faithfulness Love

Facing the Unseen

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.   1 Timothy 1:17 KJV

Life sometimes hands us unforeseen results. It happened to me when the sun came up one Sunday just as it had always done. We dressed, went to church, and got ready for the communion service. Then just as I was setting up some special music at the sound board my cell phone rang.

The call was from our son who was in despair because his wife had walked out the door that day and he didn’t know what to do. That moment all of our lives were changed as if we had been hit by a lightning strike. We did not do everything right. We certainly did not know all the answers but we did drop everything and desperately prayed for God’s help as we drove some of the longest four hours of our lives as parents.

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I wish I could say that everything worked out: It didn’t. I wish I could point to a rosy happy finale to the scars it has left on our family but it hasn’t happened that way Only God’s grace and the presence of His Holy Spirit have seen us through.  We have at times faced the invisible forces of  anger, disappointment and fear. But we are still standing, in faith and still trusting God. We have learned that only Jesus sees the unseen and only He knows the way through to victory. He is our invisible God and who watches over us through the night of despair to the day of victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Turtle’s Eye View

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But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”    Matthew 14:30 ESV

I never thought there was much connection between turtles and storms until the day I met a snapping turtle in the middle of the dirt road near the farm pond. He (or she) was plodding slowly across and being curious I went to get a closer look. At first the turtle stopped and pulled into his shell and closed his eyes. I’m not sure if he thought I might miss him sitting there in the middle of the road but as I came closer he changed tactics. He stretched out his neck stood up on his feet and opened his powerful beak ready to bite. Though I meant him no harm I’m sure that from his turtle’s eye view I looked like a giant intent on making him into turtle soup!

animal turtle tortoise depth of field

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All of us are afraid sometimes. Like the turtle on the road or Peter trying to walk on water; we are afraid of what might happen next.  That defensiveness even creeps into our relationship with God. Rather than trusting that His control over life’s the circumstances we view them as a threat and try to hide in our own shell. At other times when we even snap at God or the people around us who are just trying to help.

The good news is that when we are afraid and cry for help Jesus reaches down and catches us just as He did for Peter. God hears our cries and comes to our rescue. He has no plans to make us into soup; instead He pulls us up to walk on water with him all the way back to the boat!

 

Today is Not a Dry Run!

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Redeeming the time, because the days are evil       Ephesians 5:16 KJV

Quite a few years ago I had a friend whose favorite saying was, “Today is not a dry run.” It reminded me of when we visited Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. There we walked through the old shipyard where whaling ships were once built. We were shown how piece by piece the ancient ships were built; mostly by hand. In our Christian walk we sometimes think of ourselves as being in God’s shipyard; where He is slowly fashioning us and preparing us for the day when He will launch us on our maiden voyage. But in his letter to the Ephesian church Paul the apostle tells us something very different:

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil       Ephesians 5:16 KJV

Or as Toula’s mother tells her in the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding; “I gave you life so you could live!”

God has created us to live! In fact Jesus gave His own life so that we could live forever and forever includes today! Our moments and hours today are not just valuable because they are preparing us for the future. The greatest treasure we have is the moment we are living right now! Nothing will ever taste better than today’s Daily Bread. God’s plan for us isn’t that we would be safely locked inside a glass case for others to admire us, but that we would launch out into unknown seas, with our eyes on the North Star of His will. Today is not a dry run, We were made for more than the shipyard. God himself has built us to sail through both calm seas and storms. If Jesus is our pilot then He will guide us home.

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