Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Be faithful and flourish”

I love the imagery of Jeremiah 17:7-8. There we find the faithful man or woman of God compared to a healthy tree that is well-watered and producing great fruit. Its roots go deep and it is therefore strong and stable, able to withstand storms and adverse circumstances.

Psalm 1:1-3 paints an almost identical picture using similar words. In Galatians 5:22-23 the Apostle Paul describes such a person as living a life that is abundant with the Fruit of the Spirit: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

The point in all of those passages is that when a person simply settles into a life of faith and focuses on establishing deep spiritual roots, and when they drink long and deep every day of the Living Water, that person flourishes in all the ways that really matter.

This is important, and it’s a key to embracing the gift of simply being yourself. Most of us expend way too much time and effort trying to fit into the world’s mold. We stress and strive to be the kind of person the world tells us we should be, achieving the things the world says are important, and acquiring the possessions the world tells us we should want. This is a mistake and it leads to emptiness and frustration.

Instead God calls us to a life of faith. We are to simply settle into our faith – relax in our faith – and focus on growing deep in a relationship with God. That then will produce a life which is truly fruitful. The more spiritually mature you become the less you will feel pressured to be what the world wants you to be. The most spiritually mature individuals tend to be settled, serene, peaceful, and content. It’s not that they never face problems or that they never get upset or discouraged, but their overall character becomes increasingly serene, peaceful, and content.

Rather than stressing and striving to fit into the world’s mold, you can instead relax and settle into your faith, allowing God to mold you and shape you into the person He wants you to be. That’s when you will truly flourish as a person; it’s when you will be the most content and peaceful.

Just be faithful and you will flourish as a person. We’ll continue this thought tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

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Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “There is no one else like you.”

Have you ever read the wonderful little book “The Greatest Miracle in the World”? It’s a small book, only about 100 pages, and it’s an easy read. It was written by Og Mandino and is part of a series of small books that tell of Og’s own real-life transformation.

Og was an alcoholic whose life was so bad that he seriously considered committing suicide. At one point he met a wise old man on the street whom he called “The Ragpicker”. Through the course of a budding friendship the Ragpicker shared important life lessons with Og, especially lessons about God, which radically changed Og’s life. Og then went on to spend the rest of his life writing best-selling inspirational books and conducting seminars and workshops to help others get their lives straightened out too.

One of the most important lessons the old Ragpicker taught Og was to learn to accept himself as a much-loved and unique creation of God. The main thrust of the lesson is found in the title to the book itself – the greatest miracle in the world is you. You are God’s masterpiece. He intentionally created you with infinite precision beyond anything you can imagine. From the color of your hair to the shape of your nose to the length of your pinky toe, God made decisions about it all. He decided who your parents would be, when you would be born, how long you will live, and whether you would have clear skin or freckles (and how many freckles).

The most important chapter in the story is what Og calls “The God Memorandum”. It’s an absolutely brilliant piece of writing that answers the question “If God were to write a letter to you explaining how special you are to Him, what would that letter say?”

Before you can be comfortable in your own skin, truly enjoying just being yourself, you must understand and accept that God intentionally created you to be the unique individual you are. The full “God Memorandum” takes an entire chapter in the book, but for your convenience I have pasted an abridged version of it below as an addendum to this devotional message. If you don’t have time to read the entire thing now then save it for later, but I encourage you to spend some time with it soon. You are God’s special, unique, and much-loved creation. There is no one like you.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

THE GOD MEMORANDUM

I hear your cry.

Be at peace. Be calm, for I bring you relief for your sorrow, for I know its cause and I know its cure.

You weep for childhood dreams that have vanished with the years. You weep for your self- esteem that has been corrupted by failure. You weep for all your talent that has been wasted through misuse. The passing years have destroyed your recollection, for they have filled your mind with fear and doubt and anxiety and remorse and hate. And there is no more room for joyful memories where these sorrows live.

Weep no more, for I am with you. This moment is the dividing line for your life. All that has gone before is past. This is the day you return from being dead. I am life. Take me, accept me. This is your new date of birth. Head my words. Follow my counsel.
This time you shall not fail.

Feel my hand upon your head and attend to my wisdom. Let me share with you again one secret which you heard once but have forgotten.

I have fashioned you with infinite love. You are a MASTERPIECE of divine work.
But how can you be a masterpiece when you consider yourself a failure? How can you be a masterpiece when you have no confidence? How can you be a divine masterpiece when you are shackled by debt and lie awake in torment over whence will come tomorrow’s bread?

ENOUGH. The milk that is split is sour. Yet how many messengers have I sent you with the word of your divine origin, your potential for Godliness and the secrets of achievement? And how did you treat them?

Still, MY LOVE, my concern for you will never changed. And I am with you now through these words to fulfill the words of the prophet who announced that I shall set my hand upon you again, a second time and even a hundred times.

You have been told that I created you in my image. You have been told that you are a wonderful piece of work, noble in reason, infinite in faculties.

You believed no one. You buried your map to happiness; you abandoned your claim to peace of mind; you snuffed out the candles that had been placed along your destined path of glory; and then you stumbled, lost and frightened, in the darkness of futility and self-pity; until you fell into a hell of your own creation.

Then you cried and beat your breast and cursed the much that had befallen you. You refused to accept the consequences of your own petty thoughts and lazy deeds and you searched for a scapegoat on which to blame your failures. How quickly you found one! You blamed me!

You cried that your handicaps, your mediocrity, your lack of opportunity, your failures were the will of God! You were wrong!

Let us take inventory. Let us call a roll of the blessings I have endowed you with. For how can I ask you to build a new life unless you know the tools you have?

Are you blind? Does the sun rise and set without your witness? No. You can see. I have placed in your eyes the hundred million receptors to enable you to enjoy the color of a leaf, a pond, a child, a cloud, a star, a rose, a rainbow, and the look of love. Count one blessing!

Are you deaf? Does a baby laugh or cry without your attention? No. You can hear. I have built the 24 thousand fibers in each of your ears to vibrate to the wind in the trees, the tides on the rocks, the majesty of an opera, a robin’s plea, the happy laughter of children at play and the words: “I LOVE YOU.” Count another blessing.

Are you mute? Do your lips move and bring forth only spittle? No. You can speak, as can no other of my creatures, and your mouth can calm the angry, uplift the despondent, goad the quitter, cheer the unhappy, warm the lonely, praise the worthy, encourage the defeated, teach the ignorant… and say “I love you!” Count another blessing.

Are you unloved and unloving? No. No more. For now you know loves secret, that to receive love it must be given with no thought of its return. To love for fulfillment for satisfaction or pride is not love. Love is a gift from which no return is demanded. Now you know that to love unselfishly is its own reward, and even should love not be returned it is not lost, for love not reciprocated will flow back to you and soften and purify your heart. Count another blessing.

Is your heart stricken? Does it leak and strain to maintain your life? No. Your heart is strong. Touch your chest and feel it’s rhythm, pulsating, hour after hour, day and night, 36 million beats each year, year after year, asleep or awake, pumping your blood through more than 60 thousand miles of veins, arteries and tubing, pumping more than 6 thousand gallons each year. No human has ever created such a machine. Count another blessing.

And now, consider the intricate structure of your brain, the most complex in the universe. Within its three pounds are 13 billion nerve cells, more than three times as many cells as there are people on the earth. And to help you file away every perception, every sound, taste, smell, every action you have experienced since the day of your birth, I have implemented within your cells more than one thousand billion protein molecules… Every incident in your life is there, waiting only for your recall. And to assist your brain in the control of your body I have dispersed throughout your form four million pain-sensitive structures, five thousand touch detectors, and more than two hundred thousand temperature detectors. None of your ancient wonders are greater than you.

You are my finest creation!

You are so rich in blessings they overflow from your cup. And yet, you have been unmindful of them. With generosity and regularity I have bestowed you every blessing necessary to be your treasure and your tool with which to build, starting today, the foundation for a new better life.

Where are the handicaps that produced your failures? They exist only in your mind.
Count your blessings. You are my finest creation. You are a miracle.

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Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Keep your whole self healthy”

I love the title of our theme for this month “The Gift of Being Yourself”. I wish I could tell you that I thought it up, but I didn’t. I borrowed it from author David Benner. It’s the title of a great little book he wrote more than fifteen years ago.

I met David at a conference on spiritual formation in Los Angeles. He taught a workshop at the conference and he had a booth in the resource center where he was selling his books. At that time David was a professor of psychology and spirituality at the Psychological Studies Institute in Atlanta. His specialized field of study was the deep and important connection between the mind and spirit (thus his dual emphasis on psychology and spirituality). His book “The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery” is a great read and it is very helpful. I recommend it to you.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 the Apostle Paul alludes to the fact that as Christians we are much more than just a spirit-being who happens to inhabit a physical body for the time we are here on earth. Sometimes we hear the physical body compared to a spacesuit that an astronaut wears in order to exist in outer space. In this metaphor our spirit has to wear this “earth suit” in order to exist in the physical realm. But as soon as this life is over, the earth suit is discarded and the spirit goes on to exist without it in the spiritual realm.

That’s an appealing metaphor, but unfortunately it’s simplistic and not entirely accurate. There’s a deep and intimate connection between the body, mind, emotions, and spirit. All of them are an important part of who we are as individuals and each of them has an impact on the others. In order to be our best selves now, we need to do what we can to be as healthy as we can for as long as we can physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

With respect to our theme of “The Gift of Being Yourself”, there’s a balance that needs to be achieved between accepting yourself for who you are, while at the same time doing the things you need to do in order to be your best self. Not in order to please or impress others, but in order to please the Lord and in order to be your best.

God gives you the freedom to relax and to just be you, but at the same time you will feel good and be your happiest when you are being your best self. We will spend the rest of the month exploring that important balance.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “The Gift of Being Yourself”

Our Bible verse for today: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made …” Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Just relax and be yourself.”

During the summers at our church many of us wear Hawaiian shirts on Sunday mornings. I preach in one. But the rest of the year I like to wear suits. On most Sundays I’m the only one in a suit. Some people consider a preacher in a suit to be old fashioned. Now-a-days hipster preachers wear sport coats, jeans, and tee shirts. But I’m not a hipster and I don’t try to be.  I enjoy dressing up, and so I do. I also wear loud ties. Some of them are big fat ties that haven’t been in style for thirty years. I don’t care. Leave me alone.

I wear a tie chain too because it holds my tie to my shirt. I don’t like it when my tie flops around. I’ve been told that “Nobody wears tie chains anymore.” Well, evidently at least one person does (me).

I’ve never been a slave to fashion and I’ve discovered that as I’ve gotten older I’m paying even less attention to it. I’m much less concerned with what other people like, and much more concerned with what works for me. My two primary considerations these days are first comfort, and second, what I think looks good on me.

Not long ago I saw a guy wearing red and white plaid pants with a red polo shirt tucked in. He was also wearing a white patent leather belt and white patent leather shoes. We used to call that “The Cleveland Look”. I don’t know why. Evidently people in Cleveland used to dress that way. Maybe they still do. But on this day, in that place, nobody else was dressed like him. Maybe nobody else on the planet was dressed like him (with the possible exception of some people in Cleveland). But he didn’t seem to care. He was rockin’ the look and he was pretty happy about it. Good for him.

One of the primary psychological maladies people suffer from is poor self-image. And poor self-image is almost always caused by what we believe other people think about us. If we think other people find us attractive, we will probably feel good about ourselves. If we suspect others don’t find us attractive, we will probably not feel good about ourselves. Many of us spend way too much time feeling bad about ourselves, and mostly that’s due to what we believe other people think about us. We need to stop that.

All this month we’re going to explore “The Gift of Being Yourself.” Of course we should always be striving to improve ourselves in areas that need improvement, but we also have to learn to be comfortable in our own skin. It’s okay to just be who you are. As we are going to learn, God has given you the gift to just relax and be yourself.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

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Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “You will be as close to God as you want to be.”

As we draw our month of thinking about Sabbath-rest to a close, let me leave you with a question to consider: “What kind of a person are you in the process of becoming?”

We are all in the process of becoming someone different from who we have been. Living things do not remain static. Even if you do nothing, time will change you. The days will pass, your body will get older, your patterns of thinking will become more established, the effects of your habits will accumulate and compound. Let me say it again, even if you do nothing, time will change you – either for the good or for the bad.

Therefore it’s imperative that we be proactive and incorporate into our daily lives practices and patterns of living that will have a net positive effect on us and which will help us to continue changing for the better. Sabbath-rest helps to do that because it draws us closer to God. You can be as close to God as you want to be, but it will depend on how much time you choose to spend with Him.

As we’ve learned, Sabbath-rest is rest with a redemptive purpose. It is rest that is specifically intended to be spiritually nurturing. The first and most important kind of Sabbath-rest is periods of extended quiet time with God.

But Sabbath-rest can take other forms as well. As I write this I’m concluding a week of vacation at Myrtle Beach, SC. I have spent many hours out on the back porch of the condo overlooking a very serene setting, praying, reflecting, reading, and journaling. It has been a wonderful time with the Lord. But I’ve also spent hours out on the ocean in my kayak. That too has been a great time with God. Linda and I also celebrated our forty-first anniversary while we were here. Celebration is also an important part of Sabbath-rest. As we’ve learned this month, there are many ways to rest, relax, recreate, and celebrate while keeping God as the central focus.

As we end this month of devotional reflection about the importance of true Sabbath-rest as a regular part of life, I want to leave you with a question posed by Mark Buchanan in his great book “The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath”. Mark challenges us to ask ourselves, “Does the path I’m walking lead to a place I want to go? If I keep heading this way, will I like where I arrive?”

That brings me back to my opening question, “What kind of person are you in the process of becoming?”  If you continue doing what you’re doing, will you like the person you end up being?

Sabbath-rest is God’s gift to you. I encourage you to make it a regular part of your life. You’ll be glad you did.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Sabbath-rest helps to guard your heart.”

In Proverbs 4:23 Solomon issued an important word of caution regarding the critical role the heart plays in the quality and character of our lives. He says that the heart is the wellspring of life, meaning that the rest of life flows from the heart. Therefore we have to guard the heart by controlling what is allowed into it. And, if the heart has been polluted, then steps need to be taken to cleanse it.

Jesus spoke to this important truth on multiple occasions. In Luke 6:45 He told us, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

“Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” In other words, sooner or later whatever is in your heart will rise to the surface and show itself in words and deeds. You may effectively control your words and actions for a while, despite what is really in your heart, but sooner or later the good or bad that is in your heart will show itself in words and deeds. So you had better pay attention to what is in your heart. Guard it.

As Curtis and Eldredge explain in their book “The Sacred Romance”, “Our heart is the key to the Christian life.” And, “Sadly, most of us watch the oil level in our car more carefully than we watch over the life of our heart.”

It’s true – most of us pay much more attention to the external things of life than we do to the internal things of the heart. But God is much more concerned about our inner life than our outer life because it’s the inner life that drives the outer life. That’s exactly what Solomon and Jesus were trying to get us to understand.

Sabbath-rest, in all of its various manifestations, helps us to focus less on the externals of life and more on the internals of the heart. It is possible to reclaim a healthy heart-life. But you need to put your focus where the focus needs to be, and that is on your relationship with God.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Don’t miss the romance”

How happy are you with your life? How content are you with the state of your relationship with God? Down deep do you sense that you were made for more than this?

You were, and you know it.

In 1997 John Eldredge and Brent Curtis published a book that changed the spiritual landscape for untold numbers of Christians. Like Henry Blackaby’s Bible study, “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”, and Richard Foster’s classic work “The Celebration of Discipline”, this book by Eldredge and Curtis provided insight and understanding about a deep relationship with God that became a game-changer for many of us.

The title of the book was “The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God”. In the book Eldredge and Curtis describe God as “The Great Romancer”. God is a lover at heart and His relationship with His people is one of an eternal romance – with God taking the lead. He calls to us and He woos us. He is always working to draw us to Himself and then, once we come to Him, He overwhelms us with His great love for us.

The true story of your life is the journey of your heart into a deep love relationship with God. The deeper and stronger that relationship is the more satisfied and content you will be. The weaker, more distant, and more superficial your relationship with God is the less content you will be –  there will be something missing in you at a very deep level and as a result nothing in this life will truly satisfy you.

This is where most of us are missing the boat in life. We’re looking for love in all the wrong places. We’re seeking fulfillment and satisfaction from the things of this world when in truth the only thing that will meet our deepest need is a rich love relationship with our Father in heaven.

Sabbath-rest helps us with this. Sabbath-rest (rest with a spiritual objective) places us in a position whereby God can have access to our full mind and heart. As we have learned this month, Sabbath-rest can and should include things like playing and recreation and celebration, but the primary and most important element is quiet time with God. This is the stuff of Psalm 46:10.

The Great Romancer, the One who loves you more than you can know, is calling to you. He is saying “Come and spend time with Me.” I encourage you to respond to the call.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our mailing address is:

Our theme for this month: “Sabbath Rest”

Our Bible verse for today: “So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What we will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:31-34 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Learn to live in the moment”

Yesterday I encouraged you to consider taking a short spiritual retreat, some quiet time for just you and the Lord. There are many benefits to taking a spiritual retreat and one of them is that it helps us to refocus and to live in the moment.

When I say “live in the moment” I’m talking about paying attention to what’s going on around you. In the military we called it “situational awareness”. Many of us don’t “live in the moment”. We’re too distracted. Our minds are filled with thoughts of the problems we believe we have, the things we need to do, and even fantasies of how we wish things were. There’s a lot of noise inside those heads of ours.

I know this to be true because it’s true of me but also, I spend enough time counseling people to know that it’s true of most of you too. We spend way too much time brooding about the past and being anxious about the future. Much of the time we’re thinking about “what was” and “what could be” rather than about “what is”.

A spiritual retreat helps to quiet the voices in our heads and to refocus on the present. I’m talking about mindfulness. It’s the ability to simply “be” and to see what “is”. It’s a time to savor and reflect and appreciate. It’s only then that we become truly alive. This is when we hear the birds sing, and we pause to appreciate the beauty of a flower, and we finally notice – really notice – how spectacular the scenery all around us is.

This is also when we begin to hear that “still small voice of God”. Seldom does God shout at us. Almost always He uses His inside voice – the voice we hear inside our heads and our hearts. It’s soft and quiet, and in order to hear it we need to be quiet too – and undistracted.

First and foremost a spiritual retreat can help us to once again begin living in the moment. Then, hopefully, some of that will carry over and come home with you. Perhaps you will begin to live more in the moment as a normal way of life. The Lord said, “Be still and know that I am God …” (Psalm 46:10). That’s another way of saying “Learn to live in the moment.”

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

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