2019 Newsletters
January
Unoffendable Cousins - Dan White
Yes, There is Good News (Part 10) - Bill Rollins
Time - Cynthia Saladin
February
Enduring, Persevering, Overcoming - Cynthia Saladin
Satan's Tactics - Open Doors
Yes, There is Good News (Part 11) - Bill Rollins
March
Yes, There is Good News (Part 12) - Bill Rollins
As the Deer - Cynthia Saladin
Christians in Winter (Part 6) - Diane Kleeschulte
I Was Drugged by My Parents - Anonymous
April
War by Cynthia Saladin
Compulsion to Conform by Jim O'Brien
May
He is to Be Exalted by Diane Kleeschulte
Yes, There is Good News (Part 13) by Bill Rollins
Time by Cynthia Saladin
June
What Did You Learn? by Cynthia Saladin
Yes, There is Good News (Part 14) by Bill Rollins
July
More Lessons From Pepper by Cynthia Saladin
911, What is Your Emergency? by Diane Kleeschulte
August
Heeding the Master's Call by Cynthia Saladin
Yes, There is Good News (Part 15) by Bill Rollins
September
If They Should Be Written Every One by Diane Kleeschulte
Nobody by Jim O'Brien
October
A Psalm for Festivals by Keith Kleeschulte
The Path of Life by Sally Rollins
Don't Let Me Miss the Glory by Cynthia Saladin
November
Gratitude and Happiness by Cynthia Saladin
Have You Been Saved? What Should Your Answer Be? by Patricia Manning
Does Not Like Wet Feet by Cynthia Saladin
December
A Time to Tear Down by Jim O'Brien
Yes, There Is Good News (Part 16) by Bill Rollins
Have You Lost Your Mind? by Cynthia Saladin
January 2019
Unoffendable Cousins
by Dan White, Homeschool Helpers, HHN 381 - 11/29/18
When I was a child, I heard this rhyme in the schoolyard: Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. That was said when one youngster had called another some kind of name. I don’t recall what names were used at all, showing the truth of that rhyme. If the names had lasting hurt, then they would have lasted in my memory. That rhyme has been changed by modernists to something like this: Sticks and stones may break my bones, which will heal, but names may hurt me forever. Liberals spend their whole lives looking for reasons to be offended. To avoid offense, they intend to totally control the language of everyone.
I had cousins. As cousins, we were pretty much unoffendable. Boy, did I have cousins! My mom was from a family of eight children, and my dad was from a family of nine children, so when all of those had their own families, I had dozens of cousins. I never totaled up all my first cousins, mostly because I might have trouble remembering them all, but there were a bunch, including fourteen in one family. I had so many cousins to play with that I didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, today I’m going to play with my cousin Daryl or Billy or Drema.” I was around cousins so much that I took it for granted.
In high school, I even began to get kind of sweet on one cousin and she had to inform me, “You do know I’m your cousin?” I had kind of forgotten that. She wasn’t a first cousin at all and honestly, to this day I don’t know what kind of cousin she was, but she was a cousin. Obviously if I had dozens of first cousins, then that number would be multiplied at the more distant levels, so I can be somewhat excused for forgetting that she was a cousin. I even had one situation where I was first cousins with both a father and with his son. Think about that one for a while.
There was at least one valuable thing about being with a cousin. They would tell me to my face what they thought. If I did something they didn’t think was good, they would tell me flat out. It wasn’t like I was somebody special that had to be coddled. After all, they played with me, ate with me, and fought with me. I was a cousin. And when they told me what they thought, I didn’t stick out my lip or go running home to Mama. If I didn’t like what they said, then I told them so, too, in no uncertain terms. Nobody got offended and nobody ever got called a name that hurt them forever. We were too busy playing and roughhousing and sometimes fighting to get moody and broody. After all, we were cousins.
Most of my high school friends were not cousins. That school was down the road a couple miles from our coal camp, so the 600 students were mostly unrelated to me. We had basically the same 25 people in the same home room, taking mostly the same classes together, for 6 years. In those 6 years, we got to know each other well and became very good friends. The guys had nicknames for each other. One with the last name of Calfee was sometimes shortened to Calf. Shrewsbury became Suze. Basham became Bass-ham. And me? All they called me was White. Not Danny White, just White, nice and simple and short – “Hey, White!” Nobody got offended at those names. On the contrary, being called a nickname by your friends showed that you were one of them. “Hey, Bass-ham! Where you goin’?” We weren’t looking to be offended, and before these modern times, didn’t even know that we were supposed to be offended over nicknames.
I remember one boy, though, who did get offended. Do you remember Pig Latin? Wikipedia says that Pig Latin is “a made-up language formed from English by transferring the initial consonant or consonant cluster of each word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable,” so chicken soup would be translated to ickenchay oupsay. Pig Latin is typically spoken playfully, as if to convey secrecy.” I guess that Pig Latin was an escape for all those students who didn’t study their high school Spanish. Pig Latin – do you ememberray oingday atthay? I kinda did that with the boy who got offended. His name was Joe Tolley. If you switched the first letters of his names, he became Toe Jolley. I thought that was kinda funny. He didn’t. One day when I called him Toe Jolley, he started crying. Crying? In my six years in that school, seeing squabbles, romantic break-ups, and even fights, that was the only boy I ever saw with tears in his eyes. And why did he cry? Because I called him Toe Jolley! I wasn’t trying to be mean to him – “Hey, Toe Jolley – what’s up?” After all, we all had nicknames! Now we weren’t enemies at all. We had classes together, talked together frequently, and were reasonably good friends, I thought. But he was very upset that I called him Toe Jolley, so I never called him that again. Actually, I never really talked to him much again at all. I was afraid to, afraid the guy would surely get offended at something I said and start crying. Yuk. What would he have done if I called him a Bass-Ham? He moved away from those hills, so he didn’t graduate with the rest of us. Probably became a Democrat.
When someone gets offended like that, it’s always presumed to be the fault of the offender. Not so. It’s also the fault of the offendee. A person who gets offended does so because he is focusing on himself. “You done did me wrong!”
I know a man who was slapped, beat on, spit on, mocked, and people wagged their heads at Him and blasphemed Him. He did not get offended. Why not? Because he was not thinking about Himself. He only felt sorry for them, all those who were offended at Him.
Liberals are constantly getting offended over something – over words, looks, even thoughts. Constantly offended! What a miserable life. This is a great lesson of life. If you get offended, the fault is just as much yours as the offendee. And you, not him, will be the one who’s most unhappy. America is now awash with victim mentality. My problems are your fault. Blacks in the ghettos are there today because their ancestors were enslaved a century and a half ago. Indians are alcoholics on reservations because Columbus arrived in the New World over five centuries ago. Hispanics in the poor corrupt socialist nations of Latin America are impoverished because of conservative whites in America. And so on. There is a huge amount of discussion about how to make things right for all these victims, and little discussion over how people must be responsible for themselves. There is also much discussion over how not to offend people with your speech, and almost no discussion about how not to be offended. Parents may make a great show of making their kids constantly apologize to each other for things that were said, and never broach the other side of the issue -- just being a little whinny crybaby, a left wing victim.
Again, all this talk about not offending someone with your language is simply a socialist attempt to control your language. And they are succeeding. Most of you will use the terms ‘African Americans’ and ‘Native Americans,’ forcing you to avoid the terms blacks and Indians, because that is supposed to be offensive. Yet you think nothing of using the term ‘whites’ and nobody feels compelled to use the term ‘Euro-American.’ See how one sided that is? Isn’t that offensive? Isn’t this a clever trick? Liberals spend their whole lives looking for reasons to be offended; and sure enough, they find some. This is true in churches, too. All these liberals who continually get offended at you are just trying to control you, to make you please them, instead of you trying to please God. You see, the ultimate extent of not offending people is to never speak against sin. And that, after all, is Satan’s ultimate purpose in this ‘Don’t Offend Anyone’ campaign.
The apostle Paul had something to say about not offending people.
Eph 5:11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
1 Tim 5:20 Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.
2 Tim 4:2 preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.
Titus 1:12-13 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
Oh, wait – he can’t say that. People can’t be reproved. They might be offended! Especially Cretans!
Looking back, it was great having close cousins. One of the greatest things about it was that they would just level with me. None of us ever got offended over names. And did I mention that the nickname my cousins called me was ‘Diddle?’ Isn’t that as bad as Toe Jolley? In fact, my wife calls me that to this day! Except sometimes she calls me Gunkie, as in “You Gunkie!”
Maybe one of the problems today is that, with small families or no families, we just don’t have enough cousins.
Yes, There is Good News by Bill Rollins
Last time I mentioned Proverbs 3:5-6 and talked about it in relation to trusting in the Lord and so having our “paths” made smooth, pleasant and straight. But there was one phrase I never dealt with. Verse 5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” So what is this phrase about “not leaning upon one’s own understanding?”
I think there are many who believe that they do have a trust in God. If we believe in God and understand He is the creator and sustainer of the Universe, then we have to put our trust in Him. We would be crazy not to! But where do we draw the line in trusting Him and trusting our own understanding? This is a matter of introspection for all of us who desire a deeper relationship with God.
Last time I mentioned that it was with all of our heart that we trust Him. And what did I say the definition of heart was? In Hebrew, it includes “our motives, feelings, affections, desires, aims, principles and our thoughts.” It encompasses the entirety of our personality. So let me ask again, where do we draw the line in our trust? Then the scripture goes on to say, “lean not on your own understanding.”
We humans will certainly have a problem with this statement. But let me ask you; did you create yourself? Did you somehow understand (before birth) how your DNA was to be configured? Did your parents? Can you bring forth from one seed, the sprout, the stem and the leaves, then the fruit. This reminds me of the question that God asked Job 38:4, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!” Job had no answer for these and the other questions God asked him. And what of our Savior Jesus, surely He leaned upon His own understanding, didn’t He? In the book of John 5:19, Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son does also.” In John 7:16, Jesus said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me.” In the next chapter, verse 28, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am! And that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.” John 12:49, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who has sent me commanded me what to say and so to speak. John 14:10, “...the words I say to you are not just my own. Rather it is the Father abiding in me who is doing his works. And lastly in 14:24, “He who does not love me will not obey my words. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
Might I state that the Son of God, in six separate occasions said that He “leaned not on His own understanding.” So where should we draw the line?
Until next time, may you trust in the Lord.
Time
by Cynthia Saladin
Itʼs almost 2019. I blinked once and the whole year flew past! I turned around and I was flipping the calendar to January again!
Iʼve heard an explanation of why time seems to go so much slower when youʼre a child compared with how quickly time accelerates with each passing year. The theory is that when youʼre eight, the three months of summer is 1/32 of your life. But when youʼre 50, those same three months are 1/200 of your life. Because itʼs such a small fraction of the whole, it seems to pass that much more quickly! I donʼt know. It sounds good. Those mathematicians are pretty good with numbers and theories. The tricky thing is figuring out if itʼs accurate or its just a perception.
Or maybe itʼs not a matter of determining the veracity of the theory. Perhaps itʼs recognizing time as a precious commodity which seems to escape our grasp at an alarming rate. Perhaps instead of trying to figure out whether itʼs just a mental illusion (kind of like an optical illusion, only with the mind), perhaps we need to make the most of the time weʼre given because it is limited, and as such, is a very valuable resource.
And time is a very valuable commodity! After all, thatʼs why Tock was so busy running around making sure that no one was wasting time, or even worse, killing time (The Phantom Tollbooth). Time is much too important to allow it to slip through our fingers.
So, if itʼs valuable, why is it valuable? What would be the very best use of our time? You know, of course! The very best use of our time is anything which brings glory and honor to God, doing His will, seeking His presence, loving Him with all that we are and all that we have - including the time He has given us.
Thatʼs not a very satisfying answer, is it. It feels so pat, so philosophical, so intangible, so much of a cliche. We want to know what it is that is profitable for the kingdom that will bring joy and gladness to us and to our Heavenly Father. We want to put feet to that construct and be able to know what exactly it is that Iʼm supposed to do right now, at this moment. Iʼm unsettled. Iʼm not feeling like Iʼm doing anything valuable and important with my time. And that makes me feel even more unsettled. I want to do something great for my God. Heʼs done so very much for me. But I donʼt know where to start.
Just start. Start with a prayer for guidance. Start with singing a song of praise. Start by reading a chapter in Godʼs word and looking up the Hebrew or Greek meaning. But start with something. The old saying that “the longest journey starts with a single step” is very true. If you want to end up doing something valuable with your time, start with something small that is valuable for that moment. Seek God with all your heart for that moment . . . and the moment after that . . . and tomorrow youʼll wake up with a renewed sense of what it means to make the most of the time you have.
Gingerbread man limps into the doctor's office with a sore knee.
The doctor looks at it and says, "Sore knee, huh. Have you tried icing it?"
February
Enduring, Persevering, Overcoming
by Cynthia Saladin
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1, ESV).
“Therefore” is such a powerful word. That single word is a yield sign which says, “As you continue down this path, consider everything that we’ve just been talking about.” It means “in light of all that went before.” It means that we’ve reached the following conclusion based on the preceding facts.
What are the preceding facts? The great cloud of witnesses itemized in chapter 11, from Abel, Enoch, and Noah to Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; from Moses and his parents to the Israelites coming out of Egypt. This entire chapter cites people whose faith was not perfect, i.e. Samson and Jephthah or even Abraham. Nevertheless, they are listed among the faithful. And then there are those who aren’t even named; we just have the deeds: those “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” (Heb. 11:33-38, ESV).
The author of Hebrews calls these people a “great cloud of witnesses.” Think for a moment about the mental image the word “cloud” evokes! A plethora, an abundance, a myriad, an enormous chunk - there are many, many people who are part of this hall of faith, who are witnesses of God’s glory and power and majesty! They are real, tangible examples of people who endured difficulties and yet maintained their trust that God exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. They were not perfect, but they persevered.
So then, the author exhorts us to also lay aside every weight. If we must also lay aside every weight, that means someone else has already laid aside every weight. That cloud of witnesses didn’t have easy lives, smooth sailing, clear paths. They gave us an example of laying aside every weight so they could run with endurance the race set before them.
Weight could encompass all kinds of things. Distractions from following God’s will in your life could be a weight that hinders your progress. Guilt from past sins - although already forgiven by God - can drag you down. Weight could include time-wasters or being involved in something that looks good, but isn’t profitable for the kingdom. Weight could be not taking care of yourself (not eating healthy, getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, or exercising) so that you don’t think clearly. Weight is anything which pulls you down, prohibiting you from making the most of every opportunity to serve God efficiently and thoroughly.
Think of the burden that Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress carried. Then consider the analogy the author of Hebrews is employing. He’s talking about running a race so that you’ll win. When you’re running a race, you don’t want any extra weight - at all. And you certainly don’t want the kind of weight or burden that Christian was carrying. Lay every weight aside!
Then the author emphasizes a special category which can hinder our progress: sin. He says that sin so easily entangles us. In light of what the preceding verses contained, you could make a strong case that unbelief, lack of faith, is that sin which so easily entangles. Hebrews 3:17-19 says that the Israelites disobeyed because of their unbelief. If you don’t have faith in God, you are not going to keep His commandments.
So, in light of all these witnesses, we lay aside every weight and any unbelief in our lives so that we can “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The imagery here is strong perseverance, not strolling, nor crawling, not meandering. The author exhorts us to run - put great effort into the race. It’s going to call for perseverance and endurance. It’s going to tax your strength and determination. It’s going to be hard. But it’s the race that God has set for you to do. He’s given you examples of others who had difficulties and yet succeeded because of their faith in God. Similarly, hold on to the faith God has given you. Believe in Him. Lay aside anything that is hindering your race. Fight! Set your eyes on the goal so that you can run with endurance. Don’t be distracted by anything.
This verse is an appropriate verse for the present times. Our nation is making one godless choice after another. We grieve at the abominations done all around us. That can drag us down. Additionally, while we are in the grip of some of the coldest air we’ve seen in many, many years, Australia is experiencing record heat so that fish are dying in the Darling River and bats are dropping dead from the heat in mid-air. The weather discourages and depresses us. We struggle against it. Then too, so many are battling health issues or end-of-life issues. Whether we’ve lost a family member or close friend or whether we suffer along with those who are battling disease, we feel the weight of the struggle.
We don’t make light of any of the struggles that we endure. But we have to keep our eyes on the goal, the city that God is preparing for us. And we have a great cloud of witnesses who also endured destitution, affliction, and persecution. We take heart that God is and that He’s the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) and that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
We have a race to run. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We can’t grow weary or lose heart (Hebrews 12:3). We must endure, persevere and overcome to the end.
Go with God.
Satan’s Tactics
Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from family values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ.
“If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time so they can’t gain that experience in Jesus Christ.
“This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day.”
“How shall we do this?” shouted the evil angels.
“Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work and the husbands to work six or seven days a week, ten to twelve hours a day,
so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.
“Overstimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to keep the TV, the DVD, and their CDs going constantly in their homes. Tempt them to spend more time on their computers, especially watching internet pornography.
“Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news twenty-four hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products, services, and false hopes.
“When they meet for fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength.” (Source: Open Doors)
"Look around and be distressed, look within and be depressed, look at Jesus and be at rest. When we look at Him we are victorious.” - Corrie Ten Boom
Yes, There Is Good News
by Bill Rollins
Usually on the first Sunday of each month, I have the blessing of conducting worship services at the Salem Lutheran Home Chapel. Nearly two and a half years ago, I gave a message that is as relevant now as it was then. It was an important message, and one filled with hope, joy, and good news. Let me try to express it here in writing.
After singing the hymn, “Near to the Heart of God,” with the residents, I mentioned that the author, Cleland McAfee, penned this beautiful song after hearing that his two nieces had just died from diphtheria in 1901. Mr. McAfee, with a deeply grieving heart, retreated to the comforting words of the scripture and to God. He said that he felt the words and music flow from his grieving heart and that on the day of the double funeral, he stood outside the quarantined home of his brother and sang the words as he choked back tears.
“There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God ...” Have you ever desired to truly draw near to the heart of God? Have you ever needed a place of quiet rest in your life when things seem to be in turmoil all around you? Does the world ever bring heartaches, trials and troubles to your door? In John 16:33, Jesus says, “... take heart, I have overcome the world.” Jesus promises us peace. In the third stanza of the song it says, “There is a place of joy and peace, near to the heart of God.”
And what about that quiet rest? In Matthew 11:28 we read, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The chorus of that song says this, “ O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before thee, near to the heart of God.”
We have talked about the word “heart” in previous articles and so we can apply the definition of the word to the “heart of God.” His heart is who He is! Scripture tells us that God is love - this is His heart. It tells us He is compassionate - this is His heart. It tells us He is Kind - this is His heart.
But we also know that God will not force us to draw near to Him. In Isaiah 40:11, we read, “Behold .. God tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers His lambs in His arms. He carries them close to His heart and He gently leads those with young.” He leads and we must follow! Again, in the gospel of John 10:14, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me ... My sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.” What a beautiful statement from our Savior!
The heart of God is a beautiful place to be it; is a comforting place. And as the hymn says, “... a place where all is joy and peace, near to the heart of God.” May we learn to follow.
If you live in a pastor’s home, you have the right to remain silent because anything you say or do may be used in a sermon illustration.
"When you say 'There's too much evil in this world', you assume there's 'good'. When you assume there's good, you assume there's such a thing as a 'moral law' on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil. But if you assume a moral law, you must posit a 'Moral-Law Giver', but that's Who you're trying to disprove and not prove. Because if there's no Moral-Law Giver, there's no moral law. If there's no moral law, there's no good. If there's no good, there's no evil. What is your question?"
~Ravi Zacharias
March
Yes, There is Good News! By Bill Rollins
The first four books of the New Testament are called “the Gospels.” These books are the written word of four eye witnesses of the ministry of Jesus Christ. I think it is interesting to call them “eye witness accounts” because in many ways that is indeed what they are. In the Old Testament, God told the children of Israel that “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” (Deuteronomy 19:15) Jesus even quotes this passage in Matthew 18:16! But in having the witnesses of God’s Son and His ministry be four, it’s almost like God saying, “Make no mistake about this matter!”
There are many historical events that we take as fact even when there are no more than one or two witnesses having written about them. And yet today there are more and more people who discount the validity of the Bible or want to change it to suit their own thoughts and ideas which contradict the four witnesses of the events surrounding Jesus’s life and ministry.
Have you read through those four books - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? The first three of these are called “synoptic gospels.”
The word “synoptic” coming from two Greek words meaning “similar views” (literally: same eye). Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote about very similar things but basically were writing to different audiences. John, on the other hand, writes of very different episodes in the life of Jesus and quite rarely touches on the things the other three take up.
Within these four Gospels of the Bible (the good news) are tremendous amounts of uplifting stories. The overall theme is of course the story of a very loving God who is willing to sacrifice His Son - “This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am pleased” (Matthew 3:17) in order that we, His creation who are sinners, may obtain eternal life through His death.
The book of Matthew begins in 1:1 by stating, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of Abraham.” This statement lays the foundation of all that follows in the gospels and that is yet to come! Jesus is indeed the son (or descendant) of Abraham. But the literal son of Abraham is a type of Messiah, showing all who would have eyes to see that a savior would come through the lineage of Abraham. The story is found in Genesis. God has already told Abraham that he would have a son in his old age - a miracle birth (Gen. 18:10-15) and that all peoples on Earth would be blessed through him (Gen. 12: 2-3). And then in Gen 22:2. God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Issac, whom you love (sound familiar?) and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” It just so happens that this mountain, Mount Moriah, is the same mountain in Jerusalem where, some 2,080 years later, Jesus would undergo a sacrifice for our sins.
God uses the same words for Issac that He would later use in describing Jesus - God’s only Son. Some people think that this was a terrible thing for God to do to His servant Abraham. But the reality is that God, who is love itself, was having Abraham set up a type; a symbol of the reality of what was to come some 2080 years in the future.
I mentioned that this played out in Genesis 22, and if you have read the chapter, then you know how Isaac asked his father as they walked up the mount “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham’s response is very telling, “God will Himself provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” This answer from a father to his son is “the gospel,” for God our Father did indeed provide the lamb for a sacrifice. It is in the book of John wherein John the Baptist says to his disciples. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29 and 36) as he pointed to Jesus.
Now if you’ve been following along you can see how both Matthew and John work hand in hand to reveal information. Matthew said that his book concerned, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” We’ve looked at the son of Abraham and correlated the account in Genesis with John calling Jesus “the lamb of God.” And if you are paying close attention you’ve noticed that the opening statement in Matthew says that Jesus was the Son of David.
David’s son was Solomon and he became king when David died. The name Solomon is derived from the Hebrew word for peace, “shalom.” And we know from Isaiah 9:6 that Jesus is called “Prince of Peace.” But more than that, Solomon was to be the one who would build God’s house - God’s temple. This is also a type for us to learn from in the Old Testament because in the book of Hebrews, Jesus is referred to as the builder of God’s house. (Heb. 3:1-6)
If we consider these two “types” from the Old Testament, we can see that God wishes to teach us that Jesus, as the Son of Abraham, was sacrificed for us as the Lamb of God and, as the Son of David, He would become the King of kings and reign the house of God. This is pretty special, isn’t it?
Until next time, remember: There is good news.
As the Deer by Cynthia Saladin
If a hymn can be ubiquitous, “As the Deer” came about as close as any in our local congregation. For a while, we sang it every week. You alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship Thee. The very interesting thing about this song is that the opening phrase of the hymn, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God,” is not really the thrust of the psalm. The psalmist writes, twice, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Then in psalm 43, this refrain is repeated.
But he doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t just pose the question and leave it hanging. He goes on, all three times, to state, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
As the psalm develops, he tells of his tears being his food day and night. He says that he’s downcast. He asks if God has forgotten him. He suffers ridicule from his foes. Regardless of his persecution, suffering, trials and tribulation, he keeps coming back to the question, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?”
I wonder if it’s a kind of amazement as he’s looking at himself. I can imagine looking at myself and thinking, “What in the world do you have to be depressed about? Isn’t God your God? Don’t you trust Him? Haven’t you tasted and seen that God is good all the time? Have you so quickly forgotten what God has done for you?” It’s almost as if the psalmist is giving us, today, a recipe for getting a better perspective on what’s really happening in our day to day life. Yes, it might look depressing. Yes, there are people making fun of you. Yes, things are hard. But don’t you know God? Better yet, aren’t you known of God? And if you know God, that means you have a relationship. That means you’ve experienced just how important your relationship with God truly is. So maybe, just maybe, the opening lines of Psalm 42 give us the only remedy that will truly cure our stress and depression: as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O my God!
Christians in Winter- Part 6
by Diane Kleeschulte
Many, many years ago my youngest sister, Christine, stopped by to stay with me for a weekend. She needed a break from the college campus where she lived, and so it was that on a Friday around midnight, I heard a knock on my apartment door. Even though I was surprised by her appearance at that hour, she was a welcome sight. I went back to the couch where I had been sleeping, but she went to the kitchen to look for something to eat. I heard her say something but couldn’t understand it, so I asked her to repeat it. She came closer to me and said, “Oh my gosh. You really are poor.”
Christine had opened the refrigerator and it was nearly empty, and then she went to the pantry where she found only a package or two of ramen noodles. I knew that I was struggling. I was working two jobs: one full time and the other part time. Somehow I was also managing to take a couple classes at the community college. I had a car payment, insurance, and rent with utilities to pay each month. I had a dog. I was so happy to have even ten dollars left at the end of my paychecks for gas money. But I was making it, my life, work. Even though the efficiency apartment wasn’t of the best quality, I felt safe. I was doing everything that I could to be self-supporting and self-sufficient. It was very hard. Times were tough. There wasn’t even a thought of living beyond my means unless I wanted to move back home or be kicked out of my apartment. I had a budget and woe to me should I stray even a dollar or two from it. Though I didn’t know it at the time, later in life there would come a point where I would deeply appreciate a trip to the grocery store where I was able to afford everything on my list, not to mention having a little leftover to put away for savings. I wasn’t a Christian during those hard times, but I know that I felt like God was with me, and He was helping me during those very lean financial years.
Fast forward to this message by Ron Dart (from 2009 - part six in a series of eight), where he compares the response by Christians during their times of wealth and prosperity, as well as their response during hard times. Mr. Dart says that it is during times of affluence that Christians are made weaker but during the hard times they are made stronger. He says we only have to go to the book of Revelation, chapter 3, for a classic example of the result of prosperity, citing the church of Laodicea:
Revelation 3:15-19 15 "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
While the Laodicean church may have been well-off in a physical sense, spiritually they were in poverty. How dangerous it is for our spiritual life when we feel so full and satisfied with our physical gains! When times seem easy, our lives give way to lukewarm attitudes towards things of God, or worse, we grow cold.
Sometimes Christians find it hard to understand, but God will allow hard times to come our way as a form of chastening or discipline. Why? According to Mr. Dart, they are given to us to overcome, to make us stronger and, eventually, to make us winners, victorious over the struggle.
In other examples of how we are affected by prosperity, Mr. Dart cites Hosea 4:6-10 as well as Isaiah 2:6-9. While you listen to this radio program, follow along in your Bible, and read about God’s people and His judgment upon them due to life choices that resulted in spiritual and moral decay. Quoting Mr. Dart, “Good times do not make good people.” When we as a people of God prosper, we tend to leave His ways and abandon His laws. We choose to revere the physical over the spiritual things of God, and it is then that God will not spare the rod of discipline for His children.
Mr. Dart then contends that it is during the hard times that the gospel tends to take root in people, and it is at this point of his message that Mr. Dart takes the listeners to Matthew 13:3-23, the parable of the soils, or sower. Refresh your memory and turn to the scripture while Mr. Dart explains how the seeds and soils are compared to a Christian’s response during hard times. You will not regret spending about a half hour listening to this important message by Ron Dart.
What I appreciate most about this message is that while I would not choose to return to those earlier days of hard times, I understand that today my response to hard times as a Christian would be different. I know that my strength in surviving hard times is not going to come from within but from above- from God’s grace, mercy, and love. And if easier days should happen to return? I pray that I will stay close to God, and to choose His ways over my own. Finally, I want to remember that God wants me to be faithful during the easy times and victorious over the hard times. He wants all of us to be winners!
Listen to Mr. Dart’s radio program, Born to Win, each Sunday at 8AM on KXEN.
I Was Drugged By My Parents!
The other day, a friend at a store in our town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse not far away and he asked me, “Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?” I replied that I DID have a drug problem when I was young.
* I was drug to church every sabbath.
* I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
* I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults.
* I was drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
* I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity.
* I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad’s fields.
* I was drug to the homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today’s children had this kind of drug problem, the world would be a better place. God bless the parents who drugged us. Anonymous
April
War
by Cynthia Saladin
The opening chapter of Judges describes the conquest of the Promised Land after the death of Joshua. The people began by inquiring of the LORD, but vs. 21 says that the Benjaminites didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jebusites. Verse 27 says that the tribe of Manasseh did not drive out inhabitants. Verses 29, 30, 31, and 33 cite the failure of Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali to drive out the inhabitants. And then it gets worse: in verse 34, we’re told that the Amorites actually pushed Dan back into the hill country and didn’t even allow them to take their inheritance.
In Judges 2:2, God says that the people did not obey His voice to drive the inhabitants out completely. Rather, they made covenants with the inhabitants. The peoples of the land had become so corrupt, so vile, so wicked, so ungodly (Deuteronomy 9:4) that God’s people could not live among them without likewise becoming corrupt, vile, wicked and ungodly. The gods of the Canaanites would become snares to the Israelites and draw them away from serving the One and Only God, Jehovah! God had told them they couldn’t have their cake and eat it too. They couldn’t co-exist with the Canaanites and be obedient to God simultaneously.
God goes on to explain why He would no longer drive out the Canaanites before the Israelites in Judges 3:2 and 4, “It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. . . . They [the wicked inhabitants of the land] were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”
We know Israel’s history; it’s summarized in Judges 2:16-19. God would raise up a judge to lead Israel. God would save them out of the hand of their enemies. As soon as the judge died, the people became worse than they had been before, more perverse, more ungodly, more wicked! God would sell them into the hands of their enemies to oppress them. When the people cried out to God, God would raise up another judge and rescue the people again. It happened over and over. Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson were all judges in this cycle.
It becomes abundantly clear that when their lives were prosperous and pleasant, the people forgot God and did whatever they wanted. When they found themselves persecuted, oppressed, and in trouble, they asked God to save them from disaster. Deuteronomy 6:11-12; 8:11; and 31:20-21 all warn, “and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD.” God was abundantly merciful and exceedingly patient! But the people repeated the pattern over and over.
So it seems that God sent trouble for two reasons: 1) to turn the hearts of the people back to Him and 2) to see if the people would obey God. Incredibly to us today, we wonder why in the world they couldn’t see the pattern and turn back to God whole-heartedly!
But we know they didn’t see it. Look at Judges 6:13. When the angel of the LORD appears before Gideon, He says, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” Gideon response is, “If the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” Why, Gideon asked, has God forsaken us and given us into the hands of the Midianites? Gideon didn’t seem to know why they were experiencing trouble. And yet, his own father had an altar to Baal!
What a peculiar proclivity among carnal humans who are in covenant with God! When things are going well, we must constantly guard against becoming comfortable and tolerant of the evil around us. We live among the inhabitants of the land - the inhabitants who do not know God and have no interest in serving Him. The inhabitants of the land can become a snare to us, enticing us to worship their gods. They can become thorns in our sides. It is for very good reason that James writes this to the “twelve tribes in the Dispersion,” in other words, those who are in covenant with God: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
An applicable quote, then, is “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” We are living in the world, but we must not become part of the world (John 15:19). We must be partakers of the world’s sins and subsequent consequences (Revelation 18:4). Especially as we approach the Passover, we must take time to examine ourselves to see if there be any evil way within us (Psalm 139:24) and make every effort to purify body and spirit out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1).
And all of those troubles we encounter? They could simply be God’s discipline - to encourage us to seek Him continually. Laura Story’s song “Blessing” has a section where she sings,
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise.
What if God knows that we need war, we need battles to fight, to keep us from becoming soft and complacent and falling away from our zealousness in seeking Him? It gives an entirely different perspective on James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Make no mistake: we are in a battle. We must prepare our minds for battle (1 Peter 1:13). We must put on the full armor of God, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6:13-18). We must overcome and persevere to the end (Revelation 2-3). We must not allow the cares of this world or the deceitfulness of riches to stymie our productivity for the kingdom (Matthew 13:22). And we must not allow the enemy to conquer and divide (Ecclesiastes 4:12). We need each other for support and encouragement and growth (Hebrews 10:24-25; 1 Samuel 23:16; Proverbs 27:17). It’s time to fully set our hearts and minds on God, His ways and His will for our lives.
Compulsion to Conform
by Jim O’Brien (12/21/18)
My wife has a book entitled Everyone is Normal Until You Get to Know Them. It's a bittersweet concept. Bitter because all of us have baggage (as we say), sweet because there is no need to feel inferior-at least to other humans.
It's also overwhelming because we are offered entrance into the very family of God-who is flawless. We are told to "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48)
Maybe that's why one of the most interesting ironies of human nature is the compulsion to conform to other humans. Most people have enough weaknesses to create a natural resistance to imitation.
When I was in college a psychology professor told us to imagine looking at a classroom of 25 students. He said that 2 of the 25 would spend time in a mental hospital, 4 would be profoundly neurotic, 4 deeply neurotic, 4 mildly neurotic and only 8 to 10 would be fairly normal.
It's gotten worse over the years. Today about one-quarter of the adult population suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. That's more than 57 million people!
Over 2 million adults were admitted to a drug or alcohol rehabilitation center last year. And the day before they were admitted to the institution, some of them were passing you on the highway driving a car or big truck.
Add to this the financial indebtedness and serious health issues most people face on a daily basis. For example, the average student leaves college today with a debt of $32,000!
Okay, enough of statistical bad news! I've made my point-why would any of us want to be like everybody else? The truth is, if you want to be like everybody else then you'll get what everybody else gets.
There was a psychological study once that demonstrated the benefit of having an unusual name. Having a name that is, well, peculiar, was a factor that actually favored success. The author cited the name Elvis as an example that helped the singer become great. If his parents had named him Bill or Bob he would probably have worked the checkout counter at Kroger and driven a used Ford.
There is deep truth in the idea of our unique identity in God. The King James Version of the Bible uses the term "peculiar" when it refers to God's people. Moses quotes God as saying, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people." (Exodus 19:5 KJV) In other words, you are special to God above the crowd because of your lack of conformity. That's a peculiar characteristic you can enjoy.
The thought is expressed at least 5 times in the Bible. The contemporary versions render the word peculiar as "treasured people" as in Deuteronomy where Moses says, "Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession!" (Deut. 14:2 NIV)
Being thought of as "different" isn't so bad after all.
"Worry is a conversation you have with yourself
about things you cannot change.
Prayer is a conversation you have with God
about things He can change."
May
He Is to Be Exalted
By Diane Kleeschulte
Psalm 46:10 He says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
I’m going to share with you an event that has been happening to me lately. Maybe you can relate. If you can, I’m pleased for you, as I have found myself growing deeper in my relationship with God, and perhaps you are, as well. If you haven’t experienced something like this, I know that God is likely working in you, and blessing you, in a different but special way, too.
I could be out and about running errands or working at home and this feeling that something is “off” or I’m “missing” something just hits me. Sometimes the feeling comes on me quietly, stealthily, and at other times it is like a bulldozer. (Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to happen when I’m driving, though.) When these episodes first started happening, my understanding of them seemed elusive. I would stop what I was doing for a moment and look around. No, everything looks like it’s okay. Nothing seems out of place. Then I’d go on, a little time would pass, and that feeling was back. By now my attention was really caught and I would totally stop everything I was doing. I would be totally still. Psalm 46 has always held a very special place in my heart so whenever I am really, authentically still, that psalm comes to my mind. On the first day that this feeling came to me, I asked God, in my stillness, “I know that you are God! What is going on?” And I believe He gave me the answer. No, it wasn’t audible but it was real. That day He stopped me to pray for someone in need. So I did just that. Stopping and praying for someone wasn’t an unusual request, so I really didn’t think anymore about it. But I would come to realize later that there was more going on than just stopping my day and offering a prayer to God on behalf of someone in need.
It’s hard to explain just how these events are set apart from other times that I have stopped and prayed for someone. The best way that I can explain it that it is the feeling that God needs me to stop right then and there, to be in communion with Him. He wants my full attention. Right now. Maybe because I am older God has employed different methods of how to get and keep my attention. The feeling is bigger than just a feeling of being distracted from whatever task is before me at that moment. It’s like a time stopper. All real time is suspended and I must follow through with what God desires me to do. It isn’t just prayer that He call me to do. There are other ways God tells me that I need to serve Him. He has needed me to talk to someone, right then, not the next day. He has sent me on an errand to get stamps so that I could send out words of encouragement. He has told me to get out my bible and read. I don’t even know where to start in my reading but I get my bible anyway. There are days that I just start at the beginning with Genesis, or one time I found myself going to Revelation and reading until I reached the end. Other times, I feel lead to read a psalm or two, or read the words in red, the words of Jesus Christ.
Then there are the days where all God is really wanting me to do is stop and listen. Not to music or talking or the television or anything like that but listen to Him. In the stillness that surrounds me, I am a captive audience eager to know what He wants to reveal of Himself! And this is one reason for sharing my testimony: God does desire that we all come to Him when He calls us, open and ready, to receive Him in a loving, covenant relationship. He is compassionate, merciful, and gracious but until or unless we are close to Him, hemmed in by the blessings He has given us, on what foundation is our relationship based upon? As time goes by, I realize that for everything God has called upon me to do, in His name, He has given me an opportunity to remember His goodness and His faithfulness. The way that He has captured my attention, there is little doubt that I will ever forget the significance of being still in His presence! Which brings me to the next part of my article.
Sharing how God has been working in my life lately is not easy because first, it is so personal and second, the feelings and emotions don’t always translate well to words on paper. However, we have a very special time period of 50 days approaching. We will be counting to Pentecost. God wants our attention for 50 days in a row. God has had more of my attention the past several months and now He desires more. Why else would He tell to me count a specific number of days? (If you need an example of just how else God gets our attention, all you have to do is read about how He wants us to observe the weekly Sabbath.)
Leviticus 23:16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
Each year I try to give a different spiritual application to those 50 days. One year, I chose the word “abide”, and each day I wrote in my journal a bible verse that spoke of how God abides in us and we abide in Him. Once year, I chose the word “grace”.
A couple of times throughout the years, I have written down 50 verses from my bible reading, numbered each with the day of the count, and then put them in a jar. On the day of Pentecost, I pulled them all out and read them. It was interesting putting them all in sequence to see my train of spiritual thought as the count to Pentecost progressed.
How will I record the count of 50 days to Pentecost this year? At this point, I am still undecided. But I have been giving it serious thought and I pray that you are as well. This verse will likely help me make my final decision, though: Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
God has been calling me to be His servant in specific ways at specific times, as I have mentioned, and it has been a truly humbling experience. Likewise, this is a specific time in God’s calendar, and it behooves us to be His captive audience and listen to Him as He directs us to acknowledge these upcoming days to Pentecost. What will you be remembering during the 50 days to Pentecost? Will you be accounting for your blessings, for example? Can you recall 50 times that God has intervened on your behalf through answered prayer? Are there 50 moments in your life where you felt so close to God that nothing else could compare?
In closing, will these be just 50 ordinary days for you on the calendar, or will they become something extraordinary and special? If you’re undecided, be still, and know that He is God, and perhaps you will then find 50 ways to exalt Him among the nations!
Psalm 118:28 You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Yes! There is Good News by Bill Rollins
Last time I mentioned there are certain “types” in scriptures. Abraham’s son Issac and David’s son Solomon were both types of Jesus Christ. How do we know that these types, and others, are used in the Old Testament? Very simply, the Apostle Paul tells us unequivocally in his letter the Corinthians, that they are there. In talking about Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and then traveling in the wilderness for forty years, Paul says this:
“Now these things occurred as types to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were.”
Paul admonishes us about idolatry by using the Israelites as an example. (1 Cor.10:6) A little later, in the same chapter, Paul says, “These things happen to them as types. And were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.”
We are in the latter days. In fact, the “latter days” were ushered in at the time of Jesus’ crucification, death and resurrection. These types in the Old Testament are for us to read and learn from. A wise man once said, “Anyone can learn from his own mistakes, but it takes a wise man to learn from someone else’s mistakes.”
I have tried to never forget that simple lesson. We can learn from the mistakes of others who have gone before us; namely the Israelites. They were God’s chosen people then, and we who have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal savior are God’s people today. And speaking of accepting Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we have come to the heart and core of the gospel, i.e. “the good news.”
I have heard some people say, “I’m a good person, and I try to do what God wants me to do.” But let me be quite emphatic here, God does not want a “good” person. God does not want a “better” person. God wants a new person! Paul says this in his book to the Romans, “ Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4) Do you desire that new life?
We sometimes forget that it is God who is in charge and not we ourselves. We cannot tell God how things should be. Remember that God said it is we who are created in His image but we sometimes want to create God in our image. This will not work. If we think that we have some goodness aside from Jesus Christ we are mistaken. In Isaiah 64:6 it says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all are righteous acts are like filthy rags.” That’s not saying “some of us.” It is all of us!
So, have you repented of your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior and then, understanding what Paul says is a symbol of death, undergone the immersion of baptism? Yes, the new life we receive at that point is truly good news.
Personally, I find that there is no greater calling in this life than to develop a deeper relationship with my Heavenly Father and there are several things we can do to attain that goal. The top two on that list are: spend more time in prayer and read what God has to say to you.
When you read the Bible you will come to know God. When you come into the presence of God and open your heart to Him in prayer, God gets to know you.
What’s that you say? God already knows you. Let’s examine that thought. There are two separate times in the scripture wherein God says He never knew someone. The first is found in Matthew 7:15, “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and preform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you lawless ones!” In other words, if we think we have something to offer God, (prophesying and miracles) and yet we have no knowledge of the will of God and of His law, we have a problem and are going about knowing Him (or shall we say “being known by Him”) in the wrong way!
I can never come to know another person without that person revealing himself to me. I’m sure we have all known someone who is unreachable. They have built a great wall around themselves so as not to let anyone in. God, of course, can “look over any wall” we may create, but will He? God is a Father and He wants His children to open up to Him. He wants us to get on our knees and tell Him our inner wants and desires, our thoughts and the meditations of our hearts.
Perhaps the inner desire of our hearts is to understand the things we read in His word. This is a wonderful place to begin that much needed relationship with Him. I think we all know that there are many places in the word of God that can be challenging to understand. I have heard it said that the things in this life that are valuable and are worthwhile are the things we must work for.
My friends, the word of God is valuable, the word of God is worthwhile. There is nothing more beautiful than the things our creator wants to speak to us about. I can think of nothing more exciting than to be reading the scriptures and have my Father in Heaven reveal a nugget of truth to me.
Sometimes that piece of the truth is pure joy in my innermost being, but sometimes I am hurt or cut to the heart by it. But just as a loving father must correct his children in ways that seem to hurt, so the Heavenly Father corrects those who are His.
Our God is a faithful God. The scriptures tell us that all His ways are perfect. He alone knows that “big picture,” and all His intentions for us are nothing but good.
A beautiful description of this is found in Hebrews 12:10, “our (Earthly) fathers disciplined us for a little while as they though best; God disciplines us for our own good, that we may share His holiness. Wow! I believe we would all accept His discipline in order to have His holiness imparted to us.
But where does this “pure joy” or this “correction” come from? Well, as has been said, it comes from our Heavenly Father. And how does He speak to us about these things? Well, in His word.
For us, His word is found in the Bible. In Paul’s comments to his beloved friend Timothy, he states this - “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of ... how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correction and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Paul wrote this letter (2 Timothy) around 65 A.D., sometime before he was martyred. At this point in time the only scriptures that Paul could have had in mind were what we all the Old Testament, for none of the New Testament had been written as of yet. But look at what Paul says about these scriptures - they are able to make you wise for salvation. They are useful for teaching, etc. You and I, today, have the amazing ability to purchase a Bible with both of these testaments for a very small price. Perhaps you have a couple of copies in your home now. This access to the Word of God today is abundantly easy and inexpensive. This has not always been so. Several centuries ago, many people had to suffer torture and martyrdom so as to insure future generations (like ours) might have access to the Bible. And we don’t take the time to read it? Shame on us!
Time
by Cynthia Saladin
Time is such a funny thing.
If you’re like me, you remember people as you last saw them. Even if it’s been six years, you somehow are shocked at how much the child has grown into a young adult!
You can plant seeds right after you till the garden. Somehow the weeds grow faster than the seeds you sowed. How does that work? They were essentially planted at the same time.
You can think that a tiny weed is no big problem. You don’t have to pull that one. But over time, every little weed becomes a big weed, and somehow the roots of weeds are a lot more tenacious than the plants you are trying to get to grow as vigorously! It works this way with sins vs. godly habits too.
A wound between friends, left to fester, doesn’t get well with time. It just remains a sore that ultimately ruins a friendship.
Procrastination seems like a good idea on a beautiful sunny day when everyone would rather be outside than doing what needs to be done first. Benjamin Franklin knew what he was talking about when he said, “A stitch in time saves nine.”
Once a moment is spent, you can’t get it back. It’s history - literally and colloquially.
Time seems to go more quickly the older you get. What seemed like forever to an eight year old seems like a snap of the fingers to me.
Time seems to go very slowly on Atonement.
Going back in time or visiting the future wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as we imagine. But we waste time thinking about the good old days or daydreaming about what we’ll do tomorrow. In the meantime, back in reality, thinking back or forward causes us to miss the present - and it is called the present because it’s a gift from God.
Dad mentioned on the last Day of Unleavened Bread that time is the only thing we have to give to God. Everything else is already His. So when God gifts us with time, we need to consider carefully what we’re going to do with it. What is the most valuable use of our time? What brings glory and honor to Him?
One of the graduates at Christopher’s commencement said that people always ask kids what they’re going to be when they grow up - instead of asking them what they’re going to do. She’s going to be a beautician. But she’s planning to leave a legacy of serving God, bringing Him glory and honor.
That legacy, however, won’t happen without some planning, some preparation and perseverance. We, each of us, need to spend time (some of that precious gift God’s given to us) reading His word, to know what is pleasing to Him. We need to meditate on it. We need to spend time in prayer, talking with our God! We need to be intentional about our time with God, not just letting it happen whenever we have time to fit it into our busy lives. Spending time with God daily is the crucial foundation of living a life to bring Him glory and honor because we can’t please Him unless we know Him. And we can’t know Him unless we spend quality time with Him. But then, we have to make sure God is part of everything we do. We cannot please Him if we compartmentalize Him into something convenient when we have time. He wants people who are wholly devoted to Him. He’s an integral part, the foundational component, of everything we do.
As we count to Pentecost, we are given another reminder from our Heavenly Father about just how significant time is. He wants us to count the days and make them count for Him.
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12 (ESV)
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:16 (KJV)
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Don’t say that God is silent when your Bible is closed.
June
What Did You Learn?
by Cynthia Saladin
If I asked you what action verb is associated with the three holy day seasons, what would you say? For the Days of Unleavened Bread, we are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. It’s not about getting leaven out - that should already have been done before the holy days start! It’s about taking in of Jesus Christ, eating the unleavened bread which represents living our lives God’s way, subsisting on His word, seeking Life because that’s what truly sustains us. Eating should be the obvious verb to focus on - it’s inherent in the name of the Feast.
For the Feast of Tabernacles, the action verb is again in the name: we are to dwell in temporary dwellings, tents, tabernacles, for seven days. It reminds us that it is God who brought us out of slavery to sin. He is our Redeemer and Savior. Furthermore, we’re not to get too comfortable in this world. Don’t get too settled because, if we’ve been redeemed and we belong to God, then this world is not our home. We’re looking for God’s kingdom. We’re aliens and strangers in this land. We want to dwell in Christ. We want to walk in His ways. We want to be found in Him always.
So what about the Feast of Weeks? Pentecost? Again the verb is in the name. We are to count. And as we count for seven complete weeks - during the spring harvest - we should again see Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. It is in
participating in God’s holy days that we learn more about Him and who we are in Christ.
So what did you learn as you have been counting these past few weeks?
It’s really to get busy with the harvest, or life, or stuff, and neglect to count every day. Quick! Without counting on your fingers from last sabbath, what day of the count is it?
The days can pass by very quickly. Suddenly you’re at Pentecost and you find yourself wondering where all the days went! If you didn’t make a conscious effort to number the days, they are gone in the blink of an eye! And so isn’t it the same way with our lives. If we don’t make a conscious effort to make each day count, to intentionally choose those things which draw us closer to God, our days can slip by like sand through our fingers - and we have nothing to show for it.
The harvest is hard. Just as the plants have to be weeded, watered, and cared for - if you want a good harvest - we need to be diligent in our own lives. We need to weed out the habits and choices which are choking out our fruitfulness to God. We need to water our relationship with God with prayer, Bible study, meditation, fellowship with like believers. We need to intentionally care for our pursuit of holiness. Otherwise, we will have missed the opportunity to be fruitful for our God.
Just because the days are hard or discouraging or exhausting, we can’t give up. We have a goal in mind, in sight! As Winston Churchill adjured: Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Or as the seven churches of Revelation were similarly adjured: to him who overcomes . . . We overcome obstacles. We don’t doubt God’s goodness. We don’t rely on our own strength. We don’t expect life to be too easy. We are in preparation for service in God’s kingdom and we must persevere regardless of the obstacles and difficulties before us.
God expects you to rest. Even in the midst of the harvest, even when you have more things to do than you can shake a stick at, God expects you to observe the Sabbath. It is a gift to you from your Heavenly Father - to rest physically from your labor, to remember to rest in Him for your strength, to be exhorted and encouraged by your church family. The sabbath is not optional. It is not a lesser commandment. It is one of God’s Ten Commandments. And God expects you to love this gift that He has created for you each week.
Life rarely goes as planned. When you’re in the midst of the harvest, one of the busiest seasons of the year, it sometimes feels like you have more to do than can possibly get done. And! You may plan to do one thing, but, as you begin, you find two things
that have to be done first. It’s easy to get frustrated and try to work faster. That doesn’t usually work well. Remember Ziggy? My American lit teacher in high school had a poster of Ziggy that said, “The faster I go the behinder I get.” Just keep calm and carry on. The unplanned detours of life are not a surprise to God. So put your trust in Him and do the next thing.
Never forget the value of a well-timed word and an expression of gratitude. When life gets busy and we get frazzled, we tend to focus on the next thing we need to do, sometimes forgetting that everyone else is experiencing a similar state of frazzled-ness. AT&T’s slogan is very important: reach out and touch someone. Let the people around you know how much you appreciate them - not just their efforts - but them, as fellow travelers in the Way. We could all take a page from Barnabas’ play book and be a son of encouragement to those around us. It can make a huge difference.
We have just a few days left before the Day of Pentecost will have fully come. I hope you’re counting. I hope you’re evaluating how you live each day to the glory of our Great God. I hope you have fruit to harvest for Him. I wonder what you’ve been learning. Wanna share?
The reason we have 17,000 pages in our law books is because we cannot follow 10 lines on a tablet made of stone. ~Ravi Zacharias
Yes, There is Good News!
- By Bill Rollins
In October 2016, our family kept the Feast of Tabernacles in St. George, UT. I was privileged to give two messages: “What is God Worth to You?” and “Do You Have Any Zeal?”
So, let me pose that same question here, first; what is God worth to you? Have you ever pondered that question? He is the Creator of all things. He is the one who provides all things. He is so beneficent that He gives good gifts to both the righteous and the unrighteous. The sun shines on the Christian and the non-Christian, the Godly and the atheist, the diligent and the slothful. As the song says, “God is good, all the time!”
One of our side trips was to Zion National Park. I am sure that some of you have visited that awesome park. To travel through that canyon with shear cliffs rising a couple of thousand feet on both sides is pretty awe-inspiring. But to see the beauty of the landscape and not recognize the One who created the landscape is to miss out on a great opportunity to really worship God.
What does the word “worship” mean? It is a contraction of two words , “worth-ship.” It is to consciously recognize the worth of God and so revere Him and all that He is. Worship can take place sitting by a rushing stream with mountains all around. It can occur while one sits under a night sky with thousands of stars twinkling overhead. It can happen while one looks out over the rolling hills of Iowa with a seemingly endless stretch of corn and soybeans waiting to be harvested.
I could go on and on and I am sure you could add many more examples of the greatness of our God.
So, is God worthy of your time? Do you greet Him every morning in prayer? Do you say good night to Him every evening before bed? God is good to us and He loves us very much. Are you a parent? If you are, do you enjoy the times when your children sit and just visit with you? For me, those times are a blessing - will you be a blessing to your Heavenly Father? What is God worth to you?
Can we bless our Heavenly Father? Will He be blessed by us? And if we can, will that blessing of ours turn out to be something we might call “good news?”
In Psalm 103 we read, “Bless the Lord O my soul, all that is in me bless His holy name.” This is how Psalm begins and it ends with the words, “Bless the Lord, O you, His holy angels ... Bless the Lord all His hosts ... Bless the Lord all His works ... Bless the Lord O my soul.” So, in answer to my first question, we can bless God!
The word “bless” comes from the Hebrew word “barak,” which literally means to “bend the knee, to kneel, and by implication to bless God.”
It is the very same word that is used back in Genesis 1:27-28, “So God created man in His own image ... male and female He created them ... and God blessed them ...”
When God started to work with Abram (later called Abraham) in Genesis 12: 2-3, He said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you ... and all peoples on Earth will be blessed through you.” God is the originator of life and so He is the originator of blessings. But as we saw, these blessings may be reciprocal in that when we are blessed by God, we are to kneel before Him and bless Him with reverence and awe.
Have you ever been blessed by God, the Creator and Sustainer of life? The question is really ludicrous. The answer is an emphatic yes! The fact that you have life is the first blessing. The fact that your life is sustained by oxygen, by water, by food in abundance is a blessing that some of us may take for granted. But where should we stop in enumerating the many blessings we receive from our Heavenly Father? We have five senses that connect us with the world around us. We have a super computer the size of a small melon within our skulls that processes all the information our senses feed it. But perhaps most of all, we have “the breath of life” from our God within us which enables us to reason. Yes, of all the creatures on the Earth, we are the only ones who can come to truly know the God who created all things. And in His love for us, He even allows us to try and reason Him away. He does not crush the non-believer; God feeds all His creation. He “so loves the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
“Bless the Lord O my soul.” Amen.
The scripture says that God “Causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”(Matthew 5:45) I guess this is somewhat obvious considering there are many out there who do not believe in God, and yet their fields produce crops in abundance. They have food enough to eat. Perhaps as humans who inhabit our planet, this might seem somewhat counter-intuitive. But God lets us know that He is not as we are! “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:9). I believe that says it quite nicely!
God is God. He is perfect. And so God says to us, “I have set a high bar for you to attain to.” It is not easy to love your enemies, and to pray for them. Be perfect as God is perfect. God knows what he is talking about. There is another place where God talks about wanting to attain perfection - it is found in Matthew 19, where a rich young man wanted to know what he must do to attain eternal life. Jesus, understanding the man and knowing where his heart was, told him to obey the commandments. The man acknowledged he had kept them and wish to know where he lacked. Jesus told him directly, “If you want to be perfect, go sell all your possessions and give to the poor.” Basically Jesus told the man to separate himself from all that was important to him. And so the man went away sad, because he had great wealth.
I believe we all know there isn’t anything we can do to get eternal life; it is the free gift form God for those who believe. So what was Jesus getting at by telling this man these things? I think Jesus was telling the man that he believed in his wealth more than he believed in God. The man had ‘good news” staring him in the face, literally, the good news of eternal life. But all he could see was his fortune.
Is there something sitting before your eyes that keeps you from seeing your Savior? Or perhaps some wealth you are having a hard time parting with? There is a song I enjoy seeing where in the chorus says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the thing of Earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” Try doing that, and perfection may be just around the corner. Jesus bids you to come to Him.
Until next time, there is good news!
"To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is unforgivable.” - Beethoven
July
More Lessons from Pepper
by Cynthia Saladin
Pepper was quite sure I’d lost my mind earlier this week. I was pulling weeds in the corn even though the sky looked like it could open up and pour at any moment. Pepper accompanied me to the garden, as usual, and took up his normal watchful position nearby. Occasionally, something would catch his attention and he’d go investigate, but he kept a pretty close eye on me while I was working.
When it started to sprinkle, he came to me, tail down, ears tucked, head ducked. His actions couldn’t have told me any more plainly, “Hey! It’s raining! Do you think we ought to go inside?” I petted him, told him he was a good dog, and then told him to go away. He walked over, lay down, and continued his vigil.
Soon the rain stopped. He watched me for a while. He investigated interesting things. And then it started blowing and sprinkling again. Again, he came to let me know it was raining and maybe we should do something. I told him he was a nice dog and told him to go away.
The third time, he brought Ebony with him. She was like, “Hey, it’s raining out here. Can we go inside yet?” I told her she was a nice dog. I told Pepper he was a nice dog, but they needed to let me work for a few more minutes.
Pretty soon it was really raining. But I was so close to having my row weeded. I just wanted to finish. I wasn’t a bit surprised when Pepper came to get me. He loyally believes it is his job to keep watch while I’m in the garden, no matter what the weather is doing. (Ebony had long since gone to the porch.) But enough was enough. He stood right in front of me and made me look him in the eye. Then he started licking my arm - you know how he tries to dry himself off after he’s gone into the pond or after a bath. He must have thought I was just not thinking clearly because obviously I was getting WET! He was doing everything he could to provide me with the intelligence that I obviously was missing. How in the world I could possibly miss the rain, he couldn’t figure out, but he was determined to let me know that IT WAS RAINING and it was time to go inside.
Do you think we ever do that to God?
Do you think we ever think that God just doesn’t know what’s going on in our lives? That He must be so preoccupied that He’s just unaware of what is such a huge problem to us? We just need to let Him know so that He will do what we think needs to be done?
We wouldn’t ever do that, would we?
It seems so silly to put in those words, but that’s what our actions say. We worry. We get upset about the events in our lives. We even begin to doubt whether He still loves us.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. . . . 1 John 4:16
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9
But God’s love doesn’t begin and end with the huge gift of His Son. Paul says: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32
We can’t doubt that God loves us. And we can’t doubt that He wants us to bring our needs to Him.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
It would be ridiculous to think that the Creator of the universe wasn’t powerful enough to be in control of everything. Nothing is impossible with God! So after we struggle with doubts and fears, we come back to the foundational knowledge that He is God and we are not.
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:1-2
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
And I have to trust Him - because that’s my part of the covenant as His child.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4
I’m going to experience some rain in my life, and undoubtedly some downpours which upset me. I have to believe that God knows about the storms. He knows what I’m enduring. I need to trust Him. I need to remember to pray like Jehoshaphat did, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” (2 Chron. 20:12) And if He determines that I need to ride out the storm, I rest in His promise that He will never leave me nor forsake me. (Hebrews 13:5)
911, What is Your Emergency?
By Diane Kleeschulte
“911, what is your emergency?”
A voice on the other end is asking the caller to state their emergency: fire, ambulance, police? It’s a short but powerful question! The caller must be able to think quickly and rationally because this could be a life or death situation. It’s a wonder anyone can keep calm during such a stressful event: relaying a potential life-threatening situation to a virtual stranger!
Does the fire department need to respond to a vehicle, a home, or business fire? Does EMS need to respond to someone in need of medical attention? Does the police department need to respond to a law-breaking situation? In dire events, all three will be contacted and sent to respond to the caller’s request. Whoever responds to the emergency call will do their best to rescue, mend, and tend to the needs of those in trouble when they arrive on the scene. Oftentimes it takes the concerted effort of all three responders to remedy the scene.
Surely the most terrifying call some people will ever need to make in their lifetime is to use those three numbers: 911. Let’s consider this from a spiritual perspective. We live in a world, in a society, where bad things happen. It’s no surprise that many people have given up listening to, or reading, the news. It seems to be nothing but a sad and constant commentary on how low we have fallen as a society, and how far we have distanced ourselves from God. Yes, we know that we are in the world not a part of it, but we also know that danger lurks around the corner. Our enemy prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) Add to this the trouble brought onto us by others, and also those we inflict upon ourselves. Being aware of all this should spur us on to be in right relationship with our God, who called us from this world to His. Bible reading and study, prayer and meditation are vital to a strong foundational relationship with God.
John 15:16 (NIV) - You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NIV) - But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
While we walk in the way of the Lord, though, there still may be times when we find ourselves reaching out to make a spiritual 911 call (prayer) to our Heavenly Father. Troubles and trials happen. We know what to do. We need to reach out to Him because we know that He alone is in control. He called us and chose us to be His children. We surrendered control of our lives to Him. And, we know He is faithful to listen to His children.
Psalm 4:3 (NIV) - Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.
Psalm 31:2-3 (NKJV) - Bow down Your ear to me, Deliver me speedily; Be my rock of refuge, A fortress of defense to save me. For You [are] my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name's sake, Lead me and guide me.
Are we ready to explain our emergency? Do we need Someone to extinguish the flames of a trial that surrounds us, or Someone to bind our wounds?
1 Peter 4:12-13, 19 (ESV) - Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. ... Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Psalm 147:3 (NIV) - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 25:20 (ESV) - Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
Psalm 91:11 (ESV) - For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
Maybe we need Someone to protect us from those who would wrong us.
Psalm 59:4 (NIV) - I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Arise to help me; look on my plight!
Psalm 32:7 (NIV) - You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Psalm 40:11 (NIV) - Do not withhold your mercy from me, LORD; may your love and faithfulness always protect me.
While on a physical level the 911 operator might send out the fire department, EMS, and the police department to respond to the same call, in the spiritual sense we only need One to respond to the scene: Our Helper, Protector, Great Physician and Holy Righteous God. He has all the answers to give us within His timing and His plan. We may find ourselves having to wait for deliverance from our trials and troubles. We know that waiting is not easy yet we are called upon to wait for the LORD; why? He is the One whose answer gives us life. His word is our hope!
Psalm 38:15 (ESV) - But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
Psalm 39:7 (ESV) - And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
Psalm 130:5 (ESV) - I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
When the 911 operator answers a call they will ask for the caller to remain on the line. It is both for the caller’s good so that the operator can reassure and calm them until help arrives, and also to be available if the situation at hand changes in any way. If we apply this to a spiritual 911 situation, why wouldn’t we choose to stay close to God to see the trial through to the end? Regardless of His answer, we have a Father in Heaven who will never leave us nor forsake us. Who else can be trusted with our life but the God of the universe? He will walk with us through whatever trial we face. And we must stay faithful to Him no matter the answer He provides. He is in control. He knows His plan and will for us is what is ultimately good and right for us, all to His glory! Let’s remember this with confidence while we wait for Him.
Finally, when we beseech Him in prayer for our troubles, let’s praise Him! While we are waiting, let’s give Him thanks! All glory and honor to the God of our hope and salvation when the answers arrive according to His will. We have a First Responder who is awesome and is to be praised. Call upon His name in time of need and let Him be your El Shaddai, Lord God Almighty; Jehovah Rapha, the God that heals; Jehovah Jireh, your Protector; and Jehovah Tsikednu, the Lord our righteousness.
Psalm 100:4 (NIV) - Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
August
Heeding the Master’s Call by Cynthia Saladin
When the labs were young, I would open the front door and they’d vault off the front porch and be out of sight at the edge of the field in seconds flat. The problem always was that they wouldn’t come when I called them. Oh, they heard me. They’d lift their heads from whatever delicious scent they were investigating and look at me, but they had determined that whatever treat I had for them would in no way measure up to the fun they were going to have together. It only took a couple of times of having to track them down, tramping through fields and driving up and down roads before we knew we couldn’t just let them run. They always came back - eventually. But we didn’t know how far they were going, what they were chasing, and how much trouble they could get themselves into.
Here we are eleven years later and things have changed. Ebony has a torn ACL and although she walks pretty well, and even scampers after the chipmunk who likes to live dangerously next to our house, her hind legs don’t work so well anymore and she wears out quickly. Velvet still does a pretty good job of getting around, but the cataracts clouding her eyes are so bad she can’t see the dog treat you put in front of her nose. She always recoils when you touch her nose with it.
The past few days, Ebony has been reluctant to go for our morning walk. She’s happy about it once she’s outside and walking, but convincing her to get out of bed has not been easy. Once outside, I put Velvet on the leash and walk them over the dam. Of course, being labs, they both pile into the water, drinking as they walk, choking and coughing on water bugs, and trying to shake while still shoulder high in the pond. Yesterday, that’s the point at which I took the leash off Velvet. Neither of them made any indication that a mad dash into the woods was imminent. They investigated smells and calmly accompanied me around the pond and back up to the house.
So this morning, I didn’t even put the leash on Velvet. I just told her it was time to go for a walk, enticed Ebony out of her bed, and started off towards the pond. Velvet came when I called her, instead of going to see what Ebony had found. They both went for their morning swim. They both followed me back up to the house.
It’s a bittersweet experience. They are very compliant and lovable. They no longer chew on the porch rails. They don’t bark all through the night. But I know it’s because they’re rapidly approaching the end of their lives; it’s not because that’s what they’d do if they had the vim and vigor of youth.
So what about us? As we grow older, I’d like to think that we heed the Master’s call with ever increasing alacrity - because of the relationship we have with our Great God, not just because we don’t have the vim and vigor of youth.
There are a couple of very interesting verses in Psalm 119 which caught my attention recently:
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. (vs. 67)
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. (vs 71)
Is that what it takes - old age, trouble, affliction, problems, disaster - before we see the value of God’s ways and our absolute need for Him? Do we have to be knocked down and bruised before we seek God first? Do we have to try things our way and get into all kinds of heartache before we do it the way God said to from the very beginning?
I kind of wonder if this is where Solomon ended up at the end of his life, in order for him to have penned these words:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them.” Ecclesiastes 12:1
Oh that we would seek God with all of our hearts now because He is good and worthy and He loves us so very much!! I don’t want to wait for the evil days to come before I turn to God with all of my heart. I don’t want to fall victim to the trap of being content with where I am so that I neglect my relationship with God because I fail to see how very much I need Him (Deuteronomy 8:11-20). I owe Him everything, even my very life. What could be more important than heeding His leading every day of my life?
I’m already sad, knowing that my labs’ days are numbered. But really, all of our days are numbered before even one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). Perhaps I need to be more intentional about living my life for God’s glory with whatever days still remain.
Yes, There is Good News by Bill Rollins
There are so many ideas and thoughts written into the Bible that it can be difficult to comprehend them all. In my Bible, there are more than 1,600 pages filled with the words of our Heavenly Father. He caused His servants, by the power of his Holy Spirit, to record onto parchment all that we have in our Bibles. Moses, David, Isaiah, Samuel, Matthew, Paul, John, (etc), were all instruments of God's desire to give to you, and to me, His instruction.
I have had many people come to me and ask, how they might break up scriptures into 365 separate sections so as to read the Bible in one year. For your informations, there are websites that preform this task for you. You can also buy a Bible that is structured so that there are 365 portions for reading.
I do not recommend that people read the Bible in one year. It is a task that calls for discipline, and structure, within a person’s life. And as I have pointed out in the past, the word “discipline” has the same root form as the word “disciple.” If we are to become disciples of Jesus Christ (and we called to do just that) we must recognize that discipline is part and parcel of our effort. Over the past thirty-something articles that have appeared in the paper under the “Yes, There is Good News,” we have had a fair amount of interesting topics. But the most important topic that could ever be covered would have to do with urging you to pick up your Bible and read it. Jesus Himself tells us that these are the “words of life.” I have more people come to me and tell me they have never read the Bible, and yet they claim to be Christian! Really? That would be like me saying I have a relationship with my wife, but I never let her talk to me. That would be ludicrous. I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father, but I never let Him talk to me? God speaks to us through His word. We can pick up the books written by Moses, David, (etc) and read the words, “the word of the Lord came to me ...” “Thus declares the sovereign Lord,” “ Thus declares the Lord whose name is God Almighty.” In the New Testament we find the authors quoting from the Old Testament, saying, “This is what the Lord says through his prophet ...”
All the authors of the New Testament knew exactly what the Old Testament had to say. They were familiar with it. They read it. They desired a deep relationship with God, and experienced the joy of His closeness. They knew the words of life as were written by the prophets of old, and wrote words of life to expound and teach us about the good news of our Savior who has come, and who will come again.
Our Father delights to teach those of us who are interested in the things He has to say. The one thing I know, unequivocally, about that statement is that our Father really does want to teach us. The thing I do not know is: are you interested in the things He has to say?
In the book of Galatians, Paul seems to suggest that those belonging to Jesus Christ are to be considered as “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). And I would like to take the Apostle Paul at his word. So, I find it acceptable to learn about the nation of Israel, from the Old Testament, and utilize them as a historical lesson. In other words, I have a template for my life as a Christian in the triumphs and tragedies that the ancient nation of Israel experienced. I can take the admonitions, the corrections, the training and the blessings from God toward them and have applications for my life.
So far so good! Let’s turn back to the book of Deuteronomy 10:12 where we find this written, “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’S commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” God says that doing these things are for my own good! So if I do these 5 things, fear God, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him and observe His laws; good from God will come my way.
Let me ask the above question once again, “Are you interested in the things He has to say?” Are you interested enough to pursue the things He tells us to do? Do you strive to seek God with all your heart?
In several scriptures in the Old Testament, God admonishes us to seek His face: 1Ch 16:11 - Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually; 2Ch 7:14 - If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land: Ps 105:4 - Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
In other scriptures He asks us to seek Him with all of our heart: Ps 119:10 - Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with their whole heart; Ps 119:10 - With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
So what does it mean to seek the face of God? There are three significant words in this phrase, “seek, face and God.” The last of these words “God” is, I hope, familiar to all of us. God is the Creator, the Sustainer and the One who gives life. He is life itself. He says His name is Yahoveh, which means, “I am that I am” in other words, “the self-existent one.”
The next to last word “face” is a very important word. We know in English (in our society) that located at the front of one’s head is one’s face. When we meet someone, the first thing we normally look at is their face. So if you were to ask me “where are you going?” And I answered, “I am going downtown to seek my wife’s face,” you would look at me with great curiosity! But not so with the ancient Hebrews. This statement would have been appropriate.
The word “face” or “paniym” (pronounced paw-neem in Hebrew), connotes much more than the front of one’s head. In many contexts it means the visible portion of a thing; such as in Genesis 1:2, “The spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters.” But in the context of a person it most often signifies the person himself. And this is how we may view the statement, “seek the face of God.” It is the person of God that we must seek.
The first word in this phrase is very interesting: “seek.” In these three scriptures (1Ch 16:11, 2Ch 7:14, and Ps 105:4), the word “seek” has a very peculiar meaning. The Hebrew word is “darash” and it means, “to tread or tromp something.” I’m sure that most of us have walked from here to there in tall grass. If we travel a path once, we can look back and see where we have disturbed the grass and identify where we have trod. The next day, however, the wind and sun will have erased our path. But if we walk from here to there several times a day, and do so every day for a month, we have trod down the grass and we will still see a well-defined path.
And so it is with our seeking God! We must travel the path to our God again and again. We come to God, our Provider, and thank Him for the provisions of shelter, warmth, clothing, friends, etc.
I believe you get the point. Ps 105:4, “Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face evermore.” The blessings we receive when in His presence are indeed “good news.”
The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love. ~Corrie ten Boom
If They Should Be Written Every One
by Diane Kleeschulte
There is a book of the bible that many say is their favorite, and one that they turn to whether they are experiencing times of trouble or joy. They turn to this particular book for comfort and encouragement. Can you name that book? If you said the book of Psalms, you would be correct. My first personal experience with the Psalms was during a particularly challenging time in my life. I asked my sister, Stephanie, to direct me to a scripture that would help me. I was anxious and stressed about life in general. She immediately said I should turn to Psalm 46:10-
Be still, and know that I [am] God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
What comfort I found in those words of the sons of Korah! I read the psalm in its entirety to understand it in context, and then I immediately became “still” in order to let the words wash over me, comfort me, and bring me peace. I called out to God that I knew He was who He said He was, and that I would be still in His presence. I had never felt such peace before! Because of that experience, Psalm 46 remains a favorite and encouraging psalm for me all these many years later.
At the beginning of a recent bible study, Keith asked all of us if we could think of anything that God has done for us. He proceeded to explain that he knew we all had a personal testimony of our walk with God and that he was challenging us to write it down in the form of a psalm. His goal for us in writing a psalm is for us to meditate on what God has done, feel the emotion that it brings, and then put words to the feelings. Why is this important? We each have a story to tell that gives God honor and glory. I believe that whatever personal testimony I write is also a written legacy for me to leave my family when I die. Perhaps it will inspire them to continue to seek God for themselves and to realize how real He is in their lives as He was in mine.
In order to lay the groundwork for this “homework”, Keith said that what may often draw us to the psalms is the raw emotion of the psalmist’s words. As an example, we turned to Psalm 3:7
Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
Quite the visual, right? But at the same time I am also drawn to a couple of the preceding verses where David’s confidence is evident-
3 But You, O LORD, [are] a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. 4 I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me.
Continuing to encourage us before he set us on our own to writing psalms, Keith reminded us that the psalmists laid bare their hearts, and wrote with honesty about their plights and experiences. While we are not expected to share the psalms we write with our church group, or anyone else for that matter, Keith’s point was that this psalm is our own to write. It is our testimony and it cannot be disputed. Therefore, we should lay open our hearts to Him who knows it even before we write it.
Finally, Keith pointed out these spiritual patterns that are often found in the psalms. He included-
1. God is petitioned or appealed to
2. Questions or concerns are brought before God
3. Testimony of trust is declared
4. Supplication is made for God’s involvement
5. Repentance or confession to God is made
6. Reply or confirmation is made to God
7. God is praised and exalted
8. Prayer is turned to a song or psalm
These eight patterns are helpful when reading the psalms and going deeper in understanding them. Overall, however, Keith pointed them out to us to help guide our writing of our psalm, if necessary.
In conclusion to his study, Keith challenged us to get to writing this week, and I am, therefore, challenging you as well, to set aside a few minutes and write your own personal psalm. You may be saying to yourself that misery truly loves company. But the fact of the matter is I really believe this assignment will have a personal place in our hearts, mind, and soul, when all is said and done, or written. I am going to find a special place in my bible for my psalm as a testament to others of what my God has done for me.
So where to begin with the writing process? There is probably fear and trepidation among some of us church-goers this week as we contemplate how to approach this homework assignment. I have a few suggestions. First, be still, and then offer a prayer to God over this matter of what He has done for you, and let Him lead you to write down the words that best express it. Next, if there are certain words that speak to you from the book of psalms, write them down. For example,
I key in on words like joy, peace, sustain, thanksgiving, and praise. These are words that I know are part of my testimony of what God has done in my life and how I want to give Him honor for it all. Finally, just write down your thoughts without a filter of what you think anyone else will write or say in their psalm. You don’t ever have to share it with anyone, but rest assured, God will be honored and glorified by what your heart led you to write.
Nobody by Jim O’Brien
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To croak your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Emily Dickinson
"God must love the common man," said Abraham Lincoln, "he made so many of them." He was right. God seems to love the unrecognized person who may think of himself as a "nobody".
When the army of Israel trembled before the giant Goliath, God chose a boy who was "nobody" to fight the trained warrior. We learned that one mere boy with the Spirit of God has more courage than an entire army.
But if we think that faith and courage are appreciated by brothers we would be disappointed. Goliath proved to be an easier opponent than David's eldest sibling Eliab. Even after the Prophet Samuel anointed David to be King, Eliab takes the role of accuser. He "burned with anger" at him. "Why have you come down here?" he demanded. "And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert?" (1 Samuel 17:28 NIV) The condescension fairly dripped from his words.
But Eliab wasn't finished. "I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is...."
"Oh!" David must have thought, "I feel better now! Those are just the words I needed before going into battle. If I trust in God and act on faith even my brother calls me wicked and arrogant."
You know the story. David defeated Goliath and went on to become a military leader. His reward? Saul offered his daughter to David in marriage. But David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my family or my father's clan in Israel, that I should become the king's son-in-law?" In ancient Israel there was a caste system and David's family was bottom tier.
A history professor friend in the U.S. escorted a group of college students to Israel. On the way over the group stopped in London to tour sites of historical interest. They were not able to secure the services of a professional guide so their bus driver offered to substitute. As it turned out, his knowledge of the subject and presentation of facts was so impressive that the professor asked why he did not become a tour guide. Surely it was more lucrative than driving a bus. "Oh, that would be above me," replied the driver. The caste system still exists.
The Old Testament records the story of the people of Israel who once cried out to God for relief from the oppression of the Midianites. Farmers worked to produce crops and their enemies would steal them after harvest. God sent an angel to a "nobody" named Gideon. "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior," said the angel. It was a strange greeting for a man threshing wheat in a winepress in order to hide from his enemies. But God didn't see Gideon as a coward. And even if he did, God's spirit more than compensated. But his low station in life was a barrier for Gideon. "How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." (Judges 6:15)
How should a man respond to an angel who appears to him and says, "The Lord is with thee,"? (verse 12) Gideon replied "But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian." (verse 13) What an irony that today men ask the same questions that Gideon asked even while reading about his life.
Gideon saw himself as a man of no reputation from an insignificant family. Saving Israel would be above him.
Faith causes a man to act, even when he has no credentials. People watching his initiative will ask, "Who does he think he is?" And when his actions bear good fruit jealousy will cause the bystanders to discredit him.
The Pharisees were angered when Jesus forgave sin. Jesus responded by healing people as evidence of his power to forgive. That angered the Pharisees even more. "Who do you think you are?" screamed the Pharisees. (John 8:53) To them, he was a "nobody".
The difference between a Pharisee and a "nobody" is this. Pharisees act on what they can see. "Nobodies" act on faith!
Are you a "nobody"? Good! There're a lot of us you know. And we come from a long line of "nobodies" that have been used by God to do some pretty awesome things.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” ~C.S. Lewis
October
A Psalm for Festivals
original psalm by Keith Kleeschulte
1 Your truths are hidden from those who hate You,
But Your Word is revealed to those whom You love.
2 In Your Sabbaths we find what festivities please You.
Your rest days are expressions of Holy celebration before Thee.
3 That man might know that You are the Lord who makes Time Holy
And in Your days You are sanctifying a people for Yourself.
4 In them You declare a sign between God and mankind forever
For all Your days announce an annual pattern, offering Yehovah’s testimony!
5 For You have created all things and for Thy pleasure they were created
Blessed are the people who take pleasure in the God of Creation.
6 Seven Sabbaths each year and seventh day each week is Sabbath
These are fixed to recognize that You alone establish Holy Seasons.
7 These are “My Feasts” that mark Your people as set apart, even peculiar
Because those things that are Yours are not from the world nor ever can be.
8 Holy Convocations proclaimed at their appointed times for Christians,
Moeds for the Israel of God who are sons of Abraham through faith.
9 Your feasts make me feel privileged, accepted, and an object of Your love
And I will respond with adoration, shouts of exaltations, and indebtedness.
10 My heart delights to see many brethren who proclaim a like love unto Thee
For Christ is the center piece of all our worship where Your Name dwells.
11 I’ve been with multitudes that keep pilgrim feasts rejoicing and praising
Never have I experienced such continuous joy for 8 days; I am without words.
12 Among the clouds is Your chariot and the heaven of heavens Your throne
Feast songs like sacrifices drifting upward, You inhabit the praise of Your people.
13 Would it be too bold to ask as pilgrims for a taste of Your precious glory?
Let us understand, Father, more of Your greatness when in secret with Thee.
14 Remind us that we are here to worship The King and keep it Holy!
Your Word, Oh LORD, reveals that Feast is a rehearsal of the eternal story.
15 For by Biblical guidance do we enjoy the mutual gift of assembly
We rejoice with one another, loving God with shared Spiritual purpose.
16 You knew when we were created that Sabbaths would be fundamental,
So You filled our years with Holy Days to shepherd our hearts to You.
17 By invitation we have heard Your call to come and drink in of Your goodness
We longingly arrive to hear those words, “All things are ready come to the Feast!”
God’s Holy Days are the rest stop on the road of life.
~Wayne C. Cole, in a sermon at the Feast of Tabernacles in Squaw Valley, 1979
The Path of Life
by Sally Rollins
We had occasion recently to go to Salt Lake City to attend a wedding. We knew there would be a lot of “free” time involved, so we asked some people we know in Salt Lake City what there was to see and do in that area. One of the suggestions was to hike up to Cecret Lake in the mountains east of Salt Lake. It seemed like a good idea. We drove to the park and had to pay $5.00 (with senior discount) to drive to the trailhead, which we did.
We parked the car, took a drink of water, and left the water in the car to have when we returned. The trail started out very good - a graded path about six feet wide with a gradual incline. That didn’t last long, however. Soon we were on a single-file path and the incline was steeper. We jumped from rock to rock to cross a small stream. After that the path deteriorated rapidly. Before long, we were picking our way around big rocks, and the trail grew progressively less well-define and steeper. Sometimes I had to steady myself by holding onto a rock beside the trail. And once I tripped over a rock but caught myself on another rock.
As we climbed, the few people we met who were coming down assured us that, “When you reach the top, it will have been worth the climb.” Sometimes (often) we stopped to get a breath at the 9,500-foot elevation and longed for the water we’d left in the car. Sometimes we would come across a patch of beautiful red, blue, and golden wild flowers which would lift our spirits and, again, provide an excuse to stop and rest for a few minutes.
But the trail kept going up. Then the trail became a series of switchbacks because it was too steep to go straight up. But finally, we topped the last ridge and there was Cecret Lake in front of us! WOW! Words fail me to describe the beauty of that high mountain lake with its clear blue water. The high rocks stood like sentries stationed around it, interspersed with aspen trees and green grass among the rocks. And the peace! It was almost palpable! Indescribable!
We stayed a long time, wanting to soak in the beauty and peace, but we knew we had to get down the mountain. It was just as steep going down, but easier to do while exercising a lot of caution.
The next day we were back at the hotel sitting on the patio with the city sounds all around us.
The lessons learned: 1When we decide to seek the kingdom of God, it will cost us the totality of our lives - no senior discounts. 2At first the path is easy and wide and there are others walking with us. But as we continue to seek God - as we set our minds on the goal - the path gets harder and there are fewer walking with us. 3Christ is the Living Water; take Him with you - don’t leave Him at the bottom of the mountain. 4Know that the path gets harder, pick your way carefully around the obstacles; if you stumble, get up and keep going. 5If you stop to rest and to enjoy God’s creation, that is good, but keep your eyes on the top of the mountain, and 6after He has given you rest, keep going.
There are a lot of witnesses in the Bible that attest to the glory and the peace to be attained in the kingdom. Believe them; the climb is worth the effort.
Isaiah 35:3,4: Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, . . . He will come to save you.”
Don’t Let Me Miss the Glory
by Cynthia Saladin
Many years ago, someone asked me if keeping the holy days was salvational. Let me be very clear: you cannot earn your salvation by observing God’s holy days. There is one name under heaven by which you may be saved: Jesus Christ. Our salvation is a free gift from God and cannot be purchased or earned. So I don’t celebrate God’s holy days because I’m trying to earn my salvation.
Nevertheless, observing God’s Holy Days is very important. Why? First of all, I observe the Feasts because my God says to! Leviticus 23:4 says, “These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.” These are not man’s feasts nor the Jewish feasts. These are God’s Feasts! And God says they are sacred assemblies. They are set apart! They are holy! And we are to assemble, gather together to worship Him on His days.
Secondly, I keep the Feasts to worship God with His people. Having celebrated 48 feasts, I have met a lot of people - many of whom I only get to see at the Feast. It’s very much like a huge family reunion - only better. These people are here to worship God. We share a love for Jesus Christ which compels us to come before Him as He commanded. Sometimes that means I have more in common with my church family of feast-goers than my blood relatives that I rarely see.
I also celebrate God’s holy days because they are truly a celebration. God commands us to rejoice before Him for seven days (Leviticus 23:40). Keeping God’s feasts with other people who are likewise worshipping Him, all of you with the attitude of rejoicing in a Godly manner - it just doesn’t get any better than that!! The world looks on in amazement that whole families are having such a wonderful time, with no artificial additives, like drugs or alcohol.
Finally, one of the best reasons (ranking right up there with the previous three) for keeping the Feast is the reassurance I receive that striving for the goal, God’s kingdom, is worth the effort. The Feasts picture God’s plan, what He’s doing, in my life. They remind me to keep my eyes on Him. They are like the reset button which helps me to re-evaluate and make sure He’s always at the center of my life. In an environment where everyone is focused on a similar goal, I am encouraged and exhorted and strengthened to keep going, keep fighting the good fight, keep seeking God with all of my heart. Celebrating God’s holy days reminds me of the glory that awaits those who overcome (2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Jonah 2:8; Revelation 3:21).
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss the glory.
Calm seas never made a skillful sailor.
Unoffendable Cousins - Dan White
Yes, There is Good News (Part 10) - Bill Rollins
Time - Cynthia Saladin
February
Enduring, Persevering, Overcoming - Cynthia Saladin
Satan's Tactics - Open Doors
Yes, There is Good News (Part 11) - Bill Rollins
March
Yes, There is Good News (Part 12) - Bill Rollins
As the Deer - Cynthia Saladin
Christians in Winter (Part 6) - Diane Kleeschulte
I Was Drugged by My Parents - Anonymous
April
War by Cynthia Saladin
Compulsion to Conform by Jim O'Brien
May
He is to Be Exalted by Diane Kleeschulte
Yes, There is Good News (Part 13) by Bill Rollins
Time by Cynthia Saladin
June
What Did You Learn? by Cynthia Saladin
Yes, There is Good News (Part 14) by Bill Rollins
July
More Lessons From Pepper by Cynthia Saladin
911, What is Your Emergency? by Diane Kleeschulte
August
Heeding the Master's Call by Cynthia Saladin
Yes, There is Good News (Part 15) by Bill Rollins
September
If They Should Be Written Every One by Diane Kleeschulte
Nobody by Jim O'Brien
October
A Psalm for Festivals by Keith Kleeschulte
The Path of Life by Sally Rollins
Don't Let Me Miss the Glory by Cynthia Saladin
November
Gratitude and Happiness by Cynthia Saladin
Have You Been Saved? What Should Your Answer Be? by Patricia Manning
Does Not Like Wet Feet by Cynthia Saladin
December
A Time to Tear Down by Jim O'Brien
Yes, There Is Good News (Part 16) by Bill Rollins
Have You Lost Your Mind? by Cynthia Saladin
January 2019
Unoffendable Cousins
by Dan White, Homeschool Helpers, HHN 381 - 11/29/18
When I was a child, I heard this rhyme in the schoolyard: Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. That was said when one youngster had called another some kind of name. I don’t recall what names were used at all, showing the truth of that rhyme. If the names had lasting hurt, then they would have lasted in my memory. That rhyme has been changed by modernists to something like this: Sticks and stones may break my bones, which will heal, but names may hurt me forever. Liberals spend their whole lives looking for reasons to be offended. To avoid offense, they intend to totally control the language of everyone.
I had cousins. As cousins, we were pretty much unoffendable. Boy, did I have cousins! My mom was from a family of eight children, and my dad was from a family of nine children, so when all of those had their own families, I had dozens of cousins. I never totaled up all my first cousins, mostly because I might have trouble remembering them all, but there were a bunch, including fourteen in one family. I had so many cousins to play with that I didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, today I’m going to play with my cousin Daryl or Billy or Drema.” I was around cousins so much that I took it for granted.
In high school, I even began to get kind of sweet on one cousin and she had to inform me, “You do know I’m your cousin?” I had kind of forgotten that. She wasn’t a first cousin at all and honestly, to this day I don’t know what kind of cousin she was, but she was a cousin. Obviously if I had dozens of first cousins, then that number would be multiplied at the more distant levels, so I can be somewhat excused for forgetting that she was a cousin. I even had one situation where I was first cousins with both a father and with his son. Think about that one for a while.
There was at least one valuable thing about being with a cousin. They would tell me to my face what they thought. If I did something they didn’t think was good, they would tell me flat out. It wasn’t like I was somebody special that had to be coddled. After all, they played with me, ate with me, and fought with me. I was a cousin. And when they told me what they thought, I didn’t stick out my lip or go running home to Mama. If I didn’t like what they said, then I told them so, too, in no uncertain terms. Nobody got offended and nobody ever got called a name that hurt them forever. We were too busy playing and roughhousing and sometimes fighting to get moody and broody. After all, we were cousins.
Most of my high school friends were not cousins. That school was down the road a couple miles from our coal camp, so the 600 students were mostly unrelated to me. We had basically the same 25 people in the same home room, taking mostly the same classes together, for 6 years. In those 6 years, we got to know each other well and became very good friends. The guys had nicknames for each other. One with the last name of Calfee was sometimes shortened to Calf. Shrewsbury became Suze. Basham became Bass-ham. And me? All they called me was White. Not Danny White, just White, nice and simple and short – “Hey, White!” Nobody got offended at those names. On the contrary, being called a nickname by your friends showed that you were one of them. “Hey, Bass-ham! Where you goin’?” We weren’t looking to be offended, and before these modern times, didn’t even know that we were supposed to be offended over nicknames.
I remember one boy, though, who did get offended. Do you remember Pig Latin? Wikipedia says that Pig Latin is “a made-up language formed from English by transferring the initial consonant or consonant cluster of each word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable,” so chicken soup would be translated to ickenchay oupsay. Pig Latin is typically spoken playfully, as if to convey secrecy.” I guess that Pig Latin was an escape for all those students who didn’t study their high school Spanish. Pig Latin – do you ememberray oingday atthay? I kinda did that with the boy who got offended. His name was Joe Tolley. If you switched the first letters of his names, he became Toe Jolley. I thought that was kinda funny. He didn’t. One day when I called him Toe Jolley, he started crying. Crying? In my six years in that school, seeing squabbles, romantic break-ups, and even fights, that was the only boy I ever saw with tears in his eyes. And why did he cry? Because I called him Toe Jolley! I wasn’t trying to be mean to him – “Hey, Toe Jolley – what’s up?” After all, we all had nicknames! Now we weren’t enemies at all. We had classes together, talked together frequently, and were reasonably good friends, I thought. But he was very upset that I called him Toe Jolley, so I never called him that again. Actually, I never really talked to him much again at all. I was afraid to, afraid the guy would surely get offended at something I said and start crying. Yuk. What would he have done if I called him a Bass-Ham? He moved away from those hills, so he didn’t graduate with the rest of us. Probably became a Democrat.
When someone gets offended like that, it’s always presumed to be the fault of the offender. Not so. It’s also the fault of the offendee. A person who gets offended does so because he is focusing on himself. “You done did me wrong!”
I know a man who was slapped, beat on, spit on, mocked, and people wagged their heads at Him and blasphemed Him. He did not get offended. Why not? Because he was not thinking about Himself. He only felt sorry for them, all those who were offended at Him.
Liberals are constantly getting offended over something – over words, looks, even thoughts. Constantly offended! What a miserable life. This is a great lesson of life. If you get offended, the fault is just as much yours as the offendee. And you, not him, will be the one who’s most unhappy. America is now awash with victim mentality. My problems are your fault. Blacks in the ghettos are there today because their ancestors were enslaved a century and a half ago. Indians are alcoholics on reservations because Columbus arrived in the New World over five centuries ago. Hispanics in the poor corrupt socialist nations of Latin America are impoverished because of conservative whites in America. And so on. There is a huge amount of discussion about how to make things right for all these victims, and little discussion over how people must be responsible for themselves. There is also much discussion over how not to offend people with your speech, and almost no discussion about how not to be offended. Parents may make a great show of making their kids constantly apologize to each other for things that were said, and never broach the other side of the issue -- just being a little whinny crybaby, a left wing victim.
Again, all this talk about not offending someone with your language is simply a socialist attempt to control your language. And they are succeeding. Most of you will use the terms ‘African Americans’ and ‘Native Americans,’ forcing you to avoid the terms blacks and Indians, because that is supposed to be offensive. Yet you think nothing of using the term ‘whites’ and nobody feels compelled to use the term ‘Euro-American.’ See how one sided that is? Isn’t that offensive? Isn’t this a clever trick? Liberals spend their whole lives looking for reasons to be offended; and sure enough, they find some. This is true in churches, too. All these liberals who continually get offended at you are just trying to control you, to make you please them, instead of you trying to please God. You see, the ultimate extent of not offending people is to never speak against sin. And that, after all, is Satan’s ultimate purpose in this ‘Don’t Offend Anyone’ campaign.
The apostle Paul had something to say about not offending people.
Eph 5:11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
1 Tim 5:20 Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.
2 Tim 4:2 preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.
Titus 1:12-13 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
Oh, wait – he can’t say that. People can’t be reproved. They might be offended! Especially Cretans!
Looking back, it was great having close cousins. One of the greatest things about it was that they would just level with me. None of us ever got offended over names. And did I mention that the nickname my cousins called me was ‘Diddle?’ Isn’t that as bad as Toe Jolley? In fact, my wife calls me that to this day! Except sometimes she calls me Gunkie, as in “You Gunkie!”
Maybe one of the problems today is that, with small families or no families, we just don’t have enough cousins.
Yes, There is Good News by Bill Rollins
Last time I mentioned Proverbs 3:5-6 and talked about it in relation to trusting in the Lord and so having our “paths” made smooth, pleasant and straight. But there was one phrase I never dealt with. Verse 5 says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” So what is this phrase about “not leaning upon one’s own understanding?”
I think there are many who believe that they do have a trust in God. If we believe in God and understand He is the creator and sustainer of the Universe, then we have to put our trust in Him. We would be crazy not to! But where do we draw the line in trusting Him and trusting our own understanding? This is a matter of introspection for all of us who desire a deeper relationship with God.
Last time I mentioned that it was with all of our heart that we trust Him. And what did I say the definition of heart was? In Hebrew, it includes “our motives, feelings, affections, desires, aims, principles and our thoughts.” It encompasses the entirety of our personality. So let me ask again, where do we draw the line in our trust? Then the scripture goes on to say, “lean not on your own understanding.”
We humans will certainly have a problem with this statement. But let me ask you; did you create yourself? Did you somehow understand (before birth) how your DNA was to be configured? Did your parents? Can you bring forth from one seed, the sprout, the stem and the leaves, then the fruit. This reminds me of the question that God asked Job 38:4, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!” Job had no answer for these and the other questions God asked him. And what of our Savior Jesus, surely He leaned upon His own understanding, didn’t He? In the book of John 5:19, Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son does also.” In John 7:16, Jesus said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me.” In the next chapter, verse 28, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am! And that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.” John 12:49, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who has sent me commanded me what to say and so to speak. John 14:10, “...the words I say to you are not just my own. Rather it is the Father abiding in me who is doing his works. And lastly in 14:24, “He who does not love me will not obey my words. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
Might I state that the Son of God, in six separate occasions said that He “leaned not on His own understanding.” So where should we draw the line?
Until next time, may you trust in the Lord.
Time
by Cynthia Saladin
Itʼs almost 2019. I blinked once and the whole year flew past! I turned around and I was flipping the calendar to January again!
Iʼve heard an explanation of why time seems to go so much slower when youʼre a child compared with how quickly time accelerates with each passing year. The theory is that when youʼre eight, the three months of summer is 1/32 of your life. But when youʼre 50, those same three months are 1/200 of your life. Because itʼs such a small fraction of the whole, it seems to pass that much more quickly! I donʼt know. It sounds good. Those mathematicians are pretty good with numbers and theories. The tricky thing is figuring out if itʼs accurate or its just a perception.
Or maybe itʼs not a matter of determining the veracity of the theory. Perhaps itʼs recognizing time as a precious commodity which seems to escape our grasp at an alarming rate. Perhaps instead of trying to figure out whether itʼs just a mental illusion (kind of like an optical illusion, only with the mind), perhaps we need to make the most of the time weʼre given because it is limited, and as such, is a very valuable resource.
And time is a very valuable commodity! After all, thatʼs why Tock was so busy running around making sure that no one was wasting time, or even worse, killing time (The Phantom Tollbooth). Time is much too important to allow it to slip through our fingers.
So, if itʼs valuable, why is it valuable? What would be the very best use of our time? You know, of course! The very best use of our time is anything which brings glory and honor to God, doing His will, seeking His presence, loving Him with all that we are and all that we have - including the time He has given us.
Thatʼs not a very satisfying answer, is it. It feels so pat, so philosophical, so intangible, so much of a cliche. We want to know what it is that is profitable for the kingdom that will bring joy and gladness to us and to our Heavenly Father. We want to put feet to that construct and be able to know what exactly it is that Iʼm supposed to do right now, at this moment. Iʼm unsettled. Iʼm not feeling like Iʼm doing anything valuable and important with my time. And that makes me feel even more unsettled. I want to do something great for my God. Heʼs done so very much for me. But I donʼt know where to start.
Just start. Start with a prayer for guidance. Start with singing a song of praise. Start by reading a chapter in Godʼs word and looking up the Hebrew or Greek meaning. But start with something. The old saying that “the longest journey starts with a single step” is very true. If you want to end up doing something valuable with your time, start with something small that is valuable for that moment. Seek God with all your heart for that moment . . . and the moment after that . . . and tomorrow youʼll wake up with a renewed sense of what it means to make the most of the time you have.
Gingerbread man limps into the doctor's office with a sore knee.
The doctor looks at it and says, "Sore knee, huh. Have you tried icing it?"
February
Enduring, Persevering, Overcoming
by Cynthia Saladin
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1, ESV).
“Therefore” is such a powerful word. That single word is a yield sign which says, “As you continue down this path, consider everything that we’ve just been talking about.” It means “in light of all that went before.” It means that we’ve reached the following conclusion based on the preceding facts.
What are the preceding facts? The great cloud of witnesses itemized in chapter 11, from Abel, Enoch, and Noah to Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; from Moses and his parents to the Israelites coming out of Egypt. This entire chapter cites people whose faith was not perfect, i.e. Samson and Jephthah or even Abraham. Nevertheless, they are listed among the faithful. And then there are those who aren’t even named; we just have the deeds: those “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” (Heb. 11:33-38, ESV).
The author of Hebrews calls these people a “great cloud of witnesses.” Think for a moment about the mental image the word “cloud” evokes! A plethora, an abundance, a myriad, an enormous chunk - there are many, many people who are part of this hall of faith, who are witnesses of God’s glory and power and majesty! They are real, tangible examples of people who endured difficulties and yet maintained their trust that God exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. They were not perfect, but they persevered.
So then, the author exhorts us to also lay aside every weight. If we must also lay aside every weight, that means someone else has already laid aside every weight. That cloud of witnesses didn’t have easy lives, smooth sailing, clear paths. They gave us an example of laying aside every weight so they could run with endurance the race set before them.
Weight could encompass all kinds of things. Distractions from following God’s will in your life could be a weight that hinders your progress. Guilt from past sins - although already forgiven by God - can drag you down. Weight could include time-wasters or being involved in something that looks good, but isn’t profitable for the kingdom. Weight could be not taking care of yourself (not eating healthy, getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, or exercising) so that you don’t think clearly. Weight is anything which pulls you down, prohibiting you from making the most of every opportunity to serve God efficiently and thoroughly.
Think of the burden that Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress carried. Then consider the analogy the author of Hebrews is employing. He’s talking about running a race so that you’ll win. When you’re running a race, you don’t want any extra weight - at all. And you certainly don’t want the kind of weight or burden that Christian was carrying. Lay every weight aside!
Then the author emphasizes a special category which can hinder our progress: sin. He says that sin so easily entangles us. In light of what the preceding verses contained, you could make a strong case that unbelief, lack of faith, is that sin which so easily entangles. Hebrews 3:17-19 says that the Israelites disobeyed because of their unbelief. If you don’t have faith in God, you are not going to keep His commandments.
So, in light of all these witnesses, we lay aside every weight and any unbelief in our lives so that we can “run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The imagery here is strong perseverance, not strolling, nor crawling, not meandering. The author exhorts us to run - put great effort into the race. It’s going to call for perseverance and endurance. It’s going to tax your strength and determination. It’s going to be hard. But it’s the race that God has set for you to do. He’s given you examples of others who had difficulties and yet succeeded because of their faith in God. Similarly, hold on to the faith God has given you. Believe in Him. Lay aside anything that is hindering your race. Fight! Set your eyes on the goal so that you can run with endurance. Don’t be distracted by anything.
This verse is an appropriate verse for the present times. Our nation is making one godless choice after another. We grieve at the abominations done all around us. That can drag us down. Additionally, while we are in the grip of some of the coldest air we’ve seen in many, many years, Australia is experiencing record heat so that fish are dying in the Darling River and bats are dropping dead from the heat in mid-air. The weather discourages and depresses us. We struggle against it. Then too, so many are battling health issues or end-of-life issues. Whether we’ve lost a family member or close friend or whether we suffer along with those who are battling disease, we feel the weight of the struggle.
We don’t make light of any of the struggles that we endure. But we have to keep our eyes on the goal, the city that God is preparing for us. And we have a great cloud of witnesses who also endured destitution, affliction, and persecution. We take heart that God is and that He’s the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6) and that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
We have a race to run. We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We can’t grow weary or lose heart (Hebrews 12:3). We must endure, persevere and overcome to the end.
Go with God.
Satan’s Tactics
Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from family values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ.
“If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time so they can’t gain that experience in Jesus Christ.
“This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day.”
“How shall we do this?” shouted the evil angels.
“Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work and the husbands to work six or seven days a week, ten to twelve hours a day,
so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.
“Overstimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to keep the TV, the DVD, and their CDs going constantly in their homes. Tempt them to spend more time on their computers, especially watching internet pornography.
“Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news twenty-four hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products, services, and false hopes.
“When they meet for fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength.” (Source: Open Doors)
"Look around and be distressed, look within and be depressed, look at Jesus and be at rest. When we look at Him we are victorious.” - Corrie Ten Boom
Yes, There Is Good News
by Bill Rollins
Usually on the first Sunday of each month, I have the blessing of conducting worship services at the Salem Lutheran Home Chapel. Nearly two and a half years ago, I gave a message that is as relevant now as it was then. It was an important message, and one filled with hope, joy, and good news. Let me try to express it here in writing.
After singing the hymn, “Near to the Heart of God,” with the residents, I mentioned that the author, Cleland McAfee, penned this beautiful song after hearing that his two nieces had just died from diphtheria in 1901. Mr. McAfee, with a deeply grieving heart, retreated to the comforting words of the scripture and to God. He said that he felt the words and music flow from his grieving heart and that on the day of the double funeral, he stood outside the quarantined home of his brother and sang the words as he choked back tears.
“There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God ...” Have you ever desired to truly draw near to the heart of God? Have you ever needed a place of quiet rest in your life when things seem to be in turmoil all around you? Does the world ever bring heartaches, trials and troubles to your door? In John 16:33, Jesus says, “... take heart, I have overcome the world.” Jesus promises us peace. In the third stanza of the song it says, “There is a place of joy and peace, near to the heart of God.”
And what about that quiet rest? In Matthew 11:28 we read, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The chorus of that song says this, “ O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before thee, near to the heart of God.”
We have talked about the word “heart” in previous articles and so we can apply the definition of the word to the “heart of God.” His heart is who He is! Scripture tells us that God is love - this is His heart. It tells us He is compassionate - this is His heart. It tells us He is Kind - this is His heart.
But we also know that God will not force us to draw near to Him. In Isaiah 40:11, we read, “Behold .. God tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers His lambs in His arms. He carries them close to His heart and He gently leads those with young.” He leads and we must follow! Again, in the gospel of John 10:14, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me ... My sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.” What a beautiful statement from our Savior!
The heart of God is a beautiful place to be it; is a comforting place. And as the hymn says, “... a place where all is joy and peace, near to the heart of God.” May we learn to follow.
If you live in a pastor’s home, you have the right to remain silent because anything you say or do may be used in a sermon illustration.
"When you say 'There's too much evil in this world', you assume there's 'good'. When you assume there's good, you assume there's such a thing as a 'moral law' on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil. But if you assume a moral law, you must posit a 'Moral-Law Giver', but that's Who you're trying to disprove and not prove. Because if there's no Moral-Law Giver, there's no moral law. If there's no moral law, there's no good. If there's no good, there's no evil. What is your question?"
~Ravi Zacharias
March
Yes, There is Good News! By Bill Rollins
The first four books of the New Testament are called “the Gospels.” These books are the written word of four eye witnesses of the ministry of Jesus Christ. I think it is interesting to call them “eye witness accounts” because in many ways that is indeed what they are. In the Old Testament, God told the children of Israel that “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” (Deuteronomy 19:15) Jesus even quotes this passage in Matthew 18:16! But in having the witnesses of God’s Son and His ministry be four, it’s almost like God saying, “Make no mistake about this matter!”
There are many historical events that we take as fact even when there are no more than one or two witnesses having written about them. And yet today there are more and more people who discount the validity of the Bible or want to change it to suit their own thoughts and ideas which contradict the four witnesses of the events surrounding Jesus’s life and ministry.
Have you read through those four books - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? The first three of these are called “synoptic gospels.”
The word “synoptic” coming from two Greek words meaning “similar views” (literally: same eye). Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote about very similar things but basically were writing to different audiences. John, on the other hand, writes of very different episodes in the life of Jesus and quite rarely touches on the things the other three take up.
Within these four Gospels of the Bible (the good news) are tremendous amounts of uplifting stories. The overall theme is of course the story of a very loving God who is willing to sacrifice His Son - “This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am pleased” (Matthew 3:17) in order that we, His creation who are sinners, may obtain eternal life through His death.
The book of Matthew begins in 1:1 by stating, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of Abraham.” This statement lays the foundation of all that follows in the gospels and that is yet to come! Jesus is indeed the son (or descendant) of Abraham. But the literal son of Abraham is a type of Messiah, showing all who would have eyes to see that a savior would come through the lineage of Abraham. The story is found in Genesis. God has already told Abraham that he would have a son in his old age - a miracle birth (Gen. 18:10-15) and that all peoples on Earth would be blessed through him (Gen. 12: 2-3). And then in Gen 22:2. God says to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Issac, whom you love (sound familiar?) and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” It just so happens that this mountain, Mount Moriah, is the same mountain in Jerusalem where, some 2,080 years later, Jesus would undergo a sacrifice for our sins.
God uses the same words for Issac that He would later use in describing Jesus - God’s only Son. Some people think that this was a terrible thing for God to do to His servant Abraham. But the reality is that God, who is love itself, was having Abraham set up a type; a symbol of the reality of what was to come some 2080 years in the future.
I mentioned that this played out in Genesis 22, and if you have read the chapter, then you know how Isaac asked his father as they walked up the mount “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham’s response is very telling, “God will Himself provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” This answer from a father to his son is “the gospel,” for God our Father did indeed provide the lamb for a sacrifice. It is in the book of John wherein John the Baptist says to his disciples. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29 and 36) as he pointed to Jesus.
Now if you’ve been following along you can see how both Matthew and John work hand in hand to reveal information. Matthew said that his book concerned, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” We’ve looked at the son of Abraham and correlated the account in Genesis with John calling Jesus “the lamb of God.” And if you are paying close attention you’ve noticed that the opening statement in Matthew says that Jesus was the Son of David.
David’s son was Solomon and he became king when David died. The name Solomon is derived from the Hebrew word for peace, “shalom.” And we know from Isaiah 9:6 that Jesus is called “Prince of Peace.” But more than that, Solomon was to be the one who would build God’s house - God’s temple. This is also a type for us to learn from in the Old Testament because in the book of Hebrews, Jesus is referred to as the builder of God’s house. (Heb. 3:1-6)
If we consider these two “types” from the Old Testament, we can see that God wishes to teach us that Jesus, as the Son of Abraham, was sacrificed for us as the Lamb of God and, as the Son of David, He would become the King of kings and reign the house of God. This is pretty special, isn’t it?
Until next time, remember: There is good news.
As the Deer by Cynthia Saladin
If a hymn can be ubiquitous, “As the Deer” came about as close as any in our local congregation. For a while, we sang it every week. You alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship Thee. The very interesting thing about this song is that the opening phrase of the hymn, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God,” is not really the thrust of the psalm. The psalmist writes, twice, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Then in psalm 43, this refrain is repeated.
But he doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t just pose the question and leave it hanging. He goes on, all three times, to state, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
As the psalm develops, he tells of his tears being his food day and night. He says that he’s downcast. He asks if God has forgotten him. He suffers ridicule from his foes. Regardless of his persecution, suffering, trials and tribulation, he keeps coming back to the question, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?”
I wonder if it’s a kind of amazement as he’s looking at himself. I can imagine looking at myself and thinking, “What in the world do you have to be depressed about? Isn’t God your God? Don’t you trust Him? Haven’t you tasted and seen that God is good all the time? Have you so quickly forgotten what God has done for you?” It’s almost as if the psalmist is giving us, today, a recipe for getting a better perspective on what’s really happening in our day to day life. Yes, it might look depressing. Yes, there are people making fun of you. Yes, things are hard. But don’t you know God? Better yet, aren’t you known of God? And if you know God, that means you have a relationship. That means you’ve experienced just how important your relationship with God truly is. So maybe, just maybe, the opening lines of Psalm 42 give us the only remedy that will truly cure our stress and depression: as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O my God!
Christians in Winter- Part 6
by Diane Kleeschulte
Many, many years ago my youngest sister, Christine, stopped by to stay with me for a weekend. She needed a break from the college campus where she lived, and so it was that on a Friday around midnight, I heard a knock on my apartment door. Even though I was surprised by her appearance at that hour, she was a welcome sight. I went back to the couch where I had been sleeping, but she went to the kitchen to look for something to eat. I heard her say something but couldn’t understand it, so I asked her to repeat it. She came closer to me and said, “Oh my gosh. You really are poor.”
Christine had opened the refrigerator and it was nearly empty, and then she went to the pantry where she found only a package or two of ramen noodles. I knew that I was struggling. I was working two jobs: one full time and the other part time. Somehow I was also managing to take a couple classes at the community college. I had a car payment, insurance, and rent with utilities to pay each month. I had a dog. I was so happy to have even ten dollars left at the end of my paychecks for gas money. But I was making it, my life, work. Even though the efficiency apartment wasn’t of the best quality, I felt safe. I was doing everything that I could to be self-supporting and self-sufficient. It was very hard. Times were tough. There wasn’t even a thought of living beyond my means unless I wanted to move back home or be kicked out of my apartment. I had a budget and woe to me should I stray even a dollar or two from it. Though I didn’t know it at the time, later in life there would come a point where I would deeply appreciate a trip to the grocery store where I was able to afford everything on my list, not to mention having a little leftover to put away for savings. I wasn’t a Christian during those hard times, but I know that I felt like God was with me, and He was helping me during those very lean financial years.
Fast forward to this message by Ron Dart (from 2009 - part six in a series of eight), where he compares the response by Christians during their times of wealth and prosperity, as well as their response during hard times. Mr. Dart says that it is during times of affluence that Christians are made weaker but during the hard times they are made stronger. He says we only have to go to the book of Revelation, chapter 3, for a classic example of the result of prosperity, citing the church of Laodicea:
Revelation 3:15-19 15 "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
While the Laodicean church may have been well-off in a physical sense, spiritually they were in poverty. How dangerous it is for our spiritual life when we feel so full and satisfied with our physical gains! When times seem easy, our lives give way to lukewarm attitudes towards things of God, or worse, we grow cold.
Sometimes Christians find it hard to understand, but God will allow hard times to come our way as a form of chastening or discipline. Why? According to Mr. Dart, they are given to us to overcome, to make us stronger and, eventually, to make us winners, victorious over the struggle.
In other examples of how we are affected by prosperity, Mr. Dart cites Hosea 4:6-10 as well as Isaiah 2:6-9. While you listen to this radio program, follow along in your Bible, and read about God’s people and His judgment upon them due to life choices that resulted in spiritual and moral decay. Quoting Mr. Dart, “Good times do not make good people.” When we as a people of God prosper, we tend to leave His ways and abandon His laws. We choose to revere the physical over the spiritual things of God, and it is then that God will not spare the rod of discipline for His children.
Mr. Dart then contends that it is during the hard times that the gospel tends to take root in people, and it is at this point of his message that Mr. Dart takes the listeners to Matthew 13:3-23, the parable of the soils, or sower. Refresh your memory and turn to the scripture while Mr. Dart explains how the seeds and soils are compared to a Christian’s response during hard times. You will not regret spending about a half hour listening to this important message by Ron Dart.
What I appreciate most about this message is that while I would not choose to return to those earlier days of hard times, I understand that today my response to hard times as a Christian would be different. I know that my strength in surviving hard times is not going to come from within but from above- from God’s grace, mercy, and love. And if easier days should happen to return? I pray that I will stay close to God, and to choose His ways over my own. Finally, I want to remember that God wants me to be faithful during the easy times and victorious over the hard times. He wants all of us to be winners!
Listen to Mr. Dart’s radio program, Born to Win, each Sunday at 8AM on KXEN.
I Was Drugged By My Parents!
The other day, a friend at a store in our town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse not far away and he asked me, “Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?” I replied that I DID have a drug problem when I was young.
* I was drug to church every sabbath.
* I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
* I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults.
* I was drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
* I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity.
* I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad’s fields.
* I was drug to the homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today’s children had this kind of drug problem, the world would be a better place. God bless the parents who drugged us. Anonymous
April
War
by Cynthia Saladin
The opening chapter of Judges describes the conquest of the Promised Land after the death of Joshua. The people began by inquiring of the LORD, but vs. 21 says that the Benjaminites didn’t drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jebusites. Verse 27 says that the tribe of Manasseh did not drive out inhabitants. Verses 29, 30, 31, and 33 cite the failure of Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, and Naphtali to drive out the inhabitants. And then it gets worse: in verse 34, we’re told that the Amorites actually pushed Dan back into the hill country and didn’t even allow them to take their inheritance.
In Judges 2:2, God says that the people did not obey His voice to drive the inhabitants out completely. Rather, they made covenants with the inhabitants. The peoples of the land had become so corrupt, so vile, so wicked, so ungodly (Deuteronomy 9:4) that God’s people could not live among them without likewise becoming corrupt, vile, wicked and ungodly. The gods of the Canaanites would become snares to the Israelites and draw them away from serving the One and Only God, Jehovah! God had told them they couldn’t have their cake and eat it too. They couldn’t co-exist with the Canaanites and be obedient to God simultaneously.
God goes on to explain why He would no longer drive out the Canaanites before the Israelites in Judges 3:2 and 4, “It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. . . . They [the wicked inhabitants of the land] were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.”
We know Israel’s history; it’s summarized in Judges 2:16-19. God would raise up a judge to lead Israel. God would save them out of the hand of their enemies. As soon as the judge died, the people became worse than they had been before, more perverse, more ungodly, more wicked! God would sell them into the hands of their enemies to oppress them. When the people cried out to God, God would raise up another judge and rescue the people again. It happened over and over. Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson were all judges in this cycle.
It becomes abundantly clear that when their lives were prosperous and pleasant, the people forgot God and did whatever they wanted. When they found themselves persecuted, oppressed, and in trouble, they asked God to save them from disaster. Deuteronomy 6:11-12; 8:11; and 31:20-21 all warn, “and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD.” God was abundantly merciful and exceedingly patient! But the people repeated the pattern over and over.
So it seems that God sent trouble for two reasons: 1) to turn the hearts of the people back to Him and 2) to see if the people would obey God. Incredibly to us today, we wonder why in the world they couldn’t see the pattern and turn back to God whole-heartedly!
But we know they didn’t see it. Look at Judges 6:13. When the angel of the LORD appears before Gideon, He says, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” Gideon response is, “If the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” Why, Gideon asked, has God forsaken us and given us into the hands of the Midianites? Gideon didn’t seem to know why they were experiencing trouble. And yet, his own father had an altar to Baal!
What a peculiar proclivity among carnal humans who are in covenant with God! When things are going well, we must constantly guard against becoming comfortable and tolerant of the evil around us. We live among the inhabitants of the land - the inhabitants who do not know God and have no interest in serving Him. The inhabitants of the land can become a snare to us, enticing us to worship their gods. They can become thorns in our sides. It is for very good reason that James writes this to the “twelve tribes in the Dispersion,” in other words, those who are in covenant with God: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
An applicable quote, then, is “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” We are living in the world, but we must not become part of the world (John 15:19). We must be partakers of the world’s sins and subsequent consequences (Revelation 18:4). Especially as we approach the Passover, we must take time to examine ourselves to see if there be any evil way within us (Psalm 139:24) and make every effort to purify body and spirit out of reverence for God (2 Corinthians 7:1).
And all of those troubles we encounter? They could simply be God’s discipline - to encourage us to seek Him continually. Laura Story’s song “Blessing” has a section where she sings,
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise.
What if God knows that we need war, we need battles to fight, to keep us from becoming soft and complacent and falling away from our zealousness in seeking Him? It gives an entirely different perspective on James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Make no mistake: we are in a battle. We must prepare our minds for battle (1 Peter 1:13). We must put on the full armor of God, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6:13-18). We must overcome and persevere to the end (Revelation 2-3). We must not allow the cares of this world or the deceitfulness of riches to stymie our productivity for the kingdom (Matthew 13:22). And we must not allow the enemy to conquer and divide (Ecclesiastes 4:12). We need each other for support and encouragement and growth (Hebrews 10:24-25; 1 Samuel 23:16; Proverbs 27:17). It’s time to fully set our hearts and minds on God, His ways and His will for our lives.
Compulsion to Conform
by Jim O’Brien (12/21/18)
My wife has a book entitled Everyone is Normal Until You Get to Know Them. It's a bittersweet concept. Bitter because all of us have baggage (as we say), sweet because there is no need to feel inferior-at least to other humans.
It's also overwhelming because we are offered entrance into the very family of God-who is flawless. We are told to "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48)
Maybe that's why one of the most interesting ironies of human nature is the compulsion to conform to other humans. Most people have enough weaknesses to create a natural resistance to imitation.
When I was in college a psychology professor told us to imagine looking at a classroom of 25 students. He said that 2 of the 25 would spend time in a mental hospital, 4 would be profoundly neurotic, 4 deeply neurotic, 4 mildly neurotic and only 8 to 10 would be fairly normal.
It's gotten worse over the years. Today about one-quarter of the adult population suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. That's more than 57 million people!
Over 2 million adults were admitted to a drug or alcohol rehabilitation center last year. And the day before they were admitted to the institution, some of them were passing you on the highway driving a car or big truck.
Add to this the financial indebtedness and serious health issues most people face on a daily basis. For example, the average student leaves college today with a debt of $32,000!
Okay, enough of statistical bad news! I've made my point-why would any of us want to be like everybody else? The truth is, if you want to be like everybody else then you'll get what everybody else gets.
There was a psychological study once that demonstrated the benefit of having an unusual name. Having a name that is, well, peculiar, was a factor that actually favored success. The author cited the name Elvis as an example that helped the singer become great. If his parents had named him Bill or Bob he would probably have worked the checkout counter at Kroger and driven a used Ford.
There is deep truth in the idea of our unique identity in God. The King James Version of the Bible uses the term "peculiar" when it refers to God's people. Moses quotes God as saying, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people." (Exodus 19:5 KJV) In other words, you are special to God above the crowd because of your lack of conformity. That's a peculiar characteristic you can enjoy.
The thought is expressed at least 5 times in the Bible. The contemporary versions render the word peculiar as "treasured people" as in Deuteronomy where Moses says, "Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession!" (Deut. 14:2 NIV)
Being thought of as "different" isn't so bad after all.
"Worry is a conversation you have with yourself
about things you cannot change.
Prayer is a conversation you have with God
about things He can change."
May
He Is to Be Exalted
By Diane Kleeschulte
Psalm 46:10 He says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
I’m going to share with you an event that has been happening to me lately. Maybe you can relate. If you can, I’m pleased for you, as I have found myself growing deeper in my relationship with God, and perhaps you are, as well. If you haven’t experienced something like this, I know that God is likely working in you, and blessing you, in a different but special way, too.
I could be out and about running errands or working at home and this feeling that something is “off” or I’m “missing” something just hits me. Sometimes the feeling comes on me quietly, stealthily, and at other times it is like a bulldozer. (Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to happen when I’m driving, though.) When these episodes first started happening, my understanding of them seemed elusive. I would stop what I was doing for a moment and look around. No, everything looks like it’s okay. Nothing seems out of place. Then I’d go on, a little time would pass, and that feeling was back. By now my attention was really caught and I would totally stop everything I was doing. I would be totally still. Psalm 46 has always held a very special place in my heart so whenever I am really, authentically still, that psalm comes to my mind. On the first day that this feeling came to me, I asked God, in my stillness, “I know that you are God! What is going on?” And I believe He gave me the answer. No, it wasn’t audible but it was real. That day He stopped me to pray for someone in need. So I did just that. Stopping and praying for someone wasn’t an unusual request, so I really didn’t think anymore about it. But I would come to realize later that there was more going on than just stopping my day and offering a prayer to God on behalf of someone in need.
It’s hard to explain just how these events are set apart from other times that I have stopped and prayed for someone. The best way that I can explain it that it is the feeling that God needs me to stop right then and there, to be in communion with Him. He wants my full attention. Right now. Maybe because I am older God has employed different methods of how to get and keep my attention. The feeling is bigger than just a feeling of being distracted from whatever task is before me at that moment. It’s like a time stopper. All real time is suspended and I must follow through with what God desires me to do. It isn’t just prayer that He call me to do. There are other ways God tells me that I need to serve Him. He has needed me to talk to someone, right then, not the next day. He has sent me on an errand to get stamps so that I could send out words of encouragement. He has told me to get out my bible and read. I don’t even know where to start in my reading but I get my bible anyway. There are days that I just start at the beginning with Genesis, or one time I found myself going to Revelation and reading until I reached the end. Other times, I feel lead to read a psalm or two, or read the words in red, the words of Jesus Christ.
Then there are the days where all God is really wanting me to do is stop and listen. Not to music or talking or the television or anything like that but listen to Him. In the stillness that surrounds me, I am a captive audience eager to know what He wants to reveal of Himself! And this is one reason for sharing my testimony: God does desire that we all come to Him when He calls us, open and ready, to receive Him in a loving, covenant relationship. He is compassionate, merciful, and gracious but until or unless we are close to Him, hemmed in by the blessings He has given us, on what foundation is our relationship based upon? As time goes by, I realize that for everything God has called upon me to do, in His name, He has given me an opportunity to remember His goodness and His faithfulness. The way that He has captured my attention, there is little doubt that I will ever forget the significance of being still in His presence! Which brings me to the next part of my article.
Sharing how God has been working in my life lately is not easy because first, it is so personal and second, the feelings and emotions don’t always translate well to words on paper. However, we have a very special time period of 50 days approaching. We will be counting to Pentecost. God wants our attention for 50 days in a row. God has had more of my attention the past several months and now He desires more. Why else would He tell to me count a specific number of days? (If you need an example of just how else God gets our attention, all you have to do is read about how He wants us to observe the weekly Sabbath.)
Leviticus 23:16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
Each year I try to give a different spiritual application to those 50 days. One year, I chose the word “abide”, and each day I wrote in my journal a bible verse that spoke of how God abides in us and we abide in Him. Once year, I chose the word “grace”.
A couple of times throughout the years, I have written down 50 verses from my bible reading, numbered each with the day of the count, and then put them in a jar. On the day of Pentecost, I pulled them all out and read them. It was interesting putting them all in sequence to see my train of spiritual thought as the count to Pentecost progressed.
How will I record the count of 50 days to Pentecost this year? At this point, I am still undecided. But I have been giving it serious thought and I pray that you are as well. This verse will likely help me make my final decision, though: Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
God has been calling me to be His servant in specific ways at specific times, as I have mentioned, and it has been a truly humbling experience. Likewise, this is a specific time in God’s calendar, and it behooves us to be His captive audience and listen to Him as He directs us to acknowledge these upcoming days to Pentecost. What will you be remembering during the 50 days to Pentecost? Will you be accounting for your blessings, for example? Can you recall 50 times that God has intervened on your behalf through answered prayer? Are there 50 moments in your life where you felt so close to God that nothing else could compare?
In closing, will these be just 50 ordinary days for you on the calendar, or will they become something extraordinary and special? If you’re undecided, be still, and know that He is God, and perhaps you will then find 50 ways to exalt Him among the nations!
Psalm 118:28 You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Yes! There is Good News by Bill Rollins
Last time I mentioned there are certain “types” in scriptures. Abraham’s son Issac and David’s son Solomon were both types of Jesus Christ. How do we know that these types, and others, are used in the Old Testament? Very simply, the Apostle Paul tells us unequivocally in his letter the Corinthians, that they are there. In talking about Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and then traveling in the wilderness for forty years, Paul says this:
“Now these things occurred as types to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were.”
Paul admonishes us about idolatry by using the Israelites as an example. (1 Cor.10:6) A little later, in the same chapter, Paul says, “These things happen to them as types. And were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.”
We are in the latter days. In fact, the “latter days” were ushered in at the time of Jesus’ crucification, death and resurrection. These types in the Old Testament are for us to read and learn from. A wise man once said, “Anyone can learn from his own mistakes, but it takes a wise man to learn from someone else’s mistakes.”
I have tried to never forget that simple lesson. We can learn from the mistakes of others who have gone before us; namely the Israelites. They were God’s chosen people then, and we who have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal savior are God’s people today. And speaking of accepting Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we have come to the heart and core of the gospel, i.e. “the good news.”
I have heard some people say, “I’m a good person, and I try to do what God wants me to do.” But let me be quite emphatic here, God does not want a “good” person. God does not want a “better” person. God wants a new person! Paul says this in his book to the Romans, “ Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4) Do you desire that new life?
We sometimes forget that it is God who is in charge and not we ourselves. We cannot tell God how things should be. Remember that God said it is we who are created in His image but we sometimes want to create God in our image. This will not work. If we think that we have some goodness aside from Jesus Christ we are mistaken. In Isaiah 64:6 it says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all are righteous acts are like filthy rags.” That’s not saying “some of us.” It is all of us!
So, have you repented of your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior and then, understanding what Paul says is a symbol of death, undergone the immersion of baptism? Yes, the new life we receive at that point is truly good news.
Personally, I find that there is no greater calling in this life than to develop a deeper relationship with my Heavenly Father and there are several things we can do to attain that goal. The top two on that list are: spend more time in prayer and read what God has to say to you.
When you read the Bible you will come to know God. When you come into the presence of God and open your heart to Him in prayer, God gets to know you.
What’s that you say? God already knows you. Let’s examine that thought. There are two separate times in the scripture wherein God says He never knew someone. The first is found in Matthew 7:15, “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and preform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you lawless ones!” In other words, if we think we have something to offer God, (prophesying and miracles) and yet we have no knowledge of the will of God and of His law, we have a problem and are going about knowing Him (or shall we say “being known by Him”) in the wrong way!
I can never come to know another person without that person revealing himself to me. I’m sure we have all known someone who is unreachable. They have built a great wall around themselves so as not to let anyone in. God, of course, can “look over any wall” we may create, but will He? God is a Father and He wants His children to open up to Him. He wants us to get on our knees and tell Him our inner wants and desires, our thoughts and the meditations of our hearts.
Perhaps the inner desire of our hearts is to understand the things we read in His word. This is a wonderful place to begin that much needed relationship with Him. I think we all know that there are many places in the word of God that can be challenging to understand. I have heard it said that the things in this life that are valuable and are worthwhile are the things we must work for.
My friends, the word of God is valuable, the word of God is worthwhile. There is nothing more beautiful than the things our creator wants to speak to us about. I can think of nothing more exciting than to be reading the scriptures and have my Father in Heaven reveal a nugget of truth to me.
Sometimes that piece of the truth is pure joy in my innermost being, but sometimes I am hurt or cut to the heart by it. But just as a loving father must correct his children in ways that seem to hurt, so the Heavenly Father corrects those who are His.
Our God is a faithful God. The scriptures tell us that all His ways are perfect. He alone knows that “big picture,” and all His intentions for us are nothing but good.
A beautiful description of this is found in Hebrews 12:10, “our (Earthly) fathers disciplined us for a little while as they though best; God disciplines us for our own good, that we may share His holiness. Wow! I believe we would all accept His discipline in order to have His holiness imparted to us.
But where does this “pure joy” or this “correction” come from? Well, as has been said, it comes from our Heavenly Father. And how does He speak to us about these things? Well, in His word.
For us, His word is found in the Bible. In Paul’s comments to his beloved friend Timothy, he states this - “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of ... how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correction and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Paul wrote this letter (2 Timothy) around 65 A.D., sometime before he was martyred. At this point in time the only scriptures that Paul could have had in mind were what we all the Old Testament, for none of the New Testament had been written as of yet. But look at what Paul says about these scriptures - they are able to make you wise for salvation. They are useful for teaching, etc. You and I, today, have the amazing ability to purchase a Bible with both of these testaments for a very small price. Perhaps you have a couple of copies in your home now. This access to the Word of God today is abundantly easy and inexpensive. This has not always been so. Several centuries ago, many people had to suffer torture and martyrdom so as to insure future generations (like ours) might have access to the Bible. And we don’t take the time to read it? Shame on us!
Time
by Cynthia Saladin
Time is such a funny thing.
If you’re like me, you remember people as you last saw them. Even if it’s been six years, you somehow are shocked at how much the child has grown into a young adult!
You can plant seeds right after you till the garden. Somehow the weeds grow faster than the seeds you sowed. How does that work? They were essentially planted at the same time.
You can think that a tiny weed is no big problem. You don’t have to pull that one. But over time, every little weed becomes a big weed, and somehow the roots of weeds are a lot more tenacious than the plants you are trying to get to grow as vigorously! It works this way with sins vs. godly habits too.
A wound between friends, left to fester, doesn’t get well with time. It just remains a sore that ultimately ruins a friendship.
Procrastination seems like a good idea on a beautiful sunny day when everyone would rather be outside than doing what needs to be done first. Benjamin Franklin knew what he was talking about when he said, “A stitch in time saves nine.”
Once a moment is spent, you can’t get it back. It’s history - literally and colloquially.
Time seems to go more quickly the older you get. What seemed like forever to an eight year old seems like a snap of the fingers to me.
Time seems to go very slowly on Atonement.
Going back in time or visiting the future wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as we imagine. But we waste time thinking about the good old days or daydreaming about what we’ll do tomorrow. In the meantime, back in reality, thinking back or forward causes us to miss the present - and it is called the present because it’s a gift from God.
Dad mentioned on the last Day of Unleavened Bread that time is the only thing we have to give to God. Everything else is already His. So when God gifts us with time, we need to consider carefully what we’re going to do with it. What is the most valuable use of our time? What brings glory and honor to Him?
One of the graduates at Christopher’s commencement said that people always ask kids what they’re going to be when they grow up - instead of asking them what they’re going to do. She’s going to be a beautician. But she’s planning to leave a legacy of serving God, bringing Him glory and honor.
That legacy, however, won’t happen without some planning, some preparation and perseverance. We, each of us, need to spend time (some of that precious gift God’s given to us) reading His word, to know what is pleasing to Him. We need to meditate on it. We need to spend time in prayer, talking with our God! We need to be intentional about our time with God, not just letting it happen whenever we have time to fit it into our busy lives. Spending time with God daily is the crucial foundation of living a life to bring Him glory and honor because we can’t please Him unless we know Him. And we can’t know Him unless we spend quality time with Him. But then, we have to make sure God is part of everything we do. We cannot please Him if we compartmentalize Him into something convenient when we have time. He wants people who are wholly devoted to Him. He’s an integral part, the foundational component, of everything we do.
As we count to Pentecost, we are given another reminder from our Heavenly Father about just how significant time is. He wants us to count the days and make them count for Him.
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12 (ESV)
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:16 (KJV)
*********************
Don’t say that God is silent when your Bible is closed.
June
What Did You Learn?
by Cynthia Saladin
If I asked you what action verb is associated with the three holy day seasons, what would you say? For the Days of Unleavened Bread, we are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. It’s not about getting leaven out - that should already have been done before the holy days start! It’s about taking in of Jesus Christ, eating the unleavened bread which represents living our lives God’s way, subsisting on His word, seeking Life because that’s what truly sustains us. Eating should be the obvious verb to focus on - it’s inherent in the name of the Feast.
For the Feast of Tabernacles, the action verb is again in the name: we are to dwell in temporary dwellings, tents, tabernacles, for seven days. It reminds us that it is God who brought us out of slavery to sin. He is our Redeemer and Savior. Furthermore, we’re not to get too comfortable in this world. Don’t get too settled because, if we’ve been redeemed and we belong to God, then this world is not our home. We’re looking for God’s kingdom. We’re aliens and strangers in this land. We want to dwell in Christ. We want to walk in His ways. We want to be found in Him always.
So what about the Feast of Weeks? Pentecost? Again the verb is in the name. We are to count. And as we count for seven complete weeks - during the spring harvest - we should again see Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. It is in
participating in God’s holy days that we learn more about Him and who we are in Christ.
So what did you learn as you have been counting these past few weeks?
It’s really to get busy with the harvest, or life, or stuff, and neglect to count every day. Quick! Without counting on your fingers from last sabbath, what day of the count is it?
The days can pass by very quickly. Suddenly you’re at Pentecost and you find yourself wondering where all the days went! If you didn’t make a conscious effort to number the days, they are gone in the blink of an eye! And so isn’t it the same way with our lives. If we don’t make a conscious effort to make each day count, to intentionally choose those things which draw us closer to God, our days can slip by like sand through our fingers - and we have nothing to show for it.
The harvest is hard. Just as the plants have to be weeded, watered, and cared for - if you want a good harvest - we need to be diligent in our own lives. We need to weed out the habits and choices which are choking out our fruitfulness to God. We need to water our relationship with God with prayer, Bible study, meditation, fellowship with like believers. We need to intentionally care for our pursuit of holiness. Otherwise, we will have missed the opportunity to be fruitful for our God.
Just because the days are hard or discouraging or exhausting, we can’t give up. We have a goal in mind, in sight! As Winston Churchill adjured: Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Or as the seven churches of Revelation were similarly adjured: to him who overcomes . . . We overcome obstacles. We don’t doubt God’s goodness. We don’t rely on our own strength. We don’t expect life to be too easy. We are in preparation for service in God’s kingdom and we must persevere regardless of the obstacles and difficulties before us.
God expects you to rest. Even in the midst of the harvest, even when you have more things to do than you can shake a stick at, God expects you to observe the Sabbath. It is a gift to you from your Heavenly Father - to rest physically from your labor, to remember to rest in Him for your strength, to be exhorted and encouraged by your church family. The sabbath is not optional. It is not a lesser commandment. It is one of God’s Ten Commandments. And God expects you to love this gift that He has created for you each week.
Life rarely goes as planned. When you’re in the midst of the harvest, one of the busiest seasons of the year, it sometimes feels like you have more to do than can possibly get done. And! You may plan to do one thing, but, as you begin, you find two things
that have to be done first. It’s easy to get frustrated and try to work faster. That doesn’t usually work well. Remember Ziggy? My American lit teacher in high school had a poster of Ziggy that said, “The faster I go the behinder I get.” Just keep calm and carry on. The unplanned detours of life are not a surprise to God. So put your trust in Him and do the next thing.
Never forget the value of a well-timed word and an expression of gratitude. When life gets busy and we get frazzled, we tend to focus on the next thing we need to do, sometimes forgetting that everyone else is experiencing a similar state of frazzled-ness. AT&T’s slogan is very important: reach out and touch someone. Let the people around you know how much you appreciate them - not just their efforts - but them, as fellow travelers in the Way. We could all take a page from Barnabas’ play book and be a son of encouragement to those around us. It can make a huge difference.
We have just a few days left before the Day of Pentecost will have fully come. I hope you’re counting. I hope you’re evaluating how you live each day to the glory of our Great God. I hope you have fruit to harvest for Him. I wonder what you’ve been learning. Wanna share?
The reason we have 17,000 pages in our law books is because we cannot follow 10 lines on a tablet made of stone. ~Ravi Zacharias
Yes, There is Good News!
- By Bill Rollins
In October 2016, our family kept the Feast of Tabernacles in St. George, UT. I was privileged to give two messages: “What is God Worth to You?” and “Do You Have Any Zeal?”
So, let me pose that same question here, first; what is God worth to you? Have you ever pondered that question? He is the Creator of all things. He is the one who provides all things. He is so beneficent that He gives good gifts to both the righteous and the unrighteous. The sun shines on the Christian and the non-Christian, the Godly and the atheist, the diligent and the slothful. As the song says, “God is good, all the time!”
One of our side trips was to Zion National Park. I am sure that some of you have visited that awesome park. To travel through that canyon with shear cliffs rising a couple of thousand feet on both sides is pretty awe-inspiring. But to see the beauty of the landscape and not recognize the One who created the landscape is to miss out on a great opportunity to really worship God.
What does the word “worship” mean? It is a contraction of two words , “worth-ship.” It is to consciously recognize the worth of God and so revere Him and all that He is. Worship can take place sitting by a rushing stream with mountains all around. It can occur while one sits under a night sky with thousands of stars twinkling overhead. It can happen while one looks out over the rolling hills of Iowa with a seemingly endless stretch of corn and soybeans waiting to be harvested.
I could go on and on and I am sure you could add many more examples of the greatness of our God.
So, is God worthy of your time? Do you greet Him every morning in prayer? Do you say good night to Him every evening before bed? God is good to us and He loves us very much. Are you a parent? If you are, do you enjoy the times when your children sit and just visit with you? For me, those times are a blessing - will you be a blessing to your Heavenly Father? What is God worth to you?
Can we bless our Heavenly Father? Will He be blessed by us? And if we can, will that blessing of ours turn out to be something we might call “good news?”
In Psalm 103 we read, “Bless the Lord O my soul, all that is in me bless His holy name.” This is how Psalm begins and it ends with the words, “Bless the Lord, O you, His holy angels ... Bless the Lord all His hosts ... Bless the Lord all His works ... Bless the Lord O my soul.” So, in answer to my first question, we can bless God!
The word “bless” comes from the Hebrew word “barak,” which literally means to “bend the knee, to kneel, and by implication to bless God.”
It is the very same word that is used back in Genesis 1:27-28, “So God created man in His own image ... male and female He created them ... and God blessed them ...”
When God started to work with Abram (later called Abraham) in Genesis 12: 2-3, He said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you ... and all peoples on Earth will be blessed through you.” God is the originator of life and so He is the originator of blessings. But as we saw, these blessings may be reciprocal in that when we are blessed by God, we are to kneel before Him and bless Him with reverence and awe.
Have you ever been blessed by God, the Creator and Sustainer of life? The question is really ludicrous. The answer is an emphatic yes! The fact that you have life is the first blessing. The fact that your life is sustained by oxygen, by water, by food in abundance is a blessing that some of us may take for granted. But where should we stop in enumerating the many blessings we receive from our Heavenly Father? We have five senses that connect us with the world around us. We have a super computer the size of a small melon within our skulls that processes all the information our senses feed it. But perhaps most of all, we have “the breath of life” from our God within us which enables us to reason. Yes, of all the creatures on the Earth, we are the only ones who can come to truly know the God who created all things. And in His love for us, He even allows us to try and reason Him away. He does not crush the non-believer; God feeds all His creation. He “so loves the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
“Bless the Lord O my soul.” Amen.
The scripture says that God “Causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”(Matthew 5:45) I guess this is somewhat obvious considering there are many out there who do not believe in God, and yet their fields produce crops in abundance. They have food enough to eat. Perhaps as humans who inhabit our planet, this might seem somewhat counter-intuitive. But God lets us know that He is not as we are! “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:9). I believe that says it quite nicely!
God is God. He is perfect. And so God says to us, “I have set a high bar for you to attain to.” It is not easy to love your enemies, and to pray for them. Be perfect as God is perfect. God knows what he is talking about. There is another place where God talks about wanting to attain perfection - it is found in Matthew 19, where a rich young man wanted to know what he must do to attain eternal life. Jesus, understanding the man and knowing where his heart was, told him to obey the commandments. The man acknowledged he had kept them and wish to know where he lacked. Jesus told him directly, “If you want to be perfect, go sell all your possessions and give to the poor.” Basically Jesus told the man to separate himself from all that was important to him. And so the man went away sad, because he had great wealth.
I believe we all know there isn’t anything we can do to get eternal life; it is the free gift form God for those who believe. So what was Jesus getting at by telling this man these things? I think Jesus was telling the man that he believed in his wealth more than he believed in God. The man had ‘good news” staring him in the face, literally, the good news of eternal life. But all he could see was his fortune.
Is there something sitting before your eyes that keeps you from seeing your Savior? Or perhaps some wealth you are having a hard time parting with? There is a song I enjoy seeing where in the chorus says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the thing of Earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” Try doing that, and perfection may be just around the corner. Jesus bids you to come to Him.
Until next time, there is good news!
"To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is unforgivable.” - Beethoven
July
More Lessons from Pepper
by Cynthia Saladin
Pepper was quite sure I’d lost my mind earlier this week. I was pulling weeds in the corn even though the sky looked like it could open up and pour at any moment. Pepper accompanied me to the garden, as usual, and took up his normal watchful position nearby. Occasionally, something would catch his attention and he’d go investigate, but he kept a pretty close eye on me while I was working.
When it started to sprinkle, he came to me, tail down, ears tucked, head ducked. His actions couldn’t have told me any more plainly, “Hey! It’s raining! Do you think we ought to go inside?” I petted him, told him he was a good dog, and then told him to go away. He walked over, lay down, and continued his vigil.
Soon the rain stopped. He watched me for a while. He investigated interesting things. And then it started blowing and sprinkling again. Again, he came to let me know it was raining and maybe we should do something. I told him he was a nice dog and told him to go away.
The third time, he brought Ebony with him. She was like, “Hey, it’s raining out here. Can we go inside yet?” I told her she was a nice dog. I told Pepper he was a nice dog, but they needed to let me work for a few more minutes.
Pretty soon it was really raining. But I was so close to having my row weeded. I just wanted to finish. I wasn’t a bit surprised when Pepper came to get me. He loyally believes it is his job to keep watch while I’m in the garden, no matter what the weather is doing. (Ebony had long since gone to the porch.) But enough was enough. He stood right in front of me and made me look him in the eye. Then he started licking my arm - you know how he tries to dry himself off after he’s gone into the pond or after a bath. He must have thought I was just not thinking clearly because obviously I was getting WET! He was doing everything he could to provide me with the intelligence that I obviously was missing. How in the world I could possibly miss the rain, he couldn’t figure out, but he was determined to let me know that IT WAS RAINING and it was time to go inside.
Do you think we ever do that to God?
Do you think we ever think that God just doesn’t know what’s going on in our lives? That He must be so preoccupied that He’s just unaware of what is such a huge problem to us? We just need to let Him know so that He will do what we think needs to be done?
We wouldn’t ever do that, would we?
It seems so silly to put in those words, but that’s what our actions say. We worry. We get upset about the events in our lives. We even begin to doubt whether He still loves us.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. . . . 1 John 4:16
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9
But God’s love doesn’t begin and end with the huge gift of His Son. Paul says: He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32
We can’t doubt that God loves us. And we can’t doubt that He wants us to bring our needs to Him.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
It would be ridiculous to think that the Creator of the universe wasn’t powerful enough to be in control of everything. Nothing is impossible with God! So after we struggle with doubts and fears, we come back to the foundational knowledge that He is God and we are not.
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:1-2
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
And I have to trust Him - because that’s my part of the covenant as His child.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4
I’m going to experience some rain in my life, and undoubtedly some downpours which upset me. I have to believe that God knows about the storms. He knows what I’m enduring. I need to trust Him. I need to remember to pray like Jehoshaphat did, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” (2 Chron. 20:12) And if He determines that I need to ride out the storm, I rest in His promise that He will never leave me nor forsake me. (Hebrews 13:5)
911, What is Your Emergency?
By Diane Kleeschulte
“911, what is your emergency?”
A voice on the other end is asking the caller to state their emergency: fire, ambulance, police? It’s a short but powerful question! The caller must be able to think quickly and rationally because this could be a life or death situation. It’s a wonder anyone can keep calm during such a stressful event: relaying a potential life-threatening situation to a virtual stranger!
Does the fire department need to respond to a vehicle, a home, or business fire? Does EMS need to respond to someone in need of medical attention? Does the police department need to respond to a law-breaking situation? In dire events, all three will be contacted and sent to respond to the caller’s request. Whoever responds to the emergency call will do their best to rescue, mend, and tend to the needs of those in trouble when they arrive on the scene. Oftentimes it takes the concerted effort of all three responders to remedy the scene.
Surely the most terrifying call some people will ever need to make in their lifetime is to use those three numbers: 911. Let’s consider this from a spiritual perspective. We live in a world, in a society, where bad things happen. It’s no surprise that many people have given up listening to, or reading, the news. It seems to be nothing but a sad and constant commentary on how low we have fallen as a society, and how far we have distanced ourselves from God. Yes, we know that we are in the world not a part of it, but we also know that danger lurks around the corner. Our enemy prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) Add to this the trouble brought onto us by others, and also those we inflict upon ourselves. Being aware of all this should spur us on to be in right relationship with our God, who called us from this world to His. Bible reading and study, prayer and meditation are vital to a strong foundational relationship with God.
John 15:16 (NIV) - You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NIV) - But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
While we walk in the way of the Lord, though, there still may be times when we find ourselves reaching out to make a spiritual 911 call (prayer) to our Heavenly Father. Troubles and trials happen. We know what to do. We need to reach out to Him because we know that He alone is in control. He called us and chose us to be His children. We surrendered control of our lives to Him. And, we know He is faithful to listen to His children.
Psalm 4:3 (NIV) - Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.
Psalm 31:2-3 (NKJV) - Bow down Your ear to me, Deliver me speedily; Be my rock of refuge, A fortress of defense to save me. For You [are] my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name's sake, Lead me and guide me.
Are we ready to explain our emergency? Do we need Someone to extinguish the flames of a trial that surrounds us, or Someone to bind our wounds?
1 Peter 4:12-13, 19 (ESV) - Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. ... Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Psalm 147:3 (NIV) - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 25:20 (ESV) - Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
Psalm 91:11 (ESV) - For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
Maybe we need Someone to protect us from those who would wrong us.
Psalm 59:4 (NIV) - I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Arise to help me; look on my plight!
Psalm 32:7 (NIV) - You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Psalm 40:11 (NIV) - Do not withhold your mercy from me, LORD; may your love and faithfulness always protect me.
While on a physical level the 911 operator might send out the fire department, EMS, and the police department to respond to the same call, in the spiritual sense we only need One to respond to the scene: Our Helper, Protector, Great Physician and Holy Righteous God. He has all the answers to give us within His timing and His plan. We may find ourselves having to wait for deliverance from our trials and troubles. We know that waiting is not easy yet we are called upon to wait for the LORD; why? He is the One whose answer gives us life. His word is our hope!
Psalm 38:15 (ESV) - But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
Psalm 39:7 (ESV) - And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
Psalm 130:5 (ESV) - I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
When the 911 operator answers a call they will ask for the caller to remain on the line. It is both for the caller’s good so that the operator can reassure and calm them until help arrives, and also to be available if the situation at hand changes in any way. If we apply this to a spiritual 911 situation, why wouldn’t we choose to stay close to God to see the trial through to the end? Regardless of His answer, we have a Father in Heaven who will never leave us nor forsake us. Who else can be trusted with our life but the God of the universe? He will walk with us through whatever trial we face. And we must stay faithful to Him no matter the answer He provides. He is in control. He knows His plan and will for us is what is ultimately good and right for us, all to His glory! Let’s remember this with confidence while we wait for Him.
Finally, when we beseech Him in prayer for our troubles, let’s praise Him! While we are waiting, let’s give Him thanks! All glory and honor to the God of our hope and salvation when the answers arrive according to His will. We have a First Responder who is awesome and is to be praised. Call upon His name in time of need and let Him be your El Shaddai, Lord God Almighty; Jehovah Rapha, the God that heals; Jehovah Jireh, your Protector; and Jehovah Tsikednu, the Lord our righteousness.
Psalm 100:4 (NIV) - Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
August
Heeding the Master’s Call by Cynthia Saladin
When the labs were young, I would open the front door and they’d vault off the front porch and be out of sight at the edge of the field in seconds flat. The problem always was that they wouldn’t come when I called them. Oh, they heard me. They’d lift their heads from whatever delicious scent they were investigating and look at me, but they had determined that whatever treat I had for them would in no way measure up to the fun they were going to have together. It only took a couple of times of having to track them down, tramping through fields and driving up and down roads before we knew we couldn’t just let them run. They always came back - eventually. But we didn’t know how far they were going, what they were chasing, and how much trouble they could get themselves into.
Here we are eleven years later and things have changed. Ebony has a torn ACL and although she walks pretty well, and even scampers after the chipmunk who likes to live dangerously next to our house, her hind legs don’t work so well anymore and she wears out quickly. Velvet still does a pretty good job of getting around, but the cataracts clouding her eyes are so bad she can’t see the dog treat you put in front of her nose. She always recoils when you touch her nose with it.
The past few days, Ebony has been reluctant to go for our morning walk. She’s happy about it once she’s outside and walking, but convincing her to get out of bed has not been easy. Once outside, I put Velvet on the leash and walk them over the dam. Of course, being labs, they both pile into the water, drinking as they walk, choking and coughing on water bugs, and trying to shake while still shoulder high in the pond. Yesterday, that’s the point at which I took the leash off Velvet. Neither of them made any indication that a mad dash into the woods was imminent. They investigated smells and calmly accompanied me around the pond and back up to the house.
So this morning, I didn’t even put the leash on Velvet. I just told her it was time to go for a walk, enticed Ebony out of her bed, and started off towards the pond. Velvet came when I called her, instead of going to see what Ebony had found. They both went for their morning swim. They both followed me back up to the house.
It’s a bittersweet experience. They are very compliant and lovable. They no longer chew on the porch rails. They don’t bark all through the night. But I know it’s because they’re rapidly approaching the end of their lives; it’s not because that’s what they’d do if they had the vim and vigor of youth.
So what about us? As we grow older, I’d like to think that we heed the Master’s call with ever increasing alacrity - because of the relationship we have with our Great God, not just because we don’t have the vim and vigor of youth.
There are a couple of very interesting verses in Psalm 119 which caught my attention recently:
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. (vs. 67)
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. (vs 71)
Is that what it takes - old age, trouble, affliction, problems, disaster - before we see the value of God’s ways and our absolute need for Him? Do we have to be knocked down and bruised before we seek God first? Do we have to try things our way and get into all kinds of heartache before we do it the way God said to from the very beginning?
I kind of wonder if this is where Solomon ended up at the end of his life, in order for him to have penned these words:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them.” Ecclesiastes 12:1
Oh that we would seek God with all of our hearts now because He is good and worthy and He loves us so very much!! I don’t want to wait for the evil days to come before I turn to God with all of my heart. I don’t want to fall victim to the trap of being content with where I am so that I neglect my relationship with God because I fail to see how very much I need Him (Deuteronomy 8:11-20). I owe Him everything, even my very life. What could be more important than heeding His leading every day of my life?
I’m already sad, knowing that my labs’ days are numbered. But really, all of our days are numbered before even one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). Perhaps I need to be more intentional about living my life for God’s glory with whatever days still remain.
Yes, There is Good News by Bill Rollins
There are so many ideas and thoughts written into the Bible that it can be difficult to comprehend them all. In my Bible, there are more than 1,600 pages filled with the words of our Heavenly Father. He caused His servants, by the power of his Holy Spirit, to record onto parchment all that we have in our Bibles. Moses, David, Isaiah, Samuel, Matthew, Paul, John, (etc), were all instruments of God's desire to give to you, and to me, His instruction.
I have had many people come to me and ask, how they might break up scriptures into 365 separate sections so as to read the Bible in one year. For your informations, there are websites that preform this task for you. You can also buy a Bible that is structured so that there are 365 portions for reading.
I do not recommend that people read the Bible in one year. It is a task that calls for discipline, and structure, within a person’s life. And as I have pointed out in the past, the word “discipline” has the same root form as the word “disciple.” If we are to become disciples of Jesus Christ (and we called to do just that) we must recognize that discipline is part and parcel of our effort. Over the past thirty-something articles that have appeared in the paper under the “Yes, There is Good News,” we have had a fair amount of interesting topics. But the most important topic that could ever be covered would have to do with urging you to pick up your Bible and read it. Jesus Himself tells us that these are the “words of life.” I have more people come to me and tell me they have never read the Bible, and yet they claim to be Christian! Really? That would be like me saying I have a relationship with my wife, but I never let her talk to me. That would be ludicrous. I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father, but I never let Him talk to me? God speaks to us through His word. We can pick up the books written by Moses, David, (etc) and read the words, “the word of the Lord came to me ...” “Thus declares the sovereign Lord,” “ Thus declares the Lord whose name is God Almighty.” In the New Testament we find the authors quoting from the Old Testament, saying, “This is what the Lord says through his prophet ...”
All the authors of the New Testament knew exactly what the Old Testament had to say. They were familiar with it. They read it. They desired a deep relationship with God, and experienced the joy of His closeness. They knew the words of life as were written by the prophets of old, and wrote words of life to expound and teach us about the good news of our Savior who has come, and who will come again.
Our Father delights to teach those of us who are interested in the things He has to say. The one thing I know, unequivocally, about that statement is that our Father really does want to teach us. The thing I do not know is: are you interested in the things He has to say?
In the book of Galatians, Paul seems to suggest that those belonging to Jesus Christ are to be considered as “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). And I would like to take the Apostle Paul at his word. So, I find it acceptable to learn about the nation of Israel, from the Old Testament, and utilize them as a historical lesson. In other words, I have a template for my life as a Christian in the triumphs and tragedies that the ancient nation of Israel experienced. I can take the admonitions, the corrections, the training and the blessings from God toward them and have applications for my life.
So far so good! Let’s turn back to the book of Deuteronomy 10:12 where we find this written, “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’S commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?” God says that doing these things are for my own good! So if I do these 5 things, fear God, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him and observe His laws; good from God will come my way.
Let me ask the above question once again, “Are you interested in the things He has to say?” Are you interested enough to pursue the things He tells us to do? Do you strive to seek God with all your heart?
In several scriptures in the Old Testament, God admonishes us to seek His face: 1Ch 16:11 - Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually; 2Ch 7:14 - If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land: Ps 105:4 - Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
In other scriptures He asks us to seek Him with all of our heart: Ps 119:10 - Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with their whole heart; Ps 119:10 - With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
So what does it mean to seek the face of God? There are three significant words in this phrase, “seek, face and God.” The last of these words “God” is, I hope, familiar to all of us. God is the Creator, the Sustainer and the One who gives life. He is life itself. He says His name is Yahoveh, which means, “I am that I am” in other words, “the self-existent one.”
The next to last word “face” is a very important word. We know in English (in our society) that located at the front of one’s head is one’s face. When we meet someone, the first thing we normally look at is their face. So if you were to ask me “where are you going?” And I answered, “I am going downtown to seek my wife’s face,” you would look at me with great curiosity! But not so with the ancient Hebrews. This statement would have been appropriate.
The word “face” or “paniym” (pronounced paw-neem in Hebrew), connotes much more than the front of one’s head. In many contexts it means the visible portion of a thing; such as in Genesis 1:2, “The spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters.” But in the context of a person it most often signifies the person himself. And this is how we may view the statement, “seek the face of God.” It is the person of God that we must seek.
The first word in this phrase is very interesting: “seek.” In these three scriptures (1Ch 16:11, 2Ch 7:14, and Ps 105:4), the word “seek” has a very peculiar meaning. The Hebrew word is “darash” and it means, “to tread or tromp something.” I’m sure that most of us have walked from here to there in tall grass. If we travel a path once, we can look back and see where we have disturbed the grass and identify where we have trod. The next day, however, the wind and sun will have erased our path. But if we walk from here to there several times a day, and do so every day for a month, we have trod down the grass and we will still see a well-defined path.
And so it is with our seeking God! We must travel the path to our God again and again. We come to God, our Provider, and thank Him for the provisions of shelter, warmth, clothing, friends, etc.
I believe you get the point. Ps 105:4, “Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face evermore.” The blessings we receive when in His presence are indeed “good news.”
The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love. ~Corrie ten Boom
If They Should Be Written Every One
by Diane Kleeschulte
There is a book of the bible that many say is their favorite, and one that they turn to whether they are experiencing times of trouble or joy. They turn to this particular book for comfort and encouragement. Can you name that book? If you said the book of Psalms, you would be correct. My first personal experience with the Psalms was during a particularly challenging time in my life. I asked my sister, Stephanie, to direct me to a scripture that would help me. I was anxious and stressed about life in general. She immediately said I should turn to Psalm 46:10-
Be still, and know that I [am] God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
What comfort I found in those words of the sons of Korah! I read the psalm in its entirety to understand it in context, and then I immediately became “still” in order to let the words wash over me, comfort me, and bring me peace. I called out to God that I knew He was who He said He was, and that I would be still in His presence. I had never felt such peace before! Because of that experience, Psalm 46 remains a favorite and encouraging psalm for me all these many years later.
At the beginning of a recent bible study, Keith asked all of us if we could think of anything that God has done for us. He proceeded to explain that he knew we all had a personal testimony of our walk with God and that he was challenging us to write it down in the form of a psalm. His goal for us in writing a psalm is for us to meditate on what God has done, feel the emotion that it brings, and then put words to the feelings. Why is this important? We each have a story to tell that gives God honor and glory. I believe that whatever personal testimony I write is also a written legacy for me to leave my family when I die. Perhaps it will inspire them to continue to seek God for themselves and to realize how real He is in their lives as He was in mine.
In order to lay the groundwork for this “homework”, Keith said that what may often draw us to the psalms is the raw emotion of the psalmist’s words. As an example, we turned to Psalm 3:7
Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
Quite the visual, right? But at the same time I am also drawn to a couple of the preceding verses where David’s confidence is evident-
3 But You, O LORD, [are] a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. 4 I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me.
Continuing to encourage us before he set us on our own to writing psalms, Keith reminded us that the psalmists laid bare their hearts, and wrote with honesty about their plights and experiences. While we are not expected to share the psalms we write with our church group, or anyone else for that matter, Keith’s point was that this psalm is our own to write. It is our testimony and it cannot be disputed. Therefore, we should lay open our hearts to Him who knows it even before we write it.
Finally, Keith pointed out these spiritual patterns that are often found in the psalms. He included-
1. God is petitioned or appealed to
2. Questions or concerns are brought before God
3. Testimony of trust is declared
4. Supplication is made for God’s involvement
5. Repentance or confession to God is made
6. Reply or confirmation is made to God
7. God is praised and exalted
8. Prayer is turned to a song or psalm
These eight patterns are helpful when reading the psalms and going deeper in understanding them. Overall, however, Keith pointed them out to us to help guide our writing of our psalm, if necessary.
In conclusion to his study, Keith challenged us to get to writing this week, and I am, therefore, challenging you as well, to set aside a few minutes and write your own personal psalm. You may be saying to yourself that misery truly loves company. But the fact of the matter is I really believe this assignment will have a personal place in our hearts, mind, and soul, when all is said and done, or written. I am going to find a special place in my bible for my psalm as a testament to others of what my God has done for me.
So where to begin with the writing process? There is probably fear and trepidation among some of us church-goers this week as we contemplate how to approach this homework assignment. I have a few suggestions. First, be still, and then offer a prayer to God over this matter of what He has done for you, and let Him lead you to write down the words that best express it. Next, if there are certain words that speak to you from the book of psalms, write them down. For example,
I key in on words like joy, peace, sustain, thanksgiving, and praise. These are words that I know are part of my testimony of what God has done in my life and how I want to give Him honor for it all. Finally, just write down your thoughts without a filter of what you think anyone else will write or say in their psalm. You don’t ever have to share it with anyone, but rest assured, God will be honored and glorified by what your heart led you to write.
Nobody by Jim O’Brien
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To croak your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
Emily Dickinson
"God must love the common man," said Abraham Lincoln, "he made so many of them." He was right. God seems to love the unrecognized person who may think of himself as a "nobody".
When the army of Israel trembled before the giant Goliath, God chose a boy who was "nobody" to fight the trained warrior. We learned that one mere boy with the Spirit of God has more courage than an entire army.
But if we think that faith and courage are appreciated by brothers we would be disappointed. Goliath proved to be an easier opponent than David's eldest sibling Eliab. Even after the Prophet Samuel anointed David to be King, Eliab takes the role of accuser. He "burned with anger" at him. "Why have you come down here?" he demanded. "And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert?" (1 Samuel 17:28 NIV) The condescension fairly dripped from his words.
But Eliab wasn't finished. "I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is...."
"Oh!" David must have thought, "I feel better now! Those are just the words I needed before going into battle. If I trust in God and act on faith even my brother calls me wicked and arrogant."
You know the story. David defeated Goliath and went on to become a military leader. His reward? Saul offered his daughter to David in marriage. But David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my family or my father's clan in Israel, that I should become the king's son-in-law?" In ancient Israel there was a caste system and David's family was bottom tier.
A history professor friend in the U.S. escorted a group of college students to Israel. On the way over the group stopped in London to tour sites of historical interest. They were not able to secure the services of a professional guide so their bus driver offered to substitute. As it turned out, his knowledge of the subject and presentation of facts was so impressive that the professor asked why he did not become a tour guide. Surely it was more lucrative than driving a bus. "Oh, that would be above me," replied the driver. The caste system still exists.
The Old Testament records the story of the people of Israel who once cried out to God for relief from the oppression of the Midianites. Farmers worked to produce crops and their enemies would steal them after harvest. God sent an angel to a "nobody" named Gideon. "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior," said the angel. It was a strange greeting for a man threshing wheat in a winepress in order to hide from his enemies. But God didn't see Gideon as a coward. And even if he did, God's spirit more than compensated. But his low station in life was a barrier for Gideon. "How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." (Judges 6:15)
How should a man respond to an angel who appears to him and says, "The Lord is with thee,"? (verse 12) Gideon replied "But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian." (verse 13) What an irony that today men ask the same questions that Gideon asked even while reading about his life.
Gideon saw himself as a man of no reputation from an insignificant family. Saving Israel would be above him.
Faith causes a man to act, even when he has no credentials. People watching his initiative will ask, "Who does he think he is?" And when his actions bear good fruit jealousy will cause the bystanders to discredit him.
The Pharisees were angered when Jesus forgave sin. Jesus responded by healing people as evidence of his power to forgive. That angered the Pharisees even more. "Who do you think you are?" screamed the Pharisees. (John 8:53) To them, he was a "nobody".
The difference between a Pharisee and a "nobody" is this. Pharisees act on what they can see. "Nobodies" act on faith!
Are you a "nobody"? Good! There're a lot of us you know. And we come from a long line of "nobodies" that have been used by God to do some pretty awesome things.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” ~C.S. Lewis
October
A Psalm for Festivals
original psalm by Keith Kleeschulte
1 Your truths are hidden from those who hate You,
But Your Word is revealed to those whom You love.
2 In Your Sabbaths we find what festivities please You.
Your rest days are expressions of Holy celebration before Thee.
3 That man might know that You are the Lord who makes Time Holy
And in Your days You are sanctifying a people for Yourself.
4 In them You declare a sign between God and mankind forever
For all Your days announce an annual pattern, offering Yehovah’s testimony!
5 For You have created all things and for Thy pleasure they were created
Blessed are the people who take pleasure in the God of Creation.
6 Seven Sabbaths each year and seventh day each week is Sabbath
These are fixed to recognize that You alone establish Holy Seasons.
7 These are “My Feasts” that mark Your people as set apart, even peculiar
Because those things that are Yours are not from the world nor ever can be.
8 Holy Convocations proclaimed at their appointed times for Christians,
Moeds for the Israel of God who are sons of Abraham through faith.
9 Your feasts make me feel privileged, accepted, and an object of Your love
And I will respond with adoration, shouts of exaltations, and indebtedness.
10 My heart delights to see many brethren who proclaim a like love unto Thee
For Christ is the center piece of all our worship where Your Name dwells.
11 I’ve been with multitudes that keep pilgrim feasts rejoicing and praising
Never have I experienced such continuous joy for 8 days; I am without words.
12 Among the clouds is Your chariot and the heaven of heavens Your throne
Feast songs like sacrifices drifting upward, You inhabit the praise of Your people.
13 Would it be too bold to ask as pilgrims for a taste of Your precious glory?
Let us understand, Father, more of Your greatness when in secret with Thee.
14 Remind us that we are here to worship The King and keep it Holy!
Your Word, Oh LORD, reveals that Feast is a rehearsal of the eternal story.
15 For by Biblical guidance do we enjoy the mutual gift of assembly
We rejoice with one another, loving God with shared Spiritual purpose.
16 You knew when we were created that Sabbaths would be fundamental,
So You filled our years with Holy Days to shepherd our hearts to You.
17 By invitation we have heard Your call to come and drink in of Your goodness
We longingly arrive to hear those words, “All things are ready come to the Feast!”
God’s Holy Days are the rest stop on the road of life.
~Wayne C. Cole, in a sermon at the Feast of Tabernacles in Squaw Valley, 1979
The Path of Life
by Sally Rollins
We had occasion recently to go to Salt Lake City to attend a wedding. We knew there would be a lot of “free” time involved, so we asked some people we know in Salt Lake City what there was to see and do in that area. One of the suggestions was to hike up to Cecret Lake in the mountains east of Salt Lake. It seemed like a good idea. We drove to the park and had to pay $5.00 (with senior discount) to drive to the trailhead, which we did.
We parked the car, took a drink of water, and left the water in the car to have when we returned. The trail started out very good - a graded path about six feet wide with a gradual incline. That didn’t last long, however. Soon we were on a single-file path and the incline was steeper. We jumped from rock to rock to cross a small stream. After that the path deteriorated rapidly. Before long, we were picking our way around big rocks, and the trail grew progressively less well-define and steeper. Sometimes I had to steady myself by holding onto a rock beside the trail. And once I tripped over a rock but caught myself on another rock.
As we climbed, the few people we met who were coming down assured us that, “When you reach the top, it will have been worth the climb.” Sometimes (often) we stopped to get a breath at the 9,500-foot elevation and longed for the water we’d left in the car. Sometimes we would come across a patch of beautiful red, blue, and golden wild flowers which would lift our spirits and, again, provide an excuse to stop and rest for a few minutes.
But the trail kept going up. Then the trail became a series of switchbacks because it was too steep to go straight up. But finally, we topped the last ridge and there was Cecret Lake in front of us! WOW! Words fail me to describe the beauty of that high mountain lake with its clear blue water. The high rocks stood like sentries stationed around it, interspersed with aspen trees and green grass among the rocks. And the peace! It was almost palpable! Indescribable!
We stayed a long time, wanting to soak in the beauty and peace, but we knew we had to get down the mountain. It was just as steep going down, but easier to do while exercising a lot of caution.
The next day we were back at the hotel sitting on the patio with the city sounds all around us.
The lessons learned: 1When we decide to seek the kingdom of God, it will cost us the totality of our lives - no senior discounts. 2At first the path is easy and wide and there are others walking with us. But as we continue to seek God - as we set our minds on the goal - the path gets harder and there are fewer walking with us. 3Christ is the Living Water; take Him with you - don’t leave Him at the bottom of the mountain. 4Know that the path gets harder, pick your way carefully around the obstacles; if you stumble, get up and keep going. 5If you stop to rest and to enjoy God’s creation, that is good, but keep your eyes on the top of the mountain, and 6after He has given you rest, keep going.
There are a lot of witnesses in the Bible that attest to the glory and the peace to be attained in the kingdom. Believe them; the climb is worth the effort.
Isaiah 35:3,4: Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, . . . He will come to save you.”
Don’t Let Me Miss the Glory
by Cynthia Saladin
Many years ago, someone asked me if keeping the holy days was salvational. Let me be very clear: you cannot earn your salvation by observing God’s holy days. There is one name under heaven by which you may be saved: Jesus Christ. Our salvation is a free gift from God and cannot be purchased or earned. So I don’t celebrate God’s holy days because I’m trying to earn my salvation.
Nevertheless, observing God’s Holy Days is very important. Why? First of all, I observe the Feasts because my God says to! Leviticus 23:4 says, “These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.” These are not man’s feasts nor the Jewish feasts. These are God’s Feasts! And God says they are sacred assemblies. They are set apart! They are holy! And we are to assemble, gather together to worship Him on His days.
Secondly, I keep the Feasts to worship God with His people. Having celebrated 48 feasts, I have met a lot of people - many of whom I only get to see at the Feast. It’s very much like a huge family reunion - only better. These people are here to worship God. We share a love for Jesus Christ which compels us to come before Him as He commanded. Sometimes that means I have more in common with my church family of feast-goers than my blood relatives that I rarely see.
I also celebrate God’s holy days because they are truly a celebration. God commands us to rejoice before Him for seven days (Leviticus 23:40). Keeping God’s feasts with other people who are likewise worshipping Him, all of you with the attitude of rejoicing in a Godly manner - it just doesn’t get any better than that!! The world looks on in amazement that whole families are having such a wonderful time, with no artificial additives, like drugs or alcohol.
Finally, one of the best reasons (ranking right up there with the previous three) for keeping the Feast is the reassurance I receive that striving for the goal, God’s kingdom, is worth the effort. The Feasts picture God’s plan, what He’s doing, in my life. They remind me to keep my eyes on Him. They are like the reset button which helps me to re-evaluate and make sure He’s always at the center of my life. In an environment where everyone is focused on a similar goal, I am encouraged and exhorted and strengthened to keep going, keep fighting the good fight, keep seeking God with all of my heart. Celebrating God’s holy days reminds me of the glory that awaits those who overcome (2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Jonah 2:8; Revelation 3:21).
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss the glory.
Calm seas never made a skillful sailor.
