faith

A Holy Land Tour

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Though my wife and I have been blessed to travel a bit when we were younger, we have always wanted to see the Holy Land. These days most of our traveling outside of going to church revolves around the doctor, the gym and the grocery store and I am wondering if we will ever see more than just photographs. No boo-hooing going on here because I know that going to Jerusalem is inevitably on our Lord’s travel destination for us whether in this life or the next. With that thought in mind here is a little poem I wrote a couple of years back which I revised a bit and I pray it may bless your day:

 

The Places Where I’ve been

I have not been to Israel

Or seen its Holy sites

Nor to the Sea of Galilee

Where You taught us wrong from right

But Your voice that calmed the storm

Has spoken in my mind

And Your hands that healed the sick

Have gently taken mine

Then You called me to Yourself

And You Said You were The Way

Forgave my sin

Renewed my Hope

And walked with me today!

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God Loves Me Enough

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

For she said, “If I touch even His garments, I will be made well.” Mark 5:28 ESV

In the culture of her day, she was a woman, who nobody wanted to be around. People considered that her disease made her unclean and that possibly God was punishing her for some hidden sin or failure. But on that day she broke the social norms which said that she should stay far away from Jesus because she believed that God loved her enough to heal her.

Do you ever wonder whether you are good enough for God? Does the way you are treated lead you to isolate yourself from others and sometimes even God? If you answered yes, then welcome to the club! All of us secretly wonder at times whether we are good enough to make the cut when it comes to God. But faith works, not when we simply believe that God is capable enough to do some miraculous act; but when we boldly risk our reputation on the fact that yes indeed: God loves me enough.

He loves enough to be born in a stable in Bethlehem. He loves me enough to teach me how to pray and to wash my feet just as He did for His disciples. He loves me enough to surrender His will as He prayed in the garden. He loves me enough to submit to a humiliating death on the cross for my sins. He loves me enough to meet me outside the tomb; just as He did for Mary. And last and best of all He loves me enough to forgive my sins, come to live in my heart and to give me a place in heaven where He loves me enough to let me sit close by His side forever!

A Journey That Never Ends

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” Deuteronomy 34:4 ESV

If we look at the life of Moses we would see that he spent his entire life first preparing for and then finally fulfilling his calling to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He spent forty years as a shepherd until God appeared at the burning bush and then another forty leading the Israelites through the desert. But when it came time for Moses to get to the river and cross over, God told him that he would not be able to do so. As I come to the end of this year I think I know how Moses might have felt.  God has been at work throughout the past year; both in victories and defeats and has guided our family even when we have been unaware of His presence.  But as we approach the end of this twelve month journey I wonder what lies ahead.

God didn’t allow Moses to go with Joshua when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Instead He called Moses to look from the top of a mountain to see the land that he had waited for eighty years to enter. It seemed like a bum deal to me.  But God never forgot His promise and one day when Jesus climbed a high mountain in Israel, the scripture says that Moses appeared to him with Elijah. It took more than a thousand years but Moses did get to enter God’s Promised Land. In the same way with us as we finish our own journey the eternity that holds our promised land will only be beginning.