There are so many things that I could write here from so many perspectives. I have lived in 63135 zip for almost all of my life. I am a white guy. I am middle class. I am a husband and father. But, my foremost identity is a follower of Christ. As such, this is what is pressing on me in regard to this mess.
4
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
5
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
6
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever
is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable,
if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Rejoice always. That is hard. As the decision gets closer and the situation is getting more bleak by the day, it is really hard. We need grace to get to the place where we rejoice in situations like these. I am praying for that grace.
Be reasonable. This is hard too. It is hard to listen. It is hard to be heard. It is hard to articulate what I think and feel about all of these issues. I wish I were more reasonable and I wish everyone were more reasonable.
Do not be anxious. Even harder. I have been calm through this process. But when I read the headline that a decision had been reached (maybe it has and maybe this is another case of misinformation), there is a pain in my throat and shoulders and fear is in the front of brain for my city, my kids, the world we will know in a few hours, my home in Ferguson, my church, my heart.
Pray. You do not have to be an expert, just talk to God about whatever is in your heart. When you pray, try to have an element of thankfulness; this is from verse 6 above. I am not even sure what that looks like here. I wish that I did and I wish I could articulate it really well for you. But I can't.
Think about...things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise. I am not sure why we are told to do this aside from speculating that God is all of those things and put himself into our situations. It does us good to see that there are these sorts of things around us even in awful times.
Remember these two things:
THE LORD IS AT HAND.
YOUR HEART IS GUARDED WITH THE PEACE OF GOD.
Please pray for these things...
1. Peace
2. The gospel to go out
3. Eternal perspective
#praythepsalms #steadfastlove
Last year I read the Psalms, one each day. I tried to focus in on one phrase to be a prayer for me for that day. I called it "Praying the Psalms". Lately, I have started this practice again. This time, I focused in on the phrase "Steadfast Love".
I have always been attracted to this phrase. It shows us 140 times in the Psalms. It captures my mind for two reasons. First, steadfast means it will not change. It is firm and unchanging. It remains. The object of the love has no bearing the love.
Secondly, it does not need to change. Steadfast love means that the giver of love does not need to change in order to completely satisfy its object. I do not have the ability to love someone steadfastly, because my love is sometime conditional and sometimes not fulfilling or satisfying to the object of my love. In short, I fail. With my church, my friends, my kids and my wife. I try to love them well, but I do fail.
To have steadfast love, is to not fail. This is the love that the Psalms talk about 140 times.
I will be continuing to Pray the Psalm using #praythepsalms and #steadfastlove. Feel free to jump in on those hashtags.
Thanks for reading.
I have always been attracted to this phrase. It shows us 140 times in the Psalms. It captures my mind for two reasons. First, steadfast means it will not change. It is firm and unchanging. It remains. The object of the love has no bearing the love.
Secondly, it does not need to change. Steadfast love means that the giver of love does not need to change in order to completely satisfy its object. I do not have the ability to love someone steadfastly, because my love is sometime conditional and sometimes not fulfilling or satisfying to the object of my love. In short, I fail. With my church, my friends, my kids and my wife. I try to love them well, but I do fail.
To have steadfast love, is to not fail. This is the love that the Psalms talk about 140 times.
I will be continuing to Pray the Psalm using #praythepsalms and #steadfastlove. Feel free to jump in on those hashtags.
Thanks for reading.
A Journey to the Cross
This Friday April 18 is Good Friday. North Church will join with Trinity Church to once again celebrate Good Friday. This year will be considerably different.
We are calling the night "A Journey to the Cross." The idea is that we separate into a few groups and we will engage the timeline of the events that happened that night. From the Last Supper to the death of our Savior and all that happened between those events.
We will do this along different stops. You and the group you are in will move from different rooms inside Trinity Church and hear the story of the Garden of Gethsemane, the various trials Jesus endured, the beating of Jesus and Jesus' suffocation and the cross.
We hope to see you there as we engage Jesus and his journey to the cross. Trinity Church is located at 3515 Shackelford Road in Florissant. We will begin at 6:30. Child care will be provided from children 7 and under.
We are calling the night "A Journey to the Cross." The idea is that we separate into a few groups and we will engage the timeline of the events that happened that night. From the Last Supper to the death of our Savior and all that happened between those events.
We will do this along different stops. You and the group you are in will move from different rooms inside Trinity Church and hear the story of the Garden of Gethsemane, the various trials Jesus endured, the beating of Jesus and Jesus' suffocation and the cross.
We hope to see you there as we engage Jesus and his journey to the cross. Trinity Church is located at 3515 Shackelford Road in Florissant. We will begin at 6:30. Child care will be provided from children 7 and under.
Spiritual Gifts Applied
North Church is about the conclude a series of teachings on the Holy Spirit (tonight we end with teaching and discussion on Spiritual Warfare). Last week, we centered around spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are hard to understand. The teaching in scripture is very vague. There are lots of different lists that appear in scripture. Some gifts overlap from list to list; but most appear in only one of the lists. Some are gifts for church leaders, some are gifts for all Christians. It is really confusing even for pastors to sort them out. Then, there are all the different English translations of the Bible that use different words for the same gift and that adds to the confusion.
Among all of the confusion are a few facts. First, if you have asked Jesus to save you from your sin and received his grace, then you have Spiritual Gifts. Do not think otherwise. You have them.
The second confusing thing is, what do we do with them when we have them? Well, simply put we just be. A person with the gift of faith does not have to run around looking for a place where you need to apply that gift. You simply plug into a body, seek to give yourself away and be you. Its not complicated.
Here is an example that I witnessed today. Among my wife's gifts are hospitality and service. A friend of ours posted on Facebook today about her. Find the post here. There are so many great things about this post. One is that Jen is using her gifts. She is using them by just being her and wanting to give herself away. She does not wake up and decide to serve or be warm and giving to other people. She just is Jen and the body of Christ is infused with God because of it. The world is infused with God because of it. Val Stine (The the author of the FB post) is infused with God because of it. God gives us Spiritual Gifts so that world can be infused with his goodness.
Another great part of this is a bit harder to see. I know Val Stine fairly well, but mostly on a surface level. I have not gotten a chance to to know her on a deep level. But, I am guessing she has the gift of encouragement. She infused that into me and my bride today.
You see, Jen has struggled lately with working. She feels difficulty in working because she thinks that she is less of a mom or a wife because of the demands on her time and such. But this FB post Val made was the voice of God infusing courage into my bride. My wife has more courage about working at an elementary school because of Val using her gift. The kids and teachers at the school can see the warmth, love and goodness of God because Jen serves there.
So what is the takeaway? Just go be. Just go give your life away. You are infusing God into the world and into people.
Among all of the confusion are a few facts. First, if you have asked Jesus to save you from your sin and received his grace, then you have Spiritual Gifts. Do not think otherwise. You have them.
The second confusing thing is, what do we do with them when we have them? Well, simply put we just be. A person with the gift of faith does not have to run around looking for a place where you need to apply that gift. You simply plug into a body, seek to give yourself away and be you. Its not complicated.
Here is an example that I witnessed today. Among my wife's gifts are hospitality and service. A friend of ours posted on Facebook today about her. Find the post here. There are so many great things about this post. One is that Jen is using her gifts. She is using them by just being her and wanting to give herself away. She does not wake up and decide to serve or be warm and giving to other people. She just is Jen and the body of Christ is infused with God because of it. The world is infused with God because of it. Val Stine (The the author of the FB post) is infused with God because of it. God gives us Spiritual Gifts so that world can be infused with his goodness.
Another great part of this is a bit harder to see. I know Val Stine fairly well, but mostly on a surface level. I have not gotten a chance to to know her on a deep level. But, I am guessing she has the gift of encouragement. She infused that into me and my bride today.
You see, Jen has struggled lately with working. She feels difficulty in working because she thinks that she is less of a mom or a wife because of the demands on her time and such. But this FB post Val made was the voice of God infusing courage into my bride. My wife has more courage about working at an elementary school because of Val using her gift. The kids and teachers at the school can see the warmth, love and goodness of God because Jen serves there.
So what is the takeaway? Just go be. Just go give your life away. You are infusing God into the world and into people.
