Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Something to think about.
“The purpose of prayer is not to get more blessing from God but to get more of God Himself” Larry Crabb
Pastor's Corner
for Sunday January 30th
“But thanks be to God, who made us his captives and leads us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume.” (2 Cor. 2:14) This is an unusual metaphor because, usually, being lead along as a captive was a humiliating experience. It meant that you were defeated and conquered and therefore an object of scorn. But with Jesus this is a victorious picture because Jesus is showing to everybody, both in this world and in the unseen world, “Look! I’ve freed another one!” “Look! Another sinner made righteous! Another broken heart is healed! Another pair of eyes that were blind but now they see!” We are God’s miracles on display! God wants people to look at us so that they will have hope, so that they will believe that they too can experience the miracle of God for themselves. It is an awesome thing to realize that people are watching me and I can have a positive impact on the life of another person! If you boldly live the miracle of God’s grace in your life, someone will see, and their life may be changed. So let us be a "sweet perfume", a miracle of God’s grace before a watching world.
Pastor Don
“But thanks be to God, who made us his captives and leads us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume.” (2 Cor. 2:14) This is an unusual metaphor because, usually, being lead along as a captive was a humiliating experience. It meant that you were defeated and conquered and therefore an object of scorn. But with Jesus this is a victorious picture because Jesus is showing to everybody, both in this world and in the unseen world, “Look! I’ve freed another one!” “Look! Another sinner made righteous! Another broken heart is healed! Another pair of eyes that were blind but now they see!” We are God’s miracles on display! God wants people to look at us so that they will have hope, so that they will believe that they too can experience the miracle of God for themselves. It is an awesome thing to realize that people are watching me and I can have a positive impact on the life of another person! If you boldly live the miracle of God’s grace in your life, someone will see, and their life may be changed. So let us be a "sweet perfume", a miracle of God’s grace before a watching world.
Pastor Don
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Something to think about.
“The fruit of silence is prayer, The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love, The fruit of love is peace.” Mother Teresa
Pastor's Corner
for Sunday Jan 23rd
When Jesus was warned by the Pharisees not to go to Jerusalem because King Herod wanted to kill him, Jesus answered, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.”(Luke 13:32) What striking about this statement is that Jesus is telling these Pharisees that his future is not in Herod’s hands but in God’s. Jesus came to this earth to die but he will die according to God’s timing not Herod’s. So Jesus says he will continue to do what he has always done and when he is finished what he came to do then, and only then, will he give himself to be killed. As a Christian you can have the same confidence in your future. Nothing happens to you unless God says so, my future is not in the hands of any man or woman, not even the devil’s. My future is in the God’s hands, and there’s no safer place to be.
Pastor Don.
When Jesus was warned by the Pharisees not to go to Jerusalem because King Herod wanted to kill him, Jesus answered, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.”(Luke 13:32) What striking about this statement is that Jesus is telling these Pharisees that his future is not in Herod’s hands but in God’s. Jesus came to this earth to die but he will die according to God’s timing not Herod’s. So Jesus says he will continue to do what he has always done and when he is finished what he came to do then, and only then, will he give himself to be killed. As a Christian you can have the same confidence in your future. Nothing happens to you unless God says so, my future is not in the hands of any man or woman, not even the devil’s. My future is in the God’s hands, and there’s no safer place to be.
Pastor Don.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Pastor's Corner
for Sunday January 16th
I was recently watching “Eat Pray Love” a movie based on the memoirs of American author Elizabeth Gilbert, who traveled the world to “find herself”. In the movie she concludes that “God is in me and I in Him.” This God is too small. This god may be OK if I’m shut up in some Buddhist monastery and don’t have deal with the real world. How does this concept of God help you when someone mindlessly kills six people and wounds 14 others? What do you do when a jealous husband walks up and shoots his wife’s lover and then himself? What do you do when a 12 year girl is abducted by a 28 year man? When things get tough and life becomes too big for us, the God “that is in me and I’m in Him” is too small to give us any hope. No, we need a sovereign God; an infinite God to hang on to. Only the God who created everything we see (and everything we can’t see), is big enough to give us the assurance that He truly IS in control! When our world overwhelms us with its cruelty and lack of moral standards we need to know that there is a God who is perfectly good and compassionate; who hates evil and therefore will intervene and do something about what’s going on in this world. This God can be frightening, but at the same time we are comforted because we sense that we are not helplessly caught up in some giant machine but that there is a God who is bigger than it all and controls it all. I still can’t make sense of tragedies like this shooting in Arizona but I take great comfort in the knowledge that God, who is sovereign over all things,
Pastor Don.
I was recently watching “Eat Pray Love” a movie based on the memoirs of American author Elizabeth Gilbert, who traveled the world to “find herself”. In the movie she concludes that “God is in me and I in Him.” This God is too small. This god may be OK if I’m shut up in some Buddhist monastery and don’t have deal with the real world. How does this concept of God help you when someone mindlessly kills six people and wounds 14 others? What do you do when a jealous husband walks up and shoots his wife’s lover and then himself? What do you do when a 12 year girl is abducted by a 28 year man? When things get tough and life becomes too big for us, the God “that is in me and I’m in Him” is too small to give us any hope. No, we need a sovereign God; an infinite God to hang on to. Only the God who created everything we see (and everything we can’t see), is big enough to give us the assurance that He truly IS in control! When our world overwhelms us with its cruelty and lack of moral standards we need to know that there is a God who is perfectly good and compassionate; who hates evil and therefore will intervene and do something about what’s going on in this world. This God can be frightening, but at the same time we are comforted because we sense that we are not helplessly caught up in some giant machine but that there is a God who is bigger than it all and controls it all. I still can’t make sense of tragedies like this shooting in Arizona but I take great comfort in the knowledge that God, who is sovereign over all things,
Pastor Don.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Something to think about.
According to Gandhi the following things will destroy mankind:
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle
Pastor's Corner
for Sunday 9th Jan
Crucifixion was and still is one of the cruelest ways to kill a man. So when we mention the cross, Jesus’ pain and suffering immediately come to mind. What does the cross of Jesus mean to you? There are two messages that come to us from the cross. The first message is that God loves us. “For God so loved the world…” Think of this, that while Jesus was hanging there; experiencing excruciating pain; He had already endured hours of humiliation where He had been spat on, beaten, scourged, mocked and ridiculed by the crowd and even now as he hangs on the cross people are passing by and shouting insults at Him. Yet Jesus says, “Father forgive them.” Jesus is the friend of sinners. Sin, not the nails, kept Him on the cross. If you ever doubted that God loved you; if you ever doubted that you are precious in His sight, look to the cross and see how much He loves you.
The other message that comes from the cross is the seriousness of sin. Sin is no small thing; it is no trivial matter with God. Sometimes we trivialize sin; we excuse sin. We say, “I made a mistake” instead of saying “I sinned”. Perhaps we do things that are sinful and think “God will forgive me.” God’s love should never be used as an excuse to continue in sin but rather to move us out of sin. If you’re taking sin too lightly look to the cross. If that’s what it took to fix our “mistake” it must be very, very serious.
So as you focus on the cross of Jesus, remember that forgiveness didn’t come cheap and then praise God that He loved you so much that He was willing to pay the HIGH price of your salvation.
Pastor Don.
Crucifixion was and still is one of the cruelest ways to kill a man. So when we mention the cross, Jesus’ pain and suffering immediately come to mind. What does the cross of Jesus mean to you? There are two messages that come to us from the cross. The first message is that God loves us. “For God so loved the world…” Think of this, that while Jesus was hanging there; experiencing excruciating pain; He had already endured hours of humiliation where He had been spat on, beaten, scourged, mocked and ridiculed by the crowd and even now as he hangs on the cross people are passing by and shouting insults at Him. Yet Jesus says, “Father forgive them.” Jesus is the friend of sinners. Sin, not the nails, kept Him on the cross. If you ever doubted that God loved you; if you ever doubted that you are precious in His sight, look to the cross and see how much He loves you.
The other message that comes from the cross is the seriousness of sin. Sin is no small thing; it is no trivial matter with God. Sometimes we trivialize sin; we excuse sin. We say, “I made a mistake” instead of saying “I sinned”. Perhaps we do things that are sinful and think “God will forgive me.” God’s love should never be used as an excuse to continue in sin but rather to move us out of sin. If you’re taking sin too lightly look to the cross. If that’s what it took to fix our “mistake” it must be very, very serious.
So as you focus on the cross of Jesus, remember that forgiveness didn’t come cheap and then praise God that He loved you so much that He was willing to pay the HIGH price of your salvation.
Pastor Don.
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