The-Dust-Have-Settled-And-the-Scars-Have-Shown Community

Thursday, January 1, 2009

A Challenge for the End and the Start of the Year by Pastor James MacDonald (Walk in the Word Ministry)

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us . . . Hebrews 12:1

My son Luke and I were on the computer a while back when I asked for his password. He answered, "It's 'Keep on.'" I told him that was a great password and he said, "Oh Dad, that's my password for everything."

Keep on. Keep on. Keep on.

For sure he'll change his password now, but I hope he'll never change his perspective. These two words are critical to success in life and in the Christian life. The biblical word is endurance or perseverance--the ability to keep on doing the things you have committed yourself to doing when you feel like it and when you don't. Nothing is more essential to success in the Christian life than perseverance. Faith gets you started; perseverance keeps you going.

This matter of perseverance is so critical to the Christian life that James 1 tells us that above all other human traits, perseverance is the characteristic that God is trying to build into your life and mine. The ability to keep on going. Keep making and keeping the commitments of life.

It's easy to start the race. All kinds of people get up in the morning and put their jogging suit on and begin to run. But when the miles click past and the muscles start to fatigue and life isn't easy anymore, what do they do? What do you do?

It's easy to put on a white dress or a tuxedo and get to the front of the church; everybody knows that. But to have a happening marriage--not for five--but for 15 or 40 years, that takes perseverance!

It's easy to conceive a child and, by comparison, it's easy to birth a child, but to keep on training and raising those kids day in and day out, following through on what you have said and taught--that takes commitment!

Might I say in addition to that, it's easy to pray a prayer and walk an aisle; it's easy to confess faith in Christ. But to keep on following Christ--even when the pressure is on--that takes staying power. "My brothers, consider it pure joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the trying of your faith produces perseverance."

Staying power! Did you know that if God could get that one thing into your life, He could give you everything else? James 1 goes on to say, "But let perseverance have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (v.4).

This week we stand on the hinge between two years--2008 and 2009. How will these two years mark your life? Look back on 2008 for a moment. If your year was like mine, you can see some pretty significant peaks and valleys. Praise God for them. Praise God that at this year's end, you can stand before Him in faith and humility and say, "No matter what is behind me, I finish this year strong in Christ." Like Paul in Philippians 3:13-14 "but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" I press on--that's perseverance.

Now look ahead to 2009. You don't know what the year will bring, but you can be sure of this, God is faithful. His mercies will be new every morning of every day of the new year. There's power in the day when you start it with faith in God and a commitment to perseverance.

Keep on--it's a great password for 2009.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

God Loves You

I wanted to wait until Dec 5 but this piece from an American Pastor by the name of James MacDonald is very much worth breaking the wait. Enjoy and may it inspire you!

God Loves You

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? . . . Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? - Romans 8:31-35

It took me a long time to learn that God wants to bless our lives. I always pictured Him as somewhat reluctant to pour out His blessing. As in, "Okay, I guess you can have a little more." But I was so wrong. God wants to lavish all the fullness of heaven on us. He doesn't promise that everything will always be perfect or that He won't sometimes allow difficulty, but He does promise to be the Giver of good gifts to His children. He did absolutely everything He could to find us, to reach us, and to forgive us. Why? Because He loves us, as the following verses tell us.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son."
Romans 5:8 says, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

First John 4:8 says, "God is love."

Romans 8:31-32 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all."

If you've ever wondered if God cares about you, look at what He did for you in His Son, Jesus Christ. God "did not spare his own Son." Question: Did not spare Him what?

Because God loves you, He did not spare His Son the humiliation of becoming a man. Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, Creator of the universe, became a human being. Imagine the downgrade.

Because God loves you, He did not spare His Son the degradation of His atoning work. The mocking, the torture, the crown of thorns were all laid on the precious Son of God because your heavenly Father loves you.

And because God loves you, He did not spare His Son crucifixion. Jesus became "obedient to the point of death," Philippians 2:8 says, "even death on a cross the most humiliating, torturous way for a person to die. But why did God not spare His own Son?

Because He loves you. He gave the best for the worst. He gave the highest for the lowest. He did the most for the least. That is God's message of love to you and me!