Tag Archives: spiritual growth

Pastor Wrinkles: Complete Worship Pt. 1

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Here is our text for tomorrow’s sermon.

Psalm 150

1 Praise the Lord

Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
    praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
    praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
    praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

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What does worship look like to you?

Passage or Portion?

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“This world is our passage not our portion.” Matthew Henry

I hear a lot of talk these days about the end of the world. Conversations about Armageddon (the meaning of that word is different from person to person) are becoming normal chatter not just from the church pulpit but in the grocery line, at the gas pump, even at the doctor’s office. The level of fear attached to such conversations is always dependent on whether or not the end of the world is seen as a loss or as a gain.

Now you might ask, “How can the end of the world be seen as a gain?”

Well for Christians the “end of the world” is a misnomer. When we talk about the end-times we are not talking about the end of everything just the end of this age and this world order. We are talking about the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise  that “The meek will inherit the Earth.” We are talking about the destruction of sin and death and the reinstatement of Jesus as King of the World.

In that time big changes are coming. The establishment of that new order comes through the judgment and destruction of the old order. Things valued by the old order will be lost. Frankly, there are things in the old order that we humans, even we Christian humans, really like. Things like war and poverty and famine will be absent in Jesus’ kingdom (and everyone shouts Hallelujah!) but also missing from Christ’s reign will be things like the vote, freedom of religion and R-rated movies ( many of us would be Okay with one and two but try to take away James Bond and Jesus just might have a mutinee on His hands!)

What Matthew Henry said is true; This world is just a place we are passing through. It is  not our reward. We aren’t supposed to get too comfortable here because this world with its “comforts” is passing away. So Christian don’t be afraid when you see your current way of life fading away in the collapse of the world around you. Jesus said,

Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Ma. 24:4-14

In light of this truth, hold on to Christ. He was at the beginning. He will usher in the end. He will take those who trust in Him beyond the end into the inheritance that truly is our portion!

Is My Prayer Good Enough?

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The crucifix at Kylemore Abbey

The crucifix at Kylemore Abbey

A group of us gather at our church three times a week for an hour of morning prayer. We generally do a brief devotion and then spend about fifteen to twenty minutes in solitary prayer and meditation before coming together for a half an hour of corporate prayer.

This morning in my time of meditation I felt the Spirit of God nudge me with these thoughts which I penned into my journal,  “The Holy Spirit does not rely on your ability to express His manifestation in order to define the boundaries of His manifestation. The power of your prayers does not come from your words, your volume or your emotion. He is able to do as much work whether you pray long or pray short whether you pray soft or pray loud. How you express your prayer does not determine the power released as long as you are praying in line with the Spirit’s desires.”

I think many of us get hung up on whether or not we are “good pray-ers”. But God does not need people who can pray long flowery or loud exciting prayers. He is the God who invented speech and nothing in the way of language surprises Him. Time means little to a God who dwells in eternity so pray as long or as short as you want. Although, time does mean something to the people you are praying with. Remember,  we aren’t in eternity yet so when you pray with people try not to pretend a thousand years are like a day. God’s not deaf nor does He have a nervous condition but the people you are with might have either; So you might want to tailor your volume according to the auditory sensibilities or the nerves of the people around you. I think the way we pray has more to do with whom we are  praying with than whom we are praying to.

God doesn’t need long flowery or loud exciting prayers. But what HE does need is people who will commit to discovering and praying His will. In fact God is most excited when we catch His vision for prayer. Emotional excitement is secondary to Him but what really grabs His heart is when His people pray His Kingdom to come on Earth and His will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

What specific kingdom prayers is God directing you to pray these days?

 

The Point

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In the shadow of the cross

In the shadow of the cross

15The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him Col: 1:15-17

I think most humans are born a little attention deprived. We either never come to an understanding of what’s really important or we lose focus on the important things in life. We do get lost in the minutiae thinking it’s the point. In gaining wealth, fame, land comfort, a satisfying job or any other earthly satisfaction we run the risk of missing the real point while trying to maintain the dimensions of our life.

Even as ministers we so often miss the point. We say things like, “The goal is souls.” Or  “It’s all about winning souls.” Now I think souls are important. Evangelism and discipleship are way up there on my to do list. But I am learning that I can get everything on my to do list done and still miss the point. Souls are not the point. Ministry is not the point. The church is not the point (that does not diminish their importance). Jesus is the point and a personal relationship with Him is the goal. If at the end of my days in this vale of tears I have failed to accomplish that, then I will have truly missed the point.

21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Ma. 7:21-23

Let’s keep the main thing the main thing.

Heaven Pt. 163: Soul Secure

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If the Lord had not been on our side—
    let Israel say—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side
    when people attacked us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
    when their anger flared against us;
4 the flood would have engulfed us,
    the torrent would have swept over us,
5 the raging waters
    would have swept us away.

6 Praise be to the Lord,
    who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird
    from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
    and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth Psalm 124: 2-8

I once met a man who believed that because he had accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior that  he would never experience death. He actually thought he would live in his fleshly body forever. Of course that was not truth; It was reaaaaallllly  bad theology.

We laugh at such extremism but I have experienced this same  mindset to varying degrees in many Christian brothers and sisters, devout men and women who take the Scriptures and make them say what they want rather than what they mean. Psalm 124 is a case in point. Some would take this Scripture and have it say “Because I know the God who made Heaven and Earth my enemies can never touch me.”

The problem of course is that sometimes the enemy can touch us. Sometimes the enemy can do far more than touch us. Just ask the man who wrote Psalm 24. On another day, in another place he said.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from my cries of anguish?

2My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

by night, but I find no rest.b

3Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the one Israel praises.c

4In you our ancestors put their trust;

they trusted and you delivered them.

5To you they cried out and were saved;

in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

7All who see me mock me;

they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

8“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,

“let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

since he delights in him.”

9Yet you brought me out of the womb;

you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.

10From birth I was cast on you;

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11Do not be far from me,

for trouble is near

and there is no one to help.

12Many bulls surround me;

strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13Roaring lions that tear their prey

open their mouths wide against me.

14I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart has turned to wax;

it has melted within me.

15My mouthd is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay me in the dust of death.

16Dogs surround me,

a pack of villains encircles me;

they piercee my hands and my feet. Psalm 22: 1-16 NIV

I know this is a prophetic Scripture about Jesus but it was also written out of the very real experiences of David’s life on the lam (no pun intended). So what happened to escaping from the fowler’s snare? What happened to God’s help? Well it was there all the time. Help just didn’t look like David wanted it to look at that particular moment.

God doesn’t promise to always spare us from trouble. In fact, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” John 16. Heaven isn’t Earth and Earth isn’t Heaven, so let’s stop pretending they are the same.

Even in Psalm 124 God doesn’t promise that we would always escape from bodily harm, although in the NIV that looks to be what He is saying. The truth that is actually being taught though is,” our souls escape from the fowler’s snare” 124:7. (nephesh malat- souls escape)

Even when the enemy has the power to touch our physical realities, he has no power to touch our souls, because our lives are hid with God in Christ according to the Apostle Paul. Child of God, there is a place in the anointing which brings us blessing beyond the curse so that we can say with Paul, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ” 2 Cor. 4:8,9

If it feels like you are under attack today and that you are trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea with no good way out, take heart. The devil may have a hold on you for now but his grip is slipping and he has no power whatever to capture your soul. The real you inside is safe in God’s hands and shall be so as God’s plans for your life are fulfilled. Your life cannot be touched by anything in this reality. The battle of the moment may go to Satan but the victory of forever belongs to you!