Author: Tom Flaherty

Pastor at City Church in Madison, Wisconsin
Posted in Romans

Taking Time to Give Thanks

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, ‘Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine – where are they?’” Luke 17:15-17

We glorify God when we recognize what He has done for us by giving thanks. God’s not looking for a repayment which would be impossible, but He is looking for our sincere thanks for the good things He does for us. How sad that Jesus would have to ask, “The nine – where are they?” Why didn’t they come back and thank Jesus? Probably for some of the same reasons you and I don’t spend more time giving thanks.

  1.  Maybe they were too busy. Now that they received their healing there were a hundred things they needed to do. They needed to return to their families; they needed to look for work; they needed to make up for lost time. Thanksgiving is a simple thing but it does take time which is a precious commodity. Make it a priority to devote time every day to just stop and give thanks to God.
  2. Maybe they had a chip on their shoulder. “God owes me…” When we feel like God owes us anything we start taking His blessings as payments for our devotion and service instead of that which He has freely given us out of His love and grace. Maybe the nine were angry at God because of their leprosy so when they were healed it didn’t produce gratefulness, but more like, “it’s about time.” It is good to remember that God owes you and me nothing. “Who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again?” (Romans 11:35)
  3. Maybe they were overly focused on themselves. When our lives are all about us we miss the big picture and fall into the delusion that we are independent. Remember, every breath we draw comes from the God who made us, and we continue to exist only due to His mercy. He’s the sun we orbit around, so we need to be careful not to make ourselves the middle. There is no greater use of the breath He has lent us than to give thanks back to God.
Posted in Acts, Ecclesiastes, Philippians

Emotionally Content

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 NIV

I want to learn how to enjoy the season that I am currently experiencing instead of fighting it. Why is it so easy to pine over what once was, or to long for a future that is different than my life right now? God has made right now beautiful if I’m willing to see it. He has you and me where we are right now.  Can we agree with Him in our emotions and even learn to enjoy this season? Or do we fight with God, advise God, disagree with God, and basically go against the grain of the season we’re in with the slivers to prove it? Jesus said to Saul, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14)

We can’t fathom the whole of what God is doing in our lives and because of that we aren’t capable of judging how the present season fits. Why not trust God and get into the flow of what He is doing? Maybe you’re like me, frustrated by your seeming lack of control over what happens in your circumstances. If we surrender our need for control we are free to trust the One who really is in control. Easier said than done, but it’s only when we truly let go that we experience His peace. Here’s His promise to us in Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Whether you are old or young, married or single, employed or unemployed, in school or out of school, happy or sad, on the top or on the bottom… whatever your life is like right now, I challenge you to find God’s beauty in it and to be at peace.

Posted in 1Thessalonians, Colossians, James, Jeremiah, Psalms, Romans

Give Thanks

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1Thessalonians 5:18

Many times we aren’t sure what God’s perfect will is for a situation, so we waver between one direction and another. “God, couldn’t you speak more clearly so that I would know for sure?” Well, this passage is crystal clear and it’s right in the word of God; “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will…” The interesting thing about God’s will is that it is not as much about what we do, as it is about how we do what we do. Listen to this verse: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Colossians 3:23) Whatever you do! Praying, eating, playing, watching football, shopping…. whatever.

Our text doesn’t say “for everything,” evil does happen, but rather, “in everything.” How can we thank God in every single circumstance we are in?

We can always thank Him for His love which endures forever. God loves you and me right now no matter what we’re going through! How wonderful is that?

We can thank Him that He is in control. However bad things may seem, everything that is happening has at least been allowed by God and has not surprised Him. We can thank Him for always having a plan for good no matter how badly we have messed things up. (Jeremiah 29:11) We can thank Him for His wisdom which is able to work “all” things for our good. (Romans 8:28) He will use our trials (self inflicted or God ordained) to make us complete and content in Christ alone. (James 1:2-4)

No matter what is going on we can thank Him that our real life is, “hidden with Christ in God,” (Colossians 3:1) and that our real home is in heaven. We can thank Him for the forgiveness of our sins and for His guiding presence in our future. We can thank Him for the cross, and that whatever hardship we are going through is nothing compared to what He went through for us. We can thank Him for being good, for being our Father, for being our Savior – for being our everything. As the Psalmist has said, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His loving-kindness is everlasting.” (Psalm 107:1)

Posted in John

The Narrow Way

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

Alice and I were flying back from a conference in New York a few years ago, and the lady across the aisle was flipping through index cards, so I asked her what she was doing.

“I’m learning to speak German,” she said. “My son married a German woman and we’re going over to Germany soon for her ordination as a Lutheran pastor.”

She was more than willing to talk, so I asked about her own background and found out she was raised Southern Baptist but had since become a Unitarian.

“As I grew intellectually I realized that all religions were equally sincere and therefore, equally true,” she explained.

So I asked her about the resurrection, and she said she wasn’t sure about it and didn’t know if anyone could be. I gave her a couple of historical arguments for Jesus’ resurrection and then asked her to rethink her premise of “sincerity” being the proof of truth. We know that in mathematics one plus one equals two and that it doesn’t matter how sincerely someone may think it’s three – there’s only one right answer. Truth, by definition, is narrow. If Jesus rose from the dead then He was who He said He was, and if so, He is the only way to God.

At this point the man in front of me turned around and asked me to keep my voice down because it was “projecting.” I finished talking with the woman, trying to keep my voice down, by sharing C.S. Lewis’ Liar, lunatic, or Lord argument. We don’t have the intellectual option of believing Jesus was a good man, or even a great prophet.  Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh so He was either a liar, He knew He was just a man so lied about being God; a lunatic, He really thought He was God but wasn’t; or He was and is Lord of all.

At this we finished our conversation and after a minute of silence, I felt a tug on my sleeve from the man directly behind me. When I turned around, he told me he wished that our conversation had lasted for two more hours.

Some believe, some don’t believe, and some aren’t sure what they believe. But the truth stands on its own regardless of how people react to it. The sun still exists on a cloudy day whether we believe in it or not!

Posted in 2Kings

Generations Coming Together

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.” And he said, “Go.” Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied. And he went with them. 2Kings 6:1-3

Every year, Alice and I go to our National Conference where we hear a number of speakers. The final message of last year’s conference was from the above text. The first message of this year’s conference was also from this exact text. Can you imagine how we felt when the second night’s message this year was also from 2Kings 6:1-7? Three straight speakers all speaking from the same obscure text! Only God could arrange this, so the question becomes, why? I think it has to do with the generations coming together.

Here are three encouragements for the older generation:

  1. Have something to give from God that the younger generation needs. Elisha had burned his plow and pressed in for a double anointing which he had received from Elijah. The younger generation doesn’t need information from us – they can just Google to get that. But Google can’t supply the wisdom that comes from an ongoing relationship with God. We must keep pressing in for all God has for us to be “relevant” to the generations behind us. They asked Elisha to come because they needed what he had.
  2.  Release the younger generation to go beyond where we’ve been. The idea to build bigger came from the young prophets. The place they were currently living in was probably built by Elisha and now it wasn’t good enough. Instead of being offended, Elisha releases them to do something more than he’d done. King Saul had become jealous of the next generation and feared they would be greater than he was, so he tried to kill David. Elijah believed that God could take His anointing and double it in the next generation – let’s believe as well and release the coming generation into even more grace than we’ve experienced.
  3.  We need to go with the next generation to ensure their success. In their zeal, mistakes are made, but Elisha was there to show them that every problem is actually an opportunity to encounter the faithfulness and power of God.
Posted in Romans

Believing God

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead-since he was about a hundred years old-and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” Romans 4:18-21

There’s a difference between believing in God and believing God. Let’s look at Abraham’s process of believing God, so we can learn how to believe God as well.

He heard from God. “So shall your offspring be,” was a reference to Abraham gazing at the stars and hearing the voice of God. This is the beginning of faith – God speaking. (Romans 10:17)

He faced his circumstances. He was a hundred years old, and Sarah was barren – it would take a miracle. All human hope of the promise coming true was extinguished; it would take direct intervention from God. Faith never asks us to live in denial of our circumstances, but it often does ask us to believe God in spite of them.

He kept believing. The beginning of faith is exciting, but what if what was promised doesn’t happen right away? “He did not waver through unbelief.” He didn’t but he could have. He could have questioned whether God had really spoken at all, or whether He really meant what He said. He could have thought of all the others who had prayed and didn’t seem to be answered. It’s easy to waver through unbelief. He chose to believe God and to keep believing God.

What has God promised you? If nothing, then get into His word and ask Him what He has for you. Position your life to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit and you’ll be surprised at how alive Jesus is today. When He speaks, I encourage you to go from believing in God to believing God. Whether it’s for salvation, healing, restoration, provision, or a direction He’s leading you in. Time in His word and in His presence will purify our thoughts, so we can know the difference between what God is actually speaking and what we are only imagining. Take what is truly of God and believe Him for the great things He wants to do in us, for us, and through us.

Posted in Hebrews, Luke, Romans

Dealing with Differences

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“‘Master,’ said John, ‘we saw a man driving out demons in Your Name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.’ ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said, ‘for whoever is not against you is for you.’” Luke 9:49-50

When I first came to Christ, I was part of a church that believed we were the only pure expression of Christianity in our city. Every sermon featured some way we were better than everyone else. We only used the King James Bible, for instance, and believed every other translation was defiled and leading people into heresy. We were “it,” and everyone else was deceived at some level.

Looking back, I feel sadness for how proud and blind we were; not just about ourselves, but about who God is. We had made the God of all grace so small and picky that if you didn’t believe exactly like we did you were on the outside. The truth is that we were small and picky, not God.

John is clearly proud of his rebuke of this man who wasn’t, “one of us.” Jesus had a wider circle of those who are with Him.

People come to me with accusations against Christian leaders across the body of Christ. Sometimes it’s about what a leader said and sometimes it’s about something questionable they did. I’m almost always in agreement with those who are bringing the charge, leaders are flawed and often say things and do things that are a little off. But once in a while the person bringing the accusation wants more than agreement, they want me to publicly renounce that leader and their group.

At this point I become a disappointment to them. Jesus is not ashamed to call me His brother (Hebrews 2:11) with all of my flaws and errors, so I want to be unashamed to stand next to brothers and sisters who love Jesus, but aren’t just like our group.

I understand and value the desire for truth and the need to be on guard against deception, but we must be very careful before pointing the finger at others lest we condemn someone who Jesus accepts and delights in. May God help us be humble and generous toward all those who are different from us. “Accept one another,” Paul says to Christians who were judging each other over minor differences, “just as Christ has accepted you.” (Romans 15:7)

Posted in Galatians

The Glove

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in this body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

A few years ago at a men’s conference, a speaker told of a Sunday school teacher he had when he was in middle school. This teacher used magician’s tricks to keep the students’ attention, so everyone was intrigued the day he brought in a magic glove and declared that the glove was able to pick up the Bible.

He laid the glove on the Bible and started saying magic words but it didn’t work; the glove did nothing. What’s wrong? He picked up the glove and looked it over, put it back on the Bible, said the magic words, but once again, nothing. What’s wrong with this glove?

Finally, he took the glove, turned it around and put it on, said the magic words and lo and behold, the glove picked up the Bible. One of the kids in the class was not impressed: “Do you think we’re stupid?” he asked. Everyone in the class recognized that even though the glove did pick up the Bible, it wasn’t really the work of the glove. It was all about the hand inside the glove.

Then the teacher read Galatians 2:20 and explained that we are the glove and Jesus is the hand inside the glove. We are powerless to live the Christian life on our own, but if we will identify our lives with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, and then trust Him day by day, He will live in us and make all things possible.

The speaker went on to say we would hear many things during the day about how we could be better Christians, better fathers, and better husbands which would make us feel worse than we already did unless we remember the hand in the glove. The Christian life isn’t about us trying to live like Jesus, it’s about Jesus living His life in and through us.

Posted in Esther

The Role of Mordecai

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 (Esther’s uncle Mordecai is the one who gave her this message.)

Without Mordecai the story of Esther becomes a tragedy because Esther is so much like us. News comes about Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews and Esther feels bad about it and even wishes she could do something about it, but “any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned by the king has but one law: that he be put to death.” (Esther 4:11) Esther is saying in essence what many of us believe about ourselves: “I’m sorry that the world is going to hell, but circumstances are such that I can’t do anything about it right now. Wish I could, but I can’t.” Without Mordecai, Esther probably would have done nothing, wouldn’t have become a heroine, and most likely, there wouldn’t even be a book of Esther.

Think for a moment about the role of Mordecai. He’s the one who calls Esther to fulfill her God ordained destiny. He’s the one who encourages her to risk her life and promises to fast with her as she steps way out of her comfort zone. Because of his encouragement, she moves from an attitude of self-preservation to a willingness to lay her life down. The one who initially says, “I can’t,” now says I’ll try and “if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16)

We are called to be Mordecai to the people in our lives. We are to see their destinies and to speak into them. We’re to encourage them to take risks and to know that God loves them and will help them. We’re to pray and fast for others, so they will seize the day and not let their lives pass by with the regret of never doing anything heroic to help those around them.

Posted in Matthew

Profitable Lives

Posted on by Tom Flaherty

“What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Matthew 16:26

God wants us to see the big picture and give ourselves to those things that will ultimately lead to our own profit. So what will lead us to a profitable life before God and man? Here are four observations from the passage in Matthew 16 where the verse above is taken from.

  1. It involves a revelation of who Jesus is. “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17) The foundation of a profitable life is Jesus Christ. Building your life on anything else will eventually be revealed as sinking sand.
  2. It involves a personal cross. “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24) Thank God that Jesus went to the cross for us, and made the payment for our sins required by a holy God. But that doesn’t change the fact that each of us will have a personal cross and a Gethsemane where we will either choose to trust God in the midst of our pain, or turn from God and reject His purpose for us. Joni Erickson Tada said: “Sometimes God allows what He hates to accomplish what He loves.” This sounds like a good definition of the cross.
  3. It involves freedom from self preservation. “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25) Don’t try to make your own life; grab a hold of Jesus and He will make you exactly who you were originally designed to be.
  4. It involves a process. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23) Shortly after Jesus speaks into Peter’s destiny, Peter must be rebuked for going the wrong way, a way that came naturally to him. We must accept the fact that our natural way of thinking is often wrong. This is not a one time event, but a way of life for a disciple. Jesus wasn’t discouraged with Peter. He was only keeping His promise to him: “Follow Me and I will make you…” He makes the same promise to you and me.