I consider myself to be a motivated person.  I truly want to do right.  Most of the time I did what my parents expected of me (most of the time).  In school, I was a good student.  I studied and made good grades.  When I got married, I wanted to be a good wife, and then a good mother, doing all the things that I thought good wives and mothers did.  And of course, I wanted to be a good employee.  I tried hard, but felt like I always fell short.  I thought I could muscle through, using my powers of self-control which I must say were pretty good.   So there I was, a fairly driven person, and miserable.  “Good” as I was, I never felt that I was enough.

Several years ago, I remember reading 2 Peter 1:3-11.  The idea of a progression, beginning with faith, then doing good, increasing in knowledge and self-control, but then progressing to perseverance, then godliness, then mutual affection, and finally love, made so much sense to me. These qualities are echoed in the passage about the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23:

 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

As a good Christian, I knew that I should be exhibiting all the fruits of the spirit, but I was treating them like they were the result of my own efforts to do good, thinking that I should be able to accomplish most anything through my powers of self-control.  Feeling frustrated, I continued to pray about this, and then the Holy Spirit revealed to me that self-control is actually one of the fruits of the Spirit (as it clearly states in the passage above).  I was going about it all wrong!  I thought I could possess the fruits of the Spirit through my own abilities, rather than realizing that I needed to recognize the Holy Spirit as the source, even of my self-control.  I also believe that the order of the fruits is intentional, with love being first and self-control being last.  Rather than powering through my to-do list, I needed to engage the Holy Spirit to help me to love God and others first and foremost. In fact, the passage in 2 Peter clearly says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life.” 

The passage in 2 Peter not only references a progression, but also “increasing measure” (v.8).  However, rather than instilling in me a frustration with never being good enough, instead I am now inspired to continually deepen my walk with God, knowing that my reward is not my goodness, but “a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.

I pray that this message is an encouragement for us all.

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life (Jude 20-21).

Blessings,

Judy

As I wrote last week, I made my profession of faith just before my tenth birthday. What I didn’t tell you was why I asked my pastor to baptize me right away. Baptisms were usually scheduled for every couple of months since we had to heat the baptismal pool.  However, I happened to know that we would be participating in the Lord’s Supper (Communion) the next Sunday and only members of the church could participate. Technically I would not become a member of the church until I had been baptized, so I asked to be baptized right away, that evening during the Sunday night service.  What I remember about being baptized is that the water was really cold. However, I got to participate in the Lord’s Supper the very next Sunday. (Yes, I realize that no one would have kept me from participating in the Lord’s Supper, but I felt that sense of urgency.) Maybe I was a little proud of being able to take Communion, but I don’t think that’s all bad.  I was so happy to demonstrate that I was now a member of the church, and I felt part of something very important, Communion. Sometimes we would all hold hands afterwards and sing “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.”

Sometimes we participate in Communion while in our pews or chairs, sometimes we go to the altar. Sometimes it’s bread, and most times it’s crackers (it’s always grape juice where I go). Some special memories include going to visit our shut-ins and taking Communion with them. While special for my husband and me, I could tell that it was even more meaningful to the elderly men and women we visited who so missed this act of community. Another very special recollection was when I was at a Women’s Retreat and we were preparing to take Communion.  We had a time of prayer and reflection, and I remembered an interaction I had with another woman at church who happened to be there.  She is a wonderful woman of God, but we had differed on something not very important. I went to her and asked for forgiveness for my hard feelings and we prayed and took Communion together. I will never forget that.

Fast forward to a few Sundays ago, when our congregation celebrated Communion.  I love this ordinance of the church, and I love sharing with my fellow believers the symbols of our LORD’s sacrifice for us, representing his body broken and blood shed for us. Our pastor provided time for us to get our hearts ready for Communion with a time of prayer and confession. I prayed over my relationships. I asked for God to reveal to me any sins, problems, issues. You know, because Jesus died for us for the purpose of reconciling with our Heavenly Father, it just doesn’t seem right to not pursue reconciliation with all our brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, it seems essential that we live in reconciliation with each other as well as with our Heavenly Father. That’s what community is, and why the Lord’s Supper/Communion is so meaningful when taken in community, especially with our church family.

I love this except from Tim Challie’s website (referenced below) regarding our preparation for Communion:

“A Renewing of Love – We come to renew our love not only to God but also to our brethren. “For it is a feast of the Lord, and it is an act of communion; communion not only with Christ, but with His churches, with His saints… The Lord requires that His children should not fall out who come to His table, but that there should be love and peace. There’s a mighty bond when you come to the sacrament, and therefore, first all heart-burnings and heart-grudges must be laid aside.”

So although we serve, work for, and worship Jesus at the Mission, the Mission cannot take the place of our church family. Fellowshipping with Christ and other believers in baptism and communion are essential to our Christian walk. These ordinances are regularly practiced in the local church. I pray that you are a member of a Bible-believing church and that you are actively participating in all the areas of worship in your church.

For more on this subject, I recommend this website: https://www.challies.com/articles/preparation-for-communion/

Blessed Be the Tie That Binds

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

Before our Father’s throne,
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
Our comforts, and our cares.

We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

Blessings,

Judy

The Christian walk is not intended to be solitary. That is one big reason why the Mission is so wonderful—it has community built in for our guests and program participants. Because of the shared vision for the Mission and our brotherhood/sisterhood in Christ, it is also community for our staff, and I treasure that. We support each other and work together to advance the kingdom. The connections I have with each of you are so precious to me.

That said, this Chaplain’s Corner is about community within a local church, and I am making a case for each of you to find and foster membership in a local church because I believe it to be essential to your personal health and to your ministry. (If you are tempted to quit reading, please don’t. I would not write this if I didn’t think it was important.) As close as I feel with you, my relationships with my local church family are essential to my health as a Christian. I have always been a member of a church; I have been a member of four churches in my life, and even though I am currently a member of only one of them, the other three remain important to my life. I honestly can’t imagine not belonging to a local church.

I made my profession of faith just before my tenth birthday. In the church my parents belonged to, the next step was my baptism by immersion.  This was usually scheduled for every couple of months since we had to heat the baptismal pool.  However, I asked to be baptized right away–that same evening during the Sunday night service.  What I remember about being baptized that evening is that the water was cold and the lady helping me to dress afterwards had to rub me down pretty good to warm me back up. I have always been appreciative of my pastor’s willingness to get into that cold baptismal pool with me, and the fact that he honored my own sense of urgency.

Since then, I have witnessed baptisms by both immersion and sprinkling; and in church baptismal pools, in rivers and lakes, in a swimming pool, and even in a large tub (small child). They are all very special acts of community, of sharing in an important step in a believer’s walk of faith. Although baptism is an act of obedience, it is not necessary for salvation. We are following Christ’s example; we are demonstrating that we have repented of our sins and that we have died to our old life and are now new creatures in Christ. For those who are able to be baptized, in many churches it is an essential act of obedience necessary for membership in that local church. As a member of a church, when someone is baptized, it is like a family wedding in the sense that we celebrate the addition of a new member of the family.

Commenting on this text of scripture, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” — Mark 16:16, Charles Spurgeon said:

“Why do you suppose that baptism is put into this prominent position? I think that it is for this reason, Baptism is the outward expression of the inward faith. He who believes in Christ with his heart confesses his faith before God and before the Church of God by being baptized. Now, the faith that speaks thus is not a dumb faith; it is not a cowardly faith; it is not a sneaking faith. Paul puts the matter thus, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”*

 Baptism is an ordinance that is practiced in community. Have you ever thought about that fact that you cannot baptize yourself?  Jesus asked to be baptized by John the Baptist, who in turn thought he should have been baptized by Jesus. And when Jesus was baptized, God spoke from Heaven, and the Holy Spirit was also present in the form of a dove. This is one of the few examples in the Bible of the Trinity all being present at one time. Baptism demonstrates community.

So although we serve, work for, and worship Jesus at the Mission, the Mission cannot take the place of our church family. Fellowshipping with Christ and other believers in baptism and communion (more about this next week) are essential to our Christian walk. These ordinances are regularly practiced in the local church. I pray that you are a member of a Bible-believing church and that you are actively participating in all the areas of worship in your church.

For more on this subject, I recommend this website: https://www.challies.com/articles/whats-the-purpose-of-baptism/.

Blessings,

Judy

One day last week as I was coming in to work, I passed a Life Coach in a deep conversation with a program participant. I sensed that there was a deep and important issue being discussed, and by their demeanor the subject was more in the lines of a struggle rather than a mountaintop experience. I went into my office and began to pray for them. I then remembered a matter that came before our Elder Board at my church the night before and how deeply troubling this is for all the families and church leadership involved, and I prayed. I thought about a situation I encountered at the Women’s Campus just the day before where the case managers are dealing with a mentally ill woman, attempting to balance her safety and desires with the needs of the entire campus (and how many times this is done daily on both campuses). I then thought of and prayed for several of our employees who were or are in the hospital and dealing with serious medical issues for themselves or a family member. I prayed for a dear family friend who has been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. I thought of so many who have lost loved ones, from parents to cousins to children and prayed for them in their grief and heartbreak.

As I prayed, I realized that this is what Oswald Chambers meant in the My Utmost for His Highest October 2 reading:

 “After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed.”

I had originally labeled this Chaplain’s Corner “Valleys” because of Chambers’ reference to valleys, but that brings to mind rivers and trees and green lush land. I realized that the better label would be “Trenches” because that brings to mind warfare. These situations are where the battlefield of God and Satan play out, and where we are called to walk together faithfully during the everyday battles.

I’m thankful that Jesus is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I’m thankful for the Holy Spirit who resides within us, and all we have to do is call out to him. I’m thankful for my church family, and I’m so very thankful for each of you. We are blessed to work in a place where we can corporately and individually call upon Jesus anytime, where we can stop and pray for each other anytime. This is a definitely a place where we get to see transformation and mountaintops, but it’s even more a place where we fight it out together in the trenches every day. Jesus said it wouldn’t be easy, and if there is anywhere I want to be living out life together in the trenches, it is here with each of you. May God bless you.

“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalms 23:4 NIV).

 “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13 NIV).

Cry Out to Jesus (Third Day)

To everyone who’s lost someone they love

Long before it was their time

You feel like the days you had were not enough

When you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains

Keeping you back from your life

You believe that there’s nothing and there is no one

Who can make it right

For the marriage that’s struggling just to hang on

They’ve lost all of their faith in love

And they’ve done all they can to make it right again, still it’s not enough

For the ones who can’t break the addictions and chains

You try to give up but you come back again

Just remember that you’re not alone in your shame

And your suffering

When you’re lonely

And it feels like the whole world is falling on you

You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus

Cry to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone

Wiping the tears from her eyes

And for the children around the world without a home

Say a prayer tonight

There is hope for the helpless

Rest for the weary

And love for the broken heart

And there is grace and forgiveness

Mercy and healing

He’ll meet you wherever you are

Cry out to Jesus.

My husband thinks I am a little crazy, but I really like to clean. Not just the regular dusting and sweeping kind of cleaning, but the kind of cleaning where you take everything out of the cabinet, scrub it, reorganize, polish. Usually, I get in a hurry and pile things around, so every once in a while this deep cleaning, as I call it, is necessary. Probably the worst place for getting in bad shape is my refrigerator. My pet peeve is too many open bottles of condiments.  How many jars of mustard does one family need, anyway? I must confess that over the weekend I pulled out 87 VHS tapes to figure out what to do with, since we haven’t played any of them in at least 10 years. That’s a lot of space to put to better use, for sure! So I do enjoy returning my home to its intended functionality and purpose.

This is a metaphor for our lives, isn’t it? Our lives can get cluttered with the unnecessary, whether it be more physical stuff than we need; or emotional habits, problems, and feelings; or time-wasting endeavors, etc. — all things that can distract us from our intended functionality and purpose. Sometimes what we need is a deep cleaning for our own lives.

I thought about this as I was reading in the gospels about John the Baptist. In each of the four gospels, John the Baptist says that he came to baptize the Jews with water for repentance. In Luke 3, he clarifies by saying that “the man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” He told the tax collectors “don’t collect any more than you are required to” and he told the soldiers “don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely–be content with your pay.”

 The September 29 “Daily Hope” devotional by Rick Warren really challenged me in this regard. He talked about the necessity of confession in order to purify our lives. He recommended this practice:

“Here’s what I suggest you do if you really want to be used by God: Take time this week to sit down with a pen and a pad of paper, and say, “God, what’s wrong in my life? Show me. I’m going to write it down, and I’m going to admit it. I’m going to confess it to you.” Then, when God gives you an idea, write it down…. Make a list, and then write 1 John 1:9 over it and say, “God, I admit these to you. These are wrong. I don’t want them in my life.” Ask God to cleanse your life. God will forgive you!”

 Rick said that you don’t have to be a perfect person, but you do have to have a pure heart.  He quoted 2 Timothy 2:21, “If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work” (NLT).

 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

When John the Baptist was preaching repentance, he was preparing the way for Jesus to come and to baptize us all with the Holy Spirit. Augustine said, “The confession of bad works is the beginning of good works.”  I pray that we will all commit to a regular practice of confession and repentance so that we can be used by Jesus in the way that he intended, in a way that will most glorify Him.

Blessings,

Judy