WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
…”Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:13-16
In a region north of Galilee called Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked His disciples a question; “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They reported the answer to Jesus, “They say you are John the Baptist…or Elijah or…one of the other prophets.” They basically told Jesus that He got lumped in with all the other prophets with no mention of His unique character and purpose. The answer to that question today from people in general could be similar, “He was a great man…a great prophet and teacher…” To many I think Jesus does not stand apart from the other central personalities of the major religions, like Moses, Buddha, and Mohamed as particularly unique. He gets lumped.
But then Jesus makes it personal, like He always does; “But who do you say that I am?” …ah, now he gets to the real crux and truth of the matter as to who He is, because regardless of popular opinion, or who the scholars, theologians, or philosophers say that Jesus is, Jesus wants to know on a personal level who we say He is. Who do we believe Jesus really is by a simple declaration of our faith? He wants to know if He’s going to stand alone as the central focus of our life and worship, or is He going to get lumped into all the other things, and people in our lives that clamor for prominence.
Peter answers the question without hesitance or contemplation, like he was reporting a simple fact that was as common and known as breathing in air… “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” This was declaration that was first made with his lips, and then in time was backed by his heart and his actions. But the declaration was made.
The question remains for all of us, “Who do we say that Jesus is?” It is not a question that can be asked and answered only once, but in everyday and in every circumstance. If I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, then that belief and power must be demonstrated in my life, and in the life of the church I serve, every moment of everyday. It must affect how I see and treat others. It must have influence over the decisions I make. It must be seen in me. If I declare it with my lips, I desire for it to be demonstrated in the fruit of my life. The last thing I want is for Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God, to be seen as something that is just lumped in with everything else that I do.
Who do you say Jesus is? As we approach this season where we prepare to remember and meditate on the life, ministry, and passion of Jesus, Who do you say Jesus is? I hope and pray that all of us can stand and declare with true conviction in one voice with Peter, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God!”
Blessings, Pastor Joel
A LETTER THAT JESUS MIGHT HAVE WRITTEN TO JOSEPH
Dear Pop,
I really didn’t get to say good-bye to you. You died before I or anyone could do anything to help you. You woke early before the rest of us to work on that table for mother. We found you with a planer in hand slumped over the finished project. You always wanted to give your family your very best. The table is proof.
That was last year and now as I begin to do what I was put on this earth to accomplish, I wanted to make sure you knew how thankful I was for you. In case you didn’t know it, ABBA picked the right father for me while I was here. To you it must have been a huge responsibility to raise the Son of God to manhood, but you done good Pop. You taught me a lot about seeing a job through to the end, even when the knots of the wood would work against your best efforts. You also taught me that the joy of a job well done is like no other feeling on earth. Even now I can see your hands running gently over a finished piece as if you were blessing it for the use it would have ahead of it… like I felt you bless me so many times.
History and the world will know you as Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth, and as the husband of Mary. But you were so much more. To me you will always be my Pop.
I know it was isn’t easy for you to see your beloved wife give birth to her first born which wasn’t yours, but in my whole life you never treated me like I wasn’t. When my life was in danger before it hardly begun, you saved me, you saved us all. Maybe that’s where I get the courage and resolve to do what I know I must to save everyone. You demonstrated what that looks like in a man.
So Pop I know you you’re with ABBA now, and no doubt you are quite pleased with each other… In a real human way I want to make you both proud. I will give this letter to Mama before I leave, because mother’s like this sort of thing… She misses you so much you know.
Thank you Joseph… thank you for loving my Mother so well… thanks for your willingness to be a part of my story… thanks for loving me… thanks for being my Pop… thanks for everything.
Love, Jesus (Josh)
A HERO GOES HOME
Just a few hours into the day after Veterans Day, a Hero took his last breath and slipped away into the arms of Jesus. If Dick Taylor knew I was writing these words about him, he would be modest and a little embarrassed by my reference to him as a hero. But in the few months I have known him, that’s what he was to me.
I met Dick on February 19, 2011, in his home where the pulpit committee of the First Baptist Church of Palos Verdes was gathering to interview my wife and me, to decide if they wanted me to be their Pastor. Dick was just recovering from a wicked bout of pneumonia, but his weakened state could not hide the kindness in his eyes and the strength of his love for Christ. My wife Sue and I were immediately drawn to him. I actually think we were meeting the nicest guy in world.
I had the joy of being Dick Taylor’s pastor for just over four months. He had been a member of the church longer than anybody, and was currently serving as a member of the Elder Board and the Financial Secretary. Each Sunday when it came to the Prayer for the offering, Dick would stand and read a prayer he had meticulously written for that moment. He wanted to get it right. I think he thought that it was the least he could do for the Lord, and that God deserved his very best.
It was almost by accident that I discovered Dick was a veteran of World War II. I didn’t think he was that old, I mean he was just too sharp to be 86. Not only was he a veteran, but also a survivor of a German POW camp. Dick was captured on December 19, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge, and at age 19, spent the duration of the war as a laborer for his captors with barely enough warmth and food to sustain him. But Dick emerged from that trial with knowledge of God’s sustaining love that he hadn’t had before, a knowledge that would support him for the rest of his life, even when facing the deaths of his beloved wife Polly, and his daughter Nancy.
When I think of Dick, I think of Jesus. When I would meet with Dick I felt the gentleness and goodness of Christ about him. I often told him that when I grew up I wanted to be like him, probably because he was very much like Christ especially when it really counted. He loved his family, he loved his church, he loved his friends, and he loved his Lord. He was quiet,
dignified and unassuming, but everyone who knew him, knew him as a dear friend.
He is a Hero not because of World War II, but because of who he was in Christ. The fruit of his life was a testimony to Jesus everyday.
I wonder as he took his last breath and began to experience the joys of eternity and a reunion with Polly and Nancy, if he realized how much he would be missed by his family and the rest of us he left behind. Did he know of our love for him? Did he know the difference he made in all our lives? I would hope so.
On November 12, 2011, God took a Hero home to be with Him and we are glad for Dick…but he will be missed.
Blessings, Pastor Joel
CLAMMORING AFTER GOD
“…Out of the mouths of children, He has ordained Praise.” (Matthew 22:16)
CLAMMORING AFTER GOD
Our train arrived at 4:00 in the morning at the Dahmo station, in central India. The Indian Missionaries and Evangelists who we came to minister and visit with, arranged rooms for us in the Children’s Home, which was a part of their overall ministry. After the 13 hour train ride I was anxious to settle into my room and climb into a real bed, that didn’t move.
The Children’s Home was constructed with marble floors, a building material of moderate price readily available in India. As we drove up in the dark with a brightly lit cross at the top of the home, and marble everywhere it reminded me of a palace, or a temple if you will.
As quickly as I could, I settled into my room, and eventually into bed. I was asleep for what seemed to be only minutes, when I was awakened abruptly by a clamor of children’s voices echoing off the marble floors. It sounded as if they were in the room with me they were so loud. I lay there in the pre-dawn dark just listening to them. In any other situation I would have been cranky about being rattled out of a sound sleep, but I found myself smiling as I heard them greet their day, and one another with so much loud, laughter and delight. It was truly a noisy, joyful noise.
I listened in bed till the sun came up. When I couldn’t resist any longer I went to the door in my flip flops, Spiderman lounge pants, Superman T-shirt, and ball cap. I slowly poked my head out of the door so as not to scare or startle them away as if they were deer fleeing a stranger in the woods. Instead they saw me and with smiles on their faces greeted me with one of the nicest, sweetest, and loudest “Good mornings” I have ever received.
Soon I was surrounded by little boys who were curious, and delighted by my attire. They called me “Superman,” and they talked to me all at once in broken English. There was something else they kept calling me “Bia (Bee-a)” which I found out later meant ‘brother’ in Hindi. Soon with my new little brothers my joy too became a part of the clamor.
As I wrote in my journal later that morning and reflected on the children, I asked God a curious question, “Is that what you want from me Lord, to clamor after you with delight and abandon like those boys?” His answer filled my spirit with a resounding ‘Yes!’
Then I thought of Jesus and the children in Matthew 22:15-16, they too made a clamor that echoed off the marble floors of the Temple. Proper religious folks told Jesus to tell them to pipe down. Jesus told them that they didn’t get it, “That out of the mouths of children, God has adorned praise.” Jesus let them clamor on with their Praises and Hosannas to Him, and I know he was as delighted with them as I was with the children of Dahmo.
It is my prayer that I don’t get so ‘grown up’ in my praise to God, that I forget to clamor after Him in the sheer delight that He is my Heavenly Father, and that He loves me so much. I want to love Him back as loudly as I can!
Blessings, Pastor Joel
GRABBING A HOLD OF GOD
“But Jacob said ‘I will not let you go unless You bless me” Genesis 32: 22-32
There are a lot of ways people pray; eyes closed, eyes open, mouth open, mouth closed, hands up, hands down, hands together, hands apart, hands folded, kneeling, sitting, standing, lying on our front, lying on our back, lying in the pew. There are silent prayers, noisy prayers, preachy prayers, liturgical prayers, and sentence prayers. Whatever the words whatever the way, prayers are our attempt to get God’s attention, as if His attention was not already fixed upon us.
In the story of Jacob wrestling with God, in the book of Genesis, we see another way to pray, although it may not fit into the conventional forms of prayer you and I may use. But make no mistake Jacob is praying. His hands were not folded in reverence, but his arms were wrapped around the presence of God. His knees weren’t bent in pious devotion, but his legs were poised to obtain the advantage over his wrestling opponent. And through the grunts of physical exertion in holding on to God with all his might, Jacob declares he will not let him go“…unless You bless me!”
Leave it to Jacob to be so bold as to wrestle with God. The audacity of it all, to actually demand a blessing from the creator of the universe! But my imagination quickens at the idea of the thrill of grabbing a hold of God, and hanging on for dear life. Wow!
Perhaps this story is in the Bible as an invitation for us to do that very thing in our prayer life with God. To strip away the convention of what we know about prayer and go toe to toe with Him who knows us best and loves us the most. It invites us to not keep God at a safe, arm’s length distance. It encourages us to have the audacity to draw Him as close we can into our lives, every time we go to prayer. It offers us the opportunity to ask or to even demand from God a blessing.
But there is a warning that comes with the Jacob way of praying. We will come away from the encounter different, changed. For Jacob, after his experience with the Lord, change meant he would never walk the same again, and he had a new name, Israel. Our prayers should have the expectation that they are going to be life changing for us or for somebody else.
When Jesus says; “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8)
He is letting us know that God wants to be involved with every part of our lives. He wants to bless us. He wants to give us our hearts desire. He wants to be with us. We may not wrestle with God the way Jacob did, but we can seek a deeper intimacy with Him in prayer that lets us grab ahold of Him, and hopefully never let Him go. Believe it or not God wants us to grab a hold of Him and never let go.
Blessings, Pastor Joel
MAKING SAIL
HMS Victory
I love tall Ships. I love reading about tall ships. I love seeing pictures and images of wooden ships at sea with their pyramid of sails billowed out by the power of the wind. Even with sails furled these ships are a thing of great beauty to me.
I have a picture in my office of the HMS Victory, which Sue and I had the pleasure of visiting in 2005. As I look at the picture, I remember the excitement I had in being able to stand on the deck of that great ship. I marveled at the miles of rope that wove across her spars and over my head, their ultimate purpose and function a mystery to me but not to the sailors who once wielded them.
The Victory was made almost entirely of wood, an engineering marvel of her day. She carried over 100 cannons on three gun decks, and it took over 800 men to sail her when she was at sea or in the midst of battle. She has been restored to resemble her days of glory just prior to the battle of Trafalgar, with one exception, there are no sails hanging from her spars. The Victory isn’t going anywhere.
I love the Church of Jesus Christ. I often liken it to a tall ship. I am thrilled at having an opportunity to stand again if you will on a ‘deck’ as the Pastor of this church. I am excited about our future, and where God is going to lead us. We are a good church. We have great destinations ahead of us. But like a beautiful tall ship we can never get there under our own power. Like a sailing ship needs the wind to get under way, the Church needs the Spirit of God to get where He has destined us to go, and if our sails are left furled we will never catch the winds of His Spirit.
We are on a new journey together, and claim God’s promise in Ezekiel that He has given us a New Spirit, a fresh wind if you will. We catch the wind of God’s Spirit by unfurling our sails in prayer and letting His Spirit fill us and stretch us like the canvas on a tall ship. Just like those great vessels need more than one sail to be at their best, it will take all of us waiting on God in prayer for our church to be what God has called us to be.
Our ‘Captain’ is Jesus. We have His orders in hand ‘Go…and make disciples… (Matthew 28:19).’ Our station is the peninsula of Palos Verdes. Let’s all obey the orders of our beloved Captain and ‘Make Sail,’ and let’s start moving towards our destiny together.
Blessings,
Pastor Joel
