Faith

New Year – New Horizons

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

After a couple of weeks away with time to enjoy Christmas and New Year with the other half I am officially back to writing for 2020. Thank you to all of you who have followed, read and commented over the past year. It is a real encouragement knowing some of the things God has brought me through have been a help to others. 2020 will be a different in that I will be posting only once a week except for around the holidays. I will also be posting once a week on New Beginnings about Nursing Home outreach. I am thankful that a small group of volunteers is beginning to network with me through our local church to help with the outreach in the North Tampa area. If you or someone you know is interested you can check out the weekly posts over at New Beginnings

None of what has been happening would be possible without the help, prayers and support of many people. Last year my resolution was to pray more honestly. In 2020 my desire is to pray more intensely since the time is growing short and only by God’s power can anything be accomplished of eternal worth. God bless you and may you walk closely with Jesus this week.

 

Always Pray

When our eyes first open and the sun peeks in

We can thank the Lord as our day begins

Or when storms close in and darken the sky

We run to find shelter at our Jesus’ side

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If the corn is ripe or if the fields are dead

We can still thank God for our daily bread

And when we sin and fall under guilt and shame

He forgives if we ask Him in His holy name

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Photo by Ivan J. Long on Pexels.com

After we’ve run as far as we can

He renews our strength when we pray to Him

When we stand up strong or when we fall down

If we’ll pray to the end He has promised a crown

It’s not by our wisdom that this battle is won

Nor by our strength that the race must be run

He gives when we ask and when we seek we will find

If we’ll pray and not faint to our life’s finish line!

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint                   Luke 18:1

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Jacob’s Ladder

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

And he dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Genesis 29:12 ESV

While running from his brother Jacob was so tired that he lay down to sleep with his head on a rock. That night God sent Jacob an intriguing dream. In spite of being totally undeserving of mercy God chose to show Himself to Jacob standing at the top of a staircase or ladder to Heaven. I always thought this was a pretty neat story but never got the part about what it had to do with me.

Then one day as I was reading my Bible I realized that in my hands was Jacob’s staircase. It is an amazing book able to reach all the way from Heaven to earth. He is standing at the top to tell us of His loving plan and assuring us of His grace towards us through Jesus Christ our Lord!

A Journey That Never Ends

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” Deuteronomy 34:4 ESV

If we look at the life of Moses we would see that he spent his entire life first preparing for and then finally fulfilling his calling to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. He spent forty years as a shepherd until God appeared at the burning bush and then another forty leading the Israelites through the desert. But when it came time for Moses to get to the river and cross over, God told him that he would not be able to do so. As I come to the end of this year I think I know how Moses might have felt.  God has been at work throughout the past year; both in victories and defeats and has guided our family even when we have been unaware of His presence.  But as we approach the end of this twelve month journey I wonder what lies ahead.

God didn’t allow Moses to go with Joshua when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Instead He called Moses to look from the top of a mountain to see the land that he had waited for eighty years to enter. It seemed like a bum deal to me.  But God never forgot His promise and one day when Jesus climbed a high mountain in Israel, the scripture says that Moses appeared to him with Elijah. It took more than a thousand years but Moses did get to enter God’s Promised Land. In the same way with us as we finish our own journey the eternity that holds our promised land will only be beginning.