Ready to Take the First Step
Father, thank You for Your continued touch on me physically. Every day I am feeling better and pray to soon be over it. Praise Your Holy Name for Your daily care and providence!
Acts 13:2-6a (<<click here to read the passage)
One of my fondest memories from my college days was a wonderful opportunity I had to participate in a summer ministry program in my home district of West Virginia.
There is a lot to tell but here’s the short version. My beloved Uncle, Merlin Provance, was a well-respected pastor and leader on the district and was instrumental in helping us get all the pieces and parts we needed. I along with two wonderful young ladies, all three of us children of pastors who served churches on the district, worked the entire summer canvassing door-to-door for churches trying to reach out to their communities, we held children’s services composed of music, puppets, puzzles, and all kinds of things introducing them to Jesus!
It was wonderful working with each other, multiple pastors, fine laypersons from each church, and many respected district leaders. Only God knows how many lives were touched for eternity because my Uncle Merlin took to heart a young man’s dreams and helped bring them to fruition.
I share this experience because I can’t help but think about how Saul (Paul) felt. Here he and Barnabas stood ready to take the first step of what God would use them to accomplish. This would be looked upon as his first missionary journey. Oh, the lives the Lord touched through him! How many millions of people have had their lives changed for eternity because of the many letters (epistles) to churches and people that he impacted along the way! (He is believed to have written 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament!)
And it began with these verses…
One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to the seaport of Seleucia and then sailed for the island of Cyprus. There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. John Mark went with them as their assistant.
Afterward they traveled from town to town across the entire island…
Now if you look at what God has accomplished through my life and the lives of Debbie and Nita, my ministry partners, we can’t hold a candle to Paul, but we each have boldly carried our lights. We have impacted as parents, church leaders, a pastor, a teacher, and all the many things I can’t remember or do not know…but God does. And only eternity will tell what we each have done with the Lord’s blessing in our lives. Each and every one of us – you, too! – have a part to play in God’s big story!
Apr 25th, 2022, Mon, 7:51 pm
Taste and See!
It was a full day from beginning to end, Father. Thank You for being with us through our services, our travels, and our time together as a family. Guide a direct us through all of life’s many ups and downs. Amen.
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Readying for today’s services and even preaching through this sermon three times now, I feel compelled to share my closing illustration.
Joni Eareckson Tada, well author, speaker, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization “accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community”, shared a very poignant story on her radio program. It was entitled Taste and See (click the title if you would like to listen to it or read the entire transcript).
My friend, Dan Earl, has a most unusual occupation because he is a beekeeper. Recently my beekeeper friend visited my office…presented me with a gift basket of his bee byproducts – creams, candles, and best of all, his top-selling honey…
…I thought about Dan’s bees recently when I came across a quote by Jonathan Edwards. The old Puritan drew a parallel between honey and Psalm 34:8 where it says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” Now Edwards said that one can conclude that honey is honey because it is golden, has a certain viscosity, and has bits of comb in it. When you pour it, it looks like honey – therefore, it must be honey. But Edwards said there is a superior way to know. Put a drop on your tongue, and you’ll see that knowing honey involves much more than understanding facts about it. To truly know honey is to taste and see that it is sweet and delicious and delightful. There’s nothing quite like it!
I thought it was a really cool insight into understanding this passage!
Joni went in a different direction with her thoughts, but the sermon I preached today dealt with forgiveness. And so my application dealt with our need for God’s forgiveness regarding the sin in our lives.
A major contributor to today’s sermon was Rev. Rodney Buchanan, a United Methodist Church elder who has since found his heavenly home. He touched on three lines of thought concerning forgiveness: Universalism – which holds that when all is said and done everyone will be forgiven, Legalism – which places a lot of emphasis on following the rules so that at least in part, we “earn” the forgiveness we receive from God by following all the rules, and Moralism – which has the idea that at least some of us are pretty good people overall and that God will count that in our favor when He forgives.
All of these concepts are wrong. God doesn’t just excuse sin, it’s impossible to keep all the rules, and God does not grade on a curve!
God’s forgiveness is most definitely free, but we must repent of our sins and ask for His forgiveness, which He readily gives. We can’t pay for it, we’re not good enough to really even deserve it, but, well, let these verses proclaim the truth.
But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 AMP
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NIV
So, my friends, our only hope is to live out Psalm 34:8,
“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”
Just like honey is best experienced by tasting it, so is the Lord’s goodness to us all! “Taste and see!”
Apr 24th, 2022, Sun, 8:22 pm
A Common Thread
UNCLE STEVIE AND VERSO by Cayce Zavaglia
Little by little one step at a time things are getting back to normal. Thank You Father for Your hand upon me getting me through it all. Continue to use me as You will despite my limitations. Amen.
Acts 13:1-3 (<<click here to read the passage)
As I read through the first verse of this thirteenth chapter of Acts, this list of prophets and teachers caught my attention. Barnabas was from Cyprus, Simeon being darkly complected may have been of African descent (Alexandria in Egypt, early on became a stronghold of Christianity), Lucius was from Cyrene, Manaen was a childhood companion of the Herod who would later behead John the Baptist, and of course, Saul was from Tarsus, now part of Turkey. That’s quite a bit of detail but I want to make sure that we understand that these men all came from very different cultures. They were all very unique. As God intended, there was great variety in the church! But as my Life Application Study Bible states, the common thread among these five men was their deep faith in Christ.
As I read those words, of all things, tapestries came to mind, and I believe God led me to a great example of an artist who uses tapestries – or what she refers to as embroideries. In a 2015 article, Cayce Zavaglia shared about her work. In a solo show called About-Face, she shares her discovery of the power and representation found in the reverse side of the embroideries. The article states,
The front looks like a hyper-realistic painting which only reveals itself to be embroidered upon closer inspection. Meanwhile, “the haphazard beauty found in this verso image created a haunting contrast to the front image and was a world […] that could easily translate into the world of paint,” she explains. (If you are interested in more about Zavaglia’s work click here.)
God works us all into His majestic masterpiece! We may only see the haphazard beauty of the back – our perception is limited. But God sees the beauty of the whole! And that common thread of our deep faith in Christ brings it all together.
Our goal as believers should always be about spreading the Good News of what Jesus did for us in providing us with our only means of salvation. We have a great tendency to reach out to those most like us because it is our most comfortable option. But God’s goal is that all may come into His Kingdom. His heart has no limits or boundaries
The more we understand the gospel and embrace God’s version of the body of Christ, however, the more we will begin to transcend these differences. More than merely getting along, we will be able to honestly and authentically say from our hearts that we love each other.
Lord Jesus, may it be so. Amen.
Apr 21st, 2022, Thurs, 1:10 pm
Church Bake Sale
Father, thank You for the improvement in my eyes, and my cough is lessened today. I realize that my abdominal muscle will just take time to heal. Little by little You are getting me through it! All praise to You, Father!
Acts 12:20-25 (<<click here to read the passage)
Maybe you’ve heard this one before but here’s a shortened version.
A lady, new to the community, had volunteered to bake a cake for the church bake sale. The thing is she forgot about it until the last minute. The only thing she could find in her pantry dropped flat and lumpy when she attempted to bake it
She so wanted to fit in at her new church and in her new community of new friends, but with no time to bake another cake, she decided to get creative.
She looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake and found it in the bathroom: a roll of toilet paper. She plunked it in and covered it with icing. Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect!
Before she left to drop the cake by the church and head to work, she woke her daughter, gave her some money, and specific instructions to be at the bake sale the minute it opened at 9:30 and to buy this cake and bring it home.
When her daughter got there, she found that the “cake” had already been sold! She immediately called her mom. Of course, she was beside herself with horror! Everyone would know! What would they think of her? She would be ostracized, talked about, ridiculed.
She barely slept that night but forced herself to not think about the “cake” the next morning in that she was attending a fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a friend of a friend.
She didn’t really want to attend because the hostess had more than once looked down her nose at her because she was a single parent and not from one of the founding families of the area. But having already RSVPed, she couldn’t think of a believable excuse to stay away.
The meal was elegant, the company was definitely upper crust…and to her horror, her “cake” was presented for dessert! She started out of her chair to rush to the hostess and tell her all about it, but before she could get to her feet, the Mayor’s wife said, “What a beautiful cake!”
Still stunned, she sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, “Thank you, I baked it myself.”
We can definitely laugh but taking credit for someone else’s work can end badly, and in the case of King Herod [Agrippa I], it ended very badly. When a simple speech led people to give him a great ovation, and shout, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!” he should have stopped them right then and there. But instead, he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God.
Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness… So he was consumed with worms and died. NLT
Josephus, a highly respected Jewish historian, recorded that Herod’s painful sickness ended after five days of suffering in A.D. 44. A terrible way to go, and all because of arrogance and pride.
Lord Jesus, may we be humbled by these stories. May we seek to give credit where credit is due…especially when it should be attributed to You!
Apr 20th, 2022, Wed, 12:55 pm
Hope Over Doubt
A very long night followed by a very productive day. Thank You Father for the focus given me to accomplish the things I did.
Acts 12:6-19 (<<click here to read the passage)
I often struggle with overthinking things. Often, they involve doubt over something I’ve done. In most cases, I didn’t do anything wrong but that doesn’t stop me from fretting.
They can be very simple. For example, recently a parent complained that I’d driven past her child at her stop. Of course, I’d never intentionally do that, though I might do so absentmindedly. I knew I had stopped. I knew I had looked up and down the long driveway, but I saw no one. My supervisor spoke with the parent, and all is well but for the first few days following the “incident” if she wasn’t waiting at her stop, I took extra time to make sure I wasn’t missing her.
Why do I doubt myself? I diligently adhere to protocol when it comes to safety and getting my kids to and from school. For whatever reason, I don’t have to think about doing it, my brain just does it!
There are other things much more complicated. I’m sure that I spend far too much time mulling them over from multiple angles. Honestly, letting doubt rule is a waste of time.
We all struggle with doubt, but most of us, regardless of the situations we find ourselves in, hold onto that small flicker of hope, no matter how hopeless things may seem.
As we move on with Peter’s story of incarceration, Jesus’ followers were letting their doubting minds work overtime, even though they prayed with fervency and persistence. In their hearts, they held onto the hope that by some miracle, Peter would not die.
It’s funny in a way but even when Rhoda, the servant girl, insisted that Peter was knocking at the gate, they wouldn’t believe her. They had to go see for themselves – honestly it seems that they went along with her just to prove that she was wrong. There was no way that Peter was where she said he was! They even went so far as to exclaim, “You’re out of your mind!” But, nope, she wasn’t but the problem lay in the fact that they were too much into theirs!
Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t go with our heads but with our hearts?
Regardless of their hesitancy and doubt, God answered their prayers in a mighty way, accomplishing what only He could do! His messenger – His angel – showed up right in Peter’s cell and after waking him up with a swift kick or a smack with his hand, Peter got up and followed directions (it just says he struck his side). Peter must not have been too worried because he was out for the count! And God’s will was accomplished despite their doubt.
I know it’s asking a lot, Lord Jesus, but we cannot stop doubting on our own. Help us to cry out like the father of the demon-possessed boy in Mark 9:22-24 who said,
“…if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” Jesus said to him, “[You say to Me,] ‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes and trusts [in Me]!” Immediately the father of the boy cried out [with a desperate, piercing cry], saying, “I do believe; help [me overcome] my unbelief.” AMP
Apr 14th, 2022, Thurs, 8:02 pm