Situation or Condition?

Are you exactly where you want to be? If you were, you probably would say that you never want to move - like on vacation. Although tempting, staying in one place would never work in reality because life moves, and we need to move along with it. The other side of this moving life stuff is the feeling that we are never really where we want to be either. It is a Catch 22 - can't stay where we are, and we can't get to where we want to be, so we end up living lives of "almost" - and we live for what could, should, might, can, or will be. We end up simply living for tomorrow, where we know it will probably, maybe, hopefully be better than today, right?

This is situational living: moving from one situation to the next, looking to fix or get away from the bad ones, and enjoy, or get to the good ones. Wanna know the problem with this? You never really get there. When you find yourself in a good situation, it never lasts, and when you find yourself in a bad one, it seems to never end...WHAT TO DO?

We need a way to stop trying to fix our condition by changing our situation. In other words, changing our situation does nothing to change our condition. And what is our condition you ask? Broken (Sinful - see Rom. 3:23)...we are broken people living in a broken world, trying to fix brokenness with more brokenness. When I say it that way, it almost sounds like it is a simple problem. It is, but it requires difficult solution. A solution that we are not able to just "do" on our own.

God knows us, and knew this would be our problem from the beginning of creation, and thankfully, He provides the only perfect solution: Jesus. If Jesus is the perfect solution for every situation in our life, then what we need is not a one time Jesus fix, but a lifetime of Jesus with us. This is the only way to navigate life: situation by situation with Jesus, and then we are able to enjoy each situation we are in. This is not because Jesus makes every situation joyful and perfect, but His perfect presence can be in every situation and that should make us joyful!! After all, Jesus is already in the situation, we just need to remind ourselves of His presence.

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." 1 Peter 2:24 ESV

Situational living looks to change our situation, Jesus is looking to change our condition, and that changes every part of our lives.

Get this...?!

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Family...

Family? When you read that word, what pictures pop into your mind? Moms and dads and kids being together? Maybe Al Pacino or Tony Soprano? Whatever it is, I am sure that you are not the only one who sees some kind of similar image when they think of the word family; some are good, and others are not. Regardless, the word get us thinking.

This week our family changed by an addition of one: a grandson. Our first grandchild, and he is nothing short of an absolute miracle gift from God. Just like with all of life's changes, people have been sharing their experiences and what being a grandparent was going to be like. Although I appreciated all of the sharing and sentiments, we have found it to be somewhat like riding a roller-coaster: no matter what we heard, the reality of the experience did not hit us until we experienced it ourselves. Not that the stories weren't amazing, they were, and we were full of anticipation, but the reality was different, and was more amazing than we could have imagined.

Loving a child is unconditional, and loving a grandchild is almost no different, except the fact that there is not the caveat of responsibility. Caring, feeding, day-to-day guiding, and the like, is not up to us...we are left with one thing to do: LOVE. Its amazing, wonderful, and somewhat liberating all at the same time. It hit me when I picked up our grandson for the first time and stared into his tiny, beautiful, face: I believe this is the way God loves us. He just loves us, no more, no less. We have earthly parents who are responsible for certain things, but God's role starts and ends with loving us. Is this the way you look to your relationship with God?

I am not saying that God is simply some kind of cosmic super-grandpa, but in some ways, in how He loves us He is. Gina and I love our children, and we love them more than we could show or tell them, but we are also responsible for them. There are some things that they need from us, that as parents, we provide for them until they go out into the world on their own: food and shelter, yes, but also security and guidance. Even though most children would like to avoid as much guidance as possible, they still need it. When we looked at Emory, our grandson, the first time, we looked at him differently. I could go on and on about this, but I feel it would fall short of the actual experience, so you will have to trust me, and wait to see if grandchildren are part of your future.

Not everyone will experience having grandchildren, I only wish it were possible, but that is not always the reality. What I do know is that every person can experience this kind of love from God. It's readily available, easy to access, unconditional, and there for the taking...and this love has a name: Jesus. When you enter into a relationship with Jesus, the love of the Father is what you experience. I can do this love no justice with mere black words on an contrasting electronic white background - you have to experience this yourself...you simply HAVE TO!!! So in the immortal words of the famous philosopher/theologian Nike: Just Do It! Ask Jesus to come into your life, accept His completed work on the cross, and you will never be the same.

...just sayin'

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Trust Trumps Understanding

Who do you trust? Why do you trust them? We trust what we believe to be true, right? If something or someone is true, then they are worthy of being trusted. This is not complicated, and most people would agree to this without an argument. Another way of saying it, is that we trust truth because we understand that truth is trustworthy. Truth then becomes connected to our desire and ability to understand.

Understanding has at its center, information; the more information we can access, then the more we can understand. I believe that the instantaneous availability of information has made us way less trusting as a rule. Most of the time if someone says something we doubt, all we have to do is Google it, and instantly verify the validity of the claim being made. This is great access to information, but debilitating when it comes to trusting what people have to say. I believe that because we can verify so much we are beginning to trust very little: in other words if I can’t verify it to be true then I have reason to doubt whether or not it is true in the first place – making truth subject to our investigation and subsequent understanding.

What about God? For some people, the inability to understand rationally, who God is and what God has done, seemingly gives them permission to claim that God does not then exist. As if God’s existence depends on our understanding. Struggling to understand God in order to believe in Him is like telling God that if He proves He is God, then you will believe. God is perfect, and has no need to prove anything to anyone for any reason.

God did not create you for you, or even for your part, like we are in some cosmic balancing act, where we do our part, then God does His. God has always done all the parts, and our existence is evidence of His glory not our greatness. In other words God did not create you because He needed a relationship with you. He created you because He’s God and He does not need anyone or anything, He is God remember.

Listen to the words of the prophet Micah:

“But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

So you don’t understand everything; that is good. It is only in trusting God that we can grasp an understanding of peace. Peace that we do not have to know it all to understand, but that we can know the One who does.

…just sayin’

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

The "Right" Path

Have you ever heard of, or maybe even used, the term "Christian Walk"? This phrase has as its reference, the implication of being on the "Right" path, right? Albeit, that as Christians, we have the desire to be on the "Right" path to say the least, but all too often when we think of the "Right" path we confuse it with "Nice" or "Good" or "Best". Those adverbs are great descriptors, but they are all feel-good words. The Christian walk, or path, does not in and of itself mean that it will by default, feel good, better, or comfortable...it can't.

The Christian walk is not supposed to be lived out in comparison to earthly blessings in the form of comforts or material belongings, but that is the temptation. If being physically blessed were synonymous with the "Good" life, then Jesus was totally off the path. God had called Him to ultimate disaster, and He in turn called His disciples to follow Him there, and the place where Jesus led them was apparently heartbreak and disappointment when He was tried as a criminal and put to death. That would not be the right "Path" that anyone would say is the "Best"...or is it?

And taking the twelve, he said to them, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished." But they understood none of these things... Luke 18:31, 34(a) ESV

The call of Jesus to "Follow Me," is not one of a promise of the good life, but the promise of the God life. A promise that has, as its reward, abundance of life, peace beyond understanding, blessings beyond measure, and eternal life with God in Christ. That is a promise worth holding on to, and can keep us focused on the prize, and not the circumstances we are in. God's plan will be worked out, for He alone is sovereign. Our real test is whether or not we believe God knows what He is doing, and will we obey Him or not.

...just sayin'

In His grip,

Pastor Pat