Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “You can trust Jesus to help you bear fruit.”

Jesus wants to produce fruit in and through your life. The fruit He wants to produce is His fruit – good works for the Kingdom of God. John 15:5 essentially teaches that Jesus wants to live His life through you and produce His fruit through your life. When we study the full body of New Testament teaching on the subject we discover that Jesus does this by means of His Holy Spirit living in your heart (John 14:16-17), and producing fruit through you (Galatians 5:22-23).

When we do the things that enable us to abide in and stay close to Jesus (like prayer, Bible study, worship, etc.) then His Spirit reigns in our lives and His fruit is produced. But there’s another part of that passage in John 15 that is often overlooked but which is actually a vital part of the teaching. It’s in verse 2 and it reads “… He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.”

When a branch on a grapevine gets too big it begins to extend too far from the vine. The bigger the branch the further the nourishment of the vine has to travel and the more depleted it gets. Then both the quality and the quantity of fruit diminish. So the gardener will prune the branch – actually cutting some of it away, thereby improving the overall health and fruitfulness of that branch.

Sometimes our lives get like that. Sometimes our lives get so busy and we are involved in so many activities that our fruitfulness diminishes and when that happens, God will often take action to prune some of those things out of our lives. That’s the point Jesus was making in verse two. Sometimes it’s secular activities that are the problem. We’re involved in so many things of the world that we have little time left for serving God and others. At other times we involve ourselves in so many ministry activities that we’re not doing any of them particularly well. In both cases the remedy is pruning.

We can trust Jesus to help us bear the fruit He wants to produce in our lives. Sometimes what is needed is for the person to grow closer to Jesus so some fruit can begin to appear in their life. At other times there will need to be pruning. In either case you can trust God to take the action that is most appropriate for your current situation.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Joyful are those you discipline, Lord, those you teach with your instructions.” Psalm 94:12 (NLT)

Our thought for today: “Trust the Lord when He disciplines you.”

“Joyful” are those who receive discipline? Seriously? I don’t know about you but I can’t recall a single time I was ever happy about being on the receiving end of discipline. Not as a child as a child and not as an adult; not before I was saved and not since. Never have I been happy about it. And yet, the writer of Psalm 94 says that when we receive discipline at the hand of God we should in fact be joyful. Why?

Both the Hebrew and the Greek languages use the same words to express the ideas of “discipline” and “teaching”. Discipline and teaching are both designed to accomplish the same thing. When we are taught and/or disciplined by God we should grow and end up better than we were.

Now back to the question about being joyful for having been disciplined. If you’re a Christian and your goal really is to mature into more of the likeness of Christ, and if you’ve gotten off track to the point that God intervenes with correction, you should be joyful and thankful because the longer we’re off track the further we will drift from being in the center of God’s will and the worse life will get. The further we are from Him the less He will bless us.

If God disciplines us as a form of correction, and we respond as we should by correcting our behavior and thereby moving back into the center of His will, it is pure gain for us and that is something to be joyful about.

In Philippians 1:6 Paul wrote, “I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (HCSB) The truth is that God has a picture in His mind of the person He wants to transform you into and He will continue to work in your life as necessary to keep you moving in the right direction towards achieving that goal. So trust the Lord when He disciplines you. There’s a good reason behind it and you will be better for it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Consider it great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Your struggles make you stronger.”

The story has often been told about the boy who was observing a butterfly attempting to emerge from its cocoon. Slowly, over an extended period, the butterfly pushed and fought and struggled to force its way out of the cocoon. Finally the impatient boy, in what he believed to be an act of help and compassion, took a sharp knife and slit the cocoon, thereby sparing the butterfly all the additional time and struggle that it would have taken for it to work its own way out of the cocoon.

As the boy watched the butterfly emerge he expected to see it spread its wings and fly, but that didn’t happen. What should have been a beautiful butterfly instead remained a hunched and shriveled thing that limped around the table for a short time and then fell over and died.

What the boy failed to realize was that the struggle required for the butterfly to fight its way out of the cocoon, was the very activity that would have forced fluid through its veins and would have provided the strength needed for its wings to unfold and for its body to be fully formed. By cutting the struggle short the boy had inadvertently short-circuited the very process that would have resulted in the butterfly being fully formed, strong, and beautiful.

This is the kind of process James was describing in James 1:2-4. God uses our times of struggles to strengthen us. Struggle becomes the process whereby we grow strong. Adversity is the process through which God transforms us into the people He wants us to be. Trials and struggles are never fun, but they are necessary. You can trust God not only to get you through it, but also to use it to make you strong.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Remember the wonderful works He has done, His wonders, and the judgments He has pronounced, you offspring of Israel His servant, Jacob’s descendants – His chosen ones.” 1 Chronicles 16:12-13 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Learn to trust God by remembering what He has done for you in the past.”

One of the best ways for us to learn to trust God for today and for tomorrow is to remember His faithfulness in the past. The ancient Israelites had a cultural tradition of memorizing God’s miraculous interventions on their behalf down through the generations, and then reciting those stories back to each other. They did it in the synagogues as part of their act of worship, also at special times of civic celebrations, and during times of family gatherings as well. Reminding themselves of God’s past faithfulness was a way of strengthening their faith in Him in the present and for the future.

In his Bible study “Experiencing God – Knowing and doing the will of God” Henry Blackaby encourages us to construct what he calls “a spiritual map”. We create a spiritual map by recalling every significant event in our lives and recording them chronologically. The events we would include would be anything that had a big impact on us, either in a positive or negative way, and which contributed to the person we have turned out to be. So on your spiritual map would be things like your salvation experience, mission trips, marriage, births of children, jobs landed and lost, educational experiences, the death of those close to you, etc. You would also include the influence of significant people in your life as well as any other event that helped to make you who you are.

Then Blackaby encourages us to slowly and prayerfully review that map and look for the hand of God not only in the individual events, but also throughout the course of your life. Doing that kind of retrospective review really does help us to see the activity of God in our lives in the past. That then helps to strengthen our faith in Him for the present and in the future.

Some people have the spiritual discipline of keeping a journal. A journal essentially becomes an ongoing spiritual map and ends up serving the same purpose. You can always go back and review it to see how God has worked in your life in the past.

Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past helps to strengthen our faith and trust in Him now.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb, I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.” Psalm 139:13-14 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Trust God for who you are.”

When I was a young boy I secretly wanted to be Timmy the boy on the show “Lassie”. He had a nice home, a great dog, and he was always involved in some perilous adventure that was dangerous, but always ended well. As a teenager I wanted to be Desi Arnez Jr. No, not Lucy’s husband, that was Ricky Ricardo, I’m talking about their son – “Little Ricky” on the show but “Desi Jr.” in real life. I wanted to be him. As a teenager he was rich, good looking, and he had a band with one of the sons of Dean Martin. He was also frequently on the cover of “Teen Beat” magazine. Desi was cool. And I was not.

Since then I’ve only wanted to be 6′ 3″. That’s it. Not anybody else in particular, just tall.

If you’re willing to be transparent and honest about this then I think you’ll admit to having similar thoughts about yourself. Why do we do that? Why can’t we be happy with who God created us to be? The truth is that those people we’re thinking we would like to be like they’re almost certainly wishing they were different too.

The Biblical truth is that God created us to be the person He wants us to be. He determined who our father and mother would be. He knit us together in our mother’s womb. He was the one who decided how tall we would be, the color of our eyes, the natural abilities we would be endowed with, and everything else about us. And since He is sovereign, since He is all-knowing, all-wise, and since He loves us fully and unconditionally, we can relax and just trust Him for who He created us to be.

Of course that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to improve ourselves in areas that need improvement, and it is ok to work to develop skills and talents that we weren’t born with, but we still need to learn to be happy with who we are. The blues singer and actress Ethel Waters put it well when she famously said, “Honey, God don’t create no junk!”

The fact is that I’m never going to get those extra five inches of height and so I need to be happy at 5′ 10″. And for the most part, you are going to continue to be you, just as God created you. How much better would this world be if all of us simply learned to be comfortable in our own skin?

I encourage you to simply trust God for who you are.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.” Isaiah 43:1-2 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “You can trust in God’s presence”

As a Pastor I often have the privilege of praying for people in distress. As we sit in my office talking about some bad situation they’re experiencing in their lives, or as I’m visiting with them in the hospital, or the nursing home, or worse, with the family in the funeral home, I will often pray and ask God to give them an increased awareness of His presence in their lives. At such times we need the assurance that God is with us.

The beautiful truth is that He is always with us whether we sense His presence or not. In the Bible He has actually gone to great lengths to convince us of that truth. Someday I want to do a personal Bible study of this. I want to start in chapter one, verse one, of Genesis and slowly scan every verse in the Bible – all the way through to the last verse in Revelation, and count up the number times God has reassured us in writing of His presence with us.

“Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 (HCSB)

“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (HCSB)

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (HCSB)

I could fill many pages with similar promises from God but the truth is already evident that He is always with us and He wants us to know it. There are a lot of things in this life that you cannot trust in, but one thing you can always be sure of is God’s presence with you. It’s a great and reassuring truth that we can always trust in God’s presence.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him.” Psalm 103:11 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “We can trust in God’s love”

Sometimes when life is hard, especially during times of tragedy or great suffering, we can be tempted to doubt God’s love for us. Oh, we probably wouldn’t voice those doubts, or even admit them to ourselves, but down deep they’re there. In the back of our mind and deep in the heart we find ourselves wondering that if God really does love us completely and unconditionally, then why would He allow this thing into our lives. “It hurts so much and is creating such problems that surely if God loved me as much as He professes to, and since He could do something about this if He wanted to, does He really love me?”

I wish there was a quick and easy answer to that issue but there isn’t. God does love us, and He is all-powerful, and so yes He could prevent or correct whatever the issue is – and you would think He would want to, and yet He often doesn’t. But that doesn’t diminish His love for us. At such times we must appeal to the truth of Scripture:

“Steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts the Lord.” Psalm 32:10 (ESV)

“The mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.” Isaiah 54:10 (ESV)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His One and only Son …” John 3:16 (NIV)

“For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” Romans 8:38-39 (HCSB)

“God is love.” 1 John 4:8

Regardless of what you’re going through in life at the moment, God’s love for you has not changed. His love for you is perfect, it is unconditional, and it is everlasting. You can trust in God’s love.

God Bless, Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”

Our Bible verse for today: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven in higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “We can trust God because He has infinite wisdom.”

Here’s a truth that I have always found very comforting: “God is smarter than I am.” Yup, it’s true. God is smarter than me and therefore His wisdom far exceeds my own; His perspective matters more than mine does; and I can trust Him a lot more than I can trust myself.

Since it is true that God is smarter than me (He’s smarter than you too by the way), and since His ways are better than my ways, then it makes sense for me (and for you) to seek His ways instead of my own. The reasons for that are pretty obvious. For example, there are some real knuckleheads in this world who sometimes make me pretty mad. If I simply ignore them then I’ll probably end up living happily ever after anyway. But if I give into my impulse and actually do go ahead and strangle them (thereby breaking the sixth commandment), I’ll end up going to prison. So there you have it, God’s way is better than my way.

Likewise, sometimes the lazy side of me gains the upper hand and I start thinking about how nice it would be to not have to work. But then I’m reminded of what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that if a man doesn’t work he has no right to eat. That in turn causes me to think about how much I love my chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and I’m reminded that said ice cream is not free, and off I go to work. Once again God is proved right.

The point in all this? God is smarter than we are. He knows what is best for us in every situation. We can trust Him because He has infinite wisdom and therefore His ways are always best.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim