Names

Names

"Therefore God has given Him a name which is above every
name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
those in heaven, and of those on earth and under the earth."
Philippians 2:9-10

If you went to a Detroit Tigers game this past year, you would have seen lots of people with a Tigers jersey with the name of their favorite Tiger on it. And now that it's the fall, sweatshirts with university names are everywhere with people proudly displaying the team they root for and support the most. And here in Michigan, it won't be long until the red and white Red Wing hockey jerseys of the most popular Wings are being worn everywhere supporting the local team.

In Bible times, names carried significance and a name revealed a person's character, heart, and purpose in life. The ultimate name is Jesus which means "He shall save His people from their sins" but there is also Isaiah meaning "God is salvation", Nehemiah which means "God is comfort", a ministry seen in Nehemiah's life as he returned to Jerusalem to lead the people in rebuilding the walls of the city and a host of others whose names carried weight and destiny.

Other names spoke of character as seen in Jacob's life. He was named Jacob which means "deceiver", had his name changed to Israel meaning "prince with God" and later was named Jeshurun, or "straight one", each name reflecting what God was doing in his life and carrying a message of encouragement and hope to those who are still looking for God to change and refine them.

I probably should mention a little idiosyncrasy I have. With one exception, I don't wear anything with a sports figures' name on it, whether that be a hat, sweatshirt or jersey. Years ago, I went to buy a hat and I could have sworn that the Lord said "no, that person's life isn't right, you shouldn't be wearing their name". It made sense to me and I've kept to that for almost 20 years now. It's not something I recommend to others but it's a reminder that names have significance.
But back to our main thought today.

As Christians, we carry the name of Jesus with us and so much of what we do is "in the name of Jesus", whether it be praying for healing, or baptizing a new believer. The early church, in Acts 5:41 "rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name" and Paul exhorted Timothy to live a life that brought honor to the name of the Lord. For anyone who knows that you are a believer, you are carrying the name of Jesus wherever you go and in whatever you do. That name should radically affect the way you live, your attitudes, your words and choices, and the love you show others.

Let's all make sure that our lives live up to the name that we were baptized into and are living for. Let's make sure that we can proudly wear the sweatshirt with the name Jesus boldly embroidered for all to see!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Erosion

Erosion

"We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to the
things we have heard, so that we do not drift away."
Hebrews 2:1

Already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is referred to by some as "The Eroding Nation". Haiti's well documented poverty is rooted in many areas but one of particular note is the erosion of the soil that has resulted in the land being unable to produce even close to the amount of food needed to sustain the Haitian people. That erosion did not happen overnight and the story behind it provides valuable lessons for each of us.

To meet the needs of the charcoal industry, trees were cut down in Haiti at such a rate that the forests in the mountains disappeared. The result of the almost total deforestation that occurred was that rains coming down from the mountains swept away the topsoil of the land, destroying the land's ability to produce food. The topsoil washed into the sea, in turn polluting the ocean off Haiti, decimating the fishing industry, and reducing one more source of food crucial to the survival of the Haitian people.

None of this happened overnight; it was a process that occurred over hundreds of years until the effects became obvious, clear to all, but unfortunately, irreversible. The same is too often true spiritually; believers don't run away from the Lord all at once but they slip away a little at a time until they find themselves far from God not knowing where to turn for help and how to get themselves out of the pit they've fallen in. Paul was addressing this problem with his warning in Hebrews 2:1 to "pay more careful attention" to what we have been taught so that we don't let the truths of Christian living that meant so much to us at one time "slip away".

Erosion, the process of wearing something away, is as real in the spiritual realm as it is in the natural and the results are equally devastating. It might start with our not having enough time to ever read our Bible until we find ourselves too distracted to pray.

Eventually, we end up having lost our desire for the things of God, not being interested in attending church or, at the very least, using any excuse to not go. Haiti is a barren land of poverty and there is a corresponding spiritual barrenness that God wants to warn us about and keep us from ending up in. One key is found in Ephesians 5:15 which says "Be very careful how you live". Get control of your life today!

Make sure nothing is slipping away without you realizing its' importance. Make sure that you are guarding the things that result in fruitfulness and growth, spending time with the Lord, and making your relationship with Him your number one priority.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Inventory Control

Inventory Control

"So then each of us shall give
account of himself to God."
Romans 14:12

Fresh out of college, my first job at Kodak was as an inventory control analyst, with responsibility for making sure that what we said we had in the warehouse, millions of rolls of film, was actually there and ready to be shipped to customers. From x-ray film used in doctor's offices and labs around the world to good old Kodachrome film, used in cameras since way back in 1935 and sung about by Paul Simon in his 1973 song by the same name, Kodachrome, we had to check the inventory. And we didn't just check it once or twice a year, we did it constantly with daily alerts, weekly print-outs, monthly summaries and on and on and on.

In addition to making sure we had the product available to ship to customers, we also had to certify the financial records of the company, verifying their accuracy for the sake of shareholders, investors and auditors. In thinking back to those days, the process we went through helps me to understand better the need for each of us to take a constant inventory of the state of our hearts.

The Word of God makes it very clear that we will all stand before God and give an account for how we have lived our lives, how we have used the time and talents, the gifts and abilities that He has blessed us with. That is the reason for the encouragements to "redeem the time" and "make the most of every opportunity". That is why the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 has such a significant message for Christians in every generation. We have each been entrusted with 'talents" to use for God's glory and to build up His Kingdom. And we will all give an account of our faithfulness, or lack thereof, in using those talents as God intended.

On a regular basis, we should take inventory of our lives, looking at its' direction and our fruitfulness. We should take inventory of our faith level, of our joy and whether it is driven by circumstances or by faith, and certainly of the love we show to others when someone has hurt or disappointed us. We should take inventory of the way we use our time, of our investment in reading the Word of God, of our prayer life, and of our commitments to the Lord, to people, and to sharing the gospel to others, no matter how hard that might be. The end result will be a life lived purposefully.

Kodak devoted a department of 12 people to inventory control, out of a company that, at that time, employed over 62,000 people. Surely each of us can devote a little of our time to make sure that we are on track for our lives, living life as God intended.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Keys of the Kingdom

The Keys of the Kingdom

"I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of
David; what he opens no one can shut and what he
shuts no one can open." Isaiah 22:22

In the years when I had more time for personal reading, one of the books that I read many times over was entitled The Keys of the Kingdom, written by A.J.Cronin. That was the late 70's when this story of Francis Chisholm, a Catholic missionary to China captured my imagination, in the days before I was a part of God's kingdom. The phrase "the keys of the kingdom" now has a whole new meaning to me, much more than the title to a favorite novel.

We all know the importance of keys having misplaced them, locked them in the car at the wrong time, or just plain old lost them. That happened to me this summer when I lost the master key to our school locks, the only copy of the key that opened all the book lockers. It was a real problem to say the least. And I'm a card-carrying member of AAA for the same reason, I seem to lock my keys in the car on a regular basis. This devotional really started on Sunday morning when John said to me "Dad, did you know there's a key taped to the inside of the pulpit?" It was the long-lost key to my office at church but it got me started thinking that the Lord has keys for our lives, that there are missing keys for each of our lives that will unlock doors to not only God's
blessing and favor, but also to His plans and purposes for our lives.

The key for one person might be a relationship. My summer jobs after high school and throughout college, from delivering mail for the Post Office to building sidewalks for the City of Rochester, were all the result of knowing the right person. For another person the key might be an attitude that the Lord has been working on. Paul and Silas sang praises in prison and at midnight, the darkest hour, and that was the key to the Lord opening prison doors for them. Elijah's determination to not leave Elisha was the key to him receiving a double portion of the Spirit and a ministry of miracles that still speaks to us today, 3,000 years later. And it is said about Jesus that the key to His life was his early morning prayer and devotional life, time spent with the Father.

God has a key for your life that He wants to reveal to you at this time. You job is to seek the Lord by faith and with a heart of expectation. God has the key, the right key, the perfect key for your life and He can't wait to take it off His key ring and pass it on to you. He holds the true "Keys of the Kingdom".

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Conclusion

The Conclusion

"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of
the matter: fear God and keep His commandments"
Ecclesiastes 12:13

We make conclusions every day, about people, about problems we face, about what will happen in the future and many other things. Sometimes our conclusions are right and sometimes they are wrong. Sometimes our conclusions are rash, or premature, made before we have all the facts and then there are the conclusions we make where we leave God out of the equation (big mistake!).

The reason for saying this is that I have come to a conclusion:

God's purposes are not dependent on our environment.

It doesn't matter if we are from a small town in the country or a big city, it doesn't matter if we grew up an only child on a farm or were from a large family in the suburbs, God is the key to our future. The story of Joseph illustrates this. He found himself in prison, wrongly accused by Potiphar's wife, in a foreign country, not exactly the environment for success that anyone would recommend. But God is greater than our environment!!

Joseph found favor with God and man because of the attitude he approached his situation with and he went from being a prisoner to being a ruler in just one day. God's promises in Joseph's life were not dependent on his environment.

It doesn't matter if we are rich or poor. Gideon was from the poorest family in his area, and to make matters worse, he was "the runt of the litter" as The Message Bible words it. But God not only chose him for great things, God strengthened him, anointed him for the purpose He had for his life, and used him to bring deliverance to an entire nation. We have to conclude that God is greater than the family we are from or the size of our church, greater than how we look or the shape of our body. Like Joseph, God's promises in Gideon's life were not dependent on his environment.

We could give examples forever. President Jimmy Carter went from being a peanut farmer in Georgia to the White House. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was permanently paralyzed from the waist down by polio but he didn't let that prevent him from becoming the longest serving president in the history of the United States. You could have looked at his life after the polio struck and made some very wrong conclusions that he would never accomplish much with his life.

My prayer is that, no matter what the circumstances of your life are, you will realize that God is greater than your environment. Your finding fulfillment in life and your accomplishing God's plans, purposes and promises for your life are not dependent on your environment. They are only dependent on the faith you live by and the size of your God!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

No Hiding

No Hiding

"The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him,
on those whose hope is in His unfailing love."
Psalm 32:18

Hiding from someone we don't want to face or something we are afraid to do is an age-old problem that started way back in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They had disobeyed God and when they heard His voice, the Bible says that they "hid from the Lord God among the trees of the field". That was about 6,000 years ago, give or take a few, and people have been hiding from God, in a variety of ways, ever since.

Saul was another person in scripture who tried to hide. The account in I Samuel 10 tells the story of Samuel choosing a king for the nation of Israel. Saul had been chosen but "when they looked for him, he was not to be found". Luckily, God was around at the time and told them "he has hidden himself among the baggage". The picture I get is of the baggage car of a train and someone hiding among the luggage like in the movies. In Saul's case, he was hiding from responsibility, hiding from what God had called him to do.

Hiding from God and what He has called us to do just doesn't work. Even David had to come to that realization, writing in Psalm 139:

"Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens you are there;
If I make my bed in the depths, your are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn
If I settle on the far side of the sea
Even there your hand will guide me"

At times, we don't read our Bible because we are trying to hide from what the Lord is speaking to us. At other times, we don't go to church because something isn't right in our lives and we don't want to face it in the presence of the Lord. And it can be pretty hard to pray, when as soon as our knees hit the ground, our mind goes to one thing that the Lord wants to talk about.

We can get away with hiding from people we don't want to face, and we can hide from situations that make us uncomfortable, but there is no hiding from God. We can hide from responsibility like Saul (and miss some great opportunities in life) because of a fear of failure and our own insecurities, but we can never hide from God. The God we serve is all-seeing, all-knowing, and omnipresent. We may as well come out from behind the trees, stand up from among all the luggage, stand face to face with God, and deal with what is going on in our lives. We'll be better off for it!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Glasses

Glasses

"And Elisha prayed, 'O Lord, open his eyes so he may
see'. Then the Lord opened his eyes and he saw...."

It was fifth grade, 1961 for those wondering, when the blackboard became increasingly blurry and I got my first pair of glasses. It was before the days of tempered lenses and other more modern breakthroughs and before I knew it, I was wearing what we referred to as Coke Bottle glasses. But it was ok because I could see clearly.

Fast forward 48 years and the prescription has changed countless times, bifocals are now a part of every new pair of glasses but I never complain because being able to see clearly is a blessing that I am very thankful for. I haven't forgotten the days of always carrying a copy of my prescription in my wallet when I traveled because I was so dependent on my glasses to see.

That was never more apparent than last summer when, while swimming in the ocean, a wave knocked off my glasses and they were gone, in the surf of the Atlantic Ocean off of the Atlantic City beach. To say that I panicked, while lamenting my stupidity, would be quite an understatement. Over 700 miles from home, without the ability to find our car let alone drive at all, I was envisioning an end of the vacation that was not too promising. And when my wife said "Wait, I stepped on something" and fished my glasses from under the ocean water, I was one appreciative and thankful husband who would be able to see for the rest of vacation.

Maybe in some ways we all need glasses. Most of us lose our sight in some spiritual ways that can be very costly. We lose sight of all God has done for us and needlessly worry when God has proven Himself faithful time and time again. We lose sight of all God has promises and are burdened about the future when God has it all in control and has spoken that "He will never leave us or forsake us". We lose sight of His awesome power and love and think our problems are too big for God or, even worse, that He doesn't care.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just a slip on a pair of glasses each time that happens and, in a moment, have our spiritual sight restored. That is really what Paul was praying for when he said "I pray that the eyes of your understanding may be opened so that you will see the hope to which He has called you".

At the risk of offending, can I say this morning, just as I heard my eye doctor say many years ago 'you need glasses!' The good part is they won't cost you anything. In fact, it will cost you if you don't get them. But you just might need to keep them handy and every time you are tempted to not trust God or to worry about the future, put them on so you can regain your sight and see clearly, see clearly how good and how faithful the Lord our God is, seeing clearly that His hand is upon our lives and we will order the steps of our lives.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church