Remember

Pastor of Youth & Young Adults, Karl Helvig

REMEMBER:

Last Sunday we talked about remembering. 

We REMEMBER what God has done 

so we can TESTIFY to his work.

We REMEMBER the past 

so we can ENVISION the future.

If you were there, thanks for joining us! I hope you have found a place to testify (to share your story with others) about God's work in your life.

But today I want to talk about a different kind of memory. While some memories are sources of strength and encouragement and testimony, other memories are wounds. Other memories do not strengthen, but drain.  We all have memories that are like weights on our shoulders.

What are some of your memories that weigh you down?

More importantly,

what do we do with these painful memories?  What do we do with our wounds from the past?

I have one simple suggestion that I truly pray is strength and blessing to you.

Let God heal them.

I was talking to a friend just the other day and he shared something that has been rolling around my mind since our conversation.  He shared about how God has been healing some of his memories.

God was healing his memories.  Really?  Is that something God does?

He went on to describe something that was as beautiful as it was simple.  He said that a number of memories from his past had been coming over and over to his mind.  He shared about serious wounds from his past.  He shared about some experiences that still hurt today.  Then he said he has been inviting Jesus into those moments.

He invited Jesus into his memories.

Hearing that, I realized some of my habits surrounding painful memories: I ignore them, I let them hurt, I forget them, I hide them, I pretend they don't hurt that bad, I tell myself I can just deal with them, I tell myself it's just the past.... the list goes on. 

I do a lot of things with my painful memories, but I don't often invite Jesus into them.  I especially don't invite him into the most painful memories.  Those are the ones I most regularly ignore or conceal.

I try to invite Jesus into my days, I try to follow him with my life, but I don't invite him into memories.  And let me get specific here.  I think there is healing to be found in letting those memories come fresh into our minds (not rejecting them or pushing them away or minimizing them but vividly re-experiencing them) and then specifically asking Jesus to be THERE, to enter into THAT PLACE.  There is even a longChristian tradition for allowing ourselves to IMAGINE Jesus himself walking into the scenes in our minds.  This is not just fantasizing or manipulating our minds.  It's taking seriously the promise of Jesus to be with us always. We can pray, "Jesus, be with me in this memory.  Be present with me both now and then."  Then let your mind see Jesus physically present in the scene in your memory.

Is there a wound from your past that still hurts: it comes back, it repeats itself, it hasn't gone away for years?  If so, consider inviting Jesus into that memory.

I will not guarantee that an exercise like this will immediately erase all pain or scaring from the past.  But I do believe that we serve a healing God who desires us to bring more of ourselves to more of him.  Join me in bringing your memories to Jesus.

Let us be a people who walk with Jesus in EVERYTHING WE REMEMBER so hopefully we can walk with him into EVERYTHING WE PRESENTLY LIVE.

Grace and Peace,

Karl

Learning to Come

Yesterday afternoon, I actually had some alone time to work on uploading pictures to my Shutterfly account so I could work on a memory book.  As it takes some time for photos to be moved, I had the brilliant idea of working on a watercolor painting I’d started last spring, but never finished.  So here I was moving from the computer on the deck, enjoying a warm afternoon before the storm hit, to go downstairs to where I paint.  Back and forth, back and forth.  And then it hit me.  Why am I making such a project of something that should bring joy and rest?

I took time with the photos, then thanked God for great times with my husband and extended family and the way we saw God at work in us.  After taking time to choose and upload the best photos (quite a project with a son, son-in-law and other extended family members who are great photographers!), I let it be for a while.  

Then I spent time finishing a painting from an anniversary trip.  As I took time to work on it, God brought to my quieted mind memories, not only of a great time with Steve, but also reminding me that it was on that trip that we got a phone call from my Mom that my Dad’s health was failing.  The beauty of the sunset I was painting was a reminder of God’s faithfulness and presence with us in the really good times and also the really challenging and difficult times.  

Isn’t that our life stories? Wonderful and hard, precious and desperate, quiet and crazy?  Yet in all of it comes Jesus’ voice:  “Come to me; come to me.”  As we spend time this fall as a church family considering the focus of “Running at the Pace of Grace,” let’s ask hard questions of ourselves: 

- Where do we needlessly impose stress on our lives?  

 
- Where can we take the necessary tasks before us and bring them to the Father as prayers?  

- How do we take Jesus’ statement seriously, “Learn from Me?

Thankfully Jesus does not expect us to do this alone.  His fulfilled promise to send a Comforter and Guide in the person of the Holy Spirit enables us to keep on learning and growing in Him.

Serve

Pastor of Youth and Young Adults, Karl Helvig

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Servant.

I'm not sure that's a term that people eagerly take upon themselves. In the first century (when James was writing to this scattering of churches) it could be a profoundly degrading categorization. If you were a servant (slave is probably a better translation), then you were simply an item on an inventory. You were a possession, you belonged to the master of the house.

You would be listed along with the cattle and sheep and pots and furniture.

Slaves were not people, they were property.

So, why does James take that names for himself?

James was a leader in the early church. He was one of the chief leaders in the church in Jerusalem (which, if you hadn't heard, is a rather significant city for Jews and Christians). James was a person whose opinion was sought after and whose decisions mattered.

But James, a pillar of the church, willingly identified himself as a servant, a slave.

Here is the thing about slaves, their job is simple. It can all be boiled down to just one thing: do the masters will. If you are a slave, there shouldn't be much confusion about your role. Your role is to do what the master tells you to do.

James tells us that his desire is to only do the will of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How does that sit with you? Are we willing to see ourselves as servants, even slaves, of our good and gracious God?

Are we willing to only do the things that God desires for us to do?

First century masters could be harsh at times, the term slave is a loaded term and can bring up all sorts of negative connotations. But, Christ is the most gracious and benevolent Lord this world has ever seen. Doing his will, while it may be challenging at times, it ultimately a good, even joyful endeavor. It is always a blessing to be a servant of Christ.

So, what is the will of God for you today? Will you listen for his voice? Will you follow his leading? When you do, you might find easy paths or difficult paths to walk, but they will always be good paths. They will always be paths worth walking; paths you look back and find yourself blessed for having traveled them.

Slowing Down to Run Well

Senior Pastor Steve Thulson

I once heard a Chinese proverb: 

When you walk, walk. 
          When you sit, sit. 
                    Whatever you do, do not wobble.

I suppose it means to do what you do clearly, intently and fully: whether it’s diving into work or pulling back into play.

I have a way of “wobbling.” My multitasking can end up fragmenting me more than fulfilling some focused purpose.  My breaks can land me in escapes like TV that barely cover-up a restless stewing about the tasks that didn’t get done. There’s neither fruitful labor nor peaceful rest. I could blame our driven, busy and hurried culture; except that culture is in me as much as I in it.

Yet all the more, I am in Christ. And he is in me.

I hear the still but strong voice of Jesus say “Come to me and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:29). He gives a deep rest even as we also take up his “yoke” of actively working with him, and take up our “crosses” of sharing in his suffering that’s redemptive. He leads us into work and rest that’s not “wobbling.” As we hear the Apostle Paul say: “Whatever you do… do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Colossians 3:17). That’s a way of saying “Do all you do in the presence of Jesus – with him, not just for him, much less apart from him.

Part of our church family’s focus this Fall and beyond is slowing down to run well. That’s not about being slow because you don’t run well – even if that’s the literal case for some us now! It’s growing into a freedom to let God run the universe and find peace in the place you get within that – no more, no less. It’s finding a pace – sometimes moving fast, sometimes being absolutely still – that’s “in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). In the words of Eugene Peterson paraphrasing Jesus, it’s learning  “the unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11:30 in The Message).  

By his grace, that’s the “run” Jesus has me on. How about you?

Joy In Anything?

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  James 1:2 (NIV)

Two weeks ago Pastor Steve's sermon,"Between Plan A...and Unplanned Z" (click here to listen) brought us to think about all that was going on when Paul and Silas visited Philippi.(Acts 16)  All of their plans A,B,and C were disrupted by unplanned X,Y,Z, which became God's plans.  The sharing at the end of worship was remarkable - example after example was given of God redeeming our failed plans (with the pain and frustration those failed plans caused) to bring good and glory to Himself.

I have been there many times: times where hopes and dreams did not play out as I planned.  Yet, I experienced God's faithfulness as a love gift from the Father to bring hope.  Jeremiah 29:11 came to life over and over again as I let go of my plans and embraced what God was doing.  I could see God's plan for me was not to harm me but to bring me "hope and a future."

But now back to where I started.  James 1:2 says to consider it pure joy whenever I face trials - when every failed plan A,B or C occurs.  That's hard.  I can say I love God, and I do.  I can say I trust God, and I do.  But to consider it pure joy, PURE JOY, to walk through the confusion and hardship as a result of the trials and failed plans?  James goes on to give the outcomes .  Trials lead to faith tested.  Faith tested leads to perseverance.  Perseverance leads to my becoming mature and complete, not lacking anything. In other words, it leads me to become more and more like Jesus.  When put that way, I can consider it pure joy when I come face to face with any trial.

Do your work in me, Lord; in us all.