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Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends;
This weekend in America is an important one… Labor Day weekend. Normally, for most people, this weekend is the transition bridge from a fun filled summer to a busy fall and eventually the holidays of Thanksgiving & Christmas…, but this year is far different from any previous year, for almost everyone!
* Few if any schools in America have begun as normal this year. On line, social distancing, masks, and so much more are testing the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn like never before. So many families are struggling to know how to best accomplish the education of their children while providing a safe learning environment for them,
* Few businesses made it through the summer as normal. Too many closed their doors, unable to survive the dramatic reduction in customers. For each of those, there are many people and families who’ve lost their income and the fulfillment of their careers.
* Every church in America has struggled to know how to serve their community, while providing a healthy environment for people to gather, meeting with God.
* Each of us has experienced dramatic changes to how we live everyday and profound restrictions in where we go, what we do, how we gather with other people. Disconnectedness is a shared feeling from ‘locked down’ retirement facilities to closed arenas empty of the cheers from thousands of people enjoying sports or concerts, to empty airports and vacation spots. The truth is loneliness, discouragement, even depression is widespread around the world.
So how did summer 2020 affect you, my friends? Where have you turned for perspective and hope? Remember these words from earlier this week: “We have this HOPE as an ANCHOR for the soul, firm and secure.” (Heb. 6:19) So… What has been your anchor, the source of your HOPE, in the past 100 days of summer 2020?
While many people say these are ‘unprecedented’ times, that’s not really true. History tells us there have been much worse economic times, such as the Great Depression years, or in other parts of the world, severe famine and widespread starvation. While this COVID illness is stretching medical capacity around the world, several previous “pandemics” have been much worse, killing many millions more people. While the riots in America and the gang wars, civil war or coups in other countries are terrible, nothing in recent times compares to the horrificness of the world wars.
So I urge us to leave this dark summer of 2020, as the people closed out the Old Testament in dark times, around 400 b.c., let’s hear the words of God: “I the LORD do not change. So you… are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers, you have turned away from Me… Return to ME and I will return to you, says the LORD Almighty….
Test Me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing you will not have room enough for it.” (Malachi 3:6-10)
My friends, what do you hear in God’s words? Do these words sound like a warning of impending doom, of widespread judgment or destruction? Or, do these words sound hopeful, as though God is providing HOPE for the desperate, a strong anchor of HOPE for anyone in the ravaging storms of life, but especially His people in perilous times, inviting them to come back to God… for He longs to bless them? Do you hear that in Malachi’s words?
400 years… 4 centuries of time… SILENCE. No one claimed a fresh word from God. Religious people went through the motions as they had for decades… but nothing new. Generations came and went, and Malachi’s words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. There was little if any response, but God kept His arms open, waiting for the return of His people.
John the disciple, perhaps the closest friend Jesus had while He walked this earth, describes God’s initiative in response to 4 centuries of silence… God came here, Himself, in the person of Jesus! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning. Through Him (Jesus) all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him (Jesus) was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it… The true light that gives light to every person was coming into the world!
He (Jesus) was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave them the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision…but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-14)
Do you hear John’s confidence, his enthusiasm...that he was one of many who personally saw God’s incarnation, in the person of Jesus. Oh much more than just saw, John spent many months with Jesus, day and night, in every imaginable situation. John’s life was changed by those months, and in Jesus’ most difficult times, John was there.
John was there, sitting next to Jesus in the Upper room on that special evening before His crucifixion, when He said “…one of you is going to betray Me…”. John was there at the trials and beatings. John was the only one of the disciples at the cross, with Mary, Jesus’ mother. John followed Nicodemus and Joseph who carried Jesus’ body to the tomb. John was one of the first to look into the empty tomb that resurrection morning. John saw the risen Jesus several times, and was there when Jesus ascended back to His heavenly throne.
John was one of the most outspoken of the Apostles, telling the story of Jesus his friend, to anyone who would listen. John was beaten, imprisoned and finally exiled to Patmos Island in an effort to silence him. John wrote: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have touched with our hands – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared, we have seen Him and we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete…” (1 John 1:1-4)
Can you see the smile on old John’s face, as he strokes his beard, probably sitting in a dungeon. His Anchor of HOPE was Jesus. The memories he had of his months with Jesus. But also the strong sense of Jesus with Him through the presence and power of Jesus’ Holy Spirit, even there, in the dungeon on Patmos Island. Jesus had said to John and the others “I will not leave you alone. I will send the Holy Spirit who will be with you forever….when He, the Holy Spirit comes upon you in power, you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:8)
This weekend, in the chaos of COVID-19, and all that is so different from every Labor Day weekend of the past… can you, like John, find a quiet place to reflect and to thank God for the HOPE of Jesus in your life? Can you thank God that you are confident Jesus has rescued you from the despair of your sin condemnation and heaven is your certain destination. Can you thank God that the Holy Spirit of God has removed from you guilt and shame from the past and filled you with His Holy Presence and you feel the joy of being a son or daughter of the King of kings? Can you thank God that no matter what storms are raging around you, your heavenly Father, the Almighty God is Sovereign over it all and you fully trust Him with your life and your future?
What would you like to say to Jesus…right now?
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: Malachi 3:6-10; John 1:1-14. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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