For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Heb. 4: 15-16 NIV
Acton MA
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus Phil 1:6 NIV
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. Jer. 29: 11-14
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isa. 40:28-30
Today I am waiting on the Lord in Killarney
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isa. 26:3
“For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” Isa 30:15
Most mornings this month I have been driving to work in a car covered with a thick fall dew that seems to have the ability to permeate glass! The gentle night-rain from Heaven has become a bothersome oily layer that smears when I use the wipers and wraps itself into the interior cabin as soon as I open the door to get in the van. It would be a problem easily addressed if I could just crank up the defrost or simply open the window. Here’s the thing, the season is such that it is too hot to turn the defrost up to full power and too cold to keep the windows down. We are in one of the in-betweeney spaces, one of those places where no solution easily addresses the issue at hand.
Life is full of in -betweeney spaces: Times when it’s too dark for us to go without a light but to light for a lamp to effectively shine in the gloaming; Situations where people have done us wrong but nothing so bad that anyone else thinks our anger is justified; Times when we are sick and feel generally crumby but we are not sick enough that the doctor takes us seriously. We all hate the in-betweeneys, the almost-not-quite circumstances
Jesus said, “This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning[e] of God’s new creation:
15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” Rev. 3:14-16 NLT
The human heart can easily become an in-betweeney space. If we are not careful, we can put our own hearts in positions where no solution God brings can easily address our issues. A person who has become an “in-betweeney space” is enough in love with the world that any genuine call of the Spirit will seem like an undue call to sacrifice; But he or she is also enough in love with God to create a Christianity which judges others while giving themself a pass for bad behavior. It puts God in a position where He can neither convict us effectively nor manifest in us sufficiently to change anything in us or the world. He is left with no choice but to spit us out of His mouth.
We must come to hate the in-betweeney spaces in our own hearts as much as we hate them when we confront them in life’s experience.
SO…
What do you do to keep your own heart from becoming luke-warm ?
I will listen to what God the Lord says;
he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—
but let them not turn to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps” Psm 85: 8-13 NIV
The future of the Children of God is a glorious one indeed. Eternal life in the light and presence of the One True God. John the Revelator when writing of it said,
“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Rev. 21:1-5
But in this world of toil and care it is sometimes easy to get our eyes off of the eternal promises and onto the trouble of the moment. It is for this reason the Psalmist felt the need to warn his readers “but let them not turn to folly.” Folly is easy to fall into when spiritual myopia causes us to see too much of the trouble in the moment and not enough of the treasure in eternity. The cure is to hold on to the promises and to remember just what it is we are holding onto faith for. We need to keep the finish line (or the lack of one as this is eternity we are talking about) firmly fixed in mind as we face the troublesome bends in our current road.
Christian, just keep going. This momentary light affliction ( and it will seem just that when we see Jesus) will pass. You are a part of eternity. Hold on to that today!
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” MA. 9:37,38
Here in New England the harvest is apparent as well as abundant. With church attendance in the six state area hovering just over 2%, just about everyone you meet on the sidewalk is part of the harvest and with a 98 to 2 ratio the Lord’s acknowledgement that the laborers are few is something of an understatement (granted the numbers are far better than when he walked the Earth… but still).
I find no lack of good ideas within the church walls as to how the church should reach the multitudes with the message of the gospel. But when it comes right down to it we don’t need more ideas we just need to take a couple of those good thoughts and perform them.
Here’s the thing; Suggesting an idea to the pastor of your church and then not being willing to participate in the carrying out of that idea is not helpful. Pastor’s do not need more ideas. Most of us are swimming in a sea of ideas which have no method of implementation. What ideas need are champions to carry them out. And if God gave you the idea then perhaps you are the champion of that idea. Yes you need pastoral support. Yes you need to be realistic about your own abilities and limitations; But in the end if God is giving you an idea about how to work in the harvest field, that idea is your responsibility to carry out; Just giving it away to someone else and shrugging your shoulders when it doesn’t get done because “those other guys have no vision” does not release you from the responsibility of the idea. God gave it you! See it through! Be the champion of your harvest idea!
Here are some champions I currently see working in our church:
Deb Maciorowski, VP Special Touch REACH New England Chapter
Amanda Lillie Buddy Barrel Coordinator kids church
Ray Parker, Cornerstone Testimonial Newsletter
What do you need to do to champion your harvest cause?
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself
It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.Psalm 80:14 KJV
It has been a while since I wrote a Heaven post. When I started these posts back several years ago it was with the intent that I would do a word study of the word “Heaven” throughout the Scripture. It was a bigger undertaking than I thought at first and here I am three years later only having reached the Psalms. Yet we plod on… You can find previous Heaven posts at
https://josephelonlillie.com/pastor-wrinkles/the-heaven-posts
Doesn’t it feel sometimes like God has set Himself up against us? We get into situations and wonder where God went and often we begin questioning God’s loyalty and His love. In those moments we are prone to cry out things like,
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; (or at least I have been prone to it)
But I wonder has God really left us? If so how can He be fulfilling the promise never to leave or forsake us?
In my own life when I have ended up away from God it is not because God has moved but because I have. God may never leave us nor forsake us but our own disobedience can often put us outside His sphere of protection or help. It is us who moves not God.
This is exactly what happened to Israel. Israel stepped out from under God’s protection by continuous disobedience. The Chosen people chose another way and that way led to death and destruction.
The good news here is that because the choice to walk out on the relationship was theirs not God’s walking back in to the relationship was their choice as well. God was always faithful to His promise to Israel and God is faithful to His promises to you as well. If you find yourselves at cross-purposes with the Almighty this afternoon and you would like to change that, the choice is entirely yours. God made His choice for you at the cross. He is just waiting for you to make your choice for Him.
Lillie-Put 