News

Dear First Pres,

Growing up, this time of year was always buzzing at my house. Not just because of all the normal spring activities (we have plenty of those coming up for FPC, check out our event calendar for details), but also because my parents’ house is surrounded by orange trees. And, during this time of year, when the blossoms are out, the bees are also out in force. It was always a bit unsettling to walk outside and hear the literal buzz of thousands of bees doing their work all around our house. 

Now, we only have one tree at our house here in Fresno. But as you can see from the photo, it’s in bloom and the bees are busy. The bees may be a bit unsettling for some, but they’re also a sign of the season – a season of new life, new growth, new opportunities. It’s the season of spring.

On Sunday we launched a new sermon series called The Call to Faith. We’re going to spend the next several weeks focused on the story of God’s gracious call to Abraham and Sarah. They were called to step out in faith, to leave their country, network and household and go to the place the Lord would reveal. Walter Brueggamann, a well-known Old Testament scholar, calls it a story of promise and faith. 

“The promise is God’s power and will to create a new future sharply discontinuous with the past and the present. The promise is God’s resolve to form a new community wrought only by miracle and reliant only on God’s faithfulness. Faith as response is the capacity to embrace that announced future with such passion that the present can be relinquished for the sake of that future.”

I love this sentence about faith. Abraham was willing to leave where he was and go to the new territory, even yet unknown and unseen. He was willing to relinquish his present for the sake of God’s declared future. Why? It was because of the LORD’s gracious and promising call. 

Do you believe the LORD has a call on your life? What is it? Do you believe the promises that go with it? Are you willing to relinquish what needs to be relinquished and embrace God’s announced future? 

In the midst of this abundant spring, I pray that each of us will individually and collectively hear the LORD’s call to faith. May the opportunities for growth in Christ be pollinated by His Spirit. And may there indeed be new growth, new life and new territory as we embrace God’s promised future in Christ Jesus.

Blessings,

Jeremy

P.S.  You’re not going to want to miss this Sunday as 10 of our young people are coming into church membership through the public proclamation of their faith in Jesus. It’s going to be a great day.

Dear First Pres,

   On Tuesday evening, our church’s oldest active member passed away. Dr. Malcom Masten was 104 years old and he’d been a member of FPC Fresno since May 31, 1953. Last time I saw Dr. Masten (as most of us called him) was at a memorial service for another long-time FPC member. When I greeted him, Dr. Masten did what he always did over the eleven years that I knew him. He looked at me with a sparkle in his eyes, gave me a firm handshake and greeted me warmly. I’m going to miss that.

  I’m sure Dr. Masten was ready. I know he missed his bride of 79 years, LaVerne, who died in 2022. He lived a long, fruitful life. And, I know that his hope was secure in Christ Jesus. Still, his death is yet another reminder that this world is not the way it was meant to be.

   When Jesus encountered Mary and the others who were grieving the death of His friend, Lazarus, John tells us that Jesus was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (John 11:33). Then, after telling us that “Jesus wept” (11:35), we read that when Jesus got to the tomb He was “once more deeply moved” (11:38). The words there mean that Jesus was angry and disturbed. So, what was it that got Jesus so upset? John doesn’t tell us exactly, but what seems apparent to me is that Jesus was angry at the reality of death itself.  

   Death is an intruder in this world. It was not part of God’s original design, and it will not be part of God’s restored eternal design. 1 Corinthians 15:26 says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 

   That’s why this Holy Week is such an important time of remembering and celebrating. First, we remember that the way God defeated death was for God the Son to submit Himself to it in our place. As the old hymn so elegantly begins, “‘Man of Sorrows!’ What a name, for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim! Hallelujah, what a Savior!” But then, on Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus truly is the One who swallowed up death in victory. And so we sing with the Easter hymn, “Crown Him the Lord of life; who triumphed o’er the grave, who rose victorious to the strife, for those He came to save. His glories now we sing, who died and rose on high, who died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.”

   As a foretaste of that great victory to come and the life available through Him, when Jesus arrived at the tomb of his friend, deeply moved, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Then, in the next verse, John simply but profoundly writes, “The dead man came out” (see John 11:43-44a).

   This world isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, the evidence of that is apparent to us all. But in the Crucified, Risen, Reigning and Returning Christ Jesus there is certain hope for His Kingdom to be on earth as it is in heaven.

   No matter what kind of evidence of our broken world you’re experiencing this week. I pray you hear the call of Jesus to live in His resurrection power, grace, victory and hope. And I invite you to join me in praying that all who join us for worship tonight and Sunday morning will heed His call to life. 

Blessings, 

Jeremy