It was Pastor Appreciation Sunday. Greg C. got up with his lovely wife, Roberta, and took charge of giving out flowers and gifts to the pastors and their wives. But first, he preached a rather good sermon. He preached from Eph. 6:13-the armor of God. The armor is for a warrior. Put it on every day and go into the trenches. The armor will never be pierced because no weapon formed against it will prosper. He said that pastors are box cutters. They let God out of the box that religion packages Him in. ~~
We love all of the pastors at New Life. When we stood up for Pastor Frank and Lisa, Greg said, "You love them, don't you?" I think we love them because they first loved us.
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Song-"Let it rain....Let it rain...".(I knew Phil was thinking, "No more rain. No more rain,)" but I sang it anyway, "Open the floodgates of Heaven..."
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We had a guest speaker-Lowell ? I never did catch his last name.
Lowell shared some traumatic events from his life that caused him to doubt the character of God.
He asked us the question, " Are you spiritually and emotionally ready for crisis and trouble?"
"What do you do when God doesn't....?"
What if God disappoints you?
What if your expectations are not met?
What if He doesn't behave in the way you think God should behave?
What will you do in that day?
Are you going to protest or praise; give up or keep on going; view things from His perspective or yours?
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God collects our life experiences and puts them in a memory bank-not to weigh us down but to use as a spring board into ministry.
We are most effective when we minister out of the broken areas that Jesus has healed.
Do we trust God?
Do we trust Him with the things that have betrayed us and made us disillusioned with Him?
What do we do when we have prayed our most faith-filled prayer and God says, "No." Not maybe or wait, but "No."
Sometimes, it is just too uncomfortable to deal with disappointment in God, so we quit.
We don't want to risk being hurt again, so we close our hearts to Him.
Judas quit.
Peter quit.
All 12 disciples quit.
They ran away.
God did not behave in the way they thought He would.
When He had died and they didn't know that He had come back to life, they went back to their old way of living. They said, "I didn't sign up for this."
You can be told that things will work out but when you're in the thick of battle, you forget the promises.
Pastor Lowell said, " I've come through the fire and it hurts. There are certain parts of my memory that are still raw. And I love Him more than I've ever loved Him before."
( I didn't tell the part of his life story when some terrible things had happened to him and he had turned away from God. He couldn't understand why God had not protected him. It was the love of Jesus that eventually brought him back to Himself.)
If we read Hebrews 11:32-35, we find out about the mighty men of old who worked many exploits through faith. Dead people were raised to life, lions mouths were stopped, armies were destroyed.
This gospel sells.
But continue reading vs. 35b-40 and you will find out all the dreadful things that other believers in God experienced. Torture, stoning, scourging, imprisonment, afflictions, etc. etc. And these folks had faith too, but did not receive the promise.
They had a good testimony through faith but they didn't see the end results of their faith.
We have a choice to make.
We can choose to love God and trust Him with all of our hearts. We don't get loopy in this process and cast our brains aside. We have a solid faith and are authentic in our struggles.
Or,
We can lead a religious life, desiring to escape our struggles and hoping for Jesus' quick return. We forget about those who would die in their sin and go to hell if He came back right now.
We can either embrace life with its difficulties
or we can have an escape mentality-"God, get me out of here."
A perfect God in relationship with an imperfect person equals a perfect relationship.
Allow God to be your dance partner. Let Him lead and you follow a split second behind. Rest on His shoulders. Determine to make every day count whether you have one day or 50. This is a great description of faith.
God wants to give you a different perspective in all things.
Don't worry about the next step. Follow His lead, and rest on His shoulder.
"Don't worry, I've got you," your dance partner says.
And if He doesn't show you what is going on, just dance.
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I desperately needed this message.
I was reminded of the words that Jesus said to Peter when He wanted to wash His feet. " You don't understand what I am doing now, but you will later on."
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Lord, bless the pastors and their wives and children. If they are discouraged and heavy laden, encourage them. When their well is dry, give them time alone with You.
Show them how to balance home and church and their own spiritual life. Bless them financially, spiritually, mentally, and physically. Strengthen and protect their marriages. Help them know they are loved. Help them see the big picture and build the foundations, so they won't have to waste time dealing with houses built out of straw and the people who are driving them crazy with their cries of "Wolf! Wolf!"
Give them peace.
Give them unity.
Give them You.
Amen.
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