A Time for Renewal: Come and Dine

By Pastor Bert Hitchcock

It seems that most every significant event in our lives, is celebrated by eating and drinking together.  We celebrate holidays by eating and drinking special foods tied to that specific holiday.  We mark great accomplishments – birthdays, graduations, promotions – by eating and drinking foods loved by those being honored.  Similarly, we mark life’s milestones with feasts, whether the birth of a newborn, the marriage of those we love, or even the demise of those whose lives we have treasured, as we lay them to rest . . . and then speak of how special they were, as we eat and drink in their honor.

It seems that every special event of our lives is marked by some kind of feasting – often with foods that we can hardly afford, but their costliness speaks of the treasure of the ones being honored.

And so it was, as Jesus ate together with his disciples, eating what he knew would be the last supper, He set before them the most costly, the most significant, the most inconceivable treasure for them to eat and drink.  He took bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take, eat, this is my body given for you” And He poured the wine and when he had given thanks, said to them “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  Jesus knew that eternal life was to be given them, by His own body being broken, and his lifeblood being poured out on the ground, as atonement for their sins and ours.

And so, to this day, there is no feast like this one: bread and wine, tokens representing the broken body and poured out blood of Jesus, who gave himself that we might be forgiven, re-born with new life, and so live with him forever.  And Sunday after Sunday. believing what Jesus said, we eat this bread and drink this cup, proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.  Could any food, any feast, any celebration, any promise, and gathering, any hope be more profound?   Never!    So come to the table.

Come to the table and savor the sight
The wine and the bread that was broken
And all have been welcomed to come if they might
Accept as their own these two tokens
The bread is His body, the wine is the blood
And the One who provides them is true
He freely offers, we freely receive
To accept and believe Him is all we must do

Come to the table and taste of the Glory
And savor the sorrow, He’s dying tomorrow
The hand that is breaking the bread
Soon will be broken
And here at the table
Sit those who have loved Him
One is a traitor and one will deny
And He’s lived His life for them all
And for all be crucified

Come to the table He’s prepared for you
The bread of forgiveness, the wine of release
Come to the table and sit down beside Him
The Savior wants you to join in the feast

Come to the table and see in His eyes
The love that the Father has spoken
And know you are welcome, whatever your crime
For every commandment you’ve broken
For He’s come to love you and not to condemn
And He offers a pardon of peace
If you’ll come to the table, you’ll feel in your heart
The greatest forgiveness, the greatest release

A Time for Renewal: Even the Little Things

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

⁵ And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶ And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Revelation 21: 3-6

by Emily Gibson

…God’s attention is indeed fixed on the little things.
But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us–loves us so much that the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is “renewed in the morning” or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, “our inner nature is being renewed everyday”.
~Kathleen Norris from The Quoditian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women’s Work

It is easy to be ground to a pulp by the little things in our every day experience: waiting in line for customer service, an insistent alarm clock, a mouse (or more) in the house, a third head cold in less than a year. The small things tend to add up to irritable annoyance and complete inability to feel gratitude.

Yet God is in the details, from the dew drop to tear drop and even to nose snot. It is tempting instead to look past His ubiquitous presence in all things, to seek only the elegant grandeur of His creation. Not everything is grand and elegant from our limited perspective, but still, all is worthy of His divine attention.

The time has come, once again, to be refreshed and renewed in our inner being.
God’s care is revealed in the tiniest ways for the merest of reasons.
He has my attention.

A Time for Renewal: Create in Me a Clean Heart

by Nick Laninga

Let us start with the background of a story of sin.

This story came after David had gone in to Bathsheba. This story about the prophet Nathan’s parable and David’s subsequent confession could just as well be ours or one similar to it. The sins may be different but, as sin is sin, we all need renewal. 

II Samuel 12:1-7. ” Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own herd to prepare it for the man who had come to him.”

So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man.”

Now let us look at the rest of the story—-David’s repentance and renewal – remember renewal is what Lent is all about. We need to rend our hearts not our garments.

Psalm 51, a Psalm of David, has the answer to our plight. Let us look at vrs 10-12. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me, Do not cast me away from your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit.”

As part of our readings look at Joel 2:12-18 and Matt. 6:1-6;16-18. They tell us that our observance of Lent should not end up being a pious external ritual but symbolize the internal attitude—rend your garments as Joel states, which symbolize grief and repentance. It means to acknowledge our sin and our need to be forgiven and restored.

One note of caution, often at Lent we do external things like skipping meals or favorite things which mean nothing if our hearts are not changed. The true spirit of Lent is to return to the Lord with a heart mourning over sin. This is more important than missing meals.

Pray and receive God’s mercy and love, and respond to God’s grace as you serve others. 

Love in Christ !!!

The Laningas

A Time for Renewal: Forgiveness

By Pastor Bert Hitchcock

The season of Lent intentionally points us to Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself as an atonement for our sin.  Such a costly sacrifice demands not only that we trust Him for forgiveness, but that we take seriously God’s call for us to forgive one another as He has forgiven us.

So, how much should we forgive those who do us wrong?  Well, no one is perfect, so if we are to have any friends, we will have to excuse some faults.  So, we tend to overlook other people’s faults, as long as their faults are like our own.

But that only creates a new definition of ”Right and Wrong”.  “Right” comes to mean things we would do ourselves; while “wrong,” means things we would condemn.  And so we are comfortable with imperfect people, for we, too, are imperfect – as long as you only do the kind of “wrong” that we would do ourselves.   

But when God talks about forgiveness, he does not limit it to the sins we are comfortable with.  The truth is, God forgives all kinds of sins, though He never sinned!  That kind of forgiveness is beyond our normal human behavior.   For, it is one thing to forgive as people have forgiven you.  But God requires us to forgive even  people who sin against us!  So, for example, God tells Hosea to go and love his wife, even though she had committed adultery.  But Hosea had not committed adultery; he had been faithful. That kind of undeserved forgiveness – in the face of deserved condemnation – that is grace which is hard to imagine.

Oh, but God takes it even farther.  He not only does not treat us as our sins deserve; He makes the sun rise and the rain fall, even on his enemies’ crops.  And His grace doesn’t even stop there: for as the soldiers crucified Jesus He  prayed for them…while they were killing him!   And so he calls us to love even our enemies, just as Jesus loved those who persecuted and sought to harm him.

You see, forgiveness is not just being nice because no one is perfect.  Forgiveness is learning to be like Jesus, whose love for us sinners caused Him to lay down his life that we might be reconciled to God and to one another.

A Time for Renewal: Beauty from Ashes

By Noa Lovegren

Has the phrase “beauty comes from ashes” ever struck you? When life is good, it can be so inspiring and such a wonderful reminder. But then, when life really gets hard, the phrase holds little to no comfort. For some reason we seem to always forget that ashes are involved in that phrase.

My mom reminded me of this one day in the middle of a tearful phone call:
“Noa, sometimes we forget that ashes mean something has to burn.”

Of course the fact that something burns doesn’t mean beauty cannot come from it. In fact, it’s quite the reverse. The Bible speaks of this on several occasions.

In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul reminds us, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
Peter also refers to this in his epistle, when he speaks of “fiery trials” and how we ought to “rejoice in Christ’s sufferings.”

As we enter Lent this year, I am reminded that this is a season of ashes. It is a time to remember the suffering and the death of Christ. And yet, amidst the heavy ponderings and physical darkness of this world, we know that this is not the end of the story.

Jesus did not stay dead.

He rose from the ashes of death and sin to the beauty and redemption of life. His sufferings did result in incredible beauty. And even more amazing, we now reflect our Savior.

We are still in the ashes. We are still in the tomb. But one day that will change. For “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison…”(2 Cor. 4:17) As we have died with Christ, so we will rise with Him one day.

And so, my friends, as we mourn in ashes in the next month and throughout our lives, do not lose sight of hope.
Remember the Savior.
Remember His death.
But do not forget His life,
because that is what makes all the difference.

Captain beloved, battle wounds were Thine,
Let me not wonder if some hurt be mine;
Rather, O Lord, let my deep wonder be
That I may share a battle wound with Thee.

O golden joy that Thou, Lord, givest them
Who follow Thee to far Jerusalem;
O joy immortal, when the trumpets sound
And all the world is hushed to see Thee crowned.

(excerpt from Rose from Brier, by Amy Carmichael)

God Names and Claims His People: Dust and Ashes

by Emily Gibson

…for dust you are and to dust you will return.
Genesis 3:19b

…Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes.
Genesis 18:27

…He knows how we are formed,
He remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103: 14

God remembers because He sculpted us from dust, gently breathing into our nostrils the breath of life, filling our lungs to keep us afloat while we’re still anchored to the soil. Though we are grateful for each breath that keeps us alive, we tend to forget how our daily journey returns us to dust, beginning with the parched and dying desert of our covering. Our skin sheds, flake by flake, to join the dust from which we are made.

I did not grow up observing Ash Wednesday.  Even as a child in a mainline Protestant denomination, I had only a fleeting awareness of the significance of the days leading up to Resurrection Sunday. When my new middle school friend, a Catholic, came to school wearing the cross of ashes on her forehead to remind her of her mortality and her need for repentance, it marked me as well: I will be ashes someday. 

That reality is a given.  There is no drawing of the first breath without acknowledging the last breath.  That awareness changes everything in between.

Salvation from the ash heap is only through the mercy, the sacrifice and the gracious gift of the Risen Savior. We are laid back down into the dust at the end of our days, but that is not our end. Far from it.  

His touch formed me. His breath fills me. His love anchors me.

He remembers we are dust. Today, and always, so must I.

The Names: The Beginning

Writers from Wiser Lake Chapel will consider the Names of God during this Lenten Season, choosing one each day from the many provided to us in Scripture.  This study will assist our preparation for Holy Week, the sacrifice of Good Friday on our behalf and the renewed hope of Resurrection Sunday.

Today we start with “The Beginning”

 

Jesus “The Beginning”
by Pastor Bert Hitchcock

 

When the Apostle John wrote about Jesus, he spoke of him in connection with the
beginning of the creation.

In John 1:1, he wrote,
“In the beginning was the Word…”
And in I John 1:1 he wrote,
“That which was from the beginning . . .
This we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

Clearly Christ Jesus, God the Son, the Eternal Word, accounts for the beginning of all
things – the whole creation, and mankind made in His image. But sin entered that perfect world. And as a result, God pronounced a curse on it; and death reigned. But throughout the ages, people still longed for renewal.

In Psalm 51, David cried out,
“Create in me a new heart, O God . . .”
In Lamentation 5, Jeremiah prayed that God would
“Renew our days as of old”
And in Isaiah 40, God promised renewal for those who wait upon Him.

But real renewal – a new beginning – could only come one way: Christ Jesus came into
the world and suffered the curse of sin and the wrath of God all the way to death! But
when God raised him from the dead, he showed himself to be the New Beginning – the
True Beginning

That’s what we read in Colossians 1:18.
“He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything he might be preeminent.”

And so, those who are joined to Him, also have a new beginning.

That’s what the Bible says,
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone and new has come.”

Every broken person longs for a new beginning – a new start in life. But that is only
possible when we receive new life from the One called “The Beginning.” And that new
life, is only a taste of the new beginning of the whole creation which is coming when
Jesus returns.

Michael Card unpacked some of this truth in one of his songs, called The Beginning:

In the beginning was the Beginning, the minute it all began
All that they had was God and the garden, the woman and the man
Before creation learned to groan, the stars would dance and sing
Each moment was new, every feeling was fresh, for the creature, king and queen.

But deep in the heart of that beautiful garden, forbidden truth was found
They were deceived, disobeyed, and were driven from that holy ground
But beside the tree of disobedience, the tree of life did grow
The gift of its fruit, an eternal beginning, but they would never know

Chorus:
The beginning will make all things new,
New life belongs to Him
He hands us each new moment, saying,
My child begin again
My child begin again
You’re free to start again

This very moment is filled with His power, that we might start anew
To break us away from the past and the future, He does what He must do
And so the Alpha brings to us, this moment to commence
To live in the freedom of total forgiveness, with reckless confidence

Listening Through Lent: Be Our Vision

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art—
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord.
Thou my great Father; thine own may I be,
thou in me dwelling and I one with thee.

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise;
thou mine inheritance, now and always;
thou and thou only first in my heart,
high King of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

This past semester I took a Marketing class. I was particularly struck by how often the conversation revolved around “getting into people’s ears and eyes and mouths and minds.” Companies want us to see their logos everywhere, to have their jingles stuck in our heads, to gravitate towards their brands when we go looking for a product. These companies are actively competing for our attention and trying to direct our desires, and more often than not, it works.

I think that God equally desires to get into people’s ears and eyes and mouths and minds, but God doesn’t use the tactics of flashy billboards or neon signs or pithy taglines. He’s not in the business of using skywriting to capture our attention, but rather quietly knocks at the door of our hearts and waits for us to open ourselves to Him. In all of the ways that American marketing is manipulative and intrusive, God’s truth is simple and patient. God persistently pursues us and is never far off, but we cannot see Him or hear Him until we choose to see and listen. The fact that God goes about pursuing us in a completely different way doesn’t mean that God desires our attention any less. God wants us to see his fingerprints in every detail of our lives, he wants us to have the psalms stuck in our minds, he wants us to gravitate towards prayer with every decision.

May the Lord be our vision. May we choose to turn towards Him, may we choose to desire Him above all, and may everything else fade into the background of His goodness and glory.
~Hilary Gibson

 

 

Listening through Lent: Victory, Victory

During my time at Wheaton, I was blessed with a wonderful temporary church home, Jericho Road Church. One of the things I loved about Jericho Road was we would regularly sing songs in other languages. Amrit Vani was one of them. Amrit Vani is in Hindi, and the words are as follows:

Amrita vani teri, amrita vani teri

Your Immortal word, your immortal word

Jai jai Yeshu jai jai ho

Victory, victory be to Jesus, victory, victory 

Jai jai Pita jai jai ho

Victory, victory be to the Father, victory, victory 

Jai jai Putra jai jai ho

Victory, victory be to the Son, victory, victory 

Paawana Aatma jai jai ho

To the Holy Spirit be victory, victory 

Jeewana data jai jai ho

To the Life-giver be victory, victory

 

I love singing in other languages as it is a tangible reminder that we are a part of the global church, something I am apt to forget. During this Lenten season, we reflect upon Christ’s sacrifice for us. What a way to celebrate-to cry “victory, victory” to our Lord and Savior, and to be able to do in unison with brothers and sisters across the world.
~Lea Gibson

Listening Through Lent: At the Cross

My worth is not in what I own
Not in the strength of flesh and bone
But in the costly wounds of love
At the cross

My worth is not in skill or name
In win or lose, in pride or shame
But in the blood of Christ that flowed
At the cross

Refrain:
I rejoice in my Redeemer
Greatest Treasure,
Wellspring of my soul
I will trust in Him, no other.
My soul is satisfied in Him alone.

As summer flowers we fade and die
Fame, youth and beauty hurry by
But life eternal calls to us
At the cross

I will not boast in wealth or might
Or human wisdom’s fleeting light
But I will boast in knowing Christ
At the cross

Two wonders here that I confess
My worth and my unworthiness
My value fixed – my ransom paid
At the cross
By Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, and Graham Kendrick

 

‘Our self is a complex entity of good and evil, glory and shame, of creation and fall…we are created, fallen and redeemed, then re-created in God’s image’ ….. ‘Standing before the cross we see simultaneously our worth and unworthiness, since we perceive both the greatness of his love in dying, and the greatness of our sin in causing him to die’ [The Cross p. 285]
~John Stott

‘My worth is what I am worth to God, and that is a marvellous great deal, for Christ died for me’
~William Temple