Our Worshipful Thanksgiving Together

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” –I Thessalonians 5:18

Thanksgiving is easy in those circumstances that meet our needs, or when people live up to standards we place upon them. The disciple of Jesus, however, is to have gratitude in ALL circumstances.

We gather each Sunday to sing songs making melody to the Lord with our heart (Ephesians5:20), yet these songs are filled with our thanksgiving to God (Ephesians5:21). Much like Psalm 69:30, “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving!”  Our grateful songs are to be a shared thanksgiving in all circumstances together.

What about those times our hearts feel low, or we just don’t feel joyful enough? We are tempted to use that to not attend Sunday services or, worse, to go and injure the church with our flaming tongues (James 3:6, 4:1). The temptation keeps us from God’s mercy, the very thing we need most. 

Grief and trouble comes in this life, and these things weigh heavy upon our hearts. I think the hymn writer Robert Robinson says it right, “tune my heart to sing Thy grace.” The prayer of a child to the Father, “Lord, my troubled heart feels low and troubled. Tune my heart to sing with the saints with a thankful heart.” We must be reminded of His rich mercy and goodness. We must hear the gospel. When we hear of the joys we wait for together, we rejoice with thanksgiving together.

Grumbling never builds up the church or encourages the faith; but thanksgiving in all circumstances magnifies the Lord. We can rejoice in God’s goodness, or we can complain about what did not meet our standards; either people or things. Paul told the church in Philippi whom he called “my joy and my crown” that he had learned to be satisfied in all circumstances (Philippians 4:10-13). If I am fully satisfied in Christ alone, I can rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians4:4) and let my thanksgiving and requests be made known to God (Philippians4:6).

When heavy hearts grumble or grieve, let us encourage joyful thanksgiving. When our own hearts need tuning to sing His praise, let us receive admonishment with gratitude before God. When we hear the call to worship, “O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together” (Psalm 34:3), let us resolve to enter Sunday morning with expectation to hear His gospel, tuning our hearts to rejoice, and magnify the name of God with thanksgiving together.

Heavenly Father, our hearts become burdened, pierced with griefs, or cold from our own pride. Help us to cast these weights aside, Lord. Tune our hearts to sing Your worthy praise, songs from the hearts of Your grateful people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

New Year's Resolutions

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” –Psalm 51:10-11

New Year’s Day marks a time when we reflect on the previous year and make resolutions for the coming year. I reflect on God’s mercy to give my family a home to own, to deliver me through a hospital stay, to deliver my dad through a heart attack, to bless our church family with another pastor, and His blessed kindness through many trials we have faced as a church family this past year. 

Looking back at 2017, what pains did you face? How has God been merciful to you even through these pains? What have you to rejoice in the Lord for? When 2018 ends, what improvements do you hope to achieve? Try and make your resolution a theme or a word to remember and recall as the year progresses. 

I see many resolutions based more on the desires of the flesh than the spirit anymore. Many resolve to dismiss negative people from their lives. If Jesus would make such a resolution, He would quickly dismiss me from His fellowship. Praise Him for His wondrous grace that He does not! Rather, the church has been given a ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5:18). Our Lord does not treat us according to our iniquities (Psalm 103:10); Christians are instead called to love each other as peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

What if we made Christ-centered resolutions instead? Do not make commitments based on natural desires (Galatians 5:13); rather, crucify such desires and have a driving passion to have the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:24). Delight in God, and may your driving passion be to invite others to delight in God with you. Do not love only those who love you (Matthew 5:46), or as the modern world says “surround yourself only with positive people.” This comes natural. It is a Christ-less effort. 

Be resolved to treasure Christ this year. Yearn to learn more of Him in Scripture. Long to be with the saints in a local church with an eagerness to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with people there (Ephesians 4:3). Resolve to pray more, to treasure Christ more, and to repent even more of your pride. Resolve to be more loving and kind, a quick listener rather than a lecturer, and to persevere in faithfulness.

Heavenly Father, we need You every hour. As we reflect on Your mercies this past year, give us wisdom and strength to form resolutions that require Your Holy Spirit. Grant us such mercy as to be known by Your love and to be more Christ-like that we may worship You in Spirit and in truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Endure With One Another

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” – Ephesians 4:2

The Christian who is eager to maintain the bonds of peace in the unity of the Spirit by being humble, gentle, patient, bearing with others in love is living “a life worthy of the calling to which you have received” (Ephesians 4:1). A mark of church unity is carrying one another’s burdens in love.

The word here means to endure with one another. Only perfect people have no need to be forgiven and instructed with patience. Churches are not perfect people, and our discipleship into maturity in Christ does not take place overnight. A humble, gentle patience is required to endure with one another. Why? Because Allison Avenue has imperfect people in it. Sometimes, imperfect people get grumpy. Sometimes, the wounded sharpen tongues to wound another. We each carry a weight into our gathering. The answer is not found in each other, but in our humble, gentle, patience enduring with one another in love, we direct one another to Christ and “the immeasurable riches of His grace” (Ephesians 2:7). This encourages each other in the church to display God’s perfect patience with us as the worst of sinners by our enduring patiently with one another (I Timothy1:16).

My beloved flock, none of you is perfect. This means the church around you must have an enduring patience with you. This means you must have a gentle spirit to endure with them. If we are to be a church enjoying peace in unity, it must not come from us; rather, it must come from Christ who bought us and brought to together (John 14:27).

Pray. Pray for each other and pray that you may have a humble, gentle servant’s heart. Be an instrument of God’s grace to others at church. They may get heated, or grumpy, or bitter. That isn’t a time for avoidance, but rather actively patient, humble, gentle forbearance in your “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Also, be a good listener with humility, gentleness, and patient endurance of one another. Much of church unity is sacrificed when we lack care in our gentle listening.  Our flesh believes “I am always right and there is no amount of truth I need to hear.”

Let us be a humble, gentle, patient church who, in our love for one another, endures much with one another.

Heavenly Father, grant me grace to remember Your patient longsuffering with us in Your love for me. May You grant me mercy to display Your love in my humility, gentleness, patience in longsuffering with others. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Fruit of the Spirit: Introduction

I have heard many responses to the simple reading of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5. Sometimes, the reaction from folks is, "Yea, that's how others should treat me!" Or, "It is how I am to be an example." What if the Holy Spirit is digging deeper here?

Galatians was a letter from the Apostle Paul to local churches in a region of modern day Turkey in which Paul planted and invested the gospel of Jesus in people. Paul had to remind them he was sent by God as an apostle, not by men (Galatians 1:1). Since the time Paul was there, missionaries of opposition to Paul and his teaching came telling the church members to get circumcised and follow the Old Testament Law to be right with God.

Galatians is a reminder of the importance of sound doctrine in our theology. Bad doctrine regarding the gospel is "eternally accursed" by those who proclaim it (Galatians 1:8-9) and leads to local churches abusing one another without any asking for forgiveness, repentance, or attempts at reconciling (Galatians 5:15). So, it is important to get the true gospel to view the fruits of the Spirit.

Galatians 5 reminds us of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were found under the command and control of sin and Jesus freed by promise to those who believe (3:22). Christ died to free us from the demands and punishment and burden of the Law. Under the command of sin, we could not say "no" to the desires of the flesh. We who believe in Jesus have crucified the flesh and all its passions and desires (5:24). We who have been freed by Christ now can say "no" to sin and "yes" to righteousness.

Let us treat Galatians 5 in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ together. Let us learn to walk by the Spirit together as those no longer under the law (5:16, 18). This is not about how to expect others to treat you, or simply how to be a moral person. This is about having been freed by Christ to be led by Christ to be Christ-like to the glory of God. We are no longer under the Law but have been freed by Jesus so we don't indulge ourselves in the pleasures of our old nature, but given a new nature by the Spirit of God. The grace of God transforms the believer to display the fruits of the Spirit. The new life Jesus has delivered us by His death and God's power is a life of love.

I will blog each fruit as a devotion and prayer. I invite you to join me in studying God's Word.

Maintaining Peace

"I urge you to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." –Ephesians 4:3

We live in a world of chaos. The trampling herd of people chasing pleasures apart from God plays out and takes unpredictable turns in moods and mindsets of the victims in its wake. But we followers of Jesus are gifted by the Holy Spirit a peace. We enjoy the gift God’s peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:7). Paul urges here in Ephesians 4 that the peace that you and I enjoy with God as a gift is to be maintained in unity as a bond of peace with one another.

But why? Why must we strive to enjoy peace in the local church? What purpose is there of God to urge me to maintain peace with other sinners saved by grace, even and especially when it’s hard? Why be humble, gentle, patient, and bear with others in love (vs 2)? 

Paul says it is in keeping with a life worthy of the salvation I received (vs 1). To use my Holy Spirit giftedness to the gospel mission of the local church, being an actively loving and serving member of the church to equip saints for gospel service and build one another up to maturity in Christ-likeness (12-13). This maturing process, which is found in the increasing knowledge of the Son of God, means that the church has immature followers of Jesus in our midst. 

How well do we know one another? Do you patiently listen to or voice confessions of weaknesses in your faith? How do you give good counsel to trouble in other’s lives? How well do you receive biblical challenges from others to be closer to Christ?

Oftentimes, we gather for worship together all spiritually limping in wounded from our world of chaos. So, maintain our bond of peace, my beloved, by being a safe place, a refuge, a healing place. How? By increasing one another’s knowledge of the Son of God, Paul says. Be humble toward one another. Patient toward one another. Gentle toward one another. And bear with one another in love. Let us be the safe place for one another by being in Christ in the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Sunday morning may be the only peaceful moment a struggling young mother has this week. Or someone wrestling with drama at work. Or a teen pressured by friends at school. Or someone with a private internal wound. Let us be a safe place of God’s peace to one another. We are commanded to love as Christ loves us (John 15:12), and by His Spirit our Lord gifts to us all that He requires. If you lack peace and love, ask in His name.

Heavenly Father, grant us peace to rest in Your sovereign might through our Lord Jesus Christ. May the peace we enjoy with You be enjoyed together in unity. Teach us Your Word, equip us for Your mission, and fill us with Your love that our church may be a safe and healing place of Your peace. Amen.