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Friday, April 29, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: (More) Strengthened With All Power

As I continued meditating on what it means that God wants to strengthen his children with all power, it became very clear that our weaknesses are not in the way of what he wants to do. It is our willingness to seek his strength that determines how well we join him in his work. 

Here is a look at the meaning of “strengthened with all power”[1] with a view to understanding and appreciating how both the strength and the power are of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are able to be strong in him if we humble ourselves and pray for his strength to be perfected in our weakness. Again, because this is the will of God, we can trust God to do this for everyone who asks in Jesus’ name.






[1] Colossians 1:11 (in the context of Paul’s prayer of Colossians 1:9-14)


© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: Strengthened with all power

So often in my sharing about God’s word, I find myself eager to share both the general picture of how everyone can get to know God in his word, and the specific testimony about what I just learned that day that illustrates this point. 

This Vlog aims to accomplish both desires. The general picture is in how God’s word is like discovering hidden treasures, and the specific testimony is how God used a number of these treasures to encourage me to pray that we would be “strengthened with all power” in our living for Christ.[1] 

Not only did I see why this prayer is so important, but I also saw how God will answer us even as we are praying through his word! I do have the advantage of age where our natural decline in physical strength does seem to have an encouraging effect on our spiritual strength. However, this certainly applies to all God’s children no matter our age.

 


 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 



[1] Colossians 1:11 (in the context of Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9-14)

Sunday, April 24, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: The Blessing of Beatitudinal Prayer

It was one of those mornings where my eyes popped open earlier than my alarm and I had to ask our Father in heaven whether there was anyone in my life who needed prayer right then. While some people came to mind to pray for, I mostly had a sense that I was to pray through the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12 and seek God to make those things real for everyone in my life.


As I was praying, I became overwhelmed with the awareness of two things. One was the way God was blessing me in my praying, and the other was in the consideration of what Jesus had to do so my prayers could be answered. I was so blessed in the things our Father was teaching me, and so glad I could share them with you while out on my truck route prayer walk.


 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

Monday, April 18, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: Praying, Not Fixing

The more I learn about prayer, the more I realize that God isn’t nearly as interested in my ideas for fixing things as I once imagined. Or, perhaps I never even imagined that he was interested because I was too busy being interested in my own ideas myself! Whatever the case, God has been working on me to stop trying to figure out and fix things, but to pray the way the apostle Paul has been teaching me in Colossians 1:9-14. 


On the Saturday of Easter weekend 2022 I fulfilled a long-time desire to hike a particular backroad that carved its way along the hillside to the northeast of our community. 


I enjoyed sight of a number of mule deer, 





and discovered a part of the range land where blue birds seemed to be in abundance.
 



Along the way I was pondering the things God had taught me earlier in my time alone with him in his word. I was quite sure I’m not the only one who has a propensity to struggle with prayer while having no problem coming up with my own ideas of what I should do. 

Since God was making the difference so clear to me, it was easy to share these things in a video that might encourage you as well. 

 


 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

Friday, April 15, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: A Sorrowful Side of Prayer

I am all for making the most of the fellowship and witnessing we can do on social media. I like to hear what God is doing in other places and in other situations. I like to share things to encourage the children of God, and I like to share things that help people consider the good news of great joy that is all about our Savior, Jesus the Christ. 

However, there are times when it feels overwhelming to hear of another disaster ruining lives, or another wave of persecution decimating the Christian population of an area. It is overwhelming to consider one prayer request after another to help the Christians in war torn countries, or to intercede for Christians in prison camps in communist countries and dictatorships. 

And then there are the tragic reports of people who are rescued from human trafficking rings while we know that so many more are not. And unlimited accounts of people trying to attach to God but hindered by horrific experiences of childhood abuse with all its damaging trauma. 

The other morning in my meditation on God’s word, continuing to prayer-journal through Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1, I found myself including more and more of these hurting groups of Christians in my praying. It wasn’t easy. But neither was it disappointing. 

Instead, it was almost a relief to give in to the need to pray for others with an open heart that is willing to “weep with those who weep” even while we wish we could “rejoice with those who rejoice”.[1] In the end, it was another illustration of Jesus’ Beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”[2] I hope this short video has the same effect on you.



 

 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 



[1] Romans 12:15

[2] Matthew 5:4

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: Comfort for Attachment Pain

I don’t know when I first heard the word “attachment”, but as I learned what it meant, I realized that it was the bridge between things I knew inside me and what I saw revealed so clearly in God’s word of the love, joy, and peace of the Spirit that conditions the fellowship of God’s people. 

I can recall reading about people struggling to explain the Greek word “koinonia” which is translated into English as “fellowship”. I could sense that various writers had come across a treasure of close relationships in the early church that they longed to see reproduced in every generation. 

I can remember hearing about how Paul’s heart was expressed in the book of Philippians in such a personal way and knew that I wanted to get to know Paul like that. I could see for myself that he wrote the little book of Philemon to address a very personal and sensitive issue between two brothers in the Lord, and I knew that he had something going on in his relationships that was almost foreign to me. 

My point is that my discovery of the word “attachment” seemed to shed so much light on this quest to know and understand how important love-relationships were to God, and even how the triunity of God was so significant to what it meant for us to be made in the image and likeness of the Triune. 

In a very helpful book on developing relationships in the church, The Other Half of Church, I found this description of attachment: 

Attachment is the strongest force in the human brain. It is not an emotion, although we feel it strongly, and attachment runs much deeper in the brain below willful control. Attachment is the best word scientists could find for what glues people together and little creatures to their parents. It produces an enduring care for the well-being of another. Attachment is a life-giving forever bond with no mechanism in the brain to unglue us. If God has an enduring love for us that brings us good, the only force in the human brain that can understand such lasting kindness and care is the brain’s attachment system.[1]

My point in sharing this is simply that it explains how God designed our brains to match his design of our souls and spirits. He wants us attached to him in a love-relationship with him that consumes us in heart, soul, mind, and strength, and he wants us loving our neighbors as ourselves, loving our enemies as he loved us while we were enemies, and loving one another in the church in the very same way as Jesus loved us from the cross. Such a high and lofty aim has a level of reality to it that is absolutely stirring, while explaining why we are so traumatized by anything that is wrong in our relationships. 

If you’re still with me, this Vlog post is just a few minutes more of showing how personally God’s word speaks to our need for attachment, and for healing when attachments go wrong. May the word of Christ dwell in us richly even in this![2]


 


© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)



[1] Wilder, Jim; Hendricks, Michel. The Other Half of Church (pp. 81-82). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

 

[2] Colossians 3:16

Sunday, April 10, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: Filled and Increasing


I have often heard people stumble over the different ways things are expressed in God’s word. Sometimes they think that God is contradicting himself when he is simply looking at a truth through a different facet of the diamond. 

This hit me this morning when I saw that Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9-14 referred to knowledge in one way that requires us to pray to be filled, while looking at knowledge in another way requires us to pray that our knowledge could keep increasing without ever being filled. And, both are wonderful expression of God’s will! 




















The surprise of a snowy morning seemed so inviting to go out and share a few thoughts about the way we can be both filled and increasing while we pray. It was certainly a beautiful day to be out in God’s creation.

 


 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

Saturday, April 9, 2022

To Worship With Thinking


I was up early and literally overwhelmed with how many treasures of wisdom and knowledge God was revealing in his word! 

First, I still have in mind Paul’s prayer of Colossians 1:9-14. I have it printed out on 4x6 file cards to share with others. My copy is taped to the side of my computer where I pray through it on a daily basis. It is shaping my heart, and soul, and mind, to long for my heavenly Father’s name to be hallowed around me, his kingdom to come into everything I do, and his will be done in real life here and now as it is done in heaven always.[1] 

Second, I am in awe of God regarding the way he is using the example of the evil king Manasseh to show how he will hear and answer the prayer of any sinner who repents and returns to God in faith.[2] I shared about this yesterday in my Vlog post about him.[3] It is so encouraging to know that God receives any sinner who repents and calls out to God in Jesus’ name. 

Third, this uncovered a vein of gold in the book of Hebrews regarding how to relate to the hardship of hostility by attaching to God as the Father who lovingly disciplines me as his son.[4] 

And, fourth, I suddenly found myself worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of thinking! Yes, THINKING!!! 

It came from the first word in this verse: 

“CONSIDER him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”[5] 

Consider: to think about carefully v. — to think about actively, with effort and precision.[6] 

I am in awe of God that he would let me feel the negative and positive of this at the same time. I feel like a seasoned veteran of the Beatitudinal Valley who bears with the downside of all the humbling that takes place because the reality of the upside of becoming like Jesus is such a treasure of grace.[7] 

The negative side of this thinking and considering is to be reminded of all the hardships and heartaches people have gone through under my watch because they have not wanted to THINK. They have been so afraid of hidden and secret things inside them that they would rather turn off their mind and brain from thinking about anything to do with God at all than to endure the few moments of thinking about the festering pains of the past in order to know Jesus Christ as the healer of the brokenhearted and the binder of our wounds in the present.[8] 

As a pastor, I grieve the damage that not wanting to THINK has done to people! I have experienced a lot of hurt from people who have rejected me because they were rejecting where God was taking them. However, that is minor compared to the hurt they have caused themselves by hardening their hearts against the mercies of God that are new every morning, even in our valleys of discipline.[9] 

This is a huge lesson in life for me, that not THINKING causes far more pain than anything I have ever had to feel by letting myself think about what I have done, or what has been done to me, or how my relationship with God and people has been affected by the wounds and the sins of life. 

On the positive side, this tells me how I can overcome the daily grind of hostility that tends to wear us down so we “grow weary or fainthearted”. It is by CONSIDERING Jesus. 

Using the definition of “consider” as above (“to think about carefully v. — to think about actively, with effort and precision”):

  • I am to think about Jesus “ACTIVELY”. In the Bible, meditation means to think actively about God and his word. It is like a cow chewing its cud, bringing up thoughts, thinking them over, coming back to them again, processing them through new experiences, so that we get as much spiritual nutrition out of the word of God as is possible. The writer of Hebrews is calling us to this meditation on Jesus, where we actively give ourselves to all kinds of thoughts about him all the time so that we are transformed through the renewal of our minds.[10]
  • I am to think about Jesus “WITH EFFORT”. A fear-based identity that has never faced the pain of childhood trauma has difficulty with this. I get it. I know all about it. However, I also know the value of effort in pain. The older I get, the more I am aware that I need to put up with pain to maintain good health. My exercise routine gets more difficult with age, but I am regularly quite thankful that I put in the effort to press through something I wasn’t enjoying in order to get the good results. If there is a reward to effort in such mundane (and temporary) earthly pursuits, how much more in giving effort to our thinking about the hostility our Savior endured from sinful people so we will grow in our health for enduring the same kinds of things. 
  • I am to think about Jesus “WITH PRECISION”. This has been such a blessing to me as of late, that everything to do with God and his word is true. Even my hobby-horse of exploring creation science has repeatedly proven the world’s beliefs false while glorifying the word of God for being true. There is no benefit in people giving a lot of thought and consideration to Jesus when they are following the lies and deceptions of the evil one. We MUST let God change our minds from all that is false about Jesus and think hard about him with precision that holds to the whole counsel of God about our Savior (and everything, of course). 

When I look at the hostility that has been expressed in churches over the decades, I see a pattern of people suddenly deciding they do not want to THINK. They do not want to FEEL. They do not want to THINK about FEELING. This is particularly painful for me because one of my earliest lessons about pastoring included the warning that God’s people would be more committed to self-protection than to knowing and doing the will of God.[11] I will just say that I have felt this as personally as anything could be felt as people beloved to me have walked away because the pain of thinking was greater than any benefit of attaching to me, or to God with me. 

However, the grace of God continually calls me to THINK about Jesus, to CONSIDER him, and to let myself FEEL the weight of the hostility he experienced against himself. And in the consideration of what HE endured, I will find his strength keeping me from growing weary or fainthearted on one side, but then leading me in the positive focus of “running with endurance the race that is set before us” while, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despise the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”[12] 

Do I wish that the hostility was outside Jesus’ church rather than inside? Yes. 

Do I wish we were enduring the world’s hostility together as local expressions of the body of Christ and letting God’s discipline make us like Jesus? Yes. 

However, does God reward us individually as we press on to keep THINKING hard about Jesus and his suffering so that we can endure the injustices we face even when we are disowned, slandered, and rejected? Yes. 

Here is Jesus’ invitation in his own words: 

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”[13]

My time with God this morning was gladly opening the door to Jesus so I can consider what he endured for me to help me endure hardship and discipline for him. I know the fellowship with my Savior will grow stronger as I persevere. However, I share this in the hope that it has helped you consider our Savior with me, so you can also “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”[14]

 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 



[1] Encouraged by Jesus’ model prayer for his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13

[2] II Kings 21 and II Chronicles 33

[4] Hebrews 12:1-11, with continuing applications in Hebrews 12:12-29

[5] Hebrews 12:3

[6] Bible Sense Lexicon from Logos Bible Software

[7] The Beatitudinal Valley is the way I see the Beatitudes Jesus taught in Matthew 5:1-12. The first four are like traveling on the downside of the valley as God shows us our poverty of spirit, leads us to mourn what is wrong with us, brings us deeper where we meekly know we cannot fix ourselves and so we find ourselves surrendering to the authority of Jesus Christ, and finally hitting rock bottom, so to speak, where we hunger and thirst for the righteousness of what we could be in Christ by grace through faith. This leads us up the upside of the valley where we become the merciful who have already received mercy, and continue to do so as we express mercy to others. We become the pure in heart as the opportunity to “seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God” (Matthew 6:33) consumes us through and through. This leads us to climb up into the realities of becoming peacemakers who have an insatiable longing to see people come to have peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And, this brings us to the place where we have so experienced the grace and mercy of God that we consider it pure joy when we are persecuted for the glorious name of our Savior and the good news of great joy that he is still in the world seeking and saving the lost.

[8] Psalm 147:3

[9] The famous expression about this, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam 3:22-23), is in the context of Jeremiah grieving the horrible trauma his people were going through under God’s discipline because they refused to THINK about what the prophets were saying and RECEIVE the word of their God to bring them to repentance and faith.

[10] Romans 12:1-2. Note: worldly meditation is not to think actively, but to think passively. In other words, the world’s way of meditating is to try to empty the mind so that Satan can fill it with his thoughts. This is in contrast to biblical meditation that considers the words and thoughts of God that are already revealed to us and letting them overtake our hearts, and souls, and minds by our determined willingness to “let the word of Christ dwell in us richly” (Colossians 3:16).

[11] This came to me around 1990 through Larry Crabb’s book, Inside Out. © 1988, 2007, 2013 by Lawrence J. Crabb Jr. through NavPress Publishing Group. I had never heard of self-protection before, but the book turned out to be prophetic in its warning that more church people would idolize their own abilities at self-protection above their desire to know and do the will of God.

[12] Hebrews 12:1-2

[13] Revelation 3:19-20

[14] Ephesians 6:10 (in context of Ephesians 6:10-20)

Friday, April 8, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: When Sinners Pray


There is a difficulty we encounter when encouraging people to pray like Paul is teaching us in Colossians 1.

 

The problem is that some people feel too far gone for God to hear them. They think they have sinned too much, or failed too much, or rebelled too much, to ever think that God would care what they wanted to talk to him about. 

In today’s truck route walk, I had a few minutes to summarize how God has helped me with this the last couple of days. In the worst-case-scenario example of a king named Manasseh, God demonstrates how he responds to sinners when they pray.










Join me in the encouragement of this Scripture, and then let’s join with other believers to pray according to God’s will.

 


 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

In2Freedom Vlog: Prayer That Pleases God

I have been so moved by Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9-14 that it is taking weeks to go through it, consider it in light of other Scriptures, and be honest with God about how I am doing and what I need to put into practice. 

At this point, I have been processing the first few lines of what Paul prayed:


Here are a few minutes of my thoughts about this prayer as I was out on my Truck Route walk this morning. I hope it encourages you to consider how you can also pray this prayer on your own, and in fellowship with other believers. The better we get to know the things the apostles prayed for the churches, the more it will shape our minds and hearts about what to pray about everything going on in our lives, our churches, our families, and our communities. 

May God be glorified as we pray and obey in Jesus’ name.


(Make sure video is in HD)

 

© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)