Dear pastor,

Are you reading God’s Word daily and listening daily for his voice? 

How up to date is your relationship with God? How fresh is your faith? 

Are you consecrating your life daily and availing yourself to Him? 

There are two reasons I ask these questions. 

The first is for the sake of your own soul. All this you know but let’s remind ourselves that salvation is all about a relationship with God. He is a real being and He desires a real relationship with us. Our walk with Him is not just about a one time transaction to procure a ticket to heaven. This is a living relationship of love, faith and fidelity. The fullness of the blessing that God has prepared and availed to us is only known in daily abiding and I hope and pray that you are resting in Jesus so that your soul does not grow lean but also so that you do not drift and God forbid turn your back upon the One True God and the only Way, Truth and Life that there is.

The second reason I ask the questions about how current your walk with God is, is because of what happens to your message/ministry if there is not a never-ending infusion of the anointing and presence of God

Recognize this:

• If your journey with God is not up-to-date (day by day, moment by moment) then what you say and do in your role as pastor will be at best empty words and hollow actions and at worst will be outright defiance against God
• I know you think there is no way that your words and actions could defy God if you’ve already settled once for all that your life and ministry are about Him, but I want to remind you that even Christians can sin and accordingly even pastors who have been saved and accepted God’s call can still say and do things that are antithetical, antagonistic and defiant towards God and His gospel
• You and I may not even notice the transition that slowly happens as we neglect God. We may think we are being faithful and yet find that our words don’t come with as much conviction, or as the saying goes: “our heart is not in it”
• Furthermore I want to remind you that if you and I preach or teach something that seems to be true to us but it is neither led by or anointed by the Holy Spirit nor flowing out of a fresh and up-to-date relationship with and experience with the Lord then our words will in fact be either legalistic (I’m saved by all the hard work I do) on the one hand or antinomian (I’m saved forever so I don’t ever have to do anything for God) on the other.
• Finally I want to remind us both that without a fresh encounter with God and hearing present revelation from Him our words will either depict God as an angry and hateful God who only wants to destroy or a laissez-faire God who doesn’t care about sin only about love, happiness and blessings. Neither of these ‘gods’ are the God of the Bible

So how is your soul? What is God saying to you these days? Can you hear His voice? Are you loving His Word? Are you hiding His Word in your heart? Is your life and ministry sourced by God or something else? 

Please, pastor, go meet with God. Rest before Him and rest in Him. Confess and lay down everything sinful and broken. Present yourself as a living sacrifice to Him. Let God fill you for your own salvation, holiness and joy. Let God fill you and use you for the sake of the world and the sake of His great name!

If you need a prayer partner, a listening ear or some sharpening conversation with a fellow pastor, please send me a private message or email me here. 

1. How can we know what to believe in the news and on social media? 
2. How can we determine what is of the devil and what is of the Lord?
3. How should we respond to the politics that are taking place today? 
4. How should we respond to the current events in America?

I want to answer these 4 questions today in this blog post, but beware you may not like the answers. Also, fair warning that you may think my answers are too simple or miss the point, but if you listen carefully I believe you will hear the Lord speaking to you…

First of all I want to tell you two important things. 

First, thinking about the problem will not come up with the solution. Your wisdom, my wisdom and even the collective wisdom of all mankind is not sufficient to figure out how to address sin and pride in the hearts of humanity or how to correct the effects of that sin on all civilization and creation. Thinking about the problem and all of the possible ways to fix it will never independently come up with the right solution. Unless we have revelation and revival from the Holy Spirit and instruction and renewal from the One who is all Wise and all knowing we will continue to spiral downward.

Second, responding to the situation(s) according to what you feel about it will not suffice either. Whether you feel that a certain behavior or event or speech is good or bad that does not in fact mean that the behavior, event or speech you are assessing is indeed good or bad. God alone is able to determine and reveal whether something is in line with holiness and righteousness. Our feelings are a wonderful gift from God to help us fully experience life and love as well as to warn us when things are not healthy, but our feelings are often misled. Don’t look to your feelings to help you know what is going on or how to navigate current events.

So if we cannot trust our thoughts or our feelings to help us determine what is right or wrong in culture and if we cannot trust our thoughts or feelings to help us decide how to respond, then where can we turn? 

Remember the Bible says clearly that the “god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2 Cor 4:4). As such people who are not born again and in an active relationship with the Lord, or those who disbelieve God and don’t take Him at His Word, will time and again be deceived and walk around in darkness, unable to see the light and truth. Even those who are born again do not have perfect vision, wisdom or understanding. Only God does.

So, how then can we know what to believe of what we read, see and hear? How can we know whether what we see and hear are from God or Satan? How can we know how to respond to what is taking place? 

1. We must ask the Lord to reveal the truth by His Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself said that by Himself He made no judgements but that He only judged according to what He heard the Father saying. Furthermore Jesus told us that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment and that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. We cannot discover the truth simply by fact checking things online or going to our history books or finding a news source that is more “right” or “left” or “fair and balanced”. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and remind us of everything that Jesus has spoken.

2. We must read the Word of God. The Word of God is the authoritative written source of truth on earth. In it God reveals His gospel, His heart, His truth, His judgments. The Scriptures are God-breathed and are useful for teaching, rebuking, and training in righteousness. The Scriptures warn us, give us God’s commands, reveal His promises and invite us to come to Him for salvation and to come to Him for everything we need for life and godliness. The Word of God reveals the eternal depths of the love and holiness of God and it is the only written source on earth that is sealed by God to not return empty or void and to accomplish that for which it was sent forth. For God’s Word will finally and always be true though every man a liar. 

3. We must engage in conversation with Godly counsel. We are not individually able to determine all that is right and true without the collective wisdom that God gives to the body of Christ. If we isolate ourselves from Godly counsel from ages past or from those who are now living we will be isolating ourselves from some of the very sources that God intends to help bring clarity and understanding. Not all voices are to be considered equally. Indeed there are many voices in the world and even some in the institutional church that may either lead you astray or simply clutter your mind, but with the aid of the Holy Spirit you will be able to find Godly counsel in the ancient creeds, Christian doctrine, Christian forebears and living men and women who have the fruit and witness of the Holy Spirit in their lives. 

Finally, what I would like to say is that there are false prophets, false teachers, lies and half-truths everywhere right now in the world. If a person says that they speak for the Lord and they are advocating violence that is not a word from God. If you hear an ideology that seeks to equate America or Patriotism with Christianity, that is of the devil. If you read something that promotes fear, judgmentalism, shaming people, retribution, vengeance, or revenge, these are simply not in accordance with God’s holy ways. When you hear people saying we need to violently stand up for our rights or that we need to cancel, censure or purge our enemies that is not of Christ. Christians cannot serve two masters and if we choose to serve the systems of this world we are simultaneously rejecting Christ. If however we are serving Christ, we reject the broken, sinful and evil ways of this world. 

My heart hurts within me for what I see not only in the place I currently live but also all around the world. But perhaps the biggest threats I see are the constant lies being propagated by the world (as led and influenced by the Father of lies) and the false teaching that is taking place under the guise of Christianity. The false teaching that is taking place is promoting fear and violence, public shaming of those we disagree with and a pursuit of truth independent of God and His Holy Truth. I see Christians on the “right” and “left” politically buying into the lies of the enemy and even becoming parrots repeating those lies to others. Please, please, please, pray that we each individually seek peace with all men and sanctification as Scripture says (without which the Bible says we will not see the Lord). Please, please, please let us pray for our enemies and bless those who persecute us. Please, please, please let us go to God in prayer and the Word and seek godly counsel (in doctrines, creeds, Christian forebears and present day holy men and women of God) so that we can shine like lights in a dark world, escape the wrath that is to come and that we may fully come out and be separate from the evil ways of the world. 

Dearly beloved,

I know indeed that you are suffering. I know you are tired, weary, frustrated and dejected. Life has chewed you up and spit you out. I know that anxiousness, temptation and condemnation consistently knock on your heart’s door. It hurts me to see you suffer under an unnecessary load. When I see you suffering, I grieve for the brokenness in the world and for the pain that My creation is constantly subjected to. 

But here’s the rub: I cannot simply take your pain away. To do so would be to go against the very nature of how I have created things and furthermore it would go against my own holy nature. 

I have created things so that when something is out of step with my perfect holiness and love, discomfort and pain will come as warnings to help deliver you from the trap of sin and evil.

So many times you ask me to give you peace and joy, help and hope and I not only desire to give it to you, but indeed have paid the price and fully made it available to you. But you will never be able to fully receive and walk in my peace and joy, help and hope if you consistently walk according to the ways of the world, set up for yourselves idols and false gods and if you insist on living according to what seems best to you instead of following my perfect instruction. 

So here is my invitation to you: ‘Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest’. But recognize that to come to me you will have to agree to leave your sinful and worldly ways. I will empower you to resist temptation and to flee from sin, wickedness and evil but if you intend to come to me for rest and salvation of your soul and life then you must agree to leave your selfishness, human anger, wrath, judgmentalism, retribution, vengeance, fear, jealousy, envy, gossip, sexual immorality, idolatry, licentiousness, negativity, back-stabbing, gluttony, divisiveness, drunkenness, and addictions behind. 

If you ask me to save you but you never let me deal with your specific sins or the sin nature inside of you, then you are asking for something that I will never do for it goes against my nature of holy perfect love. If you ask me to deliver you and heal your land but you continue to insist that I support your politics and your mean-spirited behavior one to another, you will never find my rest. This is not because I am withholding My rest from you, but because you are trying to define salvation and the kingdom of God according to your ways and not Mine according to your vantage point instead of from My eternal truth and perfect wisdom.

Dearly beloved, please come to me for your salvation. Ask me to forgive your sins, deliver you from your enemy, give you power over sin and selfishness and yes even heal your land. But then in your asking Me this recognize that I will only answer this prayer according to the promises and the commands I have made. You must leave your ways, seek out My ways and ask and allow Me to direct your words, attitudes and actions. If you ask Me for My help and My blessing but you do not let Me do what needs to be done according to My way and My plans you are sealing your fate under the decisions and behaviors of your own choosing.

This breaks my heart, but I was not lying and My character of holiness has never changed. Please dear child, come to me, and choose My way of holiness, lest you find yourself in darkness now and forever.

---

Matthew 23:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those having been sent to her! How often would I have gathered together your children, the way in which a hen gathers together her chicks under the wings, and you were not willing!

Isaiah 30:15 For this is what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing

2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will do it.

Dear Christian,

Are you a peacemaker? 

• Or are you a pot-stirrer?

Are you a reconciler? 

• Or are you participating in partisan judgmentalism?

Are you accepting others as God in Christ accepted you?

• Or are you alienating and ostracizing people because they think differently than you?

I ask these questions on purpose to challenge you. I want us as Christians to realize the exhortation and rebuke of Scripture regarding judgmentalism, prejudice, division, dissension, gossip, slander, negativity, arrogance and pride.

In this day and age it seems that we are willing to break fellowship with people over politics, sports, social media and any number of other contemporary issues meanwhile Jesus told us that we would be blessed if we were peacemakers. Paul also tells us that Christians have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Further, Scripture reminds us that we are to be in the world and yet not operate like the world. 

So are your words filled with both grace and truth?

• Are your interactions online and in-person helping people to know God and His love and grace? 

• Are your daily interactions online and in-person sharing the gospel and helping people to come into the church and the kingdom of God?

• Are your daily words judging people or helping people?

• Are your daily words alienating people or inviting people to Jesus? 

Peacemaking is not easy. Peace is never made with the absence of truth, but neither is it possible without grace. 

So please, go against the flow, be like Jesus (not like the world) , don’t keep heaping judgments and harsh criticisms upon people. Don’t be a part of the shame culture of this world. Confess any sin of worldliness and dissension/division. Be gracious, loving and kind. Let your words point people to Jesus and the righteousness that is available in Him. 

Dear Christian, please, be a peacemaker.

And receive the blessings God has prepared for you.

Grace and peace!

I want to talk briefly about what we should do when we find ourselves battered and bruised and how we should respond to set-backs. 

What do we do when we find ourselves tired? Alone? Fatigued? Battered? Bruised? Facing the reality of loss?

First of all, it would be impractical and even foolish to pretend as if the setbacks of life aren’t painful. They are! And the reason for the pain is to alert us that something isn’t yet fully redeemed, renewed and restored as God intends it to be. God is still working (on us and on the situation)

Second, if we don’t grieve the pain of loss we will never come to grips with whatever comes next. It hurts when we lose. Sometimes losses are minor and easily overcome. Sometimes they are much more difficult and are only overcome with time and God’s miraculous help. We should go to God with our pain and grief and let Him bring comfort (and perspective) to our souls. 

Third it is important and necessary that we nurse our wounds. If we don’t ever treat our wounds we might find ourselves lapsing further into un-health and dis-ease. It is okay and necessary that we apply the necessary treatments, salves and medicine to the wounds so that we might heal. God has availed much to us through the Bible, through prayer and worship and especially in fellowship with other Believers but also in a special way through Sabbath rest (cease laboring/stiving and believe that He is God!) and through Christian counseling/therapy/accountability/etc. Please do what is necessary to find the treatment that you need to bring health to your soul.

Finally, I would like to close this email by saying that as important as it is to mourn our losses and nurse our wounds, we also must get up and keep going! Psalm 23 reminds us that we “walk through” the valley of the shadow of death, not that we pitch our tents there! So whether it is a strained relationship, hurt feelings, emotional fatigue, or any other painful experience/memory, let us keep going, in the name of Jesus and by the power that He provides, not getting bitter, never giving up on living lives pleasing to the Lord and seeking to actively participate in His mission to share His love and gospel with a hurting world.

Thank you so much for continuing to pray for and offer help/encouragement one to another! Let us continue to help carry one another’s burdens and let us never, never, never give up on the calling we have received but instead let us keep on until we see the miracle(s) that we know God will bring in His perfect way and His perfect timing!

Believing God and trusting Him!

Mike J

Dear Pastor,

If you’re anything like me, you can keep going so long as you can either see progress or if you believe (by faith) that progress is being made “behind the scenes”. The hardest part is when it seems that everything you see/perceive is telling you that you are not only NOT making progress, but in fact are regressing. What then? 

Again, if you and I are anything alike, feelings of worthlessness or of being a failure begin to move in when it seems like life and/or ministry are regressing. You might begin doubting your call, looking for greener pastures or perhaps discover that bitterness and frustration seem to have pitched a tent right there in your heart/mind.

The story was once told of a 95 year old violinist who practiced for about 5 hours per day. This seems astounding to spend this much time on one task at this age, but when asked why he did it, he simply said “I think I am making progress”.

In ministry progress is either nearly impossible to measure or else we measure the wrong things. So I want to remind you that so long as you are planting the seed of the Word of God, so long as you are praying and pointing people to Jesus, so long as you are persevering in faithful obedience, then progress is indeed being made. 

And trust me when I tell you that the progress being made is the most important kind: the eternal progress that God is making spiritually, saving and sanctifying people and building His church through your and my perseverance in faith. 

Even if it seems like you are making no progress at all, please check and make sure you are praying, seeking God, pursuing holiness, sharing His gospel and pointing people to Him and then rest in the reality that God Himself is making regular progress (and even through you!)

You are loved, don’t give up, like the turtle above, keep your eye on the prize, keep pressing on, great is the harvest if we don’t give up.

Christ is with us, Christ is in us

Mike J

What do you do when nothing seems to be going your way? How do you react? What do you feel? How do you handle those feelings?

I want to briefly address these things and how we as Christians can approach life when nothing is going our way…

Does this sound anything like you:

Things start to go awry in life…One set back after another seems to come your way…your emotions get frazzled…the crazy thoughts of discouragement and defeat set in…and you wonder if you will ever be able to get out of this mess…

So what should we do? 

I  know that chocolate, ice cream and coffee are favorite ways for us to “cope” but does that really help the situation, our emotions or our overall health? 

No, it really doesn’t. If anything, “coping” in these ways often have unintended (and unhealthy) side-effects.

Another temptation is to handle the spiraling situations by redoubling your efforts, working extra hard, doing “whatever it takes” but all the while still doing it of your own effort, wisdom and supply. 

Here are 3 quick and simple (not easy, just simple) things that you can do to address a life spinning out of control:

1. Stop. Breathe. Pray. Rest: To continue living, talking, working, planning at full speed and under the limited strength and wisdom that we have is foolish, dangerous and perhaps deadly. We need to stop. Take a deep breath. Remember the promises of God’s Word. Remember that God is bigger, stronger, wiser. Pray and give it to God and then rest in His presence fully assured and aware that He is good, He is willing and He is able to get us through.

2. Go to a quiet place. Let it out. Sing to God. Read some Scripture: Don’t allow yourself to continue fretting, analyzing and replaying the situation(s) over in your head. Only a fresh perspective (from God’s vantage point) is going to help you to overcome. Turning off the phone, the news, the social media and the 1000 other yelling voices so that you can focus on God’s love messages is vitally important. If the only quiet place you can find is in your car with the radio off, do it! But if you can find a sanctuary, closet or prayer room, even better.
   
3. After prayer, do something, however small, in obedience to what God has said: It may be that God says “Don’t worry, trust me” or perhaps He reveals something tangible and practical that you need to be doing to address the problem(s). Maybe He just wants you to work on something else or help someone else. I don’t know what God will say to you, but whether you can see the big picture or not or whether what God tells you makes perfect sense or not, just do it, and wait/watch for His hand at work.

I’m not trying to downplay whatever serious, difficult and perhaps painful thing you are going through, but if you read this far you are obviously searching for what to do (when you don’t really know what to do) so I hope you will give these three things a genuine and wholehearted try and I pray that you will soon be on the other side of this difficult season you are in.

Dear friend I bless you in the name of the Lord!

What does this mean?

It means that by the authorization of God Himself, I offer to you the grace and peace that is available in Christ Jesus. I offer it not as a nice sentiment, a “hallmark card” or as heart-warming words or “chicken-soup for the soul”

Instead I offer to you the full and free grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is sufficient for all that you face both now and throughout eternity.

I bless you, means that I pray for you that you will receive the full inheritance that God has prepared for you.

I bless you, means that I extend to you the right hand of fellowship, acceptance into the Beloved, courage for your heart and transformation of your life.

I bless you means that I am seeking God’s favor to be upon you as you turn to Him, turn from evil, seek Him first and wholeheartedly commit your way to Him

Blessing is not a superstition or Christian version of a good-luck charm. No, instead it is the offering of the eternal truth and full-salvation of Jesus Christ to all who will receive Him with open hearts.

Blessings are not for the defiant, the rebellious, the wicked or those who merely “play church”. Blessings proceed forth from the gracious heart of the Father to His children and to all who will come to Him in faith, surrender their lives to Him daily, and pledge their service to Him eternally

But in case you needed a blessing today, may you receive this as from the Lord.

Here also are two more blessings from Scripture that God offers to you and to me:

Numbers 6:24-26 The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being

Dear Pastor,

Whatever you are going through on any given day, there is tremendous help, hope and strength in meditating on the nearness and goodness of God.

Far too often we entertain unhealthy, accusatory and fear-inducing ideas (such as “Here we go again”, or “I don’t have what it takes”, or “This is so hard”).

Instead, practice saying this:

• “The Holy Spirit of God Himself is in me”

• “God is supplying the strength I need to get through this”

• “With God, I will go through this with joy and peace”

• “I know that God will bring me through. God is the Victor here, not the circumstance”

• “Let’s watch and see how God works through this”

Please, practice these kinds of healthy, faith-building and God-honoring statements and then rest in the knowledge that God has you.

Christ is with us, Christ is in us!

Mike J