Addressing Covid-19

May 26, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Those sitting in the pews wish their pastors were better preachers and those standing in the pulpits wish their people were better listeners. This creates tension.

Pew to pulpit: “If you were to preach better, I would listen better.”

Pulpit to pew: “Well, if you were to listen more attentively, you would hear more.”

Pew: “Preach better.” Pulpit: “Listen better.”

Let me settle this tension once and for all: both are right.

Yet since I’m a pastor, let me shamelessly advocate for the pastor a little bit. Seven times in Revelation 2-3 we are exhorted: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” It doesn’t say, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the preacher is saying…” The admonition is to listen to the Spirit, not to the preacher. “But, Pastor Tim, you haven’t had to listen to my pastor. I’ve taken to counting all the wacky hair-dos around me just to stay awake. I have to do word games in order to not lapse into unconsciousness. Do you know how many words I can make from the one word ‘seat’? There’s eat and east and eats and ate and sate and tea and teas…Do you see how bad it is?” Yes, I do. (And by the way – you missed ‘sea’.) Believe it or not, I’ve listened to your pastor and many like him. I have sat bored out of my mind while men in my own movement have gone into the pulpit and preached the eternal Word of God. I have prayed, “God, please make him stop and offer the closing prayer. If You really love me, You’ll make him shut-up.” And here’s an exquisitely painful thought – some in my congregation have prayed that very prayer while listening to me!

Pastors can and should strive to be the best speakers they can be – tapping the depth of Scripture through prayerfulness and thoughtfulness, crafting a timely message from the eternal Word in order to capture the imagination, feed the mind, and steel the will. I’m 67 years old and still working at improving myself in this area. Those in the pulpit should strive to be better speakers and those in the pews should strive to be better listeners. Why do I bring this up now?

Church is re-opening after the COVID closure and this will be accompanied by heightened emotion and expectation. Livestream church is a gift from God and has been greatly used by Him, but live church has been around for about 2,000 years longer. No doubt, the vast majority prefer live church over livestream church. As I’ve written before – church is a contact sport and is visceral (gut-felt) – and the virtual world can’t reproduce this. When you are sitting in your living room, you do not bring the same attentiveness to sermon listening as you would if seated in the sanctuary. The smell of coffee brewing or bacon cooking or kids arguing can be distracting. The sanctuary is meant to eliminate as many distractions as possible. In your living room, others may possibly be surfing the net on their tablets or leafing through a magazine or have their head back with their eyes closed. They are not bringing an appropriate attentiveness to the preaching of the Word. The atmosphere of live church is much more conducive to attentive, active listening than livestream church. And let me affirm again – God has and will use livestream church for His glory and the growth of His kingdom – but live church is the preferable norm.

So – you come back to live church with a tremendous hunger to hear from God, but your pastor just doesn’t bring it like some of the others you’ve been watching on livestream. The stage isn’t as fancy, your pastor isn’t as cool and smooth, his preaching isn’t as crisp, the power point or other props just don’t pop like that other guy on livestream that you’ve tuned into a few times. How can you hear what the Spirit is saying to the church when the message he brings isn’t as “deep” as you’d like it to me? Here’s how - bring a prayerful attentiveness to church with you. Pray this: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law.” Psalm 119:18 As you listen to your pastor, listen for the Spirit. The words of the Holy Spirit are not limited to the words of your pastor. Hasn’t God spoken to you during a service that was totally not connected to the sermon being preached? The total burden of communication in the sermon isn’t exclusively on the preacher. Yes, there are poor preacher and there are out-of-tune listeners.

I had a ministry changing revelation quite a few years ago that I think has some bearing here. When couples came for marital counseling, I wanted to develop a deep discernment into their difficulty which would enable me to navigate to the right Scripture from which I would draw the proper exhortation or instruction or insight that would bring deliverance to their souls and healing to their marriage. I labored hard at this. How discouraging it was to have them come to me and then continue on to separation and divorce or continue to live in disharmony and broken hearts. I thought – if I was just a better counselor these people would be helped. I was weighed down not with guilt, but with discouragement. And then it happened – a bolt of light from God set me free.

I don’t know how it happened, but I came to realize that the responsibility for effectiveness in counseling didn’t lie on my side of the desk, but on the other side – the responsibility for healing lay with those who came to me. I am convinced that if I am a mediocre counselor, yet you are motivated to grow and change – you’ll grow and change. I am convinced that if I am an excellent counselor, yet you are not motivated to save your marriage or to hear what the Lord has to say – then you won’t grow and change – you’ll continue on the road to dissolution. It’s not on me, it’s on you! Transfer this to preaching – I have a responsibility to be the best I can be – but if in the long run I am only a mediocre preacher, that doesn’t give you a pass on hearing from the Lord. If you come to church motivated and hungry to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church, if you are expectant, God will speak to you.

Psalm 81:10 says: I, the LORD, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

Here’s what Solomon says –

My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.Proverbs 2:1-5

As church re-opens, may you have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 25, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Yes, we’ll be meeting together soon. I’ll let you know as soon as we make sure all our ducks are lined up and our i’s are dotted and our t’s are crossed. Here are some bullet points for your consideration:

We will not be officially open this Sunday, May 31, but if you happened to be in the area around 10 AM and dropped by and hung around for 90 minutes – that’d be OK. BUT – no children, please. There won’t be enough room since we’ll have to follow the social distancing protocols. And BRING and WEAR your mask.
When we do ‘officially’ open, we’ll be having two services on Sunday mornings in order to accommodate the social distancing regulations. Masks will be required.
Sunday services will be at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM.
Services will be one hour long in order to allow for fellowship and transition and disinfecting for the next service.
If we can’t accommodate all in two Sunday morning services, we’ll add a third – probably on Saturday evening.
There will be no nursery or childcare when we first open. Everybody will be in one service – this is another reason for having it be only one hour in length.
Café seating will be only for parents with very young children. If you normally sit in the café, please graciously leave this space for parents with very young children. There will be a live-feed of the service piped into the café and the lobby and the Nursing Mothers’ Room.
In order to avoid having everyone show up at the same service and then having to turn some away, we will have online registration. You’ll be able to go online and see which service can accommodate you or you and your family. We’ll get that info to you when we set it up. I know, it’s weird – but let’s all bear with this awkwardness while it lasts.
Let me know if you have any questions:

See you soon. Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 23, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

Watch for a new denomination coming your way!

“Is this the First Baptist Church of Fremont?”

“Well, it used to be. But now it’s the First Unmasked Baptist Church of Fremont.”

“Oh shoot – can you tell me where the First Masked Baptist Church of Fremont is?”

“Yeah, those sissies meet at the Oddfellows’ Hall on Saturday nights.”

“Is this the Fremont Presbyterian Church?”

“Well, it used to be. But now it’s the Fremont Social-Distancing Presbyterian Church.”

“Oh shoot – can you tell where the Fremont Social-Distancing-is-Stupid Presbyterian Church is?”

Yeah, those rebels meet over at the elementary school.”

“Is this the Community Church of Fremont?”
“Well, it used to be. But now it’s the We-Uphold-the-Constitution Community Church of Fremont.”

“Oh shoot – can you tell me where the We-Let-the Government-Trample-Our-Constitutional-Rights-Whenever-They-Please Community Church of Fremont is?”

“Yeah, those cowards meet at the movie theater whenever the City lets them.”

The church has just gone through a very trying and painful time in that the government shut down all public church gatherings because of the C-19 health crisis. Now that the churches are opening up, many think that the trying time is over. Not so – the church is now set to go through an even more trying and painful time. How so? Well, the devil is set to start some brand new denominations over the next few months.

It’s one thing when the government is perceived to be the enemy of the Church, but it’s quite another thing when the Church is the enemy of the Church. It’s one thing when the government doesn’t love the Church, but it’s quite another thing when the Church doesn’t love the Church. The trying and painful time we’re headed into will be the crisis of love in the Church as various factions actually think that what they think about all the endless nuances of C-19 is more important than loving those who don’t think as they do about C-19. Believe it or not, there will be those who think that getting others to agree with their point of view is more important than loving others. Their sworn duty isn’t to love you, but persuade you that you’re an idiot because you don’t think as they do about masks and social-distancing and Constitutional issues, etc.

Paul warns us not to be taken advantage of by Satan and that we are not ignorant of his schemes. Please take notice: Satan will seek to take advantage of the range of opinion and the depth of emotion swirling around this unique time in American and World history. Satan uses differing opinions and depth of emotion to sow discord, disunity, and displeasure in the hearts of God’s people. Paul and Barnabas’ difference of opinion and depth of feeling about John Mark was enough to sow disunity and division. What happened in Acts 15 has played out a countless number of times as believer divides from believer over this and then that – and then there’s that other thing…

God’s love is greater than your opinion and depth of feeling. God’s love is greater than my opinion and depth of feeling. And now, as the churches begin to regather and certain protocols are put into place, opinion and feeling will run deep. And that’s OK – we’re human beings. They will run deep, yet let’s make sure they don’t run wild. You have a greater responsibility to love and respect someone than you have a responsibility to afflict them with your opinion. Believe it or not, they didn’t return to church so they could hear your opinion about masks and social-distancing and the Constitution, etc. They are hungry for the Word and worship and fellowship. May you have a greater passion to love others than you do to visit your opinion upon them. Let’s not have the church lobby look like CNN or FOX News with people rolling their eyes and disrespecting one another.

The apostle John has a great word for us: “Little children, love on another.” Let’s not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes. It is so easy to become angry over these issues. Yes, anger is a work of the flesh AND it’s something easily exploited by Satan. So do this – when your anger stirs, know that Satan is stirring. Come against that stirring of anger as you would if you knew you had a COVID-19 germ on your hands – vigorously rid yourself of it. For the sake of the agape love of God don’t allow yourself to judge those who don’t see eye-to-eye with you. I know that I can stand heart-to-heart with someone I don’t see eye-to-eye with (after all, I’m married!).

We will require masks – whether you or I think it’s unnecessary or very necessary. Please don’t come to church and then take your mask off as if you’re making some kind of radical political statement. That’s not loving others. If you want to be a radical political firebrand, take it off in the middle of Wal-Mart – more people will witness it there anyway! If you do take it off in church, we will respond very Biblically – we will lay hands on you, vigorously and repeatedly! In love, of course!

The time of greatest testing is just ahead. Little children, let us love one another.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 22, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

David was an impressive warrior, a good king, and a lousy father. At our Wednesday night Zoom Bible Study we looked at a very dark time in David’s life. I selected portions from 2 Samuel 13-19 that recorded David’s responses to the crisis unfolding in his family. It ran the gamut from Amnon’s rape of Tamar to Absalom’s murder of Amnon to David’s indifference toward Absalom to Absalom’s rebellion against David and the aftermath of that. Read it. You’ll agree – David was a lousy father.

When Amnon raped Tamar – David did nothing.
When Absalom wanted Amnon over for lunch with the intention to murder him – David didn’t see this evil intent.
When Absalom murdered Amnon – David did nothing.
When Absalom exiled myself – David did nothing.
When Absalom was finally restored to Jerusalem – David did not see him.
When Absalom was finally allowed to see his father – David did not engage him.
When Absalom stole away the hearts of Israel – David did nothing.

The period of time highlighted in the above bullet points covered a period of over five years.

David was an impressive warrior, a good king, and a lousy father.

He didn’t discipline destructive behavior in his children.
He didn’t correct their unworthy attitudes.
He didn’t instruct them in godly behavior and worthy attitudes.
He didn’t maintain healthy relationships with his children.

Contrast this with the “heat of moment” sins when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed. These were sins of passion AND calculation. The response of David to the crisis in his family was that of cold indifference – not just one or two super-charged moments – but an intentional indifference stretching over years. Just like you, David’s sins ran hot and cold.

But this blog isn’t about David’s poor fathering skills – it focuses on something else. All of the preceding has served as an introduction to the main point of this blog today. I want to compare and contrast the sins of King Saul (the king who preceded David) to those of King David. We’ve just had an overview of David’s failure – if we turn back a few pages in our Bibles, we’ll read the story of King Saul. 1 Samuel 13 reports that King Saul didn’t wait for the prophet Samuel before he offered sacrifice before going to war even after God had told him to wait for Samuel. Because of this, God told Saul through Samuel that his kingdom would not endure and that it would be given to another. “Wait,” you say, “there’s got to be more to Saul’s sin than that. One sin and his dynasty comes to an end whereas David can multiply his sin to heaven and his dynasty endures? One failure and Saul’s no longer qualified for the throne, but David can commit adultery and murder and let his family self-destruct and he gets to remain on the throne? What’s up with that?” That’s the question I want to pursue: What’s up with that?

If the TV reality show “Survivor” were renamed “Sinner”, David surely outwitted and outplayed and outlasted Saul for the title of “The Biggest Sinner.” Yes, Saul sinned in what he did, but there can be no doubt about it – David’s sins outweighed, outmatched, and outdistanced those of Saul. King Saul sinned in black & white whereas David sinned in living color. So why didn’t God remove David like He did Saul? There’s only one reason and one reason only that God didn’t dropkick David out of the kingdom – covenant. God didn’t make a covenant with Saul, but He did make a covenant with David. The difference between Saul and David wasn’t who was the biggest sinner, but who had the greatest promises – who was in covenant with God.

Here is the promise God made to David - Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever. 2 Samul 7:16

Of course, this wasn’t an excuse for sin nor was it a pass for sin. David (and others) suffered greatly for his failures. The essence of the promise is this - FAILURE ISN’T FATAL. God had told David in 1 Samuel 7:15 - My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Did you get that? Read it again. God tells David that He will treat him differently than He treated Saul. God didn’t promise Saul that his throne would be established forever whereas He did make that promise to David. Saul had to depend upon his obedience to maintain his kingdom. David could rely upon the promise of God to maintain his kingdom. His throne wasn’t secured by his obedience, but by the gracious covenant promises God made to him. This means that even though David had his hot and cold sins, even though he was an adulterer and a murderer and a lousy father, God didn’t take the kingdom from him. I love this. God is greater than sin!

My relationship with God isn’t secured by my obedience, but through the covenant that God has made with me in Jesus Christ. His obedience secures my standing before God. His promise of eternal faithfulness guarantees my eternal salvation. It is not the consistency of my obedience or the depth of my holiness that secures heaven for me – it’s God’s promise in His Son Jesus Christ. It is not the depth and multitude of my sin that can keep me from heaven. God’s covenant faithfulness to me in Christ cancels out my sin and failure and presents me before the Throne of God spotless! Hallelujah! David’s sin didn’t disqualify him for the throne and your sin cannot cancel your salvation promised in and secured by Jesus Christ. Your sins may be greater than your non-Christian neighbor or unbelieving friend, but so is the covenant God has made with you in Jesus Christ to cleanse you from all sin and forgive all your iniquity. God’s covenant faithfulness in Christ overcomes your failure and frailty. Your failure isn’t fatal. Praise God!

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 20, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

Lesson #5 of the COVID-19 School of Ministry (continued from yesterday – which should be to read to grasp this blog).

Lesson #5: Read your Bible.

Do you want God to speak to you? Do you want to hear His voice? Read your Bible.

The Bible doesn’t contain the Word of the Lord, it is the Word of the Lord. The Bible doesn’t contain the voice of God, it is the voice of God. The Bible doesn’t become the Word of God when you read it in faith. Whether or not you have faith, the Bible is the Word of God.

Why does someone say, “I’m hungry to hear from God”? They say this for at least four reasons (and I’m sure you can think of more). “I’m hungry to hear from God” =

I really need to know God’s will.
I really want to know God’s heart.
I really desire to sense God’s presence.
I really need specific guidance that I can’t receive by reading my Bible. (I’ll get back to this one.)

Do you want to know His will and understand His heart and (maybe) sense His presence? Read your Bible. (I wrote ‘maybe’ sense His presence because this is understood and experienced in different ways by different people. Yet know this – He is present, whether you can sense Him or not!)

I want to demystify Bible reading and rid you of notions that don’t help, but rather hinder you hearing God’s voice. Since you are holding the Bible in your hand, you don’t need to pray that God’s voice come to you for it has already come to you in the form of the Bible. You don’t need to pray to hear His voice, for when you read the words of the Bible you are hearing the voice of the Lord. Here’s the pressing need – you don’t need to pray to hear His voice, you need to pray to understand the voice that you hear in the words that you read. You don’t need to read three chapters before you hear the voice of the Lord, in the first sentence you read you are confronted with the voice - the will and the heart of God.

Many think that the problem with Bible reading is that it is often a dry time – merely academic – there seems to be little experience of hearing God speak to them. “O, if only I could hear God’s voice when I read my Bible,” is the cry of so many. (Please see yesterday’s blog to drill down into this bit of misunderstanding.) When Bible reading is approached properly, the real challenge is to not drown in the flood of the revelation of the will and heart of God. When you read your portion for the day and then say, “Well, I didn’t get much out of that. I didn’t hear His voice,” the problem isn’t in hearing His voice, but in understanding His voice. Like Samuel, you heard the voice of God, but didn’t know it was His voice. Without recognizing that the printed Word is His voice, the soul is parched even after Bible reading, and not drenched with the dew of the revelation of His heart to you.

Sometimes when someone says, “I’m hungry to hear from God,” they mean that they need specific guidance that doesn’t come by way of Bible reading and study. Stuff like: “What should my college major be?” “Should I start a church in Fremont or Hayward?” “Should I move my family to Kansas City?” You won’t find these things addressed in Deuteronomy - or any other book of the Bible, for that matter. Yet you know full well that your Bible reading has prepared and equipped you to tackle these, and other, life questions. You are to walk in conformity with the holiness of God as well as seek out godly counsel and take into consideration your desires and the circumstances, etc.

Sometimes when someone says, “I’m hungry to hear from God,” what they mean is that there is a thirst in their soul for fellowship with God – there is a hunger to know God experientially. Hopefully all of us have that passion within us. And please hear this, this passion, though it includes reading your Bible, encompasses other spiritual disciplines: prayer and praise and worship and confession of sin and repentance and personal renewal. To read your Bible outside the reality of these other spiritual dynamics at work in you is to set yourself up to miss the God who is addressing His Word to you. Also, to read your Bible apart from the attitude of obedience to what is read is to miss God who is addressing His Word to you. Try this – read your Bible as a soldier would read the marching orders of his commanding general.

Some people make “hearing from God” a lot more mystical than it needs to be. What Paul writes in Romans 10 can easily be applied to reading your Bible -

But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: "DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, 'WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?' (that is, to bring Christ down), or 'WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)." But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"…Romans 10:6-8

Paul demystifies and makes very accessible the salvation of God. What Paul says of Christ and His salvation can be said of the Word of God: even as God’s salvation has come to you, so His Word has come to you. You don’t need to jump through spiritual hoops and twist yourself into spiritual knots to hear from God. The Word is near you.

Lesson #5: Read your Bible – it is the voice of the living God speaking to you.

Be blessed and stay healthy, learn your lessons and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 19, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

Lesson #5 in the COVID-19 School of Ministry.

“Did you read your Bible today?”

“Yes, but God didn’t speak to me.”

Huh?

“So, let me get this straight – you read your Bible and God was silent?”

“Yes, I read my Bible, but I didn’t hear the voice of God.”

Huh?

There are some who think that reading your Bible and hearing from God are two different things. Let me ask you this: what has greater authority – the spoken orders of the commanding general or the written orders of the commanding general? A soldier would tell you that they have equal authority. The spoken words of the general are what come to your mind via your ears. The written words of the general are what come to your mind via your eyes. The colonel standing in the presence of the general and hears the general’s words does not have a more authoritative word than the platoon sergeant who reads the very same words of the general on a piece of paper. (In fact, the words on paper are preferable to words in the ears for they provide a permanent record of the general’s words.) A soldier saying, “I really want to know the will of the commanding general,” would be directed to read the written orders. How does this apply to you?

Lesson #5: Read your Bible.

I recently discovered the voice transcription feature on my smart phone and tablet where I can speak my message and it is converted to words on the screen that I can then send. The spoken word becomes the written word. There is a one-to-one correspondence between what is spoken and what is written. The written word is the very essence of the spoken word. Read your Bible – it is the voice of God. (For you Greek geeks, think of 2 Tim. 3:16 & theopneustos.)

Lesson #5: Read your Bible.

Can you imagine the lieutenant asking his sergeant, “Did you read the general’s orders?” The sergeant replies, “Yes, but I didn’t hear the general’s voice.” The lieutenant would say, “Huh? What you read is the voice of the general – it expresses his will. Hearing him say it would not change the substance or the authority of what you just read. Now get moving, soldier!”

OK, I need to be fair. I read my Bible not only to know His heart expressed through what He has said, I also read my Bible in order to fellowship with Him. When I read my Bible I want to have a deep sense of communion with God. Maybe that’s what people mean when they say, “God didn’t speak to me,” or “I didn’t hear His voice.” Maybe they mean, “I didn’t sense His presence. My time spent in Bible reading was kind of dry.” Possibly that’s what you mean when you say such things. But what you can’t say when you read your Bible is, “God didn’t speak to me, today.” What you can say is, “I wasn’t listening to the Word of God. I wasn’t paying attention to His voice.” The Bible isn’t the Word of God only when you have a sense of communion with God. The Bible is the Word of God, it is God speaking even when your soul is a thousand miles away somewhere else. I think that some think that it is God’s fault if they don’t “hear His voice.” (This is a subject for another blog.)

We’ve all heard it said, and possibly have said it ourselves: “I’m hungry to hear from God.” And we’ve probably heard sermons and read books or articles on how to recognize the voice of God. The idea is that we hear so many people talking to us, so many voices directed at us, that if we’re not careful, we’ll mistake the voice of the devil or that of our overly pious weird uncle for the voice of the Lord. Just like the boy Samuel, we need to be able to distinguish between the voice of God and the voice of man. I want to share with you a sure-fire, can’t-fail method of hearing the voice of God.

Read your Bible.

Lesson #5: Read your Bible. (To be continued…)

Be blessed and stay healthy, learn your lessons and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 18, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

Lesson #4 of the COVID-19 School of Ministry has to do with our unmasked enemy.

The devil isn’t sheltering-in-place, he’s not wearing a mask, and he’s not keeping six feet from you. Unmasked, he seeks to shelter-in-your-place, and get as close as he can so that he might pollute you with his hatred of God, hostility toward holiness, and rejection of the beauty and sanity of truth. The first time he shows up in Scripture he is unmasked and breaking social distancing protocols and breathing his diseased breath in Eve’s face so that she might be infected with discontent and unbelief and become alienated from God.

It worked.

I’ve always heard that the original sin was pride. Lucifer was so puffed up with pride, we are told, that he actually thought he deserved to be sitting on the throne of God. I have no doubt that pride was part of the mix, but I think that the first stirring that began to twist his heart from God was discontent. A voice arose from within, “I’m missing out on all I could experience. I was created for more than this. I want more than this.” And so it began. A tiny rivulet in one single heart developed into a flooded river that overran its banks and brought universal ruin. This anxiety, this FOMO (fear of missing out) festered into the infection of pride and broke out into the fever of rebellion which grew into a cosmic pandemic bringing universal disaster.

This same foul breath he breathed upon Eve and she, too, became discontent with the ways of God. In the garden, every tree but one could be harvested and enjoyed. Every tree but one was for the blessing of Eve and her husband. Every tree but one - all the fullness God had for Eve and Adam could be had in what God allowed, but Eve now desired what was disallowed – that one tree. It held all the promise her deceived heart desired. The serpent had convinced her that God was holding out on her, that God was not as good as she was led to believe. The poisoned vapor of his speech entered her heart and something began to incubate and multiply and grow within her. Discontent was conceived within her. She was pregnant with anxiety and would give birth to nothing but misery and sorrow.

The devil hasn’t changed tactics. Why would he when instilling FOMO into human hearts has been so effective down through the millennia. Kingdoms have fallen, nations have been ripped apart, marriages have failed and families shattered because our unmasked enemy goes about as a slithering snake spewing his venom into vulnerable hearts. But we are not ignorant of his schemes! God has given us the means to fight back. The venom of discontent and anxiety can only be met with the virtue and power of the truth.

I have breathed in the diseased vapor of our unmasked enemy as he has insinuated to me that God is holding out on me. “Tim, why isn’t your church bigger, your influence broader, your reputation brighter? God is holding out on you. He wants to keep you always partially full, but never completely satisfied. What He has allowed other men, He has disallowed you. But there’s more for you.” And, like Eve, this poisoned blob entered my heart and discontent was conceived and the bitterness of dissatisfaction grew within me. I yearned for that one tree that held all I wanted, but was withheld from me. I longed for the crowds along with the acclaim, the applause, and the affirmation of my ministry. I was in the fever of infection. I was missing out on what God allowed other men, yet had disallowed me. I was sick with the anxiety of missing out and embittered with the poison of jealousy. I needed an antidote to this venom, something to banish this virus from my spirit.

Lesson #4 The virtue and power of the truth is greater than the discontent and anxiety of the enemy.

God has used three phrases from the Psalms to extract the serpent’s venom from my heart and instill in my inner man the healing power of His truth. As these truths fastened themselves to the walls of my heart and began dispensing the power of the love of God for me and His faithfulness to me and His delight in me, the poison of the serpents’ venom and the power of the devil’s virus began to drain. Here is what the Spirit spoke to my heart through His Word -

My times are in Your hand. Psalm 31:15

The LORD will accomplish what concerns me. Psalm 138:8

The nearness of God is my good. Psalm 73:28

This is the medicine of the Spirit. This is the balm of Gilead. This is the wine of recovery. These three truths of God’s Word speak of the When the What and the Who of my life – and yours.

The When: my times are in Your hand.

The What: the Lord will accomplish what concerns me.

The Who: the nearness of God is my good.

I am not patient: I want to rush things.

I am not discerning: I want to rush into things that God doesn’t have for me.

I am not spiritual: I think that the things of earth can ultimately satisfy my heart.

Our unmasked enemy seeks to exploit each of these vulnerabilities as he did with Eve so long ago. Impatient with the pace of things, dissatisfied with the substance of that which is, wanting to rush into that which cannot satisfy – this describes so many lives. May you learn that your times are in His hands and that He will accomplish what concerns you and that God, and not His gifts, are your ultimate good. May you learn His love for you and His faithfulness to you and His delight in you.

Lesson #4 The virtue and power of the truth is greater than the discontent and anxiety of the enemy.

Be blessed and stay healthy, learn your lessons and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 15, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont – (this article is a little longer than usual)

As some of you may know, about 500 California churches will be opening up on May 31st in defiance of Governor Newsom’s lockdown order. Those opening cite 1st Amendment rights, coronavirus misinformation, and the essential nature of the church as their reasons for opening. Here are the reasons that Calvary Chapel Fremont will not be opening up on May 31st.

Reason #1 I do not believe that the Church is being singled out for State persecution.

I have considered, but am not convinced, that the government is against the Church or that this is Step 1 of an effort to banish Christianity from the land and silence the voice of the Church. When the Church is lumped in with gyms and movie theaters and nail salons, and is set to open before concerts and conventions and Coliseums, this undermines the argument that the Church is in a special category of its own as singled out for censorship and persecution. If I thought that the Church was being singled out and that the State was trying to silence the Church in order to advance its evil purpose, I would open the Church this Sunday and be in open defiance. If this was my conviction, I wouldn’t wait until May 31st to open. This leads to Reason #2.

Reason #2 The State assigning the status of “not essential” to the Church is a relative status, and not an absolute one.

Many in the Church are outraged that the State doesn’t consider the Church to be an essential service. Liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries can be open, but not the Church? That’s nuts! (And I agree – the State has been unfair and arbitrary in what it allows and disallows and what it considers to be essential and non-essential.) Yet the status of “not essential” speaks to the issue of what is “essential” to maintain the defense and sustain the physical life of the nation. (Obviously liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries are “non-essential with this in mind.) And I get it, when it comes to maintaining the defense of the nation and sustaining the flow of goods to the populace, the Church is relatively “non-essential.” My job as a pastor in the Church of Jesus Christ is not to shoot a missile at our enemies nor is it to grow vegetables in my back yard to help feed people. My calling as a pastor is to pray and to preach, to train and to teach. If the State did assign the Church a permanent an absolute status of “non-essential” and moved to shut us down permanently, we would open this Sunday and say to the State that you might consider us absolutely “non-essential”, but God says we are absolutely “essential.”

Reason #3 I am not fully convinced that there is no medical necessity for the temporary suspension of services.

No matter what position you take on this, you will be considered either a tool of the State or someone selfishly indifferent to the well-being of others. Those who make the case that C-19 isn’t as serious as its been made out to be make a lot of sense. Those who claim that it is a greater contagion than the common flu we’ve been familiar with make a lot of sense. I do not have certain knowledge and therefore will err on the side of caution. Having said that, I see no reason why people can’t make their own decision as to whether to congregate or not.

Reason #4 Congregations behave differently than shoppers do.

I drive by Lake Elizabeth every time I come to the church building. There is a sign on the street that says, “6 feet distancing. Do not congregate.” Here’s the origin for the word ‘congregate’: from Latin congregāre to collect into a flock, from grex, flock.” Congregants flock together whereas shoppers spread out. Shoppers don’t like a crowd. Shoppers don’t want a crowd. Shoppers don’t go to store to congregate, they go to shop. This is me at a store – I want to get in and get out with as little human interaction as possible! And even without the social distancing protocols – I don’t want to be that close to you. If I go down an aisle at a grocery store and there’s someone already there, that’s one person too many. The crowd dynamics of stores are different than that of churches. (That’s the only reason I can see why liquor stores and cannabis dispensaries can be open. It doesn’t have to do with them being more important than the Church or a sporting event, it’s that the crowd dynamics are different.)

Reason #5 If CC Fremont were to open up on May 31, it would damage in our witness in the community.

I know, I can hear it now, “Who cares what people think, we need to do what God wants us to do.” I get that. The thing is, remaining closed and livestreaming and zooming is what I believe God would have us to do – at least this week. Who knows what might change next week. (I reserve the right to change my mind at a moment’s notice!) The truth isn’t being muzzled and the gospel is being preached. We live in Alameda County where the mood of the people is largely in compliance with the State’s ‘stay-at-home’ order and to defy that order would bring a reproach to the Church. In addition, many in the congregation wouldn’t be in attendance if we did open. They wouldn’t be offended by the opening of the church, but they would still be very cautious in light of what many still consider to be a health risk to them and their families.

Reason #6 If CC Fremont were to open now, our insurance wouldn’t cover a C-19 case traced to us.

I can sense the contempt of many even as I write this. “You can’t let fear of litigation dictate whether or not the Church of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, will open or not. What kind of pastor are you?” Yeah, I get it. I hesitated to include this as one of my reasons for fear of having to put up with your contempt of me. Yet it’s a real factor whether pastors will acknowledge it or not. If a case of COVID-19 infection can be traced to a church meeting in defiance of the ‘stay-at-home’ order, it would only take one juicy lawsuit for thousands of churches to shutter their doors for good.

I fully believe that the churches should be allowed to open up with whatever safety protocols need to be in place. The time is now. People are not always in shopping mode and do need to assemble and congregate and be prayed for and pray with others and worship with others. Christianity is a contact sport. It is incarnational and visceral, and the virtual can only be a temporary stopgap measure. An exclusively digital Christianity is a dying Christianity – Spirit always seeks flesh for expression. Yet, having said that, I am willing to wait a while to open the Church.

“But Pastor Tim, we need to take a stand.” I am taking a stand and I just described what that stand is. “But Pastor Tim, we have to take a bold stand.” I am taking a bold stand in that I know there are many men who I know and love and respect who will accuse me of not taking a bold stand because I’m not standing with them. And though I’m not standing with them, I am not standing against them. May God be glorified in His Church and may His Church love one another and stand shoulder-to-shoulder even when we don’t see eye-to-eye.

So, CC Fremont – I wanted to let you know that your pastor is thinking about these things and let you know what I am thinking about these things that concern us all. Romans 12:17-18 instructs us to respect what is right in the sight of all men and as much as it depends on us, to be at peace with all men.

Be blessed and stay healthy, learn your lessons and love Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 14, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Our present crisis has stirred up a lot of raw emotion. We need to know how to respond to those who speak out in anger and frustration and confusion. This is what Lesson #3 of the COVID-19 School of Ministry will address.

You’ve heard it said and, more probably than not, you’ve said it yourself. When someone gets really worked up – a spouse, a child, a friend, a colleague – and in their agitation blurt out something really awful and hurtful to you or about you, you react with “Aha! Now I know how you really feel and think about me.” Yet it would be more accurate to say, “Aha! Now I know what you are really feeling and thinking about me – at this moment under this stress in this current circumstance.” Why say it this way? Because in the next 15 seconds they can feel something different and think something different. Lesson #3 is wonderfully encapsulated by a verse in Job.

Do you intend to reprove my words, when the words of one in despair belong to the wind? Job 6:26

We have all heard of the patience of Job. The patience of Job lasts for two chapters and pretty much the rest of the book is Job giving expression to his impatience. In chapter three he wishes he was never born and that he was a miscarriage and a lot of other pretty dark stuff. His friend Eliphaz begins to take him to task in chapters four and five for saying such foolish things – he really lays into him. One of Job’s responses to Eliphaz I have quoted above. Job told Eliphaz: the words of one in despair belong to the wind. Job is basically saying, “Hey, I’m in a lot of pain and confusion and my life has just been turned inside out and upside down and if I say some goofy stuff – give me a break! Cut me some slack! I’m blowing off steam! My words are like vapor and are nothing and belong to the wind.”

LESSON #3 The words of one in despair belong to the wind.

It is so easy for us to get worked up into righteous indignation when someone says something goofy and gives voice to judgmental thoughts, unworthy motives, and ungodly desires. We think that we need to jump in and correct them and rebuke them and be the instrument whereby they repent and bow the knee before the throne of God. But if you can get Job’s counsel under your belt, it will save you a whole lot of energy getting worked up into unnecessary righteous indignation. Job said he was in despair. The word 'despair' in Hebrew carries the sense of being frustrated to the point of hopelessness. Those in despair, those who are frustrated unto hopelessness don’t need our righteous indignation, they need our understanding and compassion. They desperately need the mercy of Christ. Unfortunately, they often meet with the buzz saw of the Church.

Friends of my wife and I had a child who died in infancy. I went to be with them and my friend and I took a walk. He was giving voice to his grief and despair and was cussing and saying some unkind things about God. He even used four letter words. After going on for a while like this, he looked at me and said, “Aren’t you going to rebuke me for the things I’ve been saying.” I said, “I think that God is big enough to absorb your pain and confusion. If I thought that the things you are saying was your settled attitude, I’d address them, but they’re not settled attitudes, they’re fleeting emotions, and momentary thoughts. You’re blowing off steam.” He said he knew this to be true and appreciated my approach to the whole thing. If what he gave voice to was his permanent attitude, he would no longer be walking with God. But he continued to walk with God. His words belonged to the wind.

The words of one in despair belong to the wind. Let them blow away.

You are hereby relieved of what you have perceived to be your holy duty of rebuking those who say goofy and stupid and hurtful things – to you, about you, to God, about God – when their lives have been turned upside down and inside out or when they are in the stress of the moment and in the heat of battle. You don’t need to uncomfortably clear your throat or look down while shifting your feet or give them the stink-eye or gasp as if your halo will warp if you listen to one more word. Let them vent. Cut them some slack. Let them blow off steam. This will help us relax and enjoy each other during this stressful season.

LESSON #3 The words of one in despair belong to the wind.

Be blessed and stay healthy and learn your lessons and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 13, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

The COVID-19 School of Ministry is now in session. Class is already underway, so please enter quietly, find your place, take out your notebook and ask the Lord to teach you His heart. We will look at Lesson #2 today. Here’s a quick review of the first two lessons.

Lesson #1 Take the initiative and call or contact someone.

Lesson #1a Quit feeling sorry for yourself that no one is paying attention to you – you go and pay attention to someone.

Lesson #2 When my second son Benjamin was nine years old, the church I pastored in San Jose had a Father-Son beach day at Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. To make a short story even shorter, he fell out of a tree and somehow laid open his upper forearm down to the bone. It was pretty gross. I cringe even now. I wrapped his arm in a cloth, bundled him up, and rushed him over to the ER at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz.

The doctor immediately took him in to stitch up his arm, but before he did this he needed to anesthetize the wound. As the needle came closer to administer the anesthesia, Benjamin would scream and draw back making it all but impossible for the doctor to give him the shot. After this happened a few times, the doctor got frustrated and began to reason with him and then, when reason wasn’t effective, he began to scold him. As Benjamin’s screams increased, the doctor’s scolding intensified. This was going nowhere fast.

Finally, I said to the doctor, “Doctor, what is your purpose in scolding my son? What are you trying to accomplish?” He said that he was trying to console him. I said, “You should know, more than most people, that pain and fear don’t respond to reason and anger.”

This little encounter taught me a lot about ministry to people. As a pastor I meet often with people who are filled with anxiety and worry and fear. I’ve learned that I can’t reason them out of their fear. I can’t scold them or shame them out of worry. Fear and pain do not respond to reason or shame. And let me say this very carefully lest I be misunderstood and branded some sort of heretic – I’ve discovered that pain and fear don’t give way to a Bible verse that is flung at them – as if that were the end-all of ministry. I used to hand out Bible verses like a doctor would write out a prescription. Here’s what has finally been made clear to me - fear and pain respond to large dosages of love and the medicine of tears. Lesson #2 – be with someone in the love of Christ.

I not only need a rational ministry, but also a relational ministry. I’m not only a teacher of the Word, I’m a pastor – and that right there has probably been the lesson that has taken the longest to sink into my unobservant soul. The patient lying in the hospital bed or their loved one sitting in the surgery waiting is often more greatly helped by the presence of a loved one than the words of a loved one. The Ministry of Presence is sometimes more needed, more powerful, more comforting than the ministry of words. They will remember your presence and forget the words you speak. This is counterintuitive because we believe that it is our words that hold value, but our presence is negligible. Yet words can distract from presence; words can get in the way of love and empathy.

When someone cries out in pain or fear, “Why me, why this, why now?” they are not asking a question. They are stating their dread in the form of a question – but it is not a question – even as when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” He wasn’t asking a question, He was announcing His grief and agony. How silly for someone to respond and say, “Well, You fully know that the cross was prophesied and that You are bearing the sin of the world.” True enough. Yet something can be completely true and at the same time be wholly ineffective in meeting the need of the moment. We are told to weep with those who weep, not give words to those who weep. Words can come later. The Ministry of Loving and Attentive Presence is a powerful thing.

But how does the Ministry of Presence operate in a season of social-distancing? How can we be with someone when we can’t be with them? It seems like the two are mutually exclusive. Well, here’s my best shot – be with them in the best way you can be with them. (And the thing is, too, they know you can’t be with them.) What’s the best way to be with them? Technology comes to our aid here: a call, an email, a Facetime or Zoom call can make a world of difference because they know you are thinking of them and caring about them and praying for them. Lesson #2 – be with someone (as much as you can be) in the love of Christ. Your call or email or Facetime or Zoom will be greatly appreciated.

Be blessed and stay healthy and learn your lessons and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 12, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

The COVID-19 School of Ministry is now in session. Class is already underway, so please enter quietly, find your place, take out your notebook, and ask the Lord to teach you His heart.

Lesson #1 Some people are sitting around wondering why so-and-so doesn’t call them. Instead of waiting for so-and-so to call you, why don’t you call so-and-so? Lesson #1 – take the initiative and call or contact someone. This lesson is illustrated by God becoming a man. He didn’t have to, He was under no obligation except that of the obligation of love. We should have called upon God, but we didn’t. And so God came calling among us. God as love didn’t wait for us to do as we should have done. He didn’t sit around on His throne fretting and wondering why we didn’t make the first move. He made the first move. He made the decisive move – He didn’t demand what was His, but humbled Himself and went out and won what was His. Lesson #1 – those who love call and contact so-and-so whereas those who don’t love sit around waiting for so-and-so to contact them and grow angry and resentful when this doesn’t happen. Lesson #1 – take out your phone and call so-and-so. Open up your email and write to so-and-so.

You think that so-and-so has the responsibility to call you and so why should you call so-and-so? Lesson #1a – quit feeling sorry for yourself that so-and-so is not paying attention to you and go and pay attention to so-and-so. “Well, I don’t know what to say to so-and-so.” Maybe so-and-so doesn’t know what to say to you. “Well, they should,” you say. “So-and-so is the pastor or the elder or the small group leader or my Sunday School teacher or the Men’s Group leader or the Women’s Group leader or the Worship Team leader or the Children’s Ministry leader or the Youth Ministry leader or the Outreach Ministry leader” and on it goes. There’s the Donut Ministry, Coffee Ministry, Usher Ministry, Greeting Ministry, Parking Lot Ministry, Tech Team Ministry, Benevolence Ministry, Foster Family Ministry, Missions Ministry – there’s a ministry for everything! And more are coming – just ahead is the cluster of COVID-19 Protocol Ministries: Hand Sanitizer Ministry, Temperature Ministry, Cleaning Between Services Ministry, Handing Out Masks Ministry, Social Distancing Enforcement Ministry, Make Sure You’re Not Coughing Ministry – and I’m sure if we were all together we could think of more. You get the point – they’re the ‘professionals’ – the leaders, the called and the equipped. And all of this just multiplies the people you think should be calling you.

Lesson #1a says that you are a born-again, blood bought, Bible taught, Spirit filled child of God who doesn’t wait for so-and-so to minister to you, but you are the so-and-so who ministers to others. “Well, OK, but I still don’t know what to say to so-and-so.” That’s fair. I get that. Please believe me, I have been there countless times. Here’s what you can say when you call or write so-and so: “Hi, this is (fill in the blank). I just wanted to contact you to see how you’re doing through all this craziness. I really don’t have anything to say to you except that I was thinking about you and hope you’re OK and ask if there is anything I can pray with you about.”

There, isn’t that fairly easy and non-intimidating? No matter how awkward you may feel, they will be touched by your love and concern. You’ll feel like a million bucks. Don’t forget that you are a born again, blood-bought, Bible taught, Spirit-filled child of God. As such, the heart of the King of kings beats in your chest. Let the body of Christ rise up in the love of Christ and love one another. Don’t wait for the ‘professionals’ to call you. We are a kingdom of priests unto our God. I don’t minister among you as a professional, but as a priest among priests under the headship of our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Stay tuned for more lessons.

Be blessed and stay healthy and learn your lessons and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 11, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont – (from Robert Romero)

Don’t let the mask cover your kindness!

One year for the Harvest Festival at CC Fremont I dressed up as a priest and my wife as a nun. I was working the evangelism table and people would come up and not only start asking me questions, but would start pouring out their heart to me, asking for forgiveness and telling me things that I wasn’t even asking them. To be honest, it was a great experience, but I realized at some point that the people thought I was an actual priest and they would ask for prayer - ingenious, I thought! Obviously, we know that we are a kingdom of priests and yes, it was nice for people to show me more respect than usual and treated me diﬀerent because of the outﬁt that I was wearing. So I began to play the part walking around with my hands behind my back smiling at people. I thought it was quite funny myself, but in reality I began to play the part just because I was dressed the part.

Because of COVID-19, all of us have begun to wear a mask on our face. And I’ve noticed in the stores that people would not only avoid me, but would not even look at me, as though I possibly may have the virus. It’s as if since the mask covers up your smile and your frown people felt like they can ignore you all the more. My wife went out to the grocery store and was going to stop by Trader Joe’s, but the line was horrendously long. So as she is waiting in line at the grocery store, she overheard two people talking about going to Trader Joe’s. So my wife told them that the line was long and that they should be ready to wait for a while before they could get in. But they looked at her and never said a word and turned around and continue to talk amongst themselves never even responding to her. I remember her coming home thinking how eerie it felt – like people were allowed to be rude now or to ignore you all the more. Letting the mask transform how we relate to others kind of like the costume I wore at our Harvest Festival.

But we brothers and sisters need to get back to the basics of just showing kindness. You see, the mask may be able to cover up your smile or your frown or even some imperfections in your face like a pimple or something, but don’t let it cover up your kindness. People may not recognize you because of the mask, yet they do recognize kindness - everyone knows that kindness crosses language barriers. Opening the door for someone, allowing that person to go in front of you in line, saying hello or good morning or good evening – these are acts of kindness. Remember that one of the fruits of the Spirit is kindness. Fruit is for others to eat. Will something sweet and wholesome or bitter and offensive flow from you? 2 Peter 1 says: “…add to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” Here, kindness is sandwiched in between godliness and love. It is a natural progression as a believer in Jesus to grow in your kindness towards people.

So let’s do our part in showing kindness, even if people do not receive it - let’s do it because God has shown kindness towards us. Regardless of what political party they are, or how much money they make or don’t make, if they are married or divorced, the color of their skin, what religion they are, these are not the most important things to Jesus.

What matters to Jesus is the soul of a man He desires to save! One of our main purposes in life is that we are ambassadors for Christ showing people the goodness of God that leads men toward repentance. We don’t know why people may be rude or angry, distant or indiﬀerent. They may be going through something very diﬃcult and we don’t even know. The encounter you have with someone may be divine in nature – even entertaining Angels – and in doing so you may change someone’s life. Don’t miss it!

Be Jesus to someone today. Robert Romero

May 8, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

There are some very real challenges we face as a church and nation. A medical crisis has developed into an economic crisis which has morphed into a political crisis. I’ve got a lot roiling through my head. I have a lot of questions, not many answers, and a lot of “Let’s wait and see.” A ton of competing info and data shows up in my inbox everyday and I’m not sure how to process it – who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who’s a quack!? I want to present myself as the supremely confident leader who knows the way forward and pity those poor pastors who don’t – but that wouldn’t be accurate. There’s a lot of “I don’t know and I’m not sure” in me. I am crystal clear about what I should be doing when it comes to ministry and the gospel, but when I listen to the supremely confident leaders who assure me they know what’s happening and they know the way forward, I don’t come away filled with the same confidence they have. I see things differently. Let me begin addressing my first concern with an analogy that will hopefully be helpful in understanding my post today.

If Pastor Chuck had attempted to take the Calvary Chapel Movement into the Roman Catholic understanding of transubstantiation (where the bread becomes the actual flesh of Christ and the juice becomes the actual blood of Christ), hopefully all of us would say that our loyalty is to what is written in the Bible above what is said by Pastor Chuck. We put what the written Word says above what a pastor says. We would follow the founding Document of Christianity (Bible) before we followed an Occupant of the pastoral office (pastor). A pastor is supposed to follow the Living Word (Jesus) and the written Word (the Bible). When a pastor no longer follows Jesus or the Bible, we are to no longer follow him. We put Document above Occupant. I think you get that. If I departed from the Bible, you’d depart from me (and well you should.)

Let’s move from religion to politics. Romans 13:1 is often quoted in this discussion: Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

OK, that seems straight forward enough, but what does it mean in the American experience? Who or what is the governing authority? Is our loyalty, as citizens, to the Occupant of an office or to the Document (the Constitution) that governs the Occupant of a political office? We have a permanent Document and a temporary Occupant in the Governor’s or President’s office. Both the President and the Governor (at least of CA) swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. One of the reasons whoever is in office got into office is because those who voted him/her in expected them to hold to and uphold the Constitution.

Paul said: Follow me as I follow Christ.
Any President or Governor should say: Follow me as I follow the Constitution.

So, what do we do when the Occupant departs from the Document? Does our allegiance belong to the temporary governing Occupant or to the permanent governing Document? Or do we follow the Document as understood by the professional interpreters of the Document – (Federal/Supreme Courts)? Can the professional interpreters of the Constitution get it wrong? (Don’t forget that the professional interpreters ruled that abortion is Constitutional.) Can professional theologians and pastors and priests and popes get it wrong? Of course they can and have and will. If we question the professional interpreters of the founding Documents (Constitution in politics/Bible in Christianity) when they are wrong in their interpretations, are we out of step with the Document(s) they are out of step with? Does the Document tell us that we are to obey the Occupant even when he/she departs from the Document? If so, why is there even a Document?

In my thinking -

We can allow for suspension of certain rights for specific reasons for a short time.
We can forgive the misjudgments of the government in moving forward through a crisis.
What we can’t turn a blind eye to as responsible citizens is a permanent departure from the Constitution and a different political trajectory.
What we can’t turn a blind eye to as responsible citizens is the arbitrary imposition of the will of the temporary Occupant. One of the primary reasons for our ruling Document is to protect us from the arbitrary will of an Occupant (in the original historical setting – King George of England).
The permanent Document is to protect us from the hostility, indifference, and arbitrary rule of the temporary Occupant.

In my thinking, there has been governmental overreach in the C-19 crisis – not in all areas, but in some. And if I were to follow the logic of what I have presented so far, I would be ripe for being recruited for civil disobedience in opening the church doors before the government said I could. But I have something else going through my head, too.

This is crucial to my thinking: I do not believe that the government is against the church. If I believed this, if I were convinced that the premise of government persecution was correct, I would open the church next week. But I don’t believe it. If it’s true – then they are persecuting bars and karate studios and professional sports, too. The church is not being singled out. I do believe that the government has been incompetent in some of its responses and arbitrary in some of its rulings, but I don’t believe it is conspiring against the church. And, as I’ve written before, I’d much rather have an incompetent government than a conspiratorial one.

And so, since 1) I do not believe that the government is against the church and 2) I do believe that there is a public health reason for social distancing and sheltering-in-place, I will wait for the go-ahead from the government when it comes to reopening the church for public services. Those seem to be the two main battle ground of ideas. I have developed a maxim that has served me well through the years: When in doubt, don’t. And therefor since I am not clear that it is time to re-open the public services of CC Fremont, we won’t.

PS – I reserve the right to change my mind! Maybe even in the next five minutes! Stay tuned. But I would like to hear from you – especially those of CC Fremont – and I’ve heard from some of you already. Thank you. Tell me what you think without losing your cool or calling me names! Respond in the Comments section or email me.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 7, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

This is a post by Steve Tvedten on 7.15.2011 and is a modified version of a text originally attributed to Lori Borgman.

OBITUARY---Today we mourn the passing of an old friend, by the name of Common Sense.

Common Sense lived a long life but died in the United States from heart failure on the brink of the new millennium. No one really knows how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He selflessly devoted his life to service in schools, hospitals, homes, factories, and helping people get jobs done without fanfare and foolishness. For decades, petty rules, silly laws, and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense. He was credited with cultivating such valued lessons as to know when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, and that life isn't always fair.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn), reliable time-tested parenting strategies (the parents are in charge, not the kids), and it is O.K. to come in second.

A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and the Technological Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends, including body piercing, whole language, and "new math.” But his health declined when he became infected with the "if-it-helps-only-one-person-it's-worth-it" virus.

In recent decades his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of well-intentioned but overbearing regulations. He watched in pain as good people became ruled by self seeking lawyers. His health rapidly deteriorated when schools endlessly implemented zero-tolerance policies.

Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, a teen suspended for taking a swig of mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student only worsened his condition.

It declined even further when schools had to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student but could not inform the parents when a female student was pregnant or wanted an abortion.

Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than victims, and Federal judges stuck their noses into everything from the Boy Scouts to professional sports. Finally, when a woman, too stupid to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, was awarded a huge settlement, Common Sense threw in the towel.

As the end neared, Common Sense drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding questionable regulations such as those for low-flow toilets, rocking chairs, and step ladders.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by two step-brothers, My Rights and Ima Whiner.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone…

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 6, 2020

Hey, Calvary Chapel –

Pray like you eat – consistently, diligently, intentionally. You are to be constant and diligent and intentional in prayer whether you are in a crisis or coming out of a crisis. In the attempt to strengthen your prayer muscles, to encourage you to pray like you eat, I am unpacking these five sentences of Rabbi Joshua Abraham Heschel. We looked at sentences 1 & 2 yesterday and this post will finish the unpacking. Here is the paragraph comprised of five sentences.

“How grateful I am to God that there is a duty to worship, a law to remind my distraught mind that it is time to think of God, time to disregard my ego for at least a moment! It is such a happiness to belong to an order of the divine will. I am not always in a mood to pray. I do not always have the vision and strength to say a word in the presence of God. But when I am weak, it is the law that gives me strength; when my vision is dim, it is duty that gives me insight.”

Sentence #3 I am not always in a mood to pray.

Do I really need to unpack this? You immediately get it!

Sentence #4 I do not always have the vision and strength to say a word in the presence of God.

I think that what Heschel is saying here is that he doesn’t always know that he should pray or knows what to pray about. I’m sure that you have had the same experience as me – something is so obvious that I don’t think to pray about it or if I do think to pray about it, I really don’t know what to say in my prayer. I am going along in life doing what I should be doing – why do I need to pray about something that is so clear and obvious?
And so much in my life is clear and obvious. I am to love God and my wife and my children and the church I serve and all my brothers and sisters in Christ and all those who are not in Christ. That’s obvious! (Did I leave anybody out?) If I know the will of God why pray to know the will of God? I don’t need insight here – I already have insight – that’s why I’m attempting to love God and people in the first place!
No, I don’t need insight, but I do need infilling. I don’t need wisdom, I need strength. I need God’s strength to fulfill God’s commandment. I require supernatural strength for the obvious.
And when he says that he doesn’t always have the strength to pray, he is mentioning an obvious human frailty known by all of us. Here’s my theory – I can think about you for an hour with no problems. But once I begin to pray for you, I meet resistance and my mind wanders, my desire diminishes, and my strength weakens. When I think of you, my mind is on earthly things. When I begin to pray for you, my mind is on heavenly things. As my soul ascends in prayer, I meet spiritual opposition. The devil doesn’t care if I think about you, but praying for you is a direct attack upon his kingdom. I don’t need faith to think, but I do need faith to pray. Thoughts remain on the ground, but prayer ascends into the heavenlies. I can think of you and experience no resistance, but once I begin to pray for you or for me, I enter into spiritual warfare. I’ve never swung an actual sword before in my life – but I’m sure it would wear me out pretty quickly.

Sentence #5 But when I am weak, it is the law that gives me strength; when my vision is dim, it is duty that give me insight.”

Allow me to unpack this sentence with another quote from Rabbi Heschel which itself needs to be unpacked – but I’ll leave that to you. He speaks of the difficulty of Jewish prayer. What he describes is also the difficulty of Christian prayer.

“There is a specific difficulty of Jewish prayer. There are laws: how to pray, when to pray, what to pray. There are fixed times, fixed ways, fixed texts. On the other hand, prayer is worship of the heart, the outpouring of the soul, a matter of devotion. Thus, Jewish prayer is guided by two opposite principles: order and outburst, regularity and spontaneity, uniformity and individuality, law and freedom. These principles are the two poles about which Jewish prayer revolves. Since each of the two moves in the opposite direction, equilibrium can be maintained only if both are of equal force. However, the pole of regularity usually proves to be stronger than the pole of spontaneity. Our great problem, therefore, is how not to let the principle of regularity impair the power of devotion. He who is not aware of this central difficulty is a simpleton; he who offers a simple solution is a quack.”

Therefore, pray. Don’t be robbed of prayer. Don’t wait until you feel like praying and don’t wait until you need to pray. Pray. Even when you don’t “feel” like praying you can pray in faith. Pray like you eat – consistently, diligently, intentionally.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 5, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

The first thing a crisis gives birth to is prayer. The first thing to die when a crisis is over is prayer. Prayer comes to life when things are dying and then dies when things come back to life. Prayer, for many, is the undersized spare in the trunk to be used in case of a flat tire. And then when the regular sized tire is repaired and replaced and we can roll along like before, the undersized tire that we’re really leery of depending on is safely tucked away for the next rainy day. To be regular and diligent and intentional in prayer has always been a challenge and I know it’s a challenge for you, too.

In his essay, “The Spirit of Jewish Prayer,” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel faces this challenge and writes the following -

This five sentence paragraph is so densely packed it’s like an overstuffed suitcase! Let’s unpack this and try and get a handle on what the good rabbi is saying. Each sentence is rich in its own right and deserves a slow read.

Sentence #1 How grateful I am to God that there is a duty to worship, a law to remind my distraught mind that it is time to think of God, time to disregard my ego for at least a moment!

Prayer is a duty. Our theology doesn’t like the word ‘duty.’ This falls like a lead balloon on evangelical ears. This is like fingernails on a blackboard. “Duty? You mean I have to pray? Doesn’t prayer as duty work against prayer as delight? Shouldn’t I only pray when I am moved to pray?” Rabbi Heschel would agree with that, but would add that if you waited on you to move you to pray, you would rarely pray. Why? Because you are self-centered and self-sufficient. (And he includes himself in the ‘you.’) Self-centered and self-sufficient people don’t pray. And please note that he does say that we are to pray when we are moved to pray – and it’s the law that moves us to pray! Now this is foreign to evangelical ears – if only he had said that it is the Spirit that moves us to pray – at least we would feel like we’re on home soil. But he uses the dreaded “l” word – law. And since I’m a New Testament follower of God the Son and not just an Old Testament follower of God the Father – the law is about as welcome as the antichrist.
Sidebar: Rabbi Heschel is not a Christian and is therefore unfamiliar with, at least in experience, our understanding of the moving of the Holy Spirit. He would probably, if I read him right, attribute the stirrings of his soul to the moving of the Spirit, yet because of his training and commitments, he uses the language of law as it is understood within Judaism.
He tells us that this duty to pray should be seen as a delight because in prayer I am rescued from myself. He writes, “…there is a duty to worship, a law to remind my distraught mind that it is time to think of God…” We think of law as weight and obligation; Heschel thinks of law as rescue and salvation. The law comes to my overburdened mind – my stressed out, uptight, anxious, selfish mind – and points to an escape: prayer – calling upon the name of the Lord. Prayer is Face-Time with God. If Bible reading is like reading a text from God, prayer is like Face-Timing God! The law informs me and then prompts to come face-to-face with God.
And in Face-Time with God, in the moments of prayer, I disregard my ego, my self-centered, self-driven, self-sufficient life. In giving regard to God I am disregarding me. Now, in our ME-driven culture of self-sufficiency, to disregard me is probably the worst thing that could happen. But in Rabbi Heschel’s God-soaked reality, to disregard your self is the best thing that could happen to you because in prayer you lift up your eyes – off of you and on to God. And yes, that’s a good thing!

Sentence #2 It is such a happiness to belong to an order of the divine will.

This statement reminds me of Romans 7:22 where Paul exclaims that he joyfully concurs with the law of God in his inner man. When the law is used wrongly, it will burden you and turn you into a joyless legalist. When the law is used correctly, it ushers you into the very heart of God. And this use of the law brings happiness because it connects you to how God has ordered life to be. When you walk in God’s ways you are in His will – your steps are ordered by the Lord. To be in the will of God is to experience a blessed happiness! Heschel says that he loves the will of God that moves him to pray. Psalm 119 is full of this same sentiment expressed in a variety of ways.

If you’re like me, just about everyday you pray the Lord’s Prayer. And just in the first few stanzas of that prayer you can taste something of what Rabbi Heschel writes about.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Immediately, my eyes are off of me and on to Him. I am asking that His kingdom come and His will be done. I am distracted, for a moment, from building my castle and seeking my will. I am lifted out of the poverty of a self-centered, self-driven, self sufficient life and get a glimpse, once again, of the vast kingdom of God I am invited to participate in.

It is such a happiness to belong to an order of the divine will.

I hope to unpack the rest of Rabbi Heschel’s paragraph tomorrow.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 4, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

Three times in the 1st eight verses of Psalm 37 (New American Standard) we are told ‘do not fret.’ Here they are –

1 Do not fret because of evildoers…

7 Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way…

8 Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.

Here’s the English dictionary definition of ‘fret’: to feel or express worry, annoyance, or discontent.

Here’s the Hebrew definition of the word translated ‘fret’: to burn with anger.

Hmmmm – those definitions go in two different directions. I think that maybe in melding the two together we can get at what the translators of the NASB were attempting to capture in the phrase ‘do not fret.’ “Don’t work yourself into a frenzy. Don’t allow your discontent to develop into anger.”

There’s a lot to be discontented about:

Sheltering-in-place – whether called for or not is causing great discontent tending toward anger across America.
Some businesses are allowed to be open while others have to remain closed. Sometimes this makes sense, at other times it appears completely arbitrary. When landscapers can work on government property, but not private property - this is confusing. When people can roam the aisles at Target but not at Ross – this is confusing.
When prisoners are released to stem the spread of C-19 while others are arrested for not honoring social-distancing, this can lead to discontent within the American populace.
When churches are denied First Amendment rights, it’s easy for discontent to develop into anger. And when theories of permanent government overreach take hold, anger becomes righteous indignation. And righteous indignation only needs the heat to be turned up a few degrees to boil over into civil disobedience. Complaining about governmental edicts is not disobedience – civil or otherwise. Ignoring governmental edicts is civil disobedience. When government says, “You shall do X,” and you do Y, that’s civil disobedience. Yet, at times, civil disobedience is the higher road of citizenship.

We’re sitting on a powder keg.

And then we have the triple, “Do not fret,” of Psalm 37. “Don’t work yourself into a frenzy over the hurtful things wicked people do.” OK, in one way I get it, yet at the same time I think of Moses coming down from Sinai full of righteous indignation because Israel was worshiping the golden calf. And then we have this from the life of Jesus:

After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. Mark 3:5

Jesus was angry because the synagogue officials said that he shouldn’t heal anyone on the Sabbath! They would drag a donkey out of a ditch on the Sabbath, but were outraged that Jesus wanted to lift this man from his disease on the Sabbath. No wonder Jesus was ticked! Talk about arbitrary rulings!

So, Psalm 37 says of the discontent that becomes anger because of the wickedness of other people, “Don’t go there.” And then we see two Bible heavyweights, Moses and Jesus, going there. How can this be resolved, or is this just another of the alleged “contradictions in the Bible” that people try and come up with? I’ve got two responses for you –

#1 David wrote Psalm 37 and has to be understood within the context of his life and experience. King Saul wanted to kill David. David had a couple of opportunities of killing King Saul, but he wouldn’t do it. He would not kill the man God had chosen and anointed to be king. He would not work himself into a frenzy over King Saul – he would allow God to deal with Saul in His timing.

#2 The “do not” in the phrase “do not fret” is an interesting word. Here’s what the Complete Biblical Library Hebrew-English Dictionary says of it: “This adverb means "no." What it negates is not categorical, but is a warning against doing something that brings about evil.” Here’s the operative thought – it is not a categorical NO. It is a cautious KNOW – KNOW what you’re doing if you take the pathway of righteous indignation. Paul put it this way in the New Testament –

BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. Ephesians 4:26-27

KNOW – take into consideration what may result from your fretting, your anger. You may not like it.

It seems to me that America is sitting on the front burner and the heat has been turned up. Some see it as America sitting on one burner and the church sitting on another burner. The church is being singled out for State persecution of some form and after COVID-19 goes its way, the church will still be under the boot of the State. Some believe that the dial on the American burner is being turned down while the dial on the church burner is being turned up. This is what concerns some and pushes others to anger and the actions that may result from that. For me, right now, I don’t perceive that. I am frustrated. I am baffled by some of the decisions that government is making – but I don’t feel the heat of persecution nor do I smell the stench of conspiracy.

“Well, Pastor Tim – you’re blind and you’re nose doesn’t work right.” Wouldn’t be the first time.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

May 1, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

“The Philistines are upon you,” Delilah cried out to Samson as she attempted to sideline the man that God had raised up as a champion for Israel at that time. (You can read the story of Samson and Delilah in Judges 16.)

“Tell me the secret of your great strength,” she pleaded day after day. Delilah was an agent of the Philistine enemy and she wanted to discover the secret of his strength so that he would be stripped of his great strength. The enemy of the Church today has the same agenda as Delilah of old - what is the secret of the great strength of the Church and how can it be stripped from her?

The Church said, “If there is a Plague on the land triggering a Government Edict preventing us from physically meeting together, then we will be shorn of our great strength.”

And so Delilah caused a great Plague to descend upon the land, moving the Government to issue an Edict preventing the Church from physically meeting together. The enemy was waiting nearby to silence the Church. Delilah cried out, “The Philistines are upon you, Church.” But the Church rose up in the strength of Christ and went out and began to broadcast the gospel throughout the land and the Edict could not bind the church.

“You have deceived me,” said Delilah to the Church. “What is the secret of your great strength?”

The Church said, “If the offerings to the Church begin to diminish and our coffers run low, then we will be stripped of our great strength.”

Delilah sent out an influence persuading those of the Church to be prudent with their resources during this time (and that the money they would give to the Lord via the Church should be spent on toilet paper!). The Church began to suffer financial hardship and many pastors and churches began to wonder if they would institutionally survive the Plague. The enemy was nearby waiting to destroy the Church. Delilah cried out, “The Philistines are upon you, Church.” But the Church roused herself up from her fear and doubt and began to praise her Lord and Savior and redoubled her efforts to use whatever means possible to love the people and take the gospel to the world and the financial cords meant to bind the Church were snapped in two.

“You have deceived me,” Delilah wept before the Church. “Tell me the secret of your great strength.”

The Church said, “If you make the reopening of the churches months away and not weeks away, we will become weak as other institutions and be stripped of our strength.”

Delilah prevailed upon the powers that be and moved out the reopening of the churches from weeks to months. The enemy was waiting nearby to crush the Church. Delilah cried out, “The Philistines are upon you, Church.” But the Church went out as at other times and strengthened herself in her God and shook off the disheartening effects of the bad news and got back to the gospel ministry that God was so richly blessing.

“You have deceived me these three times,” moaned Delilah. “Tell me the secret of your great strength.” And Delilah wept before the Church and daily pestered her until she gave up the secret of her strength.

The Church said, “If I am stripped of my hope in God, if the confidence of my faith in His overruling hand of Providence is shaken, if I begin to despise my brothers and sisters, I shall be shorn of strength and might.”

Delilah went out and began to sow discord in the Church and convinced some that Government would rob them of all Constitutional rights. She persuaded others that the power of Plague was greater than the hand of Providence. She turned one against another as they quarreled about the best way to respond to Government Edict during the time of Plague. The Philistines were waiting nearby to bury the Church. “The Philistines are upon you, Church.”

And the Church rose as at other times, but she had been stripped of her hope in God, shaken in the confidence of her faith in His Providence, and where there once was love for one another there was now only scorn. She rose to shake off the enemy, stumbled forward a few steps, and then collapsed at the feet of Delilah.

Keep following Jesus – Pastor Tim

April 29, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

We’re still in the middle of this 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Pandemonium Smackdown. I’ve pointed out that dueling experts contradicting one another present the layman (non-expert: you and me) with a real challenge. And then we have to deal with the onslaught of those who vilify us when we don’t support the expert they support. Who do I believe? What do I believe? Why do I believe Doctor #1 more than Doctor #2? Why do I think Expert #3 is more credible than Expert#4? These are not insignificant issues.

No, we’re not supposed to believe and blindly follow governmental guidelines no matter what. Sometimes civil disobedience is the higher road of citizenship.
No, it is not wisdom to watch a YouTube video or read an article and arrive at an opinion that you won’t budge from..
Yes, watch a YouTube video presenting one point of view and then watch another with another point of view. Take notes. Ask questions. Seek out answers. Try and identify where the disagreements lie.
Yes, read an article presenting one point of view and then read another article with another point of view. Take notes. Ask questions. Seek out answers. Form an opinion and then test it out against those who disagree with it. This is not the work of a few hours one afternoon. A microwaved education doesn’t speed up your education, it just melts your brain. 😊
If you’re like me, you’re convinced by the last thing you read. This is not good. Do your homework!

“Pastor Tim, what do you think about all this as of today, April 29th?” I’m glad you asked!

In my Easter sermon, I used some material from J Warner Wallace. He was an atheist police detective who decided to apply the investigative forensic tools of cold case detective work to the resurrection of Jesus. (Go to YouTube and enter into the search engine: Cold Case Christianity. Awesome stuff!) Anyway, he gave his life to Christ. One of the lines of investigation he applied to the resurrection has to do with conspiracy theories. Detectives work on the premise that conspiracies need to include the smallest amount of people for the shortest amount of time in order to be effective. He applied this forensic tool to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and concluded that too many people over too great a length of time held to the resurrection story even when facing stiff persecution. Is it possible that the resurrection story was a known falsehood held to by thousands of people over decades? It’s possible. Is it reasonable? No. By applying the tools of his craft, he came to faith in Christ!

OK – let’s do the same with C-19. Is it possible that the COVID-19 pandemic is not as serious as thousands upon thousands of doctors and experts and politicians and pundits and journalists make out? Is this a conspiracy by these people to dupe the American people? Let’s stop right there. If this is a conspiracy to deceive the American people, what is its purpose?

Have the Democrats duped all the doctors and pundits and experts and politicians in order to thwart the reelection of President Trump?
Has China deceived all these professionals in order to bring America to her knees? Or are the doctors and experts all in on this?
Have evil bankers concocted this crisis to use as a smokescreen in order to transfer wealth out of America?

If this is a conspiracy, it is being held a tight secret by tens of thousands of people over a few months time. Possible? Yes. Reasonable? No. Now, can Democrats or Republicans or the Chinese or the bankers (or anyone else) try and use the C-19 crisis to seek an advantage for their cause? Of course. But then you’ve changed the subject from conspiracy to opportunism. Let’s not change the subject.

Do I think that COVID-19 is a vast conspiracy foisted upon us by some evil group of people? No. Do I think that our government has acted or is acting competently through all this? No. “Pastor Tim, you just changed the subject from government conspiracy to government competency.” Yes, I did. Let’s go with that. Does being a good citizen or a Christian citizen mean that I have to support the government in all they do? No. The 1st Amendment of our Constitution says that we can petition the government for the redress of grievances.

I am grieved by the arbitrary nature of what businesses have to be shuttered and what businesses can remain open.
I am grieved by those facing economic hardship, emotional isolation, and job instability.
I am grieved that the government is not treating the American population like adults, but as children needing to obey.

Yet, having listed my grievances (and I have more and so do you), these grievances do not (in my opinion) warrant civil disobedience. When and if I become convinced that this is something more and other than medically motivated, my tune will change. As I wrote earlier, sometimes civil disobedience is the higher road of citizenship. Do I believe that the approach the government has taken is the correct one? No. Yet I’m not convinced that it’s wrong, either. I’m somewhere in the undefined middle, in the indeterminate muddle. What I am convinced of is that this is not a government conspiracy. I’d rather have a partially incompetent government than a wholly conspiratorial one.

Psalm 131 is the spirit that I try and live in –

O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;

Nor do I involve myself in great matters,

Or in things too difficult for me.

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;

Like a weaned child rests against his mother,

My soul is like a weaned child within me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD

From this time forth and forever. Psalm 131:1-3

Am I hiding my head in the sand? I don’t think so. I’m trying to bury my head in the truth and trying to keep my heart in the love of the Lord. So, think until your thoughts are clear and strong. Pray until your motive is love. And when you do speak, do so in the love of Christ – not the anger of a partisan.

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

April 28, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont – let’s listen to our announcer.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Pandemonium Smackdown.”

“In the far corner, wearing white trunks, we have doctors from prestigious universities who think they know it all and have the data to back it up and they make a lot of sense.”
“In the near corner, wearing even whiter trunks, we have another group of doctors from prestigious universities who think they know it all and have the data to back it up and they make a lot of sense.”

This is also a tag-team match.

“In the far corner, joining the doctors who think they know it all, wearing black trunks, is a gang of politicians who back them up and are ready to spin any and all information to the disadvantage of their political rivals.”
“In the near corner, joining the other group of doctors who think they know it all, wearing even blacker trunks, is a rival gang of politicians who back them up and are ready to spin any and all information to the disadvantage of their political rivals.”

Actually, this is a triple tag-team match. (Yes, it’s all-out warfare.)

“In the far corner, joining the doctors and the politicians, wearing nothing at all, is a gaggle of media personalities who mock and ridicule all who don’t agree with the doctors who know it all and the politicians who support their version of the data.”
“In the near corner, joining the other doctors and the rival gang of politicians, wearing less than nothing at all, is another gaggle of media personalities who mock and ridicule all who don’t agree with the doctors who know it all and the politicians who support their version of the data.”

Each corner of doctors and politicians and media personnel is supported by experts in various disciplines and self-appointed pundits and conspiracy theorists who scream at anybody not in their corner. And then there are the self-anointed prophets of doom who tell us that they can hear the hoof-beats of the four horsemen of the apocalypse becoming louder and getting closer. They point us to the economic collapse of the United States and tell us that the Antichrist is just over the horizon and the mark of the beast is just one chip away. Yikes!

“Welcome to the daily media coverage of COVID-19. Let’s get ready to rummmmmmbbbbblllleeee!”

What’s a Christian to do? How are we to keep our footing in the flood-waters of information and misinformation and disinformation and passion and politics and partisanship and personalities?

This Milky Way of experts generate more questions and concerns than answers. Here is a sampling of what comes my way. “Pastor Tim, what do you think? Are the civil rights of the church being trampled? Is this a conspiracy to silence the churches and therefore the gospel? Is C-19 a biological weapon fashioned by a lab in Wuhan, China that was intentionally released or is this an unfortunate animal-to-man transmission of the virus? Are the doctors overstating this? Understating this? Misstating this? Is our government overreacting to this? Is the data accurate, but inaccurately analyzed? Is the data inaccurate and therefore any analysis is doomed from the start? Is this a plot to transfer wealth out of America? Is this a conspiracy to prevent the reelection of President Trump? Is this a real crisis or one hyped by the media? Is this all one big manipulation by the deep state and the dark web? What are the prophetic implications of all this? Should we be sheltering-in-place in our homes or standing shoulder-to-shoulder out in the streets?” And on it goes…

Joining the confusing chorus of doctors and politicians and media and the self-appointed and the self-anointed is a further layer of disharmony. There are plenty of things that irk me at this time, but one of the most irksome is the instant expertise of the layman. So many are getting advanced degrees by spending an afternoon at GOOGLE University. Hey, everybody – GOOGLE U is the place to be! There’s no registration, no tuition to pay, no enrollment fees, no class times, and no buzz-kill final exams. And forget about grades! GOOGLE U is churning out experts at an astonishing rate. After a few hours at GOOGLE U, people with no training in or even understanding of virology or public policy want to be the policeman in the global intersection directing the world’s traffic. Yet an inadequate education leads to immature thinking and premature judgment.

Here’s what I mean – we are asked to watch this video, read that article, access this program where an alternative view point is intelligently presented by actual professionals utilizing highlighted data and featuring supportive data from prominent journals. People go away from watching/reading these presentations and they say, “I believe that guy.” My question is very simple, “Why?” Now the video or article may very well be the best thing ever produced that addresses this pandemic – but how do I know? What on earth do I know about amino acids and bat germs and receptors and immuno-deficiency diseases and genome sequencing. I watch Science Expert 1 make a certain claim and then listen to Science Expert 2 thoroughly debunk what Science Expert 1 claimed. Or at least Science Expert 2 asserts that he has thoroughly debunked Science Expert 1. How do I know if he refuted him? I took Hebrew in Bible College, not advance virology and genome sequencing. If RNA were to replicate right in front of me, I’d be clueless. If I told you that “dag” means “fish” in Hebrew and another Hebrew student told you that “cat” means “fish” in Hebrew – how on earth could you know who was telling the truth? The one who looks more sincere? The one with the flashier presentation? The one who aligns with your political party or religion or philosophy?

“Yeah, but Science Expert 1 has a document signed by 20,000 medical doctors supporting his/her findings.” OK, that’s impressive. Yet there are about 12,000,000 doctors in the world. Why didn’t the other 11,980,000 medical doctors sign it? Which doesn’t in itself prove anything. He/she could still be right. Or wrong. Or on to something. Or not. I just don’t know. But then I’m not a GOOGLE grad – I don’t know it all. Here’s what I do know – God is God and I am to follow Jesus regardless of which expert is trying to recruit me to their corner. “Well, Pastor Tim, it sounds like you’re just allowing others to put a leash around your neck and lead you wherever they want. It sounds like you’re telling us not to think for ourselves.” Such is not the case – we need to think for ourselves, yet at the same time not think too highly of ourselves. If you think that an afternoon at GOOGLE U qualifies you to speak intelligently into this situation then you are thinking too highly of yourself. When we think too highly of ourselves we have a tendency to smackdown those who think differently and we jump into the ring and begin to wrestle in the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Pandemonium Smackdown.

This is getting too long. To be continued…

Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim

April 27, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Q: When is it OK to complain?

A: When you complain to the Lord.

Q: When is it OK to complain and lament and carry on like God’ doesn’t care for you?
A: When you complain and lament to the Lord.

I’m reading a book entitled: “Dark Clouds/Deep Mercy” by Mark Vroegop (no, that’s not a typo). It is subtitled: ‘Discovering the Grace of God in Lament.’ I don’t remember why I bought it, but when I went to read it I thought it would probably be full of unoriginal platitudes, tired clichés, and that I might underline one sentence every five pages or so. Boy, was I delightfully surprised. I am underlining about five sentences per page and putting an asterisk next to the super-standout points that are being made. Thumbing through the pages I see a bunch of asterisks that I’ve made.

Mark pastors College Park Church in Indianapolis, Indiana and is no armchair theologian. His struggles come from real-life wrestling with suffering in both his personal life and his vocation as a pastor. This season of COVID-19 has been trying and stretching and has caused much suffering and given birth to many heart-felt complaints. I think the insights offered in Pastor Mark’s book are relevant for what we are collectively experiencing. What follows are just some bullet-points that I consider to be outstanding. Maybe this trailer will whet your appetite to get it and read it yourself.

Lament can be defined as a loud cry, a howl, or a passionate expression of grief. Lament is how we bring our sorrow to God. Without lament we won’t know how to process pain.
We need to recover the ancient practice of lament and the grace that comes through it. Christianity suffers when lament is missing.
Christians affirm that the world is broken, God is powerful, and He will be faithful. Therefore, lament stands in the gap between pain and promise.
To cry is human, but to lament is Christian. (I loved that!)
Lament typically asks two questions: 1) “Where are You, God?” 2) “If You love me, why is this happening?”
You might think that lament is the opposite of praise. It isn’t. Instead, lament is a path to praise. (I loved that!)
At least a third of the 150 psalms are laments. (Wow!) A third of the official songbook of Israel wrestles with pain.
It takes faith to pray a lament.
Many people are afraid of lament. They find it too honest, too open, or too risky. But there’s something far worse: silent despair.
Lament does not always lead to an immediate solution. Grief is not tame. Lament is not a simplistic formula.
Lament is humbling turning to God through the pain.
If you read the psalms of lament, you’ll discover a lot of creative complaining. The Bible is full of complaints. And apparently they aren’t sinful. In fact, they are set to music. (I loved that!)
Without a complaint, there would be no lament.

Two more –

Mark quotes another author: A lament honestly and specifically names a situation or circumstance that is painful, wrong, or unjust – in other words, a circumstance that doesn’t align with God’s character and therefore does not make sense within God’s kingdom.
Lament is the language of a people who believe in God’s sovereignty but live in a world with tragedy.

OK, one more –

The psalmist is basically telling God that he feels as if God is not being God-like.

This is just a sampling – there’s a lot more in the box.

My soul resonates with Mark’s theme. He is spot-on and expresses these truths so simply and eloquently backed up with solid exposition. As a pastor, I’m always reading for more material, but this book has deeply edified me. I see God in a greater light – His mercies and compassions toward the broken and hurting make our beautiful God more beautiful still. If you’ve not expressed yourself toward the Lord in this way before – or have felt guilty in doing so – this will be a great read for you. Guilt free complaining – set to music!

Be blessed and stay healthy – Pastor Tim

April 25, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I want to talk to you about the awkwardness of livestreaming a service when no one (except the tech crew) is present. It is very disorienting to preach to an empty room. (Now, some wit will say that you’re not preaching to an empty room, you’re preaching in an empty room. So, let me restate this and say that it is very disorienting to preach in an empty room.)

Whether a preacher is aware of this or not, there is a symbiotic relationship between him and the congregation. Symbiotic here means that there is an interdependency between preacher and congregation. When the people are present there is an energy that the preacher feeds off of – whether that is ten people or 100 or 1,000. Whenever I’m asked to go to an A’s game, I never want to go. But once I get into the Coliseum with tens of thousands of people, there is a vibrant crowd energy that I can feel in my gut and feed off of and I’m always glad I went. When it comes to preaching, I’ve grown accustomed to the symbiotic relationship – the interdependency between the church and me – and this symbiotic relationship creates a feedback loop. There is this constant interplay between the preacher and the congregation. The congregation gives cues which, even if he isn’t consciously aware of them or can even articulate them, the pastor notices and absorbs. But when I preach in the empty sanctuary on Sunday mornings for the livestream broadcast, I have a real awareness of sensory deprivation. Instead of being in a forest surrounded by the presence of life and full of sound and movement, I feel like I’m in a darkened cave where all I hear is the echo of my own voice. Yes, there is something visceral and immediate in preaching to a room full of people. In one way, preaching is a contact sport.

Heads nodding in agreement or nodding off into unconsciousness signal something!
The worst is when I tell a joke and the congregation stares at me with that look of “Huh, I don’t get it.” When I expect smiles and get looks of confusion instead, that’s feedback! Or I get the, “That’s not funny” look.
When people stare at me intensely and the room is breathtakingly quiet, I know that the Lord is really ministering to their hearts. (Or I just said something really stupid!)
When people stare blankly into space, I know it’s time to move on.
When someone gets up and goes out the door, I replay in my mind the last thing I said and wonder if that offended them. Once, we had 15 women get up and go out at the same time. My feedback red light was really flashing and my inner alarms were blaring. I thought, “Yikes! What on earth did I say? Did I just say something sexist and offensive?” (Don’t put that past me!) What happened was that the nursery gives pagers to all the parents so they can be summoned during the service in case their child needs their attention. One of the nursery workers had pushed the “Call All” button on the base unit.

Yes the feedback loop is something very instructive for the preacher. But in preaching in an empty room, I’m out of the loop. This sensory deprivation is discombobulating.

When I’m preaching in a room with people in the chairs I feel like an infantryman on the front lines. Again, there is something visceral and immediate and all my senses and attention are in the moment. Preaching in an empty room doing a livestream service feels, to me, like I’m an artilleryman on a battleship five miles offshore lobbing 500 pound bombs and hoping they hit something and are effective. It feels disconnected and impersonal and the energy of being on the front lines is missing.

I know that I’m not the only one who feels awkward and like a fish out of water just flopping around. The lead elder feels this as does Mike, our worship leader. What may come across as nervousness is just us trying to find our footing on some very strange terrain. Even as someone trying to walk normally in an atmosphere with different gravity than earth’s, so we’re trying to make our way through the alien dynamics of sensory deprivation in ministering in an empty room where there is no feedback loop. The very reason for ministry is people, but when there are no people present, ministry is awkward. And we’re not professional broadcasters who have mastered this stuff. And the tech crew is scrambling, too! They are awesome!

And I’m not the only one feeling discombobulated. Plenty of pastors for whom livestreaming (or even airing prerecorded services) is a new thing are trying to get the hang of it, too. Many churches are on a steep learning curve when it comes to having a presence on social media. In light of this, be O so slow to criticize your pastor/your church for not having a stunning presentation when livestreaming. When camera angles, lighting, the sound, the mix, the power point can be improved, when the transition from one part of the service to the next doesn’t go smooth – cut your church some slack! If you have constructive feedback, offer it. But to say, “These guys don’t know what they’re doing,” is to state the obvious! You’re right – we don’t know what we’re doing! Don’t complain about their less than stellar performance. Remember – your pastors aren’t stars and this isn’t a performance. We’re not trying to entertain you or bring you a Hollywood quality presentation. (I don’t have a stunt double!) All the pastors are here to minister the Word of God and the love of God and the peace of Christ to you. Your pastor doesn’t need to hear, “Good sermon, Pastor.” What he would like to hear is that you are hearing from the Lord in this season of time – that the bombs are landing – that ministry is taking place in this alien landscape.

Be blessed and stay healthy – Pastor Tim

April 24, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

We find ourselves in a season of time described by 1 Samuel 4:2.

The Philistines drew up in battle array to meet Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines…

Please note the phrase, “When the battle spread…” When was Israel defeated? When the battle spread. They were unprepared for the spreading battle. This clash with the Philistines got out of hand, it extended longer than they anticipated and was more intense than they expected. They foresaw a short, easy battle. They didn’t bring along enough resources or have enough resolve within them to endure and respond with strength when the battle spread.

We don’t like big, messy, sloppy battles. We like David & Goliath stories – you know – one shot fired and it’s all over. We want to knock out our opponent in the first minute of the 1^st round – not in the final minute of the 15^th round. Like Israel in 1 Samuel 4, we find ourselves unprepared for the spreading battle. This is not an uncommon misjudgment -

The five foolish virgins didn’t expect the bridegroom to delay his arrival as long as he did and didn’t bring sufficient oil to last the night.
John Mark didn’t think ministry would be as difficult as it turned out to be and turned back from serving with Paul and Barnabas.
You were sure that it would only take your husband or wife two or three months to come around to doing things your way – but it’s been 10 years now!

So many are unprepared for the spreading battle – and it takes its toll.

COVID-19 is sure taking it’s time to go away – it’s like rush hour on Highway 880. Everyone is frustrated and honking their horns and shouting out the window, “Come on, let’s go!” I really thought (truly) that we’d be having services by Easter Sunday (April 12). Boy, was I wrong. The spreading battle of C-19 has caught me unprepared. Even as Israel entered this battle against the Philistines with naïve expectations, so I thought that C-19 would blow in and blow out – but instead it has blown up. Even as the Philistines weren’t as easily displaced and pushed back and were more tenacious than Israel anticipated, so C-19 has dug in and it seems like it’s trench warfare now.

Our text sets before us a defeat in Israel’s life and the reason for that defeat – they were unprepared. And as Israel headed into this battle, we head into life with naïve expectations. We have expectations of financial security & family stability & career advancement & physical health – and then life happens and spreads out and dreams don’t come true and hearts break – and we’re not prepared for this. Some of you have been wounded in the spreading battle – lingering illness, uphill financial struggle, long standing personal problems, unresolved marital difficulty, entrenched career problems, etc.

I have found myself unprepared for the spreading battle of C-19. My expectations have proven naïve and my hopes have been unfulfilled. What I thought would be over and done with in weeks will be stretching out for months. It’s something akin to a story in Jeremiah 28 & 29. Babylon had defeated Judah and taken a significant portion of the people into exile. Jerusalem during exile looked a lot like Fremont in quarantine – empty streets, bazaars shuttered up, a spooked populace. Hananiah, a false prophet says the following in response to this -

Within two years I am going to bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD'S house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.Jeremiah 28:3

What would turn out to be 70 years of captivity to Babylon, Hananiah falsely prophesied would only be two years. “The Babylonians are going to blow in and blow out and this thing will blow over and then it will be life as normal again,“ Hananiah shouted. And who doesn’t want to hear that!? But Hananiah was wrong and was denounced by Jeremiah. Jeremiah then wrote the following to the exiles in Babylon –

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,
'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' Jeremiah 29:4-7

Jeremiah said to the exiles in Babylon – the exile is going to s-p-r-e-a-d and it won’t be over soon. He encouraged Israel to pray to God right where they were and God would meet them right where they were. Dig in and bloom where you’re planted and seek God! Seek the shalom of the city, for in its shalom you shall have shalom. The only way through this for me – and you – is to seek God right where we are and expect Him to meet us right where we are. Shalom (the peace of God) is realized in the presence of God and not because circumstances are just right. I don’t know how long this is going to last (not 70 years!), but for however long it lasts – may we be on our knees seeking God and on our feet serving God in the shalom of the Lord! Our God gives us strength to stand and thrive when the battle spreads.

And then don’t forget that verse just down the page one inch - 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Be blessed and stay healthy – Pastor Tim

April 22, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

A lot more people are tuning into livestream church than attended live church before COVID-19. I just looked at our YouTube page and saw that Sunday’s service (April 19th) has 300 views. If you estimate that there are at least two people viewing the same device (and it probably averages out to more than that) that means approximately 600 people viewed our Sunday morning service. That’s more than three times as many than are in the sanctuary on any given Sunday. Now, I don’t know what YouTube is measuring when it says ‘views.’ I guess someone could tune in for 60 seconds and then leave the page and it would count as a view. However this is measured, we’re certainly getting more virtual traffic than we did actual traffic. COVID-19 has forced many into doing livestream church. And that’s good. What’s good about it?

The digital footprint of the church (and I mean all the churches) has expanded and we have a much larger virtual presence than just five weeks ago.
The technical competence of the church has sharply increased over the last five weeks. We have invested in cameras and switchers, etc., in order to improve the quality of our online presence.
When life returns to the new normal (whatever that is and however long it takes to unfold and shape up) we will continue to livestream live church.
Many have been inviting friends and family to tune in to our livestream service and it appears that they are – that’s why the numbers are up.
Livestream church has the advantage over live church of being convenient, comfortable (you’re at home, in your robe, sitting in your easy, chair, sipping your latte), and non-confrontational. Plus – you can miss the actual service and watch the recorded one on your time table.
You can get another cup of coffee or use the bathroom or yell at your kid or turn the service off whenever you want to.
You don’t have to sing or greet your neighbor or have to put up with your kids eating more donuts than they should, and you don’t have to feel the pressure of the offering bag being sent around. And - here’s a big plus – you don’t have to wear that silly ‘Praise the Lord’ smile. Yes – it’s just what the doctor ordered.
Another cluster of good things is that more people are hearing the gospel and being evangelized and some are being saved. In addition, the Bible is being taught and Jesus is being glorified and cultural strongholds are being challenged.
This is all good. So, what’s the downside? The downside will have to be pretty steep to even out the upside.

Some, not many but some, who previously attended live church will not return, preferring virtual church to actual church – opting for livestream church instead of live church. And some who develop an interest in Christianity and are won to Christ via livestream church may prefer virtual church to actual church and never seek out a local assembly of believers to belong to. Is it possible to be a virtual church member? Is it possible to be a member of the body of Christ without being an actual part of a local body? Some will answer immediately, “Well, of course. What of shut-ins, and the sick, and those whose work schedule doesn’t mesh with scheduled Sunday and Wednesday services. They are members of the body of Christ though they are not in actual attendance.” I agree and I have no argument with that. I think that the principle of the lack of ability leads to the lack of responsibility is in play here. But what of the one whose health and schedule allows for participation in the actual church, but whose preference is to remain in the virtual church? What of the one who can be involved in live church but prefers livestream church? Can you be a ‘good’ Christian, a ‘mature’ Christian, a ‘responsible’ Christian and stay at home and livestream the church service and not be a part of a live church?

Let’s shift gears and look at it through another lens. Can a man be good husband and not live with his wife? Well – what if he is in the military and deployed overseas? Sure – let’s stipulate that a military man deployed overseas can be, even if he’s not home, a good husband. But what if, upon his return, he doesn’t move home but rents an apartment instead and chooses to Facetime his wife every day? Hmmm – that’s weird. We would think that this is not normal and that the health of the marriage can’t thrive in this scenario. Given how a husband is supposed to relate to his wife and given how this man is relating to his wife, this is an abnormal – no, subnormal – relationship. Now, it does save each one the hard work of living together under one roof with all the give and take and push and pull that this requires, but at the same time it is not need meeting nor is it life giving. I am not saying that the man who relates to his wife in this manner is not a husband – what I’m saying is that he is a lousy husband.

Let’s apply this – I am not saying that if you prefer livestream church over live church you cannot be a Christian. I am saying that if you prefer livestream church over live church you are a lousy Christian. If you can, but do not attend live church and instead stay home in your bathrobe, cradling your cup of coffee, and tune in to livestream church – my contention is that you are a lousy Christian in the same way that the husband who rents an apartment and Facetimes his wife is a lousy husband.

And I know that you know this, too. I am looking forward to seeing you real soon!!

Be blessed and stay healthy – Pastor Tim

April 20, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

What if God answered prayer as efficiently as Amazon Prime delivers packages?

Yesterday morning during pre-service prayer, our worship leader Mike said that he proudly belongs to the Amazon Prime generation. He is very willing to pay $2 more to have whatever item he ordered delivered ASAP. I realized that though I’m older than Mike, I belong to the Amazon Prime generation, too. (We just created a new sociological category – Generation AP. Yes, I’m a GAP baby.) What the microwave does to your food, Amazon Prime does to your online orders. With being stuck at home, it’s impressive to order something Tuesday afternoon and have it delivered Wednesday morning.

Amazon Prime (AP) with its ease of use and speedy delivery fits perfectly the American lifestyle. AP goes at the speed of life (to parrot an ad-line for another product – I can’t remember which one). Don’t you wish God answered prayer with the same efficiency of AP? Don’t you wish God went at the speed of life? But here’s the thing – He doesn’t. God doesn’t go at the speed of life, He goes at the speed of God. And that is probably one of the most frustrating things about God. I thought we would be back to normal life at ‘full steam ahead’ by Easter Sunday and all be together and this COVID-19 thing would be a blip on the radar - but it’s draaaaaagggggging out. I pray for deliverance on Tuesday afternoon and when it’s not here by Wednesday morning, I’m thinking, “God, where are Your mercies and the power of Your hand? Don’t You see what’s happening? The feeble economy is crippling personal finances. The quarantine is having serious emotional and psychological effects. The unknowing is eating away at everyone. How long, O Lord?” But there’s no answer even by Wednesday afternoon. Maybe I should start praying to AP and see what they can deliver. (But I probably won’t – I think the Bible warns against praying to other gods in a couple of places.)

Why doesn’t God take a cue from the business practices of AP? Why is God’s customer service seemingly so lousy at times? I complain about the long lines and slow service at my local bank. If I’m honest, I find myself at times impatient with God and His lousy customer service. It seems like the line I’m in hasn’t moved in five minutes or five days or even five years. Yikes! What am I even doing standing in this line? Is there something I’m not understanding? Yes, there is -

God doesn’t move at the speed of life – He moves according to His purposes. And one of His greatest purposes is to form the heart and character of His people. Character is shaped and formed in the pressure cooker of unfulfilled desire. It’s fashioned in long lines. Character is forged by the grace and mercy of delay. The best definition of maturity I have read is that maturity is the ability to postpone gratification. You need to get that definition under your belt.

If you’re not married or engaged – delay the gratification of sexual intimacy.
If you want that new car or piece of furniture or that vacation trip – delay the gratification of enjoying these things until you can afford them.
If you desire a promotion – don’t acquire it illegitimately. Don’t put down another, pass someone else’s work off as your own, or flatter your way to a promotion.

Premature gratification delays the development of character.

Through Samuel, God anointed David to be king after Saul. Saul was threatened by David and hated him and hunted him for many years in order to kill him. As the story goes, David had an opportunity to kill Saul – but he didn’t. Here’s why -

So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD'S anointed." 1 Samuel 24:6

David knew it would be wrong to kill Saul in cold blood and this was an illegitimate path to the throne. David had another opportunity to kill Saul – but he didn’t. Here’s why –

David also said, "As the LORD lives, surely the LORD will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish. The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD'S anointed…1 Sam 26:10-11

David believed that God would accomplish what He had promised. We are to obey the commands and believe the promises. What God has promised, He will do. What God commands, we will do. And God didn’t command David to kill Saul. David could have come to the throne years earlier than he did had he taken things into his own hands, but he was willing to postpone gratification in order to do the thing right. David’s character was being forged and exhibited at the same time. AP wouldn’t overnight the throne to David – he had to wait upon the Lord.

Yet we all know about the time David didn’t postpone gratification. He laid eyes upon the beautiful Bathsheba and committed adultery with her. This became a huge hole in his soul and a blot upon his reputation and a blight in his character. David had numerous wives and concubines and could have channeled his sexual desires down legitimate pathways, but his lust burned within him. AP did deliver Bathsheba to him quickly – but it’s an order that should have never been placed.

When God denies you what your soul legitimately desires, or He delays your enjoyment of what your soul legitimately desires, He does so to forge and fashion your character and deepen your maturity. God doesn’t move at the speed of life – He moves at the speed of God.

Be blessed and stay healthy – Pastor Tim

April 18, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I read about some stadium somewhere (sorry, can’t remember) that changed the width of its seats from 16” to 18”. They experienced a significant decrease in fights between the fans. Being jammed together for a long time can generate some raw feelings. Sound familiar? The COVID-19 stay-at-home orders have many feeling like they’re stuck in a 16”wide seat and can’t get out. The result: there’s a lot of ‘ugly’ boiling up and spilling over.

Yesterday I wrote: The strategy you and I should pursue as we seek spiritual maturity is not to try and get rid of the ‘ugly,’ but rather we should seek to give expression to the beautiful.

What is the beautiful? The love of God is beautiful. Rather than focusing on getting rid of ‘ugly’ feelings and attitudes, we should focus on loving one another – demonstrating to one another the beauty of God. I know it sounds flowery and poetic, but we can give each other the beauty of God. I’d rather you give me the beauty of God than a dozen roses any day. I am aware that encouraging us to love one another is very cliché and unoriginal and something everybody knows – it sounds syrupy sweet, and something you’d expect a pastor to write. But don’t change the channel quite yet. Let me try and unpack it for you and see if we can get a fresh perspective on the love of God. I think that this will give you a very practical handle on how to love another person – even the one jammed up next to you that you can’t get away from!

The beauty of God is locked up in and revealed by six words in 1 Corinthians 13:4 - Love is patient, love is kind… Those six words unlock the heart of God. Patience and kindness are the essence of God’s love and they are the expression of God’s love. Bracket out, if you can, everything else you’ve been told about the love of God and etch this on your soul: love is patient and love is kind. That’s it – that’s the essence, the ‘isness’ of the love of God. 1 Corinthians 13 goes on and tells us what love isn’t and what it does and doesn’t do – but it “is” only two things – patience and kindness. This is the beauty of God. Let’s unpack the beauty of God.

Patience is where I slow down (or speed up) and merge with those around me and go at their pace. We do this all the time when we maneuver our car onto the on-ramp and adjust our speed so we can get on the freeway and flow with the traffic that is already there. Those around you are traveling at different speeds. If I want to travel with them, I need to fall in beside them. I can’t be too fast or too slow. If I want to travel through life with my wife, I need to adjust myself to her pace and honor that (and vice-versa). When do we get impatient? When someone makes us wait, when they slow us down, when they don’t move at our pace. Patience is very simply adjusting myself to someone’s pace so that I can travel beside them. This is where love begins. Without patience, the beauty of God cannot be expressed. Patience is the context and part of the content of the love of God. Thought I’ve pastoring more than 40 years, I’m still amazed when, after a 60 second conversation in the lobby, someone will say, “Thank you for taking your time and talking with me, pastor.” It was 60 seconds! And yet they were touched by the beauty of God. But it gets better…

Love is not only patient, love is kind. Kindness is practical helpfulness. A farmer had a donkey that died on the way to market. It was dead on the road and all the neighbors who gathered round were saying that they were sorry the donkey had died. One man took his hat off and put some money in it and said, “I’m sorry $5 worth – how sorry are you?” He passed the hat and the farmer was able to replace his dead donkey. That’s practical helpfulness – that’s expressing to someone the beauty of God. But the thing is this, if the man who passed the hat hadn’t been patient, he never could have been kind. If he hadn’t stopped to see what was happening and hadn’t, to some small degree, felt the pain of the farmer, he never would have passed the hat – never would have shown kindness to him. The Good Samaritan is a great example of patience and kindness. He slowed down, entered the pain of the mugged man, and rendered aid. Patience precedes kindness. Kindness is impossible without patience.

The gospel is the story of patience and kindness. God came down in Jesus Christ and fell in step with us! Imagine that. He had to slow Himself waaaaaaaaay down!! What beauty there is in the patience of God. You know the story – the cross and the resurrection and forgiveness and cleansing and regeneration are the greatest acts of kindness ever displayed. In Jesus, the beauty of God is in full bloom. If Jesus wasn’t patient – hadn’t become a man and walked with us for 33 years – the cross, the kindness of God, would never have happened. There can be no kindness without patience. Something beautiful begins to grow when you exercise patience and something beautiful comes into full blossom when kindness is displayed.

Something beautiful happens in a marriage when spouses adjust and keep pace with one another. Something beautiful happens when a parent slows down and enters the world of his/her child. The kid loves it! And then further beauty as a parent plays with their child or reads a book to them. You think, “Big deal.” But your child feels so loved and cared for. Beauty is in simplicity.

A lot of my marriage counseling is unfolding this simple, yet powerful understanding of the essence of the love of God. Whatever else may be amiss, when couples end up in my office I know that there is the missing ingredient of patience and kindness. Beauty is missing in their marriage because patience and kindness have been scuttled somewhere along the way. They wind up in my office because things have gotten ugly. In fact, where patience and kindness are surging, a couple will never end up in my office – at least not for relational help.

Let me end with this expanded version of 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a – “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”

Let me paraphrase using the essence of love to do so. “Patience and kindness bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. Patience and kindness never fail.”

One of the most impacting things I have ever read was an expanded paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a.

“Love bears all things – and when it can no longer bear all things, it believes all things. And when love can no longer believe all things, it hopes all things. And when love can no longer hope all things, it endures all things. And when love can no longer endure all things, love never fails.”

You can fail to exercise patience and kindness, but patience and kindness never fail. Really, all I want from my wife is patience and kindness and that’s what she wants from me. That will make us last a lifetime.

April 17, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I posted an article a couple of days ago about how time tests us and reveals who and what we are. Someone responded with this: “It is becoming ever apparent that at the core of who I am, sin has a grip that I alone cannot control. There's an 'ugly' under the surface that is quick to rear its head at the slightest aggravation.” And this confession brings us to the question: “How do I get rid of the ‘ugly’?”

Paul addresses this very question – “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16

He doesn’t write that if you walk by the Spirit you won’t have the desires of the flesh – I think that some come away with that conclusion – but that’s not what Paul wrote. He says that if you walk by the Spirit (and I take this to mean: live a Spirit-filled life) that you won’t give expression to the ‘ugly’ inside you – you won’t carry out the desire of the flesh.

Remember what Jesus cried out on the cross: “It is finished!” That same Greek verb is in play in Galatians 5:16. If you walk by the Spirit you won’t finish, or fulfill the desire of the flesh! That’s huge! Please hear this – walking by the Spirit doesn’t quash the beginning of the desire of the flesh – waking by the Spirit quashes the end of it and doesn’t allow it to be fulfilled. An unfulfilled prophecy is one that hasn’t come to pass and an unfulfilled desire of the flesh is one that doesn’t come to pass!

We are concerned that even feeling the ‘ugly’ inside of us is some kind of spiritual defeat. I don’t think Scripture has this concern. The Lord is concerned that you don’t express the ‘ugly’ more than the fact that you feel the ‘ugly.’ Someone might protest and say, “But if I don’t express what’s on the inside and instead repress it, two things happen. First of all, I can do some emotional damage to myself when I deny and repress what I’m really feeling. I’ll stuff it and stuff it and one day I’ll explode. And secondly, if I don’t express what I feel, I’m being a hypocrite and pretending to be someone I’m not – and I want to live an authentic life.” Let me address this.

First of all, when Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, He’s not directing us to live in denial. To deny myself means that ‘not my will, but Thine be done.’ But to live in denial is to live in dishonesty about what’s going on inside of me. I can deny myself and follow the will of my Father and at the same time honestly acknowledge the ‘ugly’ inside of me. I can own the fact that I want to speak an unkind word to my wife, that I want to yell at the man in the car next to me, and that I am increasingly impatient with people who hoard toilet paper. I can own all those feelings and at the same time not allow them to own me. I can confess all my ‘ugly’ and not fulfill it – carry it out.

Secondly – a person is not a hypocrite when they don’t live in sync with their feelings – a person is a hypocrite when they don’t live in sync with their values. My feelings and attitudes at any given moment are not the deepest thing about me. My feelings and attitudes come and go – but my values remain the same. I want to live in sync with my values and not my feelings. I want to live in sync with the deepest part of me. I don’t want to erupt in ugliness, I want to pursue my values.

One of my values is to walk in self-control. This is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So – let’s suppose that I want to speak an unkind word to me wife because I am angry or hurt. One school of thought is that I need to be authentic and transparent and just let her have it. But the Lord instructs me to walk in self control and not carry out the ‘ugly’ inside of me. I value self control and I value my wife, therefore I will not allow my ‘ugliness’ to speak the unkind word. I am not being a hypocrite for I am being consistent with my values. If you and I were together and I got mad at you and wanted to hit you, I’m sure you would prefer that I walk by the Spirit and not fulfill the desire of my flesh.

The strategy you and I should pursue as we seek spiritual maturity is not to try and get rid of the ‘ugly,’ but rather we should seek to give expression to the beautiful. Paul says that the goal of Christian teaching is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. He doesn’t say that the goal of Christian instruction is sinlessness. Pursuing sinlessness is a sure way to become a legalist and get your focus off of Christ and on to yourself. Do this: when you get up in the morning make this a part of your prayer – “Lord, help me to love those I come in contact with today. Help me to put them first, before me. May I consider them more important than me.” See – the focus isn’t on eliminating the ‘ugly,’ but nurturing the beautiful. Someone might say, “I can’t give expression to the beautiful until I get rid of the ‘ugly’.’ That’s an unscriptural notion. Now you might think that the logic is this – that as I express the beautiful, I’ll get rid of the ‘ugly’.’ That may happen – I’m sure it happens for some. But the way I read the Bible and have lived the Christian life for 48 years is that as I give expression to the beautiful, the ‘ugly’ becomes irrelevant. It may be there; it may not be there. It’s irrelevant because it’s not controlling me nor am I focused on it. The love of Christ is controlling me and I am focused on others.

So, what do you do about the ‘ugly’ inside? Determine to be a person who loves. Love covers a multitude of sins – even your own!

Be blessed and stay healthy – Pastor Tim

April 15, 2020

Hey, Calvary Chapel –

I hear it often: “COVID-19 has changed everything.”

Well, my birthday hasn’t changed. It’s still the 24^th of February.

I’m still married and have three children and eight grandchildren. That remains unchanged.

The San Francisco 49ers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs on February 2, 2020 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. That’s something that we in the Bay Area wish would change - but it won’t.

Abraham Lincoln is still the 16^th President of the United States. C-19 hasn’t changed that.

2 + 2 still = 4.

100 degrees Celsius remains the boiling point for water.

The sun continues to be 92,000,000 miles from earth.

The Bible endures as the Word of God.

Jesus Christ is still risen from the dead.

I think you get the point… Millions, even billions, of personal, historical, and scientific facts have not been changed by C-19, nor has eternal Truth been altered in any way.

“But what of those who have lost their jobs, their income, and their health? What of the thousands who have lost their lives? COVID-19 has changed everything for them.”

Let me offer a perspective which may rankle you and is sure to get me in trouble with some. The following is a portion of Psalm 11 -

In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain; for, behold, the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD'S throne is in heaven… Psalm 11:1-4

David declares that if the foundation upon which the righteous stand can crumble away, if the wicked, and here let’s substitute C-19 for the wicked – if C-19 can destroy that upon which the righteous base their lives – then the righteous are up a creek without a paddle. If the substance of my life is my job or my income or my health – or even my physical life – if the substance of my life is the sum total of these things, then yes, C-19 has changed everything. But if the substance of my life, that upon which I build my life and derive the meaning and purpose of my life, is the truth of Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death and physical resurrection and glorious ascension and present reign at the right hand of God and the promise of His soon return to establish His kingdom – if that is the foundation upon which my life is built – then I can lose my job and my income and my health and even my life. I can lose it all and still have everything. Please hear this - C-19 can’t destroy the foundations of my life. Indeed, C-19 can’t even touch the foundations of my life. If all you have is your job and your income and your health then, yes, C-19 can change everything for you. But if you are a follower of Jesus and have built your life upon the Rock, C-19 can take your job and your income and your health – but that’s all it can take. Of course, there will be suffering and sorrow for those affected by these things, but part of the foundation I stand upon assures me that suffering and sorrow are for a season and will be swallowed up by heaven, Yes, there’s an untouchable foundation below me and a glorious hope before me.

I’ve probably alienated myself from some of you because what I wrote seems callous and indifferent toward those who have been so cruelly treated by C-19, yet let me attempt to redeem myself by pointing out a couple of things.

First, C-19 is not God’s punishment on a world that refuses to believe in Jesus Christ. C-19 is not God’s judgment on a sinning world. C-19 affects Christians and non-Christians alike. C-19 takes down the most moral to the most immoral, the most pious soul to the blasphemer. If C-19 is God’s judgment on a sinning world, this would be like my brother stealing a cookie from the cookie jar and my dad spanking my brother and then me and then my other brother and then my sister and then my cousin who was over at the house playing with us in the back yard. No, C-19 is not God on a rampage and having a fit because there are those who won’t believe the gospel and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

Second, we are to weep with those who weep and have mercy upon the suffering – whether Christian or not. We are to comfort and aid the suffering while continuing to hold out the hope of Christ to all, especially to those who are suffering.

No, COVID-19 has not changed everything. The foundation holds!

Writing from upon the unshakable foundation of Jesus Christ – Pastor Tim

April 14, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

It’s about time.

Time tests all things.

Time isn’t temptation – but it tests you nonetheless.

Time isn’t intended to test you, but it’s probably the greatest test you’ll ever undergo.

Time isn’t the world, the flesh, or the devil – but it can undermine and deceive you just as much as they can.

Time is the most common and commonly repeated test you’ll have to endure.

Time tests marriages and ministries, billionaires and the penniless, Ph.D.’s and high school dropouts. You can’t hide from time nor can you outrun it. It is the bright interrogation lamp that is always shining in your eyes. Time can’t be bribed or bullied, silenced or ignored. Time is unavoidable, inescapable, and irresistible. Time tests Baptists and Methodists, the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic, the Muslim and the Jew, the atheist and the agnostic. It doesn’t matter what creed or color or gender or race you are – time isn’t racist or sexist or an unrepentant bigot. Time regards all the same and treats all the same. Time isn’t temptation, but it’s the greatest test you’ll ever face.

How does time test all things?

Time comes with promises that are never realized.

Time offers opportunities that never materialize.

The passing of time isn’t accompanied by the passing away of our troubles and sorrows and failures and brokenness.

Time is the stage upon which truth is revealed.

Time tests all things because it proves all things.

Time proves whether you will go on or if you will give up.

Time proves whether you will walk by faith or walk by sight.

Time proves if your character is selfless or selfish.

Time proves if your promises are brass or gold.

Solomon said this about time -

Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man? Proverbs 20:6

What makes a loyal man a trustworthy man? Time. Loyalty demonstrated through time results in a trustworthy man. Time demonstrates if you are faithful or just full of fluff. A person who makes a promise and then keeps it isn’t a faithful person – they’re an honest person, but not necessarily faithful. A person who makes a promise and keeps it day after week after month after year after decade becomes a faithful person. Faithfulness is a pattern of dependability carved into the fabric of time. A person committed to a godly way of life doesn’t become godly after a week or a month, but only after time has carved this into the fabric of their soul.

Right now, a lot of us have a lot of time on our hands – at least that’s what I’m told. I can’t see it – but I sure can feel it. And I don’t feel it on my hands, but in my soul. I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, but I do have a lot of time on my soul. Time tests my promises and my commitments – will I be doing what I have said I’ll be doing in one month, one year, one decade, one lifetime? Time tests me and time tests my faith. Will I trust in God when I don’t think His timing is right or when it seems He is late – like He seemingly was with Lazarus. Remember, Martha said to Jesus, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died.” What she meant was, “Your timing stinks.” Walking by faith puts me in God’s time zone. Having recently returned from Israel, I was always doing the math of California being eight or nine hours behind us when I would call home. Israel is ahead in time and California is behind – God’s time zone is neither ahead of us or behind us – it is above us.

How do I get in sync with God’s time zone? Those who travel across the oceans know about jet lag – my body doesn’t know what time zone it’s in. My watch is set to Israeli time, but my internal clock is set to California time. This leads to some sleepless nights and sleepy days. I think many of us have ‘faith lag.’ Our minds are set upon the things of the Lord, but our desires are still bound to the things of this world. Part of us is reaching toward things above and part of us is bent toward things below. We’re caught in two time zones – both of them are influencing us. This is why time isn’t temptation, but it tests you nonetheless. Time is the battlefield on which different versions of me slug it out.

What’s the best way to overcome faith-lag and integrate into God’s time zone? The greatest commandment can help here. Moses wrote:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5

To love God reconciles me to His ways and to His timing. And though I live in unavoidable and inescapable time, by love through faith, I also live in God’s time zone. And though I am not lifted above time (which is unavoidable and inescapable), to love God is to have time as a friend and not an enemy. Time becomes a friend because it is the stage on which God demonstrates His lovingkindness toward me and the stage on which I live in loving obedience to Him. Time is no longer an enemy where God is late and I wonder about His love. Time is not against me, but it is for me because in time, I experience the goodness of God.

It’s about time – and it's time to love God and live in His time zone and to experience time as a friend.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 13, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont

Psalm 139 is very appropriate for such a time as this –

You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,"
Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.

Psalm 139:5-12

No matter how far I go up or go down – the Lord is there. Regardless of how far I travel to the right or to the left – the Lord is there. God’s hand is above me, below me, behind me, before me – He surrounds me! And here’s the real comfort in a time like this – even when I don’t go anywhere and stay at home and shelter-in-place – the Lord is there. He is certainly persistent, isn’t He? It’s like He loves me or something! This just isn’t a doctrinal Psalm describing the Lord’s omnipresence, this is a love Psalm illustrating the dogged intention of the Lord to never leave me or forsake me. God is the Divine Chaperone. A chaperone is one who accompanies and looks after another. You’re the other and the Lord is the Chaperone.

The thing is, the older I get, the less I need a chaperone. And right here is where I blunder. I looked up the word ‘blunder’ and it comes from a Scandinavian word meaning ‘blind.’ A stumble in the dark is a blunder. I blunder because I think I can see the way ahead when, in fact, I can’t – I just think I can because I’m so clever and experienced and grown-up. I can figure it out on my own. I’ve developed night vision, or so I think. Yet after blundering around in the dark and never finding my way out, I confess with the Psalmist, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me.” I realize I am disoriented and going in circles and I need help.

A chaperone is one who accompanies me – whether I go up or down or this way or that way – the Lord is there. But a guide is one that I accompany. Not only is the Lord my Divine Chaperone who goes with me, He is my Divine Guide who goes before me. And when the darkness settles in and refuses to lift, my Guide can see – even though I can’t. If I’m fixated on the path and where it will lead and when it will end and how it’s going to turn out – I can become overwhelmed with all the alternatives or become arrogant because I think I know something when I really don’t. Why pretend that you know something when you can’t see in the dark? I can’t see in the dark, but I know One who can. And though I can’t see in the dark, God sees me and tells me that His hand is above me and below me and behind me and before me. I don’t need to know the path, I just need to know the Lord.

If you’ve been watching the news, it seems that the current rage is airing all the sound bytes of the silly things politicians and health experts have said about COVID-19 and the wrong predictions they have made and the false assurances they have given the American people. The liberal news outlets constantly run all the wrong-headed things President Trump and his Republican allies have said and the conservative news outlets air all of the wrong-headed things that the Democrats have said. The Democrats want us to think that the Republicans really missed it on this one and the Republicans want us to think that the Democrats really missed it on this one. Each wants us to conclude that the other has given the American people a false narrative. After watching this hate-fest I have concluded that they’re all wrong and all the politicians and health experts and guardians of public safety really missed it on this one. They’re as much in the dark as me! All the finger-pointing and blaming and shaming wearies my soul! My soul longs for something better. My soul longs for the Lord.

Listen, beloved – God’s hand is above you and below you and behind you and before you. It is a time of darkness, and even though you can’t see in the dark, God can. Darkness and light are alike to Him. My soul takes refuge in the Lord.

The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? Psalm 27:1

In the strong name of Jesus – Pastor Tim

April 11, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

You and I can help people recover from the negative effects of COVID-19 and social distancing. But let’s get some Bible under our belt first. Look at these two very different responses to being raised from the dead -

As they were burying a man, behold, they saw a marauding band; and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. And when the man touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood up on his feet. 2 Kings 13:21

When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. John 11:43-44

In the 2 Kings passage, the Israelites were burying a man when they saw a hostile gang of Moabites coming toward them and so they tossed him into Elisha’s grave and hightailed it out of there. Upon touching the bones of Elisha, the dead man came back to life! My English text says ‘he revived’. The Hebrew is ‘he lived.’ He was dead and now he’s alive! I don’t get the sense that he came back to life and then slowly sat up and looked around confused and bewildered and scratched his head and said, “What’s going on?” That’s not what happened. The story says he came back to life and got to his feet. And what happened next? We’re not told - but here’s my sanctified speculation version. He came back to life and got to his feet and saw all his buddies who were burying him running away and wondered why and then looked behind him and saw the Moabites coming toward him and so he ran after his friends! Sounds logical to me, but no matter how it played out, here’s my point: he was raised from the dead and on his feet and ready to go.

But look at Lazarus in John’s gospel – he is risen from the dead and on his feet, but he’s still encumbered by his graveclothes – he’s not running anywhere. He’s not bouncing back and his reentry is slow. He’s bound hand and foot with swaddling linens which impedes the full motion of his arms and legs and the cloth wrapping around his head blocks his eyesight. If he tried to run he would fall flat on his face. The most he can do is the graveyard shuffle. He’s risen from the grave, but he’s dressed like he’s still dead!

As we emerge from the isolation of COVID-19, there will be those who bounce back as if nothing happened like the Israelite of 2 Kings. And there will be those who, like Lazarus, will shuffle back to church and even though the pandemic is behind us, they will still be in pandemic mode. They will be wrapped in the grave clothes of fear and anxiety, and the sorrow and disruption that COVID-19 brought into their lives. With the graveclothes on, Lazarus smelled of the tomb. And just like Lazarus, there will be those who will carry the odor of fear and sorrow into our fellowship. The dead man of 2 Kings was quick to recover from death while it appears that Lazarus didn’t get off to a running start after he emerged from the tomb. These two stories can help us understand different people’s reactions to the COVID-19 isolation and social distancing. Some will jump back to life whereas others will shuffle their way to normalcy.

The Israelite of 2 Kings 13 didn’t need any help in returning to normal – not so Lazarus. Here’s what Jesus said to those who witnessed the raising of Lazarus who was still wrapped in his grave-clothes. Here’s how they could help him -

Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." John 11:44

You and I can help people recover from the negative effects of COVID-19 and social distancing. Lazarus’ friends were to grab hold of the edge of the graveclothes and unwind them. The unbinding was in the unwinding. You and I can lay hold of the graveclothes of sorrow and fear and anxiety that may lay heavy on some people and seek to bring that person into the joy and the peace and the comfort of the Lord. “How do we do that?” someone will ask. Let me attempt to answer that question.

The ”let” of ‘let him go’ has the primary idea of releasing someone from that which holds them. This word is often translated ‘forgiveness’ - which is a form of release. It is the exact opposite of judgment and condemnation. So, picking up on this verbal cue, when someone isn’t quick to bounce back from the social & emotional & spiritual affects of COVID-19 – don’t judge them or shame them or somehow indicate that they’re not as spiritual as they should be. Don’t communicate that they have disappointed you or are a burden to you. Christians can be such jerks at times. When someone comes to church in their graveclothes – they’re stand-offish, negative in their speech, depressed in mood, wanting unhealthy attention – show them the love of Christ. Let them know you are glad to see them and you are glad they are healthy and back with you.

I read about a barge sinking in the New York harbor and getting stuck in the muck and mud on the harbor floor. Many attempts were made to raise the barge, but nothing worked. Finally, at low tide, they ran cables from a floating barge to the sunken barge and as the tide rose, the floating barge rose and the irresistible power of the rising tide was able to raise the sunken barge. I love that story. There was a lady years ago in a church I pastored who had a number of personal and physical challenges that no matter what, wouldn’t go away. She would often seek counsel and prayer. After a long while I told her, “I have run out of words to say to you, but I haven’t run out of love for you.” Those words were like cables to her soul and though her challenges persisted, she knew that God loved her and wouldn’t let her go.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God and people. Paul said that goal of our instruction is love – from a pure heart and a sincere faith and a good conscience. He also wrote that now abide faith, hope, and love – but the greatest is love. Though you’ve heard it a thousand times, let it sink in – nothing beats the power of love. Let’s tie the cables of love to everybody who comes in our doors whether they are bouncing back or shuffling in still wrapped in graveclothes. What does it matter how they’ve responded to the threat and isolation that COVID-19 presented them? What matters is whether we will love everyone who comes through our doors – whether they are whole or broken, bouncing back or shuffling in. Your unconditional love for them is the first step in unbinding them and letting them go.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 10, 2020, Good Friday

(The following article has been inspected and is guaranteed to be free of any references to COVID-19.)

Hey, Calvary Fremont

I have a confession to make. I don’t become sad on Good Friday. I don’t experience morose feelings or morbid thoughts or find myself in a miserable mood. I can’t even work these things up. Maybe it’s because I’ve been conditioned by the English language. After all, It’s Good Friday – not Bad Friday. Maybe, if for the six decades + of my life this day was called Bad Friday, my thoughts and feelings and mood would have had ample time to absorb that message and appropriately respond. But it’s Good Friday and not Bad Friday, and I feel pretty good about Good Friday.

The phrase ‘Good Friday’ first appeared in 1290 AD in a Christian book in Southern England. The original is ‘goude friday.’ Some say it is called ‘good’ because back then ‘good’ meant ‘holy.’ Some say it’s derived from the German and means ‘God’s Friday.’ The Baltimore Catholic Catechism says that it is called Good Friday because on the cross God showed His great love for mankind. Whatever its history, all these meanings point to something Good, not something Bad.

Now don’t get me wrong. I was moved to tears as I watched the brutal treatment of our Lord in the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” Here, the word ‘passion’ means ‘suffering.’ Yet even these were tears of shock and sympathy, not of despair and hopelessness. No matter how far I drill down into the sufferings of Christ, I cannot bracket out the resurrection. There is this huge deposit of joy at God’s ultimate victory sewn into the fabric of my soul and diffused throughout my whole being and try as I might, I don’t become sad on Good Friday.

It’s Good Friday because on the cross He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. On the cross He redeemed us – He paid the price for our salvation. There was nothing redemptive in His ill-treatment and torture and brutal suffering. Had they torn out His beard, and laid bare His back, and crowned Him with those cruel thorns, and forced Him to carry the cross – and then notice came that He was pardoned and was now a free man – we would still be in our sins in that redemption had not been accomplished because Christ had not died for us, in our place. That would make it Bad Friday.

The Goodness of Friday is in His death – and not in His suffering. His unjust trial(s) was not Good. His beating and torture were not Good. His hard journey to Golgotha was not Good. The nails and the pain of the cross were not Good. His death on the cross was Good.

So, today is Good Friday. But it gets gooder – Sunday’s coming!

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 9, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I don’t think it’s too early to start thinking about the implications of the following passage.

'Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary mark.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.' Deuteronomy 27:17

Naturally occurring objects like streams and rocks and trees served as boundary markers in the ancient world (and still do today in some places). These naturally occurring elements were used as boundary markers to delineate between this family’s property and that family’s property. If you moved the boundary marker (of course, it’s easier to move a pile of rocks than it is to reroute a stream or uproot and replant a tree) you would increase one man’s property while decreasing another’s. God said, “Don’t do this, because I’m the One who set the boundary.” In moving the boundary, you were encroaching on another man’s God-given inheritance.

Alright. So what? What does this have to do with anything? Even as there are geographical boundaries delineating real property so there are spatial boundaries delineating an individual’s personal domain. So, for example, if you are facing me while talking to me, I want about 2½ feet (30 inches) between your head and my head. If someone steps in a little bit closer, if someone crosses that invisible boundary and crowds into my personal domain, I start to get nervous. I begin to back away in order to maintain the 30 inch boundary. There have been times I have been backed up clear across the church by people invading my personal space!! My backing away from them should serve as a non-verbal cue for them to stop moving closer – but they’re clueless! Sometimes I feel like I’m under assault!

Even as God wanted Israel to recognize someone’s property and exercise geographical boundary etiquette, so the church should recognize someone’s personal domain and practice spatial boundary etiquette. What do I mean? Some of you are great huggers – in fact, you are world class huggers. When you wrap your arms around someone they feel like they’re smothered in the arms of God. The love of God comes through so clearly and they feel so accepted despite their many faults and failures. This is a good thing. But let me say to you world class huggers: when the church gets back together in a few weeks, not everyone is going to want to be a privileged recipient of one of your world class hugs. And when your holy exuberance to demonstrate the agape love of God comes into contact with their reticence to be embraced by one as noble as you, the picture I have in my mind is the lava from a Hawaiian volcano flowing into the Pacific Ocean. Great clouds of steam dramatically rise up as the Pacific takes all the fire out of the lava. When huggers collide with (hand) shakers, the scene is set for mutual misunderstanding, hurt, and judgment.

So, if you’re an enthusiastic hugger - become a discerning hugger. I think that maybe the rule should be (at least as long as we learn to adjust to the new normal) that you will default to being a shaker & only be a hugger when you are signaled by the other person that your hug is welcome. And it can very well be that a former hugger has become a shaker in the current climate. Or a former shaker may have converted to being a hugger as they have realized how precious it is to be together and they have purposed to be as demonstrative with their love as they can be. O my – it can be so confusing as the spatial boundaries of personal domain are fluid in a time like this.

“Know well the condition of your flocks,” we are exhorted by Solomon (Pr. 27:23). As a pastor, I know it’s OK to hug that person, shake that person’s hand, bump that fist, tap that elbow, nod my head in their general direction, or grunt toward them – or just make eye contact! We have huggers and shakers and bumpers and tappers and nodders and grunters and lookers! And then we have variations even of these. Some fist bumpers are ‘air’ fist bumpers – they want at least two inches of space between the two greeting fists or someone has violated protocol. I have made the mistake of fist bumping air fist bumpers and have been corrected in doing so. Then there’s the full hug, the teepee hug, and the side hug. O my! Someone needs to provide the churches with an illustrated manual!

So, whether you are a hugger or a shaker or a bumper or a tapper or a nodder or a grunter or a looker – do so in the love of God! Don’t hug a looker or shake a nodder or tap a grunter. As we come back together in a few weeks, be sensitive to how COVID-19 social distancing routines have affected the people of our fellowship and honor their personal boundaries. Don’t allow someone’s reticence to be greeted as you would like to greet them cool your love for them. Don’t turn away all steamed up when they are not receptive to your enthusiasm. Listen up - it will happen – someone will draw back from you while someone else might thoughtlessly press in. Don’t become offended or judgmental – we’ve not been this way before. This is unfamiliar ground and all of us are trying to get our footing. Let’s wait on one another and love each other as we walk through this challenging time together.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 8, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I referred to Psalm 3 in my article yesterday and want to drill down into a bit further today. The third Psalm was written by David concerning the time of the rebellion of his son Absalom.

O LORD, how my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me.

Many are saying of my soul, "There is no deliverance for him in God." Selah. Psalm 3:1-2

I’m sure that there were at least some people in Israel who wondered why God hadn’t judged and punished King David for all his sin. God had judged and removed King Saul from the throne for his sin. And compared to David, Saul’s sin didn’t look so bad. If King Saul sinned in black and white, then King David sinned in living color! Surely Absalom’s rebellion was God’s judgment against him – it ripped him off the throne, removed him from the tabernacle, and ran him out of town. And in the thinking of many, he had it coming.

God didn’t remove him from the throne when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then became complicit in the murder of her husband. God didn’t remove him from the throne when he did nothing in response to his son Amnon raping his half-sister Tamar. God didn’t remove him from the throne after David’s tepid response when Tamar’s full brother Absalom murdered his half brother Amnon for the rape of his sister. David failed as a husband and as a king and as a father – yet he’s still on the throne! Amazing! And now his son Absalom rebels against him - ripping him off the throne, removing his access to the tabernacle, and running him out of town. Yeah, it’s David’s time – you can’t do what David has done and get away with it forever. There’s a price to pay.

Many said of David that there is no deliverance for him. He’s crossed one line too many this time. God helped him after his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. God helped him after the sordid affair of Amnon and Tamar and Absalom – but that’s it. David has used up all his nine lives. He’s gone too far and now has to suffer his fate. There is no deliverance for David in God. God is done with him.

Even as David had enemies, so do you. And even though you are in quarantine, unfortunately, the devil won’t be quarantined until Revelation 20 when he is confined to the abyss for 1,000 years. The enemy would say to you what was said to David – “God is done with you. The first 10,000 times you did that or said that or thought that or played that out in your mind, God had mercy on your soul – but no more. There is no deliverance for you in God.” And we think, “Yikes! I have said that, done that, thought that, played that out in my mind 1,000 times. I get it, if I were God, I’d be done with me, too.” We can end up agreeing with the devil! Now that’s messed up! But even as David’s enemies were wrong – so is the devil and so are you.

The Hebrew word for ‘deliverance’ in Psalm 3:2 is YESHUA. Sound familiar? It means ‘Yahweh saves’ and is the basis for the name of Joshua in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus means ‘Yahweh saves.’ Jesus is the deliverance of God. It’s as if they were saying of David, “There is no Jesus for him. He’s gone too far for the grace of God to reach to him and rescue him.” And this is what the devil would say to you, ‘There is no Jesus for you. You’ve gone beyond the reach of His mercy and the scope of His grace.’

But here’s the genius and enduring legacy of David – he knew his enemies were wrong about God and His deliverance. He knew that even when his failures were the cause of his problems, God was for him. He writes –

But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

I was crying to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.

I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me.

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about. Psalm 3:3-6

David would say, “God, they’re telling me that You’re done with me, but I know different. I know You in a way that they do not. You have brought me into covenant with Yourself and have pledged yourself to me. They say that You have abandoned me, but I know that You are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.”

The Lord gave David His peace – so much so that he could fall asleep amidst all the uncertainty and heartache. The Lord took away all the fear that could have pulled David’s heart in a hundred different ways. And God will do the same for you, beloved. As the Lord is your shield and your glory and the One who lifts your head – may you also experience Him as the One who gives you His peace and takes away all your fears. God is not done with you! We don’t serve a little Jesus to help us through little problems; we serve a big Jesus who can and will bring us through the big troubles of our lives and of this world. One of the men on the worship team has a Bible which has printed, where your name is usually monogrammed: "Jesus is LARGE." I love it.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 6, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

When the first plane crashed into the north tower at 8:46 AM (Eastern Standard Time) on 9-11, people wondered how this could happen. Was this an accident of monumental proportions or was it a deliberate act? When the second plane flew into the south tower 17 minutes later at 9:03 AM (EST) that question was definitively answered. Without doubt, America was under attack. But by who? We didn’t know. Why? We didn’t know. How were they (whoever ‘they’ were) able to pull this off? We didn’t know. Where would the next strike come from? We didn’t know. That’s a lot of ignorance in one place at one time.

As the facts progressively came in over the next few days and weeks and months, a blurry picture began to come into sharper focus. The unimaginable became imaginable and the unthinkable became thinkable. In 17 minutes on a September morning in 2001, our world permanently changed.

It took more than 17 minutes, but COVID-19 (C19 from now on) has permanently changed the world. Yes, we’ll get back to normal, but it will be a new normal. C19 has negatively affected the colossal structures of business & industry (and therefore the economy), entertainment, sports, education, religion, government, social behaviors, etc. How all of these institutions will bounce back or limp back will be presently seen. This has been an incredibly stressful time for all (whether you enjoy staying at home or not).

We are in a season of time when millions upon millions of people have been thrust into a time of deep uncertainty, leavened with a palpable mood of doom, leaving us vulnerable to panicked behavior. You only have to look at the stock market and empty toilet paper shelves to verify this. Because of this, we need to be very careful in our speech. Yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater will cause a stampede of frightened people to rush to the exits. And speaking irresponsibly in the present climate will cause frightened people to become even more traumatized. OK – what am I talking about?

Proverbs 14:17 says:

He who gives an answer before he hears,

It is folly and shame to him.

I enjoy unpacking Scriptural phrases. It helps me to dig in and understand with greater fullness what is being intended by the author. To ‘give an answer’ is literally ‘to return a word.’ And in essence, this is what an answer is – it’s a response to a question. Someone has given you a word in question form and you are returning a word in the form of an answer. Now, an answer is a very specific type of word. An answer is meant to serve as a solution to a problem posed in the form of a question. For example: Question: what is 2 + 2? Answer: 4. Question: Who crashed the planes into the World Trade Center? Answer: Members of radical Islam. Question: What is behind COVID-19? Answer: You better be careful here!! Why? Because he who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him. To ‘hear’ means to ‘listen with understanding.’ Proverbs 14:17 in paraphrase sounds like this: He who gives a definitive solution to a question that’s been asked without really gaining an understanding of all the facts – is a fool. A fool isn’t one who is mentally challenged, but is morally perverse.

There are those spinning various conspiracy theories indicating that C19 is an engineered bioweapon intended to target populations in order to kill them and destabilize their economies and weaken their infrastructures making them vulnerable to attack and defeat. I have read of ‘certain government agents’, or ‘some scientists’ who ‘have evidence’ that C19 is an engineered viral bioweapon. In these reports no scientific evidence is offered, the government agents or scientists are ever named, and the antagonistic nation is never revealed (except China – and this makes no sense).

Believers should not be passing along unsubstantiated reports by unnamed sources containing no evidence. Period. Especially in this time of deep uncertainty and anxiety. To do so is not wise – it is pure speculation on the part of the one who is giving an answer before truly understanding what he/she is passing along. “Well, Pastor Tim, how do you know that C19 isn’t an engineered bioweapon?” My response is that I don’t know definitively that it’s not. So, since I don’t know, why should I visit my ignorance upon you? Here’s what I do know - C19 is a very contagious viral disease that has infected well more than a million people and is killing tens of thousands of people. It can be mitigated by social distancing, sheltering, and increased hygiene. So I will confidently and lovingly tell you what I do know and not smugly speculate about conspiracy theories that indicate that somehow I am in the know or have inside information that you don’t have. To pass on unsubstantiated reports by unnamed sources containing no evidence does no service to anyone – it does not build up the body of Christ nor does it serve the wider public.

Let Proverbs 25:11 serve as a guide to how we communicate with others –

Like apples of gold in settings of silver

Is a word spoken in right circumstances.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 3, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Even as there is a difference between a headache and a brain tumor, so there is a difference between depression and despair. Depression, as used in the Scriptures, conveys a sense of heaviness weighing upon the soul. Despair, as used in the Scriptures, conveys a sense of hopelessness. There is a sliding scale of depression – you can be mildly or seriously or severely depressed. Mild to serious depression is characterized by a heaviness or sadness weighing upon the soul. Severe depression (clinical depression) is characterized by, among other things, hopelessness. There is a big difference between heaviness and hopelessness even as there is a big difference between vision and blindness. Yes, heaviness can cross an invisible line somewhere and slump into hopelessness, yet there is a big difference between heaviness and hopelessness. Heaviness means I am weighed down; hopeless means that I don’t see a way through (which increases the heaviness I feel).

Believe it or not, Jesus was depressed –

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death…" Matthew 26:37-38

The word ‘distressed’ carries the meaning of heaviness and depression. He wasn’t afraid to acknowledge or own the fact that He felt that way. What He didn’t do was allow it to own Him. Remember – He said that He was depressed about His circumstances and wanted them to change, but then He said to His Father, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” (Mt. 27:39) His heaviness wasn’t hopelessness to the point of giving up, giving in, or giving up. He saw a way through – submission to the will of His Father.

The apostle Paul spoke of the heaviness of his heart in 2 Corinthians 7:6

“But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus…”

He notes another time of heaviness -

“ …we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing…” 2 Corinthians 4:8

Even though heavy things were happening to Paul and there was a heaviness in his heart, there wasn’t a hopelessness – he saw a way through. He knew that God was with him and for him and had him covered. Heaviness doesn’t mean hopelessness.

So, if you find yourself with a heavy heart, please don’t think that somehow your faith is deficient or that there is sin in your life. Don’t let anyone shame you. You’re in good company! Was Jesus depressed about His situation? Yes. Was there sin in His life? Yikes! I hope not!

Beloved, we might be in heaviness, but we’re not hopeless for we see a way through. We might be down, but we’re not out. We might be experiencing heaviness of heart, but not hopelessness of soul. We believe that God is doing and will do great things. Though we don’t see all that God has for us and is working out for us, we do see Jesus Christ risen and ascended and seated at reigning with the Father at His right hand! We believe in and look to Him who said that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 2, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

OK, I admit it – I’m depressed. Well, maybe not depressed, but certainly in a funk. And maybe I’m using the word ‘funk’ because I don’t want to use the dreaded “D” word – depression. To be honest, I don’t feel like I’m walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death – it’s more like the Basin of the Twilight of Funk. Anyway (semantics aside), I’m down – and this is unusual for me.

When I heard that the stay-at-home order was being extended through Sunday, May 3^rd, I inwardly groaned. And then when I read the some experts think there may be another outbreak of Coronavirus in the Fall, I groaned out loud. “How long, O Lord?” was one of the laments of the Psalmist. We would be more apt to say, “Really, God – you’ve got to be kidding me.” I know there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel keeps getting longer!

Now there may be someone reading this who is rebuking me for admitting that I’m down. “You’re a Christian – good grief! – you’re a pastor, what kind of example are you setting for the church you serve?” Well, hopefully, a good and godly and credible example. It’s OK to acknowledge your funk or depression or despair or dejection or sadness. It’s OK to own these thoughts and feelings - just don’t let them own you. You can be honest about them without surrendering to them. Just because the watchman on the wall calls out that an army has surrounded the city doesn’t mean he has surrendered the city. Being surrounded by those things that would damage your soul doesn’t mean you have to surrender to them. Such a notion is grounded in bad theology and an inadequate knowledge of human nature and human experience.

Those who are down are often encouraged to read the Psalms. And great encouragement it is! So many of the Psalms begin with someone having a problem they can’t overcome on their own. Then they cry out to the Lord and the Lord delivers them and this is followed by a shout of praise. Many Psalms follow that pattern in one way or another. Whatever the problem is, it is resolved by the end of the Psalm. Even if deliverance hasn’t come and the author of the Psalm is still in hot water, he has had a revelation of God and his soul has come into faith and he has a glorious assurance that the Lord will deliver him and shouts of joy come from him as he waits upon the Lord to do what He has promised. Absolutely awesome! In one way or another the Light always breaks through.

Except Psalm 88. Psalm 88 is unique among the Psalms. It begins in darkness, it meanders through the depths of darkness, it ends in the darkness. There is no breakthrough or deliverance, there is no revelation or light from God, there is no worship or shout of joy. Psalm 88 is a real oddball. See for yourself –

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choir director; according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

1 O Lord, the God of my salvation,

I have cried out by day and in the night before You.

2 Let my prayer come before You;

Incline Your ear to my cry!

3 For my soul has had enough troubles,

And my life has drawn near to Sheol.

4 I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit;

I have become like a man without strength,

5 Forsaken among the dead,

Like the slain who lie in the grave,

Whom You remember no more,

And they are cut off from Your hand.

6 You have put me in the lowest pit,

In dark places, in the depths.

7 Your wrath has rested upon me,

And You have afflicted me with all Your waves.

Selah.

8 You have removed my acquaintances far from me;

You have made me an object of loathing to them;

I am shut up and cannot go out.

9 My eye has wasted away because of affliction;

I have called upon You every day, O Lord;

I have spread out my hands to You.

10 Will You perform wonders for the dead?

Will the departed spirits rise and praise You?

Selah.

11 Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave,

Your faithfulness in Abaddon?

12 Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness?

And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But I, O Lord, have cried out to You for help,

And in the morning my prayer comes before You.

14 O Lord, why do You reject my soul?

Why do You hide Your face from me?

15 I was afflicted and about to die from my youth on;

I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome.

16 Your burning anger has passed over me;

Your terrors have destroyed me.

17 They have surrounded me like water all day long;

They have encompassed me altogether.

18 You have removed lover and friend far from me;

My acquaintances are in darkness.

Psalm 88 is a real faith-booster, right? We can see his sorrow and all that has been taken from him. What we don’t hear is God’s revelation. What we don’t see is God’s deliverance. - there is no shout of joy. Who included Psalm 88 in Israel’s and the church’s praise book and why? Talk about a buzz-kill!

I am so grateful for Psalm 88. Admit it, be honest – you don’t always hear from God; you don’t always have the Light break through; you are sometimes left in the darkness and in the silence. This Psalm is for you. This may sound weird, but I am so blessed and encouraged and comforted by the fact that the author of this Psalm didn’t get his miracle. But here’s what I want you to notice and rejoice in and be encouraged by – he begins in V1 by addressing the Lord: O Lord, the God of my salvation…

All of his complaining, all of his lamenting, all of his sorrows are addressed to the Lord and in the presence of the Lord. This psalmist is full of faith! Yes, he is full of faith because he has not allowed his trouble and the darkness and the silence keep his soul from God. It is to God and in the presence of God and in the hope of God that he pours forth all his depression and funk and despair and questions. So, own your depression and funk – but don’t let it own you. Had the author of this Psalm allowed his depression to own him, he never would have penned this Psalm. He was surrounded, yes – but he didn’t surrender. Don’t surrender – cry to the Lord.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

April 1, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I want us to participate in communion together this Sunday. I don’t have anything to distribute to you – I want to save what we have for when we meet again for Sunday services at our building. But you can get juice and crackers (unleavened is best: matzo, corn or flour tortillas {yes, these are unleavened}, naan bread) and be prepared for our livestream service this Sunday and we’ll participate in communion together after the message.

Paul writes:

Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

We don’t have to be in the same place to be of one heart and one mind and the same love. We don’t have to be in the same building to be one in Christ. Social distancing doesn’t mean spiritual distancing. When I am away from Fran it doesn’t mean that we’re divided and then have to mend when we get back together. Our oneness in the covenant of marriage and in Christ transcends distance and time and circumstances. As the body of Christ, our oneness in Jesus is something that we wonderfully enjoy when we are together, yet it is not broken when we are apart. Our union with Christ and our oneness in Christ is to be celebrated and declared and God has given us the ordinance of communion to ritualize and embody this.

An ordinance is a religious ritual whose intent is to demonstrate an adherent's faith (that ‘s you, you are an adherent – you confess the Christian faith). And we don’t have to be afraid to admit it – we practice religious rituals - you don’t have to be spooked by that. Here’s the definition of a ritual: a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. Let’s be honest, that’s what we do every Sunday morning as I come down from the pulpit and break the bread and lift the cup and recite the words of Scripture. I know, a religious ordinance, a solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions according to a prescribed order sounds so stuffy and stifling – yet it doesn’t have to be so. Our practice of the religious ritual of communion is life-giving and joyous and worshipful and meaningful! And that’s what it will be this Sunday in our livestream service. The living stream of God’s love and grace that is pictured by and demonstrated in communion will wrap your hearts in His boundless, infinite mercy.

This question may be on your mind: “What if my unbaptized children want to participate in communion. What do I do? How do I handle that? Normally, they’re back in the children’s ministry area, but they’ll be sitting right next to me Sunday morning. So, how do I handle this?”

I know that my answer (well, any answer) will be controversial, but let me give it my best shot. When I stand before you on Sunday mornings and present the elements of communion, I say, “And we invite all believers in Jesus to partake with us.” That is a controversial statement for many church traditions. The majority of church traditions would present it this way: “We invite all baptized believers to partake with us.” Most church traditions in the last 2,000 years would not allow unbaptized believers to receive the bread and the juice. But we do – and we’re certainly not alone in this.

When I say, “We invite all believers in Jesus to partake with us,” I am inviting all baptized believers and, as yet, unbaptized believers to participate. The key distinction for me isn’t whether you are baptized or not, but whether you believe or not. (Now let me say this – if you are a believer, you will be baptized. A refusal to be baptized is an indication that you have not put your faith in Christ.) So, parents – it’s your call. If you believe your child is old enough to understand that they are a sinner in need of Christ’s redemptive work for them and that they believe that Christ is risen from the dead and have confessed that Jesus is Lord – let them participate. Why not sit down with your child(ren) this Saturday night and let them know that you plan on taking communion along with the rest of the church in the livestream service on Sunday. Let them know that they can participate, too, if they have put their faith in Jesus. Now, you probably already know the spiritual condition of your child(ren) – but it would be good to talk about the things of the Lord with them. In the end – it’s your call. Parents trump pastors any day of the week. Well, this post got a little more theologically in-depth than I had anticipated, but I’m not sorry for it – you’re a smart crowd! and can follow the line of the argument.

On another note, I just received a phone call from the Alameda County powers-that-be and was informed that the stay-at-home order, the shelter-in-place directive has been extended through Sunday, May 3rd. Yeah, I’m bummed, too - but if this is effective in defeating COVID-19 – I’m all for it. So, CC Fremont’s GRAND REOPENING will be on Sunday, May 10th! Hallelujah!

I love you all and miss you all – and pray for you all.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

March 31, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

Yesterday I posted some reasons why live church is better than livestream church. Here are the reasons -

What can you receive and experience at live church that you can’t at livestream church? Here’s the answer - the joy and the frustration and the love and the vexation of community.

Not only does the Spirit by the Word give shape to your soul, living in community forms and shapes your soul, too. God said of Adam that it was not good for him to be alone. It wasn’t good for Adam not to live in community. Marriage is the smallest community you can be a part of – and marriage demands something/everything of you. It demands that you put someone else first, consider them more important than yourself, seek to please them before you please yourself. Marriage s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s you in a way that living by yourself and answering to no one ever could. And then when children come along, they s-t-r-e-t-c-h you in ways you didn’t know you had ways. Living responsibly in community changes who and what you are. This is the design of God.

Worship in community is meant to stretch you as you lift your voice to God - whether you sing well or not or whether the person behind you is two keys off. And if the worship leader doesn’t do the songs you like, or repeats the chorus too many times or not enough, this isn’t about you – it’s about you worshipping a worthy God even if you are dissatisfied with the song selection or the way the music is performed.

Passing the plate or putting your tithes and offerings in the box in the lobby stretches you as you exercise love toward God and faith in God. And those who give online or through the mail or through their banks are being stretched in doing this when they give to the Lord as part of a church community.

The fundraisers and missions’ tables and orphan cards all serve to draw you out of yourself and stretch you as you participate in the life of the community.

Volunteering and serving the needs of the church community draws you out of yourself and stretches you and gives shape and form to your soul.

What other reasons can you think of for why live church is better than livestream church. Share them here. I’m thinking of a few more even as I’m typing this out. Please contribute!

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

Also – I am inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: CC Fremont Midweek Bible Study

Time: Apr 1, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/273332948?pwd=Mm5ZNmlKWnJURzdVeXdBNm43OTFqZz09

Meeting ID: 273 332 948

Password: 027717

This will be my first time hosting a Zoom meeting and so there might (will be) a learning curve for me. I am told that with the Galley View I can have 49 attendees show up on my laptop screen. So, if you are #50 or above (if we have that many), I won’t be able to see you, though I think I’ll be able to hear you. But here’s the thing, in order to minimize distraction, when you log in to the meeting I will have hit the MUTE ALL button on my end. Later in the meeting I will hit the UNMUTE ALL button and we can have some interaction. Well – that’s the plan. If you log in to the meeting and everything is dark and silent, don’t assume that the rapture has happened and you’ve been left behind, assume that I messed something up. I hope that you can join me in our midweek Bible study. We’ll be studying the last half of Joshua 5.

March 30, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont -

I know what you’re thinking - and I don’t like it. You should stop thinking what you’re thinking for what you’re thinking is not healthy thinking. I know that no one at CC Fremont is thinking this way, but probably someone at the church down the street is because we know that they aren’t as spiritually mature as you are. But it’s possible that there is at least one person at CC Fremont who is thinking this way and so I want to address it.

You’re thinking that you can get used to this livestream church thing – you can just stay at home and enjoy church in the comfort of your own living room. And you’ve got some reasons for this that make good sense – at least they make good sense to you.

It saves a lot of time – showering and shaving and getting the kids ready and loading the family into the car to be at church on time – it’s exhausting; it’s almost like a school morning. But with livestream church, Sunday almost seems like Saturday. In addition, if you miss it, you can just watch the archived file. Brilliant!
It saves a lot of money, too. You don’t feel the pressure to give when the basket is passed. You’re not confronted with the fundraising bake sales and the cry of your kids for nachos or pancakes or hot dogs that come with the obligatory donation to someone’s camp or missions’ project. You don’t have to pass the displays of visiting ministries and missionaries with their orphan cards and donation envelopes. You’re also not invited by someone out to lunch after service to who knows where and who knows how much it will cost. Whew – dodged a bullet there. Not to mention the clothes you won’t have to buy.
It saves you from a lot of awkward “fellowship” time with people that strike you as strange or boring or over-zealous or “not your kind of people.”
It saves you from the potential embarrassment of having to sing out loud.
It saves you from the pressure of volunteering to serve when you really don’t want to, but there may be someone who notices that you haven’t done anything for seven years and so you have to put on a good show.
It saves you from the anxiety of your favorite team playing the morning game as you try to check out the score on your smart phone while trying to look like you’re paying attention to the sermon.
It saves you from the semi-mandatory laugh at the pastor’s lame jokes. Plus, you don’t have to wear a fake smile when all you really want to do is growl at people.
Yes, this livestream church thing may be just the thing for you.

I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING - AND I DON’T LIKE IT.

And ultimately, you won’t like it, either. If you don’t attend live church, but instead attend livestream church, will your faith shrivel up and will you end up in hell? No – but your faith will shrivel up – for sure, no doubt about it. Here’s why:

A lot of families love going camping. O, they would camp out in the mountains all the time if they could, so they say. Or could they? Is it possible that the short-term thrill and loveliness of camping in the mountains would turn into long-term drudge and misery? Of course it could! Cooking over a campfire or a propane stove would get old. Making a campfire would get old. Sleeping in sleeping bags on pads or blow-up mattresses or cots would get old. Getting clothes washed and dried would be a huge chore. Not having your couches and easy chairs would get old. Keeping ice in the cooler for the things needing to remain cold would put a cramp in your caboose. And what about wi-fi and on-demand? Hmmmm?
What is sustainable in the short-term is unsustainable over the long-haul. I think that many churches livestreaming for the first time (like CCF) will continue to do so after life returns to the new normal. The rationale for livestreaming now is to stay connected and get the Word out during the present COVID-19 crisis. The rationale for livestreaming when life returns to the new normal will be to reach those who for whatever reason can’t attend live church services. And I can guarantee you this – those who are sick and shut-in or whose work keeps them away from live church, though they appreciate the livestream, would prefer live church over livestream church.
What can you receive and experience at live church that you can’t at livestream church? Here’s the answer - the joy and the frustration and the love and the vexation of community.
Not only does the Spirt by the Word give shape to your soul, living in community forms and shapes your soul, too. God said of Adam that it was not good for him to be alone. It wasn’t good for Adam not to live in community. Marriage is the smallest community you can be a part of – and marriage demands something/everything of you. It demands that you put someone else first, consider them more important than yourself, seek to please them before you please yourself. Marriage s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s you in a way that living by yourself and answering to no one ever could. And then when children come along, they s-t-r-e-t-c-h you in ways you didn’t know you had ways. Living responsibly in community changes who and what you are. This is the design of God.
Worship in community is meant to stretch you as you lift your voice to God - whether you sing well or not or whether the person behind you is two keys off. And if the worship leader doesn’t do the songs you like, or repeats the chorus too many times or not enough, this isn’t about you – it’s about you worshipping a worthy God even if you are dissatisfied with the song selection or the way the music is performed.
Passing the plate or putting your tithes and offerings in the box in the lobby stretches you as you exercise love toward God and faith in God. And those who give online or through the mail or through their banks are being stretched in doing this when they give to the Lord as part of a church community.
The fundraisers and missions’ tables and orphan cards all serve to draw you out of yourself and stretch you as you participate in the life of the community.
Volunteering and serving the needs of the church community draws you out of yourself and stretches you and gives shape and form to your soul.

If you can be part of the community at live church, but opt instead for livestream church, your faith will shrivel. Yes, I know that’s a bold statement, but to deliberately avoid doing what God commands you to do is an indication that your soul is already shriveling! Hebrews 10:25 instructs us not to forsake gathering together as a community centered in Jesus. Now someone may pushback and say, “So, Pastor Tim, are you arguing that shut-ins and the sick and those whose work schedule won’t allow them to be at live church and who watch livestream church have a shriveled faith?” Not at all. Jesus said in Luke 12:48 that to whom much is given, much is required, and to whom is entrusted much, of him more will be asked. It is not given to shut-ins and the sick and those with conflicting work schedules to attend live church – and so livestream church is for them and God will use this for His glory in their lives. But for the rest of us, the overwhelming vast majority of us, it has been given to attend live church. Let’s take what’s been given us. Let’s live in the love and the s-t-r-e-t-c-h of our church community.

So, heads-up – for the vast majority of us, livestream church is a temporary situation – like camping – and we’ll get back to the familiar rhythms of life and live church soon enough.

Stay healthy and blessed – Pastor Tim

March 29, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I asked two health professionals in our church some questions that have been on my mind concerning COVID-19 and they were gracious and responded to me. Quite possibly, these are questions you’ve been asking.

Dr. Scott Kehl graduated from medical school in 1988 and has been working as a physician at the Palo Alto Medical Clinic here in Fremont since 1991. Charlotte Tran has been an ICU nurse for 15 years. For the sake of brevity, I have consolidated their responses.

Q: We have been all informed of best practices during this coronavirus pandemic – social distancing, sheltering-in-place, hand-washing, disinfecting surfaces, etc. – will you please address the reasoning behind this and how the coronavirus differs from influenza which calls for these extreme measures?

A: The basic difference this time is that no one is immune to this virus. It is more contagious than influenza with each infected person passing it to a greater number of other people than occurs with the flu. People are contagious without having symptoms for the first three to four days so isolating once one is ill is not as effective as it is with the flu which hits hard within about a day of becoming infectious. The early course of COVID-19 is relatively mild with more severe symptoms coming five or more days later; this again leads to people being out and about while they are ill, spreading the virus. Sheltering-in-place is a key strategy here because we need to keep people who appear to be healthy but are actually infected away from others. The purpose of all of the social distancing and sheltering-in-place is to dampen the curve. What does that mean? The United States is a very large country. When we dampen the curve, it will help the CDC, NIH, and John Hopkins University pin point the hot spots in the country and focus efforts in those areas.

On Monday, March 23, UCSF professor of epidemiology Dr. Jeffrey Martin said what we’ll see in the next week or two really represents transmission that occurred in the past one to three weeks, roughly between Feb. 14 and the first week of March. "Most of that period was when we were not in an intensive social distancing mode," Martin said. "It was spreading in an invisible way in early March. That is what we will see in the next 10 to 14 days. People shouldn’t be confused by that, however, and thinking that what we have been doing hasn’t been working."

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/when-will-coronavirus-peak-Bay-Area-SF-15152009.php

There is also a delay in getting test results – it is taking up to 10 days or more to get results on patients who have not been hospitalized. Our numbers will rapidly rise when these tests results are released, even though we may have been making good efforts in our communities.

Q: Why has the coronavirus, which has so far killed 3,000 people in America, overtaxed our medical delivery system when influenza, which killed 80,000 people last year, didn’t do the same?

A: Our medical system does get overtaxed by influenza infections and we should take influenza more seriously. Washington Hospital will go on diversion, turning away ambulances because all the beds are full. We have a treatment for influenza, and this can shorten the course, leading to shorter hospital stays. People hospitalized with coronavirus have longer stays. The COVID-19 infections can rapidly worsen in the later stages and more commonly need ICU care including ventilation. The use of flu shots helps flatten the curve with influenza, so we do not see such a rapid peak of cases as we are seeing with COVID-19. Many of the measures being put into place are being done to try to avoid situations like Italy or New York City. The growth in the number of infections is exponential and those locations were overwhelmed with a surge of cases within a week or two.

This is nothing like the seasonal flu — this is a novel virus; we have no immunity to it. COVID-19 causes viral pneumonia, not the flu as we are accustomed too. We have no therapy for it. We have no vaccines. And there is a good possibility that we won’t for perhaps 12-18 months. Which means this virus has the potential to cycle throughout the year. It’s 3x more easily spread than seasonal flu. It can be spread by infected individuals who do not have symptoms. Seasonal flu death rate is 0.1%. The COVID-19 death rate is 1.0 % - so it is 10 more deadly than seasonal flu; in fact, there were times China had a death rate of 2.0%-3.0% due to the higher number of the elderly being infected before they instituted shelter in place.

Q: What are the best sources for us to get our medical information from?

A: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html - the CDC website

http://www.acphd.org/ - the Alameda County Department of Public Health

Websites from local medical providers – Kaiser, Sutter, Washington Hospital, etc. Also information from Stanford, UCSF or any of the other large medical centers. Another good source are any of the nationally known medical clinics like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Hopkins.

Any article written by UC Berkeley infectious disease professor Dr. John Swartzberg – editor of the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter.

There is a lot of fake news and conspiracy theories, I haven’t seen any truth to them. No one is trying to get of religion or trying to kill everyone with a biological weapon. Trustworthy info on the COVID-19 can be found at: WHO.INT, CDC.GOV, NIH.GOV. Facebook and the internet info, needs to be fact checked before believed.

Good site for world statistics on COVID-19 - https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

I would like to thank Dr. Kehl and Charlotte Tran for what they have provided us. On another note – CC Fremont is livestreaming this morning (3.29.20) at 10AM PST at www.calvaryfremont.org. Click the livestream banner at the top of the website and it will take you to YOUTUBE. I hope that you can join us. A big shout-out to the livestream team that makes this possible: THANK YOU!

Stay healthy and blessed and go to livestream church today. Read your Bible and pray and sing to Jesus.

Pastor Tim Brown

March 28, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont –

I was born less than eight years after Hitler shot himself in his underground bunker in Berlin in April of 1945 and the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in August of that same year. The end of WW2 marked the beginning of the Cold War between America and her allies and the Soviet Union and her allies. The hot war of WW2 and the Cold War arising from it shaped the world I was born into. I can still hear my dad - when the newspaper or TV news announced some new Communist advance somewhere in the world or some Communist shenanigans close to home – my dad would say, “Just nuke them all. Just kill them all.” In elementary school we would often have drills where we crawled under our desks and curled into a fetal position and tightly closed our eyes in case of a nuclear event unleashed by the Soviets sent glass flying everywhere as the windows imploded when the bombs exploded. We lived with the existential threat of MAD (mutually assured destruction). This is the world I was born into.

The 20^th century had already seen many world-changing and culture-shaping events before I was born: wars and scientific discoveries and medical advances and technological innovations that restructured the world emerging from the 19^th century.

I remember exactly where I was on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. And though this shook the world, it didn’t change the world. What follows is a list of what, to me, have been world-changing and culture-shaping events in my lifetime. You may disagree with what I include, and/or you may include other events - that’s alright. I am not a professional sociologist or historian, I am just a man with a memory.

The Beatles and the Counter-culture Movement of the late 1960s changed the world. The music of the Beatles specifically, and rock ‘n roll generally, gave voice to the frustrations and aspirations and changing value-system of the growing Boomer Generation. The Counter-culture Movement with its ‘turn on, tune on, drop out’ slogan was the mechanism whereby the Boomer Generation rebelled against their parents and the values they represented. The Beatles (and all they represented) and the Counter-culture Movement swept the world and shaped much of the culture that is still with us today.

The Jesus Movement in tandem with the Charismatic Movement of the late 1960s changed the world. The Charismatic Movement with its emphasis on the powerful working of the Holy Spirit reshaped much of the church worldwide and the Jesus Movement with its emphasis on evangelism and a personal relationship with Jesus gave birth to a revival where millions of people worldwide were born-again and brought into the church. (I like to say that we gave up our drugs & sex & rock ‘n roll – but then I realized that we didn’t give up rock ‘n roll!) The church in America was re-energized and local church-planting and world-wide missions were given priority. Much could be said here - it is enough to say that the Jesus Movement and the Charismatic Movement impacted the world and the result of that is still with us and continues to shape us.

The first successfully mass marketed personal computer was the Commodore PET in 1977. Who could argue that the PC has changed how the world works and how it has shaped culture since its appearance 43 years ago. Many would argue that computers began to change the world and shape the culture long before this. I leave that debate to the experts and only want to note here that the PC has changed the world along with all that it has spawned: phones and tablets and gaming consoles and other gadgets and its countless applications in countless products.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1991. This had global impact as the Soviet era came to an end – the Cold War was over, the Soviet Empire fell apart, and new nations were born. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized that though getting into a fetal position under my desk in elementary school may have been a wise precaution (though not against radiation!), it turned out to be unnecessary.

September 11, 2001. I naively thought America had no enemies. I was shaken to my core to realize the tsunami of hate and violence that was just waiting to be unleashed against us. 9-11 chilled America to the bone and has awakened a global military and philosophical response to radical Islam.

COVID-19. We are in the middle of another world-changing & culture-shaping event. We have been stunned by how quickly borders can close, businesses can shutter, planes can be grounded, medical delivery systems can be overwhelmed, and how social life can be so drastically altered. We are not at the end of this thing yet. And though we will return to normal, it will be a new normal. How America and the world has responded to this pandemic will be spoken & written of for decades to come.

Well, there’s my list & and I say all this to say that though the world can change around us and culture can be reshaped by forces that are beyond our control, and though we can feel like powerless pawns on a cosmic chessboard, there is One above history & culture who cannot be changed or shaped by these things. There is One above the brutality of war & the cruelty of disease & the movements that shape the thoughts and allegiances of people. Check this out –

The floods have lifted up, O LORD,

The floods have lifted up their voice,

The floods lift up their pounding waves.
More than the sounds of many waters,

Than the mighty breakers of the sea,

The LORD on high is mighty.
Your testimonies are fully confirmed;

Holiness befits Your house, O LORD, forevermore. Psalm 93:3-5

Floods threaten everything. Wars have lifted up their voice. Disease has lifted up its pounding violence and wave after wave of infection sweeps over the people. Yet more than the voice of war, more than pounding violence of disease, more than the world-changing and culture-shaping events through history and in our lifetime – the Lord on high is mighty! His Word is fully confirmed! O, Church – walk in holiness of life as you trust in and worship the God who is above it all – and at the same time, sent His Son into it all in order to bring you out of it all. Do not fear the floods, fear the Lord and walk in His ways.

Blessings – Pastor Tim

March 27, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont -

The first memories that come to mind of Steve McQueen are of him sailing a car off the hills of San Francisco in "Bullitt" and him jumping a motorcycle over barbed wire (or is it into barbed wire?) in "The Great Escape." For a while, Steve McQueen was Hollywood's hottest commodity. In his later years, McQueen came to faith in Jesus Christ and Greg Laurie has made a movie about it.

Check it out - this is from Greg Laurie.

Hello Harvest Family,
While the COVID-19 crisis continues, we are launching a brand-new way for you to share the gospel. It’s called: Movie Night in America.

Each week we will live-stream a movie COMPLETELY FREE. This week we will be showing the popular movie, Steve McQueen: American Icon.

At the end of every movie there will be an opportunity for people to pray to receive Jesus, so invite your friends and family! Join us THIS FRIDAY for Movie Night in America at 7 PM PT.

Go to this URL:
https://inbound.harvest.org/harvest-movie-night-2020-0…

Blessings, Harvest Christian Fellowship

I hope this link works. If not, check out the hyperlink below.
Stay healthy and blessed - Pastor Tim

Partner with Harvest and Greg Laurie by crossposting the movie Steve McQueen: American Icon live on your company's Facebook page.

March 26, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont -

Someone sent me a question concerning the meaning of the fear of the Lord and here is how I responded. Feel free to add your own understanding of the fear of the Lord in the 'comments' section.

That's a great question you asked and here is how I've come to understand the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1:7 says:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Let me explain by way of analogy. If you were in a room and there was a lion in the room w you, you would not take your eyes off that lion. That lion has a great ability to affect the quality of your life! Everything you did, every move you made, every muscle you twitched, you would keep your eye on that lion to see how he would respond.

I think the fear of the Lord is like that - minus the scary factor. What I mean is that God has an incredible ability to affect the quality of my life! Everything I do I want to make sure it is in alignment with His will for my life. It's not that I'm afraid that He is going to rip me to shreds if I step out of line, it's that I know my best life is lived in accordance with His will for me. I want to keep my eyes on Him and my ears open to Him and my heart submitted to Him. For me, that's the fear of the Lord.

So, let me paraphrase Proverbs 1:7 -

Keeping your eyes on God is the beginning of knowledge - fools don’t do this.

I hope that is helpful.

On another note, a man with a tangential relationship to CC Fremont called me a couple of nights ago and basically scolded me for cancelling church services and that as Christians this is when we need to open our buildings so sinners can come and be saved. He intimated that it's a shame that we have allowed the devil to cow us into silence at such a time as this. I tried to respond, but he just talked over me and I realized that he wasn't interested in a dialogue, only a monologue. He didn't care what I had to say, he just wanted me to hear what he had to say. I was reminded of Paul's words to Timothy that the man of God must be patient when wronged and deal gently with those who wrong him. So, I listened and gave the obligatory grunt every now and then.

When he had wound down I asked him that since he felt so strongly about this matter why didn't he go rent a room and advertise services and hold a meeting. He said that he wanted me to open CC Fremont's building for that very purpose - so he could preach. I assured him that that would not be happening. He then affirmed his love and respect for me and hung up. Hmmmm.....

Here's how I see it - correct me if I'm wrong...

There is a very contagious virus stalking the nation.
This virus is easily spread through social contact.
Social distancing, sheltering-in-place, self-quarantine will greatly serve to halt the spread of this virus.
Therefore, because we love people (church and community) we will hold church services via other means than large gatherings.
We have no promise that Christians will not be infected or will not die from this virus even as we have no promise that no Christian will ever be hit by a car or that no Christian will ever drown at sea or that no Christian will ever die on the battlefield.
Therefore, we don't hold church services in the middle of the freeway or treading water in the middle of the ocean or in the middle of a battlefield - or in the face of a highly contagious virus spread by social contact.

Where am I missing it?

Stay healthy and blessed by Jesus - Pastor Tim

March 23, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont -

I am having an online discussion with a group of pastors about our current challenges and one put forward a theory that the restrictions placed upon public gatherings won't be lifted and that the church will greatly suffer for it. In fact, what is happening now is possibly a dress rehearsal for what the antichrist will do to the church.

He writes: Gone is body ministry, prayer and exhortation one to another, gone is assembly at the table of the Lord, gone is church discipline. Gone is watching for wolves, the gates have been opened and the sheep let loose... Will large group assembly ever be allowed again? Could it be that regardless the outcome the "powers" to be maintain the restrictions to a degree because as they will claim.... It worked.

I responded by pointing out a number of false premises in his argument.

He said: Gone is body ministry
I wrote: not necessarily. It has temporarily morphed. If you live-streamed yesterday, you were ministering to the body. And for many people, what happened yesterday - live-streaming - is what they live on anyway. The shut-ins, those who have been wounded by the church, the sick who must temporarily stay at home live off of radio and televised and live-streamed services. Body ministry didn’t vanish – it morphed, temporarily.

He said: Gone is prayer
I wrote: more people have been offering more prayers than ever before – even praying for one another.

He said: exhortation to one another is gone
I wrote: not so. Social media has allowed a connectedness never before possible.

He said: Gone is the assembly at the table of the Lord
I wrote: this is true, in a fashion. We have ordered individual communion cups w wafer included and will set a time to distribute these at the church and in the Sunday morning live-stream we will partake together.

We have communion every Sunday. (PS - we'll let you know when these arrive. They are on back order.)

He said: Gone is church discipline
I wrote: not necessarily. And who effectively exercises much church discipline anyway. If a member is exhorted, corrected, or rebuked by you, they’ll just go down the street to the next church.

He wrote: Will large group assembly ever be allowed again?
I said: This is the big question! If it is disallowed, my church and your church and hopefully all the pastors reading this will participate in one big act of civil disobedience.

If I thought that the church was being singled out in a unique way in all of the current restrictions I would probably lean toward the trajectory of what this pastor wrote. The current restrictions affect all of culture: religion, business, entertainment, sports, education, etc. I do not have any sense of persecution being directed toward the church.

I’m thinking that great things will come from this – the digital footprint of the church will expand and those we serve will see how sweet the gathering of the saints truly is. A thirst for fellowship will emerge. Maybe we should be ready to seriously promote small groups because of this strategic time.

CC Fremont - don't allow your minds to be carried away and your hearts trapped in fear by conspiracy theories that are beginning to be spun. This is a web of thinking to avoid. I believe that God is using this time to help us think clearly about those things that are truly valuable. May there be a longing in your heart for the Word of the Lord and the fellowship of the saints and the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the love of God.

What is happening is temporary. And I thank God for all the resources to keep us connected to one another. And not just social media - pick up your phone and call someone and see how they're doing.

Blessings - Pastor Tim

Calvary Chapel Fremont Kids Church

Sunday Mornings at 10:00am

Nursery: 6 weeks – 2 years
Pre-Schoolers: 3 years – 5 years
Elementary: Kindergarten – 5th Grade

March 21, 2020

When we made the decision to cancel Sunday and mid-week services, yet livestream some worship and a sermon, I knew it was a lose-lose situation.

If we cancelled, we’d get: Why are you walking in fear and not in faith?

If we didn’t cancel, we’d get: Why aren’t you walking in love and in concern for the health of the church and the community?

Here’s how I resolve this. Paul tells us that now abide faith, hope, and love – but the greatest is love. If I have to err in one direction, I will err in the direction of love and not faith. We’re not walking in fear – we are not afraid to love our neighbors.

I’ve read where weddings have been cancelled. Cancelling a wedding doesn’t cancel the love and commitment between two people and cancelling church services doesn’t cancel the church. The church can’t be cancelled. It is built upon the Rock of Jesus Christ.

Cancelling church services doesn’t cancel the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t shrivel up inside of you or go into catatonic shock because you’re watching livestream and are not physically at the church building. The Holy Spirit is not quenched or grieved because you can’t attend services on a temporary basis. The Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you is not so fragile and sickly that a missed service sends Him to bed with a temperature. Christ inside you is mighty and powerful!

Jesus livestreamed in the gospels! Here’s the story -

And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented." Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."
Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And Jesus said to the centurion, "Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed that very moment. Matthew 8:5-13

The word that Jesus spoke in one place was effective and powerful in another place! The sickly servant wasn’t in Jesus’ presence – he was quarantined at home! The word flew through space and time and healed the servant of the centurion. Hallelujah!

We have great confidence that your faith can be sustained and grow and remain firmly anchored in Jesus during this difficult time.

PS – go to our website www.calvaryfremont.org for the link for the livestream on Sunday, March 22, @ 10:00 AM. May Jesus send His word to you and bless and heal and deliver you.

Live-Stream

Posts from Israel

March 13, 2020

Hey, Calvary Chapel. It’s early in the morning at Nof Ginosar on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and I can’t sleep. 😔But all is not lost. With all the corona virus anxiety and the cancelling of services to help containment, it’s good to know that heaven has not been cancelled!! There’s going to be a large gathering before the throne and there will be no social distancing then. It will be all hugs and smiles then.

Also, the Christian life has not been cancelled. The love of God has not been cancelled!! We are still to walk in patience and kindness toward one another - even more so at a time such as this.

And though worship services have been cancelled, worship hasn’t been cancelled. May your heart be filled with love towards God and may your song to Him fill the air.

Likewise, Bible reading and prayer haven’t been cancelled. May the peace of Christ fill your heart and mind as you pray about everything and worry about nothing.

In the strong name of Jesus - Pastor Tim Brown

March 15, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont - 27 of us are still over in Israel. All the holy sites are closed and no more than 10 people are to congregate at any one time. This has presented some unique challenges, but the Lord is good. And every time I hear news from the States, more and more restrictions are being announced and implemented. From what Fran tells me, wide-spread panic has emptied out the stores. I’m sure this seems surreal and nearly apocalyptic to most, if not all, of us.

This is the time to not forget in the darkness what we have heard in the light. Psalm 46 is truly a word for such a time as this.

Psalm 46:1–3 (NAS): God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;3Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.

Yes, the earth is changing and things that have seemed immovable are slipping into the heart of the sea. The waters roar and foam and wave after wave of bad news sweeps the world.

Psalm 46:4–7 (NAS): There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High.5God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.6The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted.7The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

We are the city of God and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is still flowing. There is no shortage of God. Though the whole world call upon Him and He sends His fullness to all, nothing can put a dent in His inexhaustible supply. God is not moved and He is our help. The nations are in an uproar and the earth is melting in fear and uncertainty, but the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Psalm 46:8–11 (NAS): Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations in the earth.9He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire.10“Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”11The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

God will bring COVID-19 to an end. He makes wars to cease and breaks the power of the weapons that are against us.

The Lord would have us to cease striving in fear and panic and depression. God is with us. In the Valley of the Shadow of Death where the darkness is deep and visibility is limited, His rod and staff will comfort you and He will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies. God is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

March 17, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont - our tour is at the Dead Sea right now. After floating for 10 minutes, a policeman came and kicked us all out. The Dead Sea is closed!!

I woke up this morning to a recorded call about sheltering in place for those living in Alameda County. I have to self-quarantine anyway because I’m over 65 when I get back, but now this has been broadly expanded. I am so glad that God isn’t in quarantine!! I’m so blessed that He is not limited in where He can go. You may not be able to make it to church, but the Lord is not sheltering in place and He makes house visits!! David learned this –

Psalm 18:4–6 (NAS): The cords of death encompassed me And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me.5The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.6In my distress I called upon the Lord,And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.

And look what the Lord did –

Psalm 18:9–11 (NAS): 9He bowed the heavens also, and came down With thick darkness under His feet.10He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind.11He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

The Lord came down and more than that, He came down with speed. And not only did He come down speedily, He came specifically to and for David. Count how many times David refers to himself in the following passage.

Psalm 18:16–19 (NAS): He sent from on high, He took me;He drew me out of many waters.17He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.18They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the Lord was my stay.19He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

I count 12 times. David could say with confidence and no sense of foolish pride, “God is interested in coming to me and delivering me and blessing me because He delights in me.” Friend, God is interested in you - He’s interested in coming to you and delivering you and blessing you because He delights in you. May the confidence of David be your confidence, too. May you rest in the God who delights in you.

The Dead Sea May be closed for floating, but the Living Water is available to any and all who call upon the name of the Lord. When the torrents of death surround you, call upon the Lord and He will deliver you of fear and anxiety and worry because He delights in you.

March 18, 2020

Hey, Calvary Fremont- carefully read the following portion of Psalm 91.

Psalm 91:1–10 (NAS): He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.2I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!”3For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence.4He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.5You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day;6Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.7A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you.8You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked.9For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place.10No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent.

I think some would read this and wrongfully conclude that since they are dwelling in the shelter of the Most High that no plague will come near their tent - that they are immune to COVID-19. Since I am returning from Israel and am in LA waiting to fly to San Francisco and slept about 20 minutes on a 14 hour flight and less than three hours last night - let me give vent to my grumpiness: to contend that Christians can’t be infected w COVID-19 is silly and irresponsible (and probably stupid, too).

COVID-19 is not God‘s punishment on a wicked world. The judgment of God is upon the unrighteous - not the unrighteous and the righteous. And C-19 is afflicting the just and the unjust. C-19 falls into the category of “we live in fallen bodies in a fallen world”. This virus doesn’t care if you’re a Christian or Muslim, gay or straight, male or female, poor or rich, left or right, global warming enthusiast or not, oppressed or oppressor, privileged or victim, etc., ad nauseam. This is a common disease even as rain is a common grace - it falls upon the just and the unjust.

So, if all are infected or vulnerable to infection, what is the promise of Psalm 91? What is not coming near my tent? Consider the following portion of Psalm 91 –

Psalm 91:11–13 (NAS): For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.12They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. 13You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

The worst thing that can happen to you isn’t C-19, the worst thing that can happen to you is that you no longer dwell in the shelter of the Most High or in the shadow of the Almighty. Beloved, there is a peace that passes understanding and a security and assurance that passes comprehension when the Lord is your refuge. You will not be afraid of the arrow that flies by day or the pestilence that stalks in the darkness. Whatever befalls me is allowed by my Father. Whatever I come across or come against has been filtered through His loving and gracious will for my life.

When doubts of God’s goodness and grace assail your mind, own them - but don’t let your doubts own you. When feelings of fear sweep over you - don’t deny them - identify them as real feelings and own the fact that you’re experiencing them - but don’t let them own you. Know that nothing ordained by your Father and filtered through His will will come near your tent.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

In the powerful name of Jesus - Pastor Tim

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