Young and Bullet Proof –to- Old and Fragile

Isaiah 46:4 ESV

Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

When I was in my teens and twenties, I considered myself young and bullet proof. I thought I could out run and out jump most people, and I believed that nothing the world threw at me could hurt me.

I would look at my parents as they aged, as well as those older than myself as they developed signs and symptoms on growing older. I would say to myself: “I will never be like that, and will never let disease and aging catch up with me”!

I still consider myself younger, but feel the signs and symptoms of aging creeping up on me. Especially when I grow a beard or mustache and it comes in mostly grey. I feel it when my children remind me of my grey hair, as well as my weight.

But did you know that whatever your age our relationship with God can still make us feel safe and secure, young or old. Beloved, even as we grow older and begin to feel more aches and pains, we can celebrate that God is unchangeable.

Wherever we are and no matter how old or young we are, God’s love is the same for us. The same as our first born day until the day that we take our last earthly breath. Even as our parents age, we have the faith and the promise that our Father God will always be here as our loving parent, to lift us up and to protect us.

When it comes to God’s promise of protection and deliverance, age is just a number. God’s eternal promise of resurrection after earthly death is promised to the young who feel powerful as well as the more mature that are beginning to feel vulnerable.

My prayer for you today is that no matter your age or current life situation, nothing can hurt us. Yes, nothing can hurt us because of a Fathers love who sacrificed His Son on the cross for our sins. Nothing can hurt us because of the empty tomb, three days after the crucifixion.

This is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it.

Could, Should, and Love!

James 1:12 ESV

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

As I review social media posts over the last few weeks, it seems as there is much gloom and doom about the years 2020 and 2021. Whether it is a new President that many in the county are divided over or whether it is those that feel that God has taken His attention off of this world.

As I go through our community, I often here more of “what used to be” instead of “what we can do”. It seems as the world is in need of an infusion of happiness and excitement in relationship to our future lives and what the coming year may bring.

Some say that God cannot understand what I am feeling or why did He let this happen, why did God take his hands off the steering wheel of the world? I have also seen many people tell others, “don’t try to make me feel good, don’t unload your piousness on me. Don’t tell me how much Jesus loves me, when He lets this happen to me, us, and the world!”

I do agree that when one is feeling low and alone, empty sentiments are the last thing a person wants to hear. “It was their time”, “they are in a better place” and the Biggy: “I know how you feel”.  Beloved,   the Father truly knows how we feel, He made us and everything around us. He sent his Son Jesus to live among us and to feel what we feel, so He could take it away from us. He is the pioneer of humanity.

When we limit our faith in God, because of unanswered prayers or unanswered results, we limit what God can do and who God is. When we think of God in earthly description rather than heavenly description, we lose grasp of God’s purpose for us and for this world.

My prayer is that as we go into 2022, we will do so wanting to love others more and be thinking outside the box in regards to our relationship with others as well as our relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Know that God is God and God is going to do what God does, and that we play an eternal role in the “Masters Plan”. Be excited, because what we gain here on earth is truly not comparable to the things of heaven and our eternal walk with God and our never having to say “Good Bye” or “God Why” again.

Attitude is everything, faith is everything, and even though you may not think so, God is alive and at work this very second with His hands firmly on the wheel of the world.

Happy New Year. God has this!

Pastor Tim.

The Ten Dollar Bill at Christmas

“Love the Lord our God with all our mind, soul, and strength; and to love our neighbor as ourselves” (Luke 10:27).

This Christmas season our phones at the church have been busy with requests for Christmas assistance, as we can we have been trying to assist whether it is directly or indirectly.  As we get closer and closer to Christmas day, our avenues to assist those in need are narrowing as time continues on.

Each time the church phone rings, the thought runs through my head that it may be somebody needing Christmas assistance. Well, this week the phone rang and this call changed my mood as well as my spirit.

The man on the other end of the phone line stated that he was looking for a church to make a cash donation, and would I be in my office. A few minutes later a man stopped by the office and told me about his recent baptism and coming into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The man had recently overcome struggle with addiction and was feeling God’s call to pay back, in word and in deed. As we talked, the man placed a $10.00 bill on my desk. With this a true feeling of God’s Christmas gift came over me.

Beloved, it is not the amount that we give, it is the fact that we give out of love and in appreciation for what God has done for us. The gift of our Messiah Jesus Christ is God’s true gift to His creation that was given out of love. 

The true meaning of Christmas giving is as Jesus said: "Jesus when he summed up the whole law said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and strength and then love your neighbor, even real little ones. 

Beloved, my prayer for you this Christmas is that your joy in giving of yourselves to others will outweigh the feeling of receiving from others. When we give of ourselves, we truly remember the sacrificial giving that this baby would one day take upon himself on the cross for us.

Merry Christmas and Give Until it Joy’s

Pastor Tim.

Tim's Topics: You Are Forgiven!

Tim's Topics: You Are Forgiven!: Ephesians 4:32   ESV Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. I recently w...

You Are Forgiven!

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

I recently was reading a news article about a family, and I scrolled down to the replies and observed some readers not willing to forgive this family, or family member.

Likewise I recently read a social media post in which the person asked for forgiveness. It was refreshing to see the number of loving replies to that person, it was awesome to see love and forgiveness in such a great supply.

Today as we celebrate the first day of Advent, the hope in the coming of the Messiah is what we focus our strength and God’s guidance on today and this week. In this hope of the Messiah to come, we will see that His life, His ministry, and His story revolve around our hope in the promise of forgiveness and salvation.

Beloved, our call for today is to forgive others and to love others as Christ loves us. Our Creator God was hurt by our turning from him, as well as the way that we treated His Son. But as Christ hung on the cross, he said to His Father: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.  Yes, God continues to forgive us in this broken and fractured world, likewise the call is more present than ever for us to forgive others as well.

The Hope of Christmas is in the hope that a baby born in a simple manger will bring to us, a world that truly needs to know what true love is about. My prayer is that this Christmas season you will feel God’s call to a new sense of hope and a new call to forgive someone that is hard to forgive. The forgiveness that you feel for somebody strengthens you as much as it strengthens the one asking for forgiveness.

Christ forgives you and I forgive you.  Go this week and forgive others.

Pastor Tim. 

Being Thankful for God's Grace and Forgiveness.

Matthew 7:1-3 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Judging Others

7 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ² For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. ³ Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s^[a] eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?

In my fifty-two years on this earth, I have witnessed many elections. With each new election you begin to see society state that there is no way that you can be a Christian, if you vote for a certain candidate.

This is not exclusive to just one party, and again it shows society wanting to judge others. When we judge others, when we attempt to deem who is worthy for God’s grace and the kingdom of heaven, we attempt to take the place of God in the “who is worthy business.”

The most important topic that all followers of the cross must follow is this: Are you worthy, are you in right relationship with God? What steps have you taken to share the good news, rather than to condemn with it?

What is the cause that you are using to justify another’s unworthiness to be a follower of God? Are you making an earthly cause override God’s heavenly need for relationship, as well as His Son’s death on the cross for our unworthiness?

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, let us be thankful for Christ’s act of forgiveness on the cross, and let us be thankful that God is in charge of who is and isn’t worthy. Let us make our pledge this Thanksgiving and upcoming Advent season, to become a people that forgives more and accuses and judges less.

Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the Bounty and Blessing of God.

Pastor Tim.

Crossing Lines and Loving "ALL"

Mark 2:13-17 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Calls Levi and Eats with Sinners

¹³ Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. ¹⁴ As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵ While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Since the election, we have seen different political sides continuing to take shots at one another. We see Christians telling other Christians that they are not worthy to be called a follower of Christ, because of who they voted for.

Likewise we find it hard to associate with others that have different political and religious views, than ours. Beloved, I have lived in small towns before in which I have heard “Preacher you may not want to be seen with me, I’m unpopular around here.”

The question that I pose in today’s blog is this? As followers of Christ, should we not associate with those that society deems unworthy? The text from Mark 2, shows us that Jesus fully understood that it is the sick that need physicians, not the healthy. Likewise, we as followers of the cross of Christ, are tasked with bringing the good news of Christ to all, and not just the “Cool Kids”.

Beloved, Jesus is here for the rich and the poor, the gay and the straight, the honest person and the criminal. Jesus is here for the citizen as well as the undocumented alien.

Does this mean that I side with a certain personality or lifestyle? No, it means that I side with Christ that tells me this to do. John 13:34-35. He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

My friends, being a Christian does not mean that we must take sides, but it does mean that we must not separate ourselves because of our differences. Who are you embarrassed to be with that needs to hear the good news? 

Whether the rich or whether the drug addicted in the street, whether the criminal, whether the most honest. Jesus died on the cross for them, the least we can do is have a meal with them and give of ourselves. 

Do not let a political election remove the love from your hearts, and instead of doing what the world says is right, do what Jesus Christ says it right.

This is the word of Jesus Christ for today and every day.

Pastor Tim.