LESSONS ON GOD'S PURPOSES WHILE DOING YARDWORK

"My Father is working until now, and I am working."John 5:17

"We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

"It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure," Philippians 2:13

The yard was driving me crazy. The front and back hedges were overgrown, the branches from some of my plants were hanging over the walkway. The grass was getting to high. The fallen leaves were all over the driveway and back yard. I knew how beautiful the yard could be. I pictured a well cut and even hedges, a neatly mowed lawn, clear walkways, clean patio, trimmed bushes, and a yard ready for the center fold of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

So with this vision in my mind I planned out my strategy. I got out my lawn mower, electric hedge clippers, a rake, a broom, my edger, a blower, and my garden waste trash can. For the next three hours I worked out my plan and finished the project. The yard turned out exactly how I envisioned it except that Better Homes and Garden has not showed up to admire my yard.

Why am I writing this about my yard. Am I trying to bore you like people do on Facebook with their banal accounts of their every deed? The reason I wrote this is because God spoke to me in the middle of my own difficulties in my life with some tremendous lessons about who God is, how purposeful He is, how diligent He is to accomplish his purposes, and how He will accomplish His purposes for your life.

1. GOD IS PURPOSEFUL
Just as I had envisioned what I desired my yard to look like, God has designed a purpose for your life. Often times it does not seem or feel like it, but that does not change the fact that God has purpose for us. The appearance of my yard did not effect my purpose for it nor does the appearance of your life mean that God has no purpose for it. Remember what the Lord said to Jeremiah about His purpose? ""Before I formed you in the womb I knew you (literally "I loved you") ,and before you were born I consecrated you;I appointed you a prophet to the nations."" (Jeremiah 1:5).

God has plans for you that He made in eternity long before you were even born! "In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will" (Ephesians 1:5)

Let your mind reflect upon these truths about God's purpose for your life:

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. " (Jeremiah 29:11)
"I cry out to God Most High,to God who fulfills his purpose for me.He will send from heaven and save me;he will put to shame him who tramples on me." (Psalm 57:2-3)
"The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me" (Psalm 138:8) "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers" (Acts 13:38)

2. GOD'S PLANS ARE NOT THWARTED BY YOUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, YOUR SINS, AND YOUR FAILURES

When I looked at my yard and the state that it was in, it meant that I needed to work to get it in the state that I desired it t be. Oh how often we feel like our sins, failures, weakness, inability, roadblocks, obstacles, hindrances, genes, family influences, habits, bondage's, etc. mean that God cannot and will not be able to accomplish His plans. the fact is that all of these are part of the plan not a detour or interruption in the plans and purposes of your loving Father in heaven.

• "But he knows the way that I take;when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold...For he will complete what he appoints for me,and many such things are in his mind." (Job 23:10,14)
  "When my spirit faints within me,you know my way!" (Psalm 142:3)
  "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive" (Genesis 50:20)
  
  No matter things look like know that God is in control and is thoroughly acquainted with you and your life. He is not daunted, discouraged, or defeated about you and your life. Therefore, rest, wait, surrender, and "commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him." (Psalm 37:4)
  
  3. GOD IS WORKING RIGHT NOW IN YOUR LIFE NO MATTER WHAT IT LOOKS OR FEELS LIKE
  
  If you looked at my yard when I was working, there was a point when it was a complete mess. There were branches lying in heaps everywhere, leaves all over the yard, dirt was everywhere, in short, it looked worse than when I started. but in reality progress towards my purpose was being made while I was working. So it is with God. Remember that Jesus said in John 15:1-2, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit". Have you ever thought that the Father might be pruning you for more fruit for His glory? Do you feel at the present that you have not progressed in your growth as a Christian? Do you feel that in the midst of your present difficulties that God has abandoned you? Perhaps you feel that you have made a mess of your life. Maybe you have lost a job, a friend or family member, a marriage, a dream, or a ministry. Remember what Jesus and Paul said:
  
  "My Father is working until now, and I am working." (John 5:17)
  "It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure," (Philippians 2:13)
  No matter what you see or feel, remind yourself that God is working in your life at this present moment and that you are not alone.
  
  4. GOD WILL FINISH THE WORK THAT HE BEGAN IN YOU!
  
  "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:9)
  
  There was a time when my yard was finally complete and there is a God appointed time when His work in you will be complete as well. My yard looks very beautiful after all of that work., Can you imagine what your life is going to look like after God finishes His work in you? "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29).
  
  So remember this week:
  GOD HAS A PURPOSE AND PLAN FOR YOU
  GOD'S PLANS ARE NOT THWARTED BY YOUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES, YOUR SINS, AND YOUR FAILURES
  GOD IS WORKING RIGHT NOW IN YOUR LIFE NO MATTER WHAT IT LOOKS OR FEELS LIKE
  GOD WILL FINISH THE WORK THAT HE BEGAN IN YOU
  

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"For who has known the mind of the Lord,or who has been his counselor?""Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.". (Romans 11:33)

Pastor Bill

EXAMINING THE "WHAT" AND "WHY" OF YOUR HEART

Lat week I wrote about the freedom that comes in your life when you discover afresh the gospel truth that the Father loves you unconditionally because of Jesus Christ. Knowing and experiencing that love and the freedom that comes out of it enables us to face our pain and the dark, disturbing, unhealthy, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes that are aspects of who I am. I will apply this more next week after you read what I write this week.

When our world falls apart; when pain, crises, disappointments, loss, tragedy, or failure come our way God uses them all to get us to change. I wish it did not work that way in life, but that seems the way it is. One person said, "we change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing."

Through pain, we develop a deep desire to change. I have certainly seen people change without pain, but it seems for most of us that distress brings us to be willing to take honest looks at what goes on inside of us. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick; who can understand it." I think that it is very difficult for us to understand what goes on inside of us; the world of feelings, thoughts, desires, hopes, motivations, and hopes. It is very complex and takes God, his Spirit; his Word; and our willingness to look inside to be willing to face and allow a deep, long look inside.

I have found that it is easy to remain in a comfortable, safe, habit formed, controlled, ordered way of not really having to look inside. My life has been so full and busy for the past 33 years that it has been difficult to deal with things that were going on inside of me that really needed to change and life differently.

So I am learning to become aware of what I am feeling and doing. Learning to become aware is giving me the courage to do life differently and freeing me to operate in new, purer, godlier, healthier, ways of relating to the Father, Son, and holy Spirit and as a result, with others.
First, I am asking what am I feeling. Why did I feel sad after a conversation with someone? Why did I dread spending time with a certain person? Why did I avoid getting close with certain people?

I have had numerous feelings and thoughts inside but never grabbed hold of them nor knew how to bring them to Jesus. What do you do the mass of various emotions that complex emotional beings like us can feel like...Loneliness? Anger? Grief? Feelings of uselessness and worthlessness? Insecurity? Feeling like you don't fit in or measure up? Inappropriate immoral desires or feelings? Bitterness? Frustrations? Boredom? Disappointment? Sins that you have committed? Shame? Failure? Rejection? Loss? Disapproval? Discouragements? Failed relationships? People who won't forgive you? Being misunderstood and judged? A broken heart or dream? I could go on and on.

What do you do with those feelings? Do you repress them? Rationalize each one? Do you just ignore them? Do you know what you are feeling but aren't able to get to the root of "why" you are feeling what you are feeling? Are you willing and able to bring them to the Father for healing? I am not talking about narcissistic self-absorption but rather an honest examination of our emotions and feelings that radically impact every area of our relationships, ministry, and lives. the Proverb writer says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life"(Proverbs 4:23). Paul encourages us to do a work of self examination in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves."

Once I begin to be aware of what I am doing, how I am feeling, and how it is impacting others; I am learning to ask myself the "why" question. This asks questions like... "Why I am feeling what I am feeling." "Why do I allow others to control me?" "Why do I feel like such a failure?" "Why does it matter that these people accept me?" "Why am I so lonely in church?" "Why do I battle these desires?" "Why do I feel that I don't fit in?" " Why am I angry at this person?" "Why do I keep procrastinating meeting with this person? " "Why do I want to succeed so badly?" "Why do I fear the future so much?" "Why does it matter what people think of me?" Do these questions seem difficult to you? Alien? Starnge? Scarey?

I have found it easy to tell God what I was feeling but I have found it difficult to beseech God to help me to understand the why of my feelings, motives, and desires. I have frequently asked God to accomplish my agendas and plans. But seldom really taken the time to really be still and listen to Him tell me about me. .

I am learning to be courageous in asking myself these kind of questions, especially when it is something I would label negative or inappropriate such as anger, shame, bitterness, boredom, grief, hate, anxiety, fear, or depression.

What freedom is to be found in being honest before the God who loves us in our feelings, emotions, hurts, and wounds and bringing them to His throne of grace. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."(Hebrews 4:16) Here is the place where love, mercy, grace, healing, transformation, and freedom is poured out and released in our soul. Here I can be honest with God and myself.

This is the new way I am beginning to learn how to live. The adventure begins!

TO BE CONTINUED...
Pastor Bill

YOU ARE UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED BY THE FATHER!

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,"For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 8:31-39

Do you believe that the Father in heaven loves you? Do you have the assurance that there is nothing that you can do to change the love that He has for you? Will God still love you if you sin against Him? Will He love you if you fail? What if you do not perform to His standards? Do you feel that you have to work and perform to earn His love for you? Does you inner self feel as if you are in a futile quest to win His love no matter what you do? Do you feel that you have done things that can never be forgiven by Him? Do you feel at best that the Father in heaven tolerates you but does not really like you? Will He love you if you don't love him? Does God's love for you change when you don't feel or have the assurance that He loves you?

I must confess that these are very difficult questions to ask yourself, much less to answer in honesty and truthfulness. They are to painful and radical for Christians to be willing to face for several reasons. First, because theologically most Christians know that the Bible explicitly teaches us that God is a loving God and He loves us freely and unconditionally. I have found it easier to teach, say, and tell others that we believe these things than to really believe these things. Secondly, because it seems so inappropriate and painful to say to yourself, much less to others that you really do not believe or feel that God loves you. It is easier to just go on with your life. You will not do well in the Christian culture with those kind of beliefs. Thirdly, we can fill our lives with so much activity and busyness that we never take the time to ask these kind of questions. Finally, because we live in a world that does not love. The world tells us that to receive love it must be earned, achieved, performed for. We live in a very legalistic world. We learn this legalism modeled and demonstrated at home in our childhood, in our marriages with our spouses, at the workplace with our bosses or competing fellow workers, in our relationships, and sadly at times, in the body of Christ.

Think about the hidden but blatant ways we communicate or are told the way we will be loved in this legalistic world? "Perform for me and I will love you." "Fulfill my expectations and you will be loved." Do what I say and I will love you." "Fail and I will not love you." "I will love you if you do this." "I will love you when you do this." "Because of what you did, I will never love you."

Do you see this dear reader? Does this remind you of the way you have lived your life? Are you performing hoping to find and be loved by others? By God?

Do you today you feel like are you the performing worker? The performing spouse? The performing Christian? The performing son or daughter? It is a very lonely place to be? Will I ever be good enough? Should I work harder? Should I pretend I am someone I am not or others want me to be?

Stepping away from the ministry for a season I am seeing that I have often felt like the performing pastor. Would my church love me if I failed? What if I was weak? What if I sinned? What if they knew my weaknesses? What if I did not fulfill their expectations? Will they still love me? Will they stand with me? Will they stay with me? I have often times feared and felt others disapproval over me. It is a lonely place to live. If you always feel you have to perform you either try harder or give up. I have often felt that if I wasn't the hardest working, most available, busiest pastor I would not be pleasing to God and others. I think there is a deep longing in our soul to be loved for who they are not for what we do.

I had a wonderful epiphany in Romans 8 the other day. I have not been happy with my feelings of uselessness, dullness, directionless, no vision, no goals, little desire, no energy, brokenness, and empty, desperate prayers. It saddened me the sorry state that I was in. I felt that God was very disappointed with me in my relationship with Him, my spirituality, my life and all that it encompassed. With those feelings came a deep darkness and hopelessness that led to despair.. I sank to a place where I felt that if God was so very against me. At best He tolerated me, but was not to happy with me. Then I felt, if God does not love me. Then what do I have?

The apostle Paul wrote that "God is for us" and that "neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." It really struck me. At this very moment in my low state the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul is saying GOD IS FOR ME! Not only that, he says that NOTHING can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Think about that. NOTHING!!!! No dangers, problems, conflicts, failures, sins, guilt, regrets, mistakes, imperfections. NOTHING can separate me from the love of God! Being dull, burned out, scared, broken, doubting, questioning, disappointed, defeated, fearful, discouraged, worried, anxious, joyless, selfish, and prideful will not separate me from the love of God. Being an imperfect pastor, husband, parent, friend, and son of God will not separate me from the love of God!

This is the promise of God for me and for you dear Christian. It is the promise that can turn your sorrow to joy; your loneliness to communion; your timidity to boldness; you slavery to freedom; your hell to heaven; and your death to abundant living. It is the truth that will set you free and transform your life..
GOD LOVES YOU UNCONDITIONALLY AS HIS SON AND DAUGHTER.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PERFORM TO EARN HIS LOVE.
HE LOVES YOU WHEN YOU ARE GOOD AND WHEN YOU ARE BAD.
HE IS NOT DISAPPOINTED WITH YOU.
HE LOVES YOU AND WANTS TO LOVE YOU.

So what I am learning to do is to let Him love me. To surrender and receive His love. To renounce all paradigms of performance and simply accept this reality; savor it, cherish it, and believe it.

For some of us, this is not an easy thing; especially f you have not really believed that He loves you. It is a wonderful thought to believe that God loves me in my weakness of faith, my fears about the future, the cluelessness i have about His will for my life, my sadness, misery, and brokenness. God loves me even when I am not nor am I able to love Him in return. Nothing will separate me from that love.It has begun in me a whole experience of living in the reality that even if nobody else loves me, I am not alone, for the Father loves me unconditionally, period, exclamation point! Nothing can and will ever change that reality. AMEN!

A Prayer
Father in Heaven; I humbly come before you as Your adopted Son, blood bought by your beloved Son Jesus Christ. I renounce all attempts to win Your love, earn Your love, and perform in order to receive Your love and others love. Help me by and through Your love and grace to receive Your unconditional love at this moment. May my life be an ongoing experience of letting go of anything that is not based upon the truth of Your unconditional love and receiving an ongoing touch and filling of Your love in my heart, soul, will, and mind. May the experience of Your unconditional love make me a person who lives, and loves others with Your unconditional love. May others be free in my presence to not feel that they have to perform to earn my love. May they simply know by being around me your love for them today and all the days of my life. In Jesus name AMEN!

HE KNOWS MY WAY

"But he knows the way that I take;when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold." Job 23:10

"When my spirit faints within me,you know my way!" Psalm 142:3

"Commit your way to the LORD;trust in him, and he will act." Psalm 37:4

I have come to discover that there are a infinite number of things that I do not know about God, others, and myself. I can only know (and even then I'm not sure I really know and understand) the things that God chooses to reveal to me about Himself. I can only know what I see in others behavior or what they choose to tell me about themselves. But even then, you may not tell me the truth about yourself nor can I even begin to comprehend what goes on inside of you. Then, there is what I know about myself. I have discovered things that, until recently, I have never understood nor known about me. Trials have that tendency to cause us much inner reflection.

Oh how thankful I am for the knowledge that God has about all things! When we are going through trials, crises, disappointments, defeats, times of darkness, and catastrophe God knows. "But he knows the way that I take;when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold." (Job 23:10)
God knows the way that I take. That means whatever you are going through at this very moment. I may not have the slightest idea of what is going on, where I am going, why this is happening, or what is going to be the outcome. I may very well see and feel nothing but darkness and hopelessness. The way may seem crooked, tangled, and downward but "He knows".

Because God knows, God has somehow planned this in His sovereign governing over all of life. He is not surprised, puzzled, helpless, passive, or disconnected from "the way" you are on in life. He is an almighty, loving, purposeful, kind, compassionate, and merciful God. "The way" seems very dark to me, the furnace may be hot, the present may seem to much to bear. Nevertheless, even if I cannot trace His hand in my way, I can trust His heart and purpose. Job writes, "when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold" (Job 23:10). Isn't that why the confident Paul could so confidently boast in Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose"?

When I feel that I am all alone and helpless in my life, God is nearest to me. "When my spirit faints within me, You know my way." (Psalm 142:3). "He knows my way". That means He is intimately acquainted with me and my present circumstance and experience. He "will never leave me or forsake me" (Hebrews 13:5). I am not left to myself to face or deal with this when I have no strength, ability, or motivation."So we can confidently say,'The Lord is my helper;I will not fear; what can man do to me?' "(Hebrews 13:4b).

Because God knows I can rest in His acting, powerful, guiding, strengthening, and personal hand over every second of my troubled life. that is why David gave this exhortation in Psalm 37:5-7, "Commit your way to the LORD;trust in him, and he will act.He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,and your justice as the noonday.Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him..." I am discovering that the worst place for my flesh, but the best place for my soul is to hand over my circumstance (what David calls "your way") over to the God who knows and works, and thus surrenders, trusts, and submits to His work in these circumstances.

Psalm 138:7 is a great promise for us when we are in "the way" of our lonely, difficult, seemingly hopeless days. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble,you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,and your right hand delivers me." Although His answer seems silent and we continue to walk in the midst of trouble; God says that this is the place where He will not leave or fail us, but instead, will preserve us and will work out His plans and purposes for our lives. "I cry out to God Most High,to God who fulfills his purpose for me....The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me" (Psalm 57:2;138:8).

The knowledge of God's knowledge helps me to agree with the poet George Herbert who wrote in his poem called The Bag:

Away, Despair! My gracious Lord doth hear:
Though winds and waves assault my keel,
He doth preserve it: he doth steer,
Ev'n when the boat seems most to reel:
Storms are the triumph of his art:
Well may he close his eyes, but not his heart."

Waiting in my way,

Pastor Bill

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SINCE I STEPPED DOWN FROM MY CHURCH

• On April 30th I preached my last sermon and stepped down as pastor. This has been the most difficult time of my life but it has also been an amazing time of learning. I thought I would simply bullet some of the things that God is both teaching me and showing me.
  
  Jesus Christ is my best friend and we should never forsake cultivating deep communion with Him so that when times of trial and testing come we know where to go for strength and comfort and help.
• Do we really know and feel that Jesus loves us unconditionally?
• Who are you when everything is stripped and taken away? What defines you as a person?
• Faith is easy to talk about until you have to live by it.
• Worry, fear, and stress are very dangerous to your soul. I wonder ho many of us live our lives bound up in all we do by those things inside.
• Do not think that you can control your life or God. If you do, He will show you how out of control you really are.
• I think that the church has much to learn about grace, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and love in action.In short, the church needs to know about its own sinfulness, the wonder of the cross, and the depth of the Father's love.
• We are all very broken, poor, and needy people, its just that most of us don't realize it.
• I am only a man. I am expendable. Christ can raise me or lower me according to His will.
• When all is said and done, Jesus is all we have.
• Whether we live or die, whether things go well or dreams collapse, the Lord is good!
• God is absolutely sovereign and does what He pleases.
  Everything that we do for Christ is nothing but a grace and mercy.
  I am and always will be a wretched sinner apart from Christ.
• God is not concerned near as much about what I do as He is concerned for who I am.
• Most of us are more wounded and broken than we even begin to realize.
• There are many more reasons what we do than meets the eye.
• John Calvin said that it is harder to know ourselves than to know God. I Agree.
• The cross brings healing to our emotions as well as our sins.
• Some of us are way to religious and not enough loving, merciful, generous, and kind toward others.
• We are more products of our past than we realize.
• Be sure to take care of your soul above all things. If you don't, the time will surely come when you will find out that you did not and you will wish that you did.
• Beware of foolishness in how you think, make decisions, and how you live.
• Friendship is a sheltering tree.
• Fellowship with other believers is much more valuable to me than Sunday church services.
• We all need real friends who who stand with us, love us, forgive us, show mercy, forebear with us, and stay with us no matter what. That is the kind of friend that Jesus is!
• We also need friends who will speak the truth to us and love us anyway. We need to listen to our true friends because God speaks to us through them if we would listen.
• God speaks to us in many ways if we would just be open to divine providence.
• God gave us two ears and one mouth. I am convinced listening is much more important to God than speaking
• The best way to have real friendships is to be a friend to others.
• Do not work so much or seek to acquire things or money too much, because the day will come when you see what a waste it is if you have not invested in your soul, marriage, family, and friends.
• Do not waste your trials, valleys, brokenness, failings, and defeats.
• Look around every day and you will see arrows of love shot to you from the Father in heaven. God visits you every day with so many precious providence's if you would only open your eyes to see.
• When you begin living in the world of divine providence, no matter how bad things are, you can always find numerous reasons for gratitude to God. Something happens in your soul when you become a thankful person.
• I have been very lonely in this life, but I am learning that just as Jesus says in John 16:32, "I am not alone the Father is with me."
• When people are hurting we need to ask the Father to help us really have empathy and compassion. We need to ask the Lord what we can be for others. Most people don't need glib bible quoting, sermons, and pithy sayings, they just need someone to listen, weep, and pray with them.
• God knows what we can handle better than we do.
• Often times when we are overwhelmed in our trials we want relief,escape, and an end. We will tell Him that we cannot handle it. Jesus does not offer us those things until the appointed time is over but He does offer us Himself and His enabling and sustaining grace in order to face and endure them.
• It is one thing to ask God for some help, it is another thing to believe that if God does not help you, you will fail. Many Christians rely more on themselves and others than they know.
• Most of us have a very hard time being quiet and still before the Lord.
• Love is the most important thing in the life and legacy of a believer.
• I am a great sinner, Jesus is a wonderful savior, and on Him and His mercy and grace and kind arms I fall.

Pastor Bill