Veneer, Flattery & Righteousness

“We commend ourselves in every way ….. with weapons

of righteousness in the right hand and in the left.”
II Corinthians 6:4,7

The desk and one of the filing cabinets in my school office have the appearance of being made of well polished oak but that’s only until you take a closer look. The wood grain look is in reality the thinnest of veneers, a surface illusion of quality and beauty that cannot stand up to the slightest bit of scrutiny or inspection. You’ve heard the saying that beauty is only skin deep? Well, it’s true of my office furniture but that matters very little compared to when we start to talk about spiritual matters, when a thin veneer of righteousness is covering our hearts, and when our commitment to the Lord and to His kingdom is only skin deep.

Every study out there says that the number one reason for people, and especially young people, leaving the church and not continuing in the Christian faith is hypocrisy, not seeing what is spoken about in public and declared to be right, lived out in the personal lives of those they are closest to. Living out Christianity in a condition where “these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13) is the most destructive situation we can find ourselves in. David warned of the danger of the person who “in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.” (Psalm 36:2) Self flattery, being so taken with ourselves that we’re not able to see ourselves clearly and honestly, can be an insurmountable obstacle to change and growth and, in the end, to having any real and lasting positive impact on the lives of others.

The apostle Paul made an interesting statement in describing his ministry and its source of strength, saying that he was equipped with “weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left.” There is such incredible power in righteousness, in doing what God has said is right. One man said “God’s laws are parameters to live by – the truths he knows are going to provide blessings, strength, a future and hope.” Spurgeon said that “God’s law is a gift of great kindness for it tells us the wisest and happiest way of living.” Are you looking for a sure formula for success and blessing? How about trying to live out everything God has said is right and true! And add to that requiring of ourselves anything and everything we require of others. Let’s approach the New Year committed to there being no veneer in our lives, to not giving in to a self flattery that fools only us, and to immersing ourselves in a righteousness that is so incredibly powerful that we will find ourselves armed and ready for God’s very best!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Spawned

“Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder

the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”
I Samuel 14:6

When I hear the word spawn, I immediately think of salmon swimming upstream, and of the annual salmon run in streams and rivers back in New York where the salmon return home to deposit their eggs. And while the primary definitions of the word “spawn” relate to this process of depositing eggs, the word also means “to give birth to,” or “to give rise to.” You could say, for example, that school shootings have spawned many security changes in our schools. Or that recent terrorist attacks have spawned new concerns around the world.

But my thoughts are turned to Godly men and women whose acts of faith, courage, love and generosity have spawned similar actions in other believers. Some are found in the pages of the Bible and others are modern day believers willing to swim upstream if that was what it took to see a breakthrough and exact change. Phinehas was one such man who, in the face of rampant immorality among God’s people, took a stand for what was right and was honored by the Lord for his actions. Many years later, Jonathan climbed up to a Philistine garrison, with only his servant following behind, with faith in what God was able to do through one man, and brought about an incredible victory. Martin Luther was another who, in confronting the popular religious thought of his day, showed the courage of his convictions by speaking the truth regardless of the consequences. William Tyndale was so moved by the need of the common man to possess the scriptures in a language that he could understand that he risked his life and was eventually burned at the stake for his life’s work.

I can’t help but think that the courage of a Phinehas spawned similar courage in Jonathan and, thousands of years later, helped to inspire Martin Luther and so many others. In the same way, Luther’s stand for the truth spawned and emboldened not just Tyndale but many others to be true to their faith in Jesus Christ. In more recent times, Mother Theresa has spawned an army of people bent on doing good works, on ministering to the poor and relieving suffering wherever possible. Billy Graham has in like manner spawned an army of people whose vision is for evangelism and rescuing the lost from the enemies hold on their lives. And we too have an opportunity – every act of kindness, every stand for the truth, every display of faith has within it the seed to spawn similar actions in others who are waiting for someone to set the tone, to take the first step, to show that it can be done by men and women in our day!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Filled Up

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for

righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Matthew 5:6

Powdered sugar covered pizzelles, white fudge covered oreos, frosted sugar cookies in all the shapes of Christmas, and the family favorites with affectionate nicknames such as “the white cookies” and “Aunt Joanne’s cookies” only begin to tell the story of why, this time of year, I am rarely hungry when it comes to sitting down at meal time. My capacity, the room I have for food, whether junk food or that which has real nutritional value, is limited. And so enjoying one unfortunately comes at the expense of the other.

We don’t often look at it this way, but our ability to take in spiritual, mental, and emotional input into our lives is also limited. We have a capacity for the things that we can process in a given day, how much we can take in. If it was a recipe, it would include defined amounts of time used, of energy expended, of thoughts processed, and of emotions juggled. We have only so much time to divvy out, so much energy to use up before we collapse, so much mental strain to endure and so many emotions to control in a given 24 hour day. Take into consideration the absolutes, parenting and family responsibilities and the demands of our employment, and the pie gets even smaller for what’s available before there’s no room left for one more thing.

Two scriptures speak to this issue, having room for God. Psalm 10:4 speaks of the ungodly and says, “…in all his thoughts, there is no room for God.” And Jesus said this to his fellow Jews, “…..because you have no room for my word.” While their issue was motivational, we can find ourselves in the same place. And so we are faced with asking a couple questions. First, what are we filling our lives up with? Is it with junk food, with those things that have no intrinsic value but provide a temporary escape from facing life real issues? Are we putting first things first, as in eating the chicken, rice, green beans and salad of life before downing as many Christmas cookies as we have room left for? Are we finding there’s no room left for God because we’ve put watching our favorite television show, movie, sporting event or home project ahead of him. 

When our personal discipline aligns with our spiritual desires, we come to a place where we use the time and energy we’ve been given in ways that help us grow as individuals and that prepare us for all that life will bring our way. Maybe with every Christmas cookie we eat, there’ll come a reminder that spiritual junk food, time wasters and failed priorities, will cause us to lose our appetite for the true spiritual riches that are reserved for us.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

That's Not A Buick!

“We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we

have been honest and sincere in all our dealings with you.”
II Corinthians 1:12

The television commercials should have been replaced by now, an elderly woman looking out her window at her neighbor’s shiny new car and, upon finding out that it’s a Buick, exclaiming her surprise with the catch line, “That’s not a Buick.” But the reason that Buick continues to air those commercials is that they’re resonating with viewers and with car buyers. Between favorable acceptance ratings and the resulting increased car sales, the message that the stereotype of Buicks being for older buyers no longer applies is hitting home.

Stereotypes are a sad thing because they impose images on people’s minds of what others are like that are passed along from one generation to another with little or no thought for their applicability, relevance or truth. Now, some stereotypes are well earned. For example, in 2006, the average age for a Buick buyer was over 66, the highest in the auto industry by far. (You’ve heard of underage drinkers; so I was an underage Buick buyer all these years. Let’s keep going!) In order to survive, Buick has had to consciously break the stereotypes of their products’ appeal with sporty new car designs and an aggressive advertising strategy, in the process lowering the average age of a buyer to 57 in 2013.

In much the same way, Christianity has some stereotypes that we have to see broken, stereotypes that have only been fed by the political workings of “the religious right” in American. Stereotypes that Christians are one thing on the outside and another on the inside, one thing in church and another at home, one thing to your face and another behind your back, can only be broken with a new and stronger commitment to sincerity and honesty in all aspects of life. Paul had to write to the Corinthians believers and tell them, “We have conducted ourselves in our relations with you in the honesty and sincerity that come from God.” The problem is not new. Spurgeon asked this, “Who wounded the fair hand of godliness? Was it not the professing Christian who used the dagger of hypocrisy?”

Maybe it’s time for a new stereotype of Christianity to be formed, a stereotype of men and women who love their neighbors with sincerity and earnestness, a stereotype of men and women who are compassionate when confronted with the shortcomings of others, and a stereotype of people with unquestioned moral integrity. The task has fallen to our generation to impress on the minds of others a stereotype that is befitting a Savior who came to live among us and who gave His life on the cross that we might have the gift of eternal life.

God Bless
Pastor Joe

Along For The Ride

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may

be mature and complete not lacking anything.”
James 1:4

One of the bad things for my family after 30 years of driving back home to New York almost every holiday and vacation is their being victim to my love of driving. Sharing driving duties is something I do reluctantly and so my family, especially my poor wife Nancy, ends up as passengers more often than not. In some ways, you could say that they are “along for the ride”, forced to endure my many driving woes with little or no recourse. You can ask Rachel about New York City if you need more specific information to confirm that thought!

But here’s the thing about living life: no one is along for the ride, whatever the circumstances of your life are. No one is a powerless victim of their life. We always get to choose our response to life’s difficulties and, by doing that, we take control of the steering wheel of our lives. James 1:2 tells us to “count it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds.” In a thought that ends with our finding a greater maturity, and being made complete as a person, we’re encouraged to see all of life as situations we can learn from and where we can grow as individuals. And our attitude plays a key role in how well we learn from life’s experiences. We will feel pain, hurt and disappointment; all that is very real. But we have the final word on how we are affected; we choose our response and our attitude. And no matter how much we try to deny it, we each have our hands firmly at ten and two on the steering wheel of our future.

Henry Cloud said this about our part in our lives: “We play a part in where we are, and when we learn what that part is and what we are contributing to being there, new doors and new paths begin to open up.” As the Lord continues to speak about doing a new thing, we owe it to ourselves to make a thorough inspection of our lives, to see what part we are playing in where we are, no matter how small or how great, and give ourselves willingly to change. So often our personal change, with God’s help, is the key to the circumstances of our life changing. If we quit too soon, if we bail out because of the intensity of the difficulty, we never learn the lesson that is meant to catapult us into the next step in our lives. Dealing with our part opens the door for the Lord to do His part, giving strength, wisdom, sending help from above, answering prayers, and opening doors no man can shut! Along for the ride? Not a chance!!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

I Owe It To Myself To...

“The plans of the diligent lead to plenty

as surely as haste leads to poverty.”
Proverbs 21:5

Asking someone to complete a sentence like that above will often bring some rather interesting results. I’m guessing that, in this case, the majority of answers would reflect someone rewarding themselves for their hard work and constant business, along these lines:

• I owe it to myself to have a night out.
• I owe it to myself to have a little fun.
• I owe it to myself to take a day off. 
• I owe it to myself to go out shopping.

Writing this, I can’t help but wonder if David thought he owed it to himself when he sent for Bathsheba to be brought to him. Or if Judas thought he owed it to himself when he stole from the money bag that he held. And we could wonder the same about the decisions of so many others who made short term decisions that ultimately undermined their futures.

“What do I really owe myself?” Here are some examples for you to consider:

• I owe it to myself to think my decisions through before acting so that I don’t live for the moment but lose sight of the big picture.
• I owe it to myself to spend time in God’s Word, on a daily basis, so that I have the guidance that is needed in my life to make wise decisions. 
• I owe it to myself to think before I spend so that my future is not spent paying off old debts rather than being free to follow God’s leading.
• I owe it to myself to develop strong, healthy relationships so that I have others to help me in the situations where I can’t see clearly and struggle to be objective.
• I owe it to myself to pay the price now, in hard work, in diligence, in how I spend my time, and in study, so that my future is not based on a dream or wishful thinking but on the reality of the effort I have expended on growing as a person and as a Christian.
• I owe it to myself to make spiritual matters, time spent with the Lord in prayer and devotion, a priority so that I don’t find myself empty from having built a life on the values and desires of this life while minimizing the life that is to come.

As David wrote, “the plans of the diligent lead only to plenty.” Let’s look down the road of life and do those things today that, deep down in our hearts, we know that we owe to ourselves.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe

Let Nothing Be Wasted

“Let Nothing Be Wasted”

The words were uttered by Jesus after the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” From a solution to a need that started with giving thanks for five small barley loaves and two small fish, came enough pieces to fill twelve baskets with the leftovers after everyone had enough to eat. Five thousand men had been fed from such a meager provision but the focus of Jesus was not on the depth of the miracle but on the aftermath, on nothing being wasted that the Father had provided.

It’s a principal that has many applications in our lives; that no experience we have gone through, that no lesson we have learned (and some have been expensive), and that no truth we have gained would be wasted. How do we waste them? We do that by not sharing those insights into life with others who are going through similar circumstances. The experiences of our lives are precious treasures, regardless of the pain they’ve brought us, that can help another person navigate the potholes of life and make it on their journey.

This past summer, returning from vacation, heading north on I-77 in West Virginia, we heard the news that there was a three hour construction delay at one of the tunnels through the mountains. Word of the experience of others served as our warning to get off the main road and try another route to avoid the backup. And with a sixteen hour drive home, we were happy to avoid three more hours tacked on because of construction. And here’s how it really relates: there is someone, or maybe more than one someone, traveling the same road that you’ve been on. They’re going to face the same discouragements, encounter the same difficulties, and need the same determination to not give up that you needed on your journey. Don’t let one ounce of your experiences be wasted by keeping it to yourself.

Some lessons in life can’t be learned from the pages of a book; we have go through the experience, through the valleys and the storms, over the hurdles and mountains, to gain an understanding of both the depth of human sorrow and the heights of the grace of God. But having another person who has experienced similar circumstances come alongside us? That is strengthening, that is invaluable, and that is what it means to let nothing be wasted.

Each of us has far more arrows in our quivers than we’ve realized. A door God opened, a season you made it through, a victory won – someone out there needs to hear about it and receive the strength that comes from someone else’s experiences. I’m guessing that, like Jesus’ disciples, you might gather up far more than you’d ever have expected. Now it’s time to share them!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church