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Doorways of Seasons

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance.. James 1:2-3 Phillips

God has planned the seasons of our life to be doorways. Though the passing from one to the next seems like a fearful trial, James tells us that when trials come; to welcome them as friends. When I am feeling stressed over changes I cannot stop it helps me to remember the back door of the house where I grew up. It led to my favorite place – Mom’s kitchen! That was where my friends and I waited whenever she passed out fresh chocolate chip cookies and through which our neighbor’s wife knew she could come even if we weren’t home to borrow an egg. The passing of life’s seasons is like God’s kitchen door. Oh without a doubt, an unknown challenge lies behind every one of them. But when we bravely take hold of the door handles we will find that they open at our slightest touch and beyond lies a pathway leading us closer to Him.

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Our youth is like the doorway slamming open with the power of a spring thunderstorm. It is terrifying, confusing or wonderful depending on the day. But it seems that the moment we master the trick keeping our balance the fragrance of ripening apples entices us on towards the doorway called summer.

There muddy April pathways give way to the green pastures of June and torrential showers hush to still waters. But then after only a moment to rest by a quiet stream God’s voice calls us to walk a bit further. There the nip of frost at the tips of our fingers tells us that the gateway to harvest lies just ahead. There sit baskets ready to fill with apples, corn to be picked and hay to be put in the barn before winter.

Last comes the fourth season, and though we all tremble at the thought of winter, God has not designed it to be so. Faith tells us, “Don’t be afraid! This is why we have come all this way. Enter with courage!” There we will find God’s great banquet table with the bounty of all the seasons heaped high. There in the center of the feast God’ sets as His centerpiece the book of His eternal promises. For we who have trusted Christ this cold and silent season is a place of rewards and a celebration. Then if we listen we will hear the sound of a heavenly rain gently softening the fields and preparing us for the eternal springtime just up ahead!

Loving Like Jesus

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. e second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”    Romans 12:15

I learned something about weeping and rejoicing after fourteen hours of flying time to Delhi India. I found an airport that looked just like New York (Only better). It was clean, bright and beautiful. But we were on a missions trip and not on a vacation. So though the staff at our hotel was polite and helpful, the room was something you find only in the world of India. Though we had crossed nine time zones it was still hard to sleep but washing with cold water from a bucket in the tub woke us right up in the morning! We quickly dressed and left for the airport to catch our flight to a smaller city. That is where to the amusement of my pastor and the taxi driver I began to experience the whole new world of Delhi traffic with each honk of the horn and lurch to the left or right avoiding pedestrians, bicycles and various animals.

Having a loved one move into a nursing home especially during this Covid-19 crisis, is like watching them travel farther away than even India. Every nation has its own language, laws and culture and just as you would carefully study a travel guide about them before going overseas so also it is important to prepare for the world of a nursing home your loved one is moving to. Their new home will mean losing a measure of the control which they once had. They lose privacy, the ability to travel, familiar surroundings and maybe most difficult of all; the right to say no to many things. Don’t turn a deaf ear to their fretting; instead be ready to rejoice when they rejoice and weep when they weep. You might not know all the answers for them but coming along on their journey is the best way to help them put down roots, make friends and accept for weeping or rejoicing that new world. Sharing their emotions and struggles can help to unlock the door to hope then just do your best to live out what the Apostle Paul added in the next verse:

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Romans 12:16 Now that is loving just like Jesus would have us to do!

A Merciful Perspective

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For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13 ESV

The Civil War was a long long time ago. In our efforts to right the wrongs of present day racial injustice it is unhelpful to drag out the history books of events that ended more than one and a half centuries ago. It was a terrible and ugly war consuming the lives of at least 400,00 troops just on the Union side not the least of whom was our President Abraham Lincoln.

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My own Great-great Grandfather; Captain Charles Curie fought with a regiment from Brooklyn and returned weak and near death from dysentery. But no historical facts make me any better or worse than anyone else. What counts is my own heart. The only thing powerful enough to transform hearts like mine is the mercy and grace of God. So when we feel impelled to go out and demand change in the world, then we must start with a cry for mercy. God will get the judging part right in the end. Jesus calls us to mercy, and it is only His mercy that can change our world today.