Libertyville Covenant Church: The pastors' blog

You Know Me

2009-05-21T23:44:43Z

"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."

Trust in the Lord

2009-05-15T19:35:17Z

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?

The Peace of God

2009-05-05T16:16:50Z

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.

Rethinking

2009-04-28T05:18:59Z

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?"

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?

Stories that tell a STORY!

2009-04-26T00:09:03Z

"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?

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.

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.

Jesus and Da Vinci: Two crafty guys!

2009-04-14T05:52:20Z

No this isn't a new Dan Brown book about Leonardo da Vinci and some secret insight into the life of Christ that was been hidden and banished by the Catholic Church and found by one of the greatest mind in the 15^thcentury.

I was watching a new show on the Discovery Channel call "Doing Da Vinci". The whole premise behind the show is a team of engineers, expert metal workers, and carpenters working together to build ideas and plans that Da Vinci had 500 years ago but were never built. It is a fascinating show. The first idea of Da Vinci they constructed was a tank designed to protect the soldiers insight while blasting cannons in a 360 degrees. The result of their work was pretty impressive.

So what does this have to do with Ephesians 2:1-10 you might ask? This passage is probably pretty familiar to most. In verse eight we see a frequently quoted passage about the nature of our forgiveness and salvation. It is a gift given to us through grace apart from anything we can do to earn it. This idea forms one of the fundamental pillars of the evangelical faith.

But as I read it through this time, this wasn't what caught my eye. Rather I was found myself dwelling on the last verse. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I wonder if sometimes in our cultural context we focus so much on what we can do to get ahead, to right our own ship, to made advancement in our careers, to be the master of our own domain that I think it is incredibly easy to forget that we are a workmanship of someone else. We were created in Christ Jesus for a purpose. The plans of our life, they were put into motion long before we could actualize them. So as the ideas of a genius lay dormant for 500 years become reality in the 21 century so too are we in the eyes of our maker. The free gift of grace allows us to reconnect with our craftsman's. We have been moved from the broken pile (with little hope of fixing) to the work-in-progress pile. The joy of our journey, no matter where we are in life is to find out what those good works are and to participate in the plans that were drawn for you and me.

What is the craftsman's doing in your life?

What have you discovered about the plans prepared for you in advance?

How can the body of Christ encourage you in this journey?

Week of April 12: We are reading Ephesians 2:1-10

2009-04-14T01:17:30Z

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

New International Version (NIV)

from weary to ready

2009-04-08T20:27:55Z

This week we are reading Isaiah 40:28-31 together. The repeated word that stands out to me is "weary." I see it four times in these verses. Why are the readers of Isaiah weary? The answer may be found in verse 27, "Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God.'"

"Weary" means weighed down, distant from God, with no refreshing springs of water, no inspiring word in the night, and no energy for the good work of the day. "Weary" is a hard place to live.

I once heard of a preacher who was expounding on this text, and at the conclusion of his sermon he got excited in this good news of God, but as he made his final point his tongue got twisted a little. He proclaimed, "We will soar on ings like weagles!"

I think that can describe me sometimes. I can feel like a "weagle" - a weary eagle. We were created by God to fly like eagles, but so often we get weighed down, we run out of energy, we wonder where God is on our lives. We complain. We become weagles.

Isaiah gives an interesting response to Israel's complaint.

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

During this Holy Week we remember the center of our faith; we remember what we know and what we have heard.

Jesus Christ died for your sins.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

By the transforming power of God's love and victory through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we "weagles" become eagles again!

When is a circle also a rectangle?

2009-04-07T18:10:43Z

I have been thinking a lot recently about the way God works in our world and the way he works in my life. It is during this season (Lent) that we reflect on the Son of Man lifted up and by doing so endured pain and scorn. We pin our hopes on God's divine Word breaking into our lives in the person of Jesus and I think in some way we are amazed by his method. When we read the words of the prophet Isaiah we connect with God being an everlasting God, creator, powerful, and one who does not tire. But at least for me, I was caught off guard a bit by this last phrase "his understanding no one can fathom."

How can a circle also be a rectangle?

Answer: it can if we adjust our perspective and see things in a different dimension.

When we move from two dimensions to a third we see how a circle can also be a rectangle. The issue becomes one of perception. I have heard a lot of people recently wonder were God is in their life. The natural assumption is that because my life isn't going well that God has lost interest in my life or has moved on to others. We seek to understand why his methods are the way they are and we get lost and at times frustrated by our search. We see God from our perspective which is bound in time, but the words of the prophet Isaiah suggest that the understandings and activities of God function outside of time. So what are we left with....what knowledge of God do we carry with us when our perception and understanding of God's methods are limited.

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God

The creator of the ends of the earth

He is not going to get tired or worn out

He is not going to stumble and fall

He will renew our strength

(Paraphrase from Isaiah 40:28-31)

"His ways belong to eternity, we to time; his vision is for the world, we are local; his ceaselessness keeps him always ahead of the point we have reach." J Alec Motyer

Week of April 5: We are reading Isaiah 40:28-31

2009-04-06T02:53:06Z

²⁸ Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.

New International Version (NIV)

God + Love + Christ = Grace = Redeemed living

2009-04-01T21:44:23Z

There seems to be a fundamental equation that exists for the Christian believer. On one end of the equation we have an exceedingly loving and just God whom despite our best efforts to mess with his plans overcame sin through his Son and redeemed us so that we can be called children of God. On the other end of the equation is our effort to respond to the love and mercy that we have received and live our lives in such a way that God is honored. This Divine intrusion and response is a pattern we see a lot in scripture. In our passage this week, we see phrases like....

"You are a chosen people"

"Royal priesthood"

"Holy Nation"

"People belonging to God"

"People brought into his wonderful light"

"People who have now received mercy"

These Phrases represent what God has done for his us, phrase that form our story. Phrases that reflect the activity of God. Then we see the second part...our part!

"Dear Friends"

"I urge you"

"To abstain from sinful desires"

"Live such good lives"

"See that your good deeds glorify God"

In Lent both of these elements are clearly in play. We recognize what God has done in our lives, where we have fallen short, that we have been redeemed and shown mercy, and now we are called to go out and live up to our new found identity.

How has God shown his mercy to you?

How has God impressed this pattern in your life?

Into His Light

2009-04-01T18:47:38Z

The phrase that catches my attention in I Peter 2:9-12 is, "that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

Last Sunday was an experience of moving from darkness to light. When I got to church, I discovered that the parking lot was filled with snow, the walks were all covered in slush, and there was a power outage in the building. So it was cold and dark inside and nearly impassable outside. What could I do to help move us from this cold darkness into light?

I thought I would start with the walkways, but before I could even get started, Brian grabbed one snow shovel and Trevor had the other, and in no time the walks were clean. I tried to do some shoveling at the entry way so at least cars could get off the street. Then an angel masquerading as a guy with a truck and blade appeared and offered to plow our lot. He did not charge anything for doing it!

Our guest speaker, Andy Larsen, arrived about 10 after eight, and due to long years as a missionary, he was ready to do whatever we needed. With no electricty and a cold, dark sanctuary, we had to hold the 8:30 service in the Narthex, using the light from our big windows. Sarah and her Worship Team quickly figured out which songs were feasible and willingly led them a capella. The order of service went out the window, and instead we spent time giving witness to the goodness of God and praying together, and then Andy talked about sharing the Good News with Muslims.

During Sunday School, the adults stayed in the Narthex and listened more to Andy, while the children found some places by the windows downstairs, and Maria and the teachers quickly put together a revised plan. It went great! Ben went out and bought a few boxes of coffee and Mike and Ruth had already brought in the pastries. We had a Great Sunday School!

But what to do at 11 am? We ventured into the cold and dark sanctuary not knowing quite what might happen. And then at precisely 11 am the lights came on! And the heat! Ben and Brian scurried to get the microphones set for the worship team and to load the Power Point that Andy brought. Kathy extended the prelude, and by five after 11 we were on our way to a joyful, and quite normal worship. From darkness to light.

What did it take to move us from darkness to light on Sunday morning? How many jumped in to help? Who came by at just the right time? How many workers were out on the power lines that we did not see?

"He called you..." Yes, it is God's work to bring us from the darkness of sin to the light of the Gospel. But how many people took part in the call that came to you? Some were visible and you can name them. Others you do not know, but their witness through the centuries was absolutely essential.

Are you part of God's work in calling people today out of darkness and into his wonderful light? Are you praying for God to show you the people who need Christ through you today?

Week of March 29: We are reading I Peter 2:9-12

2009-03-31T01:30:36Z

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

New International Version (NIV)

Living for Jesus

2009-03-25T19:45:41Z

This passage in I John ch.1 tends to run me in a circle. Then it places me where I need to be, confessing my sins and experiencing the faithfulness and justice of God. We are to walk in the light and trust the power of the cross of Jesus to live in obedience to him. Our pietistic heritage has emphasized the importance of living consistently and with integrity for Christ. There is an old chorus that states it well, "Living for Jesus a life that is true, striving to please him in all that I do." The problem comes when you fall short, or act selfishly out of pride or neediness. That is when you feel a strong urge to protect the image or to hide the sin. This passage says when that happens you are deceiving yourself, the truth is not in you and you make the Lord out to be a liar.

Adam and Eve hid when they disobeyed God in the garden. That began a long history of people using a righteous exterior to hide sin, always with disastrous results. But the answer is not found in lowering the standards or excusing ourselves by saying "I'm only human" or "everyone does it." The answer is found in verse 9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." Practicing the discipline of the Confession of Sin and welcoming the Holy Spirit to bring light fully into our lives places us where we need to be on the pilgrim journey.

I John 1:5-10 "Have we lost that confessin feeling?"

2009-03-23T22:48:06Z

The aspect of this passage that stood out to me as I read it this morning was that of confession. IF we CONFESS....he will forgive us. Confession is an important and essential piece to forgiveness, one that I wonder might be missing from our vocabulary.

I don't like to confess and I assume most people are in the same boat. It is uncomfortable, scary, we run the risk of rejection, and we lose control. After reflecting on the healing service last night this idea of confession became all the more real to me. As we confess together and admit that we are sinful we become all the more aware of our need for healing. I am so grateful for those who came to the service last night and I pray that they in some way experienced healing (whether that was spiritual, emotional, or physical healing).

But I am also aware that those who attended the service were a small sampling of the larger congregation. I am left wondering why few choose to come last night. I can't help but wonder if on some level our culture has tried to convince us that we don't need healing. Could it be that we exclusively tie healing with the physical?

What do you think...What message(or messages) does our culture communicate when it comes to confession and healing?