The Litmus Test

“By this all men will know that you are
my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35

In the natural, it’s a simple chemical test to determine the acidity of a solution, but, in recent years, the term “litmus test” has taken on a much broader application. In political circles, a candidate’s stand on a particular issue, such as gun control or abortion, is often referred to as the litmus test of whether that person will be voted for or against.  Judicial appointees seeking congressional approval face intense questioning on a wide range of issues with each party having well defined litmus tests that are used to make a judgment on whether that nominee is acceptable.

In much the same way, the Bible has some pretty clear litmus tests that we can use to stay on the right path and to make sure that our lives line up with the truth of God’s Word. Some are very simple such as in John 14:23 where Jesus says “if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” When litmus paper is placed in a solution, it indicates by the degree of shading the level of acidity. We have to ask ourselves what a litmus test of our love and of our obedience would reveal on the litmus paper of heaven.  We can be thankful that one of the beauties of God’s Word is that it provides every litmus test we need to ensure that we live fruitful lives, pleasing to the Lord and blessed by Him in every way.

The scripture above focuses on one particular test – the litmus test of love. Jesus said it was how the world would know that we are His disciples. John wrote that we can judge if we are living in the truth by how we love others saying, “let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth”, defining love by its sacrificial nature. Only tolerating others who are different than us doesn’t pass the litmus test of love. Giving lip service to the needs of others who are hurting doesn’t pass the test nor does telling people we love them but never showing it by our actions. Loving one another as God so loved us, in a real and tangible way, is the only kind of love that lights up the litmus paper of God’s love.

As we journey into 2014, let’s commit to “living a life of love.” Let’s be purposeful in laying down our lives for others, in revealing Jesus to the world around us by the sincerity of our love, in committing to loving more deeply and with greater purity in our motives. That kind of love, the I Corinthian 13 kind of love, passes the litmus test of love and brings joy to the heart of God.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Substitutes

Substitutes

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other

 name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

                                                    Acts 4:12

The margarine dish on vacation reminded me of years and years of substituting margarine for butter in our house because of the constant warnings on butter causing high cholesterol and other health evils. We eventually went back to using butter, having concluded that the substitute didn’t even come close to the real thing. Something very similar happened years ago with egg-beaters after a not so positive cholesterol report from the doctor. It didn’t take long to realize that egg-beaters scrambled didn’t compare with the real thing over easy (we’ll talk about the bacon crispy another time), but isn’t that how all substitutes are?

Spiritually, we have to realize that the substitutes we put in our lives to take the place of God just don’t satisfy. Jeremiah 2:13 gives a good example: “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” Using the symbol of water, Jeremiah portrays  a people who instead of receiving what they need in life from the Lord, from the very source and fountain of life, substitute a man made, far inferior method of collecting water, cracked cisterns where all the water would eventually leak out leaving them empty and dry. The cisterns were a poor substitute for the real thing but that didn’t stop them from doing it because substitutes, by their very nature, are so deceiving.

Some substitute drugs and alcohol in their attempt to find peace when the Prince of Peace stands ready to calm the troubled waters of their lives. Others do the same with money, relationships and their career, taking something that has a clear purpose and value in its own right and putting it in place of finding purpose in life through a relationship with Jesus Christ. And maybe the most deceptive is when we substitute work for the Lord and religious activity for a relationship with the Lord, or as one man said, “Getting so busy doing the work of the kingdom that we forget who the King is.”

We must all be careful to avoid accepting substitutes for God Himself, for the relationship He wants to have with each of us, and for what He wants to accomplish in each of our lives. Substitutes are not the real thing and substitutes for God will, at the end of the day, always leave a person empty and without hope. Accept no substitutes for the awesome God we serve and for the close, personal, loving relationship He wants with each of us.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Confidence of Faith

The Confidence of Faith

“Anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists

and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”

                                                         Hebrews 11:6

Scriptures like the one above remind us of the incredible, foundational importance of the state of our faith. Jesus said “according to your faith it will be done to you” making it clear that it is a subject we must return to often in our walk with the Lord. So how do we define faith?

The definition of faith that has helped me the most is very simple; faith is the heart’s confidence in God. Confidence is nothing more than the full trust and belief in the powers, trustworthiness or reliability of a person or thing. My hope is that by simply writing out the areas where we can be confident in God, it will help us through the struggles and challenges of life.

Faith is the heart’s…….

·         Confidence that  God loves me and cares about me as an individual, that He takes a personal interest in helping me with my hurts, needs, problems and cares.
·         Confidence in God’s power, that nothing is impossible with God and that God’s power is available through prayer to meet the needs in my life.
·         Confidence in the wisdom of God that He can guide me through the course of my life, helping me to make the best choices and decisions for my future.
·         Confidence in God’s promises and in His Word that they are true and that they can be trusted and relied on to give hope, encouragement, and direction as I feed on them.
·         Confidence in God that He wants only the very best for my life and for my family’s, that His dealings with me are those of a loving Father with a son or daughter.
·         Confidence in God that He will remain faithful even when I am unfaithful, that He will love me in my weakness and in my failure, and not give up on me.
·         Confidence in God that He wants to use me for His glory and to build His kingdom and will give me strength and ability by His Holy Spirit for everything He asks me of me.
·         Confidence in God that through the blood of Jesus, He truly forgives sin, casting my sins into the depth of the sea and giving me the hope of eternal life.

This list is no doubt just a beginning. I look forward to hearing from you this week about areas of confidence in God that have helped you in your walk with the Lord.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Don't Play Fair

Don’t Play Fair

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies,

do good to those who hate you, bless those who

curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.”

                                          Luke 6:27

The title of the chapter did its job, catching my attention and peaking my interest. After all, from the youngest age we had been taught, in everything we did, to play fair. Choose teams that were even, no changing the rules in the middle of a game, no dealing from the bottom of the deck, no hiding outside the boundaries of “hide and seek”, etc, etc, etc. The author of the book was Henry Cloud and his perspective on playing fair is one we could all benefit from.

We all know what fair looks like: you’re nice to someone, fair is that they’re nice to you in return. Someone says something not so nice, even downright cruel about you, fair gets to say something equally cruel about them, I mean “it’s only fair.” And we all know what unfair looks like too; it’s when the scales are apparently tipped in someone else’s favor and they seem to either be getting away with something or being blessed in a way they don’t deserve.

“Don’t play fair” certainly fits with what Jesus taught us. His challenge to bless those who curse us runs totally counter to the culture we live in as does the call to pray for those who mistreat us. The same is true for loving our enemies. We just have to think for a minute what an enemy tries to do and how an enemy acts towards a person in realizing that asking us to love our enemies, to love those who do wrong toward us and who are out to do us harm is certainly not fair. But it certainly is right and here’s why!

We often forget that thoughts become actions, actions turn into habits and habits form our character. So if an enemy, or the enemy, can get us to react in a certain way in the interest of fairness, we end up hurting ourselves and becoming someone we don’t want to be. If we stoop to the level of another in being cruel with our words and vindictive in our desires, the loser will always be us. God has called us to live a life of love and kindness and he is looking for men and women of Christ-like character. And the surest way to get there is “don’t play fair.” Just as Jesus demonstrated on the cross, look to give more than you receive in every situation and in every relationship. Learning to not play fair is a giant step on the road to success in life.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Extrapolate

Extrapolate

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper
 time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
                                                    Galatians 6:9

Have you ever had a word get stuck in your head? Did you ever have a thought that is confirmed over and over again by a variety of people?  That is what has been happening to me for quite a while now with the word “extrapolate.” The definitions of the word extrapolate are:

·         To use existing information to discover what is likely to happen in the future

·         To project into the future based on what is known

·         To extend to a greater length

In a day when we all tend to live in the moment, saying what we want and doing what feels good, the message of the word extrapolate is to think out the end result  and ultimate consequence of our actions before we do them. A decision on buying something might need to take into account whether the debt being incurred is worth the enjoyment of what is being bought. An action might be enjoyable but considering how it would affect our relationship with the Lord or our testimony to other believers might save us from a whole lot of trouble. At the same time, an action that we might be leery about might have real potential for good and for changing a life. And just a little thought might convince us that the hard thing we weren’t going to do would really pay off down the road and is the right choice for our future. Taking time to extrapolate will both prevent the bad and encourage the good in our lives.

With our words, the challenge is to consider what response and reaction our words will produce before uttering them. James warned us to be slow to speak, encouraging us to take a minute to consider if our words will bring life or death. A short look at what our words might produce will often make us decide to hold a thought and to just be quiet. At other times, we might realize the positive impact an encouraging word would make in another person’s life and decide to go out of our way to contact them and sow something good at a time of need.

Henry Cloud called this practice “Play the Movie,” seeing our actions as one scene in a movie and, only after viewing the movie, deciding if we want that scene to be a part of the movie of our lives. At times we will like what we see and at other times we won’t. But the key is we get to decide how the movie of our lives will play out. Take time to extrapolate; you’ll find it well worth the time and effort!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

God at Work

God at Work

“For it  is God who works in you to will and
 to act according to his good purpose.”
                                     Philippians 2:13

Looking back on the events in my life that set the stage for my giving my life to the Lord, it is pretty clear that I failed to recognize the Lord at work in my life. A look at just a portion of what happened back then might help each of us learn to recognize that the Lord is daily at work in our lives to accomplish His plans and purposes.

It was the mid 70’s and the real estate developer who owned the 188 acre farm that we were renting in Lima, New York had given us notice that he was selling the property and that we would have to move. Despite not having running water (a well and a pump were our source of water), we were very fond of the farmhouse and the peace and relaxation of living in the country. To say that the news of having to move was not well received would be an understatement. But soon after, three of us who lived there responded to a simple ad, “country estate for rent, $350” and found ourselves in a far better place. And it was at that place that I found Christ and received His salvation.

What I now realize, many years later, is that in answer to prayer, God had moved on the heart of that developer to sell his property. His actions were neither random nor coincidental. God was at work; I just didn’t recognize it. God had also coordinated the timing of his notice to us so that it perfectly coincided with the ad being placed in the paper.  And that meant that the Lord also had to move on the heart of our new landlord to rent out half of his house now that his children had moved away. Wow, was God busy and all in answer to prayer, and all for my good, leading and guiding without me having a single clue.

One translation of John 14:7 begins with Jesus saying, “If you had learned to recognize me…” We are to learn to see the Lord in every situation we face and in the people He brings into our lives. What we consider ordeals are most often opportunities. What we see as obstacles to our success are the very means of our preparation for God’s next step. Trials and difficulties in life are to be opportunities for us to trust the Lord and for our faith to grow as we exercise it.  When we see a problem as an ordeal or an obstacle, we fail to see the Lord in the situation and we miss an opportunity to grow and to be strengthened. Let’s stop giving in to frustration and discouragement at the first sign of difficulty and trust that the Lord, out of a heart of pure love, is at work in each of our lives.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Welfare of Others

The Welfare of Others

“I have no one else like him, who takes
a genuine interest in your welfare.”
                       Philippians 2:20

The story is one familiar to most Christians: Paul and Silas were in jail, having been severely beaten for delivering a slave girl from a demonic spirit. Around midnight they were praying and singing hymns to God when an earthquake struck. The shaking from the earthquake was so violent that it caused the prison doors to fly open and everyone’s chains to fall off. Now I don’t know too many people who, at that moment of seemingly being set free, wouldn’t have encouraged Paul and Silas to run for the hills. Yet, despite their wounds, and despite the open doors, that is not at all what those two godly men did.

Years later, Paul wrote back to the believers in the city where those events occurred and commended the character of young Timothy, pointing out traits that made Timothy stand out from the crowd of believers in his day. Paul wrote, “I have no one else who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.” Maybe living in a “me first” generation as we do is not so original after all. But, hopefully, there are still Timothy’s to be found in the church, men and women who will put others’ needs before their own.

But I want to get back to what happened that day in the jail when the earthquake struck because Paul had lived out the very traits he was noting in Timothy’s life. Taking advantage of the open doors in the jail that night would have meant the certain death of the jailer whose responsibility it was to guard them. Misinterpreting the open doors as a sign to flee would have had disastrous results for not just the jailer but his entire family. No, Paul and Silas were found sitting in their cell, and the result was that the jailer and his entire family became believers that night.  The choice to “not seek their own good but the good of many” bore incredible fruit not only that night for that family but it resulted in a strong church being raised up in that city.

Putting the welfare of others first so goes against the grain of our society that it has to become a trait we purposefully embrace. Certainly the Lord demonstrated it for us on the cross, when He gave up His life for ours.  And Paul and Silas provided another stirring example in their response to cell doors flying open and chains falling off. Now it’s our turn. Let’s each look for opportunities to help others through life, even in situations where our own interests have to take a back seat to those of others.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church