Patience & Joy In The Same Sentence

In the morning on April 13, God was speaking to me about how through His mighty power I can be empowered for "all endurance and patience with joy" (Col 1:11). This I find significant given that in our society patience and joy are not two things that you find in the same sentence or in the ordinary description of our human experience. 

Often patience is something you have to endure or put up with. But to accompany it with joy is a whole different reality. Likewise, when you find joy in a person, it is frequently associated with some realization or an expectation that has been fulfilled, not something you are still waiting for. The joy you may experience while enjoying that fabulous meal is not the same as the joy of waiting while the meal is being prepared while you starve.  Paul assures us that through God's mighty power two things are possible: "all endurance and patience with joy".

How are we doing in terms of enduring in all things?

How are we doing in experiencing joy while waiting patiently for something that seems so remote, distant or impossible?

These questions can bridge our current reality with the promise the Apostle Paul reminds us of here. The mighty power of God will make possible for us to endure all things and to wait patiently with some measure of joy. This promise is reinforced in the immediate context by pointing out that endurance and patience with joy are fertilized by our thanksgiving. Paul also adds that our heavenly Father has qualified us to inherit what belongs only to His saints. He has made possible for us to live differently because He has transferred us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son Jesus. The point is that if God has already accomplished through Jesus the hardest part --our redemption-- how much more would He be committed to suppling what we need to live in a manner that is worthy of the Lord? (verse 10): fully pleasing Him, bearing fruit and increasing in our knowledge of God. Let us not underestimate the fact that enduring in all things and waiting patiently with joy are fruits that bring honor to our Father.

• May God help us believe His promises.
• May He supply what we need to endure in all things and experience a measure of joy while we wait patiently for His redemptive purposes.
• May we be more and more willing to surrender our own definitions of life and the ways we employ to secure such forms of life.

Diego Cuartas

#ChaoticClay #InTheHandsOf #PraiseWorthyPotter

I will confess, I'm not a follower of Twitter, I don't know the first thing about the hashtag revolution, nor am I on the latest social media escapades. I do post frequently on Facebook and love seeing pictures of people and what's going on in their lives, especially family across the country. I recently saw a post on Facebook that depicted this guy sitting with Jesus. The caption read something about following Twitter and Jesus saying 'No, I mean really following me!'

Well, I recently wrote a devotional for the upcoming Women's Retreat but thought it would be worth posting for everyone. So here it is! I hope it helps you wherever you are on your journey of life.

“Yet you Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”  Isaiah 64:8

If you are reading the above verse, thank you for being willing to set time aside to meet with God! I want to affirm you have made a great choice, and I also want to help you walk through this activity we tend to call a devotional. Now, to be honest, this word devotional, or devo to some, brings up many reactions. Here are just a few:

1.     The feeling of confusion because it is a fancy word that not everyone in the world uses except Christians, or so it seems.

2.     The feeling of guilt because it reminds folks of what they tend to be weak in.

3.     The feeling of anger because they faithfully have their devotion each day, but it seems like God is not giving any answers.

4.     The feeling of comfort because they spent time with God and He, somehow, in His own way, met them where they were and He spent time with them, bringing comfort. Maybe not answers yet, but comfort.

Well, I want to invite you to learn some cool ways to spend time with God. Since God made you, knew your story before time began, knows every chapter of your story, as well as the end of your story. He seems like the One to spend time with in order to learn our next steps on this journey we call life.

There are many ways we can spend time with God, but here are two different ways I would like to introduce to you:

1. One way I love spending time with God is very similar to the way I spend time with my best friend.  I talk, she listens, and then she talks and I listen. I cannot do ALL the talking; otherwise I am not creating space for her to express herself. How much more important for me to talk to God and create space for Him to talk back to me because He is the Potter and I am His Clay. Now, here is where people get angry because they want Him to operate on their timeline. He doesn't. His timing is perfect, and He wants us to love spending time with Him without an agenda. We must learn that He loves us SO much and WILL speak AND move when it's time. TRUST is a biggie here. Many of us have learned we cannot trust because of getting hurt, but God is different. He will not hurt you at all. He is not even capable of hurting you because He is perfect, sinless, faithful and Holy. Hurt comes out of brokenness and sin, neither of which is a characteristic God has. That's Great News!
2. The next way is called The ACTS model: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.

            A.  Adoration- Say things out loud to God about how much you adore Him. Characteristics of God like Holy, Beautiful, Perfect - words of Adoration.

            C.  Confession- Talk to Him about the things you have done wrong. Ask Him to forgive you for those things. This means confessing your sins.

            T.  Thanksgiving - Say out loud, “Thank You God for (these specific things).” Learn to become a thankful person. 

            S. Supplication- Now, after all of the above, you ask God for the things you would like help with.

These are just two of the many ways we can spend time with God. I hope these will be helpful tools for you to practice as you move toward building a relationship with your Potter, God.

Lois Robinso

Choosing

Not too many years ago I saw in a Philadelphia paper an article about the ongoing effort to capture a swan which was swimming in the Wissahickon, not far from where I grew up. For quite a while it had eluded all efforts of the Park officials to net it. The reason they wanted so badly to reach it was that someone had shot an arrow at this bird, and the arrow was still protruding from both sides of its breast.

My brother and I knew every tree and every rock in our area of those woods and our part of the huge Fairmont Park; our bikes took us everywhere. We just knew which big streets we weren’t allowed to cross, and my brother was older, so he had a watch. Younger folks do get very weary of hearing about “the good old days,” but I’m almost 85, and I know. They were better.

It was perfectly safe to turn us loose in the great outdoors and tell us to be home by supper. We rode the Chestnut Hill Local into the city for art classes at 9 and 10 without adults. We wandered the woods behind our house; we made clover chains and festooned my bike. We all put on impromptu plays on the tennis courts; we were free. And we were safe.

And we knew right from wrong. We knew all the kids in our neighborhood, even the “bad” ones we weren’t allowed to play with, and I can tell you this with certainty: not even the very worst of the very bad boys, who stole candy from the drug store, would ever have shot an arrow through the breast of a swan.

In today’s relativity there is no absolute right and wrong. Men can put on a dress and join little girls in the ladies’ room. Women can marry women, and men, men. And most awful of all, we kill babies, millions of babies, because we want to have unfettered sex without consequences. And those of us who want to shrink back in horror are the hated ones, the bigoted ones, the evil ones. We are despised because we stand in the way of “progress.”

So what in the world can we do?

We can pray.

The thing is, God told us all this was going to happen. It will get worse and worse. And the worse it gets, the more clearly the world is forced to see the evil, and each person will have to choose a side. This has to be part of God’s plan of redemption. Christ died so that we could make a choice! Certainly He wants no one to make the choice that will separate him or her from God for all eternity, and his grace and forgiveness is open to all who come to him.

But everyone chooses, and only God knows when it will be time for Him to say,

“ENOUGH!”

-Norma Stockton

Counseling is Discipleship

Five years ago I met Nate Howard at a Living Faith Alliance Church Sunday worship service.  After a few weeks or so, we met for a cup of coffee to swap stories and share our lives and ministries.  I remember Nate's eyes widening with a smile when I said to him, "Nate, counseling is so much more than therapy and diagnosis.  In fact, I don't really know too much about psychology.  I just love people.  And I believe that counseling is a relationship of training.  Counseling IS discipleship.  It IS an extension of the Great Commission and a big part of disciple making.  Counseling IS discipleship."  Following an honest smile, Nate said to me, "I'm glad to hear you say that, Thor.  I agree.  Counseling IS discipleship.  And here at Living Faith Alliance Church, we are committed to good Christian counseling.  We need strong counselors."  We continued to have a discussion that centered on the one to one ministry of biblical Christian counseling and pastoral care, not just for hurting and struggling people, but also for the lost, for the one wanting to grow spiritually and in God's Word, and for believers in Christ who may need marital counseling. You see, Nate knew that counseling is a form of discipleship for the body of Christ believers.

During that initial encounter, something else stood out.  Besides an operating spiritual discernment, our stories became linked because we "shared in the fellowship of sufferings."  These shared stories weren't full time of emotional sensationalism and typical cultural transparency.  They weren't meant to "tickle ears" or spoken with the guile of maneuver.  Instead, two "called but broken shepherds" shared some skin of life and some of the pains of family and of ministry.  This showed me that Nate and the leadership of LFA understood in discernment what I call "the theology of suffering."  (By the way, beware of the Christian leader who has a poor biblical understanding of the theology of suffering.  It usually reveals weak doctrine in other theologies such as the theology of sin and the theology of sanctification.  It shows the cracks in the foundation of biblical thinking.  These 'false teachers' rely on emotional experiences and the testimony of a works-righteousness more than they do God's Holy Word, denying the Sovereign LORD).   LFA is not only committed to making disciples but also preaches and teaches the Bible with strong conviction and wisdom.  God's Word is given an authority here at LFA that I rarely find in other churches.  As the truth is spoken, something greater from His Spirit is passed around at LFA.  I have witnessed truth, pain, relationships, growth, marital reconciliation, divorce's dilemma, redemption, broken families, suffering children, salvation, enlightened moments of discernment, spiritual renewal, [reproduced disciples who, in turn, disciple of others], stories and testimonies, abuses healed, church discipline, transformed hearts, and well-stewarded words, etc. - a witness to the work of King Jesus as He gains rule over the hearts of men and women no matter what the circumstance or situation.

What maybe Diego calls healing and restoration, I would agree and also term it "resurrection."  This IS this Gospel that we share.  It's not just an event; it is your life.  Counseling, strong biblical Christian pastoral counseling is more than discipleship.  It IS the Gospel of imparting resurrection to others.  But know this:  the task of resurrection is only preceded by a cross-bearing that requires us to weepingly walk through seasons of sadness and hurt with an empathy that has born the same.  This is the Gospel, but forgive me for starting to preach.  I love this stuff!  It gets me up in the morning because the joy of the LORD has been and is my strength.  The LORD has thundered and hammered that anvil into my life and continues to do so.  And like you, I await with patience for a greater resurrection.  I think CS Lewis and AW Tozer both knew that men and women who had suffered as believers in kingdom service were formidable foes to the the enemy of our souls, the devil called Satan the accuser.  This abrasive work of God's Spirit was like sandpaper to the bleeding heart of the suffering saint - which resulted in a greater created masterpiece - a resurrected one.  A servant of Christ.  A cross-bearing, cross born saint.  Resurrected saints live on mission and in turn produce resurrected saints.

When Nate and I met at the intersection of "cross-bearing," I believe the LORD catapulted a friendship of trust and pastoral camaraderie.  Whether Pastor Nate or the other pastors or many of you entrust the counseling needs of others to me, I do not take this lightly.  It is a blessed privilege to care for and speak into others.  It IS a calling; it is an entrustment - but like the Gospel, it is an unmerited favor and not deserved.  I don't say this with a false humility.  I say it with grateful privilege and honor.  I knew when Nate said to me all those years ago, "Well, how soon can you get here?!" that counseling is a huge part of discipleship here at LFA.  What Nate was really saying (paraphrased & interpreted - not quoted) was this:

1. Counseling is discipleship, and LFA is committed to it
2. We are committed to counseling individuals, marriages, and families
3. Suffering uniquely qualifies some to love and to serve and to wisely counsel others with empathy and truth and discernment
4. We need you here and are glad to have you here

By the way, as a note to leaders who serve with and over volunteers, Nate never ceases to thank me for the role that I am blessed and called to play in counseling at LFA.  I'm sure many others can identify with #4 above.  It's such a real encouragement to receive gratitude and have someone say, "I'm glad you're here."  Sheep need to hear this, and so do shepherds.  And know this, counseling isn't reserved for the private ministry of the Word behind a closed door.  David Powlison of CCEF has always said that "all of life is counseling."  I think he's right.  As you ponder this article of words, here are some questions to consider:

1. Do I need counseling as a form of discipleship training?
2. Is the Spirit of the Lord calling me toward talking to a counselor at LFA?
3. What stops me from obeying that call?  Why will I not invest in it?
4. Has your story of suffering shaped you for a greater ministry role?
5. Have I thanked someone who has impacted me for Christ or loved me well?
6. Who do I need to share a meal or cup of coffee with?

--Thor Knutstad, Pastoral Counselor