The Lazy Blog

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I have a confession to make as November draws to a close and December peeks its frosty head around the corner: I'm lazy by nature. It's a roaring grizzly bear that I've had to wrestle as long as I remember, although I think that as I've gotten older and matured some of that laziness has been tempered. At least, I hope so! I don't know where it came from; my Dad and Mom are some of the hardest working folks I know. My work ethic must have been a genetic mutation.

Here's an example of my sorry lazy self. When I was in high school I was given the all important job by my Father of mowing the grass on Saturdays. Now, this was back in the day before there was a neighborhood behind my parents' home and our backyard was much larger. (That was my one mitigating comment.) I would literally take our mower and mow a small square in about fifteen minutes and go back inside to cool off for an hour or so. Then I would head back outside and repeat the process. Ad infinitum. What should have taken me maybe two hours would literally take all day. My Dad would come home and stare incredulously at his half-cut grass. (Wait, I do have one other mitigating comment: One time our lawn mower was broken and we borrowed Mr. Jones' riding mower. I knocked that job out in no time and forever lobbied for a riding lawn mower to no avail.)

It really shames me to dredge up those memories, but maybe some of you can identify. The challenge in my life is, how do I overcome this slothful inclination in my heart when I study my Bible? Because really studying the Bible, getting down to the nitty and the gritty of it, is hard work. We went through Living by the Book in our Life Groups this past Spring and Howard Hendricks gives an example of Acts 1:8 when he discusses the art of observation. It's one verse and he mentions that over the years in his classroom students have come up with over six hundred observations on Acts 1:8. Did I mention it's only one verse?! Six hundred observations!

In my Bible study, I have to develop my powers of observation and that requires hard work! It doesn't come naturally to me. My constant prayer has to be Psalm 119:8: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law," and 2 Timothy 2:15: "Be diligent to present yourself to God, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth."

Into the Deep

Part Seven in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

Here's Part Two of the last word-picture in Psalm 107:

"Others went to sea in ships,
conducting trade on the vast waters.
They saw the Lord's works,
His wonderful works in the deep." (verses 23 & 24)

It's important to realize that navigation was so little practiced amongst the Israelites that if you were an Israelite sailor you received major props--the occupation of sailing was looked upon as one of incredible danger. Anyone who had survived a journey on the sea was given respect and an ancient mariner was listened to with great reverence. Voyages were looked on as descending to an abyss ("going down to the sea in ships"). Israelites tended to avoid the sea unless they had business to attend to. Solomon didn't even keep a pleasure boat. The Mediterranean was "the great sea" to David and his countrymen.

"He spoke and raised a tempest
that stirred up the waves of the sea.
Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths,
their courage melting away in anguish,
they reeled and staggered like drunken men,
and all their sill was useless." (verses 25-27) 

He spoke...God's word is enough for anything. All He has to do is say it, and the tempest rages. The glassy surface of the ocean is broken by waves and it rises up in fury.

We would probably need to have been on the ocean in a violent storm to appreciate how accurate these frightening words are (verses 25-27). The sailors rise up on the crest of the wave and it's like they're being lifted into the sky, but it's only for a moment, because then they quickly fall back down to the depths. They are tossed up and down, up and down (are you feeling sick yet?). If you have ever been in the spiritual depths of a great storm in your life you can identify with this verse. There is no heart left for anything. Your courage is gone; your hope is almost dead. They were like men intoxicated. All of their skill was useless; they had tried everything.

"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and He brought them out of their distress.
He stilled the storm to a murmur,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet.
Then He guided them to the harbor they longed for. (verses 28-30)

Though they had come to the end of themselves, these sailors still had the wits to pray. And again, God heard them. God hears us in the thunder and answers out of the storm. When we call out to Him we honor who He is: His Sovereignty, His Wisdom, His Rescue, His Faithfulness. John Trapp once wrote, "He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn."

When they prayed, look what happened in verse 29: The waves bowed in silence at the feet of the Creator. There was peace. It's hard to appreciate these verses unless you've been in a storm at sea, but the principle is this: the rougher the voyage, the more the sailors long for port; and likewise for us as believers, heaven becomes more and more a desired destination. Phillip Henry Gosse said, "Blessed be God for the gift of His beloved Son, the only Harbor of Refuge for poor tempest-tossed sinners."

"Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race.
Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people
and praise Him in the council of the elders." (verses 31 & 32)

Have you ever seen a movie when the characters have endured something at sea and they finally get to land and they just jump out and lay in the sand? Sometimes they kiss the shore? That's the picture I see in verse 31. And then in verse 32, the Psalmist teaches us that our thanks to God for His mercies should be public; in the place where men and women gather for worship. When you have been in a great spiritual storm and have at last found peace, the acknowledgment of the Lord's mercy before His people should follow.

This fourth word-picture speaks not of our guilt before God, but of our smallness. The hurricane, the storm, shakes us into seeing that in a world of gigantic forces we live by grace. The point is made in verse 27, "all their skill was useless." There are wonderful works both to humble man (verse 24) and to save him (verse 31). 

We, as the redeemed, should be filled with thanks. One of the marks of an unbeliever is given in Romans 1:21: "They neither glorify God as God nor give thanks to Him." If we are followers of Jesus then our lives should be characterized by thankfulness! By hearts filled with joy for whom God is and what He's done in our lives!

Shackleton's Amazing Voyage

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Part Six in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

Let's take a two-part look at the last word-picture in Psalm 107:

One of my favorite books in the past few years is called Endurance by Sir Alfred Lansing. It's the true account of Shackleton's amazing voyage to the Antarctic in 1914-1916. Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men became stuck in the ice and had to abandon the ship, which eventually sank. This would not be heartening for a sailor I don't believe:

They were stuck on the ice, but eventually made their way to Elephant Island. Their only hope for rescue was to get to a whaling station on South Georgia Island so Shackleton and five of his men boarded the James Caird (one of their three remaining lifeboats) and proceeded to attempt the crossing of one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Here's a photo of the James Caird:

Not only were they in this tiny boat that was in constant peril of capsizing, but all they had for the journey to navigate to South Georgia Island was a sextant, which is not easy in calm waters much less the stormy and incredibly rough South Atlantic.

In fact, two of the men would hold the navigator up over their shoulders while he tried to sight the sun. The horizon could only be estimated. Over the seventeen day, eight hundred nautical mile journey they were only able to take four readings because of the ocean and the weather. The slightest mistake could have caused them to miss the island. Amazingly, they made it and not one man was lost. Check out the route of the James Caird (and you can see where they drifted on the ice as well, previously):

When I was reading verses 23-32 of Psalm 107 I couldn't help but be reminded of this part of Shackleton's voyage! A lot of commentators say that the most beautiful, the most poetic, and certainly the most stirring section of Psalm 107 are the verses that describe the peril of God's people while at sea. It might have been descriptive of the difficult sixty-five day, late-fall cross of the turbulent North Atlantic by the Pilgrims as well.

Stay tuned tomorrow as we dive into the text of this fourth word-picture!

In a Dry and Thirsty Land

Part Five in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

Let's take a look at the first word-picture in Psalm 107: 

"Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.
They were hungry and thirsty;
Their spirits failed within them." (verses 4 & 5)

I can't think of too many things more depressing than for a man to be lost in a desert. How could they find a city? There were none! And they weren't just passing through. These people are actually wandering aimlessly, nowhere close to any path or any road that might lead them out.

It's easy to see how these verses would have resonated with the Pilgrims. They had been driven from their homes and were hounded from place to place. At one time escaping England for Holland before finally setting sail for the North American continent. According to William Bradford they were: "hunted and persecuted on every side...Some were taken and clapped in prison, others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their enemies hands; and most were constrained to flee and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood."

Their spirits failed within them. When your body is exhausted it sure is hard to have courage and to keep pressing forward. No food, no water, no streams in the desert. Nothing. Total despair.

"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He rescued them from their distress.
He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live." (verses 6 & 7)

Did you notice there wasn't any praying happening until things got bad? But, in the midst of their trouble they finally did pray, and to the right person: The Lord. It was all that they could do. They couldn't help themselves, or find help in other people, and so they cried out to God. Many of us are never going to pray until we're half starved and desperate, and it's really in our best interests to be empty and faint than to be full and brave. Someone once said, If hunger brings us to our knees it is more useful to us than feasting; if thirst drives us to the fountain it is better than the deepest drink of worldly joy; and if fainting leads to crying out to God then it is better than the strength of the powerful.

So, God hears the people's prayer and not only does He find the right way for them to escape from their wanderings, but he made the way, and gave them the strength to walk upon it. He gives them a place of rest; a city where they may dwell.

"Let them give thanks to the LORD
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for the human race.
For He has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things." (verses 8 & 9)

We would have to be criminally ungrateful to not honor a Deliverer who rescued us from the wilderness and from cruel death! As believers, we should be stirred to praise the Lord again and again. Lives characterized by Thanks-Living!

One of the really cool things about this first word-picture in Psalm 107 is that the themes of lostness, thirst, hunger, and exhaustion are all pictures that Jesus uses to describe Himself as the Way, the Bread and Fountain of Life, and the Giver of Rest. The scene in this word-picture unites all these parts of salvation and crowns them with that of a city to dwell in.

Cultivating a Life of Thanks-Living

Melody Merritt
Women's Ministry Director 

Part Four in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

What is the difference between giving thanks on one day and living thanks every day? Thankfulness should not be expressed just at Thanksgiving or when everything is going good for us, but giving thanks should be a part of our lives every day. Cultivating a life of gratitude and thanksgiving should be who we are as believers in Christ Jesus. 1 Chronicles 16 says, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 reads: "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." The Amplified Bible states verse 19 this way: "Thank God in everything no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks, for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus, the Revealer and Mediator of that will."

Paul writes in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

How do we cultivate this life of thanksliving? By spending time with God in His Word, and in praising Him. Take time to thank God for everything everyday and begin living a life of Thanks-Living today!

The Pilgrim's Psalm

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Part Three in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

To many, Psalm 107 is known as the Pilgrim's Psalm. Maybe more than any other passage in the Bible, this particular Psalm describes the perils the Pilgrims experienced prior to, during, and after their crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Pilgrims came ashore on Monday, December 11, 1620 and many believe they spent the prior day worshiping and using Psalm 107 as the basis for that Sabbath's meditation. Governor William Bradford, in his account of the founding of the Plymouth Colony explicitly referred to the Psalm:

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: "Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness, but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice and looked on their adversity. Let them forever praise the Lord, because He is good: and His mercies endure forever. Yes, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness and His wonderful works before the sons of men."

Psalm 107 is in all reality a praise song! It was written after Israel had returned from its Babylonian captivity. It begins with an introduction and finishes with a conclusion, but in the body of the Psalm are four word-pictures of human predicaments and divine interventions. These four adventures aren't necessarily specific Israelite situations, but since this Psalm was written to help celebrate the return from exile these four pictures are perhaps different ways of picturing the plight from which Israel was delivered. (It's interesting to note that the number four connotes totality, all the possible varieties of rescue.)

As we read Psalm 107 we can see ourselves in these different situations as well! Charles Spurgeon once wrote that this Psalm may be sung by any man or woman whose life has been preserved in times of danger.

Over the next few days we'll be looking at two of the word-pictures, but go ahead and read the Psalm in its entirety by clicking here.

Public Thanksgiving and Prayer

Matt Wyatt
Youth Assistant Extraordinaire

This is the text of a proclamation for a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, issued by George Washington in January of 1795. The text is copied from Rediscovering God in America by Newt Gingrich (Integrity Publishers, 2006).

When we review the calamities which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war, an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exemption, the great degree of internal tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it, the happy course of our public affairs in general, the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens, are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence toward us. In such a state of things it is an especial manner our duty as people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience. Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States to set apart and observe Thursday, the 19th day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation, particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and by their union establish liberty with order; for the preservation of our peace, foreign and domestic; for the seasonable control of the which has been given to a spirit of disorder in the suppression of the late insurrection, and generally, for the prosperous course of our affairs, public and private; and at the same time humbly and fervently to beseech the kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us; to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them; to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value; to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity, and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits; to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them; by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and men; to render this country more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries; to extend among us true and useful knowledge; to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety, and finally, to impart all the blessings we possess, or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.

The Legend of the Four Year Old Indian

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

The first of a series of Thanksgiving Blogs over the next few weeks...

I know we all have a lot of warm Thanksgiving memories as we look back over the years. Well, here's one that's a bit chilly:

It's tough being a four year old. You want to be taken seriously. You're independent. You're processing vast amounts of information and are trying so terribly hard to remember the difference between an oval and a circle. Oh, and you can't sit still. Sitting still literally makes your brain feel like it's going to spontaneously combust. If you have an older sibling you want to do whatever they get to do. You want to be in elementary school. You're ready for the school bus and can't understand why you still have to take those awful afternoon naps. Life is tough.

I was four years old, once. Hard to believe, I know. I have several four year old memories that I still hang on to, and one in particular that I wanted to share as Thanksgiving approaches next week.

I didn't have an older brother or sister, but my best friend was five and he was already in Kindergarten at Baucom. I remember being extremely jealous that he got to go to school. But Thanksgiving rolled around back in 1981 and I was invited by his teacher and our two mothers to come take part in his class Thanksgiving play. Oh, if I could only convey the giddiness and the sense of accomplishment and pride that I felt when I was approached concerning my role. I was to play the part of an Indian coming to eat with the Pilgrims and had absolutely no lines. I quickly and readily agreed to the plan.

That is, until the day of the class play. Until I was dressed in my costume. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this point, but I think I had some soft-soled Moccasin slippers for my feet and a loin cloth. That was it. Nothing else. I remember my Mom applying some war paint while I shook my head and tried to get out of it all. I mean, I liked the slippers, but the loin cloth was a bit much. I felt cold.

Thinking back, I don't think it was because I had a highly advanced sense of modesty. At this same period of my life I would run around our yard in nothing but my Batman underwear chasing bad guys and untying trussed up babysitters (who still delight to remind me of those moments). Modesty wasn't it.

I think I just got cold feet. Too much pressure. There was too much riding on my performance. And so, to my everlasting shame, I refused to go into the classroom.

Anyway, that's one of my earliest Thanksgiving memories. How about you?
 

Completely Other

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

He is:
the blessed and only Sovereign,
the King of kings,
and the Lord of lords,
the only One who has immortality,
dwelling in unapproachable light,
whom none of mankind has seen or can see,
to whom be honor and eternal might.
Amen.

These words from Paul written to Timothy are powerful and awe-inspiring. God dwells in unapproachable light. Mankind has never seen or can see. He is completely Other. He is Spirit. He is Sovereign and He is Pure and Set Apart.

The beautiful thing is that this God has chosen to make Himself known to us, humankind, through Jesus Christ, the Word incarnate, for His own glory and for His love for us. It's the beauty of Christmas:

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into our neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.

A Hard Pill To Swallow

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I love my grandparents for so many reasons: they are kind, compassionate, loving, godly and prayer warriors. They've really set an example for me in my own life as I try to walk with God. Whenever you need to talk, or just to decompress, you're always welcome at their house to come sit in a rocking chair and visit. I love them dearly.

My Grandmother also has quite the stash of horse pills at their home.

I'm not sure where the horse pills came from. Probably from the traveling horse doctor. I know what they're designed for: horses, not humans. They're some kind of powerful antibiotic, but that's about all I've been told. I also know that whenever someone gets sick and comes over to the house they are offered one of the horse pills. I, myself, have taken quite a few over the years. Let me describe these pills to you: You're familiar with the gel tabs or the yummy chocolate flavored advil or the small and easy to swallow normal pills for all symptoms, I assume? The horse pills have none of these frills. They are easily the size of my thumb. I tried once to cut one in half, but the pill became so jagged that it literally lacerated my throat as I attempted to swallow it down. So, you've got to do it whole. And, let me tell you, there's a lot of gasping and gagging that goes on before that thing goes down your gullet. My palms get sweaty whenever I see one. They are a literally a hard pill to swallow.

And hence the expression: "That's a hard pill to swallow."

On Wednesday nights we're studying the book of Malachi, and the Israelites in Malachi's time had some hard pills to swallow. The Holy Spirit, through the Prophet Malachi, basically tells the people that if they are going to come to corporately worship and just go through the motions with their hearts elsewhere it would be better if they just didn't show up. If they were not going to give cheerfully or out of a heart of joy then it would be better for them not to give at all (that's a New Testament interpretation of Chapter 3). If they were going to come to worship and just do the same thing they had always done because it was what they had always done with no heart change it would be better for them to just close the doors of the Temple.

That's a hard pill to swallow! To think that if we're not living as a New Testament Church--loving the poor, caring for one another, walking humbly with God, doing justice--we'd do just as well to shut the whole thing down and quit playing games and bringing dishonor to the name of God.

So, what's our alternative? What kind of lives do we lead? The Prophet Isaiah says it well:

This is the kind of fast I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.

What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of Glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You'll call out for help and I'll say, "Here I Am."