Month: November 2017

What Time is It?

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV

Do you ever pray desperately for direction like I do? Does it feel as if everyone else knows where they belong and what they should be doing? But in our own lives it seems like we just muddle through. But in the muddling desperate efforts at trying to do what God has in mind I have discovered that I have somehow changed along the way. Relationships are more honest and deeper. Frustrating and confusing moments don’t leave behind half the anxieties they once did. Some way some how God is having His way.

I loved the quote I read from Joni Erickson Tada’s devotional book today: ” God’s answers and purposes have to be lived out to understand them” That is such a startlingly simple idea yet I had never seen it before. Yes it will take a lifetime to even begin to understand our amazing creator’s design. But how could it be different for the infinite and eternal God to have His way. He still loves and cares for us in the middle of our fumbling efforts He delights in those moments when we as His children reach up to take His hand!

Is Gambling a Sin?

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I have been thinking about our situation in Pennsylvania with the recent passage of legislation expanding gaming in the commonwealth. Our lawmakers can’t agree on gun control, abortion, taxes or immigration but when it comes to gambling both sides give it a standing ovation. So what gives? What does a casino down the block do to a neighborhood? Do even winners profit? Most of all isn’t gambling just an outward sign of coveting? When did it become okay to waste the resources God has given us or to bring home someone else’s pay check if we win? If life is more about giving than getting so why celebrate getting something for nothing? What do you think?

Great Expectations

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

Sometimes the line between rights and expectations gets a little blurry. There is now plenty of debate about the right to bear arms. The two warring factions on this subject haven’t even waited for the funerals to finish before they are at each others throats. What is at the heart of the flame and fury is a battle over the right to bear arms. It may not be a right but it is a reasonable expectation to believe going to church, a shopping mall or a concert should not be risky choices. You go with your family to church expecting to return, but for 25 innocent people last Sunday that didn’t happen.

There is no solution able to create a perfect society but Jesus is quite clear about His expectations for His children. We are to love even when it is dangerous to do so. We are to give even when nothing is given to us in return. We are to believe fearlessly even when the world tells us we have no right to do so. We do all these in faith because God has a right to our lives and we have the great expectation that He will freely forgive our sins and welcome us home to heaven!

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45