Be A Duck!
It is worth repeating…BE A DUCK! I told this to someone years ago when they were frustrated over a little thing and thought of it again. Ducks have an amazing ability-they never get wet. You wonder how they can sit on water and not freeze? You wonder how they can stay out in rain and never get cold? It is because water never gets to their skin. They have a special oily covering on their body that allows water to just roll off their back. It is amazing.
Jesus wouldn’t quite say it like that, but He did say this:
“I will show you who he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them in to practice. He is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came the torrents struck that house but could not shake it because it was well built.” Luke 6:48.
Now your life is going to be stressful. It is for certain something is going to happen to you today that will drive you crazy. Amazing what a well-prepared foundation does for our lives. The stress of this world can hit us like arrows. In fact, sometimes we feel like we have a huge bull’s-eye on our back. However, no matter how bad things get, if Christ is our foundation nothing can beat us down. Nothing can hold us back. Nothing can discourage us.
Paul says it this way…We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Why does Paul seem to overcome everything? Why does he seem to make it during very bad times? It is because Christ is his rock. Paul looks to the only One that can help, redeem, save and replenish. That can only be found in Christ.
So when life starts to beat you down, let it roll off your back. Why, because your foundation is firm. You have dug down deep enough. You have searched and finally found the real Rock that will never crumble. Christ is with you. Christ loves you. Christ died for you. Rest in Him this Advent season and turn your stress, anxiety, frustration and all the rest into a testimony for the world to see!
Today let it shine!
Rev. Jim
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
The Holy Spirit…will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. John 14:26
Do you remember the Far Side? One addition had an Owner with his Dog. The owner says to the dog, “Sit, Lie down, roll over!” Then the next scene showed the caption, “WHAT A DOG HEARS…blah, blah, blah, blah!” This is so true when I do this to my dog. I tell it to come, stay, or go to your bed and all it does is look at me and I know it must be thinking, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Christians, to some extent, are no different. Jesus gives us a command, “Love everyone as I have loved you!” and all we do is just stand there and hear, “Blah, blah, blah, blah!” Or we are told to “follow me” and the same…blah, blah, blah. Get the picture?
Training our hearing is important. Not your physical ears, but your spiritual intuitiveness. God is speaking to us all the time. The Holy Spirit speaks to our conscience, our mind, our emotions, through others and through the events of our lives. God chooses so many different ways to get the message of Love out and into the world. Are we hearing it?
I told the church last night that more people let their spiritual “guard” down more now than any other time of the year. People are willing to hear the story of Jesus. People are vulnerable to opening their hearts. Yet, it is this very time that we have more suicides than any other time. This time of the year can be very hard and lonely for most. Have we heard our Lord say to us, “Love a broken world, tell the story of redemption, wash the feet of our enemy, invite all to my table.”
This season try to tune out some things and tune in the most important. Instead of just blah, blah, blah, hear the words of Christ ringing in your heart. Hear the words of courage, strength and mercy. Be reminded of words like, forgiven, loved, and redeemed. Most of all, when you hear these words for your life, share them with a broken and lost world. So many need to hear it. Let’s make the message loud and clear today!
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
JUST GLAD TO BE HERE
We truly busy ourselves with all the things of this world. I bet you have been hurrying already. Yet, I hear my Savior say,
“Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a
To be alive is a gift all on its own. We take for granted a heart that beats, lungs that breathe, a mind that works, and all the rest. We forget to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, because we have been convinced that the world can give us something more. So we run about the place, focusing on things that will only gather rust and fade away.
How will you busy yourself today? Better yet, how will you live today? I mean really live as though it were your last day. How will you make the most of today? What will become most important? Love? Giving? Serving? Or will it be buying, spending and toiling? Will you worry about the things you cannot control or your future, which only God knows? Or maybe, you will enjoy this rain. Maybe you will just be thankful for today and nothing more. Maybe…
I like that phrase…Just Glad To Be Here! I think I will use it myself. I know when I get to heaven that will be the first thing I scream…JUST GLAD TO BE HERE!!!! When I get to church on Sunday morning to worship God I will say it to myself right before Bill sings…Just glad to be here! Every time I am with my friends and family…Just glad to be here! Or with my church family, in ministry, meeting, or caring for one another…Just glad to be here! Just glad to be here…just glad to be alive!
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
