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The Need to Intercede

A 65 year-old grandmother, who cares for two disabled siblings and houses several adult grandchildren on the bank of the Saranac River, just lost everything in recent ice jams and subsequent flooding.  Although it has been years since she and some members of her family have come to church, I have been connecting her with various agencies with which I have contact and of course with her church family that wants to know how to help.

We all have a need for intercession and in turn need to intercede for others.  I have come across both givers and takers in my twenty years of ministry, and it is certainly the givers who have the hardest time accepting help.

I.  Exodus 32:7-14.  When God wanted to destroy the Israelites He had just saved out of Egypt because they had fallen into idolatry, Moses interceded for them, even offering to take God’s punishment upon himself.  Concerned for God’s Name, Moses even turned down God’s offer to make him into a great nation in place of Israel.  Being an intercessor can often take self-denial and sacrifice.

II.  Hebrews 7:23-25.  No one would know that more than Jesus, who as our High Priest, laid down His own life to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father with His own blood.  Like He did for the Israelites, God did not wait for us to repent first, but rather, before we realized our need, while we were still enemies to Him, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

III.  1 Timothy 2:1-3.  Because of the intercession that we have received, we in turn intercede for others, regardless of how they have conducted themselves towards us or the church in the past.  This is how God loved us, and so we in turn love others (1 John 3:16-18).  This pleases God who wants all men to be saved, and who knows that your intercession might lead them to a knowledge of the truth?

Will helping this giving grandmother lead her back to God?  Only God knows.  But, already she has acknowledged that the church has always been there for her–even when she was not attending.

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Cardinal Sins

No, not those ones!

When a church member was at my house last Saturday, he remarked upon the birds gathered at the feeder in my backyard and asked if we had ever had a cardinal.  Male cardinals are a vibrant crimson that stands out against the snow and are very territorial.  If there’s anything to the old wives tale that a cardinal is a visitor from beyond the grave, then we were terrorized by a red demon all last winter.

Believing his reflection was another male cardinal, he would repeatedly attack our windows all around our house, banging and flapping against the glass for hours on end, every day, all season long.  As I told this story, my brain, as it often does, went to the spiritual application:

We are indeed our own worst enemies!

I.  James 1:13-15.  No, the devil does not make you do it!  Satan certainly exploits each person’s weaknesses, but the evil desires we act on come from within us–and we choose to sin.  We wanted the cardinal to stop hitting our windows, and God wants us to stop sinning.

II.  Psalm 51:10-12.  Sin robs us of purity, steadfastness, God’s presence, and joy.  The cardinal could not have been that happy striking the windows over and over, and yet he never stopped.  God, who wants us to have life to the full (John 10:10) must think that of us when we fall repeatedly into the same sins.

III.  Romans 8:37-39.  Nothing outside of ourselves can separate us from God’s love.  That is for certain.  But, we can choose to turn away from that love (Hebrews 10:26-31).  While the male did his daily routine, never learning and never quite knocking himself out, the female cardinal would often watch from the branch of a nearby tree.  I couldn’t help but wonder what she must think of him.

They did not return with the snow, and although we do not miss the insistent thumps, I wonder if he has given up his cardinal sins or is just repeating them against someone else’s windows.

How about us?

 

 

 

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Weird and sad: The world we lived in

My son-in-law is color-blind. So for his birthday, our daughter gave him a pair of Enchroma glasses, made just for color-blind people. They look like ordinary sunglasses, but actually allow a color-blind person to see colors as we see them.

My son-in-law peered through these new glasses for the first time. He looked off at the trees in his backyard, raised his glasses to get a comparison, then put them back on and said, “Wow, my world is weird … It’s actually sort of sad!”

The world that my son-in-law was living in was a world without color (as we know it), and as he described it, “weird and sad.”

How “weird and sad” is the world in which we once lived? A world dulled by the darkness of sin, and obscured by the gloom of the grave? Stark, hopeless, colorless, doom. But now, all of that has changed for the child of God.  We see the world, not as we once saw it, but we see it through the lens of Jesus. A world that was once without eternal purpose now has purpose. A world that was once lived for self, is now lived for others.

Last weekend, I was reminded how thankful I need to be to God for allowing me to see the world through the lens of his Son, who enables me to see the brilliance of his love!

—Adapted from Steve Higginbotham, preachinghelp.org

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Baptismal benediction

“In closing his epistle Paul says, ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.” [2 Cor 13.13] I use this most of the time in a baptismal service. As the candidate arises from the watery grave to a new life in Christ, I say, ‘And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always. Amen.” I believe that is a benediction. At least, that’s my intention.” —Nelson M. Smith, Agape Study Manual, 300.

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War won by privates

General Eisenhower once rebuked one of his generals for referring to a soldier as “just a private.” He reminded him that the army could function better without its generals than it could without its foot soldiers. “If this war is won,” he said, “it will be won by privates.” In the same way, it is the common, servant-like believer who becomes the very backbone of the body of Christ. We are often overly impressed by our great evangelists and superstar Bible teachers and leaders who stand before large crowds, but if the glorious message of the person and work of Christ is to reach the world, it will be done by a church that functions as bondslaves of the Savior (cf. Luke 12:15; Luke 12:32; 2 Peter 2:19; 1 John 3:17). —J. Hampton Keathley

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Last-minute preparations

A service station attendant was swarmed with last-minute customers on a holiday weekend. He shook his head and said to a preacher who was in the line, “It is funny to me that people always wait until the last minute to prepare for a trip they know they are going to take.”

“I know,” said the preacher, “I have the same problem in my business.”

See Matthew 25.1-13; 1 Thessalonians 4.13-5.11

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The alternative to freezing to death in our loneliness

The German philosopher Schopenhauer compared the human race to a bunch of porcupines huddling together on a cold winter’s night. He said,

“The colder it gets outside, the more we huddle together for warmth; but the closer we get to one another, the more we hurt one another with our sharp quills. And in the lonely night of earth’s winter eventually we begin to drift apart and wander out on our own and freeze to death in our loneliness.”

Christ has given us an alternative: to forgive each other for the pokes we receive. That allows us to stay together and stay warm.

—Wayne Brouwer, via Glenn Hitchcock’s “Thoughts for the Day to Brighten Your Day“

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‘Surprises in the kingdom of God’

There is a story of a woman who had been used to every luxury and to all respect. She died, and when she arrived in heaven, an angel was sent to conduct her to her house. They passed many a lovely mansion and the woman thought that each one, as they came to it, must be the one allotted to her. When they had passed through the main streets they came to the outskirts where the houses were much smaller; and on the very fringe they came to a house which was little more than a hut. “That is your house,” said the conducting angel. “What,” said the woman, “that! I cannot live in that.” “I am sorry,” said the angel, “but that is all we could build for you with the materials you sent up.”

—William Barclay

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Straddling the fence

By Landon Rowell

As a young boy I found myself in many peculiar situations. On one particular day my family and I were visiting my aunt and uncle. They had a “farm” and for city slickers like us it was an amazing place.

It just so happened that my uncle had an old motorcycle. Being as adventurous as I was I asked if we could drive it around. My uncle conceded after much begging and my brother and I set off to enjoy a day of driving around; it was just in circles around the pasture but it was exciting.

Like many stories go with those that are driving motorcycles I ended up, on the last go around, wrecking the bike and hurting my knee. As I was picked up and taken back toward the house there was a point that I will not soon forget, if ever. Continue reading “Straddling the fence”

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Come back

by Jerry Elder

In 1979 (yes, I know that was a while back) my freshman year in college, I had a Hispanic friend, Enrique, who went to a store to purchase a few things. When leaving the store, he heard the words “COME BACK”! So he turned around went back to the counter and stood there.

The lady was checking out another customer and did not acknowledge him. So he turned around and was walking toward the door when he heard those words again, “COME BACK”!

Again, he turned around, walked back to the counter, and stood there while she checked out another customer. The lady notices him there and then asks him, “Can I help you”? Continue reading “Come back”