Never Forsaken

When we returned home Sunday, we discovered one of the cows had twins while we were gone and had claimed them both. Many times, one is abandoned and if not found and given a mother or fed with a bottle, it will die. Blessing # 2 for the week!

As I think about this mother cow and her calves, it brings to mind the words of the Lord. "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

If we are his, he will not abandon us ever. We are his and he is ours. In Psalm 94:14, we are told, "For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance."

One more...there are others. Psalm 37:28... "For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever."

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness, even when we fail him. There are two more verses I can think of that apply here. They deal with the idea of our security and the faithfulness of God.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). And this, " I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).

Trusting him,

Pastor Jerry

It disturbs me when I read of churches in this country allowing themselves to be used for propaganda platforms for people, even leaders, of countries that would like nothing better than to see America in general, and Christians in particular, destroyed. No matter how much the "tolerance" group would like to believe these people are not dangerous, that is wishful thinking and is completely wrong.
Rather than including these folks, we should be praying that they will find the Truth, because until they get Jesus in their lives and in their thinking, they are our enemies, not our brothers.
Jesus did, in fact, tell us to love our enemies. By this, he meant we are to love them enough to pray for their salvation, not to just accept them and their "religion" as spiritual equals. And, I cannot think he would have given those who were trying to kill him (and were eventually successful), the hand of friendship without their acceptance of his deity and his lordship. The message of John 14:6 is still the same as it was when Jesus told it to his disciples.
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me."
Yes, he did ask God to forgive those who killed him, but I have to believe that forgiveness was contingent on their eventual admission that he was the Messiah, the Savior of the world.
Let's pray for the salvation of those who want us destroyed, but let's not take them to bed with us. There's an old story about a frog convincing a grasshopper to ride on his back to the other side of a pond. Half-way across, the frog ate the grasshopper. The grasshopper's last words were, "I thought you were my friend!"
To which the frog replied, "Hey, I'm still a frog!"

Think about it!

Living Water

A couple of months ago, I noticed the flowing well in the corral west of the barn had stopped flowing. The pipe comes out of the ground and stands about 18 inches above the surface. It is supposed to flow into the tank that is there. On the day I noticed it, there was no water coming out of the pipe, so I moved the bulls to another corral with another tank. Being in the middle of a very dry summer, I blamed the lack of water on the drought. After all, in some previous dry years this same well had stopped flowing.
After two or three weeks, one day I stopped long enough to check this well out. I noticed there was still water around the outside of the tank and in the drainage ditch that leads away from the tank. As I approached, I could hear the sound of running water. Upon closer examination, I found that the bulls had apparently broken the pipe off at a coupling near the surface. All the water that came out of the pipe was going down the ditch instead of into the stock tank.
Sometimes, we Christians cease to show any evidence of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Much like that well, we have the right look, but there is no water. We have somehow become disconnected from the source.
Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:38). He was speaking of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart of the believer. To the woman at the well, he said, "whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14).
So, Christian, if your well seems to be drying up, maybe the connection needs some close examination. Perhaps it has become obstructed in some way or maybe even disconnected. Two ways the connection can be restored are prayer and studying of God's Word, the Bible.

Checking my connection,
Pastor Jerry

Trusting In All Kinds Of Weather

In a recent Sunday school lesson we were studying the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. There is a verse there that has spoken to me in the past and I'd like to share that verse with you and how it speaks to us today.
In times past, during the haying season I would spend a lot of time trying to guess what the weather would be so that I could get the hay put up without it getting rained on. One summer, I didn't get much haying done for several weeks, for fear of getting the hay wet. It was frustrating to say the least. Then at some point, I read this verse.
"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." (Ecclesiastes 11:4) It goes on in verse 5..."As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things."
It was then I realized that all I had to do was go forward, using common sense and trusting God to take care of the things like the weather. Since that time, the haying season, along with most all of life has been much less stressful!
Rather than worry about the weather and other things we cannot control, we need to heed the words of Solomon at the end of Ecclesiastes: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (Chapter 12; verse 13).