August 25, 2011

Posted on August 25, 2011 by jgarrott

Acts 5:17, 18, 32 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

It is very clear here that the apostles were trusting in God alone. The actions taken against them were motivated by jealousy, and the “movers and shakers” in the persecuting group were all Sadducees, who didn’t accept the idea of angels or spirits. In the face of that, Peter proclaimed, “we obey God and you don’t, and the proof is the Holy Spirit we’ve been given.” I would imagine that having just been released from prison by angels gave quite a boost to his faith at that point! At any rate, no statement could have been better calculated to stir up a reaction. The point, though, is that God was allowing this to happen to make it abundantly clear who was on His side and who wasn’t, and it certainly worked. Paul admonished us, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) However, he wasn’t talking about standing up for the faith. For that, even he accepted martyrdom. “Peace at any cost” is not a recipe for happiness or even true peace, much less for pleasing God. We tend to look at the people around us and adjust our words and actions to create as little disturbance as possible. That is actually a distinctive, a major value, even, in Japanese society. Unfortunately, that doesn’t agree with the Bible. “Loving your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t mean abandoning the truth for fear of offending. We must speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), even when it generates the kind of response the apostles encountered here.

I have always tended strongly toward avoiding conflict, and that has gotten me into trouble more times than I could count. I’m still in training in that area! It is particularly damaging when I fail to present the necessity of repentance for salvation, not wanting to accuse someone of needing to repent. (How stupid is that?) I think I have grown a good bit in that area, but such growth makes me be, perhaps, less Japanese. Since I don’t look Japanese that’s not such a problem for me, but I can certainly empathize with the believers, who are being pushed by faith and commitment into fitting in less and less with their surroundings. I need to pray for them and encourage them, but not let them off the hook, excusing social patterns that are unbiblical. As Jesus said, we are in the world but not of it (John 17:15-16). I need to foster that understanding and world view, being gentle but uncompromising, not fearing rejection but speaking the truth in love.

Father, this is a big issue. Thank You for not giving up on me, or on any of us. Help us all grow in this and every area, so that we may be increasingly effective as Your agents, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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August 24, 2011

Posted on August 25, 2011 by jgarrott

Acts 4:19-20 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

This was the perfect response to a group of men who prided themselves on being religious. At the same time, it was something of a slap in the face, because it was saying, “We are hearing and obeying God better than you are in this instance.” In this case that was completely true, but religious pride never likes to be told that. As later events showed, this hardened some of the men more than ever against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The point is, we must speak the truth in love, whatever the response. As here, the response is not always going to be good. Another major point is that when we have had a personal experience of God’s saving grace, we aren’t going to be able to keep quiet about it. The reason many Christians gravitate to “the silent majority” is that they don’t have a good grasp of their own salvation. Those with dramatic conversions out of gross sin are generally irrepressible, but those with quieter experiences often feel they don’t have anything to share. That’s a major misconception! We are all equally lost without Christ, whether the world looks at us as bad or good. When we really understand that, we will understand the need of those around us for salvation, and we will be more willing to share our own experience.

As a pastor, getting this across to the believers is an ongoing struggle. People labor under multiple layers of deception, thinking they aren’t worthy to share the Gospel, they aren’t capable of sharing the Gospel, and that people would never be interested in hearing the Gospel from them anyway. Everyone is equally in need of the grace of God, so “worthy” shouldn’t enter into the picture at all. God has promised that the Holy Spirit will speak through us, (Mark 13:11) so the ability is His and not ours. And lastly, though some will indeed not be interested, and some will even be hostile, some are hungry to hear what we can share with them, and if we don’t open our mouths, they will never receive. I have tried over the years to get this through to people, but the reception rate has frankly been low. I am charged with equipping believers to do the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:12), so I must not give up. Also, the work of communicating the Gospel to everyone will not be accomplished unless each believer understands that they are part of the work force.

Father, thank You for this reminder. You have given me words to express the situation very concisely. Help me use those words to communicate Your truth to people effectively. You are growing this church in every way, though outsiders might not see it so much yet. Help us grow in this area as well, so that every believer will understand that they are Your ambassador to those around them, and rejoice to accept and fulfill that commission, for the salvation of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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August 23, 2011

Posted on August 23, 2011 by jgarrott

Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

This is what happens when the Holy Spirit gets hold of an uneducated fisherman! There is no clearer statement of the necessity of Christ for our salvation in the whole Bible. It is interesting how strongly the devil fights against this truth. That’s simply more indication of how important it is! Many Americans today are deceived into thinking that other religions are on a par with Christianity, and that sort of thinking has long been imbedded in Japanese thinking, but that is a lie from the pit of hell. Jesus Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) You can’t get any clearer than that, and Peter simply expressed exactly the same thing from our standpoint. Whatever may be said about other religions, they have no Savior. We don’t like to admit that we both need salvation and that we can’t save ourselves, but such confession is essential for salvation. I could go into length on various religions – Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, Mormonism, J.W. and more – but none of them have God becoming man in the Person of His Son and taking the penalty for our sins upon Himself. Even those that use the Bible, if they miss this foundational point, offer no real salvation. Sadly, many members of Christian churches are in that boat, because they have simply added a Christian veneer to their lives without genuine repentance and faith. It is inescapable that if Jesus is not your Lord, you are not saved. The devil does all he can to hide and/or distort that truth, because it forces people into the commitment that takes them eternally out of his hands.

This is of course of the utmost importance to me, not just for my own salvation but because I am commissioned to communicate this truth in Japan. I continue to be convinced that when Japanese believers wake up to who they are in Christ, they will change not only this nation but the world. That I am to play a part in that is both humbling and exciting. However, given the enormity of the task, the moment I start thinking I must, or even could, accomplish it in my own strength, it becomes exhausting. Burnout is an ever present danger for church workers in Japan. At the moment that is especially acute for those ministering in the disaster area in Northeast Japan, and I need to lift those brothers and sisters up in prayer, but I also need to be vigilant in my own life. I need to have the dual conviction that I can’t save anyone myself, but that God can save individuals and multitudes through me. Not only that, He can use me to equip others for that same ministry, but only if I am submitted and committed to Him.

Father, You’ve brought me back to the foundation of why I’m here. Thank You. Thank You for the refreshing of the change-of-pace day yesterday. Help me not think I am so essential to Your kingdom that I can’t take a day off, but help me also be totally available to You at all times so that You may do whatever You like through me. Thank You for how You are rearranging my tool set, so to speak, so that peripheral things won’t be as time consuming. May I do Your will on Your schedule in Your way for Your glory, today and every day, so that as many as will may be brought into Your kingdom for their salvation. Thank You. Praise God!

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August 22, 2011

Posted on August 23, 2011 by jgarrott

John 20:31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John, the “disciple Jesus loved,” (John 21:20) was consumed with getting others to know and express that love. That’s another way of expressing what evangelism is. He wrote this Gospel and his three letters with that goal, to get people to recognize and believe the love of God for them, expressed through Jesus Christ the Lord, and to let that love flow through them to those around them, just as he did. Everything we do should be geared to that same end. As Paul said so eloquently in 1 Corinthians 13, without love, the finest lifestyle becomes meaningless. The temptation here is to go off on a discourse on the different types of love expressed by the different Greek words, but suffice it to say that we are talking about agape here, even if in our experience that does bleed into the other types. If we truly love others as God loves us, our foremost desire for them will be to know, believe, and love God themselves, which will indeed mean their eternal salvation. The degree to which we desire that reveals the degree to which we grasp the love of God ourselves, and the degree to which we ignore it reveals the degree of our own self-centeredness.

The more I grow in faith, the stronger this truth comes home to me. There is no tragedy so great as someone rejecting the love of God, and there is no joy so great as someone being born into God’s family by faith. I should be evaluating every part of my life by how well it expresses God’s love, so that as many as will may believe and receive for themselves. Yesterday’s funeral was a case in point. For the man who died, going to be with Jesus was hardly a tragedy, and by all accounts he had a very easy time of it. The length of his life on earth is largely immaterial. However, many if not most of the people present were not in the place of faith that he was, and that is the tragedy. I need to be fully available to God to communicate the good news of salvation to as many as possible, as effectively as possible. That is going to be both in proclamation, as in my sermons, and in individual interaction. My sermons will be meaningless if I am unwilling to take the time with individuals.

Father, I do tend toward burnout on this issue. People seem so stubborn in their disbelief! However, I’ve expressed equal stubbornness in various ways. Help me love people into Your kingdom, not failing to speak strong words when they are called for, but always speaking and acting in love, so that nothing may stand in the way of their receiving the salvation You offer them, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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August 21, 2011

Posted on August 23, 2011 by jgarrott

John 16:22 “So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

Death is a time of sorrow. That was certainly brought home at the wake last night of a friend who died of unexpected heart failure. Several people there seemed quite overcome. However, he was a Christian, with recent evidence of the reality of his salvation, and those who were so torn up were the non-Christians. Death really is different for those who have received and believed Christ, both His words and His example of death and resurrection, The disciples to whom Jesus was speaking in this passage had some very hard times even after His resurrection, with most of them being martyred, but I have every assurance that their fundamental joy and peace were unshaken, because they had seen their risen Lord. Today we have to operate a bit more on faith, because none of us has seen Jesus physically, but by faith our assurance can be just as strong as that of the first apostles. Death isn’t the end, it’s a transition point to far better, and we have the promise of resurrection on top of that. Such assurance is a powerful witness, because most who don’t have it would love to have it, and when they see that it’s real, they seek it, and many find Christ.

I wasn’t that close to the man who just died, but I first met him well over 30 years ago, and I’ve interacted recently with his son. I’m not to be a meddler, but I am to be available to his children and especially to his son. On top of that, there were many people there last night to whom we have witnessed over the years without visible fruit to this point. I need to be sensitive and available to the Holy Spirit to speak truth into their lives, so that this shock may perhaps shake them out of their complacency and show them their own need, so that they may turn to Christ for their own salvation. I don’t know the state of his children’s faith, and I need to be available for confirming that as well. I can’t force anyone to believe, but I can be available to the Holy Spirit, who convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment and draws people to repentance and faith.

Father, thank You that Cathy and I were included in the loop of yesterday’s events, and for how You have already worked through those events in people’s hearts. I pray that as the funeral and cremation are held today that You would continue to work through everything that is said and done, not only for the comfort of his children but especially so that many would be brought to repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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August 20, 2011

Posted on August 23, 2011 by jgarrott

John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

When God takes something away from us, we have such trouble believing that He has something even better prepared for us. In this case, the idea of losing Jesus was absolutely devastating to the disciples, but they had no concept of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus was limited to one physical location at a time, just as we are, but the Holy Spirit has no such limitations. When Mary Magdalene realized it was Jesus she was talking to after His resurrection, she put a hammerlock on His ankles. However, He gently told her it wasn’t time for that. (John 20:7) Physical presence is well and good, but the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is even better, because He binds all believers together into one Body of Christ. Of course, this principle applies far more broadly than this. To receive what God has for us, we have to let go of what we have already. Jesus famously said repeatedly that this principle applies to life itself. (Luke 9:24, 17:33) There are people in Northeast Japan right now who, having lost everything material, are discovering what is really important, and many with insight are profoundly grateful. Job had the right idea: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the Name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21) That is faith and trust.

I have experienced this many times myself, on a wide variety of levels, but I still have trouble letting go sometimes. The particular thing, circumstance, or person may indeed never be replaced, but a growing fellowship and intimacy with God is more than worth everything else put together. I am reminded of a friend whose computer has “gone south” just as he is starting to enter graduate school. It’s hard on him, but my immediate response is that what he had wasn’t appropriate for what he is going to be doing now, and the Lord had to take it from him to make him be willing to consider something different. That’s not so hard to see in someone else, but I tend to kick and scream when I’m the one facing the “loss.” I need to keep growing in trusting God that in His economy, there is no such thing as true loss, but only ultimate gain as we draw close to Him.

Father, I do pray peace, faith, and wisdom for my friend. May he recognize what Your best for him at this juncture is, and trust You for the financial/material supply. I pray that as I minister to the flock that I would guide them into the kind of trust You’ve been speaking to me about this morning, not belittling their losses but helping them lift their eyes to You. May we be a people who indeed value Your kingdom and Your righteousness above all else, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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August 19, 2011

Posted on August 19, 2011 by jgarrott

John 15:26-27 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

The Holy Spirit has many functions, and this is a really important one. (Actually, they’re all important, but that’s beside the point.) If we have nothing but the written record, we can’t really know Christ today. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals Christ to our hearts so that we can truly know Him. However, Jesus followed that up by telling the disciples they also would testify of Him. This intimate connection between the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of believers is brought into sharp focus in Acts 1:8, when Jesus tells the disciples that the power of the Holy Spirit was to enable them to be witnesses. Sometimes people excuse themselves from today’s passage, saying “But I wasn’t with Jesus from the beginning.” On one level that is true, but on another level, every one of us has been with Jesus from the beginning of our own salvation. We know what it’s like to be unsaved, and then to be saved by the grace of God. There is no more powerful testimony than that! A disciple is obedient to his Lord, and that obedience is going to involve sharing Christ with others, in one way or another.

My own experience of growing up in a strongly Christian home is so different from most of the people around me that they can’t identify with it, but that is no excuse not to testify. My experience of God’s grace has at times been dramatic indeed, and His daily mercies are certainly worth sharing. I am to lead the way among the believers in testifying of Jesus, not least because I don’t have the specific gift and calling of evangelism. Like most of them, I simply have to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5) and trust God with the results. We do have at least one in this church who seems to have that gifting and calling, and the devil is doing his utmost to keep that believer so busy and exhausted that he can’t function. I need to be a support and encouragement for him, helping him recognize the divine appointments God gives him to fulfill his calling. I need to help all the believers recognize that the Holy Spirit wants to use them to testify of Christ to those around them, both verbally and non-verbally. False humility is a major problem in this area, but it has no place in the Church.

Father, again and again You point out ways in which I and all the believers are totally dependent on You and Your Spirit. Thank You, because that’s a good thing. Help us let go of pride and false humility and allow You to use us however You desire, building up the Body of Christ and establishing Your kingdom, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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August 18, 2011

Posted on August 19, 2011 by jgarrott

John 15:10-11 “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Jesus is very clear that the way to abide in Him, the vine, is through obedience. We don’t like that word, obedience. It conjures up images of a dog training school, and we don’t like that. However, He also tells us that this is also the way to be filled with joy. Everyone would like that! Among the devil’s lies (and he has a lot of them) is the whopper that sin brings joy. Exactly the reverse is true. Sin may bring pleasure for a moment – if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be very tempting – but it cannot bring joy. Jesus makes it clear that His joy, which is the deepest, highest kind, comes through abiding in Him in obedient faith. The devil paints God as a mean taskmaster who tries to keep us from having fun. Nothing could be further from the truth! God desires joy and peace for us, and the degree to which we lack those things is an indication of how disobedient to Him we are being in our attitudes and actions. No one has ever made a full commitment to Christ as Lord and found Him lacking in any way. That statement is one that atheists would contest violently, but that’s because they are in the opposite position, and want to justify themselves at the expense of everything else. They don’t realize that their rebellious attitude is cutting them off from the only source of true joy, not to mention eternal life.

I have committed my life to Christ, but that doesn’t mean I’ve always been obedient, or even that I’m always obedient right now. However, experience has certainly taught me the truth of what Jesus said in today’s passage. It is when I am obedient to Him that I have unshakable peace and joy, not when I am being pulled by the temptations of the flesh and the world. As hard as it has been to grasp that myself in practical application, I should have great empathy for those in my flock who are having that struggle. I need to encourage and assure them that the rewards for obedience are far more than worth it, whatever pleasures we might need to let go of. Part of the difficulty is immaturity, being unable to delay gratification. Like little children, we can’t get it through out heads and hearts that what comes in the future gives meaning to what is right now. The highest form of obedience is when we can’t see the benefit at all, but we do it because the Lord has said to do so. That’s a hard thing to get across, because none of us are fully mature!

Father, thank You again for Your patience with me. I dare say You are looking forward to my maturity even more than I am! Help me express Your patience toward those who are less mature than I am, remembering how much room I myself have to grow. Help me be increasingly obedient and lead the flock to do the same, so that we may be filled with Your joy indeed, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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August 17, 2011

Posted on August 19, 2011 by jgarrott

John 15:4 “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

This whole passage about the vine and the branches is justly famous, because it is an image that even thoroughly urbanized people can understand. The thing that strikes me this morning is actually a way in which we are different from grape branches, and that is that we can choose whether we abide in the vine or not. If it were not so, Jesus would not have commanded it. The idea of a grape branch deciding that it had had enough of the vine for a while and it was going to go off and do it’s own thing is the the height of absurdity, but that kind of thinking is all too common among Christians. We get sated with church, regular Bible reading seems like a drudgery, and we decide we’ll “worship God in His creation,” going to the beach or wherever on Sundays and not feel like we’re missing a thing. That’s not to say we’re to make a fetish of church services, because that too can become a subtle form of idolatry, and it’s not to say we’re never to take vacations, but it is to say that our focus needs to be on abiding in Christ, and that includes His Body, the Church. Many people have been greatly blessed by experiencing corporate worship in unfamiliar settings, when they sought out believers with whom to worship while they were traveling. We may say the words, but we don’t like to admit that we are as dependent on Christ as a grape branch is on the vine.

I have no high horse from which to speak down to people on this issue. As a pastor, I am of course in church every Sunday, but that doesn’t mean I always want to be! There was a period in my life in which it took a lot to get me to church, but thankfully, God was faithful even when I wasn’t. The temptation for me now is more subtle. I am even tempted to think I can get something done for God without getting His help! I’ve got to remember what Jesus said in verse 8, that without Him I can do nothing, nil, nada. The flesh doesn’t like to admit that! I am charged with communicating God’s truth to others. The thought that I might be able to do that without Him is absurd from the start, because it’s His truth to begin with, and we all need the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to grasp it. (1 Corinthians 2:14) I need to demonstrate to the believers what abiding in Christ looks like, and be His instrument to strengthen and encourage them to do the same.

Father, thank You for how You are growing this congregation in this area. As always, I don’t have the wisdom to guide them, so I ask You to do it through me. May we all be earnest in abiding in Christ, so that all of Your plans that are wrapped up in that may be fulfilled in and through us, for our blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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August 16, 2011

Posted on August 19, 2011 by jgarrott

John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

When you come right down to it, it’s pretty easy to tell who really loves Jesus. All the protestations in the world don’t hold a candle to simple obedience. This was hardly the first time Jesus had said something like this. Luke 6:46 and the following parable of people building houses addresses this issue. What we say is important, not least because confession is part of salvation itself (Romans 10:9-10), but our actions must back up our words. James and John both dealt with this in terms of how we treat one another. (James 2:15-16, 1 John 4:20-21) When our love for Jesus is genuine to the point of obedience, the reciprocity is amazing. Just as Jesus said, the Father loves us and the whole Godhead comes and makes its dwelling in us. In human understanding, not to mention physics, that’s an impossibility, but it’s a glorious reality for countless saints. We keep coming back to the issue of what is God’s part to do and what is our part, in salvation and everything else. It is true that in terms of power there is no comparison, but that does not leave us with nothing to do: we must choose obedience. Sometimes, from our perspective that can look very difficult. However, once the choice is made and acted on, the benefits become obvious. Meditating in all humility on the implications of being indwelt by the Godhead should be enough to blow anyone’s mind!

I have experienced loving obedience toward God in my own life, as well as the lack thereof, and I have certainly observed it as a pastor. This ties in closely with the matter of knowing the truth versus doing it, which keeps coming up in my devotions because it’s such an issue for me. It does me no good to have intellectual knowledge of God’s truth if I fail to apply it in my life. What’s why my devotions follow the SOAP formula, (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) as taught by Wayne Cordeiro. Without application, I’ve just put another folder in the file cabinet, to be forgotten with all the rest. (In my case, a closer analogy would be adding another paper to the pile on my desk!) Any time I know something is from God, which includes these morning devotional times, I’ve got to consider how to do what I’ve been told, not whether to do it. As I teach God’s truth to others, I’ve got to give them handles for grasping it to put it into action in their own lives. Tools are of no use if you can’t hang onto them long enough to wield them properly. I need to help people with knowing how to keep God’s Word in their hearts, not as guilt-inducing memory but as active encouragement, strength and comfort.

Father, You’ve laid out a task I certainly can’t do in my own wisdom and strength. Thank You, because I know that means I have to depend on Your Spirit doing it through me. Help me be fully active in my pursuit of You and Your Word, to abide in it and apply it in every detail of my life, for Your pleasure and glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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