First Signs of Spring

Seeds that can be planted in February

Potatoes...PaTahToes...it's all spuds to us!

Seed potatoes--Yukon Gold and Red River Valley--were planted this morning. A light mist pervaded the air and it made your Community Gardeners realize once again how wisely and generously God made the earth. Everything we need is here.

Spinach and lettuce were also planted, along with snow peas. The spinach seed was leftover from 2008 and may not germinate...we'll see in about 12 days, but the snow peas are a 2010 variety packaged for this year and we can confidently expect to see them popping up in about 10 days. It will be about 3 weeks before the potatoes make their appearance.

Kale, leeks, and onions can be planted now, as well as Kohlrabi, but we promise not to plant that since it tastes filthy and isn't interesting to look at. Why plant stuff you don't want to eat and looks ugly too?

Iron sulfate was put down on the fruit trees and the blueberry bushes. We didn't have much luck with these guys last year--too hot and bothered, we guess--but we've been reading about their care and feeding and expect (hope) that they'll do better this year.

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Reserve your spot in the garden soon. In the mean time, talk with Jill or Dave Stice about their plans for the new Children's Garden, or to Susan Krotz about the small Prayer Garden she is planning this summer and fall.

Ongoing Deliverance

Genesis 32:24-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12; Mark 8:22-25

Jacob’s name meant, “he who grasps by the heel,” in line with the circumstances of his birth, when he came out just behind his twin Esau, grasping Esau’s heel. He could have been called “heel,” for short, because he lived fully up to his family tradition for being a trickster and a scoundrel. He took advantage of his twin’s weakness to get him to trade his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. Then, he tricked his blind father Isaac into giving him the compensating blessing meant for his brother. In consequence, he fled for his life from his enraged brother and lived away from his homeland for many years. On the way out of his homeland, God gave him a vision of angels along with the promise that he would be brought back to his homeland.

Then, many years later--with wives, concubines, children, servants, herds, flocks, and much more--Jacob fearfully re-entered the promised land with plans to meet his brother and attempt a reconciliation. He believed that God was real, but he had not really been living like it.

The first night, on the border of the promised land, Jacob at the ford of the Jabbok River laid down to sleep and instead spent the night wrestling with a powerful stranger who toyed with him, allowing Jacob to think that he was prevailing, and then, with the lightest of touches, the stranger put Jacob’s hip out of socket. Still, Jacob held on, demanding that the mysterious stranger bless him. The stranger said, “What is your name?” Jacob answered, “Jacob.” It was practically a confession of sin. The stranger said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, which means wrestles with God, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” From that time on, Jacob now known as Israel, walked with a limp, and, although still far from perfect, was without doubt a better man. The people of God ever since have borne the name Israel, wrestles with God. Even you and I, as Gentile believers in Jesus, are grafted into the trunk of Israel. The people of God are a people transformed by a wrestling encounter with God.

Our Gospel story today is from Bethsaida, a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee, just west of the Jordan River and hence geopolitically outside official Galilee, but still basically of Galilean culture. It is referred to as the city of three of Jesus’ twelve disciples: Andrew, Simon Peter, and Philip, although by the time the gospels get in full motion, it seems that Andrew’s and Simon Peter’s family compound has been relocated to Capernaum, another fishing town on the Sea of Galilee just east of the Jordan River and hence inside official Galilee. My point is that this story, like Jacob’s wrestling, takes place on the border.

Our Gospel story also sits at a chronological borderline in the unfolding story of Jesus and his disciples. Prior to this story, Jesus has been proclaiming that the reigning power of God is available to human experience for those who repent and believe the good news. He has been demonstrating the presence of God’s reign through his teaching, preaching, prophetic knowledge, healings, exorcisms, other miracles, his redemptive love for outcasts, and sinners, and challenging ethical guidelines in the areas of money, sex, and power. Immediately following this story, he challenges his disciples to articulate their faith that he is the Christ and then begins to warn them of his coming crucifixion and resurrection, immediately throwing their new faith into confusion. Even when he takes Simon Peter, James, and John up on the Mount of Transfiguration, where they behold a confirmation of his divine glory and hear the divine voice saying, “Listen to him,” they are still not able to put crucifixion and Christ into an intelligible sentence together. They still need to experience Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit before they really understand who he is. What they have experienced to this point is only the background. The real adventure is still ahead, and they stand only on the border of it.

Our Gospel story today tells us of a blind man for whom Jesus’ first healing touch gives him a shadowy vision that does not yet match the goal of vision, but is only on the border of it. A second touch is necessary to give him the real thing. Let’s look at it:

Mark 8:22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see men, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Our Gospel story today has symbolic value. It is designed to prepare us to see that all the changes that have taken place in the disciples lives to this point in time are not yet the goal that is still coming. I have been saying “our story,” because I believe that it is our story today, right here at First Christian Church, Berryville, Arkansas.

So long as we are in this life, there is more to be discovered about the reigning love and power of God that has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ. There is more to be discovered about the significance of the fact that we have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, daily dying with Christ to sin and daily coming alive to walk in newness of life with the living, loving, reigning God who actually lives in us and speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. We get not just a second touch, but a new touch every day. Our way of seeing and experiencing life constantly transforms as we ourselves are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next, ever more fully in likeness to Jesus who is the very likeness of God.

But we will not experience the daily newness unless we are open to it. We may prefer to control life according to our own expectations, within our own comfort zones, within the borders of our previous experience. If we are not willing to cross over into the next dimension of life that God has for us, we will stay stuck where we are. We will be diminished as the blind man would have been if he had been satisfied with seeing people that looked merely like tress walking around. But the blind man wanted more, and he got it.

The something more that he got opened up a whole new world for him. I have been told that vision suddenly acquired can be terrifying, dizzily disorienting. You are suddenly bombarded with a stunning array of stimuli that you have never had to process before. The way you had imagined things and the way that they actually appear are disconcertingly confusing. Some newly sighted blind people actually wear blindfolds for significant periods of time to reduce the new stimuli to manageable proportions.

That is what it is like to be born anew into the realm where God is immediately in control of all things. We cannot stand that much God all at once. We retreat into the familiar. We allow ourselves to experience only what we have come to expect.

Unfortunately, in the comfortable world of our familiar expectations, there is no such thing as ongoing deliverance. The fears that have sent us back to this familiar world become our dominant experience of life, and they wrap ever more tightly around us. In the end the experience becomes one of miserable stagnancy and decay.

Is there something in you crying out for a real breath of fresh air? Do you long for a river welling up from within to new life? Fresh wind. Refreshing waters. These are the scriptural images for the life-giving Holy Spirit.

Over the past months, Ken Hale has read two books by Francis Chan. Their titles tell much: “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God,” and “Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit.” I have read only snatches of these books, but Chan’s central theme is that, if we try to tame God to live within our expectations, we will not experience God very much at all. Chan argues passionately that a person who wants to love only within boundaries that make sense to the world will never really experience and pass along the crazy love of God.

The church that wants to do only what it can do on its own strength and resources will never experience what only God can do. Some may build successful religious institutions according to their own expertise, but they will not be vibrant places where new life and ongoing deliverance are regularly experienced. If we want spiritual vitality and supernatural effectiveness, we have to make room for a God who regularly pushes us beyond our comfort zones. It is on the borders that God does his best work.

If we want to encounter that kind of God, we have to understand that we need to be constantly growing in our daily practice of our faith. God can challenge any area of our lives at any point. He may challenge us to new levels of godliness in how we handle our time, our money, our sexuality, our family life, our Bible study, our prayer life, and more. He may challenge us to reach out with godly love to people who scare us stiff. Following Jesus does not allow us to invoke our reservations clause.

But God will constantly be challenging us to the next level. And we cannot expect much good to come if we are always pulling back from the challenges.

God welcomes those who will dare enter into real and bold encounter with his holy, loving, reigning presence, who will hold on and hold out for a divine blessing, and who will walk in life as transformed people.

It is such people who experience ongoing deliverance.

Do you want to be one of them?

(I was later asked why I did not add, “Do you want a second touch?” It did not occur to me, but there is no reason why that is not still a good question now, “Do you want a second touch? Ask, seek, and knock.”)

Calling All Gardeners!

It is Time to Plant!

Don't be fooled by all that white stuff laying around. It is time to plant lettuce, spinach, snow peas, and potatoes. Yankees up North always put their spuds in the ground on Saint Patrick's Day (March 17th) but lucky us here in the balmy South can plant any time after the 1st of February--and we're fixing to do that as soon as this weekend. Lettuce, spinach, and snow peas will also get put into the ground and, with a little bit of luck, we'll have fresh, home-grown salad by April Fool's Day.

Sign Up Now!

You can have a spot in the Community Garden and start raising fresh, wholesome food for yourself, and your family. Really. No kidding! We've reserved a garden row just for you. Now you can:

1. Save money--as much as $600!
2. Improve your health!
3. Associate with High Class Folks (gardeners!)
4. Lose Weight!
5. Beautify Berryville!
6. Feel Useful!
7. Avoid entrapment by the Evil Retail Giant!
8. Be the envy of your neighbors!
9. Sell what you grow at the Berryville Farmer's Market
10. Bore the pants off folks with stories about Squash Beetles!

Contact:

Dan, any Sunday, or call: 870 423-1894

Prayer- The Key to God's Muchness

PRAYER: THE KEY TO GOD’S MUCHNESS
James 5:13-16

Sermon by Judy Turner

Our Abundant, Generous God
Occasionally John and I have had dinner in a fancy restaurant, enough to form the impression that the pricier the menu, the smaller the quantity of food. You pay for all that empty space on the plate, with small dabs of food artistically arranged, so that you can hardly recognize what they are, with a sauce dribbled in a design -on that mostly empty plate. No, when we go out to eat, we want abundance. The word “buffet” captures our attention. I’ve recently been introduced to the word “muchness”, and I like that word. What comes to your mind when you think of muchness? Do you think of hitting the accelerator and feeling the muchness of the horsepower in a powerful engine? Do you think of a summer garden that has not been discovered by Japanese beetles or squash bugs- with every plant and vine laden with colorful flowers and succulent vegetables? Do you think of big crowds and stadiums and a last second field goal by which your team wins the Super Bowl? Do you think about having the whole family home for a holiday meal?

God is the God of much- lavish, abundant, overflowing. One of the reasons we love the Psalms is that they paint such beautiful pictures of God’s abundance. Pslam 36 says, “both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings, they feast on the abundance of your house, you give them drink from you river of delights.” The most loved of the Psalms, 23, begins with, “The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. (the timely provision from God’s abundant supply). Even facing the threat of enemies, “you spread a feast before me in the presence of my enemies.” And from the New Testament, Philippians 4:19, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” God has abundant resources, and God is generous.

Deception: God is Stingy and Withholds Good Things From Us
The first deception of the enemy of our souls is recorded early in the Bible- when the serpent suggests to one of the first human beings, Eve, that God is stingy and wants to withhold something desirable from her. The serpent whispers, “Did God say that you could not eat of every tree in the garden?” Actually what God said to her was: “You can eat of every tree in the garden…except for one. And that restriction was because God wanted to keep his children from evil, not because He wanted to keep back any good thing from them. But that remains a favorite deception of the enemy of our souls- to make us doubt the goodness and the generosity of God. Then we start thinking we need to take control of our lives and grab whatever we can however we can because we know better than God what will fulfill us and make us happy. Part of our maturing in faith is not to fall for that one!

Accessing God’s Muchness Through Prayer
Our text this morning is about accessing God’s muchness through prayer. James 5:13-16
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

A Continual Conversation With God
According to this passage, when do you pray? When you’re troubled or in trouble, when you’re happy, when you’re sick, when other people are sick. I think James is giving these specific situations, but in essence is saying, if you want to live with a lifeline to God’s abundance, pray continually, anytime, in all circumstances. Have a continual conversation with God. Sometimes that conversation is more focused and intentional, but we can talk with God anytime, anywhere. My definition of prayer: a conversation with God in which God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Prayer and Sickness
Sickness is an occasion for prayer. All healing comes from God, from the way He has created our bodies to fight illness and recover, to what He has given us the minds to discover through the practice of medicine, to the flow of supernatural healing power that is released through prayer. Particularly when a sickness is caused by sin, spiritual honesty and prayer is prescribed. You’ve looked at that banner for a long time now that says, “Spiritual Honesty”. Have you thought about that as a prescription from the Great Physician for your well-being? Sin in our lives affects our health. And agreeing with God concerning our sin, which is confession, and particularly when we confess in the hearing of trusted Christian friends who pray with us, releases healing power. Let’s quickly say that not all sickness is caused by sin. Think of what Jesus says in John 9 when the disciples see a man born blind and ask, “Who sinned?” Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in his life.” But sin negatively affects every aspect of our lives, including our physical health. There is a connection between the health of our souls and the health of our bodies. I’ve witnessed people’s health improve when they stopped doing something they were ashamed of. I’ve witnessed people’s health improve when they forgave someone. I’ve experienced the power in getting past sin in my life that comes from asking trusted Christian friends to pray with me. And the freedom from sin results in feeling better in every way. The point is, whether the needed healing is physical, emotional, spiritual, or relational, the muchness of God can overflow into us through prayer, bringing spiritual and physical healing.

Prayer Is Powerful and Effective
James says prayer is powerful and effective. Do we believe that?
It seems that in a town a man opened the first pornography store, not far from a church. The members of that church were strongly opposed to this store, and began to pray that God would intervene. A few days later, lightning hit the store and it burned to the ground. The people of the church were surprised but very pleased until they received notice that the owner of the pornography store was suing them. He contended that their prayers were responsible for the burning of the building. In a strongly-worded deposition the church denied the charge.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge wryly remarked, “At this point I don’t know what my decision will be, but this appears to be the situation. The owner of the pornography store believes in the power of prayer, and these church people don’t.”

The Fervent Prayer of a Righteous Person Triggers the Muchness of God
James says that the fervent prayer of a righteous person triggers the muchness of God. A “righteous” person is not a perfect person, or even a super saint. A righteous person is committed to doing God’s will and to cultivating a relationship with God that knows God’s heart. Very ordinary people can be righteous because of the grace of God that covers us. This powerful force of prayer is available to us. “Fervent” means energy and passion directed at accomplishing something. This is not ritual. This is not a rote, “Thank you God for the food. Amen.” It’s an energetic prayer- prayer of passion, boldness, and persistence from the heart.

When I was working with the new church ministry of the Disciples of Christ, I’ll never forget a conversation with a Korean new church pastor. He was starting the Evergreen Christian Church. I asked about the name. He explained that in Korea a common practice among Christians is when God invites you to a time of extended prayer for something only God can do, you hold onto a small evergreen tree as you pray for hours. You keep praying until you receive an answer from God. You might receive a “yes” that God is already at work to answer that request, or that the nature of the request needs to be changed so that God can answer it, or that you need to wait, and receive the patience from God for the waiting, or that the answer is no, and receive from God the trust that He is still in control and is at work for good in all things. You pray fervently until you get an answer from God. And the intensity of your prayer will actually bend that tree. And whenever you see that bent tree it will remind you of that conversation with God and God’s faithfulness. “We want to be a church that gives witness to the world of the greatness of God and through whom God demonstrates what only God can do. So we must have people who are devoted to prayer and persistent in prayer,” he said. “That’s why we have named our church “Evergreen Christian Church”.

The Sin of Self-Sufficiency
You often hear how passionately Christians pray in countries where they are oppressed and persecuted. Perhaps some of us are thinking, “Well, of course. If I were a persecuted Christian, my need would drive me to trigger God’s muchness by prayer. But I’m an American Christian. I earn a good salary. I can pay all my bills. I have good health. I’ve got good friends. I take vacations. I’m not in need.”
Dr. Joe Stowell says, “Do you really think it’s compatible with being a Christ-follower to think like that? The darkest moment in a Christian’s life is when he looks in the face of God and says, ‘I have no needs.’ It is the worst self-deceit. In Revelation 3, Jesus says to the church at Loadicea: ‘You make me sick because you say, I am rich and have need of nothing.’ They were guilty of the sin of self-sufficiency. Christ tells them that in reality they are wretched, naked, poor, and blind. The letter concludes with the graphic picture of Jesus standing outside the door of the self-sufficient heart, knocking and wanting to come in. The muchness of God is triggered by the prayers of people who know how much they really need Him.”

Prayer Changes Us
Perhaps what we most need is something we don’t think of right away when we list the benefits of prayer. In fervent prayer we spend a great deal of time with God. We get to know God, know His heart. That is our greatest need, to know God, personally, intimately. I watched a video filmed at the National Prayer Breakfast this week. The keynote speaker was a Hollywood screenwriter named Randall Wallace. He did the writing for movies like Braveheart and Secretariat.
He is known for something unusual in Hollywood. It is known that he prays. The focus of his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast was why prayer is important to him. Toward the conclusion of his speech he said, “I don’t know if prayer changes the mind of God. But I know prayer changes me.”
Somebody has likened prayer to an anchor. My life is a boat at sea. God is the safe harbor, the land. When I pray, I cast my anchor, and I am attached to the eternal, the enduring. As I continue in prayer, I am drawn closer and closer to the land. One of the wonders of a life of prayer is that by spending time with God, talking with God, I actually become more and more like God. I become a person of muchness, gracious and generous. How amazing is that!!

PERSEVERING…WITH JOY?!
Hebrews 12:1-3

Sermon by Judy Turner

“Faint in your minds”

Several weeks ago John and I were at our neighbor’s house. They invited Christians they know to just come together for a time of sharing our lives in the Lord and encouraging each other. That was when I met Carrie for the first time. He is a soft-spoken man with a fiery passion for the mission of Jesus. He is from Oklahoma, but travels continually, to churches all over the U.S. and several times a year to India. He works with Christian leaders in India who take the good news of Jesus to villages. They not only preach the Gospel, but work to make life better for people in the villages. One of the first things they do is find the widows in the village and give the widows 2 goats. The milk from the goats and the kids they produce provide food and income for women who otherwise are destitute. When there is a community of Christ-followers in the village, Carrie and his volunteers build a church building for them. And did I mention- Carrie has muscular dystrophy? I saw his hands, watched him struggle to walk across the room, and wondered to myself, “How does he do it? How does he travel to India?
Carrie shared the scripture passage that was on his heart with us that night, Hebrews 12:1-3, and he read from the King James Version:

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

I looked at this gentle, genuine Christ-follower, as he read these words. This man who every day endures difficulty and suffering I cannot imagine, and who embodies the message of this passage: Do what Jesus did as you follow Jesus and fulfill the mission He has for your life. Keep focused on Him( and not on the difficulty or opposition you face) and you will not only endure and persevere as you receive His strength, but you will also receive His joy. Even with his crippled hands and stumbling walk, Carrie radiates the joy of the Lord.

And there was a phrase in this passage that caught my attention, perhaps because I was used to hearing it in other translations, the phrase “lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”. “That’s what I do!” I realized. I take my eyes off Christ, I get disconnected from the source of my strength and joy, and so I get overwhelmed with the stuff that comes against me, and I “faint in my mind.” I later talked with some other people who were there that night and they said that phrase stood out for them as well. The battle is more in our minds than in our circumstances. The mind is where we respond to what happens in our lives, and often what we choose to think about determines whether we have the strength to keep on going or just plop down on the ground in a faint, whether we grow in the joy of the Lord, or whether we lose our joy.

6 Important Truths to Think About

Our text gives us 6 vitally important spiritual truths to think about. I am grateful to Steve Brown, whose sermon, “How to Keep It Going” helped me identify some of these truths. I also thank Steve for the concluding illustration. Through these truths from God’s Word, we’ll find help when the fire burns low and we’re losing our joy and in danger of fainting.

1. We can be encouraged by faithful people who have gone before us.
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses..

The imagery is we Christ-followers are on the field of a stadium, in a tough athletic contest. Jesus is standing there at the goal line. He is the goal! All God’s people who have gone before us and have died and are with God in glory are surrounding us, like fans in the stands. All the heroes of faith listed in Chapter 11 are there- Noah is in the stands. He says, “I know what how hard it is to act on faith of what God says, when you just can’t see it. Like I couldn’t see a rain cloud when I built the boat. I know what it is to be misunderstood, made fun of , for your faith. But you keep on believing God. I’m cheering for you!” Sara is there. She says, “I know what it’s like to have to wait a very long time for the fulfillment of God’s promise. But keep on with the Lord. Your faith and closeness with the Lord can grow as you wait. Don’t give up on him. We’re not giving up on you!” Moses is there in the stands. Moses is saying, “I know what it feels like when you want to give up. I know you think you’re inadequate for the task. You don’t have the words or the courage. But you keep on serving the Lord and doing what He asks you to do. He’ll be there for you!” And I can also see my personal heroes of faith, faithful people I’ve known and loved who have gone to be with the Lord. There’s my grandmother through whom I first experienced the grace of God. She says, “Honey, when you have Jesus, you have everything. You lack nothing. You just keep on with Him. You’ll see how faithful He is.” I see my father, a man whose top priority in life was serving the Lord. An imperfect man, but a man of faith and integrity who committed himself to study God’s Word and generously supported God’s work. He is there in the cloud of witnesses saying, “Invest your time, your energy, your resources in God. It’s the investment that will ultimately pay rewards beyond measure. I’m going to be cheering you on to the finish line.”
You have your personal heroes of faith. Do you see their faces in that cloud of witnesses? Do you hear their witness to God’s faithfulness and their encouragement?

2. Lay aside what tangles you up, so you can run like the wind
"let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Sin is whatever separates us from God and the life God has for us. Sin is attitudes, behaviors, pursuits that look attractive to us. We hold onto sin because it seems to ensure that we’ll get what we need, what we want in life. If you’re wondering if something is sin in your life, just ask yourself, “ Has hanging on to this drawn me closer to God or driven me further away?” Sin is a distraction, a hindrance. Holding onto sin in our lives is like trying to run, dragging along a ball and chain, or running with a long garment that keeps getting tangled up around our legs. The good news here is the assurance from God’s Word that we can be free of it, if we are willing to let that sin go. God will help us and give us the power to let go of it. It may be a struggle, where we have to just keep letting go of it, over and over, asking for God’s strength moment by moment. But we are assured that if we persevere, we will have the victory and keep making progress toward our goal, which is Christ.

3. God is aggressively working out our perfection
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”

Jesus not only stands there as the model, so we can see where we’re headed, but He also runs by our side, giving us through His Spirit whatever we need to get to the goal of being more and more like Him. He is not only the one who brought us to faith in the first place, the initiator, but he is the perfecter. He brings faith to its intended goal.
Maybe you identify with this prayer:
Dear God, so far today, I've done all right. I have not gossiped, and I have not lost my temper. I haven't been grumpy, nasty or selfish, and I'm really glad of that! But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm probably going to need a lot of help. Thank you! Amen.

The good news is that a lot of help is always available to us from Jesus, the perfecter of our faith! Isn’t it good to know ultimately we aren’t the perfecters of ourselves? We certainly have our part to play, priorities to set, choices to make, but God is the perfecter of our faith. And He is continually, aggressively working for us to get us to the goal of being complete, mature in Him. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion”.

4. We can draw encouragement from a God who has suffered through what we suffer

Listen to Hebrews 4:15-16, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Jesus knows what it is to be lonely, afraid, to have everything you’ve worked for crumble in pieces around you, to have people hurt you. Quite literally he knows what it’s like to have people hurt you. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

The Greek verb for consider him is often used in a mathematical sense of “reckon up”. When you as a Christ-follower are contemplating your hardship, carefully consider each aspect of the hostility Christ endured against him: humiliated, beaten, tortured, scorned. Consider your own suffering in comparison with His.

"who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame"
Then consider what Jesus did in the midst of his great suffering. He scorned the scorn. He turned it on its head. He held all that shame and suffering to be of no consequence in view of the joy he knew was ahead of Him. Compared with the joy of faithfully finishing His mission and celebrating with the Father that their plan of redemption was complete, he could go through the great suffering of the crucifixion and say, in comparison with the joy, this is of no consequence.

5. We Can Have His Joy
On the last night of His earthly life, as recorded in John’s Gospel, Jesus talked with His followers about His joy in them. He prayed that they would share His joy. So enduring through whatever comes our way and counting it as nothing compared to the joy that is ahead of us, and the joy we are experiencing as we run with Jesus toward the goal of becoming complete in Him and accomplishing the mission He has for us is not only possible… that’s the way life is supposed to be for a follower of Jesus.

6. We have the added power of a Son interceding for us to the Father
“and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Notice 2 facts: (1) The right hand of God is a metaphor for all of the authority in the universe. (2) The reason he’s sitting there is to talk to the Father about you. Jesus has an extensive prayer list that would absolutely blow you away, and you’re name is on it. Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (here it comes) since he always lives to make intercession for them.” You’re in his heart and in His prayers.

I don’t know if it’s factually true, but the story is true in principle. It seems that a Union soldier in the Civil War lost two brothers. At harvest time, his mother was the only one left at home. The soldier wanted to be discharged so he could go home to help. He talked with the captain of his unit, who gave him a furlough to go to Washington to ask the President of the U.S. for the discharge. The soldier couldn’t even get near the President. There were guards everywhere turning him away, saying, “The President is too busy to talk to you. Everyone has to make sacrifices. Go back and fight this war.” The soldier walked away, dejected. He saw a little boy, and they struck up a conversation. The soldier explained his problem. The little boy said, “Mister, I think I can help.” And he took the soldier’s hand and led him through the streets of Washington, up the steps of the White House, past the guard, and into the Oval Office, where President Abraham Lincoln said, “Yes, Todd, what is it you want?” Todd told his father about the soldier and his need to get home. “Request for discharge granted,” said the President.

Because Jesus endured to the end, He is seated in the throne room of the universe. He has the right and the joy of speaking to the Father on your behalf and on mine. Next to the Father, He can say, “Mary needs healing of her body and spirit. Would you help? Sam isn’t going to make it if you don’t intervene with your grace. Would you intervene? Judy needs an overflow of joy in her life. Would you give her my joy? And the Father says, “Of course. For your sake I will.”

You think about that and keep on running the race with joy! Amen.