Passion Week

If I had a meat thermometer and could plunge it in your heart to test your devotion to Christ, would it register a cold heart… a lukewarm heart like those Laodiceans of Revelation 3 ... or a heart on fire?

This was the question thrown out to our congregation Sunday morning, and it’s an appropriate question to ask at the outset of Holy Week. After all, this week is also termed “Passion Week,” and as it progresses we see the thermometer plunged deep into the heart of Christ.

What does it reveal? On Palm Sunday we see a Savior weep over a city who will not be saved. On Monday an Avenger, jealous for His Father’s honor, clears the Temple of merchandise and moneychangers. On Thursday, in Gethsemane’s gathering darkness, a Suffering Sacrifice agonizes as Night approaches. On Friday, the sin-laden Slain Lamb cries for a Father Who is nowhere to be found.

Was there any passion, any depth of devotion in the heart of Christ this Holy Week? He was all about passion, He was a heart on fire with love for us and devotion to the will of His Father. He was throwing every ounce of energy, every bit of heart into His mission; He was leaving it all on the field, for love of us and His Father.

So Holy Week is an excellent time to take our own temperature, and not with one of those pop-up timers that cheerfully announce, “Enough! Well done, time to turn the heat off, take the offering out of the oven and let’r cool!”

No, let’s invite God to do the testing, to plunge His “thermometer” into the depths of our heart, then ask Him to fan the flame of our inner devotion this week until we are a furnace heated seven times hotter… until the streams of living water that flow out from us (Jn. 7:38) become hot springs, healing streams, life-giving refreshment to everyone in our path. Let’s make it our Passion Week, too.

In fact, because every day is Palm Sunday, let's make it Passion Life.

The Declaration of the Downcast

John Stumbo, whom Pastor Dave referred to in the opening words of Sunday’s sermon, pastored a large Alliance church in Oregon before contracting a devastating disease that nearly killed him. Partially recovered, John still cannot swallow and has numerous other limitations, but can drive and work part-time in an associate position at his church.

On his blog, John recently posted his declaration of faith, and encouraged his readers to use it to assert their own faith. “Remember,” he wrote, “this isn't a prayer, but a declaration of faith. Speak it boldly.” Maybe you’ll even want to use it for awhile in your daily devotional time, or start each day by proclaiming it to the Lord:

DECLARATION OF FAITH

In Him we live and move and have our being.

Christ is here. He is with us.
Christ is present. He is among us.

I believe we will be recipients of His grace every day we live. With David I believe that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. With Paul I rejoice that nothing can separate us from God's love. With Mary, I accept His divine plan for our lives and say, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said."

Christ is here. He is with me.
Christ is present. He is surrounding me.

I believe I will be a recipient of His grace this very day. I don't know if today will bring the grace of physical healing or the grace to have the courage and strength to thrive in my brokenness. But I celebrate that both are acts of grace, both are from His good hand.

Christ is here. He is with us.
Christ is present. He is among us.

I believe that, as we have eyes to see them, we will encounter evidences of His grace today. He has no old mercies. They are ever new. He is never thwarted by evil, but can always bring good out of the worst situations if we let Him. He is the God who can redeem anything.

Christ is here. He is with me.
Christ is present. He is encompassing me.

I believe that His grace will invade my world as I walk it today. I know that as long as I live in this fallen world, I will face hardship. But I also know that I can be of good cheer--I can live with joyful courage--because the One who has overcome the world goes before me.

Christ is here. He is with me.
Christ is present. He envelopes me.

I believe that His grace will be sufficient through all of life. Even when my path takes me to the valley of death, I will have no reason to fear for He is with me. With that being settled, I can more fully embrace all he has for me this day, for I am alive. I am alive in Him.

Indeed, it is in Him that we live and move and have our being.




(For further reflection, here are the Scriptures that are directly or indirectly referenced in the above: Acts 17:28, Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 13:5-6, Psalm 23:6, Romans 8:39, Luke 1:38, Genesis 50:20, John 16:33, Psalm 23:4)

Grateful to be on this journey with you,
John

A Carrot in My Ear

When my sisters and I were young, we periodically dredged up that old joke:

“You’ve got a carrot in your ear!”

“What?”

(Louder) “You’ve got a carrot in your ear!”

“What?”

YOU’VE GOT A CARROT IN YOUR EAR!!

“I can’t hear you; I’ve got a carrot in my ear.”

If you fail to see the humor, what can I say – we loved it, which does not mean it was necessarily funny. But the joke does have something to say about our spiritual sense of hearing. We learned Sunday that hearing is the first sense to return when one is regaining consciousness, and the last to leave when one is fading out. And many of us agree that we long to be more conscious of God, but for some reason we just aren’t hearing from Him.

We lament His silence. We yearn for His voice. We remember how thrilling it was the last time He actually said something to us. We pray for Him to speak again. We listen, but hear only silence.

It’s all those carrots in our ears. Carrots like...

1. Willfulness. We want to hear some kind of guidance from the Spirit, but we’re gonna weigh what He says before committing 100%.
2. Doubt. Although we ask, we’re not sure we can count on an answer. (“That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord” James 1:7 NIV).
3. Busyness. We race around like chickens with our heads cut off, then freeze for five seconds to listen for God’s voice. Nothing yet? Then it’s off to the races again.
4. Fear. We desperately need to hear from God, but we’re petrified of what He might say. What if it’s too hard? What if it’s precisely those words we dread to hear? Might hearing be worse than this silence?
5. Noise. The voice of the Spirit is a gentle whisper. (after all, how many times do we read, “and God shouted…”?) I hope I’m not stealing from next Sunday’s sermon when I say that only after the wind, earthquake and fire had taken a back seat did Elijah hear the still, small voice of the Lord. Any commotion going on in our lives? It’s highly likely we’ll need to steal away to a quiet place where whispers can be heard.

Willfulness. Doubt. Busyness. Fear. Noise. We’d love to hear from God… but we’ve got these carrots in our ears…

Love's Perfect Present Tense

“God’s love is always in the perfect present tense.” That sentence from Sunday’s sermon deserves a resounding, Yes! It most certainly is! And just what would that mean, if you let Webster’s Dictionary, rather than an English grammar teacher, define it?

Perfect! God’s love for you and me is complete in all aspects, without defect or omission, flawless, faultless, and without reserve or qualification. It is utter, pure, sheer, and absolute perfection. It always understands you and me, always decides the right thing, always takes the right course of action. God’s love could never be improved upon and never has its ups and downs. It’s always perfect.

Present! God’s love is not just a vague, warm cosmic feeling; His love is a state that is now existing, an action that is right now in progress, an attention that is fully fixed on each of us this very second. And when the next second comes…next year… next decade… on into the eons of eternity, His love will be ever-present and attentive and active in our lives.

Tense! The root meaning of tense comes from the Latin “to stretch.” God’s love stretches from eternity past to reach into our present and continue on into our future. He planned before creation to rescue us. After man sinned, He kept reaching and reaching into our world – first through the Law and the prophets, then through His Son and His sacrifice. God continues to reach into our world through His Word and through His Holy Spirit. He’s continually stretching out to us, striving to communicate His love and capture ours. He’s wrapping His arms tightly around us. He’s pulling us close to Himself, holding us forever in His intense love.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called His kids!” That we should be loved by Him… in the perfect present tense.

McWorship

“Hello and welcome to McWorship… can I take your order?”

“Ah, yes, I’d like the full meal deal. One sanctuary full of energy and enthusiasm (someone else’s), stuffed with the works – praise band, worship leader, worship team, choir… Layer on a rousing sermon, and throw in some hi-tech touches. And it’s been a hard week, so supersize the whole thing. I’ll eat that right here… And to go, I’d like a McWrap of peace with a hi-carb feeling…”

McWorship. Entering the sanctuary with one thing in mind – getting what we want, conveniently and instantly.

That’s not you? Surely we’re all guilty to some degree. God’s peace is so enjoyable, His music is so inspiring, His Word is so challenging, that it’s tempting to get our eyes off God and focus on those feelings. Soon we’re pulling into the FAC driveway, anticipating not a meeting with Him, but an infusion of good feelings. They’re what we’re hungry for, why we bite eagerly into our Sunday morning McWorship.

We’ve lowered our sights. Once we focus on the feelings, our attention turns inward. Are they serving what I need? Am I being satisfied? Will I leave here with a full spirit – gotten at a discount price?

Good grief, we would never say those things in so many words. But if our “meal” isn’t delivered as ordered, aren’t we a little disgruntled? Searching for someone to blame? Who didn’t flip the burger fast enough to fill our little order? Who withheld our inspiring word from the Lord?

We need to take a good long look at ourselves. For worship is an action verb – our action, not God’s or the pastor’s or anybody else’s. It’s the giving of our attention and intense love and admiration and adoration to God alone. Never fear, the feelings will follow in God’s plan. He is “the giving God” (James 1:5 Amp), and He will not be outgiven by His children.

Such worship is in order 24/7, not just Sunday mornings. Our body is the temple of the Lord. We are always in the sanctuary.

The question is, what are we doing in there? Ordering McWorship? Or giving ourselves to the Creator of the universe and Redeemer of our souls, who is forever to be praised….