Burdens

Psalm 55:22

“Cast your burden on the lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

The key word in this passage is burden.  What is a burden?  For most of us, the definition is whatever is bringing us down.  The world weighs us down with so many negative things.  Bills, debt, disease, work, and war are just some of the worries that keep our focus off of God.  But are all of our burdens negative?

What about our hopes, our dreams, our plans, our children and their future?  Burdens are not just the negative parts of our life, but also the positive parts that stand in the way of getting to know God.  God calls us to put all, everything on God, not just the issues and items that depress us, but also all that inspire us.  You see, this is the raw material God can use to bless the world, so casting those burdens on God is seeking to reconcile to God’s plan.  On the TV show “American Picker” what I see as a junk pile the pickers call “collections”.  In that pile is trash and treasure, and the pickers go through and seek or advise on what to do with the stuff.

Our burdens consist of trash and treasure, Give them both to God and let God pick through all of it to bring out the best in our lives.  Let go and Let God.

Amen

Faith

      

Psalm 138:8 (New International Version)

 ⁸ The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
       your love, O LORD, endures forever—
       do not abandon the works of your hands.

Faith is all about becoming raw material.  When we trust in God, we are becoming the basic ingredients of a fabulous work of craftsmanship.

God has a purpose for all of us; a purpose only God can fathom.  Faith frees us up to be a part of that purpose.  When we look to God, we must be willing to submit to the work of God’s hands.  This may mean casting away parts of our old life.  This may mean leaving what we know behind.  It may also mean doing things we did not know was possible.

To have Faith means to become raw clay and let God work on us, not just once, but continuously.  We must be willing to be molded and remolded time and again until we hear the Master say “Well Done”.

This is living in Faith.

Amen

Focus

PK's Corner

Acts 20:24 (Contemporary English Version)

²⁴But I don't care what happens to me, as long as I finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do. And that work is to tell the good news about God's great kindness.

Focus, that is what Paul had, ha was focused from the time in Damascus to the outskirts of Rome.  He remained focused even with the stoning, beatings, lashings, ship wrecks, jail time, lynch mobs and all the way up to meet the heads mans sword. 

But what is truly remarkable isn’t so much that he was focused, but that he was focused on the kingdom of God.  He focused only on the task that was given to him, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

We too are given a task.  As the body of believers, we are called to make disciples; which includes sharing the Good News of Christ.  We are supposed to continue to the work of Paul in making disciples. 

My prayer for each of us this summer is that as a church, we can refocus on sharing the Good News.  Here at Doniphan UMC, the ground work for the kingdom is being laid every day, but we, the inheritors of the task at hand, need to refocus and take on the single-mindedness that Paul displayed throughout his ministry, the focus on sharing the Good News.

It’s time to Focus and pray that we can finish the task ahead for Christ.

Amen

Living Redeemer

PK’s Corner


Living Redeemer

Job 19:25

“I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.”

Poor Job, here he is, after the loss of his fortune, family and health, listening to his “friends” and wife who tell him to confess to his sin, and Job stands righteous. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Job proclaims the greatness of God. Though racked by pain and anguish, Job still loves God and walks in God’s light.

How many times in our lives have we wondered if God is with us? When tragedy strikes, do we ask about God’s presence? When that dreaded diagnosis is given, do we proclaim the greatness of God or do we say “Why me”? Maybe we can learn much from Job.

You see, we serve a living God, one that never leaves us, even though we may leave God. Jesus has promised to be with us always, and that promise has never been broken. Just because we feel alone, doesn’t mean we are alone. For God does not abandon, but redeems.

The challenge to you, let the first words of your day be “I KNOW that my Redeemer lives”, and then live in that knowledge.

Amen

God's Anger

Psalm 30:5 “For his anger is but for a moment and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning”.




Anger is a word of passion, and a word that denotes a human like response. The ancient and modern pagans often regard their gods as arbitrary beings. The pagan gods may or may not like you, whether you have done anything wrong or not. Your karma may be against you or the cards stacked against you. The non-believers hope is to get through without notice. When a pagan god or deity does interact, it is to control or stoke a massive ego.



But to have a God who is passionate about the relationship between God and creation is unheard of in the pagan ways. Our God is such a God. God has a passion for us, and while anger to the pagans means destruction, to the Christian, God’s anger leads to a healthier relationship with God.



You see, God does not get angry with the sinner; God’s anger is against the sin. God’s passion is for us to have a healthy and long relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The sin is hated, but the sinner is loved.



God’s anger, so brief, and so focused against sin



God’s favor, life long, focused on the sinner.



God is so Good.



Amen

Frail Humanity

PK’s Corner March 2010


Psalm 51:3 “For I know my transgression and my sin is ever before me.”

The 51st Psalm is particularly relevant for the time of Lent because it talks about our human frailties and weakness. The author of this Psalm was considered by God to be “A man after God’s heart”. David basked in the favor and glory of God, and yet he committed adultery, murder and deceit in the cover up that led to the writing of this Psalm. As awful as his crimes were, God still loved him and forgave him.

We too are frail beings, whether clergy or congregation, we all fall short of what God calls us to be. Maybe there is something that we said, we wish we could unsay, or maybe there was an action taken that we would take bake. Regardless of what we may have done, God is a forgiving God, and is willing to forgive us if we just ask.

Only one is truly good and that is Jesus, we fall short, but we don’t have to stay there because God is ready to move us on through his son Jesus Christ. As we go through this time of Lent, rather than wallow in the transgression we may have committed, let us bask in the forgiving love of Jesus Christ, and be the children he would have us to be.

Amen

Worthy or Worth it?

PK’s Corner February 2010

Worthy or Worth It.

Matthew 8:8: The Centurion answered “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.”

This is probably one of the most beautiful scenes in the Bible.  Here is a Roman Centurion asking Jesus to just speak so his servant can be made whole, a person realizing the presence of God in his midst and knowing that his life is not ready for the holy.  Not only is this a beautiful scene, but it also shows the short comings of humanity.  You see, we all have this mistaken belief that somewhere out there is somebody who is worthy to stand before God, and have God in their lives. 

In the modern world we hear the centurion’s words with a bit of different flair. “I’m not good enough to go to church, I don’t want to be around all those hypocrites, I have gone too far to be saved, Jesus doesn’t want me”, all of these comments just show how little we understand God.

True, no one is worthy to approach God, and that is precisely why God came to us in Jesus Christ.  We could not, so God did, and we will not, but God still does.    It is the fact that we aren’t worthy that God makes a way for us to have a relationship with God.

Folks, I don’t know where you are, but I know where God is.  God wants a relationship with you, even if you think you are not worthy, God thinks you are worth it.

Amen