Laura's Challenge

 

On Sunday May 5, 2024, Rev. Dr. Laura Harbert delivered a sermon from her heart titled “We Become What We Behold!” I have found that when I write from the heart, that is when I am at my best and I appreciate when others do the same. Laura brought God’s word to us through her cornerstone verse:

2 Corinthians 3: 17-18 – “¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And 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.” (NIV)

We are being transformed from what are into something we are not now. This is always the case throughout life and the transformative power comes from that which we behold, what we consume, what we take into ourselves. If we consume hate and falsehood, we become the purveyors of hatred, loathing, and lies. If we come to the Lord’s Table with repentance in our hearts and consume the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5: 22) – then this is what we will become.

To achieve this, to become more like Christ, I need to humbly and in repentance, keep myself on the Potter’s Wheel so that he can continue to transform this lump of clay more clearly into his image.

Reverend Laura’s challenge to me is to make a list of where I behold God’s Glory and to reflect on those things. Okay, she didn’t phrase it as a challenge but instead said, “This would be one homework assignment I would love to give each one of you. Make a list of where you behold God’s Glory. Who are the people who show you God’s Glory? What are the places that stir up God’s Glory? What are the things, where do you behold God’s Glory?” Me, being a recovering jock, have taken this as a challenge and my reply follows this link to her sermon if you would like to be touched and transformed:

Sermon 5–5-2024 “We Become What We Behold!” by Rev. Laura Harbert (youtube.com)

These are some of the places, things, and people that allow me to behold God’s Glory:

V I see Jesus in the smile of my children and their children and in the trust in their eyes. That is the spiritual fruit of love.

V I see God’s hand in a failed project that touches someone’s heart despite my failure. This is God’s grace and the spiritual fruit of faithfulness.
V My Lord speaks to me when a young teen, covered in dust, concrete, paint, and sweat smiles and can’t wait to do it again. This is faithfulness and joy in His goodness.
V He whispers to me when I hear the symphony played by nature’s orchestra – the rustling of leaves, gurgling of the brook, calling birds, and solitude. This fruit of the spirit is peace.

V I sense his presence while being part of a well ridden series of ess-turns by a group of expert riders. That is the spiritual fruit of joy.
V I feel God near me when I see the bonds of an old grudge against man or God broken. This is the faithfulness of the Great Healer.
V Seeing someone deep into solitude touches my heart with Jesus’ kindness.
V I hear God’s voice in Cindy’s laughter as it drifts into the office or upstairs while she’s on the phone or with friends or family. This one thing is the fruit of joy, love, and goodness.
V My kids in love show me God’s love for us all, for God is love.
V Cynene. She is all the fruits of the Spirit…
V I am transformed by the flight of a red-tailed hawk, my every-man bird, and hearing its call of joy and exhilaration. When I look at the intarsia hawk my dad me and read his inscription, “Together in His grip”, I am reminded of God’s goodness and mercy.
V I see God presence in Jim’s laughter, Michael’s wit, and Doug’s indominable loyalty – the love of friends of the past, present, and future are all the fruits of the spirit.
V Any chance encounter with one of God’s creatures speaks of himself.

V The unsolicited ‘good morning’ from a fellow walker, hitherto unknown to each other, reminds me of Jesus oneness. Perhaps the response to the smile and look of wonder on my own face as I think on this list is what inspired them to offer up the ‘good morning’.
V The turn of a good phrase like, “Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10) excites me to write. That is faithfulness.
V Seeing a scraped knee tended to by a parent, sibling, teacher, or even a stranger screams of Jesus’ gentleness and kindness.

For as long as I live, I won’t be able to list them all and, as you can see by my collage, there is room for more and blanks have been left in anticipation.

Make your own list, create your own collage, and dwell on those things where you behold His Glory.

In His grip,

jerry

How Long?

Photo courtesy of my StoryBlocks subscription

How Long?

How long must we wear these chains and mute the songs of our hearts? Songs meant for praise and love and meant to extol the Kingdom of God. Our hearts are breaking for our neighbors and for a broken world consumed by a focus on self.

Turn our heats to you, Lord. Let us go to our knees in humility rather than stomping in protest. Let us cry out for your Kingdom coming. Who can stop it? And who can stop praises from entering your throne room? None. There are none that can do this. Our hearts pour out worship in spirit and truth and we are those you seek and call to yourself.

I heard it in the quiet of Your sanctuary.

I was free not to sing.

I tell you that I found a deep well of untapped love and adoration for our King dammed up for the need to sound out words and notes in precise and harmonic ways. When that need for the mechanics of song was broken by the command not to sing, worship gushed forth and broke chains. The logjam has moved downstream. Lord, let the force of your rushing waters take it down to the ocean and leave me free.

The Lord was good to me, he broke through my reticence and allowed me to move, clap, raise my hands in praise, and punch out emphasis to the prayers and worship during the service. I felt liberated, likely more so than I have in the years since returning to my home church.

I am thankful. It is not too much to ask that the fires to remain hot and that our ardor continue for the King.

In His grip,

jerry

A Believer’s Quarantine Protocol

In our home we are easily five weeks into shelter-at-home as we adopted those initiatives early on so that we could be the safest possible when we went out to Ely, Nevada to help with our daughter’s family during the time she delivered her second child via C-section. I haven’t met friends in person with the exception of blessed happenstance and on provisioning runs in all that time. But I have attended several Zoom meetings with various committees of the church and held an online class for our communicants. I have listened and watched a few online bible studies and worship services. Today was the first live Zoom meeting with a group of believers in order to read scripture, pray, and share. I’ve missed the men of our Wednesday morning gatherings and this was a much-needed time for me; in fact, I’d say it was priceless and won’t go so far as to put a value to it.

Phil opened our time by calling for our traditional third man prayer and a reading of selected segments from the Gospel of John. Then we checked in with each other buy going around the Zoom and briefly talking about how we and our loved ones are fairing with the virus and its widespread impacts. Our central discussion was regarding how and what we, as Christians, need to be doing during this traumatic time. I’ll share some of what I gleaned from our talk in amplified bullet format.

My Believer’s Quarantine Protocol:

U  Remember that God is in control

V  Pray with that foremost in your mind.

V  Look for ways to express His control of things

V  Be wise in how, where, and when to express it – aka – be considerate of others

This one may be the hardest one to live by and project to a world that will shout back at us, “What God would visit covid-19 on people? If He is in control why is this happening?”

Isaiah 41:10 – “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

U  Limit social media, news, and generally negative input and filter everything through a Kingdom Perspective

Colossians 3:1-4 – “¹So if you been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, ³for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

U  Connect with your brothers and sisters in the faith

V  Stay in tune with your families

V  Talk it out

V  Be open and genuine with both your faith and your fears

V  Let others help with your burdens

V  Do this in such a way as to be a responsible member of the community and don’t limit Jesus to meeting with us as believers only when we are physically together

Hebrew 10:24-25 – “²⁴And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

U  Stay in touch with your ministry area

V  If you lead, connect with those who you shepherd

V  If you serve under another’s leadership, connect with and pray for the leader

I believe the Hebrews verse above applies here but let’s try a little Ephesians 6:18-19 – “¹⁸Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication for all the saints. ¹⁹Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel…”

U  Stretch – body, mind/soul, and spirit

V  This is how you will increase your talents, don’t burry them and expect that to suffice

V  Reach for something new, it’s likely you have more time for a new field – go for it

V  How and what you exercise with is what will grow and what you will end up doing better at the end of the day

Check out the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30

U  Worship. Find ways to lift praise and adoration to the Father

V  Find a source online to worship with. So many of the churches are embracing this, find some that work with you

V  Sing out loud God’s praises as you listen to songs on the radio or online

V  Be creative in your worship – take time to be quiet and let your love rise like incense to the Father

V  Be one whom the Father seeks

John 4:21-23 – “²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.”

U  Pray. It’s part of worship. Intercede on others behalf.

Phil left us this morning with a charge and I’ll extend it you anyone reading – reach out to one of the brothers or sisters that have been on your heart and mind and take action on what the Holy Spirit has placed within you.

In His grip,

jerry

O Holy Night

O Holy Night

I was brought up short by a comment Jim made on a post I’d put up just over eight months ago, ‘Roll Back the Stone’. Brought up short is about the only way to get my attention during these days of celebration; Thanksgiving, Christmas, birth announcements, weddings, and all sorts of things I need to be doing. Somehow Jim took a post where I confess that I keep a stone across my heart mostly to keep Jesus out rather than in and followed it up with a question that stopped me in my tracks.

Jim askes when considering ‘no room at the inn’ during this Christmas season, “Do our daily lives shuffle Jesus to our barns?”

Oh my yes, regrettably so. I am the posterchild for this. I’ve been keeping an action item list over the last month or so and the category of household/family items far outweighs two important categories for me – Writing and LCPC/Spiritual Growth. I agonize over it every time I go to the list.

One of the beauties of Jim’s comment is that he provided a link to Kerrie Roberts’ performance video of her singing ‘O Holy Night’. If you don’t read any further, take a listen – I’ve included the complete lyrics below the main post. Here is the link:

'O Holy Night' by Kerrie Roberts

A wine merchant and poet named Placide Cappeau was persuaded to write a poem to commemorate the renovation of a church organ. Adolphe Adam composed the music for it and it was premiered by opera singer Emily Laurey in 1847. There are a number of variations and performances of the carol and it has long been a favorite of mine. Research on its origins and translations has done nothing to render my love for ‘O Holy Night’ any less and "Cantique de Noël" has taken rather more significance for me.

I love the hope it gives – ‘For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.’

I love and seek to obey the command – ‘Fall on your knees!’

I have loved reading the second verse and bridge, parts of the song I wasn’t aware of until now because they are not performed by Roberts nor any others I’ve listened to leading up to this post. And I now cling to the promise – ‘In all our trials born to be our friend. He knows our need, to our weaknesses no stranger’. And the command at the end of the second bridge – ‘Before Him lowly bend!’

The third verse gives us admonitions to ‘love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace,’ and ‘in His name all oppression shall cease.’

Finally –‘Let all within us praise His holy name.’

Sing people! Let Jesus out of our barns. Fall on our knees and before Him, let us lowly bend and praise his holy name.

As Jim signed off to me, so I sign off to you, ‘joy to the world. Let every heart prepare him room.’

jerry

O Holy Night

O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees, oh, hear the angel voices

O night divine, O night, when Christ was born

O night divine, O night, O night divine

Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother

And in his name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise His holy name

Christ is the Lord

Then ever, ever praise we

Noel, Noel, O night, O night divine

Noel, Noel, O night, O night divine

O night divine, O night, when Christ was born

O night divine, O night, O night divine

Blog Post Notes: You can find much of this information in the Wikipedia and a list at the bottom of notable renditions of the songs. Some of the dates don’t match other sources I read and put the writing of the lyrics and music in 1847, the same year it was debuted. The list of performers is impressive and worth a scan. Maybe you can find a favorite version of your own.

Also note that as I was finishing up the first draft of this John Denver’s version started playing from his ‘Rocky Mountain Christmas’ CD. I hadn’t listened to before and had no idea he did ‘O Holy Night’.

I Am Saddened

(photo courtesy of 'Storyblocks')

I was saddened when I heard the news, the news that fifty-eight people had been killed and over 500 others gunned down in a senseless act by one man. This feeling is akin to that devastating shock I felt as I watched the plane crash into the second tower in New York just as my TV had warmed up for my morning bit of news while I was getting ready for work. Mornings turned into mourning.

Senseless acts, both of them. And countless more between and before and sadly, countless more to come after. We live in a broken world and nothing will fix it except for the unrelenting application of God’s grace obtained for us by the resurrection of Christ. And that will only work in partial doses until God’s Kingdom is established in full, on the earth. I am afraid they will remain senseless to us, that we will never truly understand the ‘why’ behind the actions of people who visit atrocities on innocents.

I won’t try to explain it here, I can’t.

What are we to do?

I am saddened also by what I’ve seen as I scroll along my Facebook news-feed. Saddened by those who see fit to politicize such a tragedy before the scope of it is fully known. You know the ones I’m talking about. They are on every side of the issues being bullied about from their social media pulpits. ‘We need more gun laws!’ elicits the response ‘It is our right to bear arms!’ We may well need more laws or to actually enforce those we have and it may well be our right to own and carry weapons. However, our duties lie elsewhere.

I was saddened by those who chose to take aim at protesters while praising the heroes of the day. The message to the protesters was weakened by doing this just as the message of praise for the hero was diluted.

Just as I’ve been saddened by the politicos in response to this latest mass shooting I was saddened by our response to the 9/11 attacks. ‘United we stand!’ they said. ‘We will never forget’ we said and so we pooled our resources and we ‘got them’ all the while destroying more innocent lives by many times than what were taken from us on 9/11. We missed an opportunity for a Godly response.

What are we to do?

I suggest we let the dust settle. Take a knee, take both knees, to the turf and let the dust settle. Let it settle all around us, on our shoulders, upon our heads, and on our backs while we are bowed over in prayer. Prayer for the souls of the dead, for the healing and recovery of the wounded, and for peace for all those folks who were there and experienced a terror words can only go so far in describing. We should humble ourselves first and let the impact settle in around us. Pray for God’s Kingdom to come and come quickly. We need to pray for the heroes of the day, those who shielded others, those men and women who ran into harm’s way to stop the madness – pray for their emotional scars to be wiped out so that heroes can walk upright and be ready again. So the lambs and doves can sleep without trembling. Pray so the angles need not shed more tears.

Friends, let us stand down from our stumps and get off our soapboxes and instead kneel by our beds at night, by our desks during the day, and humble ourselves while the dust settles.

In His grip,

jerry

LCPC VBS Call to Prayer – Week 3

The LCPC VBS Prayer Train is at the midpoint now and cresting the summit and we should be able to have a long view ahead of us to see the finishing point and still be able to look back over the tracks we used to get here.

I have been using Ashley’s suggested prayers, a series of prayer areas for the five weeks leading up to VBS, which she put in the VBS Leader Booklet. I’ve taken the daily scripture and stories that will be used during the five days and outlined them in the posts to give you all an understanding of what is being taught in order to give you a more focused approach to your prayers for the week of VBS. And, it will give you the added blessing of being a part of our week.

During week one we prayed for understanding to rest on the children and wisdom upon the teachers. We followed that up with a week of prayer for trust in God’s timing and patience. This week the call is to pray for the children to know that Jesus is all powerful and uses His power to help them because He loves them. With that we pray for the VBS staff to find ways to show Christ’s power.

Our scripture for Wednesday of VBS week is John 14:27 where Jesus says, “²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Here, Jesus had been instructing the disciples and telling them of the Holy Spirit that will be coming upon them after His resurrection. Jesus has calmed storms, fed the multitudes, and performed many signs and wonders and knows that when he leaves to be with the Father the disciples will face trials and tribulations that will rock them to the core. Jesus leaves us with peace, not as the world gives but a peace that surpasses all understanding – thus our need for the Holy Spirit.

Wednesday’s story is Jesus calming the storm and we take the account from Mark printed below:

Jesus Calms the Storm

Mark 4: 35-41 (NIV)

“³⁵That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ ³⁶Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’

³⁹He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’

⁴¹They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’

When I look at this story and see that Jesus quiets the storm and then questions the disciples on their faith and wondering at their fear I have to ask myself how Jesus would have preferred it then and how he wants me to go through the storms of life now. Are we to pray for the storm to cease? Or, rather do we pray for the peace of Jesus to be on us so that we can walk through the storm without fear? For me, I think it is the later. Storms will come and go but Christ’s peace should be on us no matter what. No easy task there so my prayer is for God to grant that I can walk in peace in the midst of the storm and project that peace for those I am around.

A couple of decades ago our Youth Ministries used a summer theme of “Fear Not!” working off of Nike’s trademarked “No Fear” campaign. I loved this theme and the scripture we used and I’ll close my call to pray for VBS and this post with it. Here is a command from God as given us by Isaiah.

Isaiah 43:5 (ESL): “Fear not, for I am with you.”

In His grip,

jerry

God With Us

Emmanuel, in Hebrew: עִמָּנוּאֵל meaning, "God with us".

The season of Advent is upon us and Cindy and I along with my mom and sister Denise, hit the ground running at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Grants Pass, Oregon. It was a wonderful service and the Advent Hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” set the pace early and its refrains tinged the service throughout with a sense of yearning. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” set the tone and underpinned the message that we need to prepare, lest there be no real Christmas.

As I write this I have YouTube running through the hymn with vocal and instrumental artists’ seeming infinite variations; my personal yearning is sustained and the sense of preparation is being heightened.

I could simply pound out the words to the hymn, tell you to read it, ask you to pray it, hope you live it, and let it go at that but it would be the cheap and easy way out for a post, not that I’m above that sort of thing. However, I prefer to ruminate on the hymn and its central theme of advent for the coming of our Lord and have instead placed the words as a post script below.

During the season leading to Christmas Day we are busy with preparations for family gatherings and the exchange of gifts. We need to leave time for advent and the preparation for Emmanuel and give ourselves over to the yearning for Christ’s presence. Imagine if we were to combine our family celebration anticipation and preparation with our desire for Christ’s presence. Would His presence be with us? Yes - yes it would.

Let’s focus on the first verse of the hymn. It tells us that Israel, God’s people, are captive and in exile on earth. We don’t need to look very far to know that this is true. We should be mourning the fact that God’s Kingdom has not yet come on earth as it is in heaven. We mourn until the Son of God appears in His fullness. He will so appear and we see glimpses of Him in the actions of Heaven’s ambassadors, Christians out and about doing the King’s work. We are Him from time to time, even I am Him now and again.

O come Emmanuel, come again in me.

At the end of each verse we are told to rejoice because Emmanuel shall come to us. Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (NIV) Indeed, we must rejoice at each hint and every manifestation of Christ on earth while at the same time letting the yearning for His fullness run deep. We never cease preparing the way.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Rejoice! His Kingdom is near at hand. Revel in advent, strike a match and light the candle.

In His grip, jerry

For our edification:

O come, O come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free

Thine own from Satan’s tyranny

From depths of Hell Thy people same

And give them victory o’er the grave

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come.

And open wide our heavenly home;

Make safe the way that leads on high,

And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O Come, O come, Thou Lord of might,

Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,

In ancient times did’st give the Law,

In cloud, and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel