A Not-So-Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on May 2, 2023 in Devotions | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Not-So-Happy Mother’s Day

Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief
 
Nothing is more shocking, emotional, or final than the death of a loved one. Facing the death of someone you love— a parent, a spouse, a close friend—is one of life’s most difficult experiences. Your head is spinning with so many thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You can’t grasp that you’ve had your last visit, your last conversation, your last meal, and your last holiday with your loved one. Your mind is flooded with things you wish you had said or done. You want to say, “I love you,” one more time, and you want to hear it said to you. Your warehouse of memories is filled with fond and painful remembrances, and you are holding tightly to that treasured collection of fading photographs. You don’t feel ready to say goodbye or to deal with the grief that’s overtaken you. This article is written to help you make sense out of what appears to make no sense and to point you towards hope even as you are experiencing the darkness of death.
Remember a few scriptural truths
When you are dealing with grief your emotions race and your thoughts are scattered. In the middle of this confusing and hard time, you need to remember a few simple truths from the Bible. God will use them to help you understand what you are experiencing and to give you hooks on which to hang your emotions. You can’t prepare for the death of a loved one. Whether death results from a sudden accident or a long illness, it always catches us unprepared. Death is so deeply emotional and stunningly final that there is nothing you can do ahead of time that will help you sail through your moment of loss. Those who knew that death was coming and those who were taken completely by surprise will go through many of the same things. The Bible includes many poignant stories that mirror our experience. The story of the death of David’s son, Absalom, gives us a picture of a grieving parent. Absalom plotted to take David’s place as king of Israel. When his rebellion was crushed, he was killed, even though David had ordered his soldiers to take him alive. David knew that Absalom’s actions might lead to his death, but that didn’t lessen his grief. 2 Samuel 18:33 (ESV) tells us, “And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
Death shakes us to the core
David’s cry is the cry of every grieving parent. Whether it is unexpected or predictable, death shakes us to the core. The pain is inescapable. Don’t feel guilty or embarrassed if you feel unprepared to face it. There’s no way to be ready for what you are going through. Death was not part of God’s original plan. One reason death is so hard to accept and understand is that it’s completely out of step with the life God planned for this world. The apostle Paul calls death our “enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). Death is the enemy of everything good and beautiful about life. It should make you morally sad and righteously angry. Death reminds us that we live in a world that is terribly broken; it’s not functioning according to God’s original design, where life was meant to give way to life, on into eternity. It’s biblical to treat death as sad and unnatural. God encourages you to mourn. Death was never meant to be. When you recognize this, you will hunger for a final restoration of all things. You will long to live in a place where the last enemy—death—has been defeated.
It’s normal to feel alone
You are never alone in the darkness. Death is one of the loneliest experiences of human existence. The circumstances you are dealing with are individual and unique. It’s normal to feel as if no one has been through what you’re experiencing. It’s normal to feel all alone, even when you are surrounded with people. But the death of a loved one is a universal experience, and a company of mourners surrounds you. Yet there is an even more powerful way in which you are not alone. Your Savior, Jesus, has taken another name, Emmanuel, or “God with us.” This name reminds you that, as you came to Christ, you literally became the place where God dwells. You have a powerful Brother, Savior, Counselor, and Friend who not only stands beside you, but lives within you! His presence makes it impossible for you to be alone in this moment of pain (John 14:15-20). Good can come out of the very worst of things. Is death a bad thing? Yes. But the Bible tells us that the brightest of good things can be found in the midst of evil’s darkness.
God defeated sin and death
The death of Jesus Christ is a powerful demonstration of this truth. On the hill of death outside the city, the best thing that ever happened came from the worst thing ever. What could be worse than the killing of the Messiah? What could be more unjust than the illegal execution of the one perfect person who ever lived? In the sermon he preached on the day of Pentecost, Peter said that Jesus’ death was an evil thing done by evil men to the one truly good person in the whole world (Acts 2:22-36). But this terrible moment was under God’s control. God planned that this ultimate evil would accomplish ultimate good. In this dark moment, as Jesus died on the cross, God defeated sin and death—two enemies we could not defeat on our own. In the same way, God can and does bring wonderful things out of the darkest moments of our lives. Your Lord is present with you in this darkness. He has planned that even the darkest of things would result in redemptive good for His children. He surrendered His Son to death so you could have life. And He will not abandon you now.
Death is an enemy, but this enemy will die
One day death will be put to death. The death of a loved one should remind you that God’s work is not yet complete. Because of sin, death entered the world. When sin is completely defeated, death will also be defeated. The apostle Paul talks about Christ’s present ministry this way: “For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). Jesus died so we would no longer have to die. When He rose from the dead, death was defeated. Until Jesus returns, we still experience death, but one day life will not give way to death. Children will not mourn their parents. Parents will not mourn their children. There will be no widows or grieving friends. Yes, death is an enemy, but this enemy will die. The present reign of Christ guarantees this. One day life will give way to life for eternity. As you weep, remember that the One who weeps with you understands your heartache. He is “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). But He does more than understand; He also acts. Jesus will not let death reign forever. On the cross He defeated death, and His resurrection is your guarantee that one day, all who believe in Him, will be resurrected to a life of glory and peace. One day He is coming again to end physical death and to usher in a new heaven and earth where there will be no dying, no tears, and no sorrow (Revelation 21:1-4).
What You Need to Do
Grieving leaves you emotionally volatile and mentally confused. It’s painful in expected and unexpected ways. Death interrupts your plans and messes up your schedule. Sometimes death brings people together and sometimes it drives them part. Death mixes the best and the worst of memories. Because death is this confusing mix of emotions and experiences, it is often hard to know exactly what to do when it has entered your door. Here is some biblical direction:
  1. Be honest about your emotions.
    Being a Christian does not mean being a stoic. God doesn’t want you to hide your emotions or wear a happy face mask. He wants you to come to him with complete honesty. In the Psalms, God invites us to bring our honest grief to him. Psalm 34:15 depicts God as a loving father, watching over His children and listening for their cries. Psalms 13, 22, 42, and 73 picture God’s people running to Him in grief and confusion. Don’t hide your emotions; when you are struggling, run to the One who knows you completely and loves you faithfully. As Peter says, “Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7, NIV)
  2. Run to where comfort can be found.
    When he was suffering, the apostle Paul said an amazing thing about the Lord. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort…” (2 Corinthians 1:3). All real, lasting comfort has its source in the Lord, because He is the Father of compassion and comfort. Think about this. Your heavenly Father is in charge of comfort and compassion. He exercises His loving power on earth so that comfort will be available. Whenever anyone, anytime, anywhere experiences real comfort, it is because God, the source of all true comfort, has made it happen. It is never useless to cry out to Him. He has the power to bring hope and rest to your soul in ways you could never conceive. God, in His grace, has assigned this job to Himself.
  3. Don’t fall into grief’s traps.
    Moments of sorrow are also moments of temptation. You have an enemy who wants to use this moment to tempt you to question God’s goodness and love. He will tempt you to be envious of others and to become angry and bitter. The struggle of grief is not just a struggle of sorrow, but of temptation as well. Look out for grief’s traps. Watch yourself for signs of doubt, anger, envy, self-pity, bitterness. When you see these things in yourself, run to Jesus for His forgiveness, strength, and protection.
  4. Open yourself up to God’s helpers.
    God designed life to be a community project. We need the help of others in our lives to become the people God created us to be (See Ephesians 4:1-16 and 1 Corinthians 13). When your heart is breaking and your eyes are blinded by grief, you need the help of others more than ever. The godly friends that Jesus has put in your life can help you see things you would not see by yourself. They can help you remember God’s goodness when you are tempted to forget. They will exercise faith for you when your faith is weak. When you are in despair, they will bring the comfort of Christ to you. And they will gently warn you when you are tempted to get off track. Don’t try to go through your sadness alone. God has placed helpers in your life. Look for them, and be patient with them. Since no human comforter is perfect, their comfort will not be perfect either.
  5. Be thankful.
    Even in the darkest of moments, you can find clear signs of God’s presence and love. The apostle Paul says it this way. “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Notice the little preposition “in” in the middle of the verse. We are called to be thankful in every situation. This doesn’t mean that you will always be thankful for what you are going through, but it does mean that you can be thankful for what God is giving you to sustain you in your grief. In your darkness, there are always little lights of God’s grace and love to be found. Search for those lights. Pay attention to the good things God is doing, even in this dark moment, so your grief can be mixed with heartfelt gratitude.
  6. Don’t neglect your spiritual habits.
    When you are overwhelmed with sadness, it can seem pointless to pray. You may feel too weak and emotionally distracted to read the Bible, be with your Christian friends, and attend public times of worship. But you need these spiritually productive habits in your life now more than ever. God has called you to do these things because they mature your heart and strengthen your soul. They remind you of who you are and who the Lord is. They reconnect you to your identity as His child and help you to remember that a time is coming when you won’t have to face death ever again.
  7. Celebrate eternity.
    Look beyond this moment of grief to an eternity with God. When you entered into God’s family, you started a journey that won’t end until you are with your Lord in eternity. The heart-breaking pains of life in a fallen world will some day end. The crushing sadness of death will end. Some day your grief will be gone and it won’t return. So, as you grieve, remember what is to come and be thankful. You have a bright future that does not include sadness and death.
  8. Give away the comfort you have received.
    Scripture says that God comforts us, not only to bring rest to our hearts, but also so we can comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3, 4). If you have experienced God’s comfort in your time of grief, you are uniquely able to understand what a fellow griever is going through. So what you do or say will give other mourners hope and rest. Don’t hoard your comfort. Your experience has qualified you to be an active part of the army of helpers that the God of compassion sends into our broken, hurting world. As you face the death of a loved one remember you are not alone. Jesus endured death for you so that even in the face of death you would be able to live with hope, strength, and courage. And because of what Jesus has done for you, good things can happen even in the darkest moments of life. Don’t let grief rob you of life. Choose to live and experience the grace that Jesus died to give you.
 
We would like to pray for you. Send us a prayer request and let us go to the Father with you. 

Why Is The Resurrection So Important?

Posted on Apr 4, 2023 in Devotions | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

If you’ve grown up in the church, you’ve heard it a hundred times: Christ died on the cross and rose again; without Christ’s death and resurrection, there would be no salvation. But what does it all really mean? The death and resurrection are always spoken of together, but rarely is it broken down into what each part actually means.

Why did Jesus have to rise from the dead after he died? Why was the resurrection significant? Sometimes, it seems like more emphasis is put on the death with the resurrection just tacked on as an afterthought.

The resurrection proves Jesus is God.

The truth of the matter is that if Christ only died, but never came back to life, there would be no chance of salvation (1 Corinthians 15:14). If He didn’t rise again, everything He said about being God, about being the Father’s Son, would have been a lie, and His death would be nothing more than the death of a liar.

But because He IS God, because He DID rise again, we know for sure that everything He said is true, and He has the authority to pay the penalty for our sins before God and grant us salvation.

Romans 6:23a tells us that “the wages of sin are death.” Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Every person has sinned, and since God is a God of justice, for every crime there must be punishment. For every person that has sinned, a life must be given in payment for that crime.

The resurrection proves Jesus is worthy.

Jesus Christ was fully Man and fully God (John 10:30; John 1:14). Jesus Christ never sinned (1 Peter 2:22). Yet, despite this, Jesus paid for a crime he never committed and died a sinner’s death—but not His sin for He had none, but our sin because we can hardly help ourselves (1 John 2:2). He did die; He did suffer the wrath of God (Romans 5:6-11). But because He was sinless, death could not hold Him down.

Christ took on the punishment for each person’s sin, but because He Himself never sinned, He could not be condemned to eternal death for it.

The resurrection proves that there is hope.

This is where the Christian faith hinges. Without belief in the resurrection, our faith means nothing (1 Corinthians 15). If we believe Jesus was resurrected, then we accept that He is God—that He is able to take on our sin in our place so that we can be free. No other religion was founded by a Person who died then truly came back to life, promising that His followers would do the same.

Christ’s Resurrection shows us that He conquered sin and conquered death. It shows us that He is, indeed, the Son of God who “takes away the sin of world!” (John 1:29) Christ’s Resurrection proves that when we ask to be saved through Jesus Christ, and His blood does cover us, we are sinless before God because the blood needed to pay for our crime has already been spilled.

Now, because death could not hold Christ, death cannot hold us (1 Corinthians 15:49). Because death could not hold Christ, and we are under Christ, we now have “the free gift of God” that “is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23b).

God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on YOUR behalf. If you believe in Christ, you will not stay dead at the end of your physical life, but you will be resurrected into an eternal life with God. Now, that’s something to hope for!

 

Men Of Iron

Posted on Jul 29, 2021 in Devotions, Discipleship | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
Proverbs 27:17

Every day it becomes increasingly more difficult to cultivate friendship. As adults, our lives are bogged down by work, family, and myriad other responsibilities that take up all twenty-four hours every day.

However, friendship is often an area we neglect to take seriously. And the Scriptures warn against this.

The Bible strongly encourages that we develop friendships with other believers. In Proverbs 27:17, Solomon writes, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Chances are that you’ve heard that verse before, but we often neglect to consider its implications.

Solomon is saying here that friendship is a way to build others up by removing the crud. Iron sharpening isn’t easy or pleasant work. It is dirty, hot, and dangerous. That is what friendship is like. When you begin to develop true, honest relationships, everything in the dark gets brought to the light.

If those friendships are genuine and Christ-honoring, they’ll be painfully beneficial.

We see this idea of genuine friendship modeled throughout the entirety of Scripture. From the bond between Jonathan and David to Jesus and his disciples, and even in the foundations of the early church in Acts, these relationships all point to authentic friendship.

We aren’t meant to live our lives in isolation. This way ultimately leads to folly and destruction. That isn’t to say that we rely on the approval of others, or create a friendship for its own sake. But we ought to develop close-knit relationships with other believers, folks who will walk with us shoulder to shoulder, and beat down the gates of hell with us.

When we begin to view friendship in a God-glorifying, Christ-exalting way, then our friendships will truly mean something. Only then will we know what it means for iron to sharpen iron. And we will begin to chase after holiness while helping our brothers and sisters do the same.

Entering into genuine friendships is a declaration of war against our enemy, the devil. To not pursue friendship is folly and only leads to destruction.

Choose the hard road. Choose genuine friendships.

 

Hold The Rope

Posted on Feb 15, 2021 in Devotions, Discipleship | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 Hold The Rope

Don Bond

In this season of uncertainty, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have “held the rope” with us for so long. At Orchard, we have had a monthly gathering of men for a long time called Hold The Rope. This is a gathering where the men of the church fellowship over a meal and spend time together as men. I don’t know all the when’s and why’s of how it started, but not being able to meet with my friends and mentors due to the Covid Crisis has been sorely missed on my part.  It has been on my heart for a while now, and thoughts about why do we call it Hold The Rope have been floating around my mind.  I have been doing some reading.  I came across this book by John Piper and I would like to share an excerpt from it.  Mr. Piper shared in his book Andrew Fuller: Holy Faith, Worthy Gospel, World Mission, that the commitment (and the oath) to “hold the rope” was wonderfully demonstrated by a band of mission-minded pastors from the 1700’s.  Here is an excerpt from John Piper’s book:

“Andrew Fuller, more than anyone else, felt the burden of what it meant that William Carey and John Thomas (and later, others) left everything for India in dependence, under God, on this band of brothers. One of them, John Ryland, recorded the story from which came the famous “rope holder” image.

He wrote that Carey said:  Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine, which had never before been explored, [and] we had no one to guide us; and while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.” But before he went down . . . he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each of us, at the mouth of the pit, to this effect—that “while we lived, we should never let go of the rope.”

This struck me hard.  I don’t know if this is what the founders of the Hold The Rope ministry here at Orchard had in mind when they named it, but it sure describes the ideal it has come to represent.  As men, but especially as believers, have a mission.  That mission can be summed up quickly as: To Know Christ, to Grow into his likeness, and to Show him to the world. According to scripture, men are to be the leaders, both physically and spiritually, of the home and family. We are the backbone, if you will.  We can’t do this alone though.  We have Jesus, but we also need the strength and wisdom of other Godly men to help hold our rope while we are holding the rope for our family.

I was reading in Acts chapter 9 and came across the story of Paul’s conversion.  With the light of “hold the rope” image, I saw something that was there all along, but had never clicked before.  Saul (better known as Paul) had been persecuting the church in Jerusalem for some time and he got permission to hunt for Christians in Damascus. On the way there, Christ met him in a blinding flash of light, and Saul was struck blind. You’ll remember, God’s assurance that Saul had become a believer to Ananias—behold, he prays. He knew Christ. After being restored to sight, some experts say that Saul spent the next several years in the dessert studying the faith. Whether or not that was the case, however, is irrelevant. At some point, he began to preach to the Jews about Jesus, and he grew bold and powerful (he grew into Christ’s likeness and began to show him to others)—so much so that the Jews in Damascus decided it was time to kill Saul. But some of the other believers found out about the plot and they lowered Saul in a basket during the night, allowing him to escape unharmed. I want to focus on those other believers for a moment. You see, we hear a lot about Paul’s ministry, but it would never have happened if it weren’t for some folks willing to hold the rope for him. If we are going to be engaged in ministry for the Kingdom of God, we need to have a system of support, i.e., believers who are willing to hold the rope for us.

At Camp Whispering Pines, there is a high ropes course. For those who don’t know what high ropes are, picture a series of obstacles set 35 to 40 feet up in the air. It is definitely a faith-growing experience. When you were getting ready to go up that tree and when you got up there, there was one very important question that became very, very important: Who is holding the rope? In fact, there were a series of verbal commands that the climber and the rope holder would go through to make sure that the climber was safe. I remember a story from one of the youth groups that was on the course. They had a guy who played football—a big offensive lineman. When he got up to the catwalk, he asked, “What happens if I step off?” He was told he would drop a little bit and then come to a stop. So he stepped off. And he dropped a few inches, stepped back onto the catwalk, and walked across as calmly as if he were on the ground. You see, he knew someone was holding the rope.

I have been asking myself, “What does it mean to Hold The Rope (or be a rope holder)?” At least three different jobs that are needed sprung to mind. Some people may have more than one job, but other times, it may take three different people.

The first category of rope holders are Intercessors: Those who will stand in prayer and lift that person, group, or situation up on a daily basis. Gen 18:20-33. Abraham is an intercessor not only for his nephew Lot and his family, but for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. When you read this passage, you can see the spirit of the intercessor. He is full of holy boldness. Not timid in the requests. Also, he is not irreverent towards God, but has a reverent humility. Finally, the intercessor needs a bit of importunity (I know, that’s a $5 word that basically means to solicit in a pressing manner; think of a pushy telemarketer). Each time Abraham asks, he pushes a little further. Are we willing to respectfully but boldly press God for the needs of others?

The second type of person needed is someone with the gifts of helps and service. If I were to describe this with one word, it would be support. These are important, since being a believer doesn’t come with an easy button. The gift of helps is seen in that person who is able to work behind the scenes to relieve others of detailed or routine jobs. They relieve them so they can focus more fully. (1 Cor. 12:28, Romans 16:1-2, Acts 9:36, Mark 15:40-41) Service is the ability to see things that need done. This person is a doer, not looking for praise, but just wanting to make sure things are done and the mission can continue. (2 Tim. 1:16-18, Romans 12:7, Acts 6:1-7, Titus 3:14, Galatians 6:2,10). Now I began to ask God, “What is the difference between these two?” And what God showed me is that a person with the gift of helps always works behind the scenes. He is away from any form of public service. On the other hand, the person with a gift of service will do whatever needs done. They don’t seek out the public eye, but they won’t shy away from it either. I also need to say that these gifts are not mutually exclusive; i.e., you may have both gifts.

Finally, we all need some Encouragers. These are persons with a gift of exhortation, that ability to reassure, strengthen, encourage, and affirm others. This can simply by praising what is already going on, or by helping them move from their problems to a resolution to that problem. (Romans 12:8, Acts 14:21-22, Heb. 10:25)

When this crisis is over and it is safe, I am praying that we can continue this ministry of Hold The Rope. Without the support of other believers on a regular basis, we are much more likely to fall prey to the attacks of the enemy.


The Beauty Of The Broken

Posted on Oct 7, 2020 in Devotions, Discipleship | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Japanese Art of Kintsugi

 The Beauty Of The Broken

God never throws away the broken pieces of our lives; He redeems all of them.

Not too long ago, I dropped one of my favorite coffee mugs and broke it into several pieces. I was quite frustrated because it happened to be a sentimental heirloom to me—one that I purchased on our honeymoon twenty years ago. I swept up the shards in frustration and tried to piece the cup back together. That disappointment led me to a discovery into the 500­year­old Japanese art of kintsugi.

In Japan, rather than tossing broken pieces of ceramics in the trash, craftsmen often practice the art of kintsugi, or “golden joinery,” which is a method of taking broken pieces and restoring them with a lacquer that is mixed with gold, silver, or platinum.

The story of kintsugi is said to have begun in the 15th century when Japanese military commander Ashikaga Yoshimasa broke one of his beloved Chinese tea bowls and, disappointed with the shoddy repair job it was treated to, urged Japanese craftsmen to come up with a more pleasing method of repair. Thus the art of kintsugi was born. Collectors soon became so enamored with the new art that some were accused of deliberately smashing valuable pottery so it could be repaired with the gold seams of kintsugi.

As an art, kintsugi will make a mended vessel look more aesthetic and become more valued than it was before it was fractured. As a philosophy, kintsugi treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, something of a redemptive beauty, rather than something to disguise, cover up, or replace altogether. It has similarities to the Japanese philosophy of wabi­sabi, an aesthetic worldview that sees beauty in the flawed, the damaged, or the imperfect. The idea behind the technique of kintsugi is to recognize the entire history of the object, with all of its cracks and flaws, and to visibly incorporate the repaired fissures into the new piece. It beautifies the breakage and treats it as an important part of the object’s history, thus valuing the fractures instead of disguising them or glossing over them. The process typically results in something far more beautiful and elegant than the original.

To throw the broken pot away is to destroy its unique story. To repair it the kintsugi way is to continue its tale of adventure, triumph, and redemptive beauty.
 
The world is full of people with broken hearts, broken spirits, and broken relationships. We see damaged goods all around us. And we see it in ourselves when we are courageous enough to go there.

In fear of rejection, we’d rather cover up the damaged parts of our lives and work harder at putting our best pieces out front for others to see. We feel ashamed of our weaknesses and fear that if people really knew us they wouldn’t have anything to do with us. This is because we are keenly aware that we live in a culture that rejects broken things too easily rather than one that embraces the value of damaged goods.

Think about some of the cracks and fractures in the lives of the men and women God used throughout the Bible: Moses had a speech problem. Jonah was self-absorbed. David was an adulterer and a murderer. Samson was a womanizer. Rahab was a prostitute. The Samaritan woman had a whole string of divorces. Zacchaeus had engaged in extortion. Peter was hotheaded, impulsive, and temperamental. Naomi was a bitter widow. Elijah was suicidal. Leah wasn’t attractive enough. Joseph was abused and abandoned. Jacob was a liar and a schemer. Martha worried about everything. Timothy had an ulcer and Noah got drunk.

What’s significant is that none of these things defined these people. What defined them was their relationship with God. But what I love about the Bible is that it doesn’t omit their weaknesses and their failures when it describes their victories. Just like in the art of kintsugi, the broken pieces weren’t something to be thrown out, they were a part of the whole redemptive story—one that God gracefully wrote despite their flawed personalities, their broken humanity, and their obvious weaknesses.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul was struggling with an antagonizing “thorn” in his life. We’re not sure exactly what it was but we do know that it bothered him so much that he pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away. But the only response he got was: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That response caused Paul to become good with the weaknesses in his life because he realized that Christ would be glorified in all of them. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV)

There is truly a beauty waiting to be discovered when we begin to realize that God is using everything in our lives, including our brokenness, our pain, our failures, our weaknesses, our fractured relationships, our shattered dreams, our disappointments, and our cracked personalities, to bring about a very, very, beautifully redemptive story. He assuredly is making all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 ESV)

Remember that as you take time to abide in Him today.


3 Things Christians Do That Non-Christians Despise

Posted on Oct 1, 2020 in Devotions, Discipleship | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

3 Things Christians Do That Non-Christians Despise

By Carey Nieuwhof

                Spend two minutes talking to almost anyone outside the Christian faith and you’re almost certain to hear a list of complaints they have about Christians. The problem has been around awhile.  As Mahatma Gandhi famously (and sadly) said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” He’s not alone. The problem with many non-Christians isn’t that they don’t know any Christians. The challenge is they do.

                So what gives? Many Christians would tell you we have an image problem: we’re treated unfairly, we’re being persecuted, or we’re just badly misunderstood. I’m not so sure. It’s not so much that Christians have an image problem. It’s far more likely that we have an integrity problem. Do we get misunderstood on some issues? Of course. But that’s outside our control. There are more than a few issues entirely within our control that give us a bad name with people outside Christianity.

                Here are 3 things Christians do that non-Christians despise.

  1. JUDGE:
    1. It doesn’t take long for non-Christians to tell you how much they hate the way Christians judge other people. Another two minutes on social media will reveal Christians and preachers condemning unchurched people for their sexual habits and preferences, life-style choices and even political views. I doubt this is what Jesus had in mind when he gave his life in love for the world.
    2. Disclosure: without the mercy and intervention of Christ, I’m very judgmental. And years ago, I realized how devastating judgment and criticism can be to others. So I’m waging a life-long battle against it. Confessing it, repenting of it almost daily.
    3. I realized years ago that very few people get judged into life change. Far more get loved into it.
    4. It also occurred to me that the presence of judgment almost always guarantees an absence of love. Think about it through the lens of your marriage, a friendship or even someone you work with: it is virtually impossible to love someone and judge someone at the same time.
    5. But wait, you ask: what if they’re making a mistake and I need to correct them?
      1. First of all, look at your mistakes and the depth of your sin, and deal with your issues first. In the process, you’ll encounter a loving God who forgives you despite your rather egregious sin.
      2. And having been loved, you can love others.
    6. I try to remember this rule: If I’m judging someone, I’m not loving them. You can’t judge someone and love them at the same time. What would happen if Christians stopped judging the world (isn’t that God’s job?) and started loving it instead? I believe that’s what Jesus did.

 

  1. BE HYPOCRITICAL:
    1. There’s a word for Christian who say one thing and do another. The word is hypocrite. It’s far easier to call someone else a hypocrite than it is to admit you’re one.
    2. The truth is, that as much as I hate it, I’m a hypocrite. My walk doesn’t always match my talk. That’s why I don’t have a fish on my car. When I’m in a hurry and my natural impatience surfaces, the last thing some person God loves needs to see is a Christian cut him off. Of course, it’s worse than that. I’m not always a loving husband, kind father, steadfast son, patient boss, or even compassionate friend. Like you, I’m a mixture of good 
    3. What did Paul say? Nothing good lives in me. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:18). That could be a life-verse for me. Well, actually, it kind of is.
    4. Sanctification is a process that never ends. I am not who I want to be (yet). I am not who God wants me to be.  But I’m different. I’m changing. And Christ is at work in me. I believe that’s the reality for every person who calls Jesus Savior.
    5. So what do imperfect Christians do? I mean just deciding you’re not going to make mistakes never keeps you from making mistakes. I think the answer is simple: you watch what you say. Don’t pretend to be something or someone you’re not. I find the more humility I add to my words, the smaller the gap is between who I am and who I say I am.
    6. When you admit your shortcomings, you build a bridge between you and others. Owning your sin is different than living in it; confession is never an excuse for complacency.
    7. So, what do you do if you live in the tension between what you usually say or want to say and what you do? I think you change both. You change how you live through the power of Christ day by day (getting better), and at the same time, you change how you talk about your faith, yourself and how you live (adding more honestly and humility to your words).
    8. Want a quick fix for hypocrisy? Accelerate your walk. Humble your talk. Nothing closes the gap between word and action faster than that.
  2. STINK AT FRIENDSHIP
    1. Friendship is hard. We all have ideas of finding the perfect friends with whom we’ll never disagree, share 1000 common interests and ride off into the sunset with.
    2. Well, very few human relationships ever work that way. Even in marriage, the best marriages are almost always ones in which people have overcome deep and real obstacles to find a powerful love that’s far deeper than emotion.
    3. Perhaps the first obstacle between non-Christians and Christians is that relatively few Christians actively pursue meaningful friendships with people who don’t share their faith. Between churches that offer programs 5 nights a week (leaving little time for Christians to make friends outside the church) and Christians who are afraid of the world, many Christians don’t pursue authentic relationships with non-Christians. Which means much of the interaction non-Christians have is situational and observational rather than truly relational. They observe Christians in life and at work, notices traces of judgment and hypocrisy and draw all kinds of conclusions. I get that.
    4. But Jesus went so much deeper than that. Jesus pursued friendships with people who were different than him. Whose lifestyles were far different than anything God had in mind for them (or for people in relationship with him). Yet Jesus was their friend. He went to their house for dinner. They traveled together. They shared moments and meals and life. It scandalized the religious leaders of Jesus day, and sadly, when it’s practiced authentically, it still scandalizes most of us today.
    5. Think about it. When was the last time you hung out with a sex-worker? When was the last time you had someone who’s not your skin color, not your political persuasion and doesn’t share your value system over for dinner, or when was the last time you broke bread with an addict (who’s not in recovery)?
    6. Often when Christians do pursue ‘friendships’ with people far from God, it’s more of a project than it is a friendship. But people aren’t projects; people are people. People can smell it a mile away if you see them as a project, not a person. Even as you think about expanding the ministry of your church, if you see people as a means to an end, that’s a problem.
    7. Which leads us to another tension in our friendships with those outside the Christian faith. Some Christians do have a relationship with unchurched people. So: how exactly do you talk about faith? Great question!
    8. Most of us swing to one extreme or the other: either we always talk about faith, or we never talk about. Both are mistakes. Always talk about faith, and you’re turning the relationship into a project. Never talk about, and you miss the most important thing in life.
    9. Real friendships always drill down on real issues, and few things are more significant than the meaning of life. How do you talk about? Naturally, organically, in the context of your story is a great place to start.
    10. Real friendships are like that. Want a simpler place than that to begin? Try this. Just like the person. As much friend Reggie Joiner says, people will never believe you love them if they feel you don’t like them.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Anything you see that people who are not Christians despise about Christians?  If you’re a Christian, what helps you overcome these issues, and what other issues do you struggle with?


What Would Jesus Do?

Posted on Sep 14, 2020 in Devotions, Discipleship | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

            Do you remember the “WWJD” bracelets of the 90’s?  Those letters stood for the question: “What Would Jesus Do?”  Thirty years later, some think the answer is rioting, looting, and burning.  A tweet from comic book artist Dean Trippe equating the violent riots to Jesus overturning the tables in the temple has gone viral and is (for some bizarre reason) gaining a lot of traction among Christians.

            To make his case, Trippe referenced the accounts in Matthew 21:12-13 and John 2:13-17. When Jesus arrived at the temple in Jerusalem, he found it in bad shape. Money-grubbers had overrun the house of worship and turned it into a marketplace. In response, Jesus drove them out, saying, “My house will be called ‘a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

            There is no similarity between that and the violence happening today.  The comparison is ignorant on a number of levels.  Trying to compare Jesus pointing out and removing the corruption from His temple to what is happening today shows an ignorance of what the Bible teaches completely.  He is God and has every right to clean His own home. He didn’t violate anyone’s rights. It’s Jesus’ house He was cleansing!  The idea that we could then turn that into looters going into other people’s houses and businesses and destroying them is absolute insanity and it shows a total ignorance of the biblical worldview. It was His house. 

            When we see people, that profess the name of Jesus, inciting riots and looting and trying to help with that and trying to put a Christian veneer over it, it breaks our hearts.  God abhors racism and His Word is very clear about victims’ rights.

            The only answer is Jesus!  God is holy; we are sinners. We are rebels against a holy God. We deserve hell. And all these things we see in our nation right now is an expression of the evil and wickedness that comes from within people’s hearts. It’s coming from deep down within and the only escape from that is through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

            Would you join with us in praying for a spiritual awakening and revival in the hearts of His people?  Here is a list of Specific Prayers For Revival and Spiritual Awakening:[1]

  1. Ask God to bring deep conviction of sin, spiritual brokenness, a holy fear of God and genuine repentance among His people. There will be no revival without these elements and only God can produce them in His people. After all we cannot program or work up genuine brokenness and repentance. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
  2. Pray for deep cleansing, genuine repentance, and spiritual power to engulf pastors and Christian leaders. Revival and spiritual awakening are extremely unlikely without a mighty move of God in pastors and Christian leaders. Renewed pastors are absolutely crucial to a move of God in our day! (Ephesians 6:14-20)
  3. Pray for God to bestow spiritual hunger in His people and draw them to fervent intercession. God has to grant people the genuine faith and the fervent desire for prayer. With all our promotion and programming, we cannot “produce a genuine prayer movement. (Philippians 2:13)
  4. Pray that God will bring loving unity in our churches and a deep harmony between our churches. Many churches need healing among members and many churches need to stop competing jealously with other churches. (John 13:35)
  5. Pray for God to fill His people with a passion to see people saved. (Only God can give a genuine burden for souls.) Until God’s people intensely pray for the lost and do aggressive soul winning revival will tarry. Be sure you are constantly praying for many lost people by name. (Romans 9:1-3)

[1] https://www.absc.org/articles/10-specific-prayers-for-revival-spiritual-awakening/


My Relationship With God Is Cold

Posted on Sep 5, 2020 in Devotions, Discipleship | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Relationship With God Is Cold

 

“How did you get close to God again? I’m not sinning, like doing drugs or drinking or swearing, but I get mad easily and don’t feel that connection with God. I just want my relationship with God back.”

If you are a mature believer, questions like this may be familiar. Here is an answer that has worked for me.

Do what the early church did.

“42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Acts 2:42 NASB

  • Devote yourself to the apostles teaching — study the Bible regularly
  • Devote yourself to the fellowship — don’t go it alone. We need one another. We need the accountability of the body and we need to share our time and stuff with one another in sacrificial ways.
  • Devote yourself to the breaking of bread — again, we need to worship the King together. We need to remember the sacrifice of the cross together with other believers.
  • Devote yourself to “the prayers” — the text and most modern translations say “prayers” not “prayer”. The plural is important. Most scholars will say that the meaning is not just to “saying your prayers” or praying and talking to God regularly. The plural has a very specific referent. Either it means the 3x a day pattern of Jewish prayer in the first century or, and more likely, it means they devoted themselves to the prayer book of the Old Testament, the book of Psalms.

My own experience is, that when my walk with God has grown cold or lukewarm, doing these things restores my passion and appreciation for the wonders of the gospel and the beauty of my Savior.

Give it time. Doing these things is not a shot of adrenaline. They are exercises for your spirit and will “pay off” over time (just like physical exercise) as you continually make the “devote yourself” investment.

Ask yourself this question, what commands of Christ am I not doing that I know I ought to be doing? Why this question?

Look at John 14:21

“21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” NASB

Jesus ties further revelation of himself, greater intimacy with himself to our obedience to the commands he has given us.

Look at Galatians 2:20

“ 20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and a]the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” NASB

Live your life by faith not by how you feel.

Train your heart to act on truth revealed not how you feel in the moment.

Finally, check out your love life?

Read Luke 7:38–50, especially verse 47.

“ 47 For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” NASB

“He who is forgiven little, loves little.” Whenever I, or any of us, forget how much we have been forgiven our faith will become stale and inconsequential to our lives; but when we go back to the cross, when we spend time meditating on how much we have been forgiven, new springs of joy will begin to arise in our hearts.
 
For more of our blog posts, check out our website at OrchardBaptist.net

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