Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)
¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Israel was in trouble with the Lord, and they didn’t even know it!  They were worshipping other gods and involved in the sinful cares of the world they lived in. The attitude of disobedience was dismissed and excused with an attitude of “I’m doing the best I can do, but I’m still OK with God!” This was a deception based upon Israel‘s perspective of their spiritual condition.  After calling them to repentance, our Lord instructs them to come closer to Him and “reason together.”  Reason is the Hebrew word, yākaḥ - (Strongs 3198) meaning, “causative to decide” or “to reason by conviction.” The word is not a weak appeal of the Lord to His people to obey Him, but a diligent call with a genuine free will opportunity to see the reality of their sin and solution in His salvation from God’s perspective!

Having the right biblical perspective in life help’s us stay in reality with God.  The biggest problem we face day to day is that we allow our perspectives, without God’s Word, to dictate our spiritual decisions and direction far too often.  Most of the time we can say that we are on target with our spiritual decisions, but we must be aware that we can be easily fooled with our tainted and selfish perspectives about where we are with God – primarily in a relationship with Him! Notice what is implied in the following passages that are from God’s perspective;

Luke 6:46-48 (ESV)
⁴⁶ “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,‘ and not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like

Titus 1:16 (ESV)
¹⁶ They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)
²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven

Did you see it?  The Lord says that some will say, profess or do something that implies they have a relationship with Him – from their perspective! Notice how reality crashes in when Jesus tells them the truth about His perspective of reality concerning a relationship with Him!  A real relationship with God always includes the two perspectives, but the validation of our relationship with Him is from God’s perspective alone!

Man seems to evaluate what God thinks through the lenses of his or her feelings, emotions, wrong teaching, deceptions, and/or wrong theology to ascertain his or her relationship with God - man’s perspective! God’s will and eternal attributes are revealed to man through His Holy Word – God’s perspective!

Having the right perspective of our relationship with God as professing Christians is of the greatest importance – if our Christian witness is to be effective! Let’s not be fooled any longer. Here are some questions for self-examination and review:

> How do you evaluate your relationship with God?

> Is your perspective developed around God’s perspective in His Word?

> Are you too easy on or not moved to godly sorrow over your sin and disobedience?  How do you justify that?

> Do you know what God’s perspective is about your life with Him?

As we move closer to the Lord’s coming again, I think we can clearly see the importance to live in God’s reality. Our Christian “reality check” is best understood in the Apostle John’s First letter;

1 John 3:18 (ESV)
¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Seeking Him and His Perspective – by His Grace,

Pastor Mark Hager

Fall is the season for great colors, beautiful weather and the Thanksgiving turkey dinner – wow, my favorite! We all love that great meal and spending time with the family, but two major obstacles stand in the way for having a great Thanksgiving season; Time and reflection.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and it seems like every year Thanksgiving is overlooked for the Christmas season. We never take the time to make Thanksgiving a real important time of the year. The culture wants to get on with it and move past Thanksgiving to get to “Black Friday” and all the Christmas sales. We see fall items in the store for a very brief time after the hard summer, but it doesn’t last long. Why? The world is missing something that we need to pay attention to – thankfulness! They are thankful for their comfort, stuff and prosperity, but we the “Children of God” are very different when it comes to thankfulness.

There are many reasons why we need to stop and carefully look at Thanksgiving as an important part of our Christian journey. It is truly a time of thankfulness. Thankfulness is not just a mechanical means of naming a list of things to be thankful for, but it really is an issue of the heart. The apostle Paul noted thankfulness as a priority of the Christian life,

1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 (ESV)
¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. ¹⁵ See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

He not only listed it among the proper responses and work of the Christian faith, he said it is the will of God to be thankful in all circumstances! Consider this; thankfulness is only possible because it comes from the heart of the believer who is filled with the wonderful Spirit of God! We not only should be thankful, but we can be thankful! We not only will be thankful, but we are thankful! Saint Paul also said that God’s master plan for our life is working out the details of every circumstance for our good. He links our responsibility to be thankful with the reason we can be thankful in every circumstance in Romans 8:28.

Romans 8:28(NLT)
²⁸ And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Now we know why he said to be thankful in all circumstances! We can be thankful because every circumstance of life, every pain and challenge we face, every trial and tribulation we are subjected to is just a stepping stone in our life to produce something good in us and through us for God’s magnificent glory.

You and I don’t want to miss even one small piece of the Puzzle, or a circumstance we face, that makes the picture of our life clear in the end – that we live & love like Jesus! Now that’s something to be thankful for! My prayer for you is that you make Thanksgiving more than just a stop over to Christmas. Reflect on all the circumstances you faced this year and truly be thankful from your heart. Our great God is perfect in every way, and He always molds those circumstances into something that will ultimately make us more like Jesus! Aren’t you truly thankful?

Pastor Mark Hager

Christianity is defined in many ways, but the very statement implies that we are followers and emulators of “Christ the Lord.” Back in the day the word “Christian” had strong biblical and objective meaning, but today everybody uses the name Christian. Cults call themselves Christians. American’s call themselves Christian. Even common nominal church-goers call themselves Christian. The word Christian has been reduced to anyone who associates themselves with any kind of faith and values. The word Christian is even misused in counseling to communicate a model of counseling that uses biblical principles, yet in reality it just becomes another place for “nice people” to use secular therapeutic methods of solving problems – sometimes stamped with a Scripture or two.   The word Christian (in definition) has digressed simply to mean “a people who say they identify themselves with Christ.” (Matt.7:21)  The problem with this, seemingly appropriate Christian definition is that it is absent of a people that God identifies Himself with!”  Another writer puts it this way: “I know you say that you know God, but does God know you?”  To be a true Christian is to live and love as Christ did, while being unspotted by this world. (James 1:27b, 4:4)

One sure way of separating the nominal Christian from a true born-again regenerated child of God is connecting prayer.  The Apostle Paul said for the true Saint to “pray without ceasing,” – that is connecting prayer! (1Thess.5:17)  Don’t misunderstand. Connecting prayer is not praying on your knees 24/7 like the monks of old. It is to have such a communion with God that you are walking or living everyday in the spirit and attitude of prayer.  You are connected by your deliberate thoughts, words and actions for Christ. He is so important that every circumstance and moment is in someway connecting you to God.  It is a natural process of prayer when God knows you and you are in tune with the Heavenly Father.  A.W. Tozer said that real prayer comes from our inner desire to want God and His Word.  It is not a laborious task as some treat it, but an ongoing communion with our Lord out of our deep desire to know Him. That is exactly what the Hebrew writer meant when he said, “therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb.4:16)  Tozer said that praying like this is like stepping on the glittering pavement of heaven and standing at the foot of the throne of God at each prayer! There is nothing like connecting prayer – “to pray without ceasing!”

How’s your prayer life?  When did you pray out of a desire for God and His Word?  Only heaven knows what is missing in our life because of weak prayer!  This is what will be a turning point for you: A prayer life flowing out of a desire for God that simple words cannot explain, while the fruit and evidence of connecting prayer in your life needs no explanation.

All for Jesus,

Pastor Mark

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) 
(5)Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 
(6) Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

I have been thinking about the day to day peace of trusting in Jesus Christ.  It is something that many would say is a “given” and everybody who calls themselves a Christian trust in Jesus Christ – don’t they?  Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most folks are passionate about the concept of trusting Jesus, but rarely understand the deep practical implications of that great spiritual truth.

Recently, I sold my home in St. Louis and because of the housing market; I lost all my equity and profit in the sale. Besides all the costs in selling the house and all the aggravation jumping through the hoops of inspectors, agents, and mounds of paperwork, I sold the home.  In the almost four-hour ride home, I realized a very important principle of trusting in Jesus Christ that took me way beyond the concept and brought the truth of that statement to me in a very practical way – trusting is acknowledging that God has the sovereign right to use the outcome for His glory!  At that moment, knowing that Christ is so real that He is involved and interested in the details of my life brought me peace and contentment.

Little Mark (better known as Markie to us) had a similar encounter with trusting Jesus Christ.  He auditions for a place on a traveling singing team that is known at Liberty University for their great entertainment in Christian music, which also provides some scholarship money to those chosen for the team. Little did Mark know that the team was already decided before the audition. He faithfully played his piano and sang as scheduled finding out real soon that he was deceived in the process.  He was really hurt and I had the opportunity to explain to him the practical truth of trusting in Jesus Christ.

The principle in a nut shell is this; 1 Corinthians 10:31 says that whatever we do, we give God our best for His glory (my paraphrased summary of that passage).  We play hard, we work hard, we give one hundred percent at what we do and then WE LEAVE THE RESULTS TO GOD.  Can you see the peace in that?  Our peace is in the trust of God.  We will never have inner peace outside of this trust.  If we fail to trust God in our daily life we only produce fear, anxiety, and anger in our life (Jer.17:5).  We are to do our part for His glory and rest in God’s work with the results!  Trusting is living in the outcome with great expectation that God is divine and has a good plan to use us if we let Him.  Wow, that’s real living!  We never have to worry about making something happen.  We simply obey God in excellence and trust the Lord to work out the details in the results that He will use for His glory.  If we are chosen – fine and if we are passed over it is fine as well, because God always has the last say for His people.   

It wasn’t even a month later that Markie was eagerly selected for another singing team at Liberty.  Only this time it was a music ministry focused on discipleship and evangelism which is at the core of Mark’s heart.  God is good!  It doesn’t matter if we are buying or selling a home, auditioning for a place on the team or just living day to day, we who know Christ have the privilege of trusting Jesus Christ to produce the results for His glory.  What a great peace we can have!

August 10

John 16:23-24 (NLT): 23 At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. 24 You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy. 

Jesus was preparing the disciples for the time of His human absence, as well as revealing the great supernatural opportunities of the coming Holy Spirit. It’s not something that they immediately understood, nor did they always grasp the great depths of what our Lord was talking about, but the Holy Spirit was coming for them and us none the less. Take a look at that passage again and notice that Jesus used the word “ask” three times. Asking is essential to prayer and asking in Jesus Name makes what we ask for critically important. The questions people ask have more spiritual validity than answers they give. I usually say it this way, “the questions people ask reveals more about where a person is spiritually than the answers they give.  Answers are important, but questions usually are deeper in thought than canned or rote answers provided. Jesus said “ask” and that has some great spiritual implications for what we ask for. 

A good example would be when our children speak of “Christian things or ideas,” much of the time they really only mimic religious truths they memorized or learned in a church class. The answers sometimes come from the parent’s faith alone.  But in contrast, when they ask questions about their faith in God or want to sincerely find out a particular biblical principle of life, you can rest assure that something supernaturally is happening in their heart. A real glimpse of their “heart condition” is revealed if you pay attention and listen. The questions they ask can be part of the true assessment we can make of their belief system (heart) so we can minister effectively to them.   

Likewise, our hearts are an open book to God and our spiritual condition is exposed by what we ask for. The truth is that we just don’t completely understand the real life waiting for us by the presence of the Holy Spirit, so we end up asking for things that are not in our best interest – from God’s perspective!   The Holy Spirit life is not only supernaturally focused, but He is only available to those who belong to God and ask the Father in Jesus name. The questions we ask are critically important to God because Jesus said in verse 24, (my paraphrase), that you won’t be asking the same simple  questions any longer when you understand who is coming in power (the Holy Spirit).  We must pray in that venue! We must ask according to Jesus’ values and principles!  We must ask the right questions to God, namely, a selfless Christ-centered prayer request that connects us to the Holy Spirit life God promised.

We have some real challenges ahead of us at Kirksville Nazarene concerning our new ministry year. Momentum is realized when we are connected together by Holy Spirit living. Holy Spirit living includes asking these questions: Will we give sacrificially, will we serve selflessly, will we invite and share with our neighbors redemptively, and will we stay connected and focused biblically?  If we do, we will share in the abundant joy our Lord promised. 

How about you? What questions are you asking God and what will they reveal about your spiritual condition?  Let’s pray more, study more, forgive more, serve more, give more, and love more than we have ever done before. Now that’s Holy Spirit living!

July 28

1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV): For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

There is no better place to start our weekly devotions together than at the foot of the Cross. The gospel is more than a concept to those who are “being saved” – it is the very power of God!  Think about it.  Everything we are and hope to have is birthed from the very core of the cross. His death – His burial – His resurrection!  Wow! All of that power is transcendent by means of God the Holy Spirit, and is our promise to utilize in a real practical way – right now! It means that we are His and we can live in total moral and spiritual victory now – today!  Some think the cross is foolishness because they are temporal minded and live by their feelings with no real hope. For others, they see the cross as a religious relict that is only there to comfort them and secure their future within their man-centered “Christian” world. But those who really understand the power of God in the cross know that it is the reality of our spiritual victory experienced by living for God in true faith and obedience. It is making a difference in our lives! Thank you Lord for our daily victory that is in Jesus Christ!  

This week is VBS week and we want the power of the cross to invade every part of our ministry to the children. Will you pray for the children and the volunteers this week? We are making a difference because of what the cross did in us and through us for His glory.  This week – begin reflecting on the power of God that is available to you.  What does that mean to you in a real practical way and how are you living that out?

All for the Creator,

Pastor Mark