ELECTION REFLECTION
November 3
Q. 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord's prayer teach us?
A. The conclusion of the Lord's prayer, which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen, teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power and glory to him. And in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.
Reflection:
After a week of prayer leading up to this election day, I am so thankful that the Lord's Prayer concludes with a word of encouragement. While many are anxiously awaiting the results of this election and all its implications, the Lord’s Prayer once again draws our attention higher to a greater reality. The kingdom and the power and the glory belongs to the Lord, forever! This is greatly encouraging for Christians because we have been adopted into the Lord’s household. This great God that holds the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever is our Abba Father! And as adopted sons and daughters, through the work of our Savior Jesus, we also lay claim to the inheritance: our Father’s kingdom is our home (Ephesians 1:3-10).
To those who are discouraged with this election: Look to what God has promised and be encouraged! Our hope cannot be found in the nations of earth, but in the Kingdom of God. The United States of America falls well within the scope of authority of our God. These election results are merely part of His cosmic plan (Matthew 28:18). Let us then carry on as we are called, as sojourners in a foreign land (1 Peter:17-23). And may these election results unite the Church with a greater longing to dwell with our Savior in his Kingdom.
To those who are pleased with this election: Do not to set your sights too low! Be careful that you are not too easily satisfied, for the Lord has much grander things ahead. This is but a minor event in the history of the world, for “does a crown endure to all generations (Proverbs 27:24)?” No, let us look past the rulers of the nation to the King of Kings, who alone is worthy of receiving crowns cast down before the throne (Revelation 4:10). And may these election results unite the Church with a greater longing to dwell with our Savior in his Kingdom.
New City, our ultimate trust and hope can be found in our Lord and Savior who will return. And for now, we rely upon His grace, and faithfully watch and pray while we await his return, as he promised in Revelation 22:20-21, "He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen."
Elder Josh Vander Meulen
Election Reflection | And Lead Us Not Into Temptation
ELECTION REFLECTION - 2020
November 2
Q. 106. What do we pray for in the sixth petition?
A. In the sixth petition, which is, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.
Reflection:
I will never deny you, Lord!
Now, can you imagine Peter, face to face, looking into Jesus's eyes as he said this with a passion that surely filled the room?
But then...reality hits as the Lord of creation said it would. Inserts the girl who recognized Peter as a Christ-follower, which then immediately placed him in a situation of temptation and ultimately doing the very thing Peter said he would never do.
Peter denied his Lord and in doing so, there's always a witness. Maybe they're right there in front of us and we don't care, perhaps we don't notice them or the damage being done, or worse, maybe we fail to remember and recognize that they're always one standing in our midst watching...namely our Lord God!
Now, to be frank, we all fail at this, in some shape form, or fashion. The reality of temptation is something that I can guarantee will happen to every person at New City Fellowship and beyond. We all will look at it face to face. So the question is, how might we prepare for the snares within ourselves, in our world, and from our great enemy?
In this season of the election in our country, falling into temptation is ripe for the picking. But, as much as it may be pressing in on us, this petition from the Lord's prayer encourages us to take our cues from Jesus. In the midst of temptation in the garden of Gethsemane, what do we see Jesus doing? Desiring that the cup might pass from him, we see Jesus praying against temptation! If the God-Man, the sinless Lamb prayed in a season and hour of temptation, how much more should we be doing so? For it is there that we find support when we are being tempted to stray.
Lastly, many of us, if we're honest, may have found ourselves tempted to the point of functionally denying our Lord Jesus and failing to love others well in such a season as this. Perhaps we see no good in our trials of testing that might have revealed all types of things within us. Well, oftentimes our failures reveal that our perspectives are flawed and that Christ wants us to follow his way instead of ours. In Matthew 26:41, notice how Jesus actually gave Peter the tools to fight against his coming temptation, because Jesus knew that the previous boastful confidence from Peter would never be enough. “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." We (just as Peter had to learn), must continually follow our Lord in learning how to intentionally watch and pray against temptation, even when we think we have the best intentions.
So, when we find that we have faltered under temptation, let us not despair without hope, for our denial can be another opportunity to show us the vast measure of God's grace, and the ongoing commitment of his sanctifying work upon us.
In this election season and beyond, may we be guided by our Lord Jesus to show great love...and let us remember...there's always a witness watching.
Elder Darryl Bradford
Election Reflection | And Forgive Us Our Debts
ELECTION REFLECTION – 2020
November 1
Q. 105. What do we pray for in the fifth petition?
A. In the fifth petition, which is, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”, we pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.
Reflection:
I don't know any other petition that we might need to pray more frequently during election week than the fifth petition. It may be the one we constantly find ourselves lifting up in confession to our merciful Father, "forgive us our debts!" Forgiveness for making politics a god and savior. Forgiveness for demonizing those whom we disagree with while venerating our own political camp. Forgiveness for idolizing or insulting a particular candidate. Forgiveness for siding with a party on every issue by reflex without discernment. Forgiveness for a lack of respect and civility in our political engagement. Forgiveness for forsaking the agenda of love.
Election season can often be a hotbed of certain sins such as idolatry, hatred, anger, partiality, revengeful spirit and more. The fact is Christians are not immune to the sins of our polarized culture and day.
But there is good news. In the fifth petition, Jesus invites us to pray for forgiveness of our debts or sins for Christ sake. Because of Christ's blood, we who were once God's enemies were made His friends, all our sins were wiped away and the Father's wrath was completely satisfied. And on this rock-solid basis, we are encouraged to continually come to God asking for forgiveness of our sins including the ones mentioned above and more. This is indeed good news!
However, as forgiven in Christ, we are also empowered to truly forgive others. Yes, even whom we might call our "political enemies." In a day of polarization, where strife, violence, political putdowns, divisive language, and unkind memes run rampant, Christians have the power to embody love and a forgiving spirit. This includes having a forgiving disposition even towards those that injure us, ridicule and persecute us for our political convictions. An unforgiving spirit in our discourse has only resulted in less sanity and more compromise: having opinions and making choices influenced by striving to defeat the other side. But Christians no longer have to be driven by fear or revenge. Being forgiven in Christ liberates us from the bondage of getting even with our "debtors." It frees us to overcome evil with good. It empowers us to love. If Jesus can forgive a rebellious, wicked and wretched sinner like me, who can we not forgive as well?
I could not think of a better way to close this reflection than with a prayer. During these last days leading up to election day, let's pray to God for forgiveness as we also seek to embody it as well.
God, forgive us for the times we’ve failed to treat each other as Your creation. Forgive us for celebrating unloving behavior in our candidates and our leaders. Call our leaders and political candidates to a new level of respect and civility. Remind them that You are sovereign and that the wisest choice we can make is to serve You and serve others. May there be a new movement of collaboration and respect in our nation’s capital and throughout the country. Give Your people the strength to lead by example with radical, world-changing love. Amen.
https://www.worldvision.org/christian-faith-news-stories/6-ways-pray-country-during-election
Elder Soo Bin Lee
Election Reflection | Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
October 31
Q. 104. What do we pray for in the fourth petition?
A. In the fourth petition, which is, “Give us this day our daily bread”, we pray that of God's free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them.
Reflection:
In the fourth petition, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray to God for daily bread. Bread was a staple in the diet of the ancient times. It also was a symbol of God's provision for His people throughout the Old Testament. In the wilderness, when His people were without anything to eat, God sent down manna from heaven.
But daily bread does not merely refer to the "doughy good" made of sugar, flour, and milk. It also includes everything needed in this life such as food, water, shelter, clothing, home, property, work, income, government, weather, health, safety, friends, education, medication, electricity and etc. To pray for daily bread is to ask God to provide for our physical needs and to sustain us daily.
Sometimes Christians can feel guilty or shameful about asking God for material needs. We think that we should only be praying for God's interest that His name be honored, His kingdom come, and His will be done. However, the fourth petition reminds us that God is not indifferent to our material needs but rather interested in meeting all of them.
So what does election day have to do with praying for our daily bread? Again, in the fourth petition, God is inviting us to make supplication to Him not only for the most basic needs of life (i.e. food and clothing) but also those things that are indirectly related to acquiring those needs. That is when we pray the fourth petition, we are also praying that God would grant the means for that provision, yes, even political ones. So take for example the undocumented brother or sister in distress struggling to provide financially for their family due to lack of legal status in the country. For them, praying for daily bread may include also asking God to make a way for them to obtain authorization to work legally through some type of immigration reform. It may include asking God for better access to quality education, affordable healthcare, employment opportunities, and those things are bound up with our physical welfare and our ability to serve God. It will also inevitably lead us to pray that the sovereign God would direct history in such a way that the next president to sit in the oval office would be the kind of leader who would seek to implement policies that help meet the basic needs of the people whom they represent.
Second, the fourth petition is a communal prayer. Notice, Jesus does not say "give me my daily bread" but "give us our daily bread." Christians belong to the family of God. We sit around our Father's table. And the precious saint that you sit next to you on the pew every Sunday may presently be in need or distress. Their needs may not necessarily appear significant and urgent to you. But Jesus in the fourth petition is calling you to count their needs as if they are as significant and urgent as your own. He is calling us to compassion, humility, empathy and measure as we beseech God on their behalf. He is calling you and me to pray for our bread. One commentator states, "Every time we pray this prayer from our heart, we are affirming our solidarity with our brothers and sisters." On judgement day, we will need to give an account for all the fourth petition prayers and compassionate acts we made on behalf of our brothers and sisters. To the men and women who did nothing to meet the needs of those who were hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, homeless, and imprisoned, to those who did not commit themselves to pray and to be part of God’s answer to prayer for them, Jesus will say, "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Mat 25:45-46) Let this sober warning lead us to pray the fourth petition as Jesus intended it, that is not with our own political interests in focus but instead, selflessly seeking the interest of others.
Finally, the fourth petition is a dependence prayer. That is why Jesus says to pray for daily bread. Praying for daily bread reminds us we are utterly dependent on him from day to day. It reminds us that our hope not just in eternity but also in the present life does not ultimately lie in the one who is confirmed as the next supreme court judge or in who is elected to sit in the oval office for the next four years. Our lives are in His hands. In a few days, we will find out who becomes the next president. In light of the outcome, some of us will rejoice for our country. Others of us will lament and despair. New City, no matter who wins, we as his people shall never lose heart! We have a king who truly and deeply cares for all our needs and even extends an invitation to cry out to Him with those needs. So whether they are trivial or great, let's never cease to bring them before Him.
Elder Soo Bin Lee
Election Reflection | Thy Will Be Done
ELECTION REFLECTION – 2020
October 30
Q. 103. What do we pray for in the third petition?
A. In the third petition, which is, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”, we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.
Reflection:
If we seek Him and ask him, our loving and perfect Father will guide our hearts and minds to follow his ways and to see as he sees. As we seek Him through his Word, his Spirit, and his people, we will know him better and better. Our sanctification makes us more like Jesus Christ, and enables us to die to sin, behave more like him, and care for the things he cares about.
As our Lord announced his ministry, quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2, he expressed a care for the poor, the broken hearted, captives, prisoners, and those who mourn. As Jesus later taught his disciples, he expressed his care for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, those with inadequate clothing, and those in prison.
As we obey Him and submit to the Lord’s will in all things, the Holy Spirit will guide us to use our political influence, however modest, to seek the greatest good for the most people. It may be complicated for us to do this within the most common political affiliations, where subtle or complex issues are often presented as clear “either – or” positions.
This is where our Bible and our theology should guide our politics, rather than the other way around. Because we are a called-out people – and possess blood-bought Christian liberty - our efforts to seek the good of all people may be distinctive and may not fit well into the common political categories pressed upon us.
As you seek to obey the Lord, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Elder Dave Werner
Election Reflection | Thy Kingdom Come
ELECTION REFLECTION – 2020
October 29 -- Q. 102. What do we pray for in the second petition? A. In the second petition, which is, “Thy kingdom come”, we pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.
Reflection:
As I reflected on this second petition, I was struck by how timely the Lord’s Prayer is in this election season. A time in which the United States (and the rest of the world) is anxiously waiting to see who will mount their respective thrones as some of the most powerful men and women in the world. We cannot help but wonder how these individuals might, for better or for worse, alter the trajectory of our lives and the societies around us.
The Lord’s prayer, however, pulls our attention away from our modern democracies, the election polls, the judicial benches, the economic coalitions; and presents us with a word that you probably won’t hear in the news: KINGDOM. What does it mean to pray “Thy kingdom come”? The catechism gives us an answer by contrasting two kingdoms.
The first kingdom is that of Satan – the enemy (1 Peter 5:8-9). From the moment of the Fall in Genesis 3, through all recorded history, and up to this very moment on October 29, 2020 A.D., the world has been deeply impacted by and under the oppression of the kingdom of Satan. We are powerless to stop its advance. In fact, even with humanity’s collective best efforts - the sophisticated social systems that are designed to pursue peace, prosperity, equality, and justice – it isn’t long before we realize that corruption runs deep. Cracks in the system emerge. Unintended consequences cause real harm. And we are faced with the reality that the world is under the curse of sin. We can’t fix it ourselves. We wrestle with spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12). This kingdom of Satan is evil and cannot coexist peaceably with the kingdom of God. And so, as God’s people, we pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed.
The catechism then presents a second kingdom: a Kingdom of Grace. This is the kingdom that God promised immediately after the Fall (Genesis 3:14-15). This kingdom was ushered into the world when Christ spoke those words on the cross: “It is Finished”. It was on the cross that the fate of the Kingdom of Satan was sealed. This is the solution that we needed! And now, in the years following Christ’s death and victory over Satan, we pray for the advancement of this kingdom. We pray that the Kingdom of Grace would prevail over the Kingdom of Satan in practical ways, and that we and others would be brought into it and kept in it.
What about the Kingdom of Glory? This is not so much a different kingdom, but a different state in which God’s kingdom is manifested. As has often been quoted: “Grace is glory begun, and glory is grace consummated”. We look forward to the day when grace is consummated, made complete, and is perfected. In this Kingdom of Glory, the last futile grip of sin will finally be released. And we will experience the complete freedom of it is devastating effects on us (Revelation 21:4). We pray fervently that this Kingdom of Glory would be hastened.
New City Fellowship, as we reflect on the Lord’s Prayer during this election season, let us put the immediate affairs of the world into proper perspective and let us remember our high allegiance. God's people do not need a “win” in November. Jesus has already won the victory. And he has a plan for us that is better than anything Washington can give us. Let’s follow Him.
Elder Josh Vander Meulen
Election Reflection | Our Father
ELECTION REFLECTION – 2020
October 28
Q. 100. What doth the preface of the Lord's prayer teach us?
A. The preface of the Lord's prayer, which is, “Our Father which art in heaven”, teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.
Q. 101. What do we pray for in the first petition?
A. In the first petition, which is, “Hallowed be thy name”, we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known; and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.
Reflection:
Our Father…who is the creator of the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
Our Father…who reigns in heaven as a three-in-one Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our Father…who sent his only son to live a human life as a man, being subject to the same pressures to sin as we are, but lived a perfect life and gave his life to crucifixion on the cross, as a perfect sacrifice redeeming us from the penalty of the sins we commit and were born into, and purchasing for us an inheritance of the heavenly kingdom he now inhabits at the right hand of the Father.
This is the Father to whom we are allowed to draw near with all holy reverence, and address with our petitions with the confidence that He is ready and able to help us and work all things to his own glory. He is a true, loving and perfect father who wants to hear from our hearts, and will not give us a stone when we ask for bread. He also calls us to love and pray for others, including our enemies, and for kings and those in authority – or may soon be – that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. And He calls us to love and pray for all the saints – which includes our brothers and sisters in the church, some of whom may vote differently than us.
His name is hallowed when we walk in his ways. The Holy Spirit enables us to love, and this conspicuous love is what will bring glory to God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. This conspicuous love has the power to make known the Father’s ways on the earth, and among all people.
His name is hallowed because He made us – we do not get to “make” him, or form him into our own design. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:34-36)
Beloved, Heaven is the kingdom where our true citizenship lies. Jesus Christ is the king who reigns there and does not need to be elected. We are aliens and sojourners in this world. May our love and behavior cause us to be agents of hope to others, especially those who may see this as a divisive political season.
May our God enable us this week, to glorify Him, and may he use us in ways that bring attention to the love of Christ and our love for each other, so that the world may know him.
Elder Dave Werner
Election Reflections | Introduction
ELECTION REFLECTION – 2020
October 27th – Introduction
Today, we are introducing a series of daily posts for the next week, each based on questions from the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC), designed as an “election reflection”.
Politics. Do we have to go there? And what does the Westminster Shorter Catechism have to do with politics? In a word: Prayer. We have access to the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and are called to prayer. In Q&A 100-107 of the WSC, we are instructed about the Lord’s Prayer, and the Biblical basis for each of its petitions.
We have been through some challenging times, in terms of politics, haven’t we? But, beloved, what we refer to as “politics” in our country – the ongoing exercise of our representative republic form of democratic government, and the struggles for power that it entails – is nothing new for us as fallen humanity. In the books of Kings and Chronicles, we see the exercise of politics and struggle for power, as we do in the New Testament, when the Pharisees plotted to end the ministry of Jesus Christ, and when Julius Caesar was assassinated, through the writing of Niccolo Machiavelli called The Prince, when Abraham Lincoln was ridiculed as president and later assassinated… the list goes on. The point being, that we do not have to wonder or fear: “Oh my! How have we come to this point?!” This is actually “normal” for fallen humanity, outside the saving grace of Jesus.
But we are God’s elect – strangers in the world (1 Peter 1:1) – a chosen people, and a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Indeed, we are aliens and strangers in the world (2 Peter 2:9-12) – a pilgrim people, and mere sojourners in this earthly place we call “the United States of America”, in this time we call “2020”. In fact, we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom which cannot be shaken, where Jesus Christ reigns and sits on a throne for all the ages, forever and ever. Our salvation ensures us an entrance into that kingdom and we are actually heirs to it with Christ (2 Peter 1:10-12; James 2:5; Romans 8:16-17).
Because of this true citizenship, our hope can be found there, and in the love of Jesus Christ, with whom we share this inheritance We do not need to worry about the outcome of any election, and our hope should not be placed there.
For a time though, as sojourners in this earthly kingdom, we can honor our Lord and Savior by embodying a conspicuous love and concern for the things He was concerned about. In Luke 4, when Jesus proclaims himself as the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-2, he revealed why he was anointed by the Father for his ministry.
Politics are merely the practical means by which a people manage their lives together. Good things are provided, like: roads, bridges, parks, protection from aggressors, etc. It is our sinful nature and the struggle for power that corrupts the process. But as the redeemed church, we can display a conspicuous love for our neighbor by leveraging politics to pursue the good of all people. This is an opportunity for Christians. Because we are not of this world, we should be set apart from how the world conducts these matters. But rather, 1 Peter 2:11-12 tells us: “11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
May our conduct – always, but especially now -- be so honorable, that our Lord Jesus Christ is glorified.
Hopefully, this series of reflections will be an encouragement to you, an invitation to pray, and will help to center your thinking during these coming weeks.
With love, and in service to New City Fellowship, we are…
Your Elders – Darryl Bradford, Josh Vander Meulen, Soo Bin Lee, Dave Werner
Meditation | Worship that is Pleasing to God - Amos 5:21-24
Headline after headline, we see another one of our black neighbors become a victim of gross injustice. Ahmaud Arbery shot during a jog, Breonna Taylor while the police raided her home and now George Floyd after police pinned him down to suffocation. Some people look at these incidents and say "Please don't make this a race issue. It's merely a common decency or humanity issue." While it is true that we cannot assume the motives of their actions, the statistics of racial disparities show that our black and brown neighbors experience disproportionally aggressive policing, brutality, and harassment. (Statistics) I do not know if it is helpful to ignore this piece in our interpretation of these events and to isolate them from the broader narrative of the history of racism in America. In any case, racism is sadly still an issue that we face today. And the footage after footage of these incidents going viral, the prevalence of these injustices can lead to much confusion, frustration, and anger. "How many times is this going to happen? When will it come to an end?" We can even become jaded and doing justice may seem like fighting a losing battle.
Though Christians cannot expect perfect justice to be established on earth until Jesus returns, we can and should continue to work towards a more just society as part of our call to discipleship. In fact, Christians are to be the ones taking the charge in grieving and lamenting over and in recognizing and standing against all forms of injustice, including racism and impartiality in justice wherever it occurs. (Ps 82:3; Isa 1:17; Mic 6:8; Lu 11:42) However, doing justice is not only our duty. It is bound up with our worship to God. Righteous living and doing justice is so important to God that without them, God finds great displeasure with the worship that we bring to Him. Hear these sobering words of the prophet Amos.
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:21-24)
Amos was speaking to the OT church which had confused assurance with complacency. In verses 21-23, the prophet pronounces God's distaste and disgust at the worship offered by His people. Their burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, God will reject them all. Why? One commentator J. A. Motyer says, "What was the use of consecration offerings which did not issue in the consecration of the life to righteousness, or of fellowship offerings which did not issue in a fellowship of justice? It was all pointless because it stopped short at the gate of the sanctuary; it did not come back into the home; it did not enter the place of business." The meaning of burnt offerings is total consecration to God but their consecration was not actually total as they ignored the social ills of their day. The meaning of peace offerings is fellowship with God and with others with special reference to the lowly but they neglected justice for the poor. As is true today, in those days, the poor were disproportionately vulnerable to injustice. They were easier targets of robbery because they had no money or social status to defend themselves.
Justice and righteousness were to be the hallmark of God's people. While the gods of every other religion of the ancient near east identified themselves with the powerful and ruling class, the God of Israel identified Himself with the weak and lowly. Yahweh delivered His own people from the oppression of slavery showing that he exercised care for the poor and vulnerable and hence God wanted His people to reflect His character of compassion, justice, and mercy. But they ignored the poor. And their sacrifices and songs did not arise from hearts and lives committed to acting in love, justice, and righteousness.
Conversely, the kind of worship that pleases God is justice and right living rather than empty religion. One commentator defines justice in verse 24 as “reparation for the defrauded, fairness for the less fortunate, and dignity and compassion for the needy” and righteousness as "attitudes of mercy and generosity, and honest dealings that imitate the character of God” The word justice as more to do with social ethic (outward) and righteousness has more to do with moral principles. (inward). And when Amos says justice rolling down like waters, he is using an expression to describe an abundance of justice. When he says, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, he is speaking of a constancy of righteousness. This picture of an overflowing stream would have been vivid to the original audience. The stream refers to wadi which is typically dry but during rainy seasons, it gushes with torrents of water. The imagery teaches us that God is seeking worshippers whose lives never run dry and instead overflow with an abundance and constant acts of justice and righteousness! Where there is true God-pleasing worship there is a torrent like gushing of justice and righteousness which is evident in the lives of His people.
As I was preparing my own heart for worship this Sunday, I was particularly struck by the prophet's sobering warning to the church. How will God view the worship that we as a church bring to Him? With pleasure or with displeasure? Our passage reminds us that our worship is inextricably bound up with our social ethic. It reminds us that justice for the underprivileged is not simply a social issue but a religious and worship issue. It is that important to God because doing justice evidences that we have truly believed and embraced the God of the Gospel which supremely and gloriously reveals Him as both the God of justice and mercy. In the midst of the injustices that we see in our world today, what are you doing to prepare for worship? Let's begin by exercising self-examination and engaging in repentance. Let's pray that New City would hear God's call to the church to "Let justice roll down and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
Written by Elder Soo Bin Lee
Meditation | Love and Comfort One Another
Philippians 2:3-4, Romans 12:14-16, Psalm 147:2-3
In humility, count others; Look to the interests of others; Rejoice with; Weep with; Live in harmony; Associate with the lowly; Never be wise in your own sight.
These scriptures give God’s people rich instruction about how to love each other, as well as our neighbor, and then offer comfort for us when that goes wrong.
Dear New City family,
A week ago, our country was rocked again by news of violence experienced by people of color – the killing of unarmed black men, Ahmaud Arbery, and Douglas C. Lewis.
Unfortunately, as with similar events, including recent violence against Asian image-bearers, we observe some common lines of response within the Church.
For people of color, there is hurt, fear, rage, feelings of being policed. There is a deep sadness and weeping at the constant daily reality of the emotional – or actual physical -- risk one takes when seeking to engage in normal activities and pursuits in American life. There is frustration, especially among folks in the church, of wondering: “Who will speak out?” There is frustration because mothers just want their husbands and sons to survive.
DANTÉ STEWART writing in Christianity Today asks: “How long do we have to wait for progress? How many have to be brutally murdered before people believe that we are actually telling the truth?”
For prevailing culture folks, if you view the comments on many news articles or blog posts, there are some expressions of empathy and concern, but they are overshadowed by now-common refrains of:
That is tragic, but calling this out as a systemic injustice is race-baiting.
Why are we not more concerned about the millions killed by abortion? Or the violence and shootings in Chicago?
It would be wise to wait for the facts, before passing judgment in this particular case.
Or – mere silence.
As a Christ-exalting, cross-cultural gospel church, New City Fellowship, let us conspicuously live out gospel unity to our on-line and local community, and within our church family bear one another’s burdens. The posture of these scriptures is one of humility, empathy, listening, gentleness, patience, support, and understanding. At times like these, may we grieve the loss of these image-bearers together, and be aware of the constant burden carried due simply to being a person of color. Our own brothers and sisters carry this burden. Let us bear it with them, together in love.
We have comfort that God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. But it is an appropriate time to lament and cry out from Psalm 35: How long, Oh Lord?
The following podcast episode is an interview of author Jasmine Holmes, hosted by Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition on his Gospelbound podcast, which was recorded just before the recent news broke. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/gospelbound/from-mother-son/
I recommend listening to this kind & gracious black woman express her perspective and concerns, and hopes for her son, without the tension of these particular recent shootings (though her perspective is shaped by many other similar events).
For my white brothers and sisters – As a white man, I ask you in particular: Please listen to this podcast. And listen to others like it, in order to hear from the voices of dear image-bearers who are stricken by the tragically regular reports of the killing of unarmed black men.
In Christ,
Elder Dave Werner
Meditation | Testimony of Sanctification
Read Psalm 130 and 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.
Let me begin by saying that I love my family. God has blessed me with a wonderful family – a father and mother and three brothers, all of whom are seeking the Lord. We are very close. My brothers and I are all twins. We’ve all heard that twins have a particular bond. Well, I can attest to that truth. My twin brother has always been the most important person in my life. Since conception, there has not been a time when one of us was without the other. This is a great blessing. And also the root of many of my besetting sins. I did not realize it, but I looked for my security and my identity in my familial relationships, particularly with my brother. And this primary sin of idolatry led me into other sins of bitterness, suspicion, and anger when that relationship changed, as all earthly things inevitably change.
This change was a good change, a natural change, a beautiful change. My brother got married. He married a lovely, intelligent, God-fearing woman. I knew at the time even that those things were true about her. But I was so threatened by the change that she was bringing into our family that my heart and mind were fertile soil for the devil’s lies. Satan whispered and my heart echoed that she didn’t really love my brother, she was going to hurt and humiliate him, she didn’t want to be part of our family and she would pull him away from us. I became so consumed with these ideas – which even at the time I realized were based on nothing real – that everything she said or did not say, everything she did or did not do, became distorted. I was suspicious. I was angry. Suspicion and anger led to resentment, and over the years resentment settled into bitterness. And though I tried to appear loving and kind, sins of the heart inevitably manifest themselves outwardly. I became the very thing that I feared she was. I was causing rifts in my family relationships, I was hurting my brother, I was pulling away. I saw this in myself, but I felt powerless to change my course. My sin seemed too deep.
This all happened over the course of many years. They met, dated, were engaged, married, and lived together happily. And all the while I struggled with my sin. I prayed again and again that God would change my heart. That I would love her as a sister, as I wanted to love her. But nothing changed. I felt desperate. I was afraid that I would lose my relationship with my brother, and possibly with the rest of my family if I could not overcome this. I sought the intercession of others. I wrote my request in the black prayer book in the pews. I asked for prayers from my Bible study sisters, from my small group, and from a few trusted friends. And still nothing. I told myself that this was just something I would have to live with, it was part of who I am, unchangeable, and that the best I could hope for was concealment. I did continue to pray, and I know that there were others praying faithfully for me. And praise God, His mercies are new every morning.
I woke up one morning shortly before Thanksgiving 2018, and it was gone. I felt it immediately. My bitterness, resentment, anger, and suspicion were all stripped away, and I saw clearly. And oh the lightness! Sin is truly a burden, and I did not know how heavily it was weighing me down until it was taken away. I did not know how deep the infection had spread until I was cleansed. It was a feeling of joy that I had never known before. Throughout all the years that I had been confessing my sin regularly, I knew that I was forgiven. God forgave me again and again. He forgave me every time. And that is wonderful and awesome and worthy of praise. But freedom from sin is a promise and a gift that is even greater. Of course, I am not now free of all my sins. My first reaction that morning, by God’s grace, was one of awe and thanksgiving and praise. But my second reaction was “I’ve got more stuff, Lord.” And I know that I will not be free of all my sin until the Kingdom comes in its fullness. But the Lord was so gracious to reveal to my skeptical heart something that I knew academically, but did not truly believe practically – the Lord will take away my sin; the Lord will fundamentally change me into the person He intends me to be.
So, things that I want others to take away from this story:
Don’t think He can’t do it. Don’t think your sin is too great or too small or too ingrained for the Lord to free you from it. Our God is a creator, and you are a new creation in Him. Our God is a redeemer, and you are being redeemed.
Sin is not essential to who you are. I started to think that my sins were part of my essential being. That God had made me that way and I could not change it. First of all, shame on me for throwing my sin back on God. That is the ultimate perversion. Second, although I may be powerless to change, God is powerful. And the only thing that is essential to who you are is the Imago Dei. You are a child of God, created in the image of God. That is your true identity
Don’t keep your sin to yourself. We need to be better at public confession and public repentance. We need to be better at asking others to pray for our greatest need – to be freed from our particular sins. The prayers of the saints are powerful. Let us not be ashamed to ask for help from our brothers and sisters.
May we long with more earnestness for the coming of Christ. I am still full of sin. The world is still full of sin. And I now know in a way that I didn’t before, that the Lord is actively redeeming his people, here and now. But this one experience, this one sin lifted, has given me a glimpse of the greatness, the beauty, the peace, the joy of Heaven where we will sin no more. There will be a day, my friends, when you will be rid of your sin; when we will be rid of all of it. Hallelujah! God be praised! May that day come quickly, oh Lord.
Written by Ellen Jackson, a member of New City Fellowship.
Meditation | 1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8
I want you to take a few seconds or minutes and think about the depths of love that Jesus has for you. Depending on the day, perhaps you feel a barrier, because we may know all too well, how we often fail, falter, take our eyes off our King, and at times maybe even want nothing to do with Him. But I'm here to tell you that in those exact moments, Christ's all-encompassing love is yet all the more present and there to sustain you! For He has chosen you, though you fail, called you his own, though you falter, and you have a place at His table even when your gaze is not perfectly fixed on the divine host. So do think about how Christ's love for you is like a consuming ocean that you cannot swim away from. Do think about that he is the greatest joy in times of triumph. Do think about that He is your deepest comfort in your most trying of sorrows. Oh, what love he has for his children...Oh, what love he has for you!
So join me in praising God, for his persistent love. Praise God, that he continually shows us what love is even right now. Praise God, that he first loved us which enables us to, therefore, go and love on others exactly where they are.
So today, the remainder of this week, and continually, let there be no shortage of love from the children of God especially during the times we are all experiencing. Ask Jesus right now, to love others through you as he has so graciously covered you in his love.
Written by Elder Darryl Bradford
Meditation | COVID-19 and the Resurrection of the Body
We are living in trying times. The coronavirus is frightening for many of us. Many have contracted the virus and many have died from it. And the death toll continues to rise every day. Mass grave sites are being dug in New York City. Hospitals are transferring bags of bodies into refrigerated trailers due to shortage in space. Lawyers are seeing a doubling in the volume of calls about requests to write their last wills. The threat of death hangs in the air and we are all forced to reckon with our own mortality.
Amid fears, Christians have a hope beyond the grave. A few days ago we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And the resurrection is good news because everyone joined to Jesus will one day receive a body like his glorified body.
In 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, Paul describes what that future resurrected body will look like. Some in the Corinthian church ridiculed the idea of a bodily resurrection. They were influenced by Greek dualism which taught that the spirit was good and matter was evil. In this view, the goal of life was to liberate the soul from the "prison-house of the body." For them, the resurrection meant nothing more than a reanimation of a dead corpse. So they mock him: "How are the dead raised. With what kind of body do they come?" (1 Cor 15:35). Paul answers their objection using three different illustrations from the created order. But for our purposes, we will only look at the first of the three. From this analogy of sowing seeds, we can learn three things:
First, our resurrected body will be different than our present body. When a seed is sown and dies as it were, it undergoes a radical change and becomes a plant or a tree. Some transformation takes place. In the same manner, at the resurrection, God will transform our bodies. In our present bodies, we age. We can get sick. We can take all our vitamins and go all out on organic products but eventually, our bodies break down. But praise be to God! One day we will be given bodies that are longer liable to decay, disease and death. And that is glorious news!
Second, our resurrected body will also be the same as our present body. That is why Paul says in verse 38, each kind of seed is given its own body. When the risen Christ appeared to his disciples, he appeared in recognizable form. Though in his resurrected state, his body was glorified, he was nevertheless the same Jesus. So it is with our resurrected bodies. It is your body that will be transformed, not somebody else's.
Third, our resurrected body is the sovereign work of God. Notice in verse 38, Paul states that it is God who gives it a body, as He has chosen. The seed cannot transform itself into a plant. It is left to forces outside of its control. It needs sunlight and water. Likewise, it is God who gives us our present bodies. It is God who gives us our resurrected bodies.
Our resurrection hope should lead us to more devotion to our risen savior. It ought to embolden us to serve our neighbor even in the face of danger. It ought to drive us to extend resurrection hope to others in a world desperately looking for hope during this pandemic. We confess with the church universal, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." Let's live as those who truly believe this confession.
Written by Elder Soo Bin Lee
Meditation | “he was buried...according to the Scriptures” 1 Cor. 15:3-4
“he was buried...according to the Scriptures” 1 Cor. 15:3-4
This week marks Passion week, that time of year when Christians often pause to especially commemorate the events surrounding Christ’s suffering and death in anticipation of his resurrection on Easter morning. For this week’s midweek devotion, I’d like us to consider the final event of Passion week, Christ’s burial, and the comfort and hope it brings us in this moment. Unfortunately, we often treat Christ’s burial as an afterthought, a kind of brief intermission between the real drama that happened on the cross and at the empty tomb. But the scriptures make it clear that Christ’s burial is not an afterthought, but an essential part of the gospel drama itself. He was buried “according to the scriptures” because his burial is part of his saving work. What practical comfort does Jesus’ work of submitting to burial bring to us right now?
The Certainty of God’s Favor
These days, the world is grasping for certainty. COVID-19 has turned the ordinary routines of life upside down. One of the most terrifying parts of the COVID 19 is the uncertainty of it, when federal officials say to us “we don’t really understand what we’re dealing with” or “We don’t really know how long this will last” or “We don’t really know exactly what will curb the spread of the disease.” Uncertainty unsettles us like nothing else. But the burial of Christ gives us the certainty we desperately need.
Because Jesus was buried, we know he certainly died for our sins. Anyone who’s ever lost a loved one knows that the hardest part is not the funeral but the burial. Once that casket closes for the final time and we lower our loved one into the ground and out of our view the reality of their death really sets in for us. Once the disciples saw that stone rolled over the mouth of his tomb, they knew their beloved master didn’t just appear to die, but he actually died. This is good news because it means we don’t just appear to be forgiven, we are actually forgiven, actually accepted, and actually beloved.
The world’s uncertainty can be highly contagious. I recently heard a Christian wonder out loud (with a sense of dread and lament) “Maybe coronavirus is God’s judgment against all of us.” But Jesus’ burial proves that COVID 19 cannot be judgment against God’s children because Jesus has already tasted the deepest depth of judgment for God’s children. Being “buried with Christ in baptism”, means (in a global pandemic) we really are still under the favor, blessing, care, and smile of God. If you aren’t certain of anything else right now, child of God, be absolutely certain that you are under the unwavering love of your Heavenly Father.
The Sympathy of God’s Son
When Jesus was buried, he fully identified with sinners. Though he had no sins, Isaiah 53:9 declares he was “assigned a grave with the wicked.” The sinless Son of God submitted to being buried as we sinners must be buried. Part of the curse of Genesis 3 includes the ominous words of burial “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.” Because humans were taken from the ground, they must return to the ground as a part of God’s punishment against their sin. The righteous son of God submitted to the place of being buried alongside sinners as if he deserved to be numbered among them. There is no depth of our experience, no part of our suffering that Jesus refused to embrace. There is a negro spiritual that says “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought suffering and grief to US shores unlike we’ve experienced in many years. The latest estimates suggest that by the end, upwards of 300,000 Americans could die from COVID-19. Most of us either know someone who has died or are no more than 1 degree of separation from someone. We are weeping so much and so deeply that our tear ducts are beginning to run dry. We can say nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus.
Because Jesus plumbed the deepest depths of our misery in burial, we know he understands every part of the pain of the coronavirus. He knows the heartache of the daughter glued to a computer screen, as her mother struggles to breathe and slips away. He knows the pain of the nurse desperately trying to keep up with the flood of sick and dying patients under her care. He knows the heartache of the wage worker just laid off with no foreseeable prospects to feed his or her family. Jesus understands. He is a sympathetic high priest who is able to help us amidst our struggles. So we must pour out our hearts to him, with confidence that he is not aloof, cold, or distant from our sufferings. He feels them intimately and deeply.
The freedom of God’s people
Jesus' burial can free us from being held captive by our fear of the grave. Because Jesus has already journeyed into the grave, he has cleared safe passage for his people who follow him. Pioneers are people who do the heavy lifting of clearing out a pathway so that others can follow. They pave the road to create safe passage to ensure a safe journey. Jesus is our pioneer. He transformed the grave from a permanent prison ward, into an usher, who ushers us into the personal presence of Christ after we die. He transformed the grave from the devil’s dungeon to the Lord’s bed-chamber. While taking proper precautions and lamenting suffering and death and sorrow, we face this pandemic with the courage and confidence of faith.
Little Zachary was scared to be alone in the dark. Whenever his mother asked him to go into the living room he would resist because he had to walk through the dark kitchen to get there. One night, Zachary heard his mother calling his name. He walked out of his room and noticed that her voice was coming from the other side of the dark kitchen. His palms began to sweat and his heart began to pound. He wanted to be with his mother but he didn't want to walk through the kitchen to get to her. Finally, he saw her figure appear in the doorway on the other side of the kitchen, hold out her hand, and call his name. Suddenly Zachary swelled with confidence and ran through the kitchen and jumped into his mother’s arms. The fact that she had already gone through the kitchen and was waiting for him on the other side made all the difference for Zachary, and it makes all the difference for us. We don’t need to fear, our loving Lord has already gone through the grave and waits for us on the other side. That makes all the difference for how we face a global pandemic. We can be sad but still remain unshaken even in these difficult times.
The Turning Point of God’s Hope
Jesus’ burial also means that suffering, sickness, and sorrow must be overtaken by salvation. Isaiah includes these details about Jesus’ burial. “And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.” (Isaiah 53:9) Jesus burial marks the transition between his humiliation and his exaltation. Jesus’ burial is where he reaches the bottom of the abyss of death, turns and begins the journey towards his exaltation. Though Jesus was crucified as if he were a criminal, he was nevertheless buried as a king. God the Father orchestrated the burial of his son in such a way that Joseph of Arimathea gave him an expensive burial plot, the sort that only near eastern nobles used. This began the process of Christ’s exaltation, anticipated the resurrection, and the ascension of God’s son.
The manner of Christ burial means that the Father will not leave us in suffering, misery, and sorrow. Like our Lord, we must be exalted as well. Chris Lemons worked in the North Sea repairing oil rig structures. In September 2012, Chris was performing a routine repair about 91 meters down when a computer malfunctioned. The ship, to which he was tethered, suddenly began moving and dragging him. Eventually, the umbilical cable which provides divers with oxygen, heat, and light, snapped. Soon after, Chris fell down to the sea bed 300 feet below in absolute darkness convinced the seabed would be his watery grave. Chris would have been lost if his team members hadn’t acted quickly. Through a near superhuman effort, they located him in the dark abyss and dove down to retrieve him bringing him up to safety. Jesus’ burial is like that. In his death and burial, Jesus dove to the very depth of our calamity to rescue us. But the manner of his burial means he has already begun lifting us to safety.
Though we suffer on this side for a little while, suffering and sorrow won’t last always, they cannot. They must give way to the glory of God’s kingdom and the reign of his son. As we are being sanctified, we and this world are being filled with more and more with God’s glory. We are being lifted from one degree of grace to the next. So as we look out in our world today, we can look with hope. We can look for signs of the exaltation that the Lord is bringing to his people. Being buried with Christ means even while the world treats us as sinners, God treats us as royal sons and daughters. And one day, in the not too distant future, one day on that great “gettin’ up morning,” our great king will personally return to take us to himself and bring to fruition the royal work he has already begun in our lives. May he do it soon. Amen.
Questions for reflection:
Christian confidence is contagious. When you know your sins are forgiven because Christ was buried, i.e. he really died, you can encourage others in their faith. What two believers do you plan to encourage in their faith this week? What day and time do you plan to reach out to them with an encouraging phone call, email, or letter?
Christian confidence helps us to serve others. How will you serve others this week?
Christian confidence helps us to resist sin. Since we have been buried with Christ, we have the confidence and gratitude to live a transformed life. List two sinful patterns that you are going to resist this week.
Meditation | What to do with Worry
“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
These days, most of us are dealing with high levels of worry, stress, and anxiety. We no longer have two or three degrees of separation from COVID-19. Now we are forced to consider what a global pandemic means for our lives, our close neighbors, relatives, and church members. What will this mean for the folks we know and love who are especially vulnerable? Even if we haven’t personally lost someone to COVID 19, we almost certainly know someone who has. If that weren’t enough, we are all adjusting to the pressures of life under quarantine. Most of us are doing all we can to keep our sanity during these crazy times, to remain patient with our loved ones, hopeful about the future, and to resist loneliness and depression.
This morning’s passage from 1 Peter 5 was tailor-made for times like these. The apostle Peter is addressing weary saints across Asia minor who are deeply anxious about the future. They are grieving the death of loved ones and hearing more unsettling news each day. Amidst their struggle, Peter gives them some gospel grounded instruction meant to bring divine comfort to their troubled hearts. Despite what some people believe, the Christian life is not “all peaks with no valleys” or “all sunshine with no rain.” Every Christian has anxieties and emotional burdens. Notice that Peter assumes that fact. He doesn’t pretend that believers are ignorant or insensitive to the cares of life. Drawing upon Psalm 55:22 which says “Cast your burden on the LORD and he will sustain you” Peter expounds on the cares of life. He interprets the Hebrew word for “burden” using a greek word which means “distracting worries.” The greek word literally means to be divided or pulled in multiple directions at once. Peter is absolutely right! The burdens of life not only weigh us down, they also pull us in every direction, distracting our hearts and minds from attending to the things that matter most, loving the Lord and loving our neighbors. Christian author Corrie ten Boom once noted, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrows, it empties today of strength.” So our passage tells us what to do with the cares of life. Here are three things to do with our worries.
POINT 1: Cast your Cares on the Lord Conclusively
Our passage begins “casting all your anxieties on him.” The word “casting” conveys the sense of removing a burden from our backs and tossing it away from ourselves onto someone else’s back. Giving it to someone else means we no longer carry the crushing weight of worry. Think of a bank. I was grateful when I finally got a banking app on my phone because I could finally deposit checks directly after receiving them. Whenever someone hands me a check I immediately feel the weight of keeping up with that check and making sure it gets to the right place. But as soon as I deposit the check, my mind is put at ease because the weight of responsibility for the outcome of that check no longer rests with me, it’s in the bank’s hands. With receipt in hand, I can walk away with my mind at ease having entrusted the matter to the bank whose job it is to take care of the matter. Prayer is like that. When you take your burdens to the Lord, you can actually leave them there. His resurrection and outpoured Spirit are the receipts guaranteeing that he will safeguard the deposit that you have entrusted to him. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the Lord revealed to us the final chapter of our story. He said to us in essence “Don’t worry, this is all going to work out better for you than you could ever imagine or think.” That doesn’t mean that you no longer have any concerns over the matters of your life. But it means that you entrust the outcome to the Lord’s almighty resurrected hand. You can say, “Lord, I trust you with my health and safety. Lord, I trust you with my loved ones. Lord, I trust you with my children. Lord, I trust you with this world and this pandemic. I can actually rest because Lord you really have got this. You have the whole world in your hands.”
POINT 2: Cast your Cares on the Lord Completely
“casting all your anxieties on him” The word translated “all” is actually the first word in the original Greek. The word all simply means casting every worry and each part of every worry on the Lord. The scripture must reveal this to us because we are habitual worrywarts, we naturally collect and hoard worries. The Lord must tell us to hold nothing back, to bring all of our worries, the worst of our fears, the greatest of our sorrows, the ugliest most painful parts of our experiences, the most petty of our concerns, all of them. We must formulate words with our hearts and mouths and speak them all out loud to the Lord to be relieved of our burden.
Modern science is only now catching up to this ancient piece of wisdom. A research study in psychology followed several Holocaust survivors to find what practices were most helpful to their healing. They interviewed survivors and recorded their accounts of horror and bloodshed. Researchers found a stunning correlation between the level of detail the person used and their health. Those survivors who held nothing back and spoke the worst aspects of their experiences were nearly twice as likely to be physically healthy a year later. This seems counterintuitive because some things are so painful, they seem better left unspoken. But burying our worst fears and worries doesn’t make them disappear. They only build up steam in our minds like a pressure cooker and rebound even stronger. We only gain healing by processing and shaping our cares into concrete words, externalizing them by speaking or writing them in prayer, and casting them away from ourselves onto the Lord. We can only rest once we give it all over to him. Think of a man who’s afraid to fly. He walks onto a plane, nervously finds his seat, but never puts his full weight down into the chair. He leans forward, sweating and straining to keep himself somewhat suspended for the entire 3 hours on the plane. As long as he holds some of his burden back, he’ll never be able to rest. Let’s entrust the Lord with our whole burden.
POINT 3: Cast your Cares on the Lord Confidently
“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” This passage offers the most amazing gospel hope to God’s anxious children. The Greek words literally read something like this “with Him [The Lord] there is attentive care surrounding you.” He is more attentive to the concerns of our lives than we are and he literally surrounds us with his Fatherly care. One of the biggest lies the devil ever whispered is that nobody cares. Beloved, God has been caring for you from before time began. God has care from you from the moment you were formed in your mother’s womb and has carefully sustained each beat of your heart. Every moment of your life he has carefully watched you. Your Father cares attentively and continuously, so much so that he surrounds us in a cocoon of his Fatherly care. I’m grateful that the Lord is a helicopter parent, a divine hoverer, the kind that won’t let his children out of his sight for a single moment. We’ve all seen parents like this out with their children. They wrap their children in safety gear and a helmet just to walk down the street. From our human perspective, this can seem over the top. But we can be glad when the helicopter parent is God.
He wraps us in his promises and his providential hand. Our lives are safeguarded and shaped by a host of promises and by the omnipotent power of God, the Holy Spirit. Though he holds the entire world in his hand, the Father holds us with special attentive care ensuring that everything works together for our good and nothing that comes along can separate us from his love. As you cast your cares on the Lord, imagine Jesus our great high priest at the right hand of the Father, stretching his hands over you in blessing even now. If you could hear his prayers for you and see the spirits work protecting you even now. Beloved we have every reason for confidence even during times like these.
(I’m thankful to Rev. James Merritt, pastor of Cross Point Church in Duluth, GA for the basic outline used in this week’s devotional)
Questions and activities for reflection:
Make a written list of your current worries and worst fears. Use as much detail as possible. Be brutally honest. Write exactly why each one worries you so much.
List two worries or two aspects of worries that you have never spoken about or prayed about. Answer the question “Why have I not spoken about this yet?”
Pray over each one of the items on your list and the two new items one at a time casting these on the Lord.
Watch this video of the “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” challenge and carefully listen and meditate on the words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcVhEMmLixM
Sing the song a few times adding your own name and other concerns in the verse.
Here’s mine:
He’s got the whole world, in his hands (3xs)
Vs1 He’s got Mika and Christina, in his hands
Vs2 He’s got Zoe, Shiloh, and Lovey in his hands
Vs3 He’s got New City Fellowship, in his hands
Vs 4 He's got our healthcare workers, in his hands
Meditation | “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” - Psalm 46:1
New City family, in a matter of just a few weeks, it seems like the entire world has been shaken. The coronavirus has quickly gone from a distant news story on the other side of the world to a global pandemic. This week, Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive “stay-at-home” order, banning all non-essential travel for the entire state of Michigan. And as infection rates rise, in our state, cities, and neighborhoods, the stark reality and true magnitude of this crisis has begun to hit home. Four thousand miles of Atlantic ocean could not shield us from COVID-19. Ready or not, it has come to our shores. Though we ought to take every precaution and do our best for our neighbors and one another, we are facing trouble that we ultimately can’t buy away, bomb away, manage away, or even legislate away. Thank God, global pandemics don’t happen very often. But when they do, they have a way of unmasking our true vulnerabilities and rocking us to the core. In times like these, we need help much greater than the American military, stock market, and government could ever offer. We need help from the God who sees and restrains what even our brilliant epidemiologists with all their sophisticated microscopes cannot see and restrain. We need help from the God who upholds every molecule and atom in this universe (including Coronavirus) by the word of his power.
Psalm 46 imagines a problem of seismic proportions, an earthquake so cataclysmic it crushes a nearby mountain range throwing gigantic boulders crashing into the sea. We could hardly imagine a more frightening event. Yet God promises help even greater than a world catastrophe, help so certain and secure that we need not fear even if the earth itself should give way. Now that is good news for those of us currently living under quarantined conditions! Today we will look at three aspects of God’s help to his people in times of trouble.
Protective Help in Times of Trouble
Our passage begins, “God is our refuge.” Perhaps the deepest longing for frightened people is refuge. A refuge is a sanctuary or a shelter. We see this image used quite often in scripture to describe how God relates to his frightened people. For instance, Psalm 57:1 says, “Be merciful to me, O God, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge.” We have a Jack Russell Terrier, named Jack who struggles with anxiety and hates thunderstorms. Whenever Jack senses a thunderstorm he can be found curled up seeking shelter in a corner deep beneath our queen-sized bed. For Jack, our bed represents his safe-haven, port of protection, and place of peace from the danger and chaos of the outside world. God is precisely that for his covenant people. He is our place of protection and safety. Of course, the stronger the shelter, the safer and more secure we feel within it. What greater refuge can we have than the almighty God? If God can uphold billions of galaxies with a word and carve out the deep recesses of the grand canyon, surely he can protect us in times like these. And He has sworn to do so. Protecting us is not just something that he does occasionally, but it flows from who he is. He is our refuge. There are no safer and more secure people in the entire world (even within a global pandemic) than God’s precious children. This was what our Lord Jesus Christ himself affirmed when he declared in John 17 “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost…” The very name of the Lord holds out refuge for his people and when Christ came as our good shepherd, faithfulness to his mission meant guarding the flock entrusted to his care. That mission continues till this day as the resurrected and reigning King uses the authority in heaven and earth to guard his people. This does not mean that God’s children don’t get sick or suffer calamities. We are not magically immune from the coronavirus. But it does mean that the Almighty One guards us in a special way and that not a single hair on our heads can perish apart from his infallible will. That’s good news indeed.
Powerful Help in Times of Trouble
The passage continues, “God is our refuge and strength.” God not only promises to shelter us, he also promises to sustain us. That’s good news for the weak and faltering because it means God himself will be our everlasting supply of strength. While we may only sense a teaspoon of faith, hope, and love within our hearts at any given time, we are joined to the God who promises to be our everlasting supply. J. Howard Olds tells the story of a little girl, who was running ahead of her mother. She was pushing hard against the heavy door of the local bank. Her weak little arms could not push the strong door open. As her mother came close she invited the little girl to try again. This time when the child pushed with all her might the door opened. What the girl failed to see was her mother’s arm far above hers pushing the door open.” That’s how the power of God works in our lives bearing us up amidst the burdens of life. We could never sustain ourselves amidst a crisis like this. If we were living life in our own strength, we’d instantly collapse beneath a flood of doubts and despair. But, we can have hope that the faith God gives, God preserves among his people. That precious faith will remain long beyond the ravages of COVID-19. He shoulders our burdens, doing all the heavy lifting on our journey of faith.
Persistent Help in Times of Trouble
Our passage concludes “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” The Hebrew word matsa is translated using the English adjective “present.” The Hebrew word itself is actually a verb which means “to find” and is in the perfect tense. The perfect tense implies past completed action with an ongoing present impact. Furthermore, the word rendered “trouble” is actually plural “troubles.” The passage is more literally translated something like this “God has been found to be a very present help in [various] times of trouble.” The Psalmist is looking back at the history of God’s covenant faithfulness throughout redemptive history, at the Red Sea and the banks of the Jordan River, at the Walls of Jericho, during the days of the Judges. He is saying during times of great calamity, God has proven himself to be with us more closely than we could have ever imagined. We who live on the other side of the incarnation, the cross, and resurrection know the greatest revelation of God’s “very present” help with us. In Christ, God came as our help, found to be among us, and brought salvation to us through delivering us from evil sin and death. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Since God has been so good to us in the past, we have nothing to fear in the present or future.
In one of the Superman movies, Superman saves a man from a burning building rescuing him right off the top floor of the building. As Superman is carrying the man to safety through the skies, the man looks at superman and then looks down to the ground below. “I’m scared, Superman. Look how far down that is.” Superman replied, “Now if I rescued you from the burning fire, what makes you think I am going to drop you when I am carrying you to safety?” If the Lord sent his son and justified us to deliver us from the power of sin and death, what makes us think he will drop us before he brings us safely home? The everlasting arms of our heavenly father are yet carrying us even amidst the coronavirus pandemic and every other kind of storm. Praise God for the protective, powerful, persistent help we have in times of troubles!
Questions for Further Reflection:
What are your biggest fears right now? Confess those fears out loud to the Lord and thank him that he stands as a refuge between you and those dangers.
How might knowing that God is our strength produce both humility and confidence at the same time? Do we resist sin in our own strength? Do we have any room to boast in our own works to keep us saved?
Name three biblical instances in addition to the ones that were mentioned that prove to you that God is a very present help to his people. Name two instances in your own life where God proved himself a very present help. In prayer, thank God for those deliverances and let them fill your heart with confidence that God can be trusted today.
Safe in His arms,
Pastor Mika
Meditation | Grateful at All Times...Even Hard Ones
"in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Right now, the world finds itself in the midst of a major health crisis, the likes of which most of us have never seen. The Coronavirus has spread throughout the world, infecting hundreds of thousands and bringing our sense of normalcy to a grinding halt. But today's passage reorients our perspectives about times like these, holding out good news that persists even in the midst of a global pandemic. Notice that our text says "in everything give thanks." The words "in everything" are really big, so big in fact, that they even cover global pandemics like the coronavirus. This passage says at least 4 things to us about hard times.
We can be honest about hard times. Notice, our passage does not say "for everything give thanks." In other words, our text does not call us to grudgingly pretend the Coronavirus or the devastation it has caused is somehow good. Coronavirus is a natural evil and should be lamented as such. As Christians, we are called to need to weep with victims, alleviate suffering, and call sickness evil.
We can look for God’s goodness in hard times. “In everything give thanks” means our Father always offers us something worth giving thanks for, even in times like these. Even the chaos and devastation of a global pandemic cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. In the form of a command, this passage holds out the amazing promise that no matter how bleak life looks, the light and life of God’s mercies will always come shining through. No matter twists and turns of life, God-loving presence and promises, over our lives remain unshaken.
We can know God sees us in hard times. "for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." The words "for you" are not general but particular. With laser-like precision, God’s will focuses down upon the particularities and peculiarities of your life’s circumstances. He has carefully crafted and adorned each chapter of your life with tailor-made blessings meant to put a praise on your lips and gratitude in your heart.
We are joined to Jesus Christ in hard times. "for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." This is really the crux of our passage. Everything turns on the fact that God’s will for us is “in Christ.” Apart from Christ, we would have every reason for despair in the face of a global pandemic. But even global pandemics must bow before the overruling purposes of the risen Christ. As God the Father wrote the chapters of our lives and chose the praiseworthy gifts he would bestow, he did it with a view toward the glorious inheritance he would give to us in Christ. He saw Christlikeness as the end of our journey and chose the praiseworthy gifts that would bring us to that end. So we are called to give thanks because the everlasting love of Christ ever remains as the praiseworthy power and purpose of our lives.
Dr. Tony Evans offers a helpful illustration. Oysters suffer affliction when a grain of sand becomes lodged inside their shells. The sand irritates the oyster, like a thorn in the flesh. To bring some comfort to their anguish, they begin to coat the grain of sand over and over again, never ridding themselves of the grain just coating it. Over time, that coating over the gain of sand becomes a pearl. Never forget that the most beautiful, elegant, priceless pearl is the result of an irritated oyster. We give thanks in everything because, even when God allows us to suffer, he is yet producing something beautiful, elegant, and precious. He is producing in us the image and glory of his own beloved Son. We can be grateful at all times....even hard ones.
Questions for reflection:
What message can it send when we don’t lament with victims of evil? Name two simple ways you can work to alleviate the sufferings we see among our neighbors?
How have you seen God’s steadfast love carry you through past difficulties? Name at least two different adversities. Take a moment and thank the Lord for his past faithfulness.
How might it change our attitudes to discover that our hard times must submit to God’s will for us in Christ? In prayer, take a moment to thank God for his present faithfulness, ask Him to open your eyes to even more of his mercies in your life, and to fill your heart with even more gratitude.