I invite you to think about the hands of others in your life and ways they have served you. Maybe similar to the following:

• A warm meal prepared and given during a time of immense stress.
• A thoughtful card of encouragement in a time of grief.
• A helping hand with a home project to help each the stress on a family.
• A cozy bed given for rest when there’s no place to go.
• A load of laundry completed for an overwhelmed mom.

The possibilities are endless. Caring comes in many forms and can be demonstrated in some common, uncomplicated ways.  Caring for others usually doesn’t fail to happen because of a lack of ideas. It’s not a lack of opportunity.

There’s a story involving Jesus and an expert of the law that Luke describes in chapter 10 of his book and it brings to light one of our challenges with caring.  Let’s take a look.

Hands for God’s Purposes (commitment to love God)

Luke 10:25-29 – ²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” ²⁷ He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” ²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

“And who is my neighbor?”

There it is. That’s one of the challenges of caring. We, like the expert of the law, want to know who we have to love…to care for. He does us a favor because he highlights part of the problem. We ask the wrong question when we ask who.

Hands devoted to caring is the commitment to and practice of uniquely using our spiritual gifts and natural talents to tangibly love others at the point of their need.

The landmark of faith known as they hands is not about the “who” we care for.  It’s about the “why” we show care. When we ask “who”, we reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of caring. The truth about caring is that it is first a commitment to the belief that God has cared for us and given us the ability to care for others. We walk in faith to care for others and trust that God will use it for their good and for His glory.

Your hands can do great good when committed to God!

Pastor Dan

Here’s a few reminders and details for this week from our Mid-week Video Update:

1. We will be posting a Mid-week Video Update each Wednesday on the website for the latest news and information in this season.
2. Our Value of Generous Living
   1. Many are showing care to others with cards, calls, errands, and at least two in our congregation are making hundreds of cloth masks. Woohoo, way to go!
   2. We thank you for your faithful giving each week to the ongoing expenses.
   3. If you have needs, we want to know about them, so we can provide help.  We have a Benevolence fund set up to provide for those at ECC. Please call the church office for assistance.
3. Our Value of Community Engagement
   1. Some have asked how they can help others in the community. We’d like to highlight the ministry of “The Common Good” (Preble Co. Food Bank)
      1. Monetary Donations
      2. Needs for food kits:
         oatmeal
         cereal
         peanut butter
         mac & cheese
         instant/boxed potatoes
         ravioli
         spaghetti
         spaghetti sauce
         canned vegetables
         canned fruit
         jello cups
         pudding cups
         Other items:
         shampoo
         toothpaste
         dish soap
         hand soap
4.  Phasing In Of Gatherings 
   1. Staff and Elders are continuing to pray and discuss the timing and method of our future gatherings. There are many factors involved including Government Guidelines, facility cleaning, and comfort level of people. Thank you for filling out the survey to help us assess. We will keep you updated.
   2. Specifics:
      1. Worship Services online at least for the next two weeks.
      2. The Church building will open on May 4th during office hours for walk-in traffic.
      3. Please call the church office at 456-5507 with any questions.

Consider these words from Proverbs that speak to our next Landmark of Faith, the mouth.

“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life…” – Proverbs 10:11

“The lips of the righteous nourish many…” – Proverbs 10:21

The tongue has the power of life and death…” – Proverbs 18:21  

The mouth has great potential to give life, but it also has great potential to destroy and tear down. There’s a great song by the artist, Toby Mac entitled “Speak Life”. Look at this powerful verse and chorus,

It feels like daily that I say things I regret, things that are selfish, unloving, and sometimes just plain rude. I don’t think I’m alone. It’s a battle that faith must fight.

Words are powerful and how we control our tongue can say a lot about our dependence on God and also our belief in His ability to work in us. Taming the tongue as James (ch. 3) speaks of, requires a courageous faith because we must believe a few things about how God  works through our words to bring life and hope.

• With faith in God, we speak truth to honor God, not ourselves.
  • This is our belief that God is truth and His truth is best for life.
• With faith in God, we can build others up.
  • This is our belief that the Holy Spirit can speak encouragement through us to others.
• With faith in God, we can give hope.
  • This is our belief that when we share the gospel, the power of God works in us and through us to point people to the hope of Jesus.

A mouth devoted to encouraging is a commitment to and practice of speaking to others with the goal of building them up into their identity as a child of God.

Let’s be God’s messengers that bring encouragement and hope wherever we go. Even when things are tough, let the words of encouragement, hope, and life be heard from our mouths.

Sharing Life, Sharing Christ, Together

Pastor Dan

There were two holes in her carpet.  We were visiting with an elderly lady while on a college music tour.  She wasn’t on the travel schedule so why had our leader had brought us here?  We didn’t stay long.  I don’t even remember if we prayed together.  But at some point our leader gestured to the floor.  The carpet was as worn as her old body.  I almost missed it but there, on the floor in front of a piece of furniture, were two holes worn deep into the carpet.  Later he told us that was where this woman prayed.  And we – our music team – were among those for whom she prayed.

She was so elderly, she could have just sat and enjoyed her retirement.  Her body was broken, she lived alone, and her world was so small.  Yet the words she spoke kneeling on her floor of her tiny home reached directly into the throne room of heaven.

Our leader later told us of another situation.  He along with a small group of Christians were traveling in a small plane on a mission trip.  Suddenly the plane hit a downdraft and was plummeting to earth.  All on the plane expected to die.  And then, inexplicably, the plane hit the bottom of the air pocket and began gaining altitude, moments before it would have crashed.  Later on this same woman, not having been told what had happened, asked him “why did I feel a need to pray for you at such and such a time?”.   That was the exact moment the plane had been about to crash.  Her prayers saved their lives.

Years ago, a book was written that pulled back the veil to let us see what was happening in the spiritual realm as people prayed. (1) Battles were being waged.  Wars were being fought.  And the ammunition was not guns, knives or swords – but prayer.  But for many of us, it’s as though we run into battle holding no weapons at all.  No wonder we get knocked down and hit on all sides.  From our earliest years as Christians we learn that prayer is important.  Yet in spite of our best intentions, it often gets left by the wayside.

Why is prayer so hard for us?  We often say we will do it and we truly do mean to.  But somehow it slips away from us and we find ourselves full of good intentions but empty of prayer.  I wonder if that is part of the battle too – just to pray – faithfully, daily, specifically.  God says very clearly in His Word, “You have not because you ask not”.  God isn’t inviting us to treat Him like a vending machine to get whatever we want.  But He does invite us to go to our knees, to seek His face, to present our needs before Him in faith and trust that He will do what is best.

One year we were setting up to begin filming an outdoor water scene and it began to thunder and lightning.  We had that location only that one evening so, if this didn’t work out, we’d never have the chance again.  We circled up and began to pray.  As we prayed, the rain continued to fall.  But the moment we said “Amen”, the rain stopped immediately.  An unsaved girl was on the set that evening; it amazed her to how God had responded in such a powerful way to our prayer.

God hasn’t always stopped the rain.  And planes still crash sometimes. Heartaches happen, loved ones die, and what we pray to not happen sometimes still happens.  God doesn’t always say yes to our prayers.  And sometimes those “no’s” hurt so much that we often totally miss all the times that God, in His wisdom, grants the “yes”.  Because God didn’t do the big things we asked for, we think He won’t care about the smaller things in our lives.  But, like a loving parent, He yearns for us to climb up in His lap and ask so that He has the joy of giving to us something we don’t expect.

Maybe one reason God has brought our world to a total stop right now is to help us seek Him.  Maybe He has brought our nation to its knees…to bring us to a new place of prayer.

What does your carpet look like where you pray?

1. This Present Darkness, Frank Perettii

Our second stop on our trip together to the Landmarks of Faith, is the Mind. The mind is a very powerful element of our faith because we often find ourselves in a battle with the messages and ideas of this world. As Paul speaks about in his second letter to the Corinthians, we use our minds to help us live in faith as we surrender our thoughts to Christ. Paul says,

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3–5)

In the very strange season of COVID-19 we find that it is easy to allow our thoughts to give way to fear rather than faith in Jesus Christ. While it’s easy to just rattle off “Faith Over Fear” in a text, or post a cool graphic of “Faith Over Fear’ on a social media post, it’s not so easy to live in faith during hardship. It’s those private moments when our circumstances keep us awake at night with worry or when we shed tears wondering when we can again be with family and friends. It’s in those moments that our mind must be filled with the truth of God. Consider this…

A mind devoted to truth is the commitment to and practice of studying, learning, and applying the Bible in life as the source of all moral and spiritual truth.

This landmark of faith speaks to filling our minds with truth from God. As we read, study, meditate, memorize, and apply scripture in faith, we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds. (Romans 12:2) This equips us to walk each day, no matter how difficult, in the truth of God, not the ways of the world. While the nature of faith is not often logical or reasonable, it absolutely requires a commitment of our mind and practices that will nurture our knowledge and application of God’s word.

As we finish exploring this landmark I’d like you to pray the following scripture in faith. Recognize that God’s Word has been given to us out of love and commitment so that we might live effectively for Him and lead others to Him.

Read 2 Tim. 3:14-17 – ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God ^p may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Take care of yourself and take care of one another as you devote your mind to truth!

Pastor Dan

Today we begin our journey of the Landmarks of Faith. Over the next few weeks we will make six stops at landmarks that shape and define our faith as disciples of Jesus Christ. Like any good trip, if we take the time to stop at each one and explore the meaning and purpose behind them, we will better understand them. This trip isn’t about gaining more knowledge, but how to apply what we are learning in our commitment and practice of following Jesus with unwavering faith. I’m grateful that we can go on this trip together because landmarks aren’t nearly as fun or meaningful to experience alone. Get your stuff and let’s go!

The first landmark of faith is THE HEART. The heart is the often used in scripture to define and describe the inner life of a person. It is the seat of our emotions, but not simply driven by emotions. Just as the heart gives us physical life to us when it is healthy and functioning properly, we are given spiritual life when it is set on the good things of God. A heart unchecked will be full of evil intent, vengeance, and ultimately death. This is why the writer of Proverbs 4 says in verse 23, “Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.” (NIV84)

We guard our heart when we set our heart exclusively on God’s truth as we live in relationships, speak words, make decisions and carry out actions. All of these things ultimately demonstrate and communicate where we place our trust. When our hearts are set on God’s purposes and ways, our lives will reflect the character of God and Jesus Christ to this world. We need that, not just in uncertain times, but at all times, to live well.

As you consider this landmark of faith called the heart, I encourage you to spend some time gazing upon it. Don’t rush through it to get to the next thing, but pray about your heart and your commitment to God. A heart devoted to God is the commitment to and practice of surrendering one’s life to the will of God for His glory. Remember these words of Jesus,

23 Then he (Jesus) said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. – Luke 9:23–24

Pay close attention to this landmark of faith because it is the most complex of all the landmarks. Partly so, because all of the other landmarks we will explore rise out of this  one. It’s kind of like going to the Grand Canyon and understanding that within this great wonder of the world are many other beautiful places. You will discover much about this landmark as you explore the others to come, so I encourage you to revisit the heart along the way at each new stop.

Finally, I encourage you make this your prayer at the landmark of faith we call the heart.

Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. – Psalm 86:11

Take care of yourself and take care of one another!

Pastor Dan

What does it look like to follow God in faith in this season? 

Most every one of us have likely experienced disruption in the way we have gotten used to following God. I’m not saying that we have walked away from God, but some of our methods and expressions of living out our faith have undergone change. For example, because faith is lived out in community with other believers, we have experienced some disorientation because of being apart from one another. The good news is that a relationship with God in faith is not limited to these factors. It is impacted, but it is not limited.

I’m challenged by the possibility that our relationship with God is based more on our circumstances than we’d like to admit. It’s a familiar problem we see in scripture. In one case, the first disciples were trying to cast the demons out of a boy and they weren’t successful. They took their problem to Jesus. Matthew 17:19-21 says, “Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?’ He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” 

While we know that faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains, the size of the mountain before us can sometimes dictate the capacity of our faith. (That’s not quite the encouraging social media post we’re looking to share.)  I don’t like this picture of weak faith and I imagine you don’t either. However, it can be the reality in moments and even seasons when our worlds are turned upside down. The goal is for our faith to be unwavering in all circumstances…for our faith to be full of dependence on and trust in God.

With the goal of unwavering faith. I’d like to take us on a journey over the next few weeks with these devotionals into a life that is full of faith, no matter the mountain before us. It is a journey of re-discovering or at the very least re-orienting our life to Jesus Christ in these different days. This journey will lead us to six landmarks that help us to walk with God in a time of waiting and uncertainty. These landmarks will speak to practices and commitments of devotion to God and encourage us to offer our lives in trust. God will be our leader, the Holy Spirit our counselor, and Jesus our companion in this walk in faith. I expect it to be a great trip.

My prayer is that no matter the hardship, pain, or disruption you’ve been facing, God will ignite your faith in new ways. 

Take care of yourself and take care of one another!

Pastor Dan

God’s love is perfect. (O love of God, how rich and pure)                                                       The nature of God’s love is such that it is flawless. This should matter to us because in this fallen and sin-sick world we need perfect love to counter our imperfect selves. God’s answer for us, in our sinfulness, was love communicated, demonstrated, and given through Jesus Christ.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.- 1 John 4:16-18

God’s love is sufficient. (How measureless and strong)                                                          No matter our situation, no matter our worry, no matter our burden, God’s love is enough to empower and encourage you. People talk a lot about inner strength and most of the time it means relying on our own power. Friends, we don’t need more of our power, it is insufficient and limited. We need the power of God and His Holy Spirit to work in and through us. Strength comes in dependence on God, not in ourselves. #Godstrong, #Jesusstrong, #Icantbestrongenoughwithouthim

But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. – 1 John 2:1–2

God’s love incites a response. (The saints’ and angels’ song)                                                   What song does your life sing? In other words, what do you communicate with your words, your actions, your responses to God’s love. You either receive God’s love and become a messenger of that love or you reject God’s love and become a servant of the evil one, who works against the love of God. Our love of others, especially those who are difficult to love, is the response of those who love, serve, and are devoted to Jesus.

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. – 1 John 4:10–12

May you dwell on the love of God this day and the days ahead. His love is perfect, His love is sufficient and it requires a response. Be a vessel, an instrument, an ambassador of God’s love with the boldness of a lion and the gentleness of a lamb. Look for ways today to love God and love others.

Take care of yourself and take care of one another!

Sharing Life, and Sharing Christ together!

Pastor Dan

We see throughout the words of the New Testament the call to “love one another.”  This is primarily about serving in humility out of obedience to Jesus, but it is also recognizing the God-designed nature for us to be in relationship. Relationships are vital for health and well-being and there is no greater need for those relationships than in these days of physical distancing and isolation.

As I look at the gospel accounts of Jesus walking with the twelve, I see the necessity of those relationships in each of them learning about the ways of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. I also see God using those relationships to sharpen and encourage one another. Yeah, there are some pretty rough spots, like when their vying for position next to Jesus. However, there are also some really sweet moments, like when Jesus sends them out together in Matthew 10 to minister to others as a team.

Yesterday I listened to a brief message by Dr. Henry Cloud, a Christian psychologist and author of the famous “Boundaries” for relationships series. He shared that in this time of crisis, when our brains and emotions want to react impulsively and fix the chaos we are experiencing, we should be intentional about connecting with others.

If you find yourself emotionally and spiritually challenged and even drained in this season (that would be all of us in one way or another), then make it a point to be intentional about your connections with others. I know it’s different and I know it’s difficult, but it’s not impossible. Make a phone call, set up a video call or group call on Zoom or other app, or text. You can and should make a connection today for your own health and the health of others. And after all, God’s church is equipped to do this because of the grace and love poured out upon us by Jesus Christ.

The point in making these connections is to be intentional.  Talk with others about your challenges and also God’s gracious gifts during this time. Allow this time to bring encouragement and help to you and to those to whom you are connecting. Here are a few suggestions for making this a reality:

• Make a list of friends and family and reach out to one or two of them a day.
• Make a calendar schedule of people to contact.
• Set reminder alarms on your phone.
• In your daily prayer time ask God to give you names of others to reach out and connect.
• Set a specific time each day to make connections that works around your schedule.

5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Romans 15:5–6

While this season can bring weariness and discouragement, making intentional connections with others will be a practical way to “Share Life and Share Christ.” I hear on almost a daily basis of how you are connecting with others during this time. Keep it up!

Take care of yourself and take care of one another!

Pastor Dan