Refreshing

Philemon 1:7 "Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints."

 

This morning I read this verse and wondered, "How do you do that?"

 

Perhaps when I put an ice cube down my daughter's back I am being a helper in her spiritual journey.  It's refreshing isn't it?

 

Maybe it's deeper, like giving someone a compliment, "That dress is a lot prettier than the one you wore last week."

 

Refreshing may have something to do with telling a good joke when a friend is having a hard day.  "I know you just lost your job, but did you hear the one about the blonde who…."

 

Most of you are hoping that I don't go out of my way to "refresh" you.

 

This week we put a new message on the sign out front that was the result of God whispering in my ear.  I really asked Him what He wanted to say to that one person who was going to drive by our church this week.  My mind was headed a completely different direction when the Lord whispered to me, "They were wrong – you do have value." 

 

I had the picture in my mind of the person who has been told all their life that they are a failure, or something is their fault – when it isn't.  Everything they do has this cloud of a core lie about their worth.  The pictures kept coming as I sat in my office of students, parents, grandparents, employees, spouses, people who don't want to be single anymore, people who have given up on God, and people who have made THAT mistake one more time.

 

John said that Satan is the father of lies, he speaks the language of lies very fluently (John 8:44).  So how do I refresh someone in and out of the church?  Speak truth into their lives.  Imagine a wave of refreshing that saturates souls with truth of God.  Imagine a cleansing of the lies that we live about our appearance, our value, our past, our future, and our relationships.

Imagine being the person who views truth as an opportunity to refresh someone who is dragging.  Some people are quite adept at using "truth" as a weapon to build themselves up and tear down someone else.  But, God's truth will have the end result of refreshing a person's soul and pointing them to God.

 

This weekend will you bring a refreshing word of the Lord into someone and carefully deposit it in the place of the lie they are living?  It would bring me "great joy and encouragement" as a pastor to hear of a choir of God's people refreshing each other, and those they come in contact with, with a word of grace and hope.  Let's refresh a heart today!  No ice cubes required.

 

Ready to Speak,

 

Pastor Dave

the most significant day

This normal day was about to be the most significant day of his life. He sat in front of the TV, remote in hand – his favorite place to be. He was bouncing between two news programs comparing their coverage of the same mediocre stories. It was kind of fun to see how vastly different the two could look at the same event. Sometimes they even covered completely different stories revealing what each station deemed newsworthy. Both of them were revealing their world view assuming everyone else agreed with them. He remembered thinking, "Nowhere else in the universe could you witness two people unpacking the same story with such little unity."

It happened suddenly. There was no time for shock. The room seemed to get smaller and the TV got bigger. Darkness filled the room that made the illumination of the visual electronic entertainment box take an overwhelming dominance.

The screen went black with a thin red line running horizontally across the center of the screen. On the top half the picture slowly faded from black to the most brilliant purple he had ever seen. The bottom half continued to fade until it reached a dull fog that could only be described as colorless.

Then words began to scroll across the top. They crawled slow enough to read, but fast enough that it required an almost sub-conscience reading. The top words came on the screen first, the bottom seemed to follow, almost responding to the top.

"You are loved," was the first line on the top. "You are tolerated," was the print on the bottom.

Top, "I believe in you." Bottom, "You're not worth believing in."

Top, "I want to cleanse you." Bottom, "You're a pervert."

Top, "We can work together." Bottom, "Your mistakes will last forever."

As he watched and read in silence he found himself wanting to believe the top. As soon as he realized that the red line fell downward making the top half bigger than the bottom. The words continued.

Top, "You are my child." Bottom, "Orphan."

Top, "Let me fill you." Bottom, "You have enough strength."

He found himself engaging with top words and sometimes not even noticing the bottom. The red line slid down more.

Top, "I have a wonderful gift for you."

Bottom, "You are worthles…"

Top, "Let me give you eternity."

Bottom, "Life is hopele…"

Top, "You are wonderfully made."

Bottom, "You have no val…"

Soon he stopped looking at the bottom and was allowing the top lines to feed him like a hungry bird would be fed by its mother. It was a great hour. Learning about what was true and what was a lie. He realized how many times he had believed the lies about his life story. It was time to let the truth rewrite how he lived his life story.

That day he understood that the truth isn't there to contradict the lie. The lie was there to contradict the truth. The truth was first and it was stronger. That changed how he viewed the conflicting voices in his soul about himself, and even others. Soon the weakest was the smallest and easiest to ignore.

There was somewhere else in the universe that stories didn't match, his life. And it was time to live the one that was true and ignore the one that wasn't.

This normal day was the most significant day of his life. This was the day he started letting God tell his life story.

May It Be So In Your Life,

Pastor Dave

Remembering...

9/11. This morning on the news there have been multiple stories about the attack on America eight years ago. As I was getting ready for the day listening to some of the dialog I heard a phrase that instantly captured my mind and heart; "Remembering brings unity."

I thought about watching the news with horror eight years ago and the unity that was instantly birthed in the midst of division. Emergency services from across the nation responded instinctively. People set aside what made them different and focused on what united them – tragedy. Who to blame was not on the plate yet, survival was. I remember how unity was born out of emergency.

This morning I'm wondering, "Why is remembering important to unity?"

Thoughts:

1. Remembering brings unity because it elevates what we have in common. The attack eight years ago wasn't about a race of people, or a church denomination . They didn't care about how much money people made or what their favorite food was. It was an attack against an identity, one we all shared.

2. Remembering brings unity because it results in investment. Even if it meant the highest investment of a life people ran to the need of other people. American's gave. People prayed. People engaged.

3. Remembering brings unity because it exposes the trivial. When the issue is life and death debates over opinions and tastes evaporate. The tragic event didn't bring political arguments until later. For a moment priorities were instantly adjusted.

4. Remembering brings unity because it gives us hope. Lessons were learned and changes made. If the first thought was "how can we help," the one soon after that was, "how can we be sure this doesn't happen tomorrow?" We quickly thought about being survivors and facing a new day.

Today we remember an event eight years ago. Sunday night we will remember one that happened two thousand years ago. Think about when Christians receive communion and look over the four points above again.

Luke 22:19 "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'"

Pastor Eric's sermon Sunday spoke of the importance of remembering. We had some great conversations throughout the week as he was preparing. He told me about God calling his people to "live" in Ezekiel. We discussed what it looks like to live the life that God intends for us. One conclusion He came to was it looks like "a life of remembering." You need to check out the podcast if you weren't at church on the 6^th, it'll be posted soon.

This Sunday the 13^th at 6:00 p.m. we will gather to remember. The service is not about songs, or preaching – it's about remembering. Today I remember the work of men bent on our destruction, Sunday night I remember a Man broken for my salvation. The men didn't succeed – the Man did.

Thoughtfully,

Pastor Dave

As If My Life Depended On It

When does unproductive quiet lethargy morph into potentially constructive passion? How do you keep potentially constructive passion from morphing into consistently destructive rage?

I’m watching the political fever of the nation rise, remembering that an infection causes a fever to rise. Right now we have multiple “political doctors” pointing the finger of blame to identify what (or who) the infection is. As of yet the result is not healing or restorative. In many cases lethargy has morphed into passion and in many cases passion is now morphing into rage.

I wonder, what is the role of the Christ-follower right now? Many in the church are filled with passion (if not rage) over their views politically. Yet we are too often stuck in lethargy when it comes to worship and serving God. I will argue health care while I ignore my soul or the souls of those around me.

Lethargy in my God relationship and rage in my political views is the breeding ground for sinful attitudes and actions.

Please don’t misunderstand – I have views about the role and size of Government, taxes, abortion, health care, marriage, war, czars, and terrorists. I will engage as a citizen of this Nation to participate in the discussion… but my passion for politics needs to be fed through my passion for God. That protects it from growing into dangerous rage.

Too often we don’t allow ourselves to go though the hard work of making my world view submit to my God view. We treat them as if they can be detached from one another. As if I can be lethargic with my walk with God and passionate with my political views and somehow avoid disobedient rage -I cannot. One of them must trump the other. God is bigger than politics.

This is time for the church to be passionate about the right things. I need to be passionate enough about my life with Christ that I am willing to lay that life down or even face mockery as I live it. My passion isn’t to be what I want as a “Christian” for the Nation, it’s what Christ wants for the Church and people within the Nations.

So, to answer the beginning questions: When does unproductive quiet lethargy morph into potentially constructive passion? How do you keep potentially constructive passion from morphing into consistently destructive rage?

First question: when I engage my soul as if my life depended on it.

Second question: Be passionate about your God relationship first! Let that passion feed the other passions and we will live Christ to the rage filled world around us.

Listening to the Alarm Go Off to Wake the Church Up,

Pastor Dave