Selfless

2 Cor 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 6 Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 7 And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation. 8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, 10who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, 11 you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. 12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. 

One of the greatest evidences of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a man or woman is the development of ‘selflessness.’

Selflessness runs totally contrary to one of the strongest desires of the flesh, recognized as selfishness. Selflessness and selfishness are at complete and total opposite ends of the spectrum. (There are also degrees of each which exist along that spectrum, but the apostle Paul is completely at the end of the scale.) He is what we might call a ‘fanatic for Christ.’

Some teach life in Christ as a kind of utopia on earth, wherein we are to expect health and wealth and unbridled joy and peace in our lives. You have probably already discovered that manner of teaching is far from truthful, and can lead to broken hearts and ruined expectations.

Paul, on the other hand, teaches and demonstrates a life walking through the fire of this world, facing everything that comes his way with a pre-meditated determination to bear up under it or to die – whichever the Lord wills. This is clearly extraordinary, not only for his willingness to bear up and not to back down, but also for the wisdom he expresses as his reason for doing so – and that reason is: Me. It is: You. Paul had something to deliver, and that was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn’t care what it cost him in years or in pain-free existence, he cared for those who would hear and be saved. He knew what his sufferings would produce, and we see the evidence all around us today. It is called the world-wide church, founded in large part by a selfless Spirit-filled man named ‘Paul.’

-  Pastor Bill

The Promise of Praise

Psalm 150:1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! 2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! 3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! 4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! 5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!

The Book of Psalms concludes with nothing but praise. 6 straight psalms of praise conclude the compilation of 150 songs. Is this accidental – or a circumstantial happenstance? Absolutely not!

Methinks it has something to do with our nature, and the nature of God.

We are so prone to be inwardly focused, and everything about praise is outward. So the Book of Psalms concludes with us being forced to focus outside of ourselves. Each of these psalms, from 145 to 150 begin and end with the phrase, “Praise the Lord!” (Or as we also know it, “Hallelujah!”)

If you think back to the happiest times of your life, what moments would you list? May I suggest they are moments that are outwardly-focused? Your marriage, the birth of a child…some great victory at your school, or perhaps in the office?

You see, it is very rare when we have any happiness at all that is internally-derived. The things that bring the most joy into our lives come from the outside.

Indeed, the more inwardly-focused we become, the more likely we are to become depressed – about our situation, or about our condition. We cloister ourselves away in darkened rooms to contemplate our “sorrows.” We develop a ‘woe is me’ mindset really quickly because the more we look inside ourselves the less we find. A sense of ‘emptiness’ ensues…

But the Lord knows our frame, and He has just the thing we need. We are designed to PRAISE - just as we are designed to worship - to take our eyes off ourselves, and to place our eyes upon our God, our King, our Creator. And it is only in the final arrival we make of praising the Lord that this sense of completion takes place. Praising a winning touchdown doesn’t do it, or does praising our favorite musician or actor in a performance setting. We need to be about praising God – and Lord knows we need it!

We are made to hunger and thirst for that which satisfies. The True and Living God is the Only One who can! Praise the Lord! The promise of praise is fulfillment. Richness. Blessing. And a very true connection to eternal life.

-  Pastor Bill

From Beginning to End

Psalm 139:2 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. 13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. 19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. 20 For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain. 21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139 is regarded as David’s most artistic, his most poetic, his most beautiful Psalm of all. It is not only majestic, but deeply personal in scope – especially regarding God’s regard for man, and His ultimate plan.

It really begins at the beginning doesn’t it? God stands over the creation process of each one, crafting us in fearful and wonderful fashion – the most intricate, delicate and marvelous of all of His creation. The only ones He is crafting to resemble Himself, that in a quite amazing way, when we see the face of man we see the face of God, reflected.

And so God takes every precaution with man. Think of all the plans the Lord had as He crafted David. Think of how important David’s life would be in the history of the world. Can’t you just imagine the smile on God’s face as He crafted David’s face? A face which would be at once a beautiful baby – a mother’s crowning joy – and at the same time a face that would one day defeat Goliath, and then lead men into battle, for conquests greater than any Israel had ever known. That was in the beginning, even before the beginning.

And God continued to think of David always, His thoughts more than the grains of sand of all the beaches on the face of the earth. A staggering thing, if you stop to think about it literally – as it is expressed.

But the grandest plan of all God had in mind from the beginning, was to lead David along “the way everlasting.” On this point, and about this plan, we may rest assured God smiled more broadly than over any of His precious thoughts. The thought that one day, one fine day, David would be coming home – and that the Lord Himself would not only preserve, but save. And He holds those very same thoughts for me and you too.

-  Pastor Bill

Hand-Crafted

Psalm 134:1 A Song of Ascents. Behold, bless the Lord, All you servants of the Lord, Who by night stand in the house of the Lord! 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord. 3 The Lord who made heaven and earth Bless you from Zion!

When we have made something, we like to deservedly take pride in what we have done.

It starts at a very early age. “Look at me daddy!” is one of the earliest sentences we learn to form with our mouths. While putting words together to form a complete thought is an impressive feat in itself, we really want the focus to be on what we have done.

A paper hat? A crayon-colored pony? “Just looky!”

There is definitely something revelatory about human nature involved in all of this. Our desire - innate or otherwise - to be creative. Our desire to create something valuable. Our desire to be NOTICED for what we have wrought with our hands.

Have you ever studied your hands to see what marvelous tools you are employing to create whatever it is you are creating? I’m not talking about the mechanical pencil, or the exacto-knife, or the wonderfully-sharp scissors you are holding – I’m talking about the handy items on the ends of your arms. (Your hands themselves.)

What a marvelous creation they are, with opposable thumbs and all. We can reach out and grab just about anything we can lift that isn’t too hot or too cold. We can draw. We can cut. We can knead. We can paste. We can sculpt.

And when we have finished, we get to the good part. “Look at me, daddy!”

Sadly, some go all their lives without any sort of appreciative acknowledgment from their earthly fathers, or mothers either for that matter. (Though this problem seems more likely to be said of fathers.) I just want my father to see what I have done, and to see that I am a good son. That I am capable of being worthy of my dad’s love.

Somewhere along the way it occurs to each of us to look down at our hands. As time goes by this gets more and more interesting. Every day, I see more of my father’s hands by appearance at the end of my arms. I see the aging process played out, as the skin gets thin and wrinkly, and the veins begin to bulge out on the back of them. “There’s my dad. These hands look exactly like my father’s hands looked.” And then it occurs to me that it is not so important what I can do with these hands, but that these hands reveal whose son I am. Now I know why my dad smiled so much whenever I completed a project.

-  Pastor Bill