Nursing Home Ministry

Kept in God’s Pocket

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV

After a brief bout of sickness, it was great being back with my friends at Life Care Center this Friday. After we sang the hymn, “Take my life and let it be” I shared about what it means to be “Consecrated, Lord to Thee.” Religious sounding words like consecration, or as the New Testament calls it, sanctification, may make us think of some special ceremony. But the wonderful reality behind consecration is far more personal than some formal ritual. When Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood, He paid the price for us to belong personally to Him. Another way of looking at is is that, just as my car keys are kept in my pocket, because that Red Kia you see parked outside is mine (or actually mine and Nancy’s!), God puts us in His pocket. I keep my keys safe, because they are precious and of great value to our family. In that same way, when God receives from us the key to our hearts, He takes us and puts us in His pocket. There He keeps us safe, because from that moment on we are His! Have you surrendered the keys of your heart to Jesus? There is no experience more personal, than for Him to receive you into His family and to be exclusively be set apart for Him!

Learning to Be a Friend

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A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17 NKJV

Most of you who follow this blog, know that I have been involved with nursing home ministry for many years. But I will bet that almost no one realizes that it all began with a visit to my friend Darryl, over thirty years ago. Now, I wasn’t really a very good friend for a long time. In fact, if it were not for the persistent and loving prodding of Darryl’s wife, I am not sure I would have finally come. You see, Darryl had suffered a stroke and went to live in a nursing home, that I passed every day on the way to work. My excuses were, I was tired, I was dirty and I didn’t know what they expected me to do. Yup, those are pretty lame excuses and neither God, nor Beverly was taking “No!” for an answer! If God is calling you to do anything, you better believe he is a lot more persistent than you are. As in the old Cosby rendition of Noah and the ark, God sometimes comes to us with the question, “How long can you tread water?” When I finally gave in and surrendered to what God had in mind, I made the amazing discovery, that it is a lot easier (And sometimes even fun!) to do what God asks, than making excuses. No disrespect to Sinatra, but I learned by doing things my way for too long, that God’s way, was way better! I hope you will enjoy my little story and that it will encourage you, to trust Jesus to teach you how to serve by becoming a true friend. After all, Jesus really is the friend who loves at all times!

If You feel far from God – Guess who moved?

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments

This week at Life Care was an interesting experience and a perfect example of why we must expect, the unexpected. Today we were looking around wondering where half of our faithful friends were as the meeting began. Then we discovered, halfway through, as they briskly wheeled several of them back, that they had been with the podiatrist getting their toenails clipped! That made me laugh, but it also made me realize that all the planning in the world, can’t foresee everything, and sometimes we just need to go with the flow! I do hope you like our rendition of “Just a Closer Walk”. This song reminds me of the question my stepmom used to ask anyone who would listen. “If you feel far from God, guess who moved?” Of course the answer is that God is right where He has been all along. 

 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Luke 15:23-24 NKJV

The blessing is that when we come to Him (or come back to Him), God is willing to receive us and accept us into His family. In the story of the prodigal son, the first thing the father did was to have them kill the fatted calf. That calf was a special animal which was reserved for a celebration. That calf going to the barbeque grill irritated the older brother because of the expense, but it cost God far more than a calf for us to come to Him. It cost Him the life of His only Son. Thank God that the blood of Jesus That is certainly a prayer which God loves to answer!