Face Fear Unafraid
But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:18).
A seminary student on his way to preach his first sermon before professors and peers was full of fear. Whiny and fretful he kept complaining, “My palms are sweaty and my throat is dry. Never done this. My palms are sweaty and my throat is dry.” Merciless classmates laughingly suggested, “Bro, if you’re so afraid that your palms are sweaty and your throat is dry, lick your palms?” So….he did! What are you doing by fear that is really foolish in your life?
Don’t surrender to fear. God has a counterproposal to our fears. Our approach is negative. His is positive. Do not fear … versus … Do remember. Or don’t think on what might happen, maybe by you. Rather do reflect on what has happened actually, by his grace. Make sense?
REMEMBER WHAT GOD HAS DONE. In Deuteronomy 7 we have the record of God charging his people to destroy the enemies who occupy the Promised Land. The Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, their idolatry would be a metastasizing cancer among God’s people. The “Yes” of faith would need to trump the “No” of fear for such holy obedience to God.
So notice where God inspires Moses to invite his people to look. “…remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.” Don’t forget the miracles you experienced in Egypt. The LORD did not sit on his hands when you cried out to him. A Nile turned to blood. Frogs filled every kettle. Pharaoh held his lifeless firstborn. The Red Sea swallowed the world’s fastest chariots. You were delivered.
Face your enemies unafraid by remembering what God has done - for you! He died for you. He has risen. Love lives in heaven and love lives in you. You are forgiven. Ever and always he indwells you. And look at all the still waters of friendship the Good Shepherd has given you! Can’t you feel the fear melting away as you rehearse all that the God of the Angel Armies has done for you? Face your fears with God given faith in what God has done.
The young man who licked his palms in fear before his first sermon is being greatly used by God today to share his Word. Oh, he always gets nervous before he preaches but this is what he shared with me not long ago, “God helps me replace the terror with trust in his Word and promise.” Will you rely today on surrender or substitution in facing your fears?
Jesus increase our confidence in what you have done,
Pastor Tim
Be Someone of Heart
“… except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the Lord wholeheartedly” (Deuteronomy 1:36).
A big part of victorious living is Spirit-given whole heartedness.
A new naval recruit asked his officer for a pass to attend a wedding. The officer gave him the pass, but informed the young man he would have to be back by 1900 hours Sunday. “You don't understand, sir,” said the recruit. “I’m in the wedding.” Tank grey eyes blazed into the lad, then in burning monotone the reply: “No, son, you don’t understand, you’re in the Navy!”
Caleb would have made a marvelous midshipman. By God’s grace, Caleb’s life was a picture of the ship which kept its course - rough sea or smooth. Crisis times often do not create character in someone, they reveal and test what is already there. Six times this distinctive title: “wholeheartedly” is put on Caleb. Could this be a secret of a life that never goes stale for Christ?
The LORD made Caleb a man of unwavering faith. Completely and unreservedly he trusted in the presence and power of the God of the Angel Armies. His fearlessness rested on faith. Caleb believed that God could…and God did. At the age of 40 he and Joshua were on the short end of a minority report. Ten to two was the vote. Read all about it in the book of Numbers, chapter 13.
The majority saw the giants … the two men of faith saw God. The ten saw their own weakness … the two saw the power of the LORD. What Caleb inwardly believed he outwardly confessed, irrespective of consequences. He lived up to his name: Caleb, which means “all heart.” He pleased God for he dared to do and believe what God called him to.
In what area of life have you begun to live half-heartedly for the LORD? Are you flagging in fortitude for him? Living in a COVID fog of funk? Look to the one who gave Caleb his courage. See your LORD who “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Consider Christ as his love, forgiveness, and grace for you shoots adrenaline into your soul.
Caleb was eighty-five years old when he reminded Joshua of a promise that Moses had made to him to “give me this mountain” (KJV) when they reached the Promised Land. Eighty-five!! And he still wants to take a mountain for his Master … with giants. Maybe you are not there yet but this, my friend, is how we want to be for our Jesus even now - whole hearted.
Every Day Love
“Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7).
Walking through the doors of the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, you can view artifacts from some of the most consequential years in the 20th Century. In room after room, on shelf after shelf, you can research the end of World War II, recovery efforts after the Great Depression, Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight, the Watergate Scandal, and everything in between.
Somewhere in that library there is a room with a dignified sturdy mahogany writing desk and on the desk a set of fountain pens. Give ‘em hell Harry wore those pens out as he was a voracious letter writer in his lifetime. These letters, however, have little to do with historic events or presidential business. Among these “Truman Papers” you will find a collection of over 1, 330 letters. Truly, they are remarkable. You see, President Truman made it a point to write a letter to his wife, Bess every day they were apart for any reason at all.
Many of the letters are simple updates on minor things. Others, of course, do mention world leaders. And then Harry probably made Bess blush with lines like this: “Every time my thoughts wander, they always come back to you. Every time I see you, your angel carved face makes me want to cry.” But it’s the sheer number of letters that makes the real impact. To see all those letters together is to see evidence of one man’s steady, every day, faithful love for his wife.
God’s love for you is often not in the big and the dramatic. Very often his love for you is in the regular routine of life. Are you recognizing this? Offering thanks for his daily graces? God is the one who sees to it you get something to eat. He’s the one that provides the place for you to pillow your head and the style you chose to wear today. That hug you needed, the compliment that filled your soul like wind in a sail - ultimately Jesus saw to it that it came your way for his love never fails. Or will you have this day with your child or a loved one? What a gift, right!?
Most of all, God is the one who sees to it that his forgiveness of your sin is fresh as the morning dew and new for you every day. Your face was on his heart when he sent Jesus to bear our sin on the cross. And his resurrection was our resurrection - validating the forgiveness he offers us every day. This is the love God has for you. Personal. Passionate. Ever persistent.
Lord, please, move me by your Spirit to see the reality of your love for me every single day.
Status Worth Seeking
“An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest” (Luke 9:46).
When guys get together, they love to talk - about themselves. Ashleigh Brilliant, who scribbled his offbeat humor on hippie postcards, once penned: “All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance.” Guys easily get afflicted with this exaggerated sense. They talk about the fish they caught and the one that got away, the deal they closed, the car they drive. It’s not so much competence as it is competition. I’m not great but I am greater.
When Christ’s disciples got together it was no different. Luke tells us they had a hard time understanding why Jesus, at the height of his popularity would be betrayed. In their minds he was face to face with triumph. In Christ’s mind he was staring at a cross. Jesus was trying to convey to his students that he was to take the lowest place (Luke 9:44). Their response was to get into a verbal fight over who would be the most famous (Luke 9:46). So sure were the disciples that Jesus would free them from the boot of Rome, the only worthy argument was what role each would play in Christ’s new Kingdom. Each one upped the other in importance. Are you consumed more with your own status or greatness than Christ’s? Have you laid your own agenda over Christ’s agenda for your life?
Well, Jesus who knew the disciples’ thoughts, chose not to argue greatness. Instead, he illustrated what it meant to be kingdom great. He placed a child in front of them. Children had absolutely no status in Jesus’ day. “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me;” Luke 9:48a). Do you have enough humility to take a child seriously for my sake? Jesus asks. Would you welcome this little kid like you would welcome me? Then you would welcome my Father and me, and then you have status worth seeking.
Jesus then adds, “For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest” (Luke 9:48b). It turns out greatness is about serving not self-promotion. The way up is down in meeting the needs of the lowly rather than grabbing for the top. Or looking to Jesus and his selfless love in serving us we too want to selflessly serve others in love. This is status worth seeking.
Oscar Levant was a friend of Ashleigh Brilliant’s. Levant once said, “What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left.” Actually, we have plenty of those. Be different. Love a kid as you would Christ. Serve the lesser. Let his love compel you.
Before the Foxhole Prayers
“The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 - and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it” (Nehemiah 2:4, 5).
Nehemiah heard that though Jews had returned to their land from captivity, the wall of Jerusalem was in ruins. No wall no safe place to worship the one true God. Nehemiah wept. But as the King’s cup-bearer sadness displayed before the king was forbidden. Nehemiah was “deathly afraid” when the king asked him, “Why the long face?” But Nehemiah boldly replied honestly. To Nehemiah’s amazement the king asked him, “How can I help you?”
A split second pause took place. In that split second Nehemiah tells us, “Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and answered the king…” (Nehemiah 2:4, 5). Nehemiah then asked for the moon! The cup-bearer requested months of absence, official letters of safe conduct, and supplies for rebuilding. Quite an audacious mouthful for a Jewish slave. The king granted his requests!
Faith filled fox-hole prayers work, my friend. Do you pray them in a flash when you’re suddenly taking fire? Fox-hole prayers are also part of what James meant when he said, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16b). In the pressure cooker pray your desperate prayer. And, oh yeah, ask for the moon. After all, in the words of John Newton, “Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring, for his grace and power are such none can ever ask too much.”
But here’s to “Before the Foxhole Prayers” as well. I want to suggest to you that the presence of God was so vivid to Nehemiah that perhaps prayer was going on in his head most of the time. Crisis prayers come more natural when they flow out of a habit of talking to God regularly. Long before Nehemiah offered his fox hole prayer “For some days he mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4). Are you finding a patterned time to petition and praise our Gracious God in prayer? Be about “Before the Foxhole Prayers” and you watch the foxhole prayers more instinctively flow from your heart.
“Then I prayed to the God of heaven, …” (Nehemiah 2:4). If this foxhole prayer could come first how often would our conversations be different? “Then I prayed to the God of heaven,” and said to my boss? “Then I prayed to the God of heaven,” and said to my spouse.” See how often you can use this foxhole prayer in life and let it flow out of “Before the Foxhole Prayers.”
Believing Is Seeing
Thomas Huxley coined the term agnostic. Huxley taught, “totally refuse to commit” to either denying or affirming the supernatural without evidence. Huxley himself trumpeted Renee Descartes as the first to train himself to doubt. Descartes’s method for knowing was to begin by doubting everything until he found one unflappable belief: Cogito ergo sum. “I think, therefore I am.” This Descartes trusted. Only his thoughts made things believable to him. A little philosophical humor: Descartes walks into a bar. “Care for a beer?” asks the bartender. “I think not,” says Descartes and “poof” he disappears in a puff of logic.
Didymus the twin, or more commonly Thomas the disciple of Jesus, may have sympathized with Huxley and Descartes. “So the other disciples told Thomas, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe’” (John 20:25). How does a mutilated man raise himself from the dead? In fact, Thomas’s declaration of unbelief (“unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails”) is the only time nails are mentioned in the Gospels as part of Christ’s crucifixion. One wonders if the horror he witnessed put upon our Savior on the cross made it all the more difficult to believe in a Risen Lord? Let’s not assume we too wouldn’t have earned with him the not so winsome nickname of the one who doubted, “Doubting Thomas.”
Listen to Jesus give Thomas the evidence he needs and the greater blessing we so benefit from. After all, don’t we all doubt the Risen Christ at times? “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ 28 - Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29 - Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’” (John 20:27-29).
Seeing by the eyes of faith is believing! In this day, faith seeing brings more joy than head seeing. Faith, as the Bible describes it, is not blind. Unbelief is blind. Faith sees a reality beyond what eyes can see. God gives this faith and reveals this reality to us through his living and active word (Hebrews 4:12). This is why Peter, Thomas’s fellow eyewitness, later wrote, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 - for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8–9). Great joy comes not by seeing Jesus now, but by believing Jesus now. Believing is seeing. God give you this greater joy to an even greater degree as you “walk by faith not by sight” in the Risen Christ.
Living “Fillability”
Living “Fillability”
“Have you ever been drunk?” a man asked me. Sheepishly I answered, “Yes, a long time ago thankfully - not pretty.” “My drunk was ugly too,” this man lamented. “Everything was affected. My eyesight. My balance. My entire behavior. Even my stomach and my shoes.”
Interestingly, Paul uses drunkenness to teach us about the fullness of the Spirit “because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15). “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…” (Ephesians 5:18). Don’t be controlled by wine. That leads to evil living but be controlled by the Spirit. Anything of perceived value that the control of alcohol can bring you, the Holy Spirit can bring and more for real and lasting joy. Let the Holy One, your Sealer and Sanctifier, so be in you and possess you by faith in Christ that you live what, let’s call, “fillability.” That is you are continually overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit.
In Ephesians 5:19-21 Paul mentions three practical results of living “fillability:” “Singing,” “a thankful heart,” and “an attitude of mutual submission.” Aren’t those the gifts you want in these days of COVID 19 fear?! The last blessing is most significant because true submission always involves giving up your right to be in control. When we submit from the heart, we are saying, “I don’t have to have my way all the time. Let it be God’s way or my neighbor’s way.” So how do we, as the present tense of the verb says, “Keep on being filled with the Spirit?”
This man came to church late each Sunday. Sat down in the last pew right hand side. Half way through the sermon in loud fashion he would stand, raise his arms, and shout repeatedly, “Fill me, Jesus! Sweet Jesus fill me!” Then he would leave church and act like a complete jerk. Parishioners, family - all were treated shoddily. He’d gossip, envy, lie, and answer to nobody.
One Sunday during the sermon, in the middle of an arm waving, “Fill me, Jesus! Sweet Jesus fill me!” from this man. Doris Henkel, the 73 year old charter member of the church had enough. She stood up when this man sat down and with her arms up high she shouted to the sky, “Jesus, please, don’t fill him!! He leaks!”
You and I as sinners leak to. Christ forgives and fills through his Word. So be in the Word! Meditate on it. Treasure it. Being filled with the Spirit parallels allowing the Word to dwell in us richly. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (Colossians 3:16). Then as the Spirit fills again and takes control, we begin anew to live “fillability.” Jesus see to it in your life and mine.
Grateful with you for the Spirit’s filling through his Word,
Pastor Tim (1-210-837-3934)
A Perfectly Fitted Savior
With a mouth gaping posture the crocodile lay motionless. Suddenly before the bush dog knew it was kill his head was snapped gone. Yet later those same terrible jaws were seen caring for eggs. Jaws that tore a dog in half now carried delicate crocodile eggs with the gentleness of a falling snow. Perhaps crude but this gets us close to a picture of what the Bible means by the gentleness found in our Jesus. Gentleness in Christ is not the absence of strength but the right application of his strength to a tender situation or soul.
Think of what Jesus broke with his strength. Demons begged to rent pigs before his power. A perfect storm was stilled to a dead calm. The blind saw and the lame leapt. Jesus even dealt death a death blow for sins forgiven and for our salvation. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
And yet in Jesus enormous strength does not lead to callousness. He can take on the strongest of our foes and always prevail. But his capacity to confront doesn’t lead to unnecessary conflict. He doesn’t trample people. Christ can crush a serpent, but he can also hold the delicate in his care. Isaiah puts it like this: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;” (Isaiah 42:3).
The reed or dalamus plant has a hollow stem and grows by the sides of lakes and rivers. It was used for making music or fashioned into pens for writing. It is weak, fragile, and brittle. A wild beast easily snaps it with a paw or even a bird too heavy that lights upon it. Other stems can be mended but not the reed. Or think of a smoldering wick. Barely a flicker left in it, a mere speck of orange light, the tiniest zephyr would certainly snuff it out.
Are you bruised? Do you feel near a breaking point? Or do you feel like the flame of your hope is flickering? Listen to the promises of your God. “Never broken. Never snuffed out. Having all firmly set right.” There is no wound or vulnerability Jesus doesn’t understand or handle with the utmost care. He is someone you can trust with your most tender bruises and or fragility. Jesus will apply his unimaginable strength to you with sensitivity. Here is one you can actually trust with your deepest pains and bruises. No one is more fearsome, but none is gentler.
Bruised but never broken. Flickering but never snuffed out. My friend, dare to believe these promises. Thank him for them. Live in the good of them.
Life-giving Words Like Waterfalls
Breakers still pound the black rock shore that is the island of Patmos, scattering surf like crystal stars along the sandy slopes. John the prisoner would have been encouraged by the roar of these waves. Loudly they reminded him of the rhythm of God’s creation, held in order by the One in control. As surely as the waves chased each other ashore, so God’s order was to be accomplished in the world. Yes, even while one is imprisoned. Have you learned to see the constancy of his control in the created order?
An even more vivid form of comfort was found in those waves when John turned to see the voice speaking to him. Here’s his description: “… and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters” (Revelation 1:15b). Is there a better way to describe the voice of God than to compare it to “mighty ocean waves?” The heftiest surf that ever pounded a seashore, the biggest breaker to break loose of its brothers, this is the panoramic sound of the life-giving voice of our God.
Next time you stand at a waterfall, think about that. Then when you get to heaven, you will recognize his voice as you forget to breathe! Christ’s voice is greater than the thunder breakers on Patmos. This is a voice to be listened to. This is a voice to be loved by and made alive by - every day through his Holy Word. My friend, this is a voice to stand in awe of.
John 5:25: “Truly, truly, I say to 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.” Hebrews 1:3a: The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. John 17:17: Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Christ is speaking this universe into existence at every moment. When Christ speaks in his office as one who raises the dead decomposed matter obeys. And when Christ’s spoken or read truth is heard he makes us holy. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:22). Are you treating yourself to the Word of God on a daily basis?
I have a voice recording on my phone of my dad, now gone for 5 years this January 28th. “Hey Timmy, whup, whup, whup. It’s time to get up. It’s your dad and I love you (loud laughter)!” I cannot put into words what hearing that voice means to me. It’s so life-giving - and this from a mere mortal who loved me so dearly. Ah, my friend, you simply must hear more often the loving life-giving voice of the one like a waterfall!
White Hair for a White Christmas
White hair is what we won’t see when we first look into the cattle box of Christ to adore him. With the angels we’ll worship an infant God come to save us from our sin. Maybe Jesus was born a baby in the spirit of Esau, “hairy” or “rough,” but most do not picture him that way.
An aged John, however, on a black rock Alcatraz was given this stunning vision of Christ “The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire” (Rev 1:14). Christ is pictured with a blizzard of white hair in the middle of the seven golden lamp-stands or the seven churches he was writing to.
Now in our day white hair is to be avoided at any cost. It’s the stuff of senility, weakness, and or at least a goofy lack of competence. Gary Larsen of the Far Side cartoons always pictured God as an old man with long white hair and flowing beard and robes. His God is omnipotent and omniscient but still a bit comic. In one strip, God cooks up the earth in his kitchen, shaking a bottle labeled “Jerks” over it while thinking to himself, “Just to make things interesting.”
But in the day of John and Jesus white hair spoke of eternity, of Christ’s agelessness, of the dignity of his endless days. The little one in the manger is tiny but at the same time the Stallion of Timelessness. He has never not been. Doesn’t that give you a feeling of security? Of comfort.
My mission work isn’t what I hoped it would be. How about your work in the marketplace? Isn’t parenting challenging? I read about a teenager who was tired of being told what to do so he went and joined the Marines. We all make rash decisions like this and then what?
Just knowing Jesus has been around forever gives us a sense of security when we feel overwhelmed. Please, this Christmas in your worship put some white hair on the baby Jesus with the tiny head. White hair says, “I am wise. I understand many things you do not because I have lived forever. Wise beyond measure I truly am as one who lived even outside time.”
We worship Christ at Christmas not just because he was meek. And not just because he was mighty. But because no one in history ever united them the way he did. Sovereign might in sacrificial meekness. And get this, he promises us white hair too one day! That’s the sort of hair we will have in eternity because he was born to save us. O Come let us adore him.
Wishing you White Hair for a White Christmas,
Pastor Tim
See His Golden Sash
See His Golden Sash
Have you ever wondered what Jesus looked like? Ted Nugent? Any common Jew of his day? The flannel graph Jesus of Sunday school? We don’t know what the God-man looked like when he walked among us.
Thankfully, we get a picture of the glorified Christ in his divinity. An aged John was told to write a book and send it to seven churches in Asia. It was an intimidating world in those days to live for Christ. A portrait of the majestic Christ would revolutionize the way Christians lived for him. After all, “the way you live your life is a consequence of who you believe God to be.”
Is Jesus merely your buddy? He probably won’t inspire you to be bold. If Jesus is just a little God to you here’s the inevitable result: Fear, lack of vision, and failure to persevere. On the other hand, if Jesus is an infinite God to you, as he actually is, what might be some results?
Spirit given courage to do what is right. Generosity with treasure because, “Hey, God can provide.” And probably prayers with passion, for: “Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring; For his grace and power are such; None can ever ask too much.” How big is your God? “The way you live your life is a consequence of who you believe God to be.”
So - see his golden sash. In John’s vision of the cosmic Christ we are told: “and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching to his feet and with a golden sash around his waist” (Revelation 1:13). Only important people wore long garments. Only the dignified wore golden sashes. A day laborer wore the sash around the waist, to tuck in a tunic for work. An aristocrat or King wore it around the chest, as here, to indicate high rank.
In seeing the golden sash of Christ you are meant to be impressed by his greatness and glory. My God is s-o-o-o-o BIG! Big enough to die and raise himself up for me. Big enough to forgive me. Never will he leave me. On and on the blessings flow for our God is the glorified Christ.
I suspect that for most of us our Jesus is too small. We think too small. We don’t really understand whom we serve. Remember, the only Jesus you have ever known, the only Jesus you’ve ever talked to, the Jesus you serve, is the Jesus who is the majestic, cosmic Lord of heaven and earth. Can he touch us with the tenderness of a falling snow? Is he also the perfect compassionate High Priest? Yes. But don’t forget to also see his golden sash.
Jesus Loves Us,
Pastor Tim
Abiding in him to Abound for him
Abiding in him to Abound for him
October, 2019
Don’t you want some fire in your belly for Jesus? You have gifts God gave you to use - to develop them to their fullest for Jesus - don’t you burn at times to do this? We do! We want to abound for Jesus.
Paul writes, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). In light of Christ’s innocent death and glorious resurrection to set us free from sin let’s not hold back. “One life will soon be past only what’s done for Christ will last,” booms the bumper sticker. We want to abound for him.
But on the other side of our lives are these words from our Master: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). To abound for me first abide in me. Abiding is a receiving of Christ into the soul by the means of grace, welcoming him, trusting him, or a drinking, eating, and savoring of him. Jesus said in John 6:35: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
At Salem Lutheran in Milwaukee we served an elderly couple, Max and Elsie Knull. All their lives they lived in really cold places. Max survived World War II in a Russian war camp. After marriage they lived in Germany and on to Wisconsin to discover you can have summer, spring, fall, and the death of winter all in one cheery Cheese-head day. Once I asked Max, “You could live anywhere, why live here in Wisconsin?” Max touched Elsie on the arm with his trembling hand and said, “My home is wherever Elsie is. I abide with her.” Abiding with Jesus is a similar relationship of love. My friend, learn to abide in him for then we abound for him.
Abounding for him is bearing the fruit of the Spirit abundantly, “love, joy, peace …” (Galatians 5:22, 23). As Jesus loves you up real good in his Word you want to live more fully for him.
Think of it like this. In my dating years on occasion I would dance to win the heart of a lady. Picture, if you’ve seen Young Frankenstein, Peter Boyle as the monster lumbering to “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” This was me -on a good day. Then I met my wife Gretchen and we danced. She had fluidity and joy and grace in dancing. It was beautiful to me. A little of her grace spilled over to me. Only a little but now I wanted to dance and dance all the more and I would and could by her grace all the more. My friend, let’s dance for Jesus, yes, with Jesus. Let’s abound for him!
Jesus Loves Us,
Pastor Tim