God’s Magnificent Mirror: His Shepherd’s Heart

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.
I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.
I will feed them in justice. Ez. 34:15-16

Lambs are cute, helpless and not very smart

In one of the Bible’s most beautiful metaphors, the Lord depicts Himself as the Shepherd of His flock, His people. We should take no offense to the comparison; rather, we should find ABSOLUTE SECURITY in such poetic promise.

Today we’re going to talk about how God views Himself as our Shepherd-King. I find it interesting that Bible scholars seem to always present those two offices of authority in that order, Shepherd before King. He is, without issue, utterly both, but from the human standpoint (and dare I say even from God’s viewpoint?) there are differences in how a shepherd feels toward his flock versus how a king regards his subjects. With that in mind, here’s a little exercise. Please write a few lines expressing your response to these two questions:

According to Psalm 23 and John 10, how does Our Shepherd regard His flock?

According to I Samuel 8, Luke 1:32-33, and John 18:33-37, how does Our King regard his subjects?

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• Softball – Wednesday, 8:00 & 9:00
• Just living life with our Basque friends… Still need families. Ask Bob V. for details.
• The Garden Looks Grand! We’re off to a great start, but such a big garden needs lots of TLC. Why not have your family/friends learn how to grow food and fulfill the Genesis commands? Ask Bruce or Lyn how you can help.

God’s Magnificent Mirror: His Honor

Hannah understood something we need to understand:
The LORD views His honor with a “secure jealousy”

I may have just coined a term…

… in proposing that the LORD of all views His honor with “secure jealousy.” What do I mean by that and why does it matter?

When we declare our faith in God we are saying that we trust Him, His attributes, His character. Our faith is strengthened as we grow in grace and knowledge of the One True God who created everything, including us, for His good pleasure. (Recall that delightful moment from Genesis 1:31: “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”) His handiwork declared His glory and His joy. The honor of His perfection was most clearly displayed by the crown of these acts of creation: Adam.

The first and fatal challenge to God’s honor had already occurred. (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 give retrospectives of Lucifer’s fall.) Consider the teaching of Genesis 3. The serpent’s temptation begins with a universe-shaking and altering questioning of God’s honor. “Did God actually say…?” Seems consistent with mankind’s experience that when we question what God has revealed we are setting ourselves up for trouble. But God remains unchanged.

In the final analysis, all our hopes and the comfort and conviction of our faith must firmly cling to the eternal fact of God’s immutable perfection and the honor He is due. View this as beautiful. He is UTTERLY SECURE, the only uncreated entity extant. And His HEALTHY JEALOUSY lies in His understanding that no one else can do what He has done and will do. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is “the founder and perfecter of our faith.” He founded it upon His promises; secured it on a cross.

Happy Mother’s Day!

All the ladies with us today are invited to take a
plant home as a token of love and a growing reminder that God gives beauty for us to nurture.

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• Softball – Wednesday, 6:00, Champion Fields
• Best part of SUSA? Just hanging out. Still need families. Ask Bob V. for details.
• The Garden Looks Grand! We’re off to a great start, but such a big garden needs lots of TLC. Why not have your family/friends learn how to grow food and fulfill the Genesis commands? Ask Bruce or Lyn how you can help.

God’s Magnificent Mirror: His Courage

If God grabs you buy the lapels and says: “Do this thing or that thing,” call upon His courage and do it!

I have a confession to make:

I think that my passion for military history and the specific stories of soldiers (especially from my circle of family and friends) may well be borne of a question, even a concern, I have regarding my own character: do I have, could I have, the kind of courage they have shown? What would I have done in the same situations in which they acted with courage? Courage isn’t just a virtue; it is the fulcrum on which all virtues rest. Without it, we will fail the tests for other virtues when we are under duress.

So, I read about courage and pray that I understand that true Christian courage comes from the conviction that God is in control, always with us, and never leaves us nor our circumstances “to chance.” He’s not a cosmic gambler, He’s too kind to be cruel and too wise to make mistakes. Therefore, because He has courage (remember Jesus setting His face like a flint for Jerusalem, knowing that ALL SIN AND PAIN AND DEATH OF ALL TIME WAS TO CONSUME HIM AND BE CONSUMED BY HIM) and calls us to experience His abiding and protecting provisions by never letting fear overtake our faith.

I’ll never don an army uniform and rush into battle. I don’t really know how well I’d do. But I do know that we are in a wrestling match with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Into the ring Jesus’ shouts this encouragement: “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. We win!”

He commands courage… because He has it and gives it in full measure. Consider Joshua…

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• April Partner in Prayer @ Advocate/Bromenn: Addiction Recovery Unit (ARC)
• Softball – Wednesday @ Champion Fields
• Get Ready for the Invasion! Summer in the USA 2012 is coming!
• Weather Aside, Most Saturday mornings…
  …present a good opportunity to smell the sweet earth and reconnect with a part of us that is too often neglected. The garden parties start @ 9:30. Teach your kids great life lessons.

God’s Magnificent Mirror (new series)

New Series: God’s Magnificent Mirror

Proposing that our faith is only as robust as our understanding of how THE LORD views Himself.
Week 1: Moses meets his Maker and asks some pertinent and penetrating questions.
The answers reveal much about God’s Self Image.

Self Image

Is not the fact that we care about how we are “viewed” by others and by ourselves yet another “Echo of Eden”? Not only does it sound an echo, it also speaks of our being made in the image of One Who Loves Himself Perfectly Because He Is Perfect and Completely Loveable. He is Perfection personified. He is Love alive. Now all this is flowery and lovely and certainly appropriate, but there is a practicality which we must not miss:

HE TRUSTS HIMSELF COMPLETELY.

I’ve been wrestling with God for 60+ years and the match continues. I need to continue to grow in my desire for Him to prevail and “pin me” in completely humiliating fashion for me. He will win thus, for the outcome of the match has already been determined. And in my defeat comes my victory, for when He is done with me He will pick me up from the mat and carry me to the victory stand and place a crown on my head. He will declare that because of how HE VIEWS HIS KINGSHIP I receive the crown of life and fullness of joy and “royal heredity.”

All because HE LOVES HIS MASTERY OF SPACE, TIME, ETERNITY AND ALL THAT IS NOT SPACE, TIME OR ETERNITY.

Because I join with another David declaring that “I am a worm and not a man,” I am most astounded that my defeat unto death of self on God’s grappling ground will result in the bestowing of Jesus’ Perfect Righteousness upon me. Because…

ONLY HE SEES HIS HOLINESS FOR ALL IT IS, AND THAT HIS PEOPLE, TO TRULY BE HIS PEOPLE SO THAT HE MAY “WALK AMONG THEM,” MUST ALSO BE HOLY.

Amazingly, that’s my story. What’s yours?

News & Announcements:

• Prayer gathering @ church Wednesday @ 7:00
• Advocate Bromenn Partners in Prayer for April: Addiction Recovery Unit (ARC)
• Softball Season Starts @ Six Wednesday, Champion Fields
• April 29th “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Christian Response to Adolf Hitler?”
  Broadview Mansion (home of Immanuel Bible Foundation) 1301 S. Fell, Normal
  Sunday, April 29th @ 6:30pm  (Doors open at 6pm). Joe Thomas, Assistant Professor of History of Christianity at Urbana Theological Seminary, will present this amazing story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christian theologian and German pastor, and how he impacted World War II. (Drama by actors from Jacob’s Well.)
• The Spencers Have an Idea…
  All young couples (let’s say 35 and under) are invited to their pad (that’s cool lingo from the 60’s) for an evening of food and fun and fire (yippee!) on Friday, April 27 @ 7:00. If you are over 35 and want to attend, just go; I don’t think they’ll be checking ID’s. Bring an hors d’oeuvres or dessert if you can.
• Sunday School Teachers Needed!
  The summer schedule for Sunday School teachers is currently being put together and there is a need for at least 2 new teachers. If you are interested and/or willing to to serve in the way, please contact Cary at carybhendricks@gmail.com.

Wardrobe Change…

“We shall be like Him.” (I John 3:2)
Bullfrogs and butterflies have both been born again.
(from a song by Barry McGuire)

We’re Going to Keep Thinking Expansively…

about the  

RESURRECTION!!!

Expansive. Here’s a good exercise: find Bible verses/passages which teach the assertions below…

So, we maybe too blithely proclaim: “He is risen; He is risen, indeed! Happy Easter.”

His “risenness” is absolutely the best thing we have going for us, now and forever. It’s the stamp of approval by The Father that His Son completed the Redemptive Rescue Mission. It’s the re-creative act of the Holy Spirit upon dead and rotting flesh to not only bring it alive again, but to do so in such brilliant manner as to assure that all aging, all pain, all discomfort, all limitation of time and space are removed from the formula. It’s the promise of the Son, the Shepherd, to His flock.

Jesus is now the Firstborn over all creation; unless we are of the generation which will never see death because He has returned, we (the Redeemed) will go through the same quickening as He. Thus, we will be able to eat and drink (yea!), appear and disappear at will (fun) and otherwise defy the laws of physics (who knew?)
The there’s the wardrobe: we will be clothed in garments of glory which will be unendingly in perfect style (no need to shop?). If there are hand-me-downs, they will come from those we absolutely adore.

News & Announcements:

• Prayer gathering @ church Wednesday @ 7:00
• Advocate Bromenn Partners in Prayer for April: Addiction Recovery Unit (ARC)
• Softball Season Starts Soon See Stuart
• April 29th “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Christian Response to Adolf Hitler?”
  Broadview Mansion (home of Immanuel Bible Foundation) 1301 S. Fell, Normal
  Sunday, April 29th @ 6:30pm
  (Doors open at 6pm).
  Joe Thomas, Assistant Professor of History of Christianity at Urbana Theological Seminary, will present this amazing story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christian theologian and German pastor, and how he impacted World War II. (Drama by actors from Jacob’s Well.)
• The Spencers Have an Idea…
  All young couples (let’s say 35 and under) are invited to their pad (that’s cool lingo from the 60’s) for an evening of food and fun and fire (yippee!) on Friday, April 27 @ 7:00. If you are over 35 and want to attend, just go; I don’t think they’ll be checking ID’s. Bring an hors d’oeuvres or dessert if you can.

Beauty Beyond…

We shall be like Him!

(because He is risen) 

 An old spiritual asks the question:

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

The answer: “Yes. I was there. We were all there.”

“Knowing” the Power of His Resurrection

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection… (Phil. 3:10)

Here’s the good news: we will. We will know RESURRECTION POWER . And all that was once good and beautiful and has been lost or destroyed will be made new. I invite you to think expansively about this. Acts 3 speaks of “times of refreshing” and “the restoration of all things.”

Refreshing. Restoration. All things. How can we be sure?

Because of Christ’s victory over the curse that came upon all creation at The Fall. He defeated death by living the perfect life, dying the perfect death, preaching the Good News of salvation to even those who had died before Him and were held captive in death, setting them free to live in the glory of His presence, and promising the same liberation from the curse for all who call upon His Name.

That was a long sentence. I earnestly believe that when it comes to the power of the Resurrection and what it promises and portends, we could begin writing a sentence about all that will be refreshed and restored through Christ and the sentence would literally go on and on and on without end.

Easter is that big a deal, that magnificent, that overwhelming. Again, think expansively. Think about all that has been good in your life, good gifts from God, and consider that every loss will be recovered, never to be lost again. Maybe it’s a spouse, a relative, a friend. Maybe it’s a beagle puppy. Maybe it’s the ability to run and jump. Maybe it’s faith without fear.

He is risen; He is risen, indeed! Happy Easter.

News & Announcements:

• Special Prayer Walk @ Salem4Youth: Wed., April 11, 6:30We’ll leave from the church about 5:45
• The first four letters in Salem? SALE
  For all the right reasons, we are being invited to be part of the auction @ Salem on April 14. Clear the decks! In fact, if you’ve ever wanted to have a horse, this is your opportunity. Buy one at the auction and they’ll board it for you at a very reasonable rate! If enough of you buy a horse, we can start a church polo team!
  Or…
  If you have valuable items (art, antiques, jewelry, e.g.) which you’d like to donate to the auction, please let Pastor Dave or Kent Robson know.
• Softball Season Starts Soon … See Stuart