Attitude; November 7, 2018

Posted on November 8, 2018 by jgarrott

Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

Several years ago WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) was all the rage, with bracelets and all sorts of things sporting those initials, all based on a book of the same title from about a century ago. That was all well and good, but like all fads it faded, and you hardly hear of it any more. The real issue is actually more basic even than that, as is expressed here. Everything Jesus did was an outgrowth of who He was, and as this verse says, His attitude. We tend to focus on actions, on external things, but as God told Samuel, He looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) That’s not at all to say that our actions are unimportant, but rather that they are symptom rather than cause. Adopting Jesus’ attitude is a lifetime project! The root of Jesus’ attitude was His fellowship and unity with the Father, and He prayed that we would have that same fellowship and unity. (John 17:20-21) Since Jesus prayed it, we have hope! Otherwise, an honest assessment of our weaknesses would leave us very little hope at all. Virtually everything about life in Christ is a now/not yet paradox. In Him we are the righteousness of God, (2 Corinthians 5:21) yet we commit sin. (1 John 1:8) We are made new in Christ, (2 Corinthians 5:17) yet we are very much works in progress. (Philippians 3:12-14) What will give us stability in all of that is Jesus’ attitude, focusing on God rather than on ourselves and indeed seeking His kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33) above, before, and beyond anything and everything else. After all, that is what Jesus really did.

This is a Word to me, and it is one that I need to communicate effectively to all the believers in this church. We are tempted either to pride or to give up on ourselves, sometimes within minutes of each other! I need to be an encourager at the same time I exhort people to press on in for more of Christ. None of us have any real hope of being and doing what God desires without the help of the Holy Spirit, so that needs to be my focus. Frankly, that has been a real frustration to me, because so few Japanese yield themselves to the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit. We all need to keep being filled, as the Greek tense indicates in Ephesians 5:18. That applies to me as much as it does to anyone else, so I too need to focus on God rather than on myself, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s not like You haven’t told me this before! Help me not deceive myself by stopping with mental agreement, but help me follow through and let You change me, having Jesus’ attitude indeed, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Death; November 6, 2018

Posted on November 8, 2018 by jgarrott

Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

From the viewpoint of the world, this verse is absolutely absurd. Paul was not in the least suicidal, but he was saying that death would be a plus for him. In fact, in verse 23 he says it would be “better by far!” That’s what comes from genuine assurance of salvation. As Nate Saint, a missionary who was later killed by those to whom he had gone to share the Gospel, said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” This is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He said, “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33) Actually, He said that sort of thing several times. We are to enjoy and be grateful for this life, but at the same time know that what is coming is far better. Just yesterday I saw an Internet meme on Facebook that was two twins talking with each other in the womb about the idea of “life after birth,” as an analogy for life after death. It was very much to the point and, in my view, extremely accurate. The thing is, the death of a believer is not a tragedy, from that person’s standpoint anyway. Those who are left behind grieve, and that is natural, but the loss is temporary, and for the person himself, it is translation into glory. My wife has experienced dying and coming back to physical life, and just the little bit of heaven she got to taste has her eager to go back! We need to live fully while we’re here, committed to and serving God so that when we leave, whether at 9 or 99, we will receive the reward of a “good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)

This has been a growing conviction for me, particularly since my father “graduated” at 64 (which was before my wife’s near-death experience). When my mother died of cancer a few years later, I wept for her suffering, but rejoiced when she was freed from it. I can’t say that I am looking forward in the least to the idea of my wife going before I do, but I know that it would be much easier for her if she does. Just last week a long-time friend of mine passed away because of cancer, and yesterday my wife and I were talking with his widow to assure her of our love and prayers for her. As I told her, we could be confident her husband was having a great time with his Lord Jesus. When I said that, she smiled, and it was beautiful. My reason for being here in Omura is to increase the number of people who have that assurance, and I must never give up, however long the road. Like Paul, I know that my continued life here is for the benefit of others, even though I get blessed in the process. I am to seek God’s will moment by moment, and rejoice to do it, for His glory.

Father, two of our friends died that day, and only one of them knew Jesus. The other one had heard the Gospel but wanted to add Jesus to his “god shelf,” and rejected the idea of “no other gods.” That was tragic indeed. I pray that You would pour out Your Spirit of revelation and repentance, so that the people of Omura may indeed forsake all other gods and cling to Jesus Christ alone, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Emotions; November 5, 2018

Posted on November 6, 2018 by jgarrott

Philippians 1:9-11 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Paul and his long sentences! Actually, his writing that way makes it harder to “cherry pick” just the parts that seem “tasty” to us, when God’s truth is far too broad and deep for “sound bites.” The thing that speaks to me from this passage is that we are not to rely on emotion in our walk with Christ. Genuine love is far more than emotion, but we still tend to put love in the category of emotion. Some people become Christians with a great deal of emotion and weeping, but then never seem to progress beyond that. Here Paul brings in knowledge, depth of insight, and discernment, leading to righteousness and holiness. If our “love” for God hasn’t led to obedience to Him then it is essentially meaningless. (John 14:15) The devil is a masterful liar, and he delights to use our emotions to deceive us. Emotions are at their root beautiful gifts from God, but the devil likes nothing better than to twist and contaminate such things, and he certainly tries to do that with love. We definitely need to love God, as well as love our neighbor, (Matthew 22:37-38) but that love should abound in knowledge and insight. Only then will we be able to discern what is best in each situation, just as Paul says here.

The reason this struck me just now is that so many people in America today seem to be operating on blind emotion. They let their feelings dictate their politics, for example, instead of asking God for discernment and wisdom. There is also the tendency to decide right and wrong strictly on the basis of what feels good, both emotionally and physically. That is very dangerous, and I’m not immune to that tendency myself. As a matter of fact, I was under a good bit of attack in my emotions just yesterday. I’ve got to remember, and remember to teach others, that God is greater that our emotions, and His truth isn’t dependent on how we feel. I am not to ignore emotions, in myself or in anyone else, but I am to speak the truth in love at all times, not only to others but even to myself. When the devil is playing his nasty games with my emotions, I need to speak God’s truth to myself, just as David did many times in the Psalms, (Psalm 42 and 43, etc.) so that I may rely and rest in nothing less than God Himself.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for the reality that indeed, joy comes in the morning. Help me relate to emotions as You intend and continue to grow in my relationship with You and with those around me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual Warfare; November 4, 2018

Posted on November 6, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

It’s interesting how much trouble we have remembering this. We get all caught up in enmity against people, when they aren’t our real enemies. It’s not that we aren’t to be on our guard, or even that we aren’t to defend ourselves, but that people themselves aren’t the source of the problem. This applies even in military conflict, in which you have to be very aware of your opposition or you will get killed. Those people who are against us might be so committed to a demonic cause as to be genuinely evil themselves, but they are still to be pitied rather than hated. We can rightly hate what they do, and we can rightly hate the devil who uses them, but people were not created for evil however much they devote themselves to it. Our real opposition is as Paul lays it our here: spiritual, not material. Accordingly, we are to do our battles first in that realm, and only then do the physical/material things that may be called for. As intense as the battle is these days, we need to be “prayed up” all the time! The prophet Elisha is very instructive in this area. In 2 Kings 6 we have the record of how God frustrated the plans of the king of Aram by telling Elisha what he was going to do before he ever did it, and Elisha warned the king of Israel so he could avoid Aram’s traps. Elisha wasn’t a military man, but he was the most powerful element in Israel’s army! We need to be that way, actively seeking God’s kingdom, His will to be done, and listening to what He tells us about our part in that happening. We aren’t to be passive, much less lazy or careless, but we are to recognize that the power is with God, and physical conflict is never more than secondary to the spiritual that underlies it all.

I received my draft notice in 1970, and the most distasteful thing about my Army training was the realization that I was quite capable of killing other human beings. By God’s grace I didn’t go to Vietnam, but I certainly understand what PTSD is all about. There are of course military people in active conflict today, but for most people the conflict is less obvious. That doesn’t mean it’s less real! The US is in the middle of some pretty intense societal conflict right now, with a major election coming up in a couple of days. I’ve got to remember that “those people” aren’t my enemies, they are just being deceived and used by my true enemy. I am to pray earnestly for God’s will to be done, and trust Him with the outcome. He is just as capable today as He was in the days of Elisha!

Father, thank You for being God. Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in the awareness of Your Lordship, while being actively obedient to all that You show me to do, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Marriage; November 3, 2018

Posted on November 5, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

I find it amusing to have this passage on a day when I am performing a wedding, because I always read this passage to the couple when I do premarital counseling. That said, this passage is a major reason for the devil’s onslaught against marriage in the world today. He knows that if he can confuse us about marriage, we will have more trouble understanding what Christ has done for us and how we are to be in relationship with Him. These days people get up in arms about Paul saying that wives are to submit to their husbands, but they completely overlook this verse which, as I point out to couples, is far more severe on husbands. I tell women that if their husband demands submission from them to ask him, “Well, Honey, are you loving me sacrificially?” A big part of the problem is that we don’t understand this kind of submission. It certainly isn’t subservient groveling! In a way, how Islamists treat women teaches us a lot, because that is so obviously NOT what this is talking about. The better we understand Christ’s love for us, the more eager we will be to please Him. The closer a man’s love for his wife comes to Christ’s love for the Church, the more blessed their marriage and home will be in every respect.

Cathy’s and my marriage is a wonder to many of the people who know us. We both were blessed to be raised by parents who had very good marriages, so our expectations and goals were pretty right. I have had even Christian couples be disbelieving when I tell them we’ve never had a physical fight. We’ve had a few strong arguments, but not so many even of those. The miracle there is that at the point we got married, neither of us was walking very close to the Lord, and it was several years before either of us did so. (Cathy got there first.) I well remember how amazed the professor was in my Marriage and Family class in seminary when I told him that even before I got married I expected marriage would be the biggest job of my life, but it would carry the greatest rewards. I was right! I have learned a great deal about God’s love for me through how He has allowed me to love my wife. In some ways it is still aspirational, because of my many imperfections, but there is joy and peace in it all that I can’t imagine gaining any other way. It has always amazed me that Paul could have written this passage as a single man, but as I tell couples, I take that as proof that he was writing under direct inspiration, and I’m grateful he did so,

Father, thank You for Your plan for marriage and family. Thank You also for the privilege of sharing that plan with so many couples over the years. I pray that the couple getting married today, and each couple I marry, would discover Your love indeed through their relationship and so turn their hearts and their lives over to You, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Children of Light; November 2, 2018

Posted on November 4, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 5:8, 15-16 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

I knew I couldn’t limit myself to just one verse out of this passage! All of this is not simply very important truth, it’s extremely practical as well. Verse 8 brings out the important factor that before Christ, we are darkness. That perhaps sounds overly dramatic but it is very true. It’s not that unsaved people are incapable of doing good, but rather that such things are out of character for them. However, as John declared, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) Once we surrender ourselves to Jesus as Lord, we too become light, or rather”fiber optics” that transmit the light of God. That’s why Jesus could say, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) Here Paul is saying simply, “Live like what you are, not like what you used to be.” In 15 and 16, he is telling us to be careful about it. We need to face the facts: we aren’t wise in ourselves. We need to seek and accept the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit every moment of our lives. If we will do that, we will be wise! Part of that is making use of the opportunities God gives us to act as His agents, destroying the works of the devil and bringing people into life and wholeness. (Luke 4:18-19) If we try to do that in our own strength we will fail, but if we are sensitive and obedient, God will do it through us. Such “divine appointments” are delightful and marvelous indeed.

This is something I’ve known theoretically most of my life, but I’m still learning to live it out consistently. I have trusted in my own intellect far too much, which has kept me from being wise. As James said, “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” (James 3:17) That’s how I want to live! I recognize scraps of darkness still in me, so I need to expose all of me to the purifying light of God. I am in a position where other people look to me for teaching and guidance. I am never to think that I am up to the task myself, but walk in humble obedience all the time.

Father, thank You for this reminder, in keeping with Your overwhelming grace toward me. Thank You for Your anointing as I recorded three messages yesterday for CGN-TV. I pray that those messages would touch each person who sees/hears them. Thank You for all that You have planned for me today, teaching in the nursing school this morning and doing premarital counseling this afternoon. May I be Your agent toward everyone I encounter, leading them to You for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Forgiveness; November 1, 2018

Posted on November 4, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Every sentence in this section is underlined, and I could preach on any of them! However, they all deal with interpersonal relationships, and this verse gives a major key to getting all of that right. I always tell couples that if they don’t forgive each other they won’t be happy, but that actually applies outside of marriage as well. Forgiving is letting go of hurts, while refusing to forgive is clasping hurts to yourself. A heart that does that is soon in tatters. We often have great difficulty forgiving, but the key to being able to forgive others is given right here: realizing how much God has forgiven you. We like to defend ourselves, not admitting our own wrongs, but that’s no way to achieve happiness, much less a right relationship with God. Acknowledging our own faults and sins is so fundamental that salvation is impossible apart from it. Even Jesus said, “Repent and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:15) You can’t repent without admitting you were wrong. When our hearts are open and tender to God, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind those things of which we need to repent, and He will do it on an ongoing basis as we live our daily lives. When that is our lifestyle, forgiving others becomes much easier. Those who refuse to forgive others are actually refusing God’s forgiveness for themselves. We forget that right after He taught us to pray, Jesus said, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15) Forgiving and being forgiven is certainly the path of light and life!

I’m as adept at justifying myself as the next guy, and I’ve had to learn how dangerous that is. It’s not that I’m always wrong, but nursing a grievance is always wrong. Sometimes I have to choose to remind myself of how much God has forgiven me, to enable me to forgive someone else. I never regret doing that, but I always regret it when I hold a grudge. God’s forgiveness is so glorious and unconditional because it is based on the cross of Jesus Christ, who took the penalty for every one of our sins. I’ve got to remember that it was my sin that nailed Him to the cross. When I do that, the sins that others commit against me seem trivial indeed.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your truly amazing grace. Help me allow that grace to flow through me unhindered, so that the works of the devil may be destroyed (1 John 3:8) and people be set free to repent and believe, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Church Growth; October 31, 2018

Posted on November 3, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 4:15-16 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Around the time I was in seminary, and for several years thereafter, Church Growth Seminars were quite the thing. The best ones honestly sought how to implement this passage, but many of them devolved into chasing the latest fad. Growth and reproduction are part of the definition of a living organism, but if the focus is exclusively on physical growth, there is a strong tendency to forget what the purpose of the Church is in the first place. The moment we forget we are the Body of Christ, existing completely for His utility and pleasure, we lose our reason for existence. We tend to focus on organization, when a body is an organism. As such, every part has a function and is an outgrowth of the whole. Just in these two verses we have the expressions “in all things” and “every supporting ligament” and “each part.” No part of the body is immaterial and unimportant. We are all too prone to forget that. Conversely, no part is to be over impressed with its own importance. Many church leaders have fallen when they have forgotten that they were nothing without the rest of their church. It all comes back to the Headship of Christ. Protestant churches proclaim “the priesthood of the believer,” but that comes down to the fact that each of us has personal access to the Head, as well as personal accountability to Him. Many churches grow largely by absorbing believers from other churches. That is indeed numerical growth of that local church, but it is not growth of the total Body of Christ without people repenting and believing so that they are born again. For that to happen, indeed each part must do its work.

This is something I have known in theory for a long time, but I’ve not been very good at putting it into practice. My tendency has been to do everything myself, and by myself, and that has not been good at all. Because I am able to do each of the functions required in the local congregation doesn’t mean that I am actually supposed to do them all, except in particular emergencies. I think I would have greatly benefited from someone telling me to cut it out, but as an independent congregation we didn’t have an accountability structure in place. I’m not sure I would have listened, anyway! I have long stressed “speaking the truth in love,” but that has been from the standpoint of me doing the speaking. I need more “hearing the truth in love!” I am realizing that even at 70 I have plenty of room and need to grow, and my failure to do so has kept this church from growing. As our Verse for the Year proclaims, nothing is too difficult for God, (Jeremiah 23:27) so I am to look forward to how He is going to change me and this church, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder and encouragement. I pray that each person, each member of this church, would indeed fulfill exactly the functions You intend for them, not usurping those of someone else but being bound together in love, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gifts; October 30, 2018

Posted on November 2, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

This theme is mentioned repeatedly in the New Testament, elsewhere by Paul (1 Corinthians 12:7, Romans 12:6) and Peter (1 Peter 4:10). Different words are used for “gifts” in the Greek, and various books have been written on the subject, but the point that echoes in me most strongly right now is that everyone has been gifted, and it’s all grace. I find two major errors in people’s thinking on this subject. The first is self-deprecation: “Oh, I’m not really gifted in anything.” That causes people to devalue themselves and fail to be good stewards of what God has given them. Everyone has things they find rather simple and/or easy to do, that other people find much more difficult. That’s a sign of gifting. Satisfaction and accomplishment in life come only when we exercise those gifts as God intended when He gave them to us. Those gifts may be evident to others, and they may not. The point is for us to recognize and use them, not only for our own good but also to bless others, as both Peter and Paul said. The second big error relating to gifting is the failure to recognize that it is all grace. Human beings in general have a real tendency toward pride. “This is my gift. I can do this.” Since most such gifts are encoded into our DNA, they are hardly something we choose ahead of time! (That’s one of the bigger problems with “designer babies,” with parents choosing what traits they want for their children. That was strictly science fiction just a few years ago, but now it is all too possible, and is even being practiced to eliminate genetic defects. That is an ethical and legal “can of worms” that poses huge dangers.) When gifting is for the most part something we are born with, why are we proud of it? We are responsible for what we do with the gifts we have received, and God will indeed multiply His gifts to the faithful, but we must never forget that it is all grace. We are all too prone to think of God’s gifts as “merit badges,” when that will virtually guarantee misuse of those very gifts.

This is probably so big in my awareness because God has been absurdly gracious to me. I’m no athlete, but in other areas I have found very little that I cannot do. Frankly, pride has been a major issue for me. I have had trouble empathizing with others who have struggled with things that came easily to me. Over the years I have gained an increasing appreciation for God’s grace, not only for how He has gifted me but also for His refraining from squashing me for my stupid pride! The most dramatic moment of that was when I was 24, and He tapped me on the shoulder, figuratively speaking, and showed me a mirror to see the blackness of my own soul. I was devastated. I wish I could say I’ve had no pride issues since then, but that would hardly be true. Now, as a pastor my task is to help believers recognize, develop, and use the gifts they have been given. (Ephesians 4:12) I find so many are blind to what God has done in them, and so fail to let Him exercise those gifts through them. I don’t have sufficient wisdom to nurture believers on my own, but I know that God can do it through me, so I must not draw back. He will build His Church (Matthew 16:18) for His glory.

Father thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all that You are doing in this church in these days. Help me fulfill the part that You have for me in that, not drawing back and not running ahead, so that Your purposes may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Faith; October 29, 2018

Posted on November 2, 2018 by jgarrott

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

I have heard the first part of this quoted many times, and I have quoted it many times myself, but we still have trouble grasping the reality of it, precisely because it is literally true; God is able to do things we can’t imagine. Since we can’t imagine them, we can’t grasp that He can do them ahead of time! This is intimately tied in with the description of faith that is given in Hebrews: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) Not only can’t we see it, we can’t even imagine it! There is a very moving, and beautiful, song about heaven called I Can Only Imagine. I like it very much, but Paul is reminding us that however much we can imagine, what God has planned is even better! This statement and doxology come at the end of Paul’s prayer for revelation to his readers of the magnificence of God’s love for them. That love is the basis for all that God does for us, and we must never forget it. As has been said, “Everything God does is love, even when it doesn’t look like it.” We tend to operate with a very shallow, materialistic definition of love, tending much more toward eros than agape. Parents sometimes have trouble understanding that loving their children includes disciplining them, because indulgence isn’t love. That happens because the parents themselves would rather be indulged than really loved! We often can’t imagine the good that God is going to bring out of difficult circumstances, but that is precisely what faith is all about. When we trust even when we can’t imagine, then our faith grows strong and glorious.

I didn’t expect to receive this message this morning, but then I didn’t expect the events of yesterday, either. I still have no idea of the details of God’s plan, but yesterday gave me a glimpse of the reality that God really can do far more than I can imagine. I am not to try to make things happen, but I am to walk in consistent, expectant obedience, looking forward to whatever God is going to do next, never doubting that His plans are wonderful. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Father, You have blown my mind, and I’m still trying to take it all in. Keep me from trying to be in control. Rather, help me rest, relax, and rejoice in You, just as You have been telling me to do for years, so that all of Your plans may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment