Now Time

New Years Eve and my brother called to ask if I was going to stay up and welcome the New Year in. I told him that I had just watched the news and that the New Year was already being celebrated in Australia. I have decided to go on what I call NOW time. If the New Year was being celebrated right NOW in other parts of the world then it is NOW here where I am. Now time is not tied to the clock or the sun but to the SON. Now time is not tied to day or night or to the name of a month. It is just NOW. Maybe that helps explain eternity. God always lives on NOW time. The past is NOW to Him and the future is NOW to Him. There is no time in eternity. No clocks or calendars in Heaven , Just NOW.
"NOW are we the son’s of God” the word says. Not we were, or will be, but NOW. It is difficult to think of an eternal NOW, but a God who has to live by a calendar is too small for me. I need a God bigger than the clock, a God who stands apart from day and night. Whatever is up the road for me is in the NOW of God. No surprises with Him. This thing of measuring our lives by past, present and future can leave us a bit confused. What is important is the reality of the moment. Relationship with God is a NOW thing. We can’t live on what was or what will be. The joy comes from NOW. It is not even about today but NOW. NOW I am enjoying the forgiveness of Christ. NOW He sits beside my Father interceding for me. NOW I am enjoying His grace and mercy. NOW I have a home in heaven with HIM. NOW I don’t have to worry because I live in the eternal NOW of God.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God who are the called according to His purpose.” No wonder the Word declares, “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” Rest in His completed work. JFS

The Years Departed

I just finished looking at the photos of people who departed this year. We all depart you know, and following the departure there is an arrival. I was wondering where they arrived? It is not up to me to say, but I can say we all go somewhere. That is my conclusion and I am sticking with it. There is much evidence supporting this conclusion if you just take the time to look at it. As a pastor for thirty nine years, I have watched people die and people of faith do it with great grace. One does not have to wonder where the Grace comes from. The important thing is to put your faith in what is True. Faith is not some blind leap into the dark unknown certainty of eternity. It has a solid history. Real faith is based on Truth. Faith is not for the weak minded or the thoughtless. Real faith comes from a thoughtful investigation. It is a conclusion one comes to after examining the facts. The fact is Jesus Christ is the most unique person in human history. His claims about Himself make him the greatest gift to the world or the worst impostor the world had ever known. What astonishes me is how many so called educated people have never taken the time to investigate for themselves. They let someone else do their thinking for them on this matter. It is too important an issue to trash. If the atheist is right then it doesn’t matter. The departure is all there is to it. Nothing is true because he says it is truth. We don’t get to make truth. Nothing is untrue because I say it is untrue. Truth stands on its own legs and they are strong legs. Strong enough to support a world.
What is true is, Jesus lived, secular history confirms this.
What is true is, Jesus had much to say about our departure and destination.
What is true is, If you want to go to Heaven don’t take the wrong flight.

Winds of Adversity

It is Christmas Eve and Mary and I sit in the dark. High winds have taken down a tree and cut off our power. Like the tree, some people can’t take the winds of adversity but they come to us all. If you are wise you can prepare for what is expected. Mary and I just go back to our childhood and light the kerosene lamps that hang on our wall. I went through several Christmases in my childhood without electricity. It is just no big deal. As I write this I am reminded that many of my friends in Haiti don’t have electricity, ever. As some of us have learned, there is more than one kind of darkness. A darkness of the soul and spirit is the worst kind of all. Dark hearts where there is no love or forgiveness, dark hearts where life is a chore and hope is too far away to see. I guess you could say that Mary and I are in the dark but living in the light, the kind of light which cannot be extinguished by a fallen tree, light from another world, light born on Christmas day, light in the person of Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. We do not have to sit in spiritual darkness another moment of our lives. He is the Light and He is the Light of men. His Light is always on. Open your eyes and you will see.

Baby's Cry

It’s five am and I lay awake in the darkness of a December morning hearing in my mind the sound of the cry of a new born baby. Who would know that God would one day breathe, for the first time, the cool air of Bethlehem? Healthy babies do cry you know, and babies need diapers. The Great Shepherd had come to look for lost sheep, but the journey begins on his mothers breast. A loving mother tenderly caring for a dependant child. A carpenter burping a baby on his strong shoulder is not difficult to imagine, but God needing to be burped is difficult to fathom. The angels were told to sing to the shepherds, but they must have found it difficult to understand that the One who created them would put Himself in such a predicament. Why do I keep hearing that new born cry? It is the cry of new life. It is the cry of a loving God who became one of us so we could become like Him. It is Grace stepping into life’s pain, bringing new hope. He cried in Bethlehem so one day He could wipe the tears from our eyes. Oh!! The Joy of Christmas.

The Word

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

“And the Word became flesh…..”
“let there be light” became a baby.

The “God Said,” in Genesis one, speaking creation into existence is the God of the manger. He spoke light into existence for the physical world and became Light for the spiritual world. The Word in a manger became the Word on a Cross and the Word on the Cross became the Word of the empty tomb and the Word of the empty tomb is the Lord of the universe. No wonder wise men bow before Him.

Attic Treasure

Today while in my attic, I picked up a book that I didn’t remember having, and after reading several chapters, I think it was all a set up. The Lord always knows what we need and do I need the message of this book. Oh, I should tell you about the book. It was written by Samuel Chadwick and published in 1937, two years before I was born. Let me give you a paragraph written by Robert Lee Stewart, president of Taylor University.
“I have read many books on the deeper life, but I feel that THE WAY TO PENTECOST, has been the greatest blessing to my own soul of any book I have ever read in this field. Dr. Chadwick was a great soul. He was the cultured, evangelistic pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Leeds, England, for seventeen years. At the time of his death, he was the head of Cliff College.”
The following is a paragraph worth thinking about:
“The sphere of the Spirit is the Living Temple of sanctified humanity. He dwells not in temples made with hands. The Temple at Jerusalem was a permitted mistake, as surely as the kingship of Israel. In the New Jerusalem there is no Temple. The Tabernacle was a type of heavenly realities…..God cares nothing for costly buildings, and everything for loving hearts. He seeks men. He wants men. He needs men. He dwells in men. Immanuel is the first word and the last of the Gospel of grace. He has staked His kingdom on men. He has trusted His Gospel to men. He has given His Spirit to men. The Church is on the stretch for new methods, new plans, new buildings, new organizations, but the “eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” The Holy Ghost does not come upon methods, but upon men. He does not anoint machinery, but men. He does not work through organizations, but through men. He indwells the Body of Christ, directs its activities, distributes its forces, empowers its members.

Still Standing

As I walked this morning I encountered an obstacle in my path. A dead tree had fallen across it. It could not withstand the high winds of adversity which blew a couple of days ago. Death is rigid, life is flexible, sunflowers follow the sun until death sets in.
When the winds of adversity blow in our lives His Life in us keeps us standing when others are uprooted. Oh Lord, put your life in us, the LIFE which will enable us to stand against the wiles of the enemy. Keep us connected to the Divine Vine so each branch can wave a Hallelujah in the middle of life’s storms.
Ps 28:7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.

Christmas At Home

It is a couple of weeks until Christmas and I sit thinking about mama and daddy.
They have spent the last several Christmases at home with Jesus. I often wonder what they are doing. I am sure heaven is not perpetual church going, or at least I hope it’s not. I can’t think of Christmas without thinking of heaven. They are connected you know. Our greatest gift came from heaven. Some people would say Jesus home town was Bethlehem or Nazareth, but I know better. His home town was His Father’s House and that was out of this world. Christmas has never been the same since mom and dad went home. I am a bit sad about it, but I am also grateful because as a family we took great joy in celebrating this special day. My children are not coming home this Christmas, but that’s alright, they have families of their own and they will celebrate with the same great joy.

As time marches on, many of us are separated from our families by distance and jobs that keep us apart, but for me the urge to go home at Christmas never leaves. This year, God willing, I will experience my seventieth Christmas. Of course a few of them I don’t remember, but many of them were special. On the heels of World War II I lived in a rundown farm house. Some people would have called us poor, but then they didn’t know the meaning of rich. Rich was spending Christmas with family. Rich was fruit and chocolate, pies, cakes and a feast usually in the middle of the afternoon. One Christmas stands alone in its impact on my life. It is the one when my father made toys with his own hands for my brother and me. A wagon, toy trucks and one store bought train that went in a small circle. Christmas is about giving and his love for two little boys compelled him to find a way to put something under the tree.

It all reminds me of why Jesus left home and came to this earth. It was His love compelling him to give us what we needed most. We needed forgiveness from our sins and a way to come home. He gave us a present, not under a tree but on a tree. He took our place in the dark, dungeon of separation from the Father. He went to the tree for me so I could one day go home for a real Christmas. Home to Father’s house where all the family will be there, and the celebration will last forever. Who knows, we may have Christmas next year at Home. You will love meeting mom and dad.

Facing Doubt

There are moments in my life when I am confronted with troubling thoughts like, “Is the Christian faith just the reach of desperate people for hope for an unknown future? Is it just another way of coping with life’s cruel tricks?” I don’t think it is a bad thing that we look for ways to make it through the mess, but there are those who think Christianity is a crutch for the weak. Like many on the journey, I have prayed many prayers that remain unanswered. I have lived through those dark times when I felt alone and hopeless. I have wondered if there is something wrong with me, some exception to the rule of the normal. But through it all I am confronted with the reality of the person of Jesus Christ.
Whether you believe in Him or not, He lived and the world is confronted with the claims He made about Himself. For a man to claim to be God is on the edge of reality. If God is like most men I know, I’m not sure He can be trusted. Most of the disappointments in my life have come from people. But just maybe that is a clue to the answer we are all searching for. The Jesus Christ story helps me make sense of it all. Separated from a Holy God by the darkness of evil, trying to live life with the spiritual lights off, we hurt each other as we try to survive the journey. Surely the journey is not just about survival, there must be some greater meaning to life than just making it. Someone said, “religion is man’s reach for God.” What a strange thing that men in their darkness would ever expect to find God. It is difficult to find anything in darkness. One can dream and hope, but light makes it so much easer. I can find no greater explanation of the Jesus event than Light in the darkness. The way He was treated by most of his neighbors reveals their journey in the darkness. Evil always hides in the dark corners of the human heart, ready to pounce in unexpected moments, cutting, slashing, bruising, separating lonely men. The Cross event not only revealed the Love of God but it revealed the darkness in men. Why would you want to get rid of Goodness? Why would you try to destroy the One who had power over your greatest enemy--death? You would think He would be welcomed with open arms.
I think we must be more like the Gadarenes who were exposed by Jesus. On His way to their town, Jesus encountered one of their own who was living alone. He was crazy, and they all knew it. Someone to be avoided, too far gone for anyone to help. So they just adjusted and learned to accept the work of darkness living on the edge of town. Jesus encountered the man and delivered him from his miserable life. You would think they would have all rejoiced over a life brought out of the darkness into the light, but not so, they were more comfortable with the works of darkness than with the giver of life. They asked Jesus to leave. They didn’t want him in their town. It is sad to say, but that is where much of our world is today--more comfortable with the works of darkness than with the Living Christ. People can watch the works of darkness on TV and feel comfortable, but when confronted with the reality of a Living God and the manifestations of His presence they want to run.
Now back to the top of the page and my troubling thoughts. What I have learned to do is hit them with the Truth. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life.” That is his claim about Himself and I believe it. So I join my heart with the millions who believe He is the Son of the Living God. Don’t take my word, but if you are smart you will investigate it for yourself. It is an issue too important to ignore.

A Reason To Live

I just returned from the mountains of Haiti and I am so thankful God has given me a reason to live. Talking with my brother the other day he reminded me of my age and that it is about time for me to slow down. While I know that at seventy I can’t do all the things I once did, I also know that the Word of God does not speak of retirement. Our purpose in life does not end at sixty-five or seventy. It is my goal to finish what God put me on this earth to finish—to say with Paul, “I have finished the course.” Last week as I sat in a tin roofed church building in the mountains of Haiti I could not help but think of so many people in America who have lost their purpose for life. They are just trying to survive old age and loosing the battle everyday.

Our purpose is not just to make it through the day, to go to Worship on Sunday and walk away to endure another week of purposeless living. God’s purpose for my life did not die with my first social security check. I wonder if many people don’t die before their time because they depart from the Divine Purpose for their lives. With reasonable care of my body and staying focused on God’s purpose for my life I expect to finish the course my Father set for my life.

I fear that we let go of the wrong things. As I get older I am letting go of many things but I am holding on to my reason for living. For thirty five years I owned and flew an airplane. I have now let go of that part of my life. Many other things I once did I seldom do anymore, but the one thing that I will not let go of is my calling, my purpose, I shall pursue it until the end. I am not on this earth to survive winter by running to Florida. I am not trying to survive old age by staying at home where I can be close to a doctor. No man is taking a chance when he is in pursuit of the Divine Purpose for his life. Survival should not be our aim in life. Saving our money for what might happen is not good stewardship. Investment in the Kingdom is. To all the SS’s (social security) and I am one of them, get out of the house and pursue your Divine Purpose. If Abraham could leave home at seventy-five in pursuit of God’s purpose for his life, surely we can get involved in reaching for a hurting world.

Ge 12:4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.