Author: Nick

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free . . . —Galatians 5:1 I had a lot of computer work to do today and needed a change of scenery. I decided to spend the morning at CC’s. The change of environment helps my concentration. It worked to a point. I have to admit I was a bit distracted by the people who moved through the café during the morning. There were many folks who passed by and I caught snatches of conversation. We certainly live a variety of life styles fueled by a variety of beliefs.  OC’s words today seemed right: “Go . . . and make disciples. . .” ( Matthew 28:19  ), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.” We are far too prone to  make faith an intellectual exercise, judged by the correctness of what is believed. It is, in fact, our actions that will be judged and not by anyone but Christ.  My concerns for the people who flowed through the cafe’ needed to be less for what they believed and more for their need to meet Jesus and to be challenged by his standard of Action. Always measure […]

The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God . . . —1 Peter 4:17 “Judgment” and “Sin” are proper words for a Christian to use. We try desperately to avoid them.  We don’t want to “judge.” “Sin” is politically incorrect. We want people to “come to” Jesus or “accept” Him. We entice them with promises that “God has a wonderful plan” for them. We don’t tell them they are sinners bound for hell. It seems William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army was correct when he responded to a question with: “In answer to your inquiry, I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”   We have as our spiritual goals getting some one to come to church, then go to the front, then say a prayer. OC reminds us of what our focus should be: “The greatest test of the quality of our preaching is whether or not it brings everyone to judgment. When the truth is preached, the Spirit of God brings each person face to […]

 . . having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . —Hebrews 10:19   We have no right, on our own, to enter the Holiest. Our ticket is the blood of Jesus. Sometimes we believe that our cause is so right or that we have somehow earned a hearing by something we have done. There are many problems with this attitude. First, we are incapable, on our own, of judging the rightness of a cause. When we seek to have God change some circumstance, we presume that we know that the circumstance is not His will or not in the best interest of those affected. We don’t have that knowledge. As to us having earned a hearing  before the Father, nothing we could ever do is that good. Just forget it. As an example consider the oil spill now in the Gulf and threatening the coast. On our own we conclude that certainly no good thing could come from that and certainly God should intervene. But we don’t have God’s view. For example, how many are turning to Him because of the spill. He seeks our worship and our fellowship. He seems to  be […]

    Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.     Ephesians 6:18  It’s amazing how much smarter and more loving than God we are. “We’re not smarter or more loving than God” you say. Well, we sure pray like we are. We pray like God isn’t paying attention or that He is out of touch with modern times or that He just doesn’t understand or care. We instruct Him on whom to cure, bless and save and, often, how specifically to do it. How egotistical we are. But, you say, we are told to pray and intercede. And so we are. But God doesn’t need our direction, He wants us to come to Him because He desires our fellowship and wants us to have His mind. He also wants us to bond with those for whom we pray. Nothing brings us closer to another than to intercede with the Creator for that person and nothing brings us closer to our God. As we share our love and concern for another with our God, He shares his love and perspective with us. We certainly don’t always learn the details of His plans,  but we get a […]

Though it tarries, wait for it . . . —Habakkuk 2:3   With God there is always more. He always seeks to pull us closer, to grow us. We may not always recognize the pull or the growth. There are surely dry times, but His pull is constant. Be patient, stay focused and wait on Him. He is always doing something whether we feel it or see it now.  Our knowledge of Him only inspires us to desire more of Him. The Christian walk yields no completion, this side of Heaven. As His children, we are blessed with a vision of what can be in Him. The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. . Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on . . .” ( Philippians 3:12  ). When we feel we have attained or arrived, we can be sure that our pride is lying to us. With eyes on Him, we can never doubt there is more and more is what we […]

“I have to lead my life in faith, without seeing Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 We walk in the low places among the ordinary things. We catch glimpses of God and His work, but our daily walk is not surrounded by glory and inspiration but  by grunts and perspiration. That’s what pleases Him. If each day His presence and work were absolutely clear, what place would faith have? He takes joy in our walk when we can’t see Him, when He seems far away, when our efforts seem fruitless and His burden does not seem light and yet we keep walking. The real joy is not in the rare spectacular work in which He allows us to take part, but in the daily struggle to love and be loveable. It’s all so much a matter of our focus and perspective. Last night we had a great men’s meeting. The highlight was the sharing by ordinary men of how an extraordinary God has touched and transformed their lives. In hearing their struggles, bravely shared, the listeners found common ground, and hope and blessing. By their sharing, the ordinary struggles of their lives made eternal spectacular difference in the lives of the rest of […]

1. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, which flows naturally from His nature within us.    2. How things appear is less a function of reality and more about our focus..    I realize that the last two sentences don’t seem to have much connection. My pattern in doing Nick’s Walk is to read the OC devotional the night before, summarize it in my mind and sleep on it. During the night, God usually gives me what He wants me to say. Sentence 1 is a summary of OC’s devotional. Sentence 2 is the clear thought I woke up with.  I think there is a connection. With God within us, how could there be anything but a spontaneous flow of love from us? How can we have a bad day? How can we become stuck in a rut? Do you remember being “in love?” Oh I know I have been “in love” with my wife for 40 years. But I’m talking about those days when love is new, when you wake up and go to sleep with the object of your affection as the only thing on your mind. What glorious […]

. . . it has not yet been revealed what we shall be . . . —1 John 3:2   My great-granddaughter is at that great age. She gets excited about the smallest adventure. “Want to go bye-bye?” “What to take a bath?” “What to go outside?” Any of these will produce an excited giggle, nod of the head and her taking off in the right direction. She was created perfect and hasn’t had much chance to mess that up. At some point as we age we seem to lose our love of adventure. We crave certainty and seek to avoid the uncertain.  You can begin to see this even in my little not quite 2-year-old. A touch of rebellion. A determination to do it her way. Little things that take her a few steps from the perfect path He intended. Already she finds comfort in the known and the familiar. As much as she still loves adventure, you can see the tendency toward a love of certainty. “Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life— gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.” I suppose this is part of our need to control. Control is what we […]