“In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well.” (II Corinthians 7:13b-14 NIV)
There have been many times where I have felt like Titus—refreshed in spirit by spending time with Christian brothers and sisters. I remember a prayer gathering in a rural Hungarian village, Christians praying in different languages, but united in a common bond. I remember visiting in the Tennessee home of a former seminary classmate and his wife, having a delicious meal of homemade soup and bread and then talking for several hours in front of a fire about the Lord. I remember semi-annual meetings at Denny’s with two colleagues to share about our mutual ministries and to encourage one another. And I remember just recently sitting with friends and listening to how the Lord is changing the direction of their lives into a new area of ministry.
And what I remember about these encounters and many, many others is how refreshing they were. Not all our meetings with other Christians are necessarily refreshing. Many, frankly, are often mundane with little spiritual encouragement resulting from them. Often that cannot be avoided, but I think in many of our encounters with Christians we can strive for something better, deeper.
It is easy to skip along the surface in our relationships with other believers. Our conversations gravitate toward school, work, relationships, and the like. There is obviously nothing wrong with these because they are part of our daily experience, but there is so much more if only we are willing to go deeper. And it is at the deeper levels where we find true refreshment. That is why they stick in our memories and we remember them so fondly.
Today, make strides toward taking your conversations with fellow Christians deeper. As you do, you will find greater refreshment and experience Christian fellowship at a whole new level.
© Jim Musser 2012
“Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end.
“Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the council of the elders.” (Psalm 107:23-32 NIV)
Those of us living in the eastern quarter of the country are experiencing an historic storm. From the Carolinas up the eastern seaboard, Hurricane Sandy is bringing record snow and rainfall, and record flooding. Fortunately, where I live we still have electricity, though the wind is gusting furiously and snow is falling sideways. But other areas are not faring as well. Damage from wind and flooding is extensive.
It is in the midst of a storm like Sandy that we realize how small and vulnerable we are, and how dependent on the Lord. When life is good, we can tend to feel secure and often that security leads us to a lack of appreciation for the Lord. We can easily forget who is behind that security. Like a small child who wanders off from a parent and turns suddenly to find mom or dad out of sight, we quickly realize our need for the presence of the Lord.
This psalm, in its entirety, tells stories of vulnerable and needy people crying out to the Lord. They are experiencing various storms in their lives and plead for rescue. The writer tells of the Lord’s faithfulness in rescuing them. He then encourages them to give thanks to God for saving them from the peril of the storm.
What about you? Are you in the midst of a storm in your life? Then cry out to God and He will come to your rescue. And when you are once again safe, don’t forget to thank Him for what He has done, and let it be a reminder of how much you need Him.
© Jim Musser 2012
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5:16-26 NIV)
We are in the final weeks of the presidential election. I know that because my phone keeps rings with automated voices of candidates on the other end making disparaging comments about the other political party, my mailbox is filled with letters and fliers from candidates telling me how terrible their opponents are, and my Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds are filled with pointed comments about one or the other presidential candidates.
I am not surprised for the most part. This is the way politics is done in America and it’s been done this way for a long time. I think what is more difficult to accept are those claiming to be followers of Jesus engaging in the same type of behavior. I was talking with a friend the other day who witnessed a debate between two men running for state office. One, my friend said, stated clearly that he was a Christian, but then went ahead and bashed his opponent and his party in harsh tones. Sadly, there is a lot of that going on today, not only in the political spectrum, but also in everyday life—people claiming to know Jesus being very harsh in their comments and actions toward others.
The question I want to ask is, what difference does Jesus make? One can say, “I’m a Christian,” but how is that relationship with Jesus impacting your day-to-day life? What difference is it making in what you say to others and how you say it? Or in how you treat other people?
Paul is asking the same question of the Galatians, who were struggling with living the Christian life. And he gives them a straightforward template of how their lives are to reflect the presence of Jesus. He refers to them as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If they truly have Jesus in their lives, then they will have His Spirit as well. Like an apple tree produces apples or a peach tree peaches, so does the Spirit produce fruit. And, Paul said, the fruit of the Spirit should be present or emerging in anyone claiming to follow Jesus.
Today, examine your life, comparing it to the fruit of the Spirit. If you are a follower of Jesus, then there should be ample evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life through the presence of His fruit. If there is not, then it’s time to get serious about pursuing the One who can produce it. It is His fruit and no one other than Him can make it grow.
© Jim Musser 2012
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:17b-21 NIV)
In C.S. Lewis’ “Prince Caspian,” the second book in his “Chronicles of Narnia” series, Lucy, upon meeting Aslan on her second trip to Narnia, remarks that he is bigger. Aslan replies, “It is because you are older.”
As we age and mature, does our God get bigger or does He shrink? Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3), and that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to little children (Matthew 19:14). Of course, He was not talking about physically being a child, but having the trusting attitude and the imagination of a child.
Children are not doubters by nature; they just believe. And they trust. If Mom and Dad tell them there is a Santa Claus, they don’t doubt it. When a boy says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up, he has no doubt that is what he will be. And they have wonderful imaginations. My neighbors’ children are always out in their yard having some battle or on some adventure. Children show little constraint in imagining a world far different than the one in which they are living.
It is amazing sometimes how we have such trust in the Lord as children, but then as we grow up, that trust diminishes. God shrinks instead of getting bigger. Or even as new believers, we are enthralled with the Lord’s power and mercy, but as we move along in the Christian life, we are less enthralled, less moved. He begins to shrink.
I think Lewis was trying to say through Aslan that as we grow older and mature, God is supposed to get bigger. We are to become even more enthralled with, more impressed by, and more imaginative with His power and mercy. And this requires that we resist both the natural tendency and societal pressure to “grow up” which means to put aside “fairytales” such as someone dying for sin and being raised from the dead, people being healed through other than medical means, trusting God to provide, and so on. We must recognize God is bigger and more powerful than what we could ever believe or imagine. This is why as we are growing older, He should be getting bigger, because it takes a lifetime, or more correctly an eternity, to fully grasp how big He really is.
Today consider, as you are growing older, is the Lord shrinking or getting bigger?
© Jim Musser 2012
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27 NIV)
We recently had new Internet service installed at our office. When I returned from Fall Break, I found out I was unable to send e-mail from the Entourage program on my computer. For a time, I searched the web for solutions, but none of them worked. I then e-mailed the company (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) and received no response. I finally called the tech support number and the automated voice gave me a website to access for help. It didn’t. I called again, rudely interrupting my automated helper by saying “tech support!” The first tech person I reached told me he was not familiar with the email program I use and that the company doesn’t offer support on “third party platforms,” so I asked to be transferred to someone with greater knowledge. I was told that privilege would cost me $99. I hung up and called again, hoping to find someone more willing to help me, who recognized the unfairness of a company installing a service and then telling you, basically, good luck on solving that problem, because we won’t help you. Again I was told the company doesn’t offer free support on anything involving “outside software.” Frustrated, and still frugal, I hung up again.
I then asked my tech-savvy associate if we would take a look at the problem. He agreed, but couldn’t resolve it either. So he, too, called the company. As I sat listening to his side of the conversation, he began describing the problem and all he had done to try to fix it and, literally, within a couple of minutes, she had given him the information needed to solve the issue, at no charge. I sat dumbfounded and asked how he managed to do that, and he said he had previously worked for the company and just knew how to talk to their reps in a way to get things done. He was a very effective advocate as a result.
Paul describes the Holy Spirit in a similar manner. When we’ve reached the end of our own efforts to pray, when we are at a loss for words, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. He knows what to say because He is familiar with the Father and His will.
Thankfully, our Heavenly Father is not anything like the Internet company with which I was dealing. He is more than happy to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). But there are times when we just don’t know what to say or how to ask. Such as when a devastating tragedy envelops our lives or when we reach a fork in the road and the choices are similar. We just can’t find the words to describe our feelings or what to ask to get an answer to our question.
It is then that the Holy Spirit does His best work. He goes before the Lord on our behalf to express what we really need. Words may fail us, but He will always know what to ask.
Today, if you are at a point where in your prayers you don’t know what to say, know that you have an Advocate who will pray for you, who will go before the Father on your behalf. Do your best on your knees, but if you are still unable to get an answer, trust the Holy Spirit to help you. He is very familiar with the Father and knows just what to say.
© Jim Musser 2012
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” (II Timothy 4:1-5 NIV)
This was an encouraging message to me this morning. In the midst of a volatile political season, the Chick-fil-A protests of the summer, and some of the reality checks of working on a university campus, I felt like Paul was writing this to me. More and more, people want to hear what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. Politicians know this and rarely speak the whole truth, regardless of political party. Increasingly, the university culture is making policy that prohibits speech that students may find offensive. In other words, proclaiming that certain behaviors or lifestyles are sinful may find you in trouble with the university if a student complains. And in the church, pastors are often dismissed when they begin to confront issues of doctrine and personal conduct.
As fallen human beings, we often have a hard time hearing and accepting the truth. We much prefer hearing what we want to hear. And there will always be people we can find to tell us soothing things. And therein lies the danger. The temptation is to run away from the one telling us the truth to the one who will tell us what we want to hear. In the extreme, we want to prevent the person from saying anything we deem offensive to our ears.
But the reality is, given we are fallen creatures and prone to error, we all need words of correction and they will not always be pleasant to our ears. As Proverbs 12:1 bluntly observes, “Whoever hates correction is stupid.” So the current trend of having the right not to be offended is troubling because it is easy for the church to get sucked into it, as I have already experienced with some students in recent years. And what it does is inhibit our growth and maturity. Like children who grow up without discipline, we remain immature and, for many, eternally lost.
Today, as Paul encourages Timothy to do, keep your head in these times where truth is considered relative to one’s personal understanding. Don’t get carried along by this deception. The truth is found in the Word and we all need to be open to its correction. For what we want to hear is not always what we need to hear.
© Jim Musser 2012
“Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:12-18 NIV)
It happens every week, sometimes even for a lifetime. People will hear the Word of God preached and leave totally unaffected. I have known people who have been faithful churchgoers their entire lives whose only purpose for being there it seems is being there. The only change that takes place in their lives is they grow older. I have seen students involved in campus ministry for three, four, even five years that remain unchanged spiritually. They come, they hear, they leave, totally unmoved by the Word.
How can people be exposed to years of teaching from the Word and remain unchanged by it? Paul provides a clue. For centuries the Word of God was read in the Jewish synagogues, but, as Jesus correctly pointed out (Mark 7:5-7), the hearts of the Jews were far from Lord. He says a veil covered their hearts. That veil is religious ritual, the performance of religious activity without any real life or belief behind it.
There is only one cure according to Paul: Jesus. Only Jesus can take the veil away. Only a relationship with Jesus can open up the heart to be changed and transformed. And the relationship to which we refer is ongoing and dynamic, not the “I once asked Jesus into my heart” kind where the beginning is in reality the end. The prayer has been said and now there is nothing more to do.
No, this relationship is like a marriage. We fall in love, make a commitment and live it out the rest of our lives, falling deeper and deeper in love as the years go by and being transformed by the relationship as our hearts open wider and wider.
I was a churchgoer much of my young life, but it meant little to me. I really didn’t understand it. I was there. I sang the songs. I listened to the sermon. I left unchanged. It wasn’t until I decided to give my life to Jesus that my eyes were opened and my heart unveiled. Then my life began to be transformed.
In what state is your heart today? Is it veiled by years of religious ritual? Does your life remain unchanged? There is a cure and it is Jesus. Only He can take a heart and infuse it with life.
© Jim Musser 2012
