Never Take Counsel From Fear…Or Arrogance

“Never take counsel of your fears.” – Stonewall Jackson

This past Sunday, our pastor delivered his final sermon of 2016, “Four Fears Banished by Christmas.”  In this message, he detailed four times in the Christmas story where people encountered fear:

• Luke 1:12 – Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, who is overcome by fear when an angel visits him to give the news he will soon have a son.
• Matthew 1:20– Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, also encounters fear as he ponders the situation of he and Mary.
• Luke 1:29-30– Mary experiences fear as she encounters the angel Gabriel.
• Luke 2:9– The shepherds were filled with fear as the angel visited them and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

Our pastor pointed out that fear is a God-given emotion, so experiencing fear is not always sinful.  But like anger, fear can either be used sinfully or righteously.  For example, it is appropriate to fear the Lord and we are told that experiencing this is the beginning of knowledge.  In the four examples above, the people experienced fear, but they are given perspective through their encounters with the angels.  This new perspective includes a reminder of where they are in God’s plans and thus their fear is transformed into faith.  Accordingly, it is very important how we process fear.

To be clear, the sermon wasn’t about “how to deal with fear,” like some sort of self-help seminar.  It was about the gospel.  Jesus Christ has come and He is coming again.  But living in Christ is supposed to change everything, and that includes how we view things.  Accordingly, it changes how we handle fear.

That’s where this intersects with me.  You see, for me, 2016 has been the year of living in fear.  And to be clear, I haven’t handled it very well.  Sleepless nights, gut-churning with acid, mind-racing.  All the good stuff related to not processing fear properly.  That’s been my year.

On the surface, it’s easy to say, “You’re not trusting God.  Trust God and do not fear.”  But in reality, it’s a lot harder to process.  As I’ve told Sweet Wife over the last several weeks, it’s like my insides are shaking all of the time with because of the stress and fear.  As a Christian, I know that this response has been wrong, but it’s just been hard to constantly regain perspective when you have to battle the fear and anxiety all of the waking hours.

But over the last few weeks, several things have happened that have really helped me.  First — and this is an easy one — some time has passed.  As time moves by the events that create fear also pass.  If they pass and nothing takes their place in the fear line, then things tend to get better.  My improvement has been somewhat because of this.

But on the other hand, there always seems to be something lining up to cause fear.  During 2016, it has been a seemingly daily, weekly and monthly thing.  If that sort of pace is always at play, then fear is always something that has to be handled.  And that brings me to the quote from above, “Never take counsel of your fears.“

When I heard this, it immediately clicked with me because I have been taking counsel from my fears.  My fears have been giving me my marching orders.  In my line of work, I have to make a lot of decisions and I have to plan for things.  For most of the year I have just “hoped” that 2016 would be better because time is passing, yet I also realized recently that as things continue to pop up and go wrong that I am making decisions from a place of panic and fear, rather than from solid data and experience.  When I heard this quote, I realized what I was doing wrong and realized that I needed to stop this practice immediately.  And so I am trying.

The reality is also that some of the problems that have occurred in 2016 have also happened because of arrogance.  For a long time, things have gone really well and when that happens one tends to think that everything they touch will turn to gold.  And when that happens, the fundamentals of decision making can go out the window.  I can recall one specific situation where I simply made a bad decision in 2014 (out of arrogance) and now that chicken has come home to roost.  So instead of dealing with a situation back in 2014, I arrogantly proceeded with my own plans and this year I’ve been fearfully dealing with the problem.

There has also been one other major game-changer for me in relation to processing fear, but I hope to touch on that before this last week of the year is finished.

So as I ponder 2017, I am looking forward in hope.  I know that Jesus has saved me and that an eternity with Him awaits.  All other things offer no comparison at all.  This should be my all-time perspective.  We are reminded in 1 John 4:18 that perfect love casts out fear.  Ultimately, this world and its fears and trials and struggles will pass away.  For those in Christ, a new world and an eternity away.  Those struggles of today won’t be in that future perfect eternity.

As I stand in the present and make decisions, those decisions need to be made with a clear head and a pure heart.  That cannot be done when taking counsel from fear.  And that cannot be done when standing before the mirror of arrogance.

Sunday Worship: Merry Christmas

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11 ESV)

This is one of those special Christmas days that actually falls on a Sunday.  And because of that, many of us will get the opportunity to gather and worship in a church to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  (For others, this may pose a dilemma as the rigors of celebrating the birth of Christ get in the way with the actual worship of Him.)

But one of the neat things about Christmas the holiday — even in the USA circa 2016 — is that this holiday points us right to Jesus.  No matter what a person’s religious background may be, no matter what stage of life, no matter where a person is, Christmas (like a couple of other holidays) points people right to Jesus.  Whether we love the holiday or loathe it, at some point, the question will cross our minds, “what is this all about?”

The answer to that question is Jesus.  Good news of great joy has come — for all people.  A Savior has been born and given to us.  This is important because we’re all sinners and we’ve all sinned against God, who is perfect and wants nothing to do with sin.  But God, in His state of perfect love, made a way for us to be reconciled to Him through Jesus.  And that is what Christmas is about. It’s about Jesus making that journey to us so that we could be reconciled to God through Him. 

Another blessing is that we don’t just worship God once a year. We actually get to worship Him whenever and wherever!  But today, as we wake up on the Lord’s Day which falls on Christmas, let’s especially worship Him.  

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“Sunday Worship” is a weekly series that can hopefully be used to help prepare our hearts to worship God Almighty.  You can read all of the posts in this series by clicking here.

Saturday Music: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Emmanuel, God with us.

That’s what the birth of Jesus Christ means.

He would come and live a perfect life so that we could be reconciled to God and live with Him eternally.

He came and did all of this for enemies.  As Romans 5:8 tell us, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

And now we wait for Him again to return.

O come, o come Emmanuel.

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“Saturday Music” is a weekly blog series about the music of our lives.  Click here to read all of the posts in this series.

A Christmas Message for John the Baptist and Us

When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:1-6 ESV)

One of the things I find neat about the Bible is that there are real people in it.  By that, I mean that the human authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit, didn’t whitewash people or their stories.  If someone had a flaw or question, it was there for all to see.  Take for example Moses as a murderer and David as an adulterer and murderer.  And, also, take for example John the Baptist.  What did John the do wrong?  Well, it wasn’t what he did wrong, it was that he asked a question.

Remember, John the Baptist is Jesus’ earthly cousin and did a Holy Spirit inspired leap in his mother’s womb when Mary, with baby Jesus insider her, visited his mother.  This is the John the Baptist that was used by God to prepare the way for Jesus by his preaching of a message of repentance.  This is also the same John the Baptist that baptized Jesus in the Jordan at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.   Yes, this is that John the Baptist.

As this passage notes, John is now in prison.  And despite all of the things he’s done and seen and felt, he now has a question:

“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

When I would read this question earlier in my Christian life, I have to admit I would sneak in a condescending thought about John.  “What?  You are John the Baptist!  You baptized Jesus and told people to repent!  And now you’re having doubts?”  But now, as an older Christian, I read this with a lot more empathy and it now strikes me as one of the saddest verses in the Bible.

John is in prison and not the cushy federal kind where he gets to play cards and golf all day.  No, he’s in a prison and in the not too distant future, he will beheaded based on the whim of a leader.  He’s in prison.  He may be all alone or he may be in the company of his society’s worst and meanest.  The conditions are probably deplorable and at best he’s separated from friends and companions.  And it’s in this dark moment that he sends a question to Jesus: “Are you the one?”

To someone with an accounting background (like me), a more succinct answer may have seemed the better option.  “YES!” Instead, Jesus answered in a different way.  Instead, He said this:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Jesus didn’t answer like an accountant, “Yes, John.  The Holy Spirit told you in the womb!  You should know this!” Instead, He gently reminded John of the truth.  Jesus told the messengers to go and tell John what they had seen and heard:  the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor receive good news.

Can you see how this message and the delivery of this message would be an encouragement to John’s faith?   The messengers would go and say, “We’ve seen these things!”  And John would likely tell himself, “Yes, and I’ve seen them to.”

John asked the question even though he knew the answer.  John wanted to hear again the answer to the question, “are you the one?”  Jesus, are You the messiah?  Are you the One who was promised?

Jesus’s answer to Him was essentially the Christmas message.  Yes, Jesus is the One.  Jesus, God’s Son, has come to us.  He is God with us, Emmanuel.  And no matter who we are or where we are, we need to hear this Christmas message too.  If we are long-term followers of Christ, we need a reminder of the gospel.  Or, if we’re that lost soul staring at Christmas, we need to hear the message.

As James Macdonald reminded his listeners this week, during this time of year, the gospel message is being pumped through malls and stores and through radio stations and through music services!  The world is being told that Jesus has come!  Every year, regardless of how crass or over the top with consumerism the Christmas season seems to be, God is blessing us by using this holiday madness to prime others to hear the gospel.  We have the opportunities to either ask the question “what does this mean?” or we have the opportunity to be the ones who explain what we’ve seen and head.

 

How to be Acknowledged by Jesus Before the Father

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”  (Matthew 10:32-33 ESV)

There are certain verses in the Bible that give me a real long pause.  This is one of them.

In this passage, Jesus is telling us how He will respond to the Father on our behalf.  If we acknowledge Jesus “before men,” then there will be a positive acknowledgement on our behalf to God the Father.  But if our witness for Jesus is shown as a denial, He will also “deny” us before God.

For me, there are a lot of questions that flow out of this:

• When do I actually acknowledge Jesus before men?
• How am I doing at acknowledging Him?
• Have I ever denied Jesus before me?
• Do I deny Him and not really know it?
• What about all of those times in the past when I may not have done my best?
• Does this relate to one big event where I have to acknowledge Jesus?
• And what if I blow it at that one big event?

The questions could go on and on for me, but what I really want to know for sure is that Jesus would give me a positive recommendations before my heavenly Father.  So how can we be sure of this?   To help, here are some things to consider.

Confess Jesus

First, we need so make sure that we actually have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Romans 10:9-10 helps to explain how we can have this relationship:

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  (Romans 10:9-10 ESV)

As we can see from this passage, there appear to be two central things that occur.  We see that there is something that changes in a person’s heart and we then hear an outward confession of Jesus Christ.  A heart change can only occur from God’s gospel and His Spirit being at work and once that work has occurred, there is a willingness — and need — to confess what has happened.

The gospel is telling us that we are sinners and we are told that the penalty for our sin is death.  Because of this we a need a Savior that can reconcile us back to God by paying our penalty on our behalf.  We have this in Jesus.  And when we accept Him by faith, we receive a pardon for our sins and the ultimate reward of eternal life with God.

Naturally, our response will be to tell the world!

Follow Him

Once we know Jesus, we are commanded to walk as He did.  We are told this in Colossians 2:6:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.  (Colossians 2:6 ESV)

Christianity isn’t simply a one-time decision.  It’s a lifetime and lifestyle of following Jesus Christ.  He came to give us life and to give us that life abundantly, but that life is found in Him.  We can best live this life when we daily choose to follow Christ as we read in Luke 9:23:

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  (Luke 9:23 ESV)

Make Disciples

Once we are followers of Christ, we will want to obey Him and one of the principle commands He gives us is to multiply His gospel message so as to make more disciples.  We read this in Matthew 28:19-20:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20 ESV)

Making disciples, by its very nature, would involve “confessing Jesus.”  It would be very hard to simply show someone Jesus, as if painting a picture.  Calling others to follow the Christ would obviously involve a “call” as we explain the need for a Savior and the purpose of serving Him.

Practice Repentance

Following Jesus Christ does not mean that we will be perfect.  Hopefully, as we practice following Jesus there should some sort of change in our behavior.  Hopefully, if we came to Christ while committing outward, egregious sins those would decrease.  But…as we draw closer to Christ and as He continues His sanctifying work in us, we may actually find that we are even more aware of sinful practices in our lives, even though the world outside of us may not see them as we do!  What I’m trying to say is that we will be sinners until we are called to be with the Lord and because of this, we should continually practice repentance until we see Him.

We are told how to do this in 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (1 John 1:9 ESV)

Conclusion

Getting to Christ can be very difficult.  The period in our lives before we understand the gospel can be dark and lonely with lots of damage done.  We may have all sorts of habits and practices that make letting go and accepting Christ hard, but accepting Jesus as our Savior involves nothing more than reaching out, like a beggar, to take the crust of bread that is being handed to us.

Once we are His, the world will try to tear us away from Him.  Satan will try to drive a divide between Christ and us.  But once we are in Christ, nothing will snatch us away from Him as we are told in John 10:28:

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  (John 10:28 ESV)

We aren’t promised an easy life in Jesus, but we are promised life in Him.

So what does all of this have to do with Jesus giving a positive witness for us?  Everything.

We are called to the perfection of Jesus Christ, but we will never live up to it.  Therefore, we are constantly called back to His gospel message.  And when we constantly go back to His gospel, we are reminded to constantly confess Him.

If we are in Him we should certainly fear Him — because God has the power to destroy the body and soul in hell — but as long as we are truly clinging by faith to His gospel message we don’t have to fear that He will deny us before His Father.  Instead, we can boldly approach the throne of grace.

 

Sunday Worship: Your Father Speaking Through You

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:16-20 ESV)

I’ve been stuck for a while in Matthew 10.  There’s lots of good stuff in this chapter.  Jesus is preparing to send out the 12 disciples into ministry and He spends time telling them where they should go, how they should act, what to expect from people and how they should respond.  As He does this, He is also sharing with them the proper perspective of who He is.

The passage above comes from Jesus’ instructions and is one that many Christians cling to for hope and inspiration, myself included.  In any situation — great or small — in which we act on behalf of Jesus Christ I would guess that a lot of us refer back to this passage.

As we act on behalf of Jesus (i.e. “doing ministry”), there is the chance that we will encounter hostility (“in the midst of wolves”) and during those times the intensity of our ministry increases.  As Jesus points out in this chapter, the Gospel creates division as people have to make a decision to follow Him or not.  And as we face this division and potential hostility, we are often fearful of how we will act.  We not only have the anxiety of wanting to honor Jesus, but we also often face the trouble of forcing the right and appropriate words to come out of our mouths.  In the midst of a crisis, its often very hard to get our brains working properly so as to make the appropriate words come out of our mouths!

But in this passage, Jesus soothes us by removing the anxiety.  He says to not worry about what we will say, “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”  This is phenomenal, right?  In this passage, Jesus is speaking to His 12 disciples and remember, they had not yet received the Holy Spirit as it would be given at Pentecost.  Yet Jesus promised that the Spirit would act through them as they were ministering on His behalf.

Today, followers of Jesus Christ already have the “Spirit of your Father.”  We already have the Holy Spirit inside of us.  So, as this encouragement was true for the disciples, it is also true for us today as well.  When we are ministering in the name of Jesus Christ and trying to honor Him, His Spirit that lives in us will also speak through us.  What an amazing thing!

Amen and amen.

A Jar of Clay

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.  (2 Corinthians 4:7-12 ESV)

This passage is on my mind a lot lately.

I’m not in any way under the stress experienced by the early Christians Paul was encouraging here.

But this can still be a great reminder.  If Jesus can be manifested in the extreme scenario of the early church, He can be supreme in whatever we are called to endure.

I am thankful for this.

Make It or Break It

Recently, I heard James Macdonald make a comment similar to this:

Everything is a test of faith. Therefore, everything is an opportunity to either grow or shrink your faith. 

If we agree with this, it can change our perspectives and change our lives. 

When we believe this, it changes how we see the things happening in our lives — i.e. we see things as being allowed by God — and that changed the way we react to things. If we view events as us vs. life, our reactions can be hostile and volatile. But when we see things as being allowed by God, we are more likely to respond in a way that pleases God (or at least our chances better).

Just something to think about. 

Sunday Worship: Love Your Enemies (Again)

“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44 ESV)

For the last couple of months, I’ve been hanging out in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5 – 7.  I’ve wanted to hear directly from Jesus and there are few better places than the Sermon on the Mount.

I’ve written previously, and not so long ago, on today’s verse.  I’m figuring that’s OK though.  I’m sure I need to hear the message in this verse again.

As I read this verse today, I wondered again why Jesus would tell the crowd to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  As I read this verse, I hate to admit this, but the thought came to mind of me as a child sitting at my dinner plate being forced to eat something I just didn’t like.  Is that what Jesus is doing to us here?

No.  That’s not it.  With a little more thought, two things come to mind.

First, Jesus is telling us how to love as He does.  Romans 5:8 tells us this,

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ died for us while we were His enemies, so when He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those persecuting us, He’s telling us how to live and love like Him.

Second, we are being pointed to a higher standard.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:48,

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

A lot of us will say that Matthew 5:48 points us to a standard that we cannot meet and that forces us to realize we need a Savior.  I agree with this logic.  But I also think we need to stop and gaze at the standard and the Standard Bearer.  Jesus is perfect and He loves us perfectly.  This even involved loving us when we were unlovable.  We should not just rush past this standard and jump on God’s grace.  Let us also gaze at our perfect Lord and be in awe of how He has loved us.

So today let’s worship our amazing Father who has loved us so incredibly.  Let us worship Him because He is holy and perfect. And as we exit from our worship, let’s love and serve those around us as Jesus has loved and served us.

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“Sunday Worship” is a weekly series that can hopefully be used to help prepare our hearts to worship God Almighty.  You can read all of the posts in this series by clicking here.

Where to Send Thanksgiving

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 ESV)

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that makes me shake my head at our culture.  For the most part our society wants to shake loose of God, but when we’re faced with thanksgiving, we have to think about where we direct our thanks.

We can be thankful (or not) for various things, but the act of being thankful means that we are pausing to consider our “blessing” and we are directing affection and adoration to the “source” of the blessing.  So, as we pause today to observe this holiday of thanksgiving, we will think of our “blessings” and we will direct affection and adoration to the source.

Along this path of thinking, we must also consider who is the source of our blessing.  When we think about the “source,” there are several things that may come to mind:

• We may think we are the source of our blessing.  We may believe that our own work, under our own power is the source.
• We may think other people — their work and their power — are the source of our blessings.
• We may think of government or institutions — again, their collective work and their collective power — as the source of our blessings.
• We may think of God — His work and His power — as the source of our blessings.

In all of those examples except the last one, we would be wrong.  Almighty God is the Source of our blessings.  Whether we believe He exists or not, He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, our Creator and our Sustainer.  Through Him, all blessings flow.

All of this came back to mind as I heard a reminder of Philippians 4:19:

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Isn’t this a wonderful passage?  Isn’t it great to know that God is thinking of us and that He has made a promise to supply every need of ours?  He has indeed made this promise.  He will supply what we need “according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  This puts this thanksgiving holiday into complete perspective.  God is the source of our blessings and through His power and means we are allowed to receive them.

Amen and amen.