Exiled! part 4

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Tim Sorbo

Have you ever broken a promise? I have. And other people have as well. In a word, it is disappointing.

God never breaks His promises. And that is awesome.

The last three weeks have seen the Israelites being exiled, commanded to stay and settle in Babylon all because God has a plan for them.
You can click here to read Exiled! part 3. It might be good to catch up. =-)

So now, in the last post of this series, we will see the best part about the Israelites being exiled.

Let’s look at a couple of verses to start things rolling. Jeremiah 29:12-14 reads, “12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares theLord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

God is making some promises in these verses. In fact, I will copy these verses again but I will add some underlines this time.

“12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.^b I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares theLord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

When I read this, it seems very obvious to me that God has a plan. I feel like He always has a plan. But in that plan, there is always our part. We have to obey God in order for His plan to succeed. Even though God is all-powerful and could do anything He wants to, He has chosen for us to be a vital portion of His plan.

He needs us.

He set it up so we could play our part and both of us win. A true win-win situation.

Just for fun, here are those verses one more time. This time, however, I have put our part in bold letters.

“12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.^b I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares theLord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Call
Pray
Seek
Find

God wants us to give Him everything. Our whole heart. Jesus said the same thing in the New Testament.

If we call, pray, and seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him.

And that is just one of the many promises that God has never broken.

Divine Deluge!

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

“Oh the weather outside is frightful…” Actually, it has been raining a lot here in Green Bay. We are truly wondering if we will have a white Christmas.

Monday morning, I was driving to work. At a particular stop light, I normally turn left. However, I could not turn left because the road was closed. There was a police car and some orange barricades. As I drove straight, I looked to see why the road was shut down. Flooding. There was a 40-foot section of road that was covered in water. I just had to go a few extra blocks out of my way to get to the Olive Garden.

Here is the ironic part. I was listening to the worship song, “Open Up the Heavens.” One of the lines in the song says, “Open up the floodgates. A mighty river. Flowing from your heart…”

So that song is playing and I am seeing some flooding happening right before my eyes. That whole scenario got my brain thinking.

Historically, floods have always been associated with destruction. Noah and the ark ring a bell? I lived in Minneapolis, MN during the flooding of 1993. I still recall some of those images. In 2013, my wife and I were in New Orleans. On a tour of the city, we saw flood damage from Hurricane Katrina. You can probably recall some flooding in the recent past as well. Here is a funny picture from Alberta, Canada.

CALGARY, ALBERTA.: JUNE 21, 2013 — Blake Wartenbe catches his wife Desiree as she jumps over flowing water in a flooded downtown Calgary, Alberta on June 21, 2013. For City story by ? (Leah Hennel/Calgary Herald)

Here are two observations of mine:

Flooding will cause diversion. You may have to travel a different path due to road conditions.
Flooding will cause destruction. There is always cleanup after a flood.

Let’s look at a flood from a different perspective now, not a historical one.

Flooding can be a good thing when a spiritual perspective is adopted. Think about God’s heart for a moment. Can you fathom how much love it contains? Is there a limit to the grace and mercy of the Almighty? What levy is going to hold it all back? When God decides to pour out His spirit, nothing can stop. It will go where it pleases and do what it wants. Spiritual flooding is a good thing. Let’s look at those two items again.

Flooding will cause diversion. In my sin, I need to be diverted now and then. Sometimes, I don’t see the end result but God does. He loves me too much for me to go down that road. A flooding of God’s spirit can divert me from sin. I like that.
Flooding will cause destruction. Every time I choose something other than God, I am building my own kingdom. Ultimately, my kingdom will end in ruin. A great crash is coming. God’s flooding can destroy the works that I am trying to do. This is a good thing. Now, with my ugly excuses for a kingdom cleared away, God can begin building HIS Kingdom in my life. The destruction was necessary. Rebuilding the new requires destruction of the old.

If you like a challenge, let me set one out for you.

For the next week, ask God to flood your life.

Ask Him to fill your heart with extra compassion during this particular season.

Ask Him to break your heart for the lost souls around you.

Ask Him to cleanse your heart from all sin.

Ask Him to prepare your heart for great and mighty things to come.

Go ahead and ask for a flood. But be careful because He may just do it.

170 and counting.

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

As you may know or have read in previous blogs, I am a pastor by God’s calling. This entails many things but the largest portion of my time goes to the weddings that I officiate. Here is an actual wedding of mine from Pamperin Park in Green Bay, WI.

But before the couple and I get to this point, we will have met 2 or 3 times. Texting, calling, and emailing is also quite frequent . This way, the couple is not completely unknown to me and they also feel comfortable with me. There is a relationship.

To be honest, I do not remember all of the couples I marry. Most of them have faded into a memory. But every once in a while, there is something special that takes place and a friendship is formed. The relationship continues. Of the almost 170 weddings that I have officiated, there are maybe 10 or 12 couples that I could call right now. We have kept up with life.

But all of that is just background. Now you know a little bit of how my process works with these weddings. Monday night, I had a meeting with another couple. Their wedding is Dec. 26 this year. I have enjoyed our meetings and will also enjoy the wedding. They are a godly couple and so I feel like it is a privilege to marry them!

They asked me about what I would say during the ceremony. Do I preach a sermon? Give a little advice? What are my remarks? In this case, it will be a sermon from John 17. And that is my point of today’s post. I am going to give you that sermon. Not the whole thing but a nice little summary. Please turn to John 17…

In John 17, we find Jesus praying. He prays for himself (verses 1-5), his disciples (verses 6-19), then finally, all believers (verses 20-26). There are three things that Jesus is praying for in the second section, the one about the disciples.

He prays for their Protection (11-12, 15). While on earth, Jesus was able to protect them. Now he prays for them to be safe by the power of God’s name.

He prays for their Pleasure (13-14). The world has hated them but they can have joy inside them. The joy will be internal, not depending on the external.

He prays for their Perfection (17 -19). Sanctify. To make whole. Perfection. The disciples would need to keep growing and learning.

God desires this for the disciples so He had Jesus pray these things.

CONCLUSION: I think God would desire these same things for a married couple. The marriage relationship provides an avenue in which God can protect, provide joy, and sanctify His children. The world does the opposite. In fact, without God and His word, we would become like the world. At that point, our marriage will be no good for God’s purposes.

But if we keep God first in our lives and then our marriages, God will keep the marriage what it needs to be.

And that is the difference this world needs.

So be the difference.

NOTE: If you are single, these three things can apply as well so don’t feel excluded or insignificant.

“Put Jesus first and everything else will either work out or not matter.” Roger Sorbo 1941-2014

Chemistry, Christ, and Colossians

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

Today is the first day of Lent so I thought I would post my wonderings about it. To do this, I want to make a comparison from the realm of chemistry. Please keep reading even if you hate science! This will worth two minutes of your time. =-)

The Law of the Conservation of Mass states that mass cannot be created or destroyed; it is merely rearranged.

Here is a chemical equation with chemical symbols: CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O

Same equation in word form: methane gas + oxygen = carbon dioxide + water

Again but in picture form:

If you look at all the atoms, they are the same on both sides of the equation. There are four different substances but the amount of matter is the same.

Now let’s take a look at the idea of giving up chocolate for Lent. Fred is pretend. I am using Fred as an example so anybody named Fred is not to be directly associated with this post. =-)

Fred has 100 units of energy to spend each day of his life. These 100 units can be divided up however he wants to divide them. Fred really likes chocolate. He devotes 10 units of energy to chocolate. Thinking, buying, making and the eating of chocolate takes up 10 units of the 100 units that Fred has each day. The other 90 units are spent on everything else. Fred is disciplined so he only devotes 10 units for chocolate. Never more and never less. For Lent, Fred decides that he will give up chocolate. It will be difficult be he thinks he can do it. Now, he has all 100 units of energy to delegate to whatever he wants. Just because he always gave 10 units for chocolate does not mean that he loses those 10 units when he gives up chocolate. He has 100 units and will always have 100 units to spend. This is the law of the conservation of mass working in his life.

Let’s see if we can put this all together.

I can pursue God however I would like. Reading my Bible, praying, going to church, worshipping, or having coffee with another believer are all ways I can do this. I have the same amount of time that everyone else has. There may be a myriad of ways to spend it but it is there everyday. For Lent, the idea is that I am supposed to give up something. Great! But now what do I do with the extra time I have? Fred has 10 units of energy (that he used to spend on chocolate) that he gets to spend on some other thing. Maybe he will read or write or play a board game.

If I give up something, what will I do in place of that thing?

Whatever you are doing this Lenten season, I hope it helps you to draw closer to God. If you need to fast or give something up for these weeks leading to Easter, than do it. Make an effort to find God in a new way. I think Lent is about clearing the clutter and listening for our Lord. Whatever actions that means for you, awesome.

Remember the law of the conservation of mass. You will spend your effort on something so you might as well make it something great.

Colossians 3:17 says “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Jars, pt. 3

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

Have you ever been at the end of your rope? Has life beat you up and left you for dead? Mistakes are all too common in my life. We are messed up.

Following God can be tough. The problems don’t disappear when we get saved. And the stuff of life even make things more difficult at times!

2 Corinthians 4:7-12 gives me hope when I read it. So many times I feel all screwed up and confused. I have little motivation for God. Apathy is all to real. There are moments when I see Jesus and press on. When I pray, there is a real connection, not always but sometimes. But there are times when you or I are at the end of the rope.

I have been writing about jars this month. Today is no different except that the jar is not something that I bring to God so He can fill it.

I am the jar. An earthen jar. A jar of clay.

Remember this: a jar is just there to hold something. You and I are the holders of something great!

This is verse 7 of the Corinthians passage: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Let this post be an encouragement to you. Sure, I get it that life sucks and we can make mistakes. But the Word says that “He gives more grace.” James 4:6

So be reminded that when you are the end of your rope, you are never out of Hope!

Two Minutes With Tim

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