Author: Stephen (Page 5 of 17)
This is the season of ordinations. During the summer months, church groups will gather all across our country and lay their hands upon a new generation of clergy. Tonight, my own religious body will gather to commission ones to the task, and those of us who have kneeled before will remember our own ordinations many years ago. We are men and women called, by God, to a task far greater than ourselves. Long ago another person, A. W. Tozer, was in the place they are at now. Following his ordination, he retired to a secret place wrote this prayer that would become his regular covenant to God. I offer his words as a reminder to all of us and a prayer for those who will be ordained this year.
Stephen
Prayer of a Minor Prophet
By A. W. Tozer
This is the prayer of a man called to be a witness to the nations. This is what he said to his Lord on the day of his ordination. After the elders and ministers had prayed and laid their hands on him he withdrew to meet his Saviour in the secret place and in the silence, farther in than his well-meaning brethren could take him. And he said:
O Lord, I have heard Your voice and was afraid. You have called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. You are about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. O Lord, our Lord, You have stopped to honor me to be Your servant. No one takes this honor upon themselves save the one that is called of God as was Aaron. You have ordained me Your messenger to them that are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing. They have rejected You, the Master, and it is not to be expected that they will receive me, the servant.
My God, I shall not waste time deploring my weakness nor my unfitness for the work. The responsibility is not mine but Yours. You have said, “I knew You—I ordained You—I sanctified You,” and You has also said, “You shall go to all that I shall send You, and whatever I command You, you shall speak.” Who am I to argue with You or to call into question Your sovereign choice? The decision is not mine but Yours. So be it, Lord. Your will, not mine, be done.
Well do I know, You God of the prophets and the apostles, that as long as I honor You You will honor me. Help me, therefore, to take this solemn vow to honor You in all my future life and labors, whether by gain or by loss, by life or by death, and then to keep that vow unbroken while I live.
It is time, O God, for You to work, for the enemy has entered into Your pastures and the sheep are torn and scattered. And false shepherds abound who deny the danger and laugh at the perils which surround Your flock. The sheep are deceived by these hirelings and follow them with touching loyalty while the wolf closes in to kill and destroy. I beseech You, give me sharp eyes to detect the presence of the enemy; give me the understanding to distinguish the false friend from the true. Give me the vision to see and courage to report what I see faithfully. Make my voice so like Yours own that even the sick sheep will recognize it and follow You.
Lord Jesus, I come to You for spiritual preparation. Lay Your hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should become a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the face of the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet; not a promoter, not a religious manager—but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from the bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Your terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that I could make my life easier. If others seek the smoother path I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falls out to Your servants, I shall have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Your kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner that it will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. And if in Your permissive providence honor should come to me from Your church, let me not forget in that hour that I am unworthy of the least of Your mercies and that if people knew me as intimately as I know myself they would withhold their honors or bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them.
And now, O Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to You; let them be many or few, as You will. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and I would not influence it if I could. I am Your servant to do Your will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven.
Though I am chosen of You and honored by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am but a person of dust and ashes, a person with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of humanity. I pray You, therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with Your power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Your strength and tell of Your righteousness, even You only. I will spread abroad the message of redeeming love while my normal powers endure.
Then, dear Lord, when I am old and weary and too tired to go on, have a place ready for me above, and make me to be numbered with Your saints in glory everlasting.
Amen.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Dear Friends,
One of the disciplines I practice for my own spiritual growth as well as professional improvement is to listen to the sermons of other preachers. One pastor and church I have started listening to recently is Brandon Beals of Canyon Creek Church in Mill Creek, Washington. Their current sermon series is simply called Seed. “A series about the harvest power contained in a seed.” At the beginning of the series, the gauntlet was thrown down for everyone to evaluate their giving and to make a commitment to step up and step out in our finances.
To make the challenge a giving matrix was presented. This matrix so fascinated and challenged me that I wanted to share it with you.:
Here is what it all means:
- If you are one who has never really stepped out in the area of giving then make the commitment to become a first time giver.
- Maybe you are one who has given in the past or gives when there is a special need, then step up to becoming a regular giver.
- Are you a person who gives regularly but you also like the average American Christian who gives less than 3% to your local church? Maybe it is time to step out and respond to the Bible’s instruction to give the first 10% of your income to the storehouse, which is your local church (Malachi 3:10). I was impressed by their courage to say clearly giving 10% does not mean giving 3% to the Humane Society, and 4% to Habitat for Humanity and then 3% to your local church.
- Finally, maybe you are a person who has already experienced the truth of the promise of God’s provision and multiplying work in your own life by giving of your first 10%. Now it might be time to step up to a new level in your life and become a generous giver. They define being a generous giver as anyone giving 11% or above.
What I like most about this matrix was that it was clear and easy to understand. Anyone could easily see for themselves, in the privacy of their own chair, where they were at and see what the next step was they needed to take.
I was convicted as a preacher by their courage to specifically call people to sign a commitment card pledging to the change they were going to make in their life. How often have I resisted calling people to change and growth because of a fear of offending? Money fights and money problems is the number one cause of divorce in our country. Married or not, it can be one of the most significant areas of stress and anxiety in our lives. If we are going to healthy and whole persons as followers of Jesus, the church is going to have to get over our fear of talking about money.
Finally, what about you? If you had been sitting in the chairs listening to these sermons would you have had the courage to fill out a commitment card? What would you have written on it?
Blessing,
Stephen
If you would like to listen to their whole sermon series you can watch the videos here: http://canyoncreek.church/sermon/series/seed-series/
Marshall Goldsmith, outside of the world of business executives, is a name you may not know. He has been called “the world’s top-ranked executive coach.” He has helped some of the world’s highest performing men and women in the worlds of business, sport, and government get even better at what they do. And as crazy as it may sound, he pays a woman call him every single day to listen to him read questions he wrote and provide answers he himself came up with to those same questions. Why would he do such a thing?
Take a moment and watch his video:
After watching the video, what top three questions would you ask of yourself, every day, about the practices of your spiritual life? Do you have the courage them write it down? In the video, Marshall says, “If you have the courage to write down the behavior that’s most important in your life and the discipline to do this every day you are going to get a lot better.” What’s the “this” he is talking about? Well, you will have to watch the video.
Take some time to ponder and process. It is not nearly as easy as it may sound.
And now that you have watched the video here are a few additional things I have learned about the process.
First, if you take on this challenge, you are going to fail and it will be epic. You will become discouraged. You will want to quit. Your ego and self-esteem will take a cataclysmic beating. But don’t give up.
Second, not just anyone can be the person who hears you give your answers. It must be a positive person. It must be a person you trust. It must be a person whose commitment to you remains unchanged no matter how legendary your stumbling might be.
Third, the only feedback the person can give you is positive and encouraging feedback. We are our own worse critics. There is nothing the other person can say to you that will be worse than what you will already be saying to yourself. What you will need is someone to help you battle the negative thoughts and remind you, you can do more than you think possible.
What’s left? To do it, and don’t give up.
Blessings,
Stephen
Credits:
Post Photo by Evan Dennis on Unsplash
Jesus is Lord. The earliest and most succinct words of confession. They echo Thomas’ declaration upon seeing the risen Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (John 20′:28) and Peter’s stunning confession “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16) To say “Jesus is Lord” is an exclusive statement. There can be no other. All other powers, authorities, rulers, and nations are secondary to the authority and lordship of Jesus.
Over these past few weeks following Easter, we have been looking at the implications of the resurrection of Jesus. Our guide has been the writings of Dr. Stephen Seamands, and his book, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return. We have explored many topics.
Jesus’ resurrection gives us confidence that the promises of God are true. He is wholly trustworthy and reliable. Even in the darkest of times, we know that righteous has and will be vindicated. God always gets the last word.
The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope that all is being and will be made new. For God so loved all of creation that he gave his son that all of creation might be saved.
The resurrection of Jesus means to be a Christ is to be one who has been saved from the penalty of sin, set free for the power of sin and who lives a life of holiness following the example given to us by Jesus. Our personal salvation is a charge to live a life worthy of the good news of Jesus.
Finally, this week we witness the resurrection of Jesus manifesting the Lordship of Jesus to the world. When we say Jesus is Lord we declare God’s unconditional and absolute claim.
First, Lord (Kurios) indicates the ‘unconditional claim of God in the face of the whole universe.’ Such a claim . . . includes cosmic lordship. As the one through whom all things were made (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16) and are held together (Col 1:17), he has absolute power over all created things. Furthermore, it includes moral lordship over the conscience of every human being. He has the right to place moral demands on us. It also includes community lordship. He is the King of Israel (Jn 1:49) and the head of the church (Col 1:18) and exercises divine lordship over the community of believers. Lordship, therefore, extends over every sphere of creation, every knee and tongue, every height and depth. No cosmic, societal, communal or personal space stands outside it. He is Lord of all, period. Consequently, . . . ‘There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’ Second, lordship signifies . . . God’s absolute claim on us. He is Lord in all things and in every situation. Thate means there can be no other lords. He will tolerate no rivals. (Seamands 111)
The implications of Jesus’ absolute and unconditional claim of lordship upon all of creation cannot begin to be understated. In our debate and disagreements, we often seek to demonstrate that Jesus is on our side. To do so is to make Jesus submit to our intellect. In what ways might we instead invert our lives to be in total submission to him?
Jesus is Lord.
Blessings,
Stephen
Citations:
Seamands, Stephen A. Give them Christ: preaching his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and return. IVP Books, 2012.
What’s the use of living a righteous life? Why bother wasting all of your energy trying to follow God and his commands? How can anyone even know what the right thing to do is anyway? Where was God when it mattered most? Are God’s promises even worth the paper they are written on? We prayed, why didn’t God come through and rescue Jesus? What’s the point to holiness? Why stand out in a crowd? Why live a life that is anything other than ordinary? See where it got Jesus? Dead, on a cross, like a common criminal.
While we will never know, these might have been some of the questions swirling in the heads of Jesus’ followers as they watched him arrested, tortured and killed. Questions steeped in doubt and confusion as to the reliability of God, Jesus, his word, and promises.
Over these past few weeks, following Easter, we have been looking together at the wider significance of Jesus’ resurrection. We have already seen that Jesus’ resurrection means freedom from the penalty of sin and our personal salvation. We have also seen Jesus’ resurrections means creation healed and the broken relationships between people and God, each other, themselves, and creation redeemed. Still, the significance of Jesus’ resurrection is even greater.
For Jesus’ followers, still consumed by questions, everything would change three days after Jesus’ death when he would be raised to life and walk, talk, and eat with them. As Jesus was raised from the dead, righteousness was vindicated. The character of God was tested in the public square and proven to be true and reliable by Jesus’ resurrection.
In the book of Deuteronomy, as the people of Israel is being formed into a nation Moses is giving the people instructions on how to live and who they should follow. He cautions the people to be careful of words spoken by one claiming to be a prophet:
“If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, ‘Let us follow other gods'(gods you have not known) ‘and let us worship them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer . . . That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God. . .” (13:1-3, 5)
Jesus is a prophet who predicted his own death and resurrection three days later. Even more, Jesus was the one predicted by the prophets of old. In Luke 24, shortly after his resurrection, Jesus would join two travelers confused by the events of the past week on the road to Emmaus. As they walked along, Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning himself” (vs. 27). Wouldn’t it be great to have a transcript of this conversation? As they walked along Jesus demonstrated to these travelers the faithfulness of God throughout history.
Jesus’ resurrection gives us confidence in the promises of God and true and reliable and the words of Jesus are faithful.
Blessings,
Stephen
Easter is over. Target has marked the last of their pastel-hued sugar infused egg-laying bunnies 90% off and life has returned to its savage monotony. Yet the significance of Easter of far is from over. Last week the question was raised, what if the resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate at Easter means far more than just our individual personal salvation? Over the next few weeks, we are using a book by Dr. Stephen Seamands, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return to help us explore the great depths of meaning found in Jesus’ resurrection.
In John 11 we hear the story of the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. As would be expected Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, are grief-stricken and confused. Confused because Jesus didn’t come and heal their brother like he had healed so many others. In response to their questions Jesus says, “Your brother will rise again” (vs. 23). The words sound to us like the words of comfort we give so often at funerals. “One day you will see them again . . .” Martha agrees with Jesus, assuming he is talking about a future resurrection when God will set all things to right, but Jesus is not talking about some random day in the future, Jesus is talking about today. Jesus is pronouncing than an event, he is telling them the resurrection is a person, it is him, and the day of resurrection has come. The day has come when God will make right all that has been broken by sin, our “alienation from God, from each other, from ourselves, and from the land” (Snyder and Scandrett 78). The day every Jew ached with longing for had come.
“What was so stunning, then, to the early Christians about the resurrection of Jesus was not that God raised the dead. Like Martha, they already believed in a general resurrection when God would raise the righteous at the last day. What stunned them and sent them reeling was the timing of it. In the case of Jesus, the general resurrection, which was supposed to happen on the last day, had moved forward from the end into the present. What was supposed to happen on the final day had happened now” (Seamands 105).
Jesus’ resurrection does not mean all has been made new yet. The final redemption of creation is still to come. Still “the resurrection of Jesus has . . . set in motion the final redemption and transformation of all creation” (Seamands 108). The resurrection of Jesus means creation healed from the penalty of sin, death, the power of sin, and ultimately the very presence of sin.
Therefore, as Christians, we are people of mammoth hope. We are able to step into the absolute darkest of situations in life with extravagant hope because we know the power of sin has been broken and the day is coming when all of creation will be made new by Jesus and the very presence and effects of sin will be no more.
In summary, the resurrection of Jesus means not only personal salvation but also the salvation of all of creation. But even these just scratch the surface as we will see in the weeks to come.
Blessings,
Stephen
Citations:
Seamands, Stephen A. Give them Christ: preaching his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and return. IVP Books, 2012.
Snyder, Howard A., and Joel. Scandrette. Salvation means creation healed: the ecology of sin and grace: overcoming the divorce between Earth and Heaven. Kindle Ed., Cascade Books, 2011.
Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash
Dear Friends,
A few days ago many of us gathered in our churches for Easter celebrations and the retelling of the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. At my church we enjoyed a tremendous breakfast prepared by the men of the church, the children made and launched rockets (yes, you read that correctly) and our church family and many guests joined together for a great Easter worship service.
Of all the holidays and festivals in the church, for Christians, none is more important than Easter. Without Easter Christmas is nothing more than a weird and tragic story of a child being born. It is impossible to overstate the importance and significance of the resurrection of Jesus to Christians and human history. As Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV). But if Christ is raised, well then that changes everything.
While it is helpful to speak in generalities and say that “everything” has changed but what is the specific significance of the resurrection? Many of us would answer that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might have eternal life and get to go to heaven when we die.
This answer is basically accurate, but it is also significantly inadequate. The resurrection of Jesus means so much more. Over the next several weeks, with the help of a book by Dr. Stephen Seamands, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Return, we are going to dive deeper into the meaning and significance of the resurrection.
Before we get there, I want to ask you a question: What would you say is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus?
Please feel free to send an e-mail or post a comment. I would love to hear what you have to say.
Blessings,
Stephen
Dear Friends,
The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found in Daniel 3 has always intrigued me. In the story, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, a man with significant leadership issues, concocts a scheme to construct a giant gold statue, place it in the plain of Dura, and then command all of the people to bow down and worship his golden abomination. Those who failed to bow down and worship the golden figure were to be given the opportunity be special guests in the king’s sauna of fire.
Three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, exiles from Isreal, are not too keen on this new plan of the monarch. They unequivocally refuse to bow down to worship the shiny man because to do so would be an anathema to their God. This royally ticks off the king who forgets everything he learned in his years of therapy for anger management issues and he orders the three men to be thrown into the blazing furnace but just to make sure the men are really dead dead and not just dead he orders the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal. Unfortunately, this story happened in the days before OSHA. The heat from the furnace was so extreme it killed the soldiers who had been given the charge to toss the three men into the furnace. We all know how the story ends. Once they are tossed into the furnace the three men are joined by a fourth for a little furnace warming party. When the festivities are over, the original three walk out of the furnace without a scorch to a hair on their head or even the smell of fire on their clothes.
What fascinates me most about this story is not their miraculous deliverance from the furnace, as amazing as that is, but the speech they give to Nebuchadnezzar just prior to his attempted murder. With defiant courage they boldly declare to the king, ” If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand” (vs. 17). That had to take some major chutzpa to declare with such confidence their deliverance to the king who was about to have them burned alive. It is their next words that are the words of dazzling faith, “But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (vs. 18). That’s unconditional faith.
How often do we pray with conditional faith? Conditional faith is a faith that says to God, “I will worship and follow you so long as you __________.” There are so many things we could finish the sentence with:
So long as nothing bad happens.
So long as I get to live the way I want.
So long as you give me what I want.
So long as you don’t ask me to give up anything or move to another country or change jobs.
Our three friends have a very different kind of faith. Their unconditional faith recognizes our ways are not God’s ways and his plans are not our plans, and even when things don’t go the way we would want them to we will still worship God. Their faith says:
God, I know you are are able to rescue me from the furnace, but even if you don’t I will still worship you.
God, I know you are able to heal this sickness but even if you don’t I will still worship you.
God, I know you are able to provide me a better job, a new house, a car that runs but even if you don’t I will still worship you.
God, I know you are able to mend my broken relationships but even if you don’t I will still worship you.
God, I know you are able to take this depression, darkness, and anxiety from me but even if you don’t I will still worship you.
God, I know you can remove the cancer from my body but even if you don’t I will still worship you.
God, I know you are the one who raises the dead but even if you don’t rescue me from death (my own death or that of someone I love) I will still worship you.
God, I know you are able to prevent wars and famines but even if you don’t I will still worship you.
This is the profound faith in God demonstrated to us by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their faith in God remained unchanged even if God didn’t “come through” but what about us?
Blessings,
Stephen
As Christians, there is one group of people found in the Bible we like to pick on more than any other. They are the quintessential picture of blind ignorance leading to destruction. Or at least that is how we preachers like to talk about them. Despite their glaring failures, many of the Pharisees and other religious leaders had a noble purpose for their fanatical insistence upon keeping all of the rules and a few extras too. They desired the nation to turn back to God. There were seeking the holiness of God’s people and the restoration of the nation to better times. But their impassioned commitment to righteousness would cause them to be tempted make a most unholy alliance.
In Matthew 4, Jesus is taken by Satan high up on a mountain and shown “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (vs. 8). The vision of the kingdoms came with an offer. If Jesus would simply bow down to Satan and worship him, then all these kingdoms and their splendor could be his. Of course, for Jesus to accept this offer would be to try and achieve God’s purposes and plans for the world through a means other than God intended.
For us today, this second testing of Jesus strikes at the heart of any attempt we might make to use the power of the kingdoms of this world to achieve the ends of the Kingdom of God. The kingdoms of this world, yes even our great country, are inherently selfish and focused on their own self-preservation through the accumulation of power, prestige, and splendor.
The Pharisees, in their zeal for God, would attempt to harness the power of Rome to purge the nation of Jesus and his followers. It would be a confederation doomed from the very beginning. But before, we are too hard on them, we must ask ourselves, how often have we failed to learn the lesson of Jesus’ testing and the Pharisees’ failure? How often have we looked to kingdoms of this world to be our savior rather than God alone? Maybe we are not so different after all.
Blessings,
Stephen