Encounters That Count

Our ConnectGroup from church had its last meeting of the season last week.  Meeting with this group is one of the most important parts of my life, and I miss the time in between seasons.  We had completed Tim Keller's book, Encounters with Jesus, so last night, members brought their favorite bible verses and worship songs to share with the group.  As I was going through songs in preparation, I landed on three to choose from, and selected "It is well" performed by Kristene DiMarco at Bethel.   I was delighted that other members chose the other two on my short list.  One of those songs, I first heard at a church plant Caroline and I were involved with about 20 years ago.  It affected me then and still does today.  The song is "How he loves" and David Crowder was one of the first ones to make the song popular.  I found this cover by a husband/wife worship team at Encounters Church in Texas.  It's interesting that the church name and the title of the book we were studying both include "encounters".  I hope you have an encounter with Jesus today.

Divine Election

The presidential election has dominated air time on televisions, computers, and phones for the past several months.  Now that the election is over, I was curious to see how the conversation might change, and more importantly, what the best Christian response would be.  Regrettably, I had a hard time finding something I could agree with - until I landed on this video from Allen Parr. I didn't know Allen before today, but I liked what he had to say. I especially liked that the 13 minute video was loaded with bible passages supporting his thoughts.  He had three main points. 1) Monitor your communications. Don't communicate messages that will be divisive.  Half of the people in the country will be disappointed in the outcome of the election.  Those people, and all people, are children of God. 2) Put your ultimate faith in God.  No human leader will be perfect and will surely disappoint us at some point.  God is our King and the only one that we can trust in completely. 3)  Keep an eternal perspective.  What happens over the next four years, or the next forty years, will seem trivial when compared with the glory of spending eternity with Jesus.  I encourage you to take 13 minutes to listen, and I would be interested in knowing what you think.

The Right Hand

After Jesus was crucified and arose from the dead, he appeared to Mary and his disciples.  Jesus told them that He would be leaving them, but Mary held on tightly, not wanting to be separated from Him.  At the end of Mark's gospel, Mark reports that Jesus ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of God.  The ascension was more than just Jesus going up into the sky.  It was a visual picture of Jesus being anointed as King and Ruler of the Universe.  It is similar to a worldy king ascending to his throne, taking on all of the power that role dictates - but so much more.

In Acts 7, Stephen is about to be stoned to death for telling people about Jesus.  But even under the threat of death, Stephen had the "face of an angel".  He said, "Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God".  I love that Stephen sees Jesus standing, unlike earlier when the disciples saw him seated at the right hand of God.  Jesus is not a passive king watching his minions stumble about below.  Jesus is our advocate, standing for us before the throne of God.

When Mary was holding tightly to Jesus before his ascension, she did not want to be separated from him - physically.  But while Jesus was on earth, there were times when she would be with him and times when they were separated.  Jesus assured us before his ascension, that we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us, and that if we believe in Him, He will be with us always - standing for us, advocating for us at the right hand of God.

These words were inspired by chapter 9 of Tim Keller's book, Encounters with Jesus.

Garden of Despair

 

The night before Jesus was crucified, He had his last supper with those that were closest to him.  He warned them that He would be leaving, but they didn't understand.  After dinner, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, which was a favorite spot for him.  The gospel accounts all describe his mental state as being filled with despair over his impending death.  The despair was so deep that his pores were sweating drops of blood.   If Jesus lived a perfect life and was able to perform miracles, then why did he struggle so much the night before his death?   One of Jesus' primary missions on Earth was to show us how to live and how to love.  He demonstrated that in his love for His disciples and others, but He also demonstrated His perfect love for God, his father.   While we may attempt to love like Jesus, we cannot fathom the depth and beauty of the complete love between Jesus and his father, God.  Jesus, in his humanity, could not stand the idea of being separated from his father, so his despair was real.  His reaction to separation from God modeled how we should feel when we are separated from Him.  So Jesus, as man, modeled for us how to love perfectly, and by dying for our sins, allows us to have the Holy Spirit inhabit us when we believe.  The Holy Spirit is available to lead us and teach us every second of every day.  I want to listen more.

These ideas were inspired by Chapter 8 of Tim Keller's book, Encounters with Jesus.

The Other Advocate

All four gospels talk about the night before Jesus died, but only John details Jesus' instructions to his disciples.  Jesus lets the disciples know that He will be leaving them, and they respond with surprise, confusion and dismay. He lets them know that He has to leave so that the "other advocate" can be with them.  If we think of an advocate as a legal advocate in today's world, it is someone who represents you, someone who stands up for you and even someone that makes a case for you.  With God the Father as the judge, Jesus is our defender and our advocate.  He is making a case for us with God.  But after that, the analogy breaks down.  Jesus didn't just represent us and make a case for us.  When God, the judge, pronounced us guilty, instead of the sentence being imposed on us, Jesus took the punishment through his death on the cross.  I'm not aware of any defense attorneys that have done that for their clients.  So if Jesus is our advocate, who is the "other advocate" he refers to.  The other advocate is the Holy Spirit, dwelling within us.   While Jesus, the first advocate, speaks to God on our behalf, the Holy Spirit, the other advocate, talks to us for us.  I want to do a better job listening.  And I pray that is true for each of us today.

While these are my words, most of the ideas were inspired by Chapter 7 of Tim Keller's book, Encounters with Jesus.

An Open Purse

Robert attended Pasadena Nazarene College and spent the next several years as an evangelist traveling across California working mostly with troubled teens.  He joined an organization called Youth for Christ, and became close with Billy, who was one of the leaders there.  Robert's involvement in Youth for Christ took him overseas where he was moved by the poverty and despair of the war-torn areas that he visited.  He founded an organization called World Vision International dedicated to helping children out of poverty.  He then started Samaritan's Purse dedicated to providing food to starving children and helping with disaster relief.  

Robert Pierce died of Leukemia in 1978.  It was 1950 when he started World Vision International.  In 1970, he started Samaritan's Purse which is now run by Franklin. It  turns out Billy from Youth for Christ, and Franklin from Samaritan's Purse, have the same last name - Graham.  You may have heard of them.  

Robert probably wouldn't have guessed that 46 years after his death, The Samaritan's Purse organization that he founded would be coordinating hurricane relief in the area surrounding their headquarters in Boone, NC.  Praise God for the vision that Robert had to help others, and please continue praying for and supporting in any way you can the victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Flood Of Emotion

 

I posted this week at SpotOnTheLake encouraging readers to do what they can to help the victims of hurricane Helene.  I'm sure there are 100's of stories of heroism that have been circulating about rescue workers and private citizens that have been able to help victims, but this one got caught on live TV.  Bob Van Dillen was doing a live broadcast from Peachtree Creek in Atlanta.  He heard a woman calling out from a partially submerged vehicle and he called 911.  The screams became more intense, and he realized that someone needed to help right away.  He stopped the broadcast and waded in chest deep water to the car to free her.  The cameras rolled again as he was carrying her to safety clinging to his back.  Bob was very humble in his remarks afterwards downplaying his actions, but as we all know, the risk of entering high, moving water can be very dangerous.  I can't say for sure, but I hope my response would have been the same as his.  We lift up continued prayers for all of those affected by the storm.  Summary video     Longer video with interview