And if you’re not in the “mood” to WORSHIP, maybe this song will change your “mood”!
22 MAY 2022
Tag: hope
SURVIVING YOUR D-DAY INVASION OF DEATH
Job 19:23-27 (NLT)
23 “Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument, 24 carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock.
25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand upon
the earth at last. 26 And
after my body has decayed,
yet in my body I will see God! 27 I will see him for myself.
Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!
As we conclude our D-Day Series, I hope that there have been some hearts that have been tugged. Maybe a few cheeks are a little wet. Many of you have expressed appreciate for tackling this series because…well…because you have been invaded by 1 or more these D-Days.
I promised you that what I would share, would come out of my own experiences. And this has been true, up until today. This is a D-Day Invasion I Haven’t Had—But I Know That One Day I Will.
Today we aren’t talking so much about the difficulty of death but of the hope we can have here in this life, as we know Christ—the hope that invades our lives. Even when loved ones die after a long life, or those who have had their lives cut way to short, there is this thing called Peace that only comes through our Heavenly Father.
Even though there may be sadness of a recent death of someone in your life, my hope is that you will leave with a song of praise in your heart because you know where real hope and peace come from. Listen to these names, and let me ask you a question. All of the names have something in common. Try to figure it out:
Apostle Paul: Greatest missionary to have ever lived! Adolph Hitler: Ruthless dictator and slaughterer of millions. Mother Teresa: Sweet nun and caretaker of the world’s poor. General George Patton: Great WW2 Leader. Mary, The Mother Of Jesus: Enough said. Moses: Great leader of Israel; Elvis Presley: King of Rock and Roll. Dale Earnhardt: The Intimidator of racing. Princess Diana: Royalty and compassion filled her life and her calling. Ted Williams: One the greatest baseball players ever. Todd Beamer: Average guy on Flight 93.
Do you have it in your mind? What do all of these famous & infamous people have in common? They have all experienced the D-Day invasion of Death! They have experienced it and some have mourned their death. They died because of natural causes, accidents, war, disease, tragedy—but all died. Death—it’s the great equalizer.
It’s not a respecter of persons. It doesn’t matter how wealthy or poor you are, educated or uneducated, death is something that all of us will have to face one day.
No matter how common death is, when you lose a loved one, especially a child, I am not sure that there is any way to ever fully prepare for that. I am not going to attempt to do that today. I think when death comes to those who had a lot of life in front of them; it’s just a hard and difficult thing. Death of a loved one can’t be shrugged off. But Death is not the enemy of the survivor’s soul.
Here’s the one thing you need to remember from today’s message: Death Isn’t The Reminder To Get Ready For Heaven. It’s The Challenge To Live Today. We Can Be Prepared In Such A Way That We Can Face Our Moment Of Extreme Mortality And Survive The Loss Of Someone In Our Life.
We can get through this D-Day invasion of death. More importantly today, as we talk about the death of someone close and our own destiny with death, we can be prepared. It doesn’t matter what age a person is, one day you will experience the D-Day invasion of death and you can prepare and understand how to survive in this thing called death.
I want to talk about how we can survive but also, more importantly for each individual that you would understand that one day you are going to die. Are you prepared for death? It may be that some of you here today, you’re sitting right here and you have no assurance of a future hope after this life is over.
If some were to be honest with themselves, they would say, “I do not understand eternity. I do not understand where I will spend eternity when I die.”
I think all of us in our hearts understand that there is an eternity. For many of us here, if your life was really dealt a death blow of a loved one, it would really cripple us. We wouldn’t know where our hope would come from.
How can you and I survive the agony of losing a loved one? How can we know we will survive our own death? It Almost Sounds Like An Oxymoron—Surviving Death. But after death, there is eternity to be lived.
What We Think About God And His Son, And The Ways We Commit To God And Jesus, Will Determine Where We Spend Eternity. Here on this earth, when we experience the death of a loved one, it is the same truth that gets us up the next day.
I want you to turn to John 14, read it, listen to it. I’m going to build on what Job had to say about death.
1. Believe In God’s Way!
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled…”
John 14:1a (NLT)
That word, Troubled—it means “to agitate”. It means to take away our calm and peace. Think about an agitator in a washing machine. It stirs everything up—sometimes twisting and tying clothes in a knot. That’s what the thought of death does to us when we are confronted with our mortality—without that relationship with God.
The best way to deal with death of a loved or to understand our own mortality is to trust in God—to believe in God’s way. Somewhere in your life you will have to recognize that God is the Almighty Creator and He is ultimately in control of our lives and the whole world. None of you are here on this day for this message by accident.
Maybe you have been trying to understand your own mortality and you have been wondering. “Can I have a personal relationship with God? How would I handle it if someone close to me were to die?” God is not the initiator of evil. He does allow it. We need to understand this: God Is In Ultimate Control And Is Able To Redeem Any And Every Moment To Bring Out Something Good. There is comfort in that.
He Also Has An Ultimate Purpose For Our Lives. Do you know what that purpose is? Boil it all down—you are the loving creation of our great God. To believe in God’s way is to understand that He loves you unconditionally and He wants to have a relationship with you. This one little simple truth brings hope because it means we have a loving God who desires a relationship even with us! When things are going so well, we see this world and think, “This is it! Nothing could get better.”
But God says, “Believe In My Way. This Is Only A Glimpse Of Paradise. Are You Enjoying This Life? I Have Set Aside, For Those Who Believe In Me As Their God, A Place Called Paradise!” Paradise is the place promised the thief on the cross, and it means “garden”—it’s the same word to describe the place where Adam & Eve were before the fall—that beautiful place of relationship with Father, Son and Spirit.
God’s way for you and for me is to know true peace and hope through a personal relationship with God. To be in a loving relationship with him made possible by the death of his son, Jesus Christ! That day, the Creator died for His creation. Second,
2. Trust Your Life To Jesus!
“Trust in God, and trust also in Me. 2 There is more than enough room in My Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”
John 14 Vs. 1b-2 (NLT)
This Is The Classic Hope Found In A Relationship With Christ, To Trust Our Life To God’s Son Jesus. He was saying, “Listen, trust in God—believe in God as the Almighty Creator—but also, trust in me.” Why Jesus? Because He Is The Incarnation Of God Here On Earth.
God loves us so much that He came to earth as Emmanuel, God with us. God came and walked among us so that He could die for us. Isn’t that amazing? Our creator God came to die for us. Listen to this—In John 14:6 when Jesus says about himself:
“I Am The Way, The Truth, And The Life. No One Can Come To The Father Except Through Me.”
To be able to reach the Father, we have to acknowledge our sin, acknowledge our inability to get rid of it and stop being controlled by sin. The ONLY way this happens is by giving our life to Jesus—trusting our life to Jesus. We can give up on God—but God never gives up on us.
When We Say YES To Jesus, God Gives Us Eternal Life, Not Because We’re Good, But Because GOD IS GOOD! We can work through our grief when we lose someone close, because if they said YES to Jesus, we will see them again! And if they haven’t? We have Jesus living inside us through the Spirit to help us through our grief.
3. Rest In God’s Presence In You, The Holy Spirit!
“But when the Father sends the Advocate as My representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
John 14:26 (NLT)
All through the New Testament, the Bible uses different words for the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He is called The Counselor Who Guides Us With The Wisdom Of Eternity. He’s the person who helps us understand. He is also the Great Comforter that Gives Peace And Hope. He holds us close to His heart to protect us from the pain and despair from this broken world we live in.
Nothing Causes God To Fret Or Worry. This Is The Presence That Lives In Every Follower Of Jesus. The best part of being in a personal relationship with God is to understand that God is always there. There is a hope and sincerity—I can’t even explain it to teach it. It is just something about being in personal relationship with God.
Let me ask you another question. It has to be a question that you take to heart. When Death Comes To Invade Your Life, Will You Know Peace Or Will You Know Mayhem? Where does your hope come from? Does it come from your bank account, your job, your family, your country? Those things will all be gone when you’re gone. What about eternal hope? What about eternal peace? Where does it come from?
Throughout this series, I have shared with you how to survive some D-Day invasions — disillusionment, defeat, divorce and depression. All of what we said this whole series hinges on Your Personal Relationship With God.
Let me be very clear, for anyone who has never given their life to God, why not right now, simply Put Your Hand In His Hands.
That’s all, but it makes a world of difference in your life now, and an eternity of difference in your life after death.
Are you struggling with fresh grief? Are you at war with old grief, grief that just won’t go away? Jesus understands this and has something for you. It is what Jesus said and did for the Disciples after The Resurrection. In John 20:21-22 Jesus says: “Again he said, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.’ Then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.”
Next Steps
- To Conquer Death, Make Sure You Are In A Relationship with God—not with what you know about God.
- Don’t Wait Until You Die To Start Living.
And we know how Life Conquers Death, and we know how To Start Living Now at the sacramental table we call Holy Communion. Here we see and taste that His Death defeats Death in Us Now—and when that moment comes—His Resurrection defeats our death.
An Open Letter To My United Methodist Sisters And Brothers (wherever you are)
Dear members of this Tribe,
There is so very much about our Tribe that I dearly love. It was here that I was surrounded by God’s indescribable grace. It was here that God’s Prevenient Grace surrounded me, loved on me and nurtured me. At the age of 16, it was here where I experienced and after much struggle finally accepted for myself God’s Justifying Grace. And it is here that His Sanctifying Grace has been at work in my life for the past 44 years and I am confident that this Grace will continue to be at work in me until either Jesus returns or I graduate to the life God intends for all of us to experience, that life Adam and Eve enjoyed until The Fall.
I have been in the Tribe all 60 years of my life and I have remained here, not because I grew up here, but because God called and planted me here. I had always believed that I would end this journey still with this Tribe but recent events have now caused me to have for the very first time, to doubt if my journey will end in this Tribe we call United Methodist. For the past 42 years whenever someone would ask me about joining another Tribe or if I had that thought, the immediate answer from the Spirit was an emphatic “Absolutely NO!”
But our current situation and controversy over human sexuality has caused me to enter into a season of deep reflection and even deeper prayer. And now when I am asked about leaving or pondering the thought of leaving my beloved Tribe for another one, the answer that the Spirit gave me caught me off guard. This time the answer is, “No, not yet. Let’s wait and see what develops.” My heart is literally breaking and I am having many restless nights over this issue. I need to work through this for myself in order to be first His follower and then the leader God created and called me to be. So to work through this, I want to write a letter, actually several letters, to those in my Tribe, whether they read it or not. Writing serves as a catharsis for me. Here goes in no particular order of importance:
Dear Conservatives/Evangelicals,
Please stop using the word “abomination” when describing and/or addressing the LGBTQ community. Using the Bible to beat anyone over their head has never accomplished what God’s Word is designed to do. I once heard that the Bible is God’s love letter to us and that in the front of our Bible we should write “Dear (insert your own name)” and on the back write “Love, God.” I have done my due diligence in trying to understand the progressives and LGBTQ views about the Bible, and I have learned much; not that I agree with their views, but I have learned much about the progressives.
After seeing and hearing many comments addressed by you to the progressives and LGBTQ communities, I can see why they want to reject parts of the Bible. Homosexuality is NOT the worst sin, so stop treating it like it is. I made this statement once and I was asked by someone, “Brother Randy, what do you think is the worst sin? I think it is rejecting Jesus. Don’t you?” I think my reply caught them off-guard. I thought for a moment and replied, “No, I don’t.” No sooner than those words rolled off my tongue, that person looked at me with an expression that said, “I heard you were crazy, now I know you are.”
I continued my thoughts, “Sin is sin is sin. There is no sin that is worse than any other sin. Sin cuts us off from the relationship that God wants with us and messes up the intended design God has for us. But I would say there is one particular sin that disgusts God more than any other.” The question I longed to hear was asked, “Well, which one is it?” I replied, “For a church or follower of Jesus to be lukewarm. In Revelation 3:16, Jesus said that a lukewarm (meaning ‘mediocre’) church (or follower) made Him sick at His stomach. I do not recall Jesus ever saying that about any other expression of sin.” So to you, the conservative/evangelical members of this Tribe who insist and continue to use the word “abomination” in addressing the LGBTQ and progressive community, I want to say, “STOP IT!” This tactic is only widening the gap and creating deeper wounds. Instead, let them see in you the driving desire to be more like Jesus, yourself. Letting anyone see Jesus transforming our own life is always the best way to invite them to Jesus, and for them to allow Jesus to transform their whole life, which is more than the term “sexual orientation”. Transformation is about the whole person.
Dear North Alabama Annual Conference,
I write to all of you–both clergy and laity–individuals and congregations–leadership and those of you in the trenches. The first thing I would say is to our leadership–please say something definitive about these recent events. Let me know where you stand on this issue–clearly and decisively. Please avoid being like the politician who, when questioned about his position on a certain issue, replied, “Some of my friends are for it and some of my friends are against it. And I want you to know that I stand with my friends.” Some of you have done so in a public manner, and others have done so privately. Whether I agree or disagree with your views, I want to hear them, I need to hear them. You are among the leadership in my life and my local church and in times like these, make up your heart and mind and then speak it. Even though the concept of “unity” would be great right now, there are moments and situations where unity is not a possibility, or at least unity as we try to define it. I think this is a time that fits what Jesus said in Matthew 10:34 (NLT), “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”
The second group I want to address are those who are seriously considering pulling out and abandoning this Tribe simply because of what a minority have either said or done. Do not consider abandoning your post because it seems to be the best or only answer. And definitely do not abandon your post because you feel like it is now or never–that somehow God is going to judge you if you don’t pull out right now. I am convinced that God’s guidance for me–“Not yet. Let’s wait and see what happens first”–is the message He is trying to get out to more of us orthodox Tribal members. I just recently heard about one of our churches that has already left our Tribe. If God is actually guiding this local church in a new direction, then they will be blessed because of their faithfulness to God. But my greatest concern (and heartache) is that they simply have given up hope. If you are about to give up hope and leave our Tribe, then understand that you will have gone A.W.O.L. (absent-without-official-leave) and are M.I.A. (missing-in-action) at a time when the Tribe needs your faithfulness and your hope.
And to my fellow Tribe members who simply do not care or have not kept yourself informed, I want to encourage to arm yourself with facts–and not the “Google or whatever blog you happen to read” facts. Ask questions and share truthful information with each other. Search for the truth and then pray–pray without ever stopping for our Tribe. Arm yourselves with other prayer warriors. In your prayers make sure you take enough time to listen to what God might want to say to you. If He gives you guidance to speak or act, then be faithful to that guidance.
And to everyone in North Alabama Annual Conference, please remember that progressives (and for you who are progressive–remember that us orthodox) are NOT your enemy, and neither is the LGBTQ community. There is an enemy who is trying to uproot our Wesleyan orthodox heritage–but it’s not people. This is a spiritual battle and it needs to be fought with spiritual weapons against spiritual forces–not against human beings. And we all need to be accounted for and counted on.
Dear Council of Bishops,
I hear your call for unity and on the surface, this sounds very nice and good. No one wants to lead a divided organization. A general does not want to lead forces into battle who are not of one heart and mind. And it appears to me that your basis for unity is that progressives accept the orthodox and that the orthodox accept the progressives. Hey, that would be great IF it could actually happen. Like some engineering designs, it looks great on paper, but it does not translate well, or at all, into the real world. And here is why it will not happen and cannot happen.
You have framed this storm around the context of human sexuality, but this is not the true cause of this storm. Ask a physician if it is possible for her or him to treat a symptom but not treat the disease and they will tell you not only is it possible, but it happens on a daily basis. They will also tell you that while the symptoms may become better, it is only temporary. Eventually the disease consumes the person and hopefully it will be recognized before it is too late. Bishops, the real storm and the cause of our malady is the rejection of biblical authority. Does the Bible have authority over us or not? Progressives answer this question with, “yes, but not all of it. Some of it is just plain wrong.” The orthodox answer with, “yes it does over all matters of life, faith, order and action.” These two views are antithetical and by definition antithetical means “directly opposed; mutually incompatible” (emphasis mine).
One of the most important ways you can lead us is by ceasing to frame this storm around human sexuality and lead us through this storm by addressing the real disease: rejection of biblical authority for life, faith, order and action. You and I were ordained as clergy in our Tribe with a vow and covenant that included to embrace with example and through proclamation a life framed within the Bible. I do not recall any words that resembled, “do this with the parts of the Bible you agree with and disregard the parts you either disagree with or don’t like.”
John Wesley once wrote in his private journal, and expanded it later in one of his books of sermons about the Bible, “O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri.” (means: “people of one book”) Though Wesley loved to read other books, his anchor was and his roots remained in the Bible. All other books were measured by THE Book. As United Methodists we have 2 clear choices: to be progressive or to be Wesleyan orthodox. And by definition, these 2 views are mutually incompatible. Make your choice, either lead us to be homo unius libri, or make your decision to lead us away from the unius libri. It is mutually incompatible to be both a people of one Book and a people of “let’s choose which parts of that one book we like.”
Dear Progressives And LGBTQ Community,
As I focus my heart on Jesus to frame my words, I have much to say, so where do I begin? With my focus on Jesus, I want to begin with an apology for the ways that some conservatives/evangelicals have treated you by using the Bible as a billy club and a bully pulpit. Neither of these are ways that the Sacred Scripture should be used. I sense many deep wounds inflicted on you and I am praying that God will heal your wounds and that you will be able to forgive these colleagues for their misplaced zeal. Hopefully you read my “first letter” that was addressed to them who use the Bible in the wrong ways.
I also need to make a confession to you. I have not taken the time to listen to your perspective and why you believe what you believe. But in the past few months I have reached out with the desire to listen and ask questions. Some of you have engaged with me in dialogue and what I have heard has helped me understand your position better. It was in those dialogues that I became acutely aware of the wounds that religious bullies have inflicted on those in the LGBTQ community.
But unfortunately most of you end the conversation when I ask the question that no one from the progressive Tribe has answered in a way that adequately described the quest we all share–the quest for that meaningful life, the life that God intended when He created us. Here’s the question that has ended our conversations: “What is the Biblical and/or scientific basis for the premise that God created some people to be gay?”
The only consistent response has been centered around the concept of “feeling”. “I have felt this way my whole life.” “I started having these feelings in college.” And since you have these feelings, then you believe God made you this way and any verse in the Bible that says this goes against God’s intended design for you must be inherently wrong and should simply be ignored. I had one progressive tell me that when God created Adam and Eve He put the capacity for “being gay” inside them and it was just there, waiting for the right moment to come out. When I asked if it could be that the Fall messed up God’s intended design for sex, I was told, “Oh no, in fact, the Fall was good because it liberated us to discover and become all that God created us to be.” When asked for the source and evidence of this theory, the response was yet again silence.
Feelings are rooted in the arena of human emotions. Human emotions were given to us in Creation, so they are not bad–it’s in how we use them. Feelings are unreliable as an anchor or foundation for our life. My emotions change from the time I awaken in the morning until I lie down to sleep–usually several times during any given day. The temptation by Satan in the Garden to Adam and Eve was focused on their emotions. His lie was “You can be a god.” Being a “god” means you can make up your own rules, be in charge of your own life. So to my gay friends who may read this, and to the LGBTQ community, I encourage you to not trust your feelings and look deeper.
Forget what the morons say about you being an abomination to God, for you are not. But neither are you and I yet what God designed us to be. To find that design you and I need to look back to the very beginning–that season before sin entered God’s creation and messed me us, messed you up, messed everybody up. The act of sex was given by our Creator as a gift to be the expression of the deepest, intimate love between 2 people, man and woman. (I had that same progressive whom I mentioned earlier tell me that sex didn’t happen until after the Fall. I wonder how Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and reproduce this image of God into creation?)
I want to ask my gay friends, the LBGTQ community and you who identify yourselves as progressives to carefully read the Creation saga. Here is what God intended to happen and the life He intends for you to experience. Do not read the Bible with the echoes of those who misuse and misunderstand the Bible. Put that garbage behind you and look at the beginning with pure eyes and simple faith. Do not bring my orthodox view to the table and do not bring the progressive view to your reading and reflecting. Set aside for that time your feelings and begin to talk with God and also to listen to God.
And to the progressives of this Tribe who do not “feel like” they are gay, I want to say to you, “Leave the LBGTQ community alone, at least for a season.” Whether we are orthodox or progressive, we are all broken–somewhere, at some place we are a mess. My mess isn’t any neater than yours, nor yours than mine. But this I have noticed about the nature of sin that lives in all of us. We seek to find some means to justify our messiness, as if finding a justification for our mess makes it neat–or at least, less messier.
The Bible still has authority over us in all matters of life, faith, order and action. Just because the bullies and morons misuse it, or because progressives think the Bible is wrong on some points because it was put together by human beings doesn’t we can use our “reasoning ability” to come up with some other way where we can see with fresh eyes how that the Bible, with authority can help us answer the questions of faith, life, order and action in that way which helps us become the person God intended.
And my final words of this letter to the Progressives and the LGBTQ community is this: If you cannot find a way to understand Scriptures the way our Wesleyan heritage guides us, then perhaps it is time for you to part paths with the Wesleyans. If you choose to leave, please know that I will not see your leaving with great joy–but even deeper sorrow than I feel now for our Tribe in this current storm. Oh, and if some of you from the bully pulpit community are thinking right now, “Yes, go on and leave and good riddance”, shame on you. If that’s how you feel, go join Westboro Baptist insane asylum, you’re not Wesleyan. Jesus wept over the unbelief of Jerusalem, and we should weep for those who continue in the way of Adam and Eve as they set out on the journey of deception. I frame and pen these words not with a sense of spiritual superiority or anal arrogance. I frame my words most keenly aware of my own brokenness but also with an invitation to you. I am broken but I am on a journey to wholeness, to restoration at the hand of God who has revealed His plan and His ways for all of us, and it’s known as The Holy Bible.
Kingdom Pastor 