Posted on by Pastor Poet

Bless Your Heart…

I won’t tell you how long I lived in the South before I realized that, ‘Bless your heart,’ wasn’t actually a blessing. 

When we claim to love God but are then cruel and compassionless to others, we become liars and the truth is not in us.  

‘Bless your heart.’

When we offer praise to God, while cursing our neighbors, we walk in darkness. When we claim grace for ourselves but demand judgment for everyone else, we are hypocrites.

‘Bless your heart.’

When we are polite and genteel on the outside, while harboring bitterness and malice in our hearts, we deceive ourselves. 

‘Bless your heart!’

Subtle deceptions are often the most destructive – counterfeit faith – false piety – wrapping warped behaviors in flowery words – using holy language as a cloak for hatefulness!

We become those of whom the prophet spoke:

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9  in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Matthew 15:8–9

Lord help us. Guard our hearts against hypocrisy.  

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

Help in Healing…

When we are recovering from some hardship, illness, serback,or loss, for some of us our tendency is to isolate ourselves and try to battle it out on our own.

As noble as this seems, healing work and then the ability to get and remain well and free is often a communal work.  We need assistance and encouragement from others!

Remember the story of the man sick from palsy? He had four friends who carried him to Jesus.  Remember when Lazarus was resurrected from the grave?  Jesus told those who were outside the tomb to, ‘loose him and let him go!’

Don’t be afraid or ashamed to rely on those around you to help you when you are trying to get better!  God gives us one another to care for and sometimes even carry one another!  And when we get free we are able to free and offer our strength to others!

Remember when Jesus restored Peter?  Jesus told him to ‘strengthen the brethren.’

We will all need some help sometimes.  When we get free, one of the best ways we can demonstrate our gratitude is by assisting others! Get it?

31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31–32

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

In Their Shoes?

When someone is struggling with consequences for bad decisions they may have made, the last thing that they need is to be discouraged by our heavy-handed criticisms and judgments.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we avoid issues or fail to challenge one another when we are wrong.  But it does mean that we are compassionate even when we are confronting one another.  

Lord have mercy if our actions drive an already wounded soul away from

God instead of drawing them to God!

Humility realizes that it is only of the LORD’s mercy that we haven’t all been consumed.  We all come up short.  We all stumble.  We all have errors in our judgment.  We all mess up!  

So the next time you want to slam someone else for missing the mark, try to think of what you would need to hear if you were in their shoes – and say that!

After all – it could be you!

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  

Galatians 6:1–3

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

Politics & Professions of Faith?

Savannah, GA

In the United States, food, clean air and water, affordable housing, a livable wage, medical care, education, protection against violence, the possibility of progress, and the potential to flourish – these are well within the purview of the opportunities that our government should be providing for its citizens.

These are not radical ideas.  This is why we pay taxes.  Are there other things that we may include? Perhaps, but these are the basics. I contend that at least every Christian who pays taxes should insist that these basics be provided for as many as possible.  This is just and fair.  This is compassion.

Some say that charity is the Church’s responsibility.  I say, two things can be true at the same time!  And I further contend that if our goal is justice, then true justice and equity will make charity, in the narrowest sense, less necessary.  Do you follow? 

Caring for the poor, advocating for the least, protecting the marginalized, providing for the sick, these are all part of the Christian mission, but in our type of government this demands collaboration with the government that taxes us.  Which means that the political choices we make must be consistent with the foundations of our professed faith!  Our votes and our lobbying must be to this end or we contradict ourselves!

True Christians should desire and thus demand these basics for everyone or else admit that command to love one’s neighbors is not essential to our faith.  But this, in the end, is decidedly un-Christian.   When we allow the Golden Rule to become nothing more than a suggestion, we cannot be who we say we are!  We become the self-justifying hypocrite who smugly asks, ‘Who is my neighbor?’

36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”  

Luke 10:36–37

“You go, and do likewise…” Jesus says.

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

‘Lord, Lord…’

When our faith becomes a tool that we employ for our personal gains and glory, it ceases to serve its intended purpose. 

When our victories incite arrogance, and someone else’s losses inspire schadenfreude, we need to take care.  We are in a precarious predicament. High places are slippery! 

When our prayers for God’s blessings upon us, do not include prayers for God’s blessings on others – we need to examine our hearts.

While our economy is rooted in the idea of scarcity – the myth that there aren’t enough resources for everyone – the false notion that if God blesses one, God cannot bless us all – the whole idea that there must be winners and losers- the haves and the have nots – this is not according to who God is!  This is capitalism not Christianity.

God is loving and compassionate. God’s grace flows from God’s rich, abundant, and loving character. One’s success and another’s failure are not contingent.  In fact true success for one means blessings for another.

We are blessed to be a blessing.  How is it that so many of us professed Christians are so out of step with God’s Spirit?

There are at least two possibilities. Either we knew God and turned away, or we never knew God at all!  

“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. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’  

Matthew 7:21–23

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

Dis-Connected

There can be no doubt that we are all connected.  Our actions or inaction have immediate and far reaching consequences.  To be careless or thoughtless is a choice that comes with consequences.

As large as the world seems, technology has brought us closer to one another.  Sadly, this closeness doesn’t always translate to compassion.

Compassion demands care and intimacy.  But this virtual reality consuming so many of us often breeds unhealthy comparison, competition, and cruelty.  We are not closer to one another.  We are ‘connected’ but we are also more isolated.  We are more  ‘connected’ but somehow loneliness is being reported at record highs! 

So, while I’m writing this message using the very technology that I am criticizing, I want to encourage you to be careful – not in an anxious way – but rather take care at what and how much you consume and consider what you create.  Your words and ideas have consequences!  Use your power for good!  Get it?

Be compassionate to one another!

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. 

Galatians 5:13–15

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

Encouraging One Another.

Tentmakers in South Africa

We are at our best when we are able to see one another and share with one another our sorrows AND our victories. We are encouraged and able to offer encouragement.  Our joys are multiplied and our troubles become bearable when we realize we are not alone.

Why do so many of us struggle with loneliness and hidden disappointments?

Unfortunately the culture has taught us to compare ourselves to one another rather than compliment one another.  We have been conditioned to believe that our issues are always and only our own – nobody knows – nobody understands – and most unfortunately – we believe no one cares. I’m here to remind us today that our struggle is not our own, unless we make it so.  We needn’t move through the world under such false notions.  

But I also offer you this one caveat – the grace we need is the grace that is also required of us.  In as much as we need support, encouragement, we must make ourselves available to support and encourage others. While we crave and need support and encouragement – make sure that you are making yourself available to encourage and support others.  Get it?

And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:24-25

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

Deal with My Heart, LORD…

Mandela’s Quarry, Robben Island, South Africa

A small stone can feel like a boulder when you carry it too long. Minor offenses become major rifts when they go unaddressed.  

Molehills become mountains when we don’t deal with them appropriately.  

An offense, a grudge, a little bitterness, a reoffense, a sleight, some abuse, neglect, unrepentance, hatred, violence – and the cycle continues…

So here we are. Generations confronted with repackaged versions of the same issues, refusing history’s lessons, because we give into apathy that keeps us drowsy and makes us numb. We’d rather be entertained than educated- amused rather than inspired…

And now the only thing that rouses us is the most intense pain and the overwhelming fear of mutual destruction.  

Why do things have to get so bad before we decide we need to pay attention?  

Why do we ignore the sages and prophets that warn us against selfishness, greed, and malice in our hearts? 

In times like these, I admit it, I have to guard my heart against the rage and bitterness that will only make things worse.  LORD, deal with my heart! 

Will you pray with me today? 

“ …Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of us speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 

Let no corrupting talk come out of our mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  

Ephesians 4:25–32

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

His Eye is on the Sparrow…

It’s the time of year when the weather is transitioning and it can get a little unpredictable.  A sunny cool morning can become a windy stormy afternoon, and then end with a beautiful sunset.

Where I live, there are always birds. It makes me wonder.  Where do they go when the weather turns?  They are silent during storms but at the first clearing, they pop right back out, singing and doing what birds do!

You think we can gather something from them?

What I’m hearing this morning, is a simple lesson that many of us have heard a thousand times.  Perhaps today will be the day that we learn, huh?

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  

Matthew 6:26

Where do the birds go during storms? I don’t know. But, I do know God cares for them!  God cares for them and  God cares for us.  Remember that as you pop out this morning!

‘His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me…’

🎶🎶

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Posted on by Pastor Poet

Choosing Joy…

God has blessed us to see another day.  What will we make of it?  The way I see it, we all have a choice to make.  

We can begin with joy, or we can begin with anxiety.  We can begin by renewing our trust in God, or we can begin with anxiety.

We can begin with hope, or we can give into despair.  

We get to choose.

While there is plenty of bad news to report this morning, I prefer to set my mind on the good news that remains.

God loves us. God is still on the throne.  God is at work amid these strange circumstances.  God is present with us and God is preparing us for what lies ahead!  

So let’s not get overwhelmed by what seem to be insurmountable obstacles in our way.  God is greater than all these things!  

Be encouraged today, draw your loved ones close, and begin with joy!

25  I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. 26  He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing.

Psalm 37:25–26

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam