Grief Goes – Hope Lives

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

...we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (NIV)

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he has given us. Romans 5:5 (NIV)

I am preparing to assist in a GriefShare support group in the next few weeks. This is a Christ-centered grief support program. When I first heard about it, my first comment was: How could there be any effective grief support unless Jesus is the center? I do not come to that truth just because I am a Christian but because I am a Christian who is experiencing the healing power of Jesus Christ!

Whether grief comes from the death of someone we love or the death of a relationship or death of a dream, grief is the hardest work; the hardest journey we will travel. It demands physical, emotional, and spiritual energy. Fatigue finds its roots from any and all of these areas. Recharging must also come from all three areas. That can seem like an overwhelming task.

This is where Jesus is, as always, the perfect answer. It is in allowing Jesus to speak and minister to me that I find truly a supernatural refreshing. The refreshing comes from the Holy Spirit who is all about hope. Hope has a defining characteristic in that there is the expectation of fulfillment. In the experience that has brought about grief, my ‘hope’ has taken a beating. God’s love restores and fills. As I invest the time to listen and rest, I receive the lost physical, emotional, and spiritual energy back – more than I could ask or imagine!

If you are in a place of fatigue or know someone who has come through a tough holiday season and is in need, check out a local GriefShare program, come to a small group, spend time in worship (music, God’s life-giving Word), or any combination that comes with just a step. Take just one small step…God will do the rest.

Note: If you live in or near Pensacola, FL and are interested in the GriefShare program that will begin February 1, 2009, please email me for further information.

Posted in 1 Thessalonians, Romans | Comments Off on Grief Goes – Hope Lives

Home is where the Heart is

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV)

Have you ever built a house? Did you ever build something with Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, or Legos?The last three items could make me think that anyone could build a house. There is a reason that some children are able to build tall, intricate structures and some of us had trouble making four sticks come out square! There are principles of physics, including gravity, that mean a builder must have skills to go with knowledge and wisdom to make a structure that will stand. And so it is a disciple of Jesus. There are principles.

There must be a foundation. Paul says that those who have been before me make a foundation that I can stand on. It begins with the cornerstone of Jesus. He begins the structure. Jesus is where the interconnection of the ones who were with Him and continues to spread the Good News. The foundation may be stated as “Love God with all that you are and Love your neighbor as yourself”. (Matthew 22) Jesus said that everything else hangs from these.

There must be structure. These may be seen as God’s commands. They give me borders that allow me to live in the world and not become the world. They are the points that I can come back to when life becomes difficult. Some of them are: God is faithful. I can count on Him. He has proven Himself to me. God is extravagantly loving. God is powerfully gentle. He is Creator. He is the One who defends me and holds me.

There must be a home. It is not enough to have a faith. There must be a relationship that provides a ‘home’ between me and God. We have different ‘rooms’ in our relationship. God takes me in the kitchen and serves me a feast some days. He takes me in the living room/den and to sit and talk. He occasionally takes me to the woodshed! Or maybe its the schoolroom to learn some discipline! And then there is the bedroom where it is safe and warm and so very loving.

There must be doors. It is not enough that I sit at home and enjoy this wonderful life that I have. I am to “GO!” and share with those who do not have a home yet. I can help them build. There must also be a door to come through and shut so that I can have that ‘filling’ time so I can go again.

It is wonderful to live in our home with the Spirit of God. The home is beautiful and sound and ours.

Posted in Ephesians | Comments Off on Home is where the Heart is

Blessed Are Those Who Persevere

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12 (NIV)

This is one of those verses that could be hung in anyone’s house. It could be framed in any size frame… depending maybe on how under the trial you might perceive yourself to be!

A person who hangs in there; doesn’t give up when put to a test is holy and wonderful. Those are not simple or careless words. To be called ‘holy’ is pretty big in my dictionary! And the verse does not say that I must be ‘happy’ or ‘thrilled’ to be under the trial – I am holy when I just hang in there!

There are times I can say that I hang in there because I am just too stubborn to give up! I refuse to be beaten down! I grit my teeth and dig in my heels! Sometimes I hang in there because…I just don’t know what else to do! Going back is not acceptable and going forward is scary. So I wait. I wait for God to put His hand over mine and guide me on. I am not afraid of the dark (the unknown) when my Father takes my hand.

The reward is a crown of life. I am not familiar with royalty. I did not grow up in a country with a monarchy. I did not play ‘princess’ as a child. It’s truly a foreign concept to me. I think my imagination can begin to grab the joy of that moment, however! Going through a difficult situation (a trial) and coming out on the other side of the situation with what will be a stupendous ‘jewel’ in my life! I know it is going to be a precious, one-of-a-kind jewel because God promised it!

My concept of rewards and trials has drastically changed over the years. Twenty years ago I would have thought any perceived constraint on what I wanted in my life would have been a trial. It would have been unacceptable to me! A nice home and cars (yes, plural), whatever clothes I wanted was an expectation. Today trails are more often found as I attempt to do things my way and direct my life my own way – it’s all about the ‘I’ and ‘me’! When I crucify that ‘I-based’ flesh, I find myself looking into a reward that has been promised and fulfilled long before I knew it even existed! It is eternal and bigger than I can see!

Let us receive our blessings today…not because we deserve them…but because they are promised! Let us run the race that we have each been given with perseverance and gratitude that God will never leave us and always fulfill His promises!

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Blowing in the Breeze – Counting the Cost – Building on the Rock

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Henry Neufeld

8The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it’s coming from or where it’s going. That’s the way it is with everyone who has been born of the spirit. — John 3:8

28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? — Luke 14:28 (WEB)

25The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock. — Matthew 7:25 (WEB)

Today I attended a new service at our church, First United Methodist Church of Pensacola.  It’s called ICON, an interesting name, but I’m not going to go into the reason for the name.  Go to the church web site and learn about it.

I’m also not going to talk that much about the worship.  Doubtless a number of my friends will do so, and there’s plenty for them to talk about.  The service was certainly everything I expected, with the only glitches provided by an excess of success–80 people had to be turned away to the other service due to lack of space.  Patience was needed when going for communion because of the large number of people.

And that is something that struck me most forcefully.  I have been involved in many church activities, some of them successful, some of them pretty dismal.  It’s easy to excuse ourselves and explain that we’re just doing what God wants us to do.  We claim–I have claimed!–not to care about the numbers, but most of us do–I do.

What struck me in this service is that it combines the elements of the three texts that I have quoted:

  1. There was the leading of the Spirit and stepping out in faith involved in the idea for the service, for purchasing the building, and for carrying on through all the trials.
  2. There was a counting of the cost as the First UMC collected pledges of support before actually closing on the building.
  3. There is building on the rock as every effort is made to produce a service that centers on Christ and thus brings people to Christ.

Is this a remarkable thing?  Well, in my experience it is.  The folks who blow in the breeze, by which I mean nothing negative and much positive, often have very little patience for counting the cost and taking the time necessary to make something work.  The Spirit leads us to have a praise service, and we want one next week.  Gather the instruments available, choose a room that already exists, grab some surplus equipment, phone a few friends, and see who shows up.

Now there’s nothing wrong with a few small praise services that come together in that fashion.  But too many of them become dead ends that last only a few weeks.  Nobody has the patience to go to the next step.

We have many negative names for people who count the cost.  “Bean counters” is one of them.  These are the people who do the spreadsheets, figure out how much money is required.  Those who blow in the breeze are frequently very impatient with these folks because they shoot down too many ideas.  But we need the bean counters.  Jesus reminds us that people who build towers get them involved before they start.  Bean counters get annoyed at those who blow in the breeze, because they have too many expensive ideas and don’t seem to realize the limitations.

There’s nothing wrong with realizing the limitations, but the bean counters need to listen to the folks who blow in the breeze, because otherwise they may soon find that there’s no beans to count.

Finally there are the builders.  One man was honored today who saw to making the physical building happen, to making the room come together and everything happen together.  He couldn’t be someone who blows in the breeze.  I doubt he’s that interested in being a bean counter.  He takes the ideas and the stuff and puts them together to make things happen.

Who is better?  Who is more important?  Nobody!  All of these are people who are necessary in the building of God’s kingdom.  They are represented in different measures by the artists, musicians, readers, ushers, folks manning projectors, sound boards, and cameras.  All of them are among the folks who gathered in the new sanctuary, new ground claimed for God’s kingdom, and praised God together in new ways, old ways, and ancient ways.

All are necessary.  My vision today in the service was not one of how you run a service, or which style of worship was more important, but the way in which you can bring God’s people together, with varied talents and personalities, blowing in the breeze, in the back room counting the cost, or up on the scaffolding making the right nuts and bolts come together.

Today I saw a vision of the body of Christ!  May I see many more!

Posted in Bible Books, Devotional, John, Luke, Matthew | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Posted on January 9, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.

The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.

you open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.                                        Psalm 145:12-16 (NIV)

Most of us actually live in this world.  That means we know that this world is full of confusion, pain, and burdens that build until we are overwhelmed by ‘Goliaths’ or giants in our lives.  When we focus on these giants they become larger until they seem to block out everything else in our field of vision.

When I catch myself in this pit, I know that my eyes have strayed from where they should be focused.  I know that I am to keep my eyes on God and my ears tuned to His voice.  I know that!  How do I get back?

I want to share a simple tool that has brought me back so many times.  The Bible Promise Book is a simple, well-constructed book that in times when I knew what I needed to do but just did not have the strength in the moment to do it…I could find God’s promises at my fingertips.  As I read His true words, I could feel the power of those very words fill up all the empty places and direct my feet back on His path.

God has inspired authors to create tools that help us to meditate more deeply into His word and come closer and more often into His presence.  Maybe you have another tool that works for you in these times.  Please write and share them with me.  God is faithful.  God desires to spend time with us.  He wants to lift us up.  He wants us to walk in His strength and wisdom.  God’s promises are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’!

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Nope, I Am Not Ashamed!

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.  That is why I am suffering as I am.  Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.       2 Timothy 1:8-12 (NIV, my emphasis)

Henry raised some good questions yesterday and I am not ashamed to answer some of them!

“What made me into a Christian believer?”  I had no other choice.   I felt I had no other options.  I was so confused and overwhelmed by the situations in my life and nothing seemed a viable answer.  Divorcing my husband would not have made me happy.  Going back to school and laying out a career-climbing plan would not have made me happy.  I felt I had been told all my life that I never measured “good enough” or “right enough”.  I felt that everyone who loved me put conditions on their love and did not accept me for who I really was.  In fact, if they had really known me and the ‘stuff’ I had done, they would have disowned me.  I had three children looking to me for answers and I did not know the questions!  As a ‘last resort’ I began reading and studying the Bible, buying a devotion book and using that as a guideline to read the Bible every day.  And then came a night in July when a man, maybe alot like Paul, who preached on Luke 9:25-26 and said Jesus’ words, “…if you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you on Judgment Day”.  That scared the liver out of me!!!  Logically, I did not want to walk forward in a church with 2,000 people and declare that I was a sinner but that Scripture scared me with its truth!  There could have been a division of Special Forces with automatic weapons lined up across that altar stating they would shoot anyone who stepped from the pew … and I still would have got up and walked forward!

Over the next 13 years, I have spent most days with Jesus.  I won’t lie and say it has been every day as a conscious choice but 99% of the days.  Why?  Because when I don’t, I feel myself slipping back to the old run-downed Jody.  I am so very weak and I need Jesus’ strength and wisdom and extravagant love to get through every day.  EVERY DAY! Yes, I make the choice every day to do that but I make that choice based on my daily experience of God in my life.  Just today, God gave me the physical strength to do the day.  He gave me insight and words to encourage a friend who needed it.  He has been guiding Henry and me down an unknown path of publishing and writing and teaching.  He has tangibly spoke encouraging words to me when my flesh tries to tell me that I am being ignored and reminds me, “It’s you and Me today, Jody.  All that I am teaching you will not be wasted.  I don’t waste anything!  You keep listening and someday it will grow Kingdom Fruit!”

God is real.  How do I know?  Because He loves me.  I am not ashamed — Let me tell you about my Jesus!

Posted in 1 Timothy | Comments Off on Nope, I Am Not Ashamed!

I Know the One I Have Trusted

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Henry Neufeld

Yet I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard what was committed to me until that day. – 2 Timothy 1:12

What made you into a Christian believer? I’m going to assume that most, if not all of the readers of this devotional list are Christians. Think back to “the hour you first believed” and ask yourself: What made me do it?

Our verse today gets translated in different ways. If you check your own Bible, you will likely find it translated a bit differently. The key issue is whether Paul is talking about that which God committed to him, Paul, or whether it is talking of something that Paul has committed to God. The wording of the Greek will allow either translation.

I translated the verse so that Paul is confident that God can protect the thing that God committed to Paul, the gospel message, until the day of Christ’s return. But there is a sense in which the verse could be understood either way. In accepted God’s commitment of the gospel message to him, Paul has also made a commitment of himself, his comfort, his safety, and even his life to God.

We talk a great deal about belief. Why do we believe in God? Why do we believe that Jesus died for our sins? But belief in that sense is just a starting point. While one would hardly put one’s trust in God if one didn’t believe in God, just believing in God doesn’t mean that we trust God, does it?

An online friend, Mike Beidler, summarized his reason for believing when he was asked in a radio interview about believing in God without scientific evidence. He said:

. . . my belief in God is, first and foremost, based on my encounter with a Jewish carpenter named Jesus of Nazareth, who has transformed my life. His presence in and influence on my life is so evident to me that to reject the existence and influence of Christ would be akin to denying the existence of my own wife and children. (Summary from this BBC radio interview.)

You may be able to base your belief on evidence, though evidence changes and can be interpreted in many ways. The big bang theory, for example, is used both as evidence for and against God. But you trust based on experience.

That’s why spending time with God is so very important. If you believed for just a moment at some time in the past you might forget it. If you came to a logical conclusion that God existed, your logic might change.

On the other hand, if you had a chat with God this morning at your bedside or in front of your desk, it will be very hard to convince you that God isn’t there.

Are you, like Paul, “persuaded?” Are you convinced? Can you place everything, even your life, in God’s hands? Encountering and experiencing God will build such trust.

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I Am Not Ashamed

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”      Romans 1:16-17 (NIV)

I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL! I am not embarrassed, humiliated, or reluctant to stand for the Good News.  I stand for this Good News that may seem at best a paradox to the world and some may see it as…ridiculous.  It is a paradox and ridiculous because it is at once power and pure love.  It is in the love that there is power.  Most would find that absurd.

I am not ashamed that this Good News is for EVERYONE! Paul, a Jew, wants to make sure that his Roman audience knows that this salvation is for Jews and for Gentiles.  There is no one who is reading the letter who will find themselves left out.  If I were to write such a letter today, I might send it to Jew and Palestinian.  I watch the events of the last week and I fall to my knees that the power of this Good News may pierce the hearts of all those who seem only to see themselves as right and so any opposition must die.  There is no salvation in their belief system except for those who agree with them.

God is calling out for us to come and live with Him in humility; receiving His love as a beautiful, free gift.  It is in living with God  that I find the abundance of grace and mercy.  My heart is tenderized by God’s extravagant and unfailing love.  God wants to fill me so full of His presence, His love, that I will ‘leak’ on everyone around me.

I AM NOT ASHAMED to live by faith.  I am not reluctant to say that I need everything and can get nothing without my Lord.  Each day begins and ends with my hands out to God, counting on Him to provide and guide me every step that the day requires.  It is not sitting and expecting God to drop everything into my lap.  It is keeping my eyes turned to Him and my ears tuned to Him so that I stay in God’s path.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge: I will tell of all your deeds.            Psalm 73:26-28 (NIV)

Posted in Romans | Comments Off on I Am Not Ashamed

Peace, Peace, God’s Peace

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

What can an honest person do when everything crumbles?

The LORD is sitting in his sacred temple on his throne in heaven.  He knows everything we do because he sees us all.                                                             Psalm 11:3-4 (CEV)

What is there to say in the midst of war?  What do I say to my friends who have been notified that their son or daughter has been killed in combat?  Where will my eyes look when the next terrorist attack comes?  Glued to the television or focused on the One who has the power to do something about every situation?

We have seen pictures and reel after reel of what war looks like.  I was a teenager during the Viet Nam War.  That was the first time that we watched war from our living rooms.  Where is God?  He is there when soldiers pray.  He is there when they are baptized from a small bucket in the desert.  He is there when they die just as He was there when Jesus died.  God doesn’t sleep through war or turn His head away.  He isn’t distracted by some other single incident and missing our concerns.

We as Christians have an opportunity to hold up God’s banners of truth, hope, compassion, power, and unconditional love. Whether it is family, friends, fellow members of our local church, co-workers, or even unknown people on the street, we are Christ’s ambassadors with opportunities to share God’s peace that does pass understanding through prayer, fellowship, and witnessing to the character of God.

God’s temple, His dwelling on earth is me.  It’s you.  We are His temple.  We carry His light into the whole world.  Jesus said to “Go into all the world”.  Do I think that Jesus spoke carelessly and didn’t really mean all?  I must lift my head out of my own little universe and see the opportunities that the Lord has placed in my path.  I can do nothing without Him.  Sharing that testimony in these uncertain days is being a conduit of God’s light — His lighthouse — in a world that would want me to believe that all is lost!  Just before He died, Jesus said to His disciples and to me,

“I have much more to say to you, but right now it would be more than you could understand.  The Spirit shows what is true and will come and guide you into the full truth.  The Spirit doesn’t speak on his own.  He will tell you only what he has heard from me, and he will let you know what is going to happen.  The Spirit will bring glory to me by taking my message and telling it to you.  Everything that the Father has is mine.  That is why I have said that the Spirit takes my message and tells it to you…

I have told you this, so that you might have peace in your hearts because of me.  While you are in the world, you will have to suffer.  But cheer up!  I have defeated the world.”       John 16:12-15, 33 (CEV)

As we pray each day, let us remember always to pray through to the victory that has already been won!

Posted in John, Psalms | Comments Off on Peace, Peace, God’s Peace

Resolution: I resolve to know that I am Created and I am Ransomed!

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Jody Neufeld

(Reprinted with permission of Henry Neufeld, 12/29/05)

5What is mankind that you remember them?

Or human beings that you pay attention to them?

6But you made them a little lower than God,
And crowned them with glory and honor.
7You made them rule over the works of your hands.
You put everything under their feet.  Psalm 8:5-7 (TFBV)

4Now when the time was fully right, God sent his son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5So he could ransom those who were under the law so they could be adopted as children. 6Now because you are children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts with the cry, “Abba, Father!” 7So that you are no longer a slave, but a child, and if you are a child, you are also an heir through God.  Galatians 4:4-7 (TFBV)

It’s coming up on New Year’s Day, and many of us will be making some resolutions.  Some of those will mean a change in our lives.  Others will be forgotten within days, or perhaps even within hours.  I think the practice of making resolutions is, on balance, a good one.  Times of commemoration and renewal are good for us, though it might be better if we had them more often, and were more careful to remember them between.

But the question I want to suggest to you in this last devotional before New Year’s is this:  What kind of resolution is appropriate to a child of the king?

While you’re thinking about that, consider something else.  Tonight, my wife and I were watching “Criminal Minds” on CBS.  The story was about a kidnapping.  A father almost eagerly gathers $500,000 as ransom for his daughter so he can buy her back.  He’s willing to do anything that the criminal wants, if only he can recover his daughter alive.  When a ransomed child comes home, she will have a new idea of her value to those who love her.

And that’s where our second passage comes in.  We are not only children of the king by birth; we are children of the king by ransom.  We were separated from our heavenly parent and under the power of an enemy.  Then God came and got us.  Think about it.  He paid a ransom. He’d already told us how much we were worth (Psalm 8), but later he demonstrated that he really meant it.  We’ve had two demonstrations of his love—he created us and he ransomed us.

Now, what kind of New Year’s resolution is appropriate to a child of the king?

Some of you are likely thinking things like dedicating your time and resources to God’s work, spending more time with God, or answering God’s call in some new way.  All of these may well be really good things.  Those may be some things God wants you to do.  But don’t stop with the things that sound pious.

You’re a child of the king!  You’re the heir of the guy who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), not to mention the hills themselves and everything under and over them!  Shouldn’t that change your thinking?

I think it should!  Think of resolutions that are appropriate to such an heir.  Join me in resolving to accomplish more, to set goals in my personal life, business, and ministry that are suitable to what a royal heir would try to set.

Resolve to live like you have “all things under your feet!”

Note from Jody: “See you next year!”

Posted in Galatians, Psalms | 3 Comments