The Time Is Coming

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, April 2, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 21:1-17.

            One of the things about reading the Bible is that most of it is written in a very matter-of-fact tone.  We’re told what people did, and we’re told what people said.  But we’re very rarely told what people thought or how they felt.

            And with Jesus, that’s especially true.  The Bible tells us what Jesus did.  It tells us what Jesus said.  It tells us where Jesus went.  But it does not ever tell us what Jesus thought or how Jesus felt.  He obviously had thoughts and feelings, but what they were, we’re not told.  All we can do is try to infer it from the context of what happens.

            Our reading for today is one of the traditional Palm Sunday readings.  Jesus riding into Jerusalem in triumph on a donkey.  People spreading cloaks and palm branches on the road in front of Jesus, rolling out the red carpet in front of him.  A reading that many of us have heard many times before.

            But the amazing thing about it is why Jesus did this.  Listen again to verses four and five of our reading:  “This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:  ‘Say to daughter Zion, See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

            The prophet there is Zechariah, one of the Old Testament prophets.  This was part of the Jewish Bible.  Everyone would’ve known about it.  So, when Jesus told the disciples to get a donkey for Him to ride into Jerusalem on, Jesus was making the claim that He was the king.  Jesus knew that, and everyone in the crowd knew it, too.

            The reason I say that’s amazing is that most of the time, in the gospels, Jesus did not make the claim that He was the king or the Messiah.  He never denied it, obviously, because it was true.  But He never went out of His way to make the claim.  Jesus just did what He did and left it for other people to figure out that He was the Savior.  In fact, quite often, when someone said that about Jesus, He would tell them not to tell anyone else.  But now, on that first Palm Sunday, Jesus openly makes the claim.  He is the king.  He is the Messiah.  He is the Savior.  And He doesn’t care who knows it.

            It’s clear that Jesus had decided it was time.  He had told the disciples what was going to happen to Him–that He would be betrayed, He would be arrested, He would be killed, and He would rise again on the third day.  He had done as much as He could do to get the disciples ready for what was going to happen.  He had healed people.  He had given sight to the blind.  He had raised someone from the dead.  He had preached the good news.  He had done all the things the prophecies required Him to do.

            And people were choosing sides.  The crowds were flocking to Him.  The Pharisees and the other religious leaders were stepping up their efforts against Him.  They were meeting, plotting, trying to figure out how to stop Him.  People were going to have to decide, one way or another.  Either they were going to be with Jesus, or they were going to be with the Pharisees.  There was no longer a middle ground.

            And so, Jesus decides, it’s time.  It’s time for Me to actually show people who I am.  So He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, openly claiming the titles of King and Messiah and Savior.

            But that’s not all Jesus did on that first Palm Sunday.  We tend to drop the story there, but Jesus did more than just claim the titles.  He acted on them.  Jesus acted like the King and Messiah would act.  He went into the temple courts, and He threw out all the moneychangers and all the people who were selling doves to be sacrificed.  Then He sat down in the temple court and healed the blind and the lame.  Children were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”  And when the Pharisees challenged Jesus about that, He quoted a psalm to again make His claim as Messiah and King.  He said, “Have you never read, ‘from the lips of children and infants, you, Lord, have called forth Your praise.’?”

            Jesus knew the time had come.  He could no longer leave any doubt about who He was.  It was time to proclaim it openly.  People would believe it or they would not, but Jesus was stating who He was in no uncertain terms.  He was the Messiah.  He was the King.  He was the Savior.  He was the Lord.

            Every year, we celebrate Palm Sunday.  We have the kids parade around.  We wave the palm branches.  We sing “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna”.  And that’s all fine.  There’s nothing at all wrong with it.  I’m not being critical of any of that in any way.

            But in that celebration, we need to remember how serious this really was.  This was the event that set in motion, finally and irretrievably, the events that we’ll commemorate later in the week.  The Last Supper.  Jesus’ betrayal by Judas.  Jesus’ arrest.  Jesus being beaten and whipped and mocked.  Jesus being hung on a cross to die.  And of course, Jesus rising from the tomb on the third day.

            When Jesus decided the time had come, He did not just decide that for Himself.  He decided it for all the people.  And He decided it for each one of us, too.  When Jesus decided to set these events in motion, on that first Palm Sunday, He did not just decide that the time was coming for Jesus to proclaim who He was.  He also decided that the time was coming for you and me to proclaim who Jesus is, too.

            Or not.  But the time is coming when we cannot hide what we believe about Jesus Christ.  The time is coming when we cannot be “sort of” Christians.  The time is coming when we will have to openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord, the King.  Or, deny that He is.  But the time is coming when we will no longer be able to sit on the fence.  We will have to make a choice.  One way or the other.

            Now, you may think I’m talking about the country or the world with that statement, and it could certainly be interpreted that way.  Look at recent news headlines.  People have gotten into legal trouble by holding worship services that did not meet with the approval of the authorities.  A woman in London was arrested for praying silently in public.  Basic traditional Christian principles are sometimes deemed “hate speech” and censored on social media.  When we look at society, it’s not hard to see that the time is coming when we will either have to openly proclaim our belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior or deny that He is.  There will be no middle ground.

            But if you don’t have to look at the country or the world to see that the time is coming.  Because if it does not come that way, it will come for each of us in another way:  at our death.  Each of us is going to die, and each of us is going to be judged based on our faith in Jesus Christ.

            Jesus said, “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”  So, the question will be, are we ashamed of Jesus and His words?  Are we willing to proclaim openly our belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior?  Or are we going to try to hide our faith, or maybe deny it entirely, just to stay out of trouble on earth?

            Here’s the thing.  It’s easy–or at least easier–for us to openly proclaim our faith in Jesus here.  It’s easy to do it in church on Sunday morning.  The question is, do we proclaim it at other times, and in other places?  Do we openly proclaim our faith in Jesus at the convenience store?  Do we openly proclaim our faith in Jesus at the cafe?  Do we openly proclaim our faith in Jesus at the ball game?  Do we openly proclaim our faith in Jesus in the things we do as part of our everyday lives?

            Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that we all have to talk about Jesus twenty-four/seven.  I’m not saying our every word in every place should be proclaiming Jesus Christ as the Savior.  I don’t do that, as you know.  I don’t expect you to do it.  I don’t think God expects us to do it, either.

            But I do think we need to talk about Jesus more than just in church on Sunday morning.  I do think we need to find ways to proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ at other times, and in other places.  We need to find ways to let people know we believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  We can do it in person, on social media, whatever.  But we need to do it.  And we need to do it openly, in a way that shows we are not ashamed of our faith.

            In the early part of His ministry, Jesus did not proclaim who He was openly.  But eventually, the time came when He had to.  The time is coming when we will have to proclaim our faith openly, too.  And there’s no reason we should not get started now.  What better time could there be than right before Easter to proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior?  

            We have the divine Son of God as our Savior.  Let’s not be ashamed of that.  Let’s find ways to let people know that we believe that Jesus is Lord.

 

The Words of Eternal Life

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 26, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 6:60-71.

            When Jesus was on earth, he said a lot of things.  He said a lot of things we like, but he said a lot of things we don’t like.  Sometimes they’re things we don’t understand.  Sometimes they’re things that seem, well, un-Jesus-like.  Sometimes they’re things we know are right, things we know we should do, but we just would rather not have to do them.  It’s not always easy to be a follower of Jesus.

            Just to give a few examples:  “Love your enemies”.  Do we do that?  Do we even want to?  I mean, seriously.  Think of someone you would consider to be your enemy.  If there’s no one in your personal life who you think of as an enemy, then think of terrorists or murderers or people bringing fentanyl across the border or whatever.  Do you love people like that?  Do we even want to love someone like that?

            “Do good to those who hate you.”  Do we do that?  Do we even want to?  I mean, there are times when I don’t even want to do good for people I like.  Now I’m supposed to good to people who hate me?  

            “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.”  Does that even make sense?  That if someone hits us once, we should invite them to hit us again?  I mean, I could kind of understand Jesus saying don’t fight back, but don’t even do anything to protect ourselves?  Not only allow them to hit us again, but give them a target?  Why would we do that?

            And we could go on and on and on.  We say we believe in Jesus, and we do, but it’s hard to put all these things into practice.  It’s hard to actually live by the things Jesus said.  These teachings of Jesus are hard teachings.  They’re hard for us to accept.

            The thing is, that’s always been the case.  It was the case when Jesus as alive.  In our reading for tonight, Jesus has just given the crowd some hard teachings.  The crowd had a hard time accepting them.  Some of them did not accept them.  And because they could not accept Jesus’ teachings, they could not accept Jesus.  And we’re told, “Many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.”

            Jesus understood why.  He knew these were hard teachings.  He knew they were hard for people to accept.  So He turns to His best friends, the twelve disciples, and asks, “You do not want to leave, too, do you?”

            I wonder if, when Jesus asked the question, He knew the answer.  He could have–after all, Jesus is Jesus.  He’s the divine Son of God.  He may well have known what the disciples would say.

            But the way this is written, it sounds to me like Jesus did not know.  Like Jesus thought maybe the disciples would leave Him.  After all, He knew He was going to be betrayed at some point.  He knew that, at some point, they were all going to leave Him.  Maybe He wondered if it would happen now.  Maybe He thought, this could be it.  This could be the time when I’m left all alone.

            I wonder if the disciples, themselves, considered leaving.  After all, everyone else was.  It’s always tempting to join the crowd.  And not only was Jesus giving them hard teachings, following Him was a pretty hard life, really.  Some of the disciples had been making a pretty good living before they started following Jesus.  Maybe they were tempted to go back to that life.  

            But Simon Peter stepped up.  And he made the famous statement:  “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

            The decision the disciples had to make, the decision the crowd had to make, is the same decision you and I have to make.  Jesus gives us hard teachings.  Sometimes they’re hard for us to accept.  So, what are we going to do?  Are we going to leave?  Or are we going to stay with Jesus?

            Simon Peter asked “to whom shall we go?”  I wonder, to whom did the crowd go?  They left Jesus.  They had to go somewhere.  Where did they go?

            Some of them may have gone to the Pharisees, to the Rabbis, to the teachers of the law.  Some of them may have gone after false messiahs–they were some of those around back then.

            But I suspect most of them simply went back to their old lives.  They went back to what they had done before.  They went back home.  They went back to their jobs.  They went back to their families.  They did whatever they had done before they met Jesus.  

Basically, they went on with their lives as if nothing had happened.  And for them, nothing really had.  Maybe they thought about their time following Jesus once in a while.  Maybe they even had happy memories of it.  But it had not changed them in any way.  Following Jesus had made no impact on their lives whatsoever.

Essentially, those are the options we have, too.  We can find someone else to follow.  Or, we can just go about our business.  We can move along with our lives.  Maybe we think about Jesus once in a while.  Maybe we even come to church sometimes.  Maybe thinking of Jesus even gives us happy feelings.  But we don’t really allow Jesus to make any impact on our lives.

That’s a tempting choice.  It’s a choice a lot of people make.  But if we make that choice, we forget about the next thing Simon Peter said.  He said of Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life.”

Jesus has the words of eternal life.  No one else does.  We cannot find eternal life anywhere else.  We cannot find eternal life by following someone else.  We cannot find eternal life by just moving along with our lives.  We cannot find eternal life at home, or at our job.  We cannot find eternal life with our families.  That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with doing our jobs or loving our families–we should do that.  But doing that is not going to give us eternal life.  We can only find eternal life through following Jesus.

The crowd made the easy choice.  Simon Peter and the other disciples made the hard choice.  How did they do it?  How did they manage to make the hard choice to follow Jesus, rather than the easy choice of just going back home?

Because they truly believed what Simon Peter said.  “We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

If we truly believe that Jesus is the Holy One of God, then we can make the hard choice to follow Jesus.  Because we know that it’s really not that hard of a choice.  It may be a hard choice in the short term.  It may require us to do things we’d rather not do in the short term.  But ultimately, it’s going to all be worth it.  

If we truly believe that Jesus is the Holy One of God, then we know He has the words of eternal life.  And if we truly believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life, then there’s nothing more important that hearing those words and following those words.  If we truly want eternal life, there is nowhere else to go but to Jesus.

In turning away, the crowd gave up their chance for eternal life.  That’s a sad thing to think about.  The chance for eternal life was right there, in front of them.  And they turned away from it.

That’s why Jesus says, so many times, that we need to hold firm to our faith until the end.  The crowd was following Jesus.  They thought they had faith.  But when it got hard, they turned away.  Their faith was not strong enough to keep them following Jesus when the choice got hard.  They had some faith, but they could not hold firm to their faith to the end.

What will our choice be?  Will we follow the crowd?  Will we follow Jesus for a while, thinking we have faith, but turn away when things get hard?  Or will we be like the disciples?  Will we trust that Jesus has the words of eternal life?  Will we believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God?  Will we hold firm to our faith until the end?

Jesus wants us to follow.  But He will let us go, if we choose to leave.  I’m sure Jesus was very sad when He saw the crowds leaving, turning away.  After all, Jesus knew, better than anyone, what the crowds were giving up.  He knew they were turning down their chance for eternal life.  

I wonder if He was tempted to do something to try to bring them back.  He may have even been tempted to soften His message somehow, to make it easier to accept.  But He knew He could not.  It would not work, anyway.  If He changed His words in any way, they would no longer be the words of eternal life.  And there would be no reason for people to follow Him.

Following Jesus is often not easy.  But if we want eternal life, we have nowhere else to go.  Let’s hold firm to our faith until the end.  Let’s believe, and know, that Jesus is the Holy One of God.  And let’s listen to, and live by, His words of eternal life.

 

Love and Anger

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on March 26, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Mark 8:31-38.

            While Jesus was on earth, he was fully divine, but also fully human.  We say that, and we believe it, but I think sometimes we don’t think about all the implications of it.

            What I mean is that a lot of times, we seem to have this image of Jesus as this nice, calm, peaceful, easy-going guy.  Nothing ever got Him upset, nothing ever got Him angry.  He just accepted whatever happened and went about His business, healing people and spreading peace and love.

            But if we think about it, we know that image is not true.  After all, this is the guy who called the Pharisees “vipers” and “fools” and “blind guides”.  This is the guy who ran around the temple courts chasing the moneychangers with a whip.  The fully human Jesus had all the emotions that other humans have.  He could get upset.  He could get angry.  And we have another example of that in our Bible reading for today.

            Jesus is talking to the disciples.  He’s telling them what the future holds for Him on earth, what His fate is going to be.  Mark tells us Jesus “spoke plainly” about this.  In other words, this was not one of those times where Jesus was telling parables or using figures of speech.  Jesus was not being mysterious or enigmatic here.  Jesus was telling them right out.  I’m going to suffer, I’m going to be killed, and in three days I will rise again.

            The disciples did not want to hear that, of course.  And Peter, the leader of the disciples, challenges Jesus over it.  And Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan!”

            When you think about it, “Satan” would be about the worst name Jesus could possibly call you, right?  I mean, Satan is the biggest enemy Jesus has.  Satan is the one Jesus has to defeat.  You’d rather have Jesus call you just about anything than to have Him call you “Satan”.  You’d rather have Jesus call you a stupid idiot.  You’d rather have Jesus call you a moron.  You’d rather have Jesus start calling you four-letter names!  Anything but to call you Satan.

            And the way this is written, Jesus did not say this in a nice way.  This was not something Jesus said in a kindly tone of voice.  This was said with an exclamation point.  Jesus was not happy with Peter.  He was angry with Peter, and He let Peter know it.

            Now, you can understand why.  These things Jesus is telling the disciples cannot have been easy things for Him to say.  Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him, and He knew it had to happen, but that does not mean He was looking forward to it.  Nobody would, would they?  Would you?  Jesus was going to be betrayed by one of His closest friends.  He was going to be tortured.  He was going to be humiliated.  And then He was going to die in an incredibly painful way.  Yes, He knew He would be resurrected, but He still had to go through all that other stuff first.

            Jesus was going to go through all this, but He knew it was not going to be easy.  He would need the support of His friends.  And instead of support, here’s one of His closest friends, the leader of all His friends, arguing with Him about it.  Telling Him no, it’s not going to happen this way.  As if Peter knew more about what was going to happen than He, Jesus, the divine Son of God, knew.  You can understand why Jesus got upset with Peter here.

            But at the same time, think of it from Peter’s point of view.  Again, he’s the leader of the disciples.  Jesus was the one who had made him the leader, really.  Jesus was the one who had changed his name from Simon to Peter.  Jesus was the one who had told him that he, Peter, would be the rock on which Jesus was going to build his church.

            And from Peter’s perspective, he was only trying to help Jesus.  He was trying to tell Jesus he did not have to be killed, that Peter and the other disciples would be there for him and protect him and help him.  He was trying to tell Jesus that he was on Jesus’ side.  And for his trouble, Jesus calls him the worst name Jesus can call him.  Jesus calls him “Satan”.

            Peter must have felt about this big when that happened.  He must have been really hurt by it.  And of course, this happened in the presence of all the other disciples.  How do you think they reacted?  I would think they’d have been shocked.  They all respected Peter.  They probably all agreed with Peter on this.  And then to hear Jesus call him “Satan”?  They must have been stunned.

            But here’s the thing.  Jesus may have been upset with Peter at that moment.  He may even have been mad at Peter at that moment.  But despite that, Jesus never stopped loving Peter.

            Does that sound strange to you?  That Jesus could be mad at Peter and still love him?  It should not.  Think about it.  Think about the people in your life whom you love the most.  Have you ever been mad at them?  I think you probably have.  And they’ve probably been mad at you, too.  Again, anger is a human emotion.  As human beings, we feel it sometimes.  But that does not mean we don’t still feel love for them.

            Eventually, the anger fades.  Maybe we apologize.  Maybe they apologize.  Maybe we both apologize.  Maybe we just don’t say anything about it, we just move past it and pretend it never happened.  But somehow, in some way, we find a way to resolve the situation and keep loving each other.  Because the love we feel is greater than the momentary anger we felt.

            We don’t know how Jesus and Peter resolved this.  Mark drops the story there.  Maybe Peter apologized.  Maybe Jesus apologized, or at least explained things to Peter.  Maybe they never talked about it again.  But somehow, they resolved it, and Jesus kept loving Peter.  We know Jesus kept loving Peter because the next thing Mark tells us is that six days later, Jesus took Peter, along with James and John, up to the mountain for the transfiguration.  He allowed Peter to see Him in His glory, along with Moses and Elijah, returned to earth.  Out of all the people Jesus knew, even out of all the twelve disciples, Jesus chose Peter to be one of the three to see that.  Clearly, Jesus did not truly believe Peter to be Satan, or he would not have given Peter that honor.

            But while Jesus did not believe Peter was Satan, he was trying to teach him some things.  And one of the things he was trying to teach Peter is that God was in control and Peter was not.  Peter might not have wanted these things to happen.  Jesus, himself, may have wished these things did not have to happen.  But he knew this was the way God had determined that these things had to happen.  God’s way was best, even if Peter did not understand why, and it was not for Peter to say otherwise.  God was in control, not Peter.

            So why have I gone through all this?  Well, have you ever had a time when it felt like God was mad at you?  I think a lot of people feel that way, at one time or another.  Maybe you have no idea why.  Maybe you feel like you’ve done the best you can to serve God, and it still feels like God must be mad at you.  Or, maybe you feel like God has every right to be mad at you.  Maybe you think of things you’ve said or done that you think would give God every right to be mad at you.

            If you’ve ever felt that, know this:  God loves you.  No matter how it may feel, God loves you.  God will never stop loving you.  Whatever you may have said, whatever you may have done, God still loves you.  Completely, totally, and unconditionally.

            Now, it may be that you’ve said or done some things you need to ask for forgiveness for.  We all have.  That’s part of being human, too.  You may need to repent of your sins and ask for God’s mercy.  We all do.  And I’d encourage all of us, including myself, to do that.

            And it also may be, as with Jesus and Peter, that God is trying to teach you some things.  And it may be, just as it was with Peter, that one of those things is that God is in control and we are not.  There may be things happening that we wish would not happen.  But sometimes, those things are out of our control.  We need to turn them over to God, and trust that God will take care of them.  We need to trust that, when we do that, things will go the way God wants them to go, even if that’s not the way we want them to go.  God’s way is best, even if we don’t understand why, and it’s not for us to say otherwise.  God is in control, not us.

            But through all of that, God still loves you.  And God will stay with you.  God will not abandon you.  And if we stay with God, God will show us His glory.  Maybe not the way Peter saw it, but in some way.  And if it does not happen on earth, it will surely happen in heaven.

            No matter what may happen at the moment, God loves you.  God will always love you.  No matter what you have said, and no matter what you have done, God will always love you.  Completely, totally, and unconditionally. 

 

The Way to Peace

The message given in the Wednesday night Lent service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 22, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Romans 8:1-17.

            We’re all God’s children.  You believe that, right?  Everyone says that.  All of us, each and every one, is one of God’s children.  There’s even an old hymn, The Family of God, that starts out, “We’re all God’s children.”  It’s one of the most basic things to say, that we’re all God’s children.

            But it’s not what the Apostle Paul says in our reading for tonight.  Paul does not say “we’re all God’s children”.  Paul says, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

            Why would Paul say that?  Well, look at what Paul goes on to say.  Paul says that if we are children, then we are heirs.  Heirs of God.  Co-heirs with Christ.  If we are led by the Spirit of God, God elevates us to the same level as Jesus Christ Himself.  Jesus is the Son of God, but you are a Son or Daughter of God, too.  And I’m a Son of God, too.

            If.  If we are led by the Spirit of God.  By implication, then, those who are not led by the Spirit of God are not children of God.  Now, that does not mean God does not love them.  It does not mean God just ignores them.  But it does mean that they are not elevated to that same level as Jesus Christ.  The only way we get that status is to be children of God, and the only way we get to be children of God is if we are led by the Spirit of God.

            Now, maybe it sounds strange to some of us to say that there are human beings who are not children of God.  Maybe it even sounds hateful or offensive.  But I want to remind you that I’m not the one saying it.  The Apostle Paul is.  I’m just telling you what he said.  If anyone has a problem with it, that problem is with the Apostle Paul, not with me.

            But here’s the good news.  We may not all be children of God, but we all can be.  Each one of us has the chance to be a child of God.  All we need to do is allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God.  If we are, then we are, then we are children of God.  So, in effect, God allows us to choose whether to be His children or not.  

            Of course, making that choice is not as easy as saying the words.  We also have to live them.  That’s the hard part, of course.  But Paul tells us how to do that.

            Here’s what he says:  “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God, nor can it do so…You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.”

            So, it’s a choice.  We live according to the flesh, or we live in accordance with the Spirit.  Our minds are set on what the flesh desires, or our minds are set on what the Spirit desires.  On the one hand is death, on the other hand is life and peace.

            It sounds simple.  And, in a way, it is.  It is simple.  It’s just not always easy.

            Now, we need to go back and unpack a couple of things.  Saying that we should not live according to the flesh does not mean that we should ignore our basic human needs.  We have to eat to live, and I believe God wants us to live our lives on earth to their natural span.  Around here, we need to have a warm place to live if we’re going to survive, and again, I believe God wants us to do that.  God did put a basic survival instinct into human beings, and God did that for a reason.  Taking care of our basic human needs is not living according to the flesh.  It’s doing what we need to do to survive.

            Living according to the Spirit is not ignoring basic human needs.  What it is, is a mindset.  It’s an emphasis.  It’s putting God first, ahead of everything else.  Ahead of our own wants.  Ahead of our jobs.  Ahead even of our families.  It means making God the absolute number one thing in our lives.  Period.

            Now, again, that does not mean we should ignore our jobs or ignore our families.  Most of the time, there won’t be a conflict between those things.  In fact, I really cannot imagine a situation when God would ask me to choose between Wanda and Him.  But if it ever happened, I would need to choose God.  For a Christian, God needs to be first, above anything and everything else.  That’s what living in the realm of the Spirit is about.  That’s what having our minds governed by the Spirit means.

            So, what is your mind governed by?  What is my mind governed by?  Are our minds governed by the desires of the flesh?  Or are they governed by the desires of the Spirit?

            If we take this seriously, these are questions we need to think about.  And they’re not always easy to answer.  That’s true for a couple of reasons.  One is, as we’ve said before, human beings are great rationalizers.  We are really good at coming up with reasons why we should do the things we want to do, and just as good at coming up with reasons why we should not do the things we don’t want to do.  It can be really easy for us to convince ourselves that we’re being governed by the desires of the Spirit, when in fact we’re being governed by the desires of the flesh.

But another reason is that it’s not always easy to tell whether we’re being governed by the desires of the flesh or by the desires of the Spirit.  It’s not like we can make a list of activities and say, “These are the things that are desires of the flesh, and these are things that are desires of the Spirit.  Do the things in the second list, don’t do the things in the first, and you’ve got the golden ticket to heaven.”  It does not work like that.

            It would be easier if it did, right?  Well, probably not.  After all, that’s what all that Old Testament law was all about.  Do this, don’t do that, and you go to heaven.  And it was a burden.

            And that’s one of the best ways we can tell if we’re being governed by the desires of the Spirit.  When we do things for God, do they feel like a burden?  Are we doing them just because we feel like we have to, rather than because we want to serve God and please God?  Do we feel God working with us and through us as we do those things?  Or do we feel like it’s a slog, something we have to do, but something that we take no joy or pleasure or satisfaction in doing?

            Paul says that the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  If we’re living in accordance with the desires of the Spirit, we’ll be at peace.

            And that’s true no matter what our circumstances are.  Now, that does not mean everything will go the way we want it to go.  It does not mean we’ll never have problems.  It does not mean we won’t have times of sadness or pain.  That’s not what peace is about.  

            Peace is about being able to handle those times.  And that’s what living in accordance with the desires of the Spirit does for us.  That’s what having our minds governed by the Spirit does.  It gives us the confidence that, whatever happens, God will be with us.  Whatever happens, God will help us through.  And whatever happens, no matter how bad it may seem, the promise God made in the Bible will eventually be kept–that God will work it for the good of those who love Him.

            A mind governed by the flesh cannot give us that kind of peace.  The things of the flesh may make us feel good, for a while.  They may make us happy, for a while.  But they cannot bring us peace.  Those good feelings eventually fade away.  And so we look for something else that will make us feel good.  And when that feeling fades, we look for something else.  And then something else.  We’re constantly looking for something that can give us that temporary good feeling, that temporary happiness.  But none of it ever brings us true peace.  True peace can only come from a life lived in accordance with the desires of the Spirit.  True peace can only come from God.

            I think all of us want to feel that peace.  And maybe you already do, I don’t know.  But if you don’t, then I encourage you to put your trust in God.  Trust God enough to make Him the number one thing in your life.  Trust God enough to let your mind be governed by the Spirit.  Put the desires of the flesh behind you, and trust God enough to live your life in accordance with the desires of the Spirit.

            It may not be easy.  But the peace we will get from trusting God will be more than worth it.

 

What We Want Most

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 19, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Philippians 4:4-9.

            What’s the one thing you’d like to have most in life?

            Well, there was a survey in Huffington Post a few years ago that asked about that.  The specific question was “If you could say in one word what you want more of in life, what would that be?”  And you know what?  What most of us want is not more material possessions.  You know what we do want?  The top ten answers to this question were things like happiness, freedom, joy, balance, things like that.  What they all amount to, really is peace.  All of us want to be at peace:  with ourselves, with others, with the world.  With God.  We want to be at peace with our lives.

            It’s understandable why we’d want that.  But the question is, why is it so hard for us to get it?  Why is it so hard for us to feel at peace in our lives?  

            Well, you know the answer to that as well as I do.  It’s hard for us to be at peace because we’re human beings living in a human world.  And anything that humans are involved with is less than perfect, sometimes a lot less than perfect.  And so, we have worries.  We worry about having enough money.  We worry about our health.  We worry about our loved ones--spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, lots of others.  We worry about how things are going in the country.  We worry about how things are going in the church.  We worry, we worry, we worry, about these and a hundred other things.  And all those worries keep us from feeling at peace.

            If you think about all those worries I mentioned, plus any other worries you may have, what’s the one thing they have in common?  If you were to combine all these worries into one thing that we worry about, what would it be?

            The future, right?  The one thing that all the things we worry about have in common, the one thing that all the things that take away our peace have in common, is that we’re worried about the future.  

            Well, I guess that makes sense.  I mean, it would not make much sense to worry about the past.  That’s all over and done with.  We already know what’s happened, for good of for bad.  There’d be no point in worrying about that.  What we’re really worried about is the future.  What if I lose my job?  What if there’s a drought?  What if there’s a flood?  What if I get a serious illness?  What if something happens to my spouse or my kids?  What if something happens to my grandchildren or my parents?  What if, what if, what if?  We’re worried about all sorts of things that might happen, or may happen, or could happen.  And all those worries keep us from feeling at peace.

            Now, don’t get me wrong.  I do this, too.  But why?  Why are we so worried about the future?  And why do we let those worries keep us from feeling at peace?

We’re in the season of Lent, and a lot of people decide they’re going to give up something for Lent.  What if we could give up worrying?  That would really make us really happy, I think, if we could just do it.  In fact, according to that survey, it would give us the one thing we want most in life.  So, in this time of Lent, let’s think about that.  Let’s think about giving up worry and replacing it with peace.

            Why do we worry about the future?  Well, I suppose it’s because the future is unknown.  The past is known.  The present is known.  But the future is not.  Every day, when we get out of bed, we’re stepping into the unknown.  And that means anything could happen--that’s pretty much the definition of the unknown.  And because anything could happen, we start thinking about all the bad things that could happen.  And we worry.

            But again, why do we do that?  When we think about the fact that anything could happen, why do we immediately think about all the bad things that could happen?  After all, if anything could happen, that means there are all kinds of good things that could happen, right?  But too often, those are not the things we think about.  We think about all the bad things that could happen.  And we worry about them.

            Now, I want to make one thing clear.  There’s a difference between worrying about the future and preparing for the future.  I’m not saying that we should go around never giving a thought to what might happen next.  We should be prepared for things that could happen.  In fact, in a lot of ways, preparing for the future is the exact opposite of worrying about the future.  There’s no need to worry about what might happen if we’re prepared for it.  If we’re prepared, we know that when something happens, we’ll be able to handle it.  We’ll know what we’re going to do.  Even if it’s something really bad, we’ll know what we’re going to do about it.  We don’t have to worry about something when we’re prepared.

           But here’s the thing.  When we think about preparing for the future, what do we think about?  Usually, we think about things we can do, right?  If the subject is money, we think of things we can do to make more or to spend less, or both.  We try to get a better job, or to make better investments.  We think of things we could do without, or ways we could buy things cheaper.  If the subject is health, we try to eat better, or to get more exercise, or to get regular checkups at the doctor’s office.  If the subject is our loved ones, we try to do things to take care of them, to help them, to make sure they know they’re loved.

            Now, understand, there’s nothing wrong with any of those things.  Those are all good things to do.  But in all of our preparations, there are too many times we leave something out.  Or, rather, someone.  God.

           I assume that most of us here, maybe all of us here, would say we trust God.  But do we really?  Do we really trust God to take care the future?  Or do we think we have to do it all ourselves?  And here’s an even more important question:  do we truly live our lives as if we trust God to take care of the future?  Or do we live our lives as if we have to do it all ourselves?

            Again, we should do what we can to prepare for the future.  But if we’ve done all we can do, and we’re still worrying about the future, then it seems to me that we really don’t trust God as much as we should.  We don’t trust God to take care of the things that you and I cannot take care of.

            Now, again, I’m as guilty of this as anyone.  Maybe I say that too much, but I never want anyone to think I’m up here acting like I’m somehow better than you, that I have this all figured out and that you people need to shape up.  The reason I can understand these things is that I do them as much as anybody.  I worry about all kinds of things.  And I don’t trust God as much as I should.

            Trusting God is really the key to it.  Listen again to what Paul says in the letter to the Philippians:  “The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

            If we want to have peace in our lives, Paul tells us what to do.  Present your requests to God.  Ask God to take care of the situation, whatever the situation may be.  There’s no situation that’s too big for God to handle.  And there’s also no situation that’s too small for God to handle.  That’s one of the really cool things about God--we can go to God with the big, major issues, but we can also go to God with the little things, the things that might not seem important to anyone else, but they’re important to us.  Whatever you’re worried about, take it to God.  God will hear, and God will understand.

            How do we do that?  With prayer.  And when I say prayer, I’m not talking about a quick five or ten second prayer.  There’s nothing wrong with quick prayers, but they should not be all we do.  If we’ve got something that’s really worrying us, and we want to give it to God, we need to spend some time.  We need to tell God all about it.  Tell God everything about the situation and why we’re so worried about it.  Not because God does not know--God knows everything.  But if we want to be at peace, we need to tell it to God.  We need to give God all of it.  That’s the only way we’re going to get rid of the burden of worry.

            Remember what else Paul says:  “The Lord is near.”  God is near.  And we may know that in our heads.  But the only way we’ll feel God’s presence in our hearts is if we spend some time with God.  That’s why, again, we need to tell God all about the situation, whatever the situation is.  When we tell God all about it, when we spend some time with God, we can feel God’s presence in a way that we cannot feel it in a quick five or ten second prayer.  And it’s only by feeling God’s presence that we can truly turn our problems over to God.  And it’s only be turning our worries over to God that we can stop worrying about them and be at peace.

            So that’s our challenge.  Whatever we’re worried about, let’s take it to God.  Whether it’s a big thing or a small thing or something in-between, take it to God.  Spend some serious time in prayer.  And trust God with it.  Whatever “it” is, trust God with it.  Feel God’s presence with us, and trust God with it.  If we can do that, we’ll have the one thing that everyone wants.  We’ll have peace, the peace that comes from trusting in God.

The Most Important Freedom

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, March 19, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 8:31-36.

One of the things Americans cherish most is our freedom.  And that’s a good thing, of course.  People should be free.  God wants us to be free.  That’s why God created us the way He did, with the ability to think for ourselves and to make choices about how to live our lives.  God wants us to live our lives with freedom.

            But as Christians, we need to be careful about that freedom and how we exercise it.  Because society has a very different view of freedom than we should have as Christian.  Society often claims that “freedom” means “I can do whatever I want to.”  And in fact, society often takes that further, saying that freedom means “I can do whatever I want to with no consequences.”  And these days, we see people taking it further still, saying that freedom means “I can do whatever I want regardless of the law and regardless of how many people might be hurt.”  That’s not freedom.  That’s anarchy.  And you cannot find a society that fell into anarchy and retained its freedom.

            For a Christian, freedom does not mean “I can do whatever I want to.”  For a Christian, freedom means “I can do whatever God wants me to do.”  Freedom means living a life free from slavery to sin.  

            In our Bible reading for today, Jesus said, “The truth shall set you free.”  The truth, like freedom, has become kind of a floating concept these days.  Society tells us that there is no such thing as “the truth”.  We all have our truth.  I have my truth, and you have your truth.  You have no right to tell me my truth is not true, because it’s my truth.  Even if “my truth” has no basis in reality, you still have to accept it and respect it, because it’s “my truth”.

            That’s not a Biblical concept.  Jesus believed there is “the truth”.  In fact, Jesus said he is the truth.  That’s why the truth sets us free--because Jesus is the truth, and it’s Jesus who sets us free.

            “The truth shall set you free” is quoted so much it has almost become a cliché.  It’s a true statement, of course.  But to get the full meaning of what Jesus is saying, we need to look at the full quote.  Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

            So, the truth will only set us free if we know the truth.  We know the truth by being Jesus’ disciples.  And we can only be Jesus’ disciples if we hold to Jesus’ teaching.  So, if we want to truly be set free, we need to hold to the teaching of Jesus.

            Jesus made that point a second time in this reading.  He said, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”  The only way we can avoid being slaves to sin is to be set free from our slavery to sin by Jesus.  We are set free from that slavery by holding to the teaching of Jesus, by living our lives the way Jesus told us to.

            What are those teachings?  Some would reduce it to a single word:  “love”.  The teaching of Jesus is love.  Therefore, if we always act with love, we will hold to Jesus’ teaching, we will be Jesus’ disciples, and we will be set free from the slavery of sin.

            There’s truth in that of course.  Jesus did tell us to love.  Love the Lord our God.  Love our neighbors as ourselves.  Love our enemies.  It’s absolutely true that love is an important part of the teaching of Jesus.

            The trouble is that, like truth, love has also become a floating concept these days.  We’re told that, if we cite the Bible and say that certain behaviors are wrong, we’re being too judgmental and not showing love.  We’re told that, if we don’t accept behaviors that violate God’s teaching, as laid out in the Bible, then we’re using the Bible as a weapon, and not showing love.  And in fact, we’re told that it’s not enough to accept those behaviors, we need to applaud them.  And again, if we don’t, we’re showing hate, and not love.

            That is not what Jesus said.  You cannot find a place in the Bible where Jesus embraced an “anything goes” philosophy.  Jesus did not say “anything you want to do is okay.”  Yes, Jesus showed love to people who had all kinds of lifestyles.  But Jesus did not tell them, “Do anything you want.”  Jesus did not tell them, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”  Jesus would not have needed to come to earth, Jesus would not have had to die to save us from the consequences of our sins, if anything and everything we wanted to do was okay.  That was not Jesus’ message.  Jesus’ message was, “Go and sin no more.”  Jesus said he had come to call sinners to repentance.  Jesus’ message was for us to repent of our sins, and follow Him.

            We do not do anyone a favor by telling them it’s right to do things that are against God’s teachings.  Yes, we get forgiveness of our sins from faith in Jesus, but Jesus himself said he did not come to abolish God’s laws.  Instead, he said he came to fulfill them.  In fact, Jesus said that not one letter, not the slightest stroke of a pen, would disappear from the law until all the things written in that law came to pass.

            But, in thinking about that, there’s another of Jesus’ teachings we need to remember.  Jesus told us that, before we start telling someone else about the speck in their eye, we need to take the log out of our own eye.  In other words, before we start telling someone else about their sins, we’d better make sure our own life is in order.  We’d better repent of our own sins, and ask God for forgiveness, before we tell other people they need to do that.  We’d better go and sin no more ourselves, before we start saying that to anyone else.

            Now, most of us have heard that teaching before.  And we know the truth of it.  But--it’s so much easier to see other people’s sins that it is to see our own, isn’t it?  It’s so easy to see what other people are doing wrong than it is to see what we do wrong.  It’s so easy to hold others to a strict standard of accountability, while at the same time making excuses for all the mistakes we make, all the sins we commit, all the times we fail to do what God wants us to do.

            And again, I’m as guilty of this as anyone.  I am not pointing a finger at you.  Or, if I am, I have all the other fingers pointing back at me.  

            It’s not easy to see ourselves as we truly are.  Our pride, our arrogance, our ego, our self-centeredness, those things all get in the way.  In other words, our own sinful nature gets in the way.  Our sinful nature tries to make us focus our attention on other people’s sins, while making excuses for us to ignore our own sins.

            This is not something we can do by ourselves.  Now, certainly, we need to do our part.  But we also have to allow the Lord to do the Lord’s part.  The last line of our reading for today says, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  

            The truth sets us free.  The Son sets us free.  So the Son--Jesus--is the truth.  We know that truth when we follow Jesus, when we do the things Jesus said to do.

            So, I invite each of us--most definitely including me--to look at our lives and how we live them.  Are we truly following Jesus?  Are we loving our neighbors as ourselves?  Are we loving our enemies?  Are we praying for those who persecute us?  Are we forgiving those who have sinned against us?  Are we repenting of our sins?  Are we loving the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength?  Are we putting our trust in God, regardless of the circumstances?  Are we staying faithful to God, not because we want God to do something for us in return, but because staying faithful to God is the right thing to do?

            We could go on and on with questions like that.  And I don’t mean them to sound accusatory.  I am not trying to imply that anyone here is not doing those things.  Each of us needs to answer those questions for ourselves.  I need to answer them for myself.  

            I encourage you to take some time with those questions.  And I need to take some time with them, too.  Let’s think about them.  Let’s pray about them.  Because those questions are not easy.  And again, it can be very hard for us to see ourselves as we truly are.  We need the Lord’s help to do that.  But asking these questions will do us no good if we don’t do everything we can to answer them honestly.

            And if we answer them honestly, and we’re not satisfied with our answers, we need to do something about that.  It can be easy to make excuses about that, too.  It can be easy to convince ourselves that, even if we have faults, even if we are sinners, we’re basically doing okay, and we don’t need to really change anything.  I know how easy it is to convince ourselves of that, because I’ve done it many times.  And of course, if we do convince that we don’t need to change, then we won’t change.  We’ll continue living in our sins.

            Jesus wants to set us free from our sins.  And He will, if we follow his teachings.  So let’s ask Jesus to help us look at ourselves in the light of His truth.  Let’s ask Jesus help us truly follow Him, and live lives that show we follow Him.

            It’s fine for us to celebrate our freedom as Americans.  But as Christians, it’s even more important that we celebrate our freedom from sin.  Through faith in Jesus, we can celebrate that most important freedom.

 

The Potter and the Clay

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 12, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Jeremiah 18:1-11.

            Have you ever wondered what it would be like to get a message from God?

            Maybe some of you have gotten messages from God.  There are times when I’ve thought I have.  Now, I’ve never heard a voice thundering from heaven, the way it happens in the movies.  But there have been times when I thought God was giving me a message in one way or another.

            Because that’s the thing.  God has all kinds of ways of giving us messages.  Sometimes it can be a voice, either an external voice or a voice inside our heads.  Sometimes it can be an inner feeling, a sense that God’s Holy Spirit is prompting us to do something.  Sometimes God uses other people to give us a message.  God’s ways of giving us messages are limited only by God’s creativity, and God’s creativity is completely unlimited.  So God can give us a message in any way God chooses.  And it’s up to us to be alert and recognize the message God gives us.

            In our reading for tonight, God has a message for Jeremiah.  Now, God had given Jeremiah messages before.  God had spoken directly to Jeremiah.  But this time, God says, I don’t want to just use words to give you my message.  I want to give you a demonstration.  So go down to the potter’s house.

            Now, the potter’s house was simply the place where someone, a potter, created pottery.  Pots, cups, bowls, whatever.  Have you ever watched a potter at work?  If not in person, you may have seen a video someplace.  It’s really pretty fascinating.  They start out with just this blob of clay.  It does not look like anything.  And they work with it, and they put it on a wheel, and they spin the wheel, and they shape it, and they keep working with it, and eventually this formless lump of clay becomes something useful.  And in fact, sometimes, it becomes something beautiful.

            God sends Jeremiah down to watch the potter at work.  And God says to Jeremiah, here’s the deal.  The potter, that’s Me.  The clay, that’s the people of Israel.  So what you need to know, and what you need to make sure the people of Israel know, is that I can make of the people of Israel anything I choose to, because I’m God.

            Now God gave this message to Jeremiah as a warning to the people of Israel.  The people of Israel had come to think of themselves as God’s Chosen People.  And there was truth in that, but they had come to believe that this meant they could do no wrong.  They thought that they could do anything they wanted, that God would protect them no matter what, because they were God’s Chosen People.  God wanted to remind them that God was not obligated to protect them no matter what.  They would only be God’s Chosen People if they continued to honor God and follow God.  If they abandoned God, God would be free to choose someone else.  God had created them, just as a potter creates something out of clay, and God could destroy them if God chose.

            But as I was thinking about this passage this week, it seems to me that there are message for us that go beyond that.  This analogy of God to a potter and to us as the clay works on at least a couple more levels for us.

            For one thing, it reminds us that God is the Creator.  Just like a potter has a plan for what he’s going to create when he starts creating, God has a plan when God creates each of us.  God knows what it is that God wants each one of us to be.  And as we go through our lives, God keeps working on us.  God keeps molding us, keeps shaping us. God keeps working to make us into what God had in mind for us to be when God created us.

            Now, of course, the analogy breaks down a little bit, because the clay has no power to resist what the potter does.  You and I do have the power to resist God.  Now don’t take that the wrong way.  You and I are not more powerful than God.  But God allows us to resist God if we so choose.  God will keep working with us.  God will keep trying to mold us and shape us.  Even when we’ve gotten all wobbly and unsightly, God will keep trying to bring us back to what God wants us to be.  But, unlike the potter with the clay, God refuses to force us.  God will allow us to resist if that’s what we choose to do.

            But there’s one other thing about God being the potter and us being the clay.  A potter is a skilled craftsman.  And one of the things that’s fascinating about watching a potter at work is that no two pieces of pottery are exactly alike.  They may be similar, but they are not the same.  And in fact, the potter does not even have the goal of making two pieces of pottery that are exactly alike.  The potter wants each piece of pottery to be different and special and unique.  The potter sees the differences even when the lumps of clay are still just lumps of clay.  To you and me, a lump of clay just looks like a lump of clay.  But not to a master craftsman like a potter.  To a master potter, each lump of clay looks a little bit different.  

A potter can look at that lump of clay and see things in it that no one else can see.  The potter knows things about that lump of clay that no one else knows.  And before the potter even starts to work on it, the potter can see exactly what that lump of clay should be.  All of the ways it’s the same as the others, and all of the ways it’s different.  All the things that make that lump of clay unique.  And all the time the potter is working on that lump of clay, all the time the potter is shaping it and molding it, the potter keeps that vision in mind.

That’s how it is with us and God.  God never creates any two people to be the same.  We may be similar in some ways, but no two people are exactly the same.  God does not want us to be the same.  God wants each of us to different and special and unique.  After all, God had told Jeremiah earlier, at Jeremiah Chapter One Verse Five, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

God had a plan for Jeremiah before Jeremiah was even conceived.  Before Jeremiah was even beginning to be formed in the womb, God saw exactly what Jeremiah should be.  God saw all the ways Jeremiah would be like everyone else, but God also saw the ways Jeremiah would be different.  And all through Jeremiah’s life, as God was molding and shaping Jeremiah, God kept that vision in mind, so that Jeremiah could be what God had planned him to be.

God has a plan for you, too.  And God has a plan for me.  Before any of us was even formed in the womb, God had a plan for each of us.  God sees all the ways were like other people, but God also sees all the ways were different.  And all through our lives, as God molds us and shapes us, God keeps that vision in mind, so we can be what God has planned us to be.

Now, that all sounds really good.  But here’s the question:  do you believe it?

Take a look at your life.  Can you see God at work?  Can you see God molding you and shaping you?  Can you see God working to make you into the person God has planned you to be?  Can you see that your life is following God’s plan?  Do you even believe that God has a plan for your life?

As I look at my life, there have been times when I thought God was at work in my life, and there have been times when I did not.  I can tell you that it’s a lot easier for me to see God’s plan for my life now, when I’m sixty-four, than it was when I was fourteen, or when I was twenty-four, or even when I was forty-four.  There have been plenty of times when I wondered what God was doing in my life, or if God was even doing anything at all.  I can look back on it now, now that I’ve seen how some of the things I was dealing with turned out, and see that God was at work, that God was still molding me and shaping me.  I can see it now, but I often could not see it at the time.

If that’s you, I want to encourage you to hang in there.  Spend some time in prayer.  Try to stay alert and see if God might be giving you a message in some way.  But until you get that message, don’t give up.  Keep doing the best you can to love God and to follow God and to serve God.  Be patient.  God is often at work in ways we don’t realize at the time.  Keep trying, keep praying, and don’t give up on God.

But here’s the other thing.  It’s true that, at age sixty-four, I’ve been able to see how some things have turned out.  But not all of them.  There are things that have not turned out yet.  God is still at work on me.  God is still molding me and shaping me.  God is not finished with me yet.  And God is not finished with you yet, either.  God continues to work on us all our lives.

For over twenty years, I was a lawyer.  For about seventeen years now, I’ve been a pastor.  Does God have something else in mind for me?  I don’t know, but I suspect the answer is yes.  Because the one thing I know is that as long as we’re here on this earth, God has reasons for us to be here.  God never stops molding us and shaping us as long as we’re here.

I asked you to take a look at your life.  As you do, keep that in mind.  God is not finished with you yet.  God is continuing to work on you.  Maybe you have something else in your plan.  Maybe you don’t.  But our plans are not what’s important.  God’s plans are.  God is still molding you and shaping you, and God will continue to do that as long as you’re here on earth.

If there’s something else God wants you to do, God will let you know.  Be alert, so you can hear God’s message when it comes.  But if it does not come, keep doing your best to serve God, to love God, and to stay faithful to God.  God knew you before you were even born.  God knows everything you’ve done.  God knows you now.  And God will know you in the future.  God created you to be special and unique, and God has a special and unique plan for you and for your life.  And God is still working on you, so that you can be exactly who God has created you to be.