Monthly Archives: March 2014

The Bridge to Monday 6

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Today will be our last installment of our series on “The Bridge to Monday”.  Today we will look at the single most important bridge of them all.

Look at Matthew 27:40, “And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  The most important  one is the bridge that allows us to know that we are genuinely born again.  The cross is our bridge to Monday.  If it were not for the cross then life would be futile.  We would just live our lives and die like a dog.  I am sorry to break the bad news to my readers who love dogs; but, unlike the movie dogs do not go to Heaven.

As I think about Monday morning and what I have to face I sometimes look at the cross and what Jesus faced.  When I come to my conclusion it is crystal clear.  If Jesus can endure the cross for me then I am endure life here for Him.  I mean really, isn’t that what it comes to.  We have all said, “I am not going to work because I don’t want to and I don’t have to.”  What about everyone else there?  You put a burden on them by not being there.  I now emergencies come up and that is excusable.  Jesus has called us to be a testimony for Him and we need to crucify the flesh and just go on for Him.

So, how are you doing?

A Bridge to Monday 5

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Sometimes when I get up on Monday it takes quite a bit for me to actually get out of bed and get going.  Sometimes it is fear of the unknown.  Sometimes it is fear of what is coming because I know what I have done the week before.  Consequences are tough sometimes.  As the old television police show “Beretta” used to tell us, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”  Good counsel.

Sometimes it take a command for us to do something.  Look at Mark 16:15, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”  This is not a suggestion.  This is a clear, concise command from Jesus Himself.  So, why don’t we do what He has commanded?  It is plain and simple.  Sin.  It is a sin to know we are supposed to do something and for us to leave it undone.

Jesus has commanded us to do many things and yet, we go on living our lives like He has not spoken to us.  Oh, we are quick to point out that ‘Brother So and so” is not doing it or Sister Such and such” is not doing it.  When it comes to us then the excuses fly like great splattering out of a pan of bacon.  Yes, I went there.

Take a look inside today and reevaluate your commitment to Jesus.  Be honest about the fact of your following Jesus and obeying His commands.

So, how are you doing?

A Bridge to Monday 4

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Today I would like to look at the thought of compassion.  Sometimes it is compassion that compels us to keep going.  If you know that on Monday morning you have some big project that could affect someone’s life then it is a great motivator to get up and go.

A man kept hitting the snooze button on his alarm.  Finally, his wife had had all she could take of it.  She knew it was Sunday and they needed to get up and go to Church.  The wife hit her husband in the side and told him to get up.  He told her that he did not want to.  She snapped at him, “You have to get up and go because you are the Pastor.”  Well, she has a point.

Compassion should be a powerful motivator.  Watch late night television and you will be over loaded on commercials with starving children drinking from dirty water with pleas for financial help before they all die.  I agree these are great needs; but, what about the needs right here at home?  We need to do what we can for whom we can as long as Jesus is speaking to us to do such things.  Far too many of us have lost or compassion and it is sad.  We need to get back our compassion and let it be “A Bridge to Monday” for us.

So, how are you doing?

Matthew 14:14, “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.”

The Bridge to Monday 3

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Recently we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.  In our day that is a real accomplishment.  Throw in the fact of having a child in the home with special needs and this is a real super accomplishment.  I am not bragging on us.  I am bragging on the LORD for helping us make it all these years.

We learned a long time ago that we made a decision to stick together until death us do part and we aim to keep it.  Now, I don’t know if my wife would kill me or not; but, I am sure she has wanted to many times.

A life long commitment is something that has gone by the wayside for the most part.  If we are going to live like Jesus lived and please Him we need to have the some level of commitment that He had.  Look at Luke 2:49, “And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”  Jesus was, is an always will be committed to His Father’s business.

I know life gets in the way a lot of times.  Yet, when Monday comes along and we don’t want to go on, we must.  Jesus did.

So, how are you doing? co

A Bridge to Monday 2

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Let’s take a look at our next installment of “A Bridge to Monday”.  One thing that should motivate us greatly is the call of Jesus to each one of us.  We are called to be many things.

The man thing I would like to focus on today is our call to take the Gospel to the world.  Look at Matthew 28:19-20, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”  Truth be known this is a command more than a call.  Jesus has called us all to reach out to others and share with them the truth about salvation.  So many people are confused today and want to do things their own way and that will not work in God’s economy.

There is nothing more precious to God than the soul of a man.  Yet, we let countless people go by each day and never tell them about what Jesus has done for them.  People want what we have; Christian, and we need to share it with them.

So, how are you doing?

A Bridge to Monday 1

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I like bridges.  They are fun to photograph and they have some interesting characteristics that make good analogies in the Christian life.  One of my favorite bridge is the Brooklyn bridge.  I have actually traveled on it.  What a great experience.  My other and most favorite bridge is the Mackinac bridge in Michigan.

My wife and I attended a Christian concert a couple weeks ago and one of the artists remarked that he had talked with Bill and Gloria Gaither and they had told him that they see their music as a bridge to Monday morning.  This is where the idea for the next few blog posts come from.

Look at John 21:3, “Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.”  Poor old Peter seemed to lose sight of the mission.  He lost sight of the fact that Jesus had given them instructions and He expected them to be followed.  So Peter loses sight and what does he do?  He goes right back to where he came from.  He went fishing.

It is all too easy to go back to the old life, the old habits because they are comfortable.  Yet, Jesus calls us all to get out of the boat and start walking on the water.  If you don’t have a bridge you have to navigate the waters somehow.  You might as well walk on the water.  Yet, Jesus gives us some examples in the Word of God of “A Bridge to Monday”.  I hope you enjoy these posts.

Until tomorrow, how are you doing?

Give Hope

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My friend Pastor Jim Kilgore is a top notch missionary and seeks to add value to people everywhere.  He is very much worthy of your prayers and financial support.  Here is a quote from him, “Leaders, give your people Hope for a better tomorrow. we must become “Dealers in Hope”, Biblical Hope.”  When I saw this a thought came to me.  My thought was, “Hope is like a life preserver on a boat. When we lose hope we will drown.”

It is a great understatement to say that the day in which we live is dark.  For sure.  When darkness prevails it seems to me very easy for people to lose hope.  This is one reason that I preached a message on Sunday morning titled, “The Bridge to Monday”.  If God will help me I will try to turn that into a blog post also.

I have lost track of the number of people that have taken their own life that I know due to a loss of hope.  People leave their spouse to whom they vowed before God because they have lost hope.  This is tragic and should not be!  Especially, if we are a Christian.  We have a Heavenly Father who identifies Himself as “The God of Hope”.  If that does not do something for you then you are dead.  Look at Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”  We believe that God authored the Bible and we call It the Word of God.  Our Father moved on the Apostle Paul to write this blessed verse of Scripture and identifies Himself (God) as “the God of hope”.

If you are drowning today then put on the life preserver of hope.  Oh, I should tell you what hope is.  First of all hope is not, “I hope I get a new bicycle for my birthday.”  Hope is the expectation of future good and most often in the Scriptures it deals with the coming of Christ.  That is hope!

So, how are you doing?

Friends

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I cannot boast of a lot of close friends; but, I do have some.  I love them deeply and appreciate them.  One characteristic of real friendship; I think, is the ability to discuss opposing views without killing one another.  Oh laugh…  look at Psalm 133:1, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

We love to be around other people of “like precious faith” and we should.  When was the last time you talked with someone; especially a friend, with an opposing view?  A true friend will listen without passing judgment.  After we gather all of the facts then we need to filter the facts through the Word of God and then see how the issue boils down.

Let’s face it, we don’t “feel” equipped to defend our position.  You know the one that is like cutting the ends of the ham off.  The story goes that a newly married man asked his beautiful wife why she cut the ends of the ham off before baking it.  She told him that her mother did that too and she just followed suit.  He asked his mother-in-law.  She gave nearly the same answer that she was doing as her mother did.  He asked his wife’s grandmother why she cut the ends of the ham off.  Her response was great.  She told how in the late 1940’s her husband purchased for her a baking dish.  This dish was a little too short to fit the entire ham into so she would simply trim off some at both ends.  Then the ham fit into the pan.

So, when someone presents to you some “new idea” don’t immediately pass judgment.  Filter this idea through the Word of God and pray asking God the Holy Spirit to show you if this is indeed truth.  Pretty simple, right?  Nah.

So, how are you doing?

The Word of God

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Today is the LORD’s day.  It is Sunday which is the first day of the week.  Some of us will attend worship services at a local Church.  I hope you take your Bible with you.  I mean a real Bible and not some watered down paraphrase or the like.

You see, men have for centuries disagreed with God and His Word.  What they have done is to try to change the Holy Bible to fit them and soothe their savage conscience.  If you can bring God down to your level then you have no God at all.  Look at Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Let me share some interesting observations that came to my mind about God’s Holy Word.

The Word of God will:

I. Speak to us – “For the word of God is quick,”  “quick” means to live

II. Sustain us – “and powerful,”  “powerful” means active, operative

III.  Search us – “and sharper than any twoedged sword,”  “sharper” means (to cut; by a single stroke; whereas that implies repeated blows like hacking)”

IV.  Steer us – “piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,”  The word “piercing” means to reach through, i.e. penetrate”

V.  Spanks us – “and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  “discerner” means decisive (critical), I.e. discriminative.

As you read this today think to yourself, “What is my attitude toward the Bible?” and if it is not the attitude that pleases God then you know what to do.

So, how are you doing?

 

Press On

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Again today I would like to share with you something written by Dr. Paul Chappell from his “Daily in the Word” e-mail devotional.  Today’s offering comes from the Wednesday March  19, 2014 edition.

“Eugene Clark was a gifted pianist, and he wrote a number of hymns. But his life was far from easy. First crippling arthritis robbed him of his ability to play the piano as he once had done. Then he went almost totally blind. Rather than give up and live in sadness, Clark had a dictating machine brought into his bedroom and slowly, one note at a time, spoke the words and music to more songs. Probably the best known of his work today is the song “Nothing Is Impossible.”

Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God;
Nothing is impossible when you’re trusting in His Word.
Hearken to the voice of God to thee:
“Is there anything too hard for Me?”
Then put your trust in God alone and rest upon His Word—
For ev’rything, O ev’rything, yes, ev’rything is possible with God!”

We live in a dark day with trials and storms on every side it seems.  Yet, we must remember the truth given forth in this song, “Nothing is impossible”.  That is right, nothing.  You may be looking at a mountain of a trial; but, remember “when you put your trust in God; Nothing is impossible…”  I understand that it is easier to quit.  I have been there and done that.  We have to keep going no matter.  There is someone that is counting on you to press on and finish the race you are running in.

When the angel spoke to Abraham and Sarah he put forth a rhetorical question.  Look at it in Genesis 18:14, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”  “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?”  Ponder that for a while.  We know that the emphatic answer to this question is a hearty, “No!”  Our problem is that we focus on the circumstances and look away from Christ.  We see storms when we need to see our Saviour.  Press on with Jesus my dear friend.  Together you can make it.

So, how are you doing?