Fact OR Truth?

I have always been a fan of courtroom drama.  I have read countless numbers of novels and books about our legal system. I have even had the opportunity on occasion to sit in court and watch the drama that is carried out every day.  My favorite television shows usually center around some part of the system of justice.  Our legal system in courtrooms across America has one aim and that is to present facts throughout the course of a trial in order that they might discover the truth.  But if you’ve observed for very long you will know that fact does not always equal truth.  Throughout every day in the courtroom there are men and women who will in all honesty present facts and then promptly turn those facts not into truth but into lies.  It never ceases to amaze me that two different people can have the same set of facts and come up with several different “truths”.  Why?  Because fact does not equate to truth.

Facts are simply the exact happenings of events that have taken place.  What can be scientifically proven to have occurred is a fact.  But a truth is so much more. It is what has actually occurred despite the facts. Once a truth has been realized there can be no doubt no matter what the facts say.  Let me show you what I mean:

Fact: Lazarus is dead.
Fact: He has been buried for 4 days.
Fact: By now he stinks.
Truth: Jesus is the resurrection and the life.


Fact: Jesus died at Calvary
Fact: He was buried in a borrowed tomb.
Fact: The stone was sealed with the governor’s seal to insure that grave robbers would not come and steal the body.
Truth: On the third day, early on Easter morning, the tomb is empty and today we serve a risen savior.


The fact of the matter is that every indication points to the fact that we are worthless, without hope, deserve judgment, and have no right to even approach the throne of God.  And yet the truth is we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, called out of darkness and into His marvelous light.


You see something happens when the facts come in contact with the word of God.  The facts no matter how grim or confusing can not stand under the weight of the truth.  Why? Because “thy word is truth. . .”


Fact:  You may be sick in your body.
Truth: By his stripes you are already healed.


Fact:  You may be racked with guilt over the mistakes of your past.
Truth: He has cast my iniquity into the sea and remembers it no more.


Fact:  You may be lonely without a friend in the world.
Truth: There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother and he will never leave you nor fosake you.


Fact:  You may be facing obstacles that you can’t overcome.
Truth: I serve a God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all I can ask or think and I can do all things through Him.


Fact: You may be bound up, can’t move, can’t worship, can’t hardly make it.
Truth: The word says that the Truth will make you free. ---


The Fact is that that there are many different paths that people are on today. The Fact is that there are many different roads that lead to various places.  But the truth is this morning there is only one way to get to where you need to go. There is only one path. There is only one road.  Jesus said in John 14:6: “. . ."I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  Today, regardless of how bad the facts may say the situation is, regardless of what the reports may say, regardless of the conditions or the circumstances, you can count on God's truth to be greater than the facts.

To all of those who faithfully read, I say, once again, Thanks!  I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with you all.  Please take a moment and say a prayer for my mom.  The facts say some pretty dreadful things. . . but the truth is, God is able.  I'm choosing to place my trust in the truth.  I hope you will too!  God bless you all - RP

Trust - Even When It Doesn't Make Sense

Yesterday, my daughter Abigail and I were driving on the western side of Caroline County, Virginia. Along a rural country road, we travelled between what felt like mile after mile of corn fields. Beautiful corn stalks, blowing in the breeze, field after field after field. I pointed out the window and said - "Abigail, look at all that corn." Her reply, "Did somebody have to bend over and plant all of that?" I said, "No, baby, they have all kinds of great machinery now that make it easier for the farmer to be able to plant his fields." She then said - "But how does he water it all." My response, "Baby - farming is really an act of faith. He plows the ground and then he plants the seed - but he has to trust God for the rain."

It's awesome the things that we can learn by just observing the day to day events in our lives. Farmers are amazing to me. They invest in a field that promises them nothing. They believe in a product that lies dormant beneath the ground. They prepare for a harvest that they can not guarantee. They faithfully go out and work fields, even when the return is unknown. They do everything that they can to insure that they will have sufficient in the end. And yet, their are variables that they cannot control. No amount of work on their part can insure sufficient rain, sufficient sunshine, lack of storm damage or destruction by flood. They really don't know about the fluctuating changes that could occur. No - they just do their part and they have to trust God for the rest.

How many times have I screamed at the heavens - "God this just doesn't make any sense. What are you trying to do? What is your plan?" You probably have to. I mean, we plowed the field. We planted the seed. We seemed to do everything right. We followed the Farmer's Almanac. We planted at the right time. We've done all we know to do - and now Lord - where's the rain. Where's the growth. I don't seen any green sprouts bursting through the surface out in my field. Did I misplant? Did I do something wrong? Am I not the farmer I thought I was?

Of late, in midst of all my questions, I've been hearing a voice coming back to me. It's sweet and gentle - not harsh or rude. I haven't gotten the "How dare you question me?" routine that sometimes I've probably deserved. Instead, I've heard the words of an old Sunday School lesson which are really the words of Jesus from His Sermon on the Mount. "Consider the lilies of the field - they don't labor - they don't make clothing and yet have you ever seen anything arrayed as beautifully as them. Consider the birds of the air - they don't sow - they don't reap - they don't have a barn or a bank account and yet God feeds them. Aren't you more to God than birds and lilies."

Trust is such a tough lesson to learn. In our modern world, we're taught that if we are going to make it - if we are going to survive, it is going to be based on our own abilities, our own merit. I am not an advocate of the welfare system. We have too many who are constantly waiting and believing that someone should bail them out and God should be their sugar-daddy in the sky. We have too many preachers preaching a prosperity gospel that is no more biblical than pigs are aeronautical engineers. BUT - Jesus did tell us that we should not be so consumed with day-to-day concerns that we miss the big picture. Don't get so caught up in what you will eat, what you will drink, what will you wear, where will you live because He knows what you have need up before you even ask.

And so today, I'd like to propose a modern day parable. Consider the corn farmer - he plows his field - he insures that the land is prepared with necessary fertilizers and nutrients. He goes to the grain supply house and he purchases sufficient seed to plant his field. He sends out the tractor, pulling the seed spreader and he drives in the late spring sun throughout his field spreading the seed. He has done his part. There's really nothing else that He can do. He returns his equipment to the barn and he simply is forced to trust. Will the rain come? I trust God. Will too much rain come? I trust God. Will the sun shine enough or will there be a drought? I don't know but I trust God. Would if a tornado destroys my field? I don't know but I trust God. Does farming make sense? I don't know but people are counting on the grain that I provide. Somewhere someone is preparing a pot to boil the ears of corn that I will produce. Somewhere someone is pulling out the butter and the black pepper and the salt and their about to get that greasy corn on the cob face that looks gross but tastes so good. And so I'm not sure if it makes sense or not - but I trust God - even when it doesn't make sense.

Some of you as you read this are going through things that just don't make sense. I wish I could tell you all the answers that you're seeking because the truth is, I need some too. But since I don't have the answers, I am left to return to the one who knows the end from the beginning, the one in whom all truth originates and in whom there is no shadow of turning. In Christ I place my trust - and in Him today you can lean and trust even when it makes no sense to do so!

Love all of you - hope you have a great weekend - until next time - I TRUST GOD! --- RP

What Do You See?

This past Saturday - we took my son to the eye doctor. Jordan had been wearing glasses since he was five years old. About 14 months ago, his eye doctor felt that his vision had improved to the point that glasses were no longer necessary. Well over the last few months we noticed that Jordan had started to suffer with a lot of headaches and he was complaining more and more about his eyes. So we scheduled an appointment. And as it turns out - he has one eye that's perfect and one eye that isn't and so he's now wearing glasses again. I suggested we just get a pirates eye patch or a Mr. Peanut monocle but he didn't find those suggestions to be very amusing. Well while we were in Lenscrafters picking out a pair of glasses, my daughter, Abigail, and I started goofing off. We started picking up glasses that I couldn't believe were for sale and putting them on. I mean some of these glasses had to have been donated back to the store when someone got an upgrade and then because of the economy, the store decided instead of giving them to a third world country that they would sell them as if they were a new style. They were bad. Well we were having a good time and so I put on one particularly pair of horrible glasses and we started taking pictures. . . which we uploaded to Facebook . . . which was followed by some of the most funny comments I've ever heard. Some of the folks who commented, I think they honestly believed that I had stepped out of a time warp and was actually going to wear these glasses. Based on some of the comments, I was thankful to have perfect vision, lest I be tempted to purchase the ones that were creating such a stir. So in case any of you were confused. . . NO - I don't wear glasses . . . and NO - if I did, they would not look like the ones in the picture :-).

But having explained that, the experience did get me thinking. What must it be like for many who suffer with vision problems or even blindness? To live life in need of something to supply the ability to see, the ability so many of us take for granted. I wake up each day, I open my eyes, I look out of my bedroom window and I never stop to think how it is possible for these to holes in my head to be able to visualize all that is before me. Sight is an amazing sense. Of our five basic senses, it is the one that I would least like to be without. I can't imagine living life in darkness or seeing shadows or in a blur. And yet as bad as that seems, Helen Keller, a woman born blind and deaf, said "There is something worse than living life without sight, and that is to live life without vision." Proverbs 29:18 says that "Where there is no vision, the people perish. . ." It screams of the importance of having vision.

You see vision goes beyond our ability to see. Vision is what you can see that is beyond what your eyes can perceive. Vision looks over a blank canvas and sees the finished masterpiece. Vision looks at a vacant lot and already sees the dream home. Vision looks at a blank screen and can already see the best seller. Vision looks at one Bible Study and can already see an entire church worshipping and serving Jesus Christ. Vision gives legs to our dreams, provides hope in those moments of anxiety and fear, and gives meaning when life seems to have none. Vision drives us to keep going, even when all sanity says quit. Vision pushes us to explore, to pursue, to search, to wonder, and to do what others think is impossible. Vision fuels our passions and expands our faith. Vision will make us reach for more while others give up on the journey.

Last night, I went with several of the members of Church on the Move and we cleaned up some litter and debris from around our retention pond on our new church property. Once we were done, we walked through the building that is being constructed on our property. The building is starting to take shape. The metal studs are up, the rooms have been framed and you can begin to get an idea of what everything is going to look like. I watched as Pastor Mark and Chantel walked through the building and you could see in their eyes the vision of what we are trying to accomplish. I watched as you could see that Chantel can already see where the mirrors are going to hang in the bathroom and where the cabinets are going to go for the teachers to store their supplies. The dreams and plans of years gone by are coming to the surface and they are materializing before her very eyes. But without their vision - we never would have gotten to this stage of the process. Marshall Wainright, another of our Associate Pastors, and I walked upstairs and out on to a catwalk which will eventually house our lighting control and possibly our cameras. We stood there and looked out over our Sanctuary and while to our naked eye, we could just see concrete and steel - we begin to dream and began to see people standing in the presence of God worshipping and growing and becoming what God intended for them to be.

There's something powerful about vision. Vision helps us to see, even when we can't see. Vision brings color to a black and white world. Vision gives hope to the hopeless. Vision breathes breath into those things that are lifeless. God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel and showed him a valley filled with dry bones. It was more than likely a battlefield littered with the bodies of fallen soldiers, having died in combat and left to rot in the desert sun. Imagine being Ezekiel and seeing such a horrific sight and being asked if indeed these bones could live. Ezekiel responded simply, "O Lord God, you know." God then told Ezekiel is this amazing vision found in the 37th chapter of his book to begin to preach to the bones and to tell the bones that they were going to come together - they were going to form skeletons - muscles and flesh was going to be placed back on the bones - and that breath was going to come from the four corners of the earth and fill those reformed bodies. What was once dead and dry and dusty was going to be an army once again. And because Ezekiel had the vision - because he could see what others could not - because he was willing to look where others would not - because he was willing to yield his heart and his mind to a God who's vision is greater than our own - God showed him an ever greater vision than bones coming to life. He painted for Ezekiel the picture of an entire nation, having being discarded on the trash heap of life, left for dead, but now restored, brought out of captivity and resurrected in their own land.

You see when we begin to look with vision, God can then show us just how great HIS vision can be. Do you have faith to believe for more than what you have right now? Can you see God doing more with your life than what's been done so far? Are you willing to look for the masterpiece although right now it looks like finger paint? Are you willing to visualize the best seller, even though right now, it seems like a few ramblings in a blog :-) ? Are you willing to reach for God's best, even though you feel like you've just been getting the leftovers? Right now, it may seem like a bunch of dry bones - but I'm seeing an army marching out of captivity into a prepared land of it's own. Right now, my life may seem broke, busted and disgusted but I'm seeing God's very best lived out in me, regardless of what others may see or think. What do you see? What do you really see?

So for now, I'm not in need of glasses. My son, he got a really cool pair. We left the ones that could have served as sand blasting goggles in the store. But today, I'm inviting you to put on, not the glasses from Lenscrafters, rather the ones from the MasterCrafter - see with GodVision - look for what He has and what He can do and allow your faith to rise - and dream the impossible dream - have faith for what others doubt - explore where others say is impossible. Walk in faith and not fear - trust in the vision that God has for you.

Until next time - I love each of you and am believing God to expand my vision and yours too - RP