August 2019 – Page 2 – Thoughts for the Day

August 18, 2019

Do Your Best and Leave the Rest With God!

This article is being delayed in its release today deliberately. It has not happen very often over 45 years, but on this the 112^th anniversary service of our congregation, I have struggled with health challenges the last two weeks and even more so with the content of what would make up the message. Everything I attempted to put together did not seem to come close to my expectations of what I was desiring to do. Having printed my sermon before beginning to write this article I must say I am not particularly happy with what is printed on the paper. I do know in the past when such a situation has arisen, the Holy Spirit has taken my efforts and greatly blessed and used them to touch the hearts and lives of people in that moment. Sometimes some aspects of the sermon changed on the fly, at other times, little changed, but God intervened. That is what I am praying again will happen. The rest of this article will be written after the service has been completed. I will report what happens.

After a very busy morning of preparation for the BBQ and corn boil, the service and the fellowship time there was the tear down and a short nap before I arrived to finish this article. I am thankful and grateful for the Holy Spirit’s help and strength through the service. I leave the results of how people will actually respond to God. Time will tell on the impact on lives. I was able to get through the fellowship time before physically crashing, thus the nap. I am going back to finish it when this is posted. Sometimes all you can do, is do your best and leave the rest with God!

August 17, 2019

Will You Remain Faithful to Your Promise?

I was researching a topic yesterday and came across a book in which the author had chosen to seek to debunk his earlier research and earlier book. The first book had been written from a Biblical foundation and now the author recants both his initial research and his faith in God. What I found interesting was the number of individuals who sided with the author and cheered him on for his choice of abandoning his faith.

We live in a world where much spiritual darkness and blindness exists. John 3:17-21 reminds us, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. {18} Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. {19} This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. {20} Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. {21} But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

I believe there is great value in a step I took soon after I said Yes to the relationship with God through His Son, Jesus. That step was to request for God’s help to stay true to the relationship with Him all of my life. It is not enough to start the life of faith in God, we must choose to stay true to our commitment and faithful to our loyalty. Otherwise we will find ourselves in darkness. 1 John 1:7 tells us, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (NIV). Will you remain faithful to your promise?

August 16, 2019

I spent some time this looking for appropriate songs to fit the 122th anniversary service of the congregation I pastor. In my search I discovered a hymn book from the Holiness Movement Church in Canada. This denomination joined the Free Methodist Church in 1958, the same year The Gospel Workers Church joined the Church of the Nazarene, which our congregation is connected with.

This hymnal was published in Ottawa, Canada in 1902. My copy is a words only edition, so I have no idea what the tunes are to most of the songs. In fact I do not recognize most of the songs. More than 100 of the 600 songs in the book are connected to the concept of holiness in some way. I did not take the time to calculate it out, because of how the layout of our current hymn book is set up, but the percentage of holiness related songs is significantly less than this old Hymn Book was.

I understand, in many locations today, hymns have been replace by worship style songs and choruses. The intent of the old hymns was to provide a context for building a strong Biblical foundation for faith and spiritual growth in the lives of those who had said YES to the relationship with God through His Son, Jesus. We have been working through our computer software used for congregational singing to remove the “thees” and “thous” in the hymns, while including some choruses which have meaningful and Biblical content.

I personally desire for the Holy Spirit to be the one who engages and lifts the hearts of those present and not a pattern of emotional manipulation to provide a sort of “spiritual high.” In reading through some of the hymns from the Holiness Movement Church in Canada I was impressed at how the full experience of holiness was being built out. If someone was paying attention to the words they would have a better understanding that holiness truly is “the perfect alignment of our life with pure, selfless love,” as demonstrated by Jesus.

Music is an important part of our connection to God. Psalm 100:1-5, “Shout for joy to Yahweh, all the earth. {2} Worship Yahweh with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. {3} Know that Yahweh is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. {4} Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. {5} For Yahweh is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Make music in your heart to God!

August 15, 2019

Are You Enjoying Perfect Alignment With Pure, Selfless Love?

When you find your self in a challenging situation or period of time, one of your best options is simply to keep your mouth shut and say nothing. Your words are powerful and one of the devil’s most powerful weapons against you resides about one inch below your nose. Be careful what you say. Our words reveal what’s in our hearts and also what is being stored in our subconscious mind. You will often hear someone say, “I didn’t mean what I said!” Chances are they did mean it in the moment and are now regretting having said it.

If we are honest, we likely all have been guilty of this at some point in our life. I am seeking to grasp a better understanding of what it means “to be holy as God is holy” (1 Peter 1:16). I suspect the concept of holy and holiness is very foreign in our culture today. When the Holy Spirit gave me a specific meaning of the this concept a few months ago, I began to use it, but never really understood the depth of its meaning. In Isaiah 6 we read of the prophet’s profound encounter with a holy God and the impact this experience had on him and his life. I suspect most people today who have said YES to the relationship with God through His Son, Jesus have no concept of what happened there in the temple with Isaiah and do not relate to what connecting to the holiness of God is really like.

I invite you to begin to reflect on the concept of what “holy” and “holiness” looks like in practical terms of bringing your life into “perfect alignment with pure, selfless love” as demonstrated by Jesus. No wonder Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me.” As you consider how to consistently exercise this concept, you will realize it is impossible by your own strength and effort. It must be a work of God in us and it requires some specific actions on our part. Remember Hebrews 12:14 tells us, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (NIV). Are you enjoying perfect alignment with pure, selfless love?

August 14, 2019

Don’t Allow Deception to Ruin Your or Anyone Else’s Life!

Have you ever been deceived by someone who wasn’t who they pretended to be, or acted like they said they would? There are many high profile examples in our world and the media is quick to take advantage of the opportunity to exploit the moment. The event is used to create a mindset that not only attacks the perpetrator, but is designed to make the victim look bad and promote a specific agenda. Therefore, people who had nothing to do with the situation at hand are blamed for what took place.

The end result is increased fear and mistrust in the minds and hearts of the general public. People become more isolated and insulated from faith in one another. This is true even within families. Those who are alone have little to no support mechanisms in place and are more vulnerable to thought manipulation and external intimidation. The pressure towards passive acceptance and compliance grows, reducing the levels of true freedom in individual lives and in society in general.

Do not let the actions of someone change your thinking, beliefs, words, intentions, or actions. Be the best version of you possible by God’s grace and help. “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity” (Romans 12:2 – J.B. Phillips New Testament). Don’t allow deception to ruin your or anyone else’s life!