A Watershed Moment

“From this day on I will bless you, says the Lord”
Haggai 2:19

The term watershed is used to describe the geographical area from which rain and precipitation of all kinds flow into a particular body of water. Watersheds are marked by a unique dividing line from which water flows in one direction or another, such as the Rocky Mountains here in the United States with rain falling on one side of the Rockies heading to the Pacific Watershed and rain falling on the other side making its way to the Mississippi Watershed.

But enough for our geography lesson because from the term watershed, a phrase has come to be used to describe moments in time that mark a dividing line in the history of nations and in the lives of individuals. That phrase, a watershed moment, describes “an experience or event that has profound effects on a nation or individual’s destiny going forward.” The signing of the Declaration of Independence here in America would certainly be considered a watershed moment in American History as would the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in European History.

We would probably imagine most watershed moments to be acts of great courage and determination, which would fit in most cases, but we want to look at a watershed moment in the life of David that was nothing more than a simple decision to do what’s right. David had been running for his life from Saul who was determined to kill David and keep him from becoming the future king. After many years of evading Saul’s pursuit, David found himself, with a spear in his hand, standing over a sleeping Saul. The opportunity to end the years of living in caves and hiding in the mountains was there for David; one blow and this incredibly difficult time, this confusing part of his life considering all that God had spoken to him, would be over.

But David’s watershed moment was the opposite of what we’d expect. He decided that he wouldn’t touch the Lord’s anointed, that he wouldn’t take matters into his own hands, and kill King Saul. David’s watershed moment was a firm decision to leave the matter in God’s hands, to not take vengeance where we would all agree it was well deserved, and to establish going forward that he would trust the Lord to fight his battles. And David’s life was never the same.

You may be facing situations that are very difficult, situations where you’re tempted to take matters into your own hands either through words or actions. But rather than establish a pattern that you’ll late regret, take a page from David’s life, leave the matter squarely in God’s hands, and experience a watershed moment from which God can bless your life going forward!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

It Has To Translate

“But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and His grace to me was not without effect.”
 I Corinthians 15:10

The success our group of 26 students and chaperones had on our recent trip to Nicaragua would not have been possible without having people around us who could translate what we were saying to the Nicaraguan children and what they were saying to us. Without those translators, their Spanish and our English would have been nothing short of worthless gibberish. And while I’m sure what was being spoken had value and a purpose, without understanding what was being said, those words had little or no meaning to the hearer.

In that setting, while walking on the beach shortly after the children left on the bus to return to their homes, I heard the Lord speak softly but clearly, “It has to translate.” The experience of spending three days with 56 underprivileged children at Camp Allegro had to translate into my life back home, and into our lives back home. Being able to make a difference in their lives, as we poured out the love of Christ and invested in them as individuals, had to translate into making a difference back home. Seeing those mired in poverty had to translate into a life filled with gratitude and generosity. Clearly, if it was only an experience to be remembered and not a catalyst for change, the end result would be far less than the Lord intended.

But the Lord wasn’t done explaining “it has to translate” to me. Having a relationship with Jesus Christ has to translate into our everyday lives, how we interact with people, the effort we put into building relationships and our willingness to share what the Lord has done in our lives with others. Our knowledge of the Word, gained through reading the Bible, has to translate into lifestyle changes where our priorities reflect eternal values and where our choices line up with what pleases the Lord. And further, our awareness of problems and needs in other’s lives only has meaning if it translates into time spent in prayer to see God move in those situations.

To have meaning, our Christianity has to translate into our everyday lives. To have meaning, our faith has to translate into action, into “going about doing good” as was said of Jesus in Acts 10:38. The love Jesus showed us has to translate into our loving others; the sacrificial giving of His life on the cross has to translate into our being generous givers, and not just of our finances but of our time, energy, gifts and talents. So let’s start today to apply “it has to translate” to our individual lives, making sure that we aren’t left with experiences and knowledge that don’t make an impact on the way we live out the precious gift of life we’ve been given!

God bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church 

Touch All The Bases

“In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:6

Putting together a message for an elementary and middle school awards ceremony, with an audience ranging from second graders to grandparents, can be a daunting task. And so I was incredibly thankful when the Lord quickened the theme to me, Touch All The Bases. Using the baseball analogy, I quickly came up with 1^st base being paying attention in class and listen to your teacher. 2^nd base would then be doing your homework every night and giving your best effort and 3^rd base would be going the extra mile, looking up words you don’t know the definition of and going beyond the minimum. And then, for effect of course, I’d hold up a home plate borrowed from the gym to wrap up with hitting a home run in your academics.

But I couldn’t leave the parents out, not with the tuition that they pay for private school. So the parental 1^st base was staying involved in their children’s education, proofing papers and helping with homework. 2^nd base for the parents was praying for their children faithfully with 3^rd base being a willingness to say no once in a while. (In the second version, 3^rd base became setting a Godly example of Christian living for their children to follow.) And, of course, being a grandfather to three beautiful granddaughters, the grandparents were easy. Just their being at the grandkids’ awards ceremony had them rounding 3^rd base and heading for home.

But the message, and the conviction on my own heart, didn’t stop there. Meditating on it, and sharing it with our church, the truth resonates that we’ve got to “Touch All the Bases” in our Christian lives if we want to find success in the Lord. My 1^st base for believers is staying in God’s Word. We can never overemphasize the importance of the counsel, the direction, and the wisdom that comes from God’s Word as we faithfully read and meditate on it. We could put so many truths to 2^nd and 3^rd base to make it exhausting but forgiveness was the 2^nd base this time around. People will hurt and disappoint us but we must forgive others, for the freedom it gives, and to receive the forgiveness we need from the Lord. 3^rd base was trusting the Lord in the hard areas of life, and speaking words of faith that reflect a growing faith in the Lord and in His goodness towards us.

No doubt, we can each come up with the bases that we find key in our Christian walk, and define touching home plate in a way that is challenging yet fulfilling. But we’re all competing for a prize and we all have a race to run and to win!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Domino Effect

“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because
you have done this thing, I will surely bless you.”
Genesis 22:16-17

Setting up dominos with my granddaughters recently reminded me of the elaborate designs that people create, all with the goal of knocking down one domino, and setting off a chain reaction that knocks over hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of perfectly arranged dominos.

The domino effect is a phrase used for situations where one often small action sets off a chain reaction of events, often in rapid sequence. Let me give you a very present example. Yesterday’s storms throughout the Midwest disrupted air travel setting off a series of events that have left me sitting here at my laptop typing this devotion. The storm caused the plane we were supposed to take off on at 5:50 am today to never make it to Detroit last night, resulting in our flight this morning being cancelled. Once that happened, students had to be notified, rides had to be rearranged, new flights are still in the process of being scheduled, the pick-up by missionaries in Managua, Nicaragua had to be put on hold, and afternoon plans there scrapped. And all because of domino number one, the storm that passed through yesterday.

Abraham set off his own domino effect when he decided to obey God in offering his son Isaac to the Lord as a sacrifice. God saw Abraham’s obedience and responded with this: “Because you have done this thing, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.” That promise was fulfilled in pure domino effect fashion; Abraham’s one act of obedience set off a chain reaction of God’s incredible blessing on Abraham’s life and family. So consider this:

• You can set off a chain reaction of blessing in your own life by one act of obedience.
• You have the power, if you’ll take the initiative, to greatly bless your own life.
• The domino effect is waiting for anyone to experience who’ll do the little things, who’ll take the first step, pick up the phone, approach someone outside your inner circle of comfort, make a coffee date with someone you haven’t talked to in a while, send an email to a friend who’s been on your heart, or more.
• Your action, your part, is knocking over the first domino; God will do the rest! And as far as when to get started – the best day is always today!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Courage of Our Convictions - Part 2

“Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen
your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”
Psalm 31:24

When we start to talk about the importance of having the courage to live out our convictions, maybe looking at what happens when the needed courage is missing will help us to understand. In every situation where there is a difference between what we believe and the reality of our lives, a gap forms, a dangerous gap that can get filled in with the wrong things over time.

Kyle Idleman said this on the subject: “When actions violate convictions, a general sense of fatigue and frustration begins to mark one’s life.” When a gap exists between how we are living and the convictions of our heart, frustration with ourselves and fatigue because of the internal struggle come rushing in to the gap that exists. Jesus said something very similar about deliverance when He warned that if a person delivered didn’t fill the void left in their life, then the enemy would return in even greater force. The gap between action and belief cannot be the status quo in our lives because that gap will eventually get filled in.

And it’s not only us who are affected. Idleman went on to say, “If your life isn’t aligned with your convictions, it’s only a matter of time before your frustration with yourself spills over onto others and you become a hard person to live with.” The courage to live out our convictions, our core beliefs, is essential to our well being and to the well being of those around us.

God stirred Joshua to “be strong and very courageous” for his own good. And Joshua years later stirred the people in the same way saying, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous.” Billy Graham said, “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” And C. S. Lewis added this: “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but courage is the form of every virtue at its testing point.”

The courage to ……….. I’ll let you fill in the blank, but find the courage in any area of life where your convictions and your life don’t line up and you’ll be the better off for it. Even the American Heart Association, a secular group, agrees, saying, “Examine your values and live by them. The more your actions reflect your beliefs, the better you will feel.” Let’s start to close any gaps that exist between convictions and reality, and close the door to frustration and fatigue.

God bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Courage of Our Convictions

“Be strong and courageous; do not be discouraged,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:9

What enables the Iranian housewife to step into the river to be baptized knowing that persecution, and quite possibly death, might well await her?
The courage of her convictions.

What moves the Chinese pastor to withhold the location of their secret church in the face of torture and imprisonment by government authorities?
The courage of his convictions.

What was behind Eric Liddell giving up his chance at an Olympic gold medal in the 100 yard dash, his best event, rather than run on a Sunday?
The courage of his convictions.

We could talk about the husband or wife who refuses to leave their spouse despite mounting difficulties, and in the face of feeling abandoned and betrayed; or the man or woman who refuses to lie, cheat or deceive at work knowing it might cost them their desperately needed job. And the teenager who would rather spend Friday nights at home alone than be with school friends who are drinking and doing drugs would be another all too real example. And the reason why, in each case and in the untold examples that dot our lives, would be “the courage of their convictions.”

We could define it as having enough courage and determination to carry out one’s goals and stay true to one’s beliefs. The courage of our convictions is having the boldness and the confidence to do or say what you think is right regardless of who disagrees with you and regardless of what the consequences might be.

The conviction part is easy – we should all have “firmly held beliefs or opinions.” But that conviction is only as valid as the cost we are willing to pay to live it out. And that’s where courage comes in. The Iranian housewife, the Chinese pastor and the Scottish runner all have one thing in common -  they each needed courage to live out their Christian beliefs.

The courage to stand, the courage to fight, the courage to suffer if need be, the courage to not give up, and the courage to say no are the marks of those who have faced a challenge to their beliefs and not relented to the pressure. My prayer is that we’ll find strength today from the encouragement that the Lord gave Joshua, “be strong and courageous – I’ll be with you” to live out our beliefs, and to stand for the convictions of our heart.

God Bless

Pastor Joe

Gateway Church

A Priceless Painting

“The Lord within her is righteous; He does no
wrong. Morning by morning He dispenses His
justice, and every new day He does not fail.”
Zephaniah 3:5

Look through a list of the most expensive paintings ever sold and you’ll be staggered by the value placed by collectors on some of the rare treasures adorning canvases around the world. Take for example Paul Cezanne’s ‘The Card Player’, finished in 1893; this famous masterpiece, holding the distinction for topping the sales chart, was purchased by the royal family of Qatar in 2011 for an astounding $250 million. The values might go down from there but sales of artwork at exorbitant prices, in the tens of millions of dollars, have become commonplace in our day.

In reality, we are all painters but our canvases are our minds and the subjects of our works range far and wide. We paint pictures of what people are like, of how they’ll respond to us, of what is motivating their behavior, and more. We paint pictures of our future, how certain events will play out and what the end result of our actions will be. But by far the most crucial, and potentially the most valuable, picture we will ever paint is the one we paint of God.

What I want to propose is that if you paint a right picture of God in your mind, it will become the most priceless treasure you’ll ever possess, able to keep you through the most difficult of times. And without a doubt that is one of those ‘easier said than done’ propositions. You’ve got to get the love of God and the mercy of God just right, not to mention having the justice of God and the righteousness of God in just the right proportions. And you’ve got to rightly depict the heart of God, using His Word, without letting the circumstances of life distort the picture you’re painting of God. Not enough love and the picture won’t sell at Wal-Mart. Not enough justice and the picture will sell like hotcakes but the value will plummet over time. Not enough greatness or goodness, and even you won’t want to put your God on display for all to see.

On this Easter morning, we have a beautiful vantage point from which to create the most precious painting of all time. The empty cross, the ultimate symbol of selfless, sacrificial love, still stained by the blood of a Savior, is perfectly visible; the empty tomb of a Risen Christ, whose righteousness death could not overcome, offers us life, hope and unending joy; and the power of God, seen this Resurrection Sunday, is on display for all to see and lay hold of!

Happy Easter,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church