A thought at the start of a new year

We are less than a week into this new year. Something which I have been reflecting on which I want to post here on the blog is a thought about approaching life in this new year of Our Lord 2011. Several years ago, I wrote in my personal journal that I believe that the Lord had impressed upon my mind the words :"Abandon your sin."

I have pondered what it really means to abandon sin. Something which happens very rarely around the metro Detroit where I live is a sudden, heavy rainstorm in which the rain comes down so quickly, it overwhelms the ability of pumps to remove water from the local expressways. When that happens, the below ground level roadways become a system of slowly rising man-made rivers. There have been a few times when I have seen on the local news that during such times, people had to abandon their cars or face being drowned. At such times, to stay with your car could be a death sentence. To live, you must abandon.

I think our sin is like this. If we stay with it, we will die in it. Like our cars, our sins often reflect our tastes and our choices. We don't give up easily something in which we have invested time and money. Yet, when the flood comes and starts to overwhelm your car, the decision must be made. Risk staying with the car and face possible drowning or leave the car and ensure your life will be spared.

The danger of sin is not always as obvious as water rising alongside your car during a flash rainstorm. But the effects are just as sure. So, in this very new year of 2011, I will be reflecting on the sins which I need to abandon. Ask yourself what you need to abandon in 2011. Don't wait for the quick and unexpected storms of life to abandon those sins in your life which need to abandoned and left behind.

Happy New Year from the School of the Solitary Place!!!

Audio of New Year's Day Message

The audio of my New Year's Day message at Troy Christian Chapel is now on the church website. You can access the page by clicking on the title of this blog entry or simply go to
http://www.restoringthecore.com/wp-content/restored/TCC_20100101_New_Years_Day_Message.mp3

and download the January 1 2010 sermon.

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year 2010!!! The blog took a back seat to some events going on in late 2009. Those are over now so the blog will be getting more attention in 2010.

Over this last New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, our home church of Troy Christian Chapel conducted its' fourth annual 24 Hour New Year's Prayer Time. We had a watchnight service and I had the privilege of being able to deliver the message for the service. I have posted the text here.

Revelation 21:1-8
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

We are about to embark on a new year, the year of Our Lord 2010. It is seems ironic that our culture, which is very oriented to the present-moment and is easily distracted by every shiny object placed in front of it actually takes time for reflection as we move from one year to another. In addition, if you count years the way many do today, we shift from not only one year to another but from the first to the second decade of the 21st century.

It is rather common for the media to look at the year which is ending year in a summary review. We look back at the most newsworthy items and remember those who died during the prior year. Individually, this is a time to “take stock”. It is a time for New Year resolutions.

In looking to the year which has just past, I think we also need to look at and focus on the future. Consider how we are all being drawn into the future with the passage of time. The flow of time can be compared to a quickly moving stream or river. On many of our recent family summer vacations in northern Michigan, Zack, Rocky and I have gone “tubing” on the Indian River in the northern Lower Peninsula. This kind of tubing is not the one where you tie an inner tube to the back of a fast moving boat. Instead, you simply sit down in the tube, wince at how cold the water is, even in August, push off from shore and simply float down the river for a few hours. Sometimes, to have us stay relatively close to each other, one of us might try to grab the branch of a tree from the shore and try to stay in place while the others catch up. Trying to stay in place in that fast moving river is not easy. It is tiring and takes a bit of effort. In the same way, in the flow of the stream of time, trying to hold onto the past is also difficult.

I am not talking about simply remembering the past. That is definitely a good thing to do, especially if you are trying to avoid repeating past mistakes. What I am talking about is how some people, in their hearts and minds, live in the past. I think there are three ways this happens.

1. Failing to recognize the passage of time; We often treat the time given to us by God on this Earth as an infinite resource rather than one which is most definitely fixed by death. It is living opposite of what the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” One who fails to recognize the passage of time does not number his or her days aright. The value of time as a FINITE resource is lost on this person.

2. Obsessing over what is perceived as better times. Such “better times” might be thought of in terms of the economy, relationships in family, dating, marriage, etc. The American Christmas experience can fuel this type of living in the past. Pastor Paul Edwards pointed out on his talk show in November how many of the sappy, sentimental Christmas songs of today can actually bring about a sense of depression as we might do more than just remember Christmases past but perhaps long to somehow re-create or go back to a Christmas in times past. Time’s arrow points only one way and such a re-creation or idealization simply cannot be done.

This mindset is not confined to the Christmas season. In our materialistic, youth-oriented culture, there is a temptation for us as we get older to look back and yearn for days in the past in which we had youth, optimism, strength, good looks, a better-paying job (or even simply a job). Our body might be living in 2010 but our heart and mind is living (and chained to) a bygone time.

3. Obsessing over past faults, failures, regrets, errors and sins. I am not talking about imagined faults or a sense of false guilt. I am speaking about unpleasant things which really happened, some of which were out of our control, in which we were, in a sense, a victim, as well as those instances in which we had full control of a situation and still purposely erred or sinned, perhaps even victimizing someone else.

Keep these three points in mind. I’ll be dealing with them again in a few moments. Remember earlier that I compared the flow of time into the future as a quickly-moving stream. I need to stress that those who are believers in Christ have the Lord Jesus Christ as a traveling companion as we go “tubing” into the future.

To push this analogy just a little harder, it can be said that Christians first encounter Christ at different points in the stream of time. Whenever that encounter happens in our personal history, we find that Scripture shows us that when people first encounter Christ, we encounter Christ in a way which may seem strange to our hearing and jar our thinking. When Christ first becomes manifest to a person or persons, a crisis occurs. In John 3:19, we read:

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

The word that the NIV translates as “verdict” and the NASB translates as “judgment” is the Greek word “CRISIS”. Listen to the passage again in this light of this:

“This is the CRISIS: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

One definition of the word CRISIS is
“A stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, esp. for better or for worse, is determined; turning point.” Doesn’t that describe so well what the presence of Christ does in our lives?

We see this in the parable of the 10 Virgins found in Matthew 25. You might recall the basics of the parable. Five are wise and five are foolish. However, a close reading of the parable will show that if one could be an observer of the events of this parable, no distinction can be made among the virgins until the appearance of the bridegroom, the symbol for Christ. It is only then that a foolish virgin can be distinguished from a wise virgin. The arrival of the bridegroom precipated the crisis of whether provision was made ahead of time or not. Simply put, Christ brings CRISIS. He brings separation and division. When we first met Him, He too brought about a CRISIS for us as well.

To continue the analogy of time as a stream moving toward the future, Christ, the Crisis bringer, can be compared to a channel marker which controls and separates traffic on a river. In the case of Christ, the channel marker indicates a type of “fork in the road”. Just as Christ divides humanity into a type of sheep or goat, (see once again Matthew 25 for this parable of division as well), Christ splits our stream of time into two different directions. We are going to the future. However, the stream is then split into two. One stream of time, the one in which Christ is not a part, empties into a lake. It is not a placid, peaceful lake such as a Houghton or Higgins Lake up north but rather into the Lake of Fire.

The other stream takes us to the new heavens and the new Earth. It is that which is spoken of in the text I read at the beginning. Allow me to re-read a portion of that text:

3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

What wonderful promises await us in that future time and place. Note also that the separation of God’s people from evil is from this point a permanent one. Thus, we are moving not only toward the future, we are moving toward the HOLY FUTURE. Holy in both senses which the Bible applies to the term. Both moral purity as well as separation to God away from evil. We will be living in God’s dwelling because God will be living with us.

With all of this in mind, how should we respond?

1. SEVER THE BONDS IN WHICH YOU CHAIN YOURSELF TO THE PAST
Lay aside guilt over past sins, errors and failures. If you are believer in Christ, remember that Christ died for your sins, ALL OF THEM. Ask God to forgive you. Trust that He has in Christ. If necessary, forgive yourself. Don’t remain chained to the past any longer. Ask forgiveness of God, if needed, for misusing the finite gift of time which He has allotted to you. Lay aside unrealistic expectations from your past. Trust God that though your outward circumstances may have suffered over the years, your best days are not behind you. Nor are you going to be having your best life now. Unfortunately, having your best life now is true only for hellbound unbelievers, not for a Christian. For a believer in Christ, your best life awaits the time of the holy future.

2. ABIDE IN CHRIST – Please be more concerned about abiding with Christ than with living the Christian life. Hopefully, that got your attention. Should we be living the Christian life as Christians? Absolutely. Yet, in the attitudes of our hearts and minds, we may find it more comfortable to do Christian things rather than spend time and our lives in the presence of our companion who travels with us into the holy future. If you abide in Christ, simply staying with Him, living a genuine Christian life will flow naturally. Will it take effort? Yes. However, that effort will not seem incredibly burdensome to you. Rather, it will flow from the joy of being in the abiding presence of the Lord in your life. As Psalm 16:11 says: “You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy;” and Nehemiah 8:10 concludes the thought: “The joy of the LORD is your strength.”

3. BE A MIGRANT TO THE FUTURE – In the Detroit area, it is not uncommon to see or know individuals who have migrated from a foreign culture to American culture. Sometimes, these migrants will reflect the cultures from which they came. This can happen by way of such things as language, food or clothing. In these cases, the place from which they came has a strong influence on their present moment.

In what way should Christians be migrants? We know we are pilgrims in an alien word. We get a further hint from Saint Paul. In Romans 6.11, Paul tells us that we need to “consider ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Being actually dead to sin and outside its reach is a mark of the life we will have in the new heavens and the new Earth, in the holy future. So, for a Christian, the way in which we conduct ourselves is not the past influencing the present, but rather the future influencing the present. Our migrant culture, as foreigners in this world, is based on future experience, not the past experience. We can live the life of the land to which we are going and do so now. Live as one who knows the time and place to which you are migrating and where you will eventually spend eternity.

4. DON’T PUT OFF THE THINGS YOU ARE CALLED TO DO & WISH TO DO- If we are not chained to the past but know we are being called into the future, we can live life in the present moment with a confidence that God is with us. Ask God to give you the wisdom to know what He is asking of you. Keep in mind that Scripture tells us that God gives us the desires of our heart. I understand this not as God fulfilling our personal whims but actually supplying to us the desires for the things He wants us to want. My counsel is that unless you are stopped by circumstances outside your control, follow through on what God has put on your heart. It might be something such as going to seminary or taking a missions trip. Perhaps it is something which may not seem as outwardly noble as what I just mentioned but are still important things nonetheless. Such things as taking that once-in-a-lifetime cruise with your family, telling someone close to you that they are loved and so important in your life. Perhaps, it is even something as simple as the joy of learning to play a musical instrument like an Irish Tin Whistle. It could be any number of seeming small things. Use these opportunities wisely and well.

I need to conclude. In October of 1964, Ronald Reagan, 16 years away from being elected President of the United States, gave a speech called “A Time for Choosing”. In that speech, Reagan stated he believed that the American people had a rendezvous with destiny. While that may very well be true, I know that the Bible indicates we have a rendezvous with the future.

[AT THIS POINT IN THE SERVICE, WE PUT UP THE IMAGE YOU SEE AT THE TOP OF THIS BLOG ENTRY}REQUEST POWERPOINT TO BE USED]
This rendezvous with the future was portrayed graphically in a set of paintings which make up the altar piece of a cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. In this painting done by the Van Eyck brothers in the 1420s, we see in symbol the gathering of God’s faithful from all of history. These people from every language, tribe and nation gather around the throne of God and of the Lamb, Christ Jesus. This is where we are being drawn. This is where we belong, with all of the saints of all history who also met Christ the Crisis Bringer in their voyage down the stream of time. Standing shoulder to shoulder with them, we will rightfully be worshipping God forever. As believers in Christ, that is our destiny.

With God’s help, will you choose to sever the chains holding you to the past so that you can live that life of the holy future, both then and now?

Reflection for the New Year

The following is a text of a reflection which I gave at the Troy Christian Chapel WatchNight service on December 31, 2008. I hope you find it useful to your walk in Christ.

New Years’s Day Reflection – December 31, 2008
Isaiah 43:1-7 NIV

1 But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. 4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. 5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. 6 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth- 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

The start of a new year is often a time for reflecting on the year which has just gone by and forming some resolutions about things to do (or not do) in the new year. As each of us looks back at 2008, we remember that there are a number of significant things which have happened in each of our lives. The current state of the economy is probably among the biggest things which has influenced our lives as Americans. There have been other events which have influenced our lives as a community, as a church, as families and individuals, too many to mention here in detail.

There were a number of such events in my life during 2008. My mother died in January and it does seem unusual that she is still not here among us. My mother in law was hospitalized twice and required intestinal surgery only a week ago. However, there is one event in particular which I would like to reflect on and hope that the lessons which I learned will be of benefit to you in this New Year, the Year of Our Lord 2009.

Back in October, I was listening to an audio recording of an evangelist named Leonard Ravenhill. Some of you may recognize the name. His ministry of encouraging prayer and revival spanned at least five decades of the 20th century. In the audio, Ravenhill was preaching a sermon called “How Much Can You Lose Without Losing Your Faith?” In the last two minutes of the sermon, Ravenhill asked his audience: “Tell me honestly. Do you believe that you are precious in the sight of the Lord?” I was busy with some task at work while I was listening. I silently answered his question with a quick reply.”No”. I didn’t believe that I am precious in the sight of the Lord.

I knew what the answer was supposed to be. Yet, if I were being honest, I had to say “No”. I asked myself why I had responded like this. First, I needed to make sure that Ravenhill was basing his question upon the Bible and not something that sounds nice but has no basis in the Scriptures. While riding the People Mover in downtown Detroit heading back to my car that evening, I started searching through the Bible to find the verse which I thought Ravenhill might have been using. I found the passage and it is within the text which I read at the start of this reflection, namely Isaiah 43:4. The text was there in the Bible, but did it apply to me personally?

This caused me to do some real soul-searching. Please keep in mind that I am not a novice to the Christian faith. I came to faith in Christ in 1984. Also, I am not untrained in the faith. I do have a Masters Degree in Theology. What I believed about not being precious in the sight of God did not come from a lack of experience or formal training. Over the next few nights, I reflected on this disconnect. I knew what God’s Word says. Yet, I searched for my reason for answering Ravenhill’s question the way I did. To be brutally honest, I know my own sinfulness better than just about anybody. I did not deny that God loves me. Yet, I thought that the love on God’s part was merely one of putting up with me. I know that God loves my wife Julie, and my sons Zack and Rocky. Yet, I believed that God showed me favor merely to be a means of human blessing to my family, and not because I was precious in His sight. The comparison which I recorded in my journal at this time was that of a “weird uncle” or someone similar in most families. The “weird uncle” is often included in family events because of merely being family. Yet, in a one-on-one situation, no one would be friends with him on his own.

I looked for some commentary, book or article which would address my disconnect on this issue. In my searching, I came across the texts of two sermons preached by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the 19th century British minister who is often called “the prince of preachers.” Spurgeon preached on this Isaiah passage in sermons dating to 1870 and 1882. As I read through these sermons, I would have thought that somehow Spurgeon had come into the future and followed me around and interviewed me before preparing his sermons. He perfectly laid out my reasons for not believing that I was not precious in God’s sight. He then dismantled them using God’s Word as his basis. Through these sermons, God was kind enough to show me and have me believe that I personally am precious in His sight. What I thought was too good to be possible turned out to be very good, very possible and very true.

From his 1882 sermon, Spurgeon wrote:

Could it be that Jesus could speak thus in His infinite love to me? I needed to remember the power of the washing in His blood, and the power of His cleansing Spirit, and the power of His justifying righteousness before I could understand how He could say such a word to me? Do you not feel staggered as you hear this word, “You are precious in My sight”? Does not unbelief prompt you to say, “Lord, that love-word is meant for somebody else! It cannot mean me.” And yet, if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are born of God, and it is to you that this text is spoken, “You are precious in My sight.”

Spurgeon brought the point back to Christ and His work in each of His redeemed. That is what makes us precious in His sight.

Words cannot describe the tremendous and wonderful impact this has had on my life. This has been like an opening of the gates of heaven to me.

What I had believed before stemmed from a false humility. In common usage, when we speak of false humility, we think of someone who seems humble on the outside but is very prideful and egotistical on the inside.

Yet, there is a different kind of false humility. It is a humility, sincerely held, but is a humility based on falsehood. It is founded on a lie. During my first 24 years of life as a Christian, I clung to what I thought was a humble and honest view of myself and how God managed to love me in a way that was just merely putting up with me. I thought that that was blessing enough. Yet, this “humility” was built on a lie which failed to take into account the person and work of Christ on my behalf.

As this new year of 2009 begins, I urge you to reflect on your life and your view of God. Please, for your sake and the sake of those closest to you, put away false humility. It can take several forms. I’ve elaborated about one of those already.

Another type of false humility can be found in the realm of forgiveness. If we are believers in Christ and have confessed our sin, we are told in 1 John 1:9-10 that Christ is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Yet, are there times in which we might think it a holy and humble exercise to remind ourselves so much of our past sin that the one person in this life we fail to forgive is ourselves. Think with me about this. If we fail to forgive ourselves even though God has, are we not holding ourselves to a standard higher even than God’s? We fail to trust the promise of God for forgiveness by not thinking and acting as one who is forgiven. We remain unforgiven, not in God’s sight but in our own. We might think it impossible to let go of the guilt of some sin. We might think that failing to forgive ourselves is really some type of a pious humility. However, such an attitude is not really holy humility at all. Rather, it is idolatry, for we adopt our own standards as a law higher than that of God Himself.

Lastly, as we enter 2009, we will have a number of challenges before us. Life might be getting more difficult. Our culture will mourn that our nation’s material prosperity is diminishing. Don’t mourn as the world mourns. The troubles we face are an opportunity for our faith to grow and to glorify God. Verse 2 of the text brings this out so well. It says:”When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. The text indicates WHEN we face these trials, not IF. God is with us.

Genuine revivals have begun in times like those we are in now. The revival of 1857 which got its’ start in New York City and spread to cities around the English speaking world, including Detroit, started during a financial crisis in America which included a stock market crash. In the light of all the challenges we will face, don’t think that being a dour and sour Christian is somehow being more spiritual and more humble. Scripture tells us that it is the joy of the Lord which is our strength. It is a true joy which those in our culture are starving for. Let’s model it for them.

Our world is being turned upside down. Yet, while the world may be panicky as we enter into 2009, this should be a time of anticipation for us. Please do not get me wrong. I am not naïve. Believers are suffering in our current economic woes as well as unbelievers. Yet, this is a time of unprecedented spiritual opportunity as the myth of the material “good life” is slowly being seen for the fakery that it is. Spiritually, our culture is coming to the end of its’ rope. What better time to introduce them to Jesus Christ.

May the Lord God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, bless your endeavors as you seek Him joyfully in 2009 knowing that you are truly forgiven by Him and that He loves you, and you are personally precious in His sight.

24 Hour Prayer as 2007 ends and 2008 begins

Once again, my home church of Troy Christian Chapel, is conducting a 24 Hour Watchnight Prayer Time from 2pm today through to 2pm January 1st. I'm home for a few hours and thought that I would report that it has been a blessed time for us.

Happy New Year 2008... a year of continued grace!!!

A Happy New Year (Off to a prayerful start)

Our church concluded its time of 24 hour prayer this afternoon at 2pm. By the grace of God, we had full coverage of all hours during the 24 hour period. It was an absolutely blessed time. It was also the first time that I was able to participate in something like this where a part of my time was spent in prayer, reading and reflection between the hours of 2am to 5am.

While I know that God hears prayer at whatever hour of the day it is offered, I think that there may be a special blessing for those who are crying out to the Lord in prayer when the rest of the world around us is dark and our community is asleep.

I think that those who participated had a sense of what the peace of heaven must be like. We hope to do this again (perhaps annually). In a few hours that I had at home earlier today (I've been rather busy with the 24 hour event itself in not only praying but helping to work through some of the logistics), I came across the text of a Watch Night service conducted by Charles Spurgeon in London on December 31, 1855 (Text here). It is a solemn reminder that our fund of time on this Earth is limited and to learn to pray and cry out to God to "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."(Psalm 90: 12 NIV). I suggest reading it today on New Year's Day (even though any day of the year would be a good time to read it and take its' message to heart).

Happy New Year from the School of the Solitary Place!!!

A Wonderful Time of Prayer

Our congregation is currently having a time of 24 hour prayer at our church. We believe that God opened a door for us to do this a little over a month ago when two members of our prayer group, independent of each other's knowledge, presented a case for 24 hour prayer at our church and did so within a few hours of each other.

As I write this, we are in the tenth hour of prayer and the last hour of the year 2006. This has been and continues to be a blessed time as we reflect on the past year and pray for a spirit of repentance on the individual, family, congregational and national church level. Our pastor today preached in conjunction with our vigil of prayer. He preached on Ephesians 3:14-21 and presented Paul's (and Christ's) grand vision of what the church can and should be. It is my last prayer of the year 2006.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Thank you Lord Jesus for 2006. Be with us in the year 2007, the year of grace.