Weekday Devotion With Pastor Chris

In the book of Exodus, we find two references to a cleft rock.  The first comes in the seventeenth chapter.  The people of Israel have run out of water in the wilderness.  They cry out to Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”  Moses turns to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people?  They are almost ready to stone me.”

     God guides Moses to a rock and tells him to strike it with his staff (presumably breaking it open).  As promised, water gushes from it. Some thirteen hundred years later the Apostle Paul wrote of this moment, “For they [the Israelites] drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ” (I Cor. 10:4).

     The second reference to a cleft rock comes in Exodus 33:17-23.  The people have created and worshiped a golden calf in Moses' absence, a plague has descended upon them and God has announced that he will no longer go up among them.  Moses pleads with God , “Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight.”  The Lord responds: "See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back…"
 

     In 1776, an Anglican clergyman named Augustus Toplady drew on these accounts to create one of the great hymns of the Church, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”  It opens and closes with the same beautiful plea: “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”  Toplady, drawing from the Apostle's interpretation, makes it clear that it is Christ who is that rock, Christ alone in whom we find God’s saving grace: “Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law’s demands.  Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin could not atone.  Thou must save, and thou alone.”

     Toplady died two years later at thirty eight, but his end was jubilant and triumphant.  “I enjoy heaven already in my soul,” he said as he lay dying, “My prayers are all converted into praises.”

     Where do we find that ever-flowing stream that cleanses and renews?   We find it in turning towards the one, true rock: Jesus Christ, the Lord.

“O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!  Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods” (Ps. 95:1-3).


- Pastor Chris

Weekday Devotion With Pastor Chris

     The wine app “Vivino” has some 35 million subscribers worldwide.  Drawing from some 40 million reviews and 120 million ratings from its members, Vivino declared Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 the best wine in the world last year.  So I did a bit of research.

     Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate gave the wine a 99 rating.  They wrote, “the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon leaps from the glass with gorgeous floral notes of red roses and lilacs over a core of black and red cherries, crushed black currants and baking spices plus hints of iron ore and dusty earth.”  I love some of the adjectives that follow: voluptuous, rounded, soft and sexy, full-bodied, decadently powerful, layered and boldly perfumed.  I think that qualifies as effusive.  Actually, they kind of lost me with the hints of iron ore and dusty earth…

     Wine Spectator was not quite so lavish in its praise.  They gave the wine a 96 and wrote that it is “Broad, expansive and layered, with dark berry, currant, anise, cedar and sage notes, supported by firm, chewy tannins and an impressive aftertaste where the flavors glide along rather effortlessly.”  Let’s see, both reviews both mention dark berries and currants, but apart from that it is hard to believe they are describing the same wine.
 

 

     You might be wondering how much the top rated bottle costs: I found prices ranging from $589 to $1,349.99.  The trick, not surprisingly, is finding a place that actually carries it.  The price might strike you as a bit much, but it looks almost modest when you compare it to the second ranked wine (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, La Tache 2000, which averages $4,810 a bottle on Wine-searcher.com), and the fourth ranked one (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, 2011 Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru which averages about $2,100).

     I was once at a party where someone was tasting a $400 bottle, but that’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to that kind of wine.  While I’m sure it would be wasted on me, I imagine for the connoisseur, tasting an extraordinary bottle of wine must be an exquisite experience.  Still, I don’t think spending a fortune on something consumed in a single sitting was exactly what Jesus had in mind when he said, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own” (Mt. 6:34).

     This is an anxious time.  One response is to throw our hands up and live wholly for the moment, giving up on any hope for tomorrow.  But that’s not what Jesus had in mind either.  In fact, just the opposite.  Jesus invites us to let go our fears of what tomorrow might bring, trusting instead in the sure promise that our lives abide in the hands of a faithful, loving God.  Don’t let your fears of what tomorrow might bring ruin the blessings to be found today.  There is just no doubt: our lives couldn’t be in a better place.

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?”  (Mt. 6:26)

- Pastor Chris

Weekday Devotion With Pastor Chris

Quick: who discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill and started the California gold rush?  If you said James W. Marshall you would be right.  Now you would think that being the first he must have made a fortune in the years that followed, but he didn’t.  Thirty seven years later, after a number of failed ventures, Marshall died penniless in a small cabin in Kelsey, California.  What happened?

James Marshall was born in Hopewell Township, New Jersey in 1810.  He left New Jersey in 1834, and ten years later ended up in Missouri where he fell in love.  Unfortunately, his beloved did not reciprocate his feelings.  When he contracted malaria she, along with his doctor, suggested it might be best if he moved to Oregon (ouch!).  He arrived in Oregon in 1845 but continued on down to California where he was hired by a man named John Sutter to perform odd jobs around his trading post.

Marshall had just begun to establish a farm and cattle ranch when war broke out with Mexico.  When he returned a year later he found that his cattle had either strayed or been stolen.  Without a source of income, he lost his property.  That’s when Sutter hired him to build a saw-mill on the middle fork of the American River, forty miles above Sutter’s fort.

As the mill progressed, Marshall began using the power of the river to help excavate a ditch.  He was examining the ditch on the morning of January 24, 1848, when he saw an unusual glimmer in the sunlight.  He picked up a couple of pieces, and then smashed one between two rocks.  Instead of shattering (which sulphuret of iron would have done), the piece bent and flattened.  Marshall had discovered gold.  Not long after, the great gold rush began.

Marshall was in a perfect position to make a fortune.  Why didn’t he?  It is hard to say.  One venture after another ended in failure.  Even John Sutter did not fare well.  Both men were capable enough.  They just couldn’t seem to capitalize on this extraordinary opportunity that had come their way.

People dream about finding gold, but finding it is no guarantee that it will take us where we hope to go.  In fact, the most valuable things in life tend to be the things we can’t buy: friendship; love; compassion; a sense of purpose; a grateful heart; a relationship with God.  King David knew all about the pursuit of wealth and power, but ultimately he found something far more precious – the guidance of God which brings us life.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart… More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.” Ps. 19:7-10)


-Pastor Chris

Weekday Devotion with Pastor Chris

In his book Soul Salsa, author and professor Leonard Sweet talks about a unique practice among some Native Americans.  It is an initiation to mark a boy’s transition into manhood.  Growing up, the boy would have been taught to hunt and scout and fish, and then on the night of his thirteenth birthday he would be taken deep into a forest and left there to face the night alone.

     Until this moment, the boy would never have been separated from the security of his family and tribe.  On this night, however, he would be taken blindfolded far from his home and then left.  When he would remove the blindfold he would find himself in the middle of a dense wood, all by himself.  As Sweet describes it, “Every time a twig snapped, he visualized a wild animal ready to pounce.  Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness.  Every time the wind blew, he wondered what more sinister sound it masked.  It was a terrifying night.”

     After what must have seemed like an eternity, the dawn would finally break.  As light filtered through the trees, the boy would find himself surrounded by the safe, familiar sight of flowers and trees.  He would hear the reassuring sound of morning birds.  He would see the outline of a path, and then, to his utter astonishment, the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow.  It would be his father who had spent the entire night watching over his much-loved son.

     There are times when we feel alone in this life; times when we wonder where God is or whether God has abandoned us.  But God is always there, much like that Native American father – unseen, unfelt perhaps, but watching over us through those dark nights that sometimes come our way. Scripture is not the story of humanity’s search for God.  It is the story of all the ways in which God has reached out to us.  This is the God who called Abraham, who called Isaac, who called Jacob.  This is the God who sees our struggles, who takes notice and does something about them – raising up the prophets, the judges, the leaders like Moses and David.  This is the God who came to us in the person of Jesus not because we had earned God’s favor, but because God knew our desperate need.  God’s promise is sure:

“Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name.  When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.  With long life I will satisfy them and show them my salvation.” (Psalm 91:14-16)

Daily Devotion From Pastor Chris

Some four hundred and seventy years ago, in 1554 an ambassador to the Sultan of Turkey brought the first tulip bulbs and seeds to Vienna as a gift from the Ottoman Empire.  From Vienna they spread to Augsburg, Antwerp and Amsterdam, and when a botanist discovered the flowers could tolerate the harsher conditions of areas like the Netherlands and Belgium, the tulip began to grow in popularity.

     With its intense petal color, the tulip was unlike any other flower in Europe at that time.  It became a coveted luxury item, and growers began developing different varieties from single-hued flowers (red, yellow or white) to flowers with white or yellow streaks on a red, pink or purple background.  The effect could be spectacular. 

     It takes 7-12 years for a tulip seed to form a flowering bulb.  When the flower appears the original bulb disappears.  In its place, a clone bulb forms along with several buds.  It is those buds that hold the key to passing on the distinctive effects from one generation to the next, but they have to be carefully cultivated to actually become bulbs of their own.  For those growers four hundred years ago, then, cultivating the most appealing varieties took years of focused effort.

     By 1636, the tulip bulb became the fourth leading export product of the Netherlands, after gin, herrings, and cheese, and speculation in tulip futures skyrocketed.  At the height, a single bulb could go for ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsperson.  Fortunes were made and lost, and ultimately the whole market collapsed in February of 1637 ending an era that in retrospect was called “tulip mania.”

     We love variety.  There is something about it that pleases the eye.  People don’t go to Colorado to see the fall colors.  Aspen turning gold is pretty, but it doesn’t compare with the kind of rich, varied color one finds in New England.

     So think about this: when God was bringing creation into being God could easily have settled on just one color or one kind of flower.  Instead, there are an estimated 300,000 known species of flower in the world today with maybe as many as six times that figure that have not yet been identified.  What a God!  And what love God must have for us to gift us with such riches!
 

“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”
(Gen. 1:31)

- Pastor Chris

DAILY DEVOTION FROM PASTOR CHRIS

Sometimes it is hard to be around Christians who don’t think the same way we do. The issue might be
politics and the candidates we support. Or maybe it is a social issue – abortion, for example, continues to be a polarizing issue within the Christian community. Or maybe it is the very nature of our beliefs. My ancestors were driven from the Pyrenees hundreds of years ago because their beliefs and practices weren’t quite the same as the majority of that era. But what if those very differences that threaten to divide us are, in fact, a part of how God designed the Church to be?

Almost two hundred years ago, back in 1824, a man named Henderson William Brand was serving as chef to King George IV of the United Kingdom. Brand created a sauce that could be used for fish, meat or fowl. The story goes that the king was so pleased with the sauce that he immediately proclaimed it, “A number 1.” And so A1 Sauce was born.

Back in the glorious days of my youth when calories meant nothing, I used to employ vast amounts of A1 on just about everything. Today, a bottle can last for quite a while in our refrigerator, but it remains a special treat.

So how many ingredients do you think there are in A1? Both the number and the variety are surprising. They include: tomato puree, raisin paste, distilled vinegar, corn syrup, salt, crushed orange puree, dried garlic, onions and celery seed among others. What an extraordinary palette Chef Brand must have possessed to combine so many different ingredients in the creation of such an exquisite sauce.

Our God has done nothing less in the creation of the Church. Our differences aren’t a weakness. They are the very things that make the Church the glorious community that it is.

“For just as the body is one and has many [different!] members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12)

- Pastor Chris

Daily devotion from Pastor Chris

They said it couldn’t be done. Ten people had died trying to make the 2400 mile journey from Hawaii to California by air. On January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart settled into the cockpit of her plane to attempt what no man or woman had been able to accomplish. In Honolulu, where she was going to begin her journey, the weather was poor.

Amelia was born thirty eight years before in Atchison, Kansas in the home of her maternal grandfather; a former federal judge who had become the president of the Atchison Savings Bank and a leading citizen in the community. Her life was marked by a sense of adventure early on. As a seven year old, and with the help of her uncle, she built a ramp modeled on a roller-coaster she had seen, and then fastened it to the roof of the family’s toolshed. Moments later, she emerged from the broken box that had served as her sled with a bruised lip, torn dress and a sense of exhilaration. “Oh Pidge,” she said to her sister, “it’s just like flying!”

It took another thirteen years, however, until Earhart had her first flight. On December 28, 1920, she visited an airfield in Long Beach, California, and her dad shelled out $10 for a ten minute flight with a man named Frank Hawks. The experience changed her life. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground," she later said, "I knew I had to fly."

And so began the journey that fifteen years later would lead Amelia Earhart to an airfield in Honolulu, preparing for a flight that no one had ever successfully completed. An open letter begged her not to try. Others had died trying. Many believed it couldn’t be done. Amelia was undeterred, and eighteen hours later she landed in Oakland where thousands swarmed her plane in celebration of the extraordinary feat. Eighty-three years later my grand-daughter would be named after her.

“It can’t be done.” Sometimes we are tempted to listen to the naysayers. Sometimes the challenges before us seem insurmountable – a diagnosis of cancer, a difficult exam, a relationship that has deteriorated to the point of appearing irreconcilable. People told Amelia Earhart she couldn't fly from Honolulu to California, but she believed she had the resources to accomplish it. We have something even better. We serve a God for whom the word “impossible” simply doesn’t exist.

“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph. 3:20-21)