A Pacemaker From Heaven

Read Psalm 23

Millions of people suffer from CRF or chronic renal failure. This disease eventually causes the kidneys to deteriorate – ultimately requiring the need for dialysis or a kidney transplant. The first solution is very costly and the second is often not available for the average sufferer. What then, can be done?

Enter NEPHERA, a company in Israel that has invented a “pacemaker for the kidney”. Amazingly, Nephera has produced an “implant based on a small pump” that enables dying kidneys to continue receiving and expelling blood so that toxins can be removed from the body. According to Karen Kloosterman (www.israel21c.org), “it works by creating a negative pressure around the kidney (a vacuum effect), causing an increase in renal blood flow. This has a therapeutic effect on a diseased kidney.” After 3 years of clinical trials, the implant should be available beginning in Europe.

Praise God! He has provided His own pacemaker for our daily living! Psalm 23 is so deeply and spiritually rich; it is only possible to touch upon a tiny portion of it. The first line of Psalm 23 reminds me that “the Lord” sets the pace for my life. Everything flows from the Lord – the very first words of the Psalm. Someone has changed the first phrase to read: “The Lord is my pacesetter…”. We are often too inactive or too hyper-active. Like a disease, our extreme imbalances in life begins to restrict the spiritual blood flow in our lives causing a shorter living span or unnecessary trials that prevent our receiving the fullness of life in God (see also Psalm 16:11).

The word “shepherd” is one of the most intimate terms in all of the Psalms. The Shepherd means everything to the sheep. There is a close intimate relationship implied here. Like the sheep, you and I can live in fulfillment and at the right pace if we closely and consistently follow our shepherd who sacrificed His all for our sakes. Look carefully at the words in verses 2a, 3:

“He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters,

He restores my soul,

He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

The words – makes – leads – restores – guides – all describe the work of God to provide the right pace or balance in our lives if we will passionately and fully follow Jesus, “that great Shepherd of the Sheep” (Hebrews13:20). The word “soul” refers to all of your life.

Let your life be extended and renewed by the enabling power of “the pacemaker from Heaven”.

REFLECT: What can you do to deepen your love relationship with your Shepherd?

Built for Speed - God's Speed

Read: I Corinthians 11:21, Hebrews 5:11-14, John 5: 17-20

What can you do in one-tenth of a second? I understand that it takes at least two full seconds to apply your foot to the car’s brakes. In the Olympic world, two seconds feel like eternity. In a Macleans article of Jan.30/06, Jonathan Gatehouse wrote: “For a speed skater in the men’s 1000 m, 1/10 of a second is (a distance of) 149 cm. On a downhill strait-away with a 15 degree slope, it’s 3 metres. Hurtling head-first down the skeleton track at 120km/hr, it’s 3.3m. In the winter games, one tenth of a second is the margin between total failure and absolute victory.” In such sports, athletes have bodies, and equipment that are built for speed.

Now, the challenge for us is not mere speed or being too slow. It is to discover the speed that God requires of us for spiritual growth and Christ-like living. We could live in the fast lane like some of the Corinthian Christians. The Apostle Paul wrote to them:

“For I am told that some of you HURRY to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk.” (I Cor.11:21, NLT)

These persons were living fast with selfish hearts. They were living fast to achieve their own aims but missing the true experience of God in the process.

In contrast, some Christians are guilty of going too slow or not making any effort to grow deep into God. In Hebrews 5:12, such persons are addressed:

“You have been Christians along time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures.” (NLT)

Friends, as Christians, we are built for speed, but it is God’s speed. We are called to live in tune with and in partnership with God and how He is working. Jesus modeled this completely:

“My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working…The Son can do nothing by Himself; He can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does...” (John 5:17, 19-20a, NLT)

Determine to live and act not too slow or too fast but at God’s speed. Dare to become spiritual investors (see last week’s sermon). As we seek to Experience God on a deeper level, we will know him better and understand how He is working. Then, we can each join in to partner with God in His awesome kingdom work.

Learning from a Fallen Tree

READ I Corinthians 5:6-8, II Cor. 4:16-18

The contrast was startling! The outer bark of the tree made it look tough and healthy but the inside was all soft and rotten. I encountered the fallen tree as I walked along a trail on a mountain slope just above Lake Louise in Banff national Park. It had been sawed off and discarded along the side of the trail. The picture with this message was taken on that trip. After closer inspection and feeling the inside of that tree trunk, I understood that this tree had been dead for some time. The inside was so rotten that it was of no use even to use as lumber for a building project.

God reminded me that day that I needed to pay careful attention to the inner core of my life. Some people easily boast of their outward appearances and personal accomplishments but ignore the spiritual rot and decay within their inner core. There were people in the Corinth church of first century Greece who were guilty of this tough outer shell but having spiritual decay on the inside. They were warned to change this:

“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that the yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the whole yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed ...” (I Corinthians 5:6-7)

Instead of feeding their inner life core from the word of God and from Christ, their Redeemer, they focused on outward appearance and fleshly pleasures. In a second pastoral letter, the Apostle Paul urges them to focus instead on the unseen and the eternal rather than on superficial temporary things. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

In your spiritual life, a fallen tree and a cut-off vine means lack of spiritual fruit in your life. Trees (or branches) that are truly dead are cut off (John 15:2a). A continued lack of fruit in anyone’s life should cause them to examine whether or not they truly belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. At the very least, there are persons in many churches who are not in true fellowship with God due to continuing sin in their lives. Drawing nourishment from Christ, you “…will produce much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5b)

Stop & Reflect:

What kind of a “tree” are you? Do you have a healthy inner core (heart)?

What kind of fruit will you produce IN Christ? The fruit of Christ-like character (see Galatians 5:22-23) and the fruit of drawing or inspiring others to passionate discipleship living for Christ!

Removing the Mask: Living with Integrity

It seemed like a great “opportunity” at the time to save some money. We had just purchased a house in January, 2005. The house inspection revealed that the furnace needed to be replaced in the near future. The inspector who confirmed this fact offered to give us a great deal – a new furnace with no GST which was 7% of total purchase price at that time.

What would we do? Considering our finances, this would be a great saving on an expensive item. I told the inspector that as a Christian, I could not agree to such a “deal”. That would be dishonest and sin in God’s sight. It would also be breaking the law of our nation. Even if I didn’t like the government taking more tax from me, I will still pay all that is required of me and honor God by doing this.

The furnace man was surprised by my response and asked: “Why are there so many religions?” I explained that religion is quite different from a relationship with God through personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. On that day, I had the privilege of sharing with him the way of salvation eternal life through Jesus! He began to understand that many people wear masks – they pretend – to be persons who act nice and obey the law but who are privately sinning or committing acts of dishonesty, manipulation and deceit.

The Bible reminds us of the importance of being a person of integrity and living with integrity. One dictionary defines “integrity” as the state of being “honest, complete and undivided.” Two events in the Bible illustrate how important integrity or honesty is to God. In ancient Israel, a man named Achan seized a beautiful robe, silver and gold from Jericho and hid them in the ground underneath his tent (Joshua 7:20-21). In doing so, Achan disobeyed God and demonstrates that the sin of one person can hurt and damage a whole congregation: “But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things. Achan…took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel” (Joshua 7:10)

Until he was confronted about his sin, Achan acted as if he had done no wrong. He was dishonest before God’s people and therefore also dishonest with God – he was wearing a mask. In response God took away the lives of Achan and his family.

A second event happened in the early church after Jesus returned to heaven. A couple named Ananias and Sapphira acted dishonestly by pretending to be sacrificial givers when this was not true. They gave some money for God’s work. That was good. But, they pretended that they gave all of the money from their land sale. That was very bad. They were also wearing a mask in front of God’s people. That is the same as being dishonest with God. The apostle Peter gives God’s verdict to them: “What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:4)

Let’s make sure that you and I remove our masks and live for God with integrity!