Who Is God?

It’s a good question. In fact, it’s the ultimate $64,000 question – which according to inflation calculators would make it the ultimate $936,000 question!

The biggest problem with this question is how we answer it. More specifically, what criteria or information we use to answer it. It’s our source of information that is the problem.

It seems like most people make God in their own image. That is, God is who or what I make him out to be. I become the source of my own definition of God.

Even Christians do it.

Some make him a god who is all loving but never requires anything of us. Some make him a god who is all about justice and retribution but not of grace. Others make him a god who is tolerant of everything they are tolerant of, while still others make him a god who loves what I love and hates what I hate.

In other words, God is just like me, only a little better.

That’s what most of us do.

We hold to certain beliefs and positions that we define as right or good and then we define God as someone who holds to those same beliefs and positions. In reality that we’ve done is to choose our beliefs and positions without regard to God and then superimposed them back on God. They are OUR preferences so they must certainly be His.

We start with where we are and then define God to fit in.

But you don’t get to do that with God. He existed in His perfection long before we came along (Colossians 1:17) and He doesn’t change just because the world we live in is constantly changing (Malachi 3:6).

If you want to know God, you have to go to His disclosure of Himself. He’s already told us who He is. There’s a reliable source.

That source is the Bible.

We just don’t want to accept it.

But you can’t have God without it. By definition, God is so far above and beyond us that we cannot know Him unless He reveals Himself to us. Do you really want a god that is just like you?

A god without a self-disclosure is no god. It’s a figment of someone’s imagination.

If you want to know about God, then go to His source. Go to the Bible and learn what He says about Himself. You won’t learn everything about Him, but you can learn what He has revealed about Himself.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Advertisements

Where Do You Get Your News?

A government shutdown and millions of innocent people suffer. A dam fails and many, perhaps hundreds of people die. More rape and assault allegations in the sports world against people who were supposed to be taking are of the athletes.

These are just a few of the headlines in the news today.  We’re tempted to ask; is there any GOOD news? 

I want to remind you again that there is good news, especially for the Christian.  It’s all about where you look.  Most people get their news in some form from news organizations and if you keep looking there, you’ll probably continue to get bad news and it will be discouraging.  However, if you get your news from God  there’s plenty of good news.  Here’s just a sample of the good news from God’s Word for you as a Christian:

God is still in control. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Psalm 33:11

You are on God’s heart. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. Psalm 34:15

We have peace. Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

We have hope. Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:2

You don’t have to pay for your sin. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  Psalm 103:12

The problems of today are nothing compared to what is coming. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

A better day is coming. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.  Revelation 21:4

You are loved. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.  1 John 3:14

Think about all of the good news that we have in the Bible. I’m sure that you can add to this list. Don’t be jaded by the news that you get from the television, newspaper or internet – the news from the world isn’t so good, but the news from God’s Word is great!

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Pray for Them

The post this morning on our church Facebook site said, Praying for your friends is so important. Sometimes they fight battles they never talk to you about. Cover your friends in prayer.

So true. We need to pray for our friends. We have no idea what they are going through.

But it goes beyond our friends.

What about the person who sat across the aisle from you at church – you know the one, you know their name but that’s about all?

What about the person at work today that you rarely speak too? Maybe you’re just too busy.

What about the teller at the bank, the clerk at the store, the neighbor down the street?

It’s important to pray for them even though they don’t fall into the category of friend. They are all fighting battles that you’ll never know about. That’s the nature of life. And they all need your prayers, whether they talk to you about their problems or not.

James (5:16) says pray for each other. Yes, James is talking about Christians praying for other Christians, and that’s something we need to do. The Apostle Paul was a great one to pray for other Christians (Ephesians 1:16, Philippians 1:4 etc.) and he talked about being helped by their prayers for him (2 Corinthians 1:11). But we need to cast our nets much wider than that. We need to do more than pray just our friends.

We need to do more than limit our prayers to those in the family of God. We need to pray for our classmates, the people at work, the people in our neighborhoods, the people in the PTA, etc. We need to pray for people we know and for people that we barely know or don’t know at all.

Jesus even taught us to pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you (Matthew 5:44). That puts prayer into the category of don’t leave anyone out.

The truth is – we all need prayer. All of us. And we all need to pray for other people.

You will probably never know the impact your prayers will make in the lives of other people as you faithfully pray for them.

So, Pray. Pray for your friends. Pray for people you know. Pray for people you don’t know.

Pray when you see results. Pray when you don’t see results.

Pray when you know the problems people are going through. Pray when you don’t have any idea of the problems they are going through.

What you know isn’t the determining issue for whether or not you pray or for whom you pray.

You have been invited into the presence of the King of Kings, the Eternal God, the Creator, the Everlasting One, the Glorious All-mighty God and you get to talk to Him about anything or anyone. And He will listen.

Don’t waste the opportunity talking about trivial things. Pray for someone, even if you don’t know the battles that they are fighting.

Just Pray.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Is God Unloving or Just Too Weak?

I read an online article this morning as I waited for the bank to open. The title was Where is God for the Suffering, Starving, and Freezing? Besides being a great, attention-getting title, it’s a great question. You can read the article here.

It’s also an age-old question that’s probably been around since the dawn of time. We want to know where God is in the face of evil. The typical question goes something like this: If God is a god of love then why do people suffer? The oft drawn conclusion is that either God is not a god of love or He is not an all-powerful (omnipotent) god. He just can’t do anything about evil.

But are those the only two conclusions?

In fact, are we even looking in the right place?

Certainly, God is a god of love. The sacrifice of His beloved Son is all of the evidence that we need of His love.

Certainly, He is all-powerful. The miracles of Jesus, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead are all evidences of His power.

To ignore the sacrifice or the miracles of Jesus is to rewrite history in our own image.

So where should we look for answers when it comes to people who are suffering, starving and freezing?

We need to begin with sin. It was the voluntary sin of our first parents that introduced evil into the human equation. There are theological explanations as to how that sin got down to us but let’s just say that had any of us been in Eve’s place we would have done exactly as she did. Don’t flatter yourself to think otherwise.

Suffering, starving and freezing are the result of sin, not of God’s lack of love or any perceived weakness on His part.

Let’s not blame God for the ravages of sin.

Sure, God could heal the suffering, feed the starving and provide for the freezing – and He did (see Matthew 8:1-15 for healing the suffering, Matthew 14:13-21 for feeding the starving, and Mark 5:25-34 for providing for someone).

But Jesus didn’t heal every leper or give sight to every blind person or feed every starving child.

Why?

We don’t know why He met some needs and didn’t meet others. And we don’t know why God does what He does today. Some He heals, some He doesn’t. Some He feeds, some He doesn’t. Some He provides for, some He doesn’t. (Maybe He’s waiting for you and me to be the answer that He uses to meet their suffering!).

Just because we don’t understand the reasons for the actions of an omniscient, omnipotent God don’t mean that there aren’t any.

Those answers lay in the infinite wisdom of God.

But to accuse God of being unloving or impotent in the face of evil is to ignore the question of sin and to assign blame where it does not belong.

God is neither unloving nor weak.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Watch Out for the Potholes

We have entered into another New Year. It’s officially 2019. With a new year comes new expectations, new hopes, and new dreams. There is always a fresh optimism at the beginning of another year.

But the reality is – life is still the same. Turning another page on the calendar doesn’t really change anything. Life goes on. You’ll face the same issues, same problems and same hardships as you did on the last day of 2018.

That’s the bad news.

I’m not trying to ruin your year. There is good news.

The good news is that you can face whatever 2019 throws at you with a new sense of strength and hope if you face it with the knowledge that Jesus is both your strength and your hope. He’s what you need.

He won’t eliminate the problems (wish He would!). But He will help you handle them if you’ll trust Him.

Read these words from the Bible and let them sink deep into your soul.

Psalm 9:10 – Those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

Psalm 28:7 – The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.

Psalm 33:18 – Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.

Psalm 42:5 – Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

Isaiah 40:29 – He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.

Psalm 18:2 – The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

My hope and prayer for you is that you will experience joy and blessing in 2019.  But it is also likely that you will face some problems and hardships. The question is not Will you? but When?

The secret to the Christian life is not in avoiding the problems of another year, the secret is in how you handle them.  Handling them with dependence on God and with the confidence that in His power you can do what is right is the goal.

Blessings on you in 2019. But watch out for the potholes along the road (if you’re from PA you know what I’m talking about!).

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

But at What Cost?

It’s a question that affects most of life. You probably don’t consciously ask it before every decision you make but it’s always lurking somewhere in the back recesses of your mind. You want to know how a certain course of action will affect you – will it affect you positively or negatively? Will it help or hurt? Will it benefit your life or detract from it?

And if the effect is negative, just how negative will it be? We can all endure some degree of pain or adversity but there’s a point beyond which we are not willing to go. We are not willing to pay the cost.

But often in life – probably quite often – the yardstick that we use to gauge our actions is, But at What Cost?

Should I drive 55 mph in a 25 mph zone? What will the cost be if I’m pulled over?

Should I go back to school for another degree? What will the cost be?

Should I leave my present job and take another one? What will it cost me?

Should I cheat on my income taxes? What will the cost be if I’m caught?

We face a hundred questions that arise during a typical day and we analyze the potential risks and rewards of our options.

When the cost is low we’re more likely to engage in the behavior in question.

When the cost is high we’re much less likely to engage in the behavior in question.

The yardstick, But at What Cost? is not intrinsically wrong. It’s kept a lot of people out of trouble. But it’s not the best way to go through life.

The better yardstick is, Is it Right? Is what I am planning to do the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do?

God is clear on this point. Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin (James 4:17). In all of our actions, our relationships, our decisions, and our activities God has but one standard for us – Is It Right?

Determining your actions by the standard of Right instead of the standard of Cost will not necessarily make your life easier. In fact, it can make your life much harder. Sometimes it will cost you and the cost cab be high. But living by the standard of Right is the way God wants you to live.

Don’t sacrifice the difficult way of Right for the easy way of Cost.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Words Matter (A Lot!)

We all know intellectually that words matter, but we also forget – often. This was brought to my attention again this week when my words got me into trouble.

Sometimes we think that only certain kinds of words matter. The truth is that all kinds of words matter. It’s not just the negative words that matter – the positive ones matter even more.

Here are a few examples:

Angry words matter – they wound others.

Sad words matter – they are a cry for help.

Careless words matter – they indicate we a need to be more careful.

Unclear words matter – they can easily be taken in a way we didn’t mean them.

Negative words matter – they can crush someone’s spirit.

Positive words matter – they can build someone up.

Insensitive words matter – they show a thoughtless spirit.

Kind words matter – they will lift a person’s spirit.

Critical words matter – they will stop someone from trying.

Defiant words matter – they indicate a lack of respect.

Diplomatic words matter – they indicate a careful person.

Enthusiastic words matter – they move people to action.

The list goes on. I read a list of 180 different types of words that the author referred to as tone words. IE, words that indicate a certain tone in our voice that gives our words specific meanings and power.

The Bible warns us about the words that we use. Just in the book of Proverbs we read these statements about words.

Proverbs 12:18 – There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 13:3 – Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

Proverbs 15:1 – A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 16:24 – Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Proverbs 18:21 – Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Proverbs 21:23 – Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

And then this one from the book of James.

James 3:5-6 – See how great a forest a little fire kindles!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

Every so often we need to be reminded – I need to be reminded – just how much Words Matter.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve