Author: pastorscottwordofgracefellowship

This past Sunday (8/18) I started a verse-by-verse exposition of Colossians 3; I almost made it through verse 5.  Verse 5 contains one of two “sin lists” in Colossians 3 — lists of sins that were nailed to the cross as part of our old lives, sins that still creep up because we walk in this world and still inhabit bodies of flesh. The first list (the one in v. 5) is almost entirely about sensuality outside of marriage, except for the final word – GREED/COVETOUSNESS.  I sort of overlooked this in my concern for the effect immorality is having on our youth and families via our culture. Greed (avarice) is also a killer, and I wanted to take a minute here to remind us that it, too, needs to be “put off!”

Let’s look first at the etymology.  The word translated greed, or covetousness, here is used almost exclusively by Paul.  The word is pleonxia  – pleon (more) and echo (have).  In the earliest uses (Herodotus), pleonxia denotes immoral lust for power.  Plato uses it in the sense of surpassing someone in ambition, power, and possession.  In the ancient writers pleonxia was always viewed negatively as all-consuming avarice for power, wealth, and conquest.

Paul used it similarly.  He saw it as defrauding (1 Thess 4:6) and dividing (1 Cor 5:11) brothers.   The insatiability of greed leads to a willingness to cheat and to ultimately sever the bond with the Creator, making an idol of what I’m seeking.  “Thou shalt not covet” was the tenth commandment, but in many ways it summed up several others. Said “positively,” one could say, “Thou shalt be content!” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

There is one more word I want to consider before I close.  It’s another of Paul’s and is only used once; in 1 Timothy 6:10.  In Greek it’s a single compound word, philargyria; in English it literally translates “love of money.”  Paul lifts a piece of a more ancient proverb when in his letter to Timothy he says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.”  We all know people who have spent their whole lives chasing the next $ and have only ashes in their mouths to show for it. Brothers and sisters, why do we think it will be different for us?  Seek first His kingdom; His glory; He’ll take care of the rest.  It isn’t possible to love both God and money!  (And those are not my words!)

Pastor Scott

This life we live has a lot to offer – it also has its share of disappointments!  In fact, if you look for them, you can find depressing signs all over the place!  (Just this morning I helped with a family who is facing the depressing fact that aging is inevitable and unavoidable; that we all have to say “uncle” someday); believe me when I say we aren’t all ready!

So how, you may ask, do some roll with disappointments while others allow disappointments to rock their worlds?   I believe it has a lot to do with where we’ve set our “affection” or our “hope.”  God often brings to mind a little exchange I’ve heard about the first American Missionary:

When Adoniram Judson was lying in a jail in Burma with thirty-two pounds of chains on his ankles which were tied to a bamboo pole, another prisoner asked, “Dr. Judson, what about the prospect of the conversion of the heathen?”

Judson replied, “The prospects are just as bright as the promises of God.”

It REALLY isn’t about our circumstances; it really is about walking by Faith more than by sight!  Something to think about as we send our kids back to school or a parents back to work…

Pastor Scott

Last week America experienced two mass shootings on the same day!  Lots of folks were advocating for various causes, almost before the dust settled.  One “cause” that almost goes unnoticed is that of “fatherlessness.” A VERY high percentage of these mass murderers were raised in homes with no fathers.  A little internet search tells me that kids raised with no fathers are also twice as likely to drop out of school, four times as likely to continue the pattern of out-of-wedlock parenting, poverty, etc.  Yes, many, through grit, determination and (of course) Jesus grow up and do fine, but the “odds” are very much stacked against them. My concern is for something I call “virtual fatherlessness” and I think it exists, even in great churches today.  This clipping from a bulletin insert the same year I first became a father, illustrates it well:  

A young man was to be sentenced to the penitentiary. The judge had known him from childhood, for he was well acquainted with his father–a famous legal scholar and the author of an exhaustive study entitled, “The Law of Trusts.” “Do you remember your father?” asked the magistrate. “I remember him well, your honor,” came the reply. Then trying to probe the offender’s conscience, the judge said, “As you are about to be sentenced and as you think of your wonderful dad, what do you remember most clearly about him?” There was a pause. Then the judge received an answer he had not expected. “I remember when I went to him for advice. He looked up at me from the book he was writing and said, ‘Run along, boy; I’m busy!’ When I went to him for companionship, he turned me away, saying “Run along, son; this book must be finished!’ Your honor, you remember him as a great lawyer. I remember him as a lost friend.” The magistrate muttered to himself, “Alas! Finished the book, but lost the boy!”

Homemade, February, 1989.

You can’t take one dime with you to heaven, but you can take your kids!

Because of Grace,

Pastor Scott

A certain medieval monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on “The Love of God.” As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel. There was nothing else to say.

Source Unknown.

Pastor Scott  (P.S. – I owe someone an “Ask the Pastor Blog;” if it’s a you and you remember your question – please email me!  I’ve been wracking my brain all day.)

I was asked to post a little piece I read last Sunday (July 21), here’s the set up:

I preached on what I called “Paul’s Creds” in Colossians 1:24-2:5.  It starts in verse 24 with this interesting statement about his suffering:

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”

Which led to a discussion about suffering in the church age being the “birth pangs” of the next age (Romans 8:18-25) and while Paul was “taking a bullet” for the believers at Colossae in the form of persecution, suffering takes many forms…

Finally, we would be wrong to think of suffering only in terms of the direct outward persecution that professing Christians sometimes undergo because of their faith. The church must, it is true, always be ready for such persecution, and must support, in prayer and practical help, those who face it. But all Christians will suffer for their faith in one way or another: if not outwardly, then inwardly, through the long, slow battle with temptation or sickness, the agonizing anxieties of Christian responsibilities for a family or a church (Paul knew these, too: see 2 Cor. 1 and 2; 1 Thess. 2:17 – 3:1), the constant doubts and uncertainties which accompany the obedience of faith, and ‘the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,’ taken up as they are within the call to follow Christ. All of these, properly understood, are things to rejoice in – not casually, flippantly or superficially, but because they are signs that the present age is passing away, that the people of Jesus, the Messiah, are the children of the new age, and that the birthpangs of this new age are being worked out in them. This knowledge about the two ages, as we shall see, forms the basis of Paul’s later appeal in 2:20 – 3:4.  (N.T Wright, Colossians and Philemon. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, p. 90)

Hope it encourages you even as it encouraged me,

Pastor Scott

“He guards the buried seed, and stands sponsor for the harvest. No sigh, no tear, no prayer, inspired by the Spirit of God, can positively be lost or unproductive …you shall yet see the travail of your soul, and be satisfied.” F.B. Meyer

 Truth for when it hurts.  For when you’ve poured out more than you ever thought you could and the little seed of faith that you have left doesn’t seem like enough for you to keep moving forward. For the places in our lives where we know our pursuit is sacred and we don’t want to get it wrong, but at times the striving takes so much effort it hurts a thousand-fold.

What holy pursuit are you sowing right now that is just plain hard? That all but knocks you to your knees with the effort of it? Is it a difficult marriage that you keep tending with love and kindness the best you can, a physical illness that isolates you and yet you want to bear it well, or loving your challenging child completely even though it about kills you some days?

Every step forward, every seed planted, every time you show up and hold space in the hard places you will return with sheaves of blessings in your arms and songs of joy dripping from your mouth. Holy effort is never in vain, friends. It never goes unnoticed.  ~ Kristy Gearhart, Mission Hills Church  

 I found the little piece above on a friend’s blog.  It just made me think about how the evidence of the spiritual warfare Paul wrote about in Ephesians 6 is becoming more and more clear.  Remember what he also wrote? Take God’s armor and, in God’s power, STAND! Wherever God has me, in whatever gap He’s placed me, my job is to STAND.

 Stand strong, my brothers and sisters; He notices!

 Pastor Scott 

As New Testament believers who also happen to be of the “free grace” persuasion (I hate having to describe myself using an oxymoron), we might tend to undervalue the truths that apply to us as His kids.  He did save us by grace, but He expects us to live in a way that brings glory to Him not just for our own pleasure.  Along with that we see, from one of the very first stories in the OT to one of that last stories in the OT, that He is concerned that we bring Him our best.

Consider Cain.  It’s a favored interpretation of modern scholars to say that God rejected Cain’s sacrifice and accepted Abel’s because Cain’s was bloodless; but we only see that because of Leviticus which hadn’t been written yet.  The text, aided by the Hebrews 11 interpretation, would seem to indicate that Able gave his best and Cain simply gave…. something.

Jump to the Priests of Malachi’s day (Malachi 1:6-14) – God says of the blind lamb they lay on the altar, “Why not offer it to your governor?”  Again, God is displeased with our second best in worship.

Permit me one last example.  In 1 Corinthians 11, we read that when the church gathered for the Lord’s Supper they went about it in the wrong way.  Instead of sharing a meal, those who brought the food and wine early ate and drank their fill, and those who came late (presumably the poorer day-workers in the body) went hungry.  For that offense God did indeed discipline most severely.

What’s my point?  He wants my best! Not my second best.  Not my left overs! Not my afterthought!  My VERY BEST! After all, He gave me His very life!

Pastor Scott

(The idea for this piece came from discussion in Discipleship 101 this past Sunday morning – I hope if you aren’t already involved in a class, you’ll consider coming to ours!)

I read about a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing. At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father’s full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed.

The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy’s plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, “All my life I’ve known what God is like by what my father did that night.”

1. 1 Peter 2:24 : Is 53:4, 11; 1 Cor 15:3; Heb 9:28

Pastor Scott

I received a question via text, that asked, “If someone rejects God’s love when they’re young, is the door closed for them, or is it possible for God, through the Holy Spirit, to draw them again?”  An excellent question!

This past Sunday we concluded the series on David’s life by looking at the passing of the torch to Solomon (1 Chronicles).  At one point in David’s address he says something troubling, ESPECIALLY to those of us with wayward family members! 

“If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”  (1 Chronicles 28:9b)

As much “fun” as it might be to try to demonstrate “seeking and forsaking” by comparing and contrasting David, Saul, and Solomon, we live in the Church Age so we really ought to see what Jesus had to say.  He, through the Apostle John, reminds us that we are all under judgment until that moment of faith. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)  So the rejector, the denier, and the unbeliever are all in the same camp until they believe – the same camp, incidentally, as the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-31).  I believe rejection of Christ only becomes eternally fatal upon death. So keep praying, keep loving, and keep sharing the faith!

Pastor Scott

Earlier this week, in preparation for another study, I was looking at Revelation 4:11 (Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.)  Which clearly states that we were created by God’s will or, “for His Pleasure.”  Revelation 4:11 brought to mind the “worthiness language” applied to the Son in chapter five.

And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying,

“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

And I realized, that even at the end of ages we will be Praising God for His double ownership of our lives.  He both made us and He bought us back!  I, for one, want to start living that life of purpose fulfilling gratitude BEFORE I get to heaven.  You?

Pastor Scott