Teaching the liberating truth of the New Creation in Christ

I recall during our third pastorate (see Newsletter #227) that the sponsoring pastor of the “church plant” and I often spoke on the telephone on Mondays and shared our “war stories” of the previous day’s services. This was in the era of the 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday services and preachers were trained and encouraged to take Mondays off, and we would often visit each other or talk by phone.

He would often ask, “Did God say anything through you yesterday worth repeating?” , or words to that effect. Obviously he and I had a similar sense of humor, though as Pentecostal pastors we did expect God to give us words to say in the pulpit that were not pre-planned. I have no idea why that phrase has stuck in my mind down through the years. I would probably now answer by quoting the first verse of the well-known hymn “How Firm a Foundation”:

I now have a much higher value of God’s Word and its foundation for every part of a believer’s life than I did back then. “What more can He say than to you He hath said…?” We need to take a real solid stand on the Word at every turn and twist of our lives. “If God said it, that settles it” is the reality. “If God said it, I believe it, and that settles it” may be a fact in a particular situation but it is not the truth. There are many things that God has said in His Word that will happen whether I believe it or not. A good example is Hebrews 13:6 — “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Your daily life will be enriched if you believe what He said, but even if you don’t He will never leave you. “If we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself” (II Timothy 2:13 NKJV). “If we give up on him, he does not give up — for there’s no way he can be false to himself” (Message Bible).