Pastor David Hale

When Temptation Comes

March 15th, 2011

In Matthew 4, the scripture says, Jesus was “Led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered” (vs. 1-2). Verse 3 starts out by saying, “And when the tempter came…” The tempter will come. It’s not if the tempter comes. We are all going to have to face temptation.

THREE METHODS OF ATTACK

1. A Physical Attack: When Satan came to Jesus, he taunted Him by saying, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread” (vs. 3). That was a physical attack. Likewise, the enemy comes at us with the three methods of attack, much as he did with Jesus Himself. We can expect the same. But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written…” (vs. 4) and then he quoted scripture (Deut. 8:3). He said, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Aren’t you glad that we too can come against the tempter with the word of God? That is really all we need.

There are 2 types of condemnation: sin condemnation and self-condemnation. When we come to the Lord, sin condemnation is taken care of by the blood He shed for us. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission” {of sin} (Heb. 9:22). But through the shedding of Christ’s blood, we are set free!
The tempter comes and He shakes on all that we are. That’s why we have to hide the truth in our heart. When self condemnation comes, we can go to the word of God and say-like Jesus did-“It is written…”

2. A Psychological Attack: Following this in Matthew 4 we read: “Then the devil taketh Him up into the Holy city and setteth Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written: He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and their hands they shall bear thee up lest, at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone” (vs. 5-6).

Notice that the enemy adopts the language of the Lord, saying, “It is written…” If he would dare to do that to Jesus, you know he’s going to do that to us. We need to be careful, because he knows how to pick up on the way the Lord has been talking to us and mimic it. That’s one of his deceptive tricks. That is why we need to put ourselves before the Lord every day. We must fully and completely know that the Lord is our resource, our answer, and that He is going to give us fresh revelation of His Word for the need of the day.
Jesus replied, “It is written again...” In other words, you’ve got to take scripture, not out of context, but in light of all scripture. He said, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (vs. 7). Satan had just tried a psychological attack.

September 11th, 2001, the U.S. experienced a direct physical attack. Subsequently, we began to see elements of a psychological attack.

3. A Spiritual Attack: Matthew 4 goes on to say, “Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give thee. If thou wilt fall down and worship me” (vs.8-9). Satan had no right nor authority, but he was trying to tempt Him spiritually with a lust for glory.

Jesus responds: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (vs. 10). Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him. This was the spiritual attack.

YOU CAN EXPECT THESE SAME MODES OF ATTACK

I believe we’re seeing these three modes of attack in closer relation than ever before: the physical, the psychological and the spiritual. One arena is on the level of world activity. Then there are emotional and mentally trying events that happen in our personal lives. Finally, Paul tells us that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). We know that there is a spiritual stream of activity that is constantly stirring.
Simply put, concerning attacks of the enemy, we can expect to experience what Jesus experienced: a real physical attack, a psychological attack, and a spiritual attack.

PHYSICAL ATTACKS

            To bring this home, let me share a personal illustration from my childhood. When I was a third grader, I was probably one of the shyest, most insecure in my class. I was a little more comfortable in the local neighborhood, because I had some buddies there, including one really close friend named Ronnie.
            Ronnie and I lived in a unique neighborhood in a town of about 10,000. One block to the south was a railroad track, one block to the north was a railroad track, one block to the east was a major road, and one block to the west was a corn field. So any way you look at it, I guess I lived on “the other side of the tracks.”
            Ronnie and I were the same age, in the same class and we were buddies. But he had an older brother, who was exactly the opposite of what I was. Greg was popular, very articulate, and in one of the older classes in our old elementary school that went from 1st grade to 6th grade. Downstairs were grades 1 through 3; upstairs were grades 4 through 6. Greg was one of “the upstairs kids.”
            Everybody looked to Greg and wanted to be around him. He was one of the captains who chose players for the ball team. Illinois has cold winters. In that old school, we didn’t have a gym or even a large cafeteria for activities. So at recess, you had two choices: to stay inside at your desk and work on school work, or go outside and play. Therefore, it didn’t make any difference if it were only 10 degrees outside- we went outside and played, because we didn’t want to sit at that desk anymore than necessary.
            Many times when I was outside, being kind of a loner, I’d watch Greg, particularly on those cold days. He would get with his group, which was a little clique that people wanted to be in. Over time, I became obsessed with the dream that Ronnie’s older brother would someday open up from the crowd and say, “Hey, there’s my friend, David. I’d like to have him come and be a part of our group” (the “in crowd”).
            One especially chilly day, I was moving around to keep warm. I’d probably been to the swing a bit, the teeter-totter, and maybe the monkey bars. I was now looking over at Greg and his group, thinking about my longing to be included. I was wearing a coat that was made for the cold, Illinois winters, and a bright, red hat-one of those pilot-types with the furry part you could pull down over your ears. There I stood, just a skinny, runt of a kid, looking for something that would never happen, and thinking that acceptance by the “in” group would make my life everything it needed to be.

LONGING FOR ACCEPTANCE

            Have you ever dreamed of having something, thinking that if you got it, it would be everything you ever needed?... “If I could just have this girl…” It is a common and illusive game we play, as these things don’t really satisfy.
             Well, my dream that day was to be welcomed in to this clique that I admired. The little group was huddled laughing and talking. Then-just as I had imagined it-Greg looked at me and pointed. I was so far away that he didn’t even speak. He just motioned to me to come. Excitedly I was thinking “It’s happening!”
            I started making my way there. Then he motioned, “Come quickly!” So I actually started running. I can literally remember my body getting warmer as I ran in the cold, as well as a euphoric feeling of being included!
            Then, as I was about to make my grand debut into my wonderful new group of friends, something very tragic happened… something so tragic, that I’d remember every detail of that day in vivid color. It would disrupt my life, not just that day, but even later, because I would recall the rejection I was about to feel. As soon as I got close enough, not Greg but another one of the guys grabbed my hat. They laughed and started tossing it back and forth. And just as they knew it would be, I reached up with a scream, and I tried to take my hat back. I had been severely humiliated! I was taken from unspeakable euphoria to pure embarrassment. I wanted to die, because I felt my friend had used me and abused me. I remember chasing after my hat, until I fell. Then, after the bell rang, they threw it as far as they could. With tears streaming down my face and then freezing, I went to my hat. I knew that my clothes were soiled, and my hands were hurting, as I’d fallen multiple times trying to grab the hat.
            I remember listening to their sneers and laughter, as they went on through the door, and I was left all alone. Dejected, I made my way to the class and had to face all of my friends, my classmates, and my teacher asking what had happened. Back in those days, you just didn’t tattle. So when she asked, “What’s wrong?” I said, “Oh, we were just playing a game and I fell.” Yes, it was a game alright-a cruel degrading game.
            That still-vivid incident was the first significant physical battle in the real world that I remember. Oh, maybe there had been a few other times when my friend Ronnie and I had argued over trading trucks or something, but that was small compared to this. This was epic-the end of the world and something that could never be fixed, in my eight-year-old mind.
            Obviously, I hadn’t yet read the saying, “In a hundred years, it won’t matter, and it barely matters now.” I didn’t know that down the road a ways, it would be okay. From my limited childhood perspective, there was no getting out of this one… I didn’t want to live! We would have to move to some other state.
            Then-horror of horrors-as I returned to the playground for the afternoon recess, it happened again! Not only had I been attacked, but the unkind assault was repeated! By then, the stinging hurt turned to numbness.

A VALUABLE LESSON LEARNED

            That evening as I trudged into the house, my mother knew immediately that something was dreadfully wrong. It was good to be in the sanctuary of a loving home. Instead of giving her the details, I just blurted out, “My dad’s going to have to beat up Greg and his dad, and take Ronnie too! He’s going to have to…” I wanted my dad to fix it!
            My mom said, “Wait a minute, what happened?” So I explained it to her, and I kept insisting, “He’s going to have to…” Finally she said, “David, your dad is not going to beat up Greg’s dad and Greg. When he comes home, you talk to him.”
            When dad came in, I started again telling him what he was going to have to do. Does this remind you of the way we tell God what He has to do? “God, I’ve got a problem, and here’s how You’re going to have to fix it!” Do you recall that Jesus endured this kind of humiliation and rejection, and much more? He understands physical attacks! My dad said, “Let me tell you what to do.” These were days when we used to watch the sitcom “Father Knows Best.” Somehow I believed that father knew best back then. (I wish we lived in a world today where kids still believe their father knows best!)
            I knew that as an eight year old, my father had lost his dad. I’d heard him tell the stories of how he had to handle himself. He literally made the income for the family at that tender age, because his mother and the other children had to have income, and she would not receive any help whatsoever. They contracted to clean the coal mining community schoolhouse, and my dad was the child who did it. I had all the confidence in the world that my father had the answer, because I knew he had been in tough circumstances before.
            When you have a father as wise as our heavenly Father is, you’ve got to believe that He does understand; He’s been through it before. I want to declare to you today that your heavenly Father so loved this world that “He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is truth. He loves you and cares about your hurts. And, as I read the scriptures, I know that Jesus was tempted in all the same areas as we are. My father told me, “What you’ve got to do, Son, is get up in the morning, and do what you always do. You can’t let them dictate to you.” Pretty good advice. Likewise as believers, we can’t let people dictate to us what we’re going to do. Matthew 4:3 actually says, “Command that these stones be made to bread.” Satan was trying to dictate to our Lord what had to be done!
            We are children of God! We have taken on His name; we’re the sons of the living God! The systems of the world are not going to dictate to us what it is that we’re going to do. We have an agenda written with a heavenly pen upon our hearts. We each have an eternal purpose. Further, Paul tells us that He who began a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6).
            Proverbs says that your steps are ordered of the Lord (Prov. 20:24). He understands the beginning from the end, because He is Alpha and Omega, and everything in between. You have a God who knows what’s best for you. When these physical attacks come, He’s going to tell you how to work through them.
            I didn’t particularly like what my dad said to do. He told me, “You’ve got to get ready, just like you normally do, and when you walk to school tomorrow, you have that red hat on.” I was ashamed of that red hat by then. I’d rather my ears froze off! I didn’t ever want to see that hat again, and here he was telling me to wear the red hat!
            But he knew something that I didn’t know. As David so eloquently said, “weeping may endure for a  night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). It was my nighttime, dark the world was over. Life would never be the same; I saw no solution, no answer.
            Perhaps as you read this, you are living in one of the blackest moments of your life and you can’t understand what’s going on. The Lord is telling you to put your feet on the floor in the morning, to get up and go about your business. Whatever He has given your hand to do, do it heartily (Col. 3:23). You can’t let the devil dictate to you what’s going to take place. You cannot let tragedy destroy you.

WHATEVER IT TAKES

            I didn’t know it as a third grader, but my dad was right. It turned out to be one of the best times in my childhood. What I thought was the worst time taught me a lesson I’d use for the rest of my life. He said, “I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen, Son. You walk on that playground, and they’re going to take your red hat again.” Even the Lord knew that Satan would come after Him again. Three times Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, but note that after that third time, he left Him alone.
            My dad was pretty sharp. He didn’t have the most education of anybody I knew, but he was my daddy, he loved me, and he had had some experiences that gave him the answer. So I believed him.
            With all the faith I could muster, I walked onto that playground, following my daddy’s orders. And, just as he said, that little group was waiting for me. This time, they knew I wouldn’t come to them, so they came right over to me and grabbed my hat and started running and playing. One of them was still standing there laughing and I said, “This is going to be fun again today, isn’t it?”
            He looked at me, stunned. It wasn’t five seconds and the rest of them were back, since I wasn’t chasing them. I wasn’t playing their game. In a way, I was saying, “It is written…” for I was doing what my father had said. I was having fun with it too, which was what my dad had advised me to do. He said, “You go there tomorrow and have fun with them. You laugh with them.”
            Paul called it “a good fight.” It’s not a bad fight; it’s a good fight. The Bible tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh. 8:10). I didn’t have any joy, but my daddy gave it to me!
            Less than 60 seconds after that second morning’s attack, those guys were laughing with me and saying, “That’s pretty good.” They put their arms around me, and I was the only third grader included in the clique of the upstairs boys!
            Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). You may be under an attack of the enemy right now. You can be confident in this very thing that He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it (Phil 1:6). There is no weapon formed against us that is going to prosper (Is 54:17).

PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTACKS

            I’d like to tell you that was the only problem I’ve ever had in life, but I’ve had some more-and so have you. Likewise, Jesus faced more than one attack. He had the physical attack, but He also had the psychological attack, as noted earlier. As we read before, the second temptation the devil tried on Jesus was, “If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written…” (Matt 4:6a). In other words, put yourself in a position where you are proving your greatness to me. Satan was intimidating. He uses intimidation tools and tries to make us think that he’s omnipresent, but he is not. He’s a fallen angel (or cherub). He can’t be on your case and mine at the same time. He uses strategies, which are called “the wiles of the devil.” He tries to make himself look bigger than he is. He could be called a terrorist, as he uses subtle methods of terrorism to make us think that a problem is bigger than it is.
            We need to put it in perspective. The Bible says, “Oh magnify the Lord” (Ps. 34:3). How do you magnify God, who is omnipresent? You stop seeing the devil as the big one, and you start focusing instead on the truly Big One. Remember, greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

HOW TO CATCH AN ALLIGATOR

            There was a little girl who loved alligators and hated the bad rap that they were getting. So she said, “Here’s how you catch an alligator. First, you’ve got to have the right tools. You’ve got to have a big stick.”
            Likewise, before we can come against the enemy, we have got to have the right tools. We need to put on the whole armor of God. She continued, “The next thing that you need to have is a blanket and two pillows. Then you need some binoculars, some tweezers and a match box. Next, you’ve got to go where the alligators are if you’re going to catch alligators.”
            Going where the alligators are can be scary! However, God’s word says, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). In the work of God, we need not be afraid of anything. We can go wherever we need to go and do what we need to do, because we have been given the right tools. I’m not afraid, nor intimidated. I’m not going to let the devil make himself bigger than he is. The little girl lays the blanket out on the ground and puts the tools down on the blanket. Next, she grabs the big stick and goes over to the bayou. There, she stirs up the murky waters. In almost any bayou in southern Louisiana, somewhere there’s going to be a gator. Old Mr. Gator thought, “Aha, there’s some activity going on in my bayou.” Anytime you start stirring things up, the devil is going to come around. You might as well realize that. He’s going to try to make everything go wrong or to bring up every emergency he can to discourage you. So Mr. Gator starts wallowing his way over to where the stick is stirring the waters. He comes up on the bank a bit, to see what’s going on. He sees a little girl laying on a blanket with her head on a pillow. Now gators aren’t as smart as you think. Neither is the devil as all-powerful as we all-too-often credit him as being. We need to keep in mind that he is a defeated foe.
            Because sleeping is what’s going on, Mr. Gator lies down and falls asleep. The little girl knows that she can get him when he’s asleep. When he falls asleep, she gets out her binoculars, the match box, and her tweezers. She turns the binoculars around backwards to view the gator.
            We try to magnify all the wrong things. The enemy needs to be put back in place. As I said, he’s not as big as we sometimes make him. The word of God is like the binoculars-it magnifies the Lord and diminishes the devil. We need to use the word of God to see things in perspective. That’s what the little girl did with the gator. When she saw him for what he really was-which was small through the binoculars-she could then take the tweezers, open the match box, put the devil in it, and close the match box.
            So the devil also tries to trap us with psychological attacks. The Lord responded to his attempt with “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt…” (Matt. 4:7). We can do the same. We do not have to succumb to those temptations. We can choose to resist the devil and he will flee from us (James 4:7). The devil doesn’t have any hold on you or me that we don’t give him.

SPIRITUAL ATTACKS

            The third temptation is a spiritual attack. The devil was a worshipper, but keep in mind that he doesn’t have any place in worship anymore, because he got envy and pride in his heart.
            Since he tried to come at the Lord with a spiritual attack, we know we can expect one too. He is going to try to pull everything out of his arsenal in coming after us, but he doesn’t have anything that can defeat us. He doesn’t have any tanks, no SCUD missiles, nor anything with which he can destroy us. He is not going to defeat us. He’s not going to destroy our soul nor our churches. Even as our nation has come under attack-a nation where we have liberty to worship God-we need to remember that it’s not the first time there’s been a Hitler or a Haman (See Esther 3-7). It’s not the first time that somebody has tried to annihilate God’s people.
            Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I’ve finished my course, I have kept the faith…” (2 Tim 4:7). The devil may knock us down, but he’s not going to knock us out. We’re going to keep on getting back up. We will fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith.
            In this spiritual battle, we know, “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). The devil tempted our Lord saying, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:9). He’s purportedly offering Him, “all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” (vs. 8).
            Later Jesus was teaching His disciples, and He said this, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven…” (Matt. 6:9-13). Our prayers are basically modeled after this pattern. Towards the end, He prays, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.” He already knew who He was. All that Satan had offered Him in this spiritual attack was rendered powerless by His proclamation that it is God’s kingdom!
            In a spiritual attack, it is as though we are imprisoned in a room, yet the door is open! We can walk out by the tools that have been provided for us.

CHARNET’S PROFOUND DISCOVERY

            There was a political prisoner in Napoleon’s day named Charnet. He had been imprisoned because he had made a remark that offended the emperor. He was left in solitary confinement in a dungeon to die. There was no light in the cell, and no hope.
            After a period of time, he became so embittered that he scratched on the wall in his cell, “All things come by chance.” What he was really saying is, “I mark God off on everything.”
            If you feel a hunger for God and the enemy comes in and tries to destroy that, he has tried to embitter you. Spiritual attack is his last resort. He doesn’t like any activity in the spiritual area, because he knows that after this one, he had to leave-he was defeated.
            With every person whoever walks on the face of the earth, the enemy of our souls looks for us to eventually ask, “Is there really a God in this? There’s so much confusion, how could You possibly be here?” Everybody asks that question from time to time.
            When John the Baptist was left in prison, he had to send word to see if Jesus was really the Christ. He was perplexed and life wasn’t making sense to him.
            Life doesn’t always make sense. God doesn’t always seem fair, but He’s always just. He has a plan that is from the beginning to the end. We need not be as concerned about the inevitable physical, psychological, and spiritual attacks, as we are with being able to hear those final words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21). Do you know what “well done” means? You’ve had to stay on the fire in order to get well done! That is, you’ve stayed right where the heat of the battle is. Like it or not, the cutting edge is the first to draw blood.
            Back to the story of Charnet in the hopeless dungeon. He couldn’t believe his circumstances, and he’d given up. Then there was a little ray of sunlight that came through one very small opening in his cell once a day. It would beat upon the hardened earthen floor. To his amazement, one day a very small bit of green began to come forth. He took his rationed water and began to carefully nurture that little blade of grass, and it became his friend and his teacher.
            If you will look for it, there is seed that has been planted. It may be by a grandmother who has been faithfully praying for you or somebody way back who just invested a word of encouragement in you. Don’t think that the enemy doesn’t try to plant that seed of doubt in everybody’s heart that Charnet faced, when he scratched on the wall “All things come by chance.”
            In your darkest moments, when you begin to be tempted with this spiritual attack, there is something deep within you that begins to stir. No matter how hardened the soil of your life has become and how uncultivated it is, I have never met anyone who has gotten so far from God that there isn’t some little blade of grass (life) that keeps trying to come back. You can’t ever run from it; it’s always there.
            There is hope, my friend. And what the world needs-all who feel hopeless in our society-is to know that there is a Savior watching over them, whose light is shining down, even on a hardened heart. He wants to bring a little ray of hope.
            Charnet had very little water, but he shared it with the fledging plant. Before long, it began to grow, until suddenly one day, from the plant exploded a beautiful flower of white and purple. It became one of the greatest things that ever happened in this man’s life. He almost forgot he was in a cell. His friend had given him strength.
            We walk past flowers all the time, and even trample some. We walk so quickly through the problems of our life, we forget to see the creation that God has set before us every day. Suddenly Charnet realized he’d made a mistake. He took a rock and totally scratched out his previous inscription and wrote, “He who made all things is God.”
            Via the guards, their wives and the community gossip, somehow Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, heard about Charnet and his love for a simple little flower. She persuaded Napoleon that a man who had that much love for one little plant couldn’t possibly be a hardened criminal who could hurt him or society in any way.
            So Napoleon gave the orders for Charnet to be released. I can guarantee you one thing-he took the friend that he had made with him and brought it out of that hardened soil. Because of love-not only his love for a plant, but God’s love for him-he was able to come against the attack that was meant to destroy him. Charnet’s second inscription acknowledged that God made all things which, has a similar ring to it as Jesus’ prayer, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.”
            Understanding what martyrdom was all about, Paul essentially said, “If you take my life, that’s the best thing that could happen to me. If I stay here, I get to keep living for God” (see Phil. 1:21).
            Are you going through a trial? Know that as Jesus was tempted, so we will be, and we can use the victories He gave us and be victorious also. Someday we may become martyrs for the cause of Christianity. We are in a spiritual war today. Because of Christ, we’re hated, ridiculed, and misunderstood. I don’t want to return hate, but I do want to put this spiritual battle into perspective. Do not criticize people who get into various religions; they are just hungry folks looking for the answer. What we need to do is follow the Lord’s example. When faced with physical, psychological and spiritual temptations by the adversary, He said, “It is written…” and He stood fast on the truth. By His grace and the power of His might at work in us, we can follow in His footsteps.

 

Who’s In Charge?

February 2, 2011

Every morning you get up and you have decisions to make, whose going to be in charge of my life? One of life’s fundamental questions, “Who’s going to be the boss in your life?”  Who’s going to be the manager of your life, you or God?  Who’s going to be in control, you or God?  Who’s going to call the shots, you or God?  Who’s going to be the one who directs and leads in your life, you or God?  Everyday, moment by moment you are making that decision.  When you choose to make yourself the manager of your own life it causes conflict, it causes confusion, it causes stress, and a lot of turmoil in your life.  God says, “Why don’t you just relax?”  That’s the first step to stress relief.  Let the Lord be the manager of your life. 

Job 22:21 (NLT) “Stop quarreling with God.  If you agree with Him you will have peace at last and things will go well for you.”   “peace at last” and “things will go well.”  Would like to have peace at last and have things go well?  This verse tells us: stop quarreling with God. 

Romans, 9:21: “What right do you have as a human being to cross examine God?  The pot has no right to say to the potter ‘Why did you make me this shape?’  A potter can do whatever he likes to with the clay.”

He’s the creator. He’s the potter and I am the clay.  And when we finally let Him be the creator, let Him be the manager, things become very peaceful in life. We should choose peace, instead of arguing and quarreling with God all the time. 

Matthew 16:24, the Message paraphrase, Jesus says, “Anyone that intends to come to Me has to let Me lead.  You’re not in the driver’s seat.  I am.”  Here’s what Christians do, we say, “Ok, Jesus, you take over the driver’s seat.”  We then promptly hop into the back seat and start back seat driving.  We say “Jesus is in the driver’s seat of my life,” but we’re reaching over His shoulders saying, “No, turn this way. Stop. Wait.  Faster!  I want to go that way.  I want to see that sight.”  Jesus says, “Am I the driver or not?”
 
You have Jesus in the driver’s seat but you’re constantly giving Him advice from the back seat, saying “This is the way we ought to go.”  Do you do that?  Do you let God lead in your life on a day by day basis?  Or are you still trying to lead? 

 

"Like a Good Shephard..."

December 2010

 

The Psalmist David, a shepherd himself, likened the caring, loving relationship of God with us to that of a shepherd. "The Lord is my Shepherd. . . ."  Centuries later, Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd . . ."  Then Peter said, "Ye were as sheep . . ." and through time it has developed that a Pastor is like a shepherd, tending "the flock of God."

 

It is my privilege to be the Pastor at Christ Life Highlands.  As the shepherd over this "flock" it is my personal desire to see each member belong - worship - grow - and serve.  My love for God and love for people makes me want to make sure that every member, visitor and guest feels comfortable and at home in our services or at our activities.  I want our times together to always include an opportunity for worship.  As the Word is taught, like a shepherding making sure the sheep are fed, I want to make sure that you grow in your walk with God.  Ultimately, I want to see that we all find a place of service - to God, to each other, to our community, to our world. 

 

May we all come together and live out Psalm 100:

 

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise:
be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;
and his truth endureth to all generations