16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely The LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” ~Genesis 28.16-17 ESV
Jacob’s dream is still running…
When we meet and worship with the saints in the assembled ‘household of God, which is the church of the living God (1 Timothy 3.15)1’ and ‘a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2.22)2’ we are as close to Heaven as we will ever be…this side of Heaven itself.
When we worship in the gathered assembly, we are ‘rehearsing’ for the consummate, eternal, general assembly of Revelation 7.9-123.
We enjoy foretastes of the joys and raptures to come!
1 1 Timothy 3.15 LSB / …I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.
2 Ephesians 2.19-22 ESV / So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
3 Revelation 7.9-12 LSB / After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen, the blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
These messages/Bible study lessons are over 20 years old. There are 34 of these lessons in the series. I prepared and delivered them over 2005-2006 during my former pastorate. And, yes, I confess that I capitalized on the popularity and cultural interest in the Mel Gibson film which had just come out–though yet to this day, I haven’t seen the movie. But I have studied the Scriptural texts in their historical, cultural, and theological contexts for over fifty years. This is not only the Story of the Passion of the Christ, but more, it is the Story of God’s covenant love and grace in Christ that has redeemed and saved us! I have since shared them with other groups and audiences who have expressed an interest in sharing them still with others. So, I am posting them here in this format as I first prepared them without making any effort to revise or edit them. Since I wrote them in this Word format for the purpose of printing and creating paper handouts, the text doesn’t copy and paste well into this blog space–hence posting only the pdf. I pray God will use them for His Glory, to make Christ known to others, and to deepen our love and worship for God and His marvelous saving grace!
These messages/Bible study lessons are over 20 years old. There are 34 of these lessons in the series. I prepared and delivered them over 2005-2006 during my former pastorate. And, yes, I confess that I capitalized on the popularity and cultural interest in the Mel Gibson film which had just come out–though yet to this day, I haven’t seen the movie. But I have studied the Scriptural texts in their historical, cultural, and theological contexts for over fifty years. This is not only the Story of the Passion of the Christ, but more, it is the Story of God’s covenant love and grace in Christ that has redeemed and saved us! I have since shared them with other groups and audiences who have expressed an interest in sharing them still with others. So, I am posting them here in this format as I first prepared them without making any effort to revise or edit them. Since I wrote them in this Word format for the purpose of printing and creating paper handouts, the text doesn’t copy and paste well into this blog space–hence posting only the pdf. I pray God will use them for His Glory, to make Christ known to others, and to deepen our love and worship for God and His marvelous saving grace!
I first wrote and posted this on Facebook in 2015 during my former pastorate as a footnote to an announcement of our services that Lord’s Day. It was well received and widely shared and circulated at that time and proved to be a Gospel comfort and encouragement to many. Numerous times over the ensuing years, someone has had this post pop up in their FB ‘memories’ and sent it back to me with testimonies how the Lord has brought it to their attention again and ‘re-purposed’ it to them with renewed grace...or asked me to re-post it.
I know I speak for the Pastors and brothers and sisters where we now worship and serve … so, I want to reprise it once again…
>>>>>>>>>>†<<<<<<<<<<
Every mother or woman will not enjoy a ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ today.
Some will intentionally absent themselves from ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ services—just not attend—because they can’t bear the pain. If they do attend, while they sincerely “rejoice with those who rejoice,” they will just as genuinely weep inwardly (and maybe outwardly) with their own personal grief.
While we honor our mothers “for this is right [Ephesians 6.1-2],” we need also to be sensitive to the others who are having a most “(un)Happy Mother’s Day” and reach out to them with the promise and hope of the Gospel of Christ.
Some do not have mothers because their mothers have died.
Some may have mothers, but their mothers were abusive—so they don’t want to be even reminded of their mothers.
Some mothers have suffered the bereavement and death of their children and will cry and grieve anew today.
Some mothers are separated or even estranged from their children because of nasty divorce settlements and custody battles.
Some have had abortions of their unborn children—and are besieged again by the guilt and condemnation of their past.
Some mothers have been abused, neglected, abandoned, or rejected by their children and are living with intense and consuming bitterness and pain.
Some have only broken and shattered dreams associated with motherhood—either they are unwillingly unmarried or unwillingly childless because of infertility, miscarriages, and stillbirths—and so the celebrations of ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ are only mockeries of their empty hearts.
To all, we say: “Here is Jesus Christ. He loves you and we love you! Christ will be your Savior, Forgiver, and your loving Husband. And, we will be your family! ‘He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds’ [Psalm 147.3]. Come—and welcome! Love is spoken and lived out here!”
I’m so proud to present this Gospel story of Zacchaeus in this beautifully-illustrated book form.
As Debbie and Grace explain in “How the book came to be,” Debbie crafted the re-telling of the Luke 19:1-10 story of Zacchaeus’s salvation encounter with Jesus. This was thirty years ago in the course of the Children’s Bible Time ministry in the church where we formerly served.
She has retold and prepared hundreds of stories and Gospel lessons like this one over the course of decades of ministering to children, similarly illustrating each page with attractive artwork she could obtain online.
Our long-time friend and Gospel partner, Grace Overbey Henderson, offered to illustrate it for wider distribution—but they will tell you themselves on that page.
Since they self-published the book through Lulu, they don’t have a link where it can be individually purchased. So I have attempted to at least prepare a visual display so you can enjoy it yourself and perhaps show it to someone else.
And again, as Debbie and Grace say, “Here it is. May it glorify the One who came to seek and to save. Luke 19:10”
These messages/Bible study lessons are over 20 years old. There are 34 of these lessons in the series. I prepared and delivered them over 2005-2006 during my former pastorate. And, yes, I confess that I capitalized on the popularity and cultural interest in the Mel Gibson film which had just come out–though yet to this day, I haven’t seen the movie. But I have studied the Scriptural texts in their historical, cultural, and theological contexts for over fifty years. This is not only the Story of the Passion of the Christ, but more, it is the Story of God’s covenant love and grace in Christ that has redeemed and saved us! I have since shared them with other groups and audiences who have expressed an interest in sharing them still with others. So, I am posting them here in this format as I first prepared them without making any effort to revise or edit them. Since I wrote them in this Word format for the purpose of printing and creating paper handouts, the text doesn’t copy and paste well into this blog space–hence posting only the pdf. I pray God will use them for His Glory, to make Christ known to others, and to deepen our love and worship for God and His marvelous saving grace!
“For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you” [Philemon, verse 7].
“…for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people” [1 Corinthians 16.18]
We’ve all seen them, most of the time during breaks in the action of a football game. I just call them the ‘Gatorade guys’ (and gals, too). But when there’s a time-out, and the players run to the sideline for a huddle, the Gatorade guys run out to meet them as they come in. They are carrying their cartons with bottles of Gatorade. The players pull off their helmets as the Gatorade guys squirt the refreshing electrolytes and hydration into their parched and thirsty mouths. Then, back into the game action they go—except that the Gatorade guys have literally ‘refreshed their spirits’ with renewed energy and vigor.
The Gatorade guys are anonymous—nameless to us. We have no idea who they are. They don’t have jerseys with their distinctive number or their name on the back. They’re not on the roster. They are not celebrated. They are not highlighted on the jumbotron. No play announcer ever credits them with any kind of ‘assist.’
They’re not Gatorade guys for the recognition. They’re Gatorade guys to serve refreshment and refresh the spirits of the other team members and participants in the game. That’s what they do. That’s their service. That’s what they want to do. That’s enough. They serve mindlessly of the cameras. They are never looking around to see where a camera is: “Hey, did you get what I just did?”
Our ministries are like that. I have been pastoring in some capacity for over fifty years now. Always low-key. Never widely-recognized or well-known. No prominent platform. Probably considered ‘small-time’ by many metrics. And very content for it to be that way. Just trying to faithfully, day by day, service by service, sermon after sermon, year after year, person by person, encounter by encounter—to refresh someone’s spirit. To preach, teach, exhort, and encourage everyone whose life I can touch to seek and know the Lord; love God with all your heart; place all of your belief, faith, and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior; and commit your life to obey, serve, and please Him. Be encouraged. Don’t quit. Get up and back in the game again.
And then go and refresh someone else’s spirit with the refreshment by which you have been refreshed.
And then go and refresh someone else’s spirit with the refreshment by which you have been refreshed.
However, there is recognition for ‘spirit-refreshers.’ And it’s really the only recognition ‘spirit-refreshers’ seek—and, that is, that the souls of those whom they seek to refresh are indeed refreshed. I’ve often wondered whether any of all those football ‘stars’ ever returned even a breath of their refreshed spirit to say ‘Thank you! I really appreciate your refreshing my spirit’ to the Gatorade guy? I kind of doubt it.
But in Paul’s testimony in 1 Corinthians 16.16.17-18, he names names: “I rejoice at the coming of Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.” Except for Stephanus, all three of these ‘spirit-refreshers’ are one-time honorable mentions in the New Testament. For what? All three of them stand on record as being ‘spirit-refreshers.’ We do hear of Stephanus two other times here in 1 Corinthians (1.16; 16.15), where he and his family are recognized: “…and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints…” Stephanus was a career ‘Gatorade guy,’ a committed and veteran ‘spirit-refresher.’
That’s really all I aspire to be. I just want to refresh someone’s spirit—strengthen and encourage someone along the way. And when and where God doesn’t call or assign me to serve, just let me help refresh the spirits of those who do.
I don’t know what I’ll be remembered for when I’m dead and gone. I’ve got a lot of ideas about what I won’t be remembered for… But, at the end of my life’s day, it will be enough if someone says of me as they said about Elisha’s ministry to Elijah: “He refreshed his spirit” (… except that in his case, they said “…who poured water on the hands of Elijah” [2 Kings 3.11]).
“He drew a circle and shut me out – Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout;
Love and I had the wit to win – We drew a circle that took him in.”
~Edwin Markham
I have remembered my long-time dear friend and former Pastor [now Pastor Emeritus], Hershael York, quoting this little poem before in his sermons, relating it to his father, Wallace York. And then, in a recent conversation, he referenced it again.
I asked Hershael, when he had the time, to please jot down the lines of the poem and send it to me.
So, he sent me this snapshot of the poem Wallace had hand-written in one of the Bibles he used.
I enjoyed a decades-long close friendship and ministry partnership with Wallace also – and we shared between us a sweet symbiotic bonding and fellowship of our spirits. Wallace embodied the sweetness of this brotherly love expressed in the poem. He was a true ‘Barnabas,’ peacemaker, ‘man of peace’ – while, at the same time, tenaciously holding onto his own doctrinal convictions.
I, too, embrace the sentiment of the poem, and treasure this hand-written reminder of my friend’s exemplary testimony.
These messages/Bible study lessons are over 20 years old. There are 34 of these lessons in the series. I prepared and delivered them over 2005-2006 during my former pastorate. And, yes, I confess that I capitalized on the popularity and cultural interest in the Mel Gibson film which had just come out–though yet to this day, I haven’t seen the movie. But I have studied the Scriptural texts in their historical, cultural, and theological contexts for over fifty years. This is not only the Story of the Passion of the Christ, but more, it is the Story of God’s covenant love and grace in Christ that has redeemed and saved us! I have since shared them with other groups and audiences who have expressed an interest in sharing them still with others. So, I am posting them here in this format as I first prepared them without making any effort to revise or edit them. Since I wrote them in this Word format for the purpose of printing and creating paper handouts, the text doesn’t copy and paste well into this blog space–hence posting only the pdf. I pray God will use them for His Glory, to make Christ known to others, and to deepen our love and worship for God and His marvelous saving grace!
These messages/Bible study lessons are over 20 years old. There are 34 of these lessons in the series. I prepared and delivered them over 2005-2006 during my former pastorate. And, yes, I confess that I capitalized on the popularity and cultural interest in the Mel Gibson film which had just come out–though yet to this day, I haven’t seen the movie. But I have studied the Scriptural texts in their historical, cultural, and theological contexts for over fifty years. This is not only the Story of the Passion of the Christ, but more, it is the Story of God’s covenant love and grace in Christ that has redeemed and saved us! I have since shared them with other groups and audiences who have expressed an interest in sharing them still with others. So, I am posting them here in this format as I first prepared them without making any effort to revise or edit them. Since I wrote them in this Word format for the purpose of printing and creating paper handouts, the text doesn’t copy and paste well into this blog space–hence posting only the pdf. I pray God will use them for His Glory, to make Christ known to others, and to deepen our love and worship for God and His marvelous saving grace!
~Dave Parks 