What Grips Me?

A few weeks ago I read through the Old Testament book of Nehemiah and then it was reference in a journal article I read earlier today. The article got me thinking about the very beginning of the book and a question. Nehemiah begins this way:

Nehemiah 1:1-4 – The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, ² Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. ³They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." ⁴ When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

The question was: What grips me? The story of Nehemiah starts out simply enough. Nehemiah is working and his brother came for a visit. During the visit Nehemiah asks about life in their home city of Jerusalem. The response he received in verse 3 was not good. But then verse 4 makes it more than a simple story. The news of the people and Jerusalem grabs Nehemiah and touches him deeply. His heart is gripped. The news drives him to pray and fast and mourn and weep.

The cause of this intense reaction is clearly his concern for the people, but there is more to it than that, there is also this concern for Jerusalem. If you continue reading Nehemiah it becomes clear that his concern for Jerusalem is connected to Nehemiah understanding that Jerusalem is in rough shape because the people have sinned against God. Nehemiah’s prayer in verses 5-11 point toward Nehemiah being passionate for God and wanting to be right with God.

Sometimes we can read a story and think that is nice or touching and then just move on. If that is our attitude toward the stories of the Bible, we are in a very dangerous place. God shared this story for our benefit. And part of that benefit I think is because the story can challenge us to ask, “What grips me?”

The story of Nehemiah is the story of God doing something significant through a person. I can’t help but wonder if a big reason why God worked through Nehemiah was because Nehemiah was passionate about God and people. Nehemiah was gripped by things that grip God. Am I? There are all kinds of things that could grip us. But am I gripped by the right things? On a cold, windy, sort of snowy night, maybe I need to take stock of what grips me. That analysis may change the trajectory of my week and more.

Central Evening of Prayer

Just in case you do see the email from church, here is some information about a special prayer event at Central on November 12.

Dear Central Family,

I am writing to invite you to be a part of an evening of prayer on Friday, November 12^th from 7 to 9 pm at Central. Since this event is something new, at least in terms of my time at Central, I thought it might be helpful if I briefly outlined what the night will include:

·         Brief teaching time on prayer

·         Prayer in small groups focusing on expressing our adoration to God for who He is

·         Individual prayer throughout the building confessing our sin

·         Prayer in one large group giving thanks to God for what He has done for us

·         Prayer in small groups bringing a variety of requests to Him

The purpose of this evening of prayer is for us to seek God’s face and grow in prayer. Prayer is something that we can see is vital from the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. But it is something that we often struggle with in our own lives. I know that I need to grow in prayer. Praying with other people has helped me grow in pray. I want to encourage you to come and be a part of this evening of prayer.

We are working on arrangements for childcare for children up to 4 years old. In the future we hope to be able to expand the children’s portion of these evenings of prayer. Given that we have not done this type of event before, it would be a great help to us if you would let us know if you will need childcare on November 12^th. We want to ensure that we minister effectively to your child. Please let us know by contacting Sandy in the church office.

Sincerely in Christ,

Pastor Lloyd

Little Things

It looks and sounds like we might have a mouse in our house. That is a problem for a few different reasons. First, we did not invite the mouse into our house. Second, so far the mouse has been smarter than the trap setter (that would be me). Third, the presence of the mouse is disruptive, and we are wondering how much damage the mouse is causing.

In Song of Solomon 2:15 it says this:

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.

I believe that verse is set in the context of a marriage relationship. From the flow of the passage it would appear that Solomon’s beloved is asking him to capture foxes from their vineyard. The vineyard is probably best understood as their love or relationship in full bloom. Foxes were known in the Middle East to dig around the root systems of plants in a vineyard and in the process damage and disrupt those roots.

Little foxes can do big damage to a vineyard, much like little things can do real damage to a marriage. That damage or its destruction may not be immediate, but it will come. And what was meant to be beautiful fails to blossom.

This principle of little things leading to big damage is not just an issue in marriage. It is easy to ignore little stuff, and maybe even tempting to do. But failing to deal with little things can lead to big problems down the road. Are there little things that you need to address in your relationship with God? How about in your family or your marriage? Now might be the time to do a little thing so the little thing does not become a big thing.

Video of Living with a Pure Heart #2

If you would rather watch and listen to this blog posting instead of reading it, please click the link below:

Living with a Pure Heart #2 Video

Living With a Pure Heart #3

Here is another one of the ideas that I mentioned at the end of the message on Sunday about work out your salvation. The big idea was walking by the Spirit from Galatians 5:16-25.

Paul starts out this section by telling us if we walk by the Spirit we will travel in a very different direction than if we follow our flesh or sinful nature. Verse 17 explains why we need to work out our salvation. Before meeting Jesus we were governed by our sinful nature. That nature is in opposition to what God lovingly commands us to do. When we repent and trust the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit enters our lives and we have in the midst of our sinful nature, the Holy Spirit directing us in a very different direction. If we are going to follow the Holy Spirit we will need to walk away from what we used to do, what we naturally did and follow the Holy Spirit.

The contrast between our sinful nature and the Holy Spirit are expressed in verses 19-23. The sinful nature wants to lead us toward actions that are destructive and damaging. In contrast, as we follow the Holy Spirit, He creates us within us this amazing fruit that is to ooze out of our lives.

For us to look like verses 22 and 23 instead of verses 19-21, at least two things need to happen. First, from verse 24, we need to understand that when we trusted the Lord Jesus, we took our sinful nature and crucified it. We declared we wanted it dead. We wanted to be separated from it. There is a challenge with verse 24 and crucifying our sinful nature. Though crucifixion is a certain death sentence, it is a slow death sentence. Our sinful nature is still clinging to life. That means we need to not simply recognize that we crucified our sinful nature if we want to work out our salvation

The second thing we need to is to live out verse 25. We need to walk by the Spirit. The word picture idea would be a military term or a football term since I am going to a football game in a couple of hours. Walking by the Spirit means that we follow the cadence of the Holy Spirit. Working out our salvation does not mean that we do whatever we think is best or right. It means we need to listen to the cadence, the direction of the Holy Spirit and follow Him. Listening to that cadence means that we need to pray and read the Bible. It also means that we should talk with mature followers of Jesus and ask for their insights. Through those kinds of things, the Spirit will share with us.

Why would we want to listen to His cadence? The first part of verse 25 gives us the reason why: our life, our new life comes from the Spirit. Working out our salvation means that we live out the life that the Holy Spirit has given us.

Living With a Pure Heart #2

Near the end of the message on Sunday, I mentioned three ideas on how to work out your salvation. In the next few posts I would like to unpack those ideas, because frankly, I think they are important.

My first suggestion came for Colossians 3:5-11. If we are going to work out our salvation, one thing the Bible calls us to do is to get serious about sin. Being serious about sin does not mean that we work really hard to sin more. To be serious about sin means that we seek to put sin to death. In Colossians 3:5 Paul tells us to put to death stuff that belongs to our earthly nature. To be direct, the things he then lists are sexual sins. If we are going to work out our salvation, we need to say no to all sin, even sexual sin. We live in a culture that makes a big deal about sex, particularly self-serving sex. Sex in the content of a one woman/one man marriage can be a great thing. But sex outside of that needs to be put to death.

To get practical, we need to take a look at our lives and ask if we are serious about put this kind of sin to death in our lives.  If I am going to put this sin to death in my life I need to watch what I watch and listen to. I probably should take stock of the jokes that I laugh at and the images that I look for. If we are going to live out our salvation, some changes will need to occur in our lives.

There is more to working out our salvation than that though. In Colossians 3:8, Paul tells us to dump a bunch of stuff connected to anger and things that flow out of our mouths because of anger. Destructive attitudes and actions do not help us work out our salvation and live with pure hearts. If anger is an issue in your life, please address it. if any of us allows anger, rage, malice or slander to hang around, marks will be left in our lives and the lives of those around us. And they will not be the kind of marks we would want left.

Dumping anger, malice, slander and rage may not be easy, but we need to do it. Is anger an issue that you are struggling with? Do you get frustrated and snap often? Do you cover those things up, but inside you are seething? If we are going to work out our salvation, we need to address those kinds of things. We cannot afford to play games with anger and malice.

The Bible touches on the kind of theme in a number of other places too. If you want to think through this idea of taking sin seriously, please take some time and read Romans 6, Romans 13:12-14 and Ephesians 4:22-24. Working out our salvation, though empowered by God, will involve effort our part. We need to heed the words of 1 Timothy 4:7

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.

We need to get serious about sin and becoming godly. That requires disciple and training.

Living With a Pure Heart #1

Yesterday in church the message ended by briefly talking about how to live with a pure heart. I want to review that information briefly and then in the next few postings unpack what was quickly touched on in the message.

When a person repents of his or her sin and trust in the Lord Jesus as his or her Savior, that person receives a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27). In Acts 15:9 it says God cleanses our hearts when we trust in the Lord Jesus. Because Jesus came to earth, died for our sins and rose again, we receive pure hearts when we trust Him. But how do we live with pure hearts?

One of the ways the Bible answers that question is found in Philippians 2:12-13:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Living with a pure heart is a combined effort. Philippians 2:12 is a command to us. We need to work out our salvation. We need to make choices and take steps to live out the incredible gift of salvation that God has given us in the Lord Jesus. But we are not alone in that effort. In fact verse 13 is telling us at least three important things:

•  First, God is working in us
• Second, God is working us to will to want to work out our salvation. God, through the Holy Spirit in the lives of His followers, is stimulating us to act.
• Third, God is also working in us to act, which means that God gives us the power or energy to work out our salvation.

When I read those two verses in Philippians 2, I come away with a sense of awe. I have been given the gift of salvation, a gift that leads to my life being transformed.  It can seem a little intimidating to hear that I need to work out my salvation. But before I can even say, “Hey how can I do that?” God communicates His involvement in the process. We can live transformed lives because of who God is and what He is doing for us.

Over the next few days there will be additional postings that will focus in on things we can do to work out our salvation and experienced the pure and transformed hearts that God gives us in Christ.