WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” (Proverbs 25:2 NIV)

I normally don’t like bumper stickers, especially with Christian slogans, because they so often seem to trivialize the message, but one exception stands out. It used to show up around Christmastime, though I haven’t seen it for a while. It is the simple but profound assertion: WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM.

I like this because it says at least two things. First, those who seek God are wise. God affirms the dignity of the searcher and the search. The fact that God has set it up this way – has concealed his matters and invited us to search for him – confirms our nobility. It says we have enough smarts to look for him and recognize him when we find him. In fact, the proverb above puts the searcher in the realm of kings. It’s a noble task to seek after God.

Second, those who seek God are given the benefit of the doubt, that if they seek him, they will find him.This is actually a promise in Scripture: “He rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV) This is why those of us who already know him don’t have to jump all over those who are seeking when they get something wrong or don’t put it in exactly the right words. If they are truly seeking, they will find him, and it will be God who opens their eyes anyway. We need to respect the search of those we know who are seeking and not get impatient with them or think of them as stupid for not seeing what we see. When it’s time, they will.

This may mean you might have to bite your tongue a little bit and not say everything you know all the time. Better to listen for those parts of the truth the seeker has already found and affirm them. Jesus didn’t spill all the beans as soon as he started preaching. He let a little bit out at a time. He talked in code (parables). He asked a lot of questions. He protected the search. He didn’t give what was sacred to dogs or throw out pearls to pigs. He always said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” and then he went on to not say everything. He made them hang on his words and come back for more. All of this protects not only the dignity of the search and the searcher, but also the dignity of the truth.

It really should be this way; otherwise, we could just put it all on a bumper sticker.

HEAVY RAIN

Job 5:8-10
“But as for me, I would seek God, And I would place my cause before God; Who does great and unsearchable things, Wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth, And sends water on the fields.”

If you said to someone: "My God does great and unsearchable things; He does wonders without number," and they responded, "Really? Like what?" would you say, "Rain"?

But Job is not joking here. "God does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number." He gives rain on the earth."

This is not meaningless symbolism.

Is rain such a great and unsearchable wonder of God?
Picture yourself as a farmer in the Prairies, far from any lake or stream. A few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water. But if the crops are to grow and water has to come on the fields from another source.

From where? Well, the sky. Water will come out of the clear blue sky?

Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky in clouds from the Ocean, over several hundred miles and then be poured out from the sky onto the fields.

Carried? How much does it weigh? Excuse my old school system of measurements.
Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night that would be 27,878,400 cubic feet of water, which is 206,300,160 gallons, which is 1,650,501,280 pounds of water.

That's heavy. Heavy Rain. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it's so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation.

What's it mean? It means that the water sort of stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. I see. Then how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. What's that? The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide. That's small.

What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the ocean is salt water. That would kill the crops. Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh. So the sky picks up over a billion pounds of water from the sea and takes out the salt and then carries it for a few hundred miles and then dumps it on the farm?

Well it doesn't dump it. If it dumped a billion pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the billion pounds water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks.

ONE MORE THING
How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh a billion pounds get heavy enough to fall? Well, it's called coalescence.

The specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger. And when they are big enough, they rain.

To Coalesce means: to merge or cause things to merge into a single body or group. UNITY

Just like that? Well, not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up, if there were no electric field present. THE POWER MUST BE PRESENT

I think, instead, I will just take Job's word for it, this is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done.

Here is Gods Plan to water the earth and cause fruit to grow and harvest to come.

Truth is parallel in the natural world / supernatural world

Evaporation > Carried in the cloud > Coalesce > Condensation

Purifying >Hiddeness > Unity >Poured out

GOD IS GOOD

I know my God is good.

Sometimes people give up what they know for what they don’t know.

Let me try and explain. There are a lot of things in life that we don’t know. We don’t always know why something is happening to us and we might even think why has God allowed this to happen.

I thought God was supposed to be a good God but this trouble I'm in is troubling me.

First of all, it is important that there are things that you do know so that when things that you don’t know happen to you at least you know something for sure.

Secondly, we need to know in our "knower" and believe in our "believer" that GOD IS A GOOD and then we will “know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28

I don’t give up what I know for what I don’t know.

READ Psalm 34:8

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

Is your definition of good different from God's?

I've found during the course of my life that I tend to think I know what's best for me. And since I like to be in charge, I often find myself telling God what I think He should do, or how He should change my circumstances so that it all works out for my good. I like it when things go my way. Besides, who knows what's best for me better than me--right? Wrong

God always has our best interest at heart whether we believe it or not. Unlike us, He can see far into the future, and by this, determine what's best. Unfortunately, you and I often settle for less than good by not trusting God to give us His best.

I can only imagine the day we stand before God and see Him as He really is.

Silent before Him in wonder and awe, we'll say to ourselves, "Why didn't I hush and do it His way. Oh, what blessings I missed."

Line Up Your Heart

Line Up Your Heart

“The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” I Samuel 16:7

When the Lord looks at your heart, what does He see? Every one has an outer life and an inner life. The outer life is our public life that everyone can see. The inner life is made up of your thoughts, your attitudes and your motives. Only you and God know what’s going on inside.

Too many people go around today pretending—acting one way, yet on the inside, they’re thinking something totally different. Their heart and their actions don’t line up. We have to understand that God looks at the inside. We can fool a lot of people, but we can’t fool God. God would rather us be open and honest than for us to go through life pretending or wearing masks.

Take inventory of what’s going on inside of you today. Are you at peace? Are you overlooking offenses? Do you believe the best in people? Are your heart and actions lining up? If not, submit your ways to the Lord today and ask Him to give you an undivided heart so that you can be pleasing to Him all the days of your life!

Come to the Father

Come to the Father

'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. I will ease and relieve and refresh your soul.” (Matthew 11:28 AMP)

Does your soul need refreshing today? Then come to the Father. Are you overburdened by the cares of this world? Are you facing challenges in your relationships? Finances? Career? The Father wants to refresh you. He wants to cause you to rest. Think about that for a moment. What would cause you to rest? If you knew everything was going to work out for your good, you would stop worrying. You would rest! Even if things don’t work out the way you planned, or on your timetable, you can trust that God will turn things around in your favor. When you submit your life to Him, by the blood of Jesus, and truly make Him Lord and Ruler of every area of your life, you will find rest for your soul! Come to the Father today in prayer and with thanksgiving. Thank Him right now for taking your burdens and giving you peace. Thank Him for loving you today and giving you new life. Thank Him for His faithfulness. Go out today with an attitude of faith and expectancy because God is working behind the scenes on your behalf—and you can come to Him!

PIC

Spiritual Multiplication

"The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly." (Isa. 60:22)



HAVE YOU GRASPED THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SPIRITUAL MULTIPLICATION?


Jesus’ command to "make disciples" is costly, but the pay off can be remarkable. In a world that demands immediate results, such as rosy quarterly earnings to placate investors – often at the expense of the long term good of the company - the idea of investing for years into the life of an individual, or a small group, comes off as tedious, arcane and just too slow. "The fact is that disciples will not be developed through methods of mass production that attempt short cuts to maturity."

"One must decide where he wants his ministry to count – in the momentary applause of popular recognition or the reproduction of his life in a few chosen people who will carry on your work after you are gone."

If the Creator of the Universe demonstrated the importance of investing three years of His short 33 year life into twelve men, what does that suggest to us about how we are to conduct our ministry? Just before departing for heaven, Jesus told his key disciples "Teach them (the disciples’ future disciples) to observe all that I have taught you." The Master was talking about spiritual multiplication. (Matt. 28:19)

To help us comprehend the importance of spiritual multiplication, compare the numeric difference between one person a day coming to Christ and one person a year being discipled and equipped to disciple another, thus doubling the number of laborers each year.


My challenge to you is to prayerfully seek out one person who has a heart for God, and is faithful and teachable. Invest into his/her life toward their spiritual maturity to the point where they in turn begin to reproduce it in the life of another.

With love,
Pastor A.

What Is in Your Hand?

Close your eyes for a moment and ask yourself this question. 'What is my deepest, most heartfelt hope for the future?'

Exodus 4:2-3 ‘Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.’(NIV)

I don’t know you as much as I would like to. I don’t know where you came from. I don’t know what are your deepest motivations or your most heartfelt hopes for the future. But I do know this: like Moses, you sometimes feel very alone -- as if nobody appreciates the role and calling God has assigned to you. Like Moses, you’ve been sent to a generation raised in the shadow of the Pharaohs of this age. You’ve been sent to boldly proclaim on behalf of that generation, words that come straight as a mandate from the mouth of God. ‘Let me people go.’ They are words that carry as much weight today as they did when they were first uttered in ancient times. Sometimes, though, when you look at the power of the Egypt you live in, the seemingly all-pervasive reach of the post-modern, millennial pop-culture, you feel as Moses did – overwhelmed and overpowered. That’s the moment when you need to look again at what God has put in your hand. It looks like an old staff – not very attractive, hardly very functional and certainly not very glamorous. In fact, it hardly seems worth having. But wait, if you throw it down in faith, it can do amazing and surprising things. In your weakness, God can turn up, big time!

Sometimes I don’t think I have what it takes to make much of an impression on this world. But I do know that God has put certain gifts in my hand. My prayer is that I don't just stand around looking at them (or looking down on them!) but I lay them down in faith and watch what God does through it.

Don’t underestimate what God can do with the little you think you have in your hand.

Unshakable Peace in Shaky Times

"Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."- Philippians 4:5-7

The Lord has only good plans in store for your life (Jeremiah 29:11). You may go through difficult times, but God promises to use every trial to build "good" into your life (Romans 8:28). When Satan tells you to worry, God has the opposite in mind. He wants you to trust Him and to experience His peace on a daily basis. How do we gain and retain the true peace of God?

• Recognize your dependence is on God. The heart that finds its identity in Jesus Christ is a heart of peace. The person who rushes here and there to solve his own problems quickly can become a person of strife and worry. Take responsibility for your actions, but let God have the reins to your life.

• Pray. The enemy cannot defeat you when you are on your spiritual knees before God in prayer. This is the true pathway to unshakable peace.

• Trust God. When thoughts of fear invade your mind, tell the Lord what you are feeling and claim His presence as your protection and shelter. David prayed, "Strengthen my arms so I can bend a bow of bronze." In other words, "Strengthen my faith, Lord, so I won’t doubt your goodness."

• Focus only on God. Don’t cling to negative thoughts. Set the focus of your heart on God and His possibilities. When God views your life, He sees only potential. You can live life to the fullest because Christ is alive in you and all things are under His feet.