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Pastor's Points February 2018

Dear Church Family,

February is known as the month of “Love”.  And this year we are once again having our  Valentines Banquet on February 11^th for the couples of our church to come together and enjoy a night with the love of their life!  Make sure to sign up and get your tickets because it is going to be a fun night!  It is good that we encourage our couples to express their love to one another, but it is also good for all of us to express love to each other as we do life together in our church family.  I love how James Mac Donald explained love from I Corinthians 13 in this devotion.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 
(1 Corinthians 13:4–8a, ESV).

What does real love look like? The Apostle Paul tells us . . .
“Love is patient.” It waits for people to change. It’s long-tempered. It accepts people as they are, not as we want them to be.  Love is “kind.” This doesn’t mean passive endurance but active goodwill. Not just passively accepting people but actively accepting people. Not just standing on the other side of the room, thinking, She drives me nuts—I’m going to steer clear of her, but actually going across the room and finding ways to engage or embrace that person. Love looks for ways to express acceptance to    people whom we might otherwise target with our harsh criticism.

“Love does not envy or boast.” Love is not jealous. Even when those around us seem to prosper and succeed more than we do, love isn’t jealous. Love does not say, “I was fine with my friend until she got _____.” Love does say, “I am happy for your  successes and will not let jealousy sour my love for you,” and “I am for you. I have always been for you, and I will always be for you. I will not be caught up in comparisons, even when you are more successful, prominent, recognized, or rewarded than I am. I want the best for you.”

When you love the people in your life, you won’t let their successes—or yours—change the way you treat each other. When you’re the successful person, do you continue to love the same people, or do you leave them behind? Love “is not arrogant or rude.” Love chooses not to make another feel uncomfortable by boasting about personal success or highlighting your own life in a way that would embarrass or belittle a friend.

Love is accepting. “Love bears all things, believes all things.” Love bears the weight of misunderstanding and defends the heart of the other. Love gives the other the benefit of the doubt and regularly says, “That’s not what she meant.” It believes the best about the other person and defends him: “That’s not why he did that. There must be more to the story.” When Jesus taught, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1), He was specifically referring to judging others’ motives. Of course we have to judge actions, but we are not to judge motives. We don’t know why others do what they do, and we should assume the best about them.

Love always believes the best about people. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things.” Love sees people not as they are, but as they will be someday, by God’s grace. We are not the people we once were—God is changing us. We need to extend the same grace toward others that we want extended to us.

Love “endures all things.” Endure is actually a military term for driving a stake into the ground. Love does that. Love won’t retreat or back away. Love will be there for the other person and will stand its ground.

“Love never ends.” Love will never fail to accomplish God’s highest and best purposes. If a relationship unravels, it wasn’t because of love. Love always takes things to a better place. If you love others wholeheartedly and embrace the people in your life as they are—warts and all, even when they hurt you—God will use that. Love never fails—not at home, at work, or in the church. That’s an unequivocal, absolute, condition-free guarantee: “Love never ends.”

My prayer is that love will be the testimony of our lives that the watching world around us sees!!

I love you and I love being your pastor

Spare Change February 2018

Do you ever wish that you would find an old dingy oil lamp at a garage sale or flea market?  Then when you brought it home and started polishing it a genie floated out from among a cloud of blue smoke.  Maybe he sounds like Robin Williams, maybe he doesn’t, the point is he offers you three wishes.  You can’t believe your luck.  These wishes will transform your life; that is until you realize that you can’t wish for infinite wishes…bummer.  But three is still good, right?

At the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka asked Charlie, “Do you know what happened to the boy that suddenly got everything he ever wanted?...He lived   happily ever after.”  But is it good to get everything we want?  Wouldn’t life be easier, won’t we all be happier if we got everything we wanted?  I propose to you that it would indeed not be better.  I propose that the struggle in life actually makes life better.  I understand that all trials and struggles are not the same, but generally when we have to strive to gain things in this life, isn’t it better?  It certainly makes those things seem more valuable.

I can tell you that a few weeks after Christmas the gifts my children received are not valued as much.  They are tired of them and some of them are even broken, but I have seen where my oldest child has earned money for babysitting and she values that money and if she buys something with it, that possession is prized.  I also know I have a couple of pieces of paper on the wall in my office that took a lot of time and energy to earn.  No one handed me my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, I had to put in long hours of study, class time, writing   papers, and taking tests to earn them.  They are two of the most valuable pieces of paper I own.

The same is true for trials in our life.  When we struggle we are made spiritually stronger.  James says in James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.   And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”   James  encourages us to change our perspective on struggles.  To not think of them as burdens but as blessings that help us to grow stronger.  We are to look upon them with joy!  And after we have strived and strained with our various trials we can look at our life and realize that we made it by the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in turn has produced a spiritual strength, wisdom, and perseverance in us.

Now I realize that this is easier said than done; but if we begin to simply pray and ask God to help us change our perspective, He will.  We also need to start with looking at the small stuff.  Maybe you had a flat tire and were late to work but in that you were able to spend a few extra minutes with the kids or you were able to interact with someone that helped you change a tire.  Maybe you’re sitting in the hospital getting a treatment and your attitude and faith is an encouragement and inspiration to the nurses.  Maybe you’ve just had a long day and all you want to do it veg out in front of the TV but instead you stay on your feet to serve your spouse who has also had a long day.  These examples may not seem like very big things but often the little trials will prepare us for the big trials in life.

One last thought I will leave you with.  A few years ago, I visited a butterfly display at a zoo.  The zoo keeper there was showing us how the butterflies came out of their cocoon.  He stressed the point to the kids in the group to never help a butterfly out of its cocoon.  We might look at them and think they need our help.  We can ease their struggle by just opening that cocoon for them, but what we don’t realize is that the struggle to get out of the cocoon is what helps the butterfly get its strength to fly.  If you “helped” it, then its wings would wilt, and it would quickly die.  It is in the   struggle the butterfly finds its strength.  The same is true for us, we find our strength in Jesus when we trust Him through the struggle.  So the next time you come up against a trial, start with prayer and ask Jesus to help you use it to grow for His glory.