Grace to Grace

Tenth Sunday of Pentecost
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-16

The purpose of the church is to make new disciples for the kingdom of God on earth, to build up the living, active body of Christ until all of us have a unity of faith, acknowledging Jesus as the Son of the Living God.

Christ knows us and calls us.  He knows the potential within our lives and believes we can aid in transforming the world that God has created. With ordinary people like each of us, we can lead others in making this world a more caring, loving world than it is today.

Today this world operates on discourse, disharmony and disunity.

• In many family units
• In the communities we live in
• The world as a whole 
• And even within the church

We are called and equipped to create a sacred oneness as agents of Jesus Christ. The church is the one source that has the ability, but for the church to create that unity we need to dispel all discourse and our personal agendas. We need to take those differences to the Lord asking him to enable us to transcend our differences. We must love one another as He loves us.

The grace to ask ourselves is at our fingertips; it is within our grasp. That is one of the basic factors of the Christian church. Love one another as the Lord loves us!

Christ knows that we have an instant struggle, a daily battle loving one another as he loves us. It is possible for us to love one another by seeing that we are not perfect persons. We are only God’s children in process. We need when we have wronged one another wrongly

• to stop that action instantly!
• to see deep down the goodness that is in each one of us and see what the Lord sees in us.

That is a goal that we must seek to attain. When we hold on to our ill feelings about one another, we are hurting not only ourselves but the image of the Lord who lives within us. Likewise we limit the fullness of God’s grace and we are one missing the goal of unity with one another and our Lord.

It’s wonderful that our Lord has the ability not only to forgive us, but He forgets our sin and it will never be brought up against us again. It would have been wonderful and a blessing if we had the ability to forgive and forget our transgressions against one another.

It is here that Satan attacks us full force to destroy the love of God within our hearts! When we yield to our human frailties we sacrifice the grace of God within us.

Lord God, help us for we all are guilty of this sin causing us to lose faith and Your divine grace. Help us forgive the way You have forgiven us. Amen.

Father God

9th Sunday of Pentecost
Scripture: Ephesians  3:14-21

When I say "father," what image do you feel and see in your heart and mind?                                        
Paul is making a huge step of faith when he speaks of the Holy God as Father. Fatherhood comes with a large responsibility. While a man can be a sperm donor, he may never care for the child as a father. In the Old Testament, God was not spoken in terms of as a Father.  In the Old Testament, God was seen as an impossible entity to approach. To see God face to face meant instant death. It was only on the Day of Atonement that the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was, to offer prayer for the sins of the people.

Recall when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai. His face shown like the sun and the people believed that he had been with God.

It’s only in the New Testament, that the writers speak of God as a Father. Recall when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan river.  When He came up out of the water, the voice of God was heard saying “This is my beloved Son."

Paul said in Ephesians 3, where he talked about sharing with the Ephesians, that God is our Heavenly Father.  He also said that He transcends all aspects of our earthly father.

It is through Jesus Christ’s blood we can approach God personally, yet today every church family has members who question the basic fact that our faith response makes God approachable. That is simply not the case.

Do not be swayed from the truth by the last person you have spoken to. Stand firm in the faith and in scripture. Paul speaks of a clever trickery and many that offer their opinion.

Like James Jones' followers in Guyana, they were deceived. These people are excellent actors.
In seducing and causing many to fall from grace. There are some that follow the preacher and not the Lord he preaches about.

Who was the first one to call God The Father? It was Jesus!

God the Father is not an entity out in outer space, nor just in Heaven.
He is right here, right now in this sanctuary.
He hears each word that is spoken.
He senses each thought in our hearts and minds.
He sees each of our reactions to what is going on.
He knows us better than we know ourselves.

Paul is making us aware that if we water down our understanding of a loving, caring Heavenly Father, we are shortchanging ourselves to the fullness of the Father Grace. Paul makes aware that it is ever so easy to abandon our faith by often following mortal man and not the Father in Heaven.

If we don’t hold onto the Faith, it causes spiritual stagnation and narrow mindedness. That leads to limited understanding of the fullness of God's presence.

Praise God the Father who loves us and knows us. In spite of ourselves His love is so great that He sacrificed His only Son as a ransom for our sins.

Let us pray… Thank you Heavenly Father. We can comprehend your love for us for forgiving our sins through the blood of Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen!

A Holy Seal

Seventh Sunday of Pentecost
Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14

We are all sealed with a holy seal when we confess our faith. God placed that Holy Seal upon us by the sacrificed blood of Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son.

Paul begins the letter of Ephesians claiming 2 things:
1.) He is an apostle of Christ.
2.) His approval came only through the will of God.

Paul’s apostleship means that his action is through his commissioning as a gift from God. He likewise is amazed that God could use him, with such a dark and sinful background. As Christians, we must never be filled with pride. We must only be filled with wonderment and amazement that the Lord sees our worth in spreading the Gospel.

When we confess our faith and love for Jesus in our hearts, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit for the tasks that lay ahead of us. That seal is for God’s grace and peace.

The grace and peace from God is always a precious gift. It is impossible for us to obtain by our own efforts. We can never earn it. It is always a gift from the Loving Lord. God’s peace is something that is independent of our own outward circumstances.

One might live a life of ease and luxury in the world. One might have the finest things in life...

• a huge fine mansion
• a large bank account
• a host of friends

…while having no real sense of peace within their heart and life.

Take some of the 3rd world nations. They might make a couple dollars for a whole day’s work, yet they can have a smile on their face and a real sense of peace in their heart.

The explanation of that peace can be seen in the one set of footprints in the sand, the awareness that God is carrying them through this ordeal.

I sense that Paul thought a person who has the love of God in his heart and nothing more could have the peace of God. He reminds us that many of the choices we make can rob us of God’s peace. For we were created to be God’s chosen ones, but by our own default we reject the will of God!

The choices we make in our own lives may draw us away from God’s love or draw us closer to His love because he created us with free will.

There is a story of a rich man and beggar (the 16th chapter of Luke). The rich man never saw the beggar at his doorstep, but the beggar asked the rich man to send Lazerus to warn his 5 brothers that they should not follow in his footsteps.

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.

23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place,
so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,
28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’”

The choices we make now, may seem inconsequential and yet if the rich man would have given the beggar a drink of water, the Lord would have seen it and blessed him.

We always have 2 choices in life.

1. We can go the way of the world
2. We can go above and beyond the world… 

laying treasures in heaven, laying great treasures in Heaven.

Who are we going to follow? The way of the world or the way of God?

Rejoice in His holy seal that God seeks to put upon our lives. Amen!

Thorns or Grace?

Sixth Sunday of Pentecost

Scripture: 2nd Corinthians 12:1-10

Our scripture starts out with Paul speaking about a man in Christ giving of himself to the Lord. Paul knew this man for 14 years. In this passage, he spoke about being "caught up in the 3rd Heaven."  He likewise states that he did not know if this was with his body or without his body being in the Spirit.

About this man I will boast. About myself, I will not boast. I will not be a fool, for I will speak only the truth.

Paul speaks about a thorn in his flesh. Some believe that it was a form of Malaria Fever that haunted the coastal area he traveled in. Others thought it might have been a Spiritual temptation or "constant doubt" that he was doing the will of the Lord.

Others thought it was fear from shirking his duty.

Yet others thought it was carnal temptation. Monks and hermits shut themselves in monasteries to tame the instinct of sex.

Yet none of these solutions can be right for 3 reasons:
1.) The text states that it was severe pain.
2.) Others thought it was physical suffering of a deformity.
3.) The pain was intermittent.

It states in 2nd Corinthians that Paul might have had a weakened body. Sometimes he could hardly share his love for the Lord.

Paul does not tell us nor does the scripture identify the thorn in Paul’s side. Paul asked the Lord several times to remove the thorn. The Lord said no. His grace is sufficient.

Paul would not let the thorn in his side stop him from serving the Lord.

What is the thorn in your side? We all have at least one that limits us from our ability to faithfully serve the Lord our God. Are you limited in sharing your faith with others? Fearful of not saying the right things?

We are not to worry about what we might say, for the Lord said He would give us His words. Just tell your story. Tell them your love of the Lord and how He has been with you every step of the way. Remember the footsteps poem I shared a few week ago?

Some won’t try to increase their limited abilities because of the lack of education or even comfort level.  

I cannot sing on tune or read music, yet I enjoy making a joyful noise unto the Lord. That’s all that is required of us. With all the thorns in my life, the Lord had not made me useless in speaking the Word of God for 45 years.

We need to stop holding back our gifts and talents the Lord has given us. I knew a lay pastor who had a speech impediment, not unlike Moses. He stuttered constantly when speaking, yet when he started to preach his speech was clear and without any evidence that he had a stuttering problem.

We need to not be limited by the thorns in our lives that seek to hinder us of our true capabilities to share the Love of Christ. As we seek to serve the Lord, may He not remove the thorns in our lives, but use them to spur us on and do his will as He desires rather than settling for our unwillingness to step out in faith.

May we praise the Lord with the amazing grace that He has given each and everyone of us who is willing to be used by Him to tell His story.

Amen!

Generosity

Fifth Sunday of Pentecost
Scripture:  2 Corinthians 8:7-15

The mother church in Jerusalem was in crisis!

She was in great need, trying to continue her ministry. We don’t know exactly what the need was, only that she was in need of a lot of money. Hearing of this, Paul, who was in Macedonia, starts a fundraising drive to help erase that need.

Seeing the Macedonians and their generous hearts, even with their own needs, Paul asks them to help the mother church. So, even with their own poverty yet with their overflowing generous hearts, the church responded to those needs.

Now, no gift can be in any way a real gift  without the giver,giving a bit of themself wrapped into the gift.

The same is so very true with all our gifts given unto our LORD. Paul sites several reasons for being generous. He set the example that others could follow. The church in Macedonia was a poor church, yet a church very generous in helping others.

Another example is that of our Lord Jesus the Christ. He sacrificed Himself on the cross. The generosity showed there did not start with the crucifixion. Nor did it being at His birth; rather it began in Heaven when He chose to lay down His life so that all of us might have abundant life on Earth and eternal life of peace in heaven.

I want to praise you as members of the Peniel Church. When I requested a special offering for Nepal’s Earth Quake, while we took some out of the Mission Fund, we raised nearly $500 more through your individual giving.

Paul reminds us of the strange way that life has a way of evening things out. It’s a true saying that far more often than not we find the measure we respond to others is the same measure that is returned to us.

We cannot outgive God! Paul includes his appeal with phrases from Exodus 16:17-18, the sharing of the Manna and quail in the wilderness. The Israelites did as they were told.  Some gathered much manna; others gathered less.

When they measured it by the omar, he who gathered much did not have too much and he who gathered little had not too little.

We need to realize all of our gifts given unto our Lord, proportional to our ability, is a blessing.
No gift is too large and no gift is too small. Remember the lady with the 2 mites?   The Lord measures all of those gifts using the same yardstick.

The more we put into something, the more we get out. Our Christian action is response to our faith. If we put only a little of our faith into actions, very little will we get out of it.

Matthew 6:1 does caution about giving to the needy: "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."

2 Corinthians 9:7 says:
"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

So we gave almost $1,500.00 to the people of Nepal, who will never know who you are,
but they will know it came from the Church.

Let us pray!

Blizzard of Trouble

4th Sunday of Pentecost
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

In all the chances and changes in his life, Paul maintained one main concern: to show himself as a sincere faithful minister of Jesus Christ. He would say without reservation that the Christian life style is not for the faint of heart.

When Satan and his demons throw trials and temptations at you, you must persevere.

Winston S. Churchill said, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal. it is the courage to continue that counts.”

In today society too many expect that once they confess their faith in the Lord Jesus the Christ life will be a bed of roses… roses without thorns.

In our text for today, Paul is sharing the eternal conflict of a true Christian life style. There are all sorts of conflicts that constantly weigh down our hearts and spirits.

I was going to my office to prepare this message when the telephone rang. It was about 9:30 AM, and it was my nephew calling to tell me his sister had killed herself. She was my only sister’s daughter. I had to spend quite a bit of time to get my thoughts together. I don’t understand the “why” in this situation, only that the Lord will guide and comfort our whole family during these difficult days,

Like Paul, I know the Holy Spirit is in all of life’s up and downs and He will be with us always. God loves us regardless of whatever is going on in our lives. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in prison, yet Paul was in prison seven times for speaking about  the Lord.

He suffered at least two beatings with a cat of nine tails and got 39 lashes. Because he was a Roman citizen they were not permitted to give his 40 lashes, as the 40th lash might have caused his death.

I don’t know how many ship wrecks he was involved in.

And we get upset when someone says something that offends us or hurts our felling. If Paul had acted that way there would be no Christian church today. But he stayed with his course of action in preaching and witnessing the Gospel, that we might have a true witness to the pitfalls of being faithful to our confession in Jesus Christ our Lord.

As I look back over the trials and treatment of Paul and His labors to preach the Gospel, I can not see one time in my whole ministry even once that I have suffered anything like Paul suffered for his love for our Lord. And today we are a spoiled lot. We gripe because its either too hot or to cool. We get furious when someone says something about us or what we supposedly did or didn't do.

Remember the old saying: “It’s unwise to change horses in the middle of the stream!”

But in spite of our narrow tempers and misunderstanding with one another, the church is still alive and doing business for the Lord Jesus the Christ. May each of us look at our service for the church today and where we may be a stumbling block to one another. Maybe we should repent, ask for forgiveness, and then seek to find the gifts of the Spirit God gave us to illuminate His presence… in us!

Amen!

Peace of the Presence

3rd Sunday of Pentecost
Scripture: St. Mark 4:35-41

The Sea of Galilee is between two large mountain ranges. It sets in a bowl its water coming in from the north. This is a natural wind tunnel, causing the sea that is like a sheet of glass to become rough with high waves, some of which are several feet high.

When Jesus and His disciples started across the lake, the surface was a sheet of glass. About half way across the wind came blowing hard.  The little boat is tossed about like a toy top on a flat surface. Jesus is laying on a piece of carpet with a small pillow. The helmsman stands on deck a couple feet away. The waves were hitting the boat so hard that the boat was taking on water.

The disciples were afraid that the boat was about to sink.  They woke Jesus up, saying, “Teacher don’t you care that we are about to perish?”

Jesus gets up and sternly rebukes the wind and waves. Jesus tells the wind and waves “BE SILENT…BE MUZZLED”. The wind and waves die down immediately. The sea surface returns to being a sheet of glass. The disciples marvels that even the wind and waves obey His command.

What is interesting here is that Jesus used the same words to the wind and waves that he used to silence a demon-possessed man in Mark 1:25: “Be Quiet.” Here in Mark 4:39, Jesus says “QUIET ... BE STILL.” This passage not only shows the power of Jesus, but that He can bring peace in the storms of life that we face.

There is a tale of a gardener who loved a certain flower and he spent extra time tending to its every need, using only the best products for its care. One morning, he went to the garden to check on his flower. It was gone! No trace! He began to rant and rave over who would do such a trick. Why would anybody steal his most precious flower?

Standing there in the garden, he felt the presence of something. In his mind he heard a voice. The voice said, “Hush! I plucked it for myself.” Then he realized it was the voice of the Lord, speaking to his heart. He at once realized that Jesus could calm the storms of our rage in an instant and in the darkest moments of our lives.

Jesus offers us peace when our lives are asunder, such as during the loss of a precious loved one.

His presence comes to us when we don’t know what to do. Often the real tragedy is not that we don’t know what to do, but so often we do not humble ourselves to be guided by Him. He offers us peace of His presence, when the storms of life are raging within us.

Remember the enemy of peace is worry. We worry for ourselves and our loved ones and about the unknown future. Jesus speaks to us as a Father who’s heart and love never causes His precious child a needless tear.

I love the words in our hymn on page 512, Stand by Me.

“When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me.
Stand by me.
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me.
Stand by me.

“When the world is tossing us like a ship upon the sea,
Then who ruleth Wind and Waters,
Stand by me.
Stand by me.”

Jesus the Christ, is the only one that can grant us true peace of body, mind, and spirit. Amen!