Stay Stoked in God’s Mysterious Timing
My favorite t-shirt (now very well worn) has a simple slogan: “Stay Stoked.” The word stoked means excited, awesome, or full of joy. People often comment when they see it, and for me it’s a reminder that because of Jesus, I can live with joy no matter what.
Not long ago, I decided to order a replacement shirt. I found one on sale and was stoked! But when it finally arrived, I discovered the company had sent the wrong shirt. Suddenly, I was not stoked. It was a small thing, but it reminded me how quickly frustration rises when life doesn’t go my way. My instinct is often to scramble for another solution instead of practicing patience and contentment.
Revelation 10:7 points us to a bigger truth about waiting: “But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.” God’s “mystery” isn’t something scary or unknowable — it’s His redemptive plan. It was revealed in Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10) and will one day be fully completed. We don’t see all the details, but we know His character — His love, grace, and promises — and that’s enough to trust Him.
Earlier in Revelation (6:10), the martyrs cry out, “How long, O Lord?” We often echo that question. Why the delay? Why hasn’t God set everything right yet? The answer is found in His heart. As Peter reminds us, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise… Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God’s patience means more time for people to repent, believe, and find life in Him.
That means we live “between the trumpets” — waiting for God’s final victory at the sound of the seventh trumpet. And while we wait, we are called to trust His timing, hold fast in faith, and live as witnesses to His coming kingdom.
So even when plans don’t go our way — even over something as small as a t-shirt — we can “stay stoked,” not because life always runs smoothly, but because God is faithful. His timing, His plan, and His victory are certain.
Jeremy Johnson
Executive Pastor
Jesus in the Grief
God's people have prayed for rain these last several years. And when the rain comes with unspeakable tragedy, we have difficulty understanding God’s ways. Preteen girls swept away in the dark of night. Families thrust into a raging river in the midst of a holiday weekend. Absolute terror in the darkness. Where is God's peace in this?
Last week, July 7, was the 13th anniversary of the death of my daughter, Madeleine. She was 13 years old and died within hours of getting a headache that turned out to be an arterio-venous malformation.
As beautiful as this world is and as wonderful as our blessings from above are, you don't have to look far to find tragedy, grief and pain. Even for believers (and much more for unbelievers) it's so hard to make sense of the pain & loss. Where is the love of God?
The answer is that Jesus wept. He wept and still weeps for a fallen world. He wept and still weeps for the sin that corrupts the world that, in the beginning, He made. He weeps for diseases and tragedies that should never have been. He weeps for sin that corrupted his Father's perfect world, and brought with it floods and aneurysms and fires and dementia. The sin that brought forth infant mortality and cancer and pornography and alcoholism and heart disease.
When people ask me how to make sense of my daughter's death or the dead and missing children and families in Kerrville, my answer is that God, the creator & sustainer of the universe, is sitting on his throne grieving with us. Jesus weeps and waits for the day of resurrection and renewal. Just as he knew his friend, Lazarus, would walk out of the tomb, he knows that a day is coming when there will be no more destruction, disease and death. A day when every sad thing will come untrue.
My prayer: “Lord, help us make sense of our grief. How can the blessing of rain turn into the tragedy of young people's lives being cut short, snuffed out and families being suddenly thrust into the torrent of raging water in the dark of night? Help us to understand how terrible things like this happen in a world that you created. Why do 13-year-old girls die suddenly of arterial-venous malformations and 90 year-old people crave release from this world but find no satisfaction? We are Christ followers. We are believers. We trust you. But, in the small hours of the night, our faith grows weak, and we struggle to understand the tragedy and the pain. Why did the blessing of rain this weekend come with destruction, terror and death? Why does the blessing of fire in our hearths also rage on the mountainside? Help us to understand ‘The Fall’, ‘The Curse’. Help us to understand Satan's role in corrupting your perfect world. Help us to see that this is not the world that you designed. It is bent. The perfect world and the perfect relationships that you created were corrupted by the sin of man. Help us to understand that you grieve with us. Your heart hurts for those that are hurting. Help us to remember that you weep with us. That you care for us. And that this world, though wonderful and terrible both, is a vapor compared to the eternity that awaits us with you in your glory. Help us to keep that foremost in our hearts.
It's through the name of Christ, and remembering the tears of Christ, that we pray, Amen”
Psalm 39
4“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.”
With special thanks to:
Dr. Michael Hindman
Elder, serving at NB Church of Christ, New Braunfels, Texas
(friend of Kenny & Donielle Winter)
Your Seat at the Table
Every May and November I watched my mom and other ladies wash the communion glasses in the church kitchen. This was their scheduled time throughout the year to wash and dry them and carefully stack them back in the trays to be filled up with wine or grape juice. As I think back, I remember laughter amongst the ladies; but they took great care with these communion glasses. Communion was taken on the first Sunday of each month and it was a special. I remember this spiritual discipline as a time of reverence and celebration. When I asked “why do we do it on the first Sunday of the month?” no one had an answer.
Several years ago during the Covid lock down, my family received communion around our kitchen island. I remember feeling such a bond with the whole family as my husband led us in the taking of the bread which is a symbol of Christ’s broken body, and then the cup of grape juice as the reminder of Christ’s blood shed for each of us. These elements are a reminder of Christ’s selfless act in which the new covenant with God was made. Never had I thought of taking communion together in our kitchen, and I am sad to say we haven’t done it since.
How often should we take communion? Where should we take communion? The Bible Knowledge Commentary indicates that there is no prescribed schedule for The Lord’s Supper, yet whenever it was celebrated its message of humiliation and subsequent exaltation (Phil 2:6-11) went forth.
I have a friend who took communion in her home for over a year. She commented that she didn’t have a template, but most days she thanked Him for the power in His shed blood and the body He surrendered. Some days with song or with Scripture, or days of just praying through it, It became a daily time of remembering what was and praising what has been given to each of us.
Another friend shared that her weekly small group took communion each time they met! I love this idea, because it is a symbol of their unity as a church family. This was the bonding that I experienced with my family in our kitchen.
When you take communion what do you feel? Where is your heart and mind?
Don’t miss your part . . ..for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 1 Corinthians 11:26
May we take our seat at the table seriously.
Tammy De Armas
EFCC Member
Digesting The Reality of God’s Love
When we abuse this experience by coming to God’s Table incorrectly, we are jeopardizing our chances of living into the fullness of what God wants to show us through his sacrifice, and the ways that help us remember who we are in Him.
It’s easy to read Paul’s warnings and in reaction turn communion into an experience of legalism and fear based on Paul’s description or even turn it into something we HAVE to do, but I don’t think either of these perspectives could be Paul’s intention. I think he was displeased, and he came off intense here due to his displeasure (and rebuking is not the same thing as condemning). If we keep things in perspective in light of the Gospel (“perfect love casts out fear”), that belief in Jesus is the only thing we need to be made right with him, communion simply becomes a visceral way to be reminded of what it means to abide in Christ.
As children of God, our wholeness in God’s estimation is as real as the elements we consume (even if all WE see is brokenness). Our never-ending need for Him is as real as our never-ending need for food and drink. Basking in the wholeness God has given us is what communion is meant to remind us of! His blood and body alone give life, even more so than the food and drink we consume. We are urged firmly to partake, and that is because our need for Jesus in our lives is real, and persistent. Since we become complacent in that knowledge easily, as the hymn famously states, “prone to wander, Lord I feel it,” then we need that persistent reminder!
As we partake, I’d gently encourage you to remember that as we eat the “body” and drink the “blood” of Christ, it is because of His body and blood that we are the righteousness of God. What a breathtaking reality to digest whenever we sit at the Lord’s Table!
Ashley Carr
Teacher
Food Poisoning?
1 Corinthians 11:31–32
There’s a verse in 1 Corinthians 11 that is a bit troubling. Paul was writing to the Corinthian church about their practice of taking communion. There were some followers of Jesus in Corinth who were not taking communion in a God honoring an appropriate manner. Paul wrote, “That is why many among you are weak and ill, and some have died”? (v. 30) Honestly, it makes you want to skip the verse entirely. But we can’t. Because Paul meant what he said. People were literally getting sick because they weren’t approaching Communion rightly.
Now, that might sound harsh, but let’s pause for a moment. We tend to separate our spiritual lives from everything else. We put our physical health in one category, our emotional well-being in another, and sometimes our spiritual life is put in some “Sunday morning” category, but Scripture doesn’t do that. It views us as whole, integrated beings… body, mind, and soul all wrapped together.
I experienced this a few years ago. I had some strange tension and heat in my neck, so I went to the doctor. They ran all the tests . . . and found nothing. The diagnosis? Stress. My emotional life was affecting my physical health. If that’s true emotionally, why wouldn’t it be true spiritually?
It’s all connected. We are integrated beings. That’s why Paul commanded us to examine ourselves before we come to the Table. Not to make ourselves “good enough,” we never could accomplish that task. But to honestly ask: Are there relationships that are out of joint? Sin I’ve grown numb to? Places where God has been trying to get my attention and I’ve ignored Him?
Paul writes, “If we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.” (v. 31) In other words, when we open ourselves up to God’s loving discipline, we actually avoid His harsher correction. And make no mistake about it, this judgment isn’t condemnation. It’s grace. It’s discipline from a loving Father who wants more for us. Proverbs reminds us that the Lord reproves those He loves; just like a good dad disciplines his kids. Not because He’s angry. But because He delights in us. He wants to make us whole.
So next time you take Communion, don’t rush through the examination part. Don’t skip over the silence. Listen for God’s voice of correction, not to punish, but to pull you back into alignment with His love. It might feel uncomfortable, but it’s how we become whole.
Prayer: Lord, search me. Know my heart. Shine Your light into the corners of my life that I’d rather keep hidden. Thank You that even Your discipline is grace. Amen.
Pastor Ryan Paulson
Look at You!!
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he wasn’t very happy with the way the church was taking communion–the Lord’s Supper. They would often have a “love feast”–it was a big event kind of like our church picnics. First Corinthians 11:17–34 indicates that some were gorging themselves at the feast while others were left hungry. Some were even getting drunk. The people were not waiting for one another, nor were they sharing—they ate the food they brought themselves, and, if someone couldn’t bring much, he did without. Separation between rich and poor was evident and somewhere in all of this “the Lord’s Supper” got lost.
Paul said they weren’t even really eating the Lord’s supper. (vs.20) So, he asked them to do a “heart check,” (as we should do). Am I taking communion to remember Christ’s sacrifice for me? Am I just going through the motions, participating in the ritual? Have I daily been confessing words I’ve spoken I shouldn’t have, or participated in any grumbling? Have I been selfish?
Does that mean we have to be perfect to participate? Absolutely not! We just need to be honest with God and ourselves. Communion is a good time to reflect and to remember Jesus shed his blood and sacrificed his body for you and me to live life abundantly with the promise of eternity with him! We will never be perfect, as he was, but we can walk with him as closely as possible and keep growing and learning how to be more like him.
In that moment of reflection before we eat and drink in remembrance, we can ask him to help us forgive others, and create in us a clean heart! (Psalm 51:10) We can pray for unity in the body of believers and ask how we can be a unifier and encourager. We can ask him to reveal any way we have strayed from his perfect will and plan for us. Most importantly, we can tell Jesus how much we love him and want to be more like him. It’s about HIM, His glory, His honor, His mercy!
Deb Hill
EFCC Member
Comm(union)
“But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.”
I Corinthians 11:17
E pluribus unum was approved in 1782 to be the motto on the Great Seal of the United States. We see it on the ribbon held in the eagle’s beak. In school, we all learned that this meant “out of many, one”. The United States of America meant just that, the thirteen smaller states joined together to become united in this new nation. They set aside some differences for the larger good. And the motto has become over the years to reference that we are a country of immigrants who become Americans, not denying ethnicity but setting it aside for the sake of unity as Americans.
While this is not a Biblical phrase or even has any spiritual emphasis in its origin story, it does illustrate a Biblical truth. We are one in Christ!
“For He Himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility…” Ephesians 2:14
“…so we, though many, are one body in Christ” Romans 12:5
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for you are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28
There are a myriad of verses declaring all believers of whatever status as one in Christ. This truth is foundational to our core beliefs and, thus, we can see why the apostle Paul was so upset with the church in Corinth. The receiving of Communion was to be done in remembrance of Christ’s sacrificial death and to show how the believers were one in Him…it was to be Comm(union). It was a picture that had been changed by the strategy of our enemy. The evil one showed up in the church to deceive and divide as he has always done. He did it in the Garden of Eden, with Cain and Abel, and so on down human history in his goal to keep people from knowing Christ and/or living for Him. In the celebration of the Eucharist, the Corinthians would share a meal…or not share as it seemed. Can you imagine a potluck with one table for the haves full of food and one empty with nothing for the have nots? This was called a love feast and was to be marked by love for each other but was marked by economic separation! No wonder Paul was very direct in his condemnation of what they were doing.
Perhaps we need to check our hearts to see where we have been affected by this strategy of division. Are there things we must set aside so the love of Christ can be displayed in the communion sacrament? And perhaps not only then but in our daily walks as we live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
“. . . that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” John 17:21
Francie Overstreet
EFCC Member
Freedom Isn’t Free!
Happy Birthday America!! It’s the 4th of July, the day we as a nation come together to celebrate the birth of American independence, the many freedoms we enjoy as a nation for the past 249 years. Most of us will mark the holiday today with a summertime barbecue, a gathering of family or friends, perhaps a parade or patriotic concert and of course, a nighttime sky bursting with fireworks.
But as happy and enjoyable as this holiday is for us today, the reason we can celebrate the 4th of July is because 250 years ago others were willing to pay a price, battle in the Revolutionary War. That revolt cost the 13 Colonies’ young patriots greatly. Historian Howard H. Peckham’s data is regarded as the most accurate accounting of the death toll. 8,624 American fighters were killed in battle, another estimated 10,000 died in camp, and 8,500 perished while held in captivity.
The fact is, I have freedom and a holiday to celebrate, because long ago others’ lives paid for that gift. I never knew those patriots personally, but I enjoy every day the freedoms that cost them everything. It can be easy to take freedom for granted.
In Revelation 5:9-10, 12, they sing a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.”“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
Jesus paid the price for my freedom. The Lamb of God had to be slaughtered to “break the seals,” to take away the sin of the world. It took the precious blood of Christ to ransom you and me from slavery to sin, from guilt, shame, condemnation and death. Because he paid the ultimate price, I’ve been gifted with salvation and freedom in Christ for this life and for the life to come.
Ephesians 2:8 reads
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
May we celebrate freedom for our nation today but may we never forget that freedom isn’t free. It came at a cost in 1775. The salvation gift God gave us, cost God greatly!
May we be happy and grateful this Independence Day.
Donielle Winter
EFCC Member
Where's the Lion?
Revelation serves us the Final Act of God’s story, tying up loose ends, bringing all things to a close, and reminding us of the “one who conquers” once and for all. The text primarily does this through layers of symbolism and, among other things, connects important dots from the Church’s past to cryptic allusions of the Church’s future.
One of these brilliant, symbolic moments–where John (the narrator and author of Revelation) ties together images that thread their way through all of scripture–is shown in chapter 5, verses 1-14.
John is beside himself at the beginning of the passage, weeping out of hopelessness and despair. One of the elders assures him that the Lion of Judah will be able to bring hope and save them, but, when He actually shows up, there’s a twist; it’s no lion that appears, it’s a lamb! And not just any lamb, but one that looks like it’s been sacrificed on the altar.
“Hold up, where’s our lion?!”
You can imagine people’s shock and disappointment at this discovery. This was no doubt the response of more perceptive Jews when Jesus showed up (those who were even able to recognize Jesus for what he claimed to be; most missed him entirely, kind of like a joke going completely over someone’s head). That’s because the Jews were expecting a conquering hero who would subdue the Romans with an entourage of bloodthirsty angels, freeing them from suffering by taking out their enemies once and for all.
They didn’t understand that God’s heart is meek, not vengeful. His ways are not our ways, and what he loves is not what we love. What the world values, God “count[s]... as nothing,” so the way he sought to demonstrate his heart to us and save the world was by coming as a Lamb (“whoever has ears, let them hear”).
The lowly carpenter that was born in a stable and died an obscure death on a cross. Not the kind of person who gives “conquering hero” vibes, is he? But this is where God brilliantly subverted expectations. For as a Lamb he came, and as a Lamb he conquered.
The Lion of Judah conquering as a Lamb is meant to symbolize throughout scripture this reality that Jesus as God conquers in a way the world would never have guessed: by embodying sacrifice, selflessness, meekness, and unconditional love. This is the way he saved the world (as no one had ever done before), and it’s also the way he invites His Church to partner with him in doing the same.
Ashley Carr
Teacher
Bowls of Prayers
“…and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
Revelation 5:8
“Let my prayer be counted as incense before You…”
Psalm 141:2
As we continued our glimpse into the Throne Room of heaven and we began to hear about what “must take place”, I was struck by the picture of the golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints. The prayers of all the believers for all of time have become a ‘sweet aroma pleasing to God’. Incense is a sweet-smelling substance burned as an offering to God in the tabernacle and the Temple as a way of honoring God. It symbolized the prayers of the Hebrew people. But these prayers include our prayers; those of the apostles and early believers, those who trusted in Christ over the last two thousand years, and those who will until He returns.
What prayers are included in this aroma to God? Richard Foster says, “To pray is to change.” Often that is what prayer is, please God heal my child, please God help my words to be kind, please God bring my neighbor to Christ, that becomes incense. Prayers don’t need fancy words or deep theological phrases. Dom John Chapman says, “Pray as you can, not as you can’t.”
Prayers of gratitude, adoration, joy, love, confession, and repentance are certainly incense, a sweet aroma to God. But what about those other prayers with different emotions; their catalysts can be fear, confusion, despair, anger, doubt, hopelessness, etc. How can they be a sweet incense to God? Anything prayed to God acknowledges that (even in our doubting) He alone is Sovereign and has the answers. The cries of our hearts in humility and transparency are always heard and become part of those bowls full of incense. And our LORD delights in our prayers and He wants us to bring everything to Him. Brothers and sisters, prayer is a way we can honor Him every day and all of the time; and those prayers are a sweet aroma forever to Him. Ponder this today as you fill those bowls of incense.
“When the Spirit has come to reside in someone, that person cannot stop praying; for the Spirit prays without ceasing in him. No matter if he is asleep or awake, prayer is going on in his heart all of the time. He may be eating or drinking, he may be resting or working – the incense of prayer will ascend spontaneously from his heart. The slightest stirring of his heart is like a voice which sings in silence and in secret to the Invisible.” Isaac the Syrian
Francie Overstreet
EFCC Member