Increase My Faith

There is a picture of a map hanging on my wall with these words inscribed, "Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders." I need increased faith for my life's journey, ministry, and to pursue God ordained dreams for the future. Increased faith is not increased intellectualism. It is more than knowledge. Increased faith is not increased wishing. It is more than wishing for things to come true. 

Increased faith is growing belief, it is trusting in the tough times, and it is taking God at His word. Increased faith is refusing to be daunted by challenging circumstances. It is believing what God says over what our eyes tell us. To increase faith we must endure some trials along the way. We must learn in the laboratory of life that God is faithful. We stand in trust because we are grounded in truth. God does not lie. He does what He says He will do. 

If I want God to increase my faith, I invite Him to stretch my faith way beyond where I am comfortable. To lead me to impossible situations where I'm challenged to trust Him for improbable outcomes. To behold His miraculous intervention. That is when He gets the most glory. Like Moses at the Red Sea. Like Israel in the wilderness crying out for water and it flowing out of a rock. Like David fearlessly facing down a giant with a sling and stones. Like Elijah digging a trench and pouring water on the sacrifice and trusting God to send the fire. Like Jesus telling people to remove the stone from the tomb for his dead friend Lazarus. 

Increased steps of faith often happen on the wrong side of logic. Increased faith steps are often irrational. That should not deter me. Naysayers will try to sow doubt. Satan will spread fear. Increased faith overcomes those tactics. Increased faith looks at mountains as molehills. Increased faith stands firm when others flee in cowardice. I want to live with increased faith no matter how steep the price required to get it. The amazing adventures that follow will glorify our God and that is the reason I exist. 

What Do You Miss Most

I had the privilege of ministering to one of our widows this morning. She is a treasure. A rare jewel of a person aging alone without her spouse, but she is not a bitter lady. She is classy. She is delightful, interesting, and joyful. I promised her months ago I would come see her. Today was the day. We sat at her dining room table and visited for an  hour and a half. 

She and her husband were married for 63 years. I have not even reached the age of 63. He died in 2019. I asked her at one point what she missed about him the most. Her answer surprised me. She replied misty eyed, "I miss his touch." She lives alone. She is faithful in attendance among a group of other widows in our church. I often stop by their class on Sunday mornings to visit. Those ladies are important to me. Very important. 

As I thought about daily routines, it became apparent to me that she probably never gets physical touch from her class. I've never seen the ladies in her class hug one another. Does she ever get a hug? A pat on the back? Do people shake her hand?  Then I thought about my own life. Brenda and I usually kiss in the mornings and at night before going to sleep. We hug nearly everyday. There are others in the church who refuse to shake hands preferring hugs instead. I shake hands with multiple people during the week. Physical touch is built into rhythms of life. 

The saintly senior lady I visited today does not have that. While she did not say so, I imagine her missing holding hands with her husband. Periodically Brenda and I hold hands during the night. Something this precious lady does not get to experience. She does not enjoy the soft tender peck on the cheek or a quick kiss just to say I love you without words. She does not get any tender strokes on her cheeks nor does she get enjoy a quick hug. She lives a touch free life for the most part. 

Multiple times she choked back tears as we visited about her late husband. He was an interesting gentleman. I wish I could have met him.  63 years is a long time to share life with someone and then that person to be snatched away. 63 years of little day to day touches. A shoulder rub. An Eskimo kiss. Walking arm in arm. 

I left that visit with two take aways. First,  I want to make the most of the moments I have with Brenda. I know those times will not last forever. Either the Lord will take one of us home first, or Jesus will rapture us. The second take away is I need to remember how meaningful a handshake, a pat on the back or a hug might mean to someone who never gets any physical touch. I know this is a sticky topic in this day and time. There is such a thing as inappropriate touching. I certainly want to steer clear of that. On the other hand, God might use me and you to be the hands of Jesus to minister through simple human touch to other hurting and lonely people. Something as simple as human touch is something many of us take for granted everyday. May this be a reminder to keep watch for those who could use a little Jesus with skin on..

The Intruder

 Our financial secretary walked into my office today with surprising news. She informed me we had an intruder came into the main secretary's office. Somehow a bird got in there. We contemplated different plans on how to get the bird out. We settled on turning off all the lights in the officer and opening the door for the bird to find its way outside. It was our first and less intrusive option. We hoped it would work. 

I thought for a moment what if we went in trying to coax the bird to go through open doors. That did not seem like a fail proof plan. We probably would have scared the bird and got it even more disoriented to its surroundings. In our attempts to help, we most likely would have only made things worse causing the bird to panic. 

I thought for a moment if I was only a bird or at least could speak bird chirping so it would know we only wanted to help. I could have communicated that we just wanted to help the bird find freedom again. My inability to communicate with the bird only complicated matters. We depended on the bird's natural instincts to find the way of freedom. 

God tried repeatedly to communicate with humanity through history. He set up the law to reveal His righteous standards. 613 of them to be exact. No human could ever live up to that. People failed over and over again. God seemed so far removed. Too remote to relate to finite human beings. God sent help in the form of Jesus taking on humanity while remaining fully God at the same time. People can relate with Jesus. He was also tempted like us and yet without sin. His sacrificial death was the price redemption required. His resurrection sealed the deal. Jesus ate, slept, worked, sweat, and on at least one occasion even cried. He was born as a baby, though He existed before creation. He also died. He experienced pain and suffering. He understands us. 

God took the ultimate step to communicate His love to humanity. Jn 3:16 sums it up for us. God on His own initiative, sent His only Son, Jesus, because He loves us. Any person who believes in Him will not perish but be gifted with everlasting life. What a deal. It is too good to pass up, and yet many do pass it up over and over again until it is too late. Even though God proved His love. See Romans 5:8-9. Jesus shows us the way to the Father. There is no other way except through Jesus. John 14:6. Thank you Jesus for showing us the way. 

The Lifeguard

 Lifeguards are trained aquatic professionals who oversee swimming areas like pools, waterparks, oceans, and lakes. They are in the prevention business of keeping swimmers safe. They are constantly scanning swimmers to see if anyone gets into trouble and if so the lifeguard springs into action. A good lifeguard is always on high alert when on duty. They search for distressed swimmers and do not wait to be invited to help when they spot trouble. 

Jesus is like a lifeguard. Constantly scanning society and ready to rescue distressed and dispirited people who get themselves into trouble. I was in trouble as a teenager. I was an angry teenager, the by products of physical and sexual abuse as a child. I wanted to be a good person, but down deep in my heart I was not good. My private life was a trainwreck. I dabbled in things that were destroying me. I was drowning in sin. Jesus saved me. He rescued me from the sewage of sin that pulled me under. 

He is always on search and rescue missions with people all over the world. I am forever grateful on a Thursday night in October of 1983, when He came after me throwing the life preservers of grace, mercy, and salvation. There is a popular song where some of the lyrics identify Jesus as our rescue story. He certainly is mine. I am also eternally thankful that He did not give up on me. He could have walked away from me thousands of times. He persevered. His love persisted. His grace prevailed. 

In a few minutes, we will invite little children to our VBS. I want Jesus to rescue them like He did for me. To save them from the sin and shame I endured as a child and teenager. I want Him to save those drowning in dysfunctional homes like I survived. I want Him to do more than rescue children. I want Him also to rescue moms and dads transforming whole families. That's what Jesus does because like a lifeguard, He is always scanning and searching for those who need a rescue story. 

God Is Not Done

 God is not done working on us. We have need for improvement. For some He firmly takes a chisel and hammers off some rough edges. For others He takes a chainsaw to make massive cuts. All of it because He isn't done with us yet. He is completing His good work in us according to [Phil 1:6]

Have you ever left a project incomplete? We start things with great enthusiasm and then the tasks gets too hard or we become too bored. God is not like that. He finishes what He starts. He invests in each person whom He saves. He paid a high price for our redemption in the death of Jesus. After that, He will work on us to make us more like Jesus until our earthly journey ends. What a wonderful promise. 

When we sin and fail, He does not give up on us. When we rebel against the loving pressure from His hands to mold us, He does not throw on the trash heap. Lovingly, skillfully, and patiently He applies pressure where it is needed, He squeezes sometimes painfully to get us to conform to His intelligent design. What He begins He finishes. 

This is good news if you feel like you are failing in serving Him. You may sin. You may grow stiff in your resistance against His designs. You may even try and run away and make so many bad decisions your life feels like a disaster. He does not give up. He is persistent in His desire to conform us to Jesus. His grace is sufficient to forgive our sins. His wisdom is greater than thinking we know what is best. His love compels Him to chase us down when we try to flee from Him like Jonah did. 

Sometimes His hands are heavy to break us and shape us. Other times, His hands are gentle graciously grinding and filing areas that need attention. He is dedicated to us and doing His good work in us to the very end of our lives. When we fail Him we often feel condemned. Those feelings do not come from our Father. He said that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. [Rom 8:1] He is forgiving. [Ps 103:12] [I Jn 1:9] 

We need to keep ourselves in the Father's hands. When we walk closely with Him, we will begin to reflect Him in our actions and attitudes. We also must remain yielded to Him. We must remain soft and moldable in His hands. To resist Him is to grow harder. When that happens, He has to break us to make us pliable again. He is not demanding perfection of us, because none can be perfect except Jesus. He does want us to remain in His hands and to remain soft and pliable. If we do this for our lifetimes, we will be more and more like Jesus. His finished work in us will happen when we die and get to heaven. Then He will finish what He started in us. I can't wait to see the finished product of you. 

Life is Fragile

Every once in awhile we get awakened to the fact that life is fragile. We are often lulled to sleep by the rhythms of life much like ocean waves methodically pounding the seashore. We get used to our routines. We busy ourselves each day with tasks of vocation and recreation. Until those routines get interrupted by the sudden reminder that life is fragile. People die all the time. Celebrities die. Paupers die. People in our communities die. So do people we are close to like family and friends. 

James puts it this way in his epistle, "Yet you do not know what  your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes away." [James 4:14] 

The point is not to focus on the fact that we all have an expiration date. The point is to live today making the most of the time we have at the present moment instead getting ready to live in the future when the time is right. We make plans for the future that might never come true because we may not live that long. I read the story about a lady who never used her China dishes for fear of breaking them. She died prematurely without using them. Not long after the funeral, the father brought out the China plates for supper one night. We make plans for vacations, retirement, home improvement projects, and lifestyle changes. Some do not live long enough to enjoy those things. 

People have clothes they refuse to wear in fear of messing them up. None of us knows what tomorrow holds. What good will those clothes do for us once we are gone? Let's live life to the fullest extent we can while we have today. We may make plans for the future, but we should hold in the back of our minds that life is fragile. Life is like a vapor. Here for a moment and then it vanishes. 

The funeral business is booming. Funeral homes gross between $700,000 and $1.5 million a year. The average cost of a funeral is around $8,000. The average person will attend around 40 funerals in their life time. Horrible things steal people away we love and admire. Cancer. Heart disease. Alzheimer's. Tragedies. 

I once preached a funeral for an elderly man I did not know. The family was not affiliated with a church and gave no indication they believed in Jesus or the gospel message. They just needed a preacher. Sitting to my right from where I preached was a twenty something year old son. He sat with his head down. Ten days later I stood before that same family preaching that young man's funeral who died of a drug overdose. Life is fragile. It can end for any of us without warning. 

Two things are important to keep in my mind. Each of us need to be ready to stand before God in judgment. We are reminded in [Heb 9:27] after death comes judgment. We are also reminded in [Heb 10:31] that it is terrifying to face the living God. Terrifying if a person has not trusted Jesus as their Savior. The other thing we should recall is to make the most out of our allotment of days. Don't waste our lives on things that have no eternal significance. Make the most out of the time you have left because life is fragile.     

We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering

 Followers of Jesus are not insulated from suffering. They suffer just like the rest of people do. If a person thought when they dedicated themselves to Jesus that they would not never suffer again, they would be wrong. Christians suffer. Godly people suffer. Even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself suffered. It was the 18th century pastor, Charles Simeon, who once said, "Brothers, we must not mind a little suffering." 

Simeon was appointed pastor of a church filled with congregants who did not want him. They did all they could to make him so miserable he would quit. They locked the doors to the pews so that when people came to hear Simeon preach they were forced to stand. He moved chairs in the aisles and found them thrown out in the church lawn one day. Undeterred, Simeon kept preaching to those standing for, get ready for it, 12 long years. Parishioners refused to talk to him or associate with him publicly. They thought they could force him to quit. He persevered in the suffering remaining in that same church over 40 years. 

Simeon also comforted suffering people by telling them, if they were trying to get their heads through a hedge of thorns, that once they could see the view on the other side they would not mind the pricking of the thorns so much. His point is that if we can get and keep our minds wrapped around heaven we shall not mind the sufferings so much until we get there. 

One of the hardest thing for suffering people to do is to get their mind off the suffering. Those living in constant chronic pain find it difficult to endure, if all they ever do is think about the excruciating pain. The lonely person will only feel more alone, if all they dwell on is on being alone. Those with physical impairments, like some soldiers endure after war, will fight severe mental battles like PTSD because of what they experienced. Couple that will being disabled can send such people spiraling out of control. Searching for relief they try to ease the pain in toxic things. 

Simeon dealt with his suffering by keeping his eyes on Jesus and the hope of heaven. That is also what many African American slaves did in their sufferings. They sang their way through the sufferings. In suffering seasons we have to find a safe, secure, and solid place to set our minds. Paul exhorted us to set our minds on things above and not on the things of this earth.[Col 3:2]  It is hard to comprehend it, but everything on planet earth is temporary. Relationships. Health. Work. Even money. Even pain and suffering. They will not last forever for the child of God. 

We must not mind a little suffering, if on the other side of it we have eternal life with no more pain, no more tears, and joys everlasting. [Rev 21:4] We might suffer on our journey to get there. When I'm exercising, I have to use mind tricks to get through some of the workouts. On the bike, I have to remind myself I only to make it a few more miles or a few more minutes and I will get a break. When I am on the row machine, I remind myself I have to endure for a few more meters before I get a break. Or when pushing weights, and the muscles burn like they are on fire, I remind myself that I just have to push out a few more reps to get rest. 

So too in life. We endure painful seasons knowing they don't last forever. The pain and suffering will either go away as God brings needed relief in this life, or the relief will come for believers in Jesus in eternity. A personal relationship with Jesus, where a person repents of sin and trusts Him for forgiveness, is the only door to this eternal life. 

Unfortunately, for every person who refuse to believe on Jesus, a miserable life of suffering and pain will be intensified in eternal damnation with agony and torment beyond what can be imagined lasting forever. I hope you will turn to Jesus before it is too late.