Opening Devotion: Two Old Words - 1 Thessalonians 5:9

1 Thessalonians 5:9   For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For some people, the biblical words ‘wrath’ and ‘salvation’ have no meaning in their regular lives. They go about their daily routine, not giving a second thought to God, or of the Christian understanding that one day everything will come to an end. They probably think that Doomsday beliefs are for deluded fools and, as for a God who punishes people for their sins, that’s just a negative way that the outdated Church uses to control people with fear.

If I was going to dissuade folks from the need to believe in Christ, I think that I would tell people that what they do doesn't matter, nor will it ever count against them, and that life beyond death is given to everyone. I think that I would convince people that sin doesn't exist anymore and that God loves to indulge us. I would tell them that Christ’s blood had nothing to do with the forgiveness of sins and that His execution was just an historical accident – He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I would finally tell them that we are gods and all the God that we ever need to be, that humankind is the pinnacle of existence, as well as the greatest beings who will ever live.

If I told them all those things, then words like ‘wrath’ and ‘salvation’ would have no meaning, and I could add to that list words like ‘church,’ ‘prayer,’ ‘faith,’ and even ‘Christianity.’

But if I did that, then I would be a vile liar and a peddler of untruth. I would be guilty of leading people astray and away from the Gospel. I would be damaging their souls and wounding their beliefs. If I stayed in the church and preached those things, I would be a heretic. If I left the church and said those things, I would be apostate. However, for some people, those last two words, ‘heretic’ and ‘apostate’ have no meaning in their regular church lives….

Questions for personal reflection

What does God’s wrath mean to me? How do I interpret the word ‘salvation’?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, You never said that following You was ever going to be comfortable or easy, so keep us from trying to make our faith cozy and bland. Forgive us, Lord, for following our own ways instead of Yours. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to make a comment or ask a question about today’s devotion, please send him an email to traqair@aol.com.

Today’s image is one of John’s latest Celtic drawings. It’s called “Celtic Mandala” and features a Celtic Cross surrounded by many other Christian symbols. How many can you find? If you would like to view a larger version, please click on the following link: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7416/12126875254_8e9f12c2a7_b.jpg

Church devotions: Teaching the Faith - Acts 13:12

Acts 13:12       When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

I like to teach the Faith. It’s an important part of my calling. I enjoy discussions about Christ and Christianity and the sharing of questions, ideas, and thoughts at my regular Sunday School class. It keeps me on my toes and refreshes my faith each time I enter and exit the classroom. Preaching is meant for the big moment of the week in worship; teaching is an entirely different method of sharing the faith.

The class that I teach is an inter-generational one. People bring their cultural backgrounds, life experiences, and personal questions into the melting pot which, in turn, adds to the whole collective discussion about a Bible passage, faith point, or church issue. Each Sunday that we meet, we add to the theological tapestry that we’re weaving. Faith, hope, and love are shared; encouragement, friendship, and inspiration are experienced.

Teaching about the Lord in philosophical or practical ways always has the potential of strengthening our beliefs and Christian convictions. In today’s passage (Acts 13:6-12), the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus is deeply impressed not just by what Barnabas and Saul say, but what they actually do. Their faith is amazing and fearless in the face of evil and deception. The proconsul becomes a believer because he sees for himself the authenticity and authority of the Christian faith.

Today, we will all be given opportunities to share our faith and be authentic witnesses for Christ. Let’s hope that we are both ready and real about being Christians.

Questions for personal reflection

Where do I go to be constantly taught about the Christian faith? What lessons of faith do I express to others with my words and deeds?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, help us to positively express our faith in You to others this day. Let our witness of Your power and presence in our lives be authentic and sincere. In Your Holy Name, we earnestly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. If you would like to comment on today’s passage or ask a question about it, please send him an email to traqair@aol.com.

Today’s image is one of John’s latest Pentecost drawings. It’s called “Heaven Sent” and features the Holy Spirit as a dove descending to Earth. If you would like to view a larger version of the image, please click on the following link: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8536/8683999979_5ab8742e51_b.jpg

Church Meeting devotions: Sacred Title - 2 Corinthians 1

2 Corinthians 1:3       Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.

It’s one of those foundational beliefs that separates us from the rest of the religious world. I’m talking about the Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of Christ. It’s a distinction that Jews and Muslims will not accept. It’s a spiritual fact that distinguishes who we are as a people of faith.

Some people and pastors think that this is not important and in the interests of political correctness and language equity, they would rather that we stop calling God “Father” and instead use the neutral term of ‘Creator.’ The difficulty with this is that the First Christians, who died for their faith, saw this as a basic belief that distinguished Christ from other would be Messiahs and spiritual leaders.

We may think that this distinction is unimportant in a modern cosmopolitan world. We may be able to compartmentalize our beliefs into acceptable cultural phrases to suit the world. We may be able to do all of these things and change ourselves, but we will never be able to change that basic eternal and sacred relationship that Christ has with God. Jesus is His Holy Son and God is His Almighty and Everlasting Father.

The apostle Paul knew this fully, understood it, and proclaimed it in his wonderful letters. Christ in the Gospels continually referred to God as Father and even Daddy (Abba). If this wasn’t true, then Christ was deceiving Himself and His followers. And how could He even call out for mercy upon those who crucified Him, with the famous words: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” if this was not the case?

The Fatherhood of God maintains who we truly are as Christians. If we reject it, then we are molding God into our own acceptable form and shape. The word for that is idolatry.

Prayer:                        Father God, we glorify Your Son Jesus Christ in ways that the world does not understand and in words that our Western society finds hard to accept. You sent Your son to the world to show us how committed You were and are towards granting eternal salvation for those who truly believe in Your Son. Help us to once again tear down the barriers of our own making and to cherish You as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and all compassion. In Your Holy Name and by Your Sacred Title we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Today’s image is one of John’s latest drawings called “Apple Harvest.” If you would like to see a larger version of the print, please click the following link:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/5039769485_3a9d88d5a5_b.jpg

Pastor Stuart has limited edition, signed, and matted prints available.

Church Meeting Devotions: Family Gathering - Acts 7

Acts 7:16         Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.

The wee stillborn baby that I baptized last week was buried in his family’s cemetery. Generations of his relatives have been laid to rest in that hallowed place. It was very touching to see his wee white coffin being given its sacred place in such beautiful surroundings. His precious life within his young mother’s womb was both valued and honored by the whole family. At some future point, a little white cross or a stone angel will probably mark where he is resting.

Graves are witnessing sites to previous generations. I know of many families who reunite once a year at family graveyards to honor the past lives of their loved ones. I think that this is a wonderful thing to do, because it keeps the continuity of past, present, and future generations linked together.

When the bodies of Jacob, Joseph, and his brothers were taken back to Shechem, they were identifying themselves as true descendants of Abraham. They were also laying a perpetual claim to the land and fulfilling God’s promises. This is why Moses and the Hebrew children headed back there four hundred years later. This is also why the Jews laid claim to the land and re-inhabited it in 1948. Israel exists as a nation today simply because God’s promises are always fulfilled. Abraham’s foresight in purchasing the land thousands of years ago validates the existence of the Israeli nation today, not just according to the scriptures, but also through Middle East inheritance customs.

In years to come, when Old Mortality catches me, I’ll either be buried or cremated depending upon what my family decides. It would be nice to be laid to rest somewhere that future generations could gather together and say that this is where the Stuarts in America began. However, for me the real reunion and final family gathering that will mean so much more will be that glorious day when Christ gathers His followers to Himself and we become part of that great Christian family of faith, hope, and love in His Kingdom forever. Now that’s a family gathering  I am really looking forward to!

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, thank You for the sacred resting places of our people and loved ones. Thank You for the family reunions that take place each year at churches and graveyards all over the world. And we praise You for that coming glorious day when we will be gathered together in the Heavenly realms to be with You and all our loved ones forever. In Your Holy Name, we cheerfully pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Today’s image is John’s latest drawing of an old Dutch Windmill in winter. If you would like to view a larger version, please click the following link: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1300/4705518404_6b5427a32f_b.jpg

Church Meeting DEvotions: If and Then

Galatians 3:22            But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. 

What was promised…might be given.

Decades ago, I can remember purchasing my first computer. It was an Acorn computer with 32 kilobytes of memory. I felt as though I owned one of the most advanced personal computers in the world and I spent ages entering formulas and equations to make it work.

I remember on one occasion that I tried to set up a windows filing system which would help me with my pastoral work. It took me four days to enter the information correctly and when I was finished, I had a black & white screen filled with little boxes where I could put in names and addresses, some short information, and a calendar for visitation dates. I felt as though I was light years ahead of my pastor peers and couldn’t wait to show some of them what I had created.

The equations and the formulas that I had to enter were all built through key sentences of ‘if and then.’ If I pressed a button here, then a file would come up on the screen. If I entered a name here, then more information would be accessed somewhere else in the computer. So long as the ‘ifs and thens’ were entered correctly, then the system worked beautifully.

These days, computer already have these programs entered and filing is so much easier, but way back in the 1980s windows files were very rare.

Today’s verse reminded me of the ‘if and then’ process of salvation. Many people think that salvation is a given, but it’s not. This is why the apostle Paul reminds the young Corinthian church that what was promised through scripture might be given to those who believe. Belief in Christ, then, is a required component of salvation. If there’s no belief, then there is no salvation, no matter what the world would like to think.

That’s why Christianity is first and foremost a missionary faith. We do not minister to ourselves, we take the Gospel message out into the world. We take it to our families and friends, our neighbors and working colleagues. The promises of salvation can only be experienced through our belief in Jesus. There is no other way. There is no other person, there is no other faith.

If the ‘if and then’ of belief and salvation are not entered into our hearts and minds, then the good news of the Gospel remains inoperative. We will have wasted our whole lives by inputting the wrong spiritual formula and erroneously entering the wrong eternal equation.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, we want to live forever in God’s Kingdom and to experience everlasting life. You are the only way to achieve this; You are the Only One who has the words of eternal life. Keep us faithfully focused on You and help us to attract and enable others to come to Your Cross. Make us missionaries of Your message. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Anxious Living

I was reading the other day that film director and actor Woody Allen cannot sleep at night because he suffers from an anxiety about death. He’s an atheist and he can’t come to terms with the fact that his death means the end of all his accomplishments. When asked about death, he says: “The trains all go to the same destination. They all go to the dump.”

I pity him because he’s such a talented and creative person, and you would think that such creativity would help him to see beyond himself. But he has chosen not to believe in God, so he walks around his apartment at night time fretting about death.

For me, faith is real wisdom because it gives us an understanding that we are not the center of everything and that there is a structure, order, and a plan for the universe. God’s creativity is all around me, so I can look at the Smokey Mountains and see His grandeur; I can listen to birdsong in the morning and hear God being praised; I can be in the company of good friends and Christian people and experience God’s presence. Life is good. Death may come, but life goes on eternally.

Proverbs 15: 24 The path of life leads upward for the wise to keep him from going down to the grave.  

The writer of Proverbs knew what he was expressing when he wrote today’s verse. Those who are faithfully wise go onward and upward in life; those who are foolishly miserable end up digging graves for themselves, or just get on board trains that are heading to the dump.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, thank You for the gift of eternal life and the hope of things to come. Thank You for sacrificing Yourself, so that we may live forever in the embracing love of God. Help us to help others discover this divine happiness. In Your Holy Name, we thankfully pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Basic Christianity

Mark 2:5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Last night, I went down to my favorite fishing hole at Concord Park. I sat on the rocks for about an hour, reading one of my favorite books. It’s called “Basic Christianity” and it was written by John Stott. I read it years ago when I was in Scotland after a friend suggested it to me. John Stott is a great English preacher and he writes with a wonderful clarity.

I was reading a chapter about Jesus and the claims He made about Himself. As John Stott puts it, we can’t know much about Christianity until we learn about Christ. This makes what Christ had to say about Himself as very important to our faith. We cannot pick and choose what we like about Jesus and disregard the rest.

One of the claims that Christ made, which got Him into a lot of bother, was the ability to forgive sins. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus forgives the sins of the paralytic before He sets out to physically heal the sick man. It caused a great deal of consternation amongst the witnesses because they thought that who else but God can forgive sins? Some of them wanted to stone Jesus to death for blasphemy. They didn’t care about the sick man; they only wanted to purge the community of Christ’s sinful mistake.

I guess we would be much the same. If a preacher were to come into our town proclaiming that he had the power to forgive all of our sins, we’d probably tar and feather that person and kick him out of town.

John Stott says that Jesus claimed this divine power for Himself and that we have to deal with this issue. If Christ is truly the Son of God, then He can indeed forgive our sins. But if He does forgive our sins, then don’t we owe Him all of our faith, allegiance, and loyalty? In other words, you can’t go halfway and make a compromise with Christ. It’s either all or nothing.

In these confusing days when we are bombarded with New Age philosophies and other world religions, it’s hard to make a total commitment to Christ. It’s like putting all of our eggs in one basket, whilst so many people in the world want to keep their options open. But as Stott writes throughout the book, either Jesus is both everything He says He is, and His claims are unchangeable, or Christ has made false claims about Himself and Christianity is untenable.

For me, I think both Christ and Stott have it completely right. Jesus is God’s Son and the Savior of the world; so when I need forgiveness, I confidently come and pray to Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the World, and the Lord of our lives. You alone have the power to forgive our sins and restore us to God. We rejoice in Your Sovereignty and Authority. We praise You both now and forevermore. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.