November 30, 2016 – 24 Days Until My Head Explodes, Or Devotions to Prepare Us For Christ’s Coming

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him” Genesis 12:1-4

Well, another Christmas ornament that makes you scratch your head. I have received a lot of different Christmas ornaments in my life, but if someone gave me a toilet plunger as a Christmas favor, I am not so sure what I might do. Oh, I have some thoughts about what I might tell the gift giver to do with their plunger, but those thoughts are not so “Christmasy”.

Abram receives a “Gift” from the Lord: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” It will be the kind of gift that will continue to give Abram blessings that will go beyond his imagination. So, without saying a word he moves from his homeland to a land as yet determined without anything more than a promise from the Lord that the Lord will show him his new “home” sometime in the future – and then will promise that his offspring will be as numerous as the sand on the beach.

Picking up and leaving everything (including family, home and friends) to follow a calling from G-d can be a nerve wracking experience. Even just a change – a job change, a change of churches, or a change in social status can leave its mark on the psyche. Prayer is just one of the practices that gets us through the difficult times of our lives – and prayer helps us plunge out unnecessary feelings, hurts, fears, and desires. Prayer is our active conversation with G-d that helps us purge the soul, mind and spirit of negative feelings and fears. Conversation is always a two-way street, so in our prayers we need to set aside time to listen for that still small voice of G-d to lead us to and through our greatest challenges and rewards.

Pastor Dave

November 29, 2016 – 25 Days Until My Head Explodes, Or Devotions to Prepare Us For Christ’s Coming

“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” When he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs coming out of the tombs met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way. Suddenly they shouted, “What have you to do with us, Son of God?” Matthew 8:23-29

Hey, ET is trying to phone home, but all he has are those flowers he brought back to life, and brought along to the Christmas party. Can ET just put the flowers down and buy a cell phone? Oh wait, there were no cell phones in the 80’s when this movie came out. Sure, he can make a universal device that will contact the cosmos using the MacGyver-esque contraption of a record player and other bits of tube, tape, and bubblegum — but he can’t mock up a cell phone to get a response from “home”? Really? I thought life from the cosmos was supposed to be “intelligent”?

This text gives us two interesting types of responses to Jesus’ teaching, miracles, and calling to follow him. In verse 27, after experiencing Jesus calming the storm, the disciples say to one another, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” Their question just highlights how little the disciples know about the true essence of Jesus. And then the demoniacs, meeting Jesus, say to him, “What have you to do with us, Son of God?” At least the demons understand who Jesus is – and call him Son of God. What does this mean for us today? There are many of us who still try to make sense of Jesus being both fully human and fully divine. There are people today who are not convinced that Jesus was G-d – or that there is any G-d at all. I am here to tell you that if Jesus cared for and continued to love and teach his own disciples, people who, even in the very presence of Jesus, did not always understand all that they witnessed and experienced, do you not understand that Jesus will continue to teach and care for us. In the midst of our doubts, and lack of faith, he promises to be with us to the end of the age – and is depending on us to be the hands, feet and mouth for G-d.

Pastor Dave