An Encouraging Word

Several years ago, a young teenage girl in the congregation where I was preaching was feeling a lot of pressure to join in with her peers. Her eighth-grade class was planning a project that she didn’t feel she could participate in as a Christian. She told her teacher that should wouldn’t be able to participate. Some of her classmates thought she was a spoilsport who didn’t want to have fun and would ruin it for everyone else, too. The things that were said to her hurt. The victory she had won by holding to her principles was a painful one and she was very discouraged. It struck me at the time that Matthew 5:10-12 was an appropriate passage to share with her: Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for their is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophet who were before you.

Jesus says, in effect, when people say those kinds of things to you because of your faith, you are in good company! The young lady I described was encouraged by God’s Word and received the grace to help in her time of need (see Hebrews 4:16).

Christians are assailed from every direction today, including from within the church herself. We want to offer encouragement; a reason to hope and to feel that we are on the winning side of the Good Fight and not on the losing side.

In Romans 8:31, the apostle Paul asked, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That is a question that every. Christian should consider. His point in asking was to say, “No one can overcome us, if we remain faithful to Him!” Paul went on to say, in verse 37 of that text, “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer!” Notice what “things” from verse 35: Neither tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword can separate us from the love of Christ. In verses 38, 39 he says that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of God. Pretty cool, huh? Just ask yourself, “Can this little thing that afflicts me today separate me from the love of God?” The answer is: No! No!! NO!!

I know that sometimes it sounds trite to say that God is on our side, and we can overcome. It never seems like the one who says it has been through what we’re suffering right this moment. Still, the One Who originally said it has been through it (see Hebrews 4:15). He knows what it is like to suffer what you are suffering. Know this: God knows you and He knows how to rescue the godly from temptation (see 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Peter 2:9). He loves you and so do I.

Donnie Bates

"I'm Bored."

There is something that many preachers are afraid to admit - myself included. It’s something that is deeply personal and at times embarrassing. But it’s also something that I believe many Christian’s deal with - not just preachers. What I’m talking about is losing our “awe” of God. Have you ever found yourself bored with Bible study? Have you ever found yourself stale towards God? Have you ever found yourself “going through the motions” with no real passion, excitement, or zeal? Yeah... me too...

Paul David Tripp in his book Dangerous Calling calls this issue “Familiarity.” He says that people who spend a lot of time looking at, reading about, and encountering divine things - like God, Jesus, the Bible, grace, forgiveness, mercy, etc. - are in danger of letting those divine things become customary. What he’s talking about in these ideas is the fact that we can spend so much time up close to Scripture seeing a vivid picture of God that we eventually stop appreciating His beauty. We spend so much time talking about Jesus that we grow cold towards His tender heart for sinners like us. We spend so much time speaking of grace, mercy, and forgiveness that we forget it’s power. This happens when week after week, month after month, and year after year we come to church, sit in a pew, and listen to sermons and study in classes and pray the same prayers until eventually we say “I’m bored of this.” And we just go through the motions because “thats what christians are supposed to do.”

I’ll never forget the first time I drove up 285 to Conifer and saw the beauty of that canyon, and the. fog as it rests on the snow capped mountains. It was awe-inspiring. But after driving it for 2 years, it’s just a drive to church. In the same way, i’ll never forget when I learned of the beautiful grace of Jesus Christ. Yet here I am, 6 years later battling boredom with it. It is so easy to lose our awe for God. It is so easy to let the beauty of our God become mundane. It is so easy to go through the motions of reading scripture without ever realizing the beauty of the message being shared with us. It is so easy to pray to God and never realize the glory of that relationship. It is so easy to sing in worship to God and never realize the magnificence of who we bow down to.

If you find yourself battling boredom in your faith, or going through the motions of your worship, or feeling stale towards your savior, I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to confess to God the offense of your boredom. I want to challenge you to open your eyes to the beauty of the glory of Him who loves you more than anything else in the creation. I want to challenge you to stand in awe of an awesome, glorious, and beautiful God.