Connecting Points

Monday, October 11, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Enhancing Our Positions

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 22:15-16  This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace: What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?

Several years ago we outgrew our church facility. We are still cramped in there as we await God’s timing on a new building, but we made some changes back then that temporarily helped. The first thing we did was to rent additional office space and move our administrative offices out of the church. God directed us to a wonderful landlord who gave us an incredible deal on an office complex that not only serves as our administrative hub but also as our youth center.

There were decisions to be made when we moved into the building, not the least of which was who would get which office. The welcome area was sufficient for the office administrator, and there was one small office that was perfect for the part-time staff. But which of the two large offices would the two pastors get?

As Pastor Dennis and I surveyed the two rooms, there was discussion about the pros and cons of each. The larger office had two windows on the front corner of the building. But it was located down a narrow hall right across from the restrooms. The smaller office was on the other side of the wall from the restrooms and had only one window. It was located right off the coffee break area and next to the youth center. Decisions, decisions.

As we looked at the offices, I regretfully remember my pride filtering to the top of the logic column. I am the Lead Pastor. I deserve the best office. Which one is the nicest? Which one matches my status? I fought those urges to make a decision based on those things. In my heart I wanted what was best for everyone so they could serve effectively for the Lord. But how would we decide?

At the same time we were looking at the new offices, a businessman from our church came to me and said that his company had some desks and chairs to donate and wondered if we could use them. The desks we had were very old metal things that were functional but not very professional. I said yes. He had the desks and chairs delivered to the new location while the decorating team from the church freshened up the place with new paint and decorations.

When we saw the desks for the first time, we began to evaluate how they would fit into the offices. The desk designs actually made the decision about offices for us. The desk I needed for the work I do would only fit in one office. That would be mine. Pastor Dennis would get the other one with his new desk. He got the office with the view. I got the office with the sounds of the bathroom through the wall. The decorating team recognized the problem and had sound panels built that are beautiful. They even let me pick out the fabric, which is covered with deer. I love my office, and so does Dennis.

The connecting point I want you to see today is observed as we compare the story I just told with the one in Isaiah 22 above. Shebna, an Egyptian, had been appointed the chief steward of the palace under the reign of King Hezekiah. He had high ambitions. He decided to make a name for himself and promote himself. He decided that his position in the King’s palace was worthy of special recognition – historical recognition. So he had a tomb built for himself in the palace of the King. He wanted to be remembered and figured the best way to do that was to be buried with royalty. He was all about enhancing his own position.

What a contrast to the story of Joseph in Genesis, who as a Jew served in the palace of the Egyptian King, yet never sought to enhance his own position. He even went to prison to maintain his integrity. But not Shebna. He was all about self-exhaltation. But God saw his attempts at honoring himself and declared that it would end in humiliation. And it did. A short time later he was demoted to a secretary and replaced by Eliakim who served humbly as a follower of God.

We are all tempted to promote self. We are all urged by our fleshly desires to enhance our position in the eyes of people. We all struggle with pride that drives us to make decision based on the benefits it will bring to us and the enhancement of our image. But we must fight those desires and be humble before God, considering others better than ourselves. Jesus said, “If any one of you wants to be first in the Kingdom of God, he must first become the servant of all.” After all, if we truly believe that in Christ our position has been fully established, then what else is there to enhance?

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, October 11, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Defending Our Positions

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 22:13  But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”

I try to avoid it. I intentionally stay away from it. I have found other things to meet my need for information without turning to it. I’m talking about the national media. I made the mistake of watching a little of it this morning and now I regret it. It made me angry because there is no honor any more, and there certainly is no moral compass.

Day after day we are bombarded with news that is intentionally slanted to promote man’s agenda over God’s authority. Then on top of it our intelligence is attacked by the preposterous political ads that dominate the airwaves. I am once again so very thankful that God is in control no matter how much man thinks he is and attempts to prove he’s worthy to be. Praise be to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you with great joy and without fault before His glorious presence – to the only God our Savior be glory and majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! AMEN! (Jude 24-25)

As I read through the book of Isaiah, I can almost begin to feel about it the way I do about the media. Here we are in the twenty-second chapter already and the news is still gloom and doom: chapter after chapter of man’s rebellion against God and His coming judgment of their sin. But with careful reading there are great truths to be discovered that can help us in our daily lives. Let me share one with you from today’s passage.

This chapter is a prophecy about the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. It would take place in 586 B.C., some 125 years after Isaiah wrote it. I want you to notice these points about what is written:

• Isaiah is heartbroken over the sin of the people and the knowledge that God has every right and intention to discipline them. In verse four he writes, Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.” My first response to the tragedy of sin in people’s lives must be one of grief rather than anger. Anger in this case is prideful, plain and simple. When we respond with anger at another person’s sin we are essentially judging them to our own prideful advantage. Think about that carefully. There is a place for anger against sin, but not until we have sufficiently wept over their Christ-less condition that has caused it.
• The people who are sinning are doing everything they can to defend their situation so they can continue in it. Here’s how the siege of Jerusalem is described:
  • The Babylonians have surrounded them.
  • Their choicest valleys are filled with chariots of the enemy.
  • The cavalry is at the gates of the city.
  • The defenses of the city have been destroyed.
  • There are breaches in the walls.

The response of the people is interesting. They are destroying anything and everything they had built in the city to reinforce the walls. They are doing everything they can to protect the lifestyle they love. But that is not the response God wanted from them. He did not ask them to defend the city – it was futile for them to attempt it because He had brought it upon them as a consequence of their sin. There was only one way they could avoid the punishment – repentance. God’s message to them was clear. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But they only wanted to protect the little world they had built for their own enjoyment. I see that played out every day in the media and in the lives of people all around me. They do everything they can to defend their positions so they can enjoy their lifestyles. Now they have turned to attacking anyone who speaks out against what they are doing. We truly are living in the last days when the messengers of truth from Jesus Christ will be persecuted as people defend their ungodly positions.

• But the people do not repent. Instead they plan one final party to satisfy the desires of their flesh. But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”  They had a chance to turn from their wicked ways and surrender to God in brokenness and humility. Instead they chose to pursue their passions one last time. When they do, they seal their fate. God says, “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for.” How sad. There is a point in man’s rejection of God when God declares them to be eternally rejected by Him. They have refused to surrender to the call of the Holy Spirit for forgiveness, and for this they cannot be forgiven.

My friends, this is the culture in which we live today. But beware lest you think it is only “them” who are doing it. Let’s all check our lives as well and make sure we are not defending any positions in our lives that are not of God. Let us be holy and blameless before Him at His appearing, which I believe is coming soon.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Volunteering for Humiliation Detail

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 20:2  –at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

I want to continue the thoughts we started yesterday. As we read on in the 20^th chapter of Isaiah we discover that the humiliation the prophet must have felt was not a short-term thing. In fact, it lasted for three years (see verse 3). What faith in God Isaiah had! He obeyed for three years before God revealed the purpose for his suffering.

Yesterday I asked several people this question – “What would be the most humiliating thing that could happen to you?” I answered my own question first and told them about the occasional dream I have of forgetting to get dressed before going onto the platform of our church to preach. That loosened them up so they would share.

One person said they would be humiliated by losing control of their finances and having to file bankruptcy. Another said they would not want to be accused of a sexual sin and have it made public. Another responded with a fear of developing Tourette’s Syndrome. One person said they didn’t want to experience the humiliation of a public reprimand by their boss at work. Everyone I asked had a fear of humiliation of some form.

Every one of those fears was motivated by a need to protect the perception of other people’s opinion of them. The need for acceptance and approval goes much deeper than we realize, and we may be in denial about how many of our behaviors and activities are the product of those two needs.

As I thought about this yesterday and last night, I realized that we probably have far greater faith in our own ability to accomplish acceptance and approval than we do in God’s ability to keep us safe in the palm of His hand. We place far more emphasis on the avoidance of pain in the immediate than we do on the elimination of pain in God’s eternal glory. We focus intently on trying to make life comfortable today when God has told us that the sufferings of today are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us when Jesus appears.

What do we not believe about that? Do we doubt that the glory of God will sufficiently remove any and all memories of past sufferings? Do we not understand that God is telling us that we must suffer in this life as His followers? In fact, we cannot experience the fullness of God’s power in our lives unless we are willing to suffer as Jesus did. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. (Philippians 3:10)

I must spend more time evaluating the everyday experiences of life. The odds of me forgetting to get dressed on a Sunday morning are pretty slim. But the reality is that there are days when I forget – no, I choose intentionally for the purpose of self-preservation – to not get dressed in the clothing of righteousness. There are far too many steps taken in life without the protection of the armor of God. In an effort to avoid shame directed at us by people, we choose to be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So think about the simple activities of your life. How many of them are controlled by your need for immediate gratification? How many are chosen because they produce an immediate response of acceptance from others? How many of those same choices and activities are a direct denial of the faith you claim to have in Jesus?

Ponder that today, and then choose to do whatever Jesus asks you to do, no matter how publicly demeaning it is, because you know your life is a light of God’s glory and not a sponge to absorb your own.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Humiliation

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 20:2  –at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

I had just finished playing an 8^th grade basketball game. The rest of the members of the team and I were sitting in the bleachers watching the 9^th grade game. The cheerleaders for our grade came up the bleachers and sat with us. I was so nervous. I had my eye on one of them, and I was terrified when she came and sat down beside me. I had never been that close to someone that cute. I was being prepared for the day I would meet the most beautiful of all women and marry her.

As we sat in the bleachers, doing the typical 8^th grade flirting, the conversation turned to knee pads. Back in those days, it was cool to wear one knee pad when you played basketball. It was a symbol of your aggressiveness and your ability to play through pain. Well, I had injured both knees. I had a bone chip right below the knee cap on one, and the other one was bruised from a collision. I needed both of them, but I was the only one who wore two.

Before I go on, I want you to get a visual image of what I looked like back then. I’d send a picture if I had one. I’m sure my wife will think it’s funny to find one and post it to her Facebook page. In 8^th grade I was the same height I am now – 5’ 11”. But I only weighed 125 pounds. I was so very skinny. I ate more than I do now, as hard to believe as that is, and I never gained weight.  My most prominent feature was my proboscis. I was nicknamed “Trumpet” in college. I was strong, but didn’t look it, and to an 8^th grade boy, appearance equaled value. As a result I was very insecure.

So here we are, all of my basketball buddies and the cheerleaders, sitting in the stands, when during the conversation about kneepads the girl I liked turned to me and said, “So John, why do you wear two kneepads? Is it because your legs are so weak?”

Total humiliation.

I got up and left the gym, and I don’t think I ever talked to that girl again.

I’m sure you have a story or two of humiliation in your past as well. It’s not fun. We would never choose it intentionally…or would we. Isaiah did. He so completely trusted the Word of the Lord and the Heart of his God that he publicly humiliated himself for three years so that the message of God could be delivered. That’s amazing.

So much of our time and energy is spent on creating good public image. Nowhere in public policy is the option of exaltation by process of humiliation. But that is God’s policy. We want others to see us, when God wants others to see Him in us. If anyone wants to be exalted, they must first be completely humbled. It’s how God works. The problem is we think so highly of ourselves that we would never consider hurting ourselves. But we have been deceived into thinking that we are hurting ourselves. All we are hurting is other people’s opinions of us, and of what value are they? Isn’t God’s opinion of us sufficient? Don’t we realize that while we work so hard to enhance our exterior to maintain our earthly relationships, we are hurting the one relationship that really matters – the one with God? He is offended by our pride.

I don’t know how I would respond if God asked me to do something as humiliating as He asked of Isaiah. The fact that I don’t know means it will probably happen, because it’s obvious that God still has to humble me. How about you? Are you ready to trust God completely and not worry about what man says?

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, October 04, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Someday!

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 19:19  In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border.

Someday. We use that term in a variety of ways. Someday I’m gonna get around to that. Someday it will turn around for me. Someday they will get what they have coming to them. Someday I’ll be able to retire. I’m sure there are literally hundreds of other applications of the word someday. But there is a someday coming that will be like no other day. It will be some day!

Attention is drawn to that someday over 100 times in the Old Testament. Generally it is referred to as that day. And what a day it will be!

The first third of the book of Isaiah closes with several chapters of oracles against certain countries and peoples of the world who have rejected God and followed the ways of the flesh. Chapter nineteen deals with the nation of Egypt. There are prophetic warnings about their sin and there is also prophetic attention drawn to the someday that is coming. There are six specific things God will do in that day:

• In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them. (Isaiah 19:16)  There is a day coming when all the sins of the nations will be judged and punished, and it will be a terrifying day.
• In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. (19:18) In that day the culture will be influenced by the people of God, rather than the culture attempting to eliminate the influence of God’s people.
• In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border. (19:19) Just think – when Jesus comes in that day, the nations of the world will be politically and socially centered on Jesus Christ. Anyone who enters at the border will have their attention drawn to the Lord, and anyone who lives there will be under the authority of the Lord.
• So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them. (19:21) In that day there will be far more than just political allegiance to the Lord. There will be worship. The people will not be captives in their own land forced to follow an unwelcome conqueror. They will be in love with the Lord who set them free from the tyranny of sin. They will worship Him.
• In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. (19:23) In that day there the Lord will bring reconciliation between enemies. Nations and people will be brought together in the love of God and will worship the One True Living God, Jesus Christ. They will cooperate politically and socially, and there will be an end to all war.
• In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.   The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” (19:24-25) There will no longer be any aggression towards God’s chosen people Israel. All of Israel’s enemies will surrender to the power and authority of Jesus Christ and He will unite them as one. He will call those who are not Jews His people. He will reveal how He has been working in and through His enemies to fulfill His handiwork. He will affirm Israel as the people of promise and bring all the nations into His inheritance.

Someday! Let that day come soon!

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, October 04, 2010

Today’s Topic:  You are the Church

Today’s Text:  Revelation 1:12-14  “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

One of the devotional resources I use to stay spiritually sharp is a weekly article from James MacDonald at www.walkintheword.com. Today’s article really made me think, so I’m going to pass it along to you.

What do you think Jesus Christ thinks of your church?

You are probably thinking, “Well, I really like my church.”

Trust me on this: His standards are a little higher than ours. But you do want your church to be pleasing to the Lord, don’t you? That’s so much the focus of my passion when it comes to the church I pastor. But, of course we come quickly to the understanding that we can’t easily change our church. We can’t fix the things that we wish were different. The main thing you and I can focus on is us. That’s why we need to keep asking, What kind of church am I?

What kind of church am I? That’s something I can work on. What if everyone prayed like me? What if everyone gave or served like me? What if everyone spoke like me? Would a congregation full of people just like me be everything God wants the church to be? What kind of church am I? Paul describes each of us in 1 Corinthians 6:19 as “a temple of the Holy Spirit,” so the question is valid.

The way Jesus talked to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2 gives us two huge questions we can ask ourselves when we want to check what kind of church we are. The first question is, Am I fired up about the truth? That is how Jesus evaluates His church. Am I passionate about knowing and obeying the truth?

The second question we must ask is, Have I fallen away from my first love? Christ holds this against us, not in terms of salvation, but in terms of our relationship with our Savior. Do you have a loveless orthodoxy? Do you believe right things but lack passion? Were there times when your life was more righteous? Were there times when your sacrifice for the kingdom of God was more obvious? Have you gotten too comfortable? Have you returned to selfish patterns? If so, now what should you do?

The words remember, repent, and re-engage summarize Christ’s instruction (see Revelation 2:5). Jesus’ loving words to the Ephesian believers is His Word to each of us.

Remember, repent, and re-engage. Let those words work on your heart today.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Define Christian Please.

Today’s Text:  John 3:3  In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 

Let me begin with a statement of praise – God is in control no matter how bad it looks.

The rest of this devotional, no matter how long it takes you to absorb it, is critical and essential. Please take the time to take it all in.

This year’s adventure in democracy leading up to an election is bad. It’s horrible. The verbal bashing of another human being that is justified by one’s own pursuit of power is offensive and downright sinful. But God is in control.

One area that particularly insults me is the free use of the word Christian by people describing themselves as the attempt to snuggle up to potential voters. I must be careful, because I would not in any way assume the right or insight to be able to know the true condition of their heart. But there are some facts about being a follower of Christ that are taught clearly in Scripture, and we can use those truths to determine the reality of a person’s statements.

First, no one can claim qualification for entrance into eternal life with God the Father unless they have come through Jesus Christ. John 14:6 – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Christianity is not one of the ways to heaven, it is the only way. Any reference to revering other religions as equal options is ultimately authored by Satan himself.

Second, it is imperative to know who Jesus is. What value is faith in anything or anyone that is not worthy of faith? Secular culture has minimized Jesus to something only slightly higher than man, when in reality He is God Almighty, equal in every way with the Father. Yet through His incarnation, Jesus became God in the flesh, dwelling on earth as both God and man in their absolute fullness at once. The person who claims to be a Christian and yet denies that Jesus is the One and Only God-Man is not speaking under the influence of the Spirit of God and is under the control of Satan. First John 4:2-3 says, This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,   but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Third, anyone who uses the word Christian to define their “religious” affiliation must be able to speak clearly and truthfully about the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. They must be able to clearly, and I might add boldly without fear of personal or political ramifications, proclaim these truths and state their unconditional belief in them:

• All people are guilty of sin before God and deserving of death by nature from the moment of their conception – Psalm 51:5 – Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Romans 3:23 – All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23 – The wages of sin is death…
• Jesus Christ, who knew no sin and was never guilty of sin, became our sin for us and died on the cross to pay God’s judgment of death on our behalf.  Second Corinthians 5:21 – God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Hebrews 9:26 – But now Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 
• Jesus rose from the dead to conquer death forever for all who believe on Him. First Corinthians 15:19-22 – If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.   But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.   For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.   For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Second Corinthians 4:13-14 – It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,   because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 
• All who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will be transformed and no longer live according to the principles of this world. Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Second Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Colossians 2:8-10 – See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. Colossians 3:1-3 –  Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 

Only if all these things are true in one’s life can they be called a Christian. Please do not be deceived by the improper use of the term “Christian” by so many today. Make sure you know what they believe and that their life and political positions reflect the truth of God’s Word.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Whose Plans Are They?

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 17:10-11  You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines,  though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.

Parts of my garden this year were a disappointment. I had the best tomato plant ever, and the green peppers were good, and the potatoes are bountiful, but there were some things that were terrible. The beans were a bust. The peas were pathetic. And the zucchini were literally squashed. I had the biggest zucchini plants ever and they bloomed profusely, but only one out of every twenty blooms produced a fruit. I miss my stir fried zucchini.

As I reflect on what went wrong, I am stumped. I prepared the soil. It is very fertile, made from compost. Maybe it’s too fertile and is just producing top growth – I don’t know. I planted in the right places. There was plenty of rain this summer. What went wrong? How come we can do everything right and still not get blessed with a bountiful harvest?

That last question applies to more than just gardens. It teaches us an eternal principle that God wants us to know. Here it is – Our plans and preparations are meaningless and unproductive unless God is our priority.

Argue that in your mind and with others all you want, but the truth is unless we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and building our lives on the Solid Rock, everything we do will ultimately fail and be destroyed. It doesn’t matter how technologically advanced we become. It doesn’t help that we do all the scientific research to increase productivity. It makes absolutely no difference that we have all the administrative and organizational skills to plan for every possible contingency. If your life isn’t centered on Jesus Christ, and if your hope and strength aren’t in Him alone, all you are doing is feeding futility.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in the little book of Hosea. It says, Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.

So get out your spiritual roto-tiller (some of us might need roto-rooters), dig up the hard ground of your heart, and plant the seeds of his productive priorities. When you do, the harvest is guaranteed.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Today’s Topic:  What Are You Looking At?

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 17:7-8  In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.

I have a hard time imagining life back in the days of the early church. There’s no way we can really relate to what it must have been like 1,960 years ago. At least from a lifestyle argument this is true. But it is not true from a faith or philosophical view. The same beliefs that exist today in people’s hearts and minds were prominent back then as well. People’s thinking has not changed. Culture may have changed, and technology has certainly changed, but the heart of man has not.

Around the year 90 A.D., when the apostle John was exiled to the Island of Patmos, Greek philosophers abounded throughout the Roman Empire. They attempted to do what philosophers and scientists today attempt to do – explain life without recognizing the existence of God. One such philosopher was named Epictetus.

To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control, so we should accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. As individuals, however, we are responsible for our own actions, which we must examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.

This philosophy is not much different than the humanistic philosophy of today. Man has not changed his thinking. Under the power of sin, man still thinks he can control his actions so that they produce good. People still believe that through self-discipline and self-affirmation they can produce their own happiness. How wrong they are!

Epictetus was convinced that attitude and perspective were the keys to managing the problems of life. He wrote, It isn’t your problems that are bothering you. It is the way you are looking at them. He was partially right. His problem was that he taught that we needed to look at our problems through the eyes of fate and human ability, rather than through the eyes of God and His Sovereign control of all things.

That’s what God was trying to tell the people of the world through the mouth of Isaiah the prophet. Chapter after chapter come warnings to nations and people about the consequences of not looking at life through from God’s perspective. In chapter 17, the people of Damascus are told about what will happen to all their hard work that has been done only by looking to man’s ability – it will be obliterated. When it is, then they will finally turn their eyes back to the Lord.

Look carefully at today’s Scripture verse. In the past the people of Damascus had their eyes wrongly focused on three things – religion (the altars), work, and pleasure (Asherah poles, representing the sexual focus of their culture under the false worship of the goddess Asherah). Everything they did in life was motivated by the pursuit of one of these things. They sought to find some kind of peace through a religious experience; they sought to find some kind of worth through the work they accomplished; and they sought to find an escape from the troubles of life through pleasure.

Man has not changed. We still look to these three things to fulfill the deepest longings of our hearts. It is only after we suffer, sometimes severely, the consequences of looking to these things that we finally turn and look to our Maker who knows how to satisfy our every need from the inside out.

So what are you looking at? Is it the things of the earth, or the things of God? But even looking at the things of God is not sufficient. Look to God Himself. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

Pastor John

Connecting Points

Monday, September 27, 2010

Today’s Topic:  Where’s the Joy?

Today’s Text:  Isaiah 16:9  The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit and over your harvests have been stilled.  Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the presses, for I have put an end to the shouting.

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day, and this week promises the same kind of weather. There will be time this week to harvest the rest of the garden, winterize the camper, clean the garage for the winter storage season, mow the lawn, and maybe, just maybe, play some golf.

However, I wonder why I am so satisfied to sit and do nothing when there is so much to be done. There are days when I wonder why life is so mundane. Why do the things that used to bring joy seem simply average and at times even meaningless?

At first I chalked it up to old age and tiredness. But then I read this verse this morning. In context, Isaiah is writing about the nation of Moab, but in application he writes about me…and you.

The more the Moabites became comfortable and proud of their position, the less they depended upon God. They had not yet learned that joy comes only from the Lord. It is a fruit of the Spirit of God abiding within us. It can only be experienced if the Holy Spirit is filling us. He cannot fill us if we are filled with ourselves. So the loss of joy is the direct result of the choice we make to focus on self.

OUCH!

But I needed that ouch. You may have also needed it. Take some time, as I will today, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the parts of your life and heart where He is not involved, or where His involvement is being restricted by your self-involvement. Then repent of those things and invite Him to fill you. The Joy of the Lord will return and you will be strong again.

Pastor John