John Stuart's Blog

Midweek Message: Making Mistakes

Colossians 1:13-14 For he has rescued us fromthe dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (NIV)

              Youand I are going to make mistakes during the coming New Year. We’re going to saysomething we regret. We may do something that will disappoint or hurt others. We’llprobably let pride overtake our spirits and allow impatience to damage our hearts,minds, bodies, and souls, as well as our relationship with God and others.

              Weconstantly make mistakes because we are human and far from being perfect. Wecan try our best to avoid these sinful things with prayer, meditation, and patience,but then, just when we expect it the least, someone will say or do something toannoy us and before we know it, we will stumble down that old familiar roadwhich causes us to find faults in others and do something wrong in return.Sadly, we may quickly experience regret, guilt, or even shame which could leaveus isolated, ornery, and perhaps even alone.

              Despiteour continuous faults, God will not leave us there to woefully marinate in ourmistakes. The Lord has redeemed us from all of these things in the past. We mayhave our flaws, but God will still forgive us. Long ago at Calvary, Jesus diedfor every wrong thing that we do, or have done, or have still to do, so He willforgive us if we take time to sincerely come to Christ and humbly ask toreceive His pardon and grace.

              Friends,we will all make mistakes during the coming year, but Christ will also be withus, too, when we need Him most to grant us mercy, grace, renewal, and hope.

Prayer: Lord God, in the past You constantly allowed Your sinful people to be restoredto Your sacred presence by loving them continuously, despite their faults andfailings. We now know that Christ sacrificed Himself for us, so we may also berescued from our guilt and despair, our mistakes and sins. Thank You for thesegracious blessings of love and restoration which mean so much to us every dayof every year. In Jesus’ Name, we thankfully pray. Amen.

Pastor John

 

Psalm 4:8 In peace I will lie down and sleep,for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. (NIV)

     

Theother day I heard a simple short prayer to ask of God each night. It comes fromthe Cistercian monastery tradition which the monks recite just before theirnighttime prayers end. It goes like this:

     “OLord, grant me a restful night and a peaceful day.”

    It’s a beautiful prayer and onewhich I need every single day, especially during these turbulent and tryingtimes. The words quietly remind me that God watches over us all through thenight when we sleep and also seeks to support us during each moment of the day.Getting enough sleep is a problem for most people, so perhaps praying thisshort prayer will enable us to place our hearts and minds, bodies and soulsinto God’s hands until we wake in the morning.

     

I think that the writer of thefourth psalm also experienced this blessing. His nightly surrender into thearms of God enabled him to let go of his daily worries and troubles, in orderto be comforted and strengthened by God each night.

     

So, whatever you’re facingtoday, I hope that God grants you peace and when it comes to lying downtonight, may your sleep be restful and your dreams be full of bliss.

 

God bless you all.

 

Proverbs 28:19           He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one whochases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

Years ago, I used to watch a TV show called“My World and Welcome to It,” starring William Windom, one of my favoriteAmerican actors. Windom played a cartoonist called John Monroe and thestorylines of each episode were crafted around short stories written byAmerican humorist and cartoonist James Thurber. In fact, it was James Thurber’scartoons that peaked my interest in drawing.

In the show, John Monroe often resorted tofantasy and created cartoons in his head to deal with the issues and problemshe was facing. It was a fascinating way to bring solutions to his family’sdifficulties and everything was usually neatly resolved by the end of the30-minute show. It was pure escapism and moralistic entertainment, but it wasonly comedic drama and could not be counted upon as a real way of dealing withpersonal issues or family problems. 

The gift of imagination that God has given eachof us can be a blessing or a disappointment. We can fantasize about beingsuccessful, rich, and famous; we can even draw on paper or make cartoons in ourheads about experiencing health, wealth, and power, but unless we do somethingabout achieving those goals, they are just mere fantasies and unfulfilleddreams that disappear into thin air.

It's the same with our faith. Every day, weare given a new opportunity to do something better with our lives and makesomething beautiful for God. The potential is there and the dreams for doinggood are in our hearts and on our minds, but do we have the resolve to followthrough and fulfill them? As Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the GreenBay Packers once said: “The difference between a successful personand others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather alack of will.” 

So, the challenge for us today is this: willwe work more with our faith and share Christ’s love, or just dream and fantasizeabout it?

Prayer:              Lord Jesus, You fully know what ourlife’s potential is. There are things that You would have us accomplish thisweek for Your Kingdom. Help us to focus on what we need to do to fulfill thetasks of faith You constantly set before us. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

PastorJohn

 

Psalm55:22 Cast your cares on the Lord and God will sustain you;

The Lord will never let the righteous be shaken. (NIV)

EverybodyI know has a care, worry, anxiety, or burden that they carry each day. Beinghuman, we experience a lot of stress trying to endure these critical times.Sometimes our cares are about family or friends who are ill, injured, or havingissues. Other times, our burdens are for the world we live in, because of wars,famines, and natural disasters.

Today’shighlighted Bible verse reminds people of faith that God helps us to endureeach day, each crisis, and each critical time. We are not left on our own orabandoned to the whims of capricious leaders or unexpected events. God’spurpose for the world cannot be thwarted; God’s justice in the world willprevail. As the old saying goes, “Kingdoms may rise and leaders may fall,but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Whateveryou are currently experiencing or going through, please know that God ismindful of what’s happening and can still be relied upon in the midst of yourtroubles, worries, and problems. As the wise psalmist wrote long ago, “Castyour cares on God and the Lord will sustain you.”

Pointto ponder: What burdens am I carrying right now? Am I willing to share them andfully hand them over to God?

Prayer:Lord God, You know everything about us – our weaknesses and worries, ourconcerns and circumstances, our anxieties and issues. Help us to place them, aswell as ourselves, into Your loving hands. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen.

John8:31-32 To those who had previously believed Him, Jesus said, “If you holdto my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know thetruth, and the truth will set you free.” (NIV)

Jesusfaced a lot of opposition throughout His ministry, especially from some of Hisearliest followers who eventually decided to walk away from Him. In doing so,they rejected His teaching which was based on truth and love, and then they fiercelyconfronted Him with their doubts about His character, as well as their own retrenchedbeliefs.

Christ’struth challenged His people, just as it still does for all who call themselvesChristians today. He never said that believing in Him or following His way wasgoing to be easy, but He did insist that what He was preaching and teaching wasthe God-given truth. People back then relied on many of their traditions andsacred texts to formulate their own ideas about what was important and true.When Jesus brought a new understanding of what those traditions and texts reallymeant, His ideas were initially treated as being novel and inventive, buteventually they were seen as being too radical and dangerous for regularreligious people.

We arestill faced with the same challenges, especially in our truth-forsaken societywhich relies more on what we feel rather than what is factual. A culture whichinsists that what people feel to be true as more important thanwhat is actually true, can be easily manipulated by charlatans and liars,conmen and fanatics. Such a society enslaves itself to the whims and wiles oftotalitarian leaders, as well as their henchmen and women, whose only purposeis to increase their power by spreading lies, causing chaos, creating division,and fomenting fear. This is why Jesus taught both His supporters and opponentsthat knowing the truth was essential to their freedom – lies took away theirliberty whereas the truth kept them free.

Pointto ponder: How does Christ’s truth constantly challenge me?

Prayer:Lord Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life which we all should seekand emulate. Forgive us for being duped by leaders who lie. Help us to followand practice Your teaching which counters fear with faith and lies with love.In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

JohnStuart is a Scottish Presbyterian pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Psalm67:4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peopleswith equity and guide the nations of the earth.

There is alot of fabricated controversy surrounding the term DEI which stands forDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Some folks get really incensed when they seethose letters or feel that their white privileged position is threatened simplybecause others who are different are getting more opportunities to better theirlives. Rather than allow others the chance to raise themselves up from poverty,depravity, and ignorance, those who are angry about DEI are trying to eradicateit entirely to secure their own entitled position.

‘Equity’is a Biblical word and reveals to us that our Creator – who loves the diversityof people and included the whole world in the plan of salvation – treats us notjust equally, but with equity which means that when it comes to judging humanbeings, God takes their backgrounds and circumstances into account. If God wasto purely treat us on an equal basis, then those with privilege, power, andprestige would have an advantage. Equity is why Christ sees the poor widow’stwo pennies as being infinitely of more worth in the Temple offering than the pre-calculated,restricted, and designated portions which the rich and powerful gave.

So, forthose of you who are furious about DEI and seek to destroy it, let me seriouslycaution you: God created and still sustains a diverse world whichthe Lord rules with equity and includes everyone in everlasting love. Are yougoing to foolishly try to take that away from God as well? By the way, if youneed an easy reminder, the old Latin phrase for ‘the image of God’ which we allhave been graciously given, is ‘Imago DEI.’

Pointto ponder: Why did God make such a diverse world? How inclusive is God’s love?

Prayer:Lord God, You created a wonderful world full of diverse beings, made in Yourimage and sustained by Your love. Help us to let go of greed and resentment,jealousy and bigotry which have no place under Your domain, Your sovereignty,Your rule. In Christ’s Name, we pray. Amen

 

JohnStuart is a retired Scottish pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.

MidweekMessage – Winging It

Psalm57:1      Have mercy on me, O God, havemercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadowof your wings until the disaster has passed.

I canremember my old pastor preaching part of this psalm to me when I was abouttwelve years old. It left me confused, not because of what he said, which wasall about security and refuge in God, but because of the mistaken image that I hadconcocted from what the psalmist wrote. You see I tried to picture God havingwings, but I couldn’t decide whether they were the soft, white wings like adove, or the mighty, golden wings of an eagle.

My problemarose because I was trying to interpret the Bible verse literally. I got sohung up on picturing g the image that I missed what was really important in thepsalm – that of knowing God as my refuge in times of trouble.

I alsofell for the same mistake when I was at seminary. This time it wasn’t the wingsthat caused my confusion, it was the shadow of the wings. I reasoned that inorder for a shadow to be produced, light has to be behind and above the objectin order to cast it on the ground. “How could anything be above and behindGod?” I argued. Again, I was taking the text too literally and just using itfor the sake of debating with my professors and peers.

The Biblehelps us to understand about who God is and how He intervenes in our lives. However,if we take the scriptures too literally, as in the case of this image, then we willmiss the point altogether. The Bible guides us towards God and reveals to usHis plan of salvation through Christ. It is sacred and gives us a betterunderstanding of the holiness, power, and grace of God, but the Bible is notmeant to be fanatically idolized or worshiped like God.

Pointto ponder: What biblical images of God mean something special to me?

Prayer: Lord God, when we take refuge in the shadow ofYour wings, we know that it means we can find a haven and sanctuary in You. Aswe rely upon You for everything in our lives, encourage us to read more fromthe Bible, so that we can learn more about You in order to faithfully andthankfully worship You. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.

JohnStuart is a Scottish Presbyterian pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.

ForSuch a Time as This

2Samuel 22:31   This God—his way is perfect; the word of theLORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. (ESV) 

Insuch a time as this, it’s difficult to keep believing that things will getbetter. Our current leaders are obsessed with breaking everything within a fewmonths that took decades to fight for and achieve. Our Civil Rights have notjust been challenged, they have been intentionally diminished with the solepurpose of destroying them forever. This political subjugation andmarginalization of minorities is being ruthlessly pursued by those who hate diversity,equity, and inclusion. They now brazenly oppress people who are different becauseof their race, gender, orientation, or origin rather than share power,prosperity, or prestige. They seek to protect their privileges rather thandiminish their elitism. 

Theyalso use the old reactionary mechanism of ‘divide and conquer’ by pitting oneless powerful group against another. We see this all over Appalachia inimpoverished and isolated places that are full of people who keep voting inrepresentatives and leaders who do nothing to improve their communities, but aslong as they are sticking it to the other side, then Appalachians will just putup with the hardship they endure. It’s sad to see so many rural communities whofall into this Machiavellian manipulation. Their elected officials couldn’tcare less about diminishing USAID or FEMA, even though it’s their constituents –farmers, miners, and rural workers whose lives are shortened, whose children’seducation is diminished, and whose economies will hardly improve. Their electedleaders can send their kids to private schools, receive gifts and bribes fromlobbyists, and end up rich, famous, and financially secure. In private, theseappointed representatives are both laughing at their poor misguided andmisinformed voters, as well as all the way to the bank. 

Justlike generations before us, the only way to improve our rights is to fight forthem, to speak out for the voiceless, and stand up for the marginalized. Thingswill never get better if we acquiesce to the arrogance, bigotry, and hatred ofthose in power. It will take courage and determination to oppose those who seekto divide, diminish, and conquer. It will also require us to confront the vastamount of falsehood and lies that our leaders, representatives, and spokespeopleconstantly spew. If we align ourselves to the truth, then we are allyingourselves to God and the goodness He seeks for people on earth, as well as ournation. It will not be easy, but then again, fighting for freedom and livingfor liberty has always been difficult. 

MayGod bless us all as we stand for the truth in the Lord’s love, which isabundantly diverse, sacredly equitable, and graciously inclusive.

PastorJohn

 

 

Psalm 51:10   Createin me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (NIV)

 

Have you ever seen the oldFrench film called ‘The Red Balloon’? It was made in Paris a year before I wasborn and tells the tale of a young boy who is befriended by a red balloon. Theballoon and the boy become inseparable, and it follows him all over the streetsof Paris. The film only lasts about 35 minutes, and it has been my favoritemovie ever since I first saw it as a young lad.

 

The film depicts bothhappiness and sadness in simple ways and even when a tragedy occurs, there is awonderful sequence of hope being renewed at the end of the movie. As I writethis devotion, I can still see the beautiful conclusion in my mind’s eye. Iwon’t give it away – you’ll have to watch the movie yourself and be pleasantlycaptivated by it.

 

Sometimes I think that ourindividual lives are movies that only God can see. He knows all of the thingsthat we have done, the moments that have impacted us deeply, the joys we haveexperienced and the sadnesses that we still carry. There is nothing hidden fromGod, so He could be justified in separating Himself from us after death, butinstead He wants to give us a beautiful conclusion where we become reunited andrestored to Him forever. That’s why King David, in today’s highlighted verse,prayed to God to clean his heart and renew his spirit: he wanted that beautifulconclusion which only God’s grace and forgiveness could bring.

 

Perhaps you feel as thoughyou’ve done something which will separate you from God. Maybe you have a deepregret about a deed that has caused some distance between you and God. If so,then please know this – God can and will forgive you, just by asking Him to doso, even now as you read this. As the apostle Paul once wrote long ago: ‘ForI am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neitherthe present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love ofGod that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ – Romans 8:38-39.

 

Point to ponder: Am Iwilling to hand over my regrets to the Lord and be cleansed with God’s Love?

 

Prayer: Lord God, createclean hearts within us and renew our spirits this day. In Jesus’ Name, we pray.Amen.

 

PS: If you’ve neverseen it, you can freely view the movie online at this link: The Red Balloon.

 

 

John Stuart is a ScottishPresbyterian pastor, now living in Knoxville, TN.

Psalm46:10 "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among thenations, I will be exalted in the earth." (NIV)

            It's hard to know what to pray forthese days. There are so many different areas of need and conflict in the worldthat it is difficult to focus and concentrate on what’s really important.Whether it is lives lost through war, property damaged by hurricanes, or politicalintrigue and hostility, there just seems to be so much pain, chaos, andsuffering in the world that it overwhelms even the strongest of Christians.

            In my study, I have a small pictureof Abraham Lincoln that someone gave me when I first came to the United States.Below the portrait, there is a sentence that Lincoln wrote during the CivilWar. Whenever I get dismayed with what's happening in the world, I look acrossmy desk and think about these words from Lincoln:

"Iknow that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constantanxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."         

            In the midst of all that'shappening, we need to remember that God is right in the middle of all of this,working out His plans to thwart evil, and lead Christ’s church to overcomesuffering. God’s side is the best side, so we should surrender our prayers, ouranxieties, and concerns into the Lord’s will. When we do that, God will guideus about what to focus on, what to pray for, and what to do.

Pointto ponder: How can I align myself with God’s compassion, love, and will?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You suffered an agonizing, painfuland shameful death, which broke God's heart and yet it healed the world. Intimes like these, we need Your guidance, Your goodness, and Your grace torestore our hope, faith, and confidence in God's plan for the world. Be with usnow and lead us. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

JohnStuart is a Scottish Presbyterian pastor now living in Knoxville, Tennessee.