Love!

John 13: 35

³⁵ “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

A number of years ago, I remember a lady coming up to me after church, to reveal that she didn’t feel that our church was very loving.

At first I was taken aback by her claim, until I realized that she only came to church once every 4 - 6 weeks.

It was kind of hard to understand how she came to that conclusion.

We very rarely saw her, and she didn’t really participate in church.

There are times when those kinds of people use that kind of excuse to justify their claims for leaving.

Often they lay the blame in the laps of others.

Of course it should be our desire to have a loving church that reaches out to it members, the lost, and the community.

Would you say you’re that kind of person?

What have you done lately to make your home church more loving?

How do we know that we’re true follower of Jesus? They are people who constantly display love.

You can’t possibly love if you’re not in church, and you can’t possibly be loved if you’re not in church.

That seems to be a simple conclusion.

A loving church is characterized by love. The better word to use here is charity.

“charity: benevolent goodwill toward other people”

You have to be in church to give it, and you have to be in church to receive it…

Give Thanks!

Psalm 106: 1       ESV

Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!

It’s the craziest thing, but I looked in the Bible last night, and nowhere did I find the following words;

Macy’s…Butterball…Yams…Cranberries…Football or leftovers.

In the Bible, it mentions the word, “thanks”, over 100 times, and “praise”, over 200 times.

That’s what I did with 53 people at church last night. We gave God our thanks and praise. Some people obviously forgot about that.

Abraham Lincoln is somewhat responsible for us having Thanksgiving in the first place in this country.

In the statement below, not once did he say that this day had anything to do with us, but it had everything to do with God…

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow,

yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history,

that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.

May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God! We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts,

that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace,

too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands,

to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth on high in the heavens.

Abraham Lincoln - October 3, 1863

Light!

Luke 1: 76 -78

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness…

I love getting away and taking a break from everyday life.

I tried to use moments during the 2015 deer hunt, to grasp the deeper moments and meaning of life.

Do you reflect on God, when you’re alone in the quiet?

Do you take reflective opportunities, or is your life too much of a jumbled mess?

A sunrise was a reminder of how great God is, and how insignificant I really am.

Apparently, I was significant enough for Him, to have Him share it with me, though.

In the midst of the darkness there is everywhere in the world, let’s not forget the sunrises He allows to visit our lives.

He came to give us light, and that light is able to dispel any darkness no matter just how dark it is…

The Best Security!

Numbers 32: 23

²³ But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Since the terror attacks of 9/11, security measures in our country have increased exponentially.

We have bomb sniffing dogs…flying drones that can spy on an unsuspecting person…metal detectors everywhere.

And now we live in an age, where undercover and uniformed patrol officers patrol our city streets on bikes.

All of this to keep the people of our communities safe.

It would appear that we can’t hide very much of our lives anymore.

Establishments and cities incorporate and receive video feeds from 100’s of cameras.

It doesn’t appear there’s much privacy anymore.

Businesses now have social media monitoring areas, where they’re able to monitor what’s being said inside…WOW!

And yet we think this stuff is state of the art technology, expect for one little detail, God knows it all anyway.

We can’t hide anything from God. He even knows when we sin, and He wants it to be exposed.

It’s not that God is a busy body, peering from behind a newspaper.

It’s a good thing that God wants to expose our sin.

He desires that we have fellowship with Himself, as often as we like.

What do you need to confess this morning? Get it out in the open, because He desires to spend time with you today.

And one more little known fact, He already knows all about it. Talk about security! 

Walls!

Revelation 21: 12 - 14

¹² It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed…

¹³ on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.

¹⁴ And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

In the political spectrum, there’s a lot of recent discussion about protecting the boarders of the U.S.A.

One of the republican candidates suggest building a wall around our southern borders.

As crazy as that project sounds, maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

I won’t speak if that will ever happen, but maybe we should follow God’s plan when it comes to walls.

Have we forgotten that there will be walls around the great city in Heaven?

At least that’s what John seems to convey. He talks about a “great, high wall”.

The wall described in this chapter of Revelation, suggests the walls are there as a symbol of exclusion.

All that are unworthy, will never enter. The will hover in the outer darkness forever.

Many followers of Jesus will eternally enjoy the blessings of being secure behind this great wall, but will also be able to come and go as they please.

It’s another reminder, that only the redeemed may enter, and that one day there won’t be any evil.

Maybe we if still had protective walls in places around the world, people wouldn’t be getting killed and butchered.

Have you secured a place where there won’t be any darkness or night?

What’s keeping you from making the reservation today

The Right Ceasing

1 Thessalonians 5: 16 - 18             ESV

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances…

We seem to do all sorts of things without ceasing.

We…text with ceasing…worry without ceasing…complain without ceasing…disobey God without ceasing.

We even carry grudges without ceasing…we watch TV without ceasing, and we sometimes stay away from church for weeks/months at a time.

Rejoicing and praying without stopping, would be a welcome thing in the church.

I often read some material from Oswald Chambers.

He has some very interesting thoughts about prayer, and I love the questions he poses.

Here are a couple of OC questions I read just yesterday;

“How great is my sense of need?”

“What does it tell me about my spirituality?”

I saw pictures on the web recently  of people praying in Paris, France.

I think it’s amazing that a country that is almost now Godless, prays when people die.

I wonder if they could have warded off the enemy, if they had been praying before hand?

I wonder what might happen in my/your life, if we started to pray without ceasing?

I’m willing to take the challenge, are you?

Take Time!

Psalm 42: 1 - 2

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Like me, your new week has no doubt started with numerous conversations already.

Most of them will have been the electronic variety.

There used to be app available for i-phone users, called… “Moment”. I don’t know if it’s still available anymore or not.

This app was able to give us a heads up, as to how addicted we are to our i-phone/smart phone.

And yet when it comes to having conversations with the Creator of the universe, most people opt out for something else.

If you could have a conversation with God any time you wanted to, what would you ask Him?

And the point is, we can have a one on one discussion with God any time, night or day.

How much do you talk to God each week?

Does your soul pant for the things of God?

Do we thirst after the living God?

Here’s a simple question to consider on this crazy, mixed up Monday;

Is my “want” to pray, sufficient to make me want to pray?

Take all the time you need to hash this one out…