As Living Stones

On January 15, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Peter 2: 4 – 5

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

I was picturing a person walking along a riverbed picking up and rejecting rocks, looking for the perfect one to keep. The stone we would throw away is precious in the sight of God.

The way to think about this verse is two-fold. It speaks of Jesus, the one rejected by men but precious and choice by God. The beautiful Son of God was rejected by the establishment. The cool kids didn’t want to have anything to do with him. His own brothers made fun of him. To many, most in fact, he did not look like the pretty, collectible stone. He was the one tossed aside.

We also see ourselves in this verse. Jesus is not the only precious to God stone to be rejected. The feeling of rejection is widespread. Books and books have been written to help people overcome rejection. It is a problem, but the number one thing for each of us to understand is that despite rejection by people, each of us is a precious gem in God’s sight. I think that makes a difference. That is not to say it won’t still hurt a little when people reject us but what a refuge we have in God. We can run to Him with our hurt feelings and be welcomed and valued. It does take the sting out of the rejection by people.

Lastly, the cornerstone, Jesus, and we, the living stones, are being fitted together as a living temple, a spiritual household of faith. In other words, we are the brick and mortar of the Kingdom. We are being shaped and assembled, together, as a living edifice of glory and honor to the Father. We are not all the same and perhaps the Lord is having to round off some of our rougher edges. None the less, we are each chosen and precious. We have been selected to be a part of the monument of praise to the Lord even though we are different from one another. You are chosen because of your uniqueness, not in spite of it.

This is why unity among us is so important. Despite our differences, we must hold together. If we reject one another, we tear the building apart. So, today, though this is not where I thought this Word of the Day would go, I want to officially recognize each one of you as accepted and valued. And I pray that I can see each and every one of you with the eyes of God; that I see your glory and beauty even if you still see your blemishes. In these most troubling of times, I want you to know this ministry and myself personally and as a pastor welcomes you and gives you refuge from what may feel like a cold and angry world. As our Lord said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11: 28).

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Rejected

On October 28, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 74: 1 – 2

O God, why have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture? Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance.

Can I be honest with you? I am not in love with this psalm and had trouble choosing a segment to write on. Ultimately it was what I didn’t like that captured my attention. This is not a psalm of David and I find myself missing him. Read the entire psalm for yourself and tell me which verse you would have chosen. Click reply or enter your choice in the comments section.

I chose verses one and two because of the tone they set for the entire psalm. David may have whined a time or two in his songs but one of the things I like about his spirit is that he turned to praise in the end. Today’s psalm, by Asaph, is an entreaty for God to rise up against those who oppose him and his people.

The heart warms to thoughts of being God’s own inheritance. What a crazy concept. God created a people so that He might have an inheritance. This people, though, accuse Him of having rejected them. I posit that they rejected Him rather than the other way around. I believe this because of the history that we read in the Bible but also because I see how we are today. Even now we might accuse God of leading us into the desert or otherwise abandoning us, but I know it to be untrue. We are the fabricators of silence and desolation.

How many times and in how many ways do we isolate God from our lives and isolate ourselves from His life? We pray, begging Him to meet our needs, but at the first opportunity we immerse ourselves in lives, habits and activities of which He cannot be a part. We shun Him, putting Him in the corner until Sunday morning when we put on our holy garments for an hour.

Do not think I am accusing you without pausing to look in the mirror. I, too, fall far short of the prize and it bothers me that I do. We live in a cultural time when it takes concerted effort to live a life of meaning and value. These days, people want to text rather than talk. We are too busy to just sit down and have a cup of coffee with a friend. When we are together, we rarely engage in meaningful conversation. We are more likely to have a beer together than even one word about our Lord and God WHICH begs the question. Is He really our Lord if we don’t serve Him, give Him any time or worship Him? Is He our God, truly? Perhaps He is only our ticket out of hell. In the meantime, here on earth, we have compartmentalized Him so that He does not invade our lives.

When you know the history of the Israelites, you may think that rather than God having rejected them, they had rejected God. Then, since all the words in the Bible are for our ultimate edification you stop and think that perhaps we are a modern example of the same thing.

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Rejection

On May 20, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 8: 34

And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; …

How do you expect this sentence to end? I expected the whole city to turn out, fall at his feet and praise him. I thought the next line might be “and they marveled at the wonders he performed in their midst.” That is not how this story ends though. The rest of the passage reads:

And when they saw Him, they entreated him to depart from their region.


Now isn’t that a kick in the teeth? This passage is the conclusion of the story of the Gadarene demoniacs. The introduction to this story says that these two men were so violent that no one could use that road. Jesus cast out the demons, restoring the men and the thoroughfare at the same time. Two of the town’s citizens were restored and a major problem rectified. Yet the people’s reaction was to reject Jesus. It sounds ludicrous with the advantage of 2000 years of hindsight. The same thing happens today though and if they did it to Jesus, of all people; people are going to do it to his followers as well.

This does not diminish the message though. Just understand that even when you do the work of God, even when you preach the message God has personally given you to preach, you are still going to encounter resistance. Some people are not going to be able to receive your message even though it is directly from God himself. But take heart. They did it to Jesus too so you are in very good company.

I do not say that it is always easy to preach the message you have been given but be of good heart knowing that your obedience to God will be much more pleasant than even the rejection and criticism you must sometimes endure. People need to hear the word that God has given you. Don’t let fear have the final say. Do what you need to do knowing that even Jesus ran into critics but the message did get through and at least two people in that town were set free.

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Imitating Christ

On May 17, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 15: 7

Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.

Yesterday I shared Isaiah 41: 9 and we saw that our Father, God, accepts us and has not rejected us. Today we see from the New Testament that Jesus also accepts us. But look, Jesus also requires that we accept one another. That will sure put our judgmental and critical natures to the test. Apparently, God did not set us up in the position to be critical of our fellow human beings. Honestly, we just can’t see the things God does nor can we see the way He does. He has the ability to look at a person’s heart. We can only view their external appearance and behaviors.

You are accepted by God and by Jesus. Now you must learn to extend the grace and mercy that you have in them. Let this grace and the love of God fill you. As you receive God’s acceptance you will begin to overflow with the same merciful attitude towards others. If you find yourself critical and judgmental then make sure that you are fully receiving God’s love for yourself. When you come to understand God’s affection for you it becomes very difficult not to share it with others.

God loves you, accepts you and has not rejected you. Open your heart and arms to the rest of humanity allowing God’s love to flow from you . . . in Jesus’ name.

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Accepted

On May 16, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 41: 9

You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its remotest parts, and said to you, “You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you.”

I suppose most people have dealt with rejection or the sense of rejection at some time in their life. Many have felt insecure in their relationship with God too. The good news is that God has accepted you. No matter what the world may say about you; no matter what your negative brother-in-law says about you, God loves you and accepts you; even as you are.

I am not trying to say that most of us don’t need some transformation in our lives but we have been chosen by God. We really need to meditate on this scripture and let it sink down into our spirits. We need to have such a rock solid understanding and recognition of God’s favor over our lives such that nothing and no one can cause us to doubt our acceptance by God. 

This is a really big deal. There are books and books on the topic of rejection because so many of us have dealt with feelings of unacceptance and rejection. Sometimes we feel that we can never be what others want us to be but God is here shouting loudly that you do not have to change for Him to love you. Even before you were born He saw you and you were, and are, lovely in His sight. No matter how many mistakes you make, He still sees the beautiful you and He would say to you that you are wondrously made in His own image.

I feel like I could and should write much more on this so that you hear time and time again that God considers you lovely and worthy of His affection. However, He has said it best, “I have chosen you and not rejected you.” Hear the word of the Lord.

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Love and Truth

On December 4, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 John 4: 7

God is love.

John 14: 6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me.”

There is an intersection between truth and love. Perhaps a better analogy would be of a cord or rope that is made by twisting several threads together. Love and truth are a part of one whole. They go together. There can be no truth apart from love because Jesus is the truth and God is love. They must go hand in hand.

I have been learning this lesson the hard way for quite a number of years now. I hope I now have it. Because I have always valued truth so highly I thought other people did too. In my paradigm there is no knowledge without truth. I didn’t want to be wrong so I was willing to accept the truth. I have lived in a world where I was happy to be taught something outside my present reality because I was in search of truth and knowledge. I could be corrected because I was after actual truth, not just my version of it. I have learned, though, that most people are not like me. Most of us have a real investment in being right. And many times we are happy in our delusions and misinformation so we don’t thank a person who teaches us otherwise. We certainly don’t applaud them for correcting us. 

Truth apart from love does not set people free. I labored under the delusion that truth alone will set people free but that is not what the Bible says. It says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 32). You see, it is only the truth that you hear that will set you free. People will only be able to receive the truth when it is spoken with love. So before we try to correct people, we must first love them. I wish we could just speak the naked truth and people adopt it and change but it just doesn’t work that way. Our criticisms, verdicts and censures are preventing the truth from being heard. We are preaching the law of death, judgment and condemnation when we ought to be preaching the message of love and reconciliation. The law kills. Only love sets free. 

No matter what we think of another person’s lifestyle, even when it seems clear that they are in violation of Biblical principles, there is only one approved approach and that is to love them. We have created a society where few people really feel like they fit in. I am shocked by the number of people who tell me that they have felt like a square peg in a round hole. I look at them and think they fit but they have lived in a system of condemnation rather than acceptance so that they don’t feel approved. They constantly feel abnormal and rejected. It is so easy to identify what we believe is someone’s fault, sin or error. Why do we find it so much more difficult to applaud what they do right? And besides that, why can’t we love them just because they are children of God? Maybe our damage is showing. 

I had a situation where someone I knew was involved in adultery. I had the worst time trying to accept them because they continued in the adultery. I mean that one is on God’s Top Ten List. I could point to it and say, “I know that is wrong.” It turns out, though, that it was not my job to pass judgment, even in the case where the Bible was clear. Only Jesus has been given the right to judge. My job is to love. I mean, read the book. How many times did Jesus tell us not to judge but rather to love others? So the bottom line is that no matter how much we disapprove of another’s way of living or their actions, it has not been given to us to correct them. Jesus has given us the job of loving every single person on this earth. This is what I call “Adult Christianity” because this isn’t easy but we who want to be mature must grow up in it. We must do what is difficult. We cannot judge a person into Christianity but we sure can love them into it. Love is the greatest power there is and it draws all people unto itself. If you want to abide in truth, you must first abide in love. Truth without love is just dressed up condemnation and rejection. Let us not be masters of that. Be known as a person of great love. That is a high and worthy ambition.

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In His Arms

On July 21, 2014   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 27: 10

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up.

Have your ever felt forsaken? Almost everyone feels some level of abandonment or rejection at some point in their lives. If you have gone through a divorce you may have suffered through feelings of abandonment. Maybe a parent was not completely present for you or their death left you feeling like an orphan. One can experience these feelings either from a spouse, parent, boyfriend or girlfriend. You might have even gone through a period when you felt all of your friends abandoned you. You may even feel abandoned by your children. The point is that most everyone goes through a period where they at least felt abandoned and certainly there are real instances of abandonment. These feelings of rejection can be devastating and have lifelong implications. They are not only life altering but life determinative by which I mean that if one has experienced deep feelings of abandonment at a young age they may never develop into the person that God created them to be. Their lives could be determined by the injury rather than by the blessing of God. That is a great loss.

There is great news though. No matter how devastated we have felt, we have never been orphaned, never once left alone or forsaken. At every one of those uncomfortable bends in the road the Lord, our God and Father, has been standing there with His arms open. Actually that is an understatement. He wasn’t just waiting for us to jump into His arms but rather He was carrying us. In the midst of our pain we may not have felt His love and support but it was there as was He.

Can you remember instances in your life when you felt the deep pain of abandonment and rejection? If you will mentally and emotionally go back to those times and this time see your Holy Father there embracing you, you can rectify the damage that those injuries caused you. You do not have to go along all your life carrying the hurt from parents or other loved ones who did not meet your needs. You can be fully healed and restored. You are not alone and you never have been, not even for an instant. Your heavenly father has been ever present and ever loving. Fill those voids with the love that knows no bounds. Reach out for the love that heals.

It is tragic to see a life not only unfulfilled but tainted by hurts suffered. So many people continue to bear the scars and battle wounds when there is healing available. What’s worse is that we remain susceptible to further injury when we do not allow healing to take place. Even worse, we pass those injuries onto our children and other loved ones. There is no need when we have a father who is full of love and grace and has healing in His hands. Embrace the loving hands of the father and allow Him to take all the hurts away.

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