Uncategorized

Scrubbing Out the Cistern

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 4:16 ESV

In Jesus’ day, a rain-water cistern was a common source for water. I know about cisterns, because on the farm where I lived as a teenager, that was where our water came from. But having grown up in the city I didn’t realize just exactly how dirty it could become. Then one summer I was asked to clean it when it was almost empty. First, they lowered me down by ropes and then I spent about two hours bailing out the remaining water and scrubbing the bottom with bleach water. I will never forget the mud and other assorted stuff we bailed out, and how great I felt when the following year we had a real well drilled!

The religious experience of many of us is like getting water from a cistern. We go to church on Sunday for a good scrubbing, and then get refilled for the week. After we walk out the door, all kinds of gunk falls in during the week and we need another cleaning by the weekend. But Jesus is offering more than just a good scrubbing now and then. He says that when He enters into our lives, He becomes an unending spring of pure water that leads us to eternal life. Instead of cleaning out and refilling our cistern, Jesus offers to drop spiritual dynamite into our hearts, when we come to His cross. At the cross Jesus once and for all scrubs us clean from our sins and then connects us to the well of living water that gives eternal life. There is no more scrubbing out the cistern when Jesus comes in to drill the well!

Devotions For Caregivers – Free this weekend

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Having served in Nursing Home Ministry for most of my adult life I have written a few books as an encouragement to others. This weekend I am delighted to offer a devotional specifically for Caregivers as a free eBook Saturday through Monday. Though I have seen a lot I surely don’t have all the answers but I do hope these simple stories and scriptural gleanings may be a blessing to you.

Grace For the Road: Devotions for Caregivers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0844R2919/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_Q390EZW6KWDD3F6VJC49

Longing to Know Him

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death – Philippians 3:10 ESV

Sometimes I have thought it strange that the Apostle Paul shares that He has a desire to know Christ. I mean of all the people, surely Paul knew Christ better than anyone. Yet Paul pauses in his letter to tell his friends that even after serving God for years, through both success and suffering, now locked in a Roman jail he still longs to really know Christ. How can this be? Did Paul not know the Jesus who had met him on the road to Damascus? Was this not the man who was spoken to by angels and had been used to spread the gospel to half the known world? If he didn’t know Jesus, then what about the rest of us? But I believe that what Paul is saying, is that he needs to do more than know – he needs to experience the power and presence of Jesus Christ. It is like when a child cries at night. He knows his parents are right in the next room, but he needs them to come closer. He wants them to come near enough to touch, near enough to remind Him again, that they are there and that he is their child. Paul in his prison cell, was that child. In spite of all he had accomplished for Christ and all He had seen in visions and dreams; Paul knew that he needed to know more of Jesus Christ. He needed to rest in His power and to take comfort that Christ shared in his sufferings. He longed to find there, right in that jail cell, the assurance that God was with Him and that he was right where he belonged. What do you need today? Jesus says to simply ask, and He promises that we will receive. When we really pray, God really listens, and He promises to come so that we can know Him more!