Oh’ Me Oh’ My, The Troubles I Go Through . . .

I don’t know what kind of difficulties you may be going through right now, but compared to Annie Johnson I have nothing to complain about . . .

Annie Johnson Flint was born on Christmas Eve in 1886.  Early in life Annie and her younger sister lost their mother and then their father. They were adopted by the Flint family. After graduating from High School, Annie began to teach but contracted a crippling form of Arthritis which left her with only the ability to type with her knuckles. It was about this time that Annie and her sister lost both of their adoptive parents and they were left with meager financial resources. Her arthritis continued to grow worse until she became bed-bound for the remainder of her life. Then she lost control of her internal organs and became incontinent which led to her having to wear diapers. Then, she started losing her sight and finally became blind. If all of that were not enough, Annie began a losing battle with cancer which finally took her life. But through it all she never lost her faith. In fact, it seems her faith in Christ grew stronger. Annie wrote many poems and hymns through her life as a testament to her Christian Faith. Here is “He Giveth More Grace.”

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

 

Worth pondering – If you were to write a hymn or poem today, what would sound like? Anything like Annie’s? Just wondering.

Love and Blessings,

Dar

The Question of Who Jesus Really Is? – (Mere Christianity)

Today I was talking to a teacher who told me the following passage from the book, Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis was used by God in a powerful way to help her come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Here it is:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”

Tim Keller has more recently expressed the options this way: “Jesus is one of the following: Lord, Lunatic, Liar or Legend. Only four possibilities.” After seeing the beaten, wounded and crucified Jesus, now risen from the dead and standing before him, the Apostle Thomas said: “My Lord and my God!”

How about you? What do you believe?

God’s Best,

Dar

A Brief Summary Of The Christian Faith

Almost 500 years ago Martin Luther wrote his Little Instruction Book for the education of children concerning the basic truths of the Christian Faith. In this small catechism, he includes brief summary statements about the church’s oldest statement of faith – The Apostles Creed (which itself has roots going back to the 1st or 2nd Century). Unfortunately, in today’s church, there are far too many adults who are unfamiliar with even these basic truths.

The Apostles Creed

 The First Article: Creation

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true.

The Second Article: Redemption

 And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.

The Third Article: Sanctification

 I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.

God’s Best,

Dar

The God Who Keeps It Simple – (God’s 3 Step Action Plan For The New Year)

“And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

I want to simplify, focus, and accomplish more this year than last year. How about you? What I mean is, I don’t want to spend another year quickly multitasking through each day and then at the end of the week wonder if I’ve hit any targets.  And I happen to know that the difficulty rating on hitting a target becomes much greater when you don’t know what the target is. It’s hard to make a proper assessment of how close you’ve come when you don’t know where you are going.

What do I know about targets and objectives in life? I know that, at the end of the day/the week/the month/the year/my life, I want to please God. He made me, He loves me, He died for me and He lives in me through the gift of His Spirit. I also know that He speaks to me through His Word, the Bible. But there is so much in the Bible. . . what does it tell me about pleasing God? I would at least like to please God with my life – wouldn’t you?

Thankfully, the prophet Micah provides a target with a simple 3 Step Action Plan to Please God. After dispelling the idea that God needs more offerings or sacrifices (outward demonstrations of religious piety) to satisfy Him, Micah lays out the following:

Step 1 – Act Justly. Now this seems simple enough but at the same time a little challenging. In Micah and the rest of Scripture it is clear that to act justly means to look out for the needs of others. On any given day, if we pay attention, we will likely come across people who may be less privileged or affluent than we are. Always be on the look out for those who are overlooked by others. Be willing to stand in the gap for the ones with no one else standing for them. Make sure they are treated fairly and justly. If in doubt,  just do the right thing. Abound in goodness and not evil. There is enough evil to go around but there’s never quite enough good.

Step 2 – Love Mercy. Micah is not just telling us to occasionally show mercy, he is imploring us to love mercy. That means to be generous in our kindness to others, surprise people with unconditional attitudes and actions of love and forgiveness. (That is love and forgiveness and grace that doesn’t ask, nor expect, to get anything back!)  This is the sort of lifestyle that is uncommon. It throws people off. It makes them ask, “What kind of person would go out of their way to make sure that I am cared for?” The answer of course is the kind of person who has experienced the love of Christ in their own heart and has known the generous forgiveness and compassion of God the Father.

Step 3 – Walk Humbly With Your God. What does this mean? Well, as it turns out, God actually wants us to want Him, to desire Him. It pleases God that we would pursue Him to have a real one-on-one relationship with Him. What does that look like? It begins with a personal trust and reliance (faith) in God Himself, and then a hunger to know God and His Heart more and more. Iwant to thirst to honor Him with my life, to love Him through my actions (not just words) and to serve Him in whatever way He calls.

You may ask, “Where does the ‘Humbly’ part come in?”  The answer is, in all we do, we do for His Glory and His Fame, not for our own. Humanity’s pride has a way of turning everything toward ourselves and tarnishing every achievement. It is not we ourselves that we proclaim but King Jesus! We who follow Him want Him praised and Him thanked for all He has done and is doing to shepherd us with His love. There is an unparalleled and inexhaustible joy that comes from serving the King. What more could we want?

If you are looking for a target to hit, a fresh start for the new year or a renewed purpose for life . . . then let me recommend one that has stood the test of time and continues to inspire, challenge and bring great contentment to all who make it their own. While it remains unknown by many, overlooked by others and neglected by some, (but hopefully not you and me) – the Word of God through the prophet Micah clearly and simply gives a daily and life-long plan for living:

 “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

God’s Best for the New Year,

Dar

The God Who Restores

“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25).

One of the things I’ve learned rather slowly in life is that for every one of my actions there are always corresponding reactions.  In general terms, we can say good decisions are usually met with positive results and wrong decisions usually result in negative results. Or more to the point of this passage by the prophet Joel, willful sin by God’s people will always be met with the focused attention of our Heavenly Father and His corresponding discipline for His children.

His discipline is meant to correct and bring back those who have strayed because He loves us enough not to just let us go our own way. He is after all the Great Shepherd of our souls. Our God is fully able to restore and bring back to usefulness and fruitfulness His people who will turn to Him regardless of their past disobedience.  He loves to meet our repentance with His restoration.  As the invitation by God illustrates in this same chapter:

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster” (Joel 2:12-13).

Here’s a point or two about the God Who Restores:

First, our God is in the business of restoring broken hearts and broken dreams. It is His practice to mend that which is torn. He picks up the pieces of our dashed hopes and seals them back together again. He heals that which is has been injured  and He relieves the pain with soothing balms of love and compassion. He is the God of Compassion, Love and Restoration.

Secondly,  His method of operation is to make things even better than they were before. He has a track record of doing just that. You can check it out. Just ask Job or Joseph or most any follower of Jesus. God goes beyond what we would consider a gracious act of love. He restores. Restoring means more than simply putting things back where they were. He gives back what was lost and then some. Whether it was lost promises or plans, whether it was lost days or years, they are not lost, they are restored. He doesn’t rest until things are made more than right.

From my own experience, I know that He likes to more than make things like they were, He likes to make them even better.

As I reflect on my own life, I’ve seen God take my wrong turns (otherwise known as sins) and turn them into going the right direction with angelic escorts leading the way! Praise God!

Revived, Renewed And Restored,

God’s Best,

Dar

The Faultless Foundation of Faith

Foundations are important. A foundation for one’s life is the thing that helps us makes sense of our lives. It enables us to understand and interpret the world around us; the thing on which we build our lives on. What foundation are you basing your life on?

Socrates, considered one of the world’s great philosophers, shortly before his death, is reported to have said,

 “All the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.”

Socrates put all of his confidence in the collected thoughts and wisdom of philosophy and came up empty.

On the other hand, God’s Word offers us a sure and certain place on which to stand. The Sovereign LORD says,

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed” (Isaiah 28:16).

That stone, that foundation is Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers,

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

God, who created this world and everything in it, also offers us a sure and certain foundation for all of life.  It is the only foundation that will withstand the tests, trials and travails of this world.  It is the only foundation that will endure into eternity.  This foundation is the very real and genuine  relationship we may have in Jesus Christ as our Shepherd King.

Napoleon Bonaparte was the Emperor of France and the King of Italy.  Before his death he stated,

“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”

Jesus Christ died for us that we might live with him, through him and standing on him. There is no firmer foundation.

How about you? Are you trusting in the foundation offered in Christ or in someone or something else?

The offer is still valid in all fifty states and every country of the world. I just don’t know the expiration date. Do you?

Standing On The Rock, God’s Best,

Dar

IN THE GAME

You are on the team. You are in the stadium. You are on the field. You know the play, you hear the snap, and you’ve been given the ball. You follow your blockers, running hard, shedding would-be tacklers.  You’ve trained, you’ve sacrificed, and you’ve disciplined yourself. You are and will remain totally committed, absolutely determined, resolute and undaunted. You have a mission; your eye is on the goal; you are ready to score.

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:1-3).

Keep it up. Press ahead. Gain the prize!

One Coach, One Call, One Commission – Christ Crucified and Risen!

Dar

A Purpose for Living in the New Year

“And this is His commandment: We must believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (1 John 3:23).

This is a great summary statement of the Christian life, something any follower of Christ can “hang their hat on”. The Apostle John, who knew Jesus so well, takes two related objectives for all Christians and sums them up in one easily memorable purpose statement. Take a moment and look at it with me.

First of all our faith starts with our belief in a particular person: We must believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. For people of faith our belief goes beyond just acknowledging who Jesus is, it must also mean that we trust in Him for everything about our lives. It means that we are grateful to Him for our very existence, that we owe the pardoning of our sins and restoring of a right relationship with God to Him alone. It means that we depend upon Him daily for all of our guidance, protection, provision and blessings in this present life. It also means that we are counting on Him and Him alone as our hope for the eternal life to come.

But the call of Jesus into the lives of  His followers doesn’t stop with belief in Him. It goes on to the second part of John’s statement (love one another, just as He commanded us). Jesus calls us to allow His transforming, life-changing love to work in us in such a way that it affects everything we do. All of our thoughts, speech and actions, as we ground ourselves in Him, will become channels or conduits to loving, caring for and helping others. Love in action is the natural result of our relationship with Christ. It’s the mark of the Christian in a world that desperately needs to experience the human touch of God in their lives.

In the busyness of modern life we are all confronted with a daily barge of ideas, goals and objectives. Information, challenges and requests for the commitment of our time and lives come at us from an assortment of avenues and angles. What shall we make of it all? To who and what will we ultimately give ourselves  and our lives to?

John takes these two commands of God and forms them into one because they are directly related and at the core of what it means to live a purposeful Christian life. To believe in Jesus means to trust Him. And to trust in Jesus means that we will, by the strength and wisdom that He gives us, love other people as He has loved us. Trust Jesus, love people.

Simple Strategies For Serving Our Savior,

Dar