Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another … We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:11;19 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You are a link in the chain.”

Last Sunday, as they were leaving church, several people complimented me on the sermon. They each made some comment about how it spoke to them, or that it was in some way helpful, and they thanked me for it.

Like you, I appreciate compliments. They’re encouraging and they inspire me to keep going and to keep trying. However, I’m well aware of the fact that I have nothing to share with others except what was first shared with me. Anything I’ve learned I have learned from others before me, and now I’m just paying it forward and passing it along. As a preacher I’m simply a link in an unbroken chain that extends all the way back to the cross on Calvary – and which will continue to extend forward to the day of Christ’s return.

But that’s true for you too, even if you aren’t a preacher. The love of God and the Good News that He will forgive sins through faith in His Son Jesus, is shared and passed along from one person to another, like links in an unbroken chain that extends all the way back to the cross, and all the way forward to the Second Coming. You are a part of that. This is what your life as a Christian is all about.

In 1 John 4:11;19 the Apostle urges us to love others because God first loved us. This unbroken chain of love started with God, was passed along from one person to another, eventually made it to you, and will continue to be passed forward. As has been noted in previous devotionals in this series, God has chosen to use His people to accomplish His work in this world. Although He does do some of it by means of miracles, and some through the ministry of angels, most of His work is accomplished through the lives of the faithful followers of Jesus Christ. The love of God, the blessings of God, and the Good News of the Gospel, all flow to the world through you and me.

You are a link in the chain. This is what your life is about. This is why your life matters.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea -for they were fishermen. “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Matthew 4:18-20 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Following Jesus is the best thing you can do with your life.”

It’s interesting that as we read through the New Testament, we realize that most of the people God used to establish and spread the Christian faith were almost all simple ordinary people. Mary was a teenage peasant girl. Joseph was a simple carpenter living in a remote village. Jesus’ twelve disciples were mostly fishermen.

As we then proceed through the book of Acts and the epistles, we find that with the notable exception of Paul, virtually every faithful person mentioned in the New Testament was a regular person with no special skills or abilities – a person who had simply decided to follow Jesus by faith, and then to serve Him as best they could in the process of living their life.

This is also the story of the Christian faith over the two thousand years of its history. The overwhelming majority of faithful men and women God has used in His kingdom-building work were not kings and queens and Presidents; they weren’t millionaires and movie stars and celebrity athletes; they haven’t been Bible scholars and best-selling authors and television preachers with big hair and trophy wives. No, they have been ordinary men and women like you and me who simply lived their lives in a way that honored God.

I want you to know this morning that if you have faith in Christ as Savior, and if you are committed to following Him through this life as your Lord, then you have everything you need in order to live a meaningful life that is pleasing to God. Then, if you are active in the life of a good church, and if you are using your skills and abilities to serve God by serving others, you can believe that He is using your life to accomplish His purposes in this world. To you your efforts might not seem like much; the results might not seem splashy and note-worthy by worldly standards; but the fact is that your faithful life is contributing to the overall effort to make a meaningful difference for the cause of Christ in this broken and bleeding world of ours.

Following Jesus and faithfully serving others in His name is the most important thing you can do with your life. And I can assure you, it does make an important difference. Your life, and what you are doing with it, does matter.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Blue lives matter”

The social movement “Black Lives Matter” began in 2013 in response to the deaths of several young black men during confrontations with law enforcement officers. There were many in the African-American community and in the news media who believed these deaths were yet more examples of systemic racial profiling and acts of police brutality against young black men. News media outlets, social activists with an agenda, and opportunistic politicians then jumped on the bandwagon, fanning the flames of racial tension, and generating a backlash against the law enforcement community.

Granted, in one of the cases that spawned the Black Lives Matter movement (the shooting of Trayvon Martin), the actions of the security guard who did the shooting were questionable. But in the two other cases (Ferguson, Missouri and New York City), the actions of the young black men involved were clearly criminal, and their responses to the law enforcement officers were aggressive, placing the officers in danger. But facts didn’t seem to matter. The police officers involved, and the law enforcement community in general, became the object of protests, criticism, lawsuits, and discrimination that continues to this day.

This is tragic and wrong. Probably 99% of all law enforcement officers everywhere are truly exceptional public servants who put their own lives on the line everyday in order to protect the rest of us. They deserve our honor, respect, and gratitude.

In response to the unfair backlash unleashed upon our law enforcement professionals, other citizens formed another movement called “Blue Lives Matter”. The purpose is to remind all of us that our law enforcement professionals are dedicated public servants who risk their lives every day to protect our communities, and they deserve our respect.

Do black lives matter? Yes, of course they do. All lives matter. Including the lives of our law enforcement professionals. So there’s no way I could write devotional messages every day for an entire month on the subject of “Your Life Matters” without paying special tribute to our dedicated law enforcement professionals who risk their lives in order to protect the rest of us.

Thank you for what you do. Blue lives matter – they matter very, very much, and we are grateful for your sacrificial service to our communities.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Believe what God says is true about you.”

The other day I came across an interesting article written by Stuart Briscoe. He was writing about what it is that we as individuals tend to believe to be true about God, and how it is that our perceptions of God are often so distorted. Briscoe writes, “There’s a lot of speculation as to who God is and what he’s like. But we need to operate on the basis of revelation, not speculation. It is one thing for us to express what we think God is like; it is an entirely different thing for us to recognize what God says he is like … What better place to discover who God is than in his self-description?”

Briscoe’s point is that we often confuse and mislead ourselves with our wrong perceptions about God because we fail to simply accept what God tells us in the Bible to be true about Himself. In the Bible He describes Himself for us and He gives us a clear explanation of what He is like. So why would we not simply read it and believe it? Why do we allow our own distorted perceptions of him to determine our thinking, rather than simply accepting what He has told us to be true about himself?

The same principle applies with respect to what we believe to be true about ourselves, as opposed to what God says is actually true about us. In the Bible God has a lot to say about who we are and how He feels about us. So why don’t we just read it, believe it, and accept what God says is true of us?

In John 3:16 He says He loves us so much, and He wants so much for us to spend eternity in heaven with Him, that He sent Jesus to earth on a rescue mission to save us from our sins and to bring us to heaven. In 1 John 3:1 He tells us that He has adopted us into His family and that we are now His children. In Jeremiah 31:3 He says that He loves us with an everlasting love. In Jeremiah 29:11-13 He explains that He has a wonderful plan that He wants to work out in our lives. In Philippians 1:6 we are told that He will bring to completion that which He has preordained for us. In John 14:1-3 Jesus describes the wonderful home in heaven He is preparing for us.

And on and on it goes. All throughout the Bible God has given us description after description and promise after promise that helps us to understand who we are in His eyes and how much He loves us. So why do we focus so much on what we believe to be true about ourselves, rather than on what God has said to be true about us? It’s Satan who tricks us into doing that. Satan doesn’t want you to know how much you matter to God. Satan wants you to believe the lies that live in your head rather than the Truth that lives in your heart.

I encourage you to believe what God says is true about you. Read your Bible. It’s His love letter to you. The Bible tells you everything you need to know about who you are; about how God much God loves you; and why you matter so much to Him.

I encourage you to believe what God says is true about you. You are His, you are loved more than you realize, and therefore your life matters very, very much.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “Son”, Abraham said, ‘remember that during your life you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.” Luke 16:25 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Things will be different in heaven.”

In Luke 16:10-31 Jesus told a story about a rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. In the story the rich man enjoyed a comfortable and leisurely life while Lazarus endured a life of poverty and sickness. The picture Jesus paints for us is of a rich man who reveled in his luxury and who seemed unconcerned about this poor sick beggar right there in front of him. Lazarus longed for scrapes and crumbs of food that might fall from the rich man’s table, but there’s no indication that the rich man helped him or even noticed him.

Then they both died. Lazarus went to heaven and enjoyed an eternity of pleasure and joy, while the rich man went to hell and experienced agony and suffering. In eternity their situations had been completely reversed.

Someone once commented to Billy Graham that they were sure that he (Billy) would have an exalted place in heaven because of his tremendous faithful service in this lifetime. Billy responded (I’m paraphrasing), “I’m not so sure about that. I am sure that I will be in heaven, and that I will be eternally happy, but God has blessed me so much in this lifetime with abilities and resources and talented people to help me. In heaven I think the bigger blessings belong to those who didn’t have the things that I have had and who lived faithful lives serving God and blessing others anyway.”

I think that will be true for my daughter Tracy too, and for other mentally and physically handicapped people like her. They go through this life without the mental capacity, physical ability, or resources that the average person has. There is so much in this life that they don’t have and which they cannot do because of their physical and mental limitations. But I think God will more than make that up for them in heaven. They have little now, but they will have a lot then.

Our world is filled with people who, through no fault of their own, go through life in deep poverty, or with physical and mental limitations, or they live a short life in a torturous prison in North Korea, or in some other way suffer tremendously while the rest of us have it comparatively easy. It seems so unfair.

But in terms of eternity this life is a puff of smoke which is here today and gone tomorrow. This is why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Things will be different in heaven. Many situations will be reversed. I believe there will be rewards in heaven for those who suffer and do without in this lifetime, but who are faithful to God and a blessing to others anyway.

Your life matters, and that’s true regardless of your circumstances. Be faithful to God now, and He will bless you later.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” Galatians 5:13 (NLT)

Our thought for today: “Serving others adds meaning and value to your life.”

Linda and I live in a community that consists almost entirely of retirees. It’s not an exclusively “adults only” or “retirees only” community, but almost everyone who lives here is retired. (Except me. I’m probably one of the most “not retired” people I know. Lol. I’m as busy as I’ve ever been but, I’m not complaining. It’s by choice. I love what I do as a Pastor and I have no desire to stop.)

Over the years that we’ve lived here I’ve noticed a trend among the retirees. Usually they begin their retirement years with a big sigh of relief and the intent to rest and play and travel. And they do! They play endless rounds of golf, they sit around playing cards and drinking beer, they go where they want when they want, and basically, they live a life focused on fun and sun and on themselves. But then, after a year or two of that, it all begins to feel pretty empty. Soon they start wondering what the point of their life is now, and they begin yearning for meaningful ways to spend their time.

And so, another characteristic of this community is all the civic clubs and volunteer organizations there are. We literally have hundreds and hundreds of bored retirees looking for ways to enhance the quality of their own lives by finding meaningful ways to help make this world a slightly better place. And … they are right. Not only are there people in need of help all around us, and not only does every act of mercy, kindness, and compassion help to make this world a little bit better, but engaging in those activities improves the quality of our own lives too.

The truth is the more you serve others the more meaningful your own life will seem – to you, and to everyone around you. People will recognize you as someone who is kind and compassionate and attentive to others, and they will think well of you for it. But beyond that, you will think well of yourself for it. Serving others makes us feel good about ourselves – it helps us to feel that we are doing something meaningful with our life. And you are! That’s why the Bible is filled with exhortations to serve others. Doing so furthers the cause of Christ on earth, it brings relief to someone in distress, and it blesses you as well.

Serving others adds meaning and value to your own life. The more of it you do, the better you will feel about yourself.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You bless Jesus when you bless others”

In yesterday’s devotional we learned that Jesus reminds us that we will always have the poor with us. When He said that He wasn’t just talking about the poor, that was simply the example He chose to use. His fuller meaning is that because this is a sin-stained and broken world, there will always be lots of people in various kinds of distress and need. We also learned that the awareness of someone suffering or in distress will often serve to bring out the good in others. It will elicit acts of kindness and mercy and compassion. That still doesn’t make a bad situation good, but it does add value to it.

Since suffering in all forms is so much a part of the world we live in, the Bible is filled from beginning to end with exhortations for God’s people to do something about it. We are to be the conduit in this world through which the love, mercy, kindness, compassion, and resources of God flow to people in need. This is so important to God that in Matthew 25:40 Jesus said that when you do it for one of those in need, you have effectively done it directly for Him. He receives your act of mercy and compassion as if He Himself was the one in need and you did this thing for Him personally. Here are a few general principles which apply to situations like this:

First, if you are the one who is suffering or in need of assistance, please know that God loves you unconditionally. Your disability, or the tornado that destroyed your home, or the death of your loved one, does not mean that God doesn’t love you, and it doesn’t mean that your life is of less value because of this. Your suffering grieves God and He wants to minister to you in the middle of it.

Second, recognize that most of God’s blessings come to us through other people. Your suffering is an opportunity for them to serve the Lord by serving you – so let them. Be humble enough to graciously accept the help.

Third, for those who have the privilege of being on the giving side of the equation, recognize that “There but for the grace of God go I.” In other words, it could have been you in the place of that needy or suffering person. And, in the future, it very well may be. So, treat that person the way you would want others to treat you if it was you in that situation. Treat them with compassion and kindness and especially … with respect. Don’t treat them like they’re your ministry project. Don’t assume the attitude that they’re poor and you’re not and therefore you are going to throw them this little bone of assistance. This is a hurting person in need of help. This is a person God loves and whose suffering grieves His heart. This is Jesus in disguise.

Just because someone is limited, disabled, suffering, or in need, doesn’t mean their life is any less valuable than yours. Instead it means that you now have an opportunity to make this world a slightly better place, one person at a time, one situation at a time, by blessing them in their time of need. I encourage you to find someone you can help today.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “He also said to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a lunch or a dinner; don’t invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid. On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Luke 14:12-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Those in need often bring out the best in others”

I travel a lot and often it’s with my wife, using her walker or wheelchair, and sometimes it is with my daughter, using her walker or wheelchair, and sometimes, on rare occasions, it’s with both of them at the same time.

Traveling with a disabled person can be tough. However, I’ve found that people are very nice and very considerate when they see a situation like that. They will rush to hold the door for you, they will offer to handle your luggage, they will smile and ask if there is anything they can do to help.

The fact is that seeing someone in need, whether it is a disabled person in an airport, a family stranded on the side of the road, a lost child crying for her mother,  a community devastated by a flood or tornado, or anyone else in a difficult or distressing situation, often brings out the best in people. Situations like that elicit acts of kindness, compassion, and mercy from people who otherwise might not be naturally disposed to be kind, compassionate, or merciful.

In Matthew 26:11 Jesus told us that “You will always have the poor with you …” That’s just a statement of fact. And in Luke 14:12-14 He told us to do something about it. We live in a broken and bleeding world filled with lots of people in all sorts of distressing situations. It’s not God’s fault. Sin and the devil are responsible for the evil and the suffering in the world. But the Bible teaches us that those situations are opportunities for us to show mercy and compassion. The awareness of someone else in need will often bring out the good in other people.

It is of course sad that someone is physically or mentally disabled, or that their car is broken down on the side of the road, or that their home burned in a fire, but in the middle of the pain and the sorrow and the struggle, God can and will redeem those situations by using them to bring out acts of mercy, compassion, and kindness. That doesn’t make a bad situation good, but it does add value to it that wasn’t there before. Your pain brought out something good in someone else. God has used a bad thing for a good purpose. We will think more about this tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor

Our theme for this month: “Your life matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” Exodus 4:11 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “People with disabilities love life too.”

Linda and I have a daughter named Tracy. She was born with cerebral palsy, a seizure disorder, and mild mental retardation. Because of the cerebral palsy, she has always walked with a noticeable limp on her left side and she has never had more than 10% use of her left arm and hand. Because of the seizures, she has always had to wear a protective helmet to guard against injury to her head and face and she has always had to take large amounts of medicine in an attempt to control the seizures. But even still, the seizures have often resulted in injuries including broken bones, gashes requiring stitches, missing teeth, and a broken jaw.

As a result of the mental retardation, her intellectual capacity is that of perhaps a first grader, and her emotional development is that of a ten-year-old child. Tracy is now forty-nine and she has done her best to have as normal a life as possible under the circumstances as they are. But she has never been able to drive a car, or count money, or use a stove, or go to the store by herself, or get married, or have a baby, or a thousand other things that most people can easily do and consequently take for granted.

Over more than four decades of raising and caring for Tracy I’ve often wondered why God allowed her to be born this way. And she’s not the only one. There are many millions of people in our world today in Tracy’s situation – born with some major disability that limits their quality of life in significant ways. Do such lives matter? Do they matter as much as yours and mine? They sure do! And I’m saying that based upon four decades of personal experience of loving and caring for a disabled person.

In the days to come I’ll tell you more about why I believe such lives matter, and how it is that those people have a rich and full life too. But for today I will end by telling you that for those of you who know Tracy, you know that she is a very sweet person who is kind and caring, always looking for ways to bless and encourage others, and she is a fun person to be with. Remember the little girl with Down’s Syndrome from yesterday’s devotional? Remember her spunk and uninhibited personality? Hello Tracy! Tracy doesn’t actually have Down’s Syndrome like that little girl does, but she is full of spunk and good humor, she is sweet and funny, she loves Jesus and she loves people and she loves life.

If you spend time with people in the special needs community, you’ll discover that to be very common attitude. They love life too. We’ll explore this thought more tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our theme for this month: “Your Life Matters”

Our Bible verse for today: “As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him: ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ Jesus answered. ‘This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.” John 9:1-3 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “All lives matter”

Recently I saw a video on Facebook of a children’s choir giving a performance in church. The children were all lined up on the stage, standing still shoulder to shoulder, hands at their sides, and singing their song. All except for one little girl with Down’s Syndrome. She started out standing still with the rest of them, but then she starts to sway with the music; then she begins to stomp her feet; then she leans her head back, raises her hands, and really begins to belt out the song. And then she starts doing some dance moves. And I mean, she was really moving! All the while the rest of the kids were standing still with their hands at their sides, well-behaved, and trying hard to remember their lines.

The video was hilarious but also inspiring. That little girl with Down’s Syndrome was completely uninhibited. The Spirit in her was moving her to worship, and she was determined to let it out and let it rip! And she did. By the way, the video went viral and has been seen by thousands of people.

Some people would question the value of the life of a child with Down’s Syndrome, or with any other major lifelong disability. There are secular ethicists who write books and articles, and who give lengthy speeches at scholarly conferences at places like Harvard University, who try to make the case that some life is less valuable than other life, especially because of things like Down’s Syndrome, and that child should have been aborted in the womb, or that her life should have been terminated shortly after birth. Their thinking is that such a life consumes resources that could be better applied to healthier people who make more of a contribution to society.

The Biblical teaching however, is that all life is valued by God and that He has a purpose and a plan for every person. Also, as we learn in John 9:1-3, all people, in all circumstances, can bring glory to God and they can bless and inspire others. That little girl in the video was an absolute hoot and I found myself wishing I knew her. I was certainly blessed by her style of worshipping God!

Over the next few days we’re going to explore this thought a little more. What about those people who are mentally and physically handicapped? Do their lives matter too? And if so, in what way? God says that all live matters – and therefore so do I.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim