Author: pastordarryl68

God gave us the gift of Sabbath, knowing that to cultivate a relationship of loving union with God requires time.

**BTW, the Sabbath day was the 7th day of the week for the Hebrews and the Lord’s Day was/is the 1st day of the week for the early church – two different things. This is clear in most languages not based on a pagan calendar that centered around deities such as the Roman god Saturn and the worship of the Sun.

The Lord’s Day, a day of Worship and Community for the believer, was never intended as a day of physical rest but of a celebration of both the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the New Creation, the regenerated, redeemed life…a life once dead in trespasses and sins made alive by the indwelling of the Spirit of God, and the Bride of Christ, the assembly of all the redeemed in worship of their Redeemer and Savior.

The Early Church found time to make the first day of the week about the Lord even though it was still a day of work and commerce for most of them. They would gather in the Temple courts for morning and evening prayers, going to their places of labor and commerce between, and THEN gather afterward in the evening for fellowship, the breaking of bread, and continuing steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and teaching.

It wasn’t until the 3rd century, when Constantine made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire that there was a merge of the ideas of Sabbath and the Lord’s Day as a “christian sabbath”.

The enemy has tried to lay claim to this day…but it’s not his to lay claim to. This is the day that the Lord our God has made…we WILL rejoice and be glad in it. It is Reformation Day! Thank God for the reformation of the living church, filled by His Spirit. If you’re a follower of Jesus, Be The Church in your community!

If you don’t feel right about your kiddos putting on costumes, then, by all means, don’t let them. If you don’t feel right about passing out treats, then obey your conscience and don’t do it. If you don’t want to decorate your home, that’s absolutely fine. We never did either.

Regardless of how you choose to obey the Lord your God on this day, please…

…don’t demonize those who do wear costumes. Instead, pray for the testimony of Jesus in the lives of your brothers and sisters who do participate in fall festivities like trick or treating.

…don’t demonize those who do pass-out treats. Instead, thank God that His Spirit leads people to the doors of your brothers and sisters. Pray for friendly engagement and connections with the children and parents that may lead to new relationships that may lead them to Jesus.

…don’t demonize those who do put up decorations. Instead, pray that the decorations lead to conversations that leverage who we are and what we’ve been given to reach our neighbors with Gospel-centered ministries of mercy…that they might come to know, love and follow Jesus into His Kingdom.

We make time for what we value.
We give attention to what we value.
We cannot give attention to everything of value.
So we must choose.
Choose we do.

There are no but’s, just a period.

I don’t know about you, but I grow weary of language and actions that insinuate that someone else’s time is more valuable than another’s. This often happens when people give excuses for why they often cancel at the last minute, why they repeatedly postpone and procrastinate or why they frustratingly do not respond to attempts at communication.

We blame it on our schedule. “I’m just so busy”, “I’ve just got so much to do” or “there’s just not enough time in the day.”
We blame it on our work.
We blame it on digital overload.

The Bible is not a grab-bag of spiritual one-liners and inspiring stories. When we pick and choose what we want to read, skipping the confusing or uncomfortable parts, we can miss the story — the epic narrative that points to Jesus.

It’s a unified story about how God appoints humanity as His partners to oversee His amazing creation, how humans ruin that partnership, and how God is restoring us and our world through Jesus.

It was self-serving humans that ruined the partnership with God. Don’t miss the story by doing the same thing all over again.

It is one thing to be meek and humble…to not brag about or elevate yourself…to minimize me and make much of Jesus. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Anything short of that, God calls sin. I am absolutely blown away by the work of GOD in me and through me — but it’s not about me…it’s ALL about HIM.

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.

I wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned…unclean.

How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be.

How marvelous, how wonderful, is my Savior’s love for me.

But It is an entirely different thing for a regenerated, Spirit-filled follower of Jesus to self-deprecate or belittle themselves in order to not appear arrogant or self-serving. We do not elevate Jesus by putting ourselves down…we actually do just the opposite.

He is the Lord our God, Creator, Designer, and Savior of our souls. We are not only created in HIS IMAGE, but we are indwelt by HIS SPIRIT. By testifying to His Grace extended in our lives and our acceptance of His forgiveness, His grace, and His mercy, we are testifying that we have declared allegiance to Him as King, and that we walk in trust and obedience to His ways.

To fail to have confidence in the work of God in us and through us by self-deprecating, diminishing our value to God, or hiding behind some twisted version of false humility by elevating the fact that we still sin often and fail God miserably (I don’t think we’re hiding that from anyone), are we not also testifying to the impotence of His Spirit in our surrendered lives?

I had three horrible dreams in a row last night. I rarely ever dream and even more seldom remember what I dreamed afterward. But these stuck with me.

The Lord has placed on my mind and heart the names and faces of several people that I haven’t seen in years but think of often. Names and faces that were once “connected” to our church family but are long, long gone…and that’s not even the grievous part. Forty-five years in the church has taught me…people come and people go. We thank God for the eternal investments made by people while they were there, but we can’t hold them hostage to the church family. But what truly grieved my heart in these dreams, and is still heavy on my heart this morning, is how many of them have no detectable relationship with Jesus; many, quite the contrary.

There were some bad actors involved along the way…people that should have never been in “leadership”, people that made poor decisions, or people that were not guided by Truth but rather by self-centered hearts filled with arrogance. I fell into one of those categories.

Now, I believe that God is sovereign. I know that several of those names and faces were never truly regenerated followers of Jesus. I wanted to believe they were, but in the Gospels, Jesus gives us indicators that point otherwise. I know that in some cases, God used what we were experiencing to purge and prune the church for the sake of His own glory, His Kingdom, and the good of His church family. Others have gone on to thrive in other churches and communities. Some have since found their way to Jesus through repentance and humility.

Regardless of the condition of the hearts who were either on the giving or the receiving end of the behaviors and motives that quenched the Spirit of God, I grieve for them today. I grieve the victories of the enemy in their hearts and minds. I grieve the wounds that took them out of a loving community of hope. I grieve the hearts of the children that grow up in homes whose parents and grandparents are burnt and jaded by divisions, self-centeredness, jealousy, anger, hate, and arrogance in the body of Christ. I grieve the path of unrighteousness that many have taken. I grieve for the lives that God has removed from our midst. I grieved my own stake for years. I self-deprecated with self-loathing for the activity that happened on my watch as the shepherd, my participation in it as well as my lack of action; I even questioned my fitness and call by the Lord, paralyzed in that for a few years.

But I celebrate today. I celebrate God’s forgiveness, His grace, and His mercy – in my own life and in the body of our church family. I celebrate the Sovereignty of God and the Truth of His Word. I celebrate generations of regenerated lives who have followed Jesus with reckless abandon. I celebrate beauty that comes from ashes. I celebrate the faithfulness and endurance of some good soldiers, who fought for the testimony of their Lord and the soul of their church through some very difficult and challenging times — and are stronger and more in love with Jesus because of it. I celebrate God’s wisdom and discernment that comes from experience. I celebrate that there is no room for offense, grudges, resentment, bitterness, or unforgiveness in the body of Jesus Christ. I celebrate the blessed bounty that God has set before us. I celebrate the plurality of godly Elders and a godly team of servant leaders who not only support the mission God has given to us, but do so with accountability, personal sacrifice, loving confrontation, and determination for godly resolution…that God’s will might be accomplished, that God may be glorified, and that His church might be ONE.

This is not the story of just one small, local church in the midwest. Hundreds of thousands have experienced the sting of gross humanity manifest in the church. Many have grown stronger and deeper in the Word and His Service through it. But, it has also shut and sealed, not only the doors of many physical church buildings but their testimonies as well. But we cling to this promise that even the gates of hell cannot prevail against Jesus’ church.

Would you join me in praying for the souls of those who have wounded the church and been wounded by the church?

Followers of Jesus. We are to love our unredeemed community the way Jesus loved unredeemed people. There is no question about that.

But we’ve really got to stop trying to talk people into “accepting Jesus” like he’s some wealthy, eccentric uncle with bizarre behavior and a rash. You’ll not find “accepting Jesus” anywhere in the Bible. He’s not some stray mongrel that needs to be taken in. He is the Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator and Savior of our souls.

The Bible tells us that the HOLY Spirit draws unbelieving people to Jesus through followers who are ONE with one another. Jesus himself prayed this over us: “that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” He also told the disciples, “This is My commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”

It is through our ONENESS with the Lord our God and with one another, The Church, that unredeemed people REPENT and BELIEVE. That’s what the BIBLE says.

We’ve got to stop writing our own bible and start living by the TRUTH of the One we already have.

As followers of Jesus, HIS STORY is now our story.

God is writing HIS STORY in our lives through our undying, sworn allegiance to the Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator and Savior of our souls as we walk in complete surrender and obedience to His Word and His Spirit.

Because we are people who still struggle against the flesh, who live in a world tainted by sin, and live among the muck of other sinful people, HIS STORY in our lives is still sometimes messy and painful.

BUT, it is HIS STORY, a beautiful masterpiece of forgiveness, repentance, redemption, reconciliation, and ongoing restoration. That’s the STORY that really matters, and because of Grace, Mercy, and Forgiveness, it now belongs to YOU!

“Let’s just do whatever is easiest.”

These words are ice water in my veins. Often when we hear them, they’re spoken out of laziness, a self-centered unwillingness to do something worthwhile for others. Other times what people are trying to say is “let’s make it simple.”

Don’t get me wrong…I’m all about simplicity. I’m a minimalist. I’m not about “show,” opulence, or extravagance. But I am about being hospitable, generous, courteous, and gracious.

Simple is elegant. Easy is sloppy.

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Anything worth doing is worth doing well…and nothing worth doing is “easy.” It takes planning…it takes effort…it takes energy…it takes participation of your body and spirit.

For folks in people/consumer industries, the constant flow of lame excuses can really become disheartening and frustrating. I talk to a lot of people — Group leaders, Ministry leaders, Business owners, etc. — that deal with this all the time. I know for me personally, I’d much rather be given the cold, hard truth than be fed lame excuses, lies, or be ignored. When you work with people, TRUTH is PARAMOUNT to TRUST.

TRUTH is PARAMOUNT to TRUST

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If you are a Learning Leader, living life in light of a Biblical Worldview in obedience to Jesus through His Word, here is something I’ve had to learn to do (though I still struggle from time to time)…

• Celebrate what you’ve been given…rather than focus on what you don’t have.
• Celebrate who shows up…rather than fixate on who doesn’t.
• Celebrate positive results…rather than be defeated over failed results.
• Celebrate the powerful testimonies of changed lives…rather than be discouraged over the obstinate, belligerent ones.
• Celebrate those to whom you can give assistance…rather than focus on those who refuse your help.
• Pray for wisdom and discernment to know the difference.

There will always be the person who didn’t show up or engage, who didn’t bother to respond, who was dissatisfied with your product/service, who took advantage of your heart and returned it with passive-aggression, sarcasm, or complete failure to acknowledge your existence. We as humans whose hearts have been corrupted by evil and self-elevation can be thoughtless and sometimes just downright mean. People are people…nothing more. God is God…nothing less.

People are people…nothing more. God is God…nothing less.

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You must keep your gaze fixed on the One who is in constant care for and absolute rule over all of His Creation, for HIS glory and the good of HIS people – the Lord our God, King of the Universe, Creator and Savior of our souls.

I’ve said it many, many times, having trusted in Jesus and His Way of life for 45 years, I cannot possibly imagine navigating the culture in which we live without His grace and mercy, without His example of living, without His instruction through His Word, without being able to trust in His strength over my weakness.