Romans 1:18-19

Our God is a consuming fire, a warrior God who brings justice to the earth. The cup of his wrath is kindled against all the godlessness of the earth. What a great mother’s day sermon! But seriously, what does the wrath of God have to do with being a mother?

Our sermon this week brings us some deep truths, even if you aren’t a mother, but especially if you are. What do you do when your children are threatened? You get angry! Wrath is a derivative of your deep love for your child, and it overflows when your children are broken, either by themselves or others. Wrath is perhaps more essential to raising children than anything else we can imagine because it means that God is in the ring with us. Our God is angry with the twisted-ness of this world, and He’s cosmically more angry with it than you and I could ever be. As Ted said Sunday morning, when your kids are in trouble, you are never the first one the to the fight. God is always on the move. He is living and active. His love-inspired anger is on your child’s side, and it never sleeps.

Imagine what life as a Christian would be like if our God was not a wrathful God. In a group of letters to his friend named Malcolm, C.S. Lewis offers a brilliant perspective on the wrath of God. Malcolm proposes to Lewis that God, rather than being a personally angry God, is more like an electric current, who shocks people when they cross his standard of justice. But Lewis responds,

“My dear Malcolm: What do you suppose you have gained by substituting the image of a live wire for that of angered majesty? You have shut us up all in despair, for the angry can forgive, but electricity can’t… Turn God’s wrath into mere enlightened disapproval and you turn his love into mere humanitarianism. The ‘consuming fire’ and the ‘perfect beauty’ both vanish. We have, instead, a judicious headmistress or a conscientious magistrate. It comes of being high-minded… Liberalizing and civilizing analogies can only lead us astray.”

You see, an angry God means that we also have a deeply loving God. His anger is not spinning wildly out of control, going this way and that, destroying everything in its path. It is exact, coming into the blackness of this world with mysterious power, excising sin from us and from creation with precision. God’s anger reminds us that He is also a loving God, for the two are inseparable. In fact, his wrath and love are perfect, whereas mothering on earth is but a shadow of the nurture, love, care, and defense that we get from our earthly mothers. Although God reveals himself as a Father, the Bible uses the imagery of a mother to describe the nurturing care of God. What we need more than anything else is to climb up into the motherly arms of our God and rest in the shadow of his wings. His is our refuge. Our defense. In the bosom of God is complete security. In Him we find exactly what our mothers remind us that we need: a tender, yet powerful advocate. No, our God is no electrical current, He is a person, overflowing with passionate grace and mercy. May we all find rest for our souls in our Friend, Lover, Counselor, and “Mother,” the Lord God Almighty.

Kyle

GSPC. Kyle brought a message specifically aimed at those soon to be high

school graduates yet deeply applicable for those of us who have long

forgotten the complexities and challenges that await our Seniors.

Everyday we step into an amazing world. As we see in John 1 we live and

move in a world that was created by God through the Word. God did not

simply create this world as a mere toy to watch it spin madly but instead he

participated in his creation. “The Word became flesh.” (John 1:14) The

creator amazingly became a creature in his own creation. Like a father

stoops down and squeezes into a tiny chair, holds a tiny plate, and drinks

imaginary tea from a tiny cup at a tea party hosted by his daughter, God

comes down to “our” world. But unlike that father he does not look so

awkward because he did not just pretend to be like us but he put on our

flesh and became fully man. As Kyle illustrated it is like Tyler Perry who

not only writes and directs his movies but puts on “flesh” (a dress and wig

in this case) and becomes a player in the story he is writing.

God is not some far off presence who wakes up on Sunday morning at 10:30 to

listen to us pray. No, because he is both creator and creature God speaks

with wisdom into every moment of life. When we turn to heaven and say, “O

God help me know what to do,” Jesus the creator is there with the wisdom of

providence to guide us in his purpose. When the pleasures of creation call

to us, Jesus, the creature who turned water into wine, is there to guide us in

his wisdom. When a broken relationship makes you think, “O God why?”, the

creator of all humanity and the creature who was killed by humanity gives

comfort for your pain.

I pray you find comfort and joy in your creator God who became a creature in

his creation.

Peace,

Michael

During the sermon I was wondering how much of the congregation was understanding. It’s easier for me since I’ve been to Haiti and spent a lot of time with him. So, instead of reflecting on his sermon, I’m going to see if I can clarify what he spoke about.

You may have heard him mention that his town, Gonaives, is called the “City of Independence”. You may have also heard something about a 200-year contract with the Devil. Well, once Haiti was an Island of slaves, captured from various regions of Africa and shipped to the Caribbean island to work the richly producing land. It was once known as “the Jewel of the Caribbean.” Well, long story short, the slaves began to rebel, escape, and eventually take over the island and declare their own independence. They believed they were victorious
because of a voodoo ritual they performed in which they slaughtered a pig and made a deal with spirits of voodoo for 200 years of service. In 1994 when that 200 year contract was up, President Aristede went back the place where it all happened, Gonaives, and tried to renew the deal with the Devil. I know this all sounds strange or hokey, but this kind of talk is very common in Haiti. The spirit world is very alive there. Haitians basically either believe in the power of evil spirits or in the ultimate power of God and a Holy Spirit. Many Christians in Gonaives fasted and prayed for the better part of a year against this renewal of the contract. I have heard many stories about what happened the day that Aristede tried to re-enact the ceremony, but I won’t elaborate here. If you ask any Christian Haitian why Haiti is the way it is, they will tell you about their forefathers and about voodoo and the presence of evil in their land. There is a stronghold of complex poverty that plagues their country and there is really no other way to explain it.

Charlie was very restrained Sunday morning, only being able to speak English and knowing that us Americans aren’t very loud or passionate when we pray and preach. In Haiti, Charlie prays very loud and very long. He also breaks out into songs sometimes in his sermons…wait a second, I guess he’s just like Ted!

We did however get to hear some of Charlie’s passion. One phrase Charlie has been repeating all week is John 8:36, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” He always struggles with the phrasing of this verse, so it comes out like this, “If the Son sets you free, indeed. You are free indeed. If the son sets you free you are free indeed!” That verse can be applied to so many areas of our lives, no wonder he’s been repeating it all week. What a reminder of the Gospel. What a strong statement against the spirits of his homeland. This is a phrase we need to teach to our inmost being. We need to stumble through the phrasing so that we actually say it multiple times before it comes out right.

Finally, Charlie mentioned the orphans in his care. God told Charlie that the children of Haiti are the only way to break this stronghold on their land. Charlie has 3 kids of his own, but I guess he wasn’t satisfied for God to just use his own kids, so he rounded up about 30 more who didn’t have homes.

Charlie has told me that his spiritual gift is prayer, so it was an honor for him to pray for our congregation. I hope you were blessed by his presence and I know we are all blessed to partner with him in his bringing and building of the Kingdom in Gonaives, Haiti.”

Mike

Psalm 19

We’re just getting started in our series on the meta-narrative of Scripture: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Glory. This week we find ourselves in week 2 of 4 meditating on creation. There are certainly numerous facets and implications of creation that we could study, but today we simply consider the majesty of God as revealed in nature. What do we see of who God is in the world around us? And what does that mean for our lives?

Creation reveals God’s power. That’s perhaps the simplest way to say it. When you find yourself in the middle of a storm, alone in a forest with the wind rustling through the trees, or even walking outside on an April morning only to find the most beautiful day April has ever produced, your heart moves. Something happens inside you. It is as if you are looking for something, but you don’t know what. And then you experience nature in some meaningful way and it hits you: this place that I live is bigger than me, more wonderful, majestic, beautiful, and wondrous than I usually remember in my day to day life. God’s power comes to us through nature, and even though it doesn’t always move us profoundly, it is always there. In fact, that is one of the more life altering realities that should affect the way we live…

God is always governing, moving, and reigning over his created world. It turns by his command, the ground is nourished by his direction, and even the doe gives birth to the fawn by his power. Think about that fact that you go to sleep every night (presumably). In fact, whole nations lay their heads down at roughly the same time. Creation is sustained, and the sun comes up yet again the next morning. By the word of his power God Almighty upholds all things. How must this change the way we live? Consider the way you order your time. Do you rest? Do you receive the Sabbath rest from the Lord with joy and delight? For many of us Americans, “stopping” is difficult. It’s against the grain of all we’ve ever known. But hear what some fellow named William Willimon offers. “Sabbath keeping is a publicly enacted sign of our trust that God keeps the world, therefore we do not have to. God welcomes our labors, but our contributions to the world have their limits. If even God trusted creation enough to be confident that the world would continue while God rested, so should we.”

Soak up the power of God over creation in your daily life. Don’t believe the lie that you can work yourself in to worth. Trust the God who upholds all things. Trust God to be God, and enjoy the freedom of living for such a Creator. And remember what the hymn-writer says as you go throughout your week:

This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!

Kyle

Genesis 1

Do you believe this to be true? Is it just another one of those historic, sentimental Christian teachings that we believe? Or did it actually happen? Against the backdrop of many ancient myths about how the world began, Moses makes this audacious claim. God created the whole universe, and He did so with absolute purpose and without flippancy. It was true, sure, and utterly in his control. The sovereignty and control of God are placarded before our eyes and minds as we read this poetic account of the creation of the cosmos. I would invite you to remember this simple reality again today. God has many names, but today, will you mediate on God as not only our Creator, but as the Creator of all things?

What is it that you are facing this day? This month? This season of your life? My mind jumps to a myriad of projects, fears, unanswered questions, sorrows, and anxieties. The circumstances of our lives begin to erect their own imaginary walls around us, as if our lives only exist within the issues and problems we face. We live right up to them, and no further. We are so often in retreat, or at least survival, mode, hoping not to be overrun by life. But the Creator God of the universe explodes the “my world” walls we create. All of our fears, anxieties, and insecurities are suddenly engulfed by the sovereignty of God. Of whom shall we be afraid? What circumstances of our lives are above the Creator? The power of God Almighty enables us to stare into the very face of evil and say, “Is that all you got!?” Because God is our creator, he has both the authority and the power to order however he so chooses. The fun part comes in the reality that God is also our Father. His complete being means he is only ever good to us. Dear friend, in whatever you face today, cast off your fears and rest in the goodness of God the Creator.

Kyle