God gave me the privilege tonight to lead a young lady to Christ. No matter how hard life gets, or how busy it becomes, there is nothing that will bring joy instantly in the midst of it all, more than sharing with a soul the glorious truth of forgiveness and new life in Christ Jesus, only to see God snatch them from the fire into life eternal.
What a great moment, for it has selfishly been the highlight of the week and refocused my energies on what truly matters.
Have you ever thought about how much time we spend worrying about tomorrow? When the fact of the matter is that we cannot change one thing about it? I in no way am insinuating that what you do today does not effect tomorrow, quite the contrary. What I am suggesting is that you cannot control what you will encounter tomorrow, you can only deal with what you encounter today.
The more I walk the Christian life the more I understand this principle. Jesus said to not concern yourself with the next day for this day has enough troubles of its own, instead seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and leave the rest to Him. I am getting close to the end of my seminary training and will soon be looking to find a church that is gracious enough to accept me as their pastor. Yet I have no idea where I am going to go. I have already seen some doors closed that I considered real possibilities. But does that really matter? Should it concern me that I do not know where I will go? The spiritual answer is of course no, but the real answer is the same, no!
My responsibility is to encounter every situation today and wisely make decisions according to the biblical principles that I know, trusting that the Lord will lead me in the path that He desires. I can search for the "secret will" of God all day and all I will have is a missed opportunity of life here and now.
God has been faithful my entire Christian life to prevent me from paths that I thought were good, yet were not what He desired. I have been required to make some faith based decisions that did not make much sense but were what seemed best at the time and looking back were better than I even expected.
Does this exclude God's vision and direction for your life? Certainly not! There have been many occasion where the Lord has given me directions concerning months or even a year in advance, but that is rare in comparison to the numerous opportunities presented to me every day to follow what I know is his will in the small, ordinary decisions of life.
The moral of the story, don't take for granted the will of God in the small of life and the will of God in the unknown will be obvious one step at a time.
If you are a member of Cedar Creek and missed the reconciliation service last night, you missed an amazing service. I have been praying for God to work among our congregation, to renew our love to him, and to heal wounds that are in the body. Last night God began that process in an awesome way.
For two and a half hours we sought God, asking forgiveness for our sins and admitting our shortcomings before Him. Healing began in many hearts and many turned back to him in what I hope to be zealous, passionate pursuit of His heartbeat for their lives and our church.
I have never been in a 2 hour service in a Baptist church, but this was worth every minute. Having written sins that the Holy Spirit revealed to us on sheets of paper the congregation then laid those sins symbolically at the foot of the cross on stage and took the Lord's Supper together, knowing that our sins, as ugly and heinous as they are, have been done away with on the cross. PK and I then nailed those sheets of paper to a cross as we sang It Is Well. This was a powerful reminder of the reality found in the words of our ancient lifeline, God's Holy Word.
For thousands of years, God's people have confessed their sins and been forgiven by a merciful and unbelievably gracious God. It was no different last night as we gathered in a long history of repentance and redemption.
Praise be to God for His mercy and Grace! Praise be to God for his unfailing love! Praise be to God for His patience at Cedar Creek! Praise be to God for his love endures forever! Praise be to God for what he has in store for this body of believers!
There are a lot of words that one could think of.....
Cute may not be the first that comes to mind...
(Unless you are Tammy)
We often hear the phrase, "He is wise beyond his years." Usually this is in reference to a decision that is made by someone young that is not expected, or that shows a bit more maturity than what is thought that person should have. I have had this spoken to me many times. But do those who say it and I know really what wisdom is?
We toss the word around so much that a biblical picture of wisdom may be hard to come to terms with. I would say usually that wisdom is to understand the ways of God and to do them, based upon a general deduction from everyday conversation. The idea that one has a better discernment of the workings of God and reacts accordingly. Simply put they know better "what God is up to."
So, is that the right definition? Is the average conversation definition the correct one, at least the way I saw it? Of course, the answer is no. And I am indebted to J.I. Packer for opening the truths of Ecclesiastes to me and stopping my "vain" path.
In his book Knowing God he gives two illustrations that help one to understand the biblical view of wisdom. The first is what most see wisdom as, the ability to see God's control room. Wisdom tends to be viewed like someone who is sitting at a train yard watching as the railway cars move in and out, from one track to another, stopping, starting, backing, and moving forward. At this view there is some method and understanding that can be understood and so the person thinks he has a handle on how the rail yard is run, that is until he goes to the control room. There, as he walks in, is a map on the wall covering a five mile stretch to either side of the rail yard with lights all over. Each light represents an engine and where they are going. The entire view is seen and more is understood as to why one engine must stop, another must go, another must switch tracks, and another must back up. The total system is reveled and thus an understanding as to why the engines move as they do. But we will never have the privilege of that view. That is God's alone and so the writer of Ecclesiastes says to try and figure out the world and its system is vanity, one will never be able to do it. (102)
So where does that leave us if wisdom is not an "inside track" to God's workings. Packer illustrates it this way. It is like a man learning to drive. The important thing is that you keep the right speed, pay attention to your surroundings, and make sound decisions based upon what you have been taught and the situations that present themselves. You don't ask questions like, "Why did the road turn there?" or "Why is there a truck in front of me instead of a car?" Packer writes, "You simply try to see and do the right thing in the actual situation that presents itself" (103).
Therefore as Packer writes,
Wisdom is a frank acknowledgement that this world's course is enigmatic [or a riddle], that much of what happens is quite inexplicable to us, and that most occurrences 'under the sun' bear no outward sign of a rational, moral God ordering them at all.
The effect of His gift of wisdom is to make us more humble, more joyful, more godly, more quick-sighted as to his will, more resolute in the doing of it and less troubled (not less sensitive, but less bewildered) than we were at the dark and painful things of which our life in this fallen world is full. . . As we have seen, it [wisdom]is not a sharing in all his knowledge, but a disposition to confess that he is wise, and to cleave to him and live for him in the light of his Word through think and thin (108).
David Miller
Cedar Creek Baptist Church staff and deacons have called a solemn assembly of prayer, repentance, and reconciliation. Just in November our study of Fresh Encounters was cut short in its effect by the departure of our senior pastor. Events at our church have lent themselves to God's opportunity for us to revisit a Fresh Encounter.
Sunday Night February 25 the members of CCBC will gather to repent for individual and corporate sin. It is there that we will meet with God to confess our obvious inadequacies and weakness that we may boast all the more in His power. Some may see this as a goofy idea or a waste of time. I trust this will be the beginning of revival.
For those who are members of CCBC, I hope that you will seriously consider this moment in the life of our church as the crossroads to the future God desires for our church. The older Paul got the more he realized the extent of his sin. The more that Paul realized the extent of his sin, the tighter he grasped the cross and life of Jesus Christ who made payment for his and our sin.
I pray that this will be a time of renewal and a moment in history where everything changed. May we, in preparation for this time, allow the Holy Spirit to search our own souls and reveal any perverse way.
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
- Acts 3:19-20
My apologies for the postings being late. My cell phone battery went dead and of all things I forgot my charger. Don't worry however, if you would like to view more pics. They will be on their way by Sunday afternoon.
dave m
Keep an eye on the blog over the next two days because I will post pictures and info on the weekend ski retreat for everyone to see! Hope you will enjoy!
Click on the picture and then stare at one yellow dot long enough so the other two will disappear.
I know this is another useless picture but the red squares are really the same color. Go figure?
dave m
Stare at the dot and then move closer to the screen.
Now laugh at what you are doing right now!
Change. Easy to dream, hard to accomplish. Many things in our world are rapidly changing. Most we don't even notice. They don't effect us, we haven't yet heard of them, or we just don't care. But one will always notice when change has a personal impact.
I am not going to consider all of the situations that are out of our hands, I choose rather to consider the ones that are. We fail to recognize often that the goal of the Christian life is to become more like Christ, to seek to know him and be conformed to His image. The scriptures are clear that God the Father takes pleasure in his Son, He is "well pleased with Him." In our arrogance however we tend to think that God is well pleased with us. But wait.
We are pleasing to God insofar as we are in His Son. The only reason our life can be pleasing to the Father is because of the death and life of Jesus Christ. To see us, as believers, is to see us in His Son. That pleases the Father. WE don't please him, His Son does, and to bind ourselves to him in faith is therefore pleasing. Because we are "in Him."
Being "in Him" however does not alleviate our need to be more Christlike. Take a look at yourself through the lenses of scripture and in comparison to Christ, how do you measure up? If you look at it like me, not well at all. Yet, we are to become as the one we love and adore. You become like those you idolize. How are you doing in relationship to Jesus.
You cannot become like someone you do not know. You become just like the people you know best. Do you want to know a disciple and friend of Jesus Christ, look at their desires, reactions, speech, faith, purity, life and love. Is it not in these that one will see the followers of Christ manifest?
I serve as an interim youth pastor. I desire to see students know and conform to the image of Christ. I can't do that for them. I can show them the way, teach them the scriptures and live by example, but I can't do it for them. Neither can others do it for you. I pray that God will captivate our hearts. I pray that the students God has entrusted to me at this time will get it. As of now, they don't. Their view of God is small and their worship and lives reflect that view. May God reveal his majesty and may our lives reflect the awesomeness of our God.
Change. We resist it more than anything else when it cost us personally. Selfishness is sin, plain and simple. Conforming to Christ cost us something. Do not dare have the audacity to stand before God and refuse His will to conform you to the image of His Son, because you are not willing to pay the price. What do you have that is so valuable, it is worth more than God? It is called an idol, and it is what you are becoming.
Please, Lord forgive our inept and sinful views of you. Bust open our boxes and reveal yourself in glory and majesty. Help us to know you more, to understand your power, and to faithfully follow. We need a slaying of pride and a resurrection of humility. Help us to see opportunity and not disappointment. Our perspectives are blinded by sin and in the midst of blessing we see curse. Forgive our faithlessness. Rescue us from ourselves and work in spite of our apathy for the sake of your Son and your Name. Amen.
Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
- Matthew 6:1-4
Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
- Proverbs 31:29-31
