You're Forgiven

You're Forgiven

"For if you forgive men when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you."
Matthew 6:14

Attending the funeral today of a 22 year old young man gunned down on the streets of Detroit was an opportunity to show support for two of our students who had, without warning, lost their brother last week. Because of the circumstances of his death, the funeral home was a place of weeping and sadness as they held the memorial service to say goodbye to someone they loved.

During the service, people were invited to come forward and share memories about the young man, a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin and a friend, who would surely be missed. I want to share with you the following testimony given by one of his friends in the hope that it will stir each of us in the area of forgiveness:

"Anthony and I had our problems over the years but he wrote me a letterseveral months ago asking for my forgiveness but I never answered that letter. Then I ran into him and he again asked for my forgiveness for some things he had done wrong, he even gave me a hug, but I wasn't interested in his apology, I never told him he was forgiven. When I heard he had been murdered, I realized that I would never get the chance to tell him he was forgiven. Life is so short, we need to learn to put our differences aside, to realize we all make mistakes and to forgive our brothers and sisters when they do things that hurt us."

The young man then turned to the casket and said "Anthony, you're forgiven". It was a powerful moment in an emotional saying goodbye to a loved one, a lesson on the importance of forgiveness.

Jesus told the story in Matthew 18:21-35 of a servant who, though he was forgiven of a large debt, refused to forgive his fellow servant a much smaller amount owed. The master of that servant, because of his unforgiveness, ordered him cast into prison until he repaid the entire debt he owed. That story is often entitled "The prison of unforgiveness". It is so easy to lose sight of all we have been forgiven of, to forget how merciful the Lord has been to each of us. Unfortunately, when that happens, we can fall into the trap of not forgiving as we have been forgiven. We magnify the wrongs we have suffered from others while minimizing the mistakes we have made. And the result is we find ourselves in the prison of unforgiveness, bound up by our unwillingness to let go of hurts and injustices, and by our inability to utter those simple words, either face-to-face or in our hearts, "you're forgiven".

The young man who spoke those words today needed to be released from his own unforgiveness. He needed to experience the freedom that comes when we forgive our friends and family members for wrongs committed. Let's all make it a point to be quick to forgive, to not hold on to offences, to forgive as we have been forgiven, knowing that as we forgive others, in like manner, the Lord will forgive us.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Pain Killers

Pain Killers

"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.....to give them
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Isaiah 61:1,3

Enrolling in a new school in the middle of the year can be difficult for the most social of students but for these two middle school students, not yet teenagers, it was only one more thing in lives turned upside down by events that, in many ways, had left them numb to their circumstances.

The newspaper headline had read "3 Dead In Boat Crash On Lake St. Clair". Like so many tragedies we read about, we get a sense of the devastation that an accident like that causes but it is rarely personal. That changed here when the two students referred to above came for their first day of school two weeks ago. It was their parents who were killed in that tragic boating accident. Without a saying goodbye as we are able to do with loved ones who are sick, this loss came without warning or preparation, announced by a visit they could never have been expected.

As I was trying to explain to their classmates what had happened in these two lives and appealing for compassion, love and understanding, the Lord spoke something so very simple to me; He said "Be a pain killer." I knew right away what He meant. My thoughts raced to the natural pain killers we take for headaches, broken bones, root canals, after surgeries ..... in so many situations. Those pain killers' job is to take the pain away as the healing process of the human body does it's work. If you've had your wisdom teeth pulled, think of it. You took some strong pain killers for a day or two, sometimes longer, until the pain dissipated. They weren't the source of healing but they were necessary to bridge the gap until healing took place.

For these two young lives, the pain of this loss will be around for many years. There is no overnight cure for the hurts they are carrying. But the Lord is desiring us to stand in the gap and, quite literally, be pain killers. We are to allow the love of Christ to flow out of us in such a way that we ease their pain as the healing process takes place.

In the same way, in different degrees, you may know someone suffering heartache from the loss of a loved one, from the loss of a job or problems in relationships, the list can be pretty long of the hurts and wounds that cause pain in each of our lives at one time or another. And while we may not be able to bring healing, or to offer the solutions to the problems being faced, we can take to heart those simple words the Lord spoke to me and "be a pain killer".

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

No Substitutions Please

No Substitutions Please

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then
I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
II Chron 7:14

Searching the menu, I finally found what I was looking for - "two eggs, hash browns, toast, two sausage, two bacon, and ham ----- $3.99" with one condition added below "no substitutions please". You could get a good price on a great breakfast, you just couldn't make any changes. No asking for all bacon (crispy of course), or all sausage links and, especially, no trying to get pancakes instead of the hash browns.

As I have been thinking about the promises of God found in the Bible, blessings that He offers us, breakthroughs that He wants to give each of us, the conditions associated with those promises have really stood out to me. Isaiah 1:19, for example. promises that "we will eat the best of the land" -that our lives will be blessed with the best that the Lord has. But it includes a condition, something we have to do if we are to walk in that promise; it will only happen "if we are willing and obedient".

The scripture from II Chronicles 7:14 above promises that the Lord will send revival if His people will do certain things, humbling themselves, praying, seeking the Lord and turning from sin. It is an incredible promise of what the Lord will do if God's people will take the steps He outlines.

But we need to realize that, just like the restaurant offering a breakfast special, these conditions to God's blessings and promises have an unwritten "no substitutions please" attached to them. So often we try to bargain with the Lord. We want all that He has promised us but we are hoping to receive them on our own terms. We cannot substitute good works for praying and seeking God's face. We cannot substitute faithfulness in giving for humbling ourselves and turning from sin. And showing up at church every Sunday will never be a substitute for holy living.

God's promises are all "yes and amen" as Paul wrote in II Corinthians 1:20. Let's all purpose in our hearts to follow the path to blessing, the roadmap to change, and the recipe for a breakthrough outlined in God's Word. But when we are tempted to negotiate with the Lord about what is required of us, remember today's devotion "no substitutions please"!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Prescription

The Prescription

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in
me.....streams of living water will flow from within him."
John 7:37-38

I hadn't bothered to say anything about the dry skin that was discoloring my knuckles, it just didn't seem like much of a big deal. But my wife's insistence encouraged me to ask the doctor about it to which, after a cursory inspection, he prescribed a prescription that in no time has solved the problem. In America, we have drug stores on almost every corner, built around the incredible number and cost of prescriptions issued every day for a wide variety of ailments and conditions.

Think of it! If you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a throat infection, a cough, sinus problems, pink eye, dry skin, depression, sleeping woes, irregular heartbeat, allergies, ........the list could go on forever, prescriptions can be given for almost everything and they usually work.

My thought for today is that the Word of God, the Bible, in the same way that a doctor prescribes medicine, prescribes solutions to the everyday problems of life. The verse above begins with "if anyone is thirsty. It addresses the issue of a person feeling empty, desiring more from their life, and provides a very simple prescription - "let them come to me and drink". And as I started to consider many of the problems we all face, the Bible is a book of prescriptions. "If anyone is sick........., if a person wants to get right with the Lord........if someone is being trapped and ensnared by the words of their mouth......if you have a relationship that needs mending.......the Word of God can be viewed as a the ultimate book of prescriptions.

You just might need to make an appointment with the Great Physician, spend some time in His Word to discover the prescription He has written out for your life.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb

"Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the
Lord til He come and rain righteousness upon you."
Hosea 10:12

On our trip to Frankenmuth, there it was, hanging on the inside of the door, the very important "Do Not Disturb" doorhanger. That little sign, written in four languages at the Bavarian Inn, is the guarantor of uninterrupted sleep on those rare mornings when you can sleep in on a hotel stay. And if you are like me at all, you've made the mistake of not putting the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door only to be startled awake by the sound of the hotel door opening and a voice saying "housekeeping". That mistake is one you hopefully only make once.

By now you're probably thinking of ways to use one of those hotel doorhangers to your advantage. Maybe having one at home so your family knows to leave you alone for a few minutes or hours. Or how about one at work, hanging from your office door so that everyone knows to keep away and let you get some work done. If hotels start to find "Do Not Disturb" signs missing, we'll know why.

But with the New Year only hours away, we want to make sure that that little sign is not found somewhere it doesn't belong. One of my prayers for you is that the Lord would work in your life in a new way in 2009, bringing you into fresh pastures of blessing, of opportunity and of fruitfulness. David wrote so simply in Psalm 119:126 "It is time for thee, Lord, to work". Now is that time, a time for God to do a work on the inside of each of us, knowing "that it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

Let's each make sure that in 2009 the Lord has full permission to work in our lives as He sees fit, according to His plans and purposes. And if you are one of those people who have a "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging around your neck, either letting the Lord know that you're comfortable with your life, or that you're afraid of what He might do, start the new year by taking it off and ripping it up. And then tell the Lord that He has permission to work in your life as He sees fit, trusting Him to do great things in the coming new year!

God Bless and Happy New Year,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Manger

The Manger

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace to men on whom his favor rests."
Luke 2:14

Approaching the inn in Bethlehem brought a sense of relief to Joseph and Mary after the long and difficult ninety mile journey from Nazareth. Mary, nine months pregnant, would finally be able to put her feet up and Joseph could stop worrying about the health of the woman he loved.

We all know the Christmas story and that things didn't turn out exactly as expected for Joseph and Mary; the inn was crowded with travelers and there was no room for them to stay. Whether the innkeeper had compassion on them and let them stay in the stable area, or whether they had to move on and find their own way, we don't know. But we do know that the announcement of the birth of Jesus by the angels included "you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger".

The circumstances Joseph and Mary found themselves in that Christmas Eve were not what anyone would envision for the birth of a child, let alone the Son of God. But it is another powerful lesson that our lives are not governed by the circumstances we find ourselves in, that our success is not measured by the natural surroundings we face this Christmas season.

The child found lying in that manger is now a King, the leader of a religious movement with hundreds of millions of followers, the most powerful person ever born to a woman. I think it's safe to say that being born in a stable didn't hold him back, didn't keep Jesus from fulfilling his purpose and destiny in life. In fact, I'm sure you will agree with me that being found in a manger, a place normally reserved for animals, turned out to not be such a big deal considering all Jesus accomplished (and is still accomplishing in each of us!).

This Christmas season, let the circumstances of the birth of Christ encourage you to take your eyes off your circumstances, whether they are good or bad, comfortable or difficult, restful or trying, and realize that it is your faith in God, and the attitude of faith you approach life with, that will determine the success of your life. May the manger of Bethlehem, and the life it held, cause you to be filled with hope both for today and for the bright future ahead!

God Bless and Merry Christmas!
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

The Darkroom

The Darkroom

"I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places."
Isaiah 45:3

Working at Eastman Kodak Company in the days before digital cameras replaced film as the means of capturing photographic images provided me some insights that I might not have otherwise gained. And one of those is from a trip to a darkroom. If you're picturing one of the small closet like darkrooms that you see in movies, think a little bigger; it was a factory without windows, entire floors of a building operating in darkness to protect the light sensitive film.

My summer job delivering material and equipment took me all over Kodak Park, the name given to the myriad of buildings that comprised the company. And almost 40 years later, I still remember the trip to the darkroom, entering a darkness so thick that movement, even by the dull glow of the "dark lights", was nearly impossible. For a novice like me, each step taken was with great caution; there was no hurrying or rushing through that delivery, the darkness didn't permit it.

The film manufactured in those darkrooms became the source of pictures capturing events and creating memories all over the world, images that would be treasured for years to come. Baby pictures, wedding albums, vacation photos and many more, all the result of a product that could only be created in an environment requiring almost total darkness.

The promise that the Lord would give us "treasures of darkness" carries with it the implication that we would all experience times of not being able to see what lies ahead, times of facing uncertainty about our future. But the promise goes beyond the Lord bringing us through those times; He promises that we will emerge into the light with treasures to carry with us for years to come.

If you find yourself in a darkroom, you already know that hurrying through is not an option when you can't see where you're going. My recommendation is that you pull out a favorite photograph, from the days of film in cameras that had to be developed, and take a good look at it. And as you're treasuring the memory of that picture, stop to remember that the film that made it possible could only be created in a darkroom.

And then rest in the knowledge that even in the darkest of times, the Lord will give you treasures and riches that will last a lifetime.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church