Posts

Showing posts from October, 2016

All People

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For, there is one God and Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity--the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time. I Timothy 2:1-6 I love pizza. Eating it is one of those small pleasures in life that is sure to bring a smile to my face. The snack shop at the camp I worked at in high school served pizza. Tombstone pizza. Thin crust. When it came out of the toaster oven, only the heat of the cheese kept me from absolutely devouring it. It's still my favorite. There are many other pizzas and pizza places out there, but I don't th

Always

"I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me." Psalm 16:8 As soon as the words "always" and "never" leave my mouth, I start to get a little nervous. Something inside of me starts to question the veracity of the statement, particularly in the context of a spirited conversation with my sweetheart. Those words tend to be overstatements for dramatic purposes, but not always... In our verse for the day, the Psalmist uses the word "always" in an appropriate way. The context? An attribute and a promise of God. God is omnipresent, everywhere present at the same time. He is faithful to his promise to never leave us. This attribute and this promise result in something that we cannot experience any other way. ... We become unshakeable. I don't know about you, but when I get unnerved, I tend to be looking at everything other than God's ever-presence. His word is clear. He's with us, always has been, always w

Contentment

"...for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. ... I have learned the secret of living in every situation ... For I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Philippians 4:11-13 The other day I caught myself complaining about car repairs. ... "Brakes again!? I'll bet brake manufacturers and mechanics have a sweet deal worked out between them. Every time I turn around I'm paying for brake work!" About that time, I was reminded of the many people in our community who I've seen in their work clothes walking the miles down the highway just to get to work. Paul, while grateful for this church's support, wanted to teach them the secret to contentment, that being the strength of Jesus. It's easy to see everything we don't have, but very difficult to see that which we do have. We haven't embraced the secret yet. Paul tells us: Jesus is all we need. We think we need more. This world and our enemy work very hard to co