And the object of that love is you!

“Was everyone kind? Nice? Respectful? Because you’re going to be paying for it and we want to make sure you get your money’s worth!”  That’s what the customer serve representative said as I was checking my son out of the hospital.  I understand she was just doing the quality control thing but I think she probably got off script a bit! Should we really expect people to be kind, nice and respectful just because we are paying for it? What happened to being kind and respectful because of love?

I think what has happened is that we have gotten way off course on our understanding of what love is all about. There seems to be this idea that we love only if we get some sort of payment in return. It’s an “I’ll love you if you do something for me” kind of world. Even among Christians. But that isn’t love as God has given it us! He doesn’t love us in exchange for something else. He doesn’t give us that “I’m going to love you if you do these 10 things (or 20 or 100).” God loves because it is his nature to love. I JN 4:8 reminds us that “God is love”. It’s who he is. And the object of that love is you.

Today you will have the opportunity to love. It is so easy for us, all of us, to let our selfishness or our desire to be right get in the way of loving people. Don’t let anything stand in the way of that love!

I JN 4:7-9 - ⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (esv)

Destructive Grace

Grace is so very destructive. It’s dangerous. It’s beautiful. It heals and it tears down.

Certainly there have been days, perhaps years, when I didn’t welcome grace. I didn’t want the Holy Spirit to come and tear apart my carefully constructed idols… idols I had put together over the years as substitutes for dependence on God.  Thankfully, God is a jealous God and will not long share space in our soul with our idols. Our idols allow us to con ourselves into self-righteousness because when our idols work for us we imagine, perhaps sub-consciously, that we really don’t need God, that we can be righteous all be our self.

Ambushed by grace, our self-righteousness is slowly but surely assaulted by the Holy Spirit until it crumbles under the weight of God’s love. First we fight it. We don’t want that grace. It tears apart all of our defenses. It destroys all of our god-substitutes.  Then either our heart grows harder or we begin to welcome the destructive power of grace. The Holy Spirit clears out our idols.  And as painful as that may be, it’s the best thing that can happen to us! When that grace fueled, love lavished destruction of our idols happens, then and only then do we begin to experience the unfathomable depths of the joy God has in store for his sons and daughters.

I fought him too long! I might fight him again tomorrow but if I do, I welcome his beautiful destructive grace! Quit fighting the Holy Spirit and his grace! Give in and experience his boundless joy.   

 

Anchored in Grace,
Harrison

A temporary nest - August 2013

The Carolina Wren is a small bird, barely 4 inches from beak to tip of the tail. They are a golden brown with inquisitive eyes. I was reading outside our camper when one of these little beauties landed on the shoulder of my chair. I had been watching the pair of them much of the morning. The industrious Wrens had been flying back and forth building their home. I admired their creativity but they were building this nest in my plastic basket full of beach towels. In and out, they wove their bits of leaf and stick and fur. They had the beginnings of a nice little cup of a nest resting among the towels. But we needed those towels and finally had to take away their home. In reality the nest would have been temporary at best. A plastic basket of towels sitting outside a camper is not a place to lay eggs and raise offspring! So, with a bit of guilt, we removed the towels from the basket, threw them in a chair and put the basket inside the camper. That should be the end of that right?

As I sat back in my camp chair, the wren came and sat behind me on the shoulder of my chair. He had a bit of blue thread in his beak. And he was looking for his home. This wren was 6 inches from my right eye and giving me a look that said, “ok, home wrecker, where is it? Where is my nest?”  Then he moved to the arm of the chair, right by my elbow and continued to look for the home he had built. Hopping from my chair to the table to another camp chair, my friend the Carolina Wren decided to start anew. Soon he was building a second nest – in the folded beach towels I had tossed in a camp chair. Silly bird.

My dear beautiful wren, why do you insist on building a home on things that are temporary? And why do I do the same thing?

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (MT6:19-21, ESV)

Justice and Mercy - March 2012

I recently heard the following story (which might or might not be true!).  A woman who was called to jury duty told the presiding judge that she was not qualified to serve because she did not believe in capital punishment. The judge said, 'You don't understand, madam. This is a civil case involving a man who spent five thousand dollars of his wife's money on gambling and other women.' To which the woman replied eagerly, 'I'll be happy to serve, your honor, and I've changed my mind about capital punishment.' 

 Now surely if the shoe had been on the other foot, the woman would have been crying for mercy rather than justice!  That’s how it goes though isn’t it?  We want justice for our enemies and mercy for ourselves!  Is it possible to have both mercy and justice with the same offense?  Not only is it possible but when God is dealing with his children, we find that mercy and justice are actually inseparable – they always go together.  The rest of that story is coming on Sunday morning at Grace Community Church. 

In the meantime, remember to invest yourselves in the life of someone else – a neighbor, co-worker or client.  As God has loved us, so we get to love one another.

 Gripped by Grace,

 Harrison Spitler, Pastor

Disconnected Phones - May 2011

The phone call wasn’t that important.  I wasn’t talking to someone in a major crisis or leading someone to Christ over the phone or even planning a very important meeting.  The fact is that I was just checking my voicemail!  But it was while I was checking the voicemail that the line went dead…  first there were the warning beeps.  You know the sound…you get a strange beep (sounds more like a boype than a beep) and then another and then they begin to speed up…  beep-----beep----beep--beep-beep-----------------nothing!  Suddenly, my phone was dead!  Dead, dead, dead!  If you tried to call and I didn’t get it, please forgive me but don’t blame it on the phone – blame it on the owner of the phone who forgot to plug it in to charge the battery!

Sometimes our spiritual lives are like my phone.  We feel like we are losing a connection to God and might even hear or experience warning signs that we are wandering away from God.  In John 15, Jesus encourages us strongly to “abide in Christ.”  Abiding in Christ is kind of like “plugging into” Christ all of the time.  It involves spending some time in the Bible daily, spending time in prayer as a way of life, worshipping with other Christians weekly and submitting our will to the will of God.  

The summer is coming on fast and the distractions will be constant.  Don’t let the distractions pull you away from abiding in Christ.  The distractions come and go but Christ will be with you forever – abide with him now, enjoy him now!

 Abiding with you in the Risen Lamb,

Harrison Spitler, Pastor

Best of Times, Worst of Times - January 2012

Dear Grace Family,

Charles Dickens penned the famous line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  As we open up Romans 3:9-31, you will begin by thinking that this is pretty rough stuff.  Indeed Paul does paint an ugly picture in the first few verses.  If you stop reading there, then you will go away with only half of the picture – the half referred to as “the worst of times.”  But read on!  Quickly you come to the other half of the picture known as “the best of times.”  That’s the part where see Christ stepping into our shoes and taking our pain.  Our sin really is woefully ugly – even hideous.  We are all much worse than we might realize.  BUT the good news is that God’s grace is much, much greater than we can ever imagine!  The worst of times is followed and even overridden by the best!

Most of us have grown up through life getting only half of that picture.  We are either too awful for Christ to redeem or perhaps our sin is of no great consequence and so we really don’t need that much of Christ.  We can get by with just a little of God.  The truth, according to God and as recorded by Paul, is that we are beyond help of any kind unless God intervenes with a final sacrifice.  Praise God for the sacrifice of His Son, our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

On another note:  don’t forget to Invest-n-Invite.  The days leading up to Palm Sunday and Easter  find people exploring spiritual matters.  Take advantage of this to invest your life in theirs by building relationships of open grace and Christ-like love.  That investment is one that pays eternal dividends.  I have been excited to see this happening at Grace Community Church and then to see you Invite new friends to Community Groups, Crazy 8 dinners and Worship.  Lives are being transformed as God works through you!

 I look forward to worshipping our God with you on Sunday.

Yours in the Risen Lamb,

 

Harrison Spitler, Pastor

Foolish Facades - August 2006

Dear Grace Family and Friends,

            Have you ever noticed a movie set?  Or perhaps the set of TV drama?  If you could manage to get behind the scenes you would see that all of the pretty walls and elegant furnishings are just a façade – an expensive façade but still just a façade.  There is no substance!  Knock on the door all you want but no one is home!  Much money is spent building the set to give the audience the impression of reality… a Happy Days reality or a Friends reality or Leave it to Beaver reality or Sex in The City reality.  But it’s all a fake!!!  None of it is real!

One of the saddest realities I see is that you and I often build our lives just like MGM or Disney builds a set.  We determine what people want to see.  We dream it up big!  Then we invest an awful lot of thought, creativity, time, energy and money building up a façade to match.  WHY?  Are we afraid of the repercussions of being real?  Perhaps we are and perhaps we have good reason to know that fear.  The truth is that few people ever know that safe place where they can be who they really are.  They don’t trust the safe God and they don’t know any safe people and have never experienced a safe place. 

In Genesis we see the façade building business beginning.  Eve wants to be like God and Adam is silent on the issue.  God comes looking for them and instead of stepping forward they both duck behind their favorite bush – the “we’re hiding because we sinned and maybe you don’t know it yet-bush.”  Adam and Eve had built the first façade.  The bush represented their denial and hiding and was brought on by their shameful action.  Because of Adam and Eve’s little fruit incident, we don’t live as God intended us to live but rather live “broken”.  Being broken, we attempt to “fix” ourselves and each other by building these ridiculous façades.

Through Jesus Christ, what is broken will be restored.  As people restored by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ, we can live in freedom and joy without having to hide in broken bushes.  We can get away from the business of building façades and get about the business of heavenly joy that is known only as we give into God’s unfathomable grace.  Are you ready to give in?  Are you ready to tear down your façade?     It might be painful for a short while but ultimately the joy of God’s grace will prevail and you will know intimately the sound of his voice as he whispers in your ear, “You are mine and I rejoice over you.”

 

Praying that God will make us a safe people,
Praying that God will make us a safe church,
Praying that you and I will intimately know the reality of God’s Beautiful Grace, 
Praying that you and I will lay down our façades and trust Jesus,

Living in Grace,

Harrison Spitler, Pastor

Grace Anchors - May 2012

Dear Grace Family,

I remember fishing at the old farm pond with my Daddy.  I was about 5 and I followed him in the way he fished or walked or even the way he yawned.  I tried to imitate everything he did.  When we were out in that little boat at the farm that day, I caught one that bent that old cane pole almost to the water.  This fish was so big I knew I wasn’t going to pull it in.  I had to have help!  My daddy came up behind me, wrapped his arms around me from behind and got a grip on the pole!  While I nearly hyperventilated from excitement my daddy and Uncle Dan pulled in the biggest fish to ever come out of that scum covered pond!  It had to be at least a 20 pounder!   Only this fish wasn’t a fish...it was an old Maxwell House coffee can full of concrete with a rope attached to it. The other end of the rope was attached to the boat.  I had caught a big one!  A great big concrete boat anchor!  My dad showed me the boat anchor, wrapped his arms around me and threw it back in the pond.

In Matthew 4, Jesus calls out to Peter, a fisherman, and says, “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.”  Later, in John 21, Peter gets his eyes off of following Jesus and becomes more concerned about other lesser things in life.  Jesus’ response is firm.  Basically he tells Peter to quit worrying about those other things, you follow me!  Life is full of exciting distractions that can seem important at the time but are really just concrete boat anchors.  The anchors drag you down and turn an otherwise great day into anxious discouragement.  The anchors can turn a joyful life of “fishing for men” and leave you wondering what happened to your well planned life!  What do you do then?  God gives us at least two answers… first, he reminds us to follow. Just follow…  follow Jesus Christ.  Fix your eyes on Jesus and follow him.  Second, as we will see from Romans 8 on Sunday morning, God has given us the Holy Spirit who remains with us to help us to follow. 

Sometimes what we spend our time on isn’t an exciting big fish at all but just a heavy, worthless anchor.  Follow Christ and he will show you the difference.  Life is so very, very short.  By God’s grace, follow Jesus Christ and love well.

 In the Grip of Grace,

Harrison Spitler, Pastor

Dare to Fail! - August 2013

           Summer is drawing to a close.  Swimming and water skiing will soon give way to football and falling leaves.  As a kid this time of year always brought a flurry of last minute skiing.  We had to get in all we could before the water turned cold and the boat went away for the winter.  Early mornings and late afternoons found us at a nearby slalom course.  The yellow buoys were lined up on both sides and we felt the rush of adrenalin as the boat aimed for the lane that would put the skier on the course.  There was always the dare from your best friend to use a shorter rope and to go through the buoys just a little faster.  No turning back.  The boat lined up, you took a deep breath and with the pleasure of rushing wind and spray in your face, you moved out to the right.  Going around the first buoy was easy but getting across the wake and around the second was tougher.  The falls generally came as I aimed for the 4^th or 5^th.

But the falling never brought anguish or frustration.  Our reaction was laughter and joking and that good feeling that comes when you know you succeeded a little more than last time.  Growth.  Strength.  Good friends and laughter.  The course was risky but it was so very good!

You see, we knew that in skiing, falling wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Only those that fall succeed.  You aim for the buoy.  You are stretched out at the end of the rope, almost parallel to the water, until your elbow skims the surface… and then you fall!  It’s okay because you know you just got a little stronger – a little better – a little closer to the goal.   The point is that only those that fall succeed b/c only those that fall risk leaving the comfort zone of mediocrity to become the strongest skier they can be.  If we fail to risk, we have fallen already and have no opportunity for growth at all.

With Christ, it isn’t falling that ultimately brings us closer but it is being broken.  We can surround ourselves in layers of cultural and legalistic self righteous comfort and never draw close to God…or we can run to him and bow before him!  Running to God can seem risky.  God is big.  God is holy.  But God invites us to run to him and abide there.  He takes us and makes us and breaks us where we need to be broken.  He peels the layers of insulation from our hearts like a farmer peeling the shucks back from an ear of corn.  He sands off the rough spots until he has what he wants.  That sanding and shucking and breaking hurts but the result is that we are closer to the Father.  Like the skier that swallows a gallon of water but knows that he is stronger, so the person who risks everything by drawing near to God is also stronger. 

Do you want to grow stronger in your faith?  Draw near to God.  It’s risky but it’s good.

Drawing near with you,

            Harrison Spitler, Pastor

Elevator Grace - September 2008

           Have you ever noticed the rules of the elevator?  There is the “face the front” rule and the “fold your hands in front” rule but the one that intrigues me the most is the “don’t talk to anyone about anything” rule.   That one is unbreakable!  What is going on there?   Are we afraid of the repercussions?  People were created for community yet we hide from each other!  In elevators, neighborhoods and even in our homes. 

There still remains a longing in our heart to live as we were created.  Starbucks sees it.  Have you ever noticed that Starbucks doesn’t advertise their coffee as much as they sell the “Starbucks Experience”.  Starbucks knows that people are longing for community and their coffee (good as it is) is really just a part of that community building process. 

In Genesis we see that it is not good for man to be alone.  Now surely God is talking primarily about man and his relationship with a woman but the principle is still there!  It is not good for man to be alone and God created people to be with each other.  God sees it.   Even Starbucks sees it.  Why do we keep fighting it?  Why do we fight living in community with each other?  The reason is that we are broken people.  Because of Adam and Eve’s little fruit incident, we don’t live as God intended us to live but rather live “broken”. 

Through Jesus Christ, what is broken will be restored.  As people restored by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ, we can live in freedom and joy without having to hide in broken bushes.  Next time you are in the elevator, exercise your freedom, build a community of grace, say “hello”.     

On second thought, don’t wait for the elevator, quit hiding in your house and build an authentic Christian Community of Grace right where you live.  Enjoy it!  Its how God made you to really live.

 Living in Grace,

 

Harrison Spitler, Pastor

Freedom - September 2008

December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks sat down near the front of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  The law said she had to sit in the back because she was “colored.”  The white man told her to move.  She said, “no.”  She said she wasn’t too tired to move, just “tired of giving in.”  Mrs. Parks knew that Christ had given her freedom and she was tired of man taking it away.  Persecution followed her throughout the city…the cost of her stand for freedom was high and she finally left her home for a friendlier place.  With her family she left Montgomery and moved to Detroit where she died in 2006.  The segregation still goes on.  Why?  Freedom came at a cost. 

            October 31, 1517, Martin Luther was tired.  Luther was tired of the abuses the Roman Church was hurling at the people across Europe.  The people were afraid of an angry God represented by an angry and abusive church.  The church forced people to buy pieces of paper that would guarantee forgiveness of sins.  Such “indulgences” were even available for sins planned but yet to be committed.  On that day, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the chapel door at Wittenburg and persecution followed him to inquisition where he stood and said, “here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.”  With that stand freedom became unstoppable.  Yet people still believe they can buy favor with God by being good and doing the right things.  Why?  Why do we do favors for God and then pretend he owes us favors in return.  We all do it.  Lord help us to stand in Christ alone!!!  He has helped us by freeing us from religion and bondage but that freedom came at a cost.

            Sometime in 4 B.C. a baby was born of a virgin.  33 years later he was killed. Galatians 5:1 tells us that “it was for freedom that Christ has already set us free.”  The passage goes on and tells us to not allow ourselves to be bound again by a yoke of slavery.  Live in the freedom Christ has given you!  He has given us the freedom of sons and daughters of the King so quit sitting in the spiritual ‘back of the bus’.  He has given us the freedom to approach the throne of grace with freedom and confidence so quit shirking back from the “throne of GRACE” (Ephesians 1).  He has given us freedom to worship and love and live in joy.  This Sunday we look at John 12:23-26 and find the freedom he has given us.  If Jesus has already died for us, then what death is left for us to die?  If we are to “follow him” then where is freedom?  Hope to see you on Sunday as we look at the “Paradox of Life from Death.”

 

Yours in the Lamb,

Harrison Spitler, Pastor

So Very Rich - September 2007

 Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. ¹⁸ Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. ¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. ²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. ²¹ Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. ²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. ²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

The Apostle Paul was a real person living with real people.  Real people just like us. He knew the hardness and shallowness of our hearts. He knew that we would be shallow and hard in our relationships with each other because we are that way with God.  Paul knew the remedy for the disease of our souls.   He tells us to LET the word of Christ dwell in us.  Typically we fight letting God’s word dwell in us.  We often don’t want the word of Christ to dwell in us because we know that if it does our own selfish passions get shoved aside.  When something dwells in a place then other competing things have to leave.  Last week we saw the Apostle John writing that the WORD of God was with God and was God and was Jesus Christ himself.(JN 1:1)  When Christ dwells in us and makes his word come alive in us then the power of a new affection takes hold in our soul and drives out competing affections.  How often have you wished you would somehow be able to love those that seem unlovable?  (BTW, we often are those unlovable people!)  How often have you thought that you just want to love God more?  Then let his word dwell in you!

Not only does God desire that we let his word dwell in us but that we let it dwell in us richly.  With this addition (richly) we find that the word of Christ dwelling in us is not mere academia or memorization but a rich and alive abiding of Jesus Christ and his beautiful words of redemption and forgiveness.  With this richness we experience more than just a religion.  With the word of Christ dwelling richly we experience Jesus Christ himself! 

That experience will sometimes resemble a marriage.  There will be days when it is exciting and you feel as though the sun is shining just for you.  Other days, there will be no fireworks and a faithful, selfless love seems distant.  In all of those days though, Jesus Christ has promised to dwell in you.  He is faithful even when we aren’t.  Jesus knows that we need to let his word dwell in us richly, fully, if we are to walk close to him and experience the joy of being a Christian. 

The rest of the passage is also quoted above.  In it you note that the rich dwelling of the word of Christ results in songs of praise and words of rich beauty in relationship with other Christians.  We live in relationship because that’s where we were designed to live.  For those relationships to also be rich, we must also live with, dwell in, Jesus Christ. 

We are designed to dwell with Christ.  Let his word dwell with you.  Experience Jesus.  

Pursuing Jesus with You!

Harrison Spitler, Pastor