A Pastor in The Northwest

I read this poem today in my devotional time: Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into Thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my sickness into Thy health, Out of my want and into Thy wealth, Out of my sin and into Thyself, Jesus, I come to Thee. William True Sleeper, 1840–1920   Manser, M., ed. (2015). Daily Guidance (p. 67). Martin Manser. It reminded me of an old hymn we used to sing in church circles called "I Need Thee Every Hour" written by Annie S. Hawks and Robert Lowry. I especially like the 3rd verse: I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain Come quickly, and abide, or life is vain I need Thee, O I need Thee, every hour I need Thee O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee, Amen. There is no day that I don't need the presence of Jesus. Lord Jesus, I come to YOU!

I 've been re-reading the Old Testament slowly and found myself once again sort of skim-reading Leviticus.  Why? It feels tedious with all the sacrificial guidelines, clean vs. unclean, and rules around what gets burned, drained, or eaten. Ugh. But this morning I ran across a cool devotional thought with a different angle on the importance of Levitical law and what it can teach us modern Jesus followers. Here's some of that commentary: In Leviticus, we also find the setup for the entire Gospel of John; Jesus’ life is cast as an offering to make all people one with God again. We find the background information for Isa 53, where the Suffering Servant dies and is resurrected on behalf of God’s people. Much of the Old and New Testaments require a general understanding of Leviticus. Not only do these ancient rituals show the need to appreciate the entire created order, they also show how much we should appreciate a faith that doesn’t require all these rituals. Leviticus shows the di...

For many football fans in the United States, today is a day to lament their team's loss.  This seems to me a small sort of lament but a lament not the less. I was actually thinking about lament today. The collection of Psalms in the ancient Hebrew writings contain many songs and poems of lament - more than any other genre.  In listening to scholar NT Wright teaching about laments, he said this: When we lament, we do so without a sneaky feeling that we know how God is going to work it all out so it's all right really.  Point of lament?  Look at the way the world is and we look at what we believe about God and we see an apparent radical mismatch. And we then simply hold that mismatch before God and say, "Here it is. I don't like it. I don't know why but this is what's going on right now." Lament comes with a sense that this is where we're going to stay because we are going to go on believing in God even if it almost feels as if God doesn't believe in...

There's a famous scene from a movie where a character played by Jack Nicholson yells out in a courtroom, "You can't handle the truth!" Remember that movie? It was called A Few Good Men from 1992. Truth isn't always what we want to hear, is it? However, truth is often EXACTLY what we need to hear. What we need to hear and what we want to hear are rarely the same thing right? Think of Moses confronting Pharaoh in Exodus and all the Pharaoh's advisers refusing to be honest and tell the truth. How easy it would have been if they felt safe enough to simply point out, "Hey, Pharaoh, you are oppressing the Hebrew people and they will rise up against you. Also, we're afraid of their God and we really can't do what He can do." Pharaoh could have used that truth right? We need to hear the real truth sometimes from people that we trust and know who love us. "we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who ...

This morning, I read a devotional entry that made me ponder a little about taking risks. People take risks all the time, right? From thrill seekers to financial entrepreneurs to artists and writers putting their hearts out for the world to see and people stepping out in faith believing God will come through for them.  It makes me wonder what risks I am taking these days.  It's like the old Latin phrase carpe diem made popular by the movie Dead Poets Society and the teacher played by Robin Williams. Now I'm not really talking about taking foolish risks but calculated risks. The risks like believing someone is being honest, God will do something amazing, and getting out of my comfort zone to achieve the greater good. Maybe the question I need to ask God in all this is, "Lord, what can I do for your kingdom today?" I believe we can trust God even when we can't see the whole picture - we can indeed step out in faith with confidence! Faith  shows the reality of what w...

The author of Ecclesiastes wrote this a long, long time ago: 6  For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. 7  For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8  No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death   The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Ec 8:6–8). (2016). Crossway Bibles. Messiah Jesus echoed this in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 6: 34  “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.   The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 6:34). (2016). Crossway Bibles. So, don't worry about the future because we can't know it and can't do anything about it anyway. That's unfortunate, right? It is as if the Scriptures want us to be focused on the present and living hopeful for God's hand in the future. Easy to say but hard to live out! I don't know about you, but, when I ge...