“You only need to remain calm; the LORD will fight for you.” – Exodus 14:14 (NCV)
Are you weary? Have the times been rough? Is the stress getting to you? Have you tried to remain calm? Has God fought for you before? Do you believe that God will fight for you again?
The Associated Press just wrote an article about a study which found that the youth of today (High School and College students) are five times more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression than youth of the Great Depression Era. Apparently today’s youth have such high expectations for success that the stress to meet those expectations is overwhelming. Looking out at things I am sure that it is not just the youth.
Our expectations for success say that we should each be rich, all have whatever we want whenever we want, have big homes, drive big cars, and all the rest. When these grandiose expectations are not met our existence seems shattered, and then we try to cope with our shattered dreams. Today it is harder to cope than ever before because God is so rarely kept at the forefront of our hearts and minds. We prefer to blame than to pray. We would rather be consumed in anger than ask for peace. We would assume sit in depression than seek the only path to joy.
It is not the success that culture prescribes that promises us peace, it is Jesus Christ who promises us peace, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” It was this promise that let Paul joyously proclaim, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” even as he sat in prison. And it was this promise of God’s that let Moses confidently say to a nervous nation, “You only need to remain calm; the LORD will fight for you,” as they saw all the might of Egypt descend upon them.
Putting our faith in Jesus means that we stop putting faith in the promises of the world. The higher rates of anxiety and depression are reason enough to turn to Jesus. We are not meant to go through life scared and alone, stressing out about empty promises that we cannot control. God still runs after us offering a new life, a different life, and a life where we can remain calm and know that somehow, someway God is control and fighting for us. Today let us pray for that life!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Receiving the Holy Spirit
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” – John 20:21-22 (NRSV)
What type of peace is Jesus offering? What does it mean to be sent out by Jesus? How important is it to you that Jesus sends you out? Do you experience the Holy Spirit as you go out? If so, how have you experienced the Holy Spirit?
On June 11, 1988 a concert called “Freedom Festival” was held in London. Musicians throughout the world came together to hold a concert in honor of Nelson Mandela on his 70th birthday and to make a stand against apartheid in South Africa. The concert began with Sting working the crowd into a frenzy. Then musician after musician took the stage to sing while speeches were given in between sets. Over 72,000 people were loving each minute watching it in person while it is estimated over 1 billion people watched on television across the world! When Stevie Wonder made a surprise appearance the crowd was even more worked up.
Toward the end of the 10-hour concert Dire Straits was performing and the crowd was singing to every song. Then the final act came on stage, Jessye Norman an American soprano. She was not considered a rock star, and as she slowly came on stage the crowd was getting restless hoping Dire Straits would come back and sing another song. Some people were shouting out for another musician while she positioned herself behind the microphone. Then in a beautiful a cappella she began to sing “Amazing Grace.” When you hear her start singing you can hear the crowd still somewhat upset, and then quickly a hush falls over them. As she kept on going the crowd began to gently sing with her. Later Norman confessed that she had no idea what power fell over the crowd that night.
There is no doubt that the power she experienced was the Holy Spirit, ensuring that people were still sent out from that concert to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. What was a grand concert became church because people experienced the Holy Spirit! God is still at work all over the place, breathing the Holy Spirit onto us in order that we can be sent out to do the work of God. Today let us pray that we caught up in this wave of glory that is the Holy Spirit!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
What type of peace is Jesus offering? What does it mean to be sent out by Jesus? How important is it to you that Jesus sends you out? Do you experience the Holy Spirit as you go out? If so, how have you experienced the Holy Spirit?
On June 11, 1988 a concert called “Freedom Festival” was held in London. Musicians throughout the world came together to hold a concert in honor of Nelson Mandela on his 70th birthday and to make a stand against apartheid in South Africa. The concert began with Sting working the crowd into a frenzy. Then musician after musician took the stage to sing while speeches were given in between sets. Over 72,000 people were loving each minute watching it in person while it is estimated over 1 billion people watched on television across the world! When Stevie Wonder made a surprise appearance the crowd was even more worked up.
Toward the end of the 10-hour concert Dire Straits was performing and the crowd was singing to every song. Then the final act came on stage, Jessye Norman an American soprano. She was not considered a rock star, and as she slowly came on stage the crowd was getting restless hoping Dire Straits would come back and sing another song. Some people were shouting out for another musician while she positioned herself behind the microphone. Then in a beautiful a cappella she began to sing “Amazing Grace.” When you hear her start singing you can hear the crowd still somewhat upset, and then quickly a hush falls over them. As she kept on going the crowd began to gently sing with her. Later Norman confessed that she had no idea what power fell over the crowd that night.
There is no doubt that the power she experienced was the Holy Spirit, ensuring that people were still sent out from that concert to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. What was a grand concert became church because people experienced the Holy Spirit! God is still at work all over the place, breathing the Holy Spirit onto us in order that we can be sent out to do the work of God. Today let us pray that we caught up in this wave of glory that is the Holy Spirit!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Minister's Minute from January Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy
Again we begin a New Year. Life is a series of new beginnings really. That is a comforting thought to me. There have been many times in my life I have messed up, or something has happened somewhat beyond my control, but which nevertheless severely affected me. At many such moments of difficulty I wanted to give up. The moment was too overwhelming and I discovered myself trapped, stuck in that moment in time like it was some prison. The prison of course was my own creation. No moment can hold us, but we allow the circumstances of moments to haunt us, to grab onto our thoughts and our dreams and steal them from us. In those quiet moments of desperation when peace seems fleeting at best, or nowhere at worst, we exist fearing how life will play out, how life will continue, how we will ever make it.
Yet each of us has made it through such valleys before and will make it through them again, it is the nature of life. Sometimes life is miraculous, pregnant with promise and potential. We might call such moments our mountaintops of glory. We have all experienced them, and God willing we shall all experience them again. A graduation, a birth, a chance encounter with God, only you know your mountaintop experiences, oh and what experiences they must have been. I have found myself high atop such mountains and in my jubilation I have seldom seen the valleys down below. Nevertheless there are always valleys down below because the truth is life is a journey and not a destination. Below each mountain is another valley, and beyond each valley is another mountain, and we keep walking because that is what we do.
So the New Year arrives and I am reminded that I keep on walking, because that is what I do. Somehow God walks with me, pushing me along when I would rather collapse in despair, pushing me along when I would cement myself in joy, pushing me along because there is so much still to experience. Not every day will be easy, but as the pressures of life are overcome, like a piece of coal that becomes a diamond only under severe pressure so shall we one day discover that we have become a jewel of infinite worth. Life is a series of new beginnings, and while the journey we have already travelled has helped create who we are, it is the journey we have yet to travel that will eventually make us complete. Each of us is a work in progress, and God would not have it any other way, and should we be truly honest neither would we. Something about the pains have allowed the joys to be so much better, and something about the joys have allowed the pains to contain some amount of meaning, even if words cannot express what that meaning may be.
However there is only one way to keep on going, and that is to humbly walk with God. Without that ever-vigilant and ever-present partner we would be lost. So let us say with the psalmist, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise!” I have seen many scenes in movies where a frightened character is told by the protagonist something like, “Keep looking at me, keep looking at me.” The goal of course is that the fear might stop overwhelming the poor character who cannot handle the situation. In our difficulties it is God who says, “Keep looking at me, keep looking at me!” If we look then we will be able to sing and give praise in the pain because our hearts will be fixed on God, and then at some moment we will notice the valley is over and again we are climbing up a mountain, a new mountain, a new beginning, as a new person. When we get to the top of the next mountain we still must sing that same psalm and God will still say, “Keep looking at me, keep looking at me!” because that moment no matter how glorious will be better with a friend.
I hope and pray that this year is full of new beginnings for each of us, and from whatever befalls us in the course of this year we emerge on the other side a more precious jewel than we entered it.
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
Yet each of us has made it through such valleys before and will make it through them again, it is the nature of life. Sometimes life is miraculous, pregnant with promise and potential. We might call such moments our mountaintops of glory. We have all experienced them, and God willing we shall all experience them again. A graduation, a birth, a chance encounter with God, only you know your mountaintop experiences, oh and what experiences they must have been. I have found myself high atop such mountains and in my jubilation I have seldom seen the valleys down below. Nevertheless there are always valleys down below because the truth is life is a journey and not a destination. Below each mountain is another valley, and beyond each valley is another mountain, and we keep walking because that is what we do.
So the New Year arrives and I am reminded that I keep on walking, because that is what I do. Somehow God walks with me, pushing me along when I would rather collapse in despair, pushing me along when I would cement myself in joy, pushing me along because there is so much still to experience. Not every day will be easy, but as the pressures of life are overcome, like a piece of coal that becomes a diamond only under severe pressure so shall we one day discover that we have become a jewel of infinite worth. Life is a series of new beginnings, and while the journey we have already travelled has helped create who we are, it is the journey we have yet to travel that will eventually make us complete. Each of us is a work in progress, and God would not have it any other way, and should we be truly honest neither would we. Something about the pains have allowed the joys to be so much better, and something about the joys have allowed the pains to contain some amount of meaning, even if words cannot express what that meaning may be.
However there is only one way to keep on going, and that is to humbly walk with God. Without that ever-vigilant and ever-present partner we would be lost. So let us say with the psalmist, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise!” I have seen many scenes in movies where a frightened character is told by the protagonist something like, “Keep looking at me, keep looking at me.” The goal of course is that the fear might stop overwhelming the poor character who cannot handle the situation. In our difficulties it is God who says, “Keep looking at me, keep looking at me!” If we look then we will be able to sing and give praise in the pain because our hearts will be fixed on God, and then at some moment we will notice the valley is over and again we are climbing up a mountain, a new mountain, a new beginning, as a new person. When we get to the top of the next mountain we still must sing that same psalm and God will still say, “Keep looking at me, keep looking at me!” because that moment no matter how glorious will be better with a friend.
I hope and pray that this year is full of new beginnings for each of us, and from whatever befalls us in the course of this year we emerge on the other side a more precious jewel than we entered it.
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Doing the Word
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. – James 1:22 (NIV)
How can someone deceive himself or herself by only listening to the word? Do you feel you have ever deceived yourself? What does it mean to “do” what the word says? What is an example of doing what the word says that you can think of right now?
My sister called me up the other day and told me about a little boy around 7 or 8 years old. He earned money throughout the year either because of gifts given or doing the odd job around the house. There was always the promise that as he earned the money he would be able to buy something with it, so the little boy kept earning money.
Toward the beginning of December his mother asked him if he wanted to use his money. Excited the little boy shook his head yes. “Do you know what you want to buy?” asked his mother. The little boy shook his head yes. “What do you want to use your money for?” his mother prodded. The boy looked at his mother and said, “I want to give half of it to Toys for Tots, and half to the Veterans Relief Fund.” Understandably his mother was shocked, “Are you sure?” “Yes, yes mom, I am sure.”
The boy’s mother told people about how her son wanted to spend his money and it inspired a couple of people who heard. These inspired people said that they would match the little boy’s gift. Several days later the boy walked into a Toy’s for Tots donation center and gave them half of his money and half of the matched gifts. Then he went to the place to donate for the Veterans Relief Fund and did the same. All total the little boy gave almost $500. What awesome work done by someone so young!
Jesus said, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” There is no doubt that little boy did what that word says! What word is it time to do that we have heard? As we approach the New Year let us make a resolution to do the word we have heard; we may be amazed at what occurs!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
How can someone deceive himself or herself by only listening to the word? Do you feel you have ever deceived yourself? What does it mean to “do” what the word says? What is an example of doing what the word says that you can think of right now?
My sister called me up the other day and told me about a little boy around 7 or 8 years old. He earned money throughout the year either because of gifts given or doing the odd job around the house. There was always the promise that as he earned the money he would be able to buy something with it, so the little boy kept earning money.
Toward the beginning of December his mother asked him if he wanted to use his money. Excited the little boy shook his head yes. “Do you know what you want to buy?” asked his mother. The little boy shook his head yes. “What do you want to use your money for?” his mother prodded. The boy looked at his mother and said, “I want to give half of it to Toys for Tots, and half to the Veterans Relief Fund.” Understandably his mother was shocked, “Are you sure?” “Yes, yes mom, I am sure.”
The boy’s mother told people about how her son wanted to spend his money and it inspired a couple of people who heard. These inspired people said that they would match the little boy’s gift. Several days later the boy walked into a Toy’s for Tots donation center and gave them half of his money and half of the matched gifts. Then he went to the place to donate for the Veterans Relief Fund and did the same. All total the little boy gave almost $500. What awesome work done by someone so young!
Jesus said, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” There is no doubt that little boy did what that word says! What word is it time to do that we have heard? As we approach the New Year let us make a resolution to do the word we have heard; we may be amazed at what occurs!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
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