What a statement of faith for all of us to be able to make – God, whatever comes my way, I will trust you. Meditate on the truth of God’s sovereignty today until it overwhelms you and conquers your fears and doubts.

Connecting Points

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Today’s Topic: Sealed Forever

Today’s Text:  Ephesians 1:13 (ESV) ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit…

I’m completely serious when I say to you that I don’t have much to say. Hard to believe, right? But it’s true.

I have this one thing on my heart today as a gift from God – I’m sealed by the Holy Spirit as a child of God forever!

It cannot be undone by circumstances, tragedies, loss, or even my daily diversions into prideful sin.

At the moment I heard the word of truth, the Gospel of my salvation, and believed in Jesus Christ as my Savior, I was sealed. It didn’t happen later after I earned it or prayed for it, but right away, as a gift of God’s grace and love and the fulfillment of Christ’s promise. The instant I believed in Jesus according to the word of truth, I was born again by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, baptized by Him into the family of God, empowered by Him with gifts for serving Jesus and His church, and I became His dwelling place.

The same is true for you if you believe in the One who died for your sin and rose from the dead.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Friday, April 05, 2013

Today’s Topic: Living Water

Today’s Text:  John 7:37-39 (ESV)  On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” ³⁹ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The warm temperatures are accomplishing what we all in the north have longed for – the melting of the snow. All over the landscape there are streams of water flowing, reviving childhood memories of rubber boots and little toy boats. In some places the rushing water is causing problems, flooding people’s houses and garages because the natural flow of the water is being diverted by stubborn ice and snow banks. But one thing is certain – unless contained water always seeks equilibrium: it always flows downhill and fills every hole until it establishes balance.

When Jesus ascended into heaven following His resurrection, He left His disciples with a promise –
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7) Jesus had previously used the analogy of water to describe the coming of the Helper, the Holy Spirit in John chapter 7. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” ³⁹ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, a flow of living water began.

Using my analogy of the snow melting, let me point out some practical truths for us today.

• Living Water always flows downhill. The Holy Spirit of God comes from above. He does not flow up from the earth, but down from the throne of God. Do not seek fullness of life from the world, but from the Word.
• Living Water can be contained. Our bodies are designed as cisterns to hold the Living Water, but we must maintain the integrity of the vessel. Jeremiah the Prophet proclaims the word of the Lord – for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13) The Apostle Paul calls us “temples” in 1 Corinthians 6:19 –  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
• The Living Water fills all the holes of our lives. Given freedom to flow with no diversions, the Living Water will seek equilibrium. By its very nature it must fill in every low spot and create a perfectly smooth and balanced surface. The result of being filled with the Holy Spirit is an abundant life of balance, satisfaction, and contentment.
• The flow of Living Water can be diverted by stubborn sin that refuses to be melted away by the warmth of God’s love. The Water is diverted by ice jams and snow banks of sin that formed when we didn’t properly remove the sin as it began to pile up. Now those snow banks of sin are so large and solidified that they cannot be easily moved. The flow of water is diverted and does damage to our lives – not destructive damage, but disciplinary damage, to teach us to remove sin quickly so the Living Water can flow beneficially and productively into our lives.
• Unrestricted flow of Living Water will always overwhelm the limitations of its container and overflow to the low spots around it. Our hearts have a capacity limit, and when filled with Living Water there can be only one result – the Living Water will flow out of us onto others. We are surrounded by people with holes and low spots in their lives. We are to be the unbroken cisterns that not only hold water, but remain under the constant downhill flow of Living Water so that it flows out of us into their lives, thus bringing the healing power of Jesus to restore the broken cisterns of their lives.

May these simple truths become profoundly significant to our lives today as we seek to obey the Lord and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Connecting Points

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Today’s Topic: The Quality that Counts

Today’s Text:  Genesis 41:38 (ESV)  And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?”

I cannot find an appropriate metaphor for how I feel this morning. Maybe you can help. How would you finish this sentence? It has been three weeks since I last sat at my computer to spend time writing, and it feels like…

Here are some of my attempts:

• …picking up my golf clubs after the longest winter ever.
• …trying to play my trombone after 25 years of inactivity.
• …running up and down the basketball court trying to be competitive with the young men of our church in our new gym.

Yet as I sit here, I realize the best metaphor is the one about never forgetting how to ride a bike.

I’ve been praying about what to study in my own life as the foundation for these Connecting Points, and the Lord has led me to the longest story in the book of Genesis. If you guessed Abraham you would be incorrect. The story of his great-grandson Joseph is longer. Not that it really matters from a spiritual perspective, but it is a story that has always fascinated me, and a story from which we can learn incredible truths about suffering, character, and wisdom.

The story begins in Genesis chapter 37, and concludes at the very end of the book. I would encourage you to take time to read it this month, maybe more than once, and follow along on the adventures of a young man who grew to be a powerful leader in spite of tragic circumstances.

The key to Joseph’s life is found in a question that was posed by Pharaoh to his officials following a dream that he had. Joseph has already spent an extended period of time unjustly confined to a prison cell and rudely forgotten by people whom he had helped and served. Yet by the grace and power of God, Joseph was able to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and be restored to a position of authority.

The question Pharaoh asked was this – “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?”

Now consider this carefully. Pharaoh was a pagan ruler who worshipped idols. Throughout his reign as Egypt’s ruler he has chosen men for leadership based on all the natural characteristics of strength and authority promoted by his culture. Yet when confronted with the humble heart of a young man whom he had previously confined to prison, he could speak no higher praise than to say that he saw the Spirit of God in him.

That must be our foundation for this study, and it must be the foundation of our lives, for we are nothing if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit of God. All our personality traits, all our training, all our efforts, and all our accomplishments are meaningless unless they have been done in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the one and only quality of our lives that really counts.

Therefore, we must spend some time understanding what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Otherwise all of the other things we will learn from the life of Joseph will be nothing more than our attempts to learn behaviors that will hopefully bring us some measure of success and blessing. Without the Spirit of God everything we do is done in the strength of man and results only in the outcomes man can produce. But contrast that with what happens when we live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Look at what Joseph was able to endure and accomplish. Look at what the disciples did following Pentecost. Look at what the Apostle Paul did. Look at how all of their lives endured hardship, persecution and even death at the hands of God’s enemies, and yet they accomplished the glorious and eternal purpose of their Savior.

Why? Because they were filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Pharaoh saw it in Joseph even before the Holy Spirit was given as the permanent resident of our lives. The religious leaders of the New Testament saw it in Peter and James and John. But the living testimonies of the power of the Holy Spirit did not end with them. They must continue in us.

So when the world takes notice of you: when you are commended or recommended for advancement in your career, is it because of what you have done or because what you have done is a result of the Holy Spirit of God at work in you? Let the world rise up and take notice of the followers of Jesus, because no matter what injustice, hardship, tragedy, or persecution comes our way, they will be forced to give us the highest praise possible – “The Spirit of God is in them.”

Pastor John