Jaroslav Pelikan said it best, “If Christ is risen—nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

Happy Easter!

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Gire Daba: Martyred For Preaching The Gospel

Our Project Oromia Missionary, Gire Daba, was martyred on Wednesday (3-9-2011) at his home. He had been commissioned and sent just this past November along with his family to a very remote and un-reached village in the West Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region in Ethiopia.

Gire presented the gospel message and many people received Christ.  In just three months, Gire’s church grew to over 40 people. He recently conducted an evangelistic outreach and some people from the Ethiopian Orthodox persuasion became very angry with him.  While Gire was praying with his hands outstretched in supplication for some people who had come to his home, a gunman burst in and shot him.

Gire has faced opposition since his arrival in the village.  Just since November, he has been jailed two times by the local leaders, simply for preaching the gospel.

Please pray for Gire’s wife and four children, as well as for the strengthening of these new converts in the midst of persecution.

It is believed that the killer was angry because his wife was one of Gire’s new converts. This husband had harassed Gire while he conducted the evangelism conference.  His wife accepted Christ and for that, he savagely beat her.  Pressuring her to recant, she refused, saying, “no, I love Jesus. I won’t deny him.”

The angry husband then banished her from his home, found Gire and shot him to death.  Our faithful witness, Gire Daba, has received the martyr’s crown!

Although we grieve for Gire’s family and church, we know that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. May the Church of God expand all the more in that village, in West Shewa, and may all of Ethiopia soon belong to Jesus Christ.

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” ~Tertullian

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Dear Blog Reader,

I will now be attempting to publish a day in advance in case you are following the Bible reading schedule provided in “Red Letter Challenge“.  The goal will be to get the blog posted in time, especially if you’re an early riser, for you to read both the assigned chapter in the Gospels along with my take on that day’s reading before you head off for work or school.

Hope that makes sense…and helps your journey through the Red Letters.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ray

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It was the Sunday before Christmas, and a little brother and sister were in church singing a Christmas hymn with the congregation. And as the song finished, the boy belted out rather loudly, “sleep in heavenly beans.” His sister gave him the most righteously indignant stare she could muster, and in a not-too-soft whisper said, “It’s not ‘heavenly beans’. It’s ‘sleep in heavenly peas.’”

As you know, they both butchered the words of the most well-loved Christmas hymn of all time. What you may not know is that back in 1818 that hymn was born. The birthplace was St. Nicholas Church in a small Austrian alpine village where a 31-year-old church organist by the name of Franz Gruber composed a melody on his guitar because the church organ was broken. The melody was for a poem that had been written earlier by the 26-year-old pastor of that church, Joseph Mohr. The poem was entitled, “Stille Nacht”, and the melody quickly formed in Gruber’s mind.

On that evening, in time for Midnight Mass, the world’s most famous Christmas Carol was heard for the very first time. It’s the same song that by tradition believers still sing every year during the season of Advent. It’s the song, “Silent Night.”

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin,
Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Now I don’t want to spoil your Thomas Kincade image of “Silent Night”, but I’m not too sure how “calm” and “bright” the night of Christ’s birth was. The Bible tells us that Mary’s pregnancy had been suspect in the eyes of her village from the beginning. She had been unmarried when the news arrived that she’d be pregnant with the Messiah by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not too many of the townsfolk had bought that story, and she likely became the object of their cruel and incessant gossip.

Then when the time came for the baby’s birth, Mary and Joseph had been required to travel by foot the arduous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, not an easy trip for anyone in those days, especially for a woman in the late stages of pregnancy. When they arrived, they were forced to stay in a stable because the inn had no room. And there among the squalor of the smelly, noisy animals, alone, with no family to rejoice with her, no mid-wife to assist her, a teenage virgin girl gave birth to the king of the world. And if Jesus was like most infants, like my two daughters when they were born, there was anything but peace and quiet that night.

Yet in the simple, humble, unlikely birth of Jesus, something Divine, something Eternal was released on Planet Earth. As someone has pointed out, the best Christmas present ever was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger. Franz Gruber truly did capture that indescribable, priceless gift with the words, “heavenly peace.” That night, God invaded earth, and heavenly peace was left in the wake of the Divine invasion. The angels who announced the Christ’s birth to the nearby shepherds couldn’t have put it any better,

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth, peace on whom his favor rest.

The infant Jesus may not have slept in heavenly peace that night, Mary and Joseph may not have enjoyed a peaceful night’s rest either, but God’s peace invaded earth that night in Bethlehem, and you and I on this Christmas Day are its beneficiaries.

So let me ask you a very important question: Are you benefiting from God’s peace? Is the peace of God, as Paul called it in Philippians 4, “guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus”? Is the peace of Christ, as Colossians 3 describes, “ruling in your heart”?

Perhaps the peace that passes all understanding is the last thing characterizing your life today. Maybe worry, anxiety, fear and stress dominate your world at the moment. My friend, God wants you to have his heavenly peace. That is his gift, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger, and the gift is just for you!

Now God’s peace is neither a blanket guarantee of global harmony nor a promise that your life will be conflict-free. It is just simply saying that if you are in God’s favor, which comes by virtue of accepting his Son as your Lord and Savior, his peace will guard your mind, it will rule your heart, and it will sustain your life.

The “heavenly peace” that Gruber wrote about and the angels announced is God’s gift to you this Christmas, even if your world seems a long way from being peaceful. It is simply the peace that comes from knowing that in the birth of Christ, eternity irrevocably invaded time and God drew near to you and me through Jesus Christ, our Immanuel.

That’s the heavenly peace God wants you to have on this very day, and every day for the rest of your life.

One night the small voice of a little girl was heard from the bedroom across the hall, “Daddy, I’m scared!”

The father’s response came quickly: “Honey, don’t be afraid, daddy’s right across the hall.”

After a brief pause the little voice was heard again, “I’m still scared!”

Again the father responded, “You don’t need to be afraid. God is watching over you.”

There was a longer pause, but the voice returned, “Daddy, I want someone with skin on!”

Jesus is God “with skin on”, and he is right here, right now, forever with you, powerfully present through Christ, who invaded earth for all time at Bethlehem.

And if you have received him by faith, you can sleep in heavenly peace.

O God, how much you loved me that you would give me the best and costliest gift ever, wrapped in swaddling cloths and placed in a manger. Thank you. Once again, on this Christmas Day, I receive the Prince of Peace and invite his peace to rule my heart.

“It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”  ~Charles Dickens

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God’s Love Never Runs Out

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD say this!
(Psalm 107:1-2)

I like the way The Message version of the Bible renders the psalmist’s call to gratitude: “Oh, thank God—he’s so good! His love never runs out. All of you set free by God, tell the world!”

God is good—all the time!  That truly is the testimony of my life—and I have a feeling it is true of your life as well.  Certainly, I ought to be proclaiming God’s goodness to anyone who will listen, and even to those who won’t, much more than I do.  Add to that the fact that I am, on my best day, not so good, and on my worst day, frankly, pretty bad, only adds to the brilliance of God’s overwhelming goodness.

The New King James translation of the psalmist’s words are even more meaningful to me: “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Mercy—I can really relate to that.  Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying:  I’ll take either enduring love or enduring mercy—I can’t leave without either one.  Love and mercy are simply different facets of the same diamond we understand as the goodness of God.

But God’s mercy really speaks to me, and I’ll bet if you thought about, it, you would say the same.  Someone said that mercy is not getting what you deserve.  The truth is, you and I depend upon God’s mercy every single moment just to draw in the next breath, since the holy and righteous God has had every reason and right to annihilate us from the planet because of our sinfulness.  Jeremiah said it well in Lamentations 3:22-23,

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The entirety of Psalm 107 is simply giving one example after another of how God in his faithful love and enduring mercy has freed his people from what they deserve.  And at the end of each example, the psalmist expresses the call to gratitude:

Oh, thank God, he is so good!  He love never runs out!

I’ll bet you could write your own Psalm 107.  In fact, that might be a good assignment for you on this Thanksgiving Day.  And then, like the psalmist suggested, we should go tell the world.  Now that’s a pretty tall order, so how about starting with the people with whom you will enjoy the holiday meal today?  Write your psalm and share it with your spouse, your family, and your friends.

I am not sure how they will feel about it, but you will certainly feel pretty good.  That’s what heartfelt gratitude to God for his faithful love and enduring mercy does.

“Peace of conscience is nothing but the echo of pardoning mercy.”
~William Gurnall

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So we’ve completed our first lap around Proverbs: 31 chapters in 31 days.  If you missed a day in our journey, I would encourage you to go back and read the post for that day. Or, if you’d prefer, join me on the second lap as we start over and make our way back through this amazing book of wisdom each day over the course of this new month.

I would also recommend that you do the assignments I’ve provided at the end of each blog post. The reason I offer these simple activities is to help us make the journey from being not merely hearers of the Word, but becoming doers of the Word, as James 1:22 says.  Making the effort and taking practical steps to actually put God’s Word into action may be the difference in merely knowing the Bible (there are lots of people in that category) and knowing God.  God has revealed himself in the Bible, but knowing him comes not just from stuffing more knowledge into our heads, but by opening our hearts and engaging our hands as well.

Again, I hope you will join me in this journey through the Book of Wisdom. As the old preacher said, “A Proverb a day keeps sin at bay!”

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ray

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Pastor Ray is just a few days away from launching his new blog postings.  Join him each day as he walks with you through the book of Proverbs.  In fact, why not join him in reading a chapter a day in Proverbs throughout the month.  For example, on Day 1 read Chapter 1, on Day 2 read Chapter 2 and so on.  Each day he will pull out an insight from the chapter to share his thoughts.  And, don’t forget….he would love to hear your thoughts too!

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So…be wondering what’s going on with Meditations lately?

Well, we’re on hiatus…taking a break…getting ready for a reboot.  The blog is about to make a comeback, so hold on.  In a few days, you will see a brand new look and a refreshing new approach to our daily interactions with God’s Word.  We think it’s it going to be fun!

Thanks for your patience!

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again.
Ecclesiastes 1:9

Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every
one that heareth it shall tingle.
1 Samuel 3:11

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Read Psalm 36:1-38:22

Your Success Guaranteed

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

Go Deep: I love this verse. It’s one of my favorites. Here is the key to success in life—to fruitfulness and fulfillment in all you do. Not just to make things happen for yourself, but to actually have God working on your behalf to give you what you have set your heart to do.

But this is no automatic formula to riches, power and fame that David is talking about. In this verse itself is essential context that we must grasp and apply if we are to enter into the blessed life the psalmist goes on to describe. Furthermore, the entire chapter of Psalm 37 provides valuable insight that further explains verse 4. You and I would do well to read and absorb this whole psalm in context.

So let me give you a heads up on some of David’s caveats to the success he promises:

First, you’ve got to put God first and make him foremost in your life. Another way of putting it is that God must be both the center and circumference of your existence. I think that’s what David had in mind when he said, “Delight yourself in the Lord.”

God will not grant you willi nilli any old desire—that would be irresponsible of God and dangerous for you. But when you delight in God above all else, that in itself will shape the desires that arise in your heart and guard you from foolish, selfish, sinful and harmful wishes.

Second, you’ve got to delay gratification and practice patience. You will find in the rest of this psalm that over and over again David speaks of not getting in a rush to see the plan of God unfold in your life, and not getting caught up in the false success of those who are far from God. In due time, God will bring about his promised blessings. Here is how David sees it in verse 7:

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

And third, you must refuse to cut corners and commit to a consistent walk of uprightness before God. If your life is characterized by incongruent living—saying one thing but doing another—don’t expect God’s deep and abiding favor. Though much of this psalm is dedicated to this truth, notice in particular how David puts it in verses 18, 34 and 37:

The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,
and their inheritance will endure forever…
Wait for the LORD and keep his way.
He will exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are cut off, you will see it….
Consider the blameless, observe the upright;
there is a future for the man of peace.

God wants to grant you success. And success as he defines it is far greater, longer lasting, and more satisfying that what the world offers. So delight yourself in the Lord, and you will find that the Lord delights himself in you!

Just saying… I love how John Piper says it: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”  If you take delight in the Lord, you can never go wrong!

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Goin’ Deep

“But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of,
knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have
known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be
complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
~II Timothy 3:14-17

Go Deep… When I was growing up in a small Southern Oregon town, the kids in my neighborhood would regularly gather in the street in front of my house. There we would play some of the best football games on the planet—better than even the Super Bowl!  Street football—skinned knees, bruised elbows, bragging rights (at least for that day) and tons of fun!  Man, there was nothing like it!

The favorite play called in the huddle, was, of course, “go deep!”  Forget about short yardage running plays or screen passes, we wanted the glory, paydirt, “tud-down!”, our name for a touchdown  So just about every play was “go deep!”  I’m telling you, that’s the way football at every level ought to be played.

I want to go deep this year in God, don’t you?  I don’t want to splash around in the shallows or wade around in the wimpy water near the shore, I want to get into the depths of God like never before. Do you want to join me?

If you do, then I know of no greater practice for going deep with God than through the daily practice of Bible study—reading, meditating, journaling, and praying the Scriptures.  That spiritual practice will contribute to your growth as a believer and your entrance into the deep things of God like nothing else. It’s as simple as that.

If you want to mature in your faith, morph into greater Christlikeness, deepen your knowledge of God, insulate your life from sin, enlarge your Kingdom effectiveness, increase your spiritual power, develop life skills for the daily challenges you face, and live in the blessing zone of God’s favor, you’ve got to be in God’s Holy Word on a regular, if not daily, basis.

I hope and pray that you will join me in 2010 as we “go deep” in God through the daily reading of his Word. To help us along the way, I have provided two creative reading options that you can access on the upper panel of this page by clicking on the 2010 Bible Reading Plan.

Check them out—I think they are pretty cool. Personally, I am choosing Option 1. And just a note about the content of my raynoah.com blog over the next 12 months: The devotional postings will be based on my Monday reading of the Law section, and my weekend reading of the New Testament sections. So there you go—two blogs a week. If I get really inspired, I’ll periodically post an additional blog based on my weekly reading in the other sections of this plan.

Of course, you can choose your own Bible reading plan, but no matter what you do, choose to read God’s Word in 2010. By the way, there is no greater act of faith, obedience and yes, even worship, than to devote yourself to “rightly dividing the Word of truth.” (II Timothy 2:15)

Now That’s Going Deep… The great twentieth century American preacher A.W. Tozer said, “The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.”

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