"Me and My Shadow"

Proverbs 4:25
25 Let your eyes look directly ahead
And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

Isaiah 60:1-3
1 “Arise, shine; for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2 “For behold, darkness will cover the earth
And deep darkness the peoples;
But the Lord will rise upon you
And His glory will appear upon you.
3 “Nations will come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.” NASB95

God is my light, the light of my soul and my spirit. He is likened to the sun rising. If I look at Him, and His light, my flesh casts a shadow behind me. There is darkness there, but light in Him.

I know that I spend more time looking backward at the shadow (my sins and failings) than I do looking at Him. Ironically, without Him, I would not know my sins at all. The Holy Spirit is the one who searches me and convicts me of sin. And yet, I look more at the results of His searching than at Him who is doing the searching.

Proportionally, I should spend just enough time looking at my sin to say, “Forgive me.” Then the rest of the time at Him who forgave me.

Lord, I end my looking at myself. I end my looking at my sins and failings. Your light casts a shadow, the shadow of my flesh, my failings. I chose not to dwell on that , but to dwell on You and Your words.

Teaching. January 28, 2007

January 28, 2007

I am posting my notes on Pastor Tom’s teaching from Sunday, January 28th. These are MY notes. Not a transcript. Not his notes. Any misquotes, mistakes, or mystifications are my fault (or something like that). All verses are from NASB 1995.

Tom started off by saying that this was short teaching, an extension of what Mike had taught 2 weeks previously (scroll down). It was not what he had prepared for this morning. It was more in the nature of a "head dump" and I know that I missed some things, and mis-paraphrased others. However, I think I am pretty close to what he was saying.

Confidence, cont.

Isaiah 32:17. And the work [or fruit] of righteousness will be peace,
And the service [ or effect] of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

Tom: there is a gap between what I (Tom and the rest of us) confess as true and how I (we) live my life. What do we do about that gap?

Galatians 3:6. Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

We believe, declare it to be true, and have peace. Peace is governmental, it is part of His rule and authority.

Romans 14:17. ...For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Quietness can be emptiness or contentment. We are talking about the latter. A quietness that is borne out of a relationship with God.

Confidence, here, is not bravado or bluster. It is “confide” -ence. We confide in Him. We need to know Him and who already knows us; we need to know Him by whom we are already known.

There is a gap between what I (Tom) sing during worship and how I feel at that moment. How do I respond? I chose to believe it, I proclaim it, I have faith that He will do it. And God reckons it to me as righteousness, and I have “the quietness and confidence forever.”

If I lack quietness and confience, I can back up to the righteousness, and I come back to “believe God.” I engage again, I return again to who He is.

And in that I find refreshment.

Isaiah 30:15
15 For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”

Tom then gave an example of having surgery, then going to physical therapy. He asked Gary if he had liked it. And Gary said, “I hated it, but I needed it.” The physical therapy is not what we would like to do (our feelings), but it is what we need to do. When we least want to worship is when we most need to. We need to believe. And He is able to bring His word to pass.

Tom: “It is does not matter what we are feeling about it, but what we are ‘faithing’ about it.” (“Yes, I just made up a word today.”)

Acts 4:13. Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

“They... had been with Jesus.” Apostles had confidence because they had soaked and marinated in Jesus.

Your daily devotion? Do you have one (don’t raise your hand). Is it alive? (Good). Or has it become routine? (That is good also). But for all of us, Jesus wants to stir anew in our lives; to bring more life to us and bring life again to our devotion.

This week, meditate on this:

Isaiah 32:17. And the work [or fruit] of righteousness will be peace,
And the service [ or effect] of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

Sunday Morning

There was a lot spoken this morning in Church. I did not nearly get it all.

Dr. Robert, talking about in the context of a report from the transition team said, "Our healing will come in serving." Then he said, and I am paraphrasing now, serving is a good, good thing. And it is a good thing that we can seek our own healing in reconciling others to Him.

Then, Julie sent this to me in an e-mail. I edited for this post.

This morning in the 9am prayer, Mary asked the Lord to show us what to pray, so we could pray what was on His heart. I don't remember the exact order of things, but the following things also were said:

Peggy was asking where the scripture was that began "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh." She was struck by the phrase - "God's words are health to all their flesh" This is from Prov 4:20 - 22.

Then Rob noted the next verse: Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the wellsprings of life.

Then Mary prayed that the Lord would cause to gush the wells that were stopped up or were only a trickle -- and that there would be an overflow.

I believe that what Tom was saying about "if peace is missing, if confidence is missing, then we need to spend time in His presence, believing His word, and acting on His word in faith," is the Lord responding to the prayer for overflow. I believe He was saying: Ok, this is how the overflow works -- Believe God, Rehearse who He is, Give thanks, Engage Him (You're mine -- I'm yours) to be refreshed in His presence. And do it especially when you don't feel like it, because that's when you need it most. If we haven't been doing this, repent by starting to do it. Our righteousness, strength, and confidence will be renewed, which will result in overflow.

Prayer - Quote #2

Leonhard Euler, Calvinist and Mathematician. Hat tip to The Corner

"I remark, first, that when God established the course of the universe, and arranged all the events which must come to pass in it, he paid attention to all the circumstances which should accompany each event; and particularly to the dispositions, to the desires, and prayers of every intelligent being; and that the arrangement of all events was disposed in perfect harmony with all these circumstances. When, therefore, a man addresses God a prayer worthy of being heard it must not be imagined that such a prayer came not to the knowledge of God till the moment it was formed. That prayer was already heard from all eternity; and if the Father of Mercies deemed it worthy of being answered, he arranged the world expressly in favor of that prayer, so that the accomplishment should be a consequence of the natural course of events. It is thus that God answers the prayers of men without working a miracle."

Prayer - Quote #1

CS Lewis (hat tip to The Corner

Can we believe that God ever really modifies His action in response to the suggestions of men? For infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best, and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it. But neither does God need any of those things that are done by finite agents, whether living or inanimate.

He could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food; or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and butchers, or knowledge without the aid of learned men; or convert the heathen without missionaries. Instead, He allows soils and weather and animals and the muscles, minds, and wills of men to cooperate in the execution of His will...

It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so. They have not advised or changed God's mind — that is, His overall purpose. But that purpose will be realized in different ways according to the actions, including the prayers, of His creatures.

Teaching. January 14, 2007

January 14, 2007

I am posting my notes on Pastor Mike’s teaching from Sunday, January 14th. These are MY notes. Not a transcript. Not his notes. Any misquotes, mistakes, or mystifications are my fault (or something like that). All verses are from NASB 1995.

Confidence: A quick word study

Analogy: What do football players do after a touchdown or a big play? The celebrate. They may “dance,” do a chest bump with another player, or pump their arms in the air. Why? They are confident in their abilities.

What if they do not succeed? Sportscasters talk about a player’s need for a “short memory.” That is, the player needs to forget all of the failed tries the player may have had during the rest of the game. And retain his confidence.

Example: a corner back must prevent the receiver from catching the ball. Time and time again. They need to forget each failure and stay confident of their abilities.

Can, or should, Christians be confident? Yes. But in what? Our own abilities?

Matthew 10:18-19
18 [Jesus said] “and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say.”

Jesus told His disciples that they will be brought before “governors and kings.” Why did He warn them? So that they could prepare a defense in advance? Develop confidence in their own abilities? No, so that they would be ready to speak, but to speak what the Holy Spirit would give them.

[Bill’s aside: They needed to be practice listening to the Holy Spirit, so that they could easily flow in Him.]

2 Corinthians 3:1-5
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God...

“Letters of commendation.” Examples: Letters of recommendation or book blurbs, recommending a particular book. They are from a noteworthy person to make the book noteworthy. If they are by a nobody, they would not be effective.

Despite what Paul had to say in the first letter to Corinth about Corinth, the church in Corinth was noteworthy in their godliness. Paul did not need a “book blurb” or a letter of recommendation. Everyone could see Corinth; they knew the church in Corinth; and it testified to who Paul was.

Paul’s confidence was from the Lord.

If I look at my heart, my flesh, I am disheartened. But if I look at God’s transforming work in me, I can be confident.

2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

The old things are passing away, and God is doing new things in us, changing and transforming us. Shouldn’t we be confident in the Lord? And in what He is doing?

Confidence can be a taboo word in Christianity because we place confidence in the wrong things. For example, in our own ability to be perfect. We need to be confident in the Lord. His is transforming us, changing us into His own image.

[Bill’s aside: “our own ability to be perfect” is a two-edged sword, cutting both ways. If we are “perfect” by our own standards, we are arrogant and boastful. If we fail, we blame ourselves and live under condemnation.]

2 Corinthians 3:5-11
5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.
10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.
11 For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

The old covenant came with glory, even though it was only words written on stones. The new covenant should have even more glory because it is life and righteousness.

2 Corinthians 3:12. Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,

“Great boldness.” Be bold, in confidence in what we know and how we are being transformed.

2 Corinthians 3:13-16
13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

In the Spirit, in the new covenant, the veil is removed, and we can “look intently” at the Lord.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

I know what my flesh is and what it is like. Do I know what I am in Him? Do I know what I am being changed into?

Hebrews 10:22-25
22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

This sounds like “pumping yourself up.” If you are not living there, it is. If you are living there, it is reality, simply being lived.

1 John 3:18-22
18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
19 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him
20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

Vs 20. “God is greater than our heart.” Mike said to read this 30 times tomorrow.

Confidence should arise out of a clean heart. When I sin, I do not feel clean. However, if I repent, and ask for forgiveness, I am made clean.

We expect punishment for out sin, not forgiveness. We forget how easily and effortlessly God want to forgive us and what us clean.

1 John 4:16-17
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

As God is, so we can be in this world. Not just in some future world.

1 John 5:14-15
14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

Confidence is linked to prayer.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16
14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;
16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

We are a sweet aroma, a pleasing fragrance. Some receive it, some react badly to it.

Paul was a confident man, who wrote confident things. Do we believe Him?

Romans 8:37. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Are we confident in our prayers? Confident that He hears us? Confident in being changed and transformed?

Sunday Morning

During the before-meeting prayer Rob read this passage. It deeply touched both Mary and Tom.

Psalm 24:7
7 Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!

At the end of worship and before the teaching Barth read this:

Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

I had already spent some time this morning mediating on this one:

Galatians 5:1
1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.