Monthly Archives: April 2013

23 Pt. 6

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23 Pt. 6

 

“He restores my soul” Psalm 23:3

     My soul is an “organ” with three parts: mind, will, and emotion. In order to be fully restored God must restore all three parts. It is not just my mind, my thinking, that is broken. My will, the decision-making part of me is also in disrepair.

I have to confess that when I converted to Christianity I didn’t suddenly turn into this total God-serving machine. Oh, there was a change. I began to serve God more than I ever did in my pre-Christian state. But I still struggled with my will… I still struggle with my will. There is still this piece of me that doesn’t want to do good. Label it however you want to, it’s a no-good piece of me that works hard to influence my decisions in life. Sometimes ,with my will, I listen to that piece of myself and…you know the end of that story. Yes, my will needs restoring to that place where my ears are tuned only to the commands of Christ. The tuning is a work He does through training and testing. Each time I listen to His voice, in the middle of a test, and choose for Him my will is restored and I am conformed more to His image. The more I am restored the more joyful obedience becomes.

Have you  ever noticed that the more you obey, the more you want to obey?

Pastor Wrinkles: Ferocious Pt. 5

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Well I am back in Womerveer! Today I am heading to worship rehearsal at Ichthys Church in Zandaam with my sister! Enjoy the study!

The Bloat

 

     I love cookies! I love cookie dough even more. Have you ever eaten a dozen uncooked cookie balls? I just did! Right now my stomach feels as though it has a bowling ball in it.

I actually considered putting this post off until tomorrow when I won’t be feeling as though moving to the computer will off-set the rotation of the planet… Duty has won out, but only just!

“Love does not boast. It is not proud.” I Cor. 13:4″.

Boasting and pride are like uncooked cookie balls. They feel good going down. Once they are in, though, they start to swell inside your spirit until there is no room left for anything else but selfishness.

Love cannot dwell alongside pride and boasting because love is other centered. Pride and boasting are entirely about aggrandizing self.

Strangely the root of pride and boasting is usually not a huge ego. So many begin down this path because they are looking for something they don’t have, self-worth. Rather than coming to find their identities in Christ men and women across the face of the planet have decided to create their own personas through shameless self-promotion.

The word used for boasting in I Corinthians 13 indicates not only self-promotion but exaggeration. The saddest thing about pride and boasting is that they are not based in reality. Both behaviors always lead the perpetrators to think things that are untrue of themselves. That is why pride can only come before a fall. The one who swallows pride always elevates himself to a higher position than he can maintain.

The remedy for pride and boasting though is love. When we begin in love to think of others more highly than ourselves, pride and boasting vanish as quickly as the bloat before Pepto-bismol or Premarin.

Further when love begins its work inside us the roots of inadequacy that foster pride and boasting are swallowed up in an abiding satisfaction that cannot be undone.

Let us love with passion then!

Pastor Wrinkles: Ferocious Pt. 4

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Just about now I am settling into my hotel room in Delft after a day in Rotterdam. I hope your day was as great as mine!

 

The Green Monster

     In Massachusetts when we talk about “The Green Monster” we are usually referring to that giant green wall in our world-famous ball park plastered with the names of Fenway’s sponsors.    The rest of the world, though, knows there is a different green monster (or green-eyed monster depending on your upbringing) that is far more dangerous than a foul-ball into the bleachers.

Paul writes in I Corinthian 13:4 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy.” NIV

Note that this is the first place in the definition where Paul tells us something about what love is not. That’s significant. Love is not a lot of things, but the first thing love is not, is envy. The first thing love does not participate in is ungodly possessive envy.

Envy is defined as:

ζηλόω  (zēloō)- 1) to burn with zeal a) to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger1) in a good sense, to be zealous in the pursuit of good  b) to desire earnestly, pursue 1) to desire one earnestly, to strive after, busy one’s self about him 2) to exert one’s self for one (that he may not be torn from me) 3) to be the object of the zeal of others, to be zealously sought after  c) to envy
 

Now as we look at the definition “zeloo” is not always bad. Even in Scripture  “zeloo”, envy or jealousy, has its place under the direction of the Spirit.

Paul writes just one chapter later: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” I Cor. 14:1 NIV

That is “follow the way of love and “zeloo” spiritual gifts.” What?… But Paul you just said if I am following the way of love I will not “zeloo”.

Well dear reader there needs to be an understanding that there is a righteous “zeloo” and an evil “zeloo” in all of us, a Jekyll and Hyde, a two-faced coin.

The righteous “zeloo” is called zeal and the evil “zeloo” is called envy… same plant different root.

Righteous zeal has its root in Christ. For example Paul writes:

“I am jealous (zeloo) for you with a godly jealousy (zelos). I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” 2 Cor. 2:11

Here Paul’s jealousy is motivated to protect the Corinthian’s  and keep them from evil so that Christ might have a pure church. Paul’s motive is the Corinthian’s best. His heart is other centered.

James however writes about “zeloo” this way: “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet (zeloo), but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

Evil “zeloo”, envy, has its root in self. It is not interested in the best of others. It wants what it wants and will do anything it has to to get it.

The husband who is wickedly jealous of his wife will lock her in and not let her out to see friends. The wife who is wickedly jealous of her husband will accuse him of an affair not because there is any evidence but because she is feeling insecure about herself.

At its root selfish envy is about fear and inadequacy. That is why love cannot have envy as one of its components because as the Scripture says: “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

God help us to be zealous for You and content with that!

 

Pastor Wrinkles: Ferocious Pt. 3

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Howdy everyone! Today I started out in Amsterdam where my sister had to teach a class at Agape Bible College. By now though I am sitting in some little cafe in Delft!

Enjoy today’s lesson!

ἀγάπη χρηστεύομαι (Love Is Kind)

 

    Love is kind! And don’t you forget it!

I don’t think most of us do. I just think most of us don’t really know what that means. Somewhere along the way “Love is kind.” gets watered down into “Love is nice.” or  “Love doesn’t make waves.”

But I’m pretty sure Paul thought he had a grasp on love. I’m really sure that Jesus was the epitome of love. Yet neither of these men was always “nice”. As far as making waves goes both Paul and Jesus were relational tsunamis.

Jesus was the guy who called the Gentile woman “a dog” to her face in Ma. 15 (and even in the context of that day it really wasn’t a nice name). How many times did he offend the crowds he was speaking to?

Paul?… he could incite whole cities to riot. He even made one group so mad they stoned him. He’s the guy who wrote to the Galatians he hoped the Judaizers would slip and emasculate themselves. Now that’s a different kind of kind than the kind I was taught. How ’bout you?

So was Paul just failing to take his own advice when he wrote to the Galatians or was he maybe talking about something else? Well let’s take a look.

The word Paul uses for kind is :

chrēsteuomai-Kind (Adjective), Kind (Be), Kindly, Kindness: (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines it this way:

kind-adj 1. affectionate, loving 2.a : of a sympathetic or helpful nature b :of a forbearing nature : gentle c : arising from or characterized by sympathy or forbearance <a kind act>: of a kind to give pleasure or relief

      Kindness is the mindset of sympathy coupled with the desire to bring pleasure or relief; It is a forbearance that keeps us from giving others what they so richly deserve, while trying to help them see there is a better way.

Kindness can be “nice”. Yet it is more interested in being truly helpful than in building any certain perception of self. In other words when I am kind I am more interested in helping you than I am in making you think I am “wonderful”. When I am kind I may be politically incorrect but my motivation will be to lift up someone who has fallen down.

In Ma 15 Jesus was kind when he helped the Syro-Phoenician woman to discover she had a vital faith. He was kind,likewise, to confront those listening in, who thought they had faith with their self-limiting stereotypes.

Paul may have incited riots in Ephesus and Jerusalem but he didn’t do it for the shock value. He did it to bring the saving message of the gospel to the lost and dying. That was a kindness.

We are kind whenever we seek to do good for others even if they do not respond well in our offering.

Have you ever had to be harsh with someone in order to be kind to them? Tell me about it.

23 Pt. 5

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23 Pt. 5

“He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:3

God is about the business of saving us! How awesome is that! He has done…is doing…will do all that is required to save me and that is a work I could never accomplish myself.

Many of you may have read my friend Matt’s replies to the previous posts. While Matt’s comments focus on the work that is already accomplished in eternity, our verse here is focusing on the work that the Lord is currently doing within time.

“He restores my soul”, that is…my mind, my will and my emotions! Hallelujah! I am so grateful to a God who restores my mind. He is at work within me ridding me of all my “stinkin’ thinkin’” as Joyce Meyers calls it.

I have been a Christian for thirty some years and in that time God has transformed my thinking progressively on many matters. I present my thinking to Him daily and His Spirit transforms me by the renewing of my mind. Every time I pick up His Word I am challenged and my thinking is changed by increments. I have noticed that as my thinking changes so does the way I behave. As He restores my soul so He repairs my broken behavior!

So am I already changed or am I being changed? According to the Bible both are true. I guess understanding that is one of the restorations God has to make to my mind! :)

Pastor Wrinkles: Ferocious Pt.2

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I hope you are all having a great day. I am most likely eating a Turkish Pizza right now in Wormerveer!

 

      I was fourteen. I had been a Christian for all of a year. It was Wednesday night Bible study and we were sharing prayer requests in groups of five or six and praying for one another.

I asked prayer for the salvation of my parents. The woman next to me began to talk about how frustrated she was with her own teen-ager, how she felt she was near the end of her rope.

I innocently offered, “I’ll pray for you that God would give you patience.”

The circle fell silent and the woman looked at me aghast as if I had just offered to murder her kid to relieve her misery.

Another woman in the circle said, “Dear, you must never pray for patience for others. It causes trials.”

For a long time after that I believed and repeated what I had been taught in that small prayer circle. Many times I said the same words to other Christians, as if in jest. But always there was some deep-set fear in my heart that praying for patience could release the destroying angel into people’s lives.

Then one day the Lord asked me “Is patience a fruit of my Holy Spirit?”

“Yes Lord” I replied.

”Do you have difficulty praying for joy or faith to grow in people’s lives?” He asked gently.

“No Lord I do not.” I returned.

“Is patience not needed as much as these other fruits?”

“Yes Lord.” I answered beginning to get chagrined.

“Then you should pray for people to grow in patience and let Me worry about how I choose to answer your request. For I always know the best way to answer.”

The fact of the matter is that praying for patience does not cause trials. Life causes trials. Further patience is not a cause of trials it is a response to trials. Even further than that, I do not believe that praying for a person to grow in patience causes more trials than normal. I do believe it releases the Holy Spirit to convict a person about how they respond to stress and that can make stress seem, well, more stressful to the impatient heart.

In truth though patience cannot be seen by the human eye without the fiery blaze of a trial to light its existence. When all is peaceful and at rest we cannot say a person is patient because you do not have to be very great in patience to sleep on a hammock. But put a guy in the midst of an angry board meeting and you will see how deep his patience runs.

If we are to walk the pathway of god’s ferocious love we must have patience running deep in our veins. Paul evidently thought it important enough to rank first in his defining list of love traits.

“Love is patient.” I Cor. 13:4 NIV

Now the writers of the New Testament used two Greek words to describe this quality we call patience:

hypomonē-

1) steadfastness, constancy, endurance

a) in the NT the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings

b) patiently, and steadfastly

2) a patient, steadfast waiting for

3) a patient enduring, sustaining, perseverance

OR

makrothymeō-

to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart

a) to persevere patiently and bravely in enduring misfortunes and troubles

b) to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others

1) to be mild and slow in avenging

2) to be longsuffering, slow to anger, slow to punish

** Definitions care of blueletterbible.com lexicon

Now both definitions are incredible to meditate upon. However when Paul wrote, “Love is patient”, he actually said, “love is makrothymeō”.

In other words “love persevere’s bravely in enduring misfortune.”

My great grandmother had twenty-five pregnancies. Twenty of them were miscarriages. It had to be makrothymeō  that kept her going for her family.

It takes makrothymeō to “turn the other cheek” or to love your enemies, because you have to bear with the offenses of others.

Patience of this kind doesn’t yell at the telemarketer or the bill collector. Nor does it run and hide from them. It deals bravely and peacefully with every person in every situation.

You know, looking at it that way makes me want patience. I need it. So I do pray for it because I want to love the way God loves and if I have to go through a few ferocious trials to get there…well I think patience will be worth the price.

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” James 1:2,3 kjv

Let It be So!

23 Pt. 4

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“He restores my soul” Psm 23:3 NIV

   Salvation, as I understand it, is a process in three phases:

1. Justification which is the salvation of the spirit, whereby we are made alive in Christ. “But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Rom 8:10

2. Sanctification  which is  the salvation of the soul, whereby we are made perfect in Christ. “But you were washed, you were sanctified” I Cor. 6:11

3. Glorification which is the salvation of our bodies being translated from mortality to immortality. “ in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” I Cor. 15:52

      Psalm 23:3  speaks about the process of sanctification.“He restores my soul.”  The word “restores” means to turn back or to return. Jesus, the Lord, is in the process of returning our souls  to the state they were meant to exist in.  The foundation of this restoration is the path of righteousness. Sin has mucked up the condition of the soul. In order to be restored, the soul must return to righteousness. Now, we are completely powerless to get ourselves back there. Praise God that He is not so powerless. He knows the path of righteousness and can lead us on it. Our only job is to relax, follow, and let Him take care of everything along the path.

What do you think a restored soul looks like?

Pastor Wrinkles: Ferocious Pt. 1

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Well I am officially headed off to the Netherlands. For the next 10 days I will be incommunicado. All my posts have been scheduled ahead for your reading pleasure.  I will respond to all of your comments when I return home through the weekend of the 26th -28th.  Right now I am probably checking my bags at Logan Airport. Have a great week everyone!

Ferocious

Our worship team got into a discussion about “real love” a few weeks ago during our time of Bible study and prayer. We were looking at I Corinthians 13 :4-8 and trying to find one word we could boil  all these verses down  into.

You know the passage I’m referring to: “ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails….” I Corinthians 13:4-8 NIV

We tossed around several words but finally one of the altos on our vocal team, Betty, shot out a word that really seems to sum up God’s definition of love.

Betty said “Love is ferocious.”

Now that right there is powerful revelation. Look at the verses again and tell me what you think. If love were an animal would it be a kitten or a police dog? Would love be the zebra or the lion?

Anybody who chooses the cute cuddly critter or the helpless herbivore has never really tried to walk in kindness towards the bully whose taking your lunch money. Any body who said kitten has never had to walk with hope for the child who has fallen back into drugs for the fiftieth time.

Love is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. After all it is the conduit through which the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit operate. Anything that can channel gifts of such amazing power has to itself be pretty rugged don’t you think?

Over the next several posts I am going to be breaking down these verses so that we can get a clearer understanding about this ferocious thing called love. But before I do that I want to make a few observations about these verses together that will maybe help us to understand just how potent a pill love is to take.

First of all love is not just one of the items on the list.

It is not right to say “love is just being patient”.

It is not even right to say “love just always trusts”.

If we do that then love becomes patience or trust. But love is not love until it is all the things on the list. Take away just one item and you no longer have love. If you do everything on the list but you do it impatiently you have not loved. Conversely if you are patient but you are only patient with someone because you have already given up on them then you also have not loved. For love never fails or gives up.

You see love leaves us no quarter. It’s like the lion chasing down the zebra pouncing on its hind-end bringing it to ground. It is ferocious with us in that it never lets up. Love demands a ruthless perfection in us in order to manifest.

Further love is not a situational thing. If we are to love we cannot choose the conditions or the individuals we are to love. Love is not about the objects of our love it is about the inner condition of our heart.

I cannot choose when to love for love is an always things. “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (ICor. 13:7 NIV). If I am to love I cannot say I will love on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Nor can I say I will love when somebody does something nice for me and makes me feel like being loving.

True love remains the same even when the objects of our love become themselves unlovely: When the child disobeys love disciplines with the hope of restoring truth for the purpose of rejoicing. When the spouse is hateful love does not retaliate or bring it up in the next time of tension. When the lady in line in front of you at Dunkin Donuts swears at you love remains kind.

You see love is ferocious not with other people. Love is ferocious with those of us who are trying to love. It is the power that takes away all our imperfection and submits us fully to God.

By this point most of us have given up and said “I now see I have never loved and surely I never will.”

Congratulations you have come to the knowledge that you cannot do that which is only doable by God in you. Love is a God thing and without Him actively participating in our loving we will never attain to the goal of I Corinthians 13.

Praise be that He does not leave us to our own devices. God and God alone will make us into real lovers. So let us now submit to Him as we go on to study the components of this ferocious love.

Pray with me.

Dear Jesus, I acknowledge that without your help I cannot love as you have called me to love. So I ask now dear Lord that as I study, first open my understanding so that I may know what love is. Then come and empower me by your grace to do that which I cannot do myself. Make me to love even as you love.

In Jesus name a-men.

23 Pt. 3

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23 Pt. 3

 

He guides me  in path’s of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Psalm 23: 3

     No you did not miss a post. No I am not confused about the order of Psalm 23. I know that the next post should be about greener pastures. But we have to start at the beginning and I can honestly say that with Christianity “greener patures” are not the beginning. Before we ever get to the green space we have to be led in righteousness.

Now righteousness is a sticking place for most of us, because it’s not something we produce naturally as humans. Goodness is not a part of who we are. It goes against our fallen grain. Still,  righteousness is a prerequisite for entrance into Heaven. God understands that if we are to get to the good place it is up to Him. The truth is He has staked His reputation on saving us and bringing us to righteousness. That’s comforting to me because I know He will not let His name be brought down. While there are areas of goodness I still struggle with this struggle is not forever because for the sake of His name He is going to lead me into righteousness!

So tell me what’s the best way to become more righteous?

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The Good Shepherd Pt. 8

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I hope you have been enjoying The Good Shepherd series. I am heading off to The Netherlands and I didn’t want to leave you hanging. So I am posting the next episode for your reading pleasure today. Right now I am probably finishing up packing for my flight over the Atlantic. The next episode of Jerome’s story will be posted on Friday April  26th. Have a great week.

If you have missed any of Jerome’s previous adventures you can find them all right here:

http://wp.me/P39vIx-j1

The Good Shepherd Pt. 8

I pressed my hands hard against the cold metal table in the interrogation room. Willing the heat of my fury into the shiny steel, I kept my eyes fixed firmly on the inverted heart- shaped space between my joined thumbs and forefingers.

Tyson had been sitting across from me for almost twenty minutes silent as the grave he had put my mother and Anna in. I wanted to ask about Silhouette but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of watching me outwardly squirm. Inside I was pleading with the Lord to deliver me from the hands of this wicked man. I was struggling almost as much with my own attitude as I was with Winchendon’s crooked police chief. A gaggle of demons determined to throw down my faith: hatred, sadness, fear and despair, fought for the chance to usurp the throne of my life. Meanwhile, God seemed to have removed Himself to some country home. I thought it odd that in the dark my commitment to God though challenged had  never flagged. Now reintroduced to the light it seemed all my beliefs were melting away like snow in August.

“Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!You really thought you could get away? You and your little Bone Girlfriend?” Tyson sneered.

I stared at the heart in between my fingers. It was all I had left of God. I felt if I could just keep myself focused on that one  four inch space I could let everything else go and be with Jesus. I hadn’t spoken since Scott delivered the news about my mother, Anna and Silhouette. Even Oliver had been unable to draw me out of my stupor. I knew what was happening. I had just lost the ability to care. Like Elijah after the battle on Carmel I was exhausted and ready to die alone if God would just afford an opportunity.

Tyson smacked his lips, “Well it didn’t work. Here we are. You in prison. Me testifying against you in court tomorrow. I don’t even have to do the deed myself. I just get to watch you hang. Ordinarily I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to be personally involved but I killed my quota of church folk this week. That Silhouette was fun. The dogs licked up her blood just like what’s her name from the Bible… Jezebel. That’s it she was just like Jezebel.”

 I looked up then from my manacled hands into Tyson’s eyes. I saw hatred there blazing back at me but something else too. Was it fear? For just a moment I felt all the circling demon hordes pushed back as an old power gripped me. Strength surged through my bones centered in the set of my jaw and the grind of my teeth. Words flew from the fingertips of my heart and exploded from my mouth unbidden.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” I spat.

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” By the end of the Psalm I was almost screaming.

Tyson backed up against the far door rattled by my sudden outburst.

“Turn or burn Tyson! Turn or burn.” I hissed.

The darkness closed back in then and I sat, to tired to even lift my head.

He chuckled and walked over to me. I sat docile as he bent and gently kissed the top of my head before exiting. I smiled at the heart between my fingers.