Pastor’s Corner

Well, Do you know which US state was the first to celebrated that special day "Groundhog Day"? Was it Utah; New Jersey; Texas; or was it Pennsylvania? Let me know your guess, and we'll confirm the accuracy of your guess tomorrow.

Can you tell me why the nurse was afraid of camping. Well, of course, it is because there is so much poison IV.

All this time I thought Becky didn't enjoy camping because of the hard bed (the ground). Now I've been enlightened. Its the danger lurking there, bugs, etc. etc. etc.

Wednesday 8/9

Eccl. 3:1 "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under the heaven."

We may conclude from this section of verses, (1-8) that there is a specific opportune time that should be chosen to enter a specific endeavor but actually he is telling us that each and every event is to be placed in His (God's) hand. Then once we place these events under His control, He will determine the exact timing of those events in our lives.

Here he places 14 pairs of opposites for us to seek His guidance in. The first opposite is directed to; whether it be in the time which we are born or the time in which we depart from this earth. Both of these ingredients are in His control, however, what we choose to do in the time we are given is entirely up to us. The important issue is that we desire His leadership & influence in these hours in which we live on this earth.

Should we chose to live each day in obedience to His will, then we will live inspired with the blessed hope of Christ's return. In other words we look for the Savior rather than for the mortician; we are living in this time expectant for the return of the "uppertaker" rather than the "undertaker". We must daily seek to fulfill our days mission, bring others nearer to Christ. He knew this day & time that we live in, so He knows exactly how we are to live out our days.

Our challenge is to stay in the palm of His hand, not getting ahead or behind of His plan. Isn't it easy to get overwhelmed with the evil, and corruption of our day? Then the temptation becomes forgetting our piece in His puzzle of life.

At one time in my life some friends of my dad left our state and left a whole bunch of puzzles in their boxes. Dad said at the beginning of the summer, I want you children to put these puzzles together to make sure they are complete. Then those that are complete we are going to donate to the rest home near our neighborhood. I found myself very quickly becoming frustrated, they were those 1,000 piece puzzles. My older sister taught me the key to being able to get these puzzles together. You guessed it, put all of the edges together first, the begin to insert pieces closest to the edges.

This is exactly how we are to put our lives in harmony with His will in our lives. Begin by learning the lessons in the beginning of His book. The early books of the Bible, the historical instructions, then move to the more complex teachings of the Word. The Gospels, the prophetical, and deeper instructions of the Bible. That is why we teach the Bible stories first to our children, then as they get older, stress the structure of the Bible, the book order, the primary message, moving to the more complex passages.

We begin by memorizing small content verses, then more difficult literary works. Basic prayer models, then more serious, complex prayer patterns. From, quick Lord help me; to Lord teach me your ways. Hopefully as we move to more mature lessons in life, the greater our dependence & trust will follow in Him building our lives.

What Solomon is laying out before us is that whatever we plant in our life we will harvest. In other words, life is daily, the attitudes you live out, will result in the ultimate benefits or consequences. The task at hand is, start on the edges, prayer, Bible reading, lessons taught us through other lives in our reading. With Peter, don't take your eyes off of Jesus as our provider, or we will be sunk, etc.

So Go With God for everything else will falter, fail and disappoint us. Draw down your focus on His words, trust in His faithfulness, He'll never disappoint.