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The Measure of God’s Blessings

By / September 23, 2022
blessing in disguise

The Measure of God’s Blessings

Pretty exciting times at the Harrill homestead this week!  Whereas we had received maybe an inch of rain from mid-June to September 4th in total, Monday we measured 2 ¾ inches in a nice, steady, soaking rain.  My wife and I have strained the well this summer watering trees, flowers, and vegetables, all in the attempt to keep some things alive.  I honestly can’t remember such a dry summer.  We’ve seen close to 90% probabilities of rain three days out fizzle to absolutely nothing on the expected day all summer long.  Anyone in the Northeast knows what we are talking about.

Weather always makes me think.  Consider – we’ve watched the radar as a storm cell barreled down on us only to fall apart right before it reached us.  We’ve seen others veer off to the south or north in accurate examples of “scattered storms.”  But the most infuriating one we saw was a three county-long line of a storm far from being anything like scattered literally falling to pieces a mile to the west and then reforming about a mile to the east with nothing we could do about it.  Our rain gauge got a little damp.  Rain gauge.  Hmmmm….

You see, we know God controls the weather as He sends His rain on the just and unjust.  Now, we’ve prayed for rain.  And it seems like the rain and the gauge is like some sort of all-to-accurate metaphor.  And so, as I have contemplated my parched earth, my attitude towards the reasons for my parched earth, and…. Well, anyway, I wonder – are we in the habit of putting out rain gauges to measure God’s blessings in our lives?  I don’t mean like in the old song “Count Your Blessings,” but more like, “Okay God, it’s time for me to do a cost-benefit analysis of my life with you.”  Or, “I’m looking for some very specific things from you and I’m going to see if you come through for me in the ways I expect.”  And it strikes me (as I trip over the gas can I haven’t had to fill for my mower all summer) – any kind of ingratitude I exhibit for anything God does means I’m looking at the wrong things in the wrong places.

Didn’t Jesus say His blessings are immeasurable?  Are not God’s greatest gifts free?  Doesn’t our ingratitude stem mostly from our wrong-headed transactional ways of thinking or our inability to see what God is doing in our lives?  Really, is there anything I’ve done at all that is worth all God has done for me?  We all know the answers to these questions, but we sure tend to forget.

So.  Thank you God for the rain – but thank you more for the reminders this summer of the true blessings we have in you!

These are the passages I had in mind when writing this….

Malachi 3:10

Luke 6:38

Romans 3:23-24

Did you catch the hidden blessing in the drought??

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Race Against Horses

By / September 8, 2022

“If running against men has wearied you, how will you race against horses?”

I can’t think of anyone who had a tougher job than Jeremiah.  In his day he saw the last good king of Judah die in a senseless battle God had tried to warn him away from.  From that point, the land of Judah was eaten away by her enemy over the course of twenty plus years until she was completely destroyed.  Jeremiah was given the task of preaching unpopular sermons of repentance and surrender and was verbally and physically assaulted.  We would forgive him if he complained a bit.  He complains a bit.  God answers one of those complaints in Jeremiah 12:5 – “Look, if you can’t handle racing against people, how are you going to race against horses?”  And it strikes me – God expected him to race with horses….

Well, sort of, there is precedent.  But what He really expected was for Jeremiah to do what He told him to do and leave the consequences to Him.  Jeremiah was complaining that God was taking too long in His justice.  Not that Jeremiah wanted to see his country destroyed necessarily, but he was tired of preaching and seeing the people look at him like he had two heads.  “Just a second, Jeremiah, you say we’ve got to stop doing what we’re doing and if we don’t we’ll be sorry – but nothing – n-o-t-h-i-n-g will happen!  You’re a fraud!  And a stupid dangerous one at that!”

I get it.  When we stand up for what is right, say for example, speaking the truth in love or calling sin, “sin” or preaching whole-hearted allegiance to God and people say we are haters or ignorant of how the world works or alarmists, we can get caught up in the “No, I’m not,” “Yes, you are” game.  And we can turn to God and say, “Can I get a little help here?  Just a little sign from you to them so they can know I’m not crazy?” and God, being God and not working on our timetable, is justified in saying, “You are getting distracted.  You’ve said what I needed you to say, if they won’t listen, move on, I’ll take care of this.  Don’t worry if they think you’re crazy, I know you and that’s all that matters.  You go run with the horses over there and tear it up while I deal with this in my own patient and hopeful time.”  In other words, keep at God’s business.  Do what God wants you to do.  If there is widespread repentance, great!  If only a few listen, God has won a few.  If no one listens, at least we are His.

I think we are in an age of exhaustion.  The information age is relentless in bombarding folks with useless information that distracts from God’s voice.  More people than ever seem to believe the ends justify the means.  Talk of civility is ridiculed and entire bridges of communication have been nuked to make way for the highways of vitriol and spite and the world tries to funnel us to those roads.  But this is not the time to give up on God’s ways.  Nor is it time to sit down and cry.  This is the time to speak God’s love, truth, justice, mercy and holiness to a world that very well may hear all of what we say as a foreign language.  But there are always some who will strain to hear.  There are always some that, because we didn’t give up doing and saying the right things, will tune their ears to God’s language and become fluent.  So, let’s not lose heart – let’s race with the horses.

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Do I Need the Church?

By / September 8, 2022
church

“Do I need the church?”  Hmmm…. If you start feeling uncomfortable about what I have here I beg you to stick with me a while.  I don’t intend to beat anyone up.  I am mindful of Isaiah’s words in prophesying that Jesus does not break bruised reeds or snuff out smoldering wicks and I think a lot of us fit in those categories.  But I recently read something I think I was supposed to agree with but found I didn’t.  It put high emphasis on the need for the church, stating how being away from it will adversely affect your relationship with God.  That part I agree with.  What I took issue with was the other part of the idea, which was when you cut the church out of the deal you can still be a Christian.  The more God teaches me about the church the more I see this as dead wrong.

Now, a lot of this is attitudinal.  I know a lot of people who for reasons beyond their control cannot make it to the gathering of believers.  We call certain people our “shut-ins” because they can’t leave their houses.  Others have jobs on Sunday that are their only means of support.  Still others may live debilitatingly far from other believers.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Life Together, astutely points out that none of us is guaranteed a body of believers in which to belong – but that’s not really our problem is it?  The real problem is when by God’s grace we are given a body to meet with and we decide, “Nah, it’s not important.”

Consider – no letter in the New Testament is written outside of the context of a church.  You are thinking “Philemon.”  Go ahead, take a look.  Paul wrote him a letter, v. 1… and to the church meeting in “your home” v. 2.  The two to Timothy and to Titus are chock-full of church matters.  Of course, we have to take God’s word personally – but it is equally imperative (and widely overlooked, dismissed, and fought against) we take it communally.

The fact is, most of what God calls us to is impossible outside the context of the church.  How are we to demonstrate our love to our brothers and sisters if we never see them?  How can all people know we are Christians by our love if we never associate with them?  How can we demonstrate Jesus’ power in destroying dividing walls of hostility if we never set foot inside the walls where our brothers and sisters are?  How can we show the most excellent way of love if we have no one to show Jesus’ radical love to?  “Yeah, but I don’t really have anything in common with or even get along with anyone at church.”  That’s the point!  Jesus Christ is our unifying factor, forming us into one body, teaching us to love each other deeply from the heart!  So, if we call ourselves Christians but purposefully stay away from the church, not only do we obliterate our witness of God’s power in the world (and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms), we also stand on incredibly shaky ground, testing the limits of what it means to be a Christian.

Please understand, I don’t mean to be harsh.  It’s just simply too easy to slip into the world’s ways of thinking without even meaning to.  So we need to be clear about what God thinks about the church and strive to help as many as possible understand that.  God help and bless us all….

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In God’s Presence

By / August 22, 2022
cherubim
Good day at North Penn this morning, this is the final lesson from the book of James titled “In God’s Presence.”  The idea is tied to the idea of wisdom vs. foolishness, God’s world view vs. the world’s world view, and double mindedness vs. singleness of purpose.  Outline under the video.
  In God’s Presence James 5:13-20 Our relationship to God….
  • In the bad….
    • James 1:2; 2:6; 5:1-7
  • In the good….
    • Exodus 15:1-18, 21
    • Luke 1:46-56, 68-79
  • In sickness….
    • Miraculous – II Kings 4:8-37; Luke 8:40-56; Acts 3:1-10
    • Other – II Kings 20:7; I Timothy 5:23
    • The fellowship comes to the sick – Matthew 18:20
  • From sin….
    • Confession = accountability – v. 16
    • The need to call others back – v. 19-20
Prayer….
  • Two world views
    • James 1:5-7
    • James 4:2-3
    • Example of Elijah
 
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The Bride of Christ

By / August 18, 2022

Most summers find me working one week at Camp Manatawny, a Christian camp out in Douglassville, PA.  On one evening devotional this past summer our speaker asked us to turn to the person to our right and say one good think about our church.  We did.  He spoke a little longer and then asked us to turn to the person on the left and say one bad thing about our church.  As we turned to the left and took a breath to express the bad and the ugly, our speaker loudly commanded, “Stop!” and then said “Who gave you the right to criticize the bride of Christ?”  It was a beautiful piece of rhetoric with a fantastic slap.

For a couple of seconds, I wondered what I would have heard if we were able to go on, but only for a couple because I already know what I would have heard – I’ve heard it before.  “Our church is too….” “Our leadership doesn’t….” “Our singing is….” “Our preacher is….”  Our services are….”  “We don’t have….”  It’s all there.

We think we’re justified.  After all, most of the letters in the Bible are addressing problems and Revelation chapters two and three have plenty of criticism.  But the one doing the criticizing in Revelation is Christ Himself.  And Paul is doing something a bit different and it strikes me – that difference is in what we too often do by bringing the church down on the one hand instead of placing ourselves squarely within the church and working on the church’s improvement on the other.  If we are the bride of Christ, it makes sense to collectively look at ourselves in the mirror and fix what needs fixing.  Christ’s warnings in Revelation are instructive, as are Paul’s admonitions.

But we must set ourselves solidly in the church.  We must see our brothers and sisters in the church as part of our own body.  And it seems to me if I focus and work on the plenty in me that needs fixing instead of something else I may have very little control over, I’m going a long way towards making the bride of Christ that much more beautiful.

Let me finish on a slightly different track.  Over the past couple of years, a lot of people have left the church.  Some have tried to come back and have been discouraged by the change in their own church’s makeup and dynamic.  Others have tired of the vigorous interaction with other parts of the body that mold and shape us into Christ’s likeness.  Still others have swapped the transforming power of the church for activities.  Despite all this, the church is still the bride of Christ.  She is still the most beautiful thing on earth, teaching us love, humility, righteousness, holiness, service and…well, every good thing God intends for us.  And she is totally worth our attention.  After all, Christ gives her all of His.

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Patience in James 5

By / August 18, 2022

The theme of James 5:7-12 is patience and James exhorts us to have patience in the face of persecution and difficulty.  The outline on patience in James 5 is under the video.  God bless!

Patience

James 5:7-12

Patient with what?

  • Context is injustice – 5:1-6
  • Keep the focus where it belongs, don’t take your hardships out on each other – v. 9
  • God will make it right – v. 7, 8

Three illustrations….

  • The farmer – Psalm 126:5-6
  • Prophets – Jeremiah 38
  • Job – Ezekiel 14:14-20

Do not swear….

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Growing Up Spiritually

By / August 11, 2022
Spiritual maturity

The picture above is of my old toybox my dad made for me before my memory of it.  It’s pretty big, and I could fit all my toys in it as a child.  I remember sitting in front of it one day, thinking of all my toys, how much I loved them and loved playing with them when I was overcome with a sense of dread.  Old people didn’t play with toys.  They didn’t have a toybox.  I couldn’t imagine life without my toys and wondered what exactly happened to people when they grew up that they just lost interest in such important things!

Skip forward to a few decades and I’m sitting in my classroom with one of my 16-year-old students.  He was asking me about Drake.  I was impressed he knew what a male duck was.  It was a minute or so when we realized we were having a breakdown in communication.  He was talking about the rapper.  I had no idea there was a rapper named Drake.  Only partly to himself he said, “Wow.  I don’t ever want to get old.”

But we do, don’t we?  And as we do, we put away our toys and move on, with very little regret and fuss.  But how about spiritually?

Think about it!  Wasn’t a big problem in the Corinthian church really a refusal to grow up spiritually (I Corinthians 3:2)?  God had given them gifts and they were completely enamored with some of them over others, particularly speaking in tongues.  They were treating them like their own personal toys and wanted to show off like second-graders in show-and-tell!  They were metaphorically pushing and shoving each other around, treating worship like a school playground, while quite literally talking over one another.  Paul, like an exceptionally patient parent, walks them through the proper use of the gifts and then says they need to focus on something far more important, something that will never pass away, and that is love.  And then he lays it on the line – “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

And it strikes me – how can we be sure we are growing up spiritually?  Paul would say we can tell when we no longer are concerned about our position or glory.  We can tell when we extend grace to those around us and see the best in our brothers and sisters.  We can tell when we chose the way that builds others up rather than puffs ourselves up.  We can tell when we stand firmly in what remains after all the chaff is blown away.  And all of this is the way of love….

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

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Going Home

By / August 11, 2022

Where is home?  I realized I was doing something a number of years back whenever I just wanted a break from some situation or difficulty.  I would say to myself, “I want to go home.”  Now, the strange thing about that was I didn’t really have a place in mind.  I lived most my childhood in New Jersey (lots of summers in Michigan), spent college in Texas, did mission work in the Czech Republic, and have lived in Pennsylvania for the past 17 years.  But whenever I say I want to go home the only state I’m really thinking of is a state of mind where peace, joy, and comfort exist in abundance.  I know I’m not alone.

Now, the obvious connection here is we are looking forward to another country, a heavenly one.  The image of Lazarus resting at Abraham’s side is compelling.  So is the promise of no more tears.  That’s the home we all really want, and really, I know that’s the cry of my heart when I say I want to go home.  But there is another place that is closer right now, a place I go and I’m home, the frontier of God’s Kingdom on earth.  It’s the church…

…don’t laugh.  I’m serious.  I am well aware the church is not perfect.  I’m well aware we have disagreements in the church.  I’m well aware our auditoriums are full of hurting people; emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally.  But it’s also the place where this past Sunday I sat down after services and had a really good talk with a few dear members of my spiritual family.  And here is the thing – none of us would have found one another without Jesus’ church.  Let’s expand it from that small group I was talking with.  In my church we have several different nationalities.  We have several different ethnic backgrounds.  We have people who have voted democrat, republican, independent, and have refused to vote altogether.  We have a wide range of experiences, jobs, education, and ages.  And we can talk about all of that, have talked about all of that in total humility, and widened our ideas about…

…what?  Well, home.  None of those things divide us – because we have a common Father and have found what binds us together is so very much stronger than what could tear us apart.  Because the Lord Jesus is our peace.  Because we have chosen to focus on those things that really matter.  Because we bring all our experiences and all of who we are, redeemed and transformed by Jesus, and are enriched and amazed at God’s grace as wisdom is proven right by all her children as we accept God’s will for our lives.  And in all of this, we find ourselves home….

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Kingdom Business

By / August 4, 2022
Kingdom Business

“Is this Kingdom business?”  That was the response to a question I had about some decisions we were trying to make on the mission field in Prague from a former professor I had a great deal of respect for.  “Is this Kingdom business?”  It’s important to note I don’t remember the question – which makes me think whatever the question was, it wasn’t about Kingdom business.  But I thought the question was important at the time.  Which leads me to some observations….

You see, as children of the King, we are to be about Kingdom business.  We are to be about the expansion and glory of the Kingdom.  We give our allegiance to God and pledge our lives to Kingdom business.  Only problem is, we usually don’t really know what Kingdom business is.  We often wrap ourselves up in questions we think are critical to the Kingdom and, sometimes, never come to a realization God really isn’t concerned with the thing we find so fascinatingly important.  Let me incriminate myself….

I am passionate about the singing we do in church.  My wife used to win vocal competitions, I was in A Capella chorus groups, and my daughters have great voices – one of them was an all-National Choir finalist.  We recognize quarter notes from half notes, know what a fermata is, can tell 3/4 time from 4/4 time, understand key signatures, and (gasp) read shaped notes.  I am also fascinated by good, well-thought-out lyrics.  I’ve read extensively on the importance of song-services and have even led a workshop or two on leading congregational singing.  I have also found people to disagree with me about almost everything I believe about singing – from the kinds of songs I believe are most appropriate for worship, to the role of the song-leader, to the proper interpretation of how to sing some of my favorite songs.  Getting all worked up about this and imposing my viewpoint is not Kingdom business no matter how much I would like it to be.  Now, I’d be happy to share with you any of my views, but the Kingdom does not rise and fall on those.

Kingdom business is bringing as many people as possible to the recognition of and submission to the Lordship of the King.  Kingdom business is Kingdom expansion in our own lives and the lives of others.  And let’s understand – He will set the parameters for what that looks like for each of His subjects.  Consider the rich ruler – Jesus looked at him and loved him – and told him he lacked one thing – he needed to sell everything he had and give it to the poor.  The point?  The ruler had another lord, another master, another king – it was his wealth.  He had to give that up, just as we have to give up anything that challenges God for our allegiance.  We will run into all sorts as we work toward Kingdom expansion and that’s why Paul speaks so passionately about what is of first importance – death, burial, and resurrection.  We bring people to the cross.  Do we understand the power here?  I think I hardly do!  Paul says it this way when talking to the Corinthian church – he was resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (I Corinthians 2:1-5).  When we bring people to that cross through our words and actions, when we are resolved to know nothing else, when we consider everything else rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, then we are about Kingdom business.  And it is only when we pledge ourselves to that and that alone, allowing ourselves to be transformed by the power of the cross, can we expect others to be so resolved to do likewise.  And against that single-minded commitment to Kingdom business the gates of Hell don’t stand a chance….

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Made For This

By / July 25, 2022

“I’m not made for this.”  Hold that thought….

In my family, we sort of live off movie quotes and songs.  Someone says something and it spurs a song, which we’re likely to sing.  Or a movie quote seems to fit perfectly into the situation, so out it comes.  Some of the most common are these, maybe you know them:  “You’d like to think that wouldn’t you?”  “Engaged?  To be married?”  “Once you get past the legs they ain’t too bad.”  “I trust I’ve made myself obscure.”  “But it’s a talking dog!”  “Toula!  You should be proud to be Greek!”  “We named the monkey Jack.”  “So do all who live to see such times.”

Oh. That last one.  We use that for any general complaint in the house, no matter what that complaint might be.  It works something like this – “Ugh.  I hate checking on the chickens in the dark.”  (Cue the music….) “So do all who live to see such times.”  It’s a very useful and widely applicable quote!  And yes, It’s from The Fellowship of the Ring when Frodo tells Gandalf he wishes nothing associated with the ring had ever happened.  Gandalf simply states it’s a common lament among anyone going through tough times and follows up with “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I sense a lot of people are going through a lot of rough stuff.  The world is so mentally over the pandemic, yet it still clings to us while we are still not getting a break from the other stuff that is more individualized like job, family, money, and other health concerns.  Some of these things we sort of bargained for, but others are curveballs from another ballpark.  And some seem to go on and on with no real way to get relief.  It’s easy to say, “I’m not made for this!”

Except maybe we are!  Obviously, I’m not talking about enduring an abusive relationship or passively letting things happen to us.  What we are talking about is choosing what we do with the time we have.  How can I be an active redeemer in the situation I find myself?

One of my go-to verses in the Bible is Ephesians 5:15-16 that states, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”  How am I choosing to interact with those around me?  Am I bringing people closer to Christ or leading them away?  Who am I having a positive impact on right now?  How can I have a bigger one?

And I can’t forget “the days are evil” part.  None of us were made to take it easy.  But if God has put me where He has put me in the time He has put me, then I’ve got to believe He’s given me everything I need to handle that situation.  We were made for this!

If you’ve given up guessing where the movie quotes are from, I’ve got them listed below in order.

The Princess Bride

Pride and Prejudice

Hidalgo

A Man for All Seasons

Up

My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Fellowship of the Ring

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