Devotionals
Hearing Our own Accent
John 3:19 "...This is the verdict: Light has come into the
world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." &
31 "The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth.
The one who comes from heaven is above all.
32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.
33 The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful.
One of my pastoral mentors hails from Mississippi. He's a former pastor, now author and lecturer.
A couple of years back his family traveled with him to an Australian conference where he was scheduled to speak.
During in-flight conversation with his young daughter he began preparing her for the different culture that lay ahead.
"Now sweetie, the people in Australia will have a different accent than we do.
Their words may sound a bit funny to your ear and sometimes seem hard to understand."
His daughter turned, looked him straight in the eye, and said with her own acquired Mississippi drawl, "Daddy, ah don't have a axe-caent."
When we believe who Jesus is and that He came from the Father to reveal the Father's heart toward His adopted children, our ears are opened to hear what they normally would not and our eyes are opened to see what we normally could not see about God or ourselves. The bible terms it Repentance, born from above, converted, regenerated, baptized in the Spirit& We become a 'new man/woman' in Christ because how and what we think about God has changed. We no longer live in the myth that we're our own God. This process of self judgment in the light of God's truth continues until this body dies and we inherit a glorious one. There's always some pain involved in coming out of the darkness - some crisis (judgment). When our eyes are accustomed to the dark they resist the light of life in Jesus Christ. Our first response is always to squint. But the fruit of believing is worth the pain of coming out of denial. We are called to live in the light, and as we know Him better we also realize that everything we ever were or ever will be has been done through Him. (Verse 19)
A church member in Kentucky once asked me about her own conversion during a tough time in her young marriage. With a husband laid off from work in the coal mines and three mouths to feed, life in their small trailer was full of arguments, angry accusations, frustration and despair. She blamed herself for most of their problems and in the confidence of counsel said to me, "I don't think I was ever converted!" (The conversion experience in our denomination back in those days involved much qualifying knowledge of doctrine as we saw it and taught it. When an individual seemed to be failing spiritually, we would often suggest they go down the check list of 'to do's' or 'not doing enough of' - usually beginning with prayer.
Now prayer is a good thing, and Christian maturity is buried deep in the soil of prayer. But I differed with her self-drawn conclusion. I told her that I thought she was converted. "Why do you think so?" she asked. I told her I thought she was converted because she cared about failing spiritually, and the unconverted mind doesn't know or care about spiritual growth in Christ. This truth reaches out for us like a retooled Cartesian mantra - "I care what God thinks - therefore I am a Christian."
The mind that is only carnal does not know the desire to change and grow in relationship to God. It only knows darkness and dullness of hearing and isn't looking for real truth. (Romans 8:7) It doesn't know it has 'a ax-caent'! Paul reminds us that sometimes when we think we're really living we're actually on borrowed time. -- "Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died." (Roman 7:9) And at other times when we feel like we're dying our greatest growth and change is taking place. "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (Jn 12:24) Are you feeling your struggle? This crisis is actually one of the proofs that you in fact are in Christ. Keep fighting the good fight of faith and don't be discouraged when you realize how much of an accent you still have.
Steve Schantz, Senior Pastor
Rom 6:1
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (NIV)
This powerful suggestion for our times was printed on the outside label of a clear plastic container of absolutely beautiful strawberries.
They were well ripened giants out of Watsonville, Georgia and actually taste as good as they look.
Their containers must have been designed to cross our Northern border because the instruction was also scribed in French, "Laver Avant Usage".
You know, what we're supposed to do in the lavatory to remove the visible and especially the invisible dirt from our hands?
(From the 'er' infinitive tense of the French verb Laver, "to wash".)
My High School French teacher is somewhere smiling. After a delicate but thorough rinsing these berries were ready to enjoy.
And enjoy them we did until our fingers were stained red and we smiled in two languages.
Too many times we have trouble letting go of a paganized version of 'god' made famous by Greek mythology as well as the Gnostic movement which threatened the early church.
You know the type - those wizards of Oz pulling strings like a puppet master while remaining
emotionally detached from active care for creation. (Or actually angry with it most of the time!)
The unmoved mover some of our very finest and well respected Deist forefathers spoke of.
He really can't relate to those in the flesh and bone because it's evil and only the 'spirit' world can be good.
This god has become so 'other' to us, and his identity and desire for us so muddled in our thinking,
that it's not hard to remove him from life in the real world.
While we have memorized "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son"
with the same breath we wonder aloud, "But why did He start with 'people' anyway?"
When God reveals Himself to any of us there is something that happens in our conscience which we also become consciously aware of.
We experience a personal conviction. The Spirit who is God works on the human conscience to unveil
who and what our loving Father is like, through His Son, and by His Spirit.
Yes, He shows us our tenacious bent for self destructive thinking and acting, but even more importantly,
the God who has always loved us comes running out to meet us. He grants us repentance -a change of heart
and mind toward who He is and what we are here for.
Then He washes us up for use, (actually He did the washing a long time ago), but it is us that he uses!
The person he uses is still the human he created - an Adam or an Eve - only now lifted up into the life of the 2nd Adam.
What was very good in the early chapters of Genesis now becomes permanently good through the life, death,
and resurrection of the only one who is truly God and man.
God loves you. He loves and participates in and with His creation- you and I.
His only begotten and beloved son became God with us to help us understand the Father's love.
God is not some "anti-matter" being in the sky, aloof, distant, and wrathful.
He is like the Father of the prodigal son who runs to meet him in spite of his son's failure.
(Read Luke 15 again and see how this son is just discovering what his Dad is really like.
He doesn't quite know what to expect when He returns home!)
Like the Father of the prodigal, our Heavenly Father also beckons us to a well prepared feast.
First He washed us up. (And He did a better job of it than we ever could!).
Then He invites us to share life with him - unending! He enjoys living in and with His people.
This is not a God made with human hands, but He is the God who took them on, opposing thumb and all.
And He is the same one who made yours and mine. So enjoy a good bowl of strawberries.
(Of course you should wash them first!) Then share them with someone you love.
Steve Schantz, Senior Pastor
Share with God's people who are in need.
Practice hospitality. (Romans12:13) NIV
Small acts of kindness are remembered decades later because they affect who we are.
We are truly sorry for the grief and loss you are experiencing right now.
With love, as appreciative guests at the table,
In writing to four of my first cousins after the recent death of their mother,
I reflected on an act of hospitality that got me through the day and also shaped how I would view the world around me.
Below are excerpts from that letter to them...
Each of us is deeply indebted to those few people on earth we are able to call family.
They have helped mold us into the person we have become- kind or cruel, patient or demanding, pleasant or cantankerous.
The difference between finding our value within a community where each of us has something to contribute verses just passing
through as a consumer is planted deeply within us at an early age.
The meaning and character of our lives is shaped most noticeably by those closest to us who have gone before us.
From the treasure chest of cherished memories I hold of our family times together, one in particular had a profound impact on my life.
Somewhere between the 1st and 3rd grade of elementary school I decided that full time school was not in the cards for me.
Half day Kindergarten classes had been bearable.
Throw in a nap, a snack, a bus trip home, and a graduation ceremony with caps and diplomas and this school thing just may have possibilities!
But first grade at Lowville Academy and Central School meant the full day program. It began to grind on me, but I'd try to stick it out.
I'm not sure what kind of insecurities, internalized fears, classroom crowds, or the challenge of second grade math were working on me,
but it became obvious that it was not in my best interest to continue this five day a week full day program stuff.
It came as quite a shock that dropping out of elementary school was not an option!
At this crucial juncture in my formal education, I discovered that my cousins went home for lunch each day.
Home for them was just a few yards from the school yard. They could leave the "compound" every day at lunchtime,
duck under a fence at the back corner of the football field, and dine at home - with their Mother - every day!
Once this seven year old discovered that gig I was ducking under the fence right behind them.
Sometimes I would bring my lunch from home, other times I enjoyed a bologna or tuna fish sandwich, a few chips,
and a glass of milk your mother produced from the pantry at 111 Park Avenue.
It was much more than food - it was a taste of home and family and someone who cared about who you were - right smack in the middle of the day!
It was the joy of being a welcome guest at the table in an uncertain world.
It helped me decide that maybe I could get through this whole elementary school experience after all.
Who knows, I might even come to enjoy school- or life!
Can you ever really repay anyone for that kind of hospitality and love? I don't think so.
What I do know is that she was there for me, as she was there for each of you for so many years.
In one sense the kind of love she shared is a one way street, a fresh river flowing from a mountain spring.
It flows out in one direction and we join with it as we are carried along in a gentle current - abundant, unchanging, inexhaustible.
For those who know that love the joy is in the giving of it. It is a River of life.
May God comfort you in this time of painful loss and renew your hope for the family reunion that is yet to come.
I am so very thankful to have dined at your Mother's table, and to have enjoyed the fellowship of her company here on earth.
Let us anticipate with hope the banquet we will share together at the invitation of our Lord and King!
Steve & Carol
9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and werespected them for it.
How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best;
but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for
those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:9-11 NIV)
But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (John 12:32 NIV)
"What Happens In Vegas"
Rural Upstate New York can be a lot of fun in the winter.
Before snowmobiles came into the neighborhood our outdoor fun involved skating, sledding,
igloo building, and of course snow ball fights with siblings and neighbors.
When my little sister was all of seven and her brothers were 9 and 12,
we decided to put an early version of the current nationwide ad to the test.
Is it true that "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas?" Young inquiring minds had to know!
One evening after supper under the cover of darkness all three of us strayed from clearly laid out family values.
I'm not sure who threw the first snowball, (and as the oldest I don't really want to remember all those
details), but 'we' decided to hurl snowballs at passing cars from
the neighbors elevated yard across the road from our home.
Hearing a well packed projectile go thump on a passing windshield, roof, or
quarter panel was something we just couldn't get enough of! With each
resounding 'thud' we all giggled and did whatever the equivalent of a high
five was in the late '60's. Gravity and trajectory made up for muscle, and practice made perfect.
One unfortunate soul was bombarded on his trek both to and from the
nearby country store and decided to do something about it.
Our hearts sank as he turned into our driveway instead of the one closest to the
crime scene. Evidence of our marksmanship was still plastered on his
windshield. He stepped out of his car quickly, knocked on the door, and
had a short but meaningful conversation with my father.
We observed both gesture and body language from across the road,
and as the victim drove away our summons came.
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect as well as having my parents
misunderstood or misjudged, we received individual, timely, well placed,
corporal punishment. In two other words- It stung! My sister started
to cry while her brothers were still in therapy, so when her turn came
both of us spoke in her defense. "She can't really even pack a snow ball Dad",
we submitted to the high court of appeals. "Most of hers' fell a
few feet down the hill in the snow."
But alas, her intent was the same, and like all children she could get better at being bad if left to
practice. Her sentence was diminished, but a total pardon was not in her best interest.
The notion that we can do as we please and not experience separation and
pain from those we love has been around for a long time. An old lie is
still a lie - and believing it still yields the same results.
Distance from home only adds inertial weight to the mistake which finds its' destructive mark.
As children of our heavenly father we have believed lies about him that keep us running back
across the road into the far country.
Missing His mark in life means attempting to make our own in all the wrong places.
But He has reached farther than we can run. While we hope that the stupid things we've done
won't come back to haunt us, we have each experienced
enough of life to know that we reap what we sow. What goes up must come back down.
But we are put here to grow up into children of God weren't we?
Surely we all won't become a permanent version of every stupid thing we've
done! We're meant to see where we're headed and aim for plan and
action which does our neighbor good instead of harm.
The one who entered our life on this planet once for every season
and every man did so out of love for His creation and we are
lifted to a higher calling and higher reward in Him.
The one who came down for us was lifted back up with us in his arms.
His discipline is always filled with hope and not hatred, diligence and not damnation.
He knows the limits of our frame and counts the very hairs on our head.
Thanks Dad and Mom for helping us realize that what happens in Vegas
doesn't really stay there. Thank you also for teaching us that what
happened in our savior's life, death, and resurrection eclipses anything we
could mess up across the road, or at home.
Real Dads love forever.
Pastor Steve
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