some pretty specific signs that the woman is the one God has chosen for Isaac - and the prayer is answered!

I've sometimes thought, wouldn't it be cool if we could ask for signs like that and that wherever we went God would guide us. Now I'm not saying that God wouldn't do that but I thought of one interesting aspect to this story that might inform us as we want God to answer our requests in the way he did this servant's.

The difference is that this guy got nothing out of it except the satisfaction that he was doing his master's bidding. He was a servant sent on a mission by his master. Is that not us as well? The Bible tells us that we are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). When we go out we are doing our master's bidding and do we really get anything out of it except the satisfaction of knowing we are bringing glory to God?

Food for thought.

Pastor Tom

Circumcision

This is a bit of an unusual post so kids, avert your eyes!

I was reading about God's covenant with Abram. The sign of that covenant was circumcision, the cutting away of the male foreskin.

I know there are lots of spiritual symbols for this, and the New Testament counterpart is baptism. But I got to thinking about why this act to represent God's agreement with man?

Three things hit me: God is taking over man's strength (in his ability to reproduce), he is striking at man's most vulnerable area, and it is an intimate place that almost no one sees.

In that way, God is saying "I am your strength, you must rely on me, and I will have a deep relationship with you that no one else will have."

Do you feel that way in your relationship with Him? Is he your strength, are you vulnerable before him and do you feel that intimate relationship with him, spending time with him, sharing your inmost thoughts and desires?

Might be a good idea!

Pastor Tom

Who Are You Afraid Of?

If you have read the Bible very much you know Jesus' famous statement about fearing God more than man (Matthew 10:28). But have you ever thought about fearing God and fearing man?

I bring this up after reading Genesis 12 where Abram has just believed God and gone to the Promised Land. That land didn't hold much promise for him then and a famine forced him to go to Egypt. There Abram decided that because Sarai was so good looking he would say she was his sister not his wife.

That got Abram, Sarai, and Pharaoh into a lot of trouble.

And I wonder. Abram feared God but he also feared man. Many times we get the fear God part right and we want to do what pleases God, but then we end up fearing man and wanting to look good in the world's eyes as well.

Had Abram been honest and not cared what the Egyptians felt he would have risked a lot as the Egyptians could have killed Abram and taken Sarai. But it would have provided a great opportunity for Abram to not only fear God but also trust him to protect his family and also get glory.

Pastor Tom

Waiting for Rain

Do you ever anticipate something happening and it never seems to? In Genesis 7:1 "Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household." Noah obeyed got and went on board. Then nothing. I mean nothing. It isn't until verse 10 that we read "And after seven days, the waters of the flood came up on the earth."

So what was that week like for Noah. Did his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law begin to talk quietly among the stalls? Did they give Noah strange looks while glancing up at the dry sky? Did Noah wonder to himself "how long am I supposed to wait here?"

Noah didn't know that it was going to be a week before the flood. All he knew was to get on the boat. Many times we send up a prayer to God and he tells us to wait and we want to know "how long?" So often we simply don't know how we are going to have to wait.

But knowing the "when" wasn't as important as trusting in the "who" - that is Yahweh. If you are anxiously awaiting something to happen or a prayer to be answered. If you know Jesus then you know the Father has heard and will answer in His time. And isn't that better than our time anyway?

Pastor Tom

Touching the Tree

I was going through the first five chapters of Genesis and was thinking about Eve's encounter with the Serpent in chapter 3.

I find it interesting when Eve is asked about what God said about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that she said God told them not to touch it. He didn't actually say that at all.

God said not to eat from the tree or they would die. Why would Eve add that? I wonder if perhaps she had been thinking about the tree and about what it would be like just to touch the fruit, not eat it of course, but just touch it to see what it felt like.

For us, contemplating sin is often what gets us to fall for the enemy's temptations. We can't imagine ourselves actually doing that thing we know is wrong, but we imagine what it might be like to be close to doing it, to just feel what the options would be like if we were "free" to do that.

Doing things that are against God's character isn't actually freeing at all but enslaving, but that doesn't stop us from contemplating touching the forbidden fruit.

My encouragement to us is to stop it there. When the thoughts come, arrest them and throw them out by the power of the Spirit.

Pastor Tom

The Holy Spirit Revisited

Greetings! I know its been a full two months since I posted on this blog. I promise to be more faithful and am about to start my journey through the Scriptures again in Genesis so look for more posts soon!

We were studying John 14:15-31 at church this Sunday and I just felt I should those of you who read this blog to check out the teaching notes. I think that for many of us Christians we misunderstand the role of the Holy Spirit. We think of the "power of the Spirit" facing outwards - doing miracles, using the gifts of the Spirit, that sort of thing.

But what we forget is that the real power of the Spirit is focused into the life of the believer - transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. Then, as we become more like Jesus, we face out to a world that has rejected Him and using the power of the Spirit through a transformed character, we reach out, sometimes in miraculous ways.

So before you read Acts 2, read John 15 and 16. Before asking the Spirit to move through you, ask the Spirit to move in you. Sense his power changing your life from the inside out - reminding you of sin, of Jesus, and of who is really worthy of glory (Him, not us).

Here is a link to the study notes if you'd like to learn more.

Pastor Tom

They Never Gave Up

Just a short thought today. I was reading John chapter 19. It says "38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission."

I was just thinking how this man who had a lot to lose by following Jesus, comes out of the closet after Jesus' death and goes very public about his faith - going to Pilate to ask for Jesus body.

You would think that this man, who did not stand up for Jesus as a disciple when He was alive, certainly would not do so after his death. It was over. Shouldn't Joseph have just shrugged his shoulders and gone back to being just a member of the ruling council?

But he didn't. No matter what path being a disciple of Jesus led him on, Joseph followed. Let's ponder that today.

Pastor Tom

Fruit

Jesus made a very familiar statement in John 15:5 "Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit."

I got to thinking about fruit today. When we think of fruit what comes to mind? I think about activity. If we are a busy person then we are bearing much fruit. I think about success. If a lot of people know all the things we are doing then we are fruitful. I think about prestige. If people respect us for all the activity then we are bearing fruit.

Then I got to thinking about what Jesus actually said and two things come to mind.

The first is that he is pretty definite that if we have his life then we WILL bear fruit. That's a promise. It's cause and effect. It is a foregone conclusion. So what fruit should we look for?

It's found in verse 12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." He also told us to love our enemies and pray for those who spitefully use us.

I'm beginning to think that fruit isn't what we do as much as who we are. Paul the Apostle said that fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control (Galatians 5:22).

If we abide in him as the vine then his life force is flowing through us, changing us into his image. As you look for fruit in your life, don't look for activity and accomplishment, but look for love - love for those you normally would not, should not, love. Look for character, not activity.

Pastor Tom

Snakehandling

That title got your attention, didn't it? Our men's Bible discussion group talked about something today that I think is worthy of repeating here in this space. We were going through Acts 28 where Paul the Apostle is on the island of Malta. As he is throwing wood on the fire a snake comes out and bites him. The islanders think that Justice (with a capital "J") has not let Paul get away with murder so sent a snake to bite him. When nothing happens they suddenly change their minds and think he is a god instead. How fickle the human heart.

But what we talked about was how this verse dovetails with Mark 16:18 "They will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them..."

I know that verse doesn't appear in the earliest manuscripts, and I'm not here to debate whether it should or shouldn't be in the Bible. But some people believe it should be there and, in fact, use that verse along with Acts 28 to justify the practice of picking up deadly snakes to "prove" this verse accurate.

Some of you may have seen a news show segment some years ago that showed a snake handlers meeting where a guy picks up a snake, it bites him, then we watch as the guy swells up and dies. It's an image that still haunts me.

It is troubling to watch someone die and for such a useless cause. It also seems to give Christianity a bad name as well. So the guys were talking about it and one guy mentioned that it is a matter of the heart.

Basically, Paul was going about doing God's business for God's glory. It wasn't time for him to go home (tradition says he was beheaded later on) so until then God protected him from the snake and everything else (though he sure got beat up a lot. Hmmm). When someone purposefully picks up something like a snake, or puts themselves into a situation where bad will happen without divine intervention who is the focus? Isn't it on the person, not on God? And if nothing happens who gets the glory? The person, not the Lord.

Now in Paul's case they tried to make him out to be a god. Paul just ignored that and went about letting the Lord show his power by healing the islanders. The word to us is not to test God (like Lucifer tried to get Jesus to do by throwing himself off the pinnacle of the Temple) but to trust that God will take us where we need to be and protect us until it is time for us to go home.

Watch out for testing God's goodness or protection. Just know that it is there when you need it as long as you are focusing the glory on Him and doing what he tells you to do.

Pastor Tom

The Choice To Serve

The more money we have, and the more power we have, the more we can afford to have other people do things for us. It's just a fact of life. If you make enough you can have servants do the cleaning and cooking and ordering and arranging - all those pesky little details that keep us from doing things we really want to do.

Now, I'm not dissing having a butler or a maid. But I think that to a certain extent, that mindset follows with us when it comes to life in our real family - the family of God. We come to faith in Jesus Christ and most of us join a church where we are fed, encouraged, prayed for, challenged, and worship (if you won't belong to a church, why not? - And don't tell me its because Christians are hypocrites. There are no perfect churches. Just pick the one that offends you the least and join it!).

What happens though is that the more power we get, the more prestige, the more people look up to us, the more we start wanting others to do work for us. You know, those pesky little details like cleaning and cooking and ordering and arranging and all that.

I just want to challenge you today to think about the words of Jesus - the most important person in the universe.

Luke 22:25 "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves."

Choosing the role of servant can be very humbling, and perhaps that's the point. The God we serve is very humble and shows us that the way to his character is to serve, not be served. So don't be afraid to dive in there and do the menial tasks around your church. And that includes coming alongside and supporting those that you might not normally associate with. Find out there needs, help them practically and spiritually.

Pastor Tom

Use or Be Used

Luke 12:15 "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions."

Notice that Jesus did not say "be on your guard against all possessions." It's not wrong to own things, it is wrong when things own you. It's not wrong to have possessions but it is wrong when those possessions possess you.

Think about it this way. If you lost everything in a flood or fire would you be lost? Where do you get your satisfaction? Where does your real source come from? Where is your heart?

Things are tools. Use tools to accomplish God's will instead of getting God to give you things to accomplish yours! It's not things that is the problem but greed. Greed says "I've gotta have this to be happy." The heart walking with the Spirit says "I've gotta have God to be happy."

Jesus gives us the key later in the same chapter: "29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you."

Pastor Tom

Moving Mountains Out of Love

There's a story in Luke 7 that hit me afresh today. In it, Jesus is walking along and sees a funeral procession. The people are carrying the coffin of a man who was the only son of a woman who was now a widow.

13 "And he had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep."

Then he proceeded to stop the procession, lay his hands on the coffin and resuscitate the young man.

I notice two things about this. The first is the power of Jesus. He decided to do something and he just said some words and it happened. I recently lost a loved one and have been hit full in the face of the power of death to take someone. Yet death is nothing to Jesus. What power this guy had - and has over anything, everything you face.

The second thing I notice is that the guy had nothing to do with this. Jesus felt compassion for this woman who was left alone with no companionship and no support. His heart reached out to her and so he raised her son from the dead. Jesus might not raise your loved one from the dead and he may not solve your problem in a second, but realize that he has compassion on you. He knows where you hurt and wants to reach out with his power to touch that hurting part of you with his love. Isn't that cool?

Pastor Tom

Revealer of Thoughts

I was reading through the first five chapters of Luke's gospel and the story of Simeon really leaped out at me. Simeon is almost a footnote in the account of Christ's life. He appears on the scene and disappears when Jesus is but 8 days old. His parents have come to have him dedicated at the Temple.

Simeon is described as "righteous and devout" and was promised by the Holy Spirit that he would see the Messiah before he died.

Now right in his very arms is this little baby that will be the savior, not only of Israel, but of the whole world. His words are strange, though, and not what I would have expected for such a momentous occasion.

In part he said: "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed ... so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35)

What had to fall was a corrupt and no longer valid religious system of Judaism and what had to rise was the one Person that all it was supposed to point to anyway - Jesus Himself. He was certainly opposed by the leaders of the Jews, and murdered in the end.

But what I find most interesting is this idea that "thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." You know if you think about Jesus very much, if you read his words, if you consider his actions while on earth, its hard for something to not strike a nerve. Hating is the same as murder, you must believe in Me or be eternally separated from God, I came that they might have life, and that more abundantly.

What do your thoughts do when you hear his words? Do they soar or do they plummet? Do you get angry or do you become joyful? Do you want to hear more or do you want to turn away?

Sometimes Jesus reveals our thoughts not to condemn us but to challenge us to look deeper, see what He is really all about for each of us. You might think that you are one of the ones to "fall" but if you seek him with your heart you may find you are "rising" after all - rising to meet him and give your life to him to he will give his abundant life to you!

Pastor Tom

It's Really Pretty Simple

People love to get into philosophical and theological and religious discussions about things. What I love about Jesus is that he can boil things down to the really important stuff very easily.

Take the little encounter he has with one of the scribes in Mark 12. The scribe had heard Jesus answer well in an argument that the religious leaders of Israel had with Jesus so he asks him "which commandment is the most important of all?" (Mark 12:28).

I love Jesus' answer: "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' (29-31)

Boiled down to its essence, Jesus is saying:

Recognize God for who He is, love him, and let his love flow through you to others.

It couldn't be more simple. It's too bad we humans muck it up so much. I guess that's why we need the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives to do what we are incapable of.

Pastor Tom

Pulling Jesus Aside

I love Peter. He just was so open and honest, no matter what dumb thing came out of his mouth! In Mark's gospel Jesus has just made one of the most remarkable declarations in Scripture - that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

But just as Jesus is telling his guys what it really means to be Messiah - that he will be murdered but rise from the dead - Peter pulls him aside to correct him a little.

Mark 8:32 "And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

Now while I don't think that Jesus was calling Peter Satan I think that Satan's way would have been to short circuit the real work of the Messiah in order to keep men like Peter from being regenerated.

My point today though is to ask ourselves: do you ever get the urge when God speaks something into your life through his word or that still small voice to correct the Lord a little? "God you can't really mean to give sacrificially to your work" or "Lord you don't want me to humble myself before this low life person and ask for their forgiveness, do you?"

God will never ask us to do anything that goes against his character or his word but he will ask us to do things that make us uncomfortable and will push us well beyond our limits. When you get the urge to pull God aside and tell him to mellow out, just think of Peter and make sure you have in mind God's plan, not yours!

Pastor Tom

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

Did you know that there is only one sin that cannot be forgiven? Jesus made that statement in Mark.

Mark 3:28 "Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin."

Now that's a verse with a wallop! What did Jesus mean? Did he mean that if you say bad things about the Holy Spirit then you won't be forgiven? Lots of people believe that. I don't think that follows in line with God's plan of salvation.

We get a clue from reading the next statement: "for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

In short, I believe that blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is saying that the person and work of God's Holy Spirit in saving the world through Jesus Christ is either worthless or worse yet a ploy of Satan.

You see, in the end it all comes down to whether you are related to Jesus or not. You can only become related to him if you put your trust and confidence in Him as your Lord and Savior.

In Matthew 7:23 Jesus makes it pretty clear to those who claimed to do mighty things in God's name: "And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

To reject Jesus is to reject the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the only thing that will get you sent away from the presence of God and from all that is good, forever. Hey, its not worth it.

Pastor Tom

Broken or Crushed?

Not a very good choice, is it? We'd like the choices to be "better" or "best", or at least "adequate" and "comfortable." Unfortunately when it comes to real life there really are only two choices: "crushed" or "broken." Now, aren't you glad you read the blog today? ;-)

This idea comes from Matthew 21:44 "And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."

It's actually good news kind of veiled. If you "fall" on Jesus, the "stone that the builders rejected" (42) you will be broken to pieces - that is, your pride, your self reliance, your sin - will all be broken as you repent about those things and decide you want God's life. It can be a painful process but it is absolutely necessary.

But if you refuse that breaking process, the alternate is far worse. Jesus says that you will be "crushed." That is to say that judgment, which already rests on all humanity, will weigh you down with its full weight - something you simply cannot bear.

So why not let yourself fall on Jesus, on his mercy and grace, on his love and hope, on his life and joy. Yes, you will be broken in the process but Jesus will then build you back up as a new person - a much better person.

Pastor Tom

Should We Pay Taxes?

In Matthew 17 Jesus makes a pretty bold statement. Some IRS agents (okay, not really, but they were tax collectors) came up to Peter and wanted to know if Jesus intended to file his 1040. Peter immediately says "yes" - which is typical of Peter - speak first and find out the answer later.

Later he finds Jesus and he makes this pretty bold statement:

"What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the dearth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others? And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free."

The implication is clearer to us than it was to Peter. Since we are sons of the King of Kings we are exempt from the petty taxes collected by kings from their subjects. Right?

Read on:

"However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."

My simple point for today is that for Jesus it was more important to follow the law than make their freedom so much of a point that those tax collectors might actually miss the really important point, and that is that everyone has the opportunity to become free from sin by becoming a son in God's family.

We should never use our freedoms in Christ in a way that might cause someone else not to follow Christ. Do a search, the letters from the Apostles are full of examples where we are encouraged to follow even stupid laws and be law abiding citizens and tax paying citizens so as to be good examples and possibly lead people to faith in Christ.

Pastor Tom

Living With Evil

A question I hear fairly often is why God allows evil to exist. Either he isn't powerful enough to get rid of it or he isn't interested. Either way people struggle with the idea that a powerful and just God could let evil people get away with doing evil things.

While I won't solve the entire puzzle for you I want to offer one little insight that Jesus Christ, God's Son, brought to us while He was on the earth.

In one of Jesus' parables he describes a man who planted good seed in the ground. Some bad people came along at night and planted weeds and both came up in the field.

Matthew 11:28 "So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.'"

Jesus later explained that the seeds represent people and that at the end of the age the angels will gather everyone and separate the good from the evil.

He doesn't explain why they left the wheat and weeds together so I go with what the field owner said in the parable-that by rooting up the weeds prematurely you would also disturb the wheat. My point is that for God to go after evil in the way that is really just would be so disruptive to life on earth that it would be difficult to live and difficult to go about sharing the good news that God has made a way to get rid of evil in the human soul.

If you want to read about when God does begin that process of weeding out evil, read the book of the Revelation beginning in chapter 16. Life during that time will be very difficult to everyone.

God is patient and wants all to come to the knowledge of his Son Jesus. But God is just and when the time comes, evil will get exactly what it deserves.

Pastor Tom

Starting Over

It's great to start a new year. My 2007 was pretty eventful and pretty difficult. My family and I have been through so much that one person suggested that I should just burn 2007.

Well, I don't want to do that. God did some pretty amazing things and brought me through some pretty incredible trials. I'm stronger in him though weaker in myself and that's okay.

It reminded me, though, of a little verse at the end of the Old Testament that you may have never read:

Zechariah 10:6 "I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph.
I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them..." ESV

Wouldn't it be great if you could turn back time and undo all the stupid stuff you did in the past? I've said and done things that I really regret but like a wise person once said "you can't unring a bell." But with God, it seems, you can.

"they shall be as if I had not rejected them."

With the payment that Jesus Christ made by becoming human and voluntarily laying down his life for us we can be with God as if we had never been apart from him. "His mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23).

In Jesus it is as if you had never sinned--as if Adam had never sinned. All your mistakes and weaknesses are wiped away. You can come before God in purity and holiness.

Try thinking about that as you start your 2008.

Pastor Tom

God Rejoices Over You

Zephaniah 3:15-17
The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more. 16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. 17 The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." NKJV

I just love those words. Yes, they are spoken to Israel and picture a redeemed and restored people of God. But Romans tells us that as Christians you have been grafted into Israel and so the same wonderful promise is yours as well.

Jesus took away our judgments by dieing on the cross for us. He cast out our enemies: sin, death, and the devil. Jesus has made his permanent dwelling in your heart. And so we are not weak, we do not need to fear anything!

And then look how this section ends. Did you know that God actually sings over you with gladness? That is such an awesome picture that I had to share it. If you are feeling particularly weak or troubled today, read over these verses and let the love of God quiet your soul. Can you hear the singing?

Pastor Tom

A Call for Peace

It's been well over a month since my last posting on this blog. For those of you who thought I dropped off the face of the earth I apologize. Life has a way of taking us on unknown paths. Lately mine has been on such an untrodden trail. I'd appreciate prayers for myself and my family as we deal with serious health issues of a loved one.

But on to today's posting. It comes from the end of the Old Testament, as my journey through the Bible comes to a close for 2007.

I noticed today a passage that is familiar to many who do not call themselves Christian.

Micah 4:3 "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."

A lot of people and organizations have used this verse to call for peace and for a cessation of war. That is all well and good but I think it is instructive for us to look at why this will happen according to Micah's prophecy.

4:2 "...come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths."

What are the ways of God? Jesus told us in John 6 that to work the works of God you must believe in he whom he sent.

My simple point is this: the way to peace is not to end hostilities between peoples. The way to peace is to end hostilities between us and God - hostilities caused by our own sin. Once we believe in Jesus then God takes away our sin and the barrier which separated us from him. He then comes into us and makes his "abode" in us.

In the process he begins to transform us into his image. It is then that we go from a people prone to violence and lust to a people who desire peace. Micah's prophecy won't come about until Jesus returns to the earth to establish his kingdom out in the open here.

Pray that before then you will find peace with God yourself!

Pastor Tom

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

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

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

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

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

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

Was Jesus Cool?

Isaiah 53:2 He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ESV

This chapter of Isaiah talks about the Messiah. I would encourage you to read the whole thing and then tell me who you think the Messiah is. There is no mistaking the life and death of Jesus Christ in this chapter - no mistaking it at all.

But I want to just focus on this one verse. Contrary to movies and paintings, Jesus was just a garden variety Jewish man of the 1st century. He did not float above the ground (except when he walked on water), he did not glow in the dark (except on the Mount of Transfiguration) and he was just not that impressive.

Jesus isn't impressive, he is right. You should believe in him because of what he said and did, not because he is a charismatic leader.

Pastor Tom

You Don't Have to be Good

Alot of people think that God wants us to be good, to do better. If we do that then He'll be happy and will let us into heaven. The Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, the Ten Commandments - all that stuff is a guidebook for us to follow.

Wrong!

God doesn't want us to do better because He knows we can't do better. The most incredible sacrifice ever given by man, the most wonderful act, the highest thought, the most beautiful creation - all are infinitely below the most common thought that God has ever had.

Sorry for the bad news - but it's actually good news. Read Isaiah 46:12

"Listen to me, you stubborn or heart, you who are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness, it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay."

If we'd just let go of the silly notion that man is basically good and admit that when left along we sink further and further into evil then we'd see that real goodness (righteousness) comes from God's character, not ours. The good news is that he offers that goodness to us in the form of salvation that he himself brings. And yes, that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ.

But let's just give up trying to be good and instead let God be good through us by his presence in our lives. Ask him to come live in you. Ask him to make you good. Guess what? He will.

Pastor Tom

Seek God in Vain?

"I asked God to help me and I got nothing!"

Perhaps that a statement you could make. Maybe things have gone really badly of late and you are frankly mad at God. Maybe you've been crying out to God but haven't heard an answer and are wondering if He is really there at all.

Isaiah made a statement that I'd like you to consider:

45:19 "I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek Me in vain.' I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right."

In fact, the problem may not be with God at all, but with us. First, God says he did not speak in secret. So where did God speak? In the Bible. You may not like what the Bible has to say but if you want to hear God speak then that is the place to hear Him.

Secondly, you may have sought your own version of God and not gotten anywhere. I can make up all kinds of things about God (and many have) but that doesn't make it the truth. Again I come back to the Bible. Check it out, dig around, study - you will find it is the most accurate of all books and truly speaks with God's voice.

Jeremiah said "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (29:13). Maybe the problem is that you are not ready to yield your will to the Lord, your life to God. Maybe God is speaking, we just aren't listening.

Pastor Tom

What Happens When Jesus Comes?

No, I'm not talking about the end times here. But to listen to many people today, this is what happens when Jesus Christ is mentioned:

Exclusion, hate, discrimination, narrow-minded thinking, dissension, arguing, and party-pooping.

People react to verses like this one from Isaiah 11:

4 "and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked."

I'd like to simply offer some context. If you read around that verse in Isaiah you get a better idea of what Jesus does when He comes into a life:

"3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;"

And look at the effect on others around Him:

"6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

This doesn't sound at all like the person people make Jesus out to be. The problem is evil. We as humans don't want to admit that there is such a thing and that it infects the human soul. Evil was not originally part of our nature and God, through Jesus, will purge it. He knows the difference between good and evil and knows that we will love the good if we can only be freed from evil.

Why not trust that when Jesus comes into your life that he brings peace and love. Give Him a chance!

Pastor Tom

Ruling over a Heap of Ruins

John Milton said it this way: "Better to reign in hell than serve in heav'n."

I ran into an interesting verse in Isaiah that reminded me of that quote from Paradise Lost.

Isaiah 3:6 "You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule"

I won't go into the situation that surrounds this prophecy, except to say that Israel has disobeyed God, walked away from Him, and is suffering the consequences.

My point is that sometimes we want to be in control so badly that even ruling over a heap of ruins is superior to falling on our faces in repentance for our sins. Medical research has shown that our brains have a built in self-defending mechanism. That's why people like Hitler could justify genocide.

We don't like admitting we're wrong and we don't like admitting we need anyone or anything else. In the natural human nature we like to be king - of something - even if it's a pile of garbage.

Think about that a little. How important is control and power in your life? What are you willing to give up if asked? I'm not saying that God would ask you to sell everything, give to the poor and go to Africa - but what if He did?

Don't rule over a pile of ruins when you can serve in a house full of love and forgiveness, where God is King!

Pastor Tom

How Do We Know?

Science, for the most part, declares that there is no God and that all we know we know from observation, theory and experimentation. While I have a high degree of respect for science, there are limits that many scientists are unaware of.

Without going into a huge dissertation on the subject, I just want to introduce a verse that illustrates the point:

Ecclesiastes 11:5 "As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything."

We humans living on earth are like swimmers in a pool. From underwater you can look up at the sky and make certain conclusions, but due to the way light is refracted and reflected your perceptions may be distorted. We can observe certain things and make conclusions about them, such as the fact that gravity exists and its effects. But just as science does not really know what gravity is, so too we cannot make blanket conclusions that there is no God behind it all.

We simply don't have enough information or the ability to collect enough information to prove He does not exist.

So let's give Him the benefit of the doubt and believe that what He said is true. God and science can co-exist, as long as science knows its limitations.

Pastor Tom