Brad Riley – BradRiley.Org

April 10, 2020

It Is Still A Good Day

Nothing seemed right on that Friday long ago. Their teacher with whom they lived and travelled with for the last three years was arrested. They had not slept all night, and now he was being executed. And to make things worse, they could not even gather to grieve and hold a proper burial. It was all so surreal, it felt like a bad dream from which they would surely soon wakeup.

Every year since that fateful day, the followers of Jesus have gathered from wherever they were to remember the events of that ‘Good Friday’. As many as could, would even gather in Jerusalem near that hill known as the place of the skull – but not this year.

It is nearly 2000 years later, and the millennia old rituals of gathering and re-enacting the way of the cross have been abruptly halted. Today, some of my dearest friends are laying to rest a wife, mother, and grandmother. They cannot even gather their friends to help them grieve and remember, to celebrate a beautiful life well lived. And today, to remember the way of sorrows Jesus walked while carrying His cross, we can only gather in our homes, not permitted to gather together in church buildings or group processions – but it is still a ‘Good Friday’.

That Friday when Jesus died on the cross, was called ‘Good’ because it brought all the goodness of God back into the lives of His children. The savior had come to save them, and to save all who would ever look to His cross and believe. Nothing could take that goodness away because three days later, Jesus rose from the tomb in which they laid His dead body. Jesus conquered death and the grave for all time, and for all who would ever believe.

So today, even though nothing seems right or normal, even though we cannot gather together in rememberance because of this Coronavirus Pandemic that has our world sheltering in place for fear of sickness and death – let us take hope. Let us take hope because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that will ultimately conquer this COVID-19 pestilence.

“Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:32-33 ESV

There is no pestilence or sword, no danger or peril that Jesus has not already overcome. When we live this mortal life IN Christ and in His indwelling power we must not fear, no matter what.

“The body they may kill…God’s truth abideth still…His kingdom is forever.”

Martin Luther

No matter what you feel or where you are, no matter if this COVID-19 pestilence has come near you or even worse, claimed someone you know and love…open your heart, painful as it is, and know this…it is still a ‘Good’ day because Jesus has overcome the world and ALL that is in it.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/good-friday

March 31, 2020March 31, 2020

What Are You Waiting For? A Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

²⁸Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
³¹But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength; NKJV

I’ve always tried to practice the wise saying that says, “The heart of the righteous studies how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.” (Proverbs 15:28) During this coronavirus pandemic I have not said much on social media yet, except to caution us not to live in fear because I wanted to be sure of what I say. The last thing I want to do is mislead anyone.

In the midst of this Pandemic there are many voices who have rushed to announce the end of the world is coming or that this is a great plague sent by God on an evil and unbelieving generation. I do not want to join those voices. They rush to pronounce a judgment that if it is true, only God knows.

Rather, I have chosen not to comment much but instead to study how to answer the cacophony of questions, most of which begin with the word, ‘why’. While I certainly do not feel qualified to answer all those questions, I do have some thoughts to offer to the dialogue. Here are a few things I believe I can say in response…

Questions: Why is this virus happening? Is it not God’s judgment on us?

Answers:

Perhaps, but only God knows for sure. But if this virus is a judgment from God to punish an unbelieving world, then so is every other sickness, malady and tragic occurrence that has ever happened. The problem with that line of thinking is that it misses the true character of God and the true nature of the world in which we live. God is good all the time – and everything he created is good.

All the bad things that happen in our world (and have happened since the Fall of Adam and Eve) are NOT God’s direct judgment on humanity; that will come at the end of time. They are, if you will, God’s indirect judgment. They are the consequences of living in a fallen world…of humanity’s choice to disobey God and to not love Him and our neighbor.

God doesn’t need to sit around and think up thinks with which to afflict our world: wars, famines, earthquakes, and diseases. All these things entered our world as consequences of sin, and the death it brought to the natural order. We should not be surprised when they happen. And, we should not look for a supernatural reason with which to blame God.

When tragedies occur, whether through widespread disease or natural environmental disasters, we need to see them for what they are – reminders that we are not in control of anything, except our own will in how we respond.

Our Response:

So, what should our response be? Our response should be threefold:

To listen to our authorities who are trying to help us stop the spread of this disease. Yes, even if that means we need to practice ‘social distancing’ for a while…maybe even a long while. I prefer to call it ‘physical distancing’. We can still be social through social media. Right?

To pray for God’s mercy for our world, this situation, and those who are suffering and dying and giving their lives to defend us. Scripture is filled with calls for God’s mercy, as well as promises of His mercy to those who seek Him. The great English reformer, John Wesley said, “I believe God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” Think about it. God can do anything but why should He intervene on our behalf. God desires that we seek Him and His blessing. Prayer changes things.

To wait…scripture promises good things come to those who wait for Him to act. That does not mean we do nothing. A big part of waiting is praying, listening, and doing as He leads. It is in waiting on the Lord that we find new strength. It is in actively waiting as we pray that He leads us to answers, to develop proper treatments, and to find cures.

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.” Lam. 3:25 NKJV

Scripture is clear. Have you not heard? Even the strong and mighty fall. But God gives strength to the weary…to those who wait on Him. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s all listen, pray, and wait on the Lord to lead us through this Pandemic, as He has all the others throughout history. Deliverance always belongs to the Lord.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://www.nejm.org/coronavirus

March 1, 2020

The Latter Rain: Celebrate Lent – Day 5

¹⁴“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.¹⁵But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15

Often, we overlook the greatest power of the human spirit. We think our greatest power has something to do with our intellect, our creative genius, and our ability to figure things out. Yet all those things pale in comparison to the greatest power ever granted to humanity – the power to forgive.

The greatest power of the human being is to forgive. With one act of forgiveness, we can wipe away the greatest of afflictions that plagues us. When we hold on to bitterness and grudges against others, we allow them to fester like a cancer in our spirit. Such feelings steal our peace and keep us bound as slaves to our emotions.

“The greatest power of the human being is to forgive.”

Jesus came into our world to bring us the forgiveness of our Heavenly Father. He demonstrated the importance of forgiveness when He offered up the greatest act of forgiving the world has ever seen…from His cross, He forgave those who rejected and crucified Him.

In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we hear Jesus teaching His followers the importance of forgiveness. He links our own forgiveness from God with our willingness to forgive others. This is a most difficult thing to understand. We don’t want to think that God will not forgive us because we don’t forgive others. Instead, we think thoughts like, “After all, we aren’t perfect like Jesus. Right?”

Wrong. It is not about being perfect, it is about being surrendered to the power of His love working in and through us. Alone, we do not have the power to forgive but through His divine Spirit at work within us we can. The truth is that if we do not learn to forgive others, we are placing our souls in jeopardy. You might be thinking, “But, I can’t forgive what they have done to me!” You’re right. On your own you cannot. But we can do ‘all things’ through Christ who gives us strength (Phil. 4:13).

Today is Forgiveness Sunday for our Eastern Christian brothers and sisters. On the final day before they enter the celebration of Great Lent they turn to one another at the end of their worship service to offer forgiveness to each other; it is a powerful image of the love of God being poured out.

If God’s grace is always being poured out, and I believe it is, then His love is always available to us. It is only in and through His love that we can forgive those who have hurt us. Alone, we cannot even love, let alone forgive. But we are never alone. His power is at work within us, teaching us and leading us.

Today, on Forgiveness Sunday, the latter rain is falling. Showers of blessing are being outpoured. We need only step out into the rain. Now, let us turn to one another and offer our forgiveness to all who have hurt us. Let us confess that we too have hurt others and need to be forgiven, not only by God but by those whom we have hurt. And let us live in the power of His love.

Shalom,

Pastor Brad

April 19, 2019

The Praise of Agony

Yet you are the Holy One, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

Psalm 22:3

“Eli! Eli! Lama sabachthani”, the voice of Jesus cried out from the cross. Most scholars agree that those words were written as a Greek transliteration of the spoken Aramaic of Jesus’ day. They also are the opening words to Psalm 22, one of many scriptures often read on Good Friday.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer;
by night as well, but I find no rest.

Psalm 22:1-2

But what did those words mean? Scripture tells us that many who heard Jesus’ cry of despair from the cross, thought that He was crying out for the prophet Elijah to appear and save Him. However, the name ‘Eli’ in both Hebrew and Aramaic is not only a proper name, but a transliteration for the word ‘God’.

Jesus endured the agony of a Roman scourging without crying out. Isaiah 53 records this prophetic truth as it says, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” It wasn’t the agony of His passion that caused him to cry out to God, it was the burden of sin – yours and mine.

Again, we hear the prophet Isaiah, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”(Isa. 53:6) It was the weight of our sin that caused Him to cry out as his Father looked away, that Christ would die… the one for the many. As the divine Son of God, Jesus couldn’t die, but in His humanity, he willingly gave up His life to the agony of death. In the moments before giving up his life, He cried out because he knew what it felt like to become as sin and to be separated from His Father.

Psalm 22 prophetically offers us the thoughts of Jesus as he hung on the cross. We hear the agony, pain and shame he felt in becoming the full and complete sin offering for the world…

But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *
scorned by all and despised by the people.

All who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

“He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; *
let him rescue him, if he delights in him.”

Psalm 22:6-8

“If he delights in him”? Yes, that is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. The scorners and mockers didn’t realize how prophetic they were. In the pain and agony of all agonies, Jesus still found the delight of His Father’s love to pray for those who crucified Him. When no one else would have strength to think or speak, He took the time to show love and mercy to a penitent thief, and assured him of paradise. He took the time to speak forgiveness to His executioners, and He took the time to care for His mother, and gave her into the care of His beloved disciple, John.

It wasn’t the agony of His passion that caused him to cry out to God, it was the burden of sin – yours and mine.

As you look upon the cross of our crucified Lord this Good Friday, consider Him who though in the agony of all agonies, took time to remember you and to praise His Father – the Holy One who is always enthroned upon the praises of the true Israel. Whatever trials and pain you may be enduring right now in your life, consider the faithfulness of the Father who didn’t forget His son in death, but raised Him to life in glory three days later.

Our God is the “Holy One”. He is the praise of all who are truly Israel. He is the one Who can take our ashes and turn them into beauty.

Shalom for a Blessed God Friday,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://www.christthesaviourhbg.org/icons.html

April 3, 2019

To Eat or Not to Eat?

To Eat or Not to Eat?

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life,

which the Son of Man will give you.

John 6:27

Gourmet meal with chef Have I mentioned how much I love to eat? And not only eat, but I enjoy the pursuit of cooking a deliciously tasting gourmet meal that not only tastes great but looks fabulous. But, today is Wednesday and I really shouldn’t be writing about food; it will only tempt me more!

Wednesdays have always been a traditional day of fasting according to the ancient ways of the Christian faith. The Jews fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The early Christians, wanting to distinguish themselves from the Jews, chose Wednesdays and Fridays as fast days. Wednesdays are in remembrance of the betrayal of Jesus during the last week of His life before the cross, and Fridays are in honor of the day of His crucifixion.

The very fact that the Jews had two days of fasting each week should say something to us of what God expects from us. Jesus grew up fasting in a devout Jewish home. That means He fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays and celebrated all the many rituals of the faith in which He was raised.

We should take note that in the gospels Jesus never says the words, ‘if you fast’. Rather, in Matthew chapter 6 we hear Jesus say, “When you fast”. Jesus expects his disciples to fast. However, in many modern Christian churches the discipline of fasting is rarely if ever practiced. We should also note that fasting, in biblical terms, is always the giving up of food for a given time, and for the purpose of learning to rely upon God for our sustenance.

We should take note that in the gospels Jesus never says the words, ‘if you fast’

It’s interesting to me that the early church didn’t just fast during a particular season of the year, like Lent; they fasted every week. The practice of fasting quickly reveals the things that control our appetites. When we tell ourselves, we will do without something Satan seems to bring the temptation of it right to the forefront of our minds.

The practice of fasting quickly reveals the things that control our appetites.

It is precisely in leaning on the power of God’s Spirit to help us overcome such temptations that we find the real value of fasting – we grow in the mighty power of God’s Spirit. We learn to do the hard work of relying upon God for spiritual food that fills and sustains us in ways earthly foods can’t. Several hours after eating our hunger pains soon return to haunt us. However, after feasting on God during our fasting, we will have a satisfaction no earthly food can give.

So, how’s your Lenten fast going? It’s never too late to begin, or should I say, ‘begin again’. Why not try it today? Offer some time of fasting and self-denial to the Lord today and spend the time you would normally be eating in prayer and reading of the Word. If you do, I promise you’ll find more than enough to satisfy your desires. To not eat may make you feel wilted at first, like turning to ash, but remember, God can turn ashes into Beauty.

Shalom for a Holy Lent,

Pastor Brad

Image credit: https://www.thespruceeats.com/gourmet-defined-1665527

March 29, 2019

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

“Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now,

but you will follow later.”

John 13:36 NRSV

I know it’s a weak metaphor, but I love the Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy is told that to get home she needs to find the Wizard in Emerald City, and that the only way to find him is to follow the yellow brick road – I see a modern parallel to Jesus and his disciples.

In John 8:21 Jesus tells those who are questioning him, “Where I am going, you cannot follow”. However, in speaking to his disciples in John 13, on the last night before the cross, Jesus tells them that while they can’t follow him then, they will follow later. Then in chapter 14, Jesus tells them they know they way:

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” (emphasis added)

John 14:1-4 NKJV

Thomas then says in verse five what they were all thinking when he asked Jesus, “How can we know the way?” That’s a great question for each of us to ask this Lenten season. The Lenten spiritual practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are all guides to help us find the way of Jesus.

‘And where I go you know, and the way you know.’

The way of Jesus is the way to eternal life. To use my earlier metaphor, it’s the yellow brick road that leads to all the answers we need to get home. After all, that is where Jesus was going – home to Heaven, and that’s where we want to go too.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (vs. 6). The cross is the way home. No one gets home, literally or spiritually without dying. For those who will follow Jesus, there awaits a cross at the end of our yellow brick road. Or, perhaps, we should say the cross it at the start of our yellow brick road. We must die to ourselves before we can even begin the journey home.

‘For those who will follow Jesus, there awaits a cross at the end of our yellow brick road.’

I like to contemplate the cross of Christ on each Friday of Lent. Jesus said His disciples could follow him – later, after He conquered death for them in His resurrection. So too, He conquers death for all who will believe and follow. What the cross turned to ash Jesus made beautiful. Are you following?

Shalom for a Holy Lent,

Pastor Brad

March 27, 2019

Beauty of the Ashes: Get Back In the Ring

Get Back in the Ring

And not only that, but we^* also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

Romans 5:3

Muhammad Ali soaks up George Foreman's punches on the ropes in Zaire in the Rumble in the Jungle I have an autographed picture of Muhammed Ali in my office at home. No, I never actually met him, but my nephew Jason did. He lived near the legendary boxer in Michigan and saw him in a restaurant one night. Jason knew I was a huge fan when I was growing up, so he got it and surprised me.

A lot of my uncles couldn’t understand why I was so crazy about Ali. They couldn’t stand him. There was a lot of hype about boxing in those days. Ali’s personality drove the hype, for sure. They called him a bragger and a loud mouth, and they were right. He was both of those things. However, I would always respond to them in my youthful wisdom, “It’s not bragging if you can back it up”, and he always did. He was the most amazing boxer ever in my, and in many others’ opinions.

One of the things I remember Ali bragging about most was his ability to not get hit. In his inimitable way, he made up limericks about it to taunt his opponents before a fight. “I’m gonna float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Your hands can’t hit, what your eyes can’t see. Ali!”

Of course, we know Ali did get hit and he got hit a lot. In fact, his Parkinson’s disease was attributed in part to his many hits to the head. As a fighter, he fought longer than many others and in his later years he took some pretty hard beatings, but he never quit, no matter how tough the beatings got. In fact, he boasted in his beatings. Like when he took the beatings from George Foreman and called them his ‘Rope-a-Dope’ tactic in their ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight.

St. Paul said he boasted in his sufferings too. I know, it’s a stretch to compare Muhammed Ali and the Apostle Paul in the same analogy, but I wanted to get your attention. Boasting isn’t a good thing; it’s arrogant. However, scripture says it’s okay to boast in the Lord about what He is accomplishing in your life – especially in your sufferings. In fact, it really isn’t boasting at all, if you’re giving God the glory…it’s a testimony.

In his hymn, ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ hymn writer Isaac Watts said, “Forbid it Lord that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God.” No matter what our sufferings, Paul wants us to know that they will produce endurance in our lives, if we sacrifice them all to the God’s glory. He alone can sustain us through any amount of suffering. And what’s more, God builds our character through our sufferings ultimately leading us to recognize our hope for deliverance is in Him alone.

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

As you reach the midway point in your Lenten journey, stop and think about the fasting and self-denial you’ve offered to the Lord to this point. Hopefully, you’ve felt tempted but are staying strong in your resolve. Granted these are small things in the big sufferings of life, but we learn in small ways how to let God lead in big ways.

“…it really isn’t boasting at all, if you’re giving God the glory.”

The real purpose of Lent isn’t to punish ourselves and find new ways to suffer, but to grow closer to God in our dependence for everything, even the little things. Jesus said that real sustenance for life depends not on bread but on everything that comes from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).

“…but we learn in small ways how to let God lead in big ways”

If you feel like you’ve failed in your fast don’t beat yourself up, give it to God. Sacrifice it to his cross and ask him for strength to do better. Get back in the ring and take a few more punches. Your suffering won’t be in vain. Remember, our God turns ashes into beauty.

Shalom for a Holy Lent,

Pastor Brad

March 22, 2019

The Beauty of the Ashes: Search Me O God

Search Me O God

O God, you know my foolishness,
and my faults are not hidden from you.

Psalm 69:6

abraham-lincoln-quotes There are many wise sayings attributed to Abraham Lincoln. One of the most common is this:

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

That’s true, but there’s one person you can’t fool, any of the time – Jesus Christ. By the very definition of being God, knows everything we’ve ever done, said or thought. Yet sometimes we act as if we can fool Jesus by not admitting our sinfulness to him. How foolish we are.

God knew everything we would ever do, say or think before the world was created, so why do we act like we can hide anything from Him? When we realize that Jesus Christ, our Creator God, loves us in spite of all our foolishness and sins, we can finally become who He created us to be.

Real joy comes from being who God made us to be. Yes, even with all our faults and failures. The Father doesn’t want us to pretend we’re perfect. He doesn’t want us to try and please Him in our own power, trying to be someone we can’t be on our own. He wants us to give Him all of ourselves; all our sins, all our foolishness, all our hurts, hang ups and bad habits, and then let Him remake us into the beauty of His image; the image He bestowed within humanity in creation. When we realize this, confession becomes something, we long for, not something from which we run and hide.

‘Real joy comes from being who God made us to be.’

One of the reasons I love the season of Lent is that it offers us time to concentrate on becoming who we were made to be. Through increased times of prayer and fasting we place ourselves under the light of God’s loving microscope. We ask him to search our hearts as it says in the Psalms…

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 139:23-24

On this second Friday of Lent, why not spend some time in confession. Ask the Lord to search you out, to show you all your foolish ways. Stop trying to fool the One who knows you better than you know yourself. Prayerfully read and meditate on Psalms 139 and 51. Allow the Holy Spirit to check your spirit, to lead you in confessing everything He shows you. Ask Him to burn away all the sin and shame He reveals to you, then watch as He brings beauty out of your ashes.

Shalom for a Holy Lent,

Pastor Brad

March 16, 2019

The Beauty of the Ashes: A Change of Position

Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee,

and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Psalm 95:6

Repentance is a major theme of the season of Lent. One of the best ways for me to show Praying-on-Knees my repentance before God is to change my position. Yes, I mean literally change my position before Him. As we come to the first Friday of week one, the Psalmist reminds us of our proper place before the Lord – on our knees. It seems there are very few times in our modern world that we actually kneel down before the Lord God. Oh, for sure we have neat phrases like, “we’re never stronger than when we’re on our knees,” and “the only way to really rise up is to bow down,” but do we really believe it?

Lent offers us a chance to reset the position of our hearts before God, to remind ourselves that life really isn’t all about us and what happens to us. On Fridays, in remembrance of the day Jesus died, I like to spend some time on my knees contemplating the greatest act of love the world ever knew – the self-sacrifice of our God for love of His creation.

Lent offers us a chance to reset the position of our hearts before God

How can we possibly say thank you to our Father for such an incredible act of love? Well, the truth is we can’t ever fully thank God for his great sacrifice, but we can try. In fact, trying to thank God for His sending Christ to reconcile us to himself is really the heart of Lent. All our prayers, fasting, and works of mercy should be offered up as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the one who died for us.

I want to encourage you to spend some time on your knees physically this first weekend of Lent, if you can. I find that the more I involve my whole body in an act of worship and devotion, it becomes a more humbling experience and I hear my Father’s voice even better. My heart is drawn even more into the Father’s heart… “for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture” …and as the psalmist continues, “Oh, that today we would hearken to His voice!” (Ps. 95:7-8)

“God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn. I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything.”

Bede Griffiths

This weekend, try listening for the Father’s voice from a new position, like on your knees. You might be surprised how much better you can hear.

Shalom for a Holy Lent,

Pastor Brad