Live or Die

If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. — Romans 14:8 NIV


We just celebrated Memorial Day weekend, remembering those who gave the ultimate of sacrifice for our freedom and honoring those who serve in our armed forces to stand in the gap for our protection and freedom. I was also moved by the Spirit this past Sunday when we gathered around the new Memorial Prayer Garden on the south side of the church building. We dedicated the garden to the service of God and then, Lane Smith led us in singing “In the Garden” a cappella. In all of these moments of remembrance, I personally remembered of my own mortality and an episode I experienced two years ago.

“You are going to the hospital!” proclaimed my doctor. These are words that many of us may have heard or will hear in the future. These words bring anxiety. After hearing these words, along came sirens of the ambulance--familiar sounds living near the fire and police departments in town--but this time the sirens were to transport me to the hospital.

Declaring you have unresolved chest pain causes others anxiety and others to jump into action to care for the person in distress. There you lay with the myriad EKGs, IVs, BP checks, doses of nitroglycerine, etc., with time moving so quickly, yet in slow motion. During these crisis-like times, though, the big question is always present. The question comes in many forms but interpreted as, “Is this going to be my last breath?”

As I laid on the gurney bouncing along Highway 82 (I believe that was the route), I came to a renewed resolution in my mind. The resolution connects to what Paul declared in the scripture above. As I bounced along, I discovered a peaceful assurance that if this was my last breath or not, I had the best of the best. Either way, whether seeing the light of a hospital room or seeing The Light, I was in the comfortable presence of Jesus Christ. Either way I can sing,

And He walks with me and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His Own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

Celebrating holidays such as Memorial Day helps remind us of the sacrifice of others but it also reminds us of the assurance of the gift of Christ’s sacrifice for our freedom from sin and death and we are His.

Prayer: God of Wonders, thank you for loving us and giving us your Son, Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior that provides the assurance of whether we die or we live we belong to you. Give us the courage and strength to live out that assurance and pass it on to others. May we live this day as the first day of the rest of our life in You. Amen.

Well-formed Maturity

Read: Romans 12:1-2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (NIV)

Back in the ‘70s and 80’s, I experienced what is still known in the Boston Bay area of Massachusetts as the “T.” The T (MBTA) is a commuter rail, similar to the DART Light Rail, has various lines covering the eastern part of Massachusetts from the South Shore to the North Shore. Some of you may have experienced the T in your lifetime.

Well, after a recent conversation with our witty youth director, Kevin, about being renewed and reformed in Christ’s image, I recalled from my feeble mind several experiences on the T while traveling to and from Fenway Park for Red Sox baseball games. I believe the route I took traveled along the Green Line from the South Shore, Weymouth/Quincy area to west downtown at Fenway Park.

I remember at each stop along the route more and more baseball fans took their spot in the commuter rail car. After just a few stops the car was filled to capacity. All the seats were taken, and passengers were stuffed in standing positions like sardines. Personal space was nonexistent for about a thirty minute commute.

The cheers and excitement of fans and supporters of the Red Sox escalated. How quickly every passenger got caught up in the excitement! In fact, it was not wise to proclaim you were a fan of the Red Sox’s opposing team of that day. In other words, you conformed to the Red Sox fans surrounding you. On the return trip, depending on whether or not the Sox won and how keyed up the passengers were after hot dogs, peanuts, and beer, it was even more important to conform to being a Sox fan.

Interestingly, when you exited the train at Fenway Park or at your home destination on your return trip, you had the free will to return to your normal position for or against the Red Sox. Essentially, you conformed to the character of the Red Sox fan while on the train and became yourself when off the train.

Kevin and I agreed this is the way we sometimes deal with our support, position, and character as a Christian. We are a strong Christians around other Christians, especially when we are at church or at a church event where peer pressure to be a Christian is high. However, as soon as we are seemingly away from other Christians and placed in a worldly situation we conform to the world.

Paul reminds us in our scripture text that our belief in Christ should permeate each area of our life, and God gives us the strength not to succumb to the world. Listen to how Peterson’s The Message says it in Romans 12:1-2:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating,
going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an
offering. Embracing what God
does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so
well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike
the culture around you, always
dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

May we have the courage to allow God to help us not to so fit in to the culture or fall into sin that people can’t tell we are Christians. May we allow God to bring the best out of us and develop us to well-formed maturity. O God, please help us. Amen.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jack

Praise You in the Storm

Read: Matthew 8:22-26

Here it is a new year and our hope is everything in life will flow smoothly. Yet, the reality is that we go through life with the calm and the storms flowing to and fro. Just as soon as we experience the calm of life, unexpectedly the storm comes raging over us. As I look back through my life it is permeated with this ebb and flow between calm and storm.

However, as I reflect, there is one thing that has remained constant and unchanging in the journey: God’s love for humanity. In spite of the storms, God’s love in Christ remains present and sure. Recently, my oldest grandson, Eric “EJ,” wrote an essay that encompasses this presence and assurance of God’s love in three things he knows:

Three things that I know about God

Three things I know about God are that he knows everything in the world, he put Jesus in my heart and God loves me. I know that God knows about everything going on in the world because he can be in every place at the same time. Jeremiah 23:23 says I am God who is near and not far away. I know God put Jesus in my heart because John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only Son so whoever believes in him will live life eternally.” I know God loves me because John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world” and I am part of the world. I also know this because John 6:44 says “No one can come to the father unless he draws them to Him.” This means God chose me. If he chose me, he must love. Psalm 139:14 says I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I praise God everyday because he made me in amazing and wonderful ways. Wouldn’t you like to know God like I do?

By Eric Hohler (age 8)

EJ’s wisdom is assurance for all of us. If we can only remember these three things we can successfully ride through the calm and the storm and praise God. As Casting Crowns sings:

And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

From “Praise You in This Storm”
words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms