The Answer to Prayers

*This weeks blog is dedicated to my dad (Don Blauvelt) who passed away last Wednesday. 

Jeremiah 29:11

English Standard Version (ESV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

He had been ill for the last six months, they said it was a cancerous tumor in his throat and that they could treat it with radiation and chemotherapy. We prayed for his healing, we prayed for his recovery. He was even warmed by a blanket of prayer that our church had made for him.

He didn't complain, he never whined about what the treatments were doing to his body. Instead he continued with them, never fussing once. When he could no longer eat, he did not complain but instead took feedings through a feeding tube.

We prayed and we prayed for his recovery, we prayed for his healing and his return to a life of normalcy, and still he died. What happened to the prayers? Why didn't God respond and fulfill our prayer requests? 

As I sit in my office two days after dad's funeral I feel compelled to answer the "why" questions. The text from Jeremiah tells us that our prayers were answered and they were most definitely plans for my dad's welfare. God knew that dad and his body were tired, even though the cancer had been beaten, the effects of the treatments were more than dad's weakened body could tolerate. God took dad home to a new and stronger body, God took dad home rather than having him linger in pain and deterioration in a hospital room. 

Yes, God answered our prayers even though it wasn't in the way that we had asked. Brothers and Sisters, God had a plan for dad's future, for his welfare, and it is in this that I take hope. God supplied the time for dad to say goodbye to the love of his life (my mom). God supplied the time for my brother who is also a pastor, to share the good news of Jesus Christ with dad prior to his passing. 

Yes, God answers all prayers at all times in love that ensures that we have an eternal future that is full of hope. As I sit here an mourn at the loss of my father, as I sit here hurting, I do so in the confidence and assurance that our prayers were truly answered. Not for my good, or my families good, but for the welfare of my dad who now resides with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My prayer for you this week my friends is that you continue to pray in the fact that God has our best interests in his heart, and that he keeps all promises and prayer requests, in his way, not ours.

Blessings and Peace: Pastor Tim.

Pastor Tim's We Care Message.

Tuning Our Pianos

Romans 10:17 

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

As I write this weeks blog the piano tuner is in the room next to my office tuning the piano, thus the Holy Spirit and the constant sound of one note playing over and over compelled me to write about this topic. As many of us around this time of year take trips an go on vacations, we tell ourselves that our vacations will be used to rest and re-charge. 

Well I'm all for rest and re-charging, but have we ever contemplated the fact that sometimes our faith needs re-tuning. Just as a piano grows out of tune after a while and periodically needs tuned as to play the proper notes and strike the right chord, we as God's people need to take time out and tune our faith. Yes, the day to day journey that we all walk on sometimes places our faith and spirituality out of tune and out of tempo with those around us, and yes even God!

In her article: Keep Your Faith Fresh: 4 Keys to Stronger Faith, Christian Counselor Ruth Seebeck tells us the following four ways to keep our faith fresh.

1. Study the book. There's a reason teachers handed out textbooks at the beginning of the school year. To pass the tests, you had to study. The same is true with faith. If you don't know what's in the book, the principles and promises of faith, how can you put His wisdom into practice?
2. Meditate. How did you learn spelling words or multiplication tables? By saying them over and over and over. Flash cards. Repetition. Create your own flash cards by writing out Bible promises on 3x5 cards. Put then where you can see them throughout your day. Repeat them to yourself until you've memorized them and built them into your consciousness. When you know that you know that you know - give yourself an 'A'!
3. Do your homework. Teachers assigned pages of homework so you could become proficient. Faith works the same way. Practice walking in love, even when you don't want to. Practice faith on that headache, meditating and praying healing scriptures. Practice patience and self-control, knowing God has given you the wisdom and ability to ace those life-tests.
4. Stay in school. Every grade adds to your knowledge and ability. Don't let yourself play hooky. Faith, like anything else in life, requires effort. You learn in stages and there is always more revelation. You can never know it all, but you can keep learning.

So as you journey this summer season and feel your faith beginning to get out of tune, place yourself in tune-up mode and make sure that you get back on the right key of your Christian faith walk. Once this is done, just think of the beautiful and well played notes your faith will express to all those you encounter in the name of Christ.

Blessings and Peace

Pastor Tim



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ruth_Seebeck

Stepping Outside of Your Comfort Zone

For many of us this week (especially the youth and young adults this week), it will be a week of new experiences in which we must fully place our trust in God. 

• Last week our youth and young adults worked at the local food kitchen.
• On Sunday our youth conducted the entire service from start to finish, selected the text, selected the music, selected the bulletin covers, and finally stood be a crowded congregation and gave God's Word for the week. 
• On Tuesday our youth and young adults will be in Nashville working with "The Bridge" ministry.

Brothers and Sisters, many times God asks us to step out of our comfort zones and to venture into new areas of ministry that many of us would call the "Unknown". We truly understand that true ministry often happens in God's time and not ours, and is often conducted in the unlikeliest of places.

The things that God supplies to us when we leave our comfort zone are:

1. The stress of our everyday existence is taken away from us, if even for just a short time.
2. We actually find the out of the comfort zone moments to be fun, fulfilling, and places in which we can truly see and feel our salvation.
3. God knows us better than we know ourselves and will place us in areas that He needs us, instead of where we need us.
4. As we are able to see hope in action, we are actually given an opportunity to make God's creation a little better, by being the Body of Christ.
5. By stepping out of our comfort zones we are seeing God supplying us with the needed learning and living, that keeps everyone of us fresh and new as a people of God.

My prayer for you this week is that you step out of your comfort zones and place yourself in a "Where the Rubber Meets the Road" ministry.  Because when we leave our comfort zones, we find ourselves in a zone in which the magic truly happens. "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

May you have an out of your comfort zone week

Pastor Tim

Romans 8:29-32

English Standard Version (ESV)

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God's Everlasting Love

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[a] against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Pastor Tim's Benton Blog: Walking Life's Tightrope

Pastor Tim's Benton Blog: Walking Life's Tightrope: 2 Corinthians 5:7  - (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) Last night I watched  Nik Wallenda  walk across the Grand Canyon on a two-in...

Walking Life's Tightrope

2 Corinthians 5:7 - (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Last night I watched Nik Wallenda walk across the Grand Canyon on a two-inch tightrope suspended over fifteen hundred feet above the canyon floor. Like many others that watched this event on live television, I too expressed that fact that their is know way that I could ever attempt anything close to this accomplishment.

Amazing was the fact that as Nik walked across this small cable,his focus was on what was straight ahead of him,and not what was below him. The entire time that he walked, the listening audience could hear him thanking God and expressing his love, faith and loyalty to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As Nik got closer to the finish and with his eyes on the prize, we were able to see him go from a slow walk to a sprint as he reached the completion of the walk. Brothers and Sisters this was an extreme act of faith by Mr. Walenda, one that he had trained for and one in which was in true communication with his God.

As we go through our lives, our faith may not have to be in walking across a cable over the Grand Canyon. But there will be times in which we must move forward in faith, looking straight ahead and not behind, above or below us.

What endeavor are you undertaking in your own life, and do you consider it to be your leap of faith(or canyon walk)? My prayer for you is that your walk of faith be taken in direct communication and partnership with God. 

May your journey go from a walk to a sprint with Jesus Christ as your travel partner.

Blessings and Peace
Pastor Tim

Obligations: It's All In The Call!

 Peter 1:10-11 

10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

How many of you have ever been asked to do something at church and have felt as if you have been forced into doing something that you do not want to do? How many of you have felt that you were not prepared for the task that has been presented to you?

Sometimes we all feel that way, but when this occurs we must seriously take it to prayer and ask ourselves if this is God's call to us for ministry. Brothers and Sisters as we go through this week and consider God's call for us, let us consider if God is extending a blessing to us. 

As people of God we must understand that everything that we do for the Kingdom may not be in our comfort zones, but it truly may be in our God given skill set. When God extends a blessing to us that we refuse to take, the blessing disappears and goes into our lives as a missed opportunity.

As people that are the body of Christ we must understand that each and everyone of us has some sort of calling in regards to God's kingdom. God does not extend us gifts just to let them sit and fester, they were given to us to use as the body of Christ for His creation. James 2:26 tells us: For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

My prayer for you this week is that you humbly consider the gifts that God has given you, and how they can best be used for the glory of God. Let us all be people of faith in our works and place our trust in the Heavenly Father to place us well. 

It's not about the work! It's about the faith!

Where has God Placed You?

Pastor Tim