Having to Settle for Cornflakes
Thank You, Father, for Your abounding love and support this morning. I would not make it without You! The rest of the day was a wonderful blessing as well, being able to spend it with Karen. Praise to You for Your unfathomable loving kindness!
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Several years ago, when I was a children’s pastor, we had a couple of young ladies, who were students at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, volunteer to help out in our ministry to children.
I’ve been able to keep up with one of them. Her name is Jennifer Brake and she has continued to serve faithfully in ministry alongside her husband, Jed. They have three boys of whom they are very proud.
The reason I say all this that she posted something recently on Facebook that touched my heart in regards to her youngest son, Clay. Here is what she posted,
Sometimes you just need a good cry. When things change. When you move. When everything is brand new. When you realize it’s a school day. Clay had a good cry today. He’s been so resilient this summer. He is only 5 but I never once saw him break down. Until this morning when he realized he didn’t have any Cheerio’s for breakfast. He came to me sobbing. “I just want cheerio’s but we don’t have any!” But what he was really saying was “I can’t handle this anymore!” So I scooped him up and got in a five minute snuggle, I let him cry & then dried his tears when he calmed. Then it came to me…the Father does this for us all the time. Sometimes all we need is to be held and told it’s gonna be ok. Even when we want cheerio’s for breakfast and have to settle for cornflakes.
I am so glad to have a Father who loves us the way He does. I have shared with my congregations numerous times during the Pastoral Prayer that on occasion we just need to crawl up onto His lap and let Him enfold us in His arms. We need to set aside all that weighs so heavily upon our shoulders and just bask in the love and security that only He can bring. We may have to settle for cornflakes but He is always by our side.
Aug 30th, 2018, Tues, 8:12 pm
Dangers of Complacency
(A well-received post for Throwback Thursday!)
Thank You for the beautiful day, Father! May my words and actions reflect Your beauty in the world around me.
2 Peter 1:5-11 (<<click here)
Wow! These verses need to be read together but contain so much guidance! It will be interesting to see where You lead me, Lord.
Growing up in the church all my life I have witnessed, and I have lived out myself in times past, one very dangerous trait – complacency. According to dictionary.com, it is a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.
Peter’s directive here is verses 5-11 is anything but complacent! Faith is essential – it is foundational – in our relationship with You, Lord! My study Bible* does a wonderful job of summarizing these verses.
“Faith must be more than belief in certain facts; it must result in action, growth in Christian character, and the practice of moral discipline, or it will die away. Peter lists several of faith’s actions: learning to know God better, developing perseverance, doing God’s will, loving others. These actions do not come automatically: they require hard work. They are not optional; all of them must be a continual part of the Christian life. We don’t finish one and start on the next, but we work on them all together. God empowers and enables us, but he also gives us the responsibility to learn and to grow.” (emphasis mine)
Too many of us live outside of this non-optional zone. We must be about the work of God’s kingdom. Here’s another excellent quote for my study Bible, “Salvation does not depend on good deeds, but it results in good deeds.”
It is just too easy to “rest on our laurels.” The Cambridge English Dictionary defines that as “to be satisfied with your achievements and not to make an effort to do anything else”.
Lord, I had a lot of quotes this morning but they all clearly speak the truth. Enable me to be about Your work – to not be satisfied with “resting on my laurels” but may I have a burning desire to pursue You and everything that entails! Amen!
Mar 8th, 2017, Wed, 9:57 am
Still Small Voice
(I’ve been trying to post new but today must be another well-received post. Thank you for hanging in there with me!)
Good morning, Father! Thank You for a good day yesterday, all things considered. I would ask that Your hand would be upon Karen as she recovers from the flu. Regardless of not having her play for our services, You were with us and that was more than enough. You touched lives in the way only You can. Praise You Holy Name!
Lord, I want to thank You for always being with me. I am glad we have spent a good amount of time together and that, although I am still learning to listen, that I listen to that still small voice.
On two instances yesterday I felt you speak to me to say something to two different individuals. It was nothing big, nothing earth-shattering, just a simple touch. But I felt they were both from You. I have no idea why You had me do what I did – only You know – but I also firmly believe that when I, in faith, act upon Your word that it is for some purpose. Isaiah 55:11 reads,
It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
Lord, this morning I want to specifically pray for these two people. They are not connected in any way that I know of in the here and now. But You pointed them out and used me to speak to them. It was nothing profound but then my perspective is limited. Your perspective is all inclusive!
Thank You, Lord, also for the many lives You enabled me to touch yesterday as Your spokesman from the pulpit and just as Your man on the ground with both family and friend. Many people dealing with a complexity of circumstances but You know the individual need of each person. I pray that your “word” will continue to “produce fruit” and that “it will accomplish all [You] want it to” and “will prosper everywhere [You] send it.” Amen
Apr 17th, 2017, Mon, 5:17 am
On a Donkey
It was a very early start to the day, Father, but thank You for Your guiding presence. And thank You too, Father, for good people with whom to work. None of us are perfect but I am truly blessed to call them friends.
Matthew 21:1-11 (<<click to read the passage)
For some, it is easy to think of Jesus as just another character in the Bible. And as I typed that sentence my mind raced ahead and asked, “How in the world do I follow up that statement?” Many of us could make an exhaustive list of why Jesus doesn’t fit into that category – especially if we put our heads together!
But something worthy of note in regards to our Savior is the fact that His coming was anything but happenstance. The whole affair was planned out in great detail from before the beginning of time. The Old Testament is full of prophetic statements of wheres and hows of Jesus’ life.
We have a great example in this passage – more than 500 years before the events in this passage took place the prophet Zechariah wrote of them. Here is Zechariah 9:9, the passage quoted by Matthew in his Gospel, as found in the New American Standard Bible,
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is [vindicated and victorious] just and endowed with salvation,
Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Christ coming was no mistake. He was not just born as we were. He and the Father did not just hope that everything came together. It was laid out with one single thing in mind – our salvation!
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17 NLT
As I’ve quoted numerous times,
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Ephesians 1:4 NLT
We were no accident! God deliberately– even knowing in advance that we would reject Him! – He deliberately made provision for our reconciliation to Him. Thank You, Lord!
Aug 27th, 2018, Mon, 4:34 pm
Open Our Eyes
Father, all I can say is what a wonderful day! Two times of wonderful worship with Your people and a wonderful afternoon with my wonderful wife! I am blessed beyond measure! Praise You, Father, for Your bounteous love!
Matthew 20:29-34 (<<click to read the passage)
In reading the notes of my study Bible* I discovered an eye-opening thought. It said, “The blind men called Jesus ‘Son of David’ because the Jews knew that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. These blind beggars could see that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, while the religious leaders who witnessed Jesus’ miracles were blind to his identity, refusing to open their eyes to the truth. Seeing with your eyes doesn’t guarantee seeing with your heart.”
How many of those claiming to be followers of Christ are blind to who He is? From experience, I truly believe that to know Christ, to see Him for who it truly is, we must spend time with Him.
I know my congregations have heard it from me. Before getting married most couples cannot get enough time together. Every opportunity they have they spend in each other’s company. If one person decided that an hour a week was plenty of time to see each other, the relationship probably wouldn’t last too long! How could they get to really know each other unless they shared their life experiences together?
The same is applicable to our relationship with Christ! Now He will not leave us or forsake us if we ignore Him, but we are so much the better off if we make it a priority to spend time together. It’s one thing to see with your eyes, but quality time spent with our Lord will for sure guarantee an improvement of seeing with our hearts.
A favorite chorus comes to mind.
Open our eyes, Lord
We want to see Jesus
To reach out and touch Him
And say that we love Him
Open our ears, Lord
And help us to listen
Open our eyes, Lord
We want to see Jesus
May that be our prayer. Amen.
(Here is a link if you would like to listen to the song.)
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
Aug 26th, 2018, Sun, 8:23 pm