LIFE IS GOOD
Maybe the best Sunday yet! Well, I say that all the time, but it really was great. Three babies were baptized, the music soared, Holy Spirit filled, and we moved another step closer to our dreams coming true as God’s Word was declared. Life is good! But it’s true…LIFE IS GOOD!
I can say that, because I know that no matter what my God is a loving, healing and merciful God. Christ proves it! When I hurt I know that Christ reaches out in my pain and comforts. When I doubt I know that Christ strengthens. When I feel lost Christ shows me the way. So much makes life good. Most of all my Lord!
Today examine your life. What makes life good for you? Some would say when work ends. Some would say when the kids go to bed. Some might say when I get my paycheck. But look deeper. What really makes life good? How about peace of mind, joy, mercy, grace and love? How about a relationship with God? Essentials I would say and they are all given in Christ.
So today enjoy life. But enjoy the things that really make life worthwhile. Nurture your relationship with God and watch your life come alive!
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
Prayer for the day: Holy Father, I open my heart today to the things that really make life worth living. They go beyond the things of this world straight to you. Let me focus on what you offer and when I do let me give thanks always! Amen.
STAY CALM
So we began to talk. Step by step we made our way through the problems that were plaguing my friend. At every turn I would give a positive position on the situation and with that the person replied with something negative. This went on and on. The main issue was this…I DON’T KNOW WHERE GOD IS LEADING ME! Sounds familiar…we have all been there.
Then something happened. I asked if anything good was happening at all. I just wanted something to hold onto that was positive and I could build from there. Well, out came all of these wonderful business opportunities. Evidently, people out of nowhere were just asking this person to provide a service for, which they would compensate. Then there was total silence. I said, “Do you not see it? Do you not see God working in your life? He is leading all these people to you and yet you still say He is absent from your life?” BREAKTHROUGH! The conversation then changed from hopelessness to one of possibility.
Remember today that God is always speaking in that small still voice. Don’t let the anxiety and panic of a situation divert your attention. Focus even harder. Concentrate even more. I guarantee you will find God at work in your life.
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
CREDIT DUE
It’s special when you realize that the thing Christ calls you to be never fades. Yet, some make excuses not to serve and we hem and haw when the Spirit speaks to our hearts. We instantly hold onto our time, money and calendar as if they were sacred and unbreakable. It makes it hard to give love when we are like that and that’s really all Jesus wants us to give…love. Then there are some that always just seem to make time. They never complain. They never want credit. They just step up and do it.
Today I want to give the credit to these guys. They know who they are. I also want to give it to all that make our church dynamic and if you are reading this from another state and maybe even another country I hope you too have that same kind of passion and desire to serve. If you do then THANK YOU!
So today serve, give and love as though it were your last day on this earth. Strive to be something bigger than what the world wants and look outside of yourself. In the end, just like the four musketeers, just like all who give of themselves unceasingly, you will feel something and experience something that most do not…LIFE!
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
HEALING
Our walk with God seems to be a lot like that. What we need the most is offered in Christ yet we choose to ignore it. When God speaks to our heart, sends us a much-needed friend, or opens a door we look the other way. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that have hurt so badly we choose to write our own prescriptions. Other times we are so embarrassed by what we have done we run away from God, church and the world trying to forget and hoping God didn’t see. We say to ourselves, “It will get better, just give it time.”
There is an unbelievable gift waiting you today. I hope you will not wait any longer to take it. It is for those that are broken, for those that hurt, for those that are lost, for those that don’t seem to know a way out…today take it. Don’t run. Don’t look away. Don’t close your heart, ears, or mind to it any longer. It is a gift that can make a day worth living and the pain worth bearing. That gift is love. It is God’s love and it can only be found in Christ.
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
A prayer for today: Dear God, today I let go of my pride. I have tried for too long to walk this walk on my own. I have tried too long to medicate myself thinking I knew what was best. Now I give it to you. I offer my hurt, brokenness, pain and all the rest and lay at your feet. You are the only One that makes me whole. You are the only One that knows how to truly heal me. Today I receive that love and give thanks for it. Amen.
MISSED
My wife returned from a six-day trip! No she didn’t need to get away from me, but needless to say it was a lonngggg week. At first it didn’t feel so weird, but then my heart just started to hurt. Her smile lights up my world. Her laugh opens my heart (that was the first thing I loved about her by the way). Having her back feels like normal again. So many things I missed that I knew I would. But she’s back…all is right with the world.
I call that love. It is a love that goes much deeper than anything I ever felt in my life. It goes past the physical, emotional, and delves into something, I guess, spiritual. I wonder if we feel the same about our Lord? Jesus never goes away on extended trips or turns the cell phone off. He is always there. Right there! However, we find ourselves nibbling further and further away, just like little sheep. We get into patterns and habits that don’t bring us closer to God, but move us further away.
Do you miss your Lord the same way? Is it something that makes your heart hurt? Do you miss the peace you feel when you pray on your knees knowing Jesus is kneeling with you? Do you miss the comfort in difficult times as the Holy Spirit whispers to your heart, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
I’m so thankful to be married to a woman like Lisa, but with that same breath I am humbled to know that I have a Lord that loves me too. He never goes away. He is always right there. Today, take time to be with Him. It will change your life.
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
A prayer for today: Dear Lord, today I focus on you. I remind myself that you are always present in my life. Let me show up as well. Let me hear your voice. Let me feel your love. Let my heart be vulnerable to your grace. Now let me let it shine for the world to see. Amen.
DREAM BIG
We will be starting a new sermon series called DREAM BIG: A LIFE OF POWER AND POSSIBILITY and I am excited about its potential. We will learn what it means to think of things that seem impossible and turn them into reality. However, most of us just leave our dreams in the closet. Summer provided us a chance to escape and dream again, but the summer is over for most it’s back to the grind and that usually means, back to the routine! However, it doesn’t mean our dreams have to end. God wants us to never settle for routines, but be bold enough to create new lives and enjoy this wonderful world of His. God gave us dreams and the ability to think way beyond our potential. That is the spark that is in us all. EVERYONE HAS IT! I don’t care what you do for a living…you have the potential to dream big and make those dreams come true.
God has a great history with dreams and has used dreams to speak to us all. Joseph had a dream and in it was convinced to keep Mary as his wife and escape from harms way. Another Joseph, had the gift of dreams and God used them to help Joseph get out of some tight spots. Abraham was given a dream. The Magi were given a dream. Pharaoh was given a dream. Daniel was given a dream. So many are given dreams by God. How about you?
But although God works in our dreams as we sleep, God gives us the ability to dream while we are awake. What I mean by that is we always have the power to think of something incredible. Ted Kennedy quoted George Bernard Shaw when he was speaking at his brother’s funeral and said, “Some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never happened and ask why not?” God created us to do incredible things…to dream big, but to not just let them stay dreams, but to make them real.
What will you dream today? It might be the next big thing that revolutionizes the world. It might be something that changes just your life. It might be a goal, a career, a business, a ministry. Whatever it is have the courage to follow it. If it is God’s will they always come true!
DREAM BIG!
FOCUS
Today I want you to focus on things that matter. I watched a show last night about a couple that had lost their job, money and about to lose their house. Their relationship was falling apart. One of the ways they were to repair their relationship was to go through a series of challenges together. So they were made to spend a week on skid row in Los Angeles. They were to eat the food, sleep on the ground, and be with the people. They were terrified. However, after the ordeal they had gained something powerful,PERSPECTIVE. They realized their marital problems had nothing to do with money, because during that one week they came closer together than ever before.
Interesting, when we get beyond all the stuff, things, money and wealth we find out what true meaning is all about. That couple was defined by their “stuff.” When they began to lose their things they began to fall apart. By spending the night with people who had nothing they realized that they just didn’t need all their stuff. They discovered how to really live by seeing what truly matters!
So I ask you to focus on things that matter today. Focus on God first and then allow God to point you to love. Let love be your greatest treasure filled with wonder and amazement. Let love be the thing that gets you excited in the morning. Let doing for others give you a charge and an extra step. Let the giving of yourself, money and time be that thing that gets your blood flowing.
There is so much more to life my friends and God wants us all to enjoy it. I hope you will today. Focus!
Love you all,
Rev Jim
LIVE
Don’t ever give up! These were the words given by Jimmy Valvano who was the coach of the N.C. State Men’s Basketball Team. He led a group of young men that seemingly had no chance to compete with the powerhouse’s of Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina and won the NCAA Championship! He was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1992 and died later that year.
His famous speech of all time was at the ESPY Awards where he told the crowd, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!” But more famous and less noted are these words that he said and are written on his tombstone:
To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.
He was right. To laugh, to think and to cry are things we should do every day. It makes us alive. It makes us human. It brings us in touch with something bigger than our selves. When we do our problems don’t seem so big.
However, some people have just given up on life. They don’t feel things anymore. Certain people don’t let things touch them or move them. They certainly don’t ponder or think about the deeper questions. They just scratch the surface.
Today remember to never give up, but if you make that commitment then start living. Laugh, think, cry and when you do you will discover a life worth living.
May your day be richly blessed!
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
PUT IN
What a great Sunday of worship we had together. People returning from vacation, kids, great music, laughter, God’s Word and Holy Communion made it an incredible day. Some people gave comments about the way we served Communion yesterday and I appreciated their input. Then one person made a very interesting comment about worship. I know this person and no matter what, she always enjoys church. She just gets it. I started talking about that with her and she said to me, “Jim, you just get out what you put in.” YES!!!
She is right. You get out what you put in. If you choose to sit in worship and think about all the other stuff in your life then worship will be just like everything else…an hour to kill. If you decide to go to work and give it half your heart then work will always be a drudgery. If you treat your marriage like any other relationship then you will get exactly that.
Paul tells us in Galatians, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, he shall reap.” Galatians 6:7
You get what you put in! It’s amazing how we shortchange our lives. We want to be healthy, but only willing to do half the work and make half the sacrifice. We want to be successful in business, but quit when the door gets slammed. We want relationships that thrive, but are unwilling to open our hearts and make them vulnerable. We want a relationship with God, but are unwilling to let go of the world to hold onto heaven. We get what we put in!
What will you put in today?
Let it be everything!
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
IT MATTERS
I look forward to the first Sunday of each month, because we participate in Holy Communion. The service is a tad bit longer, but it is worth it. This week we will be doing it in a totally different way so it should be neat. We break the bread, which is symbolic of a love beyond comprehension. We pour the juice, which reminds of a pain that is beyond words. Our Lord was wounded, crucified and condemned for our transgressions and says to us all, from the heart of God, “Forgiven!” Amazing if you really take time to think about it. That’s why His grace is AMAZING as the hymn tells us. Jesus tells us, “Do this in remembrance of me.” But how often do you remember it?
I must say we remember a lot and, because we remember we act on all of those memories. When we have a heart that remember good things we act on all of those memories and good things come as a result. On the other hand, we form some really bad habits, because we choose to remember some pretty bad things. People who are mean, angry and negative, remember and focus on horrible things and then do something in response to it. They might binge eat, sleep all day or take it out on others. A person unhappy in a marriage might respond by forming relationships online or physical ones that lead to terrible consequences. A person might be bored and allow his or her mind to wander. This leads to unhealthy thoughts and then temptation arises and sometimes leads that person into compromising places. You get the idea.
What you do when you remember things matters! It’s amazing what the Holy Spirit can do to help you remember. Now, when I think of someone that has hurt me the Holy Spirit helps me remember, LOVE! Now, when I get sad or depressed the Holy Spirit helps me remember, HOPE! Now, when I get bored and idle the Holy Spirit helps me remember, PRAY! The list goes on and on. The question is, “Do you want to listen to the Holy Spirit!”
Today remember the good stuff and when you do that do something beautiful for the world to see. However, if the stuff that haunts you, hurts you and holds you back begins to take over your mind REMEMBER the Lord is with you. He is there speaking to you. The Holy Spirit is there encouraging, lifting up, lending strength. Listen and then move into that place of peace that only He can give. Have an incredible day!
Love you all,
Rev. Jim
