Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Now concerning that day and hour no one knows – neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son – except the Father only.” Matthew 24:36 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Just be faithful today and trust God for tomorrow.”

Depending on which “doom and gloom” preacher you listen to, Jesus is coming back soon, or there is some worldwide apocalypse about to occur, or the Antichrist is already in the world and is about to make his move, or … well, fill in the blank.

Recently we all lived through months and months of speculation and controversy regarding “The Blood Moons”. Honestly, I personally didn’t follow it very closely but evidently there were four red moons that appeared in a single year and some people were convinced that based upon ancient prophecy, that was supposed to signify something really bad. I guess September 27^th was supposed to be “the day”. As near as I can tell whatever it was that was supposed to happen on that day … didn’t. Oh well …

I don’t mean to be glib about such things because some day, the end will come. But for 2000 years every generation since the Apostles in the book of Acts have always thought they were living in the end times – and they have all been wrong. And every generation has always believed that there were events taking place in their world which were clearly and obviously “signs of the end times” – but they weren’t. And every generation has always produced “prophets” who claimed to have figured out when the end will come – and they have all been wrong.

Jesus told us this would be so. He told us that no one knows the day or hour. That knowledge belongs to the Father alone.

So what are we to do? My personal philosophy (and I’m certain this is what the Bible teaches and models), is that we are to live each day with the urgency that Jesus could come back today, but we are to plan as if He isn’t coming back for 100 years.

Martin Luther once wrote, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

I know I’ve written on this subject before, but I do so again this morning because even though the Blood Moon issue has come and gone, the obsessive thinking about such things remains. Many Christians are so preoccupied with end times thinking that they’re neglecting long-term Kingdom work. That’s damaging and dangerous. Satan will use such compulsive thinking to hinder Christ’s kingdom-building work if we let him.

Someday the end will come. Maybe soon. Maybe today. But probably not. Historically and statistically the doom and gloom self-proclaimed prophets of our generation are probably as wrong as all of those from previous generations. And if we pay them too much attention, we will damage and hinder important work that needs to be done now.

Live with urgency. Share Christ with others (today), but plan and build and work hard with an eye on tomorrow, and next week, and next month, and next year. Just be faithful and trust the timing of it all to the Father.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight.” 1 Kings 4:29 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Trusting God does not excuse us from using common sense and from making good decisions.”

At this point in our consideration of the theme of trusting God, I think it will be helpful to inject a word of caution. Trusting God does not relieve us of our responsibility to use common sense and make good decisions.

Unfortunately sometimes Christians do exactly that. Sometimes we use the idea of “trusting God” as a convenient catch-all that relieves us of the responsibility we have to be smart and to make good choices. At that point “Trusting God” becomes little more than god-talk.

At one point in my life I worked in a Christian work environment where the staff was expected to carry a heavy load as a matter of regular routine. Then we lost a staff member, but the overall workload was not scaled back at all. The decision by the boss was for people who were already working long and hard, to now work longer and harder and under even greater pressure.

Although not every project was immediately necessary, the boss would not back off on anything, not even for a while. The way it was justified was “Let’s just trust God to enable us to do it.” The problem was that those who remained on that staff were overloaded and burning out. The “trusting God” mantra recited by the boss was little more than convenient god-talk so he didn’t have to make hard choices.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee once told the story of a brash young man who frequently made poor choices and took unnecessary risks. When Dr. McGee attempted to counsel the young man about his poor decision making the young man replied, “Look, I trust God to take care of me. So even if I decide to go stand in front of a speeding train, if it’s not my God-ordained time to go, then I’ll be just fine. I trust God.”

Dr. McGee replied, “My friend, if you go stand in front of a speeding train I can assure you it will be your time to go. And that will be true no matter how much you were trusting in God for some other outcome!”

Trusting God does not relieve us of using common sense and making good decisions. You may be trusting God for a large increase in your income when what’s really needed, is for you to make better choices with the income you already have. Likewise, you may be trusting God for a miracle cure for your heart condition when what is really needed, is for you to make some lifestyle changes with respect to diet and exercise. And if your staff is already overloaded and burning out, rather than trusting God to empower them to herculean efforts, maybe you need to make better management decisions regarding what a reasonable workload actually is.

God gave Solomon the wisdom and the ability to make good decisions and smart choices. As long as Solomon did that, he was fine. When he stopped using common sense God simply stood back and allowed him to suffer the consequences. That will be true in your life and mine as well.

Trusting God does not relieve us from our responsibility to use common sense and to make good choices.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.” Psalm 37:5 (NLT)

Our thought for today: “The definition of trust is actually a great description of God.”

The dictionary defines “trust” as, “Firm reliance on the integrity or ability of a person or thing.” Synonyms for trust include, “confidence, faith, certitude, certainty, belief, conviction, assurance, security, credibility, and trustworthiness.”

Those words define who God is. Nobody has more integrity than God. And ability? He is all-powerful, He created everything there is. Therefore we can have absolute confidence in Him; our faith in Him can be strong and certain; we can trust Him with conviction and assurance; because He is credible. When we think that deeply about what trust is, and we apply that understand to what we know to be true about God, we realize why He is so completely and totally trustworthy.

Therefore Psalm 37:5 encourages us to entrust everything to Him because when we do, He will help us. That’s one of the most common storylines in the Bible. Trust God, commit your ways to Him, seek His will rather than your own, and He will help you.

To help us gain an even fuller understanding of the concept of truly trusting, Rodale’s Synonym Finder offers this insight regarding what the act of trusting produces, “hope, hopefulness, optimism, expectation, and anticipation.”

We, the people of God, know this to be true from experience. When we truly trust God we discover that the black cloud of despair, uncertainty, and doubt is lifted and in its place we have hope, optimism, expectation, and a great sense of anticipation that good things are coming our way.

“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.”

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, read it, then went up to the Lord’s temple, and spread it out before the Lord.” 2 Kings 19:14 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Trust God to help you.”

At a time when both Israel and Judah had a long run of really bad kings, Hezekiah was one of the good ones. There was much evil in the land in those days, but Hezekiah was a godly man who was determined to honor the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 29:2 it is recorded of him, “He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestor David had done.”

One of the chief characteristics of Hezekiah as a man, and of his reign as king, is recorded in 2 Kings 18:5, “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel.”

We see his trust in God on full display a little later in chapter 18 and then on into chapter 19. There we read that the king of Assyria sent a huge army to attack and capture Hezekiah’s kingdom. The force was overwhelming. It was more than the Jews could withstand in their own power. Either God was going to show up in a big way, or Hezekiah and the whole nation would go down in defeat.

How did King Hezekiah respond to such a big problem? The same way he handled all his problems, we just read about it in 2 Kings 18:5, “he trusted in the Lord god of Israel.”

In  2 Kings 19:4 we read of the king receiving a letter from the commander of the Assyrian army demanding immediate surrender and threatening dire consequences otherwise. The king went into the temple, knelt at the altar, spread the letter on the altar, and gave the entire situation over to God. The king’s trust was in God to handle the problem. And He did. The Assyrian army was miraculously defeated and the people of God were delivered from almost certain doom.

How do you handle your problems? The bills you can’t pay; the relationship problem that seems to defy resolution; the difficult co-workers; the addiction you can’t seem to kick. Do you struggle with it in your own power? Do you look for worldly solutions (perhaps you’ll win the lottery!); do you just give up? Or, do you lay it before God and trust Him to guide you to a solution?

I love the imagery of Hezekiah actually taking the physical letter, laying it on the actual altar, then kneeling before the altar (and the letter), and talking to God about it. What a great example of trusting God!

Why don’t we do this? Take the eviction notice to the altar (or into your prayer closet), lay it before God and talk to Him about it. Bring a picture of the person you’re having relationship problems with and set it in front of you and talk to God about them. Bring that last unemployment check with you into your prayer time, show it to the Lord, remind Him that it’s the last one, and talk to Him about your need for a job. You get the idea.

Trust God to help you. Really trust Him. Show Him that you trust Him. And then expect to receive the help you need. When you do you’ll discover that God is very trustworthy.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Psalm 56:3-4 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “You can trust God.”

Who, or what, do you trust in? Most Christians would respond that they trust in God, and that, of course, would be the correct answer. But do we really? Do our lives really reflect a deep and abiding trust in God? Or, do we claim to ultimately and primarily trust God, but then live as if our trust is really in our career, our paycheck, our bank account, our spouse, our friends, and ourselves?

The great American evangelist of the 1800’s, D.L. Moody once wrote, “Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment. Trust in your friends and they will die and leave you. Trust in money and you may have it taken away from you. Trust in reputation and some slanderous tongues will blast it. But trust in God and you are never confounded in time or in eternity.”

All this month we will explore the topic of trusting in God. We will consider what trust is, why God is worthy of our trust, how we can structure our lives based upon a deep and abiding trust in God, and how we can then actually live our lives trusting in God (as opposed to trusting (in actual practice), in anyone else or in anything else).

God alone is the only faultless, perfect, and completely dependable One. Therefore He alone is the One we must trust in. I look forward to learning more about this great truth with you.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Enthusiasm”

Our Bible verse for today: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “You can enthusiastically and confidently go forward with God.”

Uncertainty about the future is one of the most troubling and frustrating things many Christians deal with. We have plans for the future, and we have expectations about how we hope things will turn out, but in truth we just don’t know. Nobody knows the future – except God.

So when it comes to thinking about the future how can we be enthusiastic rather than hesitant, confident rather than fearful? And even more, how can we be decisive and bold, how can we move forward with confidence?

Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us the answer. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” In other words, to the very best of your ability surrender your will for His. Seek His guidance; be willing to put aside your own desires and preferences in exchange for His good and perfect will; ask the Holy Spirit to purify your heart and to help you to genuinely want what God wants.

Then, with your heart right, trust that He will lead you down the path He wants you to go. Remember, God has a good and perfect plan He wants to work-out in your life. He has a vested interest in helping you to make good choices that are consistent with His will. So if your heart is right, and if your desire is to seek His will and be obedient to it, you can trust Him to act as necessary to keep you on the straight path that leads to the goal He has ordained for you.

I frequently pray something like this: “Lord, to the best of my ability I am seeking your will. I’m now stepping out in faith believing You are leading me in this direction. But if I’m wrong, if I’m in any way stepping outside of Your will on this, please make that clear to me and I will stop. Orchestrate events as necessary to keep me moving in the direction You have chosen or, close doors to stop me altogether. Give me the insight and wisdom to honor You with my choices and actions. Not my will but Yours be done.”

Once you’ve prayed something like that, get moving. Far too many Christians allow fear, uncertainty, and doubt to hold them back from doing the things they ought to be doing. That’s unnecessary. God will help you. God will guide you. So get going. Do it with enthusiasm and do it with confidence trusting that God will lead you.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Enthusiasm”

Our Bible verse for today: “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “Come near to God and God will come near to you.”

While conducting research in preparation to write his book “Finding God in Unexpected Places” author Philip Yancey observed a historical pattern which really shouldn’t surprise us. As Philip traced the spread of Christianity around the world, looking to discover where, and how, and why God was showing up in the most profound and biggest ways, he discovered that God seems to go where He is wanted the most.

In countries like Haiti, where the followers of Christ are passionate about their relationship with Him, the church is on-fire and there is a great spiritual awakening spreading across their land. In China, where Christians are so committed to the cause of Christ that they persevere in the face of intense government opposition, and pastors aren’t considered fully qualified until they have spent at least three years in prison for their faith, the church is flourishing. There are more Christians in China today than in any country on earth.

The highly developed and affluent nations of the Western world (the USA, Canada, Europe, etc) represent less than 35% of the Christian community worldwide. More than 65% of all Christians are somewhere other than here. And, the greatest works of God, the most profound and obvious evidence of His presence and power, is found over there not over here.

God goes where He is wanted.

I’m convinced that what is true for nations is also true for individuals. God goes where He is wanted. He shows up in big ways in the lives of those who want Him the most and who put the most time and effort into cultivating their relationship with Him.

2 Chronicles 16:9 reveals a great truth. God searches the world over for those whose hearts are truly hungry for Him and He then enters their lives in big ways, strengthening them, working in them (and working through them).

Give your heart completely to God and then be prepared for a mighty work of God in your life. God goes where He is wanted. How much do you want Him in your life?

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Enthusiasm”

Our Bible verse for today: “But his servants approached and said to him, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he tells you, ‘Wash and be clean?” 2 Kings 5:13 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Obedience leads to enthusiasm”

We’ve all known people who make bad choices and suffer for it. They know full well that they need to change their behavior in order for the suffering to stop, but they continue in their destructive ways anyway. It could be abuse of drugs or alcohol that is killing them but they won’t stop. It could an unhealthy lifestyle and soon their body will begin to suffer the effects of it, but they won’t improve their diet and exercise habits. Maybe poor financial habits are keeping them impoverished and in debt, but they keep spending irresponsibly anyway. Bad choices like that are unbiblical and lead to suffering and sorrow.

Living well – living Biblically – is not complicated. And really, it’s also not that hard.

Naaman was a commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a mighty man, but he developed a case of leprosy that would ultimately eat him up and kill him if something didn’t change. Long story short, he ended up standing before Elisha, a God-anointed prophet. The man of God gave him simple instructions, “Go dip yourself in the Jordan River seven times and you will be healed.” But proud Naaman was outraged. This seemed like a childish and insultingly simple thing. He had expected a stupendous miracle like flashes of lightening, peels of thunder, and an instantaneous cure. Rather than obey the Godly instruction, he stomped off in a huff.

Fortunately his servants were able to talk sense into him (2 Kings 5:13-14). He gave-in, listened to them, and wonders of wonders, he was cured just like the man of God said he would be.

Obedience isn’t that hard. Often it’s fairly simple. In the Bible God gave us boundaries within which He commands us to live. The boundaries are actually pretty wide and give us a lot of freedom and flexibility, but we do have to stay within the boundaries. When we do, we’re living in the realm where God can and will bless us. That’s the best life any of us will ever have. When we wander outside of those boundaries, we take ourselves outside of God’s blessings.

What does this have to do with our theme of enthusiasm? Let’s go back to Naaman’s story. After he had followed the simple instructions and was healed: “Then Naaman and his whole company went back to the man of God, stood before him, and declared, “I know there’s no God in the whole world except in Israel.” (5:15)

Naaman obeyed, he was blessed, and he ended up very enthusiastic about the God of Israel. So will you. Obedience leads to enthusiasm. Identify the area of your life where you are currently not living Biblically, obey Him, receive the blessings of obedience, then watch and see what that does for your level of enthusiasm for God and for His ways.

Obedience leads to enthusiasm.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Enthusiasm”

Our Bible verse for today: “I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3 (NASB)

Our thought for today: “Busyness distracts us from Christ.”

In previous devotional messages this month I’ve attempted to make the case for simplicity and solitude being key elements to cultivating a deep relationship with the Lord. I’ve argued that the more of God we experience, the more of Him we will want. That then will greatly increase our enthusiasm for Him, as well as our enthusiasm for joining in His kingdom-building work.

Busyness is an enemy of godly enthusiasm because it distracts us and takes our focus off of Jesus. Also, when we have too many things going on at once we end up being superficial – giving a little bit of attention to lots of things, but no deep and focused attention to anything.

In his book “Intimacy with the Almighty”, Pastor Chuck Swindoll offers a great quote from the author A.W. Tozer: “May not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridors of the Kingdom like children in the market place, chattering about everything, but pausing to learn the true value of nothing?”

Children are often energetic and enthusiastic, but in a mindless and superficial way; so too many Christians.

Pastor Chuck writes, “Let’s face it, you and I know of few places more susceptible to empty and endless chatter than religious circles. How easy to fall prey to meaningless talk, cliché-ridden responses, and mindless activities!”

If we’re going to be enthusiastic for the cause of Christ in a way that really matters, we’re going to have to go deep. And that will require time. It will require focus. It will mean pruning from our lives the non-essential things that distract us and keep us endlessly busy, but which are really fairly meaningless and insignificant.

What we discover when we finally do the pruning and cut-out the non-essential things that were draining away so much of our time and energy, is that we haven’t lost anything. We have gained. Suddenly our lives are better, fuller, deeper, and more satisfying.

Less truly can be more.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Enthusiasm”

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 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Hearing from God increases your enthusiasm for God”

Has God ever spoken to you? If you’re a Christian then the answer is “Yes He has”. Maybe you didn’t recognize His voice, maybe you didn’t realize He was speaking to you, but He has spoken many times and in many ways.

One of the greatest truths in the Bible is that God wants to be heard and understood by His people, and He does communicate with us. But when it comes to hearing and understanding God our problem tends to be twofold. First, we either don’t understand how God typically speaks to us and therefore we aren’t paying attention to Him in the right ways. Or, we do understand how He normally communicates with us but we just don’t put forth the time and effort to listen.

Although God can speak to us in an infinite number of ways, including through a burning bush (Moses in Exodus 3:4), or even through the mouth of a donkey (Balaam in Numbers 22:28-29), as Henry Blackaby teaches in the Bible Study “Experiencing God”, the way God typically speaks to us in our day is through the Bible, through prayer, through the circumstances of our lives, through the counsel of trusted Christian advisors, and through the testimony of the church. (I would add to that through sermons and music as well.)

If you will bring your issue or situation before God and patiently and prayerfully seek to hear from Him in those ways He will, overtime, communicate His answer to you, usually in two or three of those ways, sometimes all of them.

Dr. James Dobson, of Focus on the Family fame, has used this prayer for most of his life when he was seeking to hear from God: “Lord, I need to know what you want me to do, and I am listening. Please speak to me through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, friends, and the things that I read.” (Now listen and pay attention in those ways).

What does all of this have to do with our theme of “enthusiasm”? Well, if you’ve ever heard from God, and you knew it was Him speaking to you, then you already know the answer to that question. Few things will boost your enthusiasm like knowing for certain that you just heard from God!

Hearing from God increases your enthusiasm for God. It’s just a matter of understanding how He usually speaks to us, and then putting forth the time and effort to listen in the right ways. I encourage you to spend some extra time today listening to God.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim