Fran Trascritti Devotional

No Fear

The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Psalm 118:6, ESV

Photo credit: Valim Bogulov
on Unsplash

No power in the universe can ever overcome the power of God Himself. God’s work to accomplish His will can move mountains and change eternity. This is why no weapon can stand against Him, no barrier can prevent His will from occurring, and no force can overcome the one who trusts in Him.

If you are struggling with fear in your life, also remember this truth: in Christ, we are more than conquerors. We are coheirs of a land that we already own, because of God has given His eternal destination to His own as a rich blessing. Our future is secure when we in Christ are secure in Him.

The fact is that when we worry, it’s more a matter of being about us than being about Him. For example, when we fear, we obsess over our own insecurities rather than focus on the secure mercy of the God over all. When we are in anguish over the things of this world, we forget and cease thinking of the heavenly, uplifting, and edifying things.

Instead, the key to overcoming your fear is to refocus your heart and vision on Him. God gave you His Spirit, so listen to Him. God gave you His perfect love, so rest in it. After all, if perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), run to God’s amazing love! Dig into His Word, spend time alone with Him, draw near to Him, make God your priority in your heart and mind. And as you do these things, the peace, the encouragement, and the glory of God’s grace will be revealed to you, no matter what the challenge may be in your life at this moment.

Do not fear, for He is with you.

Pastor Fran

Fran Trascritti bible, Devotional, ministry, Pastors

What Do you Do When Others Attack?

Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” Nehemiah 6:8 ESV

At this point in the building of the wall around Jerusalem, the enemies of the work resorted to threats, lies, and deceit against the city, the people, and especially, Nehemiah. They openly mocked the work, threatened the safety of the families, sent multiple letters to Nehemiah, and even hired a prophet to try to entice him to sin.

Yet none of these plots worked. At every new threat, Nehemiah resisted and relied on the Lord. Even when the enemies accused him of beginning a rebellion against the king, Nehemiah refuted it and plainly told them, “you are inventing these things in your own mind.” The work continued as he inspired confidence and encouragement in the people. Soon the wall was built, the Temple was protected, and regular worship and sacrifices took place again.

When we are truly doing God’s work in the Kingdom, the enemy is almost certainly going to attack. And it tends to come in waves of strikes, usually in the form of accusations, deceptions, and even attempts at personal smears of the leadership. Opponents of the gospel will devote hard work and energy to divide and discourage the people of God, and good, godly leaders will often experience great pain and suffering. Personally, I have experienced these attacks in the past and I expect that attacks will continue to occur until glory comes. That is, as long as I am not discouraged or dissuaded from preaching Christ.

But, as we did with my last post, let’s look again at Nehemiah’s responses to his opponents. When he was attacked, Nehemiah had a response of encouragement, a word from the Word. He was angry but did not sin. Instead, he stood firm, held to the task at hand, relied on the Lord and His people, and stayed pure as he avoided temptations to sin.

His example should be your example if you are under attack. Here’s a few practical responses you can take:

  1. Run to the Word. Check your motives and walk. Don’t let the accusations have any ground for truth by being in the truth of the Scriptures.
  2. Be confident in your calling. This does not mean to be self confident, but be “God confident.” Stay reassured that God’s calling in you is going to be completed, for “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).
  3. Stay free of temptations and sin. Everyone is going to sin, of course, but it is vital to avoid the intentional sins which so easily plague us. Nehemiah did just that, choosing to stay pure in God’s eyes, whether avoiding sin or even more importantly, being righteously angry and not sinning. You need to be no different in your lifestyle, but when you do blow it (and you surely will) repent and do better.
  4. Respond in a godly, firm manner. The best and only response is a calm, Christ centered response that places the gospel first and ego last. Let God work it out, because, well, He will. The means to again run to God, not standing on your own strength but on His power. This also means, of course, to stay connected with the Spirit in prayer and the Word.

Hope these are useful and helpful. Let me know if you have any other takeaways from this passage.

May the Lord use you greatly, suppressing the enemy and advancing His Kingdom. To God be the glory!

Pastor Fran

Fran Trascritti Devotional, Jesus, Missions, purpose

What’s Your Purpose?

I call to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. Psalm 57:2 CSB

The attribute of God’s omniscience means that He is all knowing of the past, present, and future. He is and was and will be in all events and things. God is the One who brings purpose and fulfills it through His people.

God has the ability to interact with His creation. He speaks and the world comes into being. He moves and nations are born and destroyed, lives are changed, and souls are awakened to His presence. He is in full control of His universe.

With this in mind, our purpose is wholly dependent on God. The catch is that we are called to be obedient when He gives us the opportunity to do so. Yet we must be listening. We are in many ways, to be like the boy Samuel, who responded to God’s voice: “Speak Lord, Your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9).

This is how God works through His servants. Like a perfect symphony of movements, God works: He calls. We listen. We obey. He fulfills.

Are you listening? If not, ask Him to speak through His Word, through prayer, through godly people as it aligns with His Word. Pray like this: “Lord, Your servant is listening. Speak to me as I follow You daily to fulfill my purpose in You. Amen.”

—Pastor Fran

Fran Trascritti discipline, ministry, Pastors

7 Reasons Why You Need a Pathway for Discipleship

Although some churches do a wonderful job of discipling, I continue to be amazed at the number of churches that have no pathway for growth for their members to follow. Yet, we all know that spiritual growth is essential! And while we know that growth is a work of the Spirit, it is also healthy to have a plan to follow as you let Him do His work in you. I’ll share another time on how you can set this up, but for now, here are 7 reasons why you need a pathway for discipleship, both individually and collectively as a church:

  1. You are tempted to sin. Sin has been here for a long time, and temptation is not going to stop.
  2. You need a far off view. A big picture view is an important part of objectively tracking areas where you are growing and where you need to grow in.
  3. You are tempted to be passive. There are more tools for spiritual development than ever before, but there is a great irony that biblical illiteracy is so high. It is very easy for you to sit back and not get intentional with your spiritual growth.
  4. Accountability is needed. The rugged individualism of the American culture tends to shy away from accountability, but there are many passages in Scripture that call us to submitting to each other in Christ.
  5. You can avoid an unbalanced diet. Having a strategy for study will help you develop a healthy, balanced diet for discipleship and avoid doctrinal “hobby horses.”
  6. You’ll study topics and books that you might not normally study. It’s natural that we tend to avoid the areas we are unfamiliar with, but a properly implemented pathway will stretch you a bit.
  7. You can be humbled and challenged. You might see growth in some areas and a lack of growth in other areas of your life. This is a great opportunity for you to be further challenged!

Hope this helps. Next time, I will write on the “how” of creating a discipleship pathway.

Fran

Fran Trascritti Devotional, discipline, God's Goodness

Worship starts with Obedience

“Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord ? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22 CSB

Saul fell into a trap. He wanted to pick and choose when he could obey God, mostly based on what was most convenient for him. But Samuel would have none of that. No sacrifice or external accolades could ever cover over the sin of disobedience. Nope, you might be able to fool people, but you can never fool God.

Samuel’s response is a key passage of scripture. God is not mocked, and He does not want false, fake worship and hypocrisy. He does not want our praise, especially public praise, if we are not obedient to Him.

He wants obedience, not sacrifice.

Partial obedience is 100% disobedience. Before you worship, be sure to examine yourself, seeking God in every area of your life.

God delights in this sort of self examination, and a humble heart for Him will result in a deeper, more intimate worship than you have ever experienced before!

Fran

Fran Trascritti Daily Reading, gospel, Jesus

The Gospel According to Jacob

This morning as I continued to read through scripture, I found a little gem in the midst of all of the goings-on between Joseph and his brothers. It is the blessings and curses that Jacob gave to his sons. This is more than a dying man’s words, these words are the words of life. Here’s what he said:

“The scepter will not depart from Judah or the staff from between his feet until he whose right it is comes and the obedience of the peoples belongs to him. He ties his donkey to a vine, and the colt of his donkey to the choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes” (Genesis 49:10‭-‬11 CSB).

These words are clearly a prediction of the Christ! Look at it again: the scepter will not depart from Jesus, there’s a prophecy of the donkey and the colt. Even more, we have the sacrifice of Christ as seen by the washing of his clothes in wine, language that suggests the coming atonement. What a blessing to see that this prediction would be fulfilled almost 2000 years later and still applies to us today!

What’s the point? We can remember that God is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. His promises of yesterday are true today, and they are true for your future.

This is the gospel according to Jacob, a gospel more fully revealed as we get closer to the cross. Most of all, however, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ that can change your life.

Thank you, Lord, for your wisdom in Your one big story of the Bible. ☺️

Pastor Fran

Fran Trascritti culture, Family, ministry

On the phone… Again?

It was really, really convicting. I looked through pictures that my wife had taken of our family gatherings and there I was, phone to my ears, talking away and oblivious to the life that was taking place around me. My family was growing up without me and my phone was becoming my family. Here’s what’s worse: that was 15 years ago, and phone technology has definitely gotten more intrusive!

It’s easy to blur the lines between family and daily tasks, whether it’s ministry or the workplace. However, setting boundaries is a necessity for healthy families and for a healthy life.

Ecclesiastes 9:9 says to “Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days.”

This principle applies to life with others in your family and with your friends as well. We know that we are not supposed to necessarily play all day but there is a time to turn off work and to turn on a time for rest and family. So what do you do? How do you set boundaries so that you can enjoy life with those you love the most?

  1. Spend some time in the word and repent of your carelessness with your loved ones. This speaks for itself but be sure to place your priorities where God would have you to place them. Remember, your first calling is always to your spouse and family.
  2. Turn off the phone or put it in another room. You don’t need to be accessible 24/7, and you can always check your phone later. And please, resist the temptation to check your phone!
  3. Realize how fleeting the moments are in life. Your family will grow up quickly. Your children will have children. Your influence on their lives will eventually wane. Take in every moment you can with them and keep in mind that your work or Ministry will exist long after you are gone. In other words put it all in perspective.
  4. Have some deep conversations that are intentional and express how you feel. Since I travel quite a bit now in my ministry, I have made it a priority to call, visit, and spend time with each of my family members. It’s not perfect, but my time is more focused and intentional and I think (hope) that they have seen this effort.

That’s what I have for now. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you put boundaries and spend more time with your family.

Fran

Fran Trascritti Daily Reading, discipline, Jesus, ministry

5 Ways to Seek God’s Wisdom

Over the 22+ years of ministry, I have had many opportunities to minister to people while they’ve gone through various issues and difficulties of life. I’ve had people ask me for spiritual, marital, parental, and even financial advice (yikes!), and in every case, I have taken them to seek a bigger picture from God through His Word. You see, it doesn’t matter what I or any other person thinks, but what truly matters is what God thinks.

But how do you know what God thinks? Here are a few ways to seek God’s Wisdom by running to His Word:

  1. Read His Word. Daily. Take part of your day to read through the Bible. I read through it at least once per year, trying for more than once this year. Wisdom doesn’t come in spurts- it comes from a daily, regular commitment to being in His Word.
  2. Study his Word. Frequently. Like gold in a deep mine, so is the wisdom of God for those who take the time to truly seek and study it. Get into a study with other believers who take the truths of God seriously.
  3. Apply His Word. Uncomfortably. Don’t fall into the “check-box” mindset for your time in the Word. Everything you read and study needs to be focused on a life application, even though it may be uncomfortable for you at the present time.
  4. Pray His Word. Fervently. Check out Dr. Don Whitney’s post on praying through the Bible and do it. You won’t regret this.
  5. Share His Word. Generously. Be sure to be a part of making disciples by sharing the love of Christ with others. It can mean giving away pocket New Testaments, sharing the gospel in a personal witnessing opportunity, or even offering an in-home Bible study. The point is that you have a terrific chance to change lives with the power of the Word of God.

These are some thoughts. Do you have anything else to add?

Fran Trascritti culture, Jesus, ministry

A Bullish Sacrifice

Have you ever heard the expression, “like a bull in a china shop” before? The expression brings to my mind the image of a person recklessly breaking precious dishes and cups as he or she rushes through the store to get to wherever he or she is going. This expression is almost always used in a very negative sense, of course, but I think that there are times when the person who is the “bull” has no clue that others are hurt. In other words, the sins of a bull can be unintentional.

This image makes me think of a bull in a slightly different way. In the Old Testament, when an unintentional sin by either the priest or the people was committed, repentance and restitution needed to be made. The Law of Moses was very specific on how to do this and by whom this sacrificial offering was to be made:

Leviticus 4:2-3, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them, if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD a bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.”

Of course, we live in the age of the New Covenant, yet there is an application here for God’s church. Our unintentional sin which results in pain might even result in death, and while we don’t sacrifice too many bulls today, perhaps we need to be more aware of that serious damage that our sins might bring to others.

51039207_eb853788fd_bJames 1:19 tells us that we should be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” Unfortunately, we have seen quite a bit of the opposite in our nation and social media, yet we as Christ’s church need to be different. This is not the time to be callous or bullish to our traditions, practices, and structure, especially if it gets in the way of our task of reaching people. This is the time to do what our society has not been willing to do: denying ourselves and following Christ in all things. in other words, people should know you less for your political rhetoric and more for your commitment to speaking the words of the gospel.

So we are left with a choice before us: are you a bull, stubbornly charging, creating discord, and making all sorts of noise for no eternal meaning or purpose? Or are you going to be different: humble, caring, and willing to see people as Jesus did? Even more, are you willing to build bridges and even to deny yourself to serve God no matter what it takes? The way of the bull is sinful and leads to death and the way, the greater way, leads to life. Sacrifice your bull and deny yourself. Take up His cross.

Choose love and life. God would have it no other way.

In Him,

Pastor Fran

Fran Trascritti discipline

Hey new gym guy: I’ve Been There (and I still am)

I know you. You made that resolution to exercise and lose weight. Yeah, yeah, you felt guilty about eating that good (but awful) food last week. You got that twinge of guilt for sitting around too much watching movies, football, or whatever else was on and saw the gym membership commercials. I get it: you are tired of the extra pounds and just had to lose it, so you began to workout, started “dieting” and started the New Year with a determination to get on it. Yep, I’ve been there.

My change came from a desire to be healthier for my family, for ministry, for a longer, more productive life. I don’t know how the pounds added up, the moments of denial, the justification that my clothes just “shrunk” or the designers made their clothes run a bit small, but the extra weight kept coming. Eventually, I got tired of being out of breath going up stairs, of not being able to tie my shoes without a struggle, of feeling a lack of energy. I hated it, and I had to do something about it.

A visit a few years ago to my doctor, however, confirmed what I feared. I was, as he put it, a very “unhealthy guy.” My lipid profile reflected what my scale had said and what I already knew deep down inside: something, anything had to be done. Since I had a parent who had a heart attack in his late 40s, it was obvious that I had both the family history and the appearance of a ticking time bomb. I was ripe for my own personal disaster. So, yeah, I’ve been there.

gym-546138_640So what did I do? I eventually changed the foods that I ate to plant-based, exercised regularly, and I scheduled in time for my physical health on my calendar for intense work outs with a supportive friend and trainer. I included my friends, family, and church family in these changes, even being accountable to a few, and constantly sought to make improvements in my health habits. It has been hard work and there’s been a ton of detours and mistakes, but I’ve somehow stayed on track. And for all of that, I am grateful to God for this journey, because I’m no longer taking my health for granted.

Three and a half years later after my start, I’ve lost 20% of my body weight. My blood tests as of today now show that my Cholesterol/HDL Ratio is down 25%, Triglycerides reduced 30%, LDL, down by 20%. In fact, every imaginable test of health shows that I’m much physically healthier inside and out. More work is needed, but I’m getting there.

So, yeah, I’ve been there (and I still am) on the journey. For you, don’t quit. Don’t be tempted to lie to yourself and slow down what you’re about to do. Don’t take your foot off of the gas pedal to healthiness. Do the hard work in the gym and at the food choices you make. And for crying out loud, run from the fad diets, pills, and gimmicks, because nothing will replace consistency and dedication. Most of all, as you make your changes, allow those who love you the most to help encourage you on your journey to wellness.

So, new gym guy, I’m rooting for you- I know that you can do this! After all, I’ve been there (and I still am).

Pastor Fran