roseate spoonbill

A Sabbath Day’s Flight

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments

I have always been delighted to watch birds in flight. The effortless way they spread their wings reminds me of the way God intends for us to rest in His grace. Just as birds are made for flight (Minus the Ostrich and his cousins) God intends for us to rise up by faith into the air and show off the inner beauty of Christ who lies hidden as long as we walk on the ground with our faith wings folded. And what speaks more clearly of grace than God’s Holy Sabbath? The Sabbath is a weekly reminder that on the morning when Adam and Eve rose from their first night’s sleep, God gave to them a day, and He blessed it, and called it Holy!

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. - Genesis 2:3 ESV  
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27 ESV

For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:10 ESV

In the Shadow of His Wings

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment 
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul 
and with all our mind and with all your strength. 
Mark 12:30 NIV
We Love the Lord with all our hearts
Where worries come with fears
And Love Him more with all our minds
When grief walks in with tears
Then love Him still with all our strength 
If weariness surrounds
For in Jesus we can rest
Where His real peace is found

And when in Christ our life is lost
Our soul lifts up and sings
To Him who offers joyful rest
In the shadow of His wings!

In the Shadow of His Wings 
By Peter Caligiuri
Copyright © 2023
All rights reserved

Letting Them Fly

/ pastorpete51 / 12 Comments

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Psalm 127:4 ESV

One pitfall of growing older is wishing we could hold on to our children (both spiritual and physical). We loved the days when we held them on our laps to tell them stories. Such longing too quickly turns to depression, guilt or blaming someone for the change. But as today’s verse tells us, our offspring are not furniture for our homes or precious jewels to be kept in a safe deposit box. They are arrows which the good Lord has entrusted to our hands for a season. Arrows that stay in the quiver during life’s battles aren’t doing what God intended.

Of course, we innately know this about the kiddos who grow up in our homes. The big guy with the cowboy hat is our youngest son and we are delighted that he isn’t sleeping on our sofa eating nachos and watching tv! But, for those of us who have served in ministry it is far more difficult with spiritual children. We pray for them, weep with them, visit them in the hospital and eat at the same table in their homes. And then one day they are gone. It feels as if we did all the hard work and someone else now gets to enjoy the benefits! But the reality is they never belonged to us at all. They were God’s and He gave us the enormous privilege of having them as arrows in our hands for just a little while. We have put them on our bowstring, aimed them at the target and now they are flying towards the goal that God has for them. Be encouraged today that whether you are struggling in letting go of natural or spiritual children, that God keeps records. They may think of us little, never call or even remember that we taught them to fly. But flying is what God has intended. It is a beautiful sight, and He always remembers and rewards our labor of love!