Category: Pastor’s Corner

As we approach the end of the year, we often think about the past year and look to the new year with anticipation. Many times, these two years are pictured as an old man or father time as the old year and a baby representing the new year. A saying that often goes with the image is “Goodbye old faults, old complaints, old grievances. Goodbye grouches, goodbye bad habits, goodbye pessimism, goodbye hard times. Welcome fresh start.” We look forward to the new year as an opportunity to change things we don’t like or to begin anew. It’s a time of resolutions, a commitment to do better or to take a different direction or to stop an old habit. What we often find out is that it doesn’t take very long to realize that nothing has changed and more often than not, we are continuing on in our old ways. The New Year isn’t really that new after all, it’s more of the same. But what if that could be different, what if the new year truly could be “new”?

We love new things, like a new car, a new house or a fresh experience. We are always seeking something more and have an almost insatiable appetite. We are just wired that way and I would say created by God with those desires. The problem is, we are looking for satisfaction in places that are finite and broken. The world we live in and our own fallen nature quickly spoil that which was fresh and new. But God has done something wondrous, He is the God of the fresh and new and what He offers never gets stale. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Whenever God speaks of something new, He is not referencing to time or something that is recent but “new as to form or quality, of a different nature from what is contrasted as old” (Vines Expository Dictionary). It is fresh, unused, unworn, of a new kind or unprecedented. This is the new God is speaking of. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you are not the same old “you” – you are brand new and unprecedented! Your relationship with God is new, it has changed from one of enmity to one of sonship. You are now indwelt with the Spirit of God and thus have a completely new nature, one that desires and has the ability, by the power of Christ, to live a life pleasing to God. In the verse just before vs 17, Paul speaks of knowing Christ by means of the flesh, that is a view that based purely on human considerations. Now as a new creation he is seeing things differently and in a fresh new way. So it is with us who know Christ as Savior. We no longer look at our world or our circumstances though solely human eyes, but through the lens of God’s word as it is revealed in Christ. 

I find in the definition of “new” an aspect that is encouraging and that is of being “fresh”. We like new things because they are fresh. They are not worn or used. All the potential is still available and hasn’t been used up. The new car has many miles of trouble-free driving before it. The new house is just waiting for the creation of memories as it becomes a home. A newborn child has its whole life ahead of it with all its dreams and aspirations. In the same way, as believers we too have so much potential! You will never exhaust the potential that God has for you; you will never wear out His grace, mercy and love. Your relationship with God will never get stale. You are now able to discern circumstances and the world around you according to reality that is based on what God says – not by man’s failed, old, frustrating and pessimistic ways. In Scripture, God describes many things that are “new”, things like:

New Wineskins

New Name

New Covenant                                            

New Jerusalem

New Commandment                                

New Song

New Creation                                             

New Earth

New Man                                   

New Heavens

New Self                                     

So as we start this new year, keep in mind your newness. You are not what you once were but something new and fresh. As God says, “Behold I am making all things new!”  (Revelation 21:5)

“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming…” Ephesians 4:14

Paul’s concern for the churches he birthed or nurtured into maturity is evident throughout his writings. The body’s steadfastness was always on his mind and heart. One of his illustrations likened unequipped saints to so much debris the wind tosses during a storm, as the verse above declares (Ephesians 4:14).

When the wind comes in strong, it changes all that it overpowers. We’ve seen this in our region’s recent fast-moving storms. Destruction altered the landscape. Repairs can help, but much was lost or irreversibly altered. Strange enough, in a few years most will not remember what it looked like before this storm. New winds will demand our focus; history will blur under newer pressures.

Comparatively, Jude also spoke of stormy assaults on the faith once delivered (Jude 3,12-13). The destruction of the basic tenets of faith is still a goal of the enemy today. The church must be vigilant, to withstand that storm.

Jesus himself taught us the importance of hearing and heeding Him. Without our life’s foundation built firmly on Him, destruction is certain, and great (Luke 6:46-49).

The eleventh chapter of 2 Corinthians is a remarkable passage. Paul is speaking plainly to a congregation that has had their moments of victory, and seasons of compromise. Paul must upbraid them; they are so dull in discernment:

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. 2 Cor. 11:3-4 (NASB)

Paul then continues in that chapter to expose the false teachers’ methods. He makes an appeal to the Corinthians: pull yourself out of the weeds spiritually, and get back to following Christ and His true under-shepherds.

They had fleshly hearts that idolized a teacher’s “credentialling” and “boastful signs of victory.” Paul countered these false values by appealing to the Corinthians from his own “spiritual resume.” He recounted his weaknesses, and things he’d suffered for His Lord. Please note Paul’s greatest suffering, as he agonizingly revealed in verses 28-29:

Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?  2 Cor. 11:28-29 (NASB)

I want to try and summarize what Paul is getting at, in my own language: “Mark the true apostle by his overwhelming concern for you spiritually; and not for his own advancement, ease, popularity, or even skin. The true apostle is one that counts his physical assaults as nothing, compared to the burning in his heart for your steadfastness, growth, and unwavering proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Lord.”

Two friends are in my heart as I write today.

One has suffered the loss of all material goods, at the hands of the people he had come to serve. Everything. Gone. What would you think? His response is one of caring concern for the souls of those who now have more possessions, but do not possess the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And what of his tiny flock, in this community?

The other is running a gauntlet of increased opposition, violence, threats and invented charges to shut down any gospel witness in his region. Physical assaults and property destructions are now common. Many have been driven away. What would you focus upon? His heart is for the battered believers, and shepherding them for their encouragement amid such fierce attacks. And, how to continue to present the gospel to those so numbingly blind?

I share these things to encourage you. Labor at maturing in your Spirit-given gifts of Faith, Knowledge, Wisdom and Discernment. The wind is steadily blowing here, and your foundation must be on Him, and not shifting sands.

Would you also commit with me to pray through Jeremiah 20:7-13? As you do, remember each other, and our brothers and sisters in fierce storms, now. May we be found glorifying God and making His Name known, regardless of the winds that would delight in tossing us about.

From August of 1942 to February of 1943 the world’s deadliest battle raged in a city on the bank of the Volga river in the country of Russia, Stalingrad. Over 2 million soldiers and civilians died during that time when the German army attempted to take the city from the Soviets. In the middle of that city is a famous fountain, famous due to the photograph that was taken during the battle. It is called the Barmaley fountain and its main feature is a circle of children dancing around a playful crocodile. The fountain stood in the center of a square in front of the main railroad station. This square and fountain would be one of the first images travelers would see upon leaving the station and was situated in a park-like setting. It was a place for people to congregate and for children to play. A playground if you will. What many people didn’t know was they were to be witnesses and casualties in an epic battle for survival for themselves, their city and their country. It would be the battleground that would be enigmatic of the war they were all in, whether they wanted to or not.

Such it is with those of us who are followers of Christ. We find ourselves in a war but oftentimes we are not fully convinced of that fact. We are more focused on the fun and frolic of the playground than in the harsh realities of battle. A. W. Tozer puts it this way, “Men think of the world, not as a battleground but as a playground. We are not here to fight, we are here to frolic. We are not in a foreign land, we are at home. We are not getting ready to live, we are already living, and the best we can do is to rid ourselves of our inhibitions and our frustrations and live this life to the full.” Ouch. When I read that it gave me a reason to pause and to consider how I’m viewing my time on this earth. Am I looking to get all I can out of this life? Is that my focus? Do I really consider myself a stranger and a sojourner in this world? How should I live differently if these things are true? Paul says in Acts 20:24, “but I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” Paul knew he was on the battleground and was willing to give his life for the cause of Christ. Now I may not be in such physical danger but how important is my life, my comfort, my retirement, my time, etc. Am I held back by those things? They are not bad in and of themselves but where do they land on my value list? I think that as we get older and as we go through difficult times and we turn to gaze upon Jesus, God loosens our grip on the things of this world. As the hymn states, “the things of this world grow strangely dim.” But we must submit to this purging in our lives or we face the real danger of becoming quite comfortable in this world that is not our home. One way of noting if we have settled down in this life is to ask ourselves: how often do I long for my heavenly home? Or I can’t imagine living anywhere else than in this world, and heaven isn’t that appealing. Or what is my attitude towards the world? Do I go along to get along? Questions like these can be unsettling. I know they are to me, because they often show me where my heart really is at, and it is at those moments I must confess my wrong thinking and change my thinking and actions to line up with God’s word. 

We live in a battleground, all one has to do is look around at the decay of our society, our morals and our values to know a war is underway. We must have an understanding and conviction that lines up with the truth of God’s word if we are to navigate the bombed-out landscape that is our culture. “A right view of God and the world to come requires that we have also a right view of the world in which we live and our relation to it. So much depends upon this that we cannot afford to be careless about it.” – A.W. Tozer

It is no small thing that the theme of this year’s Mega Kids Camp was “Keepers of the Kingdom”, and in that theme a phrase that was often put to the children to recite was “decide your side”. There are two kingdoms at war: the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan, and the kingdom of light which the Creator God rules over. You are in one or the other, there is no neutrality. James puts it this way: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:1-4)  There are only two sides and we have to decide which one we are on. There is no middle ground; we can’t just “sit this one out.” We are involved whether we believe it or not, just like those in Stalingrad those many years ago.