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

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          

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