A Lesson From Kenya

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3 ESV

This past Saturday we had a special speaker at our monthly prayer and praise meeting at Sunshine Village. Our friend Sandy had just returned from the Generations Christian church trip to Kenya. There the team visited the work of Mission of Hope International (MOHI) and this past week she came to speak twice at senior communities where I visit. After the first meeting I discovered that the video recording didn’t come out, but the second time around I was thankfully able to capture her message. The exciting heart of the lesson that Sandy shared is a great one for all of us. “You don’t have to give everything away….and you don’t have to join a monastery, to do God’s work.” The core of the matter is whether we are living in and sharing God’s love. Has His love made a difference in our lives, and are we allowing His love to flow out of us to others. I pray you will be touched by Sandy’s testimony and that you will be motivated to ask God how you can serve Him right where you are. But, strangely enough we all must begin serving by being served. Has Jesus Christ served as your Savior, and washed your heart clean from your sins? Only i you can honestly say yes to those questions will you be able to seek how He would have you pour that love out to others, whether it is on the mission field, in your neighborhood or in nursing home ministry. Have a blessed week everyone and my prayer is that this week’s video will touch your heart and draw you closer to Christ.

But This I call to Mind

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But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 
Lamentation 3:21-23 ESV

When we look around at our society, there are some days when we wonder how things could possibly get any worse. But more than 2,500 years ago as Jeremiah wrote today’s passage, things were worse: far worse. His home city lay in ruins; many people had either been killed by the Babylonians, or simply died of starvation during the siege of Jerusalem. Afterwards Jeremiah reacted much as you or I would have done – he wept uncontrollably. Though his own life had been spared, everything around him had been burned, torn down or stolen. But instead of giving up, he tells us that he called to mind God’s promises.

First, he called to mind, that God’s steadfast love had not changed. It was not altered by their failure or success, or even their sins. His care was not based on His people’s performance, but on the unchanging nature of His heart. And today, God still so loves the world so much that He still sends His only Son into the world by the good news of the Gospel. It is still true that anyone who believes Him will NOT perish but begin to experience eternal life. Now that kind of love gives me hope, and yet God is not done!

Then Jeremiah tells us that God’s mercies never come to an end. Yes, His nation was defeated, and their enemies were busy plundering and burning the temple, yet God wasn’t finished with His people. The people of Jeremiah’s day discovered, there are times when God allows His children to reap what they have been sowing and stands back to let us experience the results of our selfish choices. But God isn’t through with us! He hasn’t now, nor will He ever, stop being merciful to His children. Our very real hope is that even when we reach the bottom of the barrel of our sin, God is still willing to reach down and pull us out, when we cry to Him for mercy and put our hope in Him alone!

Last of all Jeremiah remembered that God’s faithfulness is not dependent on ours. God stands by His promises and faithfully keeps covenant with His people. At the Last Supper, while Jesus was blessing the bread and passing the cup, one disciple was running off to betray Him, another would soon deny knowing Him and all the rest were arguing about which one of them was the most important. Why would Jesus choose to lay down His life for them? Because Jesus was not giving a new philosophy to be understood, a new club to join or a cause to defend. Jesus was offering His own body and blood for a New Covenant for them to receive. So, the next time you take the bread and drink from the cup as you receive communion, remember. Remember His loving sacrifice, receive the mercy that has never come to an end and call to mind once again the unchanging faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ at Calvary!

The Garden Gate

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments 

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 
Genesis 3:8 Amp

I wonder if they remembered 
Once the garden gate swung closed 
The times they had walked with Father there 
While His light served as their clothes 

When only echoes still remained 
Of the voice their souls once thrilled 
In the silence did they long to hear 
Words of the Fathers will? 

Were they expecting soon the promised day 
And a birth on the blackest of nights 
Of a Child and a Lamb with God’s message for man 
In deep darkness The Word shining bright 

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:3 ESV

The Garden Gate by Peter Caligiuri 
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