Devotions
from The Woods @Wanamaker
Need Prayer From Our Pastors? Click Here
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors. (Psalm 119: 18-20, 24.) In his book about Sabbath Wayne Muller says, “Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the compass points that would show us where to go, we bypass the nourishment that would give us succor. We miss the quiet that would give us wisdom. We miss the joy and love born of effortless delight.” Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to snatch moments of rest throughout your day today. Ask the Spirit to grant you opportunities for wisdom. Welcome His presence and revelation within your life. Pray that the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart may be acceptable in His sight today. Pastor Donny Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
0 Comments
Who Are We? We are all created human beings, created in the very image of God. Genesis 1:26-27 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God’s compassion and love for you and the whole human race is so great that he allowed is one and only begotten Son; Jesus, to lay down His life for us all, with no animosity toward any race, color or creed, whether Jew, Gentile or any other. His love had no boundaries for us “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. In this there was and is no partiality for He is “the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe”, likewise neither should we. For if we do, we discriminate against our brothers and sisters even as James questioned us in doing so “have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”, but rather we should“love your neighbor as yourselves”. Christ dying for us in our place, for the forgiveness of our sins, brought the means by which we can tear down division and discrimination for “he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility”. Christ’s new covenant to all humanity is that “you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another….being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”. Therein is our peace and joy; to be found, held onto and shared with everyone in the truest form of God’s image, the internal image of heart, soul and love that Christ exhibited for us all and to which the Holy Spirit beckons us to return to. Pastor Jerry Photo by Inga Gezalian on Unsplash
Today I attended a funeral of a very good friend. I always knew he was a deeply religious man just from some of the conversations we have had. I am very close to his daughter and her husband as I was instrumental in them being able to adopt their little guy. However I realized that you can be around someone, sit across the table from someone at dinner, visit every Sunday with that person and not really know them. As I gathered information from the family and prepared their programs and other items for the funeral I came to realize I really didn’t know just how deeply Gary loved the Lord and how invested he was in making sure everyone he came into contact with had the opportunity to hear about his friend Jesus. As I listened to the testimonies that were given I came to know a different side of Gary and just how many lives he touched. Pastor Holmes during his message read the words to a song that really summed up Gary’s life:
Thank You by Ray Boltz I dreamed I went to heaven You were there with me We walked along the streets of gold Beside the crystal sea We heard the angels singing Then someone called your name You turned and saw a young man He was smiling as he came He said friend, you may not know me now But then he said but wait You used to teach my Sunday school When I was only eight Every week you would say a prayer Before the class would start One morning when you said that prayer I asked Jesus in my heart Thank you for giving to the Lord I am a life that was changed Thank you for giving to the Lord I am so glad you gave Then another man stood before you And said remember the time A missionary came to your church His pictures made you cry You didn't have much money But you gave it anyway Jesus took the gift you gave And that's why I'm here today Thank you for giving to the Lord I am a life that was changed Thank you for giving to the Lord I am so glad you gave One by one they came, As far as the eye could see Each one somehow touched By your generosity Little things that you had done, sacrifices made Unnoticed on the earth, heaven now proclaims And I know up in heaven That you're not supposed to cry But I was almost sure There were tears in your eyes As Jesus took your hand And you stood before the Lord And He said my child look around you For great is your reward Thank you for giving to the Lord I am a life that was changed Thank you for giving to the Lord I am so glad you gave I am so glad you gave I am so glad you gave I think Gary would want me to share the following insert that was included in his funeral program: Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God and he evicted them from the Garden of Eden, humanity has been lost to a relationship with God. Mankind's penalty for sin is death, which means we are lost to God. Because of our sin, we are separated from God for all eternity. Thankfully, God loves us so much that he put in place a way to save us from our sinfulness. He wanted to restore our relationship with him. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ to save us from the penalty we are charged with for our sin. Jesus paid our death penalty with his blood and was raised from the dead. To receive this free gift from God we must believe God and be sorry for the way we have lived against him. We must ask Jesus to come into our heart and ask God to forgive our sins. God's promise is that he will forgive us and now live inside us. We can now have a personal relationship with God. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, God guarantees we will live with him forever. Are you willing to confess to God you are sorry about living against Him and ask Him to forgive you? Will you receive Jesus into your heart and enjoy God’s joy for you? Go to your Holy Bible & read God's word: Genesis 3:1-24, John 3:1-21, Romans 5:1-21, Acts 2: 38, Romans 10: 9-13, John 5:24, Revelation 20-22. With Love, Gary This was the opportunity that he gave so many people when he would visit with them. I don’t know about you, but it makes me really evaluate myself and am I being a Gary Dick with all those I come in contact with? Do I share my Jesus with all those I come in contact with, either in word or in deed? Will I leave the powerful kind of legacy that Gary left? Will there be those in heaven because of the life I lived? I pray so. Pastor Fran We continue to abide by county recommendations regarding group gatherings and social distancing. As of this date (7-3-2020) it appears we need to move our “full opening” until the 1st week of August . 8-2 for Sunday school and Children’s Worship and 8-5 for Wednesday evening dinners.
WWCN Staff Psalm 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God.” Many of us need to pray as did the old‑time preacher: "Slow me down, Lord! Slow me down. Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reaches of time. Slow me down, Lord! Break the tension of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams. Help me know the magic restoring power of sleep and faith in Thee. Slow me down, Lord! Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed. Slow me down, Lord! Amen." God puts it this way in Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God..." Be still‑‑for only then can you hear God's voice. Times of quietness are part of God's natural laws. As thread breaks on a sewing machine when the tension is too tight, so modern man must ease the tensions of daily living or the tensions will break him. Your health is a trust from God. Can it be right to constantly abuse that trust? Of course not! God's natural laws are as binding as His spiritual laws. God has not promised to spare you from difficulty.
Why is it?
When we are weak, God does not tell us to be STRONG but to be STILL. For when we are still, then are we strong. The prophet Isaiah said, "...in quietness and trust is your strength..." (Isaiah 30:15 NIV). God does not just say, "Be still," He goes on to say, "Know that I am God." Psychology says, "Be still‑‑be calm‑‑take time for meditation, for developing inner serenity." But the Bible adds, "Know that I am God." God does not say, "Be still and know a better way of life‑‑a quiet life‑‑a prayer life." He says, "Be still and know ME‑‑a person‑‑God, who is Life Himself. As you know Him, you will then learn that His grace is sufficient. May God’s grace and peace be with you this day. Pastor Dick Genesis 2:17 “…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Oh Adam and Eve… how you remind me of my children! “You can do all this, but don’t do that...it won’t be good for you, you won’t be safe.” I try to tell Loriko all the time, I’m only telling you not to do ________, because I want you safe, and because I love you. Isn’t that the whole purpose in God giving His words to us? He wants us to know, he wants us safe, with him, and just like Loriko, we still step out and play with danger, climbing to our demise, growing further and further from our father out of rebellion, when we know full well what He has said, what we should do and often times knowing the consequences. We don’t learn do we? The other day Loriko asked for a balloon. I blew it up for him and gave it to him. He proceeded to take it over to something somewhat sharp, that he knew would make it pop and said “I know a good idea, I’m going to pop this balloon and wake daddy up” (Andy works nights, so he sleeps in the day). I said “I don’t think that would be a good idea” knowing he’s going to be sad and if he does wake up his daddy then he’ll be in trouble, time out for sure. And….POP, he did it, and fell to the floor in pieces, Loriko not the balloon. He cried for 20 minutes I kid you not. (Honestly, I kinda wanted to laugh…my mercy may not be quite as big as God’s.) He asked me to blow it back up, asked for another (which we didn’t have) asked me to fix it, “pleeeeeease mommmy!!”. Then he wanted me to go take one from the neighbor who had some on her mailbox after celebrating a birthday. We know, we know full well, and yet there’s this compulsion to rebel and do it anyway. And then the consequences set in and we want to blame God and shake our fist at him. The consequences of our sin are far worse of course than the consequences of popping a balloon. But that instant we do it, something changes. Right Eve? Right Adam? Right Riko? We feel it, the shame, the regret, the eyes of “I told you so”, the fear, the guilt, the loss.But, there’s this blessed hope! I reminded Loriko he will get a do over another day, there will be more balloons and next time he will know. But the BIG hope is that day, when if we’ve confessed and asked for forgiveness we will stand before God, the book will be opened and as Max Lucado says in his book ‘Grace for the Moment;’ “God's merciful verdict will echo through the universe. For the first time in history, we will understand the depth of His goodness. Itemized grace. Catalogued kindness. Registered forgiveness. We will stand in awe as one sin after another is proclaimed and then pardoned.” Praise God there’s hope, praise God for His mercy! Praise God we get do over after do over! Praise God for His “Itemized Grace” and “Catalogued Kindness”. Have you noticed how the majority of what we do on social media pertains to us? Just like my latest post on Instagram, I care more about my post way more than anyone else’s. Just think about whole notion of selfies. It is a phenomenon that still fascinates me and repulses me at the same time. In 2013, Oxford Dictionary crowned it as the Word of the Year. Out of almost nowhere, selfies have become an obsession for so many. In fact, everywhere we go—the office, home, the gym—we’re encouraged to take a selfie. It’s almost like we have to prove that we really did brush our teeth, lift that barbell, wash the car, or spend quality time with our family. So we take a selfie to prove it. It’s as if we’re the selfie-proclaimed star of our own daily reality show. Our culture says show yourself. Update your status. Post your best picture. Jesus said deny yourself. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matt 16:24) If someone looked at your Facebook page, your Instagram photos, or your most recent tweets or snaps, what would they see? Would they see a humble, others-focused, Christ-centered disciple? Or would the see something less than who Christ has called you to be? Today, I challenge to make this your prayer: Lord, I know I can easily get caught up in my own little world and focus too much on myself. Give me a soft heart willing to put others first. Pastor Michael Photo by Steve Gale on Unsplash
|
AuthorNotes from the Staff @The Woods Archives
March 2023
Categories |