Pastor's Message - February 2014

Psalms 23:1-3 ESV A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  (2)  He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.  (3)  He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

 

Dear Church Family,

I have been thinking a lot lately about many of the things we all deal with in everyday life and all of the things that either potentially can or do cause confusion, frustration, and discouragement. There is no doubt life is hectic and we are all trying to muti-task as we try to accomplish what is on our   schedules.

I would love to give advice, including advice to myself, on how to deal with all of those things. I’m not sure it would be received well, or that anyone would being willing to listen or change. The paradox of it all is that we seem to know it is happening, but we rarely do anything about it. That is, changing our life styles because what we are doing and how we are living, in many cases is not working for us. I’m not saying that all of the things of life that we deal with are sinful. In fact, many of the things in this life that take up so much of our time are good things. For example, raising our children and being with them in their activities, serving in the community and serving for the Lord.

One of the things that has been bothering me lately is, and I have mentioned this to you before, and I am probably more confused than ever about the issue. For me, I am feeling like I am on information overload. I feel like the more I learn the more I do not know, and I feel completely inadequate to stand before you on Sunday mornings to give a message. I struggle with making sure I am doing my best to “rightly handle the Word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). That’s because there is so much information  available on any subject that we can talk about, so many books that can be read, thousands of       articles that can be read if we “Google” the subject, I am wore out just writing about it.

There is, however, good advice that comes from God. It is perfect, and it can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, change our lives if we honestly and truly take the advice to heart and listen to the Holy Spirit.

The first three verses of Psalm 23 gives us the answer to calming down and taking a deep breath. The LORD is my SHEPHERD! Praise the Lord, A shepherd leads and guides and protects the sheep. That’s what God wants to do for us, just like a parent with their child, wanting to make sure they are taken care of with respect to giving direction for life, protecting them and making sure of their         well-being. That verse one goes on to say, “I shall not want.” Oh for the day we could all get to the point of living life not wanting anything except more of our Savior.

Verse two says, “He MAKES me lie down in green pasture.” Notice the word MAKES? It seem to be really important that we get ourselves in a place where, at times, we can be at peace and be          refreshed. Green pastures gives us a picture of peace and tranquility. It gives us the ability to just take it easy and focus on the One who is MAKING us be there.

“He leads me beside still waters.” That word “still” is translated “abode.” In other words we need to make our abode, our residence with our Lord. That the place of protecting and the place of safety, spiritually speaking.

 

And I love the result. Verse three says, “He restores my soul.” There seems to be times in our lives, no, may I say there are times in our lives, when our soul needs restored! The reason? Just as are bodies get run down physically from all of our activities, so our souls get run down, from the spiritual battles that we fight, the spiritual war that is being waged against our souls. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11ESV). There seems to be those temptations, those fleshly desires that we constantly have to deal with. We needs at times, to recharge, to get ourselves built back up, to be restored, so we can continue to win the spiritual battles that come our way. We are told, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war          according to the flesh.  (4) For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4 ESV). 

We will be having many challenges that are before us as a congregation. We are going to be full steam ahead with our new facility in the weeks ahead and for the next 18-24 months. I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally see the structure start to be built.

Please be praying about who the next person will be to be on staff as our Associate Pastor. We are developing a ministry description with many responsibilities along with Family Life Ministries.

We are being challenged, but at the same time, it is really fulfilling to see God working in the life of our congregation. We are in the people business and we need to keep that focus and remember that all that we do all that is being built is to be better equipped to meet the spiritual needs in our community.

Don’t forget, take time and be still in 2014.

 

God bless you all.

Pastor Bruce