Pastor Chuck’s Blog

10-8-2024

God of Another Chance

I grew up in the church from about 5 years old on, so I’ve been familiar with most of the Bible stories for a long time. As such, I was aware of some of the details of Peter’s life – specifically, his denials of Jesus. Because I knew of his denials, I automatically assumed that, after such a disgrace, he lived out the rest of his life in guilt and shame.

When I got a little older and began reading the New Testament, I found it hard to comprehend that the Peter of Acts was the same Peter in the gospels. They seemed to be two different people. When I read the letters Peter had written, I was surprised that he didn’t mention – not even once – the time he denied Christ.

He didn’t seem to be a man overcome with guilt. Instead he spoke with authority and confidence. He told his readers to practice self-control, to be holy, to avoid hypocrisy, and to live for God. I wondered: How can he write with such boldness when he failed so publicly?

There’s only one reason. Peter experienced the restoring grace of God in his life. He found out what it truly, truly means to have your slate wiped clean and to be given another chance.

The critics of Peter could have said, “This man has no place in the ministry. Look at his history. He’s impulsive. He has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Jesus even called him ‘Satan’ once. He made a fool of himself when he tried to walk on water. He violently attacked a soldier in the Garden of Gethsamane. Worst of all, he denied Jesus before he abandoned him. This guy has been trouble since day one. He doesn’t deserve to be called a Christian, let alone be a leader in the church.”

Though everything these hypothetical critics said is true, one fact that negates it all: the restoring power of the grace of God. No matter how far you have fallen, you are never too far down to be picked up and cleaned up and given a new start.

One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is something the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. It’s found in 2 Corinthians 5:17……here’s the verse from The Message paraphrase:

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!
(2 Corinthians 5:17, MSG)

You may feel like your past excludes you from any hope of having a good life … but the restoring power of God’s grace changes that. Feeling like you need another chance today? Most of us do…….and the good news is that God is the God of another chance.

9-18-2024

Lifting Others Up

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. (1 John 3:16)

Dawson Trotman served as a Christian leader during the 1930s, 40s and 50s. His ministry was focused primarily on reaching young people — high school students and college students, as well as those serving in the military, specifically the Navy. His ministry was called the Navigators.

In the summer of 1956 Dawson was speaking at a Bible camp in upstate New York when he and a few students went for a boat ride around the lake. Dawson asked one of the students, Allene Beck, if she could swim. She said she couldn’t. He suggested they trade places, since his seat would be more secure in the event of an accident.

A short time later, the boat made a turn into some choppy waves, almost capsizing. Dawson and Allene were both thrown into the water. Dawson, remembering she couldn’t swim, helped keep her head above water while the boat turned around and circled back.

Those on deck were able to lift Allene to safety, but as they reached for Dawson, he was pulled away by the current. He slipped beneath the surface and drowned.

In his death, we see how Dawson Trotman put the Apostle John’s words into action. In the most literal sense, he laid died his life for a fellow believer. It was both a heart-breaking tragedy and a Christ-honoring sacrifice.

A few days later, when Billy Graham preached Dawson’s funeral, he said, “Daws died the same way he lived: holding others up.”

This Saturday, at 10:30 am, we will celebrate the life of Marilyn Harger. Marilyn, like Dawson Trotter, lived her life “holding others up”. Whether you know it or not, she prayed for you, she served you and she loved you.

So now, I’m inviting you to help “fill the gap” left by Marilyn’s passing. You may not be called to lay down your life, but would you be willing to lay down some of your time for the sake of another? Or to let go of a few dollars for the sake of another? Or to give a ride? Or make a call? Or prepare a meal? Or clean up someone’s mess? Or any number of things?

There’s an old hymn that goes:

Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer shall be for others.

9-6-2024

I presume you are aware of this already, but if you’re not, I want to let you know that there is an election coming up in less than 2 months. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that the past few election cycles have been filled with anger and hatred and verbal pushing and shoving. But here’s the thing: God didn’t ask us to trust in government or presidential nominees. He asked us to trust Him.

One of the things we say around LifePoint Church is, “It’s easy to forget in the dark what we learned in the light.” Our country is in a dark time politically and spiritually. There have always been democrats and republicans and independents and others, and there have always been differences of opinions, but what we’re experiencing at this moment in history is ugly. And while Christians should be involved in politics, Scripture teaches us that we are to do everything – EVERYTHING – in love. That means: We must put our trust in God.

I’m not just talking about the easy things. I’m talking about with everything. But as you know, our current culture challenges that every day, and because of that, sometimes it’s easier to talk about trusting in God than it is to actually trust in Him. Maybe you’re like so many who say, “I love God and I believe in God, but, I still feel so uneasy about the future”. When we look at our country at this moment, there’s a lot to feel uneasy about, isn’t there? There’s the tension all over our country. This leads many to play the, “What if” game. What if so-and-so happens? What if the wrong person gets elected into office? And you get to determine whom the “wrong person” is for you, right? What if I lose my job? What if I get sick, or someone that I love gets sick? What if we have another pandemic or some other crisis and I have to homeschool our kids for the rest of our lives? It’s easy to play the what if game. But take a look at what God says to us:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways [the big ways AND the small ways] acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5 & 6, NIV)

The word acknowledge, in the Hebrew means, “to know”. “In all your ways know Him, and He’ll make your paths straight”. In all your ways, know Him. When you know Him on the mountain tops, you trust Him in the valleys. When you know Him in the good times, you trust Him in the bad times. The way you know Him is to stay close to Him, and that’s a day by day by day walk with Him. You hold on to Him. It’s not just being in close in proximity, but holding on to Him and to not letting go. But here’s the key. In order to hold on to God, you have to let go of whatever else you were previously clinging to.

In order to trust in Him, you stop limiting yourself; you stop leaning on your own understanding. And if we’re honest, that’s just hard. But when you get to the place where you let go of your own understanding, your own plans, your own desire, your own will, your own strategy, your own place of comfort, you discover the God who will never fail you. You cling to the faithfulness and the goodness of the only one who really is good.

So trust God and hang in there, friends…….I’m praying for you!

8-7-2024

We didn’t go to the State Fair when I was a kid, and I didn’t go in my early adulthood either…except for a concert or two. But about 20(?) years ago, one of my friends worked at the State Fair and he invited me to come up and ride around on his assigned golf cart with him. So I did. And I loved it!! I’ve been going ever since.

He has long since ceased working at the fair, but my wife and I still go every year….multiple times. There is just something about the state fair. For some, I’m guessing it’s the rides, but I’m way too old for that. For others it’s seeing all of the livestock. C’mon, the biggest bull? The biggest boar? There’s a lot of hamburger and pepperoni right there! For still others it’s the machinery, or maybe the displays or the concerts or maybe even the food. I know it isn’t, but maybe the motto of the fair should be, “If you can fry it, you can eat it!”

I like all of those things and so much more (except, perhaps, all of the fried foods……there is such a thing as too much HA HA). One more thing I enjoy is – are you ready for this – all of the people who come together to laugh and celebrate family, heritage and culture. What could be better than getting to hang out with 100,000 of your closest friends on any given day? I like to see parents pushing babies in strollers, children dancing with excitement, grey haired men and women smiling at memories, couples sharing a funnel cake and everyone marveling at the butter cow.

I know that God loves people, and like Bob Goff, I’m convinced that He must like laughter.

If the laughter of children thrills us, how much more does our laughter thrill Him? God likes to see people coming together to enjoy one another. Maybe that’s why Jesus performed His first miracle at a wedding feast, providing new wine when the wine ran out, or the reason His teaching is filled with references to banquet feasts and parties, like the fatted calf killed and cooked to celebrate the prodigal’s return. Heaven is described as a great banquet feast, a mansion with many rooms, a place where all peoples, cultures and languages of the world gather in celebration and joy.

The state fair, of course, isn’t heaven. It certainly isn’t perfect. But heaven is.

Our moments of celebration and enjoyment – at the fair or anywhere else – give us just a tiny glimpse of what God has prepared in Heaven. The New Testament book of Revelation, chapter 21, reminds us of this:

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
(Revelation 21:3-4, NLT)

I look forward to the state fair each year, but not like I look forward to heaven. The state fair is great……..but heaven is greater. And heaven is the ultimate destination of all who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Until we arrive there, well, there’s the state fair, and so many other things where we can find joy until we arrive in His presence for all eternity.

Until that happens, I’m off to the fair………..again!

July 29, 2024

By now I imagine you’re aware of the huge controversy surrounding the opening ceremony of the Olympics in France. I’m going to throw in my 2 cents worth here……and you might want to put on your steel toed boots because I might just step on a few toes.

Christians that get online and spew hate toward nonbelievers anger me much more than nonbelievers spewing hate toward Christianity.

There have been multiple “explanations” of what the table at the Olympics was supposed to represent. The overwhelming majority of people saw it as a mockery of Jesus’ last supper with His disciples. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. For the sake or argument, let’s assume that it was. Even so, Jesus would have eaten a meal with every single person at the Olympics ceremony. Perhaps not at the Passover celebration, but He would have shared a meal with any or all of them.

Think about it: Jesus spent a lot of His time on earth with sinners. He invited them to the table over and over again. Sinners, prostitutes, Jesus welcomed all of them to His table. In fact, that’s one of the reasons the religious people hated Him and wanted Him dead.

People who are not Christians are not our responsibility to regulate. Sinners are going to sin. We should expect nothing less. And we shouldn’t be offended by that. What we should be offended by is the way Christians treat sinners who sin……after all, that’s what offended Jesus. He was far more upset with the religious people who mistreated sinners than He ever was with those who sinned. Instead, Jesus welcomed them and pointed them to His Heavenly Father. Remember that God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, not to the shouting of His angry “followers.”

To be clear: I do not condone any religion (especially my own) being mocked. It’s wrong. But my heart doesn’t hurt for what they portrayed. My heart hurts for people who are not in a loving relationship with their Creator. Jesus doesn’t need me to shout about sinners sinning. He wants me to shout about the hope and the love they are missing out on. After all, He died for them just as much as He died for you and me. Angrily shouting at people that don’t know Jesus is in direct contradiction to the command to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Instead, let me suggest that we let this drive us to be more forthcoming with our faith – not in an arrogant, condemning way, but in an encouraging, loving and hope filled way. “For God so loved the world…..”, even those who produced and participated in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. And He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all…..ALL should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

And by the way, wasn’t it at Jesus’ last supper that He instructed His disciples to love others the way He loved them? Read that again.

Remember, we’re in this world but not of it. Let’s rise above it and show the love of Jesus to everyone!