Terry M. Buster, Sr.

"Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made." Robert Murray McCheynne

Seasons of Heartache

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In the past 4 weeks, my Sunday School class has experienced 2 deaths of adult children, the death of a nephew who was like a brother, several members taking repeated medical tests, and some facing other kinds of challenges. I have been blessed to see, experience, and be a part of the outpouring of love and faith that is part of the DNA of this small group. Below I’ve copied a prayer I’ve shared with the class. If you are going through a difficult time, I pray that God is blessing you in many ways, but especially through one of the greatest gifts He has given us. The gift of one another in Christ.

 

Heavenly Father,
 
With the prophets of old we praise Your name for who you are:
Creator. Redeemer. Lover of our souls. Righteous judge of all.
May we always kneel to honor Your majesty.
May we ever rise to sing Your praise and worship You.
 
We are thankful for Your greatest gift, our salvation in Jesus Christ.
We sit at the foot of the Cross in humble gratitude.
This Cross of Love and Justice stands above time and history
As a reminder of Your grace showered upon our souls.
 
Father, we enjoy so much of what Your world has to offer.
We live abundant lives flowing from Your gracious provision.
We thank You for what You have given and
Pray that our stewardship will be pleasing in Your sight.
 
As You know, we are in a time of testing. Of pain and suffering, grief and mourning,
Hoping and praying, waiting and watching.
We are grateful for the good, pleasing seasons of life.
We are all the more grateful for Your presence and promise
in the hard seasons of life.
 
Thank You for the lessons given in Your Word.
From Job we know that You are there and watching over us,
even when Satan attacks from all sides.
From Joseph we learn that all our trials and tribulations are
guided and guarded to bring about Your glory and our sanctification.
 
Thank You for the gift of one another. We are the body of Christ.
His Spirit touches us as we embrace each other in Christian love.
We get to be the arms of Christ as conduits of His love.
What a blessing it is to receive the touch of Christ from one another.
 
Give us strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
In the name of our Savior we pray.
 

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My Own Little World

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O Heavenly Father,

How easily I slip into my own little world. A world that revolves around me, sometimes, not always, just sometimes. I’m fully aware that I don’t know it all. (It’s Your job to know it all.). But I like my place of solace and comfort.  It’s that sheltered spot where I look at life around me and I’m glad I’m not like them. Now most of them aren’t too bad, they just dont’ get it like I do.

When I retreat to my tiny cosmos everything is so simple. It all makes sense there.  You know if people would only listen to me (and maybe even listen to You a little) I suppose things would go much smoother in life. After all, I’m a pretty good guy. I’ve been around the block a few times.  I have life experiences that certainly qualify me to take special note of what’s wrong and what’s right.  Surely my insight counts for much more than most people give me credit.

To be downright honest, I like my own little world.  You know I love You. But to be honest, that standard of righteousness You place before me is pretty demanding. Let’s get real. You know I can’t be perfect. When it gets down to the nitty-gritty, I really don’t want to be perfect.  There are times I don’t even want to be close to perfect. In my little world there are things I want to do …… things I want to say ….. things I want to feel  that I’m more than willing to let slide for the time being even if You aren’t pleased with them.

Truth is, I don’t live in that safe, cocooned world, do I? That little world is all in my head. More’s the pity for all too often, it’s in my heart as well. I’m really not that smart. When it comes to the events and people around me, my perception isn’t nearly what I think it is. I look at myself and have to admit that I’m not that wise nor capable in taking care of me. What makes me think I can figure it out for anyone else?

Somebody bigger than me is going to have to figure it out. Figure it out for me. Figure it out for everyone. Someone wiser, stronger, and smarter needs to be in charge. Hey, that’s You! You created it all. You give us life and all Your goodness. You made it and You set the tone. You made it, so You must know how it works. It’s at this point that the wheels fall of the wagon. I try to take charge both in my little world and Your vast creation. I choose to be imperfect. If something is imperfect, it’s not right. It’s not what it was created to be. Truth be told,  if it’s imperfect, it’s flawed, it’s wrong. If it’s wrong, it needs to be made right. It needs to be fixed.

Wow, so that’s why You sent Jesus to die on the Cross. He paid the penalty for my imperfections. For everyone’s imperfection. You call our imperfection sin. If anyone has the authority call it sin, it’s You. I’ve just got to trust You in this. I’m glad You sent Your Son on my behalf. I’m glad He volunteered His life to take my penalty. I’m glad You give me faith to trust You. I’m glad You gave Your Bible to show me the Way. I’m glad that You have saved me from myself as I trust in the work of Jesus.

So Lord, give me Your wisdom and strength to burst the bubble thin walls of my own little world. When I want to retreat, give me courage to live in the world You made.  Give me a burning passion to think, to love, to speak, to feel, and to act in the real world in a manner pleasing to You. May my own little world decrease exponentially as I live in the only world there is until Jesus comes again to set all things right.

 

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Trust and Obey: Flying by Faith

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      In his study in Hebrews (Experiencing the Presence of God) A. W. Tozer quotes the old hymn, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way; To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”  He points to the fact that two wings are necessary for a bird to fly illustrating the symbiotic relationship of faith and deeds. With two wings the bird flies freely to the glory of God, doing what God created him to do. One wing will not do. It takes two to fly. So it is with faith & deeds. It is not enough merely to trust God.
      A self-centered ‘faith’ attempts to trust God while pleasing self. This kind of faith sets aside obedience when Christ calls us to go out of our comimagefort zone. In the end, it is a  foolhardy wish that God excuses those who cherry pick nice sounding words from the Bible while refusing to get to work in His  Kingdom. This one-winged bird willl not fly. A God-centered faith knows that trusting Him always leads to living according to His commands.
      The same is true regarding good deeds. Our attempt to gain salvation by rigidly keeping the Law of God never leaves the ground. At times we may even offer altruistic attempts to make this world a better place by doing good deeds on our own. Imagine a broken-winged bird flapping furiously to get airborne. He expends much energy, stirs up a lot of dust, but ultimately is bound by the gravity of this world. It takes two wings to fly.
      Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount instructing those who would be disciples that the wise man hears and does what Christ has commanded (Matthew 7:24-27). Faith is hearing and doing. There are no shortcuts, additions, or subtractions to this simple truth.  We do not live by faith if we are not trusting and obeying Him. The writer of Hebrews remind us that if we live a lesser life, we are not pleasing to God. (“Without faith it is impossible to please God” – Hebrews 11:6.) We begin our Christian journey in faith and continue by faith. But imageour continuance in faith only comes about as we grow in humble obedience to the call and command of our Lord.
      Christian living only happens as we trust Him for everything and live 24/7 for Him. God did not send His Son to bear our sins on Calvary to recreate us in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) so that we would find satisfaction in believing what we want to believe and doing what we want to do. Jesus did not die so that we could invent new ways to serve Him. Christians are made anew in Christ to fly with Him on both wings of faith.  “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way; To be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.”

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Resistance to Forgiving

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Forgiving someone is a hard thing to do.

In my experience (both personal and observed), we are afraid that forgiving someone means that we have to somehow excuse what was done to us.  It feels like we have to minimize the other person’s action by saying that what he did to us was not really wrong; or it didn’t really do that much harm; or perhaps that her action was acceptable considering the circumstances in the first place. These ideas are the polar opposite of what happens in Biblical forgiveness. By its very definition and nature, forgiveness is always connected to a wrong done. If it wasn’t wrong, there is no need to forgive. If we truly forgive someone we have to acknowledge he/she “did us wrong.”

If we are going to forgive, we do so by following God’s example. Romans 5:8 tells us that, “God shows us His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”  Granted, we are incapable of dying to pay the penalty for our sin, much less the sin of anyone else. Only Jesus can do that. The point I am making here in connection to Romans 5:8 is the phrase, “…while we were still sinners…” God’s process of forgiveness began while we were still sinners. He acknowledged our sin, our wrongdoing and chose to place the penalty for our sin upon our substitute, Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the Cross because wrong was done; because great harm came about; and precisely because our sin against Him is not acceptable. Just as God dealt with our sin by seeing it for what it is, we too must forgive by dealing with the harm that is done. We travel down the path of forgiveness by acknowledging the wrong, handing justice & mercy to our Lord to dispense according to His infinite wisdom, and choosing to no longer hold the sin against the person who harmed us.

Forgiving someone is a hard thing to do. Truth is, its hard work. For God to forgive us of our sin He sent His Son to the die on the Cross. For the Son to forgive us of our sin He had to bear the penalty of our sin. Forgiving someone is hard work. Thanks be to God, He has shown us how to forgive and gives us strength through the Spirit to forgive as we have been forgiven.

 

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Forgiving Myself

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Through the years I’ve struggled with the concept of forgiving myself. Like so many others I’ve discussed the notion of how hard it is to forgive myself when I’ve done wrong. I see the harm my deeds have caused realizing that I was in the wrong and it hurts me to know the pain I’ve caused. Even if I was acting in response to things that happened to me, I am responsible for my sin and the harm it caused.

I read a lot in the Bible about forgiving others, but I can’t recall anywhere the Scripture expressly calls on me to forgive myself. Unless someone proves me wrong I have to believe that it’s just not in there.

So, how do I deal with my sin that has harmed another and myself? I go to the example of one of the greatest sinners we see in Scripture, King David. David whose sin included adultery, conspiracy, and murder when he fixed his eye on Bathsheeba and yielded to temptation (2 Samuel 11-12). When confronted with his sin, David confessed his sin in a penitent, God-given manner in Psalm 51. In this psalm he poured out his grief stricken heart before the Just and Merciful God. In this act of contrite confession and seeking God’s mercy, He received forgiveness from God. He was then able to move forward having been cleansed of his sin by God Almighty. The apostle John addresses the kind of forgiveness David received in 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I believe that if the notion of forgiving oneself exists, it exists in deep, complete confession of sin before God. If our confession is more than just an attempt to tattle on ourselves then we have admitted the wrong we’ve done to God, to others, and to ourself. We have agreed with God the horror of our sin knowing the consquences we should rightly expect from Him. We neither deserve His mercy nor grace, but He is faithful. Like David, our genuine confession of sin lays it all at the Throne of Mercy and the Spirit of Jesus within forgives us on our behalf.

If I try to take God’s place on the Throne, I may try to punish myself, do penance, or continue to help the Accuser drag me down. When I sin against others, I have clear instructions in Scripture to seek forgiveness from them. I have no such instruction to seek forgiveness from myself. I have already dealt with this in my confession and His cleansing.

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Poison of Unforgiveness

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Bitterness is the poison we drink hoping that someone else will die.
One of the leading causes of bitterness in our lives is our failure to forgive others. When someone sins against us it hurts and we want justice. The problem is, human beings aren’t really good at the ‘justice thing.’ We want retribution, vengeance, and punitive damages piled high on to those who did us wrong. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are called to trust God in matters of justice and mercy.  We do so because we have been forgiven of our sins against Him. The apostle Paul teaches us to, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). We forgive those who sin against us because we have been forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Because we live in this fallen world, the process of forgiveness is just that, a process. More often than not we will have to work through the act of forgiveness reminding ourselves along the way that regardless of what harm has been done against us, it is nothing compared to what our sin did to Jesus on the Cross. Keeping Christ in the forefront of our minds will give us not only the strength to forgive, but the desire to forgive.

Not only do we need to keep Christ’s sacrifice for our sins in mind, but it helps to remember that as often as we need to forgive someone, we need to be forgiven by someone. Here’s a few personal confessions that might help us work through the process of forgiveness when we’ve been wronged.

Yes, that person did what he/she should not have.
Yes, it was wrong.
Yes, I was injured in some form/fashion.
Yes, it disrupted my life causing me to go through a season of pain and recovery.

Yes, I too am regularly guilty of doing what I should not do.
Yes, I too have been wrong in the way I’ve treated others.
Yes, I too have injured others in some form/fashion.
Yes, I too have disrupted the lives of others causing them to go through a season of pain and recovery.

Yes, I need to forgive because I have been forgiven.

When Jesus came to earth to die on the Cross, He paid a greater price, suffered a greater punishment, and reached out to us in ways we can never repay to forgive in order to make possible the forgiveness of our sins. How can we not offer the same forgiveness to others that Jesus has given us? We must choose to forgive and utilize the strength that the Spirit offers each step along the way.

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Got Stress?

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Why is it that the simplest, clearest statements in God’s Word are the ones that trip us up most often?  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5).  Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?  Just trust God.  After all, its His creation. He’s in charge so why increase our stress level by trying to know it all and figure it all out?  Sounds easy, but we know its not.  Here are four suggestions that might help us trust Him more and in so doing, lower our stress level from day to day.

 

1. Don’t assume that just because you don’t see it happening — its not happening.

2. Don’t assume that just because it doesn’t make sense to you — it doesn’t make sense.

3. Don’t assume that just because it isn’t the way you want it done — its not being done correctly.

4.When its not your responsibility — don’t assume that you see the situation better than those involved especially those to whom God has given leadership responsibility.

 

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Each of us has more than we can handle trying to take care of the joys & responsibilities God has given us. After all, our perspective on our own lives is a bit skewed. (Who doesn’t think he/she could solve all the problems of our government if they would just listen to us?) What makes us think that our perspective is spot on when we critique someone else according to our own wisdom?

There are times when we have the responsibility to evaluate what is going on around us. But we should never confuse the responsibility God gives us in one area of life with the ability to see and know what is right or wrong in all situations. As a pastor, I will never see all the ministry happening throughout my congregation. I expect our Sunday School teachers, missions leaders, and ministry leaders to have a clearer sense from God in how to lead the people given to them in those ministries better than I.  When I lean on my own understanding, despair or delusion is not far away.

The bottom line is this. I must simply trust that God sees more than me, knows more than me, understands better than me, and has a better plan than me…..because He does!  The sooner I learn and apply this the sooner my stress level goes down.

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Choose Wisely

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My favorite Indiana Jones movie is “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” I love the scene when the venerable knight warns Jones to “choose wisely” as he seeks the Holy Grail. Indiana did just that as he selected the true Grail setting among the false grails. However, he soon faced another crucial test calling for wisdom with the choice of leaving the grail behind or being buried in the collapsing Temple. Once again Jones chose wisely. Apparently one wise choice in life doesn’t guarantee wisdom along the way.

In 1 Kings 3:5, God made Solomon an offer he couldn’t refuse, “Ask what I shall give you.” This was an open ended offer, an opportunity for wealth or power or long life or anything he wanted. Solomon responded by asking God for wisdom in order to discern between good & evil as he led the people of Israel. God gave him his request and it was the best thing Solomon could have sought.

Solomon started out well, but he did not continue to choose wisely. In time he followed the morality and customs of the unbelieving world around him. Solomon traveled a path eventually leading him to worship many gods, turning his back on the One, True God. The people of Israel followed his leadership and the nation was fractured when Solomon died.

God warned him that this would happen when He said, “I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you have been before and none like you shall arise after you…..If you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days” (1 Kings 3:12, 14).

We sometimes forget that being a child of God entails a journey, not an event. We are called to be faithful throughout our days. God gives us His Word, His church, His Spirit, and fellow believers to guide and  encourage us along the way. Just because we were faithful to God at one time does not guarantee that we are traveling on the right and proper road now. The life of a believer is a Journey, not an Event. Baptism, knowledge of God & His Bible, and good intentions are of little value if we do not continue to put them into practice.

If Godly wisdom guides our path, we must choose wisely and continue to do so.

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Twists and Turns

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While living in Colorado Springs we’d go to the mountains to see the wonder and beauty of God’s creation. My enjoyment of the majestic Rockies began after the car was parked. While driving, I suffered from ‘white knuckle’ syndrome as we travelled the twists and turns of the mountain roads. In my mind, I knew that my traffic lane was wide enough for my car. I knew that if I stayed in my lane I wasn’t going to fly off the side of the mountain. I knew that untold thousands of other vehicles had traversed this very same highway safely. I knew that I could trust the surveyors, engineers, highway construction workers, and those who maintained the roads to keep me safe. In my mind, I knew these things. But as I drove, I gripped the steering wheel as tightly as I could, hence the white knuckles. There was a part of my mind that got the best of me as I imagined all that could go wrong and how bad things could be. I had to trust those who built and maintained the highway to get to my destination.

Those mountain roads came to mind as I listened to a sermon Mark Dever preached from Revelation 4-5. Dever referred to Romans 8:28-32 (…all things work together for good….) saying, “Trust God with the twists and turns of your life, your family, your career. Don’t say that you’ll only trust Him with the straight and easy times. What does that mean? You trust Him exactly with the twists and turns you don’t understand.”

I need to give more than lip service to Romans 8:28-32. In the twists and turns of my life God gives me opportunities to reinforce my faith while demonstrating my belief in God’s Word and His plan for my life. I get to trust God. I get to demonstrate to myself and others that regardless of what roads I travel in life, His path for me is the best way to go. As Dever puts it, what good is my faith if I only trust Him when things are smooth, straight, and I can see how ‘easy’ the road ahead is?

I don’t know what lies beyond the twists and turns ahead. (And just in case you haven’t caught on, you don’t know where your twists and turns are going to take you.) What I know, in increasing measure, is that God knows and He has provided the way for me to give Him glory and arrive at my destination with a gracious ‘well done.’  I pray that God will give me the faith and determination to trust Him more every day. In so doing, I will look forward to arriving at my destination while  marveling in the journey every day with my God.

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Seeing God….Committing to Christ

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Its amazing to see the various ways God reveals Himself in the Bible. While at worship, Isaiah catches a vision of the wonder of God (Isaiah 6)…..At the end of a season of suffering, Job sees God’s majesty (Job 42:5-6)… Peter sees Jesus’ holiness through a great catch of fish (Luke 5:6).

There are those today who think God wants to ‘invade’ our times of worship and reveal Himself merely to give us some sort of spiritual adrenaline rush. I don’t see this happening in the Bible, do you? God reveals Himself for a purpose……His purpose, not ours. Certainly He wants our praise. But if our praise is genuine will it not include our confession, our repentance, and our surrender to service?

Read the story of the miraculous catch in Luke 5:1-11. The flow of events is fairly simple, isn’t it? The word of God is taught…..Apparently the seeds of faith are sown because obedience was rendered…..Christ revealed Himself……Confession was offered……Call was given….Commitment was made.

The commitment to leave all behind and follow Jesus was a costly one. “True discipleship is always costly because it means giving up what we want for us so that we can have what Jesus wants for us” (Philip Ryken). Ryken’s comment drives deep into my heart. I know I’m supposed to want what Jesus wants for me……but am I willing both to count the cost and consider it worth surrendering all to Jesus?

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