Pastor's Desktop Article for August 2016

“By Faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’  He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. “

(Hebrews 11:17-19 ESV)

               

            What does it mean to have faith?  The writer of Hebrews, in 11:1 describes it this way.  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  For Abraham, it meant that He believed God could, if necessary, raise Isaac back from the dead.  That may seem like pretty amazing faith, but it had been developed over more than 25 years of walking with God.  God had come to him in the land of Haran, and told him to go to a land “I will show you”.  God then made some specific promises to Abraham:  “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  (Gen. 12:2-3)

            Over the course of that period of time, Abraham had heard from God on a number of occasions, and most importantly, Abraham knew that God planned to fulfill the promised made to him through Isaac in particular and thus far, God had kept all the promises He had made with Him.  So in spite of the fact that God’s most recent instruction to go and offer Isaac as a sacrifice would mean Isaac’s death, and the end of any possibility of those promises being fulfilled through him, Abraham believed that somehow God could still keep His promises, even if that meant raising Isaac from the dead.  That was the faith that had developed to this point.

            Though he could not see how God would keep His promise, and he did not know how it would come to pass, he believed that it would, based upon his relationship with God up to that time.  To use the language of the writer of Hebrews, he was assured of something he had placed his hope in—the surety of the promise of God, and he was convinced that though he could not presently see it, that it would in fact fulfill His promises through Isaac.

            The faith that we have in God works in the same manner.  Our faith in God began when we began to establish a knowledge base about Him based upon a wide variety of things including, but not limited to, things we learned from our parents, through our own study of the Bible, and through our experiences in the church setting.  If we’ve had conversations with those much older than us about their faith experiences, and how God had been faithful to them; those conversations help build our knowledge base, and increase our own faith in God.

            There are times when our faith has been dramatically tested, perhaps not to the point of being willing to offer a child to God as a sacrifice, but through times of loss, of uncertainty about health, a job, getting married, having children, moving out of state, or other significantly challenging times.  These times are able to cause our faith in God to increase as we personally learn that we are able to trust Him more and more.

            “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  (1Peter 1:3-9)

                       

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

Pastor's Desktop Article for July 2016

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.  Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.  I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.  My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.  On my bed I remember you, I think of you through the watches of the night.  Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.“

(Psalm 63:1-8)

               

            When was the last time we could honestly say that we earnestly sought God, thirsted for God, or longed for God?  I don’t mean that you asked Him for something in prayer, I mean just longed to be near Him, to sense His presence and feel His love.  For many of us, if not most of us, it’s probably been a long time, if we’ve ever had that experience.  The psalmist above captures that sentiment beautifully, indicating an utter dependence on the Lord, that he “thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

            Do we really recognize how utterly dependent we are on the Lord?  The next breath we breathe is there because it is given to us by the Lord.  The food we have, the clothing, shelter, the very fact that we live where we do on a planet that can sustain life is from the Lord.  That’s all true, but do we recognize the love that the Lord has for us, and what that means for us?  He is there for us to sustain us through the easy times as well as the most difficult times.  When we spiritually feel like we are in a dry and weary land where there is no water, we can remember that even there, the Lord is right there with us, and will sustain us with living water without cost, and without end.

            A.W. Tozer, in his book The Pursuit of God, writes about how even that refreshing from the Lord in those times of His sustaining us leave us more thirsty still, because we want still more of that sense of being refreshed and sustained by the Lord.  From the psalm above, “My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods…” 

            When we rely on the world, its pleasures, its pursuits and its preoccupations cannot satisfy the deep longings in our soul.  We can only truly find our satisfaction in Jesus Christ, and in living to bring glory and praise to Him.  When we find ourselves holding fast and staying close to Him, the offerings of the world, and even the temporal concerns of this life are put into better perspective.  The words of the beloved hymn by Helen H. Lemmel, “O soul, are you wearied and troubled?  No light in the darkness you see?  There’s light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free!  Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

I hope you’ll “turn your eyes upon Jesus”, and find your hope and rest in Him.

                       

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

Spoiler Alert - Here is my article for Mt. Pleasant's newsletter, RIght Hand of Fellowship for June 2016

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:  2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.  3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,  4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.  5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. “

(2 Timothy 4:1-5  ESV)

               

            I am grateful for some thoughtful people in my life who first encouraged, and then made it possible for me to attend the Pastor’s Conference at Moody Bible Institute.  I am further grateful to the congregation I currently serve, the Mt. Pleasant Church of the Brethren, for continuing to make it possible for me to attend this great conference.  Year after year, I am encouraged, even exhorted to follow the counsel given to young Timothy, Paul’s son in the Lord, and companion in the work of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to “Preach the Word”. 

            In a day when preaching the Word of God has come under fire, and probably become more so in the years to come, given the current cultural shift going on around us, we who have the privilege of serving as pastors, preachers and teachers also bear the responsibility to remain faithful to the inerrant Word of God, as given to us in the Holy Scriptures.  One speaker at the conference remarked about this text saying in reference to verse 2, “Preach the Word when it’s popular to do so, and when it’s unpopular to do so.”  There are some in the pulpit today who, in an apparent effort to get more people into their churches, are willing to water down the Word of God, to create the image of a god who neither hates sin, nor will he punish anyone for sinning.  To many in the world today, sin is such an offensive term, and turns people off, they would suggest that we should use more accepting terms like poor choices or unacceptable behavior.

            Paul makes a statement in his first letter to Timothy, in the early part of that letter that is something that all of us can, or at least should identify with.  I know I can.  “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.  But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Tim. 1:15-16)

            In another letter, Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23)  There are no exceptions to that save one, and that is Jesus Christ.  All of the rest of us are sinners in need of a Savior.  Why do we need a Savior?  Because without someone else to take the punishment for our sin, which is death—eternal separation and punishment, we will have to face Him one day on our own merits. 

We will stand before the most perfect Judge ever, one who knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts—one who knows what no one else can know and that is the condition of our heart.  Will we stand on our own, covered in the garbage, filth, and rebelliousness that comes from a life focused on pleasing only ourselves, or will we come before Him dressed in the starkly white clothing of His own goodness and rightness of the perfectly obedient life of Jesus Christ, Himself, because of our complete faith in Him?

As long as He continues to give me breath, a place and an opportunity to share, I promise to continue to “Preach the Word”.

                       

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen

Here is my Pastor's Desktop Article for May 2016.

“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.  Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.  On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  For we do not preach ourselves; but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. “

(2 Corinthians 4:1-7 NIV)

               

            For the past few weeks, on Sunday mornings, we have been looking at the subject of “The Power of The Gospel”.  We have used a variety of passages to look at how the gospel is about a righteousness from God, not of our own doing, that it is foolish in the eyes of the world, but it is a gospel of the truth about God and His effective plan for our salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.  It is a gospel that we proclaim as effectively as we can, whenever we can, but the power in its being understood comes from God, the Holy Spirit. 

            To further make the point that the power in the effectiveness of the gospel is from God, and not from us, we can remember this passage from 2 Corinthians 4.  As a pastor, and minister of the gospel, I am often reminded that no matter how badly I might want to have someone grasp and receive the message that I share on any given Sunday, (or at any other time for that matter), the power to cause them to grasp and understand the message does not lie with me. 

            Paul, in rather humbling terms, describes how the power of the gospel lies with God, and not from us.  We are but weak, fragile vessels in the process.  While a clay jar was an important part of their everyday lives, they did not stand up well when dropped or knocked over.  While they might have a beautiful design on the exterior, or be kept for special purposes, they were still to be handled carefully.  Given our weakness, and our likeliness of failure, it’s amazing to me that God is even able to use us. 

            We are instructed elsewhere to remember who has made the clay jar, and that it is He who gets to determine its purpose and use.  It is He who makes our work effective, and fruitful.  The “god of this age” (the devil) has blinded many eyes from seeing the light of the gospel, but when the light of God’s Holy Spirit shines through, and spiritual awakening happens, it is a glorious thing—a true work of God.

            It is to the glory of God that He awakens us; that He allows His light to shine in our darkness.  It is good for us to remember that the power of the gospel resides in the One who originated the whole plan of man’s redemption.  The power does not rest in the messenger, but in the one who sent him; not in the vessel, but in the one who made the vessel and filled it with living water.

            So we are to carry the message of the gospel, to proclaim it regularly, and then pray!  Pray that God will make that message powerful and effective so that lives can be transformed, and changed forever.  We should pray that He would be glorified by using these weak, fragile vessels to carry this life changing message.

                       

By His Grace Alone,

Pastor Bruce Jacobsen