For to me, to live is Christ

Philippians 1:21 (NIV)
²¹ For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I like to be happy, and lots of things can make me happy.  Spending time with my wife, children and grandchildren makes me happy.  Ice cream can make me happy.  I'm happy when I'm on vacation in Nova Scotia where my everyday concerns seem so far away.

I think we would all agree that given the right circumstances or situation, or flavor of Four Seas ice cream, it is easy for us to find happiness.

I drafted the opening paragraph on the evening of July 25th before going to bed to reflect on the character of Paul who despite his situation (imprisonment) found great joy in Christ. (Phil. 1:21)

What about me?  Can I make that same statement?  I want to say, "Well, yeah.  Of course, it's true."

But on the evening of July 26 my situation changed.  I wasn't thinking of ice cream or vacations.  I was in the hospital awaiting emergency eye surgery.  I was thinking, "What's going on?  Will I get my sight back?  Will it hurt?"

In those hours I could claim the sufficiency of Christ, but it was in the back of my mind and I kept having to bring it forward.  Calmness and fear kept passing by me like two very different looking horses on a carousel.

A second, more involved operation was required a week later.  The healing process involves some pain and discomfort, even though the original symptoms were painless.  It involves some discipline.  Following the doctor's orders is not easy.  More procedures are required in the coming months.

A dear friend of mine has asked and will ask again, "So what has God been talking to you about during this time?"

So today, August 28th, here is my answer.  God has given me the precious gift of time alone with Him.  I have never fully appreciated how precious it is.  I am His child despite the fact that in so many ways I am not like Him.  He loves me enough to not let me stay the way I am, but in His time with me He desires to shape my heart to be like His.  He is not finished with me.  There is still work to be done.

Like Paul, I want a heart that prays for my brothers and sisters.  I want for them what Christ wants for them; hearts that abound in love, in real knowledge and all discernment, so that they may discover and approve the things that are excellent, so that they may be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.  I want for them to be filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes from Christ to the glory and praise of God. (Phil 1:9-11)

I want that heart.  I need that heart.

I want and need people to pray that prayer for me.  I am so grateful for a friend who keeps asking, "What is God talking to you about?"  I desperately need that.  Please keep asking.

For to me, to live is Christ.

This Place of Highest Privilege.

Romans 5:1-5 (NLT)
¹ Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. ² Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. ³ We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure. ⁴ And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. ⁵ And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.




Lynne and I are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary.  We will be celebrating with our kids and grandchildren in Pawtucket, RI at a PawSox game sandwiched within a Christian music festival.  It's so us!  Still crazy after all these years!  How ironic.  Our first date was to a Christian music event.  We were very young then, and in love.  We pretend to believe we're still young, no doubt we are still in love.

I truly believe God brought us together.  Lynne grew up in a wonderfully devoted Christian family.  I grew up in a good home with very little religious exposure.  Lynne led me to the Lord when I was 18.  We were both 20 years old when we married.

The verse above was the theme verse for our wedding.  Lynne and I had met each other a little over three years earlier and already the Lord had done so many wonderful things in our lives.  We believed then that through our common faith God had brought us to that place of high privilege, the wedding altar.  We took nothing for granted, but stood in awe of Him as we exchanged our vows of devotion and commitment to one another before our Saviour, our families and our friends.

We knew we would have days not nearly as wonderful as that one.  We knew there would be trials and difficulties.  But we knew that together with God we would grow through these trials.  We knew He would never leave us or forsake us, because He loved us.  We knew that wherever Christ was, regardless of circumstance, that was a place of highest privilege.

Christ himself modeled what our relationship should be.  I am told in Scripture to love Lynne as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her in order to make her holy and clean.  I surrender myself to her in order present her before God and others as beautiful and holy.  Likewise Scripture tells us that she is to be submissive to me as she would to the Lord.  But before that we are told to submit to one another in reverence to Christ. In a nutshell, we give ourselves to each other as we give ourselves together to Christ.  God promises to fill our hearts with His love.

Christ in all his teaching emphasized humility and servant hood.  My family and friends, contrary to the world's thinking, that is where God gives us strength and blessing.  We serve God as we serve one another.  God is present in this act of worship.  That is a place of highest privilege.

Sacred Time - Sacred Place

Psalms 3:1-5 (NIV) ¹ O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! ² Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." Selah ³ But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. ⁴ To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah ⁵ I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.


In my Bible the subtitle for Psalm 3 is A Psalm of David.  When he fled from his son Absalom.  This Psalm is a lament.

I was recently getting caught up on the life and current events of a dear brother in Christ.  What he was going through was astonishing.  It was a convergence of terrible things.  If you were to write down a list of what was going on in his life,  your response would be, "That can't be.  That's terrible."  Many would feel crushed under the weight of worry and confusion.

However, my brother's response was a tremendous blessing to me.  Was he looking for escape from this situation?  While he probably would welcome escape, he was not looking for it.  Was he wondering where God was in the midst of all this?  No.  Was he questioning how God could do this to him?  Not at all.

He told me that this time in his life was sacred.  He said he couldn't really say it was a blessing.  He said it was sacred.  A sacred time.  A sacred place in his life.  My brother's response reflects verses 4 and 5, "⁴ To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah ⁵ I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. "

Paul Tripp, author, seminary professor, Executive Director of the Center for Pastoral Life in Fort Worth, Texas and a member of the pastoral staff of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia has said, "God will take you where you would not choose to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own." 

I believe my brother would agree with this statement and welcomes what God is doing in his life, even though the situation is difficult and overwhelming. I also believe that, in time, he will also realize the blessing of God.

Wherever God is, that is where I want to be, too.  The sacred place.

My Heart: Clean or Cluttered

Psalms 51:10-12 (AMP)
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.


Left to my own devices, I can fill my life with clutter.  Some clutter you can see; like my desktop at work, or the room we call the Red Sox room in our apartment.  It's where the TV is. It's where I spend time watching the beloved Red Sox.  My computer is there, my iPod, the Wii video game that my kids gave me for Christmas.  Give me just a few minutes in there and I can fill it with clutter.

Fun toys provide hours of enjoyment for me.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with that.  However, they can also distract me from important things in life.  Like spending time with my God whom I love, and who loves me.  You see, there is spiritual clutter, too.

Some of the spiritual clutter I create, no one can see.  What are the things I find hard to give to the Lord if He were to ask me?  Worry, stress, my job, money, the acquisition of things, my problems, filling my life with busyness are all things that can clutter my heart.  They can become like idols before my face (see Ezekiel 14).  They can obscure my vision of God in my life.  Do I hold on to my problems instead of giving them to the Lord because I enjoy the attention I get?  Am I important?  Do people notice me?  Maybe I've discovered the biggest idol of all.  It's me!

Cleaning the clutter from my heart seems like too big a job for me to do alone.  Indeed it is.  David cried out to the Lord, "Create in me a clean heart."  "Renew a upright spirit in me."  "Restore to me the joy of your salvation." "Uphold me  with a willing spirit."

The heart is God's workplace.  He loves it when we invite Him in to do His work.

I had the privilege of preaching at New Testament Baptist Church on Sunday.  If God was glorified in the message, I am a happy man.  To hear it click on the link for New Testament Baptist Church.

May God bless!

It Takes Heart

1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)
⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."


I am sure I am not alone when I say that I was moved by the performance of Canadian Olympic figure skater Joannie Rochette.  To the casual observer who happened to walk by a bank of television sets on their way to the widget department at the local department store, they would have seen a talented female figure skater.  But to those who were following the story, they would have seen something entirely different.

Just two days before this performance in the pressure cooker of Olympic competition, Joannie's mother suddenly died.  Her mother had just arrived in Vancouver to watch her daughter perform.  So what I saw in Joannie Rochette was the heart of an Olympian.  What I saw was the heart of a courageous woman.  What I saw was a heart that was broken by grief.

God is more than a casual observer of the heart.  In Biblical terms the heart is "not only the center of all spiritual activity, but of all operations of the human life." (Easton's Bible Dictionary).  It is our innermost being. It is like the computer code that makes us do and say the things we do and say.  It is the place that God desires to dwell (1 Cor 3:16) and do His redemptive work.

We admire talented athletes.  We wish we could look as handsome or beautiful as the figure skaters we have watched on TV.  We wish we could benefit financially from endorsement contracts like Olympic medal winners.

But what would our lives look like if what rules our hearts is the overwhelming desire that everything we say and do is to glorify God?  How different would our lives look than they do right now?  Would our lives move people to seek God for themselves?

How Does He Do That?

Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NIV)
¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. ¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Life has a way of throwing all kinds of things at us.  Not all of it is good.  Whether we are saved or not our life is made up of blessings and trials.  It seems that our blessings and trials come in waves.  How often have we said, "This is too good to be true!"?  Probably not as often as we have said, "This is more than I can bear."

We live in a fallen world among fallen people.  Not to deny that there are people in our lives that are truly a blessing to us.  But on the whole, the world is broken and as a result we face trials.

Habakkuk lived in a world filled with sin and violence that seemed to go on unpunished.  He cries to the LORD, "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?  Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save?  Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?  Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds." (1:2-3).

God seemed distant.  When the LORD did answer, it was not what Habakkuk expected.  ""Look at the nations and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." (1:5).  God goes on to describe the unusual means by which He will bring judgement.  However, there is no outward promise of peace and tranquility here.

So how does he do it?  How does Habakkuk praise God in the midst of the destruction that is about to take place?

The answer is in how he chooses to respond to the situation.  He does not allow the situation to control him.  He chooses to find his joy in the LORD.  His peace comes in the confidence he has in the trustworthiness of his God.  His peace comes in his fellowship with the LORD.  His spirit is lifted in his words of praise to the God who loves him.

Habakkuk 3:18-19 (NIV)
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. ¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

Discern, Not Decide

Numbers 14:8-11 (NIV)
⁸ If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them." ¹⁰ But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. ¹¹ The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?

Last Sunday Pastor Karl Dyrli preached a challenging message from Number 13 & 14 on the difference between discerning the will of God and making a decision.

. He says on his blog, "In Numbers 13 and 14 we find the dramatic events at the edge of the promised land.  God told Moses to send 12 Israelite leaders into the new territory, a land that He was going to deliver to them.  When the 12 came back, ten had reasoned arguments why they should not advance into Canaan, while two claimed they should.  This is a prime example in which the majority doesn't, or shouldn't, rule.  Ten decided what they thought should be done.  Two correctly discerned the will of the Lord.

For all of God's people, our lives, our churches, our every choice is to be one of discerning His direction, not of deciding what we think should be done."


I encourage you to check out Karl's blog on the New Testament Baptist Church web site.  There you can listen to a podcast of Karl's message.  His message is timely for our church in this transition time as we consider who God has in mind for our next pastor.


You can also see what we might be up to at New Testament Baptist Church by going to http://nt-bc.org.  This web site is being constructed by the students of New Testament Christian School in Norton, MA.