Sunday June 28, 2020

Norman Dixon, Pastor

610-589-2034

Email: Dixonnorm@comcast.net

Web Site: www.manbecks.org

Organ Prelude to prepare your heart for worship

Welcome: Opportunities to Worship and Serve

Call to Worship Psalm 103:1-5

*Opening Chorus # 18 Let’s Just Praise the Lord

*Invocation 

*Hymn # 56 To God Be the Glory (stanzas 1 and 3)

First Scripture Psalm 121

*Prayer Hymn # 630 What a Friend We Have in Jesus (1 and 3)

**Pastoral Prayer

Scripture: Psalm 23:4-6

Sermon: Our Shepherd

*Hymn: # 680 All the Way My Savior Leads Me (1 and 2)

*Benediction

*Recessional Response #235 Take the Name of Jesus (1st)

Leave to Serve

*Please Stand **Please Kneel if able

Psalm 23:4-6

Psalm 23 begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” I like to read this as “Because the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” In a real sense the rest of this Psalm fills out the phrase “I lack nothing.” What follows is a list of what God will do for us because He is our Shepherd.  

In the opening verses the Psalmist notes that He has a personal relationship with God, (“The Lord is MY shepherd.”) The Psalmist listed the many things that theologically God will do. He then moved, beginning with verse 4, to fill out the practical, everyday blessings that he could personally attest to as, on the one hand a shepherd, and on the other hand an individual living in a real world with all of the challenges that implies.

V. 4 reads in the NIV, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley.” We are perhaps more familiar with the King James translation that reads “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” While applicable to dying, the imagery is much broader than just death, although death is a legitimate understanding. 

First, note that the phrase just before this reads, “He guides me along the right paths.” Too many Christians believe the lie of Satan that if we are truly being led by God and are honestly following Him, we will always be on a “right path,” and we interpret that to mean that everything will go perfectly for us. A little further on the Psalmist wrote, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Do you know how hard it is to have a table in the presence of an enemy if you don’t have any enemies? 

If nothing else, this Psalm reminds us that even walking in God’s right path we will still walk through dark valleys and will have enemies. What is important to remember when we are in one of those valleys or confronted by an enemy is that we are not alone in it, our Shepherd is walking through it with us.

Back to the phrase, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley.” When David wrote this, he was undoubtedly thinking about the annual trek that shepherds made each spring from the home area of the sheep to the higher country where the summer grass was perfect for the herd. Phillip Keller describes this trek by noting that it was filled with “the dangers of rampaging rivers in flood, avalanches, rock-slides, poisonous plants, and the ravages of predators that raid the flock.” Keller went on to note that a good shepherd, “handled his sheep and managed them with care under all these adverse conditions. Nothing took him by surprise. He was fully prepared to safeguard his flock and tend them with skill under every circumstance.” (p.65) Traveling to the high country for food involved passing through narrow valleys that wove between high and often jagged cliffs. Other than at noon, the sun would be obstructed from shining into the valley, creating darkness or a shadow. If not cared for and guided through those valleys they could become a place of death for wandering sheep, hence a “shadow of death.” 

A shepherd took his sheep on that difficult trip because in the end it was the best place for them during the summer months. The high hills provided the food and water. I am sure we would all like to get to the high country of provision and rest without going through those valleys but that is never the case. We cannot be magically transported to the place of closeness to God and His rest. We must pass through the valleys. Keller went on to write, “As Christians we will sooner or later discover that it is in the valleys of our lives that we find refreshment from God Himself. It is not until we have walked with Him through some very deep troubles that we discover He can lead us to find our refreshment in Him right there in the midst of our difficulty. We are thrilled beyond words when there comes restoration to our souls and spirits from His own gracious Spirit. (p. 72) 

A trip like that had to have been scary for the shepherd but not for the sheep because the shepherd took complete care of them. Because of that the Psalmist could add that the sheep can say, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Read Matthew 28:20  and Isaiah 40:11.

The Psalmist went on to write, “your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” dispelling all fear of evil as he led them into paths of righteousness. A shepherd always carried two items with him that were essential to the care of the sheep. The rod was a defensive weapon. A shepherd would dig a root from the ground with a short stem attached to it. He would shape it into a weapon with a round head that he learned to throw with incredible accuracy. One author wrote, “The rod was, in fact, an extension of the owner’s right arm. It stood as a symbol of his strength, his power, his authority in any serious situation. The rod was what he relied on to safeguard both himself and his flock in danger.”

The staff was used to care for the sheep. The staff had a variety of uses but primarily it was used either to draw the sheep back to the fold or to himself. If a sheep began to wander away the shepherd would use the staff to hook it back to safety. At night the shepherd would call the sheep into the sheepfold and one by one they would pass under the staff so the shepherd could examine each one. The staff was vital to the care of the sheep.

Verse 5 reads, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The shepherd was responsible not only to lead the sheep to pastures, protecting them along the way, but he was to ensure that they were properly fed. The imagery used here is that of a table. Flat places along the way were called “tables.” Read Psalm 78:19. 

(In the New Testament the table becomes a symbol of our salvation and ultimate victory in Jesus. The communion table speaks of the provision of Jesus for our redemption and at the return of Jesus we will join Him is a great wedding feast. Our Good Shepherd will always have a feast prepared for us.)

The Psalm goes on, “You anoint my head with oil.”  Max Lucado summarized the material found in Phillip Keller’s book on anointing with oil by noting, “In ancient Israel shepherds used oil for three purposes: to repel insects, to prevent conflicts, and to heal wounds.” Keller noted that there is a small insect that attaches itself to the head of a sheep, lays larvae and in time infects the ears of the sheep. Oil prevents this painful and annoying bug. Oil also makes the heads of the sheep slippery so when they butt heads, which they often do, they slide off one another without doing harm. And as sheep eat the grass of the fields, they often encounter thistles that cut into the forehead. Oil serves as a medication to prevent infections.

Like sheep we are often irritated by little things that bug us and if not cared for they fester into annoying and painful discomfort. Like sheep we easily get irritated with others as we seemingly butt heads with those who see life differently than we do. And we get wounded by the thorns of life. 

David went on to declare, “my cup overflows.” The discussion in society today is if a glass is half full or half empty. For the Christian the issue is not either half full or empty but overflowing with blessings from above. The Psalmist can conclude the Psalm by declaring two precious truths. First, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” With a shepherd who loves us and has all of the attributes our Heavenly Father does, what else would we expect. He who is love has promised to never leave us. Sheep need a caring shepherd to watch over them 24/7/365 and God does just that.

Second, he wrote, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” When we read this,  we cannot help but think of the words of Jesus found in John 14:2-3, Read those verses. For David, God dwelt in the Tabernacle and to dwell in that house was to dwell with God. 

This week re-read the 23^rd Psalm, noting all of the blessings that are ours when we are a part of the family of God and that He is our Shepherd committed to providing for us, leading us daily and healing our hurts and wounds. Then remember that all of the promises of this Psalm will be ours for all eternity as we dwell in His presence in His home that we call heaven. All we can really say is “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord.”

Sunday June 21, 2020

Father’s Day

Norman Dixon, Pastor

610-589-2034

Email: Dixonnorm@comcast.net

Web Site: www.manbecks.org

Organ Prelude to prepare your heart for worship

Welcome: Opportunities to Worship and Serve

Call to Worship Psalm 92:1-5

*Opening Chorus # 34 He Is Lord

*Invocation 

*Hymn # 12 Praise Him, Praise Him

First Scripture Matthew 6:25-34

*Prayer Hymn # 692 God Will Take Care of You

**Pastoral Prayer

Special Music Eve

Scripture: I John 3:1-2

Sermon: Our Heavenly Father

*Hymn of response: # 143 This Is My Father’s World

*Benediction

*Recessional Response #235 Take the Name of Jesus (1st)

Leave to Serve

*Please Stand **Please Kneel if able

Our Heavenly Father

Most of us can give thanks to God for our parents. Belonging to a family is important to all of us and having a father who cares, protects, and provides is special. We had no control over the family into which we were born or the kind of home they provided. Some of us had a close to ideal environment, while others of us grew up in conditions that we would rather not think about too often. Whereas we had no choice of the family we were physically born into we all have two choices we can make today. First, we can choose to be adopted into the perfect family, the family of God over which our Heavenly Father is the head. Second, we can choose to reflect the way He fathers us in our family relationships.

In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul used the idea of adoption to describe our relationship to God. He wrote that because we are all sinners by both nature and action, we are all separated from a holy God and all that He desires for us. But when we accept the provision of Jesus on the Cross for our sins we are, as Jesus put it in John 3, born again into the family of God. Paul illustrated it as adoption into God’s family. Read Romans 8:15.  

There was probably no concept in the New Testament more radical for the Jews of Jesus’ day than to accept the fact they could come before God and call Him their Father. When we pray the “Lord’s Prayer” and begin it with “Our Father who is in heaven,” we think little of the significance of that concept, but it was totally radical to those who first heard it. What a contrast that was to the Old Testament saints’ understanding of God where it was considered forbidden to even speak or write the name of God. God could be referred to by lots of titles that described Him, but He was a holy God with whom one dare not become too familiar and thus become irreverent. Jesus gave us the privilege, once our sins have been removed, to address Him the same way.

There is a sense in which God may be said to be the father of all. He is the creator of all and the sustainer of all. Read Acts 17:28. But that relationship carries with it no special privilege or blessing. It is merely a statement of relationship based on common origin and does not allow for any doctrine of automatic universal salvation. In fact, Jesus taught in John 8:32-44 that we are actually, because of our sins, children of the devil. Jesus said we become children of God only as we are bought back at the price of His precious blood and adopted into the family of God. Then God becomes our personal Heavenly Father.

The Old Testament occasionally used the concept of the fatherhood of God as a way of describing God’s relationship to Israel. Those references, however, are never related to an individual nor are they all that frequent (see Psalm 103:13 and Isaiah 64:8). None of those references, however, come close to the personal relationship suggested by Jesus when He taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven.” Nor do any of the Old Testament references come close to the relationship suggested by Paul when he described us as adopted into God’s family. The relationship with the eternal, almighty, all glorious creator whereby we can call Him Father is possible only because of the Cross. That relationship is made real when we accept Jesus by faith.  

What does the adoption into the family of God really mean? What kind of a Father is God to each of us? What kind of a parent/grandparent should we be based on the example of God?

First, our Heavenly Father is always available to us. Paul wrote in Romans 5:1-2 that we have access to God by grace because we have been justified. Our Heavenly Father is always there for us. When we want to talk to God we are never put on hold or asked to call back later or given a list of numbers to dial depending on our need. We are simply ushered immediately into the throne room to visit with Him. We ought to cherish the opportunity to talk to Him. The example of God’s constant availability is a challenge to each of us as earthly parents.

Not only is our Heavenly Father always available to talk to, but He is also always there to help us. Read Hosea 11:3-4. Not only did He lead us in our first faltering steps as a new believer but has said, through Jude, that one day we will be presented without blemish before Him. That is another way of saying that He will guide us all the way. Paul wrote that He who began a good work in us will bring it all to completion. In the letter of James, we read that if any man lacks wisdom let him go to God. Life in general, and the Christian life in particular, is difficult with unknown twists and turns so we need a hand to guide, and a voice to give advice. Our Heavenly Father is always available for such. He has given us His Word and His Spirit and will give direction as we take advantage of His desire to guide us. Read Ephesians 5:1. God does not just turn us loose and tell us to make it on our own, to find our own way. He does not say experience life and learn from it. He clearly leads us by example and by His Word and His Holy Spirit in the way we should go. As earthly parents we need to be available with the kind of guidance by example and in word that will encourage our children to walk in pathways of righteousness and truth.

And our Heavenly Father knows what we need and is anxious to provide for those needs. The New Testament presents various references to God’s desire as a Father to provide for His children. Read Matthew 7:7-12 and Matthew 6:25-34. The lesson is obvious. Our Heavenly Father will care for us if we allow Him to do so.  That does not mean that we will have everything we ask for. No caring parent gives any child all he wants, but certainly we will have all we need. Since our Heavenly Father is the example of the kind of a parent we ought to be, a major responsibility is certainly to provide for the needs of our family while perhaps at the same time saying lovingly, “You don’t need that and I shouldn’t give it to you.”

And our Heavenly Father disciplines His children. Read Hebrews 12:7-11. Discipline comes in various forms and shapes. Sometimes it comes in terms of punishment. God will sometimes punish us for sins committed in the hope that we will learn from it, repent of it, avoid it in the future. Sometimes discipline is in the form of difficulty or hardship to strengthen us, and God also does that. But His discipline is always rooted in His love and in His desire that we become all He redeemed us to be. In it all He overshadows us with His love and that love guarantees His best for both now and eternity. Read I John 3:1-2. 

What a powerful picture of the love of our Heavenly Father, whose Son paid the price of buying us back from Satan, so we are free to belong to Him. He only asks in return that we accept His offer and make Jesus our own. What a challenge to all of us as earthly parents to love our families so much that we will seek to provide that which is best for them for not only now but, far more importantly, for eternity. We need to be sure that we love them enough to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We need to not only bring them to church but to teach by example and through family devotions the truths of God. We can do no less if we truly love them.

This Father’s Day we should give God thanks not only for our earthly fathers but most of all for our Heavenly Father. We should consider the responsibility we have as parents to be like our Heavenly Father in the ways we live in our earthly families. As we thank God that He is willing to be our Heavenly Father by adopting us into His family, let’s remember that because we are His children we know that He is always there to help us, is always anxious to watch over us, supply our needs, and guide us in the way we should go. When necessary He disciplines us or stretch us so that His love may provide all that He desires for us. What a special relationship is ours with our Heavenly Father! What an example for earthly parents!

Psalm 133:1

Psalm, written by David, was used as a part of the ascent of pilgrims to Jerusalem. Three times a year every Jew who could made a pilgrimage Jerusalem for the celebration of various feast days or festivals. Some of those Jewish pilgrims came a significant distance, approaching the city of Jerusalem from all directions. As the city came into view, thousands sang this hymn. Verse 1 reads, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”

What a powerful opening that is. It reminds us of what was a theme of the Old Testament and a center piece of Jesus’ message to the church. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” In ancient Israel, the time of the festivals was a time of national unity. Like all societies Israel had those who were well off and those in poverty. Some were well educated and some with little or no education. There were the strong and the weak, the young and the old, the rich and the poor etc. But when they came together to worship God on those special days, they were reminded that they were one because of their faith in God and the covenant He had made with them. They were to come before God in worship, united in faith and the love they had toward one another. 

Note that the Psalmist wrote that unity in the Lord is both good and pleasant. Unity in the Lord is both good and pleasant and that is super special. It is so good because when God created us, He created us to have fellowship first with Himself and then with others. When God created man, He looked upon him and said, “It is not good that he should be alone.” 

Shortly before Jesus went to the Cross He met with His disciples and prayed for them. He concluded with these words recorded in John 17:20-23, “I pray also for those who will believe in me, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” Jesus went on to pray, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Lord willing, we will return to the building on Sunday. (See web site for guidelines we will follow.) It will be an exciting time for us. We have missed the fellowship with our church family. As we approach church on Sunday, we need to be aware that re-opening comes with a lot of unanswered questions and differences of opinion. Do I come or wait a bit? Do we wear masks or not? Do we sit with friends or just family? Do we sing or not? It would be very easy for Satan to divide us because of these different feelings but we must not allow that to happen.

Sunday, if you choose to stay home, we understand and want you to know “It is good and pleasant when God’s people live together in unity!” And if you choose to come, feel free to express how you feel about the way we worship but focus on, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”

As we contemplate the future of both society and our church, we are aware that there are many unknowns. While we have no idea what the future holds, we know who holds the future, and in the end, that is all we need to know.

Prayer:

1. Keep Cadence in your prayers as she heals.
2. Remember Pastor Jim and Kathy’s daughter Elizabeth due to deliver a child this week.
3. Remember several who are undergoing treatment for cancer.
4. Remember Don Koch as he goes through rehab for a knee replacement
5. Remember those returning to an uncertain workplace.
6. Remember those in need of work.

The Official Board voted to reopen the church building on June 21 (Father’s Day). The decision was made realizing that some of our members, particularly those in a high-risk category, may not be ready to return. We fully understand and do not want anyone to return who is not yet comfortable with it or has any signs of sickness. We urge love and understanding for the feelings of each individual.

The following are the guidelines we expect to follow when we open:

1. We will space ourselves at recommended distances in the church. Every other pew will be blocked off and we expect that only family members will sit together in the open pews. Our church is more than large enough to accommodate everyone and maintain recommended social distancing. 
2. Facemasks will not be required, although many may feel more comfortable with them, especially on entering and exiting the church. Anyone desiring may wear one throughout the service.
3. Physical greetings of any kind will be discouraged with any visitation/fellowship being done outside, after church.
4. Hand sanitizers will be available at the bottom and top of the stairs for those wishing to use them.
5. As per CDC recommendations, the windows will be open and fans on (it is also summer).
6. The restroom will be thoroughly cleaned before each service and material in them for individuals to use before and after they have been in them.
7. We will try to keep the downstairs closed so only the sanctuary and restrooms need to be sanitized. The chairlift will be sanitized after each use.
8. Instead of the usual offering we will have plates in the rear for members to use for giving to the Lord so we will minimize human contact.
9. At least initially we will not sing hymns. Current recommendations are against that, although newer studies may change that. Initially we plan to have a familiar hymn played and the words displayed for meditation.
10. Special music is still an issue. Initially we hope to make use of individuals who can bring their own music (i.e. instruments) so as to avoid multiple individuals touching equipment such as microphones and sound.

As an added note, we are going to experiment with video recording at least part of the service and making that available to those who are unable to attend for any reason. Pray that it works as we hope it will.

Psalm 23: The Shepherd Psalm

No Psalm is better loved or read more than the 23^rd Psalm. Charles Spurgeon calls it the “pearl of psalms.” 

The author is believed to be David, the shepherd boy David who grew up to be a king. It is filled with imagery that could only have come from one who was a shepherd himself and expresses the richness of God’s love and care in ways that only a shepherd who loved and cared for his sheep would know. For the people of the Old Testament it spoke in ways that encouraged them and reminded them that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the personal God who met their individual needs. Once we come to the New Testament, we see all that love and care taken over by the One who called Himself the Good Shepherd. 

V.1 The LORD is my shepherd: What a marvelous way to begin. David combined two extraordinary descriptions of God.  God is the “Lord” and He is a “shepherd.” The word David used for “Lord” is the one that is first given Moses in Exodus 3 where God declared He is, “I am that I am.” The Lord, who is a shepherd, is the eternal and all-sufficient one. He is the One whose resources are inexhaustible and, therefore, able to supply whatever His love seeks to give. The blessing of the Psalm lies not in the promises made but in the one who made them. He is the great “I am that I am.” 

He is also a shepherd. Consider for a moment what a shepherd was in the Old Testament. A shepherd was the lowliest of all jobs. In a family the role of being a shepherd was relegated to the youngest son, which is why David was out caring for the family sheep when Samuel came to anoint a son of Jesse as king and why no one in the family ever considered one doing the work of a shepherd as worthy of even being considered for such an important position. In any family where it was possible, they hired outsiders to do this job. Such individuals were generally considered the failures of society who could not get a real job. Shepherds were nobodies, but God was willing to compare Himself to one because they were perfect examples of those who cared for and provided for those who were otherwise helpless. Imagine, the great God of the universe the great “I am that I am” has chosen to stoop to the role of a shepherd of His people here on earth.

Remember the role of a shepherd. Sheep are without a doubt the dumbest and most helpless of all animals. Left to themselves they will die very quickly. Left to themselves they cannot find food and if they stumble upon it, they will quickly wander away and forget how to get back. They are the easiest of prey for any wild animal as they have no way to protect themselves, no speed to escape, and no camouflage in which to hide. In this Psalm David spoke of the God “restoring the soul” which literally in the Hebrew is “restoring life.” Phillip Keller, in his marvelous book “A Shepherd Looks that the 23^rd Psalm,” relates this to what he called a sheep being cast down. He described how a sheep will lay down on its side, then roll over on its back and get to the place where it cannot roll over further and is stuck there. Only an alert shepherd can turn the sheep over and literally restore life to it. 

The job of a shepherd was to live with the sheep 24/7. Sheep need constant care throughout every day and throughout the whole year. There were times when that care was more urgent, such as times of drought or storm, but even in the best of times a shepherd had to be there to protect, guide, feed, and care for the sheep. God chose the metaphor of a shepherd to describe how He cares for us. That picture is enriched in the New Testament where we see Jesus as our Good Shepherd who searches for lost sheep, knows His sheep by name, leads them constantly and lies over the entrance of the sheepfold to ensure that they are protected and secure.

David wrote that the Lord is “MY” shepherd. The personalization of the role is significant. Most often in the Old Testament God is seen as the Shepherd of the nation and in the New Testament Jesus is seen as the Good Shepherd of the flock, but He is also a personal Shepherd to those who view Him as such.

I shall not be in want. The second half of the first verse is as far-reaching as the first. If David could say the eternal creator God is a personal shepherd, he could also declare “I shall lack nothing.” God is able to provide absolutely everything we will ever need, be it material or spiritual possessions, be it right now or for eternity, be it in times of calm and rest or in times of difficulty. Regardless of the circumstance, “I shall lack nothing.” 

V.2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. Phillip Keller wrote it is almost impossible to get sheep to lie down. Before they will do so he wrote 4 things need to be present. First, they must be free from all fear. Sheep are very timid animals and if they have any sense of fear they will refuse to lie down. Second, they are a social animal and must have a sense of no friction within the herd. Third, if there are any insects, especially flies, evident they will not lie down. Finally, they will not lie down when hungry. To get sheep to lie down they must free of fear, free of friction, free of annoying intruders and filled physically. It is the responsibility of the shepherd to provide all of that. God provides the setting in which we can find true rest.

Green pastures are a picture of that which is fresh, satisfying and more than adequate for all needs. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry, he who believes in me will never thirst.” Jesus promised in the Sermon on the Mount it is foolish to worry and asked those present to consider the way God cares for the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. He then asks them to consider the fact that God provides for them and we are so much more valuable to Him, so how much more will He give to us.

The Shepherd provides rest. The Christian life is resting in Jesus. There is much to do in the Christian life but the success of doing it is dependent on being able to rest in Him. We need to rest in Him who will provide our needs. Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” 

The Psalm goes on, “He leads me beside quiet waters.” Quite waters represent both a place of calmness and a place where one can take advantage of what is there. A stream that is flowing quickly has plenty of water in it but getting a drink from it for an animal is difficult. God’s provision is such that one may easily partake of it. Note that He leads us there. He does not drive us but leads us, leads us by example and by love. He leads because we would never find those still waters by ourselves. And “waters” is plural. The blessings are many. 

Verse 3 declares, “He restores my soul.” The word translated “soul” can also mean life and in light of the metaphor of a shepherd it seems more likely that David was telling us that our Shepherd renews life within us. Too often we are like sheep, laying helplessly on our backs, knowing we are slowly dying but unable to roll over. Along comes our Good Shepherd and rolls us back with a word of forgiveness, a word of encouragement, a word of challenge, a word of hope. Read II Corinthians 4:16.

The Psalm goes on, “He guides me in paths of righteousness.” Put sheep in the middle of a green pasture and they will wander away into the barren countryside where there is neither food nor water. If you leave sheep in a field too long, they will eat every blade of grass and leave the field a barren wilderness unable to return to green grass again. A smart shepherd leads them to the right field, ensures that they enjoy the fullness of it without straying off.  God knows where and when to lead us so that we are always near fresh grass and water.

He leads us into righteousness. For us, the straying away from the good life in Jesus is the straying into the areas of barrenness known as sin. If we allow our Shepherd to lead, we will avoid such places. We need to be led away from sin, sin on the tube, sin on the internet, sin in the activities around us that that only destroy us. God desires that we walk in the ways that are good and acceptable and perfect, as Paul puts it in Romans 12:2.

It is all “for his name’s sake.” God’s children in green pastures, beside still waters and living righteous lives are a testimony to God’s love and provision. God is glorified when we allow Him to lead us. God is honored when we are a holy people, so He seeks to lead us there.

What a glorious Shepherd our God is to us!

Prayer Requests:

1. The Board has voted to re-open the church building for worship on Father’s Day, June 21. Thre will be some restrictions in place with throught preparation ahead of time. Details to follow. Pray for this step forward that we will remain united and work together to keep everyone healthy.
2. Cadence is home from the hospital but still in pain with a lot of recovery ahead.
3. Betsy’s Daughter-in-law, Erika is home but is having a lot of pain and difficulty sleeping because of that. 
4. Betty’s brother Don had knee surgery. Pray for therapy
5. Continue to remember Grace as she adjusts to Tremont. She has been moved to a regular room and has a roommate. 
6. Continue to pray for Bill’s sister-in-law Deb as she undergoes radiation.

Acknowledging Jesus as Lord: Colossians 1:15-23

Read Colossians 1:15-23. The backdrop against which Paul’s letter to the Colossians was written was the rise of a philosophy known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism held that all matter was evil and that salvation from this life consisted in an escape from the physical into the realm of the spiritual. Gnosticism held in the reality of a spirit world and that all communication with God was through that spirit or angelic world. For the early Christians, that philosophy presented a challenge because the Bible teaches that not only is matter not evil, but God took upon Himself the form of man and was born in the flesh, that is, in matter. One with a Gnostic philosophy could not accept the idea that a good God could take on evil matter. 

With that issue before Paul, he wrote to the church in Colossi, quoting what scholars believe was the quoting of an early church hymn. Paul declared that Jesus, who was in every way the God and created matter, took upon Himself the form of man and lived in the flesh or matter. Paul further declared that the real, human Jesus died a real death and serves as head of the physical church here on this real earth. In presenting his argument to the Gnostics, Paul presented a powerful picture of the significance and supremacy or superiority of Jesus.  That makes this passage one of the most exciting in the New Testament, because nothing will impact us more than a deeper understanding of just how great our God and His Son, our Savior, are.

J. B. Phillips, in a book titled, “Your God is Too Small” argued that most of our spiritual problems stem from an inadequate view of just how great God is, just how much He loves us and just how magnificent our redemption really is. Phillips could not be more accurate in his understanding of our problem because all too often we find our faith failing simply because our understanding of God is too small. A. W. Tozer, in his book on the holiness of God, began with the declaration that the way we understand the nature of the holy God impacts every other area of our lives. He, too, is absolutely right. If our God is too small, everything else in our walk with Him will be too small. In contrast to the way we so often think of God and of our Savior, the hymn that Paul quoted in these verses presents a picture of Jesus in way that, if grasped, allows us to step back and gaze upon our Savior and declare, WOW, what a Savior we have. 

This ancient hymn, and while it may not appear as a hymn in our English translations, is written in the Greek in stanzas such as we would see in a hymn book today with all of the rhythm and linguistic skill of a hymn. This hymn, or passage of Scripture, presents a glorious picture of Jesus who is in every way God. It says, “he is the image of invisible God.” The Greek implies far more than He is merely a copy of God, like a photograph, but He is in every aspect of His essence God. The hymn goes on to declare He is, “the firstborn over all creation.” Being first in creation does not mean the first to be created, as some cults claim, but rather the one who is more marvelous than anything created and in complete authority over it. Not only was He not created Himself, but He was the one responsible in some way for all that was created.

How marvelous is this one who is God and can create so much that is so incredible? Everything owes its existence to Him. He created not only the world in which we live but the stars and galaxies out there and the spirit world that dwells therein. He is so marvelous that in reality any attempt on our part to comprehend Him or express His greatness will be too small. Yet as we contemplate Him our picture of Him will grow and He will become greater and more able to accomplish for us all that we need. Any time you are tempted to doubt, fear, wonder if in the end all will work out for His glory, consider how great a God and Savior we have. He is strong enough to help you overcome every temptation, loving enough to forgive every sin, significant enough to give meaning to every event of our lives. 

Paul wanted to communicate that the fullness of the provision that Jesus has made for us is seen in the redemption that He has provided through the shedding of His blood on our behalf. Re-read verse 21-22.  Those verses present our problem. Because of our sinful nature and our acts of sin we are alienated or separated from a holy God.  But, Paul wrote, we have been reconciled through the death of Christ on the Cross. Paul noted that, on the Cross, Jesus died for our sins and when we personally appropriate that death by faith, the separation or alienation is removed and we can have the fellowship with God that we were designed and created to have.

For too many Christians that is the end of the story. They think, “I’m saved and will spend eternity with God so now I can get on with my life.” That is not what God intends when He saves us. Becoming a Christian is only the first step.  Becoming a Christian allows God to work through our lives so that the world can come to know Him as Savior. We who were once alienated and are now reconciled. We are to be presented “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” The reality of the risen Lord living within and transforming us into His likeness should permeate every activity of our lives.

The root meaning of the word holy, which is what God wants to produce in us, is that of being different. God is holy in that He is different than His creation. In time the idea of holiness focused on the righteousness of God, which is totally different from our sinfulness. By the time Paul used the word holy to describe us it had come to mean a righteousness that mirrors the holiness of God. 

The holiness spoken of by Paul takes on two dimensions. It is passive in that we have been made holy through the shed blood of Christ so that when God looks at us, He sees not our sin, but the righteousness of His Son imputed to us. Holiness is also active in the believer as we become like Jesus by allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us. The Bible describes that as allowing the Holy Spirit to produce in us the fruit of the Spirit. 

Paul went on to write we are to be blameless and without accusation. Blameless was a term from the sacrificial system that demanded an animal sacrificed to God be without fault. Lives that are being lived in sacrifice to God, or as Paul puts it in Romans 12 as “living sacrifices,” are to be pure. The only way we can be such is by a commitment to God that is total and, therefore, allowes Him to work His purity into our lives. The same idea is present in the phrase, “without accusation” We have been redeemed so that we can become all God created us to be. 

The hymn Paul quoted in this passage concluded the presentation of who Jesus is and what He came to do, with a challenge to share this great message with others. Why wouldn’t someone want to share this message? Consider again how marvelous Jesus is. He is very God of very God. He is the one in whom and for whom all exists. He is the one who loved us so much that He provided, at the expense of His life on the Cross, reconciliation with God from whom we were separated by our sinfulness. Allow Jesus, who can too easily become small in our minds, to be seen in the fullness of His splendor, the greatness of power, and the richness of His love. I guarantee we will never be the same nor will our commitment to Him ever be the same. The bigger we understand our God to be the greater our commitment will be. There is none that can compare to Him who is our Savior so why should we not let Him have the place He deserves in our lives?

Along with nearly every American I have kept a watchful eye on the events unfolding in our country. I grew up in New England and did not see a black man until I was in college. Fortunately, my first encounters were positive, and Maurice and I became good friends. Early on in my ministry, in Reading, PA, the issue of racial equality was central, and I had to personally evaluate my feelings and what I could do to face it in a Christian way. The big issue in the 60’s and early 70’s was the willingness of someone to sell his house in an all-white neighborhood to a black man. As is so often the case in issues such as this, too many white neighbors missed the point. The point was never to whom I would sell my house, but would I be the first to welcome a racially different family as my neighbor. Racism is not something we move further away but we lovingly fight to overcome. 

Ten years later I was living in Kenya. When I went to the city to buy food I stood out as the only white man in the store. When I went to church it was hard, as the only white man present, to hide my presence. It is a strange feeling that changes the way you view racial differences. Occasionally we joked that Jesus couldn’t decide if He wanted to be white or black, so He chose mid-eastern which is half-way between. If racial feelings were simply color it might be easier to solve but in the end it is not the color of one’s skin but the fear we all have of embracing that which is different from what we know and are comfortable with.

In the end, however, the issue is not so much about color as it is a respect for every individual who has been created in God’s image. Our God is a creative God, as readily seen in the diversity of animals. God has displayed that same creativity in the differences He has built into man. As has been seen often on Facebook of the last week, the issue is not skin but sin. Sin causes me to think I am better than someone else (the biblical term is pride). Sin makes it easier to hate than love because God is love and Satan is hate. Until we are transformed into the likeness of our Savior we lean, because of our fallen sinful nature, heavily away from God and toward hatred. 

Perhaps we need to hear again the plea of Paul to have the same mind as Jesus as recorded in Philippians 2:5-7 that admonishes us to “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.” 

Over the past 3 months we have heard over and over that the church is not a building but the people. Perhaps we also need to hear that the Christians are not the people of the world but those who live differently because of the transforming power of Jesus.

Prayer:

1. Continue to pray for Don Koch as he recovers from knee surgery
2. Remember Betsy’s daughter-in-law as she recovers from her fall and doctors determine the cause
3. Remember Bill’s sister-in-law as she undergoes radiation.
4. Remember those in retirement communities and nursing homes.
5. Remember our nation, praying that as Christians we would display the mind of Jesus in all we do.