Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “God has made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 TEV

Our thought for today: “We need a simpler lifestyle”

One of the books I was reading while on vacation was called “Replenish” by Lance Witt. The subtitle is “Leading from a Healthy Soul”. It was written primarily for pastors but the lessons apply to all of us. In one chapter Lance told a story that I and every other pastor can immediately identify with. It was about the phone call that comes at 3:00 AM regarding an emergency someone is going through. Lance told the story on himself but I’ve been guilty of this identical thing. The caller begins with “Pastor, I’m sorry to wake you but …” And I interrupted with, “That’s ok, I wasn’t sleeping”.

That, of course, was a lie. I was sleeping. I was sound asleep and I was enjoying it. So why did I say I wasn’t? Let me be clear that I did not intentionally lie to the person. The words were out of my mouth before I even realized I was saying them. However after thinking about it I realized I made that statement for two reasons. One was that I didn’t want the person to feel bad about waking me up, so I told them I wasn’t asleep anyway. But the second reason was I realized that I kind of liked projecting the image that I’m Super Pastor, I don’t sleep. Even at 3:00 AM I’m awake and I’m praying for you.

Many of us, me included, wear our busyness like a badge of honor. We think it makes us look important. People need us, we have responsibilities, things won’t get done (or get done right) without my involvement. However by living like that, over time we develop a hurried spirit. Even in those rare moments when the body is still, the mind is racing and the soul is unsettled. This is toxic. It damages the soul.

Lance tells the story of how when white men first started to come to Africa the Swahili invented a unique term to describe them – “mazungu”, or “one who spins around.” Many of you reading this, and the one writing it, could fairly be called “mazungus” – we spend much of our time spinning like tops.

In the NIV Psalm 46:10 only contains eight words, twenty four letters, but it is profoundly convicting, “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.”

Quiet time with the Lord helps to remind us that we don’t have to be productive all the time, we don’t have to always be doing things. In truth, we would actually end up being more productive and more effective if we would just spend a little more time doing nothing except sitting quietly with the Lord. We would then be refreshed and refocused and reenergized.

God has made us plain and simple, and that’s the way He wants us. We’re the ones who have made ourselves so darn complicated.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Proverbs 25:11 (NIV)

Our thought to today: “Words nourish the soul”

Words are like food to the soul. Words communicate profound meaning and on the receiving side they impact us in the deepest place, the soul. That’s why Solomon portrays them as being as appealing as decorative apples made of gold and displayed in a silver setting. A kind word aptly spoken is beautiful and deeply pleasing; it has the capacity to warm the heart and bless the soul.

Not only do words come from the soul but they are also received in the soul. They come from deep within us, reveal our innermost thoughts, and are received by the hearer at that same deep level. This is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 12:34-35 when He said that it is out of the overflow of our heart that our mouth speaks.

The impact words have on the soul is also what makes the reading, hearing, and studying of God’s Word so important. Psalm 19:7 tells us that the Word of God revives and refreshes the soul.

This Sunday you will be gathered with your church family and there will be many words spoken. Some of those words will be spoken in idle conversation; some may be shallow clichés; some of them may even be harsh words. But what if the words spoken in all our churches this Sunday are life-giving words? What if we were all intentional about speaking life and encouragement to one another and at deep levels – soul to soul? 

Your words come from your soul and the souls of those who hear those words will feed on them, good or bad. I encourage you to make it a point to speak words of life and encouragement and nurture.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Our Bible verse for today: “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” John 16:33 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Suffering strengthens the soul”

You may remember from previous devotionals this month that when this life is over, the only thing you get to take with you is your soul. Everything else gets left behind. Your house, your cars, your jewelry, your friends and family, even your physical body, it all stays behind and you go forward into eternity with only your soul. That being the case, the most important thing we can accomplish in this lifetime is the achievement of a healthy soul to take with us into eternity.

And so we come to the subject of suffering. Does suffering really strengthen the soul? Yes it does. Suffering draws us to Jesus. When we’re hurting it causes us to realize how much we need the Lord and it draws us to Him. I have known many people over the years who had to travel through the valley of serious illness only to find that in the middle of the pain and suffering they found comfort and assurance in the Lord. They came out of that time of sickness stronger in their faith. I’ve known others whose lives unexpectedly came crashing down around them as they lost a marriage, a job, a home, their savings, and were left with almost nothing. But they found solace and support in the Lord and in a good church family. They ended up coming through that time stronger in their faith than before that experience. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures but shouts to us in our pain.” Yes He does.

I can think of so many examples of sickness, suffering, and tragedy turning out to be life altering events for the better. That’s because when a tragic event cuts us right to the bone, the superfluous stuff of life falls away and all that’s left is that which really matters. Rick Warren wrote, “We are more likely to change because we felt the heat than because we saw the light!” That’s very true. It’s often in the furnace of adversity that we learn out greatest lessons.

Romans 8:28 assures us “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, those who are called according to His purpose.” (HCSB) That doesn’t mean that all things are good – obviously not all things are. But it does mean that God is at work on our behalf in the midst of tragic circumstances to bring some good thing out of it for us. One of those things can and often is a stronger, healthier, more mature soul. Suffering often strengthens the soul.

God Bless,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.” Matthew 6:25; 33 (HCSB) 

Recently I have been studying the writings of the great devotional writer Oswald Chambers. When referring to the passage above from the Sermon on the Mount, Chambers made an interesting observation about the person who has learned to rest and trust in the Lord. He wrote:

“The Christianity of Jesus Christ refuses to be careworn. Our Lord is indicating that we have to be carefully careless about everything saving our relationship with Him.” This is exactly what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote in Philippians 4:11 “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”

Over time, as we consistently and persistently do the things necessary to properly care for our soul, not only do we mature in our relationship with Christ but we also become the kind of people who are relaxed and content. There is an unhurried air about us we navigate the turbulence of life with a quiet confidence in the Lord. It’s like Dallas Willard used to teach, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry and anxiety from your life.”

That doesn’t mean that we dismiss our problems and don’t do anything about them, it simply means that we trust in the Lord to help us deal with them. We know that He is Sovereign over all the situations of our lives, He has a perfect plan, and that He has the power to influence situations and people as needed. And so, we simply and confidently walk through the situations with Him.

This is what both Jesus and Paul were referring to. It is the fruit of a healthy soul that has learned to relax in the Lord.

God Bless,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” Mark 6:31-32 (NIV)

When it comes to taking care of the soul, Jesus set a great example for us. Jesus – God in a human body – made it a point to take care of Himself spiritually, and then He instructed His followers to do likewise. Matthew 14:13, Mark 2:35, and Mark 6:46 are just a few of the passages which show us Jesus withdrawing for personal quiet time. Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 3:13, and Mark 6:31-32 are a few where we see Jesus including His closest followers in a sort of group retreat.  As author John Ortberg explained, the point is that Jesus set an example for us with respect to properly caring for the soul and He engaged in specific identifiable practices towards that end:

1. He prayed.

2. He had a close circle of devout friends who walked through life with Him.

The lesson we learn from Jesus’ example is that we need to engage in practices which connect us to God’s grace and energy and joy. In other words, we need to take care of our soul. I encourage you to follow Jesus’ example and to do some of those things today.

God Bless

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore anyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.” Matthew 7:24-25 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “The soul is the foundation upon which the rest of life rests.”

In the winter of 2013 there was a story in the news about a sinkhole that suddenly opened up in a neighborhood in Florida. Without warning the ground under a home suddenly gave way and the entire house was swallowed in an instant. One man inside the home was killed and they never recovered his body. It turned out that the ground under the house was made mostly of limestone. Over the years acidic rain seeping down from the surface had eaten away at the limestone until finally it simply gave way, the foundation collapsed, and the entire house was swallowed up.

The same thing happens in human lives. Author Gordon MacDonald once referred to it as “The Sinkhole Syndrome”.  It describes a life that is built upon a weak spiritual foundation. Over time the cares of life eat away at that foundation until one day the cares and pressures of work, and relationships, and financial concerns, criticism, etc, become too much and the foundation crumbles; the life is then swallowed up into a giant sinkhole of a nervous breakdown, or substance abuse, or a mid-life crisis. Because the inner life of the soul was built upon a weak foundation, it could not withstand the pressure from the outer life of cares and worries, and so it collapsed.

Jesus used a similar analogy in Matthew 7:24-27. In His example the life wasn’t swallowed up by the earth, it was blown away by a storm, but the same lesson is taught. The spiritual foundation was weak and therefore the life was eventually shattered and destroyed.

The soul is the foundation upon which the rest of life rests. If the soul is strong and healthy the person won’t be blown away by the storms of life, and they won’t be swallowed up as things collapse all around them. Take care of your soul. Make sure it is strong.

God Bless,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

Our thought for today: “The soul craves rest and renewal.”

In his book “Soul Keeping”, John Ortberg tells the story of a busy and self-important American traveler who was visiting remote regions of Africa. Although she wanted to see the countryside, she also wanted to make the journey quick and efficient. So she hired a group of local village men to be carriers and guides for her and off she went. The first day she pushed and pressured and urged the men to move quickly and to cover great distances. And they did. At the end of the day she was very pleased with how far and how fast they had traveled. However the next day she couldn’t get the village men to budge at all. They refused to even leave the campsite. In exasperation she demanded to know why. They patiently explained to her that on the first day they had traveled too far and too fast, and now they needed to wait for their souls to catch up.

Ouch. That sounds like my life. Do I travel so far and so fast through every day that my soul has to hurry to catch up with me? How about you? Do you ever feel like you need to slow down, sit down, catch your breath, and just give your soul some time to catch up with your body?

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus invited us to do exactly that. It was His whole point. We rush through life burdened and anxious to the point that our soul gets weary. Jesus knows this and so He invites us to come to Him, just sit and rest and enjoy His company while He ministers to and nurtures that weary soul of ours. 

It’s a compelling invitation and one that we need to accept. The truth is that the soul does get weary and it does get far too burdened. The image of a huffing and puffing soul rushing to keep up with a frantic and anxious body is humorous and yet sadly accurate. The soul craves rest and renewal. I encourage you to carve out some extra time this weekend to rest in the Lord.

God Bless,

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.” Jeremiah 31:3 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “God longs for deep fellowship with His people”

In our devotional a couple of days ago we spent some time considering the truth that not only does God bless us, but we in turn can bless Him. We can and should bring joy to the heart of God. Throughout the course of this month we’ve also focused on the truth that it is our soul which makes it possible for us interact with and to have fellowship with God.

An important truth we frequently forget is that God is a person, complete with feelings and emotions. Way too often we memorize facts about God, we consider great truths about Him such as His being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, but that doesn’t really make us feel any closer to Him. Such statements about God are cold and abstract. They’re little more than theological truths which we can read about in a textbook.

But from the first chapter of Genesis all the way through to the last chapter of Revelation, the Bible describes for us a God who feels and loves, who experiences joy and sorrow, a God who knows the full range of emotions which we as humans also experience. The great Christian writer A.W. Tozer once explained it like this, “In the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may.”

In Jeremiah 31:3 we read of God’s everlasting love for His people. We read of how He continually reaches out and extends faithful love to those who are His. How do we get to know God like that? How do we learn to interact with Him on that emotional level, with both Him and us experiencing the full range of feelings and emotions in a two-way interactive relationship? That’s the job of the soul and it can only happen when the soul is healthy.

This brings us back to the classic disciplines of the Christian faith. There simply is no substitute for prayer, Bible study, worship, meditation, service, fellowship, and the other practices of the Christian faith, all of which place us in a position before God whereby He can nurture our soul and interact with us. There is no substitute.

When we read the Bible we need to stop approaching it like it’s a textbook which provides us with information, tips, and techniques. Instead we need to read it as a story about God the person. We need to note His feelings, His emotions, His joys and sorrows. We need to see Him longingly and continuously reaching out to people and drawing them into a deep relationship with Himself. And then we need to respond to Him on that level. This is the life of a healthy soul.

God Bless,