A Matinee

A Matinee

“And this is the testimony: God has given
 us eternal life and this life is in His Son.”
                                 I John 5:11

The word matinee, which is a drama or musical performance held in the daytime, usually the afternoon, has its roots in the word matins, a morning prayer service held in the Anglican church. It’s something I came across as I leafed through a dictionary waiting for our morning devotion to start at school. But what really caught my attention, that morning, and what I believe God really wanted to speak to me about, was the word “performance”. It was as if the Holy Spirit was shouting to me, “Christianity is not a performance; what you do at church is never to be a performance and your service to me, whatever and wherever that is, is never to be a performance.”

Think of it: people gathering on a Sunday morning or a weekday evening with all too real needs in their lives. Some are desperate to hear the voice of God, others need a touch of God’s power or an answer to prayer, while still more are hoping beyond hope for change in their lives. Men and women trying to overcome hurts and pains and sorrow seated next to sincere believers needing to find the grace to forgive someone who has wounded them deeply. Across the aisle, a woman is waiting to receive a report from her doctor on recent tests, and a man is secretly battling an addiction that he has repented of time and time again.

All that helps to explain why God gets so upset when our service to Him and our worship of Him is nothing more than a matinee performance for others to see. When a brother or sister desperately needs more of God, it’s not a performance. People’s eternity is at stake. When marriages need healing and restoration, when children need to experience God’s love in their lives, and when decisions are being made that will affect a family’s future for generations, our gatherings unto the Lord are anything but a performance. In fact they are quite the opposite; they are real life opportunities to reach out to God corporately to see His power and glory break through where it is needed the most. We are called to press in to His life changing presence every time we meet.

Let’s make sure that a performance mentality has no place in our lives. We shouldn’t even have to know specifics; we are surrounded by hurting humanity who have suffered too long. From this day on, we say no more performances. From this day on, we will fight the good fight of faith in every way and at every time because it matters so much.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Strategies

Strategies

“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known;
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them.”
                                                    Isaiah 42:16

The story of the Stuxnet computer virus, used to set back the Iranian nuclear program by several years, is like something out of a Hollywood movie with manipulated computer displays, secret facilities in the desert, and deeply hidden and disguised  “worms”. But its use provides an interesting look into the varied strategies that are used to deal with problems and to attack an enemy. In this case, unsuccessful attempts were made to stop the import of the equipment needed to build nuclear facilities into Iran. With military options having been ruled out, another way had to found. And the solution was an attack without a uniform, one that couldn’t be tracked by radar, shot at or shot down; it was a computer worm that worked its destructive way into Iran’s most secure sites.

Hopefully, we each realize that the enemy has many strategies to deceive us and to ultimately keep us from fulfilling God’s will for our lives. Getting us to fall into sin is one of the more obvious tricks, often using other people to lure us into traps, situations or relationships where our defenses are broken down opening the door for us to make wrong choices. But especially in the lives of Christians, his demonic strategies are often as subtle as the Stuxnet virus, using deception to lure us into compromise, into settling for second best, and into choosing the world’s solutions to solve the very real problems we face. But even that is not the end of the matter, because to the believer who is walking close to God, the enemy rolls out his strategy of busyness, filling our lives with so many good things that we lose our closeness to God, lose the anointing on our lives, and fall into the barrenness of a busy life.

But thankfully, the Lord has many strategies for His children, “making a way where there seems to be no way”. He sets forth His Word as “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path”. God speaks His word as we spend time reading, through His ministers, and through others around us. But when we don’t listen, He doesn’t give up on us or write us off; He too has other strategies. At times, God will use suffering to draw us back to where we belong, speaking through the circumstances of our lives. The needs in our lives and in those close to us can also drive us to our knees and back to God. And I’ve seen God withdraw Himself from a person’s life, until they come to a place of desperation, and come running back to the Lord. But at the end of the day, all of God’s strategies, in my life and yours, are designed to bring us closer the One who loves us!!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

New Life

New Life

“…… in order that just as Christ was raised

from the dead, we too may live a new life.”

                                              Romans 6:4

Reading and talking about something as compared to the reality of it can often produce two very different ideas in our minds and vastly different results in our experience. Take for example skiing: I can still remember my friends filling me in on how to ski the first time I tried it, explaining getting on and off the lifts, the technique for turning and much more. Their instruction left me pretty confident as I headed out but putting their words into practice was a little bit of problem as reflected by my skiing out of control through a class of beginners before hitting the retaining fence behind them. In retrospect, talking about the how-to’s of skiing did not do the experience the least bit of justice.

The same thing can happen when we talk about the new life that the Lord has promised to those who yield their lives to him: reading about it in the book of Romans might paint the picture in one persons’ mind of someone who has been given a fresh start and a second chance in life through the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. To another, they might focus on the new relationship with the Lord that is possible as they experience the Lord’s forgiveness and restoration. But, as so many of us can attest to, the reality of the new life promised by the Lord is so incredible as to be beyond anything our minds can dream or imagine.

That truth never hit home so much as last night when I got to hold our newest granddaughter, Maya Grace, all 6 lbs and 3 oz of her, and to try to fathom the gift of a new life, so pure and precious and awe inspiring that you are left at a loss for words. The experience made me ask “Is this what you had in store for us Lord? Is this what new life is supposed to be like Lord, a freshness that defies description, an excitement that cannot be suppressed, a joy, a pure joy that leaves us speechless?” The answer came back so quickly I almost wasn’t ready, a quote from part of a verse in Peter: “As newborn babes….” I had my answer; God has purposed so much more for us as we walk in newness of life, a fresh start and more, a joy unspeakable and more, and a restoration and making of all things new that only God could do.

My prayer is that the Lord will use the birth of little Maya Grace to encourage each of us to look to the Lord with a new hope and expectation that we would each experience new life as God truly intended.  For all that God has done and for all that lies ahead, we can only stop and say ‘Thank you Lord’.

God Bless

Pastor Joe

Gateway Church

He Knows

He Knows

For a man who had lost everything, seeing his livestock killed, his buildings destroyed and, by far the worst of all, his children lose their lives, Job maintained an incredibly calm demeanor. And the source of the strength, comfort and peace he found, in the midst of incredible trials and difficulties, is reflected in a statement he made that is found in Job 23:10:

“He knows the way I take”

That’s it; six simple words to explain the place of trust that Job found. “God knows the way I take.” God knows the road I’m walking on; He knows the pains and sorrows I’m trying to work through, and He knows the struggles and difficulties I face each day. Job knew that God was watching over him and was fully aware of what was happening in his life. And while Job didn’t understand all that was going on, the certain knowledge that God Himself was watching over him was a rock He could stand on in the storm raging around him.

Some of the most unfortunate mistakes that we make come in those times when we wrongly think that God has abandoned us or somehow lost sight of our circumstances and problems. And when that happens, we sadly look away from God and look in another direction for comfort and hope, for an affirmation of ourselves and of our life having a purpose, and for strength to make it through. The results of those times can be anywhere from sad to see in a person’s life to devastating, depending upon how far they travel down that path before realizing that God was always there for them and always will be.

The rest of the verse tells us that Job realized the end of the matter was not yet seen, declaring that when all was said and done, “I shall come forth as gold”. Job knew the place he had in the heart of God and he knew that God was at work in his life. In between the tears of sorrow and the agony of his pain, Job could declare:

“He knows the way I take ……… and I shall come forth as gold.”

God is watching over your life; that is for sure! You can rest in His love and trust in His care. You can count on Him to accomplish the good things He has purposed for your life.  You can be assured that God Himself will always be there for you, that He knows the road you’re on.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church