Thanks

Martin Rinckart wrote the hymn "Nun danket alle Gott" in 1636 as a poem to his children. Rinckart (1586-1649) began pastoring in the town of Eilenburg in Saxony at the age of 31. The 30 years war had just begun and he died just as peace came. During his ministry the town was frequently plundered and suffered greatly at the hands of enemy soldiers. In 1637 the plague broke out in his city taking with it close to 8000 people. Rinckart conducted the funeral services for 4000 people including his wife. Severe famine followed the plague that left people fighting in the streets over dead animals. Rinckart freely shared all he had as he worked to provide care and food to his congregation despite the fact that it left him impoverished.

The Scriptures call us to GIVE THANKS. I find it easy to say thank you but not so easy to have a genuinely thankful heart. Martin Rinckart - in the midst of the worst that life can bring - overflowed with a thankful heart. His poem for his children was later translated and many of us sing it at this time of year.

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore

change

I am sitting in a familiar place in an unfamiliar setting of life. I arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan a few days ago to visit my mom who is in an assisted care facility, connect with my brothers, and help close up my mom's home for the winter season. I stopped in this Starbucks - for the WiFi - to update my blog and check email.... Except for a few decorating differences, most Starbucks look and feel pretty much the same. Sitting here I could have been back in any of the Starbucks back in Tucson. The sameness is comfortable and in some sense masks what is outside the doors. What lies outside the doors is anything but sameness - it in constant change and bears an elevated sense of uncertainty. This week has been a reminder that my own family is in the midst of change. My mom is  in a really nice but unfamiliar living situation. The "family home" with all its memories is closed up for the long winter. Unlived in, it will soon be covered in snow drifts. My dad has passed away and his car now sits unused in the garage. My brothers and my sister and I are at at different places in our lives as we watch our kids grow up and move out and begin establishing their own lives. Much of the change is good and normal, much of it doesn't feel so good at the moment.

Immutable - what a great word - God never changes! All of His character traits have existed in all their fullness for all time and beyond time. His glorious nature does not grow or increase because it has always been full. God has been the fullest expression of goodness - always has been - always will. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus is the same - yesterday, today and forever!! As change sweeps over us there is an awesome, wondrous, ever working, never changing God that sweeps us up into Himself ... there in that place He shapes us in the change, He reassures us in the trial, He gives glimpses of His future paths which are always full of wisdom and life. Hiding from the outside change in the soothing confines of a Starbucks shop is only for a moment - the great promise as that we are hidden with Christ in God and as we walk, run or crawl through the changes - there is one unshakable place - in the arms of Jesus

Grow

With the death of my father I have been considering the relationship we had. There was always a certain security in that father son relationship - the sense that dad was always there and available. Of course, over the years, that relationship has changed from adult and child to adult and adult, yet there was always a remnant of still being a child and the security of having a father. It was a good feeling - something that strengthened me as an adult. With death, that has changed. Dad is not there to look to - I am the adult and not a son in the same manner as before.

At 53 years old you would think that I would finally be grown up ... truth is we are always in a process of growing up. Ephesians 4:15 calls us to "grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ." It appears the growing up is a life long process and along the way there are always new, different and surprising areas in which we discover another way (all aspects) to grow up! A dear brother in Seattle once told me that there are certain lessons that you only learn in certain decades of life. That truth freed me from feeling like I had to figure out all the ways I needed to learn and grow and just focus on those areas that God had chosen for a particular time. It seems that this is another time to grow up - learn a new lesson about finding my security and dependence and trust in my Lord alone - to give thanks for what I had in my dad but delve deeper into the better things we have in Christ.  I guess this makes sense - the Bible calls us children and as children, there is always more growing up to do.

Coffee

Today is National Coffee Day! This significant calendar day has only been around a few years but I am anticipating that it will someday be a nationally recognized holiday. You can get a medium coffee at Dunkin' Donuts for 50 cents today and there is free coffee at 7-11 till 11am. I must admit that making coffee is one of my first thoughts and actions every morning - I actually look forward to it. My Mom was always the first to rise and I would wake up each morning to the great smell of coffee and breakfast. There were only a couple of occasions when My Mom failed to get up. On one of those days I came into her room to see what was going on - she informed me that she was unable to get up because we were out of coffee! She sent me out with a few quarters to get her a cup!

So - what really gets me up in the morning - what should be foremost on my mind and heart as I prepare to enter a new day? Ephesians 2:10  says "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works ..." When I rise there should be a fresh shout of praise within my heart that I am His, that I am in Him, that He is reigning and at work, that He goes before me, and that my day is infused with value and purpose. That is what should get me up.

"Holy, Holy, Holy!

Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning

our song shall rise to Thee!

grace

My dad passed away yesterday afternoon. One of his favorite subjects was grace about which he talked frequently. Yet ... my dad, like many of us, seemed to resist grace's full experience. I am thankful that today he is enjoying its fullest measure but grace is for us today  - completely.

Ephesians 1:6 declares "... to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely

bestowed on us in the Beloved."

We embrace His grace for salvation but often try to diminish its power in living. His grace - all of it - is poured out on us today! We diminish its tangible impact by embracing condemnation (which Romans tells us has no place in the life of the believer), by saying that we can only experience it in heaven (2 Cor. 8:9 says we can know His grace fully now), or by believing the lie that we "get" more grace as we get "more right" with God. Truth is, grace is greater and better than we have ever imagined. It is abundant, always present, given not in increments but poured on us always and completely, and it is "freely" given - never added to by what we do right or lessened by what we don't do. There is nothing else like it! Today God has fitted and made you to reflect the praise of the glory of His grace - enjoy His gift - share His gift.

disorder

Last week I missed two appointments - I completely forgot about them. The first time I am under my car trying to line up a new alternator and my cell phone rings - "Chris, where are you?" The second time, a day later, my cell phone rings while I am shopping at Safeway - "Hi Pastor Chris, where are you?" I mess up many things but I never miss appointments! So I began to ask myself - "Chris, where are you?"

I have a few personal indicators when something is not right in my life - a messy car, a trashed closet, an unbalanced checkbook, and now - missed appointments. They usually show that I am running through my day rather than walking with Him in my day... that I am being pressed through my responsibilities rather than being led into my responsibilities ... that I am "scrambling to make a play" rather than listening to Jesus "call the plays". (note the appropriate football metaphor)

This struggle happens frequently - these sabbath patterns that I seek and speak about slip away all too often. My response - as it was last week - is to "catch up", bring order, pull it together, get ahead of the game.... When things piled up on Jesus and life pressed in - He got away, He "did" less, He stopped! (Mark 6:31-32) It is the opposite of what I tend to do. It should be noted that He did not stop and become inactive but He stops and it results in better activity, intentional ministry, working that flows from a place of quietness.

So, missed appointments are not a cause for panic but a call to Jesus, a call that we should hear each day.

God

Last Sunday we began our study of the nature and character of God. Even thinking that we can categorize Him and study Him like a subject just doesn't seem to sit well with me. We are called to "know Him" so our study has a good rational, but it is important that we see this as a small step, a pressing towards Him as we wait for His revelation of Himself through the Spirit. The Lord reveals Himself both propositionally - information/truth about Himself - as well as personally - a revelation of Himself and a call to relationship. He does both. As we saw last week, not only does God reveal - He also conceals. We cannot know everything about God nor can we ever say we know Him to the fullest depths of relationship. We continually grow both in our knowledge of Him as well as our awareness of  "how unsearchable" He is. (Rom. 11:33)

In Acts 17, Paul describes the Lord as one that "does not live in temples built by hands" - He is wholly other than us. Yet, Paul also describes Him as "he is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being." I love this aspect of God... that I can experience His very real presence and grow in knowing Him and yet at the same time He is transcendent - unconfined - unhindered - absolutely free. We can never plumb the "depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God." And what should be our response? The same as Paul's in Romans 11:36 - "To Him be the glory forever! Amen"