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“Peace and Quiet” – Without His Presence There Is No Peace

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
from Fred Carpenter

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” – John 14:27

An anechoic chamber is a room designed to completely absorb reflections of sound. Orfield Labs in South Minneapolis has an anechoic chamber that has held the Guinness World Record for the “World’s Quietest Room” since 2004. The room is built with fiberglass acoustic wedges 3.3-feet thick, and it has double walls of insulated steel and one-foot thick concrete. Measured at -9 decibels, the room is so quiet that you can hear your blood flowing. The silence is so maddening it can cause hallucinations. The longest anyone has been able to bear the room was 45 minutes.

Anechoic Chamber, DTU - Denmark, © Baarnaud-Dessein

Anechoic Chamber, DTU – Denmark, © Baarnaud-Dessein

When I first heard of this room, my thoughts went immediately to a missionary who shared with me what he thought hell would be like. The picture he painted was that of a person alone in total darkness forever. So often classic images of hell portray a large number of people writhing in agony in an inferno. Whether the image of fire is literal or metaphorical is one issue. But who is to say that hell is a communal experience, as opposed to one of total isolation. A student of the Bible could go either way on this question. I recently read an article in which CS Lewis was reported to have said something like, “Hell is no one but yourself, forever and ever.” What a terrifying thought!

In today’s “rat race”, it is not unusual to hear someone say they’re longing for a little “peace and quiet.” But taken to the extreme of an anechoic chamber, that expression may deserve reconsideration. What makes this room so horrific, and why don’t deaf people go insane like those who are in an anechoic chamber too long? Well first off, being in an anechoic chamber is not like being deaf. A person who is totally deaf cannot hear anything with their ears, but they can still feel sound. Sound is a physical thing and we all feel it with our body. And while the sound we feel might not be an adequate basis for communication, if it is coming from outside our own bodies, then at least we know we are not alone in the universe. Continue reading →


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Our Blessed Hope

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
(Part 3 of 3-part series)
from Fred Carpenter

“. . . looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,” – Titus 2:13

I’ve witnessed this scene several times in my life. I’m in a room of people. It could be a classroom, a dining room or a conference room. An important person enters the room. The mood in the room immediately changes and the people begin to act different than only a moment before.

What if you knew that Jesus was going to walk into your world right now? That before you finish whatever you’re doing, whatever activity you’re engaged in, you would see Him face to face? Would it make a difference?

The apostle John was dealing with a similar thought when he wrote, “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” – 1 John 2:28. What a terrible thought, to shrink away from Him in shame!

For those who love Him, His return should be something entirely different than what John is describing. In fact, in Titus 2:3, Paul calls it our “blessed hope.” And why does he use this descriptive?

It is blessed because of all that the Savior’s return will mean to us as believers in Christ. Hampton Keathley reminds us that His coming for us means . . .

  • transformation or glorification (glorified resurrection bodies),
  • reunion (meeting loved one and friends who have died in the Lord),
  • remuneration (evaluation for and the giving of rewards for faithful service), and
  • reigning with Christ in the glorious future that follows

According to Ray Stedman, “One of the great reasons the church is so confused in this day, one of the reasons the church says so little of true significance to the world, is that it has neglected and abandoned, by and large, the hope of the coming of the Lord. There are very few sermons preached on it. There is very little said about it. There is no time given to a consideration of what this hope means and why it is set forth so frequently and so clearly in the Scriptures. Great sections of the Scriptures that deal with the hope of our Lord’s return are simply ignored by Christians.”

The Bible teaches us that the return of Christ is imminent (James 5:8). If we really believe that, it will change the way we live. The great preacher F. B. Meyer once asked D. L. Moody, “What is the secret of your success?” Moody replied, “For many years I have never given an address without the consciousness that the Lord may come before I have finished.”

Speaking of our blessed hope, Spiros Zodhiates said, “Our hearts will be propped up if we live in the constant expectation of His coming.” Did you know that 1 in every 20 NT passages refers to the Second Coming either directly or indirectly! God intends that our blessed hope, the promise of His return would motivate us to Godly living, encourage us to persevere and reorient our priorities.

“You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.” – James 5:8 NASB

Additional Reading Continue reading →


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Hope – Four Things You Need to Know About It

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
from Fred Carpenter

1) You can’t live without It

  • “(Hope) is something as important to us as water is to a fish, as vital as electricity is to a light bulb, as essential as air is to a jumbo jet. Hope is basic to life….without that needed spark of hope, we are doomed to a dark, grim existence. How often the word “hopeless” appears in suicide notes. And even if it isn’t actually written, we can read it between the lines. Take away our hope, and our world is reduced to something between depression and despair.” – Chuck Swindoll
  • “If a person has given up hope, he has entered the gates of hell, whether he knows it or not, and has left behind him his own humanity.” – Eric Fromm
  • “The last thing that dies in a person is hope.” – Diogenes
  • “The absence of hope is the essence of despair.” – Anon.

Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl has written extensively on hope. He observed in the camps, without exception, that when a person lost hope, he/she gave up, and their end was imminent.

2) There is a difference between the world’s definition of hope and God’s definition of hope

The world – Hope is a wishful thinking, an optimistic desire that a thing will come to pass, all the while, living under a cloud of uncertainty that it might not. “All too often, hope is pessimistically defined as the little boy did when he said: “Hope is wishing for something you know ain’t gonna happen.”

The Bible – Hope is a confident expectation, based on the promises of God. (Vine’s dictionary) Vines. It comes from the Greek word, elpis (el-pece’) which means to anticipate, usually with pleasure; expectation or confidence.

  • “’Hope’ is biblical shorthand for unconditional certainty.” – John Blanchard
  • “Hope is not, ‘I have not got it, but I hope I may,’ but ‘I have not yet got it, but I know I shall.’” – Guy King
  • “Hope is faith in the future tense.” – Peter Anderson

3) There is a difference between hope and faith

“. . . faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
– Heb 11:1 (NASB)

Hope is an expectation of future blessing based on the promises of God.

Faith is the present spiritual condition that gives us the assurance and conviction regarding that future blessing.

4) There is a way to get more hope.

a) Perseverance – Rom 5:4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

b) God’s Word – “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” – Rom 15:4 (NASB)

Your HOPE will increase as your heart and mind become saturated with the plan and purposes of God as revealed in His word. The title for our video, The HOPE, was inspired by Romans 15:4. In concert with the soon-to-be released updated version of our HOPE website, we’re launching a study through The HOPE Study Guide which will be available on this new website in several languages. Every week, in our staff devotional, we’ll dive into a new lesson. We plan to start the study on October 1. It will take us about a year to complete. We’d love to have you, and everyone you know, join us. Spread the word, and the HOPE that comes through His Word!


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Saint or Sinner, Which are You?

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
from Fred Carpenter

I’ve noticed a growing trend from the pulpit in evangelical Churches (at least the ones I am familiar with) to proclaim that we are all just a bunch of sinners. But are we really? What does God say about those who have been born from above into His family?

In Acts 2 we read about the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. He came to indwell men and make them new creatures in Christ. Did you know, that from Acts 2 to the last chapter of Revelation, there are only 3 verses (1 Tim 1:15, Jms 4:8 & Jms 5:20) that refer to Christians as sinners, yet there are 56 that refer to Christians as saints? For example . . .

Rom 1:7 – “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints”
Eph 1:1 – “to the saints who are at Ephesus”
Phil 1:1 – “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi”
Col 1:2 – “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae”

Paul never opens one of his letters to the Churches with, “to all the sinners at . . .” And yet I’ve heard it from the pulpit more times than I can count, “We are all just sinners.” 56 to 3. Why don’t we hear more statements that line up with the 56? There may be more than a few reasons for this, but for the purpose of today’s devotional, we’ll look at just one. Continue reading →


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Can God Trust You to Share in the Fellowship of His Sufferings?

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
from Fred Carpenter

“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings…” – Philippians 3:10 NASB

What can we learn from an 87 year old missionary doctor who in 1964, while single and serving God in the Congo, was captured by rebels, beaten and raped? We realize that this is the second consecutive devotional we’ve done on the topic of suffering, but we think you’ll really benefit from getting to know Helen Roseveare. This video (8 min. 21 sec., part 2 of 5) will give a glimpse into how Helen experienced God in the middle of that night;

The Question – Can you thank God for trusting you with suffering, even if He never explains why?

Continue reading →


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Free from the Fog of Fear

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
from Fred Carpenter

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18 NASB

Today we are talking about fear. Not the kind of fear that suddenly grips you with terror, but the kind that lurks below the surface of your conscious mind. The fear we equate with terror comes on us in an instant, like a life-threatening wound from a gunshot. The kind of fear we are talking about today is more like a slow moving disease. It’s the kind of fear you may not even be aware of, or have forgotten was there, until you’re faced with a challenge (or an opportunity) that reminds you of its power.

This is the kind of fear every one of us inherited as a son of Adam. This kind of fear can rob you of peace and joy, and keep you from running unencumbered toward your destiny. This kind of fear can bring the flow of your life to a standstill, just as a dense fog can bring the vibrant flow of traffic in a busy city to a dead halt.

But consider this, according to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, a dense fog, covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of less than one glass of water. That amount of water is divided into about 60 billion tiny droplets. Yet when those minute particles settle over a city or the countryside, they can almost blot out everything from sight. Continue reading →


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Tested and Tempted . . . Confident in Christ?

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
Tested and Tempted, Part 2 of 2
From Fred Carpenter

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:6

In last week’s devotional, we considered the Greek word “peirazo”, which literally means, “to make proof of.” We discovered that in the New Testament it is sometimes translated as “test” and sometimes as “tempt.” We concluded that Satan “tempts” us to prove that we are not who God says we are, and God “tests” us to prove that we are exactly who He says we are. Are you confident when you face a test in life?

In the world of higher education, there are certain schools into which it is extremely difficult to gain admission. Yet once a candidate is admitted, the entire program is geared to ensure that the candidate will successfully complete his or her course of study. In fact, Business Insider (an online news magazine) recently ran the story, “13 Schools Where It’s Almost Impossible To Fail.” Each of the schools listed are elite schools with extremely selective admissions. The list includes, the Harvard and Yale Law Schools, the Columbia Business School and MIT. Continue reading →


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Tested and Tempted . . . What’s the Difference?

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
From Fred Carpenter
Tested and Tempted Part 1 of 2

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” – Matthew 4:1 NASB

After Jesus was baptized, He was led by the Spirit (of God) into the wilderness to be tempted.This temptation is described in Matthew 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13, and Luke 4:1–2. Notice that the Matthew 4:1 passage says the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, but it does not say that the Spirit tempted Jesus. That is an important distinction because the Bible also says in James 1:13 that, “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” Satan (who is called the tempter in Matthew 4:3 and 1 Thessalonians 3:5) is the one who does the tempting.

Based upon the James 1:13 passage, notice that it was futile for Satan to tempt Jesus, for “God cannot be tempted.” In the end, the temptation of Jesus served only to further the purposes of God. It was all part of His plan. This will become even more evident as we consider the word “tempt.”

“Tempt” (or tempted) comes from the Greek word “peirazo,” which is actually a legal term meaning “to make proof of.” In light of this root definition, we could say that Satan was tempting Jesus in order to prove that He was no different than any other man that had ever lived; that He was just like Adam and that He would fold under pressure. Ultimately, the same way that a prosecuting attorney seeks to disqualify the testimony of a defendant, Satan wanted to disqualify Jesus as the Deliverer who would free mankind from Satan, sin, and death. Continue reading →


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Time for a Declaration of Dependence

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
Thoughts about Freedom and Independence
from Fred Carpenter

July 4th is the day when the U.S.A. celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress in 1776. Considering the current spiritual condition of our nation, perhaps it is time for America to rethink the meaning of freedom and to adopt a Declaration of Dependence.

Independence

The world values independence, the freedom from having someone tell you how to run your life. The Bible on the other hand, speaks about a dependence that leads to freedom and fulfillment. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Matt.16:25

The mark of a mature Christian is not how much he knows, but rather how much he depends on Christ to express His life in and through him on a moment by moment basis. Jesus said, “. . . apart from me you can do nothing.” – John 15:5.

Dependence on Christ, not only results in our fulfillment, it results in the glorification of God. In fact, in a sermon preached on July 8, 1731, Jonathan Edwards made the case that when we do not depend on God, we rob him of glory. “Now whatever scheme is inconsistent with our entire dependence on God for all, and of having all of him, through him, and in him, it is repugnant to the design and tenor of the gospel, and robs it of that which God accounts its luster and glory.” Continue reading →


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Beware of the Need to Know

Mars Hill Staff Devotional
from Fred Carpenter

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” – Deuteronomy 29:29 NASB

Are you an information junkie? Where does checking the news (financial, sports, political, etc.) fit into your daily routine? Do you have a need to know things you don’t really need to know? Do you have a need to know why God has brought (or allowed) something into your life before you can embrace it? Do have a need to know why before you follow the instructions of someone in authority over you, be it God or man? Do you tend to over plan and over prepare before moving forward?

The Bible has a great deal of positive things to say about being sober minded, diligent and wise as we walk in this world. But there is a difference between counting the cost (which is encouraged in the Bible – Luke 14:28) and trusting in what we can count rather than trusting in God.

In 1 Chron. 21:1, we read that “Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.” Satan exploited David’s “need to know”. But “God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel.” – 1Chron. 21:7. A census is not evil in and of itself, but in this situation, it was the how and why of the census that resulted in God’s anger toward David.

First, the instructions for numbering the people were given in Exodus 30:12. David did not follow those instructions. Second, David’s census was a violation of ownership. A person only has the right to inventory what he owns. You can’t go into your neighbor’s house and count his possessions without his permission. By taking this census, David was saying, these are my people. He is not acknowledging God’s ownership of the people. He counted them as if they were his. And finally, David’s census reveals that he was not trusting in God. Counting men was a king’s way to determine the size of his army. But it revealed that David was depending on human strength rather than on God. David’s census was rooted in unbelief, and the consequences were disastrous. God sent a plague which killed 70,000 men.

Satan also spoke to Eve’s “need to know”. In Genesis 3:2-5 we read that “The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden (the tree of the knowledge), God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! ’For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

Of course, we are all personally familiar with the result of that event. Eve acted on her innate “need to know” and sin entered the world, infecting mankind and bringing death to this very day.

Do you have a need to know things that you really don’t need to know . . . things that really belong to God? Spare yourself (and others) the grief. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” – Isaiah 26:3

Some Key Take-aways by the staff:
1. It is one thing (& perfectly ok) to ask God, “why?” It is another thing to have to know before you can trust Him!
2. Parents can play a key role in how easy or difficult it is to superintend our need to know. As we are lead through early life by our parents, having to trust them without all the knowledge that they have, as they guide us, it builds our character for trusting and following God the Father.
3. Perhaps the ultimate purpose of knowledge is to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we can rely solely on God.