In Everything Give Thanks - Being Better Than My Google Nest

“Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

As I was finishing a phone call, telling my youngest daughter, “I love you the most,” the Google Nest box on our kitchen counter informed me, “Thanks, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever told me.” Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. I used to have to be careful about what I said around my children, but now I have worry about what Hey-Google hears. On the other hand, even that soulless piece of electronics can recognize good coming from my mouth and express gratefulness for it.

Did you notice? Gratefulness, a thankful attitude, and thanking God is God’s will for you and me. He wants you and me, commands us, to be constant thanksgivers. He wants us to be good at noticing and responding to life with joy, prayer, and gratefulness, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT2).

I don’t know who programmed the Google Box on our counter, or who keeps updating it, but I do know that the Holy Spirit is trying to reprogram every believer into a genuinely joyful, prayerful, and thankful individual; into someone who is really good at recognizing every blessing and connecting the dots of God’s marvelous workings woven throughout our lives and circumstances.

People often ask me to pray for them in regard to figuring out God’s will for their lives, well here is some very clear instruction as to being in and living out God’s will. I am confident you and I will have a much easier time discerning God’s will if we obey God regarding continual joyfulness, prayer, and thanksgiving.

Why in the world would we not want to be grateful? Why pull up short when it comes to giving thanks to God? Thankful people, those who continually give God thanks process life differently. I can tell this, it is a lot more pleasant, a lot more fun to be around grateful folks than a bunch of entitled, whining, complaining, joy-sucking, downer, ingrates (not that you would know anything about that). Heck, I am positive you and I can be better thanksgivers than a Google Nest.

“In everything.” That’s the hard part because it is easy enough to give God thanks in some things, like when your wife just had a baby and they are both well. But “in everything” includes well – everything, like the low points, the bitter moments, the perplexing situations, the seasons of pain, the unfair and unjust, the gut-wrenching, the darkness of grief, the cries of “WHY!?” the inexplicable, and evil. Why would God tell us to be thankful there? Maybe because that is where and when we need gratefulness the most? Maybe because that is where thankfulness keeps us from becoming twisted, from becoming “overcome by evil?” Maybe because that’s when we need to see and process our world and circumstances with different eyes and a different attitude more than ever? Maybe because that is where character and godliness are forged? Maybe because it helps us, though might we feel like our light is flickering, to shine the brightest in the darkest? Maybe because we get to depend on the goodness and faithfulness of God and be amazed and awed by Him over and over again?

I confess, I don’t fully understand this command to give God thanks in everything, to be a grateful soul no matter what, but do know from experience that I am much better off obeying it, and I thank God for teaching me that.

To God be all glory and thanks.

Love you, Pastor Hans

Life's Three Most Important Books

By this time next week (as of this writing it is Thursday, October 28) the 2020 presidential election will be in the books, thankfully and hopefully.

When you get to the end of The Book, God’s Book, the Bible, you come to the two most important books regarding each one of us, “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death” Revelation 20:11-14 (NLT2).

“The books,” are the complete, uncensored, record of each one of our lives. All we did and didn’t do that we should have done can be found in each one of our books. Every action, every thought, every word, every decision, every intent, and every motive, it’s all there in each one of our books. Every single sin of both commission and omission impartially recorded. No room to wiggle, dodge, point fingers, and make excuses. Nothing but full exposure, the naked truth about each one of us.

“The books” will clearly and incontrovertibly evidence what God’s Book, the Bible, has testified for thousands of years, namely, that we are sinners, each one of us, “ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” Romans 3:23 (NLT2); 

“Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?’” Proverbs 20:9 (NIV);

“If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God” 1 John 1:10 (MSG). It is what is in each one of our books that will condemn us, not God the righteous judge.

Did you notice that no one escapes the final judgement of God, everyone who ever lived will be summoned and will appear. Secondly, no one survives God judgment on what is found in our books, our own full record. Each one of us will be found guilty, suffer the “second death,” eternal damnation in the “lake of fire,” or in plain English, go to hell. - Except.

Except, if your name is found in the “the book of life” the most important book of them all. It is also called “the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 13:8), “Lamb” being a synonym for Jesus Christ, and shorthand for sacrificial lamb. When the prophet John the Baptist’s saw Jesus, the first words out of his mouth were, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29 (NIV). Jesus died for the whole world, including you and me, but as the “great white throne” passage above makes clear, our names are not automatically written in Jesus book of life. It is only when we believe in Him, when we call on His name to save us, that His righteousness is transferred  (imputed) to us, our sin debt is paid for by Him, we receive mercy instead of condemnation, and our names are written in “the book of life.  “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.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (from eternal judgment)” Romans 10:9-10 (NIV, parenthesis mine).

Like the 2020 election, eventuality your entire life will also be in the books, over and done. Until then the three most important books in your library are the Bible, the book of your life, and Jesus book of life. Built the one in the middle around the other two, and hell can’t have you and heaven will welcome you.

To God be all glory.

Love you, Pastor Hans

Love Your Neighbor - Vote!

VOTE!

If you love your neighbor - you will vote because you care about what is best for our country, our state, our community, and your neighbor, regardless of where s/he stands politically.

If you love your neighbor - you will not shirk your responsibilities that affect your neighbor and neighborhood. You will value your responsibilities, opportunities, and involvement because they stretch you to know and serve your neighbor, and love won’t thrive where we do not know and serve each other.

If you love your neighbor - you will not just cast a ballot when an election comes around, but you will vote daily with your words and actions. You will vote against hate, injustice, greed, irresponsibility, self-centeredness, and wrong of every kind; you will vote for civility, integrity, kindness, mercy, responsibility, generosity, selflessness, and goodness.

If you love your neighbor - you care about them the way Jesus Christ/God cares about them, which means you won’t like or approve of everything your neighbor says or does, nor will you save them from all the consequences of their choices. But you will be hopeful and merciful for them as long as they have breath.

If you love your neighbor - the way Jesus/God commands you to love your neighbor - you will soon discover that you need God’s help because it is a difficult thing to do, and you will come to know your need for God’s forgiveness because not loving your neighbor is sinful.

If you love your neighbor - you will not just care about the voting records of those in office, but also your own, not just on November 3rd, but every single day.

So, vote, vote for your neighbor’s sake!

To God be all glory, Pastor Hans

The Cross of Christ - Life's Most Important Intersection

Next time you go for a drive, count how many intersections you have to navigate. It makes a difference which way you turn at each one, take a wrong turn and your GPS voice will immediately tell you to turn around, ignore the voice and it might take you some time to get back on route, take several wrong turns and you might end up totally lost.

Life is replete with intersections. Every election is an intersection, and it makes a difference which way we turn. Every decision, great or small, is an intersection and will determine how we spend your lives and where we end up. Every temptation is an intersection, deliberately designed for us to take a wrong turn. Every opportunity is an intersection trying to help us live better lives.

Some intersections are confusing. Just for fun google the Arc de Triomphe (12 turn-offs) or the Swindon (5 in 1) roundabouts; talk about confusing and overwhelming, you could be circling for a good long time before figuring out how to navigate through them. Just like real life, aren’t they, so many directions and decisions, so many other cars on the road complicating things, so many possibilities, so many lanes, so many wrong turns.

The most important intersection in all human history, and in each one of our lives personally, is the Cross of Christ. Strange, isn’t it, that the very symbol associated with Jesus Christ is a cross, an intersection, horizontal/vertical intersection.

• It is heaven and earth intersecting.

• It is the God and man intersection. Not as a theoretical or theological construct, but real God, in real flesh, in real time, among real people, with a real name – Jesus Christ.

• It is where sin (yours and mine) crucified the righteousness of God.

• Eternal life and death crossed paths on Jesus’ cross.

• The rejection of God and redemption of God crossed at Calvary/Golgatha (the place Jesus was crucified).

• Politics and God’s eternal purposes and plans ran into each other at the cross of Jesus.

• Evil and hate battled love mercy and grace at the cross.

• The powers of man, sin and death, the devil, and of God intersected on the cross of Jesus.

• At the cross, the justice of God and the injustice of man collided.

• Innocence and guilt crossed paths at the crucifixion of Christ.

• On the cross, the laws of man clashed with the law of God.

• Violence met forgiveness on Calvary.

• Absolute, eternal Truth ran into mankind’s lies and truth-twisting.

• Eternal salvation intersected the justice and wrath of God at the cross of Jesus.

• …

For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 (NLT2)

He (Christ) personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25 (NLT2, parenthesis mine)

Some intersections we only come to once in life, some we cross daily, some we wish we could go back to and take a different turn, some we run through without noticing how important they are, some we only come to from time to time, and eventually we will cross the very last one. But of all the intersections we come to the cross of Jesus is the most important one, what we decide there will not only shape our earthly existence, but also our eternal destiny.

In reading this little pastor’s note God in his kindness and grace has brought you (again) to the intersection of the cross Of Jesus Christ, so you can turn to Jesus before you run out of intersections. So, how will you leave this intersection? Will you leave it having turned to Christ, or will you be leaving Christ behind?

            To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Helpless + Hopeless = Happy

A crazy man, out of his mind, demonically controlled, isolated, abandoned, and feared. A woman incurably sick, beyond the ability of medicine, robbed of dignity, normalcy, and wealth. A little girl, with great parents, loved, dead. These three fell into the pit that reeks of helpless and hopeless, an abyss so deep they cannot climb out of it. Their helplessness and hopelessness are not just their own, but their families, those who love and care for them are also engulfed in their powerlessness, pain, frustration, and grief. They, like us, know the equation: helpless + hopeless = hurt, horrific, horrible, harrowing, hellacious.

Mark, like the other Gospel writers, tells us about the reality and truth of Jesus Christ, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” Mark 1:1 (NIV). Right out of the gate, Mark informs you and me that Jesus is not ordinary, not one among many, more than a prophet, more than a holy man, but the very Son of God, divine, sovereign, Creator and Sustainer of all things – good news, the equation changer.

They were real people, that crazy man, that sick and desperate woman, that very dead girl, as real as the people in our lives, in our families, our community, our coworkers, classmates, and friends. They were stuck in the helpless/hopeless equation. People stayed away from them, didn’t touch them, were made uncomfortable by them and their story. “What a shame,” “What do you say?” I wonder, how long it took for people to no longer ask the crazy man’s family about him? How much time passed before folks no longer asked the woman how she was? When do we stop talking with the grieving about their loved ones?

You find all three, the man, the woman, and the girl in Mark, chapter five, helpless and hopeless – until – until – Jesus shows up, and, because of who He is, the Son of God, changes helpless + hopeless to happy. He does not shy away from the lunatic demoniac; He doesn’t mind the unclean, sick, and desperate woman touching Him; He doesn’t stop going to the girl’s house simply because she died. He does so because He wants everyone to know who He is: The Son of God, sovereign over all evil, all of life, all people, death, and all helplessness and hopelessness. He is the eternal Good News. Most of us have been to Mark chapter five, if not all, at least in part. I have. Evil, mental illness, chronic sickness, death. Without Jesus, they trap and condemn us to the grave of eternal helplessness and hopelessness.

You have to wonder about those three and their families, you just have to. What do you think the crazy man told others about Jesus after Jesus put him in his “right mind?” What did the woman tell others after she was healed? What did the girl, after she was restored to life, think and say about Jesus for the rest of her life? How did these three engage with helpless and hopeless people after their encounter with Jesus? 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells me, as a follower of Jesus, as Christian, to be a person of faith, hope, and love. I believe that means I should not shy away from the helpless and hopeless people and situations, but to show up with the faith, hope, and love I have found in Jesus, to live the Jesus equation.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans          

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave - A Word for 4th of July

My Father-in-law used to ask me, “Do they have 4th of July in Germany?” The answer is yes and no. Yes, Germans do have July 4th on their calendar. No, there is no celebration of the birth of a new nation, of stripping off the shackles of the British crown. It was a gutsy move, declaring independence from the superpower known as the British Empire. It has always taken great courage to demand and declare freedom, especially from tyranny.

Remember Moses' words echoing in Pharaoh’s hall, “Let my people go!” Or the famous words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness” that the signers of the Declaration of Independence announced to King George III, who like Pharaoh, had no intention to yield to their cry for freedom.

Gaining freedom, securing independence is the first struggle, but it is not the last. What you do with the newfound liberty will determine both who will benefit from it and how long it will last. Bold, idealistic, and good words, “all men are created equal.” But even while the ink was drying on their signatures their present reality did not include Blacks, Native Americans, women, and others in this equal.

To this day it has been a very slow and arduous struggle extend the full measure of “inalienable rights” to all. We must ask ourselves why humanity has struggled with liberty throughout history? The answer is twofold, the first being pragmatic the second spiritual. It is very inconvenient for those in power to grant rights and liberties to all. Power loves power far more than freedom. Freedom of speech, of assembly, of the press, of religion, of bearing arms, of economics doesn’t lend itself to governmental control. Granting personal rights like privacy, due process, owning property, trial by peers, voting, etc. is just too messy and allows for too much opposition, just ask Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-Un, Nicolas Maduro, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mohammad Bin Salman, Ali Khamenei…

The root of humankind’s struggle with liberty, however, is spiritual, the reality of human depravity/sinfulness, and the existence of evil and the Evil One/Satan. Neither one of these realities is popular today, in fact, more often than not they are scoffed at and dismissed as being out of touch. But doing so puts one at odds with our country’s Founding Fathers, who were thoroughly steeped in Protestant theology and did not think that Biblical anthropology was anything to be sneered at. It was these spiritual realities that fueled their distrust of power and influenced them to design a governmental system of divided powers and rights codified in law, striving to protect them from the whims of leaders and the power of the majority.

They didn’t like what Jesus told them, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They basically replied with, “We are free! We are part of the free and the brave! We don’t need anyone to liberate us - to set us free!” Jesus didn’t back down, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” John 8:31-36 (NIV).
They didn’t care for that truth at all, because human depravity despises God, looks to free itself from God, “The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one (Jesus Christ). ‘Let us break their chains,’ they cry, ‘and free ourselves from slavery to God’” Psalm 2:2-3 (NLT2, parenthesis mine).

As we find ourselves in very tumultuous times this 4th of July, as we celebrate our incredible gift of liberty, we will do well to remember that to both navigate through these times, and to preserve precious liberties we are wise to draw to God collectively and address our own depravity personally through Jesus Christ, because no one is really free unless “The Son sets you free.” May we thank and glorify God this 4th of July.

Love you, Pastor Hans           

Waiting - Don't Waste It

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV)

How good are you at waiting? Yes, you, and I can see you ducking. Our entire culture is not good at waiting, we don’t see it as a virtue but as a failure of someone or something, as something interrupting our happiness. It has to happen now, quickly, and hopefully, sooner than later. Have you noticed? The COVID-19 crisis did not care one bit about making us wait, putting our plans on hold, for who knows how long. By now we can’t wait for things to get back to some kind of normal. So again, how good are you at waiting? Since you are, for some reason, refusing to answer, take the following test. Mark all the ones you would have a hard time with:

• Waiting for 2000 years. Christians have now been waiting for almost 2000 years for Jesus to return and who knows how much longer it will be (2 Peter 3:3-10).

• Waiting for 400 years. God told Abraham that his descendants would have to wait for hundreds of years to be delivered from the tyranny of Egypt (Genesis 15:13).

• Waiting for 70 years. The rebellious remnant exiled to Babylon was told they had to wait for seventy years before any of them could return. (Jeremiah 29:10)

• Waiting for 7 weeks. After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples had to wait seven weeks for the promised Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8)

• Waiting for 1 week. Saul, because he saw his troops defecting, couldn’t wait for more than a week for the prophet Samuel to arrive (1 Samuel 13:8-11).

• Waiting for 1 day. Naomi told her daughter-in-law Ruth to relax, be patient, and wait a day for Boaz to take care of things.

• Waiting for 1 hour. The disciples were emotionally and physically tuckered out they couldn’t wait for an hour when Jesus asked them to sit and wait until He had prayed (Matthew 26:36-41)

Our chief problem with waiting is that we run out of time even if we beat the life-expectancy statistics. But we don’t just run out of time in general, we don’t get to be kids forever, opportunities pass, the chance to have children diminishes, the time to adequately store up for retirement vanishes, you can’t realize your dreams by waiting forever, ...God on the other hand never runs out of time, He is the Eternal One, the Inventor and Creator of time and space.

Have you ever considered what it must have been like for Jesus, the eternal Son of God, in his incarnation, to restrict himself to time, to waiting, to running out of time?Some of Satan’s major temptations thrown at Jesus were regarding waiting and time (Luke 4:1-8). “You’re hungry! So, why wait? Just turn these stones into bread?” “You’re supposed to be king of everything! Why waste time waiting for God’s long-winded plan filled with suffering? You can be king now; all you have to do is worship me.” When it comes to waiting Satan assumes at least four things:

1. We are not good at waiting. There is not a single baby who is good at waiting, “Feed me, change me, hold me, adore me – NOW!” Our needs scream out, our wants demand satisfaction, our dreams whisper to us, “You don’t have forever,” none of them encourage us to wait.

2. Our sinfulness hates waiting, self-denial, submission to God’s will and ways. “Waiting to have sex until you are married – get real!” “Staying out of debt and waiting to buy things until you can pay for things? – What about your credit score? Dummy!”

3. Waiting becomes more difficult the longer we have to wait. Have you experienced rising anxiety as you waited patiently in an airport check-in lane, realizing that at this pace you will miss your flight? Consciously or subconsciously we are aware of and afraid of missing out, that opportunities are not endless because life isn’t.

4. We make serious mistakes when we operate out of impatience, impulsiveness, and give in to FOMO (fear of missing out).

As busy as Satan might be in our waiting, God is even more so. He is the one who is in charge of time, so, if God has us waiting, we can safely assume that we we’re not wasting time or opportunity. God is not inactive when he has us waiting, He is actually growing us, developing us, shaping us – Jesus thought so.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans 
P.S. For more waiting click here to watch the 04/26/20 sermon - www.LDPBaptistChurch.com       

Changed Plans - Changing Plans

Susie and I were supposed to have gone camping this past week, but like everyone else living in these COVID-19 days, we had a change of plans. Of course, having to change plans is nothing new, but to have so many people’s plans change all at the same time is new to most of us. Career plans, business plans, wedding plans, retirement plans, educational plans, vacation plans, graduations plans, financial plans, … all of them affected and in serious upheaval.

How good are you when it comes to having to change your plans, adapting to new realities? Flexible and positive, grumpy and complaining? A having-to-change-your-plans kind of crisis certainly does reveal who we are and what we are made of. Few of us like to be forced into changing plans, the only time we really like changing plans is when it is our own idea, when we’re the ones cooking up the changes.

50 days after Easter, on Pentecost, the Bible tells us about two groups, the followers of Jesus and the Jewish leaders. The disciples of Jesus were changed by the fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on them. The Jewish leaders thought they had brought everything back under control, everything running according to their plans, until, those Holy Spirit-filled believers started preaching.

“’The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the LORD arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’ People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip'” Acts 2:20-24 (NLT2), Peter declared.

Did you notice the clash of plans? God’s plan or the Jesus plan and the Jewish leaders’ plan?God’s plan – a long-range, eternal, good for all plan

• To save people from judgment

• To offer Jesus’ life for our sins

• To defeat the grip of death (death for is the ultimate plan changer)

The Jewish leaders’ plan – a short-sighted, evil, what’s-good-for me plan

• To have no change

• To get back to and maintain the old

• To kill the plan of God

The question becomes, which side of God’s plan will you be on? Will you oppose it, or will you accept the changes needed to accept it? Will you brush the center of God’s plan, Jesus Christ, to the side, or will you organize everything in your life around Him?

God is neither silent nor inactive in our current crisis, He has put us in the vise of change not just try to get out and back, but to examine our plans and make both temporary and life-long changes that put Jesus, God’s plans, God’s purposes and will in the very center. We are collectively yearning to get back to “normal,” and we pray it will be sooner than later, but I can’t help but think that God would love for us to emerge from this chaos changed for the better.

Listen to what God delivered to the exiled to Babylon Jews in the days of the prophet Jeremiah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.  For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,’ says the LORD. ‘I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land’” Jeremiah 29:10-14 (NLT2).

God did not just want them to return and get back to the same-old same-old, He wanted them to came back better, changed, completely in tune with Him. May this be true of us.

To God be all glory.
Love you, Pastor Hans   

The Resurrected Resurrector

"Talitha koum!" ("Little girl, I say to you, get up!" – Mark 5:41), Jesus said to the twelve-year-old dead girl, before giving her back to her Mom and Dad alive and well. They had laughed at him before going into her room because he said, “She is merely sleeping,” but they knew she was dead.

"Young man, I say to you, get up!" (Luke 7:14), Jesus said to the widow’s dead son as those who were carrying out to bury him watched him sit up and start talking. Fear and praising God was the funeral procession’s reaction.

"Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43), Jesus shouted towards Lazarus’ opened tomb before the crowd saw man buried four days ago walk out dressed in burial wrappings. “But by now it will stink,” his sister warned before they rolled away the entrance stone.

Resurrection, hard to wrap your mind around it. It is not difficult to understand those who laugh at the notion because seen too many little caskets occupied by dead little boys and girls. Resurrection, easy to dismiss it as mere religious talk, sentimentalism, and cheap comfort because we have not seen the one riding in the back of the hearse join the wake, turning it from a mourning fellowship into a praising God party.Resurrection, rings unscientific, flies in the face of what we know about our natural world. We are familiar with the stench of death, telling us of irreversible decay, no one gets up from that, religious or not.When they laid Jesus’ dead body in the tomb there was no one to touch him, speak life-giving words, call him out, no mighty prophet, none of his followers, and certainly not his enemies. But he did rise, not as the three above who needed someone with power greater than death to restore their lives.

Jesus, the creator of all life (Colossians 1:13-19), the one who has life within himself (John 2:19-22; John 10:17-18), free from life-robbing and damning sin (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15), rose by his own divine power. And, Jesus Christ did not rise like the three above, merely restored to physical life and destined to die again, no, he resurrected to incorruptible, eternal life.

“Jesus told her (Martha, Lazarus’ sister), ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told him. ‘I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God’” (John 11:25-27, NLT2, parenthesis mine).

This Easter 2020 we will remember as the Coronavirus Easter with daily updates of total infections and deaths, and all of us very aware of our fragility and inescapable mortality. Ultimately no vaccine, no ventilator, no medical breakthrough will be able to rescue us from death, accountability before God, and eternal damnation. For that you and I need the power of the one who is the resurrection and the life, Jesus Christ.You and I have to decide whether to laugh him off, settle for a little religion every now and then, inform him of the impossibilities and scientific facts, or believe and trust him who alone conquered the grave, who is the resurrection and the life. So, what is your Easter, Jesus risen from the dead, reaction and response? Oh, that you will believe.

“And now, dear brothers and sisters (those who believe in, follow, and live for Jesus Christ), we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NLT2, parenthesis mine). 

Have a blessed Easter.
Love you, Pastor Hans    

Stable and Shining

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:14-16 (NLT2)

Jesus was directly speaking to his disciples when he spoke these words, but there was also a large crowd listening in, and clearly, he wanted them to hear what he had to say as well. At the end of his sermon, he spelled out why he was preaching what he was preaching.

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows (practices, acts on) it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.  Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.  But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash” Matthew 7:24-27 (NLT2, parenthesis mine).

Jesus, God is interested in you and me living lives of stability amidst the instability, even torrents, and disasters of our world. He wants you and me to be people of purpose, who make a difference, whose light keeps shining no matter how dark it gets, whose actions make people want to sing praises to God. But for this to actually happen, we need to hear Jesus' words and trust them enough to act on them, that’s called faith. This is why I read some portion of God’s word (the Bible) every day, think about it, take some notes, and try to make “act-on-it” connections to what is going on in my life around me. The last two mornings I read Luke 11 and 12 (We are in Luke in our church’s Bible-reading plan) and found some things to help my life keep shining brightly and keep me stable in our current crisis, and, since this is a pastor’s note, I am convinced these will benefit you too:

Pray – Luke 11:1-13

• Not if but “when” you pray.

• Pray with persistence, keep knocking, seeking, asking.

• Pray with a focus on God’s goodness.

• Pray seeking God’s very best.

Help – Luke 12:13-21

• Don’t hoard.

• Don’t act on the fear of not getting your fair share.

• Look out for more than yourself.

• However little or much you have enables you to share.

Invest – Luke 12:21, 31-34

• In more than yourself.

• In more than the stock market and your financial portfolio.

• In more than what will keep you comfortable to the end of your life.

• In the goodness of your heart.

Jesus didn’t just teach the above as a means of crisis management, he wants you and me to practice them, and much more keep-your-light-burning stuff, whether the sun is shining, or the torrents are raging. He wants you and me to build foundations that don’t crumble even under the greatest stresses and challenges.
To God be all glory.
Love you, Pastor Hans         

Finding Peace When You Want to Panic (COVID-19, part 2)

Prudence, Wisdom, Faith, Fear, Stupidity, Foolishness ,Presumption, Panic, Crises— all have the potential to bring out both the best and worst in us, they also reveal who we really are and what we really believe.Our world is filled with three kinds of evil, natural evil like the COVID-19 virus and other diseases or earthquakes and other natural disasters, moral (human) evil we perpetrate on others and our world, and spiritual, demonic, satanic evil, which is ever busy inciting people to do evil. Often the first is made much worse by the second.

One thing is certain, evil is never theoretical, it is real, brings hardship, causes stress, kindles fears, inflicts pain, and kills.Jesus encouraged us 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. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil (or the evil one). [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]” Matthew 6:9-13 (NASB, parenthesis mine).

It is foolishness to ignore evil of any kind, including the evil within us, it is unwise to think we do not need God’s help when it comes dealing with evil, and it is faith that will help us to deal better with evil, with our fears, and keep us from panicking. Christians are called to a life of faith that applies to the real world, actual circumstances, to life’s unpredictabilities, dangers, and worries. In all of these our anchor, our starting point, our compass is God himself, his presence, his Spirit, his wisdom, his strength, his word (Scripture/the Bible).Christians are called to pursue knowledge, prudence and wisdom, they give us discernment, navigation skills, and help us to not be led by fear and panic. Wisdom is never in opposition to faith.

Often, I have had a fellow believer gush about the fact that their doctor was a Christian and prayed with them. I think that is fantastic, but I want my doctor also to be competent, I want her to wash her hands, put on a fresh pair of gloves, and be up to speed on the most current medical knowledge, skills, and wisdom. I want her not just to be confident, I want her to be confident for the right reasons. This is true for you and me as well, it is one thing to have a faith that talks confidence but is ignorant, lacks wisdom, and is presumptuous, it is quite another thing to have a faith that is informed, pursues and practices wisdom, and knows how to be both controlled by the Holy Spirit and sound interpretation of the Bible. Christians never have reason to panic, we are called to live out of the peace of God that even disaster, suffering, and death cannot rattle. This peace is not an invitation to stupidity and foolishness, to denying or foolishly responding to real and healthy fears. But this peace does enable us not to be consumed by our anxieties, our worries, and our fears, and act with Christlikeness in the midst of evil and the storms of life.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers (sisters), whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you” Philippians 4:4-9 (NIV, parenthesis mine).

To God be all Glory. Peace to you, Pastor Hans      

Waiting - Advent

How much time of your life have you spent waiting? On the phone being on hold? In a car stuck in traffic? In a doctor’s office or hospital waiting room? In a checkout line? For a reply to an email, text, an application, or test? For someone to show up?How good are you at waiting? Are you the patient or impatient kind? Do you progress from irritated, to grumpy, to nasty rather quickly? Let’s face it, we live in a most impatient culture, time is money, waiting wastes the most precious resource of them all – life itself. We want it now, not later! We want things to be in stock or qualify for free same or next day delivery. Heck, we get irritated if the confirmation text or email takes longer than 30 seconds.Have you ever considered how much waiting God has woven into the fabric of life? How much waiting there is in the Bible? You have to wait nine months to see and hold your baby. Almost everything we eat didn’t grow overnight, needed time to grow and ripen. You can’t speed up the seasons, you have to wait for each one to arrive and take its turn. The earth turns and circles at its own steady pace, it will take 364 from Christmas to Christmas, from New year to New Year. The ancient Israelites yearned for deliverance and freedom for hundreds of years, the Jews were looking for the Messiah for over a thousand years before Jesus appeared. The martyred saints, who have been crying for justice under the altar of God for who knows how long (Revelation 6:9-11), were told to wait a little longer.From as far back as can remember an Advent Calendar (it counts down the 24 days before Christmas) is part of my Christmas memories. At first, it had just pictures in it, until someone had the bright idea to put a piece of chocolate behind each calendar window – needless to say, some days were raided prematurely, we couldn’t wait. But, Advent still takes 24 days, even though Christmas shopping has sped up, Black Friday shopping now starts early in the week and Cyber Monday will try to catch up.Waiting slows us down but it does not necessarily mean doing nothing, especially when you are walking through life with God. Since patience is a fruit of the indwelling Spirit of God (Galatians 5:22-23) whenever and for whatever God makes us wait is not without purpose. It is a great paradox that in a world were everything seems to speed up God slows us down, that in a culture that hates to wait, God refuses to speed things up, for people who want things now, God has not opened a convenience store nor offers same-day shipping to expedite answers to prayers.We are no longer waiting for the first appearance of the Christ (Messiah), we merely remember it, but we are waiting for the return of Christ, the consummation of the ages, the completion of salvation, the execution of complete justice. In that waiting impatience is a dangerous thing, it sidetracks us, gets us out ahead of God, has us running through life at a crazy pace like the rest of our world, with little time for prayer, for worship, for anticipation, reflection, and dependence. Our impatience wants to cram our lives full of what we want. In having us wait, God is trying to create room in our lives for what and how he wants it. We want life to take place at our pace, God is continually inviting us to slow down to his.How we wait tells a lot about whose agenda we are on, who and what we are most concerned about. How we respond to being slowed down says a lot about what is going on inside of us. What are you waiting on God for this Christmas season? Whose pace are you on during this Advent?Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31 (ESV)To God be all glory, even when waiting. Love you, Pastor Hans     

Without Love

I am working on a car, again, the a/c (air-conditioning) is out. The car is drivable but on 104 (40 Celsius) or hotter days, Susie might want to make it to work without having to take another shower.Our dishwasher rack is missing some prongs, but it is still washing dishes as well as it was when we bought it 25 years ago (Isn’t fun when God makes our things last?!).Walking around our property I continually find vulture feathers, and sometimes when those magnificent flying creatures zoom low over our heads you can see where some of those feathers are missing, obviously, this does not rob them of their ability to fly. Of course, it would be a lot different if a vulture lost all its feathers at once, it would ground them for sure. The dishwasher and Susie’s car would be worthless if their water pumps gave out, or some other vital part failed.It is no different with the Christian life, there are minor issues which might make things more uncomfortable, make things harder, or force you to make adjustments, and then there are major things that bring you to a screeching halt, keep you from soaring, and need immediate attention and repair. This is something the Corinthian Christians lost sight of; they were busy fixing the a/c when their engine had major problems. They argued and divided over minor things and forgot about the most important. As a result, they started looking and acting more and more ridiculous. Christians can employ the full Christian lingo and yet look like a vulture without feathers.The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that if they got things right their Faith, Hope, and Love would be in top mechanical condition, be the main feathers of their plumage, would leave their dishes sparkling. And of these three, he said, Love was the most indispensable. Without it the individual believer and the Christian community/church is broken, without substance, going nowhere, accomplishing nothing.“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends (fails)” 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 (ESV, parenthesis NASB).So, now that you have read the scripture above, I want to challenge you to do a little exercise with me. Think through this passage with the heading:If I don’t have love (the kind God wants you to have and practice)How does that affect your life, the life of your church, and the lives of those around you? Here are the first four things I wrote down:

• Without out love, I sound wrong, verse 1.
• Without love, I think wrong (“I am nothing”), verse 2.
• Without love, I go wrong (“I gain nothing”), verse 3.
• Without love, I am not as patient as I can and should be, verse 4.

And Now you finish it up:

• Without love,  __________________________________________________
• Without love,  __________________________________________________
• Without love,  __________________________________________________
• Keep going! ….

Now ask yourself, “Who is at the brunt end of my lack of love?” This might be an individual, several people, or entire group or groups of people.Finally, what is the first right loving action you need to initiate towards him, her, and/or them? ______________________________________________________ (It might include having to apologize and ask for forgiveness.)Maybe you’re not feeling it. Maybe you think someone else needs to make the first move. If you are waiting on those two to change you might be waiting a long, too long of a time to become the loving person Christ wants you to be. Start fixing the most important things today.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans    

Hardness of Heart - Marriage, and so much more

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” Mark 10:2-12 (ESV) Sklerokardia, hardness of heart was the reason Moses acquiesced to write a soft divorce law into the legal code of ancient Israel. Of all the tough and strange laws Moses proposed this is the only objection mentioned and, according to Jesus, it was a straight argument against God’s design. The disciples give us a clue as to what went on in their ancestors’ hearts when they responded to Jesus’ answer on divorce with, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry” Matthew 19:10 (ESV). “Too hard,” they cried, “What if s/he turns out to a bum/ette? Or a nag? Or worse?” “That’s just not realistic!” Contrary to Moses, Jesus didn’t budge. Keep in mind that marriages in Jesus time were arranged marriages. The difference between a hard and tender heart is amazing. One will keep track of every offense the other won’t even remember. One will be stuck on self while other serves. One will build bulwarks of defenses and excuses the other keeps trying. One will refuse to be merciful and tender the other refuses to give up on faith, hope, and love. One will cry, “Too hard!” the other will dare to move mountains. No wonder the wisdom book of the Bible  tells us to, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life (and marriage)” Proverbs 4:23 (NLT2, parenthesis mine), and Jesus described “… from the (unguarded, hard) heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander” Matthew 15:19 (NLT2, parenthesis mine).“S/he won’t change!” “What’s the use?” “Believe me, I tried.” “I don’t love him/her anymore.” “There are no feelings left.” “I don’t know if we were ever really meant to be together.” Words spoken on the way out, words that originate from a hard heart. Words that say more about the person saying them than the one s/he is talking about, words that reveal much about their faith and their heart.Isn’t it interesting that God is so inflexible about permitting us to walk out of a marriage? The most intimate of human relationships is meant to last, to reflect Christlikeness like no other relationship (Ephesians 5:22-33), to shape our hearts, our love to be like Christ’s.Hard hearts don’t have to stay hard, although they surely want to be. A good place to start is to pray, “O God, please change my hard heart,” and follow that with the most loving action towards whom your heart has grown heart without expecting a particular response, and then do it again, and again, and ...To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans     

"On Christ the solid Rock I stand"

“On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” (Edward Mote)Coming back from a week of camping we drove past the heliport on the Lake Don Pedro dam. The Medi-Flight chopper, ambulance, and fire truck were all there. I found out later they were airlifting out a young person in dire condition. I am sure that for her family the day turned out nothing like they thought it would.I made three visits (pastoral calls) on Tuesday. The first, to see a man who lost his wife of many years. The second, to see a lady who is dying and her husband who is taking care of her. The third, to see a man who'd just come back from a stint in the hospital. Things have not turned out like they hoped they would. All their plans and hopes have been interrupted, changed, permanently, and uninvited.We know life is fragile, that it can turn on a dime, be completely altered in a split second, tear our hearts out, pay no attention to our plans, demolish our dreams, assign us paths we do not want to travel, and dish us up with more sorrow grief than we can bear. We long for permanence, for unchanging ground, but our reality is we live on the ever-shifting sand of a beach constantly moving in the daily ebb and flow, subject to sunshine and rain, gentle breezes and hurricane winds.Susie and I pay for health insurance, home insurance, car insurance, life insurance (Which is really death insurance since it doesn’t kick in unless you die. But I suppose calling it that is not good for marketing), and maybe soon long-term care insurance. The hope is that we will not have to file claims, but the reality is that except for the life insurance we have had to use them all and were glad and grateful that we were insured because otherwise, things would have been even worse, and we would be flat broke. But none of these insurance policies have protected us from tragedy, from chaos, having to change our plans, from having to adapt and cope.Wise women and men work hard at finding and embracing the truths, laws, principles, and ways that create the most stability, promote peace, and bring blessing. They also live without any illusions of being exempt from mortality and the unpredictability of life. And, they embrace God, who is permanent – eternal, unchanging – immutable, and perfect – holy. He alone can make eternal guarantees and sure promises. Only he can change the impermanent and mortal into the everlasting. No one else can save us from our human dilemmas, satisfy our thirst for permanence, and anchor our souls now and forever. Hear and respond to the words of Jesus, the Son of God, the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:30):Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29 (NLT2)I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth… And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT2)I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. John 11:25-26 (NLT2)            To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans     

Great Love Stories and Mercy

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36 (NIV)I have been intertwined in a long-term love affair. We have been carrying on for almost forty years and have no intention of breaking it off anytime soon. Early on, like most hopelessly in love lovers, and regardless of what anyone thought, we decided that we wanted this to last, and amazingly it has.It would be great if all it takes is being smitten and wanting things to last. But our love hasn’t sailed this far and for this long on mere passion. Passion doesn’t know how to handle the storms, fix the leaks, bail the water, and recalibrate the route when blown off course, for that, among other things we have needed compassion, grit, teamwork, and mercy.She did tell me what would sink the boat, burst the bubble, flush the dream. No second chance for cheating, no tolerance for violence and abuse, and no license to let myself go and turn into a slob, “You’ll get the hook!” she said. I have always loved her strength and self-respect.Forty years is a lot of life, a lot of challenges, struggles, disappointments, frustrations, mess-ups, and unexpected. All that initial madly-in-loveness did not eradicate my bad habits, iron out my flaws, and cure my weaknesses. All that startup passion did not produce instant maturity, reliability, and the ability to handle things right. Hesch! I couldn’t even say “I’m sorry” (I’m still not very good at it – ask her). Without mercy, all this relationship tinder would have ignited a long time ago and burned everything into a smoldering heap of ashes. It was the practice of mercy, the being merciful that checked hurts, granted forgiveness, allowed for trying again. It was mercy that checked the anger, prevented the bitterness from spreading, and reigned in self-righteousness. These forty years of love she has blessed me with mercy, with being merciful without being an enabler, without compromising herself.The crucified Christ, the greatest expression of God’s love, reminds us that great, real, and enduring love stories are never written without mercy. So, it is no wonder he counsels and commands us to be merciful in all of life, and especially as lovers.Happy Valentines. Pastor Hans  

Becoming Merciful, part 1

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:36 (NIV)Some things are easier to be than others. It is easier to be ignorant than to be informed, to be thoughtless than to be thoughtful, to be foolish than to be wise, to be undisciplined than to be disciplined, to be nasty than to be kind, to be stingy than to be generous, to be unforgiving than to be forgiving, to be critical than to be caring, to be watching than to be involved, to be cynical than to be doing good, to be merciless than to be merciful. But Christ never told his followers to settle for what comes easier but he was persistent in commanding and encouraging them to pursue that which better, to reach for the best, to emulate God the Father, to model their lives after himself.It is easier to practice a little mercy here and there, to be generous every now and then, to be kind sometimes … than it is to be merciful … in our very being, in our core, as part of our character, like the Father.So, what do we know about the mercy of the Father, and how can we become and be merciful like him?God’s mercy is vast, like an immense deep sea. Scripture speaks of his mercies being great, extending over all his works (Psalm 119:156, 145:9), and King David chose to be judged by God rather than men because he was certain of God’s vast mercy (2 Samuel 24:14).God’s mercy is also multifaceted. Jeremiah the prophet found comfort and hope in the midst of carnage and destruction because he remembered that The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23,ESV), and the Apostle Paul concurred when he encouraged the Corinthians that to bless God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our affliction (2 Corinthians 1:3, ESV).God’s mercy is indiscriminate, Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:35-36 ESV).God’s mercy is continual, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23,ESV). Every sunrise and every rainstorm (Matthew 5:45) remind us that God’s mercy is both inexhaustible and that it gets up every morning.God’s mercy finds its ultimate expression in Jesus Christ, All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay (1 Peter 1:3-4 (NLT2).And just like that, I have run out of space for this pastor’s note, I guess you will have to wait till next week for some thoughts on, “How can we merciful like the Father?” But, I suspect that even before you get that p-note will have occasions and opportunities to be merciful. So, how can what you just learned about God’s mercy help you with that?To God be all glory. Love you, pastor Hans

Christmas - Jesus, the Greatest and Most Needed Interruption

Christmas – Jesus, the Great and Most Needed InterruptionI remember the look in my kid’s eyes saying it all, “Somebody please stop him!” when I was on a parental roll, taking charge of the situation (usually without consulting Susie), laying down new rules, unleashing a fresh wind in the Frei household.Have you ever wished for someone to stop you, interrupt you? Like when your mouth just wouldn’t shut up? When you were throwing a fit? When you were making a complete fool of yourself? When you were making lousy choices, spending too much, eating too much, texting while driving, …? When you were mean, petty, arrogant, unkind, or plain dumb or acting stupid?Of course, there are much weightier things that need interrupting, like addictions, dysfunctional habits, violence, injustice, exploitation, oppression, tyranny, hatred, ignorance, poverty, excuses, lies, unforgiveness, hypocrisy, evil. However, just because something needs interrupting does not mean the interruption is welcome, darkness will fight the light to the bitter end, wrong and evil have no tolerance for interrupters.“There was no room …” (Luke 2:7) for Jesus Christ in ordinary life, in political life, religious life, and in most people’s personal life. There was no room for the personified Word and will of God no matter how much it was, and still is, needed. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Creator, Source of all life and light came into this world, stepped into history, but he was not understood, human darkness recoiled at his light, and his own did not want him. The “grace and truth”, the innocence, goodness, righteousness, and hope interruption our world so desperately needs still finds few takers, few who will make room for it, welcome it, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” John 1:12 (NIV).It’s striking, unless we outright reject it, how much we dress up Christmas, the incarnation of God, in sentimentality, quaintness, and feel good. Let’s make it a superficial, fleeting interruption. But Christmas, Jesus is about God interrupting us at our core, our worst, in our deepest depravity, in our evil, at our most sinful, our total helplessness, our utter hopelessness, and in the darkest reality of ourselves and all humanity. Will we welcome him there? Will we make room for Christ there? Will we praise God for interrupting us through Christ and “proclaim the excellencies of him who called (interrupted) you out of darkness into his marvelous light” 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV, parenthesis mine).Merry Christmas! Love you, Pastor Hans    

Christmas – Jesus, the Great Interruption, Part 2

 In two decades of substitute teaching, I developed a morning introduction, “Good Morning class, I am Mr. Frei. I am not Ms…, I don’t look like her, I don’t walk like her, I don’t talk like her, I don’t smell like her, I don’t do my hair like her (I am bald), in fact I am nothing like her, so don’t be surprised that I don’t do things like her! Today, please don’t tell me, ‘But Ms… doesn’t do it that way. But Ms… always does it like this. Ms… lets us do that.’” But after this preemptive introductory speech, I would try hard follow as many of the routines the regular teacher had implemented in her/his classroom because the fewer routines I violated the better things usually went. We are creatures of habit, not just from K-12^th grade but throughout life, and when our routines are interrupted we become somewhat disoriented.Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were good at the religious routines. In fact, their religious routines shaped all the other routines of their lives (a good thing), and their observances of religious routines sprang from sincere hearts, “they were both righteous in God’s sight …” (Luke 1:6). As a priest, Zacharias was in the middle of rotation of tending to the Altar of Incense, an assignment that was all about very specific routines, and it was then that God spoke to him. He clearly had no expectation for a personal God moment to occur, even though he was in the Holy Place of the temple (Luke 1:12). As helpful as routines can be, they can also be a hindrance, they can confine us, especially when it comes to God, and they can make us reluctant to and even reject the very voice of God.Zacharias and Elizabeth did not only have their routine interrupted but also their resignation. They were childless, which was considered a blemish in their time. His response to the angel's announcements that within the next year they would have a child was, “I am old and so is my wife” Luke 1:18. They were resigned to childlessness, to old age, to the stigma. God interrupted that too. Makes me think back to my substitute teacher days, one of saddest things to see is a young child already resigned to limitations real or imagined. Zacharias, who as a priest should’ve known better, got a stern nine-month rebuke for letting his resignation to childlessness diminish his faith in what God could do in his and Elizabeth’s life.If we are honest, we don’t like our times of rest, of relaxation, of recreation be interrupted. We can get very grumpy, unkind, short, and irritated when that happens (probably not you), after all, that’s kind of “our time.” The night Jesus was born there were shepherds outside of Bethlehem watching their sheep (Luke 2:8). Sheep corralled and settled down it was time to get off the feet, sit by a fire, get out the harmonica, eat a snack, share some stories. The folks in Bethlehem were fast asleep, shops closed down, shutters closed, doors locked, comfy cozy under the covers in bed (Luke 2:17-20). Then the midnight ruckus of angels, the glory of God, and hollering shepherds in the streets. Goodbye sleep, adios relaxing, sayonara “my time.”Christmas – Jesus is the great interruption, including our routines, our resignation, and our rest. The question is, “How do we handle it when God interrupts them?” Do we quickly return to what we are comfortable with? Temper God to our limitations? Try to get back as fast as possible to whatever we were doing? Grumpily crawl back under the warm covers? Or are we embracing God’s Jesus interruption and in the middle of the night are found responsive to his voice, adjusting to his will, and shouting his praises?Merry Christmas! Love you, Pastor Hans 

Choose the Cross

For God was pleased ⌊to have⌋ all His fullness dwell in Him (Jesus Christ), and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross— whether things on earth or things in heaven. Colossians 1:19-20 (HCSB, parenthesis mine) You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14 (NLT2) As a kid I saw my fair share of castles. Three things trumped everything else, the armory with all the swords, lances, fighting clubs, and other weapons, the dungeon way down in the bowels of the castle mount, and, usually not far from the dungeon, the torture chambers with its diabolical instruments. We were too young to imagine the real horror that went on in these places, although at times I would have liked to put one of my brothers in the iron maiden or on the stretching rack.We can’t imagine the reality of ancient crosses any more than young boys chasing around the horrible places of old castles. We know of gallows, shooting squads, guillotines, electric chairs, lethal injections, all which are meant to execute and kill quickly. Crucifixion, on the other hand, was designed to prolong, to inflict pain, to publicly humiliate, to be terrible and violent, and only eventually snuff out life. Terrible what we are capable of.Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh died on a Roman cross after sham trials, being beaten to a pulp and publicly mocked. He was substituted for a convicted criminal and terrorist. He did not summon his followers to violent counter strikes, he refused to unleash the armies of heaven, instead, the most innocent of all who ever lived submitted himself to the will of God, the treachery of evil men, and death on a cross, which was a cursed ending among the Jews.He died there for you and me, to reconcile sinners like us to God. It’s ironic, isn’t it, total innocence suffering and dying on one of mankind’s cruelest inventions. The giver of life laying down his life for the dying. The sinless one paying for the sins of others. That’s what happened on the cross Jesus died on. The symbol of death, of fear, unforgiveness, and of mankind’s evil became the symbol of life, hope, forgiveness, and God’s love. “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish” 1 Corinthians 1:18-20 (NLT2). You and I cannot be reconciled and have peace with God apart from the crucified Christ. We must decide whether we trust the message of the cross or ourselves. Choose the cross! To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans