Everything means EVERYTHING!

For those of you who have been checking out my weekly blog I apologize for not posting the last two weeks. One of those weeks I was on vacation, but last week I just kept forgetting to get it done. Hope I didn't discourage too many of you from visiting. Here are my thoughts for this week.

Does everything really mean every thing? A few weeks ago in my men's Sunday school class we were talking about finding balance in our financial life (the preachers favorite subject don't you know). In our discussion the scripture of 1 Chronicles 29:10-14 came up. Let me just give it to you here.

David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,

"Praise be to you, O LORD,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
¹¹ Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
¹² Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
¹³ Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.

¹⁴ "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

One of the things I always communicate to my congregation about bible study is to always look for things that are repeated. I think it ought to be obvious to us that if God felt it necessary to repeat something in His word to us then this is obviously something that is important to us, or at least it should be. Do you see any words repeated in these verses? Here it is "Yours or Your". Those words are repeated six times (according to my count) in the NIV translation. It certainly seems that God wanted to understand something about this life. I think it is clear God wanted us to understand that EVERYTHING was from Him and we are merely stewards or borrowers of His things!

As I look at those verses it seems almost audacious for me to talk about "my job" "my house" my money" "my time". If I truly believe the words God gave me then these are not "mine" they are HIS and I am to use them for HIS glory.

Maybe these are some verses we need to tack up on our refrigerators to help us remember that ALL we have belongs to God and we are stewards of HIS resources. Are we being good stewards or are we misusing or abusing His resources?

Have a Great week!

Pastor Sheldon

Say What!

If you will permit me a slight detour from my usual devotional thought, this week I want to share something more along the lines of a commentary. This past weekend I took a small group from my church to San Diego to see a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park. We had a nice time aside from the two hour traffic delay due to a fatal accident, but here is what I wanted to share.

As we were going through the exhibit I was reading about when the Dead Sea Scrolls were first found and to my surprise I read these words, "Within a fairly short time after their discovery, historical, paleographic, and linguistic evidence, as well as carbon-14 dating, established that the scrolls and the Qumran ruin dated from the third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E." Now at first glance there seems to be nothing strange but did you notice the dating in this quotation? It reads B.C.E and C.E. rather than B.C. and A.D. I don't know how long I have been out of the loop but were you aware that this is supposedly the new standard in dating? We are now supposed to say B.C.E - Before Common Era and C.E. - Common Era.

I have to tell you I was appalled to read this. My question is, "Why is the world so afraid of Christ?" As far as I am concerned all this new dating is a feeble attempt to run from Christ. Are we to believe now that Christ no longer influences our world? Is this another feeble attempt at political correctness? Is this another attempt to bury the resurrected Lord? I don't know. I guess some will feel I am getting all worked up over nothing but to me it is more. It is just another way our world is trying to silence Christ, but I know he can never be silenced. His message of truth and salvation will continue to be proclaimed by all those who know and love Him until he returns again to silence all those who refused to believe.

That's my word.
Pastor Sheldon

More Than Meets The Eye

There is more here than meets the eye. I am sure we are all pretty familiar with this expression. It applies in an awful lot of areas. If I were to be standing before you right now I could easily say, "There is more here than meets the eye." As you looked at me you undoubtedly would formulate some opinions of me based on the way I look, but I can assure you that there is much more to me than what meets the eye. Even though what meets your eye would be pretty impressive, Just Kidding!

There is more here than meets the eye is also something that applies many times in our spiritual lives. How many times have you and I been in difficult situations or circumstances and we felt that for whatever reason God had abandoned us, that He was off in another part of the world taking care of someone else's issues? We felt that God had forgotten us, that maybe we had angered Him and so He left us, but there is more here than meets the eye. One of my favorite Bible verses is 2 Corinthians 4:18 which says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen in eternal." I know it is not easy to do, but if we are to live Christian lives that are filled with joy and victory then we have to live lives of faith. In a recent blog I shared with you Hebrews 11:6 which says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God..." Trusting what we cannot see is very much a part of this life of faith.

Let me share with you another great bible verse. This one comes from the Old Testament in 2 Kings 6:15-17 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. This servant was afraid because of what he saw but Elisha the prophet prayed that his eyes would be open to see the unseen. To realize that there was a greater force on his side than what his physical eyes could see.

My prayer for you is that God will also open your eyes (and mine as well) to see what we cannot see. To realize that there is more going on in our lives than meets the eye. God has promised to never leave us or forsake us. As the old saying goes, "If God seems far away, guess who moved?" He doesn't move away from us but is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Remember as you go through the remainder of this week, there is more going on in your life than meets the eye.

God Bless!
Pastor Sheldon