Remember Me

This weekend not only marks the unofficial beginning of Summer, is a great time to work in the yard and plant those vegetables you are going to purchase today and have a picnic with family and friends, it is also the time we set aside to remember those who gave their lives serving our nation during times of war.  We also take this opportunity to thank those who are serving and have served in our military because we can never say thank you enough but we have holidays to help us honor these special people.  Armed Services Day is the day we remember those who are currently serving, Veterans Day is to remember those have served our nation and that is November 11, and Memorial Day is to remember those who died while serving.

There is one more group of military heroes and families we need to remember who are often overlooked and that is those who are missing or imprisoned.  While the official day for this is the POW/MIA Recognition Day, the third Friday of September, we should remember them today as well because while some may still be listed as missing in action, they gave their lives for their country.

One of our own, Major Lewis P. Smith, is just such a person.  He was serving in the Air Force during the Vietnam War when his plane was shot down in Laos on May 30, 1968, 48 years ago tomorrow.  For his family and many families like his, there is little closure when there is no body to hold on to and no grave to visit.  We need to remember these families today and we need to pray for the Smith and Burger family as they continue to try and find some resolution to this situation.

Today is a day to remember so I want us to actual look at that word for a moment - Remember.  While the definition is to think of someone or something from the past or to keep information in our mind, I want us to think about the word in a slightly different way.  Re-Member.  The word member means being part of a body.  We are not only a member of an organization like the church, but our leg is a member of our physical body, our arm is a member and if we re-member them we are re-attaching them or re-connecting them.  So to re-member someone can mean to re-attach ourselves or re-connect with them in ways that keep us united and together.  When people say, remember me, they aren’t just asking for us to think about them, they are asking us to re-connect with them or to attach ourselves to them in some significant way, usually in ways that will support and help them.

When those who served and died for our nation say, Remember Me, they are asking us to live with the same conviction and sense of selflessness and sacrifice as they did.  This Memorial Day weekend we need to do more than just think about those who have gone before us – although that is a great place to start -  but if we really want to honor them and re-member them then we need to be willing to embrace and live out the values that we have seen in them.

Are we willing to live for a purpose larger than just ourselves?  When we look around at our nation and world and see injustice or people in need, are we willing to set aside our own wants and needs and help serve others?  This doesn’t mean we have to join the armed services but we all can embrace the spirit of sacrifice and service that moved the men and women in our military to give their lives in service.  What would it look like for us to serve a greater purpose and work for a cause greater than our own well being and the security of our own families?  What might we need to sacrifice or die to in order to lift up others?  This weekend needs to be more than just a time to reflect on those who died for the cause of freedom and justice around the world; we need to re-member them which means connecting ourselves to the values of their lives and finding ways to follow their example.

It’s not just those who died in service to the country who are asking us to re-member them, so is Jesus.  On the most important and difficult night of Jesus life, Jesus asked his disciples to remember him.  This was not just a casual request on the part of Jesus who wanted his followers to think about him in the days to come, this was a request Jesus made and continues to make to his church over and over and over again for us to be connected to him.  Jesus asked us to remember him the night he presided at the last Passover meal he shared with his disciples on the night before he was crucified.  It is part of what we know as the Last Supper.  Luke 22:14-19.  Do this in remembrance of me – or another way to say this is - When you do this, remember me.  But Jesus didn’t just want his friends to think about him and all he was willing to do for them; Jesus wanted them to follow him.  Jesus wanted his disciples to live the way that he lived, to love the way that he loved and to act the way that he acted.  That is true remembrance – and that is what Jesus wanted then and it’s what He still wants today.

When we share in communion we aren’t just thinking about what Jesus did, we are connecting ourselves to Jesus and committing ourselves to once again live the way that Jesus lived and love the way he loved.  We forgive because Jesus forgave.  We serve because Jesus served.  We worship and pray because Jesus worshiped and prayed.  We love others more than ourselves because Jesus loves us more than himself – which is why he was willing to sacrifice for us.

When Jesus said we are to remember him in the breaking of the bread, it was a specific call for us to be willing to be broken ourselves in our love and service to others.  And here is what is amazing about this, the call to remember me is really an invitation to help and support Jesus in God’s work in the world.  God is inviting us to be part of loving His world and all who are in it and to share with them the good news of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.  Jesus is asking us to help him in his mission and ministry and the reason we know this call to remember is more an invitation and plea for help than it is a command is because many other places in the bible we hear these same words and in each case they are used by people asking for help.

In fact, the next day as Jesus hung on the cross one of the criminals who was crucified with him said, Remember me.  Luke 23:39-43.  When the criminal asked Jesus to remember him, it wasn’t just for Jesus to call him to mind when he entered into his kingdom, he was asking for Jesus to give him grace and mercy which would usher him into the kingdom of God with Jesus.  He was asking Jesus for help and Jesus responded by assuring him that God will remember him, or re-connect with him by bringing him into His kingdom, Today you will be with me in paradise.

In the Old Testament we find several people crying out for God to remember them and again they aren’t looking for God to think about them, they are asking God to be gracious and help them in some way.  Look at Judges 16:28.  Samson was looking for God to give him strength so that he could destroy his enemies and God did just that.  Judges 16:29-30.  This plea, remember me, wasn’t just to be thought of, but to be helped and for God to re-connect with Samson in ways that would allow him to use God’s strength and power.

In Psalm 25, David asked God to remember him and what he specifically asked for was forgiveness and grace.  Psalm 25:7.  David is asking God to remember him in ways that bring forgiveness for his sins.  David is looking for God’s mercy and grace and when God remembers him he helps him.  The same is being asked in Psalm 106:4-5.  They don’t want to just think about them, they want God to help them.  They want God to come to their aid, to share his joy and to give them life and salvation.  The words remember me aren’t just a plea to be thought about but a request or an invitation for help.  It’s a request to be connected to God in ways that bring God’s power and grace and life.

This weekend is a time when many are saying to us, Remember Me.  Those who have served our country and given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives are calling us to remember them in ways that embrace a spirit of selflessness and sacrifice.  Military families are saying, remember me, which is an invitation and plea for help, understanding and support.  Jesus is asking us to remember him in ways that fully embrace his life of service, sacrifice and love.  May we truly re-member or re-connect ourselves to the values of sacrifice and service seen in so many others and seen in Christ Jesus and may we live in ways that show the world the love, grace and power of God.

Let us also not be afraid to cry out to Jesus with those same words – Remember Me – because every day we need to be reconnected to the power, love and grace of God that was given to us in Jesus.  If we are going to follow God and embrace the values of sacrifice, service and love seen so powerful in Jesus and others then we need to be re-connected to God each and every day.  We can’t do this in our own strength, we need to be connected to God and draw upon his strength and power.  So Jesus, please, remember me.  Remember us in your church and remember us a nation.  For we ask this in Jesus name.

Next Steps
Remember Me

1. Take time on this Memorial Day weekend to reflect and give thanks for those who gave their lives in service to our nation.
• Stop at the Missing Man table after worship and read about the symbols found there.  Pray for the families of those still missing.
• Pause in downtown Bellefonte to read and reflect on our hometown heroes.

2.  This weekend, decide as a family how you can sacrifice for and serve those in need in our community, nation and world.
• Volunteer in and through the church with children, youth or shut-ins.
• Help at the FaithCentre or Food Bank.

3.  Identify three specific areas where Jesus wants us to be re-connected to him.  What changes do you need to make to truly remember Jesus in these areas?

4.  Read Psalm 25 and Psalm 106.  In what specific ways do you want God to remember you?  Write a psalm or a prayer to God where you say to God, Remember Me.

#BESTDAYEVER

What was your best day ever?  If you follow that hashtag on Twitter you would see that for many people their best day ever was when they got married, or were able to hold their new born babies.  For some it was the vacation of a lifetime or the day they retired.  What was your best day ever?  For our little dachshund, Mouse, her best day ever was one Saturday morning when my Mom went out to say goodbye to my Dad who was leaving for work.  A chair was just far enough away from the table that she was able to jump onto the chair and then onto the table.  Once she was on the table she was able to eat an entire plate of sweet rolls and drink most of a pitcher of milk.  For Mouse, it was her best day ever, but the joy was short lived.  After such a big breakfast, our little dog was so bloated that she couldn’t get off the table before my Mom got back into the house.  While she was caught and trapped, it was too late, the food was already in her belly which made that her best day ever.

I was thinking about what we might consider the #bestdayever in the bible.  Maybe it was…
When Moses parted the Red Sea.
Maybe it was the night Jesus was born
Or the day he rose from the dead.

One of the problems with identifying these days or labeling any day the best ever is that it places our best days behind us.  If the best day ever was when we were married, what is there to look forward to.  If the best day ever was when our children were born then what happens on their first birthday or their graduation or their wedding?  Even the great days of the Bible like the parting of the Red Sea or the day Jesus was born were truly great days but they are moments in the past and I want the bestdayever to be ahead of me not behind me and it can be if we will learn how to live following the principles we find in what I say is the bestdayever that we find in the Bible.  Acts 2:1-11.

What makes the day of Pentecost the best ever is that this was the day God didn’t just speak to his people or lead them as he did in the Old Testament and it wasn’t the day God came to walk and talk with us as he did in the person of Jesus, this was the day God came to dwell IN us through the power of His Holy Spirit.  From this day forward everything changed because God wasn’t out there somewhere and he wasn’t just by our side, God now fills our hearts and lives with His presence and power which helps makes every day to come the best day ever.

We know this is what happened on the day of Pentecost because Jesus promised it would happen before he ascended into heaven.  Look at Acts 1:8.  When the Holy Spirit comes, Jesus said, it will come with the power of God filling your lives.  Jesus also said this in John 14 when he said that the Holy Spirit would come and that through the power of God’s Spirit working in us we would be able to do even greater things than Jesus - John 14:12.  When Jesus returned to God, the Holy Spirit came to us and when the Holy Spirit came it brought into our lives the power of God and with God’s power at work within us – every day has the potential to be the bestdayever and even better days will come in the future.  This is exactly what happened in the lives of Jesus followers.

Up until the day of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus were living in fear.  They were hiding behind closed doors and afraid of letting people know they were followers of Jesus because they didn’t want to suffer the same fate as Jesus.  They feared losing their lives because if the authorities put Jesus death they would not hesitate to put the followers of Jesus to death.  So it was fear that drove the disciples to huddle together in the upper room trying to figure out what to do next.  But as soon as the Holy Spirit filled the disciples – their fear was gone.  It is not even recorded in the Bible, but the disciples somehow moved from the safety of the upper room to the dangerous open streets and they were no longer silent, in fact they were making so much noise that people from all over the city gathered around them to watch and listen.  A power had taken hold of their lives and that power gave them the courage, strength and the ability to do great things.

That same day Peter stood up and gave a sermon that drew thousands of people to Jesus and then a few weeks later Peter and John healed a man who had been crippled from birth.  Again the power of God was working through them and every day brought some amazing things but this power wasn’t just working through them, it was working in them.  The followers of Jesus were different after the Holy Spirit came.  Not only were they fearless in their faith but they loved and cared for each other in different ways.  It says they committed themselves to one another in ways that made sure everyone was cared for.  If anyone had a need, that need was met by those around them.

There was a power at work in these people that came on the day of Pentecost which made that the bestdayever, but what really makes it the best ever is that the power given to them helped them live full lives into the future.  The day of Pentecost wasn’t just a great moment in history like the parting of the Red Sea; it was a day that ushered in the power of God so that every tomorrow can be the best ever.  If we want our bestdayever to always be tomorrow then we need to live life with the #power God makes available to us, and we need to live with the #purpose God has for us and we need to live giving #praise to God for it all.

#power.  It is amazing to think that God makes available to us the fullness of His power.  2 Timothy 1:7 says God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.  God gives us His power – God partners with us and shares with us His power so that our lives can be full and abundant.  Every one of us has the power of God available to us and that power can help us do more than we ever thought we could do and be more than we ever thought we could be.  It’s the kind of power that takes an ordinary fisherman and turns him into a preacher able to convict the hearts and change the lives of 3,000 people in one day like it did with Peter.  It’s the power that turns an enemy of Christ into a world evangelist as it did with Paul.  It is also the power that took a simple unassuming nun and turned her into the world champion of the poor and forgotten like it did with Mother Teresa.

This kind of power is not just for a few, it is for all. Each one of us has the power of God at work within us to help us move beyond what is comfortable to where God calls us and wants us to be.  The power is there if we are willing to step up and step out to use it.  This week I want to challenge us to use God’s power in one tangible and real way and then see where it takes us.  It might be using God’s power to forgive someone or to get involved in some ministry we have wanted to connect with but have been afraid to try.  It might be using God’s power to lead or prepare ourselves to lead at home or at work or in the life of the church.  Tomorrow can be our bestdayever if we will draw upon the power of God in us to do even greater things than Jesus.

#purpose.  The Holy Spirit not only brings the power of God into our lives but it also brings God’s purpose.  Jesus was clear that the Holy Spirit wasn’t just going to bring power to people so they could do whatever they wanted; it was going to bring power to complete God’s purpose.  Look again at Acts 1:8.  The power of God was coming so that people could be witnesses of Jesus in all the world.  Again, this is what Jesus said would happen in John 14:26.  The Holy Spirit was to teach the followers of Jesus what they needed and to help remind them of everything Jesus had said so they could share all of this with the world.  And this is what the power of God helped the disciples do in some pretty amazing ways.

First the power of God enabled the disciples to witness to God’s love and truth in many different languages which meant that people from around the world were able to hear about God.  While the disciples were together in Jerusalem, they were able to share the truth of God around the world because gathered in Jerusalem were people from around the world who heard about God in their own language and then took that good news with them.  Not only was the speaking in different languages an amazing thing, but that God’s witness went out to the world in a single moment was even greater.


Then Peter gave a witness to Jesus that called thousands of people to follow him and they did, which was amazing in itself, but again the power and purpose wasn’t just for that day – it was also for the future.  Look at Acts 2:42-47.  Many who gave their lives to Christ that day joined together and in the days that followed even more people were filled with power and purpose and amazing miracles were done which caused even more people to join the faith.

The day God poured out His Holy Spirit on the followers of Jesus and chose to dwell in his people opened the door for many more best days to come – and those days are still coming.  When we tap into the purpose God has for us – which is still to share God’s grace and truth and love – we experience the fullness of God which makes our lives the best ever.  Some of my best days were spent in Yellowstone which is where I first stepped out in ministry and as I shared God’s love and grace it was awesome but it still is!

Being part of Faith Church is the best!  We have seen amazing growth and power right here.  We have seen small groups develop and people encouraged and many people young and old grow in their faith through Bibles Studies, Sunday School and VBS.  We have seen people come to God in worship and go out into the community and world to serve.  There has been an energy, enthusiasm and love that has filled us with God’s power and helped us be God’s people who share God’s love in the world.  Living out the purpose God has for us has made for some best days in the past, but the bestdayever for Faith Church lies ahead of us as we continue to partner with God.  When we draw on God’s power and live with God’s purpose then the best day will always be tomorrow, it will always be in the future because God is not done with us yet.

We have to keep thinking that our bestdayever is ahead of us because God is always a forward looking God.  While we often have to look back to learn about God – we always need to look forward to see that God has a purpose, plan and life for us.  In fact, very early in the Bible God asked someone the question, Where have you come from and where are you going?  God wants us to learn from all that has taken place in our lives and in God’s world and history but with this question God is making sure that our vision is focused on the future and where we are going because for God the bestdayever is always a day to come, it is always tomorrow.

And this brings us to the last thing we need to do to make sure that tomorrow is always our bestdayever and that is #praise.  On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit didn’t have the people teach or preach or engage in acts of service or hospitality, it had the people praise God – Acts 2:11b – we hear them declaring the wonder of God in our own tongues! The people were praising God – but again it wasn’t just on that one day, it was also for the future, look at Acts 2:46-47.  When the Holy Spirit filled the people it moved them to praise God every day and when we live lives committed to praising God then tomorrow will be the bestdayever.

And it doesn’t matter how we praise God, it can be through hymns, praise and worship music, hip hop or rap music, 8 hand piano music or just our voices in praise and prayer.  And praising God doesn’t just take place through music in the church, we can praise God walking in the woods, working in the garden, having a picnic with our friends and neighbors or simply being silent in our homes.  Praising God is an attitude of our hearts and lives when we focus fully on God and lift up Jesus Christ and all that God has done for us in him.  Praise is powerful because it keeps our eyes fixed on Jesus and our lives open to the power God makes available to us.

Praising God in our own hearts and lives is important but praising God together brings its own unique power and has its own unique purpose.  Again from Acts 2 we see that it was the praise of God’s people together that gave witness to the love and truth of Jesus and it was the praise of God’s people together that helped the church grow, Acts 2:46-47.  Praising God together in worship doesn’t just make our lives the best they can be it really does help fulfill the mission God has for us.

So here is my challenge for all of us, we are entering into a season when it becomes very easy to set aside worshipping together.  During the summer we travel, we have family visit, we go on Sunday picnics and all of this means worship can take a back seat.  I want to challenge you to make this the #bestsummerever by making a commitment to be in worship every Sunday.  If you go on vacation – find a church you can attend.  If you have family visit, bring them with you.  If you go on a picnic, attend our early service so you can be on your way by 9:30 and dress casually if you need to so you can leave right from here, but don’t set aside worship.  Praising God is part of what will make this summer the best.

If you make this commitment we invite you to share this with others on social media by using the hashtag #bestsummereverFC.    This is just another way we can witness to the power of God and allow God to use us for his purpose in giving a witness to him.

This is a great day and the day of Pentecost may have been the bestdayever in the bible but the bestdayever is always tomorrow if we will live with #power and #purpose and #praise.

Next Steps
#bestdayever

1.  What was your #bestdayever?  What made that day so special and unique?  Share with others and celebrate the gift of that day.

2. Read the story of Pentecost found in Acts 1:1-11.  What made this day unique in all of human history?  Why does this day cause us to look forward and not just celebrate and remember a moment in history?

3.  To make sure our #bestdayever will be tomorrow we need to live with power, purpose and praise.
#power – what would you do tomorrow if you knew the power of God was with you?  Where do you need to experience:
• The power of healing?
• The power of God’s hope?
• The power of God’s forgiveness?
• The power of God’s love?

#purpose – what was the purpose of the early followers of Jesus?  Is this part of your life’s purpose today?  Can it be?
• What would you say is God’s purpose for your life?
• If you can’t define this purpose, pray and ask God for direction.  Ask others to help discern your purpose.

#praise – take time this week to praise God for all God has done in your life.
• How do you most powerfully praise God?
• How can you include more praise in your schedule?

4.  Help us make this the bestsummerever at Faith Church by committing yourself to faithfully praising God with us each week in worship.  Share this commitment on social media by using the hashtag #bestsummereverFC.

Shine Upon Us

This coming weekend is Penn State Graduation and as we enter into the graduation season for colleges and high schools we will hear once again the debate over the role of prayer at graduation.  Several years ago the Washington Community HS in Washington, Illinois was forced to remove the invocation and benediction from their graduation ceremonies, but a group of students found a way around the prohibition.  Ryan Brown, a graduating senior who was scheduled to give a speech, paused before he went to the podium and bowed his head in silent prayer.  That prompted the audience to stand and applaud, but Ryan wasn’t done.  During his speech Ryan sneezed and right on cue all of his friends shouted God Bless You.

When people graduate we ask God to bless them.  When people get married, which happens often in May, we ask God to bless them.  On Mother’s Day we ask God to bless our mothers and all the women who have loved us and been part of our lives – so in many ways the month of May is a month filled with requests for God to bless people, so today we are going to look at a psalm that asks God to bless us and we are going to learn from this psalm what the blessing of God is really all about.  Psalm 67

The first thing we learn about God’s blessing is that it is neither earned nor deserved, look at 67:1.  God’s blessing comes from God’s grace.  Other translations says God be merciful to us and bless us, which shows us that God’s blessing comes from God’s mercy.  Mercy means compassion given to us when we didn’t deserve it, so again we see that God’s blessing is really a gift given to us.  God’s blessing comes from God’s grace and not our obedience.  It comes from God’s love for us and not our love for God or our desire to live for God.  

Think about some of the blessings God has given you.  Now ask yourself, did you deserve these things?  Did you earn them?  One of the blessings of my life has been my family and there is nothing that I did to be born into my family.  I didn’t earn it and I did nothing to deserve it, but it has been a significant way that God has blessed me.  Another blessing God has given me during the past 23 years of my life has been the church families God has given to me.  Each church has helped me grow and given me amazing support, love and opportunities that I didn’t earn or deserve – these have been the blessings given to me by God.  There are so many things I can point to in my life and say, this is God’s blessing.  I did nothing to either earn or deserve these gifts.  It is simply God’s grace and mercy at work in my life.

One of the things that can help us see that God’s blessing in our lives is as an act of grace and mercy is when follow through on one word often find in the psalms but we tend to ignore, the word Selah.  This word appears 71 times in the book of Psalms and while an exact definition isn’t known, we believe it is some kind of musical direction.  The word might indicate that at this point in the psalm there is to be some kind of musical interlude but the best definition for us would be the word - pause.  When we come across this word in the psalms we need to stop and think about what we have just heard or read.

That the psalmist chose to place this word in the middle of a sentence tells us that we can’t overlook what we just read and what we just read is that God’s blessings come from God.  They are gifts of God’s grace and reflections of God’s unconditional love.  We need these moments of Selah in our lives to reflect on God’s grace and blessings because it helps us keep the right perspective and it helps us stay grounded.  When the world is shouting that we deserve more and we have earned the best, we need moments to pause and remember that all the blessings in life truly are gifts from God.

This week I want to encourage us all to create some moments to pause and reflect on what God has done and what God continues to do in our lives.  We need to consider how God has blessed us and where we want to experience God’s blessing.  We also need to think about what God’s blessing means for us because it might not mean what we think it does.  For example, God doesn’t bless us so that our lives will be better or pain and problem free, God blesses us so that God can be lifted up and so God can be glorified.
Look at - Psalm 67:2.   The psalmist doesn’t ask for God to bless him so he can get what he wants in life he asks God to bless him so that God would be lifted up and so that God’s ways and God’s salvation might be known in all the earth.  This is a very different way of thinking about God’s blessing.

Many times we associate God’s blessing with some kind of benefit to us or others.  At graduation we ask God to bless those moving into a new stage of their lives and part of what we are asking is for God to help them find jobs and have success in their future.  When we ask God to bless a newlywed couple we are thinking in terms of them living in peace and finding ways to work through all their problems in the years to come.  When we ask God to bless our mothers we are asking for their lives to be filled with health and strength and love and many good things.  Now there is nothing wrong with all of this.  These are all good things to pray for and they are part of God’s blessing in our lived and in the lives of others, but what Psalm 67 is trying to tell us is that God’s blessing isn’t always to benefit us.  God’s blessing in our lives needs to glorify God.  God’s blessing needs to be a benefit to God and build up God’s kingdom on earth.

What is so important about this verse is that it shifts our thinking about God’s blessing so we don’t just see it as asking God for some gift of help.  First and foremost we need to see God’s blessing as something that glorifies God.  When we ask God to bless us or others the focus needs to shift from what we need and want to what will honor God and what will lift up God’s name in the world.  This is an important lesson for us today because we live in a world that teaches us to focus on ourselves.

We are living in a selfie world.  While self portraits with a camera can be traced all the way back to 1839, selfies have become popular in the last decade with the ability of cell phones to take digital pictures anywhere and everywhere.  Now everywhere we go we are taking pictures of ourselves and posting them on social media which is also there to promote ourselves.  One of the interesting things about a selfie is that when we take a picture of ourselves in any setting, we usually become the largest object in the picture.

Let me show you some of my pictures from Israel that you will not see anywhere else and that’s because my head is the largest image in the shot.

Selife at Masada 

These are some selfies from Israel.  As amazing as the locations are, what you see when you look at these pictures is me.  I’m the focus.  I’m the center of attention and we are living in a selfie driven world where we think everything and everyone is here for us and so when we ask for God’s blessing what we think about is God doing something to benefit us, but that is not what the psalmist says.

The psalmist seeks God’s blessing knowing it won’t be something to just help him in life but something that will honor God by having God’s will be known.  The blessing isn’t for him to be saved but to have God’s salvation lifted up for all to see.  The blessing isn’t for him but for God and this needs to be part of what we think about when we ask for God’s blessing.  When we ask God to bless us or when we ask God to bless others the focus shouldn’t be on what we need but on what God wants and what God wants is for His glory to be revealed and for His love and salvation to be shared with everyone.

That God’s blessing shouldn’t be focused on us is also shown to us by Jesus.  In the days before his death, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he tells them that he is going to die and then he says this: John 12:27-28. Jesus doesn’t ask for God to bless him and save him from the coming struggle of the cross instead he asks for God’s glory to be revealed.  When we ask for God to bless us we should first think about what it would be like for God’s glory to be revealed in all the earth.  When that happens, it is a benefit to us all.

Psalm 67:3-4.  When God is lifted up and people see God’s grace and glory and power - people praise God.  When people praise and give thanks to God then the earth is given life.  Psalm 67:6 Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God will bless us.

So instead of asking God to bless us with good things we need to ask God to bless us so that the world can see God’s goodness, grace and power because when the world sees the fullness of God and when we come together as one to allow our life together to reflect God’s goodness and glory – not only is God glorified but we all benefit.  Life is given to us all.

So this month as we ask God to bless graduates, newlywed couples and all our Mothers, let’s remember that the blessing God seeks to give isn’t just to improve our lives or the lives of others but for God to be lifted up in this world.  God’s blessing in our lives means that God is honored and glorified and when that happens our lives and our world are so much better and know that God shines upon us.

Next Steps
Shine Upon Us


Read Psalm 67.

1. Think back to a time when you experienced God’s blessing.
• How did you know this was a blessing from God?
• Did the blessing benefit just you or others?


2.  God’s blessings are a gift, they are unearned and undeserved.
• Pause this week to reflect on what God has given you.
• Thank God for his mercy and grace.


3.  God’s blessings should not first focus on us but on God.
• What would it look for God to be glorified in your life?
• How can God’s blessing in you help reveal God’s will and salvation in all the earth?


4.  The month of May is filled with opportunities to ask God to bless others (Graduates, Newlyweds and Mothers).  Pray for God’s blessing to bring these people the fullness of God’s glory and not just earthly benefits and gifts.


5.  As we continue through this presidential campaign and election season, we need to remember that God is the one who rules the people justly and guides the nations of the earth.  God is sovereign over our elections and over our nation so we can praise God and ask for God’s continued blessing in our lives and in our land.

Witnesses ~ Saul

The reason we are able to gather here today to worship the risen Jesus is because there were people who saw Jesus after his resurrection and this witness changed their lives and then they shared this news with others.  For 40 days after his resurrection Jesus appeared to people and did miracles to prove that he was alive, and then he ascended into heaven.  After his ascension there are no more stories of Jesus appearing to people and the focus in the Bible shifts to the work of the Holy Spirit and what the followers of Jesus did to continue the work of God in the world.  There is one more appearance of Jesus, however, that not only changed a man’s life but changed the world and that man was Saul.

Saul was a devoted Jewish leader who had learned his faith and the finer points of Jewish law from one of the most well respected rabbis of his day, Gamaliel.  Saul was a zealous leader who felt like the followers of Jesus posed a threat to the Jewish people so he began a campaign of having the early Christians silenced.  In the book of Acts we learn that Saul authorized the stoning of Stephen, an early church leader who was the first Christian martyr.  The Bible says that Saul stood there and watched it all happen.  After Stephen died, Saul continued to persecute the followers of Jesus.  Acts 8:3, Saul began to destroy the church.  Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.

Saul’s passion was to put an end to the teaching and movement of Jesus and he set off from Jerusalem to Damascus with letter’s authorizing the arrest and imprison the followers of Jesus.  It was along the road that Saul witnesses the living Christ and we hear this in Acts 9:3-9.  The witness of Jesus here is different than in other places because Jesus doesn’t appear in bodily form, but the appearance of Jesus is no less powerful.  The presence of Jesus came in a blinding light and a powerful voice that literally stopped Saul in his tracks and while Saul did not physically see Jesus he talked about the power of Jesus’ appearance in his first letter to the Corinthians – 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.
 
After Saul witnessed Jesus he continued his trip to Damascus where a few days later a leader in the early Christian church not only opened Saul’s eyes but opened his heart as well.  Acts 9:17-23.

Again, Saul’s witness of Jesus was affirmed by Ananias who said that Jesus appeared to him on the road as he was travelling.  So Saul witnessed Jesus and like all the others who witnessed the risen Christ, seeing Jesus changed him.  Saul went from being a man who persecuted the followers of Jesus to someone who now professed that Jesus was the Savior.  Saul’s witness of Jesus not only changed him but his witness to the living Jesus changed others.

The rest of the story with Saul, better known as the Apostle Paul, is that he became the person God used to take the news of Jesus Christ to the gentiles.  While Peter and many of the other disciples shared the news of Jesus among the Jewish people, it was Paul who insisted that salvation through Christ was not just for the Jews but for the gentiles as well and Paul gave his life to that mission.  Paul’s witness to the gentiles changed the church and it has changed our world.  Now, if we go back to that road where Saul first witnessed Jesus we will see three important lessons about how our witness of Jesus can change us and the world around us.

The first lesson we learn is that contact with Jesus always starts with Jesus.  Saul isn’t looking for Jesus when he sets off for Damascus, in fact, Saul is looking to put an end to any talk about Jesus.  Jesus doesn’t appear to Saul because Saul is looking for him or because Saul has been good or because he has been faithful, Jesus appears to Saul and gives him new life only because of God’s grace.  God initiates the contact and God brings the new life.  It all comes from God and it all starts with God and God does the same thing in our lives.

Our witness of Jesus and our contact with God are not initiated by us but by God.  When God reaches out to love us or offer grace and mercy to us or when God steps into our lives to offer healing, hope or power it is not because we have earned it or deserve it – it is always because of God’s grace.  It is God’s grace that pursues us and it is God’s love that first reaches out to connect with us.  In 1 John it says that it’s not that we loved God but that God first loved us.  It always starts with God.  In my own life it was God who reached out to me when I was in college and it was God who rescued me when I chose to walk away and it was God who called me into the local church when I wanted to explore other areas of ministry and it is still God who pursues me in love and offers me grace and fills me with power when I am in need.  It is God’s grace that enables us to see Jesus and it is God’s grace that helps us experience him.  Our connection with God always starts with God.

John Wesley calls this prevenient grace or the grace that goes before our turning to God.  We may think that we are the ones looking for God or that on our own we have found God, it is always God who first reaches out to us.  If God did not first reach out to us the truth is that we would never be able to see or hear or experience God.  It always starts with God.

It is God’s grace that reached out to Saul if God’s grace can connect with a man who was actively persecuting the followers of Jesus and who was personally responsible for the first Christian martyr – then we know God is reaching out to all people.  That God went looking for Saul means God is actively looking for all of us.  We don’t have to ask for God to come to us – God is already with us.  We don’t have to ask God to reveal himself to us – God is working to draw us to him.  God initiates the contact and Jesus is at work in our lives today.  He may not come to us in a blinding light that causes us to fall to the ground, but Jesus still comes to us and we can witness him if we will open ourselves up to him.

When a friend comes to us the moment we need help – we are witnessing the presence of Jesus.  When a word of encouragement or truth jumps off the pages of scripture the moment we need it or when a silent word of affirmation speaks to our hearts  – we are witnessing the presence of Jesus.  When we know that God is using us in a specific moment for his intended purpose – we are witnessing the presence of Jesus.  God comes to us each and every day in so many different ways and if we will open ourselves up to God, we will witness Jesus and that witness will change us.

Saul witnessed Jesus and from that moment on things in his life began to change.  Conversion is the second lesson we learn from Saul’s witness of Jesus and what Saul’s conversion shows us is that God can take even the worst person and make someone great.  This means God take the worst part of us and turn it into something great.  For Saul the conversion meant he no longer persecuted those who followed Jesus but now he was the one proclaiming Jesus as the Savior.  All of the witnesses we have looked at experienced some form of conversion.  For Peter it had to do with how he forgave himself and others.  For Thomas the conversion was that he now had a vision of how Jesus could change the lives of others and for Mary seeing Jesus changed what she believed about herself and her world.  Everyone who witnessed the risen Jesus was changed and their conversion made them into something greater and better than what they were before and God wants to do that same work of conversion in our lives as well.

I hope this will make sense when I say it, but none of us should feel content with where we are in life and faith.  We all need to change and we should want the power of conversion to be working in us.  Whether a dramatic change in our hearts and lives is needed or whether it’s just the constant conversion that comes with spiritual growth – we should all want to experience the power of conversion and that change comes when we are in the presence of Jesus.  Saul witnessed Jesus and his life changed and that change came as Saul was willing to be still and silent and as he listened to both God and others and this is still how God can bring change in our lives.

Look at what happened to Saul after he witnessed Jesus.  He was led into Damascus where he had to wait in darkness for several days.  Saul couldn’t see anything, he didn’t know what was going on and he couldn’t do anything so in silence and stillness Saul waited.   Waiting in stillness, silence and even darkness is not easy and yet many times conversion can only begin this way.  May of us need time to reflect on what we have been doing or where our life has been headed and the only way to do this is to be still and silent.  I imagine Saul sitting in Damascus asking himself, how did this happen?  How did I end up here?  We all need to times to reflect on our lives to see if we are going in the wrong direction and so times of silence and waiting are often the first steps toward change.

Saul then had to listen to others – specifically Ananias.  Saul had to be willing to let this man into his life to bring healing and he had to allow the man to speak into his future.  It was Ananias who not only opened Saul’s eyes and restored his sight but he was the one used by God to fill Saul with the Holy Spirit.  Conversion comes with the help of those people God places in our lives and it takes a spirit of humility to allow others to minister to us and guide us.

We also see here that no conversion takes place without the work of the Holy Spirit.  God not only sent Ananias to heal Paul’s blindness but to fill him with the Holy Spirit and it is that spirit of God that changes us because it is the spirit of God that brings new life and it is the spirit of God that brings courage and the power to live differently than we did before.  No lasting conversion and change can take place in our own strength and power so we need to ask God for the gift of His spirit to fully change us.

The last thing we see happen in Saul’s witness of Jesus is that God calls Saul to a new mission and purpose.  It starts with Jesus calling Saul to go to Damascus and wait (Acts 9:6).  Saul gives us more insight into this new calling when he shares the story of his conversion in Acts 22:10, 14-16.  God has now called Saul to be a witness of his grace and truth to all the people of the world.  Saul’s unique call was to go to the gentile people and make clear to them that Jesus was not just the Messiah of Israel but the Savior of the world – and that is what Saul did.

When we witness the living Christ it comes with a call from God.  If nothing else, the call is for us to share our witness of Jesus with others.  In my own life, that is what God has called me to.

My witness of Jesus was not a blinding a light that knocked me to the ground, but a voice that cried out one morning in a dream.  I was struggling with what I should do with my life and had asked God to speak to me in a dream, but after 4 or 5 months of no spectacular dreams, I had given up on that prayer – but God was faithful and initiated the contact.  One morning as I was lying in bed dozing in those moment between sleep and being awake I heard someone call out 2 Timothy 2:2 and then I heard the phone ring.  I got up to answer the phone but there was no one on the line and so I hung up and sat there saying to myself – 2 Timothy 2:2.  What on earth is 2 Timothy 2:2?  I found a bible and this is what I read.
The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.   2 Timothy 2:2

While I didn’t understand this at first, I could not get this verse out of my head nor the sound of the voice ringing in my mind.  I have come to the conclusion that the voice was the voice of Jesus and that this was what God was calling me to do with my life.  I am to share my witness of Jesus with those who will be qualified and willing to share that witness with others.  It took me a while, but I have come learn that the best place for me to do this is in the local church where every day God raises up reliable men and women who are qualified and eager to share their own witness with others.

God calls us each of us to a mission.  God has a purpose for us in the work of his kingdom and for all of us part of the work is to be a witness of God’s love and grace.  Like Mary, Thomas, Peter and Saul, each of us will do this in our own unique way, but God calls us all.  God contacts us with his grace, converts us in His love, fill us with his power and calls us to his purpose and it all starts when we witness the living Jesus.

Next Steps
Witnesses ~ Saul

1.  The story of Saul’s conversion is such an important witness of the risen Christ that it is told 3 times in the book of Acts.  Read each account:
• Acts 9:1-22
• Acts 22:1-16
• Acts 26:12-18
• See Also 1 Corinthians 15:5-8

2. Identify in Saul’s testimony the…
• Contact with Jesus
• Conversion of Saul’s life
• Call to God’s mission

3.  Contact.  God always initiates the contact.  Identify the moments when God’s prevenient grace (the grace that comes before we turn to God) has been experienced in your life.  If you are in need of contact with God today, look for God’s grace and presence already at work in you.

4.  Conversion.  God takes the worst of us and makes something good.
• What area of your life needs to be changed?
• What resources are needed for that change to take place?
• How is God already providing for this conversion?
• No conversion takes place without the work of the Holy Spirit.  Pray for God’s spirit to fill you and change you.

5.  Call.  God calls us to be a witness to His truth and love.
• What mission do you feel God calling you to?  
• In what ways has God already prepared you for this work?
• What one step can you take to move into this mission?