Is there any doubt? (4/26/2020)

Is there any doubt?  The truthful answer is yes. There is an edge to our faith. We press it outward with experience and God graciously helps us with this process, because faith is a gift. 

Today we hear it during a very wet interaction between Peter and Christ. 

Matthew 14:31

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Notice please that Jesus said to Peter in the past tense “why did you doubt?”.  At this point, Jesus had reached out and caught him so both of them were above the raging storm.  Neither of them were in the boat and Christ had to yet calm the storm (Read Matthew 14:32!).  Peter believed!  

His experience drove out that doubt and prepared him for what laid ahead. Would he doubt again?  Yes. Would he deny Christ?  Yes, three times. Each time by grace God gave him more faith. 

Lord, if you would, give us faith increasing all the more today.

Go to the Altar (4/20/2020)

Yesterday the call to worship was:

Psalms 43:3-4

Send out your light and your truth;

let them lead me;

let them bring me to your holy hill

and to your dwelling!

Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God my exceeding joy,

and I will praise you with the lyre,

O God, my God.

Notice for a moment, that David does not go to the throne of God to give Him praise. He goes to the altar. What sacrifice will you make this week?

Romans 12:1

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

What does that look like?  Let me leave that for you to look at. Read chapters 12-16 and look for how you are to offer yourself this week.  Notice too how many ways do not involve the tight finances of these days. 

He is Risen (4/12/2020)

Our scripture mediation today is the testimony of Job. 

• Struck by God. 
• Stripped of possessions.  
• Tormented by his “friends”. 
• And his legacy dead. 

He longed for . . . a pen!

Job 19:23-27

“Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

Oh that with an iron pen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me!

With it he recorded his testimony for us to read today!  For he had met the Redeemer that just a few chapters earlier seemed out of reach:

Job 9:29-35

Since I am already found guilty,

why should I struggle in vain?

Even if I washed myself with soap

and my hands with cleansing powder,

you would plunge me into a slime pit

so that even my clothes would detest me.

“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him,

that we might confront each other in court.

If only there were someone to mediate between us,

someone to bring us together,

someone to remove God’s rod from me,

so that his terror would frighten me no more.

Then I would speak up without fear of him,

but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

Like Job, our Redeemer lives!

HE IS RISEN!

Jesus wept (4/5/2020)

Today is Palm Sunday. 

Remember the flannel-graphs of your youth? Shouts of joy. Palm branches. Jesus on the colt. Jesus was finally getting the praise He deserved. Everything about this day was happy.  

What did Jesus do next?  Jesus wept. 

Luke 19:38-42

saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Why did he weep?  He wept because the people declared something that had yet to occur — “Peace in heaven”.  Peace in heaven could only come after a war. 

If you would, sometime this Holy Week, read Revelation 12:7-11 and take note of what weapons were used in this war to defeat Satan. 

But yes, today join with the shouts, because victory is about to be won.