Ministry

Today was a pretty cool day. My heavenly Father and I had an appointment at about 5 AM. He got me up early to pray. I just love that. I then had breakfast with a dear friend and his family at a local restaurant where my friend told me about a guy he met yesterday who was going through some tough times in his young marriage. They were even thinking about divorce. I told my friend that I would have liked to have been able to talk to him. Well, guess who sat next to me in church? You guessed it! My father God had another divine appointment for me. I was able to share with this young man how terrible divorce is. How I regret so many of the decisions I made in my own young marriage. I talked to him about love and forgiveness and not keeping track of wrongs, (I Cor. 13), spiritual leadership. I had a chance to share with him what I learned through my divorce. How awful bitterness is. How I cherish the godly men in my life and how important they are to me and my life as a christian. I was able to relate a lot to him from a different perspective then most christian men could. I praise God for using me in spite of my circumstances! It is indeed an honor. Please pray for my friend as he struggles in his marriage. We have a great God who can do all things!

Psalms

At work when I get a chance I put on the ipod and listen to some good preaching and teaching. Lately that good teaching has come from Piper. He recently finished up a series on Psalms. What a blessing! I have been doing my best to spend a good deal of time strictly in this special book, I am convinced that these mostly shot pieces of literature are meant to help the church of God deal with many of the hardships and blessings that we face every day. That being said, none of spend enough time in Psalms!

When I was a kid at summer camp we used to sing a couple of the Psalms. Psalm 25 is one that comes back to me often! Let me share some of it with you.

Psalm 25:4-21

4 Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;

5 guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.

8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

9 He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.

10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

11 For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

12 Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

13 He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.

14 The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.

15 My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.

17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.

18 Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.

19 See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!

20 Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.

21 May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you.

How cool is that! Lord help me to meditate on your word day and night! Fill my mind with your word.

Heaven

Heaven. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word heaven. Do you think about being in Gods presence? Streets of gold? A mansion built just for you? Praising Christ for His sacrifice? A glorified body? Reunions with loved ones? I have heard quite a bit about how when we get to heaven there will be no more sin. No more temptation. That is one of the things I look forward to the most. I just can't imagine that! What will it be like to have no more sin. What will it be like to to have no sin to tarnish our fellowship with our Holy Father. We will have communion with God unlike anything we will ever experience here on earth. I so look forward to that!

Steve Miller

This is just a short devo from Steve Millers book One Minute Promises. First John 5:14 says, "This is the confidence we have in Him, that is we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Steve Millers says:
Keep in mind that we pray not to inform God's mind, for He already knows all things even before we ask. We pray not to change His mind, for He already has a plan in place and knows what is best. Rather, we pray to receive His mind-to ask Him to place His desires in our hearts so we can become cooperative instruments of the work He desires to do on the earth.

What a privilege to be a part of His work! Father please help me know your will and not my own.

Me me meme

Why do I blog? That is a question that I have given a lot of thought to. There are a number of reasons. Writing often makes it easier for me to understand my thoughts and emotions. If I write something down, it forces me to actually think about what I am writing. It is easy for me to just file stuff away in the back of my mind and then just forget about it. Another reason I blog is to be as transparent to others as I can. I want the real me to be known. I try to be honest with everything I post. I pray that God will use the things I write here to work in the lives of those who read it. Who knows, maybe someone will even get saved by what is published. Pride, I know that there is a part of me that wants to impress those who read what I write. I have been thinking a lot about pride as of late. It seems the more I look at me life the more I see it. The more I look at me the uglier I am. I just pray that when people look at me they will see less and less of who Rob Peck is and more and more of my Savior. I know that pride will always be something I struggle with. I am starting to believe that pride and pride alone is responsible for most if not all of the sins I commit. I can't wait for glory. I can't wait to be glorified. To never even be tempted to sin. Come Lord Jesus Come!

ABC

There are quite a few people in and around the town I live it that call my church "Adirondack Bible Cult". I guess that folks think we do whatever Ed Hart (our pastor) says without any thought of our own. What people fail to see is that what is taught comes straight from Gods Word. Some of what is taught is calling sin sin. There is no beating around the bushes here. I know that my church is not perfect, I also know that Ed Hart is not perfect. He has said things to me that I don't agree with, he has said things from the pulpit that I don't agree with or have a hard time with. That is OK. He is human. I know he has offended some folks too. Again, he is human. Just ask him, he will tell you that. Most of the men I know, myself included are know to put their foot in their mouth from time to time. My point is that people are going to talk. Most of that talk comes from the people who have been hurt. Some of that talk comes from pride, which by the way is sin. Most of that talk is harmful to the body of Christ. I am guilty of it. I have been both hurt and offended by ABC, or any other church I have attended. I have said things that were better left unsaid. I know that all people are sinners, myself included. We are all a work in progress.

Something was said in church yesterday that really got my attention. My pastor said, If you are offended of hurt, maybe you are thinking about yourself too much. 1 Corinthians 13 is a very familiar passage. It talks about love and what it means to love, how to love. The end of verse 5 says that love keeps no records of wrongs. Has someone wronged you? Do you still get mad about it? Are you bitter? It has been recommended to me by more then one person that I write down everything wrong that my x does, that I keep a record of her wrongs so that if it ever comes to court I have that "stuff" written down. I have tried it. I used to write everything down. I would write down things she said, things she did or didn't do. If I didn't agree with it I wrote it down. I had quite a list! Do you know how hard it is to love someone when you are keeping track of all the ways they wrong you? It's impossible. I was angry with her, I was hurt by her, I was bitter. I couldn't even talk to her without getting mad. I don't keep that list any more. Luke 6:27 says to love your enemies. I don't look at Nancy as an enemy, but if scripture says that I should love my enemies I know that I need to love Nancy too. I often have a very hard time doing that!

My point is that in this little town of ours there are quite a few different churches. There is a lot of talk. Many people are "keeping lists" of all of the ways they have been hurt. We need to get rid of those lists. Matthew 22:37-38 says "Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself." Who is your neighbor? In this case, its the person who hurt of offended you. If we are Christians, even if we are offended, we should not be talking about it. Those outside the church hear it. They want nothing to do with it. We give our Savior a black eye. I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. I know that God will work in spite of us bickering. I for one don't want that. I want Him to work through me not in spite of me! Let us all get our minds off of ourselves and on Him who saved us.

Galations 2:17-21

This was part of my QT this morning. I know that it is a familiar passage but it is still refreshing!

17But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose.

I have been crucified with Christ and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me! Loved me! I praise you Jesus! Help me to live for you more and more! I am so undeserving of your love. I deserve hell. I prove that every day. I praise you for giving your life for mine. Help me love you more every day.

Discernment

I have been enjoying the Desiring God blog for sometime now. Today's post was, for me, something to get excited about. If the "church" today could grasp this truth there would be true revival. True repentance. True fellowship. The following is from John Piper.

Discernment is not created in God's people by brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance. It is created by biblical truth and the application of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and minds. When that happens, then the brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance will have the strong fiber of the full counsel of God in them. They will be profoundly Christian and not merely religious and emotional and psychological.

We see so many "churches" today base their entire belief system on emotions, feelings and works. This just should not be! Pick up those Bibles people! Get into God's word, put Christ first, apply biblical truth by the power of the Holy Spirit! That is what being a Christian is all about! He is the Way the Truth and the Life!

If you get a chance check out today's post at Desiring God. There is a lot of good stuff there! http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1348_test_revival_with_doctrine/. I'm not all that savvy with computers so you will have to either cut and paste the link or just go there yourself! The title of the blog is "Test revival with doctrine".

Lost loved ones

As my friends and family know, I have been divorced for about 6 years now. This is something I often struggle with. From what I have seen in scripture I feel that I did have biblical grounds for the divorce so that I am comfortable with, though I do often second guess that decision. I struggle with knowing that I am a failure. I was the spiritual leader of my family, I let my family slip away. I feel that if I had loved the Lord as I do now things could have been different. If I had loved Nancy the way that I know I should have, maybe she would not have looked for happiness elsewhere. I pray for Nancy all the time. I pray that she will return to Jesus, that she will see that the world has nothing to offer. I pray that she will see that true happiness is only from the Lord. I know that many of you reading this pray the same for her and I thank you. I sometimes pray that the Lord will bring her back to me so that we could be a family again. That would indeed be a miracle. Our relationship is often stressed and I know that my testimony has been tarnished a number of times because I let my feelings get in the way. I know that God can and does use me in spite of my short comings and I praise Him for that as I am often a bumbling idiot! I pray also that Nancy will someday be able to forgive me for not being the man that she deserved. I praise God that He loves me even though I fail. I know that He is control and I praise Him for that too.

Matthew 22:34-40

Today in church we talked a little bit about love. The above passage, though not mentioned this morning, is Christ Himself talking about love. It says "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." All I could think today while I was listening to Pastor Ed was that I sometimes struggle with loving others. As pastor said this morning, many Christians would give their life up for another, but would they inconvenience themselves for that same person? I really think that I would lay my life down for another. The inconvenience is something different. I sometimes have a hard time bring myself to talk to someone different then me let alone love them! Why is it so hard for my flesh to love! Christ loved the unlovable, I have a hard time talking to them! I believe the answer to my condition lies within the greatest commandment. It says to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. I know that when I am seeking God it is easier to walk in His commandments. I know also that when my walk is not so close I have a much more difficult time doing all of His commandments, not just loving. Father please help me to walk closer to you every day. As I seek to love you, instill your love in me so that I can love others better. Matthew 6:33 says "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." I know that If I do seek Him first I don't have to worry about Him not answering my prayers, as long as they go along with His will! Psalm 51:10 says "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." That is my prayer.

Man to man

Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." I love that. The relationships that men can have with one other in Christ are an incredible blessing. I praise God for the godly men that He has put in my life! I praise him for the accountability, encouragement, trust, love, discipleship, friendship, and fellowship that He has given me in the form of men who love Him. I am so blessed. I have been praying for quite some time that Lord would provide me with godly friends. He has done so to a degree that I surely do not deserve! God is so good! I praise Him. Father please help me never to take these men for granted!

Before I sign off, I would like to share another cool verse that I was reacquainted with today. Isaiah 40:8 "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

Sinner to sinner part 2

How much do you hate sin? I'll bet you all the money in the world that no matter who you are and where you are in life, you don't hate sin nearly enough. I know for sure that I don't. Why? Because I still sin! I can't imagine the pain that my Savior had to go through for my sin! God can't even tolerate to have sin in His holy presence. The same God that sacrificed His son as a payment for our sin so that someday we may able to stand in His presence. Yesterday I listened to a sermon by John Piper about sin. I can't remember the sermon title but he talked quite a bit about how much Christ suffered for you and me. The suffering on the cross, God turning His back on Him. In a nutshell Christ suffered an amount equivalent to what all of the human race would suffer in hell for eternity as payment for our sins. I'm not what you would call an expert on the effects of sin, but scripture is not silent when it comes to hell. Eternal torment, Luke 16:33, eternal separation from God, eternal fire, Matt 5:22, eternal condemnation Matt 23:33. Eternal is forever and ever, that is indeed a high price to pay. I can not even begin to fathom how much Christ suffered in those hours. I can't understand the magnitude of the love that He has for us. I don't think that we will ever understand how much He suffered for our sin, yet we continue to sin! I hate that! Can you see your face in the crowd screaming crucify Him!!!! I sure can see mine. We had communion this past Sunday. It really hit me hard that every time I sin is another blow with the hammer that nailed Christ to that cursed tree. I hate the sin I have in my life. I hate it more and more every day and I still don't hate it enough. Father help me to HATE the sin in my life! Help me to nail my sin on the cross and never look back. I praise You for your suffering. I praise You for the cross. I praise You for your love. I praise You for the gospel, for salvation, for your Son. Thank you.

Anonymous

I have a friend who has a blog that seems to get a lot of attention from anonymous people. These anonymous people rarely have anything nice to say, in fact the attack what we as conservative evangelicals hold most dear too, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These folks call themselves "Christians" and some of the may very well be born again, but actions do speak louder then words. If they are indeed members of Christs family, they are for sure on the left. I have heard mention of civil partners, universalism, feminism, and the list goes on. Posting an anonymous comment is a lot like taking a swing at someone behind their back. It's almost like they are ashamed of the comments they leave. If you can't own up to what you have to say then why say it at all! The more I study God's word the more I see that His church is very exclusive. Matthew 7:13-14 says "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. The liberal and emergent churches seem to think that no matter what you believe as long as you can make scripture say what you want it to say is enough for salvation. Can you bend scripture to say that homosexual relationships are of God? Anyone can take just one verse and make it seem true. Can you make scripture say that living a worldly life is what god wants for us? The true test though is to take scripture and use the rest of the bible to interpret that piece of scripture. Does it fit? Can you take that one verse that you cling to and then look at the rest of what God has to say and make it fit? Chances are that if you are sitting on the left, you can not. We have a God that does not change. He has been, is, and always will be the same. If He hated sin in the old testament, guess what, He hates sin now! Because of original sin, we are all guilty of sin. God hated sin then and he still hates it now. I thank God that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for my sin. My sin that separates me eternaly from Him. My sin, idoltry,adultry, lying, cheating, stealing, coveting, hating, anything that I have done in the past separates me from God. My only way to Him, to a pure relationship with Him is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice for my sin. That is my only hope. Without that I am destined to an eternity in hell. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." I don't care what your denomination is, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the one and only way to heaven. I thank You Father for your sacrifice! I thank You for my salvation. I thank You Jesus that You are the Way the Truth and the Life, nobody comes to the Father but by You!

Dry Spells

Well, it has been about a week since my last post and at this point I just feel like I don't have too much to say. My Mom has always told me that "if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all." I'm not so sure that this applies to blogging! I have found that it is much easier to write about the Lord and what He is doing in your life when you are either being tested or when you are being blessed or seeing answered prayer. I feel that I have spent the last 6 years of my life being tested or refined (for the most part). The blessings came when Ty moved up here. Please don't misunderstand me here. I know that every day is a blessing. I know that Jesus Christ is a blessing, I know that because He chose to call me to Himself is a blessing. I also know that testing in and of itself is a blessing. I guess that my point is that there seems to be a lot more testing in my life then there is blessing. Now, I am NOT complaining. I am just stating the obvious. I believe that this is true for most Christians. If I am off base let me know!

Now, an after thought. I was listening to Macarther the other day and he said that he was in a room with a bunch of other reputable well known theologians and he said that they could not agree on what was necessary for salvation. This really got me thinking. One very clear picture of salvation is the thief on the cross next to Jesus. First he defended Christ and then he asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom. Luke 23:40-43 follows. 40But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[f]"
43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." To me that is pretty clear. Faith alone. But, what is faith? Actions speak louder then words. Do you think that if this thief next to Christ were to somehow escape death after this brief interlude with Christ he would have have gone on to lead a luke warm christian life, or would he have been radical for Christ. He would have been radical. There would not have been any doubt that this man was a christian. He would have showed all that looked that he was a christian by what he did, by his works. I have become a very strong advocate of "Lordship Salvation" in the past couple of years. I believe that faith alone is all that is necessary but this faith is in the Lord of the universe and it is giving Him control, making Him Lord, not a bystander. There should be evidence in your life that Christ is your Savior. In the parable of the seeds I believe that the only saved seed is the one that fell on the fertile ground. The others not, seeds may have been planted, but there was never any fruit. If you think you are a christian and there has never been any fruit in your life, it is time to examine your life and figure out just who your lord is. Jesus is not just your ticket to heaven and then go on living however you want. Jesus is the son of the only God, sacrificed for our sin. Accept Him for what He is, Lord. Father help me to live my life in such a way that it is evident to all that You and You alone are Lord of my life.

So much for the dry spell!