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Bitterness

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By Brian Sharpe

This is going to have to take some imagination. Close your eyes and think of a very nice house on a couple of acres with perfectly manicured lawns. It has matured trees and flower beds throughout the front yard and backyard, with a beautiful water feature in the backyard by the large deck with seating area. The house has a Northwest cabin feel, with lots of exposed wood and cedar. This house has the prefect layout and has the feel of a very comfortable escape. Can you picture that in your mind?

            Healthy plants have good root systems. The better the root system is, the more mature the plants are. For me, roots have always carried the idea of maturity, until a couple of weeks ago. Steve preached on the idea of a root of bitterness. This reminded me of the VeggieTales movie called The Fib from Outer Space. A little vegetable tells a lie and then has to keep telling a lie, which creates this monster that gets larger and larger with every lie that he tells. A bitter root goes deeper and deeper and spreads out of control if not taken care of.

            This brings us back to the beautiful house on acreage. Now imagine that same house but overgrown and with rooms that are overrun with junk. What could be a beautiful house is overrun by junk that doesn’t need to be there.  The yard that was once so pristine is overrun with weeds, vines, and blackberry bushes and is just unkept.

            When we allow bitterness to take root as believers, this transformed, beautifully forgiven body becomes overrun with sin, and it starts to eat us alive. If we are believers, this should lead us to repentance, but it often leads to further bitterness, because we are not willing to deal with offenses. This is toxic to the church and to the individual.

            I know in my life I need to constantly ask God to search me and let me know if there is bitterness in me (Psalm 139:23-24). The Spirit will convict us of sin (John 16:8); we need to listen and seek to forgive those we have bitterness against. We also need to go to those who have hurt us and seek to reconcile the relationship (Matthew 5:23-24). God desires the church to be united, and it is hard to be united when we have bitterness taking root in our lives (Philippians 2:1-2).

            This is my prayer: “Jesus, where there is bitterness taking root, please convict me. Help me have the courage to have the conversation that will lead to unity and peace in the family of God. Amen.”

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Finders of Good

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Jeff Foerster

When I was a young lad, “finding good” meant getting stuff I wanted. Stuff requires money, and I had a plan—buried treasure. My method for uncovering hidden wealth? A metal detector, of course. I had seen models advertised in glossy brochures, and I just knew this was my ticket to a boatload of goodies. All I needed to get started was $129.95!

What is the world’s method for finding good?

Get some “me time”—take a vacation, entertain yourself.

Consume something—go shopping for a new outfit, new kitchen, new car, new you.

Do what is “nice”—perform correctly in what you say.

This is Americana, 21st-century style: surface level and two inches deep. No chance of drowning here, folks.

Well, enough about that. Let’s move quickly to where we need to be as followers of Christ. We are sojourners—strangers and pilgrims passing through this world. How are we to find good? Simply put, God grounded us on the earth and raised up His Son that we would lift up our eyes, fixing them on Jesus as we walk this life.

I urge you, know Him deeply, spend time with Him, and think on His promises. I’m in the midst of reading the gospels and am reminded of Mary, mother of Jesus, who heard great prophecy spoken of her Son that He is Savior and a Light of Revelation to the Gentiles. Mary treasured these things up in her heart; she pondered them—bringing them to mind frequently, searching out their meaning, and looking with hope to their fulfillment.

How precious a thing. How glorious a tribute. How wonderful to be known by a practice of finding good. You’ve heard it said in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Remember also, then, the foundation given in Philippians 4 that enables this: “stand firm in the Lord, my beloved” and “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

If you want to be a “good finder,” you’ve got to be a Jesus focuser. Straining to put on a happy face or pursuing a fake-it-until-you-make-it policy will only end in exhaustion or self-delusion. The Apostle Paul found a different way:

“I have learned to be content in any and every circumstance.”

It is through this attitude of Paul’s, founded in focus on the person of Jesus Christ, that we turn to one of the most misused verses in all of Scripture: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” It’s not a call to achievement or abundance, but a call to contentment. Not to pursuing more, but through saying, “Enough.”

But what about when life just stinks?

There is time for recollection of difficulty and trauma experienced. There is value in reflection on one’s being and situation. When those things are brought to light, bring them to the Light. Give Jesus the final say on every hurt, every hindrance, every idea, every stronghold that stands in opposition to God!

In line with childish desires, we can spend our days sifting through sands for nickels, or we can send our eyes skyward, to the Lord of glory and to our future together. Find good. Not in “good” circumstances that may come, but in the good Savior, that is now and forever will be!

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Pursuing Spiritual Purity

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Pursuing Spiritual Purity

by Brian Waple

We’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for almost 18 years, and during that time I’ve noticed how popular tattoos have become among both Christians and non-Christians. Now, I don’t have any tattoos, nor do I hold any views against people who do. My dad did, but being a gunner’s mate in the Coast Guard in the late 1940s, I guess it was considered kind of a rite of passage. For me, I’ve never felt the need for a tattoo.

So, what does all of this tattoo talk have to do with pursuing spiritual purity? Well, there was a brief moment when I flirted with the idea of getting a tattoo. And it’s what I wanted to get (and why) that is more to the point of this blog post. More about that later.

Listening to Pastor Steve talk about pursuing spiritual purity this past Sunday made me realize just how much my mind gets drawn away from reflecting on God and is instead frequently mired in the mundane, the less lofty, things that are more worldly. I’m not necessarily talking about impure thoughts—just thoughts that don’t include God and distract me from being present to Him and what He’s doing. I notice it primarily during my quiet time, but I struggle with it often at other times. I find I become captive to whatever is drawing me in that moment.

I just finished re-reading Brennan Manning’s book The Furious Longing of God. In it, he describes a scene with Jesus and the apostles (Luke 11:1-4), which characterized Jesus’s remarkable, ongoing connection with His Father . . . His Abba . . . our Abba. Manning goes on to talk about how reflecting daily on Abba has been so crucial in his own walk and how that connection has been beneficial to those with whom he’s come in contact, of which there have been many. At the end of this particular section, he shares a practice that helps him stay focused on his Abba:

“Prayerfully consider taking a few moments every day . . . closing your eyes, upturning your palms, and praying, ‘Abba, I belong to You.’” (page 58)

I have tried using this prayer during my quiet times, especially when I’ve felt my mind wandering, and I’ve found that it keeps me focused and present to God.

So, how do we stay focused? How do we remain attentive to our Abba so as to be pursuing spiritual purity in our Christian walk? Sometimes we need a daily practice like the Abba prayer above. Or we may need a visual to remind us of what we should be reflecting on to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. I am more of a visual person.

Back to the tattoo. The tattoo I was considering would have been simply “Phil 4:8-9.” Those verses are a reminder to me of one way I can go about staying focused:

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

What about you? How are you pursuing spiritual purity? Perhaps asking the Holy Spirit to help you stay connected to God and remember this verse (or others) is a good option for you—and a lot less painful than a tattoo!

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The Relief of Christmas Carols in July

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By Jason Comerford

Y’know what I love most about July?

It’s a flimsy pretext for me to bust out my favorite genre of music. Christmas in July, baby!

Even when I was a child, Christmas carols specifically were among my favorites. Not so much “Jingle Bells” or “Let it Snow,” but more “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “Joy to the World.” I think part of the reason for that is how (in my musically unschooled opinion) so many carols seem to capture one particular emotion, one that deeply appeals to me:

Relief.

When Jesus was born into the world, Israel had been suffering for some time. An unbelievably powerful foreign nation was occupying Israel; poverty, injustice, and illness were as rampant as they’ve always been; and worst of all, the voice of God had been silent for about 400 years.

When the One who claims to comfort you in the presence of evil, oppressing enemies (Isaiah 51:12) doesn’t seem to be comforting in the face of evil, oppressing enemies, hope can start to feel like one more source of pain. It eats at joy and vitality, until all that’s left is a subtle awareness of this constant, biting weariness you can’t seem to shake.

Four hundred years of that.

For some of us, it hasn’t been generations of waiting for an unfulfilled promise. For some of us, it’s pain that won’t go away. Hips and knees that hurt and keep us up at night. Or maybe a marriage full of restless tension and bickering. Maybe you’re like me and can’t shake anxiety and depression. Whatever it is, I’m betting most of us are familiar with the longing for some kind of pain to just finally stop.

Oftentimes when we’ve suffered for a long time, we can forget what relief is even like. The prospect of NOT living with some terrible affliction just seems impossible.

And that’s why I love Christmas carols so much. When I can’t even remember that relief is real, the songs of Jesus finally coming into the world remind me that it’s not simply that God will remove painful circumstances, but Relief Himself has come for me. He has come to “wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Friends, Relief has come for us.

And He is coming again.

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