Learning Our Craft

Have you ever watched a little boy learning to use a hammer? The lad grasps the hammer near the head of the shaft and is merely able to go “tap, tap, tap,” hardly working the nail into the wood. He has the right tool but no power. Compare the craftsman carpenter as he holds his hammer down at the bottom of the shaft gaining all the leverage he can. His arm goes “bam, bam, bam,” driving nails home using a few swift hard strokes without damaging the surface of the wood. He holds the tool to get the power. And the craftsman continues to grow in strength and skill with each passing year that he remains active in his craft.

This is a good depiction of the Christian’s life: beginning as a babe and progressing toward Christ-like perfection. As we begin our walk of faith our “skill” and knowledge is limited but, as long as we walk faithfully, we become stronger in our faith and knowledge of God and His Word until we reach our reward: seeing Him face to face.

40 Day Challenge

As most of you know, our church has been challenged by Pastor Danny to set aside 30 minutes a day, every day, for 40 days to read the Word aloud with our families, beginning and ending in prayer. Today I received the following in an email newsletter from author Ray Comfort at Living Waters. I must say that I know too well the “excuses” he mentions, as we have been fighting many of them in this challenge. I hope that his thoughts might encourage you and strengthen your resolve to have a “family altar” time, too.

If you want “godly offspring,” it is essential that you make the time to establish a family altar. Build it out of the unmovable rocks of resolution. You will need to be resolute about this because it will be a battle. Your flesh will fight it, and you can be sure there will be a continual spiritual battle within your mind. “Circumstances” will constantly crop up. Your kids will occasionally groan when you announce that it is time for devotions. Loved ones may subtly, subconsciously discourage you. However, your time of family devotions should be a priority for your whole family. Don’t be legalistic about it, but as much as possible, put all other things aside before you postpone or cancel family devotions.

It will be an altar of sacrifice, as you sacrifice your time, your energy, and sometimes your dignity. For years, our kids heard, “Six o’clock—reading time.” My wife and I dropped whatever we were doing, and the children learned to do the same, and we gathered as a family. Making it a priority for your family’s growth will speak volumes about its importance in their lives.

Again, you will find that there are many excuses for not having devotions. You may be pressed for time, feel tired, or think you are unable to teach the Bible. However, there is one very powerful reasonwhy you should have daily devotions: the eternal salvation of your children. (Adapted from How to Bring Your Children to Christ…& Keep Them There.)

Malachi 2:15 But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

Rivets

Most all of you know that I wear braces on both of my legs. They are necessary for me to walk since I have so much nerve damage from a neurological condition I have called CES. In the 13 or so years that I’ve needed them I have often had on and off repairs to be made on them; I’m on my fourth or fifth set (I think) now since they like any thing suffer from wear and tear. The most common, at least in the past year or two, repair is to the rivets that hold the straps in place: I keep having “blow outs” since I had to go to a new prosthetics maker. Since this problem has been more frequent the last 12-18 months I have found that if I replace the rivets myself with Chicago screws I have almost now repeat failures. And I don’t have to go into the office for the repair, which can take days for an appointment.

These “system malfunctions” used to really bother me: no, they would upset and aggravate the daylights out of me. Sunday evening shortly before church time I had my latest rivet pop. It took longer than usual to replace because I had my three year old “assistant” keeping a close eye on my work. After it was done I realized that I hadn’t gotten one bit irritated, aggravated or upset over the ordeal, although I wasn’t happy I missed church.

Last night I was thinking about this, wondering why my change in attitude towards this usually irritating situation. And it dawned on me why: my perspective over the years and months about it has changed. If I have to use and repair these old braces for another 10 minutes or 50 years it’s just a temporary thing. I know that I’m headed Home some day and when I get there I’ll not need these things any more. Braces, canes, and all that goes with them will be done with. And I’ll be able to perfectly praise and worship my God then. Until that day I’ll just have to be patient, fixing and making do with an imperfect body, in a fallen world, looking forward with my eyes on Christ Jesus to that Heavenly Home.

Birthday Gift

For our grandson’s first birthday I made him a leather covered Bible; that was two years ago. This past weekend was Connor’s third birthday and on Sunday he took, for the first time, his Bible to church with him. He thought it was the best thing of the weekend and kept repeating “my Bible; Pap made Bible for me.”. I was really touched by how Connor loved that Bible. It was very cute to see him carrying it all over the place, looking at the tooling I’d done on it, and leafing through the pages. And add in the sense of pride I got because he understand that I had made it specially for him and, well, it was some thing I’ll never forget.

This made me think about how our Heavenly Father must feel when we spend time in and appreciate His Word. He gave us the precious gift of His inspired Word to guide us and to teach us all we need to know to be reconciled to Him and live this life in the center of His will. We should have the same childlike enthusiasm for that precious gift as Connor showed for his first Bible. And we should hope and pray for ourselves and our families that we never loose it.

Pastor’s Corner

Pastors Corner 4-15-2012

This week I want to follow-up on a Pastor’s Corner that I wrote a couple of weeks ago. It was about Making God’s Word a Priority in your life for forty days. If you have not started I encourage you to start and if you have started I want to encourage you to continue. There have been a few days that it has been late and we were tired and it was a challenge to continue. The easy thing would have been to say we will skip tonight because it is late and pick it up tomorrow, but commitment does not work that way. If you are committed to doing something you do it when ever possible or reasonable. The benefits of spending time with God’s word and the family will be far greater that a little extra rest. I will leave you with a funny picture that has happen several times when we are reading God’s word. It seems that Rusty (Sherlene’s cat) thinks that it is the best time in the world to cuddle. He gets up in my lap, purrs loudly and watches and listens to everything. To someone looking in the window, knowing about Making God’s Word a Priority might think, “WOW” they must be serious because they even read to the cat. Continue reading and God bless.

Pastor Danny

Pastor’s Corner

Pastors Corner 4-1-2012

Last Sunday I presented the church with a proposal to think about for a week. I’ve had another week to think about it and still think that it is a good idea. The suggestion, I am going to call Making God’s Word a Priority, is intended as a way for the church to get closer to their immediate family while they get closer to God. The proposal asks for a thirty minute daily commitment to reading God’s word for forty days. During this time the family will come together and turn off all distractions (television, phones, computers, back ground music, basically anything that would distract). The family should start out by holding hands and praying before they start reading. Each member of the family should take turns reading out loud. Once you have read for thirty minutes then hold hands again and end in prayer. Depending on your family circumstances your version of Making God’s Word a Priority may be somewhat different. You can start out anywhere in the Bible and do not have to do the books in order. This should give us a way to make God’s Word a priority in our lives and by the end of the forty day I hope that we all look forward to spending these thirty minutes with God and our families.

Pastor Danny

Dealing with Sin

“Forgive us our debts” (Matt. 6:12).
Christians struggle with sin. That surely comes as no surprise to you. As you mature in Christ, the frequency of your sinning decreases, but your sensitivity to it increases. That doesn’t mean you are more easily tempted, but that you are more aware of the subtleties of sin and how it dishonors God.

Some people think you should never confess your sins or seek forgiveness, but the Lord instructed us to do so when He said for us to pray, “Forgive us our debts” (Matt. 6:12). That’s the believer’s prayer for the Father’s forgiveness.

John said, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10). That passage doesn’t tell us how to get saved, as many have taught. It tells us how to distinguish believers from unbelievers: believers confess their sins; unbelievers don’t.

The phrase “forgive us” in Matthew 6:12 implies the need for forgiveness. “Debts” translates a Greek word that was used to speak of a moral or monetary debt. In Matthew 6:12 it refers to sins. When you sin, you owe to God a consequence or a debt because you have violated His holiness.

When you sin as a believer, you don’t lose your salvation but you will face God’s chastening if you don’t repent. Hebrews 12 says, “Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives . . . . He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness” (vv. 6, 10).

If you are harboring sin, confess it now and allow God to cleanse you and use you today for His glory.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Write down why God’s forgiveness is important to you, then express those thoughts to Him in praise.

For Further Study:

Read Psalm 38.

What physical and emotional ailments did David experience as a result of his sin?
What was his attitude toward God as he confessed his sin?

(From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.)

Don’t give up

From the Life Application Daily Devotional, which you can subscribe to at YouVersion:

“What problems David faced! He was scoffed at, mocked, insulted, humiliated, and made the object of citywide gossip. But still he prayed. When we are completely beaten down, we are tempted to turn from God, give up, and quit trusting him. When your situation seems hopeless, determine that no matter how bad things become you will continue to pray. God will hear your prayer, and he will rescue you. When others reject us, we need God most. Don’t turn from your most faithful friend.”

But I keep praying to you, Lord ,
hoping this time you will show me favor.
In your unfailing love, O God,
answer my prayer with your sure salvation. (Psalm 69:13 NLT)

Garbage In…

I was thinking about a couple of projects I did last fall, compared to a couple I’ve done recently, and the results I obtained from them. Last fall I had s couple of small side tables to refinish. I used what I had on hand, as far as paint and things go, and put a fair amount of time into both of them. But the results were, well, less than stellar. This past week I refurbished a couple of old metal utility carts. For these projects I got new paint, a specific type and color for each one, and used new and different primer on them both. I also used a different technique and products for the preparation phase. And you know what? They results were a whole lot better, at least in my opinion, with these carts than I got from the tables. I think the difference was in the products I used: what I had on hand verses getting the specific item that I needed for the projects. I guess this would be kind of an example of “garbage in, garbage out”, as the old saying goes.

This principle is equally true with what we fill ourselves with: if we fill our mind with garbage our attitudes will reflect that. The Bible says

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

. If we feast upon godly things we will produce good fruit in all areas of our lives, fruit that is pleasing to God and useful to His purposes. But if we indulge in the worldly, godless things the product will be far from fruitful; it will be useless garbage.

Vain Predictions

I found this piece on Disciple Magazine’s website and wanted to share it.

Vain Predictions
- Author: Rick Steele
“Living in the South can be humorous in the wintertime. Though I was born and raised in Ohio, I have resided the last thirteen years in Tennessee and Georgia. Each winter, it tickles me to watch our local weather forecasters make feeble attempts at predicting winter weather.

Truth be known, we don’t have much winter weather in the Deep South, and when there is even the slightest chance of frozen precipitation, preparations for the weather event border on paranoia.

Case in point, this past winter in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, our local meteorologists predicted a treacherous weekend, forecasting six inches of snow, followed by potentially dangerous accumulations of ice. Schools cancelled classes twelve hours before the bad weather was supposed to arrive. Grocery stores gleefully sold every loaf of bread and every drop of milk as frenzied customers filled their carts with enough groceries to last a solid month. Everyone in the community was prepared–all in anticipation for a two-day weather event, nonetheless!

Funny thing is, the dreaded snow and ice never came! Instead, the temperature never dropped below freezing, and the weekend supposed to be buried under the “white stuff” was deluged with rain. All rain. Lots of rain. Still, the sheepish explanations and excuses from the weather forecasters provided good comic-relief for an otherwise dreary weekend.

Though my tongue-in-cheek description of wintertime, Southern style, may seem a bit sarcastic, I only use the story for an illustration. You see, we should not be surprised that with all our sophisticated gadgetry and Doppler Radar we still cannot give accurate weather forecasts. Nor can we even remotely understand the intricacies of God’s universe. Jesus said, we don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going, so how can we really claim to know what God is able to do or not do? (See John 3:8.)

This applies to those who tell us that life does not begin at conception, and that man evolved from an amoeba. With all of mankind’s technology and so-called learning, we’re not so smart after all, are we?”