Words Matter: Love and the Cross, Part 1

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men who serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Scott Rossiter. As one of CrossView’s online pastors, Pastor Scott hosts our online services and leads our online prayer group. To join our Thursday evening online prayer group, click here. To share a prayer request, click here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotional. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Guest Speaker: Bernard Kalukusha

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men that serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Rev. Bernard Kalukusha. Bernard serves as the principal of the Great Commission Bible School in Malawi, Africa. This school trains and educates the Free Methodist pastors in Malawi.

To learn more about the Free Methodist Church in Malawi, visit fmwm.org/africa/malawi/.

When we have a guest speaker we will not have a weekly devotion. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week and listen to previous discussion podcast episodes.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Words Matter: Hope

This weeks devotion is entitled, Hope Is Always and is written by Matt LeRoy. Matt LeRoy is a contributing author at Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

Psalm 130

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.
5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

CONSIDER THIS

I get to be one of the co-pastors for a beautiful little church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Each of our pastors embraces a bi-vocational ministry approach, meaning we hold other jobs beyond the church. This strategy empowers intentional incarnation in our community and focuses more funds on our mission.

In the early days of our church plant I worked as a substitute teacher in our local school system. Glamorous, I know. I imagined myself in a scene from Dead Poets Society, changing lives with my lectures on To Kill a Mockingbird, inspiring young minds to discover their dreams and follow their hero into the noble life of substituting teaching.

Instead, most of my instruction boiled down to me saying, “Under no circumstance is it ever appropriate to use that word to describe anyone or anything.”

So, you can understand my surprise when I heard something that grabbed my attention in a good way. Once, in a class discussion about a short story, middle school students were describing the mood created by the author. One soft spoken, shaggy haired kid offered this assessment: “The story is tense, scary and dangerous all the way through. But even though you feel afraid, hope is always present.”

And there it is.

The student’s description of that short story captures the thrust of the whole story, the cry of Psalm 130, the longing realized in Advent.

Advent is a season of robust hope. It is the kind of hope that is always present, not merely an idea planted firmly in the future. Jesus takes what is future, what is far off, and drags it into the present. He buries it in us like a seed, waiting for the harvest. We may not see the flourishing right now, but it is there, taking root and stretching out in the soil of our souls. Hope is present where we need it the most—in the thick of it, where the road closes in and the end seems cut off.

When it seems as if there is no hope, we remember that is precisely the one thing we do have. We light a wreath of candles as an act of defiance against the darkness.

We proclaim the anthem of Advent, the disruptive genius of God With Us. With us as we cry out from the depths. With us in our pain, our tragedy, our longing. With us to empower premeditated love, even in the face of fear. With us to form his people into a living protest against the way things are, and a prophetic vision of what should be and could be and one day will be.

He is with us as we wait for Advent all over again, watching and hoping for the return of our long-expected Jesus. Like a watchman waits for the morning.

Guest Speaker: Darin & Jill Land

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men that serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Dr. Darin Land. Darin serves and one of the primary leaders for Free Methodist World Mission in the Asia Area. We encourage you to check out the Asia area information page here.

When we have a guest speaker we will not have a weekly devotion. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week and listen to previous discussion podcast episodes.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Words Matter: Life

This weeks devotion is a video entitled “The Deeply Formed Life: What Abiding In Jesus Can Offer The World.” This video is recorded by Pastor Pastor Rich Villodas and is part of a video series called Seven Minute Seminary hosted on Seedbed.com.

We live in a fragmented world, one impacted by the interruption of COVID19, political idolatry, and racial hostility. How might the people of God live in this climate, and what might they have to offer our polarized world? In this Seven Minute Seminary video, Rich Villodas calls us to deep abiding in Jesus—the only kind of life that can help heal the fragmentation in our world.

Words Matter: Peace

This week’s devotion is entitled, “What on Earth Is the Peace of Christ?” and is written by J.D. Walt. J.D. Walt is the executive director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

COLOSSIANS 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

CONSIDER THIS

Question for you: What is the “peace of Christ”? What on earth does this mean? Like many of you, I’ve been in a lot of church services where people walk around saying “Peace,” to one another and shaking hands. Surely that can’t be it! It’s another one of those motions disconnected from the movement. Is the peace of Christ a feeling or a mood or a soft sentiment or is it something more firm and tangible?

On the night before Jesus gave himself up for us, he said this to his disciples:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

We hear a lot these days about “peace through strength.” I think they heard it a lot back in those days too. It was called the Pax Romana—the Peace of Rome. The Peace of Christ was something altogether different.

The lordship of Caesar guaranteed the Peace of Rome through the strength of military might. The lordship of Jesus stood in direct contrast, a crucified king raised from the dead. The peace of Christ is an unshakable peace that comes through apparent weakness, won through death and resurrection. It is the bond formed in a group of people who have given up on the kingdoms of this world and taken up the way of the cross. The peace of Christ is the peace of the cross, a place of unbridled chaos and unutterable pain intersected with the complete reverse of resurrection.

Peace through weakness. It’s what a lot of us need right now, because our strength has failed. We need to lean into a community of peace; people who get the mysterious reality of death and resurrection because they have lived through it. We need the kind of peace the world can’t give us. We need the peace of Christ. We don’t need someone speaking mindless religious words to us. We need someone to embrace us, chaos and all, and not let go when the embrace is over.

The peace of Christ be with you.

And also with you.

It better be more than that, church.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Real Peace. Domino #3/15 will be our sign.

THE PRAYER

Abba Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who is our peace. In the midst of the complex chaos that swirls in my life, where solutions are nonexistent, I desperately need the peace of Jesus. I need this peace to rule in my heart. Come, Holy Spirit, and fill me with this peace, and make me a bearer of it to others. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

  1. Have you ever wondered what the peace of Christ is? How do you describe it?

  2. Is your heart troubled by the chaos swarming around you? What would peace look and feel like to you?

  3. What does your synthetic or artificial or counterfeit peace look like? What do you turn to instead of the peace of Christ?

Words Matter: Fellowship

The devotion this week is entitled, Freed to Love: 3 Keys to Committing to Community and is written by Katie Heckle. Katie Heckle is a contributing author at Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Galatians 5.13-14

This freedom that sets you free also frees you to love and serve others. Because Christ has set us free, we are freed from shallow, superficial, self-absorbed relationships and freed for deep, intentional, sacrificial relationships.

What does your community look like? Do you feel that you are using your God-given freedom to love and serve your community or are you keeping your freedom to yourself? Here are a few ways that will help to deepen your relationships and allow you to use the freedom God has given you to love and serve your community.

1. To freely love and serve others requires the act of vulnerability.

Typically, when we hear the word vulnerable, we think it has to do with me being honest about me to someone else. While that is part of vulnerability, vulnerability also has another face. In Galatians 6.1, Paul says, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.”

This is the kind of vulnerability when you notice that someone is struggling or stuck in sin and you offer a hand to pull them out so that Jesus can restore them. Notice the language he offers the helper: “..gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.” When it comes to our neighbor, we must be sure to remain humble when we offer help; when it comes to ourselves, we must recognize our own responsibility for our actions. Speaking into someone else’s life must be balanced with examining our own life as well.

What Paul is telling us to do here with one another is vulnerable. It’s risky to get involved in someone else’s business because we don’t know how they’re going to respond. But to love is to be vulnerable (C.S. Lewis).

2. To freely love and serve others requires the act of commitment.

One way to carry out commitment with one another is to help carry burdens. Paul says, “Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 1.2).

Picture carrying something. Carrying something small or light is easy, but carrying something big and bulky can be challenging. When we’re in relationships with one another, sometimes helping to carry a burden is light and doesn’t cost you much. Other times, it can be like carrying something that is awkward, challenging, and uncomfortable, which can cost you much emotionally, mentally, and physically.

When carrying someone’s burdens, Paul says we are fulfilling the law of Christ.

This law Paul is talking about here is in John 13.34 when Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says: “A new command I give to you: love one another as I have loved you, you are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” When we help to carry one another’s burdens, we are showing each other the love of Christ. Jesus says the world will know we are his followers by our love.

‘Bearing one another’s burdens’ needs to be balanced with ‘each of you carrying your own load.’ I can’t carry your burden for you and you can’t carry mine, but we can help carry one another.

Although it is a call to bear someone else’s burdens even at personal expense, there are some situations where you don’t have the skill set that someone really needs. Seek advice to help figure out the role that you should play when dealing with deep burdens. Also, be aware of toxic situations. This “bearing a burden” gets really complicated in toxic relationships like abuse or just a bad relationship. The reality is that some relationships need to end.

Another way to carry out commitment with one another is to continue doing good. Paul says, “Let us not become weary in doing good for at the appropriate time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6.9).

The freedom that we’re freed for frees us to do good. The mission to not grow weary means that doing good is tiring and exhausting. Although you’ll want to quit sometimes, we are urged to continue to use our freedom to do good. In doing so, Paul says we will reap a harvest at the appropriate time. What is the harvest? It’s the fruit that comes from being in relationship with one another.

Life-giving sacrificial relationships require commitment and vulnerability from each person in the relationship. The tricky part of this is the fact that you can’t force another person to be vulnerable or committed. When only one person is living this way, the relationship isn’t healthy and interdependent. The person who is living vulnerable and committed, by nature, is more likely to be wounded.

But when people disappoint us, wound us, hurt us by their actions and words, our world shouldn’t shatter because we should be living from a place of knowing that we are deeply loved.

3. To freely love and serve others requires you to first live loved.

You have to know you are loved before you step into community. We love each other because he first loved us – 1 John 4.19.

If you do not know you are loved and your identity comes from being the beloved sons and daughters of God, you’re going to place unrealistic expectations on the people within your community. When you really believe that you are loved by God, you can allow your friends the freedom to respond to your love in their own way.

The freedom we have to transform our relationships from shallow, superficial, self-absorbed ones into deep, intentional, sacrificial ones must be anchored in knowing God’s love for us. You are first loved. God’s love has set you free thru Christ. And with that freedom you are then free to love others.

Pray that God reveals to you the barriers that keep you from being vulnerable and committed to a community of believers. Would you pray for God to guide you to someone you can be vulnerable and committed with? Would you ask God to continue to restore brokenness in your life where friendships have failed and ask him to redeem those places where we fall short?

Words Matter: Holiness

The devotion this week is entitled, The Refreshing Relief of Holiness and is written by J.D. Walt. J.D. Walter is the executive director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

ISAIAH 35:1–10 (NIV)

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. 

Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. 

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

CONSIDER THIS

There are two gigantic words in Scripture that most aptly describe God. These two words are larger than all of the cathedrals on earth combined can hold or even fathom. The words: holy and love. 

Let’s begin with holy. Holiness. You may not have noticed, but some form of the word appears seventy times through these Advent pages. For many of us, the word smacks of a religious program we are wholly uninterested in. It feels like an old nun at Catholic school with a ruler in her hands poised to crack someone’s knuckles if they so much as look like they are having fun. We think it means something like good behavior on steroids. Even the way Bible teachers describe holiness as “being set apart” misses the point. It’s not wrong, but it’s not quite right either. It just feels too much like a group of people who are off to themselves in some kind of quarantine because they don’t want to catch the sin virus everyone else has but them. The great irony of this brand of so-called holiness is that no one wants to go near it.

What if holiness is not immunity from the world, but the contagion in the world we want everyone to catch? What if holiness means to be set apart like the late Kobe Bryant was set apart when he had a basketball in his hands, inspiring awe and amazement? Or like Mozart arranging notes on a page? What if holiness means being set apart like Jesus doing all the things he did and still does, like rubbing shoulders with lepers and pardoning prostitutes? What if holiness is a kind of greatness that inspires greatness, and not only inspires it but empowers it?

What if holiness is not what we thought? What if holiness means blind eyes open, deaf ears hearing, lame people leaping, and mute tongues singing? What if holiness means water springing up in the desert, pools of refreshment in the place of arid sand? If so, this means holiness is actually relief; a reversal of broken conditions and situations. This means holiness is love. 

It brings us to that second gigantic word to describe God: love. The way of holiness looks like a viral movement of concentrated love. 

THE PRAYER

Our Father in heaven, nearer than my breath, thank you for these days of Advent and this new year in Christ. Thank you, for your holiness is filled with love and your love is filled with holiness. Thank you for the way your Spirit brings these two divine realities into a single union. Come, Holy Spirit, and make the holy love of God the very substance of my life and character, so much so that my presence exudes your presence and becomes your power through my very being. I abandon myself to you. In the name of Jesus Messiah—the one who came, is here, and is coming again—for his glory and our good, amen. 

THE QUESTIONS

Have you ever connected the words holy and love and thought of them as a singular reality? If not, why not? What impact do they have on each other for you? How does it change your notion of the word holiness? Of love?

Words Matter: Grace

The devotion this week is entitled, The Assumption of Grace and is written by J.D. Walt. J.D. Walter is the executive director of Seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

I wish I better understood this little word we so readily throw around in the Christian faith. It has come to mean so much that it means almost nothing. I assume I know what it means, and so I just mouth the words and move on. I mean, I get it, right? You too?

Paul begins and ends every letter he writes with these same words, yet there is nothing standard about these kinds of greetings. He is not saying, “Hello again, hope you are well,” or “Thanks for everything; wish you were here.” He is not extending his own grace to us. He greets us with the very grace of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The little word is loaded with assumptions, and, lest I regularly reexamine them, the word becomes little more than my own presumption.

So what does grace assume? Here goes. It assumes I know I am a sinner; that I was born a sinner; that I am a sinner, not because I sin, but that I sin because I am a sinner. Grace assumes I understand I am a son of Adam, infected with sin-cancer from the start, born with a terminal illness, and destined for destruction. I am, by nature, a child of wrath. It’s not that God hates me; he loves me so much he will not allow me, a depraved sinner, to stand in his presence; for in his presence I am destroyed.

God is holy. This is his nature. Just as a fire consumes anything it is fed, so the holiness of God consumes whatever is not holy. And grace assumes I know that there is absolutely nothing I can do to make myself holy. Grace assumes that I understand that, apart from grace, I am hopeless. The holy God of the universe will not tolerate sin, not because he chooses not to but because he cannot, for to do so would be to deny his nature. The wrath of God is not an emotion but a simple fact of his existence.

Grace also assumes I know I am loved. I was loved at my birth, despite my sinful nature, and loved every day of my life, despite my sin; and loved in and through my recalcitrant, rebellious resistance. Grace wants to make sure I know I am loved, not because of anything I have ever done or not done; nor am I not loved because of anything I have ever done or not done. Grace assumes I know I am loved because it is God’s nature to love me.

Yes, grace assumes I know that God is holy and God is love and that these two eternal verities have been made known to us in this gospel: “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Grace assumes I know that understand that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). 

Grace assumes I get it that “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Grace is the unmerited, unmitigated favor of God for sinners like me and you. The more we recognize our sin, the more we recognize our need for God’s grace; the more we recognize our need for God’s grace, the more grace we are given; and the more grace we are given, the more we become the agents of his grace in the world for others.

When Paul says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen,” this is what he means.

Words Matter: Gospel

This week’s devotional is entitled Longing for a Magnificent Story, an excerpt from the book The Magnificent Story by James Bryan Smith. Smith is an ordained minister and theology professor. This excerpt is provided by Ren­o­varé. We hope this devotional encourages your faith.

I met a man who watch­es The Lord of the Rings movies every night. When he told me this I pushed back, ​“Every night?” He said when he gets off work he goes home, fix­es his din­ner, and turns on the movie and watch­es until he gets sleepy. He stops the movie, and resumes in the same spot the next night. I was stunned by this, but in a way I under­stand. Great sto­ries filled with adven­ture, with an epic bat­tle of good ver­sus evil, where tragedy ends in tri­umph, do some­thing to our soul noth­ing else can.

We are crea­tures with a mys­tery in our heart that is big­ger than our­selves. We may think we can find ulti­mate plea­sure, sat­is­fac­tion, and mean­ing in alco­hol, sex, mon­ey, or pow­er, but in real­i­ty those have nev­er sat­is­fied any­one. They are too small for our mas­sive souls. We were designed to take part in a divine dra­ma, an epic sto­ry. We were made not mere­ly to hear it but to be in it. We are, indeed, sto­ries. But in truth we are not the pro­tag­o­nist of the real sto­ry, the sto­ry we long to take part in. God is the hero of the only sto­ry that will sat­is­fy us.

The the­sis of this book is that there is a mag­nif­i­cent sto­ry, which is the most impor­tant thing hap­pen­ing on this earth. It is our only hope as indi­vid­u­als, com­mu­ni­ties, coun­tries, and a species. But for a vari­ety of rea­sons the gospel mes­sage we often hear, the sto­ry often told, is shrunk­en and dis­tort­ed. This is why we see so many frus­trat­ed, dis­ap­point­ed Chris­tians. It is not that they are bad peo­ple, but they have nev­er heard the mag­nif­i­cent sto­ry in its fullness.

The good news of the gospel is sim­i­lar to cry­ing over the beau­ty of heav­en­ly music. The good news of the gospel is sim­i­lar to feel­ing glad when we see some­one per­form an unex­pect­ed act of kind­ness for a stranger. The great­est news is that this is what God is like.

To dis­cov­er this we need to look at the sto­ry — the gospel — through the lens­es of beau­ty, good­ness, and truth.

My friend Trevor stat­ed it well: ​“In order to see beau­ty, good­ness, and truth, I have to have hum­ble eyes.” Our eyes can be hum­ble only when we get our­selves out of the way and focus on the beau­ty all around us. And we see God best when we learn to see and expe­ri­ence beau­ty, good­ness, and truth. When we see them, we get a glimpse of God. We not only see them, we hear them, we smell them, we touch them, and we taste them. God gave us all of our sens­es — phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al — to feel God’s love.

God sings his love to you in bird­song. God smiles at you in maple trees. God charms you with the col­or green. He gave you eyes to see sun­sets, ears to hear rain­fall, a nose to smell a rose. God’s mas­sive love appears in the small frag­ments. God is lov­ing you in these moments, even if you don’t know it.

Beau­ty And Suf­fer­ing: The Cel­list Of Sarajevo

From 1992 to 1995 the world wit­nessed one of the worst civ­il con­flicts, the Bosn­ian War. Three fac­tions, each tied to a reli­gion (Ortho­dox Serbs, Catholic Croats, and Mus­lim Bosni­aks), began attack­ing one anoth­er in a strug­gle for pow­er after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Serbs, backed by the Yugosla­vian army, attacked the Croats and Bosni­aks, but the lat­ter two unit­ed and fought back. In the end no one was inno­cent of the blood­shed. Over 100,000 peo­ple were killed, 2.2 mil­lion peo­ple were dis­placed, and it is esti­mat­ed that over 12,000 women — most­ly Mus­lim — were raped.

In the midst of the ugli­ness and the suf­fer­ing, beau­ty emerged to offer a dif­fer­ent sto­ry. As the mor­tar shells rained down on Sara­je­vo, a musi­cian from Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina named Vedran Smailović did the only thing he knew to do: he played his cel­lo. In the midst of the destruc­tion of build­ings and the killing of his fam­i­ly and friends, Vedran played his cel­lo — in full for­mal attire — alone in the ruins and in the streets, even though there was relent­less sniper fire.

Dur­ing the con­flict no one knew when or where he would play, but as soon as some­one heard him play­ing, the crowds grew. Griev­ing and starv­ing, the peo­ple gath­ered to lis­ten. Why? As Smailović said, ​“They were hun­gry, but they still had soul.” In the midst of tragedy, his music echoed from anoth­er world, a place where beau­ty, good­ness, and truth reside. Through Smailović — an instru­ment of God, I believe — the peo­ple found hope and healing.

As he played his cel­lo in the ruined city dur­ing the forty-four-month siege, Smailović inspired peo­ple around the world. Singer Joan Baez sat in sol­i­dar­i­ty with him as he played on the streets. Com­pos­er David Wilde wrote a piece for cel­lo in his hon­or: ​“The Cel­list of Sara­je­vo,” played by Yo-Yo Ma. Smailović became a sym­bol of how beau­ty stands in resis­tance to the mad­ness of war. Alek­san­dr Solzhen­it­syn, in a speech he gave after win­ning the Nobel Prize, said, ​“If the too obvi­ous, too straight branch­es of Truth and Good are crushed or ampu­tat­ed and can­not reach the light — yet per­haps the … unex­pect­ed branch­es of Beau­ty will make their way through and soar up to that very place and in this way per­form the work of all three.” Per­haps Dos­to­evsky was right when he said, ​“Beau­ty will save the world.”

What is at Stake?

Our world is in search of a mag­nif­i­cent sto­ry. Many peo­ple are hun­ger­ing for some­thing that will pro­vide answers to their deep­est long­ings… No one wants to live a lame life, yet it seems many peo­ple are doing just that, includ­ing Chris­tians. Our mag­nif­i­cent sto­ry has been reduced, shrunk­en into a tame, man­age­able sto­ry fail­ing to cre­ate mag­nif­i­cent lives.

We need a vision. We need the true Chris­t­ian story.

Words Matter: Forgiveness

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men who serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Nikki Rossiter. As one of CrossView’s online pastors, Pastor Nikki hosts our online services and leads our online prayer group. To join our Thursday evening online prayer group, click here. To share a prayer request, click here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotional. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Words Matter: Faith

This weeks devotion is entitled, “Fatih Versus Works: The Debate” and is written by Abson Joseph a contributing author at seedbed.com. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren?  
(James 2:18–20 NRSV )

Key Observation: Active faith leads to service toward God and others. 

It is clear from the text that not everyone is on the same page with James regarding the point he is trying to drive home. At the very least, James is rehearsing a debate between two individuals or groups of people. In this scenario, one group seems to prioritize faith, while the other prioritizes works. People who look at this passage often think that James is contradicting Paul, who was writing to a group of people who thought they could be self-­sufficient in their pursuit of God. They believed the works they performed would lead them to God. James, however, is dealing with the reverse. He is writing to people who are claiming to have faith, but not living accordingly. Their lives are not demonstrating the fruits (works) that should accompany the kind of faith that leads to salvation. It is possible the congregations who are hearing this letter did also receive the message that faith alone saves. James is not pushing against this notion. In other words, James is not having a faith-versus-work debate. Rather, he continues to drive home the point that the one cannot exist without the other. Both need to be present in the life of the believer. In fact, from James’s perspective, good works constitute the evidence that one possesses genuine faith.

James builds support for his exhortation by demonstrating that belief in God, though extremely important, is not enough for a life well lived. “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder” (v. 19). James is alluding to what is perhaps the most important theological statement in Scripture, the Shema. It is called the Shema after the first Hebrew word of the statement: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4 ESV). This statement is the backbone of Judaism and Christianity. It underlines the lordship of God and the fact that he alone deserves our worship, he alone deserves our obedience. It underscores that Yahweh alone is God! There is no other like him! This belief should guide the way we live. It is a belief that requires right actions!

James uses several wordplays that are lost in the English language. For example, the word for “faith” and the verb translated “believe” have the same root. It is another indication of the fact that genuine faith is active faith. Further, James acknowledges the importance of having faith/belief. The statement “you do well” implies moral action. It highlights the good that is intrinsic to God’s nature, the good Father, and the good that his children should embody. However, in the context of the exhortation, it is inadequate because this good act is limited in the belief itself. James contrasts that belief with what the demons have and how it affects them. Their reaction appears to be more potent! Therefore, a faith/belief that does not produce right actions (works) is inadequate.

James ends with a rhetorical question. James’s language feels harsh. Here, he is equating a person’s inactive faith with their identity. The word translated “senseless” conveys emptiness, being empty-headed. It also conveys futility and ineffectiveness, the inability to reach a stated goal or purpose. Perhaps James is dealing with the same kinds of persons that he described earlier as double-minded. They do not have the capacity to think clearly, and they are as ineffective as their inactive faith is barren. James’s rhetorical questions set up the next step in the conversation. He uses the lives of Abraham and Rahab as cases in point to provide tangible examples of genuine faith at work in his quest to demonstrate that faith without works is futile—it is dead.

Questions for Reflection

  • How can we, as believers, activate our faith in a time when so many people feel unseen and alone in their pain?

  • If a faith/belief that does not produce right actions (works) is inadequate, where in this equation are you falling short? What areas of faith/belief or actions can you work on to be an adequate believer?

Words Matter: Righteousness

This weeks devotion is entitled, “Living In The Righteousness, Peace, And Joy Of The Holy Spirit” and is written by Dan Wilt. Dan is a contributing author at Seedbed.com

Many of us have had the experience of standing in line at an airport, waiting to board a plane. My favorite moment is when the person over the loud speaker says, “We’re now boarding families with children.” 

The parents, with relief in their eyes, begin to come forward. Nobody faults anyone else for letting the families go first. I don’t see fellow passengers asking to see the family’s boarding passes. The children are either sweetly smiling, tucked close to a parent’s chest, wandering to the full arms length of a distressed parent, or wailing in practice for the long performance ahead.

Sometimes the things we think are the most important, like us getting a seat in sync with our boarding pass number, can get in the way of a higher priority—making sure the families among us are settled and at peace first. We all benefit in the end, but our sense of propriety, fairness, and even justice may kick in and distort our ability to see the higher value right in front of us.

In Romans 14:17-18 we are being reminded of an important truth—quibbling about important things can get in the way of celebrating—and proliferating—the more important things. 

For example, issues of “eating and drinking” were important to the Jews. In Romans 14:1-16, it seems there were many matters that were taking up the community’s time and attention. In a culture where every liturgical action represented a spiritual truth (like eating and drinking the agape feast together), it was easy to prioritize the little details of worship and community practice based on the idea that “God cares about the details.” 

I.e. God cares about your boarding pass number. He cares that you booked early so you could get a good place in line. Well done. But sometimes, a more important value, a higher ideal, steps in and assigns other practices a different place in line. Sometimes, the families need to go first. To put it in the context of today’s passage—sometimes the weaker one should be honored.

In fact, could it be that we let the little details get in the way because they are easier to find success in achieving, easier than acts that involve loving others more highly than ourselves, acting self-sacrificially toward someone who has a different take on a spiritual practice than you do, or laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters? Often the harder work we’re avoiding is hidden behind our fixation on extra details and doing things “right.” 

The Spirit won’t let us off the hook—the Spirit will keep the main things the main things if we will listen and respond.

The Holy Spirit is at work in the Body in Christ. Our integrity (righteousness), our peace-making (peace), and our steady and delighted rejoicing in the miracle of God’s love being at work in our hearts and in the right-side-upping of the world (joy) are of highest importance.

The Holy Spirit is forming the Church to be Christ-like on the inside, and Christ-like on the outside. The Kingdom Jesus came to inaugurate is all about opening the heart to the Father’s love—starting with righteousness, peace, and joy, sparked by the Kingdom actions of walking with one another in integrity, doing the work of peace-making among us, and rejoicing in the Lord always—these are the priorities the Spirit keeps ever before us. 

The Spirit of Jesus knows what, and who, should go first in line. Let’s allow the Spirit to shuffle what we think of being our highest values, so the Spirit can show us what the Father values most.

Easter Sunday 2023

This weeks devotion is written by Kimberly Reisman and is entitled, “An Easter Foretaste.” Kimberly is a contributing author to Seedbed.com. We hope this devotional encourages your faith.

Easter can sometimes feel like the climax of a magnificent saga. The Christmas event starts the story. God becomes human in Jesus of Nazareth, enters our world and experiences everything it means to be human. It is a dramatic story, filled with transformation and hope as well as suffering and death. The tension of the story reaches its zenith on Good Friday when all appears lost. The followers of Jesus are scattered and hiding. The Messiah is dead.

Easter gives us the climactic “rest of the story” where the horror of Good Friday is transformed into the glory of resurrection day. Jesus is vindicated, life triumphs over death. Our future is secure.

This is indeed good news. It is news that has made a profound difference in my life and the lives of millions of people around the globe.

Yet to see Easter as a great ending to an amazing story is to miss a profound part of what makes the good news good. Yes, the narrative of our faith is an amazing story. And yes, the ending is tremendous. But the good news is good news because Easter isn’t the ending. Easter is a foretaste of the ultimate climax of God’s activity in our world. It gives us a taste of what is to come.

Easter is about the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Some are more comfortable with a spiritualization of that truth. Others tend spiritualize the resurrection without realizing it – an easy mistake to make, but one that glosses over the dramatic and miraculous truth foreshadowed in Easter: on the day of resurrection, it is not only our spirits that will rise, but our bodies also.

That may not sound revelatory but think about the ramifications. When the women arrived at the tomb it was empty, but soon the resurrected Christ appeared to his followers. He was undeniably transformed, but they were still able to recognize him; and they recognized him by his physical body, right down to his nail-pierced hands.

When we lay claim to the truth of the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, we are laying claim to the truth that just as the resurrected Christ was recognizable by his physical body – even as it was dramatically transformed, so we will be recognizable by our physical bodies, even though they will be remarkably made new.

This Easter truth is as mind-boggling and subversive today as it has been in every age; because rather than looking forward to a day when the things that make us different from others disappear, the resurrection proclaims that we look forward to an eternity in which those differences remain, but no longer divide.

Easter then, isn’t the climax of the story, it points to the climax, which is best found in Chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation. This is where we see what eternity looks like; here is where we find the fullest vision of God’s intention for creation.

Rather than taking us out of the world, the resurrection keeps us firmly planted in it. Rather than unfolding in some ephemeral, spiritual realm, creation is the context in which God’s kingdom comes. God makes God’s home among the people, who have gathered from every corner of the planet. As God transforms creation, making all things new, we discover the purpose of it all – for the healing of all the different peoples of the earth.

Easter is a foretaste of that Revelation image; which means that if we are to follow the resurrected Christ, we are to be a foretaste of that Revelation image. We are to be nowwhat God envisions for the future – a community transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, in which differences may remain, but no longer divide nor define, a community in which healing can be experienced and lives made whole.

Easter Sunday was a glorious day; but today is Easter Monday, which for many of us can feel a whole lot like Good Friday. The question that continues to return to my mind is, what would those Fridays look like if we took the message of Sunday seriously? How might Fridays be transformed if we offer a genuine foretaste of God’s vision for the future?

Palm Sunday 2023

This week’s devotional written by Keith Turner a pastor in the Episcopal Church and is entitled, “A Desperate Cry of Hosanna.” We hope this devotional encourages your faith.

Days like Palm Sunday are particularly difficult for the preacher. It’s not because there is nothing to say. It is because there is nothing to say you don’t already know. You heard the Gospel reading. Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem is about as straightforward as a reading can get. It needs no special interpretation. The last thing you need me to do is to stand up and wax eloquent for 12 to 15 minutes (and not a second longer!) on the meaning of Palm Sunday. Yet, Palm Sunday is here again. The difficulty still looms over the preacher. I find myself wanting to give the congregation something that will make them say, “Huh. I never thought about that before!” But, I am reminded the task of preaching is not to reveal something new. Many times it is to remind the congregation of something true. Certainly, Palm Sunday reminds us of something true, something of which we need to be reminded at least once per year.

Sometimes, we hear an event recounted, and something different strikes us as particularly interesting. As I read the Palm Sunday narrative over and over again, the word Hosanna kept drawing me. Imagine the crowds of people thronging Main Street, Jerusalem, waving palm branches as Jesus rides in on a donkey. Hear them shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Most of us know the word Hosanna well, don’t we? Many of us even sing it every week, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”

We sing it as an act of praise. We sing it with exuberance. We sing it with celebration. But I still remember something I once heard a minister say: “One person’s act of praise may be another person’s act of desperation.” What may come easy for one person may be very difficult for another. Even though we sometimes sing it joyfully, Hosanna is not the happiest of words. It is a Hebrew word meaning, “Save, now!” It is a prayer of desperation, a cry for help. Have you ever cried out a desperate Hosanna? Have you ever found it difficult to praise God? Have you ever forced yourself to come into God’s presence with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise when it was the last thing you felt like doing?

I was in that situation not long ago. I was in a worship setting, and I must confess that from where I was sitting, there was a person in clear sight, toward whom I harbor feelings of deep hatred. Growing up, I was always taught that I was not permitted to hate anyone. The person I hold bitterness toward claims to be a Christian. This person claims to serve the Lord. Nevertheless, seeing this person sitting there put me in a less-than-worshipful mood. If only the person were not there, then maybe my thoughts and my prayers would be a little more holy. But right there, the object of my scorn sat.

When we stood to sing one of my favorite hymns, I found it incredibly difficult to sing. “Join hands, disciples of the faith, whate’er your race may be. Who serves my Father as his child is surely kin to me.” These words are true, no matter how I feel or what I want. I sang the words anyway. It was not easy to praise God. I had to cry a desperate Hosanna. Lord, save now! Save me from myself! Deliver me from my feelings of bitterness, resentment, and hatred. Rescue me from what keeps my heart from joyfully praising you.

Maybe your difficulty comes from a different place. Perhaps it comes from a place of disappointment or from a wearying trial you are facing. Our suffering often drives us to God, but it still never makes it easy to praise Him. This is especially true if our disappointment is toward God. Even so, God is not threatened by our feelings of disappointment or anger. Instead, God promises to meet us in our disappointment and suffering. But, sometimes, we have to praise him in an act of faith that precedes our being able to see that truth. That is where we find God’s faithfulness to be true.

I wonder about the people who flanked the sidewalks of Main Street, Jerusalem on that day. What brought them there? Were they filled with excitement and celebration? For some, that may be the case, but I wonder how many were filled with desperation. Maybe the crowds really didn’t feel like lining along the streets to watch this one-person parade. Given the political climate, they may have even feared doing so. But, they lined the street anyway. Maybe they knew that no matter how they felt or what they wanted, Jesus comes to bring something true—something better than the nightmare in which they lived.

They may have had their reservations about flooding the neighborhood that day, but one thing is for sure: they wanted Rome out of their neighborhoods even more strongly. Overthrow the Romans if you will. Take down Caesar if you can. Many of the people were convinced Jesus came to revolutionize Israel into a new earthly kingdom. They expected the Roman kingdom to be wiped out; the Kingdom of God would be ushered in. It’s a win-win! Whatever it takes, they want the Romans out of there. They are desperate.

But, when Jesus does not meet their expectations, their desperate cries of Hosanna turn into furious cries of “Crucify him!”

Yet, in the irony that is his crucifixion, Jesus still answers their prayer: “Lord, save now!” He draws the whole world to himself. By his suffering and death, Jesus becomes the author of eternal salvation for all who put their trust in him (see Book of Common Prayer, 346). Jesus still brings about a more perfect and complete salvation and inaugurates the true Kingdom of God even when humanity sinks to its greatest evil.

I also wonder who might be flanking the streets of our lives. Who among us may be crying out to Jesus with a desperate Hosanna? Who might the Holy Spirit be nudging us to see? They could be…

The parents standing over the fresh grave of their teenage son, fallen victim in an act of gun violence
Lord, save now!

The single parent lying awake at night having worked three minimum wage jobs and still worrying over how the rent is going to be paid
Lord, save now!

The group of African-American high school students meeting at the local restaurant after football practice only to discover the waiter has put a racial slur instead of their table number atop their check
Lord, save now!

Even those who may want to destroy Christ along with everyone who follows Him
Lord, save now!

Holy Spirit still calls us, just as at our baptism: “Proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. Seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as your self. Strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being.” If you are reading this, and your sweet Hosannas are ringing from a place of exuberance and celebration, then indeed, praise God for it! But, if your Hosannas come from a place of desperation, then take heart! The Lord hears your prayer and does not forget you. For all of us, no matter where we are on our faith journeys on this Palm Sunday, Jesus Christ is hearing our Hosannas and is saving us.

Amen.

Nehemiah: The Final Word

This week’s devotional is “What It Looks Like When God’s In Charge”, an excerpt from the book Sim­ply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Mat­ters by N.T. Wright. This excerpt is shared by Renovaré. We hope this devotional encourages your faith.

[Luke 15] is a sus­tained expo­si­tion of the rea­son why there is a par­ty tak­ing place to begin with. Some­thing is hap­pen­ing, Jesus declares, that is bring­ing heav­en and earth togeth­er. The angels are cel­e­brat­ing in heav­en, so sure­ly we should be cel­e­brat­ing here on earth as well. And the rea­son the angels are cel­e­brat­ing is that noto­ri­ous sin­ners are see­ing the error of their ways and turn­ing away from them, even though the right­eous and respectable, who can’t bear to think there is any­thing wrong with them, are look­ing down their noses at such behavior.

The point, as with the heal­ings, is not that Jesus was sim­ply mount­ing a one-man res­cue oper­a­tion for lost and bat­tered souls — though that’s what it must often have looked like. Jesus, aware as ever of the long sto­ries of God’s peo­ple and the ways in which those sto­ries were expect­ed to come true, knew as well as any trained teacher of the law that one of the great things that Israel had to do so that God would launch his great renew­al move­ment, his new Exo­dus, was ​“to turn,” to repent, to turn back from the evil ways of the heart, and to turn instead to God in pen­i­tence and faith. That’s what Moses him­self had said in Deuteron­o­my 30. Jere­mi­ah and Ezekiel had made the same point. This is how it would have to be: when the Israelites had hit rock bot­tom, then they would turn back to God with all their heart and soul, and God would turn back to them, restor­ing them, and mak­ing them his peo­ple indeed.

So, says Jesus, it’s time to cel­e­brate! It’s hap­pen­ing! Not, per­haps, in the way you thought it would, not yet on a nation­al scale, but it’s hap­pen­ing all right. ​“How glad they will be in heav­en over one sin­ner who repents” (Luke 15:7). ​“This broth­er of yours was dead and is alive again! He was lost and now he’s found!” (15:32). Res­ur­rec­tion, the ulti­mate hope of new life for Israel, is hap­pen­ing under your noses, and you can’t see it. But for those of us who can — well, we’re hav­ing a par­ty, the same par­ty that the angels are hav­ing in heav­en, and you’re not going to stop us. This, it seems, is part at least of what it means that God’s king­dom is com­ing ​“on earth as in heav­en.” The heav­en­ly cel­e­bra­tions at the signs of renew­al, the first flick­ers of a dawn that will soon flood the whole sky, are to be matched by the mot­ley mob around Jesus here and there, in Matthew’s house (Matt. 9:9 – 13) and Zac­cha­eus’s house (Luke 19:1 – 10), in this tav­ern and that, with Mary Mag­da­lene and her friends and any­one else who cares to join in. This is what it looks like when God’s in charge. This is how the cam­paign gets under way.

Excerpt­ed from N. T. Wright’s Sim­ply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Mat­ters, pp. 70 – 71. New York: Harper­One, 2011.

Nehemiah: Confidence in God

This weeks devotion is an excerpt from a book entitled, A Trowel and a Sword: Prayer Practices for Those on the Frontlines of the Gospel (A Fresh Expressions Book) by Verlon Fosner and Jon Davis. It is available on Seebed.com or Amazon. We hope this devotion encourages your faith as you think about Nehemiah chapter four.

In Nehemiah, after the group became effective at working with the trowel in building the wall, there came a time when their enemies gathered and they had to become skilled with the sword. What a picture for an effective gospel worker: a trowel of evangelism in one hand and a sword of prayer in the other. Such a person will not only find their way to the front lines, but they will also have what it takes to stay on the front lines. Seedbed is pleased to announce the release of A Trowel and a Sword: Prayer Practices for Those on the Frontlines of the Gospel (A Fresh Expressions Book) by Verlon Fosner and Jon Davis.

—

In the age of enlightenment, we can seem dismissive of the supernatural. We analyze, explain, and justify things by the scientific method. I am all for science and what it has taught us about the world. I have to believe if you are reading this you are also a person of faith knowing that all we see is not all there is. I don’t want to delve into all of the mysteries of faith and Scripture. I do believe the Word of God is true and as Article Six of the Thirty-Nine Articles states:

Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.

I would also approach this from a creedal perspective. I believe that Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds state true Christian faith and this is what a Christian believes. As related to Scripture, it is an absolute that God created this world. Was it accomplished in six, twenty-four-hour days? Or are the days mentioned segments of time beyond what we understand? There is room for interpretation on this; we may disagree on the how of creation, but I still believe the essential tenets of the creeds—I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth. My point would be as we look at a biblical warrant for spiritual warfare, we might interpret the material differently at times, but we will all see the presence of spiritual realities.

A quarter of Jesus’ ministry dealt specifically with conflict between the kingdom of God and the dominion of darkness and evil. The very incarnation of Christ was the beginning of an assault on Satan’s domain. Jesus came to crush Satan under His feet. Jesus begins His ministry, immediately following His baptism by John in the Jordan River, by being led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He would fast for forty days and be tempted by the devil. In this spiritual warfare, Jesus uses Scripture as His response to what the devil was offering and He emerges victorious from this wilderness journey.

There are multiple instances of demonic deliverances throughout the Gospels. In these accounts, the demons declare who Jesus is, submit to His authority, and recognize their defeat. We cannot ignore these stories and teachings simply because we are living in an age of rationalism. All that being said, the biblical picture is not one of dualism. We are not in Star Wars dealing with equal parts of the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force. Thankfully, our God is omnipotent and omniscient—He is all-powerful and all-knowing. Satan and the forces of evil are not.

In the story of Job in the Old Testament we are given an account where God is proud of His servant Job and Satan challenges God that Job is only good because God had blessed him! God permits Satan to wreak disaster on Job’s life, destroying his family, taking his wealth, and then inflicting him with disease. Satan could not do this without God’s permission. God is not the cause of evil; He is holy and righteous.

I don’t have the space here to deal with all the issues of providence, sovereignty, and the problem of evil in this world. We can say that Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God, to defeat Satan, and to redeem us from sin. Mike Atkins, my lifelong friend and mentor, once explained it this way:

People ask: “If God is good, then why is there evil in this world?” Be assured God will judge every evil act. Every violence, murder, thievery, atrocity. All the evil in the world is being recorded and there is a day of judgment coming. It is time that is posted on God’s eternal calendar. God will pour out His wrath against sin and His justice will prevail.

There was also a day of judgment two thousand years ago when Jesus was nailed to the cross and took upon Himself the burden of all the evil that had been and would be committed. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21 ESV). The good news is that we choose which day of judgment we will be under. Will we stand alone before almighty God, giving an account for our lives, knowing that if we are guilty of one infraction—one lie, one evil thought—we are guilty of breaking all of the law; or will we put our faith in Jesus, repent of our sin, and believe in Him to be our Savior and Redeemer.

There is a widely held view regarding the consummation of the kingdom of God and the second coming of Christ rooted in a metaphor of D-Day and VE-Day. On June 6, 1944, when the Allied invasion of the European continent was successful, the war was over. Germany had lost and they could not stand against the wave of military that would flow all the way to Berlin. However, there would be some eleven months of battles, destruction, and thousands of lives lost until Germany would surrender on what became known as Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945. The cross of Jesus and His resurrection were a D-Day moment. Satan was utterly and completely defeated. Jesus was the Christus Victor! The consummation of God’s kingdom at the return of Christ will be like a VE-Day. Until then, we live in an in-between time of the “already” and “not yet.” Victory in Christ is ours. In the spiritual sense, we possess everything necessary as kingdom people, heirs and joint heirs, redeemed, reconciled, and made righteous in Christ. However, in this season we still have spiritual warfare; there are battles to be fought, casualties, and destruction. Yet we fight on, knowing of an assured victory in Jesus.

We have instruction to put on the whole armor of God and, having done all, to stand against the fiery darts of the devil (see Ephesians 6:10–18). We are also told that our warfare is not fleshly but rather divine, destroying strongholds of the enemy (see 2 Corinthians 10:3–6). Again, we are warned: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 ESV).

Missional, frontline, trowel-and-sword prayer is grounded in spiritual warfare. It is fulfilling a first-commission mandate, found in Genesis 1:28 (ESV):

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out seventy-two of His followers and disciples on a mission. It is a central narrative to how we understand the mission of the church today. They return, rejoicing, and we have this account:

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (vv. 17–20 ESV)

These words of Jesus are important for so many reasons. While there is an over-focus in some corners on spiritual warfare and demonic activity, what I hear in this passage is the power of evil is to be contended with and confronted. While we contend with evil in order to advance the kingdom, our loud rejoicing is reserved for what Christ Jesus has done for us! So, as we go forward into the chapters before us, may we never forget to rejoice over the “already” more than we contend for the “not yet.” This is Jesus’ directive to us all.

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Nehemiah: It Takes a Village

This weeks devotion is entitled “When Life Gets Hard, There Is Community” and is written by Dr. Matt O’Reily and is an excerpt from a study on the Letters to the Thessalonians. While we are in a study on Nehemiah this is a great New Testament perspective on Christian community in difficult times. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. 9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
(1 Thessalonians 2:7–12 NIV)

Key Observation: Christian community should be characterized by self-giving love, even in difficult circumstances.

Life has likely presented you with undesirable circumstances at least once or twice and probably more. Perhaps you’ve lost a job or there has been conflict at church. Maybe you’re grieving over a broken friendship or the loss of a loved one. Whatever the situation, it’s easy to stress when things get painful. We focus on ourselves, on getting through, on self-preservation. Paul could have done that. After all, he’d been treated with violence for preaching Jesus. It would have been easy to pity himself. But instead of focusing on his own painful circumstances, he focused on the Thessalonians and their needs. He offered himself to them. He didn’t show up expecting recognition or support. He didn’t ask them to carry his burdens. Paul’s reminder that he could have “asserted our authority” (2:6 NIV) suggests that his role as an apostle entitled him to some provision. But he didn’t insist on his rights. He came alongside the Thessalonians and cared for them. The images of nursemaid and mother combine to magnify the depth of Paul’s love. He wanted to please God; he gave himself to others despite his pain.

Paul’s behavior is an example for the Thessalonians and for us. And he knows it. That’s why he encourages them to “live lives worthy of God.” He’s not simply reminding them about his self-sacrificing love; he wants them to act the same way. We learned in chapter 1 that the Thessalonians had experienced persecution (1:6). Paul’s ministry shows how to respond to that. Whatever they suffered, they had to resist the temptation to turn their attention to themselves. If they did, one of two things would probably happen. First option, the church could become a holy huddle with members focused on maintaining themselves while giving little or no attention to mission and the growth of the kingdom. If they go this route, the church becomes something that exists only to meet their needs. And they become consumers who only show up for what they can get. It would be easy to shift into survival mode, but it would also be detrimental to the community. Second option, they turn on each other. When things get tough, it’s easy to play the blame game. This creates strife and division, and it tears churches apart.

Paul prefers a third option. He wants to see a community characterized by self-giving love. And he’s doing his best to model that. If that’s what we want, we can’t come together to blame or consume. We come to give and serve. We come to cultivate our shared mission. If we do that, then we’ll begin to understand what Paul means when he talks about holiness later in the letter. It’s been said that sin is a human heart turned in on itself. In contrast, the holy life—the life worthy of God—is a life marked by self-giving love oriented toward others. It’s a life that embodies the character of God revealed in the self-sacrificial love of Jesus. It’s a life that only comes with the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit. And as we’ll see later, it’s God’s will for everyone (see 1 Thessalonians 4:3).

Guest Preacher: Mark Morrison

 
 

Every so often, we will have a guest speaker at CrossView Church. We are so grateful for the gifted women and men that serve the Lord through teaching the word. This week we hear from Pastor Mark Morrison. Pastor Mark serves as the director of Shepherd Ministries. You can find out more information about Shepherd Ministries here.

Usually, when we have a guest speaker, we will not have a weekly devotion. We encourage you to watch the message again at some point throughout the week and listen to the discussion podcast.

Blessings on you and your week.

Pastor Kyle

Nehemiah: A Waiting Faith

This weeks devotion comes from the book, “Walking in God’s Words” and is linked down below in the commentary article. We hope this devotion encourages your faith.

LESSONS FOR US TODAY

I hope that Nehemiah is an inspiration to you, a good example to follow like the other good examples described for us in Hebrews 11. Although he lived many years ago, and although not many of us are cupbearers to great kings, and although he lived before the coming of Christ, we can still identify with him. His character is so clearly presented to us, even in this first section of this book which bears his name. God has told us about Nehemiah, so that we will understand how God works in the world, how God preserves his people, and how God wants us to live. Hebrews 11 teaches us to look at Old Testament people as examples of enduring faith. And 2 Timothy 3:16–17 teaches us that the Scriptures are provided by God ‘for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’.

Heroes from the past are out of fashion at the present time. We look to our contemporary world, and we tend to look for celebrities, rather than heroes. But celebrities are celebrities because of their outward appearance or circumstances. If we want to think God’s thoughts after him, then we have to know that:

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

There are more lessons to learn from Nehemiah in this book. But what are the challenges from what we have seen so far?

Are we people with a passion for the welfare of the people of God, the Church of Jesus Christ?

Nehemiah, living in Susa, was desolated because of the tragic circumstances of the people of God back in Jerusalem. The tendency in our society is to think that if we are OK, and our close friends are OK, then that is what really matters. And even those who have a keen interest in what is happening in other countries sometimes fail to find out what is happening to fellow believers in Christ in those countries.

We may dismiss or despair of the Church and its weaknesses, but fail to grieve for it, and fail to love it. The Church of Christ should be on our heart, because it is on God’s heart.

Are we people of prayer?

As we have seen, Nehemiah was a man of prayer. When he heard the bad news about Jerusalem, he spent many hours in deep and passionate prayer and fasting. He then summarised all these prayers in a great prayer, which provides a model for our prayers. Then he prayed his ‘arrow prayers’ at the moments of opportunity. These prayers opened up an opportunity of service, in which Nehemiah became part of the answer to his own prayer. We should learn how to pray from Nehemiah.

Are we people whose passions, prayers and actions are formed by a desire to serve God, and instructed by the Bible?

It is clear from Nehemiah’s passions, prayers, and actions, that he was well taught from the Bible. He saw what was happening around him in the light of the Bible, and he interpreted history in the context of God’s big plans as revealed in the Bible. Nehemiah lived by the promises of God, and claimed those promises in his prayers. He was an integrated person, with a purity of heart that resulted from wanting one thing: the glory of God. He walked in God’s words.

Are we people who see opportunities, even in difficult circumstances?

Nehemiah was in Susa, a long way from Jerusalem. He was cupbearer to the king. This gave him access to the king, but Persian kings were not in the habit of changing their circumstances for the benefit of their servants! The people of God were in a mess, and even though some had returned to Jerusalem, they were still vulnerable to their enemies. But, for Nehemiah, this was not a time to give up, but a time to grieve, pray, trust, ask and act! In the words of DT Niles, as we have already seen, ‘Hope lies amidst the ruins of our expectations’. And, in my words, ‘Hope lies in the promises of God’.

God has provided the book of Nehemiah, as with every part of the Old Testament, to encourage us: ‘so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope’ (Romans 15:4). May the God of Nehemiah encourage us through Nehemiah, that we may have hope in ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort’ (2 Corinthians 1:3).