That's Not Fair!

 

One of my kids was running out of sweatpants that fit. The skinny waist, growing legs problem where nothing will stay up or it looks like they’re wearing capris. So off to Old Navy we went. All 3 kids were in the store with me, and while we were specifically looking for pants for one, we found 2 items on sale for another as well. We did look for sale items for the third child, but nothing was found in the right size and there weren’t any specific needs in the moment anyway. 

          On the walk to the cash register, through the aisles, and out the door there was a stream of “that’s not fair’s!” I cannot actually tell you how many times I hear that phrase. I’m never surprised by it. There’s a natural sin-nature “that’s not fair-ness” in all of us! I want to take each moment it arises to teach a correct biblical worldview of fairness. Most of the time, however, my in-the-moment response often is, “You’re right, it’s not and neither is life.” *Insert eye roll at such a mom-answer.

           It is true that because we live in a broken world, full of sinful people, life here will always be unfair. It is important that my children learn the reality of this truth so that they can reasonably respond to it in their futures.

          It is also the case that in our complaints of “that’s not fair,” they are coming out of us because we are wallowing in selfishness, pride, comparison, and jealousy. None of these things is good or pleasing to the Lord, either. So having a shift of perspective, finding the things we are thankful for, realizing it’s not actually all about us, will benefit our hearts greatly.

         God is just. He is good and fair always at all times. He does not change his standards from one person to another. He offers freedom from sin to every human. His truth is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The way to a full relationship with Him and forgiveness from sin is the same for every person.

From our perspective, we could say that some of His gracious and good gifts are unfair in the sense that we do not deserve them! We do not deserve Jesus’ rescue on the cross. We cannot earn any part of the close relationship God offers us. It is not fair that even in our daily sin we are offered hope eternal with Jesus! 

It is my desire that over time my kids will learn the reality of a fallen world and the fulfillment of a just and fair God. I pray they will learn to imitate their Savior and strive to treat their neighbors with fairness and love. And when they fail or others fail them, I hope they take the steps to repent and restore and forgive. I pray these things as I pray for God’s help with this problem in my own heart. And when I get caught up in some self pity and consider my life less fair than the next person’s, may the Spirit prompt me to have that perspective shift, preaching the gospel to myself and thinking well and kindly of others.

--Sandy Gromacki

 

Scripture and Song

 A few days ago a dear friend cried on the phone.  She was discouraged about life in general, depressed about her health, her relationships, her living conditions, her future.  She felt she just could not go on.  All of us experience depression to some degree in our lives. I had advice for her, honed by bouts of depression in my own life--Scripture and song.  Read, memorize, listen to Scripture, especially in the Psalms.  Listen to music; sing it yourself.

At one point in the darkest time of my life, I went through the book of Psalms and marked every Psalm that spoke to my situation.  Then I recorded those Psalms on a CD.  Each evening when I headed for bed I started that CD playing next to my bed.  I quoted with the CD and the Scripture went deeper into my heart.  I called that CD my sleeping pill.  My distress lessened by the night. Going to sleep became easier as I transferred my focus.  God truly became my Rock, my Fortress, my Hiding Place.

During that same dark period a CD from Damaris Carbaugh became my tranquilizer, along with a collection of Praise hymns.  As I drove to work in the morning I sang along, often with tears streaming down my cheeks. Sometimes I would choose a topic, joy, love, heaven, and so on. I would think of every song on that topic I could, and I would sing each song as it came to mind.  By the time I got to work I would be ready to face the day.

So I shared with my friend. I suggested scripture and song. I sent her a text with Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."  Her response: "I cannot hear that verse without singing it."  That's the whole point!

So the last couple of days I have been looking up verses for her, all from the Psalms.  I am only listing references because I want her to look them up.  I'm going to list these for you.  Perhaps they will be what you need, perhaps not.  But hopefully they will encourage you to search the Scripture and the hymnbook.

Here are the ones I have listed for my friend.  All are from the Psalms.

               5:11                             6:2                    9:1-2

            18:2                            18:4-6                27:14

            30:2                            30:56                  31:24    

            33:21-22                     34:1-3                 34:18

            38:9                            40:1-3                  42:8

            59:16-17                    106:1                    107:26-31

           113:1-3                        119:28                   119:50

           121                              139:17-18            145:17-18

           147:3                         150:6

 Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.  Praise ye the Lord.

These are the verses I have chosen for my friend who is depressed and grieving.  They may not be the ones that you need, but I hope they will be just what my friend needs.

Scripture and Song.  The song I come back to when I am feeling low, is "Does Jesus Care?"

 
Does Jesus care when my heart is pained                                                         
Too deeply for mirth and song? 
When the burdens press
and the cares distress
And the way grows weary and long?                                                                           

Oh, yes He cares, I know He cares
His heart is touched with my grief.
When the days are weary,
The long nights dreary,
I know my Savior cares.

                --Faith Himes Lamb

What Should I Choose?!

 

Have you ever stressed about making the right decision? I stress about this all the time, even over small things. What is the right meal to order? Which would be the right book to read next? Which is the right bit of housework that I should get done tonight? Sometimes, it seems like there can only be one right decision, but they all look like they could be good, and I begin to spiral. What ends up happening is that I don’t make a decision, wait until someone else makes the decision, or rush to choose something because I’m running out of time. This way of thinking has a lot to do with my perfectionist tendencies, but they also stem from an incorrect view of God’s will.

Last month, I wrote about good fruit beliefs and bad fruit beliefs and how it is important to weed out the beliefs that produce bad fruit. One of the bad fruit beliefs I garnered from my childhood church attendance is that living in God’s will requires always making the right decision based on the promptings of the Holy Spirit. In every decision, great or small, I must follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If I choose incorrectly, I am living outside of God’s will. Getting back in God’s will is then very difficult and takes a lot of work.

While it sounds super spiritual, this belief certainly results in bad fruit. In my life, that has looked like unnecessary fear and anxiety that I will make the wrong decision. I am a chronic overthinker and have difficulty relaxing or going with the flow if I think something is not quite “right.” I must constantly remind myself that making a wrong decision is not the end of the world and in many cases, there are many good decisions that could be made.

A few years ago, there was a great show on NBC called Ordinary Joe that was unfortunately cancelled after one season. The show focused on the life of Joe Kimbreau and how his life would have looked if he made one of three different decisions following graduation. There are three different timelines in which Joe is a nurse, police officer, or rockstar. At the beginning, you may think that one of the timelines was the “right” path to take because things seem to be going better, but as the story goes on, you see that each timeline has its own unique joys and challenges. There’s not a clear “right” path. It all contains the ups and downs of life.

I remember when I first started college and had not yet declared my major. I had narrowed it down to a few, but I stressed so much about which path I should take and which was the “right” one. I didn’t have a job I had wanted to do since childhood. I was overwhelmed by the possibilities and scared that one decision could ruin my life. I finally declared as an English Literature major at the beginning of my sophomore year, and I can confidently say that I love where that path has taken me. I love the job I have and the people I get to work with. But you know what? I could probably say the same thing if I had chosen a different major. I don’t believe a different choice would have been wrong. It would have just been different.

So what does living in God’s will actually mean? When God’s will is discussed in Scripture, it is more about our behavior than the decisions we make. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul writes, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3 ESV). He goes on to give examples of actions to take and abstain from in order to live and grow in sanctification. As you go about your week, I urge you (and myself!) to stress less about making the “right decision.” Focus instead on living a life of sanctification, allowing God to mold our hearts and minds to be more like Him.

--Concetta Swann

Healing Comes

Over many years, I have worked with children and teens as a Social Worker. Most of these young people have seen counselors, sometimes for long stretches of time. For some, counseling is beneficial, for others not so much.

I have wondered why the difference and have begun to notice traits in those who find it helpful and in those who don’t.

The successful are transparent about who they are and how they feel. They participate. They don’t just say what the counselor wants to hear. They listen and are willing to try new things. Essentially, they do the homework.

Unsuccessful clients expect a quick fix or might attend their sessions inconsistently for various reasons. They refuse responsibility for their behaviors and attitudes that contribute to their problems and often blame others.

These attitudes, negative or positive, also apply in our personal walk with Christ. He is the Wonderful Counselor after all. Will He be successful in bringing about lasting change in our hearts? Crawford Loritts said, “Jesus meets us in our transparency.” Being transparent requires humility and courage. To find healing in our lives, we must be willing to face and confess our sin and failures. We all have blind spots that deceive us into believing we don’t need to make any changes, but Jesus is positioned to heal us when we uncover bitterness and unforgiveness and ingratitude and maybe even unkindness in our hearts. He can change us into something much sweeter and more lovely when those things come to light and we seek His forgiveness – when we acknowledge that we have sinned. Meditating on His Word helps keep His commandments before us. We do things His way, not our own, and try new things instead of clinging to our old patterns.  It’s a lifelong process with no quick fixes and requires consistency in keeping our appointments with Him.

In Psalm 139 David said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Yes, that can be a little scary, a little unsettling. But I want His healing. Don’t you?

joyce hague

The Gospel Truth

 

Two books I’m currently reading, a date on the calendar, my son’s school project, and the Bible lesson I taught on Sunday evening from Acts have all come together with one powerful truth: Salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone. We all know this; we have accepted this truth and rest in it, yet it is good still to be reminded of the beauty of it and not take for granted that we have been taught this powerful gospel message.

In Bullies and Saints, author John Dickson begins his book on the good and the bad in church history by writing about the Crusades in the Middle Ages. In 637, Jerusalem was taken by Muslim armies. Over 400 years later, in 1095, Pope Urban called for a crusade to fight the Muslims and reclaim Jerusalem. He stated the following, “Whoever for devotion alone, not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance” (5). In other words, whoever would go fight this battle would be saved and have their sins forgiven. More crusades followed, and in preparation for the fifth crusade in 1213, Pope Innocent “promised ‘full forgiveness of sins’ for all who, with a contrite heart, participated in the venture” (14). Can you imagine living during that time? You’re longing for salvation, to be accepted by a holy God, and you are told that if you fight a battle hundreds of miles from home, you will be saved from your sins. No wonder men (and even children!) lined up to fight.

I’m also reading a biography of Empress Maria Theresa who ruled over Austria, Hungary, and the Bohemian lands in the mid-1700s. She was a devout Catholic and was very concerned about the eternal salvation of her husband and children (one of whom was Marie Antoinette).  Maria Theresa found consolation in the fact that when her twelve-year-old daughter lay dying from smallpox, this daughter “did penance for three quarters of an hour, with a scrupulousness, regret, and devotion that brought her confessor to tears” (675, Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time). In contrast, when Maria Theresa’s husband died of a heart attack, there was no time for him to speak to a confessor and take the Eucharist before he died. She was thus very concerned about his eternal soul, finding comfort in the fact that he had been at Mass that morning. However, she still established a group of ladies in the city in which her husband died who would pray for his soul in perpetuity (698).

Thankfully, amidst these false teachings about salvation, God had preserved a remnant who would teach the true gospel. In the 1500s (after the Crusades and before Maria Theresa), there was a large revival – a movement across Europe back to the truth of the gospel news: Salvation is by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. We call this time the Reformation. October 31, 1517 is often seen as the day when it really got started – when Martin Luther nailed a set of statements, known as the 95 Theses, on a church door in Wittenberg. These statements argued against the false teachings of the Catholic Church, stating that salvation came from God and not through other means. My son Stephen is currently working on a project in which he has to research the contributions of nine of the reformers. Because of them and others (including women!), the gospel message gained ground throughout the lands of Europe and eventually came to America with the Pilgrims.

On Sunday night, my Bible study group looked at Acts 9 – the story of the conversion of Paul. Paul’s salvation did not include fighting in a battle declared salvific by a pope or confessing regularly to a priest and being sure to take the Eucharist before his death. No, an encounter with Christ was enough to cause him to place his faith in Him. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans what it takes to be saved: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Praise God!

--Amy O’Rear

Good Fruit, Bad Fruit

 

We’ve all heard the adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” It’s a clever, rhyming way to encourage the regular consumption of fruits and veggies for our health. My fiancé, Andrew, takes this seriously. He absolutely LOVES apples and buys multiple bags during his grocery trips to make sure he doesn’t run out. For his recent birthday, Andrew’s parents got him a bag of apples from a local orchard. They were pretty apples, and Andrew was excited to try them. But he was incredibly disappointed when they turned out to be bad. They weren’t bitter or visibly rotten, but the texture was wrong, and the flavor was bland. 

 

Andrew enjoys apples, loves his parents, and dislikes wasting food. But none of that stopped those apples from ending up in the trash. They weren’t worth eating because they didn’t measure up to what an apple is supposed to be. 

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains the importance of fruit in recognizing the quality of a tree:

 

“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16-20 NASB). 

The quality of the fruit is indicative of the quality of the tree. Bad fruit like Andrew’s apples indicates a bad tree, while good fruit indicates a good tree. So too does the fruit indicate the quality of a belief system. This can be a little more obvious when the beliefs are significantly different from what the Bible teaches. These kinds of beliefs are rotten apples, easily spotted if one examines the fruit. But there are some bad fruits that are harder to spot.

The church I grew up in before Grace held some pretty legalistic beliefs. There was a heavy emphasis on rules and doing things the only right way. While there was an outward denial of the prosperity gospel, it was certainly implied that doing all the right things in the right way would result in a “blessed” and prosperous life. The fruit of those teachings in my life has been a tendency to rely on good works to be accepted. It has taken years of unraveling to begin to understand the gospel as a truly free gift independent of my own efforts. I still struggle to give myself grace when things don’t turn out perfect, and I continually have to remind myself not to judge others based on small differences.

This is the kind of belief that takes the truth and twists it just a little bit. It may look nice and shiny on the outside, but it doesn’t measure up. It’s a bad tree that results in bad fruit. I don’t believe that the people at that church had bad intentions, and I still care for them. But that should not prevent me from examining and removing the bad beliefs from my life.

What are the good and bad fruits you see in your life? If you see bad fruit, I encourage you to examine where it came from. Is there a belief or teaching you need to unravel and replace with a tree that bears good fruit?

 

--Concetta Swann

Chain of Obedience

I am thankful for the messages our church has been able to hear the past couple of weeks as we think about the work God HAS done and IS DOING across the globe. If you missed either of these messages on October 12 or 19, I would encourage you to go back and listen on our church Youtube page!

          Last Sunday was one of our special Joint Service Sundays where our church gathers English and Spanish families together and we have a translated message, sing in two languages and share pews with our brothers and sisters of differing heart languages.

          Pastor Darwin Blandon spoke in Spanish with a translator and shared his personal testimony. He shared about how a graduate of Tennessee Temple heard the call of the Lord, studied Spanish in Costa Rica and then traveled to Nicaragua to where Pastor Darwin was born. Long story short this man set up tents and shared the gospel. Through this, the Blandon family came to know the Lord, and from the age of 3, Pastor Darwin was a part of a Christian home.

          As things became more and more hostile and dangerous in his home country, Darwin’s parents sent him with this missionary to try and escape the wars and go to America. Through an amazing story of how God moved, Darwin was sent through.

          God led him to begin a Spanish ministry in Chattanooga with just 3 starting members. He was faithful to the Lord and remained in that ministry for decades as he continues today and has impacted hundreds and had a growing church.

          His point was in looking back at the trail of faithfulness in that Temple missionary. He was obedient to the Lord, went to the country of Nicaragua and step by step, families and individuals were impacted. Now hundreds are hearing the gospel and growing in faith in the Spanish community here in our home city.

          He also shared a train of missionaries, Sunday school teachers, coaches and individuals who started back hundreds of years ago. Some stories were not flashy or   very notable and involved reaching out to a single young man in a shoe store and spending time building a specific relationship. That train followed down person to person, generation to generation and landed in the life of Billy Graham. A man who impacted MILLIONS of people for the gospel and glory of Christ.

          Those individuals hundreds of years ago had no idea. Nor did they get to witness. But God used their faithfulness to Him step by step, year by year and look at what the Lord has done.

          I look at our own Grace Kids and wonder, “which ones will be the next fiery blaze for the Lord to their own generation?” “Who of these will step in obedience to the Lord and follow His command to spread the gospel to those around them?”

          You and I may never know. Are we okay with that? Do we trust God with that? Can we step back and let our name become smaller while God’s becomes greater? And what a call! How important is the faithfulness of our Sunday school teachers, our coaches, our teachers, our mentors, our choir leaders, our friends! What God can do with the faithfulness of His people is humbling.

          So we marvel at what God has done, the stories He has marked in a chain of events that no one knew from moment to moment until we get to look from the outside and proclaim God’s power and glory. And we hope for the future, that God will continue to use His church and His children to bring honor to His name and generations of followers to Himself.

 

--Sandy Gromacki