Always Anticipating...

I have been counting down the days until my family leaves for the beach. To be honest, I have been counting down the days to vacation since my last vacation. I love my trips to the beach, they are a time of solace and regeneration. There is something special about the vastness of the ocean when I look at it, it just goes on and on and you can’t see where it ends, and in reality it doesn’t. it reminds me of the power and the intricacy of God.

                I think we spend a lot of time counting down the days, anticipating something to happen.

                My kids have been counting down the days until the end of school, and now it is here. Sumer break is finally upon us.

                I talked to a gentleman yesterday, who asked me to pray for his friend, Sabrina. She is in jail and counting down the days to her release date.

                Most months I count down the days to payday so we have some spending money, only to do the same thing again next month.

                My niece is counting down the days to her wedding.

And every child I know counts down the days to their birthday, though at some point we stop doing that.

                I talked with a woman this week who is looking forward to being reunited with her husband. He is heaven.

                We seem to be always in a state of waiting on the next thing to happen, looking forward to the next event, the next trip, the promotion, next phase in our life. We are in a constant state of anticipation.

                The stories of the Bible are stories of waiting on the next thing to happen, too. These are our stories also, we find ourselves in the midst of them just as clearly today as the people whom were in the very middle of them thousands of years ago.

                The exodus is the primary event of the Jewish faith showing not only God’s power through miraculous events but also His love for His people by taking them from captivity and bringing them into a new land of freedom with a purpose. The exodus was a time of anticipation. The people anticipated being set free from Egyptian slavery, then after decades in the wilderness they anticipated a new promised land, and then years later they anticipated a restoration to this land.

                The prophets that we read in the Old Testament relate an anticipation of a Messiah to deliver them from their oppression. And when Jesus does arrive on the scene, most of the people who have been talking about anticipating Him are the very ones who don’t recognize Him for who He is.

                Maybe that’s an interesting thing about anticipation. We get so wrapped up in what we think we are anticipating, what we have in our minds will happen, when we expect, that we are not prepared for the unexpected.

                The beginning of the book of Acts tells the story of Jesus’ ascension. This is after Jesus was crucified, had died, and was buried, but then He rose on the 3^rd day (Surprise! Most people weren’t expecting that to happen), and then after a period of 40 days He told his followers that He was leaving again but that He would return. And then He was taken up into the clouds…talk about anticipation!

                “They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them… “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go” (Acts 1:10-11).

                And so we anticipate Jesus’ return. We are not alone in this waiting, God is with us. God’s very Spirit has been given to every believer as a Comforter in this waiting. And we wait with others.

                But we can’t wait just staring up at the sky.

                We are all waiting for so many things today; healing, reconciliation, the doctor’s prognosis, forgiveness from the person we hurt, a child to finally come home, for the pain to end, for Jesus to return.

                But here’s the deal, sometimes by only anticipating tomorrow we are missing today. You have been given today, this right here right now, as a gift of grace by God. Don’t just stare up into the clouds waiting on something amazing to happen, look around you today and you will see there are already amazing and beautiful things happening. Live in this moment. Thank God for this moment. Experience this moment as what you were anticipating. And then let God guide your expectations, and set your heart and your mind to His beauty and grace.

               

               

The Wind of the Spirit

As I am writing this I am sitting in front of a fan. It’s an oscillating fan, the kind that rotates around to blow air in a semi-circle. I’ve been working on a sermon about Pentecost as described in the New Testament in Acts chapter 2. So the wind from the fan I am feeling is kind of a cool thing (get it, “cool”?)

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting”- Acts 2:2

This is the day that the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to believers who called upon the name of Jesus. And the elements that Luke (the author of Acts) uses to describe this event were with wind and fire.

                But I have been focused on the wind the past few days. Sometimes we don’t like wind. It can blow your hair around (although truthfully I don’t have this problem anymore), or it can blow over trees, and even cause damage. But there is some kinds of wind that we do like. When I am sitting on the beach I love to feel the sea breeze blowing. On a hot summer day when we are sitting on the porch sipping ice tea we love to feel the cool breeze blowing. As I am sitting on this couch writing this I am thankful to have the fan blowing on me. And the reason is because without the fan today I wouldn’t have any “wind” in the house.

                I have spent the past few days with my hand over vents trying to feel something blowing, but to no avail. And when I have felt a little air moving, it’s been warm air-not what you want when it’s almost 90 degrees outside.

                But the wind from the fan is comforting. It’s what I need. Without it I would be sitting here sweating.

                Maybe today you feel a little stagnant in your life. Maybe you need to feel a fresh wind blowing in your soul. That’s what the Holy Spirit does, God in us. Teaching us, comforting us, directing us.

                When Jesus was preparing his disciples for this event he told them that He must go away so that the Holy Spirit could come. So we often think about Pentecost as the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

                But Pentecost really isn’t about arrival. It’s about return. Pentecost is about the return of the Son in the form of the Spirit. And this same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead now lives in you (see Romans 8).

                Fire and wind.

                And as the Spirit breathes a fresh cool life into your sweaty overworked and stressed out existence, this same Spirit will plant and grow holiness by cultivating in you the fruits needed for daily living (see Galatians 5).

                God’s Spirit is a gift to all believers, for “all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).

                May it be so today.

Grab a snake by the tail

I love the stories in Exodus of the encounters with Moses and Pharaoh. I am reminded that God has, and does, work in common people to bring about His good for His glory.

            One story that I shared with my congregation recently comes from Exodus chapter 4. This is at the beginning of Moses following God’s call on his life to be a prophet and lead the Hebrew people out of captivity from Egypt and into the Promised Land that God has in store for them. But first, God has to get Moses ready, because Moses doesn’t feel very qualified to do the job that God has laid out for him. In fact, he is very insecure about what he is supposed to be doing.

            I have heard it said that God doesn’t call the equipped, but He equips the called. I have sure found this to be true. And it was true for Moses, too.

            But in an effort to help get Moses ready for an encounter with Pharaoh, the single most powerful ruler in the known world at the time, God gave Moses a practice run. This story is in Exodus 4:1-5.

            Moses was holding a staff in his hand and God told him to throw it down on the ground. When Moses threw it down it became a snake. God told Moses to pick it up and when Moses picked it up it became a staff again.

            There are a couple of things I wanted to share with you today from this story.

            When Moses threw the staff down and God turned it into a snake Moses ran from it. I get it, I would have done that too. And probably so would you! But the thing is that we do that all too often. Run from things, I mean. When we are faced with an unexpected fearful situation (and this was just that, God could have at least gave Moses a heads up of what He was going to do) we have a few options. One is to run from our fear. This is probably the most common reaction. Or we can be frozen by our fear. Paralyzed. I have seen this as a pretty common reaction also. Or there is a third option: face our fear.

            This is what God tells Moses to do.

            “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” God told Moses (4:4a)

            When I was a teenager I had a pet snake, a ball python named Merlin. Merlin is the only snake that I have ever handled, so I am not exactly a proficient professional in snake handling mannerisms (I am, after all, Methodist), but there is one thing I do know about picking up a snake.             Never, and I mean NEVER-EVER-NEVER, pick it up the tail. If you pick up a snake by the tail then it might swing around with its free end, its mouth, and bite you.

            So why did God tell Moses do pick up the snake by the tail? Did God want Moses to get bitten? Did God not know that Moses would be vulnerable to a snake bite this way? Or did God have an ulterior motive? Did God want to teach Moses, and us, something more important than just proper snake handling etiquette? I think the latter.

            Maybe, by picking up the snake by the tail Moses was being forced to face his fear (not run from it and not be paralyzed by it) and trust God at the same time. God calls us to a living faith, and a living faith involves action!

            Is there something in your life where you need to trust God and reach out and take hold of? I can promise you that if you are following God’s plan for your life He will take care of you. If God has brought you to it He will bring you through it.

            And one more side note about snakes: the mouth is the big end…the tail is the little end. You just take care of the little end, the part that you can handle, and trust that God handle the big end. Now, bend over and pick that thing up by the tail. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

An Abundant Life

Before we lived in a parsonage we owned a house behind downtown Jonesborough in a little subdivision with lots of kids. Many nights, right about dinner time, several of my oldest daughter’s friends would be at our house. Most of the time they just ate with us, but there were times that I was thinking, “Can’t ya’ll go home to eat?”

                That was the same thought that Jesus’ disciples had one evening. Jesus had been preaching all day and a crowd of thousands of people had gathered to hear him. But as it got later in the day people started to get hungry. You know how you feel at high noon every Sunday right? You’ve been listening to the preacher for 20 minutes and you need something to eat! These people had probably been listening to Jesus all day, and now it was dinner time. What would they do?

                This story is told in the gospel of Mark 6:34-44. Take a few minutes to read this amazing story….

                The disciples wanted to send the people away. Jesus wanted the disciples to feed them. The disciples were focused on the problem. Jesus was focused on the people. The disciples were focused on the fact that there wasn’t enough. Jesus wanted them to give and trust Him to provide, a lesson that there is always enough with Jesus.

                When I was growing up we ate most of our meals thanks to food stamps. Not the little EBT credit card looking thing now, but the old paper stamps in the book. I am thankful for that. But I grew up thinking that there was never enough. I grew up thinking that at some point we would run out. There was always more month than money. There never seemed to be enough.

                This is called a mindset of scarcity. It is a belief that leads to consumption that leads to lack that leads to fear. This is where the disciples were that day.

                “Send them away”, they said. When we are focused on the problem that is our response. We can’t help them, we don’t have enough. Send them away. Send them to another place. Send them to another church. We don’t have enough.

                But Jesus responds with a great question (He always has a way of doing that doesn’t He). Jesus asks, “How much do you have”.

                Jesus is not asking us to give more than we have, just to trust Him with what we do have.

                And the disciples, thanks to a young boy in the crowd, scrounge up 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Not exactly enough to feed thousands of people, is it?

                But here’s the deal. That thought is from our mindset of scarcity.

                Jesus looks at this from a mindset of abundance. This is a view that there will be enough. This is not fear, this is faith. This is trusting God, with something that seems like not-enough, with something that seems inadequate, and trusting Jesus to do something amazing with it.

                We serve a God of abundance. We are called to be people who live in this life of abundance. I am not exactly talking about material things here, but I do think we need to look at the luxuries we have in this time and place we live in compared to previous generations and compared to others around the world today.

                Jesus said “I came to give them life, and life in abundance” (John 10:10).

                We live an abundant life when we trust in Jesus as our Lord, when we view Jesus as enough in our lives, and as we freely give to others in need, because God will continue to provide for us as He always has.

                And then those people that ate the fish and bread, “everyone ate and was satisfied” (Mark 6:42).

                May you be satisfied in the abundance of grace and love your heavenly Father is pouring out on you today, and may you be a conduit to share this with others in the name of Jesus.

Promises

The Bible is full of promises. A great exercise is to go through and keep a journal of all the promises from God in Scripture that you can find and see how this promise is impacting your life. There are several God-promises found in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah lived around the years 627–587 B.C. about 600 years before Jesus walked this earth. Jeremiah was not just a bullfrog, he was a prophet of God, speaking to the people what God told him to tell them. He began this ministry at a really tough time in the Israel’s history, when things were going good. Now, you probably think that being a prophet in good times would be easier than being a prophet in bad times, but that wasn’t the case. Jeremiah had to go to out to the people, who were enjoying a time of peace and prosperity; they had jobs and food and the future was looking good. Jeremiah got to tell them, this is all gonna end because you need to change. But nobody wanted to hear this from Jeremiah. He kept saying things like, “Repent, and turn back to God”, and this was irritating to most people because they thought things were going pretty well, yet Jeremiah kept saying the good times were gonna end. And they did. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian empire took over Jerusalem in 597BC, and then Judah (the southern kingdom) over the next ten years, then he took a bunch of the people into exile in Babylon.

Even in the midst of having to be the constant bearer of bad news, Jeremiah still had a heart of compassion for the people and a trust that God had plans for them, a good plan for them. He believed God’s promise that there would eventually come a day of restoration, when their suffering would come to an end, and God would prosper them and give them a future with hope (see Jeremiah 29:11).

“The time is coming, declares the Lord”, (Jeremiah 31:31)…that’s the Promise! One day….

One day, the Lord says, the house of Israel and the house of Judah will be restored.

One day, you will be able to return to the land that the Lord gave to you.

One day, your homes and businesses will be rebuilt.

One day, you will have work again.

One day, your divorce will be a thing of the past.

One day, shame will no longer control your life.

One day, your grief will become manageable, and you will smile and laugh again.

One day, you will no longer be a slave to your addiction.

One day, there will be a new covenant.

One day, the sins of the past will all be forgotten and you will be given a fresh start. The slate will be wiped completely clean.

One day, Christ will come in final victory and we will feast at his heavenly banquet.

The Lord is saying to them, and to us, “No matter what you are going through, no matter how much it hurts or how difficult it is to imagine a future with hope, I promise you, One Day it will get better. And in the meantime you are not alone. I am with you always.”

Words of hope, words of comfort, words of promise.

This is grace. The grace of God shown in Jesus Christ speaks straight into our hearts. Just as God touched the people of Israel and Judah straight to the heart just when they needed it the most, so God can touch us just when we need it most. And we simply must ask. And that is His Promise.

Maybe promises are hard for you. Maybe you’ve been lied to and had so many promises broken that you don’t want to hear somebody say “I promise”. Or maybe you have such a hard time keeping your word that you don’t want to make a promise because you know what will happen.

                But look at Jeremiah 31:34b, God says, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”.

What a Promise!

Our God is a not a Promise-Breaker, He is a Promise-Keeper. He will fulfill and be faithful to the promises that He has made to you.

Today if you need to reclaim one of those promises, or if you need to renew a promise that you have broken, either to God to someone else, today is the day to do it. I PROMISE that it’s the right thing to do.

A More Abundant JOY

“You have given me greater joy

    than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.

 In peace I will lie down and sleep,

    for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.”

--Psalm 4:7-8

What do you need? I mean, what is the one thing you need more than anything else?

For some of us the answer to that might change on the day. For other people perhaps you know exactly what that one thing is.

For the writer of this Psalm, there is nothing that was more valued, nothing was more needed than an abundant harvest. The harvest determined not only the lifestyle, but more importantly the livelihood of the entire community. The harvest was essential for survival.

And in some ways it still is. I am not a farmer, but the harvest that I bring in is essential for my family. It is what supports and sustains my family…to an extent.

True JOY is found, not in what we have, but in whose we are.

This JOY, is more abundant in our lives than being blessed with great resources, great wealth, great security, even great possessions and resources.

            JOY, as mentioned in the Bible, is referred to as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5). This means that as part of being a born again Christian, there are evidences of this Spirit filled life. JOY, is one of those. This is a non-situational and non-circumstancial JOY. It is not dependent on any other externals, it is completely a gift from God to you for being His child.

It is with this “Greater JOY” that the Psalmist can lie down and sleep in peace (verse 8).

I have never had an issues lying down to sleep. For some reason, much to my wife’s frustration at times, as soon as I lie down I am asleep. A peaceful sleep, however, is different. A peaceful sleep can be found as a result of this “Greater JOY”.

And this JOY is a gift. God has freely given it.

Today, instead of focusing on your harvests, and how unabundant they seem in your eyes, focus on what is greater. Focus on who is greater. And ask to receive this “Greater JOY” and to really feel it in your life today.

Today, “trust in the Lord” (verse 5) and be sure of this: “The Lord will answer when you call to Him” (verse 3).

What is it that you need to trust the Lord for? Would you write it down on a piece of paper and set time to pray about it every day? No, really, I am serious. And ask a friend to pray about it with you. And if you don’t have anyone to ask to pray over this thing with you then email or call me and I will pray about it with you.

What is it that you are seeking an answer from God for? Keep asking. The first verse to Psalm 4 actually says this:

“Answer me when I call to you,

    O God who declares me innocent.

Free me from my troubles.

    Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.”

Are you ready to move from seeking temporary happiness to experiencing true and eternal JOY?

Can you accept the “Greater JOY” that Jesus is offering you today as a gift, a gift greater even greater than material possessions or what you think you need? That’s what is being offered to us. What in the world could we ever say in response to such an extravagant gift?

Just, “thank you”.

(Excerpt from Pastor Michael’s upcoming book: JOY in the Psalms)

Christmas is Over

            I am writing this article the day after Christmas. Christmas is over. For some people there are many different emotions on this day. Some may feel relief, that the festivities and activities of the day are over, or at least that they survived another round of Four Christmases. Some may feel sad, a feeling that might come from the constant joyous parties and comings and goings, and now all that is over. Some might feel regret, that another Christmas season has come and gone and there was that thing that was wanted or needed that didn’t happen. Some might just feel overwhelmed, looking at the mounds of wrapping paper strewn across the house and the sinks piled high with dirty dishes. And some might just feel lonely. Whether this loneliness had been there all season making this just another Blue Christmas, or whether this feeling has come about since all the family has gone back to their own homes, jobs, and lives.

            Maybe you find yourself in one of these feeling today, or maybe you feel a mixture of these, or maybe more.

            Today I just want to start by saying own it where you are. Don’t deny how you’re feeling. Don’t pretend that you aren’t feeling the way you are, and don’t feel worse because you aren’t feeling how you think, or others think, you should be feeling.

            On Christmas Eve I had to go to Dollar General. That’s not a new thing for me, every Christmas Eve I have to make a run to a store for something that we need. And I am thankful for everyone working on Christmas Eve so that I can get the batteries, or cheese, or trash bags that I need. One thing that surprised me this trip, however, was that all of the Christmas items had been moved to the front of the store and marked down for reduced pricing and the seasonal shelving area was full of Valentine’s Day decorations, gifts, and chocolates.    

            This really got me thinking, so I am just asking can we extend some of the Christmasness this year? Do we have to start packing up the decorations and get everything back to normal, whatever that is, by December 26? I know we are already into a new year as you are reading this. Maybe you have already packed up your decorations, maybe you’re already decorated for Valentine’s Day, and that’s OK.

            When the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.” (Luke 2:14)

            And when Mary brought Jesus to the Temple when he was 8 days old, a righteous and devout Jewish man named Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms, and knowing that He was the long awaited Messiah, proclaimed, “I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations and he is the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:31-32. And before Mary and Joseph could leave the Temple area there was a prophet, Anna, who “talked about the child (Jesus) to everyone” (Luke 2:38a).

            During Advent, the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas, the church where I serve as pastor lit a candle every week on an Advent wreath. Each candle had a different “theme”; Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

            I guess this is what I am wondering today is if we can just not pack up so quickly this year. Nothing, in fact, can ever really gets “back to normal” after Jesus has arrived. So maybe we don’t need to leave the Christmas tree up until but may we can stay in the “Christmas Spirit” a bit longer this year…maybe even permanently. But it starts, as everything does, with our attitude today.

            May you be filled today with the hope, peace, love, and joy of Jesus and may this filling spill out into you family and work, your hobbies and school. And may this last, not just for Christmas, but every day throughout the year. Amen.