I never took a course in physics but even I know that Isaac Newton introduced the laws of gravity after an encounter with a falling apple. Though he made his discoveries in the 1600's, he is one of the great minds of physics even to this day. But none of us may have heard of him had it not been for a man named Edmund Halley.
Halley was a mentor and guide to Newton. He challenged Newton to think through some of his original notions, corrected Newton's mathematical errors and prepared geometrical figures to support his discoveries. Halley encouraged Newton to write down his work, he edited his writings and then paid for the printing costs.
When Newton's fame grew, Halley received little credit and did not seem to care. Edmund Halley did use Newton's principles to predict the orbit and the sighting of Halley's comet that bears his name but other than that, few know of his contributions. I certainly did not until this week. Was he mentioned in physics classes and I just never heard it?
When Jesus began to preach and people began to go to him instead of John the Baptist, one of John's disciples brought it to his attention. John's reply was, "He must become greater and I must become less" John 3:30. No one thought much of John the Baptist's contributions after that. Jesus took the spotlight and John was taken to prison and then to his execution.
But John, in Jesus own words, did prepare the way for him. He fulfilled his life's purpose to be the "voice of one calling in the wilderness" to prepare the way for the Lord. His words and example still echo today, "He must become greater, I must become less." For John, 'less is more,' was not the way it worked, less was greater.
This Sunday we will look at that statement and John's life but until then let me ask, where is he becoming greater in your life and where are you becoming less? Also, who is becoming greater in the kingdom because of your encouragement? If we are going to live out John's great principle of Jesus becoming greater and we becoming less, we have to have answers to both those questions.
for the journey...
Tim
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
The Love of God
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell.
For a moment, let's play "Name that Hymn." Can you do it? Some of you reading these words will recognize them from the F. M Lehman hymn, "The Love of God." Some of you (like me) cannot see them or hear them without thinking of George Beverly Shea singing them on Billy Graham's crusades. It was Shea's signature song.
Lehman wrote the song in 1917 while he was at work. In idle moments during the day he wrote it on scrap pieces of paper pressed against a wall using a stub pencil. He did it all while sitting on an empty lemon crate. It all goes to prove that the message of the love of God can reach you anywhere, at any time. You may also remember these words from the song:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
This third stanza was not original to Lehman though. It came from the translation of a Jewish poem that a Rabbi wrote during a time of severe persecution in Germany in the 11th century. More centuries later, it was found written on the wall of a cell in an insane asylum after the occupant had passed away. Somehow someone who was described as rarely in their right mind was able to remember the ancient Aramaic poem and write down those beautiful, powerful words. God's love did reach the deepest hell. Lehman was aware of that story and it fit in perfectly with what he was writing.
God's love can reach us anywhere and change anyone in any situation. Is it changing us in His church today? If it is not, it is not the fault of the love of God. Sunday, we will start with this question, "Who has taught you the most about the love of God?" OK, I see those hands and I hear the standard Sunday School answer, "Jesus." Yes, he did, and does still, but what other person in your life, not in the Bible, has taught you the most about the love of God? That is something for all of us to mark in our lives. Someday in the future, will anyone answer that question with your name?
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell.
For a moment, let's play "Name that Hymn." Can you do it? Some of you reading these words will recognize them from the F. M Lehman hymn, "The Love of God." Some of you (like me) cannot see them or hear them without thinking of George Beverly Shea singing them on Billy Graham's crusades. It was Shea's signature song.
Lehman wrote the song in 1917 while he was at work. In idle moments during the day he wrote it on scrap pieces of paper pressed against a wall using a stub pencil. He did it all while sitting on an empty lemon crate. It all goes to prove that the message of the love of God can reach you anywhere, at any time. You may also remember these words from the song:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
This third stanza was not original to Lehman though. It came from the translation of a Jewish poem that a Rabbi wrote during a time of severe persecution in Germany in the 11th century. More centuries later, it was found written on the wall of a cell in an insane asylum after the occupant had passed away. Somehow someone who was described as rarely in their right mind was able to remember the ancient Aramaic poem and write down those beautiful, powerful words. God's love did reach the deepest hell. Lehman was aware of that story and it fit in perfectly with what he was writing.
God's love can reach us anywhere and change anyone in any situation. Is it changing us in His church today? If it is not, it is not the fault of the love of God. Sunday, we will start with this question, "Who has taught you the most about the love of God?" OK, I see those hands and I hear the standard Sunday School answer, "Jesus." Yes, he did, and does still, but what other person in your life, not in the Bible, has taught you the most about the love of God? That is something for all of us to mark in our lives. Someday in the future, will anyone answer that question with your name?
Friday, April 10, 2015
Decoration Day
Have you ever been to a Decoration Day? In many rural cemeteries it is a day to clean up and decorate the graves. Then the families of those buried there share a pot-luck, picnic type meal together. Usually there is a business meeting to go along with it. I am old enough to remember going to a few Decoration Days at the Pilot Grove Cemetery outside Yoakum when I was younger. This may seem like an odd event but I saw in the local paper this week that there will be a cemetery Decoration Day in our area. They still survive.
I had a pastor friend in a nearby church when he and I were both pastoring our first churches. The Decoration Day in the cemetery in his rural community was an annual event, always on a Sunday. It was so big, the church did not meet for worship that day. When all the people told my friend about this, he did not know whether to believe them. He showed up for church ready to preach on that first Decoration Day Sunday. Sure enough, no one came. They were all out at the cemetery.
What happens when God buries someone? I am not knocking Decoration Days, but look at what he did with Moses, "He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.' Deut. 34:6. He seems to be a God more focused on the living.
Recently I read this from Dr. Jim Denison, "Today Muslims visit the remains of Muhammad in Medina. Baha'i visit their founder's body at the Shrine of the Bab in Haifa, Israel. Buddhists go to the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, where the tooth of the Buddha is kept. Confucians visit the remains of Confucius in his hometown of Qufu, Shandong Province, China. But no one can visit the corpse of Jesus, because it has never been found."
God does not seem to have a long term plan for his people's graves. He certainly doesn't have a decoration day here on earth, he never calls a business meeting to deal with our graves. God has an even better plan for his people's resurrection. I will take a resurrection day over a decoration day any day. But how do we use the resurrection of Jesus on a daily basis? Can we? The answer is, "Yes." God wants to give us a daily dose of resurrection power. Have you had yours today? That is what we will talk about Sunday.
for the journey...
Tim
I had a pastor friend in a nearby church when he and I were both pastoring our first churches. The Decoration Day in the cemetery in his rural community was an annual event, always on a Sunday. It was so big, the church did not meet for worship that day. When all the people told my friend about this, he did not know whether to believe them. He showed up for church ready to preach on that first Decoration Day Sunday. Sure enough, no one came. They were all out at the cemetery.
What happens when God buries someone? I am not knocking Decoration Days, but look at what he did with Moses, "He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.' Deut. 34:6. He seems to be a God more focused on the living.
Recently I read this from Dr. Jim Denison, "Today Muslims visit the remains of Muhammad in Medina. Baha'i visit their founder's body at the Shrine of the Bab in Haifa, Israel. Buddhists go to the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka, where the tooth of the Buddha is kept. Confucians visit the remains of Confucius in his hometown of Qufu, Shandong Province, China. But no one can visit the corpse of Jesus, because it has never been found."
God does not seem to have a long term plan for his people's graves. He certainly doesn't have a decoration day here on earth, he never calls a business meeting to deal with our graves. God has an even better plan for his people's resurrection. I will take a resurrection day over a decoration day any day. But how do we use the resurrection of Jesus on a daily basis? Can we? The answer is, "Yes." God wants to give us a daily dose of resurrection power. Have you had yours today? That is what we will talk about Sunday.
for the journey...
Tim
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Relentless Redemption
The resurrection of Jesus shows the relentless redemption of God's plan. If you have been worshipping with us these past Sundays at Northside, you know that we have been looking at the power of Jesus' resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says there that without the resurrection of Jesus, which points to our bodily resurrection, there is no point to Christianity. Everything stands or falls on the resurrection.
But because there is a resurrection of all believers in Christ, we have an understanding of the lengths the power of Jesus's resurrection will go to change us - the measure of this relentless redemptive plan of God. Every place where sin has stained, scarred, wounded or warped - in every level or sphere of life where sin has brought death - the power of the resurrection of Jesus works to bring a resurrected life. Someday we who belong to him will see it all worked out even to the very molecules of our physical body as we are raised with an eternal body that will live forever.
Not only do we see the relentless redemption, we see this overwhelming victory of the resurrection and how far it goes. Historian Philip Schaff wrote:
This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a sing line he set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.
The power of his resurrection and the victory it brings is not yet fully seen. It is still working in you and in me. Someday we will see it whole, complete and finished. For now though, we can know it is at work even if we cannot see it. This post will go out on Saturday, the nameless, sad, silent Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. But on that Saturday, and on this one, God was and is still at work and his relentless redemption keeps pressing on. Let us let it and let us rejoice in it.
for the journey...
Tim
But because there is a resurrection of all believers in Christ, we have an understanding of the lengths the power of Jesus's resurrection will go to change us - the measure of this relentless redemptive plan of God. Every place where sin has stained, scarred, wounded or warped - in every level or sphere of life where sin has brought death - the power of the resurrection of Jesus works to bring a resurrected life. Someday we who belong to him will see it all worked out even to the very molecules of our physical body as we are raised with an eternal body that will live forever.
Not only do we see the relentless redemption, we see this overwhelming victory of the resurrection and how far it goes. Historian Philip Schaff wrote:
This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon; without science and learning, he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a sing line he set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.
The power of his resurrection and the victory it brings is not yet fully seen. It is still working in you and in me. Someday we will see it whole, complete and finished. For now though, we can know it is at work even if we cannot see it. This post will go out on Saturday, the nameless, sad, silent Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. But on that Saturday, and on this one, God was and is still at work and his relentless redemption keeps pressing on. Let us let it and let us rejoice in it.
for the journey...
Tim
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