repentance

If You feel far from God – Guess who moved?

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This week at Life Care was an interesting experience and a perfect example of why we must expect, the unexpected. Today we were looking around wondering where half of our faithful friends were as the meeting began. Then we discovered, halfway through, as they briskly wheeled several of them back, that they had been with the podiatrist getting their toenails clipped! That made me laugh, but it also made me realize that all the planning in the world, can’t foresee everything, and sometimes we just need to go with the flow! I do hope you like our rendition of “Just a Closer Walk”. This song reminds me of the question my stepmom used to ask anyone who would listen. “If you feel far from God, guess who moved?” Of course the answer is that God is right where He has been all along. 

 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Luke 15:23-24 NKJV

The blessing is that when we come to Him (or come back to Him), God is willing to receive us and accept us into His family. In the story of the prodigal son, the first thing the father did was to have them kill the fatted calf. That calf was a special animal which was reserved for a celebration. That calf going to the barbeque grill irritated the older brother because of the expense, but it cost God far more than a calf for us to come to Him. It cost Him the life of His only Son. Thank God that the blood of Jesus That is certainly a prayer which God loves to answer!

Love in Action

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‭‭But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Revelation 2:4-5a ESV

Notice that the first love that Jesus calls us to is not about how we feel. He is calling us to repent and then do something! Though our feelings often reflect our inner motives, even those motives are only useful, if they lead to our actions. When our focus is on how we feel about Jesus, then we end up in a fairly useless state of feeling guilty and ashamed. But the good news is that He gives us opportunities to serve him every day. He isn’t asking us to feel anything. He is calling us to go find someone with dirty feet, and show them the love of Jesus by washing them. Then those pesky feelings just might follow! So, as we enter this New Year, let’s determine to start showing the love of Jesus to the world by washing one dirty foot at a time!

Revival Begins With God

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I have often heard that revival must begin with me, and while that sounds good, it is not what the Bible teaches. Over and over the scriptures make it clear, that God’s true revival always begin with Him. When we think of revival, we often mean some scheduled series of meetings, “We are having revival meetings next week.” We tell people. Or, “Pastor Thompson preached at Last year’s revival.” But revival in the Bible is what happened when Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. Yes, Mary and Martha had begged Jesus to come, and we must also earnestly pray. But no one imagined much less scheduled the resurrection of Lazarus. In fact, Lazarus himself had nothing to do with it. He certainly wadn’t exercising faith or interceding. He was dead! Mary and Martha were weeping and their friends mostly just wondered what was going on. But God had something amazing on His schedule that day. Let’s also pray that He would remember us today. May God come and do what only He can do. Revive us again, show mercy and grace to His children and reveal Himself in love and power to those who have not yet met Him. 

O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember Habakkuk 3:2 NKJV