Heaven

The Sabbath is a Gift

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 ESV

It has been a delight reading all the comments about those, who, like me, have struggled with figuring out what to do with the Sabbath. Let’s remember that the Sabbath is more than just God’s design or one of the ten commandments, it was also God’s first gift to us. Today’s verse comes from a story about Jesus and HIs disciples walking through fields and picking a few heads of grain to eat. Though most of us have never heard a single message preached from these verses, Matthew, Mark, and Luke each considered this passage so important that they included it among their highlights of Jesus’ teaching. Our cooperate loss of understanding about the Sabbath makes me think of when we visited a village in Switzerland many years ago. It was Sunday morning and the family we were staying with wasn’t going to church, so I went out for a long walk. While climbing up through the steep hills surrounding our valley, I came upon an ancient looking stone church. There, as I paused to admire it and rest, a man drove up, parked his car, got out and unlocked the door. After, he went in a few minutes later the bells began to ring, and their lovely sound echoed out as they pealed over the valley. Once he finished his duties, the man, locked the doors behind him, got back in his car and drove away. His faithful ringing of those bells sometimes reminds me of how on Sunday, we ring the bells, remembering vaguely that it is God’s day, then pause only long enough to catch our spiritual breath, get back in our cars and drive off. In the story leading up to today’s verse, the Pharisees just didn’t get what Sabbath was either. They angrily criticized the disciples’ behavior on the seventh day, because they thought that picking a few ears of corn, was an act of harvest. But, Jesus made it clear that God’s purpose for the Sabbath was for it to be a day of blessing for man and not a burden. He reminds us that God did not create man so that a Sabbath could be observed, but He had created the Sabbath as a gift. Jesus wanted us to know that Sabbath rest is the wonderful gift of refreshing from which we can go out to do all He has called us to do. Remember also that enjoying God’s Sabbath, keeps its blessing pouring out, not only for us but for our children and grandchildren and every generation until Jesus returns and we enter His amazing eternal and wonderful day of rest!


Big Lessons from Small Things

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment 
But ask the beasts, and they will teach you, the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you,
or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? Job 12:7-9 ESV

Have you ever stopped to wonder why God chose beasts and birds, along with bushes and fish, to teach us? Why not just use mighty waterfalls and stars or mountains? Maybe He wants us to pay attention to every small detail because He made every one of them. Not even a single cell in our body came into existence because we decided on it, and when the details of our lives do not work out as we planned, God is still glorified. He wants reminds us that He only needed one small stone from David’s sling to bring down a giant and one small cloud the size of a man’s hand bring rain when Elijah prayed.

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When God tells us in the book of Proverbs to watch ants and lizards, to learn the way we should live, I am reminded of a father coming home from work, who strips off his tie, and gets down on the floor to play with His children. In His time on earth, Jesus got down on His knees, to wash our feet, so that we could learn that He is lowly and humble in heart. And when we throw open the windows of our soul, He sends the gentle dove, with a tiny olive branch on our darkest days. God is simply so great that even all the details of His creation can only begin to tell His message of grace, love and forgiveness. Daily He reminds us that it was not by exploding stars or tidal waves that He demonstrated His greatest power, but by three nails, a crown of thorns and a cross. There on a hilltop, death, hell and the grave were defeated, and the gates of Heaven were opened for even the youngest child who would trust in Him!

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Jail Break

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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 ESV

Though the maximum security, Altiplano jail was constructed with high walls, plenty of razor ribbon and a high tech security system, in 2015, Mexican Drug Lord Joaquin Guzman, made headlines by breaking out. When the astonishing details were revealed, we learned that he had escaped through a tunnel his associates had dug, complete with lights, ventilation and a rail system that led to a building project, almost a mile away.

But Jesus offers us a freedom that is far better than the one which Joaquin Guzman experienced (After all he was captured just 5 months later). The freedom that Jesus gives is one for which He paid a price far higher than Guzman had paid his workers to build the tunnel. Jesus suffered and died a terrible death on the cross, paying for our escape with His own blood. But sadly, there are times when we Christians sometimes dig a tunnel with our bare hands, that leads straight back to the maximum security prison of sin. We speed along the rail system of selfish choices that ends in the small dark cell block of separation from God. But today’s verse tells us that does not need to be the end of our story. All hope is not lost, because if we will simply turn to Jesus, confess our sins and ask forgiveness, He is faithful and just to forgive us again and again, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and restore us to the freedom of heaven where we will live with Him forever!

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