Monthly Archives: July 2015

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on July 7, 2015
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The Grand Baker — Rev. David J. Schreffler

July 7, 2015

O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
O fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for those who fear him have no want.
The young lions suffer want and hunger,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:8-10

Locally we have a growing experience where local restaurants allow people to gather and taste a sample of their cooking. My wife and I attend one of those events at our local high school. It is a way for the school to raise some money for one of their foundations, and the local restaurants get the opportunity to do some advertising – hands on advertising.

Following a recipe and preparing a meal have some similarities to living our lives. Some of the ingredients of a recipe are not very tasty in and of themselves. For example, would you want to take a spoonful of flour and eat it? Or maybe you would like to open a box of baking soda and take a quick taste – a big mouthful of baking soda. Taking most of the ingredients of a recipe, and taking a taste of each one of them on their own can hardly be considered a wonderful taste experience. But when we mix them all together, when we blend them into a single whole, and then subject it to the cooking process, the result is a wonderful gastronomical experience.

Isn’t this the same when we talk about the recipe of the experiences of our lives? Some of them, when considered on their own, were or are “hard to swallow”. Many of them were not pleasant. And yet, when we look at the process of mixing all of the events of our lives together, they form the wonderful experience of what we call the “singular whole of our lives”. Mixed together are the good with the not so good – the joys with the sorrows – the gains with the losses.

We can not live without tasting the good with the bad. But the Lord allows us to experience all of these, and mixes them into the whole that each one of us calls “our life.” Remember, if you are in a bad place right now, you couldn’t have gotten there without the many joys, the many gifts of G*d. All of our experiences, the good with the bad, the joys with the sorrows, the gains with the losses, all mix together to make you – you — and me – me. The grand baker is G*d, who is the epitome of all good. Taste and see that the Lord is good — it is how we can live our lives in totality, appreciating what the Master is mixing in each one of us.

Pastor Dave

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on July 6, 2015
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We Walk By Faith — Rev. David J. Schreffler

July 6, 2015

“So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-8

I like going to the beach. I am not a sunbather, but there is something about hearing the waves crashing against the beach, and the wind blowing constantly that is soothing to my soul. Once I have covered up from the sun, I can lay upon the sand for hours. However, getting to the place where I plan to repose can be trying. Walking on hot sand is not a pleasant experience. And unless you have the dexterity of a college athlete, it is hard to run in sand — hot sand.

Of course, this is how I often feel in the day to day gymnastics that I call my life. I often feel that I am walking along a hot beach (if not hot coals) and the more I walk, or run, the harder it is for me to get to the end of my journey — a place of repose. And each one of us has our share of hot sand — we cannot avoid it. But no matter how hot the “sand in our lives” gets, we know that each and every experience we have prepares us for the eternal weight of glory to come when we finally join our Lord once again. Until then, we do walk as by faith, not by sight. But there is no harm in trying to avoid the hot spots if we can — because some of those hot spots are from our own bad choices. And when we cannot avoid them, we learn to walk into and through them by faith, trusting in and having the confidence that G*d will see us through.

Pastor Dave