Pentecost is the day the followers of Jesus were praying in Jerusalem and were filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem and said, “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…. You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” (Acts 1:5,6)
I want us to think together about what the Holy Spirit is giving us today. What power will the Spirit give you this week? What power will the Holy Spirit give us, New Hope Baptist Church?
First, the Holy Spirit will give us power to obey what Jesus told us to do.
“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
Second, the Holy Spirit will give us God’s presence and comfort.
“But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:6-7)
Third, the Holy Spirit will give us power to speak the languages of those we are trying to reach and will enable us to be God’s family.
“And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” (Acts 2:6)
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1Corinthians 3:16)
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:44-47)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Life's Unexpected Turns and Trusting God
As I watched news reports of folks in Holly Hill being flooded out of their homes during our recent heavy rains, I thought about how life can take an unexpected turn: a flood, a fire, a death, a job loss, a diagnosis. The way things have been is not the way they will be. The familiar is taken away. Suddenly our future is not going to be what we always thought it would be. Now we are called upon to make new choices and move into a future we never thought would come for us.
I ask myself, “Am I strong enough on the inside to handle what life throws at me? Will I get shaken off of my foundation if circumstances beyond my control change my world?” I can’t know for sure how I will respond to sudden upheaval in my life. But this I do know: I want to be able to allow all the events of my life to be times of testimony when I can say that I trust God. Even when things come to me that I would not have chosen, I want to be able to learn and grow from the experience.
Here is the way Psalm 25:1-5 expresses our desire to trust God:
To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed. . . .
Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.
Can times when things are going well and when I am strong and healthy be times of gathering strength for whatever may come my way tomorrow? I pray that my spirit is getting stronger. Tomorrow may bring pain and sorrow.
Not long ago, I asked a friend who is going through hard physical suffering, declining health, and living in a nursing facility, “How do you respond to these words of Jesus: ‘In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world?’”
He answered quickly with, “I don’t understand and I don’t like what is happening,” then paused a couple of seconds and said, “but I trust Him.” If I face disappointment and pain like his someday, I hope I can say with my friend and with the Psalmist, “O my God, I trust in you.”
I ask myself, “Am I strong enough on the inside to handle what life throws at me? Will I get shaken off of my foundation if circumstances beyond my control change my world?” I can’t know for sure how I will respond to sudden upheaval in my life. But this I do know: I want to be able to allow all the events of my life to be times of testimony when I can say that I trust God. Even when things come to me that I would not have chosen, I want to be able to learn and grow from the experience.
Here is the way Psalm 25:1-5 expresses our desire to trust God:
To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed. . . .
Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.
Can times when things are going well and when I am strong and healthy be times of gathering strength for whatever may come my way tomorrow? I pray that my spirit is getting stronger. Tomorrow may bring pain and sorrow.
Not long ago, I asked a friend who is going through hard physical suffering, declining health, and living in a nursing facility, “How do you respond to these words of Jesus: ‘In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world?’”
He answered quickly with, “I don’t understand and I don’t like what is happening,” then paused a couple of seconds and said, “but I trust Him.” If I face disappointment and pain like his someday, I hope I can say with my friend and with the Psalmist, “O my God, I trust in you.”
Friday, May 15, 2009
The Meaning of Baptism
I always love baptisms. Today we will baptize Marilyn Schneider. Here is what baptism means according to Paul in Romans 6 verses 3-4: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Our salvation in Christ means that we are dying to the person we don’t want to be, and we are being given the strength to grow spiritually and emotionally. When I think about what it means to die with Christ, I think of questions we can ask ourselves about our own growth.
• Am I giving up my tendency to get defensive and my need to be right?
• Am I becoming more able to face the things I need to face rather than run?
• Am I needing other people’s approval less than I used to?
• Can I face up to my weaknesses and see where I need to change?
When I think of walking “in newness of life” I raise such questions as
• Am I aware of my strengths and more ready to use them to serve as God guides me?
• Am I becoming more aware of God’s love for me and am I allowing his perfect love to drive out my fears?
• Do I have a deep sense of being chosen to serve God’s purposes in the world?
• Is the love of God flowing through me?
Paul said about our freedom to get on with our newness of life, “Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 The Message). Baptism means that God’s energy is working deep within us. What a beautiful ceremony. Let us thank God for giving us this new life in Jesus Christ.
• Am I giving up my tendency to get defensive and my need to be right?
• Am I becoming more able to face the things I need to face rather than run?
• Am I needing other people’s approval less than I used to?
• Can I face up to my weaknesses and see where I need to change?
When I think of walking “in newness of life” I raise such questions as
• Am I aware of my strengths and more ready to use them to serve as God guides me?
• Am I becoming more aware of God’s love for me and am I allowing his perfect love to drive out my fears?
• Do I have a deep sense of being chosen to serve God’s purposes in the world?
• Is the love of God flowing through me?
Paul said about our freedom to get on with our newness of life, “Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 The Message). Baptism means that God’s energy is working deep within us. What a beautiful ceremony. Let us thank God for giving us this new life in Jesus Christ.
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Resurrection of the Body
The official count of our Easter Sunday combined attendance for both the 9 and the 11 o’clock services was 176. That is double our usual worship attendance. Thanks to all of you for cooperating and working to make our two Easter services a success. The Choir, Dennis, and Armand did double duty. We had a number of visitors. Several folks told me they felt good about the services.
I want to go over again what I presented to you on Easter concerning what the Bible teaches about the resurrection of the body. We believe not in the immortality of the soul, as if we are indestructible spirits that fly away from worn out bodies at death. We believe in the resurrection of the body. The same thing that happened to Jesus after he died will happen to us, Jesus’ people. He died. He was in some existence for three days that he called “Paradise.” When the thief on the cross asked to be remembered by Jesus, his response was, “This day you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Then he came back to be seen and to interact with his followers in a resurrection body, a transformed version of the body that had died on the cross. They knew him. He was different. They weren’t sure when they first saw him in his resurrection body, but he showed them the nail scars, he ate fish, and said, “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” (Read Luke 24:36-43.)
Jesus’ resurrection was, as Bible scholar N. T. Wright says, “life after life after death.” It was a three-step process: death, an intermediate state, and then the resurrection. That three-step process will happen to us, also. (Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.) It is clear that immediately after death, like the thief on the cross, we will be with the Lord. After that, when God brings down the curtain on history, we will be raised to face judgment and be given resurrection bodies. Death will be no more. This is the way Paul described it in 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. “We will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
I want to go over again what I presented to you on Easter concerning what the Bible teaches about the resurrection of the body. We believe not in the immortality of the soul, as if we are indestructible spirits that fly away from worn out bodies at death. We believe in the resurrection of the body. The same thing that happened to Jesus after he died will happen to us, Jesus’ people. He died. He was in some existence for three days that he called “Paradise.” When the thief on the cross asked to be remembered by Jesus, his response was, “This day you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Then he came back to be seen and to interact with his followers in a resurrection body, a transformed version of the body that had died on the cross. They knew him. He was different. They weren’t sure when they first saw him in his resurrection body, but he showed them the nail scars, he ate fish, and said, “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” (Read Luke 24:36-43.)
Jesus’ resurrection was, as Bible scholar N. T. Wright says, “life after life after death.” It was a three-step process: death, an intermediate state, and then the resurrection. That three-step process will happen to us, also. (Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.) It is clear that immediately after death, like the thief on the cross, we will be with the Lord. After that, when God brings down the curtain on history, we will be raised to face judgment and be given resurrection bodies. Death will be no more. This is the way Paul described it in 1 Corinthians 15:51-54. “We will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
Soul Food and Cotton Candy
When I was a kid in South Carolina, I got cotton candy at the Pickens County Fair. It tasted good, was gone quickly, and I knew it didn’t give me what I needed. My grandmother’s cooking did that: green beans, tomatoes, onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, and fried chicken. That was “soul food.”
Real Love is soul food. Imitation love is cotton candy. Real Love is the love of God, unconditional love that cares about the well being of others without expecting anything in return. Real Love is grace. Imitation love is the praise, power, pleasure, and safety you try to get from other people, and it brings only temporary satisfaction and starves your soul. Real Love flows to you from God through people who have enough of it to give. They give it to you because God is Love, and you need it. If you try to earn it, you are going after imitation love. If you will give up trying to appear to deserve it and accept it just as you are, Real Love is yours.
When we desire the things that will feed our souls, we are nourished. John in his first letter says when you desire “the things in the world” you starve that part of you that can be close to God. You try to feed your soul with pleasure, the praise of people, or power over people. Those things may be sweet for a short while, but they cannot give you life. John writes, “The world and the desires it causes are disappearing. But if we obey God, we will live forever.” (1John2:17)
I see way too many people – some of them church members – who have only the desires of the world. They don’t know what Real Love is. Imitation love is all they know. God wants to give us Real Love so that we can let it flow through us to others. Let’s go after God’s love, Real Love, not the cotton candy the world gives.
Real Love is soul food. Imitation love is cotton candy. Real Love is the love of God, unconditional love that cares about the well being of others without expecting anything in return. Real Love is grace. Imitation love is the praise, power, pleasure, and safety you try to get from other people, and it brings only temporary satisfaction and starves your soul. Real Love flows to you from God through people who have enough of it to give. They give it to you because God is Love, and you need it. If you try to earn it, you are going after imitation love. If you will give up trying to appear to deserve it and accept it just as you are, Real Love is yours.
When we desire the things that will feed our souls, we are nourished. John in his first letter says when you desire “the things in the world” you starve that part of you that can be close to God. You try to feed your soul with pleasure, the praise of people, or power over people. Those things may be sweet for a short while, but they cannot give you life. John writes, “The world and the desires it causes are disappearing. But if we obey God, we will live forever.” (1John2:17)
I see way too many people – some of them church members – who have only the desires of the world. They don’t know what Real Love is. Imitation love is all they know. God wants to give us Real Love so that we can let it flow through us to others. Let’s go after God’s love, Real Love, not the cotton candy the world gives.
The Atmosphere at New Hope
I believe that people often visit our church looking for friends, and they hope our church will be a family to which they can belong.
When I visit on behalf of our church, I am always grateful for the interest people show in the kind of church we are. New Hope is a Baptist Church, but not the kind many people think of when they see the word Baptist. We distinguish ourselves by accepting diversity. We don’t push. We preach the Bible not politics. We encourage people to check us out for as long as it takes to get to know us. We encourage questions. Visitors often find it refreshing that there is freedom at New Hope to raise honest questions and take time to see what we are made of. We want them to see for themselves that we love God, love people, and are serious about following Jesus and serving the world.
As I visited this past week, I heard parents in two homes say something like this: “I just want a church in which my child can grow up. I want him/her to feel at home in church and be able to learn and have fun by participating in activities.” With the leadership of Cheryl Secunda, our Director of Children and Youth Ministries, we are developing programs that help our children to learn and grow and feel a sense of belonging.
Cub Scout Pack 475 is also a part of our ministry to children. Cub Master Mike Wright tells me that the strength of the Pack is growing as parent-leaders step forward to help. New Hope is providing the Pack with the space needed for activities. Some parents and children are regularly with us in worship on Sundays.
And, as the Pack 475 and our children’s ministries continue to grow, more boys and girls will ride by on Taylor Road, see our sign and buildings and say, “Hey. That’s our church!”
When I visit on behalf of our church, I am always grateful for the interest people show in the kind of church we are. New Hope is a Baptist Church, but not the kind many people think of when they see the word Baptist. We distinguish ourselves by accepting diversity. We don’t push. We preach the Bible not politics. We encourage people to check us out for as long as it takes to get to know us. We encourage questions. Visitors often find it refreshing that there is freedom at New Hope to raise honest questions and take time to see what we are made of. We want them to see for themselves that we love God, love people, and are serious about following Jesus and serving the world.
As I visited this past week, I heard parents in two homes say something like this: “I just want a church in which my child can grow up. I want him/her to feel at home in church and be able to learn and have fun by participating in activities.” With the leadership of Cheryl Secunda, our Director of Children and Youth Ministries, we are developing programs that help our children to learn and grow and feel a sense of belonging.
Cub Scout Pack 475 is also a part of our ministry to children. Cub Master Mike Wright tells me that the strength of the Pack is growing as parent-leaders step forward to help. New Hope is providing the Pack with the space needed for activities. Some parents and children are regularly with us in worship on Sundays.
And, as the Pack 475 and our children’s ministries continue to grow, more boys and girls will ride by on Taylor Road, see our sign and buildings and say, “Hey. That’s our church!”
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