God’s Faithfulness

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!

God’s Point of View

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6

I learned a few valuable lessons during my time as a tree surgeon that has helped me in my climb of faith. Tree climbing can be dangerous but our perception of that danger depends on whether we are standing at the bottom or the top of the tree. God is in the business of changing our point of view!  KIMG1816

The first thing we learn is to not look up. In fact the first thing to do is to simply assemble your gear. While I collected my rope, saddle, long pole and ladder I didn’t have time to worry about how much of the tree stood above me. In the same way our walk of faith begins each day by asking for mercy and grace. When we do that; then God comes and fastens His forgiveness around our waist and He pulls us up by His rope of love. We cannot make progress if we worry that His love and mercies will fail. But as we trust God’s equipping then He slowly but surely helps us to climb up towards Him. Secondly we need a ladder to help us get off the ground.  That is what God does when He sends His Holy Spirit. His Spirit comes in and lifts us up daily towards Jesus.  We can’t figure it out or work it out; we just have to keep climbing by faith. Last of all when a climber gets to the highest point in the tree he ties in, sits back and then looks out.

KIMG1845That is God’s promise. He will raise us up so that we can look out and see all of His amazing plan and know that our entire climb has been by grace. We will finally understand that because He has loved us He has brought us up to heaven and seated us right next to Jesus Christ!

 

 

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Energy Assistance

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 KJV

I looked for the telephone number for energy assistance that was at the bottom of our power bill and began slowly dialing. “May I help you?” a friendly voice answered almost immediately.

“I was wondering if I could apply for low income help for our energy bill this winter because I haven’t been working full time.” I humbly said.

“Okay well let me get your information. “The lady began. First I gave my name, address and date of birth. Then began a series of questions about our family size, estimated income, and how much money we had in our bank account. “Well I see you will qualify.” The lady finally told me.

“Wow that’s great, so what do we do next?” I asked

“First there’s some bad news.” she said apologetically. “The problem is that  our state’s low income heating assistance program has run out of funding this year.”

Did you ever stop to realize that God created us with needs so that we would come to Him for His heavenly assistance program? When we call to Him in prayer, He won’t tell us He’ll call back later when the funding is approved. His riches in glory never run out! If we need mercy, healing, encouragement, or strength; these are always on hand and available for immediate deposit. God’s promise is that if we trust in Him alone, our bill will be paid in full and all the energy assistance we need will be freely supplied through our Jesus Christ our Lord!