City of Refuge Fellowship

We have set aside every Tuesday as a day of prayer for our National leaders: President Obama, the Senate and the Congress. Each week we present a specific focus, birthed from Scripture, that we can agree and pray together.

This week we pray that

Our National Leaders will trust in the Lord with all their hearts, and lean not on their own understanding; in all their ways acknowledge God, and He shall direct their paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules the people groan. Proverbs 29:2

Therefore, I will exhort that first of all supplication, prayers, intercessions, and giving thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.  I Timothy 2:1-3

There has been a recent uprising of enemy activity in our community. In the last few weeks we have seen violence increase: a large public fight of teenagers with three being arrested; the beating and carjacking of a delivery driver and more visible gang activity. We have seen an increase in demonic activity and witchcraft in the form of a new psychic at a very strategic spot entering the city and the approval of another “mystic” shop on one of the main thoroughfares. At the same time we have begun to see an increase in agendas and influences that are clearly not from the heart or mind of God, in fact, most of these plans are completely Godless and bold about being so. This increase has brought us to a place of asking “what should we do?” This question is not asked in desperation or fear but rather in preparation and confidence. Isaiah 59:19 is meant to give us great courage, hope, boldness and confidence: “When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”

I know that God is calling us to action, to boldness and to an increased intensity in intercession and in deed. As I have been praying about this my mind was taken to Jehoshaphat and Saul. The thought that I want to share today is that Saul was a man of activity, Jehoshaphat was a man of action. I believe it is important to know the difference because the victory is not won by simply being active, it is won by those who will live and fight and serve with obedient action.

As the king of Israel Saul was very active. He was always doing. He fought battles, sent others out to fight, he did mighty deeds and won the affection of the people. It was that very affection that cost him the kingdom that God had given him. We find that Saul was not willing to wait for Samuel. The Philistines gathered together to fight against Israel and all of Israel trembled in fear. Saul was told by the prophet Samuel to wait for him, that he would come to Gilgal in seven days and make a sacrifice. Saul waited with all the fearful people, trembling and hiding. After seven days Samuel was not there, Saul could not wait any longer, he was the king, he had to do something, the people expected him to do something. Saul made the sacrifice that only Samuel was called to make. Saul’s activity cost him the kingdom, cost him his calling. He was not willing to wait for God to be obedient to his calling and God’s purpose. He felt it was more important to be seen doing something than to wait because God had commanded Him.

When Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah all the people of Ammon, Moab and other places gathered together to wage war against them. When Jehoshaphat found out he was afraid and did not know what to do. He called all the people together to fast and pray. At this time he led the nation in prayer, at the end of his prayer he said, “For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.” From that prayer God spoke to the nation through a prophet. God told them “You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah, and Jerusalem! Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.” I am not sure this is the answer they had hoped for. Yes, God had promised that He would give them a victory but He had also commanded them to go out to battle. They were afraid because they didn’t want to go to battle, now God tells them to do the very thing that they feared. The next morning they did just as they had commanded. In fact, in an act of faith and obedience, Jehoshaphat ordered that the singers should go out in front of the army, they should lead the way and as the nation marched out, to war mind you, they were led not by shields and spears but by a song, “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.” Consider the sight, imagine it for a moment. They march to battle not with war cries that entail their great training, their massive weapons, their multitude that can overcome the enemy, they march singing, believing that their action is of obedience and God’s promise is of victory.

When the army of Judah, being led by the singers arrived at the place of battle, at a spot that overlooked the wilderness, they looked down expecting to see who they would be fighting and instead they saw “dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.” They did not win the victory, God had won it for them. We must stop trying to win victories that we are not capable of winning and start trusting God to win them on our behalf. We only get to partake in His victories when we are willing to follow Him with obedient action.

In our community today our prayer must increase, our influence must increase, our urgency must increase, but all of it can only increase in obedience or else it will bear no fruit. Activity is not the answer, in the kingdom of God we should never be found crying out “just do something”, we must be willing listeners, followers and observers. We have to hear God’s will and heart for every situation. We must be willing to do whatever He desires no matter how it looks, what it costs or what others say about it. And finally we must be willing to watch God win victories that bring glory to Him and Him alone. Judah did not become known as a nation of great warriors that day, they became known as a nation possessed by a great God. That is all I want to be, that is all I want my family and church to be, that is all I want Burlington to be. It doesn’t need the reputation of a great community, it needs the reputation of a community possessed by a great God, a God of action!

Written on April 20th.

Today is the 10th anniversary of the school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. This is one of those dates that is both near and far in my mind. On one hand it seems like more than a lifetime ago. A lot happens in ten years doesn’t it? Ten years ago I had no children, I now have two with me and one in heaven. I was in my mid-20’s trying desperately to prove that I could be all that God had called me to be and at times, in my own youthful, stubborn way believed that I had already become all those things. I am now in my mid-30’s, still desperate to be all that God created me to be but I have come to know that there is still much work to be done in me so that there can be more work done through me. Ten years ago I was nearing the end of a five year season as an assistant pastor. I was absolutely sure I was ready for more; more responsibility, more freedom, more of everything. I am now a pastor, and after almost nine years of pastoring I know more than ever that “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

While ten years changes so much and while the events of April 20, 1999 seem very far away most days they are also very near. I don’t want to write anything that would take any of the attention or affection away from those that suffered that day and continue to suffer because of that day, but the events of Columbine are a marking point in my life. I had grown up hearing people talk about where they were the moment they heard the news that President Kennedy was assassinated. My generation was forever changed by September 11, 2001; I was changed by Columbine. I can’t explain why, I have no great explanation as to how it affected me but I can share this: as I watched the news, as I saw the parents waiting, franticly waiting, as I saw students being rescued and police bravely entering what could have been their own place of death I began to pray. For the first time in my life, I prayed for a situation that truthfully, didn’t affect me. Believe me, I had prayed plenty in my life, I believed in prayer, I practiced prayer, I taught prayer, but something different happened that day. I watched and I wept, I cried and I prayed, I called out to God, my heart broke even though I personally lost no one and yet I believe we all lost someone that day. I honestly believe that that day God taught me what it was like to be an intercessor, that He showed me a glimpse of what Jesus does at His right hand every moment of every day and of what the Body of Christ has the power and the opportunity to be.

As I wrote earlier since that day much has changed and yet this has remained the same, I am called to pray. I am called not just to have a quick word to make sure that I am covered. I am not called to simply give thanks for my meals or to pray for the safety of the ones that I love, I am called to pray. I have the ability, we all have the ability, to be led by the Spirit of God and to pray fervently for anyone at any time in any place. Just under 2 ½ years after Columbine the ministry of intercession was presented to us all yet again. As we watched the planes hit the towers in New York City we all began to pray. We prayed for anything and anyone we could think of. I remember vividly that night as our church gathered in a home together, we laid on the floor and cried out to God for mercy, for salvation, for last breathe opportunities, for healing, and even for resurrections. As a nation we prayed because again, we were all moved, we all felt as if we were losing someone.

Columbine has many legacies for many different people. Just the name brings up emotions. I am no different from anyone else, it has a legacy for me as well. Columbine’s legacy in my life is intercession. Ten years ago today I wept for lost souls, I pleaded for final opportunities, I cried out for the broken and asked for peace, for songs of deliverance, for hiding places that only come from God. I want to be very careful and share that I am not thankful for the events of that day but I am thankful for what God has done in my life. He has taught me that prayer knows no time, no boundaries, no distance, no language, no division. He has taught me to pray according to His grace and His power and not according to my feelings or my involvement. He has given me opportunities to pray for people every day that I will never meet, He has given me a charge to pray for cities, nations, and even entire races of people. I pray today that we will do much more than remember, let‘s pray. Days of remembrance are important but lives of prayer change eternity. Let us pray together for the redemption of our nation, for the glory of God to be revealed and for the hearts of all flesh to turn back to God. Today, may we not be crushed by loss but may we be stirred to battle; to wage war against the principalities and powers that fight for the souls of men. May the memory of Columbine produce action, action that will change more than a school or a city, but action that will change an entire generation. May all of our action be birthed in and funded by prayers that never cease.

We have set aside every Tuesday as a day of prayer for our National leaders: President Obama, the Senate and the Congress. Each week we present a specific focus, birthed from Scripture, that we can agree and pray together.

This week we pray that

Our National Leaders will do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with their God. Micah 6:8

This Sunday we will announce our newest missions project, we will begin to partially sponsor six children each month at the City of Refuge Children’s Home in Kingston, Jamaica.

We are already monthly sponsors for missionaries at the home, Paul and Dulcie Bushhorn. Thanks to your faithful and geneous giving we will not also be able to help with the monthly physical needs of the children.

This is also going to be our first project in which we will give our children partial ownership. The children’s ministry on Thursday night’s will take sponsorship of one child. They will begin to take a weekly offering, strictly given to the children’s home and will also add prayer for specific children at the home to each weeks gathering.

This is an exciting step in our service to  City of Refuge Childrens Home. I pray that it will pave the way to even greater giving and partnership.

Each year, here in Burlington, Broad Street United Methodist Church sponsors a sunrise service at the Riverfront Promenade for all of the community churches. Yesterday morning was cold and windy and yet the turnout was great, there were at least eight different churches represented. We really had a wonderful time worshiping together. I was given the privilege of being this years speaker. Since it was a short sermon I thought I would just post my sermon transcript to my blog today:

Romans 8:11
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Messiah, of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Today we gather here, by this river to sing, praise, remember and enjoy the cornerstone of our faith, Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

The resurrection of Jesus is more than an act of power, it is more than His triumph over sin and death, more than an empty tomb and astounded, even unbelieving disciples. The resurrection of Jesus is the fulfillment of His mission, the fulfillment of our redemption, it is the culmination of three years of ministry and the fulfillment of thousands of years of waiting, waiting for the seed of woman to crush the head of the serpent.

When Jesus began His public ministry, He stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth, his home, and he took the scrolls and read these words:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

This was not a simple Bible reading, this was an announcement and an introduction. Jesus was introducing Himself as the Messiah and He was introducing the will of God into the midst of God’s people. He was announcing what His life’s work would be and was giving all those listening a way to judge His actions and know what to expect from everything that He would do. Jesus was making it very clear that all of His life would be lived with only these purposes, to preach good news, to heal the brokenhearted, to set those that are bound and captivated free, to open the eyes of the blind, both physically and spiritually, to bring justice to those that have been scarred by injustice and to proclaim the heart, will and mind of God. He later taught us to pray what He was living out, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

This announcement of purpose and power is important to us today, on Resurrection Sunday, because, as Romans 8 tells us, “the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us.” If the Spirit of resurrection lives in us then our lives must be spent for the exact same purpose that the resurrection fulfilled, the redemption of the lost. We have not been saved for a mere place in heaven, for a solitary seat at the table of the Great Feast, we have been saved so that we might be partakers not only of the rewards but of the work of the resurrection.

II Corinthians 5 says:
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

Earlier in the chapter Paul wrote that we have been given “the ministry of reconciliation” and then defines that ministry using Christ as it’s example and definition, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them”.

This ministry that we are called to, that we have been not only invited to take part in but that we have been equipped for by virtue of the Spirit of resurrection that dwells in us, is the ministry of redemption and reconciliation. In the prior Scriptures, the word imputing means to calculate, record or count. We are not imputing, not called to count sin, calculate it, keep a running record or a tab for the world around us. The word reconciliation means to restore favor. We are called to lead the men and women and children around us back to the favor for which they were created, back to the favor of God, back to the image of God, back to the creation in which God stood over and declared to be good. Our calling is not to be pious and honored but to be humble and spent, poured out as servants just as Christ was poured out on our behalf as He died and then rose from that death to give us the life we could not attain for ourselves.

I want to finish today by sharing with you a story that I believe sums up my heart and thoughts today. It is a story that many of you may know but I want us to see how it relates to us, here on this riverbank in the city of Burlington.

In August of 1836 an African American man named Severn Martin was arrested here in Burlington. A slave trader from Virginia had come and accused Mr. Martin of being his property, a slave that had run away some 16 years earlier. Mr. Martin denied the charges and was taken before the county magistrate, who was also the mayor of Burlington. Even though the slave trader had no documentation or proof the magistrate found in his favor and ordered Mr. Martin to be turned over to him as slave property and returned to Virginia. When Mr. Martin was first arrested the city was incensed, the citizens gathered together and the stories that I read said there was a near riot. After the ruling was handed down the citizens of Burlington City were even more angry, but this time they acted not out of emotion but in wisdom and in the Spirit of resurrection. Our forefathers rallied together and they collected among themselves $800, the price the slave trader demanded for Severn Martin’s freedom. Mr. Martin was set free, he was redeemed, and the federal law was later changed because of this action of the citizens of Burlington, so that no one else would ever have to endure what Severn Martin endured.

Our heritage here in Burlington is of redemption. We are not merely a small group of people who have been redeemed, we are the ambassadors of Christ, we are those filled with the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. I ask you today, on Resurrection Sunday, will we be the Ambassadors for Christ we are called to be? Will we allow God to plead through our lives for the reconciliation of our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors and coworkers? Will we make Jesus’ calling our calling and give whatever is necessary so that those around us will know the love and truth of God? Will we return to our heritage and while it may not be literal slavery that we are seeking to abolish, will we let our love, our lives, our words and our deeds be used to abolish the slavery of sin, of prejudice, of addiction, of poverty, of division and separation of any kind?

I will close by returning to our opening text, Romans 8:11:

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Let us choose to live the life of resurrection today. Let us choose to believe that we have been redeemed so that we might bring redemption to others. Let us decide that our community will be a community of redemption, of healing, of love, of mercy, of freedom and of resurrection. Let us let the Spirit of Christ give life to our mortal bodies that we might be the ministers of reconciliation that would see freedom for the bound, mending for the broken and sight for the blind. We are commanded in Scripture to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may we choose to also pray for the redemption of Burlington, that this city would be restored to God’s favor and be a shining light of freedom just as it was for Severn Martin those many years ago. May the heart of this city ring loud and true, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!”

“He is risen!”
“He is risen indeed!”

We will hear these words many times over the next few days. I truly enjoy this week, moving from Palm Sunday, Jesus’ triumphal entry, through Passover, into Good Friday and then Resurrection Sunday. This week is filled with history, with great lessons, emotions and opportunity. As I have been reading each account of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospels this week I have been struck by a common thread that runs through them, doubt.

Matthew gives us an account that is not unexpected, the chief priests, upon hearing the report from the Roman soldiers bribe them to say that the disciples came during the night and stole Jesus’ body. The other three accounts are a bit unexpected. Mark tells us that when Mary Magdalene reported that she had seen the risen Lord that “they did not believe.” He continued and wrote that Jesus also appeared to two men as they walked along the road, “but they did not believe them either.” Luke writes that when the women that first saw the angels at the tomb and heard the news of Jesus’ resurrection reported all these things to the disciples that “their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.” And John 20 tells us of Thomas’ doubt and the requirements he set for him to believe, to see and touch the wounds of Jesus’ crucifixion.

As I read these accounts this week I asked, “what caused such great doubt?” No sooner did I ask that question than I heard the Holy Spirit ask me, “what causes yours?” Painful questions often offer answers that bring deliverance, if we will accept them.

So why all the doubt? Why did Peter and John run to the empty grave but the other nine were unmoved? Why did the women believe strongly enough to go and tell what they had seen and heard but Thomas didn’t just doubt, he refused to believe until his demands were met? What about you and me? Why do we believe that the Red Sea parted but we reject the promise of healing? Why do we believe that “His eye is on the sparrow” but we doubt that we are remembered? Why do we intercede with faith and hope for far away nations but push away any promise of life for our own household? I believe that Luke gave us a great insight into all of these questions.

As Cleopas and his friend, another believer, walked along the road to Emmaus, they were discussing all that had happened over the course of the weekend, Jesus’ arrest, death and resurrection. They were animated, concerned and even sad. Jesus came and joined them on the journey, but they didn’t know it was Him. Along the way He asked why they were sad, asked what they were talking about but gave no clue as to who He was or even that He knew what had happened. Cleopas tells Jesus all the details and then he shares what I believe is the heart of the issue and the reason for the doubt, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” There it is! Cleopas tells us the truth of his soul and probably of all the other doubting believers. They had a plan for Jesus, they followed Him, trusted Him, believed Him but they also had a plan for Him. We often quote from Jeremiah 29, “For I know the plans that I have for you . . .” God’s plans for our lives are meant to bring us comfort and build faith, but our plans for God often lead us to fear and to doubt. Why? Because, as Isaiah tells us, His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. I Corinthians 2:9 tells us “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” None of us have been able to grasp the fullness, the power and the glory of the plans of God. All of our plans, our hopes, our dreams, our ideas and even our imaginations, for our lives and for God’s will, fall short. We can not reach His greatness, we can not conceive or perceive of the fullness of His glory. The disciples doubted because Jesus did not fulfill their plan, but their plan was too small, their plan was for a season not for eternity. Their plan was for their people, not for all people. Their plan was for the shame of men to be removed from their lives, God’s plan was for the shame of sin to be removed from their eternal spirits. Their doubt was created by disappointment that God didn’t fulfill THEIR plan.

I believe it is the same with each of us. We love Jesus, we follow Him, we listen to Him, we trust Him and yet at the same time we often have a plan for Him. We have a want and a desire; a specific plan that we want to see Him do in our lives. When He acts in a different way, even when He does abundantly more than we hoped or imagined our disappointment comes from not getting our way and not being able to see and believe in His greater way. We have all been in situations in which we did not get our way, we were disappointed, frustrated maybe even angry. And yet, when we arrived at the way chosen for us, rather than the way we chose for ourselves we have had to face the truth, “this was better.” I am truly trying to believe and trust that God’s plan is better.

Thomas refused to believe and like some of us he put stipulations on his faith. “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” The kindness of God allows Him to not simply cast Thomas out. His loving kindness draws men to repentance and to belief. Jesus came to the disciples again, this time when Thomas was present. Jesus, knowing Thomas’ heart and his words said to him, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side.” The last statement Jesus made to Thomas was one He is making to me and I believe He is making to many of us today: “Stop doubting, and believe!”

There comes a point in which we must cast down our plans and take up Jesus’. There comes a point in which He should not have to prove Himself, we must make the choice to embrace faith and reject unbelief and doubt. Many of us want doubt to simply vanish, that is not faith. Faith is when we believe, even when we don’t get our way and our plans are not chosen for our lives. Thomas responded to Jesus, the touching of the wounds was not the end of their interaction. Thomas answered Jesus with these words, “My Lord and my God!” Something new happened for Thomas that day. I believe Jesus was his God, He was his teacher, His leader but up until then Jesus was not his Lord. Thomas was still setting the requirements for his faith, his life, his path and plan. When we make Jesus Lord we move into a position of laying down our lives, laying down our thoughts, our hopes, our plans and sometimes even our beliefs. We move into a position of being children in the hands of God, of being followers being led by a Leader, of being sheep in the care of a Shepherd.

This weekend many of us will enter and depart from churches, family gatherings, and community projects with the words, “He is risen!” “He is risen indeed!” I pray that those words would lead us to an even greater declaration. I pray that Jesus’ resurrection would lead us all to a place where we would declare not merely with our words but with our hearts and lives, “My Lord and my God!” May we set aside our plans for God and be completely wrapped in His plans for us. May we become His possession so that we can see the fulfillment of all that He has promised to do in us, through us and for us. Because He is risen I can rest, I can trust and I can believe.

We’re in the process of getting our sermons online. We hope to have them available by the end of June. Thanks for your patience.

The Apostle Paul made this wonderful statement to the church in Corinth, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him, Amen, to the glory of God through us.” The promises that God speaks into and over our lives are unshakable, they will not disappoint and they can not fade away unfulfilled. I believe that God speaks these promises into our lives to comfort us, to bless us and to strengthen us. I also believe that one of the keys to combating the lies of the enemy and the desires of our flesh is to simply believe that all of God’s promises for our lives will come true.

This past week one of my dear friends called to share some Scripture with me. I had asked him to pray for me as I was preparing for a situation that I was a bit nervous about. I was asked to take part in something this week that was completely out of my comfort zone. It was something I had never done before and I was unsure as to whether or not I was equipped to be useful. The Scripture that was shared was Isaiah 54, “Enlarge the place of your tent, . . .Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed”. In the midst of hearing those verses I realized that God has promised that we will not be humiliated, we won’t be put to shame. It’s funny, in the moment that I heard those verses, and received this as a promise I realized that I have often allowed myself to be slowed by a fear of shame.

Shame is one of the most powerful of Satan’s lies. It is never from God, it is a tool of Hell that is used to paralyze us in hopes of keeping us from our called purpose. When Adam and Eve sinned the first respondents of Hell were shame and fear. They were ashamed and covered themselves, they were afraid and hid from God. It is interesting to see that the first things that man feels when they sin are things that are not of God. We have the promise “God has not given us a spirit of fear” and again, in Isaiah 54 we are promised that “we will not be put to shame.” The importance of this point is that whenever we are gripped by fear or attacked by shame it is not God that is working. In any instant that you suddenly are fearful that the path that God is leading you on might lead to humiliation you can be confident that it is not the Spirit of God that is speaking. He does not lead by guilt, by fear or by shame, God always leads in faith by love.

The leading of the Holy Spirit requires faith, it requires trust and it provides comfort and peace. The Holy Spirit leads us in some paths that we would have never chosen, He leads us in some paths that seem out of place, He leads in some paths that don’t match up with our planning and understanding. Along the journey of faith there are times in which we can’t see our next step, anticipate the next opportunity or plan for our next obstacle. God told Abraham to go to a land that He would show him. He told Moses to stand with the Red Sea in front of him and the Egyptian army behind him. He told Joshua to march around the walls of Jericho. He told Ezekiel to speak to the dry bones that surrounded him. He told Peter to journey to a gentiles house. He told Ananias to baptize Saul the persecutor and He told Paul to appeal to Caesar. In all of these instances the people listening to God’s voice had the option to ask, “what if it doesn’t work?” I am confident that each one of them faced the complaints of the flesh, the counsel of “Job’s friends” and the lies of fear and shame. They all had the opportunity to be so afraid of being humiliated that they did nothing and yet, they all chose to believe God’s promise, to trust His kindness and to allow perfect love to cast out all fear, even the fear of shame.

There are things that God has spoken in and over my life that have not come to pass yet. Every day I wake up closer to those promises than I have ever been before. I will be honest though, many days I wake up to find fear and shame working with all of their might to convince me that my hope is in vain and my beliefs will bring me shame. We are all the same. We are all subject to the same temptation, the same enemy and the same tactics. I want to encourage you today as I encourage myself, we have been promised, we will not be put to shame. As much as we believe the promise of forgiveness, the promise of heaven, the promise of God’s love let us believe the promise of protection from shame.

I needed this promise this week. This was a week of many emotions. We found ourselves praying for some specific, life changing requests this week. We all pray for the will of God, but lets be honest, most of us pray with an end in mind. We have a thought of what we want to see happen, of how we believe God can be most glorified. This was a week in which we saw a newborn baby live 53 minutes before she returned to Jesus’ arms. That was not what I wanted to happen as I prayed for her and yet her parents report an unthinkable measure of peace. On the same day that this child passed away I watched as two families, torn apart by death and shame took miraculous steps of healing, embracing one another where in the past they had been accusing each other. This week I received the report of a woman that we have prayed for for months being cancer free and a man that was gripped by suicidal depression being completely restored, renewed and filled with joy. You see, we have an enemy, and Peter told us the truth about him, he does roam around looking to see who he can devour. He devours us with his lies. If he can get us to believe that God is not good, that God does not listen, that God does not care then he can fill us with shame and he can control us with fear. The key is not understanding everything that happens around us, the key is believing that we will never be put to shame. We will never by led by the Spirit of God to destruction. I would encourage you today, if your week was anything like mine, don’t sit and listen to the voice of shame, rise up and listen to the song of deliverance. Shame says you were wrong, deliverance says that God is good.

I want to finish by taking us back to the Garden of Eden one more time. When Adam and Even sinned, fear and shame came in full force to try to bring a final destruction. If fear and shame were the first respondents of hell then go back and look closely, God was the first respondent of heaven. He didn’t send an angel, a virtue or even a promise, He came and sought out Adam and Eve. He came to them and did some amazing things. First, he cursed the one who had led His children into temptation. Second, God promised that He would provide redemption. Before He doled out punishment or concerned Himself with details He made a promise that He would make a way for healing. Third, He didn’t leave them in the dark, worried and afraid of unknown punishment, He clearly shared the consequences of their sin. And finally, He covered their shame. He clothed them because it is never God’s desire for His children to live in fear or in shame. The Bible says that we were created for His pleasure and I believe that God delights when His children know that they can confidently trust their Father, that He will love them, protect them and never put them to shame.