Elevating People

You Can Find God in the Strangest Places

2010-07-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-31T09:38:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-02-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-24T08:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

“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

2009-12-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

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

God Wore My Shoes - The True Meaning Of Christmas

2009-12-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

“To understand others you should get behind their eyes and walk down their spines,” so declared Rod McKuen.

According to Business Week, Patricia Moore who was a clothes designer, attempted to do that as much as was humanly possibly. She had watched her grandfather grapple with the various challenges that he had being stricken with arthritis, and decided to try to “get behind his eyes and walk down his spine.”

At the age of 25, she reconstructed herself into an elderly woman with bound joints and padded her back into a hump and wore contact lenses smeared with Vaseline. To complete her make-over, she wore support panty hose and a fuzzy wool coat. In other words, she tried to wear his shoes and see the world through his eyes.

Her discoveries were startling. She was ignored in stores, struggled to complete the most common tasks, crossed streets so slowly that the lights changed before she was safely on the other side and found that most people were unconcerned about her circumstances. Needless to say, she had a completely different perspective when she saw the world through his eyes.

Do you remember this scene from To Kill a Mockingbird? One of the actors said, “First of all if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

That’s what Jesus did, and this is the true, unadulterated meaning of Christmas. God came down here to wear my shoes and yours also. He climbed into our skin and saw the world through the eyes of a mortal individual, and He quickly discovered that the world looks very different from a smelly cattle shed than seeing it from the Ivory Palaces of heaven.

I am deeply moved by the words of Philippians 2:6-7 that describes the condescension of Jesus Christ. It says, “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men…”

Speech can go no higher. “The Word became flesh…” (John 1:14) The Eternal God put on a vesture of human flesh. The Ancient of Days became a Babe in a manger. The Lord became a mere lad. The Maker became a man. The Mediator was speechless. The Mighty God was stuffed into a diaper. The Nourisher had to be nourished from His mother’s breast.

Striking! God wore our shoes…holes in the soles, scuffed toes and broken shoe strings.

It is empathizing with earthlings and understanding gained through experience. The Bible tells us that “he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.” (Hebrews 4:15) It is stated like this in The Message. “We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality.” He tasted death. He tottered under the weight of the Cross that He was forced to carry. He was tortured. He was treated with utmost disdain. He tolerated the scorn of friend and foe alike. He was tempted to betray God and sell out to the Devil. He walked in my shoes and looked at the world through my eyes.

I wish that we could capture the wonder and awe of the true meaning of Christmas as did the man who told Mark Twain, the author of Huckleberry Finn, that he wished he had never read Huckleberry Finn. The author was so dumb founded that he blurted out, “Why would you make such a remark?” Oh, what an answer he got back. “”I wish I had never read Huckleerry Finn before so that I could have the pleasure again of reading it for the first time.”

Look at Christmas all over again as if it were the first glimpse of the breath taking birth of the Son of God. We see Him in swaddling clothes, but in reality, it was God putting on my shoes and yours….this is what He saw.

When God looked at the world walking in my shoes, He discovered that God’s clock is not calibrated with mine.

His is on slow time and mine is on the fast track. He never seems to get in a hurry, but I stay in a hurry. As we edge closer and closer to Christmas, the disease of “hurry sickness” spreads like a huge, invisible plague. It’s almost like we never had an idea that December 25 was crawling into our schedule. Christmas rush has become a Christmas crush that crushes the joy right out of this hallowed day.

When Jesus put on my shoes, He saw the pressure of time first hand. He was informed that Lazarus, his special friend, was ill and perhaps critical. But He didn’t get in a hurry. Two days later, he meanders off to visit his friend in Bethany, but by the time He arrived, his friend Lazarus was dead, buried and his body in the process of decaying. He wasn’t quick enough by our standards, but when he wore my shoes, He also showed us that time is in His hand, and He can redo what lost time has undone.

Don’t worry about the clock, but learn to wait patiently upon God. He is always on time by His clock and never to late.

When God looks at the world walking in my shoes, He will quickly discover that it is difficult to see a purpose for pain when you are being blindsided by it.

Pain is a fact of life. You can’t ignore it or deny it. When God walked in my shoes He saw it, felt it and comforted others who were in it. He didn’t pull a grieving mother aside as she accompanied the dead body of her son to the cemetery and attempt to explain the purpose behind the pain. He didn’t scorn her sorrow or laugh at her loss. He experienced her pain and empathized with her grief.

Jesus is called “a man of sorrow” in Isaiah 53:3. In Heaven, He was a man of sovereignty, a man of supremacy, a man of sufficiency, self sufficient and self existent. But He BECAME a man of sorrow when He wore my shoes. God’s son knew no sin, but he knew all there was to know about sorrow. It is He, then, who will assume the role of drying all tears from our eyes when we get to heaven and whisper, “THERE WILL BE NO MORE SORROW OR PAIN.” (Revelation 21:4)

When God looks at the world walking in my shoes, He realizes that knowing that you are loved is the best treasure of all.

Mark Twain so eloquently declared, “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

When God wore my shoes, He left footprints of kindness and love on planet earth that time has not been able to erase.

Dr. Robert G. Lee, the eloquent preacher and lover of God, wrote about the treasure of God’s love. He said, “(It) breaks the fetters of slaves, takes the heat out of life’s fierce fever, the pain out of parting, the sting out of death and the gloom out of the grave.”

She was only eight years old and lived in an orphanage in Pennsylvania. She was shy, unattractive and regarded as a problem child. The director of the orphanage was trying to find a way to dispel her from their campus when they saw her writing a letter. Saying nothing to her, they allowed her to complete the task and see what she would do next.

Not surprising to them, she hid the letter and dashed out side and down the driveway to an old tree with roots sprawled out on top of the ground. Quickly she looked around, removed the letter and stuffed it into a crevice in one of the old roots and returned to her room.

Someone on the staff slipped down to the old tree and removed the letter and brought it back to the director. They were sure they would have the goods now to have her expelled, but to their surprise they found this tender note. “To anybody who finds this: I love you.”

That’s what Christ did when He came down here to wear my shoes. He left this little note that everyone needs to understand this Christmas….To anybody who finds this: I love you.

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Creatures of Habit

2009-12-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

Jesus had a lot to do and a short time to do it, but habit had prepared Him for this moment. He had formed a habit over the first 30 years of His life of respecting the Sabbath and finding sanctuary in the synagogue, and He did not break that habit as Calvary began to loom bigger and bigger in His future.

His habit kept Him focused, fearless and never fretting for an instant. From His earliest years until now he had developed a habit of

· Praying persistently

· Trusting God implicitly

· Caring for others passionately

· Submitting to the will of God completely

· Loving God intimately and intensely and

· Facing death, even the death on the cross, courageously.

It might be good for us to remember that if we forge good habits in our younger years that they will not forsake us in our older years. They are like a cable that we weave day after day in our lives until at last they are difficult if not impossible to break.

That is true of bad habits as well as the good ones. Bad habits are like chiggers and cockleburs. They are easy to acquire but difficult to shake off.

You may question the theological accuracy of my interpretation of a verse or two in Romans 7, but I must admit that they describe the power of a bad habit as well as a bad taskmaster, Satan.

Verses 16-21 declares, “If the power of sin deeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help. I realize that I don’t have what it takes….I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway….something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.” (The Message)

Habits are much easier to make than break, and surely all would agree that a bad habit is a ruthless taskmaster. With that being an arguable fact, I would conclude that the best way to break a habit is not to start it in the first place.

I understand the frustration of what Paul had to say in the last 2 verses of Romans 7. It reads like this in The Message. “Is there no one who can do anything for me…the answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does…”

He is a BAD HABIT BREAKER!

First of all, He can and does break the bad habit of fault finding.

Fault finding is both contagious and conspicuous. It spreads on contact and can no more be hidden than a giraffe’s long neck at a petting zoo. One little girl took one look at a giraffe and decided she needed to pray about what it looked like, and this is what she said, “Dear God, did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?”

Fault finding is no accident. It is a developed habit, and the longer it hangs around the more difficult it is to break. You need the BAD HABIT BREAKER

Secondly, He can and does break the bad habit of fabricating falsehoods.

I find it ironic that we teach our children to read, say the alphabet and do math, but no child has to attend a special training class on fabricating falsehoods. They learn that on their own and many graduate cum laude.

It may look cute in a 3 year old, but it’s sure not laudable and cute in adults. It corrodes character and tarnishes trust. It over crowds prisons and punctures marriages with permanent pain if not divorce.

We need the BAD HABIT BREAKER to break the falsehood habit. In most instances, it is the only way out….but there is a way out. Thank God!

Number 3, He can and does break the bad habit of fretting over fragile feelings.

Getting your feelings hurt and fretting over it is a bad habit that you cater to. Somehow feeling bad is your way of feeling good. Don’t wear your feelings on your sleeves. Stick them under the soles of your feet where few people see them and must go to great pains to reach them.

The word is patience. Patience strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, subdues pride and bridles the tongue.

We need to be tough enough to avoid getting easily upset, but tender enough to be sensitive to others. One man put it like this. “Those who deserve love least need it most.” There’s nothing like a good dose of love to heal hurt feelings.

And finally, He can and does break the bad habit of failing to forgive.

It is impossible to be mentally and socially healthy when eaten up with an unforgiving spirit, and this toxic habit that must be broken. THE BAD HABIT BREAKER will give you the key of forgiveness that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of self-centeredness.

Break the habit today in the name of Jesus. Amen!

In The Journey Together,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Medication for the Mind

2009-11-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

“Lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.” (Hebrews 12:3) The word weary in this verse comes from a Greek word which means not only to become tired but becomes sick of the struggle.

Mental fatigue is a real problem. It’s happening when a simple task becomes complex and undoable, when the slightest challenge becomes a crisis and when making a decision is all but impossible to do. It’s a sign that your mind is over worked, over active and overwhelmed.

When Daniel Boone was in his eighties, an artist was doing a picture of the famous American pioneer and asked him if he had ever been lost. “No,” Boone replied, “I can’t say I was ever lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.”

Burdened. Baffled. Bewildered. These three words are symptoms of mental fatigue. In Hebrews 12:3, the Bible calls it being wearied and faint in our minds.

It does not require the intelligence of a genius to pin point some common causes of mental fatigue.

Nothing wears out the mind quicker and more completely than those times when life seems to be spinning out of control and there is no end in sight.
Recalling and reliving past mistakes are like little demons darting around in our minds incessantly and never taking a moments rest or holiday.
The demands for survival needs keeps the mind in perpetual motion that hardly slows down to allow you to go to sleep at night. One man recently told me that he had been able to go to bed and actually go to sleep without tossing and tumbling all night trying to figure out he was going to pay his bills after he had lost his job. He was wearied and about to fold up in his mind.
A fourth common cause of mental fatigue is the bleak out look in our world in general. Shakespeare said, “Of all base passions, fear is most accursed.”

Fear is the abscess of the mind that aches so badly that it pervades both the conscious and unconscious levels of our existence. It tortures, torments and tags along with us where ever we go.

I must admit that most of us could use a sedative for the mind. The Bible refers to it as “meditation” In Psalms 1:2, the describes the blessed individual as the person who “delights in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Thomas Merton defended the privilege of meditation by declaring, “True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace.”

In Celebration of Discipline, the author, Richard J. Foster insists that Christian meditation is vastly different from some forms of Eastern meditation in which they encourage emptying the mind to a large extent and detaching oneself from this world.

The Biblical exhortation on the other hand is to attach oneself to God. Thomas Kempis calls meditation “a familiar friendship with Jesus.” Instead of emptying our minds to the point of nothingness, we fill our minds with the infinitude of God.

Someone has proclaimed that “meditation is the skeleton key that unlocks the greatest storeroom in the house of God’s provisions for the Christian.” This is the medication that we must discover for the mind. J. I. Parker described it as: “The activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.”

Meditation is bringing our thoughts into captivity (II Corinthians 10:5) and managing our minds rather than our minds managing us.

Meditation focuses upon the Problem solver instead of the problem. It is riveted to the Savior rather than reflecting on our sins. The mind thinks more about the Healer than one thinks about ones faltering health. We meditate upon the angels of the Lord that camps round about them that fear Him and less and less about gang violence and drive by shooting.

I personally believe that there are 3 simple things that we can meditate upon that will alleviate the problems of mental fatigue.

First, meditate upon God who is the CREATOR.

The first introduction to God is recorded in Genesis 1:1. It declares, “In the beginning God created…” The Maker emerges from the shadows. The Creator unwraps His creation. All things were made by Him. I love the way that H.G. Rolls describes the Creator. “He mantles the forest with trees, furnishes the fields with grain, floods the air with fragrance, fills the garden with flowers, and flings the flaming sunsets across the skies.”

He reached into nowhere, pulled something out of nothing and from nothing made everything. Here is the bottom line. If He made it, He is best qualified to fix it and knows how. Meditate on Him. He can fix the mess you are in. He is CREATOR.

Secondly, meditate upon our God who is always in CONTROL.

God placed Jesus in charge of things down here. He hushed the winds, calmed the waves, stilled storms, expelled demons, healed the sick, fed a multitude, cleansed lepers and raised the dead!!

He even kept death in the waiting room until He was ready to die. Hanging on the Cross they robbed the Savior of His personal dignity and exposed him to agony no man had known before, but the cross did not strip Him of His controls. Death was helpless to touch Him until He permitted death to come in. Jesus controlled death in the past and will control death in the resurrection of the righteous that is to come. Revelation1:18 tells us that Jesus holds the keys. He’s in control because He holds the keys. Meditate on the Controller. It is Divine Medication for weary minds.

And in the third place, choose to spend time meditation on our Heavenly Father who CAUSES things to happen.

Allow me to make a brief comment. II Corinthians 2:14 triumphantly declares, “Thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ…”Nothing is impossible with God. He caused fish to swim and birds to fly to the right places. He caused a rooster to crow and a donkey to speak. He commanded blind eyes to see, and a crippled man to walk.

I don’t know what you need from God today, BUT I DO KNOW GOD CAUSES THINGS TO HAPPEN. That’s Heaven’s medication for your weary mind.

In The Journey Together,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Stress is a killer on the move

2009-10-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

Stress is a killer that we live with day after day. It’s like rabbits trying to keep one step ahead of the hounds that are on their tails. We might encourage the rabbit to run faster or cut corners more quickly, but the rabbit will probably be saying, “Thanks for the wonderful words of encouragement and excellent advice, but why doesn’t someone call off the dogs?”

Getting rid of stress is the solution, but how do we do that? I suggest that we begin by examining the promises of God. They are the equipoise of the human spirit. Equipoise is an engineering term which means to have inner strength or pressure pushing out to be equal to or greater than the outside pressure or stress that is pushing in.

Webster defines it as a mental or physical tension that is usually brought on by urgency or pressure.

Moffit translates II Corinthians 1:8-9 as being crushed far beyond what he could stand.

Crushed. Squeezed. Pressed. I’ll be honest with you. I am feeling some of it right now. What about you? What is crushing or pressing you?

According to USA Today, a survey of 501 adults conducted by Research and Forecasts Inc. for Mitchum antiperspirant and deodorant isolated the major sources of stress for typical Americans.

The top 5 sources were:
• Work is the biggest source of stress in our lives.
• Money comes second
• Children was third
• Health issues was fourth and
• Marriage came in 5th.

43% of all adults suffer adverse health effects due to stress, and stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart diseases, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis, and suicide.

I remember one lady who was so stretched out that she blurted out, “I feel like I have gone through the wringer.” I smiled at that casual but sincere remark when I remembered what happened to a little guy and his dog. One day he was aware that his dog needed a bath real badly. So he went to the store to buy a box of detergent. The man at the check out register asked the little boy what he wanted with the detergent. “My dog needs a bath,” he replied. The clerk then advised him that this particular detergent was pretty strong for washing a little dog. “That’s OK,” the shopper replied, “he’s might dirty.”

A few days past and the clerk and little boy met again. “How’s the dog,” the clerk asked. “Oh, he’s dead.” The clerk expressed his condolences and concluded by saying, “I guess the detergent was too strong.” “No, I don’t think it was the detergent. I think it was the rinse cycle that got him.”

It’s just another way of going through the wringer…being squeezed, pressed and crushed. The little dog like many human being just can’t stand the wringer.

Paul was obviously hit hard by the stress that was packed upon him in his life journey and he admitted it. He said, “I thought it was going to kill me”, but it didn’t. He found a secret that we all can discover for ourselves. We unlock the secret in II Corinthians.

The first secret is to focus on divine providence and not upon the missing pieces in life’s puzzle.

Verse 3: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our tribulations…”Paul was in trouble up to his neck, but somehow he managed to keep his focus upon Divine Providence instead of the missing pieces of the puzzle of life.

Life is at times full of mysteries and there are so many puzzles that we just can’t seem to solve, but Paul kept his eyes focused upon God. He blesses God in tough times and identifies Him as his Father of mercies and God of ALL comfort…”

Focus on God in times of stress not failures, fears and frustrations. The God of all mercies and comforts will not fail you. He holds the final piece of the puzzle and once it falls into place the picture will be clear.

The second secret is to focus on the purpose and not upon the pain. (verses 4 -7)

Verse 4 defines a definite purpose of stressful situations. “That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” What a purpose for stress and pain. Through it we gain experience with God. We find His comfort in the most severe crisis. He is never unavailable or inaccessible. He comes to us when we can’t come to Him. One purpose of pain and stress is to teach us our need to depend completely upon God and encourage others to accept the same. Charles De Gaulle explained it this way. “A mans character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.” Pain and stress are avenues that lead to our true potentiality in God.

Finally, focus on the promises and not upon the problems. (verse 20)

Promises are to stress what Rolaids are to an upset stomach…O, what a relief they are. Our stress increases in direct proportion to the decrease in awareness of God’s promises.

His promises are as inclusive as all of our needs. They are not drugs from the apothecary in the sky which causes spiritual hallucinations. The promises of God are realities whose time has not come. They are telescopes that bring things near to us that are not seen by the human eye. They are like promissory notes that are due on demand or to be paid at a specific time.

The more we trust the sovereignty of heaven, the less we fear the calamities of earth. Pull out a promise from God’s Word and plug into God’s power to sustain you through the pressures and stresses you are facing. In Him, you will find relief!

Peace Out!!!

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

2009-09-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

Temptation will always do something for you that opportunity will not likely do. It will give you a second chance and a third or fourth if you think you need it.

One man was wise enough to understand this and found a solution that worked favorably for him when he found himself between a rock and a hard place. He loved water melons and knew that temptation was going to come on strong when he was walking by his neighbor’s water melon patch. This is the way he faced it. “When I see a water melon patch,” he said, “I can’t keep my mouth from ‘watering’, but I can run.”

Good strategy. Paul reinforced the importance of this strategy to Timothy when he said, “FLEE these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness.” (I Timothy 6:11)

Grab your running shoes. We all face “water melon patches” in the journey of life and need to know what to do next when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. Up to this point, we are free to control our choice, but after we make the choice, the choice controls us.

George Bernard Shaw may be stretching reality a bit, but his words are profound and make a lot of sense. “The people who get on in this world,” he wrote, “are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”

Noah was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He was facing a ferocious flood, but he didn’t have a schooner so he built one. David was between a rock and a hard place with a monster of a man staring him down, and he didn’t have a rock to load into his sling shot so he dug up 5 to even the odds.

I know you have heard it, but it is true. If life serves you a lemon, by the help of God make some lemonade. Hard places are ideal places to discover the best of God.

Moses discovered this time and again. At one point, he stood with his migrating multitude at waters edge in front of them and Pharaoh’s mighty marching army breathing down their necks from the rear. They were between a rock and a hard place, but God opened a hole in the water big enough for Moses and his migrants to walk right through. A hard place became a good place for God to show off for His children.

God, please do it again. As I pray that prayer, I am reflecting on Balaam as he stood squarely between a rock and a hard place. (Numbers 24) It was a tug of war, and winner would take all. Let’s examine the dilemma that he faced and see if it sounds familiar to us.

First of all, it was a tug of war between riches or doing right.

Money out talks reason, ethical behavior and the voice of the conscience far too often. The love of money is the root of all evil. (I Timothy 6:10) Money is neither moral or immoral. It is the love or obsession with money that corrupts. Balaam found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between riches and right. In this case, it was one or the other.

The pressure is always on. It’s a tough choice. Money must not dictate our message, muddle our morals and corrode our convictions.

I firmly believe that God is looking for men and women who will refuse to gain riches at the expense of doing right so that they can use riches to do that which is right. Who knows but what you have come to the Kingdom for such an hour as this? Be a money maker for the Master by doing it the right way and for the right reason.

Secondly, it was a tug of war between being obedient or being obstinate.

Balaam was standing between a rock and a hard place when he had to decide whether to be obedient to God or be obstinate. God gives each of us a choice. Adam and Eve chose to be obstinate and generations have followed them down that slippery pathway. In a sense they played Russian Roulette with God and lost.

Disobedience is not simply a bad decision. It is a fatal character flaw which questions God’s authority and calls His bluff.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Obedience is in fact a true test of my love for God and is much easier demonstrated than defined.

Finally, it was a tug of war between popularity or principle.

What’s popular isn’t always right, and what’s right isn’t always popular. We must choose between the two.

When you find yourself between a rock and a hard place, be fervent in prayer, fearless in following Biblical principles, firm in purpose and faithful in promises. Popularity will fade. Principles won’t.

Choosing Rightly,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Checkmate Cheaters

2009-04-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

C h e c k m a t e!

I don’t play chess. I don’t know how many pieces are on the board when the game begins, what each piece can do, which direction they move or how to protect the king, but I do know what this word means. It means to be helpless or defeated. It means that the game is over. There’s no way out.

An old chess master stood studying a painting that illustrated checkmate on canvas. After studying each piece and weighing each option finally blurted out, “You’ve still got a move. Don’t quit.” Only a master would have known that there were other options beyond giving up.

This to me is the essence of what David said in Psalms 121:1-2. He was in check and it looked like there was no place to go to avoid disaster. Things were about as bad as they could get, but he suddenly realized that the game was not over. He still had a move and so do you. He could still look up.

“I will lift my eyes to the hills from which comes my help. My help comes from the Lord which made heaven and earth.” (Psalms 121:1-2) He became a Checkmate Cheater, and this is the way he did it.

First of all, he began to look at an old problem in a new way.

Frederick Langbridge described this incredible difference when he wrote these words. “Two men look out through the same bars: one sees the mud and the other on sees the stars.”

Mud will always be there if that is the object of your focus, but the stars will always be there as well. What you see will largely depend upon which way you’re looking.

The Psalmist chose to look up! “I will lift my eyes,” he said. It was a deliberate choice.

Alfred A. Montapert had a clear head when he made this statement. “We cannot choose the things that will happen to us. But we can choose the attitude we will take toward anything that happens. Success or failure depends on your attitude.”

Checkmate cheaters look up when they are down but not out. Stars are always above you where ever you are, and the devil can not shake them out of the sky. Looking up requires little effort but pays enormous dividends.

In the second place, he began to anticipate the best not the worse.

This was the way the Psalmist expressed it. “I will lift my eyes to the hills from which comes my help…” A Checkmate Crasher expects help. He anticipates a change for the better. Good is going to displace the bad.

Murphy’s Law does not govern us. You know. If things can get worse, they will. We live under a different law. It’s called the law of God’s Grace. The Bible says, “Noah found grace in the eyes of God.” (Genesis 6:8) In other words, Noah found help in a helpless world. When grace comes on the scene, we can always expect the best and not the worse. That’s what grace will do for you now.

Finally, he began to implore imperial intervention.

Now isn’t that interesting. He said, “My help comes from the Lord that made heaven and earth.” You talk about imploring a Higher Power. He went directly to the Creator who made something out of nothing. He implored the Creator to intervene and the Maker to move on his behalf.

Checkmate Cheaters are not more clever or classy than anyone else. They are just more resilient, more determined and more resourceful. They are ready and willing to fight one more round, go an additional mile and search for one more alternative.

They implore Imperial intervention after man’s feeble efforts fail. They envision and confess no limitation with God. He made heaven and earth and my problem is nothing to compare with that vast project.

• The heaven of heavens can not contain Him
• The dictionary can not explain Him
• No power on earth can restrain Him.

Checkmate Cheaters implore Imperial intervention because they know that God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, and acts with a hand that never fails. When you get to the end of your rope, God is there, and by His help there is always a next move.

In The Journey Together

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

God’s Bailout Plan is Best.

2009-04-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

Bailout was the word of the year in 2008. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary this word was looked up so often in their online dictionary that it easily made the choice of the year. Everybody seems to want a bailout but apparently a lot of Americans were not sure what a bailout really is.

According to the dictionary it means: a rescue from financial distress. Someone steps in to pay the debt that someone else owes. It’s not exactly a give and take proposition. It’s a one sided affair.

A bridge loan situation is made to help someone out of financial distress, and the person receiving the money pledges to repay the loan plus interest. But that is not necessarily the case in an out right bailout. One pays and the other may walk away with money in their pocket and no intention or demand to repay it.

It’s grace to some degree in action. It’s forgiving a debt that someone is unwilling or unable to pay with no strings attached.

Paul assumed that risk with Philemon. He told creditors that if Philemon owed them anything to put it on his account. It was a bail out.

In Biblical terminology, it is called ransom or redeem. The words are defined as:

 Ransom = the redeeming of a captive by paying money or complying with demands. The powerful word is recorded in Mark 10:45. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom form many.”

 Redeem = to buy back or get back or to recover. The beauty of redemption is best described in I Peter 1:18-19. “Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold….but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

An old Gospel hymn that has been assigned to antiquity should have a new birth and ring long and loudly in our churches and be humbly sung from our lips. It simply says, “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but He washes white as snow.” In my opinion this demonstrates God’s bailout plan so completely that I dare not attempt to define it, but allow me to identify some of the unique characteristics of His perfect bailout plan.

First of all, it is accessible.

In 2008, the federal government provided billions of dollars for a bailout to some of their select cronies in high places. Little people—ordinary Joes and Janes had no need to apply. It was not accessible to everyone.

A carpet layer told me his ability to stay in business was shaky at best, but he quickly added that Washington was not concerned about him. Nothing in this humongous bail out plan was available to him. He was to small to count, but not so with God. All you do is apply. Resources are available. Angelic crews can be dispatched immediately.

God, in His Word, encourages you to apply with boldness. (Hebrew 4:16)

Boldness means to be confident. Move forward. Don’t be shy. You have a right to come. The King, Himself, has invited you to His Throne. He will bail you out.

In the second place, His bailout plan is adaptable to your particular need.

It adapts according to your need – large or small. Philippians 4:19 explains it in these words. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

My need and your need are probably very different, but His plan is not pre-packaged, take it as it is or leave it. It is customized to cover you and yours. Read Philippians 4:6 carefully. It says, “Let your requests be made known unto God.” I personally love the words “YOUR REQUEST.” God will fit His bailout plan to fit your need. Tell Him what you need, and see what happens!

In the third place, His bailout plan demonstrates perfect equality.

I rest with confidence on Romans 3:22 which declares, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.” God’s bailout plan is equally accessible and totally favorable to one and all. He has no favorites, and His plan is not based upon merit or means or medals we wear. The big don’t walk away with the best, and every body else gets the rest. Prodigals get bailouts by the compassionate Father and have parties thrown on their behalf. You may not be equal at the country club, but you are not inferior in the eyes of the Father.

Finally, God’s bailout plan is unilateral.

It’s one sided. It costs Him everything, and me nothing. He gave His ALL that I might have All Benefits and Blessings from the Throne of His Grace. This is not 80% - 20% proposition. There are no co-payments required or accepted. I am the beneficiary. No strings attached. His love is unconditional and unstoppable. I John 4:19 speaks volumes. It says, “We love Him because He FIRST LOVED US.”

Resting In God’s Bailout Plan,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Tainted Evidence

2009-04-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

It “ain’t” what it looks like. Joseph had not been mauled and mangled by a man eating mountain lion. The case was rigged, and the evidence was tainted. It was a deliberate effort to perpetrate a miscarriage of justice and to lead a grieving father to reach a conclusion which was far from the truth.

They did a “snow job” on Jacob, and he fell for it because he was accepting tainted evidence as literal fact which brought consequences that were horrendous.

It led him to believe the worst…”an evil beast has devoured him…” This was not a fact, but he reacted as though it were.
It pushed him over the edge to become a victim of melancholy needlessly: ”he mourned for his son many days.” His emotional suffering was without merit. As a result, he could not celebrate the success of his son Joseph because he assumed he had been killed.
It isolated him from the tenderness of others who apparently really cared for him. Genesis 38:35 declares, “And all his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him; but he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.” He shut others out because of tainted evidence.

Beware of half truth. You may get the wrong half, and it can impact you for the rest of your life. Jacob accepted half truth. The coat was indeed Joseph’s coat of many colors. That was a fact, but the blood splattered on the jacket was not Joseph’s. It belonged to a slaughtered goat. Believing and accepting tainted evidence was a drastic mistake that sent Jacob reeling in despair.

One lady thought her doctor was wonderful because he touched up her X-rays when she needed an operation but could not afford it. The doctor could taint the X-rays to make a bad health condition look good, but no amount of tainted evidence could alter the fact.

Go back with me to relive the experience of miners and settlers in British Columbia. As they carved a path deeper and deeper into the country, they came upon an abandoned fort by the name of Fort Alcan. Eagerly they began to dismantle it step by step. They ripped out lumber, stripped it of all electrical appliances and pulled plumbing out of the floor and walls. In the process, they made an absolutely amazing discovery.

Mighty locks were attached to heavy doors and two-inch steel bars covered the windows, but the walls of this prison were only painted to resemble iron. They were nothing more than painted wall board to look like iron. It was tainted evidence, but the prisoners believed the misleading appearance and never attempted to break out. They were prisoners of tainted evidence.

The words of Clare Boothe Luce should drive us to make better decisions and to ignore the tainted evidence and rise above our present circumstance. She said, “There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.”

Few calamities are worse than losing hope, and that calamity is compounded when hopelessness is based upon false information. I urge you to reexamine the evidence, discord that which is rigged and accept that which is fact.

Fact #1: Tainted evidence makes it appear that God has forgotten His promises and doesn’t care about me.

You may have been putting up with being put down so long that you have come to accept it. The loss of self esteem is worse than death because you have to live with it every day of your life.

That’s what happens when your world gets turned upside down and inside out. One 12 year old boy who had been trapped in child labor working in a coal mine expressed his emptiness and frustration clearly when asked if He knew God. His reply was, “No. He must work in some other mine.”

I have had that feeling before. God may be working in Saskatchewan, San Antonio or El Salvador, but He isn’t working where I am or for me. That’s what the tainted evidence looked like. God has forgotten His promises and doesn’t care about me, but it is falsified information. The promises of God and the care that God has for you are incontestable, irreversible and invincible!

Fact #2: Trashed trust does not warrant stumbling into the pit of paranoia.

So somebody stuck it to you. They did Joseph. Don’t hold it against every other inhabitant on earth. Like Joseph, facts will not support that claim. Paranoia is cancer of the spirit and mind and spreads rapidly into every part of your being. It concludes that everybody is against you, but that is not true. God is for you. (Romans 8:31) “And if God be for us who can be against us?”

The anti-biotic for paranoia is the promise of God. It worked for Joseph and it will work for you. His prison garb was tainted evidence to hide the promises of God regarding royal robes. He clung to the promise of God when He was in the pit knowing that he was on his way to the palace. The Bible says, “God was with Joseph….” Don’t depend on fraudulent evidence. Hold on to your unflappable trust in God. Faith will win.

Fact #3: A regrettable past does not disqualify you from having a resplendent future.

Examine the skimpy resume that Joseph had. He was a pampered kid. He flunked in diplomacy. He excelled as dreamer. He was briefly employed as a delivery boy; a victim of family abuse and was an escape goat of a sex scandal that rocked the nation. A past like that is heavy baggage to carry into the future, but it’s the only one he had. What an encouraging fact to discover that his past did not disqualify him for the palace. He turned loose of the past and reached into the future. The past is the past. Just that and no more. You can’t change it or amend it, but you can transcend it.

Don’t fall for tainted evidence.

God has not forgotten you.
Trashed trust does not warrant caving in to paranoia.
A regrettable past does not disqualify you to experience a resplendent future!

In The Journey Together,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Fishing for Dollars

2009-03-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

What happened to the fish?

We know what happened to the money. They spent it on taxes, but what about the fish?

Did they release it back into the water? Did they filet it and fry it over a camp fire? Did they start a “Fishing for Dollars Fellowship Church?” Or did they mount it and hang it in their living room at home?

The fact is- this incident was not about a fish. The fish was the submarine currier that delivered the cash. It was not an aquarium equivalent of the goose that laid the golden egg. Don’t canonize the slimy fish. Fish come and go, live and die, but God lives on. This entire episode is about the faithfulness of the Creator who made the fish. It’s about a God who goes out of His way to provide for His children. It’s about the ingenuity of the Maker who never runs out of means and methods to reveal how much He cares for us.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote these words that reflect so much of the heart of God toward us although she does not reference God in what she wrote. She asked, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach…I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life…” That’s it. God’s love for us is measureless, and

He expresses it in so many different ways.

To the disciples, He expressed it by sending a fish to them with a mouth full of money. The Cross itself is a love letter written in crimson red for all to see and read.

The Bible explains it clearly in these classic words. “Greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) And I might add….than a man send a fish with a mouth full of money to pay past due bills.

So the question is, if this Scripture is not about a fabulous fishing for dollars story but really about an all caring God, what can we learn from it to add value to our lives today in our modern world?

We learn the value of practicing blind obedience to God.

We learn to obey. Disobedience comes naturally. Babies are not inoculated with disobedience serum or trained in the school of disobedience. Obedience, on the other hand, comes with trust and respect for the one who has authority.

The disciples were frustrated and frightened over a tax liability that was coming due, and they had not money to pay it. They did the right thing. They took the problem to the Lord.

Surely He would have a plan. He always did, but instead he said, “Go fishing for dollars.” To an astute business man this was not a stroke of genius. It was insanity spelled with a capital “I”. Conventional wisdom would have drafted a corporate resolution authorizing Peter to apply for a short term, low interest loan or Andrew volunteered to put his fishing boat up for “hock”.

But they had learned the value of blind obedience to Christ, and this was not so much a test of faith as it was a test of obedience. They knew that if Jesus said it the deal was done.

If you trust Him, obey Him and the fish with a mouth full of money will jump into your net. The net problem is mine. The fish problem is His. That’s blind faith in action.

We discover opportunities for miracles in ordinary functions of life.

Fishing was routine to these guys. It was not a week end recreational get away. It was their occupation and bread and butter. Catching fish was as common to them as a carpenter driving a nail, a house wife baking a pan of biscuits or a baseball player catching a fly ball.

They caught fish all right, but they never caught one with money in it’s mouth. They didn’t expect a miracle in a slimy fish net. Miracles happen at the temple or at least in some exotic place but not in a fishing boat with mud and water squashing between their toes. But it did.

Fishing for dollars re-trains us to expect miracles. Fishing, farming or in the factory. Look for an extra-ordinary God to do things for us in very ordinary places.

We must overlook the ever present fear of failure.

Look at it like this. The fishermen were required to untangle, repair and manually throw them into the water. No nets in the water – no fish with a mouth full of money.

Fear doesn’t give God the chance to send that special “fish blessing” into the net if we are afraid of failing and refuse to throw out the net. Don’t be afraid to trust God. He’s got plenty of fish. He is looking for a net…..mine and yours.

We come to realize that blessings from God can overtake us however dire the situation may be.

To Jesus, it was as simple as going fishing. Don’t get bent out of shape and follow this simple plan.

Practice blind obedience to God.
Expect miracles in ordinary functions of life.
Overlook the ever present fear of failure.
Grab onto your faith. Faith gives man a harbor where he can drop anchor and feel safe….knowing God will show up in time.

Fishing Together,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Does the Shoe Fit?

2009-03-17T09:21:00.001-07:00

Cinderella wasn’t invited to the big bash that was thrown by the Prince, but she went anyway. She didn’t whine and wait for opportunity to come knocking at her door. She crashed the party and became an instant hit.

Her step mother was a proud, haughty individual who had two vain daughters in a previous marriage. Cinderella was forced to do all the house work to make life easier for the other women in the house, and after she finished her chores, she had no where to sit but on cinders. Thus she got her name.

One day the Prince invited all the young ladies in the land to a ball from which he could choose a wife. Cinderella’s step sisters were invited and gleefully planned their wardrobes and taunted Cinderella by telling her that a mere maid could never attend the ball. As you might expect, Cinderella cried in despair as they all happily left for the grand evening in hopes of gaining the hand of the Prince in marriage.

Her Fairy God mother magically appeared and vowed to assist the heart broken maiden to attend the ball. When she was finally ready to leave for the ball in her gorgeous attire, her Grandmother reminded her to return before midnight for the spell would be broken.

She became so excited that she lost track of time and left only at the final stroke of midnight losing one of her slippers on the steps of the palace in her haste but was able to hold on to the other shoe. The Prince chased her but to no avail, but he did find the shoe she left behind and pocketed it vowing to marry the girl to whom it belonged. So the search began to find the damsel that the shoe would fit.

Foot washing became an instant phenomenon. Long lines of giggling, giddy teen aged girls waited outside a shop that specialized in pedicures. Beauty after beauty tried the shoe on, but it did not fit until it was finally Cinderella’s time. The shoe fit, and Cinderella returned to the palace where she married the Prince.

From this popular fairy tale classic, we discover an inspiring story book ending to an otherwise sad beginning. Rejects are rewarded. Nobody’s become some bodies. The last become first. The least become the greatest.

That’s the clear, simple message of Jeremiah 29:11. God has plans for you that are beyond your dreams. He has a shoe that just fits you. He wants to pull you out of your poverty and give you prosperity. He has designs for you to succeed and not fail, to rise and not fall, to be on top and not on the bottom.

He wills for you to do more laughing and less languishing, more singing and less sighing, more living and less dying.

John 10:10 declares, “The thief comes not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” Which shoe fits you? Refuse to wear the shoes that the thief provides. Wear the shoes that God has made just for you…it is living abundantly.

Psalms 1:3 describes this life as one in which we can prosper in everything we do, but the shoe must fit for it to happen. They are:

#1. Blessed (happy) is the man who walks not

in the counsel of the ungodly…(1)

The shoe fits if we understand that a man can go wrong

in many directions but right in only one.

#2. Blessed (happy) is the man who does not follow

in the way of sinners… (v.1)

The shoe fits if we are willing to follow

a path less traveled.

#3. Blessed (happy) is the man who refuses to

join the crowd of scorners. (V.1)

The shoe fits if we are not a fault finder

but a problem fixer.

#4. Blessed (happy) is the man who finds delight

in God’s Word. (v. 2)

The shoe fits if we are not easily offended or discouraged.

#5. Blessed (happy) is the man who controls

his thoughts. (v.2)

The shoe fits if we become an eternal optimist.

This is exactly what God is saying in Jeremiah 29:11. He declared, “I know my thoughts I think toward you, saith the Lord….to give you HOPE IN YOUR FINAL OUT COME.” That is the eternal optimism we have in God when the shoe fits. Hope in the final out come. That’s what we believe and eagerly long for. We are going home with the King, and may I add….to live happily ever after.

Wearing The Shoe That Fits

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Believe It or Not

2009-03-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

Belief is the Genius of God planted deeply within each of us. It is God waiting and wanting to be recognized and released to do God Things in our lives.

Philippians 2:13 declares, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and do His good pleasure.”

Believe it or not! It’s so incredible that it is difficult for the human mind to conceive. God is in me. He resides there. He abides there, and He presides there as I give Him the opportunity.

Helen Keller was aware of the Awesome God that dwells inside of us and proclaimed, “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”

Believe it or not God has woven the impulse to soar into every fiber of your being.

Jesus said it clearly in Mark 9:23. “If you can believe, all things are possible…”

Moses didn’t believe that he had what it takes to lead people out of horrible bondage into glorious emancipation, but he did. The disciples couldn’t believe that a boy’s scanty sack lunch could feed a multitude, but it did with plenty left-over.

We need a “believer instinct” revolution. One honest man in the New Testament recognized such a need and prayed, “Lord, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)

This man crashed into the wall of human logic and historical validation. He wanted to believe, but how do you believe in the efficacy of prayer when your son is suffering from a total lack of self control. He was a human wreck waiting to happen.

Jesus said, “Believe it or not. I can do it.” The problem is not God’s. It’s ours. Our “believer” has been sabotaged. My prayer is: God help our unbelief.

Believe it or not: 90% of the money you make with God as your partner is better than 100% without God.

Biblical stewardship is the key to success with God. Make God a partner in everything you do. Everything belongs to Him, but He gives us 90% and asks for only 10% for Himself. It’s called tithing. It’s my way of honoring God. I don’t want to cheat my partner nor do I want to commit larceny with the God of the universe. If I cheat and rob, it will not be with God. I need Him. I depend upon Him. He gives me power to get wealth. He commands blessings to overtake me. He causes me to increase in goods. He blesses all the works of my hands. He opens up heaven and pours out blessings beyond what I can contain. (Deuteronomy 28:1-13)

I will gladly give God 10% and keep 90% with the assurance that God is on my side, in my corner and rebuking the devourer of my finances, brings me happiness and prosperity in every area of my life. Believe it or not. It’s the best deal you will ever discover. In Malachi 3, God challenges us to try and see what He can and will do.

Believe it or not: God is in control when circumstances deny it.

On the very worst and last day in the life of Christ on earth, he was painfully and shamefully crucified. All evidence pointed to a calamity that was running completely out of control even to the Father. Nails riveted the sacred hands of Jesus. Pain ripped through His body like liquid fire shooting through His veins. A nasty crown of thorns was perched in mockery on His head, and finally a sharp lancet slashed a gash into his side and was pushed mercilessly under His rib cage.

And there in bloody garments dressed, courted our love. It looked like a Divine debacle to the casual observer. But God was in control. The purpose of divine love become intelligible, the mysteries of prophecy unraveled and the great problem of human redemption was solved.

Our horrible sins are submerged in His blood. All guilt was left nailed to the cruel tree.

Condemnation is lifted once and for all, and the door to heaven is thrown wide open. Out of the worst----God produced the best.

Yes! A thousand times YES! God is in control. Believe it or not-“If you can believe, all things are possible…”

Believe it or not: There’s none so poor as he who knows not the joy of what he has.

Just yesterday, a man made this observation to me. “Who would have ever thought 2 months ago that something like this could happen to me?”

I know the man well. He has been one of the most vibrant, positive human beings that you will ever meet. He rose from the entry level position in his industry to become an industry leader. He is a proud veteran of World War II, has been a deacon in his church, married for more than 60 years, and has a beautiful daughter and enjoying a fantastic retirement.

Then 6 weeks ago his right leg refused to cooperate. It swung loosely by his side and he drug it step by step to walk at all. There was a quick visit to the doctor’s office, an immediate set of tests and two hours later he was admitted to the emergency room at the hospital. HEMOTOMA. Blood on the brains. Some had been there for a few weeks. Parts of the blood were fresh. He was hemorrhaging from the brain as the exams were being conducted. He had brain surgery as soon as they could prepare him and schedule an operating room.

Today he is walking, speaking slowly but clearly, regaining his cognitive control, developing occupational and day by day living skills. He’s glad to be alive daily. He finds great pleasure in being able to use both limbs in walking. He grins at a drop of a hat and looks forward to a complete recovery. Believe it or not - no belly aching from him. He knows the joy of what he has.

He can’t drive, but he can breathe. He can’t run a triathlon, but he can put on his shoes, shave and feed himself. 2 months ago these “little” things were routine, but today, they are miracles. That’s what he has told people: “I am a miracle.”

Believe it or not – you may have miracles all around you that you have forgotten. Don’t be so poor as to have forgotten what you have. It’s not what you have in your wallet that makes you truly thankful….it’s what you have in your heart.

Believing Together!

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Super Size It!

2009-03-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

When a regular sandwich is not enough, super size it. At McDonald’s, it’s your way of requesting a bigger burger, multiplying the golden brown fries and increasing the size of the slurping cup. It means give me more not less.

Elisha was one of the “super size it” gang. He was more than a punk, pimple faced kid with disrespect for his elders. He was mesmerized by Elijah’s greatness, and he asked God to “super size it.” The 14 miracles that accompanied Elijah’s ministry were breath taking, but he stuck his neck out and asked God to “super size it” He asked for a “double portion”, and God gave him 28 miracles before they sealed his tomb and mourners left him to rest in his grave.

God is a “Super Size It” God. He’s greater than our needs, and bigger than our problems. He’s God. He’s supreme. He’s sufficient. Psalms 86:10 declares, “For you are great, and do wonderful things: thou art God alone.”

Jesus alluded to this aspect of God in John 14:12. He said, “He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also: and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father.”

Phillip Brooks preached a challenging truth when he made this statement to the city of Boston. “It is time for Boston to get out of the peck measure into the bushel measure.”

Isaiah delivered the same truth in Isaiah 54:2. He said, “Enlarge the place of your tent…” In other words, he was demanding that God chasers make room for God to Super Size Things in their life. If you want a bushel blessing, then get a bushel basket and get rid of the peck measure.

My prayer is: “Super Size It, O God, in so many areas of our lives. Regular is not good enough. We want more.” Certain things should be givens when we pray this prayer. We want more of God, more faith, more prosperity, more of the Word, etc. but allow me to add to this list not to ignore it but to pray that God will also Super Size the following things in our lives.

O God, Super Size my resilience.

There is an excellent reason to ask for our resilience to be super sized. We all have set backs. They are common and frequently come at inconvenient times and from unexpected places. We therefore need bounce backs.

Jesus left no doubt about set back. He said, “In this world you will continue to experience difficulties….but you will be unshakable…” (The Message-John 16:33)

Unshakable and unstoppable. That’s what God promises: the ability to get through, get over and even thrive after trauma, trials and tribulations.

Take some down home advice from Marilyn Vos Savant. She said, “Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.” My prayer is: “God give us bounce back from every set back, in Jesus name.”

O God, Super Size my enthusiasm.

God give us “umph” to get over every hump and bump. “Umph” is enthusiasm. The word enthusiasm is derived from the word “entheos” which means GOD WITHIN!

If that’s what it means, super size it in my life. Give me a double portion. I want more. Regular is not good enough.

Charles Spurgeon said, “A blacksmith can do nothing when his fire is out.” It was to such people that II Timothy 1:6 was directed. “Stir up the gift of God, which is in you…” (KJV-II Timothy 1:6) In The Message it reads like this. “KEEP IT ABLAZE.

May God give you a zest for living today and super size it I pray.

O God super size my patience.

Let’s face it. I get in a great, big hurry, but God doesn’t. Patience is the virtue that makes it possible for me to operate on God’s time schedule not mine. Time and timing are vital to him, but it’s usually his time and timing not mine.

Patience means that I am living out the belief that God orders everything for the spiritual good of those who truly trust in Him. It means that I will not waver in my faith in God through the passing of time. He who waits on God never loses time.

The more patience I exercise the less likely I am to miss God’s best for my life. The Bible declares, “Knowing that tribulation works patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope…” (Romans 5:4-5) I love the way this same verse is expressed in The Message. “We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy like this, we are never feeling short changed. Quiet the contrary---we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.”

I would like to leave you with these words. “Victory is not won in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more.” (Louis L’Amour)

Patience is the feet by which we continue to stand on the promises of God when time seems to be our enemy. Patience keeps it’s eyes on God not upon the clock.

Here it is in a nut shell. God makes a promise---faith believes it, hope anticipates it, and patience quietly and confidently waits for it. God, super size it I pray.

Praying For God To Super Size

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

God Knows How!

2009-02-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Every survival kit should have a shot of humor in it. Life is so serious and it’s challenges so frequent. We run head on into problems that we don’t know how to solve. Now we can sweat bullets and initiate a nervous break down or learn how to laugh or as one person said, “Grin and bear it.”

That’s what I like so much about the comic strips in the newspaper. 49 pages are crammed with words and pictures of chaos. It’s like the whole world is falling apart. Then you come to the comic strips. It’s a mood swing paradise. You may not laugh hilariously but at least it will bring a grin to your somber lips.

One comic strip really stood out to me. It had a picture of an MRI machine sprawled out in the middle of a room with a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff hanging from an otherwise bare wall. Now if you have ever had an MRI you can relate to this without stretching your imagination at all. A woman’s head can be seen stuffed into this Closter phobic apparatus. That’s it. Then under the picture are these classic words.

“Everything is going to be fine, Mrs. Witzer! An orderly is getting a can of Crisco and a winch, and we’ll have you out of there soon!”

They had the know how to get the job done. It may have been primitive and unscientific, but if it worked, it worked and that’s all that matters.

You probably laughed or at least smiled when you read that, but in a serious note, let me remind you that most of us have been in tight spots or out right jams that left us searching for ways to get out but not knowing how. Crisco was not the answer, but God is because God knows how!

In the New Testament, Peter described a rare characteristic of God in these words. “The Lord knows how to deliver….” (II Peter 2:9)

That’s the story of God from beginning to end in the Bible.

He knew how to make something out of nothing in creation – Genesis 1 and 2
He knew how to turn water into wine.
He knew how to give buoyancy to a piece of iron in the Old Testament.
He knew how to redeem the world by an Old Rugged Cross.

God has never faced a situation that left him stumped and without the “know how” to take care of the situation. Somehow I just want to ask you to pause right now and verbalize these words: GOD KNOWS HOW! Repeat them three or four times. They are faith building and miracle producing words that affirm not only the existence but also the Sovereignty of God.

Now in keeping with that affirmation let us examine a few of the “know how’s” of our Sovereign God.

God knows how to rebuild broken lives.

Nothing is more tragic than a broken life. Purpose is pulverized. Happiness is harpooned. The future is forfeited and hope seems helplessly lost.

One young man described his broken life to me in a letter that he sent to me. “I am only a shell of what I once was,” he wrote, and I might add that the shell was crushed and broken. If it was a broken bone, we could have sent him to an orthopedic surgeon, but it wasn’t. It was a broken life, and who knows how to fix it? I can answer that. God can.

He knew how to give a deformed beggar a new set of legs; a madam an opportunity to escape a flop house in the red light district; a foul mouthed, floundering preacher the chance to clean up his act and start all over again.

If He did it for them, He can do it for you….and He knows how!

God knows how to produce resources from unexpected sources.

He squeezed water out of a rock (Numbers 20:7-8). How is that for resourceful thinking? There were no babbling brooks or azure sparkling waters from a beautiful lake near by for the nomadic Jewish pilgrims to drink from themselves and water their flock. Dehydration began to suck the liquid dry from their bodies. Death was imminent and no hope was in sight. The whole land was slowly but surely dying. All water sources were drying up, and water supplies were dwindling. Streams were becoming nothing but dry trenches of sun-baked boulders and dry sand.

Get the picture? Is it familiar to you? Does it seem like everything is drying up and once productive resources are looking more and more like the Sierra desert?

God knows how to produce resources from unexpected sources. When they had nothing to survive, God knew how to bring abundance out of a rock. All their needs were met and even plenty was available for their beasts.

He used a bird to cater food to Elijah. He drafted a donkey to provide much needed ministry to Balaam. He solicited the temporary service of a great, big fish to step into the fray when Jonah was a goner but for the grace of God. He used a little boy’s picnic lunch to feed a teeming multitude. God’s sources are unending and His resources always sufficient.

This is a promise from God to you. “My God shall supply ALL you need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). He doesn’t tell us how. He just tells us He will. Trust Him, and He will assume responsibility for the sources. He knows how.

God Knows How

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Radical Faith

2009-02-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

A student at Stanford University answered a want ad for a stenographer. During the interview process, the applicant was informed what the job would entail and the necessary qualifications that were required. One particular applicant quickly replied, “I will take the job, but I can’t start until Tuesday.” That seemed a bit bizarre, but the young man was hired and told to return on Tuesday.

Upon arrival to assume his new position, someone asked why he could not come to work before Tuesday. No doubt with a grin on his face, he replied, “I had to go rent a typewriter and learn how to use it.” That young man later became the 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover.

The man who applied for a job and later occupied the White House was a radical opportunist. Timidity was not his tutor. Passivity was not his partner. He rose to the occasion and made his own opportunities.

Radical people do radical thing to achieve radical successes! The Wright Brothers were radical visionaries who believed that with proper equipment man could fly. Robert Kennedy spent his life living on the edge and declared that “only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

Peter would never have left the security of a boat and walked on water had it not been for radical faith that believed what Jesus said and acted upon it.

Teilhard de Chardin described what radical faith really means in these riveting words. “Our duty as men is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist.”

Such faith depends upon the ability of our Almighty, limitless God and not upon ourselves. His wisdom will win every debate. His power will prevail in every crisis. His authority will abrogate any plans of the enemy.

Radical faith trusts Him. J. Hudson Taylor summed radical faith up in this simple statement. “Not a great faith we need, but faith in a great God.” The size of our faith is not nearly as important as is the Great God in whom we place our faith.

Turn your attention with me to some key elements of radical faith and how it plays out in our daily lives.

1. Radical faith is independent of flighty feelings.

Feelings are at the mercy of a variety of negative and positive emotional events that occur in life, but faith is based upon timeless, unerring principles. Feelings change but principles don’t.

The changelessness of God is painted so clearly in Hebrews 1:12. Look at it in the Message. “Earth and the sky will wear out, but not you; they become threadbare like an old coat; You’ll fold them up like a worn out cloak, and lay them on the shelf But you’ll stay the same, year after year; you’ll never fade; you’ll never wear out.”

My feelings will be as fickle as the weather, but God will ever be the same. As He was so He is and ever will be. Radical faith is attached to the Rock of Ages.

2. Radical faith does not waver under unfavorable circumstances.

God is not changed by our circumstances, but He can change our circumstances. God is our God and no circumstance can change that.

Annie Johnson Flint described it so eloquently in these poetic lines.
• God has not promised skies always blue,
• Flower strewn pathways all our lives through;
• God has not promised sun without rain,
• Joy without sorrow,
• Peace without pain.
• But God has promised
• Strength for the day,
• Rest for the labor,
• Light for the way.
• Grace for the trials,
• Help from above,
• Unfailing sympathy,
• Undying love.

Radical faith looks for God in every circumstance and finds Him there!

3. Radical faith is reconciled to leave time and timing with God.

Radical faith does not become accusative and bent out of shape with God when He fails to synchronize his calendar and wrist watch with mine.

The Psalmist understood this principle and confessed his confidence in God when he wrote, “My times are in thy hand…” (31:15) Again the same Bible that houses the treasure of John 3:16 also says this. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Radical faith believes that God’s time and timing are always perfect. He’s never too early and will never show up to late. Trust His timing. His character and integrity will always keep Him on time.

Developing Radical Faith
Pastor Jimmy & Bob

A Good Bad Thing

2009-02-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

A puff of smoke. A pile of smoldering ashes. Everything was consumed in the flames of a raging fire that broke out in his hut. It was not only bad. It was a horrible disaster. He was totally wiped out.

A ship wreck was bad enough. He was the only survivor and was miraculously washed ashore on a small, uninhabited island. No one knew that he had survived or where he was. He was lost in “no man’s land” but managed to build a tiny hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements and to store his few possessions. He prayed feverishly and constantly scanned the horizon for help but none came.

Then one day as he left the hut scavenging for food, he arrived back at his make shift hut and found it engulfed in flames with smoke boiling up into the expanse less sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. Stunned and angry he cried out, “God how could you do this to me?”

He finally dosed off to sleep that night only to be awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island which had come to rescue him. Excited but bewildered he asked the sailors how they could possibly know he was there. There answer was: “We saw your smoke signal.”

It was at that moment that he realized that what had happened to him was a good bad thing! What looked like a disaster was the beginning of his deliverance.

It was grace in action and the answer to his prayers in disguise.

Vance Havner, the famous evangelist from North Carolina, hit the nail on the head when he explained, “God marks across some of our days – will explain later.”

For Joseph, it was many, many days later. How do you explain detours through a pathetic pit or a pitiless prison to a man who is destined for the palace? 15 to 20 years passed and his hopes went up in ashes. How can you find anything good in all the bad that happened to him?

No explanation is better than the one that came from the lips of Joseph himself in Genesis 50:20. “You thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…” In the eyes of God, the unpleasant things that preceded the palace were good bad things. Look at some of the good bad things from Joseph’s life.

He lost his shirt but he got a free ride to Egypt.

In Genesis 37:23, the Bible tells us that Joseph’s siblings stole his shirt (coat) right off of his back. Nothing could replace it because it was a one of a kind, tailor made gift from his father. No value could be placed upon it. It was sentimentally irreplaceable, but his captors took it, tattered it and doused it with blood to make it appear that an animal had brutally snuffed out his life. (v.33)

It was a bad situation perpetuated by cold, calculated men who were of his own flesh and blood. It was a bad, brutal plan carried out by bad men, but in the end it was a good bad thing. Read verse 28 again. The last 6 words are critical bits of information. “and they brought Joseph into Egypt.” That’s the good part. Egypt was farther from home but closer to the palace. In fact, he lost his shirt for a free ride to the place of his dreams.

His horrible humiliation was the gateway to exaltation.

How humiliating to be sold like a bar of soap and treated like a pig in a poke. They didn’t just strip him of his shirt. They robbed him of personal dignity.

They divested him of personal belongings and freedom of movement. He was a slave and had no rights of his own, but they could not and did not pry his dreams out of his heart.

His humiliation was worse than we can imagine, but it proved to be a good bad thing. Let me draw your attention to Genesis 39:2-3. It says, “And Joseph was brought down to Egypt…and the Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptians. And the master saw…”

How much better can it get? As bad as it was, good came out of a bad thing. What a fantastic plan that God had, and it worked. He was in the house of his master. He was where God wanted him to be, doing what God wanted him to do, and the master SAW IT. That could never have happened over in the pit so God gave him a free ride to live in the palace environment. His humiliation was a small price to pay for the exaltation that was to come. It was a good bad thing.

A bad chapter has a good ending.

Pits and prisons are not the best settings for closing the book. Joseph had been there, but they were just chapters not the end of the book.

I’m not glamorizing the days that Joseph spent in prison, but as bad as they were, they proved to be a good bad thing. It was while in prison that he got acquainted with a cell mate that became a key player in reaching the palace. I don’t know what the butler had done to demand a prison sentence, but the meeting of Joseph and the butler were not chance meetings.

Two prison buddies had dreams that they could not understand and turned to Joseph for counsel. The baker was told that he would be killed by Pharaoh in 72 hours, and he was. The butler was told that within 3 days that Pharaoh would restore him to his original position in the palace, and he was. The only thing that Joseph ask the butler to do was to speak a favorable word to Pharaoh on his behalf, but the butler forgot. (Genesis 40:23)

This must have been a bad chapter in the story of Joseph’s life. Two years past, but then the butler remembered and encouraged Pharaoh to consult with Joseph. Genesis 41:14 is the beginning a story that has a bad chapter but a good ending. It says, “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him out of the dungeon…”

Those chapters when God said, “Will explain later…” were now clear. God can help us to see the good in a bad thing.

Waiting Courageously,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Some of the Best Things in Life Are Free

2009-01-31T17:48:00.001-08:00

If you spend one cent on some things, you spent a penny too much.

One young guy spent months in college, but he didn’t get it. Nothing seemed to be soaking in. Finally, he dropped his parents the following note. “I’m flunking. I have discovered that I have a klinker in my thinker.” That note alone would make it clear that he had not mastered English and spelling, but I think I know what he meant by the word klinker. It is not in the dictionary, but it has been active in my mind many times.

I’m not a qualified psychologist, but I am quiet sure that many American’s are suffering from “a klinker in their thinker”. They might know little about quarterbacks or kickbacks or rollbacks but they are specialist in greenbacks.

Their motto is: you pay for what you get, and there are no free lunches in this world. Grace is a foreign language that they do not speak or understand. You earn what you get. Renata's grandfather was that way. He was never wealthy in worldly goods, but he had a strong conviction that nothing was free. It was natural for him to reach that conclusion. His mother and father died before he was 12, and he went to work in the fields for 50 cents a day to eek out enough money to live on. Nothing was free not even forgiveness of sin from his natural logic.

He lived 75 years of his life being unable to accept the fact that the grace of God was free to him. Jesus paid it all, and there was nothing that he could do to earn it. It was a gift of God. It was not until he was 75 that he could believe and accept the fact that some of the best things in life are free, and he became a child of God’s grace.

Settle it once and for all. Money is not the panacea to fix all, cure all and solve all of life’s problems. You may not love money but just lean on it rather than to lean on God. The Bible addresses this ever present problem in I Timothy 6:17. “Be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy…”

I found it exhilarating to re-discover some of the priceless things in life that are actually ours for free. Take a look for yourself.

Money can not buy peace of mind.

Your peace of mind was important to Jesus. He promised it as a part of His legacy. (John 14:27) He prayed that you might have it (John 17:11-12), and He personally paid for it (Ephesians 2:14-18).

You can buy pills and palaces and pilgrimages, but you can’t buy peace. It is a gift of God that comes special delivery to those who ask. This peace is not the absence of disturbing circumstances. It is rather the assurance of God’s presence. Money can not buy it and nothing can take it away.

Money can not buy behavior modification.

If behavior modification was determined by the amount of money a person possesses, only the wealthy would have a chance. But it’s not. Money has nothing to do with it. The Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things pass away and behold all things are new.” (II Corinthians 5:17)

No amount of money can make a sot a saint, a hussy holy, and an exhibitionist an endearment to society. Behavior modification takes place through Christ not cash and it can take place now regardless of how much money you have in your pocket. You can change. Nothing can stop you once you make the decision. God will meet you more than half way.

Money can not buy cohesiveness in the family.

God said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall CLEAVE unto his wife…” (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 9:5) The word cleave comes from the Greek word “kollao” which means to join fast together, to glue or cement.

It’s God’s super glue which holds marriages together and the bold cohesive to avoid splits. We need some CLEAVE power to survive the squeeze power of marriage and family disruption, and it is free at God’s Home Improvement Center.

This reliable glue comes in a package called LOVE, and it looks like this. It is
• Slow to suspect----quick to trust
• Slow to condemn---quick to justify
• Slow to offend---quick to defend
• Slow to expose---quick to shield
• Slow to reprimand---quick to forebear
• Slow to belittle---quick to appreciate
• Slow to demand---quick to give
• Slow to provoke --- quick to conciliate
• Slow to hinder --- quick to help
• Slow to resent---quick to forgive.

You can’t buy it, but it is a free gift of God to all who will receive it.

Money can not buy hope beyond the grave.

No one likes to talk about death, the grave and the here after, but it is an absolute reality that every one of us is going to face. The Bible puts it like this. “It is appointed unto men once to die…” (Hebrews 9:27) I can’t avoid the appointment, but I can avoid being hopeless when that hour comes.

Hope is the free gift of God that we receive when we trust totally in Him. You can have that gift today if you will:

Face up to your failures (sins). Admit your wrongs to the Heavenly Father.
Repent of your sins and ask God for forgiveness.
Express personal faith in the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the atonement for your sins.
Entrust your future and eternity into the hands of God which includes hope beyond the grave.
It’s free. Do it now. Jesus has already paid for the debt of sin in full.

Living Free

Pastor Jimmy & Bob

Is Anything Too Hard For God?

2009-01-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

Two handed set shots was the way basketball was supposed to be played, and everybody knew that except Hank Luisetti who played basketball for Stanford University back during the days of the Great depression. For some unknown reason, he broke the mold and starting shooting with one hand and it became so successful that it changed the whole game of basketball. Now almost everybody shoots that way.

Stanford was scheduled to play Long Island University to a packed out crowd in Madison Garden when Luisetti’s reputation was spreading across the continent, but no one expected the Stanford team to be much more than a good practice for the champs. Clair Bee was so confident that Long Island University would win the game that he blurted out his prediction in these words. “No one is going to beat us one-handed.”

Luisetti and the Stanford team took the floor and walked off a couple of hours later with a 45-31 victory. Luisetti ended up scoring 15 points. In a post game interview, the coach of the Long Island University bemoaned, “I hate to think how badly they’d have beaten us if he’d used both hands.”

I admit that this is a stretch of my imagination, but I am wondering if the Psalmist had the same sentiment in his mind when he wrote these words in Psalms 98:1. “Sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvelous things: HIS RIGHT HAND and his holy arm, has gotten him the victory.”

Perhaps I could add a post script by asking, “I wonder what would have happened if He had used both hands?” The fact is: Jesus lived under a self imposed limit on the exercise of His power while living on this earth.

On Calvary’s Road with beard plucked and suffering indignities and injustices without number, Jesus reminded the infuriated lynching mob that he could call more than 12 legions of angels to show up and make a quick end to this massacre that was taking place, but He didn’t. 12 legions of angels represents between 48,000 and 72,000 angels, but that is only a fraction of the angelic population of heaven. Revelation 5:11 calculated that number by calling them 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands.

In the cemetery where Lazarus had been buried, He specifically called the name of Lazarus to walk out of his grave or the entire population of that grave yard would have been vacated at the command of our Lord. But don’t forget that the day is coming WHEN ALL in their graves will hear his voice and come forth. He lived His life down here under a self imposed limitation.

He healed only 1 crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, but I wonder what would have happened if He had used both hands so to speak.

In one sense of the word, He tied one hand behind His back waiting for the day when He will use both hands and ALL of His resources to

Demonstrate His ultimate power
Liberate saints of all ages from the sting of death
Mitigate the release of prisoners from the penalty of sin
Separate the justified from the lost
Allocate rewards for the redeemed
Relocate the ransomed from this world to their home in the skies
Recuperate everything that man lost in the fall and restore it to the rightful owners.
Obliterate sickness and disease eternally
Incarcerate the devil and his legions forever
Coronate Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords~

His ultimate purpose for us will be made crystal clear when He turns our weakness into strength, turns our obstacles into stepping stones and our disasters into triumph. Nothing is too hard for Him to do.

·Person is too hard for Him to save

·Sickness is too hard for Him to heal

·Problem is too hard for Him to solve

·Depraved cavity in the human heart is too hard for Him to fill

·Habit is too hard for Him to break

·Sin is too hard for Him to forgive

·Past is too vile for Him to forget.

Nothing is too hard for Him to do. He is the same yesterday, today and forever and will not change. In fact the Bible declares, “Ah Lord God! Behold, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for you…” (Jeremiah 32:17)

Nothing is too difficult for God because …

He creates.

(to cause to come into existence)

God in work clothes. That’s the first picture that we see of God, and you will find it in Genesis 1:1. It’s the primary, first instance of an introduction to God, and it reads like this. “In the beginning God CREATED the heaven and the earth.”

The theme of God being Creator continues in the New Testament. “For by Him were all things CREATED, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible…all things were CREATED by Him.”

If He is Creator, then nothing is too hard for Him to do because He can make something out of nothing. You may be fretting because you have little to bring Him to work with, but He is Creator and can take that nothing and make something monumental out of it.

He controls.

(to exercise authority over)

One big issue that most of us face at some point in our lives is that unnerving issue of seeing so many things in our lives spinning out of control. We get one situation under control but three break loose in its place. It’s a conspiracy to make life miserable, and you can’t change it or you would have already done it; but nothing is too hard for God to do because He is always in control.

Nahum recognizes how completely God controls things with no exceptions. In chapter 1 and verse 3, he declares, “The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm…” GOD HAS HIS WAY. He is in control regardless of the circumstance, and you can be sure that there is nothing too hard for Him.

He continues.

(to last or endure; to go on in a specific course of action)

The Bible records it like this. “I am the Lord, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6) The world can disdain Him, disclaim Him and try to defame Him but they can not displace Him. He is the Ageless, Sinless and changeless God. As He was so He is and will ever be.

Until we

· Know that His omnipotence is overthrown, let us worship Him.

· Hear that His almightiness is abolished, let us revere Him.

· Find that His unchangeableness is undermined, let us trust Him.

· Discern that His dominion is declining, let us depend on Him.

He is ever the same, ever near, ever ready and willing to convince us that nothing is too hard for Him to do. My prayer for you is that you will find victory in every area of your life.

Serving A Powerful God,

Pastor Jimmy & Bob