Hearing the Music

No Place Like Home

"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."    

Mark 2:27-28

In your travels do you find your thoughts turn toward home? Just a few weeks ago we left Grand Rapids to spend a sweet time with our kids and grandkids at Christmas. Even then, at the end of that week hearts were turning towards home. Invariably, as we near the end of our journeys, near or far, there's a readiness to return to the rest and familiar comforts of the friends, family and routines we call home.

When traveling at a distance nowadays it's an easy thing to grab your phone and find an English speaking  international church. In worshipping and communing with our global brothers and sisters God gives us a glimpse of his greater work and the breadth of his love. For a few hours were home.

Our Mom, now 94 and with vision and hearing mostly gone, is approaching the end of her journey here and is waiting and longing to see the face of her Savior and the dawn of her forever Sabbath. Psalms, hymns and the gospel stories cause her to draw closer and her eyes to brighten. She's ready.

All this said to remind us that our gracious God gives us these longings. He reminds us that we're not home yet -- that he's got something better in store -- BETTER BY FAR. Until then he gives us Sabbath, a weekly break in our journeys to hear of his pursuing love for you and me; to be told and reminded of the sure hope we're given as we trust in Jesus and his finished work; and to bring us together as brothers and sisters to praise him and to experience a taste of the rest only he can give.

So thankful to be a part of this family here at Christ Church where we are encouraged to run our race with eyes fixed on Jesus. 

Photo by Kevin Mueller on Unsplash

Leaving a Legacy

It is tough to start with "Happy Friday" on a week in which we have lost two dear members of our congregation, two long-time, pillar-of-the-church, members. Both Norm and Ron have been with Christ Church since near its beginning. Both men have served in a variety of ways over the years; both men have left a legacy as a result of their service.

In the spirit of Psalm 90:12 which reminds us to "number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom” let me offer a couple of observations. Earlier I used the word legacy with respect to Ron and Norm. When loved ones pass we remember the impact they made on their surroundings while they were living. We remember the good times we shared, the things they taught us, the ways we were helped or served by them. We remember how they handled the ups and the downs of life. As we remember, we realize that we have been marked by those things, both for good and for ill. This marking, this transmission, is a legacy. The interesting thing about legacy is that we can only build it while we are in the midst of life. We build it during these days that are filled with the ordinary goings on of life in the 21st century and during the not so ordinary events of 2020 in particular. How we live and the choices we make will contribute to the legacy we transmit to those who come after us.

Secondly, I am mindful of every Friday being a "Happy Friday” despite the circumstances that surround it. It was a Friday, after all, on which Jesus went into the grave. It was a Friday when Jesus took the sting of death, rendering it powerless against the believer. It was a Friday when all this talk about legacy moves from something merely of this world, to something in light of eternity. It was a Friday that merged into a Sunday that changed the story for all who are willing to lay down their lives in order to have them taken up by this Risen Lord.

So, where do these two observations converge? All of life is leaving a legacy, but if we want to see our legacy transcend this world we need to live surrendered to the One who has conquered the grave. Both Norm and Ron, their families, and other pillars of Christ Church have done that, and we are the beneficiaries. May God give us all the grace to gain this heart of wisdom.

One of the main ways we pursue this heart of wisdom is through worship. As we come together, open our hearts before the Lord, and open his Word we receive from him the direction that we need. This Sunday we will continue looking at Romans 15, in particular vs. 8-16. This passage provides a culmination for the book of Romans in many respects. I very much look forward to looking at it with you.

_{Photo by Fabio Sangregorio on Unsplash}

COVID-19

In 1854 London was facing a cholera plague. People were dying everywhere. Folks were afraid to go home and afraid to go out. In their fear they cried out for help and took measures for safety. In the middle of this, a minister named Charles Spurgeon continued to go about faithfully ministering despite his own fear and weariness. One day Spurgeon was feeling physically fatigued and spiritually discouraged, in his words: "I felt that my burden was heavier than I could bear, and I was ready to sink under it.” Coming home from a funeral he happened upon a paper in a tradesmen’s window which his curiosity led him to read.  There he saw in good, bold handwriting these words: “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”  (Psalm 91:9,10). In his words,"The effect upon my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality.”

While not to the level of cholera, COVID-19 or coronavirus, has certainly come to America and is changing lives. As Christians, we believe in the God that Spurgeon experienced through Psalm 91. We have absolute trust that He is in control, that He is good, and that we can trust Him with our lives, our retirement accounts, our education - everything! I know that believing this is not always easy, God knows that too. His invitation is to lean on Him, to recall the presence of the Spirit and to practice our faith., In some ways it is like we have all gone to faith's gym and we have the opportunity to lift our “faith” weights as we actively put our trust in Him.  

Though social distancing may keep us from gathering as a body, let me remind you that there is no distance between our God and us as His people. He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust. He watches over us so that not a hair falls from our heads without His knowing. Let us both individually and collectively remember to draw close to Him in these days; to draw our strength and our hope from Him, even when all else may seem grim. 

One final note, again from Spurgeon during the cholera epidemic. Times like these try the faith of the believer, but for the unbeliever they are terrifying. If this life is all that one has and it is threatened, that is frightening. Spurgeon recounts an encounter with a man who had often opposed him as a minister of the Gospel. Spurgeon’s words, "That man, in his lifetime, had been wont to jeer at me. In strong language, he had often denounced me as a hypocrite. Yet he was no sooner smitten by the darts of death than he sought my presence and counsel, no doubt feeling in his heart that I was a servant of God, though he did not care to own it with his lips.”  We may be jars of clay, but we have a treasure. May God give us opportunities to share it.

_{Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash}