Power

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power."

1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Since sometime early Sunday morning, we have been without power. No power at home. No power at the church building. We have been blessed that we still have heat and hot water at our apartment. The lack of power has been an inconvenience but not life threatening or even discomforting. We have candles to see and read. We have warm blankets to slide under. We have hot water to shower. Even though, I have realized that my life looks different without power. I do not behave in the same way. I do not do the same things. My routine and my life change when without power.

My lack of electrical power cannot be helped. There is nothing I can do to restore power. I am not a line man working to restore power, but I am thankful and blessed for all their hard work to do so. That power is beyond my control, but too often I let my life remain powerless. I know the source of power, the living God. I know what I must do in order to be empowered by him yet I find myself not doing what is needed. My days slip away without taking the time necessary to connect to God. I don't stop to pray. When I do, I pray quick empty prayers, not prayers of boldness and passion. I need to remain connected to the Power of the Living God. I must be steadfast in prayer, praying bold God sized prayers expectant so witness his power! As I do so, my life changes. It changes for the better.

Does your life have power?

Please

On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.

1 Thessalonians 2:4

Who do you seek to please? 

I tend toward being a people pleaser.  I want people to like me, to enjoy my company.  What better way to achieve that than to make sure they are happy.  But there are times when happiness is not what is needed.  An honest word of truth is not always pleasant but often needed. 

Paul says that we speak as ones approved by God entrusted with the gospel.  We speak the gospel.  But the gospel is not always pleasant to hear.  It is God's great message of love, grace, and forgiveness.  It is available for all people, but it requires that we admit some painful things.  We must admit that we are sinful.  We are broken.  We are hurting.  We must admit that we cannot fix ourselves.  All of our best efforts lead us nowhere.  We must admit that we need someone else to save us.  We need a Savior.  We must confront our pride, our sin, our weakness.  We must allow Jesus to be our forgiver, our leader, our Savior.  Sometimes we don't want to admit those things or hear those words.  But they are needed. 

If we seek to please men, we keep those words to ourselves. 

If we seek to please God, we share them not to condemn but to love. 

Who do you seek to please?

Free

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:32

Yesterday was Resurrection Sunday or more commonly known as Easter Sunday!  What a great and glorious day!  The sun was shining!  The weather was warm in New England.  Best of all, the tomb was still empty as it has been ever since that first Easter morning some 2,000 years ago.  Jesus is not in the grave!  As the angel proclaimed, he is alive! He has risen just as he said!

In light of Resurrection Sunday, I am reminded that I am free!  The chains that once held me, the bonds that once kept me in have been broken.  Not by my power, but by Christ.  He has defeated sin, death, and the evil one.  His death on the cross paid the price for my sin.  His resurrection broke the power of sin.  It holds no sway.  I am free.  I have been bought with a price.  I am free. 

Some days I forget that I am a free man.  I begin to believe the lies of satan that I am still chained, still bound.  I begin to lift my chains again, but Jesus shines his truth into my life that I may know that I am free.  My chains have been broken.  I have been transformed by his power and I am being transformed!  I am free. 

Are you free?

Delight

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

The prophet Zephaniah is giving hope to beleaguered Jerusalem.  They have been punished for their idolatry.  Zephaniah offers a vision of hope that though they are punished now a day is coming when God will be with them.  He will take great delight in them.  He will quiet them with his love.  He will rejoice over them with singing. 

Have you ever stopped to realize that God delights in you? 

That the God who created everything loves you, he delights in you.  He rejoices over you with singing. 

You are the delight of God.  You are the apple of his eye.  You are his prized possession. 

No matter what others have said about you or what you have said about yourself remember this:

YOU are GOD's DELIGHT! 

Take a moment today to allow God to delight in you, to quiet you with his love, and to rejoice over you with singing.  Know that you are loved by the Most High God!

Assumption

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags..."

Isaiah 46:6

Assumptions. 

We all have them.  Some we carry knowingly, some we carry unknowingly until we are confronted with them.

Over the course of the last week, I heard the same assumption over and over. 

ASSUMPTION: I must do good works to make myself right with God.

This assumption can be expressed and played out in many ways.  At it's core is the idea that we have to work to be good for God.  It's the idea that God will not love me unless I somehow become good.  It's the idea that I have to settle a score with God.  I must do enough good things to balance out the bad ones that I have done.  If I want to please God, then I have to work to make myself right with him. 

The Bible says that our righteous acts are like filthy rags.  Dirty, stinking, disgusting rags to God.  They do not please God.  They do not make us good enough for God.  They don't make us good.  There is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God. 

ASSUMPTION: I must do good works to make myself right with God. 

REALITY: God's grace is the only thing that makes me right with him. 

The reality is that we can do nothing to make ourselves right.  Our good works don't make us right or good.  Only the grace of God expressed in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus makes us right with God. 

We don't do good works to make us right.  We do good works out of a deep appreciation and gratitude for what God has done.  We do GOOD in response to the GREAT thing he has done in forgiving us through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Why do you do good?  To earn God's favor or in response to his favor?

Flawed

"But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."

Jeremiah 18:4

As a student in college, I had the opportunity to watch a potter work with clay.  He had his clay stained apron on, a board laid in front of him, and a wheel to turn the clay.  He began working the clay making it more malleable so that it would take the shape he intended.  But as he worked the clay revealed its flaws, it would not take the shape he originally had in mind.  Rather than discard the clay, he formed it back into a lump and began his work again.  He had seen its flaws and chose to reshape the clay into something else.  He worked it and worked it until it began to take the shape of a wide shallow bowl.  He formed it in spite of its flaws. 

Jeremiah compares Yahweh to a potter. Yahweh took the clay into his hands and began to shape it, but it was marred, flawed so he rather than discard it, he reformed it. 

We are like lumps of clay.  We have flaws that lie beneath the surface.  As God works to shape us and mold us into the image he has for us, our flaws are revealed.  But God does not choose to discard us and find someone else to shape.  He reforms us into the image he has for us.  He does not leave us.  He works more thoroughly in us to remold us into the likeness of his Son, our Savior, Jesus. 

I am a flawed man.  It seems like each day my flaws are exposed.  I can choose to despair at my flaws, to become defeated and dejected that I am weak.  Or I can recognize that the exposure of my flaws is an opportunity to allow the Master to remold and reform them according to his purpose.  Each day, I try to choose reformation!

When your see your flaws, do not despair that you are flawed, but rejoice that the Master Potter is working to form you and mold you into his image! 

Are you allowing Yahweh to mold you into his image, flaws and all?

Invest

"Great leaders are built more often than they are found! Invest in someone today!"

 -Craig Groeschel, Pastor of Lifechurch.tv

Not only is that true for leaders, but that is also true for disciples.  Very rarely does someone become a follower of Christ on their own.  Usually, a person's faith journey is travelled with others.  Someone comes along and helps fan the spark of belief into a roaring fire of passionte faith. 

At least, that is how it happened in my life. I was raised going to church every Sunday.  I had a spark of belief.  I heard about Jesus often and I believed, but it was the influence of some wonderful people that fanned my spark into a passionate fire.  My mom nutured my faith and demonstrated her quiet faith.  My dad revealed God's power to transform lives. Tom inspired me to speak out about Christ to my friends and neighbors. Randy lived with a joy and passion that was infectious.  Each of these people took time to care for me, teach me, and inspire me to follow Jesus with my all.  I would not be man I am today.  I would not be the Pastor I am today without the investment of these people.  Thank you to each one.  

Who invested in your life so that your spark become a passionate fire?  

Whose life will you invest in so that their spark will become a passionate fire?  

Who are you investing in?