Tag: following Jesus

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Journal Meditations

God Has Taken the Spiritual Initiative; Faith is Our Response

God reaches out to us through the Bible

“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him” (2 Chronicles. 16:9).

“All throughout the Bible this is one of the certain ways of God. He takes the initiative! And what he initiates, he completes! (Henry T. Blackaby)

Most of us can look into our own personal history and see examples of God’s gracious hand.   Maybe it is times when God protected us. Perhaps it is an incident in family history where God helped someone in your family circle through a very difficult time.  Maybe we are simply filled with a conscious thankfulness for all the material blessings that God has given.  Perhaps there is an awareness already of God speaking, of God’s presence, whether through Christian services, the reading of Scripture, or in personal devotional time.  All of these are witnesses for us that God is reaching out to us personally.

Christians firmly believe that God takes the initiative to reach out to us. That initiative began in the Garden of Eden when God came looking for Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:8, 9). In history, that initiative continued in the selection of Abraham and continued with God working through the nation of Israel down through the centuries to help us learn about holiness and about the character of God.  God’s initiative reached a climactic event in the coming and the life, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But that was not the end of God’s initiatives.  Through the Holy Spirit, God’s initiative continues in the lives of each and every one of us by inner impressions and outer circumstances that guide us to follow Jesus.  These initiatives are the prevenient* grace of God in our lives. Our faith then is simply a response to the divine initiatives of God.

*If this is a new word to you, it is actually an old English word used in this context by John Wesley which means ‘going before.’

 

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Journal Meditations Wisdom

Following Jesus requires life-long learning

A devotional excerpt from today’s message

The evangelical and revivalist traditions of the American Protestant churches over the last hundred years have strongly emphasized making a decision to follow Christ.  That is a good thing because until we make a decision, most of us drift in indecision and ultimately drift away.  Better to decisively answer the call of Jesus.

But there has been one downside to this emphasis.  Some have emphasized the decision to the detriment of the walk with Jesus.    Like a hypothetical person who buys a car and then inexplicably keeps walking, riding the bus, or hiring a taxi everywhere they go,  some so-called Christians think that having a “decision” in their records is all that is needed.  More liturgical types might substitute becoming a member or being baptized as their moment of decision.  But anytime our Christianity is only a decision of the past and not a present pursuit, there is a big misunderstanding.

Jesus calls us to continuing discipleship

However, if we remember that Jesus calls us using the word “follow” we will easily avoid this error.   Following is by nature a continuing activity.  It’s something you do every day.  The word “follow” reflects the true nature of our relationship to Jesus.   We are continually modeling after him.  We are continually listening for his voice.   We are continually understanding and appropriating more of his instructions.   We are continually seeking to walk in his footsteps.   Another way to say this is that Jesus doesn’t just call us to a one-time decision, he calls us to a day by day, week by week, year after year discipleship.  Think about it this way, nearly all professions I know of require continuing education for continued competence.  Anyone who is successful in their field is already doing continuing education whether or not it is required.

Your future is built on the improvements you are making today.

This is true of your Christian walk.  This is true of your marriage.  This is true of your relationship to your children.  This is true in your professional life.  This is true in your hobby.  Continued learning is part of our basic commitment to Jesus.   As Peter put it.

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18 NIV 2011

So the corollary is that following Jesus is a life-long learning process.  And there is a wonderful promise that goes with this.

“He who pursues righteousness and love finds life prosperity and honor.” Prov. 21:21

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Journal Joy Notes Meditations

A child’s Christmas wonder is catching

17 22It happened in the middle of the children’s program at church — the moment that crystalized the essence of the Christmas sermons I have been preparing.   Little Parker, who is barely tall enough to see over the edge of the altar table,  stopped in front of the table and peered into the middle of the white ceramic manger set.  There was wonder written all over his face in that instant.   I was blessed in that moment with an inspiring insight.  Even if I don’t get any more this season, this one will make this Christmas memorable.  It distilled what I have been trying to say in my sermon series too.   I, and probably many of my readers like me, need to recover that sense of wonder at what God has done at Christmas.   Just as Parker in a child’s way was filling with awe at the beauty of the manger scene the children had just put in place as a part of the children’s program; so I need to think about the Christmas story and reflect on the life of Jesus enough to be filled with wonder once again at who Jesus is, how he humbled himself to be born in Bethlehem, what a wonderful life he lived, and how he died and rose again for me.  I need a refill of awe and wonder.  Then there will not be a danger that I am just going through the motions of Christmas; I will be truly able to worship at the manger this year.

Thank you to Nancy Collins for capturing the moment with her camera too.

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Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

A Personal Testimony

While I usually file my sermons in the sermon section, I decided to include this one here for two reasons.  First, because it is my first sermon at Copper Hill UMC.   Second, because it is very informative about me personally and will be a great addition to the Who Am I section of my blog.

First sermon at Copper Hill UMC

Intro

As I thought about how to begin this morning, I decided that there was not a better way than to introduce myself by giving my testimony—the story of my own Christian journey.  

Telling the story of God’s action in our lives is a Biblically recommended practice anyway, isn’t it.   In the passage Judy read, the servant of Abraham tells of God’s activity in helping him to be successful in finding a wife for Isaac.   In a sense, much of Holy Scripture is the inspired testimony of God’s action among his people, recorded for us to read and profit from later.  In the book of Revelation, in the verses that I read, John tells us that one of the weapons of the Christian church – one of the means that it can use to overcome the enemy of our souls is testimony – reciting to one another the work of God in our lives.  Testimony has several benefits.  Telling others what God has done has a way of confirming it for us too.   Testimony encourages and inspires others as well.  When one person testifies, it helps us to understand how God works and what he can do in our own lives too.  

My prayer is that this abbreviated story of my Christian journey will not only help you get to know me but also inspire and encourage your own Christian walk. 

A Christian beginning

Object: a family farm needlework or picture of my extended family

A Christian home

My journey began in on a family farm in rural Western NY.  I had the privilege of being born into a Christian family.  On Sundays, not only both my parents, but all four of my grandparents would be at our church.  I was told that I first accepted Jesus into my heart at age 6 kneeling in the living room next to my mom.  

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Hospitality to God’s Word at six

Key verse:  “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Jn. 1:11-12 ESV

It was an important beginning of giving hospitality to God’s word, God’s work and God’s Spirit in my life.  The Bible teaches us that each of us has an opportunity to do that.  The bible is using a hospitality metaphor.   As when someone comes to the door of our home, we can either let them in our shut the door, so it is with God’s teaching in our lives.   The Bible teaches that God I as one standing at the door of our hearts and knocking.  If we will give Him entrance he will come in (Rev. 3:20).  

Growing in faith in a small church like this one

Object: Haskinville plate

Childhood Sunday school

The church I grew up in was a lot like this one. 

Continue reading “A Personal Testimony”

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Journal Meditations

The simplest and most compelling reason for seeking God

Here are two sections by E. Stanley Jones from a daily devotional book I highly recommend.  I have followed them with my own conclusion.

Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior (Isaiah 45:15 NRSV).

Here is the hidden God, like the hidden thought…we cannot know what he is like unless he communicates himself through a word.
If you say, “I can know God in my heart intuitively and immediately, without the mediation of a word,”  then the answer is: “But your ‘heart’ then becomes the medium of communication and knowing the heart as you do with its sin and crosscurrents and cross-conceptions you know it is a very unsafe medium for the revelation of God.”
God must reveal himself.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1).

Here is the hidden God and he expresses himself through the Word…
Jesus is called the Word because the word is the expression of the hidden thought.  Unless I put my thought into words you cannot understand it.  Here is God; we sense his presence, but he is Spirit, hence hidden.  We want to know what he is like—not in omnipotence, nor in omniscience, nor in omnipresence; a revelation of these would do little or no good, but we would know his character, for what he is like in character, we, his children, must be.   So the Hidden Thought—God—becomes the Revealed Word—Christ.   (365 Days with E. Stanley Jones, Mary Ruth Howes, editor, Dimensions for Living Nashville, 2000, pp. 74,75)

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known (John 1:18 NIV).

I was impressed as I read these that spending time in God’s Word, accompanied by a prayer that the Holy Spirit would teach us, is an essential part of seeking God.   Christians do not meditate with empty minds, but with thoughts shaped by God’s Word.   The still-small inner voice of the Holy Spirit most often uses the written revelation, the record of Jesus’ words and presence, to guide us and speak to us.    

What an incentive to our discipline to seek God.  The situation turns out to be so simple—too simple.  Unless we spend time with God in God’s Word and in prayer, we will never really know God.   We would prefer a fast-food shortcut, a spoon-fed alternative, an easier way but there are none. But the truly good news is that God desires that we discover him!  And he has provided a means for us to begin. 

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near (Isa 55:6 NIV).