Public life, inner life

Yesterday we heard the news that Jim Tessel resigned as Head Football Coach of Ohio State. The problem in my estimation is that the public life did not match the inner life. I follow Big Ten football and for year Tessel put forth this public image of being clean, honest and integrity. The last few months unfornuately a different picture is beginning to emerge which led to his resignation. The lesson for us as a believer is that I must spend time to take care of the inner life. All of us desire to look good and we have a tendency to be on our best behavior in public settings. This is not all bad but we must be careful we are not living two separate lives, one in the public, one in the private. Solomon gave us some great advice in Proverbs 4:23. "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." That is guarding our inner life. Who we really are will come out sooner or later and that usually will happen in stressful situations and in a unguarded moment we just did what we said we would not do. The key for that not happening is to prepare our heart with the knowledge and ways of God. I am encourage to hide God's word in my heart that I might not sin against Him. The goal of a believer is to have our public life and inner life be one and the same as a follower of Jesus Christ. What we are is to be plain before all men. This is the goal and is not easily obtain but with discipline and the power of the Spirit working in us is obtainable. This is one of the reason the apostle Paul said that he makes it his goal to please God and this was both in public and in private manners of life. May God give your strength in the inner man to live a life in which you will never have to be ashamed. May His grace strengthen us in our weaknesses.

Pastor John

The glory of God

There are various viewpoints on the presence of God and sadly some have just accepted that God is omnipresent which basicly means that God is everywhere all at the sam time. I believe that with all my God but there is available to the followers of Jesus Christ a tangible manifest presence of God. This is where God shows up in a special manner where the activity of God increases among all who are in that presence. This is also called the glory of God. God showed up to people throughout the Bible and whenever He did it was apparent that God was in the midst which caused a variety of reactions. When God lead the children of Israel out of Egypt this presence was seen as a cloud by day and fire by night. This brought fear to the Egyptians and comfort and direction for the Israel. Sunday night at Bethel we begin to see the glory of God and His presence was heavy in the room. All who were present lingered in the presence and longed for more of God. I believe that God is beginning to do a deep work in the hearts and lives of all who are willing to draw near to Him. If we seek Him we will be found by Him, Jer. 29:12-13. To experience God is to experience the essence of life and I desire to have an ever increasing the glory of God in ways that will change me so that I might please Him. I am confident of this 'we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living', Psalm 27:13. I encourage you to pray and seek Him. Expect God to show up everytime we meet together as His children. I look forward to what God is going to do among us this Sunday at Bethel A/G.
May God bless you and shine His face upon you.

Pastor John Backes

Experiencing God

There is a phrase in Acts 3:19 that is very interesting and encouraging. "times of refreshing may come from the Lord." This was stated to a crowd who had witnessed the healing of a crippled beggar. The apostle Peter was speaking and he was drawing their attention to Jesus Christ, He was the healer and had power to bring life physically and spiritually. Now let's look at the whole verse "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." In order for times of refreshing to come one must repent which is basically saying I confess my way is not working, I have sinned against God and now I am going to turn to God to do life His way. When a person is willing to do this it is within this context that times of refreshing will come from the Lord. Now we must look at this verse at face value which means: I can experience a refreshing in my life from the Lord over and over and over. This was never meant to be a one time experience but a continual refreshing of the Lord in your life. This Sunday (May 22) we are having Evangelist Mike Livengood and we are believing that there will be times of refreshing coming from the Lord. I encourage you to set aside this day and experience God in a fresh and powerful way. Let's us be willing to look at areas in our lives that has become dull and stale and then be willing to turn from how you have been doing life and be willing to turn to God and do life His way. Times of refreshing are coming from the Lord.

May God grant to you a fresh experience in the Lord.

Pastor John

Taking responsibility

On Sunday I spoke about being a person of influence. We can affect people for the good when we are aware of how to use our gifts and abilities for the good. The scriptures are constantly encouraging us to encourage others to do what is right and good. I believe that is vital and as we approach difficult times it will be even more important to encourage one another. Now after saying that I also want to turn the coin to the other side and make one simple point. I must take responsibility for my own spiritual growth and not be dependent on others. Jude 20-21 "But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." Now I am not saying encouragement from others is not important but I am saying that unless I take my own faith seriously and personally do certain things there is no amount of encouragement that will help you. These two things ought to be working together and not separately. I need to build myself up everyday. If I need someone to tell me what to do before I do the right thing when I get up in the morning it is no wonder that I will struggle on that day. The scripture says in Revelation 12:11 that I will overcome the enemy (devil) when I make a confession of faith in Jesus Christ and confess that the blood of Christ cleanses me from all my sins. This is something I must do to have victory. I must keep myself in God's love. There is only one person who can do that for yourself and it is you. This means I am going to focus on God as the center of my life and I am not going to allow the world to dictate my actions. In order to take responsibility for our own actions that lead to spiritual maturity I must affirm my faith in Jesus Christ on a consistent basis. I must read the Bible everyday and allow His words to make a difference in my life. I must pray and seek God for my life, for the things I need to give up and for the things I ought to do in order to please Him. I encourage you to take responsibility for your own spiritual development and along the way also allow others to encourage you in the faith.
May the God of all love and peace be with you.

Pastor John

Thoughts on Bin Laden

On this blog I am going to give a couple of random thoughts. As most people I am proud of our military in securing justice on Bin Laden. Some of the reaction that I witnessed was a bit troubling to me and here is why: First, Proverbs 24:17-18 "Do not gloat when your enemy falls, when he stumbles do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him." It is one thing to be satisfied that justice is served and that wickedness is put down but the celebration that followed is not appropriate in my opinion. According to this proverb the Lord's wrath could be turned and I do not want to see that. Second, this was a job well done and those who accomplished this task from the top to the bottom are to be commended. Let us not act as if the war is over. This is just one victory of many more that we will need to win in order to defeat terrorism. If anyone thinks that evil will not rear its ugly head again is being a bit naive. May God grant our leaders and military wisdom to continue to be effective against the wickedness that wants our defeat.
Now let us apply this to our spiritual lives. We are at war against an enemy that wants to defeat us, to kill us, to do us damage. This enemy is not going away and there are going to be many battles to win but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. When you win a battle, rejoice, but also realize that the war is not over. The enemy will sit back for a season waiting for another time when he thinks he can cause you to fall. Let us be aware of the tactics of the enemy so that when he comes against us we will be ready with our confession of faith and plead the blood of the lamb (Jesus Christ) and we will win, read Rev. 12:11.
We face a powerful enemy but do not fear because we serve a much more powerful God who promised us victory through Christ, trust in the Lord and we will win.

May the Lord strengthen your heart today by the power of His Spirit.

Pastor John