A "How to" on Handling Crisis

We all face crisis, almost every day it seems sometimes. But what is a crisis?

A crisis is a turning point that cannot be avoided. The Chinese symbol for a crisis is a compound symbol with both the words “danger” and “opportunity” in it. I find this very interesting - much of our growth actually takes place in the middle of crises.

Let's take a quick look at the crisis Paul faced in 2 Corinthians 12. From it we can learn several principles of crisis management.

The Transformational Work of God in Crisis

• When God sends trouble (2 Corinthians 12:7)

1. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
2. God was actually the one sending trouble. A crisis had risen up in Paul's life. God was about to break him of all self will.
3. Just a thought – when things get broken in America, we tend to throw them away. The funny thing is that God does not even begin to use something until it is broken.

• The “All Things” Plan of God – Romans 8:28, Psalm 66:10-11, Psalm 119:75

1. What we must understand is that God uses every moment of our lives to conform us to the image of Christ, and this includes crises. This is God's promise to us. Read the above Scriptures.
2. It is in times of crisis, where we must learn to allow the Cross to affect our wills. I must get to the place where I can truly say not my will, but the will of Another.
3. You must believe that God will protect and use this situation for my good.

• The Frantic Appeal in Crisis (2 Corinthians 12:8)

1. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.”
2. Any time we find ourselves in crisis, we make the frantic appeal. God, "WHY?" "Why me, why now, why this way?" "Lord please deliver me from this."
3. But sometimes, it is actually not even in His will that you should be delivered from the crisis. Let's look at the next Scripture.

• God’s Faithful Response is the Comfort of Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9)

1. “But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.”
2. We all like comfort, but God’s goal is to conform us to the image of Christ. We end up with the greater good – to be more like Jesus.

So what are you facing today? Who knows what crisis you will face tomorrow? But here is my thought - facing your crisis boils down to a matter of perspective. And here is the difficult and life-changing question you must ask yourself:

DO YOU WANT A REMOVAL OF THE THORN (CRISIS) OR A RENEWAL OF THE HEART?

"Lord give us a renewal of the heart. May you use this crisis to mold me into the image of Christ. I thank you that your grace is always sufficient."

pcraig

Thanksgiving Blowout this Thursday!

Join us this Thursday night for the Thanksgiving Blowout!

Take part in our Thanksgiving Blowout as we combine for part three of our series “Famous Last Words,” complete with a fall festival theme and Thanksgiving treats.

It is going to be a great night....looking forward to Turkey sandwiches, mac and cheese, sweet potato fries, pumpkin pie, sweet tea, and more!

pc

A Day with Tozer....

Just thought I would take this Saturday to share some thoughts and quotes from one of the greatest:

"When I am praying the most eloquently, I am getting the least accomplished in my prayer life. But when I stop getting eloquent and give God less theology and shut up and just gaze upward and wait for God to speak to my heart He speaks with such power that I have to grab a pencil and a notebook and take notes on what God is saying to my heart."

"Worship, I say, rises or falls with our concept of God .... and if there is one terrible disease in the Church of Christ, it is that we do not see God as great as He is."

"The best book is not one that informs merely, but one that stirs the reader up to inform himself."

"We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone."

"I think that most Christians would be better pleased if the Lord did not inquire into their personal affairs too closely. They want Him to save them, keep them happy and take them to heaven at last, but not to be too inquisitive about their conduct or service. But He has searched us and known us; He knows our downsitting and our uprising and understands our thoughts afar off. There is no place to hide from those eyes that are as a flame of fire and there is no way to escape from the Judgment of those feet that are like fine brass. It is the part of wisdom to live with these things in mind."

"Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible. It wears us out by multiplying distractions and beats us down by destroying our solitude, where otherwise we might drink and renew our strength before going out to face the world again."

“History will show that the church has prospered most when blessed with strong leaders and suffered the greatest decline when her leaders were weak and time serving. The sheep rarely go much farther than the shepherd.”

Reading the quotable Tozer,

pc

Operation Christmas Child

Secret Service - next Saturday, November 21 from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm here at the North Campus

As we told you last night in service, we will be gathering together next Saturday for 2 hours to participate in world missions through Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child....

We are asking that if you are interested in being a part of this outreach, you do the following:

1.) Purchase your gifts and bring them with you next Saturday, dependent upon which category of child you are wanting to buy for.

Categories: 2-4 yrs old - boy, 2-4 yrs old girl, 5-9 yrs old boy, 5-9 yrs old girl, 10-14 yrs old boy, 10-14 yrs old girl

Gift ideas:

Toys - small cars, dolls, stuffed animals, harmonicas, yo-yos, jump ropes, small Etch a Sketch, light up toys, slinky

School Supplies - pens, pencils, sharpener, crayons, or marker, stamps, ink pads, writing pads, paper, calculators

Hygiene Items - toothbrush, toothpaste, mild bar soap, comb, washcloth

Other - hard candy and lollipops, mints, gum, t-shirts, socks, caps, sunglasses, toy jewelry, watches

2.) Bring a shoe box to pack all of your items in.

We will wrap the boxes here at the church on Saturday in our time together - we will provide the wrapping paper and wrapping supplies.

3.) Bring an extra seven dollars cash with you to help cover shipping and other project costs. This is an Operation Christmas Child cost. Each shoe box you are desiring to give requires $7.

Hope to see you next Saturday!

pc

The Fourth and Fifth Statements: Jesus Christ, our Sin Bearer

This past Thursday night at theTURN, we dove into the first three statements Jesus uttered on the Cross. Each of them portrayed Jesus as our example, our example of a Savior that is ever gracious. Tonight we will look at the fourth and fifth statements from the Cross. So here is a sneak peek:

Fourth Statement from the Cross - His Cry of Neglect

“From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice,…”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Matthew 27:45-46

If the first three words from the cross portray Jesus as our example, the fourth (and later the fifth) portray him as our sin bearer. The crucifixion took place at about 9 a.m. (“the third hour”), when the sun was at the meridian, an inexplicable darkness moved over the countryside. It cannot have been a natural eclipse of the sun, because the Feast of the Passover took place at full moon. No, it was a supernatural phenomenon, perhaps intended by God to symbolize the horror of great darkness into which the soul of Jesus now plunged. It lasted three hours, during which no word escaped the lips of the suffering Savior. He bore our sins in silence.

Then suddenly, at about 3 p.m. (“the ninth hour”), Jesus broke the silence and spoke the remaining four words from the cross in rapid succession, beginning with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This terrible cry is recorded by Matthew and Mark alone, and in the original Aramaic – “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?” The onlookers who said, “He’s calling Elijah” (v.47) were almost certainly joking; no Jews could have been so ignorant of Aramaic as to make that foolish blunder.

Everybody agrees that Jesus was quoting from Psalm 22:1. But why did he quote it and declare himself forsaken? Logically there can only be two explanations. Either Jesus was mistaken and not forsaken or he was telling the truth and was forsaken. For myself I reject the first explanation. To me it is inconceivable that Jesus, in the moment of his greatest surrender, could have been mistaken and that his sense of godforsakenness was imaginary. The alternative explanation is simple and straightforward. Jesus was not mistaken. The stiuation on the cross was of God forsaken by God – and the estrangement was due to our sins and their just reward. And Jesus expressed this terrible experience of godforsakenness by quoting the only Scripture that foretold it and that he had perfectly fulfilled.

Fifth Statement from the Cross - His Agony of Thirst

“Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’” – John 19:28

At the time of his crucifixion Jesus was offered wine to drink mixed with gall, but after tasting it, he refused to drink it (Matthew 27:34), perhaps because he was determined to be in full possession of his senses while suffering for us on the cross. Hours later, however, on emerging from the godforsaken darkness, and knowing that the end was near, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” In response the bystanders soaked a sponge in wine vinegar (the Roman soldiers’ common drink) and lifted it on a stalk of hyssop to Jesus’s lips.

This is the only word from the cross that expressed Jesus’s physical pain. He spoke it, the evangelist added it, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Indeed, it had been prophesied twice in the Psalms. In Psalm 22:15 it is written, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth,” while in Psalm 69:21 we read, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”

It would be a mistake to suppose, however, that a literal physical thirst exhausts the significance of Jesus’s fifth cry from the cross. His thirst, like the darkness, was also surely figurative. If the darkness of the sky symbolized the darkness in which our sins enveloped Jesus, and if the death of his body was to symbolize his spiritual death, then his thirst symbolized the torment of separation from God. Darkness, death, and thirst. What are these but what the Bible calls hell – outer darkness, the second death, and the lake of fire – all expressing the horror of exclusion from God? This is what our Savior suffered for us on the cross.

Thirst is an especially poignant symbol, because Jesus had earlier said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). But he who satisfies our thirst himself now experiences on the cross a ghastly thirst. He longs, like the rich man in the parable, that Lazarus will dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. Thus Jesus thirsted on the cross that we might never thirst again. (from John Stott)

See you tonight at 7:30!

pcraig

What's On Your Mind?

It can't be emphasized enough the importance of daily meditation on God's Word.

"We modern Christians are long on talk and short on conduct." AW Tozer

We talk so much about daily reading and meditation on Scripture, yet many of us rarely ever do it. But we can't do it just for the praise and approval of men, we must be consumed with a passion for His Word. The only trick: we will never gain an appetite for something we only sample. We must discipline ourselves to make reading a daily habit. As we read the Word, the Word will read us, and we will soon develop an insatiable appetite for His truth. But it all starts with disciplining ourselves to embark on the journey.

We can’t be in a hurry when we study God's Word. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, "These words...shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up."

In other words, God's Word ought to occupy your mind all the time. This is the point we all must strive for in our lives!

And this can happen only if we are steadily reading and meditating on Scripture.

A new revelation: Bible study always begins with reading. No, not quite a new revelation, but a revelation so many of us still never actualize in our lives. Because quite frankly, a lot of people never get to that point; that is reading. At best, most people nibble at the text. They may read books about the Bible or devotional materials loosely based on it, but they don't read the Bible itself. Good Christian books and magazines that supplement your Bible reading are fine, but there is no substitute for reading Scripture. We are to embark on some reading each day, and we MUST have people in our lives to hold us accountable to it each week.

Meditation is the process that molds the individual parts into a cohesive comprehension of biblical truth. It's another word for deep thinking and reflection. Meditation--in the biblical sense of the word--is a contemplative, intelligent process.

Psalm 1:1-2 says, " How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. " We should repeatedly meditate and reflect on Scripture.

So what occupies your mind? Is your mind being renewed day by day? What's on your mind?

pcraig

Do You Understand?

I woke up this morning in my bed, and immediately the thought hit me - Am I really understanding all that I am reading in God's Word? Not sure how it came to be, I guess the Holy Spirit was checking me as I was sleeping last night.

It is a difficult question to ask I think sometimes...

I want to share with you some thoughts that I have as I glean from Scripture concerning this subject:

"For my people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." - Jeremiah 4:22

To be a fool biblically means does not mean that one is a silly or stupid person in the sense of zany, but to be a fool in that one does not delight in understanding. In the above verse, "understanding" is the key word.

To be a fool spiritually is to be childish. To be immature and without understanding - this is childishness. Listen to Proverbs 22:15: "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction will drive it far from him."

When Jesus spoke of the parable of the sower, this is essentially what he was talking about. Look at verses 6-9: "But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times." Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'"

What is Jesus calling good soil? Only that soil which has understanding of the seed that is sown. If the Word of God is falling on your soul and spirit, but you are not understanding its truth, you are not allowing the seed to grow in good soil. Good soil is soil of understanding, soil that is no longer childish, no longer foolish.

"Actually, I do find Christians these days who seem to have largely wasted their lives. They were converted to Christ but they have never sought to go on to an increasing knowledge of God. There is untold loss and failure because they have accepted the whole level of things around them as being normal and desirable." AW Tozer

Do you understand, or better yet, are you just reading, or are you seeking to understand?

pcraig