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.

The Great Gift Exchange

            Every December at the church where I serve we have a Christmas gift exchange party. I have heard these referred to by different names, one of the most common is a “White Elephant Gift Exchange”. The way the game goes is that you bring a wrapped gift and then everyone draws a number and you get to either select an unopened gift and see what’s in it, or you can “steal” a gift that someone before you has already opened. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes someone else takes what you want and you get the leftovers.

            The week after Christmas retail stores, both online and brick and mortar stores will be overrun with exchanges. Gifts will have given, opened, and then taken back to be exchanged for something else.

            That’s part of the Christmas season.

            Interestingly enough, our Christian life is much like this. And what better time than this Christmas season to make an exchange?

            Read this passage from Isaiah and then you’ll see how it works:

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
   and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes, the oil of joy, instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.”

--Isaiah 61:1b-3a

            Exchange your ashes for beauty. Cash in your mourning for joy. Take your despair to the return desk and walk away with praise.

            Did you catch all of that?

            Your ashes, your mourning, your despair need to be placed in the exchange bin. You’ve carried these things around long enough. It’s time to give them back. These are the gifts you’ve been given, perhaps, but you don’t have to keep them. The Christmas gift exchange has begun!

            Jesus has some new gifts for you: Beauty, Joy, and Praise.

            That sounds a whole lot better than what you’ve got now doesn’t it? But here’s how this works, you can’t hang on to old gifts and get the new ones. You have to give the old ones up first. You have to give up the despair, the mourning, the ashes of this temporal life. That sounds like something that we all want to do, but deep down you know that it really isn’t that easy, right?

            I agree with you. It’s not easy. But it is simple. It is the way that God has created us to live in this life. We are burdened down with things that are just part of this earthly existence, but not part of who we are.

            Everyone has experienced pain, hurt, and disappointment. That’s why we have the ashes, despair, and mourning. But today you can trade those things in. You can give up the ashes of the past for the beauty of eternity. You can exchange the mourning of loss and death for the true joy that a relationship with Christ Jesus brings to life. You can let go of the despair of regret and put on new clothes of constant praise.

            The past is over. But your future is awaiting.

            Welcome to God’s Gift Exchange. It’s your turn.

A reflection on Hope

 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:22-25)

               WARNING: The following contains completely honest reflections on Hope from a Methodist pastor…

Hope. It’s an important word in our daily lives. It’s an important word in our Christian faith. It’s been an important word to me over the last few weeks. My mom had been in the hospital for three weeks, and over a week ago she went into hospice care. She didn’t want any more tests, no more procedures, no more blood transfusions. She was tired from years of battling physical issues. She was a fighter, for sure, but she was tired.

               “It’s like putting new oil into an old cylinder,” she told me, “I just want to go home”.

               Of course by “home” she meant heaven. The one true and real home that we are all created for. Billy Graham said that we aren’t citizens of this world, we are just passing through. Mom was prepared for her real home.

               And I had hope. Hope that God would take his faithful daughter soon. Hope that God would comfort our family in this loss. Hope that promises of God’s presence would be recognized and felt.

               And so we waited. Day after day, night after night. As she grew weaker, and more tired, then as she was non-responsive most days and as the morphine increased.

               And I had hope.

               During this time I was with five other families who lost loved ones. Most were quick deaths, unexpected, even. I sat with families that wondered why their brother/mother/aunt was taken in death, while I was wondering why my mother wasn’t.

               These families didn’t want death to come, and yet I prayed for death to mercifully come quickly every day and it didn’t. My mom wanted to see Jesus, and yet Jesus was seeing plenty of other people every day, but not my mom.

               Why is that, God?

               Nothing that I was hoping for was happening.

And then 11 later days it did.

               While my wife, Heather, who has been my rock and my best friend during this entire process, and my sister, stood around my mom’s bed she had a moment of direct and focused eye contact with me. I could see her love, and then she blinked…and she was gone.

               What I had prayed for had happened. And in the midst of the pain, in the middle of the loss and beginning of grief, there was that Hope again. 

               It had never left. 

               I had pushed it away a little, I think, but it was still there. A Hope that had redeemed her body and given her a new life. A Hope that saved her, and saved me. A Hope that “we wait for it with patience”.

               And that’s where I hadn’t been doing a good job. Oh, I am pretty good in reminding others the need to wait for the perfect timing of God, but when it came to my mom and her daily slow process of actively dying, I wasn’t patient. I wanted God to act, and act now. And He didn’t.

               And I am thankful for that. 

               I am thankful that we were right there with mom when her last breath was breathed here on this earth and her spirit soared to eternity. I am thankful for the Hope that my mom had in Jesus and in the fact that she is in the presence of God right now. I am thankful for the Hope that I have, even when I wasn’t paying attention to it, even when I was more focused on “my will” than “Thy will”.

               And this Hope is here for you too this Advent season. After all, Advent is about waiting. And none of us are good at it, maybe that’s why God gives us opportunities to do the things that we aren’t very good at.

               Hope is available in Christ Jesus. And God knows we need it.

Merry Christmas mom!

Overwhelmed

This month at the church where I pastor I have been preaching a series called “Overwhelmed”. The idea is that there are things that seek to overwhelm us in life. Things like debt, stress, expectations that others place on us, the expectations that we place on ourselves, and simply the events and stresses of our daily lives.

            Turn on the TV and watch a little bit of the news. Overwhelmed.

            Talk to your friend who is going through a divorce after decades of marriage. Overwhelmed.

            Listen to the doctor explain the diagnosis and the treatment options. Overwhelmed.

            Look at your checkbook and bank balance. Overwhelmed.

            Think about all that you have to do this week, all that is expected of you by your spouse, your boss, your children, your church, your….Overwhelmed.

            Life can seem to be overwhelming at times. Shoot, life can be overwhelming most of the time!

            But only if we let it. I know, that sounds like a really pat answer when we are faced with the giants that threaten to overwhelm us. But here’s the thing: these are all external factors. I realize how huge the OVERWHELMER seems right now. I know that there is nothing else that

Jesus said to not worry about any of this (see Matthew 6:25) and don’t let your heart be troubled by outside things (see John 14:1). Paul wrote to not worry about anything (see Philippians 4:6).

            There is also a difference is being “overwhelmed” and being “overcome”. To be overwhelmed is to be completely engulfed b something for a time. It may be a circumstance, or an emotion, it could be fear. It could also be an overwhelming of the goodness of God, a feeling of being overwhelmed by his love and his mercy, his grace and his forgiveness. So, not every overwhelming is a bad thing! To be overcome is more sever, when we are overcome something has “come over” us that has weighed us down to the point that we cannot get back up on our own. It feels like Hulk Hogan just dropped an elbow on us from the top turnbuckle and is now pinning us down to the mat. All that’s left to hear is the referee’s three count and the bell to ring. We feel done, like this is the end.

            “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”—Jesus (John 16:33).

            Jesus has already overcome the “world”. That seems a little vague, and to be honest, rather large! The world. The word that John uses there for world is “κόσμος”, or “cosmos”. This word has the definition of the world, the universe, all earthly affairs, principalities, the inhabitants of the earth, diseases of the world, and all ordered things in the earth. That is pretty big, and Jesus said he has overcome all of this already!

            As Christians, we believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. That this gift of the Spirit (Comforter, Advocate, Helper) was promised by Jesus to all believers and given by God to us to be in us and to work through us. That’s pretty big too, I must say.

            Bigger, I would argue, than the overwhelming thing that is up against you. Maybe it’s a little about perspective. The more we look at something the bigger it seems. The closer we get to something the bigger it appears. This is definitely true of the overwhelmers, but it is equally true of God. The more we focus on Jesus and his kingdom, the more we seek to be agents of grace and love in a hurting and broken world, the more time we spend looking at God, the bigger he seems to us. Not because he has in any way changed, but because we have.

            At times we will all feel overwhelmed. But we are not overcome. Jesus has already proved to be the Overcomer, now rest in that knowledge. Be overwhelmed today with how much you are loved by the God of this κόσμος. Be overwhelmed that your sins are forgiven (see 1 John 1:9).

            “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)