Grace Notes

This past Sunday (8/29) we discussed the way Nehemiah handled the news he received about the condition of Jerusalem, how his despair/burden led him to fast and pray, which, of course, led him to a plan.  My prayer for all of us is that if any of us aren’t already executing a plan, that God will reveal His will for each of us as we pray.  That said, as part of His church, His army (Eph 6:10ff), it’s also our responsibility to be praying at all times in the Spirit and to be on the alert for all of the saints!  Even if that’s “all” we can do!  

Please join me in praying for the persecuted church around the world.  Please join me, most urgently, in praying for the crisis in Afghanistan.  I don’t know what any of us can do, other than to pray, but through prayer miracles can happen AND He can open doors even for someone living here in the bellybutton of the USA.  So pray as you start your day.  Pray as you drive to work or drive the kids to school.  Pray during the lulls and even when things are chaotic.  Pray if something wakes you in the night…..

When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.

Psalm 63:6

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; in the night my hand was stretched out without weariness; my soul refused to be comforted.

Psalm 77:2

Beseech the God of all flesh, not because He doesn’t know what’s going on, but because He Himself instructed us to pray! 

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying, “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the Lord is His name,  ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Jeremiah 33:1-3 

Those are my thoughts on this rainy Friday. Blessings,

Pastor Scott

I would love to rail about decisions made 20 years ago or 20 days ago, but while political pontifications may get our blood boiling, they don’t help the hurting; they don’t stop the killings; and they don’t comfort the frightened. We have direct access to the One Who does! This particular issue seems like a really hard one and Jesus Himself said, “really hard ones need prayer and fasting!” (Yes, that’s a very loose paraphrase). I’m calling on all of Word of Grace to Pray (and Fast) as God enables for the plight of Afghanistan.

I always hesitate to call a very specific fast, because we aren’t supposed to know when one another is fasting. Ironically the same passage from which I draw that conclusion also teaches that we will be fasting! 🙂

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6:16-18

Keep in mind that while food is the primary Biblical picture of fasting, sometimes it was types of food and certainly if could be from other “pleasures” – in 2021; screens come to mind!

Pastor Scott

By Guest Blogger, Bob Wilkin, via Grace Evangelical Society, August 18, 2021

Matt asks a super question: “I know that most if not all Free Grace theologians hold that unfaithful believers may be disciplined by God with an early death.  Obviously, there’s Scriptural evidence for this, such as Ananias and Saphira. However, someone new to Free Grace may ask, can faithful believers die before their time? What about martyrs? Would the early death of a faithful believer be used by God to draw his or her church and family closer to Him? Thank you, and keep up the good work.”

We know that the Lord Jesus died before age 40, well before the 70 to 80 years that Moses spoke of in Ps 90:10. The Apostle James, the brother of the Apostle John, was martyred in AD 44 when he was around 40 (Acts 12:2) by Herod. The apostles Peter and Paul both died in Rome, circa AD 66, when they were likely in their early 60s. Jim Elliot, age 29, and four other young missionaries were killed in South America by the very Indians they hoped to reach. Lois Evans, wife of Dr. Tony Evans, died from cancer at the age of 70 in 2020. We all know cases of believers who died young and yet were faithfully serving the Lord at the time of their deaths. Matt’s unstated question is why God allows this. He gives one possible answer: God uses the death of faithful believers to draw their church and their family and friends closer to Him. Of course, not everyone responds to the death of a friend or loved one by drawing closer to the Lord. Some get angry with God and some even backslide. I would say that the reason God allows the premature deaths of some faithful believers is because those deaths glorify Him. It could be that God taking some faithful believers home early is a mercy. Maybe terrible times were ahead for them in the city or country in which they lived. The peaceful death of Jeroboam’s son by an illness was likely a mercy on God’s part (1 Kings 14), giving him a glorious burial and sparing him an ignoble death when all the sons of Jeroboam were killed by Baasha (1 Kings 15:29). Or it could be that the Lord knew that this faithful believer might fall away if given more time on earth. I don’t know if God does that often. But He tried to do something like that with King Hezekiah. When Isaiah told him he was about to die and to set his house in order, Hezekiah begged for more years and God gave him 15 additional years (2 Kings 20). But Hezekiah then wrongly showed representatives from Babylon all of the treasures and strength of Judah. Hezekiah would have avoided that if he had just departed when the Lord told him he was to die. Plus, during those 15 extra years, Hezekiah had a son whom he named Manasseh. That son ended up being a terrible king. He would never have been king if Hezekiah had died when God originally intended. As Matt pointed out, God sometimes takes the lives of rebellious believers prematurely. Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10) and Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5) come to mind. So do the believers who dishonored the Lord’s Supper in Corinth (1 Cor 11:30). But that does not mean that all believers who die young were rebellious. Many believers who die young were faithful. God has His reasons for taking home faithful believers before they reach old age.

We’ve all heard stories of a child on death’s door who sees glowing beings no one else can see.  Or missionary stories of angelic rescue (see below), but are angels involved in our everyday lives?  Jesus said that children each have guardian angels (Matthew 18:10), but how involved are they with us, day to day, hour by hour?

Let’s do some cross-referencing!  Ephesians 2:6 tells us that God has already seated us in heavenly places.  Romans 8:15 says we are adopted as sons and cry, “Abba! Father!”  Peter calls us “living stones who are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.”  With just those three references alone, I think it’s safe to cross-reference us, post-Cross believers, with the “he” in Psalm 91, which reads:  “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”  Psalm 91:10-13 discusses our supernatural protection:

10  No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague shall come near your tent.

11  For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

12  On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

13  You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

Angels ARE real; they ARE all around us. They ARE the reason you swerved before you hit that car or that curb.  They ARE the reason you caught yourself before you fell down those stairs.  They ARE the reason you were distracted before you saw that ad you didn’t need to see.  

I believe that we can thank God for His daily protection!  Of course, that begs the question about the temptations and trials that do get through!  Don’t blame your angels. Sometimes God does that to temper us like steel (James 1:2-4), and sometimes we walk away from the protection God is affording (1 Tim. 6:10).  However, the point I really want to make in this blog is that angels are a component of the spiritual war we joined the moment we switched sides (Col 1:13).  As we fight this battle, every day in our devotions and in our interaction, angels are there combating the very demons that are pushing trials and temptations our way.  Right now the war doesn’t seem to be going very well in the West, just like in Daniel’s day (Daniel 10:12-14); but just like in Daniel’s day, the writing is on the wall!!!

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer…. 

Revelation 20:1-3b

So, stop worrying, grab on to your Shield of Faith with both hands and keep your eyes on the Captain of Hope. He’s GOT THIS!

A Fellow Soldier in Jehovah Sabaoth’s Army,

Pastor Scott

John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, “Who were all those men with you there?” Paton knew no men were present, but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station. 

Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991, p. 18.

The issue of keeping our priorities straight came up in the 8/1 commissioning service and will come up again when we study the Helmet of Salvation on 8/15.  I ran across a great illustration in a file compiled by Pastor Craig Brian Lane.  Please take the time to also consider the relevant passages below!

Bill Cowher took over as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992. He quickly showed himself to be a man with a future. The Steelers made the playoffs each of his first several seasons as coach and went to Super Bowl XXX in 1996. One thing that made Cowher an effective coach was that he focused on his priorities. In Sports Illustrated Tim Crothers writes:

After almost every game, every practice, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher drives straight home to his wife, Kaye, and their three daughters. He doesn’t do ads for cars or frozen yogurt. He exists inside his two passions, family and football, exclusive of everything else. 

Cowher is so focused that one afternoon he was seated next to a woman at a civic luncheon and politely asked, “What is it you do?”

The woman responded, “I’m the mayor of Pittsburgh.” 

Granted, it’s a good idea to know who your mayor is, but Cowher shows us one essential truth: A person cannot focus on everything. A person with priorities must let some things go by the wayside. The more we focus on the Lord, the less we focus on the unimportant things of this world. 

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”  ~Matthew 10:37-39

“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”  ~2 Corinthians 11:2-3

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”  ~Philippians 3:7-16

“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” ~Colossians 3:1-3

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  ~Hebrews 12:1-3

If you know me, you know I struggle with headaches that vary in intensity, from distracting irritations to crippling balance killers.  I, along with many of you, have prayed for them to be gone for a long time.  I’m “on stage” every week so I had to come clean with my pain, but I imagine I’m not alone.  Whether it’s migraines, back pain, that knee/hip that just won’t let up, or something internaL, I know some of you reading have chronic pain, too.  Other readers are suffering from “chronic” emotional pain and I won’t even begin to list the possible causes.  The point is that a large percentage of us have things we’ve asked the omnipotent God to remove.  We KNOW He could.  We wonder if we haven’t prayed hard enough or righteously enough?  I wonder if, maybe, we have just forgotten His end goal?  

Consider Lewis’ thoughts; be prepared to read it twice, especially if you don’t often read British writers from two generations past.  It’s WELL worth the effort! 

Yours, for His Glory, Pastor Scott

“We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character. Here again we come up against what I have called the “intolerable compliment.” Over a sketch made idly to amuse a child, an artist may not take much trouble: he may be content to let it go even though it is not exactly as he meant it to be. But over the great picture of his life—the work which he loves, though in a different fashion, as intensely as a man loves a woman or a mother a child—he will take endless trouble—and would doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were sentient. One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and re-commenced for the tenth time, wishing that it were only a thumb-nail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

This video clip was published in an email newsletter from The Christian Post on July 21, 2021. It is not an endorsement of Pastor Shane Idleman as I don’t know anything more about him than what I see in this video.  This brief video, however, made me think of how often Jesus was humble and kind to the meek and, yet, bold and strong to the proud.  Perhaps we all could stand to more closely model Jesus, in both cases!  Pastor Scott 🙂 ​LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT: You can have your gun protests, lie in the media, teach evolution to our kids, flaunt sexual sin and gay marriage, teach preschool kids about transgenderism, support murdering a child in the womb, but I need to shut my mouth? I don’t think so. Why can everybody voice, everything else, but the pulpit need to be silenced? It makes no sense. Let me tell you why. It’s because they want to silence the voice of truth. We are talking about important moral issues that will have huge ramifications when a nation departs from God. What are you leaving for your grandchildren and your children?  Listen now by clicking this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-wrToS5YpM

I searched for this acronym on the web today. Now I need to give credit where credit is due.  It was posted by Pastor Dave Ferguson of the Verge Church, however, I’m sure I saw it many moons ago….. It’s a great acronym; if you, like me, are a bit stymied trying to figure out how you can BLESS your own neighbors!

• B- Begin with prayer. We want you to ask, ‘God how do you want me to bless the people in the places you’ve sent me to?’
• L- Listen. Don’t talk, but listen to people, their struggles, their pains, in the places God sent you.
• E- Eat. You can’t just check this off. It’s not quick. You have to have a meal with people or a cup of coffee. It builds relationships.
• S- Serve. If you listen with people and you eat with people they will tell you how to love them and you’ll know how to serve them.
• S- Story. When the time is right, now we talk and we share the story of how Jesus changed our life.

Genesis 12:2-3 says, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Give it some thought or jot it in your journal,

Pastor Scott

by Guest Blogger, Shawn Lazar, via Grace Evangelical Society on May 12, 2021

Most religions are extremely complicated because their works salvation systems depend on you following intricate laws, rituals, and to-do lists in the hopes of climbing the ladder to heaven.

By contrast, Biblical Christianity (and, by implication, Free Grace Theology) is simple.

How so?

I think you can summarize the Christian’s “duty” with these three words:

1. Believe. There is one condition to have everlasting life: believe in Jesus. Most religions teach the need to do works to be saved. Not Jesus. On the contrary, Jesus did all the work on the cross so you can have eternal life as a gift (Eph 2:8-9). Jesus paid the price for salvation so that you can have it for free. How do you receive it? By simply believing Jesus for it: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
2. Abide. After you believe, the Christian adventure really begins. God wants you to grow in your friendship with Christ (John 15:15). He wants you to not only have life, but to have abundant life (John 10:10). How can you do that? By abiding in Jesus. That means reading God’s Word and letting Jesus’ teachings “sink in.” Listen to Him. Think about what He taught. Meditate on those words, letting them challenge, correct, inspire, and otherwise transform your thinking. If you abide in Him, you will be fruitful: I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples (John 15:5-8).
3. Love. What does God require you to do? Love your neighbors. Think of it this way – God gives the believer salvation for free so you won’t waste your life being religious, trying to save yourself. Instead, you can get on with the business of loving your neighbors, however they need to be loved. If you see a need that you can meet, do something about it. Care for your family, feed the poor, clothe the naked, support widows, be a friend to orphans, write to prisoners, and do whatever other good needs to be done: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34).

Biblical Christianity is simple, but I did not say it is easy.

It is hard to believe that Jesus gives you eternal life as a free gift.

It takes years of abiding in God’s Word for it to impact all your thinking and living.

And as you know, the world is full of endless needs, so loving your neighbors can require enormous self-sacrifice.

No, living the Christian life is not easy.

But it is simple: believe, abide, and love.

Olympians turning on the flag.  Men suing to use ladies restrooms.  Competing riots. Political finger pointing and name calling rather than problem solving. Etc., etc., etc.!  Other than not wanting people to love God, why do you think Satan is working so hard to tear apart the very fabric of our society?  I think it’s because he hates the freedom that we have.  He wants to see us under the control of a tyrant.  And anarchy is the surest way to bring that about! Our God, on the other hand, wants us to be free!  It’s interesting to note how He starts out the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”  God sent ten plagues, He killed the firstborn of Egypt, He crushed Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, all so that His people could be FREE!  Then the first thing He did is give His people a set of moral instructions to live by, because we can’t live freely without morality!  Immorality leads to chaos, chaos leads to mass destruction, mass destruction leads to a willingness to accept tyranny!  It’s the same plan followed by Mao, Stalin, and Hitler, all of whom were led by their father, Satan, and I’m sad to say our country and our world is marching to that same drum beat.  I’m hoping (and the news on the political and science fronts lead me to believe) that Christ’s return is near, but I have to also recognize that other generations have believed the same thing as they’ve watched their nations crumble.  If Christ doesn’t return, we better work and pray for national revival.  We can’t last the way we are going. 

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.” 

Revelation 22:20-21