A Fine Time and Christmas

Lucille picked a fine time to leave, skipping out on four hungry children, a husband, and don’t forget the crop in the field. But undoubtedly Kenny Rodgers had a fine time singing about it all the way to the bank.It seems when our kids were little they had a knack for picking a fine time to get sick, for having us make hospital runs in the middle of the night.Our cars also seem to be very adept in picking a fine time to break down, usually waiting until there is little money and some form of high stress.Like most kids, my brothers and I became very adept in figuring out when things around home qualified as a fine time or wrong time. But the thing about a dysfunctional home is that a fine time can blow up in your face any time.So much in life depends on figuring out the right time, and even more importantly responding right regardless of whether or not it is the right time, fine time, or outright wrong time.If you would have asked when to set up a Christmas tree before I came to the USA I would have told you, “Christmas Eve, of course!” One thing’s for sure, most stores seem to be utterly confused about the right time to put out the Christmas goods.Maybe this is a fine time to actually get to the point of this pastor’s note. Christmas is about the “right time,” “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, …” Galatians 4:4 (NLT).In fact all of Jesus Christ’s life, work, and even his death happened at the right time. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” Romans 5:6 (NIV).We have made Christmas into a fine time to go shopping, to give presents, to take time off and have a holiday. But for God Christmas is about redemption, hope, forgiveness, and salvation. Christmas is a fine time to unwrap the reality of Christ, the meaning of his incarnation, the depth of his love. As far as God is concerned, today is not only a fine time, but also the right time, to commit your life to Christ, to call on His name for the forgiveness of your sins, to receive His gift of salvation and eternal life, “God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation”. 2 Corinthians 6:2 (NLT).This 2012 Christmas season is indeed a fine time to embrace Jesus Christ, to make a new beginning with God, to return to living for God, to pray, "Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” Matthew 6:9-10 (NASB), and then live that prayer.It would make for a fine time Christmas.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans 

Wisdom and Horses

I have been encouraging you to become a person who consistently makes wise and godly decisions. So you might as well know that I am taking horse riding lessons. With our youngest daughter off to college we were left to take care of her horse, and I determined to become more than a ranch hand, or more precisely, someone who feeds and shovels. I have to admit I am a fairly accomplished horse feeder and pucky shovelor, but I know absolutely nothing about working with, training, and riding a horse. So I am paying Rhonda Dumolt for lessons to one day earn the right to wear Wranglers®, a big belt buckle, snazzy boots, and a Stetson® hat. I suppose those four are somewhat like a drivers license when it comes to horses.Yes, what you read above is correct, I am paying to learn something that will cause me to spend more money guaranteed. Just today, during lesson number two I found out that my work boots are not ideal (I told Susie it was a big mistake to sell my cowboy boots at a yard sale twenty years ago). Yes, I am paying to learn to control a beast that has serious potential to hurt me. In fact I have heard it is not a matter of if but simply when. Yes, I am paying for something that makes me feel like when I was sixteen and learning how to drive. Who knows, by the time I get the hang of this equine stuff my daughter’s horse will be so messed up I will have to pay a horses psychologist to straighten him out. And yes, I have put the horse magazines my daughter gets with my car/truck magazines next to the toilet. This past week I was tempted to enter a contest in “Young Rider”.Before I started this pastor’s note I looked up horses in the Bible hoping to make a super spiritual discovery that would directly relate to wise decision making and justify my horse adventure at the same time. Alas, the first scripture that mentions horses (Genesis 47:17) tells about the ancient Egyptians giving up their horses in exchange for food because they were starving.However, the last horse mentioned in God’s Word (Revelation 19:11-21) is a white horse ridden by the “King of kings and Lord of lords” – Jesus Christ himself, executing judgment, triumphing victoriously. And I was reminded that the wisest decision of all is to trust and believe in him both in this life and for eternity, because the day will come when “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:10-11 (NASB).How I encourage you to not be among those who simply horse around with the unshakeable and unchangeable truth of Jesus Christ, or even more sadly dismiss it as a bunch of religious horse pucky. It is the most unwise and foolish decision a person can make. Commit yourself to Jesus Christ today.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans

the look

The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, "Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times." Luke 22:61 (NASB) We’d all be in jail, if looks really could kill.If you want to be a good parent you have to be able to both recognize looks:“Don’t you give me that look young man!”“You had better not roll your eyes behind my back young lady!”“That’s about the daffiest face I have ever seen.”“I can tell you’re lying just by the look on your face!”“Those puppy eyes worked when you were three, what do you want.”“What’s with the sad face, what’s going on?”You also have to perfect your own “looks” as a parent. Your repertoire needs to include glares, stares, beams, as well as the looks of:“You’re in so much trouble, you don’t even know it!”“One more word and you’re grounded for life!”“I told you so.”“How could you?”“I’m so proud I think I’ll pop.”“That’s MY boy/girl!”Jesus had a lot of looks, looks of compassion, concern, grief, anger, peace. John 8 even records a non-look; it says something too, doesn’t it. One of Jesus’ looks has always fascinated and puzzled me. Peter, who had promised Jesus that he would die with Him if need be has just sworn up and down that he never knew Jesus. He has completely disavowed any association with Christ. What’s more is that Jesus had told him that he would do so before the roster would crow. Before the words of his last denial leave his lips a roster does crow, and at the very moment Jesus in His hand cuffs turns and looks across the courtyard. He looks Peter right in the eyes (Luke 22:54-62), He doesn’t speak a word, a look is all that’s needed. What look did Jesus give him? Wouldn’t you love to know? I sure would. This much I know, Jesus’ look didn’t keep Peter from repenting and returning. It also broke him. I think he remembered that one look for the rest of his life. He must have told Luke about it.I can’t prove it, but I think that look Jesus gave Peter, when Peter was at a minimum both scared and confused, reflected the depth of relationship Jesus seeks to have with you and me as well. Most people do not know God – Jesus like that, but gloriously He invites us to know Him like that. Do you?To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans     

... the power of the resurrection ...

“… the power of Jesus Christ’s resurrection …” (Philippians 3:10)Sooner than later everyone runs into it.The elderly gentleman whose path I crossed last week did. You could tell that he used to do most everything by himself. He used to repair his own vehicles. He built the barn behind his house. If the tree that had fallen on the side of house five years ago he would have cut it up himself. But now he could just watch and cheer me on. I thought, “Someday that could very well be me.”The young woman lying in the hospital bed did. Young and sick just don’t seem to go together, at least they shouldn’t. There she was hooked up to monitors and IV lines, at the mercy of the disease and the doctors and nurses trying to fight it. When I left I thought, “That could very well be me.”The parents who asked me to come over did. Their daughter is making bad decisions. She is on a straight path of ruining her life, hurting herself and others in the process. Mom and Dad are at their wits’ end. When I started my car I thought, “I have kids. That could very well be Susie and me.”The faces on the TV screen did. In a way they are almost interchangeable. This was a documentary about refugee camp that has become a place with no way out, but it could just as well have been a documentary of people caught in a deadly drought, or of a crime and drug infested neighborhood, or of victims of a natural disaster. I thought, “I am glad that’s not me,” but it very well could be.The family gathered around the bed did. The no longer conscious, shrunken shell of their Mom, Grandma, and sister was still breathing, barely. But it was just a matter of time. No one was going to stop the inevitable. We all wished it would come sooner than later. I couldn’t help but think, “One day this will be me.”The man in the casket suspended over his grave did. The Honor Guard had conducted their ceremony, fired the gun salute, and carefully folded the flag and presented it. I spoke the benediction. Mourners laid flowers on the casket. Then we stepped back and watched it disappear into the ground. As we were walking away the grave diggers started to cover the grave. I thought, “Whatever was left death took it. Took it from everyone laid to rest here, every last bit. It doesn’t matter whose marker I read, or how fancy the grave stone is, all here have been rendered powerless.”The feeling and the reality of powerlessness is as inescapable as it is dreaded. It diminishes us. It is both humbling and humiliating. Human dignity is lost. Fear and helplessness are its companions. It challenges the slightest glimmer of hope. And it doesn’t matter, in the end each one of us will lose the fight. Whatever power was ours it will not be buried with us under that last shovel of dirt.There is, however, a grave that has been gloriously empty for the past 2000 years. Not because someone has dug it up, or because tomb raiders invaded it. It is empty because who was laid there walked out. Evil, the brokenness of this world, Satan, sin and death all tried their best to render Jesus Christ powerless. All of them failed. He rose from the dead. He alone can help us escape the condemnation of sin and the curse and power of death. You and I can live and be buried in real hope if we trust in and live with Jesus Christ. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 (NASB) This Easter, if you have never done so, make a beginning with Jesus Christ – believe and follow.This Easter, remember that power of Jesus’ resurrection calls us more than comfortable holy huddles behind church walls, but to go where evil, sin, injustice, lostness, suffering, disease, fear, worry, darkness, hopelessness, powerlessness, and death prevails.Jesus is risen! Love you, Pastor Hans

We Are Not Rodents

August 8 2011It seems to be a prolific year for rodents. Mice, gophers, voles, moles, ground squirrels, and packrats must have had a convention of some kind and decided that our place is where they would like to move to. I feel like I am fighting a losing battle, these critters are relentless as well as destructive. And then I saw a trailer for a National Geographic special about some place where rats proliferate in some somewhere in a bamboo forest every so often and their population swells to ten thousand an acre – Yikes!The bad thing is that there is no reasoning with rodents, neither have they responded to my most ardent gospel presentations, not a single one has repented or changed. I suppose they really don’t have a need to, obviously things are going great for them as long as they can avoid my efforts to snuff them out.Sometimes people have the same mentality when it comes to God, “Why change things when everything is going great?” “Why mess things up with taking God serious when I am having the time of my life?” – Because you are not a rodent, here today and gone tomorrow. We are people, men and women created in God’s image (Genesis 5:1-2). We might be biologically similar to other living creatures but we are also fundamentally different, we share the very image of God, we are living souls, we will give account for the way we lived, the choices we’ve made, the gifts and talents entrusted to us, how we used our influence, power, and possessions, and how we have treated others. We will also be judged on how we responded to the truth, to Jesus Christ which will have eternal impact. Gophers and their kin have no such concerns. But don’t just simply take my words, read what Jesus said himself:“The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. I assure you: An hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted to the Son to have life in Himself. And He has granted Him the right to pass judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing on My own. I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 5:22-30 (HCSB)To God be all glory, love you, Pastor HansPS. I encourage you to read all of John 5, or go for broke and read all of John it will inform you as to who Jesus Christ really is.

Predicting Christ's Return

May 29 2011May 21st , 2011 came and went without any of Harold Camping’s rapturepredictions coming true. Now he has been wrong twice (he made same predictionfor 1994). He is one of many who have prophesied an exact date for the raptureor the end, and all of them have been wrong, just like any who will do so in thefuture will be wrong. The Word of God, the Bible is crystal clear when it comes toanyone purporting to know God’s timing:"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Matthew 24:36 (NIV)"You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect." Luke 12:40 (NASB)A true prophet of God who truly speaks for God bears an awesomeresponsibility, especially when it comes to predicting future events. In the fifthbook of the Bible, Deuteronomy, God speaks to this, “… any prophet who fakesit, who claims to speak in my name something I haven't commanded him tosay, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. You may bewondering among yourselves, ‘How can we tell the difference, whether it wasGOD who spoke or not?’ Here's how: If what the prophet spoke in GOD'sname doesn't happen, then obviously GOD wasn't behind it; the prophetmade it up. Forget about him.” Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (MSG)The New Testament does not uphold the standard of putting false prophetsto death, but the standard for discerning real prophets from false ones holds,there is no margin of error or revising things when they fail to come to pass. Atrue prophet, any spokesperson for God is never at liberty to just make it up. Allprophets and prophecies have to meet a twofold test, what is prophesied has tocome to pass and it cannot contradict what God has already clearly revealed in thescriptures.What is sad about men like Harold Camping is that they discredit not onlythemselves, but they deceive many who genuinely believe, and they become astumbling block to the lost (those who do not believe in Christ). However, as clearas Bible is in regard to anyone being able to predict the day and hour of Christ’sreturn it is equally clear about the certainty of His return and the judgment ofGod. Thus both Jesus and the Apostles continually warned and admonished to beprepared for both God’s judgment and Christ’s return.Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep(died), or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe thatJesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesusthose who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, wetell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord,will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himselfwill come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of thearchangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will risefirst. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up togetherwith them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with theLord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:6 (NIV, parenthesis mine)"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”John 14:1-6 (NIV)To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans