Glimpses of Glory...

On February 7^th 2006, I was privileged to be present at the Pastor’s Conference at First Baptist Jacksonville Florida to hear Dr. Jerry Vines’ final sermon called “Glimpses of Glory.” Dr. Vines is one of my heroes and I have to say his sermon from Exodus 33:17-23 has to be one of the greatest messages I've ever heard. In that text, Moses asked God if he could see His glory. God said Moses would not see God’s face, but He would hide Moses in the cleft of the rock while God’s glory passed by. It wasn't a full view of glory, just a glimpse of the back of God’s glorious countenance. There were about 12,000 people who heard this wonderful preacher extol the glories of God and we were moved to tears contemplating the glory of God.

In my quiet time readings, I've been tracing the theme of God’s glory and in 2^nd Chronicles 7:1-3, we see one of these glimpses of glory. The occasion was Solomon’s dedication of the completed temple and when Solomon finished praying, fire came down from Heaven and consumed the burnt offerings and sacrifices and the glory of God filled the temple to the extent the priests couldn't even enter the temple. The people were prostrate on the ground and worshiped and praised God saying over and over: “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever.”

In the early hours of the morning the other day with coffee in hand, as I read of this glimpse of God’s glory, I was trying to wrap my mind what it would be like for God’s glory to fill our worship center some glorious Lord’s Day in such a way it forced us out into the parking lot and we fell on our faces in worship as a thick cloud of smoke and fire enveloped us as it happened to the children of Israel. How incredible would that be? How scary would that be? How awesome would that be? Obviously the context and the occasion helps us understand why God’s glory would appear in that fashion at that time. But I think there are some other things that allowed the Children of Israel to see a glimpse of God’s glory that incredible day.

First, they recognized this house belonged to God and they gave it back to Him freely. Sure they had given sacrificially of their gold and silver, their labors, skill and craftsmanship to make the temple a reality. But there was no doubt it belonged to God and the emphasis was not on this beautiful building, the emphasis was on the God who would meet them there in worship. It was by the grace of God and His power and might that delivered them out of bondage and established them as a nation in the first place, so they understood clearly it was God’s house.

Secondly, I believe it was their posture before a holy God. The people and the priests had followed God’s instructions explicitly in humble obedience, they sanctified themselves to be holy and set apart, they confessed their sin and came together as one (2^nd Chron.5:11-14); King Solomon’s humble prayer of dedication of what this house of God was for and what He asked God to do there prepared them to see a glimpse of God’s glory.

Finally and most importantly, it was simply God’s gracious favor, His goodness and mercy that endures forever as the people expressed repeatedly; that allowed them to see a glimpse of His glory. If God doesn’t lower Himself to us, we’ll never get a glimpse of His glory.

So what? Obviously here on earth we may not see such a dramatic display of the glory of God on a Lord’s Day like the Children of Israel experienced that day but that doesn't mean you and I can’t have a glimpse of His glory every day if we look for it. As I've meditated on the glory of God, I can tell you I've seen glimpses of glory this week.

I saw a glimpse of God’s glory radiating in the eyes of our students and chaperons who served at M-Fuge in Philly as they led worship and shared what God did in them and through them last Sunday. I saw a glimpse of God’s glory in the love our students and chaperons have for one another.

I saw a glimpse of God’s glory in the faces of two believers coming up out of the baptismal waters as I declared over them “We are buried in the likeness of His death, we’re raised to walk in the newness of life!” Oh the joy to see the glory of God in two new disciples of Jesus Christ!

I saw a glimpse of the glory of God at the bedside of one our faithful men who most likely is in his last days on earth. To see this faithful saint speaking of the Lord’s faithfulness to him and the hopes and dreams he has for his future, however brief it may be, gives me a glimpse into the glory of God.

I saw a glimpse of the glory of God reading through a number of sermons shared with me by a faithful saint whose father ministered for the Lord Jesus as a pastor for 60 years. Having the life’s work of a faithful preacher of God’s Word at my fingertips; hearing the voice of God speaking through the pen of a man of God who obviously “rightly divided the word of truth” shows me glimpses of glory!

I see glimpses of glory in faithful saints who continue to serve and praise God even when they are struggling with their health and the myriad problems and difficulties of life. Serving their Lord Jesus with joy and gladness shows me glimpses of God’s glory.

I see the glory of God in my own life with peace that passes all understanding in the midst of difficulty.  As I write this, one of my daughters is in the hospital having seizures with no apparent explanation to this point. The calm assurance that God is in control shows me glimpses of glory that I can’t express with words.

Glimpses of glory are all around us when we walk by faith and not by sight and we choose to look for the glory of God as it passes by. The old hymn says “Oh that will be, glory for me, glory for me! When by His grace I shall look on His face, that will be glory, be glory for me!”  Let me encourage you to look for glimpses of glory, from my little corner of the world to yours…

That they may be one...

In John 17 we have an extensive prayer that Jesus prayed shortly before His betrayal, arrest and crucifixion. Some have called this the true “Lord’s Prayer” because we see Jesus clearly in His role as High Priest interceding for His disciples. In vs.1-5, Jesus began by praying for Himself that He would bring glory to His Father and that through His work, the world would know the Father. Then in vs. 6-19, Jesus prayed for the unity of His disciples as they were to take the Word of God into the world, telling people about Jesus. Jesus said in vs. 11 “…keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.” Jesus concluded His prayer in vs. 20-26 praying for every disciple, “those who will believe in Me…”, “that they all may be one.” (vs. 20-21).  Twice in His prayer, Jesus used the unity of the Father and Son as an example of what that unity should look like.

Why would Jesus pray for unity among His disciples? He answers the question for us in vs.21-23 saying “that the world may believe” and “that the world may know you sent me.” In Jesus' mind, a key factor as to whether His disciples would fulfill their mission of introducing the world to God through faith in Jesus Christ was completely dependent on the unity of those disciples as they went about that work. Jesus had seen His disciples arguing about greatness previously so He saw fit to pray for the unity of all His disciples. The New Testament clearly teaches that Jesus is continuing to pray for His disciples and I am certain He continues to pray for unity among His children so we can fulfill our mission. Satan knows unity among believers is dangerous for his evil cause and he will use any and all means to try and bring disunity among the disciples of Jesus Christ. He works hard at promoting strife, division and dissension among the people of God to keep them from doing the work of God effectively.

How do we maintain unity in the family of God? I think there are a number of key factors that will guard unity in the body. First of all it is imperative we simply stay connected to Jesus and His mission for us. In John 15, Jesus used an illustration of a vine and branches. He is the vine and His disciples are the branches. He said if we abide in Him we will bear fruit, but if we don’t abide in Him, we can do nothing and we certainly won’t bear fruit. Jesus also said pruning is sometimes necessary among believers in order for fruit to be produced. Clearly Jesus desires for His children to produce fruit. When Christians are connected to Jesus, abiding in Him in prayer, personal Bible Study, personal & corporate worship and service, they will be fruitful and unity is present because believers stay connected to Jesus and His mission for us.

Secondly, unity in the body occurs when we have a loving & humble attitude focused on others. The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2 what this kind of humble attitude looks like in the body of Christ. He said “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but for the interests of others.” Paul then used Jesus as an example through His humble submission to God the Father by going to the cross.  We can preserve unity among the body by assuming the posture of a bond-servant and ministering to the needs of those around us in the family of God as well as the world around us. Paul’s analogy of the function of a human body in 1^st Cor. 12:12-31 is very helpful as to how we are to function together as one even though there are many parts to the body as there are many members of the church who have different, but complimentary roles. He goes right into a discussion about love from 1^st Cor.13 because sacrificial, Agape love is the glue that holds it all together – Jesus’ love for us, our love for Jesus and our love for one another as the body of Christ.

There is a sure unity killer among the body of Christ we must be aware of; plain old gossip. I believe gossip is the most effective tool Satan uses to bring about disunity, cause confusion and hurt people in the body of Christ. The Scriptures warn repeatedly against gossip in its various forms. Proverbs 16:20 tells us: “A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends.” Proverbs 26:20 “Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases.” Christians can and should squelch gossip in any and all forms by not lending an ear to it and by refusing to participate in the rumor mill. We can squelch gossip by encouraging people to go directly to someone “they have an issue with” and offer to go with them to resolve the issues according to Matt. 18 and Matt. 5:23-24. By doing so, Satan will not be allowed to gain a foothold among us as he fights against the work God has called us to do as a church body.

I am thankful for the “Tri-unity” of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Their unified and amazing plan to redeem sinners like me only became reality because they worked together in their complimentary roles as God. Jesus’ prayer for unity was echoed through a little chorus often sung in church in years past – “Make us one Lord, make us one! Holy Spirit, make us one! Let your love flow, so the world will know, we are one in you.” That is my prayer, from my little corner of the world to yours…

A Failure to Communicate...

I love sports, especially team sports and I had the privilege of playing sports throughout my school experience. This spring, both of my sons have been playing different sports on lacrosse and rugby teams. One didn’t get much game time play but I am so proud of him for giving 150% in every practice to help his team succeed and make it to the playoffs. The team’s success is his success. Rugby is new to us this year and to see a mob of people pushing a ball toward a common goal is fascinating to watch. I’m proud of that team effort as well and my son’s contribution to that.

At our last CIC, the question was raised why we’re calling our committees “teams” and the church voted to remove the team terminology. I realized I have failed to communicate that we’re trying to work within our committee structure to foster and encourage a team mindset. Your ministerial staff is trying to work within our established structure to expand the impact and effectiveness of each committee. Let me be clear, I am not trying to do away with our committee structure. I take full responsibility for failing to communicate effectively that we’re trying to foster a team mindset within our committee structure.  

Most recently, our missions committee worked hard to have our mission fair that was by all accounts, a tremendous success! It was a great example of teamwork and I am so proud of them! This committee fully embraced the vision of engaging as many people as possible to see missions as who we are and not something we do – in other words living each day with an “I’m a missionary mindset.” “Be Missions” was the theme and literally happens in all of the opportunities we saw that day. There was an electric excitement on campus that reminded us all we’re about kingdom business at Calvary. We as Southern Baptists cooperate together to expand God’s Kingdom believing we can accomplish more together as a team of churches than as individual churches.  I have a simple vision from the Lord for Calvary, to “make it hard to go to Hell from Harford County” and I still believe the local church and its members are God’s means to win people to Christ and make disciples of them. My personal ministry philosophy is based on Eph. 4:12. I express it this way: “Teach my people very well so they will love me very much and serve me very effectively.” That is making disciples and that job is so big it requires a large team of believers to accomplish.

I recognize the value of organization and structure. However, if the structure hinders the ministry of Kingdom work, then it is time to reexamine and work within our established ground rules to bring about change; not just for the sake of change, but for the work of the Kingdom.  I don’t know about you but if I’m being recruited to join a committee or a “board”, there is hesitation and resistance in my spirit because I don’t need another meeting to fit into an already busy calendar. However, when I’m encouraged to volunteer for a team guided by a clear purpose and to pursue clear goals; then I can get excited because that tells me this is going to be action oriented, not meeting oriented even though I know invariably there will be meetings. The disciple making vision as members of Calvary should be to involve as many people as possible who attend Calvary but aren’t plugged in and connected to Calvary.

I found a 10 year old article by Harold Resnick [i] that helps me clarify the difference and encourage team principles. I’d like to share excerpts from this article and draw out some principles we can apply to our church life.

Teams and Committees Defined
For our purposes at Calvary, over the last year working with our Church Council, we’ve been defining team as “a group of people who are united around a common purpose, who work together to achieve common short, medium and long term goals and then develop plans to achieve those goals.”

Resnick’s article defines a committee as a group of people who come together to reach a common goal, but each committee member’s role is so represent a particular area or group of people in his or her circle of influence.  In a team, everyone is focused on the common goal. In a committee, everyone tends to focus on what the goal means to their group. In a team, everyone is authorized and empowered to make decisions. In a committee, everyone needs to “check back” before they are able to commit. In a team, decisions are made by consensus, based on the best solution. In a committee, decisions are made through compromise, and usually require a vote.

Teams and Committees At Work
Let's take a look at a few examples and the difference in results.

You are developing your budget. A team begins with an understanding of the budget requirement. Then the team analyzes the strategic initiatives and collectively decides how to allocate resources to support them. The remainder of the budget is allocated to individual requirements. Everyone understands that the goal is reached when the budget is established within limits, all major initiatives are supported, and all team members have the resources they need to fulfill their individual responsibilities.

Let's look at this same process by committee. The overall budget is announced. Everyone works individually to prepare his own component and submits it to the leader. The total, of course, far exceeds the limit. Everyone then proceeds into negotiations, until a final allocation is made that meets the overall target. In this process, the overall purposes (in our case church ministry) can be ignored.  It can foster an environment where the only interest is the piece of the budget pie that is allocated and not for the overall purpose of church ministry.

Resnick shares another example. He says: “For many years I served on the "Product Release Team" for a high tech company. Our goal was to ensure all products were ready and released to the market by an established schedule. But we were always about nine months late... for a simple reason. Each of us had strict orders from our bosses not to approve a release until we were absolutely sure that our area was fully prepared to support the release. As a good committee representative, my goal was first to make sure that our group was prepared, and second to release the product on time. If the product was late, so be it. The problem was resolved in a single conversation. The president came to all of us one day and said: "Let's be clear about your goal. If this product is not released on time, none of you will be working here the next day." That certainly changed our focus. The common goal was now clearly more important than our individual goals, and products - magically - began to be released on time.

We have a God-given and mandated purpose as a church from the Great Commission: “As you are going make disciples.” Over the last year, we’ve been teaching at Church Council and have asked each committee to do three things:

1. Develop a clear purpose statement to help them focus clearly why they exist.

2. Establish short, medium and long term goals that help the church as a whole achieve the overall purpose of making disciples.

3. Develop plans to achieve those goals.

We’re trying to simplify the decision making process so our committees are authorized and empowered to make decisions without having to check back in to their respective groups or have the ministerial staff micro-manage every decision. We believe we can cast the vision and provide some guidelines but your ministers do not believe we have to make all the decisions needed. This is precisely why the mission fair was such a wonderful success. The committee embraced the vision the ministers cast, developed a clearly defined purpose, set the goals, made plans and then enlisted assistance from across the whole church family! Kudos to the missions committee for working as a team – it was not only great teamwork, it was great committee work!

Will you prayerfully consider our church structure; and will you work with your ministry staff to figure out how we can work as a team within our committee structure to expand God’s Kingdom?  Common purpose, common goals and plans, empowering you as individuals, collective work and shared accountability to our God given mission are the ingredients for a remarkable church team, or committee as the case may be. Hopefully this more clearly communicates these concepts to you, from my little corner of the world to yours…

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[i] http://www.worksystems.com/freeResources/organizationalDesign/are_you_leading.html

A Call to Pray...

As I write this, today is officially the National Day of Prayer. This morning I was privileged to lead a devotional prayer time with a group of teachers and staff at a local elementary school around the flag pole. We sang “America the Beautiful”, “What a friend we have in Jesus” and “Amazing Grace” together with the aid of another pastor friend who is more musically inclined than I with a guitar. There was no discussion of denominational preferences of those gathered. It was simply a time for us to pray to Almighty God for our nation, our state, our community and ourselves and to give thanks to God for His blessings upon our nation. Our nation has a long history of setting aside a national day of prayer. Consider these facts:

·        1775 – The first Continental Congress called for a National Day of Prayer

·        1863 – Abraham Lincoln called for such a day.

·        1952 – Congress established NDP as an annual event by a joint resolution, signed into law by President Truman

·        1988 – The law was amended and signed by President Reagan, designating the NDP as the first Thursday in May.

One of the Architects of the Constitution of the United States and later President Thomas Jefferson said in 1808: “Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it.”

I read to the group the encouragement of the Apostle Paul from 1^st Tim. 2:1-4 “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

We have a God-given mandate to pray for our national, state and local leaders and that is what we did today. We prayed for wisdom for them as they lead us and as Paul petitioned that “we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. We prayed that they would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. In spite of the challenges, problems and evils that plague our nation, God has given us the ability to speak directly to Him about these needs and we need to be reminded the solutions to our national problems are not political, but spiritual and the Good News of Jesus Christ is the message to be proclaimed. God has promised when His people will humble themselves in prayer and repent He’ll hear from Heaven and heal their land. (2^nd Chron. 7:14).

I also want to remind our church family of the need to pray for our church. I asked the church to fast and pray back in August and we’ve reiterated that request along the way most recently on Sunday night April 14^th after our CIC with a call to fast and pray for the church weekly. We need to pray for unity, we need to pray for faithfulness to our mission of making disciples and glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t mind telling you and I’m certain Pastors Ken & Mike would agree we covet and desperately need your prayers for us as we serve and minister here.

We can thank the Lord for the marvelous mission fair and for all the hard work of our mission committee and volunteers who made it not just a reality; but a tremendously exciting and encouraging day of worship. We can pray that God will use the excitement generated by that wonderful event to encourage us to “Be Missions” every day and to follow through with our commitment to be involved in missions this year personally.

We need to pray for faithfulness in the area of our tithes and offerings so we can fully fund the work of God’s Kingdom. We are greatly concerned at how our giving is down dramatically and we know this is in part due to the condition of our economy. God has promised that His financial program for funding the work of the ministry through the local church always works regardless of the economic conditions (Malachi 3:8-12). You do not need to pray about your tithe (10%) as God has already claimed the tithe belongs to Him. Every faithful tithing Christian knows the reality you cannot out give God.

I would also ask you to pray intently for your personnel committee who has begun the process of searching out the man God will call to be our minister of students. The personnel committee will be bringing updates monthly to the church as to our progress and you’ll be hearing us call you to come and pray for this man and his family and that God will make His will known to us. My prayer is God will guide us to this person sooner rather than later. We need to pray for ourselves in this process also because trust has been so horribly violated; there will be a tendency for us to be fearful and not embrace, support, encourage and follow the leadership of the man God will call to serve in ministry to our students and college and career. When God makes His will known to us and calls this person through much prayer; we’ll have the confidence we need and the joy of knowing that God has brought us His man to serve and labor in this field of service with us.

Today, I’m fasting and praying for our nation, our state, our local leaders, but primarily for this body of believers called Calvary Baptist Church. Please join me in prayer, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Oh Lord Heal Me...

We humans are pretty incredible creatures. We are the only part of God's creation that is made in the image of God. That means we have God's imprint upon us and that God has hard-wired us to seek relationships, primarily a relationship with Him. Many people think the first crisis in the Bible came when sin entered the world in Genesis 3 but that idea is not correct. Now before you call your spouse to say the preacher is a heretic, let me explain. You see even before the fall of man when sin entered the world, there was a major crisis. A problem so great God declared it was not good! I am not saying that God's creation was flawed. God's declaration was not because there was a flaw in His perfect world that He made by speaking it into existence. God did not forget a detail that led to this declaration of something not being good. It was part of God's design and this declaration was for our benefit. In Genesis 2:18, God's declaration went like this: “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a helper comparable to him.” The crisis was man's aloneness. You see God made us in His image and God is a relational being and so are we. God never intended for man (or woman) to go through life alone.

When sin entered the world, a myriad of problems entered the world including fractured relationships and people end up going through life all alone. It can be that they are married, but emotionally, they are going through life alone. It could be they are members of a church and they go to worship, but emotionally, they are going through life alone. They have children, grandchildren, but somehow there is a disconnection and a part of us where we feel like we're all alone. Often we'll have many acquaintance “friends” but no one we're really connected to and we feel we're all alone. Satan actually likes this condition in man and does all he can to make sure we're isolated so he fights to destroy our relationships with others and ultimately keep us from having a relationship with God. God declared this condition to be “not good.” Of course we know God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to make provision for us to have a relationship with Him through faith. But why do we feel so alone?

The sad part is we know something is broken within us, but we don't what it is. We can be devoted followers of Jesus Christ but we ache with aloneness because no one knows how we feel and it’s hard to be vulnerable and share how we really feel. It's about like how you sense something in your body isn't quite right and you know you are starting to get sick, but you don't know exactly what it is. I believe we never stop to consider it's our aloneness that is causing this condition and why we're broken emotionally - and I think it's safe to say we would agree with God that “it is not good”! Because we don't what to do about this problem, we go “looking for love in all the wrong places.” We try to get satisfaction in all kinds of superficial relationships, fantasies, pursuits, pleasures, activity, technology, accumulating stuff and there is still this major problem of aloneness. We thought our spouse, our kids, our boyfriend or girlfriend or our buddies, would meet this need but they say or do things that bring us heartache and Satan has a field day driving us away from one another. So we recoil into the private world of aloneness and we wonder if anyone cares.

I think this how David felt when he wrote Psalm 6:2 “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.” David felt aloneness to the extent that his ache was so deep his bones were troubled by it. But David recognized the only person who had the resources to meet his needs so he asked the Lord to heal him. He even said in vs. 4 of that same chapter “return Oh Lord.” David felt alone.

The other day, I was wiped out. Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, I was just beat and I collapsed into bed and passed out quickly from fatigue.  I woke up around 0230 tossing and turning with much on my heart and mind. I was feeling really alone even though my precious wife was sound asleep in bed next to me. I felt and thought to myself: “Man something is really broken within me.” Since I couldn't sleep, I went and sat on the couch, got out my Bible and just randomly picked out a Psalm to read and ended up in Ps. 6. When I read verse 2, I cried. I thought that's me Lord. That's my prayer to you this morning, “Oh Lord heal me.” I spent the next hour just asking God to fix and heal whatever was broken in me. I asked the Lord who is the Great Physician to diagnose and fix my problem. What a blessing to know we’re not alone! The Lord Jesus wants to rescue you from aloneness and He wants to be your source of healing, no matter who or what has hurt or is hurting you.

Are you hurting today? Are you feeling like you are alone and wondering if anyone cares? I am here to tell you Jesus cares. We all know the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). I think sometimes we simply look at that as a historical fact of Jesus’ response at the tomb of His friend Lazarus. We don’t think of Jesus as weeping over our hurts today. Maybe something happened to you a long, long time ago that you’ve buried but that ache is deep and you are hurting. As you read this, I want you to picture your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; with His nail scarred hands open to you, tears streaming down His face on your behalf over your hurt. Will you cry out to Jesus like David: “Oh Lord heal me!” Jesus weeps for your hurts, and He weeps you don’t come to Him to ask for healing. What is keeping you from asking Jesus’ to heal you? You’ll be amazed at what Jesus will do if you ask Him to come along side you and minister to those hurts; but you still have to ask.

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com 

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Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Healing in His wings...

On January 13, 2013, I shared with the church my annual “State of the Church” message and in that message I used Malachi 4:2 for the vision I believe God has for Calvary in 2013. Through the last Old Testament prophet Malachi, God had a word of encouragement for His people: “The Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” I believe with all my heart this message of encouragement is important for our church family to embrace and apply to our lives. Since August, we have been through a grueling and tragic chapter in our church life. The emotional toll and trauma on so many lives is really incalculable and only God can accurately quantify the far reaching impact of the sinful choices of one man.

On March 20^th 2013, he had his day in open court and he finally plead guilty to the charges against him. The plea bargain agreement is a matter of public record with final sentencing to be May 30^th of this year. He will spend time in the State Department of Corrections, followed by probation and a lifetime of restrictions and prohibitions. Quite frankly, while observing the proceedings, I did not get the sense of genuine remorse or sorrow from him. Actually I saw or heard nothing from him that would indicate he has repented for the wake of disaster he has left not only on his own family, his victims and our church family as a whole. I do not claim to have a window to his soul nor do I sit in judgment of his demeanor as only the Lord is accurately able to assess whether he has repented. I can only base my observations of him compared to the myriad of other cases I heard where several people took ownership of what they had done and apologized to the judge and those they hurt for their crimes. In those cases too, only the Lord can tell if they meant what they said.
In any case, I am choosing to forgive him as I have done many times when anger wells up in my soul since this first began; regardless of whether he seeks it or not. I must forgive not only because Jesus commanded it as I’ve been forgiven of so much; but also because it is the only way my soul can be healed from the cancer of bitterness that will take over if I don’t forgive. As the criminal aspect of this tragedy for all practical purposes is now over; I believe the Lord is extending to us the same invitation He has held out since his Holy feet walked the dusty roads and paths of Palestine on His way to the cross to pay for all sin. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28–30 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  
For every saint of God who cares deeply for the family of God at Calvary, this has been a heavy burden we’ve all been trying to bear. Yet the Lord invites us to “cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for you” (1^st Peter 5:7). I know I’ve not always done a good job of casting this care upon Jesus through this and the reality is I’m probably not alone. Scripture is clear that biting comments and unloving attitudes will never lead to healing. Once again, I want to encourage our church family to heal together and your ministry staff is ready to aid in that healing with pastoral care. If you see your brothers and sisters having a hard time, remember the Romans 12:15 principle: “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Take time to care for them and as we do life together, “the Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings” as we lean on the faithful arms of our Savior and depend on His grace, mercy and comfort as He is the God of comfort (2^nd Cor. 2:3). However, sometimes in our sadness and sorrow in the face of crises, we struggle to express the emotions and feelings we have verbally in a way that honors the Lord. I’m reminded of Paul’s encouragement to the Ephesian believers: “Let no unwholesome (corrupt) word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”  (Eph. 4:29). The next verse makes it clear unwholesome words grieve the Holy Spirit of God and so we must be cautious in how we express our pain.
Recently in my morning time with the Lord in prayer and studying my Bible; as part of my additional devotional reading, I’ve been reading some of the great hymns of the faith and on the morning of the trial, I read the words to “Higher Ground” which encouraged me & I hope you also:

“I’m pressing on the upward way, new heights I’m gaining every day

still praying as I’m onward bound, ‘Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”

“My heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears dismay;

though some may dwell where these abound, my prayer, my aim is higher ground.”

“I want to live above the world, tho Satan’s darts at me are hurled;

for faith has caught the joyful sound, the song of saints on higher ground.”

“I want to scale the utmost height & catch a gleam of glory bright;

but still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found, ‘Lord, lead me on to higher ground.”

“Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven’s table-land;

A higher plane than I have found – Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”

As we approach Resurrection Sunday, be encouraged my precious church family the Son of Righteousness has in fact risen! He has great plans in store for Calvary and wants to bring healing, unity, purpose and direction for us if we’ll seek His face. Let us begin a new chapter and move on to higher ground together; encouraging and exhorting one another toward holy and righteous living and to make an impact for His Kingdom. I am thankful God’s mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is so great it knows no limits. I love you and thank God for you, from my little corner of the world to yours…
Ralph Green
Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church
www.calvarybelair.com 
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Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

The desires of your heart.

As a youngster growing up in a Pastor’s home and being in church all my life, I’ve heard people talk about what they call “their life verse.” What they mean is they have claimed a particularly meaningful verse that expresses how they want to live their life. I’m not sure when I exactly adopted my life verse but it has been encouraging me for at least 35 years. Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” What a blessing to see the truth of that verse bear fruit in my life. Putting God first and loving Him with everything I have and the desires He has implanted in me, from a career in law enforcement, to a career in business and now the passionate desire to serve Him as a pastor of a local church. Desire is a synonym for passion, a craving, an appetite, what you love to do. There is great joy in doing what you were created by God to do.

A few weeks ago in a message I preached called “A Pastor’s Prayer” from 2^nd Thessalonians 3:5, I asked the audience gathered to close their eyes for a minute and I said: “Imagine quickly, if time and money was not an object, out of your pure love for God, if you could do anything for God’s Kingdom, what would it be?” Maybe you had a little glimmer of that vision, desire, or passion in answer to that question but in the hustle and bustle of life after church from that day you’ve not thought much about it further. So let me ask you to prayerfully revisit the answer to that question for your life. I also said that day I wanted you to be free to pursue your passion and that one thing you’d love to do even if at the moment you find yourself serving in a way that is not exactly your passion. The reality is as long as you are serving in a place you aren’t passionate about; someone else isn’t pursuing their passion because you have that spot.

Obviously, there needs to be an orderly transition for you especially if you’re in a leadership role but let us know you’re not passionate about that ministry so we can let people know of the opportunity. Last week at our monthly Church Council meeting, we discussed this very concept asking the question “What is My Passion?” We identified 5 Biblical Functions of the Church as being:

1.     Outreach (Evangelism)

2.     Discipleship (Edification)

3.     Service/Ministry (Equipping)

4.     Fellowship (Encouragement)

5.     Worship (Exaltation)

Each of these 5 functions can be used to advance our church’s purposes. So the question then is “Where do I fit in”? To help you determine the answer for how God has wired you to serve Him out of your love relationship together; ask yourself these kinds of questions: 1) Which area of church life am I most passionate about? 2) How am I currently pursuing those passions? 3) If I could serve one way at Calvary that I knew would not fail, what it be?

I want to encourage you to think, meditate and pray on these areas of function for the church and ask the Holy Spirit to show you where your passions lie. In many cases the Lord has already equipped and gifted you in a way that you are already passionate about; but that’s not always the case or you may not know He’s gifted you that way. When you sense you’ve identified your passion, let me, Pastor Mike or Pastor Ken know about that so we can help you get connected to serving in an ministry area you are passionate about. Then what I’d say to you is what Paul wrote to the Colossian believers in 3:23 “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,”

Can you imagine what would take place if every believer connected to Calvary Baptist Church was able to pursue their God-given passions to further God’s Kingdom? Picture the tremendous impact on a church, a community, a state, a nation and a world when God’s people pursued the desires of their heart out of their love for Christ! One word: AWESOME!

Okay, at this point you might be waiting for me to give you list of possible passions in church – but I’m not going to! Why? Because I’m not the Holy Spirit and I don’t know what the Holy Spirit is prompting you to pursue out of your passion for Jesus. What I do know is that it will be exactly what this body of believers needs and we’re going to love the result. I also want you to be able to “think outside the box” on this so this doesn’t have to be some pursuit you currently see or have seen in church life. However, I will tell you that our Church Council and staff are working on a document that will list the many ways currently available for you to serve in and through Calvary.  Obviously for us to help you pursue your passion as a church, it needs to align with one of those Biblical functions for the church listed above but that is the only limit. If you’re not sure how your passion fits, that is where Pastor Mike, Pastor Ken or I can help guide you; so talk to us about “the desires of your heart.”

Looking forward to seeing the “desires of your heart” in action, from my little corner of the world to yours…

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph