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

Options

Options

“Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way,
walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”
                                                                       Isaiah 30:21

Going into my favorite restaurant, National Coney Island, I’m faced with more options than I would prefer: do I go with breakfast for example, or have the always safe, dependable Hani Special? And if the choice is breakfast, the menu provides another set of options from blueberry pancakes and French toast to the usual winner of eggs over easy, rye toast, hash browns, and bacon crispy. But that is just one example of the many, many options we face throughout our day, from deciding how to spend our time and money to choosing what stores to shop in, and just recently, what to buy our loved ones for Christmas.

Having been given a free will, we’ve been given options by the Lord also. We can choose to follow Him or choose to go our own way; we have the option of staying on the fringes of Christianity or diving in and serving Him wholeheartedly and unashamedly. In reality, we have the option of sinning or walking in holiness, but, either way, we get to face the consequences of our choices. Every day and in so many situations, we are confronted with options in our walk with the Lord that demand a choice.

But let’s assume, and hopefully it is true, that each one of us really wants to do what’s best in the eyes of the Lord, no matter how difficult the call and regardless of how much of a sacrifice is asked. The question quickly becomes what is an option and what is not. Let me give you an example: freely and totally forgiving someone who wrongs us is a conscious choice we each have to make but for the believer, is it really an option? The second commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself” is another non-option as we seek to please the Lord in all we do. Looking at this thought, you quickly see that sharing the gospel, giving to the poor out of our goods and resources, praying for those going through difficulty and needing God’s help, and a myriad of other areas, are all commands to God’s people, not options to be considered based on our time and preferences.

And so the danger we have to stop and address is whether we have mistakenly treated part of God’s Word as a series of options that we can accept or reject, and, in so doing, missed out on much that the Lord has called His people to. As we move to a new year, fresh with renewed hopes and waiting opportunities, let’s each do it with a new openness to what God is asking of His people, knowing that His desire is only and always the very best for each of our lives.

Wishing you a happy and a fruitful new year!
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Day 2010

“Thank God for His Son - a gift too wonderful for words!”
                                    II Corinthians 9:15 NLT

As we celebrate today the greatest gift ever given, the gift of God’s only Son, the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, we realize that it is truly “a gift too wonderful for words”.

o   Incredible – Yes, it’s incredible that God would do that for you and me, sending His Son to earth to redeem us from our sins and from the curse of death, but it’s so much more.

o   Unbelievable – Yes, it’s unbelievable that Jesus would give up His place in heaven to come to earth, to be born into our world, into our problems and struggles, all to pay the price for our sins.

o   Indescribable – And yes, it’s hard to describe what something means when it is totally undeserved, could never be earned, and is the ultimate sacrifice that one person could give for another, but it’s so much more.

o   Unspeakable – The Kings James Version word used here says much the same thing; there just aren’t words in the English language (sorry, make that in any language) to describe how great the gift of Jesus to the world really was.

o   Love – Yes, the birth of Jesus that we celebrate today is quite simply God’s love for us, for each and every one of us, for all the world, finding expression in Jesus being sent to bring forgiveness of sins, to give hope and to offer a better life than we could ever have imagined.

Truly Jesus being born into the world, and being born into each of our hearts, is a gift too wonderful for words. We can only stop and reflect, saying “thank you Lord for the gift of your Son, a gift that has changed my life more than words can describe”. And because of that, Christmas Day 2010 is truly a day to rejoice over the gift of Jesus!

Merry Christmas,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Tracks in the Snow

Tracks in the Snow

“The good man brings good things out
of the good stored up in his heart.”
                                               Luke 6:43

One of the beauties of a freshly fallen snow like we received last week is being able to see all the tracks that have been left in the snow. From the birds that have lighted on the ground to look for seeds to the deer that have made their way across our yard to the carrot pile, the tracks are well defined and leave a record of who has visited, the path they have taken, and what they have done. Our backyard right now is filled with the tracks of grandpa and Uncle Johnny taking turns pulling Hope on the sled, of the deer that have crisscrossed the backyard to dine on carrots for dinner, of squirrels playing in the snow, and of Diefenbaker our Siberian Husky whose love of the snow and cold is second to none.

But those tracks reminded me of another kind of tracks that we learned about many years ago. Traveling through southern Israel in 1984, our tour guide explained how every night the sandy ground on the Israeli side of the Jordan River, just north of Jericho, was screened to eliminate all tracks from the previous day’s activity. The next morning soldiers would search the area looking for the tracks of any enemies who had snuck across the border during the night. When footprints were found, as happened all too often, they would be alerted to the danger and take the necessary steps to apprehend the intruder. But what stood out is that their tracks gave them away, tracks in the sand that told the story of their journey.

Tracks in the snow in a backyard in southeastern Michigan and tracks in the sand in a contentious area of southern Israel, the truth remains the same that we all leave marks behind of how we have affected the world around us. Some like pulling a sled for a smiling little girl are tracks that bring a smile to our face and that blessed another life. And, hopefully, you can take that example and look backs to things you have done that have left good tracks behind in the sands of your life. Other tracks, like those in Israel, tell far different stories of mistakes, regrets, and failures that we have had to take to the Lord and ask him to cover, to screen over in His love and mercy.

My prayer as we approach another new year is that you will commit to leaving behind tracks of good deeds, of acceptance and of kindness toward others, tracks of going the extra mile and of persevering in the difficulties of life, tracks of loving like you want to be loved, and of passionately pursuing the God who came into the world to save you, in the snow and the sands of your life.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church