Ale Nan Pe!

By Chris Ward, Campus Director, Living Hope Houston

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 14:27

For those who don’t know, my wife and I returned from serving as missionaries in Haiti last August to follow God’s leading for me to step into a new calling as the campus director of Living Hope Houston. It has been quite the transition—imagine drinking water straight from the faucet and having electricity 24/7!

Serving in Haiti was incredible, wonderful, and extremely difficult all at the same time. Part of the difficulty was learning the language. As we learned the Haitian language of Creole, we learned a popular phrase—“ale nan pe” which means “go in peace.” The interesting thing about this phrase is that the word for peace only means peace when used in the whole phrase. If you use the word for peace (pe) by itself, it is translated “fear.”

In the Creole language there’s a fine line between fear and peace. Isn’t that true in our lives? In our everyday lives we can teeter between being fearful and having peace from day to day. We can go for a period of time with confidence and peace and then all of a sudden something happens and fear steps in and we are paralyzed. We might hide the reality from those around us, but the truth is that we all have fears. Fear of the future, fear of failure, fear of death, fear of the unknown,  ________(fill in the blank with yours). 

What is more interesting about this Haitian word for fear is that the only time it doesn’t mean fear is when you put the word “nan” in front of it. Nan is translated to the English word “in.” Immediately I think of being “IN Christ” and how that changes everything in our spiritual walk.

1Peter 5:14, reminds us: “Peace to you all who are IN Christ Jesus.” As followers of Christ we are promised a peace that will guard and help insulate us from fear. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7). 

What about you? Are you teetering between fear and peace in an area of your life today? Ask Christ to guard your heart from this fear, as you trust in Him.

Ale Nan Pe!

Bruised But Not Broken

By D’Ann Davis, Women's Ministry Director

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”

Psalm 34:19-20

Struggle is the human condition; no one is immune. We live in a world broken by the fall, and the creation groans awaiting redemption. As believers in Christ, we know that some struggles cannot be avoided. With this knowledge however, we still can find ourselves surprised when we are afflicted. We wonder if God is actually good, what we did to deserve it, or why things are so bad if we have tried so hard to be good. We think our obedience demands our ease, and we are perplexed when God is not compliant.

The Scriptures speak to a different reality for the believer. Psalm 34:19-20 tell us, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” The Scriptures do tell us God blesses the righteous, but that is not synonymous with ease and affliction-free existence. The 2 verses leading into this couplet give us some context. Verses 17-18 read, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” We cannot completely avoid difficulty in life in a fallen world, but when we do face tribulation, we can trust and rest in the fact that God delivers us and helps us in our troubles. He is near to us. His nearness to us is our good (Psalm 73:28). God uses our worst seasons to draw us near to His heart and to conform us to His image.  He does not waste our pain but uses it to go deeper with us in our hurt.

God uses our pain for His purposes and our ultimate good. He may allow us to be bruised, but He does not allow His children to be broken beyond repair. He allots only what we need and gives us no superfluous suffering. He is near. He keeps. He delivers. He saves. Our God knows our hearts and He sees our pain.  He is just and loving and He redeems the lives of His servants (vs 22). Whatever bruising we are experiencing at the moment we can take heart in the fact that He is Healer and Savior by nature. In our pain let’s rest and trust in Him, believing He will meet us and bandage our wounds.

God thank You that You do not waste suffering, and that our suffering does not necessitate Your displeasure in us. Thank You that You are near to us and keep us. Thank You for saving us, for continuing to do so, and for the day when You will fully save us. Help us to surrender our pain and tribulations to You, that You might give us peace, rest, and trust. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

Whose Plan?

By Samuel Parrish, Campus Director, Living Hope Charleston

“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.”

“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

Proverbs 16: 3-4, 33

We’re two weeks into the new year, and to the letdown of many, everything is still (in the words of the immortal Talking Heads) the same as it ever was!

Our resolve is failing for those things we just knew we were going to do differently this year. Family is already pushing against those boundaries they promised to keep over the holidays. And let’s face it; you didn’t win the $1.58 BILLION lottery this week. In Chapter 16 of Proverbs, Solomon offers some God-focused advice for those of us who feel stuck going into the new year. 

Solomon’s first question is implicit in verse 3, “Who are you committing your work to?”

So many things in this world fight for our primary attention and motivation. Fear promises us utter failure if we don’t spend our energy on self-protection and relational isolation. Comfort promises us ease if we would just focus on ourselves and stop wasting resources on others. Lust promises us fulfillment if we would just stop fighting what we feel and do it already. And year after year, our masters renegotiate the deal when they fail to deliver. He who upholds the universe by the word of His power makes us a different and enduring promise: if we commit our works to the Lord, they will be established. 

“But what about those who might oppose the work that the Lord promises to establish?”

Solomon answers simply that even the actions of the wicked are subject to God’s divine purpose on the Earth. If Solomon’s words here are true, and Paul’s words in Romans 8 are true, then why do we shrink back when the road gets rough? May we join in faith this year with Job in Job 42, and Isaiah in Isaiah 14, believing “that no plan of [God’s] can be thwarted.”

And before you start worrying that “your lot in life is cast,” or you have “been dealt a bad hand,” Solomon closes this chapter undermining our cultural understanding of luck.

From the little white balls that made people millionaires last night to the flat tire you didn’t have this morning even after running over that glass bottle last night, God ordains it all. Odds and statistics are helpful descriptors of what has happened, but we serve as a God who does as he pleases. The roll of the dice is just as ordained as your next steps, and because of that we take heart! 

We don’t have to be the same person we have always been. If we commit our ways to the Lord, our future isn’t just a repeat of broken promises and failed resolve. The difficult choices and difficult people we encounter are just as ordained as the blessings. We can remove “blind chance” and “bad luck” from our vocabulary completely, as our every step is upheld. 

So, whose plan are you committed to this year? Why are you expecting this year to be different? What excuses do you need to repent of that are keeping you from moving forward?

Strangers in the New Year

By Ricky Chelette, Executive Director

“But I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”

1 Peter 2:11

As we begin a new year the headlines are filled with news of immigrants and exiles fleeing their homelands. Each person in search of a new, safer, more secure place to live and raise a family. It is hard for me to imagine what it must be like for them. They are going to a place most have never been, with language, culture and people they do not know, to establish a new life. But these are the desperate signs of our times and not unlike those of the early church. 

In 1 Peter, Peter’s admonition to Christians was not only about their physical relocation to a new land, but more profoundly, about the new creation they had become as a result of their encounter with Jesus and their belief in the Gospel. 

As the new year begins, those who embrace the teachings of Jesus will become more and more “aliens and strangers” even in our own land. Titus says that God has called us to Himself and made us a “peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14 KJV). Peter says people will be “surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you” (1 Pet. 4:4). We are strange people, especially to the non-Christian world. It certainly appears that no matter how much things change, in many ways, they remain the same. 

The bottom line for Christians in this new year is we must embrace our “alien” and “stranger” status. We will not fit in neatly with the moral decline of those who do not know Christ as Lord. We will not be embraced or even tolerated by those who have not experienced the forgiving power of the blood of Jesus and His adoption as sons/daughters. We need to embrace the truth that this world is not our home (Phil. 3:20; Jn. 17:16). Our home is being kept by God, our Father in heaven (1 Peter 1:4-5). 

So as we live as aliens and strangers in this world, let us do so in a way that shows the transforming power of the Gospel in our lives. Because our eternity is secure in Christ, we can push aside the fleshly desires of this world that are at war against our soul and live in freedom and peace. We can take risks and be bold. Christians must redouble our efforts to do good to the world, even to those who do not wish to do good to us. By doing so, may those who do not know Christ as Lord see the heart of the Father for them and find the work of Christ sufficient to cover their sin, give them peace, and provide them a home which is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1 Peter 1:4).

There are some beautiful characteristics of aliens, strangers and exiles: They have little holding them to a place. They travel light. They can respond to things quickly. Everyday is a new adventure. They have to have great hope! As Christians, let us embrace our alien and stranger status and use it to show the glory of God to our world. Our home is secure in Him!

How are you going to live as an alien and stranger in this new year? Can people see your good works and be drawn to our Father in heaven?

Finding God

By D’Ann Davis, Women's Ministry Director

“The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”

Psalm 145:18

“But I spent time with the Lord, and He did not meet me.” There are few things in the Christian life that feel more defeating than when we have taken the time to seek the Lord’s face, and we walk away feeling stood up. We read, we prayed, we journaled, we cried, and we came out on the other side just as discouraged, confused, and empty as before. Sometimes we feel worse off than before we spent time with Him at all.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers as to why sometimes God seems to tarry in His nearness. Sometimes we simply must keep going, trusting in the truth of Jeremiah 29:13 that we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts. But Psalm 145:18 gives us some insight into why we might find the Lord not picking up our phone call; maybe we are dialing the wrong number.

“The Lord is near to all who call on Him,” the psalmist tells us, “to all who call on Him in truth.” The qualifier provides us clarity. There are countless times in which I have called upon the Lord, but not in truth. I have called on Him in my feelings, in the lies I believe, in accusation, in anger, and in bewilderment. When I base my view of God on those things and not the truth, I find it difficult to hear from Him. When I call on Him in truth however, even in the midst of great sorrow, confusion, or despair, I’m far abler to hear clearly from Him. Thankfully even as we fail in this, God is gracious. God is not threatened by our negative feelings; instead, He asks us to share them with Him (Psalm 51:6). He is also not needing for us to have a cleaned up view of Him before approaching Him, as Jesus has paved the way for us to be near to the Father and sympathizes with our weakness in this area as well (Hebrews 4:14-16). “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, ‘made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved’” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Thankfully, it is the blood of Jesus, and not our ability to see God perfectly at all times, that saves us and reconciles us to the Father.

So God has made the way for us already, and He is inviting us to walk in it. When we are hitting a wall with the Lord and are finding it impossible to hear from Him, we would be wise to ask ourselves, “Am I calling on Him in truth?” Quite possibly we are not feeling near to Him because we are not calling on Him in truth, but are instead nursing the lies we believe in the throes of self. In this verse God is graciously exhorting us to call on Him in truth. When we root our view of life and circumstances on the solid rock of His character, it totally transforms how we approach Him and the intimacy we can share with Him. Conversely, when we insist on viewing Him through the lens of our life and circumstances, we will continue to hit a wall with Him.

So let’s be people who call on Him in truth. Psalm 73:28 tells us the nearness of God is our good. God is near when we call on Him in truth; the nearness of God is our good; calling on Him in truth is our good. Let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence as Hebrews 4 encourages us to do, knowing that when we seek Him, we will find Him.

Dear Lord, thank You that You are near to ALL who call on You, to all who call on You in truth. Lord, we are broken people and we have a hard time seeing You as You are as we fight our flesh and brokenness. Please continually reveal Yourself to us that we might know You better and love You more. Please help us call on You in truth. Thank You that You are good and faithful to respond. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

What Do You Expect?

By Samuel Parrish

“After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

Matthew 2:9-10

Advent carries with it a sense of expectation that we find no other time during the church calendar. It is a season of beginnings, of promises fulfilled, of hope in the midst of great darkness. The promised Kingdom of God is finally here, and according to Matthew’s account only a handful of scholars from the east were even looking for it. The entire Roman world was churning with activity as two million men and their families traveled back to their ethnic homeland for the Great Census. While the world was looking for a hotel room, these men were looking for God.

The magi from the east knew what they were looking for. The prophets were clear: a king would be born in Judea in Bethlehem who would be the great shepherd for the nation of Israel. Their studies pointed to a star that would rise over the place where the king was born. In the Matthew account, they saw the star after their meeting with King Herod, and rejoiced that they had found what they were looking for. Their joy quickly became generosity as they presented Mary and Joseph gifts fit for the king in their midst. Expectation. Fulfillment. Joy. 

So then why does the Advent Expectation end in sorrow for so many of us year after year? Maybe it’s because that’s all we expect Christmas to be. It’s one more year of watching people’s perfect lives on social media as they decorate Christmas cookies and go look at neighborhoods lit up for the season. It’s one more year of family gatherings with those same people who hurt you years ago, and never apologized. It’s one more year alone because you can’t hang out with “those people” anymore after you started following Jesus. We expect to be forgotten, to be hurt, to be alone. And every year that’s what we find. 

What would it take to look for something else?

God has promised us that if we look for him, we WILL find him. Proverbs 8:17 says “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” He says the same thing in Jeremiah 29:13. Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 7:7.

The wise men went on this journey two thousand years ago, and their journey ended with joy and extravagant generosity. 

As the daylight fades and the nights get colder, let’s go on a new journey this year that’s really several millennia old. In faith, let’s expect to find God this Advent season. Let’s expect to find glad tidings of great joy for each and every one of us. And then, let’s diligently seek him knowing that he will be found!

Am I Going to Make It?

By Samuel Parrish

^“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Matthew 24:12-13

For the individual just rescued by Christ from the kingdom of darkness, and now a part of the saints of light, the future is a bright and wonderful thing. His heart is full of gratitude for the weight of sin that has been lifted. Her soul sings for the freedom given without measure, overflowing. Joy promised now, and for eternity. 

And then we fall the first time. 

It isn’t the first time we’ve sinned since coming to Christ, but it probably is the first time we’ve given in to that thing that we found freedom from in the first place.

And doubt begins to creep in. 

Am I really his?

Was this some religious experience or passing feeling?

If I’m “saved” why do I keep doing the same kinds of things he supposedly saved me from?

Then we see verses like Matthew 10:22, 24:13, James 1:12, and others that seem to say that how we end of this race is just as important as how we began. Sin seems just a big now as it was before and we despair. 

The Apostle Paul helps us on both sides of this question as we struggle through what it means to really be in Christ, and the chances we have of “making it.” 

In Philippians 2, Paul urges believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. In light of who Christ is and what he has done for us, indwelling sin should cause us discomfort. And gloriously we find out in the very next verse that this discomfort for indwelling sin is in fact a holy one.

“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Paul says it even more directly in the chapter before. 

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

How can Paul say this with such confidence while at the same time writing to Timothy that he is the chief of sinners? Simply, because Paul cherished something about grace that many of us just give a passing nod to: we did not deserve it in the first place. Paul’s confidence in the Philippian church enduring to the end had nothing to do with their ability to do it, and everything to do with God’s faithfulness to keep those that he calls. Our working out of our salvation is not a paying back of God for the gift of salvation, but a deeper and deeper understanding of how the grace that saved us is needed daily to keep us. 

So what do we do when what we know about grace doesn’t line up with what we see ourselves doing day to day?

Instead of despairing, take hope in the same way that one of our brothers did almost 600 years ago. 

“One day when a certain man who wavered often and anxiously between hope and fear was struck with sadness, he knelt in humble prayer before the altar of a church. While meditating on these things, he said: "Oh if I but knew whether I should persevere to the end!" Instantly he heard within the divine answer: "If you knew this, what would you do? Do now what you would do then and you will be quite secure." Immediately consoled and comforted, he resigned himself to the divine will and the anxious uncertainty ceased. His curiosity no longer sought to know what the future held for him, and he tried instead to find the perfect, the acceptable will of God in the beginning and end of every good work.”

-Thomas à Kempis “The Imitation of Christ” pg. 25