Pastor’s Corner

Pastors Corner 4-29-2012

I was thinking about the revival when I started to write this pastor’s corner. I began by looking up the word revival in the dictionary. The definitions were technically correct and had words like “reviving” and “awakening” but did not convey a personal meaning of a revival. If you look for the word revival in the Bible you will not find it or I cannot find it. You can find were there were different places where revivals occurred (Acts chapter 2 and 8 are only two examples) and in those events it changed the lives of people. Those two events were only part of the greatest revival to ever occur and that revival is still going on today. What I am talking about is the grace/love of God delivered by His son Jesus Christ which changed the world. When you have been saved or revived by the hand of God (Holy Spirit) through his word there are no dictionary definition to fully describe the changes it makes in people’s lives. God bless and pray hard for the revival.

Pastor Danny

Paying Attention…or Not

As I was out running errands today I pulled up to a red light along side an 18-wheeler. I glanced up at the cab as I came to a stop beside it and noticed the driver look down at me. I was listening to a CD that had just “cycled” around to the beginning and decided to change it while at the stop light. As I fished out the CD I wanted to listen to I noticed the truck roll forward slightly and stop. I continued to eject and then insert the CDs, not paying any attention really to any thing else. The semi-truck then revved up it’s engine and began to take off, so I did the same thing. But after moving about a car-length I realized the light was still red! I stopped quickly and glanced in my mirror to see the chucking driver: He has noticed I was not paying attention and waited on the opposite light and turn signal to turn green and then, when there was no oncoming traffic, acted like he was going through the light to kind of goad me out into an embarrassing but not dangerous situation.

After shaking off the ignorant thing I’d just done I thought how this reminds me of what the devil will do to us. We are most generally on the look out for, of aware of, the “roaring lion who seeks who he may destroy”. But it’s the laughing hyena, or more Scripturally correct the “wolf in sheeps clothing”, that can slip by us. Make no mistake, our’s is a cunning enemy and he will fly right under the radar, in a most unexpected manner, to make his attacks. We, therefore, have to always be vigilant in our walk in this life. Drawing close to our Lord, feasting on His Word, and being in regular fellowship with His children are the best way to do that. And the best defense against the overt and covert attacks we face.

IE Day 2012

April 29, 2012, is slated as Internet Evangelism day and it is quickly approaching. But there is still plenty of time for you and your church to get involved! Here is a list of 14 ways churches and individuals can make a digital-difference.

With the proliferation of web-enabled devices, especially smart phones, we have today everyone can and should share the Good News of Jesus Christ. And it is way easier than you might think. So, take five minutes out today, read through the idea and articles that the IE Day folks have amassed and jump in: only good will come from it.

Breakfast

Wednesday morning I had an appointment with my family doctor for routine blood work. For these samples I had to fast: nothing but my regular medications, water or black coffee after midnight. Soon after I woke up Wednesday morning I was hungry, wishing I could have breakfast. This is abnormal for me since I’m not one to eat breakfast soon after I awake. I knew fairly quickly that it was just my subconscious knowing that I couldn’t eat making me want to eat, missing what I could normally have.

Those of us that have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior know the sweet feeling, the joy and wonderful feeling of being saved, a child of the King. Those who’ve yet to come to saving faith, however, don’t know what they are missing because they have not tasted of the Living Water; you can’t miss what you haven’t had. But you can have a desire to taste of some thing that looks inviting: think of a photo of a tasty looking dish that made you want to try it on a menu for instance. So, the question beckons: Are we, Christians, living out faith out loud, for the lost to see and have a curious desire about? Or do we look more like the world in their eyes?

It’s not the peace and joy of the times on the mountain that unsaved folks notice, it’s the inner peace, the calm assurance from Him that abides in us during the storms and valleys that they take note of …

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

In Tune

The other day my wife was mowing the lawn; she always does the mowing since I’m unable to do so. Our grandson, Connor, was in the yard playing while she was working. Every so often he would holler at her or say some thing to her. Every time he spoke to her she paused and replied. I found this a little odd since normally when she is mowing and I need to get her attention it takes a lot more than speaking to her: yelling, waving my arms, maybe even throwing some thing at her is required. Obviously she was much more attuned to Connor than she normally is anyone else while she was working.

The Bible teaches us that if we will draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. The more open our spiritual eyes and ears are the more apt we are to clearly hear the Lord when He speaks to us. Spending quality time in the Word and prayer is the best way to become attuned to hear His every call and feel His sweet presence.

Pastor’s Corner

Pastors corner 4-8-2012

This week we celebrate Easter and I want to draw your attention to something that should concern everyone. The concern is that some people only have a worldly or superficial view of Easter. They think that it is only about getting things like, Chocolate Easter bunnies, Chocolate Easter eggs, Cadbury eggs, peeps, Easter baskets, new clothes, new hats, etc, you get the point. I think that this view originates from the commercial/business constantly advertising their products. The problem is not that these things are bad, but that people are not being told the true meaning of Easter. Now we can blame business for the commercialization of Easter, but I think that the church must share in the blame because we have failed to counter this view. The only way to counteract this view is for the church to get the biblical truth about the resurrection into society. This truth is that Jesus Christ came down from heaven, born of a virgin, preached unto the world, sacrificed himself for mankind through crucifixion, was buried, and rose the third day as savior of the whole world. People worldwide must believe that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world for the salvation of there souls.

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