You Know Me

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By Pastor Dwight on May 21, 2009 6:44 PM Comments: 0 (Read, or add your own)

"I stand amazed in the presence, of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be, How marvelous, How wonderful, is my saviors love for me."

This week we have been reading Psalm 139. This is a Psalm that requires some pondering. Is he saying he likes to be in God's presence, and always having God in his presence? Or is he wishing he could get away from God for a little while? Do we like to stand in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene? Do we like to wake up in the morning with the realization that we are still in the presence of God?

     I decided the Psalmist likes to be always in the presence of God. If he could go even to heaven or Sheol; if he could go as far east as he can imagine (the wings of the dawn) or as far west as the sea stretches out from Israel, he will find God ready to guide, and willing to hold him fast. He likes that. And I do too. Except for the little Jonah part of me, that sometimes wants to flee to the place where God might not be. But that I find does not work so well.

"You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar."

So I will stand with the Psalm writer, and the hymn writer.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

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Trust in the Lord

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By Pastor Dwight on May 15, 2009 2:35 PM Comments: 0 (Read, or add your own)

This week we have been reading Proverbs 3:1-6 together. It calls us to "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

This bit of wisdom is all about the heart. In the ancient world, the "heart" was seen as the seat of a person's will. The heart was where life decisions were made, where one set the course of one's life. In most of us, the will is very strong. We are strong willed chldren. We seem to know what we want in life and how to get it.

There is a homeless young man who comes by the church from time to time to see me. I have known him now for seven years and his life has not changed one bit in that time. He is a very determined young man and he will not change his will, so his situation does not improve. It is very hard to influence or change a person's will.

This passage gives us directions in how to change our strong wills, so that we can trust the Lord and follow His ways. It says the will is changed by keeping God's commands in the heart.That is, we allow the commands of God and our own wills to co-exist. Then we are to bind love and faithfulness around our necks, so that they lie close to the heart. (The picture here is that of a necklace.) This is the central promise of the marriage vow we use in our church, to be loving and faithful. So if love and faithfulness are worn around the neck, that means you make a commitment, you take a vow to work on doing God's will.

Next, these qualities are to be written on the tablet of your heart. The image that comes to mind is Bart Simpson filling the blackboard each day after school with another thousand promises of "I will not..." There is power in repetition, and our words do matter in shaping our wills.

Finally we are to trust in the Lord with all your heart, that is, to lean on the Lord. The TNIV says "in all your ways SUBMIT to him." This is where change takes place. When we are able to submit our ways to God, then He will make our paths straight.

How willing are we to use this process of trust in our lives? 

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The Peace of God

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By Pastor Dwight on May 5, 2009 11:16 AM Comments: 0 (Read, or add your own)

     This week we are reading together each day, Philippians 4:4-12. We see the phrase "the peace of God" in verse 7 and "the God of peace" in verse 9. The first tells us that when we pray and make our needs known to God, we experience peace guarding our hearts and minds. The second says that when we think of what is true and right, and then practice what we think, then the God of peace will be with us. This counters fear. We find the God of peace many places in scripture, such as Psalm 23, the center of which is, "For you are with me."

     I find it hard to pray so that I truly make my needs known to God. It is easier to pray for others, to confess my sins, to pray in thanks and praise. It takes some courage and reflection to identify what my needs truly are and then make them known to God. As a result, sometimes my mind and heart are left unguarded.

    I also find it takes intentional effort to connect good thinking to actual practice. It feels like swimming upstream. So many of the messages we receive in the world encourage us to think about the negative, about that which is filled with fear or anticipates the worst. So often we live by habit rather than by a focused practice of what is right.

    When our boys were young, they had a youth basketball coach who would say, "Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." In other words, don't just goof around during practice and reinforce bad habits. Think about shooting or defending correctly.

    In our spiritual lives, it is important to put into practice what we learn. This is not about perfection, but it is about finding opportunities to do what we believe and know to be true. When we practice our faith, the God of Peace is with us.

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Rethinking

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By Pastor Brian on April 28, 2009 12:18 AM Comments: 2 (Read, or add your own)
As we continue to refine our use of this technology (blogging) I thought I would venture this week outside of devotionals and engage people on different topics.  (some serious....some humorous)

I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel tonight and as I was fast forwarding through commercials I came across an advertisement for the United Methodist Church.  They were promoting a new ministry or focus in the denomination called "Rethink Church: 10K Doors".  Here is their tag line off of the commercial and their website:

"What if church wasn't just a building, but thousands of doors? Each of them opening up to a different concept or experience of church - and a journey that could change our world. Would you come?"

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 As you walk through the website there is a strong focus on "Doing" especially in the area of social justice, staying current in world news, inviting dialog, inviting diversity of perspective, giving people a voice, and engaging people who are looking to "rethink" church. As I read their tag line these elements stand out to me....

1. challenging a previous understanding of church
2. inviting people to rethink what they understand the church to be
3. seeking diversity (of thoughts, perspectives, religious understandings)
4. inviting people to experience/journey
5. this journey has a strong element of doing.
6. Inviting people to be apart of something new/fresh

I am left with questions....questions that made me want to know more about the culture we find ourselves in and the same culture that this church is reaching out to.

1. What portion of our culture (church or unchurched) feels the need to rethink church?

2.  What are the major elements of rethinking that people feel need to go on in the church?

3.  Is there any pitfalls or blind spots to our cultures apparent affinity for a "doing mentality"?

4. Where does Jesus fit in all of this?

This is raw for me and I am still thinking this through.  I wonder how others feel about movements like this in the church today?


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Stories that tell a STORY!

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By Pastor Brian on April 25, 2009 7:09 PM Comments: 1 (Read, or add your own)
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." - Romans 8:28 

Most likely at some point you have heard this verse spoken as an encouraging word, maybe to a friend walking through a difficult time or in a sermon about the nature of God's work in our world. It's a great "God is on your side" kind of verse. Sometimes I feel this verse gets overused or applied in overly simplistic ways. What does it mean that God works for the "good" of those who love him? How do we understand what Paul means by good? 
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As a pastor in this church over the past few months I have had interesting encounters with people and their "stories." I think we still feel the loss of Aaron Barg in our lives. The memories of his memorial service and the time spent with his family during that period are still extremely fresh in my mind. We all remember a sanctuary packed full of people touched in some way by this beautiful young man. We heard the story of Aaron's life but in the process we were connected with a much bigger story, God's story. Two storylines clearly entangled touching us all in powerful ways.

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And then I think about the conversation I had Thursday night listening to Dwight Samuelson's story. Here was a situation where Dwight wasn't expected to live, overcame amazing odds, and doctors called what happened a miracle. One thing I heard last night was the phrase that God used Dwight through this experience. God worked through Dwight's hurting body, providing amazing healing which became a testament to God's power and answer to prayer. So there I was last night laying in bed thinking about these different stories. On the one hand you have a young man who lived a life of physical struggle where the outcome was not what we desired and on the other a story of healing in the face of amazing odds.

Can we in light of this verse which declares God's work as "good" in the lives of those who love him still hold these two stories together? As difficult as it is sometimes I believe the answer is yes. Leon Morris says that "good"in this passage should be understood as "true good" or "final good." I believe he is suggesting that we must see "good" in a much deeper way or from a wider perspective then its current use in contemporary culture. I want to say at this point that by talking about good, especially in Aaron's context I don't mean to minimize the pain of his absence, but rather to begin to define "good" in terms of a larger activity. It was through the stories of these men (Aaron and Dwight) that a much bigger story was told. It was through these men that the beauty, power, love, and design of God was and is made known. It is this larger story, broader purpose, and eternal understanding that unifies the stories of these men into the fabric of God's story.

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