Come Spring! (a little fun-love-song)

Posted on June 18, 2020 by PastorDave

O! those mountains stand so tall and dark that lie across the way

and they seem to hold their hands up to the sky

just to keep me from my True Love who is on the other side!

but I ain’t one to despair – and here’s why…

‘cause come Spring, My Love, come Spring

I’m a-gonna cross those mountains high

and bring you back across here to live with me

and I’ll share with you my love ‘till the day that I die

on this you can depend

I’ll love you without end

– come Spring!

O! those mountains even now don’t separate you from my love

‘cause you’re with me in my heart and in my prayers

and come Spring those tall, forbidding peaks won’t be so tall at all!

‘cause I’m a-comin’ o’er the top

this bird they cannot stop

if I must I’ll tunnel through

any way just to get to you

– come Spring!

‘cause come Spring, My Love, come Spring

I’m a-gonna cross those mountains high

and bring you back across here to live with me

and I’ll share with you my love ‘till the day that I die

and I can’t wait to begin

on this you can depend

I’ll love you without end

– come Spring!

~dsp [1975]

BACKSTORY: I wrote this little fun-love-song for Debbie back during the loooong winter of 1975. Over the course of 1975, we had discovered and declared our love for each other and were engaged in August of that year. We planned our marriage for Spring of 1976 [June 18].

We were living 400 miles apart. I was pastoring in Alexander County, western North Carolina, and she was in Lexington KY. It was exactly 404 miles of ‘a long and winding road’ from my back door to her front door.

I would get on I-40 at Statesville NC, go west to Asheville and then to Knoxville – at Knoxville, I would turn north on I-75 to Lexington. And, it was mountains and hills all the way.

When I would step out of my house and longingly look west in the direction of where she was [which I often did], all I could see was hills and mountains – and I knew there were more and more beyond these.

In fact, this picture is the first range of hills that I would encounter after leaving my driveway. This picture was taken just outside the back door of the parsonage I was living in at the time [and where I would bring her back across to live with me]. These are the Brushy Mountains. Then, as I headed west through Hickory, I would come to Asheville and Black Mountain. More … and bigger … mountains. Then, on to Tennessee and drive for miles through what I call “Tennessee mountain passes” where I-40 actually snakes and spirals up and down around the sides of the mountains – and a couple tunnels thrown in to add to the fun. Get to Knoxville and head north to Lexington, and you’ll go up and down the mountains and hills of Eastern Kentucky all the way to Lexington.

So, you get the picture – that’s why I imagined that all these mountains and hills were just trying to hold their hands up to the sky to block me and keep me from my True Love who was on the other side. But, they couldn’t, and they didn’t. ‘Cause I did cross all those tall peaks, and I did bring her back across to live with me … come Spring!  

So, I wrote her this little fun-love-song over that winter, and I would sing it to her with the accompaniment of my autoharp. I composed the tune I sang it to – it’s never been written down because I can’t write music. So, nobody else knows the tune except for us. Maybe that’s a good thing. On some of those end-words to some of the lines [like, for example, “who is on the other siiiiiide,” “till the day that I diiiiiiie,” “won’t be so tall at aaaaallllll,”] I would stretch those words out and kind of wail them with inflections of notes, kind of like a slow yodel.

But, I will spare you that…

Posted in Debbie, dsp poems/songs, For Debbie, Love songs, Poems | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

FOLLOWING JESUS – the sequel

Posted on May 24, 2020 by PastorDave

24 May 2020

I am smack in the middle of the third anniversary of probably the most transitional week of my life, and especially of my ministry (and I’m including my wife in this also since we are in and do everything together – she is always ‘the other part of me’).

Transitional, in that it changed pretty much everything I had known and done for the previous 45 years leading up to that week – three years ago.

Today is a Lord’s Day, and I am probably thinking about it more today because three years ago in 2017, that most transitional week was book-ended by two Lord’s Days: 21 May and 28 May. On 21 May, I announced and gave the church I was pastoring a one-week notice that I would be resigning the next Lord’s Day, 28 May … to be effective immediately.

And that’s how the transition turned.

It was such a momentous transition because when I got up on Monday morning, 29 May 2017, for the first time in 45 years, I was not a church pastor in some capacity or another. I assumed my first church pastorate on Wednesday night, 4 July 1973. I had pastored ever since. I was used to preaching and teaching multiple times every week. Then, on that Monday morning after resigning my last pastorate, I was like, “OK, what do I (we) do now? Where do we go from here?”

We had not made any advance plans for this transition. But, we had already made some commitments:

[1] We were going to follow Jesus wherever He chose to lead us and place us

[2] We were going to continue serving Jesus in whatever tasks and responsibilities He would be pleased to assign to us  

[3] and – it would be in the context and fellowship of a local church body … yet, at that moment, unknown to us

Everything I did was done in the context of “following Jesus.”

I had adopted as “My One Word”1 for 2017 the word “follow” because I sensed going into 2017 that life-turning changes and transitions of some order would likely be coming our way over the course of the year.

They did.

So, when I made my announcement that I would be resigning the next Lord’s Day, I preached my message that morning from John 12.26:

If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Of course, verse 26 is in the larger context of especially verses 20-26:

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

So, I developed my message in these three steps:

  1. verse 24 – A Parable to learn (a parable about following) – the seed falling into the ground and dying to grow fruit – of course, if you follow Jesus, that’s where you must go because that’s where He is going (see verses 27-33)
  2. verse 25 – A Priority to apply – about being willing to ‘lose’ your life to yourself by living to follow Christ
  3. verse 26 – A Life-Plan to follow [1] follow Jesus [2] serve where Jesus wants to work through you [3] you will please the Father when you follow Jesus

Here is the message I preached to announce our intention to follow Jesus wherever the next step would lead us … with Him!

https://daveparksblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/following-jesus/

So, as I say, here three years later, I’m thinking about it a lot.

However, I’m thinking about it all in a contented and thankful way. Following Jesus is always the rewarding and joyful step to take.

“All the way, my Savior leads me; what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy who through life has been my Guide?” ~Fanny J. Crosby

“He leadeth me, O blessed thought! O word with heavenly comfort fraught!” ~Joseph H. Gilmore

I must say that neither of us (my wife, Debbie, and me) had any fore-intention of taking any of the further steps to follow Jesus that He has led us into. We didn’t know – had no idea whatever – what our next step(s) would be. But, we trusted Jesus and followed Him. Where we are now and what we are doing now was not at all in our line of sight and vision.

It was not our foresight … it was Jesus’! “For He Himself knew what He would do!” (John 6.6) We had not even looked in the direction of the compass where Jesus has led us.

But, it has been – and is – a happy trail to walk in. Jesus promised it would be when He said, “and where I am, there will My servant be also.”

The road we have taken over the past three years was not only a road we had previously not taken, and not only was it a road that we had no idea of taking, but we followed Jesus when He pointed us to it and led us in it.

“And that has made all the difference!”2

1 If you don’t know what “My One Word” is, you can learn about it here: https://www.amazon.com/My-One-Word-Change-Your-ebook/dp/B008EGUFF2

2 “The Road Not Taken” – poem by Robert Frost

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Jesus Christ, The Gospel, and Reconciliation

Posted on September 19, 2019 by PastorDave

Jesus Christ, The Gospel, and Reconciliation

The following quotation is from Darrell L. Bock [Tyndale New Testament Commentaries] on Ephesians 2.14-16. While this textual commentary speaks of the conflict, divide, tensions, and even hatred [one of the meanings of the word Paul uses translated here ‘hostility’] that was then-current between Jews and Gentiles, the same truth applies to any and every other conceivable root of bitterness and division that may exist among us. In fact, we might argue, that we don’t know and have any prejudices among us that would even come close to rivaling the Jew vs. Gentile racial/ethnic/religious/cultural hostilities they held toward one another.

Yet, Jesus Christ and The Gospel of His Cross creates a brand new ‘man’ or humanity or ‘race’ or community or ‘new creation’ people group – unique and distinct all to itself, unified, and made to be without distinction “in Christ.”

For my own understanding, I call this the New Covenant Race Theory [see Bock’s sentence below: “It is a new race in which the weaving together of that which had been separate is clear.”]

Read here what Bock says about their reconciliation by way of one-ness in Jesus Christ – and ‘go and do likewise’ in all our diverse relationships with one another. Not to do so is to reject and disobey this work Christ died to work in us [Ephesians 2.10].

14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 

Here is Bock:

“The results of Jesus’ death on the cross changed the world and the potential relationships between people: that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.

This is the first of two purposes Paul notes for Jesus’ work. Jesus has formed a new community. Just as if one is in Christ, one is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), so with Jesus’ work there is a new community in the world.

The new man is humanity reformed, no longer tied to Adam but now in Christ, incorporated into the new people God is forming from Him.

Colossians 3.10 also uses this image, and in that context we are told that in the ‘new man’ there are no distinguished groups of people but all share an identity focused on Christ.

This is part of the workmanship God created us to be (Ephesians 2:10; the Greek verb ktizo, to create, is used in both verses).

Both Jews and Gentiles who believe and benefit from what Christ has done are moved into this new entity. The picture is not of Gentiles becoming Jews or simply moving into their space. Those who were near and those who were far are both now brought into something new, which is why Paul calls it the one new man…

It is a new race in which the weaving together of that which had been separate is clear.

This has been called the ‘third’ race, neither Jew nor Gentile, though we are to retain the understanding that God has woven these two together in a way that allows us to see the two made one.

There is no segregation in Christ, even in the midst of recognizing a distinction in where each group came from before being united, for reconciliation is only clear when the former estrangement is appreciated.

“Gentiles are not made into Jews or vice versa. They are who they are and yet they now function side by side and together, with Christ uniting them rather than the law dividing them.”

In practice, this will allow each group some measure of distinction, as opposed to homogeneity (Romans 14-15). Gentiles are not made into Jews or vice versa. They are who they are and yet they now function side by side and together, with Christ uniting them rather than the law dividing them.

“Their bond of oneness transcends the distinctions they also might have in some everyday practices.”

Their bond of oneness transcends the distinctions they also might have in some everyday practices. This reconciliation is available only to those who embrace what God has offered, for this deliverance into reconciliation comes by faith (vv. 8-10).

There is no idea in Paul of a dual covenant whereby Jews and Gentiles are saved by distinct paths to God. All roads come in and through Christ.”

Let it be!

Posted in Ephesians 2.14-16, I've been thinking, Reconciliation, The Gospel | Leave a comment

O God! You are my God!

Posted on February 24, 2019 by PastorDave

Psalm 63.1-4

A Davidic psalm. When he was in the Wilderness of Judah.

1 God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You.
I thirst for You; my body faints for You in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.

2 So I gaze on You in the sanctuary to see Your strength and Your glory.

3 My lips will glorify You because Your faithful love is better than life.

4 So I will praise You as long as I live; at Your name, I will lift up my hands.

David is praying this prayer of worship – and exclaiming this confession of his undying and unwavering devotion to God – NOT while he was on his way to worship before God in the tabernacle/tent he had built for God to house the beloved and venerable Ark of the Covenant.

NO! David is hurriedly evacuating Jerusalem – picking up whatever he could carry with him and fleeing his palace and City of God because his son, Absalom, has staged a deep-state coup against him, and is even now on his way to Jerusalem with his gang of conspirators to occupy the throne, the kingdom, and the capital city.

David has even sent back the beloved Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. When Abiathar and Zadok had followed King David out of the city in the train of evacuees – with the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant – David sent them back to the city.

2 Samuel 15.25-26 ~ Then the king instructed Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the LORD’s eyes, He will bring me back and allow me to see both it and its dwelling place. 26 However, if He should say, ‘I do not delight in you,’ then here I am—He can do with me whatever pleases Him.”

Such was David’s absolute submission to God’s sovereign pleasure and will with him. “Whether I return to Jerusalem and all that I’m leaving behind…or not – that is the LORD’s call. He can do with me whatever pleases Him.”

But, it was THEN – and in those seasons and circumstances of devastating loss and deprivation – that David exclaimed: “O GOD, YOU ARE MY GOD!”

And, he knew and was confident, even as he headed further and further into the barren wilderness wasteland that GOD WOULD BE THERE! He would still meet God at the intersection of his desires and God’s steadfast love [verse 3].

He couldn’t go to the Tabernacle House of God, he couldn’t appear and worship before the physical Ark of the Covenant where God manifested His dwelling place – BUT HE WOULD STILL DESIRE GOD AND GOD WOULD SATISFY THE DESIRES OF HIS HEART…WITH HIMSELF AND HIS STEADFAST LOVE!

So, even in the wilderness – DAVID WILL SEEK THE LORD AND LIFT HIS HANDS IN DEVOTION, WORSHIP, AND PRAISE!

So, even right now – I have no idea what sort of ‘wilderness’ you may be wandering in – what deprivation you are suffering – what sort of ‘dry and weary land where there is no water’ landscape you may be looking at.

COME TO WORSHIP! God will meet your destitute and impoverished soul with His riches of Grace in the Gospel of Christ!

Psalm 63.5 ~ You satisfy me as with rich food; my mouth will praise You with joyful lips.

And, God will satisfy your deepest needs for Him, too!

If you are interested in viewing/listening to a message I preached from Psalm 63 in one of our church’s Midweek services – here is the link:

Posted in I've been thinking, Psalm 63, Worship | Leave a comment

Six years ago today – and still ‘transfixed on Jesus’ Face’!

Posted on February 10, 2019 by PastorDave

dsp.PIC.Dad-full-head-shotToday is The Lord’s Day, February 10, 2019.

I am noting the date and day because today is the sixth anniversary (2013) of our Dad’s dying from here and going Home to Heaven and entering the Presence of Christ.

I insist on calling his physical death “dying from here” because for a Christian and a believer in Jesus Christ, physical death is only “dying from here.”

Physical death for a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ is not a cessation from being or existence. Nor are we zapped into nothingness or ether.

It is only “dying from here” to be transitioned to the Presence of Christ.

This is what God promises us in the Scriptures.

“So, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight, 8 and we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord.” [2 Corinthians 5.6-8 HCSB]

So, when our Dad “died from here,” he just transitioned from living here in his physical body of flesh and blood [he always called it “this tabernacle of clay”] to living in the body Christ has prepared for him in Heaven.

So, as I was saying, that was six years ago today.

And, six years ago, February 10 was on a Lord’s Day also. I remember it so well.

But, today, six years later, I am feeling much more emotional about that day six years ago than I remember feeling on any of the other 2,190 days since then.

On that day Dad died from here, I think that, honestly, all we could feel was thanksgiving to God for releasing and relieving him from the sufferings that eventually led to his death. His last days were excruciatingly painful for him – and for us to have to witness it. His body had so deteriorated that it was starting to break down with him still barely breathing inside it. He would cry out in pain every time someone touched him to care for him.

And so, when the Lord finally called him to walk that last final stretch of ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ and into the blazing light of Glory, we could only rejoice and be happy for him – and thank God for finally receiving him Home to His Presence.

I also remember so well how the church services went that day as we were waiting for his going Home. I announced that morning in the church I was pastoring at the time that I had been talking with our family caring for Dad, and that his condition was moment-by-moment. [I was in Kentucky – they were in North Carolina.]

That morning, in our song-worship, we sang Matt Redman’s song “Ten Thousand Reasons” or “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

We sang that third stanza:

“And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still, my soul will sing Your praise unending –
Ten thousand years and then forevermore”

…and as I am singing those words, I am thinking of our Dad’s last strength failing, his end drawing near, his time coming – but ‘still his soul will sing God’s praise unending – ten thousand years and then forevermore!’

My heart was so full of praise to God that this is so – and our Dad was about to enter into it!

This is true! This is our reality in times of physical death from here! This is God’s Grace! This is God’s Promise in Christ! This is our assurance and our hope!

I got word just later in the afternoon of that day that Dad had breathed his last breath here, and was in the Presence of Christ.

When we returned for our evening service, one of our brothers met me in the entrance hallway, and asked, “Dave, how’s your Dad?” I wanted to wait until I could announce and tell everyone at the same time, so I stalled him and replied, “Thank you for asking – he’s about the same.”

When the service started, and I got up to speak, I looked at this brother and called him by name, and said, “Brother, when you asked me a few minutes ago how Dad is, I told you ‘he’s about the same.’ I lied to you. He is not ‘about the same’ – he is ‘far better!’”

I then quoted the apostle Paul in Philippians 1.21-23 [HCSB]:

“For me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 22 Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. 23 I am pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ—which is far better…”

 Then I went to describe how “far better” Dad actually “is” from Psalm 16.11 [HCSB]:

“You reveal the path of life to me;
in Your Presence is abundant joy;
in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.”

All of that is why we felt mostly just joy for him – imagining as best we could the ‘path of life’ he was seeing, the ‘abundant fullness of joy’ he was enjoying in Christ’s very Presence, and the ‘eternal pleasures’ he was beginning to discover and explore! And, all the while, “still my soul will sing Your praise unending – ten thousand years and then forevermore – FOREVERMORE!”

So, that brings me to today, February 10, 2019. For some reason, this sixth anniversary has been more emotional than any of the previous anniversaries – or other days – since.

Not sad – just emotional.

Then, it suddenly hit me during our worship service today. We are singing again about seeing Christ – personally, face-to-face.

This morning, it was while singing “Praise the Name of the Lord our God.”

Fourth stanza:  

“He shall return in robes of white
The blazing sun shall pierce the night
And I will rise among the saints
My gaze transfixed on Jesus’ Face!”

So, I’m already thinking about Dad anyway – and I could see him – there in the very Personal Presence of Jesus Christ Himself – singing some adaptation of that line:

“My gaze transfixed on Jesus’ Face!”

Then I understood that what has been making me so emotional today is that I am believing, I am realizing, I am actualizing, I am fore-tasting that THIS IS SO!

When we die from here, we really do enter the Presence of Jesus Christ!

We really do – and will – see His Face!

To die from here and to be absent from this physical body really is to be present with the Lord!

And so, the emotions that I am feeling today are the exultations of assurance, the stirrings of hope, and the anticipations of my own joy when I will join Dad and all the others who will be there with us –

“My gaze transfixed on Jesus’ Face!”

And, I like it!      

Posted in Dad, For My Father, I've been thinking | Leave a comment

Why is praying so hard?

Posted on February 8, 2019 by PastorDave

WHY IS PRAYING SO HARD?

We all know that we must pray. We are commanded to pray.

And, praying is not just a duty, it is our means of personal, interactive communion with God.

And, truth be told, we want to pray. For those of us who are born-again children of God, there is an inner longing to pray. There is a constant reaching out to God – to touch the invisible.

But, why is it so difficult to pray?

I have some reasons why it is so hard for ME to pray. You may or may not identify with these, or you may struggle with your own hindrances to praying.

But, for me:

PRAYING IS HARD BECAUSE I CAN’T SEE WHAT’S GOING ON

God promises and assures us over and over in His Word that He hears us when we pray. And that our praying not only reaches the ears of the LORD OF ARMIES [Hosts/Sabaoth], but that He responds and answers back. [see Daniel 9.23 & 10.12]

He does things here in our world in response to our praying. [see, for example, Psalm 18]

But, we can’t see that happening. It’s all going on in the realms of God’s Providence. And, God may take His sweet, wise, and gracious time in responding to our praying.

In the meantime, here I am – still calling on Him for things that I am persuaded are His will.

But, since I can’t see that happening, I get discouraged. I don’t want to think I am just praying and pleading into the air!

PRAYING IS HARD BECAUSE I’M NOT IN CONTROL

I am a control-freak because I am a human being.

All of us broken, fallen, sinful human beings are control-freaks in that we want our own way. I am, by my fallen Adam-nature, a “Me-centered” creature. I want my life my way – and I want it NOW!

And, if I can’t make it happen the way I want it to happen, then I’ll try to get God to do it for me.

Even when I am praying, I find myself wanting to tell God what I want instead of praying like Jesus taught us to pray by His own example, “Not my will, but Yours, be done.”

But, I am not in charge or in control of any of my praying.

In fact, if I was in charge or control of anything, I probably would not be praying to begin with. If I was in charge or control of the matter, I would have already done or would be doing it.

My lack of control makes it necessary for me to pray – and it makes it hard for me to pray.

But, that is the very reason I must pray. Because God is the God here. He is the One who is in charge and in control of all things.

PRAYING IS HARD BECAUSE I FEEL MY UNWORTHINESS TO PRAY

I know what Solomon meant when he prayed at the dedication of the Temple in 1 Kings 8.38-39:

“…whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, 39 then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind)…”

“Each knowing the affliction of his own heart,” or as the KJV renders it, “which shall know every man the plague of his own heart.”

Oh, yes! this man knows ‘the plague of his own heart’! And, it makes my praying hard.

I am intimidated from approaching the Sovereign Holiness of God while knowing the plague of sin that rages in my own heart!

But, that is why we pray! In fact, in that very prayer in 1 Kings 8, Solomon’s theme and thread that ties this whole Temple dedication prayer together is the thread that we will turn to God and pray when we have sinned – and God will forgive…He promises!

But, I have to preach this to myself over and over. My bad conscience makes it hard for me to pray.

PRAYING IS HARD BECAUSE I KNOW MY OWN WEAKNESSES

Of course – I am weak!

Again, it is the very sense of my very weakness that drives me to pray in spite of the difficulty of the very praying.

I pray best when I pray desperate.

And, that, too, is by God’s design. He makes me weak – He makes me desperate – He makes me needy – He breaks me from thinking I am strong and “I’ve got this” so I will fall upon Him and His mercy!

And, He is always there!

And so – rather than being discouraged and hindered and intimidated from praying by all these human frailties – I should be emboldened and encouraged by them – TO PRAY!

Hebrews 4.14-16 ~ Since then we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the Throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

LET’S PRAY!

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DAILY TIME WITH GOD – “Let me see your face, let me hear your voice!”

Posted on February 5, 2019 by PastorDave

DAILY TIME WITH GOD

When our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray, He instructed us to get alone with our Father – just Him and me – and shut down and shut out all the other distractions to my attention, and pray to Him in that ‘secret place.’

Matthew 6.6 [CSB] ~ “But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

That’s what Jesus promised. Your Father is actually, really, Personally in the secret place and with you in the exercise of our praying to Him.

And, He wants to meet with you there. He delights in you and delights to spend time with you.

In the Song of Solomon, the bridegroom [the man, the husband] calls out to his beloved bride [the woman, the wife] in the most passionate and endearing of terms – as he appeals to her to respond to his call to come and meet him and spend some time with him…he is really missing her and the pleasure of being with her!

Song of Solomon 2.14 [CSB] ~ “My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crevices of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”

Can you not hear the voice and the call of our Father in those same passionate words of invitation?

OUR FATHER DELIGHTS IN US –

HE DELIGHTS IN OUR COMPANY –

HE WANTS TO SPEND TIME WITH US –

ESPECIALLY IN OUR PRAYING TO HIM!

If my Father so delights in me – and so passionately wants to see my face and hear my voice – then He is certainly worthy of my shutting down all the other distracting voices and shutting the door on the competitors trying to snatch my attention – and delight in Him in times of private prayer.

That’s why, for the past many years, I have chosen to call the time I devote each day to meeting the God who is “there” and who is “here” with me – I have chosen to call that time my Daily Time With God.

He wants to see my face! And He wants to hear my voice!

And I certainly want – and need – to see His Face of Pleasure and hear His Voice of Life!

How loving and gracious He is to promise to meet me and spend time with me!

Posted in Delighting in God, I've been thinking, Prayer | Leave a comment

O, the pure delight!

Posted on February 1, 2019 by PastorDave

I am fascinated by Jesus Christ’s praying.

He was, of course, the Perfect Pray-er.

And, I should be imploring Him to teach me to pray just like His disciples implored Him [Luke 11.1].

But, I am interested and intrigued by what most motivated Jesus to pray? What were His strongest and most compulsive impulses to pray to God, His Father?

Why did Jesus pray?

  • It was not to confess His sins because He had no sins to confess.
  • It was not totally because He didn’t know what He should do – because He did know why He had come into the world.
  • It was not totally because He had no power, ability, or strength to accomplish what He did know that He should do – though He always prayed in cooperation and conformity to His Father’s will.

So – if Jesus did NOT pray for those reasons, then why DID Jesus pray?

Like this, for example:

Luke 6.12 [HCSB] ~ During those days He went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.

WHY? What did He pray about? What was He thinking and saying to God, His Father, during those hours of praying?

Or this time:

Matthew 14.22-23 [HCSB] ~ Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. 23 After dismissing the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone. [see also Mark 6.45-46 & John 6.15]

Again, WHY? WHY did He go off by Himself into the secluded mountain terrain to pray? What was He thinking and saying during those hours alone with God, His Father?

Mark will give us a clue into the answer to this question – and the same clue is repeated also in Matthew and Luke. The previous setting up of this ‘prayer get-away’ [that Jesus eventually, late in the day, got around to] is that Jesus had been trying to get away from the demands of the crowds and their needs, and the pressing stresses of His daily ministry activities in order to find some much-needed and much-desired time alone with His Father!

Mark 6.30-33 [HCSB] tells us what was first order of business on that day’s agenda:

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, 33 but many saw them leaving and recognized them. People ran there by land from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

Do you see that? Jesus was actually trying to get away from the pressing demands and activities of His daily ministry for some time alone with His Father!

Then – that’s when what we know as “the feeding of the 5000” interrupted and ‘hijacked’ His “quiet time” with God!

So – when Jesus finally DID get back to His priority activity – i.e., time alone with God & praying to His Father – DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTION AT ALL WHAT HIS MOTIVATION AND PRESSING IMPULSE FOR PRAYING WAS – AND WHAT HE WAS THINKING AND SAYING DURING THESE SOLITARY SEASONS OF PRAYER?

It was this:

THE PRIMARY REASON AND MOTIVATION FOR WHY JESUS HIMSELF PRAYED WAS: TO DELIGHT IN GOD!

Jesus prayed TO DELIGHT IN THE PRESENCE, IN THE WILL, IN THE PLEASURE OF HIS FATHER!

And, that is our lesson: SO SHOULD WE!

Our first and foremost and most pressing motivation, our most driving desire, our most compulsive impulse for our praying should be: TO DELIGHT IN GOD’S PRESENCE, GOD’S WILL, AND GOD’S PLEASURE!

We sing, saying that it is!

“O the pure delight of a single hour

that before Thy Throne I spend

when I kneel in prayer and with Thee, my God,

I commune as friend with Friend”

~ Fanny J. Crosby, “I am Thine, O Lord”

Yet, we may question ourselves:

  • “Do I delight in God to that degree?
  • Do I even know enough about God that I could delight in Him for a single hour?
  • Do I prefer the delight of God’s Presence and company more than everything else I could be doing to give that time to be delighting in Him?”

Make some time today to DELIGHT IN GOD!

It will not ‘just happen.’ You will never, ever, ‘find time to pray and delight in God’ any more than Jesus could ‘find time to pray.’

You will have to do what Jesus did – MAKE TIME TO SPEND ALONE WITH GOD!

But, the delight you enjoy and receive from that dedicated communion will make you wonder why you have waited so long – and why you don’t enjoy delighting in Him more often!

Posted in Delighting in God, I've been thinking, Prayer | Leave a comment

Jesus – tempted like we are!

Posted on January 22, 2019 by PastorDave

jesus-facedown-gethsemane

Jesus was tempted just like we are!

Just like Jesus – you, too, can expect the fiercest, most vicious attacks of temptation to sin – especially during those seasons when you are most fervently committing yourself to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin” [Hebrews 4.15]

Since Jesus Christ Himself is our Supreme Example and Model to follow in our own temptations to sin – then you, too, can expect our Adversary to mount his most fierce and ferocious attacks against you to tempt you to sin – even in those same seasons when you may be most fervent in committing yourself to love the LORD, your God, with all your heart.

Just anticipate it, expect it, prepare for it.

Just witness our Lord Jesus Christ.

When did He face the two most vicious and violent temptations to break the covenant of love and obedience He had made with His Father?

[1] Was it not following His baptism and public commitment of His life to do His Father’s will [Matthew 3.13-17]?  Matthew and Luke both highlight the intersection of Jesus’ baptism and His crisis temptation experience in the wilderness [Matthew 4.1 & Luke 4.1-2]. Luke even includes that “Then Jesus left the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit…”  Jesus’ commitment of His life to love God with all His heart [as testified by His baptism] immediately set the stage to be tempted by the devil to violate that very commitment He had just made.

In fact, Jesus answered the devil’s temptations by quoting the First and Greatest Commandment of all: to love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength [Deuteronomy 6.4-5 & 13].

The point being: when you, too, make the same commitment to renew and refresh your commitment to love God with all your heart, then don’t be surprised when the most vile, the most vehement, the most vicious temptations rise up and begin to rage in your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires!

Even Jesus’ “being filled with the Holy Spirit” did not prevent Him from being assaulted with temptations by the Evil One to violate that covenant of love and obedience He had just confessed to the Father by His baptism.

And, it will not prevent you from being tempted with the vilest of sins that the Adversary can mount against you.

[2] And was Jesus not violently tempted to sin also in the Garden of Gethsemane as He was making His final commitment to the death on the Cross?

This season of temptation had been raging in His soul for days before! In John 12.27-28, Jesus had passionately groaned out: “Now my soul is troubled! What should I say – ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But that is why I came to this hour. ‘Father, glorify Your Name!’”

And, then, He comes to Gethsemane. He knows He is facing the violent temptations of
Satan against His very soul and mission.

Gethsemane is the Rubicon of Redemption. He must cross over to go on to the Cross.

But, He will have to fight the struggles of temptation to get there.

Matthew 26.36-39 “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is swallowed up in sorrow—to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with Me.” 39 Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”

He was being tempted to opt for another, less painful, way to save His people from their sins.  His temptation on that occasion was no intense and severe that He sweat blood from the pores of His skin [Luke 22.44].

Temptation to sin is always disturbing, unsettling, traumatic. And, especially when we are blind-sided during seasons when we think we are seeking God and enjoying the fellowship of love that we so passionately desire.

Those assaults of pride, self-will, desires of all evil sorts [“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions”] can make us question whether we can even have Grace at all and still entertain such violent struggles at the same time?

Just remember: Jesus was tempted also…just like you are being tempted! He also was tempted in every way as we are – yet without sin!

“Therefore, let us approach the Throne of Grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need!” [Hebrews 4.15-16]

During the seasons of His most violent temptations to sin against His Father, “then an angel from Heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him” [Luke 22.43].

And, He will strengthen you, too!

Posted in CONQUER, I've been thinking, Temptation | Leave a comment

SOS

Posted on November 29, 2018 by PastorDave

images-1

Several weeks ago, we conducted and I attended a special service to give three of our young interns the opportunity to preach. This was to fulfill a seminary class assignment [also taught by our faithful pastor, Hershael W. York], but it was also an inspiring and encouraging worship service. I remember and was personally impressed by them all, but one in particular was especially poignant for me.

He delivered his message from Jonah 2, and the theme of his message was how Jonah cried out to the LORD in his distress, and the LORD heard him and delivered him. He challenged us all to do the same.

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,“I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice.

He began his message by reminding us of the various ‘distress signals’ that are employed and we use when we are in various dangerous situations and need to be rescued. Being a self-professed Florida ‘beach boy’ himself, he related how that he himself had been caught in the undertow on a Florida beach and was being pulled away and into danger. He called out to the other companions who were on the beach, and they came to his rescue and saved him.

I have my own SOS distress signals that I am more personally and intentionally focusing on right now – for quite some time – in my own walk with Christ. We are always warring against our indwelling sin, sometimes more fiercely and intently than at other times, but it is always there, and we must be warring back against it. See especially Romans 7.7-25 and 1 Peter 2.11-12 and others. I am calling my focused distress signals by the most prominent, well-known, and most often used distress signal “SOS” – and, in my case, I am meaning Sins Of Self.

I so battle against my Sins Of Self. Often, we are blinded to our own Sins Of Self – and our inattention and neglect of dealing with them become in themselves more compounded Sins Of Self. In a section of Paul’s own personal testimony concerning his own Sins Of Self, he confesses how that he often did previously [and continued to do at the time of his writing] commit Sins Of Self, either unknowingly [without recognizing and identifying them as such], or knowingly [because of the strength and relentless tenacity of his residual indwelling sin nature]. Our own Sins Of Self are so self-deceptive. We either promote them or at least allow them just because of our love of ourselves.

So, let me just note a few of the Sins Of Self that the LORD, in His love for me, is reviving in my consciousness and conscience:

  • self-confidence
  • self-reliance
  • self-sufficiency
  • self-will
  • self-interest
  • self-seeking
  • self-promotion
  • self-exaltation
  • self-admiration
  • self-absorption
  • self-gratification
  • self-excusing
  • self-justification
  • self-pity
  • self-etc., etc., etc.

I realize that some of these are only nuances of others, but my Sins Of Self become very nuanced, entangled, and they continue to feed and multiply off of themselves.

Sometimes I wonder…“What will I ever do about my Sins Of Self?

  • Will I ever gain mastery over them [1 Corinthians 9.24-27]?
  • Will they, after all, consume me? [I don’t want to become digestive material in the belly of my Sins Of Self!]
  • I am already ‘beaten black and blue’ by the internal conflicts and struggles?
  • Where is my rescue, deliverance, salvation?”

Sometimes I wish I could vomit them out like the fish vomited out Jonah onto dry land, and be done with them, and go on my way un-harassed by them!

So, I do what Jonah did, and what Paul did – I call on the LORD in my distress. I send my SOS distress signal to Him, and I discover, again like Jonah and Paul, that “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” [Jonah 2.9].

Paul cries out in his desperate distress – listen to his SOS distress signal – “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” [Romans 7.24]

The answer is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. [Romans 7.25 and following…]

Jesus Christ has not only rescued and delivered me from the condemnation of my Sins Of Self, but He has given me His indwelling Holy Spirit who lives in me. He enables and strengthens me by the very resurrection life of Christ Himself.

I am singing again!

“But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to You; what I have vowed I will pay. 

Salvation belongs to the LORD!” [Jonah 2.9]

Posted in CONQUER, I've been thinking, SOS | Leave a comment