One Star on the Flag

Article:  One Star on the Flag

When I was a student in fifth or sixth grade, our class was preparing for a program that we would perform for our parents.  In one part of the program, the American flag was to be brought out, we would recite the pledge of allegiance and someone would sing the national anthem.  Apparently our rehearsals were not going as well as our teachers hoped as a bunch of fidgety children waited on the stage for Old Glory to pass by.  One teacher sought to correct us and told us to find one star on the flag and focus on it as the honors were given.  After one more run through, our teacher commended those that found this new focus, and told us how much more respectful it looked when we payed attention to the flag so well.  I don’t know exactly why, but that instruction has stayed with me for four decades!  I can still hear it in my mind when I hear the opening strain of the national anthem.  

Several years ago my brother, a Marine, was on one of several deployments to the middle east.  As with most families of deployed military, we were concerned for his safety and the thought of him being so far from home.  One night at a special event as the anthem was being played, I found my star and focused my attention.  Thoughts of my brother filled my mind and I began to pray for him and his fellow soldiers.  A new kind of patriotic awareness filled my mind as the cost of freedom and the privilege of living in this country grew large.  

In John 15:13 Jesus says this, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”  Life itself is a precious gift worth holding onto and experiencing to the fullest.  To lay down one's life for another’s benefit is the ultimate act of love and service.  Jesus himself did so as he laid down his sinless life for the sake of sinful humanity on the cross.  As a result, we can have forgiveness for sin and a new chance at life.  We have the opportunity to say "thank you” to him with our lives every day.  

This is what the writer of Hebrews says: "let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  We fix our eyes on Jesus, like a star on the flag, and remember the sacrifice he paid for us, the blessed hope of his resurrection, and the promise of his return.  

Remember to pray for our military, our leaders, our police and EMS personnel and all of those who lay down their lives for our sake, and give thanks to them and the God who gives us all blessings!

Seeing God in a Piano

One of the central ideas I have about God is that He delights to reveal Himself to humanity.  As finite beings, we struggle to have a vision of an infinite God, and so He helps us by revealing Himself one piece at a time in a wide variety of ways.

I thought of this not long ago while I was tuning a piano.  When you take the cover off of a piano, you reveal all of the inner workings of its mechanisms and materials.  Strings, hammers, levers, nuts and bolts all play a part the process of producing the tone of a piano, but in the end it is the string that “sings”.  The lowest notes on a piano consist of one very thickly wrapped string per note.  Then there is a range of notes that produce their tones by the vibration of two strings.  The remaining half of the piano consists of notes that are produced by the vibration of three strings that are to be tuned to the exact same frequency. When that occurs, something very special happens.  

Three strings that vibrate in perfect unison have the effect of magnifying each other’s sound.  This makes the note have a rich and clear tone that is pleasing to the ear.  If there is any discrepancy between the frequencies, an unpleasing distortion of the pitch results, and here is the lesson.

Scripture reveals God as being a tri-unity, one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  All three are in perfect unison with each other, each one magnifying the other.  The Father honors the Son, the Son brings glory to the Father, the Spirit glorifies the Father and the Son, pointing men and women to their wise creator (see John 17).  

Are you “in tune” with God?  Do you ever find yourself in disharmony with Him?  God wants to be in perfect harmony with His creation, so  much that He was willing to become part of His creation and do everything necessary to offer forgiveness and restoration to those who are far from Him.  God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us.

You can ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and bring you in tune with Him today!  It is a free offer that He extends to all who would believe in Him and trust in Him to save them!

Harvest Festival 2024

On November 3rd we will once again be celebrating the work God is doing through Northwood Community Bible Church as we seek to share the Gospel and its impact through local, regional and worldwide ministries. This year, our guest speakers will be Andrew and Sara Moore.

Andrew and Sara are currently serving in Taiwan with Pioneers. Theirs is a ministry to the artisan and craftsman community. They are new the the field and excited to share the ways that God has been working in and through them.

At Harvest Festival, we will take the opportunity to worship in prayer and song, and the word of God. Additionally, we will receive a special offering of gifts and pledges that will constitute our operational missions budget for 2025. God has been so good in the past, and He has worked powerfully through the generous hearts of this community of believers. We are excited to see what He will do in the coming year!

We invite you to join us at 10:30am on Sunday, November 3 for this year’s Harvest Festival banquet immediately following the service. The church will provide the main course, and volunteers have signed up to bring other elements of the meal, so feel free to join us in celebration!

Expositional Listening

I can relate to the Apostle Paul who said he feared running the race in vain when it came to his teaching.  He didn’t want people to miss what God had laid so heavily on his heart.  Sermons that point us to Jesus, reveal God’s nature (and our own), or call us to specific action are only as effective as our hearts are yielded to the Spirit who speaks through them.   

I try to approach preaching the Bible through exposition, which means I present what the Bible says, what it means (in context), and how it applies to our lives today.  The best way to listen to a message like that is through “expositional listening”.  Expositional listening seeks to put as much thought into the process of receiving the message and applying it as was given to delivering the message.  Here are some pointers to help you listen expositionally:

Preparation

Get a good night’s rest in preparation for Sunday- we all know that weekends can be just as busy as week days as we try to pack in all the fun and extra activity time that we can.  But do yourself a favor, come to church on a “full tank”.  Give yourself (and the kids) the best opportunity to enjoy the day in fellowship by getting some much needed rest the night before.

Bring a notebook- whether this is a daily journal or a weekend spiral bound notebook, have something you can interact with and refer to.  This notebook will become a genuine treasure in days  when you are facing the challenges of life.

Take time to pray- worship is a spiritual act.  Prepare for it spiritually by tuning your heart to God’s heart in prayer.  We sing a prayer of preparation when we sing, “Show Us Christ”.  “Prepare our heart’s oh God, help us to receive…”  Sometimes you may find yourself engaging in spiritual warfare when the enemy is trying to drown out God’s truth through clamor in your soul.  Find victory by running to your heavenly Father in prayer!

Foster a sense of expectation- if you come to church expecting something, you are more likely to receive it!  It may not be from the sermon, it may be in a song, or in a conversation you have with somebody at church.  Either way, your expectations of our weekly gatherings will almost certainly be met.

Put it into practice

Get yourself (or the kids) settled- as a father of seven, I know what a challenge this can be, but I also know its rewards.  The first part of our worship service is spent with the whole family together.  Show your kids how to participate in the service through prayer and singing.  In children’s church, the kids participate in all aspects of their service, from prayer requests to singing to special music and Q&A after the lesson.  Try to limit getting in and out of your seat during the teaching time.  The moment you disconnect your attention (and others in the room) from the message might be the very moment God had something special, just for you!  

Listen for key words- Scripture was written up to about 2000 years ago.  Yet, it is still relevant today!  As the text is being read, watch for keywords and how they affect the context for understanding the importance of the message today.  Write down key words that the speaker is drawing your attention to.  Are there any circumstances in your life that relate to what’s being taught?  Write it down…

No Stick People- The Bible wasn’t written about stick people, it was written about real human beings with emotions and back-stories, hopes and dreams, faults and failures.  Always look for the emotional connection between you and the characters in the stories we read.

Listen for correlating references- Scripture illuminates scripture.  When we go to references outside of the main text we are studying, write down the reference so you can look at it more fully later on.  Check to see if the pastor has actually used that text correctly to back up the point he is making. 

Highlight and mark up your Bible- if you wear out your Bible because of too much note taking and highlighting, don’ worry…you can always get another!  Well-studied Bibles become invaluable family treasures!

When you get home, take a moment to consider how God is urging you to respond. Then DO IT!

The Faithful God

Deuteronomy 7:9  “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant with loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.”

We talk about faith these days, from the perspective of our faith in God.  We think about how we have had to trust Him in difficult times, and how He has provided for us.  The Bible encourages humanity to be faithful to God, and it also describes God’s faithfulness to us.

In the passage above, Moses is addressing the Hebrew people who have come out of the land of Egypt.  They have made a long journey, and encountered many difficulties, but all the while God has been faithful to keep a promise to them.  He told them that He would deliver them to a “promised land”  where they could live and grow and worship Him.  The passage assures the people that God will be faithful, and will be lovingly devoted to them and to their descendants.

The same kind of promise is echoed by Jesus in the New Testament, as He speaks to His disciples in Matthew 28:20, where He says, “…And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Jesus is actually quoting Deuteronomy to make this point to His disciples.  He gives His disciples the task of preaching the good news, baptizing people, and making disciples, but He does so with a promise that He will be present with them to help them and guide them.

In a similar way, God has given each of us a role to play and a job to do in His kingdom.  Some minister to children, others to the elderly.  Some are teachers, musicians on the church stage, and others are called to the task of cleaning the church.  Imagine that!  What has formerly been considered a menial task- cleaning a building- has now become one of the most important facets of a church’s preparedness in dealing with the effects of the current health crisis.  Thank God that He has called people to serve in such helpful ways as cleaning!

In all of these things, God has promised to be with us in whatever task we have in life, to love us, lead us, and reveal Himself to us.  Even when we feel tired or discouraged, God has not abandoned us.  He is there, ready to show His love, and He wants us to reach out to Him in love in return.

In Darkness We Wait

A wife sits in the waiting room praying that her husband will make it out of surgery in good shape. A family waits for news of a daughter that has gone missing. News of great financial loss has rocked a family and they wonder if they will be able to make it. The church waits for new direction that God will provide to deal with the storms of difficulty in their fellowship. These are dark times in our lives...times when the world seems to go gray and the things we used to be so sure of seem a little less certain and a little more confusing.

Here's a word of encouragement from scripture. Isaiah 26:3-4 says "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock." 

The same God who calmed stormy waves is able to speak peace and calm into our own hearts and minds. We are able to trust that he knows what he is doing because he is God! When Our hope rests on him he gives us his peace.

So what are we to do in the meantime? What do we do while we wait for the answers to come? May I suggest that there are three things that will help a person through the dark and the storms of their life. The first is to find our new normal. When the circumstances in life change, the fact of the matter is that we are now going to have a new "normal". Perhaps The new normal means a change in our schedule or a change in our budget or a change in our relationships. In some cases it may even mean laying aside our former hopes and dreams and finding new ones. No matter how we look at it, life changes and it is necessary for us to adapt.

The second challenge is that of being "okay" with our new normal. Often times, when it finally does settle in that things are going to be different, our hearts may still be unsettled and even angry at the fact that things have to change. This will be one of the places where a person needs to pray that God will help them accept things for the way they are instead of wishing and hoping for things that cannot be. It is also one of the key moments where we learn to rely on the love and friendship of those around us. Our family, friends, and church family will remind us of the many ways in which God reaches out to bless us.

The third challenge is to function in the new normal. Not only are we learning new skills and learning a new way of doing things but we are also learning to find joy in the new adventure in which God has placed us. Precious are the testimonies of those who have endured great hardship and emerged on the other side better for the experience, and who would say that if they had to do it all over again they would keep things just as they are. There are some things that God desires to show us that we could never see outside of the hardship we must endure.

In the darkness we wait, but those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint. Teach us, Lord, to wait on you.