Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “I have had enough! Lord, take my life, for I’m no better than my fathers. Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree.” 1 Kings 19:4-5 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Come apart and rest – or you might just come apart.”

Elijah was a mighty man of God who was often used by God in great ways. In 1 Kings 18:20-46 he confronted and defeated 450 prophets of Baal in a single spectacular contest on Mount Carmel. But then in 1 Kings 19:1 we find him running away in fear from the evil woman Jezebel, and then in verses 4-5 he just gives-up entirely and tells God that he wants to die.

What happened to Elijah? How did he go so quickly from being a bold, confident, mighty man of God confronting and defeating an army of pagan priests, to this whimpering and somewhat pathetic man who was ready to quit? Simple, he was spent. He was wiped-out. His emotional gas tank was empty. He was physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. He needed time to rest and renew.

You may remember in a previous devotional in this series I made the statement that sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is to take a nap. Such was the case with Elijah in this scene. The old adage that you need to come apart and rest – or you might just come apart, is very true and it applies to all of us.

Many of us push too hard for too long. We make excuses for not taking a break. We talk about all the work that has to be done, all the chores that must be completed, the people who depend on us, etc, etc, on and on … But the fact is that if you don’t take a break sooner or later you will end up like Elijah, out of gas and giving-up. If you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be able to take care of other people.

Also, sometimes we allow other people or certain situations to suck the life out of us. Sometimes we become co-dependant on those people or situations. In other words they become so much a part of our life that even though they’re killing us we can’t seem to break ourselves loose from them, not even for a short while.

If you don’t take care of yourself you won’t be able to continue taking care of the people and situations that need your care and attention. You have got to come apart and rest – or eventually you will simply come apart.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is to take a nap (or a vacation).

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Slow down and relax”

Jesus was in the house! He was sitting right there in the living room talking with Mary and waiting for supper (or so Martha thought). As Mary relaxed and enjoyed being with Jesus Martha hustled around the kitchen, banging pots and pans and pushing hard to prepare a meal for them all. The harder she worked the more anxious she got – and the more irritated with Mary she became. Martha was busting her buns in the kitchen while Mary was sitting on her buns in the living room! Grrr!

Soon she had had enough. Into the living room she stomps ready to give Mary a piece of her mind (and wondering why Jesus didn’t tell that lazy sister of hers to get in the kitchen and help her). But instead of correcting Mary, Jesus corrects Martha. It turns out that Jesus was more interested in company than food, and what he really wanted Martha to do was to sit down, rest and relax, and just enjoy being with Him.

Unfortunately I tend to be more like Martha than Mary. I spend a lot of time banging pots and pans when I should be enjoying time with Jesus. I have a list of things to do, I have places to go, people to see, things to accomplish. Day after day, chore after chore, it never seems to end. Grrr! Sometimes I long for retirement so I can enjoy long luxurious days of peace and quiet, resting and relaxing! (All my retired friends are laughing right now. Most of them tell me that somehow they ended up being busier in retirement than they were when they were working).

No, it’s not a matter of being retired or not – it’s a matter of having right priorities. It’s a matter of putting first things first. Jesus didn’t tell Martha that it was wrong to work hard to prepare a nice meal – He only said that she was doing it at the wrong time. There would be time later for cooking and cleaning, but in that moment she needed to rest, relax, and enjoy.

Sabbath-rest is an attitude. As Mark Buchanan explains in his book “The Rest of God”, Sabbath-keeping isn’t just a day, it’s an orientation, it’s a way of thinking that governs life and establishes our priorities. We’re all pretty good at doing things – we fill up our days with work and chores and endless activities, but seldom do we make enough time for rest and renewal. What we need is a change of attitude. We need to reorient our thinking.

I encourage you (me) to slow down and relax. Bang the pots and pans later. For now it’s time to sit with Jesus.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10

Our thought for today: “Quite times with God can be transformative”

Forest Home Christian Camp is located in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California. At over 8000 feet in elevation it is a beautiful setting of magnificent forests, pristine lakes, and spectacular views.

Forest Home is where Billy Graham, as a young evangelist just starting his ministry, settled an important issue with God. It was 1948 and Billy was wrestling with doubts about the Bible. A close friend had challenged him with questions about it that he couldn’t answer. Those questions raised doubts in his mind and he was deeply troubled. So Billy took a weekend to go off into the seclusion of Forest Home to rest and spend time with God. One afternoon, sitting quietly deep in the forest, Billy came to the conclusion that he trusted God implicitly and even if there were some aspects of the Bible he didn’t fully understand, he would take it all on faith as the inerrant Word of God.

Billy left Forest Home with the question settled in his mind and heart. Three weeks later he began his famous “Los Angeles Crusade” which drew 100s of thousands of people over the course of many weeks and which launched Billy’s amazing career as the most successful evangelist in the history of the Christian faith. Today there’s a beautiful little chapel in the woods at Forest Home marking the exact spot that Billy Graham settled that issue with God.

More than twenty-five years ago, as I was beginning my ministry years as a pastor, I spent a few days at Forest Home on a personal retreat and I spent some hours alone in that very chapel. It was a beautiful, peaceful, and profoundly moving experience. I just sat there in the deep quiet, with the sun shining through the windows, and I soaked-in the presence of God. I was so full and so at peace that I can vividly recall the experience more than two decades later.

In his great book, “The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath” author Mark Buchanan writes about the importance of Sabbath-rest: “From it, you can rise up and go – stronger, lighter, ready to work again with vigor and a clear mind.” Let me also add, that just as was the case with Billy Graham, those quiet times of rest and renewal also often bring clarity and peace as God helps us to resolve difficult issues we’ve been wrestling with.

Quiet times of Sabbath-rest can be transformative experiences. It is almost always a time of renewal and spiritual nurture, but it can also transform. I encourage you to make time for Sabbath-rest.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the Lord your God has commanded you. You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Do not do any work – you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey, any of your livestock, or the resident alien who lives within your gates, so that your male and female slaves may rest as you do.” Deuteronomy 5:12-14 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t be a slave”

In Deuteronomy 5:12-14 Moses was reminding the people of God’s instruction, originally given in the fourth of the Ten Commandments, to observe the Sabbath and to keep it holy. If you flip back in your Bible to that fourth commandment, found in Exodus 20:9-11, you will find that God linked the commandment to observe the Sabbath to the example He set for us in Genesis 2:2 where He stopped His work and rested.

Sabbath is taught directly or referred to at least 172 times in the Bible. If God begins by setting the example for us and then mentions it 172 more times, that’s probably a clue that we need to pay attention to it.

The concept of Sabbath-keeping is actually divided into two distinct parts. There is Sabbath-worship and there is Sabbath-rest. Most of us are better at Sabbath-worship than we are at Sabbath-rest. We usually faithfully participate in corporate worship services with our church family – so apparently we get that part of Sabbath, but the resting part is a bigger problem. Most of us don’t really participate in very much Sabbath-rest. Therefore most of our emphasis in this series will be on Sabbath-rest.

Why is this so important? Moses answered that for the Israelites in Deuteronomy 5:15: “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”

In other words, “You are no longer slaves so stop acting as if you are.” They were not to be slaves to the Egyptians, nor were they to be slaves to their jobs, their chores, or to their endless activities.

That goes for us too. Don’t be a slave to your job or to your chores or to your activities. Sabbath-rest helps us to push back against and to resist the endless pressure to do, do, do. God intends for our Sabbath-keeping to consist of both Sabbath-worship and Sabbath-rest. Tomorrow I will share with you the very best example I have ever witnessed or participated in of Sabbath-keeping done right.

God Bless
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.” Genesis 2:2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “God wants you to rest”

I want to thank everyone for being patient with me as I was on my mission trip to Kentucky and therefore not sending out the daily devotionals. It was a great mission trip but I’m glad to be home. We’ll now spend the rest of this month exploring the topic of “Sabbath Rest”.

“God wants you to rest”. That’s something I’m trying to get better at. I’m a doer by nature. I go from early in the morning till late at night, day after day, and I often wear myself out. However, I’m getting ready to go on vacation soon and I’m a little stoked about it because I’m looking forward to the rest and relaxation. I intend to try to make it a true time of “Sabbath Rest”.

Sabbath Rest is a concept that is widely misunderstood and often misapplied. “Sabbath” is most commonly understood as being a day set aside for worship and gathering in our faith communities. That would be the 7^th day (Saturday) for observant Jews and the 1^st day (Sunday) for most Christians. Gathering with our faith communities is an important part of Sabbath, but it is only part of it.

The other part of Sabbath is “rest” (thus the term “Sabbath Rest”). Rest is a period of time when we cease from work and other strenuous activity for the sake of renewal and rejuvenation. Good rest should be restorative and nurturing. For Sabbath Rest we cease from the strenuous activity of work, we lay aside our chores and other stressful activities, and in many varied ways we renew and restore spiritually. That renewal can take many forms. It could included extended times of prayer, Bible study, reading Christian books, quiet meditation, etc. But it might also mean sleeping late (sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is to take a nap!) It could also include time with family and friends, long walks on the beach, or various kinds of play and recreation.

In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 we read that God worked, and then He rested. Did God rest because He was tired? No. He’s God. He doesn’t get tired. God worked and then He rested as an example for us. He was teaching us an important lesson. We need to rest and relax.

Sabbath Rest is actually a crucial part of staying healthy and balanced. There are lots of ways to be spiritually renewed and refreshed and we’re going to consider many of them throughout the month. I look forward to spending this month exploring with you some of the many varied ways we can accomplish that.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “You Gotta Keep Dancing”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.” Exodus 4:12 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Just walk it out day-by-day”

Those of you who have been reading these daily devotionals for a long time have probably heard me say before that each day these devotionals are about me first and about everyone else second. More than eight years ago I started writing these little daily messages as part of my personal quiet time with the Lord. Writing helps me to clarify my thinking. So each day I would write about an issue the Lord was helping me to work through. It was about me and it was for me. It was only later that I felt led to begin sharing them with others who might be interested in reading them too. Little did I realize that eight years later there would be hundreds of faithful daily readers through emails, Facebook, and the church website.

Today will be the last message in our series “You Gotta Keep Dancing”. I have extended it one day into the new month because tomorrow I leave for a one week mission trip to build and renovate houses in a poor section of Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky. A group from our church will be meeting-up with another group coming down from Maryland and together we will spend the week working with the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) to serve impoverished families in that region. So this will be the last devotional message you will receive until Saturday June 8^th. I want to ask you to hang on it and use it as a reminder to pray for our team each day that we are gone.

What does that have to do with our theme of “You Gotta Keep Dancing”? Just that God has used the issue of mission trips to teach this lesson of “keep dancing” to me in a personal and powerful way. Back in March of 2007, when my wife Linda had her stroke and brain surgeries, I was serving as the Vice-President of Operations for an international humanitarian relief agency. My job was to plan and lead humanitarian relief missions around the world. I also traveled around the USA to speak in churches and to attend mission conferences as I promoted our organization and recruited team members.

But when Linda became disabled it seemed as if my traveling days were over. I left the humanitarian relief agency and returned to being a Pastor instead. It looked like I probably wouldn’t be going on any more mission trips. But Linda and I both sensed the Lord telling us to just take it one mission trip at a time and to trust Him for how it would work out. So I continued to help with the missions, one trip at a time.

Amazingly, over the 12+ years since Linda’s stroke, I have somehow been able to plan and lead 19 international mission trips to Romania, Haiti, Mexico, the Andes Mountains of Peru, and the Amazon Jungle. There have also been numerous shorter missions to Appalachia here in the USA.

How has that been possible? God. That’s it, just God. Somehow in each case, with the help of family members, neighbors, church family, and Linda’s own great attitude and determined spirit, the details at home just worked out and I have been able to go – over and over and over again. We just had to keep dancing and God made it possible.

That’s true for you too. Regardless of what your issue or challenge is the answer is to just keep dancing. Just take it one day at a time, one event at a time, and just keep moving forward.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “You Gotta Keep Dancing”

Our Bible verse for today: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

Our thought for today: “Your life matters.”

Recently I was reminded about the great story told in the classic Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, starring Jimmy Stewart. The story is set in the mythical town of Bedford Falls in the 1930s and 40s. Stewart plays a man named George Bailey. George is a young man who reluctantly takes over running the small Savings and Loan bank owned by his recently deceased father.

George didn’t want to spend his life running a small bank in a small town. He dreamed of bigger things. He wanted to travel to interesting places and do exciting things. Instead he felt compelled to stay in Bedford Falls, carrying on his father’s work, because people depended on him. It was the same old boring thing, day-in-and-day-out. Worse, George had to contend with the scheming and maneuvering of old Mr. Potter, a competing businessman who was always trying to take over George’s bank.

George was depressed and unhappy; he was convinced his life didn’t matter much and really didn’t add up to anything. Finally he decided to kill himself. So he goes to a nearby bridge intending to jump off and end his life, but right at that moment God sent an awkward angel by the name of Clarence to stop him. George argues with Clarence, saying that his life doesn’t really matter and everyone would have been better off if he had never even been born. To prove him wrong, Clarence then leads George on an adventure through time to show him what the world would have been like if he had never lived.

George is stunned to discover that his beautiful and happy wife Mary never married and ended up being a lonely and unhappy spinster. His younger brother Harry died as a child because George had not been there to save his life. Consequently Harry wasn’t there in World War II to shoot down a kamikaze airplane. Instead it successfully sank a U.S. Navy ship, killing hundreds of men who therefore never lived their own lives and never fathered their children, resulting in even more generations who never even lived. The town of Bedford Falls became a seedy little dump instead of a pleasant home to many families, and it happened because George Bailey wasn’t there to stop Mr. Potter from swindling the people.

On and on it went. It turned out that the subtle but steady influence of George Bailey, lived out in a hundred small ways every day, had more of a positive impact than he had ever realized. George then knew that he needed to get back to his life and just keep doing what he had been doing.

The same is true for you. You have more of a positive impact on the people around you than you realize. As Ephesians 2:10 says, you are God’s masterpiece, created by Him to accomplish wonderful things planned long ago. Your job is to just be yourself; just faithfully keep doing what you’re supposed to do – and just keep dancing.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “You Gotta Keep Dancing”

Our Bible verse for today: “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed I have a beautiful inheritance.” Psalm 16:6 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Learn to love your life”

Our theme this month has been inspired by Tim Hansel’s great little book “You Gotta Keep Dancin”. It’s about how Tim learned to live a full and productive life despite living in constant pain as a result of a rock climbing accident earlier in life.

The accident was a really big deal. It changed Tim’s life dramatically. As a young man he was a strong, adventurous, physically fit athlete. He had an M.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford. He had planned to remain strong and athletic for the rest of his life as he pursued amazing adventures and had great success in the business world. But that’s not how his life unfolded. Instead his body was broken, he lived in pain, he hobbled a lot, and he spent much of his time writing and speaking rather than climbing cliffs and riding white water rapids.

But Tim discovered the joy and fulfillment that was available to him in his new life. It was there, he just needed to find it, embrace it, and be grateful for it. He wrote, “I survived because I’ve discovered a new and different kind of joy that I never knew existed – a joy that can coexist with uncertainty and doubt, pain, confusion, and ambiguity.”

Psalm 16:6 is one of my favorite Bible passages and one of my personal life verses. I recite it to myself fairly often. It helps me to remember that despite the trials and difficult circumstances I am often faced with in the life that I have, there is also much joy and adventure – there are many good things to be appreciated and to be thankful for. Life isn’t perfect, and I have my share of problems just like you do, but still “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places”.

Our series for this month is almost over and we won’t be looking into Tim’s book any further; but before we leave it I will share with you one more helpful and inspiring thought from him:

“Each of us gets a second chance every day, if we would just open our eyes to the possibilities … life is not so much meant to be understood as it is to be lived out; it is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be participated in fully.”

I encourage you to live life fully. Embrace the mystery. Enjoy the adventure. Learn to love your life.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “You Gotta Keep Dancing”

Our Bible verse for today: “And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.” Hebrews 11:32-34 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Be a survivor”

One of the books I’m currently reading is the autobiography of Four-Star Navy Admiral William McRaven called “Sea Stories”. Admiral McRaven was a Navy SEAL for thirty-seven years. He planned and commanded the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

He grew-up as an Air Force brat. His father was a fighter pilot in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. For those years the family lived in close-knit communities in military housing units on Air Force bases in this country and around the world. The families were close and spent lots of time together. So McRaven can vividly recall spending time with “Easy Ed” Taylor, “Wild Bill” Wildman, and “Gentleman” Rod Gunther, all Air Force colonels, all fighter pilots, and all with many war stories to tell.

All of these people – McRaven’s father and mother, the other fighter pilots and their wives, and all of the associated friends – had been children during World War I, they had lived through the Great Depression, they had fought in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and they were tough. They had lived through it all. Here’s what Admiral McRaven remembers about them:

“They were survivors. They didn’t complain. They didn’t blame others for their misfortune. They worked hard and expected the same from their children. They treasured their friendships. They fought for their marriages. They wore their patriotism on their sleeve, and while they weren’t naïve about America’s faults, they knew that no other country in the world valued their service and sacrifice as much as the United States did. They flew their flags proudly and without apology.”

“They were survivors”.  Hebrews chapter 11 tells us about similar people. It is sometimes called “The Faith Hall-of-Fame”. It recounts the stories of many heroic saints of God who faced extreme adversity in life but who did so with faith and courage, with determination and perseverance. They too were survivors. Not necessarily in the sense that they overcame their problems and lived, because some of them didn’t live, some of them died for their faith. They were survivors in the sense that they refused to give-in or give-up. They refused to be crushed or defeated by their circumstances. If they were going to die, they would do it with dignity and courage.

I love examples like that because they inspire the rest of us to also dig-in, suck-it-up, and gut-it-out. The lesson is that they were survivors and you can be too.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

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