Category Archives: Love one another

“Terminal”

Last Sunday morning marked the first morning that I stepped into the leadership role for the Sunday morning service at Word of Life Church.  I have been an Associate Pastor at Word of Life with Senior Pastor Cesar Minera and Pastor Otto Kelly the past few years.  During this time, I have shared life with the Pastors and the diverse community of people we have the blessed opportunity to love and serve.    My primary role has been to work with the leadership team to plan ministry activities, to set priorities for the ministry, lead and organize our life groups, and deliver a message every four to six weeks.

This year, due to Pastor Otto and Joy taking a sabbatical, my role has expanded to lead the Sunday morning services.  I am excited to see what God is going to do with our little gathering of believers over the coming year as we seek to bring Him joy, encourage, edify and support one another, and love one another and all those He gives us to love and serve each week.

My blog has been dormant the last few years due to the fact that I could never seem to make time to write and post.  Now, I will be blogging at least weekly as way to make the messages I deliver from Sunday to Sunday available to those interested in digging deeper into what is spoken about and/or who want to share the messages delivered with friends and family.

In this blog post, I am providing you with the message I delivered last Sunday titled “Terminal.”  I don’t know how many Pastors begin their tenure with a congregation by reminding everyone in attendance they are going to die, but that is exactly what I did.  “The message I have to deliver today is that we are all going to die,” I stated as a matter of fact with confidence and clarity.  Rarely, in all the messages I have given, have I ever uttered something that I was so absolutely certain about and that I knew no one could dispute.  However, the mystery of how this truth might be applied to such things as why we gather on Sunday morning and what we should be doing when we gather was more compelling than the simple, but profound, statement concerning our mortality.

I.   We Are All Terminal

We are all terminal.  Tomorrow is not guaranteed.  Everyone will face death one day.  For some, death will come at a day and hour not expected, while others will receive the terminal diagnosis and have to take stock on how to live their remaining days.

The bible says in Job 14:1-2:

Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

Likewise, the Psalmist in Ps. 90:12, prays:

So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Numbering our days and understanding that our mortal lives have a beginning and an end is a sobering practice that is a powerful tool in helping us gain perspective on what is important and what is not in this life.  Indeed, understanding the terminal diagnosis that we all have been given I believe is the key to discerning between what I want to do that is “good” versus what is “God” and His will for my life.   So many people struggle with what they should be doing with their lives and the will of God related thereto because they live under the assumption that they have a indefinite amount of time on this planet to figure it out; however, the reality is that tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone and that today, while it is still called today, is all the time we have to live life as it is now and not as we hope it would be.

Psalm 39:4-6 puts it this way:

4 Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. 5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. 6 Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be.

In 1 Peter Chapter 1, the Apostle Peter reminds us of what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 40:6:

As for man, his days are like grass–he blooms like a flower of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

II.  The Bridge Between What Is Finite And What Is Eternal Is “Faith.”

As a church, we have recently been rethinking what faith is and what faith is not.  In summary, we have concluded that faith is not merely defined by “belief.”  Rather, faith is defined by a “person” – Jesus Christ – and everything that flows out of and from our relationship with Him.

Let’s briefly examine Hebrews 11:1 together:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Let’s focus for a moment on the term “substance.”  In greek, the word used in this passage is “hypostasis” (See Strong’s G5287).   Most versions of the bible translate this greek word in this verse as “assurance” or “confidence” or conviction” or “substance.”   However, the greek word can also be translated as “person.”  For example, in Hebrews 1:3 “hypostasis” is translated as follows:

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person (G5287) and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high

The implication from this translation of “hypostasis” is that Christ Jesus himself is the “substance” of our faith.  Therefore, “faith” properly understood should be defined as follows:

Now faith is the “person” we hope for or in, and the evidence of this person working in and through our lives.”

The evidence of our relationship with God is what scripture in Hebrews 11 calls “by faith” or “with faith.”  There is no faith without this divine relationship.  You can believe God, but not have faith. Belief alone does not result in faith.  Belief that flows from relationship with God results in faith.  You can do good things, but not have faith. However, everything we do that flows from our relationship with Christ is called “faith” or “by faith” or “with faith.”

Every example of faith we are given in Hebrews Chapter 11 involves a person who had a relationship with God and through this relationship something happened in their lives which the scripture calls “faith.”

  • For with faith the elders obtained a good testimony.”
  • By faith, Abel . . .
  • By faith, Enoch . . .
  • By faith, Noah . . .
  • By faith, Abraham . . .

Each of these people are witnesses concerning God’s will and desire to have a relationship with us.  Each of these witnesses provide us with a unique insight into the results of our relationship with God.   [We will be taking a closer look at these witnesses and what they have to teach us about “faith” over the coming weeks]

HOWEVER, IN THIS MESSAGE, I WANT TO FOCUS ON HOW FAITH CHANGES OUR PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE AND WHAT WE DO WITH THE TIME WE HAVE WHILE WE ARE “FLESH.”

III.  Finish Well 

Our relationship with Christ, which we call faith, will always lead us to “number our days” with anticipation that, although we must all one day die, we will also live.  (John 11:25)    We know from our relationship with Christ that while we live in this earthly tent,  as the Apostle Paul called our body, we have been given His life, we bear His image, and are given the authority to proclaim His Kingdom; however, we are living for so much more than what this life and what this world in which we live have to offer.

Consider Hebrews 11:13-16:

13 All these died in faith [they died in Christ while in relationship with Him], without receiving the promises [that come from our relationship with Him], only having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

14 Now those who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own.

15 And if they had been thinking of that country from which they departed [as their true home], they would have had [a continuing] opportunity to return.

16 But the truth is that they were longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. For that reason God is not ashamed [of them or] to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

After reflecting on this passage, let’s consider the following hypothetical (adapted from Ken Boa’s “Re-writing Your Broken Story”):

  • Suppose you go in for a routine physical examination and you’re told by your doctor that you have an illness that is not palpable or evident to you but that will be terminal.
  • You’ve got about a year (or maybe less) to live. You go to two other physicians, and they confirm the diagnosis.
  • There won’t be any really obvious effects until the disease reaches its final stages, but you will surely die within a year.
  • Now, ask yourself these questions:
  1. How would this diagnosis affect your vision of life?
  2. How would it affect your view of your roles on earth? (friend, parent, daughter, son)
  3. How would it affect the way you invest your money and time?
  • Clearly, such a realization that we have so little time could have a huge impact on us.  But understand this: the degree to which it would alter your present perspective and practice is the degree to which your current view of life and the biblical view of life diverge.  The distance between your current view of life and the biblical view of life is the degree to which you would expect this announcement to have changed your whole perspective and practice in the world.  Your vision of life ought to be the same, whether you have one day or thirty years to live.
  • None of us know that we have even a year. We can’t presume on the future. We can’t control one day.
  • And so we ought to treasure the opportunities of the present by enhancing the roles we play by serving other people and investing our money and time wisely and well, viewing our service to the people in our lives as service to Christ himself.
  • Only two things will last forever: God’s Word and people.  We would be wise to invest one into the other, making sure that the remaining days of our stay on this planet have optimal impact and lasting consequences on the lives of other people, leveraging the wealth of this world for eternal gain.  That is living from an eternal perspective; that is investing in our eternal future.”

I have prayed and thought a lot about my own personal answers to the foregoing questions.   In considering the questions presented by our terminal condition, I responded to my Lord in a conversation about these questions by stating that I would like to live the remainder of my days, however many those days may be, with the conviction that I want to finish this life well.  This means that with all that I am and all that I have been given I am asking God to lead me and guide me to my last day having cared for and completed everything He gave me in a way that pleases Him, brings Him honor, and gives Him glory.

The Apostle Paul expressed it this way to Timothy:

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.…

2 Tim. 6-8.

In Acts 20:24, he repeats this conviction by stating, “But I consider my life of no value to myself, if only I may finish my course and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus–the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

The Apostle Paul also exhorts you and I in the same way:

  • 1 Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.”
  • 1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession before many witnesses.”

IV.  Sunday Morning Gatherings

Take a personal inventory of your relationships, responsibilities and resources.  Consider for yourself what a terminal diagnosis means for your relationships, responsibilities and resources.  As you pray through and consider how the Holy Spirit of our Lord may lead you and guide you in these last days of your life, please consider, “How does a Christ-centered vision for the life we have been given impact what we do when we come together on Sunday morning?”

Again, if we only have one year to live, how does that impact how we spend Sunday mornings together.

If we only had 52 Sundays together, no more and no less, what would those Sundays look like?

What would we do in our fellowship together on Sundays that would bring joy to our Lord?

What would we do in our fellowship together on Sundays that would encourage, edify, and support one another?

How would our fellowship together on Sundays impact the way we love our Lord, love one another, and all those he gives us to love and serve each week?

I have been given the privilege and the responsibility to lead this gathering of Christ followers every Sunday as we come together in fellowship with our Lord. I NEED YOUR HELP TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING OUR TIME TOGETHER ON SUNDAY MORNINGS.  I CAN’T DO THIS ALONE.

In response to this message, some of you may determine that you should not be here for one reason or another.  That is to say, if you only had a year to live, you would not spend Sunday mornings with us.  THAT IS OKAY.  You have freedom to reach that conclusion.

For everyone else, let’s pray-fully, “number our days” together and gain wisdom as to what our time together will hold.

Don’t Let Your Love Grow Cold

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Dear Reader, are you:

  • disillusioned about some aspect of your life,
  • struggling with unanswered questions of the heart and head,
  • heart broken,
  • struggling with hypocrisy of one form or another,
  • feeling judgmental,
  • angry with God,
  • suffering from the fruits of false beliefs,
  • going through the motions in life with a veneer exterior, but feeling a void in you soul because your life lacks substance.

If any of the foregoing describes you and what you are feeling, I just want you to know I am praying for you. As I pray, I want to encourage you to stand firm in your faith and do not let your love, the love that God has placed deep within you, to grow cold.

The bible says that, “And [in that day] many will be offended and repelled and will begin to distrust and desert one another and will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue one another with hatred. And many false prophets will rise up and deceive and lead many into error. And the love of [b]the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity, but he who endures, overcomes and stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matt. 24:10-13.

Life is full of many challenges and controversies. Indeed, in a day and age where it seems one evil or another abounds through out the world, it is easy to allow our hearts to be filled with fear. This fear manifests itself in different ways in different people, but it always leads a person to the same lonely place.

Many who allow fear a foothold into their heart and mind become isolated or distracted or busy with activity hoping that the fear will go away. Others seek to fill the void fear creates with some material thing or some unhealthy relationship.

Everyone who embraces fear in one form or another seeks to hide the fact that they are afraid, while simultaneously doing whatever it takes to find a place of safety and security. Hence, fear causes people to become “offended” by those who love them and those they are given to love and they become filled with distrust for one another.

Thereafter, a person who was once filled with faith, hope and love, is transformed into an unstable soul, hating everything that has eternal worth and cleaving to what ever temporal happiness that will numb the unrelenting pain. To be certain, there are many who claim to have insight, authority and special enlightenment and preach a convenient gospel of cheap grace and happy living, but these false prophets are setting the fearful up to become so cold to love – love for God and love for one another – that they become paralyzed and ineffectual.

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18.

Fear is the opposite of love. Just like light and darkness, love and fear cannot occupy the same space. However, be encouraged, just like light always overcomes darkness, love always overcomes fear.

As I pray, I get the sense that someone who is reading this post needs to know that they are not alone. Today, that someone is me. And so from my prayer closet, I submit the following encouragement and exhortation:

  • To the disillusioned: if your vision for life is blurred and you have lost your way, cleave to the love of God and he will speak peace to the tempest and the storm that brews with in you.

 

  • To those tormented by questions: let love be your teacher and fill your heart and mind with wisdom.

 

  • To the heart broken: let love flood into your heart to heal you, to restore you and to fill you with joy.

 

  • To the hypocrites: let love be the plumb line by which you measure your actions. Do what you know to be right and turn away from what you know to be wrong.

 

  • To those who have been injured by the hypocrite: let love remind you of your own failings and weakness so you can bestow grace upon grace to that double-minded person; forgive just as you have been forgiven. Unconditionally.

 

  • To the judgmental: let love convert your critical thoughts into a prayer and intercession. May love give you strength to bear the burden of the sin you are judging as if it where you own. Don’t stop praying until you are both delivered.

 

  • To those who are angry with God: let love remind you that you are precious to Him. Let love help you take every indictment you have against Him to the Cross. Indeed, measure everyone of frustrations about what God has done (or not done) against every wound, scare, and drop of blood shed for you. Rest. Quietly. He knows.

 

  • To those suffering from the fruits of false beliefs: let love purify your soul and set you free from guilt and shame. You are accepted just as you are. There is nothing you have done or can do that can cause God to love you more than he does now. Let love cut through the cloud of doubt and give you clarity.

 

  • To those who feel like they are faking it and who are longing for all that is real: let love become your identity. Find your significance in the perfect love of God and in sharing that love with those he brings into your life.

If you need any additional prayer and encouragement, please don’t hesitate to call or write.

(If you are struggling with what the meaning of “love” is, please read my post “Love = A Poured Out Life”)

Growing pains . . .

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. . . No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (See James 1:2-12)

In my walk with the Lord, I think I have faced the Lord’s loving correction several times.  Typically, he lights the fire of discipline through my relationships.  I always seem to do or say something that offends one person or hurts another. “Oh, wretched man that I am!! God deliver me for this body of death! I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  (Romans 7:24-25)

The good news is that God’s discipline is an expression of His great love for us.  I think the difficult thing for us to do when we are disciplined is to humble ourselves and receive what God is telling us with joy and anticipation.   God is transforming us into vessels that can receive and give more love than you could ever ask for or imagine.

I would like to share with you an episode from life as an example.  I shared this on Facebook two years ago as a note and, recently, this message resonated with some friends of mine who were experiencing conflict in their fellowship.  I hope and pray that you will be as blessed as I have been through what God has taught me about who He is, who I am in Him and how to love those he puts into my life.

***

One Sunday, I got up and delivered a word of exhortation to the fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ that I worship with every week.  The word was well received from what I was told, encouraging to many, and what I had shared seemed to be right on point with what our Pastor had prepared for his message.

However, little did I know that I had deeply offended a friend I have been going to church with for twenty years.   A few days later, on Wednesday, my friend sent me a measured note via e-mail complaining, not about what I said, but the manner in which I had said it.  In this regard, he explained that he felt like I had disrespected our Pastor by speaking to the church without getting his permission before the service.  He then told me that a “policy” had been implemented while I was in Kenya for this type of speaking and that the policy prohibited people from spontaneously getting up and delivering any kind of message without being invited to do so by the Pastor.

Of course, I was perplexed and confused by this rebuke because (1) our pastor had always allowed me the freedom to speak whenever I had the unction of the Holy Spirit to do so; and (2) I did not know about the “policy.”  My flesh and pride wanted to fight, but the spirit within me said to pray.  So, I prayed.   Specifically, I asked God to show me what, if anything, I had done wrong.  I expected God to tell me I was right and to give me words to rebuke the “friend” who had presumptuously judged my motives and actions.  Instead, and quite unexpectedly, I received a gentle but resolute rebuke from my Heavenly Father.

As I prayed about the issue that my friend had raised and asked the Lord what he was saying through the e-mail message my friend had sent me, God spoke into my heart the following passage from the book of James, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  (James 4:7-8)   When I opened my bible to read what I had been spoken to me, I noticed that the chapter from which this passage in scripture comes from actually begins with a question, “What causes wars and fights among you?”   In answer to that question, James describes worldly desires that wage war within us.  In church circles, we often consider worldly desires in a materialistic sense and ignore how the application of this scripture addresses relationships within the church.  However, as we know, “the heart is deceitful above all things” and, even when we have good motives, sinful desires rooted in pride crop up to divide believers.

For hundreds of years, Satan has divided churches and pit brother against brother over various ideas on what the bible says about how the church should be run.  Indeed, people have a tendency to use the bible as a set of rules and regulations for what they believe is righteous and orderly living, to control and judge how others live and act, and to discriminate amongst who gets “in” to their group and who is excluded; however, such a view of scripture is limited and worldly.

Scripture is not a book of rules and regulations for lawyers and theologians to parse through and spew about.  Rather, Scripture is the embodiment of Christ Jesus. (See John Chapter 1).  As such, Scripture is life giving and life changing because the words are living words that transform our life into His life and our character into his character.  As Jesus said, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,  yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”  The purpose of scripture is to bring us into the Love of God and to teach us how to love one another.   If we use the word of God for any other purpose, then the result is always bondage.

Hence, in responding to my friend’s concerns about what I had done at church, I had to ask God to guard my heart against the fleshly need to defend myself.  In asking for God to do this, he told me to submit to Him.  As I submitted myself to Him and His great love, God revealed to me that part of my friend’s motive in raising his concern was to protect our Pastor and the pulpit from being usurped and undermined in some way.  My actions appeared to my friend to be inappropriate because they appeared to disrespect my Pastor and the reverence that he believed should be given for the authority that comes with the office of a pastor.  I respect my friend and his role in our church and I appreciated his efforts to protect our Pastor. However, I was deeply concerned that my friend did not give me the benefit of the doubt with respect to my motives and actions.

Nonetheless, I explained to my friend that I have no desire to usurp or undermine our Pastor or his Office.  God gave me the grace to apologize and repent for the confusion my actions may have created in my friend and others.  God, through my wife, showed me that I probably should have come to church early or called the day before and asked the Pastor for permission to deliver a word of exhortation.

I then asked God to sift my heart in this matter because I believe I heard Him give me permission to interrupt the service in the way that I did.  In so doing, God did not convict my heart of any ill-motive or desire.  I respect my Pastor and give deference to his authority.  Over the years, I have always believed we have had a relationship of mutual respect that resembles a father-son relationship in many regards.  For the last 20 years, I have faithfully followed his lead as my pastor, friend and brother and I have respected his decisions even when I have not always agreed with him.  It is in the context of this relationship that I have exercised authority to speak in church, whether it is reading a word from scripture, delivering a word of exhortation or delivering a sermon.  There have been times when I have not spoken to my Pastor before church and made eye contact with Him during the flow of a service and/or asked permission to minister to the body in some way.  Sometimes Pastor has waived me off or gently said not right now and other times he has set me free to minister as the Holy Spirit has led.

That said, it is important to understand that my actions in the church have always been bridled by my relationship with my Pastor, not by rules and regulations he has imposed upon me.  Our relationship is marked by trust, respect and love for one another and our love for God and His people.    As scripture says, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. . . . be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”  (Eph. 5:1-2; 19-21)  I think the trust Pastor gives the people he serves makes the ministry he has been given different from other pastors because that trust allows for freedom in our fellowship.  Although this freedom can be messy from time to time and the people under our Pastor’s care may make mistakes in exercising their freedom, this freedom allows people to grow in and contribute to the community of believers from week-to-week.  Over the years, my Pastor has taught me that churches are not organizations defined by charters and bylaws, they are communities defined by people and relationships.

I think the thing that hurt me the most about my friend’s judgment of my actions is that it called into question my love, trust and respect for my Pastor and the love, respect and trust he has in me.  Additionally, his judgment revealed a substantial lack of love, trust and respect for me.  My friend made several assumptions about what I did and said and why I said what I said that concerned me because it revealed that he did not know me well enough to trust that I would not do anything to usurp Pastor’s authority or to disrespect the office of the Pastor.

The Holy Spirit inspired me not to blame my friend for this circumstance.  The Lord convicted my heart and led me to take full responsibility and repent for the lack of fellowship we have had.  As I honestly assessed myself with the help of the Holy Spirit, I realized that I had not made myself available to develop a deeper relationship with him.  Unfortunately, one of my weaknesses is that I have a tendency to be superficial in my relationships.  I may have many friends, but there are few who really know me.  Basically, my fellowship with “my friend” is confined to those instances when we see and greet each other at church and those occasions I attend the men’s breakfast.  Since I began attending my Pastor’s church in 1992, I don’t think I have had any fellowship with “my friend” outside these circumstances. I am embarrassed that I have allowed so much time to pass without building a stronger friendship with “my friend.”  I suspect I have weak relationships with others in our fellowship that I call “friend” as well.  Consequently, there are probably others who have questions about what I do, what I say and what motivates me.

Through this experience, I realized that I need to grow past my natural tendency to settle for superficial relationships if I am going to be a servant and encourager of God’s people. I don’t think those who are called to serve God’s people should be superficial and I do not think that they should be so distant from the people they serve that those people do not trust them.   I can’t do this without God transforming me.  Please pray for me in this regard because I desperately want to follow Christ in his command that I love my brothers and sisters as he has loved me.  (John 15:12)  I want be just like Christ in “laying down my life for my friends.” (John 15:13)  I also want to bear the fruit of his Spirit in my character and in my relationships.

In the context of what I have just said, please take a moment to reflect on 1 John 4:7-10 , “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Isn’t this an amazing truth?!  Our love for God and knowledge of God is not measured by what we do or what we say in church?! It is measured by the love we have for one another!  The evidence of His life living through us is the love we give to one another.  Jesus emphasized this point when he said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples.”  John 13:35.   So, while I may be able to speak, prophesy, exhort and teach, if I do not possess love and if love does not possess me, my words are just noise and my actions are meaningless.  (I Cor. 13)

Even when it is painful to my ego, I am thankful for God’s discipline in my life.  My character has several defects and needs to be transformed.  I have so much to learn in life and I need God’s Spirit to teach me.   I am thankful that God has used this lesson as another opportunity for me to grow into His image and likeness and to learn to love those he puts in my life in both word and deed.