Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda's!

Jeremiah 33:3

³ ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

Recently I have heard some people lament about things that they have not done in their lives. They often speak about missed opportunities. Many of us, as we grow older often look back at our lives and sometimes wish we would have done things differently.

As I thought about this topic this morning, one of my favorite songs from Country Artist, Joe Diffie came to mind. In this song we see a man so preoccupied with his Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda’s that he missed his road exit to go to Sears.

Part of the Lyrics are:

Somewhere down that road not taken will forever live those dreams that were forsaken.
Just every now and then I think about what would have been, somewhere down that road not taken

How many of us have gone to class reunions and have run head first into the girl or guy we were too scared to ask out on a date? How many of us see that person who has become rich by taking opportunities that we did not? And, how often have we seen those that have been too full of doubt to leave the days of high school behind. Yes, often lives can be fill with regret, or what I call the:

 “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda’s?

The text from the Book of Jeremiah is a verse that was speaking specifically to the Prophet Jeremiah. This verse is telling Jeremiah to seek out the Lord’s wisdom. We see that this verse tells Jeremiah of God’s promised answer to his question.

As we look back on our lives, how many of us have been guilty of not seeking out God’s wisdom in those areas in which fear and doubt drive our lives? For many of us that think about the past, we must understand that sometimes it is not the past that should take up the space in our brains. Rather we should seek out God’s wisdom as to affect the change to our futures.God is calling each of us just as Jeremiah. We must seek out God’s wisdom, God’s answer to the questions that we have about our present and our future.

In Joe Diffie’s song the man asks the following of himself: “What if I had asked you? And what if you'd said, "Yes"? There's no way I'll ever know, still I can't help but guess.

Ours is not a guessing game because we have been given a personal relationship with the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. The Trinity is available to us to be in relationship with, to ask questions of, and to be guided by the answers we are given.

Beloved, God is present and available and waiting for our questions, He is waiting for us to develop that personal relationship with Him. Instead of missing your exit to Sears, instead of lamenting on Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda, seek out God’s wisdom and answers instead of self-doubt, and self- sadness.

Don’t miss the exits to the Sears of your lives, give it to the everlasting love of God whose answer will drive you home every time.

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

Pastor Tim.

In God We Trust!

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? Psalm 56:3-4  

As a Police Chaplain, I have placed these stickers on our patrol vehicles to show the world that whatever the situation is, the officer places his or her trust in God the Creator of all things. These stickers also ensure to all that see them that they may be comforted in the knowledge that the Officer has the ethics and morality of a follower of God.

In these days of unknown personal, local, and worldly events we as followers of the cross often find ourselves not knowing how to address certain situations. We even find certain situations impossible to comprehend. But, we must not think that the unknown is a new thing only for our generation. 

Scripture tells us in Psalm 56 that there were times when David did not know how to respond to his feelings, as well as the world around him. In verses one and two he complains about his enemies while seeking mercy for him and justice on those that stood against him. In Verses five through seven King David, when in times of trouble confided in God and found comfort is sharing his feelings and emotions with God the Father. 

Verses three and four told ancient Israel as well as us today: Beloved God's call today is to place all our trust in God and to praise him for the wonderful things that He continues to do for us. Let us be like King David and when in doubt, seek out God for safety as well as victory. 

We know that God has already given us the victory through His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May our daily motto and mantra continue to be "In God We Trust" or "In God I Trust". 

This is the day that the Lord has made.

Pastor Tim.

Trust Begins at the Foot of the Cross!

Proverbs 3:5 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

One must only watch the news, look at social media, or have a discussion with someone about the world around us, and we come away with so many doubts and questions. For anyone that studies the human condition, it would seem that the world is in a vast flux or spiraling down situation. 

Wherever one lives in this world, the world seems to be in an "unknown" and "confusing" condition. I, like most people find myself without the needed answers to the many questions that society is asking today.

When in doubt our confusion in reference to world events, I often think about our time of Pastoral Prayer on Sunday mornings. This is when we gather as the Body of Christ in unified prayer, bring our joys, concerns, hurts, troubles, and doubts before the foot of the cross. We always conclude with the Lords Prayer.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Often these day's we know not where to go, or where to go. Beloved, this is when we must place everything that we are, all that we are thinking and feeling, and give it to God. We know and trust that perfection does not exist in this world, but that the only true answer and perfection is God.

The Creator of the Universe, the Father of us all, wants to help us. We only need come before him in prayer, mediation, and a personal relationship. 

My prayer for you today is that when you are feeling lost and find yourselves at a loss for a decision, seek out the Father. He wants to know you, He desires a relationship with you, and He has the plan for your life and my life.

The world was is a bad way, and evil was ruling the day when God sent His Son to the Hill of the Skull to be Crucified. This was a decision that none of us would have been able to make, but God had  "The Master's Plan". This plan was to save us from ourselves, by  Jesus taking our sin and indecision upon himself.

We only need to go as far as the cross to understand that God is at work and is still in the salvation business, He has placed His beloved Son in charge of our world and He is at work this very second. 

We have been give the Holy Spirit as a guide and mentor as to help us find our way until Jesus returns for His Kingdom. 

Brothers and Sisters: Seek out the F,S&HS this very day and your mind will be set to a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Philippians 4:7

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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

Pastor Tim.

I Refuse to Hate Who You Hate!

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

1 John 4:20 

With the political season over, and the rise of social media post against certain politicians I am often disheartened over the mean spirited communications that occur between people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

It seems that if I do not hate who you hate and make that hate known in the public, we cannot be friends. Often people feel that true hatred cannot be made complete unless they get everyone else to feel their hatred as well.

Do we see this in our earthly relationship with others as well? Can I not be nice to a person if you do not like them or have some type of grudge with them?

We see in these texts that we are called to love others and Christ loves us. We notice that in the texts from John that our love for one another is not His wish, but rather we are commanded by Him to love one another.

John 13:34-35
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. 

John 15:12
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 

Beloved, if we truly want to call ourselves people in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it should be impossible to have hate in our hearts, minds and souls. More importantly is should be impossible to pass that hatred down to others and to hate them as well, because they refuse to hate as you do.

My friends, hatred is not conducive to the ministry and teachings of Christ Jesus. As Jesus was hanging on the cross, His words to His Father were: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” Luke 23:34. Christ did not say, “Father hate them for what they have done to me”. As he hang dying on the cross, betrayed and beaten, even then hatred never passed his thirsty lips.

The only hatred in my heart is for hatred, and the only person that I don’t want you to like is Satan.

When the people of the world disappoint us, choose to love and leave the rest in God’s very capable and loving hands.

This is the day that the Lord has made.

Pastor Tim.

Where Have the Men In My Life Gone?

Captain Ernie

Mr. Rogers

Titus 2:7 ESV 

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity.

Dr. Martin Luther King

Captain Kangaroo.

As I sit at my home office desk on this Monday Martin Luther King National Holiday, and as I drink coffee while eating Chicken in a Biskit Crackers with my K9 son "Tuffy". As I attempt to write down what my brain was thinking about at 1:30 AM this morning, one cannot in any semblance listen to Reverend Doctor King speeches and not think of those that had important roles in your learning, growing, and doing.

As a small child strong male influences became my friends and my teachers, while my siblings were at school an dad was at work and mom was at work in the home. Each one of these male figures such as Captain Kangaroo in the morning, Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood in the mid-day and finally Captain Ernie's Showboat in the late afternoon, taught me about life and how to treat others with respect.

Each one of these figures seemed to touch all aspects of childhood in their shows, and each one of them treated everyone equally as different cultures and ethnicity  touched their viewership and audience. People and cultures that seemed beyond my reach, leaped out of my television screen. These male figures expressed love and teaching not as television hosts, but as television friends and role models.

The text from St. Paul's letter to Titus is considered along with the letters to Timothy to be some of his last correspondences. In his letter to Titus we see him telling Titus to be an instructor to all and that he was to be an example to all in ways of living and peacefulness. Titus was to be an example of kindness, sincerity and ethical ways of living.

Doctor King was this kind of man, he lived, preached, and even died teaching that all of God's children should be equal, because they were equal in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. I refer to Dr. King as our Twentieth Century Moses, as he referred to leading people to the promised land of equal opportunity and equal status. Doctor King had a feeling that he would be like Moses and not enter the promised land with his people, but watch them enter it from the mountaintop. This feeling that Dr. King came true, as he was assassinated shortly after giving his final speech.

Where are the strong men of this Twenty-First Century? Where are the Dr. King's, Where are the Captain Kangaroo's, Mr. Rodgers,  and WOC's Captain Ernie? Where are today's Titus's? Where are the men of today that will stand up for injustice, where are the men that treat all equally? Is this a rant about remembering my childhood? I surely hope that instead it is the Holy Spirit nudge to write about those that taught fairness and justice for all, and those that need to stand up and teach these things to today's children.

Dr. King Had a Dream! Who will teach the children of today that this dream is still within our reach and it is truly what God expects of those that He created.

This is the Day the Lord has Made. Pastor Tim.

  

  

Many Gathered as One!

Ephesians 4:4-5 

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

Recently our community participated in a continuous Bible reading Marathon. All over the Commonwealth of Kentucky, One Hundred and Twenty counties were reading God's holy and precious word at the same time. 

What an awesome experience to see people from all denominational backgrounds getting together to read from Genesis to Revelation. Often when people discuss their faith lives, they ask one another what church they go to, and what denomination do they affiliate with? For this event, we were of many, gathered as one in one common bond and ministry.

Today as I was reading from Christ's Sermon on the Mount I was led to these verses from Matthew 5:14-15. 

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

As we gathered in our small community, people of many faiths gathered together to proclaim that Jesus is Lord of all. No matter what differences we may have in interpretation and rituals of worship, many gathered over three days and told the community and all that would listen that God's people will no longer be hidden. 

For these three day's our lamps were not hidden, all of God's people gathered and spread the light of God's Holy Word, to our community. Beloved, our goal for Christ is not to hide within the walls of denominations, but to rather go out as God's united family and body in praise and deed in His precious name. 

There is one body and one spirit and we have "ALL" been called to be united in the hope that belongs to our call: One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism. 

This is the day that the Lord has made.

Pastor Tim.

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.