Prince of Peace AG
  • Home
  • Pastor's Corner
  • Prince of Peace Services and Ministries
  • How to Contact Us
  • Listen to Prince of Peace Sermons
  • Calendar of Events
  • Prince of Peace Programs
Prince of Peace AG

Pastor's Corner

longing for a longing

7/25/2015

2 Comments

 
When I first came to Alaska in August nearly 33 years ago, I had to be separated from my wife for seven weeks. That’s right, seven! Our first son was only six months old, we were to be leaving a church we loved, and family we had never been apart from, and moving to a place we had never been. In the process of that transition and move, it was necessary to be apart from my precious family, and to be apart from my wife for a longer period of time both previously in our relationship, and since then. During that period, and as the weeks dragged on, I had a longing to be with her that is hard to describe. I missed her and my son terribly. It was a lesson in life for both of us, but I hope I never have to endure such separation again.

The longings, yearnings, and groans we have in life are of course diverse. I came home from work the other day to something that we had not had for dinner or a meal in a very long time. When I made mention of it to my wife, she simply said; “Well, I was hungry for it.”

Have you ever wondered what causes us to hunger, long, or yearn for certain things?  In these two prior examples, we actually see a yearning for something and a yearning for someone. Both can create varied levels of intensity and duration. I have experienced both short-lived “hunger pangs” when my appetite was in a rage, as well as drawn out “longings” such as I had for my young family all those years ago.

There are also a wide variety of scriptures which speak to this subject of longing. A variety of metaphors, such as hungering and thirsting, are used to help us grasp this power of longing. Some have to do with things to be sure, but more have to do with relationships. Some of these are man-to-man, such as brother to brother. Others have more to do with the man-God relationship. Some examples are:

Man-to-man (earthly relationships)

He (Titus) told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever.                                                                                                            [II Corinthians 7:7]

But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you.    [I Thess. 2:17]

Man-to-God (heavenly relationship)

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?                                                                [Psalm 42:1-2]

My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word.     [Psalm 119:81]

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling…         [II Corinthians 5:2]

People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.                                                                                                        [Hebrews 11:14-16]

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.            [Matthew 5:6]

I find some intrigue in that Jesus promises a “filling” to those who hunger and thirst (long) for righteousness. In this, it was purposeful (I believe) that Jesus makes it a point to mention that they will hunger AND thirst, as if one or the other just doesn’t seem to describe the longing intensity quite good enough. At face value, we may quickly conclude that righteousness is what we will be filled with. That is, after all, what is longed for in this verse.  Right?

I have now been a Christ-believer and follower a long time. However, I must admit that not once prior to salvation do I recall longing for righteousness. But when I met Christ, and He came to reside in me, all of a sudden I had a desire (a longing) to become like Him. That desire has intensified over time. This is a desire that the Holy Spirit keeps instilling and working in me. When I came to realize that it was not just any righteousness, but His righteousness I was to seek (Matthew 6:33), I found that the only way to hope to accomplish it was to trust in His perfect sacrifice for me, and to rest in Him. In essence, it is not really righteousness that I long for, but rather, the Righteous One.

I must admit also that I am in a season of, for lack of a better description, longing for a longing. I want my desire and longing for the Righteous One, Jesus, to be a marked feature in my life that is never missing. Sometimes I wonder if it is, or at least, has waned. If there is such a thing as spiritual hunger pangs, how might they be recognized in me and in you, and how often should we experience them? There are some worship “lyrics” that speak to this issue of longing, such as:

How I long to be with You; to sit at your feet and worship. My life I give to You. So use me as You will.

Or…   Hungry, I come to You for I know You satisfy. I am empty but I know Your love does not run dry. So I wait for You, and I wait for You. I'm falling on my knees offering all of me. Jesus, You're all this heart is living for. Broken, I run to you for Your arms are open wide. I am weary, but I know Your touch restores my life. So I wait for You, and I wait for You. I'm falling on my knees offering all of me. Jesus, You're all this heart is living for.

I can sing these song lyrics, but doing so won’t produce the longing the words describe. However, I am quite sure that these songs were birthed from a longing. It is also what birthed Psalm 42:1-2. I have a longing for this manner of longing. I long for it in my life and I long for it in yours. I am also reminded of a truth I heard in another song; Only Jesus can satisfy my soul. If that is true, and I am certain that it is, then perhaps we should find ourselves longing no longer for the things of this world, but rather, for the One in whom our soul delights. The perfect One. The holy and anointed One, Jesus. The world is offering us so much that is competing for our affection. However, it will never ever satisfy our soul.

Precious Savior, Redeemer, Friend, bring us to the place of longing again…

2 Comments

echoing prayerful ways

7/13/2015

0 Comments

 
Yesterday’s sermon message was titled Prayerful Ways and was birthed out of a set of devotionals I had recently read on the subject matter of prayer. It so happens that this is a subject matter weighty on my heart these days anyway, and so to have an unexpected but welcome follow-up message sent to me this morning was particularly potent. As a dear sister from our congregation has just reminded me, this is what some have referred to as a "sacred echo".  It's obvious God wants my attention, and for that matter, our attention - regarding prayer.

Before receiving this message, I had come across the topic of Body Language in my morning devotional. Now to most, that may seem insignificant. However, that happens to be one of the four main subtopics I had used in yesterday’s message, Prayerful Ways, and related it to the manner in which we pray. Coining the phrase sacred echo, perhaps for me personally this might be considered a “double echo”?

Of particular emphasis in the message Prayerful Ways was another main subtopic, Spread It Out. It was based on the scriptural and historical reference to King Hezekiah spreading a threatening letter/decree out before the LORD in prayer (II Kings 19:14 & Isaiah 37:14). This was a seemingly impossible situation for the people of Jerusalem as a whole, filled with incredible intimidation and promoting great fear. In our modern day lives, this was used to emphasize that we can bring intimidating written news before the LORD, such as a threatening email, a pink slip, a frightening medical diagnosis, a divorce decree, or an unexpected bill or financial statement. We may not incur these types of threats every day or even very often, but sometime in our lives we come to the place where things are simply “beyond us”.

To be specific, the sacred echo forwarded to me this morning included a devotional by Glynnis Whitwer , on staff with Proverbs 31 Ministries as their executive director of communications and overseer of their devotionals, Encouragement for Today. In it, (and based on the scripture reference; "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" Jeremiah 32:27 (NIV)); she wrote this:

Why do I compare God’s power to mine? Why do I worry about "bothering" Him with too many "big" requests? Why do I accept so many situations and never even think about praying for them to change?

The truth is that I’m much more comfortable praying for things that could be solved in my own power. There’s an underlying fear that God might say "No," or worse, stay silent.

Plus, I’m afraid I’ll misuse my invitation to pray or seem demanding. The last thing I want is to treat God like a genie in a bottle. Those complicated fears limit my prayers for God’s help in many impossible situations.

Oh how that must grieve the heart of my Heavenly Father. He knows how much more He wants to do in my life, and in the lives of others, if only I’ll invite Him.

Here’s the truth: When I build my faith on what I can do, then I will only see what I can do. But a faith based on what God can do … now that’s life-changing.

That’s how I want to live my life. I want my prayers and faith to go beyond human power. I want to bring everything to my Heavenly Father, every care, every need. Not with a demanding heart, but with one of positive expectation.

It’s not my responsibility how God decides to answer. But that shouldn’t keep me from asking.

I’m tired of playing it safe. It’s time to cast off my (our) fears, remove the limitations I’ve (we’ve) placed on God, and invite Him into every situation I (we) face — especially those that seem hopeless. It’s then I’ll (we’ll) see God’s power, not mine (ours).                                            (my emphasis added…)

Thank God for those things, the many things, that are beyond us. Because they are “beyond us”, we have this privileged opportunity to bring them to our awesome God in prayerful crys. If I understand correctly the cited scripture (Jeremiah 32:27) as well as many others, nothing is beyond Him!

So today, if in the recesses of your spirit and thinking, and as a result of an impossible need or situation you (we) face, you are saying, “it’s beyond me” – then without hesitation, take it to our Father in prayer. If necessary, write the impossibility on a piece of paper. Like Hezekiah, spread it out before the LORD. This is our confidence. His answer to us will always and most assuredly be; “It’s not beyond me.”

Pastor Bob

0 Comments

remembering dependence

7/4/2015

0 Comments

 
There will be many things remembered today – July 4th, 2015.

Some will celebrate anniversaries. Others will celebrate the birth of a newborn baby. Others will wish a Happy Birthday to a son or daughter born on this date years ago. The United States and its people will celebrate, again, Independence Day. To be sure, each of these is a cause and call for remembrance.

Perhaps there is another remembrance that is fitting for this day. Long ago Moses spoke these words; “And you shall remember the Lord your God…” – Deuteronomy 8:18 NKJV. Perhaps this is something we should also never forget. Whether Moses is still considered a spokesman, forefather, or someone else of influence, the scriptures account for these words and this proclamation.

In United States history, another forefather issued a proclamation that called its people to remember, and in that remembrance, to do something. In March of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln stated these words in his “Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day”.

“…whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

These were uncertain and in many respects, sobering times in our nation’s history. I believe that we are now in uncertain and sobering times too. Please know that President Lincoln was not just making up the phrase underlined above. He was referencing scripture in Psalm 33:12. It is here that I would like to add some of the other verses of that same Psalm, from verse 10 to the end:

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works. No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength.  A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, just as we hope in You.

I call us not just to remember that this is Independence Day, a day special for some other reason, or to remember these words of proclamation from 152 years ago. Rather, I call us to do what the scripture incites us to do – and always; to Remember the Lord our God. In our celebrated but often misunderstood independence, let us never forget to continually run to Him in utter dependence – for (His) life, liberty, and justice for us.

Pastor Bob

0 Comments

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    March 2020
    September 2019
    January 2018
    February 2017
    January 2017
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.