You Can Find God in the Strangest Places

Exodus 20:21 “And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.”

The words – darkness and God – don’t seem to go together but you can be absolutely sure that God will show up in the strangest places.

Darkness represents uncertainty, the unknown, mysteries and poor visibility.

In Ephesians 6:12 Paul reminds us that we are in a war with the kingdom of darkness.

Unbelievers walk in darkness. The mind can be blanketed by darkness.

But there is no night so black and no darkness so thick in you life but what God can show up in all of His power and glory just as He did for Moses.

You must never forget that God was real to Jesus as he was impaled on a cross and shrouded in darkness.

The hand of the Father reached out into the wretched darkness of the crucifixion to touch the frail, dehydrating body of His dying Son.

He showed up in darkness to protect His Son until the dawn of the resurrection. Darkness could not keep God away.

There are 4 encounters with darkness that most of us face in life to one degree of another, but the good news is that you, like Moses, can find God in the darkest moment of your life.

The 4 encounters with darkness are:

1. Doubt is like a total eclipse at noonday that dims the light of responsible reasoning and intellectual integrity.

o It comes out of nowhere and suddenly and uncontrollably clouds reason and manipulates the mental process negatively.
o deducts that God can not or will not intervene on your behalf.
o questions the validity of God and His Word and finds if very difficult to believe that all things are possible with God.

Then in the darkness God shows up when we simply confess as did the Father of the
afflicted child in Mark 9:24:”Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief.”

The darkness of doubt dissipated in the Light of the Son!

2. Depression on the other hand is like the proverbial, nocturnal bat out of hell roosting on the emotions.

Anyone who has been there will understand that depression is like falling into a deep, dark hole and the deeper you go the darker it becomes. It is like quicksand. The more you struggle the deeper you get.

The Psalmist describes it in these graphic words. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my fee upon a rock…” (Psalms 40:2)

Depression is horrible, but in that dark hole God showed up and lifted him up out of the pit.

You can’t get out by yourself you have tried, but God is there to pull you out today.

3. Then there is the dark tunnel of disease or failing health through which we travel at one time or another.

It’s a tough tunnel to walk through because it effects everything from our pocketbook, to job performance, outlook on the future and security in the present.

Paul wrestled with this health or physical malady issue that did not allow him to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Shockingly, prayer didn’t alter his condition. Hear it from his own pen in II Corinthians 12:7-8. “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh…for this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.”

But he goes on to confess that God spoke to him saying, “My grace is sufficient for thee…”

In the darkness of failing health, God shows up with an abundance of grace.

Grace
for dialysis
for rehabilitation
for open heart surgery
for chemotherapy
for reconstructive surgery after an accident.

God in His grace can totally heal without the intervention of human assistance, but it does not always happen that way…in that moment be sure of this… His grace never fails.

4. Finally, there is the dark continent called despair.

The Philippian jailer saw no way out. His career came to an abrupt end, and he was embarrassed to face his wife and children. In his despair, he turned to suicide as his last resort. (Acts 16:27)

With sword in hand and victim of despair, God showed up just in time.

Finding guiding light is like driving an automobile at night; the headlights cast only enough light for us to see the next small bit of road immediately in front of us.

But that light is enough to take us home.

Psalms 119:105 assures that. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” It will always be enough light to help us find the way home because the lamp of His Word will never go out.

If you feel like your life is darkness then perhaps the following prayer will bring some assistance to your life.

“Dear God, I have been under a cloud of darkness, but I know that darkness must flee away and dawn will come. Nothing can stop it. I have been promised that weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. (Psalms 30:5) Thank you for the end of the night and the dawn of the day of rejoicing in Jesus Name. Amen.”

Blessings,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

The Resurrection: God’s Penicillin for Despair

Life is full of “ifs.”

Ifs are the pavement on which we travel to the city called despair. They cluttered the mind of Paul and spilled out of his pen onto the pages of God’s Eternal Word as we read I Corinthians 15: 1, 12-14.

Mary was full of ifs on the first Easter morning. It was not a day of celebration for her. It was a day of mourning and despair. She must have felt like she had been run over by a herd of stampeding donkeys or in modern terminology hit by a big Mack truck. She hit rock bottom as she moved silently through the misty gray dawn in a local cemetery. There were no white Bunny Rabbits, no pastel colored eggs, no frilly bonnets or 5^th Avenue parade. That first Easter sunrise was a bummer with a big capital “B”.

What if Peter had not blatantly denied Christ? What if Judas had not sold him like a stick of butter? What if the disciples had not deserted him? What if Pilate had but listened to his wife about her dream? That was not the case. Ifs are hindsight with 20-20 vision.

A gifted playwright from the early 1900’s might well have expressed the emotions of Mary in the following lines that flowed from the lips of an actress extraordinary. “If, if, if. There were so many “ifs” in life, never any certainty of anything, never any sense of security, always the dread of losing everything, and being cold and hungry again.”

This is the sum total of despair. I don’t think Mary came to the cemetery to have an Easter sunrise service. She came after spending a sleepless night tossing and tumbling in despair and had not pity on her need for sleep. The grisly scene of the cross haunted her and broke her heart.

She had been a recent convert. Before meeting him her life was miserable and out of control, but then she met Him. She met hope face to face. He hurled shafts of light into her world of darkness and despair. She followed the man who broke her chains of bondage and set her free, but now she was following him to a 6 by 6 hole in the ground. She may have been mad at the world and bitter.

She saw the first Easter Dawn through tear blurred eyes, wet cheeks and mascara that was a runny mess.

Where is God? The only law he ever broke was the Law of Nature when He turned water into blushing wine.

The only theft he masterminded was the body he stole from a cemetery in Bethany. But He was not a grave robber. He was a life giver. Ask Lazarus.

• He didn’t have license to practice medicine, but He healed the sick.
• He never promoted social welfare, but he unhesitantly fed a multitude who were faint from lack of nourishment.
• He might have been guilty of jay walking one day when he crossed the street to minister to a weeping mother following the corpse of her dead son to the burying ground and called the dead son back to life.

Mary’s despair was about as bad as it could get and there was no hope that the situation would get any better. Maybe, just maybe, you are carrying the same luggage that she carried can’t sleep, bitter, suspicious of everyone, confused, distraught and overcome with despair. She found her penicillin for despair, of all places, in an empty tomb!!! You can find your on penicillin at the same place today. The tomb is still empty and Jesus is alive and well.

She came to the tomb perturbed but left in peace.

She came to the tomb full of bitterness but left being blessed.

She came to the tomb full of suspicion, but left without a scintilla of doubt.

She came to the tomb in despair but left being filled with delight.

Calvary is the place where God revealed His love so strong, so unbending, so majestic, and the Resurrection is the place where He exhibited His power so enduring, so pervasive, so imposing and so infinite.

Between His matchless love and infinite power, you can find the answer for your despair.

Thank God! Jesus lives.

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Where Is The Rest Of The Cat?

An art teacher walked slowly around the room glancing over the shoulder of the young artist in her first grade class. One drawing caught her attention. The little guy was drawing a cat, but it was only partially finished. Softly she asked him, “Where is the rest of the cat?” His answer came quickly and confidently. “It’s still in the bottle.”

Paul must have reached that same conclusion concerning his friends in Philippi. He recognized that God had started sketching out their lives, but their lives were still a work in process. It was no doubt a comfort to them when he assured them that they could be confident that God would finish what He had started.

God is not done with us yet. He doesn’t quit in the middle of a project or decide to leave the final results in the hands of a half-way house. He is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation22:13). He is the beginning and the end. He is the First and the Last and everything in between.

Language reached its apex in these words of Daniel. “And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever, WHOSE DOMINION IS AN EVERLASTING DOMINION…” (Daniel 4:34) The word dominion in Greek (kratos) means force, strength and might. That word is derived from a root –kra- which means to perfect, to complete and creator. No cat will be left in the bottle. God has the wisdom to plan your future and dominion or power to execute His plan.

The oft repeated verse in Jeremiah 29:11 is so appropriate to recall as we contemplate God’s plan for us. It says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord, thought of peace, and not of evil, and to give you an expected end.”

Note the word “end.” God doesn’t just begin a picture and leave the rest of the cat in the bottle. He has an exciting end in view that He will finish.

Michelangelo tried to explain how he created one specific masterpiece, and in a best effort he said, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

He sees more in you than you see in yourself. He has plans for you that are bigger and better than the ones you have in your own mind, and He will keep chipping away until that plan, that purpose, that person has been set free.

Robert Louis Stevenson believed that “to be what we are and TO BECOME WHAT WE ARE CAPABLE OF BECOMING is the only end of life.”

Self imposed limitations are no longer acceptable. Allow God to finish the picture. His dominion stretches to cover ever aspect of your life.


He is the Door of your destiny, the Key to knowledge that you need, the Fount of your faith, the Tree of truth, the Branch of blessing, the Fulcrum of fullness and the Heritage of your hope.

He has dominion over the devourer and the heartless destroyer.

I read Malachi 3:11 quiet often. It says, “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy…” The devourer has been put on notice and limitations have been imposed upon him FOR YOUR SAKE. There comes a moment in time in which you are no longer placed into the position of having to do the rebuking and rebuffing. The One who has dominion, God, has said that He would do it for you. The picture has not been completed yet. The rest of the picture is still in the bottle, and God is going to complete the picture. Count on it. The One who has dominion over all things has promised it.

He has dominion over demonic influence and intrusion.

I heard someone say that “this was their personal demon” that they had to deal with. In that case, it was alcohol and sexual encounters. It left me with the impression that this “demon” was so deeply ingrained into their personality that it was inseparable. It domineered, drove and controlled them. No amount of money or prestige could expel it. It was a domineering force that was beyond their control. I don’t know what your “demon” may be. Is it pornography? Incest? Drugs? Is it lust or larceny or lying? Name the demon that is influencing and intruding into you life and making it a wreck just waiting to happen, and then repeat this after me. “This is not the final picture. God still has some ink in the bottle and will exercise His Divine Dominion over all the forces of evil that are warring against me.” The Bible says, “there is a name which is ABOVE every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” (Philippians 2:9-10)

Speak the name. Claim the name. It’s above little demons and big demons and everything in between. It’s a domineering name and you can use it today. Your little demons have to go in the name of Jesus Christ. He is Lord.

He has dominion over disparity.

All things are not equal. All situations are not fair. Disparity sticks its ugly head up every way we turn. Justice may be a long time coming, but God still has some ink in the bottle; and justice will be served. God promises it. We don’t know when, where and how, but we know He who has dominion over all things will see that we will all be standing on level ground when we stand before Him. He will paint a final picture that is fair and equitable. Hang on. Keep looking up. He will balance the scales of injustice and even the odds as He did with David and Goliath. The underdog became the grand champion, and God evened the score.


He has dominion over disease and death.

I am not docile toward disease and death. I hate what they are doing to families all across the globe. No family is immune from sickness and disease and eventually death. Sooner or later we encounter the villain, but the ruthless enemy of health, happiness and financial security does not have the final say. God does.

In the eyes of God, death is not a period but a comma in the story of life. We spend so much time and giving so much credit to the grand Reaper that we forget the Great Resurrection. Jesus declared His dominion over diseases and death when He declared, “I am THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.” (John 11:25)

He won His greatest victory in the grave yard. Death could not detain Him, and the grave could not hold Him. He arose and announced His dominion by declaring, “I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Lloyd John Ogilvie served as Senior Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California for a number of years and held other positions of high honor in America made this striking observation that resounds the dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ over death and disease. He proclaimed, “The resurrection of Jesus began a new age of miracles. A miracle is an intervention of God from beyond the levels and limitations of the natural world. A miracle does not contradict the laws of nature; it reveals a higher law at work---the law of God’s love.”

Yes and amen. His resurrection is proof positive that He does have dominion that nothing can overcome. God still has ink in the bottle as He develops the picture of your life and will complete it by showing His dominion once and for all.

Exercising God’s Dominion

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

The Odd Couple: Grit and Grace

Some things require more than grace! To grace must be added a generous portion of grit. Grace is God’s part. Grit is ours. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that Noah FOUND grace, but it also makes it clear that Noah did not discover a customized, fully equipped, self contained, sink proof ocean greyhound in his back yard. He FURNISHED THE GRIT to build this monstrosity of a schooner. It was Noah’s grit that gripped the hammer pounding nails into the gopher wood for 100 years. God furnished the grace. Noah furnished the grit. God is not our personal valet to jump into action at our whim. He will always have grace for us in time of need, but He will never become our handy-man, or yard man or butler. God sent angels to do what Peter could not do when he was locked up in a prison in downtown Jerusalem, but the angel was not required to put Peter’s shoe on his feet and wrap the musty, wrinkled cape around his neck. God will always be ready to step in and do what we can not do, but will not relieve us of adding grit to His grace for the miracle to be completed. Adam was not granted favorite son status when he inherited the Garden of Eden. It was his honeymoon suite but not a retirement village. With his privileges granted by God’s grace came responsibilities. The garden did not contain a lean-t stocked with crosscut saws, riding lawn mowers and a wide variety of power tools. There was no labor pool from which to employ day labor assistance and not one cordless hedge clipper could be found. God did what Adam could not do but required Adam to do the rest. We know what grace is. It is the unmerited favor of God. It is unearned but unending. But what is grit? The dictionary tells us that it means to have stubborn courage. Robert F. Kennedy said, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events…it is from numberless acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.” People with grit shape history and not necessarily by quantum leaps and legendary episodes but in numberless, small acts of courage. · Grit is getting a grip on grace and refusing to let go. · Grit is standing fast in faith when running would be much easier. · Grit is having guts to believe God in the face of life’s storms. · Grit is stick-to-itivensss when you are tired to the bone. · Grit is persistency trudging on when problems abound. · Grit is determination to trample defeat under your feet regardless. H. Ross Perot spoke with authority when he said, “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success, they give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.” The problem is not a shortage of grace. God’s grace is always and everywhere sufficient. The shortage is a dismal shortage of grit. It is to this end that I Corinthians 13:13 becomes such a motivation to furnish God’s grace with our grit. I love to read it from The Message. It says, “But for now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.” The three things that we must have girt to do are: First, have the grit to trust steadily in God. It takes grit at times to trust God’s grace. We see so much “un-grace” that it can cause us to question God’s grace. It reminds me of Dr. Marshall Craig who was preaching at a southern university and urging people to come to Jesus Christ and accept His grace. They began to come from the smartest scholars to the most outstanding athletes. Then from the rear a helpless crippled young man started crawling down the isle. Finally, kneeling at the feet of Dr. Craig, he pleaded, “Sir, you said God had a place for a man. I know God has a place for these other people, “but sir, does God have a place for a wreck like me?” Through his tears, Dr. Craig replied, “Son, God has just been waiting for a wreck like you.” The young man had grit to crawl down the isles on hands and knees, and God had grace to save him. Get a grip on that reality and don’t let it go. Secondly, maintain enough grit to have unswerving hope. Graceless geezers will limit God’s grace and cremate the last ray of hope for people in hopeless situations. They are prophets of gloom and doom. We all need hope and die without it…angrily, slowly and morbidly. You may be flirting with or infatuated with anger and feel justified to do so. You may feel helpless, hopeless and hostile, but you are not outside the perimeters of God’s grace. You need grit to stiffen up, straighten up and look up. Grit will help you to see hope through the dense fog of despair. The net of God’s grace is underneath you, and hope is His canopy over you. And finally, have enough grit to love extravagantly. Knowing how to love is to know how to win. I Corinthians 13:8 declares, “Love never fails.” The more you sow the more you get. Hannah Moore penned it so beautifully like this. “Love never reasons, but profusely gives---gives like a thoughtless prodigal, its all---and trembles than lest it has done too little.” Have enough grit to give love what ever the cost. It’s the only thing that will truly last! To tell someone you love them today may take a lot of grit, but it will be compensated by a lavish supply of God’s grace. Gritting It Out, Pastor Jimmy & Bob

The Big Mix Up

Don’t blame God for something He did not do or give the devil credit for something he had no part of. It’s a mix up that needs to be fixed.

In such a mixed up mess, someone has said that that if the world becomes any more confused, we need not be surprised if monkeys start tossing peanuts to people.

As if things were not bad enough, some ingenious thieves decided to make things even more complicated. They managed to make an unauthorized entry into a department store and staged a “mix up marathon” for the next day when the store opened its doors for business. They went through the store displacing the price tag from one item and placing it on another item. A Plasma TV had the price tag of a pair of baby socks on it, and the baby socks had the price tag of the Plasma TV on it. Items were misstated like that through the entire store, and no body caught the mix up for a few hours.

The shame is that this mix up on price tags was no accident. It was a planned, carefully staged operation that worked like magic for a while until some one discovered that it was a big mistake.

Turn back the pages of time to page 1 in Genesis 3 and take a look at the world’s first lady as she took a fatal shopping trip. She was not shopping for a bargain dress, a pair of designer shoes and a custom made matching bag. She found herself in an auction packed drama for her life when in fact the price tags had been changed.

The change was minor, but the consequences were major. It was die or not die. Live or not live. Obey or not obey. Believe God or not believe God. Read it directly from the marketing strategy summary. It says, “And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall NOT surely die.” (Genesis 3:5) God said they would die, but the serpent changed the price tag to read: NOT DIE.

It was a mix up, but it has messed with our minds ever since that day and been the source of major confusion. It was not an advocacy to perpetrate murder or mayhem or suck down some marijuana. It was a mind game to encourage Adam and Eve to question the motives of God and throw a huge question mark into simple trust in God. It was not a simple slip up. It was a major mix up.

And the mix up goes on. Most Christians I have known are not caustic, calloused consummate complainers. They are confused and mixed up. They know tradition but have not really discovered truth. Paul hit the nail on the head when he wrote these words in II Timothy 3:7. “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Tragically, without the truth, we can never be free to live our lives victoriously in Christ. Jesus said, “You shall KNOW the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)


Many years ago Sir Isaac Newton had a dog named Diamond that knocked a candle over on Newton’s desk that immediately started a flame which destroyed years of research. New after viewing the destruction simply turned to Diamond and said, “Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the damage thou has done.”

It would be impossible for us to calculate the damage that has been done to honest hearted believers who have fallen for the bait and switch tactic or the destructive power that has been caused by switching the price tags.

The only resolution is to revert back to the truth to clear up the mix up. Lets consider a few.

One of the most prevalent mix ups is that you haven’t forgiven if you haven’t forgotten.

Confusion and self condemnation are the results of this mix up. You feel guilty when you remember the man who raped you savagely. You can’t help but remember your nasty divorce when the IRS demands to see a copy of your divorce decree. Every visit to the grave of your son who was killed by a drunk driver who ran over him and left him to die in a puddle of his own blood is a reminder that something bad wrong happened. You can forgive without total amnesia, but you can also pardon them which means that there will be no demand that justice be served.

Don’t confuse forgiveness and pardon. Pardon means to release from further punishment or to excuse for a fault. It means absolution, grace, amnesty and exoneration. It means to literally set free without a penalty hanging over your head.

It takes a greater degree of grace to forgive and pardon when you have a clear memory of the offense that one has committed. We don’t forget the offense, but we forget to file charges against them in the court of heaven. Don’t get mixed up about this and lose your peace. The words of Lewis B. Smedes merits a new point of consideration. He said, “Love lets the past die. It moves people to a new beginning without settling the past. Love prefers to tuck the loose ends of past right and wrongs in the bosom of forgiveness---and pushes us into a new start.”

Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is remembering and letting it go. It’s God’s way of turning loose of the past and pressing on into a brand new future.

A second mix up is to ascertain that my sickness is punishment for my sins.

To me it is despicable to add the weight of guilt to the pains and problems of sickness by accusing the sick person of getting what they deserve because of un-confessed sin. God doesn’t stick us in a wheel chair to accentuate the guilt of our sin. If he did, we wouldn’t need the HOV Lanes on interstate. We would need a “wheel chair tarmac” for all of us to take advantage of. The Bible says, “We have ALL sinned.” Don’t allow the “do gooders” to add insult to your injury. Pray the prayer of faith, and the Lord will raise them up. Speak compassion and not condemnation. Show mercy and not meanness. God is not Dr. Frankenstein inflicting punishment upon you for His pleasure. He has made plans that will not allow you to leave this planet with sickness and diseases. You will leave it all here. There will be no crutches, oxygen tents and hypodermic needles in heaven. His plans for you include a deathless, tearless, painless paradise forever with him. Don’t get mixed up. His promises are certain.

A third mix up is assume that your check book is the thermometer of your spirituality.

Poverty and piety are not Siamese twins, and neither are riches and righteousness. The size of your tombstone, small or great, will have no correlation to your rewards in heaven. Don’t expect God to do kudos in your honor when you jingle the coins you have in your pockets or be impressed by your soup line mentality. God is impressed by your faith not your finances, your patience not your poverty, and your compassion not you’re loud clamoring for attention.

It is neither wealth nor poverty that moves the heart of God. It is your love, loyalty and obedience to Him. Mother Teresa said, “God has not called me to be successful. He has called me to be faithful.” Anything less is a mix up.

What I can do, plus what God can do, equals enough and He demands no more and no less.

Getting UnMixed!

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

The Social Virus of Insignificance

“I am a worm,” the Psalmist declared. How much less significant could a person be? Worms for the most part are ugly, about as low as you can get, vulnerable and often overlooked as nothing.

It represents self defamation at its worst, and yet it is a social virus of insignificance that has plagued men and women down the corridors of history. The 10 men who were sent out as spies to examine the Promised Land returned and were so embarrassed by their ineptitude that they confessed that they were but grasshoppers with tobacco juice running down the sides of their heads and incapable of competing with the horrendous giants in the land. They were petrified by their insignificance.

Insignificance touched a raw nerve with Moses when he was enlisted to confront Pharaoh. Mary was horrified with insignificance when as just a teen age girl was in line to become the Mother of God. The Prodigal son was eaten up with the dry rot of insignificance when he tucked his head in shame and returned to the father to beg forgiveness and a job to work on the farm as a servant. Forget the amenities that go with the job. “Just give me another opportunity,” was the petition that he made. Unworthiness was his plague that he carried home with him.

Now let’s face it. We all long for and hope to have significance that an umpire has at a baseball game. It was in one such game that a hitter lined a ball into the gap in out field and raced around the bases and came sliding into third. After the dust settled, the player picked himself up, dusted off his uniform and blurted out to the umpire, “Well, am I safe or out?” Unperturbed, the seasoned up replied, “You ain’t nothing till I say so.”

Now that’s significance! “You ain’t nothing till I say so.” The search for significance is in the hands of God. He has the last word and the last say. His plan and purpose for our lives holds the paramount position. He turns nobodies into some bodies. He takes sheep herders and makes them kings.

Proverbs 16:33 (The Message) gives us this assurance. “Make your motions and cast you votes, but God has the final say.” He has promised to make us kings and priests and over comers. He has promised that we would win and not lose regardless of what the odds are. He has promised to make us the head and not the tail. He has promised to raise us up and not allow anyone or anything to pull us down. God said it. I believe it, and all hell can’t stop it. God has the final say regarding your significance and His measure may surprise you. It is not based upon your IQ or social status or level of education or financial worth. It is not calculated on your beauty, weight, height or color of your skin or hair.

God recognizes and applauds your significance measured in terms of:

• The values you espouse.
• The Godly example you set.
• The friends you make and keep.
• The words of encouragement you often speak.
• The perseverance you sustain in times of pain.
• The dedication to servant hood as a way of life.
• The difference you make in the lives of others.

As the sun peeked over the eastern horizon, a man strolled along the sandy beach as the tide gently feathered out under his feet. Just ahead, he caught a glimpse of a young man bending down to pick up a stranded starfish and hurling it far out into the sea. Again and again he performed this routine. Finally, the old gentleman ask him why he spent so much time and energy dong what seemed to be a total waste of time. The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die in morning’s sun if something were not done.

“But,” said the elderly man, “there are thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish. How can your efforts make a difference?” The young man looked down at the starfish he was holding in his hand and replied, “It makes a difference to this one.”

You can make a little difference in the life of someone today, and that little difference can be a big difference to them. You are significant. God says so.

You Are Significant,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

When Life Throws You a Curve

For most, if not all of us, it is not a matter of “if” but “when.”

Paul had dotted all the “I’s” and crossed all the “T’s”, but the Bible tells us that “(they) hit a reef, and the ship began to break up.” This remains a big mystery when you follow the sequence of events carefully.
• Paul had prayed.
• Paul had made a positive confession of faith.
• Paul had seen heaven come down in the middle of the violent storm.

However, life threw him curves even though he seemed to be doing all the right things. His life reflects many episodes that remind me of mine.

Take note of this.
• This storm and sinking ship was not in their original plans.
• It came totally unexpected to many on board.
• When they finally saw it coming, they did every thing that was humanly possible to avoid the tragedy, but it happened anyway.

Learning to deal with life when it throws you curves is one of the most important lessons you will ever learn, but we avoid it like a plague or sink into a devilish denial.

It reminds me of the young man who walked into the office of a psychiatrist with a fried egg on top of his head and a piece of bacon dangling over each ear.

Calmly the doctor greeted the young man, and then asked the logical question. “Now, young man, what can I do for you?”

Startled and surprised the young man replied, “Oh, no sir. I don’t need anything. I’m just here to get some help for a friend of mine.”

I get the impression that he was a member of the SS Fraternity. No I don’t mean Social Security or Secret Service. I mean the Super Spiritual Society. They ignore facts and call it faith. They are pretenders not contenders who spend their lives in a state of denial.

Living under delusions and illusions can and will usually have devastating conclusions! Denying that you will not blister if you sit out in a torching 100 degree sun will not isolate you from a sun stroke or deep burns and blisters.

Building a boat was not a dreadful, shameful lack of faith on Noah’s part. It was the very opposite. He saw a curve coming and prepared for it. The Bible states this clearly. “By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house…” (Hebrews 11:7)

Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) He didn’t promise to keep us out of tribulation (curves in life), but He did promise to give us peace in the time of tribulation!

Paul discovered that peace when curves came into his life. The ship was sinking, but his faith was soaring. Battered by winds and soaked by a monsoon he shouted, “Be of good cheer: for I believe God…” (Acts 27:25)

He had a feisty, fighting faith that refused to quit. Curves could not crush him. Disappointments could not destroy him. He set an example for us to follow when curves come our way.

Always accentuate the positive.

That goes against human nature and takes some glamour off the headlines. Sinking ships; howling, winds; hidden rocks; the trauma of seeing and feeling the ship underneath your feet ripping apart; cascading end over end into the swirling water; sinking beneath the water and rising again like a human cork; desperately fighting to keep your head above the water and the water out of your nostrils. That’s what grabs attention and sympathy.

But the really big story was summed up in just 6 fantastic words: “Everyone made it to shore safely.” (The Message 27:44) It’s the success story of survival. It’s the triumphant song that rises above the tragedy. We made it! That’s the positive side of a horrible story.

I admit that roses have thorns, but thank God thorns have roses. Don’t spend your time looking for thorns when curves come your way. Start counting the roses, and accentuate the positive.

Acclimate (adjust) to existing circumstances without seething in hostility.

Curves that come in life do not usually leave us the same as we were before they came our way. You must not hold on to the memories of the past regardless of how good or bad they were. Things may never be as they were again. Turn them loose. Let them go without slipping into a sloppy slough of hostility.

Hostility ordinarily does more harm to the person who insists on being hostile than it does to the person to whom hostility is directed. Don’t let hostility make you an emotional basket case.

Paul could have been angry at the world. He lost everything, but he didn’t lose his cool. He could have been in a rage, but he adjusted to what life brought his way. Of all things, he began to do something for others. He refused to have a self pity party. He became involved in serving people that he didn’t even know and whether intentionally or unintentionally this kept his mind off of himself.

If you need hope, give someone hope. If you need love, give somebody love. If you need a hug, give a hug. The Bible declares, “Give and it shall be given unto you…”

Affirm your faith in God when your ship is falling apart

Paul said, “I believe God…” (Acts 27:25) Say this with me now. I believe God is near not far away. I believe God is Sovereign and in charge of my life right now. I believe by God’s help I will survive and thrive regardless of what I see and feel at this moment. When curves come my way, I still believe God!

Believing God Together!

Pastor Jimmy & Bob