Hope in the Midst of Trial

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Hope in the Midst of Trial

Kingdom Perspective

November 16, 2020 • Don Willeman

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Remember that great line from that classic 1980’s film The Princess Bride? “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

Now, we can be assured that the Bible is not trying to sell you something. It is “straight up.” It tells us that fear, pain and suffering are real. Trouble and danger are unavoidable.

In Romans, the Apostle Paul reminds us that it is only through suffering that we are able to share in Christ’s glory (Romans 8:17). The cross precedes the crown. The path to the throne is through the thorns.

It fully acknowledges suffering, but it does so in hope, telling us “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Now, you may feel that your disappointments are too deep, your suffering too intense. You may feel you can no longer hang on. Let me remind you… the Bible gets it. It totally understands your experience. And it offers hope in the midst of your very real storm. It promises that regardless of whether you can hang on, the Love of God in Christ always hangs on to you.

Listen to its promise:

…in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39 NASB)

You may lose your grip on God; God’s never loses His grip on you.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,

‘For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

~ Romans 8:35-39 (NASB)

Invitation to CRC Christmas Eve

December 24, 2020 • Don Willeman

Hello! I’m Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church, and I want to let you know about something very exciting coming up for you on Christmas Eve at the downtown Lebanon Green. The pandemic has been a challenge for all of us, and we desperately need two things: Community and Hope. Isolation and despair are serious problems. Normally, we’d be gathering to celebrate the holidays. But COVID is making congregating indoors very difficult! But, at CRC we believe that God is charge, and that times of challenge are times of opportunity. So, in lieu of our normal indoor Christmas Eve services, we are planning something very special—an outdoor Candlelight Christmas Eve Service on the Lebanon Green. This will be a socially-distanced, mask-required event, following all the recommended health protocols. We will gather, sing and celebrate not only our shared community, but also the hope of Christmas—that God sent His only Son into our world darkness, in order that He might give us the light of His love. So, make plans for you and your family to join us on Christmas Eve, December 24th at 4:30pm. And please invite your friends and neighbors. All are welcome! And don’t forget to click on the link below for more important details. I look forward to seeing you! And on behalf of our congregation: Merry Christmas!

Our Debt. His Riches.

December 18, 2020 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. The Bible tells us that because of sin, we have a debt that none of us can repay. In our sin we have offended an infinite God, and so we have an infinite debt to overcome. This means that the only hope we could possibly have is for an infinite being to step in and satisfy that debt. But, this is exactly what God did for us in Christ Jesus. In Christ we have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sin”, that is to say we have been bought out of our debt through His life lavishly given to us and for us (Ephesians 1:7). In Christ’s great love for us, He has assumed every penny of our great debt. Allow me to illustrate it this way, imagine you are a young woman from a poor family. As a matter of fact, you are in deep debt, a debt so deep that it would be impossible ever to overcome. But one day, out of the blue, a very wealthy man shows up at your door and offers to marry you. You are suspicious at first, even though you’ve known about this man from afar, as he is something of a celebrity. You’ve even dreamed of someday marrying him. But, of course, this is crazy, because of who you are. He doesn’t know you, and besides, you have nothing to bring to the table, but your poverty. But, alas, this crazy dream does come true. And the moment you both say, “I do”, legally all his wealth becomes yours and all your poverty becomes his. And because of His great wealth, you suddenly find yourself not only loved, but financially secure beyond your wildest imagination. So it is with our sin. God’s righteousness has swallowed up our debt of justice through our surprise bridegroom Jesus Christ. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” ~ Ephesians 1:7-10 (ESV) Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit http://www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Shame and Personal Growth

December 17, 2020 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Fear has the power to constrain. Bad fear, that is fear not rooted in the fear of God, will constrain you from growing as a person. It will stunt your emotional, spiritual and relational development. Actually, depending on the nature of the fear, it may even stunt other aspects of your development. For example, some studies suggest that an obsessive fear of allergens, such as avoiding peanuts, can actually leave you more susceptible to developing a peanut allergy. Succumbing to shame will stunt your personal growth. In order to overcome our fear of shame, we have to face it. The only way to overcome shame is to carefully walk into it and through it—to face the vulnerability of shame. But how can we do that, when our fear of shame so cripples us? The popular academic sociologist Brené Brown has made a career out of addressing this troublesome issue of shame. She says: “Shame cannot survive being spoken. It cannot tolerate having words wrapped around it. What it craves is secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you stay quiet, you stay in a lot of self-judgment.” This is precisely why God comes to us in the gospel, the “good word”. God does not keep quiet in the face of our shame. He speaks to us tenderly, but truthfully. In Christ God confronts our shame by placing it on Himself on the cross for all to see, and thus condemning it to the grave. He wraps our shame in the Good Word of His Son Jesus Christ. Listen to prophet Isaiah: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief [Yet] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. …and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3, 4 and 5) “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away” our sin and shame (John 1:29)! Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” ~ Genesis 2:18-25 (ESV) Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit http://www.christredeemerchurch.org.