RADIO: What We're Saying!

"The Well"
My name is Dale Dodd and I’m the worship pastor at The Promise Church. Creativity is central to what we do at the Promise Church because we believe God’s creativity is seen everywhere. This is why every third Thursday at the Promise Church, we’re offering “The Well.” “The Well” is an experience of God’s creativity at work. Anyone who plays or writes Christian music or writes lyrics or poetry will have a chance to share with other Jackson artists the works of their imagination! So come and hang out at “The Well”, enjoy some coffee, and share your God given talent this coming Thursday evening at 6:30pm at The Promise Church at 935 Old Humboldt Road.


"A Time to Live"
What would you do if you were told you had only months to live? What would move to the top of your “to-do” list? What would be taken off your calendar? Would you rush to get it all done? Or would you take time to enjoy deeply the life you have. My name is Jay Hutchens and I’m the pastor at the Promise Church. If I had months to live, I’d want to make it count for something meaningful, something significant. I’d want to be remembered for making a contribution to the lives of others in some special way. At the Promise Church, we want to help you on your journey to reclaiming significance in your life. Join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30am at 935 Old Humboldt Road to find out how you can make a difference in your life.

"You Need a Family"
Sometimes it’s hard to leave some of life’s old baggage behind and move on to something new and wonderful. That’s why at the Promise Church, we believe in working together as a family to discover God’s purpose for our lives and overcoming all the stuff that weighs us down. You got to to have people who believe in you and encourage you to move on. My name is Jay Huthens and I’m the pastor the The Promise church. Let me ask you. Do you feel burdened? Do you feel like you can’t get ahead? That something is holding you back? Join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30am at 935 Old Humboldt Road to learn how you can discover God’s purpose for your life and move into the life of spiritual abundance you’ve always wanted.

"Leave it Behind!"
Hi, this is Pastor Jay at the Promise Church. One of the things I’ve discovered in years of ministry is that God is not interested in our holding on to a hurtful past but wants us to move ahead into a life of happiness, meaningful relationships, and joy. Sometimes, though we need a little boost. We need some people around us who know our name and love us for who we are no matter what happened to us before. At the Promise Church we want to encourage you to get to know God in a life-giving way. It’s time to leave the past behind. It’s time to find that life and purpose God wants you to have. Join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30am at 935 Old Humboldt Road to begin your new journey of life.

Be Strong and Courageous!

Jos 1:6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

These words were spoken by God to Joshua just after the death of Moses as Joshua was preparing to assume the mantel of leadership and take the Israelites into the promised land across the river Jordan. I find God's "command" to Joshua to be invigorating. "Be strong and very courageous," God says.

These are comforting words we need to take to heart ourselves. So much of our life is spent at the place where we are "ready" to go over to something new and wonderful. But we stop. Why is that?

Fear, probably. Fear that once we're across we might make terrible mistakes. Fear that we might fail in our quest. Fear that we will die alone on some forgotten battlefield alongside all of those others who tried and failed miserably. Fear that our efforts will amount to nothing at all. And so, we remain on THIS side of the Jordan river. Waiting.

Do you hear a trumpet sound across the river? To what mission is God calling you? I know so many people who admit (in moments of complete self-honesty) that they're not satisfied with simply spinning life's wheels. They want more. In fact, they speak with certainty - in these moments - that God has more in store for their life. Sure, they can't identify the specific purpose or mission God for which God has set them apart. But deep down they know - there's something better than just waiting.

So what are we waiting for?

Are we waiting for our bodies to feel better? Are we waiting for just the right opportunity? Are we waiting for when we aren't quite so tired or fatigued? Are we waiting for the planets to align up just right? Are we waiting for just the right time of day? Are we waiting for the right amount of financial resources? What are we waiting for?

For Joshua and the Israelites, the time for wandering and waiting was over. It was time for action. The entire book of Joshua in the Old Testament is just that. A book of action where the Israelites renewed by God's strength - their confidence bolstered - strike out and take that which God had promised them.

"Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged." Naturally when faced with an unknown outcome we feel anxious. How many do we know who regularly lose sleep because of the "dread" they feel about life? I know many who do in our era of anxiety. In those times, we need constant reminders that God is still with us, standing alongside us as we move across the river into the promised land. Church. Worship. Small Groups. Daily prayer. Scripture Immersion. A mentor. All of these help us to know - to have confidence - that God stands with us in our life's mission.

Allow God to lead you. Listen for his voice as you cross the river. Allow the inner strength to be His strength and not yours alone. Renew yourself daily

Paul knew the wisdom of this. And he reminded a struggling church in Corinth of the need to find their strength for accomplishing their purpose in God. "2Co 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. "

Let's fix our gaze on the eternal. Let's go across the river together. Let's receive together the promise of God.

NEWS: A New Life in Christ!

We rejoice together in the decision made this past weekend by Bonita Tabor to give her life to Jesus Christ. Bonita shared her testimony in worship on Sunday morning of her powerful experience of God's grace. John Wesley once described his experience of God's grace as his heart being "gently warmed." Bonita's story is nearly identical. She was going about her normal Saturday routine of going "rummaging" (going to rummage sales) when God touched her heart with a beautiful warming. She began to sob tears of joy and knew immediately that she had been met with God's grace. She drove to the church where Dale Dodd and I were just finishing up our Saturday set-up for church and we prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for Bonita's decision and "awakening" to Christ's power in her life.

We are scheduling Bonita's baptism and will post here when the details have been arranged!

Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone be the glory!

Jay

PROMPTINGS: Expensive Grace

Mk 8:34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."

In his landmark book, The Cost of Discipleship, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

Those of us living in North America battle with cheap grace. You might say we battle with the cheapening of everything in our lives, but certainly in our understanding of God's grace. We like to have things the way we like them and our consumer culture has made that possible even to those who live on opposite ends of the economic spectrum. Having the things we want right now has resulted in staggering debt loads for many Americans who one day wake up and realize that the debt has to be paid.

What Bonhoeffer was observing when he wrote his famous statement on grace was how easily Christianity was made to fit the culture of Nazi Germany in the 1930's. He witnessed very intelligent religious people shape and mold Christianity to fit to size what he believed was at its root an atheistic way of life in Nazism. It was easy to be a Christian. There was no cost. No sacrifice. God's grace - it was believed - was plentiful and abundant to all. Conjoined to a misinterpretation of Luther's reformation slogan that one is saved soli fidei - through faith alone - one was led to think that there really wasn't anything one needed to do or be to be distinctively Christian. You could enjoy the grace of God virtually by simply living in a culture that was called "Christian."

Sound familiar?

Hence the title of his book - The Cost of Discipleship. Restated, being a disciple has a cost associated with it. If Christianity were simply a system of ideas, the cost would be measured in terms of how well we lived up to those ideas. But it isn't. Christianity has at its core the message of the crucified Jesus, the son of God who gave his life so that others might experience true life. We become disciples of a person. You can't be a disciple of an idea. It's the person we follow obediently with our lives. It's a person we call "master." It's a person we call "Lord."

When we follow the way of a person, we become more like that person. Our thoughts, speech, and actions - indeed our very being - resemble that of the person to whom we are disciples (followers).

Bonhoeffer writes, "such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

I can only speak for myself. But I'm tired of fast food, cheap extravagance, and shallow living. I want true life, lived deeply and determinedly in Jesus. There's a lot to give up in the world's eyes to become a follower of Jesus. That's the costly part. But there's an eternity of life to gain both in quantity and quality. And that's the grace part.

PROMPTINGS: "Perfect in Weakness"

""My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. " (2 Cor. 12:7-10)

Paul begins this passage with words of comfort? In 2 Corinthians 12, he describes a "thorn in the flesh" that he pleads with God "three times" to be lifted from him. Rather than remove it, Paul is told by Jesus that God's grace is sufficient, God's power is made perfect in weakness.

That's makes sense for Paul. Paul was an apostle. The apostles are those people we read about in the New Testament - particularly in Acts - who suffered for the gospel. They were beaten, imprisoned, defamed, and even executed for the cause of Christ. It's as if our idea is this. They suffered so we don't have to. And that's true to some extent. North American Christians don't really suffer for their faith - not like Christians in India or Pakistan for instance. And for that, shouldn't we thank everyone from Paul and Peter down to the framers of our constitution (who set up legal protection for religious observance)?

So here's what I'm curious about. If God's power is made perfect in weakness - in what way do North American Christians possess power today?

We have great buildings. We have foundations that keep our churches going for years. We have boards of directors served by influential business people. We have gifted speakers. We have the "success" gospel where we pray as one author has suggested that God "increases our territories" if we pray enough for it. In fact, we have all the accoutrements of our "strong" Western culture. Interestingly, go to 10/40 mission "window" where Christianity is growing exponentially and these things are mostly absent.

Where's the weakness?

The early church sang a hymn. It went like this...

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2)

The phrase "made himself nothing" is actually translated from the Greek work kenosis - which means "emptied." Jesus emptied himself, making himself a servant. He became weak and humble and obedient - even to death on a cross - and God exalted him.

Here's what I've found as well as I've observed Christian practice. It's not our foundations, church buildings, gifted speaking, and snazzy publications that impress God. It's our becoming emptied out like Jesus and becoming weak servants. We are emptied out when nothing else matters to us but the sharing of the love of Jesus with compassion and kindness. We are emptied out when we are willing to risk those things that we believe shape our identity so that we can be formed completely in identity with Jesus. We become weak servants of hurting and lost people around us.

And here's the promise of scripture. That God's grace is made perfect in weakness. God exalts the weak and obedient servants of the world. God gives increase to the ministries of those (not just pastors!) who serve humbly and obediently with the love of Jesus.

Amen!